When Finances Stop You From Having Kids, Consider This | Ron Simmons

0:00Well, hello everybody. It's good to see you again or hear you again. If you're just listening to me, I appreciate that. You've been watching on a video, you can see it's a little bit different background. You are actually down in my shop in our mountain location. And I thought a little bit more manly, masculine, whatever. You got a couple of deer heads behind me that I've hunted before and you have my fly fishing and my duck hunting. That's a mount of a canvas back and you can't see it real well. But that plate back there is our Labador Retriever, Duce. Chocolate Lab has won a national championship. He's a master national hunter. So I thought you'd appreciate that. And there's some of the tools I like to do projects like I'm sure a lot of you guys do and ladies, a project is good for a guy to do.

1:04Let me tell you, if you've got a, if you've got a husband or a son or a brother or whatever that likes some projects, for them that's actually relaxing. As long as you're not overpressuring him to get it done, it's very relaxing. I really enjoyed doing that. You know, my grandfather was a carpenter, home builder, and I spent a summer with him one summer when I was 14 years old. Best summer of my life, although I think my parents sent me there because they were a little concerned that maybe I was heading in potentially the wrong direction, but my grandparents were great people when my grandfather passed away. He left me his hammer and his hand plane, which is how you used to get wood down to the type of size that you wanted. And that was very special to me. But anyway, thank you. I'm Ron Simmons. I'm Allie's father and I appreciate you supporting her podcast. I do this twice a month and it comes out on the weekend. In fact, this, this episode is coming out on the first Saturday in September over the Labor Day holiday.

2:11So I hope everybody has a great holiday weekend and a safe holiday weekend. But what I wanted to talk about today, since we're now officially in to September. And soon to be fall is the campaign season. You know, during the summer, people don't pay that much attention to politics because they're busy with their families and vacations and other things. And that's the way it should be. But now we are just just a little over by the time this comes out will actually be within two months of our midterm elections, which are very important. It's very important. Relating to public policy and you know, Allie always said, politics matter because policy matters because people matter. And so I want to pay attention to this for just the next few minutes and talk about what could happen in the midterm elections. You know, the president's not on the ballot, but there are a lot of notes here with me today. 35 Senate seats, US Senate seats that are up for election.

3:21And of course, you probably have in your state and in your county, you probably have a lot of local elections that are up as well to pay attention to. And I can't follow all the local elections, but I want to talk to you about the national elections today. And there again, as I said, there are 35 Senate seats up for election in 2026. And as you know, there's a hundred US senators. So it actually takes only 50 if you're Republican to have the majority because the vice president breaks the tie. And we have a Republican vice president when president Obama, I mean, sorry president Biden or Obama was in the White House, then it only took 50 Democrat senators. So right now there are 53 Republican senators and 47 Democrat senators. When I say 47, it's really 45, but there are two independent senators that caucus with the Democrats.

4:23So we consider them Democrats. So in order for the Democrats to overtake the Senate, they need to get to 51. And the reason they have to get to 51 instead of 50 is because the vice president is a Republican. So they can't depend on the vice president to break the tie. They have to have 51. So they have to, they have to flip four seats in order to win the majority in the Senate. And let's look at those for just a second. According to the Cook political report, which was in July of 2026, there are not, there are several competitive Senate seats. There are three that lean Democrat. In other words, it's they're not solid Democrat, but they kind of lean blue. And there are four that are genuine toss ups. And there are two that lean Republican. So they're again, they're not solid Republican, but they lean Republican.

5:26And the remaining races are solid Democrat or solid Republican. So of the 35, there's really only of nine races that are going to determine the majority of the Senate. And we're going to go through five of those tonight to make sure that you understand where to be paying attention. And again, I want to remind you that when you're voting in the general election, we're voting for policy, not people. All right. So think about the policies that the Republican support and the policies that the Democrats support. For me, I can stop after one policy and it's related to abortion. I'm a absolutely staunch pro life advocate. And you know that alley is as well. And she was raised in a pro life household. Her mom has been involved in pro life organization since we were early early married.

6:27And alley's grown up with that and she's developed her own beliefs. Obviously, she is a great apologist and she understands when I say a politician, she can defend her beliefs as well as anybody I've ever known. Whether that's on some biblical principle, whether that's on some political principle, whether that's on some social principle. And I would like to think that she grew up in a household that helped help frame that now she got there on her own. We didn't tell our people our kids what to believe. We told them what we believe in why we believed it. And then they made their own decision. And we're thankful that they all believe like we do and that unborn protecting the unborn is the number one issue that we have as in my opinion as Christians and as people. So when I look at policy versus people, the Republican policy on abortion and pro life, it's that there's nothing more clear than that.

7:30Democrats believe elected Democrats. Now, maybe there are some of you Democrats that don't believe this and that's why I want to talk to you. But elected Democrats believe that you can have abortion right up until and in some cases after birth of a baby. And to say that they don't believe that you're kidding yourself because that's what they voted for. Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. And when you look at the votes, they vote against every abortion restriction and vote in favor of everything that has to do with killing unborn children and Republicans are the opposite. They vote in favor of every abortion restriction and they vote in favor of protecting the unborn. Now, let's look at those five races. Okay. The first one I want to talk about is one's very dear to me and that's the race in Texas. Ken Paxton, who's the current attorney general of Texas versus James Talleriko, who is a state representative of Texas.

8:37I want to talk about why that is. Ken Paxton is someone that I know personally and I'll just tell you something up front. Nobody is perfect. All right. If you're looking for a perfect politician that's lived a perfect life, then you're wasting your time. There is no politician that is perfect. The only perfect person that ever walked this earth with Jesus Christ. And Ken Paxton is not a perfect person. There's no question about it. But as I said before, we're voting on policy. Ken Paxton is a conservative, traditional Republican, meaning that he is going to vote pro-life. He is going to vote for a restrained government. He's going to vote for a balanced budget. So he's going to vote for everything that you and I believe most of you and I would agree with. James Talleriko, on the other hand, and I know him because I have, I did not serve with him, but because of my involvement in the continued involvement in the Texas legislature with things like school choice and what have you.

9:46James Talleriko is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He is going to vote for abortion right up until birth. He's going to vote for girls for boy, excuse me, biological boys being in girls' private spaces, including boys participating in girl sports. He's going to vote for any type of transgender, gentle, genital mutilation for minors. He's going to vote for all of that because he's either voted for that in the Texas House or he's voted against bills to stop that. He's the person that said that God is binary, that there are six different genders. For those of you that live in Texas, it's very important that you get out and support the Republican candidate. James Talleriko has raised a lot of money. In fact, he raised about $60 million in the primary to beat crazy lady Jasmine Crockett in March.

10:49There are a lot of people that think this seat is in play. For those of you that believe that there's no way a Democrat can win Texas, you're just fooling yourself because it is absolutely possible. If the Republicans don't come out and vote, James Talleriko will win and that will be a bad six years for Texas. I encourage you to look at the policies, vote for what candidate you think supports the best policies and also, even if you don't live in Texas, if you know people in Texas, if you have family in Texas, or you know friends in Texas, make sure they encourage them to make sure they get out and vote. That's really important. The second race we're going to look at is Mike Rogers in Michigan versus Abdul El Saeed. It's even hard for me to think about that these are actually going to be the candidate on the Democrat party.

11:49This is an open seat. The Texas seat was previously Republican. We're trying to keep it Republican. This was a Democrat seat, but the Democrat, I think Senator Peters decided not to run Geary Peters. This is an open seat. As you remember, Trump won Michigan in 2024 and Mike Rogers actually only lost by 20,000 votes in the Senate race in 2024. So there's a good chance for the Republicans to win this seat. El Saeed is a far left radical. He is an anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist Democrat. He's part of this whole communist socialist movement. If you're in Michigan, make sure that you look at the policies and vote for the policies that you think make the most sense.

12:49The person that supports those in my opinion is Mike Rogers. If you have friends or family in Michigan, make sure you're calling. This is a very important race. We haven't had a Republican senator in Michigan for years. So this would be a big flip. If we win Michigan, listen to this. If Republicans win Michigan, there's no way that Democrats can win the Senate. My opinion. The third one is Ohio, which is really interesting because Ohio was a solid and is a solid Republican state. Again, this is an open seat. JD Vance is seat. Remember Vice President Vance was a senator before. And this is an open seat. The Republican is John Hustead versus former Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown. You've already got a record. Go back and look what Sherrod Brown voted for or voted against. If he voted for or against policies that you would think about, if he voted against policies you would be in favor of or voted for policies you would be against, then that should tell you the answer to that.

14:00But this is a very tight race. A Brown has a first of all, it's a great campaign name, a ballot name. If you have a simple name, if you have a complicated name, people that are uninformed may not vote for you. But Brown is the simplest name of all. And he's been around for a long time. Ohio is a solid red state. If we don't win Ohio Republicans, I'm speaking about, it'll be hard for it'd be hard for us to hold the Senate. So again, if you're in Ohio, make sure that you get out to vote and make sure that if you know people in Ohio that you call them and have them make sure they're voting for the policies that they think best fit them. The fourth one is Maine, Susan Collins, and Troy Jackson. This is a really interesting race. Susan Collins, she's a moderate Republican. Maine is a moderate state. In fact, vice president Harris, Kamala Harris won the state of Maine in the 2024 election.

15:03In what really was a Republican landside nationwide, she still won Maine, which is kind of hard to believe. But if you remember this Senate race, this is the Senate race where there was another gentleman in, I wouldn't even say gentlemen, another scumbag actually, if you look at his history with how he is a beauty, potentially allegedly a view abuse women and others that had, he had to drop out of the race. Even after he won the primary, so the Democrats had to put somebody else in, I got named Troy Jackson. But this is a tough race for the Republicans to win. Collins has proven as a moderate that she's been able to win Maine and I'll tell you folks, I don't agree with everything Susan Collins says. However, in order for the Republicans to keep that seat and she will agree with us on let's say 80% of the issues we need to support Susan Collins. And if you know anybody in Maine and I've got a few friends in Maine, Tyler and Gary, I know you're up there, you know who I'm talking to. I want to make sure that everybody gets out and supports Susan Collins on the Republican side. Even if you don't agree with 100% of what she did, you do not want Troy Jackson to be a part of this.

16:21It's going to be very interesting to watch again. It's another race that Republicans if they want to hold the Senate really need to win. The next one is Dan Sullivan. Now this is really an interesting, this is Alaska. Dan Sullivan versus Mary Peltola. Mary Peltola is the first Native American elected to Congress in Alaska. She's got a pretty good statewide name, but she lost her house race by three points in 2024 because Trump won it by 11. So Trump carried her challenger over the finish line. The problem with this is there is another candidate on the ballot. I guess he's running as independent. And guess what his name is, Dan Sullivan, the exact same name as the Republican candidate, which the Democrats put up to run to cause confusion. This is really interesting. In 2017, I, or actually 2018, I had in my primary a candidate name with my same last name, Kevin Simmons.

17:27And he ran just because he had my same last name, thinking that he could cause confusion. Now it was in the primary. So it made a little bit easier. But I beat him 86% to 14%. So I'm hopeful that people don't get confused on which Dan Sullivan that is running. Make sure that they're voting for the correct Dan Sullivan, the Republican Dan Sullivan. And again, I don't know that much about Miss Peltola and I appreciate what she's been able to do considering her background as a Native American and probably some of the struggles that she've been through. However, here's what I know when she gets to the Senate, she's going to vote to kill babies. She's going to vote to increase government spending. She's going to vote to have government more control of your daily lives and Dan Sullivan is not. So encourage you to think about the policies that these two people support. That's the, those are the five races. There are there a few more that are close, but those are the kind of the key ones that we want to pay attention to.

18:35And again, if you have questions about your particular Senate race in your state, please email me, Ron at Ron Simmons.com. And I'll be happy to talk to you and answer you on that. Quick pause to tell you about our sponsor for the day. And that is cozy earth. Y'all I just got new cozy earth pajamas. I am so excited. They are the softest most breathable pajamas ever. I have so many sets of cozy earth lounge wear pajamas. I love their sheets. I love their towels. I love everything. But I am in a cozy maxing season right now because if it's still hot outside, I want to feel like it's fall inside. So I want to be cozy plus as I'm preparing for postpartum. I'm getting all of the lounge wear so I can be as comfortable as possible after this baby gets here. I think it's like a light green sage color of the pajamas that I got and they're so cute and so luxurious. These make for great gifts for yourself for the loved one in your life, especially as you start to think about those Christmas presents cozy earth related bros out there. Perfect for your wife. Go to cozy earth.com use code relatable. You'll get up to 20% off home and sleepwear cozy earth code relatable.

19:55Now let's go to the house. We don't know who's going to control the Senate obviously before we get to the house, the decision desk HQ had Republicans have a 52% chance and Democrats of 48% chance. That's essentially within the margin of error. We don't know what's going to happen. It's going to be very, very close. And a lot of this is really about Donald Trump. And even though he's not on the ballot. The president is always theoretically on the ballot. And it's been very difficult for a president to be able to maintain his margins in the house and Senate during the midterms of his year. It's just always been very difficult. A lot of presidents Democrat and Republican of law seats in both the House and the Senate in midterm elections. Let's talk about how this works. The history is one reason Democrats are expected pickup seats in the November 26th. And that's because the president's party almost always loses seats. However, this is really an interesting. This has never happened before. So I don't know how it's going to affect. But 10 states, if you remember this in the last year or so, they redistricate. It's really interesting. A lot of the models actually are showing that Democrats will win a small majority. But they have to flip 13 seats in order to be able to win that. And that's pretty hard to do.

21:24We'll see what happens. So here's kind of the way that how Democrats are favored in the house. We have a full screen shot of that that we're going to put up here. And it shows that you can see the blue line. If you're watching this can see the blue line is a little bit above the red line. And we'll. That's not that unusual. We'll see what happens now. The interesting thing about house races is they're really not national races. They're individual races in a local house district. And a lot of times the local or state issues or what really has the effect on them. But we're going to go through the top five competitive races real quick. Number one is New York 17 with Mike Lawler versus cat Conley. Lawler won this in in 2024. Even as Harris carried his district just barely. So it's a it's a big Democrat target because Harris carried that particular district. Conley on the Democrat side is pretty well funded. And she's a combat veteran running a center left race. Now she's running a center left race. But she will vote far left.

22:31She will vote with whatever her party tells her to do and her party will tell her to impeach Trump will tell her to raise the budget spend more money will tell her to allow boys and girls private spaces. And will tell her to be to be okay with killing unborn baby unborn babies right up to the time of birth. That's what their party will tell her in my opinion. That's where she will vote. So think about the policies law was going to vote just the opposite of that. So those of you in New York 17 district make sure that you that you take a look at that. The second one is the Michigan district, which is Tom Barrett versus will Lawrence. And it's the one of the most competitive seats in the country. And again, a major Democrat target. It was a Republican seat currently being held. And the Lawrence, however, is already been backed by Bernie Sanders that ought to be a red flag and Rashida Taib, one of the squad, which is if you followed her at all, her vulgarity alone is something that make you not want to be a Republican seat.

23:44That make you not want to vote for her just her language. But again, Michigan, we need to make sure that we keep this seat in Michigan. So if you know anybody that lives in the in this district. The seventh district of Michigan, make sure that you get them out to vote and vote for the policies that they support. The third one is Arizona, the first congressional district in Arizona, J, freely versus Amish Shaw, the, the, this is a retirement of a Republican representative, Mr. Schweikort. And it's the, it's the state's most competitive house seat. And we're going to see what happens in this particular election, Mr. Shaw, ran for governor lost in 2024. And again, he is going to vote just like I said with the gentleman from Michigan, he's going to vote with the Democrat majority on everything he does. So make sure that you're taking a look at this and that Jay Philly is the one that we support.

24:49Because he is the one that's going to vote for the policies that you and I agree with. Number four is Mary Annette Miller, makes Republican versus Christina, bohannon. This is an Iowa, okay. This is Iowa first district. The Eastern Iowa district is seeing this match up several times. Miller makes first one by six votes. If you could, I remember this election by six votes in 2020. And then she, and then she beat bohannon by 20,000 votes in 22 and about 800 in 2024. So these ladies have been going at it for a while. And, and the Republican is one every time, but it's been very, very close. And in a midterm election like this, the Democrat probably has the advantage, but we need to overtake that. So if you know any people in Iowa in this district, make sure that you're encouraging them to get out to vote. The last one we're going to talk about is Thomas Keane Jr., versus Rebecca Bennett, and that's New Jersey. Believe it or not, we do have chances to win New Jersey Republican seat.

25:53It's a very high income district, a very close to New York City, all college educated, and it kind of goes with the national mood. But it often punishes the president's party. It's gone back and forth. So this is a tough race for Republicans, but we need to make sure that we're supporting the Republican candidate in this. And we'll see how that goes. If the Republicans win this seat, there's no question we're going to keep the house. So this is a bell weather one to look at. We could keep the house without it, but it certainly wanted to take a look at. But anyway, those are the five most competitive seats in the Senate, and what we think are five of the most competitive seats in the house. And we're now in September. We need to be paying attention to this. We've got 60 days left for the general election. If you want the Republican traditional conservative agenda to continue, then we need to make sure that we take both the house and the Senate.

26:56If we lose one of those, it's going to be very hard to get anything in a positive manner done in the next two years. So just make sure that you're thinking about that. Pay an attention to it. If you have any questions, again, email me, run at Ron Simmons.com. Now, let's talk a little bit about, we're going to answer some audience questions in the next few minutes as we finish up here. And again, as I told you last time, we're trying to get these episodes a little bit more condensed. I know I got some emails from several of you that say, please don't, please don't reduce the length of the episodes. I just think that more people will pay attention to them longer if we can get them down to in a reasonable amount of time. For those of you that want the longer ones, apologize for that. But I want to keep here in frame because we want to do what's right for you. That's our number one goal. What is it that we can do the best serve you? Anyway, here's the first question. I think it's a good one. The difference between a mother's influence and a father's influence when raising sons. And this is kind of moms and dads. This is really a good question.

28:01And listen, I've watched this in my own kids. My kids, all three of them have a very special relationship with their mom and two of our kids are boys as you know. And I've seen it in our grandson. We have three grandsons that have a very special relationship with our daughter and law. And that's good. There's no question about that. I think a mom is there to care. To show that type of sweetness and that type of love and what have you. And a dad shows it in a little bit different way. I think a mom's influence allows them to know how to be a good person. All right. To be a person that can care about others that thinks about another person's feelings, which is really important. It would be very important for them as they meet their spouse if they get married.

29:02But also in everything else that they do to really understand how other people feel. A dad's influence is teaching that young man. How they can be a leader. All right. And how they can lead their family, their own life, their business, whatever it is they're doing, their vocation, how they can do that in a proper manner. And he's also teaching them how to protect. How to one of the jobs of a dad and one of the jobs of the man in a household is to protect. How do we protect those around us that we care for? How do we make sure that they are taking care of first before us? We have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves, whether that's physically, financially, mentally, whatever that is, sacrifice ourselves for those that we care for. And that's what a dad is supposed to do. And so there's a totally different influence. And that's why it's so important for moms and dads to stay together. We got a text from our daughter in law this week.

30:11And I don't know if she'd want me to share this or not. So not apologize. But it was a really special text. And the text said, I just want to thank you to me and Lisa for staying together and being an example for our oldest Justin. On how to have a marriage that's committed to each other. She has some friends that are going through some very difficult marriage times. And so she's experiencing that as a close friend of the wife. And I'll tell you what, that text meant as much to me as any text I've ever gotten. And that's really dad's what we're about keeping things together protecting the family leading the family. You can't be the one or in the family. If you're the one wanting, then you're taking on the wrong role. Your deal is to make sure that you're teaching your boys how to be the leader. But do it with a velvet glove. Okay. Meaning that just because you have the hammer, which you can see right there behind me, doesn't mean that everything's a nail.

31:15Sometimes you have to be able to be the softer as well. And that's what the dad's role is. All right. Hope that helps. Now move on to the next question quickly. Teaching teens about money. Well, the first thing I think we need to teach all our teens about money. The best way to do that is to give them cash. Do not let them charge everything on a credit card or debit card or on their phone. Make them learn how to manage cash first. Give them their allowance or whatever. Even if they work at a job, make them take out the money they're going to spend in cash and put it in envelope or come up with a system on note cards or whatever so that they spend cash. So that they understand how much they're spending. That's really important. And I do think it's important when your teens are young, you know, when your kids are teenagers and they're making some money or you're giving them some money for their allowance for doing things. Run the house that you sit out with them on a regular basis and go through how they're spending their money. Now again, if you could go when you use a debit card or credit card, it's easy because you've got a you got a tracking system for that.

32:27But it's better in my opinion at first to help them understand how to manage cash because when they're looking in their wallet or their envelope and there's no more money, they know they're out of money. That's the thing that I would do. And also make sure that you always teach them to give money first to the church and secondly to save. And then after they've done that and if they have to put aside money for taxes, they can do that. But then after they've done those two things that that's their money that they can spend. But make sure those first two things given money to the church and saving money, minimum of 10% each that that they do that first. And but again, focus on cash first. Do not let them just pay things with a credit card or their phone. Really important. Next question is our husband is my husband's very stressed out about our finances. I agree it's not great, but I worry it's a slippery slope from wanting to provide for family and idolizing money.

33:31How do I come alongside him as it's why through this difficult time, which is way and heavily on him. Well, first of all, just because he's worried about the family's finances doesn't mean he's idolizing money. All right, please don't make that mistake. And I'm not saying you are making that mistake. And I don't know your individual situation. So maybe there's some things going on where he is actually idolizing him. But just because he wants it to be better or make it better doesn't mean he's idolizing. He has this burden to make sure that his family is financially secure. And I understand that I've been down that road. And so that's very important to him. What you can do for him is you can make sure that you're spending wisely of the portion of the budget that you are responsible for. And then you can also make sure that you're encouraging him. How can you be a supporter of him? And is there anything that you can do that would help that situation. I don't know what that is whether that's having a in-home business, whether that's having part time income come in. I'm not sure what it is.

34:38But make sure that you're not just because he's wanting to take care of family that you're not labeling him as idolizing money. I don't know that that's always the case. Now husband, let me talk to you for just a second. If you put money above the benefits of your family, in other words, if you're saying no, we're going to save this money and you're not going to be able to do X, Y, or Z that really is important to the family, then you're wrong in that as well. And I've made that mistake more than once. I've had to go back to Lisa multiple times and say, you know what, you were right. We should have done that. That was a mistake on my part. And so guys, make sure that you're balancing that as well because sometimes it may be that you have to do something else. Maybe you need a second job or maybe you need to think about doing something in your career that would allow you to make more money or maybe there are some things you're spending money on that you need to say, well, you know what?

35:39I got to cut back on that for now. So hope that helped you. And but I encourage it. Ma'am, just make sure that you're supporting him, making sure you're doing everything that you can and that you already encouragement to him. It doesn't will not do any good to badger him over something like this. I feel called to have a third child, but lower income and I don't know how that can change. Worried about dollars. Well, and these are all financial related. The next one is how to handle family with spending from always saying they're broke, need dollars. Well, I grew up in a family that everything we did was related to money. My mom and dad were public school teachers. They did not make a lot of money. We had four kids, but I will tell you everything that we did was focused on money and it was mainly focused on what we couldn't do. And that was that was very, very stressful. Okay. Listen, if you're in a financial situation where you're doing the job that you think you're supposed to do where God's called you, where you're supposed to be where that fits you.

36:49And it's not paying the amount of money that you would like for it to pay you, then you have to you have to make two one of two decisions. You have to say, I'm going to do something that may not be my sweet spot, but we'll take care of my family better. Or I'm going to reduce my lifestyle to make sure that I can live within what I'm making and it not be stressful. And it can't be paycheck to paycheck. It has to be something that is that is well below what you make so that you're not stressed about that. As far as having an additional child, that's something that I would not recommend you have an additional child getting pregnant unless it's something both the husband and the wife agree with. I remember after Lisa and I had two kids, I was really fine with having two. I was good. I loved them both. This was great. I could not love anybody else anymore. And Lisa didn't push me on that. I knew she wanted a third child. We loved to have a little girl. And, but I just, and maybe I was selfish probably was.

37:54But God worked on my heart and it took years. It didn't happen overnight. I mean, Ali is seven years younger than her next older brother. But one day and it didn't happen one day. It happened over time. But one day I went to Lisa. I said, I think we need to have another child. And we did. And it was Ali Beth and couldn't this gracious. Look how the look how the words used her. I'm humbled by that. Last thing got a rejection letter from my dream job. What do I do now? You know, I think what you do is if you can get in touch with the firm that sent you the rejection letter and say, Hey, can I spend a few minutes with you to let me know why I wasn't selected so that I can use that and improve on that. What was the reason and a lot of people will be kind enough to do that to you, but you have to be willing to take that what might be uncomfortable news and apply that and assume that it's the truth.

38:57Now, maybe it was something ridiculous and you can just blow it off, but there's probably something there that you could learn from that. And that's what I would do. And then you just keep moving forward. You work on whatever that issue and you keep more or do not let that turn you down. All you got to do is read like Henry Ford's book or he had, I think several hundred banks told him know before the one that told him, yes. You know, you think about, you know, the Kentucky Fried chicken, God, Colonel Sanders, you think all of these people that were told, no, no, no, until they were told, yes. And that's the scenario you need to keep charging. Okay, and I'm sorry that that happened to you, but it might actually be the best thing that ever happened to you very last question. Handling lost. I said goodbye to my 14 half year old chocolate lab last week and I'm heartbroken. Well, I've got a chocolate lab as well. And he is now getting ready to be eight years old, seven and a half years old. And I know that's going to be hard.

39:57But, you know, the Lord puts those things in our life to provide us comfort and friendship and enjoyment. And there will be another one. All right. Our chocolate labs are important. Our dogs are pets are important, but they're not our fans. They're not, you know, they're not humans. They're not our family. And he lived a long life. That's a very long life for a dog, as you know. And you can decide whether or not you want to another one or not. I didn't think I wanted another one after my first one passed away. And I waited several years. I waited eight years before I got another one, but I'm so glad that I did. But during that eight year time, I wasn't ready for another one. But then all of a sudden, I was and it's been the best thing ever. And as you can see, he's done well. He's a master champion. He's a national champion. I've got George some great times with him. And I think that you'll come that so I would encourage you to grieve this one. Think about the loss and then go back and get you another one and move forward with that. I know I've gone a little bit longer today than normal and I apologize for that that we didn't keep it as short as we intended to.

41:00But I appreciate your time and listening. I really appreciate supporting Alex podcast. Don't forget about share the arrows. And I hope that you get your tickets if you don't have them. We are the Simmons family and the Stucky family are super excited about the thousands of women that are going to be there. And the show that's going to go it's going to be incredible. So we'll look forward to talking to you in a couple of weeks and we'll see you in October at Share the Arrows. Take care. Have a good day. You