170: Why Start a New Business at 78?
Jim Brangenberg: Your retirement years can be 30 years filled with meaning and purpose as long as you connect your faith and your retirement days.
Martha Brangenberg: Welcome to iRetire4Him. We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Check us out online at iRetire4Him.com.
Jim Brangenberg: So when is it okay to retire? 55, 60, for sure 65, right? So when is it too late to start a new business? 45 or 50 or what about 70 or even more? According to the Bible, there is no time to retire, and according to Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3, "There's a time for everything and a season for every activity under heavens. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to dance. A time to mourn and a time to dance."
I said that twice. "A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to search and a time to give up. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. I know that there's nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live," Solomon writes, "that each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This is the gift of God."
Bob Lambert, he's no slouch. In his 60s he started a faith and work radio show. Now beyond 70, he has founded a brand-new company, Human2Human. Bob Lambert is a longtime friend of iWork4Him, and we welcome him back to hear what God's mission, the mission that God has placed on his heart today. Bob Lambert, welcome to iRetire4Him.
Bob Lambert: Oh, man, it's great to be back with you two. It's been quite a journey. When we started our journeys in faith marketplace, it was almost simultaneous. You guys, you guys had a couple months on me, but it was great. And I'm just thrilled that you're still doing it. This is God's stuff. This is God's work- ... so I'm just excited to be with you today.
Martha Brangenberg: And what Bob is referring to is the fact that we were doing live radio back then, and we actually got to visit the studio in Chicago and do live radio with you, Bob. It was pretty awesome, so some great memories for sure. Maybe we'll even put a link to one of the shows-
Jim Brangenberg: Oh, that's a great idea ...
Martha Brangenberg: in the show notes. There you go. All right. Little walk down memory lane.
Jim Brangenberg: There you go. So good grief, Bob. Why aren't you leaving the Windy City- ... and flying off to warmer climate instead of starting a new business?
Bob Lambert: The long and the short of not leaving is that my bride that is 16 years younger than me is still working. And when I married her, I told her she was my retirement plan, so I couldn't go anywhere soon. Number one. Number two, I have four grandchildren and everybody, all the family and my kids live here in the Chicagoland area. That's gonna keep us anchored here for a while.
Jim Brangenberg: That's a good answer ... that's an iRetire4Him answer. We'd all like to clap for that because so many people, Bob- ... when they get retirement age, they take off, leave their family, and go because it's warmer. You could go spend a month in Florida if you need warmth, get away from the wind and the cold in Chicago. But I mean- ... why give up your family? I love it. That's a great answer, Bob.
Bob Lambert: Yeah. Thank you. And as I shared before, I don't play golf, I don't play pickleball. I don't have a lot of hobbies other than doing what God gave me to do and my talents and gifts, and that is meeting with people and introducing people to other great people and certainly enjoying the fact that I am a child of God and I'm able to share that with other people, and particularly people in business.
I think it's really important now, where we're at in our country and in the world, that business people are standing up. Billy Graham said, the next revival in this country is gonna be in the marketplace, not in the four walls of churches, and we're seeing that. And I'm just so excited what's going on everywhere I go.
Churches are starting to fill up again. I know the church that I attend is bringing younger people now. And I just got asked to be, officiate my youngest son's wedding July the 25th. When I got my certificate, my bride says to me, she, that night in bed she says how do I address you now? Are you a minister, a pastor? I need to know who I'm sleeping with." (laughing)
Martha Brangenberg: Oh, that's awesome. So we love your passion for all things that God has you involved in. But let's talk about starting this new business, and I wanna know you were speaking of your wife here, did you get her approval at this stage of the game?
Jim Brangenberg: Did Marty say, "Bob, I'm not sure about..." What'd she say?
Bob Lambert: Yeah. I, I think really she was okay with it because she just wanted me to keep busy. There you go. Not bug her, but yeah. And she knows this is how I'm wired.
Martha Brangenberg: Yeah.
Bob Lambert: And there, there is no quit here. As long as God's got me getting up right every day, He's got a purpose. And I have to tell you I was having a season of holy discontent about five years with the Millennials and the Zs. They couldn't even look you in the eye. They couldn't be - and that's you guys know, that's what this is about, human relationship.
And so I'm beefing about it and God basically sent me a real strong message, "Why don't you just stop bitching about it and do something about it?" And so I started down the path, as you can imagine, going into, the internet and everything like that, 'cause I kept saying to myself, "Why don't we get back to being human beings instead of human doings?"
And all of a sudden, I, through the grace of God, and I'm still pinching myself, I stumble on the name Human, Number 2 Human LLC. And so I've had that now for about four years. I sold my fourth company back in '22, stayed on for a three-year earn-out. And in last June, a year ago right now, I left that.
But I was struggling. "What do you want me to do, God, with this Human2Human thing? I don't know what you want me to do." And it was over the last 10 months of that journey that I was on that He really revealed to me, "Use your gifts and your talents that I gave you. Connect human beings with other human beings in business and bring them human-centered skills that will help their people and help them grow and give them purpose."
And that's what I set out to do because I'm a connector. I love giving referrals. I love giving introductions to people, good quality people, and getting them together. Done it for many years, have built up quite a network. And so I set about to look at what companies could I represent?
And there are three companies that I represent. One is called Wild Leaders, which stands for Whole Intentional Leader Development. Rob McKenna- ... Dr. Rob McKenna founded that.
Martha Brangenberg: We've interviewed him.
Bob Lambert: I interviewed him twice when I had our radio podcast program, and so I knew of his character and the program, and I was really excited about that he created the first ever trust assessment and trust index for companies. And I gotta tell you something, it's phenomenal. Along with the leadership program, which has got a lot of faith stuff all the way through it, which has resonated with me.
Second company's called Pinnacle Performance here in Chicago that was formed by two out-of-work actors over two decades ago that have built a global organization, and probably the best I've seen as far as communication and presentation skills. And they build out instructors and trainers all over the world that are actually professionally trained actors and giving them an opportunity to make some money.
The third one is a company that was founded by a dear friend here in Chicago, moved to Portland, her hometown, called E Leader Experience, and it's for young leaders that are evolving and coming into organizations to help them with the proper training, mentoring, coaching, and skill-building that a lot of companies don't have the time for.
So she steps into that gap and helps with that, along with managers now that are being promoted into leadership roles that have never had this kind of training. So those are the three companies going really out to mid-market- Because as I tell people with these young people, and I've been studying this for quite a while and we lectured in many universities here in Chicago, is there's, number one, if they don't trust you, they're not gonna come to work for you.
So that's number one. You gotta get that straight. And, obviously there's a lot of distrust about, we've seen for over a couple decades how trust has just fallen off the cliff. And so trust is fundamental. Number two, they want skills. What are you gonna give me if I come to work with you? They may come to work for you for a cup of coffee because they need a job, but are they gonna stay? So skill building and helping them with their skills, and I can't think of a better skill to give to a young person than communications and presentation skills.
Jim Brangenberg: So Bob what, hang on-
Bob Lambert: And then number three, I help them.
Jim Brangenberg: Okay, go ahead. He helps them. Finish number three.
Martha Brangenberg: He helps them.
Jim Brangenberg: Oh. You help them. Okay. All right.
Bob Lambert: Yeah, just to give them the coaching and training.
Jim Brangenberg: People are going, "Hey, Jim, this is a iWork4Him conversation, but you're doing it on iRetire4Him." And here's my point. Bob, you've got these gifts, talents, abilities, this spiritual insight that you've been given, and it's not, there's no way that should be sitting on a couch somewhere or on a pickleball court or looking for seashells in Florida or on a golf course.
God gave you talent, and just because you're older than 70 doesn't mean that you can't be still making a huge impact. In fact, you've got the ability as a 70-plus-year-old, somebody that's chronologically superior to me, by the way, to be able to invest in those next generations very intentionally 'cause you know the pitfalls.
And everybody listening, I want you to see that. Bob's not done. He's got a purpose 'cause he's got a pulse, and he's seeking out that purpose and finding purpose and meaning in every day by pouring his life into others. And Bob, that's why I wanted you to come on the show today because there's so many retired businesspeople who are miserable 'cause they're not doing what they love to do.
Martha Brangenberg: And/or - but they also built up all of that expertise and then now it's been put on a shelf. And you're not doing that. You're allowing God to re-shift it. You're allowing him to say, "Okay, let's pick the things..." I would imagine some of it is coming from the things you really enjoy, right? The things that drive you, that give you, that excite you every morning to wake up, because that is what I see as this stage of life allows you the ability to do.
Honestly, we all should be doing that, right? God, where's my passion? What have you built in me that the world needs? And help me to go do it. But a lot of times people think that's not an option when they get to a certain age. For some reason we've allowed the government to determine that. Social Security should be taken at a certain age, and we've adopted that as a kingdom principle, which it's not.
And, you know you're living proof of that. And the excitement that you have when you go, "I get to now - this generation that was bothering me, now I'm gonna feed into 'em, and I'm gonna equip them with things that God has equipped me with." And you are, you are a contagious personality, and we love that about you.
And I'm excited for what God has you doing, so thank you for that. Thank you for being that example to so many people.
Bob Lambert: That's led me into another business ministry too. At the church that I've joined recently, very affluent church here in Chicago up in the North Shore. Actually, bears headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois, and I'm a part of one of the campuses.
And the young pastor there, when we first took the idea to him to start up a business ministry, 'cause who has a business ministry? Found out that C-Suite for Christ has a congregational ministry program that they've started. And I was, I looked at that and I thought, "Wow. This could be pretty cool."
So myself and a dear friend that I hadn't talked to for... and we actually met at one of these meetings in another chapter, and we reunited. Great Christian. And she brought me to that church and said, "Hey, Bob, you gotta check out what's going here." I did, and I got excited, and I'm in the process of becoming a member of that church.
But that is a thing that we brought to this young guy, I say young, he's a lot younger. He's in his 40s, early 40s, but he's great. And he took to it. He said, "Yeah, why don't we just probably test here and see how this comes together?" And we're reaching out to the whole congre- if you're in, if you're at work at all, and also, this congregation has a lot of people in my age category. 60, 70, 80 years old, and are active. And so we wanna reach out to them because to your point, there's a lot of wisdom there. And by the way, senior discount now has been replaced with wisdom discounts.
Martha Brangenberg: Oh, really? (laughter)
Bob Lambert: Yeah. I just got that the other day ... in your 60s and 70s- I said, "You have a senior discount?" She said, "Oh, we don't have a, we don't have senior discounts- we have wisdom discounts."
Martha Brangenberg: Oh, that's great. That's good.
Jim Brangenberg: I can't wait to be able to get one of those discounts when I get old enough. (laughter)Okay. All right. Speaking of starting something new, we're talking with Bob Lambert today about new stuff that he's doing. We want to make sure that you guys all realize it's never really too late to learn a new, more kingdom approach to investing. Our friend Luke Andrews at Inspire Advisors uses biblically responsible investing as the approach to manage his clients' portfolios, our portfolio.
Imagine allowing your investment to be as intentional, as impactful as you want to live your daily life. Biblically responsible investing has changed the way we do business and the way we do our investing. That's what Luke does all day long. Check him out all online at investbri.com, investbri.com to learn more.
So Bob, talk to us about what's the goal with Human2Human? What's your goal?
Bob Lambert: The goal is, when I looked at this, I went to these people and I said, "Look you're gonna get 40 years of experience of doing this stuff, business development, and I don't need a six-figure income anymore. But I need to at least have value put on my time." So that's the agreements that I've entered into. And what that looks like is on the back end of any of these introductions I make, 'cause I'm not taking all the way through to the final sale. I'm introducing them to the principals of these companies that will take it from whatever stage it becomes.
And then they are gonna reward me at the end if something comes of that. So I look at that as, okay, I'm doing God's work. I'm doing work for them that now they're getting the opportunity to work with somebody who's kinda got a few years of experience doing this and building four other companies.
That's really where it's at. The purpose is really I've just settled focus on God. He's got me in this. He made it very clear what He wanted me to do, and I'm just putting it out there and letting Him do it, letting go of the wheel, as they say. Give it up to God. He's got it covered, he's got my health covered, He's got me covered, He's got my family covered. So yeah, I'm just glad I'm getting up today and I'm upright every single day.
Martha Brangenberg: That's so good. And, having a goal like that and knowing that you're helping people to connect to whatever is gonna help propel them in their kingdom purpose is such a powerful thing.
I wanna take a minute right here to just talk about our summer initiative at iRetire4Him. And we've talked about it on previous shows, and I'm gonna put it in the show notes again, but, we are encouraging all of you listeners to have a picnic. That's right, just invite some neighbors over and keep it simple.
Gather tables and share some food and maybe some games. Get to know your neighbors, and then send us a photo from your picnic to get entered in an end of the year, end of the summer drawing that we're gonna have. Email the picture to jim@iwork4him.com. Don't worry, I will put that in the show notes for you.
We want to just encourage you, spend that time getting to know your neighbors, build relationship, and make an impact right in your neighborhood.
Jim Brangenberg: Jesus was very specific. Love God, love your neighbor And this is a way to get that done. We need to learn to love our neighbors so we transform our cities, transform our blocks, transform our communities, our counties, our states. And boy, talk about states that need transforming. Bob Lambert for governor of Illinois. You live in the Windy City already, which was made known not just for the wind off of Lake Michigan, but for the politics. Why not?
Bob Lambert: Yeah. (laughter)
Jim Brangenberg: What does Pritzker have on you? Come on. You could do this.
Bob Lambert: About 250 pounds, maybe.
Jim Brangenberg: Maybe. But seriously, why aren't you running for governor? All right. So you're a relationship guy, Bob. You have been. You said you only got 40 years of experience doing this. Not true, you got way more than that. How is God using your relationships in order to bless other people and get them connected to these other companies?
Bob Lambert: I gotta tell you, I've entered into a season of reconnecting with people that I lost connection with maybe during COVID or just other things. So I've been going meticulously through my database and LinkedIn to reacquaint myself with people that I haven't had conversation, and it's been marvelous.
I gotta tell you, within five minutes we're back to "Hey, we never had that time span." As important as that is, I'm reconnecting with people for breakfast and lunches, that are in the community. Finding out what they're up to. How can I support them? What kind of things can I do to help them?
A lot of them are involved in not-for-profits now, and I have simple means, but it, there's ways that I can contribute, whether it be - Matter of fact, this Saturday we're going to a gala of a company that I, or a organization I was on the board of called Legacy Reentry Foundation, which helps formerly incarcerated people get back into mainstream society.
That's grown into a multimillion dollar foundation and everything like that. We're coming back there. I'm inviting people to come to that gala to help support that because I believe it's been fundamentally unbelievable how we're taking, and taking people outta bad situations and putting them in, and giving them dignity of work again and getting them homes, getting started, restarted again.
And it's phenomenal. I'm also on a board of Ballet 5:8, which stands for Romans 5:8, the number one Christian ballet company in the country. Been on that board for three years. And we are holding a gala. Again, it's doing well. It's the, in the top 50 ballet companies in the country. It's a resident ballet company for Harris Theater, the number one theater company here in Chicago.
And so I'm just excited and delighted because, again, Bob and ballet?
Jim Brangenberg: Yeah. That came up. I was just picturing you in a tutu. (laughter)
Martha Brangenberg: No, he's a supporter of it. You bring up a good point though, Bob, and I want our listeners to hear it. There are many ways, there's not just one way- to live intentionally for the kingdom. Everything we do in every phase of our life looking for that intentionality. And how not only we can give back financially, but supporting other people. You know, it could be a little dangerous that you were talking about your health and everything, and that you are less heavy than someone else.
Be careful with all those breakfasts and all those meals and everything. But that's awesome. So I wanna know this: with your mission to, with what you're doing at Human2Human- ... how are you helping kingdom businesses thrive and bless their communities?
Bob Lambert: I, as you guys know, I'm unabashedly a Christian. I've got a target this big on my back. A lot of people know. And it's about the walk, it's not about the talk. So when I get into opportunities, and especially with people that have a Christian background, what are they doing with their time and their money? How are they giving back?
How are they building this as a kingdom bus- 'cause it's God's. It's not theirs. I learned that a long time ago, and you guys know this. It's how are we taking and manifesting this out in the world with people. On the other side of that, people that aren't believers or people that are kinda wandering, don't know where they're at I have an opportunity sometimes to give my testimony, to let them know what God's done in my life, which has been a huge transition for me.
As you guys know, with my background of 36 years in the desert And that is having an impact in conversation with people. Just met with two young guys, one 26 and 25, through their father of one of the people, and they now are coming to church. They're gonna be coming to my church here this Sunday, and they wanna reconnect. I'm giving them bits and pieces of advice and things that, you know, not overtly, but just say, "Here, why don't you go check this out?" I know their business, I know what business they're in, I know what they're trying to build, and I know that there's a lot of landmines there, and especially with this AI world now.
And so I'm trying to feed into them, "Hey, one of the things that's great about the tech stack and all the AI stuff, but you gotta get on the other side of that and start focusing on human beings." Because when it all comes down to it, human beings are gonna have to run all this stuff, and also control it from an ethical, moral standpoint, and that's a huge thing.
And I've gone to several seminars recently about AI, and one of the things I was blessed by with a recent one was a gentleman by the name of Sagar Henja, and he wrote a book, beautiful book, 59 pages- ... called the AI Culture Blueprint, and it was all about the human side of things- ... 'cause he's a technology guy.
Martha Brangenberg: Yeah.
Bob Lambert: And it was just... i'm not kidding you, I'm underlining this book, I'm highlighting it you know, because it was... it just sung to me. It just really did. And I thought, "Okay, he's getting this." You know- That, that you've gotta get the training and that stuff on the other side.
Martha Brangenberg: I wanna just point out again- how you talk about, Human2Human, this whole idea of the relationship side. And what's. More invigorating than the, than reconnecting with those people that you have maybe not talked to in a long time? We all are guilty of that, especially since 2020 with, "Oh, I know this person comes to mind, but I haven't heard from them in forever."
Taking the opportunity to just check in with them, follow the Holy Spirit's prompting, and you never know how you can impact them. But I love what you're talking about dropping nuggets of wisdom and nuggets of information and, just feeding into that next generation. 'Cause we know that there are a lot of young business people, young entrepreneurs that love Jesus, but they don't necessarily have an upline that does as well.
And so they don't have somebody to feed into them the way you can, Bob. And I wanna encourage our listeners, because that is an opportunity that you have in this chapter of life where you have the freedom every, maybe every day, maybe you don't have the freedom every day. But to choose your calendar a little bit and to say, "You know what? I wanna invest some time and some wisdom into someone else." And that's really a lot of what you're doing in just a business structure. But I love that, and I think it's a huge encouragement and challenge to our iRetire4Him audience.
Bob Lambert: It's a new purpose. It's a shift in purpose. The whole shift for me has been what... 'cause you asked that question. Why? What purpose do I have in life? What am I doing? What am I doing with my gifts and talents? And it took me a while to have to realize that, as to what really gives me joy. What can I do all day long, which I used to do all the time, 24/7, whatever-
Martha Brangenberg: Yeah.
Bob Lambert: And I just got delight out of that. And that was just human interaction, human beings. 'Cause we're getting farther away from that, and it's troubling a lot of people, and finally it's getting addressed. You're seeing more about the human side of stuff now, human-centered stuff. And that excites me.
'Cause when I start reading about that stuff and the people that are involved in it and what's going on and then what God's doing, with His kingdom, what's He doing with young people. Like I said, we got young people now, young families that are coming to church. We have the whole Charlie Kirk movement.
My goodness, look what that brought to this world, and that was, that's exciting. When I was doing the radio podcast program, I got connected into technology companies. Fabulous woman here in Chicago connected me, all these leaders within the major tech companies. And what I found out, which goes back six, seven years ago, is that these ERG groups, Christian ERG groups were starting all in all these tech companies were the fastest growing groups.
That woke a lot of people up. When I started telling friends of mine in Bible study and everything else what was going on, they were like, "You gotta be kidding me. In a tech company? That's evil." And now it's all manifesting itself.
Jim Brangenberg: What I love, Bob, is that you are excited. And there are lots of other people listening that are also excited, are like, "Okay if Bob can do it." Bob, tell the audience how old you are, Bob.
Bob Lambert: I'm in my 79th year.
Jim Brangenberg: 78 years, going on 79. 79. And you're not done. You're not done, even close, because God gave you a passion. He gave you a set of gifts, talents, and abilities, and He said, "Now I need you to use them. I never told you to check out." And people listening today are going, "Okay. Wow, I can do something, and it's okay to start something new in my 70s, and it's okay to go back and do the things that I love doing, which is talking to people."
We're salespeople, Bob. We love talking to people. I got 5,000 people I'm connected to on LinkedIn. I don't even know every one of them. Yep. I wish I did.
Bob Lambert: Exactly. So we got- I take a chapter out of two Midwestern boys, and that's Colonel Sanders and Ray Kroc. Look at what they, did in their 70s, from a business opportunity. I'm saying, "Hey, if they can do it and build stuff that is standing the test of time." I'm not looking to do that, but I am looking to do something that will get recognized, because when I get up there in front of the good Lord, which I hope I will and He's saying to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Look what you brought me," and I'm not gonna have a clue to it.
Jim Brangenberg: Yeah,
Bob Lambert: 'Cause I'm not down here for body count. I'm just out here to do what I can.
Jim Brangenberg: Doing what you can do. Wanted you to give a shout-out to your church, because there's not many churches we hear about that are doing workplace discipleship, workplace ministry. What's the name of your church?
Bob Lambert: The name of the church is Christ Church. It, there's four locations, one in Lake Forest, Illinois, or Lake... Yeah, Lake Forest. Lake Forest, Illinois. Grays Lake, Highland Park, and Vernon Hills.
Jim Brangenberg: Okay.
Bob Lambert: And so I'm associated with the one in Grays Lake, which is Christ Church Crossroads, which is interesting enough, in the county that I live in, it is actually at the center. That church is at the geographical center of that county.
Jim Brangenberg: That's very cool.
Bob Lambert: It's called Crossroads.
Jim Brangenberg: All right. So check out Christ Church. If you're in the Chicagoland area and you wanna- figure out what does it look like to go to a church that wants to disciple you to live out your faith at work, there you go. Christ Church in Chicagoland.
Bob Lambert, thanks so much for... Did you have something else you wanted to say, Bob? No, I think we- Thanks, thanks for being on iRetire4Him today. So exciting. We could go on this forever, but we're out of time, Bob. But if people wanna check you out, they can look you up online, and you can have a conversation. What's your website, humanhuman dot-
Bob Lambert: Yeah, human2humanllc.com.
Martha Brangenberg: We'll put that in the show notes.
Jim Brangenberg: We'll do that. That's right. Yeah. Perfect. Bob, thank you very much.
Bob Lambert: Great. Thank you, guys.
Jim Brangenberg: Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, help iRetire4Him reach more believers with the message that their retirement matters to God. Support us for just $5 a month at iWork4Him.com/donate.
You've been listening to iRetire4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. In this retirement phase of life, we all want our lives to be full of meaning and purpose so we can say- I retire for Him.