82 – What Qualifies Us to Sit in This Chair

In this episode, Peter and Sonny expand on their areas of expertise. Association management, non-profit institutions, leadership, politics, economics, and more. It is this experience that qualifies our hosts to sit between their chairs and their microphones and thus host our podcast.

The full audiovisual version of this episode is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BykJQbV3Igg 

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Transcript

Sonny Maken 0:09

Welcome to the Obvious Podcast, episode number 82. My name is Sonny Maken.

Peter Dyga 0:14

And I'm Peter Dyga, president and CEO at ABC Florida East Coast Chapter.

Sonny Maken 0:19

You are listening to the Obvious Podcast or you're watching it, where all opinions expressed are our own unless we say otherwise.

Peter Dyga 0:26

Love the show. We ask you to subscribe on any major podcast platform or watch us in action on YouTube. Follow the Obvious Podcast on TikTok, Instagram, X, and Truth Social. All the links you need are in the show notes. And you can reach reach out to us at any time at the Obvious at abc eastflorida.com. And if you're enjoying the ride, help others find us by leaving a review wherever you listen. So happy Friday, Sonny. Happy Friday.

Sonny Maken 0:55

You know, as you kind of talk about if you're enjoying the ride, you know, we are, what is this, episode 82? We've obviously created a lot of content, and the feedback that we get is amazing. And we're very grateful to you for watching and listening.

Peter Dyga 1:09

For the most part, positive that we could get feedback from. Actually, on the sources, there's some, you know, some back and forth from uh, say, people who aren't so um enamored with our content.

Sonny Maken 1:20

Uh that's just you know that's normal. People with time on social media complaining about it.

Peter Dyga 1:24

But it's kind of fun. Yeah. As long as you watch, right? You know, that's right. There's no such publicity. You know, from the beginning, um, hold on. That from the beginning has kind of been our objective. Um, you know, because if uh we don't have people watching, if we're not a podcast that produces regular content, we're not going to get that and uh doesn't allow us to at least get even a partial message, you know, about uh sometimes the things we talk about, the the value that ABC provides and why the association is important in this environment and politics and in government affairs and everything else in our industry.

Sonny Maken 1:58

So in any event, um, well, so I wanted to share with you in our audience a very nice email that we received uh from a young man who's a volunteer leader in the ABC ecosystem. And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but not our chapter.

Peter Dyga 2:14

Not our chapter. But in the ecosystem, as somebody put it.

Sonny Maken 2:17

Well, he wro he read uh he sent us an email saying that he was on a long road trip and that he decided to listen to our show from the first episode to the 76th episode. Mr. Producer, by the way, he wants to put Mr. Producer on the screen. I said, no, absolutely not. We talk about him a lot and he wants to meet him. So that's not gonna happen.

Peter Dyga 2:37

Maybe another hundred episodes of keep you uh build the suspense, you know.

Sonny Maken 2:45

I mean he it was a very nice email, right? He said he listened to 76th episode, uh, and I simply wanted to share how much I've enjoyed listening to all of them. Admittedly, I had wondered. Right? That's crazy. We're like like the Netflix of podcasts. Yeah, that's great. Um by the way, I saw I saw podcasts now on Netflix. Like that's so strange to me. Yeah. But you know, they need more content. So we so this guy listened to how many hours of content?

unknown 3:12

Over 25.

Sonny Maken 3:13

Over 25 hours. I couldn't listen to myself. 20 minutes at a time? Yeah. Yeah. That's insane. But anyway, we wouldn't be here without you, our audience. So you know, we want to express our gratitude and thank you for watching and listening. Uh, but I want to I want to read this line, which I really liked. Um this morning I completed my task and listened to the 76th episode, and I wanted to share how much I've enjoyed listening to all of them. Admittedly, I had wondered what qualified you all to speak on some of the topics, but I must say I love how you all approach the topics from a layman's perspective, allowing those who may not be as versed the opportunity to understand the respective topics. And then he goes on. It's a lovely email. Thank you for reaching out to us. Thank you for listening.

Peter Dyga 3:56

So he's kind of the inspiration of our topic.

Sonny Maken 3:58

Our topic topic that uh because his line about you know wondering what qualified us, I was like, you don't want to wonder, we want to talk about this. Yeah. Because it's a very it's a great question. It's a very good question, right? Uh obviously there's a lot of um opinions that are shared, and we obviously we made that clear, it's our opinions.

Peter Dyga 4:16

Um we don't know what areas or topics, you know, I forget exactly how we worded that, but um but we so we're gonna talk about them all. Right. Let's talk about the you know, we could talk about it.

Sonny Maken 4:25

Wanted to ask you what qualifies you to be sitting in this chair next to me.

Peter Dyga 4:29

Yeah. Well, that's a great question. And again, what area are we talking about? So I think we're gonna start, or I'm gonna kick it off by just talking about from an association perspective. Let's talk about a lot about what we talk about here as association related. So for those that don't know, although I know I reference it often, um, you know, I've worked for ABC in this chapter for what will be my 27th year this August. So I was just a fairly young man, I came to work for ABC. And prior to that, I worked for, you know, the the legislature, and um that's why I, you know, I think I was hired by ABC in this particular chapter, because we have had, for as long as I can remember and been part of it, uh, a commitment, uh, if you will, to having the very best, most influential government political affairs uh program as possible. So and quite frankly, it's uh you know one of very few chapters around the country. It's the only one in the state that has dedicated, has always had dedicated staff for at least those 27 years to government affairs. Um so in any event, uh from an association perspective, uh I have 27 years of experience. Less than half of that now was as uh the vice president of government affairs, and more than half of that period has been as the CEO. Uh had a great mentor uh for many of those years. Um have attended, you know, with him and um around the country many, many ABC meetings over the years, you know, which kind of gave me a very special perspective on associations and association management. Um I was encouraged by my predecessor to pursue my accreditation as an uh um CAE or certified association executive through the American Society of Association executives. So I did that and have had obtained that. Went to the IOM program, which is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute of Organizational Management, with a jump, which a number of people actually are are doing that now with my encouragement. So any event, I think just my experience uh both uh in ABC, um, some of the professional development that I've done is kind of what I guess qualifies me uh in my opinion to talk on association.

Sonny Maken 6:29

You started your career in politics, so kind of and obviously we are a powerhouse when it comes to politics on on every level. Um so talk about that. Like you talk about your your sort of uh genesis in politics.

Peter Dyga 6:41

Aaron Powell So it's uh I think important to talk about that as well because we're not sure exactly. We do speak a lot about association and uh quite frankly think a lot almost everything we talk about is tied some way to the management and uh of the association and the value that we deliver. But on our show, we talk a lot about politics. So somebody might rightly ask, you know, what qualifies you? So well, I've been involved in politics uh pretty much before my adult life. Um when I was 16, uh I was chairman of the Young Republicans in my county, uh did campaigning for uh Ronald Reagan before I was uh old enough to vote. Um and then when I was old enough to vote, I actually ran presidential campaigns in in at the county level in my life. I've run numerous other campaigns. Uh you know, I've served uh in the Florida legislature, um done uh campaign um campaigning for most of my life, um at all different levels of government. Um so you know, pretty much I go back to um, you know, was very proud of being invited to uh Ronald Reagan's uh second inauguration, even though I wasn't even old enough to vote, but I was uh again a county chair for him in his second election.

Sonny Maken 7:54

Wow.

Peter Dyga 7:55

I was been a state pass co-chairman of the young Republicans in the state of Florida. Politics has kind of been in my blood uh and experiences since uh before I was, you know, or 16 or or even younger.

Sonny Maken 8:06

So you could obviously argue the fact that for 26 years you've seen the impact of good policy and bad policy at at every level, right? From federal to federal For sure.

Peter Dyga 8:17

Actually, uh, you know, those that don't recall, for a hundred years since Reconstruction, uh the Florida politics was dominated by Democrats. Um they held every branch of government, most of the cabinet positions, and it wasn't until the 90s, uh, which is I was running uh campaigns back then and was running a campaign for a state uh House member uh in the Gainesville area, which is uh not a conservative uh bastion, if you will. Um, in part, you know, and uh just you know, from again the whole state was uh Democrat majority up until the nineties when Republicans first uh took over. And I was I was part of that effort, if you will. I was running campaigns for a guy who won a House seat, and he was the first Republican to hold that House seat since Reconstruction. And I'm proud to say, and the last Republican to do it was a black man named Josiah Walls, which if you Google him, uh was a Florida senator actually from that area of the state. And that was the last Republican to hold that seat until the member that I worked for and campaigned with who actually won. His name was uh Bob Casey. He was uh uh MD, a general practice uh medical doctor, and um a great man, uh taught me a lot, you know, about um statesmanship, if you will, I think. He was just uh an incredibly humble man and uh great guy.

Sonny Maken 9:32

So I just always remember the name Bob Casey because he was one of the in the nineties when I was growing up, he was one of the few, or the only, I think, pro-life Democrat. The one from Pennsylvania. And they wouldn't let him speak at the Democratic Convention because he was pro-life. Yeah. I remember that so well.

Peter Dyga 9:47

So anyway, I was um uh you know part of that um uh happening in the nineties, and that's uh, you know, towards the end of that period when I had had uh enough working for the legislature when I came to work for ABC. So you know, in the in the late nineties. Um I had actually taken a leave of absence with the chapter's blessing uh in my early years in the early 2000s through 2000 might have been as high as eight or so, uh, to actually continue to run campaigns uh for people running for state senate and uh the state house. So, you know, I was um I had a uh a strong enough reputation and and uh I tell people that you know in my early years, like mutt many things in life, you start by volunteering. Uh you know, and I worked my way slowly up to you know being paid and compensated for what I knew and how I could run and organize campaigns. So in any event, I've seen a lot in state politics. Um you know, as uh the vice president of government affairs at ABC. I've spent, I tell people I spent a good portion of my life in Tallahassee because when I worked for the legislature, I would obviously be there for all 60 days of the session and during committee weeks, and when I first became uh chapter vice president of government affairs, the chapter, as we do now even, uh sends up our government affairs person for sessions. So I did that for another 12 years at ABC. So I spent you know almost 20 years spending two months a year in Tallahassee. So uh 24 months I spent almost you know two years straight without ever having having lived there. So in any event, that's kind of what you know I think qualifies me to speak a little bit about politics and running campaigns and state legislature and uh you know the the Congress and local government and whatnot. So for those that didn't know. So there you go. Now, Sonny, what about you?

Sonny Maken 11:29

Well, now it's I can't go second. I mean, that's that's such an impeccable uh pedigree. I'm not really even sure how to how to begin. So when I was young, I remember under George Bush's the father, the Iraq War broke out, and I had always been, even as a kid, like a voracious consumer of information. So I loved reading the paper, I loved like understanding what was happening in the world. I obviously didn't have the context or or but I was always kind of aware of what was happening because I was, you know, uh big time consumer of the news. And so when I was in high school, I was looking at colleges and I really wanted to be in DC. I really wanted to be in sort of the house of uh power and get an inside look at you know how the sausage is made because I'd always been interested in politics, I'd always been interested in global affairs. So I got into Georgetown, I I went to the School of Foreign Service, my diploma says Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service, and that's the oldest sort of international relations school there is. So and I met a lot of interesting people from all over the world, and and that really sort of expanded my not just my network, but my understanding of the impact of good policy, bad policy. You know, I had friends in Latin America and South America telling me how I had friends in Argentina telling me how socialism would ruin their country. I had a professor at George San who was an expert on South American economics and when the Brazil I remember I was in college when the Brazil crisis uh currency crisis happened. And he was gone for two weeks consulting with the Brazilian government. I had a professor who worked on Boris Yeltsin's campaign when he ran for president in in Moscow. And so I had some really great. You've had an amazing education.

Peter Dyga 13:07

I've had your career education. I've had some. And what it brings to the table in terms of expertise, but also some of your jobs. Yeah. Uh, you know, and your experience um, you know, in terms of association management and the politics and whatnot also I think are I was at Georgetown and I got a job at the um at the uh student financial aid office, right?

Sonny Maken 13:26

Because somebody told me this is the best place to be if you want to uh make sure you maximize your own student your own financial aid. Um so I come from a very sort of normal middle class background and uh had a lot of scholarships and took out loans and all of that to get my degree. And I remember sitting in the financial aid office, which was like in the second basement of this building, and they gave me like a stack of files, and I'm like, I didn't come to DC for this, and I just like left. I quit. I was on the job one day, and I went to the FBI headquarters, and this was obviously pre-9-11, and I was able to talk myself into an internship at the FBI, and it was an unbelievable experience because that's when the uh what was the name of the bomber who was mailing stuff in the mail? Uh Unibomber, thank you. The unibomber case was breaking, and I I got a chance to work on that or help with that. And then I was like, now what? So I went and got an internship on Capitol Hill. So I worked on uh for my congressman who is now in jail for um doing some pretty weird things, but that's a different story. But great experience, right? Um, because my my congressman at that time was the deputy majority whip. Tom DeLay was the majority whip, so I got to be with leadership. Uh I remember Bob Dole was running for president, got to meet him a couple of times. I sat at this table in the in one of the cafeterias where I didn't see anything, I just sat there. But it was like my boss, Bob Dole and Lude Gingrich were talking, you know, and it was just like insane. Like I'm from the suburbs of Chicago and I'm sitting at this table with these people and had incredible um mentors, had incredible uh exposure to some really interesting things early in life.

Peter Dyga 15:00

How was your service on because you served in some other nonprofit roles. I did as a volunteer leader, though. Volunteer leader both, actually, I think.

Sonny Maken 15:07

Yep. I ran a nonprofit. Well, I started at a at a nonprofit year uh well, now it's like 11, 12 years ago, as a board member, and they were on the verge of bankruptcy. So I said, this is ridiculous. I'll take over uh temporarily so you can turn this, you know, I'll turn this around and hand it over. I ended up working there for seven years and uh took it from near bankruptcy to almost a million dollars a year coming in. And so um that really opened up my eyes to the whole sort of how leadership works, how volunteer leadership works, how you raise money, how you have an impact. You know, and I and I learned so much about how the nonprofit world, good and bad, how it was structured, you know, the impact it had, and just I realized the biggest thing I realized was there was no, and this is one of the reasons I love, love, love ABC. In the nonprofit world, there's really no imperative to be successful, because if you are successful, you will work yourself out of a job, right? Sure.

Peter Dyga 16:03

And nobody wants to do that because nonprofits are mission-driven. Exactly. If you achieve the mission, you gotta reinvent yourself, which a lot of them, a lot of national ones have over the years. March of dimes, right?

Sonny Maken 16:14

The polio gets solved, they're like, uh-oh. Right. We don't want to go away. So they just reinvent their mission. And I just I I always find that so troubling. Like the idea that you are not in it to activate.

Peter Dyga 16:25

We have that day to look forward to when the merit shop and meritocracy is so accepted worldwide that they don't need us anymore. They don't need us anymore. So when that day comes, we will celebrate. We will celebrate. But until that day, we will fight. We will fight. Yeah.

Sonny Maken 16:39

So but I love our mission, and I, you know, so I've had uh just a variety of experience. Uh one of the biggest things I think that changed my life. I think I was nine or ten years old, and my dad came came home and he's like, I'm taking you and your mom on vacation, and I was like, where are we going?

Peter Dyga 16:55

And he goes, How does you know, sometimes our background?

Sonny Maken 16:59

Yeah. And he took me to I took my mom and I to, I'm an only child, so when I say mom and I, I just mean like our whole family, to um Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong. And I'm like nine, you know, and I'm like blown away by like he took me to a tailor in Hong Kong. I got my first suit made at nine years old. Wow. It was like just an insane experience. And that really was sort of what started, I think, my love affair for trying to understand how the world works and how in that trip alone on spectrum. Oh, yeah. Real poverty in Thailand, you know, the success that Singapore had. And I remember my dad, I was like, how because it was like the signs were uh Singapore was just unbelievably clean and efficient, crime-free, right? And I asked my dad, and my dad said to me, I'll never forget this. He said, Son, this is what happens when you get a benevolent dictator. The first time I'd heard that phrase, right?

Peter Dyga 17:53

Probably the best form of government. Probably. Like, I mean, he's the problem is, you know, how do you guarantee that they're benevolent?

Sonny Maken 17:58

That's the problem. That's the problem. You cannot guarantee that. But they have done, but again, you know, it's a small island, not a lot of people. So that's controversial, what I just said. Probably I'm sure we'll get some mail. I mean, what did what didn't some one of our founding fathers say democracy is the worst form of government there is the best one we have, except for all the rest.

Peter Dyga 18:16

Yeah, or something like that.

Sonny Maken 18:16

Yeah. Or maybe that was the sausage. Uh maybe. Yeah, but it just same.

Peter Dyga 18:21

Yeah, same thing. But anyway, that's just life lessons. Life lessons. Which we can't discount either. They're important about who we are, and quite frankly, what what does qualify us, you know, in many ways. Um you know, so I I don't talk a lot about my background, but um my mother was widowed with my father, uh, three days old. Um and remarried at some point in her life, and that man uh you know, adopted my sister and I, and and then she was widowed again in a traffic, a tragic industrial accident with him. So she kind of gave up at that point. So for the most part, most of my life, I was raised by my mother, uh, and she was a woman with at that time no high school education. Wow. Uh, when she was first widowed, and second time, I don't think she's she still didn't have a high school education. She went back to school, uh, eventually got her master's degree in public administration. And so she was an example my whole life, and I tell people a lot. Um, the reason I think I am who I am today, uh well, this that's not really that controversial, it's because of our parents and our upper and our family. But more specifically, the fact that really government was of no help to her. She did it, she had to do it on her own. Right. You know, and I think that instilled in me a sense of, you know, in her politics we're definitely right of center as a result, I think, and being a public administrator. And I'll never, you know, some of the lessons I learned in life, you know, like in the conversations we'd have about government and efficiency and whatnot. Yeah. In any event. She did. I think our life experiences no less qualify us. Yeah. Uh, you know, I think in some ways, and we all obviously have life experiences. So um, we're kind of running up against time. I want to say this one. Go ahead.

Sonny Maken 19:54

I do want to say this point about your story. There is, you know, you and I have a tremendous amount of contempt for the victim mentality and sort of the hard times and the and the trauma and the difficult times that you've been through personally. The fact that that is so devoid from your personality and from your heart. I think it is such a incredible, admirable thing, right? Like I love, I like I have contempt for this not this new generation, but the millennials, because they uh just love they love being victims. Yeah. And it just blows my mind.

Peter Dyga 20:26

Well, unlike any of us, we probably you know had thoughts, you know, about basically my uh my whole life, it's been uh I wouldn't be who I am today without every one of the experiences. Yeah. Good, bad, ugly, and every business. I wouldn't be who I am, and who knows, you know, where I'd be today if I didn't have all of those experiences. So and that's true for all of us. So um we kind of started, you know, and again, I want to just talk about in politics, sometimes people let me back up a little bit. There is truth in this world. I think you and I share that philosophy, and there are maybe some that think everything is is um relative, you know. But I don't know. Uh we certainly are believers, or there are things that are true.

Sonny Maken 21:04

Yeah.

Peter Dyga 21:04

Um you could be you could make a simple statement as two plus two equals four. It's it's it's a true statement. It's a fact. You know, it's a fact. Uh and then obviously everything in the spectrum. So um it's oftentimes the problem, I think, with politics is people equate politics to just opinion. And your opinion is just as good as mine when it comes to politics. But you know what? Even in politics, there are some truths. Yeah.

unknown 21:29

Absolutely.

Peter Dyga 21:30

Even in political opinions, there are some truths.

Sonny Maken 21:32

Yeah.

Peter Dyga 21:33

Our goal in everything, in every aspect of our life, should be pursuit of truth. Not just opinion. And and basing our opinion on truth.

Sonny Maken 21:44

Yep.

Peter Dyga 21:45

And so, you know, that's by the way, you've heard me say around here, it's a reason they call it political science. Because there's a science political opinion. Because there is a science behind it. Yeah. Politics and getting people elected and and whatnot, not just, you know, uh who you like. Yeah, that that is opinion. You know, and you might be for some policies and against others, but I think that's part of the confusion. You know, I think is that I think the general consensus amongst most people is whenever you're having a conversation about politics, that what qualifies one person more than another?

Sonny Maken 22:15

Or that all opinions are equally valid, right? Like that's just I I loved anthropology in college, and the cultural relativism relativism of anthropology drove me nuts. Great. Right? Just drove me absolutely nuts. Yeah, that could be a whole show. Because there are cultures that that allow or or uh empower their people to lead better lives than other cultures. Like without a doubt. That is a fact. And the fact that I have to sit there and argue with an academic, no, no, no, they're not all equal. Yeah. You know, it's not all relativism when it comes to cultures, that's insane to me. And I think the same thing applies to how we look at politics.

Peter Dyga 22:52

Amen. So anyway, we thank our listeners. We really enjoyed this particular email that we got. And we're humbled, you know, that uh people are enjoying the show and that are coming to us at all sorts of all sorts of uh so all sorts of different um times, I guess, in our uh experience here in in terms of taping the show. Yeah. Right? Because you know, he decided later on to catch up later, yeah. So thank you, thankful.

Sonny Maken 23:17

So I guess I do want to show this. Uh Mr. Producer asked me to show you his tumbler. Uh no, no, this is this is Mr. Producer's Tumblr. And Mr. Producer wanted me to say this is the closest you're gonna get to be tumbler. Stay tuned. So thank you for joining us. Uh what is is are you gonna yeah, let's switch roles. You go.

Peter Dyga 23:39

All right. Well, we want to thank you for listening and honoring us with your time. As always, we look forward to sharing another episode with you next Friday.

Sonny Maken 23:46

Or comment, send us an email at the obvious at abceflorida.com.

Peter Dyga 23:51

Till then. Ciao.

Sonny Maken 23:53

Take care.