Navigating the Complex World of Government Affairs Consulting w/ Jack Gombach

Are you ready to demystify the role of a government affairs consultant?  Jack Gombach, from McNeese Strategic Solutions Group, is set to unravel this intricate web for us.  He'll take us on an enlightening tour, revealing how his team assists clients in navigating the complex grant space, liaising with elected officials and agencies, and showcasing the positive impact their endeavors have on communities.  It's a dynamic world where no two days are alike and client engagement is key to success.

But there's more, Jack's journey from Upstate New York to Albright College and his transition from political consulting to McNeese is a tale worth hearing.  His firsthand experiences and astute insights into campaign strategies offer a unique perspective on the importance of understanding your audience and creating a meaningful impact.  Prepare to be inspired as Jack shares anecdotes of bipartisan collaboration to pass beneficial community legislation.  #realestateandyou #government #jackgombach #bradweisman

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Welcome to The Brad Weisman Show, where we dive into the world of real people, real life, and everything in between with your host, Brad Weisman! 🎙️ Join us for candid conversations, laughter, and a fresh take on the real world. Get ready to explore the ups and downs of life with a side of humor. From property to personality, we've got it all covered. Tune in, laugh along, and let's get real! 🏡🌟 #TheBradWeismanShow #RealPeopleRealLife 

Credits - The music for my podcast was written and performed by Jeff Miller. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:32

Hello, this is Brad Wiseman. You're listening to Real Estate and you, we are back in the studio, or should I say down in the dungeon, right, you go. It's kind of like a dungeon down here. There's no windows, no, nothing, but somehow we end up down here. So, uh, we have a guest here today that I'm very, very curious about uh having on here, because I have to say I don't know a whole lot about his, what he does, but I see him a lot. His name is Jack Gombach and, um, he's a government affairs consultant for McNeese Strategic Solutions Group, mssg. It almost sounds like that thing. You're not supposed to eat MSG, right? You're just out of next dress to it, is that right? Hey, thanks for being here, man, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 1:14

Yeah, thanks for thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 1:15

Oh, no problem, man, this is great. I see you around a lot. You're always around openings of things, government things, uh, you know fundraisers, all these things. So what? Tell me what a government affairs consultant is? Yeah Well, let's talk about the firm first, yeah, let's talk about the firm.

Speaker 2 1:33

So, uh, mssg is part of the law firm McNeese uh Lawson Eric Harrisburg okay, I have offices in Ohio, pittsburgh, harrisburg. Lancaster big company Devon and um down in Maryland. Wow, so our team is comprised of about oh we keep adding more um about a dozen or so professionals, um, all with different backgrounds, all related back to government affairs, and they really started this to better serve clients Gotcha, and over the years that's really expanded to its own sort of standalone entity supporting everybody from the small nonprofit to some of the big massive corporate players uh, running around in Harrisburg.

Speaker 1 2:24

And when you say supporting, you mean supporting them in a way that you are bringing them to the political arena, or bringing politics, or or helping the politicians see that they need something.

Speaker 2 2:37

Yeah, so it's. It's really about helping the way I see it is helping our clients. Okay, um, engage and work better and more effectively with government. Okay, and that can mean that's not easy. It's not easy, and it's not easy in today's environment.

Speaker 1 2:53

Um but the because Republicans, democrats, hate each other. Is that? Why Is that? Could that be the reason why it's it's tough to do? I don't know.

Speaker 2 3:00

You know a little bit, you know a little bit, but, but what's great is our clients have great stories to tell, yeah, and our job is actually easy because what we're doing is telling their stories and and working with agencies and elected officials to help understand the impact of these organizations in their community and why they need support.

Speaker 1 3:19

Yeah, why, they need support. So how, how long does it take to convince a politician that what to do or how to help your clients?

Speaker 2 3:28

So it really kind of depends on the client. And then what are we really working towards?

Speaker 1 3:34

So like a nonprofit would be like grants.

Speaker 2 3:37

Yeah, so we do some work with nonprofits, helping them navigate the grant space and working with the agency. So we really sit down with our clients and really try to get an understanding of the work that they do and really try to get a feel for their impact and really make that case to the agency the length of the official. This is how your support and tax dollars is going to support their mission, their organization and really have an impact. And it's also about continued support, right, so making sure that they don't just help one year, but multiple years. Now, when you say support, that means money. It can mean a bunch of different things. So it can mean money. It can just mean letters, letters, right, letters, a lot in support of projects. But yeah, brass tax, it's money, yeah that's right.

Speaker 1 4:25

It's helping them get access to capital. Amazing, amazing. So are you effective at this? I mean, do you think you're good at this? I know I am, you know you are Very good. He's very confident, very confident. I love that. So a day to day thing would be meeting with your clients and saying, what can I help you with, what can I do? And then you go find the places to find. Like Grant, you're gonna go find the money from some type of a government program or something like that.

Speaker 2 4:52

Yeah, so our days as a team start early so we have a very team focused approach. So we all have clients that we're responsible for. But it feels like first thing in the morning very early, we all get on a quick huddle and we just talk about all right, what do we have this week, what do we need help with, what are our goals, and we kind of have that and then from there it's all bets are off. Yeah, it's okay, we have a client and they are looking to secure X Grant whatever Grant it becomes working with the client to get us information, testimonials, stories, scheduling, tours. So bring in elected officials down from Harrisburg and tour these facilities. And then something that we're starting to do now getting ready for the legislative session in the fall, getting our clients to Harrisburg. Got it, so I'm getting them there and making the pitch on their home turf.

Speaker 1 5:39

So is it better to get the client in front of them directly instead of just you? Always Right, it's like anything right.

The Career Path and Political Experience

Speaker 2 5:46

They're the best storyteller, yeah, and I find in those instances it's really good because their passion really goes through Absolutely and they're able to really tell stories and get engaged and talk about their mission and their impact and the lives that they're changing. So I'm very excited and very honored to kind of be part of that process and to help them, cause it really is a privilege to work with some of these organizations.

Speaker 1 6:10

What's the most challenging part of your job?

Speaker 2 6:12

The most challenging part is probably the most exciting part for me, and that's every day is different. And just because you have a plan at the start of your day doesn't mean it's gonna be, you know, something's not gonna happen. So, and what's the quote? Everyone has a plan until they're punched in the face. So that happens a lot. Oh, I don't know about that one.

Speaker 1 6:29

That's a new one. I think they got Mike Tyson. I don't think getting punched in the face is fun.

Speaker 2 6:32

Oh, if you're Mike.

Speaker 1 6:33

Tyson. Yeah, mike Tyson. Yeah, that's true, they'll just bite your ear off that. I mean, yeah, that's what happens. So, yeah, so that's the challenging part then. So what is what do you love to do with your job? What's the best part? I mean, you're at every social event. In fact, you kind of remind me, do you remember Mike opaque? Obviously.

Speaker 2 6:47

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 6:48

I mean, I'm opaque. I swear, Hugo, you don't remember him, do you? Yeah, he was a politician here locally who was in politics for a very long time. I had the privilege of knowing him and meeting him and being in his office up in Harrisburg and obviously he's passed since then. But I swear I used to say that there was a clone of the guy because I would go to one event, go to another event and he was there before I got to the next event. I'd be like how does he do this? I mean, I never understood how he was probably the best politician that I've ever met.

Speaker 2 7:19

There's some of those politicians who just have it down to an art. Yeah, they know when to leave events. They know when to show up, they know. Yeah, he would sneak out and then sneak back into another one. Yeah, they know all the entrances and exits and how to get in and out.

Speaker 1 7:29

It's incredible. So that's giving him a compliment. You know he was an amazing guy, so I kind of see you doing that. You're a lot of different places and that's part of your job. You're schmoozing, you're making relationships, you're networking, you're building rapport constantly, right?

Speaker 2 7:44

Yeah, and that's a big part of it, and I think the other part is there's so much going on in our community to be excited about that. I want to be at these events, right? I? want to be at these functions and support people when they're starting their dreams, and that's really what those ribbon cuttings and things are. It's people taking all these plans and their savings starting their dreams, and I want to be supportive and be a resource as much as I can, and whether that's professionally through the firm and helping them, you know, get access to capital to grow their business, or just showing up and buying a cup of coffee or something and being a patron.

Speaker 1 8:19

Have you ever thought about doing and I don't know if this is what you did before or not have you ever thought about like being on a campaign, like actually helping somebody get voted in?

Speaker 2 8:27

Yeah, so that was most of my career.

Speaker 1 8:29

That was most of your career Because you had your own company. It was a political consulting firm right, so is that that's what you?

Speaker 2 8:35

did yeah. So we did politics and managed candidates pretty much at every stage.

Speaker 1 8:42

So you manage candidates. Though, when you say manage candidates, that's kind of funny, because you know, I think the Republican debate that was on a couple, you know, weeks ago, whatever it was, they needed some management. There was yelling and everything else. Now would you, if you were in a situation like that, would you be backstage and then telling them hey, you're a little harsh, or you're not doing so well or it's not being received well?

Speaker 2 9:05

Debates are interesting and so yeah, we would. You were around with debates and something. I was very active in a lot of debates. There's a lot of negotiation that goes into debates especially behind the scenes, behind the scenes, before we even get to that right, there's a lot of prep and there's a lot of getting ready and there's a lot of negotiations. Speaking time who speaks first? Who's even allowed to be in the room during the debate? Who's allowed to be in the room? Oh, that's a huge thing.

Speaker 1 9:28

Interesting, like the audience. How many?

Speaker 2 9:30

guests, yeah all that stuff.

Speaker 1 9:32

Wow. Well, you know what's funny about that? And this is where I love this show, because we can go off on different tangents and things, because I'm very curious. But what's interesting about that? They always say know your audience. So if you know who's in your audience, you can you know what you're playing to yeah, look.

Speaker 2 9:47

so the strategy right is you want as many of your people in the room during the debate as possible. So every time you give a zinger, all your people go nuts and from the audience watching all you hear are cheers and whatever. So they people often don't know who's.

Speaker 1 10:03

They think everybody supports the person. Yeah, so it's an optics thing, it's a dance, so you think you would ever get back into that again, or no? Do you like that? That sounds fun, so it is fun.

Speaker 2 10:12

It sounds a lot more fun than what you're doing now, just so you know.

Speaker 1 10:16

I'm just being completely honest, jack, maybe you know yeah so they're, you know. He's like, he's like amazing, he's like I can't believe. He just said that. Yeah, sorry so.

Speaker 2 10:27

I love politics.

Speaker 1 10:28

Yeah, so do I I loved for many reasons.

Speaker 2 10:30

Yeah, but you know, for me politics was always a means to an end, right?

Speaker 1 10:34

The end should always be governing.

Speaker 2 10:36

Yeah, you get a little fun antics, but it's all about governing and doing the right thing Absolutely. So I ran candidates pretty much at every level, so I did some statewide work some local stuff I did was involved in some projects nationally which were really cool.

Speaker 1 10:51

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2 10:52

And was really getting to a point where I had to kind of decide, okay, this is no longer just like a little fun hobby where I make some money on the side it's, am I gonna take this to the next level? And just sort of found myself in a different position in life and said I'm gonna go back to Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1 11:09

Well, that's what you said too. You came here from New York, right Upstate New York we're gonna call that Upstate New York and you got here. You were gonna go somewhere else and you ended up at Albright. Yeah, so Like, how does a guy from New York end up at Albright?

Speaker 2 11:28

So during that whole point of looking at colleges and friends are applying, I was all about Drew University and I was gonna apply to Drew. I was gonna get into Drew, that was the plan. So I met with my guidance counselor and he said, jack, you gotta apply for more schools. And I said why? Like cause? In case you get turned down. Right, they didn't even cross my mind. That wasn't even a positive.

Speaker 1 11:49

So you're that positive, that's good. You have a good positive, that's right. You're in one direction, that's it. Yeah, good for you.

Speaker 2 11:54

And then I get do it for me. Yep, let's print down a list of colleges and let's find one that fits Right. So he prints out this list of schools and I look at the list and I'm like Al Albright reading.

Speaker 1 12:07

Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 12:08

It was the first one cause it starts with an A. It was right up there.

Speaker 1 12:12

This is why the companies will say ABC Roofing, it's because years ago you go through the phone work.

Speaker 2 12:17

It was the first thing. That's hilarious. That's hilarious and I was like this one. This looks good. This reading, yeah reading. I think, it's on the Monopoly board right. Let's go there.

Speaker 1 12:27

Oh, that's great.

Speaker 2 12:27

So end up getting waitlisted at Drew, get accepted into Albright and we're in the kitchen and my dad's like I guess we gotta go take a tour.

Speaker 1 12:38

I'm like yeah, I think we do, Since they accepted you in the other places. He's waiting and it was.

Speaker 2 12:43

I was kind of like so we go down there and I take one step on campus.

Speaker 1 12:47

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:49

And I mean I felt at home. It was amazing. I loved my courses, I loved the professors.

Speaker 1 12:54

It's a good school.

Speaker 2 12:55

I met all my friends there and it just it was right. It was the right place, right time, and I love the college. I'm still a strong advocate for it.

Speaker 1 13:04

Yeah, yeah, good for you. And then you met your you're not white at the time wife, but you met your wife then.

Impact and Service in Public Office

Speaker 2 13:10

Yeah. So we met at Albright, didn't start dating until after college, and then one thing led to another and now we're married and we're getting ready to honeymoon and all that.

Speaker 1 13:23

Oh cool, that's awesome man, very cool. So let's go back into the government stuff, all right. So where do you see this going for yourself? Like, do you think you're gonna stay in this realm now that you're with the MSSG? I mean, do you think this is what your plan is to do, or do you have aspirations to do something that's even more than that?

Speaker 2 13:42

So for me it's all about impact and doing the most good. And I ran for County Treasurer a couple of years ago, really saw that office and I still do. It was a very important under the radar office in County government, very passionate about finances and making sure that things are running smoothly, yeah so, and then before that I was the council president, west Reading. Yeah. So for me it's just about impact right and doing the most good and serving the most people. I will say, since that race, since running for county treasurer, I've taken a more broad view of what that means. And if you would talk to me a couple of years ago, I would have said you know, the ultimate form of service is public service and being an elected official right Because you are, you know, you have earned the trust of the public and they are elevating you to this position to serve the greater community. Now I'm taking a much more, because of my work with MSSG, a more broad view of what does that look like? What does service look like? What does impact look like?

Speaker 1 14:44

Okay, so run for something else again at some point. I'll never rule it out Okay. Typical political answer? Yeah, typical. Oh my God, I'll never rule it out that's just such a but you know, and I've had offers and I'm not going to say it here Maybe we should do Z-A-Ball. Are you going to run for any kind of office again? We'll do that later, but but so seriously you might do it again yeah.

Speaker 2 15:09

Yeah, I loved running. Running countywide was amazing. It's a huge county, it's very diverse county Very much and I really enjoyed just having very frank and honest conversations with people in Hamburg and then, you know, the next hour later we're down in Coomer, so just kind of zipping around talking to people. But I'm really enjoying what I'm doing. Good, I'm being able to help nonprofits and companies and people think differently about government.

Speaker 1 15:35

Everybody's very jaded and they're not able to say no, no, like we can get this done.

Speaker 2 15:39

This is not impossible. It's not the movies, it's not like we can do this. Yeah, being able to help them tell their stories is important.

Speaker 1 15:46

So you're you're seeing the good side of politics. You allow what we see, you know, in in the public is obviously through the lens of the media. Yeah, and we see always the bad parts of politics. So you're saying that when you get into the inner workings and you're in Harrisburg or you're, you're actually in the ditches up there. It's not as people actually do get along, they actually do work together. Yeah, which is a good thing to hear. You know, it's something that's really good to hear, because we all think it's doom and gloom in Harrisburg or in Washington or whatever. So you're saying it's not like that always.

Speaker 2 16:21

Yeah, I mean, I think people like to fixate on the bad, the doom, the gloom and its sales, and it's you know, I think it's very in vogue right To when people talk about the city, talk about all the bad stuff. Yeah, yeah, unfortunately, that overshadows a lot of the good that's going on. And I tell people, you know one of the first things in the session of the of the new year, republicans and Democrats came together to support legislation to make it easier for breast cancer screening, right, and nobody talks about that.

Speaker 1 16:49

That was like one of the first thing, they're like we're going to get this done. Yeah, it's a win for everybody.

Speaker 2 16:53

It's a win for. And there's so many stories like that where them saying, nope, this is a good idea, we're going to come together, we're going to fix it, we're going to get it done, and we just need to tell more of that and focus more on that.

Speaker 1 17:02

Yeah, Well, I think the media, the meat it doesn't sell.

Speaker 2 17:04

It doesn't.

Speaker 1 17:05

It doesn't sell, it doesn't make it TV it doesn't get you worked up, it doesn't give you your blood pressure going. You know that stuff.

Speaker 2 17:10

But I think everyone has these ideas that it's like, you know, house of cars or whatever, and that's really not what it's like. Yeah, you know, these are very, for the most part, right, very smart people. Yeah, you know there's always something, and don't you think they're?

Speaker 1 17:24

all there to do that. They all think where that, no matter what side you're on, you feel your ideas are what's best for the American people and for the people in that you represent. Nobody really wants things to go wrong, so it's one of those things that I just think it's just.

Speaker 2 17:39

We all have a different opinion on how to get to a certain place, yeah, and I think look for the most part, and there are definitely people there that should not be there that are selfish and absolutely in it for the wrong reasons, just like in every business. Yeah, but I think on the whole, on the majority, people wake up and say what's the best thing I can do to help our community our country and you know you'll be able to tell pretty quickly who's who and the right reasons. They show their they show who they are.

Speaker 1 18:06

Yeah, yeah, man, amazing. Hey, I want to thank you for coming out. We're actually already at time which is amazing that went quick. It was fast, really quick. Yeah, I just want to say thank you for coming out, thanks for answering my questions, and will you come back Absolutely when you have other things to talk about, other things that you want to? You're getting into. There's so much. There's so much. I know there is. You gave me all kinds of things, but the show is only about 18 and 19 minutes, so we got to get going so, but thank you so much for coming out. Here's Jack Gombach. You're with McNeese Strategic Solutions Group, mssg, and if they would want to get in touch with you, if they have questions about what you do, how would we get in touch with you?

Speaker 2 18:42

LinkedIn email just go to the MSSG website. All of our contact information is there. Get a better feel for who we are. Yeah, Cause you're on Facebook, You're everywhere. You're everywhere Just on the street, you know yeah, exactly, he's everywhere.

Speaker 1 18:53

He really is Like just like Michael Bake was Amazing, unbelievable. All right, there you have it. Some government fairs stuff there. That was actually fun. I think I stuck them on a couple of things there, some questions you weren't ready for, but that's all right. All right, that's about it. We'll see you next Thursday at 7pm. Thanks for listening.