Why Every Campaign Needs a Book: Jon Henderson on Running for Governor of California

Transcript

Jon Henderson: I was hoping to get this out in six weeks. And my first conversation with Scriabin, they said six months. You know, it was, oh, the elections, you know, eight, like eight months. Like we don't, you know, that didn't none of it made any sense. And this is why I've just been inexorably drawn to keep moving forward as, as doors have continued to open. And none of this makes any sense. Me putting all this money and time into writing a book that, you know, was this specific, but I've, I've not regretted it for a second. And we'll see where it goes, right? If I end up in the governor's office, that's obviously what we're shooting for. If not that if, if some of these ideas become reality, that's a huge win right there too, you know, just getting that in the world and I can't do that. I don't think from a campaign speech, I think you need the book and it's permanence to get the idea out there where people can take time in their own way to, to, to let the ideas absorb. And then, and then hopefully get into the conversation.

Eric Jorgenson: Well, this is a first for me to interview a candidate for governor, let alone. Of California, the great state of California, where I lived for many years and have many warm and fuzzy feelings, but this is a, quite a quest you've undertaken. I'm excited to hear more about it. What, what, what inspired this run? Well, thank you. Well, first, what part of California were you in? I lived in the Bay area in San Francisco proper for maybe seven or eight years.

Jon Henderson: Perfect. Yeah. My wife and I lived on Sutter and Hyde for the last seven years before we got pregnant and came out to the burbs very, you know, stereotypically as we are now in Walnut Creek, but Bay area still. To answer your question. Yeah. The, uh, it's a huge undertaking. If you know me and my friends, they go, Oh my God. And then they go, well, that tracks every one of them, you know, because it's everything I've done. I've always just like, I've tried to see what's the next thing that makes sense, what I really want. And if it's something that I really, really care about, something I really want to try and go after, I don't really look at the obstacles, you know, whether it's a small thing or a big thing, that's probably a, to a fault, you know what I mean? My wife probably doesn't love that about me all the time. But when I started down this road, writing the book, the book started much more national, actually. I started writing the book in July. We were on vacation, actually in Cabo and I was sitting on our back porch when they passed the one big, beautiful bill act. And I'm a financial planner. I've been a certified financial planner since 2018. I got into the business in the year 2000 and I do a lot of tax planning for clients and I was getting a lot of, a lot of just confusion coming in from clients and a lot of marketing about what was going to be in the tax bill. You know, lawmaking didn't used to be that way. I feel like, you know, and so now that's just 870 page omnibus bill, which people used to hate, you know, these big bills because they'd pack in so much pork, you know, as they call it. And now it was literally calling it the one big, beautiful bill act. So that bill started getting me the questions I was getting from clients. I was, I was like answering the same questions over and over and I said, somebody should write a book. So that's what started writing me this book. You know, the book started coming out of me as a much more of a national thing around tax and gerrymandering was the first chapter in the original version, because I wanted to write something that I thought, what do 80% or more of my clients agree on? You know, I feel like everybody writes about the things that. You know, differentiate. And now that I'm running for office, I realized those are the only people that actually want to donate or get involved or the people that are on, you know, that are the really true believers. Now I understand a little bit more about this. Like why, you know, moderates can't win because, you know, you can't, you know, it's just like, Hey, check me out. I'm boring. So, you know, it, it's an interesting kind of lane that I've, I've, I'm trying to, uh, you know, get some interest from people and get money into the campaign. But I also think that money into the campaign is the problem with our politics, you know, to start, to start with. Right. So you kind of have to play that game. And that's what I went into. This is a large experiment to see if it was possible to do it as a grassroots movement, not being a billionaire, not being politically connected, but having ideas and having energy and having, uh, you know, a plan. And so the book that ended up being the plan for California, if I were to win and as I was writing it as what am I writing, you know, I guess I'm running for governor, you know, and that's what it ended up being with Gavin being turned out around that time, Kamala Harris was still deciding if she was going to get in or not that of course not. And then a number of other people from, you know, Alex Padilla, other really big national names deciding to not jump into the race. And then of course the biggest name Swalwell already, not only out of the race, but out of Congress and potentially facing criminal charges now in, in a 48 hour turnaround, this race just, you know, did a complete one 80 and then, you know, everybody's looking at Cal sheet is reading off the Cal sheet numbers to say who's the, you know, who's likely to be the next governor, which is crazy. And I think when they look into that, they're going to find some people that were too close to the campaigns were probably funneling money into Cal sheet because that is a new political ad. You know, it's a way to get the name of that candidate to come out of every newscaster's mouth. And they all do it. The ones that didn't have money to do polling anymore, immediately started buying that data from Cal sheet. And now people don't even buy the data. They just, you see like the people online is pulling up and just reading it. It's because that's where they can get an even, just a clean number handed to them.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah. So the, the betting markets, you know, maybe they used to be evaluating truth and now people are putting money into the effect, the odds, because the odds affect people's perception of the odds in a political campaign.

Jon Henderson: I would say, yes, if you're betting on, you know, and I think that there's, you know, there was a book I'm halfway through that, you know, is basically covering all of this and say, everybody loses, you know, in this. And, you know, I think it's true because if you're rooting against your home team, because they, you want them to cover the spread or not cover the spread. You know, I think people already think it kind of ruins sports in a way, but in politics, politics is different than sports because politics, people actually will throw money at something like, well, it's a political campaign at whatever. That's the whole thing is they will throw money at it. So I think. Is this perverse way that they found that they can throw money into a directly, you know, almost like a money laundering. It's not money laundering. It's like a direct benefit, you know, just dollar for dollar because you're buying, you're buying that airtime that you could never get it with, you know.

Eric Jorgenson: Wow.

Jon Henderson: Way more investment. Yeah.

Eric Jorgenson: Interesting. Okay. So did you, did, when you started writing this book, it was just a book, right? Am I understanding correctly? You were like, I'm just trying to like kind of express something and figure out how to explain this to my clients and people that might be my clients and the population at large, and then as you wrote, you gained the conviction that you wanted to run for governor.

Jon Henderson: I, well, it's, that's such a great question. Thank you. I mean, cause I don't really think about these things and you're making me think about it right now, but I think the book started about 20 years ago and it was in my mind, I was calling it, we're doing it wrong because clients kept telling me like, they're so angry and, you know, if they're both sides of the aisle and they're telling me all they're mad, so it's like, we're doing this wrong, you know what I mean? Like, what are we doing that we can't just get people together and come together with the solution. And then it was that trip in July where basically things kind of got to a, uh, just a fever pitch and it just had to, I had to get it out of me. And it wasn't like, now's the time to run for office. It was like, I can't stop thinking about these ideas. I now have to get this on paper and getting it out. And then I was, I guess I'm running a book and then it's like, okay, well now I need to find out how to do that. Who do I call? And that's where I ended up finding you guys, you know, and then toward the, when the book got to its third iteration, because the first iteration was very national and I realized that's not really what I need to be writing about right now. That's not what, you know, it just wasn't the right direction. Then I discovered the book abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. And they were running about, they did such a more eloquent job than I did on, on some of the points in there. I said, oh man, these guys already, they already built the framework and they had their five, their five pillars, you know, build, grow, you know, govern. So I just said, they've already done that. I'm just going to give them credit and just kind of, you know, build mine on their framework and then get into my inspiration on each of those. And then what happened was each of the 22 chapters ended up being a specific interlocking plan with other ideas that I've had in the book. Then I was like, this is actually a framework or a plan. And candidly, I skipped a step. There was a version where it was the America party. And I know that you guys are, you guys wrote a book on Elon, but I recently put one out on Elon, but I have no connection to Elon. I have no connection to Tesla, any of that stuff other than he's the richest man in the world and obviously very, uh, you know, very well covered. And at that time, I remember sitting in the airport and Elon announced that he was going to launch the America party and people loved it and they freaked out. And they said, oh my God, a party for the 80% in the middle sounds great. And I thought. He's not going to have time to create the ethos. There's other people need to sort of create this, this framework. And if there's going to be a brand new party, that's going to be funded and there won't be all of this, you know, money gathering that you don't spend your whole time just trying to raise money for the campaign, if you could actually have a fun, you know, the richest man in the world is going to fund this party for the 80% now you're going to immediately argue, how would he understand what the 80% wants, you know, he's going to be the furthest from understanding that, but it, it made sense for a minute when he said it. Right. And then it went nowhere. Right. And so, but at the, at the, at the moment I said, this could be the America party. If there's gonna be a brand new party, they're gonna need an ethos. They're gonna need structure. And that's what I started kind of building in the book, the first version, which was national, then it went to the sort of, no, this is more abundance related for California. And then it became California 2.0 and its final version, which was then me as an independent realizing that the whole issue is that people aren't talking to each other or they're getting very different sets of facts. And I'm a financial advisor hearing that in the background from them and managing their money and hearing their real fears, not what they, you know, might talk about the coffee shop, you know, so yeah, the, the express

Eric Jorgenson: preference, you know, what people post about versus what they vote for or what they say in public versus what they say in a private conversation, like where are they, where they really feel. And I, you know, you, I've always wondered where, like, where are the radical moderates? You know, where are the people who are, who are like dead set and willing to go to war for the very normal center, rational, like the anti both extremes people, like that feels like a thing that everybody should sort of be able to rally around. I, so I'm glad to hear that you're, you know, you're carrying that flag and you've got, you call it the purple sort of movement, vision in California. Yeah.

Jon Henderson: Yeah. I, you know, everyone thinks of California as the blue state, you know, and, and I look at it at a kind of a mirror of Texas, you know, you have 60, 40 in the actual electorate, you know, here in California, we got about 60% voting Democrat, 40% voting Republican and the mirror opposite in Texas. But in both of those states, the loser gets no voice. And I just, I don't think we're doing that the right way. Right. I mean, so you have a bunch of my clients that were more conservative leaning that have left the state over, you know, the politics or the coverage of the state, even you lived in San Francisco, like you said, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, there's a problem with, with the streets being clean that, and it, it seems like we should have been able to get in front of that. You know what I mean? Right. And I don't know how much you've traveled, but my wife and I had the pleasure of going to Singapore on our honeymoon and the whole city state. It feels like Disneyland. I mean, they don't allow gum into the country. Like there's just certain rules that like, when you're, when you're. Logically planning, you know, for everybody's benefit, you know, like getting everyone to wear seatbelts, right. People really kind of push back on that. Now, you know, everyone's on board and you know, it's not like a loss of your personal freedoms. It saves a lot of lives and, you know, carmakers get behind it and all that. So you can start to affect just positive change by just being logical. And I think thinking from the top down instead, you look at what happened. And that's why I love abundance because they do such a good job of critiquing the left from the left. And, you know, when I, when I saw the Senate hearings were basically Kristi Noem was being interviewed by everybody. It was Tom Tillis. And it was a Republican being critical of a Republican that kind of went viral because it's, it's in a way that's, that's much true. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know what your own team's doing. Right. And that's really what the party should be. They should be policing their own extremists and they're not, and they stopped doing that a while ago. And so it's so refreshing when you see Tom Tillis, you know, be honest, but you're like, why do we have to wait for these guys to retire? To, you know, to hear this level of honesty, you know what I mean? Like that's why they should have one year terms, you know what I mean? Like, you know, or whatever you want to do or six, you know, or just, just, I always thought we should just bring people in like jury duty, right? You get 300 Americans, you're a lawmaker for the next two years. Then you go back to being a dentist or whatever it was you were doing before. Yeah. You're in the corruption. Come on. Yeah.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. So how did you, how did you find that the, the book and the campaign are sort of intertwining, like, are, this is a really interesting, you know, so many people write books for so many different reasons, but to have one that's sort of a core part, if not a driver of a campaign is a really unique and interesting thing.

Jon Henderson: The book is giving me some gravitas. Hopefully I'm going to find out pretty soon here because the way that timing went with everything, I've just mailed out about a hundred of these to key influencers and I'm just about to start hopefully hearing the phone ring. I got it. I got a call this morning, local news station wants to interview me. So I feel like I've got about five weeks to kind of go up that influencer ladder. And this has been my, my goal the whole time. I don't know if I'm going to end up on a debate stage. I'm trying to get on the CNN debate stage. I just mailed a book to both of the moderators of that debate directly. And that's my, to answer your question, that's the only way I was going to separate me from the other 60 people, you know, basically in this race that are, that, that would love to gain some traction. So hopefully the book is the thing that can differentiate me and I would like to be the independent, you know, getting that equal time on stage, because I think like 40% of California now identifies as independent, you know, and so I, I can't believe there's no independence, you know, up on that stage and it's time, as you say, for those, like sort of, you know, that moderate, you know, middle to, to start to flex its muscle. And we could really change a lot across the nation just because it's such a razor thin margin. Now I'm running for governor, which is a, an executive position in the state, you know, right. But for me, that would allow me to work with our legislators to put blinders on all of our lawmakers. And, and one of the, one of the chapters is about requiring blind trust. And I think that that's the only way we get back to trusting our lawmakers again, is by not having to trust them, you know, right. And just making sure that when they go, okay, there's a whole mutual fund that follows Nancy Pelosi's trades. It's it's perverse, right. You know, but she beats the S and P because of presumably insider information and apparently all of them do it, you know, it seems very clear all the way up and to me, that shouldn't even be option. They should, they should have that money into a blind trust. They don't even know what they own. Third-party dispassionate, you know, manager being, you know, you know, watched and monitored by the SEC kind of thing for all of that. And then get rid of all of the ability for them to benefit directly off of insider information.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah, that, that seems like a, everybody agrees with that, except the people who have to vote on it. You know, it's a classic, like the Congress is exempt from all the laws that they make for people. And this is, you know, holding people to account is critical.

Jon Henderson: So if the, if the feds won't do it, the states could do it. And we could, we could send our lawmakers to Washington, you know, with those blinders on that. And then I can't think of any other state that wouldn't follow California's lead after that.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah, I would love to see that take off. And it seems like the kind of talking point that, you know, who's, who among the people would have anything to disagree with about that and, you know, calling people out, asking for leaders within both parties to sort of lead by example and, and take this moral stand to, you know, not enrich themselves at the cost of the population. What, what has been maybe surprised you? Like, I love how you described the writing of this book is like, it just like tore out of you, right? It like, you know, just happened. It fell out of you. Cause you've been thinking about it for 20 years. Did anything surprise you in the process of like externalizing all of this?

Jon Henderson: It felt great. I mean, it really did. It was a release to get that out. I mean, you know, like a workout, you know, I mean, just, you know, get that sweat going, you know, and it was every night for months after my daughter was asleep. That became my 9 PM to 1 AM sort of exercise, you know, and I talk in the book, I worked with, with AI, you know, I'm not, I don't have the attention span or the, you know, the, the editing capability to sit down. I'm a, I'm an idea guy. I'm a big thinker. I've got a lot of employees that do a lot of the minutiae work for me that would just burn me out and just wouldn't get done. Okay. And so that's why I think, you know, it's a fine line between people that are successful, you know, that are, I don't know what I am, I'm a, I'm a Gen X or I'm, I'm, I'm undiagnosed, right? So I don't know, but it works for me. You know what I mean? Like I love my daily experience in the, in the book, writing of the book for me, I think probably a lot of people that have a lot of ideas like me also lack the ability to sit down and write and get it out. Right. And so that's why I ha I didn't feel that release as a writer until age 51. Okay. And so that's why in a weird way, I think people are like, Oh, AI is going to kill all this creativity. I think it's going to be an enhanced, I tend to look at the glass half full if I can, but I, I'm hoping it becomes like a crutch to a lot of people that have a book in them and want to get that out and share an idea with the world, but they, they, you know, that they need that help. Now, not a lot of people might have like an editor, a real person, you know, they can work with, but not everybody has that to get started and really get rolling. So don't let AI write the book, you know, but you know, yeah.

Eric Jorgenson: I'm a huge advocate for the, you know, use the best tool for the job. You know, Steve, Steve jobs called the computer, the bicycle for the mind. And I think in a vol called AI, the motorcycle for the mind, like it just enables you to do a whole different level of things. It unlocks opportunities that might not have been available to people before. There's, there's so much good that comes from that. And yeah, I feel like it's kind of fashionable inside the publishing industry for the kind of the more traditional folks to like shame people for using AI or say that it can't do or would never do good human work. And I think that depends on how good the person is who using is using it and their, their bar for quality and how much effort they put in. I've seen, I've seen truly great books written with the help of AI and truly crappy ones written by humans. So, you know, there's, it's all in the, in the tools that you use and the quality bar that you hold for yourself. You have a phrase in your book description that I really like, which is that it's for the politically homeless. And I think that that's probably, you know, it's been an increasingly common feeling, but I'm curious, sort of a lens I was approached books through is like, what transformation is offering the reader, right? Who is going to be better off having read it and why? And that's a really clear signal to people for maybe who should read this book. What's the transformation that you're hoping that they go through?

Jon Henderson: Anyone who feels like they were proudly either a Democrat or a Republican and no longer feels that the parties represent them because they feel that the parties have moved to the extremes. And I, I know so many people that have expressed that that's how they personally feel. That's who I wrote this book for. So I feel like it's a larger number than people think it is. I think a lot of people are still, you know, clinging to one or the other, one or the other, because I think that's the only option, you know? And so this is, the book is really written for anybody who, who thinks those are the only options and feels that they've had to vote for the lesser of two evils and is looking for fresh ideas and out of the box ideas and get a conversation started.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah. Where are those people coming from? Like, do you have a sense yet of like, are they coming more from the right? More from the left? Like who, who is sort of coming to this, this idea, this new purple middle? Chapter by chapter.

Jon Henderson: Yeah. It's, that's great too. Like I, I wrote it. I find most people like, I, they're like four or five chapters. I don't like, and I was like, that's great. That means 80% of it we agree on. Let's focus on those. Let's get those done, you know? And it seems to be, but you know, I'm, I'm, you know, certain things I talk about the way we should handle, you know, gun rights. We border with Arizona and Nevada that have effectively zero restrictions on firearms. And California has got insane gun regulations. Like I am a shooter. So I own some guns. I want to do some video work on this of like the monstrosity that this thing is that, you know, makes it California legal. It's no less lethal. And in fact, becomes more dangerous according to everybody up at the range, as far as accidents, because California legal pistols create more jams, which is usually clearing a jam. It's usually where people end up getting, you know, erroneously shot. You know, so yeah. And I'm all about less violence, right? I'm all about law enforcement, you know, all that. So there's a balance in there. And that's the whole point is I think that we've had a winner take all one side gets their thing and the other side's job is to stop them from getting as far as they can. And then we don't get anywhere as a society and everyone's, everyone's frustrated. But as an independent governor, that's looking to bring both, you know, bring the all-star team at the table, the best Republican ideas, best democratic ideas. That's a win-win to me for everybody.

Eric Jorgenson: So is that how you arranged the book? You said you want to just start with gerrymandering. That was like chapter one. Did you arrange it in terms of like, yeah, sorry.

Jon Henderson: And that went out because that was national, right? And then I, when I said, when I really got focused, I was just too much. And I said, I've got to be specific on California. And I do talk about voting on the blockchain, but I should rewrite the larger national book, I guess, you know, but the, the, the way that we get rid of gerrymandering tomorrow is through blockchain. Okay. Once people get their head around that, I mean, it's so eloquent. It's so low cost. It gets rid of all of the problems that we have in our, you know, it's, I say it reduces the cost of trust. That's a Gary Gensler quote from the book as well, but it really does. And right now people look at cryptos and they think, you know, fraud and all this stuff, just like when the internet came out, like if you were on the internet, when it first came out, you were a creep. Okay. You know, not anymore. Right. I mean, it's running your thermostat, you know, so people need to get their head around what blockchain will do. And it, and for voting, I think is the highest, highest use case for the public. And if you think about it, every state would be one block would be 1% of the population, you know, rural areas, big block, you know, densely populated areas, small blocks, still 1% each you got. And then, you know, all of it would be public, all of it pseudonymous, you know, you know, it's you, you see your votes and logged everybody from anywhere you log in, you can see it's not been changed, altered, lost, and then, you know, boom, a hundred percent democracy. They don't want that. Okay. But you know, if you look at what we pay for elections, I mean, you could vote weekly and get the pulse of the people on the blockchain. So I propose actually creating a California blockchain in the book, and then hold everything that the states ever owed you on there. Like every time you get free passes to the state park, you shouldn't be able to lose that. You know what I mean? Like it's just on your blockchain, you know what I mean? And just waiting for you to use it. So just try and make it easier for people. Try not to get in their way so much. Yeah.

Eric Jorgenson: I know the book's only been out a couple of weeks as we're recording this, I think, but I generally like to ask what unexpected good things have resulted from this book being out into the world? What's what doors have opened? What's surprised you? What ways has the world felt smaller? Any of those kinds of stories?

Jon Henderson: Well, I don't, I've never been on social media, things like that. I don't like that, you know, putting myself out there. I love one-on-one conversations. I love, I don't mind public speaking to a group even, but I just thought it was kind of awkward. Just like, Hey, this is me at the, at the store, you know? Just putting my life out there for everyone to see. And now it's just so ubiquitous. But the book has been that for me is like people who I don't know are texting me or messaging me saying, Hey, you know, I really liked your idea. And I'm like, Oh, wow. So, you know, actually having it out there where I could be, you know, doing something completely different and people are hearing my ideas, you know, at that moment, that's been a wonderful feeling for me. And then a lot of positivity, mostly positivity. You get, you get some bots online or trolls or whatever it is, you know, who, you know, I'm sure that's the thing that I avoid in the beginning, but every real person that has taken the time to speak with me has been very positive and it started a good conversation. And my goal with all of this was to get people talking again. You know, I think that's our biggest cancer right now is in society is that we are not talking. People are not speaking the same language. They're not, they're not getting the same set of facts in the book. Hopefully, like I said, you know, like depends on which chapter, you know, people might like the idea. They might not like the idea, but let's talk about it and let me hear your idea so I can refine and get better.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah, this is a great, I mean, example of like, I would say books is like, how do you, how do you scale conversation? How do you scale the intimacy, the trust, the nuance of, of a deep one-on-one conversation? You can't spend, you know, six, eight, 10 hours with every potential customer, potential voter, potential, you know, teammate, client, whatever, but you can write a book that gives people that experience of like a deep understanding of who you are, where you're coming from, what you believe or why you believe it, how you, how you think your background and the conviction that you have in these ideas. This is a really powerful version of it. I love when people, you know, you're just kind of doing something else so that you get that message that somebody is like, I just read this. I loved it. I agree. You changed my mind like that, those kinds of things. I gifted this book to somebody who, who I know would really need it. Like these things can travel in some really interesting ways. I'm curious going back to kind of a, you know, you, you started letting this book rip out of you. Yeah. There's a million ways to get a book out in the world. How did you arrive at Scribe and why did you choose us to be your, you know, your publisher?

Jon Henderson: It was a, one of my raffles, you know, it's when I, I, I go step to step and I, what's the next thing I need to learn to get to this next point in my life, whether it was launching a company, launching another company. This is all new for me, the whole, this whole book world and you guys, Scribe is amazing, you know, so I guess hybrid publishing, I guess is maybe the term, but I didn't know anything about any of that. And I, and I, and I didn't really get a lot of guidance. It was all my online research. And I thought I was hoping to get this out in six weeks. And my first conversation with Scribe, they said six months for, you know, I was, oh, the elections, you know, eight, well, like eight months, I mean, you know, that didn't, none of it made any sense. And this is why I've just been inextricably drawn to keep moving forward as, as doors have opened. And none of this makes any sense. Me putting all this money and time into writing a book that, you know, was this specific, but I've, I've not regretted it for a second because I feel like it's just, and this is when we're in it right now, we've got these five weeks. This is what this is all about. Okay. And the interest in, in the, the, the, the conversation that I can start and we'll see where it goes, right. If I end up winning, you know, uh, if I end up in the, you know, the governor's office, that's, that's obviously what we're shooting for. If not that, if, if some of these ideas become reality, that's a huge win right there too. You know, just getting that in the world. I can't do that. I don't think from a campaign speech, I think you need the book and it's permanence and it's, you know, and, and the, you know, to get the idea out there where people can take time in their own way to, to, to let the ideas absorb and then, and then hopefully get into the conversation.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah. It's, it's a powerful, you know, as you say, like spreading these ideas and getting them amongst, you know, the citizens, if they agree with it, it'll come up more and more each election, each state at each level, you know, and hopefully more of these, I totally agree with blockchain voting, you know, agree with like so many of these sort of common sense centrist policies that are just politically difficult to get moving. Because it's nobody's, it's a, no politician's best interest to advocate them or no career politicians, best interest to advocate them. So it does take, you know, this, somebody sort of comes in with a fresh look and a clear eye who's willing to kind of put the, put the people first. My traditional closing question here is what, if you think back to yourself, kind of pre book, you've had the stewing for 20 years, but you haven't yet put pen to paper and said the words yourself, like I'm writing this book. What advice do you have for somebody who's in that position, who's sort of teetering on the edge, who's been like thinking about it or feels, you know, feels this, a book brewing in them, but has not yet made the leap.

Jon Henderson: Oh boy. I'm certainly not like a seasoned author, you know, and haven't done all of this, but I'll tell you this from my, my limited experience, just look at all the options and what I loved about, you know, the hybrid option. I didn't, I didn't want someone to ghostwrite my book, you know what I mean? I didn't want someone to, I'm not, you know, at that level where I'm the president and just have to get a book out and, you know, I can approve, you know, so, you know, wherever these people are. So if you're like me, where you're not, you know, where money is an option, you know, and it's, it's your own time and all, it's a, it's an important thing for you. I really liked the hybrid approach because I was able to effectively write the book that I wanted to write, but it didn't have to go through the channels that, you know, where basically I was then recognized in the author community, but it's not a blog post either. Right. It's not me just throwing my ideas out there, which is what I originally, I wanted just to get this going quickly. And so if you're looking to have a legitimate book that is, you know, as high quality as you're going to get it, that's, this was the path for me. And I think there's a lot of people like me out there that are maybe not, you know, on the, you know, LA times list or, you know, whatever, but also, uh, not just bloggers and look, they're looking to spend the time and investment and really put a real high quality book out there.

Eric Jorgenson: Yeah. There's, there's a world of difference in how you're perceived between a high quality book and a series of blog posts, right? These are, these are like traditionally gatekept mediums and it just takes a different level of investment and effort to get a really great book out there than, than a series of blog posts. And I think, you know, as this campaign continues and your career continues to unfold, you're going to see, you know, a lot of returns from this. Hopefully we get to do another one of these in a year or two and you've got, you know, even more incredible stories to tell.

Jon Henderson: Well, I think that'll be when the real value will kick in because like I said, this is my first rodeo and it's the permanence of the book that I think is the real value here. And to your point, I think someone may read it in six months long after the election and go, wait a minute, this guy's got some good ideas. Like, uh, let's, let's reach out. Let's have a discussion. So I, I'm actually really excited about the longterm, but I'm only focused on the next five weeks right now. So right now that's what we're doing. And thank you again for helping me to get the word out, but I couldn't have been happier with my experience with the, with everything, getting the book out there. I'm very pleased with what we finalized and what we put out there. So hopefully everybody reads it now and then we'll take it from there.

Eric Jorgenson: Thanks so much for the time. Thank you for coming on and sharing and teaching and leading from the center. Do you have anywhere you'd send people to learn more about you, the campaign, the book?

Jon Henderson: Yeah. Campaign website. Thank you so much. It's Henderson for numeral four, C a gov.org. O O R G. So yeah, Henderson for C a gov.org. That's our campaign site from there. It's a direct link to buy the book direct link to buy the audio book, which I recorded in my own voice in my studio here about four and a half hours in total length. In a single day, I could read the whole book to you. You'll have all my ideas, but well before the election. So yes, that's the best place to go.

Eric Jorgenson: Thank you so much, John. I hope you and everybody who reads this book can help save California from, from itself and the trajectory that it's on. It's a beautiful place and it needs, it needs some change. Thank you for your part in doing that. Thank you so much.