Frank J. Russo Podcast Transcript
Frank J. Russo joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Frank J. Russo. Frank J. Russo is a Florida-born businessman, entrepreneur, insurance executive, real estate developer, and humanitarian with more than 40 years of business leadership experience, including more than three decades in the insurance industry.
Throughout his career, he has built and led successful organizations, managed teams of more than 500 people, and worked across insurance, real estate, housing, development, payroll, and business operations. Well, good afternoon, Frank. Welcome to the show.
Frank J. Russo: Yes, good morning. This is Frank Russo. Thank you for having me.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely, Frank. I appreciate it. Really do. You’re hailing out of the great state of Florida there in Orlando. I’m in Kansas City, so just an hour apart. And if you don’t mind, Frank, I’m jumping right into your first question. You grew up one of 11 children in a hardworking Florida family, built a 40-year career spanning insurance, real estate, development, and payroll, managing teams of more than 500 people, and now you’re running as an independent for governor of Florida.
What’s the through line from that big family upbringing to this campaign, and what finally made you decide to leave the business world and dedicate this next chapter to public service?
Frank J. Russo: Well, yes, I grew up in a large Italian family. We were very blessed. Didn’t have much money, but I have six sisters, four brothers.
And I truly became blessed, traveled the world. I built companies. Now I’m building my own castle. So I’ve done it all, and it’s time to give back. I believe in the Ten Commandments, and one of them is honor your father and mother. And what that tells you is go back to your beginnings and make sure you honor that.
So humble beginnings, I don’t ever forget that. My ego hasn’t gone that large. So we never forget about the people who served us
Brian Thomas: Amazing. I, I appreciate that, and obviously there’s a lot that goes into your upbringing. You know, you had a large family, you had a, a loving household there of course. But you were able to venture out from that time as, as growing up into that, that family environment.
But you were able to travel the world, build big, big businesses, and you’ve done a lot of things. But at the end of the day, you bring it back to really what successful people do, is they bring it back to their humble beginnings. So I really appreciate that. And Frank, your core belief is that profitability and principle can coexist, and you’ve put forward a caring capitalism plan, including a 9.9% tax on personal income above one million, with revenue legally protected for Florida families.
That’s an unusual proposal from a businessman. How do you square being a lifelong entrepreneur with proposing a million- a millionaire tax, essentially, and how do you respond to critics who call it anti-business?
Frank J. Russo: Well, that’s a great question. So let’s just rephrase it to a billionaire tax, because right now we have approximately 120 billionaires living in the state of Florida, and I know s- several of them.
My sons are attorneys and they work for one of the largest ones. So what I’ve found is that in the state of Florida, people, and mainly the billionaires, are coming here now to brag about they’re not paying any state income taxes. However, the state of Florida is in a crisis right now. We need them to pay state income taxes because our teachers are paid last in the US.
We have insurance crisis, we have affordability crisis. Yet they’re coming here, and they should be happy to be in Florida. We have the greatest beaches. We have the greatest people that are built this Florida, so participate in it. We have billionaires building $250 million homes. Mark Zuckerberg just built a beautiful home with a bunker.
However, our data centers are poisoning our environment, so I’m asking Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire, to get involved in these data centers. Their technology is outdated, so we need new technologies. Data centers are here to stay, but they must be updated in their technology
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate that.
You have a different perspective on looking at ways … I know we s- I, I mentioned a millionaire tax, and you kinda referred it more as the billionaire tax. And I would agree that, that if you, if you’re making that type of money, you could probably chip in a few extra bucks. But what you call the Florida’s affordability crisis, it’s a great state, been there many times.
But again, to hear that your teachers are paid last in, in the continent of the US that’s hard to hear, and I know there’s a lot that Florida has to offer, and I know you have a lot to offer as well. So thank you, Frank. Frank, you’ve pledged to donate 100% of the governor’s salary every year if elected, and you’ve challenged both m- major party nominees to a live-streamed people’s debate with equal time for all three candidates.
Why do gestures like those matter to you, and what do they signal about the kind of accountability you’d bring to the office?
Frank J. Russo: Yeah, it’s a great question again. First of all, when it comes to government, we’re here to serve the people. So it turned around somewhere along the line. Now, the people, we the people, are serving the government.
So, when you elect … When you’re elected in office, you need to be serving the people, not the other way around. So I’m not here for a $250,000 salary. I’m in it for humanity over the dollar. I believe in humanity first. And what’s happening with our current administration, we’re putting the dollar first and not putting the people first.
So again, I’m here to reverse that. I want the people of the state of Florida to know I’m putting families first. I’m focusing on the needs of the families. And remember, everything I do, billionaire tax, it’s not going into the government’s hands. I’m creating a public trust fund. Remember, a public trust fund.
It cannot go into the government’s hand. It’s gotta be set aside for education and as far as healthcare, seniors, veterans. Public trust fund, ’cause that’s the issue that the billionaires aren’t aware of, that they will participate, but they don’t want it going into the government’s hands because there’s too much corruption going on, and we’re exposing that every day
Brian Thomas: Thank you. Appreciate that. Just to kinda highlight some things you said here I agree government is here to serve the people. When you go into government, you go into public service. But you said it’s all backwards now, and you wanna go in and reverse this mindset and make a g- a positive change, and I like that.
And of course, this tax, you talked about this billionaire tax that money would go into a public or people’s trust fund to support the state of, the great citizens of the state of Florida and not back into the government, which we all know no matter how much money you bring in it’ll get spent.
We’ve all seen that, so thank you. And Frank, the last question of the day I have for you, you’ve also unveiled a Florida data center and AI infrastructure initiative looking ahead to changing economy where careers are shifting. As you look maybe five, even 10 years out, how do you balance welcoming AI and new industries with protecting affordability, families, and jobs?
And what does a secure future for the next generation of Floridians actually look like to you?
Frank J. Russo: That’s a good question, because we have a lot of children out there, and we have the needs of the people to understand that the children are our future, so the next generation is our future, but they’re not being heard right now.
So, data centers are here to stay. AI is a great tool. We have to enhance technology. So doing that, I’m asking the billionaires to upgrade our data centers to protect our environment. I’m asking our leaders, Elon Musk, come in and help these children. We have the NIL program that provides money to the athletes.
Elon, come in and help the electricians, help the plumbers. Give them some incentives. So I’m asking all these billionaires to get involved in their communities. That’s what I’m asking. Let’s focus on humanity. We’ve got the dollar working well. We’ve got our president protecting our dollar. So we need a governor who focuses on the people in the state of Florida, not the corporations.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate that. You’re absolutely right. We need somebody in office across the country that is focused on the people and public service. And of course, just to highlight, the children are our future. You talked about that, the great state of Florida. AI and data centers are also the future.
And we talk about that a lot on this tech podcast. But we need to upgrade the technology, as you mentioned, and I agree there’s a lot of things that we can do in the space of hardware cooling, and environment that we could do a lot better, and we have the brainpower to do it, and I’m looking forward to making that change as well.
Frank, it was such a pleasure having you on today, and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Frank J. Russo: And Brian, I’m greatly appreciative for your time, and I admire your success. Thank you.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Frank J. Russo Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.
