[0:00] Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of Tell Us a Good Story. Today’s conversation is with, quote, a recovering lawyer. This man is brilliant and funny and truly lives his life to help others. Friends, meet Bob Goff. You guys, this man was so much fun to talk to. Bob had some great stories to share, including how he has an office inside of Disneyland and meets with people there each week. And how he decided to put his personal cell phone number in the back of each one of his books. So now over 3 million people have his cell phone number. And can call him at any time, which, Steph, as a wife, you would not like that at all. Nope, I sure wouldn’t. But it did lead to a few good stories about some of the most impactful phone calls he has received from strangers. That’s true. And folks, I can’t even begin to explain how big of an honor this was to talk to Bob. He’s one of those people who could literally be doing anything in the world that he wants, and yet he was kind enough to say yes to us. You guys, we can’t wait for to hear this whimsical conversation with the one and only Bob Goff. I’m Kevin. And I’m Steph. And during our marriage, we’ve dealt with an electrocution, a brain tumor, brain surgery. Then doctors telling us the children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage, and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed, completely restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us A Good Story.

[1:27] Okay, friends, before we get to this episode, just a friendly reminder to please hit the subscribe button on YouTube and Apple Podcasts or give us a review. Five stars, please. In our world, this is super, super important because it will help with the algorithm to make it easier for people to find us. And thank you for sharing our posts across your social media. That really helps with engagement and with us getting guests. Yes. So, hey, if you want us to keep working our way up to talking to Chip and Joanna, please share us with your friends. But regardless, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[2:00] All right, Steph. We’ve been looking forward to this. So excited. This is going to be so much fun. Well, friends, our next guest is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, professor, and philanthropist. After 25 years spent practicing law as an attorney, this man changed his path to pursue a whimsical, impactful life. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Tell Us a Good Story, Mr. Bob Goff. We’re so excited. Good to see you guys. Thanks for letting me be with you. Thank you for saying yes to us. Steph, you’ve got, I think, the first question you want to ask. Well, because I don’t think it’s true. So I can’t wait to ask.

[2:35] Okay, go ahead. Okay, Bob. Is it true that you never let a phone call go to voicemail because you don’t want to miss something? Oh, I’m sure they do go to voicemail, but I get a lot of calls, dozens and dozens every day. And the intent would be to respond to those, just because there’s something about availability.

[2:59] It doesn’t cost you a nickel, but it’ll cost you five minutes. And I really like, I look at models like how Jesus was just available to people, even though he was the smartest, busiest guy in the world and only had three years to get it done. And so I really, I’ve noticed that people get a bit part in a movie and now they’ve got agents you have to talk to, or they write a country Western song about a big old dog and a big old truck. And now you can’t talk to them. And so I’ve just really valued that. If somebody calls, for instance, while we’re doing this talk, I’ll just let it go to voicemail and the voicemail will say, Hey, sorry, Ms. J. Here’s my email address, Bob at Bob Goff, and send me an email and I’ll get a couple hundred emails a day from people from the back of the book, if I miss a call or whatever, and I answer a couple hundred emails a day. It’s awesome. Oh my gosh. Okay. So is it true in their first book, you actually put your phone number? In the back of it? Yeah. The first and the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth. There’s 3 million people that have my cell phone number. It’s awesome. That’s why I get a lot of calls. How was your wife with that? Was she okay with you doing that? Yeah, she’s not the same. We’re very different. She thinks having me in the room is a lot of people.

[4:14] So we’re just wired differently. And she understands why I’m doing what I’m doing. And I would say that’s the important part, whether it’s friendships or marriages or whatever, just to understand why people are doing what they’re doing. And so she gets it. And so if the phone did ring right now and I answered it, you wouldn’t feel put out or that wouldn’t be rude. in a different context, it would be. But you understand, oh yeah, this is a guy that just doesn’t send people a voicemail. And so because she understands the context, we’re able to do that. So a lot of times what we need to do in our friendships and our marriages.

[4:49] In other respectful business relationships, give people the context. This is why I do what I do. What is the most impactful phone call that you took? From a stranger? Most impactful. I remember a woman called early on and she said, gosh, I got your book and it just meant so much to me. She said, I took a vow of celibacy and I joined a convent, I’ve always had that impact on women. And there was another woman that was, she said, gosh, I read your book. It meant so much to me. And this is going to change the rest of my life. And I puffed up with all this undeserved pride. And I said, oh, like, how old are you? And she said, I’m 103.

[5:34] It’s going to change both days. So, yeah, so I just have so enjoyed people that have called. Sometimes they’re in the middle of something that’s really chaotic in their life. And sometimes it’s something really beautiful and wonderful.

[5:50] Okay. Can you share the story, Bob, of why you answer everyone’s email? And I believe you will leave them at least three lines, right? Because somebody did that to you. Yeah, it was Keith Green back in the day. He was one of the first contemporary Christian artists. And he had a lot of sass and he’s full of, you know, vim and vigor. And I was in college at the time. And I guess I wrote to him as before the internet. And I wrote to him and he wrote me back three sentences. I remember it came from Last Days Ministries and he and Melody Green lived down in Texas. And he wrote me, I don’t even know what the three sentences were, but I felt like such a boss because Keith freaking Green wrote me a letter. And so I just think it’s courteous. If somebody emails you, email them back. They took a little time to reach out. Be nice. So I don’t know. That’s just for me. I’m not trying to dictate what somebody else does. I’ve got my hands full with all of my inconsistencies. But what I’m trying to do is replicate how I felt in other people because I really felt like I was seen, I mattered, and I think we can do that for one another.

[7:01] So one of the first times bob that i remember coming across a video of you was on a youtube short and the title was why bob goff wears a red sox hat okay i didn’t know this i just i had seen your picture before i recognize you with a red sox hat on can you tell steph the story of why you now wear a red sox hat, Oh, yeah. It was many years ago. Marie and I had been married for 38 years, six months, and 19 days. Good man, Bob. Yeah. I’m counting up. She’s counting down. But we lived in a little house, and she said she wanted to move. And so I said what seemed logical to me, like, can I come? And she said I could. I’m like, yes. And so I’m kind of a tightwad. So I said, what if we just buy the house across the street? I mean, we can move, it’s just put it in the back of a wheelbarrow and there will be. And so we did. And so we weren’t looking for a buyer, we were looking for a neighbor. And so we had a lot of people that wanted to buy this little house of ours across the way.

[8:07] But we would be looking out as I am right now, like it’s literally right across the street. And Carol moved in. She said she wanted it. She was a widow and she wanted to be close to her family. And so we’ve just struck up this friendship and we don’t want her all alone. And James talks about widows and orphans. And so we were just talk on the phone all the time. And one day she called and you could just tell she had some heavy on her. And it was that she had found out that she had cancer and that she wasn’t going to be long for this earth. And so she said, will you wear my Red Sox hat for the rest of your life and represent the socks here on earth? And I told her, you know what, Carol, I will do that so long as every time Jesus walks by you, you mention my name.

[8:55] There’s not a lot of lawyers mentioned up in heaven. So I don’t know if she’s making good on her deal, but I’m in year 13 wearing this stupid hat and I’m not a baseball, I’ve never gone to a baseball game. Really? Yeah. My only sport is cheesecake. So I’m like, Yeah. Isn’t that crazy? So people, when I go through New York and people hiss at me at the airport because they’re rooting for the Yankees. And I always think if they knew I was wearing my dead neighbor’s hat, they’d feel really bad. Then I remember it’s New York and I’m like, I don’t care.

[9:27] So is it the exact same hat you wear every day or do you have new hats? Oh yeah. I’d be pretty nasty. I have to change it out about maybe twice a year. Okay. Sometimes I’ll be mixing cement and I’ll get it on. I’m like, ah, another 20 bucks. So for a team, I don’t even know, I wouldn’t recognize them other than a B for Bob. So yeah, that’s been it. But to understand the underlying thing that’s important is understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. Like I wear a mood ring. And the reason I wear a mood ring is that when Marie and I are talking, we talk about how we are, not where we are. Because I’m on the move. I’ve been to the East Coast and back. This will be my third time this week. But I go places and then I run home. And we don’t talk about where I am. We talk about how I am. And when people ask Maria, where’s Bob? She always says the same thing. He’s on his way home because I always am.

[10:18] So know why you’re doing what you’re doing, whether it’s a mood ring that gets you there or a baseball hat or whatever. Just be really intentional. Okay. I’m fascinated by the hat, right? Have any fans sent you hats as gifts or anything? And have the Red Sox reached out to you. You said you haven’t been to a baseball game. I’m assuming they would want you to like throw out a first pitch or something based on you being an ambassador here. Totally. Wearing this every day. Yes. Wouldn’t you think? Yeah. Will you send a message to them? That would be my first baseball game. Yeah. I did get called by the Padres, which evidently is a major league team we have here in San Diego. Who would know?

[10:59] But they asked if I wanted to throw out the first pitch. And so I said, you know, that’s awesome. I haven’t been to the ballpark before, so, we got there early and I thought, you know, what if my son throws the first pitch instead of me? And so Richard got up on the mound and he like two hopped it to the plate. And, but I thought he was throwing all pitches from my standpoint.

[11:20] Um, and then it turns out they got one of these sky boxes for us. It had all this food in it and all that. And I, I’m not going to stay for the game. I’m like too ADD. I need to keep moving. So what we did is we went up into the bleachers to the highest kind of nosebleed sections, you know, the $7 tickets. And we found people. He said, I know this sounds so creepy, like come see my etchings. But we’ve got this skybox behind a home plate and it’s filled with food. There’s a whole banquet in there. And so this sounds kind of creepy. But if you want to come down and spend the afternoon there, why don’t you just come to the door and look inside and see if you think it’s safe? And if it’s safe, you can go in. And if you’re creeped out, you can go back to the nosebleed section. And it was really an honoring, non-creepy way to invite people to a feast. And they would look inside, and they’d see all the food and what looked like some safe people. Man, if I was a way to characterize our gathering spots, whether they’re a church or a synagogue or community center, I want to just create safe places where people go to the door. Yeah. They look inside and they say, this would be a safe place. Instead of telling people you ought to come, or you should come, or you’d be dumb if you didn’t come, but just invite them to assess it for themselves. And don’t try to talk people into or out of things, but just set the table and say, you’re welcome. You’re invited. I love that.

[12:48] Question, with you possibly throwing out the first pitch, did you still have your Boston Red Sox hat on? Yeah, no doubt. Thank you! But I was, no, I didn’t throw it. Richard did. Yeah, but did you have it? But I’m here with the Red Sox hat. Yes, I totally. A deal’s a deal. You evidently can renegotiate NAFTA, but you can’t renegotiate this.

[13:08] Yeah, pro tip, be careful who you cut deals with. Don’t let them die on you. All right, friends, we want to hear from you. Every fifth episode has been us telling our own stories, but now we want to share some of your stories. That’s right, you guys. If you have a fun story you would like to share, please send it to us. You can email us, DM us, or even leave us a voicemail. And I will share our contact information, including a phone number in the show notes. If you call us, just leave us a voicemail and I will transcribe it and read it on one of our upcoming episodes. And don’t worry if you’re not a master storyteller. That’s okay. Yes. We wanna share your stories and then you will hear us comment on them. I promise you, this will be so much fun. Oh my gosh, you guys, so much fun. You guys, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[13:56] Okay so one thing i would love for you to talk about bob is the impact that going on mission trips has had on your life in your family’s life can you share any particular stories from going over to uganda or wherever that’s had a life-changing impact and moment for you and your family.

[14:15] Yeah, I’m not wordsmithing, but I don’t think, I haven’t gone on a missions trip yet. I always sort of think of missionaries as, you know, they have smallpox and everybody dies, all the indigenous people. But I love the idea of just going over with people with a purpose. And I always explain to people, number one, what we’re going to do is we’re just going to be better friends. Acts 2 and 4, it said they broke bread together and they’re going to have things in common. So we pound the carbs, we’ll have some common experiences. So let’s walk away better friends. And number two, let’s see if we can see some evidence of Jesus. Now, you don’t need a Bible verse for everything, but Acts 1.1 says, Theophilus, lover of God, look for many convincing proofs that Jesus is still alive. And so like that idea, head on a swivel, see where God, God isn’t coming with us. He’s already there. Let’s just see where he’s shown up in people’s lives, in their kindness, in their small or big gestures. And number three, if we can be useful to the people, let’s be useful.

[15:15] But sometimes when you go on a trip and you have it framed in one way or the other, the people on the ground there spending all this time preparing, they’re kind of off message, making sure that the person visiting to help is really comfortable. So I want to be just your lowest maintenance friend. What can I do to be the lowest maintenance friend you’ve got right now? And I love bringing people over where faith is a big deal for them or all the above or none of the above. I just love that we would be better friends at the end of this. We’d see some evidence of how God might be moving in that community or culture, and that we would just get out of the way. We’d be super low-maintenance for them. Have you ever felt threatened when you’ve tried to go over to some place and try to help them? Oh, heck yeah. Yeah?

[16:00] He’s like, every trip. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I’ve got three schools in Mogadishu, Somalia, and I’ve never… I can’t remember going there and not getting shot at at least. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah. But they’re not aiming here. It’s just a really violent hello. Like there’s no police. There’s no. I’ve never heard that. We’ve got a little girl’s school in Afghanistan. And we’ve started that before the most recent Taliban takeover. But I used to travel there really often. I’d stop in Istanbul and change clothes and fly in.

[16:34] But most of these places are either in a civil war or just post-civil war. So there’s just a lot of upset. And it just seems like, what do they say in Africa? There’s a proverb, when the elephants fight, only the grass takes a beating.

[16:50] And so it’s always the kids that take a beating in these places. And so it didn’t have to do with me, but these courageous Afghans that want to make it so that little girls learn how to read and write. I think we have 200 or 300 kids in a school right now, as we speak, just for time zones, but they’ve been in there for, gosh, I think we must be on our fifth or seventh year. Wow. And then in Mogadishu, some great Somali people that have done that. So finding courageous people in each of these countries and then just being low maintenance, just showing up, how can I be helpful to what you’re doing? How do I pull behind? Yet, I’m not a very good joiner. I must not play well with others. I don’t want to join what somebody else is doing. I’d rather build it from the chassis up. So we usually tend to start something. In Uganda, which is a post-civil war society, we started a school and told probably, I bet there’s 400,000 kids that didn’t have any education because of the war. And I told them, this is starting and you’re all invited. It’s free and we’ll blow your mind. We’ll house you. We’ll feed you. And on the first day of school, nine kids showed up.

[18:00] Really? I think eight of them didn’t want to be there. But there was something really beautiful. But then it, as credit to these terrific Ugandan staff that we have, there was 19, then 109, and 1,009. And now we got 1,800 kids living on campus in 80 buildings. And we’re breaking ground this week on a university. We want to go from diapers to doctorate. And the best part about this, I wanted a zoo. But it turns out you’re not supposed to call it a zoo. It’s a habitat. I’m like, whatever, it’s a zoo. and we wanted to find animals that didn’t bite people. It would be hard to lose. And they were like giraffes. So we went to the president owns all the giraffes and I don’t know him, but I know his wife. And so I sat down and talked giraffes with her and she ran over and got him and we walked out with six giraffes. What?

[18:51] So I think that whole idea of whimsy, some people think of it as just confetti and unicorns and all that. But underneath it, a strategic whimsy is a lot of joy, but underneath that, a mile of strategy. You know why you’re doing what you’re doing. There’s a reason behind it. I think you two are like that. You know why you’re doing, even putting on this podcast, you know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You want to love people. You want to encourage them, be a cool glass of water on a hot run. Yes. Okay. So speaking of Uganda, did I read something where you used your law skills in regards to helping find guilt of a witch doctor. Am I reading that correctly? Yeah, that’s kind of interesting. I tried the case and we put them on death row. Yeah, that’s what we did. So did you have to meet with all these witch doctors then and go through discovery? Heck yeah. Okay. Oh yeah, these guys got more toes than teeth.

[19:48] It’s pretty creepy. But after trying this case against a witch doctor, I was thinking about that idea of loving your enemies. I really didn’t have enemies that come to mind, but these guys would be about as close as you can get. People that sacrifice children because they believe their body parts have these magical powers. And so we started a witch doctor school. And we don’t teach them how to be witch doctors, but we teach them how to read and write. And the only books they have in witch doctor school is the Bible and Love Does. What? So it’s really been kind of neat. Like I’ve just, it’s creepy neat. So we’ll graduate them and we have some pretty creepy graduations.

[20:30] We bring over caps and gowns. And then sometimes these guys, one of the times I went over there, they gave me a gift. They gave me this cane. They said, this is a magical cane. I’m like, oh, yikes. So I remember that night putting it in the bathroom and putting some towels underneath the bottom just in case it turned into a viper or something. So, but I think I’ve learned so much culturally about how other people just navigate a complicated life. We do it here in North America in a different way, but no matter what the context, I just think this idea of loving your neighbor, and it doesn’t involve going across an ocean when you can go across the street because, you know, the three of us all have neighbors and And some of them may not be as creepy as a witch doctor, but some of them are brushing up.

[21:23] They’re just creepy in different ways. And so how do you love people when they’re unlovable? How do people love me when I’m unlovable? Which is often. Like, I’ve just got so many shortcomings. And yet there have been people that have somehow been able to navigate that well.

[21:40] Friends we have been asked to speak at a few events recently in regards to sharing some of our story and it has been an absolute honor we have a lot of personal stories to share that will hopefully inspire encourage and maybe even make you laugh so if you’re hosting some type of event or need a guest speaker we’re here to help that’s right just go to kevin and steph.com and click on the contact button like steph said let us know if we can be of help in any way whether it’s our personal testimony of healing and hope or me just telling some jokes. Oh, God, please, you guys, please don’t ask him to do that. But seriously, just go to kevinandsteph.com to contact us. And as always, thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[22:20] All right, Bob. So for all of our guests, I like to give a list of fun facts to let listeners know what you’ve done, what you’ve accomplished. And Steph is not aware of any of these. Okay, so you’re going to see her genuine reaction. And if I’m wrong on anything, please correct me. Okay, fire. All right, Steph, you ready? Yeah. Fun fact number one about Bob. Bob here has an office at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Oh, well, I would be inspired. Can you share the story about your office over there in Disneyland? Yeah, they let me teach for reasons I still don’t understand at Pepperdine Law School.

[22:59] And on Wednesdays, when I would go up to teach, I’d always stretch my legs at Tom’s Square Island. So Disneyland’s about halfway between San Diego and Pepperdine. So I would go there from 10 to 2 on Wednesdays, and people just started meeting me. If somebody wanted me to talk about whatever, if they wanted to meet me $100 worth, then they’d just get admission, and I’d just be on Tom’s Square Island opposite the pirate ship. And that’s actually, I bring ambassadors from countries. I brought chief justices of Supreme Courts. I’m like, I bring people and we meet on Tom Sawyer Island because the location that you have the conversation has a lot to do with the content of the conversation. If we had that same conversation in a boardroom, it’d be completely different. But if you’re doing it, the happiest place on earth, I mean, like you get some stuff done. I love that. So people will meet him there intentionally. Like I’m going to Tom Sawyer Island. Yeah. I’m going to meet Bob on Wednesday. It also just kind of shows their heart, like how much they really want to speak with you about a certain topic, right? It’s really true. It’s kind of like people vet themselves. And I get it. It’s inconvenient for me too. But there’s something, if you want it bad enough, you’re going to make it happen. Like I wanted to meet, I think of a couple of people I’ve wanted to meet and I just make it happen. Oh, Maria was one of them. I was a busy guy. I was in law school. I had all kinds of things going on until I met Maria. Then I’m like, I got all the time in the world.

[24:25] All right, Steph. That’s a perfect segue for fun fact number two. Okay. As he mentioned earlier, later this year, Bob and his wife, Sweet Maria Goff, that’s what he calls her, Sweet Maria, will celebrate 39 years of marriage. A few years ago, Sweet Maria told Bob that she felt he didn’t listen to her. Oh, I get it. I understand where she’s coming from. Yes. So Bob here started writing things down. Bob, at this point, I’m curious, how many pages of notes do you have on your wife? 800. But I hope she doesn’t listen to this podcast because I don’t want to spill the beans. But yeah, I just started writing down to everything she says. It’s awesome. I’ll just say something awesome and then I’ll leave the room and write it down. I think she thinks I have a bladder problem.

[25:11] Actually, there’s something about you can just appoint yourself as the biographer for one another. Oftentimes, I think in my books, all the things people like, I’m sure Maria just said it and I wrote it down without attribution. She’s a smart one out of the two of us. She’s like the wise owl. You know, when she talks, people listen. I love that. Isn’t that fantastic? All right. Fun fact number three. Bob spent decades as an attorney and actually calls himself a recovering lawyer.

[25:43] After practicing law for 25 years, Bob gave up his law firm that he founded to pursue writing and speaking full time. So, Bob, can you share what led to you deciding, hey, I’m walking away from my firm and I’m doing this now full time? Yeah, sometimes what will happen is somebody will get a bad diagnosis or there’ll be a personal tragedy or something. And then that is the inciting incident to a big change like that. But for me, I was living in San Diego and I practiced law in Seattle. And I would fly up on the last seat in Alaska Airlines every morning and I’d go work. And then I’d fly home for supper. And then the next morning I’d fly to Seattle and then San Diego. So four or five days a week. I did that for 25 years. No, did you really? Yeah. Oh, I got some frequent flyer miles. I bet. How long was that? Two hours and 40 minutes, depending on the headwinds. Yeah. So I would just sit in the back of the plane and eat peanuts and write books. So I walked into the office. It was on the 17th floor of a big building downtown. And the receptionist said, who are you here to see?

[26:53] I said, actually, that’s my name right behind you. And I realized I had not been in my own office in a year. I would fly up. I’d go to court. I’d go take a deposition. I’d go do whatever. then get on the plane and fly home. And even the people that work for me didn’t know me. Wow. So I have a practice of quitting stuff on Thursdays and it happened to be Thursday. So I got everybody together in the conference room and I took the key off my ring and I quit. And I gave it to a guy who’d been working for me for like a decade. And I said, man, it’s all yours. You don’t owe me a thing. And he’s like, are you kidding me? He didn’t say kidding, but that’s what he meant.

[27:32] So I walked away. I’ve never gone back. I told him to take my name down in case you get sued, but that’s it. I think it’s just burn the ship. It’s like Cortez. Remember his soldiers wanted to go back and as the last boat was sinking, he’s like, what’s your next question? So it was a stupid economic move, but it was a great new creation move. I didn’t want to spend a decade landing the plane or selling it or working something out. I I just felt like, I’m just going to do that. And so part of the underlying idea is to not be restricted if you’re listening by your capabilities, because I was capable of being a lawyer. But that sense of calling, like that sense, that inner nudge that you have, that I just want to do something more lasting. And being a lawyer can be as honorable or dishonorable as you want it to be.

[28:20] But I wanted to do something that was a little bit more lasting. And it just seemed to me that starting some schools would be a good way to get there. Okay, I have two questions for you. Did you tell your wife in the airport or at dinner Thursday night? And what was her reaction? That you did not sell the practice. You didn’t sell the practice, you gave it away. Exactly. She said, how was work? I said, work? She’s like, no. I’m like, yes. Yeah. So most of the time it’s kind of like Sarah following Abraham around being like, what in the world?

[28:55] All right. Next fun fact. In 2002, Bob founded the nonprofit organization that he’s mentioned, Love Does, which fights for human rights and provides education to children in conflict zones. One of their key initiatives, Steph, is its efforts to fight against human trafficking. So a lot of us folks here feel like we live in a bubble, right? But this stuff is real. Yeah. Do you have any stories you could share regarding what your organization does with rescuing children or fighting human trafficking?

[29:24] I think there’s a couple of different ways you can do it. And again, it is not to do with us, but these courageous, amazing people in the various countries and what they’re willing to do. And so I think of a guy who is named Moses, been working for us in India all these years, and he would just show up and he knew where kids were getting trafficked. And as he would go, we would early on in the life of Love Does, we would go with cameras us that looked like pens and all that. And we would pose as customers and find these little girls and then set up a raid the next day. And then there’s this one raid where a little girl had been just brought into this brothel because her mother had died of AIDS the week before, and they took this little kid.

[30:10] And so I remember setting up the raid and then the next day she wasn’t there because the police had tipped off the brothel owner that they were coming. And so there’s just so much of that corruption. And I remember driving across a couple of states in India to find where this little girl was. And they had just sold her back to the same brothel owner. And so just this cycle that there’s an underbelly to this whole thing. And again, it’s the courageousness of people that live in the countries that want to see better for their kids. And sometimes what you and I can offer is some help or just be a consolidating factor. Just show up and say, let’s go do this thing. We’re not going to ask for permission. We’re just going to do this. And it isn’t this false sense of bravado or something else. But if that was my kid, I would be really grateful if somebody else showed up. So as we have our head on a swivel and we look for needs first to cross the street before you go across an ocean, don’t go to the ends of the earth if you can go to the end of the street. So get something done right where you are, and then just be helpful. And then you’re neither hero nor victim of the story, but it does move you to the role of participant.

[31:24] If you like what you hear, please tell someone about us. As soon as this episode is over, go tell your spouse, your closest friend, a parent, a co-worker, or share one of our posts on social media. However, if you don’t like what you’re hearing, please do not. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anybody. Just disregard this message. Don’t worry about it. Forget about us. Yep. Go on with your merry day. And to get more information about us or our entire catalog of episodes, be sure to check us out at KevinandSteph.com. Thank you for listening to Tell Us a Good Story.

[31:54] All right, final fun fact here, Steph. Okay. As I mentioned earlier, Bob is a New York Times bestselling author. He has authored several impactful books, including his most recent titled Catching Whimsy, which is a 365-day devotional. Oh, I love that. So, Bob, can you tell us more about your newest book that just came out? What I usually do is I write books for somebody that I would describe as church adjacent. So think of the guy at the tire store, that he’s just across the street from the church. He’s not mad at the church. There’s a lot of people that are kind of saying snarky things and why the church has it all wrong and pastors are bad or whatever. And I just don’t give that. I’ve never met a courageous cynic, but I have met a lot of courageous people that are wondering about faith. This person that’s church adjacent is also not in the front row of the church.

[32:43] So when I’m writing all the trade books, is the term of art, these are just books, Love Does, Everybody Always, those kinds of books. I’m writing for the guy that’s church adjacent. I don’t put Bible verses in it. I just say there’s a guy named Paul, and he wrote to a buddy, his name, Timothy, and this is what he said about being patient. But every once in a while, it seems like about every five or six years, I’ll write a devotional where I’ll just actually say these are the scriptures because I’m a Bible verse guy. I don’t always follow what it says, but I know what it says. And so, every once in a while to write one for people where faith does resonate with them, and they want to go a little bit deeper. The word remember is in the scriptures 8,670 times. And so, that idea, I want to have a resource that was out there to tap people on the shoulder and they’ll remember. Sometimes we make loving people a lot harder than Jesus made it. Mm-hmm. Well, listeners, for more information about Bob, you can go to Instagram, Facebook, or his YouTube channel. They’re all at Bob Goff. Also, his website is bobgoff.com. Also, you can go to lovedoes.org. And Steph, Bob here apparently doesn’t sleep because he also does a weekly podcast called Dream Big Podcast with Bob Goff and Friends.

[33:59] Fantastic. Well, Bob, thank you so much, sir, for saying yes to us. Oh, boy, it was my treat. We’re so looking forward to talking to you and your story. So thank you so much for doing this with us. You know, in the important stuff that you’re doing, I think of that for those of you listening in, you’ve got two people that could be run in small countries. But instead, what you’ve decided is to get some really positive content out there. So well done. I think that involves a lot of sacrifice that people don’t know and they don’t realize. So good on you. Oh, thank you. Bob Goff just said that.

[34:31] Thank you, Bob. Thanks, Bob. Bye, you guys. Friends we want to encourage you to please follow us wherever you listen to this whether it’s on the apple podcast app iheart radio spotify or one of the other platforms you guys it’s completely free and while you’re there feel free to give us a rating or a nice review thank you for listening to tell us a good story.