Shaun Newman Podcast - #474 - Aaron Youngren

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

He is the head of product at Red Balloon which was founded in 2021 and has quickly grown into America's largest and most successful non-woke job board and talent connector. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

This is Matt Osborne. This is Pat King. My name is Martin Armstrong. This is Alex Kraner. This is Franco Tarzano, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday. I am back in the studio, and, man, it feels good to be back sitting in the chair, you know?

You get away and you make do and you find ways to make a work. And then finally, you get back to where you've been. The studio feels like home. That's all same. I hope everybody's weekend, long weekend is going well. Yeah, we're a strange, odd family, I guess. I don't know, we've rolled back in on August long, and when you've been gone for a few weeks,

it's just another couple days. I was excited to get back in the studio Sunday night. I met one of the guys who works for Wade, and he's like, what are you doing here? And I'm like, man, time to go to work. Anyways, today's episode brought to you by Canadians for Truth. They've got upcoming shows, two of them in fact, here August 24th, so just around the corner. Mack Mora, Canadian businessman out of Calgary.

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MichkoCorp.com. Now, let's get on to that tail of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroying for the past 80 years. They've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm, commercial or oil field locations. For more information, visit them at Hancock Petroleum.com.com. Dat C.A. He's the head of product at Red Balloon. Red Balloon was founded in 2021 and has quickly grown into America's largest and most successful

non-woke job board and talent connector. I'm talking about Aaron Youngren. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Aaron Youngren and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Aaron Youngren. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping on.

You're welcome. Great to be here. I want to get a little bit of your backstory for the audience so they know exactly who they're talking to. But first, I just, you know, I see it sitting over your shoulder, Red Balloon. I was sent this commercial with these kids talking about wanting to work, you know, when I grew up on work for the wocus company out there. And I'm like, who is this? And then one of my sponsors asked me like, who is this? You should go find them. So, of course, that's how I stumble into Red Balloon and Aaron.

but for the audience, for myself, tell us a little bit about yourself, Aaron, and then we'll get into some of the stuff with Red Balloon. Yeah, so thanks. It's great to be here. My name's Aaron, and I work for Red Balloon. Red Balloon is a hybrid job board. So we have employers sign up.

They take a pledge that they're going to respect the free speech rights and medical privacy of their employees. Employees sign up and say they are going to work, hard and somehow this is a novel thing in the world we live in. And it is very popular where red balloon feels a little bit more like a rocket ship right now. It's really taking off. So I'm head of product here. I grew up. My first job was at Amazon.com in the high growth years 2002 to 2009. I ran a global innovation team there. Most recently, I worked for another Fortune 100 company, which shall remain nameless,

but from which I quit very loudly and publicly to come work here at Red Balloon, just couldn't take the nonsense for another minute. And it's just been great ever since. I love it when a company can just speak open and frank, you know, when you say free speech and medical freedom, it's like, listen, on the Canadian side, that was debatable there for quite some time.

So seeing companies embrace that, which shouldn't be such a novel idea. yet it is, is pretty cool. You know, I guess how did you find Red Balloon? Did you know Andrew? I would love to take a shot at his name, but I know I'll butcher it. But did you know Andrew? Because from what I've watched of Red Balloon, he started it kind of himself.

He got asked to do this, and, you know, he jokes about the investor being his savings account, and he's like, okay, let's go. and and you know it's you know the number one woke job board uh woke free job board thank you and i'm getting the nod woke not woke not woke right anyways how did how did you find this like was this something you're just like looking for or did it fall on your lap did you know andrew before like honestly how on earth does this come to be yeah so i my job like so many other Americans went remote during COVID. And I utilized that time to move to one of the most beautiful places in the country. Moscow, Idaho, don't tell anyone. It's a, it's a well-kept,

well-guarded secret. Moscow, Idaho. It's gorgeous here. How so? How so? So we actually have a very unique topography, massive, massive rolling hills within, 45 minutes. There are some of the most beautiful lakes in the entire country. You're within driving distance of just beauty everywhere. And not many people know about it. So it's not overrun. This is a small college town and it's just a joy to, I have three older kids and we are just loving life here. But I actually at the time was living in Chicago. And so I was I was commuting to this Fortune 100 company. And it was, it was a very beautiful. bizarre time in that company, to which I was commuting, you know, an hour and a half every day before

the shutdown. When you talk about bizarre, can you elaborate for us a little bit? Oh, yes, I can. Oh, yes, I can. So just things like, you know, regularly receiving company-wide letters. I mean, this is a brand you would know instantly if I told you who it was. But regularly receiving company-wide wide letters from, you know, corporate presidents about how XYZ event that happened, you know, two seconds ago. Nobody had any details, but it was another example of, you know, racial injustice in our country, things that otherwise thoughtful, seeming, data-driven, seeming, high-powered leaders of one of the most powerful companies on the planet just seemed to go into zombie mode, you know, whenever these things came up and repeat these tired talking points.

You know, meanwhile, amongst myself and my colleagues, they're losing credibility every day and we're all kind of playing that game where we don't know, you know, who's thinking what, you know, and you're having these strange secret meetings. Are they watching our chats? But, you know, I learned early on in my career, if you want to maintain your integrity, you're going to have to be a troublemaker. And so I was unafraid to ask very awkward questions and chat rooms. And people kind of knew where I was coming from. You know, I was in a past.

I wasn't making that the issue. The work was the issue. But after some point, what I realized was nobody around me knew how to do. do anything, right? They just felt trapped. And meanwhile, the company issued a vaccine mandate. I had already decided I was not going to take the vaccine. So I walked downstairs from my at-home office and told my wife, well, that was fun, but it's over. We'll move on to the next thing. I wrote a really fiery exemption request and then started talking to people in town. And one of those people was Andrew Crapuchess.

That's how you say his name, although I could be really unkind to him right now by training you to say it differently. So I walked into this new company, this tiny company, Red Balloon and said, hey, what if I was looking for a job? You know, would you need any help? Meanwhile, my exemption request was granted. So I started doing a little work on the side with Red Balloon anyway. And then I realized one day the best thing that I could probably do would be to toss a couple of sticks of dynamite into this company on my way out and go work for Red Balloon. Not because I just wanted to cause trouble for no reason, but more because the people around me didn't think they had any options. So these are people who have worked there and invested in this company their whole life and they feel like they're in, feel like, and they're in.

integrity is being challenged every day. And I kind of wanted to do something that would loud and, you know, a little maybe funny to some of them that would show them that they do in fact have options. They can just walk away. They can say something that's super awkward in a meeting. That's how I ended up here. How, uh, I assume a nice breath of fresh air walking into red balloon. Am I wrong on that? Absolutely wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. You know what's funny? Aaron, I find, I don't know, maybe it's a wrong word, but amusing already about you. It's like, can we talk about this? And you know, some people are like, well, you know, and Aaron is like, well, I mean,

you've already said it. You're a troublemaker, hey? Like, you're just like, let's roll. You want to talk about some things? Let's talk about it. How cool has it been then to be, and I mean, honestly, to be at a company where you can just speak freely, I assume they aren't putting any muzzles on you, that you can just walk onto a podcast You're like, hey, this is what we are.

This is what we're trying to do. This is who we're trying to attract. This is what we're about and be damned with the rest of it that's going on. Yeah, it's absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, that used to be normal, right? That used to be something that we could all do. We could actually talk. We could say what was actually on our minds.

It's wonderful to return to that, to be talking to people that are like-minded, that are willing to take just the everyday risks of speaking their mind. One thing I think most people don't quite realize is businesses that are not doing that cannot help but stagnate. So one of the most encouraging things for me in the past six months or so would be the Bud Light and Target fiascos. And I was an encouraged solely because of the boycott, right? What I was encouraged by was the realization that market realities are coming for these companies, right?

You can't make a move like Bud Light did without an absolute abdication of critical thought at the top at the leadership level. And companies that have that kind of. you know, zombie takeover in, in their boardrooms are just not going to survive. That's not how business works. There are market realities. You have to know your customer. You have to, right?

And so for something like the Bud Light move to have happened, you know, there wasn't one person there. There wasn't one person that said, hey, hey, all, wait, before we move on, you know, is this really such a good idea? By having a trans woman on a beer can and being your spokesperson? Right. Right. So for me, that's very encouraging because I hope, you know, I hope leaders across our country, across your country, I hope they take note and realize we can't do this forever. We're just going to lose.

And the ones that don't take note, I hope they do lose and quickly. Well, I would say a lot of people, a lot of common folk have already taken note. I mean, obviously, Bud Light was a shot across the bow at, I don't know, my demographic, I guess, right? Like, I mean, we used to tease each other for drinking Bud Light anyways, you know? Right. Now it's just like, now you just don't do it.

You just walk into a hockey dressing room. I mean, like, well, you're going to get teased incessantly if you bring that stuff in, right? And so, like, I mean, they've lost a huge chunk of that. Targets, it's, you know, now you've offended Mama Bears everywhere. right like I mean you can see what's going on here and so you go have they learned no they haven't learned yet like they just they just haven't you know like those are you know I don't know if they think they're one-offs I don't know if they think the entire population is racist or misogynistic or whatever word they're going to use but they're certainly going to fire them all out

there I don't think they've learned enough just yet what which is interesting though from a red balloon standpoint, maybe you could just talk to us a little bit about what, you know, you already kind of set up free speech, and basically just stay out of your employees' personal lives, you know, and in return, you come work hard for the business. When this idea first starts out, like how many businesses do you have posting on here? I actually, and maybe you could just talk about a little bit of how it works and get a feel for it. Sure. Well, we actually have two arms. On the one side, businesses can come, like I said. they can take our pledge and they can find the hardest working Americans and Canadians out there

because people that are attracted to us with folks like myself or like Andrew out there speaking our message all the time. Those are the folks that you want in your company, right? So they can go and have access to those. We have a profile search where employers can, you know, go in search for it into our database. We have a massive tens of thousands of job seekers in our database. We have over 3,000 employers now that have taken that pledge, which is actually a really big deal, right? So you're going to get flack as an employer. You're going to become a little

more of a target as an employer, even if you do something simple like saying, I think the Constitution still matters. So it's a big deal to us that over 3,000 employers have been. done this. You know, I talk to job seekers all the time that they are so discouraged because they don't believe businesses like that even exist. And so for employers, the chance to encourage those job seekers and then maybe find a match with someone who's going to, you know, to X their revenue because they're working so hard is a really big deal. The other side of our business, we're actually out there in the thick of it. We have a professional services arm that is just growing very rapidly. So we're out there in the thick of it handling the entire front end of an

employer's hiring process. So we post jobs, optimize them for them. We do resume screening. We do first cultural interviews in many instances. We're training employers how to do cultural interviews because they don't know what they can ask and not ask anymore. And they feel that the landscape is pretty litigious and it is and unsafe and it is so we help them navigate that that hiring process Aaron isn't going to know this folks but I'm currently on holidays in Minnesota with my wife so we're from Canada and we're living currently stationed at her parents house and two of the kids one of them sick one of them got stung by bees they're now sitting beside and I'm like I'm struggling because Aaron's like who is this guy and I'm like well normally this isn't the way it goes you know

Normally, I'm like, I'm trying to roll with it, but now I'm like, oh, this is all right. I'll talk to them too if you want. Put them on. It'll be fun. What, actually, you're going to give me two seconds here. We're going to see if I can shepherd out some cats, and I'll be right back. I apologize. I'm trying to remain serious, but I literally have a three-year-old who's been stung by bees and is all swalled up.

He's going, hey, dad, what are you doing? Hey, Dad, what did you do? So for the listeners, the only thing I'm going to cut out is the, the, the, the space where I try and shepherd them out, the wife's like, did they come in the room? I'm like, they came in the room. Like, hurting out cats. They're like, we're not leaving. We want to see you do an interview.

I'm like, uh, anyways. We're going back to the businesses. I was, you kind of actually hit on a couple things there that I was curious about. And I was wondering, you know, when they approach red balloon and they're like, listen, I don't know the questions to even ask anymore because I don't want to get in that type of hot water. Or, you know, like what can we, you know, do, et cetera. You guys have like this interesting insight because I mean how many companies, well, you've already mentioned how many thousands of companies are sitting there doing this.

So it's like, what has been the common concern from businesses? I assume COVID just set off an absolute domino effect on so many different things. But now with like so many different cultural things and just like these landmines everywhere, from your standpoint, what do businesses like really struggling with right now? Well, businesses are afraid that the wrong hire will destroy their company, and they are absolutely right about that. Think about that for a second before you. The wrong hire will destroy their company. Can you elaborate just a bit on that thought process? Absolutely. So if I have been indoctrinated, as most people in Western culture have now, someone has attempted to indoctrinate them with the idea that secretly in their heart of hearts,

they really want, you know, the total destruction of anyone who is not like them around them, that they cannot help as though they were controlled by puppet strings. They cannot help but make poor decisions, not adult decisions, but poor decisions when confronted with someone who has a different. different skin color and that actually everyone else, including you, the business owner, has this secret, malevolent intent in their heart of hearts. If I walk into your business with that, you are the bad guy from day one, right? And in some way, you are going to not be treating me fairly and you're definitely not treating that guy fairly. And that is the tone of our relationship going forward.

What that does is absolutely sabotages any kind of healthy business culture. So now the most important thing is not that I work hard. The most important thing is that I extract the most that I can get from you and that I make sure, like I'm your nanny, that you're paying attention to the people around me and the ways that I think that you should. You know, the best people that you want at your working at your company, the best managers, the best leaders, all of them share a common belief. And that is that hard work should be rewarded. That hard work is a good thing. And all throughout history, you know, you'd have to be a child not to know that there have been instances when that's not true. That there are people that work really hard.

And then they do not get a just reward for that hard work. But what we're doing now is we're trying to solve that fundamental problem by taking the reward from hard workers and just giving it to people with a certain skin color or gender. I mean, just look at our government. Regardless of how they work. Gender. And now if you got a specific pronoun, you know, culturally diverse, that's what they would want. They want as diverse as we can get. and that kind of throws skill set to the side.

And does that mean you should never hire a woman? No. Does that mean you can't hire somebody who's ethically different than you? No, that's insane, you know, but does it mean they should be good at their job? I don't know. I think, you know, I come from a hockey background, Aaron. And if we just said, you know what, on an NHL team, we're going to have a bunch of diverse people and we're going to see how this plays out.

I don't think you win the Stanley Cup. I mean, I don't know what your sports. of leisure is but I you just take that and you apply it the same way and it's like well that's stupid I mean it's just it just is it doesn't mean you shouldn't approach different backgrounds and have them come in and apply to there's great people in all skin colors and religions etc that could walk into your company and just be amazing but when you only hire on that that is wild right so so listen to the statistics 48%

of workers in it, there was a survey that came out in November of last year. Forty-eight percent of workers, of managers, were asked to deprioritize hiring white males, right? Fifty-three percent of hiring managers think that their job will be in danger, like they could get fired if they don't prioritize diversity candidates enough. So here's the problem. Hard work is human flourishing. right hard work is what part of what we were made to do hard work is what's going to make your business flourish but if you have people out there that are living in fear some of them because they think that it's wrong you know many of my my colleagues at the company that i worked for they couldn't tell you why they're not articulate about it maybe but they know hey you know wasn't it two seconds ago

we were asked not to hire based on race and now we're hiring based on race isn't this Isn't this strange? Isn't this wrong? You know, if you indoctrinate people that way, you are forcing them to become less human. You should want the humans in your business to thrive. And if they are not seeing that hard work is going to equal reward, if that chain is interrupted, they are just not going to thrive. They're going to be miserable. And by the way, it doesn't matter if you're the person on the receiving end of those benefits or you're the one, having the benefits taken away. Long term, just because, you know, what must it be like to sit in that high seat and have had that promotion and know in your heart, I did nothing to deserve this?

That's a horrible place to be. Some people, I don't know if they'd even think about it. They probably think I earned this. You know, I think, you know, when you, when you start to self-censor that much, where you can't, you know, like where almost every word is racist or everything is, you know, male privilege or just go down the thought process. It's, I mean, it's just, I remember having, folks, I remember Ron McLean telling me this. Raul McLean is a host of Hockey Night in Canada here in Canada. A huge name, right? And he was talking about, you know, how they weren't allowed to say boys and girls of all. ages and I was like at what point is it just like time to walk away and I he

didn't give me an answer and I'm you know I don't know what he what he was supposed to say I just like to me I'm like you're in a world I never want to be in where I can't say boys and girls you know or and and on it on it went you know for for the Russia Ukraine more on television there's this guy named Alexander of Etchen who's almost going to break the most goals in the NHL ever but he comes from Russia and they wouldn't talk about him anymore well we're not supposed to talk about it like but he's like, come on, like, he's not fighting in the war. He hasn't even lived there in like 20 years.

He's about to break your, your game's most goals ever. We're not allowed to talk about this. Like, this is, you know, well, it's where we're at in the world. It's why an idea like Red Balloon that has this crazy idea. All of a sudden is like, huh, like, that's a pretty good idea, you think? Yeah, right, right, right. Well, and, you know, coming back to our earlier point, this just can't last, right? The businesses that operate on these principles, if you have a total lack of candor and forthrightness in one area, that is going to leak to the rest of your business.

I remember when I worked at Amazon, there was this, we have these giant all-hands meetings downtown in Seattle, and they rent some halls. So there are two, three thousand people there, you know, which was giant for back then. And I remember this, you know, just like these meetings, normally there's a Q&A time. And you always have that one snotty guy who stands up and, you know, excuse me, Mr. Bezos.

Excuse me, excuse me. And he's going to ask some backhanded question that everyone in the room knows, hey, you're just trying to look smart and you're way too snarky. And everyone kind of despises it but puts up with it. So this guy asked this question. and of course took, you know, four minutes to ask it. And Jeff down on the platform just looked at him and said, you know, your question actually just shows that you don't know what you're talking about. And just let that drop in front of 3,000 people.

And I kid you not, the entire crowd stood to its feet and gave a standing ovation. Now, undoubtedly, that guy probably quit that day and did not feel so good. But it was that kind of candor, that kind of truthfulness, however harsh, that made those years of Amazon.com a great place to work if you wanted to work in a place where people would speak their mind. Now you have corporations where everyone is terrified to speak their mind. And you can't just say we're going to suppress speech. We're going to shove these ideas down your throat that are totally disconnected from reality over here. Oh, but when it comes to spreadsheets, you know, we're going to be excellent.

It just doesn't work like that. Well, can you talk to me a little bit about DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion? I know, I've had lots of guests, you know, briefly mentioned it, talk about these scores, et cetera, et cetera. But I mean, you're in the realm of working with all these different businesses, trying to find them employees and helping people find businesses, et cetera. So I assume, Aaron, you're like, oh, yeah, good old DEI, you know, I wish it was die. D.I.E. instead, right? Just where you go to die, pretty much, you know. But at the same time, you know, diversity, equity, and inclusion, you know, where we business is hiring not based on skills and productivity, but rather based on discriminatory practice of hiring. race, gender, and even political ideology.

I mean, we've been really talking about it this entire time. But at the same time, I kind of want to be like, just like, that's what it is. That's what you're talking about. And I mean, I don't know if I can shed enough light on this and give you enough runway to just like talk about it. Because I'm like, I really want to understand what's, I don't even know. Is it, what's going on here? Is it, I don't know, no, like, it's just, it's such a like, it's all these lovely little terms. oh, that sounds nice. That sounds nice. Right. Right. It's put in a way that's almost palatable until you start to look at it. You're like, this is rather insane. Yeah. Let me come at it from a strange angle. So I actually became inoculated against DEI in a little bit of a different way than most people. One of the stranger parts of my career, I was actually a pastor in Chicago for about nine years. And Chicago is,

as you may know, is an incredibly crime-ridden, poverty-stricken city. It has some of the greatest wealth in America. It has some of the poorest neighborhoods in America. Neighborhoods that literally you go to them and it feels like a war zone, like a third-world country. And so as a pastor in Chicago, I wanted to go see in those neighborhoods for myself. I wanted to talk to people in those neighborhoods and really understand. And so there are places on the West side. where you've got a drug dealer on every corner.

You've got a hundred shootings in a year that happened. You know, every third building is burned to the ground. But you can actually just see, you know, the roads in Chicago are all straight. So you can see straight down a road to the loop, to the center of the city. And I met person after person that had never. left that hellscape, that horrible, that place that no one in America wants to go. Everyone knows about nobody wants to go. They had not left until they were 19, 20, 21 years old. Now, now why do you think that is? The reason why is because in the neighborhood, there is a powerful,

powerful narrative. And it's the narrative, unfortunately, you know, coming from some of the pulpits of churches there, the community leaders there. And the narrative says, hey, young man, did you know everyone outside of this neighborhood hates you? Things are terrible for you here because everyone out there doesn't want you to succeed. You are stuck, right? You are stuck. Everything is so bad out there, everything is trying to keep you down. And this was a way, you know, supposedly of encouraging, you know, it's not your fault or something like that. And so they would just never leave, right? They would get, you know, of course, you turn to gangs, you turn to other forms of community, you do all of those things. The sad part of it is, is that obviously is just totally

not true. You know, yeah, people are selfish and busy, but does everyone out there secretly hate people in these neighborhoods and doesn't want them to succeed? No, the truth is kind of the opposite of that. So, you know, imagine my shock when that exact same disastrous narrative is preached from the Zoom pulpits of corporations across America. It's the same message. Hey, if you are black, if you are Hispanic, if you are a woman, you know, everyone has. Everyone has. a secret hatred of you in their heart and doesn't want you to succeed. And it's not only that they don't want you to exceed, they're incapable of making rational decisions about you and actually need an overseer to come in with a chart, you know, and training that you have to attend every

month just to keep you on the up and up and help you make a common sense decision. It is, it's hard because if you speak up about DEI, of course someone's going to say, well, yeah, you're a white male. Of course you're going to say that. You don't want your promotion taken away. No, I hate DEI because it is a disastrous ideology taking hold in the West. It is a total disaster to tell someone no matter how hard you work, no matter what you do, you are never going to achieve or succeed. No one will see it. No one will pay attention to you. They all have this secret malignancy in their heart that prevents them of treating you like a real human being.

Yeah, I heard it was a comedian in me got into an argument once upon a time. Because he was talking about a couple different things. They still have those? Pretty much. Well, society's become a big old comedian. He was talking about, I think it was just for. laughs and don't quote me on this folks i can't remember it was a comedy show in canada anyways and uh i was like oh like you know do you ever make it there and uh he's like well no uh you know they've had some uh

you know diversity uh rules come in and so like you know a white male and he was like you know just i'm not good enough so like you know you know they only allow one white male to come in and do comedy and i was like what do you think about that and he's like well i mean no it's it's probably fair to everybody else. I'm like, yeah, but look at our population. I mean, just go low side. 75% is white males. I don't know. And then tack on to that. It's like in, let's say 70, like our white male population sucks. Do we want to see all black comedians? Probably. Because if I want to laugh, I really do. Like I do. I don't go to a comedian to sit there and go, this sucks. But it goes to the opposite way too, you know, like just because we got to have one of

each. I mean, can you imagine going to that comedy show and you never laugh? Like, it's just like, That was pretty rough because we left the top four comedians out because they didn't fit into their one of each. I mean, it's pretty wild that it's not just business anymore. You don't think of Hollywood. It just came out. Academy Awards, I want to say, are Oscars. One of the two, Academy Awards are the Oscars. In order to be, now it's not this year, Aaron.

I think it's next year. In order to be voted as the best picture of the year, you have to meet certain. diversity categories. I'm like, what is that going to do for entertainment? Like, I mean, sure, like, to hear an underprivileged story, there's nothing wrong with it. But if every one of them has to fit this in order to be the best movie of the year, what is that going to do? Like, can nobody see this as insane?

Or is it go back to something you were kind of alluding to earlier? Everyone's so terrified to voice their opinion because they might lose their, you know, their career over this. And they just don't understand how freeing it is to just kind of talk and go back to, like, no, that doesn't sound right. Yeah. Well, that, that, you know, this brings us back to that commercial, the, the red balloon commercial. We, you know, that has been tremendously popular over seven million views of the commercial, very resonant with people. And this is why, is this the world you actually want? And, and forget about you. What about your children,

right? Is that the world you want for your children where they're walking around, afraid to have an errant thought, you know, secretly, believing in their hearts, they can never overcome seeing past someone's skin color. All of their words, their creativity is going to be, have to run through some police state. Is that the culture that you want? I don't think that most people in the West want that. Now, they may not, because we're, we're, we're intellectually lazy. And we are, we have not, we have lost our foundations, right? So I don't know that they know how to say that they don't want it, except for to buy Coors light instead of but light. But, but I don't think that's the world that that people want to live in. And so my hope is a

great market failure for Hollywood, right? That there are great alternatives that come up. And that's really what we're trying to do here at Red Balloon is to shine light on those, on those companies that are trying to do something different and to drive as many brilliant people into them as possible. If it's all right by you, Aaron, I assume lots of people have seen this, but if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind just playing it that way. People can hear and see the commercial for what it is because once again, this is how I stumbled on. This is how I got, I'm like, who did this? I was thinking it was some, you know, honestly, I was like some like independent podcaster or media. media person put this together. Of course, no, it's

red balloon. I think it's brilliant. So I'll hear, I'll play it quick. That way people can let's see, if we can get it there. I want to work for a woke company. Like super woke. When I grow up, when I grow up, I want to be hired based on what I look like rather than

my skills. I want to be judged by my political beliefs. I want to get promoted based on my chromosomes. When I grow up, I want to be offended by my coworkers and walk around the office on egg shells. and have my words policed by HR. Words like,

Grandfather, peanut gallery. Long time to see. No can do. When I grow up, I want to be obsessed with emotional safety and do workplace sensitivity training all day long. When I grow up, I want to climb the corporate ladder. Just by following the crowd. I want to be a conformist.

I want to weaponize my pronouns. What are pronouns? It's time to grow up and get back to work. Introducing the number one. Oh, man, I tell you what, that's, I don't know if it gets much better than that. Like, honestly, that may be the, my hat's off to you guys. Because I think that might be the best thing I've seen in a solid year. Like, I've watched it, you know, multiple times.

We've played it on a couple different shows just to shed a light on it because I'm like, like, it's, you know, you're like, this is the way it's always been. And then somewhere we forgot about it. But for whatever amount of time, that doesn't. feel like the way it's been um the pronouns thing certainly i remember jordan peterson being up here and uh talking to our our parliament about it saying like you can't compel speech like this is we're in you you don't want to do this this is what they did back in in stallin's time in russia you don't want to compel speech and uh you know to have kids say i want to weaponize my pronouns it's like

i don't know you know people just i've shown a lot of people that nobody can go well this is stupid it's like that's kind of where we're at What you feel every day? Who was the brilliant mind behind that idea? So we worked with a brand new studio. I mean, another gentleman that had a lot of accolades under his belt and decided to do something different. He took us on as his premier project. And so we were very blessed to work with like-minded individuals.

It's actually happening to us all the time. is, you know, you stand up for something, just like in a corporate workplace when you stand up and you think you're the only one as a business. If you stand up and take a stand, you are going to, yes, get some flack for it, but a lot more love for it than you would think. You know, it's really interesting about the job seekers at Red Balloon. They don't know who to trust. They don't know where they should go. you're talking about the place that they're going to spend most of their waking hours. And many of them have just, I mean, horror stories that you'll never hear about

of what happened to them over the last five years. And so for employers, we encourage them, no, wear it on your sleeve, you know, make a statement. If you are vulnerable on their behalf, they will know that they can trust you. And that's happening all across, you know, all across our countries. It's funny. I think of myself as not a red balloon per se, but a miniature I want, I guess, because I have companies that sponsor the show. And I'm like, well, good on you.

Because by doing that, you are becoming part of what I do. And what I do is we don't shy away from the difficult conversations. We actually talk about them. And a ton of them were businesses that didn't force things on their employees during the last three years. You can imagine how people or prospective people looking for jobs feel about that because a lot of them here in Canada specifically got forced out of their careers. And it just happened over and over and over and over again. And then there was a whole bunch of businesses that just kind of went, nope, we're not interested in that. And it's pretty cool that

Red Balloon has come out of that and other businesses are finding that, I think is really cool. As for a Canadian, does Red Balloon work with Canadian companies first? Yeah, we have, we do. We're, you know, even even in America, we're still the small guy. We're taking on the big Silicon Valley giants. But definitely we have Canadian employers on our site. Well, I think that's, you know, for my audience, 75-ish percent Canadians. And then of course, there are Americans as well. But, you know, from where I sit, a ton of Canadians and a ton of people looking for opportunities, right? And so if there is Canadian content on there for them to find and to, work with, I would think they'd be well inclined to go look because you write on the trust factor. It's like, well, how do I know they're going to have my back? Well, the easiest way, in my opinion, maybe you have different thoughts, Aaron, is just look at their track record

of the last three years. It's pretty simple. It's like, oh, okay. All right. Sign me up. Where we go. Yep. Yep. And ask, right? So if you're in an interview, the right kind of employer, you know, you don't have to be a jerk. and you can wait till the end of the interview, but the right kind of employer, if you send up those signals, they will match them all day long because they want you, right? They want people that are going to be critical thinkers

and able to make decisions and stand by their integrity. Yeah, so just ask. What a novel idea. Just ask. Once again, you know, it's interesting. Once again, I was sitting on stage, with a few NHL, ex-N-N-HL. Well, guys who work around the NHL.

We'll leave it there, okay? And I made, my opening joke was about Bud Light. And the entire crowd laughed. It was like, uproar. Three guys on stage? Not a smirk. And I'm like, oh. And my brother's like, you realize they're kind of bought men, right?

Like they just can't really laugh at that joke, even if they want to. You know, because Bud Light is a partner of the, of the NHL and on and on it goes. And so, you know, it's interesting, like there's certain things that free people can talk about and not a fair repercussion. And there's other things that people just can't talk about because they do have an employer and they are worried about, you know, like in the school system here in Saskatchewan. It was a lady from Esther Hazy who put in a private group chat on Facebook. Okay? personally not under the schools banner anything was a um an article about walk a walkout for pride month on this day in ontario so other side of the country from where scatchewan is etc anyways she got

removed from her job from that and you're like and i'm like well did you move your kids remove your kids on that day she's like well no i'm like okay so what did what did you do she's like well i just post an article and just asked what people's thoughts were on it and just you're just and she goes and they equated that with you know hate and everything else and they removed her from her job and this isn't an unusual story in Canada I assume it's not an unusual story happening in the United States it's just it's shocking to everyday people because we just think you know not and it isn't that bad but from a red balloon standpoint you know and even your standpoint erin your story of seeing Chicago from working in the different industries you've seen it firsthand and

understand how bad it truly is then yeah that's right I think, you know, this is, let me say what I think the good news is here, okay? Many people in Western culture, let's call it, have believed that the workplace is the place they can go that has the lightest moral requirements, right? I don't need to bring my integrity to my workplace. If I just kind of follow these, you know, gap rules here in the States, or I don't take too. long of a lunch. I'll be fine. I'll do my work. I'll clock in, clock out. I don't have to think about it too hard. Well, that's never been the case, actually. The workplace has always been an arena for your integrity to be expressed, for you to be excellent and hardworking and honest.

And there are all these virtues that are tied up in work. But many right now are waking up to the fact that they can't just sleep away their life in their workplace and live for Netflix on the weekends. They actually have to be making critical decisions at work. They have to be making moral decisions at work. And to me, that's good news, not so much for this generation, but for our kids, right? If it's been bad for us, I truly believe our children are going to be facing issues of a complexity that I would not have ever imagined growing up. And I never faced growing up. And so you had your, you know, your rug rats in crawling, crawling over you earlier, which is excellent. Bring your kids to work. Actually, all three of my children work at Red Balloon.

They're older teenagers. So they all, they all work with me here. What are you telling to your children when you come home every day and kind of grumble here or there, but go along? long day after day after day after day. What kind of example are you setting for them when you will complain and do nothing? You're telling them that you are not free and you're telling them that they will not be free. Right. If you make the hard choice, you stand up, you ask an awkward question in a meeting and that's the story you're giving around the dinner table or you, you know, you quit, not knowing really what's next because you cannot sacrifice your integrity. What are you telling your children that? Well, I'll tell you, you're setting an example that they desperately need because

they're probably going to get more of it than we have, right? Things are probably not going to get just a ton better right away, right? There's probably going to have to be a little bit of a shift. they need us to be setting that example and to be showing them here's what it actually looks like to be a moral person to hold on to your integrity in your workplace. Do you ever think you'd be the guy asking the awkward question? I know you said early on, you learned early on you were going to be a troublemaker if you, you know, basically stayed. I, just from my personal standpoint, I've always been uncomfortable with the person who asked the awkward question. Even if it's like a great question, I'm like, ah, it's not rock the boat. just, you know, let's just move along, whatever. And now I sit here doing this and I laugh all the

time about it because I'm like, this wasn't what I started out to do. Like, it just, it just wasn't. But, you know, like the awkward question, did you ever think you'd be the guy doing that? Like, did you start out being that? Well, no. I mean, I, I stumbled my way into corporate success. I was in the right time, in the right place. And with God's grace and some hard work, it went very well for me. but I certainly was not coming from a position of power, you know, in that setting. I was, you know, definitely rung over rung. And, you know, there is a sense in which you go to a workplace as much as you need to maintain your integrity.

You don't need to be pushing all of your political issues in your workplace. Like that is not the place that is appropriate for that, right? it's just that now we all have a decision to make when we're going sitting in meeting after meeting saying nothing right when you're sitting there you know one of the the in the last year that I was working at that large company I sat with 800 employees for 40 minutes listening to some guys coming out story like it was a you know tent revival and he was giving us his testimony you You know, like we're all sitting there. So, so that goes on month after month and you do nothing.

You do nothing. That just eats away at your soul. You have to do something. Is that right? Yeah, the, you know, selling your soul or letting it eat away at you is, you know, I think Jim Carrey, actually. Jim Carrey stood on stage, you know, at someone's graduation. I can't remember which one. And basically said, you know, he watched his father work a job he disliked.

And eventually, you know, they let him go. So he failed at something he hated. And so he, you know, he, that's why he kind of went, I'm going to try and do something I want to do. Because if I fail, you know, they basically canceled my dad and he hated his job and everything else. I might as well try doing something I like. And even if I fail, you know, I'm happier than, you know,

he was kind of essentially is what he was getting at. And I always admired Jim Carrey for that quote because I think a lot of people are terrified, you know, don't get me wrong, worked in the oil field before. Right. There was guaranteed money in that. It was very, very, very good. But, you know, I just got asked the other day again, Aaron, you know, like, oh, how is the podcast going? Like, are you still enjoying it?

I'm like, still enjoying it. Do you have any idea what I do for a living now? I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm enjoying this, you know? They're like, you got to do how many podcasts in a week and a day? What are you doing? It's like, you have no idea. And that's okay. Because I can't imagine being back under the thumb again.

The thumb sucked. The thumb was, you know, when you talk about six. sitting there with 800 people like oh man that is that almost you know like that that's almost makes my body revolt it's like no it's not the story it's that it's it's putting it's politicizing the workplace to a point where you you're being told exactly what to think how to act and that's a good human being and that and that's it well I didn't sign up to work at walmart to be told how to be a good human being I need a paycheck man just let me have a paycheck and go on with my life right right absolutely

Well, I've really enjoyed this. I wasn't, you know, when I reached out to Red Balloon, I wasn't sure who I was going to get. You know, I was kind of like, I just want somebody to tell me that a little bit of the Red Balloon story. Because this is this commercial, to shed a light on, you know, if there is some businesses that would benefit from this, or maybe, you know, some people searching for work, which I know there always is. And they're like, oh, wow, that would be, that'd be cool. Either way to shed a little spotlight on it or put a spotlight on it, I think is really, important. Before I let you out of here, I should do the Crude Master final question. I've been

kind of tying this around in my brain, you know, of what I put at the back of this? Because for the longest time, it's been what's one thing Aaron Younggren stands behind? And I guess that's what I'm going to do today, folks, because I had one of my sponsors, company here in Lloyd, come on the podcast a while back and say, if you're going to stand behind something, stand behind it. So I've used his words. And what's one thing Aaron stands behind? Yeah.

So unequivocally there, I'll say I stand behind the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's who I am to the core. Really, that's what powers everything else. In the workplace, if I could say one thing to everyone in a broad audience, it would be don't sacrifice your integrity. If you sacrifice your integrity in the workplace, place, you will not be able to help but sacrifice it everywhere. You need to be the same person at your job that you are everywhere else. Your spouse needs it. Your children need it. The people around

you need that and they will be encouraged by it. If you are blessed to have the right foundations that that integrity is coming from, you can help so many people right now just by doing one small, unexpected thing in your workplace. You have no idea how many people are out there confused, unable to articulate that they think that something is wrong, help them by just, but by just doing the right thing in whatever small way you can. Now, now you've spurred on a couple extra thoughts. And one is going to be, do you think they know that? I assume they do. If you sacrifice, if you can get the person to sacrifice who they are at work, then that'll believe. get off into everything else because I remember 10 years ago let's just go with roughly

they used to talk about safety and say you have to be safe at work and you need to be safe at home and these two things aren't separate you're not two different people and I remember them talking like that that you need to be the same person at work that you are at home when it comes to safety and that was very specific we want your kid you go home and we want you to be safe around your family and everything else and if you go and hang off a ladder with nobody watching at home why you go would you do that there when you won't do it here and they were trying to bridge this gap when you talk about to you know don't sacrifice your integrity at work do you think that's like calculated um

i think that almost everyone is too far downstream for it to be calculated i think that everyone you know it's no one thinks that they would be the third right you know like No one thinks that they would be the bad guy ever. How are bad guys created it? They don't just wake up one day and say, huh, I think I shall do evil now, right? We have an innate evil in us that wants out, right? But how does it get out?

If I'm a manager, a high-level manager, and again, I would sit there with astonishment as these senior leaders of some of the most powerful divisions of a corporation in the world would spout these robotic talking lines as though they were true. I don't think that those guys are being malicious so much as cynical, right? I think the calculation goes, well, number one, there's a total spiritual void in our country, right? So if I have to pick a thing to do good, you know, if I have to get my do good points, here's a way I can do it. And it's cheap and it's easy. It actually

cost me nothing. Right. But apart from that, I know that if I say these certain things, I'm going to make this group of noisy, entitled people happy. I'm going to fend off the hoard for another day and I'm going to keep my job. I know that in order to ascend, I need to do this. So I'm going to do it. It's like paying my taxes. It's what they want. And yeah, I do see, this is the, this is the insidious part, right? And yeah, I do think there have been some people. that have been harmed and treated unfairly. Well, so does everybody else, right? So does everybody else with half a brain, you know, it costs you zero to make that decision. So I think it's just more

complacency, stupidity, selfishness, and greed more than a calculated takeover at the rank and file corporate level. Well, then one other question for you, knowing your background and knowing you were a pastor for nine years in Chicago and everything else. Why is it that a man who stands behind, and I don't know if I'm digging too deep, so I apologize. No, go ahead. A guy who says, I stand behind Jesus Christ, why aren't you a pastor anymore? I'm just curious, is there something earth-shattering there?

Was it, you know, I don't know, money, was it, I have no idea. I just, very curious because a guy who's obviously devoted to that, why did you move away from being a pastor? Maybe you just don't like it. I have no idea. Sure, sure. So my family and I moved to the city proper in Chicago to start a church in 2009. I did that for nine years.

And to be honest with you, all of the things that have taken over in America were very present in Chicago from day one, which meant that our little work was a uphill battle. And you want to talk about tests of integrity. you know, here is something that we had invested every last red cent and then even more into my family and I, you know, many, many years of toil. And we got to the point where it was just very clear I was going to have to choose between my family and the work, right? One of those things was going to survive.

And if I, if I was going to go any further with the work, I would mean that I would be inattentive to my family. And I, and, you know, for me it was an easy choice. And, you know, from the scriptures, it's an easy choice. Yeah, well, I, I, I, sorry, I admire that because one of the things I've said, um, on here and to other people, you know, I've got to ask a long, a long time ago, you know, about the podcast and, you know, if it ever, I don't know, just blew up or whatever. And it, it, it, honestly, from time to time, and maybe more than I like to admit,

it tries pulling you away from your family, you know. It's like it wants you. It's like a prize stallion. You know, it wants to go. But one of the things, you know, I got young kids. And I'm like, every person older than me that has older children are like, enjoy that time. Because that time goes and then it's gone, right? And so I admire that, I guess is what I'm saying, because I don't get enough.

I always try and find different people with family values, right? Like, you know, I cover them an area where family values are a big thing. Yet on the global stage in pop culture and media, et cetera, it doesn't seem. like that's a prized possession when it should be like it's like no that should probably be the number one thing and yet we don't we don't talk about it enough so I guess I just admire you for for understanding that choice because a lot of people that's a difficult choice to make even though it probably shouldn't be so no I appreciate you sharing that I find it interesting and I guess that's

why you know the answer is I don't know it's it's a good one because that's how I gauge things all the time. When I'm in prayer, it's, you know, like, don't make, don't force me to choose between family and, and other things, because family in my mind wins, right? Like, it's, it's, it's number one. So, has to. Yeah. Whatever you're doing isn't coming out of that center, you know, the, the center, you know, for God in you, and then in your family first, and then everything else is just an overflow of that, including, by the way, your corporate job, if you have one, if it's not all coming from that center, then something's off and you need to make a change. Well, Aaron, I appreciate you giving

me some time today. Best luck with Red Balloon. Appreciate you sharing some of the story. And I'm sure I'll have a view of inquiries on this. But either way, I appreciate you hopping on and I'll be paying attention to see what Red Balloon does in the future. Great. Thanks a lot. It's been wonderful. And if I ever make it to Moscow in the United States of America, I'm going to look you guys out. You should. It's beautiful. You should come out. We'll put you up right. Sounds good. Thanks, Aaron. All right. Bye. Hey, thanks for tuning in today, guys.

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