John Houle, business owner and author of ‘The Siberian Candidate’ and ‘The King-Maker of Providence'

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four cy Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin helen n believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W fourcy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helenair. Thanks everybody for joining in today. I am Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on w CY dot com. We're streaming live on talk for tv dot com in addition to Facebook, that's at Winning Business Radio, as well as we're available of course in podcast after the live show on tons of platforms YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, pretty much wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

1:17 Somebody showed me they were listening elsewhere to a site I wasn't even aware of, So it's out there. It's around everywhere you listen. The mission of this show winning business radio and TV, as regular listeners and viewers know, is to offer insights and advice, to help people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices, right the how tos, the what toos, the what not tos, to be challenged, and certainly to be inspired by the successes of others. But you know, virtually every successful person I've ever had a chance to talk to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So listen, you heard. Every week, while we have to get our we all have to get our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeated today. My guest is John Hoole, author of The Siberian Candidate and The King Maker of Providence, as well as the owner of John Hoole Communications and Main Street Media and Providence, Rhode Island. Here's John's bio. John Hoole founded JAH Communications in two thousand and two after working as a political consultant. He rebranded the agency as main Street Media in twenty twenty two to reflect the agency's new mission to deliver Madison Avenue marketing to main street businesses. While JAH Communications continues to serve as a public relations company, John has successfully managed numerous private and public sector campaigns, representing hundreds of clients across a wide spectrum of industries. Specializing in communications, John has worked closely with organizations direct their marketing to Direct Gives me their marketing initiatives.

2:47 Over the past twenty years, he has managed the marketing programs for numerous insurance agencies, medical practices companies, and trade associations. He's also helped candidate seek elected office and worked on numerous local and state referendums and board initiatives. John believes in the importance of giving back to his community. He was chair of the Board of Directors of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island. In four and seven, Gateway Healthcare awarded John with their Community Leadership Award for providing families and children in need with thousands of holiday gifts. He's also served as chair of the Board Development Committee for the Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England, where he also served three terms on their Board of Directors. A graduate of Boston College in ninety four, he lives with his wife Susan and children Jenna and Christopher, and Cranston, Rhode Island. His first novel, The Kingmakers of Providence, released on March third of this of last year, and his second novel, Just the Siberian Candidate, just released on December fifth. John, Welcome to Winning Business TV and radio, and thanks so much for being here. Gray, thank you for having me. I really enjoy it and I really liked your opening Churchill quote. Do you like that? So have something in common?

4:00 We both like Churchill. Absolutely. I've visited the war rooms. Actually in my wife and I went to England London for a week and then the countryside for a week later, and it was it was we just went. We just in September whatever and fascinating, fascinating. My I remember having this debate with my father who I actually dedicated my first book to Keeymakers of Providence, and I asked him as a student in high school, who is the greatest person of the twentieth century and we agreed it was Churchill that was I mean, could someone else have done what he did at that time in England's history? Yeah, some of some very difficult and unpopular things. My favorite Churchilean quote is what is it in war magnan, you know, and in defeat, defiance and peace goodwill in Yeah, it's like it's just like really on point, summarized everything. He was great, just getting right to the right, to the point, no nonsense. And I actually had a very long career was prime minister I think twice, two separate terms. My favorite quote of this and it was a whole speech, but you'll know it never give up, Yeah, never given never, never, never less for matters of honor, right, right, which is a segue to Henry. But we'll get to that. We'll get to that, right. Tell us about Susan, your wife. Well, I definitely married up just like Henry, as did I. While I actually wrote about his wife before I had met

5:36 my wife, and then I went back and included some certain sections of our romance. But she's the love of my life. Together we have two beautiful children, Jenna and Christopher. And she's a school teacher. So it's hard sometimes to deal with a public relations writing guy that likes to experience life. But she keeps me in check, keeps me grounded. And yeah, I'm very lucky to have her. That's awesome. And tell us a little bit about Jenna and Christopher. Well, Jenna was just in my office, so if we had started a little earlier, you would have met her because she had to go for an interview. So she's looking for her summer job, and there's an opportunity for our major healthcare provider, health provider here in Rhode Island. She wants to be a doctor, and she's studying at LaSalle Academy doing very well. We're very excited for her. She's a gymnast. And my son, Christopher is my little hockey player. He's thirteen and he's over at he's in middle school. Nice. Nice, that's kind of what we do what we do, right, why we do what we do? Yeah, And you know, one of the benefits I've had and is did this ten thousand small businesses program with Goldman Sachs. I remember one of your things they did was they had us put in an envelope. You know what we wanted to accomplish, what we wanted to give, what we envisioned for our

7:06 business. And it was all about giving back to my children. And like I said, and you know, you get to remember that, and that's what's really important, absolutely real. So let's get some background. Tell us where you grew up. I grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island. So I moved across across the state to Grants and so I moved about and everything is relative in Rhode Island, so about five miles away. I went to Pilgrim High School and it's great. I go to back to the same hockey rink where our championship banner hangs in the same ice I skated with as a child. I skate on now with my son. So that's cool with Warwick Junior Hockey. In fact, I did a radio interview from the hockey rink during the Newport Newport Tournament this Christmas. I had to get run off the bench and go into my car and do a radio interview and I was like, this is awesome. And I did a shout out for his team.

8:05 So we're big hockey hockey fanatics or hockey dads. We're our own special breed. But I I was fortunate in nineteen eighty nineteen eighty eight to go to Russia. Oh wow. And I was part of this youth program, the hu O Brian Youth Foundation, and I had represented Rhode Island at their International Leadership conference as a sophomore in high school. And they had sent a Russian the Russias during Glasows and Peristrikia. So you know, I'm a kid of the Cold War, so I grew up with you know, hunt for Red October and you know, worrying about the Russians and Ronald Reagan the Evil Empire.

8:52 So Russia was, you know, just an amazing experience for me in the sense that as I had never been out of the lot of really New England just meant gone to Florida and never been out of the United States, my first international experience is going to Russia. You know, they were supposed to be this great empire, and I've soon discovered that was not the case. But it was impactful both how I got there and the time I spent there. How I got there is I had to raise the money and average people in Rhode Island. Just like they gave me money, they raised the money though with the Chambers of Commerce, the rotaries. In fact, I still speak at the same Warwick Rotary that I've spoken to them three times now.

9:37 Once I was seventeen years old trying to raise money because I got to have a chance to go back and speak to them. So that was incredible from the sense that I could see what the community could do for someone. And then two I was exposed at such a young age to another culture, another way of life, and the system. So that has definitely impacted me from the you know, throughout my career. I then went off to Boston College. I studied political science and I actually started writing in college because I used to write these, you know, pages on Russian intellectual history and and all the types of papers. So I was used to writing, and I was very into like Tom Clanty and those types of books. Sure great, So I think I started my first piece in college. I didn't finish it, like a lot of writers. I started something, and then I went off and tried to make a living. So with a political science degree, unless you go to law school, you're limited in what you do. I went into doing some local political consulting, working for a local Rhode Island or I moved back home, I started working on political campaigns. I would be a press secretary, or I would work on the direct mail, or I'd write their commercial, or I would coordinate getting their signs. So that's I grew up kind of in that environment. I mean, you're like twenty two somewhere, TI, Yeah, truth be told. The first couple of years out of college, I kind of, you know, like many young people

11:09 trying to figure out my way. I want to be a professional ski club president, that kind of thing. After I got that out of my I had to move back home and needed to work. And I could write, and I could I had to give good education, and so I was able to kind of put that to work in what I studied, which was exciting. A lot of political science pagers at the time, you know, didn't actually go into politics. So I'm doing local Rhode Island politics, which is its own special culture. All right, So you need to do this. A lot of our viewers and listeners are outside of New England share the flavor because it's very interesting. I'm in Boston, I'm well, I'm not anywhere near as you are, but I'm well aware of the type of culture in Rhode Island, so I wasn't aware of it either until I came back.

11:56 So I come back. You know, I'm from Boston College. I have all this Jesuit idealism and stealed with me. I'm going to change the world. I'm going to do great things. And I come back and I get hammered. Okay, welcome to the real world. The real world in Providence in nineteen ninety eight before two thousand was the Buddy c anci Era had his heyday. And for those who did not know, Buddy, Buddy was the political figure in Rhode Island politics for about twenty years. He was a young elected mayor, a anti corruption crusader who became a young Republican mayor in a Democratic state. Well he even talked about as a potential VP pick. And then he got into some trouble with his wife was having issues and he ended up assaulting and being convicted of assaulting her lover and went off did actually do time, but then not that. He came back and he had to leave office, and then he had a successful became a radio host just like you.

13:11 But then he ran again for mayor, and even though he was a convicted felon, he won I recall and then he served for I don't know ten years, and so I came back and he was at the height of his power. And I can remember going into his office with a young state senator that he had procured a good job for and he's saying the senator saying, Hey, I want to run for office. He's like, why do you want to do that? Tell me why it was? It was here I am with like the political boss, right, And I can remember him like feel in my back to see if I was wearing a wire. I'm like, where what is it? So? Really, yeah, the Providence that I came into was like a culture shock, and if if you read if you read The Prince of Providence by Mike Stanton, you can get a real flavor of what it truly was like. And then Crime Town, the podcast series is fantastic. What I have found is that while the mafia may have moved out, the corruption is like ingrained in our culture, and like new types of special interests have moved in to fill their void. So my book talks about that, but in a fictional way. For example, my mayor is not Italian, He's Irish, and the Irish had a firm place

14:45 in Rhode Island politics and province politicis for generations. So I just carried that through kind of like Mayor FITZI up in Boston, like I kind of you know, a lot of my characters are composites, so I wanted to show people my observations of what local politics was really like. So, yes, I've been bellished, I've made some reciss but the background and the culture from where I came it gave me. As one reporter mentioned to me, Providence is like an amusement park for politics because we know everybody's business. And I think that's actually what makes us strong in Rhode Island, that we know everybody.

15:33 But that can be a negative too. It's kind of like that old boys culture that you got to try to break in and to really get anything done, you have to know somebody, and that can breed corruption. We know the famous line power corrupts, absolute, power corrupts absolutely. That was very true here in Rhode Island. But like you said, you're from Massachusetts. It's not like we always get the bad name that we're the most corrupt places. But you know Massachusett, how many how many speakers or Senate presidents have been indicted up there? I mean, so we're not the only ones. While my story is set in Providence, it could be indicative of any mid level city how politics really operates. All right, hold that thought right there, John, for the audience and for you. We'll get to be back in about one minute after we pay the bills. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now is your chance be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four CWY dot com.

16:59 Call five six one five zero six four zero three to one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three to one. Get your free advertising now, and now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helena presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena where back with John Whole, author and business owner. So John, when did you know you wanted to be a writer? And is it true you started writing Kingmakers of Providence twenty years ago? Yeah? So I think the answer to that is I've always wanted to be a writer. And I think with being a writer comes a lot of self doubt. You say, should I be writing? You know? Am I Hemingway, I Fitzgerald?

18:02 You know who am a Dan Brown? You know? You look at those famous people and you think of you know, I'm nothing like that, right, So I think you deal with a lot of that self that. So I think I've always wanted to be a writer. Like I said, I probably worked on my first piece in right after college. I wrote this when I was about thirty. I started it right after I worked on the two thousand and two special election for Providence and I had one of the candidates. I was their political consultant in a Providence special Providence electoral race, Providence mayoral because Buddy Cians had gone off to jail, so they had a special election to succeed him. And that's where this story originated. So that was in two thousand and two. I finished it, and after I lost that race, I wasn't this hot shot political consultant anymore. So I did what you know anyone would do in my situation. I fled, and I fled to Prague. I had a friend from college that had been an expatriat over there.

19:02 He sent me up with some of his friends. I spent a couple of weeks. A few weeks out there, I finished writing, and so I wanted to do that kind of European I was left bank thing where I was in Paris writing on the seen, eating bag ats and drinking. Yeah, eating bag ats and coffee. But then when you run out of money, it's really and you're in a foreign land, it's not so fun. So I came back with my tail between my legs, had to move back in with mom and dad. They were thrilled. My father then has a major heart attack, so it was good that I was home because I was able to help out and when he was doing his rehab, so my mother could work. And then that's where I launched my business because I needed actual income. The whole time that I launched Age Communications, doing public relations for politicians and small businesses and nonprofits. I always had that bug to write, and I always went back to my work. I did get in two thousand and six a chapter published in a literary journal called The Northeast Review. So I did get published somewhere, one chapter, and then I just let it sit because I met Susan, my wife I needed. We wanted to have a life together when I have children. So I really focused on building up my business, which was, you know, a good decision. So what happened Then COVID occurs, and you know, from home, you're wondering, you know, is your business even going to make it? And you're looking for things to do, and like I said, well let me let me

20:33 dust off that old novel, let me read it one more time, and let me do something with it. So you know, twenty years later, I mean, you know, almost my late forties, early fifties, I have a lot more contacts and business than I did when I was starting out. And a gentleman in an industry group, a marketing advertising group of professionals had published a book on selling, you know, sell with authority, and I asked him how he published, and he put me in touch with his publisher. I went through it with him. I went through about three rounds of editing, went through the whole process and really enjoy the process from looking at the cover designs and then seeing the feedback from these professional editors and tell me, you know, you should really expand this area more when they come back certain years. And then the big thing is, we really don't like your ending. We think you should cut that last part out and leave it more of us a clip. So I had to go back and write that.

21:27 So I now started to learn the process. But then from there it takes a while with the type setting and the printing, and I can remember going back and forth with the publisher about, you know, paper costs because you know you're now in like shortages because of COVID. So during that whole long process, I started writing my second book because I was so into it and loved it. So the first book took me twenty years to write, and the second book took me nine months. I love that. I saw that yeah uh, a little ode to Shakespeare too. No, Henry's last name, oh yeah, spelled a little differently Henry. Yeah. In I almost was going to go back and switch it to the TiO or Q show with TiO. But I kept it the way it is. And Henry is for Henry the fifth too, so it's a nice Shakespeare. Okay, yeah, let's see give a Let me go back to the companies for just a second, because I want you to be able to talk about those for a minute because people might need your help. Tell us about JAGE Communications in main street media, one being public relations, the other being marketing. So it started out with JAGE Communications. I literally hung out a shingle, needed a job. Wasn't my book wasn't going anywhere. Uh. And you'll see a lot of writers, first time writers. They they either teaching prep school or they're they're a journalist. They're doing something you don't see. Breakout writers start

23:00 writing novels and hit it big. That doesn't happen. Yeah, overnight success twenty years ago. That's over twenty an overnight success for twenty years. So I literally drove around. In fact, I remember my father offering to buy tires from my car because I was putting so many miles on my car driving around to try to get business the old fashioned way. And you know, I went to all my contacts and I said, hey, I can be your marketing director for hire. You all coordinate all your marketing. I'll come down to your office and work from your office. And I did that because I didn't have anywhere to go, I anybodys to go, but I go to their office and I'd work from there and I coordinate everything and coordinate the graphic design. And then I would get, you know, one client, then I'd get referred to another, and another and another, and all of a sudden, I had a business. And I remember hiring my first employee, and I was so worried that she might think I'm a fraud because she's there to answer the phone. I was like, please someone call because so that's how it began. My first break was with this trusted choice insurance agents had an opportunity to pitch them. I worked weeks to do it. I remember working that weekend before doing the big pitch, and then it's just like mad Men, where you went and did the big pitch. I got it and that changed everything, and I still have that client today. I run a campaign with about twenty twenty five at the height of about thirty eight different

24:33 insurance agents from around the state. They pool their money, some companies sponsor them, they get some grant money and we do a quarter a million dollar campaign on TV and radio with all their individual messages. Was able to develop that in New Hampshire and Vermont as well by Rhode Island and the independ insurance agents and Rhode Island Trust Choices what put me on the map as a business. From there I was able to grow with other agents and other insurance earns companies. Then I started pivoting towards medicine because my brother was a doctor, introduced I dude someone's website and then someone would reach out to me and say, oh, my brother had the best medical websites. So then I get referred to another time, you know, and go. Fifteen years later, I'm doing work for Brown and their medical programs, Brown Physicians, Brown Dermatology, Brown Eurology, their residency programs, and during COVID, while I was homewriting, the other thing I was doing was going to the hospital during COVID to video all their residency programs. Because the residents couldn't come to the hospital to see what a great program Brown was, we had to bring the experience of Brown to them. So we did video and then that has continued today.

25:45 So we've pivoted to really use video like you're doing here in podcasts, for people to tell their own stories directly without even sometimes having to go through the media, but going direct. And so that's a lot of what we do today, a lot of video, social media, web development, video production, and that certainly has helped me with my book. I don't know how these writers do it. I have a whole staff that does my website, it does video for me, social media. You know, these these people have to do it all their own. It's tough to have someone scheduling my appearances and helping me out with that. It's just it's hard because being a writer is almost like your own startup business. And that's been really rewarding for me to get to see that again what it's like. But that I mean, I'm sure it's a passion. I have no doubt that it's a passion. But it could also be a lucrative future, right, and there's a possibility. I don't know how big we all have. We all have that aspirations, I'm sure. But I loved by the way the shout out to Spenser for hire in one of the pre in your press kit. You know, big Spenser fan. I read all those books as a kid.

26:56 Yeah they were good. Uh had you know that was our guy and Providence as Mercutio. So it but there's a potential. How do TV shows get made? How do movies get made? From authors? Right? So is that a goal? Is that an aspiration? It is? And you know, I'm hoping it's not going to take twenty years like getting published. And I do have someone who's been helping me, who's been the movie business as a producer. He's been advising me. I actually have I'll show you this is my what's called my bible. It has synopsis of the characters. It's a nine episodes limited series. I have a summary of every episode. And then I've written, actually, this is the pilot of the screenplay, sixty something pages. I absolutely loved doing that. That gave me like a new sense and new inspiration, and you know it's good. It's actually even helped me with my business writing because writing's writing. It's clearly getting your thoughts out.

28:14 And certainly when you keep it's like practice with anything. If you want to be a good musician, you keep practicing. Product editors the same thing you're just going to keep doing it and doing you get better. So the more I write, I think, the better I hopefully get. But and then even switching platforms like so going from a novel to then the challenge of writing it as a screenplay. It's a different format. You know, you're more descriptive in your novel, you have to do that with visuals and dialogue. I am very heavy in dialogue in my books, so it was easy to transfer that over. But you have to do enough format that works for TV or the movies, and most likely if this ever gets made, it will be more a TV series like a Prime or a Netflix or streaming Sea.

29:04 I mean me and everybody else, right, Sure, that's the thing. It's like people people think and I go and talk and they think it's just going to automatically because I wrote a book become a Netflix series. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. You don't just send it to the inbox. It's probably the most competitive business you can be in. Everybody wants to be in this business. So I'm focusing on developing my characters I had. I had a really great conversation with another author on Friday and he was telling me, you know, stick with what you're good at, sick, what were you like, and it will take care of itself. And that was probably the thing that was important I took from my business too. I remember one of my first clients saying to me that, and it was an insurance agency that had been around for almost one hundred years at the time, and he was talking about his father and his grandfather and he's saying what they had passed on to him was he if you take care of the clients, the business will take care of itself. And I still believe that. And I think same thing with the book. If you take care of the characters, you're right good stuff. You know, you don't take the readers for granted. You respect them and respect the time they're spending with you, it'll it'll happen. So that's that's the That's what I enjoy doing.

30:25 Love it all right, We're got to take our second break right here. We'll be back in about another minute with author John Hoole. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. The YP dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night.

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32:38 us to Henry and walk us through the don't give away too much, of course, because we want people to buy the book. But so I didn't start out to write a Henry series, but that's what it's. So everything revolves around Henry, and it's like a coming of age kind of you know. It starts off and he I can give this away. The opening line is I'm not burdened by personal conviction. And that was a joke he would say when I was a young political consultant. And the idea is, and I'm not really burdened by the truth I'll do whatever right. So that sets the tone. And he's at a funeral and it's the it's the funeral of a big political boss, and all the politicians are there. So I try to paint the picture of this is what Providence politics are like. It's not.

33:25 People are shown up for the funeral. They don't really care about the guy, but they need to be seen. And then I try to we all go nostalgic for what I think of the bygone areas, and I talk about, you know, the good old days and politics, but the reality is they weren't a good old days. They might have been worse where political patronage got you things, But that was to show the culture. So then what happens is there's someone brave that decides to stand up for the mayor and expose his racketeering ring. And he says, the small building developer who's pissed off that his building got left out of an opportunity enterprise zone and so but in order to get into that zone, you got to pay five and so he decides he wears a wire and exposes the former chief of staff of the mayor. That actually happened in real life. I took a I made it my own kind of story, but that happened, and the difference between what really happened. And then in my book is the mayor happens to be on a cultural exchange in Ireland and he gets wind that as soon as he lands in Boston he's getting indicted, so he flees, so he takes off.

34:49 He gets smuggled out of Ireland by his Ira cousin because you know he's going to have an Ira cousin, right of course, and the drug trade and can smuggle by played by Willem the Foe or somebody like yeah, exactly exactly, and so you know, and I have this scene where he's like, you know, crossing the Irish Sea going to England, and then he smuggled into Birmingham where apparently there are a lot of mix I say, And then he's then he takes the chunnel over to Paris, and then he makes his way to Prague, right, and he hooks up with a Lithuanian prostitute who he figures that they'll be looking for a single guy, but not like an old paramore with a young woman, so he figures that it would be better for his disguise and their racketeering ring the mayor and the chief of staff has netted them millions of dollars and they've stashed some of it in some Swiss bank accounts and the cayman's so he's got plenty of dough to live it up in Prague. Meanwhile, the office is declared vacant, and our young Henry, who lost the governor's race a couple of years ago, gets recruited by his law firm to run the mayoral because he's working for the former congressman that had run for governor and loss. So now this Congressman McNally is in a big

36:22 prestigious province law firm, kind of a rainmaker, and so they say, hey, we want our chance to get the mayor in the office so that our clients will be represented. We'll get access to all these the treasure trove of contracts. So what happens and I will give it away, is Henry finds himself in a very precarious situation with a young lady on one of the political event nights and makes a poor decision but doesn't go all the way and making a really bad decision. But then he is extorted to throw the race, and the question is would you trade everything you believe in to protect yourself Because for the first time, Henry's found his candidate. He's found the person that he thinks will restore honor to politics and providence. Yet he has betrayed his own ideals by putting himself in a precarious situation and ultimately almost costing this gentleman the race. So we watch Henry kind of navigate the political system to make it appear like he's trying to throw the race, but yet at the same time winning it. So he's got this challenge to do so. And then there is a big hero that comes in, kind of very Shakespearean like Norway coming in at the end of Hamlet restores honor everything. So book two we continue the story, but now Henry's in a different place. He's now

37:52 and he wants to prove himself again, and he soon realizes that the corporate were world is we just as nefarious as the political world he thought he escaped from. At the same time, we have a lieutenant governor of Rhode Island that is of Ukrainian descent and he's never known his father. His father died for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and he's been raised by his mother and came over Rhode Island a good liberal. He went to Brown, he worked with political circuits and became lieutenant governor. And he represents this progressive wing of the party that I've been told in the Chamber of Commerce for years are the boogeyman. They're going to come in and make all changes in Rhode Island.

38:42 I never he's going to raise body. So, so I'm looking at the progressive I've one the Progressive book Eman. So in my theory, I said, the Russians I pretty sure were involved in the presidential elections, messing around whatever they did, Okay, I know they were involved, or we think that what if they were involved in local elections? Okay, what if they ran an operation it's just not presidents, or they went in local how would they do it? Well, Rhode Island's often a test market for new products. So I test the whole theory, trying to prove that they can do it in Rhode Island. Buy a governor's ship, okay, back in the seutenant coverment. But the problem is the lieutenant government doesn't even realize he's been bought because he thinks it's his long lost father's money he earned for service to the Soviet Union, But it's not. It's Russian intelligence money. So who do you turn to in a situation like that when you need to find out that you've been funding your campaign with Russian intelligence money and then you use that money to go fund campaigns around the country and you've committed some felonies, Well you turn to Henry Murfeu Shia. So Henry's going to come back in and help bring Rhode Island back on its righteous path. But we're going to discover who that Henry's father in law, who is a billionaire. How do his family get his money? Like every great fortunes right, and Henry will start

40:13 to work on an international stage because when we discover that the Russians have been working our elections, well we're going to give him a little payback. So Henry helps run an operation in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where I happened to go and party with Marines when I was seventeen years old at their consulate. So I get back to Russia, yeah, through Prague while I was in my twenties, my late twenties. So that's the Siberian Candidate. I love it, so are you. Are we working on a third novel yet? I am, and that is the third in the Henry trilogy. I thought I might end it there with Henry. I certainly wouldn't kill him off, but I would kind of come flute his story, and I talked about maybe going back and covering some of my other characters, because I can't see putting the pen down, or for me, the computer keys. I'm going to keep writing. And I'm about halfway through the thirteenth State, which happens to be Rhode Island, and there's a big climax at the end of The Siberian Candidate. Something happens in Rhode Island, and the third book explains what happens and then sets the stage before Henry taking a continued role internationally and again he used to represent when we have good, smart people involved helping to make decisions,

41:47 and the repercussions of some of those decisions, and all the nefarious actors around all, you know, wanting their piece of the pie. So it's a lot of what I you know to say right about what you know? I worked in politics for twenty years, still dabbling in a little bit. So I know about how political campaigns are run, but I like to tell it in a thriller format. So you know, I don't have any CIA background or any of this stuff. I like to that's definitely my Tom Clancy influence and read all his stuff, so I gravitate towards that kind of stuff.

42:27 Are you going to be in a cameo having a drink at a bar in the background of the movie, of the movie or the series, I'll be I'll be happy to be have my name listed as written by John Hole. Yeah, and so so that's what you know. What was interesting is being in my business and doing a lot of graphic design and video, and I produced some videos for for the books, but I didn't really did see. I really enjoyed being the client and I really loved the book covers they create. So I certainly leave that to the professionals. So I certainly wouldn't I wouldn't interfere if this ever gets into a movie or a series, let them have at it. Certainly, if they would like my input and want my involvement, I would certainly want to do that. But I also like being the writer. That's really cool. Well, it sounds like fun to be where you are, and the books sound fun as well. What would your advice be to newer authors who are maybe dabbling, maybe trying to start.

43:39 Don't worry about the money. I mean, you're going to have to have another job. I don't know anybody. I don't know any writer that unless they're independently wealthy or someone finances them. You know. But this isn't back in Machiavelli's day where you could get like the patrons to financer are or writing. So you're gonna probably have to have a job. And I know so many writers that, and there's so many famous writers like I write at four am or sometimes on the weekend, I write before work, or I write at lunch. Sometimes they never to interfere with my regular job because that's what pays the bills. There's famous authors that you know are writing while they are limousine drivers and they're writing, or cap drivers and they're jotting down work and coming back. I guess, love the process, love the writing, that's the fun, enjoyable or tell your stories, develop your characters, respect your readers, and the rest. Let the rest just happen. Of course, if you become a published author, there's a whole other job you have to do. You're gonna go out and be a promoter, and you have to promote your books. That's the other side of it. I don't know if a lot of writers understand that. You know, there aren't big machines behind you, big publishing houses. You know aren't paying for publicists and booking on is your name is Dan Brown and all these and David Baldacci. That doesn't happen to writers like John You gotta do it yourself to get Richard.

45:07 Richard Castle was very successful too. Yeah, so I got to kick out that one. That's a secret, all right. So the books are available on Amazon. Uh, you're available at John Houle dot com dot excuse me, okay? Uh. And I do want to touch on one other area. You volunteer a lot wherever I see it that I want to touch on it, uh, because I think it's it makes somebody well rounded. Tell us why you volunteer, why should others? And what have you been a part of so right now? I really enjoy coaching. In fact, I remember someone saying to me, it's kind of what I do at work too. When you have employees. So I enjoy coaching my son's hockey team.

45:52 I'm an assistant coach, so I've enjoyed that. I've been involved in boards. Uh recently the Chamber of Commerce. That was interesting. And soon I'm going to be judging a contest of high school students doing a cooking show like a in Rhode Island by our Hospitality Association. So they asked me to judge the viability of these young chefs wanting to go out and start their own concepts. So I'm excited about doing that. Yeah, I just think it's our responsibility in business to give back to the community. And it goes back to what I told you about when I was seventeen. I'm trying to raise money, trying to raise thirty five hundred dollars to go on a trip to Russia, and people contributed, So now this is my way of giving back.

46:39 I love it. Thank you. And what else do you do when you're not working, when you're not volunteering? What else you do? What do you have fun with? I like the golf. I'm certainly my golf game's gotten worse and my handicap's going up because I've been writing and working more. I like to travel. Did a trip to Europe this summer with our kids. Nice. That was that was great to expose them at you know, thirteen and fifteen to other cultures and see that. So we like to travel, like to you know, I like to golf, and like just hanging out with my wife and my kids love it. And hiking. We hike a lot. We spend a lot of time. We ski. Uh oh so hopefully hopefully getting up skiing this weekend with a break from hockey this one weekend. But we spent a lot of time my wife and I in gymnastics meets, at cheerleading events, and at hockey and lacrosse games. Enjoy every minute of it too. We did that. We did the same. Who in the listening and viewing viewing audiences should reach out to you and why?

47:49 Uh So, I just got a I just got an organize. A company reached out to me and asked me to speak at one of their board meetings one of the and they're they're give out gifts of my books. So I think that's a fun thing. I've been a at conventions or I might be like the might speak for a half hour. What I speak about is is writing as a startup business? And what the key takeaways from writing a book? What I've learned, specifically in the marketing realm. I've had to go out and market this book myself, so when my money was on the line, and I take the money of my clients very seriously as well, what are the things that I've seen work and what would I recommend? So I wrote a blog. People can get that off of my website JAGE Communications actually Main Street m m A I n st dot agency. Can Sarah blog post there anyone who's interested in reading what I found. I call it what actually works? And you know, I like talking to organizations. I also in giving back. I was at a senior center last week. I had four people, but I enjoyed it. Talked about my characters. I go around to senior centers, libraries, independent living facilities, rotaries, and I love to talk about my experience as a writer, talk about my books. What inspired me. I read a couple chapters, so I do that as part of my volunteerism to talk about it and usually people will buy a few books,

49:22 which is always nice to support the habit. But people looking for someone to be entertained in a business format, a business association or a group that wants to have someone who has worked in both the artistic side as well as the business side that can also relate what's starting a new product or a new book or a new initiative, which is what a book is. It's almost its own business. But that's like I certainly could share my experience and telling some entertaining stories about politics. Excellent, Well, listen, thank you very much. We're out of time. I really appreciate you taking yours to be here. I enjoyed it. I'm sure the audience has did as well. Well. I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to go on and share my stories. Well, thank you, and thank you audience for watching and listening. This is a show about business, business challenges and successes. If you've got concerns about the growth of your company, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio. You can drop me a note, I always say one of my many email addresses Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. Our company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. Listen. We're not right for everybody, but maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you to produce at Engineer one for another job well done, Thank you one. Be sure to join us next week that's Monday, January twenty ninth. We'll do it all over again. Until then, this is Kevin Helena. You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host,

50:52 Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio w four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Haleanan and Winning Business Radio