00:00So, listen, you know, for me, growing up in northern Minnesota, life was hard.
00:07You know, my dad wasn't always around for some reasons when I was younger, and my mom did the best
00:11she could.
00:12And when he was, he did the best he could, but, you know, I was a welfare kid.
00:15Powdered milk was something I never thought I would see, but I did as a kid.
00:20It was Salvation Army Christmases at times.
00:24We needed Medicaid, Medicare, food assistance, fuel assistance.
00:28You know, obviously, being in northern Minnesota, not being able to heat your home is a problem.
00:32It's extremely cold.
00:34Let me tell you, huddling under blankets with your family is not always fun.
00:39But, you know, life was tough.
00:40I faced a lot of adversity.
00:42But, you know, over time, I did find myself in New York when I was younger.
00:48Again, facing some adversity.
00:50I didn't have support of my family.
00:52I was chasing a dream of acting, and obviously, modeling these opportunities came my way.
00:57Prior to that, I was going to school.
00:59I wanted to be a doctor and paying my way through school.
01:03But, you know, being from a town of 3,000 people in New York City was obviously pretty scary.
01:07We never had money to travel, so I'd never been on an airplane until I had went to New York
01:12and modeled.
01:13And the next thing I know, I was in China on a job by myself, alone at 19 years old,
01:17figuring out what I was doing.
01:18But it was one of the best educations I ever, ever experienced.
01:22You know, during that time in New York, one of the things that I was able to see is, you
01:29know, people who are very well off and done very well for themselves.
01:34And money is never an issue.
01:36It was the complete opposite of what I knew as a person.
01:40It was a different world from what I was used to.
01:44It really showed me the values that I had, even though life was difficult, were priceless.
01:54I was so proud that I had to go through those difficult times, and they created the man that I've
01:59become today.
02:00It ingrained in me that I'm a northern Minnesota kid.
02:03I always will be.
02:04My roots are deep in the red dirt here, and that I'm proud of where I'm from, blue-collar, hard
02:10-working people that are some of the nicest, most kind people you'd ever meet.
02:14And I would get a little pissed off when I saw people, the top 1% getting tax breaks, for
02:20instance, and the people where I'm from struggling to keep the lights on or pay their bills and living on
02:25fixed incomes.
02:26And it really lit off something inside of me.
02:28It was like, you know what?
02:29I want to take care of my people.
02:30These are the people that I love, that I care about, and, you know, moving back here a few years
02:35ago, yeah, I have to travel for work, both to the East Coast and the West Coast, but my roots
02:39are here, and, you know, I want to make a difference in the lives of, especially the cost of living
02:44for the people in northern Minnesota.
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