In this episode of The Joe Rooz Show, Joe shares his weekend experiences, including a Bible study session, and addresses the changes in streaming availability for non-premium members. He highlights the importance of supporting platforms like Rumble for free speech. Joe also discusses the significant political developments, such as the upcoming trilateral conference between the US, Russia, and Ukraine. The episode features two special guests: Bill DeBarba, an author and entrepreneur with four decades of business experience, and Lauren B. Pena, a congressional candidate from Austin, Texas. Joe engages with Bill on his book "The Process of Living," exploring the essential elements of success and the power of thought, feeling, and action. Bill shares his journey from a struggling entrepreneur to a successful business owner, emphasizing the importance of passion and customer-centric problem-solving.
In the second hour, Joe welcomes Lauren B. Pena, who shares her inspiring journey from poverty to political advocacy. Lauren discusses her motivations for running for Congress, her experiences with the Texas political landscape, and her commitment to addressing social policies, public safety, and the medical industry. She highlights the challenges of being a conservative voice in a predominantly Democrat-represented area and her efforts to engage with the community to drive meaningful change. The episode concludes with Joe encouraging listeners to support Lauren's campaign and to stay engaged with the show's upcoming content.
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(00:04:04) Introduction and Show Overview
(00:07:00) Upcoming Guests and Show Format
(00:10:45) Interview with Bill DeBarbera: Entrepreneurship and Life Lessons
(01:09:00) Introduction to Lauren Pena: Political Advocacy and Campaign
(01:23:54) Lauren Pena on Redistricting and Political Challenges
(01:56:43) Lauren Pena's Campaign Priorities and Future Plans
- Wayne Rankin
- Rosanna Rankin
- Carolina Jimenez
[00:04:05]
Unknown:
Transmitting live from the asylum studios deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas. It's the Joe Ruge Show, the show where we talk about anything and everything, where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down, and nothing
[00:04:26] Unknown:
is PC. Alrighty. Hey folks, this is Joe Roos. It is nineteen zero three hours on 08/18/2025, a beautiful, hot Monday afternoon afternoon here in Eagle Pass, Texas and we are going to do the very best that we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster. Welcome to the Joe Rouge Show. Alright. Got a new rig going on here. Kinda weird. Don't know what's up with the screen either, why it's split screen, but whatever. I always say, folks, it wouldn't be the Joe Russo if it didn't have some kind of a problem at the outset. But here we are.
And looking up at my monitor there, just the quality of this thing is just absolutely stunning, isn't it? The blobs of color that we have. Alright, but it's enough of that stuff. Guys, I hope you guys had a great weekend. I really do. I know that this past weekend, was a busy weekend both in the personal life and as well as the political world. And then we were here yesterday for our Bible study Sunday. That was a lot of fun. Enjoyed that. And for the folks that are watching this that, are not Rumble Premium members, I do apologize, but I told you guys it was coming. That at some point, we're gonna have to cut streams, because we gotta stream specifically to the Rumble Premium membership. So, I do apologize for that, but you can always go to rumble.com/premium and get yourself a membership.
That's the way to do it. $9.99 a month, $99 a year, your choice, however you wanna go about it. Just get it done. Rumble is the premium free speech platform in the world, so you need to be on it, You need to to be supportive of it. Alright? But, anyway, regardless of that, I hope you guys had a great weekend. It's another week. We had a lot of stuff going on in the world around us here today. Been checking out some of the headlines before the show started, and, it seems that, this, this big day of meetings here in Washington DC has, netted some good results. Appears that there will be a trilateral conference between The US, Russia, and, Ukraine. So that's huge. That's huge. Lack of a better word. Huge. So, we're gonna be keeping an eye on that, and then we'll have some comments on that in, in future shows, because that is not the business of the day. Today, we're we're going to have two very, very interesting and, and, important guests.
In the first hour, we're gonna have, we're gonna have our guest, Bill. I'm gonna say his last name wrong. I always do. I I I I've been talking about him all day today, and I always say his last name wrong. But today, we have with us Bill where are you, Bill? Let's see. Bill is it DeBarbera? Yes. Bill DeBarbera is gonna be with us, author, and and, entrepreneur. Forty years in the business world. So we're gonna be looking to talk to him in just a few minutes, and then followed up in the second hour by a congressional candidate from here in Texas, Austin District 35.
We're gonna be talking to Lauren b Pena. So, hope you guys are ready for this. This is gonna be a pretty good show tonight. I'm really looking forward to it. It's gonna be a lot of fun. But, of course, before we do anything with the show like that, we have to do some housekeeping. And the first thing we're gonna do is invite you to our website. So please head over to our website, joeroos.com. Joeroos.com should be up there on your screen. And, when you get over there, look for the contact form on our contact section. Open that little window up and send us over a message. Let us know whatever you're thinking, whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind, any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have. We would love to hear from you. If you have any suggestions or ideas about a show that you like to us, a topic you want us to discuss, or a guest that you like to get us, have us get into the studio here, that would be fantastic. We would love your input.
Also, if you don't wanna use the web form, you could always email me directly at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Also, remember that this is a value for value show. Alright? And all that basically means that if you receive anything of value from what we're putting out, the content that we're creating, the folks that we talk to, if you're receiving anything of value from any of that, all we're asking is that you would make a donation representing the value that you receive from it, even if it's a dollar. If all you've got out of this was a dollar, then a dollar is fine. We appreciate that. And we'll talk more about that, after our last guest. We'll get into the whole thing with the with the tiers and so on and so forth. A lot of fun always talking about that stuff. You know, the hardest part of of doing this is always the ask. You know, it it I've struggled with that from the very beginning. I hate asking for it, but, unfortunately, if you don't ask, you don't receive.
So, so that's what that's the ask. Okay? So we're not gonna spend too much more time on that. And then, of course, as always, we have our sponsorships. Alright. Now tonight, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about Ezra Healing. Ezra Healing is our sponsor and, is one of our sponsors. And, as always, on Tuesdays, we have our show with the CEO of Ezra Healing, Svetlana Ryilkov. So make sure you tune in for that tomorrow night, 7PM central time. But, folks, Ezra Healing is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and, of course, around the globe. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes, must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. But we need to transit transition towards the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems. Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family.
So for more information, just head over to ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. And when you get over there, make sure you let them know that you heard it here on the Joe Russo. Let them know their money's being well spent. Alright. Outstanding. Ezra Healing. The great bunch of people, by the way. You know, I I I speak to them regularly, and, they are fantastic. Really great bunch of people. Check them out. Alright. It'll do you good. It will do you good. Alright. Cough break. Alright. So, folks, I am really excited to talk to you tonight and introduce you to our first guest of the evening. I've been looking forward to this one.
I've been talking about this all day, like I said earlier, and I'm really anxious to hear what he has to share with us tonight. Now our guest is a seasoned entrepreneur with four decades of experience in running his own business. His company, Businessware Services, started in his back bedroom and grew until he was hiring staff to develop products and provide services to customers. In over forty years of business ownership and management, he can proudly boast that not one of his customers has ever had to resort to taking any legal action to resort to resolve an issue. Over the years, he has learned how to recognize problems and to, and to look at issues from the customer's point of view.
This has become what he calls the process of living. In his book, by the same name, he shares the culmination of a lifetime of observation, learning, and problem solving. And tonight, he'll share with us this fundamental truth. Success, whether personal, professional, or collective, hinges on three essential elements, and we will talk about that in just a moment. Let's welcome our guest, Bill DeBarbera. Bill, are you out there?
[00:12:44] Unknown:
I am. I'm right here. Outstanding. Welcome to I've been writing while you've been talking because I'm gonna look into the healing thing. This is really sounds pretty good. Oh, it's a great company. It's fascinating what you've said. I think it's phenomenal. They are fascinating. More of that kind of thinking. Absolutely. The this company is based up in, in in, British Columbia, Canada.
[00:13:06] Unknown:
I met the CEO. She was a guest on my show. And, we had such a great conversation, and we continued the conversation afterwards. And, that's when they agreed to come on as a sponsor of the show. So she she she was a nurse for twenty five years in British Columbia. She she was she was fired. This is all stuff we talked about in the show, so so we can speak freely of it. She was she was let go, after twenty five years of service because she refused to take the COVID vaccine. And then, through another series of of of things that took place in her private life, she eventually stepped out and created Ezra Healing and has been doing this do no harm model of medicine and treatment, ever since. So, it's a great company. They really are. They're fantastic. I've I've spoken to several, people involved with it. They even do pet care, which I think is great. So, Really? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, my my French Bulldog, Charlie, one of my French Bulldogs, Charlie, has some really bad allergies, and they were they were fantastic in helping, take care of that with him.
But great people. You should if you're interested, check them out, make sure you let them know you I sent you over there.
[00:14:10] Unknown:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I will. I yeah. Alright. And, on Tuesdays
[00:14:15] Unknown:
I don't know if you heard it earlier, but on Tuesdays, we, we actually host the CEO of Ezra Healing, on the show. We do we still do an exclusive show with her, and, we talk about any number of issues. This particular week, I think I think we're gonna be talking about, menopause and, the effects of caffeine on the female libido. So it should be very interesting conversation for me at least.
[00:14:39] Unknown:
I can imagine it will be for a lot of our gender. Yes. Yes. Well, if not interesting, insightful.
[00:14:46] Unknown:
Yes. There you go. Absolutely. That that's that's the way to spin it. Alright. So, Bill, tell tell me something about yourself that, most people don't know but should.
[00:14:55] Unknown:
Well, let me tell you a little bit about my early background. I'm a first generation American. My parents came here from Italy. They were just babies when they came. We settled into a community in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It was all immigrant neighbors. I think I was about eight years old before I realized there were people in the world whose last names didn't end in a vowel. I thought everybody was Italian. And, you're gonna tell me there's a religion besides Roman Catholic? What are you kidding? Right. That's that's what I grew up with. And what I grew up with was a push of working hard.
I don't care how you feel about it. Nobody even talked about feelings. Mhmm. You just work hard. You focus on that. And that's how I did it in school, and that's how I did it in my jobs. And when I started my first business, I said, this one will make me some money to support the one that I really want to get going, but I had no interest in it. Mhmm. It was just something I acquired in order to make the money to get the computer business going. That business lasted a year and a half before it went bankrupt. That's when I started learning.
There's more to it than just hard work. You have to have the feeling behind it. Mhmm. There has to be something of a love in there to get the creativity, the extra something that isn't just effort that comes from you, from the soul, if you wanna call it that way. But essentially, that is what I learned, and that was the success the cause of the success of the second business, which lasted forty years. Wow.
[00:16:30] Unknown:
Well, like you, I'm Italian myself. Are you? Yes. Okay. Ruz is just a shortened version of my last name. My last name is Rusiello. So Okay. That clarifies it. Yeah. Yes. So when I was growing up, my friends used to just call me Ruz for short, so it just stuck. It just stuck over the years. But, my, my so I I what what would I be? A fourth generation, I think? My, my great grandparents immigrated to The United States, and, one side came from Northern Italy, and the other side came from Sicily. So, so yeah. So I have I have an interesting mix in in there. Yeah. You do too. Yeah. Constantly constantly struggling one against the other. But Yeah. I let me tell you. My mother came from Sicily, and
[00:17:14] Unknown:
she's a wonderful woman. She was fantastic. But if you got to know her real well, you'd understand why the mafia started in Sicily. Yeah.
[00:17:23] Unknown:
She has that kind of a temperament, so you don't cross her. Yeah. That is great. That's great. I like that. She loved her family. She loved the kids, and it was yeah. That was that was my description. That's great. I have to remember that one. That's a good one. I like that. Alright. So let me ask you this. So so what's your what's your go to beverage to help you unwind at the end of the day?
[00:17:41] Unknown:
I alright. I'm gonna say this and I'm just gonna take my chances. But every once in a while, not every night, I will have a Manhattan on the rocks. Okay. That's my one relax my dad's, he did the same thing maybe two or three nights a week, but his was a martini. Okay. Mine is Manhattan. Alright. And so that's my relaxing beverage, one only. Calms, relaxes, lets go of all the stress, helps. Takes the edge off. There's more to it than that. Yeah. It takes the edge off. There you go. That's my favorite. How about you? What is your I'm a bourbon guy.
[00:18:14] Unknown:
Ah, we're in the same neighborhood. Similar. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a I'm a cigar and bourbon guy. I I love the idea of sitting out in the backyard by the fire with a bourbon, cigar, and a beautiful woman, and we're good to go. Okay. Sounds pretty good to me. That's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. But, Bill, so you're a successful entrepreneur. You're author. You're a speaker. Take us back to the very beginning and, tell us a little bit about the experience in starting your own business. You know, what motivated you to really get started something in something like software, business?
[00:18:47] Unknown:
Well, I worked I have a degree in engineering. I got from Tufts University in Boston. I grew up in the Boston area. I've been living in Phoenix for a very long time. And I I got a job as an engineer with a company that found out that I'm one of the few engineers that could actually talk to people. And so I gradually moved into a management role. Mhmm. And part of my frustration with the management is I couldn't get the information I needed in time to effectively and efficiently run the production line that I was taking care of. So I got my hands on a terminal from the mini computer that, they had in the company, and I taught myself how to program in Fortran.
And I put together a system that my, head people on each of the sections of the production line would put in their data. And by the end of the day, I knew exactly what had to be done, where we were stuck, what was going on. I loved it. I had such fun doing it. And I decided after a while, I was kind of like I was still in my late twenties and I still knew everything. I was still there. So I decided, listen, I can do this better. I'm gonna go ahead and start my own business. And I got myself a RadioShack TRS 80. And if you don't know what that is I do. Then you're too young. Okay? I remember who it is. I don't know about the about our viewers. But You know it. Yeah.
And I put it in the back bedroom and I was playing with it. And I decided, no. I wanna do this. I wanna do it for a living. But I didn't trust that I could make enough money right away to get to support myself. So through a series of steps, I bought this as a business, which was a van conversion shop. Shop. Now you have to understand, this is the nineteen seventies, the mid to late nineteen seventies. These vans were tricked out with paint jobs like you wouldn't believe. All psychedelic stuff. Mhmm. Cushioned seats, driver and passenger side, padded flooring in the back with carpet on top, CB radio, ten four good buddy, you know, that kind of stuff.
That was what it was. I had no real interest in it, but I knew that if I worked hard, at least I was trained, if I worked hard, I could bring it back up and make the money I needed, sell it, and then be able to do my other business. Well, I worked hard and everything went wrong. I dealt with car dealerships as a vendor. If you think they're tough as a customer, try being a vendor to a car dealership. And I had went through some economic times, great recession. We were having oh, this is I'm sorry. This is the great recession before the most recent great recession. Okay. And, we the industry of the automotive industry was hit hard. Chrysler almost went out of business, and people weren't buying vans. Well, that kinda hurts you if you're converting vans.
That's when I learned. That's when I learned that I've got something going on inside of me that was telling me no, Bill. You wanna be successful in business, you gotta find something that you love. And I started, as you described, in the back bedroom, started writing programs for people. This is when you could only get programs with, word processing only got software, I should say, word processing, spreadsheets, and some basic accounting. Right. And that was it. If you wanted programs for you, you had to somebody had to make them for you. And that's what I did.
And I made each one, and each one was a little harder than the last one. So I had to learn something new, and it built up. And I had to move into an office. The back bedroom wasn't working anymore. Sure. Eventually hired these other people. I made an affiliation with ADP payroll, which is a huge nationwide payroll company. They wanted me to help out with their staffing company so that they could get the payroll and let the staffing companies do all the other recruiting and billing and all of that that's tied in together. I built that.
Before very long, I had more customers in in Manhattan than I did in Phoenix. Mhmm. It it just because a my best salesperson. They were spreading the word all around the country to staffing companies. That's what made it happen. But like I say all the time, and I focus on this so much, you have to have your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. Because think about it. What else are we? As human beings, we think, we feel, we do. We're some combination of those things. When we're aware of that, when we're conscious of that, we can whether or not we're feeding all of those to go in the same direction.
If you're thinking and feeling another, I was thinking I wanna be successful in this van job. I was feeling like, can I get how am I gonna get out of this? That's where you spin your wheels. Most people don't realize that. They don't they don't understand the concept of that. And they end up trying to blame other people under the circumstances instead of recognizing they can control it. They can do it if they recognize how.
[00:23:49] Unknown:
Now your LinkedIn profile says that, that, you started by providing technology solution to small business, data processing in the Greater Phoenix area. And your bio says that, you've always been about observation, learning, and problem solving. How do you think that helped you start, your business and turn it into a success?
[00:24:09] Unknown:
Well, when you're you can count on there being problems. I don't care how much you test. I don't care what you do. Microsoft can have them and my little company had them. Sure. And what I learned early on was, look, people depend on these computers. They depend on the software. The staffing companies, for example, they if they couldn't make payroll on time, they would lose their employees. They'd go down the street to the competitor. So not making payroll was like
[00:24:38] Unknown:
disaster. Sure. Yeah.
[00:24:41] Unknown:
Oh, I knew that. And I knew how they would feel about that. So I made darn sure that the people that work for me and myself would jump on it as quickly as possible, would get it fixed, would do whatever work around we could do. I, one time, had a a person, one of my people, she was fairly new. She made a mistake, and she had an extra $20,000 came out of their account, my customer's account, but left them unable to make their payroll. I found out about it. They were in a panic. I went to the bank. I took $20,000 out. I put it in their account, and I said, said, we'll settle it all later. And they did.
And they be and they stayed my customer till the day I left, till I sold the company. Sometimes people are but you gotta think, sometimes people can be their own worst enemies. I had a customer one time that was having a problem, called me up, just your software sucks. I can't believe you sell this stuff. I'm calling my lawyer, you know, and I'm you you're in big trouble. And I'm thinking to myself, doesn't he understand that I'm the only one or some member of my team are the only ones that can solve the problem? And he's talking to me this way.
And I thought, you know, you're lucky I'm a nice guy because I'm not gonna yell back at you, and I didn't hang up on him. I waited until he took a breath, and I said, okay. Now can you tell me what the problem is? And when I he took me off to it. He had handed me off to one of his people, and I found out within five minutes, you've got a new employee that's doing this. They're doing it wrong. Here's what you need to do. You fix it in five minutes. All of that hassle
[00:26:22] Unknown:
Right.
[00:26:23] Unknown:
For a five minute solution.
[00:26:25] Unknown:
And I'm sure that happens a lot too. Not not just in your there are circumstances, but, like, I know from I can shame on me. I had a experience like that too. I I was having a problem with something, and I just blew my stack. It was just because it was just the end of the day. You know? It was like everything it was just kind of building and building and building and building to the point where the, you know, Vesuvius explodes. And, and, I this poor this poor guy, when he picked up the phone for me and I I was just like, use. You know?
All that great stuff. I know the words. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. And based on the kind of person though, after it was all said and done, I apologized. And I was like, look, it's it's not you. I understand it's not you. It's this, this, this, and this. I get it. I'm sorry. I I let it out on you. You hope you get people like that. You know, you don't do it often though, unfortunately. Yeah. So, let's talk about your book. Let's talk about your book. Process of living. Yes. What motivated you to start that whole process?
[00:27:25] Unknown:
Well, the story I just told you, I started thinking about that later on. It was late in my career. And I said, isn't this interesting that this guy is feeling I know he was feeling fear. Mhmm. I know he was scared to death that his people weren't gonna get paid, but he was expressing anger. Right. And he was working against himself. He was putting himself in a situation where he really would have been in big trouble under different circumstances. And I got interested in this kind of thing. And I said I started reading books and talking to some friends, attending lectures, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, you know, those kinda those kinda folks. That's true. And I learned more and more about it. And to me, this was fascinating because we live in a society where people wanna blame.
I did this because you said that. You treated me this way, therefore, I did this other thing. So what are we talking about? Do you rule my life, or do I rule my life? This is what prompted me this was part of what prompted me to write the book. I've seen it enough times, and I learned enough from some of these very intelligent and very wise people. Mhmm. And I said, no. I'm going to give this from the standpoint that I've seen. So this is a new age, if you will, self help kind of book that's more from an engineering point of view. It's not a lot of out there somewhere kind of, you know, writing.
I gotcha. This is about here, practical, step one, step two. Just do these things. Just pay attention. Stop blaming.
[00:29:04] Unknown:
Understand the power you have. Right. See, in in your in your PodMatch profile or bio, I don't know what they're called on there. And and if you're if you're listening and you're not sure what PodMatch is, PodMatch is like, Tinder for podcast. You know, you know, you get to swipe left, swipe right, you know, match or pass, and all that great stuff. But, that that's how we connected on on, on pod match. You put in in your bio that, that, you know, the the whole process, you know, the the process of living is a very practical, non religious approach, to to, I guess, drawing what you wanna do in your life.
Now what exactly does that mean to you?
[00:29:48] Unknown:
What that means to me is that the there's an acknowledgment that comes along about a part of us, which some people call the soul subconscious mind, some people call the soul, some people call energy. Mhmm. There's all kinds of different terms for it that pays attention to what we're thinking about and what we're feeling and what we're doing. And when we create patterns that have strengths to them, that force within us finds what we need Mhmm. To either get rid of a problem or to obtain something that we really want. Now very few people understand this, and they use terms like coincidence and luck and, you know, things like that that take place outside of themselves.
They don't understand how much power we have in order to draw these things into our lives. That's what happened when I had the one business and got the other. I had to learn. I had to go through a process. And the process was guided by my subconscious, which knew how much I wanted to run my own computer business. Mhmm. And it said, alright, Bill. Before you do this, you're gonna have to learn this. You're gonna have to go through an experience, and then you'll be have the knowledge you need to be able to
[00:31:07] Unknown:
do it. Now in in the, introduction that I that we did tonight, I mentioned that, you found that there are three elements, three essential elements to success. Can you, can you tell us what those are and explain about more about how you, discovered these?
[00:31:25] Unknown:
Well, the three elements are what I mentioned a little while ago is thought, feeling,
[00:31:30] Unknown:
action. Okay.
[00:31:31] Unknown:
Those are the three things. Getting them working in line is what you need in order to achieve anything. It's how can I say this? It's not complicated. It's simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy like so many other things. Mhmm. The concept is easy, but the actual doing of it goes against a lot of what we've been taught. So we have to correct as we're going along in order to do it. We have well, I'll tell you what. Let me explain to you how I got to Phoenix, and this will give you a pretty good idea Okay. Sure. Of how this works together. I was working in a company in, Massachusetts after graduating from college just briefly because this was back in 1970. The draft was still on. The Vietnam War was still going on. And so I was gonna end up in the military one way or the other.
Well, I wanted to fly airplanes, so I went into the air force. And they were bringing home too many pilots, so I didn't get a chance to do that. But I got stationed. My duties second duty station was Booke Air Force Base here in Phoenix. Okay. Now I come from Boston. Boston to Phoenix is like a different planet. Sure. You couldn't get much different than that. So I didn't wanna come. I mean, my mind was this is just a giant desert, and I'm seeing John Wayne come up to the bar with the guns drawn. You know, that's how I'm thinking of Arizona.
And I was I was not happy. But when I got out here, I was amazed. This state has so much variety within it. Mhmm. It's just incredible. You go down to Yuma near the Mexican border, there's a desert like the Sahara Desert, and you can have a lot of fun with your sand dunes and all of that kind of stuff. Nice. We got a big metropolitan city in Phoenix. You drive north a little bit, hour and a half, you're in Sedona. Some of the most beautiful landscape mountains and
[00:33:26] Unknown:
the red rock of Sedona. Sedona is one of those places that's on my bucket list.
[00:33:31] Unknown:
Oh, it's a good one to have there and pull it through one. It really is. Then you go up further north, you have Flagstaff and, I mean, I could go skiing and for the day, come home and barbecue outside with a shirt t shirt and shorts. The state has that kind of variety. Sure. But the real clincher was when I flew a Cessna one seventy two over the top of the Grand Canyon. That had to be amazing. Make sure that make sure that's on your bucket list. That had to be amazing. Because oh my god. It was unbelievable. I just I had to keep reminding myself to fly the airplane. I mean, I was just so overwhelmed with the beauty of it. And the funny part was I was gonna take some other people. They couldn't make it, and I was glad because I didn't wanna talk.
I just wanted to absorb it all. Yeah. And I've been up there a million times. I've hiked. I've it just it's just the most amazing place I've ever been to. So I decided I wanna I wanna stay. I'm gonna stay in Phoenix. Well, they let me out early because the Vietnam War was ending. People they're bringing the people home, and they said, if you're not gonna make a career out of the air force, you can go. Mhmm. Well, then I tried to get a a job, an engineering job in Arizona, and I hadn't had any experience yet. And the defense industry was laying off, all kinds of really qualified engineers because they didn't need them. So I said, alright. I'm gonna go back to Massachusetts. That job I had for a short time, they had to take me back because I went into the military. At that time, they could not refuse.
So I went back there with a plan, five year plan. I'm gonna go up. I'm gonna gain some experience. The economy will shift. It always does. And then I'm gonna come back here in five years, and I'm gonna get a job out here. It wasn't maybe I'll get a job. No. I'm going to get a job in Phoenix. That's where I'm gonna be. And I mean, I would tell everybody who want would listen, even those who didn't wanna listen, how wonderful Arizona was, how much I I wanted to go back there and talk about all the different things, some of what I just told you and many other things. Mhmm. And, I mean, I had this energy going on within me that was just overwhelming.
Well, I had been back for one year, and I had been working in an area that was new technology, quartz crystal, electronic frequency signals. It was brand new at that time. And I didn't ask for it. That's just where they placed me. And one year later, I got a call from a headhunter a few miles away from Boston and said, hey. I got a company out here that wants to talk to you. I said, alright. You know? Why not? So I went out and met with them. We had a little opening conversation, and then the president of the company said, look. Before we go too far, we need to know if you're gonna be willing to relocate. And I said, well, that depends. What are we talking about? He said, well, the plant we need you at is in Phoenix, Arizona.
My five year plan became a one year plan. Oh, wow. And it wasn't until many years later that I realized why. I thought it was luck. I thought it was just a coincidence. But think about all the things that had to happen for me to go back to that job assigned to that department, find a company, first of all, a headhunter, and then a company in the same area that needed me, my technology to work back in Phoenix. I it was years later that I realized, no. This was my energy that I was putting out that drew all of this in. Yeah. You manifested it for yourself. I manifested it. Absolutely. And more people do this than they realize. Mhmm. So many people do this and they don't even know what they're doing.
[00:37:15] Unknown:
And when you know and you can put it apply it, then you've really got something. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure I I, you know, I I don't I I I'm trying to as you're telling the story, I'm trying to think back over experiences that I've had in my life where I've manifested things into reality. And and I could think of a couple of things that I'm not gonna mention what they are because they didn't turn out the way, I really wanted them to. They they had some some, major malfunctions along the way. But, basically, I got what I wanted. I got to be where I wanted at that time, but, without all the, with without everything that led me to that point. So, basically, I had to start all over again.
Yeah. But, but but I I know exactly what you're talking about in that one, and that's and that's that's incredible story. And, but I wanna ask you about the but one thing about your book too is, you know, when you were writing this, that first edition, what challenges did you come across as you were writing that first edition?
[00:38:10] Unknown:
Well, the major challenge is every time I go through a chapter, I reread it and say, no. No. That's not it. That's not what I see. Because that's not gonna that's not gonna lead into what I
[00:38:21] Unknown:
need now. Oh, you're like me. I must have gone through oh, gosh. Yeah. You're the same thing. I do the same thing. I I, especially with the show is I I'll I'll go through stuff all the time and say, no. No. No. No. I'm I'm scrapping that and starting all over from scratch. Yeah. No. I know what you're talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. Anybody who's written written any kind of a book
[00:38:36] Unknown:
goes if they have any real caring about it, they go through that. And and I had people I had relatives read it. I had people that I was introduced to take a look at it. They would give me suggestions, and I went back and forth over that first edition. I don't know how many times. And then when I got it out there, then I got even more feedback. Mhmm. And there were several things on it that I looked at and I said, why didn't I think that? Why didn't I notice that? I got a little techie in the middle of the book and I had I don't know how many people told me, hey, you lost me there. I couldn't figure out what you were talking about, so I just I dropped it. Well, it was important techie information, but I didn't have to be in the middle of the book. So So in the second edition, I moved all of that into an appendix. Okay. And I said That's smart. If you're interested, go read it. If you're not, take my word for it and just keep going. Good footnote. So yeah. Exactly. You know? If you're if you're in if you're like me and that kind of stuff interests you, go ahead.
But that's that was the biggest thing I changed, and there was a lot of other things that I changed in the second edition as well. Somebody asked me if I was gonna go through a third edition, and I said, I don't know if I'm gonna live that long. We'll see.
[00:39:42] Unknown:
Well, I actually, my next question question was I was gonna ask you about the second edition, and I was gonna ask you about the process of rewriting the book. And, you already you already kinda hinted at some of the things that made you realize you needed to rewrite the second edition. Yeah. But beside beside the moving the technical stuff to the back end of the book and making more like an appendix, was there anything else that that led you to feel like you needed to rewrite?
[00:40:07] Unknown:
Yeah. There was. And I think the biggest single thing I can point out to is talking to people who read the book and getting the feedback from what they got out of it. Mhmm. And many times, it was what I wanted to say, but too many times, it wasn't. The message they were getting wasn't the message I intended. And so I paid a lot of attention to that. And I spoke to those people, and I said, well, here's what I was trying to say. How would that have sounded better to you? How would that have made more sense to you in the direction that I'm I'm trying to go? And so I took a lot of that feedback and then went back through it and rewrote. None of the meaning of it really changed.
It's just the way I said it was more understandable to a larger number of people. And I've gotten much better reviews on the second edition in that way. People are getting what I meant for them to get out of the book. That made me feel much better. Oh, that's great. Now it oh, you also says, on your website that you are a professional speaker. You've been one for over thirty years.
[00:41:07] Unknown:
How did you first get started as a public speaker?
[00:41:10] Unknown:
Well, a lot of it had to do with, my business. Many times I got called into meeting with a whole team of people in a big company Okay. Talk about what I could do for them. I went to several business meetings for staff in the staffing industry, talked a lot about the staffing issues and what's going on, just not just about my software. But really, I was demonstrating my knowledge of what I knew, how much I knew about their business Mhmm. Which obviously, you know, gives us confidence in into what I provide. So I got into that, and I I'm not shy.
I take after my mother that way. There's no shyness there. But I wasn't experienced. You know, how do I put together a good thing? So I joined Toastmasters. And let me tell you, anybody who wants to do public speaking, join Toastmasters. This is a great organization that helps you to learn how to speak and gives you the feedback you need, the evaluations that you need in order to keep making improvements. So I did that for quite a few years. Mhmm. And, then after I wrote the book, like I say, things come to you that you would have never imagined. I, I go to a church. We do a lot of meditation. That's a big deal.
And one of the people at the church works for a company, works for a state department of corrections. And she wanted to bring some of us to the women's prison to talk about meditation. Okay. Well, when I got there, I they they showed us their manual for the second chance program. This is where they're trying to reduce the incredible recidivism that goes on in the prison system. People just come in. It's like a revolving door. And they have this program going. Well, their program was so much in line with my book, I couldn't believe it. I almost accuse them of plagiarism. They just took my stuff here. And when then when we talked about it, they said, well, would you like to, you know, maybe make some presentations?
So for several years, I went to the women's prison, Perryville Prison in Arizona, and I made presentations to groups of people that range from 15 to 50 that would be there at any one time. And it was the most satisfying thing I've ever done. You know, you never know. You don't know how much impact it had, but it felt good to at least put that those ideas out.
[00:43:25] Unknown:
And that's true. You you don't know especially for the people that you're you're you're deal you're speaking with. You don't know how you will affect them as, you know, in in the aftermath of the conversations. Now through, of course, writing a book, you go on the speaking tours. Right? So you have a number of speaking engagements you go to. How have those speaking, engagements impacted you as a writer?
[00:43:50] Unknown:
They've they've impacted me in because I started doing that at the first edition. Okay. So they impacted me. That was another funnel of data and information that came back to me to do that. Now I'm gonna be honest with you. It didn't amount to a lot of book sales. No. Really? It really didn't. No. I was surprised. I thought it would do more. It didn't. And I had no criticism from people about, yo, no. You're what you're saying, I don't believe that or that they were very open to it, but it just there's a lot of books of that genre out there. There's a lot of them. And so people have to make a decision which one do I wanna read.
But I'll be perfectly honest. The whole purpose of the book was to get up in front of people and talk about it. Mhmm. I wanted the book to be the introduction. I had no illusions of making millions of dollars on book sales. I wanted to get the book in front of enough people who would say, yeah. The people in our company need to hear this. The people in this organization need to hear this. The book helped me get an introduction to, a group that's part of AARP that actually does tutoring for third graders, who are having trouble with their reading. Mhmm. And I said, now that's interesting. So I looked into that, and I'm gonna be starting my duties as a volunteer to help kids learn how to read.
[00:45:18] Unknown:
Because quite frankly, if you don't know how to read, you're not gonna get very far in the education system. And when you sat down to write That's good. That was good. When you sat down to write this book, you'd never imagined that it would be done it'd be used as, as a as a as a guide to teach others how to read.
[00:45:34] Unknown:
Well, no. The book itself isn't. It was the book that was a guide to people who needed someone to teach someone. Oh, I see. Okay. I misunderstood. Okay. I apologize. The the people who wrote the the people who read the book said, hey. This is there's some good stuff in here about, you know, being able to use what you have within you to your advantage. We could use that to maybe motivate these kids to learn how to read because that is really blocking not knowing that is blocking their education. So it was through this person, through this person, through that person. Oh, you should look into this. That's how it happened. You never know how it's gonna happen.
[00:46:12] Unknown:
Yeah. No. Exactly. And I'm I'm sorry I misunderstood what you were saying on that, but but that's that's even actually, that's even better than what I was thinking. So it also works itself out. And, you know, and what do you hope that readers come away with, from from reading your book and and and applying the things in your book to their lives? What are you hoping they're walking away with?
[00:46:33] Unknown:
The single most important thing is to recognize the power that you have within you. People give up on their plans. They give up on their goals because they don't believe. They don't believe. And it's you have to believe. You have to more than believe. You have to know. You have to know that what you need will be brought to you. The dream killer question is how. If I can't figure out how in my mind, then obviously it can't happen. That's not true. I didn't figure out how I was gonna end back in Phoenix. I would've never dreamt it was gonna happen that way. Right. Yeah. I the the how question is you put that aside. You've got the subconscious. You've got this energy within you as a human that you can use if you apply it.
And that's your power. That's what you have. If you can visualize it, if you can if you want it, if you feel it with energy, you will be drawn to it. There's a quote from the bible, and it's the only quote I've ever used. Because like I told like you mentioned, it's this is not a religious book. This quote was so good. And I'm probably not gonna get all the words exactly right, but you'll you understand what I'm saying. Okay? For all that you pray and desire, believe that you have received it, and it will be granted to you. Mhmm. It's a mark, I think eleven fourteen or something like that. Somewhere around there. I read that. Somebody actually showed me that, and I said, oh, this I have to put in the book because this is from a much higher authority saying exactly what I'm trying to say.
[00:48:15] Unknown:
Know that you'll get it. You'll get it. Well, you know something. It's what's interesting too is is, you know, I don't know if you know or not, but, I teach I teach the Bible, and, I teach Oh, no. I didn't know. Yeah. I do. And, I, I served as an associate pastor of a church in, in Ups in, in Upstate, in, in Staten Island, New York. And, that's where I'm from originally. I'm I'm from New York. I'm not a net I'm not a native Texan. So, I don't know if I gave that away or any way any way, shape, or form, but, but I I I I worked for New York City for twenty five years. I, you know, I I I served as an associate pastor of a church for for little over a year, while our senior pastor was, had taken sick, and so he had asked me to step in and try to help out, you know, as much as I could, so which which I did.
I've I've I've been to bible school. I've I've done a list. I I teach bible on Sundays, actually, as a show. We we I do a show here every Sunday in a bible study show. And, and we're actually going through America's Christian heritage right now. That's this the subject that we're teaching on. And, I I say we, the royal we, you know. So, but I know what you're talking about. The Bible actually is an the Bible actually wears many hats. I I always say that the Bible is the greatest history book you'll ever get. The Bible is also the greatest self help book you'll ever get. If you actually read the Bible, it's a great textbook on political science.
The the basic theme of the Bible is who's going to rule who, who's gonna govern who. I'm glad salvation's in there, of course. I mean, it's it's important, but basically it's, you know, it has it has those elements. You could find just about everything you need to know about life in your Bible. So the Bible is also a great self help book, and quote and and verses like you just put out, that's that's a very, very true verse. It's it's it's a powerful verse. You can, you know, if you if you have the faith to believe that God is gonna do something for you, he'll do it for you. Now it may not be in your time frame. It might not be for years later. You don't know. It's all on on the Lord's time frame.
It's when he determines because, of course, he is sovereign in our life. So he it all determines, his determination on meeting that need is in his time scale. And the Bible says a day with the is is a day a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. You know? So it's it's a it's a great book. So you should definitely use your use the Bible more in your in your in your quotations in your book.
[00:50:58] Unknown:
And, no, you're not the first person to tell me that. The, and the other part of that though that what you said is not only the time, but the experience. Yes. What you need to know, what you need to experience before you can get to what you're asking the good Lord to give you, he will provide. Yes. He will take you through, and you have to trust. Mhmm. You have to know and you have to trust. Yeah. Because
[00:51:24] Unknown:
it's very easy to get discouraged if you don't believe. That's right. And just just as a side note to that, just wanna make sure the folks that are that are watching and listening understand this. I am not a name it and claim it preacher. I I don't I don't believe that. I I do believe that that as long as what you're asking for lines up with God's perfect will for you, he'll be happy to answer that in his time frame. If it's something that that he does not want for you or something that's not good for you, he's he's not obligated to give it to you anyway. So, just keep that in mind. I just wanna make sure I I I I explained that because I know some dingbats gonna go out there and say, well, you just said I eat whatever I want. No. It's not what I said.
Alright?
[00:52:09] Unknown:
Yeah. No. And you're right. That's exactly true.
[00:52:12] Unknown:
So, so do you have any plans to write another book or what?
[00:52:16] Unknown:
No. Actually, I don't. Not at the moment. Now that may change. But, you know, my wife has asked me on a number of different occasions, you know, you sold your business eight years ago. Do you think maybe you're gonna retire sometime? And I I said, well, I'm sure eventually, I don't know what's gonna come first, my retirement or my leaving this earth. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be close. Let's put it that way. So right now, I'm really focused on doing the speaking. This new thing with helping the kids learn how to read. Which is great, by the way. Yeah. I think to me, that's so important. If you go on my website, I I have a blog in there about and the website is theprocessofliving.com.
It's the same as the book. And I have a blog in there that that is a picture that starts with the Statue Of Liberty. And I mentioned about how so many of the various groups that we have in this country that have not progressed as much as others has become, because of a lack of education. Yeah. Because of living in neighborhoods that have poor, they don't have the money, they don't have the teachers, they don't have the resources, and it's easy to get discouraged. And we keep that thing flowing over and over again, and we gotta change it. Yeah. Because if we don't change it, we're gonna be stuck in the same wheel over and over. And there's a whole segment, there's a whole blog in there that I talk about now. So this fit right in. Sure. When they told me about this because this is gonna be Hispanic people, some African Americans, this is mostly non white population.
And this is where you're not just teaching them to read. You're teaching them to respect themselves. You're teaching them to say, hey. I'm good. I can do these things. That's the even bigger warning part.
[00:54:03] Unknown:
I'm laughing because I I got a text just now, from one of our producers that said, oh my god, your hair. I I I had hair up until Saturday. So
[00:54:14] Unknown:
What did you have it shaved off? What did you do this Saturday? No. I shaved on Saturday. Yeah. Oh, no kidding. Yes. Yeah. So
[00:54:23] Unknown:
Oh, good. I'm so sorry. I don't I didn't not ready to do that. I don't I don't mean to get this I didn't mean to, you know, just get distracted like that, but I just when it popped up on my screen here That's pretty funny. That's pretty funny. Yeah. I, you know, I I was thinking about it. So, if if I if I don't do something with it, I my hair is all white. I, you know, I I went gray very, very young. So, I I feel like I'm 55. I'll be 55 this year. I I I don't feel like I should have all white hair at 55. I I don't feel old enough for that. So I would I would I would color it from time to time and, you know, I would use the one that, you know, leaves a little bit of the gray in, so it doesn't look too unnatural. And, but, I don't know. I just looked at it the other day and I was like, you know what? I'm just getting tired of doing this.
I really I really am. So what's what's what's the next what's the next best thing to do? You know, I just took my clippers and went took it right off. And, That's pretty funny. And I I I look at it like this. It's only hair. It'll grow back. Well, I hope it'll grow back. Oh, it'll grow back. You know, my at at this age, I don't know anymore. You
[00:55:32] Unknown:
know? At, with my depth. Well, I've I've got, I've got good genetics because, I'm 77 years old, and I've still got the full head of hair. Oh, God bless you, man. My father was in his eighties, and and, well, actually, he died. He was 93 when he died, and it wasn't until the last five or six years of his life that he actually really started losing some hair. So, I can't say that's all Italian because that wouldn't fit with what we talked about earlier. Oh, of course. Yes. But, well, my my my dad
[00:56:01] Unknown:
my dad was had a receding hairline. When when my dad passed away, it was about here somewhere. When, when my grandfather was alive, my grandfather had and I used to tease him all the time. He he he had the he had the Friars haircut. You know what I mean? So you had the you had the big bald spot right there. They still had hair on the sides. So so I would tease about that. So so I I got the whammy on both sides. You know? So, but I don't know. I still got the I got the good pattern still. That's not it's not horrible yet, but we're getting there. So let me ask you. Who's someone that you respect right now, and, what are they doing that inspires you?
Good question. Well, you could use me as an example if you like. Well, of course. I mean, you were the first one.
[00:56:51] Unknown:
I don't know if you're familiar with Unity, Unity Church. It's, I like the fact that they're very open to different patterns, different thoughts. They are Christian based. Mhmm. But we honor all paths to God. That's that's one of their things. So it's a very welcoming and very kind
[00:57:10] Unknown:
kind of a place. Is it Unitarian church or?
[00:57:14] Unknown:
Pardon me? Denomination. Okay. No. It's not Unitarian. Yeah. It's, we got the first name Myrtle. They were in Utah. They started this thing going, what they wanted to do is make people feel welcome and understand what is important and not to get caught up in the details of, well, I believe it's exactly this way or I believe it's exactly that way. That's okay. You can have those little variations, but there's a fundamental that what you just said, that God is there and will provide for you what he knows is right for you. Right. And I don't care what religion you're in. It's going to work that way. So this particular religion yeah. I grew up Catholic and Catholic at that time, back in the nineteen fifties. You you you're Italian, of course.
And, you know, back in those days, I mean, if you even stepped into a Protestant church, you're going straight to hell. Oh, yeah. I had a I had a little trouble with that. But, there is a minister at the Unity Church, Unity of Phoenix, and this lady has got a skill in how she brings forth the subject matter to it's clear and entertaining and still right on target for what people need to know. Mhmm. And I just so admire her. She's not a world famous anything,
[00:58:39] Unknown:
but she sure is good at what she does. It's it's amazing how many people are like that. You know, people that Yeah. In relative obscurity that are just so in tune and just so just have such a such a passion and a knowledge and, and and a way to apply things to your life that that nobody really knows about. You know, that that really only impact a small amount of people, but yet those people though, what they should do is they should expand out and bring people in.
[00:59:07] Unknown:
That's what I told her. I said you should be on TV. You should not be just limited to the 200 or so people that come in on Sundays to, you know, hear your speech. I mean, she's got so much stuff. And, that's I I just admire her tremendously for her skills, particularly where I'm so interested in public speaking. Mhmm. She's outstanding. I mean, she she gives the example.
[00:59:32] Unknown:
So, yeah, she's very good. Alright. So where can the audience go to learn more about you, your work, and, any upcoming things, speaking engagements you'll be involved in?
[00:59:42] Unknown:
Well, it's very simple. You just go to the processofliving.com, and I keep things up to date there. Okay. You can go to Facebook. I do more at Facebook than any other of the, I do some on Twitter x, whatever it's called. Yeah. I had to do better with my social media stuff. I'm terrible with it. Yeah. I am too. There's so many different thing. You could eat up your entire day. Yeah. With doing all this, and they changed the rules. So now that you thought you know it, no. You don't really know it anymore. Exactly. I I'm I've got a gal that I've hired that that helps me with that stuff, but, I don't.
That's not the way I wanna spend my day. But Facebook, I'm there. I have posts on a regular basis there, and I have blogs inside the, the website. And, all about contacting me, more detail about the beliefs summary, all of that is is in there. I say start out at theprocessofliving.com.
[01:00:36] Unknown:
If you're interested in learning more, start there. Alright. And that'll tell you the next step. Yep. Now, of course, we have all of that information in the show notes, so the audience can just easily click the link. Well, on the audio side, they can just click a link. It'll take them right to everything that we have on you. On the, on the video side, you you'll just have to cut and paste and copy the link and and, and and check them out. But definitely, you need to check them out. I checked out your website earlier today. Really good stuff on there. And, I'll be looking for you on the socials. You know, you don't have to worry about following back right away because I know you're terrible with it just like I am. So,
[01:01:08] Unknown:
you know, it's one of those things. I don't know. I will I will look for it, and I'll go through it. And if I need help, I'll get help from someone at least. Alright.
[01:01:16] Unknown:
Alright. Bill DeBarber, thank you so very much for being here with us tonight. Thank you. I really do appreciate your time, and, look forward to, actually getting more into your book. And, hey, brother, God bless you, man. Appreciate you.
[01:01:29] Unknown:
Thank you so much, sir, and I appreciate you as well. This has been a lot of fun. I really Yeah. We'll do it again sometime for sure. Okay. Sounds good. Alright. You take care now. Alright, folks. Build a barber.
[01:01:39] Unknown:
Alright. So, folks, don't forget this is a live show on, weeknights, 7PM central time. And don't forget to head over to our website, joeroos.com. Make sure you click that like, subscribe, and share on Rumble. And, we're gonna take a very short break here. When we come back, we'll be bringing in Lauren Pena, the, candidate for congress, congressional seat number 35 out of Austin, Texas. And, I think you're gonna like I think you're gonna like Lauren. Lauren was a it's a bit of firecracker. So, talk, on a few things about the redistricting that's going on down here in Texas, and, I think this I think this young lady has a bright future in politics.
So we'll be back in just a moment. Stay with us, and see you in a minute. Bye.
[01:06:22] Unknown:
Up and down, counting out, smiling through the taste of blood in my own mouth. I got bruises and broken bones, but they don't know I ain't in this ring alone. I'm a fighter. No one can say that I'm a runnin' hider. I was born to be too dire, I make it right or don't throw that towel just yet. Don't cash in that last bit because I hit order when I'm tired. I'm a fighter. I get back up. That's what I do. I didn't soldier on No one can keep me down. They didn't know, but they know now that I'm a fighter.
[01:09:01] Unknown:
Alrighty, folks. First hour is in the books. Welcome back to the Joe Roose Show. I am Joe Ruse. Second hour, gonna get started here momentarily. Bill DeBarba. Need to check out his book, folks. I look at some of it. It's really, really good. Looking forward to really getting into it though. Alright. Waiting in the wings, we have our second hour guest, Lauren Pena. She's hanging out there waiting. Before we bring her in though Hey, folks, Pod home. No, that's okay, you can turn it on. Pod home, our host platform on the audio side of the show. Pod home is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform. You can use it to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, automatically generate transcript, chapters, titles, show notes, and more.
I've been using Pod Home now for a couple of years. Great platform. Customer service is fantastic. And you know what the great thing about Pod Home is is that you could broadcast your podcast live. Not only across the modern two point o platforms, you can also do it through your website. And if you don't have a website, hey, Pod Home will provide one for you. All for the low, low price of $15.99 a month. Now I have been part of other, podcast platforms, some of the bigger named ones, and, for three times as much as I'm paying with Pod Home, I got nothing compared to what Pod Home is providing to us. So if you go to podhome.fm right now, you could try it out for free for thirty days. And then from there, it's just $15.99 a month. And, you know, just what I described to you here is not even remotely everything that Pod Home has to offer. So you need to check them out. Podhome.fm, podhome.fm.
Alright. Now since she jumped the gun already, I am absolutely excited to bring on our second guest tonight. I saw her speaking at some of the redistricting hearings that have been taking place down in Austin. I reached out to her, asked her to join the show. Now she is breaking down barriers between poverty and politics, extensive experience in grassroots organizing, volunteer coordination, public advocacy. She is committed to fostering meaningful connections and driving impactful initiatives. Her leadership roles have included serving on advisory boards, coordinated community events, mentoring individuals to become active contributors to their community. Lauren Pena is passionate about empowering others and creating solutions that address societal changes while promoting collaboration and innovation.
Now currently, she is taking on a new adventure. She's running for Congress, which is huge, in Austin's District 35, which has led her to speak out in favor of redistricting for Congress. Lauren Pena, just welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Awesome. Not too many people say that and mean it, so I have a feeling though you do. So, so I'm gonna I'm gonna start off right off the bat with this. One of the reasons that I really wanted to get you on the show was I had seen a a bunch of videos that you had posted on, I think it was either Facebook or Instagram or somewhere. I think it was Facebook though. And I'll be very honest with you. When I the first the first couple of, presentations that I saw you make, you remind me of a member of a current member of Congress who I have a lot of respect for, and that's Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[01:12:40] Unknown:
I love it that you said that.
[01:12:42] Unknown:
And see, I didn't tell you that beforehand. You didn't know I was coming, but but that's that's the truth. And, I I I just I don't know. I just see the same fire, the same spark that that, that that's in her, in you, and I think that you're gonna yeah. I think you have a very, very bright political future, and I'm really excited to see, to see how things worked out for you out there in, in Austin. So I like to ask a couple of warm up questions before we get into the the meat of the subjects for the night. I pretty much ask this of everybody, but what's what's something that most people don't know about you but should?
[01:13:18] Unknown:
Well, not to be like Kamala Harris, but I was born in the middle class. Sorry. I really was. I was I was born into the middle class. And so when I got kicked out of the house at 16 and pregnant, I fell into extreme poverty. So I think that's what kinda gives me a different perspective because I actually know at least what it's like to live in middle class and how different it is in my current lifestyle versus and and my parents were not rich. They they weren't even upper middle class. I think they made, like, 100,000 a year. So they had an okay home, an okay car, but we didn't get to go out to eat or do things like that all the time. So it was it was a basic life, but it was still middle class. So to yeah.
[01:13:59] Unknown:
Okay. A lot of energy. Wow. That's great. That's great. Alright. So what's your go to beverage at the end of the day to help you unwind? Is there one? Water. You know, I've only had out of all the times I've asked that question, I've only had a handful of people say something other than water.
[01:14:20] Unknown:
Oh, wow.
[01:14:22] Unknown:
So but, I don't know if you heard. I was talking to Bill, and Bill said, you know, Bill's a Manhattan guy, which is kind of like in the Martini family, really. But, I'm a bourbon guy. I love I love my bourbons. I like to like to do that on a weekend, you know, sit sit out in the backyard by the grill, bourbon, cigar, you know, that type of thing. But, let's see. So, Lauren, let's get back to where you start your political advocacy, and let's talk about what first motivated you to speak out for your community.
[01:14:52] Unknown:
Well, to be honest, I, I was really depressed during the pandemic. I had just gotten out of human trafficking. I just got a house in public housing. I was absolutely miserable, and I attempted to get jobs. Nothing was happening. And then I'm noticing my community fall apart, and then I start laying in bed, not wanting to get out of bed, not being a productive human being. And, I somehow got on to watching Alex Jones in, like, Infowars. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I started watching that, and I'm like, wow. Is this is this for real? Is this is this how the world is working out there? And not to say that I agree with everything he says because I think it is a it's a little extreme, but it did definitely open my eyes to, that I wasn't living in the the type of world that I thought I was living in.
And so I saw that, and I wasn't getting any jobs. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go see if I can get on a a safety council or something with the city of Austin. Okay. And so, sure enough, they had some open positions, and I was selected only a couple weeks after applying. And so when I got there, they literally just threw me into the crowd like like, threw me into it. So I had no idea what I was doing. I had never really attended any council meetings or legislative sessions. I knew nothing about politics whatsoever. I was so desperate to try to make action happen in my community that I threw myself to the wolves, and that's where it started.
But I quickly got kicked off the Austin Public Safety Commission because I was a conservative. And I think that was possibly one of the biggest things that started motivating me because I was like, oh, well, Alex Jones is right. A little bit. A little bit. And and I was just shocked to see how me living in poverty on the East Side and, you know, I'm literally, the first night I moved into my house, I saw two two people shoot each other in the street. And, like, nobody got arrested. One of them still lives here. Whatever. Hasn't happened again. So okay. None of my business. Whatever. But I'm like, okay. I'm gonna get on the Austin Public Safety Commission. I'm gonna advocate for more police because that's what my community needs, and we don't need undercovers because my community is flooded with undercovers. Like, we need uniform police officers walking around. Yeah. And I wanna do that. And at the same time, I was applying to actually be an officer for the Austin Police Department. And I got denied the first time because I didn't have a bachelor's degree.
And once I got my bachelor's degree, I got denied again because I didn't have a driver's license. But that ended up being a good thing because I started getting really heavy into politics because, again, I couldn't find a job, and that's all I could do was volunteer.
[01:17:38] Unknown:
Well, things things work out for for the best reasons. And so Absolutely. I think I think you're in your niche right now. So just do wanna go back to to just two quick things here. The the not so serious one first. Alex Jones, let me tell you something. I, have you tried his methylene blue?
[01:17:54] Unknown:
Okay. So I've heard so many good things about it, and I thought I saw something blue in your drink. And I was like, oh, I wonder if that's it. Unfortunately, they're a little too expensive for me right now, but I can't wait until I can afford that because I definitely will be trying. Try it. You should try it out. Now now just so you know, I I I love Alex Jones. I I watch Alex Jones every day. Again, I don't agree with everything. Some and and sometimes I think that his show becomes too much of an infomercial
[01:18:18] Unknown:
than than, a commentary program. But, I do have an affiliate link with Alex Jones. So you can go to the alexjonesstore.com/joe, and you can get all his vitamins and supplements right there. And 10% of that comes right back here to the podcast. That's my that's my plug. And, actually, I think I have a banner here somewhere. There it is. Yeah. The alexjonesjoe.com/joe. So Very cool. You could do that. I got my Infowars hat right up over here. So yeah. So, but Alex Jones is great. And, yeah, he's he's I actually have a t shirt that says, Alex Jones was right, changed my mind. So and I I like to wear that regularly when I go out, especially go to H E B or something like that. So Nice. No. It's not it's nice to be able to say H E B to somebody who actually knows what H E B is. So, but, what the the serious thing, though, that you mentioned is the human trafficking.
And, I've I've seen it on your website, and, so can can you talk about that a little bit? Tell us what exactly happened. Were you trafficked yourself, or were you just involved in something where you knew of a situation? So explain that.
[01:19:22] Unknown:
Well, like I said, I got pregnant when I was 16, and my middle class parents kicked me out. And what's worse is my high school did not being in the suburbs, they didn't want pregnant teenagers in their school. So they kinda handed me my diploma, having a ninth or tenth grade education level, and sent me out the door. So I was, you know, pregnant in the streets. There's not the same type of resources in the suburbs as there are in the city for situations like that. And so I just I found myself ending up being in the city. I did find myself finding protection in kind of, like, the gang culture and things like that.
And, I mean, it's obviously not a good thing, but I think I probably wouldn't be alive had that not happened to me. But then at the same time, a lot of bad things ended up happening after that. And so, you know, honestly, the way it first started is I was working in a club, and I was the person who was responsible for providing all the party favors. And so I didn't really have to do much. I just, you know, kind of had my club, and I took care of all the party favors for not only the the the other dancers, but also, like, the patrons that would come in. And, essentially, I was safe. Nobody was gonna mess with me. I was good to go.
Unfortunately, one of my highest paid customers just on, you know, the party favors was someone that was elected to office. And they would come in, and they would buy a significant amount of party favors and then also girls and stuff to to take home after and things like that. And so one night, I didn't have enough party favors. And this individual and the manager to the club had a very, very tight relationship because, I mean, the managers get paid really, really well there. But, you know, obviously, if it's an elected official, they're probably paying a lot more too for secrecy and things like that. Yeah. And so because I wasn't able to get more drugs, he looked at the manager and he was like, fire her. And so the manager fired me. And so it took me out of my safe situation where I was just providing party favors to not being in a safe situation, if that makes sense.
[01:21:37] Unknown:
I gotcha. That's that's a that's wow. I I like, I don't even know what to say to that. We we probably should have talked about that before the show. But, that that's that's terrible. I mean and, of course, this is all probably on the taxpayer
[01:21:52] Unknown:
taxpayer dime as well. And On the state credit card.
[01:21:56] Unknown:
And it was a state representative or it was a State senator. Wow. That's amazing. I'm not surprised by it, but at the same time, it's it's it's it's absolutely amazing.
[01:22:08] Unknown:
But I I do wanna be clear on something that's that's really important really fast. I do not advocate for selling party favors. In fact, I have a hatred towards these people. So, like, if I find out about you, I'm I'm not gonna be your friend because, I gotcha. They're they're bad. And I'm totally, totally against people that are involved with those things because it's not an excuse if you're poor and have nothing to do. Like, find something else to do. It's not okay. Yeah. I I I agree with you. I,
[01:22:38] Unknown:
I don't know if we I don't know if we mentioned earlier when we talked before the show, but, you know, I I come from a law enforcement background. I I I worked for New York City for twenty five years. I was in uniformed service at investigations work. I finished my career in operations. I've seen the effects of these things, up in New York, and I've seen how bad it could be. And, yeah. That that that that's not a lifestyle for anybody to be involved with at all whatsoever, and, there is no condoning it. There is no rationale that you could say that, well, you know, it does this and that no. None of that works. I mean, you're talking about some really serious, serious repercussions from these things. And, I'm I'm, you know, I'm I'm sad to to know that you went through that, but I'm glad to know that you're out of that, and you're you're using that, to to to drive your passion to see change made in the district that you are, looking to represent.
Now I I would imagine that, you know, there had to be a lot of emotions, when you went to speak for the first time before, state reps and city council and and and such. What did it feel like the first time you stood in front of these elected officials who were supposed to be representing you and your neighbors and confronting them about their failures in doing that?
[01:23:55] Unknown:
Well, unfortunately for me, I am mainly well, actually, in am only represented by Democrats. And so most of the time when I've testified on things, I honestly don't recognize who everyone is. Though, to me, they're just another person, but especially during redistricting and things like that, you know, we didn't have some of the Democrats there. You know? And, I remember I think it was the senate. I went off on the Democrats that were there, and I was like, you guys are screwed. There's nothing you could do about it. And I was like, wow. Where did that come from?
[01:24:32] Unknown:
But most I'm trying to think that was the video that I saw.
[01:24:36] Unknown:
It was crazy. But, so I I I didn't have any experience public speaking whatsoever. And when I drove all the way to Arlington for the Arlington hearing, oh my goodness. That was the craziest moment of my life because the the wonderful speaker, I think, Frederick Douglas, republicans, he was getting attacked by the crowd. They were booing, screen braces things, telling him it was the wrong color. So he's standing at one podium, and I'm literally standing at the other podium waiting to speak after him. And I'm like, oh my gosh. There's four or 500 people standing behind me. I've never talked to this many people before, and they are booing him. I was so scared. But I got so, I guess it it worked something up in me. And instead of talking to the dais, I ended up speaking to the the crowd behind me kinda a little bit chewing them out, but educating them, like, you know, your taxpayer dollars are weaponized against my family and things like that. So it was a it was actually a humble experience, but I don't know where it came from honestly because I didn't have any experience.
[01:25:40] Unknown:
Well, that's but look. I've been in situations like that too where I've spoken in front of large amounts of people, and and I was absolutely terrified up until I started speaking. And then all of a sudden, it just it it I I don't know what it is myself. It just you just you just you know the material you're gonna talk about, and you know the you you you know it better than they do, so you're just gonna start you're just gonna shoot it off. And, it gets easier as you do it. I've spoken in front of hundreds of people. I've spoken in front of over a thousand people. It's, it it it I still get nervous, you know. I get nervous now doing the show, you know. It's a oh, hello.
How did I thought we closed the door. Hold on. Sorry. No problem. Hey, pal. What's up? Yeah. I know. Okay. Alright. Let me let me just scoot him out. No problem. Sorry. Live shows, folks. Come on, buddy. Come on, daddy.
[01:26:41] Unknown:
I don't know. I feel like I should say something. I I I do just wanna tell everybody that's watching. I'm so excited that you're sitting here watching. And hi, Joe. Thanks for coming back. Come back.
[01:26:50] Unknown:
You did good. Our tens of our tens of viewers right now are enjoying that moment. Our however many download it later, we'll enjoy it later. Alright. So that was, that was Charlie, by the way. That was my my French bulldog and my boy. My girl knows better than to interrupt the show. I don't know how we got into it, though, that remember closing that door. Alright. Live shows. Alright. So now as you spoke more and more before the Texas representatives and senate, what was one was one experience that really surprised you?
[01:27:25] Unknown:
I don't know. You're not you you might not like this, but it's it's actually that I've been so alone. Like, I really I really feel like we are outnumbered by Democrats, and it makes no sense because, allegedly, you know, there's more Republicans that are elected, but I have been feeling overwhelmingly alone. Like, yesterday when I testified, I was the only person to not only testify in favor, but the only, conservative, I believe. So it was it was lonely, but I'm like, come on, guys. Where are you at? Like, come on.
[01:28:00] Unknown:
Now it's interesting because, you know, coming from New York, you know, Republican party in New York is just a joke. It it it really is. And conservatives in New York are just a coward cowardly bunch. They don't do much of anything. I don't know if you're familiar with the, mayoral race that's taking place in New York, but but, you got this guy, complete socialist communist, the Republican party of New York. And and the the Republican candidate that's going against him is a guy by by the name of Curtis Sliwa. And I don't know if you you know who he is. He's very popular up in New York. He, he started an organization, called, I think it was the Guardian Angels or something like that.
And, what they would do, they were volunteers. They would just they would wear these red bomber jackets and red berets, and they would patrol the subways, when New York was at at its lowest point, to try to help the police and get things under control. Then he became a radio show host and so on and so forth. I mean, he's a he's a good guy. I yeah. I I met him once. Can't say I know him personally that well. He's run for mayor before, had little to no support whatsoever. And, I I I fear that it's gonna be the same here because the Republican Party of New York you think Texas is bad. The Republican Party of New York actually, put out a post on social media that told the people of New York to leave.
Move. Get out. Now you that that to me, that just tells me that the Republican Party of New York just gave up. They're not even gonna mount a defense or or or try to even invest anything in in in gaining any seats in in the New York assembly or, fight for the, for, Gracie Manchin in, in New York, who's the the mayor's office. So, you know, I thought I'd I thought when I came to Texas that it would be completely different, and and lo and behold, here we are. The the Texas the Texas Republicans aside from a few, there's there's one guy that I really, really admire, Brian Harrison. I think he's rock solid. I've and I've been talking to his people for a little bit trying to get him to come on, and it's but with the with this the, the special sessions and so on and so forth, it's been very hard to do it. But, but, hopefully, we'll get him on soon. But, I have a lot of respect for him. I really like him a lot, and I think he's I think he's has a he's another one with a very, very bright future ahead of him. I can actually see him as a governor someday.
But I wanted to ask you about the redistricting now. When redistricting takes place, the, the location that that you are testifying in regards to, is that gonna be affected by the redistricting? Are you is that gonna become a Republican seat?
[01:30:54] Unknown:
So here's the deal about my redistricting. And I'm advocating for it, which is crazy because I'm making it more difficult on myself. So current,
[01:31:02] Unknown:
international decision. But that just shows your integrity.
[01:31:06] Unknown:
That's that's Thank you. That's how I look at that. That's how I see it. But yeah. I'm definitely making it much harder on myself because current Congressional District 35 goes from, East Austin down to, San Antonio all down the East Side Of 35. What they're gonna do with it is take it and shift it down to, like, Hays County and all of that, completely come out of Travis County and put me in 37. 37 is basically what I've been advocating for before we saw the map, so I thought that was great, was to take and encompass the city, because I don't have any representation in my city. Mhmm. Encompass the city so that I can take all of the public housing places, all of the low income nonvoters that haven't voted in forty years and get them to show up to vote for the first time. And my thought on this is if I can wake up the the poor people, if I can get the poor people out to vote here in Travis County Mhmm. I can save the city of Austin, and I can change the trajectory of every major city across the nation. And I truly believe that I can do that. But as far as the redistricting, it goes from I think the current 35 is, like, maybe a forty, sixty, or 35, 75, something like that. I don't think I did that math right, but you know what I mean.
So there there is a a a certain percentage of Republicans that are gonna vote Republican. Now if you take the new 37, it's gonna encompass almost all of well, the city of Austin and in Travis County, and it's probably gonna be the bluest district in Texas. So it's gonna be deep blue. And, essentially, depending on how they do it, it's going to be two democrat incumbents, Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett, that are gonna have to fight it out. Now Greg Cazar is the progressive caucus chair. So in my mind, he is like the little devil, and I'm not even being dramatic. Like like, you just like that guy that's running for mayor in in New York, like, you have to be evil. Yeah. I mean, these policies are harming my community, and they sit here and they say all these social programs are to help, you know, families like mine, and they wanna push their socialist agenda, but it's not working. Our civil rights are being violated. And not only that, it's wasting taxpayer funds. Like, all that money could be in the taxpayer's pocket because it's definitely not going to the people. It's going to the cities. It's going to the administrators.
It's going to the officials that don't really care about us. So like I said, I am making it harder on myself by taking on the new 37. It would be I I would I'm guaranteed to win if I go to the new 35. Like, there's no way that I would lose, but I feel like that's what's so important. Like, if I can take this on, if I can accomplish this, it's going to change the trajectory of every major city in this nation because I can call out the bull crap.
[01:33:59] Unknown:
Alright. That's that's awesome. Well, you know what? I hope it works out that, you know, I hope it works out in in a way that, like, I how do I put this? Like, I don't I don't wanna I don't I don't like seeing people run unopposed. You know? I I wanna see some challenge, and I wanna see somebody get up on a stage and debate and talk about, the differences between you and me, and what you believe, what I believe, what what what my understanding of of the constitution of The United States and the Texas constitution are compared to yours. I I wanna see those differences.
But, you know, if it would mean that if you if you did run unopposed in '35,
[01:34:46] Unknown:
It's not unopposed. Oh, it's not? Okay. They're no. No. No. No. They're it's When you say guaranteed to win, I I I'd automatically assume of, you know It's guaranteed to win because I know that I'm the better candidate than my opposition. So I'm just being a little cocky with that. But, no, you know the primary process or or is is it just okay. Yeah. So I have a primary opponent in '35 and '37. Both of them are So one is literally from California, but the other one is not only from California, but held office in California. So I'm like, you held office in California.
What are you doing? Like, we know how California's went. And, you know, the demographics of the districts are are definitely unfavorable to, my 35 opponent. And, again, either way, the type of voters that I'm gonna be able to wake up, neither one of those people will be able to wake them up. And frankly, I don't think they would have, like, the the confidence to walk into these neighborhoods.
[01:35:46] Unknown:
I got you. Now that's and that's the thing too. It's it's you have all of these these folks that are that are, fleeing California. They're coming here. They're they're getting they're getting into, elected office, and they're just bringing the failed policies from California here. And that's that's the thing with liberalism. It's like a freaking cancer. You know, once it gets in, it just spreads and spreads I was gonna say something else, but it just spreads and spreads and spreads. One of the greatest billboards I've seen since I've been here is don't California my Texas, you know. But unfortunately, that's what you're seeing happening.
And now with with California threatening to redistrict, their state, you're I'm expecting to see a lot more of these California Republicans who are really just Democrat lite, work their way over and come into office here, then do the same bullshit that they did in California, destroying that state politically. So, you know, it's it's a challenge, man. I I don't you know, I thought New York was bad, man. I I really did. I thought New York was bad, but this this takes the cake. It really does.
[01:36:55] Unknown:
One thing that I'm having a little bit of a pushback on is from, like, people, especially, like, the establishment and Republicans, they're like, oh, well, you sound like a Democrat or you're gonna be a Democrat. Well, buddy, if I ran as a Democrat, I'm guaranteed to win. So, obviously,
[01:37:11] Unknown:
I'm not a Democrat. But how do they say how do they even say that? I mean, I I I've listened to you speak. I've read your materials. I've seen everything. I mean, I mean, I I I I can't draw the conclusion that you'd be a Democrat at all. I I I look at you as a strong conservative, which is which is what the state needs. So I so where are they drawing that from?
[01:37:35] Unknown:
I am it's definitely because I have talked a lot about, poverty and social programs and things like that, and that has been something that in the past, Republicans have not touched. They haven't done anything with. And I would argue that's why it got out of control because there was no, conservatism there, no fiscal responsibility because we did just let the Democrats run wild with it. But we have, you know, Trump that is is is basically, everything that I've been trying to do, Trump gets elected, and he's literally doing it. And I'm so proud. Like, the government was never meant to house people. The things that the federal government are providing, like, it's not working. And so, yeah, a lot of people are freaking out. Oh, he's gonna cut SNAP. He's gonna cut Medicaid. He's gonna cut public housing. Good. Do it. It's not working. And so I'm so excited Trump is doing this, and I think that I am a definitely a valuable asset to his administration. Because, I mean, look. I'm a Democrat's worst nightmare. Every social policy that they've tried to implement is harming me.
[01:38:34] Unknown:
Yeah. And and now something and listening to you say that too, it reminded me of something else I always I've said many, many times, and I I I'm actually on Sundays. I don't know if I told you, but I I teach a bible study program on, on Sundays. And, we've been going through America's Christian heritage, and I started way back with, Governor Bradford coming over from the for, on the Mayflower to Plymouth, you know, and the real reasons why they came, not what they teach you in public schools and even private schools now, because I went back to their original writings, the things that they said, the reasons that they gave for coming here, not what some historian had to say.
But, and then from there, he went on through to, you know, the the the founding of the colonies and then, you know, eventually, you know, the the the American Revolution. And one of the things that I I I try to reiterate over and over and over again, especially with the found found the way the the way the government was founded by these 13 individual countries. Alright? Individual countries, these states were. That's why they use the word state. State means country. So these individual countries only compacted together to do very simple things, among which are mutual defense and common trade.
That's really it. The the federal monstrosity came over time. All sides are are are guilty in that. But the one thing I say over and over again is the only thing that I want government to do is to protect my right to do for myself. That's the only thing I want government to do. Other than that, go pound sand. You don't need to know how much water is in my toilet. You know, you don't need to know how much money. You got a government that that will that will harass you over a $600 transaction. In the meantime, they're sending billions and billions and billions of dollars overseas to fund, circumcisions in some third world country that that you'd nobody's ever heard of. You know? It it just that the government doesn't work.
It it just doesn't I'm I'm gonna start preaching now. Government doesn't work. Government doesn't work. As a matter of fact, I was gonna wait till the very, very end to bring this part up, but, I don't know if you see the flag here behind me, Texas independence. Okay? I am part of an organization called the Texas Nationalist Movement. I don't know if you're familiar with them. Basically, it's a political action committee, you know, for lack of a better description of it. And, they they advocate for through the legal process for Texas independence, for Texas to separate from the the rest of this American Union.
And, I agree with it. I think that's I think it's inevitable. It's gonna happen. It's just like in a relationship. When you're in an abusive relationship, it comes to a point where you just say it's enough, and you have to walk away from it. Texas has been abused by the federal government for years, and it's at the point now where it's time to say, okay. You know what? No more flowers. No more perfumes. No more no more fancy dinners. It's time it's done. It's time to it's time to separate. Texas is not the only state that has, one of these movements working its way through the legislative process. There are actually 25 states in this country right now that have these movements working their way through. And believe it or not, California is one of them. And California is actually closer to it than to actually leaving the union than Texas is.
So I I firmly believe that that's eventually what's gonna happen. Will it happen in my lifetime? I don't know. I would like to think so. I'd like to see it happen because Texas if Texas left the union, Texas would become automatically the eighth largest economy in the world, not just not just in the American continent, but in the world. That's amazing when you think about it. Texas has all the land it needs. It has the warm water seaports. It has all the natural resources it needs to stand by itself. It has its own military. It has its own it it's self sufficient. It's not even part of the national grid as far as, power and electricity go.
So Texas can stand alone, and I think that's eventually what's gonna happen. I'm preaching now because I don't I don't remember why I started this, but, but and I'm gonna put you on the I'm gonna put you on the spot. I'm gonna put you on the spot now. Look up, you don't have to give me an answer now, but look up the Texas Nationals Movement, tandm.org. Don't hang up. I saw you reaching for it. No. I'm kidding. I know you're not. But, look up, the Texas Nationals Movement, tandm.org. Look over their their information, and you tell me what you think about it the next time we talk, because we'll we'll talk again. At least I hope you wanna come on again. But, but we'll talk again for sure, and you let me know what you think about that because there are many in the in the Texas state house that have signed on to the Texas First Pledge, that they will put Texas before anything else.
And, you know, and that's that's very that's very important. It's huge. There are more there are more people in elected office right now in Texas that are in favor of Texas first and Texas separation than at any time before. Polling, Internet, internal polling, in in internal, I mean, in the state of Texas. Almost 60% of people polled in Texas are in favor of leaving The United States and going alone. So this is their this is the future, the direction that's going. And I think that the longer that we're that that the abuses from the federal government take place and this isn't a knock on on on President Trump. I I love President Trump. I think he's doing a fantastic job. And I think that, I mean, yeah, of course, you're gonna have some missteps here or there.
Every administration has them. But on the whole, I give him an a plus on what he's doing. I think he's doing a fantastic job. I think getting the border down to to 99.9% closed is amazing, considering that Democrats just wanna keep funneling more money into more money into it, more money into it, and not actually providing a solution. All it took was was for president Trump to say, okay. Close the border, and it was done, and look where we are. I agree with the deportation process. I'd like to see more of it. That's without a doubt. I think it needs to be the latest estimate that I got was 52,000,000 illegal aliens in the country.
Alright? That then that's I got that, I heard that last week. 52,000,000. That's a huge amount. I you cannot you cannot deport that many over the course of four years. That's why we hope that there's a Vance Rubio ticket that comes after, and we'll actually get into office. But, I give him an a plus, and I I love him. I think he's doing a great job, but I think the writing's on the wall. I think that that the abuses of the government have gotten to the point now where we need really need to reconsider how this American Union functions and operates. And I know I just threw a ton of crap at you, and I'm sorry. I I got to No. I have I have two things to say to that. Go ahead. The first thing, my my only concern is,
[01:45:34] Unknown:
I think if that happened that the cartels would take over. And then my second thing is I have some pretty awesome lawsuits that I've been working on. So so just just just give it a little bit Okay. Yeah. Because, I'll I'll I'll make the phone call right now, and I'll say, okay. Well, let's hold off on it. Yeah. Yeah. Just just pump the brakes for a second. And not only that, the flag would look ugly. Where are we gonna take that one star from? Well But yeah. No. I I I fear I feel that the cartels would possibly take over if we did that. So I don't know what your opinion is to counter that, but that is a fear.
[01:46:09] Unknown:
Well, the tech like I said, Texas has its own military already. And what was the number? Oh, man. I it just flipped out of my head. If I remember right, I think it it was over 50% of active duty military personnel are Texans in the United States Army. Yeah. So it's a high number. Now I know it's over 50%, but I don't know the exact number off the top of my head right now, but, are are Texans. And those Texans would come back to Texas. They would no longer serve in the United States military because they they're Texans. So, you you would automatically have an increased military, service list here in in in Texas, and, they would do the same thing. They they they would secure the border. They would police if necessary.
Plus you already you already have, Texas DPS. You have your state police. That's what they're there for. I don't think I don't think there would be too much of an issue with that. I mean, of course, there'll be some pockets of of trouble here or there. That's a given. But overall, I think Texas would do just well, just just fine without federal involvement. And all those military installations that are that are here in the state of Texas, well, they belong to Texas. They don't they don't belong to the federal government. They're they're leased to the federal government. So when they leave, that all stays here. So you have all the infrastructure already. It's already there. But we're way off topic here. This is all about you, not about Texas now. No. No. No. No. That's my fault. I I got I got to preach, and that's that's that's no good. So, let's get back to you because you're the you're the reason why we're talking here today.
So when you look back over your career, what are some of the things that you you wish you would have known before you started to speak out?
[01:47:58] Unknown:
You know, I really can't think of anything that I would change because I I just dove into the water before I knew how to swim. And, you know, I laid there and I floated and it worked for me. I think that if I would've known more than than what I did at the time, I would've second guessed myself. And so that's one of the things that I've been trying to encourage the the younger, I say kids. I'm I I think I look a little younger than what I am, but I'm I'm 34. I have four kids. So, like, these college kids, they're kids to me. So but these these younger kids that are wanting to be involved with politics, that's why I keep kinda pressuring them. Like, no. Stop stop following these traditional political rules. Stop doing what everybody else is doing. The time is now. We need change now. So I've really been trying to push the kids to get involved and stop doing the traditional way of things. I mean, look at Trump. He was not a traditional politician, and look at all the wonderful things that he's doing for our country. I don't think he was ever a politician. Right. Right. And so a lot of people I've gotten a look like you're running for congress. Like, you're supposed to run for city council, then you're supposed to run for state house and do all these little steps. No. No. Then I will be like everybody else. And the things that I wanna change, the immediate change that needs to happen, I can't do it on a a state level. Now, I mean, I if I was gonna stay in politics after congress, like, maybe I would work it backwards or, you know, whatever. I'll run for president too. Who cares?
[01:49:21] Unknown:
There's nothing that says you can't. Thirty years. There's nothing that says you can't. You do you're you you have the minimum qualifications for it. That's that's all you need. Right. So But I can tell you one thing. I'm not gonna stay in Congress until you push me out in a wheelchair. Well, that's good. I mean, there definitely need to be term limits. I mean, that's just at that's that's a given. I don't think when our founding generation established this mess that it's become, ever really intended for people to stay in office for careers. It it they were supposed to be it's supposed to be a part time thing. So definitely need term limits, and I hope that if you do get into that position where you can make some kind of a recommendation or a bill or something like that for that, you'd be able to push something like that through.
So so, did you did you look for any other solutions before you, became a grassroots ethic advocate?
[01:50:09] Unknown:
I the only other thing, I I wanted to be an attorney, but the only school that would be feasible was the University of Texas, and that's a very high sought after law school. And Really? Someone like me in the projects is not getting into UT. And so, you know, turns out that I can I can I can get just a little bit of education and then go and pursue my own education without sitting there in the traditional institutions, and that's just worked better for me? So, I mean, I would love to go to law school, but I don't
[01:50:43] Unknown:
know. But you see, I but you see, I agree with you though. As far you know, educate yourself. Right. Educate yourself. I I've learned more on my own than I did in all the years that I've been to school. And, you know, I I've been to I've been through a lot of school. There's I I my knowledge and I'm not saying this to pat myself on the back or anything like that. I'm I'm just saying is that my knowledge on on, geopolitics, my knowledge in scripture, my knowledge in just general politics just increased after school because I I studied it because I wanted to, not because I had to. And I was able to study those things, and that just made me a better student.
So I agree with you. You don't always necessarily need that fancy college degree because, to me anyway, a college degree just tells me that you're easily trained.
[01:51:38] Unknown:
That's all it is. I mean, I I have I have several of them. Don't get me wrong. But it was the same the same as you. Like, when I started going to school, like, I wanted to learn, and so I was thinking, but but now it's like, why continue to go to school when I'm already doing the things? Yeah. Exactly. So let me ask you. So so
[01:51:57] Unknown:
talking about redistricting and and the Democrats and how they stomp their feet like little children, Obviously, the big story going around now is the fact that the Texas Democrats took off. Now we find out that, that, Beto.
[01:52:13] Unknown:
Right? I don't know if I'm saying it right. It's Beto. He's not brown.
[01:52:18] Unknown:
He He, he he his one of his, one of his charities or one of his, PACs, funded the majority of these things, and all of this was because they don't wanna see the redistricting taking place that that you've been so so passionate about. So what do you think about the the Democrats' behavior in this whole thing? And was there a there was a a protest, just, a couple days ago, or was it over the weekend?
[01:52:43] Unknown:
It was. And it was my first, protest. So I I told myself I was just gonna go hold up a sign and, you know, just try to be, like, a rebel or whatever, and I wasn't gonna be a psycho. But, you know, it took about ten minutes before I started running through the crowd like a psycho and, you know, telling telling on Greg Casar, like, he's not for us. And, you know, the funny thing about it is I believe that most of those people were paid because do you know how many people were like, oh, we know. Oh, we know. He's not. We know. And, like, okay. So what what is it who paid you to be here? And so I've I've mentioned my first day in congress, I'm gonna kinda do, like, a Trump thing, and I'm gonna drop a stack of bills. Term limits is one of them, by the way. And that's another one. I believe in peaceful protest. I do not believe in paid protest. So I would like there to be something that prevents paid protesters because these Democrats won't be having these protests because they're paid. No. I they and and you you look at organ you got guys like Soros and and his ilk, and they're they're the ones who fund all this stuff. You know? And,
[01:53:44] Unknown:
there has to be something to put into place that can stop this. And and because you you you look at some of these protests I mean, thank God it wasn't like these protests that you saw over the immigration and the deportations in California where they basically burned the place down. Thank God for that. You know, I don't think as as far as all these protests took place, I don't think I've seen that kind of behavior anywhere in Texas. I don't I don't at least I don't think so, but not that I've seen. But, but I agree with you a 100% on that one. Paid protests need to stop it. You know, if you're gonna protest, protest. You see, the problem is is that Democrat policies are so unpopular that they can't get people to come out and really protest unless there are some aging hippie that hasn't been, you know, active in politics. I mean, you look at some of these these these, people that are protesting, these are like they're like 60, 70 year old ladies out there banging pots in people's faces. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's really you know, Democrat policies are so bad that they have to use the courts to force them on you. They can't pass them. I don't and I don't think Democrats can win an election unless they unless they steal it.
You know? So,
[01:54:52] Unknown:
that's just where I stand on that. But, Well and it's it's funny that you bring that up, though, because last time last election, the general election was the first time I ever voted for president and, because I wasn't involved civically at all. Well, I actually caught election interference happening in real time in my district that I'm running for. And so I'm like, man, I'm already going up an uphill battle that I'm confident I can win, but I literally caught election interference in two separate situations Interesting. And turned it into the second state. But I did learn today when I was at the capitol that I was supposed to not only turn that stuff into the secretary of state, but also the attorney general.
And so that's a whole another thing. So I'll get on that. But, like, I already know that they were doing election interference during the general, so they're on my side.
[01:55:40] Unknown:
It's gonna happen, so I'm like, it's a little frustrating. Yeah. I I I totally get that. So I wanna ask you now some questions about your your campaign. Okay? Okay. So this we spent all this time talking about everything but. So, I was looking at your website. It's it's a great website. It's very very easy to follow and navigate your way through. You're very clear on everything that you post out there. You you have your points, and I think that's great. So many political websites are so convoluted and so confusing to follow. It's ridiculous, but yours is good. Lauren for congress dot com.
So you list all the policies that really matter to you. What are the top three priorities that you have in your policies that you hope to change when you're elected to Congress?
[01:56:24] Unknown:
Yeah. So number one is obviously the one that a lot of Republicans are not happy about, but it is social policy and not because I am for it, but because it needs to go. Mhmm. And then I'm also really big on, public safety and and national security, especially because of, my background and the things that I've went through. I kind of have the I like to I like to take my experience in human trafficking and around gangs as, like, my undercover training. So I feel like I was in training for all of those ten years, and so I have a level of knowledge in the inner workings of those things from a different perspective than in law enforcement. But now since I have started to learn, like, law enforcement policies and really gotten close to a lot of different, you know, police officers and things like that, I really back the blue. But, public safety, national security, and and the, the the public the the social policies are really important to me. And, I mean, Greg Casar, he's the one that defunded the Austin Police Department on city council, and, I mean, it's terrible.
[01:57:29] Unknown:
Some of the stupid some of the some of the dumbest decisions were the the defunding police departments. I I I still don't understand that. I mean, I do. I understand it, but at at the same time, I don't understand it. There there really is no logic behind it. All it is is just to appease people, and and and it puts other people at at risk and at harm. And especially and, like, thank God in Texas, you have the right. You can carry, you know, you have the constitutional carry. You have your your license to carry. I carry all the time. Me too. But in places like in like like, where I'm from in New York, I mean, you can't you know, the average citizen cannot get a handgun to defend themselves.
It's it's virtually impossible, and they do it purposely. You know, they don't want you to carry. They want you to depend on the police and whatnot.
[01:58:17] Unknown:
I gotta say my last policy, though, because I was only two. I know I said I put public safety in now. Yeah. You did. Okay. So you you confused it. Go ahead. Hit it. Yeah. So it's definitely the the medical industry, because I have a disability and my daughter has a disability, and I've seen a lot of the issues with ADA compliance and things like that. And then, also, during the pandemic, I completely lost all faith in our health system, especially with the COVID vaccine. And so I definitely feel like big pharma needs to be taken on and me as someone with disability because I have PTSD, that that is something that's really important to me. And and not only that, here in public housing, I see a lot of our population does have a disability or they're elderly, but they are still worthy. And there are things that they could do that they wanna do. So I literally just see people bored walking around. And and, honestly, that's why a lot of them end up getting on drugs because they're bored.
And so, you know, taking on big pharma and kinda re revamping the medical industry, especially, like, with colleges because it is I I I've been reading a lot of stories and meeting a lot of people, and there's there's issues in the colleges with with people that are wanting to get education and be productive. But just because they have a disability, they're still being held back, and that all has to change.
[01:59:36] Unknown:
Yeah. I agree with you. So are you are you gonna be, one of those people that take Fauna money?
[01:59:42] Unknown:
It's so funny that you, asked that. So there there's a rumor going around that Pfizer wants to endorse me. Oh, really? Yeah. Which is crazy. I mean, it's flipping Pfizer. Like, wow. But I that vaccine thing kinda freaks me out. Like I said, so much so. Like, I don't even vaccinate my children. You could not pay me to vaccinate myself or take a flu shot or anything like that. I I do know that that innovation is important. I think the way they were trying to innovate on us was completely wrong. And so, you know, if I anybody that I take money from, just understand that you're not in control of me. I'm in control. I went through so much in my life. There's not anyone that can control me, so good luck. I am definitely going to do what's right for my community, and I don't I've been poor for so long that I don't really care about your money. But the fact of the matter is is that you need money to win the election. And so I can't help anybody unless I win the election. So, yes, am I gonna take big pharma money if Pfizer offers me that? Absolutely. But am I going to, defend them on on the the COVID nineteen thing? Absolutely not.
Would I definitely want to work closely with them so that we can, you know, do things in a right way? Absolutely. I think that, you know, part of the reason that that the medical costs are so high in The United States is because we have to innovate, and we're the only country that's doing that. And, you know, the socialist, they want everybody to have free health care. Well, that means that there's not gonna be any innovation, and we have to have that. And so I'm I'm okay with healthy innovation, but informed consent always.
And that's that's something that's very, very important to me.
[02:01:24] Unknown:
Yeah. That's important to everybody. So question for you. When when you tell people that you don't vaccinate your kids and you won't take a flu shot, do you get looked at like you're like like, like, three heads or something like that?
[02:01:35] Unknown:
I mean, not really, but I I don't I don't tend to talk to a lot of leftists. So a lot of people understand. But one thing that people need to know about me is, like, because of how I grew up, if you're hating on me, if you're trying to bully me, you are making me stronger. So every time somebody is talking smack to me, it is literally stroking my ego, so keep it coming.
[02:01:57] Unknown:
I love it. Love the attitude. Alright. So campaign season's kicking in. Right? It's gonna start picking up. Especially now in the fall, it's gonna really start to intensify. What are you doing now to prepare yourself for the busy days?
[02:02:10] Unknown:
Well, you know, I would argue that the busy days are already here. As you know, I don't I don't have a full time job, but I have been already doing the full time job for the people of Texas. As you know, my house rep is one that had fled. And so I was really already stepping in kinda to that position, and I was there every day. I've been there every day. I mean, what is it? It is the eighteenth. I was counting my parking passes from the Capitol earlier. I had 15 parking passes, and it's the eighteenth. So if that says anything, there you go. I I've already assumed the position.
[02:02:43] Unknown:
That's awesome. That's awesome. So are are you, like, are are you already speaking to different groups within your district? Or or your your proposed district, possible district? Yeah.
[02:02:55] Unknown:
I have not so at that rally, actually, which is it's good you brought that up. So at that rally, I was able to talk to a lot of, like, people from local organizations that were, hey. You need to talk to this. You need to talk to that. And the organizations that they were telling me to talk to, I'm like, those organizations shouldn't be there in the first place, but, okay. I'm still gonna go talk to them. I'm still gonna make friendly with them. And my thought is maybe they don't understand that they're harming my community. Mhmm. And then one thing I've know the Democrats is I don't I don't necessarily think they're evil. The socialist, yes. But the Democrats, no. They're not evil. I think.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They they honestly believe that they're trying to help the community. They're trying to be compassionate. And so I think that if someone like me, a conservative who's not afraid to, stand firm and and tell the fact hate them actually speaks to them. I believe that I can get them to start
[02:03:49] Unknown:
I'm trying to be not common sense. Mhmm. I got you. You know, actually, I wanted to ask you this before and I I I it just didn't seem to fit in where we were talking what we were talking about. But do you do you find that people are surprised when they when you tell them that you are conservative or when they realize just how conservative you are?
[02:04:08] Unknown:
Yes. Well, it's funny. On one of my testimony videos, I was watching it back and, like, there's a guy in the background. He's, like, shaking his head to everything I say, and then I'm like, that's why I'm Republican running for Congress. Literally fell on the ground by that. Everybody go watch it. It's hilarious. Oh, I gotta find I gotta find that one. I gotta watch. Oh, also, it's it's so funny. It's the it's the one from Arlington, actually, but his jaw literally falls to the ground. And, yeah, I get that a lot. And I can't tell you how many Democrats have been like, you need to be a Democrat. You need to be a Democrat. I'm like, you know what? How about you stop violating my civil rights? How about you fix the issues that are right now bothering me? Like, they don't have anything to say about it. And so,
[02:04:52] Unknown:
Has the has the Republican party of Texas been good with you or no?
[02:04:58] Unknown:
I don't wanna talk shit. Okay.
[02:05:00] Unknown:
Alright. That that says enough. And and the I I have a reason for asking, and I'll I'll talk to you about that after, off the air. Let's see.
[02:05:11] Unknown:
Let me see. I think they're waking they're they're waking up, though. To in their let let me defend what I said because I feel like a jerk now. No. When when I first, like, came into the scene in 2023 and became a Republican precinct chair, I was going hard. I was trying to, like, get involved with the committees, do this, do that. I mean, I I went all the way to the RNC, like, right after the right, miss, I got in. So, like, a lot of people were looking at me crazy. And then, also, I think they believed at the time that I was probably a Democrat because of the social policy thing. Mhmm. And so I think, like, now that people are starting to see, like, hey. You know, maybe maybe she's okay. I I think I think within the next couple months, the Republican Party of Texas will will be coming coming on to my side. I know that the the people in the house and the senate have probably most likely already started to favor me. Right. But yeah. No. They they definitely
[02:06:04] Unknown:
have not yet supported me as much as I'd hoped they would. And And so what do you hope that the audience will take away with, after we finish it tonight, after listening? What do you think they're gonna walk away with about you?
[02:06:16] Unknown:
I mean, I think I'm everything that I've been hearing, my feedback is that, wow, you're a real person. Like, yeah, I'm a real person. I'm not a stuck up jerk. I'm all about transparency. And when you ask me a question, I'm gonna tell the truth even I mean, obviously, even if it it was incriminating in my past. Like, I
[02:06:37] Unknown:
I understand. That's transparency, and that's the way it should be. You know? Absolutely. I think that I think that if you're going into public office, you you should be open about mistakes that you've made in your past. I think that's the easiest way to even confront them before they become campaign issues. If you're just direct about them right off the bat, you kinda disarm them at that point. I think that's important. I think that's great. Is there anything that we didn't cover tonight that you wanna talk about?
[02:07:03] Unknown:
You know, one thing. One thing. So I mentioned that I was kind of, like, already assuming the role because my house rep left, and I've been up there advocating for the community. Like, I do not have a big enough team in Texas. And so, like, I'm really trying to call on the people of Texas. I guess, the Texas Republican Party. Like, hey. I need staff by now. Like, this campaign can and will win if if I get some other teammates. Because right now, all my teammates are located outside of Travis County. Mhmm. I need some people in Travis County that have my back, you know, because I mean, I have several things that I need to be working on right now. There's a couple of lawsuits that I could be filing right now that would also be very beneficial to the country, But I already have three lawsuits that I'm working on right now, and I'm running for congress. Like, I need staff.
[02:07:52] Unknown:
So come be my staff, please. Alright. Alright. That's good. So who's somebody that you respect right now, and what are they doing that inspires you?
[02:08:02] Unknown:
So over in Lubbock, there is a guy named Kevin Allen. He is, a conservative at Texas Tech. He has really assumed the role of, basically, my campaign manager. Awesome. I don't know how we ended up getting connected on Facebook or whatever, but I tell you what, every day, he's been the only one that'll literally call me every day just to check-in on me. Hey. How are you doing? What do you need? How can I help you? And he has really, really just went above and beyond. And so shout out to him for sure. Alright.
[02:08:38] Unknown:
So where can the audience go to find out more about you, your campaign, or help contribute, donations? How can they do that?
[02:08:44] Unknown:
Right. So you could go to lauren for congress. That's the number four. Laurenforcongress.com. I think I have all my social media links up there. And then I have only Instagram, I don't really use, but I think my Facebook kinda post stuff on there. But my big things are Facebook, and I just started using x. And so if you look on my x, I only have, like, I don't know, maybe, like, 400 followers, but I've gotten almost all of those in the past two weeks. Right. But to I mean, to get that many followers in, like, two weeks is, like, an honor. I'm like, oh my gosh. And in fact That's great. I didn't even get a response from my my, my house rep after three years of trying to contact all my elected officials. Didn't even get a response until two weeks ago after going viral on x. So I I appreciate that. I'm just surprised on how quickly it went, but those are the only two platforms that I definitely use all the time. And, of course, I have a LinkedIn, but it's not that cool for
[02:09:41] Unknown:
Yeah. And LinkedIn's very liberal, so they they tend to hide conservative thought and ideas. Alright. Lauren b Pena. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. Hey. Can you, can you stick around after the show? Just, just turn your camera mic off. I'll close out the show, and then I'll connect with you again, before we shut it down. Alright. Lauren b Pena, thank you again for being with us tonight, and, we wish her all the best on the campaign. Check out our website, laurenforcongress.com. And, if you can help her out, give us some support. If you agree with her message, let her know. That that'll be fantastic. Alright, folks. Let's just, we're not gonna take the official break here. We're just gonna move on to the announcement. So I just don't forget to head over to the website, joeroos.com.
Joeroos.com. Sign up for the programming announcements email list and, get yourself on that list. It's really important because it's the easiest way for us to communicate with you guys and let you know what's going on with the show. I know in the past, I haven't been so great with it, but I'm trying to do better now. So, head over to the website, sign up for it, and, and, look, if you like it, great. Stay with it. If you don't like it, unsubscribe from it. It's okay. It's fine. Alright? Also, don't forget, tomorrow night at 7PM, we have our do no harm episode of the Joe Russo with, our our the CEO of our sponsor, Ezra Healing, Svetlana Ryilkov, and that's gonna be a great show. We're looking forward to that.
We had to make up what we did last week because we had studio studio issues. So we had to, we had to cancel the show. So we'll be picking it up tomorrow. I'll be talking to some really good stuff. So make sure you check that out as well. Alright. Don't forget to find us on our socials, Twitter, Joe Ruz or x whatever, Joe Ruz. Truth Social, look, if you wanna know anything what's going on with this administration, Truth Social is the where the place to go because, 99.99999% of the time, it's posted on Truth Social first before anywhere else, and sometimes it's not even posted anywhere else, only on Truth Social. So if you wanna stay on top of the administration and what they're doing, that's where to go. And when you do that, make sure you follow me there at Joe Rouz. Also, mines,mines.com. Check them out at Joe Rouz there as well. Facebook, Joe Rouz Podcast, look forward to seeing you over there as well. And then, on Instagram, don't forget, it is not Joe Roux on Instagram. It's not Joe Roux because when I signed up as Joe Roux, before I even finished the sign up prod process, they banned my account. So, that but strangely enough, they let not I shouldn't even say it because they'll probably track it down and shut it down now. But, at not joerus on Instagram, TikTok, which I don't even really use much, joe dot roos. And then, of course, on Gettr, which we are back on Gettr, at joerus there as well.
Alright. Shout outs to our producer team. We have our executive producer, Wayne Rankin, executive producer, Rosanna Rankin, executive producer, Carolina Jimenez, executive producer, Marissa Lee, and, of course, our producer, anonymous, Angela, who does a fantastic job with everything, that we have going on here. She's on top of it all. So, folks, thank you so much for all that you do. I really appreciate each and every one of you guys. Now if you wanna help us out, you can head over to our website, joeroos.com/support, and hit that, one time donation in any amount. You could also do a recurring donation in any amount. But if you wanted to sign up to our producer tiers, you can do that as well. Associate producer is $17.76 a month. Producer is $18.36 a month. Executive producers are 25 and up, and that's all monthly recurring donations.
And you get the shout out in every show included in all the show notes, any emails that we send out. All that information isn't all your information is sent out, with that as the shout out. And, also, as the executive producer, you get to book a thirty minute segment with us live here on the show, and, of course, you get whatever swag we have available at the time, t shirts, sticker packs, whatever it might be. So, I do need to start wearing the t shirts more often, I know, but, I don't know. I don't even like wearing a t shirt to begin with. I like wearing the other black shirt that I got, so that's another story. Alright. Now if you wanna help us out with, cryptos with as a as your donation, hey. That's great too. You could do that. Ethereum, Tether, Bitcoin, TeXa Coin, it's all up on our website. So just head on over there and, make that deposit. Our wallets are all up there. And, of course, speaking of cryptos, we have a number of folks that are streaming Sats to us across the modern podcast app. So thank you guys for doing that. We really appreciate it.
Sats are just micropayments of Bitcoin, so we appreciate those things. And through the modern podcast apps like Podcast Guru, fountain.fm, Podverse, and so many others, you can actually stream Sats during the course of the show. So as the show is running live on the app, you could set up to, to to send us a boost, which is great. Would you love that? You can also do boostograms. So you could send a a a little bit of a boost and a note to let us know what you think. And if you wanna check out those apps, just head over to modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org.
Alright, folks. I think that is gonna just about do it for us for tonight. So if you would, head over to the website joeroos.com, open up that contact form, send us over a message, let us know what you think, and, really appreciate it. Thanks again for being with us tonight, folks. Make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride. Keep talking. Good night, folks. Who cares about the clouds if we're together?
[02:15:22] Unknown:
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather. Happy trails
[02:15:31] Unknown:
to you. To
Transmitting live from the asylum studios deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas. It's the Joe Ruge Show, the show where we talk about anything and everything, where nothing is sacred, nothing is watered down, and nothing
[00:04:26] Unknown:
is PC. Alrighty. Hey folks, this is Joe Roos. It is nineteen zero three hours on 08/18/2025, a beautiful, hot Monday afternoon afternoon here in Eagle Pass, Texas and we are going to do the very best that we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster. Welcome to the Joe Rouge Show. Alright. Got a new rig going on here. Kinda weird. Don't know what's up with the screen either, why it's split screen, but whatever. I always say, folks, it wouldn't be the Joe Russo if it didn't have some kind of a problem at the outset. But here we are.
And looking up at my monitor there, just the quality of this thing is just absolutely stunning, isn't it? The blobs of color that we have. Alright, but it's enough of that stuff. Guys, I hope you guys had a great weekend. I really do. I know that this past weekend, was a busy weekend both in the personal life and as well as the political world. And then we were here yesterday for our Bible study Sunday. That was a lot of fun. Enjoyed that. And for the folks that are watching this that, are not Rumble Premium members, I do apologize, but I told you guys it was coming. That at some point, we're gonna have to cut streams, because we gotta stream specifically to the Rumble Premium membership. So, I do apologize for that, but you can always go to rumble.com/premium and get yourself a membership.
That's the way to do it. $9.99 a month, $99 a year, your choice, however you wanna go about it. Just get it done. Rumble is the premium free speech platform in the world, so you need to be on it, You need to to be supportive of it. Alright? But, anyway, regardless of that, I hope you guys had a great weekend. It's another week. We had a lot of stuff going on in the world around us here today. Been checking out some of the headlines before the show started, and, it seems that, this, this big day of meetings here in Washington DC has, netted some good results. Appears that there will be a trilateral conference between The US, Russia, and, Ukraine. So that's huge. That's huge. Lack of a better word. Huge. So, we're gonna be keeping an eye on that, and then we'll have some comments on that in, in future shows, because that is not the business of the day. Today, we're we're going to have two very, very interesting and, and, important guests.
In the first hour, we're gonna have, we're gonna have our guest, Bill. I'm gonna say his last name wrong. I always do. I I I I've been talking about him all day today, and I always say his last name wrong. But today, we have with us Bill where are you, Bill? Let's see. Bill is it DeBarbera? Yes. Bill DeBarbera is gonna be with us, author, and and, entrepreneur. Forty years in the business world. So we're gonna be looking to talk to him in just a few minutes, and then followed up in the second hour by a congressional candidate from here in Texas, Austin District 35.
We're gonna be talking to Lauren b Pena. So, hope you guys are ready for this. This is gonna be a pretty good show tonight. I'm really looking forward to it. It's gonna be a lot of fun. But, of course, before we do anything with the show like that, we have to do some housekeeping. And the first thing we're gonna do is invite you to our website. So please head over to our website, joeroos.com. Joeroos.com should be up there on your screen. And, when you get over there, look for the contact form on our contact section. Open that little window up and send us over a message. Let us know whatever you're thinking, whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind, any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have. We would love to hear from you. If you have any suggestions or ideas about a show that you like to us, a topic you want us to discuss, or a guest that you like to get us, have us get into the studio here, that would be fantastic. We would love your input.
Also, if you don't wanna use the web form, you could always email me directly at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Also, remember that this is a value for value show. Alright? And all that basically means that if you receive anything of value from what we're putting out, the content that we're creating, the folks that we talk to, if you're receiving anything of value from any of that, all we're asking is that you would make a donation representing the value that you receive from it, even if it's a dollar. If all you've got out of this was a dollar, then a dollar is fine. We appreciate that. And we'll talk more about that, after our last guest. We'll get into the whole thing with the with the tiers and so on and so forth. A lot of fun always talking about that stuff. You know, the hardest part of of doing this is always the ask. You know, it it I've struggled with that from the very beginning. I hate asking for it, but, unfortunately, if you don't ask, you don't receive.
So, so that's what that's the ask. Okay? So we're not gonna spend too much more time on that. And then, of course, as always, we have our sponsorships. Alright. Now tonight, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about Ezra Healing. Ezra Healing is our sponsor and, is one of our sponsors. And, as always, on Tuesdays, we have our show with the CEO of Ezra Healing, Svetlana Ryilkov. So make sure you tune in for that tomorrow night, 7PM central time. But, folks, Ezra Healing is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and, of course, around the globe. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes, must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. But we need to transit transition towards the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems. Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family.
So for more information, just head over to ezrahealing.com. That's ezrahealing.com. And when you get over there, make sure you let them know that you heard it here on the Joe Russo. Let them know their money's being well spent. Alright. Outstanding. Ezra Healing. The great bunch of people, by the way. You know, I I I speak to them regularly, and, they are fantastic. Really great bunch of people. Check them out. Alright. It'll do you good. It will do you good. Alright. Cough break. Alright. So, folks, I am really excited to talk to you tonight and introduce you to our first guest of the evening. I've been looking forward to this one.
I've been talking about this all day, like I said earlier, and I'm really anxious to hear what he has to share with us tonight. Now our guest is a seasoned entrepreneur with four decades of experience in running his own business. His company, Businessware Services, started in his back bedroom and grew until he was hiring staff to develop products and provide services to customers. In over forty years of business ownership and management, he can proudly boast that not one of his customers has ever had to resort to taking any legal action to resort to resolve an issue. Over the years, he has learned how to recognize problems and to, and to look at issues from the customer's point of view.
This has become what he calls the process of living. In his book, by the same name, he shares the culmination of a lifetime of observation, learning, and problem solving. And tonight, he'll share with us this fundamental truth. Success, whether personal, professional, or collective, hinges on three essential elements, and we will talk about that in just a moment. Let's welcome our guest, Bill DeBarbera. Bill, are you out there?
[00:12:44] Unknown:
I am. I'm right here. Outstanding. Welcome to I've been writing while you've been talking because I'm gonna look into the healing thing. This is really sounds pretty good. Oh, it's a great company. It's fascinating what you've said. I think it's phenomenal. They are fascinating. More of that kind of thinking. Absolutely. The this company is based up in, in in, British Columbia, Canada.
[00:13:06] Unknown:
I met the CEO. She was a guest on my show. And, we had such a great conversation, and we continued the conversation afterwards. And, that's when they agreed to come on as a sponsor of the show. So she she she was a nurse for twenty five years in British Columbia. She she was she was fired. This is all stuff we talked about in the show, so so we can speak freely of it. She was she was let go, after twenty five years of service because she refused to take the COVID vaccine. And then, through another series of of of things that took place in her private life, she eventually stepped out and created Ezra Healing and has been doing this do no harm model of medicine and treatment, ever since. So, it's a great company. They really are. They're fantastic. I've I've spoken to several, people involved with it. They even do pet care, which I think is great. So, Really? Yeah. Yeah. Actually, my my French Bulldog, Charlie, one of my French Bulldogs, Charlie, has some really bad allergies, and they were they were fantastic in helping, take care of that with him.
But great people. You should if you're interested, check them out, make sure you let them know you I sent you over there.
[00:14:10] Unknown:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I will. I yeah. Alright. And, on Tuesdays
[00:14:15] Unknown:
I don't know if you heard it earlier, but on Tuesdays, we, we actually host the CEO of Ezra Healing, on the show. We do we still do an exclusive show with her, and, we talk about any number of issues. This particular week, I think I think we're gonna be talking about, menopause and, the effects of caffeine on the female libido. So it should be very interesting conversation for me at least.
[00:14:39] Unknown:
I can imagine it will be for a lot of our gender. Yes. Yes. Well, if not interesting, insightful.
[00:14:46] Unknown:
Yes. There you go. Absolutely. That that's that's the way to spin it. Alright. So, Bill, tell tell me something about yourself that, most people don't know but should.
[00:14:55] Unknown:
Well, let me tell you a little bit about my early background. I'm a first generation American. My parents came here from Italy. They were just babies when they came. We settled into a community in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It was all immigrant neighbors. I think I was about eight years old before I realized there were people in the world whose last names didn't end in a vowel. I thought everybody was Italian. And, you're gonna tell me there's a religion besides Roman Catholic? What are you kidding? Right. That's that's what I grew up with. And what I grew up with was a push of working hard.
I don't care how you feel about it. Nobody even talked about feelings. Mhmm. You just work hard. You focus on that. And that's how I did it in school, and that's how I did it in my jobs. And when I started my first business, I said, this one will make me some money to support the one that I really want to get going, but I had no interest in it. Mhmm. It was just something I acquired in order to make the money to get the computer business going. That business lasted a year and a half before it went bankrupt. That's when I started learning.
There's more to it than just hard work. You have to have the feeling behind it. Mhmm. There has to be something of a love in there to get the creativity, the extra something that isn't just effort that comes from you, from the soul, if you wanna call it that way. But essentially, that is what I learned, and that was the success the cause of the success of the second business, which lasted forty years. Wow.
[00:16:30] Unknown:
Well, like you, I'm Italian myself. Are you? Yes. Okay. Ruz is just a shortened version of my last name. My last name is Rusiello. So Okay. That clarifies it. Yeah. Yes. So when I was growing up, my friends used to just call me Ruz for short, so it just stuck. It just stuck over the years. But, my, my so I I what what would I be? A fourth generation, I think? My, my great grandparents immigrated to The United States, and, one side came from Northern Italy, and the other side came from Sicily. So, so yeah. So I have I have an interesting mix in in there. Yeah. You do too. Yeah. Constantly constantly struggling one against the other. But Yeah. I let me tell you. My mother came from Sicily, and
[00:17:14] Unknown:
she's a wonderful woman. She was fantastic. But if you got to know her real well, you'd understand why the mafia started in Sicily. Yeah.
[00:17:23] Unknown:
She has that kind of a temperament, so you don't cross her. Yeah. That is great. That's great. I like that. She loved her family. She loved the kids, and it was yeah. That was that was my description. That's great. I have to remember that one. That's a good one. I like that. Alright. So let me ask you this. So so what's your what's your go to beverage to help you unwind at the end of the day?
[00:17:41] Unknown:
I alright. I'm gonna say this and I'm just gonna take my chances. But every once in a while, not every night, I will have a Manhattan on the rocks. Okay. That's my one relax my dad's, he did the same thing maybe two or three nights a week, but his was a martini. Okay. Mine is Manhattan. Alright. And so that's my relaxing beverage, one only. Calms, relaxes, lets go of all the stress, helps. Takes the edge off. There's more to it than that. Yeah. It takes the edge off. There you go. That's my favorite. How about you? What is your I'm a bourbon guy.
[00:18:14] Unknown:
Ah, we're in the same neighborhood. Similar. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a I'm a cigar and bourbon guy. I I love the idea of sitting out in the backyard by the fire with a bourbon, cigar, and a beautiful woman, and we're good to go. Okay. Sounds pretty good to me. That's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. But, Bill, so you're a successful entrepreneur. You're author. You're a speaker. Take us back to the very beginning and, tell us a little bit about the experience in starting your own business. You know, what motivated you to really get started something in something like software, business?
[00:18:47] Unknown:
Well, I worked I have a degree in engineering. I got from Tufts University in Boston. I grew up in the Boston area. I've been living in Phoenix for a very long time. And I I got a job as an engineer with a company that found out that I'm one of the few engineers that could actually talk to people. And so I gradually moved into a management role. Mhmm. And part of my frustration with the management is I couldn't get the information I needed in time to effectively and efficiently run the production line that I was taking care of. So I got my hands on a terminal from the mini computer that, they had in the company, and I taught myself how to program in Fortran.
And I put together a system that my, head people on each of the sections of the production line would put in their data. And by the end of the day, I knew exactly what had to be done, where we were stuck, what was going on. I loved it. I had such fun doing it. And I decided after a while, I was kind of like I was still in my late twenties and I still knew everything. I was still there. So I decided, listen, I can do this better. I'm gonna go ahead and start my own business. And I got myself a RadioShack TRS 80. And if you don't know what that is I do. Then you're too young. Okay? I remember who it is. I don't know about the about our viewers. But You know it. Yeah.
And I put it in the back bedroom and I was playing with it. And I decided, no. I wanna do this. I wanna do it for a living. But I didn't trust that I could make enough money right away to get to support myself. So through a series of steps, I bought this as a business, which was a van conversion shop. Shop. Now you have to understand, this is the nineteen seventies, the mid to late nineteen seventies. These vans were tricked out with paint jobs like you wouldn't believe. All psychedelic stuff. Mhmm. Cushioned seats, driver and passenger side, padded flooring in the back with carpet on top, CB radio, ten four good buddy, you know, that kind of stuff.
That was what it was. I had no real interest in it, but I knew that if I worked hard, at least I was trained, if I worked hard, I could bring it back up and make the money I needed, sell it, and then be able to do my other business. Well, I worked hard and everything went wrong. I dealt with car dealerships as a vendor. If you think they're tough as a customer, try being a vendor to a car dealership. And I had went through some economic times, great recession. We were having oh, this is I'm sorry. This is the great recession before the most recent great recession. Okay. And, we the industry of the automotive industry was hit hard. Chrysler almost went out of business, and people weren't buying vans. Well, that kinda hurts you if you're converting vans.
That's when I learned. That's when I learned that I've got something going on inside of me that was telling me no, Bill. You wanna be successful in business, you gotta find something that you love. And I started, as you described, in the back bedroom, started writing programs for people. This is when you could only get programs with, word processing only got software, I should say, word processing, spreadsheets, and some basic accounting. Right. And that was it. If you wanted programs for you, you had to somebody had to make them for you. And that's what I did.
And I made each one, and each one was a little harder than the last one. So I had to learn something new, and it built up. And I had to move into an office. The back bedroom wasn't working anymore. Sure. Eventually hired these other people. I made an affiliation with ADP payroll, which is a huge nationwide payroll company. They wanted me to help out with their staffing company so that they could get the payroll and let the staffing companies do all the other recruiting and billing and all of that that's tied in together. I built that.
Before very long, I had more customers in in Manhattan than I did in Phoenix. Mhmm. It it just because a my best salesperson. They were spreading the word all around the country to staffing companies. That's what made it happen. But like I say all the time, and I focus on this so much, you have to have your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. Because think about it. What else are we? As human beings, we think, we feel, we do. We're some combination of those things. When we're aware of that, when we're conscious of that, we can whether or not we're feeding all of those to go in the same direction.
If you're thinking and feeling another, I was thinking I wanna be successful in this van job. I was feeling like, can I get how am I gonna get out of this? That's where you spin your wheels. Most people don't realize that. They don't they don't understand the concept of that. And they end up trying to blame other people under the circumstances instead of recognizing they can control it. They can do it if they recognize how.
[00:23:49] Unknown:
Now your LinkedIn profile says that, that, you started by providing technology solution to small business, data processing in the Greater Phoenix area. And your bio says that, you've always been about observation, learning, and problem solving. How do you think that helped you start, your business and turn it into a success?
[00:24:09] Unknown:
Well, when you're you can count on there being problems. I don't care how much you test. I don't care what you do. Microsoft can have them and my little company had them. Sure. And what I learned early on was, look, people depend on these computers. They depend on the software. The staffing companies, for example, they if they couldn't make payroll on time, they would lose their employees. They'd go down the street to the competitor. So not making payroll was like
[00:24:38] Unknown:
disaster. Sure. Yeah.
[00:24:41] Unknown:
Oh, I knew that. And I knew how they would feel about that. So I made darn sure that the people that work for me and myself would jump on it as quickly as possible, would get it fixed, would do whatever work around we could do. I, one time, had a a person, one of my people, she was fairly new. She made a mistake, and she had an extra $20,000 came out of their account, my customer's account, but left them unable to make their payroll. I found out about it. They were in a panic. I went to the bank. I took $20,000 out. I put it in their account, and I said, said, we'll settle it all later. And they did.
And they be and they stayed my customer till the day I left, till I sold the company. Sometimes people are but you gotta think, sometimes people can be their own worst enemies. I had a customer one time that was having a problem, called me up, just your software sucks. I can't believe you sell this stuff. I'm calling my lawyer, you know, and I'm you you're in big trouble. And I'm thinking to myself, doesn't he understand that I'm the only one or some member of my team are the only ones that can solve the problem? And he's talking to me this way.
And I thought, you know, you're lucky I'm a nice guy because I'm not gonna yell back at you, and I didn't hang up on him. I waited until he took a breath, and I said, okay. Now can you tell me what the problem is? And when I he took me off to it. He had handed me off to one of his people, and I found out within five minutes, you've got a new employee that's doing this. They're doing it wrong. Here's what you need to do. You fix it in five minutes. All of that hassle
[00:26:22] Unknown:
Right.
[00:26:23] Unknown:
For a five minute solution.
[00:26:25] Unknown:
And I'm sure that happens a lot too. Not not just in your there are circumstances, but, like, I know from I can shame on me. I had a experience like that too. I I was having a problem with something, and I just blew my stack. It was just because it was just the end of the day. You know? It was like everything it was just kind of building and building and building and building to the point where the, you know, Vesuvius explodes. And, and, I this poor this poor guy, when he picked up the phone for me and I I was just like, use. You know?
All that great stuff. I know the words. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. And based on the kind of person though, after it was all said and done, I apologized. And I was like, look, it's it's not you. I understand it's not you. It's this, this, this, and this. I get it. I'm sorry. I I let it out on you. You hope you get people like that. You know, you don't do it often though, unfortunately. Yeah. So, let's talk about your book. Let's talk about your book. Process of living. Yes. What motivated you to start that whole process?
[00:27:25] Unknown:
Well, the story I just told you, I started thinking about that later on. It was late in my career. And I said, isn't this interesting that this guy is feeling I know he was feeling fear. Mhmm. I know he was scared to death that his people weren't gonna get paid, but he was expressing anger. Right. And he was working against himself. He was putting himself in a situation where he really would have been in big trouble under different circumstances. And I got interested in this kind of thing. And I said I started reading books and talking to some friends, attending lectures, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, you know, those kinda those kinda folks. That's true. And I learned more and more about it. And to me, this was fascinating because we live in a society where people wanna blame.
I did this because you said that. You treated me this way, therefore, I did this other thing. So what are we talking about? Do you rule my life, or do I rule my life? This is what prompted me this was part of what prompted me to write the book. I've seen it enough times, and I learned enough from some of these very intelligent and very wise people. Mhmm. And I said, no. I'm going to give this from the standpoint that I've seen. So this is a new age, if you will, self help kind of book that's more from an engineering point of view. It's not a lot of out there somewhere kind of, you know, writing.
I gotcha. This is about here, practical, step one, step two. Just do these things. Just pay attention. Stop blaming.
[00:29:04] Unknown:
Understand the power you have. Right. See, in in your in your PodMatch profile or bio, I don't know what they're called on there. And and if you're if you're listening and you're not sure what PodMatch is, PodMatch is like, Tinder for podcast. You know, you know, you get to swipe left, swipe right, you know, match or pass, and all that great stuff. But, that that's how we connected on on, on pod match. You put in in your bio that, that, you know, the the whole process, you know, the the process of living is a very practical, non religious approach, to to, I guess, drawing what you wanna do in your life.
Now what exactly does that mean to you?
[00:29:48] Unknown:
What that means to me is that the there's an acknowledgment that comes along about a part of us, which some people call the soul subconscious mind, some people call the soul, some people call energy. Mhmm. There's all kinds of different terms for it that pays attention to what we're thinking about and what we're feeling and what we're doing. And when we create patterns that have strengths to them, that force within us finds what we need Mhmm. To either get rid of a problem or to obtain something that we really want. Now very few people understand this, and they use terms like coincidence and luck and, you know, things like that that take place outside of themselves.
They don't understand how much power we have in order to draw these things into our lives. That's what happened when I had the one business and got the other. I had to learn. I had to go through a process. And the process was guided by my subconscious, which knew how much I wanted to run my own computer business. Mhmm. And it said, alright, Bill. Before you do this, you're gonna have to learn this. You're gonna have to go through an experience, and then you'll be have the knowledge you need to be able to
[00:31:07] Unknown:
do it. Now in in the, introduction that I that we did tonight, I mentioned that, you found that there are three elements, three essential elements to success. Can you, can you tell us what those are and explain about more about how you, discovered these?
[00:31:25] Unknown:
Well, the three elements are what I mentioned a little while ago is thought, feeling,
[00:31:30] Unknown:
action. Okay.
[00:31:31] Unknown:
Those are the three things. Getting them working in line is what you need in order to achieve anything. It's how can I say this? It's not complicated. It's simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy like so many other things. Mhmm. The concept is easy, but the actual doing of it goes against a lot of what we've been taught. So we have to correct as we're going along in order to do it. We have well, I'll tell you what. Let me explain to you how I got to Phoenix, and this will give you a pretty good idea Okay. Sure. Of how this works together. I was working in a company in, Massachusetts after graduating from college just briefly because this was back in 1970. The draft was still on. The Vietnam War was still going on. And so I was gonna end up in the military one way or the other.
Well, I wanted to fly airplanes, so I went into the air force. And they were bringing home too many pilots, so I didn't get a chance to do that. But I got stationed. My duties second duty station was Booke Air Force Base here in Phoenix. Okay. Now I come from Boston. Boston to Phoenix is like a different planet. Sure. You couldn't get much different than that. So I didn't wanna come. I mean, my mind was this is just a giant desert, and I'm seeing John Wayne come up to the bar with the guns drawn. You know, that's how I'm thinking of Arizona.
And I was I was not happy. But when I got out here, I was amazed. This state has so much variety within it. Mhmm. It's just incredible. You go down to Yuma near the Mexican border, there's a desert like the Sahara Desert, and you can have a lot of fun with your sand dunes and all of that kind of stuff. Nice. We got a big metropolitan city in Phoenix. You drive north a little bit, hour and a half, you're in Sedona. Some of the most beautiful landscape mountains and
[00:33:26] Unknown:
the red rock of Sedona. Sedona is one of those places that's on my bucket list.
[00:33:31] Unknown:
Oh, it's a good one to have there and pull it through one. It really is. Then you go up further north, you have Flagstaff and, I mean, I could go skiing and for the day, come home and barbecue outside with a shirt t shirt and shorts. The state has that kind of variety. Sure. But the real clincher was when I flew a Cessna one seventy two over the top of the Grand Canyon. That had to be amazing. Make sure that make sure that's on your bucket list. That had to be amazing. Because oh my god. It was unbelievable. I just I had to keep reminding myself to fly the airplane. I mean, I was just so overwhelmed with the beauty of it. And the funny part was I was gonna take some other people. They couldn't make it, and I was glad because I didn't wanna talk.
I just wanted to absorb it all. Yeah. And I've been up there a million times. I've hiked. I've it just it's just the most amazing place I've ever been to. So I decided I wanna I wanna stay. I'm gonna stay in Phoenix. Well, they let me out early because the Vietnam War was ending. People they're bringing the people home, and they said, if you're not gonna make a career out of the air force, you can go. Mhmm. Well, then I tried to get a a job, an engineering job in Arizona, and I hadn't had any experience yet. And the defense industry was laying off, all kinds of really qualified engineers because they didn't need them. So I said, alright. I'm gonna go back to Massachusetts. That job I had for a short time, they had to take me back because I went into the military. At that time, they could not refuse.
So I went back there with a plan, five year plan. I'm gonna go up. I'm gonna gain some experience. The economy will shift. It always does. And then I'm gonna come back here in five years, and I'm gonna get a job out here. It wasn't maybe I'll get a job. No. I'm going to get a job in Phoenix. That's where I'm gonna be. And I mean, I would tell everybody who want would listen, even those who didn't wanna listen, how wonderful Arizona was, how much I I wanted to go back there and talk about all the different things, some of what I just told you and many other things. Mhmm. And, I mean, I had this energy going on within me that was just overwhelming.
Well, I had been back for one year, and I had been working in an area that was new technology, quartz crystal, electronic frequency signals. It was brand new at that time. And I didn't ask for it. That's just where they placed me. And one year later, I got a call from a headhunter a few miles away from Boston and said, hey. I got a company out here that wants to talk to you. I said, alright. You know? Why not? So I went out and met with them. We had a little opening conversation, and then the president of the company said, look. Before we go too far, we need to know if you're gonna be willing to relocate. And I said, well, that depends. What are we talking about? He said, well, the plant we need you at is in Phoenix, Arizona.
My five year plan became a one year plan. Oh, wow. And it wasn't until many years later that I realized why. I thought it was luck. I thought it was just a coincidence. But think about all the things that had to happen for me to go back to that job assigned to that department, find a company, first of all, a headhunter, and then a company in the same area that needed me, my technology to work back in Phoenix. I it was years later that I realized, no. This was my energy that I was putting out that drew all of this in. Yeah. You manifested it for yourself. I manifested it. Absolutely. And more people do this than they realize. Mhmm. So many people do this and they don't even know what they're doing.
[00:37:15] Unknown:
And when you know and you can put it apply it, then you've really got something. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure I I, you know, I I don't I I I'm trying to as you're telling the story, I'm trying to think back over experiences that I've had in my life where I've manifested things into reality. And and I could think of a couple of things that I'm not gonna mention what they are because they didn't turn out the way, I really wanted them to. They they had some some, major malfunctions along the way. But, basically, I got what I wanted. I got to be where I wanted at that time, but, without all the, with without everything that led me to that point. So, basically, I had to start all over again.
Yeah. But, but but I I know exactly what you're talking about in that one, and that's and that's that's incredible story. And, but I wanna ask you about the but one thing about your book too is, you know, when you were writing this, that first edition, what challenges did you come across as you were writing that first edition?
[00:38:10] Unknown:
Well, the major challenge is every time I go through a chapter, I reread it and say, no. No. That's not it. That's not what I see. Because that's not gonna that's not gonna lead into what I
[00:38:21] Unknown:
need now. Oh, you're like me. I must have gone through oh, gosh. Yeah. You're the same thing. I do the same thing. I I, especially with the show is I I'll I'll go through stuff all the time and say, no. No. No. No. I'm I'm scrapping that and starting all over from scratch. Yeah. No. I know what you're talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. Anybody who's written written any kind of a book
[00:38:36] Unknown:
goes if they have any real caring about it, they go through that. And and I had people I had relatives read it. I had people that I was introduced to take a look at it. They would give me suggestions, and I went back and forth over that first edition. I don't know how many times. And then when I got it out there, then I got even more feedback. Mhmm. And there were several things on it that I looked at and I said, why didn't I think that? Why didn't I notice that? I got a little techie in the middle of the book and I had I don't know how many people told me, hey, you lost me there. I couldn't figure out what you were talking about, so I just I dropped it. Well, it was important techie information, but I didn't have to be in the middle of the book. So So in the second edition, I moved all of that into an appendix. Okay. And I said That's smart. If you're interested, go read it. If you're not, take my word for it and just keep going. Good footnote. So yeah. Exactly. You know? If you're if you're in if you're like me and that kind of stuff interests you, go ahead.
But that's that was the biggest thing I changed, and there was a lot of other things that I changed in the second edition as well. Somebody asked me if I was gonna go through a third edition, and I said, I don't know if I'm gonna live that long. We'll see.
[00:39:42] Unknown:
Well, I actually, my next question question was I was gonna ask you about the second edition, and I was gonna ask you about the process of rewriting the book. And, you already you already kinda hinted at some of the things that made you realize you needed to rewrite the second edition. Yeah. But beside beside the moving the technical stuff to the back end of the book and making more like an appendix, was there anything else that that led you to feel like you needed to rewrite?
[00:40:07] Unknown:
Yeah. There was. And I think the biggest single thing I can point out to is talking to people who read the book and getting the feedback from what they got out of it. Mhmm. And many times, it was what I wanted to say, but too many times, it wasn't. The message they were getting wasn't the message I intended. And so I paid a lot of attention to that. And I spoke to those people, and I said, well, here's what I was trying to say. How would that have sounded better to you? How would that have made more sense to you in the direction that I'm I'm trying to go? And so I took a lot of that feedback and then went back through it and rewrote. None of the meaning of it really changed.
It's just the way I said it was more understandable to a larger number of people. And I've gotten much better reviews on the second edition in that way. People are getting what I meant for them to get out of the book. That made me feel much better. Oh, that's great. Now it oh, you also says, on your website that you are a professional speaker. You've been one for over thirty years.
[00:41:07] Unknown:
How did you first get started as a public speaker?
[00:41:10] Unknown:
Well, a lot of it had to do with, my business. Many times I got called into meeting with a whole team of people in a big company Okay. Talk about what I could do for them. I went to several business meetings for staff in the staffing industry, talked a lot about the staffing issues and what's going on, just not just about my software. But really, I was demonstrating my knowledge of what I knew, how much I knew about their business Mhmm. Which obviously, you know, gives us confidence in into what I provide. So I got into that, and I I'm not shy.
I take after my mother that way. There's no shyness there. But I wasn't experienced. You know, how do I put together a good thing? So I joined Toastmasters. And let me tell you, anybody who wants to do public speaking, join Toastmasters. This is a great organization that helps you to learn how to speak and gives you the feedback you need, the evaluations that you need in order to keep making improvements. So I did that for quite a few years. Mhmm. And, then after I wrote the book, like I say, things come to you that you would have never imagined. I, I go to a church. We do a lot of meditation. That's a big deal.
And one of the people at the church works for a company, works for a state department of corrections. And she wanted to bring some of us to the women's prison to talk about meditation. Okay. Well, when I got there, I they they showed us their manual for the second chance program. This is where they're trying to reduce the incredible recidivism that goes on in the prison system. People just come in. It's like a revolving door. And they have this program going. Well, their program was so much in line with my book, I couldn't believe it. I almost accuse them of plagiarism. They just took my stuff here. And when then when we talked about it, they said, well, would you like to, you know, maybe make some presentations?
So for several years, I went to the women's prison, Perryville Prison in Arizona, and I made presentations to groups of people that range from 15 to 50 that would be there at any one time. And it was the most satisfying thing I've ever done. You know, you never know. You don't know how much impact it had, but it felt good to at least put that those ideas out.
[00:43:25] Unknown:
And that's true. You you don't know especially for the people that you're you're you're deal you're speaking with. You don't know how you will affect them as, you know, in in the aftermath of the conversations. Now through, of course, writing a book, you go on the speaking tours. Right? So you have a number of speaking engagements you go to. How have those speaking, engagements impacted you as a writer?
[00:43:50] Unknown:
They've they've impacted me in because I started doing that at the first edition. Okay. So they impacted me. That was another funnel of data and information that came back to me to do that. Now I'm gonna be honest with you. It didn't amount to a lot of book sales. No. Really? It really didn't. No. I was surprised. I thought it would do more. It didn't. And I had no criticism from people about, yo, no. You're what you're saying, I don't believe that or that they were very open to it, but it just there's a lot of books of that genre out there. There's a lot of them. And so people have to make a decision which one do I wanna read.
But I'll be perfectly honest. The whole purpose of the book was to get up in front of people and talk about it. Mhmm. I wanted the book to be the introduction. I had no illusions of making millions of dollars on book sales. I wanted to get the book in front of enough people who would say, yeah. The people in our company need to hear this. The people in this organization need to hear this. The book helped me get an introduction to, a group that's part of AARP that actually does tutoring for third graders, who are having trouble with their reading. Mhmm. And I said, now that's interesting. So I looked into that, and I'm gonna be starting my duties as a volunteer to help kids learn how to read.
[00:45:18] Unknown:
Because quite frankly, if you don't know how to read, you're not gonna get very far in the education system. And when you sat down to write That's good. That was good. When you sat down to write this book, you'd never imagined that it would be done it'd be used as, as a as a as a guide to teach others how to read.
[00:45:34] Unknown:
Well, no. The book itself isn't. It was the book that was a guide to people who needed someone to teach someone. Oh, I see. Okay. I misunderstood. Okay. I apologize. The the people who wrote the the people who read the book said, hey. This is there's some good stuff in here about, you know, being able to use what you have within you to your advantage. We could use that to maybe motivate these kids to learn how to read because that is really blocking not knowing that is blocking their education. So it was through this person, through this person, through that person. Oh, you should look into this. That's how it happened. You never know how it's gonna happen.
[00:46:12] Unknown:
Yeah. No. Exactly. And I'm I'm sorry I misunderstood what you were saying on that, but but that's that's even actually, that's even better than what I was thinking. So it also works itself out. And, you know, and what do you hope that readers come away with, from from reading your book and and and applying the things in your book to their lives? What are you hoping they're walking away with?
[00:46:33] Unknown:
The single most important thing is to recognize the power that you have within you. People give up on their plans. They give up on their goals because they don't believe. They don't believe. And it's you have to believe. You have to more than believe. You have to know. You have to know that what you need will be brought to you. The dream killer question is how. If I can't figure out how in my mind, then obviously it can't happen. That's not true. I didn't figure out how I was gonna end back in Phoenix. I would've never dreamt it was gonna happen that way. Right. Yeah. I the the how question is you put that aside. You've got the subconscious. You've got this energy within you as a human that you can use if you apply it.
And that's your power. That's what you have. If you can visualize it, if you can if you want it, if you feel it with energy, you will be drawn to it. There's a quote from the bible, and it's the only quote I've ever used. Because like I told like you mentioned, it's this is not a religious book. This quote was so good. And I'm probably not gonna get all the words exactly right, but you'll you understand what I'm saying. Okay? For all that you pray and desire, believe that you have received it, and it will be granted to you. Mhmm. It's a mark, I think eleven fourteen or something like that. Somewhere around there. I read that. Somebody actually showed me that, and I said, oh, this I have to put in the book because this is from a much higher authority saying exactly what I'm trying to say.
[00:48:15] Unknown:
Know that you'll get it. You'll get it. Well, you know something. It's what's interesting too is is, you know, I don't know if you know or not, but, I teach I teach the Bible, and, I teach Oh, no. I didn't know. Yeah. I do. And, I, I served as an associate pastor of a church in, in Ups in, in Upstate, in, in Staten Island, New York. And, that's where I'm from originally. I'm I'm from New York. I'm not a net I'm not a native Texan. So, I don't know if I gave that away or any way any way, shape, or form, but, but I I I I worked for New York City for twenty five years. I, you know, I I I served as an associate pastor of a church for for little over a year, while our senior pastor was, had taken sick, and so he had asked me to step in and try to help out, you know, as much as I could, so which which I did.
I've I've I've been to bible school. I've I've done a list. I I teach bible on Sundays, actually, as a show. We we I do a show here every Sunday in a bible study show. And, and we're actually going through America's Christian heritage right now. That's this the subject that we're teaching on. And, I I say we, the royal we, you know. So, but I know what you're talking about. The Bible actually is an the Bible actually wears many hats. I I always say that the Bible is the greatest history book you'll ever get. The Bible is also the greatest self help book you'll ever get. If you actually read the Bible, it's a great textbook on political science.
The the basic theme of the Bible is who's going to rule who, who's gonna govern who. I'm glad salvation's in there, of course. I mean, it's it's important, but basically it's, you know, it has it has those elements. You could find just about everything you need to know about life in your Bible. So the Bible is also a great self help book, and quote and and verses like you just put out, that's that's a very, very true verse. It's it's it's a powerful verse. You can, you know, if you if you have the faith to believe that God is gonna do something for you, he'll do it for you. Now it may not be in your time frame. It might not be for years later. You don't know. It's all on on the Lord's time frame.
It's when he determines because, of course, he is sovereign in our life. So he it all determines, his determination on meeting that need is in his time scale. And the Bible says a day with the is is a day a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day. You know? So it's it's a it's a great book. So you should definitely use your use the Bible more in your in your in your quotations in your book.
[00:50:58] Unknown:
And, no, you're not the first person to tell me that. The, and the other part of that though that what you said is not only the time, but the experience. Yes. What you need to know, what you need to experience before you can get to what you're asking the good Lord to give you, he will provide. Yes. He will take you through, and you have to trust. Mhmm. You have to know and you have to trust. Yeah. Because
[00:51:24] Unknown:
it's very easy to get discouraged if you don't believe. That's right. And just just as a side note to that, just wanna make sure the folks that are that are watching and listening understand this. I am not a name it and claim it preacher. I I don't I don't believe that. I I do believe that that as long as what you're asking for lines up with God's perfect will for you, he'll be happy to answer that in his time frame. If it's something that that he does not want for you or something that's not good for you, he's he's not obligated to give it to you anyway. So, just keep that in mind. I just wanna make sure I I I I explained that because I know some dingbats gonna go out there and say, well, you just said I eat whatever I want. No. It's not what I said.
Alright?
[00:52:09] Unknown:
Yeah. No. And you're right. That's exactly true.
[00:52:12] Unknown:
So, so do you have any plans to write another book or what?
[00:52:16] Unknown:
No. Actually, I don't. Not at the moment. Now that may change. But, you know, my wife has asked me on a number of different occasions, you know, you sold your business eight years ago. Do you think maybe you're gonna retire sometime? And I I said, well, I'm sure eventually, I don't know what's gonna come first, my retirement or my leaving this earth. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be close. Let's put it that way. So right now, I'm really focused on doing the speaking. This new thing with helping the kids learn how to read. Which is great, by the way. Yeah. I think to me, that's so important. If you go on my website, I I have a blog in there about and the website is theprocessofliving.com.
It's the same as the book. And I have a blog in there that that is a picture that starts with the Statue Of Liberty. And I mentioned about how so many of the various groups that we have in this country that have not progressed as much as others has become, because of a lack of education. Yeah. Because of living in neighborhoods that have poor, they don't have the money, they don't have the teachers, they don't have the resources, and it's easy to get discouraged. And we keep that thing flowing over and over again, and we gotta change it. Yeah. Because if we don't change it, we're gonna be stuck in the same wheel over and over. And there's a whole segment, there's a whole blog in there that I talk about now. So this fit right in. Sure. When they told me about this because this is gonna be Hispanic people, some African Americans, this is mostly non white population.
And this is where you're not just teaching them to read. You're teaching them to respect themselves. You're teaching them to say, hey. I'm good. I can do these things. That's the even bigger warning part.
[00:54:03] Unknown:
I'm laughing because I I got a text just now, from one of our producers that said, oh my god, your hair. I I I had hair up until Saturday. So
[00:54:14] Unknown:
What did you have it shaved off? What did you do this Saturday? No. I shaved on Saturday. Yeah. Oh, no kidding. Yes. Yeah. So
[00:54:23] Unknown:
Oh, good. I'm so sorry. I don't I didn't not ready to do that. I don't I don't mean to get this I didn't mean to, you know, just get distracted like that, but I just when it popped up on my screen here That's pretty funny. That's pretty funny. Yeah. I, you know, I I was thinking about it. So, if if I if I don't do something with it, I my hair is all white. I, you know, I I went gray very, very young. So, I I feel like I'm 55. I'll be 55 this year. I I I don't feel like I should have all white hair at 55. I I don't feel old enough for that. So I would I would I would color it from time to time and, you know, I would use the one that, you know, leaves a little bit of the gray in, so it doesn't look too unnatural. And, but, I don't know. I just looked at it the other day and I was like, you know what? I'm just getting tired of doing this.
I really I really am. So what's what's what's the next what's the next best thing to do? You know, I just took my clippers and went took it right off. And, That's pretty funny. And I I I look at it like this. It's only hair. It'll grow back. Well, I hope it'll grow back. Oh, it'll grow back. You know, my at at this age, I don't know anymore. You
[00:55:32] Unknown:
know? At, with my depth. Well, I've I've got, I've got good genetics because, I'm 77 years old, and I've still got the full head of hair. Oh, God bless you, man. My father was in his eighties, and and, well, actually, he died. He was 93 when he died, and it wasn't until the last five or six years of his life that he actually really started losing some hair. So, I can't say that's all Italian because that wouldn't fit with what we talked about earlier. Oh, of course. Yes. But, well, my my my dad
[00:56:01] Unknown:
my dad was had a receding hairline. When when my dad passed away, it was about here somewhere. When, when my grandfather was alive, my grandfather had and I used to tease him all the time. He he he had the he had the Friars haircut. You know what I mean? So you had the you had the big bald spot right there. They still had hair on the sides. So so I would tease about that. So so I I got the whammy on both sides. You know? So, but I don't know. I still got the I got the good pattern still. That's not it's not horrible yet, but we're getting there. So let me ask you. Who's someone that you respect right now, and, what are they doing that inspires you?
Good question. Well, you could use me as an example if you like. Well, of course. I mean, you were the first one.
[00:56:51] Unknown:
I don't know if you're familiar with Unity, Unity Church. It's, I like the fact that they're very open to different patterns, different thoughts. They are Christian based. Mhmm. But we honor all paths to God. That's that's one of their things. So it's a very welcoming and very kind
[00:57:10] Unknown:
kind of a place. Is it Unitarian church or?
[00:57:14] Unknown:
Pardon me? Denomination. Okay. No. It's not Unitarian. Yeah. It's, we got the first name Myrtle. They were in Utah. They started this thing going, what they wanted to do is make people feel welcome and understand what is important and not to get caught up in the details of, well, I believe it's exactly this way or I believe it's exactly that way. That's okay. You can have those little variations, but there's a fundamental that what you just said, that God is there and will provide for you what he knows is right for you. Right. And I don't care what religion you're in. It's going to work that way. So this particular religion yeah. I grew up Catholic and Catholic at that time, back in the nineteen fifties. You you you're Italian, of course.
And, you know, back in those days, I mean, if you even stepped into a Protestant church, you're going straight to hell. Oh, yeah. I had a I had a little trouble with that. But, there is a minister at the Unity Church, Unity of Phoenix, and this lady has got a skill in how she brings forth the subject matter to it's clear and entertaining and still right on target for what people need to know. Mhmm. And I just so admire her. She's not a world famous anything,
[00:58:39] Unknown:
but she sure is good at what she does. It's it's amazing how many people are like that. You know, people that Yeah. In relative obscurity that are just so in tune and just so just have such a such a passion and a knowledge and, and and a way to apply things to your life that that nobody really knows about. You know, that that really only impact a small amount of people, but yet those people though, what they should do is they should expand out and bring people in.
[00:59:07] Unknown:
That's what I told her. I said you should be on TV. You should not be just limited to the 200 or so people that come in on Sundays to, you know, hear your speech. I mean, she's got so much stuff. And, that's I I just admire her tremendously for her skills, particularly where I'm so interested in public speaking. Mhmm. She's outstanding. I mean, she she gives the example.
[00:59:32] Unknown:
So, yeah, she's very good. Alright. So where can the audience go to learn more about you, your work, and, any upcoming things, speaking engagements you'll be involved in?
[00:59:42] Unknown:
Well, it's very simple. You just go to the processofliving.com, and I keep things up to date there. Okay. You can go to Facebook. I do more at Facebook than any other of the, I do some on Twitter x, whatever it's called. Yeah. I had to do better with my social media stuff. I'm terrible with it. Yeah. I am too. There's so many different thing. You could eat up your entire day. Yeah. With doing all this, and they changed the rules. So now that you thought you know it, no. You don't really know it anymore. Exactly. I I'm I've got a gal that I've hired that that helps me with that stuff, but, I don't.
That's not the way I wanna spend my day. But Facebook, I'm there. I have posts on a regular basis there, and I have blogs inside the, the website. And, all about contacting me, more detail about the beliefs summary, all of that is is in there. I say start out at theprocessofliving.com.
[01:00:36] Unknown:
If you're interested in learning more, start there. Alright. And that'll tell you the next step. Yep. Now, of course, we have all of that information in the show notes, so the audience can just easily click the link. Well, on the audio side, they can just click a link. It'll take them right to everything that we have on you. On the, on the video side, you you'll just have to cut and paste and copy the link and and, and and check them out. But definitely, you need to check them out. I checked out your website earlier today. Really good stuff on there. And, I'll be looking for you on the socials. You know, you don't have to worry about following back right away because I know you're terrible with it just like I am. So,
[01:01:08] Unknown:
you know, it's one of those things. I don't know. I will I will look for it, and I'll go through it. And if I need help, I'll get help from someone at least. Alright.
[01:01:16] Unknown:
Alright. Bill DeBarber, thank you so very much for being here with us tonight. Thank you. I really do appreciate your time, and, look forward to, actually getting more into your book. And, hey, brother, God bless you, man. Appreciate you.
[01:01:29] Unknown:
Thank you so much, sir, and I appreciate you as well. This has been a lot of fun. I really Yeah. We'll do it again sometime for sure. Okay. Sounds good. Alright. You take care now. Alright, folks. Build a barber.
[01:01:39] Unknown:
Alright. So, folks, don't forget this is a live show on, weeknights, 7PM central time. And don't forget to head over to our website, joeroos.com. Make sure you click that like, subscribe, and share on Rumble. And, we're gonna take a very short break here. When we come back, we'll be bringing in Lauren Pena, the, candidate for congress, congressional seat number 35 out of Austin, Texas. And, I think you're gonna like I think you're gonna like Lauren. Lauren was a it's a bit of firecracker. So, talk, on a few things about the redistricting that's going on down here in Texas, and, I think this I think this young lady has a bright future in politics.
So we'll be back in just a moment. Stay with us, and see you in a minute. Bye.
[01:06:22] Unknown:
Up and down, counting out, smiling through the taste of blood in my own mouth. I got bruises and broken bones, but they don't know I ain't in this ring alone. I'm a fighter. No one can say that I'm a runnin' hider. I was born to be too dire, I make it right or don't throw that towel just yet. Don't cash in that last bit because I hit order when I'm tired. I'm a fighter. I get back up. That's what I do. I didn't soldier on No one can keep me down. They didn't know, but they know now that I'm a fighter.
[01:09:01] Unknown:
Alrighty, folks. First hour is in the books. Welcome back to the Joe Roose Show. I am Joe Ruse. Second hour, gonna get started here momentarily. Bill DeBarba. Need to check out his book, folks. I look at some of it. It's really, really good. Looking forward to really getting into it though. Alright. Waiting in the wings, we have our second hour guest, Lauren Pena. She's hanging out there waiting. Before we bring her in though Hey, folks, Pod home. No, that's okay, you can turn it on. Pod home, our host platform on the audio side of the show. Pod home is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform. You can use it to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, automatically generate transcript, chapters, titles, show notes, and more.
I've been using Pod Home now for a couple of years. Great platform. Customer service is fantastic. And you know what the great thing about Pod Home is is that you could broadcast your podcast live. Not only across the modern two point o platforms, you can also do it through your website. And if you don't have a website, hey, Pod Home will provide one for you. All for the low, low price of $15.99 a month. Now I have been part of other, podcast platforms, some of the bigger named ones, and, for three times as much as I'm paying with Pod Home, I got nothing compared to what Pod Home is providing to us. So if you go to podhome.fm right now, you could try it out for free for thirty days. And then from there, it's just $15.99 a month. And, you know, just what I described to you here is not even remotely everything that Pod Home has to offer. So you need to check them out. Podhome.fm, podhome.fm.
Alright. Now since she jumped the gun already, I am absolutely excited to bring on our second guest tonight. I saw her speaking at some of the redistricting hearings that have been taking place down in Austin. I reached out to her, asked her to join the show. Now she is breaking down barriers between poverty and politics, extensive experience in grassroots organizing, volunteer coordination, public advocacy. She is committed to fostering meaningful connections and driving impactful initiatives. Her leadership roles have included serving on advisory boards, coordinated community events, mentoring individuals to become active contributors to their community. Lauren Pena is passionate about empowering others and creating solutions that address societal changes while promoting collaboration and innovation.
Now currently, she is taking on a new adventure. She's running for Congress, which is huge, in Austin's District 35, which has led her to speak out in favor of redistricting for Congress. Lauren Pena, just welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Awesome. Not too many people say that and mean it, so I have a feeling though you do. So, so I'm gonna I'm gonna start off right off the bat with this. One of the reasons that I really wanted to get you on the show was I had seen a a bunch of videos that you had posted on, I think it was either Facebook or Instagram or somewhere. I think it was Facebook though. And I'll be very honest with you. When I the first the first couple of, presentations that I saw you make, you remind me of a member of a current member of Congress who I have a lot of respect for, and that's Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[01:12:40] Unknown:
I love it that you said that.
[01:12:42] Unknown:
And see, I didn't tell you that beforehand. You didn't know I was coming, but but that's that's the truth. And, I I I just I don't know. I just see the same fire, the same spark that that, that that's in her, in you, and I think that you're gonna yeah. I think you have a very, very bright political future, and I'm really excited to see, to see how things worked out for you out there in, in Austin. So I like to ask a couple of warm up questions before we get into the the meat of the subjects for the night. I pretty much ask this of everybody, but what's what's something that most people don't know about you but should?
[01:13:18] Unknown:
Well, not to be like Kamala Harris, but I was born in the middle class. Sorry. I really was. I was I was born into the middle class. And so when I got kicked out of the house at 16 and pregnant, I fell into extreme poverty. So I think that's what kinda gives me a different perspective because I actually know at least what it's like to live in middle class and how different it is in my current lifestyle versus and and my parents were not rich. They they weren't even upper middle class. I think they made, like, 100,000 a year. So they had an okay home, an okay car, but we didn't get to go out to eat or do things like that all the time. So it was it was a basic life, but it was still middle class. So to yeah.
[01:13:59] Unknown:
Okay. A lot of energy. Wow. That's great. That's great. Alright. So what's your go to beverage at the end of the day to help you unwind? Is there one? Water. You know, I've only had out of all the times I've asked that question, I've only had a handful of people say something other than water.
[01:14:20] Unknown:
Oh, wow.
[01:14:22] Unknown:
So but, I don't know if you heard. I was talking to Bill, and Bill said, you know, Bill's a Manhattan guy, which is kind of like in the Martini family, really. But, I'm a bourbon guy. I love I love my bourbons. I like to like to do that on a weekend, you know, sit sit out in the backyard by the grill, bourbon, cigar, you know, that type of thing. But, let's see. So, Lauren, let's get back to where you start your political advocacy, and let's talk about what first motivated you to speak out for your community.
[01:14:52] Unknown:
Well, to be honest, I, I was really depressed during the pandemic. I had just gotten out of human trafficking. I just got a house in public housing. I was absolutely miserable, and I attempted to get jobs. Nothing was happening. And then I'm noticing my community fall apart, and then I start laying in bed, not wanting to get out of bed, not being a productive human being. And, I somehow got on to watching Alex Jones in, like, Infowars. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I started watching that, and I'm like, wow. Is this is this for real? Is this is this how the world is working out there? And not to say that I agree with everything he says because I think it is a it's a little extreme, but it did definitely open my eyes to, that I wasn't living in the the type of world that I thought I was living in.
And so I saw that, and I wasn't getting any jobs. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go see if I can get on a a safety council or something with the city of Austin. Okay. And so, sure enough, they had some open positions, and I was selected only a couple weeks after applying. And so when I got there, they literally just threw me into the crowd like like, threw me into it. So I had no idea what I was doing. I had never really attended any council meetings or legislative sessions. I knew nothing about politics whatsoever. I was so desperate to try to make action happen in my community that I threw myself to the wolves, and that's where it started.
But I quickly got kicked off the Austin Public Safety Commission because I was a conservative. And I think that was possibly one of the biggest things that started motivating me because I was like, oh, well, Alex Jones is right. A little bit. A little bit. And and I was just shocked to see how me living in poverty on the East Side and, you know, I'm literally, the first night I moved into my house, I saw two two people shoot each other in the street. And, like, nobody got arrested. One of them still lives here. Whatever. Hasn't happened again. So okay. None of my business. Whatever. But I'm like, okay. I'm gonna get on the Austin Public Safety Commission. I'm gonna advocate for more police because that's what my community needs, and we don't need undercovers because my community is flooded with undercovers. Like, we need uniform police officers walking around. Yeah. And I wanna do that. And at the same time, I was applying to actually be an officer for the Austin Police Department. And I got denied the first time because I didn't have a bachelor's degree.
And once I got my bachelor's degree, I got denied again because I didn't have a driver's license. But that ended up being a good thing because I started getting really heavy into politics because, again, I couldn't find a job, and that's all I could do was volunteer.
[01:17:38] Unknown:
Well, things things work out for for the best reasons. And so Absolutely. I think I think you're in your niche right now. So just do wanna go back to to just two quick things here. The the not so serious one first. Alex Jones, let me tell you something. I, have you tried his methylene blue?
[01:17:54] Unknown:
Okay. So I've heard so many good things about it, and I thought I saw something blue in your drink. And I was like, oh, I wonder if that's it. Unfortunately, they're a little too expensive for me right now, but I can't wait until I can afford that because I definitely will be trying. Try it. You should try it out. Now now just so you know, I I I love Alex Jones. I I watch Alex Jones every day. Again, I don't agree with everything. Some and and sometimes I think that his show becomes too much of an infomercial
[01:18:18] Unknown:
than than, a commentary program. But, I do have an affiliate link with Alex Jones. So you can go to the alexjonesstore.com/joe, and you can get all his vitamins and supplements right there. And 10% of that comes right back here to the podcast. That's my that's my plug. And, actually, I think I have a banner here somewhere. There it is. Yeah. The alexjonesjoe.com/joe. So Very cool. You could do that. I got my Infowars hat right up over here. So yeah. So, but Alex Jones is great. And, yeah, he's he's I actually have a t shirt that says, Alex Jones was right, changed my mind. So and I I like to wear that regularly when I go out, especially go to H E B or something like that. So Nice. No. It's not it's nice to be able to say H E B to somebody who actually knows what H E B is. So, but, what the the serious thing, though, that you mentioned is the human trafficking.
And, I've I've seen it on your website, and, so can can you talk about that a little bit? Tell us what exactly happened. Were you trafficked yourself, or were you just involved in something where you knew of a situation? So explain that.
[01:19:22] Unknown:
Well, like I said, I got pregnant when I was 16, and my middle class parents kicked me out. And what's worse is my high school did not being in the suburbs, they didn't want pregnant teenagers in their school. So they kinda handed me my diploma, having a ninth or tenth grade education level, and sent me out the door. So I was, you know, pregnant in the streets. There's not the same type of resources in the suburbs as there are in the city for situations like that. And so I just I found myself ending up being in the city. I did find myself finding protection in kind of, like, the gang culture and things like that.
And, I mean, it's obviously not a good thing, but I think I probably wouldn't be alive had that not happened to me. But then at the same time, a lot of bad things ended up happening after that. And so, you know, honestly, the way it first started is I was working in a club, and I was the person who was responsible for providing all the party favors. And so I didn't really have to do much. I just, you know, kind of had my club, and I took care of all the party favors for not only the the the other dancers, but also, like, the patrons that would come in. And, essentially, I was safe. Nobody was gonna mess with me. I was good to go.
Unfortunately, one of my highest paid customers just on, you know, the party favors was someone that was elected to office. And they would come in, and they would buy a significant amount of party favors and then also girls and stuff to to take home after and things like that. And so one night, I didn't have enough party favors. And this individual and the manager to the club had a very, very tight relationship because, I mean, the managers get paid really, really well there. But, you know, obviously, if it's an elected official, they're probably paying a lot more too for secrecy and things like that. Yeah. And so because I wasn't able to get more drugs, he looked at the manager and he was like, fire her. And so the manager fired me. And so it took me out of my safe situation where I was just providing party favors to not being in a safe situation, if that makes sense.
[01:21:37] Unknown:
I gotcha. That's that's a that's wow. I I like, I don't even know what to say to that. We we probably should have talked about that before the show. But, that that's that's terrible. I mean and, of course, this is all probably on the taxpayer
[01:21:52] Unknown:
taxpayer dime as well. And On the state credit card.
[01:21:56] Unknown:
And it was a state representative or it was a State senator. Wow. That's amazing. I'm not surprised by it, but at the same time, it's it's it's it's absolutely amazing.
[01:22:08] Unknown:
But I I do wanna be clear on something that's that's really important really fast. I do not advocate for selling party favors. In fact, I have a hatred towards these people. So, like, if I find out about you, I'm I'm not gonna be your friend because, I gotcha. They're they're bad. And I'm totally, totally against people that are involved with those things because it's not an excuse if you're poor and have nothing to do. Like, find something else to do. It's not okay. Yeah. I I I agree with you. I,
[01:22:38] Unknown:
I don't know if we I don't know if we mentioned earlier when we talked before the show, but, you know, I I come from a law enforcement background. I I I worked for New York City for twenty five years. I was in uniformed service at investigations work. I finished my career in operations. I've seen the effects of these things, up in New York, and I've seen how bad it could be. And, yeah. That that that that's not a lifestyle for anybody to be involved with at all whatsoever, and, there is no condoning it. There is no rationale that you could say that, well, you know, it does this and that no. None of that works. I mean, you're talking about some really serious, serious repercussions from these things. And, I'm I'm, you know, I'm I'm sad to to know that you went through that, but I'm glad to know that you're out of that, and you're you're using that, to to to drive your passion to see change made in the district that you are, looking to represent.
Now I I would imagine that, you know, there had to be a lot of emotions, when you went to speak for the first time before, state reps and city council and and and such. What did it feel like the first time you stood in front of these elected officials who were supposed to be representing you and your neighbors and confronting them about their failures in doing that?
[01:23:55] Unknown:
Well, unfortunately for me, I am mainly well, actually, in am only represented by Democrats. And so most of the time when I've testified on things, I honestly don't recognize who everyone is. Though, to me, they're just another person, but especially during redistricting and things like that, you know, we didn't have some of the Democrats there. You know? And, I remember I think it was the senate. I went off on the Democrats that were there, and I was like, you guys are screwed. There's nothing you could do about it. And I was like, wow. Where did that come from?
[01:24:32] Unknown:
But most I'm trying to think that was the video that I saw.
[01:24:36] Unknown:
It was crazy. But, so I I I didn't have any experience public speaking whatsoever. And when I drove all the way to Arlington for the Arlington hearing, oh my goodness. That was the craziest moment of my life because the the wonderful speaker, I think, Frederick Douglas, republicans, he was getting attacked by the crowd. They were booing, screen braces things, telling him it was the wrong color. So he's standing at one podium, and I'm literally standing at the other podium waiting to speak after him. And I'm like, oh my gosh. There's four or 500 people standing behind me. I've never talked to this many people before, and they are booing him. I was so scared. But I got so, I guess it it worked something up in me. And instead of talking to the dais, I ended up speaking to the the crowd behind me kinda a little bit chewing them out, but educating them, like, you know, your taxpayer dollars are weaponized against my family and things like that. So it was a it was actually a humble experience, but I don't know where it came from honestly because I didn't have any experience.
[01:25:40] Unknown:
Well, that's but look. I've been in situations like that too where I've spoken in front of large amounts of people, and and I was absolutely terrified up until I started speaking. And then all of a sudden, it just it it I I don't know what it is myself. It just you just you just you know the material you're gonna talk about, and you know the you you you know it better than they do, so you're just gonna start you're just gonna shoot it off. And, it gets easier as you do it. I've spoken in front of hundreds of people. I've spoken in front of over a thousand people. It's, it it it I still get nervous, you know. I get nervous now doing the show, you know. It's a oh, hello.
How did I thought we closed the door. Hold on. Sorry. No problem. Hey, pal. What's up? Yeah. I know. Okay. Alright. Let me let me just scoot him out. No problem. Sorry. Live shows, folks. Come on, buddy. Come on, daddy.
[01:26:41] Unknown:
I don't know. I feel like I should say something. I I I do just wanna tell everybody that's watching. I'm so excited that you're sitting here watching. And hi, Joe. Thanks for coming back. Come back.
[01:26:50] Unknown:
You did good. Our tens of our tens of viewers right now are enjoying that moment. Our however many download it later, we'll enjoy it later. Alright. So that was, that was Charlie, by the way. That was my my French bulldog and my boy. My girl knows better than to interrupt the show. I don't know how we got into it, though, that remember closing that door. Alright. Live shows. Alright. So now as you spoke more and more before the Texas representatives and senate, what was one was one experience that really surprised you?
[01:27:25] Unknown:
I don't know. You're not you you might not like this, but it's it's actually that I've been so alone. Like, I really I really feel like we are outnumbered by Democrats, and it makes no sense because, allegedly, you know, there's more Republicans that are elected, but I have been feeling overwhelmingly alone. Like, yesterday when I testified, I was the only person to not only testify in favor, but the only, conservative, I believe. So it was it was lonely, but I'm like, come on, guys. Where are you at? Like, come on.
[01:28:00] Unknown:
Now it's interesting because, you know, coming from New York, you know, Republican party in New York is just a joke. It it it really is. And conservatives in New York are just a coward cowardly bunch. They don't do much of anything. I don't know if you're familiar with the, mayoral race that's taking place in New York, but but, you got this guy, complete socialist communist, the Republican party of New York. And and the the Republican candidate that's going against him is a guy by by the name of Curtis Sliwa. And I don't know if you you know who he is. He's very popular up in New York. He, he started an organization, called, I think it was the Guardian Angels or something like that.
And, what they would do, they were volunteers. They would just they would wear these red bomber jackets and red berets, and they would patrol the subways, when New York was at at its lowest point, to try to help the police and get things under control. Then he became a radio show host and so on and so forth. I mean, he's a he's a good guy. I yeah. I I met him once. Can't say I know him personally that well. He's run for mayor before, had little to no support whatsoever. And, I I I fear that it's gonna be the same here because the Republican Party of New York you think Texas is bad. The Republican Party of New York actually, put out a post on social media that told the people of New York to leave.
Move. Get out. Now you that that to me, that just tells me that the Republican Party of New York just gave up. They're not even gonna mount a defense or or or try to even invest anything in in in gaining any seats in in the New York assembly or, fight for the, for, Gracie Manchin in, in New York, who's the the mayor's office. So, you know, I thought I'd I thought when I came to Texas that it would be completely different, and and lo and behold, here we are. The the Texas the Texas Republicans aside from a few, there's there's one guy that I really, really admire, Brian Harrison. I think he's rock solid. I've and I've been talking to his people for a little bit trying to get him to come on, and it's but with the with this the, the special sessions and so on and so forth, it's been very hard to do it. But, but, hopefully, we'll get him on soon. But, I have a lot of respect for him. I really like him a lot, and I think he's I think he's has a he's another one with a very, very bright future ahead of him. I can actually see him as a governor someday.
But I wanted to ask you about the redistricting now. When redistricting takes place, the, the location that that you are testifying in regards to, is that gonna be affected by the redistricting? Are you is that gonna become a Republican seat?
[01:30:54] Unknown:
So here's the deal about my redistricting. And I'm advocating for it, which is crazy because I'm making it more difficult on myself. So current,
[01:31:02] Unknown:
international decision. But that just shows your integrity.
[01:31:06] Unknown:
That's that's Thank you. That's how I look at that. That's how I see it. But yeah. I'm definitely making it much harder on myself because current Congressional District 35 goes from, East Austin down to, San Antonio all down the East Side Of 35. What they're gonna do with it is take it and shift it down to, like, Hays County and all of that, completely come out of Travis County and put me in 37. 37 is basically what I've been advocating for before we saw the map, so I thought that was great, was to take and encompass the city, because I don't have any representation in my city. Mhmm. Encompass the city so that I can take all of the public housing places, all of the low income nonvoters that haven't voted in forty years and get them to show up to vote for the first time. And my thought on this is if I can wake up the the poor people, if I can get the poor people out to vote here in Travis County Mhmm. I can save the city of Austin, and I can change the trajectory of every major city across the nation. And I truly believe that I can do that. But as far as the redistricting, it goes from I think the current 35 is, like, maybe a forty, sixty, or 35, 75, something like that. I don't think I did that math right, but you know what I mean.
So there there is a a a certain percentage of Republicans that are gonna vote Republican. Now if you take the new 37, it's gonna encompass almost all of well, the city of Austin and in Travis County, and it's probably gonna be the bluest district in Texas. So it's gonna be deep blue. And, essentially, depending on how they do it, it's going to be two democrat incumbents, Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett, that are gonna have to fight it out. Now Greg Cazar is the progressive caucus chair. So in my mind, he is like the little devil, and I'm not even being dramatic. Like like, you just like that guy that's running for mayor in in New York, like, you have to be evil. Yeah. I mean, these policies are harming my community, and they sit here and they say all these social programs are to help, you know, families like mine, and they wanna push their socialist agenda, but it's not working. Our civil rights are being violated. And not only that, it's wasting taxpayer funds. Like, all that money could be in the taxpayer's pocket because it's definitely not going to the people. It's going to the cities. It's going to the administrators.
It's going to the officials that don't really care about us. So like I said, I am making it harder on myself by taking on the new 37. It would be I I would I'm guaranteed to win if I go to the new 35. Like, there's no way that I would lose, but I feel like that's what's so important. Like, if I can take this on, if I can accomplish this, it's going to change the trajectory of every major city in this nation because I can call out the bull crap.
[01:33:59] Unknown:
Alright. That's that's awesome. Well, you know what? I hope it works out that, you know, I hope it works out in in a way that, like, I how do I put this? Like, I don't I don't wanna I don't I don't like seeing people run unopposed. You know? I I wanna see some challenge, and I wanna see somebody get up on a stage and debate and talk about, the differences between you and me, and what you believe, what I believe, what what what my understanding of of the constitution of The United States and the Texas constitution are compared to yours. I I wanna see those differences.
But, you know, if it would mean that if you if you did run unopposed in '35,
[01:34:46] Unknown:
It's not unopposed. Oh, it's not? Okay. They're no. No. No. No. They're it's When you say guaranteed to win, I I I'd automatically assume of, you know It's guaranteed to win because I know that I'm the better candidate than my opposition. So I'm just being a little cocky with that. But, no, you know the primary process or or is is it just okay. Yeah. So I have a primary opponent in '35 and '37. Both of them are So one is literally from California, but the other one is not only from California, but held office in California. So I'm like, you held office in California.
What are you doing? Like, we know how California's went. And, you know, the demographics of the districts are are definitely unfavorable to, my 35 opponent. And, again, either way, the type of voters that I'm gonna be able to wake up, neither one of those people will be able to wake them up. And frankly, I don't think they would have, like, the the confidence to walk into these neighborhoods.
[01:35:46] Unknown:
I got you. Now that's and that's the thing too. It's it's you have all of these these folks that are that are, fleeing California. They're coming here. They're they're getting they're getting into, elected office, and they're just bringing the failed policies from California here. And that's that's the thing with liberalism. It's like a freaking cancer. You know, once it gets in, it just spreads and spreads I was gonna say something else, but it just spreads and spreads and spreads. One of the greatest billboards I've seen since I've been here is don't California my Texas, you know. But unfortunately, that's what you're seeing happening.
And now with with California threatening to redistrict, their state, you're I'm expecting to see a lot more of these California Republicans who are really just Democrat lite, work their way over and come into office here, then do the same bullshit that they did in California, destroying that state politically. So, you know, it's it's a challenge, man. I I don't you know, I thought New York was bad, man. I I really did. I thought New York was bad, but this this takes the cake. It really does.
[01:36:55] Unknown:
One thing that I'm having a little bit of a pushback on is from, like, people, especially, like, the establishment and Republicans, they're like, oh, well, you sound like a Democrat or you're gonna be a Democrat. Well, buddy, if I ran as a Democrat, I'm guaranteed to win. So, obviously,
[01:37:11] Unknown:
I'm not a Democrat. But how do they say how do they even say that? I mean, I I I've listened to you speak. I've read your materials. I've seen everything. I mean, I mean, I I I I can't draw the conclusion that you'd be a Democrat at all. I I I look at you as a strong conservative, which is which is what the state needs. So I so where are they drawing that from?
[01:37:35] Unknown:
I am it's definitely because I have talked a lot about, poverty and social programs and things like that, and that has been something that in the past, Republicans have not touched. They haven't done anything with. And I would argue that's why it got out of control because there was no, conservatism there, no fiscal responsibility because we did just let the Democrats run wild with it. But we have, you know, Trump that is is is basically, everything that I've been trying to do, Trump gets elected, and he's literally doing it. And I'm so proud. Like, the government was never meant to house people. The things that the federal government are providing, like, it's not working. And so, yeah, a lot of people are freaking out. Oh, he's gonna cut SNAP. He's gonna cut Medicaid. He's gonna cut public housing. Good. Do it. It's not working. And so I'm so excited Trump is doing this, and I think that I am a definitely a valuable asset to his administration. Because, I mean, look. I'm a Democrat's worst nightmare. Every social policy that they've tried to implement is harming me.
[01:38:34] Unknown:
Yeah. And and now something and listening to you say that too, it reminded me of something else I always I've said many, many times, and I I I'm actually on Sundays. I don't know if I told you, but I I teach a bible study program on, on Sundays. And, we've been going through America's Christian heritage, and I started way back with, Governor Bradford coming over from the for, on the Mayflower to Plymouth, you know, and the real reasons why they came, not what they teach you in public schools and even private schools now, because I went back to their original writings, the things that they said, the reasons that they gave for coming here, not what some historian had to say.
But, and then from there, he went on through to, you know, the the the founding of the colonies and then, you know, eventually, you know, the the the American Revolution. And one of the things that I I I try to reiterate over and over and over again, especially with the found found the way the the way the government was founded by these 13 individual countries. Alright? Individual countries, these states were. That's why they use the word state. State means country. So these individual countries only compacted together to do very simple things, among which are mutual defense and common trade.
That's really it. The the federal monstrosity came over time. All sides are are are guilty in that. But the one thing I say over and over again is the only thing that I want government to do is to protect my right to do for myself. That's the only thing I want government to do. Other than that, go pound sand. You don't need to know how much water is in my toilet. You know, you don't need to know how much money. You got a government that that will that will harass you over a $600 transaction. In the meantime, they're sending billions and billions and billions of dollars overseas to fund, circumcisions in some third world country that that you'd nobody's ever heard of. You know? It it just that the government doesn't work.
It it just doesn't I'm I'm gonna start preaching now. Government doesn't work. Government doesn't work. As a matter of fact, I was gonna wait till the very, very end to bring this part up, but, I don't know if you see the flag here behind me, Texas independence. Okay? I am part of an organization called the Texas Nationalist Movement. I don't know if you're familiar with them. Basically, it's a political action committee, you know, for lack of a better description of it. And, they they advocate for through the legal process for Texas independence, for Texas to separate from the the rest of this American Union.
And, I agree with it. I think that's I think it's inevitable. It's gonna happen. It's just like in a relationship. When you're in an abusive relationship, it comes to a point where you just say it's enough, and you have to walk away from it. Texas has been abused by the federal government for years, and it's at the point now where it's time to say, okay. You know what? No more flowers. No more perfumes. No more no more fancy dinners. It's time it's done. It's time to it's time to separate. Texas is not the only state that has, one of these movements working its way through the legislative process. There are actually 25 states in this country right now that have these movements working their way through. And believe it or not, California is one of them. And California is actually closer to it than to actually leaving the union than Texas is.
So I I firmly believe that that's eventually what's gonna happen. Will it happen in my lifetime? I don't know. I would like to think so. I'd like to see it happen because Texas if Texas left the union, Texas would become automatically the eighth largest economy in the world, not just not just in the American continent, but in the world. That's amazing when you think about it. Texas has all the land it needs. It has the warm water seaports. It has all the natural resources it needs to stand by itself. It has its own military. It has its own it it's self sufficient. It's not even part of the national grid as far as, power and electricity go.
So Texas can stand alone, and I think that's eventually what's gonna happen. I'm preaching now because I don't I don't remember why I started this, but, but and I'm gonna put you on the I'm gonna put you on the spot. I'm gonna put you on the spot now. Look up, you don't have to give me an answer now, but look up the Texas Nationals Movement, tandm.org. Don't hang up. I saw you reaching for it. No. I'm kidding. I know you're not. But, look up, the Texas Nationals Movement, tandm.org. Look over their their information, and you tell me what you think about it the next time we talk, because we'll we'll talk again. At least I hope you wanna come on again. But, but we'll talk again for sure, and you let me know what you think about that because there are many in the in the Texas state house that have signed on to the Texas First Pledge, that they will put Texas before anything else.
And, you know, and that's that's very that's very important. It's huge. There are more there are more people in elected office right now in Texas that are in favor of Texas first and Texas separation than at any time before. Polling, Internet, internal polling, in in internal, I mean, in the state of Texas. Almost 60% of people polled in Texas are in favor of leaving The United States and going alone. So this is their this is the future, the direction that's going. And I think that the longer that we're that that the abuses from the federal government take place and this isn't a knock on on on President Trump. I I love President Trump. I think he's doing a fantastic job. And I think that, I mean, yeah, of course, you're gonna have some missteps here or there.
Every administration has them. But on the whole, I give him an a plus on what he's doing. I think he's doing a fantastic job. I think getting the border down to to 99.9% closed is amazing, considering that Democrats just wanna keep funneling more money into more money into it, more money into it, and not actually providing a solution. All it took was was for president Trump to say, okay. Close the border, and it was done, and look where we are. I agree with the deportation process. I'd like to see more of it. That's without a doubt. I think it needs to be the latest estimate that I got was 52,000,000 illegal aliens in the country.
Alright? That then that's I got that, I heard that last week. 52,000,000. That's a huge amount. I you cannot you cannot deport that many over the course of four years. That's why we hope that there's a Vance Rubio ticket that comes after, and we'll actually get into office. But, I give him an a plus, and I I love him. I think he's doing a great job, but I think the writing's on the wall. I think that that the abuses of the government have gotten to the point now where we need really need to reconsider how this American Union functions and operates. And I know I just threw a ton of crap at you, and I'm sorry. I I got to No. I have I have two things to say to that. Go ahead. The first thing, my my only concern is,
[01:45:34] Unknown:
I think if that happened that the cartels would take over. And then my second thing is I have some pretty awesome lawsuits that I've been working on. So so just just just give it a little bit Okay. Yeah. Because, I'll I'll I'll make the phone call right now, and I'll say, okay. Well, let's hold off on it. Yeah. Yeah. Just just pump the brakes for a second. And not only that, the flag would look ugly. Where are we gonna take that one star from? Well But yeah. No. I I I fear I feel that the cartels would possibly take over if we did that. So I don't know what your opinion is to counter that, but that is a fear.
[01:46:09] Unknown:
Well, the tech like I said, Texas has its own military already. And what was the number? Oh, man. I it just flipped out of my head. If I remember right, I think it it was over 50% of active duty military personnel are Texans in the United States Army. Yeah. So it's a high number. Now I know it's over 50%, but I don't know the exact number off the top of my head right now, but, are are Texans. And those Texans would come back to Texas. They would no longer serve in the United States military because they they're Texans. So, you you would automatically have an increased military, service list here in in in Texas, and, they would do the same thing. They they they would secure the border. They would police if necessary.
Plus you already you already have, Texas DPS. You have your state police. That's what they're there for. I don't think I don't think there would be too much of an issue with that. I mean, of course, there'll be some pockets of of trouble here or there. That's a given. But overall, I think Texas would do just well, just just fine without federal involvement. And all those military installations that are that are here in the state of Texas, well, they belong to Texas. They don't they don't belong to the federal government. They're they're leased to the federal government. So when they leave, that all stays here. So you have all the infrastructure already. It's already there. But we're way off topic here. This is all about you, not about Texas now. No. No. No. No. That's my fault. I I got I got to preach, and that's that's that's no good. So, let's get back to you because you're the you're the reason why we're talking here today.
So when you look back over your career, what are some of the things that you you wish you would have known before you started to speak out?
[01:47:58] Unknown:
You know, I really can't think of anything that I would change because I I just dove into the water before I knew how to swim. And, you know, I laid there and I floated and it worked for me. I think that if I would've known more than than what I did at the time, I would've second guessed myself. And so that's one of the things that I've been trying to encourage the the younger, I say kids. I'm I I think I look a little younger than what I am, but I'm I'm 34. I have four kids. So, like, these college kids, they're kids to me. So but these these younger kids that are wanting to be involved with politics, that's why I keep kinda pressuring them. Like, no. Stop stop following these traditional political rules. Stop doing what everybody else is doing. The time is now. We need change now. So I've really been trying to push the kids to get involved and stop doing the traditional way of things. I mean, look at Trump. He was not a traditional politician, and look at all the wonderful things that he's doing for our country. I don't think he was ever a politician. Right. Right. And so a lot of people I've gotten a look like you're running for congress. Like, you're supposed to run for city council, then you're supposed to run for state house and do all these little steps. No. No. Then I will be like everybody else. And the things that I wanna change, the immediate change that needs to happen, I can't do it on a a state level. Now, I mean, I if I was gonna stay in politics after congress, like, maybe I would work it backwards or, you know, whatever. I'll run for president too. Who cares?
[01:49:21] Unknown:
There's nothing that says you can't. Thirty years. There's nothing that says you can't. You do you're you you have the minimum qualifications for it. That's that's all you need. Right. So But I can tell you one thing. I'm not gonna stay in Congress until you push me out in a wheelchair. Well, that's good. I mean, there definitely need to be term limits. I mean, that's just at that's that's a given. I don't think when our founding generation established this mess that it's become, ever really intended for people to stay in office for careers. It it they were supposed to be it's supposed to be a part time thing. So definitely need term limits, and I hope that if you do get into that position where you can make some kind of a recommendation or a bill or something like that for that, you'd be able to push something like that through.
So so, did you did you look for any other solutions before you, became a grassroots ethic advocate?
[01:50:09] Unknown:
I the only other thing, I I wanted to be an attorney, but the only school that would be feasible was the University of Texas, and that's a very high sought after law school. And Really? Someone like me in the projects is not getting into UT. And so, you know, turns out that I can I can I can get just a little bit of education and then go and pursue my own education without sitting there in the traditional institutions, and that's just worked better for me? So, I mean, I would love to go to law school, but I don't
[01:50:43] Unknown:
know. But you see, I but you see, I agree with you though. As far you know, educate yourself. Right. Educate yourself. I I've learned more on my own than I did in all the years that I've been to school. And, you know, I I've been to I've been through a lot of school. There's I I my knowledge and I'm not saying this to pat myself on the back or anything like that. I'm I'm just saying is that my knowledge on on, geopolitics, my knowledge in scripture, my knowledge in just general politics just increased after school because I I studied it because I wanted to, not because I had to. And I was able to study those things, and that just made me a better student.
So I agree with you. You don't always necessarily need that fancy college degree because, to me anyway, a college degree just tells me that you're easily trained.
[01:51:38] Unknown:
That's all it is. I mean, I I have I have several of them. Don't get me wrong. But it was the same the same as you. Like, when I started going to school, like, I wanted to learn, and so I was thinking, but but now it's like, why continue to go to school when I'm already doing the things? Yeah. Exactly. So let me ask you. So so
[01:51:57] Unknown:
talking about redistricting and and the Democrats and how they stomp their feet like little children, Obviously, the big story going around now is the fact that the Texas Democrats took off. Now we find out that, that, Beto.
[01:52:13] Unknown:
Right? I don't know if I'm saying it right. It's Beto. He's not brown.
[01:52:18] Unknown:
He He, he he his one of his, one of his charities or one of his, PACs, funded the majority of these things, and all of this was because they don't wanna see the redistricting taking place that that you've been so so passionate about. So what do you think about the the Democrats' behavior in this whole thing? And was there a there was a a protest, just, a couple days ago, or was it over the weekend?
[01:52:43] Unknown:
It was. And it was my first, protest. So I I told myself I was just gonna go hold up a sign and, you know, just try to be, like, a rebel or whatever, and I wasn't gonna be a psycho. But, you know, it took about ten minutes before I started running through the crowd like a psycho and, you know, telling telling on Greg Casar, like, he's not for us. And, you know, the funny thing about it is I believe that most of those people were paid because do you know how many people were like, oh, we know. Oh, we know. He's not. We know. And, like, okay. So what what is it who paid you to be here? And so I've I've mentioned my first day in congress, I'm gonna kinda do, like, a Trump thing, and I'm gonna drop a stack of bills. Term limits is one of them, by the way. And that's another one. I believe in peaceful protest. I do not believe in paid protest. So I would like there to be something that prevents paid protesters because these Democrats won't be having these protests because they're paid. No. I they and and you you look at organ you got guys like Soros and and his ilk, and they're they're the ones who fund all this stuff. You know? And,
[01:53:44] Unknown:
there has to be something to put into place that can stop this. And and because you you you look at some of these protests I mean, thank God it wasn't like these protests that you saw over the immigration and the deportations in California where they basically burned the place down. Thank God for that. You know, I don't think as as far as all these protests took place, I don't think I've seen that kind of behavior anywhere in Texas. I don't I don't at least I don't think so, but not that I've seen. But, but I agree with you a 100% on that one. Paid protests need to stop it. You know, if you're gonna protest, protest. You see, the problem is is that Democrat policies are so unpopular that they can't get people to come out and really protest unless there are some aging hippie that hasn't been, you know, active in politics. I mean, you look at some of these these these, people that are protesting, these are like they're like 60, 70 year old ladies out there banging pots in people's faces. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's really you know, Democrat policies are so bad that they have to use the courts to force them on you. They can't pass them. I don't and I don't think Democrats can win an election unless they unless they steal it.
You know? So,
[01:54:52] Unknown:
that's just where I stand on that. But, Well and it's it's funny that you bring that up, though, because last time last election, the general election was the first time I ever voted for president and, because I wasn't involved civically at all. Well, I actually caught election interference happening in real time in my district that I'm running for. And so I'm like, man, I'm already going up an uphill battle that I'm confident I can win, but I literally caught election interference in two separate situations Interesting. And turned it into the second state. But I did learn today when I was at the capitol that I was supposed to not only turn that stuff into the secretary of state, but also the attorney general.
And so that's a whole another thing. So I'll get on that. But, like, I already know that they were doing election interference during the general, so they're on my side.
[01:55:40] Unknown:
It's gonna happen, so I'm like, it's a little frustrating. Yeah. I I I totally get that. So I wanna ask you now some questions about your your campaign. Okay? Okay. So this we spent all this time talking about everything but. So, I was looking at your website. It's it's a great website. It's very very easy to follow and navigate your way through. You're very clear on everything that you post out there. You you have your points, and I think that's great. So many political websites are so convoluted and so confusing to follow. It's ridiculous, but yours is good. Lauren for congress dot com.
So you list all the policies that really matter to you. What are the top three priorities that you have in your policies that you hope to change when you're elected to Congress?
[01:56:24] Unknown:
Yeah. So number one is obviously the one that a lot of Republicans are not happy about, but it is social policy and not because I am for it, but because it needs to go. Mhmm. And then I'm also really big on, public safety and and national security, especially because of, my background and the things that I've went through. I kind of have the I like to I like to take my experience in human trafficking and around gangs as, like, my undercover training. So I feel like I was in training for all of those ten years, and so I have a level of knowledge in the inner workings of those things from a different perspective than in law enforcement. But now since I have started to learn, like, law enforcement policies and really gotten close to a lot of different, you know, police officers and things like that, I really back the blue. But, public safety, national security, and and the, the the public the the social policies are really important to me. And, I mean, Greg Casar, he's the one that defunded the Austin Police Department on city council, and, I mean, it's terrible.
[01:57:29] Unknown:
Some of the stupid some of the some of the dumbest decisions were the the defunding police departments. I I I still don't understand that. I mean, I do. I understand it, but at at the same time, I don't understand it. There there really is no logic behind it. All it is is just to appease people, and and and it puts other people at at risk and at harm. And especially and, like, thank God in Texas, you have the right. You can carry, you know, you have the constitutional carry. You have your your license to carry. I carry all the time. Me too. But in places like in like like, where I'm from in New York, I mean, you can't you know, the average citizen cannot get a handgun to defend themselves.
It's it's virtually impossible, and they do it purposely. You know, they don't want you to carry. They want you to depend on the police and whatnot.
[01:58:17] Unknown:
I gotta say my last policy, though, because I was only two. I know I said I put public safety in now. Yeah. You did. Okay. So you you confused it. Go ahead. Hit it. Yeah. So it's definitely the the medical industry, because I have a disability and my daughter has a disability, and I've seen a lot of the issues with ADA compliance and things like that. And then, also, during the pandemic, I completely lost all faith in our health system, especially with the COVID vaccine. And so I definitely feel like big pharma needs to be taken on and me as someone with disability because I have PTSD, that that is something that's really important to me. And and not only that, here in public housing, I see a lot of our population does have a disability or they're elderly, but they are still worthy. And there are things that they could do that they wanna do. So I literally just see people bored walking around. And and, honestly, that's why a lot of them end up getting on drugs because they're bored.
And so, you know, taking on big pharma and kinda re revamping the medical industry, especially, like, with colleges because it is I I I've been reading a lot of stories and meeting a lot of people, and there's there's issues in the colleges with with people that are wanting to get education and be productive. But just because they have a disability, they're still being held back, and that all has to change.
[01:59:36] Unknown:
Yeah. I agree with you. So are you are you gonna be, one of those people that take Fauna money?
[01:59:42] Unknown:
It's so funny that you, asked that. So there there's a rumor going around that Pfizer wants to endorse me. Oh, really? Yeah. Which is crazy. I mean, it's flipping Pfizer. Like, wow. But I that vaccine thing kinda freaks me out. Like I said, so much so. Like, I don't even vaccinate my children. You could not pay me to vaccinate myself or take a flu shot or anything like that. I I do know that that innovation is important. I think the way they were trying to innovate on us was completely wrong. And so, you know, if I anybody that I take money from, just understand that you're not in control of me. I'm in control. I went through so much in my life. There's not anyone that can control me, so good luck. I am definitely going to do what's right for my community, and I don't I've been poor for so long that I don't really care about your money. But the fact of the matter is is that you need money to win the election. And so I can't help anybody unless I win the election. So, yes, am I gonna take big pharma money if Pfizer offers me that? Absolutely. But am I going to, defend them on on the the COVID nineteen thing? Absolutely not.
Would I definitely want to work closely with them so that we can, you know, do things in a right way? Absolutely. I think that, you know, part of the reason that that the medical costs are so high in The United States is because we have to innovate, and we're the only country that's doing that. And, you know, the socialist, they want everybody to have free health care. Well, that means that there's not gonna be any innovation, and we have to have that. And so I'm I'm okay with healthy innovation, but informed consent always.
And that's that's something that's very, very important to me.
[02:01:24] Unknown:
Yeah. That's important to everybody. So question for you. When when you tell people that you don't vaccinate your kids and you won't take a flu shot, do you get looked at like you're like like, like, three heads or something like that?
[02:01:35] Unknown:
I mean, not really, but I I don't I don't tend to talk to a lot of leftists. So a lot of people understand. But one thing that people need to know about me is, like, because of how I grew up, if you're hating on me, if you're trying to bully me, you are making me stronger. So every time somebody is talking smack to me, it is literally stroking my ego, so keep it coming.
[02:01:57] Unknown:
I love it. Love the attitude. Alright. So campaign season's kicking in. Right? It's gonna start picking up. Especially now in the fall, it's gonna really start to intensify. What are you doing now to prepare yourself for the busy days?
[02:02:10] Unknown:
Well, you know, I would argue that the busy days are already here. As you know, I don't I don't have a full time job, but I have been already doing the full time job for the people of Texas. As you know, my house rep is one that had fled. And so I was really already stepping in kinda to that position, and I was there every day. I've been there every day. I mean, what is it? It is the eighteenth. I was counting my parking passes from the Capitol earlier. I had 15 parking passes, and it's the eighteenth. So if that says anything, there you go. I I've already assumed the position.
[02:02:43] Unknown:
That's awesome. That's awesome. So are are you, like, are are you already speaking to different groups within your district? Or or your your proposed district, possible district? Yeah.
[02:02:55] Unknown:
I have not so at that rally, actually, which is it's good you brought that up. So at that rally, I was able to talk to a lot of, like, people from local organizations that were, hey. You need to talk to this. You need to talk to that. And the organizations that they were telling me to talk to, I'm like, those organizations shouldn't be there in the first place, but, okay. I'm still gonna go talk to them. I'm still gonna make friendly with them. And my thought is maybe they don't understand that they're harming my community. Mhmm. And then one thing I've know the Democrats is I don't I don't necessarily think they're evil. The socialist, yes. But the Democrats, no. They're not evil. I think.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They they honestly believe that they're trying to help the community. They're trying to be compassionate. And so I think that if someone like me, a conservative who's not afraid to, stand firm and and tell the fact hate them actually speaks to them. I believe that I can get them to start
[02:03:49] Unknown:
I'm trying to be not common sense. Mhmm. I got you. You know, actually, I wanted to ask you this before and I I I it just didn't seem to fit in where we were talking what we were talking about. But do you do you find that people are surprised when they when you tell them that you are conservative or when they realize just how conservative you are?
[02:04:08] Unknown:
Yes. Well, it's funny. On one of my testimony videos, I was watching it back and, like, there's a guy in the background. He's, like, shaking his head to everything I say, and then I'm like, that's why I'm Republican running for Congress. Literally fell on the ground by that. Everybody go watch it. It's hilarious. Oh, I gotta find I gotta find that one. I gotta watch. Oh, also, it's it's so funny. It's the it's the one from Arlington, actually, but his jaw literally falls to the ground. And, yeah, I get that a lot. And I can't tell you how many Democrats have been like, you need to be a Democrat. You need to be a Democrat. I'm like, you know what? How about you stop violating my civil rights? How about you fix the issues that are right now bothering me? Like, they don't have anything to say about it. And so,
[02:04:52] Unknown:
Has the has the Republican party of Texas been good with you or no?
[02:04:58] Unknown:
I don't wanna talk shit. Okay.
[02:05:00] Unknown:
Alright. That that says enough. And and the I I have a reason for asking, and I'll I'll talk to you about that after, off the air. Let's see.
[02:05:11] Unknown:
Let me see. I think they're waking they're they're waking up, though. To in their let let me defend what I said because I feel like a jerk now. No. When when I first, like, came into the scene in 2023 and became a Republican precinct chair, I was going hard. I was trying to, like, get involved with the committees, do this, do that. I mean, I I went all the way to the RNC, like, right after the right, miss, I got in. So, like, a lot of people were looking at me crazy. And then, also, I think they believed at the time that I was probably a Democrat because of the social policy thing. Mhmm. And so I think, like, now that people are starting to see, like, hey. You know, maybe maybe she's okay. I I think I think within the next couple months, the Republican Party of Texas will will be coming coming on to my side. I know that the the people in the house and the senate have probably most likely already started to favor me. Right. But yeah. No. They they definitely
[02:06:04] Unknown:
have not yet supported me as much as I'd hoped they would. And And so what do you hope that the audience will take away with, after we finish it tonight, after listening? What do you think they're gonna walk away with about you?
[02:06:16] Unknown:
I mean, I think I'm everything that I've been hearing, my feedback is that, wow, you're a real person. Like, yeah, I'm a real person. I'm not a stuck up jerk. I'm all about transparency. And when you ask me a question, I'm gonna tell the truth even I mean, obviously, even if it it was incriminating in my past. Like, I
[02:06:37] Unknown:
I understand. That's transparency, and that's the way it should be. You know? Absolutely. I think that I think that if you're going into public office, you you should be open about mistakes that you've made in your past. I think that's the easiest way to even confront them before they become campaign issues. If you're just direct about them right off the bat, you kinda disarm them at that point. I think that's important. I think that's great. Is there anything that we didn't cover tonight that you wanna talk about?
[02:07:03] Unknown:
You know, one thing. One thing. So I mentioned that I was kind of, like, already assuming the role because my house rep left, and I've been up there advocating for the community. Like, I do not have a big enough team in Texas. And so, like, I'm really trying to call on the people of Texas. I guess, the Texas Republican Party. Like, hey. I need staff by now. Like, this campaign can and will win if if I get some other teammates. Because right now, all my teammates are located outside of Travis County. Mhmm. I need some people in Travis County that have my back, you know, because I mean, I have several things that I need to be working on right now. There's a couple of lawsuits that I could be filing right now that would also be very beneficial to the country, But I already have three lawsuits that I'm working on right now, and I'm running for congress. Like, I need staff.
[02:07:52] Unknown:
So come be my staff, please. Alright. Alright. That's good. So who's somebody that you respect right now, and what are they doing that inspires you?
[02:08:02] Unknown:
So over in Lubbock, there is a guy named Kevin Allen. He is, a conservative at Texas Tech. He has really assumed the role of, basically, my campaign manager. Awesome. I don't know how we ended up getting connected on Facebook or whatever, but I tell you what, every day, he's been the only one that'll literally call me every day just to check-in on me. Hey. How are you doing? What do you need? How can I help you? And he has really, really just went above and beyond. And so shout out to him for sure. Alright.
[02:08:38] Unknown:
So where can the audience go to find out more about you, your campaign, or help contribute, donations? How can they do that?
[02:08:44] Unknown:
Right. So you could go to lauren for congress. That's the number four. Laurenforcongress.com. I think I have all my social media links up there. And then I have only Instagram, I don't really use, but I think my Facebook kinda post stuff on there. But my big things are Facebook, and I just started using x. And so if you look on my x, I only have, like, I don't know, maybe, like, 400 followers, but I've gotten almost all of those in the past two weeks. Right. But to I mean, to get that many followers in, like, two weeks is, like, an honor. I'm like, oh my gosh. And in fact That's great. I didn't even get a response from my my, my house rep after three years of trying to contact all my elected officials. Didn't even get a response until two weeks ago after going viral on x. So I I appreciate that. I'm just surprised on how quickly it went, but those are the only two platforms that I definitely use all the time. And, of course, I have a LinkedIn, but it's not that cool for
[02:09:41] Unknown:
Yeah. And LinkedIn's very liberal, so they they tend to hide conservative thought and ideas. Alright. Lauren b Pena. Thank you so much for being with us tonight. Hey. Can you, can you stick around after the show? Just, just turn your camera mic off. I'll close out the show, and then I'll connect with you again, before we shut it down. Alright. Lauren b Pena, thank you again for being with us tonight, and, we wish her all the best on the campaign. Check out our website, laurenforcongress.com. And, if you can help her out, give us some support. If you agree with her message, let her know. That that'll be fantastic. Alright, folks. Let's just, we're not gonna take the official break here. We're just gonna move on to the announcement. So I just don't forget to head over to the website, joeroos.com.
Joeroos.com. Sign up for the programming announcements email list and, get yourself on that list. It's really important because it's the easiest way for us to communicate with you guys and let you know what's going on with the show. I know in the past, I haven't been so great with it, but I'm trying to do better now. So, head over to the website, sign up for it, and, and, look, if you like it, great. Stay with it. If you don't like it, unsubscribe from it. It's okay. It's fine. Alright? Also, don't forget, tomorrow night at 7PM, we have our do no harm episode of the Joe Russo with, our our the CEO of our sponsor, Ezra Healing, Svetlana Ryilkov, and that's gonna be a great show. We're looking forward to that.
We had to make up what we did last week because we had studio studio issues. So we had to, we had to cancel the show. So we'll be picking it up tomorrow. I'll be talking to some really good stuff. So make sure you check that out as well. Alright. Don't forget to find us on our socials, Twitter, Joe Ruz or x whatever, Joe Ruz. Truth Social, look, if you wanna know anything what's going on with this administration, Truth Social is the where the place to go because, 99.99999% of the time, it's posted on Truth Social first before anywhere else, and sometimes it's not even posted anywhere else, only on Truth Social. So if you wanna stay on top of the administration and what they're doing, that's where to go. And when you do that, make sure you follow me there at Joe Rouz. Also, mines,mines.com. Check them out at Joe Rouz there as well. Facebook, Joe Rouz Podcast, look forward to seeing you over there as well. And then, on Instagram, don't forget, it is not Joe Roux on Instagram. It's not Joe Roux because when I signed up as Joe Roux, before I even finished the sign up prod process, they banned my account. So, that but strangely enough, they let not I shouldn't even say it because they'll probably track it down and shut it down now. But, at not joerus on Instagram, TikTok, which I don't even really use much, joe dot roos. And then, of course, on Gettr, which we are back on Gettr, at joerus there as well.
Alright. Shout outs to our producer team. We have our executive producer, Wayne Rankin, executive producer, Rosanna Rankin, executive producer, Carolina Jimenez, executive producer, Marissa Lee, and, of course, our producer, anonymous, Angela, who does a fantastic job with everything, that we have going on here. She's on top of it all. So, folks, thank you so much for all that you do. I really appreciate each and every one of you guys. Now if you wanna help us out, you can head over to our website, joeroos.com/support, and hit that, one time donation in any amount. You could also do a recurring donation in any amount. But if you wanted to sign up to our producer tiers, you can do that as well. Associate producer is $17.76 a month. Producer is $18.36 a month. Executive producers are 25 and up, and that's all monthly recurring donations.
And you get the shout out in every show included in all the show notes, any emails that we send out. All that information isn't all your information is sent out, with that as the shout out. And, also, as the executive producer, you get to book a thirty minute segment with us live here on the show, and, of course, you get whatever swag we have available at the time, t shirts, sticker packs, whatever it might be. So, I do need to start wearing the t shirts more often, I know, but, I don't know. I don't even like wearing a t shirt to begin with. I like wearing the other black shirt that I got, so that's another story. Alright. Now if you wanna help us out with, cryptos with as a as your donation, hey. That's great too. You could do that. Ethereum, Tether, Bitcoin, TeXa Coin, it's all up on our website. So just head on over there and, make that deposit. Our wallets are all up there. And, of course, speaking of cryptos, we have a number of folks that are streaming Sats to us across the modern podcast app. So thank you guys for doing that. We really appreciate it.
Sats are just micropayments of Bitcoin, so we appreciate those things. And through the modern podcast apps like Podcast Guru, fountain.fm, Podverse, and so many others, you can actually stream Sats during the course of the show. So as the show is running live on the app, you could set up to, to to send us a boost, which is great. Would you love that? You can also do boostograms. So you could send a a a little bit of a boost and a note to let us know what you think. And if you wanna check out those apps, just head over to modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org.
Alright, folks. I think that is gonna just about do it for us for tonight. So if you would, head over to the website joeroos.com, open up that contact form, send us over a message, let us know what you think, and, really appreciate it. Thanks again for being with us tonight, folks. Make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride. Keep talking. Good night, folks. Who cares about the clouds if we're together?
[02:15:22] Unknown:
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather. Happy trails
[02:15:31] Unknown:
to you. To
Introduction and Show Overview
Upcoming Guests and Show Format
Interview with Bill DeBarbera: Entrepreneurship and Life Lessons
Introduction to Lauren Pena: Political Advocacy and Campaign
Lauren Pena on Redistricting and Political Challenges
Lauren Pena's Campaign Priorities and Future Plans
