RI Gov Candidates Release TV Ads, Campaign Season Ramps Up: Mike Raia Joins. Inside Communications presented by Half Street Group

In this episode, Mike Rea, president and founder of Half Street Group, shares insightful analysis of the current Rhode Island political landscape, focusing on campaign strategies, media influence, and voter engagement. Whether you're a political enthusiast, a strategy professional, or just curious about local elections, Mike offers a clear-eyed view into how campaigns are shaping up as election season heats up.

Key topics covered:

• Early signs of campaign strategies from Rhode Island gubernatorial candidates.
• The increasing importance of media, ads, and public events in political communication.
• Why incumbents often take unconventional routes — and why that might backfire.
• The evolving role of local journalism and its impact on public awareness.
• How third-party and independent candidates are positioning themselves.
• Timing and resource allocation in election campaigns: when voters get engaged.
• The cultural impact of political personalities and the role of celebrity in local races.
• The influence of national politics, especially Trump's presence, on local election dynamics.
• Practical advice for mental and emotional balance for campaign professionals and voters.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to the current Rhode Island political climate

00:30 - The role of media and campaign ads in early election stages

02:00 - Assessment of gubernatorial candidates’ messaging strategies

03:30 - The effectiveness of attack ads and their impact on voters

05:00 - Challenges faced by incumbents and opportunities for reintroduction

06:30 - The influence of local journalism and the decline of political commentary

08:00 - The presence (or absence) of political personalities and celebrity culture

09:45 - The delayed start of campaign activity and voter engagement

11:00 - The significance of candidate endorsements and grassroots support

12:00 - The potential effect of third-party candidates in the race

13:00 - The importance of timing in campaign spending and outreach

15:00 - The slowing of political momentum in the context of national trends

16:30 - The idea of political “baseball cards” to increase voter interest

17:30 - Practical advice for maintaining personal well-being during campaign season

19:00 - Closing thoughts on the future of Rhode Island's political media landscape

Resources & Links:

Transcript

Bill Bartholomew 0:00

Every month we go inside communications with Mike Graeda, president and founder of Half Street Group. And we've got a lot to talk about on the home front here, Michael, with it's starting to feel a little bit more like election season. Hang on, I don't mean to interrupt. You just Michael's me. It's it is we're in the season. You are now Michael. All right. Everybody heads up. Make sure you chink cross out your business cards if you've got one floating around right now with Mike Reyes' name on it and update it. Because it's getting serious, at least in the sense that the candidates for governor are now on television. And I think a lot of people, when they see Helena folks, they go, Oh, yeah, I remember she ran in what whatever it was, 2022. And I generally remember the figure. I generally remember the story, but she's positioning this election cycle as, hey, I kind of introduced myself to the state last time. Now I'm really introducing myself to the state last time. You worked with former governor Raimundo, you've worked in in and around politics and messaging for well over a decade. Your read right now on the communication strategies from the two major candidates for governor.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, I mean, I think it's interesting. We're starting to see the race uh speed up a little bit right now, obviously. In the General Assembly session wrapped up about a week ago, um, you're starting to get a sense of who's gonna run for some of those local seats. You're starting to see the congressional delegation in the state more because it's slowing down in Washington. So people are starting to pay attention. Um, and I think that that's the natural timeline of when you see candidates start to go on air. Um, and I'm sure we'll get to that in in a bit of the conversation. Um, what I think you're generally seeing from the candidates for governor, and I think we're gonna start there right now, is candidates that are recognizing that the state's willing to and that they're ready to start thinking about what they're going to be doing on that first Wednesday in September. And uh they're starting to pay attention to some of the issues and they're starting to think about the leadership around some of those issues. I mean, obviously, the Washington Bridge, school scores, those kind of things that are perennially and constantly in people's face because it's part of their everyday life, are part of the natural dialogue that they have with friends and with neighbors and with colleagues. But now there is that opportunity to be able to for candidates to insert themselves into some of that conversation that folks are having. Um so it's certainly ramping up. And I think that we can continue to expect to see more ads coming. I think that we can continue to expect to see a lot more public events that the the candidates are going to. We're gonna see a lot more direct engagement with voters doing the retail. Um, and we're gonna start to see a lot more media coverage out of it. I think this is one of the things from my past experience on the, you're gonna start to see more political questions. You're gonna start to see more he said, she said type opportunities that create a need to respond to news cycles that are not necessarily driven by the power of incumbency or the power of an insurgent challenger to a campaign.

Bill Bartholomew 3:14

What do you think of from a television ad messaging standpoint right now? It really is we haven't seen the full-on predictable line of assault, if you will. Helena Folkes making the argument that McKee is outright incompetent because of the Washington Bridge. Uh at least we haven't seen it going that direction. But the predictable line of messaging is definitely happening from the McKee side, where they're trying to position Helena Folk as an out-of-touch CEO of CVS, uh, which is in and of itself not exactly, in fact, it's not a correct um title in terms of what she was CEOs. But you're right, right. But so but so there's the there's the but this notion that she is in some way directly responsible for the opioid crisis uh and she's unreliable in that regard. So that's the message. Is that gonna work? Is that gonna resonate with people right now?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

No, I mean, I I find it that like when you said it's he's taking the put the predictable route, um, I actually think it's pretty unpredictable. I've I've never short of maybe Donald Trump seen an incumbent go negative exclusively against an insurgent challenger. Um, and it's it is a bit of a head scratcher to be totally candid. I think that it is one of those things that when you're in a position of incumbency, when you're in a position where you've got a six-year track record um and and running, it it seems a and and maybe their polling's telling them something that that we're not seeing out in in kind of the general punditry world. Um, but it that seemed to be an odd opening salvo, especially for an incumbent governor who many Rhode Islanders don't still know. Um, there's still a good amount of um unknown. Matter of when you look at the public polls that are out there, and his unfavorables are much, much, much, much, much higher than you would expect for any incumbent, um, even in a state like Rhode Island that traditionally doesn't like their government. Um but what I'm always seeing uh excuse by is the effect of he's been governor for six years and he still has a no opinion or an unknown in the mid-teens. Um, so there's a lot of people who just don't know who he is. And if I saw numbers like that, if I saw that kind of approach, I would be looking for the opportunity to be able to reintroduce him and be able to articulate accomplishments, be able to touch on some of the bread and butter things that he's focused on or that any governor would focus on, to be able to do that and then leave the attacks to either when her profile is starting to move in a positive direction, or to other people to be able to lay them on. Um, so to me, it that scene seems odd. And in some ways, I believe that it's in some uh bolstered her profile. And she's on when you actually think about it, there's three ads that are running on television right now, and her face is in all of them. Um, it's reminding everybody that she is out there that's running. And I do think like to your point, the line of attack that they choose, I think is just a little bit too much of a leap for people to to make it all the way there. I I think that it is a vulnerability that she has, and I think that she's done a very good job of addressing what she did at CVS to scale back the the prescriptions, what she did with drug takebacks. Um but I think it's a and I think it's a little too large of a leap for a casual Rhode Islander to believe that she was singularly responsible in the way that they're casting her for an opioid uh for a national or international opioid crisis um that really there's been literal thousands of pages of books written about the Sacklers' responsibility for it, about the FDA uh dropping their responsibility around any of it. And and and does the private sector and do others hold some accountability? Most likely, but I think it's a lot to ask people to logically go from she ran the retail operation at CBS to she was the rationale and the reason for a uh uh uh opioid crisis that killed a hundred thousand or hundreds of thousands of people.

Bill Bartholomew 7:45

Yeah. And to your point, when you think about Dan McKee, here's a guy over a 30-year political career has lost one election. One time he was the incumbent and lost his incumbency as mayor of Cumberland. There's a formula for Dan McKee. Now, we saw a little bit of it yesterday in a release where four uh four mayors and one Providence counselor endorsed the governor, you know, Grabbian of Patucket, East Providence da Silva, Beauchamp in Windsocket, Lombardian in North Providence, and Juan Pichardo, Providence City Council. Okay. That feels a little bit more like old school Dan McKee. Municipal leaders on the ground. Hey, I know everybody from X, Y, and Z engagement that I've had during that career. That's how he's won elections before. That's how he beat Reagan Burke largely in 2018 in that lieutenant governor's race. Yeah, we've haven't seen any of that. It's like, where, where, what, why in the world wouldn't you lean into that which is your not only strength, but which has proven victorious in basically every election you've ever run in?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yeah, I mean, I I can't speak to it. I'm obviously not in in that circle. I should say, kind of with full disclosure on this, I'm I'm personally supporting the the folks' campaign. I've I've donated to to her campaign. Um and I do think like you're not wrong about Dan McKee's track record. I mean, this is a guy who he's a survivor. He's a someone who is at the end of the day, is always able to find his way with the most votes that were tallied. Um, I don't know what's different in this one in terms of the approach or why they're taking some of the other uh tactics that they're taking, but it does seem, like I was saying at the beginning, like it's it's an odd tact for an incumbent who has the levers of government, who has the bully pulpit of being able to command media attention and media coverage when he wants it. Um, I don't think they make good use of it. And I think that that's something that becomes a lane. And because doing that, because they get hit with hard questions from media that they're uncomfortable answering oftentimes. And I'm saying they, because it's the governor and those around him, I believe, in in that perspective. And I think in some ways it could feel easier to try to take this attack of if I'm gonna be brought down or if I'm gonna have someone come at me. And I think it's telling. I mean, there was that WPRO clip a couple of months ago where he was caught on tape saying that it was disgraceful that someone would run against him in a primary. And I do think that some of that tone comes from a some of that place and some of that kind of a sense of here's where I am, here's who I am, and and and and go there. But I do think that the guy has a strong track record if he chooses to lean into it, that he can at least introduce his campaign on more of a positive foot and provide voters with a rationale for staying with him. And that's ultimately when you're an incumbent, that's the argument that you're making. You're not making an argument of don't vote for that person. You're ultimately making the argument of let me finish the job. And the only way that you're able to win that argument of let me finish the job is for people to understand what the challenges were when you first came in, what you've done to address those in tangible reality, and how you're gonna continue doing that. Um, and and that's where I would see from an economy in some ways, and and frankly, it's what you're seeing the the uh in the way that Jack Reed runs for re-election. It's what you're seeing in the way that the that uh Greg Amory is running for re-election. It's the way that you're seeing, frankly, Brett Smiley run for re-election um right now. And Brett has a, and or Mayor Smiley has a very tough race ahead of him, one that they're taking seriously, but one that he is doing his part to define the terms in which it's going to be engaged on. And he's talking about what the things that are important to the city and what the what needs to be governed. Um, and I think that that's a stark contrast to what we're seeing the incumbent in the governor's race do, where he's spending, even out on the the the earned media side and and when he's out there, talking about other people or other opposition, which is taking him off message from where he should be as an incumbent.

Bill Bartholomew 12:16

Just quickly here on what Dan York calls the undercard in this race, Ken Block, the independent candidate and Aaron Gukin, likely the Republican nominee. There's another, I guess there's a couple of people running as Republicans this year. One of them's Elaine Polino, who's a social media influencer from Foster or Gloucester or something like that. Whatever. The idea is right now you've got Aaron Gukin posting these videos on Twitter that are part of me on X, where he's got some kind of echo effect on his voice, and he's just uh sometimes gym clothes, just random thoughts or direct attacks on Ken Block. Now, Ken Block had scheduled a press conference at the Statehouse where he was going to roll out somebody from the Rhode Island Dental Association. That's the institution Mr. Gukin was most recently the director of, the executive director of. Then Block abruptly canceled that press conference. Does it even matter? Does any of this does any of this even deserve attention right now? It seemed like Block may have been a factor out of the gate, yet we haven't heard much or seen anything really since day one. Your take on from the standpoint of candidates and from the standpoint of general the general public right now, assessing what Dan York calls the undercard.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, I mean, I don't think that Dan's uh synopsis or or uh title of it is wrong. Um it is and it's it's hard to win in the state as a Republican statewide. Um and I don't think that any of the ones that have thrown their hat into it are the profile of who would. Um and maybe a Charlie Baker type can come along at one point in the state. Maybe things can can reach a more of a simmer than a boil. Um, and a uh a moderate, uh business-friendly Republican can can can step in like we've seen in the past here. But that day is not right now, not while Donald Trump is in the White House at least. Um and the Ken Block thing, and we talked about this last time that I was on. I think Ken is brilliant. Ken is the smartest person in every room he walks into, but Ken's biggest flaw is that he will tell you he's the smartest person in any room that he walks into. And I think that that's indicative of the fact that he said right out of the gate that he wasn't gonna hire any staff because he could do it himself. And scheduling then canceling a statehouse press conference without giving a name of who it's going to be or what it's going to be focused on is kind of indicative of a campaign that's being run by the candidate.

Bill Bartholomew 17:01

Yeah. And let's just for the sake of democracy and for the sake of getting conversation started, I just hope to see that tighten up and they're actually to, you know, more follow-through and and more activity generated. You know, uh, we we talked about this earlier this week. Please go.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Like I do think though, like you asked the question of does it matter? I I think in June, it doesn't. The I think that I think that primary will play out. I think the the the reality is like Gucking's gonna win that race um unless something cooking, I'm sorry, Gucking's gonna win that race unless there's something uh completely, completely out of the ordinary that any of us have not thought of yet. Um and it will be a three-way race in the the general. Three-way races, anyone can play spoiler in it. My read on it, and I think that any in a casual uh observer's read on it would be when you look at the ideology, you look at the priorities of the third-party spoiler that is potentially running, they're not going to be taking votes away from a Democrat in the general election. They're gonna be taking votes away from a Republican. They're going to give a uh a never Trumper who has a really hard time pulling a lever for anyone with an R next to their name right now, a an opportunity to be able to cast a ballot for someone that's not a Democrat. Um, and I I just don't see it being a scenario where it's going to be like it has like it was in the Chafee race, where Chafee was able to pull from both the left and the right to be able to build a uh uh a coalition in the middle to be able to win as an independent. I just don't think that the math works in this kind of race. And I think that the idea like where Ken's ideology is on this is very much a mirror to where what Aaron's is. And the the the only difference being that they have very different styles and very different uh philosophies of leadership. Um, and that's what's gonna be the distinction there. It's not gonna be an ideological one.

Bill Bartholomew 19:12

Yeah. Earlier this week, just speaking with some candidates here on the show, just in general, I think over the last couple of weeks, there's been some discussion about or even some elected officials speaking, speaking with some elected officials here earlier this week, just feels like a slower rollout to an election year than than years past, that everything just is a little bit behind or something, or just the the the lethargy is there. I think part of that's the Trump factor. I think you know that just based on polling, and some in one poll, a few polls showed that six and ten Americans are tuning out news that has any connection to Trump. You know, they're just checking out. That would include local politics, at least in some way, I would assume. But what what's your take? As somebody who's been around a number of cycles here, is this a year that's like for some reason why do you think that is that that sentiment is out there that's a slower rollout?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

I don't know. I kind of feel like we could probably just rerun this tape again in four years and say the same thing. I feel like every four years we say the governor's it's quiet. No one's recampaigning yet. The race hasn't started yet. It's starting, it's starting later. Like I remember that in 2018 when when we were working on the the Raimundo re-elect. Um it doesn't really pick up in Rhode Island until after the General Assembly gets out. There's not active campaigning that's happening because everything is a negotiation around the budget and around the final uh legislation, legislative push. Um I think you're gonna see it really ramp up once you start to see the local candidate filings, um, once you figure out who is running or who's not running for General Assembly seats, who the candidates are gonna be for Providence City Council, because that's the point when the state parties start to get involved and start to pay attention to it. They start their endorsement process. It's also frankly, like you're not going to, when you think of these things from kind of the investment of resources perspective, it doesn't make a ton of sense in a state like Rhode Island where you can get statewide media coverage for not dirt cheap, but not super expensive, to be on air for months at a time while people aren't paying attention. So when you look at where people are like, and and if you say I you're gonna have a 2 million or a 3 million or whatever the dollar is media budget, you're gonna want to start engaging around that when people are most in uh ready to engage. Because to your point, most people, not those that are listening to this podcast, don't engage on politics or in elections until they have to start thinking about what their voting plan is going to be. So talking to 1.1 million people in a state four months, five months, six months before an election, that they're not going to actually start engaging with until two months before is just throwing money out the door, which is why you see them engaging with their base and doing the fundraising that they do and meeting with and doing the retail with the very, very engaged community organizations and community leaders. And if you go and you look at both Dan McKee and Helena Folk's social media in February, March, April, May, that's what they were doing. They were at every Portuguese festival that they could come across. They went to every indoor farmer's market that they could be at. They did the house party listening sessions to be able to get out there. And they're talking to the 10% of voters like us who would recognize Ian Donis at Whole Foods if they ran into him. But the vast majority of the state, I love you, Ian, but the vast majority of the state are not in that same orbit that uh that that folks like you and I are in. Um so it doesn't make economic sense from a a resource perspective to engage until now. And and again, like I said, let's timestamp this and and and let's talk on June 16th, uh 20, what would that be, 2030? 2030. Will I I can guarantee you one of us is gonna say, it seems like it's starting later again this go round.

Bill Bartholomew 23:17

Yeah, it's the it you're it's so true when you really as you were saying that, I was reflecting back as well. And I you know what it is, I think also it's just the nature of the elections. When you had caricatures like Alan Fung and Gina Raimundo, and they're obviously human Trillo and Patty Morgan. Totally. Patty Morgan with the the the guy in the chicken suit outside of of City Hall, Joe Trillo bombastically, you know, going nuts on the Matt Allen show, playing keyboard live in the air. You know, you had a lot of many, you had a lot of freaks in the race, man. And that's and I think that's a lot of people's attention.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

You know? There's not like and and this one, like there's Dan McKee and Helena folks are I'm I wouldn't call them conventional candidates necessarily because I think that's a slap in the face to anyone who puts their name forward to run. Um but they're not outlandish. They're not, they I like your phrase, they're not cartoonish, and there's not that kind of personality that makes you think about it more or that becomes kind of a a thing that cuts across or jumps across the zeitgeist into almost pop culture. Um, And honestly, like when you think about like we usually get that from a third party, we're not gonna get that from Ken Block. Like in in unless someone wants to have a conversation about walking dogs on the beach in Barrington, we're not gonna get anything that animated out of him. Right.

Bill Bartholomew 24:35

Yeah, you're s it's so true. I remember I think it must have been maybe 2014, something like that, where maybe it was 13. I came home, I was living in New York and I came home for Thanksgiving. We went to the Atlantic Beach Club in Newport. You know, they had that like get the buffet. I was miserable as a vegetarian back then. But I remember like getting my plate and coming around the corner, and there he was in real life for the first time I ever seen a man in real life, Alan Fung, standing right there. And I was like, it was like seeing a celebrity. You know, I didn't go up and say anything. I was like, there he is, that's Alan Fung. Because it became something more than just a political figure. It became um almost like a presidential race in a way where those Gina and Alan became personas. And I'm not sure that anybody yet in these races has become that level of celebrity, like junior varsity celebrity persona. And and I think they could. I think they all could, but they just haven't found that footing yet.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

Right. The other thing, too, and I'm just thinking about this is as we're talking, is this the first, maybe the second statewide race that we've had for governor where there's no opinion section at the Providence Journal. So we don't have Scott McKay or Ed Acorn putting their own observation and their own uh wit into the conversation. So it there's not then that coffee table or or water cooler conversation among the chattering class of did you see what Ed wrote this time, or did it did you hear what uh McKay uh said in his weekly commentary about uh the the Gina's rollout? Like, so there's fewer personalities that are talking about it on the air outside of the WPRO uh uh uh uh the WPRO um schedule. And I think that leads a little bit of it uh to a place of of there's not as many provocative moments from the outside that encourage others to engage in it. But again, I don't think like they're coming on TV around, if not the exact same time that we did in in 2018. Um, they're starting to ramp up the the events, the endorsement stuff like just yesterday, Helena got the endorsement from the Cumberland Democrats. Yep. That stuff starts this time. And that's really kind of the the unofficial kickoff season of the of the primary campaign season.

Bill Bartholomew 27:10

No question about it. I should also note that for our listeners that during our recording session right here, I did get an email that the governor has released a new campaign ad that is offshore wind oriented. So maybe they are moving in that direction a little bit uh in terms of um, you know, getting into the issues. Uh you know, to your point though, yes, uh the collapse in local journalism, loss of an opinion section. I don't think people realize the penetration of the Providence Journal as a physical in as a physical newspaper to a lot of working class people. That is simply something that hasn't been replaced. Maybe they listen to WPRO or watch the six o'clock news, but they haven't replaced that um with any digital outlets or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

And even if they do watch that, the what the journal did for so long was they shaped what the next 24 hours were going to focus on. And the the the ginnet purchase of the paper is just taking that away. There's not the the sense of whatever's on the front page of the journal is gonna be what is talked about on the news on WPRO. It's what the the the next show is gonna take, it's what's gonna lead the the six o'clock news on WJAR, and it's gonna be the source of the commentary on the Publix Radio or or Ocean State Media or Rhode Island Public Radio, whatever it was called at that point in time. Um, so that takes some of that out because the journal in its heyday, and they still have some great political reporters there, but the journal in its heyday was treated and covered electoral politics like sports. And it was something that that because of the way that they wrote about it, because of the the ease that they opened it up to their readership, it became something that the vast majority of Rhode Islanders were fluent in. And the like I always cringe when I hear this. Rhode Island's the best, uh was it the the the greatest amusement park for journalists? Like the I I think it makes fun of or it it belittles the the the things that we should actually stand up against. But the the the other side of that same coin was people paid attention, people understood, people knew who those local officials were and what was going on with it. But even then, when everybody knew Buddy's name and when you had Bruce Sunlin and and you had Garrihe and the flannel shirt, um even then the average normal person, and I I'm saying normal with like the the like acknowledging and recognizing that I'm abnormal in this, the the general everyday Rhode Islander, even back then, was not waking up every morning wondering when are they gonna start running ads in this campaign. Um, there's only a special select few uh that that think that way. And honestly, we should all up our Lexapro dosage.

Bill Bartholomew 30:00

That's right. And this is why years ago, right here on this podcast, probably in season one, I remember offering the idea to Dan McGowan. Today he's the Rhode Island columnist of the Boston Globe, the author of Roadmap, our mutual good friend, this notion of we need to make Rhode Island politics and media baseball cards. You know, so it's like you're people start getting you rip them open, you're like, you get like the random, like gold-dipped go local prop, like no character on it, just like an institution, go local prop, just like gold, just like random start collecting that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:32

You know, turn it into Whiskey Republic and over a couple of Guinness Zeros, I'll trade you a Gina Raimundo rookie card and a Peter Narona uh all-star card for uh a pack of unopened Providence City Council members. Exactly.

Bill Bartholomew 30:49

You know, totally it could be different for like sad Alviti would be a popular one, just be him in an old in an oversized, ill an ill-fitting suit just with a sad face. Uh Mike Ray, half street group, half streetgroup.com. We do this every month inside communications. So just uh on the way out here, um, you know, looking, looking at the as we head into summer, you know, sort of balancing, checking out, staying in touch. That's a natural thing that all Rhode Islanders do. Um, what how do you do that as a as a professional? How do you balance, you know, your life as a as a human, as a as a parent, as a as a golfer, as a little league person, as a as an affable fellow, with also like running a shop that is growing in its portfolio and scope every day.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

The I mean, man, you asked this question at a timely moment. Um check on yourself, check on the people around you. Like the, I mean, I'll be upfront about it. Like I have done and been in and out of talk therapy at many different times in in my life and will be starting it again. Um, like giving yourself that opportunity, that's not just during the summer. Um, they definitely take care of yourself on that stuff. But I think like the big thing, like we live in Rhode Island in the summer. There's no place better in the country to be. It's 85 degrees at the beach and it feels like 75. It dips down into the 60s at night. You can have shorts and a hoodie on. Like the there's find those opportunities, even if it's just a couple of minutes, even if it's a little bit of a window, and and give yourself that reminder that regardless of where we live in this state, we're no more than 30 minutes away from a beach of some kind. And uh just get yourself out there and and and do that and and realize that for the vast, vast, vast majority of us, the things that we plug away at from nine to five are still going to be there the next day. Um, the uh in PR, a lot of folks say it's like this is PR, not ER. Um, the the stuff's it it matters, it's important. The work that we do, it's not to belittle or or or uh dampen the the impact that good communications can have on on anything, but um the at the end of the day, it's like the things that are important are the people around you that you uh that are there for you at dinner and and that have your back in the best of times and the worst of times. And and that's what you should be focused on. And if you can bring that ethos into what you do professionally, you're doing it better than most of us.

Bill Bartholomew 33:10

Mike Rea, Half Street Group. This is Inside Communications on Bartholomewtown. I'm Bill Bartholomew. We'll talk to you next time. Thanks, Bill.