Let's Talk Local

Ryan Binkley and Abteen Vaziri were opponents in the general election this past March. Today, they’ve found friendship and common ground.

Join Sarah Zubiate Bennett for a thoughtful conversation with Ryan and Abteen as they explore many of the issues shaping our lives today. They discuss the role of faith in everyday life, why strong families are essential to thriving communities, and how the FIFA World Cup is putting Dallas Fort Worth on the global stage.

The conversation also looks at artificial intelligence, its growing impact on the workforce, and what the future of work could look like in the years ahead.

From politics and purpose to technology and the future, this wide-ranging discussion is filled with meaningful insights and respectful dialogue. It’s a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Creators and Guests

Host
Sarah Zubiate Bennett
Venture Philanthropist, Host and Executive Producer of Let’s Talk Local, bold leader driving growth in private and social sectors.
Guest
Abteen Vaziri
Lawyer and Politician
Guest
Shanon Murphy
Lead Pastor at Create Church, President & CEO at the Generational Group

What is Let's Talk Local?

Join host Sarah Zubiate Bennett on Let’s Talk Local as she uncovers the stories, people, and places shaping Dallas, fostering a stronger and more connected community—let's get to know the real Dallas!

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Ryan Abteen. Abteen, thank you for being, like, a frequent guest here.

Ryan Binkley:

Thank you.

Abteen Vaziri:

Thank you for

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

having Yeah. You your insights. Will be a lot more frequent with Ryan. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Binkley:

That would be great. Well, Abteen Abteen is brilliant. And then the and engaging. You know?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

So Very engaging.

Ryan Binkley:

He's got a personality.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Got a

Abteen Vaziri:

But let me tell you how crazy it was. Like, I've never ran for office. You know, money used to joke around to for me to go run against AOC back when I lived in New York. Oh, yeah. And, you know, and then I I didn't do it because I was like, they're gonna destroy me.

Abteen Vaziri:

Right? So go running for this. There's seven of us Republican.

Ryan Binkley:

I think

Abteen Vaziri:

No. Not nine of us. That's right. Nine of us Republican. Well, seven that really showed up, and and I we thought it was gonna be like this, and we all became friends.

Abteen Vaziri:

And, like, I'm friends with Jay. I'm friends with Brian.

Ryan Binkley:

So it's

Abteen Vaziri:

a Monte Montaineza, and it's like it was it was actually a great it was a great experience. Like, it was nothing like expected. You know?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And what's interesting, your backgrounds are very different. I I mean, I know a lot of people that have watched the episode that you were on with Shari Shanon. Absolutely loved it. So your perspective is incredible, not just as an attorney, an MBA, you know, businessman, EB five investing, but you are in m and a Mhmm. Kind of middle market m and a

Ryan Binkley:

That's right.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Space. Right? And then a pastor.

Ryan Binkley:

Yes.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Can can you just tell me a little bit about how that came to be?

Ryan Binkley:

K. It's a long story, but Okay. Real quick, business school out of college, 1990, University of Texas, finance and marketing is all about business, corporate America, Gave my life to Lord in 1992. Mhmm. Took a job transfer to Atlanta in '94 and really went on a mission trip with my church to Guatemala in 1995 and something happened.

Ryan Binkley:

I felt a call to ministry. It was like, God, I saw people in shanty villages, and I was walking in literally a landfill, people were living with them. Felt like I heard God's voice just in general say, like, do you see them? Yeah. And so I just kinda felt a call to ministry that shifted my focus, and so, and actually did that.

Ryan Binkley:

I got married a few years later in 1999, and my both, my wife and I both went full time in ministry, took like a 60% pay cut from corporate America or more, and we loved it. We were doing inner city ministry in Atlanta, we were doing young adult ministry, and I thought I'd be doing that forever. And my brother's running a small business here in Dallas with my dad and he was killed tragically by a drunk driver twenty five years ago. So that shifted my prayer focus, I was like, what should I do, God? My dad I knew my dad my parents wanted me home.

Ryan Binkley:

But back then, you did one or the other. You were business or ministry Yeah. And never both. Yeah. And I felt like, you know, God was leading me to that.

Ryan Binkley:

And I actually had a dream one night, and this is crazy, but I had a dream one night, I was in heaven and the Lord was there. And I couldn't see him, but he was right next to me, and he began to show me a businessman in heaven. And the businessman was putting food on the table for employees, and he was loving on people, and I all I could describe is the honor heaven gives a business person who's serving, doing well Mhmm. Would be the equivalent of the way we would have honored like Billy Graham in his heyday here on Earth. Like, was a real honor.

Ryan Binkley:

And the Lord spoke to me, he said, this is part of your inheritance, part of your calling, but he said, if you don't honor it, I'll take it from you and I'll give it to somebody else. And so I heard this all in a dream, and I was like, okay. I'll go. And so I went back to Dallas. I went back to SMU, got my MBA, and then we started a new business together, my dad and I did, and it took off.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm. And we went from, like, 20 employees to 200 and that twenty years ago.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And that's your generational group? Yeah. My word.

Ryan Binkley:

It was a new business and now we've got several other companies, but that's how it got started. And then we kept doing ministry. We took a year off from it, just started doing young adult ministry again, and then twelve years ago, felt I like we were supposed to start a church. And so we started a bible study, started like 20 people, grew to 50, then we went to Sunday mornings and Well, the rest is history,

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I definitely wanna invite you to our ranch in East Texas and just if you wanna learn about it.

Ryan Binkley:

Oh, yeah.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Sure. We have the next one in August. And Matt's Matt, he kinda flies into town. Matt is Monty's identical twin, the one who did well, who was on the exorcism of Sarah Bennett with me.

Ryan Binkley:

And

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

through that, he kinda talks about his experiences in his deliverance ministry if you wanna learn more. But he actually trains a ton of different, he trains a ton of pastors across the country. Matt does. But we just do it, you know, for Yeah. People like Abteen to not just meet the Lord, but for people to understand the supernatural space and the world of right?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Like, true battle that we're at and dealing with every day.

Ryan Binkley:

Well, have a freedom ministry in our church as well. Where we take people through a twelve week course. Uh-huh. Then we have a weekend kind of freedom encounter

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yes.

Ryan Binkley:

Of deliverance in so many ways. And Oh. I experienced one, so I saw your testimony, and I experienced something similar 20, I don't know, four years ago or whatever it was. And my mind really came after a twelve week study. I went through one of these classes, and then I didn't really know I needed deliverance.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm. I knew this, was battling. Yep. Old thoughts, old things in my head, and I just thought everybody did. Or this was part of the you know?

Ryan Binkley:

But then I learned more about why Christ came. Yep. You know, in Isaiah, it says he was not only wounded for our trans gressions, but it says he was bruised for our iniquities. So I learned about what a bruise meant. It's inward it's bleeding on the inside.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep.

Ryan Binkley:

So he bled on the inside for our inner wounds. Mhmm. And that's how I kinda stepped into my freedom moment.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Got you.

Ryan Binkley:

So how do you faith that he didn't just die to forgive me. Mhmm. He died for my peace. He says he was he was chastised for our peace. By his stripes, we're healed, but he said he was bruised for the inward battles.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Interesting, and so as part of this program, sorry, and I'll get to the meat of everything, I'm sorry about that. But as part of this ministry at your church, do you Are deliverances performed?

Ryan Binkley:

Well, know what, everyone is different. So I had kind of like a twelve week journey, and it was not designed to necessarily be a personal deliverance. I was in a class with 100 people. In fact, we had prayer people, and I was confessing things, and we were nailing things to the cross. Was a beautiful moment.

Ryan Binkley:

And for me, there was just something that God had me do. It's a longer story, but he just had me go to the altar one more time.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Mhmm.

Ryan Binkley:

And and there was something on there that kinda connected to my past, and I wasn't even thinking it was that big a deal. But I just kinda wrote it down, and I nailed it to the cross. But when I put that last nail in the cross, how I could describe it would be like a wooden stake coming out of my soul. Yeah. And I just fell down.

Ryan Binkley:

So it wasn't like anybody

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Sure.

Ryan Binkley:

Did it laying to

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

hands on you or

Ryan Binkley:

I just I collapsed. I was crying. I mean, I've been I was in full time ministry when I went through this. I didn't think I I was going through the class to help others. Like, I didn't think I needed it.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm. Oh my Lord. And he I would say this, it's not that I still don't have battles today, but they're not this close. I understand. They're flying over my head, they're not right there in my face.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yep.

Ryan Binkley:

And so God just set me free.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep. Me as well. It's

Ryan Binkley:

been Totally different.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yeah. Isn't it? You actually live life without the chains, I never thought it was possible for me. And Abteen has taken a few steps. And so I think you're actually gonna be going through

Abteen Vaziri:

yeah. See. I'm curious now. I wanna be there right now. We're gonna pray right now.

Abteen Vaziri:

You said something interesting. You said you and Ryan have such different backgrounds.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm.

Abteen Vaziri:

But there was nine of us on the campaign trail, and I felt Ryan was the one that was the most similar to my background. You know? You know, not, you know, my being born in Iran Iran.

Ryan Binkley:

And all that.

Abteen Vaziri:

But but, like, you know, he's an NBA. I'm an NBA. He's in business. I'm in business. Like, you know, in the beginning, we didn't know each other, so I'm looking for everything to attack everyone that's a guy that that's thinks he's

Ryan Binkley:

a team guy guy coming after me for what? I didn't even met again.

Abteen Vaziri:

I'm like He just I did. Doesn't like followers on x, and then I just I was like, who are these people running against me? So I send an attack to Jason and send attack to him. And that was the last time because on the campaign trail, everything he would say, I was like, I agree. I can't disagree with you.

Abteen Vaziri:

Everything he would say literally, like, word for word, like, every like, business, you know, you know, about about our economy.

Ryan Binkley:

Take that attack back. I don't remember

Abteen Vaziri:

what was. I do take it back.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

My gosh. I'm gonna just drastically pivot over to FIFA really fast because Yes. I'd be remiss if I did not touch on FIFA. Right? It's it's a booming economy right now here in DFW.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

It's one of the most photographed videoed places on earth because of FIFA. What opportunity do you both believe that this creates not just for people to learn what our Texas values are, but to leave here with an impression. And what impression do you think that should be?

Abteen Vaziri:

So, you know, it's interesting. So the last time FIFA was here, was a kid. I lived in LA. '94, we had the finals, actually. It was in LA.

Abteen Vaziri:

There was a couple games here in Dallas, but Dallas has always been a huge soccer city. You know? I'm into SMU. I played soccer actually at UTD in college.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Oh, I didn't know that.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yeah. I played soccer. I was a right defender. But here's another thing you didn't know about me. Grandfather was Iran's national team goalie.

Abteen Vaziri:

What? Really? And he was a professional soccer player. He was a he played for What? The Crown team.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yes. In the fifties. Yeah. My grandfather was This is crazy. Three, blue eyes, good looking eyes, just my hero.

Abteen Vaziri:

Right? And, you know, he had gone to they never made it to the World Cup. I think he used to always tell me the story as a kid, never underestimate your opponent. So in Asia, they were a really good team, but they were never good enough to get in the World Cup because only, like, two or three teams would make it. And they had they they would go to Asian Cup and just destroy Asian Cups all the time, beat all the you know, China, you know, Japan, Korea.

Abteen Vaziri:

They would beat all those teams, but then they couldn't make it to the World Cup. And one year, they had beat every team, and there was one team left that had to beat, and it was India. And India was the worst team in Asia. So what did they do? The night before, they go out drinking.

Abteen Vaziri:

They get wasted. And then the next day, they lose, like, seven zero to India. My grandfather's the goalie, so he took all the blame. So they never made it to the World Cup. He used to always tell me the story.

Abteen Vaziri:

And as a and I know my grandfather had three daughters. He never had any sons, so I was his first grandson or first grandkid, period. So he'd always wanted me to be a soccer player. And and one of the other stories that was interesting is his you know, he was friends with a lot of generals. You know, in Iran, kinda like professional sports was here in The US.

Abteen Vaziri:

Like, when you you know, I remember Larry Brown at SMU talking about when he played for North Carolina. When he played professional basketball, they didn't pay him that much money. He had to have the job at Goodyear, and, you know, they they gave him a job just so he could play. They they That was always the case.

Abteen Vaziri:

Athletes got paid very little. So my grandfather, the job they gave him, he gave him a job in the air force. So I was like, hey. Here's an air force job so you can play soccer. And then, you know, they got access to these these country clubs that our air force officers had.

Abteen Vaziri:

That's how my mom and dad met, because my mom was there with my grandfather as a know, in the air force club, and my dad was an air force officer. That's how they met. But the other the other thing that was interesting is he had all these friends that were generals and stuff in the air force. And when the revolution happened, one by one, they started killing all of them. And one of the generals they killed, he was in charge of the Olympic Committee.

Abteen Vaziri:

They just gave him a fake charge and executed him. And this very famous general is Jahan Bunny. He had they call him the blue eyed general. This guy was so adamant. He goes, I didn't commit any crimes.

Abteen Vaziri:

You guys are a bunch of idiots. And the people that executed him told a story. He they're like, he didn't even consider us human. When we try to execute him, he said, I don't want a blindfold. I wanna see who's gonna kill me.

Abteen Vaziri:

I wanna see the bullet. And they executed him. And this guy was in charge of the Olympic Committee. So my grandfather, you know, being a soccer player who was in the air force, got scared. All of his medals, all of his trophies, he wouldn't have dumped them all in the ocean, and we never got any of those because, you know, he got scared.

Abteen Vaziri:

He's like, they're killing the, you know, head of the, you know, the Olympic Committee. They're probably gonna come kill me next. You know? Now, you know, he got to live a little late later, and, you know, he passed in 1990. But my grandfather played for Iran's national team.

Abteen Vaziri:

And today, the national team, Iranian team, which I've always, like, you know, try to keep that away from politics and root for them, I can't root for them because the goalie of that team is in jail. Some of the team members, they've executed, and people consider this the IRGC's team. So it's hard for us to Yeah.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I wanna I wanna touch on that.

Abteen Vaziri:

And when when we had the when we had the I went to the

Ryan Binkley:

right now.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yeah. I went to the Holland and and Japan game, and I pulled the old lion and sun flag because FIFA in cahoots with Islamic Republic has made it illegal for people to have this

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I saw that.

Abteen Vaziri:

5,000 year old flag because they want this this Islamic Republic flag. Here's another crazy part. Iranians are Persian. They speak Farsi. That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

The little emblem inside the Iranian flag, it's not even Farsi. It says Allah in Arabic. So, like, it's a foreign flag, and and FIFA, unfortunately, is cooperating. But now the best part that's come out of the World Cup is that our news here is so and I have classmates from SMU that are from Switzerland and from, you know, Ireland from other countries that went back, and I still talk to them. They live in Europe.

Abteen Vaziri:

And the the news that they get in Germany, all over Europe is such, you know, fake news, and it's so skewed. And all of the stuff that's been happening since Trump has been in power, you know, they're like, everyone thinks that ICE is on the streets shooting everyone left and right. So there's this the the skew. And you see this in immigration. Immigration, e v five has come down because so much propaganda has been pumped how terrible The US is.

Abteen Vaziri:

It's unsafe. Everyone's getting killed. ICE is going around. And now all these Europeans are here, and they're seeing how much hospitality we have. The food is great.

Abteen Vaziri:

Everyone's welcoming. Everything's nice and clean and safe. We have the best stadiums in the world. Like, these European soccer stadiums don't even come close to how nice our stadiums are. So it's been such an amazing World Cup because if you go look at the news, all the Europeans are pumping up how amazing The US is, and they're realizing they've been lied to.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Clay Coulee's flags are

Abteen Vaziri:

going viral. To and all the and the fake news in Europe because as much as fake news we have here, the news is way more fake in Europe.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I agree with that. And, Ryan

Ryan Binkley:

Well, I would I would love to share with you my soccer heritage. Yeah. But I too was a goalie. Fourth grade was my peak year of soccer. And then after that, my dad was like, this sport is just too boring, son.

Ryan Binkley:

So

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Soccer's boring?

Ryan Binkley:

Well, you know, I grew up in the eighties in Texas, and so it was football. Football. Football. I mean, that was it. That's what we did.

Ryan Binkley:

So I peaked early out of out of in in my goal years. But Mhmm. You know, I I see it as a unifying time in many ways. Like, right now, you know, I have a multicultural church. Our church is very diverse, and and it's pretty unique.

Ryan Binkley:

It's right in Richardson, Texas, and it's good because the community there in Richardson is very diverse. And not everybody I hate to celebrate not every every Christian is Republican. Sure. Of But I got all kinds of I got all kinds of people in church.

Abteen Vaziri:

Absolutely.

Ryan Binkley:

Great. So we had some friends over. We had about 20 people over last night, leaders in our church. And and so one of the couples came over in their jerseys. And let me get it right.

Ryan Binkley:

Once the husband's Colombian, the wife's from Mexico, and they are doing the World Cup tour. But what I think I I don't know. I just love to see their passion for their passion for soccer Yep. Is like whatever mine was from football times 10. I mean, they are they're like taking trips.

Ryan Binkley:

Yep. Husband and wife taking trips, going to their respective countries, and they're going to different states to get to Beautiful. So this is huge, but I I think I agree with Abteen. This is a time for the world to kinda see, you know, what America's really about. Mhmm.

Ryan Binkley:

That we're not exactly the way everybody thinks that we are. We're not as divided as we think. And what sports does is it kinda creates this moment of like, hey, listen. When I'm cheering for my team, I'm not asking you about your, you know, your political ideology right now. I don't care whether you're I mean, are you from my team or not?

Ryan Binkley:

If you're not from my team, I really don't like you, but I'm I'm still okay with that. Right? Everybody's just cheering and and I love to see just that that aspect of what it can do to human engagement.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yes.

Ryan Binkley:

You know, you're just now hey. You're pulling for something, and you're you're pushing politics aside because politics is so important, but it's got its it's got its time to want to put it away. That's This is a time to put it away and let's just have some fun. So hopefully they see that and they enjoy the hospitality and the food.

Abteen Vaziri:

Actually, barbecue. Well, hey, and they

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

visit Yes.

Ryan Binkley:

I'm gonna put in a shameless plug here and they visit Dave's Hot Chicken. Yes. I own Dave's Hot Chicken.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Oh, I did.

Abteen Vaziri:

Oh, I love that place. Didn't know

Ryan Binkley:

you this. I you know, we're the partner, and we we got five restaurants here. Oh, I

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

love that.

Ryan Binkley:

Have you been to

Abteen Vaziri:

it yet?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Oh, no. We've ordered from it.

Abteen Vaziri:

It's like

Ryan Binkley:

We've ordered from it. I never went to

Abteen Vaziri:

go Awesome.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

We've ordered from it because they do either Uber Eats or Favor.

Ryan Binkley:

I forget

Abteen Vaziri:

which one. I didn't even you. I wanna go spend more time there.

Ryan Binkley:

Yes. Yes.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's great.

Ryan Binkley:

But, anyway but, hopefully, they enjoy the people. I mean, we got great people here. And it's safe here. And it's good place.

Abteen Vaziri:

We the first game I went to, and I you know, my flight got canceled. Was coming back from Vegas, so I got in a 5AM flight, and I showed up to the airport, and all these Japanese fans are there. And these people are the nicest fans.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I know it.

Abteen Vaziri:

They're cleaned up after themselves.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And then,

Abteen Vaziri:

by the way, the Dutch fans were awesome. So I'm at the stadium and, like, on no sleep because I flew, like you know, we had to go to airport at 3AM. So I'm I'm I'm at the stadium, and I see these two Dutch guys or Dutch influencers. I say, guys, I gotta tell you a secret. I said, what, Talis?

Abteen Vaziri:

I said, you have to have the barbecue before you go back. Then they wouldn't have the barbecue, and they posted it all on social media. They're like, this stuff is amazing.

Ryan Binkley:

That's cool.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Oh, yeah. And then I saw that people are smuggling back ranch.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yes. Didn't you say this? Stressing you're like, what did all this mayo in in in Germany with all fries? We never discovered ranch. This is next level

Ryan Binkley:

stuff. Okay.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I have a question for you particularly, Ryan, because you are a man of faith. Right? You pastor a church. What as Christians, how do you view the role of hospitality when welcoming people from different faith traditions into our communities?

Ryan Binkley:

You know, that's a great question. You know, when you think about, I guess, the tenets of, you know, a lot of different religions have something similar. But, you know, when Christ started talking to us about, hey, he boiled it down. Mhmm. You know, he boiled down the this walk.

Ryan Binkley:

He was like, okay. It's really about two things. Yep. You know, love God, love your neighbor. Mhmm.

Ryan Binkley:

Then he starts talking to the disciples, and he's like, okay. If you really wanna be great, what? Be a servant. So I think a lot of this too of who we are is about that. You know, because if we're ever gonna fulfill the great commission, which is to share the gospel, share our faith.

Ryan Binkley:

So it's not a time for Christians to shrink back, it's a time for us to share our faith. In fact, we have evangelism teams going out to the watch parties We've from our got guys that are really the guy I just mentioned, he's pastor Daniel Hoyas, he's the guy from Columbia. He's a huge soccer fan. He is an evangelist and he trains up people to share their faith in our church and they're going out everywhere in different groups and and but I think you have to before anybody's ever gonna hear anything, they have to know that you have an open door with them a

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

little bit.

Ryan Binkley:

Right? So it's almost like nobody wants to have some message crammed down their throat, but to get to know people a little bit, hey, is there anything I can pray for you about? What's going on in your life? Who And doesn't want prayer? Who doesn't want somebody caring for them?

Ryan Binkley:

And have you heard this story about God's love? And and so I think it's a time for us to, I think, serve people through hospitality, just show them we care. Glad you're here. Glad welcome to Dallas. We've got, I don't know what, a people, a couple million people coming to Dallas.

Ryan Binkley:

It's a great opportunity for us to The world's coming here. Their eyes are on us right now. So how do we show them not only that our faith is a lie, show them that capitalism's kinda cool.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yes.

Ryan Binkley:

I mean, we're not ogres, we're not divisive, and safety's kinda fun too. It's great to be in a nation in a great city that's secure. Anyway, how do we get there? Well, we have some large tenants in our country that come from

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

faith too. That's right. Know? Yeah. I

Ryan Binkley:

just And just sharing the story. Sure. But get to know people. Hopefully, people take some time to get to know people.

Abteen Vaziri:

But to talk about let's talk local. So in 1994, I think there was only two or three World Cup games in Dallas. Dallas was so small. Dallas was, like, two or 3,000,000 people.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Dallas was worth.

Abteen Vaziri:

Today, we just surpassed Chicago. Now we're the second or third largest metroplex after New York and LA, which, by way, I've lived in both of those other cities. So but Dallas

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

lived in Chicago?

Abteen Vaziri:

No. Not Chicago. The LA and New York.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Oh, got it.

Abteen Vaziri:

Okay. But but, you know, Dallas has become such a major place where we have nine games here

Ryan Binkley:

Right.

Abteen Vaziri:

Where more than any other city, and this has become a TV hub and also a hub of several teams that made this their home. But it's so interesting how much Dallas has grown where by the way, we had a historic moment yesterday. Messi scored

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

The historic Yes.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

He did.

Abteen Vaziri:

Seventeenth and eighteenth goal, both

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

of which

Abteen Vaziri:

broke the record

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep.

Abteen Vaziri:

Here in Dallas. So Dallas, for the rest of eternity, is gonna be on on this, you know, major hub for soccer because this is where Messi broke the record. And by the way, the Argentinian fans, they took over Clyde Warren. They were everywhere. They were so awesome.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yes. It was packed. Packed.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I I was sharing all kinds of different, stories that I saw about it. I just thought it was so beautiful because, like we had discussed earlier, I've always seen sports as something like I I music used to kinda be in this category as well with me that used to bridge divides. Sports is where people could rally. But then, you know, I read articles talking about how Iran is having to, in between matches, stay in Mexico. Right.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And so I was like, oh, I can't wait to ask Abteen's opinion about this because it's clearly, this is your

Ryan Binkley:

It's safe. Yeah. Well,

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

that's right. Because it was a security risk apparently to have them residing on on US soil. Do you think that that's a little much in terms of security parameters?

Abteen Vaziri:

As an Iranian and also as American. Yeah. I mean, one thing I wanna talk about as American is that I'm gonna make a prediction. The US team has never had a shot. I think the US team is gonna win this World Cup.

Abteen Vaziri:

I agree. US the US team and I and I've been on it in Las Vegas, hopefully, I'll win. But the US team, which would throw off

Ryan Binkley:

Well, then I'm gonna bet because I know you're a smart guy. So I don't need to You should you should bet. I'd love

Abteen Vaziri:

to give you It's worth it's worth putting a couple bucks. But, you know, a couple shekels. But but, you know, the the US team is, like, one of the probably the best World Cup team they've ever had. So so exciting to be a US fan, which in the past have always Yeah. Fell

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

apart. But

Abteen Vaziri:

as as someone whose grandfather played for team Meli, they have an official name, and he played for the team Crown, which is now Esteblot FC. As someone whose grandfather put I've always cheered, you know, for for for and I've always cheered for Germany too because I lived in Germany when they won the World Cup in 1990. So I've always Oh my god.

Ryan Binkley:

Where's all this? Lived. I know. Let's start where where you're not

Abteen Vaziri:

live. Why lived in Chicago. That's why I make so many friends because that's I'm like, I grew up in

Ryan Binkley:

Texas and I know it.

Abteen Vaziri:

Germany. Same here.

Ryan Binkley:

Lived right outside of Dallas a little bit. No.

Abteen Vaziri:

No. But but it's it's it's it's a love and hate. It's so hard to, you know, be mad at this team. But I also know these players that are playing for the team, some of them, you know, their their families are threatened. They're threatened.

Abteen Vaziri:

So, you know, when the guy goes and does the gun gesture, that offends me because he's pointing gun at American fans and and saying, hey. You know, shoot them up. This is so stupid of his of on on his part. But then they just left the stadium against the Belgium game. They left such a nice note, and they said we prayed for freedom, and we prayed for for peace.

Abteen Vaziri:

So I feel bad for these players, but also feel bad because for the people of Iran, the 43,000 people that got slaughtered, because they didn't get a chance to watch this World Cup.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

And and, you know, so, you know, the IRGC is trying to sneak people in on Carl and the coach. They caught one guy. They were gonna try to sneak in. So it's just it's there's a fine line between politics and sports. Typically, you wanna keep sports out of politics, and you wanna just cheer for the teams.

Abteen Vaziri:

But it's so hard to do that when 43,000 people have been slaughtered. And even though I hate this this Islamic Republic team I called the IRGC team because so many players have been jailed and kept out of this World Cup because of their political beliefs, but I still kinda feel sorry for these players. Three. And when I see this note, it kinda breaks my heart. So and it's been on social media.

Abteen Vaziri:

I've been really tough on these on these players, and people are attacking me, and they're like, hey. Listen. Keep politics out. And I just like, it's like, you know, I I I understand both sides of the argument. I I wanna keep politics out, and I wanna root against this team, but it's also hard because these guys are also like, what are they supposed to do?

Abteen Vaziri:

You know? They're they're World Cup players. And, you know, four years from now, they may not be in their peak. They may not be playing another World

Ryan Binkley:

Cup either. Well, Abteen, you have a you have a an opportunity to educate a lot of people too on what the deep, you know, intricacies of what's happening there that most people that are enjoying soccer today aren't aren't fully aware of. And so, I

Abteen Vaziri:

mean Sure.

Ryan Binkley:

I think done the right way. You can say, hey. Did you know about this?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That team to do it the right way.

Ryan Binkley:

I do. I mean well, first of all, I don't know since he could be a long reference. Blogged me on the campaign. I don't know for sure.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Wait. You blocked him?

Ryan Binkley:

No. He blogged he wrote nasty words about me.

Abteen Vaziri:

No. But I did but I did put a post and said you had great hair. Thank you. Okay. That's Yeah.

Ryan Binkley:

That's worth a cup of coffee. So alright. No. But I but I mean that. I mean, I I think

Abteen Vaziri:

you you have perspective. But it's I I have so much respect for Ryan, and not just for Ryan, but I met his family, his kids, his wife. They're just so amazing. People from his you know, people from you know, in his campaign come come up coming up to me. They're like, hey.

Abteen Vaziri:

You're probably not gonna win, but hope please stay involved. Please stay involved because we we said that to you? No. You know? But it's but it's like, we you know, you please stay involved because you have a great message.

Abteen Vaziri:

Obviously, the Lord has come to you and picked you, and and you have this message. And and, know, I had this conversation with Monty. I said, Monty, all these people are coming to The US because of Judeo Christian values. All these people that are leaving these Islamic countries are leaving, coming to Christian countries.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm.

Abteen Vaziri:

And Christianity and we were talking about this with Mac. Christianity is getting less and less and less. Why don't we take Christianity to them? And and by the way, it's been so humbling out. You know, this all goes once at 03:60.

Abteen Vaziri:

You know, when I became a Christian, I I started doing these Iranian rallies in January, and I went to one of these Iranian rallies. And then these people invited me to to the Madelins. There's, like, 24 Iranians. And I didn't wanna talk about being Christian, and I didn't wanna talk about converting. And I just thought they're gonna judge me, and I just didn't wanna talk about it.

Abteen Vaziri:

I was like, I wanna just talk about, you know, the rallies. Right?

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm.

Abteen Vaziri:

So I showed up to the Madelins, and then 24 people, all 24 were Iranian. They're all Christian. Only three of them were Armenian, were the original Christians. The other 21 or so had converted. So I was just, like, shocked.

Abteen Vaziri:

And then I got invited to be on Iran Alive Ministries. Water. Like that. You know, with with with doctor Hormoz Sharayati and and and and Shapur. And it was such a blessing.

Abteen Vaziri:

It's such a great experience. And then I find out Ryan's father was on their board, and Ryan goes on that show. And I'm like, this is all three sixty. It's like, I found out so much stuff. There's something like 10,000,000 underground Christians in Iran, and it's one of the fastest growing

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

Christian countries along with China. People are underground, and they can't really they do bible studies. They do underground, baptisms. They do underground weddings, but they can't really talk about it openly because you could get killed for converting because that's blasphemy.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's

Abteen Vaziri:

right. That's exactly right. It's been such a humbling experience, but I I do believe if there's a regime change in Iran, which I do believe there will be, Iran is gonna be definitely a secular, but majority Christian country, I think.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I pray so. I certainly pray so because their lives would be much

Abteen Vaziri:

less pressure. And now Christ is answering their prayers. I mean,

Ryan Binkley:

this is And what's it gonna take for that regime change?

Abteen Vaziri:

Gosh. It's very complicated. I mean, right now, Iranians have this love hate relationship with Trump, and, you know, they get mad at me for defending Trump. You know, I I tell them. They're like, oh, Trump sold us out.

Abteen Vaziri:

I said, listen. The Islamic Republic tried to kill Trump several times. Absolutely. They tried to assassinate his daughter. His favorite kid is his daughter, Ivanka.

Abteen Vaziri:

You think he's just gonna get out of office three years from now and leave his kids for these molests? There's gonna be regime change, but there's this negotiations is very tough. There's a lot of forces. And this is something that a lot of people don't understand when you talk about education is that the world has been feeding as as leeches off of the natural resources Iran has. It's been it was a conspiracy by the British, by the French to put these malas on because Iran was getting too powerful.

Abteen Vaziri:

Iran's got something like a $100,000,000,000,000 worth of natural resources. That's right. Qatar has been stealing all Qatar they have a shared gas field where Qatar has one one tenth of it. Iran has 90% of it, and that 90% is producing very little gas, and Qatar has stolen $4,400,000,000,000 for the people of Iran. That money is the money that they're using to buy our politicians, buy our social media influencer, buy all the podcasters, and then now we're finding have so much impact from the Muslim brotherhood and and and try to you know you know, the pro Palestine movement.

Abteen Vaziri:

A lot of the stuff is coming from Qatar. And this is a country of 250,000 people with stolen money that they've stolen from the people of Iran. There's the the Pakistanis don't want the government gone. The Chinese don't want the government gone. The the Russians don't want the government gone.

Abteen Vaziri:

The British, the French, everybody is against Trump. So he's gonna have to play five dimensional chess to pull this off. It's not gonna be easy. For forty seven years, this has been the norm, and it's gonna be really hard. Trump and Netanyahu, I think, are gonna get it done.

Abteen Vaziri:

And if they don't, the people of Iran are gonna get it done. But it's not easy. The whole world is fighting against them. They want the status quo. It's real the people of Iran have been getting screwed over, and, you know, people have been getting slaughtered.

Abteen Vaziri:

People have their money had been stolen. You know? They're they're hungry, they're they're starving, 30% unemployment, and all that money has been split by the Europeans and by some of the Gulf Mhmm. And and Turkey and Pakistan to a lesser extent. Well, this is

Ryan Binkley:

the challenge we see right in our country. And I'm praying for president Trump that he has the wisdom and the the know how how to keep putting maximum pressure, but also not let up. It kinda reminds me of, a wrestling match when you're a kid, you know, you count to 10 or, like, you can't let them up too soon. We have to get a new regime change eventually. Mean, we've gone so far.

Ryan Binkley:

Look at all of the what's happened there. They've supported terrorism forever. They've been the largest state supporter of terrorism forever. So we've gotta stop that, obviously, not let them have a nuke. But at the end of the day, I wanna see I wanna I know there's pressure on pricing and inflation and everything this is doing.

Ryan Binkley:

There's a lot of pressure on him right now, but I'd love to see us make sure that, you know, we don't let up too soon. We need to we need to pray for lots

Abteen Vaziri:

of time.

Ryan Binkley:

Money. Mean, I'll make sure

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

we do. I pray for him.

Abteen Vaziri:

It's my decision. It's imbalanced. Because if Iran becomes free, there's been this you know, look at Europe is kinda falling apart. 5% of the population in Europe are radical Islamic, and, you know, 95% are being stronger. I mean, Europe is kinda gone.

Abteen Vaziri:

Right? So people are like, oh, it's only 5%. Well, that 5%, through political correctness, have strong armed the rest of Europe. But this happened this has been happened through history.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

It happened seven hundred years ago. Mhmm. You know, Egypt was a Christian country.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yeah. Mhmm.

Abteen Vaziri:

And Egypt is no longer a Christian country. Yeah. In the nineteen seventies, Lebanon was a Christian country. Lebanon is no longer a Christian country. And by the way, all these wars going on in Lebanon, it's not even Lebanon.

Abteen Vaziri:

Lebanon and Israel don't have any promise. It's Hezbollah, which is another name for the Islamic Republic. When I was a child in Iran, the IRGC soldiers, we didn't call them IRGC. Don't even know what IRGC is. It's just the name

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

of his

Abteen Vaziri:

we called them Hezbollah.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

Because they are Hezbollah. Hezbollah and them, they're one of the same. They just have different names. And and and here's another educational thing. Hez means party, and Allah means Allah, not god, but Allah, which if you understand the history, and I don't wanna get into a little too controversial, but Allah was a piece of rock, was a pagan god that existed hundreds of years before Islam, and the Muhammad and his followers came, and then they named their god Allah.

Abteen Vaziri:

They took this piece of black rock, which, by the way, in Kaaba, you know, when they do the the Mecca, you know, people wanna touch this black piece of rock. That black piece of rock is Allah. So party of Allah is not the party of God. It's a party of this pagan It's a cult. It's a false idol.

Abteen Vaziri:

And this is what this this this is this is a cult. IRGC is a cult. Hezbollah is a cult, And they're not the party of God. They're the party of a fake god, a fake idol god, which was a pagan god, and there's history that proves that.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Interesting. I'm gonna pivot, slightly, over to AI. So we could be decimated if there was if AI was utilized in a way where there was some supervirus, created, maintained, and spread across the world. But more from an investment standpoint, I mean, you both are sophisticated investors, and I am interested in your opinions, if we can possibly start with yours here, Ryan, From your vantage point, is artificial intelligence primarily the greatest economic disruption at this point, or do you foresee it as being something

Abteen Vaziri:

Cynical.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yeah. I was gonna say something that needs to be treated with dire gentle gloves.

Ryan Binkley:

I don't know that it's gonna be treated that way.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Mhmm. I mean, you know It's not.

Ryan Binkley:

Money and opportunity comes, comes great disruption. So I think there is gonna be a good and a bad, you know, in in essence. And to me, you know, I I'm just thinking about people in general. How is it displacing jobs? It's gonna displace jobs.

Ryan Binkley:

I don't know what the number is. I think it's 15% of jobs. Anything that's probably back office right away, whatever, but there's gonna be opportunity as well. Now how do we control that narrative, and how do we take a new generation into a new level of what that does? Because every time there's a disruption, there's always opportunity.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm. And so as now, we're even have a new generation that's learning how to work, and we're having a transformation of the workforce in America.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

Totally different under president Trump. He's trying to bring jobs back and he's trying to bring manufacturing back. And this is a vision that's, as you said earlier, you mentioned something about a slim chance. I mean, there's a narrow I knew Trump's vision of high growth and an AI disruptive environment. Well, this AI disruptive environment has changed a lot just in the last six months.

Ryan Binkley:

I have a technology firm. One of our firms is digital And so it's changed a lot. Labor arbitrage is different now in the world of visas and H1B visas and digital consulting and engineering, it's different. But there's always going to be a need for people. There's going to need for engagement, a need for great communicators, a need for people that know how to bring ideas to the forefront that can help bring solutions to people and service related jobs.

Ryan Binkley:

I mean, you know what? These opportunities, I mean, we make we sell businesses. I sell a lot. We sell probably a 180 business, 70 businesses a year, something like that on average. And we make millionaires out of people that learn to trade and they own a HVAC company, they own electrical company, plumbing, you name it, roofers.

Ryan Binkley:

Those are just some of the service related businesses. But this is an opportunity. This is a time for us to focus on skill sets and how do you communicate. And if you're in one of those jobs that's back office, and it's time to shift. So you have to learn to adapt.

Ryan Binkley:

I think in a disruptive environment, whoever adapts the quickest, whoever sees beyond their curve Mhmm. Will survive. ISO, I think it's gonna be disruptive, but I think there's also a great opportunity.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep. They're absolutely opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. And what about your thoughts there,

Ryan Binkley:

Abteen?

Abteen Vaziri:

You know, I I I I think very similar to Ryan in that regard, revolution. You know, we've had the, you know, the the steam engine and then the cars and then the con you know, a lot of but the the last few revolutionary things were the Internet, personal computer, and, you know, these, you know, completely dramatically changed. And, you know, there's you know, we we talk about, you know, illegal aliens coming and taking our jobs. But with with AI, overnight, 10,000,000 jobs could be gone, and they are, like, 10,000,000.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

They will be.

Abteen Vaziri:

So so we have to adjust. And whoever is gonna be our leaders in the next few generations, whoever's gonna be the next president, hopefully, Marco Rubio, they need they need to know that ten, twenty million jobs could be gone like that. So we need to adapt, and it's not so much that AI is gonna come take my job. I mean, somebody gave this example the other day. Said, okay.

Abteen Vaziri:

You know, when they went from, you know, screwdriver to a power tool, it wasn't that the power tool took your job. The power tool didn't take your job. The guy that knows how to use that power tool took your job. Because if you, you know, doing a screwdriver and then somebody knows how to use a power tool, that person took your job. Right?

Abteen Vaziri:

Not the not the tool itself. AI is a tool. So it's not that AI is gonna take our job. It's the people that are gonna be well versed how to use that AI to make their job more efficient. I mean, there's a lot of entry level jobs that are gonna be replaced by AI.

Abteen Vaziri:

Right? You know, just data entry, lot of these these things. I mean, look. You go to chat GPT, and you say, hey. I want you to go do this, this, this, and this.

Abteen Vaziri:

Or, you know, tell me what stocks to trade or tell me what, you know, places to go visit on my vacation to Dallas when I'm here for a feeble world company that does it for you. So replacing, you know, your your personal assistant. It's replacing your, you know, your your your travel agent. It's replacing a lot of these these type of things. But there are gonna be people that know how to use AI, and then they're gonna be ahead of the game.

Abteen Vaziri:

And I I just think, you know, there's there's definitely dangers of AI if AI takes over. We've all seen the movies of Terminator, what could happen when the machines take over. Right? So we definitely have to be careful of that. But I think there's gonna be tremendous, tremendous potential.

Abteen Vaziri:

And one of the things that, you know, I talked about in the campaign trail, I know Ryan shared that, is this h one b thing that's that's taken so many jobs from our local kids. And now we're finding out 90% of these h one b I know people from India that went to IIT. IIT is like these people that went to IIT are geniuses. Right?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

They're

Abteen Vaziri:

brilliant. It's harder to get into than Harvard. The first wave of h one b's that we got and I worked with h one b's. I was on the phone with one of my h one b investors today who was gonna basically invest 800,000 in The US economy, create 10 jobs Mhmm. And stay here.

Abteen Vaziri:

Right? But we had these best and the brightest, and this guy is genius, you know, a smart guy. But we had the best and brightest, these IIT students that would come here. These are the h one b's that we used to get. Now it's gone to the bottom of the barrel.

Abteen Vaziri:

People are getting fake degrees, buying fake degrees, sending them here, getting $200,000 jobs, and these people probably don't even have a university degree. It's a fake degree. But that person is coming here, you know, when they apply for a car loan Mhmm. You know, our graduates get a 10% rate. H one b's get a 5% rate.

Abteen Vaziri:

They get ahead of our people. Right? When they apply for mortgage, there's a program. They get a cheaper mortgage, and our our our kids that are graduating get a worse mortgage. So they're getting treated better with fake degrees, and most of our kids, unfortunately and and one of the questions you had is, what's the biggest lie?

Abteen Vaziri:

The biggest lie we told our students is go do whatever you feel like doing. No. Go do whatever you feel like doing that's gonna help your community. Yep. Like, you know, we we one of the things I talked about is, like, we gotta get people not to get student loans if they're getting a Mamdani degree where he, you know, he paid $73,000 a year to get a degree in African studies.

Abteen Vaziri:

What is that gonna help our community? Right? Well, you know, you become a community organizer and ruin New York. But go get a go get a degree in STEM degrees, and that's the ones we should give student loans to. Why are we giving Mamdani a student loan to go pay 73,000 a year to get a degree in African studies?

Abteen Vaziri:

He lived in Africa. He didn't need to study it. He knew it. Right? Yeah.

Abteen Vaziri:

So that's so the education, the student loan, and the h one b is all connected, and we gotta get and by the way, our students are getting these liberal arts degrees. They're probably a lot more smarter than this guy from India with a fake degree, but he's getting the jobs for 200,000, and our poor students getting the job for 30,000 with a 150,000 student loans that they can't pay. So our entire like and and by the way, these kids become disenfranchised. They become democrats. They become socialists.

Abteen Vaziri:

They become communists. They hate America, and it's because of things we did to them. It's not their fault. They grew up in an environment that we screwed them out of any opportunity they had. They don't get the American dream.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Ryan, how old are your kids?

Ryan Binkley:

I got them. 16 to 26. 16 to 26.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Five kids. Mhmm. It's a big family. Absolutely. I would think you're Catholic, but you're

Ryan Binkley:

not. No.

Abteen Vaziri:

He's got some great kids, by the way.

Ryan Binkley:

I'm not too young. But let me tag on to what you're saying a little bit. Because I think this this whole thing is just the greatest opportunity for the Republican Party

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Okay.

Ryan Binkley:

Ever to connect with the young generation. Generation will. Because the because of lies and misinformation and because these a lot of the h one b v's, not only have they taken jobs, but they've suppressed wages. And there's just this complex of opportunity because ironically, there's still, like, couple 100,000 Mhmm. Tech jobs available.

Ryan Binkley:

That's jobs that need to be filled.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

And so there's this thing of, like, what do I do? And I think it's our time to come to young people because if we don't get them now, like, president Trump, he won because the remember the, I mean, the proletariat, the working man was not heard. You know, like the forty years ago, the Democratic Party had the voice of the unions. Right? And they've gone woke, they've gone this, and then president Trump comes in here and he's like, hey.

Ryan Binkley:

Listen. I see you. I see you. And they knew that they recognized, okay, this guy sees me. I've been taking advantage of, people don't see me.

Ryan Binkley:

But we're now that we're ten years into this movement and we've gotta connect with this next generation of young people. Otherwise, they're gonna buy the Mandame social ist message because if they can't live, get out of college, and get a job, and live on their own, their own a little American dream of being independent is dying. And that's when they start listening to this socialist message. It's actually at the direct opposite of what we believe. That capitalism is is actually cool.

Ryan Binkley:

Yeah. You can have the American dream. It's still alive. I mean, it's on display right here in Dallas. Why?

Ryan Binkley:

Because we're business friendly. Why are we growing? Why are people coming Texas?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I

Ryan Binkley:

mean, we have, I think, one out of 10 public companies here in Texas.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's

Ryan Binkley:

right. We have got the fastest growing economy almost in The United States now because it's business friendly. I mean, we're we're we have the opportunity, I think, to send this message. In fact, when I got out of the campaign, I wrote this paper and I sent it to the White House. I was like, we need to start at, like, this federal initiative for trades and entrepreneurship and a message for young people that, listen, now is the time to start shifting and thinking about owning a business.

Ryan Binkley:

Like, I've got two I'll tell

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

you quickly. This is where I'm going.

Ryan Binkley:

I'll tell you this story. This exactly where I'm I've got two friends. Yep. And so they're, like, five years younger than me, early fifties or whatever. And I'm probably almost 50.

Ryan Binkley:

And they recently sold their business for, like, a lot

Abteen Vaziri:

of money.

Ryan Binkley:

Mhmm. A couple 100,000,000. Yep. Maybe 300,000,000. Don't know what it is.

Ryan Binkley:

A big number. And so I was talking with them the other day, I was like, okay. How'd you guys do this and why tell me about this. And he goes, well, we're in college. We're friends.

Ryan Binkley:

And he said, we we recognize we weren't like the smartest in the room. He goes, but I we know we could work hard. So they started a corporate janitorial service. He said, we started cleaning toilets in college in the middle of the night.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Oh my gosh.

Ryan Binkley:

Now what college students today wanna go clean toilets in a building? Now these guys didn't clean toilets for the for the next thirty five years. They built a national company of custodial services Wow. And added other services to it and sold their business for 300,000,000. So I'm like, this is the vision.

Ryan Binkley:

Young Small business employs half of America. The American dream is alive. We need to share this message of learn something, be involved, be engaged. I'm telling young people today, learn to talk. Yes.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Communicate. If you learn Communicate.

Ryan Binkley:

You wanna be valuable? Yes.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And so Yes. Yes.

Abteen Vaziri:

It's so true.

Ryan Binkley:

Learn to speak

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yes.

Ryan Binkley:

You know? I will hire you today. Yeah. I mean, you're

Abteen Vaziri:

I had a it's such a you know, I I Jordan Peterson says, if you know how to speak Mhmm. And and and and by the way, this is not a skill you're born with. Yep. I remember when I was an SMU MBA student Uh-huh. I had to do a presentation.

Abteen Vaziri:

It was, like, seven people, and all I had to do is talk about myself. And I was, like, sweating, and I just got so nervous. Fast forward Oh, I gotta say. To China while I was in law school. Would fly to China on the weekends.

Abteen Vaziri:

I would go do a presentation in front of a thousand people. Mhmm. And some of it, would speak a little Chinese here and a couple of words Chinese here and there, but I would I would do a present for a thousand, and it was just like I I never even prepared. My girlfriend was like, how do you not prepare for stuff? I was like, you've done it so many times.

Abteen Vaziri:

You Yeah. But it's it's a muscle. It's a muscle you have to learn. Public speaking is tough, but once you learn public speaking, once you know how to write and articulate, you you have the world you know, as as Jordan Peterson says, you have the world by by the by short and curlies. And and and and here's the thing.

Abteen Vaziri:

I had a this guy who was a business owner was telling me. He's like he's like, you know, I called this guy that worked for me in my office. I started yelling at him, and then he he's like he's huffing and puffing, and he didn't know how to defend himself because he doesn't know how to speak. He storms out of my office, goes, sits behind his computer, writes me this this letter. And by the way, he was right, but he didn't have the social skills to Yeah.

Abteen Vaziri:

Tell me and he was right. And he's like, had he said this to me, would have been like, you're 100% right. But he didn't have the skill. He he only had the skill to go type it because he doesn't know how to, you know, to to fight back in in in person. And and and, you know, I have a lot of my friends' kids because, you know, I've been in finance.

Abteen Vaziri:

I worked at hedge funds. So a lot of my kids asked me to mentor their sons and daughters and, you know, some of them, you know, I've I've been mentors. Some of them are mentors for me. Right? And they're all like, oh, I got this Goldman internship.

Abteen Vaziri:

I got this internship. I wanna go work for Tesla. Wanna do this. And I tell every single one of them this, and I tell them, listen. I need you to do this one skill.

Abteen Vaziri:

This is a skill they don't teach you in school, and I need you to learn this. And I learned it be and I was a shy kid. I worked at MBNA right down here. I work at telecom to, you know, to to credit card company. I sold credit cards.

Abteen Vaziri:

I was a telemarketer. And that job taught me how to sell. I said nobody teaches you how to sell, whether you're a politician, whether you're a tech founder, whether you're a partner in the law firm. No matter what you do, your number one skill set is selling Yeah. And they don't teach you selling.

Abteen Vaziri:

I was like, go sell knives. Go go I I quit my job when I worked at a dealership for two months because I learned how to sell. Yeah. And I said, they don't teach you that skill. And here here's the here's the here's the most important part.

Abteen Vaziri:

They they don't they don't teach you how to sell, but that Goldman internship is gonna be waiting for you, though, but nobody teaches how to sell. I said, do you know who the best partners are in law firms? It's not the best lawyers. Never. The best lawyers are gonna be for the rest of their life just, you know, writing the briefs.

Abteen Vaziri:

The best lawyers in law firms are the guys that go play golf and get the big clients. The salesman. Not the best lawyers are not the biggest partners. The best salesman are the biggest. It's in every industry.

Abteen Vaziri:

When you're a politician, you gotta sell. Why is Trump successful? Because he sells his vision.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yeah. He

Ryan Binkley:

does. He sells

Abteen Vaziri:

his this is the the biggest Yeah. Piece of advice I can give kids. Go work in sales for two months. Learn how to sell.

Ryan Binkley:

You know, when I was in 17 years old, I used to work for a home builder here in Dallas. And my job was to clean out the house at every stage. So I have been I've used to seeing every part of home construction. So I would I would I mean, when they did a bricking, I mean, I would just remove all the bricks, pile them in the yard. I mean, it was hard work.

Ryan Binkley:

Didn't matter what it Every eight stage of framing, you name it. So people wanted to walk through at any stage. It was safe and somewhat. And so I did that for a couple years. And then I got a job selling cable television.

Ryan Binkley:

Oh. And this is 1983 or something like that. And so I would go to work for three hours, and I and I knocked on doors in apartment complex. I've been, by the way, I've knocked on every apartment door here in North Dallas. You go to Spring Valley right down this road here?

Abteen Vaziri:

There's a lot of parking here.

Ryan Binkley:

Then I've been down everyone selling cable apartments. I make 2 or $300 a night selling cable television. And I I learned to communicate, learned to knock on doors, learned to take rejection, learned to and so that's how I got my start. Yep. And but I made more money in two or three hours than I would make all day long, and I'm like, I'm never working for back then, it was Bob Bob, and he's an old construction guy here.

Ryan Binkley:

I go, I'm never working for him again. I'm I'm doing something else. But to your point, if we can teach people how to how to communicate, how to engage people, because that's that's not only important for a business, it's important for the gospel. It is. Everybody's got a window with people.

Ryan Binkley:

Yep. Know, it's either open or closed. And our job is to open it a little bit and then just share with them ideas.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Do you believe that you've been able to do that with your own children?

Ryan Binkley:

Of course. Good. You know, to a certain degree. And when I don't, I've gotta engage them further. And I can tell, you know, Procter and Gamble, I used to work for them when I got out of college, and they taught us this window shade mentality.

Ryan Binkley:

You know, Abteen had one meet for me when we first met. It was closed. We got to know each other, then it opened. And so everybody's got one with you, and it doesn't matter what faith they are. It doesn't matter what political ideology they have.

Ryan Binkley:

If we can engage people, we can start getting them to think and to process information and open it up, and that's how we win people's hearts.

Abteen Vaziri:

You know, Sarah, there's another really bad mindset that our kids are being taught. And this mindset is that somehow being successful or having money is a bad thing. Listen. I sold flowers on the side of the highway. I was a telemarketer.

Abteen Vaziri:

I sold knives. You've had some crap jobs. You weren't born with a sliver of snow. Nobody came and handed you $200,000,000. You busted your ass, but you had to start from somewhere.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep.

Abteen Vaziri:

And people like kids today, they just wanna be like, oh, I wanna be a YouTube star and make 200,000,000. Well, they don't know that every success story starts with working those crap jobs and working your way up. So when you see somebody have a crap job, you appreciate it because you're like, I was in your shoes, and kids don't get to hear that today. And and, you know, I saw all these articles when when Elon Musk, you know you know, the the SpaceX went public and and Elon Musk is a trillion on paper, and I told people he was a trillion a couple years ago because I knew the valuation. But but you know you know what everyone's saying?

Abteen Vaziri:

People are hating. Instead of congratulating, they're hating him, and they're saying, oh, you know, Elon Musk is worth more than the bottom 44% of the world's population. And they're hating on him. And then I'm I'm I'm saying, what amazing country do we live in The United States that an autistic kid from Africa moves here with nothing Perfectly. Who who moved here with nothing and is worth a trillion dollars.

Abteen Vaziri:

This is the greatest country in the world because this kid, not not even a generation, half a generation opportunity. Who's autistic, who's got learning disabilities, came here. And by the way, he's worth more than 44 bottom 44% of the world, but he's done more for humanity than bottom 44% of the world. People don't talk about that.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep.

Abteen Vaziri:

I had an e b five investor who was French, and he created one of the largest, you know, grocery chains in France. And I said, why do you wanna move to The US? He said, listen. I was driving a Porsche, you know, made a lot of money. Right?

Abteen Vaziri:

And, you know, I mean, he was a kid. And, you know, he was like, I was driving down and I was in the middle of nowhere and my Porsche broke down. So I go to this mechanic shop, and this guy tells me, you drive a Porsche, that means you're evil because you're a bad guy. Because if you're a good guy, you wouldn't drive a Porsche. Because in France, this is mindset that you have money, somehow you're bad.

Abteen Vaziri:

But people don't say, hey. Do you know how many grocery stores I have? Do you know how many people's salaries I pay? Do you know how many people I put to work? He doesn't say that.

Abteen Vaziri:

Says, you drive a Porsche. I wanted to move away from France because I wanna move away from that mindset. I come here. I drive a Porsche in The US. No one says a thing.

Abteen Vaziri:

And this is the mindset that kids are having because they're being brainwashed, and we gotta get away from that. We gotta congratulate Elon for being worth a trillion dollars because, look, we had a problem with not knowing where fossil fuels are coming come from. The world is gonna die. Where do we where do cars gonna get power? And he completely changed.

Abteen Vaziri:

Now we have electric cars, and we don't have to count on fossil. He completely revolutionized that. He keeps revolutionizing, you know, data centers. He's revolutionizing space travel. The things he's doing, nobody's thinking about.

Abteen Vaziri:

Yep. And then we're like, why is he making so much money? Well, listen. He's got 3,700 satellites in space, and he knows how to bring a rocket back, which NASA doesn't know how to do. When you learn how to do that, then you should make money too.

Abteen Vaziri:

But but the whole point of this is we gotta congratulate people for being good business people. Like, you know, you weren't a CEO on day one. You busted your tail.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's

Abteen Vaziri:

exactly to understand that everybody has a success story. You know, nobody nobody's handed everything. Everyone has to bust their tail to get to a point. Right? Well And and we gotta congratulate that.

Ryan Binkley:

And And we have to inspire it. We need a generation

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

to inspire it.

Ryan Binkley:

Have this thought that work is a great thing. Is. Hard work is a great thing. I mean, you know, you and I have stories. I I had a paper round in fifth grade.

Ryan Binkley:

I'll never forget. I was I remember one time I was I had I had a girlfriend in fifth grade and I'd walk her home sometimes. Look at my papers, they would stack them up on my front door and I look over there down the street and I go, I got a paper out to do. I was real proud of myself. But that was in fifth grade.

Ryan Binkley:

I mean, I had to carry one of those bags on my bike and roll up the streets and throw papers, but, you know, young people need to start having this thought. It's time to work again. And and at every level, high school, college, afterwards, that, working with our hands is good, thinking about things, because this is one thing AI will never do. It'll never replace something that requires human interaction, human creativity, judgment. I mean, how are you gonna go in there and fix a problem and solution?

Ryan Binkley:

I've got

Abteen Vaziri:

some Empathy. I've got work

Ryan Binkley:

people are working on my house right now. I can't type in Claude. Hey. Come fix my concrete driveway. I need some help here.

Ryan Binkley:

Yes. But somebody now could charge me whatever they want to because it's very expensive now to get anything done. Why? There's a labor shortage in America. I think there's 300,000 construction jobs available.

Ryan Binkley:

There's there's probably close to a million and a half trade jobs available here in the next five years in America. Now what does that mean? Whenever you have a shortage, that means supply is short. You know what that means? They can raise prices.

Ryan Binkley:

You can have an great opportunity. So I wanna tell young people is don't think about a trade necessarily as like, boy, I've gotta do that for the rest of my life. No, think about it like a business. Start learning how to think about marketing and strategy and accounting and develop services that can you can create a business and do great things with, but that's how you that's how you change a generation. And and I think this this is the message we need to have during the midterms.

Abteen Vaziri:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

What if people are going on college campuses going, hey. We are the party of creativity. We're the party of small business. We're the party of jobs and and owning a business. And this is how we need to get them thinking, not sitting behind a desk trying to compete with AI.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's exactly right.

Abteen Vaziri:

And and and when it comes to faith too, like, listen, capitalism and Christianity go hand in hand. Socialism and Islam and atheism, they go hand in hand. So it's like, you know, you're you're seeing actually there's a revival of young kids today that are actually much more religious, much more into Christ, much more into, you know, religion where they weren't. Like, you know, we had this kind of the pendulum was swinging this way. Now the pendulum is singing this way.

Abteen Vaziri:

People wanna get married more. People wanna get, you know, be more religious. They go to church. When I go to church, I see a lot of young kids there. It's just it's it's amazing.

Abteen Vaziri:

And I think things are, you know, improving for the better end. And, you know, a lot of that has to do with, you know, the you know, your Christian faith doesn't say it's it's wrong to go make money. Go make money, and then you can help your neighbor. You know? But if you're if you're sitting at home and getting government pay, you can't help your neighbor.

Ryan Binkley:

Well, you know, that's part of the message I shared sometime is that many people look for the government to do what the church is supposed to do. But, know, Jesus never said, you know, hire the government to go take care of your neighborhood. He said, you love your neighbor. So this whole thought of what we exercise in our faith, a lot of times people are are they're either going one way with their faith. They're either kind of like, oh, we gotta keep everybody out or we gotta make sure there's no more Muslims coming into our country or whatever.

Ryan Binkley:

This is the time when the world's coming to our country. It's the time for us to exercise our faith and to go love on people, and there's people hurting, but not count on the government to go necessarily take care of the poor. It's our job.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

It is our job to go love on our neighbor and to make sure that widows and orphans are taken care of and for us to, you know, be kind to people. And I think they they do send the right message when

Abteen Vaziri:

we

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

My do it husband often gets very frustrated because when he tried to ignite a bunch of business leaders in the community to invest in, the Metropolitan Civic and Business Association, which encourages businesses to have their employees vote in local elections. People were like, it's how much? And he's like, it doesn't matter. We need to start electing the right people into council. And then separately, Pathways.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

It's now, you know, a a a community of people working together to ensure that the homelessness is actually solved. The homelessness crisis is solved. And getting people, again, business leaders, people who do have the means to make an impact in our community, people are not as interested, which is strange because Dallas is known for being so charitable, the philanthropic heart, just how people but it's oftentimes involvement in lovely galas or, you know, benefit circles or societies. So Mani was like, I don't understand. Like, these people, the homeless people need our help.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

We need to have a call to action. Business leaders need to be encouraging their employees to vote for Absolutely. Business friendly, right, business friendly leaders. And that has fallen away from the business community. What do you both think could be done to ignite more?

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And of course, that's not every single business leader. Many business leaders who are friends with my husband and myself do have the interest in making a measurable impact on the people who are suffering and not relying on government. How can we deliver that message better, do you think?

Ryan Binkley:

I can jump on this real quick. I feel like every business leader out there, they know there's needs out there, but not lot time do they take the time to see what's really working because there's so many nonprofits out there, so many things.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Just tons.

Ryan Binkley:

And bottom line, some are doing better than others. And so you get misguided and going, okay. Where's this money going? And how much of it is really making an impact? So a few years ago, I got introduced to this organization out of Chicago called Buy the Hand for Kids, and they now have a chapter here in Dallas.

Ryan Binkley:

Now what this is, this is an amazing facility. I walk into there because I'm thinking like, how do we solve long term inner city crisis? How do we solve homelessness, fatherlessness? How we how do we get young people with a vision to go to college, learn a trait? Because when you have a lapse in education, a lapse in Yep.

Ryan Binkley:

I would say this continuing education beyond high school, and you cannot read or do math, the unemployment rates, the people living on the streets, all this has skyrocketed. So we started looking at the data on that, and it's clearly there's some organizations out there that have mentors for people in inner cities, and so we found this organization, and I went and visited it. And it's amazing. They had five locations, the five toughest boroughs in Chicago. Mhmm.

Ryan Binkley:

And they have after school programs where people, young people, are giving their time to mentor kids after school because after school is the most dangerous part of the day.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

It absolutely is.

Ryan Binkley:

Parents aren't at home. Uh-huh. So they're out there on the street or whatever alone, and now they're teaching them how to read, write, and do math. And they have the highest graduation rates at high school, the same and this is in the inner city. It's by the hand for kids.

Ryan Binkley:

And so we support them. And then they opened up a chapter in Dallas, we helped them kinda kick that off a little bit. And I think getting people involved and saying, listen, let's put you know, they call it, you know, putting the metal on the target. Let's find out what's really going to make a difference in the next twenty years. And I think this.

Ryan Binkley:

If we can mentor young people and I've told college kids this everywhere. You're spending a few hours a day on your phone or some sort of media. What if you spent two hours a week mentoring a kid in the inner city on how to read and do math Yep. Starting in the third grade, whatever it is, couple hours a week, you've got that time. You could change the world.

Ryan Binkley:

Yeah. We could change the world. And I think if we invest in organizations that are doing this the right way, they're starting now, they're opening up another chapter somewhere I can, but they have three now, I think. And so there's, I think, getting the right organizations that are doing the right things.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And I agree with you. I mean, you saw the fraud, unfortunately, with, with a lot of these charities.

Ryan Binkley:

These Oh, yeah.

Abteen Vaziri:

Some know, there's not there's not enough oversight over these five zero one c's. And I saw that happening during COVID. You know, there's so much PPP fraud. And then, you know, there's, like, there's organized crime, gangs Yep. You know, Russian mafia, Armenia mafia.

Abteen Vaziri:

They're they're they're just they're they see weaknesses in our systems, and our politicians don't care. Because our politicians are they never care about auditing or balancing a budget. All they care about is just where's the next money? Just keep pumping money out. Right?

Abteen Vaziri:

Most of these programs like, you know, kids were doing tax returns under somebody else's name getting, you know, $500,000 return. By the time the IRS caught on, they were already gone. I mean, there's Nigerian gangs doing that. There's Russian mafia doing that. Like, we gotta we gotta, you know you know, make sure this fraud doesn't happen.

Abteen Vaziri:

And nobody's nobody's responsible or answering to the taxpayers. Mhmm. So much money's wasted. So much money is gone, and and we gotta stop that.

Ryan Binkley:

And and that turns off in people that wanna give. Yep. Because they're like, well

Abteen Vaziri:

People don't people don't wanna give, and people don't wanna pay taxes. When you pay your taxes and you see how the government wastes money, like, why do people cheat their taxes? Because why the like, the government is not being a good steward of our tax money.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

No. They're not.

Abteen Vaziri:

Nobody. No. But not on the right, not on the left. No one in the government is a good steward. And they all know it.

Abteen Vaziri:

If they were good stewards of our money, we'll be more willing to pay taxes voluntarily. But, you know, everyone's like, oh, you gotta do your fair share. Well, everybody else is cheating on our taxes, and then you pay the taxes and the government sends it $10,000,000,000 to to Pakistan for, you know Did you see gender studies or, you know

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

When Elon was doing this whole Doge movement, right, And he went on to, Joe Rogan's on Joe Rogan's show. And he flat out told Joe Rogan, he was like, I was thinking on the way here. Like, I'm gonna be assassinated. If I push too hard on this corruption envelope, something along these these lines, I'm gonna be killed.

Ryan Binkley:

I I I do think, like, this it's like I actually have to be careful that I don't push too hard on the corruption stuff because it's gonna get me killed.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And I thought to myself, it's so true. Because as he came in there to doge all of the, right, all of the misspending, yeah. It of course.

Abteen Vaziri:

I mean, look

Ryan Binkley:

at look

Abteen Vaziri:

at Nick Shirley. He started uncovering all this fraud as a kid, as a kid citizen journalist.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Abteen Vaziri:

He start and what did the state of California do? They didn't say, oh, let's encourage him. Let's go find what this fraud is.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Get out.

Abteen Vaziri:

They passed this stop Nick Shirley act to so Yep. So then he wouldn't uncover their fraud.

Ryan Binkley:

And and this yeah. And this is a problem, though. You like I think Doze found, like, $900,000,000,000 worth.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

You know how much of it actually got into law as far as the cuts, the actual cuts? No. Like, 9,000,000,000. Like, hardly any of it did.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

You didn't realize

Ryan Binkley:

that. You know, you've got and this is what we're talking about. We need business leaders in congress and senate at every level, not just nationalists. How to balance a budget. Because this is the reason that kind of inspired me to really get involved in politics to begin with was I used to wonder twenty years ago, how come there's no great business leaders running for office?

Ryan Binkley:

I remember I used to look you know, think about Jamie Dimon or Jack Welch. How come we don't have great thought leaders in business? And now now I can see why. Yeah. It's I mean, look what they've done to Trump.

Ryan Binkley:

I mean, it's not an easy path, because it's a puppet lobby money game. Let me see what I can do. Can I buy insights? You know what big you know what billionaires are doing now? They're buying politicians today.

Ryan Binkley:

Of course. So they are investing in these huge campaigns because they want the influence. They're like, hey. Listen. I don't wanna run for office or I can't run for office, but I wanna make sure that you vote the way I want you to vote.

Ryan Binkley:

So they give these big pack groups, and everybody funds them, and it's kind of this ongoing game. But I believe there's gonna be a shift because if we stay on the path we're on, this is where the breaking points of America happen that I see. It's not necessarily AI. That's not gonna be the disruption that really disrupts America, I think. I think it's gonna be our long term debt, The fact that we are addicted to deficit spending to the point of 2,000,000,000,000

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

a It's gonna critical.

Ryan Binkley:

That we are now dropping the baton to the next generation because when I got out of college, we had very little debt as a nation. I had an opportunity. I could get an apartment. I had money left over every month, and now young people are living with their parents till they're 25 or 26, 27. They're not buying a house till they're 40.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

And they're like Living with the this work for Abteen and I, but does it work for for them? Yep. Well, it will, but the opportunities are not the same.

Abteen Vaziri:

Not the same.

Ryan Binkley:

So that's what I feel compelled to do is like, I wanna hand this off in the next twenty years to the next generation kids and grandkids. We've got we better do some systemic things to grow and cut down our deficit and eventually balance the budget, which is two words you never hear from any politician anymore. It's like they've lost hope, lost thought. Listen. I'll never give up on it.

Ryan Binkley:

We have to because it makes sense. It's biblical.

Abteen Vaziri:

It's the

Ryan Binkley:

right thing. And and we need leaders today that will will stand on that hill as much as anything else.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And but it's the execution of it. Right? Because, unfortunately, whenever you have minority majority votes, I mean, it Right. How do you affect change for that future generation when we are just printing dollars?

Ryan Binkley:

America America is not gonna change until, you know, it starts to look up.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

So when's it gonna look up? Usually, we don't look up till we're in trouble. Until it's too late. Yeah. So, you know, till we see things till there's a nine eleven moment or a, you know, a great recession moment and all of these things happen, something falls apart.

Ryan Binkley:

And unfortunately, I think God does have ways to get our attention.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's

Ryan Binkley:

right. And fortunately, of the time, it's financial. Yeah. You know, in the Bible, there's wars, there's famine, there's plagues. And, you know, when we have plagues, we don't we didn't we we had one we had one first in our lifetime here.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right.

Ryan Binkley:

And I didn't see church leaders across America going, hey, this is usually a sign in the bible that we've we've turned from God. Is anybody thinking that? Now we're pointing fingers too many places, but I think it's God's gonna waken up the heart. And I think this is part of the spiritual journey of America. I think a lot of these things are coalescing to where I've always believed there's gonna be this great awakening again in our country.

Ryan Binkley:

When you look at the founding of our nation, you study Whitfield and and you study some of these things that were happening at the time and our country rising up and then they started feeling this enlightenment. You know what? I have fundamental rights. I've got things that have been given to me by God and I should be able to own property or land or be able to say what I think and the freedoms that we're entitled to today because of the enlightenment journey, I think it's gonna happen again. But hopefully, it won't be too late.

Ryan Binkley:

But we've gotta be a part of that. We've gotta shout the message.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And it's interesting because one of my exact questions, twenty years from now, what will matter the most in determining the future of America? You can only pick one. Faith, family, immigration, technology, or economic growth. What would you say?

Abteen Vaziri:

I think, faith. I think faith is gonna help with well, faith and family are almost like one and the same. Right? Faith allows you to be family oriented and wanna do for your community, and that allows economic growth. Because when you have socialism and, you know, when you've given up on life, when you're in a democratic social, you give up on family.

Abteen Vaziri:

Like, the socialists, they're against family values. They're against God. And then, you know, everyone sits around like the Soviet Union. They sits around and go, that person's gonna do the work, and I'm just gonna get a paycheck. And then before you know it, everyone stops working.

Abteen Vaziri:

The economy goes and then, you know, everybody's starving. That hap that's happened in every socialist communist nation that's tried it. And, you know, for some reason, are are are you think that they can have their Starbucks and then, you know, drive their BMW and have their Louis Vuittons and then somehow socials have been lied to because, you know, they've glorified this this idea of socialism. And then they're going out to these no kings rallies, and they don't even know what that means. I know.

Abteen Vaziri:

We have we have a we have a democratic form of government. We have a we have a constitutional republic. Right? What does a king mean? A king means that somebody that's appointed for life that that you can't remove from power.

Abteen Vaziri:

Mhmm. Now the way that our frame is a constitution wanted the supreme court special specifically appointed for life because they didn't want them to be, you know, taken into this political realm and not be political. Now we still see, oh, these are five Republicans, four Democrat. They're supposed to be nonpolitical. Unfortunately, they are.

Abteen Vaziri:

But we talk about no kings. What does no kings mean? You know, they call Trump a kings, and they go to his no no kings rally. Trump had four years in office, arguably stolen election. I believe it was a stolen election, and then he left from office even though he believed there was a stolen forget the fact that you think it was a stolen or He believed they're stolen.

Abteen Vaziri:

He so if he was a king, he would never left from office. He left from office. He got overwhelmingly, you know, reelected and came back in office. He's been in office five years. Those same morons, excuse my French, that are going to the no kings rallies, do you know who the people are that are kings?

Abteen Vaziri:

Nancy Pelosi has been in office for thirty nine years. Chuck Schumer, forty five years. Yep. Chuck Grassley, fifty two years. Bernie yes.

Abteen Vaziri:

Fifty two Chuck I didn't realize that. Chuck Grassley, fifty two years in the senate. Now Bernie Sanders between house and the senate, he's been in power

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I know.

Abteen Vaziri:

Fifty seven years.

Ryan Binkley:

I know. Now Chuck's a good Republican.

Abteen Vaziri:

He's talking.

Ryan Binkley:

Be careful.

Abteen Vaziri:

Well, listen. I I like Chuck Schumer. I mean, no. Chuck Grassley. It doesn't matter.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

But but it It doesn't matter

Abteen Vaziri:

if these people will give

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

her a Democratic crack. Wrong.

Abteen Vaziri:

John Cornyn was in office twenty four years. Like, the the real power in our government is in the senate. The house has less power unless you're the speaker of the house. But these senators, as as Ryan mentioned, every you know, there's five, six hundred billionaires in the country or maybe more now, but but there's 100 senators. Every single one of these senators is controlled by four or five billionaires, and there are the majority senators have been in office twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yeah.

Abteen Vaziri:

And they're the ones that are directing our policy. Why do we have somebody like Mitch McConnell who can barely walk who's in his late eighties, you know, running politics? Why not give the new generation a chance? The biggest problem in our politics is the senate. Money.

Abteen Vaziri:

Senate needs to be replaced.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

So I'm gonna ask the question again, the twenty years from now? Yeah. Because I wanna know your answer.

Ryan Binkley:

Well, it's very similar. You know, the when we started our church Mhmm. I prayed and I was asking God, what's the name of it? Mhmm. And so I actually had a dream where I saw Create Church, and he began speaking to me about what does that mean?

Ryan Binkley:

You know, there's a scripture in Ephesians chapter two, I believe it's verse 10, that says, we are we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in. So we kinda built this. So I'm I'm a different kind of leader. I'm not a full time pastor. I'm a entrepreneur.

Ryan Binkley:

I own businesses. I I I step into governments or political circles, and people don't like that, by the way. But and I and I love church. And But I feel like God said, hey, raise up a church for people to know Christ and to know that they've got a created purpose. Meaning, if I can raise up my kids and my family, so I'm speaking about faith, and even a generation of people to say, God loves me.

Ryan Binkley:

I've been creating his image. And by the way, I've got a purpose. The Bible says in Jeremiah that he knew us before we were ever born. And he ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations even before he was ever born. So has he not done the same for you and I?

Ryan Binkley:

Are you not now stepping into part of your calling which God saw fifty years ago or before we were ever born? So I believe this, the greatest thing we can teach the next generation is to know God and to hear his voice and then to be led by God. Because those that are led by God, you know, are the sons of God. So being led by God into your your calling and your purpose and mine was never a very linear path of just, boy, this happened. This happened.

Ryan Binkley:

It was kind of ups and downs and and going sideways, but God had his hand. I could see now in every step. Even the trials, the setbacks, had failures, had disappointments, had major disappointments here recently in, you know, political ways. But but at the same time, I sense that God's saying, hey. Keep speaking.

Ryan Binkley:

Keep going for it. Keep speaking the truth. And it's we're all on a journey. But if we can share then twenty years from now a generation of people to know God, I have no question God's gonna take care of his people. And that we're the greatest days of our country ahead of us.

Ryan Binkley:

There but we have to use wisdom. So we need people that are gonna use God's wisdom, walk in, I believe this, a thought that he has got a purpose for their lives and it's a great purpose. In fact, in Ephesians, I think, three, it says this, the things God has for us are exceedingly, abundantly above anything we could ever ask, hope, or think of. So start thinking of where could I see ourselves twenty years from now? Like, God sees it way bigger, way better than what we could even think.

Ryan Binkley:

But we've gotta do things his way.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yep. I'm with you. I'm with both of you. That's that would be my answer if I were being asked. But thank you for your time.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Thank you for that perspective. Is there anything that you wanna share about what you all will be doing in the upcoming few years? How you'll be spending your time? I mean, clearly, we're all busy. We're all doing multiple things.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

We're all in business, and I'm doing this, you know, but, on the side as well. So we all have side things. But how are you gonna be spending your time in the upcoming years since politics is not in your immediate future formally?

Ryan Binkley:

Well, from from me personally, you know, I've got a business focused on that. Yep. I have kids and family and church, but I am starting to, you know, really start thinking about speaking more into this movement that we better start communicating to the next generation about how important it is for them to think about a job and a business and owning their own company. I really think this is a great opportunity to get this capitalism is cool message out there. They're hearing a message of socialism.

Ryan Binkley:

It is the wrong message for every nation. It's certainly the wrong for our country. Mhmm. But they're losing hope. Mhmm.

Ryan Binkley:

They are losing hope. And we if we don't capture them now, and I think now is the time. So I'm gonna spend some time thinking about probably a book, podcast more, writing more, speaking more about this topic because I believe it's the most important one for the next generation to know this, that they can have a great future. They don't need to count on the government to take care of them. Actually, can pioneer and forge their own way.

Ryan Binkley:

And if we can inspire them to think that way, I think the greatest days of their lives and our country ahead of us.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yes. I'm gonna touch upon what you just said in in just a moment. If you would,

Abteen Vaziri:

please Sure. So, you know, I I started an organization called Iranian American Republican Council of Texas. The original chapter was starting in California thirty eight years ago. The first member was honorary member, Ronald Reagan. I know both me and Ryan really think very highly of Ronald Reagan.

Abteen Vaziri:

And, you know, one of the things that I'm trying to do is, you know, there's something like 200 to 300,000 Iranian Americans in Texas. They don't vote. Less than 8% of them vote. In the midterms, it's, like, almost nonexistent. They vote for president.

Abteen Vaziri:

So I'm trying to explain to them how their decision not to vote affects them. Right? Just just a couple days ago, you know, there was a there was a there was a legal case, Romanian versus FIFA, that allowed people in LA to be able to carry their line and some flag. It went to a LA LA District Court, and this judge shot it down. What?

Abteen Vaziri:

And this judge that shot it down is this Asian kid who's LGBTQ who the last two elections ran up unopposed as a judge. And he's the one that basically made everyone lose their First Amendment's right to be able to carry the Iran the real Iranian flag. So I'm explaining to kids. I'm explaining to people. People in LA, you need to primary this person.

Abteen Vaziri:

You need to go you need to go run against this judge. This judge just took away your First Amendment rights. And the other thing I'm trying to just get as many Iranians to show up, vote. They love to complain, but they don't show up and vote. So this is my number one goal.

Abteen Vaziri:

And then, you know, I was blessed. You know, God wanted me to be in this race and wanted me to meet Ryan and and the other people in this race. And we we went to breakfast, you know, a few weeks ago after the after the the race was over. And I was like, Ryan, you have voice. And, you know, there's gonna be other senate seats.

Abteen Vaziri:

I mean, congressional seats open. There's gonna be other political opportunities. And whatever your next goal whenever your next goal is for politics, I'm gonna back you. I'm gonna help you get elected. And between now and then, let's make a difference locally.

Abteen Vaziri:

Let's do a podcast. Let's do a TV show. Let's let's pass this message because I I ran for congress not because I wanted to go to DC and work for 174,000 a year. I wanted to run for congress because I wanna make a difference. And I know Ryan shares that with me, and I know he's passionate about it.

Abteen Vaziri:

So, hopefully, we're gonna do this from different angles, but maybe our paths will cross. Maybe we'll do a podcast. Maybe we'll do a TV show. Maybe we'll do other things

Ryan Binkley:

love to.

Abteen Vaziri:

To entice the young generation to be business friendly, to understand business, to go get those skills that they need, sales skills, speaking skills, trying to teach the youth because we're gonna be gone thirty, forty, maybe ten years from now. Who knows? But we need we need this next generation. As Ronald Reagan, you know, famously said, freedom is never more than one generation away if you don't nurture it. We gotta nurture it.

Abteen Vaziri:

Exactly right. So my my job and Ryan's job and God gave me this gift and God gave me this calling is to work with him to do that, to try to, you know, nurture this next generation so we don't lose our freedoms here in The United States.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Well, thank you for that.

Ryan Binkley:

We have to keep the American dream alive.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

We must. I I forced my I forced my kids. I I had them watch Braveheart the other night, and they're 13 now. And I was like, listen, it's a very gory movie, but you all must know freedom is not free. People died for us to be able to live the way that we do today.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

And my son started this Future Voices column that talks about work, talks about technological disruption, talks about faith as it relates to all of it. And he's 13. He started it when he was 12. And he was kind of ignited after Charlie Kirk's passing and he was like, I have a broken clavicle. We have to start.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

We have to start and I I wanna write. And I was like, okay. And he's a math brain, total. But, you know, he's started cultivating his voice. And we at MCBR are gonna be doing a luncheon in the future, with one of the hill, one of the hunt, offspring.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

He's he's a young guy in his twenties in conjunction with Hector, my brother who is, president of Ashford. And, my family comes from very humble beginnings. He grew up in the wards of Houston. Tough life. But, you know, youngest, like, executive vice president of National Oilwell Varco before Mani, like, stole him from oil and gas.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

He's like, you're used to highs and lows. Come to hospitality and help me lead. So so

Abteen Vaziri:

And I go to church with him and I go to men's group, which I've been really bad about going to and leaving.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

No. But but but the reason I'm talking about all of this is because it's a it's a family like the Hunt lineage talking about how he always and he went to Cornell. Right? Lots of opportunity. A bright young man.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

He's Al Hill. And kinda juxtaposed with my brother who didn't have all the opportunities, but somehow in this great country, they have rallied and are and and like you have this same mission to ensure that the youth, are going to have a voice in advocating for themselves, but taking meaningful steps to ensure that it's not lost and absorbed in this ecosystem of AI. But to your point, running starting a business, learning a trade, whatever it takes so I'm gonna speak with you offline a little bit more kind of about this entire movement because we have Cristo Rey involved, right, a bunch of kids from there, and I think Cistercian kids now, onboarding to this Future Voices program to start writing about the workforce, how it's evolving as it relates to faith. So that's why they're they're kinda two separate faith based schools there, but there's there's some type of synergy.

Ryan Binkley:

This is this is the right thing.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yeah. And and I'm excited. Have you done anything else on this?

Ryan Binkley:

Well, like I said, I wrote a I wrote a paper, like

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

a

Ryan Binkley:

five page proposal, sent it to

Abteen Vaziri:

the White

Ryan Binkley:

House, and it was called I titled it Federal Initiative for Trades and Entrepreneurship F. I mean, the Bible says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and we're leaving an inheritance really of soon to be $4,050,000,000,000,000 dollars in debt, and less of an opportunity. And I'm gonna forge and fight my way, because we've had an opportunity to live our own American dream, always have. So now it's like, okay, what can we do to make sure that the next generation sees hope? Yeah.

Ryan Binkley:

That has this thing that really America is the greatest country in the world. It is. Opportunities are Still. Let's go make them. And so, anyway, I'll send you this paper that

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

I wrote

Ryan Binkley:

on this. Yeah. Because it has a lot to do with training, education. It has a lot to do even with small business loans that could be available to young people. Mean, microloans.

Ryan Binkley:

Yes. I mean, think about it in college. You know, you get a microloan for 5 or $10,000. You can start something. And, Liz, we have to start inspiring

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

you Send that to me, please.

Ryan Binkley:

In trades as

Abteen Vaziri:

well.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Will. That's remarkable. Time for

Ryan Binkley:

us now to really inspire, not just be business as usual. I I love everybody. I'm a party guy. I love everybody in our country. Mhmm.

Ryan Binkley:

At the same time, though, you know, our party needs to make some changes. Mean, president president Trump has led this. He's gonna lead it for another few years. And after that, though, it's time for us to see where where are we headed for the next ten years? Are we really are we gonna shift down, or are we gonna shift up?

Ryan Binkley:

And the only way to go up as a country is to work on the budget and the debt and the opportunities because the borrower is a slave to the lender.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's

Ryan Binkley:

right. And as long as we have this thing here, we're not gonna have the freedoms that we should have.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

That's right. That's right. And and I'm appreciative to both of you for coming in today. It's nice

Abteen Vaziri:

to meet you. Right?

Ryan Binkley:

Great to be here.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Yes. Love it. Yes. And I'm grateful to you for inter introducing us.

Abteen Vaziri:

Thank you.

Sarah Zubiate Bennett:

Thank you.