New Generation Leadership - Inspiring, Educating, Activating – with Brett Galaszewski – [Ep. 180]

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 break room 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 Prosperity 101.Com.

Thank you so much for joining with me today. Decisions made in our federal, state and local governments truly do affect our daily life. And to all people who say, I don't really care about politics, I usually tell them, politics cares about you. With Prosperity 101®, my desire is to help people understand the foundations of prosperity or freedom, the policies of prosperity or freedom, and how to protect their prosperity or freedom by becoming informed, involved and impactful. Part of that education involves reeducation. For many people who didn't learn some of these basic policy truths in school, they didn't learn basic civics, they didn't learn basic economics. Maybe they don't understand how everything affects their daily life. As citizens, we need to be informed so we can be involved and we can be impactful. That does not mean we all have to become policy wonks or candidates running for office. But it does mean we need to be engaged citizens involved in our government. We are blessed to live in a nation that has we the people in charge of government, and it's up to us to step up and fulfill that role as leaders. Many people compare our elected officials to leaders.

Actually, no. We are their leaders. And so my goal with Prosperity 101® is to help people understand these basic things about the American government, American policy issues, and to become informed so they can be involved and impactful leaders to protect their own freedom, their own economic prosperity, but also their right to flourish and reach their fullest potential here in our nation and around the world. And I believe it is imperative that we educate young people. We need to help them rise up for truth, to defend freedom and liberty. That's why I'm honored to introduce my next guest for this episode, Brett Galaszewski, Midwest Regional Manager for Turning Point Action. Brett is a dear friend and repeat podcast guest. He is inspirational in his work with Turning Point action. I've spoken at a few of their events and am always impressed with the quality of the programming and the people involved. His energy will motivate you, and his faith, passion and purpose will give you hope for America. Thank you for joining with me, Brett.

Brett Galaszewski: Oh, thank you so much, Linda. Thank you for the kind words. Thank you for the warm introduction. It's great to be back.

Linda j. Hansen: This is not the first time Brett has been on the podcast he was on once before, and we talked quite a bit about the rising generation of leaders that are very concerned about the direction our country is taking. So for those who maybe didn't hear you before or would like a review, could you just help us be introduced to Turning Point turning Point Action, turning Point Faith and tell us a little bit about how you ended up in your role?

Brett Galaszewski: Yeah, absolutely. So Turning Point Action mobilizes that next wave of freedom fighters to play a critical role in preserving our country. For those of you that are familiar with what Turning Point USA is, you know that it's an organization that's fighting the culture war on college campuses and high school hallways all over the country. Turning Point Action takes that turning Point name one step further. One of the main distinctions that I always like to mention between Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action is that we help students make that crucial transition of being the freedom fighting voices on their college campuses to being the freedom fighting voices in their communities. And because of this off campus distinction, we're not just limited to students, we equip and empower all generations to engage in grassroots activism and emerge as leaders in their communities. So I've been with Turning Point Action. Now we're coming up on four years. At the end of the year, I went to Marquette University. I graduated with a political science major, and I was lucky enough to hop on board with Turning Point Action shortly after graduating and help other people my age find their voice in grassroots politics. It's been a blast.

Linda j. Hansen: Well, you're really great at it. And I've watched you interact with so many different people, young and old, and you really are gifted. And I know that God has led you to this position for a reason and a purpose in such a time as this. So that is great. But as you talk about these young people and I know you had college campus experience the last episode I did, I interviewed Richard Barnhouse, who was head of Waukesha County Technical College. And we talked about the changes needed and the changes we see happening with higher education and everything as the debt college debt issue is looming for everyone. And we look at differences in technical education, but there's this education about understanding how our government works, education about why we need to have our system of government in order for these students to be able to have free choices about their education or in order for them to maybe be an entrepreneur or live out their goals as an American citizen. What do you see with young people and their understanding of our American system of government?

Brett Galaszewski: I think that this generation cares more about policy than previous generations. It's become part of our everyday lives. I know that previous generations, my parents talk about this all the time that growing up, you weren't supposed to talk about politics. No politics at the dinner table. No talking about that. It almost became looked at as a taboo when talking about it among family and friends recently. And I'd say this is more over the last ten to 15 years. It's impossible to escape politics. There's everything in our lives that we can tie to politics, whether it's we're seeing it every day in commercials, we're seeing it every day when we turn on cable news.

And that added idea of policy directly affecting our lives in real time is more prevalent than ever. I mean, especially during COVID you saw a lot of students that were living out the effects of poor policies right in front of their eyes. And so in my college history courses, here's a perfect way to describe kind of how that distinction is being made. In my college courses, I would hear about the steps that led to socialism and ultimately communism in a lot of these countries. And I was making those connections to today, and I was understanding the concept of history repeating itself more than I ever was before. And I think that's starting to happen a lot, not just on college campuses, but among that Gen Z millennial generation. They're making those connections quicker than most generations in the past.

Linda j. Hansen: Well, I hope so, because we're, I think, on step ten of ten steps to socialism. So our country is in a free fall, and unless young people step up and decide to get engaged and vote differently and also I mentioned before Turning Point Faith unless Christians step up and vote. It's my understanding that 42% of evangelical Christians did not vote in the last presidential election. And so you just think if they understood policy and the importance of voting about policy, I always tell people it's not about the person and it's not about their personality, their name, ID or anything, and it's not about party. We do have to end up voting for a person, and we do have a two party structure, so we do have to consider that. But when we make those choices, we have to decide based on other factors. And that goes back to the policies you mentioned and what makes for a strong nation and freedom.

Brett Galaszewski: And to your point about the culture war to be won within our faith communities, our religious freedoms are at stake, and in a lot of key states, turning Point action is starting to engage our faith communities to become more active in the political arena. We had a pastor summit back in October in the Milwaukee area with Charlie Kirk and Senator Ron Johnson where we inspired and empowered 150 faith leaders of all denominations from the state to come together and help use their platforms as faith leaders to influence their congregations, to use their voice through their vote. We're in challenging yet exciting times, and there is a correlation between every Sunday church goers and fighting for pro freedom policy. We just have to channel that. And it starts with these pastors using their platforms to provide influence.

Linda j. Hansen: Well, that's great. And to people who might be listening saying, oh, but there has to be a separation between church and state. I remember I was at a rally with Sean Feucht and the Let Us Worship Rally. That was they're doing the Kingdom to the Capitol series all throughout the United States, and they're holding these worship rallies on Capitol steps all over the nation. And I was there, and I remember a young woman came to me and said, but I believe in the separation of church and state. And I said, I do, too. And she was totally surprised. I said, Our Constitution, our system of government guarantees that. It guarantees a separation of church and state. And basically, people often think that it's like, oh, you can't have any church related anything, any faith based anything in government. Well, that's not exactly it. The separation is so government doesn't trample on church. The government doesn't trample on faith based activities.

Brett Galaszewski: Yeah, we're way past the point of not being able to integrate faith in politics. It's not right versus left anymore. It's truly good versus evil.

Linda j. Hansen: True.

Brett Galaszewski: We're trying to help these pastors understand that. A lot of pastors that I talk to, yes, they're very passionate about pro freedom policy, but they're afraid to take that leap into opening up the dialogue within their church communities. That is hopefully going to change going forward because there is a war to be won among evangelical Christians.

Linda j. Hansen: There really is. And it's great that you said it is really about good versus evil. I always tell people, too, it's about freedom versus tyranny. Do we want freedom? Do we want the freedom to choose our faith? Do we want the freedom to live out our faith? Or if you're an atheist, to have no faith? We don't want a state imposed religion on anyone. We want people to make free choices about what they choose to believe and how they want to live their lives and according to the rule of law. Right. But we want to preserve that. And that freedom is so incredibly important. And I really hope and pray that we can create a movement of employers educating employees about these issues, like all of the issues, and how it affects their daily life, how it affects their job, how it affects the business. What would you say to employers who want their employees to understand these issues in a more in depth manner?

Brett Galaszewski: I think it starts with making policy more accessible and easy to understand. So right now, this generation, we understand that policy has either derailed their college experience or it's really affected their everyday lives in the workplace. But they don't understand the big why, the big reason of what exactly is doing this to me. And education is a really big part of that. That's why, and I'm going to shamelessly plug our Turning Point Action scorecard here. We've created a fantastic educational tool for our activists to be able to find out how their elected officials in Congress vote for freedom. While other scorecards in the movement, like the NRA or like Freedom Works or Heritage Foundation, will provide scores based on very niche issues, or scores that you're not really sure how they got to it. Ours is easily the most transparent and comprehensive scorecard in the movement.

We provide background on all the bills that we score, on why we scored the way we do, and we lay out the formula of how we score right in front of you. So we have a lot of elected officials that will reach out to us about wanting to have favors bumped up. No, we don't do that. We base it completely on how they vote and our key issues, things like medical freedom, things like our culture, big tech censorship, issues that really matter to this generation. So you can check that out @tpaction.com/scorecard if you'd like to find out more. A lot of our we consider patriot members of our scorecard are some of the most freedom fighting voices in Congress. And we have it scored all the way down to becoming tyrannical and tyrant right and left. So definitely check that out. I think that's a big part. The education aspect that comes into play and story sharing I think is really important here. And we can get into that in a second. But there are lots of young people that I interact with that have amazing stories of why they became pro freedom, why they got into the movement, why they decided to take that step into the political arena. I think that personal aspect of it, the human element is more important now more than ever.

Linda j. Hansen: Well, I agree. And of course, I'm dedicated to education and helping people understand how all of these things affect their lives. And so whether it's Prosperity 101® at a basic level, we can help them understand, yes, this impacts this is why our founding documents are important. We need to support policies that align with our founding documents and our system of government. And your scorecard then or other resources similar to that will really help people dig down into current events and the current legislation, helping them to truly understand that every line of legislation matters. When I read bills just like everyone, you think this is boring. It's legalese it's hard to understand, but in reality, it's not. Once you get used to it and you start to realize that every line of legislation matters.

So whether it's the federal level, the state level, or it's your city council making some decisions, it matters to your daily life. It matters to how much taxes you pay. It matters to your freedom. Right now, we see so many things prohibiting freedom coming from our federal government that we really need to step up and say, no, that isn't within the realm of the federal government to legislate so many different things that the federal government is overstepping their bounds now. And of course, you mentioned COVID definitely bounds were overstepped in terms of what government should be involved in in terms of people's daily lives. So seeing that, speaking of COVID do you think young people really that was a wakeup call for them about their freedom being at risk?

Brett Galaszewski: Yeah, I do. I think it really accelerated the necessity to retool the rhetoric on local level government. I think one of the common flaws of the political movement, at least in this generation, was really hammering home the importance of presidential elections, congressional elections, and statewide elections. And yes, I'm not discrediting how important those elections are, but where are decisions affecting you, your friends, your neighbors, your family the most? The local level? And I think a lot of people in this generation, the generation that I'm part of, started to see that, especially during COVID I believe, and we believe this at turning point action, that battles for America aren't won in the White House, they're won in your backyard.

Linda j. Hansen: Exactly.

Brett Galaszewski: Local level politics is the key to anything in politics. I think the famous quote was Tip O'Neill, the speaker of the House in the 1980s, all politics is local. It's a trickle up effect on state and national policies. If you expose people to pro freedom policy in their school boards and in their city councils and on their county boards, it's going to have a carryover effect into statewide and national elections. And particularly for this generation that's about to become the make or break voice in our elections and become the largest voting bloc. That's more important than ever right now, that importance of local level politics.

Linda j. Hansen Exactly. And that's why I'm so dedicated to Prosperity 101® too. There's nothing more local than your neighborhood, your backyard, like you said. But then also, where do you go to work every day? Who do you interact with every day? Even if it's on zoom calls, who do you interact with every day for work? I mean, there's nothing more local than that. And so to be able to have that trickle up effect that you mentioned because people are understanding more and talking about these issues in a more natural, just an outgrowth of communication and relationship with each other, that type of interaction can really help to educate people and have that effect that local trickles up to national.

Brett Galaszewski: Yeah. And to your point, that human element has been dismissed in the past, and especially with COVID it's coming back, and it's coming back in a powerful way. I mean, I'll give you a couple examples. A colleague of mine at Turning Point action, Brandon Malley, his parents came from Soviet Russia. They escaped socialism. So they have the ultimate comparison to make between a capitalist society here, a pro-freedom society, versus a communist regime in Europe. And another colleague of mine here in Wisconsin, Brianna Arnold, had her collegiate swimming career jeopardized by her vaccine status. So, I mean, we're seeing how poor policy is directly affecting these young people. They're not afraid to share their stories, particularly the woke agenda in schools has brought out that if not you, then who? Mentality. And we channel all of that into our messaging and into our grassroots trainings to tackle the question of how do we get this information to low info voters and have them stand up for freedom and use their voice. It starts with those key concepts.

Linda j. Hansen: Very good. And you also mentioned, like, she had some of her freedoms threatened. Well, look at the freedoms that are being threatened with the Trans agenda and, say, male athletes competing on female sports teams. It is truly destructive to the rights of women and girls when we look at having men compete against them or be in their private spaces. And this is another thing, I think, that has awakened this younger generation to the need for appropriate policies.

Brett Galaszewski: I agree 100%. And you're starting to see, especially with those who are between, I'd say, 18 and 30, you're seeing a demographic that was exposed to the woke agenda late in their education careers to the point where they were old enough to understand how different and how weird it was. So, I mean, you're seeing people that have seen both realms of the education world, have seen what it used to be like realized in their early high school. And for me, it was early college days. Wait a minute, that's different than what I've been taught before. Whether it's in regards to the trans agenda or critical race theory, that's different. There's a noticeable difference now in curriculum, and they're fighting for making schools great again. I think if you have a generation that hasn't seen that difference, that's really the breeding grounds for socialism. We're trying our best to get it to as many of the upcoming generations as we can because now it's impossible to escape the idea that five year olds are being exposed to this. Unlike our generation, who wasn't exposed to it until later.

Linda j. Hansen: Exactly. And even though you weren't exposed to it, though many in your generation weren't really taught to embrace truth and to really understand the system of government that would protect their freedom. So they became basically susceptible to the brainwashing or the lies or the half-truth that half-truth is a lie, but it is something that it became acceptable. And as culture changed in social media became so popular and the media, the mainstream media become so powerful in their messaging and the censorship of individuals who had a different voice. Whether it be conservative, like you mentioned medical. Freedom or the rights to fight back against the trans agenda or the women in sports or any of these things. You know what's in the school board or what's in the school books. You know, we, we see all these people who have stood up for different values and they've been silenced. I mean, people's bank accounts have been closed.

They've been silenced. Their social media accounts have been closed. Some people I know, their websites were taken off of the Internet and because they had an opposing view, not because they did anything wrong or committed any crime, but they had an opposing view than the narrative that was out there that the oligarchs and the elites want us to have. So I really appreciate the fresh voices and the fresh information and the new way that you and others at Turning Point are working to reach this younger generation. And, like, at Turning Point, action all generations, really? I know that at a recent conference at Turning Point Action hosted, I mean, people were there all ages. I mean, there were young people younger than high school and then there were grandparents who were there and it was exciting to see. So you're really motivating all ages.

And when we talked before about it not being party or not being about a person, you are a great example of saying, yeah, it's not about party. But if you want to see changes, you have to be engaged in the party because that is the system in which we operate. So I've always told people, if you don't like how it is, well, are you part of the solution or are you part of the problem? Because if you're part of the solution, you're doing something about it. If you're part of the problem that you see, you're just complaining about it. So I see you as being part of the solution. And a lot of these young people like Brandon Malley that you mentioned and others who are becoming the change they want to see, can you tell the listeners a little bit about that?

Brett Galaszewski: Yeah. So, I mean, we all know those people in our lives, the ones who say that they want to be involved, and the ones who talk the talk but don't actually do something about it. And you had mentioned the conference that we had down in Florida a couple of weeks ago. We had 6000 attendees from all 50 states come down to Florida. And the goal of this conference was not just to promote a conservative party like a lot of other conferences do, but we wanted action steps involved with it because we all have a role to play in preserving our freedoms. There are a lot of particularly young people that I'll meet on a day to day basis who are super fired up about pro freedom policy and want to get involved, but they have no idea how to do it. Turning Point Action and one of the things that I really take pride in being able to do is help create that next generation of leadership, particularly on the Republican Party. It's more than just joining the party. It's having a say in influence in it. A lot of people in leadership right now in the political arena will preach day in and day out that they want young people to get involved until a young person steps into the room. And Linda, you and I have talked about this before. Then their rhetoric changes. Then it turns into, oh, why don't you just sit in the back? We've been doing this a long time. What do you know? You're just a kid. I've heard it come to that extreme before. This generation is fired up and ready to lead.

And at Turning Point Action, we're recruiting and activating that next generation of leadership. So Brandon Malley is a perfect example of that. He's someone who had that moment of, if not me, then who is going to do this? And he stepped up into local party leadership, and he's driving the future of the party in a critical county in the Midwest. Him being 23 and having the opportunity to lead the party in an area that has a university of 45,000 students. When we talk about voter connectivity that goes so far, I'm here in Milwaukee County, a county that has two universities of over 10,000 students. And taking into account that idea that I mentioned earlier, that this generation is going to make or break statewide and national elections going forward, now more than ever, it's important for these young people to step up and lead. And what better organization to lead that fight than Turning Point Action?

Linda j. Hansen: Well, it's great that you are leading, and America needs you. They need you. They need Brandon, they need your colleagues. They need other people who are involved. And to all the people who may be involved in politics or may have been around for a long time, these fresh voices, let's not forget we were fresh voices once. And that new leadership. We need to help train, mentor, cultivate that leadership so that you can take this freedom message into that next generation and you can teach your children and grandchildren. And so America can continue to be free. And not only can America be free, but we can share that freedom across the world because that is what we do as Americans. And we need to stand up for that. And so it is so much about policy, more so than party, but we have to be involved in party, and we have to be able to understand the people involved in promoting different policies. So we have to be informed voters.

So listeners, please, my Prosperity 101® Break Room Economics course is a wonderful course to use in the workplace or with even students. You have very quick lessons, twelve online lessons, very easy to use. The book I have helps introduce these issues. But then too, when you want to dive a little deeper, when you want to go a little further, you've got these wonderful voter guides and information with Turning Point and Turning Point Action. It's just so exciting what you're doing to help the freedom movement. It's really not about a party movement. It's not even necessarily about a conservative movement. It's about a freedom versus tyranny movement. And so this freedom movement that involves people of all ages, all backgrounds, thank you for being a leader in that both now and you will be leading for future generations. So we really appreciate that. How can people reach out to you, Bret?

Brett Galaszewski: Well, so for starters you can go to our website, www.tpaction.com. There's a couple great resources there. One, you can click on your state and find out the best way that you can be involved. So for listeners that are here from all over the country, there are these positions out there that are up for grabs called Precinct Committeeman roles. These are local party positions that are really easy and really impactful and we can help you get into those positions. It's the idea of becoming the CEO of your neighborhood for the pro freedom movement. So we'd love to be able to help you get plugged in. If you sign up with us, you'll get put in touch with the Turning Point Action Representative in your neck of the woods. Also on that website you can check out the scorecard that I had alluded to earlier. You can check out our list of endorsed candidates both past and present.

You can find out when we're having events in your neck of the woods. We're really excited to be having a booth at the Iowa State Fair starting next week. So you can find out where we're going to be close to you. And ultimately you can find out how to make sure that your grandkids and their kids and their kids never have to grow up in a socialist country. That's what we're chasing here. So if you'd like to be involved, please check out our website. That's a great starting point.

Linda j. Hansen: That's a fantastic action point right there. I was going to ask you, do you have any other recommendations for people before we close. But you just did, so it's great.

Brett Galaszewski: Well, thank you so much for having me, Linda. I always enjoy talking with you and it was great to do a deep dive into the youth movement and how it's affecting our everyday lives and our policy going forward.

Linda j. Hansen: Well, very true. And the youth movement, I want to tell everybody who's listening, doesn't matter if you're. Young or old, but especially if you are a seasoned leader who has years under your belt, learn from these young people and appreciate their enthusiasm. They have energy levels that some people don't have anymore. And the other thing, this fresh voice, looking at it from a fresh angle and not succumbing to the temptations to power or money or dishonesty. And so we appreciate the purity of this, that it is a freedom movement and it's really about policy, it's about true engagement. It's about helping young people be free to reach their fullest potential. And that's great. So. Thank you, Bret.

Brett Galaszewski: I couldn't have said it any better myself. Thank you, Linda.

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you again for listening to the Prosperity 101® 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 e-book, 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.