One Small Step Can Change Everything with Special Guest Host Heather Andrews

there's going to be an AFP office near you if there's not you know there's someone that is working

“for AFP in that state. There's definitely one closer than you think and the people inside those”

offices will meet you exactly where you are. You don't need a background in politics. You don't need to be the most educated person with a you know fancy degree. I didn't have one. In 2009 I was a mom with four kids at home with you know having a stack of books and no plan at all and all I

did was show up and so I just really urge people there's never been a better time as you know

David like it's watching these this election that's happening now with the democratic socialists that are you know winning elections across the country. There is never been a more important time. Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American potential. Hey everyone welcome to the American potential podcast I'm your host David from. So Americans prosperity has been celebrating America's 250th year of

independence all this year in all kinds of different states. The last event we got to go to was

“Utah's let freedom ring concert featuring the ban low cash and so and now I think it's go.”

But engineer Matt you went right and you were there at the event how how was Utah and how was the concert? Well for one I love Utah as a state. Utah is fantastic it is gorgeous the weather by the way

when we were there was amazing as well and you know it's funny because you know I come out of Colorado

and you know everyone thinks Denver has mountains and stuff. No the mountains aren't in Denver at all they're actually like kind of far away but Utah's Salt Lake in particular is right there at the foot of the mountains and I think it is a gorgeous city we had a chance Monica as well and I had a chance to swing by Archie's National Park as well on the trips. I mean that was really cool. In there man I've been there. It was that's fabulous. It was great. Now having said that the

concert was really cool as well. I mean people were excited to be at that concert and the band was

“really good. I mean this this was a fantastic event in every possible way and the back drop of the”

mountains right there at the amphitheater with the concert was just so cool. Couldn't beat it. Awesome. Well I guess that I was sorry that I missed that event. I do love Utah quite a bit. It's one of the most beautiful states going. It really is. If people hadn't spent much time like I grew up in these coast I live in Midwest. I didn't spend a lot of time Utah until last 10 years and man it is stunning in all kinds of different ways depending on where you are in the state.

So now I didn't get to attend this event but we did have my colleague Heather Andrews filling for me. And besides some of the guests she talked to. She also did some man on the street interviews asking to hear people's one small step stories of how they got involved and we want to share those with you. I want to welcome Heather back to the podcast. Welcome Heather. Thanks, David. Well hey thanks so much for going to this. I know it was in your backyard and it's a

super fun event. I mean there's speakers. There was a concert by the band low cash. I mean how

was the concert? Yeah I'll be honest with you. I had never heard of low cash before that night

not even one song and by the end of it I was actually standing at their merch table buying two of their hats and asked them to sign one of them. So I was a big fan. The energy and that crowd was actually really something. What people kept saying to me afterwards was how intimate it felt like the band was playing for them and not at them and you know how sometimes those bigger venues you just kind of get lost and so I had a lot of people also tell me flat out it was one of the best

concerts they'd ever been to and most of them had walked in that night kind of the same way I did just curious and not really knowing what to expect. So it was amazing and I'm so sad you missed it David. I am too. I mean what a great way to celebrate America as soon as 15th birthday. We've done it so many different ways around the country and this is just a super fun one that's so great. So who are some of the speakers that spoke? Yeah so Kevin Green, the state director in Utah

kicked things off and then we heard from the Attorney General in Utah Derek Brown and then Daniel Garza who leads the Libra Initiative he got up and told his own American dream story and really there's something about hearing a person tell you where they started with you know very limited means and then where they've ended up that does more for room than any speech about opportunity

heard Daniel Garza tell his story many times but it really never gets old in my opinion.

I couldn't agree more. Daniel if people haven't checked out Daniel Garza Google I'm looking up he's president of the Libra Initiative he has a phenomenal story of being like the son of immigrant you know migrant workers eventually becoming a cop you know working in the eventually working in the Bush White House then starting a Libra Initiative he's phenomenal how they're I heard him oh probably a few weeks ago at an event and I don't think a lot of people knew who he was when he

started speaking and by the time he was done it was a standing ovation like a truly spontaneous standing

“ovation and that's how dynamic Daniel is I love listening to speak some clad I'm so glad he was there”

so why you were there you got talked to people about their one small step story about you know how they got involved in public policy or their community or politics and you talked to a former Marine and before we play this clip of him sharing why he got involved can you share some background about yes so Josh Daniels and I go way back I was working for AFP Utah at the time and he was the director of policy for Libertas Institute and we actually spent years like working side by side

on legislation aimed at getting government barriers out of the way of ordinary people in the state of Utah and it was actually some of the most fun I've ever had in this work and one of the

things I'm most grateful for from those years is that Josh helped me build the very first legislative

scorecard AFP Utah ever had and that scorecard changed what we could hold legislators accountable to and it started with the two of us kind of figuring it out together so really really grateful for Josh and the clip you're gonna see and here gets into one of my favorite bills we ever worked on which was ending mandatory vehicle safety inspections in Utah 25 years ago I raised my hand and sworn oath of allegiance to the Constitution when I joined the Marines and after I came home from

Iraq and you know went to school and started to you know enter the workforce to start by career I realized that our country has a lot of barriers to entry for people that want to be successful and for me was economic freedom here in Utah for example our local service stations you know auto mechanic type work everybody was required to get a safety inspection for your career a totally unnecessary thing I wasn't mechanic in the Marines I could do my own you know car repair car was safe I

know how to do safety inspections I was inspecting armored humvies and I rack for safety I can do my own car but this is sort of an unnecessary economic regulation on the everyday

person and so I got involved here in Utah to advocate for a lot that that basically removed those

“inspections and I'll never forget when we went into the legislative committee that this bill was”

being heard in and as we arrived to the room the whole way was completely full of jiffy loop technicians and obviously it was a jiffy loop protectionist issued it was going on right and that was just totally unnecessary for the average consumer and that bill was successful and we're playing it didn't jiffy loops go out of business I mean I'm grateful for jiffy loop they give veterans free you know oil changes and veterans day I've done that it's great but um but you know the

state and business I still got a jiffy loop I still have to have my oil change so I have to have an emissions inspection for the safety inspection was just an unnecessary economic burden yeah and so that was something that inspired me and and from then I moved on and worked with a variety of organizations AFT and others to just advocate for individual freedom economic liberty

“which ultimately leads to prosperity for people and that that's what this is all about that's what”

this country is about and we all reap the rewards and benefits of that prosperity but it starts with individual freedom yeah that's great so Heather our next clip is someone who actually you know was part of your story of getting involved your one small step story so how did you meet Lisa yeah so that story actually goes back even further which is like all the way back to 2009 um I had been really reading everything I could get my hands on trying to

figure out kind of my foundation of what I believed when it came to politics and um philosophy too

growing sense that it I was supposed to be doing something with what I was learning but I also had

“four kids still at home and absolutely zero idea about where a person and even starts to get involved”

so I just actually just showed up I walked into my county GOP office and asked if I could volunteer and that's where I met Lisa Shepard who was then the secretary of the Utah County GOP at the time and Lisa really took me under her wing she just taught me how the political system in Utah works she helped me figure out where I'd be most useful and she literally cheered me on the entire time you know I started volunteering on the Mike Lee campaign and even though she she was

kind of like on the side of another candidate um and then when I got hired into his office after he won she she just told me how proud she was of me and I've watched her do that exact same thing for hundreds of people since and and that's just who Lisa is and so yeah this clip is Lisa sharing her story of how she actually got involved I had a neighbor pretty much Christian Sherey and she her uncle was running for Congress and so she asked me to come to a convention with her and I went to

the convention with her and then afterwards she moved away and the person that moved into the house that she was living in they asked me to come to a caucus and so it's like that one house which is like well four houses away from my house they still live in that area with that one house got me involved in that I was a stay-in-home long six little ones and being in politics gave me an out

“the house and it gave me a purpose right outside of the home and something that was really important”

for all of our country but most importantly for Mike Lee yeah absolutely it was yeah and it just gave me the confidence to go back to school if I get a degree because you went back to school about a degree in political science right yeah yeah and when we were on the constitution by laws yet together and when I was a chair of that you know after watching some of the results so we had there it really gave me the confidence to go back to school I was gonna go to law school

but then I found out about this little one I found out about this one here that her mom was pregnant with her and I decided that this was far more important than me going to law school I didn't want to

miss the first three years of polite that's beautiful and then but then you stepped up again and

to tell me about that like but it wouldn't inspired you to run for local elected house office then once again marshal job comes so she was my representative this boy and she went on school board she's where it was I'm not she's my mayor but she called me she said I'm John it's your turn and it's like oh well let me talk to my husband and the next thing I knew everybody heard that I was running and so I was running like this time I got a general that I didn't end up with

the primary so I actually look at that way so I'll get four years to serve and we'll see what happens after the awesome well hey Heather one guy that you actually got to talk to moved here from another country several years ago and looked for ways to get involved take a listen to his story a grew up in Melbourne Australia I'm very cool accent yeah I appreciate it yeah so about 17 years of my life there and I'll figure out your high school I was like you know what

I just want something new I'm the door citizen of the US as well and so I was like let's just go to the US check it out if I don't like it no big deal I'll just come back home well I moved your week before covered lockdowns oh and then Australia shut down completely it's a stranded here

no friends no family no connections I was like but I'm a passion for the US politics finally enough

“for because of the 2016 election as I'm sure the most important generation after and I just”

started getting involved in it making meeting new people I joined every sort of conservative club I could find at UVU and one of them being 20 point USA and I was reached down to by one of the members there asking if I wanted to be an officer I said yes next thing you know on the chapter president and then so yeah for volunteering yeah never volunteer and then yeah I ended up just tabling and now I'm gonna be the filter representative for turning point over seeing all of the

college colleges here in Utah the biggest thing that I hear from our students is that politics is just messy it's too chaotic it's too divisive and they just don't want any part of that and my my message to them is hey you know what it is messy like and there's no questioning that but you can fix that you can go out and you just sit and ride to vote to make change to possible is to get involved yourself how there was your biggest takeaway from his story because I know you talked to them

for longer yeah so just an incredible story and here's here's what got me about it you know this is

the this is a young man who absolutely had every reason to stay on the sidelines it wasn't his country you know he didn't grow up with any of what's going on here and he instead of just like trying

conservative club he could find on campus and you know one of them just happened to be turning point

“and he so he shows up he volunteers and then they ask him to leave the university chapter”

he looked around basically and decided you know this was worth his time to help and yes that took

him actually somewhere none of us could have seen coming Caleb is the one who coordinated bringing Charlie Kirk to Utah Valley University he was up on that stage he had the honor of introducing him to that enormous crowd that showed up that day to hear from Charlie Kirk and he was standing just a few feet away when Charlie was shot can you imagine you know I I thought about that so many times since I had that conversation with him he was a kid who joined a club because he

wanted to do something and he ended up living through the worst day this movement has known

in recent times and he was standing right there in Utah this summer telling me the whole story

you know still in it and still showing up and I just think that that's I mean they're they're just not worth that's just so what a special especially young man I mean the resolved to to stay involved and to keep fighting for what he believes and after experiencing such a tragic historic day man absolutely there are other people traveled all the way from Hawaii to attend the event also right so you got to talk to Dr. Kina from the grassroots Institute of Hawaii how did you get

introduced to him yeah so in my in my role as the western regional director I have I have the pleasure of working with aligned organizations across the region and Hawaii is part of that and grassroots institute is led by Dr. Akina and they are just doing remarkable work in a state where the reflex on almost every issue is more government regulation more government spending they actually have one of the most complicated and complex tax brackets in the entire country

and what I admire is how patiently they go about it despite being you know in the significant minority they you know sit down with legislators walk them through what a policy is actually going to do to people's lives before it passes they do a lot of educating like we do and grassroots across across the islands they they hold legislative wrap-up sessions and on every island to connect people to what happened because as you know David like you know there's Honolulu where you know these

“things happen on the island of a Wahoo but that you know there's a huge disconnect you have to”

actually fly to like Maui and fly to Kauai and so a lot of these people don't really know what's happening because it's happening on another island so they do a really good job of trying to connect people to what's passed and also like give them a lot of opportunities to get involved and to make a difference when it comes to legislation and and things are going to affect them in the state they built an incredible tool it's called open hearings that they have so people can get online

and actually it's using AI technology but it transcribes local county city municipal

meetings and tells people you know gives them a summary and says okay here's what they discussed

and here's you know what may impact you down the line they're discussing raising taxes they're discussing this regulation and so individuals can then better understand and have you know the ability to take action on those and I just think it's incredible work that Hawaii is just such a so lucky who winds are so lucky to have this organization there and so here's Dr. Akina talking

“about why freedom is important to our nation I took the one small step because I believe in freedom”

and at the grassroots institute of Hawaii we have the opportunity to be the outpost that freedom the furthest west in America your organization is bringing people together to a fur and taking one small step yeah what our nation did 250 years ago but it was a massive step actually it brought freedom to the world in Hawaii I wish that we had more people who are celebrating but I think we will because as we let this message we know we see that it touches every state

in fact every nation every person in the world yeah we must let freedom ring the freedom means personal freedom at every level including economic freedom which is the freedom to be able to

we're fighting to preserve wow fabulous I love I love Hawaii and I know you've been there more than I have but it's a fabulous place but not friendly to conservative principles and free

market principles and I love that he's doing such great things there so other last first you talk

to we actually had on our show a few years ago sharing her one small step story and now she's the state senator so here's Heidi sharing what she's been working on just like in every year it's like it's like when you have the back to school jitters and you're you know you lay out your outfit

“the night before and you're so excited that's how I feel before every legislative session”

oh and so this off session part it's a it's a time to prepare and and look at look at potential legislation that can better stay in this year I have a couple bills two of them are

constituent driven to constituents came to me with issues I always research them first before I

say yes or no sometimes I end up referring to them to someone else if it's not an idea I can get behind but in this case they were actually good ideas and so one of them is about generating we you know this cycle we even saw we saw with congressional campaigns with the congresswoman Maloy AI generated images that are used in election airing and we don't have anything on the books that's generally you know it's I'd like to deregulate it do all that but you know when it's used

improperly you know we have to make sure that we are we are staying right there at the line where we don't have fringe on the first amendment but also protecting people from slander libel and and the creation of these artificial images and campaigning and so we're going to do something in that space the other one is right up right up American for prosperity's alley where it's it's about our occupational licensing reforms at our constituents when who is the first the first

in our state to do mobile emissions and mobile vehicle registration a couple others have joined them but it's kind of a new and emerging business model and in the course of doing business he's expanded his business and he's dealt with five different counties in the state and every county has different hotspots regulations and some barriers for example and you talk county

“they say you have to use this specific camera to take a photo you use any other camera it's”

ridiculous it's it's right it's not about safety no that's just one example but we're looking to deregulate the real law for him and others that will come behind so that that's also exciting that is exciting and then as far as legislation I did this year I actually have a model policy that I'll be presenting at Alec or the American executive legislative council and it's my military crosswalk bill which helps our military members to have their skills recognize and to translate

into certificates or licenses and it's it's one of the 90 that is going to be presented this summer wow she's doing such great great work so you've known Heidi for a while and so what's it been like this year ago from being an activist to being a the state senator now

yeah it's just it's just been incredible I honestly knew Heidi was destined for something

she really and it probably comes out like she has this passion insider that you can just

“feel the second she walks into her room and I will never forget you know inviting her to”

the very first grassroots leadership academy training we held in Utah right after the AFP office opened here and you know seeing what she took and she learned there and then running for leadership in her local party you know then you know getting involved in even more groups and you know getting elected to serve in in other ways and she just used this remarkable gift she has for connecting people to build relationships all over the state that eventually let her to working

at AFP and then eventually you know running for states on it and winning winning that seat and I just I just I just am so in awe because I I just think Heidi is is exemplary with with taking civic duty seriously she just really loves being involved and and helping people and I'm so grateful I got to be a small part of that well she you know she's just another great example that I think we've shown throughout this episode folks you talk to that exemplify all the folks

celebrate the one small step initiative which is people deciding to take that action to get involved

“to make their community better their state better their nation better and there's so much great”

stuff throughout history that that's come from that and it's going to keep continuing so I'm just excited for these stories of folks who are doing it you know in this case in Utah or Hawaii so

you know when you're talking to people they're I mean you've done it across the you know Utah

and the Pacific Northwest I mean what would you say to anybody who's looking to get involved you know I just I would say get involved and I mean that literally like today like walk into and there's oh there's going to be an AFP office near you if there's not you know there's someone that is working for AFP in that state there's definitely one closer than you think and the people inside those offices will meet you exactly where you are you don't need a background in politics

you don't need to be the most educated person with a you know fancy degree I I didn't have one in 2009 I was a mom with four kids at home with you know having a stack of books and no

plane at all and all I did was show up and so I just really urge people there's never been a

better time as you know David like it's watching these this election that's happening now with the Democratic Socialists that are you know winning elections across the country

“there is never been a more important time to stand up and get involved if you believe in the”

principles that made this country the greatest nation on earth then now is the time to get involved yeah that's great best of each other I really appreciate you stepping in and taking care of the interviewing duties and telling these great stories there in Utah and I appreciate all the times that you're feeling for me as our go to guest host and all that you're doing for AFP well I appreciate the opportunity thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so

awesome well folks if you like this episode and like to stay connected with the podcast be sure to like subscribe to our channel as well as following us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram

“and all these remember freedom and liberty are easily take for granted don't take them for granted”

go out there and defend liberty freedom thanks for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode thank you for listening to American potential you may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities by visiting of americanpotential.com