The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
What Running A Business Teaches You About Running A State | Brad Raffensperger
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What happens when an engineer and small business owner steps into public office—and decides to run for governor?
Summary:
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger joins us to share how his background as an engineer and entrepreneur shaped his approach to leadership, public service, and running statewide systems that impact millions of people.
We explore the parallels between running a business and running a state agency—from managing payroll stress and navigating recessions to building teams and maintaining public trust. Brad explains how early lessons in risk and cash flow influenced his leadership style and why mentorship and peer accountability were critical to building strong organizations.
The conversation also dives into what the Secretary of State actually oversees beyond elections, including professional licensing and modernization efforts like Georgia’s paperless licensing system. Brad walks us through the 2020 recount process, ongoing election security improvements, and why transparency matters in maintaining confidence in the system.
Finally, we discuss his decision to run for governor and the priorities shaping his platform, including affordability, job growth, public safety, and education.
If you're a business owner, you'll recognize many of the same leadership challenges—just at a much bigger scale.
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari
💡 GOLD NUGGETS
• How an early entrepreneurial leap taught Brad critical lessons about risk and cash flow
• Surviving boom-and-bust cycles in construction and manufacturing
• Why mentors and peer accountability help leaders make better decisions
• What the Georgia Secretary of State actually manages beyond elections
• How Georgia modernized professional licensing with a paperless system
• Inside the 2020 recount and the push for stronger election security
• Why Raffensperger believes business experience matters in government leadership
🔗 Guest Links
• Website: https://sos.ga.gov
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-raffensperger/
🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari
• Instagram | @smallbusinesssafaripodcast
• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/
• Website | https://chrislalomia.com
Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!
Small Business Safari Opens
SPEAKER_01Your background was I went to school, I worked in engineering, and then I started a business in engineering. Uh my wife was b uh B to C, but I had never really been B to C. And my background was my entire life, I in high school I worked in a machine shop, then I went and got my uh mechanical engineering degree and then uh obviously then into master's. Then I get into corporate America and I start this handyman business. And next thing I realized, it took me two months, but I went like this and went, oh my God, I got a retail company. I have never worked with the general public. Man, they're nuts. These people are crazy. There are a lot of crazy people out here. And so you got out there not having had to deal with too many of the crazies. Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your extent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari. All right, here we go, Alan.
SPEAKER_02You did it.
SPEAKER_01We're one of a kind. Got it started. How about that? That's pretty good. Guys, we got another great episode coming this way. Man, we've been doing this for four and a half years, and we try to bring you all kinds of great ideas and great people and awesome ideas about how to run your business better. But today we have got somebody, it's probably the most famous person we've ever had on our podcast, Alan.
SPEAKER_02We have outpunted our coverage today. We did it. Yep.
SPEAKER_01We absolutely did it. We've had a lot of big people in their small spheres of influence. And uh we like to think, well, okay. I know you think you're kind of a big deal. I'm kind of a big deal, Alan. Thank you. I just wondered if you were gonna say it. Thank you, buddy. Uh so uh but one of the things that I've just always been enamored with is that people who decide they want to get into public service and you everybody sits on the sidelines and likes to take pot shots and then start opining about, you know, well, they should do this and they should do that, and you know, Washington's not helping me, or you know, the state doesn't help me. And I, you know, my comeback always has been, well, have you ever gotten involved? Have you have you ever thought about running? Uh absolutely have not. Uh, I've actually been asked, uh, but I uh I have been asked too, and I'm like, I am way too thin-skinned. Woo!
SPEAKER_02I but it was uh it was a local election, and there was somebody who had a really uh easy to remember name, like a really common name, and you in a small town that's just gonna get votes because it's like you know, Bob Smith. And and uh, but this person was nuts, not Bob Smith. Okay, thank God. Yeah, yeah. No, this person was just like a lunatic. And so, like, we just need somebody who people know, you know, because I was very involved in the city at the point, at that point. And I'm like, I I can't do it. I just can't do it, even at the local level.
SPEAKER_01You know, when you start looking at why do why do people do this? Uh, I don't know the answer to that because I've never really been up close to somebody and asked somebody. Well, I think we're gonna find out. All right, guys, who do we got today? We've got Brad Raffensberger, he is the Georgia Secretary of State, elected two times, and has decided that's not enough. He wants to run for governor. And Brad, welcome to the show. We're excited to have you on. I can see this is gonna be a lot of fun. So I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00So thanks for the invite, Chris.
SPEAKER_01You know, I appreciate it. Yeah, actually, you know what we did is uh we saw Brad at a Steve Beechum party. Uh and and Steve is now the number one person who's ever been on our podcast. I think he's been on four times now.
SPEAKER_02It's like the Saturday Night Live five-timer club.
Why He Wants To Be Governor
SPEAKER_01He is, he's getting there. And uh we saw we saw you there and we said we cornered you and said, listen, we got this great idea. You're like, sure. I know you'd known Alan for a while, you haven't known me, and but we appreciate you coming on. And this is exciting. And I think before we go back to the beginning and how you started this, uh why are you running for governor? I mean, after being in the middle of all this, why are you doing this? Just jumping right in. I got to because why tease it? Let's go. Okay. All right. I want to know.
SPEAKER_02Okay, then we'll go back.
Early Life And Moving To Georgia
SPEAKER_00Then we're gonna go, then we're gonna stop and go back to how you started a business. Well, I'm a Christian conservative businessman running for governor to make Georgia affordable and safe. And as we talked, you know, this hour we can flesh that out. But uh a lot of it has to do with business. And if you want to really make life affordable for folks, they need a good paying job. And that'll be my focus as governor. And then obviously, you want to have safe communities and safe schools and strong public safety. And so obviously, I live here in Johns Creek, and this is where we're doing this show. And it's one of the safest communities in America, and that's really important. We have good schools, safe communities. Uh, it just attracts businesses and it's a great place to live. And that's what you really want, and that's what I want for all of Georgia. And so that's that we can, you know, obviously dig into some details. I'll let you go for the first another second question. All right, I'm gonna go back to the beginning. So when you were in high school, did you want to do this?
SPEAKER_02Oh no, I I wanted to take out no I'm gonna come up with like 12 different ways to ask him why are you doing probably. That's a little upset.
SPEAKER_00But I was I I always had an interest in having my own business, and that was really my dad did well in the company he was at, uh, but he was like the number two vice president of operations. But you really don't control that company, and if you don't have great leadership, next thing you know, that company could have hit a rough spot, and then all of a sudden, here you are, 50 years old, you know, looking at okay, can I get a group of these guys together and we'll start another company, which is what he did. Uh, but it's one of those kind of things I wanted to control my own destiny, but I also thought it'd be a lot of fun and I love the challenge.
SPEAKER_02So, where'd you grow up?
SPEAKER_00Um, really all over the place because my dad was in the construction business. So I was born in Pennsylvania, but I actually only lived there four years. Uh, then lived two years uh up in the Messina, New York, uh Cornwall, Ontario place, because my dad worked on the St. Lawrence Seaway for two years, then the Mohawk Power Dam in Niagara Falls, New York. Wow. And then uh ended up, he got uh working on a project up in Montreal, and then that's when the Canadian president of this company that was headquartered out of Philadelphia, uh, he said, Hey, would you like to come up to Toronto? So we got relocated up there. We don't get a choice when you're you know graduating from the fourth grade. You ever pile all the kids in the you know this old beater car and you're going north. And so that's we lived there for several years. And uh actually I lived a little bit in Michigan, and that's why I asked about your parents and in-laws. Yeah, uh, we lived there for about six months over in Ipsilani, uh Ann Arbor. Uh, and so I took a grad course there while I was working a job, and I got those really cheap student tickets, and I'd never been to a place with 105,000 people show up at a football game. That was cool.
SPEAKER_01You went to the big house at Michigan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. I grew up 30 minutes away from there. So and uh lived in, we lived uh bought our first house actually in northern Virginia, working for a specialty contractor, and I got a promotion to come down and run the Atlanta regional office in '82. And so this is where we moved to. Uh had one son already born, and Trisha's about seven months pregnant when she got down here. And we've never looked back. We just love Georgia.
SPEAKER_01Where'd you meet your wife?
SPEAKER_00High school.
SPEAKER_01Yeah?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Whoa. What which high school? Because there were you were a lot of places. Is she Canadian?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's Canadian. Oh my gosh, really? Yeah. And so uh got my engineering degree. Uh and we actually started dating in high school, obviously. And uh halfway through engineering school, I asked her to marry, marry me, and we got married. And while you were going to engineering school, while going to engineering school, but hey, my grades went up because I didn't know I didn't have all these distractions, you know.
SPEAKER_02But she said yes. Your distraction right now, you know, you got a little uh he's referring to the brown. Yes. Our listeners know. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's right. We're drink we're drinking bourbon.
SPEAKER_02He is definitely not, he's got a bottle of water in front of him.
SPEAKER_00It's just uh a great two years, and uh any anyway. We end up, you know. I'm gonna move back to America and uh never look back.
SPEAKER_01You got your engineering degree up in Michigan in uh in Canada.
SPEAKER_00In Ontario. Oh, yeah, whereabouts? In London, Ontario, halfway between Toronto and uh Detroit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh what's the name of that school? Yeah, that's where they got it wrong.
SPEAKER_02Got it. Ah we do because we talk a lot about AI on this podcast, and it it was so wrong. We did a quick search on Brad. Failed miserably. Said he went to Western Kentucky, he's a hilltopper. I was gonna talk about all the crazy helmets they had. Said he was born in Nebraska.
SPEAKER_01You're bringing up all the stuff you bring you're bringing up all the stuff we said we weren't gonna bring up. Thank you, Alan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're such a good co-host. We've done projects and I've been registered as a structural engineer uh in Nebraska, but never been there. It's one of those kind of states. I'd probably be a nice place to go. So don't trust AI. That's C. Yeah, there yeah, right. Thank you, Alan. See? I'm right and you're wrong on that. Right. All right, fine. So I'm gonna shoot you straight today, give you all the skinny.
Buying A Daycare With Almost No Runway
SPEAKER_02All right, let's do it. All right, so you come down to Georgia and you landed in Johns Creek right away?
SPEAKER_00No, um, actually lived over uh first house. Well, we rented a home in Duluth while they're finishing our home in Duluth, the brand new home. And that's when, if you remember, uh 1982, we were coming off that Jimmy Carter inflation and it interest rates, mortgage rates were 16.5%. And people sometimes say, no, they couldn't have been that high. Yes, they were. Uh so we bought this house and we had some equity from our house in Virginia, paid 73, sold it for 93, bought this one for 125. Two years later, I told Trisha I want to sell it, and we sold it for 160. And with all that money, uh, I told her, I want to buy, I want to buy a business, and we'll just move to a fixer up or in pretty handy, just like you are. And that's what we did. And we moved to Peachtree Corners, a little ranch, and uh I started working on that thing and put some new carpet in and some painting, things like that. And uh Trisha said, Well, if you can find a child care center, yeah, then she could run it and have our two boys with her during the day. And I did. And we leveraged up everything we had to buy our first business.
SPEAKER_01So your first business was in child care, but you stayed in corporate.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I kept on working. I was running the regional office for another really uh I can't, you know, in 87 I left. But when we bought that business, and it was really January, you can say January 85, uh, we were leveraged up and we had enough money for probably one and a half payrolls. Uh and so we knew that the parents would be paying every week.
SPEAKER_01Amen, brother. He knows he knows it.
SPEAKER_00I'm good with it, I'm good with numbers. I'm an engineer, and I I've I was I think by that time I had my MBA from Georgia State, had finished that. And so uh that's probably helped qualify me for a loan. And the guy just looked at my pack of information, I got together, and he took a flyer on me. He says, Yeah, you look like a guy's gonna pay it back. Because I gave him a stack about an inch tall of everything. Yeah. And so we took it, this child care center, licensed for 133, and Trisha got it filled. It was half filled, and got it filled. It went about nine months or so, uh, just because she did a great job. And then my job was uh evenings, weekends, cut the grass, cut the bushes down because it had so much deferred maintenance, and you just keep on working. Then when you get enough money, okay, get some new carpet, you know, and just keep on doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that. All while working, you're nine to five or eight to five.
SPEAKER_01Well, I don't know if you ever worked. You probably worked a little bit more than that, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But when you're young and broke, you gotta do what you gotta do. You gotta run it. And so that's you gotta just do what you gotta do. And so we did, and then we actually expanded and we got that up to 174, and we ended up with a waiting list there. And about three years later, uh, I started my business. Uh, and so we started the specialty contracting company. And for a few years I had a partner, uh, and so we continued to grow that for about six months, and she said, It's time to sell this business because it's tough to have two businesses at the same time. Right. And so uh this is what we've done. And I'm a specialty, sold the business in 2023, but uh we did structural design. Um, we are engineer of record. Uh, tallest building I did as engineer of record was I think 21 stories uh down at the beach, and we've done other stuff. Um, worked in 40 different states over the years, just kept on building a business. Our first manufacturing plant was in Columbus, Georgia, and started with 10,000 square feet. Then we doubled it to 20. And then we outgrew that. We bought a building that was 105,000 feet, so we had more room to grow. And then we had ended up with another facility up in Forsyth County with 94,000 feet. So I understand manufacturing, understand construction. We did structural preservation, historic uh preservation, which is when you take an old building and make it look.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, I love that. Or you got to save the facade kind of a thing.
Building A Manufacturing Company Through Recessions
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh actually structural strengthening. Just sometimes someone of years ago, or you have some corrosion, things like that. And then we did new structures, post-tension concrete buildings.
SPEAKER_01So you know he makes it sound easy, Alan. You know, just get together, start a daycare, sell daycare. Yeah, start a business while your wife's probably running a business, and you know, and then I'll just start manufacturing, I'll do a special guy. So so it was just all roses, huh? You never had a problem because I had I've been at this for 18 years. Let me tell you what my butt feels like.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, every business running for a governor. I think one of the best backgrounds you can almost have, maybe, is construction. Find someone that's in a cyclical business, boom, bust. And then all of a sudden, I think that they never lose sight of how tough it can be. Because we've had recessions where no, we're not taking a paycheck right now. We have enough money saved up and we just kind of hope, you know, six months, nine months. The 2008 was really tight. But we got through that.
SPEAKER_01I don't I don't remember that year. Alan still has PTSD. We twitch. If you listen to this podcast, you know that right now Alan is now muted his headphones. He's not listening anymore.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a lot of people that didn't get through the 2008-2011 depression. It was a it was a depression in the construction industry, real estate industry. Other folks, it was just really, really slow, and it was it was really tough. It was ugly. But we came out of that um actually debt-free, just because we really ran a tight shop during that recession. But that goes back to 2003. I talk about it in my book, Integrity Counts. Um, they were hit with these terrors from George W. Bush, and they hit us because there were they said that there's foreign strand producers selling product in the U.S. Well, the U.S. market was only supplied 50% by domestics, they just didn't have enough production capacity. So you had this foreign stuff coming in, but then you start having people come from in the you know these these countries that were just basically dumping. But I had all this backlog at one price, and next thing you know, it goes up 40%. So you got to adjust real quick, and that's not that's not fun. But we worked through that and we got through that other recession, and then we came out, and from 12 onward, uh, strong economy, but again, kept kept on getting growth. But uh President Trump's first term was really supercharged the economy. He did an awful lot to help uh really help entrepreneurs with some of the uh immediate depreciation, the immediate expensing, which really helps small business owners. That that's the other thing I would say uh when you're a small business owner, and that's us that are really, you know, we go to hip national bank, it's what's in your back pocket. That's right. Whereas when you're a publicly traded company, you're fully capitalized because you you're in the you know public markets. So you really never have to worry about cash flow, things like that. You have to worry about your board. I I I know that. I had to worry about my banker, with that's my board. You know, that's the accountability measure right there. But we kept on growing our company, and we ended up uh we were at a probably about a peak of 250 employees that should have been production workers in the in the manufacturing plant, and then you know, we'd like field craft workers, engineers, drafters, uh, and then support staff like project managers, estimators. So it was a really a diversified company. That really was.
SPEAKER_01That's that is a diversified workforce, too. And so you know what it's like. And and you know, and right now we're going through something, you know, when we're recording this about talking about our TSA disruption, you know, like I can't believe you guys aren't working without a paycheck. I'm like, uh, yeah, I can, because I'll tell you what, I have never missed a payroll in 18 years. And I tell you what, if I miss payroll, I got a feeling a lot of them are coming back on Monday. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00You got it.
SPEAKER_02And that's no, you've told your story over and over again about how you went and collected that one check and tried to make it seem like not a big deal, and then got to the bank at 10 minutes before it closed and tried to make it seem like it wasn't that big of a deal just to get it in so you could cover payroll.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that's and that's really the life of a small business owner. It's not always going to be easy street. At some point, you work it long enough, don't give up, persevere. Uh, and I think also along the way, what you have to learn is you can't do it all yourself. You have to build a strong team. And I think you really need to have mentors. And I'm just really fortunate. Uh I really got involved in our church uh with a group of men's ministry, and one of those fellows actually was in a in a Christian peer uh group, Christian business owners. And I started joining that after coming through that 2003, 2004 just challenge, my fit tail feathers were on fire. And so I never want to go back to that. And so I was looking for belts and suspenders, and I joined that group and we had accountability. You're talking to other business owners, and they kind of check in what are you doing here? What are you doing but there? And what about the do you have any problem areas? Do you have any employees that need strengthening? Things like that. So you were never getting over your skis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And Warren Buffett talks about, you know, you can always tell who's been swimming naked when the tide goes out.
SPEAKER_02So at some point, you've got this business, it's it's successful, and uh you suddenly there's there had to have been a catalyst for you to run for local city council.
From Business Owner To City Council
SPEAKER_00I think what it is is you watch what's going on with Washington, you get really frustrated, but then you gotta just sit back and say, Well, yes, but you have a company to run, and it's not gonna run if you aren't here, and that's really where we were. I was still an integral part of the company. But I thought, well, and that's when people started talking about running for a local office. So I ran for city council in Johns Creek, and I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01Just because somebody asked you, you said, I'm gonna go do that.
SPEAKER_00Well, we were a new city. That's right. I was I would have been, you know, the next, the second generation of that, because some of the people already were ready. They they started the city and they done great things for the city. And a fellow named Dan McCabe, you know, he was stepping out, and so I said, I'd like to run for a seat. So I did, because we still had things to do, and they're still you know working on that. We're a brand new city, but you have to think for like a million years, we never got any money north of the river. And so here we are in Fulton County. All this money's going to the south, but nothing's ever coming back. For what uh we were paying for two law two law enforcement officers north of the river with Fulton County. We ended up with a police force of 65 folks with the same amount of dollars. Go figure that one out, and so we ended up with top-notch police force.
SPEAKER_01I'm doing that math right now in my head, and I'm telling you, it don't compute.
SPEAKER_00Does not compute, does not compute fire protection, and then you start thinking about the parks. You know, we have so many great parks here. We have OC Park, we have Newtown Park, we have you know the Autre Mill Nature Park, and so we're having now we have this huge uh area along the river. And and that is just a tremendous facility, uh soccer fields, and just it's it's beautiful being along the river. It's nice flat bottom land.
SPEAKER_01See, so let's ask to get into it, and and you got into it eyes wide open, and it didn't turn you off. It you said it was fun. I mean, so it wasn't uh it wasn't uh so what's it like to do this?
SPEAKER_00Because I've heard stories about knocking on doors and you know my whole night you're doing all knocking on doors, which is uh you gotta realize that you you get a walk list, and the first thing you learn is oh how come I'm not calling on this house and this house and this house because they don't vote for city elections. So you have a walk list of people that actually get engaged in the city process, and so you're actually knocking on a door, and hi, I'm Brad Raffensberger, I'm running for city council, and uh we just kind of talk, and every once in a while I just kind of look at it. I said, Now, now if you're not a conservative, I'm gonna frustrate the fool out of you. And so, like, you know, and I was just honest with them because I'm a conservative guy, and so they're obviously were enough conservative folks, or they appreciated my honesty that they knew that I was gonna be a straight shooter, and I would make sure that we were never your background was I went to school, I worked in engineering, and then I started a business in engineering.
SPEAKER_01Uh, my wife was uh B2C, but I had never really been B2C. And my background was my entire life, I in high school I worked in a machine shop, then I went and got my uh mechanical engineering degree, and then uh obviously then into master's. Then I get into corporate America and I start this handyman business. And the next thing I realized, it took me two months, but I went like this and went, oh my god, I got a retail company. I have never worked with the general public. Man, they're nuts. These people are crazy, there are a lot of crazy people out here, and so you got out there not having to had to deal with too many of the crazies. Well, maybe daycares, probably.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we had we had great parents, yeah. They just loved Trisha and she really cared about the kids, and that's why we really never wanted to buy another center. She was she said, I'm focused on the children, and I don't really want to go that corporate route. I know a lot of people do, so that it's tough to make you know a living just with one center just because of what you're gonna knit. But she really cared about the kids, you know, and and she obviously great mom, and she just has a great heart, and the parents loved her, and the kids loved her.
SPEAKER_01So you get into city council, you said, Hey, to your partner, I'm gonna step out, I'm gonna be doing this. I'm not gonna be as involved.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm still just involved. I still had to I still had to sell, I still had to make oh, so you went.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so we went back to I still my business and I'm running the daycare at night. You said, Hey man, I've done that before. I could do this again, no problem. And the kids are older now, they're easy.
SPEAKER_00Hey, feed yourself. I I I just rationalized it that city council meets twice a month. They have a work session before and you do some preparation. You can do the preparation, you know, after hours. And so it you kind of fit it in. People have we all have the same amount of time every week. It's just what you want to do with it. And so, you know, I chose to, you know, serve people in John's Creek. You chose to really become, you know, Mr. Handyman, you know, USA. And so I think you're and you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01I do.
SPEAKER_00Because it's your passion.
SPEAKER_01It is my passion. That that actually you're you're hitting right on it. That's why we do the podcast. And you know, a lot of times Alan and I uh he's heard me say this before. People look at me and go, hey, you make any money off that? I'm like, no, not really. Why do you do it? I don't know. Why do you play golf for four hours? You know, and uh which will do. I said, I love hanging out with my buddy Alan, and you know what? I learn a lot of stuff and we get to meet great people, and we got you here today. This is awesome. So you go off and do the city council thing.
SPEAKER_00Then I ran for ran for the state house, and uh that was really that was fun.
SPEAKER_02And no, well, you you you make it seem so easy, but I mean that that's a big step. That's a big step, dude. I mean, instead of running for re-election or mayor of Johns Creek, you're like, no, I'm gonna take the step to the state house. Yeah, why?
SPEAKER_00I thought I could uh really just contribute more to this. I started looking at state issues and I just thought that'd be a lot of fun. And when I got there, I had it was a tough race, by the way, and I had a runoff. So I am the runoff king, you know, in America. I've been up through more runoffs than any other elected public servant ever. Okay. Yes, uh, but I'm not bragging. I guess I just you know takes I gotta take two shots at it, you know. So, but anyway, you grow on people. I grow on people, obviously. Like you know what, guys, you invited me here.
SPEAKER_01Honestly, uh let me let me say that for Brad. You know, I'm the runoff king. You want to come get me? I'm the king. And you know what? I am bragging, so bring it on. So I helped you, Brad. I'll help you with that. I I can do that for you.
SPEAKER_00Back to uh the serious part of life, because I'm an engineer, I have a serious side, like a lot of serious sites. But when you when you served in the General Assembly, you really get to meet people from all over the state and you really look at things from a statewide perspective. City council, it's your city, this is a statewide perspective. And I really was impressed with the people I would met, good people. And I found that I could work with just about anyone on either side of the aisle. Now, obviously I'm a conservative Republican, and the Democrats didn't like all my bills, but they would still good-naturedly rib me about it. Whereas up in Washington, D.C., they would want to pull out, you know, you know, something, you know, they just want to beat you over the head and and go get on evening news and just pound you with it. There's just really no grace between that.
SPEAKER_02That's one of the things I wanted to ask you about. Yeah, because I I have heard it from people on both sides of the aisle that at the Georgia State House, you we still have civil discourse. Right. And they may actually go out and get a beer together after after the session. And how how did that start? And how do we make sure it continues? And how do we get that in Washington again?
SPEAKER_00I think a lot of it is our faith heritage. I just think that because you have grace, and I just think that that helps temper people's emotions. And yet, I had a bill, it was a great bill because it was my bill.
SPEAKER_01And I'll help you with that. It was probably the best bill ever. Uh take that biggest, hugest bill, not the not the coins and bills lines.
SPEAKER_00Well, my bill passed, but I had this lady on my left, African-American lady, and she owned a funeral home with her husband, business owner, small business owners. We we had some things that were related to. Now, the lady beside me, also African-American, but she had been raised in foster homes. But I I wasn't familiar with that, so she had some perspectives I didn't have. And so we talked about that. But when I had that b bill that I was just referring to, somewhat smiling about it, uh, she just up and looked at me like that, and she looked and she said, You know, I love you, Raffensburger, and then she pressed the no button. And so, and I just kind of smiled because I knew it was gonna pass because we had the votes, because we controlled that assembly, and so it didn't bother me. And so it was one of those kind of things. I like that lady. Yeah, you just gotta work on that. I would love that one. Yeah. It's and she didn't mean it mean to just she wasn't there because you're supposed to, you know, vote your conscience, vote your district. And when people do that, it comes together. And right now the General Assembly is working on things for this year, and obviously, I think everyone in the Senate's running for statewide office, so they've got some bills that I think just look good, you know, kind of like show ponies and not serious legislation. But at the end of the day, you know, we'll get through that, and then next year we'll get back to serious legislation.
What The Secretary Of State Actually Does
SPEAKER_01All right, let's talk about going to Secretary of State. First of all, for a lot of us, who what do you do?
SPEAKER_00Well, Secretary of State is probably the best constitutional officer position, other than the governor. That's a pretty good one, too. But when you think of Secretary of State, we handle corporation registration. Y'all, how many corporations do you have?
SPEAKER_02One uh four.
SPEAKER_00See? You're an empire. Wow. Oh, LLCs, right? LLC.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, one percent or so.
SPEAKER_00If you have corporations like we did, and so I just thought, well, what can we do to improve that process? So now you can renew your company for every you know, three years, one, two, or three years. One year if if you just want to pay for one, two, or three. And right now, because I put that you know, up to one three years, uh, people right now it's about almost 30 percent are doing the multi-year renewal process. So we gave people an option. But do remember that it says paperwork reduction. We handle professional licensing. Well my licensed, you know, professional engineer, really that means civil engineer, licensed structural engineer, licensed general contractor. Now, our largest group is actually nurses. That's about almost half a million folks. But we have the plumbers, electricians, uh hairdressers, all these other things. We actually license a hundred cosmetologists, the uh fingernail people, cosmetologists.
SPEAKER_01So they're licensed, but roofers aren't. Another story for a different time, Brad. Another story for a different time.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I didn't pass these licenses laws. I think we license too much, but as long as we require, I like this guy more and more.
SPEAKER_01I've I got it my I get my Resident E GC license, but um but don't you think if we require a license, then how do we expedite that?
SPEAKER_00So we've got our new system, it's called goals, yeah, it's up and running for all the 140 licenses, all 42 boards, and because of that, we took nurses first time they're getting their nurse license with the old paper-based system. We're now paperless, but with a paper-based system goes back to 2002, it took 48 days. We went, got it dropped down to 18 almost immediately. We're now down to 10 days. We have saved people 38 days.
SPEAKER_01I would tell you, uh, as a guy who has to put his license up for renewal every two years, uh, it has been the easiest the last two times going through. I had everything ready to go, it was all electronic, uploaded it, boom, and they it was it was back within I think it was but you know what? I wasn't tracking it, but I think it was bath within a week, uh, maybe even two. I say two, but it's probably less than that. So you're right. I think that's that's been awesome.
SPEAKER_00I just want to let you know for the record, I did all that for you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Plus the other 1,499,999 people that requ need a license here in Georgia. I did it for everyone, but but but you've noticed it. And when we do that, it makes people's lives you know better. And here they are, they're entrepreneurs, they have a small business and they don't want to be tied up with these things. We also handle securities and charities, and we also handle elections, but also probably the the best thing of all is that I'm actually in charge of the Georgia Boxing Commission. Oh, yes, have a laugh over that one. Look at Chris's eyes, yeah. But when the Georgia general suddenly doesn't know where to put stuff, it ended up in our our bailing wagon. And I'm also the bingo commissioner, so thank you.
SPEAKER_01Hey bingo!
SPEAKER_00Now he's talking to a Catholic guy.
SPEAKER_01Oh, grandma loves bingo.
SPEAKER_00I love bingo, but boxing? Are you kidding me right now? Yeah, so I got excited when uh Elon Musk throw threw down that challenge. You know, do you remember that to Zuckerberg? They they wanted to do cage fighting and all that, and so I thought, okay, great. You know, maybe I can get ringside seats, uh, and maybe we'll get that here in Georgia. But he pulled it off the offer off the table when he said, Hey, I'm 20 years older than that young kid. Maybe I don't want to do that. But that said, uh I'm just being I'm messing with you a little. Um, but I think it's really important, like securities and charities. We're doing investigating a$140 million Ponzi scheme right now, and we're trying to get as much money back for the people that invested in that.
SPEAKER_01It's not the largest one, but um so you guys have a legal arm as well.
SPEAKER_00We have I have post I have 22 post-certified uh investigators, they carry guns, um, and so we have you know law enforcement capabilities, and we also have subpoena power.
SPEAKER_01You didn't bring those guys here today with you. No, it didn't. Oh, I think they're on the roof.
SPEAKER_02We're saying neighbors rooftop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so if your secretary is right down, I just saw on my forehead.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's how there were three of them.
Licensing Reform And Faster Renewals
SPEAKER_01But also because keep tucking it up, handyman. Lamper.
Elections Security And The 2020 Recount
SPEAKER_00I'm a business owner, but also an engineer, and we needed a new election system. And I thought we need a new election system that is secure. I never liked the old system, it had no paper ballot, it's electronic. You you make all your selections, it says boom, and then all of a sudden it recorded your vote. But I never got a paper ballot, and more and more I wasn't alone in that. And so we needed a new system. It was also aging out, and so it was implementing that. And that had to be a big effort, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, so it's kind of funny how he's just casually mentioning this, but you you do remember what happened in the 2020 election. Um uh 2020, yeah. COVID the the phone rang, and I'm imagining it was uh can you find me another 11,000 votes?
SPEAKER_01Oh, I think I might have heard that. Yeah, okay, let's bring this thing up. Here we go. You know, let me tell you how I would have responded.
SPEAKER_02That red dot would be on my temple right now. I mean, I I can't even imagine going from just trying to serve your community and doing the right thing to all of a sudden being in the crosshairs in the national spotlight, you know, well, the bullseye.
SPEAKER_00I guess simply put, I did the right thing. My faith teaches me to do the right thing, and my dad taught me to do the right thing, and we did the right thing.
SPEAKER_02But when that call came, what did you think? I mean, you're like, well, maybe I mean, because I know you you ended up doing a huge recount.
SPEAKER_00Uh we did we did a 100% recount of all the paper ballots. And then fortunately in 2020, we had paper ballots for everything. So we actually did a 100% hand recount. Right. And then we had GBI actually, you know, look at you know, many of the counties, particularly Fulton County, because they were under really you know heavy scrutiny. But what was really interesting, then govern uh President Trump actually handpicked a fellow named Bobby Christine, and he was actually the U.S. attorney of Savannah, and he handpicked him, had him go up to come up to Atlanta, and he investigated. And I put his quote in my book uh because he found nothing. You know, they like he saw he saw, and we we said we saw a lot of incompetence, but what we never saw was you know ballot stuffing or you know, fraudulent activity. What we did see was just they didn't have their act together. And that goes back why then we had the Election Integrity Act, because we had all this information because we had a monitor there making notes, making notes, making notes, with and a 350-page report. And so we finally people don't realize this, but we never had the authority to come in and just you know, open, you know, bust open the door, say, let me see everything, because counties run the elections. Now you actually have the ability that you can actually replace a county election director after you go through a process, but you have a process. We didn't have a process before. So we got that. We have photo ID now for absentee voting, which really shores up security. I've asked the General Assembly to give us real ID for all voting in Georgia. I saw that. And we need to because right now, 99% of all people have a driver's license, which is real ID based, because we do robust citizenship check, Department of Driver Services does. But you still accept about eight forms of other identification because when that bill passed for photo ID, they had to put in these other things to get it passed. But that time is long gone. Now you need real ID to get on an airplane, real ID to get in a federal office building. And if you need that, shouldn't you have it to vote?
SPEAKER_02So the talking point on the other side is you're making it harder for people. And so they're, you know, we're going back to Jim Crow and all that. I keep hearing the the same talking points. We're trying to make it harder to and we lost our all-star game, right?
SPEAKER_00As a result of but also in Georgia, we will give you a free ID at no cost. Free, no cost, uh, if you don't have any of those things because you don't need a driver's license for some reason.
SPEAKER_02Right. So why did we lose our all-star game?
SPEAKER_00Well, because Stacy Abrams went ahead and am I allowed to talk and get please do.
SPEAKER_01But I'm gonna tell you exactly what happened on the grassroots level because I watched it happen.
SPEAKER_00Because Stacey Abrams just started, you know, spinning this up, and she got out there with her big narrative, and no one ever called us, you know, from you know, major league baseball. No one ever called us from these major corporations. And if they would have called me, I would have gone to sit down face to face, bring our team in, and say, What do you got? And that, well, this is actually what happened. And we never had that opportunity, it got a life of its own. Now, the sweet justice perhaps is we got the all-star game back you know a few years later, but we have now photo ID for all forms of voting, we have accountability of the counties, and all the absentee voting has to get reported and reported one hour after, and that's about 75 to 80 percent of all the votes. That's the biggest question. 75 to 80 percent of the votes don't happen the day of now. No, and so 20 percent happens, it's really about 17 happen on election day. So that's what you're waiting for, and so it really just uh established confidence in the process, and then the uh other thing is you know, we have photo ID and we have lines have to be shorter than one hour on election day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, did you uh when you got into the Secretary of State role, did is that what you thought that was gonna be? And we you are so detailed, obviously you're detail-oriented anyway, but this is like going out there and say, hey, I want you to uh cut the uh cut the hedge. And oh, by the way, you missed one leaf in the corner. Um, therefore your elections are not valid. I I just I if you want to, you can always say something's wrong in this, but is that what you thought this was gonna be when you signed up to uh run for Secretary of State?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think what we understood after the 2018 race is that Stacy Abrams was out there running and she only lost by 55,000 votes. Now she never did concede, but that set that aside, it showed you how competitive Georgia was. And what a state gets very, very competitive, you got to start squeezing out any potential areas of fraud or error. Because it really matters when you're only got 1%. Well you got 55,000 votes. What about when you have 10,000 votes? You gotta squeeze it as tight as you can. If you know, if you go to the bluest blue states and the reddest red states, then they get some some of those states get very sloppy. And I'm really talking about the blue states because they don't, you know, make sure that they're the clean voters vote, clean voter list like we do. And that's why we have robust citizenship check. We're the first state to do citizenship verification, and we've now have done three of those, you know, since 2021. We want to make sure that only American citizens are on the voter list, and some of those were put on years ago because they could use a federal form that you're not allowed these ask these questions. If you use our form, it asks these questions. And so that these voter registration drives, they grab this one off because that goes back to NVRA, and we want that to be updated by the feds. But we're a state agency and the feds need to do their job, and they're doing some work on it now.
SPEAKER_02So uh just to refresh my memory, so it was it was 2018, you realized we needed to tighten up this process.
SPEAKER_00We knew we knew we needed a new new election system, but also we also banned in 2019 ballot harvesting, and we banned ballot harvesting because we realized that people could go around, you know, potentially and pick up an abside ballot and go through a neighborhood and say, Did you get your absentee ballot? They know you've got an absentee ballot because that's a record. Campaigns get that every day, so they could actually knock in your door and actually start voter coercion. So we made it in law with the only person that can touch that ballot is a close family member. That's it, or a healthcare giver. And so we wanted to ban ballot harvesting, and that's been upheld by the Supreme Court in an Arizona v um, I guess, Department of Justice. Wow. And Arizona won, which meant our law was identical to them.
Real ID Voting And Election Law Changes
SPEAKER_01Well, we're coming to the end. I I want to make sure we get this out there. So you you go, well, I mean, we got to talk about being governor. I that's where I want to get to. I mean, you're wrapping up already. No, I'm not wrapping up. We got 10 minutes. I want to get to the governor thing. So you've been in the middle of the Secretary of State. You you've sit there on the phone with with Trump himself sitting there going, hey, find me votes. Whatever the hell that I don't care about all that stuff, doesn't matter. Um, so you've been through all of this thing, you've been through the muck. And it one of the things I remember saying is that you know what, you never want to wrestle with a pig in mud because you figure out after a while the pig kind of likes it. I mean, that's what things people think about government. You've been in there, you've been wrestling, you're doing the good things, you're fighting the good fight. You can tell you're truly passionate about this stuff, just like all of us small business uh owners. Now you're running for governor. What are you gonna do for us?
His Governor Agenda On Costs Jobs Safety
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm listening to uh people of Georgia, and as I travel around the state, what I'm hearing, people are worried. They're worried about the high cost of food, the high cost of health care, now gas prices, uh mortgage rates or rent, all those kind of things, all those challenge points, those pain points, and they're worried. And so as I talk about them, I get excited that we have a solution. We need to create more good paying jobs. And actually, if you look at what we had for four years, Governor Kemp was fighting the Biden administration and he had those headwinds, but in spite of that, he's gonna go out the door as probably the most successful governor we've ever had, definitely with the highest approval rating ever. It's amazing what he accomplished. And so now he actually has finishing up with two years of tailwinds behind him because you know President Trump is very pro-growth. President Trump says he wants to bring manufacturing back to America. He says, you know, all those jobs that are over in China, we need to get them back. What we want back are the good paying jobs, which is advanced manufacturing, the bioeconomy, things that Georgia actually can excel at. Our number one export is actually aerospace. Agriculture is right up there, too. Yeah. What's exciting is that we have all these technologies. Right now, UGA has a new farm called Grand Farm, and it's really a you know a test farm with advanced agricultural processes. So bringing technology into the farming community to help make them more efficient, more profitable because that they have very, very tight margins. But it's one of the things that we're working on. Then you have other research universities in the technology space. We're very strong in financial, uh, any kind of you know financial area, we're just very strong. Look at Pfizer up in Alpharetta, just continue to grow and strengthen. And so we're gonna continue offering that. But you can see advanced manufacturing, and that's gonna be in robotics, just whatever you know is is special. But we even have the Japanese invest in investing in a new facility for for grit. And grit is you actually used in the industrial process, and so you think that's that sounds you know really down to earth with grit, but it's something that everyone needs in that process. But they're making a$600 million investment in America. My goal is to get everything here in Georgia as your next governor. That's my focus, number one. And then we need to cap property taxes. We had all that inflation from Biden, we're getting it down there. But what happened is your assessment went up when your house was$300,000 and now it's worth$500. That's a big increase. And so they say, oh, we're not gonna go up, you know, 60%. We're just gonna go up 30%. 30%, really. But my wages only went about 3% a year. So I got a big delta of 20%. And that's why people are hurting. So we need to cap property taxes for everyone and for our seniors. We need to eliminate all property taxes except essential services. I believe they want to pay and they should pay for public safety and make sure we have strong education systems because it's the next generation that's gonna repay those benefits for us. And then the final one was making sure that we eliminate tax on retirement benefits. We're one of 14 states that do, and I think we need to take that off and quit taxing our retirees on their retirement benefits. We do that, create great paying jobs now, safe communities. Governor Kemp started the$50,000 school safety grant. I say we need let's raise that to$100,000. That would really be important. And make sure that the state can actually provide additional resources for training bonuses for law enforcement and also recruitment bonuses so that we can help folks with you know things like that. Because what if you can't retain people and you can't recruit people, then you're gonna lose them to other states. Or you're gonna have one city poaching to another city, and we don't want to see that happen. And then really making sure they had the best training available, because some people you know started saying, Well, we want best the best training ever. Think about Keisha Lance Bottoms. So she said that, and then you know, she started really she's right behind that to fund the police movement, and it's been disastrous for community safety. Business was playing the state and it was unsafe. Atlanta was literally burning. And you look at the riots we had, the Wendy's that was burnt down, and then the Atlanta Police Training Academy where they firebombed a guy's bulldozer. He lost a million-dollar piece of equipment, and then the job was set back for years and it cost more money. Well, not years, set back for nine months as they're trying to, you know, get it together again. So that was the thing. And so we need to come alongside law enforcement with making sure they have good training, but also people need to understand it's a noble profession. We lose one officer a month in this state in law enforcement. Wow. And it may be even Typically some months it's more than that. And so that's not a good statistic.
SPEAKER_01So how do you get more people to do that? Because I mean they're getting paid peanuts, man, to go out there and put their life on the line. I'm out there running my business and doing my thing, and everybody goes, wow, look at you. I'm like, yeah, well, you know what? I yeah, again, could we all bite it every day? Sure. But these guys are putting their life on the line with guns. I mean, what are we doing to help them?
SPEAKER_00Well, that's why we need to come alongside, you know, some of the some of the cities, some of the counties are being resource-stretched, stretched. Uh obviously, like places like Johns Creek, uh, you know, Cherokee County, Forsyth County, and the really some of the North Fulton counties are just doing well so they can pay their officers more. And so we want to make sure that we don't have these issues where some people are just not making enough, or here they are along a uh a border county, say on the Florida-Georgia line, and they're getting paid more in Florida. We got to stop that and do that by pay getting pay up, giving them giving them a retention bonus, things like that. So we we do that, we'll have safe communities, but also we think about school, uh it needs to be safe, but we need to get back to the ABCs because you know I think school's been focused too much on the DEIs. And if you look at the fourth grade reading level in Georgia right now, we're in the 20s and Mississippi is in the ninth. So right now the house is is got this idea we need to move back to phonics real quick, as quick as we can, and we could catch actually catch Mississippi in five years.
SPEAKER_02Oh boy, that that doesn't sound very good.
SPEAKER_01That is not I'm not telling my uh my parents and my in-laws from Michigan because when I so it's when I met my wife down here in North Carolina, we ended up in Charlotte and uh in Georgia. My father-in-law says, Oh my god, you're not gonna stay down there, right? You guys are gonna come back here because I can't have a bunch of hillbillies running around with no shoes on.
SPEAKER_00Well, bless his heart.
SPEAKER_02We know what that means. Hot your mom and dad, let's go. Bless your heart. I got a question. So you you're right, and we've talked about Governor Kemp a lot on this podcast over the last four and a half years. It's been amazing just how he handled COVID. Every time you turn around, you're hearing about a billion-dollar investment here and there. And I'm in commercial real estate, I travel the state, I see it in Savannah, I see it in Atlanta, I see it on the freeways heading out of Atlanta. I don't necessarily see it as much. And maybe I'm wrong. So correct me if I'm wrong. Macon, Columbus, Augusta. I mean, how do we how do we get the rest of the state to celebrate and participate with this boom time that we're in?
Reshoring Trades Education And Rural Growth
SPEAKER_00Well, the reshoring boom is is picking up steam, and like anything, it's like momentum and it's just starting. And this is really a 15 to 20 year build-up. You have to understand we ship stuff over to China and offshore and really demanufactured America for 25 to 30 years now. And so it's gonna be a process of building back up, which is a good thing. It means we can grow into it, and everyone's gonna have great opportunities. It does also mean though we're gonna have to get trades, you know, back into high schools, real trades, good trades, where they can actually learn something. Amen. But those jobs now coming out of high school, they could be making$35 an hour,$30 an hour, things like that. It's just amazing. There's a young HBAC fellow, he's 21 years old. The article is an AJC about two months ago. He's making over$100,000 a year, 21 years old. Yeah, yeah. Student loan debt, bought his first house two years ago, now getting married. Next thing I know, they're gonna you know do a follow-up report about this young fella. He's 23 years old, and he just got a boat, you know. And so he's gonna, but he's happy and just feels so good about where he's at. And we want everyone to feel good where they're at, and you do that with a good paying job, and that changes people's lives. If you got a Sunday morning issue, go see your pastor. But I can help you Monday to Friday by helping make sure that Georgia is a great place to build a business, grow a business, and come to Georgia.
Rapid Fire Questions And DIY Scars
SPEAKER_01I love it. Brad Raffensberger for Governor of Georgia. But Brad, I'm not gonna let you get out of here with our final four questions. You probably have no idea you're getting ready for this.
SPEAKER_00I wasn't expecting this one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know. But you can do it. Ah, here we go. These are easy. What is a what is a book you'd recommend to our audience of people trying to start a business or try to scale their own small business that you didn't write?
SPEAKER_00Jason J Jason Jennings has a great book. It's think big, you know, act small. Oh, that's a good one, Alan.
SPEAKER_01We have not heard that one.
SPEAKER_00So you read it at. Uh, but then obviously good to great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, good to great's a good thing. Good to great. All right. What's the favorite feature of your own home?
SPEAKER_00Pardon me?
SPEAKER_01What's the favorite feature of your own home?
SPEAKER_00The home itself, I love we're on five acres, and I love land and I love being uh among my trees.
SPEAKER_01And I thought he'd say that because I remember when we met him that night, he says, Yo, I'm on five acres. I was like, in Johns Creek, dude, what? Where the way where's that at, man? I'm gonna go find it.
SPEAKER_00I like peace and quiet. That's that's I'm out there. Uh I got a new workshop and my son's gonna help me build it up. Build it out. And I'll probably have to get you over there. All right how do I do this? How do I do that? But right now I'm pretty busy because I'm running for governor. I've heard that. It's a big race.
SPEAKER_01And you're doing it with a lot more grace, great word, uh, than I ever would.
SPEAKER_02He's got what, seven opponents and uh and then is it seven? Yeah, and then he and then he's got the president endorsing one. Uh how do you get well?
SPEAKER_00It's really four four folks that you know actually have five percent or more. Okay. Hey, can we go on with our questions?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Alan, please. Everybody in the car, yes. You're dying for these questions because we want to know the next one. We're gonna ask customer service now, Alan. You ready? Uh-huh. All right, when you're out there and you're getting customer service, because we're kind of customer service freaks, kind of crazy about it. What's a customer service pet peeve of yours when you're out there and you're the customer? Don't return a phone call. Yeah. That's chronic right now. You know what? Not with AI. No, it's answer it wrong, Alan.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'm in commercial real estate, and it is you you only eat what you kill. And it's amazing how often I will not get a return phone call when I'm calling on a listing.
SPEAKER_01On a listing.
SPEAKER_02Where I'm trying to help you make I would like to have maybe buy your property and they don't call back.
SPEAKER_01All right, Brad, we got the last one. This is this is my favorite one. I want a DIY nightmare story. You almost put set your house on fire, you flooded the house, maybe you put a couple nails through your own. Show me fingers. Yeah, these fingers. You know, there's nothing wrong with a hand clamp until it gets you a little too wrong. You know what I'm saying? And then you're looking at that opening right back there. I put that up. Guess what I did when I stepped down from that opening? After slipping up the LVL beam in our own basement, I stepped right on the two by six that I did not clean away and stepped right through a nail. I have plenty of them, my friend. What's a DIY nightmare story of yours?
SPEAKER_00Well, I still remember I was breaking up some boards and I had them on an eight by eight, and I just break them. But there was a nail that was actually sticking up and when it came up and broke, it flapped and hit me in the forehead. So uh, oh yeah, it hurt. But uh yeah, it's like, oh yeah. But I've actually uh there's an old board. We growing up, we lived along a river, and just in the springtime you'd have debris along the river, and I just thought it was just grass, but uh stepped through a board, it came right through my shoe, right up, and boy did I, you know, run home because you can really feel a nail coming through your foot. So I I I I've been there and it hurts.
Closing Message And Sendoff
SPEAKER_01You can, Brad. You can. And then uh the tetra shot doesn't feel any better, people. All right, that's what's called running your own business. We got a guy here who says, Hey, I think I can help you. He is stepping out there. Um, let me tell you, this is not a get rich quick seam. This is not a guy who's gonna be sitting on his boat, not a guy who's gonna be running around. This guy, they ain't making a lot of money, man. They're doing something because they want to make a difference in the world. And this guy's not doing it because he wants to be famous. He's not doing it because he wants to do all the fancy stuff. He's doing it because you can just tell, man, he just has a total passion for what he's doing. Go get your passion, go get your care, go find it out, man. And I'll tell you what, you'll be successful. Keep getting up that mountain. We got to get going, gotta get out of here. Go make some money this week, and we'll see you next week on the small business safari. Cheers, everybody. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Safari. Remember, your positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world small business understanding. Until next time, make it great.
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