Stacey Abrams, "Level Up"

an advocate and my I love that? Um, you like? Yes? He's my first question? Maybe is that? As like you do so well writing, why why stress yourself with politics? I love writing, but I also love people, and people do better when they have good leadership. People do really well when they have leaders that like them, and so I want to be one of those people who actually likes people and wants to help them from the office

of governor. Okay, people feel that. Level up A book about essentially small businesses and how to grow them and the challenges that you do. You share the fact that you had businesses that failed. Most politicians will always just be like, no, that didn't fail. I pivoted it's the pivot. People love the pivot. One of the big things you learn about when reading the book is just how many

small businesses fail. Now. I don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I sometimes wonder if there's too much of an obsession with starting your own business in America. Like it. It feels like there's this thing. I don't know if it's attached to the American dream, but it feels like everyone is told you have to start your own business. Is there a reason you chose to start your own business and not to just work in a field that was already you know, business that already exists. Oh,

I like paychecks. They made me very happy. I was checks. I was a tax attorney, and that was a nice paycheck. And then I began what my mother has called my trajectory of downward economic mobility. When I left there, it became deputy city attorney for Atlanta when I decided to run for office, though I couldn't. I didn't feel right staying in my job as a lawyer for the city when I was running for a political office, and so I left and I became what I call a redeluctant

entrepree newer. I had to find a way to pay for my mortgage since I was going to leave my job, and that's when I started my business. And for a lot of people, starting a small business isn't this Horatio Alger story. It's not because they all want to be many moguls. It's often circumstances. A mom who needs to take care of her kids but also needs to make a living, and so she starts a business in her in her front, in her kitchen. It's people who need opportunities.

And so my mission is to say, regardless of why you start your small business, here's what you need to know about it, because these are the things no one's going to tell you. Shark Tank is not going to happen for most of us. So here's what we need to do, and that it's going to be difficult in Georgia right now. Of the businesses in Georgia are small businesses. Of the employees are employed by small businesses. And so if we don't understand small businesses, we're in a lot

of trouble. And if we don't do our work to prop them up and to help them, support them as they grow, and more importantly, help them scale then we're actually hurting the very people we say we want to help in our economy. If you were to become the governor of Georgia, people are screaming as I say that and cheering right now. If you were to become the governor of Georgia, what are some of the first steps you think you would take to help small businesses? If

you say them, awesome, all businesses in Georgia. What do you think could change? Where can government step in and and and wei should that? Um? You know, sort of that marriage end between the government helping a small business whilst also making a business of business. First thing we need to do is to expand medicating Georgia, which sounds like a completely counterintuitive answer to the question you ask.

It does, but Georgia spends billions of dollars and what's called uncompensated care we pay for people who can afford healthcare. Part of that is the fact that we have failed to take money that belongs to Georgians and reinvested in healthcare. But Medicaid expansion and george will create sixty six or sixty thou new jobs. When you expand medicaid, you create small businesses and it's an infusion of capital that comes

from commerce, not from loans. Number two, we should we should teach young people how to start busicists, even if they don't ever want to start one of their own. They should know what it looks like, and then should it makes the better employees. If you understand how business works, then you understand why your boss who has two employees cannot pay you what your friend at Coca colaonics. And so it's it's creating that that lexicon and that understanding.

And the third is encouraging financial systems to actually loan money when you have to do that in communities that don't have it. After the Great Recession, Black communities in particular lost banks and they never came back. And so when the p p P loans came out a good intention of government, the money went to places that we're not willing to lend to the very communities that needed.

And as governor, I would pay attention to that. I would say, we need to use these small these Black owned banks, or these Latino owned banks, these community banks, we need to use those as depositories. So when money comes the next time, there's someone in the community who's ready to loan it. Let's talk about politics, which is everything in America all the time. Um, you are running for a seats that in a state that has become, i mean, one of the lightning rods of American politics, Georgia.

What's interesting about this race is the fact that Governor Kemp has put into place multiple restrictions on how people can vote, when people can vote. He's reduced the availability of voting for people. Republicans will argue the same thing. They will say, no, all we're trying to do is show up the vote, even though we agree there has been no widespread vote of fraud. How do you begin tackling an issue like this where A you're running, so you want to make it better for yourself slash fair

for everybody. But how do you how do you how do you find that balance of saying, two people, listen, I'm trying to do this for everybody, and I know that I hope I will benefit. But you get what I'm saying. There's that there's that paradox of of of the messaging that you're trying to get out. I reject the paradox voting. The process of voting is nonpartisan. Everyone should have access to the ability to vote. It should be easy to vote, it should be accessible. There should

be a freedom to vote. Any impediment to that is wrong. That's full stop. I don't care who you vote for when I'm focusing on the voting system. My focus should never be on who you cast your ballot for voting itself, the process is nonpartisan. Now, when you get in there, I'm going to do everything in my power to convince you I'm the person to pick. But the fight for the right to vote is something that should cut across every demographic, every ideology, every community. We are a stronger

nation when we allow people to participate. And if we've ever doubted that the war that Putin is waging against Ukraine, President Zelinsky said it. I'm gonna paraphrase them, and probably poorly. He said, this isn't a war in Ukraine, is a war on democracy in Ukraine. When we allow democracy to be overtaken by those who want to choose who can be heard, and those choices are not based on anything

other than animous or inconvenience, then that is wrong. My mission is to make certain that everyone can cast the ballot, even people who don't like me, especially those folks. They should be able to go and cast their ballots. My job to make sure that more people who like me show up. But that's campaigning, that's not voting rights. Before I let you go, I have to talk to you about the mosque, yes, because I mean I was, I was on social media and then I see the picture

of the mask. Then the picture gets deleted. This is what I found interesting, and maybe you'll correct me wrong. It's like it feels like with politicians. You have a team around you. Everyone's trying to figure out how to solve the crisis or fix a problem. People say ridiculous things like God said it was like I hold my breath when I take the picture I and and it creates this weird um uh. It creates a situation where people feel like leaders on following the rules, or people

you know are punished differently from leaders, etcetera, etcetera. Why did you say, yeah, I messed up, and and that's that and going forward? Do you think you'd be able to maintain that without at the same time letting your enemies use that as your you know, like, don't vote for Stacey Abrams. She messes up my responsibility In that instance, if I created any appearance that I did not take

children's lives, state seriously, that's a mistake. But your job fundamentally is to acknowledge when you make a mistake and try to make it right. We have this this narrative that we have invincible leaders. That's just not true. What we have our humans who want to do a job, and we have to hold them accountable for the job they do. But we have to have grace when they make mistakes and trust that their intentions were right. But you can't trust someone's intentions if they never tell you

what they were saying. I'm sorry. Saying I made a mistake is about being honest about your intention. I intended to do something I did not quite do it. So let me tell you about the gap, and let me tell you how I'm gonna make it better the next time. I need to remember that for the next time I mess up. I have a lot of practice. I wrote a book about it. Yeah, I'm just I'm just gonna pivot. That's what I'm gonna do. All I think of when

I read it, says level Up. It's the first book I can dance to when I just read the type level Up Level Up, Level Up, Stace Abrams, thank you for taking the time, Thank you for joining us on the show. Thank you for having me. Stacy Abrams and Laura Hodgson's book Level Up is available right now. Watch the daily show weeknights at eleven central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.