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Mitch Chandler
"Hickory Nut of the South"

Mitch Chandler

Billy Mitch Chandler, Jr, was born in Little Rock, AR and raised in North Little Rock. Like his doctor father, Mitch is smart. But unlike his father, Mitch has been unable to settle on one career. In school he studied many areas of interest. In work, the same.

In chronological order: His beginning career, and longest, was as program director and producer for local and regional TV news stations. Next, Director of business and public relations for Arkansas Economic Development Center (AEDC). Before becoming the director of Sales for Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, he tried his hand as an entrepreneur by being a founding partner of Martin-Wilbourn Ad Agency. His last full-time job was as Arkansas’s Director of Executive Communication for the Secretary of Commerce. As is often the case, he left when the administration changed.

Today Mitch is writing full-time on his book, Bus Stop To Paris, an autobiography about “this hickory nut of the south” as he calls himself; and about a chance meeting in the Denver airport that would forever change his life and send him traveling the world. As one to never rest on his laurels, Billy Mitch still keeps his finger on the pulse of advertising and film by working with a few select clients, most notably the FBI Agents Association, with whom he has partnered for over a decade.

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  • About Mitch's career in TV
  • What it's like to work with the FBI
  • The ways traveling makes you grow, and more...

 

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TRANSCRIPT

EPISODE 360

[00:00:09] TW: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. A very unique show that gives you a refreshingly long visit with all kinds of people; entrepreneurs, athletes, small business owners, politicians and others. All of whom openly talk about the ups and downs of their lives. Kerry's natural curiosity and her own entrepreneurial spirit makes her the perfect host for this program.

Connect with Kerry through her candid, funny, informative and always encouraging weekly blog. And now it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.

[00:00:41] KM: well, thank you, Tom. I liked your new introduction. I got to tell all our listeners, because they're probably – if they've listened before, they're wondering where's son Gray. Because he's usually on the radio with me. And he, for everybody, is in Europe. He's a professional opera singer and he's traveling with the church. And he's singing. So Tom has also been with the show, to all you listeners, for a long time. He's the editor. And he's actually a celebrity in Little Rock, Arkansas right up there with Bob Robbins, Tommy Smith, Craig O'Neill.

[00:01:15] TW: This is a pretty heady company, Kerry. I don't know if I can keep up.

[00:01:19] KM: You can. You absolutely. He's been editing the show behind the scenes for years. And if you go to our website, you can see a picture of him. But Tom, tell our listeners where they have heard that voice before. Because I know they're wondering, "I know that voice. Where have I heard that before?"

[00:01:32] TW: In 1980, we put Magic 105 Radio on the air. And that radio station ran for 30 years. I'm telling you, that's longer than most radio stations get to. And just in the past couple of years we started a brand-new network. Moved away from the corporate side of broadcasting and we started our own little thing. And it's called the Arkansas Rocks Radio Network. And we've got 15 stations around the state. And I'm on the air every afternoon, 3 to 7.

[00:01:57] KM: Entrepreneurship right here in Little Rock in the radio business. Not many people are taking making that leap anymore.

[00:02:02] TW: No. No. A lot of people say radio doesn't have a very bright future. But I disagree.

[00:02:07] KM: I agree with you and not them.

[00:02:08] MC: Hey, I thought this was about me?

[00:02:10] KM: Oh. We're getting to you, Mitch.

[00:02:13] TW: It will be.

[00:02:15] KM: All right. It's time to start the show for real. My guest today is an intelligent, long time acquaintance and jack of all trades, Mr. Billy Mitch Chandler, who has dropped the Billy to simply be called Mitch. Like his doctor father, Mitch is smart. But unlike his father, Mitch has been unable to settle on one career.

In school, he studied many areas of interest. In work, the same. In chronological order, his beginning career and longest was as program director and producer for local and regional TV news stations. Next, Director of Business and Public Relations for Arkansas Economic Development Center, AEDC.

Before becoming the Director of Sales for Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, he tried his hand as an entrepreneur by being a founding partner of Martin Wilburn Ad Agency. And his last full-time job was as Arkansas's Director of Executive Communication for the Secretary of Commerce. As is often the case, he left when administration changed.

Today Mitch is riding full-time on his book Bus Stop to Paris. An autobiography about this hickory nut from the south, as he calls himself, and his happenstance meeting in the Denver Airport that would forever change his life and send him traveling the world.

As one to never rest on his laurels, Billy Mitch still keeps his finger on the pulse of advertising and film by working with a few select clients. Most notably, the FBI agents Association, who he has partnered with for over a decade.

What do all these careers have in common? Public relations. Personality and media. It is with great pleasure I welcome to the table the lucky, well-traveled, soon to be book author, ad man and funny guy, Mr. Billy Mitch Chandler Jr.

[00:04:08] MC: Thank you.

[00:04:08] KM: You're named after your dad.

[00:04:10] MC: Yeah. I'm named after him. I'm a junior. When my dad was born, the doctor walked up and asked her, "What are you going to call your son?" And she said, "We're going to call him Billy." He wrote down Billy. Later in the mail they got the birth certificate and it said Billy M. Chandler. They continued the mistake on through another generation and they named Billy M. Chandler Jr. [inaudible 00:04:26] didn't like it at all and said, "I'm not going to use it." I said, "Well, I'll do my best. Yeah, I'm Mitch.

[00:04:34] KM: I loved your author's description how you called yourself a hickory nut from the south. Can I plagiarize that?

[00:04:41] MC: Sure.

[00:04:41] KM: I'm using that sometime. Some say to be funny you must be smart. Do you think –

[00:04:47] MC: Well, I don't know about that.

[00:04:48] KM: What's your IQ? Come on.

[00:04:49] MC: I don't know. I don't think it's been tested in the time. But I'm sure I've killed the brain cells that put me above average. I'm just enjoying myself being unsupervised now.

[00:05:00] KM: Unsupervised.

[00:05:01] MC: Yeah. I don't have to go to work every day. I can do what I want.

[00:05:05] KM: In the biography part of your book, you are writing a section about the author. Will you read part of it for our listeners? Because I think it says a lot about you. And frankly, it's a good descriptor for a lot of southern Baby Boomers.

[00:05:20] MC: Oh, really? Did I write this?

[00:05:21] KM: I loved reading it. Aha. You did.

[00:05:23] MC: Well, I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Raised in North Little Rock. Schooled well. Made the world laugh. Talked too much. Loved too little. Ate too much and learned to consume everything around me at a professional level. I use level twice, didn't I? Unedited.

[00:05:33] KM: You're going to edit – you want a pen to edit?

[00:05:35] MC: Yeah, I think I do. You're right. Issues emerged. But none criminal except for that one time. And I will occasionally agree to misdemeanors but vigorously avoid felonies. That continues.

I like and want to help people but often get screwed with the general strategy. I believe there's evil and good in people and we need to stop the nasty badness that hurts so many children in the world. I tend to be selfish but take pleasure in sharing what I have.

Dad was a nice surgeon. Mom was all the above. Alternating the best, the fairest, the most generous matriarch. But also, able to whip your ass with a thin trouser belt in the 1960s.

Teachers thought I was half zebra at Anthony's school. And pretty much knew from my behavior in class, I likely deserved it. Mother cussed at us. A good ass-whippin' can clear the mind and share boundaries. Shock collars had not been invented yet but straight jackets were mentioned.

Mother had nine kids in her country family. Aunts, and uncles and cousins were plenty. Arkansas as a beautiful state full of lakes, rivers and mountains. We did all of it. We weren't rich but we had more than most. The hangover from the Depression was always close by in the words and actions of the entire family, which was large.

I knew from where we came. One side, dirt farms. The other side, poor inner city Little Rock.

For most of the 20th century and before Arkansas has been a poor state with poor education. We weren't Catholic. But we did feel guilty about some things. And as Methodists, we believe the good green bean casserole is all you need to get to heaven.

[00:06:58] TW: Amen.

[00:06:59] KM: Amen. That's good. My listeners, when the book is ready, you're going to enjoy it. You're clever.

[00:07:06] MC: Thank you.

[00:07:06] KM: I really related to this sentence. I tend to selfishness but take pleasure sharing what I have.

[00:07:12] MC: Yeah.

[00:07:14] KM: I think that whole descriptor, too, describes a lot of Baby Boomers in Arkansas. We all felt the depression that our parents felt.

[00:07:20] MC: Yeah. I was born 17 years after World War II. When you grew up in, in my case, television, I'm sure, Tom, the radio, you walked in to be part of a system not to change it. And when they said go stand in the corner and wait for orders, you stood in the corner. And your ability to lead was important but your ability to follow was more important.

That's what you learn in these things, whether you're a TV, radio, cop, first responder. It was good for us because we could make mistakes and nobody got hurt usually. We got to have the action of it and the adrenaline of it. And I used to say coming out of the booth sometimes, it's good we don't fly airplanes because we'd be littered all over the runway.

[00:08:05] KM: Your family liked to travel.

[00:08:08] MC: Yup.

[00:08:08] KM: This was kind of a precursor for your adult life, don't you think?

[00:08:11] MC: Well, it took us places and then we – yeah.

[00:08:14] KM: Tell our listeners about the Cabo cruise trip.

[00:08:17] MC: We went down to Mexico in December of 1982 and went through a 125-mile an hour unnamed hurricane. You can still look it up. Just search. Unnamed hurricane. December.

[00:08:28] KM: It's called the unnamed hurricane?

[00:08:29] MC: Yeah. It was a bad one. Cabo got smashed. It was before it was huge and everybody from Little Rock started going down there and mind stuff. And there was wood floating everywhere and we couldn't stop.

[00:08:40] KM: In the book you said that the captain told you that you couldn't go ashore because you had to go out and look for rescue.

[00:08:46] MC: Yeah. He said look for people. I mean, we had fishermen out there and that was terrible.

[00:08:52] KM: Was there a reason you went to the University of Colorado at Boulder?

[00:08:55] MC: Well, there were a bunch of buddies going and I thought it was cool. And I'd like to ski. Me and about four or five other guys who shall remain nameless because their stories ended about like mine did.

[00:09:04] KM: Yeah. You're sitting in good.

[00:09:04] MC: Well, I had a 0.00 grade point average for a year.

[00:09:10] KM: So you didn't stay long.

[00:09:11] MC: Well, ironically, my parents and the university regents invited me to go home on the same day. I got a call from both of them and said it's pretty much it. So get a U-Haul.

[00:09:21] KM: And you followed the Arkansas River all the way home.

[00:09:23] MC: Followed the Arkansas River home. That's right.

[00:09:27] KM: So now you're going to write a book.

[00:09:29] MC: Yeah, I'm working on it. Yeah.

[00:09:29] KM: And when we come back – so I want to take a quick break. And when we come back, I want to talk about your book. We'll continue our conversation with Billy Mitch Chandler Jr. World traveler, media aficionado and author. Still to come, Bus Stop to Paris book discussion with some of Mitch's fun stories, as you've already heard. He's got them. More of his varied work travels. We will get Arkansas Lottery winning tips because he worked for the Arkansas Lottery. And last, his longtime media work and relationship with the FBI. We'll be right back.

[BREAK]

[00:09:57] TW: You're listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. A production of flagandbanner.com. Over 40 years ago with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. And during the last four decades, the business has grown and changed along with Kerry's experience and leadership knowledge.

In 1995, she embraced the internet. Rebranded the company as simply flagandbanner.com. In 2004, she became an early blogger. And since then has founded the non-profit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom. Began publishing her magazine, Brave, which by the way features a cover story about this radio show and podcast in the current issue.

In 2020, Kerry McCoy Enterprises acquired ourcornermarket.com, which is an online company specializing in American-made plaques, signage and memorials for over 20 years. And more recently, opened a satellite office in Miami, Florida. Telling American-made stories, selling American-made flags, the flagandbanner.com.

Back to you, Kerry.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]

[00:10:56] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. And I'm speaking today with the smart, jack of all trades, almost a jack of something else, Mr. Billy Mitch Chandler.

[00:11:08] MC: Well, I wouldn't say jack of all trades .I mean, I'm a show breed. Not a working breed. So I'm yard work, stuff like that. Physical exertion.

[00:11:13] KM: You don't like it.

[00:11:15] MC: No. I really prefer Churchillian aspect of trying to conserve your energy as much as possible.

[00:11:20] KM: What's Churchillian mean?

[00:11:22] MC: Well, after Winston Churchill.

[00:11:24] KM: Oh, Churchillian.

[00:11:25] MC: Don't do anything standing up that you could do laying in bed.

[00:11:29] TW: A lot of baths. A lot of cigars.

[00:11:31] MC: A lot of baths, cigars. And I do that even if nobody's in my apartment. I'll say, "I'm coming out in the state of nature." It's for anyone who might hapentance.

[00:11:43] KM: I'm coming out in a state of nature.

[00:11:44] MC: Of nature.

[00:11:48] KM: Nature. Okay. Okay. I couldn't decide which conversations should come first. But I did decide. Talking about your autobiography and how a chance visit at the bus stop in Colorado helped shape your life or the very jobs that you've had. But I picked – and I picked the Bus Stop to Paris.

You said the first question in a lifetime of questions about how fate and the randomness of life can spin you off into unknown places, and you said that first question was –

[00:12:14] MC: What time is it?

[00:12:15] KM: What time is it? Tell us about that.

[00:12:16] MC: Yeah. So I'm at the Denver Airport and going back for my second semester. And so, I got there and this young girl was eating an apple. And she came up at the bus stop and said, "Well, what time is it?" And I told her. And then she's about to get on the wrong bus and I told her, "No. This is the bus you need to be on." I helped her with her bags and we made friends. And I said, "Hey, look. I'm coming back for my second semester."

We actually ran into each other two weeks later in one of our roommates. And they lived in this big house with 10 students. Aso, I went over there and had dinner. Well, two Frenchmen came up and said hello, and they were my original two –

[00:12:49] KM: Frenchman?

[00:12:51] MC: Frenchman. Anri [inaudible 00:12:51]. And they came up and made fast friends. And so, I stayed the rest of the semester and did all the things I did and didn't do. And then came home and then decided to go visit. And so, 1984, I went over for five weeks with my cousin. And we stayed two weeks in Paris. And that was it. I went back every year for a long time. Probably 20 trips.

[00:13:16] KM: To see Anri?

[00:13:16] MC: Well, all of them. I got to meet more and more every time I'd go. And I went the day after Christmas every year because it was the cheapest. Yeah. I'd go over and stay for a week or two and they took me everywhere.

[00:13:29] KM: Why did that change your life other than just going to Paris?

[00:13:31] MC: Well, because you just meet everyone and you realize there's different ways of doing things. And the French can be obnoxious and fun at the same time. So I particularly like that. Then I started studying the language. And it's just been a great love affair with a city that I treated like Disneyland really.

[00:13:48] KM: So you came back from college. What'd you do first?

[00:13:54] MC: Well, I worked for my dad's – as an optician for my dad. And I had a police radio in my car and I was a still photographer. And that's really what I originally wanted to be. And I was in a class at UALR with – Mel Hanks was the investigative reporter. Mel Hanks, On the Case, Straight from the Heart.

[00:14:12] KM: Oh, yeah.

[00:14:12] MC: Yeah. And so, I made friends with him. He asked me if I wanted an intern. So I went Channel 4 and interned but without doing any of the paperwork. I just walked in and said, "Okay, I'll be an intern." Which means I'll work for free. I never left.

And so Bob Steele called me in, the news director, said, "Why are you still here? It's been like eight months? Or how long you've been working?" I said, "It's okay. You don't have to pay me. I'll keep doing it." And he said, "No. It's an overnight editor's job. Lowest position in the newsroom." He said to apply for it. Okay. So I got it. And about every year I got promoted and –

[00:14:47] KM: You know the guy that is the head of the rice industry in the world is from Stuttgart, Arkansas.

[00:14:54] MC: Well, it doesn't surprise me.

[00:14:56] KM: And that he started as the janitor.

[00:15:00] MC: Well, Doug McMillon at Walmart started in an egg case. Cleaning out the egg case.

[00:15:04] KM: How do you instill that sort of work ethic?

[00:15:10] MC: I don't think you instill it. But I'll tell you what it does do, and Tom will agree, it forges it. And so, you look for people that worked in TV, they have a sense of urgency. Because as the day goes on, then the urgency goes to get it on the air.

[00:15:26] TW: Right.

[00:15:27] MC: And it's a zero-fail mission. And so, people who've worked in media, TV, radio, they tend to get things done quickly. And creative people tend to take the easiest, quickest, fastest path.

[00:15:42] KM: Yeah. You say the book's about the hundreds of people that I met from meeting that woman at the bus stop. Here are some of the people from the survivor of the killing fields of Cambodia.

[00:15:53] MC: Yeah. [inaudible 00:15:53]. She's a wonderful woman. I met her 40 years ago. And she had gotten out. Her parents didn't. But out of Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge. Took the family. She had a great career at Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier. And she's married now. And she's retired, like we are starting to be. And it's just been a great 40-year friendship. The whole time I was there over the years, I shot a VHS camera. And –

[00:16:23] KM: So you've got all this old film on VHS.

[00:16:25] MC: Yeah. Oh, in black and white stuff.

[00:16:27] KM: Oh, how fun.

[00:16:28] MC: And I just found it. Yeah. And I'm not organized, as I told you.

[00:16:30] KM: Boy, you are not. Y'all. I just want to tell y'all.

[00:16:31] MC: I'm not organized. I found 60 rolls of black and white [inaudible 00:16:34] old film that I'd shot in Europe in the 80s and 90s. There's no telling what's on there. I was never a technical photographer.

[00:16:42] KM: You just like to collect the stuff.

[00:16:44] MC: No. I just get to motor driving. Just let her rip and didn't see what's on there, you know? Load another one.

[00:16:52] TW: Your comfort level with talking about these European places. And you can see that you visited Paris all those years in a row.

[00:17:02] MC: Well, yeah.

[00:17:02] TW: Your comfort level is just so high.

[00:17:04] MC: Well, we used to – when my friends would come, and occasionally we'd rent a car. And don't try this at home. I guess because we don't have an Arch of Triumph here. But we got something we can run around there. Over there by the War Memorial, there's a roundabout. I don't think you get the same effect. But we used to go to the pub and have fun and then get in the car and run around the Arch of Triumph real fast because there's no rules. And you have to believe you're less afraid of dying than they are at killing you. And so, it's like an amusement ride. It's like a Disney World.

[00:17:33] KM: Yeah, I've always wanted to drive it.

[00:17:35] MC: Just pay attention to everybody to your right and right in front of you. Don't worry about your left and behind.

[00:17:42] KM: How about the uh famous French war correspondent who travelled across Afghanistan?

[00:17:47] MC: Yeah, Jerome Boney. Met him when he was young. And he's a journalist. And he later went on to make a profound friendship with a gentleman named Masood, who's the head of the Northern Alliance. And really, a nationalist but a person who is dedicated to the West and trying to make Afghanistan a better place.

And so, he did a big documentary when the Soviets were there. He came here to Little Rock to cover Clinton's first and had a whole crew. And I got him into the war room across the street over at Mickey Kantor [inaudible 00:18:19]. Yeah. Anyway, I got him in there and I got some good footage. That was the first footage of the war room.

[inaudible 00:18:26] was the documentary guy. He was the only one supposed to be there. And he had a fit over there. Anyway, I'm telling a dumb story. But anyway –

[00:18:34] KM: No. It's a good story. No.

[00:18:35] MC: That's what happened. But they've been here. And so, I took him out to cock of the walk, this French crew, and I'm sitting and next guy – of course, they love the cornbread flipping and they were having fun. Well, I come to find out, the guy's sitting next to me was a guy named [inaudible 00:18:51] who was one of the Beirut hostages that was chained to Joseph [inaudible 00:18:56], one of our guys for a year. Well, the French French will pay him. They paid him a million bucks a piece and they got him out finally. But our guys had to languish there for another few years.

I said, "Hell, what was that like?" He said, "Oh, it sucked. It's terrible." Yeah. They chained this guy for a year. I said, "Well, was there good conversation?" He said, Not really."

[00:19:20] KM: Oh, I bet you know way too much about that guy. If you've chained a guy for a year, I bet it just grows.

[00:19:25] MC: Hadn't happened to me yet. But it's early.

[00:19:28] KM: Okay. Your wife is from Ukraine.

[00:19:32] MC: Well, my former wife, which it's not a unique category because I have two of those. Yeah, she's from Ukraine.

[00:19:39] KM: And did you meet her in Paris?

[00:19:41] MC: No. I met her when I was at a birthday party in [inaudible 00:19:43], Poland. I was with a Polish friend and met her. And she was on vacation.

[00:19:48] KM: How would she say about the war or anything?

[00:19:50] MC: Well, she's lost a number of her family. Yeah. And her mother's still there and –

[00:19:55] KM: What city is her mother in?

[00:19:56] MC: It's near [inaudible 00:19:56], which is in the West. It's actually a good place to be. She's near the Polish border. Other than the deprivation of resources, they're pretty good. But she's lost, I think, a large number of cousins. I could have told Putin before he went in that he loved to fight.

We spent a lot of our time in treasury in United States making peace in Europe. And that's from the Marshall Plan to everything else we've done to stabilize it, NATO. Well, it's a problem against stability because they're going back and trying to recreate the age of Frederick Gray. Putin is. And now he's land grabbing for resources. And it's war. And that's what's – we forget. They know what war is because there are 50 million people who died in World War II. That's a thousand War Memorial Stadiums full of people. And they died every which way that you could possibly die.

[00:20:47] KM: And in every country.

[00:20:48] MC: And 18 million of them were Russians because they fought the worst of battles. These new generations have forgotten what that's like.

[00:20:56] KM: When did you decide to write the book?

[00:20:58] MC: Well, I was ill in December. And I didn't have a great prognosis. It was a heart problem. And all of a sudden, they fixed it. They gave me some stents and it changed everything. Got me back on track. But I thought maybe that was – if that was as good as they were going to get me, that was not in a good spot. I intended probably retire and take state retirement and just start writing and see how much I could get done. But they fixed me and it just immediately started turning everything better.

I started looking at my life as a story. I encourage other people to do that. Think what's the story of your life? And then as I started thinking about it, it wasn't normal. And I've just been the luckiest guy. I was like almost like Forrest Gump. I get to be in all these crazy places with all these people, whether it'd be governors or presidents or the FBI guys, to just big things. To be around it.

[00:21:47] TW: Your perspective on the world is just so cool. I know that's an unworthy word. But just your understanding of the European theater is so different than ours. If you haven't travelled there for – I mean, I've been to England three times. Paris, once. And I just feel like I'm a kindergartner compared to a college student.

[00:22:08] MC: Well, but it took a long time. I mean, I went over and stayed for three months right before the first Gulf War started. Back in 1990, I was invited by my friend [inaudible 00:22:18] who had a beautiful apartment on the [inaudible 00:22:22]. Really fascinating. Right across the street from the Louvre with a magnificent view. And he invited me to come stay six months and I ended up staying three. And it got a little bit weird in one of the neighborhoods that I was hanging out in. Some of the Turks and some of the other Arab guys wanted to make sure that they knew who I was as it started.

Yeah, there was whole – you take yourself back to January '91.

[00:22:46] KM: 1990.

[00:22:47] MC: '91. So we went into Iraq. I came home the day before that started.

[00:22:51] KM: Smart.

[00:22:52] MC: Just because there was no sense in tempting fate. And they've made it pretty clear I needed to not go into the establishments that I've been going in in the neighborhoods.

[00:23:02] TW: Right.

[00:23:03] MC: Yeah.

[00:23:03] TW: Wow.

[00:23:05] MC: I think that's the lesson of all of it. You can't change the world but you can sort of be a part of it. That's what I'm trying to do now.

[00:23:09] KM: I'm so glad you're writing a book. This is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with soon to be published book author Mr. Billy Mitch Chandler Jr. He is a storyteller, world traveler, media Aficionado and jack of all trades. Still to come, more of his varied work and travels. We will get tips on how to win the Arkansas lottery, because he worked there. We're going to talk about some of his jobs.

[00:23:33] MC: Don't play.

[00:23:33] KM: He's the only person that's worked for the Arkansas lottery that says don't play. But he did give me a tip that works and I'm going to share it with y'all. And last, his long-time media work and relationship with the FBI. We'll be right back.

[BREAK]

[00:23:45] TW: Good news from the Friends of Dreamland at Taborian Hall, the home of flagandbanner.com. Be on the lookout for some good news in Dreamland's restoration in the weeks to come. And please think seriously about donating to our corporate matching campaign right now. It doubles the power of your donation. If you're one of the many people who've taken a tour of the Dreamland Ballroom recently, you've noticed the stage apron. That floor is looking fantastic.

And we've already ordered the custom tin ceiling tiles and the light fixtures. Can't wait to show them off. An easy way to keep up with not only the matching donation campaign, but all the progress being made in the restoration of the Dreamland Ballroom, is to go to the website you're already familiar with, flagandbanner.com. Click on menu and go to Dreamland.

[00:24:28] GM: Listen to all UIYB past and present interviews by going to flagandbanner.com and clicking on radio show. Or subscribe to our podcasts wherever you like to listen by searching Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy.

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[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]

[00:24:49] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. And I'm speaking today with the smart, jack of all trades, almost a jack of something else, Mr. Billy Mitch Chandler.

Before the break, we talked about Mitch's – his book he's writing. And I love what Tom said about how he's so knowledgeable.

[00:25:12] TW: The perspective on Europe and uh the things that you've done over there is what I love to hear you talk about. And the way you rattle off the names, as if it were right down the street to Conway or the Jacksonville or Pine Bluff. It's just – and you know when you hear somebody tell stories the way you tell stories, you know you lived it.

[00:25:30] MC: Yeah. They did, too. They came here. In fact, my buddy, Jacques, Jacques [inaudible 00:25:34], he'll say, "Have you been to Griffithville?" Because he knows my family's from Griffithville. It says on the sign there – it says on the sign, population 206. Griffithville. On highway 11. But I asked dad. I said, "How come that never changes? Every time we come back, it's still 206." He said because every time a baby's born, a man has to leave town.

[00:25:59] TW: Yeah.

[00:26:00] KM: That's good.

[00:26:00] MC: No. It's fun. Because he'll say – he'll talk about hazing. Because they'd come over and they play and they love it here.

[00:26:07] KM: Hazing Arkansas?

[00:26:09] MC: Yeah. I mean, a little little Podunk towns.

[00:26:11] TW: We are to them as they are to us.

[00:26:13] MC: Exactly. Yeah.

[00:26:14] KM: I love the French. That's my favorite place. All right. Seems like your first and longest career was in television. Talk about those days. We talked about a little bit and you talked about how you met – you saw Bill Clinton's mother on an airplane with rice in her hair earlier before the first break. You ended up landing an interview with her. Her first interview. Tell us about that.

[00:26:34] MC: Yeah. Well, it wasn't first. It was exclusive.

[00:26:38] KM: I thought – exclusive.

[00:26:39] MC: Because it was the day before he announced in October of '91. He came out here. The state house was important to him. He announced both times to run there. And he took election night results there each time. In fact, Tony Bennett was there singing for him and he just died. I thought about that.

[00:27:01] KM: When did you go from being an intern to being the producer?

[00:27:06] MC: Overnight editor. Then a year later became a producer. And then a year later, I became something else and then I decided I wanted to do another – I hated working overnight. It was just terrible. I did that for two and a half years and I told Steele I need to go.

I went to Paris for – I don't know. At that time when I told you I ran off. And he told me before I left Paris, I said, "I'm coming home." He said, "Well, there's a job in Doha for CNN for an editor to edit the war stuff coming in." And I thought, "Well, that's cool." But then I thought I don't think I like that idea. Anyway, I've been in love. So I went ahead and claimed love over war and came home with it.

[00:27:44] KM: [inaudible 00:27:44].

[00:27:46] MC: No. It's the first one. Janet. My favorite ex-wife.

[00:27:50] KM: Your favorite ex-wife. No, I'm sorry, I didn’t mean that.

[00:27:53] MC: No. She's delightful, too. Let me just say that.

[00:27:56] KM: Can we just say you and Luba are a site for sore eyes when you see y'all coming.

[00:28:04] MC: Yeah. It looks like the circus is in town then.

[00:28:05] KM: How tall is Luba?

[00:28:08] MC: I don't know. It's sort of Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise. That's kind of what – but that's where the similarities ended. Yeah.

[00:28:16] KM: She's very tall and thin.

[00:28:18] MC: And very beautiful.

[00:28:19] KM: And very beautiful. And whenever she takes the trash out in the neighborhood, all the men go and look out the window.

[00:28:24] MC: And with a warm soul she has as well.

[00:28:26] KM: And then describe yourself to our listeners.

[00:28:29] MC: Me?

[00:28:29] KM: Yeah.

[00:28:30] MC: Well, I'm six-foot-two. I have a big old belt buckle. It says I kill bears.

[00:28:34] KM: Are you six-two?

[00:28:36] MC: No. I'm not six-two. I'm five-seven. Got a gap between my teeth. 300 pounds. Used to be. That's why I never got a really good-looking wife. I'm teasing. That's what Luba used to say. No. I've been lucky. Napoleon said a woman laughing as a woman conquered.

[00:28:53] KM: That is so true. I did not know Napoleon said that.

[00:28:57] MC: What are you doing later?

[00:29:01] KM: Let's see. So then, you went from – you didn't take that job. You left. You went away. Then you came back and you got a job at AEDC, Arkansas Department of Economic –

[00:29:09] MC: Yeah. I worked on TV for a while longer and became an executive producer of Channel 11 and ended up doing that for a long time. And then I went to KETV.

[00:29:19] KM: And then you came back and got at AEDC.

[00:29:21] MC: Yeah, AEDC.

[00:29:22] KM: And I bet you traveled with them. Did they ask you to travel?

[00:29:24] MC: Yeah. I went to India. Went to Japan. And the man who's really had a great impact on my life, there's about four or five of them other than my dad, is Larry Walther. He's now the Secretary of DFNA here. Cabinet-level for the governor. And he was the one that really propelled me.

All my bosses that encouraged me, they were special because then I could do it. I could do what I do. But I scared a lot of them. And so, sometimes they put me in a closet for just a little bit. That's okay. Your career is going to purpose. Any young people out there, you've got to re-make yourself every few years in some fashion.

It's this idea that you can do one thing your whole life. But if you have tenacity, and you have audacity and you have – if you're honest. That's the other thing, too. You got to stay honest. Because if you're not honest, somebody's going to get you before it's over. They're going to get you when you're honest, too. You end up in checkmate, especially in politics. There's a lot of politics in politics.

And there'll be people shooting at you and you have no idea why. But eventually, you find out. But then what's the first rule?

[00:30:33] KM: I don't know. What?

[00:30:34] MC: Screw them back. That's what people do. That's why there's palace intrigue all over state government.

[00:30:41] KM: I believe when you were probably in the media that you couldn't – there was the division of media. Newspapers couldn't – a newspaper couldn't own as many newspapers as it can.

[00:30:53] MC: Yes, there were rules on – FCC rules for television.

[00:30:57] KM: And for newspapers. Yes.

[00:30:58] MC: It's cookie-cutter. It's designed to impact opinion.

[00:31:03] KM: Well, really, we've turned into not monopolies but ogopolies, where there's just three or four of everything.

[00:31:10] MC: Well, I mean, I love local television. And I spent – what? 16 years doing it. But I can't watch it anymore. People that are with me, they said quit talking to the TV. Because I'll start giving commands to, "Go. Go. Go. Go."

[00:31:25] KM: What do you mean?

[00:31:26] MC: Well, I mean they're on live shots and it's shoddy. And these poor reporters now, they call them 24s. They're 24-years-old. They have a contract for 24 months and they pay them $24,000. And all their parents are subsidizing them.

[00:31:44] KM: Is that's true?

[00:31:45] MC: Yeah. It's close.

[00:31:46] KM: The news is on 24 –

[00:31:47] MC: You have old salts that are there. And if you look at Channel 7, I mean you have some really great broadcasters there. Chris May and Barry Brandt. People I worked with all my career. And Melinda Mayo. And Bob [inaudible 00:32:00] has been an anchor in this market for longer than anybody.

[00:32:03] KM: No. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. I did. I think about that.

[00:32:04] MC: And that's when you talk to them about Roy Mitchell and Steve Barnes and all those folks. There is a thread and a legacy that runs through Little Rock television. But it's not near what it used to be. And logistically, it was much more difficult. We were compelled to be accurate. We broke stories that won awards.

[00:32:26] KM: Aren't there investigative reporters anymore?

[00:32:28] MC: Well, if they do, they have to not run a file of advertisers.

[00:32:34] KM: Arkansas lottery, that's the one that everybody's wanting to talk about and hear about it.

[00:32:37] MC: Oh, man. Lottery. Yeah, you can win. You got to play to win.

[00:32:40] KM: How'd you end up – how did you end up –

[00:32:42] MC: Well, Larry Walker called me and said I need you to help me with the lottery. You're going in sales director and I need you to do this, this and this. And okay. I was met happily with Bishop Woosley, the director. And we set about trying to learn it. I mean, I can spell lottery when I got there. But I did know something about taking a number of people and moving them in a certain direction. I guess that's all what a newsroom is.

I learned lottery for about six months. They brought in a teacher for me, an old school, used to be a director in lottery in California, in Oregon. Tony [inaudible 00:33:17]. Became a quick fast friend and taught me lottery. And six months afterwards I invited the staff to allow me to lead them and there was 24 people. And we did it. We set a sales record a couple years later.

[00:33:30] KM: Taught me Lottery. What does that mean?

[00:33:32] MC: Well, you got two kinds. You got the scratch and you got the draw games. And the big draw games or the odds of you winning a Powerball, like it's a billion dollars, would be 194 million to one roughly. It's like taking everybody's phone number, putting them in a barrel and they're sticking yours out there. Somebody's going to win perhaps.

But even on these big ones, they don't tell you how many numbers are covered generally. But the gaming directors know. And we don't publicize it. But that big, that first one, 2016. It was the first billion-dollar one. There were still 16% of the numbers not bought. There was a 16% chance it was going to roll again. And we didn't want it to roll. You don't want these huge jackpots. You'd rather have a bunch of them at 300, 400. You can advertise for that. But there were three things that made us set sales records.

We got the sales part of it right. And Bishop and his gaming director, Mike Smith, got the tickets right. Mike's a genius when it comes to the design of the tickets and his dex guy, Bob Coleman. They're worth their weight in gold. And the tickets are inviting and beautiful.

And then the advertising, CGRW, did the advertising. And it was extremely effective. And it's all about winners and people who want to win and people who want to hear about other winners. And, oh, by the way, it's for a good cause. They got that formula right. So it all hit [inaudible 00:35:01] and those bunch. [inaudible 00:35:02] did the creative for it along with Wade McEwen. And it was just magnificent. And I think it's still great advertising.

[00:35:10] KM: Great advertising.

[00:35:11] MC: Well, yeah. I think you have to be careful how you advertised the lottery to the people because – well, scumbling. But also, too, you don't want to hype them up to say anything to get them to buy.

[00:35:24] KM: Bill Clinton was not in favor of lottery, Arkansas lottery.

[00:35:26] MC: Well, people say it's an aggressive tax. I'm in the stores. I was sales director that actually went to the store. I've been seven or eight hundred of the 1900s.

[00:35:37] KM: You ever buy lottery tickets?

[00:35:39] MC: Yeah, occasionally. Like every dummy. I tease. But it's a game. You don't play more than you want. Chances are you're going to break even or – okay. But you might win. You get $500 tickets. These people that spend a lot and expect that that's a strategy for wealth, then it's trouble.

I would suggest people like to play draw games. Pick your six numbers. Buy them out for six – well, I think three months we can do it here. And then watch your number every week. That's fun. You're playing your number every week. And that's the original numbers game that the mob handled. Really, the governments took away the mobs numbers racket. Right. So, play three, play four. If you want to win, play a little bit. Play –

[00:36:24] KM: Which one plays better?

[00:36:25] MC: Cash three, cash four. You're going to win some because it's only four numbers or three numbers. They've been not paying much. I've been like my numbers came in.

[00:36:33] KM: And you get to play again. If you win a little bit, you get to play over and over and over, which kind of makes it fun. Do the numbers game. Do three or four.

[00:36:40] MC: Don't plunge. Don't spend way too much. If there's a billion dollars, okay, spend 20. But always, always get the power play or the mega number. What's it called now? I quickly you forget.

[00:36:51] TW: Multiplier.

[00:36:53] MC: Multiplier. Because if you get five, then that's a million dollars. And if you get the multiplier, then it turns into two, three or four million or whatever it is.

[00:37:02] KM: Yesterday, I went and bought – in your honor, I went and bought Arkansas lottery. And I spent ten dollars. It's confusing. And some of these people say, "Oh, I don't have an education. I can't get a job." And you're like, "Well, hell, they can figure out lottery and how to bet better than I can. And I own a company for 40 years." And I'm like –

[00:37:19] TW: I've been in line before to see guys by scratch-off tickets and they're so tuned in to whether or not it's a winning ticket. They don't bother to scratch it off. They don't care about the drama of whether they matched it up. All they do is scratch the very bottom of it and see if it won. If not, throw to the side. Do another one. It's just that fast. Those are the scratch-off tickets. They're designed to be a fun game.

[00:37:38] KM: Oh, but you don't have to scratch the top off?

[00:37:41] MC: No. All you got to do is just scan that bar code. Scan the bar code at the bottom and it will tell you. Yeah, your name.

[00:37:46] KM: Well, I'm going to do that. Because they make a mess.

[00:37:49] MC: They do make a mess.

[00:37:50] KM: And when you put them in the car with your grandkids and you let them do it, it's just like a mess.

[00:37:52] MC: Well, when they brought medical marijuana, my idea was to make a ticket called hash cash where you could scratch it and then you could smoke the poop that comes off of it. They didn't like that idea.

[00:38:05] TW: That's a million-dollar idea right there.

[00:38:07] MC: Well, that's what I'm thinking.

[00:38:08] TW: Yeah. That is great.

[00:38:10] MC: Yeah.

[00:38:09] KM: Okay. You told me this in the alley one day when you first got that job. I said, "What do I do?" I like to go in there and do the scratch-offs. You say buy the $10 and always buy three.

[00:38:21] MC: Well, only buy three. The pack players are the ones that have the best chance.

[00:38:25] KM: What's a pack player?

[00:38:27] MC: A pack player. There's 30 $10 tickets in a pack. And inside that is called a GLEP, a guaranteed low-end prize.

[00:38:34] KM: There you go.

[00:38:35] MC: It's a number that's not secret. But it usually runs about 120, 140. These are all numbers in that whole pack. Really, you're not betting 300. You're betting roughly 160 that one of those is going to be a big winner in there. And sometimes you never know where they are because they're clustered in some and not in others. But there's some guaranteed low-end prize in that pack. Now 20s are now $600 a pack because we doubled those up. But the pack players are the ones that –

[00:39:04] KM: Which one are the pack players?

[00:39:05] MC: The people that go around and buy packs.

[00:39:07] KM: Oh, I see.

[00:39:08] MC: So what they'll do is they'll come down and they'll watch on the computer. They'll see where the prize is. Okay, are the prizes still in this one game? It may be they're starting to run out of the game. It's old. But yet, there's a million-dollar ticket still in it. So then they talk to their lottery reps or whatever. Because it's not secret where the games are. They'll say where are these games at? And we tell the retailers. Know if they have that game or not and they try to order more of them. And then when they can't order more, they try to get their reps to get them more. And it's a game of – some owners and chains are more aggressive with lottery than others.

[00:39:45] KM: Oh. I bet my little guy is not very aggressive. I need to go change my store. A convenience store.

[00:39:51] MC: Well, you just never know where they're going to come. We had a guy that bought a ticket in a TVM, which is a ticket vending machine. They're in Walmarts. And at the time we only had 115 of them and only very low amount of tickets are sold out of them percentage-wise for the rest of the state.

But he bought one ticket in the Conway grocery store neighborhood market, and $20 ticket. He scratched it and he said, "I don't know." He said – he tossed it in his truck. And his brother's in there. And so, the next morning they get up to go to work and he said, "Did I win anything on that? I can't tell." He said, "Well, you didn't scratch it all off." He scratched the bottom part a little bit more. And he said, "I don't know. It says MIL. What is? Is that –" he said, "Well, let's go by there."

So they were close downtown, they pulled by the office and they looked at it. That's a million-dollar winner. And after tax, it's $680,000 roughly. We handed him a check for $680,000. And his brother's like – of course, they're in shock when you – you'll see them. They'll sit there for – because it takes about 30 minutes to do all the paperwork and check everything and make sure it's correct. And you see it hit them every once in a while. God, his brother was like, "Man, you don't tell anybody. We can't tell anybody. Okay. You understand that? Right? We're not going home. We're not telling anybody."

[00:41:14] TW: Nobody.

[00:41:15] MC: Nobody. And then he was taking his family to Florida the next day down to –

[00:41:21] KM: Oh, yeah, sure.

[00:41:22] MC: Yeah. I said, "You know, you're going to get a check for $680,000. I said your bank's probably closed by now. [inaudible 00:41:28]. Then take your $10,000 dollars out. When you get back, you'll still have $670,000. I said go get them a big old charter boat and go fishing. He said, "That's exactly what I'm going to do."

So you see these people and it's magical to them. And then people who run two or three million and then, of course, the big ones sometimes. Yeah, it's good. But there's a lot of people that sink a lot of money into it. And I understand it as a game. But if you think you're going to get rich off of it, just don't do it.

[00:41:57] TW: I'm just asking for a friend. Where can you buy the packs? Can you get those from a regular retailer?

[00:42:01] MC: Ask a retailer, "Do you have a pack of those?"

[00:42:04] KM: How much does a pack cost?

[00:42:05] MC: Well, 300 for all the games except the 20s. Then it's 600. But look, there's a lot of great people that work at the lottery. They work under hard conditions because they keep them at very low employees base because that's what people want. They want it stripped down as much as they can to increase the numbers going to colleges.

[00:42:26] KM: Why'd you leave?

[00:42:27] MC: I was asked to go to Secretary of Commerce. It was time. I'm 61. And –

[00:42:33] KM: This is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with soon to be published book author Mr. Billy Mitch Chandler Jr. He's a storyteller, as you've heard. World traveler and media aficionado. We'll be right back. And we're going to talk about his longtime media work and relationship with the FBI.

[BREAK]

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[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]

[00:43:52] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. And I'm speaking today with my friend and neighbor, Mitch Chandler. All right, if you're just tuning into the show, you need to go back. Mitch is a storyteller. He's fun. I mean, they are some good stories. I don't even want to try to recap them because most of the words are in French and I can't repeat and I can't say them.

But you just got back from working on a shoot for the FBI or a documentary? What were you working on and where were you –

[00:44:18] MC: Arizona.

[00:44:18] KM: Arizona. You just got back yesterday, I think? What are you doing?

[00:44:21] MC: Yeah. Yeah. The FBI Association. The documentary is something we're shooting in Paris. And it's going to be a companion to the book. I'll put all my guys on. Do interviews with all my friends and do some other cathartic things.

My mother – when COVID hit, I had a decision to make. Well, am I going to be locked up in the house behind your house or was I going to go take care of my mother who was in trouble with cancer? I went and took care of mother with my dad, his last patient. And I was there all during and COVID in the house I grew up in.

The greatest therapy was being there during a really tough time for the world and for myself. I didn't feel good. And she was sick. And so, a lot of things can happen when you move back to the place where you grew up. I mean, I'd be laying there in bed and I would hear the kids next door go out to play and I would think for a second, "Oh, I'm going to play. Let's go play." And then you realize you're 60. Not six. A lot of things like that would happen.

So we'll go in October. Me and a new creative muse I have, a friend of mine. A woman named Rochelle Freitag. And we're going to explore what all this thing is that we have done there for all these years and try to put some meaning to it.

There was a spot in a hotel. I was on a leash with dad and mother. They let me travel because they supported most of it. One day I called and I said, "Hey, I'm going to be flying to Bucharest." This was in '89, '90. And they were having a revolution. And my buddy Jacques' wife was Romanian. I wanted to go shoot pictures. And maybe that would – I was 29. I thought, "Well, if I'm going to make a move as if photojournalist, this is the time to do it. And I have a place to do it." Support network in Bucharest.

I said, "By the way, I'm flying." He said, "No, you're not." I said, "Why not?" He said, "You're not going to Bucharest." I said, "Well, how come?" He said, "Because I said you're not going. There's a revolution going." I said, "I know. That's why I'm going." He said, "You're not going."

It's like a doctor's kid, you're not riding a motorcycle. But this time I'm – what did I – I'm 29. So I went down and said, "My Daddy won't let me go to the revolution." I said, "No. But I'm going to go buy $200 worth of scotch." And he said, "Fine. Okay."

Anyway, I act like a punk and a little kid. And finally, maybe I grew up. And I always thought that was a pivotal moment where I chose family and home over, "Screw it. Let's go." But then as I thought about it I realized that's when I should have gone. Anyway, I don't know if that's a good story or not. But it's a pivotal moment in my life.

So we're going back to do some of that and we're going to shoot for two weeks back in the apartment where I stayed all that time. And he gave it to us for two weeks. That's a big deal.

[00:47:25] KM: A lot of people resent going home and taking care of their parents when they're sick.

[00:47:29] MC: Well, it's the best thing that ever happened to you. I photographed some of it as poignant as I could for later generations to see how hard she fought. She was a myeloma patient at UAMS. They got her 10 extra years. She fought it to the end.

[00:47:46] KM: And she died during COVID?

[00:47:47] MC: Just the end of it. It's about a year and a half.

[00:47:49] KM: Your father is still alive though, right?

[00:47:51] MC: Yep. He's doing great. He still studies. And he has joy in his life. He's sad but he's okay.

[00:47:56] KM: He misses her.

[00:47:57] MC: Yeah.

[00:47:57] KM: Talk about the FBI.

[00:47:58] MC: FBI. I made friends with a guy named Paul Nathanson at a Bracewell firm. And I've gone to India for Larry Walther and met the Wellspun people and helped with that project. And ended up at CGRW and I did their grand opening. And saw one of the guys, the steel guys came down from Bracewell Firm and made friends with him. And a few years later I was in DC at the state department doing something else. And I said, "Let's go eat lunch." And he said, "Hey, I need to get you a project." And I said, "Yeah, do." And he did.

Called a couple weeks later, said how about the FBI Agent Association? It's not the FBI. It's their Association of 14,000 roughly, special agents. And it has its advocacy for the agents. They have two charities. One's a memorial college fund that pays for the college of agents that perish. Whether it's in a bank robbery or mowing their lawn. It's just one of the benefits to them. They work long hard hours and it's dangerous.

They know now their kids 75% of their college no matter where they get into. It can go to college. And then there's an assistance fund for agents that have tragedy in their life or a sick child or a house burns down or a flood. People that need extra help.

And so, we raised funds for that. And that's primarily what I do. I do their video work. I tell their stories. Other agents that have trouble. And every one of them are tear jerkers and is thoughtful. And you can go to FBI AA on YouTube and just search that and a number of stories will come up. And they give me time to tell them their 15-minute stories sometimes. Sometimes they're eight. And it just propels people to give.

And in fact, if anybody wants to support that, just go to fbiaa.org. And it's pretty simple to donate. But that money goes to help agents that have tragedy, whether they're selves or their children. These are all active duty agents that are part of the trustee program. It's been a great partnership.

And during some tough years for me physically and in work. Because like I said, you purpose. That's been the one sort of North Star in my career. And it's just great to play at that level. I produce their dinner. We've gone from raising a hundred thousand dollars the first year to 1.1 million this last year. It's $10,000 table fundraiser in Washington. Now we're up to – I don't know. 70 tables I guess.

[00:50:25] KM: And tell who the gift was that gave away – a local celebrity got to go up there and give it away. Yeah.

[00:50:31] MC: Well, Pat Matthew. He's your old friend. My old friend.

[00:50:33] KM: Yeah. Artist, Pat Matthew.

[00:50:34] MC: Matthews family. I'm looking at some of his work here on your walls. He's fabulous. He painted this beautiful American flag. He's famous for flags.

[00:50:42] KM: Yes.

[00:50:43] MC: As you are, I guess.

[00:50:45] KM: That's true.

[00:50:46] MC: Yeah, that's right. You have one of his flags.

[00:50:50] KM: Yes, I do.

[00:50:49] MC: I bet you do.

[00:50:50] KM: Yeah. I think [inaudible 00:50:51]. I have enjoyed interviewing you so much. So I have you a gift.

[00:50:57] MC: What?

[00:50:57] KM: Is there anything you want to say before that I didn't talk about? Or did we get it all?

[00:51:00] MC: I don't know. Am I able to get canceled?

[00:51:05] MC: No. This is your desk set. It's the Arkansas flag, a US flag. And what's this one?

[00:51:10] MC: That's Colorado.

[00:51:12] KM: That's for the one semester you spent in Colorado.

[00:51:15] MC: Two. Two.

[00:51:15] KM: Two semesters.

[00:51:16] MC: We need to cut it in half because that way – yes, indicative of my ending. But you're getting the same one to Tommy [inaudible 00:51:22]. I listened to Tommy –

[00:51:25] KM: He didn't have Colorado, did he?

[00:51:26] MC: Yeah, he got Colorado.

[00:51:26] KM: You know what I should have done for yours though, I should have given you a French flag. Okay. We are shooting this in my office at Arkansas Flag and Banner. We're going to go down switch up Colorado for France because it's more important to you.

[00:51:39] MC: Well, I'm validated and I'm happy.

[00:51:42] KM: Good.

[00:51:43] TW: Excellent. Excellent.

[00:51:45] MC: Is it over?

[00:51:46] KM: Nope.

[00:51:47] TW: Our thanks to Mitch Chandler for being a guest on Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy today. And we look forward to the release of his upcoming book. The title, Bus Stop to Paris. We'll be the first in line to read it.

[00:51:58] KM: In closing, to our listeners, thank you for spending time with us. We hope you've heard or learned something that's been inspiring or enlightening. And that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your Independence or your life. I'm Kerry McCoy and I'll see you next time on Up in Your Business. Until then, be brave and keep it up.

[00:52:17] TW: You've been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. For links to resources you heard discussed on today's show, just go to flagandbanner.com, select radio and choose today's guest. And browse through the hundreds of available past programs, too. They make for great weekend listening.

If you'd like to sponsor this show or any show, just email us. Send us your information to gray@flagandbanner.com. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Stay informed of exciting upcoming guests by subscribing to our YouTube channel or podcasts wherever you like to listen.

Kerry's goal is simple, to help you live the American dream.

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