L. Robert Bolling, ChildSavers

Join us for Episode 7 of the Richmond Leadership Lab, featuring the inspiring insights of Robert Bolling, CEO of ChildSavers. In this compelling episode, hosted by the talented duo of Taylor Quinn - Filmspire and Christian Mosier - BenX Consulting, we explore Robert's transformative journey from his Richmond roots to leading ChildSavers, an organization dedicated to providing mental health services and supporting child care providers. Discover the pivotal moments that shaped Robert's career and the innovative strategies he has employed to drive growth and impact in the community. Under his leadership, ChildSavers has expanded significantly, showcasing a commitment to listening, community engagement, and fostering small economies. Throughout our engaging conversation, Robert shares powerful lessons on leadership, the importance of listening, and his personal connection to Richmond. His dedication to supporting local initiatives and providing access to mental health services exemplifies the spirit of creating positive change. Whether you are a leader, aspiring leader, or simply passionate about community service, this episode is a treasure trove of insights and actionable advice.*Key Topics Covered:* Robert Bolling's leadership journey and motivationsExpanding ChildSavers and community impactThe importance of listening in leadershipPersonal insights on Richmond and supporting small economiesInsights on leadership, community service, and personal growthDon't forget to subscribe, like, and share! Tune in for more enlightening discussions on leadership, entrepreneurship, and community empowerment. To learn more about ChildSavers, visit their website here https://www.childsavers.org/. Connect with Robert on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/l-robert-bolling-69435a11/Richmond Leadership Lab is Produced and Co-Hosted by: Taylor Quinn, CEO - Filmspire https://www.filmspirevideo.com/ / taylor-quinn-filmspire Christian Mosier, President -BenX Consulting Group https://anchor.fm/s/ff0c9e28/podcast/www.benxconsulting.com / christian-mosier To learn more about RLL, visit our sitehere https://www.richmondleadershiplab.com/

• 0:01Speaker 01

  Welcome to the Richmond Leadership Lab, featuring business and nonprofit leaders across Richmond, Virginia. Produced and hosted by Filmsfire and Ben X.

• 0:11Speaker 02

  Friends, welcome back to another episode of the Richmond Leadership Lab. Richmond's number one podcast. Did you know that?

• 0:19Speaker 01

  Yep. I did know that personally.

• 0:21Speaker 02

  Don't look it up.

• 0:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, don't look it up. I mean

• 0:23Speaker 02

  Trust us.

• 0:23Speaker 01

  just trust.

• 0:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 0:25Speaker 01

  Trust is important.

• 0:26Speaker 02

  We are excited to be here. I am, of course, Taylor Quinn, the CEO of FilmSpire, offering great video production and podcasting services like this for clients. I'm joined by my co host, Christian Moser.

• 0:37Speaker 02

  Founder, CEO of Benex Consulting. So if you need employee benefits, he's your man. And we are here on the podcast. And on the podcast, we love introducing amazing leaders like our guests today that we'll get to in a second, where we ask them about their leadership, how their story, really mind them and glean some great nuggets of wisdom from them regarding their industry and their life as an executive and as a leader here in Richmond, Virginia. So today we have the pleasure and the honor of speaking to my good friend and client of FilmSpire, Robert Bowling, who's the CEO of Child Savers here in Richmond, Virginia. Robert, thanks for coming.

• 1:20Speaker 00

  Thanks, Taylor. And thanks, Christian. It's a delight to be here. Delight to be here.

• 1:23Speaker 01

  It's awesome to have you.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. How's it feel?

• 1:26Speaker 00

  Oh, it's cool. It's kinda cool.

• 1:29Speaker 02

  Have you done anything like this before?

• 1:30Speaker 00

  Not this. So I

• 1:36Speaker 01

  And a moderator.

• 1:37Speaker 00

  I was a moderator at the Richmond Forum. It was exciting

• 1:40Speaker 02

  As we were talking about.

• 1:41Speaker 00

  to uh to um ask questions to an expert in the field. And this speaker was talking about the let's not forget boys. Uh

• 1:53Speaker 02

  I actually, yes. I I think I saw him speak at a different place in was he a British guy?

• 1:58Speaker 00

  he was.

• 1:59Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah. He came and spoke at St. Chris, and I saw that. It was very interesting. Anyway, that's a rabbit hole we could go down. But Robert does have a great radio voice, as you can hear, and he's got that great voice, so he'd be a great moderator. Um Robert, so gosh, there's just so much to get into with your story and child savers and things like that. We'll get into child savers and what that's been like for you and your mission and your work there. But can you just tell us briefly about

• 2:27Speaker 02

  I think your story is really unique that you have. Like it's a truly a Richmond story, I feel like, and more specifically a Churchill story. Can you just kind of give us a little bit of like your background, your childhood, and and what that was like? And you know eventually we'll get to how you got to Child Savers, but kind of give us a the backstory on your on your life and how you got into be in leadership position.

• 2:47Speaker 00

  Sure, I'll I'll I'll do it real quickly. I am a Chertilian um by uh by birth. In fact, uh my family moved to Churchill in 1958, and I was six weeks old when we arrived. And uh my father and mother were living um with my older three brothers at the time in Jackson Ward and were displaced by the construction of Internet State 95. And my dad looked for this house, found this place. Um, and my second oldest brother described it like this to my mom. I like this place because it has two of those. And she looked at him and said, Two of those. He said, Bathrooms. So

• 3:30Speaker 00

  the whole family. Um, but um that experience of growing up in Churchill in the nineteen fifties and sixties and seventies was exciting for me. Um I I have now five siblings, so it was five boys and one daughter. And she is the youngest, and we call her Oops, because she's five years younger than my uh youngest brother.

• 3:53Speaker 02

  What a great name. I'm sure that she loves that.

• 3:56Speaker 00

  Right.

• 3:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:56Speaker 00

  And my um my mother was delighted because she finally, finally got a girl in there with her. Um so that that was great. My my parents grew up in Richmond from Jackson Ward. Um my mother's family is from Arbemar County, as far as we know. My dad's family is from the Richmond area. Um, but um they obviously grew up doing segregation and and really impacted who they were and they that influenced who we were as kids. Um my father finally uh after being a laborer, a brick mason, that kind of stuff, he finally got a job at the VA hospital in at Maguire. And he ended up um walking to work almost every day,

• 4:40Speaker 00

  which was incredibly inspiring for a young boy who was watching this man try to care for his family

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  while his wife, my beautiful mom, took care of us as kids.

• 4:50Speaker 02

  Right.

• 4:51Speaker 00

  And when we left the house, then she went off to work and eventually worked for the IRS after getting a degree. And I often think about my mother now as uh probably the smartest person I have ever known. And if opportunities for her were different, she would have had a totally different kind of career. And it's it's inspiring for me to think about that. But she laid the groundwork for for who I am, my brothers and my sister.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  Right.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  So she got a degree after racing.

• 5:22Speaker 00

  Yes, she did. She did. She decided, okay, what am I gonna do now? And so she was working part time jobs.

• 5:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  And she said, I'll go to school. So she um got an associate's degree and then began to work for the IRS. I'm like, gee, Ma. And that's where she ended her career.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  That's amazing. Can you paint for us for a moment? Can you just paint a picture of us for us what like what Churchill was like in that time in history, in like in the fifties, sixties as a child. Paint us a picture as to because Richmond's just Come done change grown a lot over the years and things like that. But paint us a picture what that was like to grow up in that neighborhood at that time.

• 6:03Speaker 00

  So I'll give you a sense of uh we we call ourselves the 36th Street Kids. And and on the block that I was on was um three hundred feet, so a hundred yards, a football field. And in that block there were seventy children. Let me say it again, seven zero.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  Why

• 6:20Speaker 00

  So there were a lot of large families, so there were

• 6:24Speaker 01

  sports?

• 6:24Speaker 00

  a lot of sports. Uh we actually played uh football on uh asphalt, meaning tackle football at times. On asphalt.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  Build terror.

• 6:33Speaker 00

  Uh yeah, it does. Um But it was a a great community to grow up in. Um my teachers lived in a neighborhood. Um there was always somebody watching out for us in uh when our parents had to to leave to go to work or uh do other things. Um it was a place where I learned what to love is like and what family love is and then extended family love. Um even into school, because um My mother was the president of the PTA. So you can imagine

• 7:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  we had to keep a pretty straight course. And if we ever veered off, my mother knew by the time we got home. So uh it was fun. Um we didn't have a car as a kid. Um, and the thing that changed our lives more than anything else was when corporations, Philip Morris, Reynolds Metal, began to hire black people. And uh often many of those jobs were in. um as custodians, but they also moved up in on the production side and even on management side. And that moved us from a poor working class neighborhood to a pretty middle class neighborhood. I think we got our first car when I was like thirteen.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:53Speaker 00

  And um so we took the bus everywhere.

• 7:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  I I knew the bus system in Richmond really well. Uh our my church is in uh in the Randolph community. And uh as you might imagine uh getting to church from Churchill was an adventure sometimes.

• 8:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, from Churchill to Randolph.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  Randolph, yeah, if you took the bus, it took you up Broad Street through Jackson around by Jackson Ward, and then you can come down Harrison. If you walked, you had to walk through Oregon Hill, which was a very different neighborhood back then.

• 8:26Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 8:26Speaker 00

  And um and oftentimes it was a a race to get through Oregon Hill safely. Um so that that that was exciting for us. Uh, in many ways.

• 8:37Speaker 02

  One way to put it.

• 8:39Speaker 00

  Um but it it sort of built who we were as is as young people and growing up in this space where people really cared about who you were and whose child are you? Are you are you David's child? Uh y yes ma'am. Alright. That finger point uh it mean uh keep ready. Uh education was big in my house, so my my mother pushed us to to do really well in school. Um sports was huge for us. If you know where the Salvation Army Boys and Girl Girls Club in Churchill, I grew up right around the corner from that. I was a charter member, so I watched that club be built from a house

• 9:21Speaker 00

  that had uh previously had horses and cows in the in the yard, um, to this place where we could gather as kids and enjoy an organized sports, basketball,

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:32Speaker 00

  um, baseball, football. learn how to shoot pool, the um bump them

• 9:39Speaker 00

  and um learn how to swim at the club and and if you know the history of swimming and and black folks um i in fact most of our ancestry were strong swimmers because they grew up on the coast of Africa.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Right.

• 9:55Speaker 00

  So they had to swim to

• 9:56Speaker 02

  Makes sense.

• 9:56Speaker 00

  eat and survive.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  Uh when we got to the United States swimming was not a priority. And um so Learning how to swim was one of those safe things for her. Um and so uh the club taught us all that that kind of stuff. Uh as a kid, I did um there was a man who ran that club, and his name was James Bryant. And he was the first black man that I saw run some totally in charge of something. And then there were these outside of the small businesses that were in and community. And I think that was the early um sort of seed that was planted in my head that I could do the work that I do today.

• 10:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:37Speaker 00

  And I you know, I started reflecting on that not too long ago. That

• 10:41Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 10:41Speaker 00

  James Bryant was probably the first guy I saw.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 10:44Speaker 00

  Did what I do today.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Well, it's amazing how many guests we've had on the show that refer to a time in their childhood

• 10:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  that instilled some type of either leadership capability or or motivation, or we've had a I feel like a decent amount of guests on the show refer like my dad did this or this person did this and and how important that is, even instilling it.

• 11:03Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  at a young age.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Young age.

• 11:05Speaker 00

  I I take that very seriously in in the job I am today.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:08Speaker 00

  For a couple of reasons. I'm I'm the first leader of color at Child Savers. And it's a hundred and one year history now. And

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Congratulations again. That's awesome.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  and um it it it's a place where we reflect on our history a lot. That we opened as the first guidance clinic in the South and one of the first ten in the country. So that's an exciting um milestone for us. We also opened as a uh a place that did not accept uh that only accepted white kids. And we grew out of the 1918 flu pandemic when kids were um basically left alone because many of them had lost their parents or their care caregivers. Um and so uh a year later we became incredible. We were integrated, but the service for the individuals was separate. Um, in in the 1950s, a medical director at Child Savers

• 12:00Speaker 00

  uh suggested that it was not a good thing for kids of different races to be served together. And he made that testimony in the Farmville, uh, Prince Edward County school case that led up to Brown versus Board of Education. And today we're not that organization. We're uh a diversified organization with a diversified staff. Uh we run program for anybody that needs the programming. And uh I'm proud to say that um we're there to provide access to mental health chur services and to support the providers of childcare uh any way we can. And um I think we do a pretty good job at it.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. I want to jump more into that. And before we do that though, can you just quickly tell me the short story of like how did you get to Child Savers

• 12:49Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 12:49Speaker 02

  and and things like that?

• 12:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, uh well, um background I grew up in Richmond, as you know, and I went to public school here. through the eighth grade, and I was one of those kids who um um I was a bookworm. Um my cousin and I referred to ourselves as nerds. Um and uh we were the nerds of the family. And I got an opportunity to go to boarding school in New England. And uh uh I went there for four years and and did my undergraduate work in in New England in Western Massachusetts and um that experience exposed me to things that I had never seen in my life amazing wealth. didn't know people were this rich. One of my classmates um went down to the local men's store and spent five thousand dollars.

• 13:36Speaker 00

  And that's what my dad made in a year.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:39Speaker 00

  And so it was it just blew me away.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:42Speaker 00

  Uh but at the same time it it um it showed me that I was as bright and and smart as any kid in the space, and and I love being there. Uh I I eventually served on the board of that school for a while. After I graduated from college, uh I was going to law school and uh got into to law school and decided I didn't want to be in school.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  Or another

• 14:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:09Speaker 00

  And uh so I decided I was gonna go into the market and went to corporate America. So I joke, I think you've heard me tell us stella, I joke that I know more about pots and pans than the average human being, because I worked for Coin and Glassworks in the consumer product division and I learned a lot about cookware.

• 14:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:27Speaker 00

  And uh supplied all the cookware for my aunts.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Oh yeah. I'm sure that you

• 14:34Speaker 01

  got this extra paying.

• 14:36Speaker 00

  Yeah. And and loved that work and uh did sales and marketing. And I think it helped me build the skill set for the work that I do today. And uh and eventually decided that that's not what makes my heart beat. And I was interested in public policy. As a um as an undergraduate, I uh studied political science. with a focus on uh Southern African studies because it was during the apartheid era. And uh I took a year off from school and actually went to Southern Africa and taught school for for a year. And that school was uh really designed to show the South Africans that apartheid was not the right system for the future.

• 15:19Speaker 00

  And um kids of different races and nationalities could all be educated together. And I kinda liked that idea.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:25Speaker 00

  And um so When I came back, finished my degree, got uh started working for Corning, that love went away, but it taught me some skills like how to make a sales call

• 15:37Speaker 02

  Yeah. How to make revenue.

• 15:39Speaker 00

  how to generate revenue.

• 15:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:41Speaker 00

  Uh and um and then eventually I went into public policy around health care. And that was that was a changing point for me. Um I worked for the State Health Department for about eleven, twelve years, and I I started as a statistician and everything. And uh and then went into the policy side and uh helped the Commission of Health decide on um on cases um that were developing hospitals and nursing homes across the state. And uh the team of us wrote opinions and we had this incredible woman who was our leader who uh who taught us everything, and and I really appreciated um learning from her. And um

• 16:25Speaker 00

  and then Virginia started to look at health disparities. uh particularly around racial groups and and um men and women and um children of different races and I became Virginia's first director of what was then called minority health. And um that really opened my eyes to I think the healthcare industry is where I want to be.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:47Speaker 00

  Um and um and so I I stayed at that job, loved it, uh worked for a few governors and a few commissioners and uh Yeah, of different political parties. Another skill set,

• 17:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  uh, how to navigate through um different waters is it was important. And um and then um I started thinking I need to get some more background in business. And so I I left uh the State Health Department and went to work for the Chamber of Commerce in Richmond. And

• 17:21Speaker 01

  Oh, I didn't know that.

• 17:22Speaker 00

  that was a pretty cool job. It was uh The original job was uh around helping the business community understand the importance of early education and early learning and early childhood education, hence uh why I'm in the business I'm in today.

• 17:37Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:38Speaker 00

  And um and and that was great. And uh and when I decided to leave that job, I entered the nonprofit field for the first time.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Which is different than government business.

• 17:50Speaker 00

  Right, so

• 17:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:51Speaker 00

  private sector, public sector, and then this strange sector called nonprofits.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  And um and that was really a friend of mine uh who was in the leadership course with me. Um at the end of the course, he said, You're in the wrong business. You should do nonprofit and help raise money. I was like, What are you talking about? I don't know how to do that. And sort of reflect back to James Bryant.

• 18:14Speaker 02

  Right.

• 18:14Speaker 00

  And um and it it was really about telling stories. How can you tell great stories to convince people to invest in the, in my case, adults or children? who are um who don't have access to a lot of the opportunities that I had or you had or anyone else. And uh and that intrigued me. And I raised money for uh uh my first nonprofit here and it was exciting. And and then I went to work for another nonprofit that had an entrepreneurial spirit. It was in the north side of Richmond and it was all about how do we build these small businesses to help folks who are returning from incarceration.

• 18:56Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 18:56Speaker 00

  gain employment. And so we we ran a thrift store, we uh started a a real estate business to redevelop housing. And uh for the first time I opened a restaurant. And

• 19:09Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 19:09Speaker 00

  it was

• 19:10Speaker 02

  What kind of restaurant?

• 19:11Speaker 00

  it was uh uh just uh sort of quick cook

• 19:14Speaker 02

  Quick quick.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Like burgers or

• 19:15Speaker 00

  restaurant burgers chicken yeah

• 19:18Speaker 02

  I could I

• 19:19Speaker 01

  use a burger right now.

• 19:21Speaker 00

  and i i it it was fun work to do and it to be in the center of a neighborhood that was it was changing and and and um had this long history of of um it was one of the first communities that African American folks moved to from Jackson Ward, Churchill. It was on the north side, it was Holland Park. So that was that was kind of fun to uh to work there. And um finally I got an opportunity to return to Oregon Hill as the executive director of William Berg Community House. It was a community based center that did hmm social work and mental health work. And after school programming, a childcare center, a library, developed the first nonprofit in Richmond

• 20:07Speaker 00

  to have a farmer's market. It was called a birdhouse market, which exists today.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  wow.

• 20:11Speaker 00

  Um so that that kind of i it was exciting work for me, and then I got the the call to come to Child Saver.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's awesome.

• 20:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:20Speaker 00

  It really changed my life.

• 20:21Speaker 02

  That's amazing. It's just for me, it's like a full circle story, because you you were in Richmond, and then you left with your education, and then even some of the your initial studies and work and then coming back to Richmond and you've seen so much change and things like that. So which is amazing. Can you just give us now like the quick elevator pitch? If no one's ever ever heard of Child Savers, give us the quick elevator pitch in terms of what Child Savers is in a hundred years, which is amazing. Because what organization gets to a hundred in

• 20:50Speaker 00

  Yes. Many of us in Richmond.

• 20:52Speaker 01

  Some statistics that say it's

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  only a couple percent.

• 20:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's a very small number of us who are out there. But uh Child Savers, uh I I always like to start with mission. And and Child Savers mission is pretty simple. Child Savers guides our community's children through life's critical moments with trauma informed mental health and child development services. So, in those words, our history guides. We were the Memorial Child Guidance Clinic when we opened the door. And our community's children, we really believe that every child in this community is the responsibility of every adult. So we should be doing everything to make sure that children can thrive. Uh and uh critical moments happen for us twice in a child's life. And the first time is when a child is born, zero to five,

• 21:41Speaker 00

  and they are developing the power to learn for the rest of their lives. And imagine if we could feed all the positive things in their brains that we could, because that brain is making neuroconnections at a rate of one million per second.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 22:01Speaker 02

  As a father of a three and a half year old that is and a one and a half year old is just amazing and terrifying at the same time.

• 22:07Speaker 00

  But but it's a powerful

• 22:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is.

• 22:10Speaker 00

  that that you know if we could put in the minds of kids that they can be great, imagine what they do. We we often uh uh talk about kids i i in in deficit ways. And I I like to think of every child um looking for an opportunity to be great, to be marvelous, um, to be at the top. Hey, right. And it's out there, it's out there. if if we help lay the groundwork and that's developing that brain. And the second time is um kids uh uh and we're learning more and more about behavioral health these days and we know that mental health concerns for kids are pretty significant. Uh the the most recent data says one in five

• 22:53Speaker 00

  uh kids will experience a mental health concern by the time they're uh fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old. And um and if you think about that um We really have to support these kids. And that could be look like body image stuff. It could be anxiety, depression. Or for us, it's trauma. And um many of the kids we see have significant trauma in their lives. And that trauma could be sexual assault against someone in their home, them, uh, the witnessing of trauma is is pretty significant. And just to give you a stat to really help you understand how um How important this is.

• 23:35Speaker 00

  Research says that when you experience four traumatic events in your life, four in your life, that's toxic trauma. And if that trauma isn't treated early, there are these adverse outcomes that could happen to you. Not graduating from high school, substance use, being the perpetrator of trauma against other individuals. And for child savers children, On average, they experience six of those traumatic events. And the average age of the kid we serve is nine years old.

• 24:12Speaker 00

  So imagine that. And and our work is around okay, let's bring that trauma to life and let's help the kids develop the tools to be resilient again. And um and i it's very difficult work because uh our team sees pretty tough stuff uh that we ourselves have to take a step back from. Um, and and we hear these stories over and over and over again. And and um and for the children and the families, they're looking for us for that support to help them make better decisions about how they can again achieve that opportunity. It'd be great. And and if you relate that to our child development work, that early childhood education,

• 24:57Speaker 00

  it's it's really that's the prevention work. Put on all that good stuff in the brain so that if you experience this trauma, you have some factors that can help you beat back that trauma. And um and so we're the only organization in the Commonwealth that has this unique combination of those two services. How do we help children when they're in a difficult moment? And how do we support the providers who are working with our youngest children to make sure that child care is quality? Child care for kids.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was gonna ask like on on your staff at Child Savers, is it uh um it's probably uh conglomerate of, you know, nurses or psychologists, or how how do you how exactly do you guys help the

• 25:42Speaker 00

  So on the mental health side, uh we're primarily licensed um clinicians, therapists, and um and we have some licensees, those who are working towards license. And so we have uh a mixture of those individuals. Um we also have a psychiatrist on staff to help support kids who who may require medication. We think therapy is the first tool and the most powerful tool, but some kids do need some support through. uh um medication. So we will support those kids with that. On our child development side, we have mostly uh professionals who've worked in the field. And uh they really understand many of them have operated childcare centers or childcare in their home

• 26:28Speaker 00

  or um and those are small businesses. So there's this entrepreneurial component to these people who care about children. And want to take them in and support them so that they can learn for the rest of their lives. But they also want to learn how to run a business. And so we help support both of those. Um which is uh you know, how how do you manage um cash flow? Right. We all think about it. And it doesn't matter whether you're a for profit or not for profit. We're all thinking about cash.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  budget?

• 27:04Speaker 00

  There you go. There you go. And and helping them understand that and and generate enough revenue. To s survive as a business is an important component. So those those two things we think have tremendous impact. And uh to give you a sense of our programming, we are we run a clinic in the old RVA radio station at the top of the hill at 22nd and Grace

• 27:29Speaker 02

  In Churchill.

• 27:29Speaker 00

  in Churchill. Uh home again. And there you go. And then we uh about uh in nineteen I'm sorry, in 2016, 2017, we start thinking about how can we get to spaces where kids are. Um, and schools became our highlight, and we started in Richmond, in three schools, placing our clinical staff inside those schools. And um and now we're in, I think it's now 23 schools City of Richmond, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights. And um, and that's important because now If a child is having a mental health concern inside the classroom, we can be there to support the

• 28:13Speaker 00

  the the school employees, as they teachers, uh c administrators, custodians who all are part of that school family. Um and um on the other side of our business, we have grown from uh we we have focused our uh our work on developing a workforce in childcare. Expanding access and helping people understand where um where quality childcare is, and then lastly, uh to make sure the kids eat great food.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a big deal.

• 28:47Speaker 00

  Because oftentimes the food that they get in child care is the only food they eat that day.

• 28:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:52Speaker 00

  And so today, Child Savers, uh I started in Child Savers in uh 2012, and we had roughly 25, 26 employees and a budget of about 1.7, 1.8 million. And uh today we have close to ninety employees in uh a budget that is will exceed twelve million dollars this year. So it it's been tremendous growth in those twelve years. Yeah. Uh a lot of that happened over the last five years, uh as uh the impact of COVID and and and social justice movements across our uh uh locality, our state, and and the federal and and and and the nation. And so it's exciting to be in a space where we can help.

• 29:37Speaker 00

  And um and to work with a team that is totally committed to doing some of the most difficult work that is imagine all of us think about child care if we have children. All of us. You know,

• 29:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:49Speaker 00

  how are we gonna care for these kids if we want to go to work? We have to make decisions about this expense in our family that is often more than going to college.

• 30:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:01Speaker 00

  Thing was

• 30:01Speaker 02

  Wild.

• 30:03Speaker 00

  and and so. Uh we're all if we ha choose that, we want them to be in safe quality spaces. If our kids who are now living in a climate that is very different from the one I grew up in, probably the ones you grew up in, um, and they face issues that we can't imagine, and the s speed in which information gets to them and they have to process it is so great that we gotta really help these kids think through that and

• 30:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:29Speaker 00

  and support them in any way we can. So

• 30:31Speaker 01

  That's great.

• 30:32Speaker 00

  I really love this stuff.

• 30:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. We'll be right back after this short message.

• 30:36Speaker 01

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• 30:58Speaker 02

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• 31:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, heck yeah. And just you can you can already see just by talking to you the impact

• 31:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:25Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:26Speaker 01

  that you all are making, going from twenty-five employees,

• 31:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  you know, a little over a decade ago, to almost, you know, a hundred

• 31:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  today.

• 31:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:33Speaker 01

  I mean, obviously the name of this podcast is the Richmond Leadership Lab. And so I guess it's a great segue. Talk to us a little bit about like your personal leadership journey within Child Savers, because I'm sure it looks a lot different today

• 31:47Speaker 00

  Oh yeah.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  than it did 13 years ago.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:49Speaker 00

  Oh yeah. Yeah. I I think one of the most important lessons I learned was um the most powerful thing a leader can do is listen. Listen. Um and um you know the old wives tell the the the people all my grandmother told me, my mother told me all of my aunties is is you you got one of these and two of these.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  Oh yeah.

• 32:10Speaker 00

  Use it that way

• 32:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:11Speaker 00

  uh in that proportion. And um and when you listen, you you hear things. That you might not have heard if this thing is moving all the time. And um and often you hear the stories of kids, the stories of families, the stories of your colleagues who are uh who want to do great things and need your thinking and guidance to help get there. And so um that's a skill set that I really have developed over the last 13 years. Sometimes I'm really good at it, sometimes I'm not as good. Um But uh I think it has really changed because you you can hear a simple thing like, um, hey, we're stressed out. COVID did us in.

• 32:56Speaker 00

  And um and maybe we need some mental health work,

• 32:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:00Speaker 00

  all of us, whether we're our child care workforce or our mental health workforce. And it may made us think more about benefits. Can we provide that support beyond an employee assistance program? And and and we did. We found a vendor that um provides um mental health counseling, you know, remotely, virtually, telehealth, uh, for all of our employees, and they can invite six family members to join them. And it and

• 33:29Speaker 02

  Well.

• 33:30Speaker 00

  the organization pays for that so that staff doesn't have to pay for it. That benefit was a game changer for a lot of people. And it it it took a while. We didn't hear it clearly the first time.

• 33:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:42Speaker 00

  And they kept saying it and we heard

• 33:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 00

  it. And and it it's making a difference, I think.

• 33:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. I was gonna ask how you take care of staff that is in the thick of it.

• 33:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's it's it's tough. It's you know, most of the time we think about uh mental health therapy therapists and rightly so because they hear these stories. But if you if you think about our uh child care staff, they're in the same time. A lot lot of these uh uh workers that we have are uh older women who are going out at night into people's homes to help support them and teach them because they've been taking care of kids all day long, and the evening is the only time they have. for a lesson to learn. I mean how to look at a PL, for example, or how how to prepare a great meal for the kids the next day. So you you've got to constantly uh use you know you can use your benefits like the one I talked about or

• 34:34Speaker 00

  a simple thing like pay time off. Like you need to take some time off. Take some time away from you. Even the CEO takes some time away.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:43Speaker 00

  And so that's an important thing.

• 34:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, y my staff is probably majority under 40. And um and um so they're they're they're young, they're excited, they're building families, um, some of them. And um so we want to make sure that we can support them uh in ways like the benefits I've talked about, but also can we can we do fun things at work? You know, we we twice a year we get together as a full team and and eat somewhere and play games and and do silly stuff. Um we built into our systems our are our ways that uh the supervisory staff can support and listen to our um uh our younger staff who is who are

• 35:32Speaker 00

  uh many first in their career or early in their career and and helping them to navigate through what it's like to work every day. Um so that's the kind of stuff we think about all the time. Uh I I call it my open door policy. uh in my office there are two doors one is glass and the other is solid and when the solid door prevents you from seeing in my office is closed but if you can see through the glass it's open and so I I often say to people if you can see in my office the door's open so now um and most likely I'll take a moment to listen because sometimes it's just people want to hear. And when I arrived at Child Savers, uh there was an employee who came into my office

• 36:16Speaker 00

  Uh I mean, I'm weeks into the job and said, I have never been in this space and I've been working here for seven years. And that struck me. I was like, You've never been in the CEO's office.

• 36:27Speaker 02

  Mm.

• 36:28Speaker 00

  And um so it

• 36:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:31Speaker 00

  it it's it's it's fun to think about how we can support people who do important work.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  Robert, you did something I remember when we spoke and you know, uh a ways back about during COVID, I think.

• 36:42Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:42Speaker 02

  That you did you were matching people within internally, right? Of different can you explain what what was the reason what you did and what was the reason why you did that?

• 36:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, that was a if you can imagine, and we c all can think back to COVID, and then um it it really the catalyst of that was George Floyd's murder. And um And we we had this huge group meeting at the building out on the back lawn and saying, you know, trying to make the decision, should we stay open or not? Should we be there to support families? And and ultimately we decided. And one of the things that came out of that was this idea of what I call fierce conversations. And if we're really going to connect to people and learn about people, you've got to say, tell Christian, uh I want to have some conversations that may be awkward for the both of us, but I want to have them anyway.

• 37:36Speaker 00

  And um and let's sort of stumble through that

• 37:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:39Speaker 00

  and and sometimes have ouch moments. Ooh, that was tough, Christian. But let's try. And if we can have these kind of conversations, we can know each other better. And um so we asked every employee to pick somebody. That was different from them. However, they perceived that difference and just have these fierce conversations. And that took place for about a year. And it was a variety of conversations that took place. I had two people. I had a very young, uh, newer employee who was in her twenties, who was Caucasian and um and went to a Christian based school.

• 38:24Speaker 00

  Um, and we were both Christian, so we had that in common. Um, but we didn't have a life experience that was the same. Yeah. And then I had a uh a woman who was closer to my age, uh, who uh who grew up in a working class community similar to mine, but our experiences growing up were very different. And just being able to talk and say, Can I ask you this question that I'm not sure I would ask in an open forum? And and um and I think it really helps and it I think it nurtures relationships. And it helps us get to really uncomfortable spots and navigate through that to get to some type of understanding and solution.

• 39:09Speaker 00

  And the way I think about it is uh I my wife and I recently was were on a trip trip to Germany and we went to Nuremberg and um we were listening to a tour guide who was talking about the Nuremberg trial trials, and um and she she indicated she was a schoolteacher. She indicated that in that I think she said eighth or ninth grade, all the children in the public school system have to visit a concentration camp because they don't want to lose that story

• 39:40Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 39:41Speaker 00

  and go back to where they were.

• 39:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:43Speaker 00

  Imagine if we could do that here.

• 39:45Speaker 02

  Wow. Yeah.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 39:47Speaker 00

  It's a powerful story.

• 39:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 39:49Speaker 00

  And and those fierce conversations help us get there.

• 39:52Speaker 02

  Reminds me of our last podcast, Kyle Benoussi. We talked about brutal honesty.

• 39:57Speaker 00

  It's the same thing.

• 40:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course.

• 40:02Speaker 00

  And and and get into a space where we can talk to one another,

• 40:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:05Speaker 00

  even though that talking may be hard.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, even if it's uncomfortable, it's still like it's coming from a good place. Right. Or it's still honest.

• 40:13Speaker 00

  That's the assumption.

• 40:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:14Speaker 00

  You gotta assume that. You gotta

• 40:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

• 40:18Speaker 01

  But it's it's so much easier said than done at the same time.

• 40:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  But it's so important. We've had a bunch of leaders talk about and you included, just about the honesty and the the feedback. And listening

• 40:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:30Speaker 01

  to employees.

• 40:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:31Speaker 01

  Right? Because I one of the crazy stats that that I always hear, and I've probably quoted a couple times in the podcast, is over 70% of employees don't quit their job. They quit their manager.

• 40:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  Right? They quit their leader, their boss, whoever they're interacting with. What a responsibility that is. Like even as a leader, you can either propel someone in a great direction, like you guys are doing with young kids, for example. You can give them the tools that they need and propel them in a good direction.

• 40:58Speaker 00

  Right.

• 40:59Speaker 01

  Or you or you don't.

• 41:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's it's it's a powerful thing, and and uh I think about it all the time, and uh you know, as I tell people leaders have to be willing to take risks to fail. And get back up and try it again and to motivate a culture of failure. Sounds weird. But you learn so much when you fail. And so, and don't punish when you fail. It said, what did we learn from this? And let's try not to do it again. And and if we if we do that as leaders, we can really change organizations in a in a in a great way. And and it's hard. It's hard because we always want to get it right. But a lot of times we don't

• 41:46Speaker 00

  getting it wrong is right

• 41:48Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 41:49Speaker 00

  because you learn so much.

• 41:51Speaker 02

  Good point.

• 41:51Speaker 00

  And we we we we often punish our children because they don't get it right. Um, you know, uh how many times do we you you you you're sweeping the kitchen floor and your kids say, Oh, I don't want to do that.

• 42:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 42:06Speaker 00

  They may not do it the way we want,

• 42:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:09Speaker 00

  but they're learning. And and that's the stuff that we've we've got to get to. And and leaders, I think, are are the ones that can help us do that. And we, you know, the other thing we do is set the vision for where we want to go. And you know, in Child Savers, you know, when I started it was 7,000 kids served. And today it's 33, 34. And our vision for our new strategic plan is fifty thousand kids by twenty twenty eight.

• 42:38Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 42:38Speaker 00

  Yeah we're currently we're an organization that started in Metro Richmond. And now we touch more than 70 jurisdictions in the Congress.

• 42:46Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 42:47Speaker 00

  And it's exciting.

• 42:48Speaker 01

  And people say big numbers, you know, and sometimes it just goes over people's heads. I mean that's fifty thousand multiple different conversations, fifty thousand different events, fifty thousand I mean

• 42:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:58Speaker 01

  we're talking about each one, it's not just like a check the box,

• 43:01Speaker 00

  Right.

• 43:02Speaker 01

  right?

• 43:02Speaker 00

  Right.

• 43:02Speaker 01

  We talk about multiple events and and and meetings and oh my gosh.

• 43:07Speaker 00

  And the the the power of the story is is really where it is. It is it is and each child, each family is a story. And and what we want to do is promote a story that says we can help these kids again be fabulous. Who wouldn't want to do that?

• 43:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:29Speaker 00

  And and um

• 43:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:32Speaker 00

  and if if we all are thinking like that, imagine that energy pushing all of our children to be great.

• 43:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:38Speaker 00

  Every single one of 'em.

• 43:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:40Speaker 00

  No matter where they came from. Because kids are pretty amazing. When you know, when little kids meet each other, they see another little kid.

• 43:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

• 43:49Speaker 00

  They see the differences,

• 43:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:51Speaker 00

  but they are all about you're a kid like me, hey, we can be through together.

• 43:55Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 43:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:58Speaker 01

  Well, talk to me a little bit about like one of the things I'm fascinated about is the difference between the day-to-day execution

• 44:04Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 44:05Speaker 01

  and the and the vision. Like you talk about vision, and you talk a little bit about day to day execution too. How is a leader, like you guys have 90 employees, you know, 90 ish employees, how do you balance that? How do you balance the day to day with also also the strategic plan of 50,000?

• 44:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's it's tough. It's tough because and but I think the answer is getting the right people around you and let them do their thing. And um as as my leader, I've got uh as leader of child savers, I've got two responsibilities. I've got no three. One is I've I've gotta create an environment and culture where people feel safe and want to do the work. Uh I I've gotta raise money. So I'm everywhere I go, I'm talking about child savers and making a pitch in some way. And the the and the other pl uh place that you you want is what do we want to be in the next 100 years? I've always got to be thinking out there. And so uh my job is to look for people

• 45:05Speaker 00

  who can do the day-to-day operations and let them do what they do. And uh and if you can do that, you can be successful. There, you know, we were talking earlier before we we we came on about today was a legal day. It was just you gotta do the paperwork, you gotta do all that kind of stuff. That's that's sort of the day-to-day operations you gotta do periodically. But most of my time should be spent thinking about our future and convincing people that we're the right investment for them.

• 45:35Speaker 01

  Right.

• 45:35Speaker 00

  And and I try to dedicate time to do that. And and in our world we called it uh cultivational stewardship. And uh you know, and it's

• 45:45Speaker 01

  A lot of syllables.

• 45:46Speaker 00

  yeah, it it it really is how do you make people uh on help people continue to understand what you're trying to do. And um in the same way a a um a company is looking for investors uh to buy their stock. And we're doing the same thing.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  Or land large clients.

• 46:05Speaker 00

  There you go.

• 46:06Speaker 01

  Whatever might

• 46:06Speaker 00

  Same thing. You gotta make people believe that you're doing great stuff.

• 46:10Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:10Speaker 00

  And and if you could do that and demonstrate that you can continue to do that, people will invest. And it's that simple.

• 46:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:18Speaker 00

  That's simple.

• 46:19Speaker 02

  Is there a moment since you've been at Child Savers like as a leader you feel like particularly proud of? Or and then maybe even a moment where like something didn't turn out as as you liked or hoped, or uh maybe a mistake you might call it or setback, whatever you might be and what you gleaned kind of from that experience.

• 46:35Speaker 00

  I'll I'll talk about uh what I feel proud of. I'm gonna lean into this comfort. And some people said discomfort. Um I wanted an organization that was more reflective of the communities that we serve. And that meant that um we have to uh we have to purposefully with great intention seek people who want to do this work who are different from one another because that mix makes the work better. And I think Child Service has had success in that area. So I'm I'm proud of that. I'm really proud of that. Um some of the things I I've learned

• 47:15Speaker 00

  and the the the they're a lot. But um, you know, I'm I'm a pretty dogged individual. Um, you know, I've got big personality, yeah, and and I I recognize that in myself. It's it, you know, I was what we would call a cocky young man. I was a I was a running back in football. So, you know, give me the ball.

• 47:36Speaker 02

  Move out of my way

• 47:37Speaker 00

  Yeah. But you sometimes as a leader you've got to say, you know, you've got to create the opportunity for other people to be great. And and and that's a lesson you gotta learn all the time. That you got people on your team who are watching you and they say, Yeah, that's great, you can run the ball. But I think I can run it too. So help me get an opportunity to do that. And um so I think where I've had some downfalls is when I didn't listen. And when I didn't help somebody else. And to give you an example of the impact of helping somebody else, I asked a person that I thought was a great leader. He was head of school at the school I went to. And I asked him what was his great achievement as head of school.

• 48:21Speaker 00

  And I thought he was, you know, we got this huge endowment that we did, all this kind of stuff. He said 13 people who worked for me became head of schools.

• 48:30Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 48:31Speaker 00

  That was his big thing. And I thought about that. I was like, wow. So his impact is a ripple effect

• 48:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:39Speaker 00

  because he's trained and prepared all these other individuals to do what he did.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 48:44Speaker 00

  That's what we should be doing.

• 48:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:46Speaker 01

  What an awesome statement.

• 48:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:48Speaker 01

  I'm thinking about how many people are disappointed that someone took that job. Right. Right. Like how many leaders like, well, this was more work on me and this, you know.

• 48:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 48:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:58Speaker 01

  Says a lot I mean to his character.

• 48:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, it is. He's a pretty amazing guy. And he's a guy that I admire even today.

• 49:04Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 49:04Speaker 00

  He's a pretty amazing guy.

• 49:05Speaker 02

  That's amazing.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  And um, you know, when I think about my parents, I always go back to them. I use this thing now when I introduce myself, I introduce myself in terms of my family lineage now, rather than all this other stuff. Because that's really who I am.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:20Speaker 00

  And uh a picture of my parents hanging m on my on the wall in my office. Um, because I like to look over there and think, wow, I wonder if they will be proud. And I think the answer to that question is yes.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:33Speaker 02

  A hundred percent.

• 49:33Speaker 00

  So

• 49:33Speaker 01

  Heck yeah.

• 49:34Speaker 00

  I I I'm loving it.

• 49:35Speaker 02

  You bring that up, I like Christians asked this question before, which I like a lot. So going back you mentioned your lineage and childhood, like if you could go back in time to a much younger self. You had a moment

• 49:46Speaker 01

  That run a back.

• 49:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. What would you tell younger Robert, you know, or instill some sort of nugget of wisdom you've learned? What would you tell your younger self?

• 49:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, um mm the I I mentioned this. Slow down and listen. Slow down and listen. The world moves really fast, but progress is intentionally slow.

• 50:11Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 50:13Speaker 00

  And the world will change. And you can have a piece of that. But you've got to you've gotta see a bigger picture. Because we see the moment. And I think it's better when we see the future.

• 50:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:28Speaker 00

  It's it's what's out there. It's it's it's

• 50:33Speaker 00

  John F. Kennedy saying, that's not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

• 50:39Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 50:40Speaker 00

  It's powerful.

• 50:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:41Speaker 00

  It's powerful. And um And I grew up in an era where people were thinking about that. My my my father was in the service and

• 50:49Speaker 01

  Mm.

• 50:49Speaker 00

  he I think my father is one of the greatest patriots that I've ever met.

• 50:54Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 50:56Speaker 00

  And his experience in in the service and in life, he didn't get the evangelic G. I. Bill.

• 51:01Speaker 02

  Mm.

• 51:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:02Speaker 00

  Because he was black. But

• 51:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:04Speaker 00

  he went on and did it anyway.

• 51:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:06Speaker 00

  And um and that to me is is what I would tell young Robert.

• 51:12Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  Mm.

• 51:12Speaker 00

  Slow down, watch, be strategic.

• 51:15Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 51:16Speaker 00

  Don't try to win every battle.

• 51:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, I don't know if you guys play football. I'll tell you a really quick story.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:23Speaker 00

  So uh running back, I was, you know, I was short, but m had great balance. And um so it was hard to bring down. And I rushed to get to the hole. Rushed to get the hole.

• 51:35Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 51:36Speaker 00

  And uh my coach told me one day, slow down, man. You can't see the hole. He said, I'm gonna teach you how to do this. He said, instead of going straight for the hole, take a lateral step

• 51:48Speaker 00

  and give that guard a moment to pull.

• 51:50Speaker 02

  Mm.

• 51:51Speaker 00

  And he will move out of the way the individual that hits you every time.

• 51:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 51:57Speaker 00

  And that happened and all of a sudden that little crevice I was trying to g go through now became this big white space that I didn't even have to dip. Just went straight through that.

• 52:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:08Speaker 00

  And that's that's what I'm talking about. That patience.

• 52:10Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. Progress is intentionally slow.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  Yeah, it is.

• 52:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  That gets me fired up.

• 52:15Speaker 02

  I love that. Well,

• 52:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:16Speaker 02

  do we have any like rapid fired like Richmond questions we want to ask

• 52:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, I say we'll uh we'll ask a couple fun questions and we always ask uh um a couple questions to end the show. And so fun questions. We talked a little bit about this before um before we got on air, but restaurant wise. You're in Church Hill. I mean Churchill has some unbelievable restaur and Richmond in general. Yeah.

• 52:19Speaker 02

  about?

• 52:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:36Speaker 00

  It

• 52:36Speaker 01

  Unbelievable.

• 52:37Speaker 00

  it is an incredible food town. Incredible food town. So I'm gonna be I'm gonna take the safe road. So I'll I'll explain like this. My wife and I were talking about this over the weekend. And and what it is is we have date night. So date night is all about what do we want to try today? And is it is it Chinese, is it Thai? Is it some flavor that we have no idea what it was?

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 53:02Speaker 00

  We we did Italian the other day at a place um foul in Gooshelin that was a lot of fun. Um th there pla there's a place in Churchill that I go when my wife travels out of town and I just like to sit at the bar, have a bourbon or a beer.

• 53:17Speaker 02

  Oh

• 53:18Speaker 00

  And a great sandwich. Um, and um, you

• 53:18Speaker 02

  yeah.

• 53:23Speaker 00

  know, so I like exploring stuff. Um, you know, I I my wife is a great preparer of food. I'm learning how in in in my um latter years.

• 53:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:34Speaker 00

  And and and so if there's a restaurant that we venture into, it's all about date night.

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:43Speaker 00

  And you know, I like bourbon. I like scotch as my first drink, but I love bourbon. My wife is a what I would call a wine cousure and she's me to understand wine.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  Red wine?

• 53:55Speaker 00

  She prefers red, but she will she she runs the gamut and

• 53:59Speaker 01

  Let's say whatever.

• 53:59Speaker 00

  she she she knows it all. And uh, you know, I admire that in her. And um I was having an old fashioned the other day and she tasted it and said, Ooh, I might like this. I'm like, come to the wild side.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  Yeah yeah. Yeah.

• 54:16Speaker 00

  Come to the wild side. So the that you know, restaurants and food in Richmond are great.

• 54:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:21Speaker 00

  Um it's a you know, museums are great here. Um you know, just neighborhoods are great here.

• 54:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:27Speaker 00

  It's just a it's a fun place to explore adventure. Uh my exercise these days is less running and hitting things and more walking.

• 54:34Speaker 01

  Yeah. Walking around and

• 54:36Speaker 00

  And it it's fun to drive to a

• 54:38Speaker 01

  the block with grandchildren.

• 54:39Speaker 00

  there you go.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  There you go.

• 54:40Speaker 00

  And uh uh it's fun to drive to a different neighborhood and just walk the neighborhood.

• 54:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:44Speaker 00

  And just just see how different it is.

• 54:47Speaker 01

  If you weren't running child savers, which you have been for a long time, if you weren't doing that, what would Robert Bowling be doing?

• 54:54Speaker 00

  You know, I've I've got this um I'm learning a lot about um um finance and financial institutions and building small economies. Uh I would like to do some work like that around the world to help um develop small economies around the world so that people can be employed, will be entrepreneurs, and support their families.

• 55:16Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 55:17Speaker 00

  That to me would be a game changer.

• 55:20Speaker 01

  That's awesome.

• 55:20Speaker 00

  Game changer.

• 55:21Speaker 01

  Maybe maybe maybe you will.

• 55:22Speaker 02

  I know. Yeah, yeah.

• 55:25Speaker 01

  Maybe you will after a couple bourbons.

• 55:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Might need to ask you some bourbon recommendations. That's great. I know. Yeah, yeah. That's great. Um, should we do our question from

• 55:38Speaker 01

  The last two?

• 55:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we'll we'll do let's do a nonprofit one that we'll wrap it up.

• 55:42Speaker 02

  So uh part of our show is you know, a lot of the guests we ask um is there a certain nonprofit that they want to give a shout out to that they support? Because we like to make a small gift to that nonprofit. So we're gonna safely assume that we would like to give a shout out to Child Savers. So as from the Richmond Leadership Lab, we're having to make a small contribution for that. If if people did want to also give to Child Savers or come and support you guys, how could they do that?

• 56:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's it's uh thanks for that question because it helps me do my job. So the the first part is you can visit our website, childsavers.org. Um very similar is a little red button in the corner says donate. So you can hit that button if you want to give um give. But if you want to uh learn more about who we are, um you can um call us at 804 644 9590 and and say, Hey, I'm interested in what you do. Can I do a tour? We'll be happy to provide a tour um and and to tell you more about who we are and and why that mission I talked about earlier is so important for the work that we do.

• 56:50Speaker 02

  That's great.

• 56:51Speaker 00

  So we would love to have you come.

• 56:53Speaker 02

  Awesome.

• 56:53Speaker 01

  I would love to see it.

• 56:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:55Speaker 00

  Please do.

• 56:55Speaker 02

  It's the best view. People probably have seen the building, but they don't know what that's what it is. It's like it's the building that truly overlooks all of downtown at the top of that hill on Churchill. And like you get a lot of people coming, I'm sure getting lunch, or I've had friends like propose there and

• 57:10Speaker 00

  Yeah

• 57:11Speaker 02

  that that overlook is just amazing.

• 57:13Speaker 00

  graduation photos, all that kind of stuff. And um in the spring, in April, we'll be doing a another fundraiser called Supper at Sunset. So keep an ear out for that.

• 57:25Speaker 02

  Awesome.

• 57:25Speaker 00

  It's and it's a meal on the back lawn overlooking the city

• 57:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:29Speaker 00

  at sunset. It's an exciting

• 57:31Speaker 01

  With a couple bottles of wine by the wife.

• 57:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 57:37Speaker 00

  or specialty.

• 57:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I like that. Yeah, yeah.

• 57:40Speaker 00

  Um but it's uh we we would love for folks to learn a lot. Just a little thing about the building, it was um built it was designed by an architect Philip Johnson, who designed two buildings in Virginia and Chelsea was is one of them, and he designed it out of concrete, he was an early technologist. And so our w shapes of our windows are in the old punch card for those folks who uh knew and uh it's a pretty solid place. He said this place will never be blown away.

• 58:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:08Speaker 00

  He's probably right. It's a lot of concrete.

• 58:11Speaker 01

  You know where we're going.

• 58:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's a lot of concrete

• 58:13Speaker 01

  If something happens, we're going there.

• 58:15Speaker 00

  storm we go down in the basement. We're sick.

• 58:17Speaker 02

  Yeah. Exactly.

• 58:18Speaker 01

  We'll go there. Um, last question we ask all of our guests is by uh the Virginia Council of CEOs here in Richmond. And that question, and you alluded to it earlier, uh, with surrounding yourself with good people, but how do you, as a CEO, it can be lonely at the top? How do you combat that or deal with it?

• 58:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, thank thanks. Uh and and I I really appreciate that question because you're you're absolutely right. And it uh to find your peer group. And um for for me it was difficult in this job because there were n at the time that I started, there were not a lot of African Americans in the space.

• 58:55Speaker 02

  Right.

• 58:55Speaker 00

  So how do you best combat that? You start one. And so we started an organization called African American Nonprofit Leaders. And we we come together to help each other just breathe, is what we call it. But we also come together to think about how can we prepare the next level of leaders um in in in Greater Richmond. And and that's exciting for me. We've gotten support from the funding community that says, yes, this is an important investment. So that that's one way. Um I read a lot. And and that really helps me. I read um I read about decision making and what drives people to to to make the decisions that they do, uh, good or bad.

• 59:40Speaker 00

  But it's it's important to to do that. Um I read about Um I like to read autobiographies. Um because it really is the voice of the individual. I I I went back and read um I read a book that I hadn't read in a long time. Um and it it was War and Peace.

• 1:00:03Speaker 00

  I read that I read that in high school. And it took me a while to read it again. But it just just thinking about how people were writing and thinking. Uh I James Baldwin is one of my favorite writers. So I I I r read a lot of this the characters that he talks about. I like to I like really developed characters who are telling a story about themselves and the world around them. Um you know, so that as a leader, it's that kind of stuff that helps me. You know, I I if there's an article on a successful leader, I'll try to read something about that. I listen to podcasts.

• 1:00:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, hey,

• 1:00:42Speaker 00

  Um

• 1:00:43Speaker 01

  this one.

• 1:00:43Speaker 00

  so it's It it that's the way I'd sort of take care of myself. And um I I've got a rule when I come in the house and my wife and I developed this as we were both working professionals. She's now retired. Um but the first fifteen minutes, no work. It's decompression time.

• 1:01:05Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:01:05Speaker 00

  And it's it's it's it's a it's a great thing because you walk in, you know, you can just sit on the sofa for a minute or two, that fifteen minutes, and and just relax.

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:16Speaker 00

  And then you can have a conversation about it.

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  That's a good break.

• 1:01:19Speaker 00

  It's a nice break.

• 1:01:20Speaker 02

  That's

• 1:01:20Speaker 00

  It's a nice break.

• 1:01:20Speaker 01

  That's a good one.

• 1:01:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, well Robert, if people want to get in touch with you, how could they do that? Um

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  Um my my email is rbowling at childsavers.org. Uh but you can reach out to me. Uh that number, 804-644-9590. You can give a call and and they will connect you to me. And

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  You can run what you can't hide.

• 1:01:42Speaker 00

  no, I cannot hide. I I I love this town. Um it's it's it's the town of my birth, but also the town of my life. My children were raised here. I met my bride here. Um my siblings and I have great memories. We often think about our parents and what would they do and what would they think of us and uh it's it's kind of a cool place to grow up and be a part of.

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  We're honored to have you.

• 1:02:04Speaker 00

  And thank you so much.

• 1:02:06Speaker 01

  Yeah,

• 1:02:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:06Speaker 02

  it's been great Robert. Thank you again for coming. We've learned a lot and uh really appreciate it. So thanks for joining us today.

• 1:02:12Speaker 00

  Absolutely. Absolutely.

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  yeah.