Innovating in the Halls of Power – Caleb Smith (Office of the Speaker)

Caleb Smith:

The creative process, there's inherent risk. And in politics, or at least within government, we are incredibly risk averse creatures. Ultimately, politics is a people business. So if you build trust first, then you can build lots of other cool stuff later.

Eric Wilson:

I'm Eric Wilson, managing Partner of Startup Caucus, the home of campaign tech Innovation on the right. Welcome to the Business of Politics Show. On this podcast, you are joining in on a conversation with entrepreneurs, operatives, and experts who make professional politics happen. Caleb Smith, the director of Digital Communications for House speaker, Kevin McCarthy joins us today to give us a behind the scenes look at his work in Congress over the last decade. That's right, a decade where he has worked for three Republican speakers, John Bayner, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy. We learn about his tips for creating compelling content, how he sells innovative ideas to elected officials and sub unique insights from Capitol Hill. Caleb, we hear from a lot of people in campaign world on this show who are doing digital for candidates, pacs and other organizations. So working in Congress will be new to a lot of our listeners. What are some of the aspects of working on Capitol Hill that are different from, say, campaign world?

Caleb Smith:

Well, Eric, I get to sleep in a bed every night, not a sleeping bag, and I don't have to eat donuts and pizza for every meal, although there are some of my meals. But the pace is pretty similar. I came from campaign world. I had campaigns for a number of years, and in fact, really when the digital space was just finding its roots in 2008 you know, kind of the Obama era that you, you might think of as that first truly digital campaign where I started to seep into every part of the culture, that's when I got my start. And so that's where I got my love of digital, just seeing what was available and the tools that were limited back then. But, you know, you sort of paved the way for what we have today. So the pace, at least in leadership in Congress, is similar to a campaign. The consequential decisions that we make are maybe a little more grand, and the operation might be bigger than megaphone. The, the news coverage might be bigger than your average campaign on a daily basis. But you know, that, that sense of teamwork, that sense of winning and losing the stuff that you might, if you're a campaign operative, really get a high out of or a low out of, that's all still here too.

Eric Wilson:

Yeah, and I think one of the things that's really important for folks to understand is there is a bright line between what is permissible to say in the context of a political campaign versus what is acceptable to do or not say, but, but what you can do around being an elected official on Capitol Hill, you're in a taxpayer funded office. So I think that would be one of the biggest differences for, for folks as well.

Caleb Smith:

Yeah, that's absolutely right. That usually manifests itself as our call to action. So if you're a political campaign, your call to action is to get someone to take a vote or to donate a, you know, a dollar or to call in to do something. And our call to action are more like, you know, like my Facebook page, so you can show that you support hr, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that the, that's a little bit less it's a little bit more amorphous perhaps, but nonetheless, a lot of our stuff is maybe educational or inspirational or entertainment in focus and less action based. Yeah.

Eric Wilson:

So you've worked for the last three Republican House speakers so that's over a decade on the hill. How has the tech changed how you do your job over that time? And I'll just share a story. So whenever I first started working on the Hill, which is 2007 I got in trouble with house admin for using Skype because it was unsecure. It wasn't approved as a, as a vendor. So just to think about how far you've come over that time is, is pretty funny.

Caleb Smith:

That is so scandalous of you to be using a mainstream product like Skype.

Eric Wilson:

I mean, they, they came through the door like I was a, a criminal,

Caleb Smith:

You know, it's not actually that. I had a pretty similar experience going into the Covid era where we were trying to figure out how to do a press conference that was both in person and digital. So that,

Eric Wilson:

Hold on now,

Caleb Smith:

<Laugh>. Yeah, I know, right? So that reporters, if they didn't feel safe or couldn't make it in, they could still participate. So we basically had three audiences. We had reporters in the room in the physical press room. We had reporters at home asking questions, so participants, and then yet we were also live streaming it. So there's a third sort of non-participatory, but viewing audience and you know, rewind to March of 2020 and the, you know, zoom existed, but barely. And the tools to do this required like literally three computers and about 10 different H M I cables. And at that time, speaker Nancy Pelosi's office tried to shut us down because we were using a program that was not technically sanctioned by the house, right? But the real, the reality was that they, they just wanted to be the first.

And so, you know, I, I love that kind of hack hackathon type stuff. I'm not really naturally a technical person but I, I'm forced to just be able to problem solve and things like this. But to, to your greater question about how the technology has changed, certainly Covid as we adopted a lot of new technical changes, some of which have stuck around, but all the other things have changed. I mean, we've seen media, social media platforms come and go, audio visual gear, like cameras or live streaming equipment. It's all gotten smaller, more user-friendly, more affordable. And the demand for all the content that those things produce has certainly increased. I mean, I do far more live streaming than I've ever done before on a daily and weekly basis. But yet the competition for eyeballs is greater, right? Because if those, if those tools are all cheaper and easier to use, that means more people have access to them, which is a good thing.

But it also means that the viewer, the audience you know, you have to fight for every single second that they, to keep them interested and tuned in to whatever it is you're trying to get their attention for. I have offices who come to me and say, okay, should I focus more on video? Should I focus more on photo? Should I do more, you know, text only updates? And I'm a sort of an all of the above type of person. So I think you gotta do a little bit of everything. But I, I would say that there, there's many times where I'm like, okay, my dad and my analytics for my audience shows mm-hmm. <Affirmative> that, you know, maybe a, a one minute sort of highlight reel where I take seven hours of footage and turn it into one minute worth of highlights, like, is not really the best use of my time as a communicator. So while I love creating beautiful cinema, cinemagraphic, cinematography type stuff I also have to be realistic about what my limitations are from a bandwidth perspective.

Eric Wilson:

Yeah. And, and that's really interesting to hear you say that because I think of, of, of congress, I mean, they're, and, and leadership might be a little bit different. So you, there're probably a hundred reporters that follow your boss around Capitol Hill Yeah. These

Caleb Smith:

Days.

Eric Wilson:

That's definitely, yeah. You know, and, and so the, the idea that you, you may need to, to live stream some of this stuff, you know, talk to us about what, what that, what that entails, not just for, for your office, but maybe some of the other member offices. Why, why do they need to do that when there's so much media already on Capitol Hill?

Caleb Smith:

Yeah, so we, I I, why do we live stream? So we <laugh> we live stream because everything our boss says is news. And it's the fastest way to get that content to the, to not just the public, but also literally to our own office <laugh>. So if we weren't, if we weren't live streaming, then we would have a recording of it. We'd have to physically run it back to our office or, you know, basically upload it somewhere on the spot. And there's just a lag time. So things move so much faster than they even did 10 years ago. And certainly even five years ago, I would say, in terms of the pace and speed of news and the news cycle I mean, that's cliche to say that for sure at this point, but yeah, I, we feel it every day. There's just this huge sense of urgency.

And some of that, to be honest with you, for me might be ref, might be just a reflection of the person that I work for mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. and, you know, the, there are technology changes as we began this conversation talking about, but some of the changes for me are just personality based. I mean, John Vayner is a different person than Paul Ryan, who is a different person from Kevin McCarthy. And so the way that I cover them from a digital perspective or from a communications perspective is different. You know, they have dif they have different strengths that they bring to the table. Different weaknesses and different preferences as well. So, you know, live streaming, that really

Eric Wilson:

Speaks to like finding the voice for Absolutely. For your digital media and making sure,

Caleb Smith:

Yeah, you can do a cookie cutter approach and just say, oh, well this worked for the last candidate that I worked for, and so it's gonna work for them. It, it may not, it may not, because, you know, you're whatever candidate or or principle that you're working for they just may have a different level of comfort with a video camera or a big gaggle of press or, you know, a prerecorded video, whatever it is. You know, you gotta find the thing that makes the most sense for your operation.

Eric Wilson:

One of the things that, that you do such a good job of, Caleb and I I know this is also the support from, from your, the members that you work for, is, is bringing the American people behind the scenes of what's going on in Congress. So, you know, for that joint session of Congress where the president of South Korea spoke, you had a 360 degree camera to capture that. I know you've done some really cool things around State of the Union and Statuary Hall, that kind of stuff. So why is that? So Im important to you and, and your team.

Caleb Smith:

Oh, I love this stuff. So it's important for a couple of reasons. One, I'm just a total nerd and I love behind the scenes stuff. And that that's not just sort of relegated at the political space. I don't know if you grew up in the home improvement era where they would play like you know, the outtakes at the end of the episode. I just love that. And I'm a big DIY video guy, so I love seeing how things are made behind the scenes. So I, I think that applying those standards, which are entertainment to our government is even more important. Cause it's, you know, I'm a, I'm a very much a conservative individual in my politics. And so I, the more that we can bring government closer to the people, both for the people's sake and for the government's sake it's a valuable gain for all and instilling trust in the institution which we certainly lost in, in more in recent years.

And for just pulling back that curtain and sort of removing the shroud of mystery that that is dc. So that's, that's the first reason, but really far more important than in, than even my personal feelings, is Speaker McCarthy is committed to reopening the capitol. Yeah. That means to tours, visitors, tearing down the fencing, all of it. But it's really for him not enough to make it the same as it was pre Covid. He doesn't want travel and access to DC to determine whether or not you as an American get to understand what happens in your government and to, to be able to appreciate the, our Republic is the greatest on the planet. So on the digital side, we're constantly looking to push the boundaries of what's been done before and to open up this place in a way that's unique, that's fresh. He's, he is, he's from California, so he's a sort of a tech head.

He's, he's not, yeah, he's from the Silicon Valley area, but he's just drawn to new technology. So literally I had, you know, I had a conversation with him last week where we were talking about the VR stuff that we had done for the joint session, which was not easy to do. Literally, Eric, that was more than a year maybe two years in the, in planning. Wow. Cause there are security protocols that you have to make sure everybody's, you know, cool with. And there's just a lot of meetings that take place. So it's easy to think, oh, I'll just show up with a camera and plop it down and then throw it up on the internet. But there are a, a lot of sort of behind the scenes things that wouldn't make for good tv but still have to, <laugh> still have to take place to bring that kind of really new, fresh content. And we're gonna have a lot more of that. He, the speaker loves that stuff, and I'm excited to roll out more and more iterations, not

Eric Wilson:

Just, yeah. I, I don't, I don't think people fully appreciate how much patience your job takes or, or the patience of working on Capitol Hill when you're, you're sort of restricted in the, the technology that you can use and, and with good reason, right? I mean, cuz there are security implications. Yes. you know, both physical and digital. So it does take a, a, a high degree of, of patience on, on bringing things in. I know it took a few years to get iPhones onto Capitol Hill, for example. One of the hardest parts besides the patience of digital media is selling the concept and getting buy-in. I wanna hear your tips for how you get members of Congress and their staff who are mm-hmm. <Affirmative> risk averse, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> how do you get them to try new things? Like what are, what are the, the arguments that you make or the, the tactics you employ?

Caleb Smith:

So this environment is so fascinating. The House of Representatives is like, you know, 435 separate small businesses, right? So each office runs a little bit different. There's not a, there's not a model that every single office follows. And each member of Congress measures success differently. So for some, they may come from a business background and they are all about data and analytics. Show me the numbers. If something works, then let's keep repeating it. And that's, that would make, that would be really easy, right? So if, if I try something on Twitter or Facebook or you know, something, I can show you this many people tuned in or this many, this is how the engagement rate, this is how people reacted and that, I love it. That's, that's a great way to do it. But unfortunately, not everyone thinks that way. And they, they may just be more persuaded because their friend texted them that they thought whatever they just did was cool.

Which was the case actually for John Vayner. He, I I was probably a good six months of working for John Vayner before I was able to really stick a camera in his face <laugh> and just click record without him wincing at me. But we did a, we did like a video of him mowing his grass, which sounds right. It, it was ridiculous then, but it would be really ridiculous now. But, and he, it was like 15 seconds and I get, Eric, I can't even describe to you that thing got picked up by like the Tonight Show. So, you know, what was a 15 second video then got viewed by 5 million people one night. And he thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread cuz all of his friends and family were texting, telling, telling him they saw on The Tonight Show. And that ga that little victory gave me buy, buy-in for many more to come down the road. And what then ended up happening is he's coming to me with ideas, Hey, we should do a video about X, Y, and Z. And now well,

Eric Wilson:

Well, I I will say I still use the Bayner Brine recipe and watch that video after.

Caleb Smith:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. We, we, we recorded that brine recipe where he talks about his Turkey recipe on the same day that there was like an executive order from Obama for immigration or something. And, you know, so I, I had literally recorded him talking about Obama, and he was as boring as can be, but his eyes just lit up when he started talking about his Brian recipe <laugh>. So you gotta find the thing that, that sparks an interest in your principle. Here's the thing. To sum it up, the creative process, there's inherent risk. And in politics, or at least within government, we're incredibly risk averse creatures. So it does take time to get over that hump, or you're willing to try new things, or your boss is willing to try new things. It's baby steps, it takes failure. I'm, I'm, I have a photography background, so for every thousand photos that I take, there's probably only like one that's actually any good and worth publishing, but that's just part of it. Ultimately, politics is a people business. So if you build trust first, then you can build lots of other cool stuff later.

Eric Wilson:

Yeah, I think that's exactly right. You've gotta bring your audience along with you and be able to explain it. I think that's one of the, the parts that a lot of people miss is they know that we need to be doing digital and trying new things mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, but they aren't able to fully explain it to, to someone who might not be a digital native, like a member of

Caleb Smith:

Congress. That's right. And, and you know, what else is p we, we sometimes let the sort of the perfect be the enemy of the good mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And by that I mean that we think, oh, oh, if I can't make this video or this, you know, I don't know this message or whatever at this design, perfect, then I'm just not gonna do it at all. And that's garbage. What you just gotta have to ship product. We're much closer. The creative people really should be much more like plumbers than artisans. We just gotta show up to work and fix stuff that's broken and then do it all over again the next day. We can't really wait for inspiration or an apple to hit us on the head while we're sitting under a tree. You just have to create, create, create, create, create. And what I tell people all the time who are just entering this world of creativity, especially in the political space, is if you're looking back six months from now and you hate the thing that you made, that means that you're better today than you used to be. And that's a good thing. I mean, I've made, I don't know how many thousands of videos in my life and there's only like seven that I can stand watching Tuesday <laugh>. So that's, I consider it a positive. That means you're getting better.

Eric Wilson:

You're listening to the Business of Politics Show. I'm speaking with Caleb Smith, director of Digital Communications for Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, you mentioned creating and, and building up practice and getting better over time on the more technical side of things. It's, it's a lot of hard work of balancing that quality, consistency and volume. You mentioned just the, the hunger, the appetite from these social media platforms for content. Nowadays, when you've got a limited staff budget and time, like most people do on Capitol Hill, what tips do you have? A and, and by the way, I think this, this applies to, to campaigns and, and nonprofits as well. What tips can you share for how you create compelling digital content within those constraints?

Caleb Smith:

Yeah, so I'm a baseball fan and the best advice I can give anybody who's a content creator is to hit for singles mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And that means that you go out every single day and you create content and you are eventually gonna hit a double, and maybe one day you'll hit a home run and that would be really great and it's gonna go viral and you'll be the most popular thing since sliced bread <laugh>. But the more likely scenario is that you just, it's a slog and you're churning out content day in and day out. And in doing that, you're building brand, you're building trust, you are building an audience that knows that they can rely on you for regular updates, which is a big part, frankly, of bu of establishing relationship online in terms of routine and repertoire. That that's the most important thing.

And you don't have to have a public facing content calendar where every Tuesday you talk about tacos, and every Monday you talk about, I don't know, whatever the business of the state. You don't, it doesn't, but you might have it in internally just as a personal checkoff point. Like, okay, like I haven't really posted like a personal photo in a while and everything ends up being a stupid press release. Maybe we should mix it up. So you may have some internal goals, like we need to tweet twice a day or three times, whatever it is for you, whatever that pays. So that's, that helps build muscles and that helps build routine, which is very important. I'm a big organizational fan, big routine oriented person. That being said, when you build routine in the digital side, that gives you the freedom to break the routine on those days when news is really happening and you really have to act fast.

On the creative side, I just encourage people to mimic the things that they like. So maybe you're consuming a lot of, I don't know, American Idol Television. And so maybe there's like something that they do on American Idol that you think you could, you could mimic in one of your own videos. Or maybe you're on the metro and you see an ad for Pepsi and you like the font that they used. Right. And so you can incorporate that in your next thing. So I, I really, I really encourage people to look outside of their industry. So if you, if you are a politics nerd like me, you really don't need to only be looking at politics for the kind of content. Cuz most, most likely, we're not doing very good job of it. We're, we're probably a la a lagging indicator <laugh>.

Eric Wilson:

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's great. Always looking for opportunities to remix and build context or connections across industries or, or disciplines. Is there a new platform or piece of equipment or technique that you're, you're hoping to try out soon that we should be on the lookout for?

Caleb Smith:

Well, we're definitely gonna have more virtual reality content in the pipeline. Those things. Do

Eric Wilson:

We, we are, by the way, we we're recording this while the Apple Worldwide Development Conference is going on, and they've just released lots of new <laugh> virtual reality that's right. Gear. So yeah, that right, it may is coming

Caleb Smith:

Not, it may not feel mainstream yet, but it will be an increasing part of our media consumption. There's no question about that. No,

Eric Wilson:

Sorry, sorry. Let me just push on that a little bit with virtual reality. Explain that, what that means to our, we're not plugging into the matrix, but what does that mean for, for people?

Caleb Smith:

Yeah. So for it can, well it can mean a lot of things. It does. I'm, for me, I'm not necessarily talking about putting on a headset, although that's certainly an option for depending on your, the site that you're publishing on. But what I want to do is make it clear that when you're watching something that happens in the United States Capitol, that you're, you're not only seeing one perspective. So you know, video, as we know it is two dimensional, basically. It's on one, it's on a screen, and you're looking only in the direction that the camera's pointing. But when you mix in 360 video, then you, you, as the audience member can choose what to focus on. Just like you're sitting in a room and there may be a speaker at the head of the room, but you, you get distracted because somebody else has fallen asleep, or there's a fly buzzing around, or you wanted to check out that piece of art on the wall behind you.

You can do that in virtual rowdy, you can, you get to choose your own adventure. And I just think that's, it's, it's a total game changer. And I don't know that I'm not trying to distract people from what's happening in the front of the room. That's not it at all. But it's just immersive experience make it clear that there's, there's nothing being hidden. I'm not saying that everything always will be virtual reality going forward, that's, that's far from the case, but it's just a, it's not just fun. But it is fine. That's, that's right.

Eric Wilson:

That for me, it is fine. But you raise a really good point here, which is, you know, we've had a lot of conversations on this show and at panels, and I'm sure it happens on Capitol Hill as well, where people are worried about artificial intelligence and deep fakes mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, and, you know, there's, I'm sure there's going to be a video of the speaker saying something he didn't say and we're gonna have to, you know, confront that over the next couple of years. But the way you do that is by leapfrogging the technology with, I mean, I, I know how much it takes to do a 360 VR video that, that, that leapfrogs what AI is able to generate fake videos for. So that might be the way forward. That's

Caleb Smith:

Incredible. Yeah, absolutely. That's a really interesting point. I, I ai is probably, you asked sort of what new platform or technique or, or tech that is, is interesting to me. A AI is definitely included in that. I'm, I tend to be an optimist on most things, and that's no exception for ai. You hear a lot of doomsday scenarios or things like that, and I think it's smart that people are thinking through in a thoughtful way what the ramifications and moral complications are surrounding ai. But for a creative who we all thought our jobs were untouchable from the machines I, you know, and now maybe some people are a little scared they're gonna take over our jobs. I I see it as really the exact opposite of that. I think it's gonna way be a way to make us far more efficient, create content that is not only more compelling, but do it in a much faster way.

So I, I don't know that we've identified the, you know, it's, it's changing. The scene is changing very quickly on and six months. You and I may talk again and it may look totally different, but at the, at the staff level, I'm encouraging my staff to look for ways to incorporate and test out AI to improve their current work capacity on a, on a weekly basis. Let me give you an example of that. We now, you know, we recognize that when, when video has captions embedded into it and is optimized for whatever platform you're, you're consuming on, maybe it's vertical video for Instagram reels or square video for most other social programs platforms, or maybe it's 16 by nine ratio for YouTube, whatever platform it is, if it's optimized, you're gonna have better engagement rates. People are gonna watch the video longer, and they're more likely to remember what they saw.

So it takes time if you're gonna manually clip crop and add captions to all of those things yourself, one way to expedite that process is to have AI take first crack at transcription and literally baking the, the captions right into that. So we're doing that now on a daily basis here in the speaker's office which I don't think I've actually ever talked to anybody out about before <laugh>, but re breaking news. Yeah, that's it. That's right. We're doing that now. And we're testing to make sure that we can be more efficient and still accurate, obviously with that. But we're seeing really positive improvements. That's a really small way that AI is making a difference in our workload right now, but I think the, the future is very, very bright for that. Yeah.

Eric Wilson:

But there are a lot of people wanna

Caleb Smith:

Moral implications, and you do. We are, we're gonna have to come up with some guidelines about, you know, if a blog post or a statement or a tweet were, were to be drafted by AI things, which we do not do today.

Eric Wilson:

Yeah. Well, a lot of people wanna focus on the, the sort of terminator aspect of, of ai, but the, the fact of the matter is, is it's, you know, I've said before, it's a, it's a really good intern, you know, and as someone who got his political start on Capitol Hill as an intern, Chad, g p t has me beat, but I'd like to see them get coffee.

Caleb Smith:

I also started as an intern getting coffee. So that's we'll always have that, right?

Eric Wilson:

You always need your intern. But, but using it as, as a force multiplier added capacity, I think is, is the, the, the right way. And, and I, you know, we know that house admin has started buying chat G P T licenses for offices. That's right. So I think I, I'm, I mean, that's amazing that they, they didn't have to go through a 12 month requisition process to do all of that. So glad to see people are using it. I want to shift gears for a minute, cuz you know, I'm, I'm a house guy. That's where I got my start. It's one of the tensions in my family since my wife was a Senate staffer.

Caleb Smith:

How does that work? I don't understand,

Eric Wilson:

Kevin. Yeah, we just, we just try not to talk about politics. What, what's your favorite piece of obscure trivia about the house? You've been there so long.

Caleb Smith:

Oh, obscure trivia. Well, almost every piece of trivia about the house is obscure because when you walk around and you hear tour guides giving tours, it's almost always in relation to something that a president did somewhere. And in my mind, I'm like, this is not the, this is not where the president lives. It doesn't matter what they did and where they did it, because this is where the house is

Eric Wilson:

Spoken like a true member of the, the legislative branch.

Caleb Smith:

No question about it. No question. I'm sitting in a room called the Board of Education right now as I talk to you, <laugh>. And the Board of Education is a room that sits about 10 people. It's just a little small conference room. Now it's used mostly for maybe the speaker's dinners at night or something with members. But it was also the room where Harry Truman learned he was to be president. So they, it's literally, I'm sitting more or less right where he sat when they came in the room. Wow. And said, you know, Mr. President, he said, you mean Mr. Vice President? And they said, no, sir, Mr. President, you need to, you need to co run across. He literally sprints it across the other side of the capitol to be sworn in at the, on the passing of fdr.

So, I mean, there's every room you step in, there's something like what I just said, there's some incredible piece of history and, and story. And to be able to not just have a front row seat but to share it with others and, and open that world up through my job. And, you know, it's great. It's great through my kids. I, I get to, you know, they've, they've all come and they've met with various speakers as I've met, as I've worked with them over the years. And, you know, three speakers. I think that's the record. Nobody keeps that, nobody keeps track of those things. I tried to get a job with Pelosi, they wouldn't have me. I don't know

Eric Wilson:

Why her loss. Yeah. Yeah. One of my, my favorite pieces of tri, and it always comes up around state of the Union, right? Is that the ink stand, so it's the silver piece of mm-hmm. <Affirmative> of, of inkwells that sit on the speaker's rostrum. And I, I first noticed these one, I had a boss who loved doing the one hour special orders late at night, shutting the house down. So I was with him one night or, or watching, and they came in, you know, they gaveled the house closed, they took the, the mace out, and then someone came in with a bag and got the ink stand. And, and that's what, what turned me onto it. But it's the oldest piece of property for the House of Representatives. It's, it's gone all the way back to, to the very first Congress. So it's moved in and out every single night. See,

Caleb Smith:

Now this is, this is what I love about trivia for the house, what you just told me, I have never heard before, so I

Eric Wilson:

Know. Well, I wanna see a video on it now.

Caleb Smith:

Well, you know what, that's exactly how these things get started is somebody plants an idea and then six months later I've ideated on it and we've got something out in the world. So you

Eric Wilson:

Just wait for it. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's really cool and, and it's someone's job and, and sits right behind the president when he gives State of the Union. All right. So aside from the, the cool stuff, I want to talk about the cool things you've, you've done or seen. So in all that time, what's been your most memorable moment that you've gotten to be in the room for?

Caleb Smith:

Well, I proposed to my wife on the balcony of the Capitol. So that's, you know, this is the

Eric Wilson:

Correct answer. Yeah.

Caleb Smith:

Yeah. Thank you very much. <Laugh>.

Eric Wilson:

<Laugh>.

Caleb Smith:

Next question. So

Eric Wilson:

You proposed to your wife on the speaker's balcony?

Caleb Smith:

I did. I, which these days, because there's construction going on, it's more like a speaker's deck, like when you need like a barbecue, it's like a truck stack out there.

Eric Wilson:

That's of course you wanna make and a place that you wanna make sure you know what the answer's going to be.

Caleb Smith:

That's right, <laugh>. Yeah. Well, I, you know, in true content creator fashion, I had, I was pre-marked, I think I had three cameramen there that day. It wasn't virtual reality, but it might as well have been given the number of lenses that were capturing every moment.

Eric Wilson:

Oh, that's hilarious. And, and now your, your kids have gotten to go back there.

Caleb Smith:

Yeah. Oh yeah. It's, it's a real treat. My daughter knows that she's five years old and her name is Liberty, and she knows that Daddy works in the Capitol and that daddy works with Kevin and Kevin and Daddy fight Joe and Nancy together, <laugh>. And as far as she's concerned, Joe and Nancy's took all of the Paw Patrol gummy snacks, and we have to get them back. That's kind of the Oh,

Eric Wilson:

Okay. The, the stakes couldn't be higher. Well, my, my thanks to Caleb Smith for a great conversation. I, I'll link to the, the speaker's website where you can keep up to date on all of his work and the great content that he's putting out. If this episode made you a little bit smarter or gave you something to think about, or maybe you learned something new, you know, all we ask is that you share it with a friend or colleague and you look smarter in the process too. So it's a win-win for everybody. Remember to subscribe to the Business of Politics, show wherever you get your podcasts, so that way you'll never miss an episode. You can also get email updates on our website at business of politics podcast.com and check out past episodes if this is your first time. With that, I'll say thanks for listening. See you next time.

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