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Connect with Michael
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-hubicki/
http://www.michaelhubicki.com/
http://www.thrivingmayor.com/
http://www.facebook.com/thrivingmayor

Connect with Russ
https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

Audio digitally transcribed by Descript

Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] Oh, we're going to have a great time today. It's a beautiful day. Wherever you happen to be, even if it's cloudy, the sun shines on the other side of those clouds, so just wait a minute. Michael, how are you doing my friend?

Michael Hubicki: [00:00:24] Amazing Russ. Now that I'm seeing your beautiful smiling face again and that epic beard. Awesome man.

Russ Johns: [00:00:32] We were laughing before the show even started. And I love the fact that we're connected and catching up now because  it's been a minute since we had a conversation and I know that you've been producing the Thriving Mayor and we connected actually through a Dubb mastermind that I did, it was last year, wasn't it?

Michael Hubicki: [00:00:52] Yeah. October, November. Yeah. You kicked it all off for me, Russ. You started the ball rolling.

Russ Johns: [00:00:58] Yeah. You never stopped. did you?

Michael Hubicki: [00:01:00] No. Never.

Russ Johns: [00:01:05] It's amazing to think that the time is flying. I can't believe it. So you're back out on the boat. You're you're hanging out in the, you got a place near the boat and spending the summer, temperatures are warm.

Michael Hubicki: [00:01:18] Yeah, we're up in Bay of Quinte, which is about an hour and a half east of Toronto and a small city called Belleville.

Russ Johns: [00:01:24] Okay.

Michael Hubicki: [00:01:25] And the mayor of Belleville was I think, episode 12 on the thriving mayor show. And I introduced him as my winter on thefact that I did live in Belleville in the winter, but he was my summer mayor. And how he lived in Belleville year round on the boat in the summer. And and here in the condominium, in the winter and great community right on the water, amazing boatingRuss. So when everything settles down post pandemic and you can travel and get away and come and live on a boat for a while.

Russ Johns: [00:01:55] I'll come up there and visit you.

Michael Hubicki: [00:01:57] You got to come and visit us.  I've actually tried to do a couple of live broadcasts from the boat and it's, I just gotta get a much better system. My hotspot is just not doing it.

Russ Johns: [00:02:10] The hotspot ain't so hot. Huh?

Michael Hubicki: [00:02:12] No, I get hot.

Russ Johns: [00:02:14] Yeah. It's funny cause I know how challenging it can be. I actually managed a project years ago to put wifi on the ferry system in Seattle ferry system.

Michael Hubicki: [00:02:25] Oh, wow.

Russ Johns: [00:02:26] Across the water. And it was it was a major project and the state really invested a lot of money on it. And it went well for years. And people on the boat had wireless service until cellular data got so fast that it kinda outpaced it and they took it all out. But it's in the tides and everything that are just out on the side.  You have to make a combinations for that.

Michael Hubicki: [00:02:49] Yeah, we built a  whole mode in the country back in 2002 off grid. And back then there was no... the internet services weren't out there. So at first it was dial up, remember those old modems in line. And so you'd get 14.4 baud or something like that.

Russ Johns: [00:03:07] Yeah. To think that we've lived in, survived through that process to the point where we can actually do live video.

Michael Hubicki: [00:03:19] I remember when back in the nineties, I think, and when we first started doing AutoCAD and Photoshop just came out and trying to do computer rendering designing, and it costs like for one megabyte of ram, it was $400.

Russ Johns: [00:03:38] Yeah. Yeah. It was expensive.

Michael Hubicki: [00:03:40] And to get four mega ram that was a big deal.

Russ Johns: [00:03:44] I remember converting networks over from  IBM system 36 to client server and going through the 3 86 and then a 4 86, all these things. It's crazy. And fast forward here we are doing a live stream. You're in one city and I'm in another and we're having a great time. So catch us up  on what's the focus. I know that the mayor's might be off for summer break or a little bit of break, but I know that you're still doing episodes and shows. All those kinds of shenanigans out there. So share a few updates.

Michael Hubicki: [00:04:22] Yeah, for sure. You remember back in November, you helped me put together my first personal webpage, MichaelHubicki.com and just to get it up there.

Russ Johns: [00:04:30] I did that?

Michael Hubicki: [00:04:30] You did that. Yeah. And it was awesome. Awesome favor Russ and still really appreciate it. But since then have have changed it around quite a bit. And it tells, I think more of the story of like, what's important to me and  my vision for helping people and it's really to help connect the designers, the builders, and the mayors who are creating harmonious and equitable cities, healthy, harmonious, equitable cities and towns. And, it's a passion it's there. There's gotta be a love of nature. There's gotta be some joy, a lot of joy, some like fun connectivity being a champion for each other. So I'm trying to tell that through some of the things that I've done in my life, like meeting you and doing the thriving mayor show, which. Hi, I'm well, you got me going and if you watch my show, you'll see my template is exactly the same as yours and I did your course and I highly recommend anybody that's wants to get into using dub, which is an amazing tool or lives live streaming. On StreamYard or, whatever your platform is. You got to talk to Russ and Russ kick-started me got me going. And and so that that is on my personal side. And working with engineers and architects, mostly who have their own personal private businesses, so private practices and helping them as they evolve into. The next stage of their career or their business growth or transitioning into retirement and selling the business, things like that, which is super exciting. And I've lived in super exciting. I've lived at, and they'd have such amazing stories and legacies. These are our cities, city builds. Yeah, and or designers. And then the builders, I've actually got a brand new client who is a developer and he's building 21st century towns, which are going to be a gain harmonious, healthy equity. Growing food so food security, food production, super important. And then with the mayors I've been developing this kind of suite of services and products for them based on the kind of one-to-one coaching for mayors to, to help them and, really starting off with creating a strong magnetic field. And then moving through I and my PO processes, because I also coach athletics is I take a sports methodology. And I say that mentoring is like the, is the Olympic games politics. And it really is because it's your, it's the hardest, I think it's the hardest election to win. And you're the most public. Worsen because you walked down the street and that your constituents are right there talking to you and say, what about this? What about that? And it it's really challenging and super rewarding though. So we're up to episode 29 on the thriving mayor show. Congratulations. Thank you. And the mayors are amazing and I would have, I was never a conversation. Until I met you.

Russ Johns: [00:07:31] We broke you out of your shell.

Michael Hubicki: [00:07:33] I'm just loving meeting mayors and the stories that that they share the the warmth and the humanness, which we don't see in press conferences at COVID releases and short videos. So it's super fun, really rewarding, very engaging. And we do we talk about  woman leadership, and leadership roles. We talk about the environment. We talk about creating safe and accessible downtowns. How parks are the new medicine? A friend of mine at Hamilton Ontario wrote an article and it was on the cover of municipal world magazine in Canada here and said, parks are our new medicine. Cause during the. It was the best thing for us was to get outside, to get out of the chair to get sunshine. And so many people were trapped in their cocoons and couldn't get out. And some of the other things are geared towards a mayor's masterminds. So it's a it's call where it's just for mayors and I lead them through a curriculum and they work one-on-one together and it's it's really exciting. And I have another program for municipalities to help with their staffing with Probably mostly young staff. So it's really about retention engagement, attraction of the young people that come into municipalities, which is a really rewarding job, a career and then to move into teams. So teams are super critical in municipalities and almost every service or project that a municipality delivers is a team of people from different departments and then a council, the mayor council, senior executive staff, the people that are in the administration doing the projects and consultants, coaches, and contractors, and the most important are the people. How do you bring these teams together and then a leadership coaching as well? So  I'm having a great time and I'm trying to do this and still be on the boat and enjoyed the boat.

Russ Johns: [00:09:24] A little time off. Relax a little bit. Yeah. It's really, when you think about it, Michael, there's probably one of the bigger challenges because you have so much diversity in every city, there's challenges, there's opportunities, there's things that are taking place in to drive something to the same vision where you can get people moving in the same direction together is a huge monumental task. And you actually had mentioned that. We're talking to somebody in Russia about creating a vision and starting that vision and putting that vision together. Because I think that's where it has to start is what's the vision of this town. What's the vision of the city. What is the vision that we want to make sure that we project into the future?

Michael Hubicki: [00:10:13] Yeah. So can I show this book?  So this is a book by Dr. Oleg Canabal off from Moscow and London. The vision code. And I met Olig last year on a world business executive coaching summit presentation that he gave for the2020 summit. I was fascinated with his presentation and it wasn't PowerPoint slides and things that it was just him talking about and the theory of it and why it's important and how difficult and challenging it is to discover it and uncover it and define it. And Oleg says that a true vision, it becomes magnetic, and it was the people in to support you and you support them and together then create the vision and quite often in, and so I did a three-day certification program with Dr. Hall. And in my cohort, there were two Olympians, british track and field star, mountain medalist and Romanian beach volleyball player, two time Olympian. There was a coach from Intel really incredible powerful people who we've connected now. And we talk about our visions, but for me and helping mayor. It's I think mayors are probably one of the key roles in our society to have a strong vision because they have to attract people. So in pre-election you're campaigning, you know what your vision, and quite often we talk platform and platforms. I got to hold down taxes. I get, we're going to have more playgrounds. We're going to improve transit and S and policing and things like that. But that's not a. That's like how we're going to run our city. So the vision could be, we're going to create the city. That's going to be the most attractive to young entrepreneurs in the digital age of whatever. Something like that. It can create this vision for the company. And and I haven't had a client yet to go through the process with, but I'm really looking forward to that first one. And and I've been working on my vision as well. And my vision is to connect the designers, the builders, and the mayors of our the cities and towns that are harmonious and healthy and accessible. And it's taken a long time to get to that point.

Russ Johns: [00:12:35] It's simple, but it's not easy exactly. Because  we have to think about what is the driver, what is the momentum that I can create? And what is the secret sauce that I bring to the table? Because you have to be part of the equation as well. If you're saying, hey, I can build this dream and I could build this mission. And then you're not bought into it. You're not owning it. It's kinda difficult to sell something you don't particularly care for. So exactly. I want to shout out to a few people in the room. We got Tim, so Tim, good morning. I hope you're doing well. Thank you so much for jumping on. Elize, she is a part of the #piratenation and pirate crew. She's an awesome supporter. Thank you so much. Marcia Reece also good morning. Pirate's busy sending swag for a New York conference. She is amazing individual that you should probably know about this. Stay Well copper naturally kills germs and all those things that we are talking about in the news these days. Yeah. And Randy McNeely. Not McHenry, but McNeely and so good morning Russ. He said, he's saying good morning, everyone. Appreciate you. Thank you so much for here. Wendy says, good morning, #piratenation. Making the most of my morning with Michael and the Admiral. Thank you so much, Wendy.Ahoy. The funny thing about creating a vision is that it's not, it doesn't always end up how you imagine it when you first start it. Cause when you start peeling things back and you really start to discover, okay, what is it that you... just like the #PirateBroadcast. The #PirateBroadcast started out as an idea that was to bring people together to shine the light on somebody that may not necessarily want to do it themselves. They deserve to be highlighted. Cause I believe everybody has a message. Everybody has a gift. Everybody has something that they offer that they can share with the world. And so it's also evolved with the #PirateSyndicate to be able to help people. Much, like we work together to get your show going. And whereas right here, it's this guy right here. And and it's really about how you can motivate change and take action on that change because having a dream is one piece of the equation, but taking action and making it real is the other part of the question. And I think it's so important, especially for mayors and people that are helping and supporting communities to get involved, engaged, and understand what it takes to get there. So what are some of the big challenges that you've seen mayors overcome and how have they focused on change.

Michael Hubicki: [00:15:28] Before we get to that, russ, I just wanted to shout out to Marcia about copper. And back when I  built that off grade home in 2002 and one of the first landscape projects and being landscape architect. Obviously I was super interested in that part of the project as well, but I built, I designed and built an eco pool for swimming and I brought in a copper, silver ionizer from a guy out in California and then the water would circulate through like the sport techs filter and to take out the particulate. And then it went through this copper, silver ionizer, which put the copper ions into the pool water, which would then kill the bacteria and algae. And so in theory, if I had a big enough system for my water like my lighter wasn't black and super pre preheat, the water with passive solar, I would never have had to use any chlorate and as I put a little bit in about once a week, but it was really amazing how efficient that copper was and the Romans used to use the copper goblets for their drinks. So back to the question.

Russ Johns: [00:16:36] And I want to expand on that because also copper and silver are the only two metals that can kill bacteria and germs. And silver only works in water. Copper works anywhere. Yeah, Marcia says smart man. Copper is very powerful and does kill99.97% of the germs that is truly amazing and works forever. Yeah. And you can see on the back of my phone,  #PirateSyndicate. So I've got my copper. I use it every day.

Michael Hubicki: [00:17:09] Is that part of the swag you're selling or did you get that special made for you?

Russ Johns: [00:17:13] Marcia sent that special for me. 

Michael Hubicki: [00:17:15] Oh, nice. Mine's got a Czechoslovakian beer credit card holder.

Russ Johns: [00:17:24] We'll have to get you fixed up.

Michael Hubicki: [00:17:25] Did you hear that Marcia?

Russ Johns: [00:17:29] I love it. I love it. But we have an opportunity to get on, she was kicked off Amazon because everybody that had anything to do with  germs and news media would boot her off and she's got back on, she's got all the credentials and all the certifications and all the paperwork that the government agencies, those  three letter agencies said, she's good. And so she he's back on. So we're going to do an Amazon live show and highlight her product and service. And we're waiting for our other friend Howard who does the ORL\ if you can see that?

Michael Hubicki: [00:18:06] Oh yeah.

Russ Johns: [00:18:07] It's a great product that I like to promote.

Michael Hubicki: [00:18:09] What does it do?

Russ Johns: [00:18:10] It's a mouth care product that is pH balanced and also they have a line that is CBD infused, so really healthy and  it's chemical free. If you look on the back of your toothpaste and when you see poison control on the back of your tooth paste, you know that there's some things in here that may not necessarily want to put in your mouth. Just saying. But because you have done sustainable design and off grid and all of these things, you understand and appreciate some of the things that we're talking about it.

Michael Hubicki: [00:18:44] That's a big part of the show too. And the thriving mayor show and my position Russ is not political, but it's responsible. So it's about, it's a lot about stewardship, so care for myself or ourselves, care for our community, care for our planet and the mayors and the guests on the show. We really talk a lot about that. Without becoming political or not politicizing it. So some of the challenges that you asked me about especially during COVID, the mayors were super isolated, so they're used to being people, persons, and talking face to face with people every day. That's why they become a mayor because they love people. They love serving. They love making a positive difference in their country. And the isolation was really challenging. They felt alone. They sometimes didn't have that sounding board to test their ideas against the mayors or visionaries there, they might not have the big, overarching vision, but they have visions for the things they want to see happen in their community. And they test, they like to test them. They didn't have that sounding board. So what I was finding was, especially before the call, before we did our interview,  we always had a really interesting exchange about the personal things that the mayors were doing. And then we do the call, which a bit more scripted. And sometimes I wish that I'd start the live stream a bit earlier cause some of that content is really interesting too.

Russ Johns: [00:20:18] The before and after content is sometimes more interesting than ever.

Michael Hubicki: [00:20:22] And then dealing with sometimes the senior administration. So the mayor has this vision and the senior administrator  may have been there for a long time.  City managers, CAO. They may have been there for 10, 15 years. They know how it's done. They know what the city needs or the town needs and the mayors elected sometimes to do change, to be a change agent. So sometimes there's  a bit of a butting of the heads. And then I find it really rewarding to be able to help that interchange.

Russ Johns: [00:20:52] The city manager is typically a hired position. Isn't it?

Michael Hubicki: [00:20:56] Totally. Yeah.

Russ Johns: [00:20:57] It's not an elected position.

Michael Hubicki: [00:21:01] And in Canadaour municipal government are non-partisan. So they're not affiliated with any political party. So  you're not a Republican or Democrat or up here it's conservative, liberal NDP, green party. You're elected on your own laurels. You're on there. And  so they have their own campaign platforms and fundraising teams and things like that. And that's another challenge. And so I see helping mayors I haven't talked to anybody who wants to become a mayor yet but helping them get elected. But that I think would be another really fun challenge to work with someone who wants to become a mayor to help them prepare their vision and kind of their minds. The growth mindset to take on that challenge because it's huge.

Russ Johns: [00:21:42] So like training camp.

Michael Hubicki: [00:21:44] Yeah. Yeah. And some of the mayors I talked to the one woman she's a retired mayor. She was three term mayor of London. Anna Maria de Chico Bassett is her name. And she's a university professor now in a women's leadership program. And she's telling her students like you, we want women leading. Yeah, but make sure that what role you're getting into and that it matches your strengths and your personality and what you want to achieve in your career. So me a mayor is not for everybody. It's suretop dog. Yeah, you have to have extremely tough skin, especially now.

Russ Johns: [00:22:22] There's a lot of things coming at ya. A lot of things coming at you and it's almost a PR position in a lot of respects because you have to balance all the different agendas that everybody is coming to you for, and there are some, sometimes they're completely opposite.

Michael Hubicki: [00:22:37] Absolutely.

Russ Johns: [00:22:38] And building a city and developing a city for everyone is a tough call. I love cities that I remember when I was up in Canada as a musician and going to these small cities,  the most entertaining and most enjoyable cities were walking cities where I could just walk someplace, walk down the street and you have a cafe. You have stores, you have people out there, and it's just all you have to do is just wander around and I love cities like that, that have those areas that you could just walk and Phoenix is not that kind of a city, especially where I'm living.

Michael Hubicki: [00:23:16] The last time I went to Phoenix, Russ, I did a a conference there and it was at the Hilton, I think. Is there a big Hilton downtown?  I believe it was a convention center. And and so I could have stayed there. But I said, no, I want to meet the locals. So I found an Airbnb. Guy had three shipping containers in his backyard and a bicycle repair shop outdoor in his backyard. And I rented one of the shipping containers. I walked from there to the conference and I'd stop at all. Like the little different coffee shop every day. And it was not, it was pretty homogenous. Yeah. But it was still I tried to make the most of it. Yeah. I just interviewed a woman in Tel Aviv.  And she is a really interesting person, who's an architect and an urban designer, but she loves the concept of home and her saying her motto is there's no place like home. But there's no home without place. And she's what? What's special about home. And then how do you take that out into the community, into your city and town in your block, your street, your neighbors. Yeah. And it's it's so exciting. And and this, these are the kinds of people I like having on the show. And then when the mayors are watching it, or other people are watching it and they can say and that has got this really cool approach. And and then they can talk to her about it too.

Russ Johns: [00:24:38] Yeah. The beauty  of your show too, is the fact that you can actually connect mayors together and do introductions. So they don't feel alone because a lot of them I'm sure have to feel like they're isolated on their own island and nobody else has their problems. 

Michael Hubicki: [00:24:53] They are unique.

Russ Johns: [00:24:54] Yeah. I really appreciate the fact that we had this conversation, Michael, and thank you.

Michael Hubicki: [00:24:58] We're just getting started Russ.

Russ Johns: [00:25:00] I know, but we have our agendas here yeah.

Michael Hubicki: [00:25:03] Awesome.

Russ Johns: [00:25:03] I really appreciate you and I appreciate what you're doing and thank you so much for sharing all of the adventures that you've gone through in the last year, and I applaud your efforts and I'd love to have you back any time. We talked a little bit I'm coming up here on 500 episodes.

Michael Hubicki: [00:25:19] Congratulations. That's amazing. And I just want to shout out to that anybody interested in doing  live streaming using Dubb as a marketing outreach tool. It's amazing. Russ introduced me to it and  the mayor's love it.  So personalized and so unique. And it's tough to do on your own and to have a coach like Russ walk you through it is amazing.

Russ Johns: [00:25:39] Thank you so much for the endorsement, Michael. I really appreciate everyone here. As always, I thank you so much for paying attention, listening to the guests and everybody in the pirate community can make those connections, reach out. How do you like to be connected? How do you like people to connect with you, Michael?

Michael Hubicki: [00:25:59] Oh so on LinkedIn. Michael Hubicki is great. They can go to MichaelHubicki.com or thrivingmayor.com.

Russ Johns: [00:26:10] Perfect. Thank you. As always, we know that #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree, so you #enjoytheday. Take care.

Michael Hubicki: [00:26:21] Bye bye Russ. Bye bye everybody.

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