From Redemption to Revolution: Richard Schreiber’s Mission for Change (Part 2)

How does one turn personal redemption into a force for global impact?

In this powerful continuation of Rise from the Ashes, Richard Schreiber reveals how faith, family, and purpose became the cornerstones of his transformation. Once caught in the throes of addiction and burnout, Richard found strength in his wife’s unwavering support and the profound responsibility of raising a daughter with Asperger’s. His journey from self-destruction to advocacy is a testament to the power of resilience and selfless service.

But his story doesn’t end with personal triumph. Richard’s deep commitment to autism awareness and ethical AI fuels his mission to create a more inclusive, innovative, and connected future.

Inside This Episode:

🔹 Faith, Family & Redemption – How spirituality and loved ones became Richard’s anchors
🔹 Fatherhood & Autism Advocacy – The personal mission that reshaped his purpose
🔹 Burnout Recovery & Mental Resilience – Lessons on managing energy, focus, and well-being
🔹 AI for Good – How ethical AI is shaping the future of entrepreneurship and inclusion
🔹 Peter Swain & the ROAI Community – Unlocking AI’s potential for transformation by 2025

From surviving his darkest days to leading the charge for ethical AI and autism advocacy, Richard’s evolution is an inspiring roadmap for anyone seeking purpose beyond personal pain.

🎧 Listen Now for an unforgettable conversation on faith, impact, and the future of AI-driven change.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Journey From Burnout to Brilliance
• 19:56 Transformation Through AI and Spirituality

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to part two, season five Rice and Ashes Burnout to Brilliance.

Speaker 1: 0:06

This part really excites me because we've gone through the harder times with Richard and he's back to share a bit more from the hard times, from the addiction, from the experiences of journalistic hell, going through interviewing egotistical people, going into it, burnout, alcoholism and other things he was subjected to. And now we come to the part of a show where I really like, where the lessons were now applied and he met somebody in his life that changed his life entirely and I believe you're still married to her, thankfully. Yes, she is a rock in your life and I love her to pieces, along with your daughter. Can you tell me and the audience, please, about that journey coming from addiction and that pathway but into the brilliance and that impact, not just with your wife but your daughter, because she plays a major role in your life? Yes, and family and faith and drive, emotionally, spiritually and mentally and physically, all comes from these components family and faith. Can you explain and tell the audience how that came about, please?

Speaker 2: 1:30

I was blessed, actually in a prior relationship, that in recovery they tell you, and certainly in a 12-step program you should never be in a relationship earlier than 12 months after your sobriety day. I met a woman a little bit much earlier than that and we got together. She was very faith-based and that was the right thing in my life at that time because it enabled me to touch base and reconnect with my roots and reconnect with my church, which I've been a member of since 1990. And now, as a member of the board of trustees, I've been in church leadership for some time and that's added a real responsible and color to my life. But that was really the springboard and again, that entered into one of the most productive, sober periods of my life. But then at the end of the 90s we grew apart and we had a very kind of painful breakup in the early 2000s. She has two wonderful daughters who I still am in touch with and love dearly. Children are forever, regardless of breakups and whether you're married or not. I have always felt that and her daughters are still very special to me and that really resonates that part of my soul that was medicated for so long and one of the beauties of having children or having exposure to children, is that it gets you out of yourself. It gets you from being an ego, self-centered kind of individual which is what I was to thinking about somebody else and understanding your role and your responsibility in shaping someone in a positive way whose life is just getting started or developing, and that really was a big change for me and changing my behavior. And then, to your point, you know, right after that other relationship failed, I met my life in an online Christian dating service and within a couple of months I knew she was the one and she still is and I married the preacher's daughter. I certainly put myself in even closer proximity to the good Lord and that's been a major component, I think, in the strength of our relationship over the years.

Speaker 2: 3:56

And then you mentioned my daughter. We had a child two years into our marriage. Early on, we were both up there in age and realizing we had an IVF, because I was 44, 47 actually when my daughter was born. My wife was 40. And through a miracle, we had a daughter and she's now 18. Seven years in, we discovered she had autism and actually Asperger's, and that's a journey unto itself, and I actually wrote a book about our particular journeys through our daughter best-selling book.

Speaker 2: 4:31

It didn't start out too well and we had to pivot. Having a daughter raising a daughter with special needs, I think, triggered an element of character and purpose in me that was missing through most of my life. Even up until that point I had some element of some degree of success, but I was empty inside. I lacked what we all hopefully have.

Speaker 2: 5:03

This, this question what is my purpose in life? Starting with my daughter, I discovered a purpose and, of course, having children is a purpose. But having a special needs child, when you have to step up and be her fierce advocate, when you realize how disadvantaged society puts her in those instances, in those places, how she was bullied in school, I needed to step up in a big way and I was ready. Through the good Lord, he gave me the strength and the perseverance to become what I've now become and, to extension, I've taken on a role in autism advocacy that I believe extends well beyond just our local community here in New York, where I set up a community group and ultimately come up with ways to provide solutions for parents with autistic children throughout the. I look at today and I say I still have a lot of unfinished business, but it was the calling that I really truly needed in my life, and I'm just so grateful for it. I'm not sure I would have found one otherwise, but it's here and it's very present to me and very precious to me.

Speaker 1: 6:48

I love that and it's testimony to yourself about resilience, because burnout isn't a sign of weakness. It's actually a call to rise within ourselves and to join a movement, not just an external movement and I know you've built one, richard, for autism but it's a call to movement, to move from where you are right now into a different version of yourself. Yeah, and this is what this podcast stands for. You're not alone here and everyone's trapped equally. So if you feel like you can resonate with this, subscribe, share it and change someone's life.

Speaker 1: 7:33

You mentioned earlier you had an epiphany through my cat wants only action, stay there. An epiphany through a faith, a belief and obviously a union, a spiritual union at that. And your daughter was part of that transition where you had to step up as a human being, as a father and as a role model. What effect did that have on you emotionally, in the transition of going? Oh my God, I'm now married, which is an amazing thing, and you're still married happily. But also you have and I want to reframe something for you and everybody out there. You said special needs. No one's special needs. Everybody is special in their own way. No one's special needs. Everybody is special in their own way and no matter what we present to the world, we are human, we are divine and we are people or entities of God. Whatever you believe in, we're energy forces and we're here to thrive. That journey changed your life, but the experiences set you up to embody who you are today. Would you agree with that?

Speaker 2: 8:53

yeah, and it's something. It's interesting. As you were talking about that, I realized maybe it's not special needs. Maybe that makes it sound like there's a deficiency. No, it's more like different needs. It's more. It's not special needs. Maybe that makes it sound like there's a deficiency. No, it's more like different needs. It's more like anything where we walk into a situation or a project or life and life throws us a curveball and we have to pivot in a different direction. Really made me rethink. We all have unconscious bias and those of who us, those of us who are neurotypical, have incredible unconscious bias towards those who are, uh, neurodiverse can I just add to that?

Speaker 1: 9:33

I can I? Sorry, richard, can I just add to that as well? It's a stigma and it's created by other people's perceptions around something that they've been trained to believe is true. So when I say this, it isn't a dig at people, it isn't an acknowledgement to we're separate or we're different Personality-wise. We're all going to be different because we have different belief systems. We have different values. I'm not going to go into them today, but it's a stigma created by society. What is it is? It's important to be aware that we are made up for stigmas. We are made up from other people's belief systems, but you can change them. Today, richard's just acknowledged that by having a different view, by having a conscious thought or a conscious belief, saying this is what it is, actually is and my belief is, and redirect it. Yeah, and that's important to recognize within yourself. So the listeners going here oh, she's different, that's different. No, at our core we're not. We have different expressions, but we're still souls, we're still human.

Speaker 2: 10:49

For sure, and even the distinction between a child with special needs versus a child with different needs. I believe I'm going to refer to my daughter now no longer as a child with special needs but as someone with different needs, because that's a more apropos description and one less colored by my own unconscious bias. So I'm grateful for this insight. I'm very humbled by again exposing my own unconscious bias. But to your earlier question, the question raising a daughter, raising any child is a wonderful journey and not just whether your child has different needs, because, as I said earlier, it takes you out of yourself.

Speaker 2: 11:36

In a marriage with children, as a man, rightfully your role changes. It's now not about you, it's about whatever you do is not only from a financial perspective but from a holistic perspective, is about your family, and I know the role burnout plays in a lot of it's a horrible disinfectant to that kind of paradigm. It's and I realized that at various intervals because I still have periodic flare-ups here and there and it manifests me in resorting back to old behaviors, the whole. They take no prisoners, the new york in your face kind of style that I grew up in and that's who I am when I don't temper that and when I don't access my heart and my humanity and my interactions with my wife and daughter. On that sense I'm still a work in progress, but it takes courage to admit that as well, Richard.

Speaker 2: 15:31

Yeah, but the benefits of what I have today I'm very grateful and present to. And, like anything else, when you screw up, you just admit it and ask for forgiveness as Christians. One of the strongest elements of being a Christian is forgiveness, and in a marriage, the number one characteristic in a wife is that she's good at forgiving, because we men can often push the boundaries beyond those limits, and I certainly have been guilty of that.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Yeah, I think we all have at some level. Yeah, I think we all have at some level. So I want to go into now strategic components to this. Many people think that change is effective and you've been through an amount, an immense amount of change. What strategies could you advise somebody to implement, starting today, to manage their energy, their level of focus for what they truly want to create in their life? And what lessons would you give someone from your own experience?

Speaker 2: 16:42

From my own experience, I got to a point where even I remember when the Rolling Stones talked about getting clean and sober in the 40s and they've stayed pretty true to that. Mick Jagger became a plant-based eater early on and when they recognized that what they did in the 60s and 1970s was just not sustainable certainly not having repeated blood transfusions to cycle out the impact of heroin. And yeah, I strongly advocate mind, body, health and spirit and getting those in alignment. I became much more active in my exercising running, biking. I actually took up triathlon as a vocation much later in life, ran my first competitive race at age 60, continue to swim, bike and run.

Speaker 2: 17:45

I eat relatively healthy are good for mental clarity, reversing aging, building my immune system, balancing out different aspects of my health and body, of course, diminishing or eliminating alcohol and pot. I grew up in the 70s, so I was smoking hash at age 15. And I lived up in the mountains in upstate New York so we had wild parties on the weekends and so it's in my DNA to want to do that stuff, but I've greatly dialed that back. Do a lot of reading, spend some time outdoors. It's really all about balance.

Speaker 2: 18:26

But again, in the spiritual part, I know it may not be everybody's interest or desire to declare themselves as Jesus Christ, as their Savior, but find whatever that means to you, understand the importance of finding your true moral core and live your life with integrity and take responsibility and accountability for what it is that you do. And, lastly, try to help others. Always be mindful that you never know who you help in life. You could be that push that gets someone to a higher stratosphere and remember those who have helped you and throughout your life. And it's not about keeping score, it's about paying it back and that's how we I believe we should live our lives I love that, richard it's, and for those people who are listening now, pause it, rewind it, and I found a VHS.

Speaker 1: 19:32

Go back a few moments and just go back and listen to what Richard just said. The moral compass comes with women. Integrity is part of that. Being focused and self-accountability, paying it forward, are all components to what a good human being in my own opinion, humbly should be. That all led to that next phase, though, for you, didn't it? It led to the discovery of through a well-known friend of ours called Peter Swain, and a shout-out to him Please come on the podcast because I want to interview you and what he's doing in the world. He implemented ai and you get on that bandwagon as well, and you've used some of your expertise not just to develop and pioneer some things is what you're doing now, but it also become your passion yes, it has, because and being part of Peter's group is special.

Speaker 2: 20:33

Not only is he an incredible thinker and thought leader, but he's also an incredibly generous and inspiring man. He is someone who is committed to using AI to make the world a better place, and that may sound lofty, but it's true. Ai, as I said earlier in our prior segment, even in the space of autism care, it has an incredible impact, and through the organization and the group that he's founded. Can you name the group please?

Speaker 1: 21:05

Richard.

Speaker 2: 21:06

Sure, it's called ROAI Return on Artificial Intelligence and while it's targeted to entrepreneurs and solo pracs, but I think there's a realization that America has this dichotomy where corporate America and capitalism runs in a different direction in most cases, direction in most cases where entrepreneurs and entrepreneurialism is where a lot of the innovation and a lot of the progress in humanity come from, because we are sure we're inspired to want to be successful and we're taught that being successful for example, being successful financially means that I can make my foundation more effective and more meaningful and have more impact in the world.

Speaker 2: 21:58

It's a juxtapose on the normal thinking about making all this money to buy material things, car and have a home and have those kinds of things. It's even nicer to be able to use your resources for good and to run a foundation or to help others or form a community, as Peter has done through his generosity. He could be making millions more doing capitalistic things, but he's chosen not to. He's chosen to take a very select group of us that I'm so humbled to be a part of, and you as well, to really want to affect change in the world, and that's a very strong motivating factor and success will happen. I'm convinced of it, because that's also part of the equation, but I'm equally excited about the impact that you and I, and others like us, can make in this world to come.

Speaker 1: 23:00

I think you said it on the nail on the head then, and it isn't just about the success now.

Speaker 1: 23:06

It's a success for our future, people like your daughter, for our future people like your daughter, millions of others who are in the transitional, and it's a very pivotal time in the world for many different reasons, and what Peter is providing for us potentially billions of people potentially is something that genuinely works, and he's one of the few people that I can testify with you as well that if he says something, he does it and he's exactly what he says.

Speaker 1: 23:40

He is on the tin, and there are very few people in the world at least in personal development, artificial intelligence, everybody I've met that can say that congruently all the way through, because a lot of people and I won't name them are very much out for themselves, and Peter is one of them that I class as a very good friend, the same as I do you, richard, that is not. He is generally out for other people, but he's also very humble. He's very grounded and down to earth. His wife, lizzie, is awesome and the community that he's built are equally awesome, and they're on very big missions in their own ways, but we come together collectively to help other people. Part of that and you can dress this up how you want and phrase it how you want is spiritualism, faith, god. Yeah, you rediscovered this lesson or this pathway very recently and you came into something within yourself through artificial intelligence, through self-awareness and coming through the lessons, but it also changed your perception and perspective of life completely, didn't it?

Speaker 2: 24:55

Yeah, it really did, and it's interesting that, coincidentally, I believe I joined Peter's mastermind at around the same time that I joined, or I made a decision to turn my life over to Jesus Christ. I don't know if that's serendipity or what, but it definitely was fantastic timing because it's given me a whole new outlook and purpose and it really has freed me from some of the prior shackles that I had on myself, some of the contradictions and conflicts and things that I won't go into the details. But I woke up one day, I looked in the mirror and I said you know what, Richard? You're not the man that God intended you to be, and it's now time to realize that and make a change, pursue that and turn your life over to Jesus Christ as my savior. And again, either at the same time or shortly thereafter, I joined the ROEI movement and it's been a blessing and just an incredible ride, since and yeah, AI is going to change the world, it already has.

Speaker 2: 26:06

2025 is going to be an incredible year. If we thought 23 and 24 were accelerated years in terms of AI advances, 2025 is going to 10x that and I think we all know that and I think there may be some trepidation. There may be some concern over that, but I know in our group we say you've got to learn to ride the horse sometime and now is the time. Otherwise you may end up being behind it and being kicked in the head by it, and God help us. We don't want that to happen. Our advice to anyone is to embrace AI. Take it little by little, step by step, but see how it greatly enhances and improves and expands on your life and what you do, and ask a lot of questions.

Speaker 1: 26:59

I think what you're doing now is really profound, richard. You've got a few things going on in your world. Richard, you've got a few things going on in your world. Where would you like people to go to visit you to have a conversation? What would you like to? What's your call to action for them to do today?

Speaker 2: 27:17

If you're interested in any way pursuing autism supports, please reach out to our foundation, the autisminnovationcommunityfoundationorg. Again, our foundation is about encouraging parents to really step into the role of advocacy. A lot of it has to do with mindset. We have to stop blaming ourselves and God and everyone under the sun if our child is autistic. I know it sounds difficult sometimes to understand that it's God's will, but it wasn't my case and it caused me to pivot in my life and enriched me in ways that I can't imagine. I know many parents of autistic children are the true heroes because day in and day out they support and love their children, regardless of their behavior and who they are, and just want to acknowledge them. On the AI side, please reach out to us at my website, res-consultingcom.

Speaker 2: 28:21

We're working on a bunch of different programs now with some partners to implement AI with effectiveness, with compliance and with proper guardrails. Unfortunately, about 80% of AI deployments fail because organizations that undertake deploying it don't take all of the aspects under advisement early on Change management, compliance, guardrails, security, standard operating procedures. There are a lot of ingredients that go into a successful deployment and, as someone who's had a history and a career of successfully deploying major software solutions with major corporations. I've been there and seen a career of successfully deploying major software solutions with major corporations. I've been there and seen a lot of things and been there. I'm happy to share my experience in helping those AI deployments through.

Speaker 1: 29:18

Awesome. Thank you very much, richard, for your time, your love and your energy today. I really encourage you to look up Richard. All the links will be below on the descriptions and if you're reading the blog or YouTube, again they'll be on the descriptions. Go and have a conversation with him. I highly encourage it. He's a human being that you need to know for your artificial intelligence needs and also if you're advocating for autism or you have an experience of someone who has autism at any level. My viewers, thank you very much for joining me and listening and tuning in. Please share this message. Please inspire somebody else. Remember, burnout isn't just stealing your energy. It's stealing your brilliance, your purpose and also your legacy. Your leadership in life is too important to let burnout win, so subscribe, join the movement of leaders and entrepreneurs transforming burnout into brilliance, purpose and generational impact. Ladies and gentlemen, your rise starts today. Thank you for listening. Richard, once again, you're amazing. Thank you for coming and spending time with me. I look forward to hearing from you very soon.

Speaker 2: 30:33

Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure and a privilege and an honor to be here.

Speaker 1: 30:37

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, share the message and enjoy your amazing day or evening, wherever it may be.