Free to Work, Free to Hire, Free to Educate – Bringing Freedom and Responsibility Back to the Workplace – with Andrew Crapuchettes – [Ep. 264]

Linda J. Hansen:  Welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Prosperity 101 Breakroom Economics® Podcast. My name is Linda J. Hansen, your host and the author of Prosperity 101, Job Security Through Business Prosperity, the Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck® and the creator of the Breakroom Economics® Online course. The book, the course, and the entire podcast library can be found on prosperity101.com. 

I seek to connect boardroom to breakroom and policy to paycheck. By empowering and encouraging employers to educate employees about the public policy issues that affect their jobs. My goal is to help people understand the foundations of prosperity, the policies of prosperity, and how to protect their prosperity by becoming informed, involved, and impactful®.

I believe this will lead to greater employee loyalty, engagement, and retention, and to an increased awareness of the blessings and responsibilities of living in a free society. Listen each week to hear from exciting guests and be sure to visit prosperity101.com.

Thank you so much for joining with me today. It is a joy as always to bring back friends and repeat guests. Andrew Crapuchettes is with Red Balloon, one of our strategic partners.

Before I get into the interview with Andrew, I'd like to say thank you to our prosperity partners, those who help to keep the podcast on the air with their financial gifts and support. So if you'd like to become a prosperity partner, please visit the website prosperity101.com and click the prosperity partner link. Whatever you can do, whether monthly or just a one-time gift now and then, everything matters and helps us keep the freedom message on the air.

We have several strategic partners, Red Balloon being one. But for now, I'd like to get right into the interview with my good friend, Andrew Crapuchettes. Andrew Crapuchettes is the founder and CEO of Red Balloon, the nation's number one non-woke job board.

If you are a regular listener or viewer to my podcast, you know that nearly every week I mention Red Balloon and say, if you'd like to be free to work and free to hire, please visit redballoon.work we also have a code, P101. You can use the code because they are a strategic partner. We love to support their work. They support ours, and we're just so grateful to work with Andrew. But Andrew, you didn't always run Red Balloon.

Now, for those who've never heard you in our previous interviews, could you give a very brief intro to where you were when you started Red Balloon and what caused you to begin this wonderful company that's providing opportunities and freedom in the workplace to so many?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, thank you so much, Linda. And it's always nice to talk to you. And I love Prosperity 101. I think just the whole concept of how do we create prosperity for people? A lot of that's through knowledge, right? And what you're doing with making sure that people understand where this country came from, what you should be doing in the workplace, and how all of that ties together is just so, so important. So well, thank you for having me.

And again, Andrew Crapuchettes, I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, did the dot-com thing. I've been a businessman my whole life, actually never even finished high school, let alone going to college. But I married a Dr. Crapuchettes. I'm sub-GED and she's Dr. Crapuchettes but I paid for her degree. So I feel like that counts for something, and we have five beautiful children together.

So I was running a fairly large tech company, about a $50 million tech company, not huge, but pretty substantial. It was growing quickly, very profitable. And 2020 rolled around, and my board decided that I was a little too conservative and Christian for their liking. And we know those stories from 2020.

I had a good friend who was the chief creative officer for Deutsch LA, one of the biggest ad firms in the country. And he was just minding his own business. And they almost needed a sacrificial lamb because he was a white conservative Christian.

Within 36 hours, he found himself completely unemployed and kind of tarred and feathered in the industry where people wouldn't even talk to him anymore because they really needed to show the, I'll call it the “woke mob”, that they are willing to make a sacrifice. It was a weird moment. Anyway, so I was one of those and found myself unemployed in kind of early ‘21 because it was a long, elongated battle with the board that I won't illuminate here.

But it was kind of a painful period of my life because I had been the CEO of this company for about 20 years. I just really loved it. And I'd started other businesses along the way while I was running this business.

But this was really what I loved doing. I love the people. I love the customers. I love the products. We were doing good work. And it really had become a huge part of my identity and then all of a sudden, God's like, well, actually, Andrew, you're going to be unemployed and not have anything to do on Monday. And that was a weird feeling. And it wasn't the finances of it all, although obviously, it's nice to make money. I'm still a capitalist. 

But just this weird moment of like, OK, so I was just kicked out of the marketplace because I was unwilling to water down or walk away from my conservative Christian values in the workplace. And I wonder if this is going to happen to a lot of other Americans.

So really, it was like, well, I'm going to create a job board. And because job boards, I don't know if people know this, it's actually pretty easy to create a job board. You can use a white label and just create a job board over a weekend.

My brother and I knocked it out. I have set up an opportunity for employers to hire pro-freedom people and for pro-freedom people to find pro-freedom employers. I kind of just kind of set it and forget it. I thought I did my duty. I helped people out. Everything will be fine because I wasn't ready to start another business.

I'd only left the last CEO gig a couple of months earlier, and I was going to take a year off and play golf and hang out with my kids. But God had other plans because I kind of put this out there and freedom in my mind just felt like, look, you're going to trust your employees to make good decisions for themselves. And that included the COVID vaccine.

Honestly, my stance was, if you want to get the jab, knock yourself out. You're welcome to. You're an adult. But that's probably a conversation you should have with your doctor, not your HR department. Well, it turned out that was pretty controversial, if you remember, in 2021 and early 2022 so we kind of came out with that stance.

But again, I was just kind of redballoon, let it forget it. It's just going to be a job board sitting out there. And then I got a call from Fox and Friends. They said, hey, is there any way you can jump on the show and talk about the nation's leading pro-freedom job board? I'm like, what do you mean leading pro-freedom job board? I'm like a four-year-old business. Like I'm nothing. And they're like, no, you're the only one out there that's willing to say this around the job space.

I'm like, OK, fine, I'll do it. So it turns out when you get on Fox and Friends, you get thousands of businesses and millions of job seekers to join your movement. And that's exactly what happened.

So all of a sudden, our servers are nearly going down, we have this overwhelming amount of work that we need to do. I'm like, shoot, I just started another business. I didn't even mean to. But God is good. Here we are. So RedBalloon.work, that's where it started from.

Now we're a nationwide job board. We have thousands and thousands of businesses and millions of job seekers. We do recruitment services. We have hiring automation software. And we'll maybe talk about this in a minute, we just acquired a business to add on to what RedBalloon is doing.

Linda J. Hansen: It's so exciting. It's great because I met you early on in this journey. I think it had only been maybe a few months or something after you started it.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, I think it was the Christian Employer Alliance. I think it was the first meeting there in Oklahoma City. And I was like, I should go to a conference and meet other people who think clearly.

Linda J. Hansen: Right. And it was great. And so met you. We hit it off right away. And then for listeners and viewers, if you want, you could go to episode 101. Episode 101.

We were excited because we felt like God was in this because it was episode 101. And it was fun to do that first one. I've tried to have you back pretty much at least every year or more to just bring updates regarding the job market world, but also what's happening with RedBalloon. So let's start first with what's happening with RedBalloon. And then we can talk a little bit.

I want to encourage people to just if you have not followed RedBalloon on LinkedIn, of course, if you have followed it, sometimes LinkedIn has actually taken them off for being a little bold, but they put them back on.

But some of their posts recently that Andrew has posted, RedBalloon has posted, have been just incredible. If you're in the workplace now and you see the results of what this culture has brought into the workplace, the lack of work ethic, the lack of excellence, the me first mentality, the entitlement mentality.

So much of it affects every single workplace, which, of course, affects productivity, profitability, and obviously the communities and families served by these businesses.

So it's really important what happens in the workplace and you at RedBalloon and all your colleagues and employers, employees that are part of the RedBalloon family are really working to create a culture that really supports those Judeo-Christian values, the values of hard work, free enterprise, capitalism, all of that that made this nation great.

So let's talk a little bit about what's happening with RedBalloon. You talked about the history, but now what's this newest company that you're working with or have acquired so that you have new offerings to bring to RedBalloon employers and job seekers?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, absolutely. So one of my good friends, Craig Robbins, is the CEO of MilitaryHire.com, they're actually a 25-year-old business that's been coming alongside and helping military vets understand how they can transition into the private sector, how do they get a job, and what's going to be needed to do that.

He was talking to me, and as a 25-year-old business, they have some legacy technology, but they have a lot of very loyal customers and a lot of very loyal vets who are looking to them to really help with that transition.

So he's like, Andrew, look, RedBalloon over the last couple of years has built some incredible technology around how do you match job seekers and employers, how do you use AI in an appropriate way so that you know where AI starts and where it stops, because we believe that hiring is actually a distinctly human activity, and AI should only be used to bring efficiency and effectiveness to the humans, not actually make decisions.

We can talk about that more later, but the whole HR tech industry is racing towards letting AI just work on it. Job seekers are using AI to robo-apply and apply to thousands of jobs.

Anyway, there's an AI battle going on in the hiring space, and we're like, wait a minute, there's a different way to think about this. So we built some really interesting tech that allows businesses to get at values alignment with their employees very, very quickly and allows employees to actually have a human experience when it comes to hiring. So anyway, more about that later.

But Craig and I were talking. He's like, I wish that we could bring that modern technology to the military space, because there's nobody who's really doing that right now.

I don't want to beat up anybody in the VA. They're good people. But when you have an organization that large and they're trying to help vets find jobs and think about careers, it's really hard to be efficient, and effective. So as a small private business, we can be efficient and effective.

So anyway, Craig and I were talking. I'm like, why don't we just buy military hire? We'll acquire it as part of the RedBalloon family. We'll tuck it under, and then we'll spend the next couple of months building out the technology for military hire that will match what we're doing at RedBalloon.

And just really, how do we seek to be a deep blessing to these vets so that they can feel like a human when they're applying for a job? Because if anybody out there is looking for a job right now, you probably don't feel very human in the process, because, you're applying.

I heard a job seeker recently, he's like, I applied to a job at six o'clock at night, and by two a.m., I was already rejected. Well, we know the HR department is actually not pulling all-nighters rejecting people. It means that the algorithms, the software, the AI decided that you didn't have the right keywords, and so you were rejected out of hand.

That's a good way to dehumanize a person, right? They're not being treated like a human being. It's just like, okay, let's look at your resume, let's look for keywords, and if you don't check all the right boxes, then you're going to kind of go off and we'll never even communicate with you. 

Whereas human beings are very complex, right? We all have skills, but we also have character. If you can capture some of the character aspects of a person, I would rather hire a lower skilled person who has the right character and work ethic, desire to learn, ability to be taught. All those things are way more important than the skills, but the whole ATS/AI world only looks at those skills.

So anyway, long story boring, we are now partnered with MilitaryHire.com. We have over half a million resumes. These are all opt-in, personal, one-on-one opt-in resumes and profiles of military people who are looking for opportunities in this freedom economy. So it's really fun to be able to expand our reach and to be a blessing to those vets and their families.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, what would you say to the employers who are looking to hire, to make sure that they can hire these veterans who are coming in and they have great work ethics, they know how to work hard and they're willing to do so and they'd like to support their families in the free market economy?

So what would you say to the employers who maybe aren't part of the RedBalloon family now? Obviously, become part of RedBalloon, join RedBalloon, obviously, but what would be the additional value add for them? 

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, and you should join RedBalloon and you should use code P101 because then everybody wins, right?

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you. Ye,s code P101!

Andrew Crapuchettes: Okay, so back to the question.

So if you think about your employees, what is one of the top characteristics that you're looking for for your great employees? Not new hires, but great employees. They're probably people who've been there for a while and you would consider them loyal, right? They're actually loyal to your business.

I think we've lost loyalty in today's workplace where people are moving every 18 months to try and get a raise, employers are treating their employees as cogs in the wheel and kind of mix and matching.

I heard one business that's grown quite a bit and they're like, well, we want to be a scalable business. I'm like, what do you mean by that? They said, well, we want to be able to kind of plug in anyone into any position. It doesn't matter. 

Well, that's, again, dehumanizing and that's not the way we would think about it. Well, if you want great employees, think of your great employees today and they're probably loyal. 

That describes a veteran. These are people who have been part of the most operationally excellent organization on the planet and they have been loyal. They know how to take orders. They know how to be creative. They know how to figure things out as they go.

They know how to work hard. They're super disciplined. Think through describing your best employees and you're probably describing most of the people in this database of veterans who are looking for the next transition.

So that's the thing. If you're an employer, you are going to get the kind of character that you're looking for. Also, those vets often come with a significant skill set.

The other thing that's really interesting is I was talking to a vet recently who's kind of part of this database and we're helping find a job and he's like, man, if you read the studies today, the correlation between a great meaningful job—not just a job that you're a cog in the wheel and nobody cares who you are—but a meaningful job and not having PTSD or suicidal thoughts or any of the things that vets have sometimes struggled with is very, very strong.

So that meaningful job, right? Because if you're a vet and you've been tasked with really hard things, which generally the military is going to be tasking you with really hard things, and then all of a sudden you get out in the private sector and it's not that way, that messes with your head a little bit.

So if you can find really good work for someone who has been a vet, you are going to have a disproportional impact on their family and on their life. So for us to be able to be part of that story, that story writing for thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, that's what gets me super excited about this new transition.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, and the culture of RedBalloon is what has excited me all along. Like I said, pretty much every episode I mention RedBalloon because I am so supportive of this mission. When we think of being free to work and free to hire, as you mentioned, you started this company back in 2020 and 2021, and pretty much, God directed you to it.

A lot of times that's what happens in our lives is we just are like, oh, I guess I'm doing this now. Who knew? Yeah, but then hindsight is 2020, we can always look back and see that we were perfectly prepared for that moment and for that role and for that calling.

I have always sensed that you have been definitely called into this role. It's more than a job for you. It's more than a job for many of the employees that I've met through RedBalloon. So listeners, viewers, if you work with RedBalloon—and I'm not just saying this because they're a strategic partner, because I've said this before we ever set that code P101 up—but you really are working with a company that supports your values and supports the values that made this nation great.

If we think of how much DEI and CRT and all these things have impacted the workplace, right now we're recording and there's massive flooding happening and flood recovery all over the nation with this crazy weather, right?

But there's talk about one of the Texas fire chiefs being a DEI hire. And we look at, you know, the Los Angeles fires. I mean, there's so many things where people say, well, that was a DEI hire. Well, I don't want to minimize people and put them into buckets in any way, shape or form, or judge people based on whether they're white, black, brown, yellow, any other color.

We don't judge by that, okay? But we do judge and hope to hire and work with those strong work ethic values, the loyalty, engagement, retention. And then that teamwork. When you have a company that has the values and the calling that you have, that brings everybody on board. It's like everybody wants to row in the boat and row the same way.

So it's very, very exciting. I've known you from the beginning and watched the growth of RedBalloon, it's just really exciting to me. So I love having you on and letting you share what's happening.

I know the last time that we interviewed, you were talking a little bit about the amount of lawsuits in the workplace. I know that with RedBalloon, you're trying to avoid a lot of that. I mean, that takes away productivity and profitability. So we look and think, well, how do we avoid some of that? We avoid that by being clear in communication, clear in hiring and employment practices.

I'd like to have you address that a little bit, maybe for the employers who are afraid, like, well, if I hire someone with my values or if I talk about my values, how do I do that?

And then before I forget, before either one of us forget, listeners, you can go to redballoon.work and get the Employer's Bill of Rights. It's a free ebook that they have there. You can look at some of your rights from the workplace that a lot of people don't even think they have because the media wants to silence you.

So address that a little bit. What happens in the workplace when these lawsuits happen and employers become afraid to speak?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, absolutely. So this is in the last five years—75% of employers have had some form of labor-based lawsuit. So there are 32 million small to medium-sized businesses in America today, and 75% of them have had a labor-based lawsuit in the last five years.

And you think about the overhead, not just the kind of financial overhead, but the mental overhead associated with, here's someone who is either applying for a job, interviewing for a job, or already has a job, is on your team. You've been building a company together, and now they're bringing a lawsuit to you. That is demoralizing, and there's no other way around it.

 I've had employees do this to me in previous companies. I always won those cases because we were always very careful and did everything correctly. But it still is just a huge mental burden and just a distraction for you. In fact, I was talking to an employer in California who ended up moving up to Idaho, where I live.

He said he had a $15 an hour employee, and after three weeks, he's like, I'm sorry, you are just not working out. Because everyone else was miserable around this specific employee. He said, you're just not working out. I'm going to give you a two week severance because I hired you. It's not your bad….

He's trying to be a nice guy, right? She's like, OK, actually, you need to pay me $75,000. He's like, what are you talking about? She's like, yeah, I need $75,000 because this is a wrongful termination. He's like, it's not a wrongful termination. I'm doing everything by the book. She's like, yeah, but the last three employers also paid me $75,000, and my lawyer knows I can get it from you too. And he's just like, what? Of course, he's like, no, I am not going to negotiate with terrorists.

So he goes to the mattresses, and he gets himself a lawyer, and they go to fight. Anyway, it's a sad story because nine months later, he shuts down his business because the legal bills… employees in California have all the rights and employers have none. And he really just is like, it's not worth it. I'm just going to shut down my business and walk away. We're going to move to another state and start from scratch. It is really, really sad.

So how do you protect against that? Well, obviously, we have a lawyer on staff here at Red Balloon. Her name's Laura. It's kind of fun to say Laura the labor lawyer.

Laura, she's the one who wrote the Employee Bill of Rights. But she also is kind of your go-to for, how do you think through these issues in the workplace. I know that she's helped quite a few employers with that type of situation. But the way to protect and not even need the lawyer to be involved is actually to be upfront about your values. And let me tell you what that means.

So when I ran my last business, I would have employees come in, and I was kind of the last interview for them. I would say, look, I'm an unapologetic conservative Christian. That's not a prerequisite. It's not a weird thing. Everyone is welcome here. But there are certain ramifications that I as a CEO, this is how I'm going to behave. 

We're not going to have gossip in the workplace. I have zero tolerance for sexual harassment. We have a kegerator in the office, but you're not going to get drunk on company time. Like there's certain ramifications of my Christian values being played out in the workplace. And of the hundreds, maybe 1,000 people that I interviewed like that, only two people are like, you know, that's just not something I'm comfortable with. I'm like, that's great. We just saved each other a lot of time.

That's not where lawsuits come from. Because in fact, that's a protection. In the same way that when McDonald's hands you a cup of coffee, it says the contents might be hot on here. What it's saying is that you are forewarning them. It is a full disclosure of what they're coming into. If you live your values out loud, they can't sue you for those values.

They can't come back and say, well, you didn't tell me you were an unapologetic conservative Christian. I'm like, aha, actually I did. And I did before you took the job and you willingly took the job. So you don't have a leg to stand on, right? And so for employers, if you can live your values out loud like that, you are going to protect yourself. It is going to be an awesome filtering mechanism for the type of people who are even interested in your job.

So I talked to an employer recently, and they decided they were going to put a big American flag on their career site. They were using RedBalloon. But they wanted everybody to come to their career site.

They're like, but we're getting applications for people that just are not a good culture fit. I’m like, all you have to do is put a big waving American flag emoji behind your career site and see what happens. Well, it turns out the bounce rate from that site went from 80% to—I think, no, it went from 20% to 60%.

So before, 20% of people would get there and be like, ah, it's not a good fit. Then it went to 60% that kind of got there and never did anything, which means only 40% did something and applied to a job.

And you say, well, that's bad. Like, no, it's not bad. Because what happened is, he's like, the quality of candidates increased exponentially. They were people who were aligned with my values, who believe that capitalism was a good thing, that hard work was a good thing.

It's amazing that the American flag was a filtering mechanism for these people. Just doing something simple like that saved this employer that we were talking about, saved them a lot of conversations with people who were the most likely to bring a lawsuit. Because most of those labor-based lawsuits actually happened in the interview process.

So anyway, that's my encouragement to you. Or if you're still like, look, I don't have the time and energy to really think this through, RedBalloon does a full-service recruiting job. I think we have filled 140 positions in the last year using our recruitment process.

We just charge a flat $9,000. So you don't have to pay $30,000 or $40,000 or $50,000 to get a new employee. You pay $9,000. We run the whole process and you can have the blessed assurance that you're getting a values-aligned person who also has the skill set to take your business to the next level.

Linda J. Hansen: I loved the story about the American flag too. I was just thinking about Camping World when Camping World just dug their heels in and said, no, we're not taking down this flag. I love the steadfast determination to just keep the flag up. And yeah, no, it's not coming down, not at any location.

Andrew Crapuchettes: We're in America. You should be able to do this. 

Linda J. Hansen: I know. I mean, it just makes me want to go buy five campers at Camping World, you know? I mean, it's just great. I wish I could, right? And give them to people who were homeless for anybody with means—for anybody with means, by the way, that's a great idea.

You know, you can support Camping World, and then you could help support those who have been displaced through all the natural disasters.

Andrew Crapuchettes: The hurricanes. Yeah, exactly. Or people in your church or whatever. Yeah, exactly.

Linda J. Hansen: That’s a great idea. So anyway, that's on the side, a little plug for Camping World. That is not the strategic partner, but I'd love to talk to them. 

Andrew Crapuchettes: That'd be great. We'd be happy to do that. Well, and also real quick, Linda, there was another business—real quick—another business in town, a plumber who—McCoy Plumbing in Moscow, Idaho, just a family plumbing office. They've been in business for 30 years. They have a storefront downtown. And about two years ago, he put a flag in his window that just said, Christ is Lord. That's all it said. I said, Tim, why'd you do that? He's like, you know, I should have done it 30 years ago. He said, but I thought it might scare away customers. And he says, and I will tell you, it did.

It scared away the customers that actually are the most pain in the neck. And it got me way more customers who are really easy to work with. So he's like, this has been amazing.

Anyway, as an employer, you think, oh, man, what's the cost of living my values out loud? I think the reality is that there may be some cost. But I think the benefit will outweigh that cost pretty substantially.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, it truly does. As you know, when I interview, I usually always end with a question or include the question: If you were talking to employers about why these issues are important to discuss in the workplace, what would you say?

Well, you've kind of covered that. But I would like to talk to employers just for a second, too, about what I do with Prosperity 101. For those who may be listening to this podcast for the first time, they've never really known, like, what is Prosperity 101?

I mean, I feel like there's this huge gap in the workplace. Like what you're doing is absolutely amazing. It's helping these employers be bold, be strong, be able to voice their values and things. But I also say that there are, you know—like 66 million people, I think, who are in the workforce with privately held businesses.

So many of them have come up through this public education system and into the university systems and think—where they're taught to hate America or dislike capitalism or they really haven't been given the skills or the thinking skills to think through what are our founding documents?

Like what defines freedom? What is prosperity? What is that and how do we protect it? So at a very basic level, I would like to encourage employers—because if employers don't teach these people in the workforce, who will?

These are the people who are going to voting booths all the time and many of them are so unaware of the freedoms that they have that they vote themselves right out of their jobs. They have no idea.

So that's why I do what I do—to help fill that gap and help employers have a tool that, like you said it doesn't have to be screaming at them. It never tells them who to vote for. It never—it's just like, I care about you.

So I'm sharing this information with you so you can be well-informed. 

Andrew Crapuchettes: That's right. 

Linda J. Hansen: What you do with it is up to you, right? It really does help educate those who are in the workforce that really are unaware. So employers, I beseech you, please be part of a movement to educate or re-educate these employees in the workplace.

I think that by living out our values, by speaking our values, voicing your values, like you said—like in the hiring practices, everything that we do in the culture of our companies—but then also there are those working for us that really do not understand the blessings and responsibilities of freedom, this freedom economy we're trying to sustain.

So that's what I do and that's why I love partnering with RedBalloon. It's just a fantastic way for all of us to promote companies, families, and communities, because it's not government that provides for us. It's business that creates and innovates and brings jobs and wealth creation. And that's what provides in our nation. So we need to build that up.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, and I would add to that. I know that I had an employee once who—and it sounds like a tangent, but it's connected. He had an anger problem. I knew this because he kind of blew up at people, so I sat him down.

I'm like, okay, so you're getting angry at people and that's just not tolerated here. So you need to go deal with that and really deal with that all the way down. Get counseling, go to a pastor, whatever it is, but this is just not allowed anymore. It's unacceptable. One more strike and you're out. 

So he actually did. He took it seriously. He went and dealt with that. Okay, well, why is that important? Well, he was a way better employee when he actually had kind of dealt with something in his life.

But what I also found out later is that I, as his employer, was the only person who could get his attention on this issue. Pastors had talked to him, his family had talked to him, but I signed his paycheck and therefore I just had this ability to say, look, you just need to actually deal with this or I can't keep you here anymore because it's toxic to our work environment. Well, that—I heard from his pastor later that his marriage was better, all these other things.

Well, he also ended up being a way better employee. And the reason I bring this up is when you use Prosperity 101 content for your employees, when you make sure that they are well-informed about the freedoms that they have, the responsibilities, this great nation that we're in, they are not only going to be better people, they're going to be better people in their family, in their community, etc. They're going to be better employees.

And so it actually will give you a return on investment because when people understand freedom and responsibility and how those two are connected, man, they just work harder. They understand why they're at work, what they're trying to accomplish, and they're going to build loyalty to you as an employer because they're now in a spot where they know this employer cares more about dollars and cents—but about me as a person.

And when that employer cares about you as a person and how you understand your community and your country and your family, man, it will change your relationship with your employees. 

So I would encourage people to think about how do you develop your employees as great citizens of America and great people. And when you do that, you're going to get loyal employees who are going to do great work for you. So there's my unabashed plug. So not only is Prosperity 101 an amazing podcast, but it also has great content that you should be sharing with your employees.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, I really appreciate that. And this is one of the things—the very first lesson in the online course that I have for employees is: Why am I taking this course? And the lesson says: because your employer cares about you.

Andrew Crapuchettes: That's right. 

Linda J. Hansen: Your employer cares about you enough to share this information with you, whether you work here this week, next week, next year, or next 10 years. But this is important for you, for your life and your family. When they realize that the employer cares—like you did for this person with the anger issue—it really does change their life.

Employers can change America. That's what I say.

Andrew Crapuchettes:  I'm a big fan of that.

Linda J. Hansen: Right. Yeah. So, okay. Well, any closing comments before we close this interview this time?

And we want to make sure, obviously, that people go to redballoon.work and look at all that RedBalloon has to offer and use code P101. But that's where they can get a hold of you as well. But any other closing comments?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, I would just say, if you have the time and energy, I would follow me on LinkedIn. You can follow RedBalloon, but also follow me, Andrew Crapuchettes. There are not a lot of Andrew Crapuchettes out there, believe it or not. Not a common name.

But if you want to follow me on LinkedIn, I try and put out a meaningful piece of content about the workplace, about making money, about being great employees— every single day. So hopefully it is entertaining and helpful, but I would encourage you to follow me there.

And then my other encouragement is, when we're in this world, when you read the news cycle and you read about tariffs and Israel and Hamas and North Korea and Ukraine and all the things that are happening in the world, it's very easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged.

Like, what can I do? I'm just one person. I don't have any power or ability. I don't have a podcast. What can I do to push back against this? My encouragement to you is just be faithful where you are. Be faithful with your kids. Be faithful in your community. Be faithful with your employer.

Or if you're an employer, be faithful with your employees and hold the line. Live your values out loud. Don't be stressed about what's going on, because you have way more power when you're faithful where you are, when you're chopping the wood right in front of you.

I started RedBalloon on accident, and I have gotten thousands of thank you notes from perfect strangers who have found freedom in the workplace, and then have found that once they found freedom in the workplace, they had freedom in all these other areas of their lives.

So that's my encouragement to you—just be faithful where you are. You have more power than you think. Get off the couch. Stop watching Fox News. Listen to this podcast.

Buy stuff at RedBalloon with P101. Buy stuff from Linda. But go be a blessing to your community, and don't stress about stuff.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, that's great. You know, the power of the individual, it's an incredible encouragement to people. Like you said, people think they can't do anything, but we really can.

Especially in this season of time that we've seen the effects of bad policy— definitely the previous administration. You talked about what led you out of your previous job, right? It's bad policy, bad employment policy, bad regulatory policy, all of that, and anti-freedom policy. And we can see.

So if people don't want to go back to that, start, like Andrew said, chopping the wood in front of you, doing the faithful things in front of you, building your companies, taking care of your family, be a radical. Be traditional, you know? And it's great. So thank you, Andrew. I look forward to having you back again.

Everybody, please go to redballoon.work and find out all that RedBalloon has to offer. We just appreciate so much that you took time to be with us today. Thank you.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Thanks for having me.

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you again for listening to the Prosperity101® podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share and leave a great review. Don't forget to visit prosperity101.com to access the entire podcast library, to order my newest book, Job Security Through Business Prosperity, the Essential Guide to Understanding How Policy Affects Your Paycheck®, or to enroll you or your employees in the Breakroom Economics® online course.

You can also receive the free ebook, 10 Tips for Helping Employees Understand How Public Policy Affects Their Paychecks. Freedom is never free. Understanding the foundations of prosperity and the policies of prosperity will help you to protect prosperity as you become informed, involved and impactful®.

Please contact us today at prosperity101.com to let us know how we can serve you. Thank you.