Thanks for pressing play. This is Christopher. I wanted to let you know that we are going to take the pause that refreshes here as America votes. The entire attention of the United States is on the election as it should be. Much of the attention of Americans and the entire world is focused on this election.

We thought the wise thing to do would be to take some time off and come back after the election. The good news is if you love either of our podcasts, we have a tremendous back catalog. Unless you've listened to every Follow Your Different and every Lochhead on Marketing episode, there's probably some gems in there you could really benefit from.

If you want a break from all of the political news over the next handful of days, there are some amazing conversations, legendary even that you might enjoy.

I want to ask you to vote.

If you're an American, I believe voting is a civic duty. I think it's important to remember that. Democracy can't happen without participation from its citizens. I think it's important to remember that people have died for the right to vote. I think it's important to remember that there are many human beings on planet earth who do not get that right, who do not live in a democracy where their voice matters.

I'm no political expert, but if you look at the polls and consume information, news and data, it looks like there's a very good chance this could be a very close election.

I think the worst outcome we could have would be a rerun of 2000 Bush versus Gore or anything along those lines. I think what we absolutely need in the United States of America is a clear winner at the presidential level and a clear direction for Congress.

We need leaders, federally, who have a clear mandate to govern. I think a big part of the problem that we've had is things have been so close lately that many of us our confused by the messages.

We have a very divided country.

So please vote, make a plan to vote.

If there are people in your life who need help voting, maybe getting to the polls, or getting an early ballot in, or what have you, please be willing to help them.

If you need to get a babysitter or, uh, have somebody take care of the kids while you go and vote, please get a plan together now to vote if you haven't already voted.

And the other thing is I would remind you of the conversation I had on Follow Your Different with David Crane entitled Govern for California. He educated me and I think many, many thousands of us about the importance of voting down the ballot and how much our state vote matters, whether you're voting for a governor, whether you're voting for state Senate, those things matter a lot.

If you're voting for the mayor or in our case, we're voting our supervisor and our County Sheriff's votes, judges votes, those local leaders matter a lot. They impact the wellbeing of our families and our communities. And, um, as David educated us, you know, they're as important for our local wellbeing, frankly, they're more important for our local wellbeing than our federal government. He described the federal government as a, um, an insurance with an army. And so not only vote at the federal level, but look at your local level as well.

Here in California, there are many important props on the ballot that may very well be the case in your state or area of the country as well. I would urge you to take time, to look at those propositions, to see how you feel about what else is on the ballot and make your voice heard.