Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 774 ｜ Allie's Dad on Trump's Possible Arrest, Life Lessons & His New Book

00:00:00.000 President Trump getting arrested? What in the world is going on? Well, to break this down,

00:00:06.260 to tell us what is really happening is my dad, Ron Simmons. So we're going to talk about that

00:00:13.040 at the end of the show. But we are also going to be talking about his new book, his first book,

00:00:17.720 which I'm so excited about and so proud of. That is Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon. So

00:00:23.020 he's going to be talking some about his life story today, which I just find fascinating as

00:00:27.960 someone who has heard it many times. And I know you guys will too. But in it, he really expertly

00:00:32.680 weaves in life lessons that can apply to all of us in any stage of life. You're going to

00:00:38.680 love this interview. You're also going to love this book. This episode is brought to you by

00:00:43.220 our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to GoodRanchers.com. Use promo code Allie at checkout. That's

00:00:47.740 GoodRanchers.com. Code Allie.

00:00:57.960 Okay, before we get into this conversation with my dad, I just want to remind you guys,

00:01:03.620 we've got a giveaway going on. Just go to my Instagram. It'll tell you exactly what the

00:01:08.280 giveaway entails, how you can enter. You've got until Thursday evening, I think Thursday at midnight

00:01:13.580 to enter. We've got amazing gift cards and merch and all kinds of stuff included in this giveaway.

00:01:19.200 So make sure that you go check that out. Yesterday, we launched our new set. We revealed that for you.

00:01:24.420 We also had a fun announcement and some fun things that we did. So go back and watch or listen to

00:01:29.380 that episode to check all of that out. All right. Now, without further ado, here is my dad.

00:01:38.360 Dad, thanks so much for joining for the third time.

00:01:41.700 Has it been three times?

00:01:42.780 Been three times.

00:01:43.340 That's awesome. I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

00:01:45.180 Yes, you're my first guest on the new set, which is an honor.

00:01:48.580 This is a great set. I really like it. That's good.

00:01:51.260 And also, I get the first interview, which I think is fitting since I am your daughter,

00:01:55.820 for your new book, your first book, Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon, 15 Ways to Take Charge

00:02:02.460 and Create a Path to Success. I have not finished the book yet because my husband took the book with

00:02:08.680 him, finished it in like a day on a work trip, and he said that he could not put it down because

00:02:13.400 it's not just good lessons, but it's a really good life story. So before we get into all of it,

00:02:20.740 tell me a little bit about what it was like just writing the book. It's been a few years in the

00:02:25.140 making and how it was telling your life story and all that.

00:02:28.320 Yeah, that was interesting. And, you know, you've written a book, so you understand this as well.

00:02:32.740 But it's a lot harder than I thought it would be because you think when you're just kind of

00:02:37.860 walking around thinking about it, that it's pretty easy just to kind of put stuff down.

00:02:41.980 But and the way I did it is I had a partner, Don Yeager, who's one of the great storytellers of all

00:02:47.200 time. He's written books for people like Jack Nicklaus and others. And so Don and I would spend

00:02:51.720 an hour or so on the phone. I don't know, maybe once every couple of weeks or so. And he would

00:02:57.060 just ask questions and it would kind of bring up stories and things. And there were things and

00:03:01.860 obviously that I wanted to talk about as well. So it was an interesting journey. And y'all know one

00:03:08.380 thing, you're always glad that when you've completed it. So I'm really excited about it coming

00:03:11.520 out actually comes out today. Yeah. And was it difficult for you to kind of reach into parts

00:03:17.460 of your past and your upbringing that were maybe not the most comfortable to talk about because

00:03:22.840 you didn't necessarily have this perfect home with perfect parents and an easy go of it? Was that

00:03:29.300 tough? Well, I think it was it's tough anytime you make yourself vulnerable. However, it's really

00:03:35.460 the reason I did the book. Yeah. The reason I did the book was because I know there are a lot more

00:03:40.260 people out there like me that have regular lives than the lives people see on Instagram or TikTok

00:03:46.100 or whatever it is they're looking at these days. And I wanted to make sure that those people received

00:03:51.600 encouragement from just a guy who had his ups and downs and, you know, parents had their ups and

00:03:57.880 downs and and the things that we've dealt with in our own family, which you know about. And so that

00:04:03.720 was really the reason for it. In order for that to be effective, I needed to be vulnerable.

00:04:07.080 Yeah. So let's talk about a few of those things. Obviously, we want people to go out and get the

00:04:11.760 book. And so we're not going to talk about all the details of his life or even all the lessons that he

00:04:16.300 weaves in there. But just tell us a little bit about what kind of life you were born into and what

00:04:22.620 that looked like and how you kind of started doing what you do. Yeah, well, that's it's an interesting

00:04:27.900 it's really kind of the basis for the book is that, you know, my mom and dad were public school

00:04:32.240 teachers. And so they were the first ones in their families to go to college. They met at college at a

00:04:37.780 small college in Louisiana. And things were with four kids. They had four kids. I have, you know, two

00:04:44.620 brothers and one sister. Things were tough financially. Not only is Louisiana and Arkansas kind of at the

00:04:53.260 bottom of the education rankings in a lot of ways, they certainly are there for teacher salaries.

00:04:59.020 And so not only did they pick a job that doesn't pay a lot anyway, but certainly in Arkansas and

00:05:04.920 Louisiana where we grew up. So it was really a tough thing. And it always bothered me. It always bothered

00:05:10.580 me that everything that we basically did revolved around money. And even as a little guy that bothered

00:05:18.160 me. And so and I don't remember the exact time, but somewhere in my early life, probably before I was a

00:05:24.000 teenager, it was in my mind that I did not want to grow up and live like that, that I wanted to have

00:05:30.240 some type of financial security or wherewithal so that I didn't have to make every decision based on

00:05:37.740 money. It was just stress. You felt like it was always on their minds and kind of weighing on their

00:05:43.560 shoulders. Yeah, there's no question about it. One story I tell in there, which is kind of funny, is that

00:05:47.960 we lived on what I called the Oreo diet. And my mom and dad got paid once a month as school teachers, not

00:05:54.460 every couple of weeks like we're used to now. And we would go to the grocery store. And when she went to the

00:06:00.140 grocery store once a month, you know, she'd buy everything that she could, mostly off brand stuff, but she

00:06:05.440 would generally buy a pack of Oreos or something like that. And I knew that when we got to the end of the Oreos that

00:06:11.740 the things were going to be pretty slim the rest of the month for as far as food was concerned. So I called it the

00:06:17.100 Oreo diet that we lived on. And you said that you didn't like the stress that it caused and just

00:06:23.900 the constant revolving around finances and what you guys didn't have. And as you said, getting to the

00:06:31.960 end of the month and feeling like you didn't have enough. At the time, did you resent your parents?

00:06:38.020 Were you angry about the circumstance that you were in? I don't know that I resented them personally,

00:06:43.680 but I was very disappointed at the circumstance that we were in. I just didn't feel like it was,

00:06:50.980 you know, at that stage, what do we say? It's not fair, right? I don't know if you ever said that

00:06:54.640 when you were growing up. I've never said that. But I would say it was not fair, right? And I was a

00:07:00.100 middle child, which has other issues that go along with that because you're always trying to make a

00:07:05.380 name for yourself and differentiate yourself. And I just thought, man, I just got to get out of here so I

00:07:12.100 could make my own way because the stress around and the stress developed, I believe that was a lot

00:07:17.560 of reason my mom and dad ended up getting a divorce was part of the stress that was on top of that.

00:07:22.160 Because, you know, when you have when you have that type of money stress so that you're thinking

00:07:25.840 about that all the time, then you really the relationship that you had when you were dating

00:07:30.400 goes away. Yeah. You don't really enjoy each other because you're having to come together and make

00:07:35.480 very, very tough decisions. And you miss out on a lot of the enjoyment you should be having as a couple.

00:07:42.100 And it's not just the financial stress that was weighing on the family. Tell me a little bit

00:07:46.260 about your relationship with your parents, your relationship with your dad specifically. What

00:07:51.500 was that like? Well, you know, my mom and dad, they're good people, okay? They are good people,

00:07:57.980 so I don't want to say that they're not. And mom's passed away, as you know. But my dad was a good

00:08:02.300 person, very outgoing, very talented musically and whatever. But he and I were, in some ways,

00:08:08.220 our personalities were similar. But really, the way we look at the world was totally different.

00:08:12.700 So, and my dad and mom divorced when I was in high school. And my dad basically left. And so,

00:08:20.240 we didn't really have much of a relationship at all after about the time I was 16. And we still

00:08:25.460 communicate today. But it's just a different relationship than I wanted or think it should be.

00:08:33.320 And so, that was tough because I really never had, in my mind, a guide when we were having kids and

00:08:40.760 raising kids. Okay, well, what's a dad supposed to do in this situation? What's a dad supposed to do

00:08:45.980 in that situation? And so, I'm sure I made a lot more mistakes than I should have made. And again,

00:08:52.600 I'm not trying to be the victim. But it's very, very difficult when you don't have that guide.

00:09:00.840 Yeah. So, you're 16. And your dad basically leaves. You felt like you had to grow up really

00:09:07.940 quickly and provide for yourself then, right? I did. I did. And in my senior year, by the time I

00:09:13.780 was a senior in high school, which I graduated from high school when I was 17 because I started just a

00:09:18.040 few months early, my mom and dad had divorced. And my dad had moved away. My mom had actually

00:09:26.060 taken my younger sister and brother and moved about 50 miles away. So, my senior year, I spent

00:09:33.340 most of the time all basically couch surfing, staying with friends. Sometimes I would go home

00:09:40.080 and then drive back up to school early in the morning, 50 miles away. But it was a tough thing.

00:09:44.660 So, I knew by the time I started my senior year that as soon as I graduated, I was going to be on my own.

00:09:50.760 Yeah. And you worked at a grocery store starting when you were 15 or 16?

00:09:54.780 I would have been probably 15 when I started working at a grocery store and then continued

00:10:00.220 doing some of that, you know, while I was in school making money and doing other odd jobs and

00:10:04.260 mowing yards.

00:10:05.060 And what was it? 6 a.m. on Saturdays?

00:10:07.240 6 a.m. on Saturdays, unloading the produce truck. That's exactly right. We had to get up and

00:10:11.800 unload the produce truck. And I'll never forget one night I was playing. I played high school football

00:10:15.980 football and I happened to be on the sidelines for just a couple of plays because when I was

00:10:21.320 a junior or senior, I didn't sit out very much. And the lady that owned the grocery store came 1.00

00:10:26.480 over and pulled me off the sideline to remind me that we had the produce truck coming in the next

00:10:30.520 morning. Don't stay out too late. Yeah. And, you know, focus on what's really important, right?

00:10:35.480 Yeah. But that small town, that small town growing up, which I wouldn't have traded that for

00:10:39.620 anything in the world. I love the fact that I grew up in a small town because there was a limit

00:10:44.120 on the amount of mischievous that you could get into. And as a 16 to 17 year old without much

00:10:51.220 parental guidance at the time, because they were focusing on their own issues, it could have gone

00:10:56.000 off the rails pretty easily. And yet the Lord kept you busy, which you probably didn't like at the

00:11:00.580 time. But that busyness and the need to provide for yourself probably kept you out of trouble too.

00:11:05.140 I believe that's correct. Yeah. I obviously didn't see at the time. At the time I resented it

00:11:08.680 because my friends, most of them didn't have to do that.

00:11:11.040 Yeah. And so how did you make it to college? Cause you, cause you went to college, you squeezed,

00:11:15.640 as you say, 10 or four years into 10, right? So that's talented. That's very talented. How many

00:11:21.560 people can do that? So how did you even decide, no, I'm going to go to college? I think most people

00:11:26.920 in your circumstances providing for themselves would just say, you know what? I just need to keep

00:11:31.440 working. Even if it's at the grocery store, why'd you decide to go to Southern Arkansas?

00:11:35.280 You know, I would give my mom and dad credit for that. It was never, there was never a time

00:11:40.280 growing up that all four of us weren't going to go to college. It just was never something that we,

00:11:45.180 I don't even think any four of us considered not going to college. So I just had to figure out how

00:11:50.320 to go to college. It wasn't if I was going to college, it's how did I go to college? And I knew,

00:11:55.220 um, I knew that, that my intellect would allow me to make it through college. I just had to figure out

00:12:03.860 how I was going to get it done. And I reverted to kind of what ended up being the, the easiest or

00:12:10.400 least expensive way to do it. And that was go to a local community, what we would call a community

00:12:14.240 college right now. Then they called it junior college.

00:12:16.220 So you went to junior college and you worked through college. You met mom. Yep. Tell us a

00:12:34.860 little bit about that. Well, uh, actually, uh, I had met mom when I was a, I didn't remember this.

00:12:42.980 She remembered it. Uh, when I was a senior in high school, I met her, she was in a beauty pageant

00:12:48.020 and the girl I was dating at the time was in the same beauty pageant. And so the day of the beauty

00:12:53.240 pageant, a friend of mine and I, who had both been injured the night before, or the maybe the week

00:12:58.420 before in a football game, I had tore my ACL and he had injured his neck. We had gone up to see our

00:13:04.260 girlfriends while they were practicing, getting ready for the pageant that night. And for whatever

00:13:09.500 reason mom remembers this, that she came out and, and, uh, met me when I was talking to my, uh, the

00:13:16.020 late, the girl I was dating at the time. And so mom remembered that. And she said, I asked you what

00:13:20.120 happened to you. Did you have a car wreck? And I said, yeah, wrecked with strong and strong was the

00:13:24.740 name of the town, the football team we were playing. And so I know that was, that was a line that got her

00:13:30.440 didn't it? Got it. But when we started college, I met her again. Cause we, she went to the junior

00:13:35.140 college as well. And we had a couple of classes together, biology and psychology.

00:13:40.540 Okay. And mom says both of them worked over the long time.

00:13:44.600 There you go. Okay. So take us a little bit further ahead. You worked your way through college.

00:13:50.560 You started working at Murphy oil, correct? That was your first job. I mean, not out of college

00:13:55.280 cause you still had to continue college later on, but that was your first real job after you and mom

00:13:59.840 got married. Y'all lived first in a house and then in a mobile home, the mom says was infested with

00:14:06.060 water bugs, which are cockroaches. If y'all don't know kinds of, she still, she has PTSD from that,

00:14:14.500 from that mobile home. So tell us a little bit about the early marriage years, that stage of life.

00:14:18.820 Cause I know that wasn't easy either. Yes. Well, the reason I went to work for Murphy oil,

00:14:24.180 cause mom and I had planned after our first year of college, after we started dating and everything,

00:14:28.780 we were going to go to Louisiana tech. We were big time in it, right? It was going to be a four

00:14:33.080 year college. We're going to go down there, live on campus. You know, she would live in the girl's 0.98

00:14:36.760 dorm. I would live in the boy's dorm, yada, yada, yada. We didn't really know how we're going to pay

00:14:41.000 for it. You know, she didn't have a lot of money either, but we could get student loans and stuff

00:14:44.760 at the time. But, um, a friend of mine said, Hey, they've got job openings at Murphy oil and Murphy oil.

00:14:52.000 And the town we lived in was the big dog, right? I mean, they were a fortune 500 company in a very small town of

00:14:57.960 20,000 people. And so I said, well, okay, I'm interested in that. And I said, where does it do?

00:15:04.020 And it said, well, it's in the mail room, which I didn't even know really what that meant. I mean,

00:15:07.180 I knew it had something to do with mail. Uh, but the key was, is that they would pay for two thirds

00:15:12.680 of your college tuition and books. If you had, if you worked for them and you kept a, made a, a, a B

00:15:19.700 or higher in grades, if your, if your grade would be your higher. And so I said, okay, that sounds like a

00:15:25.420 good deal to me. So I went and applied for it and got the job literally at the bottom of the rung of

00:15:30.920 the ladder. There's nothing lower than the mail room in a, in a group, in a organization like that.

00:15:35.460 So I would go to the post office every day, pick up these huge bundles of mail. And then me and some

00:15:41.220 other people would deliver them to the individual offices around the, uh, uh, around the building.

00:15:45.980 But you didn't stay there. You didn't stay in the mail room.

00:15:49.180 Did not stay in the mail room.

00:15:50.440 We were looking for different job openings, right?

00:15:52.620 It was easy because at the time, you know how you have a job posting websites now.

00:15:57.920 Well, back then before the internet, uh, they posted jobs same way, but it was physical posting

00:16:03.660 on these bulletin boards. Okay. That were in departments and in the mail room, every job

00:16:08.740 they posted was better than the one I had. So I would apply for almost anything that came up

00:16:13.600 and I ended up getting a job in their HR department. And that's how I got involved in learning

00:16:19.900 investments and retirement plans and things like that. And again, I didn't care about

00:16:24.960 them one way or the other. I was just looking to make more money for my little family.

00:16:30.720 And in the back of your mind, cause you, you and mom, y'all were, you were 19 when you got

00:16:34.900 married, um, a few months away from 20. Mom was 20. Y'all were 21. You were almost 21, right?

00:16:42.040 When Justin, when, uh, your oldest was born. And so in the back of your head too, you're not

00:16:47.420 just thinking about mom and Justin. You're also thinking, I don't want to forever have

00:16:53.040 to be beholden to financial stress. You were trying to find some freedom for your family

00:16:58.260 so that you can make choices based on other things rather than how are we going to make

00:17:02.820 ends meet? So is that part of, I mean, what's driving you to figure out all this stuff?

00:17:06.420 That's the number one thing that's driving me. Absolutely. No question about it is how can

00:17:11.860 I get to the point to get, to avoid financial mediocrity at that time? We certainly were

00:17:17.480 still probably, it would be considered below middle income. You know, we weren't, I don't

00:17:22.480 think we were at a middle income yet. Uh, but you know, living expenses were pretty small

00:17:26.820 and all like that. But I also knew I need, it took almost everything we had to live off

00:17:31.380 of. And so therefore I knew we really weren't getting ahead, right? We were treading water.

00:17:35.480 And so I was constantly thinking about how do we, how do we break out of this? Right?

00:17:40.540 What do we, what do we do? I don't have, Murphy's not my last name. So there's certainly a limit

00:17:45.400 as to how far I could go in that company, although it was a great company to work for.

00:17:49.340 And I didn't really have, again, I didn't have any mentors at the time that I, I could talk

00:17:56.120 to. I didn't, you know, my, my dad wasn't in this situation that I could talk to him. Uh,

00:18:01.840 my grandparents, my one grandfather was passed away and my mom's grandfather had had a stroke.

00:18:06.800 So there wasn't really anybody to talk to about things like that. I didn't really know what to do.

00:18:12.300 I mean, I call, I call you, I mean, sometimes daily, but definitely weekly, either to talk

00:18:17.920 through a news story or to talk through a contract or to talk through an opportunity. I mean, that's

00:18:23.000 invaluable to me. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing without that. I can't even imagine being just

00:18:29.380 trying to navigate it almost completely alone and having no one to look toward to say, okay,

00:18:35.220 that's it. And really one piece of guidance that you got was that you needed new shoes, right?

00:18:39.840 Oh, I need it. Well, yeah. My boss at Murphy, when I, you know, moved out of the mail room,

00:18:44.260 was pretty casual up to where at the time you had to wear a coat and tie every day,

00:18:48.400 you know, as guys and ladies wore skirts or, or, or, you know, slacks and things like that.

00:18:53.440 And, and so we didn't have enough money and I probably didn't take care of my shoes as well

00:18:59.280 as I should. And my boss would kind of make fun of me a little bit. Now I do think in his own way,

00:19:05.620 he was trying to help, trying to help me, right? Mom didn't think so. She was mad. She was bitter,

00:19:10.800 probably still bitter to this day. But I do think it helped me because I didn't have anybody doing

00:19:15.960 that. I mean, that's something that you're, that you're, that your mentor might do, right?

00:19:19.640 Yeah. And so I, at the end, I probably was embarrassed at the time, but I appreciate it

00:19:24.260 very much. And Hey, you need to at least shine your shoes, right? So he told you basically that

00:19:28.320 you need a new shoes. You called mom and you said, Lisa, I need new shoes. Mom says that she had to

00:19:34.980 dig into the couch for coins and for extra money lying around and was like, how in the world am I

00:19:40.660 going to be able to afford new shoes? That's right. And she did that, you know, and we were a team.

00:19:45.760 I mean, from day one, we were a team and I don't think we ever, we didn't always agree on everything,

00:19:51.600 but we've always been a team. And at the end of the day, we did things like that together for sure.

00:19:55.620 Yeah. Okay. Before we transition to the next season of your life, I don't want to disregard the title

00:20:02.060 of the book, which is about the red wagon and the different parts of the wagon and how that is really

00:20:07.020 kind of a metaphor for your life. And some of the first few things that you talk about are the parts

00:20:11.600 of the wagon, which we can get into, but also expecting the unexpected and taking the next

00:20:16.680 comfortable step and also continuing to look forward. I mean, yes, that's true in all your

00:20:20.840 stages of life, but when we look back to those early years, which are really the most fascinating

00:20:24.380 to me because they're the most kind of foreign to me, I mean, you implemented all of those steps,

00:20:29.980 expecting the unexpected, the next comfortable step, continuing to look forward. What does all that

00:20:35.320 have to do with the red wagon? Well, when I, you know, when I, uh, the, I opened the book a little

00:20:41.660 bit on a story about my own red wagon, when I was about six years old and an accident that I had in

00:20:47.360 it. And I'll let people read that to find out what happened on that. But as I went, as I was thinking

00:20:52.640 about, I wasn't thinking about it at the time. Okay. Or even at the time I was in my early twenties,

00:20:58.100 but as I've matured, I've thought about just think about life, right? Like we all do and whatever.

00:21:03.680 And as I think about the red wagon, the red wagon really is something that everybody can relate to

00:21:09.820 at some point in time, all of us have, have had a toy wagon of some type. The most famous is the

00:21:15.660 radio flyer, but the wagon has components and those components to me definitely have each of those

00:21:24.500 components have a important part on how life is done. Like for example, if you're sitting in the

00:21:31.700 wagon and the handle is just flopping around and you're start going down a hill, you don't know

00:21:37.120 what direction you're going in. Wherever the wagon wagon takes you is where you're going, right?

00:21:42.520 You have, you don't have any control over that because you don't have the handle.

00:21:45.460 If you have the handle, then you can guide the wagon anywhere you want it to go. However,

00:21:52.680 you may get to a point where it's too heavy to carry. Maybe the cargo in, it's too heavy.

00:21:57.520 And as a young, um, as a young father, sometimes the cargo in that wagon, which was mom and your

00:22:04.700 brother and, and, and your two brothers actually, uh, became very heavy. And I needed somebody to

00:22:10.520 help me push the wagon. And that's what people do. And those, sometimes those are your encouragers

00:22:14.620 or those are your mentors, or sometimes it's your faith, right? It's an invisible force that's

00:22:19.660 pushing the wagon. And for us, for people like myself and you who are people of faith that we

00:22:24.420 believe that's God helping us along in that. Yeah. So tell us about that. Tell us about

00:22:29.100 pulling, pushing, guiding the wagon along through what I know was a very turbulent time.

00:22:35.160 You know, mom's mom died, Justin and Daniel, they're young. Daniel was born 1985 and y'all are

00:22:41.680 about to move, take a big move from Arkansas, small town, Arkansas, which you just described

00:22:47.760 to Dallas, which Dallas back in 1985. Now we would consider it a small town, but that was big time.

00:22:53.840 That was big time then. So tell us a little bit about that. How in the world did you make that

00:22:58.400 decision? Well, I made the decision based on the financial mediocrity question we talked to earlier

00:23:03.760 in that I enjoyed my, what had happened is, is, um, I had, uh, the company had done a compensation

00:23:12.240 survey by an outside firm on how much money people should make in certain jobs. And it came out that I

00:23:18.720 was making quite a bit less than what I should have been making based on the job they were asking me to do.

00:23:22.960 But they wouldn't raise my pay up to that level all at one time. They wanted to do it gradually.

00:23:28.840 And that bothered me because I, I want to get paid for everything I was worth. And they were like,

00:23:35.300 well, you know, you're too young. You don't have a degree. I know what they were thinking. They were

00:23:39.020 thinking he's not going to go anywhere. Well, because you didn't, they thought, well, you don't

00:23:42.820 have a better opportunity. You don't even have a degree. Well, you know me well enough to know

00:23:46.240 that's when I start looking. Yeah. So I started looking for a job. I had a lady that used to work 1.00

00:23:51.580 with us in the HR department that had moved to Dallas because she was from that area. And I asked

00:23:56.220 her to start sending me the Dallas morning news, the Sunday paper. And she would send that to me

00:24:01.700 and we would just look for jobs. And, and then I applied for a couple of jobs and, you know,

00:24:06.960 was able to get one. And then Murphy tried to keep me there, wanted to match the pay. And I said,

00:24:12.200 no, I'm not doing that. If I'm worth that today, I was worth that yesterday. And mom was not very

00:24:18.560 happy about that because she was used to living where she was and her mom had not passed away yet.

00:24:23.460 And we had the two babies and all that, but I just, I just knew that I needed to move on. And I

00:24:30.040 probably didn't handle it with her as respectfully or as gently as I could have. So I don't feel good

00:24:36.680 about that, but I do, I never questioned whether it was the right thing to do. And I think that's where,

00:24:41.860 you know, that's, I mean, God was just kind of saying, okay, man, I, you know, I'm, I'm going

00:24:46.900 to have to be your mentor right now. Yeah. Cause you didn't have anyone telling you what you need

00:24:51.400 to do. Okay. So you moved to Dallas and that did prove to be the right thing. I don't think your

00:24:57.720 life would have turned out the same if y'all had stayed back in Arkansas, even though it was really

00:25:01.340 hard, I think in a lot of ways. So. And that's what I tell people a lot in the book too. The big thing

00:25:07.020 in the book, one of the big messages is take the next uncomfortable step. Yeah. You know, a lot of

00:25:11.800 times, especially, especially I will talk to my friends that are friends that have a faith is that

00:25:17.040 they'll say, well, I'm just going to wait. I'm just waiting on God. Right. I'm waiting. I'm waiting.

00:25:22.620 I'm waiting. Right. And sometimes that's absolutely the right thing to do. But sometimes God might be

00:25:28.980 saying, Hey, you know what? I need you to move. I need to see what decisions you are going to make.

00:25:34.760 Where is your faith? I need to test your faith here. And, and I don't, cause I, if you think

00:25:39.760 about, if you think about God being a loving father, okay, then a loving father isn't sitting,

00:25:46.560 waiting for you to make the wrong move so he can bop you on the head. Even if you make the wrong move,

00:25:51.560 he wants to gently move you back in the right direction. So I always needed in my mind to have

00:25:58.820 that picture of how God was now. It's, I hope that's the truth. It's the truth to me. And so

00:26:05.720 I just knew that that was the right thing to do. And the confirmation that happened after we moved

00:26:13.520 were just incredible. And we talk about a lot of those in the book, uh, because the people that we

00:26:19.140 are close to today are some of the very first people we've met when we moved here, which is

00:26:23.220 phenomenal. Cause that's been 37 years ago. And you and mom were always really good about

00:26:40.640 helping my brothers and me think through that. Like when I was thinking through college,

00:26:45.220 I had some teachers say the same thing, but definitely today, I think it's more popular

00:26:50.300 for my age people to say, well, to be paralyzed by overthinking, paralyzed by over analysis,

00:26:55.920 paralyzed even sometimes by prayer, just getting stuck in the spiritualism of it. But I do remember

00:27:01.580 you and mom saying, you know, college isn't jail. You can make a decision. That's what mom said.

00:27:06.080 College isn't jail. You can make a decision to leave and to move. And as long as the decision that

00:27:11.360 you're making, is it sin? You know, that it's not sin, you know, it's not disobedient to God.

00:27:15.800 Like it's going to be okay. Um, the Holy spirit will guide you. And thankfully God is the one who's

00:27:22.900 perfect. We're not. And I think I've always said that God honors righteous action. So if you have

00:27:28.920 a righteous heart or a heart that you, you believe, like you said, doing the right thing,

00:27:32.760 then even if it's a mistake, you're going to get gently loved back into the right area. Um, and you

00:27:39.860 know, if I'm doing it out of pride or something like that, it might be a little more harsh and

00:27:43.220 certainly I've experienced those things as well, but it was a good, it was a good move. And, uh,

00:27:48.440 the Lord really blessed us with having, with meeting some really good friends here. And for me,

00:27:52.940 some business people that kind of helped me move to take, move on and realize a bigger picture

00:27:58.800 about what might be available to me. So what you learned at Murphy oil, because you took

00:28:04.120 the next uncomfortable steps, you learned about investments, retirements. And again, you said,

00:28:08.540 this is not something that you were, Oh my gosh, I'm so passionate about this, but you saw this as a

00:28:13.700 way to make good financial decisions for your family. You move to Dallas, you get into investments,

00:28:19.700 you get into retirements, and then eventually you take over your own retirement investment company.

00:28:26.140 This is early nineties, right? Yep. And tell me about some, one time you told me a funny story. You sat

00:28:32.560 down with one of your colleagues with two guys. I think that you maybe wanted to invest in your

00:28:36.800 company and you said something along the lines to them, you know, we can make you rich or something

00:28:42.820 if you invest. Oh yeah. Let me tell you. Yeah. This is a, yeah. Tell us how you were kind of,

00:28:46.600 cause you're confident. You've already said that you're confident, but these people kind of put

00:28:50.040 you in your place, which is something that a lot of people experience. You heard the adage,

00:28:53.000 pride cometh before the fall. Yeah. Well, here's a perfect example of that. Okay. News alert.

00:28:58.600 So actually these were our chief investors in our company. They had helped us get the company

00:29:02.780 started. Is this, is this RAA? This is RAA. First it was PHNH. No, first it was First Southern

00:29:08.660 Trust. And then it was Retirement Advisors of America, which was RAA. Okay. And RAA, the RAA

00:29:15.240 was the company that a couple of us put together and started in late 1990, early 1991. And things

00:29:23.800 were going pretty well, probably a year or two into it. I don't remember exactly when it was.

00:29:29.100 And we were having a board of directors meeting. It was myself, my partner, and three outside

00:29:35.420 people that put the money up to start the company. Cause we didn't have enough money to start the 0.82

00:29:40.120 company. They had to help get us going until we made a profit. Right. And it was pretty expensive.

00:29:45.120 They had probably put at the time, they'd probably put a couple million dollars into the company. So it

00:29:50.440 wasn't a small amount. Yeah. And we don't, we don't have time to get into it, but you had to like

00:29:54.560 find these investors and convince them to invest in a company. So that's a whole skill that, yeah,

00:29:59.560 I guess you just naturally had. And they, I mean, I mean, obviously I think those were God things that

00:30:04.660 he helped along the way. But so anyway, we had this board meeting and my partner and I already

00:30:08.080 decided, look, this thing's going pretty well. We don't really own as much of this company as we'd

00:30:12.340 like to. So really we're going to keep making them rich. That's all we're doing. And so we had a

00:30:18.020 whole game plan, what we're going to say when they came in and we got started and my partner was

00:30:22.680 going to start it. So you didn't think it was fair, just to reiterate, you didn't think it was

00:30:25.740 fair. You thought that you and this guy should own more of the companies than these guys that

00:30:29.680 you're about to talk to. And therefore get more of the profits, right? Yeah. And so my colleague was

00:30:36.680 going to get it started and everything. He kind of fumbled around. So I thought, okay, I got to get

00:30:39.960 this going. So I said, Jim and Rick and Bill, that were their names. I said, you know, things are

00:30:45.200 going well. Appreciate all you'll do for us. But you know, we just, we're just tired of making y'all

00:30:49.380 richer. We want to be rich too. And I'll never forget Jim, who was the senior guy who had a

00:30:56.860 large stake in Morgan Stanley and was many times wealthy over, never looked up. He said, we're

00:31:02.940 already rich. Next question. What did you say? Oh man, we just, it was, I had nothing to say. It

00:31:09.520 was, I just like, okay, okay, move on. Yes, let's do that. So that was, we definitely didn't handle

00:31:16.420 that one correctly. Although I will give them credit. They didn't just, you know, boot us out

00:31:20.220 the door either. And the investment was a good investment for them. And it was a good investment

00:31:24.560 for us too. Yeah. Tell us maybe a little bit about the beginning of starting that company,

00:31:30.120 some mistakes you made and some lessons learned, because this was another risk, another uncomfortable

00:31:34.520 step that you took in starting something that you didn't know originally would be successful.

00:31:39.060 Yeah. And I don't really know, Allie, if I know the answer to this particular thing I'm going to

00:31:45.300 talk about is that my, the, the other guy that helped me start, we had both worked at the same

00:31:52.040 company before and we came over this new company. He and I were different personality wise. And there

00:31:57.920 were some things in his personality that, that made me wonder, you know, and, and mom also, you know,

00:32:09.700 kind of had a, you know, a little bit of a, as women's intuition, which I believe is a real thing,

00:32:13.840 you know, or something, something's not a hundred percent right. Although, but for me,

00:32:19.500 I wanted to make this move so bad. I think I probably overlooked some things about his character

00:32:26.700 that, you know, probably shouldn't have, it ended up working out. Okay. But I tell you what it did

00:32:33.360 cause is it caused an event that was hugely stressful because about three years into the deal,

00:32:38.960 the board members I was telling you about, Jim, Bill, and Rick came down to the office and they

00:32:44.300 said, Ron, you're going to be CEO in about five minutes cause we're firing your partner.

00:32:50.600 And it was a, it was a tough, I had no idea that was going to happen. I knew that they had had some

00:32:55.380 problems working with him and he, you know, wasn't very responsive to him and all that and what have

00:33:00.920 been, he probably wasn't doing everything he was supposed to be doing. And, uh, and it was tough

00:33:07.760 cause it really, really hurt my relationship with him. He thought I was part, I was in on it.

00:33:12.120 Part of the ousting.

00:33:13.180 Yeah. And, uh, that was very tough. And I think the, the lessons that I learned in that is you really,

00:33:19.740 and I talk about this the other day to somebody is that you really have to be slow in picking your

00:33:25.840 partners. Take your time in picking your partners in all realms of life, in all realms of life.

00:33:32.140 That's exactly right. Because once you do it, you do need to stay committed to them. And I think I

00:33:37.580 made that certainly made that mistake of not being as deliberate as I should have been in that process.

00:33:46.300 Yeah. And there's so much more we could talk about with your business life and what was motivating

00:33:52.100 you, but you talk a lot about personal life too, which I'm sure was even harder to talk about.

00:33:57.900 Cause like you said, in the beginning, it is vulnerable. You talk a lot about being a dad.

00:34:01.760 You talk a lot about us kids. And so we know that you were motivated by, you wanted your family to be

00:34:07.820 financially free. You worked really hard. A lot of times you worked long hours, especially nineties,

00:34:13.320 early two thousands. You're building this business. You become CEO. Um, tell us what it was like

00:34:19.020 also being a dad at this point, Justin's, you know, in high school, Daniel's around there. I'm young,

00:34:27.160 I'm little, um, tell us about this time. Once y'all got to Texas, what it was like working that hard

00:34:33.580 and trying to be a more present dad than your dad was. Yeah. You know, it was something that was in my

00:34:38.900 mind all the time. Um, I felt like that I was gone a lot, but it is interesting because, and I don't

00:34:49.920 remember how long ago this was, but it wasn't that long ago that Justin said, or either wrote

00:34:58.440 something somewhere that I read your oldest brother, uh, said, you know, dad, I don't ever remember you

00:35:04.540 missing one of my games. And I don't think I did very much because it was really a high priority

00:35:09.880 for me that I was present for things that were important to y'all. And so I think I probably

00:35:15.560 did a little better job of that than I felt at the time. Cause I do remember feeling it was constant

00:35:20.660 stress, right? Constant stress of, I need to be doing this to help this business grow, but I also have

00:35:27.520 these obligations. And I'll tell you, if, if you don't really have a strong partner in, I'm talking

00:35:36.920 about Lisa now, my wife, you know, your mom and that relationship, if that isn't strong, and if you

00:35:43.060 don't have a, a wife or a spouse, it's totally sold out on what y'all are doing as a family team,

00:35:49.620 then you're with me doing what I was doing. There's no way that marriage was going to stay together.

00:35:55.640 Yeah. One hundred percent. And I don't take much credit for that. Most of that credit goes to mom

00:36:01.800 because she was dealing with, you know, all of the stuff, uh, that goes on day to day in a young

00:36:08.900 family. While I was focusing most of my attention on a day to day basis on the, on the business, I

00:36:15.300 would definitely try to be present as much as I could be. And I think I did as good a job of that

00:36:19.960 as I could. Um, but without mom there, uh, a lot of those marriages end up split just because of 1.00

00:36:26.880 that right there. But she, you know, she said, um, she said this more than once to people. I've

00:36:31.740 heard her say it when they would say, you know, what do you, cause I would, you know, take these

00:36:36.000 business risks and other things. And she would say, what people would say, what do you think

00:36:39.340 about that? Lisa, are you not, does that bother you? Says, yep, it bothers me. And I don't know

00:36:44.000 about that, but I believe in him and that's really what was important and, and why, you

00:36:49.820 know, things, and, and the fact that, you know, my mom lived with us for a while when you were

00:36:53.440 little, she lived with us for a long time and she was a big help in that. And I think that

00:36:57.780 Lisa and her had such a good relationship. And I give most of the credit to Lisa because

00:37:02.220 it's sometimes hard to get along with your mother-in-law, but she had a, she had a true

00:37:06.520 love for mom and mom loved her. And that, that really worked out to be a good partnership

00:37:11.080 there too. Not for me. My mother-in-law is listening to this. I have a great relationship

00:37:16.640 with my mother-in-law and she makes it, she makes it very easy. But that's, that's true. I mean,

00:37:21.140 I had a great relationship with grandma and also really close relationship with mom. And of course,

00:37:26.920 the most important thing for me, when I was growing up, I was a basketball star and you somehow made it

00:37:31.960 to my basketball games. That's sarcasm. That's not true. I was mostly thinking about where we were

00:37:38.320 going to go to lunch after. Yeah. And, and you would, you would ask those questions in very

00:37:42.260 important timeouts when coach Bart was trying to get you to focus on the game. I wasn't interested

00:37:47.600 at all. Where were we going to eat? That was your number one thing. Social hour. I'm ready for it.

00:37:52.480 But I remember you saying, so you made it to all these games, even though, I mean, I do remember,

00:37:57.560 and I think I carry a lot of these characteristics that you have. Like I enjoy working. I feel like I can

00:38:03.260 carry the stress of doing all that. We can never do it as perfectly as we think that we're doing it.

00:38:08.480 But I, I mean, I remember you being busy. I remember you staying up late. I remember you

00:38:12.440 working a lot, but I also remember you telling the story that you have a memory of your dad,

00:38:18.980 not showing up to some important events and important meets in your life. Right. I'm sure

00:38:24.180 that whether you realized it or not, that was in the back of your mind. It probably was. I'm sure it

00:38:29.040 was. And I was not going to, cause I, plus I enjoyed being a part of those important times.

00:38:33.180 You never know when your kids are at an, doing an event, whatever that happens to be, whether that's

00:38:39.860 a, you know, Bible memory verse at their Sunday school class for church or, or their sports event

00:38:45.560 or their play or whatever, you never know when one of those events is going to be, have a lifelong,

00:38:52.820 life lasting effect on them. And you want to be there when that happens.

00:38:56.580 Um, tell us a little bit about, I mean, you talk about the challenges with one of my brothers,

00:39:02.840 my, my middle brother, who we know is special in so many ways and beats us in a lot of ways,

00:39:10.920 whether it comes to memory, being able to find things, creativity, good ideas, innovation,

00:39:15.740 but there were struggles there growing up. It's not always easy finding the right school and

00:39:19.940 opportunities for someone who doesn't necessarily fit the mold. And he does it.

00:39:24.720 Yeah. Yeah. Well, certainly Daniel was a square peg and a lot of round holes and, uh, you know,

00:39:31.600 with it, we didn't know what it was at the time. Lisa with her, uh, teaching background knew he wasn't

00:39:37.240 developing properly and trying to find the right education scenario for him and getting told by your

00:39:43.380 Christian education school at the time, uh, that he didn't have the gray matter to go to their school

00:39:50.380 and you need to get him out before the end of the first six weeks when he was in first grade.

00:39:53.840 Basically if people don't understand his, he's just not, his brain doesn't work enough.

00:39:57.880 That's what they thought. That's what they thought. Yeah. Which was probably to this day,

00:40:03.020 the most difficult thing I've ever had to hear and hurtful, especially coming from your church school.

00:40:09.820 Right. It was just like, seriously. Anyway. So, but I will tell you what, it put us to work,

00:40:14.520 uh, on, on knowing that we needed to lead his wagon. And, and the biggest challenge that when

00:40:21.340 you have, uh, someone like Daniel who, who obviously we love dearly is the way life works

00:40:28.880 is that having your kids in your wagon as cargo, carrying them along is something that you plan

00:40:37.420 on doing. That's part of life. But when they get to college and beyond, you expect them to get out

00:40:41.880 of the wagon, kind of go on their own. Occasionally may have to jump back in for a little help and

00:40:46.340 whatever, but mostly go on their own. When you have, uh, someone that has a disability like that, 0.99

00:40:52.360 they're going to be in your wagon the entire time. And that is, that's something you have to

00:40:58.880 almost, you have to reorganize yourself to accept that and plan around that. And so that's the things

00:41:07.600 that Lisa and I have, you know, had to figure out over time. And now he's, you know, well into his

00:41:13.560 thirties and, and, uh, you know, it's just, it's just something that we as a family have to deal with.

00:41:18.840 And it was, it was definitely hard. There's no question about it. Uh, but you know what, it was

00:41:24.060 hard on us, but it was hard on him too. Yeah. It was hard on y'all. And so we have to, I have to

00:41:29.920 remember that to whatever it is that I'm complaining about, because I don't have, you know, the flexibility

00:41:34.820 maybe that I want to, because of the things we have to think about with him. It's nothing

00:41:39.440 compared. He, he would trade all of that to be like us. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of

00:41:56.300 parents out there, either you've got a special needs child, whatever it is, whether it's on the

00:42:00.300 autism spectrum or they just learn a little bit differently, whether they have down syndrome,

00:42:03.720 there's a whole range of special needs. And it can be, I mean, especially today, a lot of people

00:42:08.880 are like, you know what, public school, I don't know if that's the best option for my kids. That's

00:42:12.580 how y'all felt for us. You wanted us to get a Christian education. Sometimes Christian education 0.95

00:42:16.960 isn't an option for, for these kinds of kids. And a lot of these parents are stressed with that.

00:42:23.660 And then they're thinking, oh my gosh, I'm never going to have the retirement or the, you know,

00:42:28.960 the later years that I thought that I was going to have, because I'm going to always be

00:42:32.340 taking care of, of my child. And so I just really encourage, especially those of you who fall into

00:42:36.880 that camp to read this book, because that is an unexpected challenge that you guys just didn't know

00:42:43.820 that has turned into a blessing in a lot of ways. Yeah. It's an unexpected challenge and

00:42:47.260 unexpected benefit, because I will tell you it, it, the one thing that Daniel, I think

00:42:52.060 has done for me is it's also made me slow down and it's made me have perspective on things that I

00:43:00.760 probably wouldn't have had the perspective on. Yeah. Okay. Gosh, I could talk for another hour

00:43:05.800 about your story. I do just, I want to read people the lessons. So you're going to get an amazing story

00:43:12.020 when you read this and it'll, you know, go chronologically through his life in a lot of ways.

00:43:16.640 My husband said that he couldn't put this down because it's just a really, really good story.

00:43:21.600 And also my, my grandpa, my mom's dad also, who is not a big reader, he doesn't really read,

00:43:27.120 but he called and you know, we don't have time for the story, but for whatever reason, my dad and my

00:43:32.060 grandpa call each other, George, neither of them are named George, but he said that George's book

00:43:38.200 was one that he also couldn't put down. So there are a few lessons that are learned,

00:43:42.320 finding your place in the red wagon. So that'll talk more about what the metaphor is and what all

00:43:46.500 the parts of the wagon represent. Expect the unexpected, the next uncomfortable step, continue

00:43:51.940 looking forward, finding your place on the team, the fear of failure, create your opportunity.

00:43:56.740 Yes, isn't always easy. Seek out mentors and get unstuck. Change your method, not your message.

00:44:03.140 Are you a participant or a crusader? Get out of your comfort zone. Either you're a show pony,

00:44:08.220 a plow horse or workhorse, victory after despair, and then dreams of a better tomorrow. And in all of

00:44:14.340 those, you have an action. So something that's happening, all of those, you have something to

00:44:18.880 consider, a lesson to learn, and then a takeaway. So it's a story, but interwoven are three really,

00:44:25.220 really clear steps. And I mean, you can read this book in like a day and learn a lot about it. So.

00:44:31.400 I hope so. I hope so. I hope it comes out there. And you know, the other, the last thing I guess I

00:44:35.620 would say about the book is that it also talks about my life in public service as being a state

00:44:42.420 representative and all of that, because it was a total change. I had to, I, you know, at the,

00:44:46.780 in the, in the investment deal, I was the guy holding the handle, right? Well, when I totally

00:44:51.580 changed and went into public service, I didn't know anything about that. So I had to crawl back

00:44:56.460 in the wagon and be the cargo for a while and let other people pull the wagon for me until I learned

00:45:02.500 what I was doing. And I think you have to realize that sometimes in your life, you're not always

00:45:07.660 going to be on the handle. Sometimes you got to, you got to get your right spot. If you're supposed

00:45:12.460 to be the cargo and you've got the handle, then that's going to be trouble. That's going to be

00:45:18.200 trouble because then you definitely are going to be stuck. It's going to be stuck. That's exactly right.

00:45:21.900 Well, actually the last, the last thing I do want to talk about, because this is an epilogue,

00:45:25.720 you were just saying how there's a long epilogue in here because talk about a curve ball and talk about not

00:45:30.400 knowing, you know, how you're going to navigate this wagon. You and mom in the past year were both

00:45:35.920 diagnosed with cancer. You didn't know that when you were writing this book. So tell us a little

00:45:40.240 bit about that and what's, what has that been like over the past year? Yeah, that's really been,

00:45:44.720 you know, as interesting, almost a fact, we're doing this podcast almost a year to the day that we found

00:45:49.460 out about Lisa's breast cancer. And we're rocking along like everybody else does. I think we're in pretty

00:45:55.660 good health. We don't really have cancer in our family history, in our background. So we don't

00:46:00.560 have that. So it's not something we really think about, but you know, Lisa got diagnosed with breast

00:46:06.060 cancer last March and that sent us in a, you know, just a little bit of a spin. Okay, what's this mean?

00:46:14.120 What are we going to do? You know, we're always thinking about, okay, we got our life already

00:46:17.000 planned out. We don't need this one. And, but I will, I tell you what it does. First of all,

00:46:22.500 it makes you figure out what's really important. You know, it makes you reflect, which we should

00:46:27.760 be doing more anyway. And then it makes you make a decision of how determined are you to do what you

00:46:34.840 can to take care of this and, and, and, and become healthy, do what you can. And, and Lisa went

00:46:42.620 headlong into research, which is her. Well, she does. She does. That's her deal. She's always done that.

00:46:48.040 Maybe it's her teacher background. She likes learning. Great. And reader, comprehends

00:46:52.600 everything she reads. Yeah, she's very, very good at that. And so she really started looking at

00:46:57.700 nutritional ways that would help her be more healthy. She went ahead and did the surgery 0.96

00:47:05.160 to have the tumor removed. And thank goodness it was small. And, and she had a few rounds of radiation,

00:47:11.540 but I don't think any of that would have gone as well had she not got involved in this nutrition

00:47:18.040 scenario. Which I've had the guy on my show that she followed Chris Wark, Chris beat cancer. And so

00:47:24.580 mom went, and I know I'm not saying that this is necessarily the path that everyone takes, but

00:47:28.840 my mom went full vegan, which was hard for her because that meant she had to give up coffee because 0.99

00:47:33.660 she doesn't like coffee without milk in it. And so, I mean, this has been maybe one of the most

00:47:40.260 disciplined things. I mean, in addition to how, how you got so fit when I was in college, but also

00:47:47.160 just mom being so disciplined in this and being so committed to her health. Incredible. She's just

00:47:52.640 been incredible. And, and little did we know that while she's going through this, I'm going to my

00:47:58.920 doctor for my normal checkup. And he says, well, Ron, your PSA is a little bit high. So I need you to

00:48:04.940 go see a urologist. And so I went to the urologist and he says, well, let's, let's give it up. Yeah.

00:48:12.420 It's a little high. Let's do an MRI. And so, uh, I hadn't really told Lisa much about this during the

00:48:19.220 time. Cause she's kind of going through her deal. I just said, Hey, made a little bit, but it's

00:48:22.140 probably nothing. Cause mine had kind of gone up and down. And, uh, and so I did the MRI and the MRI

00:48:29.240 noticed that there was something on my prostate that was not normal, but you still don't know

00:48:35.520 at the time as to whether or not it's cancer, it could be a non-malignant. Right. And so I told the

00:48:41.620 guy, I said, look, I'm not going to do anything until Lisa's through with her radiation. Uh, cause

00:48:46.940 at the time she was getting ready to go through radiation. I just, we just didn't need all of that.

00:48:50.920 Okay. Uh, and so she got through that and then we had my biopsy where they take some of the cells 0.74

00:48:56.600 and sure enough, it was, uh, it was prostate cancer. Now we are still in the area right now

00:49:02.980 for me of monitoring it, uh, based on how there's had this scale and based on where you're on the

00:49:09.960 scale, you can either monitor it or you need to go ahead and have something done. And right now

00:49:14.860 we're still in the monitoring phase. Hopefully we can stay in that phase. I've, I've, uh, tried to do

00:49:20.700 what Lisa's doing on the nutritional side, not as disciplined as her for sure. Uh, but, uh, 0.99

00:49:26.600 but you know, I think it, I already think that has helped as well because the last time I had it

00:49:31.080 checked is actually was down a little bit. So, uh, so you never know. So yeah, but it threw us a

00:49:36.560 curve ball, the C word, you know, uh, sometime, you know, we talk about, I say in there that

00:49:40.500 you think that, well, if one's good, two's great. Well, not with the C word, but I will tell you,

00:49:45.520 it also makes you realize that, that at the end of the day, who is in control. And if you don't have

00:49:52.740 the faith to know that whatever happens, that God is still in control, then I could see where

00:49:59.260 you could get into a tailspin, you know, pretty quickly because no matter whatever happens to me

00:50:04.880 or mom, uh, he, he's been faithful. He's been faithful and I can't look back and complain no

00:50:12.480 matter what. Amen. Well, everyone needs to go out and get this book. It has ringing endorsements.

00:50:18.200 Also, this just speaks to like the reputation that you've built over the years, the kinds

00:50:23.760 of endorsements that he has in this book from some of the most influential people, both in

00:50:27.960 the private and the public sector. It's really incredible. So you can go on Amazon, um, wherever

00:50:33.380 books are sold. I think hopefully it's in physical bookstores. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. So it

00:50:38.420 should be. It's distributed by Simon and Schuster. So it should be. Yeah. Life lessons from the

00:50:42.240 little red wagon. And Hey, if you also, if you're out there, I know I got other podcasters and

00:50:47.000 other media people that listen to this podcast. Like there's so many aspects of this book that

00:50:51.620 could be good for your audience, whether it's business leaders, it's entrepreneurs, whether

00:50:55.880 it's people that are in public service, um, whether, you know, it's just parents, parents

00:51:01.140 of people with, uh, with, of kids with special needs, like just men in general, like how to

00:51:07.200 be a good man. I encourage you reach out to us. We'll connect you to my dad. He would be a

00:51:11.880 really, really good guest on any of your shows. Okay. We got a little bit of time left, a little

00:51:29.960 bit of time. Let's talk real quickly, just about news. Cause I haven't talked about this

00:51:34.320 yet. Oh yeah. Good. Okay. So this would be, this would be like, you can, you can pretend

00:51:39.240 like you're listening in on a phone call with me and my dad. So when there is a story out there

00:51:43.300 or I'll send him an article and I'll say, what do you think about this dad? What's going on here?

00:51:47.600 So I haven't been totally following everything that's happened with Trump announcing on truth

00:51:51.440 social that he's going to be arrested by a Manhattan DA because of a, uh, misdemeanor,

00:51:58.580 alleged misdemeanor, uh, campaign finance rule and giving money to stormy Daniels. You remember

00:52:05.060 this? This is a story from several years ago. He's saying that he's going to be arrested for

00:52:09.240 this. And he also urged his supporters to go out and mass protest in his defense while Twitter is

00:52:18.460 lit up with all kinds of disagreement about what is going on. So as we're recording this,

00:52:23.060 this hasn't happened yet. So we don't even know Tuesday morning, if this is actually come to

00:52:27.140 fruition, dad, what do you think is going to happen? And what is really going on here?

00:52:31.620 Well, he's not going to be perp walked. You don't think? No, no. Because that's what the

00:52:36.060 left wants. They would love that. He's not going to be perp walked. Uh, the secret service is not

00:52:40.720 going to allow the local DA or local police in New York to do that. And so that's not going to happen.

00:52:49.060 Um, really? The secret service can say no. They're just not going to allow it to happen.

00:52:53.660 That's, that's the word that I've got as early as this morning. That's not going to happen.

00:52:57.140 And, uh, he is not going to be forced to go back to New York. He is in Florida. Now he could go to

00:53:03.720 New York if he wanted to, but he's not going to be forced to do that. Now they may end up doing the

00:53:08.060 arraignment over zoom or something like that, but there's not going to be a display. Uh, unless I

00:53:15.260 guess president Trump wanted to display for other, for other reasons. So I don't see that now, by the

00:53:20.740 time this comes out, this all may have happened by the end of, by the end of the day, it's a

00:53:24.900 misdemeanor, which by the way, even on this misdemeanor, the statute of limitations has

00:53:30.100 expired. Yeah. And that's why the guy's trying to get it to be a felony, which is, I just don't

00:53:34.700 know how you get there. I don't know how you get there. Cause first of all, it's not illegal

00:53:38.280 to pay somebody hush money. If I wanted to say, Hey, I want to, I'm going to pay you X number of

00:53:43.340 dollars, not to tell the story about whatever, then that's okay to do that. It is illegal if he used

00:53:49.760 campaign funds, which he, which as far as we know, he did not do that. He says he did. Yeah. He says he

00:53:53.940 didn't. And so, uh, it's just a show. It's all a show. And I think it's going to end up backfiring

00:53:59.880 on the Democrats. I mean, there's only been one other president in the history of America that's

00:54:05.380 been arrested and that's Ulysses S Grant. He was arrested for driving his carriage too fast in

00:54:11.540 Washington DC and got a $20 fine. So if indicted, Trump will be the first former president in U S

00:54:17.920 history to face, well, it's, this says to face criminal charges, but you're saying that Ulysses

00:54:22.820 S Grant, but maybe that wasn't criminal at the time. Maybe, maybe it was a little different.

00:54:28.040 So this is not the first DA to try to do something like this. And it's really sad when you think about

00:54:32.360 what should be the priorities of the DA in Manhattan, which is not a particularly safe place

00:54:37.820 right now. Obviously crime has soared in a lot of these cities. People are getting murdered. People

00:54:41.980 are being let out of jail based on so-called equity standards. And so, and they are wasting

00:54:47.640 their time on something just because they want a few minutes of fame on MSNBC when people are

00:54:53.220 suffering in his actual district. And 50% of the people that are arrested there for felonies,

00:54:58.380 he bumps them down to a misdemeanor. He's trying to bump this misdemeanor up to a felony. I mean,

00:55:02.460 it's just, it's totally George Soros backed. I guarantee you this guy had to make the promise to

00:55:06.980 somebody that he was going to do this. And so he's, he's checking the box. He's just like

00:55:11.200 President Biden. He's checking the box. Yeah. I can't believe George Soros still has American

00:55:15.540 citizenship. It should be something we should be able to do about that. Okay. People are also upset

00:55:20.920 with Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, I guess, because Trump is in Florida. They think that

00:55:25.760 Governor DeSantis should say, should be the one to say, no, you're not going to arrest him. You're

00:55:32.320 not going to perp walk him, which you said is not going to happen. But he said yesterday,

00:55:36.760 he said in a speech, I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by

00:55:41.140 some Soros DA. He's trying to do a political spectacle, which we agree with. He's trying 0.76

00:55:45.600 to virtue signal for his base. I've got real issues I got to deal with here in the state

00:55:51.980 of Florida. Now, some people are upset about that. Some people are also pointing out that

00:55:56.400 a Trump PAC in Florida tried to file an ethics complaint recently against DeSantis to try to get

00:56:04.500 at him because Trump obviously sees him as some kind of threat to his presidential campaign.

00:56:12.420 So I don't know. Do you see this as DeSantis trying to get back at Trump for that? Or do you think he's

00:56:17.660 just being genuine? There's really nothing he can do. Well, first of all, every state has extradition

00:56:22.660 rights. Okay. So he can't stop. If there's been a crime committed in New York, okay, Ron DeSantis can't

00:56:30.500 stop the New York authorities from coming to Florida if they choose to, just like New York

00:56:35.780 couldn't stop Florida authorities. Okay. There's, there's, there's, uh, I guess it would be called

00:56:40.780 inter-commerce, you know, interstate commerce that allows those types of things to happen. So it's

00:56:45.120 probably not much he could do other than, you know, put a barrier up there of, you know, the state

00:56:49.020 troopers or something like that. Also, I think that he doesn't want to add to the circus that just

00:56:53.740 keeps it going in the media cycle. And I would actually agree with him on that. Uh, president Trump's a big

00:56:59.760 boy. He can handle that on his own. Uh, Ron DeSantis wasn't a part of any of that to start with.

00:57:05.180 And, uh, it, it, it, it's, it's likely to cause again, it to be a bigger story than it should be

00:57:12.720 if he gets involved in it. Wow. This is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I agree

00:57:18.360 with you about governor DeSantis, that there's not much he can do. And it does sound like he is saying

00:57:22.880 what you just said, that he doesn't want to add to a circus. So he's obviously against what's

00:57:27.160 happening. It's not like he said nothing, but he's like, you know what, if I am a part of this,

00:57:31.760 then it just turns into a whole big thing. That's exactly what Alvin Bragg wants.

00:57:35.780 No question about it. Absolutely. And so he's not going to, he's not going to go along with that.

00:57:39.400 This is a little scary. I mean, are you concerned about the state of the country,

00:57:43.080 that this is something that's happening? Have we seen this kind of witch hunt in the past before?

00:57:47.500 We have not. As a matter of fact, you know, Hillary Clinton's campaign had to pay a hundred

00:57:52.220 thousand dollar fine for using campaign money to pay for that steel dossier. Okay. And was she

00:57:59.840 arrested? Did anybody hear about it? Most people don't even know that happened. Right. And so,

00:58:05.140 no, this is all, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's what Trump derangement syndrome. I think people call it

00:58:11.260 that. And I've never seen it. And I think it hurts. It absolutely hurts our country. Now,

00:58:15.040 unfortunately there are Republicans that also hate Trump so much that they, they don't say

00:58:20.980 anything about this either. And I get it. I did not vote for president Trump in the primary. I voted

00:58:25.000 for him in both general elections. And, uh, do I think he should have, uh, done differently in the

00:58:31.360 way he communicated and whatever? Absolutely. But I will not take away from the actual policies that

00:58:37.080 were implemented during his time, the judges that were selected and all that. I mean, as far as

00:58:41.700 consequentialness for the longterm, I think he probably had more of an effect on this country

00:58:48.660 than a lot of two-term presidents in the past. Which is, that's really why they hate him. That's

00:58:53.960 really why they're going after him. It's not because of his tweets. It's not because of anything

00:58:57.380 that he said. They don't like what he did. That's a good point. They don't like that. And they saw

00:59:01.520 all of those judges that got appointed that they know are going to be strict constitutionalists,

00:59:06.400 which they do not want. They want to legislate from the bench. That is the number one thing they want

00:59:10.780 to do. They want to do what Soros is doing in the DA offices and use prosecutorial discretion.

00:59:15.500 And they want to, they want to legislate from the bench because they know they can't get

00:59:19.240 laws passed through Congress. They know they can't do that. And so they want to legislate from the

00:59:24.320 bench. Yep. And speaking of Congress, Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, said that he,

00:59:29.600 they're directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to

00:59:33.660 subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.

00:59:37.580 We'll see what happens there. It sounds like there's not too much Congress can really do

00:59:41.180 besides just investigate and see what's going on. We'll see what actually happens.

00:59:45.960 And the other thing to remember is that all this, every time the other people are talking about

00:59:49.440 Trump, they're avoiding talking about Biden and the recent stuff that they found all that. So

00:59:56.460 they're going to keep that going as long as it's the shiny object over here, right? That's what

01:00:00.100 a lot of the strategy is. Yeah. A lot of it's coming out right now about Biden and China that even

01:00:05.360 the leftist media are talking about. So this is a nice distraction for him.

01:00:08.560 Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Okay. Thanks so much, Dad. I really appreciate you coming back on.

01:00:12.920 Oh, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. I had a good time.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 21, 2023

Ep 774 ｜ Allie's Dad on Trump's Possible Arrest, Life Lessons & His New Book

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