Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's going on, y'?
[00:00:00] Speaker B: All?
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Corpse Chris Originals podcast. Today I got John with me here running for District 5. How do you say your last name?
[00:00:05] Speaker B: John Hanselick. John Hanselick.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: John Hanslick. You guys, you want to introduce yourself? John?
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Yeah, My name is John Hanslick, owner of JH Industrial, and I am running for City Council, District 5. This coming up election.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Hell yeah. So John and I, we know each other from High School 99, 2000. Right.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: I graduated 0101.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I dropped out for a minute. Went back. I think I did. Oh, two.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Were you supposed to graduate?
[00:00:27] Speaker A: No. One.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Okay.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: I went to. And I graduated from Miller High School.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Oh, you went to Miller?
[00:00:32] Speaker A: I didn't want to go back to Ray, bro, because, like, I don't know, I just didn't want to face all those people asking me, hey, what happened? Why'd you drop out?
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Did you play football?
[00:00:40] Speaker A: No, No. I was already too old by then.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: They didn't let me. They didn't let me. I tried. I was like, damn, cuz. I like to hit people, bro. You know? So. So yeah, so we. I had recently had a.
An episode with Rachel Caballero. And then I think you messaged me on YouTube, hey, you know, shout out or whatever. I guess that's one of the things that's on my mind at the moment, I guess. Do you want to talk about that first? You want to talk about maybe about something about your background?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Let's go right in.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Let's do it. Let's do it. So Rachel was talking about the mayor, obviously, getting rid of the mayor. And what else? The. The desalination Inner harbor, all that stuff and. Which is a lot of it, like I was mentioning before is new to me, even though I work in industry. You know, I'm a truck driver and I've obviously, those refineries use a lot of water. We need water, yada, yada. So was there was some stuff that she. That she was saying or. I mean, what do you want to touch on about. About that?
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Well, first of all, I mean, I guess let's go on to the mayor first. Right? Full disclosure, I didn't vote for Paulette Guardo. I voted for Michael Hunter.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: But at the end of the day, people did. Like, she got elected. She got enough votes to win. I think it was 60 something thousand folks that. That put her in office. Right. So it. I think it's disingenuous and I think, you know, slippery slope to discount all those votes. Right. So three entities have looked into the, the ethics portion of it. CCPD looked into it, the FBI looked into it, the Texas Ranger looked into it and said, hey, there's no there there.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: You know, let's, let's go. Everybody go about their business. And then with a five person memo, they were able to, to basically counteract all those investigations, say, hey, we know better.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: What.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: And, and put her essentially on trial, like to, to actually impeach her.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Oh, that's weird.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Which is, which is crazy. You know, that, that's dangerous too. I mean, and that's the charter, right? They, they always like to cite the city charter.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Well, within the city charter, there's options. Right. They could have sent it to the ethics commission and that. It, that's what the ethics commission is for. They didn't necessarily need to take this course of action. Right. Which is costing the, you know, the citizens of Corpus Christi a lot of money.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: And it's taking a lot of focus away from what the council could be doing.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Okay. Yes, that's what I, we mentioned that too. As far as being political theater and stuff like that, which I, and I, and I mentioned it too. Like, am I the only one that sees this or think that this is why stuff like this happens?
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's other stuff they can be working on, you know, I mean. Yeah, like, for sure.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Okay, so right, right now, what's behind, what's behind that? The mayor, other than the mayor getting kicked out or whatever. What, what stuff they should be working on right now?
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Well, for sure, water. I mean, if people aren't talking about water right now and they're trying to, to run for city council, they're messing up and everyone is. Because water is important to everybody. You know, you got one side that's like industry takes all the water. They're greedy. They're greedy. They're greedy. The water's not for the residents. Well, without industry, there are no residents, essentially. That, that's my opinion.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: If you get rid of all the industry, there's going to be a bunch of homes boarded up for sale with no one to buy them.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Homelessness, crime, like all kinds of stuff.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: People are going to move. People that can't afford to move will move.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: They'll leave. Wow.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: You know, they'll have to, you know, they have to.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: They have to make a living.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yes, yes, for sure.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: And it's not just the industry, folks. That's what people, you know, maybe sometimes don't realize.
Not just your industrial folks, but your doctors Your lawyers, your nurses, your restaurants, all your associated talent around.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: What. What? Supports a community they are going to uproot and they're going to go to a community that. That can support them.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: In their wages.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Wow. I. I don't. I mean, to be honest, I don't see industry leaving. Like, I mean, it. It could. It could happen. I don't know. I just feel like it's so rooted. I feel like it's so rooted here for so long, you know? I mean, why. Why now?
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Well, I mean, Valero invested a billion dollars to leave California.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Oh, seriously?
[00:04:26] Speaker B: So it's not unprecedented. Okay. They're trying to make money, Right. Their business and their goal is to make money if. And if they don't have water to make money.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: You know, but all that to say. I'm sure they'll figure it out. Yeah. They'll probably find their own water sources, you know, But Valero, you know, I don't want to understate this. They went and they secured their own effluent water.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:04:47] Speaker B: They're going to get 8 million gallons a day from, you know, the. The city's effluent water.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: To reuse. But they're. They're paying for the pipeline, they're gonna pay for the effluent, and they're gonna pay to maintain.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: That water.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Okay. So they're basically paying for the water that they need to use.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: They are. They are. And they're paying to get it. They're paying the city of Corpuscle Corpus Christi water.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: They're paying for the water.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: They're paying for the line to get the water. And then they're going to pay for the. The maintenance on the plant. Like, who does that? You know, I mean, if that's not a pretty good partner and that's not a olive branch saying, hey, we're here to work together. I don't know what is. Flint Hill's doing the same thing.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Oh, man, that's interesting. Take. I haven't. I haven't heard that before. Wow, that's. That's amazing.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: People don't say that like that's. You can't say it that loud enough. That's a pretty big deal, I think.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yeah, for sure. Because we're thinking, oh, they need a bay. They need to find their own water. This, this and that. Why they got to use city water, all that stuff. Right.
Man. So that's very interesting. Do they. So do they have to use city water? I mean. Well, obviously they're in this city.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: We want them to use city water because if not, check this is what would happen. Let's for, for easy numbers, let's say it takes a million dollars a year. This is just easy numbers, right? Let's say it takes a million dollars a year to operate this facility and you sell to a thousand people. Right. So that. That price is going to be broken up accordingly. Right. Well, let's say you remove half those folks. Now you need 500 people to pay for that million dollar infrastructure. Right. So they essentially industry subsidizes what the residents pay.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: Like all, all that to say our rate would double, triple, you know, I mean, if they got their own water.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Wow, that's. Whoa, that's crazy, bro.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: Because the cost to make the water didn't get any less. You just don't have any. Anyone to sell it to.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: It's okay. So we can complain.
Raising water prices on our water bill. What's. How do we attack that?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: I mean, it's going to go up. It's. The council's already, already approved and is spending a billion dollars for, you know, like the Evangeline, the well projects. It. They've already spent that money and it's not really coming to fruition. Evangeline's contested. They. They've already bought and piped. You know, they got material showing up every day.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: So they've invested some money. It's not showing up.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: So. So the city has already invested into getting us more water. Therefore our taxes is going up. Well, not to pay for that. Not a taxes.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: The rates.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: The water rates.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: To pay for that. Wow.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's not producing the water. They. They said it was going to, you know, this council likes to, you know, boast that, hey, this council's done more than any previous council to bring on new water sources. But there's problems with each particular project they're bringing on. You know, there's roadblocks.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Roblox. So the project at, at the moment is desalinization.
Whether to put it in Hillcrest. Is it. Is that, is that the main thing that we're talking about? Right, because they, I just recently heard they postponed it till September.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Correct. Gil Hernandez made a motion to, to suspend the vote to September 1st.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: And essentially, you know, let's unpack that a little bit. Right.
So Inner harbor is fully permitted.
It's majority funded probably three quarters of the way funded and funded. To be clear, it's borrowed funds, but at a very good, you know, favorable rate. No, you know, so and it is permitted. The location is in the. In. In Hillcrest.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: So to speak. It's kind of in an industrial area. It's right by the plants.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: You know, and. And there's some. There's some pushback on. On where it is. And it's probably not the. The most preferred location, but it's the location we've got.
And it's. And it's permitted.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: And then there was some environmental pushback. Like, hey, if you dump 30 million gallons of brine.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: In the. In the inner harbor every day, it's going to, you know, what are the effects?
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Effects? Sea life, all that. Right.
[00:08:28] Speaker B: So they. They. Eric Cantu, actually, he pushed for. He wanted a far field model, which, you know, you got a near field, which is the. The effects right there.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Right next to it. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: At the drops or the discharge. Far field. Okay. Let's extend that out. Let's see what it does to Nueces Bay. Let's see what it. What it does when it gets out into the.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Oh, sure.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: To the other base.
And that study shows no effects. You know, spheros did. Did a model. We had a far field model committee, diverse committee made up of. Of residents of Corpus Christi. And everybody had their input. It came back. I mean, it was quick. You know, they were on a time crunch. They had to work hard because they were up against the deadline.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: And it. And it shows little to no. No difference as far as stratification goes.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Do you think so? A lot of people that go to the city council meetings, which I watch and like, I. I call it a circus, to be honest, because there's a lot of smoke and mirrors and stuff.
Do you think a lot of those people that are commenting public comment know what they're talking about, or do you feel like they just picked the side and just like, we're gonna do this no matter what this says. You know what I'm saying? Like, what's your take on all that?
[00:09:36] Speaker B: Well, that's a good question. But that. That's a.
That's interesting. Right. Because we don't know. Because I would love to have that conversation with them.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Right. It would.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: It seems that side is not really willing to have a conversation. Like a community needs good, healthy debate.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Like, yes.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: If someone disagrees with me, like, wholeheartedly, like, let's sit down, let's have some coffee, and let's. Let's bounce facts back and forth and let's see where we come to. But the shouting and the screaming, it. I love the passion Right. But got to kind of hone that in a little bit.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Have some actual civil.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: Civil discourse, and you're not going to sway anybody.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: That.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: That's my other issue. If you go up there and you start cussing at people, calling them out, you're not going to sway them your way. You know what I mean?
[00:10:17] Speaker A: You're just being disrespectful at that point.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Seems like if. If I want someone to change their mind, I'm going to come to them a certain way. I'm going to kind of, you know, approach them calmly. Cool. Hey, let's. Let's. This is what I got. What do you got?
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: And we'll have a debate back and forth, and, you know, maybe we'll agree to disagree at the end of the day.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: But we'll have a mutual respect for
[00:10:34] Speaker A: each other for sure. Man, that's awesome. Yeah. So we. Let's get that out of the way. Let's talk a little bit about your pass, bro.
For the people that are watching, they're like, who is this guy?
So the roots tell us about your connection with Corpus Christi District 5. What makes that specific part town home for you?
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Well, I live in District 5. That just happens to be. And that's how the. The city works. Right. So you can only.
If you're going to run for a district, you have to live.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: You got to live in there.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So we got five districts and three at large seats. I chose to run. Excuse me. In District 5, this home. I live off Everhart and Cedar Pass.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. South side. South side. Well, south side. Right?
[00:11:10] Speaker B: It is. Yeah.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: For sure. So, yeah.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: This is the faster, fastest growing district in Corpus right now.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. So running for city council is a. Is a grueling process. It takes away from work, family, and daily life.
What was the exact moment of. Or the specific issue that made you say, all right, I'm gonna. I'm gonna put my name on the ballot?
[00:11:30] Speaker B: It would have to be the dysfunction on. On the dais, actually. I mean, I'm passionate about water. I work in industry. I'm passionate about the. You know, our industrial partners here. I want to make sure that they have what they need to. To thrive, because if they do well, I do well.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: And the thought process is everyone. The community does, but just the way their lack of decision making, you know, I learned in business very, very early on, I've been in business for six years now, that the worst decision you can make is. Is no decision at all. Right. So, you know, make a decision, even if you make a bad decision, you know, and when you do make a bad decision, because not all mine have been been. Right, Right. But when you make a bad one, you've done enough due diligence to where you don't make a catastrophic decision. Oh, you make a bad one, you learn from it, but it's not so far out there that you can't recover from it. And you pivot and you learn. And you're constantly assessing yourself and your decisions and your. And your. And your policies.
And that's the same way with Inner Harbor. Everything. The science right now shows it's safe, but let's say it's five years down the road, three years down the road, whatever. It's built and it's actively working. We're not just going to set it and forget it. We're going to be constantly monitoring the Inner harbor, the bays, and if. And if the experts see something, we're going to pivot. There's things we can do. We're going to adjust, we're going to adapt, we're going to. We're going to engineer it to where it's completely safe for the environment.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
We. We were talking about earlier about, like, the. The topic of, like, people getting paid and money, I guess, do you call them lobbyists or whatever?
[00:12:55] Speaker B: I guess. Well, they're a little different from lobbyists. Maybe lobbyists kind of go, yeah, I
[00:12:59] Speaker A: don't know the terms. I'm kind of like. But I'm thinking like, okay, somebody pays this person to talk about this or to side for this side of this. Like, I'm thinking Campos saying that she's getting paid by the. The port or something or something like that. I don't know. I don't know too, too much. Sorry, Ms. Compost, if I'm misconstruing that or whatever. But is that. Do you think that stuff is present on the people, People that are involved in the diets, like. Because I could ask that of you. I vote for you. You get up there. Hey, John, are they paying you, bro? You know, I mean, to say this, this and that. You know what I mean?
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: So I feel like maybe, maybe, maybe saying, you know what I'm saying?
[00:13:39] Speaker B: I. I would hope not, Jesse. Right. But you kind of hear the whispers, right? Yeah, but that's another reason why I kind of wanted to run for politics. Right. Because when everyone's running, they always say the most perfect things, like, oh, that's amazing. That's what I want. That's what I Want. That's what I want. And then they get there, and that's a 180. Like, what happens?
Like, what truly happened. Because I. I know my morals and I. I know my values. Right. And I. I strongly feel like I could not be swayed one way or another.
Do I want the. The industry to win? Absolutely. Because it is my position that everyone wins that way.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: I don't think there's anything that can happen where I get up there and. And 180 from that. But I'm also for the people.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Like, I love people. I'm a people person.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Yeah. That's what's up.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: You know, I gotta. At the end of the day, I gotta go to Stripes. I gotta go to heb.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: I gotta go to the mall. You know, I mean, I want to have comfortable conversations.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: What's your favorite hb, bro?
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Right here. Heb plus on Saratoga.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Southside. Yeah. Yeah. South side.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: My wife Jess, bless her heart, my beautiful wife has signed off to. To let me do this. But. Yeah, when she makes me go to heb. I'm not a huge fan of grocery shopping.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: Do curbside, bro. You don't do curbside.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: She does.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: Yeah, my wife does too, bro. She loves that curbside stuff.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't go. It's a. It takes a lot of time. Yeah. And it takes a lot of money to be. The longer you're there, the more money you're spending.
I love hb, but it's not. It's expensive to go there anywhere.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: If you're going with a list. That's for sure.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I was thinking, like, go curbside over there on Saratoga. But I'll go curbside to get a flat screen.
They sell TVs.
It's kind of like Walmart, Right? You buy electronics there. That's cool, man.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: What's your agb?
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Texan by. By Rick.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Okay.
Yeah, for sure.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: I haven't been to that one at all. My mom goes Alameda and Robert.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: And I guess if I had to go, I'd prefer that. That one's casual.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: In and out. You know what I mean?
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That's what's up, man. Yeah. Heb's got their. Their stake in.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: No store does more, you know?
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Exactly, bro.
Is that a saying or what?
[00:15:38] Speaker B: That's theirs.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: I'm back on that one.
Yeah. So. Yeah, so we went to high school together, man. Bringing back a lot of memories and stuff like that.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Hey, shout out to Coach Blaine.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: Coach Blaine, bro. I'm thinking about exactly thinking about him. I wonder. I hope you're doing all right, Coach Blame. You're still out there. Fair Fossil, bro.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that was his claim to fam.
He dated Farah Fawcett back in the day.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: Hey.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: But we gave him. We gave him a rough time. And I gotta shout out Gerber because that was my boy.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, did you ever get a Grand National?
[00:16:07] Speaker B: No. Heck no. Didn't get a Grand Central. And what's. What's that? Rapper Lamar?
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Kendrick.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he kind of. He ruined my chances.
That was super more popular than it ever was. Right. So, yeah, probably not.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he's a black Grand National.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: I was like, that's John, bro. That's all I could think about.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I want. I 1. I still do want one. But they're getting. They're getting up there, dude.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: They are. Seriously. Because they only made so many, right? Or something like that.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah. 547 GNX's were ever made.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: So that's what's up, bro. Yeah, so. So. So I'm just interested because we know each other and I'm like, damn, John's running for. For district. That's pretty cool. And I was, I was. And then you reached out to me and I was like, man, what's.
What's the deal, man? Like, why do you want to do this? And then I saw your video. Was it on cable, Triple I or something like that? Were you talking about your. Where you work and what you do, industry?
[00:16:57] Speaker B: It might have been, yeah.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: That's another question that I could ask where people could ask, like, well, you're part of industry and you're running. You're running for a district. Is that going to help you out? You know what I mean? Is that why you're running for district?
[00:17:07] Speaker B: It shouldn't.
Like, I. I hope it doesn't. It. It really should not. The whole. The whole point is to not do because that's what the opposite of what you truly want. Right. The whole point is not for me to run and make a ton of money by being up there.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Being up there.
[00:17:21] Speaker B: My business is supposed to do what my business is going to do whether I'm there or not. Right, Right. So when I'm up there, you know, and I'm blessed, I gotta. I got a. A gentleman that works for me. He takes care of everything I need him to take care of. So it kind of frees me up to do this. But cool. Like, that would be the. I don't do any work for the City, you know what I mean? So very, very few things that, That I would make a decision on or if I do have to make a decision that would directly affect my potential business, I'd recuse myself from. Which is what you should do.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Oh, shoot.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Like, you. You're supposed to take care of the. Like you represent constituents. People put a lot of faith in you to go in there and do their bidding. You're supposed to respect that and honor that. And, and that's partly what we're not seeing in council right now is you got to respect the office.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: So that's ethical, unethical decision for sure.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Like, you got to be able to sleep at night. You know, that. That goes back to going to the stripes, going to the malls. You know, I'm. I'm everywhere in this town. Like, I'm all over the place.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Like, I don't want to be running from everybody. You know what I mean? Aside from that, I want to do the right thing. You know, My Lord and savior wants me to do the right thing as well.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: That's what's up, bro. Yeah, I was, man, I was thinking about something there.
Damn. Forgot what I was thinking about. I'll probably come back to it. So you're running for District 5.
Let's see. Seen the MA. There's just massive residential growth.
How do you sustain the incredible growth without letting. Or the existing infrastructure, like letting it go, I guess, like street maintenance, localized drainage and neighborhood parks, letting them. Without letting them crumble. What's your plan to ensure City hall prioritizes fixing what's already broken?
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Okay, that's a very good question that I think that goes hand in hand with actually getting past this mayor deal, making a decision on. On Inner Harbor.
You have to get those. You have to make those decisions so you can move on and take care of. The streets have gotten better, but there's a lot more to do. And you really can't focus on that if you're. If you're, you know, tied up on these other issues that are, you know, a huge time crunch or time suck. That.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Oh, sure.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: That you're not focusing on the real deal. That city council meeting the other day last Tuesday, I didn't get out of there. I wouldn't watch it. I pretty much go to everyone we got out at 2:38 in the morning, you know, I mean, so can you really focus on. On roads and parks and drainage and infrastructure when you've got a meeting that goes to 2:38 in the morning?
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: And that's another issue. Who would, who would make that kind of decision after? Some of them were there at 9 o'. Clock, some of the council people were there and the mayor herself. Till nine o' clock in the morning. Till two, two thirty, eight in the morning.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: And then you make a huge decision like that. I think that's irresponsible as well. I think at some point, and I believe there is a mechanism in there to, to set it before. Hey, we're going to go till 10pm that's it. And then we're going to reconvene the next day and then we'll make a decision after. After we got some rest. Everybody got some coffee and some breakfast.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Some reset for your mind. For sure.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: For sure. Yeah.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Did you learn? So you, we were talking earlier, you mentioned this class school that you went through. Was it cc?
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Oh, Leadership Corpus Christi sec.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Leadership Corpus Christi. You want to tell us, tell us more about that?
[00:20:20] Speaker B: For sure, for sure. I was in class 54 and 30 people get selected to that every year. It's a, it's a program sponsored by The United Chamber.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: 30 people get selected. So it's a lottery or.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Well, there's a selection process. Not really. A lottery. Yeah.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: So you apply, you kind of put on there, you know, there's certain questions, hey, what do you do here? What do you do there? And then they've got a panel that select the. What they feel, the, the people, the 30 folks that fit the program the best. Cool. And then you go through a 10 month program. And I have met the most amazing people.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Like we had just the most awesome. Every, the thing is, every class says they're the best class ever. Well, if any other LCC alumni are out there, Class 54 truly is the best class ever. And most of the folks, in fact all the people helped me with my team are our LCC alumni.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: And you just learn a lot about your. You learn a lot about your community. That's really what it's about is, you know, leadership Corpus Christi. They teach you about your, your servant leadership parts of your city. I mean we did, we did all kinds of stuff. We did a city, county, then we were actually in city hall. That's when we did our city. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: That's cool. So it was kind of like a mock thing where you.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: We did a, we did a mock city council meeting at the, at the very end. But other people came to speak to us. Like Chief Marco came in.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: Sheriff Hooper came In.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: That's interesting.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Sony, the assistant city manager spoke to us. So that's what they bring in a bunch of speakers and it's really all about learning about your community.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure, man. What made you want to do that? Like because not.
First of all, people don't know about that and then you're actually took an interest in it. Like why did you decide to. My basic question on my podcast is like why are you like this?
You know what I mean? And I always want people to share like why they're like that, you know, I mean, why. Why did you decide to do that? I know you mentioned your, your dad was a in. In refinery worker or something like that.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, he worked at VALERO for, for 30 some years, you know, so. But I, I took a different road. I mean. Yeah, we did, bro. I have lived in every district in this town. Right. So I have been all over the place.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: And you know, I guess I figured life out when I was about 25 years old when my, my wife, well, girlfriend at the time but soon to be wife, she was pregnant and that's when, that's when me and had to come to Jesus meeting I suppose, you know, and it was time to get things figured out and I went to, you know, I was going to welding school, became a welder and.
And you know, I, you know, went through the progressions there. Worked at Keywit, worked at Bay, got a rig truck. Started working for myself essentially. Cool welding rig. And then I said, you know, I got blessed. I got an opportunity when Steel Dynamics came into town and started. Started my own company and been going ever since.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: And that's what's up.
Yeah, it seems like for all of us there's a certain time in our life where like dang, like stuff just changes and sometimes it'll change and then we won't notice it until somebody tells us, oh, weren't you like this? And I'm like, I don't do that no more. You know what I mean? I'm like this now.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: It's about growing up and maturing. Yeah. And there again, I haven't always made the best decision, you know, in business or in life. But as long as you don't make the worst possible decision you can make, which hopefully you wouldn't because you put enough effort into not doing so, you know?
[00:23:32] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: You learn and you grow and that's what makes us who we are. You know what I mean?
[00:23:37] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah, for sure. I definitely think like that has to. That has some. A part to play in it, especially if you're running for city council. If we don't know somebody like. Because like I don't know who the mayor is. I don't follow the mayor. I don't follow any of the, any of the people on that panel, bro, to be honest, a lot of us don't. Like, a lot of us just like we vote. We come out to vote and then that's it.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: You know, I wouldn't, I would encourage more people to get involved because a lot of people will focus on, on national news, maybe state level and, and they kind of forget about the, the local level. But that's the form of government that touches your. Touches you personally the most. Yes, because that's, that's affects you every day. You can see it every day. As soon as you leave your house, you see local politics.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: Whether it be in your road, whether it be in the drainage you're talking about.
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Oh yeah, definitely.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Whether you drive by the park. That's not Mode Y. That's what you see. So that matters. So. And I, I think people are starting to wake up and, and realize, you know, it really does matter. And, and we're. They're also accessible. That's. That's the, the interesting thing about local politics is you can't call Greg Abbott right now.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Right. Right.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: You know what I mean? But you can if you want to, if you need to. You can call Gil Hernandez right now. You know, he may not answer, but you can shoot him a text. He'll get back to you.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: That's.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: And he's out and about in the town. You can see him. If you have a major issue that. That wow. Affecting you, you can get a hold of these folks. That's why it's important to put the right people in.
[00:24:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah, for sure. So having the right people in there will help them to make.
Then you get into obviously the argument of like who's get the right people in to do what. What they want for the city. But then how do we know like that what they want is right for the city? And what. Like what I want is right for the city may not necessarily be what's right for the city in your eyes. Do you know what I'm saying?
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Like, well, that's why people vote to.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: People vote.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: So okay, kind of the majority. Majority wins, you know, for sure. Let's say I want something real one off and odd as a constituent, you know, I'm probably not going to get it, you know, I mean, because it's going to be, you know, the other folks that, that come together.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Majority.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Yeah, majority. We'd rather have this. And, and that's the thing about voting. You kind of just have to deal with it. You know, as long as you showed up and you voted, you know, you've done what you can do.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: You did your part for sure. And I guess we can vote. We can vote them in and out. As far as the next. The next election go, how often does that happen? Like every two years.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Every two years.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Every two years, right.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: So. And yours is coming up in November or November.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: November.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Every. Every two years. November.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: Which there's. There's an issue with that too. Like, they really should be staggered. Like, everybody is. Is up for election at the same time.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: So let's say. Let's. Let's say something strange happens and every single person on that dais is new.
That. That's kind of an issue too.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: There's going to be no, you know, I'm not saying that's going to happen.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: But what if. Right. Because it is a different political climate, you know, in local politics and it has been, you know, who's going to learn? We. There's no one to teach the. The freshman coming in, essentially, because. Because Gill's termed out. Sylvia's not running. Everett's not running. Roland's gone. He's termed out as well. So that's four people right there. So you got five seats that.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: I mean, might be brand new.
[00:26:37] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. And they're not rerun. They're. Are they running? Are they re running?
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Some are.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Some are. For sure. For sure. Wow. And I wonder what it's like once you get there, like, because I'm trying to get some other city council manager members if you guys want to come on show, like, once you get there. I wonder if they're. What it's like as far as, like something they didn't expect. You know what I mean? Like what it's like to be. Oh, I didn't expect this.
And now I have to change gears and figure out what to do. You know what I mean?
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: To be. To be ready for. For that. If you win the seat for Dictionary District 5, Day 1 on the job, what is the very first policy issue or project you are sinking your teeth into?
[00:27:19] Speaker B: Oh, that one. That one's easy for me. Water. Because I don't believe we'd have a secured water solution in place by then.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Like, it seems like it's. It's Trendy. Now everybody's talking about the water. Even though people might not even know what's going on with the water. You know what I mean? So, so obviously D cell is on the table and then they've. They've obviously voted it out, what, like four times? How many times have they like voted no to it?
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Well, it's, it's changed. Right? So they've. They voted no to the keywit proposal.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: So that, you know, I guess the consensus there was. It was too expensive. I think it was 1.1.2, 1.3 billion, which is, Is a lot. Right. But I mean, that's what, that's what was proposed.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: So. Okay, so the, so the city council wants to do a DSA project for sure.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Everyone I've asked, they. They see zero chance that corp. Sure. She doesn't have.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: Seawater.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: So that's the solution for sure. So now it's like, who's going to build it?
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Which one? Yeah.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: And the Inner Harbor. Just, just so folks know, the Inner harbor, that would be a Corpus Christi, the city of Corpus Christi owned facility.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: They would own it, someone would build it, someone would run it, but CCW would own the asset. You've got some other ones that are proposed. You got the, the Harbor Island.
That one would be owned by an outside. That would be a take or pay contract. Right. Someone else would build it and they would sell the city of Corpus Christi water.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Another One is, is Axe H2O. I don't know if you've seen that they. Recently.
They, they went to city council, they got on the agenda a little differently, a little more unconventional. And they hadn't had a plan, a proposal sent into the city yet. They didn't have funding. They didn't have a site yet. They. It's a.
Some veterans. Very, very smart generals.
[00:29:07] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Very, very, very smart, talented individuals that. That can build. They just didn't have everything set up yet. Right. They had an idea.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: So.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: And I'm sure, I'm sure they can do it, you know, but there's some things you need to have in place first, like a site. They didn't have a site yet. It seems like now. Barney Davis, the power plant in the Bluff.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Which is owned by CPS Energy in San Antonio. Yep. Seems like they want to have a spot there. So that's a hundred, 100 MGD plant.
You got CC polymers. I think if I'm not mistaken, that one's about 12 MGD a day. They're trying to get that going so.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: So. And I. And I personally don't see a problem with all of them. Like, let's have them all. We'll have a water surplus. And then because Texas is dry, it's not. The. The drought's not a corpse. Christie problem. That's a Texas problem.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
Wow. So you're saying, like, have them have them all. Why not?
[00:29:59] Speaker B: Right.
And then, you know, if we can be the first. You know, every. Anyone can see that if you. If you're the first one to. To come up with it and really fine tune things, that's a good place to be.
Definitely the pioneers in a specific industry. That's nice what you do.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, so if you're trailblazing. Right.
[00:30:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: You make mistakes along the way.
[00:30:19] Speaker B: You should. Everyone does.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: Right?
[00:30:21] Speaker B: Everyone doesn't.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: I feel like this is just my opinion. I feel like if we're. That if our city is stuck in the old way of thinking, maybe they don't want to be the trailblazer. To not be seen as making mistakes.
Because, you know, like, our culture, bro, like, we. We make fun of people that make mistakes. You know what I mean? Yeah, but I'm. I'm just. I'm just thinking out loud here, like, why not be a trailblazer? Why not open? You know, why not be the first one to do it?
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Well, and. Well, that's why entrepreneurs. That's why they sign the front side of the check. You know?
[00:30:51] Speaker A: You see what I'm saying? Yeah.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: They were not scared to make a mistake. Thomas Edison. Everyone knows that story.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: You know, he failed and failed and failed until he figured it out. You gotta.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: You got to be able to persevere and then pivot and adapt and overcome.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: For sure. Yeah. So.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: And we've got smart enough people here in Corpus. We're not gonna. We're not gonna make a mistake that's just gonna be catastrophic. We're just not. We have some very, very talented people.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Hey, man, that's good to hear, bro. You hear that, guys? That's awesome, man. Yeah. So do we so have everything. So Corpus have. They're actual. Own the diesel plant as well. Saying that have that and then other diesel plants to contribute to the water. Yeah.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: They would sell. They would be a con, like a take or pay contract.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: And if the city did own a decel.
What does that mean for the city?
[00:31:32] Speaker B: Well, I. I think that you can control the rate for sure. You know, I mean, that. That's a.
A public asset.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Whereas the other ones, you'll Sign a contract, you know what I mean? But they will go up. Water will continuously rise and rise and rise, of course. And let's say demand, you know, you know how supply and demand works, too. So there's. I guess my. My worry is there's nothing to really keep rates in check if an outside entity has it.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there's that ethics thing again, for sure. So, so when you're out knocking on doors or doing campaign. On the campaign trail, what is the number one misconception you think people have about local government and how do you want to change that perception?
[00:32:12] Speaker B: That's a, That's a good question. Well, the first thing I'd like people to do is get engaged, Right. So like I say, I go to the city council meetings where. Where the decisions for our town, our city are made. And it's not just Corvus that's affected. Like. Oh, yeah, like this is in Oasis County.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Is that what you say that.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: But some of the policies we set affect San Pat. Oh, you know, Aransas County. I mean, people outside folks are affected, you know.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: Just because we're the. We're the big neighboring cities.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: And, you know, so when I go to the city council meetings, there's not, I don't know, maybe 30 people there. And then you look on YouTube, maybe there's another 40 people watching. Well, this is a town of 300. Yeah. 30 plus thousand folks. You know, And I know everybody can't dedicate all their time. You know, everybody's got jobs to do. But get involved somehow. Maybe try to go re. Watch some of that stuff.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: And it's. It's important to just get involved and understand what's going on. Some people, you know, I've talked to some people, they don't even know who their city council member is.
[00:33:10] Speaker A: No. Well.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: Or what district they're in. Right. Well, that's kind of hand in hand, but. And I think that's a bit of an issue.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. So if you know them, if you know them, obviously you're involved.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Well, you got to know who they are. And some people don't, you know, so if they don't know who they are,
[00:33:24] Speaker A: what if we feel like they're not approachable?
Like, what if. What if, like, they're not unapproachable?
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Well, what I'm saying is they can't even name who they are.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Okay, okay. Okay.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Some people don't actually know who represents them.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:37] Speaker B: You know, so. And I think people, you know, like we talked about earlier, people are starting to wake up. And, and, and you need to know who you're putting in office. So I think it's going to be record turnout for city council.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. That's. What's up, bro. What's up? I got one more. Let's see.
For everyone watching or listening who wants to support your vision, where can they go to connect with your campaign, learn more about your platform and get involved?
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Well, I don't. That's a good question. I don't have a website yet. I will, you know, I'm more of a. I build things. I, you know.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: I'm a fabricator. Right. So I'm catching up on the technology side. But I do have an email. It's John, the numeral four district. The numeral five at Gmail. And my phone number is 361-446-1579. Yeah, I'd love for people to call me. It's probably easier to text because I get. I do field quite a bit of calls. But if you text me, I will, I will respond. And I'd love to have these conversations because that's.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: That's how I'm going to figure out what's important to the constituents. So that's going to help me in my campaign as well. Yeah, but, but I'm not hard to find. For sure.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: That's what's up.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Find me on Facebook. John Hanslick.
John hanslick for District 5 as well. I got a Facebook page as well.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah. We'll leave some links down there in the description of the video. Is there anything else you want to share, John? This, this, this is a lot good conversation about. About our city, man.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: I'm pretty. What else you got? What. What have you been doing? I am curious what you do. You know what I mean?
[00:34:59] Speaker A: Well, okay. Yeah, I'm a podcaster and I also. I drive a truck. I'm a truck driver.
Damn. Do you. You know what? That brings up a question. Do you think that podcasts have an effect? Because you found my podcast on YouTube, right.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm a podcast consumer, you could say.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, yeah, for sure. It seems like that's the way to get information now. That's how I get information.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: I don't watch tv. Yeah, yeah. Like, unless they're sports, which Ghostburs go.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Yeah,
[00:35:23] Speaker B: that's about the only TV I watch. But yeah, I'm a. I'm a big podcast consumer. Have been for a long time. I don't know about you, but I go through, like, phases.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:32] Speaker B: Of who I, like, lock into.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: I mean, like, I used to pbd. I used to listen to PBD quite a bit. Do you know who Matthew Cox is?
[00:35:40] Speaker A: No.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: He was like.
He did a bunch of fraud, like, mortgage fraud.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: And then he. He went to prison. Did a stint in prison. And then he came out and. Wow. And now he has a podcast and he kind of. He kind of interviews a bunch of criminals.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: That got out.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: You should check him out.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: I listened to. I think it's Ian. His name is Ian. Ian Beck.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:36:03] Speaker A: That other guy. Johnny. Johnny Mitchell. Have you seen his. I haven't seen Johnny Mitchell. Dude got some good interviews. Like, people from the Mexican mafia, from the cartel. It's really good.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: You get some interesting stuff. Like, you get the, like, some CIA agents and stuff like that. Like Bustamante. I'm sure you've seen Bustaman.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: Maybe I'll check it out. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I get into those types of podcasts. I started standup comedy last year, so I'm, like, on open mic number 22 right now.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Really?
[00:36:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, man. I remember, like. And I. And I'm just, I'm just like, kind of digging back to my funny days, like we were in high school, because I just forgot about that, bro. I just stopped being funny. Just, just. I had, I got this whole journey, man, where I was just narcissistic abuse from my mother and stuff like that. Just stuff like that.
[00:36:48] Speaker B: Talk about that.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: And then after getting away from that, I'm have, I'm having to, like, refine myself, like, figure out what I liked. You know what I mean? Because it was a lot of just setting myself aside for years, and it just got to, like, like, okay, I'm rediscovering this because I remember being funny in class with you. Like, and I like being funny and I like to make people laugh. You know what I mean? And so I was like, shoot, I want to try comedy. And I did. So I, I, I got, like, a goal, maybe get so many open mics, and if I like it after that, then I'll just keep going.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Hey, that takes a. Kudos to you because that takes a lot of.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: A lot of stones to go do that.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Where do you go to do that there?
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Mesquite street, downtown.
They have an open mic every Thursday. It's the longest standing open mic. It's actually an actual comedy club.
Other other open mics, they have at the artisan on Tuesdays, and then let's see what else they have. The annex, one Wednesday a month. There's. There's a few open mics out there. There's a whole scene involved, but you got it.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: You got a skid already laid out.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got ideas. I'm driving all day. Most of the day. I have ideas in my head, and I've just put them on my phone, like, oh, talk about this, this and that. Whatever, whatever.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: And how does it go? Do you get a good little reaction?
[00:37:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got some good stuff. Like. Like an opening bit that I use is, I'm his suit. My name is Amesus, but I'm not the kind that fixes things.
And then, like. And I've said that a few times.
I said that a few times. And after that, I was like, I usually say that, but I don't know where to go after that. And they'll laugh at. They'll laugh at that.
I talk about my wife and I being, like, autistic and adhd. We're always fighting for the dopamine hit, but then we just make up at the end of the day. Just different stuff. I'm learning different stuff. That's another thing. I've been listening to a lot of comedy podcasts, like.
Like, learning the craft and Theo one. Punch lines and stuff like that. Yeah, the Ovon. If he doesn't really. You. You can learn stuff from him because he's more conversational. But there's actual podcasts dedicated to talking to actual comics. Talk. Telling you the game, like, sharing the game with you.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Okay, well, Jason Alexander, you know, George.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Sounds familiar. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: He's got a podcast.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: That's pretty cool. And I'm a Seinfeld fan. I don't know if you, like.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Oh, no kidding. Yeah, Seinfeld's dope, bro.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: I'm a huge fan of that show.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: He's freaking clean. Like, he's clean. You go to a lot of these open mics. It's very dirty, that. Yeah, it's very dirty. So, like, don't really take the kids out. I'm trying to. It'd be cool if I can start a clean open mic.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: Is the. Is the community large within Corpus Christi? Like, is there a lot of comedians,
[00:39:14] Speaker A: a lot of comics? There's probably, like, I want to say, like, 20 plus.
[00:39:19] Speaker B: Like, 20 pretty good.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just a decent size.
Two of them, actually. They've been driving to Austin to kill Tony every Monday to sign up, and they both made Kill Tony this past weekend.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: Who is it?
[00:39:31] Speaker A: You know Chris Longoria and Ronnie Fryer? Yeah, I've talked to them a few times. Chris has been on the podcast, My podcast.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Do you know Jen De la Fuente?
[00:39:40] Speaker A: It sounds for me. Yeah.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: I know her from, like, back. She went to Ray.
[00:39:45] Speaker A: Oh, no kidding? Yeah, I've seen her. I've known her in passing. Like, I've seen her in, like, on Facebook and stuff like that.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: I haven't. I haven't seen it. I don't go to comedy shows. I mean, not that I don't want to, it's just. I haven't. Yeah, I think the last one I saw was.
What's that guy's name from Portland? He's from gp.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Oh, Steve Trevino.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I saw him at Anniversary. It was funny.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Yeah, he's funny, bro. He is funny.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Does he come down and kind of support the locals?
[00:40:08] Speaker A: No, I haven't seen him around. He's. Dude, he seems really busy. I actually sent him an email to try to get on my podcast, but you got to, like, go through his booking, booking, management, and all this stuff. So he seems really, like a really busy dude.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: I'm sure he's busy. He's done well for himself. But I think he would be willing to come down and.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be cool. That would be dope. It seems like, like a lot of the. The comedians that are, like, established, like, from out here, like, they don't do open mics. It's weird. I see. It seems like the open mics is for, like, the newer cats that are trying to. That need to go through that grind, you know what I mean, Type of thing. But if he's out here, that would be cool to check him out. You know what I mean? Just come out to an open mic.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Do we have any other famous comics from this area?
[00:40:50] Speaker A: Nah. Steve Trevino. I know Javi Luna. He's. He's kind of like, like, famous, like, down here, but he's been around the country and stuff.
Daryl Ferrelsberg. He actually lives in East Texas, but he's from here. He was on my podcast recently.
He grew up in their Collier pool, so we were talking about that on the episode.
Yeah, no, I can't really think of it. To John Stinger. John Singer or Stinger. He came down recently, but he's from Corpus. He went to Mesquite Street Comedy Club. But they have comedy shows, often that of people that come down. Ralph Barbosa is coming to Hillard center. Actually, we're gonna go check it out. My wife.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: I've seen a little bit of stand up, but, like, for years, when he did the.
Like the. The forefathers or that skit.
[00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah, dude, I was so thinking. Yeah.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Funniest thing ever about the yards and meters, right?
Football.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, bro. Yeah. How many. How many feet to a mile for whatever. Whatever.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's an easy number that everybody.
[00:41:51] Speaker A: Yeah. They remember, and they'll be on the ruler, but they'll never line up.
That was.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: That was a heck of a skit, dude. Yeah, I've showed a lot of people that.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it's funny. My wife loves it.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Yeah. We've been good, though, man.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: Hey, so where do you find your talent to come on the. On the pocket? Where can people find. Because I'm gonna share this too. Right? So where do people find you?
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Yeah, Corpus Christi Originals, man. I've got a website. Corpus Christioriginals.com. it's. I'm everywhere. Tik tok, Facebook, Instagram. You can find me. And then I. I clip the stuff up and I just. I. I'll tag you as a. And a collaborator.
Your people will see it. They'll see it like that. Or they can find me on, like, that online.
[00:42:31] Speaker B: So you're looking for some other.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Oh, yes.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Like, people that are in city politics.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Definitely, definitely. And, like, because you made the comment about Richard Caballero, right? Because she was on here and I had her on because I. I didn't know nothing about politics. I didn't know too many people about politics. She came across the feed. I was like, let me invite her on so she can talk about whatever her side is.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: Sure, yeah. Yeah, that's important.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: So she came out, and then you reached out. You're like, hey, she mentioned this, this, and that. I was like. And I would like to be on the podcast. Right? You said that. I was like, well, shoot. Come on, dude. Yeah, so, yeah, definitely, I would like to have some city council members talk about stuff on here if they're open to it. You know what I mean?
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd like to clear the air, too, with. With Rachel if she sees this.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: I would still love to have coffee or breakfast with her so me and her can have an actual.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:43:18] Speaker B: Civil conversation, you know? Yeah, definitely do that. I have nothing against her. It's just.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be dope.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: We have opposing views.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. See, man, that's what. That's a. That's what's one thing that. That really bothers me is that, like, we have opposing views, but it gets to the point for some people that they don't want to talk to people. They're automatically wrong because they don't believe what we believe. And I'm not saying that certain people are like this because I myself have been like that. And I had to change that part of myself, you know, growing up with a narcissistic mother and all that stuff to where I had to, like, get people. No, if you don't believe this, you need to believe this. You need to believe this. But now it's just like, let them believe it.
[00:43:57] Speaker B: What do you mean by that? Like, like your mom. But she was just kind of manipulative, so.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: She was manipulative.
A lot of it was like, I couldn't do stuff unless she wanted me to do. I want. I had to do it the way she wanted me to do it. Oh, you know, you're supposed to do it like this. And. And me, like, I didn't know my mom until I was a teenager, bro.
[00:44:16] Speaker B: Oh, you didn't.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: I didn't know.
[00:44:17] Speaker B: She didn't raise you.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: She didn't raise me. My stepmom and my dad raised me. I went to go live with my mom about 16 years old because she would let us do whatever we wanted to do, you know what I mean? That's why I dropped out when I was living with my mom, right? I was going to. I. I might have been going to her house when. When I was going at Ray. We were in the same class.
But anyways, like, so she wanted me to do that stuff. And then I learned that, like, you don't have to always try to convince somebody that your side is right, or you don't have to always convince them to believe what you're believing, because that's what I used to do. Like, you believe in, like, I don't know, you believe in. You know, you like green towels. You know what I mean? I'm like, no, you gotta use white towels, bro. And you're like, no, I don't care. I use green. I'm like, no, you gotta use white town. You know what I mean? I would.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: What difference does it make, Right?
[00:45:02] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And I would always, like, for. And I would always be, like, in every situation, wanting to be the right one.
And then, like I said once, I had to break free of that type of way of thinking, which is what the. What she had kind of portrayed upon me. I learned it along the way. I was. I had to unlearn it. Like right now, we're having a conversation about this. I could be thinking something else, you know what I mean? And try to convince you about. Whatever.
And that's another thing that makes my podcast the way it is. I let people talk. I let them share their story, like, without prejudice or. Or. I mean, I still have my own opinions. Yes. But.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: That doesn't mean I'm not going to let you share what you think, but
[00:45:42] Speaker B: who knows, you might have a guest on that. Yeah, That'll, you know, spit something your way. That's. Hey, you know what? I didn't think about that. I didn't realize that. And vice versa. And that's. That's really what healthy debate's all about.
[00:45:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I had. I had a lady on for running for District 34, TX Meyer Flores.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, Yeah. I had to get my buddy Luis. I didn't mean to interrupt.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, no.
Shout out.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: Awesome, dude.
[00:46:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, she was on. Right. And the guy that set up the interview, he. He was kind of orchestrating it, and he was. He was on the. He was on the red side. I'll say it. He was on the red side. He knew. You knew he was on the red side. And he was trying to make my platform a political thing for the. For them. For her talking point. And she came in and she was talking about the other guy that was running for TX 34, the other Flores guy, Eric Flores. And I was like, hold on. Wait a minute, wait a minute. He's not here to defend himself. You're saying this stuff about him. I don't know about him. Let's just keep the topic to what you're to.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: To you. Show yourself.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And I told her. I was like, I would do the same for. For you. If he was in here talking about you, I would tell him the same thing.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: Right.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: You know, so I'm like. I'm like that for my podcast.
Plus, it helps my podcast grow.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Your audience might be different from somebody else's audience. At least I reach that audience. I could talk to somebody from their audience and reach that part of the audience.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: That's what it's all about. Like, there's been plenty of times, you know, in. In the podcast I consume. I'll see you get Ian Beck, for instance. I didn't know about him until I saw him on a podcast that I watch.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: And then. Okay, he's got a podcast, so I go watch ems. And that's how it grows. Yeah, that's how it goes.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's what I'm trying to do. Like, I'm trying to get more views on the YouTube, on the Spotify for people to watch the long form. That way at some point, if I, if, if I am able to be monetized, I can be like, hey, I've got this many viewers this a month.
[00:47:33] Speaker B: Do you know what it takes to do that download?
[00:47:35] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. It takes more download than I, that I have.
I'm really, I'm really hot on social media. Like Tick Tock and, and Facebook, someone.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: What about YouTube? I don't, I don't have.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: It's growing. It's growing.
YouTube is more of like a national.
It's weird because Tick Tock and Facebook, they push your content to. To geo location, wherever you're at. Like, if it's Corpus Christi, okay, they push it.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Most people can.
[00:48:01] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: It'll pop up on their feed, kind of so to speak.
[00:48:04] Speaker A: Which is why on Tick Tock, I clip portions of video where people are talking about corpus.
The first, the first three seconds it hooked. Like if they're saying, oh, Corpus Christi, first three seconds, it hooks the listener.
They'll follow, share with their friend. Because for Tick Tock, it's all about the geolocation the area.
And then if your video gets past Corpus, it'll start going to neighboring 361 and then eventually Texas. That's how it goes viral.
[00:48:32] Speaker B: That's how it grows.
[00:48:33] Speaker A: You know what I mean? Like, so if, if the more shares, the more impressions, likes comments.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: I guess the most more times people look, the more engagement watch it. Right? Like let's say you had a clip that. Because I'll watch a clip three or four times. Yeah, especially that's funny one.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: You know what I mean? Yeah, no, that's good to know.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: You know, so that, that kind of gets in.
That's how they get their information.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: They call it the hour. They call it an algorithm. Yeah, exactly. So engagement is huge, views are huge.
And like just in like two weeks alone, like I grew like thousands of followers on Facebook because this one video, I actually that's another reason Rachel was on, because she was talking a lot about corpus. So a lot of her videos, I posted them to reach people in Corpus. And people, people might think like this one guy, he made made a stupid comment. He's like, you should get some other lady on other than Rachel, your baby doll or whatever. I was like, bro, come on. So. And people think that, like, people think that and it's like, no, bro, I'm playing my own game. This is the podcast game, bro. This is what I got to do to get views, to get people in. You know what I mean? That. That's my. That's what I'm trying to do.
But at the same time, I want to keep it on the ethics side, too. And, like, I don't just have anybody on that that wants to come on, too. Like, I know you. You know what I mean? I was like, I gotta reach out to John. I know him. I really want him on the podcast. Some people, I won't. I won't respond back because I'll look at their social media. I'll be like, I really don't think I'll vibe with this person.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you got to be choosing. At the end of the day, it's your product you're putting out.
[00:49:59] Speaker A: Yes, for sure.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: You know, I mean, we're guests on your show, and that's your product you put out to them, so.
[00:50:03] Speaker A: Most definitely.
[00:50:04] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. That makes sense.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: So do you post them to YouTube, though?
[00:50:08] Speaker A: Yes. Yep.
[00:50:09] Speaker B: All of them.
[00:50:10] Speaker A: Everything goes to YouTube.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: That's. That's where I watch you at is. Is YouTube. I didn't know if. Yeah, I'm always on YouTube.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: I don't pay for it because, you know, I don't like how they censor some things. Right. So I refuse to give many of my money, but.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: I do. Sometimes I wish I. I didn't have the commercials. It would be cool if you can close your phone and still have.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: If you pay.
If you pay. Yeah. So we pay the premium. We pay the premium. I get to listen to it whenever it's off.
No commercials. I can't stand commercials, bro.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: I don't like them either. Yeah, but I don't like them either. But, yeah, I just deal with it.
They're not gonna get my 10 bucks. Well, heck, it's probably not even 10 bucks anymore. Yeah, I had read it was 10 bucks.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you have. You can add like. Like family. Like, family members. So, like, if your wife's got a YouTube account, you can share it with them. And they. They don't have commercials either. You.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: Wow. It's got like that.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: Yeah, my wife. So my wife's connected to my account, and then, like, she can watch it without commercials. My daughter.
It's kind of like Spotify.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:51:12] Speaker A: Spotify is going into video now.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: Spotify is free, right?
[00:51:15] Speaker A: It's free. It's free. They have commercials. If you don't Pay the premium. It's just like you. Everything's subscriptions, bro.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: I know. Like, we canceled our cable because we were paying like, I don't know, 350 bucks a month with DirecTV. So we're like, all right, let's get rid of it. So. But now we get, like $350 worth of subscriptions, man. What's the difference?
[00:51:32] Speaker A: We got out of debt, bro. I don't know.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: Really?
[00:51:35] Speaker A: We got out of debt, Ramsay or no. Yeah, okay, exactly.
[00:51:39] Speaker B: You did the David Ramsey.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: We did the Dave Ramsey plan. We're on. We're on the last three steps or whatever. We're good. College 401K.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Congratulations. Yeah, that's a big deal, man.
[00:51:49] Speaker A: It is a big deal, bro. Dang, for sure. It is a big deal. Which is why we can get these subscriptions now. Because we canceled all our subscriptions. Subscriptions, bro. We went to. We went so ham, dude. We got flip phones.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:52:00] Speaker A: We went to flip phones and not knowing that we can just. We can get a cheap screen phone, you know what I mean? Because we were doing like Apple phones or you, hey, you know, whatever. So anyway. Anyway, we went down. That journey paid off our problem.
The consumer debt combined, like two years working, ham, bro. My. My. I was truck driving.
My wife was a paramedic. My mom was watching our kids or my daughter, and we just freaking. Everything was going to it, bro. Everything. My student loans were the hugest.
We didn't have any car loans. We just had student loans and credit cards.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: You don't even have a mortgage anymore.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: No mortgage. The mortgage took us like.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: How old are you? 42? 43.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: 43.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: No mortgage?
[00:52:42] Speaker A: No mortgage, bro. And, well, I mean, it's not like we. We live near. We live near six points. Who cares?
[00:52:48] Speaker B: Paid for is yours.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: That's what I'm talking about, bro.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: And Abbott's talking about no property taxes, so we'll see how that goes.
[00:52:53] Speaker A: Please. Yes, for sure, man.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: I've seen that post the other day. I don't know if he'll ever get away with it, but I think once you own something, you should own it.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: It's yours. If nothing else, when you were like, worst case scenario, if you retire, property taxes are gone. I mean, is that the worst thing you worked your whole life?
[00:53:09] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: You're in your elderly years, you want to travel, you own your place. You should be yours. Let you know if anything, let the younger folks pay for the taxes.
[00:53:20] Speaker A: Let the ones with good knees.
[00:53:21] Speaker B: Yeah, like a worst case scenario. You know what I Mean.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:53:28] Speaker B: No, that's cool. So, yeah, no car notes, no house, no.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: No, like, nothing, bro.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: I couldn't even imagine what that'd be like, dude.
[00:53:35] Speaker A: It's freaking awesome, bro. It's. Dude, it's a. It's lovely.
Very lovely, bro.
We. We can eat steak whenever. We. I mean, we still got a budget, don't get me wrong. We don't go willy nilly and just spend whatever. We've. Of course we got our budget. We got. We still have. But that's the main thing, bro, that people get discouraged about is the word budget. It's an ugly word. I know. It's not sexy.
[00:53:55] Speaker B: Well, it's important.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: But that's the basis of our. Of our finances till this day.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: Everybody's got. The city of Corpus is about to work on their budget.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:54:02] Speaker B: Every company in the world has a budget.
[00:54:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: Some are bigger than others, but it's still a budget, right?
[00:54:07] Speaker A: Sure.
Yeah. So even now, like, it's. It's so freeing, bro. Like, you, like, because it's funny because. And I drive an old school car. 2006 Honda, bro. I don't care.
[00:54:19] Speaker B: And I'm fine.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: I'm just like, I don't care. I really don't want a payment, bro. I don't want a payment. I don't want to. To be nervous at work, like, oh, I gotta pay. I gotta make the payment. Like, I can be at work and be like, if I don't got loads, cool. If it's slow this season, fine. Yeah, I can take the hit financially because I don't owe money. You know what I mean? I won't be.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: Was that contagious on your workplace? Like, did people see your success in your journey and be like, you know what? I'm gonna do that too?
[00:54:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, some people will wonder. Some people would think and be like, how come Jesus doesn't want to get loads like everybody else? Like the dispatchers. I know they'll freak out on that.
[00:54:52] Speaker B: Well, no, but would they. Would they join in your journey? Like, tell me more about this. And they decided to do it.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: I really don't talk. I really don't talk a lot to a lot of people at work. There's this one guy, a friend of mine, Ed. What's up? Shout out Ed.
But he's on the other end of the spectrum of borrowing money and stuff like that. He called me a Dave Ramsey purist. He's like, I know you're a Dave Ramsey purist, but hear me out, bro.
[00:55:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm probably that way too. Like, I disagree with some of Dave Ramsey because I feel like you should. I feel like it's better to use other people's money to, to make money, you know, if you can, you know. But as far as the, the, the truck notes and the mortgage and stuff, I'm sure that's pretty amazing. To get a check and keep it.
[00:55:31] Speaker A: Hell yeah.
[00:55:31] Speaker B: Do you invest it? I mean, obviously a lot goes to savings, but the, the goal is not just to amass this huge fortune. Your savings or is it?
[00:55:38] Speaker A: Okay, so we got emergency fund of three to six months. That's in case somebody loses their job or whatever. And then 15% of our income is going to retirement in Roth. Roth IRA, which is basically like a 401k. Sure. We put it into.
[00:55:56] Speaker B: But there's tax benefits to a Roth IRA.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: Tax benefits. I take it out at 63 and a half or something like that.
And we. So Roth is basically. You put it in after taxes is taken out. You put it in and then when you take it out, it's not taxed because it's already been taxed.
[00:56:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:56:13] Speaker A: So we got the Roth 15. Our income goes to that. It goes into growth stock mutual funds like Dave Ramsey teaches, basically like index funds, like the S P500, like that type of stuff where. So the fund is. They've got a group of companies like Procter and Gamble, which is the toilet paper company, Coca Cola, Apple, all these safe ones, all these different industries into one fund. And that's what we invest in. Because the economy has grown, like historically it's grow. It goes down, but then eventually goes up. Goes down. You ride the roller coaster. Yeah, exactly. We do that.
We put so much. We don't do a percentage to kids college fund. We just do like 100 bucks. Every paycheck. 100 bucks goes to kids.
529, 529. It's basically like a. You can do like a Roth IRA type of thing where you put it into an index fund. That's what we're doing for kids. And if one kid doesn't want to use it for college or trade, it can be used for any school, trade school, college, whatever.
[00:57:13] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: If that kid doesn't want to use it, you can roll it over to the next kid.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: We own. So we own my house and then we own the property next door.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: So we got income from that.
[00:57:24] Speaker B: That's paid for too.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: It's paid for too, bro.
So.
[00:57:27] Speaker B: Wow. Hey, that's. That's impressive. That's not a small feed. Yeah, that's. That's impressive to me.
[00:57:33] Speaker A: Yeah. No.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: Are y' all planning on doing more rental properties, too? Because real estate's where it's at, man.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: I mean, we plan on it, bro, but we just don't. We've thought about, like, getting a loan, but we're just kind of iffy about getting a loan for the next. The next property.
[00:57:46] Speaker B: What? I. What I. If I had to do it over again, and I think about this all the time. Like, instead of buying, you know, the house we're in right now is pretty much. Was our dream house. House. Right. But if I could do it again, we were younger, I would probably buy a duplex, live in one side.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:57:59] Speaker B: Rent the other side out. So I'm pretty much living there for free.
[00:58:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: And then when I figured that out enough, I'd go buy a triplex, do the same thing. You know what I mean? Just keep doing it that way if I had it to do it over again.
[00:58:09] Speaker A: But she. I mean, I don't know how my wife would feel about that. You know what I mean? That's another thing, too. She's in the equation, so she's got it for me.
[00:58:15] Speaker B: She got to sign off on it.
[00:58:16] Speaker A: Yeah, you got.
She's like, I don't know if I want all that sawdust, honey.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: And she's a paramedic.
[00:58:22] Speaker A: You said she's a paramedic, but, dude, yeah, she. She's going. She's going into a different field, which is.
You know how Dave Ramsey, he talks about, like, whenever people get out of debt that their income amount changes, it gets. It increases because something happens to where they increase their income.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: Well, they can focus on other stuff instead of stressing out.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: Exactly, bro.
[00:58:44] Speaker B: For sure.
[00:58:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:45] Speaker B: So Pyramid is cool. I mean, she saves lives.
[00:58:48] Speaker A: She saves lives. It's very stressful for her, too. Like, she's to. She doesn't want. She doesn't talk about, like, stuff that
[00:58:54] Speaker B: dinner table is not.
[00:58:55] Speaker A: Ah, for sure, bro. Because. So she keeps it all, but she'll share it. And, like, if it's really something that she needs to share, she'll share it. She'll share it. But she got out of the industry. She. She's going to electrician now. Okay, so she's. So she's about, like, a year into her trade school electrician, working for SST at Tesla.
[00:59:16] Speaker B: Okay, so industrial Tesla, bro.
[00:59:20] Speaker A: Yeah. And she's a hard worker, bro. She's.
Ever since I known her, dude, she's free. She's A hard worker.
And she. She gets it done, bro. And she's smart too, man. She's really smart. And. And like a lot of my. A lot of our decisions, we make it together.
We have. We have a combined bank account. That's something I talk about people don't like to hear. We share everything, bro.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: Like, me and my wife have a shared bank account too.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: Share everything, bro. Why not? I mean, that you're. You're married. That's your.
[00:59:46] Speaker B: I don't even know what's in there. Like, sometimes I wish I did. You know what I mean?
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Like, hey, well, not. See, when we were doing the budget together, I was like, looking at all the bills. Now I don't even look at it. I'm like, babe, what comes out this week? You know what I mean? She's like, oh, this, this, and this.
[01:00:01] Speaker B: Hey, you know what's funny about Dave Ramsey with my buddy Eric Cummings. We call him Yank. Maybe he'll. Maybe he'll see this, but like, he. L. He's a big Dave Ramsey guy.
[01:00:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:09] Speaker B: He doesn't follow him.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:00:11] Speaker B: You know what I mean? He wants to think he does, you know? I mean, but he. He doesn't do it in practice. But we'll listen to his shows, right?
[01:00:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: And then someone will call in and be like, oh, yeah, we're debt free. We have 1.5 million in the bank. And oh, what do you do? Oh, my wife's a librarian.
Like, I sharpened colored pencils or something like that. Like, what is going on? Like, how do we not. How do we not do this, you know? Yeah, but we do. Like, they do have some jobs. Like that doesn't seem like. Yeah, it would, you know. And, well, and how much did you inherit? Is a question he asked all the time.
Oh, not too bad.
[01:00:46] Speaker A: Oh, the everyday millionaires. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Those. They had the. The debt free screams that was helping us when we were getting out of debt.
[01:00:53] Speaker B: The one.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: They have the. These debt free screams. So people will go on and show. They'll talk about how much they paid off, how much they make, and then they pay off all their debt. They go on the show and then they go, we're debt free. They scream there, we're debt free. Right.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:01:08] Speaker A: So that was helping you do that? No, no. I mean, I tried something, signing up for it, but they never got back to me.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: You should try again. That's a big deal.
[01:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:01:15] Speaker B: I don't think you'd understate that. That's pretty yeah. Impressive.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And I. Dude, I wish everybody was. Was here I am trying to convince somebody that my way is the right way. But I really do think though, I really do think that like people, people would learn a lot if they own their stuff and they didn't owe a lot of money.
You know what I mean?
Your mind changes, bro. It's weird. Like it's okay to go to the park, bro, on the weekend. You don't have to go to the steakhouse, go to the park, go to the pool. You know what I mean? Like to save money. To save money while you're getting out of it. It doesn't have to be all the time. Once you get out of debt, then you can go. Freaking Texas Flame, bro. We love Texas Flame. Yeah, Steak and shrimp dog shoe all day, every day.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: People do spend a crazy amount of money on fast food. And me personally, or just eating out in general. I'd rather have home cooked meal anyways.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, man. So yeah, it's been a journey, bro.
Definitely been a journey.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: No, that's cool, man.
[01:02:10] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: How long you've been debt free? If you don't mind me?
[01:02:13] Speaker A: The mortgage probably like like three years.
And the consumer debt, like longer than that, like eight years.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: What do you mean? That's crazy.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: Consumer debt, Anything other than the mortgage. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, it could be. I mean, I don't know if we don't have a business. I mean, I don't know if it's. If, if businesses debt is involved in that, but yeah, credit cards, car loans, student loans, freaking cons. Rent, a center, whatever.
[01:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah, this. Cars, dude, I like. Yeah, dude, man, I was a fan of cars.
[01:02:45] Speaker A: Oh yeah?
Yeah, we got a bed, a tv, some stuff from that. Dude, we got so crazy. We started selling some. We sold our. We saw there was a TV like that. We had, bro.
Sell it, bro. Get the money, pay off, pay off one of the loans.
[01:02:59] Speaker B: Really?
[01:02:59] Speaker A: Yep. I had like.
[01:03:01] Speaker B: Did you place it with another TV
[01:03:02] Speaker A: or we got another TV in a smaller tv, you know, I mean, the thing is when you, when you focus on paying off debt, the, the size of the tv, it doesn't matter anymore, bro. It's weird. Like, like I can go get one if I wanted to right now, but it's just like for what, right? Yeah, exactly. It's not as. It doesn't become that like things, material things are fine. Don't get me wrong, I was able to pay for these mics, the camera, this two paychecks, bro.
[01:03:28] Speaker B: So you won't finance anything.
[01:03:31] Speaker A: Nothing.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: Like if you can't buy it, if you can't pay for it in cash, you just don't get it.
[01:03:34] Speaker A: I don't get it.
Take. It'll take if it's a car. Like, okay, my truck. I wrecked my truck. I hit a patch of ice and then on navigation hit the rail, totaled it.
[01:03:46] Speaker B: That's your ice navigation?
[01:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:49] Speaker B: That sounds funny.
[01:03:49] Speaker A: Is that funny? Yeah, yeah, bro, that's one of my bits. That's one of my bits, dog. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah. So I hit a patch of ass on navigation, hit the barrier, totaled my truck. And we only had the one vehicle that the Honda Civic you saw out there, so I, I didn't want to get. No, no. I was taking the bus to and from work, bro. Right there on Leopard, all the way to six points. A leopard near the Selena Museum. All the way, Six points. I was like, I'm not going to get any loans. So my wife, my wife was pissed, bro. She's like, you break everything, you freaking wreck the truck. She was pissed. So I had to hear that while getting rides to Brook from her and take the bus home.
Anyway, saved up couple of checks, mine and hers. It took us like maybe four months and then we got a ten thousand dollar Honda Pilot.
That's how, that's how in much. I don't. Do not want to go into debt. You know what I mean?
It's not that I hate the banks. The banks are doing what they're doing to make the money. They're smart, dude.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: That's where the money's at. They're. They're making another entity that's exists to make money.
[01:04:51] Speaker A: They're making money. There's just something about me being able to go to work and be like, you know what?
If y' all don't have loads today, fine. I'm not gonna beg you for them.
You know what I mean? I can be like that. I can do that. But I don't say it out loud, you know?
[01:05:04] Speaker B: Sure. It doesn't ruin your day.
[01:05:06] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:05:06] Speaker B: Your life's not ultimately affected by the fact that there's nowhere for you. That one.
[01:05:09] Speaker A: Exactly. And so the only thing that really bugs me financially is the taxes. Every year I'm like, dude, you serious, bro? Same. Same windows, same door, same siding, Everything's the same and you're going up in value.
[01:05:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not a fan of taxes,
[01:05:22] Speaker A: you know what I mean? So that's.
[01:05:23] Speaker B: I know we need them, but, you know, people would probably feel better about paying taxes. Is if the folks that we pay to were more responsible with them. Oh, you know.
[01:05:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: I'd feel a lot better sleeping at night knowing, you know, what I gave money. And they, they, they were responsible with it. They did. They did right by. Yes, but they don't.
So unfortunately.
[01:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And then we can think. Of course, we get back to the. To the whole. How the city spends the money too. We can get into that conversation too, like. And I'm just like, looking at them like, dude, the refineries have been there for so many years. Like, why haven't we had a solution back then?
Like, you know, I mean, all that money that. I mean, that's just what I'm thinking. You know what I mean?
[01:06:01] Speaker B: Everybody's kind of like fat happy when the reservoirs are full.
[01:06:03] Speaker A: We got what we need.
[01:06:04] Speaker B: We got water for. Okay, for, for years, which you do for years. But if it doesn't rain, it runs out.
[01:06:08] Speaker A: You know, it makes sense.
[01:06:09] Speaker B: And it's kind of always been a drought here in core. You know, we don't get that much rain. You know, growing up, it was kind of like a weird deal when like, like, you know, 12 o', clock, 1 o' clock in the afternoon, and it was dark, you know.
[01:06:20] Speaker A: I mean.
[01:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that always kind of felt like a strange day for us, you know, Very often.
[01:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:06:24] Speaker B: A thunderstorm rolling, you know.
[01:06:27] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[01:06:27] Speaker B: And I do feel kind of cheated. This rain we've been. And thank God for the rain. Right? That's a blessing. But the thunderstorms happened at nighttime, right. I want to sit on the porch and watch that stuff, you know, I couldn't. I was asleep.
So. Yeah, man, what. What made you. Last question. What made you decide to go on this journey with Dave Ramsey?
[01:06:47] Speaker A: We. I remember we were at Heb plus Saratoga. We were sitting out there, the bank was in the red, and my wife and I are just looking at each other like, how are we going to get groceries?
How we. What are we going to do?
And I was like, man, there's this, there's this guy named this Financial peace, whatever, we can try that. Because we were both, like, fed up. Like our money was being gone as
[01:07:10] Speaker B: soon as we would get it.
[01:07:12] Speaker A: Exactly. And it, it like, like, if Dave Ramsey says. He's like, there, there just comes a point where you're like, I've had it. I'm done. And we reached that point, bro. And that, that's when we were just like, let's do it.
And we weren't perfect to begin with. Like, we made a lot of Mistakes. We went into borrowing money after we decided to do that, but then we got back to.
To, you know, ground zero. Okay. Remember, we decided this. Let's continue doing it.
[01:07:37] Speaker B: That's blessing. That's good for y', all, man. Yeah, yeah. Real quick, before we wrap it up soon. We're about to wrap it up. I want to shout out. My wife Jessica, made it. Made it possible.
[01:07:45] Speaker A: What's her name?
[01:07:46] Speaker B: Jessica.
[01:07:46] Speaker A: Jessica.
[01:07:47] Speaker B: Yep. Yep. She's cool.
[01:07:49] Speaker A: She made what?
[01:07:50] Speaker B: She's cool.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Okay. Shout out.
[01:07:53] Speaker B: She's supportive. You know what I mean?
[01:07:54] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:07:55] Speaker B: I got with her first, and, you know, I got with the kids.
[01:07:57] Speaker A: That was my idea, Jessica.
[01:08:01] Speaker B: So, you know, and I got some advice before I started to do this. They, like, hey, make sure your kids are on board. You know, people are gonna. Because you're not gonna make everybody happy. Even when you're running or if you get elected, you know, people are not gonna be happy. And I was like, my son's 17. He plays football for Miller now, too.
[01:08:15] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:08:15] Speaker B: He's good. He's wide receiver. He's. He's a stud. He's good.
But I asked him, hey, John, would it bother you if people would make fun of me, you know, or talk ill?
[01:08:23] Speaker A: And he's like, wow.
[01:08:24] Speaker B: No, I prefer it.
He's like, I'll join him.
They have no idea how annoying you are.
[01:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't think about that, bro. Like how, you know, people got to go along with you.
[01:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah. But it's been good. And I got an amazing group of ladies helping me with my campaign. Crystal Bar, Glorious Fuentes, our Silica Padrone, and my treasurer, Jennifer.
[01:08:46] Speaker A: Hey, that's what's up, bro. Thanks for coming on the show, John.
[01:08:49] Speaker B: Hey, I appreciate it was fun, man.
[01:08:50] Speaker A: Yeah, man. It's been a minute since I've seen you, bro. It's glad to see you, man.
Happy to see that you're doing good. You're doing your thing, man.
[01:08:56] Speaker B: Ray alumni, dude.
[01:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Shout out. Ray Texans, bro. Ray Texans. Anyways, thanks a lot for joining the the podcast, you guys. If you've been watching up until this point, give John a follow.
I'll put the links in the description. John Hanick for city. City council, District 5. If you're in District 5. If you don't know if you're in District 5, figure it out. John. John could be somebody you can vote for. He'll be on the ballot. Check him out. But thanks a lot, you guys. Coy Originals podcast, we're out. See y' all later.
[01:09:23] Speaker B: Thank you.
