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UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT
0:00 Well, good morning, good afternoon or good evening. It is Wednesday, October 9. I thought I would do something a little bit different than the Paul Truesdale Podcast. Today. We have hurricane Milton in the neighborhood, and I finished a book series. So I thought I would talk with you a little bit about that, and maybe you might enjoy it, a legacy of thrillers. Scott Pratt, Joe Dillard and family collaboration. So Scott Pratt, P, R, A, T, T, he's an acclaimed author behind what's known as the Joe Dillard series, and he left an endearing mark on the legal theorem thriller genre, I would say, before his untimely death in 2018 so he's been gone for a while now. His novel sold literally millions of copies, and it really quite skillfully blended courtroom drama with a real complex series of moral dilemmas and his personal struggles all set in the backdrop of the state of Tennessee and their legal system. Now, the Joe Dillard series in particular stands out for its authenticity. It's a lot of emotional depth, and it's also well, it's shaped by the qualities that Pratt owned life. Essentially his wife's battle with cancer, and she eventually passed away. They had a very close bond, and he worked very closely with his son Dylan, The Joe Dillard series, a legal thriller with heart. So yeah, it it's a at the heart of Scott pratt's Success is the Joe Diller series, and he's written a few other things, but it follows a criminal defense attorney named Joe Diller. Of course, it navigates to murky waters of quote, unquote, Southern justice. And this the series begins with a book called An innocent client, where Dillard has he's tired of defending criminals and he's eager for a case where he can believe his client is innocent. The theme is one of moral conflict. It carries throughout the series, this moral conflict, and Dillard is often confronting his own ethical boundaries. His professional life is tightly woven with his personal life, especially with his his wife and Caroline, who suffers from multiple sclerosis now. Pratt writing style is pretty fast paced. It's easy to read. It's filled with different twists that will keep you on your edge.
2:43 Dillards cases often involve intense, high stake criminal cases. But what sets the series apart is the emotional weight his personal challenges, particularly
2:55 Caroline's illnesses. That's his wife in the book. So fans of legal thrillers, Joe Dillard definitely offers more than just courtroom drama provides a pretty rich character study of a man who's torn between his duties as a lawyer and love for families. While I really did enjoy the overall book, I found the last book, Justice loss to be somewhat less engaging than the earlier ones. The legal drama remained strong, but the emotional, personal developments didn't quite resonate as deeply with me. In addition, Justice loss is still a solid addition to the series. It closes everything out, but you should know that it had to be ghostwritten with his son and another individual because of Scott's death, and it kind of is what it is, from traditional to self publishing, reinventing a career. Yeah, let's talk a little bit about that. Scott's pratt's path to success really wasn't all that straightforward. And I like that, by the way, initially he published his first three Joe Dillard books with Penguin, but after struggling to find a real commercial foothold, foothold, I'll say he reclaimed the rights, and along with his son Dylan, they entered the world of self publishing, which is, I think, really cool. Together, they reestablished their books on Amazon's Kindle platform, and thanks to some really creative marketing, including book bub, that's B, O, O, k, b, u, B, BookBub, bub promotion gave away 75,000 copies in one day, in a series gained really some massive popularity. So what they did is they switched over to self publishing, and Pratt then began to reach a broader audience. He had full control over his work, and eventually sold millions of books worldwide, which is really quite cool, family, collaboration and continuing the legacy. What I like about this is that dil.
5:00 And Pratt he his son played a very key role in his father's success, managing the technical aspects of the business, while the father Scott focused on writing. Now, this close collaboration provided
5:15 a real crucial working component. It was, it was really crucial to their success, especially after Scott's passing, he was he was killed in a car accident in 2018
5:28 just a few months after his wife Christine's death. And so Dylan basically was tasked with continuous father's legacy. Stepped in to complete the ongoing projects and to continue promoting the Joe Dillard series, which I think is absolutely, totally amazing. So as we you know, kind of wrap this up.
5:52 He really did honor his father's commitments. He co authored a couple books, or, well, I should say blood is black. That's the first book in a new series that Scott had been working on before his death. So Dylan did finish that with a fellow writer and retained Scott's voice style, providing some continuity of fans have really come to like in the Dillard series, and that's another book that I will begin picking up and seeing if I like it, reflections on Scott pratt's legacy. So Scott Pratt is his career offers, really a powerful story of resilience, family, collaboration, connectiveness, creative determination, and the Joe Dillard series, I think, remains a standout in the legal thriller genre in the community. It's not the same as some of the best books of John Grisham, but blending high stakes legal cases with the genuine emotional depth.
7:02 And again, while justice loss may not have been my favorite, the series as a whole is pretty compelling. Is worth reading for anyone who enjoys legal thrillers and you want to go beyond just a crime solving. So we have hurricane Milton coming down on us, maybe you might want to just go to Amazon and download a book. I subscribe to Amazon, and I listen to not less than one book a month by addition to reading, actually two books or pleasure and all the other things that I do, I like to read a lot, ferocious, I guess, would be a good word to use. But the Dylan Pratt continuation of his father's work. It really does demonstrate an enduring impact that Scott had in storytelling. That's what we're doing here. It's just storytelling ensuring that his legacy lives on through new releases and continued promotion, I think is absolutely Well, fantastic. So I don't know whether you're a longtime fan of legal thrillers or new to the genre. The Joe Dillard series, I guess I would say, really offers a perfect blend of courtroom drama, human emotion, crafted by an author whose passion for storytelling,
8:11 basically through his own personal experiences, definitely made you kind of go well. That was interesting and kind of humbling at the very end, welcome to the Paul Truesdell podcast. Rather than two Pauls in a pod, this episode features Paul the elder, and thus just one Paul in a pod.
8:30 So what's the gig? Individually or collectively, Paul and Paul sit down and chat predominantly at the Truesdell professional building and record frequently they explain a few things about how life works. Before time gets away, they connect the dots and plot the knots, spots and ops with a heavy dose of knocks, mocks, pots, rocks, socks and mops. Confused, then welcome aboard. You see Paul the elder and Paul the younger enjoy telling complex stories that are always based on business, economics and forecasting while having fun laughing and being among like minded men, women and children from Earth Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune, individually and jointly, Paul the elder and Paul the younger, coupled with Team Truesdell, have been there and done it if you enjoy front porch philosophers who take deep dives and connect the dots While drinking coffee during the day and a whiskey after five. Welcome. It is a true pleasure to have you on board. This is the Paul Truesdale podcast, so I
9:35 want to take a few minutes and kind of shift gears here a little bit. I want to talk a little bit about women in retirement. And I think it's really important to understand that we're seeing some really profound shifts when it comes to women in the management of money, financial future, and we're living in a time when more and more women are independently on a solo basis, gaining more and more control over really an.
10:00 Precedent amount of wealth, and these numbers are really quite staggering.
10:06 Well, by 2030 women are expected to control about $30 trillion of assets on their own and no husband strictly on your own. And this is largely due to really the massive wealth transfer as women outlive their spouses and the inherent significant portions of family estates. I mean, a lot of you know inheritances are coming in.
10:34 So this is not just about financial management. Our practice here, and what I do is just way beyond that, it's about preparing for the future and really making sure that when a lady is the primary and solo decision maker in a household,
10:52 things work properly. Now I want to take a few moments and share some insights into how and why we do what we do, because a lot of financial professionals are just beginning to catch up with this. Focusing on serving a retired lady, female client base more effectively is something everybody has to do, because about 80% of widows, and this is important, 80% of widows leave their financial advisors within the first year of the spouse's death.
11:27 And I think that's really a staggering number. It's clear that, well, a lot of advisors fail to connect with the unique needs and concerns of women.
11:41 And according to a multi year study that I just read, over nearly a third of the these ladies leave because they feel that the person they've been working with they they just don't take the time to understand their distinct financial needs. Basically, about half of them say that the advisors that they're working with, brokers, agents, bankers, you know, the financial person planners. They just don't personally connect. There's a gap in the in trust and communications. And sometimes I get that. Sometimes it's just a difference in the way people communicate.
12:21 So women I know are looking for something a little bit different in their financial relationships. They want someone who will listen, who can approach their planning with a lot of empathy and understand their personal experiences and transitions exactly what they're going through. And look, retirement is tough, no matter who you are and but managing
12:43 a windfall, the death of a spouse, dealing with the emotional and practical aspects of widowhood, that's a big deal, and it's a lot more than just managing money. I can tell you, we spent a tremendous amount of time be building trust, and I ideally, we had that trust before the spouse passes away. But for those of you who are single now, you're widowed, we're there as a partner. This is a partnership relationship going through life's challenges, and personally, I've worked really closely with just, literally, an awful lot of widows. You know, you've been doing this for 40 years, and you're bringing on 10s of 1000s of clients, you learn to become very efficient and effective in the things that need to be delegated efficiently and effectively. What you can't delegate is listening and being there. So I've seen firsthand how critical is offered really tailored solutions. And you know, to take your time, that's the big thing, to have a multifaceted communications platform. So my approach has always been to prioritize the understanding of the personal journey. It's every client has it, listening very carefully and crafting strategies that not only address needs right now, but provide a real strong sense of security and confidence. You know, it's not about giving better advice. It's not about being big man on campus. It's about really sitting back, listening and being very patient, man or woman, because it's a it's a lousy time in life.
14:24 So wealth transfer, what is that? Well, it's a key dynamic in today's financial landscape. Wealth transfer refers to the movement of wealth from one person or generation or an entity to another. Now what we're witnessing is a really huge, major transfer of wealth to women. You need to understand it, ladies, you are getting a tremendous amount of money that is passing to you, and sometimes, well, it's not really fair, because you've dealt with the.
15:00 Capacity of your husband. You've dealt with long term care issues, and you may not have stayed as on top of what's going on financially in the world, just like your husband, no different, and all of a sudden, the implications become huge.
15:19 So I understand this is not just a trend. It's sometimes been talking I've been talking about for literally 40 years. I'm a forecaster. I sit back and I read the tea leagues. I don't believe in predictions. I believe in allocating percentages. But this is a fundamental change, and it's reshaping how advice. I don't like the words financial planning, because it's such a
15:43 horrible phrase. It means that typically people are selling a life insurance policy to people. That's the truth, but it there's true advice, professional advice, traditional, transparent and trustworthy. You know, ladies, you are oftentimes failing to recognize the importance while you're married to your spouse, whether it's a man or woman, that you've got to sit down sometimes and think, what happens if I'm alone.
16:14 So we need to ask ourselves, you know, are we doing enough to understand women's unique needs? I hate to say this, but it's not the case with a lot of people. Are we engaging on a personal level, addressing concerns? Are we offering the guidance that's unneeded to navigate confidently? And that's reason why we have a nice group of ladies that works with us.
16:36 And so it softens the men here and myself. It's look it. We are always evolving. But I can tell you, ladies do like a fact, you know, I'm in my 60s. They want somebody who has been around for a while, has a strong personality, does not, does not beat around the bush, and is, you know, not just blunt, but kind of just very forceful. This is what needs to be done at the same time, listening and really understanding what's going on. Personally, it's hard in the past,
17:12 you know, I've been with, you know, women that were just absolutely panicked, others that were just completely in charge. Some gravitate towards female advisors. No matter how good or bad you are. They just, well, nope, I'm firing you. I'm going to a lady I can relate to. And that's unfortunate, but that is the way it is. You know, some men want to work only with men. Ladies want to work only with ladies. This reason why we have a broad range at the firm. But the point thing is, we're at a critical moment in the financial services industry. As investment advisors and managers,
17:47 we just simply understand you to connect, to maintain and retain those relationships. Love. It's just plain old listening, and I get it. That's one of the reasons why we do the podcast. I really do enjoy working with widows and women who are preparing to retire. It's a commitment that we've made of for a long, long time. Obviously, in the world of estate planning, the preparation of legal documents, you know it's about listening, but when you do your documents, you're done that kind of tends to be a relationship that's long term, but you don't come in on a regular basis, it's the investment advisor. It's that wealth advisor that you have to have, that that real trust with. And again, ladies, because of inheritances and everything that's going on, there is no doubt that you are absolutely inheriting on a single basis, an awful, awful, awful lot of money. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a fact. That's all it is.
18:49 Well, one thing we don't have to worry about when you have internet radio versus a terrestrial radio, we don't have to worry about things like this.
19:02 You Yeah, we don't have to worry about the static. So listen, um, you know the saying you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear? Yeah, that's really true. And you can always put lip on a lipstick on a pig. I mean, you can, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. Okay?
19:28 So in business life, we often encounter people that we cannot avoid, as well as in our personal lives, family, friends, neighbors, relatives, co workers, right? And so it's just part of our daily landscape. But here's the thing, when you have a choice, okay, when you have a choice, it's really essential to cut the ties bingo with narcissistic, morally corrupt people. And let me repeat that you've got to cut the ties bingo with narcissistic and more.
20:00 Really corrupt people who like to bend the rules for their own gain. And I gotta tell you, it really irks me to no end,
20:08 but when you have a choice, you cut the ties and you move on, because these people literally drain your energy and
20:18 the compromise don't compromise your integrity. Now, on the flip side, you'll also meet people who are, well, they're rule followers. Okay? They follow the rules no matter what they're obsessed with, with form over substance. You know, people, sometimes the military, suffer from this, people who have worked bureaucratic jobs forever. You know, you just can't do this. Sometimes you've got to improvise and go with it. And a lot of times these people truly lose sight of what I would say, truly, truly matters. Now we see this a lot in politics. It just kind of is what it is right. Now, it seems like we've got a lot of static going on.
21:03 And, yeah, it's just we're words and actions rarely align, you know, let's, let's do this, let's do that. Do as I say, not as I do. And I think a lot of people get tired of that, I know I do. And, you know, you just kind of feel like these people are Looney Tunes.
21:26 So there's really, to my mind, there's really no doubt reason why a lot of people have stepped away from political parties, political committees, political clubs, because they just don't see any solution to the madness and part of the problem, I will tell you, legitimately, is all these people and don't do this. Do not sit there and watch either CNN or MSNBC or CNBC or Fox, A, B, C and B ABC. Don't do it endlessly, because it just will simply warp your mind, like I said a few moments ago, get a good book. Listen to an audio book. Listen to a podcast. We got hurricane Milton coming around. Good chance to change up your routine.
22:16 Well, with Hurricane Milton, a lot of people are going to be getting together. It's going to be a little bit like Thanksgiving and Christmas. People who might not otherwise want to be with one another are going to be with one another. And so this came to mind Talladega Nights, the prayer little baby Jesus, because it's going to be well, it's going to require some patience on some people's part. And if you all have a family, hoot nanny over this thing pole lease might not be able to get to you. And, you know, break it up so well. Let's listen to this for a minute. Dear Lord baby Jesus, or as our brothers to the south call you, hey, Zeus, we thank you so much for this bountiful harvest of Domino's KFC and always delicious Taco Bell. I just
23:07 want to take time to say thank you for my family, my two beautiful, beautiful, handsome, striking sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, or TR as we call and of course, my red hot, smoking wife, Carly, who is a stone cold Fox, who, if you were to rate her ass on 100 it would easily be a 94 also want to thank you for my best friend and teammate, Cal mountain Junior, who's got my back no matter what.
23:34 Shake and bake, dear Lord baby Jesus. We also thank you for my wife's father, Chip. We hope that you can use your baby Jesus powers to heal him and his horrible leg, and it smells terrible, and the dogs are always bothering with it, dear tiny infant Jesus. Hey, you know, sweetie,
23:52 Jesus did grow up. You don't always have to call him baby. It's a bit odd and off putting to pray to a baby. Look, I like the Christmas Jesus best, and I'm saying grace. When you say grace, you can say to ground up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus, or whoever you want. Know what I want. I want you to do this grace good, so that God will let us win tomorrow. Well, yes indeedy do continuing along the same lines of resisting technological innovation. It's it's not hard to think of the old Luddites. Remember the old Luddites? They were smashing looms and protest of, yeah, innovation. Well, we're seeing some of the same resistance today, not just in politics and people who are running for office doing really poor ways of campaigning. I mean, the day, the ways you did it just a few years ago, it's just not the way you do it today. Well, we're seeing the same thing when it comes to dock workers. Okay, auto workers, political operatives are all stuck in the past.
24:54 You see the dock workers, this international Longshoreman's Association, um.
25:00 They basically want to stop machines from taking jobs. That's something you need to understand. That very short strike they had, yeah, they're going to, they got their pay raise, but they're going to start cutting back people. As people retire, they're not going to be replaced. And the reality is, technology is moving forward, whether you like it or not, and people need to change. So for example, look at the United Auto Workers. You know, they fought tooth and nail to stop robots from entering the assembly line. You know. Can you remember, for those of you who are my age or older, you might remember how God forsaken the cars were when they were built in the 60s and 70s and even into the 80s. Finally, things started to get squirted around. Now that doesn't mean I don't like my muscle cars. You know, give me a 442 with a four barrel and yeah, some serious engine noise. I'm a happy camper. But the reality is, guess what? Robots came anyway. Okay. Anyway.
26:02 So it's not much different with these dock workers, with political operatives, people running organizations. They're fighting automation. They they have websites, for example, that are just pathetic, not really communicating anything. And yeah, you know, jobs do change. Jobs are there's new jobs being created. While you might not have the physical manhandling of pallets, you have some of that wiggle waggle that needs to take place, but you got some big, big machines that are doing these things, and so you need people to adapt. They have to have a higher skill level. The roles are more tech driven, and there's no if ands or buts about it. Okay, that's all there is to it.
26:46 So at the same time, let's take political campaigns, outdated tactics like waving signs in the side of the road or talking to echo chambers, you know, talking to the same people, the same thing over and over, that doesn't win the hearts and minds of anyone, not not at all. You have to engage intelligently. You can always tell the intelligence of somebody, because if you have a group that's stagnant, and it's been that way for you know, month after month after month, that's usually a sign of low intelligence. And not just IQ, it's the EQ, all the things that go into it. You have people that want to keep nice, little, small, little groups. Well, that's like I've always said, Sir Anthony wrote a grand stallion. You got that picture in your mind? I know. And then you have Anthony rode a horse. You got another picture, right? Could Been a Cowboy. It could be a somebody on a plow horse, right? And as Sir Anthony could have been somebody in a hunting club. You got the dogs hunting the fox. You might see that. You might have seen Sir Anthony in some kind of like a shiny Knight, right in armor. Well, Sir Anthony wrote a grand stallion. Could also be like a king with flowing robes. So all those images I just painted for you. You're seeing them in your head. So you got Tony wrote a pony. Well, now Tony is much younger, as opposed to Anthony rode a horse, and it's going to be a little pony, and usually Anthony's going to be like a teenager. You saw that as well. If I say Topo, you might think I'm going to raise my voice. Topo is like a little baby holding a doll, you know? Oh, little Topo. Well, little topos world is much smaller than Tony who rode a pony, or Anthony who rode a horse, or again, Sir Anthony who wrote a grand stallion. A lot of times, people just can't get out of their Topo or Tony rode a pony. They have small little groups that might get 100 150 people, but when you start getting hundreds and hundreds of people, and you manage them, that's, that's a that's a sign of a real world view, high intelligence, and you know, you start doing things well, if you're not, you're not in my corner. I don't want you, and that's a real problem. So that's what we have going on with longshoreman strike. Is what you have with a lot of different things. You know, communists, your Arab world, you have people out there who, you know, my imaginary friend is more real than yours. I'm going to kill you over it. Well, here's the fact, okay, it's, it's an absolute fact, and that is the world's moving fast and clinging on to old ways just simply means you're falling behind. Those with lower skills just can't keep up. They can't keep up with their personal hygiene. They can't keep up with their personal lives, their homes. They can't keep up with work. They're just like a instead of being a productive fart in a frying pan, they're like a fart in a frying pan just stinking things up and making a mess out of it. So always remember the Luddites. They lost their battle. You got to know history. You got to know history. Luddites lost their battle. The old United Auto Workers, you know they lost their battle. They're done.
30:00 Uh, things have changed, and I suspect today's modern Luddites, they're going to lose it as well. So the real challenge is always working with those who are willing to adapt and to find a place in a new landscape that they fit in. Unfortunately, again, you you can't put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig, okay? It's not going to win a beauty contest, and you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. So when you have a situation where you you've got these Luddites, you need to walk away. You need to just ignore them, just completely ignore them. And if necessary, you have to take them out. And if you got to take them out, because they won't go away, there's a variety of ways to do that. And that's that's business. It's always been that way, and it's always going to be that way. It's life lead, follow or get out of the way, period.
31:08 Well, years ago, I threw my support behind a fellow by the name of Fred Thompson. Fred was a US senator for a short while, and he, well, he short lived, run for president. You might remember Fred from a variety of different movies, I believe, Hunt for Red October. There was just a whole bunch of them. And he had, I thought, the perfect presidential demeanor, very straight talking, calm. Had a really neat voice. I thought he was pretty capable. He had to have Hollywood in him. And, well, that added to his appeal. So I traveled to Iowa years ago, helped on his campaign, and I'm telling you, I think he would have made a great president, but the truth is, maybe his heart wasn't fully in the campaign. He maybe just didn't have time to turn the full throttle on, because, see, in Iowa, for example, politics is very, very personal, and I don't know, he just couldn't seem to get the momentum. It just is what it is.
32:06 Now Iowa, they've got this tradition of retail politics, small towns, coffee shops, diners, where you can actually sit down and talk to the candidates, presidential candidates, face to face, that kind of a thing. It's one of the reasons I just love Iowa politics. It's the same way in New Hampshire, you know, taking a vacation during the political season, early going up there, finding somebody you want to tag on to Doug Burgum, for example, was my latest presidential candidate that I thought I like Doug, and I'd like to have him come down and speak to a group of people here. Definitely going to not going to have them, not going to invite the local wackadoodles. But I just love Iowa politics. So they know how to engage those people. Know how to engage in civil discourse. But see, as you move to bigger states, that personal touch fades away. It all becomes very staged, managed. And that's a shame, really, because when you've been involved in the political process as long as I have, and I need to for business purposes, you realize how important it is to have these one to one conversations. You can't shout people down. You can't expect people to change their minds, and by screaming at them, you have to engage you have a frank, normal, casual conversation. It's not about hugging the camera for some event, you know, being on somebody's podcast or TV show. It's about having, you know, productive, quiet conversations. Again, like I've said just a moment ago, those who build big political clubs, they are they've mastered the art and science of having a polite conversation, not being talked down, to not being told they're wrong, not being told that you outrank them. They just it's a nice, polite conversation people
34:09 people like to deal with, people they like. So let's fast forward this now to more recent times. I saw something that really made my head shake recently, and it was in a 55 plus community. And 55 plus communities are an interesting thing.
34:26 In this 55 plus community, somebody held a private function. They reserved a clubhouse, and it turned out to be a private function as a political function.
34:38 In attendance was a sheriff, a state representative, member of the county commission, a school board member, all people that represent the community. Okay, they represent the community, but you have these Facebook warriors, okay? They come out in full force. They tend to be, you know, your wacko doodles on the far right and the far left, and in this case.
35:00 See around the far left, and I find that a lot of The Intolerant Republicans are no different, absolutely no different to the intolerant communistic Democrats. They're all the same. It's just they're all the same. So wait, I call them Facebook warriors, and you know how it goes and they jump online and they say things they would normally never say to a person's face unless, of course, they're mentally unhinged. Like I said, people that scream and holler at you, it's just they're mentally unhinged, maybe permanently or temporarily. And it's amazing how people who wouldn't even look at you the wrong way in person can suddenly turn into keyboard gladiators. Yeah, we're gonna get you screaming and hollering and carrying on
35:49 something else. So frankly, screaming as somebody online or in public is just a sign of a low IQ. It really is. And if you shout people down again, if you're afraid, and you're you're terrified of a situation that's totally different. You know, that's a defensive mechanism, but you you just can't, you can't be around those kind of people. Now, don't get me wrong, if you feel you're generally threatened, make that that's different. But we're talking about is if you're trying to here's a good example. You're screaming at somebody because you're defending somebody's really poor behavior. How do you How do you square that? You know, there's nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to see here. This is all routine. It's like having a ostrich sticking her head in the sand. It doesn't cotton with me. Doesn't sit right with me. So here's a kicker. We have a lot of communities here in Florida, a lot of communities, and they don't allow political clubs. And you know you they don't even allow the political clubs and their names. Can you imagine that you got to call yourself something ridiculous, like the left handed people who think weird about things club instead of just calling it and being up front, we're a Democratic Club. Yeah, the same thing like, Oh, we're a conservative minded
37:10 but we're calm in our approach club, instead of calling it yourself a Republican club. You know, this is something that needs to be addressed in the legislature, and I plan to push for this in the upcoming legislative session. You know, having that political discussion at the local level is critical. I've said this before. I'm going to say it again. I'm going to die saying it, trying to suppress people's conversation, suppressing dialog. I go back to covid. I witnessed recently people yelling at each other because they didn't like what somebody was saying. They couldn't the fella couldn't even get it out. It's just a local discussion. It's like saying, during covid, if you don't get your vaccine, they just scream at you. And yet, what's amazing is some of the people involved in this were anti covid and didn't like their voices being shut down, but they now are screaming and hollering. It just it didn't make any sense. But like I said, these are people you have to step away from political discussion at the local level is critical. It really is trying to suppress.
38:12 Is just another example of, well, I want to avoid uncomfortable conversations, but we need to talk to one another. We need to talk to one another, back and forth and listen. Listening is important just especially if you disagree with things, you can always tell people they don't really have a they're not very well read, or they didn't go to the university and have the ability to have discussions, because they just can't do it. And just because you have a degree doesn't mean you know a hill of beans when it comes to communications. And it's not just something that's happening in retirement communities. Look what's happening at local businesses when a candidate shows up. I mean, I want you to really think about this for a minute. I really want you to think about this for a minute.
38:54 So you're a candidate, you show up, you know, you go to a restaurant. And restaurants used to love hosting Canada's, and it was great free publicity, George Bush, Barack Obama, they all made their rounds at local spots. I'll give you one, Pamela's diner in Pittsburgh. Even Obama, he went there and he said, Oh, the pancakes don't need syrup. Okay? It's, I just, it was a great event, you know, whether you like them or not. So you got somebody coming in. I mean, wow, what a great form of praise. Your pancakes are so good. You don't need syrup today. That would be, oh, well, he's anti syrup. He doesn't believe in Maple and maple trees, and so, you know, you can't vote for him, because he's going to destroy the economy, that that kind of
39:43 god forsaken logic just drives me nuts, and it's reason why I'm stepping away from a lot of things that I've done in the recent because it just you can't deal with people that are crazy so but here's the thing. Here's the problem, businesses are now scared to death to host anyone because of the black backlash.
40:00 Gosh, okay, they're afraid of the backlash. I give you a good thing. Okay? Tim Walz, Kamala Harris's running mate, he visited Pamela's, and their Facebook page went nuts with people saying, you know, this, that and everything else, I'm not going to go to your place anymore. Half the people were threatening to never eat there again. There have said they couldn't wait for seats to free up. It's like guys, you may not like this guy. I mean, I know somebody who all the the only thing in their life is talking about Tim Walz and the fact that he exaggerated on his military achievements and rankings, and that's the only thing this person can talk about not real issues to speak of. And I get it. You know, you, you spent your time in a bureaucratic position. You dotted the I's, crossed the T's for a long time. I get that, you know, you're proud that you, you know you, you marched in place and followed the orders. I get that
40:58 just don't ever question the rest of the story and what they really did, but that's, that's okay, but this kind of division is creeping into every aspect of life, and a lot of us are really sick of it. Okay, really sick of it. Now, in this discussion, I guarantee there'll be some people who say, Oh, they're talking about me or talking about him or her. I'm not talking about anybody. I'm talking about the fact that, you know, some businesses are so worried about blowback, they're refusing to host any political candidates at all, and I get it in a hyper partisan climate. They just want to stay out of the limelight. They want to stay out of the line of fire. But here's the thing, when we stop engaging with people on the other side, we're going to have another covid situation. We lose that personal connection which is so vital to life, to politics, to business, boycotts, threatening screaming online. None of this leads to a meaningful change. It widens the divide, and when your own people start screaming at you and hollering at you, you walk away and money goes with you. I mean, there's a lot of businessmen and women that I know, a lot of us, I mean, a lot of us who are not involved in the political party process, because at certain levels, on the higher level, yes, but not on a local level, because you've got
42:22 these political operatives that do nothing but fuel nonsense. They take a meme, well, he didn't really, oh, these pancakes are you don't need to put here you go. You don't need to put syrup on the pancakes. Are that good? They'll take that one thing and turn it into the dude hates maple syrup, is what it is. So
42:47 you've got candidates popping into local diners and suddenly, oh, we're going to have a boycott, or they go to the owner's home. This is something I think is really weird, and I've seen this. What they do? They they go to the home, the business owner's home, they start protesting. This is like nuts. And these folks aren't really trying to have a real conversation. Undecided voters. They want nothing. They're just they're going to check out. You're going to see a lot of undecided voters in the upcoming election sitting on the fence. And you know what they're going to do? They're not going to go one side or another, they're not going to vote. It's going to hurt the downside ballot really bad. And with all the storms going on, it is going to be really interesting to see how the south votes. When so many people are going to be displaced. It's going to be ugly. So instead of sitting in an echo chamber and just shouting it, you know, to the wall.
43:45 What's worse? I mean, stirring up trouble on social media. I mean, what's worse social media, getting on social media to attack somebody who asks legitimate questions is immature. The bottom line is, it's like damn coffee shop. It's a diner, and these Facebook groups that promote political violence, there's no discourse there. There isn't and just screaming at each other, we just lost personal touch, and it's hurting our ability to have real, productive conversations in business, you know, like, if you you go into the office and you say, somebody, oh, that really smells good. What is that? Oh, well, that's my perfume. I can't believe you would comment on it, well, but it smells good. Oh, are you trying to hit on me? No, I'm just making a comment that it smelled good when I walked up to the front room here, people have lost their sensitivity. Okay, you can't compliment people. Oh, nice pair of shoes. Oh, why would you say that? You try and take them from me. I'm serious. Okay? And people don't know how to dress. I'm a boomer. I have gray hair. I can say what I want. I've seen far too many boomers.
45:00 Just dress perpetually like, it's Florida beach casual. They go to meetings dressed like, well, bums.
45:08 You don't have to do that, you know, I dress down. I get casual and relaxed, but sometimes you just take it to an extreme. It's like showing up at a coffee shop with a filthy, dirty t shirt for a business appointment. In one case recently, lady didn't even have a bra on. It was, it was just so inappropriate. Smelled like horse manure, and, you know, just it, just it just didn't work. It was, this was a legitimate business meeting. So I think we've kind of lost that personal touch. It's hurting our ability to have real, productive conversations. So next time someone tries to shut down a political discussion in your community, next time you see people yell at each other online or in person, just remember the foundation for democracy, not communism. The Foundation for democracy is free speech and open discussion, and I literally beg some people don't lose sight of that. Don't lose sight of that.
46:20 So what do you say? We wrap this up bingo, and if you would, when we get done with our normal ending, I have a song we actually own the rights of this. It's called Eye of the Storm. That's right. Eye of the Storm is the song we'll finish everything up with as a result of Milton hanging the area. I thought you might get a kick of that with all like I always say, Tippecanoe Tyler, too. I'm out of here later. Bye.
46:51 That concludes the Paul Truesdell podcast, two Paul's in a pod. This has been a solo version, with Paul the elder helping each other understand with casual conversation, focusing on facts and figures and asking flamethrowers to move along.
47:14 The Paul Truesdell podcast is sponsored by Truesdell wealth, a registered investment advisor, Truesdell wealth and the other Truesdell companies are headquartered in the Truesdell professional building, which is located in the Ocala international commerce park, around the corner from The Ocala International Airport. Visit truesdellwealth.com
47:41 or text or Call, 212-433-2525,
47:46 You.