Welcome back to Conscious Connection, the podcast where we explore the power of your inner guidance system, how to trust it, follow it, and use it to create a life that feels like home. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce a guest whose work lives at the intersection of creativity, purpose, and authenticity. Franklin Rivera is the founder of ARP Visuals, a visionary media company known for telling real stories with real heart.

Whether he’s behind the camera or building powerful brand narratives, Franklin brings a rare blend of creative intuition and grounded faith to everything he does. In this episode, we’ll dive into how Franklin uses his inner compass to navigate the world of visual storytelling, why staying true to your purpose matters in the digital age, and what it means to build a life and a business guided from within. So if you’ve ever wondered how creativity and clarity work together, or how to stay aligned
while building something impactful, this episode is for you.

Let’s get started. So, good morning, Franklin. Good morning.

Thanks for being here. I watched your video. Authentic story storytelling is paramount in marketing, and it stayed with me.

Oh, wow. Yeah. You invited us to skip the typical intros and instead show people who we really are.

You shared that you’re a West Point graduate who led 45 men through war and brought them all home safely. Then you took us to a very different battlefield, being on government assistance after coming from a your words, stupid rich family. Unless I misinterpreted that.

No, you’re right. And then you ask something that hit me hard after hearing those stories. Do you think I’m capable of helping you grow your business and bringing you home safely? Oh, wow.

Yeah. So let’s begin there. Okay, that’s funny.

And when you do these videos or write these articles, you really don’t know who’s going to be reading them or when they’re going to be be reading them. But that actually came across when I had started my business as well, not my business. I was working as a financial advisor and I was looking at a way to introduce myself when I went to networking events.

And you know, when you go to a lot of networking events, there’s always a bunch of realtors in the room. There’s always a bunch of financial advisors in a room. And everybody always says, hey, I’m so and so with, you know, Merrill Lynch.

I’m so and so with with Morgan Stanley. And I just didn’t want to be another person who says, you know, I’m just another financial advisor. So I something said, you know what, why don’t you tell who you are first and your story and Then finish it up with.

And I’m a financial advisor with so and so. So. It’s funny, I was in this room, I remember was a Japanese restaurant, or exactly where it was.

It was in Aurora, Illinois, and it was my turn to introduce myself. There’s a big circle of us there. And I told my story exactly what you just said.

And amazing. That was the first time I actually had people come up and ask me for my business card because they felt that they really connected with me when I said that. But I think at the root of it was I actually meant it.

I actually meant what I said. So it’s funny that you bring that up. Yeah.

So you were. You were authentic. You were coming from your heart, and people could feel that.

Yes. Right. Well, I brought it up because I’m a realtor, so I go to networking events, and I really don’t even like telling people I’m a realtor because I see them, like, put their hands up, like, go away.

And interestingly enough, last week, I was at a sailboat event for Save Our Souls, which is a friend of mine, owns some sailboats at dolphin landings. And every Sunday morning, he takes out cancer patients and seriously ill patients, physically and mentally, for a sailboat ride and their caregivers. And this was a fundraiser for his charity.

And I met this woman on the dock, and she said, what do you do? And I said, oh. I said, I sell real estate. And I kind of said it like, I sell real estate.

I said, but really, I’m a speaker and an author and a podcast host. And. And that got her excited.

And she said, oh, what do you speak about? I said, oh, I have. My most recent title is I’m Tired of Pretending I’m Fine. Oh, wow.

And that’s what she said. Oh, wow. Well, we just met yesterday for coffee, and she’s my first client.

Wow. And that’s because I got past the I’m a realtor and talked about who I am other than a realtor, and I am a real estate agent. I love helping people buy and sell homes.

It isn’t my purpose in life. So I told her what my purpose is, and now we’re friends, and she’s a client, and so. Thank you.

Your story that I don’t know when you wrote that inspired me to just feel free to talk about who I am, not what I do. Well, I’m glad. Yeah, I’m glad.

I think that’s so important because we. We go to so many events, especially as a business owner, and they always ask the first question is always what you do. And what we do doesn’t really define who we are.

And I think once we get down to the foundation of her, of a person’s purpose, it makes you more willing to either do business with them or, you know, really want to connect with them. And I think at the root of everything, I’m a big faith based guy and I truly believe that all of my steps are ordered. It’d be funny if some of the things I did took God by surprise.

Like, hey, I didn’t know that was going to happen, Frank. So I feel that when people know who you are and what you’ve been through and, and what your purpose is at the foundation, I think it really is we want to help people. And when you start with that, the business will just come, you know, and if you, if you look at, you know, a lot of people that are faith based, that’s really what it’s about.

It’s about uplifting others and hoping to guide them towards, you know, their success, whether it’s in business or whether it’s just in life or whether it’s just for that day. Right, right. We’re here to serve one another.

Exactly. A friend of mine says we’re really all just walking each other home. I like that.

Yeah, isn’t that beautiful? Yeah, I like that we’re all just walking each other home. And so for me, I’m a faith based person too. I don’t think people have to have a strong faith to be that kind of person.

It’s just for you and I, that’s where our foundation is. And that in itself gives me comfort, it gives me purpose, it gives me guidance. More than anything, it gives me guidance because I’ve learned to rely on not just the actual word of God in the Bible or spoken in the church or something like that, or heard as a scripture, but the word of God in my ear.

And that’s my inner guidance. And that’s your inner guidance. And we all have it.

Right? What I’d like to talk about with you now is that word in your ear and the story of your son and moving your whole business down here from, Was it Minnesota? Illinois. Illinois, yes. So tell us about that.

So really, you know, we had been funny. Funny. My wife was born in Chicago.

We met in St. Petersburg, actually, when I was in pharmaceutical industry. And then I got a job up there in Illinois, so I moved up there. We weren’t married yet.

We dated long distance for three years, saw each other once every three months. And I dragged her back up there to where she was from. But funny enough, all of our family had followed us to Florida.

So now we are the only ones up there in Illinois. And all our family’s death. So we’ve been talking about going back for a while, but I think, you know, some things really started to accelerate that process.

And we have an older son. He’s 26. He was.

He was bullied when he was young. And I think you always learn with your first child, you know, certain things you might do a little bit differently. And our second one started to be bullied at his school.

And he’s a creative person, so, you know, actually St. Pete is perfect for creative people, but he was a creative person, and he was, I think, more advanced than a lot of his classmates. No, he taught himself Japanese. He wrote.

Made a Japanese dictionary. He taught himself piano. Yeah, don’t ask me how, but he.

Wait, I can get that. He taught himself Japanese, but he made himself a Japanese dictionary. Yes.

Okay. So he’s a little bit on the brill. Brilliant side.

I. I’d like to think so. Not just the parent. Okay.

And this is like when he was 10. 10. 10 or 11, you know, he taught himself piano, he taught himself coding.

He started to hire people to. And pay them in Robux, which is a popular game on a. On a computer.

He would hire developers from Discord and have them help him build. And this is all like when he was 12 years old. So he was always kind of more advanced and didn’t really fit in.

You know, he loves theater, he loves acting, he loves singing. But he got bullied, and it got really bad to the point of we had to start bringing our attorneys in because it even got to the administrative level at the school he was at, where they were, you know, questioning him without parents being present. It was just really horrible.

And I think what it really hit home is when he said, I do not want to go to this high school next year. I just can’t. I just can’t.

You know, and when you start to think as a parent that you’re going to. If you ignore these signs, what could happen? You know, and at that point, our parents were getting older. We said, you know what? Let’s just do it.

Let’s just pick up and move. And that’s hard when you’ve built a business, you’ve built connections. You know, I had.

Besides my ARP visuals, I was also a head track coach at the high school. So I gave that up. You know, the athletes were extremely sad.

I was crying at the doorway. You know, I gave up all of my private track and field clients, and we just, you know, started selling everything in the house. You know, had no idea what.

We knew where we were going to move, but we knew this house was like 20, 75% smaller than one. We were currently living in Illinois, so we had to sell a lot of stuff. We left a lot of our dining room furniture and everything, sold it with the house, and just moved.

And that was hard. That was hard. Giving up my business up there.

And then on top of that, deciding to start a new one, a completely different business. So this was not completely different. So I had a marketing agency up north.

It was very successful, but video was always a part of our marketing. So I decided I wanted to go back to what I love and just do video. I just want to have a deliverable.

I just want to do video, get back into the creative part. So that’s when I started that in November. And we actually moved to Florida right before hurricane Milton.

Oh, wonderful. Yeah. So you had Milton, you had the holidays, you’re starting a new.

So it was very difficult with no money coming in. But the thing is, we had been there before when I first started my business. And I always like to look at what you’ve gotten through, not what you’re going through, because too often we look at the struggles we’re currently going through, and we totally ignore the fact that we’ve already gotten through so many difficult things we never thought we were going to get through back then when we were going through them.

Right. So we knew. And that gives us the groundwork to know we can do it again.

Oh, yeah, it looks different, but it’s the same. The same, right? The same, right. You know, so, yeah, so we made the move, and it was very hard.

My wife had to actually go back up to Illinois by herself because I had to take care of our youngest down here and finish clearing out the house. We probably. 17 years in a house, you have a lot of stuff.

Yeah. Not to mention, you know, all the Facebook marketplace shopping. So that tends to build things up.

You know, she. She got ill. You know, it was.

It was bad. It was really bad. But the bright side is our son down here is now a honor roll, straight A’s.

He was C’s and D’s. He got a lead role into play. And the other day I pick him up and he’s like crying, and I’m like, what’s.

What’s happening, dude? You should be happy. He’s like, dad, I am. I Can’t believe people are being as nice to me.

Oh. You know, it’s hard for me to talk about this because I’m. I’m a pretty sensitive guy.

I blame it on all the Hallmark movies my wife watches. I don’t want to get all teary eyed. That’s okay.

They can’t see you cry. But yeah, he’s just been a whole nother person. So you look at that as a parent, you know, you realize, you know, this is what you live for.

Yes. It’s not about you, it’s about. I got my.

I always get my quotes from, like, these hip hop songs. And one of my favorite quotes is, why live in complacency when you can leave a legacy? Ah. You know.

Beautiful. So I think about that. Beautiful.

And did I see that he’s at St. Pete High? Yes. Well, that’s why it’s so wonderful. That’s my alma mater.

All right. And you know, it’s the only high school. No, I’m kidding.

I’m kidding. I would offend people if I said that. But St. Pete High is pretty special.

It is a great school. I saw the pictures and the auditorium and I recently had. I know it’s hard to believe, but I recently had my 50 year reunion.

Wow. And I went back and the auditorium was one of my favorite places to experience the energy of and be in again. That tour of the school 50 years later for me was the best part of my high school reunion.

Loved seeing the people, of course. Right. But being in the school and going to the archives section and looking back at our class and class of 73 and.

Yeah, it was amazing. So. And being a parent now, you know, my people say to me, what’s your greatest accomplishment? Well, it’s being a mom, bar none.

Oh, yeah. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. Now.

There are days I would have. But looking back and on the whole of it, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

So whenever I hear that parent sacrifice story, I understand it. I would take a bullet for my children. I wouldn’t take a bullet for anyone else in this world, even my grandchildren.

I hope they’re not listening. But I would not hesitate to take a bullet for both of my boys. So I get that.

And it really moved me. So you moved down here. You had to start all over.

You’d done it before, so you knew you could live through it. It wasn’t easy, I’m sure. Right.

And you are creative. You just mentioned in your story that St. Pete is a great place for your son and you and anyone to be a creative. And I never looked at St. Pete like that.

I’ve lived here my whole life and, and of course, I enjoy the culture and the arts and those kind of things, but it never dawned on me that this is the perfect place to be a creative. Oh, gosh, yes. And I, like I said, we moved away from here like 20 years ago, and.

And it’s completely different now. And I’ve been. I can compare what it was like up north in Illinois compared to being down here and the level of support.

I feel like I’ve been here forever. You know, just from the groups that I’ve joined. I mean, just sitting here in this podcast, what, what took me 13, eight years to build up there has happened in like six months.

Oh, good. Down here. And it is because I think of the creativity and I also think with St. Pete being such an inclusive community, it makes it that much easier for people to be who they truly are.

You know, I find that very, very uplifting. Very uplifting. Yeah.

Yes. That’s good. And it wasn’t always that way.

I mean, I grew up here and trust me, it was not a super inclusive community. And. And I’m so glad that it has evolved into that.

Yeah, yeah. And people embrace that. So one of my questions I have for you is how does your inner guidance manifest during the creative process? And are there specific practices you follow to stay connected to it? Yes.

Yes. First and foremost, every morning. Every morning, without hesitation.

I have to. I have to pray. I just have to.

And it’s weird because a lot of people will look at people that pray or it’s faith based as. Especially if you haven’t experienced it. If you haven’t experienced it.

It’s hard to explain. It’s hard to explain. You know, I’ve seen what life is without that.

I’ve seen what. Going through a day without starting off with prayer and positive affirmations with so much coming at you. You need something that you’re going to.

That’s going to keep you grounded for the rest of the day. You have to remember those things that, you know, I read about in the Bible that, you know, you’re, you know, you’re above and not, not beneath, that you are, you know, all your needs are supplied according to his riches and glory. All of those things.

You have to be able to internalize that. Because I think what that does also is it sets the. The framework or the groundwork for how you deal with other people out there with your business you know, so, you know, one of the most powerful words or scriptures, and I don’t remember numbers of scriptures.

I just know what they say is, you know, do everything with excellence as unto God. So if I’m taking on a project and I’m not going to do it, excellent for that person, I’m not satisfying God in that way, you know, and it’s become such a part of me that. That if I can go above and beyond with what I’m doing in my creative process and I thank him for wiring my mind that way, they’re going to be satisfied.

I’m helping them reach a milestone in their lives or in their businesses. And I’ve done my part. I’ve done that leaving a legacy part, if that makes sense.

Sure. So, yeah. So I always start my day off with prayer because it really keeps me grounded because otherwise, you know, we’re not living in our dream home.

We. We often laugh that if we picked up our home and moved it down here, it’d be worth a lot of money. It would be a lot of money.

We’re in a house, you know, that’s, you know, a fourth of the size of what we moved. We’re falling over each other. We, you know, my wife is like, we gotta sell our TVs.

We can’t even hang them up on the walls. You know, it’s. But, you know, with all of that coming at me and trying to build a new business, if I don’t have something that’s gonna ground me and guide me for that day, it’s going to overwhelm me and I’m going to want to give up.

And I just can’t. I can’t give up for my family. I can’t give up for my, you know, my children.

I can’t give up for that legacy. I want to leave, not just for us, but for the people that I work with, you know, so that’s. I guess.

I hope I answered your question. You did. I’d like to know how you use your inner guidance system for your creative process.

So when you’re making your videos, when you’re editing your videos, whatever it is you’re doing with that, or when you’re marketing your business. Okay. How do you do you tap in? I do.

And how. Does. What does that look like? And I don’t know if you can even describe it, but if you can, let us know.

I’ll do my best. It’s. It’s hard.

So I think at the root of it, when I make my. There’s different ways for, for filmmakers to make films. A lot of times when one thing a lot of people do is they storyboard exactly the beginning and the end and they have every single scene, angles, camera types, lighting, all of that figured out.

I build mine scene by scene. I’ve tried to storyboard everything out. I know where I’m starting, I have no idea where I’m going to end.

But as I listen either to a song or I listen to an audio where I’m creating an AI film for a testimonial or something, I listen over and over and over again for several days, sometimes weeks because every time I listen to it, I get a different vision in my head. So I never go with the first, the first thing that pops into my head and then when I get stuck, I’ll stop. And usually in the most, the weirdest place is probably whether taking a shower or you know, first thing I wake up in the morning,
it comes to me and I truly believe that that’s my inner guidance system saying this is what you need to do next.

And because of that I’ve been able to create some really like let me. So somebody told me the other day I had to do a testimonial short film using all AI and they came back to me and said, do you know that the woman that gave the testimony, the person you created with AI, almost looks exactly like her and has the same mannerisms. I had no idea what she looked like.

Oh my. I had no idea. No idea.

And out of all the characters I created, why did I pick that one? It just felt right. So that’s how I use my inner guidance system. And I think that’s what enables me to create things that a lot of people just cannot fathom or create or just see, you know.

So that’s how I use it in creative process. So that’s why sometimes, you know, I remember a six minute video took me two and a half months to finish and over a thousand images. And that was because I always am listening into what should I pick, what should I do next? Very long process, but it’s worth it.

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Welcome back. Yeah, well, so you’ve taught yourself. Or maybe it came naturally, I don’t know.

But probably through time you’ve learned to trust that that tapping into is tapping into an energy and a vision so much greater. Oh, yeah. Than you and I could our finite minds.

Even if I feel like my mind is unlimited, it’s still only as big as I’ll allow it to be. Right, right, right. So when I tap in.

When you tap in to your inner guidance system, you’re tapping into that universal mind. Oh, yeah. And that universal mind and the heavenly mind is so creative and spot on.

So it created an AI image. I mean, that’s very cool. Yeah, yeah.

It blew me away when she told me that. I was like, I had no idea. Yeah, no idea.

You know, because the way they described them at first, I actually did the total opposite. You know, I asked for the skin tone and a hair type and I went with something opposite and it ended up being closer than what they had. I can’t explain.

No. Well, that’s the beauty for me. The mystery of it is part of the beauty of it for me.

Some people are much more scientific based and want to know why and want the answer. And I don’t need any of that, fortunately, because my left side of the brain’s kind of asleep and that’s okay. So wonderful.

So you use it in your creative process. You have a daily ritual that you do. I want to make sure people understand that praying doesn’t mean that you’re sitting there.

Could mean that you’re sitting there reciting the Lord’s Prayer, but it could also mean that you’re just having a conversation with God. Exactly, exactly. And my definition of prayer is a conversation.

And I actually am learning that every thought I have is a prayer, every word that comes out of my mouth is a prayer. Because all of that is the energy I’m putting out into the world and that’s creating the reality that I see. So I just want to make sure people understand that.

It could be that you’re sitting there saying the Lord’s Prayer and absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it also could be. Right. Right.

I don’t know if you ever read Neil Donald Walsh’s book Conversations with God. I’ve heard of it, by the way. It’s a Great book.

Highly recommend it. But that’s what it sounds like you do. Oh, yeah.

And that’s what I do when I have my coffee with God every morning. Then I’m reading. And all day long, too.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course.

Of course. Especially when I get stuck or, you know, when I feel like I’ve done something that could have been done better, and instead of beating myself up, I can stop and say, okay, what would have been better for me to do? Right, right. So that’s beautiful.

Thank you. Can you discuss a project where your visual storytelling significantly impacted someone’s understanding of their own purpose or inner journey? Wow. Yes.

Kind of hitch out of the blue with that one. That is. So the project you were doing through film helped someone understand their own purpose in life.

Hmm. Yeah, I can. And this is kind of funny, because I just had this conversation with this gentleman the other day.

He was executive director of a nonprofit that my agency was helping to market, and they were having this huge gala, and they were looking at somebody to record their video. And mind you, this is when I was with my agency. So, I mean, I had video cameras, but I wasn’t doing it to the level of.

Put. Make a long story short, they chose me to record their video instead of this local TV station. And I did the entire video off of my phone, and it was telling the story of the executive director and why he was doing what he was doing.

And a lot of the B roll was showing, you know, the children that, you know, they had found homes for and the staff that worked there. And I remember him. I remember filming him, and he’s standing there looking at all the pictures on the wall, and he came back to how it impacts his family and how he wants to be the same thing to his family as he is to this nonprofit.

And I think when he looked at the final video and they showed it in front of a room of, like, a thousand people, and nobody had any idea it was tightly done on a phone. I think it really hit him hard because you can work at a place and, you know, go through. I don’t want to say go through our emotions, but you get so wrapped up in the job that when you sit back and you hear your own story and narrative and then see the visuals behind, really hits home to what your purpose is and the impact you’re
having.

The impact you’re having, you know? And I remember one guy, I did somebody else from the same one. I did a separate one. And he was talking about how he helped this kid and and everything.

And then they got home and he became a victim of mistaken identity and got shot, you know, and died. And that really hit him hard in having to relive that. But then seeing the entire narrative of all the good that has happened from what he’s done and why he left corporate America to do what he did, you know, I think it really cemented his purpose even more so when I’m able to provide those visuals to people.

Even, like recently, I did one about the loss of a family pet. You know, there’s this great song about losing a family pet. I put a video together, and it just resonated with people how these are family members and here’s someone that lost somebody or lost a pet myself relating to me and how they relate to their pets and what they mean to them.

So sometimes my mind thinks faster than my mouth can talk. I understand. And it’s so interesting that you hesitated when I asked the question, like, oh, did I have I? And then, boom, three stories come out.

It’s great, you know, because indeed you have. And there’s probably many more people that have been impacted. What I love about life is that I can say something and it can truly impact another person’s entire perspective or life or marriage or relationship with God or whatever that is.

And I don’t even know I’ve done it. I never get told. By the way, that statement you made really had an impact on me.

And I know it happened for me. When I was in my early 30s, I was sitting at my desk at a bank. I was in the mortgage business, and I worked for a local bank.

And this gentleman, David Ray, who I really enjoyed working with and hopefully still around, liked very much, he came into my office and he was telling us his story. And he said, you know, when I was about 19, I was spiritually bankrupt. And he went on to tell his story.

And those two words, spiritually bankruptcy, went straight to my heart. Wow. And I stopped and I took a breath and I said, oh, my God, I’m spiritually bankrupt.

Wow. Now, he didn’t know that he had affected me that way until, well, maybe 20 years later. Yeah.

In my 50s, I worked with him again at another bank. And I told him that. And he doesn’t.

Of course, he doesn’t even remember the conversation. And I said, you started my journey. Because I was raised in a religion that I won’t mention, but I didn’t care for.

And I left and just had gone wayward. And I said, you started my journey back to God. You started my Journey to seek out my spiritual life again.

And he had no idea. So I just love that. And I think it’s important that we all are reminded that our words are powerful, not just for ourselves, but for other people.

And it sounds like. And I’m a very visual person, so videos and things really impact me as well. And I’m glad you’re able to do that for people as well.

Okay, so here’s one question about overcoming challenges. So reflecting on your journey, what challenges have tested your connection to your inner guidance, and how did you overcome them? Wow. My challenges started very young, and I think it became more or less a training.

I don’t want to say, like, it wasn’t formal training, but it was going through several difficult times. Coming out of them and realizing that I was going to get out of every difficult thing because of my. My faith and faith.

Faith isn’t easy. So. And how is your faith going to get you out of every difficult time? First thing that comes to mind is when I was young and my grandfather, I must have been about 10 maybe my grandfather bought me this expensive bicycle.

It was a Raleigh bicycle back then. It was like $300, which was ridiculously expensive. And that bicycle was stolen.

And I remember running home, getting on my knees, and praying for my bicycle to come back. And no joke, two hours later, the police call and say, we found your bicycle just abandoned in the middle of a field, totally intact. And I’m sitting there going, are you kidding me? Who would just drop a perfectly new bicycle? And that was the beginning of it.

And I started. So I started to pray for a lot of things. And it just.

Every single time, things just worked out. And I remember, and I think you and I had spoken about this when I had started my company. And, you know, I had to buy a couple cars because I was laid off from pharmaceuticals.

I basically put all my money into the company, so much so that we couldn’t pay our mortgage. It was hard. It was very, very hard.

And we were going to. My wife, much to my resistance, said, hey, we put a lot of money into this government system, so let’s get our money back and apply for, you know, food stamps and stuff. And I remember she would send me to Walmart to pick up some things.

And I remember how badly I was treated simply because I was using food stamps. And I’m sitting here going, nobody has any idea of my education, what I’ve done, but simply because I’m just being treated badly. And it got to the point we were trying to find a place to move.

And we had two weeks left before we were gonna basically be kicked out of our home. Didn’t know where we were gonna go. And I remember the bank calling and saying, you know what, Mr. Rivera, we can work with you.

And that was 2013 and had never looked back. Oh, I read that on LinkedIn or one of your. Yes.

And I’m thinking, I’ve always heard, if you look at a lot of biblical references, a lot of things always happen at the midnight hour, 11th hour, the 11th hour. And that’s so you can have faith. Exactly.

Exactly. And when that happened, we’re sitting there going, what the? So whenever my family go through something, we always go back to that. And we’re like, look at the 11th hour.

You know, just yesterday I was telling my wife, I said, man, you know, my, my. I. I need some more, you know, recurring business to come in. And all of a sudden I get this.

This notice from somebody from Minnesota that says, hey, I’m flying down to Tampa to visit my dad. I need some private coaching for track and field. I’m going Minnesota, you know, So I just know that every single challenge that was going to happen, you’re going to get through it.

And that faith isn’t because of what actions you take. Could be. A lot of times we want to.

We want to help God out, you know, with our own actions. Faith is saying, I’m glad you’re going. You’re here with me.

You’re going through this with me. I don’t know how, but you’re going to find a way out. I don’t know how.

So I’m not even gonna worry about it. I’m just gonna go live in it. Day is normal.

That’s right. And it always works out. Always.

I just wish more people could understand that, for I know the plans I have for you. Oh, my gosh. Plans to prosper.

Exactly. Nothing takes them by surprise. Like, oh, my gosh, Frank, I didn’t see that one coming.

We’d be in a lot of trouble if that was the case. Well, my pastor, spiritual leader, Dr. Pulley, who also has a podcast on this program, he reminds me that nothing is a surprise to God for the whole world. So what’s going on in our world today? Everybody’s all freaked out about.

Right? Not everybody, but people get. And myself included, if I stop and watch the news, which I don’t do very often, or read the news, I can get pretty worked up and get into fear. Right.

And Dr. Pulley reminds me, none of this is a Surprise to God, this is exactly what is supposed to happen, and only good can come from it. Well, it sure doesn’t feel like it now. And it’s like, just keep doing your spiritual practices, Carol.

Just keep getting still and asking for the answers, and you’ll get what you need, and then you can provide that to other people, and they’ll get what they need, and it’s all going to work out. So he’s over in Africa right now, and I help him in the mornings on his program called the Daily Download live on Facebook. And I said to him, you know, it’s amazing how happy the people are there in Africa, because I’m guessing they don’t have very much materially.

And he said, yeah. And he said, guess what? And their government doesn’t provide for them. I said, oh, I’m kind of feeling like that might be the case starting over here.

And he said, yeah, they’re telling me now you can depend on God more. I love it. I know.

Isn’t that beautiful? I love it. Because they were so full of godly love. And when he landed on his plane and got off the.

I mean, they were amazingly positive, thankful, grateful people with very little. I mean, if they make $200 a month. Right.

That’s a lot. Right. So anyway, nothing is a surprise for God.

No. All right, we’re going to wrap up. It has been such a pleasure to have you on the show, and I’d like for you to tell everybody how they can reach you and what your full name and website and all that good stuff.

Oh, okay. So my full name is Franklin D. Rivera II.

And my website is ARP. So I’ll do it in the Army Phonetics. Alfaromeopapavisuals.com so ARPvisuals.com and number is 727-371-6334.

Or you can email me at frankrpvisuals.com Wonderful. And I had the good fortune of having Franklin help me with my first video for my first speaking event, most recent speaking event here, and he just did a beautiful job. Thank you.

So I highly encourage you, if you have any visual video needs, to give Franklin a call and chat with him, and even just to connect. So if Franklin’s story lit something up in you, take a moment today to pause and ask, what’s my inner guidance trying to tell me right now? Sometimes the next right step isn’t loud, but it’s always true. And until next time, trust yourself, listen closely, and move forward with purpose.

See you next time, Sam.