Today my friend and guest is Philip Sarnecki a Kansas businessman, a job creator, a husband, and father who rose from humble beginnings (the son of a janitor and a secretary) who then built one of the nation’s largest financial services companies and has led businesses that today employ nearly 1,000 people across multiple industries. Plus, he has great plans for the state of Kansas, and we discuss his Philip Sarnecki for Governor plans!
This is Ep2128 of America's Healthcare Advocate.
Learn more about Philip and his plans for the state of Kansas: https://philipsarnecki.org
As always, if you need help or have something to share contact me with this form on my website and let me know what's on your mind, issues you are dealing with, or other health, healthcare, and health insurance questions and concerns. Visit: https://www.americashealthcareadvocate.com/contact-us
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
And now America's Healthcare Advocate,Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America'sHealthcare Advocate show
broadcasting coastto coast across the USA.
Here on the ABC Radio Network.
You can find out
more about us by going to the websiteAmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
If you have a question,
(00:22):
if you have a comment or an email,feel free to send me an email.
I get a lot of them,but I answer each and every one of them,
so I'm happy to do so. Once again.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.comis the website.
All the shows are posted up on YouTubeand our 16 podcast platforms.
So your favorite podcast platform,we're on it.
I'm quite surethat if you are chronologically challenged
(00:44):
and looking for Medicareor individual health insurance,
you want to give the lovely Carolee Steelea call over at RPS
Benefits by Design 877-385-2224.
Anywhere in the country,they're happy to help you.
If you're an employer looking forgroup health insurance, employer sponsored
health care, Maria Ahlerscan help you anywhere in the country.
(01:05):
She does a great job.
Just helped a small group
out of Columbia, Missourithat was struggling with their premiums,
what they were paying,and she did a great job.
We got about a new policy.
So once again 877-385-2224.
All right.
So I think I've been doing thisradio show 18 or 19 years.
What is it, Dave 18 or 19? 19.
19 years? Okay.
And this is the first timeI've ever had a show like this.
(01:28):
So in studio with me today PhilipSarnecki, very happy to have you here.
He is a gubernatorial candidatefor the state of Kansas.
Like I said, we've never done this before.
I've known this man for quite a while.
I'm happy to have him on here.
He isthe kind of man that we need in politics.
I'm going to have to questionwhy he's doing this in a minute.
(01:49):
But having said that,
I think you're going to learn
about a guy today who really understandswhat this state needs and can make changes
that are going to affecteverybody in the state of Kansas.
So welcome to the show, Philip.
Thank you Cary. Great to be here.
So first thing I have to ask is why you'reif you're a reasonably sane man.
Reasonably.
Yeah. You’ve had very successfulbusinesses.
(02:10):
You've built from scratch.
And now you're enteringinto this political arena at a time
when it's a little hot. Yes, yes.
Well, I will tell you thatthat is a great question.
And I've spent, really a couple of years,
pondering that, talking to people,praying about it.
And where we've landed is, quite frankly,
I'm tired of losing, as a Republican,
(02:33):
I know not all of your audience outthere are going to be, Republicans.
But, you know, we have lostwe being the Republicans,
the gubernatorial seat,the last two elections in Kansas.
And that's a statewhere Donald Trump won 58% of the vote.
We have not elected a Democratic senatorin almost a hundred years.
And we have supermajoritiesin both houses.
(02:55):
But somehow we keep losingthe gubernatorial seat
and it's really the CEO job.
It's it's,you know, it's a different political job.
I've talked to a number of governorsabout this, Glenn Youngkin in Virginia
being one of them.
And, you know, he mentioned to me,he said Philip,
people have a tendency to throw all thesepolitical jobs in the same bucket.
(03:17):
Senate, Congress, Governor.
He said., but the reality isthe governor's job
is a totally different job that needsa totally different skill set, he said.
It is a CEO job.
It is the job of a business leader.
And he said all those skillsthat you've developed
and built and acquiredover the last 30 years, like that fits
(03:37):
perfectly in the gubernatorial seatand I think what's happened
is these people that have run for the last
two gubernatorial elections,they're wonderful people.
They're very nice people.
I've written some of them checks.
I'm sure you have, But they don't have
the skill setto really lead from that place.
(03:59):
And that's what I believe
that we've been called to doand what we're bringing into this role.
You know, when you first told meas we were having lunch
and I remember having a conversation,I was a little surprised,
that I was like,you're really going to do this?
You were like, yes, I really am.
And we had that conversation about whythis is a different way to do this.
And I think the factthat you're calling yourself the CEO,
(04:23):
which is essentially what you are,and you're looking at it from that model
that speaks livesabout where you think this should go.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think when again, when you look at it,you know, Senators and Congress people
which are very important obviously,but they basically debate and they vote.
It's called the legislative branch.
Well, this is called the executive branchfor a reason.
(04:43):
And you're running multibillion dollarbudgets.
You're appointing leadership positions.
You're building leadershipteams, you're holding people accountable,
or at least theoretically,that would be a.
concept in government,right. You’re hoping you can do.
That's right.You can hold people accountable.
And, you know, those are the skillsthat I've applied to my businesses
for the last 30 years.
And I think if we bring those into the government sector,
(05:07):
very similar to what Donald Trumpis doing on a national scale,
that we can do a lot of thatright here in Kansas.
And by the way,there are a lot of governors
around the country right now,who hadn’t ever run for office.
Well, Glenn Youngkin,
Youngkin, Kevin Stitt, BillLee in Tennessee, there was Doug Burgum.
You've got Cohen in Nebraska.
So there's a loteven the Democrats have a few. So yeah.
(05:30):
That's interesting, you’ve mentionedthat Democrats have few because they do.
And those typicallythat are not politicians
that are Democrat governorsseem to have a different tact
than the ones that are purely politicians,which is exactly
what you're pointing out hereon the Republican side of the equation.
Right?
You'relooking at people coming into politics
that have a very different perspectiveabout what should happen
(05:52):
and how it should happen.
Yeah, I think that's exactly right.
I think we're not bound by,
you know, the, the, the ways of the past.
If you will.
Not bound by kind of the political,what what's the expected thing to do
in politics, reallybringing in outside perspective
(06:13):
and an outsider's lensto what we're doing.
And I think that'swhat we can do to be bold and really shake
some things up in a positive way.
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think
the other thing I would have to pointis you're not carrying a lot of baggage.
That's right. Exactly.
You don't. I've never voted.
You have you vote in every electionbut you as well, right?
(06:34):
Yeah.
But you haven't been in politicsand you're not pulling a sled behind you.
Correct.With a lot of political decisions.
So this is a totally different model.
That's the wayyou're approaching this. Yes.
I have voted consistently.
I have no voting record, in Congressor the Senate, or what have you.
That's that's correct. Yes.And that's that's to your benefit.
And we're also not here's the other thing.
(06:55):
When you're an outsiderlike President Trump, we're not beholden
to the interests of,you know, a lot of the people
that I'm running against, again,many of which I know and some I know well,
some of them have done
nothing but politics for 25 and 30 years.
That’s part of the problem.
Some of them have been runningfor 20 years and haven't won anything,
(07:19):
and I just got tired of writing checksto people who weren't winning
and were were really caught upin the establishment,
the political establishment.
And I just feltwe needed somebody from the outside.
And originally I was looking at backingsomebody like that.
And the more and more I talked to people,they said, you're the person.
You need to be, the guyyou. You need to be the guy to do it.
(07:40):
You're the man in the arena now.
Well,when we come back for the break, I'm going
give you a little bio on Philipand how he got where he is.
You're going to find this interesting.
In the third segment, I'm going to askand do something very unusual.
I'm going to ask him to tell a storythat I saw him do
in front of a group of young peopleabout who he is and where he came from.
His name is Philip Sarnecki.
He is running for governor.
(08:00):
The website is philipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
broadcasting here on The HIARadio Network.
Coast to coast across the USA.
Stay right there. We'll be back with more.
(08:27):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate Show, broadcasting coast to coast
across the USA here on The HIARadio Network.
Want to give a shout out to KNSS AM and FM
98.7 FM and 1330 AM, Wichita, Kansas.
One of our great broadcast partnersin Wichita.
Happy to be on the air up there
(08:48):
and have them as part of the America'sHealthcare Advocate family.
Let me tell you a little bit about PhilipSarnecki.
You know, this is a guy.
He's not a trust baby.
Nobody put a silver spoon in his mouth.
He bootstrapped his way up.
Started out well, we'll get him to tella story here in the third segment.
Let me tell you a little bitabout this guy,
because he's trulywhat I would call a self-made man.
(09:09):
Philip Sarnecki is a Kansasbusinessman, family, man, job creator
who has built companies that today employ1000 people across multiple industries.
He founded and led RPSFinancial Group Services.
He also his leadership firmexpanded to over 18 offices
across the country,including 12 throughout Kansas
with 100,000 Kansans underneath that group
(09:32):
for Wealth Management, Life Insuranceand other things at Northwestern Mutual.
Through that program offered.
Included in some of his other businesses.
He's the largest national franchiseowner of Strickland Brothers Quick
Lubes, establishing locations across
Kansas (09:47):
Derby, Pittsburg, Fort Scott, Independence.
And he is part owner of 513
Films who have had actorslike Mel Gibson in their films.
I've actually seen some of those filmsand they do a pretty good job.
Those are family centered films that area little different than some of the stuff
you see rolling out of Hollywood,so to say that you have multiple interest
(10:09):
would be an understatement, I think.
Yeah, I'm kind of a business mutt.
Yeah, you. Are.
Yeah, but I've spent I really spent, 30plus years,
you know, in the insurance and investmentbusiness, wealth management business.
And, we were ableto, you know, grow our firm across
multiple states Arizona, New Mexico,Texas, Missouri, Kansas.
(10:30):
But just in Kansas, we had clientsin all 50 states, but just in Kansas,
we had, almost 100,000 clients.
We actually paid out almost $135million in dividends last year.
Just to residents in Kansas.
And you had 10 billion under.
And just in Kansas, we have about,we had about
(10:51):
$10 billion of assets under management.
Those companies were soldas of August 31st.
So this is my second day of retirement,quote unquote.
And, He's going to retire like I do at 76.
Okay. Not.
Yeah. So we are, we're all in on this.
I mean, we we really feel like,you know, you can't do this part time.
(11:14):
We have a couple of
our other businesseswhere we'll actually be selling as well.
So it'll just leave us with a few.
But I have great people running those,and I honestly,
I don't spend a ton of time on themright now.
Yeah, because you'll be you'll be spendingall your time doing this.
That's right.
So so talk a little bitabout some of the things that, you know,
we talked a little bit about this off airbefore you went on.
One of the problems we have
(11:34):
in the market in Kansas specifically iswe don't allow association plans in here.
We're not doing anything creative.
That's not just in insurance. By the way.
We'll have that conversation later.
But there's very little innovation.
It's kind of like we're stuck in this rut.
And this is why we we have to sell the ACAplans, Obamacare plans.
Well that's great,but why don't you open the market up
(11:55):
to allow other plans to come inthat are not part of that ACA model?
And you mentioned some things are going onin places like Florida.
How do you see your visionaffecting the way
we provide health insurance,health benefits to people in Kansas?
Philip.
Well, I think at a high level,we have two major issues.
One, we don't have enough competition,as you just stated.
(12:15):
We need to open it up to associationplans.
I mean, I see what you've done
as an entrepreneur with Gig Care,which I think is fantastic,
and we need more of that in Kansasbecause that will lower prices.
For people that'll help distribute
the products better get them out towestern Kansas, for example.
(12:36):
But being able
to band togetherand provide for association plans,
and make it make it easierfor smaller businesses
to buy health insuranceand to get started.
One of the things, as I've spenta couple of years really evaluating,
you know, whether or not I wasgoing to run, I talked to a lot of people,
(12:59):
including some Kansas legislators,for example.
And as a business owner who ownsnumerous businesses, I know the challenges
and the red tape and the bureaucracythat's here in the state of Kansas
to get businesses started.
And we've got to do away with that.
I was having a conversationwith a state senator, and she looked at me
and said, Philip, you don't evenyou don't even know how bad it is.
(13:23):
She said, it's even worse.
I went through this long list
and she looked at me and said, it'seven worse than what you think.
And people don't think that the oh, I'min a Republican state, right?
We've got Republican senators, Republicancongressman, we've got a super majority.
But the bureaucrats underneathall of this, right, are controlling it.
You know, it's interestingbecause they are the
they're not elected in these offices,but they exert so much control
(13:47):
and pressure that I think it gets awayfrom the politicians.
I think it gets away from the statesenators, the governor, the.
Yeah, it it's it'salmost like it's impenetrable.
Well, I had a friend of minewho said, you know, what's so attractive
about you running as an outsiderand somebody that's never been in politics
is he said, it'sthe perspective that you bring.
(14:10):
And his analogy was he said,these people that have been in politics
all of these years, twoand three decades have done nothing else.
He said it's a little bitlike a fish in water.
He said, you have no conceptwhat it's like to be outside of the water.
If you've spentyour entire life in the water
(14:31):
and you know,maybe it sounds like a children's analogy,
but the reality is,I think there's a lot of truth in that.
And so I think people don't look at thingsin a creative way.
They don't, they're just kind of caught upin, in all of that bureaucracy.
Because the reality is,you know, there's a swamp
in Washington DC,but there's a swamp in Topeka, too.
(14:53):
Yes, there is.
There's a little mini swamp out there.
And, but it's a swamp nonetheless,and we need to get out there.
And I think without question, I'mthe best person to get in there
and shake that up.
Yeah, I think you definitelywill be the best person
to get in there and shake it up,because you're not a typical politician.
So before we go to break a little bitabout an example that plan
that’s in Floridathat you brought to my attention.
(15:14):
Yeah. Talkabout what they're doing in Florida.
Yeah.
So Florida's doing a section 804
import program is what they're doing,the importation program, SIP.
And it's very unique.
They're the only state in the countrythat's doing it right now.
We're doing a lot of research on it,but it really looks like Florida,
now, they're starting itat the at the public sector.
(15:35):
So it's not going out private yet.
So I think it's a little bitof a pilot program right now.
But they're expecting to save about $183million for the state
through that program.
And what they're going to be doingis importing drugs from Canada.
And you know,whether sure, the drama is in the details.
And, you know,
we would need to put something togetherto obviously take a look at that.
(15:56):
But that's the kind of innovationthat Kansas needs to be leading on.
And that's what
I want to bring to the table as governor,as the CEO of the state,
is to be leading the other stateswith that type of innovation.
So let me give you an example.
Wegovey, the weight loss drug.
If you can't get it as by virtueof the fact that you're a diabetic
and you want to buy it, just because youwant to lose weight, it's $1,100 a month.
(16:19):
You know what it costs if it comes in fromCanada, New Zealand or Australia, $88.
$88 versus $1100.
So what's the commonsense alternative?
You just heard it right.
This is what I meanwhen I talk about thinking outside the box
and having somebody run for this office,
it's going to make a differencebecause they're not going to be stuck
(16:40):
doingthe same things that we've always done.
When you ask the question,why do we do it that way?
Well, that's the way we've always done it.
I think it's time to get rid of.
It's the way we've always done it. Yeah.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America's
Healthcare Advocate broadcastinghere on The HIA Radio Network.
Coast to coast across the USA.
If you want to get involved,the website is philipsarnecki.org.
(17:02):
philipsarnecki.org.
You can go up on the website,you can become a volunteer.
You want to donate? I’msure they’d be happy to have you do that.
We'll be right backafter the break. Stay tuned.
(17:23):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's
Healthcare Advocates Show, broadcastingcoast to coast across USA.
He is Philip Sarnecki, he is runningfor governor in the state of Kansas.
And I asked him to come on this broadcastand talk about what his vision is.
The website is philipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org.
If you want to get involved.
(17:44):
If you want somebody in the stateof Kansas who's not a politician,
if you want somebodyin the state of Kansas who is a CEO
and understands how to run a businessand you want to see what that looks like.
Take a lookat what's happening in Virginia right now
and what governor Youngkinhas been able to accomplish.
And then ask yourself what that would looklike in the state of Kansas.
(18:04):
Years ago, I don't that was probably.
Had to be at least six years or more.
I attended one of
your one of your training sessionsas an observer.
And, all these young people from college
who were being recruitedcome to work at Northwestern Mutual.
And I’d watch you get up in front of them.
And I'm thinking to myself, beforeyou started, they're going to see this guy
(18:27):
who is very wealthy, has,
very successful businesses, runshis whole show here,
also runs, you know, Northwestern Mutualin New Mexico and Arizona.
And they're going to seea very successful businessman.
And then you got up thereand you told the story.
And I was thinking about that overthe weekend before we came to the show.
(18:48):
And I was, I would say, moved, okay.
Because I grew up in a situationvery similar to yours.
My father was a coal miner, okay.
Who then becamea finish carpenter. Self-taught.
Your father was a janitor.
So, Philip,nobody put a silver spoon in your mouth.
Let's talk about your story
and how you started your familyand the whole nine yards.
Yeah.
I grew up in a in a small town,a little farming community,
(19:12):
about a thousand people.
You know, one of those places with,no stoplights and one gas station.
One grocery store.
You know, a lot more churchesthan grocery stores and gas stations.
And it was justit was a great place to grow up.
And, you know, we didn't farm,
but a lot of my friends,either they did or their grandparents did.
And, I grew up,you know, I had to earn any money
(19:35):
that I wanted to spend,and it was delivering newspapers.
My brother and I would mow lawns.
We walked,I walked beans, which is a horrid,
horribly miserable job for a 13or 14 year old.
Most people don't even know what that is.
What is walking beans?
Well, yeah, walking beans you get up at,you know, 6:00 in the morning.
(19:55):
And keep in mind, you're 13, 14 years old.
15 years old.
You have long sleeves,long pants in the summer.
It's blazing hot.
And you basically literallyspend 7 or 8 hours
walking up and down, bean rows,
and you've got a hook and you'repulling out the button weeds, etc..
Now they kill all of thatwith, you know, Roundup.
(20:16):
Yeah, right. Herbicide, pesticides, etc..
The technology's a lot
better than having a 14 yearold do it, but,
it will make you want to go to college,I can tell you that.
But it also,you know, it's one of those things.
I hated it at the time, but lookingback, the values that that teaches around
hard work and discipline,they're invaluable.
(20:38):
They became invaluable to melater in life.
So my father,
my mom and dad metvery young and, got married and,
you know, then had me,my dad prior to that had been in Vietnam.
And, he went there.
He had, I believe 20, 20 vision,if I'm not mistaken.
And when he came backbecause of Agent Orange, you know,
(21:00):
he was legally blind at night.
And so even though he was trained to bea paramedic, he could do that part time,
but because he couldn't drive at night,he couldn't do it full time.
And so, you know,he didn't have a lot of options for work.
So he was a janitor, for, 35 years.
And, but, you know, I saw both my parents.
My mom worked numerous jobs.
(21:22):
She worked as a secretary,
at the university.
She, would wake up at, you know, four,4:30 in the morning and go, go downtown.
Now downtown was,you know, extremely small.
Right?
It was like Gary's Pizza,the bank, the bowling alley.
And that was about it.
And then the donut shop,and she'd go down and make donuts,
(21:42):
and then she'd come home and help the kidsget ready and get us off to school.
And then she'd go to her regular job.
And then I'd oftentimes see my fatheras he worked all day long as a janitor.
And then in the evening,he would come home
and he would go off to work.
You know, doing, work as a paramedic,as a part time paramedic.
So, you know, I just watched my parentswork really hard.
(22:02):
I mean, we didn't have a lot of money.
You know,I grew up in about a 950 square foot home
with five of usand one really, really small bathroom.
That's small. That small?
Yeah, it's it is small.
And, I didn't even realize how smallit was at the time.
We had a neighbor a couple doors downthat had two bathrooms,
and I thought they were loaded, you know,because they had two bathrooms, and,
(22:24):
And you know, again, you look back and,
I didn't love,
not havingsome of the financial resources,
that I saw other kids have,but I wouldn't change it for the world.
Looking back now, because my parentstaught me, I think what's truly important.
My father passed away last year,but they were married for 58 years.
(22:45):
And I saw that dedication to each other.
I saw incredibly hard work.
Faith was always important in our familyand just the importance of family as well.
And, so, you know, looking backnow, I couldn't be more
thankful and appreciative for my parentsand really, the whole environment
in which I grew up,which was not a lot of money.
(23:06):
And I, you know, I have some stories,when we were, kids, we had a white station
wagon, and it had a hole in the floorboardbehind the driver's seat.
So my brotherand I called it the Flintstones car.
This was before the days of that.
Seatbelts were really,you know, really important.
And, are really valued.
(23:28):
And my dad would put a, a wood boardand a blanket over it, and but we would,
you know, we'd love to, to pick that upand kind of look at the,
the road flying by us underneath.
And if you remember those little rubberballs,
we would kind of like
dropping those out of thereand then racing to the back of the station
wagon,watching them go bouncing down the road.
(23:49):
And then when I, when we got older,
when I was in high school, we,we moved up to a yellow station wagon.
Things were a little better by then,but it didn't go in reverse.
So this was the car that I drove in
high school, was a yellow station wagonthat didn't go in reverse.
And, you know,you got to be really careful how you park.
You have a car that doesn't go in reverse.
But, you know, I rememberI was really young.
(24:11):
I remember,
you know, maybe being seven years old.
I'm kind of guessing, you know,walk out into the kitchen and, you know,
my mom is sitting at the kitchen tableand she's got,
bills spread out all over the table,
and she she's in tears because she doesn'tknow what bills to pay.
And, you know,I think why that's important is because
I think that drives a lot of the way
(24:35):
that I look at the working classpeople in the state of Kansas
and what we would do to try to help.
I mean,those memories are seared into my brain,
and all of that is the lenswith which I look through.
You know, if I were to become governorand to lead this state.
(24:55):
And that's a very different approach.
Okay.
Your your story mirrorsmine in a lot of ways.
But, you know, like, I my we never owneda car even with a hole in the floor.
Yeah. Right.
But but but I get that.
And your point about looking back on thatand not regretting it,
you know, I my father used to he'dget up in the morning, come in the room.
Get up babe, you're going to hit a lick.
(25:16):
And that meant we're going to go to work.
And we’d be in it for 12 hours a day.
That's the way he worked.
So you learn the value of thatand that carried over.
You started out Northwestern Mutualat the bottom of the rung
where you wind up by the time you wound upleaving Northwestern Mutual.
Well, you know, it's such a unique company
because you're really runningyour own business.
(25:36):
You're just kind of doingit under their umbrella.
So as a 19 year old,I had a really good friend
and they lived a very, very,very different lifestyle.
Although their, their estate,their 86 acre estate was very close
to our home in ait was only about two miles away,
but it seemed worlds awayof course, tennis court, basketball court
at 10,000 square foot,home, a lake that we would waterski on.
(26:00):
And I got to spend time out thereand, his my buddy's
dad owned an agency officeand, you know, was very successful,
not just financially, but,also how he controlled his time as well.
And the, the importance of family.
And, you know, how
he was able to coach his kids andand just be there and be present.
(26:21):
And so I got to watch that.
But I started as a 19 year old,
really was my first businesswhere I was selling insurance.
So I kind of grew up in sales.
But I had a lot of success with it earlyon, and I needed the money.
I had, you know, I,I played football for one year in college,
but after that, I didn't even really play.
I practiced for one year.
(26:42):
I redshirted and practiced for one year.
But I would, you know, I needed money.
I needed to pay for school,I needed spending money.
And so as a 19 year old,I was out working really 40
plus hours a week in additionto going to school as well.
And, then was able just to leverage thatinto eventually owning
an agency office myself. So if you wonder
(27:06):
how that story resonates,
you should have seen the peopleafter he did this, whenever he was
briefing young people who were temptedto come to work at Northwestern Mutual.
In other words,nobody handed him anything.
Okay?
What he has created, what he has donewith the multiple businesses he’s owned
and the success he’s
had is the same visionhe wants to bring to the state of Kansas.
(27:28):
If you want more information, it'sphilipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org. That's the website.
Lots of information up there.You want to volunteer.
You want to get behind this man.
That's your opportunity to do it.Stay tuned.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
Broadcasting here on The HIARadio Network.
Coastto coast Cross, USA. Stay right there.
(27:57):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show broadcasting coast to coast
across the USA.
My producers (28:03):
Behind the camera Mr.
Dave Thiessen, doing what he always does,recording all these shows
and getting them up on our YouTubechannel.
Half a million views.
Thanks to all of you
out there in the listening audienceand those 16 podcast channels.
A lot of folks going up thereand listening to these shows
behind the microphones. Mr.
Gardner Cowdrey here with Cumulusfolks, we're very happy
(28:24):
to be here in studio todayand doing this show with Philip Sarnecki.
He is a gubernatorial candidatefor the state of Kansas.
And we're happy that he took timeto come in and talk to us
about what his visionfor the state of Kansas is.
I heard a rumor you're producing a book.
Writing a book? Well, I'm. Yes.
You know, I'm working with some peoplethat are helping me write a book.
(28:44):
Okay.
Given the story that you just talkedabout, a little bit about my upbringing
and some of the things we we'vebeen able to do, I've had people for,
years, kind of mentioned.
Well, you should write a book.You should write a book.
And I always just.
I'm like,when in the world would I have time?
I heard that a couple of times,like, yeah, nevermind.
And but as we started exploring this and,and it came up or I threw it out, people,
(29:07):
you know, would say, boy,that'd be a great
way for people to hear your storyand learn your story.
So we went ahead and started it.
And yeah, it should hopefully bewrapped up in the next couple of months,
and we'll have a book outand we'll be able to take it out
across the state of Kansas.
And they can, you know, in a deeperway, share,
you know, learn a little bitmore about my story.
We share a lot of leadership lessonsin there throughout my career.
(29:29):
And I think just life lessons as well.
When you get it ready to go, you have tocome back on and we’ll talk about it.
I’d love to, that’s great.
So what do you see as the you know, herewe are in Johnson County, Kansas,
number four,wealthiest county in the country.
That shocks a lot of people when I saythat because we're in flyover country.
Okay. But that is fact, okay.
And you're in the number threemost livable city in the country.
(29:50):
Voted number three
this year after being number four, numberfive last couple years.
But our taxes are pretty damn high.
Philip, I mean what I pay in propertytaxes, we've got great school districts.
But I mean those numbers are pretty high.
How do you envision this wholetax question across the state of Kansas?
And, and how do you see thatimpacting this election?
Well, there's a lot of,you know, there's 105 counties in Kansas,
(30:13):
so there's a lot more countiesthan just Johnson County. Correct.
And, you know,part of the problem that I think
and one of the reasons I decided to runis I believe that Kansas
has been mired in mediocrityfor a long, long time.
We have not been ableto grow our population base to speak of.
We have the highest income tax rateof all of our border states.
(30:35):
Plus, you can throw in Iowa and Arkansas,
and those are really the statesthat we compete with.
We also have the second highest corporatetax rate of all of those states as well.
And then you mentioned property taxes,
which in some areasare just completely out of control.
Now, a lot of that is obviously,
the decisions and is administeredlocally at the city.
(30:56):
And, and state, city and local level.
But but I think there are some thingsthat we can do from a state standpoint,
as well, I think, you know, you can use itas a little bit of a bully pulpit
as well.
And, to be able to, to get those down.
I just think the whole conceptof paying off your home
after living in it for 25,30 years or whatever it may be,
(31:20):
and then your home is paid off,but you have to continue
to pay taxes to the government.
Is reallyit's like you really never own your home.
And so it's something we need to dig into.
And and again,
we need to be bold and taking actionand seeing what we can make happen there.
So a couple things that number one, youthat resonates
(31:41):
really well with those of usthat are chronologically challenged
because there there are a lot of seniorsthat this is a struggle for.
Oh, so that that's definitely an issue.But let's talk about this.
Why can't we attractyoung talent to Kansas?
Why don't we attract,
technology to Kansas?
You you've got a skilled workforce.
You've got a great it's a wonderful placeto live,
(32:04):
all these opportunities.
But for some reason,we don't seem to be doing any of that.
Yet I see there's other statesdoing that all the time.
Yeah.
So I think there's a couple of thingsthat are happening there.
I mean, you mentioned Glenn Youngkin
earlier, I'm connected with GlennYoungkin on LinkedIn, and I see,
I mean, a couple of timesa week, he's talking about a new business
that's coming to Virginiaor a new business startup in Virginia.
(32:27):
Company expands in Virginia.
He is doing a phenomenal job as the chief
cheerleader of that state for business.
And, you know, when you're attractingbusiness, you're attracting jobs.
We also and we talked about this earlier.
We have to make it simpler,get rid of the red tape
and the bureaucracyfor new business startups.
(32:47):
Because if you do that then youyou don't have to go out and give
these tax abatements to big companiesto get them to come to Kansas.
You can get, you know,the Garmin’s of the world that start here.
You can get the companies that get the getstarted here and grow here.
And so by by eliminatinga lot of that red tape and bureaucracy,
(33:08):
making it easier for business startups,that's going to help with that as well.
So it's kind of a cyclical thing, right?
Or not a cyclical thing, but it's kind ofa, you know, chicken and chicken and egg
because what happens is, you know,companies say, well, we need the talent.
And then, you know, the, the, the students
or the people that are graduatingand they want to stay here and work here.
(33:29):
Now, we do attract a lot of businessesor a lot of,
students,but we also lose a lot of people.
Once they graduate as well.
And so we have all kinds of ideason how we can,
get, get folks to stay hereand help them build businesses here.
You know,one of the things about this generation
that's really interestingis they're pretty entrepreneurial.
(33:50):
And I think if youif you take the obstacles out of the way,
I think we can get a lot of businessstartups here in the state.
And encourage them to do it and not try tomake it more difficult for them to do it
instead of having to jump to 15 hoops,maybe only three hoops.
And you're. There. Yeah, absolutely.
It's, it's businesses are succeeding
(34:11):
in spite of the state of Kansas right now.
The state of Kansas is not helping,new businesses succeed.
And that's what we need to do.
Yeah.
He's Philip Sarnecki.
He's runningfor governor in the state of Kansas.
The website is philipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org.
I think
you can see why I think he'sgoing to be a good fit for the state.
(34:34):
I've never done this before.
I don't do politics.
You know that other than it appliesto health issues like ACA
and some of the other things.
But in this particular case,I thought it was appropriate.
I think this is somebodythat thinks outside the box,
and I think he'ssomebody can make an enormous difference
in this state and move us down the path
a lot further than we are today, andput aside some of the political nonsense
(34:56):
that goes on.
And let's focus on what it would be liketo have an actual CEO
as governor,somebody that looks at this as a business.
You've got a model for that.
He's sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
This could be a modelvery similar to that.
Thank you for coming on the show.
Thank you, Cary.Thanks so much for having me here,
And now, ladies and gentlemen,I leave you with this thought from Albert
(35:18):
Einstein, the one who follows the crowdusually get no further than the crowd.
The one who walks alone is likely to findhimself in places no one has ever been.
Remember,friends, it's a funny thing about life.
If you refuse to accept anythingbut the very best.
You most often get it.
Thank you for listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate broadcasting coast
to coast across USA here on the HIARadio network.
(35:42):
Goodbye America.
And now America's Healthcare Advocate,Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America'sHealthcare Advocate show
broadcasting coastto coast across the USA.
Here on the ABC Radio Network.
You can find out
more about us by going to the websiteAmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
If you have a question,
(00:22):
if you have a comment or an email,feel free to send me an email.
I get a lot of them,but I answer each and every one of them,
so I'm happy to do so. Once again.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.comis the website.
All the shows are posted up on YouTubeand our 16 podcast platforms.
So your favorite podcast platform,we're on it.
I'm quite surethat if you are chronologically challenged
(00:44):
and looking for Medicareor individual health insurance,
you want to give the lovely Carolee Steelea call over at RPS
Benefits by Design 877-385-2224.
Anywhere in the country,they're happy to help you.
If you're an employer looking forgroup health insurance, employer sponsored
health care, Maria Ahlerscan help you anywhere in the country.
(01:05):
She does a great job.
Just helped a small group
out of Columbia, Missourithat was struggling with their premiums,
what they were paying,and she did a great job.
We got about a new policy.
So once again 877-385-2224.
All right.
So I think I've been doing thisradio show 18 or 19 years.
What is it, Dave 18 or 19? 19.
19 years? Okay.
And this is the first timeI've ever had a show like this.
(01:28):
So in studio with me today PhilipSarnecki, very happy to have you here.
He is a gubernatorial candidatefor the state of Kansas.
Like I said, we've never done this before.
I've known this man for quite a while.
I'm happy to have him on here.
He isthe kind of man that we need in politics.
I'm going to have to questionwhy he's doing this in a minute.
(01:49):
But having said that,
I think you're going to learn
about a guy today who really understandswhat this state needs and can make changes
that are going to affecteverybody in the state of Kansas.
So welcome to the show, Philip.
Thank you Cary. Great to be here.
So first thing I have to ask is why you'reif you're a reasonably sane man.
Reasonably.
Yeah. You’ve had very successfulbusinesses.
(02:10):
You've built from scratch.
And now you're enteringinto this political arena at a time
when it's a little hot. Yes, yes.
Well, I will tell you thatthat is a great question.
And I've spent, really a couple of years,
pondering that, talking to people,praying about it.
And where we've landed is, quite frankly,
I'm tired of losing, as a Republican,
(02:33):
I know not all of your audience outthere are going to be, Republicans.
But, you know, we have lostwe being the Republicans,
the gubernatorial seat,the last two elections in Kansas.
And that's a statewhere Donald Trump won 58% of the vote.
We have not elected a Democratic senatorin almost a hundred years.
And we have supermajoritiesin both houses.
(02:55):
But somehow we keep losingthe gubernatorial seat
and it's really the CEO job.
It's it's,you know, it's a different political job.
I've talked to a number of governorsabout this, Glenn Youngkin in Virginia
being one of them.
And, you know, he mentioned to me,he said Philip,
people have a tendency to throw all thesepolitical jobs in the same bucket.
(03:17):
Senate, Congress, Governor.
He said., but the reality isthe governor's job
is a totally different job that needsa totally different skill set, he said.
It is a CEO job.
It is the job of a business leader.
And he said all those skillsthat you've developed
and built and acquiredover the last 30 years, like that fits
(03:37):
perfectly in the gubernatorial seatand I think what's happened
is these people that have run for the last
two gubernatorial elections,they're wonderful people.
They're very nice people.
I've written some of them checks.
I'm sure you have, But they don't have
the skill setto really lead from that place.
(03:59):
And that's what I believe
that we've been called to doand what we're bringing into this role.
You know, when you first told meas we were having lunch
and I remember having a conversation,I was a little surprised,
that I was like,you're really going to do this?
You were like, yes, I really am.
And we had that conversation about whythis is a different way to do this.
And I think the factthat you're calling yourself the CEO,
(04:23):
which is essentially what you are,and you're looking at it from that model
that speaks livesabout where you think this should go.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think when again, when you look at it,you know, Senators and Congress people
which are very important obviously,but they basically debate and they vote.
It's called the legislative branch.
Well, this is called the executive branchfor a reason.
(04:43):
And you're running multibillion dollarbudgets.
You're appointing leadership positions.
You're building leadershipteams, you're holding people accountable,
or at least theoretically,that would be a.
concept in government,right. You’re hoping you can do.
That's right.You can hold people accountable.
And, you know, those are the skillsthat I've applied to my businesses
for the last 30 years.
And I think if we bring those into the government sector,
(05:07):
very similar to what Donald Trumpis doing on a national scale,
that we can do a lot of thatright here in Kansas.
And by the way,there are a lot of governors
around the country right now,who hadn’t ever run for office.
Well, Glenn Youngkin,
Youngkin, Kevin Stitt, BillLee in Tennessee, there was Doug Burgum.
You've got Cohen in Nebraska.
So there's a loteven the Democrats have a few. So yeah.
(05:30):
That's interesting, you’ve mentionedthat Democrats have few because they do.
And those typicallythat are not politicians
that are Democrat governorsseem to have a different tact
than the ones that are purely politicians,which is exactly
what you're pointing out hereon the Republican side of the equation.
Right?
You'relooking at people coming into politics
that have a very different perspectiveabout what should happen
(05:52):
and how it should happen.
Yeah, I think that's exactly right.
I think we're not bound by,
you know, the, the, the ways of the past.
If you will.
Not bound by kind of the political,what what's the expected thing to do
in politics, reallybringing in outside perspective
(06:13):
and an outsider's lensto what we're doing.
And I think that'swhat we can do to be bold and really shake
some things up in a positive way.
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think
the other thing I would have to pointis you're not carrying a lot of baggage.
That's right. Exactly.
You don't. I've never voted.
You have you vote in every electionbut you as well, right?
(06:34):
Yeah.
But you haven't been in politicsand you're not pulling a sled behind you.
Correct.With a lot of political decisions.
So this is a totally different model.
That's the wayyou're approaching this. Yes.
I have voted consistently.
I have no voting record, in Congressor the Senate, or what have you.
That's that's correct. Yes.And that's that's to your benefit.
And we're also not here's the other thing.
(06:55):
When you're an outsiderlike President Trump, we're not beholden
to the interests of,you know, a lot of the people
that I'm running against, again,many of which I know and some I know well,
some of them have done
nothing but politics for 25 and 30 years.
That’s part of the problem.
Some of them have been runningfor 20 years and haven't won anything,
(07:19):
and I just got tired of writing checksto people who weren't winning
and were were really caught upin the establishment,
the political establishment.
And I just feltwe needed somebody from the outside.
And originally I was looking at backingsomebody like that.
And the more and more I talked to people,they said, you're the person.
You need to be, the guyyou. You need to be the guy to do it.
(07:40):
You're the man in the arena now.
Well,when we come back for the break, I'm going
give you a little bio on Philipand how he got where he is.
You're going to find this interesting.
In the third segment, I'm going to askand do something very unusual.
I'm going to ask him to tell a storythat I saw him do
in front of a group of young peopleabout who he is and where he came from.
His name is Philip Sarnecki.
He is running for governor.
(08:00):
The website is philipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
broadcasting here on The HIARadio Network.
Coast to coast across the USA.
Stay right there. We'll be back with more.
(08:27):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate Show, broadcasting coast to coast
across the USA here on The HIARadio Network.
Want to give a shout out to KNSS AM and FM
98.7 FM and 1330 AM, Wichita, Kansas.
One of our great broadcast partnersin Wichita.
Happy to be on the air up there
(08:48):
and have them as part of the America'sHealthcare Advocate family.
Let me tell you a little bit about PhilipSarnecki.
You know, this is a guy.
He's not a trust baby.
Nobody put a silver spoon in his mouth.
He bootstrapped his way up.
Started out well, we'll get him to tella story here in the third segment.
Let me tell you a little bitabout this guy,
because he's trulywhat I would call a self-made man.
(09:09):
Philip Sarnecki is a Kansasbusinessman, family, man, job creator
who has built companies that today employ1000 people across multiple industries.
He founded and led RPSFinancial Group Services.
He also his leadership firmexpanded to over 18 offices
across the country,including 12 throughout Kansas
with 100,000 Kansans underneath that group
(09:32):
for Wealth Management, Life Insuranceand other things at Northwestern Mutual.
Through that program offered.
Included in some of his other businesses.
He's the largest national franchiseowner of Strickland Brothers Quick
Lubes, establishing locations across
Kansas (09:47):
Derby, Pittsburg, Fort Scott, Independence.
And he is part owner of 513
Films who have had actorslike Mel Gibson in their films.
I've actually seen some of those filmsand they do a pretty good job.
Those are family centered films that area little different than some of the stuff
you see rolling out of Hollywood,so to say that you have multiple interest
(10:09):
would be an understatement, I think.
Yeah, I'm kind of a business mutt.
Yeah, you. Are.
Yeah, but I've spent I really spent, 30plus years,
you know, in the insurance and investmentbusiness, wealth management business.
And, we were ableto, you know, grow our firm across
multiple states Arizona, New Mexico,Texas, Missouri, Kansas.
(10:30):
But just in Kansas, we had clientsin all 50 states, but just in Kansas,
we had, almost 100,000 clients.
We actually paid out almost $135million in dividends last year.
Just to residents in Kansas.
And you had 10 billion under.
And just in Kansas, we have about,we had about
(10:51):
$10 billion of assets under management.
Those companies were soldas of August 31st.
So this is my second day of retirement,quote unquote.
And, He's going to retire like I do at 76.
Okay. Not.
Yeah. So we are, we're all in on this.
I mean, we we really feel like,you know, you can't do this part time.
(11:14):
We have a couple of
our other businesseswhere we'll actually be selling as well.
So it'll just leave us with a few.
But I have great people running those,and I honestly,
I don't spend a ton of time on themright now.
Yeah, because you'll be you'll be spendingall your time doing this.
That's right.
So so talk a little bitabout some of the things that, you know,
we talked a little bit about this off airbefore you went on.
One of the problems we have
(11:34):
in the market in Kansas specifically iswe don't allow association plans in here.
We're not doing anything creative.
That's not just in insurance. By the way.
We'll have that conversation later.
But there's very little innovation.
It's kind of like we're stuck in this rut.
And this is why we we have to sell the ACAplans, Obamacare plans.
Well that's great,but why don't you open the market up
(11:55):
to allow other plans to come inthat are not part of that ACA model?
And you mentioned some things are going onin places like Florida.
How do you see your visionaffecting the way
we provide health insurance,health benefits to people in Kansas?
Philip.
Well, I think at a high level,we have two major issues.
One, we don't have enough competition,as you just stated.
(12:15):
We need to open it up to associationplans.
I mean, I see what you've done
as an entrepreneur with Gig Care,which I think is fantastic,
and we need more of that in Kansasbecause that will lower prices.
For people that'll help distribute
the products better get them out towestern Kansas, for example.
(12:36):
But being able
to band togetherand provide for association plans,
and make it make it easierfor smaller businesses
to buy health insuranceand to get started.
One of the things, as I've spenta couple of years really evaluating,
you know, whether or not I wasgoing to run, I talked to a lot of people,
(12:59):
including some Kansas legislators,for example.
And as a business owner who ownsnumerous businesses, I know the challenges
and the red tape and the bureaucracythat's here in the state of Kansas
to get businesses started.
And we've got to do away with that.
I was having a conversationwith a state senator, and she looked at me
and said, Philip, you don't evenyou don't even know how bad it is.
(13:23):
She said, it's even worse.
I went through this long list
and she looked at me and said, it'seven worse than what you think.
And people don't think that the oh, I'min a Republican state, right?
We've got Republican senators, Republicancongressman, we've got a super majority.
But the bureaucrats underneathall of this, right, are controlling it.
You know, it's interestingbecause they are the
they're not elected in these offices,but they exert so much control
(13:47):
and pressure that I think it gets awayfrom the politicians.
I think it gets away from the statesenators, the governor, the.
Yeah, it it's it'salmost like it's impenetrable.
Well, I had a friend of minewho said, you know, what's so attractive
about you running as an outsiderand somebody that's never been in politics
is he said, it'sthe perspective that you bring.
(14:10):
And his analogy was he said,these people that have been in politics
all of these years, twoand three decades have done nothing else.
He said it's a little bitlike a fish in water.
He said, you have no conceptwhat it's like to be outside of the water.
If you've spentyour entire life in the water
(14:31):
and you know,maybe it sounds like a children's analogy,
but the reality is,I think there's a lot of truth in that.
And so I think people don't look at thingsin a creative way.
They don't, they're just kind of caught upin, in all of that bureaucracy.
Because the reality is,you know, there's a swamp
in Washington DC,but there's a swamp in Topeka, too.
(14:53):
Yes, there is.
There's a little mini swamp out there.
And, but it's a swamp nonetheless,and we need to get out there.
And I think without question, I'mthe best person to get in there
and shake that up.
Yeah, I think you definitelywill be the best person
to get in there and shake it up,because you're not a typical politician.
So before we go to break a little bitabout an example that plan
that’s in Floridathat you brought to my attention.
(15:14):
Yeah. Talkabout what they're doing in Florida.
Yeah.
So Florida's doing a section 804
import program is what they're doing,the importation program, SIP.
And it's very unique.
They're the only state in the countrythat's doing it right now.
We're doing a lot of research on it,but it really looks like Florida,
now, they're starting itat the at the public sector.
(15:35):
So it's not going out private yet.
So I think it's a little bitof a pilot program right now.
But they're expecting to save about $183million for the state
through that program.
And what they're going to be doingis importing drugs from Canada.
And you know,whether sure, the drama is in the details.
And, you know,
we would need to put something togetherto obviously take a look at that.
(15:56):
But that's the kind of innovationthat Kansas needs to be leading on.
And that's what
I want to bring to the table as governor,as the CEO of the state,
is to be leading the other stateswith that type of innovation.
So let me give you an example.
Wegovey, the weight loss drug.
If you can't get it as by virtueof the fact that you're a diabetic
and you want to buy it, just because youwant to lose weight, it's $1,100 a month.
(16:19):
You know what it costs if it comes in fromCanada, New Zealand or Australia, $88.
$88 versus $1100.
So what's the commonsense alternative?
You just heard it right.
This is what I meanwhen I talk about thinking outside the box
and having somebody run for this office,
it's going to make a differencebecause they're not going to be stuck
(16:40):
doingthe same things that we've always done.
When you ask the question,why do we do it that way?
Well, that's the way we've always done it.
I think it's time to get rid of.
It's the way we've always done it. Yeah.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America's
Healthcare Advocate broadcastinghere on The HIA Radio Network.
Coast to coast across the USA.
If you want to get involved,the website is philipsarnecki.org.
(17:02):
philipsarnecki.org.
You can go up on the website,you can become a volunteer.
You want to donate? I’msure they’d be happy to have you do that.
We'll be right backafter the break. Stay tuned.
(17:23):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's
Healthcare Advocates Show, broadcastingcoast to coast across USA.
He is Philip Sarnecki, he is runningfor governor in the state of Kansas.
And I asked him to come on this broadcastand talk about what his vision is.
The website is philipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org.
If you want to get involved.
(17:44):
If you want somebody in the stateof Kansas who's not a politician,
if you want somebodyin the state of Kansas who is a CEO
and understands how to run a businessand you want to see what that looks like.
Take a lookat what's happening in Virginia right now
and what governor Youngkinhas been able to accomplish.
And then ask yourself what that would looklike in the state of Kansas.
(18:04):
Years ago, I don't that was probably.
Had to be at least six years or more.
I attended one of
your one of your training sessionsas an observer.
And, all these young people from college
who were being recruitedcome to work at Northwestern Mutual.
And I’d watch you get up in front of them.
And I'm thinking to myself, beforeyou started, they're going to see this guy
(18:27):
who is very wealthy, has,
very successful businesses, runshis whole show here,
also runs, you know, Northwestern Mutualin New Mexico and Arizona.
And they're going to seea very successful businessman.
And then you got up thereand you told the story.
And I was thinking about that overthe weekend before we came to the show.
(18:48):
And I was, I would say, moved, okay.
Because I grew up in a situationvery similar to yours.
My father was a coal miner, okay.
Who then becamea finish carpenter. Self-taught.
Your father was a janitor.
So, Philip,nobody put a silver spoon in your mouth.
Let's talk about your story
and how you started your familyand the whole nine yards.
Yeah.
I grew up in a in a small town,a little farming community,
(19:12):
about a thousand people.
You know, one of those places with,no stoplights and one gas station.
One grocery store.
You know, a lot more churchesthan grocery stores and gas stations.
And it was justit was a great place to grow up.
And, you know, we didn't farm,
but a lot of my friends,either they did or their grandparents did.
And, I grew up,you know, I had to earn any money
(19:35):
that I wanted to spend,and it was delivering newspapers.
My brother and I would mow lawns.
We walked,I walked beans, which is a horrid,
horribly miserable job for a 13or 14 year old.
Most people don't even know what that is.
What is walking beans?
Well, yeah, walking beans you get up at,you know, 6:00 in the morning.
(19:55):
And keep in mind, you're 13, 14 years old.
15 years old.
You have long sleeves,long pants in the summer.
It's blazing hot.
And you basically literallyspend 7 or 8 hours
walking up and down, bean rows,
and you've got a hook and you'repulling out the button weeds, etc..
Now they kill all of thatwith, you know, Roundup.
(20:16):
Yeah, right. Herbicide, pesticides, etc..
The technology's a lot
better than having a 14 yearold do it, but,
it will make you want to go to college,I can tell you that.
But it also,you know, it's one of those things.
I hated it at the time, but lookingback, the values that that teaches around
hard work and discipline,they're invaluable.
(20:38):
They became invaluable to melater in life.
So my father,
my mom and dad metvery young and, got married and,
you know, then had me,my dad prior to that had been in Vietnam.
And, he went there.
He had, I believe 20, 20 vision,if I'm not mistaken.
And when he came backbecause of Agent Orange, you know,
(21:00):
he was legally blind at night.
And so even though he was trained to bea paramedic, he could do that part time,
but because he couldn't drive at night,he couldn't do it full time.
And so, you know,he didn't have a lot of options for work.
So he was a janitor, for, 35 years.
And, but, you know, I saw both my parents.
My mom worked numerous jobs.
(21:22):
She worked as a secretary,
at the university.
She, would wake up at, you know, four,4:30 in the morning and go, go downtown.
Now downtown was,you know, extremely small.
Right?
It was like Gary's Pizza,the bank, the bowling alley.
And that was about it.
And then the donut shop,and she'd go down and make donuts,
(21:42):
and then she'd come home and help the kidsget ready and get us off to school.
And then she'd go to her regular job.
And then I'd oftentimes see my fatheras he worked all day long as a janitor.
And then in the evening,he would come home
and he would go off to work.
You know, doing, work as a paramedic,as a part time paramedic.
So, you know, I just watched my parentswork really hard.
(22:02):
I mean, we didn't have a lot of money.
You know,I grew up in about a 950 square foot home
with five of usand one really, really small bathroom.
That's small. That small?
Yeah, it's it is small.
And, I didn't even realize how smallit was at the time.
We had a neighbor a couple doors downthat had two bathrooms,
and I thought they were loaded, you know,because they had two bathrooms, and,
(22:24):
And you know, again, you look back and,
I didn't love,
not havingsome of the financial resources,
that I saw other kids have,but I wouldn't change it for the world.
Looking back now, because my parentstaught me, I think what's truly important.
My father passed away last year,but they were married for 58 years.
(22:45):
And I saw that dedication to each other.
I saw incredibly hard work.
Faith was always important in our familyand just the importance of family as well.
And, so, you know, looking backnow, I couldn't be more
thankful and appreciative for my parentsand really, the whole environment
in which I grew up,which was not a lot of money.
(23:06):
And I, you know, I have some stories,when we were, kids, we had a white station
wagon, and it had a hole in the floorboardbehind the driver's seat.
So my brotherand I called it the Flintstones car.
This was before the days of that.
Seatbelts were really,you know, really important.
And, are really valued.
(23:28):
And my dad would put a, a wood boardand a blanket over it, and but we would,
you know, we'd love to, to pick that upand kind of look at the,
the road flying by us underneath.
And if you remember those little rubberballs,
we would kind of like
dropping those out of thereand then racing to the back of the station
wagon,watching them go bouncing down the road.
(23:49):
And then when I, when we got older,
when I was in high school, we,we moved up to a yellow station wagon.
Things were a little better by then,but it didn't go in reverse.
So this was the car that I drove in
high school, was a yellow station wagonthat didn't go in reverse.
And, you know,you got to be really careful how you park.
You have a car that doesn't go in reverse.
But, you know, I rememberI was really young.
(24:11):
I remember,
you know, maybe being seven years old.
I'm kind of guessing, you know,walk out into the kitchen and, you know,
my mom is sitting at the kitchen tableand she's got,
bills spread out all over the table,
and she she's in tears because she doesn'tknow what bills to pay.
And, you know,I think why that's important is because
I think that drives a lot of the way
(24:35):
that I look at the working classpeople in the state of Kansas
and what we would do to try to help.
I mean,those memories are seared into my brain,
and all of that is the lenswith which I look through.
You know, if I were to become governorand to lead this state.
(24:55):
And that's a very different approach.
Okay.
Your your story mirrorsmine in a lot of ways.
But, you know, like, I my we never owneda car even with a hole in the floor.
Yeah. Right.
But but but I get that.
And your point about looking back on thatand not regretting it,
you know, I my father used to he'dget up in the morning, come in the room.
Get up babe, you're going to hit a lick.
(25:16):
And that meant we're going to go to work.
And we’d be in it for 12 hours a day.
That's the way he worked.
So you learn the value of thatand that carried over.
You started out Northwestern Mutualat the bottom of the rung
where you wind up by the time you wound upleaving Northwestern Mutual.
Well, you know, it's such a unique company
because you're really runningyour own business.
(25:36):
You're just kind of doingit under their umbrella.
So as a 19 year old,I had a really good friend
and they lived a very, very,very different lifestyle.
Although their, their estate,their 86 acre estate was very close
to our home in ait was only about two miles away,
but it seemed worlds awayof course, tennis court, basketball court
at 10,000 square foot,home, a lake that we would waterski on.
(26:00):
And I got to spend time out thereand, his my buddy's
dad owned an agency officeand, you know, was very successful,
not just financially, but,also how he controlled his time as well.
And the, the importance of family.
And, you know, how
he was able to coach his kids andand just be there and be present.
(26:21):
And so I got to watch that.
But I started as a 19 year old,
really was my first businesswhere I was selling insurance.
So I kind of grew up in sales.
But I had a lot of success with it earlyon, and I needed the money.
I had, you know, I,I played football for one year in college,
but after that, I didn't even really play.
I practiced for one year.
(26:42):
I redshirted and practiced for one year.
But I would, you know, I needed money.
I needed to pay for school,I needed spending money.
And so as a 19 year old,I was out working really 40
plus hours a week in additionto going to school as well.
And, then was able just to leverage thatinto eventually owning
an agency office myself. So if you wonder
(27:06):
how that story resonates,
you should have seen the peopleafter he did this, whenever he was
briefing young people who were temptedto come to work at Northwestern Mutual.
In other words,nobody handed him anything.
Okay?
What he has created, what he has donewith the multiple businesses he’s owned
and the success he’s
had is the same visionhe wants to bring to the state of Kansas.
(27:28):
If you want more information, it'sphilipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org. That's the website.
Lots of information up there.You want to volunteer.
You want to get behind this man.
That's your opportunity to do it.Stay tuned.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
Broadcasting here on The HIARadio Network.
Coastto coast Cross, USA. Stay right there.
(27:57):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show broadcasting coast to coast
across the USA.
My producers (28:03):
Behind the camera Mr.
Dave Thiessen, doing what he always does,recording all these shows
and getting them up on our YouTubechannel.
Half a million views.
Thanks to all of you
out there in the listening audienceand those 16 podcast channels.
A lot of folks going up thereand listening to these shows
behind the microphones. Mr.
Gardner Cowdrey here with Cumulusfolks, we're very happy
(28:24):
to be here in studio todayand doing this show with Philip Sarnecki.
He is a gubernatorial candidatefor the state of Kansas.
And we're happy that he took timeto come in and talk to us
about what his visionfor the state of Kansas is.
I heard a rumor you're producing a book.
Writing a book? Well, I'm. Yes.
You know, I'm working with some peoplethat are helping me write a book.
(28:44):
Okay.
Given the story that you just talkedabout, a little bit about my upbringing
and some of the things we we'vebeen able to do, I've had people for,
years, kind of mentioned.
Well, you should write a book.You should write a book.
And I always just.
I'm like,when in the world would I have time?
I heard that a couple of times,like, yeah, nevermind.
And but as we started exploring this and,and it came up or I threw it out, people,
(29:07):
you know, would say, boy,that'd be a great
way for people to hear your storyand learn your story.
So we went ahead and started it.
And yeah, it should hopefully bewrapped up in the next couple of months,
and we'll have a book outand we'll be able to take it out
across the state of Kansas.
And they can, you know, in a deeperway, share,
you know, learn a little bitmore about my story.
We share a lot of leadership lessonsin there throughout my career.
(29:29):
And I think just life lessons as well.
When you get it ready to go, you have tocome back on and we’ll talk about it.
I’d love to, that’s great.
So what do you see as the you know, herewe are in Johnson County, Kansas,
number four,wealthiest county in the country.
That shocks a lot of people when I saythat because we're in flyover country.
Okay. But that is fact, okay.
And you're in the number threemost livable city in the country.
(29:50):
Voted number three
this year after being number four, numberfive last couple years.
But our taxes are pretty damn high.
Philip, I mean what I pay in propertytaxes, we've got great school districts.
But I mean those numbers are pretty high.
How do you envision this wholetax question across the state of Kansas?
And, and how do you see thatimpacting this election?
Well, there's a lot of,you know, there's 105 counties in Kansas,
(30:13):
so there's a lot more countiesthan just Johnson County. Correct.
And, you know,part of the problem that I think
and one of the reasons I decided to runis I believe that Kansas
has been mired in mediocrityfor a long, long time.
We have not been ableto grow our population base to speak of.
We have the highest income tax rateof all of our border states.
(30:35):
Plus, you can throw in Iowa and Arkansas,
and those are really the statesthat we compete with.
We also have the second highest corporatetax rate of all of those states as well.
And then you mentioned property taxes,
which in some areasare just completely out of control.
Now, a lot of that is obviously,
the decisions and is administeredlocally at the city.
(30:56):
And, and state, city and local level.
But but I think there are some thingsthat we can do from a state standpoint,
as well, I think, you know, you can use itas a little bit of a bully pulpit
as well.
And, to be able to, to get those down.
I just think the whole conceptof paying off your home
after living in it for 25,30 years or whatever it may be,
(31:20):
and then your home is paid off,but you have to continue
to pay taxes to the government.
Is reallyit's like you really never own your home.
And so it's something we need to dig into.
And and again,
we need to be bold and taking actionand seeing what we can make happen there.
So a couple things that number one, youthat resonates
(31:41):
really well with those of usthat are chronologically challenged
because there there are a lot of seniorsthat this is a struggle for.
Oh, so that that's definitely an issue.But let's talk about this.
Why can't we attractyoung talent to Kansas?
Why don't we attract,
technology to Kansas?
You you've got a skilled workforce.
You've got a great it's a wonderful placeto live,
(32:04):
all these opportunities.
But for some reason,we don't seem to be doing any of that.
Yet I see there's other statesdoing that all the time.
Yeah.
So I think there's a couple of thingsthat are happening there.
I mean, you mentioned Glenn Youngkin
earlier, I'm connected with GlennYoungkin on LinkedIn, and I see,
I mean, a couple of timesa week, he's talking about a new business
that's coming to Virginiaor a new business startup in Virginia.
(32:27):
Company expands in Virginia.
He is doing a phenomenal job as the chief
cheerleader of that state for business.
And, you know, when you're attractingbusiness, you're attracting jobs.
We also and we talked about this earlier.
We have to make it simpler,get rid of the red tape
and the bureaucracyfor new business startups.
(32:47):
Because if you do that then youyou don't have to go out and give
these tax abatements to big companiesto get them to come to Kansas.
You can get, you know,the Garmin’s of the world that start here.
You can get the companies that get the getstarted here and grow here.
And so by by eliminatinga lot of that red tape and bureaucracy,
(33:08):
making it easier for business startups,that's going to help with that as well.
So it's kind of a cyclical thing, right?
Or not a cyclical thing, but it's kind ofa, you know, chicken and chicken and egg
because what happens is, you know,companies say, well, we need the talent.
And then, you know, the, the, the students
or the people that are graduatingand they want to stay here and work here.
(33:29):
Now, we do attract a lot of businessesor a lot of,
students,but we also lose a lot of people.
Once they graduate as well.
And so we have all kinds of ideason how we can,
get, get folks to stay hereand help them build businesses here.
You know,one of the things about this generation
that's really interestingis they're pretty entrepreneurial.
(33:50):
And I think if youif you take the obstacles out of the way,
I think we can get a lot of businessstartups here in the state.
And encourage them to do it and not try tomake it more difficult for them to do it
instead of having to jump to 15 hoops,maybe only three hoops.
And you're. There. Yeah, absolutely.
It's, it's businesses are succeeding
(34:11):
in spite of the state of Kansas right now.
The state of Kansas is not helping,new businesses succeed.
And that's what we need to do.
Yeah.
He's Philip Sarnecki.
He's runningfor governor in the state of Kansas.
The website is philipsarnecki.org.
philipsarnecki.org.
I think
you can see why I think he'sgoing to be a good fit for the state.
(34:34):
I've never done this before.
I don't do politics.
You know that other than it appliesto health issues like ACA
and some of the other things.
But in this particular case,I thought it was appropriate.
I think this is somebodythat thinks outside the box,
and I think he'ssomebody can make an enormous difference
in this state and move us down the path
a lot further than we are today, andput aside some of the political nonsense
(34:56):
that goes on.
And let's focus on what it would be liketo have an actual CEO
as governor,somebody that looks at this as a business.
You've got a model for that.
He's sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
This could be a modelvery similar to that.
Thank you for coming on the show.
Thank you, Cary.Thanks so much for having me here,
And now, ladies and gentlemen,I leave you with this thought from Albert
(35:18):
Einstein, the one who follows the crowdusually get no further than the crowd.
The one who walks alone is likely to findhimself in places no one has ever been.
Remember,friends, it's a funny thing about life.
If you refuse to accept anythingbut the very best.
You most often get it.
Thank you for listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate broadcasting coast
to coast across USA here on the HIARadio network.
(35:42):
Goodbye America.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.