What Is Your Employment Brand? – Promoting Freedom In The Workplace – with Andrew Crapuchettes – [Ep. 173]

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 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. In the last episode, I interviewed Ed Henry, Co-host of American Sunrise on Real America's Voice. We discussed cancel culture and what many patriotic Americans are doing to cancel culture. In the age of wokeism, you may have noticed the growth of a parallel economy. No longer willing to bow to liberal agendas, many people are rising up to say no, and they are providing innovative solutions to meet consumers need. One such innovative person is Andrew Crapuchettes, the founder and CEO of Red Balloon. What is Red Balloon? Red Balloon was founded in 2021 and has quickly grown into America's largest and most successful non-woke job board and talent connector. Red Balloon is the marketplace's answer to the divisive and toxic cancel culture invading the American workplace. Red Balloon connects thousands of like-minded businesses with tens of thousands of reliable career minded job seekers who are looking for the freedom to work without the fear of discrimination against personal beliefs, infringement of constitutional rights, or invasion of medical privacy. Red Balloon honors and celebrates the founding liberties that have made the American free market system the most successful economic engine in the history of the world. Red Balloon strives to empower employers to preserve these liberties for their workforce and to place talented Americans into careers that will value their freedom and prioritize their success. Andrew is a repeat guest and I invite you to listen to our previous discussion. It is episode 101 and can be found on Prosperity 101.com, where you can find all our resources, affiliate links, and if you like these podcasts, there is a link to support our efforts by becoming a Prosperity partner. So thank you Andrew, for being with us again today, and I just thank you for the work you're doing at Red Balloon.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Well, thanks so much Linda. I always love being on the show and it was pretty exciting that I was on the 101st episode of Prosperity 101®. So I feel like it was pretty fun.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes, we remarked on that at the time. And you're so engaged with employers and employees, and I'm engaged with employers and employees. And it's our heart and our passion and our calling. And to have you be on Episode 101, I mean, it was just we felt it was kind of a god moment. Thank you. Yeah, it was great. And it's been such a joy to watch over the past year, this growth of well, actually, the last two years, this growth of Red Balloon for the listeners who didn't hear our first episode or who might not know. That much about you or Red Balloon, and this is all new to them. Could you please just give a brief example of what made you start Red Balloon?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, great question, Linda. So basically, I was the CEO of a reasonable sized tech company. About two years ago, I kind of got caught in the cross-hairs of cancel culture. I had a board that was not excited about my conservative Christian standing on a variety of issues, whether it was BLM or the vaccine mandates or whatever. So I found myself delightfully unemployed. And I thought, if this happened to me, it's probably going to happen to a lot of Americans. So I actually kind of started going on a listening tour and listening to people around the country because as a CEO of a company on the West Coast, I had a lot of colleagues. I won't call them friends, but I'll call them colleagues. CEOs of other companies who I saw through the election last election cycle, I saw them using their company platform as a way to push their worldview. So when I start getting emails through the customer email list of a fellow CEO saying, you must vote for Joe Biden as the most important election ever, I thought, what world do we live in where someone on the left can happily push a worldview using their company as a platform to do so? And if you are a conservative working for that person, what is that work environment like for that person and how are they living with that? And I started hearing stories. There was a lady at Deloitte who she was in a DEI training where she was told she was a racist for a full 2 hours. And it was really demoralizing. It was sucking the joy and energy out of the room. And then at the end of this training, the trainer gets up and says, you know, I wish all those un-vaccinated people would go to an island and die together. And this lady is like this kind of like this moment. She's like, you know, I don't even like this job that much. And the fact that this person feels comfortable saying this in a corporate work environment, something has gone horribly wrong. This lady ends up turned from a bad story to a good story.

She raises her hand and says, yeah, by the way, I will never get that vaccine. And as soon as she says that, the whole room just like dead silent. Like you can cut the tension with a knife, right? Because the trainer just assumed that everybody agreed on this issue. And then after about 10 seconds, this lady was telling me, she said, two other people raised their hand and said, yeah, I'm not going to get that job either. And I think that's an example of there's been a lot of encroachment in the workplace of this wokeness. That is really, it's a liturgy. They're trying to force a worldview on these workers. And if people stand up and are brave, there's lots of other people who are going to agree with them. And I think that's the moral of this story. And so long story boring. When I come to this moment where I'm unemployed, I realize that there's probably a lot of Americans that are going to have to decide between their job and their values. And the reality is, for conservatives, if we're canceled from Facebook or from Google or Twitter or whatever, honestly, we can shrug it off. It's not how most of us make a living.

But if you cancel someone or you threaten to cancel a conservative from their job, their ability to feed their kids, pay their mortgage, then they're going to be much more tempted to compromise on something that they hold dearly because they want to keep their job. And so we need to have a landing ground. So if someone's told you need to lose your values or lose your job, that they know that there's a place where they can go get a new job and be able to maintain their values and continue to support their family the way that they have in the past. So that's why I started Red Balloon. I wanted Americans to be free at work. I wanted wokeness in the workplace to have no place in the hearts and minds of conservatives. And if we can do that, it's amazing. So we're about 18 months old. We have over 3000 businesses. We've had over a million job seekers on the site looking for freedom. It's the only business I've ever run where I get these unsolicited thank you notes from perfect strangers saying, you save my marriage or you change the trajectory of my family because your vocation is such an important part of who you are. And if we can help people be free at work, they're going to be free at home, they're going to be free in their community, in their churches, and I hope they're going to be free in the polls as well.

Linda J. Hansen: So many great examples that you gave there of why you were led to start Red Balloon and it's just so inspirational. I love promoting Red Balloon, I really do. And at the end of the broadcast, we'll be giving a promo code so if you are interested in becoming involved with Red Balloon, you can go on the Prosperity 101® website and find the affiliate link, or you can go on Red Balloon and use the code for P 101. But I just love promoting Andrew and Red Balloon because of what they're doing for employers and employees. Now, you mentioned how many employees have found more freedom in their job, but I would say this is freeing for employers as well. In an age where employers fear being sued if they might use the wrong pronoun one day or they're being forced to maybe pay for transgender surgeries or something, that maybe that's not what they feel like they want to use their money for. They have faith based or religious convictions about that, and they want to be able to honor their employees but still keep true to their own beliefs. And I think Red Balloon comes in and you create a great balancing act there where employers can find great freedom with employees that are thrilled to work for freedom loving employers, and employees can find freedom in working for freedom loving employers. And I know when you first started Red Balloon, kind of the tagline was free to work and free to hire. And I love that. I just love that.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, no, and it is the stories we get, and obviously I talked about some of the stories from job seekers. But employers, I've had employers say, everyone I hire from RedBalloon work is cleansing to our culture because they're just a hardworking conservative who wants to show up, do their job, and not be a snowflake in the HR department whining about every little thing. And when you get those people inside your organization, you're going to make more money. You're going to have way more fun. And as a job board, we've continued to morph because a lot of, I'll say small, conservative employers. The hiring process is terrifying, right? You think about if you get a bad hire within your four walls. We just did an interesting research project@redbloon.org where we said, what's the cost of a bad hire? What happens if you hire the wrong person? What does that cost you? And we're basically estimating between 15,020 $1,000 for one bad hire within your company. Well, you really want to avoid that. And so you should ask the questions and go through the process necessary to avoid that bad hire.

But the problem is, if you ask the right questions that will help you avoid a bad hire, you might get yourself a lawsuit, right? And so you kind of have a ditch on both sides of this hiring process that a lot of small employers that don't hire very often are terrified with. So one of the things that Red Balloon has been doing is not only do we give you an opportunity to post your jobs, which is great, and you can be in front of the thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, of job seekers every week that are looking for those jobs. But also one of the things we're doing now, which has just been a big blessing to these employers, is we'll actually help you with the hiring process. So if you want us to filter resumes or do a cultural interview to make sure that the person is going to be a good fit for your culture or you want us to source candidates, we can just do a lot of those things. And when we do that, we can give you the rest of knowing that you're going to get a culturally aligned person without getting a lawsuit, which is really the goal in all of this. So now it has been such a huge blessing to be able to come alongside the small employers all over this country that are just focused on doing work, building the economy. And if we can come alongside them and bless them, then our country is going to be stronger, right? And we all win out of that.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, absolutely, because a strong country comes from strong families, strong businesses, and strong communities. And we can only have that if we have a vibrant capitalistic system, really, where employers are able to create wealth, create jobs, and create prosperity. And I look at prosperity. I say it all the time. It's not just money. It's human flourishing. It's human thriving. It's freedom. And we do that by creating, by innovating, by building. And we've had this amazing system in America. And the liberalism and the Marxist ideologies that are coming in are just crushing it. And they're crushing. I mean, I was looking even today, just how many businesses are leaving California, New York, Oregon, all these liberal states and Chicago. I mean, these liberal ideologies that are just destroying cities, they're destroying states, they're destroying economies, and they're hurting families.

They're really hurting families, and they're hurting the future for our nation. Not only our economic security, but our national defense security, our actual national security. So it all plays together. And I always say that policy is so much more than a person. It is so much more than an election. It is about the next generation. And that's what I do. So I love your focus on creating a culture and how these employers want to create a great culture in the workplace. And that's what I try to do with the Prosperity 101® materials. Being able to provide just simple materials, whether it's the online course or a simple book or just some simple posters or maybe a workshop that we do live online or in person, that just helps create a culture of respect and freedom and a basic understanding of these policies that made America great, makes America strong and helps businesses to be able to thrive. And that's not political. That's policy. That is nonpartisan. It's saying, I want you to thrive. I want your family to thrive. I want you to know how to protect that. And that's what I try to do with Prosperity 101®. And I see that that's what you try to do with Red Balloon, making sure that this freedom culture is there. And I'd say that what we both do helps create that loyalty, engagement, and retention in the workplace. And that's a win-win.

Andrew Crapuchettes: It absolutely is. So we have a historically tight labor market, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. We don't have enough people to do all the work. And so if you're an employer, you need to be engaging your current employees. You need to make sure that they understand the freedoms that they have. And that's part of what leads to an amazing work environment. Right? And when you have some of the resources that Linda has available for your employees, what you're doing is you're telling your employees, I want you to be an informed adult that understands the value of the country you're in. I want you to be a better employee here. Because if you're an employer out there, and I've hired hundreds and hundreds of employees over the years, when you tell your employees, I want to make you a better person, I want you to be blessed because you work here so that when you go somewhere else, you're going to be a better employee for the next employer. You would be surprised how telling people, you are welcome to leave whenever you want, but I want you to be a better person while you're here. That drives a retention because when you tell people, our pastor says if you hold something tight in your hand, if it's going to leave, god can take that and he can break your fingers in the meantime. Whereas if when you hold your hand open and you're not grasping, when you're not grasping with your employees, they know that. And when you're just trying to give them the resources so they can grow and prosper as an individual, as a family, you're going to find that your retention rate is way up. And in a tight labor market, employee retention is really, really important.

The other thing that you need to be aware of as an employer is when you have a tight labor market, when you have this big sort that Linda was talking about, where people are leaving Chicago and New York, California to find freedom, you need to be establishing your employment brand. And I should kind of tell you what that is, because that sounds like a new concept for a lot of people. But if you're an employer, you know, if you're trying to get customers, you need to be consistently marketing to those customers. You have to have your voice out in front of them. You need to have your brand in front of them. What is it, the 7th time that someone sees a brand, they feel comfortable with it? Well, it's the same thing with your employment brand. When you have a tight labor market. And when you take care of your current employees, that is a huge piece of your employment branding for future employees because they all know someone who's maybe in a job where they're getting that woke ideology jammed down their throat. And if they are talking to their friend and they're like, you should come work at this other business, they've got this cool Prosperity 101® resources in the business. They take care of me. They care about me as an employee. That's part of your employment brand, obviously, putting jobs on things like Red Balloon and doing things in your community, there's a lot of things you can do to drive a positive employment brand for your business. That's the only way to win in this tight labor market is have a positive employment brand that's based on taking care of your current employees, standing up for the right things and actually loving on your customers and your employees. People want to work for places like that. As Linda you say, prosperity is not just money. Money is helpful. It can be a de-motivator if you do it poorly. But it is all about this holistic life where you're free, where you're prosperous, where you can live in a virtuous and free society. When you live in a place like that, when you work at a place like that, that employer is going to win because they're going to get the best people who want to stay around and they want to build that business.

Linda J. Hansen: Absolutely. I loved what you said about being building that employer brand. Building the employer brand is so important. And I would say to employees, you have a brand as well. So if you're looking to work for a freedom loving employer, make sure that you have that brand as well, so they feel confident in hiring you. But when all the people row in the boat in the same direction, its great progress can be made. And this is really a great example of creating great solutions for the workplace and being able to build people up. I think that with companies, like you said, the tight labor market and with the tight economy, everything, people are looking to do everything they can to obviously cut costs, save money, and still be able to compensate employees properly. And so when we can cut down on the lawsuits, when we can cut down on the regulatory burden in HR, when we can cut down on turnover, employee turnover and things, these are really great things for everybody. A rising tide lifts all boats. And like you mentioned about the retention and when they understand you care, I often share the quote from Dawson Trotman who founded the Navigator Ministries, and he said, they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And so I really encourage employers. Employers, if you're out there and you're listening, please, please talk to your employees. You do not have to be political. You do not have to mention a candidate name. Even if they do, even if they tell you they hate candidate A or love candidate B, you can redirect. And if you need some tips, I can help you with that, and I'm sure Andrew can as well. But our passion, both of us, is to make sure that we are creating great environments in the workplace and we're promoting freedom in the workplace. So whether you are an employer, an employee, or even a solopreneur who maybe someday soon you will be hiring, or maybe you are someone who'd like just a consulting gig and you think, okay, I'm not really looking for a full time job, but I'd like to do some contract work. They can find that on Red Balloon as well, too, correct?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yes. Obviously, you could put yourself in as a job seeker, but you're seeking jobs where you are looking to help these businesses that are its awesome because every business on Red Balloon, you know that they've signed a pledge that they believe the Constitution still matters and they're going to respect the freedom of their current and future employees. Right. It's not complicated, but it's amazing how that is such a filtering mechanism in America today that if you say that someone's saying that I think the Constitution is good and I believe in freedom, it definitely puts you in a certain category, and that's fine, right? We want to have a diversity in the workplace, but we want a diversity that's not a skin deep diversity, but a diversity of thoughts and ideas. But you also don't want so much diversity. You can't get anything done because you're fighting about the basics of a worldview. And so if you can hire like-minded people or if you're a job seeker and you want to either, whether you're looking for a part time or a gig economy kind of thing for employers, there are a lot of opportunities right now with super tight labor market. You saw the job number came out recently.

The economy is growing, the unemployment rate is low. We are seeing this big sort where in 2020, $19 billion of annual taxable income left the state of New York for states like Texas and Florida, Idaho, where I live. And so conservatives are pulling up roots, which is something we don't like to do, and finding places where they can be free, whether that's with their job, whether that's with where they live, whether it's their community. And so it's going to be an interesting time in America. And I think it's exciting because the fact that a Red Balloon or a public square or any of the businesses in this kind of freedom economy can grow as quickly as we have, it tells you there's a lot of demand for freedom right now. And if you are thinking about what you're going to do as your next step, whether you're at a company, as Linda said, man. You might be a solopreneur or an entrepreneur who's going to start a business and hire people. There are great opportunities right now. This freedom economy is growing quickly, and I think it's a huge market opportunity in addition to being a whole lot of fun.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, not only is it a great opportunity and a whole lot of fun, but it is really good for our country.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Absolutely necessary for our country.

Linda J. Hansen: Yes, it's very necessary for our country. And you mentioned about saying you believe in the Constitution, and I love that you said it isn't just skin deep. So often companies are hiring based on environmental, social governance. How many people of this color, how many people of that gender, these things? And that's not the way to have an effective, productive workforce that feels fulfilled in their work. That's creating the victim mentality. And I always say, too, when there's a victim, there's always an oppressor. So we start getting that division mentality and all of that. But when we're in there and we have this common uniting theme that we love the Constitution, we care about our nation, we want everyone to thrive, no matter their background, no matter their skin color, whatever, and we want them to thrive. This is great for our nation. And so we just appreciate what you're doing so much. I feel like what we are doing in both Prosperity 101® and RedBalloon, it truly is at the tip of the spear in a sense of leading this parallel economy and leading us out of this mess we're in as a nation. So if people also want to join you and be part of that tip of the spear, how should they find you?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Andrew yeah, so you can go to redballoon.work. It's not that's where you can find party balloons, you can go to Redbloons.org. And I liked Work better anyway because it didn't sound like communist to me. And I like work. And so RedBalloon work. You can sign up as a job seeker. You can sign up as a business. There's a ton of resources there. There's an employee Bill of Rights that you're welcome to download. There's a blog with a ton of resources on there. We'd love you to come and join. You can just sign up for an email and you can stay in touch with what's happening in this freedom Economy. And then obviously, you can follow us on all the social network, both the woke and the non-woke social network. It's just at Red Balloon work for any of them. You can follow us. And we've got a bunch of cool stuff going. We just launched a national ad with Donald Trump Jr. And so, yeah, we would encourage you to follow us. And even if you feel like, man, I don't need a new job right now, or I'm not hiring right now, man you should stay in touch. There's a lot going on, and I would put in a plug for Linda and all that she's doing. You should support her work, what she's doing to help Americans think clearly about our founding, about what their freedoms are, about how you be a great employee that is critical for this country to continue to go forward. Linda is not even paying me to do this, but I would give you a big plug because her work is really important for America.

Linda J. Hansen: Well, thank you so much for that. And if you want to support both of us, you can go to Redbaloon.org and sign up to be part of the Red Balloon family and use the code P 101. So it'sRedBalloon.work/P101, and that kind of helps us both. But even if you didn't help me, I'd be just thrilled to continually promote you, which I have done often in the past. I know when we first met about a year and a half ago, I think it was right after you launched, I knew immediately, like, this was going to be big. This was something that was so critical to our nation, and I'm so thankful that God led you to do this, that you had the courage and vision to do so. As we close, is there any other closing comments you'd like to give to employers, employees, or anybody who's really concerned about our nation and what are the steps that they should take to help protect our freedom in America?

Andrew Crapuchettes: Yeah, no, it's a great question. And my encouragement is this. If you are looking at DC, if you're looking at China or Ukraine or Taiwan or these world events and these terrible policies coming out of some of the places of our country, it can be completely overwhelming. And the temptation is just going to be to sit on your couch and wring your hands and be like, what can I do? And the answer is, there's a lot that you can do. And you can see what the conservative economy has done to Target and Anheuser Bush when those organizations tried to push their worldview on us. We do have a lot of power, and that power looks a lot like you just making one decision tomorrow. That is a change of behavior from what you did before. So instead of going to Target, go to a public square. Instead of just watching the news, tell a friend about RedBalloon work, about a Prosperity 101®. Do one thing each day that changes the behavior that you are currently in that's going to help support this freedom economy. Because as you support the freedom economy, then this economy will grow big enough that there's lots of job opportunities, there's lots of business opportunities, and you shouldn't feel overwhelmed. Do one thing, and then the next day do another thing? And if you do that and a million other people do that, our nation gets on a better track in a hot minute. So that's my encouragement. Don't get overwhelmed. Go do something.

Linda J. Hansen: That's just great advice. Do one thing. And that's what I often tell people, is just pick one thing. We can't solve every problem, but we can pick one thing by not shopping at Target and supporting transgender swimsuits and transgender storybooks for toddlers. We can send a message by not buying Bud Light. Conservative world has definitely sent a message, right? And so we can vote with our dollars. But I would say, too, be informed enough that you can pick up the phone or write a quick email to your elected officials at all levels of government, and even to the boards of directors or the CEOs of these companies. Let your opinion be known. Sometimes it can be kind of scary, but it's really not once you start. And we are only silenced because we allow ourselves to be so we need to speak up. So, Andrew, I'm thankful that you speak up, that you've been a great force for freedom. You're innovative, you're fun. Everyone, I invite you, please go to Redballoon.org and look at their commercials.

Follow them on social media. You'll see Andrew do some fantastic interviews, not just this one, but others, and some great videos that he's creative, he's funny, but they're creating a wonderful culture there@redballoon.org. And we want that culture to just invade America and spread. And, you know, when America is more free, the world is more free. So this freedom is courage is contagious, and freedom is contagious as well. So. Thank you, Andrew. Again, everyone, you can go to Redballoon.org and you can find Andrew there, but you can also find him on the Red Balloon social media. And please, if you want to sign up, go to Redballoon.org and use the code P 101 and you help both our efforts. So thank you, everyone, and thank you, Andrew.

Andrew Crapuchettes: Thanks for having me. Have a great day, everybody.

Linda J. Hansen: Thank you.

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. I give special thanks to our sponsors Matthews Archery, Inc. and Wisconsin Stamping & Manufacturing. Please contact us today at Prosperity101.com to let us know how we can serve you. Thank you.