What's Next for Jacksonville's Development?

[00:00:00] Due to technical difficulties, we will not have a new episode of Mike's on Mic this week, but instead we're going to bring back an episode that was very popular. In fact the most downloaded

[00:00:09] episode we have done thus far. Our guest was David Miller. He's a philanthropist and also co-founder of Brightway Insurance. And if you've seen it before, you'll enjoy it a second time if you haven't seen it yet, I think you'll enjoy it. Thank you.

[00:00:22] Welcome to Mike's on Mic. A conversation about politics, government, and Jacksonville. Join 50 year opinion leaders, Mike Hightower, Mike Tolbert and award winning broadcasts and longtime political observer, Mike Miller. Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another episode of

[00:00:38] Mike's on Mic. I'm Mike Miller. Mike, hi towers with us here in Stoody and of course, Mike Tolbert is once again out at the barn and he still shoveling stuff from over the holidays.

[00:00:47] So we hope for hopefully we'll get him back in this studio here in the next couple of weeks. Special guest today and I should start this out by saying that we're not really related.

[00:00:57] We say we're related, but we're not really related. But boy, there's no one I would rather be related to than David Miller. David, it's great to have you with us. Thank you so much. Welcome. David is co-founder executive chairman of Brightway Insurance. One of the largest

[00:01:10] property and casualty insurance agencies in the nation collaborating to lift up the community is what David strives to do. In addition to serving as Emerald Trail Co-Charmin and I want to ask about that. I'm not sure what that is. David also is working with other

[00:01:24] local leaders on lift jacks and initiative to address poverty in our community. Along with other local leaders, he founded our jacks on profit focused in demanding transparency in city government. He's an active supporter of the United Way and advocate of the LGBTQ plus community and serves

[00:01:42] as senior advisory council for one jacks. Over the years David has served on a number of boards, including leadership jats of Bill and the chamber, the civic council which you still are on and the Jewish community alliance where he has been in past presidency. Also supports the

[00:01:57] Sandy Miller Metropolitan Institute, which is a program that bears his mother's name, which brings youths from all over the city together to build character and leadership skills. David, nice to have you with us. Thank you. Thank you. All of you here with my three friends.

[00:02:12] And thank you so much. And thank you for your support of this. Appreciate it. That's very, very much. Mr. Tolberg, kick it off. Well, I want to go back and correct something you see. He's no longer the executive chairman of Brighway as I understand it because he recently

[00:02:28] sold the right way. He still is still on the board. I think he can still hear some role. But David, tell us something. You and your brother founded that in 2008. Yeah. What was the secret?

[00:02:41] What was your secret sauce that made Brighway work like it did become so successful so quickly? Yeah. Well, well, first we, we still own a significant percentage of the company. Mike Lennie are still very active in the board and strategic direction, but not operationally

[00:02:58] day to day. But going back to 2008, the thing that really made the difference was a focus on like other companies that that benchmark themselves on other companies. We really looked to benchmark ourselves and base ourselves on a customer experience. That was our North Star. And we recognize that

[00:03:18] if we're going to reach our potential, every individual associated with our company needed to reach their potential. And so, and it's interesting as, you know, we've been on this life journey together

[00:03:30] the three of us through some of the things you talked about and being members of the community. It's really interesting that that idea that worked so incredibly well in business without any outside capital, without any outside advertising, be able to create value where no one saw it.

[00:03:52] happens in the community as well. The same laws that work, then that have worked at Brightway to be able to create tremendous value from a business standpoint. That same kind of idea I found works exactly the same way in a community. When you focus on the right things.

[00:04:11] Inclare, quite a David, only because you said it to our youth group. Talk about the first agency where you started. Yeah, so we started at the corner of LEM Turner and Sutil.

[00:04:25] And if you watch the 11 o'clock news, you know, a lot of times that's on the 11 o'clock news, not for the best things. But I'll tell you, we realized that at our core, that people are people.

[00:04:42] And some of the most wonderful people, great relationships, friendships that had nothing to do with race, had nothing to do with economics were based on getting to know each other side by side. And, you know, that first office had burglar bars on it and had buzzer. It was,

[00:05:02] it wasn't much to look at. But it showed the power of ideas. People think you've got to have, you know, the shiny this and that. But at the end of the day, it's what's under the hood that counts.

[00:05:14] Right. And better ideas ended up winning the day. How many employees were there? Three. And the three we had not, honestly, I don't think I was. You Daniel a Michael. It wasn't. No, no, it started with me and then three wonderful human beings

[00:05:32] who just didn't have much education but had a lot of heart. And, you know, then Michael within a month came on and then Daniel and having many employees. So three to what now. There are about 1500 or so around the country. We have customers in every state. We have

[00:05:49] offices in most states, 35 or so and we ran January last year were a billion. I think we've finished a billion and a quarter. Wow. Again, with no, you know, none of the things that you

[00:06:04] would typically think a business needs to grow. I have to throw in something rather personal. I do business with the Riverside office of right way. And every time I call over there and, of course, whoever answers the phone says who's calling please? And I say it's Mike Miller.

[00:06:21] All of that. I can see them jumping out of their chairs. I'm wondering if I'm that Mike Miller. So now have to do it. Hi, this is the other Mike Miller calling it. I'm not going to prove Mike.

[00:06:32] I'm not sure about what you are on that. I'm not sure. I better use that one. I call the orange part right away. I'll see what it does. Yeah, just tell me or the other Mike Miller.

[00:06:41] Other Mike Miller will be interested. You still won't get the call. I'm saying we'll give you a call back when we get off the phone. No, no, I was in a jail there are awesome. Yeah, that's a kind.

[00:06:50] Yeah, let's jump into some of the issues. One of the things that I really wanted to get into and Tolbert and I talked about this and so did Hi Tower. And that is we're a bunch of old

[00:07:01] folks. The three of us we really are. I won't get into what our exact agents are, but I can tell you this that when Moses called me, I told him I could meet him on the mountain. But,

[00:07:13] and Tolbert was there when they did stay to it. So we're dead. Actually, you don't know this, but Tolbert was the one who wrote the ten commandments. Who else would do a speech writing for someone

[00:07:22] that would hurt him? He was laughing. He was laughing. Well, just to get out of Egypt. And you were laughing a fail to say, I'm going to go. I said, we got a no, everyone said, oh, there's two sides of that one. We asked the question.

[00:07:42] We've really had our days and our history and our experience with the city and with issues and all these other things, but you seem to represent the new generation of leadership in this community. And I think

[00:07:54] all of us wonder who is going to be on that list along with you or is going to take this city to the next level and get us to where we all really want it to be? Well, I'll tell you. I think it's going to

[00:08:06] be we need everyone. We need the institutional knowledge. We need the wisdom that you guys bring. You know, I think Mike, you've been involved in city government for 50 years. That kind of background

[00:08:18] is you get's priceless. You can't buy it. And the wisdom that you guys have is incredibly important. But you're right, there's always a case of passing the baton in different ways and always developing

[00:08:31] new people. And I think a lot of it is it comes back to not what not starting with what are the right answers, but what are the right questions that we need to be asking? And what does success look

[00:08:43] like for a city? And if you are very clear, one of the things that's interesting, values, your community values should never change. Your tactics will always change and should always change. People have a problem when they get to confused. So like our values are we value individuals

[00:09:05] in this community. We really value that individuals can reach their individual potential. And that's our North Star. That's how we define success. I think it jacks of the will. You can go to Los Angeles,

[00:09:19] you can go to Miami, you can go to Atlanta, you can go to any of these big cities. And you know what you're guaranteed of? That city will not be any different because you're there. You come to jacks

[00:09:29] of them. You grow up in jacks. When you come here and you choose to be here, you choose to be here. And this place can and will be different for the people who choose to be here. And that's,

[00:09:41] when you talk about the flip side to us, our potential and realizing our potential is a city. That's what it is. It's about individuals realizing their potential. And when individuals are doing that, the city is going to realize its potential. Not until one of the things that's

[00:09:57] so what kind of girl would you give us now? Well I think we're just kind of great at this point in time. Well I like, I like to look forward. And I don't think there's been a more optimistic time

[00:10:09] in our history than there is right now. And I'll tell you why. I think we've got for the first time this coalescence between the mayor and her administration that is asking the right questions. You have the civic council which represents the largest businesses in jacks and the largest

[00:10:30] employers right on the same page. Really thinking about what's the infrastructure we need. Thinking about a 10-year plan, not just a political plan to get elected. But what is the future

[00:10:42] going to look like for jacks and a 10 years? And what are the four so different things that we need to be focusing on? We need to be a destination for families, for graduates, for businesses. And we

[00:10:53] need to focus on education. We've got to turn it around. We've got to make that a great strength of ours. We have to be a community that welcomes ideas and debate and critical thinking.

[00:11:07] And that's going to be the core of what helps for Pellus going forward. Connectiveness is one of the key things that we need to focus on. And now we're doing it and we're being more focused

[00:11:19] around it. That along with our, some of our most important not-for-profits. The leadership at those institutions is probably better than it's ever been. One of the things that an old employer of mine used to say, Mike Blaylock, another Mike on Mike used to say all the time was

[00:11:38] or what is jacks and no one would be when it grows up. And I still think we're trying to answer that question of really where do we want to be in 20 years from now? Where do we want to be in

[00:11:48] 50 years now? What's the city going to look like? Yeah. Well, I think it should take on all of there are certain things that should be consistent throughout the city, the ideas that we talked about from a value standpoint. But tactically, we have individual communities that are separate

[00:12:09] and distinct and flavorful. A city that's a big strip mall is not desirable to anyone. But a city that's jacks and build that has these different unique kind of places where people can enjoy and there are individual communities and richness in those communities. And there's relationships

[00:12:27] and there's connectivity, not only physical connectivity and we're thinking about that, things like the Emerald Trail and things like our great TTA that's doing fantastic work on thinking about how we're going to really be connecting different pieces. All of that's really important.

[00:12:47] Tell us a little bit about you talking about the civic council. And I do not know that's so much of who they individually are. Help us understand of the cross section

[00:12:58] of because I'm familiar with some of them, but I think it's there in a new place. You talked about the alignment with this new mayor. That's a huge opportunity and it's a positive. Help us

[00:13:11] explain to us why you think that is a very positive thing, particularly given by the fact of where we want to be for the next couple of years. Well, I'll tell you. So the civic council, the

[00:13:21] memberships made up of the largest employers, the different university presidents, some of our biggest not-for-profits. There's a cross section of the people who are really driving the activity in our community. And there was a recognition by Mari Kriashi who heads the Jesse DuPont fund

[00:13:47] and others who recognize we needed to do an Eric Man, our current chair that we needed to do as a 10-year plan, a strategic plan that the role of the civic council was not just to respond

[00:13:59] to things that happen up up in the news, which we certainly will do. But to be more proactive and say, you know, who is the one organization that's going to have in their eyes that 10-year horizon?

[00:14:15] Because typically, you know, mayors are elected for four years and great cities to do great things. They typically take more than four years. New mayors have new ideas. And we need to be able

[00:14:26] to say keep the focus of the community on these longer-term goals and work with our mayors and our city council people and our elected officials to accomplish those goals. So that's really the difference. Then what happened, we went from really a chair, led organization to one that's

[00:14:47] a professionally run organization and this is very recently bringing in an incredibly high-level CEO, someone who's work-all-abored Dennis Whittle, who used to be a senior executive at the world bank and has connectivity and it has visibility to communities all over the world, has set up

[00:15:08] not for profits himself publicly traded companies and a brilliant thinker. And we're grateful for him especially because his work is going to be managing to that 10-year plan. And so you'll have

[00:15:22] chairs of this civic council that will come and they will go and they will rotate every couple of years. But rather than the vision changing every couple of years, the vision's real clear. We have our

[00:15:32] North star and it's 10 years from now. And it's a community that I was helping to describe where people, there's more focus on education, there's more focus on individuals reaching their personal potential. There is focus on the right kind of infrastructure that creates a level playing

[00:15:48] field where entrepreneurs can go and innovate and feel free to create and doesn't pick winners. I think in the past we tried to artificially pick who the winners are going to be. And we don't need

[00:15:59] to do that. We have all these great resources in play, probably the best suite of resources of any city in the country right now. You've got to think about that. We've got people wanting

[00:16:10] to move to Florida and Jacksonville is the best place to do it. I was talking to Tony Cho who is a developer at Miami. He's been involved in several billion dollars of redevelopment in Miami

[00:16:24] and he's blown away in Jacksonville. He's working on a project right next to East Side, which you mentioned, Lift Jacks is the Phoenix Art District, which is going to be a complete redevelopment of that area over something like an A-Daker type parcel that's going to connect East Side

[00:16:44] to Springfield. And that's the whole point of this, rather than having little pockets of success here or there, it's the key is connecting all of the success that we're seeing, all the development that's going on and it is going on. And working together and collaboratively.

[00:17:04] Mr. Talbert? Well, David Miller, he'll make no understand the connectivity associated with the emerald trail. He seemed like to know what the emerald trail is. I don't understand how that could possibly be. But would you explain to him about that?

[00:17:24] I didn't see that train coming at all, that just ran over me up to I was starting to see his. It's only because Miller can't spell emerald. You were talking about their chef, Emerald Lagassi. Yeah, that's I thought he was going to have

[00:17:40] a trail here in Jacksonville. I'm sure. Yeah, no, it was just it was one of those things and I'll tell you, well Brian Wolfberg and I who Brian's the CEO of I star. It was very early on. We said

[00:17:55] this is fantastic. It's rare that you have a project that is like a win-win win on every level. Typically, it's good for some. It's not so good for others. It's a mixed bag. This was 100%

[00:18:09] it's just fantastic. And that's why the community's rallied behind it so much. Yes, it's good for resiliency. Yes, it's good for connecting different communities. Yes, it's good for accentuating our river and connecting the different communities that it's going to touch all through the urban

[00:18:25] course, and Marco Riverside Brooklyn Springfield, all of that. But it's going to be an amenity that are local entrepreneurs are going to be able to develop around just like the river. We're actually, you know, there are communities around the country that have actually dug

[00:18:43] rivers to then build upon them. Right? We are creating a new amenity that is going to bring people together for connectivity, for social events, for dining and sports and those kind of things. And that's what Jacksonville's future is. It's what the Jaguar's are working on. It's what

[00:19:07] our local developers are working on. And it's what we're seeing people really want. They want that connectivity coming out of COVID. We recognized that the rubbing elbows with people, that's where the good stuff happens. Doesn't happen on our phones. Well, how do we get,

[00:19:25] and let's use the Emerald Trail as an example? How do we get that to become part of the DNA of Jacksonville? Because right now, other than our friend Mark Woods who will take it on whenever

[00:19:35] he came to talk about any advancements that are made in the Emerald Trail, I don't see our television outlets doing much on that. I don't hear our politicians talking about it, including, by the way, those city council members whose districts are going to be part of that Emerald

[00:19:50] Trail and should be well invested into it. It's just not on the tip of our lips like it should be. Or at the tip of our tongue as it should be where everybody knows what we're talking about.

[00:20:02] Do a poll right now and ask the people of Jacksonville, what do you think about the Emerald Trail? And how many of them are going to say, what is that first?

[00:20:10] Yeah. I don't know. I think I tend to think more people are familiar than that you might think. I hope so. But I think it's a fair question. And it's important. This right here

[00:20:20] is what's critical for Jacksonville. We have to have these conversations. We have to talk about ideas. And when you're doing that, the best ideas will rise to the top. It's when things happen in the

[00:20:30] darkness that we know bad things happen. And, you know, when I think about our friendship and I think about how we got to know each other it was how we sort of, you know, join hands

[00:20:43] so to speak when we saw things that just weren't right. And we didn't know exactly what we needed to do but we've recognized that our voice was the tool that we needed to use. And being

[00:20:53] silent is not a way to empower people to feel like this is their city. And that's what I think is really so special about this place, is that you know, you're one person away from making a

[00:21:04] difference in Jacksonville. That is really amazing. We have we're one of, you know, we're in an NFL city. Yet we're a place that's small enough that any individual can really get involved can really make a difference. And we're becoming much more transparent. We're creating these different

[00:21:23] opportunities to not for profits, tremendous number of young professionals, the ones that I met through the high tower fellowship or great examples. Just amazing energy enthusiasm competence and a lot more moving here every day. You know, and I've said this to high tower a number of

[00:21:42] times because his leadership with emerging leaders, which is part of the chamber. That's really to me that's like the minor leagues of these players that are going to eventually make it to the

[00:21:55] majors. And they will be the ones that are going to be sitting in this chair along with you telling us what we need to be doing and what we're going to be doing about this city to make a

[00:22:04] time. I will tell you David was we're fixing Friday night. We graduate class seven. So because there was one year when there was 18 after this, there'll be 120 emerging leaders all under

[00:22:20] the age of 41. Who are looking to people like David Miller or you know folks like Mar, Mar or other people that are taking their life's journeys lessons learned when David was there he was

[00:22:37] unbelievable. There was no question he didn't ask. He answered, there was unbelievable and if they walked away with something that they would have never had the chance to do which underscores what David just said. I think is one of the really things that makes Jacksonville unique.

[00:22:56] There in this city is a pillage to an Orlando or a Miami or pick whatever you want. You can still have young people that will have the opportunity to have access to people like David Miller

[00:23:08] or some of these other folks like David Man or whoever to consider for a couple hours and have that kind of conversation and I would think, oh the guest speaker and the emerging leader walked

[00:23:20] away with something special would you not agree? You always look I benefited more than they did and it's really it's striking to me when you you put yourself out there and you just say and I

[00:23:31] did with the script by tried something different. And I said I'll make a deal with you guys and I said I'll be vulnerable if you're vulnerable. And I think people were taking

[00:23:44] back because typically when you talk to groups you have someone who just says stuff and you kind of okay that sounds good and you know you days later you don't remember much of it but I think

[00:23:56] you know it's interesting when we just recognize what's important that you know what we've done isn't really important it doesn't matter I'm not important what is important is to each individual

[00:24:09] what what really matters to them and so you know when it was funny we you started out with a question prompt and something about what was the most important piece of change that everyone's done

[00:24:24] and and I went around and I asked everyone I said all right so I'm gonna ask you what it do you remember what everyone said about all the things that they did that were so fantastic and they said

[00:24:36] yeah it's a much and this is their class and it was honest and I go you know why because no in cares they don't care about what you're doing necessarily they care about reaching their own

[00:24:48] potential and the more that we're aligned around thinking about how we get people working together so every individual can reach their own potential that's where great stuff happens and so our role is developing people it's not doing a form but it's it's it's being honest it's developing strong

[00:25:08] leaders which is not always comfortable it's making people feel uncomfortable you know we're we're a city of survivors not a city of victims and the sooner we recognize the sooner the sooner

[00:25:22] we'll be we'll be realizing our potential that is profound yeah it is let's get to let's get into some issues first of all I know you're a big cheerleader of the fourth floor on the left side

[00:25:35] where is the mayor tell us how you think she's doing I like the left the right I'm kind of in the middle myself I like I you know I've supported you know every mayor and I've worked with that

[00:25:47] the left side of the yeah yeah yeah but but I guess my point is is that we should all support our mayor because at the end of the day there's an election and then there's someone who's doing the job

[00:26:00] and if we want to reach our potential as a city we've got to support whoever's in that in that seat and now realize that doesn't mean blind support that doesn't mean they say something and I follow

[00:26:11] that means being there that means debating it means speaking up when you need to speak up to help them do the things that need to be done but this is democracies in active sport it's not it's

[00:26:24] not an armchair sport and export well and and I'll tell you there are a few things that I think are really unique and special about our mayor I think number one I think she's a tremendous communicator

[00:26:36] I know master and I you know sometimes you need someone interpret I don't think you need anyone to interpret what she's saying she speaks from our heart and I believe you know with my

[00:26:47] relationship with her I believe she's doing this because she truly loves our city she doesn't have anything necessarily to prove she you know is battle cancer she's got one kid names and you know

[00:27:01] she runs mayorathons and you know recently I was able to talk to her after last meeting at about 11 PM one night and she gets up at like four in the morning and so she's a super hard working

[00:27:15] individual she's doing it for the right reasons and I think you know personnel is is a really an interesting thing I think the goal is to have the best people in every seat all the time

[00:27:27] that's where that's your vision your vision is to have the best people tactically that's going to change yep data on the along those same lines talking about leadership the thing that strikes me about her

[00:27:39] there are two things that come out transparency and authenticity would you agree hundred percent yeah I just what and just to pick up on the John Peyton former mayor used to say

[00:27:52] after this election he said you know what she's our city CEO if we're going to go forward we need to follow her yep here go there maybe real clear but the two year transparency and authenticity yeah and you know something I you know look she is incredibly strong

[00:28:11] but when but I'll tell you when you make a really good argument for something she's willing to listen and I respect people who are able to be vulnerable enough to recognize that you know what

[00:28:23] I you know I have a perspective but if you have a better one I'm willing to change yeah and that's what we need an article it that kind of temperament is the kind of leadership

[00:28:32] that that we need as we're going to evolve and become our best city mr. Tolbert I hear your dog barking yeah I want to cut I know it I kind of want to go back to where we

[00:28:45] started this a lot leadership David Mike I tell her and I have had this discussion since the mid-90s about the current crop of leaders and who's going to follow who's going step into their

[00:28:57] shoes when the time has come one of my observations one of my theories is that most often the community leaders have been people who grew up here who have invested money in the community who whose family's house and then they inherit that and they were

[00:29:15] wounded the positions of community leadership we're now a different city we're sitting now where people are moving in here by the scores a lot of smart and then even creating people

[00:29:29] how do we get them how do we open the doors for them to become part of the community leadership to take advantage of that and I'm going to make it one more observation it's my theory my feeling watching this over the last 50 years

[00:29:48] that in earlier years there was a time when the community leaders necessarily didn't want to invite you, bloody and I'm hoping that that's no longer the case I'd like to hear what you think.

[00:30:00] Well I'll start with the last comment first I think that as you said it must change and it is changing and I look I had people like the CEO of Viceroy Brian Wolfberg he's been here now for a handful

[00:30:15] of years and in five years has done more for Viceroy then you know the preceding decades that that they've had the company was still the same but under new vision and new leadership

[00:30:28] they've been able to turn something that was you know doing fine to something that has really been transformative in our city that has become prominent downtown Brian is an individual has been on many boards and has been involved in personally as a human leader, as a cultural leader

[00:30:48] and as a business leader I mean he's he's a perfect example of one of those folks and and I think the key is it's it's it's not an war it's an end and I think we need everyone and the key is for people

[00:31:03] to play their most authentic role and that's congruent with who they are. If we're if we're at a place where we figure out you know and everyone's thinking about things through the right lens

[00:31:16] you know what's the best way for me to engage that's gonna be able to make the best difference for me but also more importantly for the community as a whole and I think that's the big difference

[00:31:28] in the past people looked at the community as a way to benefit themselves period and I think now there's a sense that you know rising tide will lift all ships and so that investment in the

[00:31:43] common good in the right kind of infrastructure will end up making a community that we're proud of it's that will be Jacksonville reaching its potential it's a place not where we have some of the

[00:31:54] richest people period but where we have a place where people have a really they come here because of the ideas that we champion and that they've got an opportunity here to really make a difference

[00:32:08] it's always been the American dream. Okay we have to get personal here because I'm looking at the time but I can't let this this show go without bringing up the issue of anti-Semitism

[00:32:21] this is a very personal of course for both David and I David you have been tremendously generous in trying to help fight anti-Semitism. I won't get into numbers but there's a foundation that you founded with your family, with the Miller families, to match funds with organizations

[00:32:41] that are putting together programs to fight anti-Semitism and congratulations and thank you for you and Monique. What do we do about it when we had Adam Chaskin on and Eric Manon and I

[00:32:57] listened to that program again just yesterday what I was out walking and the one thing that struck me about that conversation was that letter that Adam talked about from the mother of who wouldn't

[00:33:09] let her son attend a class where they were going to be talking about the Holocaust and she was a Holocaust anir and she said this is all made up and it's all you know left wing propaganda

[00:33:21] and as he was talking about that and as I was listening to it yesterday the thought was my god another child is going to be raised with this philosophy and this thinking and wrong thinking how do

[00:33:33] we get to that kid if not being able to go into a classroom and hear from a Holocaust survivor of what it took to get through that if you won't let them listen to it then how do we get anyone who's

[00:33:46] involved in that part of this community is small but vocalists they are how do we get them to listen how do we turn this around we cannot stand for this to continue on as what we were

[00:33:58] beginning to see. Well let me let me just say you know I'm a human just like everyone else and it's it's been been tough for me in the sense well it's hit home you know in the course of one week

[00:34:14] two weeks ago both of my kids had overt anti-semitism acts of that and my niece who is a seven year old same kind of thing at school where you know people are talking about why they don't like Jews

[00:34:31] and saying well you know we like you we just don't like Jews kind of thing typical seven year old I guess stuff but for it all to happen at one time so I guess you know when you're faced with this stuff

[00:34:44] there's there's the human tendency to want to fight back to want to um you feel angry you feel hurt but I'll tell you it's typically not helpful it's not helpful to go in one

[00:34:58] a law bombs back and do it what what takes courage and takes strength is to be able to stay in your center and stand up for the things you believe for instance we've been a tremendous supporter of

[00:35:14] the African American community different communities of all different face because the idea is is that bias of all kinds is not helpful it's just not helpful it's it's we're asking the wrong

[00:35:28] the idea of who do we vote off the island we're not voting anyone off the island is America we're all here the question is how do we instead of identify who are good and bad people

[00:35:38] how do we help people be better people how do we help people um feel more secure feel more safe feel more connected feel more optimistic about their future and and the hard thing to do is when

[00:35:51] you're faced with this stuff it's easy to feel like you're a victim and I think at different times we all feel like a victim but you know something at the end of the day we're not victims we are survivors

[00:36:04] we are strong we are capable and this is our city and we're gonna stand up and we're gonna make sure that it continues to be this city we're proud of and we're gonna do it together because there are

[00:36:14] a lot more people who want a safe and secure and a warm place for their kids then there are who want to fly manners of the stadium and um want to have shootings and kill innocent people at

[00:36:28] family dollars I mean it's all symptoms of the same thing and what what I think is is challenging is when we try to say it someone else's fault you know or someone else is the problem

[00:36:42] and using a scapegoat right and it's just and and I think this is where you know it's interesting I'll draw another parallel between business and community you know wait no nine you remember the

[00:36:54] great recession right worst economy ever it was the best time in the world to start a new company I was gonna say you certainly made lemonade out of that lemonade it no one saw it but I'll tell you

[00:37:07] when there's adversity there people are open to change if everyone's comfortable they don't want to leave their job things are fine they're good enough but you know what people recognize now that what's the status quo and what that is is not good doesn't make us feel good being

[00:37:23] device of being angry constantly the amount of time that our anxiety is up because of what we see on social media or on the news it's almost as though it's designed to trigger us and we should

[00:37:37] not be victims of that we don't have to be victims of that and so anyways I think it's really important for us to focus on the flip side of how we survive how we thrive and how we do it together

[00:37:52] okay we're running out of time you're Mr. Tolberto you have a final question you'd like to ask her comment no no I don't like I just like to say my thing Mike Miller thank you for asking that

[00:38:03] question and David Miller thank you in bless you for yeah I dated it's incredible I'm thinking of a phrase that I've that I heard that just sort of sums it up about you can't you can't react

[00:38:16] in a negative way and it is how does it help to answer rudeness with rudeness how does it help to answer bigotry you have a bigotry or a meanness with meanness you can't do it and that's where the

[00:38:27] courage of people like you all and a lot of people we've got to stand up and say it's wrong and reach out to other people but thank you for one thanks for everything you're doing but thanks for

[00:38:37] being here thanks for what you and your family do every day for us right right back at all of you we we need each other in this so I'm coming back to be here come back and see us again sounds like

[00:38:48] water alright thank that's gonna do it for another episode of Mike's on Mike thank you very much for joining us of course you can find us on Facebook on our website Mike's on Mike.com you can find us

[00:38:58] on Spotify on high pot and podcasts or anywhere you get your favorite podcast or you can see it's the post office on the on the wall that's true and we're starting with merchandise folks yeah

[00:39:10] not exactly a juky moment but yeah okay also want to take the opportunity to again thank Alan Bliss and our friends over at the Jacksonville History Center and the historical society for

[00:39:22] their support of Mike's on Mike we'll see you again next week thanks for joining us and once again happy new year everyone get to you all thank you. Thank you. Mike's on Mike with my high tower

[00:39:32] Mike Tolber and Mike Miller can be found at your favorite podcasting platform Facebook and YouTube learn more at Mike's on Mike.com join us next time for more conversations with Mike's on Mike