EP94: How A Politician Changed His Life To Be a Lead Dad

Interview with Michael Frerichs / Illinois Treasurer, Father of Three

HOSTED BY PAUL SULLIVAN

Michael Frerichs was elected state treasurer in 2014 and has been reelected twice. For all that time he lived in a farming town in southern Illinois where he grew up. When he met his second wife, she was working for Kellogg in Chicago. They commuted, so she could be close to work and he could be with his daughter from his first marriage. Then they had twins. And the choice was: ask her to move to his town or relocate to Chicago so she could continue on the executive path. Listen to what they did and how it impacted their careers - for the better.

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Transcript

00;00;06;02 - 00;00;28;19
Paul Sullivan
Welcome to the Company of Dads podcast, where we explore the sweet, silly, strange and sublime aspects of being a dad in a world where men were the go to parent, aren't always accepted at work, among their friends or in the community for what they're doing. I'm your host, Paul Sullivan. Our podcast is just one of the many things we produce each week at the company that we have various features, including the lead of the week.

00;00;28;22 - 00;00;50;03
Paul Sullivan
We have our community, both online and in person, with a new resource library for all fathers. The one stop shop for all of this is our newsletter, The Dad. So sign up today at the Company of dads.com. Backslash the dad. Today my guest is Michael Frerichs, treasurer of the State of Illinois. He won election to this position in 2014 and has been reelected twice.

00;00;50;05 - 00;01;13;17
Paul Sullivan
Before this he was a state senator and earlier he ran his own technology company. Which is a fascinating story that we'll get into toward the at. He grew up in a farming town in the southern part of Illinois. The treasurer has three children, a 14 year old daughter and newborn twins. What piqued my interest in talking to him was an opinion piece he wrote in the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper.

00;01;13;23 - 00;01;24;16
Paul Sullivan
It was called supporting women in their careers sometimes requires a big move. We'll get into what that means in a moment. Treasurer. Welcome to the Company of Dads podcast.

00;01;24;19 - 00;01;26;15
Michael Frerichs
Oh, happy to be here.

00;01;26;17 - 00;01;30;22
Paul Sullivan
What's workday look like for you?

00;01;30;25 - 00;01;49;18
Michael Frerichs
Every workday is different. This this morning. It's a work from home. We're doing a lot more of that lately with the twins. My wife needs a little more help around the house. We don't have a nanny yet. But then there are days like tomorrow where I'll get in the car early. I'll drive down to Bloomington, Illinois, and then to Springfield and back up.

00;01;49;20 - 00;02;10;27
Michael Frerichs
There are days like last week. We're having a national conference of state treasurers out of state. There are days where I am running around. Like this weekend. I took the boys with me to a parade in Chinatown to the Taiwanese community. We went out to a political event, yesterday and was marching in the Columbus Day parade.

00;02;10;29 - 00;02;15;19
Michael Frerichs
Yesterday. More. So there is no typical day as a state treasurer.

00;02;15;21 - 00;02;38;25
Paul Sullivan
All right, fair enough. You know, in the opinion. Piece of pique, my curiosity. You wrote about moving from Champagne County, where you'd been a state senator and where you drove up to Chicago, where your wife, Erica, works for Kellogg, the cereal company. To to to our move. But but but a world of change. And so how did that conversation start for you to decide to make that move?

00;02;38;27 - 00;02;57;14
Michael Frerichs
Or we can go back a ways. So, I was married once before, like, a lot of people. I didn't get marriage right the first time. But during the pandemic, I met my now wife. She was living in Chicago. I would be up in Chicago a fair amount because I have an office up there addition to our capitol in Springfield.

00;02;57;16 - 00;03;17;17
Michael Frerichs
And we would commute back and forth. You know, and she'd come down to Champaign for a week of Chicago for a week because I still was raising my daughter from my first marriage. We had 50, 60 custody a week on, a week off. And I told, my current wife, I said, like, look, if this is going to work, you're not going to see me a lot.

00;03;17;20 - 00;03;44;23
Michael Frerichs
I am down at home with my daughter one week, out of every two. So that's what I, you know, I'm flexible, or I can come join you. And we were going to continue to do that. It was only a two, 2.5 hour drive. But when we found out we got married and found out we're going to have twins, we realized packing up two newborns all the equipment with them, and getting to a car and driving for about while they may or may not sleep, was not going to work.

00;03;44;23 - 00;03;49;18
Michael Frerichs
And that prompted the discussion of where do we want to consolidate our household?

00;03;49;20 - 00;04;00;08
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. And tell us, you know, why did you why did you pick Chicago? What was it about, you know, moving there from from where you'd been before that that worked best for your family?

00;04;00;10 - 00;04;08;18
Michael Frerichs
Well, I'd say that one of the great things about being the state treasurer is, I can live anywhere I want as long as it's within the state borders.

00;04;08;20 - 00;04;12;14
Paul Sullivan
But. So if you go to Indiana that that's a no no, you can't.

00;04;12;16 - 00;04;19;05
Michael Frerichs
You know, I would lose my job. That, quite frankly, I wouldn't vote for myself.

00;04;19;08 - 00;04;37;11
Michael Frerichs
But, I could live anywhere I wanted to, but I wanted to stay in Champaign County. I want to stay there because my daughter was there. She liked the community. My parents are there. My older brother still is in the town I grew up in. My younger brother lives in a small town near champagne. So I had a great support network there.

00;04;37;13 - 00;04;57;22
Michael Frerichs
My parents are retired. My mom was very active in raising her granddaughter. My wife has much smaller family. They're a little more spread out. And her mother is still working. So we talked about moving to Champaign. She reached out to her employer and said, hey, you know, the pandemic, a lot of people working remotely.

00;04;57;22 - 00;05;17;04
Michael Frerichs
I was wondering, would it be okay if I work remotely from Champaign? And they talked about it and got back to her and said, yeah, not a problem. You can work from now. You'll take a cut and pay you will move off the executive track. We'll find a job that you can do remotely working for champagne, but you're going to give up the career path.

00;05;17;04 - 00;05;39;16
Michael Frerichs
You, Bill and my wife, to her credit, said, hey, for our family, I'm willing to make that sacrifice. I do some soul searching. As much as I like living in Champaign, as much as there were benefits of living near my family, I could still do my job. And my job didn't require any real sacrifice. From moving up to Chicago.

00;05;39;18 - 00;05;42;07
Michael Frerichs
And that's. That's how we made that decision.

00;05;42;09 - 00;06;05;17
Paul Sullivan
It's it's a great story because when you think, you know, historically, you know, so many women have have been saddled with the label, you know, trailing spouse that they followed along as her husband has been promoted. And here you were able to sort of lean in and figure out that you had you do have this flexibility, you know, even though you say, you know, you can work anywhere in the state, you, you had roots in, in Champaign.

00;06;05;20 - 00;06;25;28
Paul Sullivan
And you, you decided to to move, which is commendable. But what was was your response in the state Treasurer's office or like, you know, thank God he's finally getting farther away or we can't let him go this far. We're going to miss him. Or did the Chicago office say, oh, no, he's going to be here all the I mean, jokes aside, how did that work?

00;06;25;28 - 00;06;33;14
Paul Sullivan
You know, for you as an elected state, officials say, okay, I'm going to, you know, move, move, homes.

00;06;33;17 - 00;06;50;17
Michael Frerichs
You know, it's, it's funny because I tell people that I'm the boss and that I also simultaneously have 13 million bosses, right? I get to keep my job. Result of the people of state giving it to me. But the people who work in the treasurer's office, they don't have to go to those 13 million people to keep their jobs.

00;06;50;17 - 00;07;10;26
Michael Frerichs
They they go to me. So I don't hear a lot of complaining in my office, whether they like it or not. But the complaints I heard was from a reporter, a columnist in my local newspaper. No secret, you know, different political philosophy than they he has been critical of of my time in the state Senate before.

00;07;10;28 - 00;07;31;24
Michael Frerichs
And he wrote a parting shot at me. He found a in Chicago and denigrated the area that I brought it, so that Mike Frakes is leaving the rubes and the hayseed, the northern Champaign county behind, to go to the big city of Chicago to pursue his big political ambitions. Well, that was a it was offensive to the people.

00;07;31;24 - 00;07;58;22
Michael Frerichs
I grew up around my family, around the area. It was completely wrong in terms of my motivations for doing this. As I pointed out, I have been elected statewide three times while living in downstate Illinois. I didn't need to move to Chicago to get elected statewide. I moved for my wife, but I think there are certain men out there who believe that men make decisions for their families and their wives follow them.

00;07;58;24 - 00;08;23;19
Michael Frerichs
So I explained in an op ed counter, reply to him that, look, Jim, my wife has a good job. My wife's job is as flexible as mine. I chose to give up my hometown connections, to be close to my family and my friends, to allow my wife continue in her career. And I think there are some men that couldn't understand that.

00;08;23;21 - 00;08;51;21
Michael Frerichs
But you know who did understand that? Women. I got lots of calls, lots of e-mails, people stopping me and saying, thank you very much. Thank you for pointing out that men can also make sacrifices for the wives careers. One woman in particular, reached out to me. I knew Auburn in Norwell, and she said, I remember my husband and I were living in different cities, and when I got pregnant, just everyone asked me, when are you moving to his city?

00;08;51;24 - 00;09;12;13
Michael Frerichs
And her response was, why would I move to his city? I've got the better job. I have better income. I did, no one asked him when he was going to be moved to be closer to his wife and his child. And so she encouraged me. She said, this is great. We've had this dialog. And that's what grew into the op ed that you read in the Daily Herald.

00;09;12;15 - 00;09;16;09
Michael Frerichs
I figured, like I heard enough people, this was a conversation we ought to be having.

00;09;16;11 - 00;09;33;00
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. You know, obviously we agree 110 what you're saying. I mean, this is the genesis of the company that I mean, I was a longtime New York Times columnist, I loved it. But my wife, when she started her own firm, she didn't have as much control over her time as as I did. And so I stepped up.

00;09;33;00 - 00;09;54;19
Paul Sullivan
And this is ten years ago now to be the lead dad, and I did. But at the time, you know, I wasn't a public figure as you are. I was in a position where I would you know, talk about it openly. And it wasn't until Covid where I, you know, fortunate enough to be the type of person who was able to to work remotely or I said, you know, this is going to change the way we work is going to change one.

00;09;54;19 - 00;10;12;23
Paul Sullivan
And then secondly, I said, there must be a community for guys like me. Like, I'm not a stay at home dad. Nothing wrong with that. But I'm not also, a guy who sort of you know, outsources all the care of his his children and family to to someone else. I'm somebody who's made a lot of decisions by having difficult conversations, with my wife.

00;10;12;23 - 00;10;28;12
Paul Sullivan
Not all that, because some, you know, inspiring. And I've got three daughters. So I want to, you know, set an example for them. And that was really the genesis, the company of dads. But, you know, one of the other things we do is we spend a lot of time talking to companies, and it's very binary, like some companies 100% get what we're doing.

00;10;28;12 - 00;10;47;13
Paul Sullivan
And they see this as a benefit to working moms, to to women. It's not just men getting another benefit. It's you know, men stepping up and being full parents, men stepping up and being the dad is good for them. But it's also really good for working moms, because suddenly the burden isn't, entirely on them. For for caregiving responsibilities.

00;10;47;13 - 00;11;07;19
Paul Sullivan
And it shows other people, you know, that this can be done. So in your position, you know, I no joke that, you know, you're you're the boss, and you certainly are the boss, as a treasurer. But how how is it the way you've worked, and interacted with, you know, your your office. I assume your main office is in Springfield, the state capital.

00;11;07;19 - 00;11;19;10
Paul Sullivan
But how has that, you know, changed? Were you working remotely before? Have you had different conversations with, you know, certain people who work, you know, for you or with you after making this move?

00;11;19;12 - 00;11;38;09
Michael Frerichs
You know, before the pandemic, I was living in Champaign, and that was about an hour and 20 minute drive to Springfield, our state capital, and about a two hour drive from our, main office in Chicago. Most of our employees are in Springfield, but, you know, responsibilities are separated. And most of my constituents live in the Chicago area.

00;11;38;11 - 00;11;58;11
Michael Frerichs
So I was splitting my time between those two cities. I would drive into Springfield works a day, or would spend the night there in my apartment, or would drive in Chicago. And the same thing the pandemic taught us that we could work remotely much more easily and effectively. You know, I knew that we could do conference calls, but I also knew they weren't nearly as effective.

00;11;58;11 - 00;12;21;24
Michael Frerichs
You couldn't see people's faces if they couldn't see what you were doing. So yeah, this probably means less time in my Springfield office. But it doesn't mean they don't see me as much. They'll see me like this. They will talk to you on the phone, they'll see emails. And the pandemic really sort of allowed, us to step up and and moved to Chicago and spend more time.

00;12;21;26 - 00;12;26;00
Paul Sullivan
You know. And and how long ago was the move? It's fairly recent or.

00;12;26;02 - 00;12;36;21
Michael Frerichs
That's why I think we bought the house in May. I sold my house in Champaign in July. So it's now been a couple of months that I have not been, a campaign was.

00;12;36;23 - 00;12;56;08
Paul Sullivan
You know, when I talked to sort of C-suite leaders who are men, who have taken on this lead role. At first, they're not quite sure what the impact is going to be beyond their own family. They know what the impact is going to be on their life. They know the impact is going to be on their spouse and their children, but they don't really think beyond what it might be in the workforce.

00;12;56;08 - 00;13;13;10
Paul Sullivan
And so many of them have come back to me and said, this has been so positive for the people who report to me, because I've given I've set an example and I've shown them that this is possible. It's possible for a senior leader who's a man to take on this caregiving role, and that's open it up for other men.

00;13;13;10 - 00;13;20;08
Paul Sullivan
But it's also open it up for for other working months. Have you seen any indication of that in the treasurer's office?

00;13;20;11 - 00;13;37;21
Michael Frerichs
So, funny you answer. Let me go back a little bit and say, you know, this is not a well, it's a recent move in Chicago. This isn't a recent change. And be as a father, as I mentioned, I was married once before. My daughter was from my dad's wife. We got divorced about 11 years or so ago.

00;13;37;21 - 00;13;55;21
Michael Frerichs
And it was when there was a contentious divorce. We agreed that our daughter was our primary responsibility. We've agreed on 5050 custody. But we reached that agreement at one point. My wife said, you are too busy. You're on the road too much. You can't be, a full time dad. You can't have a 50% of time.

00;13;55;21 - 00;14;14;26
Michael Frerichs
I thought I said no, no, no, I will make this work. And she said, well, you just you're gone too much. And I said, I will make this work. And so when I came in as treasurer, I pulled my scheduling thing off to start. I have my daughter has two nights on the nights I have my daughter, you know, when they are do not schedule make for things.

00;14;14;26 - 00;14;35;18
Michael Frerichs
Do not schedule to be on the road. I have to be home with her the nights that I don't have her. You can send me anywhere you want. And we went around the state and we went around the country. That's fine. That's my time to work long hours. And so we set a standard very early of blocking out family time for me to be a dad.

00;14;35;18 - 00;14;58;17
Michael Frerichs
And so basically, I was not a stay at home dad. I was a single father. But half the nights I was a single father responsible for my daughter. And we established that very early. Now, I like what, how you came to this path and talked about this because clearly you weren't alone. I did have someone on my staff who, was a new father.

00;14;58;20 - 00;15;19;12
Michael Frerichs
And after maybe 3 or 4 months, he said, you know, treasurer, this being dad's task, it just kids cry. It's like how do you do this? And I said, well, you know, we just make it work. There are sacrifices, but they're worth it. He said, you know, because I bet people really appreciate hearing that about you seeing that side of you.

00;15;19;14 - 00;15;41;00
Michael Frerichs
And I said, that's fine, but personal life is my personal life. I don't, you know, talk about that here. I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm not looking for a think I'm a martyr. This is my life. Other people have their own moments. I think after I opened up about my issues, regarding moving this car with my wife, I was surprised at the response I received.

00;15;41;03 - 00;16;01;24
Michael Frerichs
I mean, people reaching out, people talking to me on the street or, at events, people could pull me aside and say, thank you. And I kind of made the decision that I'm going to talk a little more about my personal life because, you know, I think there are people out there who have gone through similar circumstances today, who might learn from who might take something from this.

00;16;01;24 - 00;16;08;28
Michael Frerichs
And so I think that's why I responded, so quickly to your, yeah, offer invitation to come on your podcast.

00;16;09;00 - 00;16;23;26
Paul Sullivan
I think, you know, I also have, a 14 year old daughter. I've got three daughters of 14, 11 and six. How has she fared with the move to Chicago, I'm presuming. Is she in ninth grade now? Is this her first year of high school?

00;16;24;03 - 00;16;24;17
Michael Frerichs
In the first.

00;16;24;17 - 00;16;28;06
Paul Sullivan
Year? Yeah. So how has that gone for her?

00;16;28;09 - 00;16;33;11
Michael Frerichs
So after just telling you all how now I'm sharing more about myself.

00;16;33;11 - 00;16;33;25
Paul Sullivan
Fair enough.

00;16;33;25 - 00;16;54;22
Michael Frerichs
Yeah. This is a it's a tough conversation to have because she's 14 years old. She's a freshman in high school. I don't think she likes being have any public life, but, you know, some of the details are public out there. Her mother got remarried last year as well to someone who lived in Chicago. She was graduated eighth grade.

00;16;54;22 - 00;17;02;17
Michael Frerichs
And, you know, her, her eighth grade class. The kids in that class were going to any kind of eight different high schools.

00;17;02;19 - 00;17;03;14
Paul Sullivan
Right?

00;17;03;16 - 00;17;18;25
Michael Frerichs
So her friend groups were going to be splintered anyway. And we figured this was the right time. If she was going to move, you know, started a new high school, might as well do it now. You're not pulling her weight from her friends or friends or going different directions. Anyway, I think that she has done well.

00;17;18;25 - 00;17;45;25
Michael Frerichs
She's resilient. Right, kid? But she's a 14 year old girl, and there are just a lot of, issues there that, either don't understand or I have to think back now. It was she. So she didn't know anyone at this school. She has made friends, but, I think she has not made lifelong friends immediately. And she remembers, you know, those close friends from champagne were my better friends.

00;17;45;25 - 00;18;03;11
Michael Frerichs
And I would tell her that, you know, there's one thing about friendships is they don't happen overnight. You can't buy them. You can't force them all the time to grow and develop, and they will happen. And so I think she's doing well. Like all high school kids, there's a lot of, awkwardness and uncertainty.

00;18;03;14 - 00;18;20;28
Paul Sullivan
You know, you come across as much like I am, which is a person wired for true optimism. And I'm wondering, though, when you set out to to move, I mean, you're not just, you know, you're in the state of Illinois, but you're not just moving one town to another. You're not just moving from a rural town to, a big city.

00;18;20;28 - 00;18;31;25
Paul Sullivan
You're moving from the place where you had your route to your family. Is your brother to be about buddies who who certainly don't call you treasurer because they've known you since you're in high school. They call you all kinds of other things.

00;18;31;28 - 00;18;34;28
Michael Frerichs
It's like if they call me treasurer, they call it ironically.

00;18;35;04 - 00;18;54;24
Paul Sullivan
100% ironically. Yeah, exactly. What's been some, you know, for other, you know, men listening to this for, for other working moms or seniors. What about some of the unexpected challenges? And I know it's still early days, but what have been some of the unexpected challenges of, of, of making this move? And I don't want to say it for your wife, the the move was for your family.

00;18;54;24 - 00;19;05;17
Paul Sullivan
It was it was a family move. But making this this family move and how you had to balance, you know, friendships, connections and, and of course, you know, work and your constituents.

00;19;05;19 - 00;19;18;04
Michael Frerichs
It's a tough one to answer. And it's a tough one to, to really understand because not only did I make the move, I made the move at the same time my wife gave birth to twins. So my life has been upended in two different ways.

00;19;18;06 - 00;19;23;25
Paul Sullivan
You just have so much free time now. You don't know what to do with yourself, is what you're saying exactly.

00;19;23;27 - 00;19;39;00
Michael Frerichs
I, my brother, came up to visit this weekend, brought by his wife and niece and nephew along. They want to spend time with their cousins, and we got a great weekend together at my brother. I had a little bit of time together and he said, so how do you like the big city? Like, I don't know, Kevin.

00;19;39;00 - 00;20;02;10
Michael Frerichs
I, I don't feel like it's a big change. What do you mean? It's clearly a big change. I said, yeah, my life is frequently stuck inside this house. Yeah. We'll take the kids out occasionally. Yes, I'll do stuff. But even if I had stayed put in champagne, my life would have been disrupted by twins. My time with those buddies would have been severely curtailed by twins.

00;20;02;12 - 00;20;27;19
Michael Frerichs
A, you know, normally you move to a new city, you think, let's get out, let's explore the nightlife, let's explore new restaurants. But when you have twins at home or you have twins in the night, you, you're not really going out over the summer and enjoying all the Chicago has to offer. I feel like I've gotten to know my neighborhood, where we walk the dog and we take the boys in stroller rides.

00;20;27;19 - 00;20;34;27
Michael Frerichs
The neighborhood really well outside of that neighborhood. I'm hoping someday we'll spend more time exploring.

00;20;35;00 - 00;20;45;21
Paul Sullivan
I love it, I can hear your, you know, Chicago neighbors saying, you know, I don't know. He says he's the treasure, but he's just kind of a hermit. Like, they go in and out and we don't see a whole lot of them.

00;20;45;23 - 00;21;02;12
Michael Frerichs
They do. They do see me out. We had a block party in September, and I got up there say, oh, hey, you're new to the neighborhood. We've seen you or your wife walking the dog or what? What do you do? And, I thought, well, I'm. If you vote, you either voted for or against me. You know, when I'm.

00;21;02;12 - 00;21;19;16
Michael Frerichs
When I'm at home, one of my neighborhood, I am. I am not a title. I'm not my office. I'm just a neighbor like everyone else. And I think that's either how people see me or it's how they choose to address me. Right. But it's been a great move that.

00;21;19;19 - 00;22;00;20
Paul Sullivan
This a wonderful conversation. Just a couple more questions, but one here I want to, you know, put you in the sort of wayback machine. If you think back to the technology company, you you started and you explained to me off air that it was a technology company, that that monitored the structural integrity of bridges. If you think back to, you know, the Michael, not the treasure, but the Michael that you were there when you were running that that company, what are the biggest differences between how, you know, Michael ran that current company as it related to to caregivers and working parent and how treasurer fulfills his role and thinks about, you know, the responsibilities

00;22;00;20 - 00;22;08;11
Paul Sullivan
he has. How what does that that sort of arc of growth in your own life as you've looked at, you know, caregivers as you've moved on in your career?

00;22;08;13 - 00;22;33;12
Michael Frerichs
Wow. So many changes. One. I was single, not married, had no kids at the time. So working crazy hours wasn't a problem. It was a different place in my life, a very different thing. And then to here, you know, once again, there's a dichotomy. On my own, I'm the boss of the company. I'm, subservient to a board of directors of 13 million people there.

00;22;33;14 - 00;22;55;27
Michael Frerichs
I was nominally the boss, but I had investors who were very engaged and very active. And so in some ways, I didn't feel like the boss there. There's a big challenge in this career. The nation has a problem with our bridges. We are. Infrastructure is deficient. We thought we had a solution out there. We worked multiple angles to adopt it.

00;22;55;29 - 00;23;31;09
Michael Frerichs
You know who? No. Loved our company for engineers and years. Loved all the data we were going to give them. You know who didn't love our company? Lawyers? For the state said, you know what all that data is? That is something that is foible. It is admissible. There's a problem with the bridge. The defense attorneys, the attorneys suing the state are going to request that there are comb through it and they're going to say, like, look, you had reason to believe, one week in advance there was a problem with the bridge and you didn't post it.

00;23;31;12 - 00;23;55;16
Michael Frerichs
You now are more liable. And so that was one of the problems we had. I yeah, I like solving problems, you know, with if people read my bio, they'll see that I, spent my summers in Eastern Europe. In college, I graduate, move to Taiwan, where I settled Chinese and taught English. I worked as a paralegal in New York for a little while and came back home, started engineering company, was a county auditor, a state senator.

00;23;55;22 - 00;24;17;21
Michael Frerichs
Now, what's the logic? What's the, direction in that path? And I'll say, you know, play the the combine. The thing that tied ball together is they were all challenges and they were all things that interested me. My find if you do things that interest you, you will show up to work early. You will leave work late.

00;24;17;24 - 00;24;38;08
Michael Frerichs
You will ask to help out other people because you love your work and that if you do things that don't come easy to you, they're a challenge. You will grow and improve a lot faster. You will fail, but you will learn from those failures faster than you will. Taking the easy route. I like to remind young people and ask for career advice.

00;24;38;08 - 00;24;47;13
Michael Frerichs
I just say you do what interest you. I can't tell you what you should do, but I will tell you, if you do something that does not challenge you, it will not change you.

00;24;47;15 - 00;25;21;16
Paul Sullivan
And that's a good segue into this question because, you know, trying to solve problems, complex problems. You use your office as treasure to go beyond some of the typical, things that a state treasurer do. You've helped, disabled people. You've helped people, save money for college. These are very important programs. Is it too far beyond the purview of the office of a state treasurer to sort of wade into the issue around caregiving and how people save and fund, you know, caregiving in at least in the state of Illinois, of if not in the country more broadly.

00;25;21;19 - 00;25;42;10
Michael Frerichs
That is a great question. I'll tell you two things. One, I like to tell people the job I have today is not the job I ran for, and they'll scratch their head. Well, how could that be so? Because the job I ran for, wasn't in charge. Retirement savings programs. It didn't invest in infrastructure. It didn't help families with disabilities save.

00;25;42;13 - 00;26;09;12
Michael Frerichs
It didn't help with refinancing student debt. These are all things that we have done and created our office. Because when I came in, I had all these questions like, how can we help out this problem? And my lawyers get back to those lawyers would say, well, you can't do that. Why can't I do that? Well, because it's not, it's prohibited by state law or state law doesn't explicitly ask you or give you permission to do this.

00;26;09;12 - 00;26;30;21
Michael Frerichs
I said, well, the great yes is easy. As a former legislator, let's just change the law. And so, the question you ask is something I've been thinking a lot about lately because we try and do it, solve problems that make an impact on people's lives. You know, in politics you find lots of just fighting, going on, fighting a war on hot button issues or so.

00;26;30;23 - 00;26;49;22
Michael Frerichs
And a lot of it to me seems like posturing. I try and figure out is what really makes a difference in people's lives. What are people worried about? And in serving up a survey, if you ask what people's top concerns are they? They are. Will I be able to give my child a better future than I have had?

00;26;49;24 - 00;27;09;05
Michael Frerichs
Will I be able to retire with her retirement, enjoy my golden years because too many Americans have not saved enough. They're not prepared to retirement. And then their other concern regards health care, slash child care. And so with colleges we have we have to answer we a couple if we help people say who were their kids going to college.

00;27;09;05 - 00;27;32;09
Michael Frerichs
Then we help them with student debt, interest retirement. We set up a retirement savings program. What's that third concern? The treasurer doesn't have an explicit role in, but we are looking at and exploring ways we might be able to help families save for childcare or to help out with health care costs. What are the big concerns for families one, two, three yet?

00;27;32;09 - 00;27;32;27
Michael Frerichs
But we're working.

00;27;32;27 - 00;28;00;10
Paul Sullivan
But you're working on it, I love it. Yeah. Thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Treasurer Michael Frerichs. From the state of Illinois. Thank you for joining me today on the Company of Dads podcast. One final question. We try not to ever make this, political, but this is a political question. In in Chicago right now, Cubs or White Sox?

00;28;00;13 - 00;28;18;09
Michael Frerichs
I know you're not supposed to choose sides or offend anyone, but my loyalties are pretty clear. I'm a Cubs fan. I've been a Cubs fan since day two, and that gets to the story of my dad to show you. Show you how things have changed. The day after I was born, my dad grew up on a farm.

00;28;18;10 - 00;28;41;21
Michael Frerichs
He was born on the farm, came off the farm he was born. And, he grew up with very traditional ideas of fatherhood. The man goes out and works hard in the field, and woman raises kids. So when I was one day old, I thought, see, my job. He went to go watch the Cubs play a game in Chicago.

00;28;41;24 - 00;28;42;13
Michael Frerichs
Drove two and a half.

00;28;42;18 - 00;28;47;14
Paul Sullivan
He drove his car. He watched it on TV to Chicago to see the game, the test.

00;28;47;16 - 00;29;08;00
Michael Frerichs
He had a good time, by all accounts. He came back down on my second full day, alive. My mom, I was born cesarean section. My mom got an infection. She couldn't hold me. And even then, in the 19 early 1970s, doctors knew that there's some value of, like, skin to skin, for babies and parents.

00;29;08;02 - 00;29;29;24
Michael Frerichs
My dad was very much not, into raising children, but had never changed a diaper in his life. He had a great dad. He just wasn't. That wasn't how he was raised. Yeah. The doctor goes, my dad says, Jim, would you like to hold your new son? And my dad looked at him and said, well, can I watch the game while I hold him?

00;29;29;26 - 00;29;38;16
Michael Frerichs
I said, sure you can. So a day two. My dad held me while he watched how Cubs on TV and that's why I said when it comes to its day to.

00;29;38;18 - 00;29;45;17
Paul Sullivan
Day pressure, fantastic way to end. Thank you again for your time today. I've thoroughly enjoyed the ball.

00;29;45;17 - 00;29;48;26
Michael Frerichs
Thanks very much for having me.

00;29;48;29 - 00;30;08;26
Paul Sullivan
Thank you for listening to the company of that podcast. I also want to thank the people who make this podcast and everything else that we do at the company of that possible, Helder Moura, who is our audio producer, Lynsey Decker, has all of our social media. Terry Brennan, who's helping us with the newsletter and audience acquisition. Emily Servin.

00;30;08;26 - 00;30;17;19

Who is our web maestro, and of course, Evan Roosevelt, who is working side by side with me on many of the things that we do here at the company. So, dad.

00;30;17;19 - 00;30;24;05
Paul Sullivan
It's a great team. And we were just trying to bring you the best in fatherhood. Remember, the one stop shop.

00;30;24;05 - 00;30;31;26

For everything is only those of you that sign up at the Company of dads.com backslash the deaf. Thank you again for listening.