Dr Obom Bowen

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Website: theobmastermind.com

Show Notes

Robert Peterson 0:13
Dr. Bowen, we're so excited to have you here on the show today, it just can't wait to share your journey and experience with our audience. So typically, we started show with just our guests sharing their own entrepreneurial journey.

Dr Obom Bowen 2:08
Oh, wow. Well, thank you. And it's first of all, it's a pleasure to be on here connected with you all. And Sharon to I don't even know where to start with my entrepreneurial journey. But I guess if, if we're starting, it should go from the beginning. Right? I have to say, or I should say, I'm the last of 13. Kids. Wow. Right. So started off, there's 12 Boys, one girl. And I mean, that alone tells you what my parents were doing a lot of in the 60s and 70s. So as the last of 13 kids for a while. And I was born in Guyana in South America. So we we kind of have to struggle on our own for a while. So at age seven, I was like an entrepreneur, like full out entrepreneur, I was that kid that found a penny, shined it up, and punch a hole in it, put string through it and sold it for five bucks. So I learned value really fast. And then, you know, in order to grow, I had a bunch of friends. And I realized I said, I'll give you guys like a percentage to help sell some. And then I realized like, man, we really didn't structure this one out, right, because they became my competition and was doing what I was doing. And then they were just doing it by themselves. So I got creative. And I started weaving the threads, the bands and the color of the guy, nice flag, and so on differently. So instead of selling for $5, I would sell them for seven. So then I learned how to differentiate myself in the marketplace. Now, granted, I didn't know that then it was just, you know, the best way to stay ahead. But I learned that later on it was differentiating yourself. And the other thing I learned is if you can be copy, you will be copied, you know so then my parents came to the United States. We emigrated it took about 11 years total to bring the whole family over so if you know anything about one year

Robert Peterson 4:14
per kid that was there,

Dr Obom Bowen 4:17
that's what we did a two by two. What's crazy is ideally when you set a goal for anything, which is this is so relatable entrepreneurship, right? You set a goal to get whatever that financial goal is maybe like two three years, but it takes eight or nine to get there. So that's what happened with us it we set out the goal. It's gonna get the whole family up to the United States in about three to five years tops 11 years later was what had happened.

Robert Peterson 4:48
Yeah, it's a it's a broken system that very few people understand at any level.

Dr Obom Bowen 4:55
You know, and even though it was it was a little broken there. I still do Still squeaked through, got it in. I became an American citizen was one of my first crowning achievements right, joined the Marine Corps joined the military spend 20 years there it got my citizenship.

Robert Peterson 5:14
Well, first and foremost, semper fi, thank you for your service.

Dr Obom Bowen 5:18
Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.

Robert Peterson 5:23
Yeah, the Marine Corps was Marine Corps was good to me. Because before, before leaving for boot camp, I'd never flown on a plane. And now I've now I've been to 32 different countries, not first, the first nine of those were compliments of the government. So I appreciate the Marine Corps creating that opportunity. But definitely, my wife and I spent 10 years down close by you. We lived in Bogota, Colombia for 10 years as missionaries. Right. Well, we we have a little familiarity with the whole immigration and naturalization from the opposite kid entrepreneurs. From the opposite side. Yeah, we our kids couldn't have lemonade stands. But but they they've done their fair share of turning things into jewelry or, you know, wrapping a leather swath around a little arrow shaped rock. And there you go, right.

Dr Obom Bowen 6:20
Love it. Well, thank you for your service to brother appreciate you and Semper Fidelis yourself.

Robert Peterson 6:25
Absolutely. Thank you. So obviously, your family immigrated to United States. And then what was what was next for you?

Dr Obom Bowen 6:34
Oh, for me, well, I want to jump pass the the first version, but I'm just going to be open for you. Because you said what was next to me what was next for me was going back to school and getting a degree here in the United States. That is a college. But I was a very witty, very sharp kid, right. So I graduated high school at 13. And Guyana, came here to the United States. And at age 13. They were like, that's like middle school age. So and then they put me back through middle school. And when I finished high school and guy and I learned trigonometry and all this other stuff, and they were putting me back to their introduction to algebra. So I was always like, this is not gonna work. And eventually, I got put into like testing. So I tested out of junior high in like three weeks. And they sent me to high school. Then same thing I tested out of the ninth grade test, and out of the 10th grade, I said out of the 11th grade. By this time, I'm like America is so stupid. Right? You have to understand at the time I was 1415 years old now, right? So like America, so stupid. I was doing all this stuff. So I had this attitude. And then I started getting into trouble. So I got kicked out of like every decent high school into the worst high school I got even expelled from that at the time in New York called Erasmus Hall that like folks from New York when I tell them that story now they're like, bro, you got kicked out of Erasmus, like you would bat and like, anyways, I got expelled from Erasmus. And my mom brought me down south to Georgia. I went to high school there, and I promise you, I was not trying to get into trouble the very first day. I got into a fight. Okay. That's cool. Here's here's what's crazy. I was minding my own business and sitting down in class, literally, I really was I was being a good kid. And I wonder if you remember those high school chairs that had the little measures at the bottom where you put your books, right? So I was putting my foot on that chair, I'm sitting in the second row first day, and this girl was sitting up front pretty girl, and my foot was on the metal. She said nothing was no problem. Now after that period, I'm going around to my locker to get my to exchange the books. And all I heard was yep, that's him. So I don't know if it's me on older talking about but apparently she told her boyfriend I had my foot on her chair and he had a few choice words to say. And I introduced him to chemistry that book to his nose and broke it. Now, backing up for a second she was the head cheerleader and he was the quarterback for the football team, of course. So after breaking his nose like a Hallmark movie, oh, yeah, totally what so after breaking his nose, my introduction now to the guidance counselor's and Principal's office says that I was going to be suspended from school as long as he was suspended from playing football, which was about three weeks. That punishment had to fit the crime so I was learning and getting information from school and home, whatever. And then my mom says, I don't know what it is to do it you she was talking to someone who told her is a great I better idea to put them into martial arts. So I got into martial arts, which taught me discipline and really was that like, greatest idea. We couldn't really afford the lessons more than like three months. But I was really taken to martial arts and the sensei. My mom was negotiating with the Sensei, and he says, You know what, I'll, we'll take care of him because he knew what was happening with me in school. And what he did was in exchange for tuition to learn. I was at the studio early and left legs, I was cleaning up, I was doing all this other stuff. And I basically had about six to eight classes a day, the ones that I was cleaning up for, I was warming up for them. But when you think about it, I had almost about four hours of instruction a day, and then cleaning up the dojo and all this other stuff. And within like 18 months, I was a black belt, still all this stuff. I was discipline, right. And so that led to by the time I left, I joined the Marine Corps at 17. Right, so and then the Marine Corps gave me what more discipline, and more martial arts and all this other stuff. And then, you know, 20 years later, I began my journey of being an entrepreneur, but even in the military, I always had something else I was doing on the side as an entrepreneur. I remember out of you remember, probably early 90s, you were still pressing camis and shot, spit shine and boots. So when I came from Guyana, we used to press our school uniforms and did the same stuff. Marines in the barracks used to pay me to press their uniforms, and shine their boots, do laundry, most folks used to laugh at me. But by the end of that first year, I had about $70,000 in my bank account. Wow. So I also you know, you know, the old phraseology, you fly by Marines, you say like, basically they give you money to go to the store, you shop for them and come back and then I'll you know, take $5 Do some for yourself. So I would do that as often as I can. And I didn't smoke or drink, and I wasn't even old enough to drink. But I did learn that every time we went to the field, marines wanted beef, jerky, Scholes sodas, all this stuff. So I would load up my pack with all that stuff. And I would sell it to them for basically $5 A cigarette instead of $5 a pack. And I would come back if I took five packs of cigarettes, which only cost like 20 bucks, I would come back with $500 Just from cigarettes, right? So I mean, it's just so many things and my entrepreneurial journey and I just learned what was valuable what was missing in the marketplace, finding that void and filling it for a profit.

Robert Peterson 13:07
That's so, so good. I would have had a little conflict of interest there because I was actually a Marine Corps exchange marine so I ran for the government sake and not for my own.

Dr Obom Bowen 13:21
It worked out really good as an infantry guy, right, so we went to the field I mean at one time what made it even good and then I got in trouble a little bit so when I went to Humvee school and started driving and had to go back to pick up Chow, man I would make a PX run and bought a whole bunch of stuff and I had a then you know, you would get this I would buy like the maxim magazines and all the other stuff for the guys and go sell those so they can be entertained while they were in the field. Right? So I was very creative and whatever the need was, I would fill it

Robert Peterson 13:56
that's that's pretty awesome. So So let's dig into underdog millionaire. And tell us tell us a little bit more about your journey into this new world.

Dr Obom Bowen 14:07
Yeah, so really to tell the underdog story got a backup for a second so my my wife who you guys met earlier and I we've built about over 112 different companies and sold them we still have a companies of our own and I have about 208 different business partnerships that we split profits way but when COVID hit because two things happen that made me really launched underdog millionaire one of them my wife and I was working out we always dressed in workout apparel or something because workout chill it's the marine me sales like PT gear. So that feeling whatever. So, and we right now we're professional homeless people so we're always at a resort somewhere in a warm country or a warm state. So it's always that feeling Once I'm done, I can go jump in the pool and do whatever. So we go down to the car dealership. My wife didn't need a car. But I did make her a promise years ago, I said, I'm always gonna give you a safe car because that was one of her prerequisites, like she wanted a safe car. to backup with that a bit when she was younger driving a car with her mom, the brakes went out and they almost got into a horrific accident. And it was it was something that was traumatic for us as that was one of my sales pitch. I'm like, listen to me, we got married, I'm always gonna keep you in a safe car. So, you know, every two and a half to three years doesn't matter whether we drive the car or not what I'll always go get a new car. So we went to look to see walked into the dealership looking like this. They don't know who I am, what I do what my financial situation is, but they prejudged right. So what was crazy walk past the guy who was literally the top salesman, the number one salesman in that dealership who just kind of looked at me and scaffold like, whatever. No one really paid attention, except for the new kid that had just started really the underdog in that space, right? And he came up and we're talking because he needs a sale. So he'll come and attack and approach us. And it was at a Lexus dealership. So we've already at the time probably been buying Lexus for about 1012 years, they don't know. So we understand the whole floor, how it operates. When I went over to go grab a cookie, they always have nice warm cookies at that dealership where we were so and mine is chocolate chip. Well, my wife has chocolate chip, and I'm oatmeal. Right? So I want to grab me some, some not one, three, nice big oatmeal. He's walking around, right? Looking at the cars. Long story short, we got to the point and I'm like, You know what? Let's see if we can just probably at least started the process with getting the car that she liked at that time was like, Oh, we can come back tomorrow and get it. So give me more information runs a credit. Who comes out with the paperwork and the Clipboard is Mr. Number one salesman Oh, Mr. Bowen, you know, we see it. And I was like, listen, first of all stop. As I walked in here, you looked at me and scoffs like, I was nothing. But now you just ran and so my credit scores and 800. So you know, I'm here to buy a car. But you want the commission, I was like, I'll tell you, if the sale happens today, this kid's gonna get the commission, you're gonna sit down, you're going to train with us as we learn here, but you're gonna, if I buy a car, he's gonna get the Commission on this one. And then it's, it's not like Nope, that is what it is. Because if I walked in here with a suit, you would have talked to me. So that just irked me so bad. Like I didn't want want. I don't like to see people being taken advantage of right. And I think it's the Marina maybe just know, right? I wanted to punch him in the two. Anyways. Leave that alone. So yeah, not that I'm still in violence on the show. However. It just happened. I don't know how to I don't know how his nose broke. But it just so happened that Marines are like no better friend. No worse enemies just don't crosses and you know that right? So long story short, that kind of sit with me. It was like right, just before COVID was starting and COVID happen. And about eight months through it, the world got turned upside down. As we all knew that everybody was trying to figure out how to do things online. I'd already had four of my businesses that was doing online business, and we've done well with it. And I wanted to launch a program that helped folks to build a business a coaching business or be a speaker whatever online and trying to figure out the name was stuff at first I was gonna do undercover millionaire underdog millionaire or undercover millionaire router. And it just sounded so great because I had saw the show like undercover billionaire with Grant Cardone, which is just starting out. And so I'm like, alright, that's what we're gonna run with. Send everything over to my attorney. And the teams that have come back and they're like, Dr. Roe. Yeah, you'll probably end up getting sued because somebody's already using that some like, I don't know what I'm gonna use. And we the name changed a few times, but then I realized I've always been the underdog. And that kid was he kept ringing him so I don't like people overlooking the underdog, but I've always been one. Because I'm not this flashy person. Look at my bike, look at my car. Look, my district my dad, I'm more of I can do it and get it if I want it. But that's not the temperature of my character, the temperature of my characters like I have, I can do it doesn't mean I have to flaunt it in your face. So I said, You know what, I got it. The underdog millionaire. And for us, the underdog is not necessarily the person who's losing is just that person that's got the pressure to go to the next level, but they just, they'll do whatever it takes within reason not you know jeopardizing their moral character or anything like that, to be that person that never stops, to be that person that was always will be in growth. And I created my own definition of growth that says growth is that thing that you consistently do to remove yourself from your current comfort zone, like that's the underdog, they will always do what is necessary to get to the next level, right without compromising their values or anything like that. So underdog Millionaire was was born. And what I did is I said, Alright, I'm really going to take down the dog journey. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm only going to give myself $1,000 to build a multimillion dollar business, and I'm not going to use any money for my other businesses, I'm really going to just build it like the underdog. So we went out. And within the first like, 90 days, we generated over like 100. And I think it's 135 grand in business. Now, we took a lot of that money reinvested it into the brand, the logo, all the things that you need to do. So we really only took like, maybe 10% of the profits for us and the other 90% was to put into the brand and build it. And then we started, I was already used to doing like live events and stuff like that. So we rebranded everything I used to do, and now underdog is my legacy brand. So of all the companies that I built, and I do bill, typically, I will split either a 1030 or 50% partnership. This one is a 50% partnership with my CEO, who runs the day to day, but this is one of the first businesses and it's been almost three years now typically, within three to five years, I'll turn it over to the CEOs. And that skill I actually learned for the Marine Corps, right left seat right seat, always training somebody to replace you. So it's done very well for me, but we're underdog. This is the legacy. So even though I can walk away, I'm not going to because this is kind of the life, it helps me to identify with that Devil Dog, if you may inside of me to just go ravenously after what I want. So that's the underdog story.

Robert Peterson 22:15
So tell us a little bit more about this $1,000 business that you built, what what kind of business did you build? What What were you doing for the first, those first 90 days

Dr Obom Bowen 22:26
that so for the first 90 days, one of the things I did is I launched a private Facebook group, with everyone who kind of identified with that concept. So we started to build a culture around it. It's up to close to like 500 folks in there now and I was sharing with them, here's the deal, I'm going to give you guys a chance to look over my shoulder for the first year that was like two and a half years ago, to see everything that I'm doing. I'm going to offer some ridiculous partnership offers with folks to partner and joint venture and generate money together because the whole goal is to build a whole new community. And because at the time in the beginning with $1,000, I couldn't afford to run ads or do any of that stuff, right? So it's straight up guerilla marketing, guerrilla tactics, sharing content in the group every single day, when we get someone who would have joined a program, we would share where they were, what they were doing, how we're helping them, and give everyone kind of like a behind the scenes look at what's going on inside the group. The purpose of it was to use the group to educate to share and eventually convert as a client. Right. So we started that. And within the first I think it was like six months, we got about eight or nine members from the community itself. So it was just being able to kind of like that piston engine just working really, really good. And I started going out to other events and speaking and sharing what I was doing. We had a lot of folks who started joining the community joining a group and Sharon. And as I went out to speak at other events, I would get maybe a client Heraklion Darren it started to grow and started to grow and started growing larger and larger than we launched our first live event about 90 days after that happen. And from that live event, we had some phenomenal testimonials of people that go back. It's called our outcomes and breakthrough mastermind, which I've been doing for years. But now I add in the business twist to it, which is the core of the underdog message. And then things just started taking off. Within I think it's about month nine or 10 We broke another vote we broke another six figures for us. But we helped was the first 41234 new brands develop that were clients. Right so we had a few folks that fell off the wagon, but we had four within the first year who actually build your business build their brand, that now has a six closest seven figure business that they're building. So the concept was proofed, right. So we proved the concept, it was great the first year, then we took a lot of that income, and then we went to a complete rebrand of what the whole company would look like the logo that is there now became the final logo, we build our mission and vision statement rebranded into everything that it is today, not forgetting in a sense whence we came from. But then we really developed who our target audience were, because it's a high ticket program. Our target clients are really now those who are building a business that might be stuck. And going to the next level, whether that's seven figures, or eight figures, to really just give them everything that they need to get there from the idea to the conceptualization of eight figures, or seven figures, wherever they're at, right, for a lot of entrepreneurs, they'll launch with an idea or business, but it doesn't really resonate in that heart space of, listen, this is why I'm really doing this. This is who I'm really doing it for. And this is what they're getting. So we help them to really just put those things in centerline to them. To be honest with you it's taking, you'll be familiar with this, it's taking the five paragraph order from the Marine Corps, right, and putting that into business concepts and text to make it very simple, and sticky for the entrepreneurs so that they can build a business that will last. And then we teach them to build culture. Basically, we're teaching them do exactly what we do. But for their business, and being able to give them a blueprint to model it. Lots of folks love it. My gift has always been taking the complicated and making it simple. So we've just kind of really dumbed it down for folks so they can understand and digest it in bite sized pieces to really build and scale their business. And along that process, I've been partnering with the right people. To help us skill, one of the last pieces we were missing was like the online piece. So I just actually did a joint venture partnership that we're finishing the inking of that deal right now where our business clients help coaches that are already doing, say 50k a month to scale and do six figure days, right, so their whole process is building it online. We are in the offline space. So now we offer both online and offline to help folks build a seven and eight figure business using online marketing.

Noelle Peterson 28:33
You've talked a lot about your wife and how you guys work together. And it's it's fun working together and doing things and great adventure. How has running a business together impacted your relationship?

Dr Obom Bowen 28:45
So men? Well, we were my wife and I started running businesses together. It was a lot easier to do that way. But I have to back up from when it first started. So we when we met it was in the direct sales industry like network marketing. So I was building a network marketing business that my wife ended up joining. She was on someone else's organization at the time I was one of the top producers, right. And then we started courting were friends for a while and then eventually got married. But we worked out a lot of the rough things of what happens in business. Like for example, we worked from home, the greatest thing about working from home is that you're working from home. The worst thing about working from home is that you're working from home. Right so in the beginning when we were like a multiple six figures, we were good to go. It was awesome. I got up my commute was upstairs to downstairs into my office and was great. And at this time the baby wasn't there. So we have four kids. There's my son is 32. Our older daughters are now 23 and 21. And the baby is four so before the baby in that gap, the big ones were there. It would just be the two of us. So my wife would come downstairs, and she would come down in some lingerie. And I would just pause the call for a second. And we would take some wonderful honey do time, right? Before you know it, I would miss two or three calls. And then business started going downhill, right. And you know why business was going downhill because because we weren't having some extracurricular activity whenever she would come down to play and have fun, and then it will turn into cuddle time. And I'm not as productive. So I have to learn that lesson the hard way, like, bro, money's going downhill because you're doing extracurricular activity with your wife. It's all good. But there's a time and place for that, right? So we started learning those things. And then my wife started focusing more on hey, you know what, I prefer to be out of the spotlight. So we started working in our strengths. So I would would be to face and she would help support. And we had hired a chef once so they can cook for us and all this other stuff, so we can be productive. And then we started traveling a lot, and my wife had to do it, and we got back and she's like, well fired a chef. I'm gonna cook just pay me. I'm like, Okay, so my wife became the chef at home. It's important, right? It's so there was so much in that process that we learned how to work together. And about, it took us about two years to really figure that out, like, what's the sweet spot? And what can we do? How can we be effective. And it's like, now she just finished cooking. And she left. So like the lock the door. I mean, here are just with you guys. She's outside with my daughter, and chillin. But when I'm done today, like it's family time. So it took us like two years to figure that out. But whenever we're working together it is or if, for example, she's just gonna take off and not work together, and we start together, it's like a symmetry that we have never losed lost that rhythm and momentum with right. It's just, it's a beautiful thing to see and experience. I know you guys know it. But for us, it's like, when we get that chance, again, to just get in that rhythm of doing something. It's just, it's just, it's insane. Like, it just it turns me on, it really does like working with her just gets my juices going. And she's always been one of my greatest business advisors. I also learned how amazing my wife was just like three months before we had the baby. So the seven companies we had then we started them together. So she was helping me run all seven of them. And then my wife said, three months before the baby was born, she's like, Babe, I, I just want to be a mom. So you can take care of the businesses. And I'm like, yeah, no problem, I'll get a CEO or hire a CEO, and they'll just take over and do what you're doing. Nobody could do it. I literally had to hire seven people to replace her. And now realize like, Oh, dang, girl, you bad. So I realized how good she really was that. And then she's like, Yeah, you should have been paying me seven times more than he was before. Like, I get so.

Robert Peterson 33:18
That's so good. So one of the things that we help entrepreneurs start to envision and see is that they can design the life and lifestyle that they want. They can design their definition of wealth, right? What what does success mean to them, and then they can build the business to support it. Around happened shouldn't happen the other way around. Tell us about your story and how you've been able to maintain the lifestyle that you want, because you called yourself professionally homeless.

Dr Obom Bowen 33:45
Yeah, well, professionally homeless now. So we love to travel both my wife and I and obviously the military is gotten like that travel bug I got bit when I was in the Marine Corps like you by the time I was 23, because I joined at 17. I had already been to 38 different countries. Thank you, Uncle Sam. Right. And a lot of them were Asian, Asian countries. And I've always wanted to get back to the Caribbean my first duty station, worst duty station ever in the history. Hawaii thought that was the best, right? You try. You try sending an 18 year old to Hawaii and you got no parents to oversee you. You'll go crazy. And I almost did, but it was it was beautiful. So we always love traveling. So when COVID happened, obviously the whole world got shut down. And we were just like foaming at the mouth to get out and travel again. And the moment we were able to we started traveling a lot traveling, traveling travel, and we're homeschooling our four year old right now. What's crazy was just before COVID And we were trying to get the paperwork to do that and it was so hard to do to get the permission to do that from the state of Georgia. COVID happened and all of a sudden no homeschooling is the best thing ever said sliced bread. So we're like, yes, we'll take that. And before you guys change your mind, we sold a house. And for the past, however long, that's what I've been doing, I bought a lifestyle plan. And for the next 20 years, that's the goal professionally homeless, so I have to be nowhere except where I'm at. And it's then an all inclusive lifestyle. So, except for like weeks like these, when the baby just wants to feel like, she's home, and she wants some food for my wife to cook, we'll go stay at a resort, like this one where there's a nice kitchen, and we chill, and we eat and cook. And now we'll go back to the all inclusive lifestyle. So we've been spending a lot of time in the Caribbean in Mexico, because they're just laid down with some of the greatest all inclusive retreats in in your life. It's all you can drink all you can eat top shelf, my wife doesn't have to cook to clean or do anything like that, except when the baby wants it. Right. So professionally, homeless, I enjoy it. But what it does is it gives me the opportunity to be a little more productive, because when that happens, my wife gets to spend more time with what our daughter, I mean, if you think about if you get rid of cooking and cleaning, and not have to worry about getting your favorite drink, you don't have to go to a bar to get it. You can get it done every day. And there's 24 hour room service. Yeah, you get a lot of time. So we've always wanted that lifestyle. And we've worked towards it for a while. My wife and I kind of experimented with it in 2015 to like 2017 We did 18 months we traveled we cruise, we did all this other stuff. And we learned from that. Here's what we learned from that, though, Robert, we learned that you have to set goals to work out. Because when you live in room service for a very long time, you meaning me would put on about 47 pounds, and that's what happened to me. And then we got back and did insanity for like six months to get in shape because Whoo, boy that was not comfortable.

Robert Peterson 37:09
This

Dr Obom Bowen 37:11
Oh, if you guys are debating? That's a tough question.

Noelle Peterson 37:13
Ah Oh, my eyes are bugging out. So it's so

Robert Peterson 37:20
what's been the impact of writing your book?

Dr Obom Bowen 37:23
Wow, wow. So I've written four books. The fourth one I'm releasing, it's already done. But we're releasing it in in June. And that's the one this is why Christians are broke. Right. So going backwards. The first book, The philosophy of success, was I went through a very tough time in my life. And so my wife now is my second wife. I was married before that didn't work out so well. And, man, it was tough. I actually ended up homeless, this this that one was involuntary, right? So I was homeless living out of my car for five years. And now I'm on the other side of success doing the exact same thing as where it anyways. We lived out of the car for a while and realize to all that struggle and suffering and everything I was doing, I have to change my mindset, or basically, I have to change my philosophy. So what I noticed is that your philosophies, what you know, how you hold it, and how it affects what you do. So I had to change that. And that's why I call that book the philosophy of success. Because at the time, we had just gotten to like building a multiple six figure business in the direct sales industry. And because we already had, like a good reach, we were able to sell about 72,000 copies of that book. So it changed a lot of people's lives. And that really put me into a place like oh my gosh, I actually have something to say, worth value, right to folks. And my wife. Now we both agree because the first relationship didn't work out. Well, that says Listen, we're gonna go to relationship retreats once a quarter, so for a year, and we're going to read relationship books together, like we're gonna do this together. So we read over 300 relationship books. And it's just developed a way of communicating and doing life that was attracted to a lot of folks at the same time still in that same company. And a lot of the ladies whenever I would train or teach just the natural way of speaking and sharing and spending time and doing business with my wife would come out in there. They would say like Obama, you, you need to teach this to a lot of men, you need to write a book about that. So then we wrote the other book, right called Passion 365. How do we ignite lasting joy in your relationship? 365 days basically. Right? So it was a great book, and then my wife didn't like chapter 10 Because it talked about so while we dated and And then I'll tell you why she didn't like to pretend. We were friends and dated and all this for seven years and never even did the hanky panky. Right. So chapter 10 was very explicit on what happened the night after we got married. And then she didn't really like that chapter. But a lot of people appreciated it. Okay. So we saw about 125,000 copies of that. So those first two books like shifted stuff for me and change in so many lives. And then we launched our relationship company, which we still have to this day called Global fairytale. And then, you know, my third book, today's today is kind of like my core philosophy that was being able to take biblical principles, business relationship, all this sort of stuff. Because I am a behaviorist, I do have a PhD in human behavior and psychology, I put all those things together, I have a doctorate in theology. So I put everything together how humans really behave in 14 major chapters to nine, probably about 11 of them, we grow subconsciously, and we're not aware of. So when I basically brought all that to the surface. So people can understand that today's the day was the name of the book, because I was sick and tired of my life, when things happen, and I was like, my whole mantra was, today's the day, I'm gonna do this. There's no more putting off for tomorrow. It's today's today, I'm gonna do this today, today, today. So I wrote that book. And the 15th chapter is all about how you put it together and help other people become successful. So it's not just about you, it's what you do to bring value to others. And that became the foundation of now what we teach for underdog. So like our events, like the next one we're doing in June, we take folks through the book. So within a weekend, you get about 18 years of my crazy learning and everything else, and you walk out leaving with a master's degree equivalent of human behavior to go build your business and your life Nice.

Noelle Peterson 41:53
With all the success you've had in life, what is your is your biggest challenge?

Dr Obom Bowen 41:58
Ah, now, I've had many challenges along the way, it's like, so my biggest challenge right now is standing in my own way, right? Because you kind of accomplished so much, sometimes to get comfortable. So I'm putting myself in the position. So for lack of a better words, bringing it back down will be comfort, right? So then the reason why I created the definition of growth, which is growth is that thing that you consistently do to get yourself out of your current comfort zone, right, because we had so much it's like, it's easy to get comfortable. And all this other stuff. So over the course of the last look, I'm finished with it, I'm so excited for myself, over the course of the last like four or five days. And we got here I came here to just kind of reset drinking a lot of water, because you don't like you got to travel and eat some of the best food in the world prepared by the best chefs, is that all this sort of stuff in but sometimes you just can't say no. Right? So when you just can't say no, you get comfortable around the stomach area. And, you know, growing up in the Marine Corps for 20 years, my abs were just right there, I didn't need a washing machine, I could have wash it on my own abs. But over the course of the last year, I've protected it with a layer of fat, and it's time to change that. So I've been drinking a lot more water during the sense that I need to do and get him back, you know, to release some of that weight. So over the course of the next two months, that's what we're focusing on. It's like, bro, you talk about this stuff all the time, you need to apply it. So that's like my biggest challenge is being able to step out of my current comfort zone because I can just don't mean I shouldn't do it. But before you know some of my challenges was being able to be open and be transparent with who I really was. So now I am 100% apologetically meat, right, there was a chance where I used to just be like so passive or timid, or I didn't want the marine to come out and get focused. Now. I don't really care. If you step on the Marines toes, you get bit. I might say, you know, hey, you stepped on my toes when the first time if you step on it again, you getting punched? Because I told you, right? So don't do it again. But you know, I think my our biggest challenge as a family now is really just kind of deciding what we want to do next, because we don't have to. It's like, hey, whatever you want. What do you want? What do you want? Oh, you know what, let's just go here. As a matter of fact, app change that scrub it, right? So it's really just going back to part of that original discipline of knowing what we want. So the goals we set now they're much bigger, and those are easy to get but it's it's like the little day to day things. And my focus now is like don't want to be that very fluffy guy. So

Noelle Peterson 45:00
Speaking of goals, what is your big dream?

Dr Obom Bowen 45:03
So, okay. So this is the reason why like those, sometimes your success can be even dangerous for you. So my wife and I had this 20 year goal we said 15 years ago, and it was to buy an island and build and all this other stuff, and had a deal, that's a deal junkie had a deal I couldn't really pass up, it was a phenomenal deal. This deal couldn't really pass up in November of last year, and we bought the island, it was five years ahead of time. So we bought the island three months after we made the decision to travel for the next 20 years. So there's like, well, I don't want to settle down and build. Hmm, what's the opportunity, so the opportunity was now we have a solar company that's going to build on a third of the land. And they're putting down to spend like $50 million to do stuff on the land, it's a large patch of land, they're building there. And there's another company we're looking at, that wants to build a resort on the land. So I'm using it now to be able to profit from it. But the end goal, as my name Bowen was originally a slave name came from the middle of Europe out in Ireland, and there's a 28 mile patch of land there that we're planning to buy now, and I'm gonna erase or eradicate that that ever happened. So like, that's the big goal. But the whole reason for that is not necessarily just for that is to buy something that I can leave for 100 year legacy for my family, and build and have something that is mine, that no one or no government can really tell me what to do. So I'm just gonna go be that disgruntled old man on my own island and rules. And if you don't want to come, then we'll put guns and shoot. Yeah. Right. So.

Robert Peterson 46:52
So I just want to touch briefly. And this may be where we, where we draw things together. But talk talk a little bit about your your next book, the books coming out in June. This is why Christians are broken, give us just give us a brief overview why that's so powerful.

Dr Obom Bowen 47:10
Yeah. Oh, man. So I wouldn't say the end of the journey. But where I am in the journey right now. Like, you start to realize, as you start to build and generate wealth, it starts to get around more of the work people will call the Frou Frou stuff, right? And realize that your faith in God takes a huge toll into and your belief system is a big part of building anything that you have. And in recent years, and especially when COVID head I just spent a lot of time inside internally, and talking and communicating with God. And he told me equip the saints like that's when I get here like equip the saints. And I always argued and fight and it's like, let's you don't fight with God, because you're gonna lose. And I almost told him like, that's what I'm doing. And then I realized what I was doing for the longest while was teaching biblical principles on how to build and generate wealth in business. And what I got as a revelation inside was, I'm not teaching it to his people, which is what he said, I need to teach it to his people, I was just teaching biblical principles to build wealth to everyone. And the book, this is why Christians are broke in truth is really to aggravate the spirit of the Christian community. Because with that name, the first thing I noticed, like the Jews are gonna say, right, it's about time somebody talks about it. Right? So they're gonna be excited about it to read it. Right, then you'll have the Muslims and everyone else in the Hindus would be like, Well, yeah, it's interesting, somebody is talking about it all the time. But the Christians are going to be like, Who are you who dare him to be at the top? So all I'm gonna do is tell them, Listen, don't just point a finger at me go pick up the book and see what it is. And once they read the book and see that it's substantive enough to answer the questions that they all had, all their lives, they're finally going to realize like, oh, my gosh, he gets this guy actually does have something to say he's not just bold, and it's going to help them. So it was to aggravate the Spirit. Then from that. We have also a kingdom Academy, which we're building. That's basically the precipice to build the kingdom Academy to start. That is the indoctrination, if you may of understanding why most of us, especially if you're into faith, have not been getting the successes we want. Because what most of the time when we think we're praying, we're not praying, we're begging, right? This is what you're doing. It's like Stop begging. If you have to ask for anything more than once you're begging. If you ask that means you're not exercising faith after the first time, because he says faith without work is that so if you're asking for it, and you're not going to work for it to these can't meet you in the middle, right? So God says Ask, seek and knock and those are all actions. So he's more of an action guide. And he is like, Oh, please, I'm sort of bored. No, gotta get up and go do something. So that's that is going to be like you can I get turned up with this one, right? So that is going to be my true legacy I leave is to help us understand. And the other piece for the book, which I've talked about it and towards the end of it too is the moment you identify with religion, you've left the kingdom, you are no longer part of God. So religion is just man me. So most of us, the kingdom life is all about rights. Are I gehts? Whereas religion are about our it yes. Right with all these different rights and things that we do, and oh, it's no, but we're not following what God said to do. So the book is a wake up call, it's a slap in the face, and it's to help everyone else. And I figured I'm gonna get a whole lot of flack to it. But one of the reasons I live nowhere, so no one can confine me.

Robert Peterson 50:55
There you go. Well, I love the idea. Having also traveled in 32 different countries, the biggest problem in the world, in every single country, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, to Guyana to Colombia, is poverty. Yep. And I believe the solution to poverty is business development, and helping empowering people to build their own businesses. And the church is afraid to help people, and churches telling people go get a job, go find a job, well, there aren't jobs that will do what we need to do. What we need to do is build big businesses that can support big projects that can change and impact people's lives. And I appreciate your message, I appreciate your writing the book, I look forward to buying it by the case and sharing it with people. Because that's the message that people need to hear. God is for us. God wants us to do great things. And he wants us to change people's lives in a meaningful way. And that happens through love. And yes, it is. And there is no constant conflict between love and money. No, I can love God, and you can receive money and use it for His kingdom. So.

Dr Obom Bowen 52:05
So you're smart. Robert, if you if you if we just started with this conversation, this part of the conversation in the beginning, we hour went off on a tangent, but now I know we don't have too much time left. But you're so right, right. And anyways, we'll leave that alone.

Noelle Peterson 52:20
Yeah, I was gonna say maybe we need to jump in so we can cut it off, because you talked about a very wonderful subject.

Dr Obom Bowen 52:27
I'm already hyperventilating over here. And I think you touched on it. The part that really gets me as the commission to parishioners or those leaders of the church is to equip the saints, well equipped means to teach, train and develop. And if you don't know how to effectively run a business, you cannot teach, train and develop a congregation to do so.

Noelle Peterson 52:50
And they need to those people need to

Dr Obom Bowen 52:54
exactly right. And the purpose of that is listen, the more money you have the congregation make the better the church can tithe and give back to the community. Anyways, yeah. All right.

Robert Peterson 53:04
So now's your chance to leave Dr. OHS words of wisdom with our entrepreneurial audience. What would you share, man?

Dr Obom Bowen 53:11
Okay, so three things number one, whatever you looking for, or in other words, let me put it in prolific terms, whatever you are seeking, is already seeking you. Right? When it comes to term, especially for Christian entrepreneurs. We're always manipulated by the powers that be aka Mr. Lucifer, we can't blame him for everything. But he's always manipulating folks to want them to do things that they already have done or have the power in, for example, he tried to seduce even tell her, she can be like God, well, she was already like him. So whatever desires you have in your heart, you've already been equipped with. Number two, seek help, it is okay to ask for help. Help is the thing that will get us where we need to be. So don't be afraid to ask for help. The wealthiest people in the world are the most curious people in the world. And the first thing they always do is ask for help. And at times, you might have to pay for it. And that's the problem with most folks. So for example, you want to pay someone like Robert or myself or whomever that might have 1015 years of knowledge and experience over you. It's better to pay that person 10 grand and save yourself 10 years than to spend 10 years of frustration and hundreds of 1000s of dollars trying to figure it out a man right and last but not least, you are a masterpiece. Because you're a piece of master It is that simple. He's built inside of us. He's never coming out even when we think we have left. He hasn't left us so I'm excited. I thank you guys for having me on here, man. This is just this has been a blast. I had no idea what to expect, but I'm glad I didn't because it gets me to just show up and be who I authentically really is.

Noelle Peterson 54:59
Oh No, thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Oh, it's been a fabulous journey listening to you. And in this one, we're just gonna have to listen to this over and over.

Dr Obom Bowen 55:08
Thank you so much. It's been fun. Thank you guys for the opportunity. Appreciate you.