The Church of the Souls Evolution with The Reverend Blake Rubie Mental Fitness, Army Values, and Business Leadership with Silvia Villarreal Reverend Blake Rubie welcomes business coach Silvia Villarreal for a conversation about mental fitness, the Army values he lived by for decades, and the responsibilities of leadership. The episode also covers his kidney donation to his son and the value of drinking water, a departure from the show's usual heaven and spirituality topics. Toastmasters Roles and a Warm Welcome Reverend Blake Rubie opens the program on Saturday, October 3rd, by calling guest Silvia Villarreal on the line after producer Don connects her. The two greet each other warmly and explain that they share a Toastmasters club called Beyond Basics, which meets on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Rubie notes that Villarreal serves as Vice President Education there, and that he holds the same post at another club, a role that means coordinating meetings, filling speaking roles, and publishing agendas. He describes Toastmasters as practice for the moment when someone asks a listener to speak to a hundred people without warning. Villarreal then introduces herself as a business and life coach who has found a program called Positive Intelligence, which trains the mind toward positive thinking. She says she heard Rubie's recent talk on mental fitness and wanted to continue that conversation about how it can help people. Army Values and Mental Fitness Rubie explains that his remarks on mental fitness come from his years with the US Army, which he served for 22 years on active duty, then as a contractor for over six years and a civilian for almost sixteen. He describes the service's core values, which include mental, physical, and spiritual fitness, eating the right food, and getting enough sleep. Mental fitness, he says, means staying sharp and focused on the task at hand, and the Army pushed him to finish an associate's degree and then a bachelor's of science, a process that took 23 years after high school. Soldiers also keep reading field manuals about their Military Occupational Specialty, which Rubie says keeps them educated and not only fighting wars. Villarreal responds with respect for military service. She spent over 21 years at USAA, where she learned about the lives of service members and their spouses. She says many friends and relatives in San Antonio, Texas, have military ties, and she has seen how war affects people who readjust after returning from Iraq. PTSD, Trauma, and a Kidney Donation Rubie says PTSD is an issue for many people beyond war combat veterans, since many experiences across a lifetime can cause trauma. Villarreal agrees, and then Rubie shares a personal story. He donated one of his kidneys to his son, and he receives disability payments connected to that surgery. He says the donation changed his life, though not dramatically, and that a person can live well with one kidney but must take care to protect longevity. His son was ten months old and had spent about seven months on dialysis, vomiting constantly, when the donation happened. Rubie says his former wife could not donate because of a family history of kidney disease and borderline diabetes, so the task fell to him, and he would do it again. Villarreal calls the donation a gift and says God blesses such selflessness. Rubie reports that his son, now 32, is on a second kidney, a transplant from his best friend's mother in Ohio, after the one his father gave him lasted 19 years. Water, Health, and Lingering Fatigue Rubie recalls that his son's book, Finding Faith Through Dialysis, describes a childhood of gummy bears and soda pop. Rubie says children need healthy eating, including vegetables and protein, because poor eating harms the body even in childhood, and he believes his son's diet led to needing another transplant. Rubie urges listeners to drink their daily recommended amount of water, which he says could help prevent kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Villarreal agrees that bodies are largely liquid and that purer water is better. Rubie notes that smoothies, juices, and flavored water are good options, but nothing compares with plain water, which he compares to a dying desert traveler who would take a glass of water over an ice-cold beer. He then describes fatigue after the donation, which dulled the raw strength he once showed on the Army Physical Fitness Test. Rubie says his right lower abdomen felt like a board after the surgery, as nerves were cut and took years to grow back. From USAA to Coaching With FocalPoint Villarreal returns to her own story. After 21 years at USAA, she says a Capital One job offer required a move to Virginia during COVID, but her father had died and her family came first, so she stayed in San Antonio. After soul-searching, she bought a franchise with FocalPoint to coach, sharing lessons from about 25 years of growing from an individual contributor into a leader. FocalPoint's leadership framework, she says, serves business owners and employees building careers, and she stresses that a leadership title brings responsibility to protect people, at times acting as a human shield. A good workplace, she argues, shapes employees' families, children, and neighbors, so she urges human resources leaders to invest in culture. She also describes six businesses she has run, the first of which closed and still hurts, and her certification as an exit planning advisor, since only about 20 percent of businesses are able to sell. Many owners, she notes, count on their business for retirement, so she helps align companies to sell and keep more profits. Goals, Communication, and a Farewell Rubie asks about Villarreal's goals and dreams, mentioning a former club member who became a hospital CEO and moved to Houston. Villarreal says her current aim is to make executives' and teams' lives easier, since communication makes or breaks a project or relationship. A teacher's one inspiring word, she adds, can shape a child's future, while miscommunication can hurt a person for years, so she wants to train minds to communicate carefully, as Table Topics does in Toastmasters. Her stated goal is to keep growing as a certified professional coach so she can help others grow. Rubie calls it a good answer and notes that the program is nearly out of time. He recalls that his show once ran 55 minutes before shrinking to 30, and that time flies when people are talking. Rubie thanks Villarreal, hopes listeners found ideas to apply in their own lives, and says goodbye. He closes by wishing listeners God's blessing, urging them to look up at the stars, and promising to talk again next week.
