Why A Business Owner Decided To Audit The Government I Scott Fitzpatrick - AO 52 I

What does accountability actually look like in government — and why does it matter to everyday Americans?

In this episode of American Operator, we sit down with Scott Fitzpatrick, Missouri State Auditor, for a candid conversation about transparency, public trust, and the role accountability plays in keeping communities and businesses strong.

Scott shares his path into public service, why audits matter more than most people realize, and how responsible leadership impacts everything from small towns to state-level decision-making. This isn’t politics — it’s about stewardship, integrity, and doing the job the right way.

This episode covers:
- What a State Auditor actually does (and why it matters)
- Accountability, transparency, and public trust
- How leadership decisions impact local communities
- The intersection of government, business, and responsibility
- Why good systems protect taxpayers and small businesses
- Lessons in leadership that translate far beyond politics

From rural communities to state government, this conversation highlights how strong leadership and clear accountability create stability — and why those principles are just as important in business as they are in public office.

If you care about leadership, responsibility, and the systems that keep America running, this episode offers a rare look behind the curtain.

Join the Movement
Tactical insights and behind-the-scenes stories from America’s operators:

• Website: www.americanoperator.com
• AO In Action: https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanOperator
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamericanoperator
• Newsletter: https://americanoperator.substack.com
• Locally Owned and Operated: https://www.locallyownedandoperated.org/

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:13
Unknown
it's, it's like one of those jobs where the job is what the name is, so it's so easy. Yeah. So yeah, a lot of it out. Yeah. It's my job. Yeah.

00:00:09:13 - 00:00:15:23
Unknown
And there are a lot of state auditor's offices that don't, like, I say a lot. There are some state auditors offices that don't actually audit,

00:00:15:23 - 00:00:27:17
Unknown
all right team. Well welcome back here to the show. We are off site outside of our Austin studio in Missouri with Scott Fitzpatrick Missouri State auditor, and also business owner.

00:00:27:17 - 00:00:50:11
Unknown
And so we're going to get into kind of all things about how Missouri is doing and probably just how private sector, public sector and all that stuff can kind of come together. But thank you so much for your time today. My pleasure. I absolutely, you know, enjoy the opportunity to do stuff like this and especially for, you know, for my wife's cousin, you know, being the I'm part of your your, production here, definitely couldn't tell her.

00:00:50:11 - 00:01:05:15
Unknown
No, so I. Yeah, but I didn't want to tell her. No. So so I'm happy to have you do it. We greatly appreciate it, man. Well, maybe I think as a fun fact, I realize, you flew in today, and when I say flew in, you didn't just take a you didn't go to the airport like you actually flew in, your own airplane.

00:01:05:17 - 00:01:28:18
Unknown
I mean, just on a personal note, is that a sounds like a really, important and fun way to get around this state. Is that something you've been doing quite some time? Find yourself around? Yeah, I got my pilot's license. Oh, I guess it was about nine years ago, so I, my wife and I had twin sons in 2015, and, they, we were in the Nike for four months with them.

00:01:28:18 - 00:01:46:14
Unknown
They're they've got a lot of special needs issues. And I realized pretty quickly that if I was going to be able to continue doing the things and business that I was doing and then politics that I was doing, that I was going to need something faster than a car, so I could be be be at home with my family when I needed to be there.

00:01:46:14 - 00:02:13:17
Unknown
And, so I decided to work on getting my pilot's license, and and it's been a a real, you know, it's been a game changer for me. At the time I was in the state legislature, I wasn't in a statewide office. But it's it's definitely, helped, you know, in the business side of things significantly, as well as just being able to, being able to do this job, in Jefferson City while kind of keeping my roots back home.

00:02:13:17 - 00:02:38:06
Unknown
Where where I'm from in southwest Missouri. That's awesome. Yeah, now I can. Is it fun for you, too, then, to fly around? Yeah. You know, I, I fly about 300 and, you know, 300 to 350 hours a year. So I fly, you know, a few times a week, usually. And so it gets, you know, the, the, the type of flying sometimes you get a little mundane burning up the burning up the path between Cassville and Jefferson City.

00:02:38:06 - 00:02:59:09
Unknown
It's, you know, same thing a lot. But, I also get the chance to fly to a lot of different places. I'm going to Salt Lake City, like I said tonight. So I'm flying out there. You know, I've flown to the Bahamas. I've flown. I've flown all over the country. So it's it's I've seen some cool stuff flown into Aspen and Telluride and, you know, up in Hayden, Colorado, kind of called Steamboat Springs.

00:02:59:09 - 00:03:16:20
Unknown
Vail. So I've done a lot of the mountain stuff and, so. Yeah, cool. It's been cool to to have that opportunity and to have that skill that, you know, it's pretty rare. Not a lot of people can do that. And have the ability to, you know, leave their house and be somewhere completely different in an hour or whatever.

00:03:16:20 - 00:03:35:21
Unknown
So absolutely. And, and actually use it. I imagine a lot of folks get that skill and then don't get to use it or exercise very much. And this seems like you're doing just that. Yeah. I mean, you know, when you get your pilot's lives, a lot of people want to do it just so it's kind of like a, you know, bucket list thing or, you know, they they don't really have a reason that they're going to fly after they get their license.

00:03:35:23 - 00:03:50:23
Unknown
And, you know, so I, I've got a good friend of mine, he got his pilot's license. His last flight was his check ride, getting his license. He hadn't flown since then, as far as I know. And and so if you ever wanted to get back into it, he'd be kind of starting over. You know, you have to go get a you have to have a biannual flight review every two years.

00:03:50:23 - 00:04:12:23
Unknown
And, and so, so being current, having review number one, be safe. Being current is really important. You know, being in a in a routine and and flying especially flying IFR, you know, in the weather and stuff. You want to do that a lot and otherwise you can get rusty. You don't want to be a you don't want to be a rusty pilot flying around with a bunch of people in your plane and, and get somebody hurt.

00:04:13:02 - 00:04:38:23
Unknown
So staying current is is important. And I've had a good chance to do that. Yeah, it sounds like it's awesome. Well, I think maybe kind of a good segue into like our, you know, speaking of flying privately, your last before public service, I know as a business owner and as somebody who's kind of been immersed in the community, can you just give folks a little bit of a background on, on businesses that you started and kind of how that was something that you got into?

00:04:38:23 - 00:04:59:03
Unknown
Hey, y'all. Quick break. Here at American Operator, we believe that small business is the backbone of this country. But more and more Main Street getting swallowed up by big corporations, wall Street or some of them are just shutting down. If you've ever thought about building something of your own, or just being a part of saving the American dream head on over to American operator.com.

00:04:59:05 - 00:05:09:09
Unknown
It's your one stop shop for inspiration stories, and you'll get to join this really great community of patriots that believe our country still worth fighting for. All right. Back to the show.

00:05:09:09 - 00:05:38:13
Unknown
Yeah. So the main, the main business that I, that I started is in the marine industry. I own a company that manufactures boat docks and and build them all over the United States, mostly for marinas. So our, our primary kind of customer, it's a, you know, a B2B type business started out more B2C, more where you're selling more residential docks to, people on the lake where I grew up, which is table Rock Lake in southwest Missouri.

00:05:38:13 - 00:06:03:02
Unknown
That was kind of what I started out with, but really how I got into the business, from the beginning, I was a, I was a teenager. My dad was in the dock business. He sold his business, and I think 2001, so I was, you know, 14 years old at that time. And I had worked for him for that, you know, a couple summers actually building docks, doing the the manual labor there.

00:06:03:02 - 00:06:22:02
Unknown
And it was a, you know, he had about 30, 30 to 35 employees doing that. So when he sold his business, got out of that, he got into the concrete business. And, you know, we were in the live in the Ozark Mountains, we call you know, they're Brittany from Colorado. They call them hills. But, you know, down I somebody name in the Ozark Mountains.

00:06:22:02 - 00:06:53:00
Unknown
So in Texas that would be considered Everest main because yeah, yeah, you guys are pretty flat down there. But you know so he was he he got into doing, you know, pouring basement walls for houses and you know, so you're packing concrete forms up and down hills and. Yeah, I just didn't have much interest in that. I love being, you know, working on the water and being around boats and docks and, you know, if you get hot, you can jump in the water, you know, so there's kind of I so I decided, hey, I'm, you know, I'm 15 years old when I, you know, summer came up, I'm like, I'm just going to we

00:06:53:00 - 00:07:15:20
Unknown
lived on the lake. We had our little John boat. And so I just, kind of hung out a shingle and put the word out around kind of our area of the lake that, you know, if anybody needed any kind of odd job with their dock, I would be interested in doing it. So, you know, putting bumpers on, the posts and the slip or some people wanted a little patio built in the front of their slip so they could put some chairs on it or.

00:07:15:22 - 00:07:38:06
Unknown
Yeah. So I did a lot of that little stuff and then, got into, refloating docks. So a lot of these docks, when they were built, they were built with exposed styrofoam. Similar has been on a lake. You know, if you know, the last 20 years, you probably remember white, you know, the white exposed styrofoam, or we call it expanded polystyrene that was used to float these docks.

00:07:38:06 - 00:07:56:02
Unknown
Well, you know, those things break apart and they're not good for the environment and all that. And so over time, there was a requirement put in place and a lot most lakes also with the development of the the technology in the product to build these encapsulated floats, you know, everybody had to get rid of that white foam.

00:07:56:02 - 00:08:23:17
Unknown
You get it off the lakes, all over the country and dispose of it. So I, I did some of that as well. During summers I would go and it's a very manual job. You're kicking styrofoam out from under a dock and trying to kick a float and replace it at the same time. And, so I did some of that, and I really I got into building docks with my senior year of high school, there was a storm that went through, table Rock Lake, and it took some docks up over by Branson, Missouri.

00:08:23:17 - 00:08:42:13
Unknown
And it was on the news that and I remember coming home from school or whatever and saw that it was, you know, on TV, there was a dock literally got picked up out of the water and flipped over and landed on another dock. And so this is like a Friday night. So Saturday morning, I got in my truck and I drove over to Branson, and I found these docks.

00:08:42:13 - 00:09:02:16
Unknown
I found the guy that owned it. I wanted the dock that was sitting on top of the of yeah, of the two docks. And, I said, hey, man, can I introduce myself and just ask him to give me an opportunity to give him a bid on building a new dock? And he gave me that opportunity. And the lady whose dock was underneath is, also gave me that opportunity.

00:09:02:16 - 00:09:27:09
Unknown
And I ended up selling both those people. Docks. Which was about this is 2006. That was about, a quarter million dollars of of of work right there. Yeah. Of work. How old were you at the time? I was, 18. Yeah, yeah. So I just turned 18 and, so I, you know, I did I knew how to build docks, you know, I knew and it's you could it's you figure out the materials and.

00:09:27:10 - 00:09:47:22
Unknown
Yeah. How much, how much that stuff costs and and so I was able to, you know, I knew what my cost was going to be, kind of, you know. Yeah, I knew what the materials were going to cost the laborers and other thing you kind of got to, you got to figure out and other stuff. But, so he, he gave me, gave me that opportunity, and so did the lady who's doctor underneath is.

00:09:47:22 - 00:10:09:16
Unknown
And they gave me a, you know, like a 25% deposit, on those jobs. And I use that money to buy some more tools and, and, I started to advertise a little bit. And just like the local paper on the lake, you know, around the lake. And, I used a at that time, a kind of a custom fab shop to make all the steel components for me.

00:10:09:18 - 00:10:28:07
Unknown
Because I didn't have that, that capability or a facility to do that in. So I'd outsource that component of it and had guys that, you know, we just had together, you know, putting putting the docks together. Yeah. And that was kind of how I got started. And, you know, you know, I didn't go to the bank.

00:10:28:07 - 00:10:44:06
Unknown
It was kind of a I did not have a business plan. I didn't go to the bank. I basically, you know, the start up capital was customer deposits and vendor credit. I was able to convince some suppliers to sell me, sell you back. Don't worry. Yeah. Just. Yeah, I was able to get something, and I did have a banking.

00:10:44:06 - 00:11:09:14
Unknown
Really? I had borrowed, like, $15,000 from a local community bank to buy a pickup truck, and I paid them back, and, you know, in a few months. And so I had established a banking relationship. But in terms of, like, going out and getting working capital, it was pretty much, you know, funded, starting up with customer deposits and vendor credit, convincing suppliers to let me buy stuff on terms and, and that was how I got going.

00:11:09:14 - 00:11:34:16
Unknown
And so I was really operating with negative working capital. Yeah. To start because, you know, my current liabilities far exceeded my current assets. Yeah. If anybody's into accounting terms, that's really how I got started. And, you know, kind of it kind of grew from there. There's obviously a lot of other twists and turns that we took, but but, that first year, I did $670,000 in revenue in 2006 and then kind of doubled up, the next year.

00:11:34:16 - 00:11:59:20
Unknown
And the year after that. But that was 2008. And so things kind of kind of slow down the market. Yeah. 2008. What? Yeah, there was there was a lot of dark days, you know, for me during that, during that period of time, but, you know, we've, we've had ups and downs, but, you know, we've, we've continued to kind of build the business and, and, I, I saw in college, I met my random roommate that was assigned to me.

00:11:59:21 - 00:12:31:07
Unknown
So I was actually how I met my wife as well, was through him, but he, when we were sophomores in college, came to work with me and the company, and, ultimately, he's he's still there today. He's the president of the company and runs the Brunswick business day to day. But, so a lot of just like, you know, I what I would consider divine intervention, you know, stuff that you there's you can a lot of people you can point to a moment in your life where if that moment hadn't occurred, your life would look completely different.

00:12:31:09 - 00:12:51:02
Unknown
And for me, that was the day that I got paired with this guy at Mizzou. As my roommate. Both of our lives changed forever just by virtue of that. That kind of decision that neither one of us had a part in a pardon. And so, you know, I believe in that. God has a plan for all of us and and that.

00:12:51:06 - 00:13:11:06
Unknown
Yeah, you kind of just got to wait and see what he reveals to you. And that was one of those moments that I, when I look back on my life that really altered the trajectory of things for me. Yeah. Now you can see that, especially when I imagine a lot of folks doing it and right now and thinking about especially how early you were in your life to have started to kind of create the momentum and meet the right folks and keep moving.

00:13:11:08 - 00:13:28:00
Unknown
Yeah, that's that's, that's not usually by our design. And so you just kind of lean into the call, speaking in the call like, how did how did running a business for so many years then lead you to public service? It seems to me that a lot of folks would just stay in that private sector life. What happened there and what was the impetus for that?

00:13:28:04 - 00:13:49:08
Unknown
So going into, you know, the recession, one of the things that I experience shows was, you know, capital markets are very tight. People can borrow money to go build stuff. And, you know, a lot of our customers relied on debt financing to build their, their, their docks, you know, and, so the ones that didn't need that, it's like, you know, they were few and far between.

00:13:49:08 - 00:14:12:02
Unknown
But the people that did have cash and were willing to buy something from us, a lot of the times we're running into regulatory problems, and it's like when you have an economy collapsing and you have bureaucrats, you know, sitting at a desk somewhere, that all they need to do is just say yes to something, and then these people don't get laid off or lose their job, and they just cannot do that.

00:14:12:04 - 00:14:37:13
Unknown
That was really frustrating to me. And so I had some experiences that I just was not satisfied with, with bureaucracy. It wasn't all at the state level, but, in fact, most of it was probably, you know, the Corps of Engineers and things like that. But I as a young guy, I did not have any political aspirations. You know, when I was 18, 19 years old, I wasn't active in, you know, any way in politics.

00:14:37:13 - 00:14:57:02
Unknown
Right. But I realized you're trying to build this business, especially in and, you know, through a recession that the people in charge of the government were actually that was were actually really important, you know, decisions that people were making at the ballot box. And that's when I started paying attention is I have 2008 that presidential election.

00:14:57:04 - 00:15:17:06
Unknown
And and after that. And so I didn't at that time make a decision to run for office. But I did realize that, like, hey, you know, there there is a lot of red tape and, and we may be better than a lot of places in the world, but for me, it seemed like a lot of red tape. And so I just kind of started paying attention.

00:15:17:06 - 00:15:40:12
Unknown
In Missouri, we have term limits and so in 2012, my state representative was term, term limited out. He was going to run for the Senate, the House seat was going to come open and I started thinking about it and research. I was still I was not married at the time. Mallory, my wife and I, we were dating, and she had moved to little Rock for work after we graduated from college.

00:15:40:12 - 00:15:57:15
Unknown
I was in back in Chell Knob in southwest Missouri, and, so I was still single. I didn't have any kids, and I kind of felt like, you know, if I want to do something like this, the time to get into it is either now when I'm young, before I, you know, I can take a lot or I can take a lot of risk.

00:15:57:17 - 00:16:14:02
Unknown
You know, at this age, I don't have a family that I could potentially let down in some way, shape or form. I had, you know, the veil. The only thing, the only person I'm disappointing is myself, really, at this point. So, or you wait until you're 60 years old, your kids are grown, you know, and you get into it.

00:16:14:02 - 00:16:34:00
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. So starting a journey like that when you're trying to raise a family, and and I was it seemed like it would be tough. So I just decided, like, you know, the time is now for me to get involved, and, and, and I decided to run for state representative. And Kyle Wilkerson, the guy that I mentioned I was paired with and and Mizzou after we graduated college.

00:16:34:00 - 00:16:52:10
Unknown
So he'd worked with us, you know, for a couple of years, maybe three years during college. And, then he decided after we graduate he was going to go do something different. He was going to get into the insurance world. And, he did that for about a year. And when I was talking about thinking about running for state rep, I talked to him.

00:16:52:10 - 00:17:12:15
Unknown
I said, if I do this, I'm going to need somebody to run this place. And I said, do you want to do it? And he's like, yeah, yeah, I'm in. So he's like, he didn't like what he was doing. And the insurance thing, I don't think. And and so he, he agreed, to come back. And so he came back right at the end of, right at the beginning of 2012.

00:17:12:17 - 00:17:29:04
Unknown
That was the year I ran for office and was elected. Had a really tough three way primary, two other guys. One was a county commissioner, one was a, school board member and a, you know, business guy. And so everybody was kind of like laughing at me a little bit and thinking, you know, my past is going to happen.

00:17:29:06 - 00:17:46:02
Unknown
Yeah. Just like maybe you should start somewhere. They wanted me to. Some people were trying to convince me to run for Southern commissioner or like an associate commissioner role. And I'm like, guys, I know I don't want to do that. This is all either win this and go do it, or I'll lose and I'll keep building blocks. But, you know, so it's kind of the way I looked at it.

00:17:46:02 - 00:18:07:06
Unknown
So, so I did I ran, I've worked my butt off. I went to, Yeah, I mean, I, I went to places knocking doors where you had, I had to put my truck in four wheel drive to get to people's houses, you know, and, and, you know, you go talk to voters and, I had people tell me, like, nobody's ever been to my house, like to not to knock on my door for a vote.

00:18:07:06 - 00:18:25:16
Unknown
And and so that's how I won every precinct in the in the district, except for, the two precincts where my opponents lived. And then one other one that I actually did. I ran out of time. I didn't get to go door knocking. Yeah. But, that's how that's how I got here due to the to the house anyway or.

00:18:25:17 - 00:18:45:05
Unknown
I'm not, not, not that there's a lot of, you know, path from there to here, but yeah. So it's it's just public service in general. Do you feel that it's been what you expected or was it completely foreign when you got here when you, you know. So before I made the decision to come, I had been to this building two times.

00:18:45:07 - 00:19:00:10
Unknown
I can't wait. Beyond Missouri, we take a fourth grade field trip to the Capitol to get fourth grade. You know, come March, April time frame. Yeah, there'll be fourth graders running all over this place for, you know, every day for a month. Which is great. It's awesome. I didn't come back until I was in college.

00:19:00:10 - 00:19:18:22
Unknown
I was actually going to file an LLC to for another business that I ended up kind of not really doing anything with. Yeah. And that was the secretary of State office when I was in Columbia Up and Mizzou was Jefferson City. So I'm thinking, okay, I'll go down to Jefferson City. So I just yeah, I guess I assumed I don't remember why I came to the Capitol.

00:19:18:22 - 00:19:34:06
Unknown
I assumed that the Capitol was where I was going for to see the Secretary of State's office to do this paperwork. So I remember I parked right, right out there and I'm, like, trying to figure out how to get in this place. It was before there was no security. The doors were just unlocked. Yeah. The security came in like seven years ago.

00:19:34:12 - 00:19:52:02
Unknown
So before that, there were no metal detectors. Literally, I walk out that there's, like, come in and see The Wizard of Oz. You know, I walked up that big staircase out front. Yeah. And, open those giant bronze doors and walked in and I'm like, So I found the Secretary of State's office. I went in, I'm like, yeah, I need to file an LLC.

00:19:52:02 - 00:20:12:21
Unknown
They're like, you're in the wrong building. Yeah, you got to go to the Kirkpatrick Building down the street. So I ended up going down there. So those are the only two times before I started thinking about running for state rep. That I'd even been here. Yeah. And so I came up, before I made the decision, and I talked to my state, my state representative at that time, I said, can I just kind of watch you for a day and see, like, what your day is like and what you're doing?

00:20:12:21 - 00:20:32:00
Unknown
And I did that, you know, went to a committee hearing and kind of talked to him a little bit. I talked to my state senator, at the time about what his job is like, what his day was like, him. And, and so I went through that process and I knew a little bit about it. But when I got up here after the election, we do what's called do.

00:20:32:03 - 00:20:57:04
Unknown
It's called the Freshmen tour. And so all the newly elected members get on a bus. It's usually two busses, you know, with some of the staff from the house go, and you kind of go around the state. But before you go, do that, you have like kind of an orientation where you do kind of a mock committee hearing and some you go through the procedures that you're going to experience when you come to actually kind of get you acclimated to things.

00:20:57:04 - 00:21:18:20
Unknown
Yeah. So that when you show up on day one of your first legislative session, you have some idea of what's going on. You know what I mean? So, so I did a little bit of that, and then I spent some time on the, you know, on the bus with the staff and other members going around the state to various state facilities, prison, just mental hospital, all these different places, some private businesses, things like that.

00:21:18:22 - 00:21:44:10
Unknown
And, I met a guy on that trip named Mike Bryce who's actually now the deputy state auditor. He was at the time. He was the director of the budget staff in the House. I started talking about the state budget. And so that was really what I, I decided to make my focus. When I came to Jeff City, I wanted I figured focusing on the budget was a good idea, because when you control how much money these agencies get, you can really affect their behavior.

00:21:44:10 - 00:22:03:23
Unknown
You know what I mean? Like, if you take money away, they they don't like that. So they will they will listen to you and they will react to your input much more, much more quickly and efficiently than if you're a rank and file member that doesn't really have very many levers you can pull to affect, you know, how a department operates.

00:22:04:01 - 00:22:20:06
Unknown
And so that's what I focused on. And so, yeah, there were things that surprised me. I guess I'm trying to think back, you know, what those things would be. But just really like how navigating the legislative process, it's much different than just like, oh, I'm going to vote yes or I'm going to vote no. I mean, there's a lot of horse trading.

00:22:20:06 - 00:22:49:08
Unknown
There's a lot of relationship building. There's a lot of things that go into being a successful legislator and somebody that has respect enough from their colleagues to get things done, that, you know, it's, it's that really is more important sometimes. And just like how good of a campaigner and an ideologue you can be. Yeah. Is how effective you can be at accomplishing the things you set out to do in this building, or it's really determined by your relationship building skills, your, you know, your people skills.

00:22:49:08 - 00:23:07:18
Unknown
And sometimes you're just being humble, you know what I mean? And not pissing everybody off all the time. So do you feel like that some of your experience as a small business owner, those traits or their skill sets, or even how you grew up kind of working with your dad, did that sort of effectively translate into how you do business day to day, even as a as the state auditor?

00:23:07:20 - 00:23:26:09
Unknown
Yeah. And you know, what I would say is like, you know, coming in with that business background, like a lot of I, when I went to college, you know, and I was got a business degree at Mizzou, the main thing I got out of college was I learned how to just, you know, socialize and be a man.

00:23:26:09 - 00:23:48:16
Unknown
And, you know, go through life, right. And deal with, deal with, there were some classes. I mean, I think business law was a it was a good class. So a couple of the accounting classes were useful outside of that. You know, I didn't get much out of going to school, you know. Yeah, I was going to entrepreneurship class with teachers who'd never started a business, you know, and I'm like, I'm saying, I've done it.

00:23:48:16 - 00:24:09:06
Unknown
I'm running a business right now, and I'm listening to you tell me, like what I should be doing. And it's like, you're just it's not hidden, right? You know what I mean? And so, I didn't get much out of out of that process. It was cool being there when you're, you know, when you're already doing what they're trying to teach you about, because you can kind of tell what, what makes sense and what doesn't.

00:24:09:08 - 00:24:33:13
Unknown
But when you, you know, having that experience when I got here definitely helped me be better at that job. Having dealt with a lot of controversy and businesses hard, a friend of mine named before who's, he has a company, a private equity firm called Permanent Equity in in Columbia. And he describes, like all businesses, are loosely functioning disasters that sometimes happen to make money.

00:24:33:15 - 00:25:01:03
Unknown
And I mean, it's a great to me, it's a great definition. Because he it's right, you know, I mean, like, if you're running a business of any magnitude, you're going to have problems every single day and you're gonna have to deal with them. You're going to have to confront them. And so you come to a place like this where not that many of the people have have done those things right, you know, but most of them are, are either they've worked a, you know, a job for a career and they retired.

00:25:01:03 - 00:25:21:08
Unknown
And then they decided to give back to, in part through public service. So they run for office. Some of them are, you know, people who have never had a job outside of government. You know, they worked in, they maybe were a staffer. And then they decided to run for the legislature. And so their their whole existence has been like a government paycheck.

00:25:21:08 - 00:25:42:12
Unknown
Right. And so having that worldview and that real kind of like real life experience, even when I was 24 years old and I was 25 years old when I got here, you know, but I had I felt like I had lived a lot more life than a lot of people that were 10 to 15 years older than me, just by virtue of the things that I'd done in business.

00:25:42:16 - 00:26:03:22
Unknown
And so it did help. And, you know, not being afraid to ask questions that other people might think are stupid or might not think to ask, you know, it, it definitely helped me get to where I am. Yeah, it sounds like an even from personal experience, business has a way of, forcing courage. Because otherwise you're going to lose the ship.

00:26:03:22 - 00:26:22:02
Unknown
So you have to ask the questions, or you have to do the things. And it also seems to me that kind of the way you describe it is, I imagine you don't run around as, you probably don't have many moments where it doesn't feel like you can't figure it out, you know, because you can't have seen the the rest of chaos in front of you and how to stay calm in it.

00:26:22:04 - 00:26:45:17
Unknown
I do think that I can imagine, if you've not had that business chaos before, and figure out how to weather the storm, it can seem like even the most small thing here can seem big when it really isn't stressed. Yeah, stress. Like being able to tolerate stress. Like it's like a muscle, right? Yeah. I mean, anybody who's in business knows that the more of it you, it's like going to the gym, you know, the more the more times you go to the gym, the stronger you're going to be.

00:26:45:19 - 00:27:04:06
Unknown
Yeah, the more stressful situations you find yourself in or put yourself in, the the less significant each of those is going to seem like I, I kind of laugh sometimes that like. And I'm sure you do too. It's like when you see something that like will stress somebody else out in a in a way that's like, it wouldn't even register, you know what I mean?

00:27:04:06 - 00:27:26:07
Unknown
Wouldn't even register for somebody that said or doesn't hit the seismograph at all. Yeah. It's like you wouldn't even you wouldn't even think about it, you know. And it's it's just that is something that I mean, I've, I've had, you know, for months and and like you with twins, I've had, you know, 13 years of, of being in state capital and I've had 20 years running a business.

00:27:26:09 - 00:27:49:00
Unknown
And, you know, parenting, especially these kids, is really hard, you know, but there are times where, like, running a business is just, like the hardest thing you could ever sign up to do it. You know, it really is. And and, you know, I got myself and when I, when I, when I started, I can't explain how I've funded, you know, I was upside down for it.

00:27:49:00 - 00:28:12:01
Unknown
So I'm like, you know, in a situation where I can't quit, you know, I can't just like, hey, I'm going to stop doing this. I'm just going to let's take a couple days. I'll let me get my thoughts together. So it's like there was no, like my, my dad asked me early on it. He had a non-compete, and so he wasn't able to help me in any way with the business, but I he knew I had some work and he asked me like, and I, I felt pretty good, you know, a little money in the bank and whatever, you know, accounts payable.

00:28:12:01 - 00:28:33:00
Unknown
I had some cash receivable. Yeah, I wouldn't really. Yeah, I wasn't really close. So he said if you didn't sell another job, how much money would you have left? If you, you know, collect all your revenue and paid all your bills, would you know how much I'm like. And I really thought about that. So I started, you know, I put together this cash flow spreadsheet and the answer was negative.

00:28:33:01 - 00:28:55:12
Unknown
You know, it was a negative number. I was like, oh shit. Yeah. So all I got to do is times my negative one and it fixes it. Yeah. There you go. And so, so that so you realize like you don't have the luxury of giving up. Yeah. Because if you do you're not going to just be able to pay everybody in and then just go do something different like you had like if you're going to survive, it's I mean, you're, you're, you're, you're going to screw a bunch of people.

00:28:55:13 - 00:29:13:12
Unknown
You're going to succeed. Like those are the options. It's not like there's no middle ground. And in my situation now, there might be for other people, like exit ramps where you can get out without having a big problem. But I, you know, I was I was in it, you know, and so like I when I realized that I'm just like, you know, I did not want to fail.

00:29:13:12 - 00:29:32:18
Unknown
And so I was willing to do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen. So once you live through that, you go through that kind of experience as a 20 year old or whatever. Yeah, it it changes you. And, you know, you're you're kind of built different from that point forward. Am I in my view? No, I think you're right, man.

00:29:32:18 - 00:29:52:21
Unknown
Yeah. That resonates. I think you also are always I don't know about you, but I'm always like, hunting for folks that at least it's kind of like my most important thing that I look for, whether I'm sure it's same for you, and you look for a chief of staff, or you look for somebody who's helping you run a business or whatever it is, where that level of how much, how much through the fire.

00:29:52:21 - 00:30:09:01
Unknown
Have you also been through? Because it just allows us to operate more effectively because it is there is it is interesting when you don't find those things to be matched. It can be, you know, you find it almost to be an anchor because it gets, you know, things get really emotional, whatever. You know, hold on. It's not a big deal.

00:30:09:02 - 00:30:25:06
Unknown
Like it really isn't. Right. We'll move past it. And I found with people and with teams and stuff that you build around I imagine is the same for you. Here is I think you've had all your teammates here over to the right, like there's always probably a little bit of like what doesn't meet the resume is like, can you talk to me about hard things you've done and how you've gone through them?

00:30:25:06 - 00:30:42:13
Unknown
Because I think in a lot of ways it'll like show the character human much more than some fancy degree they've got or something like that. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I mean, the cool thing. And so with Kyle that, that, you know, I've talked about in the on the business side, he and I kind of grew up together. So he was right by my side.

00:30:42:13 - 00:31:11:09
Unknown
And when things were as tough as I'd ever been, you know, and. Yeah. And, and so he and I, you know, we both kind of been through the fire at the same time. And so we're supporting each other. Yeah. And all that. And then over here, you know, I got here and I met Mike. There's another guy named Glenn down on the House budget, on the House budget staff and then other people around me, like some of the smartest people, I mean, maybe the smartest people I've ever met in person, you know, I mean, like, they they I was shocked at how intelligent, like, these guys working in the basement of the state capitol

00:31:11:09 - 00:31:30:20
Unknown
were. And that's why I've kind of latched on and and kept Mike around. I would love to have Mike and Glenn, but I also had a felt like if I took both of them when I left the house, that the house was going to be in trouble on on getting a budget done. And so I didn't feel like I should or could do that for the in the best interest of the state.

00:31:30:22 - 00:31:55:12
Unknown
But you know, there's different you know, different people have different purposes and different applications and, and, you know, what Mike does for me here in the state auditor's office is not something that Kyle would ever be able to or want to do. Probably. Yeah. And vice versa. You know, Mike is would never want to try to do a Kyle's job is at Megacorp.

00:31:55:14 - 00:32:16:00
Unknown
And so it's different but they're both like, you know, my right hand person. Well, I'm a lefty, so they're both my left hand and my left hand, you know, and the two different spots. Totally. But you couldn't switch. They couldn't switch places, you know? Yeah. So skills are unique, but it sounds like the character and like, the depth of their grit is probably the it is probably balanced, right.

00:32:16:01 - 00:32:25:11
Unknown
Probably on par with. Yeah. But the way you kind of rock and roll every day. How do you what what does the state auditor do? So

00:32:25:11 - 00:32:35:00
Unknown
it's, it's like one of those jobs where the job is what the name is, so it's so easy. Yeah. So yeah, a lot of it out. Yeah. It's my job. Yeah.

00:32:35:00 - 00:32:41:10
Unknown
And there are a lot of state auditor's offices that don't, like, I say a lot. There are some state auditors offices that don't actually audit,

00:32:41:10 - 00:32:50:22
Unknown
like Arkansas as an example. They have a state auditor that does not do auditing. So it's kind of, you know, it can be a misleading title, but our job we do audits.

00:32:50:22 - 00:33:19:02
Unknown
And so with most of what we do are performance audits. We don't do much in the way of financial statement auditing. We look at basically, yeah, the effectiveness and efficiency of state programs of local governments. We do a lot of fraud work. So we have a whistleblower hotline. If somebody calls in and says, hey, I think the city manager here is is embezzling money or whatever, you know, we'll go ahead and investigate that, do an audit, work with prosecutors to to prosecute those people.

00:33:19:02 - 00:33:40:16
Unknown
If we find that they were actually doing those things. And so it's really kind of the, you know, the people describe it around here is where the the government watchdog, we don't audit taxpayers, we audit government. And, you know, when I got into office, when I ran for office, it was based on the fact it was because I was frustrated with bureaucracy, I was frustrated with government.

00:33:40:18 - 00:34:15:07
Unknown
And so I, I was in the House for six years. I was the state treasurer for four by way of I got appointed to finish a term when there was a bunch of shaking up happening and, and statewide office. And then I got elected to keep the office. But then I decided to run for auditor because it's really it really is the job in state government that's most closely aligned with my the motivation that got me here in the first place, which is I want to hold government accountable for how it spends taxpayer money, how it operates, the programs that it's been assigned to to operate in the Constitution and state statute.

00:34:15:09 - 00:34:34:14
Unknown
And, just really make sure that the, the operation in Jefferson City and around the state, of these governmental entities is happening is taking place in the best interest of the of the taxpayers. Yeah. And that's what our job is. So we do we do we do some other things, as well. We, but the main function is auditing.

00:34:34:14 - 00:34:57:13
Unknown
We write the. So like when a ballot initiative issue goes on and before voters constitutional amendment or whatever, we will we write the fiscal note on that. So we have to do like an assessment of what are the estimated costs or savings to state and local government entities of that measure. If it were to be adopted, we put that information in there and it goes on the ballot for voters.

00:34:57:13 - 00:35:00:04
Unknown
So that can be a controversial job because

00:35:00:04 - 00:35:15:11
Unknown
I get sued all the time. And that in that capacity, just over what our fiscal note says, some people think it should say higher or I should say lower revenue. You know, it's just so we have to defend those a lot. We do, you know, we have to review all the property tax rates.

00:35:15:11 - 00:35:44:23
Unknown
And Missouri has a pretty robust property tax, rate, or property tax, reliance, at the local government level. And so we have like 4000 tax rates. We have to review and certify and make sure they don't exceed the constitutional limitations that exist. And, and then we have to review and certify all the when any governmental entity issues a general obligation bond in Missouri, we have to review that and certify that it's.

00:35:45:01 - 00:36:06:10
Unknown
Yeah, certain basically certify the bond that met all the all the requirements in law for those bonds to be issued. And then if there's like a refunding, we analyze, is it going to actually save taxpayers money by refinancing these bonds. And then we certify, certify them one way or the other if it does or doesn't, you know, I mean, so so it's making sure that you're taking care of your people.

00:36:06:11 - 00:36:24:16
Unknown
Yeah. Are we doing what we say we're going to be doing? Yeah, yeah. It's okay. Do you find that you're usually welcomed around or do you find that a lot of entities are kind of initially kind of, Scott it's, you know, it's very different than being a treasurer or the treasurer. Everything you do is feel good. You know, it's for the most part.

00:36:24:16 - 00:36:46:16
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're placing state deposits in various places and investing the money and, you know, doing the, like, deposit loan program. There's a bunch of stuff the treasurer does, but, in the auditor. Yeah. I mean, you know, we get obviously we have citizens that want us to come. Yeah. The reality is we don't have enough people or bandwidth to do everything that people want us to do.

00:36:46:18 - 00:37:04:06
Unknown
So we have to kind of prioritize what are the highest risk situations and what are the things that need our attention the most, and kind of build a plan to go attack those areas, whether it be the state level or the local level. To, you know, kind of fulfill our mission of keeping government accountable for people.

00:37:04:06 - 00:37:29:11
Unknown
So, yeah. But yeah, I mean, the entities themselves generally don't get excited to see us. So I said good checks and balance, I guess, and make sure people are doing what they do. I know we got I know you have a busy day, so I want to be respectful of your time. Scott. I, the thing that's on my mind especially, you know, kind of just any of your private sector experience and just kind of building businesses and being an entrepreneur and kind of building your, you know, version of the American dream.

00:37:29:13 - 00:37:49:03
Unknown
And then along with just kind of what you're doing in public service and really kind of senior from the other side and keeping, this state accountable to making sure that they're taking care of the folks that you really are. Noble mission. What do you what do you think about just the idea of someone building their American dream, whether it's homeownership, but maybe more specifically, just.

00:37:49:06 - 00:38:07:22
Unknown
Hey, look, I'm in this town. I want to operate my business. Is it? And maybe specifically for Missouri, does that feel still very well and reach for folks or, you know, what is your thought process from somebody who's kind of seen it on both sides? And what would you tell somebody right now who's potentially on the fence of like, maybe I want to step into the arena and do this myself.

00:38:08:00 - 00:38:44:03
Unknown
Any thoughts around that? Well, number one, being your own boss and starting a business is not for everybody. I'm just real talk. There's. Please. Yeah, it's it's, small percentage of people that are cut out for it. But for those who are, I mean, you can it can be a life changing deal, right? You, Yeah. Tons of sacrifice upfront, you know, with the the long term, you know, if things go well and the long term outlook could be that you own a lot of your a lot more of your time, you have financial freedom to do the things that you want to do to, you know, to own a nice home, to

00:38:44:03 - 00:39:04:11
Unknown
do those sorts of things. So I look, I think the the American dream is not dead. But I do think that with the inflation we've seen in the last five years and just general cost of living, but also, you know, purchasing a home, there's been a lot of wage inflation. But, you know, the rest of, you know, the rest of the dollar has gotten less valuable.

00:39:04:11 - 00:39:40:01
Unknown
And people, it goes a lot less further. And so it is harder. But I think that we've gotten to a point in our culture where a lot of people think that they should be able to afford a house in the nicest neighborhood and the nicest city in their state. And, you know, is as soon as they graduate from college or whatever, and the reality is, like, you might have to live, you know, you might have to live out, in a different part of town or, you know, or go to rural Missouri or rural Texas, you know, you can buy there's still opportunities in rural America, if you're willing to live somewhere

00:39:40:01 - 00:40:02:16
Unknown
other than New York City or, you know, or Austin or whatever. I mean, those are expensive places to live. You know, and if you if you are having a hard time finding a job that, you know, allows you to buy a house in those markets, like you may need to look elsewhere, right. So it's I don't want to, you know, sit here and pretend like it's as easy, maybe, as it once was, because I don't think that it is.

00:40:02:16 - 00:40:22:21
Unknown
I think that it's hard to afford a nice home on a on a single income for most wage earners, but that kind of houses that people want to build and live in and, and buy, you know, now compared to what people were living in 50 years ago, are also much different right there. It's, so it's it's just a, it's a different world we're living in.

00:40:22:21 - 00:40:45:20
Unknown
And, and, I do think it can, you know, it can be done. But listen. Yeah, if you have a skill that you can build on, there's a, there's going to be a tremendous need for, you know, people to, be in the trades or like, really these sweaty startups, right? You know, like, I guess where they start out.

00:40:45:21 - 00:41:01:14
Unknown
Yeah. Well, there's a guy named Nick Huber who is really brilliant about that. You probably seen him. He he he talks a lot. He has, like, a list of 100, 100 business ideas right there. You could go out. And if you can do this a little bit better than, you know, the average person, you're going to make a lot of money, right?

00:41:01:14 - 00:41:22:16
Unknown
You can, or at least by today's standard, by what you could make and you make a respectable living for sure. Yeah, you can you can go whether it's power washing or, you know, get a spray foam insulation business going on or whatever it is like, there are so many opportunities out there that, that if you just like the don't require, they don't have a high barrier to entry, you know what I mean?

00:41:22:16 - 00:41:44:02
Unknown
If you can save 50,000 bucks and buy some equipment and, and you know, you can get into the business for yourself, but you have to be willing to work hard, and you have to be willing to, to do the things that other people, aren't doing well. So doing doing common things uncommonly well, I think, is how Nick puts it.

00:41:44:02 - 00:42:01:19
Unknown
And I and, and so, you know, I believe in that. I think that, you know, there will be a lot of people that try and fail, but you can't be afraid of them. You can be afraid, you know, have a healthy fear of failure. I think that's okay. But you can't let that paralyze you. You can't overanalyze things.

00:42:01:19 - 00:42:21:16
Unknown
You have to just get in there and and bust your ass and and, you know, you're going to have a lot higher probability success if you attack it that way, as opposed to trying to overanalyze every decision, every situation you're in. Yeah. It says there's reps you're talking about, even if it's the smaller ones. I think folks are often looking for that perfect thing or that perfect plan.

00:42:21:16 - 00:42:41:14
Unknown
And, you know, in your example earlier of like, well, let me just start with what I, who I know, and then I see this thing going on in the news. I mean, just go down there. And worst thing they say is, no, you know, but I don't I think that does paralyze folks, that idea maybe that. Do you feel like that's maybe an initial gut check for somebody that like, if you're not even willing to try it, maybe this ain't meant for you.

00:42:41:15 - 00:43:03:00
Unknown
Well, I mean, the one thing you have to be able to do, really, if you're going to start a business yet Bill sell, you know, I mean, and there's a reason why really good salespeople make more than, you know, more than anybody else at at businesses. And it's because it's hard it's a hard job. And what most people are really uncomfortable, trying to sell something and they're really afraid of rejection.

00:43:03:00 - 00:43:30:07
Unknown
They're really afraid of being told no. And so you have to get over that. If you're going to start a business, you have to. I remember when I first started, you know, we had our brochure was all over a lot of words and some like renderings, some drawings. We didn't have. Yeah, a portfolio of work that we could take pictures of and put in a brochure, you know, and, you know, hit the road driving around, going to marinas, asking if they were going to build any docks this year.

00:43:30:07 - 00:43:48:22
Unknown
And, you know, we could give them a quote, you know, and a lot of them are like, who the hell are you? Yeah. You're like 19 years old. Get out of here. You know, and then, yeah, that's not fun. And especially when you're, you know, in the Marina, you might drive for six hours and have five marinas on a lake that you can call on.

00:43:49:00 - 00:44:13:01
Unknown
Yeah. And that takes you, like a full day. And then you got to go six hours a different direction to find another five marinas. You're not getting a high volume of interactions. You know, where you're getting and getting some success and some failure. You know, it's it's like a it's kind of a slow grind. But, so that is a skill I think that, you know, and and even if, if you have that skill, you can make a lot of money not working for yourself.

00:44:13:03 - 00:44:30:05
Unknown
You can get a good, sales job, make a ton of money in sales if you're good at that, if you're good with people and, and, you know, follow through and follow up, it's a, you know, it's a, I think a very valuable skill that people and it's hard to teach. Right. You know, because it's a lot of a lot of it's personality.

00:44:30:10 - 00:44:47:02
Unknown
Yeah. But a lot of it's also, you know, just having no shame, you know, no fear, no shame. You go practice, you know, and go get after it. Yeah. You know, I think you, a lot of thoughts go into my brain on that statement. I do think it's one of those, like, sometimes you just don't know if you could afford.

00:44:47:04 - 00:45:14:20
Unknown
You start to try some of those things. You got to get it going. And speaking of, just get it going and get after it. I mean, the motto of the state, show me. See, like, I'm curious, you know, maybe as we close out our convo here, what are the things that even as a Texan and I, I've been here a few days and so the people that are I'm good friends with back in Texas that are from Missouri, I mean, it's only further encouraged me just about the people who are from here, like I got here felt right at home.

00:45:15:00 - 00:45:36:03
Unknown
But there's this like, people have this can do celebration of each other. They want to see each other win, but they're very humble about it. What would you tell folks who are from this state? Just about what excites you about kind of the future of Missouri and maybe just specifically how y'all especially help them promote business ownership here or just ownership in general.

00:45:36:04 - 00:45:56:15
Unknown
Yeah. Well, you know, Missouri number one, I, I've, I've never lived anywhere else. I've been in Missouri my whole life. We are a state that, you know, I've done business all over the country. I've done business in other states. I, you know, we are a state that, in my view, is pretty business friendly and just relative to.

00:45:56:17 - 00:46:26:01
Unknown
Yeah, to other states, we have low taxes. Really is a, you know, we're working on getting rid of our income tax altogether. But right now, I mean, our state income tax 4.7%, our state sales tax, like 4.2 to 5%. Yeah. And so it's we're a low tax state. We're you know, as far as, like occupational licensing goes, I think we license the things, you know, there's probably some things we shouldn't license that we do, but it's a it's a much lower barrier for people that want to get up and, you know, and start a business.

00:46:26:01 - 00:46:56:21
Unknown
Whereas like go to Arkansas, they want you to have, you know, a ton of working capital already in the bank and a bunch of experience that it's like, well, how am I supposed to get this experience unless I go to a different state to get it, you know, catch 22? Yeah. So I, you know, because I have contractors licenses and a lot of different states, the where we work, but we are business friendly state and, we have, I think legislative leadership, we have executive branch leadership in the government that is, you know, that is very pro-business, and very pro-family.

00:46:56:21 - 00:47:16:08
Unknown
You know, we want, Missouri to be a, you know, a state where you can come and, and, live, work and raise a family and, and have a good quality of life here. We've got, you know, we're we're expanding it through the middle of the state. We're adding a third lane, I-70. I mean, we're we're investing in infrastructure here.

00:47:16:10 - 00:47:49:17
Unknown
We have, programs for workforce development to try to train people for skills they don't currently have. We have a awesome, university. I mean, I've the University of Missouri had some ten years ago was going through some, some tough, some tough times, but it's doing great now, really our kind of flagship institution here. And we have, you know, two of the two largest cities in the country, like, on either either side of the state, that, where you can really experience anything you want to experience.

00:47:49:17 - 00:48:14:02
Unknown
We've got like, in the Ozarks, we've got table rock, like we got Branson, you know, which is a great place to take, take a family. It's just a great place to be, man. And it's it's a big state, but it doesn't feel that big. You know, when you have all those things kind of within three hours of each other, that you can, that you can experience and, you know, so I think there's a lot of opportunity and, and, you know, we love to we'd love to have people be here.

00:48:14:04 - 00:48:34:08
Unknown
Yeah. Well, I, I appreciate you and everybody from this state again. It, it's been more than welcoming, but in the kind of way that just is. And smile and be nasty. But it's more of this, like, how can we actually help you? You know, I was joking with the team last night, and I was like, I don't think you can go hungry or get cold in the state or find a place not to like somebody here.

00:48:34:08 - 00:48:55:17
Unknown
Well, I mean, even when we were in Mexico, Missouri, I don't know that we could have, got lost if we tried. You know, people are there to help, and so. And, like you, as busy as you are making time for the day just to be able to chat with us, we appreciate that. And I learned a lot about I mean, I think we all know how important government is, but I think learn more about just like how folks from different backgrounds can come in and really kind of give back to the state.

00:48:55:17 - 00:49:10:21
Unknown
So thanks for all you do, Scott, and your time and appreciate it. And if you're ever in Texas, please come see us. Yeah, man, I will. I'll get down there fairly regularly. So I'll yeah, I'll try to hit you up next time we're down and grab dinner in Austin or something. I love that. Thank you Scott. Yeah man

00:49:10:21 - 00:49:36:19
Unknown
Thanks for tuning in to the American Operator Podcast, where we celebrate the backbone of America small business owners and operators like you. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll never miss out on more of these stories and insights from people who keep our community strong. Until next time, keep building, keep operating, and keep America moving forward.