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What I believe is common sense, I'm learning is not that common. The public has been left out of so many conversations on community issues, and as a publicly elected official, I want to change this. I want to invite my community in a new space, where you can listen in behind the scenes to the discussions that lead to the decisions that are impacting our lives. In a podcast I named Common Sense, I'm inviting the whole world to see these conversations happening in real time! Subscribe to listen in on these conversations!
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:14:18
Unknown
What I believe is common sense. I'm learning it's not that common.
00:00:17:14 - 00:00:41:21
Unknown
Today, most people know Joy Eakins as the business owner behind Cornerstone Data, the successful and fast growing consulting firm based here in Wichita. Her business acumen even landed her as the Wichita Chamber chair for a year in 2023, where she both challenged and encouraged our business community. That's the joy most people see the business leader, but I've come to know joy on a different level.
00:00:41:23 - 00:01:01:19
Unknown
The principled fighter and her story of where she's come from and where she hopes to go is worth sharing. We talk about the challenges she's had to overcome, her time on the Wichita school board, and I ask her the question that a lot of people are asking right now is Joy going to run for governor? And what does she think this state needs in the next governor?
00:01:01:21 - 00:01:05:23
Unknown
I hope you enjoy my conversation with my friend Joy Eakins.
00:01:05:23 - 00:01:19:06
Unknown
Joy Eakins, welcome. I'm glad you're here, my friend. Thanks for having me. Well, the, before we get started, and we're going to talk about a lot today, and, I'm going to ask you some questions about what's in your future, because there's a lot of discussion about.
00:01:19:06 - 00:01:43:17
Unknown
Wow, joy Eakins has got some big plans, and these things could come to fruition. And, but before we get into that, because I want to talk a lot about that, because I really want to pick your brain. I want the public to know the joy that I know. But one of the things, that I remember most about our relationship, which began in a business environment, with a cohort with a roundtable of other business leaders and local entrepreneurs.
00:01:43:19 - 00:01:56:13
Unknown
And when I told you that I was considering running for office, you said something to me. And I'm sure you probably don't remember this conversation, but I remember it clearly. And I said, you know, I'm just not sure what I want to do. I don't know if I want to leave my business to do this, and on and on and on.
00:01:56:13 - 00:02:17:17
Unknown
And you said one phrase, you said, make faithful investments. And you told me that. And it changed my entire perspective of what it is that I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. So thank you, because you gave me a perspective about why I wanted to run for office. That was, that was a little bit of fuel to kind of help me in the decision, but also help me in that process, and it helps me to this day.
00:02:17:17 - 00:02:39:04
Unknown
So thank you, my friend. Oh, well, I'm glad that helped. I've said that phrase to a lot of people, and you never know if it takes or helps, but I think that's been the theme of my life is making faithful investments. And other people in the community and my business and my family, and over a lifetime, I'm, you know, over a lifetime, you start to be able to see the results of that.
00:02:39:04 - 00:02:58:23
Unknown
But sometimes you get to a moment where you have to make a decision, is this the right, faithful investment or is it something else? And that's kind of where you were. So absolutely, it's hard for a business person to leave their business and walk into politics because it's unknown and it's something new for them. And there's I see it over and over again.
00:02:58:23 - 00:03:22:10
Unknown
There's always this kind of crisis of confidence about what I do, what I think, does that actually work in politics? And it does. And you've done an incredible job. Thank you. The county commission. And we're all very thankful for your leadership. Well, I'll tell you what was so hard, and I think you can relate to this as an entrepreneur, when you build a business and in the process of building a business, you have the wins, you have the losses, you have the, the victories, but you have the defeats.
00:03:22:11 - 00:03:39:11
Unknown
I mean, it is an emotional roller coaster, the life of an entrepreneur. And then to say, you know what? I'm going to kind of take a timeout and I'm going to entrust other people to lead this while I do this, I'll tell you. And I haven't said a whole lot of this publicly. That was a tumultuous season for me personally, 20 years.
00:03:39:12 - 00:04:00:08
Unknown
And with Mattress Hub in particular, this was a business that we had built very quickly. We had scaled it to 27 stores across three states in just a matter of five years, and we almost lost this thing and had to rebuild it and resurrect it back up. It was hard to be able to say, ok, I’m going to pause and serve in this capacity for a little while, and you encouraged me in a lot of those ways.
00:04:00:08 - 00:04:20:21
Unknown
So glad I could do that. And yeah, it's a grieving process in a sense, to step away from something. And it's you birthed in a sense, and you grew, but, you know, at the same time, I was going through a transition into chamber chair and looking at how my business needed to be different, and going from working in the day to day all the technical work to giving that off to other people.
00:04:20:22 - 00:04:38:04
Unknown
So it was a great time for us to be walking through that together. And we did. We walked through it together. Your story is one of the most compelling stories that I know of as a friend, but also just as someone in this community. Take me back in this briefly. How did you get to Wichita? You're not from here originally.
00:04:38:04 - 00:05:01:10
Unknown
How did your family get to Wichita? And now, as you know, this booming entrepreneur, small business, tycoon, with Cornerstone Data. But how did you get here? Yeah, everybody knows the joy today, but they don't. Most people don't know my backstory. I grew up in Mississippi. Texas, Mississippi, we moved around a lot, difficult circumstances in my home.
00:05:01:12 - 00:05:20:10
Unknown
And, you know, middle class and then sinking down below middle class. And in Mississippi, the education system is not was not at the time good at all. So, it's just a a lot of difficult situations and some trauma there that I had to go through. And I just was one of those children that said, I need to get out of this.
00:05:20:10 - 00:05:55:06
Unknown
And of course, President Reagan was in office and he was talking to people about the American dream. And Americans can do things if they want to. And so I was an avid reader. I just started studying and reading and studying and, people around me said you could maybe go to college. And so I just worked really hard to get, full scholarship to be able to go to college and get out of that system, and then went to graduate school, where I met a Wichitian, Eric Eakins and, in Colorado, he was there.
00:05:55:06 - 00:06:16:23
Unknown
Thankfully, he was there for a short time. And I fell in love with this Kansan. And I didn't know it was because he was a Kansan and that I was falling in love with him. I just thought, wow, what a neat guy. He's driving the elderly to church on Sunday and he's driving Chinese nationals to English classes, and he's, you know, a 26 year old guy who does that.
00:06:17:01 - 00:06:41:00
Unknown
And then I got to know his family and amazing family who had started a business here that my husband now runs. And just started falling in love with the people of Kansas. And then as we would come back, you know, even just for our, bridal shower that they threw here, there were 30 hostesses. And I thought, where does that happen?
00:06:41:00 - 00:07:04:23
Unknown
I mean, I'm from the hospitality scene, but that doesn't happen. And over the time that we lived in Colorado, we would come here. We just always saw new Kansans, met new people. And so in 2008, our families were having some health issues. Eric's business was, well, our son was getting ready to start kindergarten. And we'd always said, when, when Aaron starts kindergarten, we really don't want to move anymore after that.
00:07:04:23 - 00:07:29:01
Unknown
I moved around a lot,and I didn't want him to have to deal with all of that. And so we just had this opportunity open up to move back to Wichita. And I was the first one in the family to say, let's go. Yeah, no, let's go and let's do this. And I thought we were doing it for Eric's career, but it turned out to be the best decision I've ever made other than following Jesus and getting married.
00:07:29:05 - 00:07:50:05
Unknown
Yeah. So is this a great, great decision for us and really opened the doors and gave us a lot of opportunity. What is it about this place? I mean, I think outsiders understand it more than those that were raised here, the natives here. I I'll give you two examples. One, when I talked to Mayor Wu when she came on this podcast and she said this publicly, she said it privately.
00:07:50:07 - 00:08:07:19
Unknown
This is an immigrant who has just fallen in love with this city, for all the reasons that sometimes I think we overlook. I remember playing baseball and living on the East Coast particularly, and people would learn I'm from Kansas and they would always talk about, you know, Kansas. Nice. Like everyone we meet from Kansas. Just so polite, so nice.
00:08:07:21 - 00:08:36:15
Unknown
Now you are an import into this city, into Wichita. What is it about this place that has grabbed your soul? People like to say nice, but that's not the real word. I think that describes our people. I think they’re investors in other people. And I kind of talked about this when I was chamber chair. But, you know, this week I had meeting, I was in an event and I talked to two different people in that event that if I said their names, everybody would know them, but they are incredible people for the end of their careers,
00:08:36:15 - 00:08:54:21
Unknown
they're moving to other things. And both of them that day had spent time with some entrepreneur or some young person that had just moved to the community. They had lunch with them, or they had a meeting with them, and then they were working to figure out how they could connect them to 5 or 10 other people. That's just unheard of anywhere else.
00:08:54:23 - 00:09:17:14
Unknown
And so and and it's, that's a regular story you hear all the time. It's not something you hear once in a while. And, Mayor Wu has a similar story about people that invested in her. Right. So and you do too. And so it's just this thing that runs through us that this is what we do. We meet people, we see them, and then we try and help them become part of our community.
00:09:17:20 - 00:09:36:17
Unknown
And we moved into our house in College Hill. And I think in the first week we had 13 gifts show up at our door. Wow. You know, just and they were all practical, useful things like a bucket full of cold drinks, you know, with things that our son would love. And I just thought, well, that's really interesting.
00:09:36:17 - 00:09:54:23
Unknown
And then my next thought was when the next person moved in. Well, now I have to do you got to pay for it. Yeah. Right. Because this is this is who we are as a community. The stewardship of it's this burden of responsibility we have to build this place. I talked to a few people yesterday, and they talked about having, a generational mindset.
00:09:55:01 - 00:10:15:15
Unknown
I gave a, I spoke yesterday at the fire, Sedgwick County fire graduation ceremony, we had seven new recruits coming in. And one of the points I talked about was having a generational mindset, what it means to build generationally in this place. And generational building means investment into the future generation to the next generation. And I think many people here feel a responsibility.
00:10:15:17 - 00:10:33:02
Unknown
That's not about just being kind. It's not about being compassionate. Many people that we run around with feel like they have a responsibility to give back. And did you see the same? Yeah, I think they do have a responsibility. If we want Kansas to be who we know Kansas can be and to meet all of our full potential, we have to do those things.
00:10:33:02 - 00:10:55:03
Unknown
Yeah. And if you think back about all the people in leadership now and the people that invested in them, where would we be if they hadn't been doing that investing? Right. So if we don't do it, where would we be in 20, 30 years? It won't be a good place. That's right. So we have to do it. And, and the next generation is so vitally important for doing it. It is. Let's talk about the next generation.
00:10:55:05 - 00:11:14:08
Unknown
The greatest impact we have in the next generation is our kids. I have four right now. They're 13, 11, 8 and 1. My house is like an amusement park. It's it's wildly energetic and wildly beautiful. It's an incredible place. But tell me about Aaron. I know a little bit about your son. What's he up to right now?
00:11:14:08 - 00:11:32:11
Unknown
It's something that I know you're incredibly proud of. Tell me. Yeah. So, Aaron, by the time this airs, Aaron will have graduated from the Air Force Academy. Awesome. Yeah, we're really proud of him. He is going to be a second lieutenant in the Air Force. And he is, he's been selected to go to pilot training in Columbus, Mississippi.
00:11:32:11 - 00:11:48:13
Unknown
So I think there's a little bit of fun in the in the fact that he's going to be in Mississippi for at least a year. There's kind of a full circle moment for him to see. But I think it'll be good for him to see the difference in. He's already been seeing it, the difference in other places and how people are.
00:11:48:14 - 00:12:08:03
Unknown
But what a great opportunity for him. And I feel like we've been able to successfully raise him. He's launched, he has a career and he's doing what he has talked about doing since seventh grade, which is flying. So the pride, knowing that your son went to the Air Force Academy serving his country, like, what does that mean to you as a mom?
00:12:08:03 - 00:12:26:23
Unknown
And yeah, that was such a, you know, that was a surprise because we are not a military family. So when he came to me and his dad in seventh grade and said, well, when I go to college, I want to go to a service academy. So this was he knew this a long time ago. This was a trajectory.
00:12:27:03 - 00:12:49:01
Unknown
Wow. He said this is what he wanted to do. And then when he was entering high school, we had conversations about, do we move him into private school? Do we keep him and I, you know, public high school and the Wichita public school system has a great JROTC program. And we thought if he could be involved in that, he'll find out if this is what he really wants and if he doesn't like it, I would rather him know before he goes.
00:12:49:01 - 00:13:09:06
Unknown
But yeah, so and of course he loved it. And he was like cadet commander his junior year. So he he excelled in it. And I think what what came out of that was he applied to every service academy in every ROTC branch and then said, if I don't get a scholarship for that, then I'll just enlist. But he he just had this desire to serve his country and to be a pilot.
00:13:09:06 - 00:13:30:00
Unknown
And so, we're really, really proud of him and proud of the sacrifice he’s made. And. Yeah, and we're excited to see what he's going to do next. It's this theme about investing, faithful investment. It's the same about giving back. It's this theme with your family and knowing Erik, and I don't know Aaron, but like a proud mom.
00:13:30:00 - 00:13:53:07
Unknown
you talk about him frequently and you tell me about the visits when you go visit him over at the Air Force Academy. And I know you guys are just beaming about where he's at in his life. I mean, the theme for your family. Yeah. Wichita has been so great to us in supporting Aaron. And, you know, every time I post on social media about something that he's doing or a tradition at the Air Force Academy, people congratulate him or like it or,
00:13:53:07 - 00:14:11:21
Unknown
and for us, it's a way to help, share what the military is like, because sometimes it's a big box that people don't know. But the prayers and the encouragement that people have given him and us through the process because it's difficult. Yeah, has just been amazing. And so we feel like we've been invested in as much as he's serving.
00:14:11:21 - 00:14:34:04
Unknown
Yeah. Well, thank you for his service. Thank you for raising a young man that wants to give back to his country. And, you do a good job, mom. Congrats. Let's talk about business. Briefly. Because the joy that people in this community know as the entrepreneur is the person that takes data and makes it real for small businesses and helps them to make strategic decisions.
00:14:34:04 - 00:15:11:19
Unknown
You have a way Joy, to think about issues and strategy and to take data to tell a story. It's a gift for you. It's a business gifting for you. Tell me about that entrepreneurship side. Tell me about Cornerstone Data. Tell me what it's like to work in the same building as your husband, who has a different company but in the same building, and you guys work together in your entrepreneurial journey and then bridge that into how you became the chamber chair and what all this, all this did for you to shape you into standing in front on stage at chamber events and, promoting and advocating and championing the small business community.
00:15:11:21 - 00:15:33:04
Unknown
Yeah. So, Cornerstone Data is going to be 17 years old in October. It's sort of hard to believe that it's been so successful for so long. Hasn't always been a great story, there have been a lot of really hard days along the way, but, we've been blessed with some incredible customers. So, you know, now our footprint is in 27 states, 160 cities.
00:15:33:05 - 00:15:58:01
Unknown
Wow. And we do a lot of different kinds of work for our customers, whether it's analyzing their data or helping them, build reports. But a lot of the work we do is helping them build a culture that understands how to use data and how to think about it. And so I think about it is if if accounting was new in your organization and nobody had been trained on it, how would you know how to do it?
00:15:58:01 - 00:16:17:08
Unknown
Right. And so, oh, of course, accounting has been around forever. That seems silly, but data is new for people and they don't have a literacy. So there's all kinds of technical things we help clients with in building their frameworks and infrastructures. But then we also have to help those leaders think about, how do I unleash my people to do this, and how do I encourage them to do it?
00:16:17:08 - 00:16:35:22
Unknown
And how do I train them to do it? And so I get to spend a I've got to spend a lot of time over the years in the, in the C-suite and with executive leaders talking about their culture and their company and how to help them make the adaptive changes they need. And it's been a real privilege to sit in those rooms with them.
00:16:35:22 - 00:16:54:16
Unknown
And I've learned so much about their businesses. So it's been just a I mean, just such a blessing. Oh, you're, and the client list is impressive. And every time I talk to the C-suite leaders and the people that have brought your company in to consult and to help shape, it's a glowing review. They're like, no, we didn't see it.
00:16:54:16 - 00:17:12:09
Unknown
She was able to unleash, perspective with the use of data to teach us about our company and to help us shape strategic futures. Right. I mean, in the entrepreneur world, in the small business world and the big business world, data tells a story, and you leverage data for companies to help them shape their perspective in the health of their company.
00:17:12:09 - 00:17:29:07
Unknown
Yeah. And I think we take a slightly different approach than some some people will talk about data driven decisions. We think that's terrible. Yeah. You're the leader. You should know where you want to go, right? The data should inform you about whether you can get there and how fast and what tweaks you need to make on the way.
00:17:29:09 - 00:17:51:15
Unknown
And that's very different than a lot of the marketing that's out there from companies that say, oh, buy this one data tool and the solve all your data needs never does, never happens. Yeah. Be very skeptical when you hear that. And so by the time people find us or when people find us and they start talking to us and they realize we're not saying like that your people's gut isn't important or that your leadership instincts aren’t important.
00:17:51:15 - 00:18:14:14
Unknown
We're saying use the data to help you get where you're trying to go to influence your decision making. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The awareness piece of this, obviously it's it's it's very needed in business and in the entrepreneur world. I'm going to say that in the government space, it's incredibly needed to. And that's there's a big disconnect there. Yeah I mean tell me am I am I am I right am I wrong now I have experience in business now and also in local government.
00:18:14:14 - 00:18:37:01
Unknown
And and let me just say, one of the surprising things for me when I got into local government, Sedgwick County, I can't speak for any other small government or any other local government, but for Sedgwick County, I was really impressed. There are some really brilliant people walking around from the manager's office to finance. I mean, they're they're brilliant and they do make data informed decisions and they help data to help guide us.
00:18:37:04 - 00:18:55:22
Unknown
I don't know if that's the case in all local governments and even at the state level, am I right, am I wrong? Yeah, our experience has been that's not the case in many of the organizations we've worked with, particularly in Kansas. And some of that is because the systems aren't automated. And so there's a lot of spreadsheets sitting around.
00:18:55:22 - 00:19:19:15
Unknown
And so for a particular question that, someone will have, they can go pull that data and put it together for them. But as a day to day set up of these are the KPIs and this is why they matter. Yeah. And these are the benchmarks that tell us if we're going to hit those KPIs so we can know in your, your, your starts in July so we can know in August, not May that we're going to hit that.
00:19:19:15 - 00:19:38:22
Unknown
So you mean it actually makes sense to measure decision making and analyze return on investment. Let that help influence decisions. Yeah. Oh what a novel concept. I think in the case of, local governments, those are sometimes much longer. It takes longer before you see the benefit of some of the decisions you make. So again, you can't measure too soon.
00:19:38:22 - 00:19:59:07
Unknown
But there should be things you should see that tell you. Should I tweak this or change that and then help you keep moving on? I get asked a lot how my business experience has shaped my perspective in local government, and I'll tell you, business and government have two different aims. One is profitability, shareholder value. The other is many times service providers stewardship of resources, that there's different aims.
00:19:59:07 - 00:20:21:02
Unknown
However, the principles are the same is I can use business principles to help manage and as an elected to make decisions about resources and how we do services here. There's principles in business that are applicable to how we do small government and local government. So and you've helped me understand these things in regards to how data informs these.
00:20:21:08 - 00:20:40:02
Unknown
And the community has acknowledged it. The small business community says, wow, Cornerstone Data. Joy Akins like they are leading in this regard. And they made you the chamber chair, the Wichita Area Chamber chair in 2023. Tell me about that experience and what it is you did and what your theme was as you challenged and and to help advocate for the small business community.
00:20:40:04 - 00:21:04:22
Unknown
Yes. So that that was that's been such a great privilege to be able to do that. So I was on the chamber board for almost a decade, and I just started before the chamber board. I just started out on a small business committee, and I, opened my mouth with a lot of opinions. And anybody that knows me know I have a lot of thoughts that my questions were along the lines of, we have a large membership of small businesses like 85%, I think, at the time.
00:21:04:22 - 00:21:23:19
Unknown
But, how come our priorities don't match their interests too? And that was just I was just asking a question because that's what I do for a living, I ask questions and help people think about things. And so, I think Scott Schwindaman was the chair of that, and I think he saw me and said, let's, let's put her on the board, let's see what she can do.
00:21:24:00 - 00:21:46:14
Unknown
And when I got on the board, I think there were 2 or 3 small business members, on a board of 60 ish people. And so then, you know, over time, I just started asking the question, well, for small business, how come our leadership doesn't match our membership and how could we do that? And so and it was during a conversation at a time where we were talking about how do we diversify the voices at the table?
00:21:46:16 - 00:22:15:14
Unknown
Because at the Kansas Leadership Center, they talk a lot about having unusual voices so that you can hear everything that's going on. And we think about that with data all the time. What are we missing? So that, you know, those conversations started and over time we just started helping larger businesses in the community understand that half of the employment in the city of Wichita and in Sedgwick County is from small business and started helping give them a voice, because most of the time they're busy running their small business, so they aren't at the event.
00:22:15:16 - 00:22:36:02
Unknown
So we just started putting a lot of things in place. And then one day, I was invited to a meeting with one of my clients, and I'm thinking, I'm going to talk about client stuff. And, I don't get asked about client stuff. I get asked, would you be the chamber chair in 2023 and that, that was a moment of, really me?
00:22:36:02 - 00:23:02:01
Unknown
You know, you want me to do that? And, you know, I took some time to. I think every person asked like, that takes some time to think about it and pray and talk with their family, because I knew that would mean I had to change the relationship in my company. Right? Because it's a big job. But I felt I mean, Damon was I know you interviewed Damon Young Damon was the year before me Ben Hutton before him, and I could see how that would line up with something I was really passionate about.
00:23:02:01 - 00:23:22:03
Unknown
And so. So I said yes. And that led to a four years on the chair’s council, which was a great time. There was a lot of things happening at the chamber as we changed leadership to John Rolfe, and as we looked at the future of the chamber and where we wanted to go, it was a good time to have big conversations about what that should look like in how you build that.
00:23:22:05 - 00:23:40:05
Unknown
And then, at the same time, we've come out of Covid at this point and we did a ton of work on Covid data inside the organi, inside our business. But we were sensing and hearing from businesses, particularly small businesses, that it sort of felt like somebody had taken a snowglobe of their life and just kept shaking it.
00:23:40:05 - 00:24:04:13
Unknown
And as soon as you feel like it was going to settle, it would get shaken again. And so people were sort of, wow, you know, I think maybe a little lost about what should we do? What a metaphor. Yeah. How do we work through this? How do we, you know, what's the new normal? And, and in the midst of that discouragement and so, you know, I thought this is a time to call people back to the things that we're really good at.
00:24:04:14 - 00:24:32:16
Unknown
That's good, faithfully investing in other people. And so that was the whole year's, discussion and the, the chairs lunch where I spoke, I actually brought people in who had been invested in to say, this is what we would look like if we weren't investing. And then I reminded people that there had been unprecedented times before, you know, in the 1920s, when the chamber was formed, there was there had been a world war, there'd been a pandemic, there had been a depression.
00:24:32:16 - 00:24:54:15
Unknown
And instead of backing off, people doubled down and they formed the United Way and they, you know, did all of this work. And I said, look, this is the time we step up and do the work, not later. So don't quit. This thing that you do Kansans, keep doing it. Well, and it's a theme that I've seen in your life that you say yes. You say yes, in formative seasons, in formative times.
00:24:54:17 - 00:25:12:05
Unknown
And I think people that know you, they know the public sees Joy, which is a perfect metaphor for who you are. You bring joy to a room. You bring energy to the room. It's just who you are. But the people, when we get at the table and we see you in these settings, particularly in these meetings, you're a fighter.
00:25:12:07 - 00:25:31:22
Unknown
Yeah. And I've seen this firsthand. There's principles, there's convictions. You ask, you ask questions in a way that I don't, I've never been around another business leader that asks the questions you ask, and you fight and you fight for the things you care about. You've said yes in formative seasons before, the chamber chair wasn't the first time you said yes.
00:25:32:00 - 00:25:52:11
Unknown
Moving to Kansas was just one example of you saying yes. You said yes to running and winning a school board seat for USD 259. Where did that come from? Why did you decide this is where I need to take a stand? I need to fight for these convictions and fight for these principles. Where did that come from?
00:25:52:11 - 00:26:15:08
Unknown
Why did you run? So my husband and I have a bonus son named Marquis. And anybody who's followed us on Facebook has seen pictures of Marquis. He's, 27 years old. He works for American Airlines. He's an airline attendant. He's an amazing young man. We first met Marquis when he was in seventh grade through an organization called Youth Horizons that matches Christians with mentors.
00:26:15:09 - 00:26:36:20
Unknown
And, you know, they matched Eric with Marquis, but in our family that becomes a family match. So everyone's in and at the time, my business was smaller and I was tutoring a lot of kids just for as a, as my service to the community. Aaron was in elementary school, and so I was tutoring 35, 40 kids a week and wait.
00:26:36:20 - 00:26:59:08
Unknown
Time out. Yeah. You're tutoring 35 to 40 kids a week? Yeah, in math. Yeah, because I love math. And, you know, you want these kids to, like, get an idea about math. Yeah, Joy, I mean, but we tutor and we mentor, but 35 to 40 kids a week? Yeah. Yeah, it was great, I loved it. Wow. And so, so when Marquis came along and he had some issues with his grades, he said, well, I would like to have a better math score.
00:26:59:08 - 00:27:19:08
Unknown
So Eric said, well, you can come home after school with Aaron. Joy will help tutor you, and we'll get you up to speed. So in my first tutoring session with Marquis, it was on the Pythagorean theorem. And I thought, Marquis understands this, but sometimes he's saying things that don't make sense. Like, I can't hear the teacher when she said this, and I.
00:27:19:10 - 00:27:38:11
Unknown
And I'm thinking, but he's smart, so why can't he? So I'm thinking, does he have a hearing issue? Does he? So he he invites me, the teacher invites me to the class to help Marquis during class period. So I show up for the first half of the class before they go to lunch, and it instantly became clear to me why Marquis couldn't hear.
00:27:38:11 - 00:27:57:16
Unknown
It wasn't his hearing. The classroom was in chaos, and there was a teacher standing at the front of the room who was just reading from the script and talking, and children all over the room were just talking over the top of each other, throwing paper. I mean, it was it was something you'd expect to see in an inner city school in Chicago or New York.
00:27:57:16 - 00:28:25:11
Unknown
It was not Wichita Public Schools, it is not the community we live in. That is not okay. And I, was taken aback watching this, and I was able to visit this classroom several times. It wasn't just a bad day. It was that was the norm. I sort of staggered out of the building to my car because I was so emotionally convicted about it, and as I left the room and closed the door behind me, I thought, I'm going to get Marquis out of this classroom.
00:28:25:13 - 00:28:43:11
Unknown
And then I turned to head down the hall and I thought, what happens to the other 24 kids? And that just stayed with me as I fought for Marquis to get him out of school. And I saw, I had a counselor tell me that some kids are just doomed to fail talking about that classroom. And that just made me sick.
00:28:43:11 - 00:29:12:02
Unknown
I mean, how can you say that? And why do you think that's okay? To even consider that kids are doomed to fail when they're 14, 15 years old? I think it's a horrible thing. I would never say that to a child and or their parents. And so, a couple maybe a year and a half later, Eric came home and said, hey, Connie is giving up her seat on the school board and I think you should run.
00:29:12:04 - 00:29:34:21
Unknown
And I said, yeah, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, not on my radar. Although I did used to watch school board meetings on TV all the time. So maybe it was a for telling so. But as I prayed about it and thought about it, those 24 kids just kept coming back. They're doomed to fail. And I thought maybe I could get on the school board.
00:29:34:22 - 00:29:42:20
Unknown
No, I would get on the school board and I would be a voice for those kids and for their parents. And so I, I, we
00:29:42:21 - 00:30:06:09
Unknown
mounted a campaign. We mounted a campaign against the sitting, school board at my, at the the night of the election at the watch party. It was me and my family because all of our friends were at a wedding and at his watch party was the president of the board, Lynn Rogers, and the president of the teachers union and all the other board members.
00:30:06:11 - 00:30:23:19
Unknown
And, we won by 46 votes. And I thought we I thought that night we just beat a machine that we didn't even understand because I think, you know, we're so new to politics. You’re an outsider, there was an establishment or perceived establishment. There is an establishment. What was the message that won like you won by 46 votes,
00:30:23:20 - 00:30:47:11
Unknown
and you took a message, you knocked doors. What was it? What resonated with people? The message we had was we should be building bridges between organizations in the city, between parents and the school district, between other leaders, between business and the school district, and having open conversations about all these things, not deciding them behind the scenes. And so, they had just they were in the middle of a bond issue.
00:30:47:11 - 00:31:12:01
Unknown
They were in the middle of talking about moving Southeast or, yeah, Southeast, to another part of the city, which was super controversial. And they were having very organized conversations that were meant to limit discussion. It was very clear. And so I think that people were just open to maybe we should be having better conversations, and parents should have a better voice and not feel like the decisions are already made,
00:31:12:01 - 00:31:36:17
Unknown
and this is just for show. And that's that's what we want. And I've thought often about every little meeting we went to, every little group we went and spoke to. If we missed one, maybe I wouldn't have won, but we won and yeah. What was your experience like? Did you enjoy it? It was terrible. I mean, I, I, I, you think you're getting on a school board to help kids and, and you are.
00:31:36:18 - 00:32:05:10
Unknown
But, the people on that school board immediately decided I was a threat. And so they started rumors about me. They. Because I was a Christian. Apparently, that's some kind of problem for them. And, and then just every time I asked a question or pulled something off the agenda, I'd ask a question. I would get an email the next day, or I would have somebody pull me aside at the end of the meeting and get on to me about it.
00:32:05:12 - 00:32:23:17
Unknown
I was told I was dangerous because I wanted to visit every school in the district during my term, because apparently visiting schools as a school board member is dangerous. No, it's us understanding what's going on in the school. So when teachers come talk to us, we know their school. It's about being present with the people who are serving our kids.
00:32:23:19 - 00:32:41:11
Unknown
But that was dangerous. Having one vote, one no vote on X, Y or Z is bad for the community. And, it's just ongoing. And, you know, even the paper picked this up. I mean, they were right. Well, she's off in the lone no vote. Do you know how many times I voted no in four and a half years?
00:32:41:13 - 00:33:05:05
Unknown
You want to guess 14. You know how many times I voted? Yes, thousands. But they took the the 14 no votes where you stood on your own and voted your conscience, and they extrapolated that as to be a theme, as if you're the lone wolf. Less than 1%. Well, it probably did seem big because all the among all the other board members in that same period of time, there were only seven no votes.
00:33:05:07 - 00:33:32:13
Unknown
So, you know, and I just always thought, that's so crazy. Why would you think that 14 no votes, and 14 and no vote says, I've considered this and I well, I value children too, I think there's a different way to get we're trying to go. Which is totally on brand for you. So, you know, when we talked about, and I think maybe the worst of it was toward the end of my term when we were looking at trying to balance the budget.
00:33:32:15 - 00:33:51:08
Unknown
And there were board members showing up in three by three, saying things like, well, we need to make cuts so parents feel it so they'll vote differently next time. Oh my. And you're thinking, why are we why are we trying to hurt children? I thought we valued children. I thought we valued their education. I thought we valued the next generation.
00:33:51:09 - 00:34:14:15
Unknown
So when it came time to vote on, for example, longer days, shorter school year, which is a terrible idea because you've got kindergartners now on busses until 530 at night, you're changing the entire traffic pattern of the city. There's a thousand things you're doing there that are hurtful to children and families and everyone else. Or you could look at a contract for SEIU.
00:34:14:16 - 00:34:30:22
Unknown
We wouldn't even consider that. That wasn't even, we wouldn't even have the discussion. So that no vote is completely dangerous. Well, I'm happy to be dangerous. Yeah, yeah, let's be dangerous. You fight. You're not, you are willing to fight for the principles and the things, and you do it in a way where it's not just a no. It's.
00:34:31:00 - 00:35:03:17
Unknown
let's consider all options. There could be another way. You try to advance discussion and conversation. This, you being isolated, the way you felt like you were. Did you did that emboldened you? Did that, did you cower there? Did it, how did how did you internalize that? And what was the effect of that? I think at first it was hard, especially in the first year, there was something that happened at my son's school that put him in a very difficult position inside a classroom of a teacher that was being moved, and I felt like they put him in harm's way.
00:35:03:17 - 00:35:27:14
Unknown
And that that made me angry. And then as I tried to advocate for having conversations about that, then everyone got upset on the board that I would dare to ask to have a conversation about it in executive session, because that's where you talk about personnel issues. And so then they, you know, so we went through this process in the meeting, and then Lynn Rogers stands up later and calls me a liar.
00:35:27:15 - 00:35:44:20
Unknown
Like, I'm not a liar. What are you talking about? Because I didn't tell him. Well, I told three other people what I was going to do, or two other people. And then I don't want to break a coma, but, oh, well, you should just talk to people anyway. That, no, there's a law there that says we can't. We should be talking at the board table.
00:35:44:20 - 00:36:07:23
Unknown
Well, I you wrote and I found this. Joy, I didn't know this existed. Yeah. In October 2017, you wrote an op ed for the Wichita Eagle. I did yea. And the title of the op ed was Joy Eakins, Transparency indeed an issue on the Wichita school board. You were calling this out publicly that you felt like what? That there were backdoor deals, backdoor conversations, lack of transparency.
00:36:07:23 - 00:36:30:10
Unknown
What was it? So they were having conversations in the background and making decisions before it came to the public, and there would be no conversation in the public eye about these about these issues. So and you know that when you bring a complex issue before the Board of Education and there is not one question, not one discussion, it’s just a vote and the vote is six to one,
00:36:30:11 - 00:36:50:13
Unknown
they've already talked about it, made their decision about what they're going to do. And in essence, you know, Lynn Rogers tried to accuse me of being upset there because I didn't get my way 14 times when I voted. No. Please, I'm an adult. That's not how I operate. But in that editorial, he conceded that probably there's too many backroom conversations.
00:36:50:13 - 00:37:15:05
Unknown
Yeah, exactly what I was saying was true. There's too many backroom conversations. And they weren't having them in public, talking about the issues that matter to people. And that's what the public was upset about. And so when it came up during the, during the race that year, and I was at a, one of those times when the candidates were all speaking about what they cared about and they were being told, oh, no, there's no transparency issue.
00:37:15:05 - 00:37:32:08
Unknown
I'm like, I got really mad that night. I was like, no, there is a transparency issue and you've all been doing these things. And so I just sat down that night. I think it was about 2:00 am. I woke up, I was still mad, and I just started writing it and then, you know, edited a couple times. Then I just sent it over to the Eagle and said, would you be interested in this?
00:37:32:08 - 00:37:57:08
Unknown
And, you know, there was in addition to the admission of guilt, basically in that article by Lynn Rogers. But, you know, something that they never talked about was parents were literally told on a committee that they were not allowed to speak about recess because they came to the board and they spoke about recess because kindergartners were getting one recess before lunch every day.
00:37:57:08 - 00:38:19:03
Unknown
That was it. And their schedule was filled from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30. They're five. Yeah. They're five. And we now know that everything that was being put in place, we have scientific evidence that says everything was the wrong thing for kids to be learning how to read. Kindergartners learn by play. Kindergarten teachers were telling us, why have you taken all the play out?
00:38:19:05 - 00:38:40:17
Unknown
And so and if you go, there are schools here and great schools in like Maize were, that they do a ton of play and there's lot of interactive learning, right. That's why that's the way small children learn. And so these parents came, they speak to the board. And then the board president at the time, Betty Arnold, says, oh no, you those those kids can't say those parents can't speak in that committee anymore.
00:38:40:17 - 00:39:00:05
Unknown
And I went to a board meeting. I, I sent the email to the chair of that committee and the parents and said, this is what I've been instructed to tell you. I disagree with it, but I'm going to follow through. Advocating for families, advocating for kids. And so at that meeting, when the teachers in the room heard that these parents had been shut down, they just said, we're not having a meeting.
00:39:00:05 - 00:39:19:03
Unknown
And they all got up and left because they knew it was wrong. These parents spoke, these are First Amendment right to speak to the school board of elected people that are supposed to support them, and then they get shut down. And the entire board knew that story. I told them all in an executive session what had happened, I think, and I asked them to change it, and none of them stood up for it.
00:39:19:03 - 00:39:35:01
Unknown
And then they all tried to pretend later like they knew nothing. Oh, I don't remember that. Yes you do. I didn't know the story. Yeah. Wow, Joy, we’ve got to fight for parents, we’ve got to fight for kids, we’ve got to fight for teachers and good teachers. How do we do that? Your school board experience is so unique, it's so complex.
00:39:35:01 - 00:39:59:13
Unknown
It emboldened you. It it it sharpened you in many ways. It developed you even to, to be even more of a fighter. How do we contend for teachers, who many times feel like maybe their voices are not.. And our teachers are so incredible. I still have teachers. I had one last week that you that texted me something because she's concerned about it, and she was worried and she didn't know if she should say something because she might lose her job if she speaks up.
00:39:59:15 - 00:40:20:13
Unknown
You know, our teachers do incredible work every day, and it's really important to separate them from the union because frankly, most of them are in the union. So the union exists because the state of Kansas says every district must bargain with a unit. So teachers can't just go do their own contract. You have to have a union. So here's the union that they work with.
00:40:20:18 - 00:40:37:20
Unknown
But their union does not always represent teachers. And I think when I got elected, and when you look at some of the, different surveys that have been done over time, you see the proof of that. The teachers think the district's on the wrong heading in the wrong direction, and then you have districts that value the teachers, and you see that.
00:40:37:20 - 00:40:58:11
Unknown
But, you know, I always said we've had all this growth across the state, not just Wichita, but across the state and administrators, the number of administrators and districts and the administrative pay and how that's increased. And teachers have gotten very little of that money. And my question was always, how come a teacher has to leave the classroom to make six figures?
00:40:58:13 - 00:41:21:23
Unknown
Because that's what administrators make. But these teachers, we have some incredible master teachers who don't want to leave the classroom because they're calling is to teach. So how come we can't find a way to pay them what they're worth and have them influence other teachers who need help and need to get there? We can be so innovative and think about that, but we we skip right over it.
00:41:21:23 - 00:41:40:11
Unknown
And so so we leave, so if you want to make, you know, $90,000 a year, $100,000 a year, you have to go get your administrators license. Administrator or leave education altogether. Or leave education. And it shouldn't be like that should it? It shouldn't be like that at all. Because, who who wins in that scenario, it's not the kids.
00:41:40:13 - 00:42:09:03
Unknown
The kids are not winning in that scenario. Yeah, right. And so, I mean, I just think we should really rethink some of those policies, procedures and know conversations. What you just described and that spirit of fighting and advocating for kids, families and parents and teachers in the fight and the willingness to be isolated, to stand on conviction is why people are saying, Joy, we need you to be the chamber chair. Joy,
00:42:09:03 - 00:42:31:01
Unknown
Joy, we want to work with your company. We we want to find a way to work with your company. And then here in the last few months, this resounding call is Joy. We want you to enter politics again. There are numerous people in this community that are calling you, emailing you, message you and saying, Joy, run for governor.
00:42:31:03 - 00:42:47:12
Unknown
So I am not sure where you're at on this discussion yet or with, but I'm going to ask because you ask hard questions and I'm going to ask you hard questions. People are asking you to run for governor and you're toying with this idea, like, how serious is this? And where's your head at on this? I'm pretty serious about this.
00:42:47:13 - 00:43:08:09
Unknown
This started over 18 months ago. I had some people come to me and talk to me about running for office again, entering politics. And, I wasn't sure if is the right time. I was just coming out of chamber chair, and but I, you know, I thought I would start thinking about it. And then more people came and start talking about the governor's role.
00:43:08:09 - 00:43:37:03
Unknown
And so that for Eric and I, we started thinking about, well, if we were going to do that, what what does that look like? And as a family, that's a that's a you think the school board is hard man, the state is way harder and uglier. But the problems are bigger and they impact us. And when I step back and I look at like we've just talked about how incredible all these people in Kansas are, but over 15 years we've lost population.
00:43:37:05 - 00:44:00:18
Unknown
We're losing all these. That's our best asset in the state are people, and they're leaving because they need opportunity. And for me, that's, I start asking questions, why is that happening? Could we fix that? Could we change that? Could we keep those people here? Can we actually have a comeback for Kansas? And that's started me down the road just like, you know, thinking about those kids that had no voice.
00:44:00:18 - 00:44:19:14
Unknown
It started me thinking about how do I give a voice to those Kansans who don't have one at the table? Because, look, here's what's happening. Our individual tax burden in Kansas is only 1% lower than California. We're a red state for the most part. How do we have policies like that? And what's the return on that investment. Right.
00:44:19:14 - 00:44:41:12
Unknown
What's the return on that investment. It's not good. And we're heading that way. It's getting worse. I mean, we've increased spending in the state by over 40% since night 2019, and that's with a supermajority in the legislature. So why are we spending that many billions of dollars a year when our population is shrinking to the point that we're going to lose another congressional seat?
00:44:41:17 - 00:45:02:05
Unknown
It doesn't make sense. And then you look at, I was I, you know, me, I'm always out looking at data and thinking about things. So I'm on the census site and I see this graphic that says Kansas has they're they're lining up a per capita local state employees employed by the government. Kansas is number two on the list of the worst.
00:45:02:07 - 00:45:21:01
Unknown
Well, right behind Wyoming. I'm like, what? What? That's why we have to have such high taxes. That's why we have to have. Because we have to take care of the state that we've put together. You know, this so of workers. And look, I'm not saying all government workers are bad, but I'm saying there has to be a balance.
00:45:21:01 - 00:45:37:17
Unknown
We can't be 49th. The ratios seem to be off. Off. Well that's it. And that's why people are saying we're in this mode. We're in this spirit in this country. Both sides where they're looking for fighters, they are looking for people that are willing to put up a fight and fight for principles and fight for people. What are the issues?
00:45:37:21 - 00:45:54:09
Unknown
Like, if I was to say Joy, like you kind of hinted it a little bit, but what are the issues that say, you know what, I am strongly considering this because I think that we need to change. I think that Kansas has to have a different trajectory. I think we need a pivot of sorts. What are those issues that say, you know, this isn't working for Kansas.
00:45:54:09 - 00:46:17:04
Unknown
We need new leadership. What is it? Yeah. Well, I mean, we did just talk about one of them, which is what's our tax and regulatory burden for businesses. So that all of those kinds of things hurt entrepreneurs trying to start new businesses. It hurts businesses here trying to stay here. And, you know, we spend a lot of time and a lot of money in the state going out and looking for other businesses and asking them to come here.
00:46:17:04 - 00:46:42:10
Unknown
And I talk to business leaders here all the time who are trying to grow their business. That cannot get these same people who are going out, pulling people in and begging them to come out. They can't get those people to come talk to them about expanding in Kansas. I talked to a guy this week who's trying to re-onshore stuff that he had to offshore during Covid, and he can't even get a return call from his government officials who are out there.
00:46:42:12 - 00:47:02:04
Unknown
They'll they'll post all the time about how they're out there at this business in some other state or some other country, but they won't talk to the people here. We have incredible people here building businesses, and they are trying to grow those businesses. And in the meantime, they're fighting against all of these, incentives that are coming for people from out of state.
00:47:02:06 - 00:47:24:07
Unknown
So I'm not look, I'm not saying we never talked to people from out of state, but what about the people here? Right? They've already made the commitment. They've already said they want to be here. You know, when I started Cornerstone, there were other companies that were getting for the same workforce. I'm going after. They were getting tax credits that were worth $80,000 a job to come in here from another state.
00:47:24:12 - 00:47:44:16
Unknown
Well, I'm already here. Do you know what I could do with $80,000 a job? You know how fast I could have grown and scaled this thing? And scaled it, yes. You know, but I didn't do that because I personally, I think a business should. The P&L should support the business anyway. Not some taxpayer over here. Some mom who's trying to make ends meet shouldn't be trying to support my business.
00:47:44:16 - 00:48:11:20
Unknown
My business taxes should be supporting her ecosystem. So, it's just it's backwards. It is backwards. And what I appreciate and what I hope we can do in these broader conversations as we head into a gubernatorial year, is let's really frame these issues out and name the issues, and then let's talk creatively about strategies. I've said numerous times, particularly as a conservative in the pro-life movement, is we have got to extrapolate what this really means.
00:48:11:20 - 00:48:29:08
Unknown
And when I talk about being pro-life, I talk about not just babies in utero. I'm talking about what does it mean to have healthy families? What does it mean to contend for life? What does it mean to have a failing foster care system? What does it mean to have homelessness abounding the way it is? What's our creative strategies for these things?
00:48:29:13 - 00:48:50:18
Unknown
How can we take every policy in the midst of every policy discussion? Draw a connecting link to how does it impact healthier families? Can you help us with this conversation? Can you elevate this conversation? Yeah, I think the idea of healthy families and what we need to do, there's so big, but there's so much work to do and there's so much we could do, but we are failing miserably.
00:48:50:20 - 00:49:23:03
Unknown
I mean, aren't you, you live in this world with DCF. And I've worked with numerous organizations and people who deal with DCF all the time. And we are retraumatizing our kids over and over and over again when they go into that system. And sometimes they're going in that system because their family's poor. We need to think about that, you know, is that really is that really neglect or is it just they didn't get some things? How can we be more preventative in thisto keep kids from entering the system to begin with? I heard a legislator say this, and I think it's true.
00:49:23:09 - 00:49:37:17
Unknown
The state makes a terrible parent. Absolutely. It's it's a terrible parent. A parent loves their child. I used to say this at the school district, like those mama bears and they show up, man, we should put our arms around them and do everything we can to try and help them, because they care and they're advocating for their kids.
00:49:37:20 - 00:49:57:09
Unknown
We shouldn't be threatened by them. We shouldn't be upset by them. We should say, how do we help empower them? And maybe coach them along the way, that they could say it a little differently, right? That's fine. We could do that. We can de-escalate the situation. We can have skills for that. But at the end of the day, they're there because they're upset about their kid and they're going to try and do whatever they can to make sure their kid has the right outcome.
00:49:57:12 - 00:50:21:12
Unknown
And dads are the same way, man. We're seeing more and more dads show up for their kids, which is amazing. And we contend for healthy families in the state. Let's contend for these families and healthy families, and what it looks like in every policy decision should have a connecting link somewhere, some way back to healthy families. Yeah, and it shouldn't be trying to encourage families to break up in order to get some kind of government benefit.
00:50:21:12 - 00:50:39:10
Unknown
That is horrible. That's all of that comes from an attitude. And I saw this in on the school board. I've seen it in the education community as a whole in the state of Kansas. There are a lot of people who have the Savior complex, this hero complex. I know what's best for you. I know what's best for you and your family.
00:50:39:11 - 00:50:58:13
Unknown
Right? You should listen to me and you should do the thing I'm telling you to do. And I will use whatever policy I can to make you do that. No, I don't need a savior. I already have one. And we don't need a hero to come save us. And the last couple times I watched movies like Superman. And if you look at their downtown after the hero came, it was a mess.
00:50:58:13 - 00:51:25:17
Unknown
Yes. Yeah. So I don't really want them showing up. I know what to do for my family and you know what to do for your family. And so do all the listeners. And they should be empowered to do so. What do we need from our next governor then? Like how do we empower families? How do we get that a trajectory in this state that is healthier, a trajectory in the state where people are coming here because the environment here, promotes health, it promotes healthy families, healthy businesses, a healthy infrastructure.
00:51:25:19 - 00:51:51:20
Unknown
Like, what do we need in our next governor? Yeah, I think we need someone who has not been stewarding the decline of Kansas, which frankly, all the other people running that I've looked at have been part of the problem. And on the other side, the Democrats policies are terrible. We've seen people living out, you know, when you read stories of what's happening to people when they've lived out these policies in place and they're terrible outcomes.
00:51:51:20 - 00:52:11:17
Unknown
They're not good for people. They're not good for families, they're not good for our country. And so, as we're ushering in this golden age, as President Trump called it, at his, and at his beginning, at his inauguration, I think when you when you think about this golden age, we're going to miss it in Kansas if we don't get the right people in place.
00:52:11:19 - 00:52:32:23
Unknown
And so I think we need somebody who's outside and a fighter and thinks about things differently to come in and ask different questions. And he won't be stopped because they're afraid of hurting the feelings of the bureaucracy. Look, I'm not saying there aren't good people that work in these systems. Sure, I know, I know there are. And if you talk to them, they'll tell you this is a bureaucracy that I can't seem to fix.
00:52:33:01 - 00:52:47:19
Unknown
Okay, well, then let's do something and fix it. Let's really fix it. But everyone else that you know, as I've talked and listened and walked around and looked at their records, they've all they've all been stewarding this decline. So why would I put them in charge of turning it around?
00:52:47:19 - 00:53:02:02
Unknown
You know, Joy, another thing is when I saw you give that speech at the chamber luncheon, it was a visionary speech. It was about being a visionary leader. And you talked about things, and I remember you could hear a pin drop and that and that, that building.
00:53:02:02 - 00:53:21:13
Unknown
I mean, it was you had captured the entire audience. Like what? When you talk about the state, when we talk about issues like, if I'm saying, Joy, you're a visionary leader, paint this vision. Like, what does it look like here in Kansas? If Joy Eakins is the governor? Yeah. So I think Kansas, it has all this potential. Right.
00:53:21:14 - 00:53:35:18
Unknown
And we should be the number one place in the country to have the American dream. And how do you measure that? I mean, I think there's a few ways to think about that. One is education. That's my own story. How I got out, how I built a better life is education. So we've got to look at school choice.
00:53:35:20 - 00:53:53:18
Unknown
We've got to look at empowering teachers. We've got to look at empowering parents to have the right to speak up for their child. We need to look at the tax and regulatory burden for business, because why can't businesses just grow here like crazy? Why are they fighting? And for entrepreneurs to want to come here and create a business?
00:53:53:18 - 00:54:13:12
Unknown
Because it's such a great environment to do everything here from the cost of living, all of it, like we should be the attraction. Yeah, nationally, for people not to go to Tennessee, not to go to Texas, to come to Kansas, to start your industry in your business. Right. And then I think, you know, the other piece of the American dream we talk about is owning your own home.
00:54:13:15 - 00:54:27:21
Unknown
And you think about the first time you owned your own home. I think about the first time I owned, I didn't grow up with our family owning homes. We rented. We moved around a lot to own your own home and your pictures on the wall, and have an investment that you can pass down to the next generation.
00:54:27:23 - 00:54:49:22
Unknown
And, and we have a crisis with that. We do the, the easiest way in previous generations our generation and before to get into generational wealth was homeownership. It is virtually impossible for someone in their early mid 20s, late 20s anymore to get into a home. Interest rates, the valuation increases have made it unaffordable, for homeownership, for people that are getting out of college.
00:54:49:22 - 00:55:10:13
Unknown
And that is a significant challenge for this community. And we're not going to feel those pressures. And yet for a decade plus. So we got to have visionary leadership to help us in these capacities, to unleash the market, to meet these needs. Yeah. So I think a lot of that is sitting down with the people in that market who live in Kansas and say, what's holding you back?
00:55:10:15 - 00:55:28:20
Unknown
What are the regulations that are holding you back? What are the cost drivers that are holding you back? What are the, you know, we were talking to someone in rural Kansas the other day and they said, issue isn’t affordable housing. We have plenty of that. We have almost too much. We need moderate. We need the kind of, housing that draws in our workforce.
00:55:28:22 - 00:55:31:21
Unknown
So moderate to high end is what we need. That's what we're struggling.
00:55:31:21 - 00:55:34:00
Unknown
So it's going to be different
00:55:34:00 - 00:55:43:07
Unknown
where based on where you are in the state, we have to be able to address those needs. Why why is that an issue. How do we get ahead of it? And how do we help unleash people to do what they want to do?
00:55:43:11 - 00:56:02:14
Unknown
And that's not a government program. That's actually just the government getting out of the way so people can do what they need to do. The government needs to lead that discussion. They have got to lead the discussion as to how we empower the people, the families, how we empower the teachers, how we empower the business leaders, how we empower the middle class in this state
00:56:02:14 - 00:56:23:10
Unknown
again. One of the things that we see a lot on the county side and we talk a lot in the room, is the economic mobility, the economic mobility of people coming out of college that are degreed, that are entering the workforce. But the economic mobility of those in the middle class, it's more challenge, more complex. It's more difficult today than it ever has been in this state and in this country.
00:56:23:10 - 00:56:41:21
Unknown
And that's a challenge. That's a problem. That's a problem. Yeah, it is a problem. And I think it's also a problem that we have this group of people before all of these career tech-ed classes happened in, in high schools. So they're in their 20s to 50 and they have a job, they don't have a career and they live in Kansas.
00:56:41:21 - 00:57:03:04
Unknown
And so how do we help them know that there's a path for them to have a career so they can get into homeownership, or they can make choices for their children's school? That’s good Joy. It's good. You're a data person. So I'm going to bring this up. I mean, let me preface this conversation by saying, I think everyone when we look at the federal level, we look at $36 trillion a debt.
00:57:03:05 - 00:57:21:03
Unknown
You look at the instability, you look at the ballooning deficits, every single budget year, look at the process, look at all these things, and you hear about what the government spends its money on all across the globe. While we have all these challenges here with the people that live in this country and every state and every community.
00:57:21:05 - 00:57:40:20
Unknown
The the discussion around DOGE is a hot topic, right? And I think most reasonable people say, yeah, the path we're on is not sustainable. That's not sustainable. And we need people with courage that are willing to fight and willing to go in there and really look at how we shake things up and right size and level. Set the federal government. You’re data person,
00:57:40:20 - 00:58:02:11
Unknown
this is what you do. What are your thoughts on DOGE and its impact and its potential? And is there something that can be mimicked here in Kansas? So when's the last time you voted for a politician who actually our president, who actually went to the white House and actually tried to fix the problem? Yeah, think about it. I can't think of one.
00:58:02:12 - 00:58:39:13
Unknown
This is the first time. And, you know, in his first, term, President Trump, I think, tried to do it. And then he and his team, I think, realized that it was a bigger issue. And their bigger bureaucracy and a bigger pushback from people than they expected. So the second time around, they came ready to play. And, you know, with DOGE, one of the things I told my data team, I said, I don't really care what your politics are, but what they're doing with data to figure out where money is being spent properly or improperly, or uncovering that there's 20 million, Social Security numbers that belong to people over the age of 100.
00:58:39:13 - 00:59:04:05
Unknown
Come on. Just go go learn about that as data people, because it's important what they're doing and looking at to determine what's happening because, you know, so some people say, well, those 20 million people take out fraud. Like, you know, that's just there's there. And we clean that up and every time, okay. Do you know the cost of cleaning up and maintaining 20 million Social Security numbers that should no longer be active and storing the data about that?
00:59:04:05 - 00:59:31:02
Unknown
There's a cost that goes with that too. So just identifying and cleaning, cleaning it up if there were no fraud would save money. But of course there's fraud. Sure, they found fraud and it helps them get on a path to clearing that fraud up. So, you know, lots of props to President Trump for what he's doing and trying to get us back where we can sustain, because we've seen other countries go down this road and continue and not have a correction.
00:59:31:06 - 00:59:47:21
Unknown
And then they find out and then they get in trouble. I mean, think back to Europe several years ago and what happened there, we don't want that in America. That's not who we are. Yeah. So how do we get that under control? It takes some bold leadership to do that. So there's a political element to it. And anything you talk about, particularly at the president level, there's can be a lot of politics.
00:59:47:21 - 01:00:05:08
Unknown
And but there's a practical element I appreciate what you said was when your team let's look at data, let's look at the DOGE efforts and let's strip out politics let’s strip out, I don't care what side of the aisle you're on or from. Let's actually look at what's trying to be accomplished. And I appreciate that approach because I think most reasonable people say it's not sustainable.
01:00:05:08 - 01:00:34:10
Unknown
We’ve got to do something with reform. Is that possible at the state level? We have to do it at the state level. And one of the things that to me is so frustrating is this last year they formed COGE. Okay, so an idea to try and do the same thing and then immediately backed away from what they would be able to accomplish with it. For example, I mean, I've heard, one of the senators repeatedly say, well, we don't have the kind of fraud they have in the U.S. government.
01:00:34:10 - 01:00:59:15
Unknown
How do you know that? Because during Covid, millions of dollars were stolen, millions of dollars were stolen. And every business owner I know got, a notice that we had filed for unemployment for ourselves. So there's no fraud in the system? There's that just happened, by the way, on these people's watch that just happened. They've all been there.
01:00:59:15 - 01:01:18:23
Unknown
They've all shepherded that system. The numbers were why was 400, 600 million dollars? I was a wild numbered. Yeah. It was hundreds of millions of dollars gone. And and where did where who paid that back. Well, you and I did. Okay. Maybe it came from federal money, but that's our money. That's, you know, my left pocket instead of my right.
01:01:19:01 - 01:01:36:13
Unknown
It's all our pockets. So when, when they start with, well, we don't know how much we can actually do and then they go with, well, we don't really have that much fraud in Kansas. Well, are you sure? How do you know if you haven't even done the study yet? So, of course, I think we should look at what's going on in our different departments.
01:01:36:13 - 01:02:10:18
Unknown
You would champion and champion that. Yeah. And using advanced data systems like they've done. And DOGE has been really smart. I mean think about there's just a few people doing that work. And what they've been able to uncover is incredible. It didn't take very long to do it. So there are a lot of great opportunities there, I think, for Kansas to make sure and to make sure that we don't have any more fraud like that, to make sure we have systems in place that protect that data, and then to make sure that we have people who know how to maintain those systems so they don't get into a legacy status in this happens again.
01:02:10:20 - 01:02:13:05
Unknown
Good. I knew you'd have an idea.
01:02:13:05 - 01:02:15:01
Unknown
Well, let me ask the golden question.
01:02:15:02 - 01:02:39:13
Unknown
Can you win like the path to winning? This is running a statewide campaign as an outsider coming in, fighting establishment name ID, advancing these creative ideas. You're a well-known entity here in Wichita, Kansas. Can you win like I, I, I have a I have an understanding of some of the players that are interested in coming in and throwing their name in the hat.
01:02:39:13 - 01:03:00:05
Unknown
And there's some a lot of people that are interested in running to be our next governor. Can Joy Eakins win this race? Absolutely. I wouldn't be thinking about it any more if I couldn't. I mean, we started with data, and our data says that the field is wide open and nobody's excited about the same old people running again as particularly those who have ties to Brownback.
01:03:00:05 - 01:03:24:17
Unknown
Nobody sure is interested in going back to that era or rehashing that. Again. What we want to think about is what's for the future of Kansas. There's all this potential and it's just under the surface, and who's going to unleash it, and who has a track record of that. And so when people hear my story and the data says, when people hear my story and they hear what I do and what I bring to the table, they're very interested and excited about that.
01:03:24:17 - 01:03:41:09
Unknown
So my job is to build a team, which we've been doing, and I'm pretty excited about the team. I've heard a little bit about your team. It's it's pretty exciting. It's impressive. Yeah. It's it's you know, I'm serious about this. Yes. Not playing games. And this isn't Joy running for school board when she doesn't know what she's doing.
01:03:41:09 - 01:04:00:15
Unknown
This is Joy thinking this is a real moment for Kansas. This is a real moment for us. Who are we going to be? Are we going to just continue to decline and go down and lose ourselves, or are we going to come out on top? And is this going to become the best place in America to live the American dream?
01:04:00:17 - 01:04:19:23
Unknown
I think we have everything we need to do that, but we need a leader who can have bold vision and courage and isn't afraid of hurting somebody's feelings. But will have civil debate and get us there. And that's me. Yeah. So, you know, we put a team together. We've looked at strategy, we're looking at fundraising, we're doing all those things.
01:04:19:23 - 01:04:38:10
Unknown
And if we see that's happening, then we're going to declare we're going to run and we're going to win and we're going to beat the Democrats. There you go. Joy, there's one thing I've learned in knowing you is, when you put your mind to something, special things happen. You have a capacity to bring people to the table and have the conversation and the discussion
01:04:38:10 - 01:04:55:01
Unknown
that is always hard is always easier when you're at the table because you think about things differently. You engage things differently. I'm incredibly interested in how this is going to play out. If you decide to pull the trigger, it, there's a lot of people that are going to find interest in in you being, on that campaign trail.
01:04:55:05 - 01:05:08:21
Unknown
And I have a sense that you're going to enjoy the campaign trail. You like talking to people, you like knocking doors. You like doing events. And so if this is something you guys are going to do, I know that you're going to do it prayerfully, and I know you're going to do it with 100% of energy and investment.
01:05:08:23 - 01:05:24:16
Unknown
And when you're in, you're always in and you're in in a big way. So it'll be fun to watch and watch it together. Okay. Joy, God bless you. Thank you so much for who you are, for who your family is. I'm excited to watch this state learn more about who you are and what makes you. And,
01:05:24:18 - 01:05:28:09
Unknown
And if it's in the cards, I think you'd be a great governor. Thank you.