I founded and ran a nonprofit youth sports organization for over 30 years called the Berkshire Baseball & Softball Club, which later became the BIG Vision Foundation. We ran teams, tournaments and a 130 acre sports complex. I loved every second of what I did. I loved working with kids and teaching them leadership skills and life lessons through sports and community service. I thought that I would have died doing what I loved.
Then in 2019, I felt a calling from God for my wife, Sandy, and I.
We decided to leave our comfort zone and start a new journey.
I’ll be conducting speaking engagements and writing more books on our travels. More importantly, this is our chance to continue my mother’s legacy of giving back through volunteering.
We will tell the stories of the people that we meet along the way.
This is truly “The Journey of My Mother’s Son” and as Michael Franti says in the opening verse of his song, “Gloria,” “When many little people in many little places, Do many little things, then the whole world changes.” It will be our job to share and tell the stories of those “Many Little People” through this podcast and my writing. Some of the people that we interview may be famous, most will not be, but they’ll all have a story to tell about the difference they’re making. Some stories will still have a sports theme, others spiritual, some will be about music, others about food, some will talk about travel, but all will be about the many little people, in the many little places who are doing the many little things to make the whole world change. We pray that you enjoy these stories and are inspired to do your own little things to make this world a better place for all of us.
"Collect experiences, not things."
- Dan Clouser
A large part of the inspiration for my wife and I to live full-time in an RV came from my mom, thus the title of the podcast and my most recent book.
When she was in her mid-40's she decided to leave a good paying job and travel the country. She took an old 1967 Plymouth Valiant and removed the back seat, put in a sheet of plywood and a mattress that reached into the trunk to make a bed and took off with no real agenda.
She would stop to work if she felt that she was running low on cash. Once she stopped traveling full-time, she went back to school to become a drug and alcohol addictions counselor. She still traveled to volunteer. By that time, she had graduated to a little Toyota camper.
She did a lot of volunteer work with the Salvation Army, mostly during hurricane relief efforts in Florida, but her biggest impact was probably when she volunteered for almost a year at ground zero following 9/11.
After she passed, I loved reading about the people that she had met throughout her travels in her journals. When Sandy and I decided to follow in her footsteps, I thought that telling those stories about the people we've met and places we've been in real time through podcasting, blogging and social media would be pretty cool, however, my guests are not limited to those we meet through our travels.
For my first blog entry, I just took the dedication that I wrote for her in my first book and published it again. If you'd like to read it, below is a link:
Dedication, Loretta Magary, The Wind Beneath My Wings
As far as the show, it's a pretty casual conversation.
I do ask the same "final question" to all of my guests. The sub-title of the podcast is, "Many Little People in Many Little Places." Which is derived from the opening lyrics of the song, "Gloria" by Michael Franti, which go, "When many little people in many little places do many little things, then the whole world changes."
So, the final question that I would ask will be, “What are some of the little things that you do to help make the world a better place?”
In this episode of the Journey of My Mother’s Son podcast, I talk with Christian Ray Flores.
Christian was born in Moscow, Russia to a Chilean father and a Russian mother. The family moved to Chile when Christian was nine months old.
During the 1973 military coup of Augusto Pinochet, Christian’s father, Americo Flores, was arrested along with thousands of others and spent time in one of the infamous concentration camps. His mother Larisa and two children went into hiding under an assumed name and with a fake Argentinian passport. After Americo’s release, the family spent some time in a UN refugee camp and was granted asylum in Germany, moving to Munich. After living in Germany and Russia, Americo and Larisa moved to Mozambique, at the government’s invitation, which was recruiting international professionals after a mass exodus of Portuguese upon the nation’s independence. Christian learned four languages by age nine: Russian, Spanish, English, and Portuguese. After his parents’ divorce, Christian returned to Russia with his mother and sister in 1983. Christian got a master’s degree in economics in 1991 from the RUDN University in Moscow.
In 1993, Christian released his first single in Russia and became an instant success, winning awards like Generation ‘93 and Ovation in 1996 and playing nationwide. Back-to-back top ten hits culminated in his number one single, “Our Generation” – an anthem of freedom and change. It became a song widely used as the anthem of Boris Yeltsin’s election campaign. Christian campaigned for Yeltsin as part of the Russian version of Rock the Vote, credited to giving Yeltsin the youth vote and victory in the campaign.
After moving to the US in 2004, Christian worked for the international charity HOPE Worldwide, serving as a country director for Latin America, focusing on health care and education in nine different countries. He also developed and directed the Positive Choice education program, implemented around the US and internationally in Mexico, Jamaica, Indonesia.
Christian co-founded a production company, Hollywood World, in Los Angeles with his wife, Deb de Flores. Hollywood World allowed international artists to work with top Hollywood producers and directors. Among other projects, Christian did voice acting for the English and Spanish versions of Masha and the Bear, a popular animated TV series.
After moving to Austin, Texas, Christian and Deb co-founded (with Brandon Knicely) Third Drive, raising millions of dollars for startups and creating digital media projects for emerging businesses, public personalities and non-profit organizations.
Christian speaks to audiences in the US and internationally, hosts the Headspace with Christian Ray Flores podcast and YouTube Channel dedicated to success in career and calling Headapace newsletter. His short film Dance With Me was selected to several international film festivals, and its title song was released on all major music platforms.
In the first days of the war in Ukraine, the Ascend Mission Fund launched the Ukraine Relief Network, serving refugees in Ukraine. Christian and Deb personally visited Ukraine in September 2022.
In 2022, Christian and Deb launched the Xponential career coaching program for high achievers.
Christian and Deb have been active in Christian ministry in the US, Eastern Europe, and Latin America for two decades. They lead The Tribe, a community of faith in Austin, Texas. Ray frequently speaks to different audiences in the US and overseas. They are also active in philanthropy through their charity Ascend Mission Fund and projects like the Ascend Academy in Mozambique that lifts children out of poverty through developing character, communication, and computer skills.
To find out more about Christian, you can check out his website at https://www.christianrayflores.com/.
Vinnie Potestivo, Editor-in-Chief of
I Have A Podcast®
