We Can Build A Better Way To Pick Candidates | Tom Joseph

What if the problem isn’t the candidates—it’s the system that keeps producing them?

Summary:
Tom Joseph, entrepreneur, engineer, and founder of Bookminders, joins Small Business Safari to discuss a bold idea for election reform: America’s Main Street Party. Rather than trying to change the existing political parties, Tom proposes a parallel, app-based nominating system designed to give voters more influence and reduce the power of donors, party insiders, and gerrymandered districts.

We explore how the platform would guide voters through multiple rounds of candidate selection, from issue-based matching and narrowing the field to virtual town halls and final voting. Tom shares why he believes technology, alternative voting methods, and citizen engagement could create a more representative process.

Beyond politics, Tom draws from his 35 years building Bookminders, sharing lessons on leadership, financial discipline, and creating a company culture that puts people first. We also discuss the challenges of marketing a movement, earning media attention, and using storytelling through his Wilson’s Fountain project to bring history and civic engagement to life.

If you've ever felt frustrated by politics but wondered whether there are practical alternatives, this episode offers a thought-provoking conversation about what reform could look like.

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari

💡 Gold Nuggets
 • Why gerrymandered districts often produce more extreme candidates
 • How a parallel nominating process could increase voter influence
 • The five-stage framework behind America’s Main Street Party
 • The role of approval voting and ranked-choice style systems
 • What mobile voting security could look like in the future
 • Why Tom believes funding should support voters’ choices, not party agendas
 • The Bookminders growth philosophy built on cash-flow visibility and accountability
 • A leadership lesson every business owner can use: protect your employees, even if it means firing a client

🔗 Guest Links
• Website: https://mainstreetparty.org
• Petition & Information: Available through MainStreetParty.org
• Wilson’s Fountain: https://wilsonsfountain.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomsjoseph

🌍 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!

Transcript

Cold Open And Big Ambitions

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You you mentioned that. Let's talk a little bit about that that battle because you're right. That's the big stage. Obviously, we're big time. We're a big deal. I know that. But let's face it, we're not a big deal. We're kind of a big deal. But we are not mainstream media. And that's a big deal. So how are you trying to infiltrate that as a small businessman, somebody's been through that, entrepreneur? Talk us through how you're trying to take this idea and get it to somebody who may be not receptive to it, but it's going to help you get the word out.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

I did something novel here. Um is that I I formed two organizations. One is Wilson's Fountain. Wilson's Fountain is named for James Wilson. James Wilson wrote the Constitution. You've probably never heard of him. Um James Wilson was the one of the first Supreme Court justices, one of the six founders to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He's we the people. He died bankrupt. He uh chains. What?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Are you talking about the U.S.? Well, we're we're feeling pretty dumb. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

I say this never, you're not the only ones. He can't. Okay, good. Now I feel I feel as dumb as everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Ha! Take that, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

My joke is that there's no statue of James Wilson to tear down.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Um that's really funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

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 ascent to that mountaintop of 2000. It's a gentleman 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 start up in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through this party. It feels like it's been weeks, but it's only been out for everybody listening, getting those downloads on Tuesday morning, listening up and reaching out and talking to me a little bit about what you've liked about some of these last episodes. We've had some good ones, Alan. We've had some good ones. We've had some really good ones. We've been all across the board. I'd say we've been kind of innovative in the way we've approached the way we do things, Alan. There you go again. That's right. We're teasing the audience a little bit. Uh so we've had we've had quite a time here as we've uh ramped up, but um, one of the things that we had a lot of fun with is we had a person running for governor, uh Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger came on, and we had a lot of fun, and I've I've gotten a lot of buzz on that one. Have you really? I have. Uh I had a couple people say, I can't believe you actually got the point like that on. I've like, well, that's Alan's buddy, but yeah, um put in our computer again. Uh I did have one guy say, you know what? Um, there's more to him than I thought. Yeah. How about that? So it came out good.

SPEAKER_05 2:49

Yeah. I think so. Yeah. I mean, I I listened to all of our episodes afterwards just so I can self-abuse. But I mean, I'm like, you know, this guy is just a good man and he's trying to do the right thing. And but he also has good business experience. He obviously is very intelligent. I mean, there was a lot to learn that you're not going to get in a one of those little attack ads that you, you know, everybody puts out there.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Right. Sound white management, all those, you know, with politics, especially, it's all governed by, you know, it's craziness. It's the money speaks. The, you know, and so that's where I wanted to tie this back into is that we just couldn't stay out of the political arena, could we, Alan? I know we're gonna have to change genres. We're gonna that's right, everybody. Uh, we're not any just doing small business anymore. Uh, we're not doing true crimes on this episode. Well, maybe we'll find out in a minute. Or sex. Uh, and we're not doing sex capates or whatever the whatever the other one I found out was uh beating us uh by the drum. But you're here to learn, man. You're here to get better every day, every week. You know, just get keep getting better at what we're doing. Small business ownership, you know, you depending on the message you're hearing at the time of you're hearing them, it's either everything's going really good or everything's going really bad. But there's really no middle ground. And I would tell you, from a businessman's perspective here in Georgia, uh, I'm not having a great time. It is not going like I thought it would. I thought we'd be growing a lot faster.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

Not all champagne and caviar, is it, Chris?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Uh, I I keep I had to knock it down. So no caviar anymore, but I'm still sticking with my champagne. Oh, good man. That's right. Gotta hang on to something. All right, let's get into

Meet The Founder Behind Main Street

SPEAKER_01 4:17

this one. Uh, this episode, guys, is gonna be pretty interesting, really thought-provoking. Uh, we've got Tom Joseph on who uh his latest uh adventure uh that he's working on is America's party. Let me say it right. No, you're you just already blew it. Blue it why don't you let him do it? Hey, Tom, what is it?

SPEAKER_03 4:36

America's Main Street Party.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

America's Main Street Party. So, Tom, uh tell everybody a little bit about what this is and what you're trying to start, and then we're gonna backtrack a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Uh America's Main Street Party. Um, I guess the premise is that if the Republicans and Democrats aren't gonna fix the election system, the primary system, we'll create a better nominating system and elect that person. And that we interject a fair contest into an unfair district and produce a more popular candidate.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

This sounds like uh you are up against the evil empire, you're up against the establishment, you're up against literally half the world. Um, if you think about the US and our our and so how did you get this idea? And how did you think, you know what? I'm doing this, I'm jumping in uh after having a wildly successful entrepreneurial career.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

I um this was not the concept I came up with was not originally what we did. My original idea was no idea. I was in the middle of COVID, and I was gonna get some help from the government to make sure my company didn't go under, or you know, nobody knew what was really going on. And I made a promise at the time that if I survived financially and physically the COVID, that I would do something under two conditions. I was not gonna run for office and I was not gonna try to change the law. And I my original concept was just to come up with a better political party, but it just didn't seem that much different uh than what we had. And I I honestly made a joke one day that we do a better job selecting the next American idol than we do the next representative of Congress. And it made me think like, why can't we do the same thing? And everybody told me it was illegal, and then I figured out a way to shoehorn it into the system and do it without changing any laws.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

So now I think we need to back up a little bit and tell everybody where he came from.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

I think we need to back the origin story has to begin.

SPEAKER_05 6:36

Uh and so, yeah, because where he is now is not where he started or even where he's built his career.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

And that's clearly not where you went to college for was to do this, or have you always been a political leaning individual?

From Engineer To Bookkeeping CEO

SPEAKER_03 6:49

No, no, no, I wasn't. I was not. In fact, I would say until I was in my until 1992, I was just ignorant of what was going on politically. That I I grew up in Pittsburgh, went to Cardingville University for an engineering degree, went to work for Westinghouse and factory automation.

SPEAKER_05 7:06

You don't sound like a Yenzer.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

I can do it.

SPEAKER_05 7:09

You can.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

My mother will be upset though if I do it, especially if it's recorded.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Um that's really funny.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

But um, no, I went to work for Westing, and then went to the Storm Company in factory automation. But during that time, I kind of stumbled upon this idea. I was trying to help my father out as a don of the personal computer age. He'd lost his bookkeeper. I thought, hey, one of these PCs, we'll get some accounting software. But my 65-year-old dad and uncle weren't gonna learn how to use this. So my sister basically bailed me out by saying, Hey, I'll do it. She'd small kids, she goes, but I can't really come in there. I'll get the information, take it back home. And it quickly realized we took this job and he was paying somebody 30 hours a week to do it. She was doing it three hours a week. And it kind of the math went through my head. And I put this on the shelf for seven years because that was 1984. I mean, the internet wasn't there. I kind of saw what was coming, and I launched Bookminders in 1991. Um, I had one accounting course in my life, I got a C in it. Um, and uh it's not because it wasn't hard, it's just because I never thought I'd use it. You know, I was taking thermodynamics and differential equations. The counting is way easy, everything's additional subtraction.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah, but uh, I got I got the same thing. I got a mechanical engineering degree, and I came out, I was so proud of myself after getting my master's in mechanical. I was so proud that I took three to count that, three total business classes. And here I am in business going, oh God, what was I doing? I took that much.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

I just wasn't paying attention. I mean, really, I think I could have done better if I cared. But um uh anyway, launch this company. Uh, I hire accountants. You have to have a four-year degree, um, specialized accounting. It's a it's become a boutique bookkeeping shop. I mean, we handle kind of high-end applications. Each of our bookminders works with anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen clients being their part-time controller. We don't do taxes, we don't do audits, but we make the work of auditors and accountants, tax accountants easy. So we tee it up for them. But we do a weekly processing. Prior to us, you know, bookkeeping was a monthly thing that accounting firms did, and you got the data way after when you needed it. And we became very customer-centric and figured out if we could keep track of cash, if we every week we told them what their cash balance was and kind of queued up their bills to pay, that it really freed the owners up to concentrate on growing the business. And I don't know, you guys you run a business, you know, it's your cash is king, you got to know what your cash is. And if you don't, it's a very unsecure feeling. So we put that kind of process in place for business owners, what they have, what they owe, who owes them, when, you know, and every week we give them a snapshot of that, and we try to get them in this weekly process of we do mini closing like every week.

SPEAKER_05 9:59

And uh this is a nationwide company, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

Well, uh we were regional. We're we've started Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, um, Baltimore, Eastern Maryland, um, Austin, Texas, Indianapolis. Um, we've actually expanded as our employees have moved. We really haven't really Philadelphia is the only like purposeful expansion where we you know got investors and um expanded, but everything else has been organic. We have over 100 employees now. Like I said, we're operating in five or six states. I've been personally, I I own the business, but the the team that runs this whole woman management team, our CEOs, award win an award-winning uh executive, um, they take care of the business and are doing a great job managing it and allowed me to free up my time and and do this and pursue you know America's Main Street Party and Wilson's fountain.

SPEAKER_05 10:51

So but before we get into Main Street Party, uh I did see that your bookkeeping business is the number one place to work in Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

We've been in Pittsburgh Top Workplace Competition for the last four years. We finished first once, second three times. Our CEO went top leader two to the four years. Uh this year, there's a very good chance we'll win it again. Which is remarkable. And uh it's very survey, it's not done by judges, it's a computer basically, does surveys of all the employees and they compare all this. So the Pittsburgh Post Gazette invests considerable money to conduct this to the point where they went bankrupt and understanding.

SPEAKER_05 11:31

They did go bankrupt and they were just gonna be but we've got a lot of small business people listening out

The Culture Rule: Fire Bad Clients

SPEAKER_05 11:36

there. I mean, give us a nugget. What's the secret sauce to being? I mean, that that is a huge award, and to do it consistently, not just a one-off.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

We we're one business that was started from day one all about creating a flexible employment situation. And I'll tell you the one thing that we do is we fire clients who don't treat our employees good.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Ooh, there's a gold nugget. Yeah, hard to do, easy to say, hard to do. I was just at a marketing uh educational class, uh, continuing education class, and we're just talking about that. Can you fire clients? Easily, easy to say, hard to do, but it is so important because your job as an owner or a salesperson or somebody in the front end is keeping those bad customers away from your good employees because if you make them work, make good customers or good employees work with bad customers, they don't stay long.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Yeah, and so for us, you know, we have a an employee that's working with six to twelve clients. We got one bad client and screw up with 11 relationships. Uh uh.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

That is a strong old nugget right there. That is a strong one, man. Uh, you gotta pick up.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

It was hard to do the first time, but after we did it, it was like, you know what, this is the right thing. These especially with women, you know, we have women, um, and a lot of our employees uh clients are unfortunate sometimes men that are not don't know how to treat women. We also have some awful women's points.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Right, yeah, it's not gender specific. There are there are awful clients uh across the board. People who suck everywhere. That's right. Yeah, yep, so that often. Yep, people suck.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

But uh But the the gender imbalance when it's a man and a woman, it has to be recognized.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

It does. I it's also a great point because uh the diversity in the workforce is important, and sometimes uh men don't realize that, especially in the construction business, Alan.

SPEAKER_05 13:26

Well, but he I mean he brings up a really good point. If you you know, it sounds like a lot of fun to fire a bad client, but when you're the business owner, you're trying to make payroll, and you're like, okay, but this job is worth X, it's hard to walk away from that. But you obviously stuck to your guns, you have the principal and and you know, happy employees are gonna gener generate more money.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

It's a recurring revenue stream. I mean, we're walking away from you know a revenue stream, but it's important.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

That's uh amazing. So, how many years have you had the the bookminders?

SPEAKER_03 13:57

Bookminders 35 years. Actually, yesterday was the mayor of Pittsburgh recognized bookminders, bookminders day in Pittsburgh, May 4th, 2026.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

May the fourth be with you. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Um beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

We gotta talk to John, we gotta have a trusted toolbox day. We need I know. I want to trust the toolbox day in uh John's Creek. John's Creek. I you know what? I'm gonna go for the state. Then again, I don't have a hundred employees, and I definitely end up voted the best place to work. Uh that's another story. Yeah, so different pod. So you're you're you're cranking along, bookminders doing your thing, and then you said, Well, you know what, I've got time on my hand. I've always thought about this. COVID hit. Uh, I'm gonna keep going. I guess I want to go. How how did you tilt against this windmill? Because I mean, this is a Don Quixote thing, if you're asking me. I mean, that's it seems uh it seems like you're not the first person to use that analogy. Yeah, we're tilting at windmills, people. One zero. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

That was nice.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

So here we go.

Designing A New Nominating System

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Let's let's get the word out. Let's talk about what this is and uh what's going on. Let's figure out how you're doing this.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

I, you know, I I just thinking outside the box. I think if I actually was a political person or lawyer, I may have never thought of this idea. But I went chugging along with this idea, this contest. My election attorney was actually running for Congress, was not really paying attention to what I was doing. And um my original thought is that the the uh the party would fund the contest winner, and that that actually would be illegal. And um the party the parties do get out the vote, but they can't say get out and vote for Joe or get out and vote for Don. Um and so the the original idea I had wouldn't work. And um I never um never considered my my attorney saying, hey, you should try think about a super PAC, but a super PAC can't run the contest that I was designing. Um and so but what happened was I he loses his bid for Congress, actually lost the primary, I think it was about time, it must have been four years ago. And um he lost his bid for the primary, and uh I sit down with him and he says, you know, this is not legal, Tom, you can't do it this way. I go, what about the Senate Republican election fund? Why can't I use one of those? And he goes, It's not a fund. I go, What do you mean? He said it's a list of people that buy Congress every two years. It's not a national fund. It just doesn't sound as good as you describe it that way. That's the reality of this. These funds that the super PAC donors have are not funds, there's just a list of people that are pulling the strings on the re-election fund. And I went home and I frankly had three bourbons, and uh I was Amen. Cheers cheers in that and uh I all of a sudden wrapped my head around the idea of using a super pack, and I was like, wow, this isn't just this is a great idea because this uses a super PAC in an entirely different way. Super PACs right now either back candidates or causes. This super PAC is backing the will of the people. This would be the first ever super PAC. Strings unattached. Now I gotta find the person who's gonna fund that. But I do think that there are wealthy people in this country that are afraid of what's going on. And if I can get a consortium or one of them to put this up, they become our VC firm. You know, they're the they're the marketing department for that. So the way we see, you know, all of a sudden now is like, wow, you know, one person doing this uncoordinated can orchestrate this. America's Main Street Party, the tech company, is actually a national party. So once we qualify as a national party, then the winner of our contest is on the ballot. And then we use local political committees as like our retail outlets. You know, they're the people who are executing this, like Olympic organizing committees that figure out who's the fastest hundred-yard dash people. These are not people with power, they're people who are helping a process go along. And then the last type of committee is a candidate committee, and we put rules around that that that candidate committee can't live beyond one election cycle. So there's no war chess. So the contest winner did in as a condition to get the super PAC backing for the big expensive ad campaign has to agree to empty their account at the end of the general election cycle. So now, you know, we basically, this is the engineer part here. You know, we design control systems. I was looking at how do we take the laws and use them to design a control system here and restore our power. Take the power away from the candidate committee and give the power to the voters.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

All right, so uh you've implemented this. Has it worked anywhere yet?

SPEAKER_03 18:51

No, we have not implemented so in the life cycle where we are. So last year, um it's taken a while. There's a lot of laws around getting money into this, and just to get no money to pay the legal fees.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Are you saying we got are we are you saying we got a lot of laws here in America? Wow.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Well, around political parties are are a lot. I can only put in 5,000 a year. Now my mom puts it in, my daughter. So I you know, more than 5,000. I've had friends and family, kind of like a startup, you know, make donations. Everybody I bought cookies from is has to donate. Um, you know, I'm called in every chip to get money into this to uh build a prototype first using um college kids at uh the guy who wrote the specs, the guy from Havertford College, and then some guys from Drexel who wrote the code, and we build a prototype, and then we've just stood up a beta

The App Demo And Multi-Round Voting

SPEAKER_03 19:41

version. It's actually on the app on our um on our website. It's like it's pretty clunky, but our goal is to not use this in election until we actually the public understands what it is, and we raise enough money to win. I'm not about losing. And um, if you go into the app, you can see there's a hundred candidates on each side. There's two districts, one's red, one's blue. It's PA1, PA2, Philadelphia districts. And we put a seated 100 candidates. And if you're in a conservative district, you're probably gonna have most of the conservative candidates or some liberal ones. And if you go into the blue district, likewise. And the way this works, Chris, is that um the local committee will put seven issues that the contestants have to weigh in on before they enter. Can't can't come in unless you know where you stand. That's the rule. So those questions you look at the uh the website, you go to mainstreetparty.org, a brand new way, halfway down. You see, there's a little thing where you can in probably a minute weigh in, maybe not all seven, but maybe three or four of those things are really important for you. The system will go back and say, hey, these 20 candidates match to you. You can go check them out, or you can approve them all and see who makes the top 20. Because we're lazy, right? And wouldn't you be happy if you say, hey, these four issues are really important to me, and I want to see which of these 20 people make it to the top 20? You invested two minutes in democracy, had more voice than you probably ever had in an election, and now you see is in the top 20. Okay, maybe six or seven. You could study those candidates, or you could approval vote them in. But we want to get to the top four and then create what we're calling a virtual town hall where the local committee introduces new questions, and the final four candidates get to weigh in again. Video, this is all online. And at that point, we're looking at different voting methods, maybe rank choice, or pick two, or approval voting to get to a top two, have a final debate, pick a top one. Now imagine the UC, we just gone through a five-round contest. The people participated. Pick this candidate. We go to the general election. Who are you gonna vote for? The one the people picked, or the one the party picked? Somebody who doesn't represent necessarily the values of the district anymore and is beholden to donors. This person beholden to voters.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

So you you would be on the ballot. So if I was sitting in in Johnson. Georgia, which that's not hypothetical. I I am. Thank you. Just letting you know that Alan. You're saying that uh for an election, uh pick a like Secretary of State, you would no, it would be just for what?

unknown 22:13

District.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Our whole my whole mission is about gerrymandering. So we're only looking, we're only interested in running this in gerrymander districts.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Okay. All right, so you're in the district. So you're saying a Republican candidate would be on the ticket, a Democrat would be on the ticket, maybe a Libertarian would be on the ticket, see those, but you're saying you'd be the fourth one.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Well, we hope, you know, and what what happens typically in gerrymandered districts are not competitive. What you're describing is what happens in swing districts. In gerrymander districts in the general election, there's usually somebody on the party, there's a Republican or Democrats running pretty close to undependent uncompetitive. So we're looking for districts where the person is winning and they have at least 66% of the vote. Because our system is going to elevate a pink candidate in a red district. And if we split the vote, we don't want the opposition party to win. In fact, we don't want the opposition party to have much of a hope. We want them to participate in the contest and try to get a pink candidate in there because they've never gotten a blue one, and vice versa in the blue districts. Our plan is to run this in 10 blue, 10 red, 20 blue, 20 red, always an equal number. We can't be viewed as somebody who's coming in looking like we're trying to swing Congress. We're going to be coming in looking as we're putting competition where there typically isn't any, and restoring accountability on the extremes. This is a system that competes with the extremes.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

All right. So uh now let's put our business ad on here. You said you're trying to run this like a business. Uh, you're raising the funds to get this thing going. I I put this into a um a gerrymander district. Now you got to get out there, you got to promote it, you got to get people to be aware of it. So that's marketing and advertising costs, right? You got to bring people to the table to build. Uh so how do you do that?

SPEAKER_03 23:59

Well, I don't do that until when I say we do this like a business, a business goes one step of the plan. They don't jump to step 10 if they haven't done step three. And that's what I'm saying is that we're building the beta version. The beta version will create traction. The traction should attract the super donor. The super donor pays for the marketing program. And we're not looking for candidates, we're looking for districts. So the super PAC will say, Hey, I'm gonna fund, let's say 10. Okay, we can say which five red, which five blue. Now you're gonna go in there, say three months in advance of their primary process and start to do public service analysis. Say, hey, we need people to think about running for Congress. It's a brand new way. We want people to be on our local committee, do your civic duty. This is what we have in two months. You need to have your your campaigns in. We got to have our volunteers together. We can need to know how we're gonna execute this process. And if they don't get their act together, we won't run in that district. Uh I've run enough projects that you know, you just don't want to fail. We'll put our resources where we're gonna succeed. So that's why I say, you know, go 10 and 10, 20 and 20, whatever, we're probably not gonna pull off 20 and 20. You know, may uh when we actually get to the point, maybe the public doesn't show up for some of them. I think that before the super PAC puts their money up, they could say, hey, if if this um primary doesn't attract 100,000 participants, we may not back. You know, you have to show that you've got public support. It may the district just hates it and they bail. You know, we're not gonna make the super PAC back in Canada there.

SPEAKER_05 25:34

You get one or two though, and then the media starts covering it, and then all of a sudden it spreads like wildfire. I mean, I'm assuming that's the idea.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Yeah. So we're gonna I want to do we're I think we're we're out for 2026. So just to not the technology, just the organizing and the money. Unless like a super pack donor shows up tomorrow. I just don't think see how we do this. But we'd have time to really figure this out and do it for 2028, maybe do 20 and 20.

SPEAKER_05 26:00

So let me ask the stupid questions because I'm really good at that. Sure. It sounds like you you're saying that you're creating a new political party, but what it sounds like to me is it's you're you're coming up with a new primary system.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 26:14

Okay, and so you do you have to get that district to agree to have a different kind of primary, or is your primary in advance of the actual primary?

SPEAKER_03 26:24

But we're gonna run it in parallel, but the district, we're doing this outside the system. The problem is that people are trying to change the system, and the people running the system don't want to change it.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

We've seen a lot of that.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

There's no what's it there's no law preventing us from coming up with a different nominating process. The the you can form a political party and do it the way they do it, where they get in the back room and they figure out who is all the money, you know, and they like that process. We're telling the political process is gonna use technology in an app to let the people choose.

SPEAKER_05 26:56

So it isn't that you have to find candidates who want to be part of the main street party, it's but it's by by being in your system, regardless if you're a Republican or a Democrat, then that gets you on the ballot in the primary? Is that uh no no?

SPEAKER_03 27:13

Well, eventually when we qualify, we're not trying to get we don't want to be on the primary, we want to go straight to the general election. Okay, the primary's rigged. Why participate in that system?

SPEAKER_01 27:25

Primaries are rigged. All right, so you're running in parallel, and then you get enough people. How do you get your name on the ballot? How do you do that?

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Well, when you qualify as so we would eventually qualify as a national party, and then you automatically get your name on the ballot. Before we qualify, we get on with signatures. So there's a deadline in every state that you have to get so many signatures to get your name on the ballot. We'd be on the ballot as independents. I really don't see it as a problem because people will know at this point that this is a main street party candidate. And um, and different states have different requirements. You are in the worst state. Okay, Florida might be worse. You have to have like something like 23,000 signatures to get on the ballot. It's probably very unlikely that we're gonna come to your state. Um, because there's so many easier states, there's so many gerrymandered districts that, like, why go where it's hot? We will find the lowest hanging fruit. Uh, but we'll stay take your donations if you're thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

All right, I like them. Can donate. That's America's main three party.org.org. Send your money in, super PAC people.

SPEAKER_03 28:34

But um, no, that's so, but that's that's the way the the system works. And uh, I decided instead of trying to reform the system is just try to break it uh enough that we we can fix it. Because as long as we're a two-party system, it's not gonna change. And um, I think they've proven that they can almost fight off all election reform. This more or less audience, it says that hey, you know, we're gonna work outside the system, create a way to make something more popular through five rounds, uh, and then advertise that person and win. And I I do think this is a winning form. You think about the Olympics. I mean, there are people that you know are participating in something, and all of a sudden you know their name and you're buying their products, and you know, you're doing that. And it happens because it's multiple iterations. And anybody entering the primary now has no chance to be like a quarter finalist and then a semifinalist and a finalist. It's one and done. And the person who's coming in to run as the incumbent has an enormous advantage unless they they betrayed the party and now huge money comes in to back somebody more extreme and they get primaried. You know, that's not fair.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

In your beta test, uh, have you how how have you run uh candidates and and consumers and people signing up for it? How do you build your audience to come in and vote for these people? How did you try candidates out? Have you like I'm I'm keep going like I was about to say that we're gonna be able to do that? But these are all AI candidates.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

We have to get on and play with it. But it's basically the app has a bunch of AI candidates on there who've taken, we've actually selected the position so that as you go through, it's gonna feel like it would feel if you're a a liberal in a conservative district and you're trying to figure out how to get pink candidates out there, or even if you're a conservative, like you might not be as conservative as who's representing you, and this gets to say, hey, I on Iran, this is really where I am. On borders, this is really where I am. I'm not gonna be chastised for having this somewhat moderate position because a lot of people in the district agree with me that we shouldn't be so extreme on some of these things, and it works the same on the left, you know. So it you we actually have both districts in a blue and a red, and uh 100 candidates. And as you click through the rounds, it reduces down to 20, down to 10. And we want people to kind of play with it and feet know what it's gonna be like before we try to do it in election. Because if we try out and they don't know, we're gonna fail.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

I think what I heard, Alan, was that he is developing AI candidates, and very soon we're gonna have an AI person and governor.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

No, these are obviously it's so funny because uh when you do this, the AI generates like you're funny, but uh no, because it's really it's really a lot of work. Did make the audio tie in? It's like so. Our people, you just kind of get the impression this is what it's gonna look like, but uh uh it's huge data to like actually have them speaking and stuff like this. It's just a representation. The bios are AI, some of them don't make sense. And we had like a 72-year-old woman who's a truck driver, so you know that's AI. But um got it.

SPEAKER_05 31:44

So your next step right now is to find uh somebody with deep pockets to fund this thing.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Yeah, well, to fund the super PAC to do the technology piece of this, at least what we've done now is not hugely expensive. To to lay in the security layer is going to be expensive in terms of like um this would uh be implemented over the blockchain. Um there's a three different uh secure mobile voting platforms out there now that are pretty robust, and um, they've been used for military applications. I was really surprised how mature we it's not used in volume in our voting system, but many states have accepted these for like people with handicaps or veterans for sure, or not veterans, service members, people on subs. You can't get a can't get a ballot out. So they want to make sure these people can vote. And uh this uh it makes sure it looks at you and it turns your phone into a ballot box. And you know, we are doing this with everything. We're gambling, we're doing money, and this idea that foreign actors have another gear to take votes that they don't have to take money, that has to be the silliest thing I ever heard. Like people don't want money more than votes, especially our system where the votes don't really count that much.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

This is uh super

Why Mainstream Media Won’t Bite

SPEAKER_01 33:04

interesting. You're getting the word out. You're you you obviously came on the podcast because you wanted to talk to everybody and and get the word out on the America's America's a main street party.

unknown 33:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Don't look at me, look at him. I'm not looking at you, Alan. You were.

SPEAKER_03 33:17

I was every place has a main street, it could be big, small, left, right, but everybody's gotta meet on Main Street and come together. And that's kind of the idea is that we gotta meet in the middle and negotiate and compromise, and we don't do that anymore, and it we're dysfunctional.

SPEAKER_05 33:33

Amen to that. And and Chris and I talk about this all the time. And I mean, you you grab I don't know, 10 people at random, and my guess is you're still gonna agree on 80-90 percent of things that you talk about, to be honest with you. We do talk about that quite a bit, is that excite donors?

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Like, I do think we've created a system where politicians have to excite donors and perform for them on TV. Yeah, and you know, we this is a system we created, and they're just responding to it. There's been a lot of like normal people who say, Oh, this person might be normal, go to Congress, and two years later they look just like another partisan decades.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

It makes me wonder what happens when you get to Washington? They they pull you aside and like all right.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

It is that that yeah, they do that they're doing because the way the money works, if they want to get re-elected, they have to do the bidding of the party leadership. It it that is not at all how the system was designed.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

So, are you walking around with like uh security detail now as you get out there and get your name out through?

SPEAKER_03 34:32

I wish it was that popular. I mean, I uh you know, the best reception I'm getting is from podcast hosts. I've been on um almost 50 podcasts in 90 days. Um just started marketing this. Just started the mainstream media. I cannot get any coverage. I've been trying to market the mainstream media for over a year, you know, in the face of gerrymandering and everything we're doing, and the fact that, you know, I'm not, you know, I'm not anybody, but I'm not nobody in terms of doing something and implementing a successful system. And what I'm saying makes a lot of sense mathematically. And um they're just there, there's no ears for it in when you go up into the major media markets.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

You you mentioned that. Let's talk a little bit about that that battle, because you're right, that's the big stage. Uh, obviously, we're big time, we're a big deal. I know that, but let's face it, we're not no, we're kind of a big deal. We're kind of a big deal, but we are not mainstream media, and that's a big deal. Uh, so how are you trying to infiltrate that as a small businessman, somebody's been through that entrepreneur? Talk us through how you're trying to take this uh this idea and get it to somebody who may be not receptive to it, but it's gonna help you get the word out.

Wilson’s Fountain And The Fight For Fairness

SPEAKER_03 35:44

I did something novel here. Um, is that I I formed two organizations. One is Wilson's Fountain. Wilson's Fountain is named for James Wilson. James Wilson wrote the Constitution. You probably never heard of him. Um, James Wilson was the one of the first Supreme Court justices, one of the six founders to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He I feel the word we the people. He died bankrupt. He uh changed what are you talking about the U.S.?

SPEAKER_01 36:13

We're feeling pretty dumb. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

You're not the only ones. He got okay good.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Now I feel I feel as dumb as everybody else. Ha! Take that, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

My joke is that there's no statue of James Wilson to tear down.

SPEAKER_04 36:27

Um that's actually funny.

SPEAKER_03 36:32

All right, but anyway, he well, he um uh wrote the constitution in uh 1787. Three years later, the um legislature of Pennsylvania, where he was from, Philadelphia, tapped him to rewrite the Pennsylvania Constitution. And when he did, and he wrote a particular clause, um, in 16 was it, 1689, uh, the English the British and the British Bill of Rights first added the words uh the election shall be free. When Wilson was poised to do this for the Pennsylvania Constitution, he added the words inequal. And his determination wasn't enough that everybody could run for office, it had to be fair. If it wasn't fair, things are messing up. Yeah, uh what happened was at the end of the year, around Christmas, he did uh the what became the inaugural law lecture at the city could uh the city of Philadelphia College became the University of Pennsylvania. It's the first law lecture at the University of Pennsylvania. The keynote topic was the free and equal election law or clause. And he described it as the fountain of democracy. And he said, if you don't, with great vigor, make sure that that fountain floor it would poison the fountain. If you don't have free and equal election, it's poison, and it poisons all aspects of government. It spills over into every branch and administrative. He had some description for it, and you see where we are now with unfair elections.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

That's like I'm I'm gonna go back to my first question again, back. How are you getting your name out there? And you said I have two companies and you brought up Wilson. We went out.

SPEAKER_03 38:01

Well, listen, and what I can do is I can use Wilson's Fountain. I'm sorry, I I have to tell that story because it's like fascinating. Oh, I'm totally fascinated. Wilson's Fountain LC is a way where I can put money into this and promote the concept, but it's kind of like fight club. I can't mention America's Main Street Party. I can promote Wilson's Fountain as a political concept, but I can't advertise for Main Street Party. So my budget in Wilson's Fountain is can be as large as I'd like it to be, um, as long as I don't mention uh America's Main Street Party. And I do have the advantage that I have resources to put into this and uh get the word out. But there's been it's still an uphill battle. I spend way more money than a typical small business would spend to try to get the word out without success.

SPEAKER_05 38:49

And um but I'm I'm just you just need that one person. Uh keep doing what you're doing. Yeah, you've been on 50 podcasts. There's gonna be somebody that knows somebody. Yeah, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

So again, I'm gonna go back to uh you know, kind of the business side of this uh a little bit more. How do you get the main street uh the the main street, the main media to follow America's main street party?

SPEAKER_05 39:14

You need it needs to go it needs to go viral somehow.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

And then the and then the main street media can't ignore it because they're not gonna app I hope that the beta version of the app like when we get to let people trying it and get getting it out and people looking at it and looking at what's going on the primary, that people were gonna say, Hey, we want this. But yeah, it's it's been I don't know why. I mean, you think that somebody wanna break a story.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Um I think radical idea. What if we had somebody go streaking through Wilson's fountain? Sorry, I couldn't resist. I had to do that, but um, but the I think that's the hard part because the way people start to hear it, we're consuming so much media in so many different ways. I was just listening to another uh radio show here locally that talked about, you know, when we were kids and gonna date ourselves, we had three channels, right? And you had ABC, MBC, CBS. I had the fourth channel because I was in Detroit. I got the uh I got the Canadian broadcasting channel, Go Hockey Night in Canada, Don Cherry. But our our media, our media, if you will, your media focus was newspaper, radio, and then TV is a three-channel today. Those guys are dwindling in share of mind uh mind share because you've got social media and all these other different things. How do you get an idea like this to go? And it's got to be that viral sensation, it's got to be something like that. So I so what do you do?

SPEAKER_03 40:34

I you know, I think I just have to keep doing what I'm doing. Um, I do think that without a super PAC, that the inertia for what we need to do it won't be possible. So I I do think it requires just keep marketing the idea until we like um like Don said, we get across or Alan, but I'm across some of the things.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

I mean, start as far as the story goes, uh we went down that tangent. I mean, to put my marketing hat on for a minute, I do like the Wilton's Wilson's Fountain uh angle. I do like the fact that you found uh the the forgotten founder, if you will, the the guy who uh championed for free elections and free will. And so Alan's back, and Alan, I'll say it again. I I gave Tom a gold nugget, and that is we we should have somebody go streaking through Wilson's Fountain, and that would be the way to go. I mean, that goes viral. Like, do we have a fountain are you volunteering? I think I'm in. I'll do it. All right.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

You talk about it. Actually, but I'm looking at doing sponsoring there's a gala or there's a celebration of the 250th anniversary of um the country in Philadelphia that uh organization sponsoring. I'm looking at Wilson's Fountain being a founding sponsor.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

I love that idea. I think I think I actually I like that angle. It it actually uh for me, I'm gonna be uh totally honest with you, Tom. Here's what happened. Two hours before our podcast, Alan says, Have you looked up the podcast yet, or you just think you're gonna wing it?

SPEAKER_05 41:53

Because because uh nine times out of ten, it's like uh kind of a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

I can wing it. So I did. I've been researching it for two hours, and I'm like, Oh god, this is really heady. And I I mean I hate that I even say that I've got a master's in mechanical engineering because he's gonna think I'm really smart and I'm an idiot. And I was like, man, this is hard to understand. The audience knows you're dumb. I yeah, they do. So, but I would tell you like the the phrases gerrymandering and how you're going about it. I think that's hard for a lot of us to digest and figure out what's going on. The Wilson's fountain story makes it a lot more interesting. I find like I could get behind that story a lot easier, going, Hey, you're right. Um, I never thought about it, but the elections aren't free. You're right, they are bought. I've watched them here locally get bought, and I've I've watched that the money talks and the bullshit walks. I mean, it just it's it's horrible. But uh, but have I thought enough and cared enough to do anything about it? No, but you have and Tom Joseph, this is pretty cool, man. So let's get that word out there. Let's keep doing it. We're gonna wrap up this podcast. Let's go. Wilson's fountain, but we're gonna give money to go ahead and

How To Help And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_01 42:56

hit it.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

Mainstreetparty.org. You can support us two ways. Uh check on click on the change.org button and click sign our petition. We that's one way to show traction. We have some really cool merch on our website. If you go to the donate button, we've got stickers. I like our little uh slogan. I don't know if you saw uh this, you can give me some feedback. But our our fringe group is extremely moderate.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

I love that. Oh, you know what? That's merch I can get around. That is hilarious. Our fringe group is extremely moderate. All right, so you said two ways to support or three ways.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

You get well, I said go to the donate button or hit the change.org uh button. So either way. Well, and I think there's a third way to support, which is oh well yeah, liking, following, yes, doing it.

SPEAKER_05 43:48

And there's a fourth way. You gotta tell other people, you gotta you gotta find somebody, you gotta find an influencer that you know that is gonna find the right person to help get this thing out there.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Are you guys on Instagram? Are you on Facebook? Are you yes?

SPEAKER_03 44:01

We do all those um things, but I I I uh I think you're right. We have to find influencers like people like you guys. I mean, podcasts are influencers, and other people that are influencers, and I think it's as grassroots. And I think once we start getting some traction, then the the media can't really ignore you. Right.

SPEAKER_05 44:18

And I hate to say it because I'm I'm not a big fan of Hollywood. I love Hollywood, but I'm you know, the whole Hollywood political thing. But you you know, you find one celebrity who's suddenly like, you know, I was looking at this main three, you know, and then boom.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

You know what, Tom, for you, I'll I'll tell Rogan about you and uh I'll let you see if he can give you a couple minutes on the show. Uh because he's he and I are tight as fellow podcasters, you know. One of us pioneered the industry, the other one took advantage of it. So I I don't know who did what. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

Um I'll take referrals. That's how I built bookminders, is all referral business.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Yeah, no, I tell you what, this is uh I tell you what, it's a big endeavor. It is definitely the the little guy making a big difference, but isn't that how our country was founded?

SPEAKER_05 45:00

It has a nobility to it that you don't see and a nobility to it.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

And I say, I say, for God's sakes, remember James Wilson. And while you're streaking through the fountain, I'm going streaking through that fountain. I'm gonna go make that fountain, and I'm gonna say, I'm streaking through the fountain, and my fringe group is moderate, guys. This has been awesome. You know what? Think about your own business. Think about when you had a biz and you had a business plan and you said, Hey, I'm gonna start this business. And did somebody ever sit there and go, You're out of your tree, you're tilting at a windmill there, Don Quixote. What are you doing? No, everybody said, Oh, God, great idea. Oh, you it's a hundred dollar, million-dollar idea. Oh, you're gonna make a ton of money at it. Nobody ever said, Wow, I think you're a little nuts. And I wish people would have said that because I want people to say he's a little nuts, because I think that's how things get done, and that's how shit gets done.

SPEAKER_05 45:47

All the great stories are people that didn't accept the status quo. Let's do it. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

My family thought I was crazy for leaving the engineer and degree to start a bookkeeping service, too.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Honestly, I 100% uh I identify with that Thomas. Uh yeah. Now you can tell us, suck it. And oh, don't forget to give me a lot of money. The Wilson's phone. Guys, Tom Joseph, America's Main Streetparty.org. Go give, get the word out. If you think something rang with you on that, hook me up, Chris at the trusted toolbox. I'll get to Tom and uh we'll get you guys hooked up because this is definitely an effort that you might be able to make a difference in. Because that's the other way you make a difference. In groups that are small like this, and you get in, your impact is felt a lot bigger than if you go with some of the bigger parties. Go out there, make a difference, keep getting up that mountaintop. Man, success is right around the corner. You just don't know which corner it's gonna be. Let's do it. Get out of here. Cheers, everybody. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Department. Remember, positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for.