Rachel McDaniel and Alec Brozovich

[00:00] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Hi, my name is Rachel. I'm 33 years old. Today is July 1, 2024. I'm in Wichita, Kansas. My one step partner is Alec.

[00:14] ALEC BROZOVICH: My name is Alec. I am 28 years old. Today is July 1, 2024. I am in Wichita, Kansas. My one small step partner is Rachel.

[00:27] RACHEL MCDANIEL: What made you want to do this interview today?

[00:30] ALEC BROZOVICH: Well, I really like meeting people. I like learning about people's backgrounds, where they come from, where they're at today, where they're going. It's really intriguing to me. So that's kind of why I wanted to do it today.

[00:46] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Love it.

[00:47] ALEC BROZOVICH: Why did you want to do the interview today?

[00:50] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Very similar reasons. I've also studied mediation, too, so I think I've always just had an interest in how people disagree and how we can disagree. Well, absolutely. It just kind of spoke to my values.

[01:06] ALEC BROZOVICH: Awesome. Perfect.

[01:08] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So I'm going to read your bio. I'm a local small business owner with a passion for woodworking. I'm a single dad with joint custody. I grew up in Conway Springs, joined the Marine Corps infantry right out of high school, came home, and started a business. I grew up very Roman Catholic, but non religious. Now, my job allows me to meet quite a lot of people from all ages with different beliefs. I love learning why people think and believe the way they do. What details in this bio would you like to know? Like me to know more about anything you want to expand on?

[01:47] ALEC BROZOVICH: You know, when. The reason I put I grew up pretty Roman Catholic is that comes with its own kind of stereotype. I've been exposed to that stereotype my whole life, especially when I got in the Marine Corps, because when you get in the Marine Corps, everybody's different from all sorts of backgrounds. However, where I live my life today is I do take some of those core values I learned from growing up in a roman catholic family, apply that to my everyday life. But to me, I look on it as I am. I grew on it, which is why I say I'm not religious anymore. For me, it's hard for me to follow any path when the. My interpretation of it is you follow this way, and this is the only way. Not just religion, but with employers, life, friendships, you know, all walks of life, that's kind of the mentality I take into it. So.

[02:53] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And that was really the thing that, like, stood out to me about your bio. The Roman Catholic, and then also being a single parent, you know, that's. I imagine I don't want to project, but, like, I imagine that that's interesting with family sometimes.

[03:08] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. It's again, you know, the stereotypes. Some of them are true, some of them are, some aren't really, depending where you grow up. But definitely that's a big, contradictory thing. For that specific example, I was also.

[03:22] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Very curious about what drew you to.

[03:26] ALEC BROZOVICH: The Marine Corps growing up. I remember sitting in front of the tv, whether I'm watching Nickelodeon or USA, something like that, and then I'd see the Marine Corps commercial. Come on. And one of the biggest things I always remember is the uniforms. It was always the uniforms I look at. It's like, oh, that's. That's different. You know, it's. It's the army, the Navy, the Air Force, a lot of them, they have pretty similar uniforms. A lot of their commercials will show, you know, camo, all that. But the Marine Corps is very prideful on their uniform, which is rich in history and stuff like that. So that's really kind of what piqued my interest in the Marine Corps specifically. And then just thinking about it, it's just being different. You know, it's. It doesn't follow the stereotype of when you think the military, the Marine Corps, is kind of its own, for sure group, if you kind of get what I'm saying.

[04:19] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah, I have some connection to the military, so, like, it's not completely foreign to me, but it's fewer people than people realize.

[04:28] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely.

[04:29] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[04:29] ALEC BROZOVICH: So.

[04:30] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And Conway Springs, too. That one also stood out to me because that's way out there.

[04:36] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah, it's way out there. It's a very small town. I mean, it's primarily a roman catholic town. Everybody knows everybody. We have two elementaries, if you will. You have the catholic school, k through six, and then you have the public school, which is k through six, but then you have the one middle school, the one high school, you know, basic sports, all that kind of stuff. It's so kind of, again, I thought, important to put there based off where I'm at now in my life. So.

[05:10] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So not in Conway Springs anymore.

[05:11] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely not fair.

[05:15] RACHEL MCDANIEL: We have family land out in the middle of nowhere, so I know a little bit about being just kind of rural and in a little bubble that way.

[05:23] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[05:23] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's a very different way to live.

[05:25] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely.

[05:26] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Wichita.

[05:27] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah, for sure.

[05:30] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[05:31] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay, well, then I'm going to read your bio, Rachel's bio. I am the oldest of six children born into an Lds family. If I remember correctly, that's latter day saints. Correct.

[05:45] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I.

[05:46] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay. I received the highest grades in my year of Lds seminary, but have settled into more of a buddhist, drujic, druidic, okay, I'll let you go that one. Nature spiritual tradition. My emphasis on leaving things better than I found them drives my interactions with my community. I own a small psychotherapy practice where I serve marginalized communities. I'm recently married and buying a house with my partner that we enjoy fixing together. I want to build a community center. So, with that being said, what details in your bio would you like me to know more about?

[06:28] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I think the one that I like, think about the most right now in my life is the community center. You know, I've been going back and forth on, like, okay, do I want to go back to school? Do I want to launch this thing? And currently, I'm leaning that way. Just. Especially having just finished pride month, it's very apparent to me that there are more people in this town that are queer than you always see and be nice. If we had somewhere where we could all have community.

[07:01] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay. That was going to bring. My next question is, like, what would be the emphasis of the community center?

[07:08] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Honestly, like, the thought that's been leading it for me is the idea of brave space, where it's, you know, people love to talk about safe space, and it's a great ideal, and sometimes we just. It's not possible. And so I love the concept of brave space, where it's more. I'm here to learn. I don't have all the right answers. You know, it's not going to be, you know, you can't come in, but it's gonna be, if you're coming here, we're gonna be curious. We're gonna be brave and vulnerable and maybe see parts of ourselves that we haven't seen before.

[07:47] ALEC BROZOVICH: Awesome. That's actually. That's a really cool concept. I like that. I would definitely. I would definitely join in on that. That kind of. That shame free, you know, respectful, which I think we need a lot more of.

[08:01] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah. And I think it's got really good roots in this part of the country, too, because, you know, we're salt of the earth people, and, you know, we'll help you out, but we won't enable you.

[08:11] ALEC BROZOVICH: You know, like, yeah, the people who.

[08:13] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Moved to Kansas are just a little different.

[08:16] ALEC BROZOVICH: I agree. I absolutely agree in a good way. That I also agree with. So you own a small psychotherapy practice. I'm gonna be honest, I don't know what psychotherapy is. So would you be able to explain that to me so I can understand a little better?

[08:34] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. The simplest way to explain it is I'm an expert in change, and if you have something in your life that you want to be different. I have studied thoroughly how to change things from all sorts of different stuck places.

[08:50] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay.

[08:52] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I am also, like, a little bit different from a lot of therapists in that I treated. When mental illness starts to become physical illness, just because it's kind of a tough one, and it's fun, and I like a puzzle, so I know from.

[09:07] ALEC BROZOVICH: Personal experience everybody's different. I can see how you can.

[09:10] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's so fun.

[09:11] ALEC BROZOVICH: It'd be very rewarding.

[09:12] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I can't believe it's a job. Most of the time, I just get to do something like this all day. Just know people.

[09:19] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. That's awesome. How long have you been doing that?

[09:25] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Eight years.

[09:26] ALEC BROZOVICH: Eight years.

[09:30] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I was a little slow getting through college. I stopped and started a few times, but in 2016, I started practicing out in liberal, Kansas. I don't know if you have been there.

[09:43] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yep.

[09:45] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Bill of nowhere.

[09:47] ALEC BROZOVICH: So you get the Conway Springs.

[09:49] RACHEL MCDANIEL: That's where the family farm is, like, 30 minutes outside of that. And it's very different, you know, doing rural mental health just because there's fewer people. So sometimes things go longer than they normally would.

[10:05] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[10:07] RACHEL MCDANIEL: But it was also just. I don't know, it's fascinating in its resilience and its diversity, too, because I was nothing. You know, there were not more white people than people of color. You know, there were a lot of immigrants in liberal, you know, Hispanics, Somalian, you know.

[10:24] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay.

[10:24] RACHEL MCDANIEL: All over the place. So, like, a little microcosm in its own way.

[10:28] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay. See, and I would say in Conway, it's the exact opposite. At least me growing up, it was. It's not so much that way now, but that. So that's really interesting. I wouldn't have expected that of a small town in Kansas.

[10:42] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Right. I have a friend who writes grants out there, and she gets grants because of the diversity.

[10:47] ALEC BROZOVICH: Wow.

[10:47] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. It's amazing.

[10:49] ALEC BROZOVICH: That is. That is pretty awesome. So you said you have settled more into, like, a Buddhist, and I'm gonna butcher that word.

[11:01] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Druid.

[11:02] ALEC BROZOVICH: Druid. Got. I got that.

[11:03] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yes.

[11:05] ALEC BROZOVICH: Why? How was that different than growing up? Latter day Saint in that kind of realm?

[11:12] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's a lot more self driven, because for me, the experience of being lds was. There's a lot of rules, there's a lot of expectations, history, heritage, you know, all sorts of things. And for me, you know, Buddhism is a way to have spirituality that doesn't remind me too much of bad experiences I've had with Christianity and then the druidic stuff, it's more. My grandfather was a boy scout through and through. Like, you leave it better than you found it. We go on a hike, and he's like, you know what that is? You know, that is, you know, this latin name, and this is its relationship in the ecosystem. And so.

[11:54] ALEC BROZOVICH: So is that based druidic spirituality? Is that kind of what it's based around? Because I haven't really heard that one. I've done a little research into Buddhism for myself, but not, haven't really heard the other one.

[12:06] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's more part of what people call new age spirituality. Okay. Especially in the queer community, we tend to create our own spirituality because there has been trauma from parts of Christianity. I won't lump them all together, but absolutely, there's people who literally cannot go into a church because it's too triggering. And so we find different ways. And being more like nature oriented isn't uncommon.

[12:37] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay, so is it? I mean, it's just when I think Christianity, I think God, when I think Buddhism, I think balance and harmony, and then druidism Is that.

[12:51] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[12:51] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay.

[12:52] RACHEL MCDANIEL: A lot of balance and harmony.

[12:53] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay.

[12:53] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Ecosystem kind of stuff.

[12:55] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay. Because I follow a lot into the taoist mentality and studies. I've really gotten more into that as I've kind of developed my own spirituality, so.

[13:08] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And I love that the Dalai Lama is so open about, like, if you disprove any of our innovative, our faith and science says this isn't helping people, we'll modify it.

[13:18] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[13:19] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And I just appreciate the openness to new things.

[13:23] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. Especially that, you know, it's humanity. We're always evolving. We're always changing. And I believe a lot of beliefs should change with the times. And I agree, you know, I don't. I think we need to keep some of those traditions and the foundations, but definitely improve on them as we improve ourselves as a society.

[13:44] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yes, absolutely.

[13:49] ALEC BROZOVICH: I guess the last question I have is your Latter day Saints seminary, is that something you had to go to or. Okay.

[13:59] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I mean, for me, I was already pretty sure it wasn't the right answer for me, but living with my parents, that was the expectation. And so I would go to seminary every morning before school from like six to 07:00 a.m. and then go from there to school. And that was, of course, on top of everything else that's already going on in teenagers lives.

[14:22] ALEC BROZOVICH: So that was around teenage. Okay, sounds a lot like PSR for Catholics. We do it every night, and then we'd have a, gosh, I want to get slaughtered for forgetting this one. I guess it's kind of the same thing.

[14:36] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's kind of the catechism. Is it? Like. I think I read the catechism of the Catholic Church, and it's a lot of those, like, beliefs that are handed down, and you have to do that before you get baptized. Am I?

[14:49] ALEC BROZOVICH: So at least for Catholics, you're baptized when you're born. The whole thought, original sin and all that kind of stuff. Then you have your first confession, first communion about second grade, and then confirmation. That's what it is.

[15:03] RACHEL MCDANIEL: There it is.

[15:03] ALEC BROZOVICH: You have that about freshman year. And the PSR are kind of those religious classes you go to every Wednesday church. I'm pretty sure it was every Wednesday. And that's kind of. It was kind of like renewing your vows with a marriage. You're older, you kind of understand a lot more. So it's you as an adult choosing to stay in the path or not. But again, growing up in a small town, it's like. It's kind of expected.

[15:31] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So I know a thing or two about that.

[15:33] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. So that's kind of where I started pulling away. I'm like, that doesn't sound right to me. So, yeah, definitely sounds similar to the seminary and very much so.

[15:49] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So I'm curious about the people who have shaped your life. You know, what have you learned from? I tend to think of them more like elders or guides.

[16:01] ALEC BROZOVICH: The one, the top person that probably speaks the loudest to me was my childhood band teacher.

[16:11] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Love it.

[16:12] ALEC BROZOVICH: His name was. His name was Dennis. He was just a plethora of knowledge. You know, he's been through a school shooting. He's so passionate about what he does, especially the kids. You start band in fourth grade, I think it's half the week we were doing band in fifth grade, you were going to full stuff like that, and it was him and his wife. So when we were younger, his wife would be the ones that would teach us. And then as you got older, it would be him.

[16:41] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Okay. So very connected to that family if you do music in that town.

[16:46] ALEC BROZOVICH: Very. But the thing that stands out the most about him was his connection with the kids in terms of having that personal mentorship with each individual kid. He could tell you, you know, I have seven siblings, and I'm six of eight. So he'd be like, oh, I remember when your oldest sister did that, you know, and that was ten years before me and stuff like that. So being able to relate and see whole families grow, and it really helped him out. But when you start music in fourth grade, you do these fundraisers every year. But these fundraisers fund your personal account to go to Disney World in high school with the whole band trip that he did every four years.

[17:30] RACHEL MCDANIEL: How cool.

[17:31] ALEC BROZOVICH: So it wasn't just a fundraiser that, oh, let's just get money and do whatever. It was purely for the kids to be able to get to experience this and stuff like that. And if you had multiple siblings, it wasn't the thing where, oh, I'm in fourth grade, my accounts gonna fund my older sister. He didn't do that at all.

[17:48] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Wow.

[17:48] ALEC BROZOVICH: So that was kind of growing up. And then when we got into high school, it was always, hey, I know y'all are gonna drink. It's a small town, big football. You guys are rivals. I know you're gonna drink. If you need help, give me a call, I'll bring you home, no questions asked, won't talk to your parents, stuff like that. It was that trust that you just don't find really anymore today, especially in a small town.

[18:11] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So that investment.

[18:13] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. The trust. And, like, you were talking with your community centers, that safe space that we knew we had with him.

[18:22] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So we need that, especially as kids.

[18:25] ALEC BROZOVICH: We need a lot more of him around. Yes. The other one, I'm gonna say, instead of it just being a single person, I'm gonna say it's kind of a group of people. I'm gonna say it's my. It was my. I would say my team leaders and squad leaders in the marine corps, I would say they're all about the same, but they were very hard. You know, it was a knock in the face, physical, verbal, mental. I mean, everything was very aggressive. And especially in the infantry, it was. To me, I understood why a lot of the stuff happened. It was, you know, when. When stuff is going on over in the Middle east, we can't have time to think about certain things. Our minds have to be shut off, like a switch. And a lot of that was because of that. And it took some of the views I had as a kid about being respectful, but questioning when something doesn't seem right or makes sense. It really widened that belief for myself, and. Yeah, so I'd say that those would be the most influential in my life. That led me to where I am today.

[19:43] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah. Like a very clear sense of structure and how that supports the people around you to stay safe.

[19:50] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. I mean, really. And it comes down to. Not in a selfish sense, but I gotta look out for myself before anybody. Cause if I can't look out for myself, I can't look out for anybody else. I don't take care of myself. I can't take care of anybody else. So that's kind of where we're breaking the whole selfish mentality into more of a team and group base, because I know as an individual, you'll never make it in life. You need that community, you need that groove with all walks of life.

[20:19] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah. So, definitely.

[20:22] ALEC BROZOVICH: But I'm gonna ask you the same question. What, uh, who are the one, two, or few people who have really impacted your life that led you where you're at today?

[20:33] RACHEL MCDANIEL: For me, it's very much my grandparents, so I'm gonna start with the grandparent that influenced me most, the youngest. And she actually. So my mom is the 6th of seven kids, and then, you know, all of her siblings had a bunch of kids, and the age differences were kind of wonky. So she was a child during the depression, and the way that she just interacted with the world was so different. I remember watching, like, Audrey Hepburn movies with her and Shirley Temple and, you know, all sorts of just very wholesome things, and she was just one of those super, just warm people. Like, everybody just kind of wanted to be near her. And she was just such a beautiful story of overcoming because, you know, growing up in the Great Depression, not a lot of food, all sorts of problems there. She then grew up, got really good at piano, was offered the opportunity to be a concert pianist, ended up not doing it, instead marrying my grandpa and all of that. But she also had a lot of health struggles, which is just something that is so meaningful for me because I have fibromyalgia, and so it's just kind of chronic. And so, you know, sick at an age that most people don't think of being chronically ill. And so, you know, like, I remember as a kid, she had these sores on the bottom of her feet because she had diabetes and something, I don't know enough about that part of medicine, but she was told to not walk. And instead she went to Scotland and she went to China, and she walked on the Great Wall of China. And, you know, she was just of those people where, yes, she's in pain, but she's still happy and pleasant and, like, sees it as an opportunity to overcome. I mean, she had a stroke near the end of her life and couldn't use one of her hands and couldn't crochet anymore. She had, like, 30, 40 grandkids. She crocheted them all a blanket, but couldn't do that after that stroke and would just, like, peck away at the key, you know, trying to do family history, and, you know, she's just such an example to me of living, not.

[23:17] ALEC BROZOVICH: Letting those things kind of slow you down or drag you down. Absolutely.

[23:21] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah. And then, you know, my grandpa, the other side of the family, like, he was just, you know, salty, the earth, just good Kansas farmer type person. He married my grandma really young. They went off to college because his parents very much wanted him to get a degree, and they were very afraid to get married young. He wouldn't. But he always very much valued education, but not being pretentious about it, because there's, you know, there's people who are very intelligent and very rude. And he had a. Let me think, a bachelor's in biology. He used to joke that he had a bachelor's in fishing and hunting, and he was also a police officer while he was going to school. And so he had really interesting experience because that was, like, sixties, seventies, and so there's a lot of social unrest.

[24:23] ALEC BROZOVICH: And to go to college. Oh, man.

[24:25] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, and he wanted to, like, join the military, but couldn't because of his health. And so, you know, did what he could and then ended up out in western Kansas again and working for oil because that's the big industry out there. And did that until he retired. And then he farmed. Like, he was just one of those people that just always curious, always interested in things, and he just was another one of those people. Like, I was in town for his funeral in January, and I was in the lobby, checking out of my hotel, talking to the person, just hanging out in the lobby. Oh, of course, you know my grandpa.

[25:07] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[25:08] RACHEL MCDANIEL: You know, he did not know a stranger.

[25:10] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[25:11] RACHEL MCDANIEL: He would go grocery shopping, and it was never just a 30 minutes trip. It was, oh, okay, we're gonna catch up with this person and that person, you know, just such a kind, down to earth, curious person.

[25:26] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[25:27] RACHEL MCDANIEL: We could all do to be more like that.

[25:30] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. That's one of the things I'd say I'm trying to really work on with not just myself, but my son is. You know, I want to know a lot of people. It's. There's people from all over the world, all walks of life. You never know what you might meet. Similar to what you were saying. Not with my grandparents specifically, but, for example, my dad. Everybody knew him. But it would be so cool to hear his experiences with each person, seeing where it's like, it's so versatile. Nobody had the same experience. And I love that. Cause it makes it more. It just makes a stronger relationship with that person.

[26:13] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah. I shows you another side of that.

[26:15] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely.

[26:16] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Because everybody brings out a little different thing in people.

[26:19] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. Could you briefly describe, in your own words, your personal political views and values?

[26:35] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So I came to psychotherapy as a social worker. So for me, a lot of it is, you know, social systems and, you know, how can we best support the community? And so, you know, to a certain extent, like, funding that kind of stuff is really important to me. But also, you know, one of the things they emphasize when you're becoming a social worker is, like, we have to be careful because, you know, sometimes we can get benefit from these systems not working because, you know, we're employed. The problem's still there, you know, all of that stuff. And so for me, it's very much based in, like, how can we support the people with the taxes? Because that is the reason we tax. How can we do it well and without staying married to, you know, certain ways of doing it that hurt our communities more than they help them?

[27:34] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely.

[27:35] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I tend to be a little more liberal where it's like, let people be themselves. We don't have to go and legislate. You know, you can't have this way of living. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to get super, you know, down in the mess with social issues. And we also need to make sure people are safe. And so, you know, it's this really tough tension between how do we support people and how do we also not keep spinning our wheels.

[28:12] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah, I agree.

[28:14] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's really hard. There's no right answer.

[28:16] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah, there definitely is not.

[28:18] RACHEL MCDANIEL: But what about you?

[28:21] ALEC BROZOVICH: You know, I would say, I used to say I was independent, but just like I talk about with religion, I'm gonna say just non political. You know, I'll take libertarian views. I'll take liberal views, conservative views. A lot of people will say, I just like to play devil's advocate, stuff like that. And in a sense, I do. I like to know why people think the way they do, especially through my years of therapy. The why is the most important. I'm not a robot. I'm an individual. This view that this conservative has might benefit me better than it would benefit you. And there's nothing wrong with that, and vice versa. The problem I have is just like with some religion topics that I've been exposed with, it's their way or the highway definitely run into that. When talking with people about it, with a lot of issues, our country is very difficult. You know, we have our federal government, we have our state governments, then we have our county town. It's very difficult. So what I find is everybody grasping for power, but nobody wanting power. If that makes sense. I would say I am sort of a capitalist.

[29:52] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Within reason, maybe.

[29:53] ALEC BROZOVICH: Within reason. You know, I'm not the kind where I'm gonna make as much money as I can and prey on the ignorance of just everybody who just doesn't understand. I've met a lot of people like that. I've seen, especially in Wichita, doing what I do, that a lot of people are moving more toward that. And it's hard for me to stay in the community seeing that, because I can't bring myself to do that with people. But it takes me out of being competitive because I'm not willing to compete on that level just because it goes against my beliefs. I feel like I'm jumping around the question, but in terms of taxes, I agree, too. I think we're taxed incredibly heavily, but we don't really see it on the back end. We don't see minorities being taken care of. We don't see our cities being taken care of. We don't see our states, our borders, immigration. None of that stuff's being taken care of when we're sending billions and billions and billions of dollars across the world. I understand that. To a sense. I understand, you know, we are world power. There's a responsibility to that. Yeah, but where I really fell off the bandwagon of politics is when Hawaii was having their wildfires and both sides of Congress couldn't agree on a plan, so they weren't sending money, but on the down low that was kept out of the news. They sent 20 something billion dollars to Ukraine. And I'm like, what could Hawaii have done with $20 billion?

[31:29] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, my God. Right?

[31:30] ALEC BROZOVICH: It could rebuilt everything. And that's where I was like, this is just a. It's a joke. So.

[31:36] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And I tend to look at it kind of like, you know, we're a bold experiment because, you know, just the way our country was created. You know, in Europe, some of those people have been in that area for thousands of years, and so you have a little bit more cohesion. But I think the tough and the beautiful thing about our country is that we're taking a stab at, like, all of these people disagree in some capacity on some front. How can we create a system that supports them all?

[32:14] ALEC BROZOVICH: I agree. My thought on that at a community level, because one of the biggest arguments people have is, what can I do? What is my one little vote going to do? Because the electoral college is there anyway, blah, blah, blah. Right. I've kind of given up the fact that probably not going to see it in my lifetime, but if I can instill some of those beliefs we were talking about fighting against shame and disrespect and stuff like that and teach that to our kids from the beginning, we can create that society and we create that by instilling it in our children at a very young age to where it becomes their core beliefs and values. But I feel pretty confident I probably won't see it in my lifetime based off of where we're at until, you know, our kids start becoming of age wherever they're now starting to control the country and our communities and stuff like that. So. And that's what I'm kind of basing how I'm raising my son and all that and thinking. That's my part.

[33:20] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. And I think it's, you know, what can we do here? Because, you know, I have very little control over what's going on in DC, but, like, how can I be connected to my community in a way that creates the community I want to see?

[33:37] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yep, I agree. Well, with that being said, how in Wichita, and I'm gonna say the surrounding areas, when I say Wichita, I'm also thinking Andover, Derby, all that kind of stuff, what could you, if you had the ability to, what would you do a little different within the communities to kind of fix some of that? Because how we're set up, I think our communities could do that on that small of a scale.

[34:04] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I mean, I think it's stuff like this where it's super small, but it impacts the individual in a big way where we can create ways, you know, ideas about how we can hold our own space and then also let in different ideas. Like, I often compare it to, like, having walls with doors when I'm just describing it in my practice, you know, where we can open the door, let things in, and then also have the clear permission to shut the door when things get to a point that isn't productive. I mean, I really love the idea of people getting more experience with, like, nonviolent communication, that kind of stuff. Like, you know, I grew up with a fair bit of conflict because I was different and I grew up in a place where being different is not as welcome. And so, you know, I gravitated naturally towards, okay, conflict studies. How could I do this better? Because I'm obviously not doing it well. And how do we, you know, just spread that information where we can build within each person the ability to stand in who they are and also be influenced by things outside of who they are. I don't know, that kind of went.

[35:30] ALEC BROZOVICH: Around and around, but I think I am on board with what you're saying. You know, I start to think about on an individual level when we're talking about that conflict resolution, and there's so many people of different views and beliefs, and some are very radical about it. Some are very, you know, they feel very strongly, which, as you should. And how do we get these people talking and communicating? Just having a good time and kind of like your community center? I think just having the space to do so would be incredibly important. Especially lately. I see a lot of things where I would want our city officials to kind of lean into that route. Yeah, I know Wichita and the surrounding cities were really trying to become a destination for the US. I can understand where they're coming from. You know, they're putting a lot of money in infrastructure and stuff like that. But what I'm seeing is, in my opinion, that's becoming the focus. Whereas if I wanted to go to a destination city, it's why am I going to. To Las Vegas, right? There's no city in America like Las Vegas. So in terms of Wichita and the surrounding cities, why are we making. Why are we trying to emulate all these others, you know, cities and stuff like that? But imagine if us be in the center of the United States. We could create a lot of those spaces to where it's like, man, you can go to Wichita and you can, you can take a bus for free.

[37:13] RACHEL MCDANIEL: You can feel at home.

[37:15] ALEC BROZOVICH: You can feel at home. It's like you can talk to anybody. There's all these community spaces. We can go and you can just chat or you can play games or, you know, x, y, z. And it's. I find that it's starting to become very financial based and which we're spending a lot of money and. But the community's not seeing that return. And the hope is, or the promise that we're being told is, oh, we're going to get all this money back because we're becoming a destination. Stuff like that. I think I'm not too into politics, but that's kind of where I feel like that's just that problem going in circles and circles.

[37:54] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. Like, I see us maybe moving towards, like, heartland. Like, I feel like that is maybe something more organizing and more in line with what I feel Kansas is. Like, I remember going out to Massachusetts last year and I always talk with my drivers just because I find it interesting. And they were talking about how much they don't like the pressure to hustle out in the east coast and the need to deliver financially. And I was just like, well, Kansas is really different. I feel like we really focus on our families and work life balance and trying to have all of that great.

[38:38] ALEC BROZOVICH: Community stuff just inviting and warm. Absolutely.

[38:42] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. Yeah.

[38:46] ALEC BROZOVICH: Okay.

[38:50] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah, I'm just looking at the cards that were just handed to us. So, yeah.

[38:55] ALEC BROZOVICH: What was life like growing up for you? And how would you say it's different?

[39:04] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I mean, life growing up for me was, I mean, generally pretty good. It's probably different in that I learned a lot of skills that aren't really taught to people anymore. I could probably sow you just about anything.

[39:20] ALEC BROZOVICH: All right.

[39:24] RACHEL MCDANIEL: My mom actually used to grind wheat to make wheat flour and then make bread. So, like, I feel like I kind of grew up 5100 years ago because, you know, all of these just random skills that are very, very useful, but just people don't do anymore.

[39:41] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. So it's becoming a lost thing. Yeah.

[39:45] RACHEL MCDANIEL: But different in that, you know, there weren't words for who I am. You know, I remember moving to Wichita from liberal because we lived out there when I was little. I finally had a word for, oh, I'm not super into bows or lace or frills. Like, I would much rather be up in a tree. And, you know, just the word tomboy was like, oh, okay. I'm not alone in just not agreeing with the fact that this is the idea of who I'm supposed to be. And it's, you know, it's just very different because, you know, I didn't feel it when I was younger, but I felt it more as a teenager, like, those expectations and those rules that kind of get set up. And, like, I remember, you know, just spending a lot of time thinking about those rules and just feeling very much like they didn't fit me, they didn't consider me. And so there's a lot of just. And weird, you know, how do I find a way to exist in this setting when the setting doesn't acknowledge all of these things about me that don't line up with their rules? And so, you know, now I live more according to my values and my morals and, like, what I have created for myself. And it's just really interesting to come from such a structured place to a. Oh, yeah, the wide blue yonder. And you can be whatever you want to be.

[41:25] ALEC BROZOVICH: All right.

[41:26] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. What about you?

[41:27] ALEC BROZOVICH: Like, question, you know, very structured. I have quite a few siblings. I have seven siblings. I'm number six of eight. I have five sisters, two brothers.

[41:41] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Dang.

[41:43] ALEC BROZOVICH: So life for me was essentially, you know, our parents worked. That's. That's a lot of kids to provide for. With that being said, my parents were together. They're still together. They were around, but they weren't present.

[41:57] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[41:59] ALEC BROZOVICH: However, teenagers just growing up in that lifestyle, they're kind of expected. You're kind of picking up the slack. You grow up fast, you're taking care of the kids. You're doing that stuff so mom and dad can provide all that kind of stuff. I get it. But I would say I probably raised my. I believe I raised myself most of my life. You know, things from potty training and just getting my way through life, stuff like that. I would say I wasn't a very good kid. I was probably an expert at manipulation, things like that. I grew up with it. It took me until the Marine Corps to realize, oh, this is okay. So it kind of paved the way because, like I told you with a kid and the commercials is I always knew without knowing that I'm never gonna follow social norms. I'm never gonna do something somebody tells me to do if they can't provide me a why as to why to do it. And I took that straight into the Marine Corps. I would say it probably helped me in the Marine Corps because I knew how to blend in, but I also knew how to stand out in a way that most people don't. You know, if there was an order we got, it was, hey, I really don't agree with this. And you would have some officers straight out of college that were like, I don't care if you agree with it. I said, so. So you're gonna do it? And it's like, well, no, no, I'm not. This is why I don't agree with it. You know, it's. I've never been a fan of because I said so. I grew up with that, so I'm not gonna be employed underneath that, and I'm not gonna implement that in my business or my. My family and stuff like that. So I can't say I have a lot of good memories growing up. There's a lot of bad that I viewed as bad. I went through therapy, and I was able to kind of look on the back half of that. When you start thinking balance, there's no amount of bad that doesn't have an equal amount of good with it. So it was looking at all that and realizing I would not be where I'm at today if all of that did not happen. Growing up, I wouldn't be a business owner. I wouldn't, you know, have paid the life that I have now for myself if I didn't go through that. So. But it kind of leads me to. I'm not really a handout kind of person. I am a you work for it kind of person. I do believe there's things in place that, you know, people. People who need help. Absolutely. Back to our topic. That's what taxes are for. That's what some of those community centers are for. But it's become so normalized, in my opinion, in my experience, where it's just become, well, I don't want to work for that, but I want that because I deserve it. Why do you deserve it, though? Give me the why. If you can give me the why, then absolutely 100% for it. So that's kind of. I'd say I'm kind of the same as I grew up. I'm just. I grew more into what I wanted to be. And I want to say, my last couple weeks of therapy, I looked at my therapist and was like, you know, I think I'm actually starting to become the man that I kind of dreamed I would be as a kid and thought I would be. And that's pretty rewarding to feel, even with all the traumatic experiences.

[45:43] RACHEL MCDANIEL: That just gives my heart so much joy, because, like, that's part of why I am the person I am is therapy changed my life.

[45:50] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely changed my life. I would not be here without it.

[45:53] RACHEL MCDANIEL: It's amazing.

[45:54] ALEC BROZOVICH: So.

[45:54] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And I can definitely relate to that, you know, being parentified, you know, being a tiny adult.

[46:01] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[46:02] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And it really does change so many things.

[46:04] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's. It's hard to look at it like, oh, my childhood robbed. And it's like, no, I had a different childhood, which has paved the way for me now having a different adulthood than most people, and that's something I am thankful for.

[46:23] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. And it really feeds into this, like, core belief of mine that our struggles are often our strengths. You know, like, being opinionated is a strength. And as I'm sure the marines showed you, like, sometimes being opinionated is gonna get you in more trouble.

[46:41] ALEC BROZOVICH: You gotta learn that balance. You gotta learn when it's okay to be opinionated, when it's not, exactly. So.

[46:47] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So I think we have similar views on, like, just our strengths or our struggles, and it's all connected.

[46:56] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[46:58] RACHEL MCDANIEL: So, just out of curiosity, what political issue do you want to see progress on?

[47:07] ALEC BROZOVICH: Man, this is hard. I haven't really followed politics for a while, but because I am a business owner, I would say I'm more of a. I do follow some capitalist views. You know, if I work hard, I make more. Yeah. I want to keep my money. I don't want to have to pay more just because I put in the effort to make more.

[47:36] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Mm hmm. It's different when you write the check because you're a small business owner.

[47:41] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. So out of all the issues, social or not, I think the media plays on that quite a bit. I think politics play on that quite a bit. I think we saw that in the debate. I didn't watch debate. I just watched snippets because I did not want to know. But I think taxes is a big thing all the way to the smallest level, because it seems that where I'm at, money is the focus of everything, and it's not about how much do we need, it's how much can we get, how much can we make.

[48:16] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[48:17] ALEC BROZOVICH: And it's just going to keep getting worse and worse until somebody stands up for the people and says something about it or does something about it. And I just don't see that happening anytime soon because our country is structured around money.

[48:33] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[48:34] ALEC BROZOVICH: So out of all the issues, I think that's definitely one that somebody needs to figure out quickly. I think I just saw something in California where they have lost so much tax revenue from electric vehicles and not, you know, that now they're gonna start implementing attacks on how many miles an electric vehicle runs. And I'm like, I feel like you're already charging sales tax on those vehicles. People are doing this to better the environment, to help themselves, stuff like that. If you're a state as big as you are, I think you can kind of figure out where you can make up that difference. I don't believe that the money that they're losing from gas, from the tax on gas, is so astronomical that they have to start charging a new tax on something else. I think it's money needs to be spent smarter, spent better. Yes, they make things public, stuff like that. But they deliberately know the public's not gonna sit around all day, every day and research hundreds of pages of documents to see where this money's going. I think they deliberately do that.

[49:47] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I think we can agree on, like, I think we need more transparency.

[49:50] ALEC BROZOVICH: Absolutely. And it starts the community. I think seeing it in our communities where, hey, let's stop building new buildings. Let's start using that tax money, and let's start changing, you know, the west mall, you know, can we. Can we turn that into a homeless center. Can we do something there? Yeah, but it's. But instead, we're spending. I think it's up to 7 million now on a pickleball complex. Brand new. I'm like, I don't think we really need that. Right, so.

[50:20] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Right. And especially just with financial struggles as they are, like, there's so much need for stuff like that.

[50:27] ALEC BROZOVICH: Oh, absolutely.

[50:28] RACHEL MCDANIEL: You know, for me, like, I love numbers because numbers, it's harder to lie and hide things. And so I would love to see, like, hey, we put this much money toward making sure our roads stayed good. You know, we put this much money into having a fire department because fire departments are necessary. You know, I think it would be so much easier to pay taxes if we knew that things were being taken care of.

[50:56] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah, absolutely. And I would be more than comfortable paying whatever the tax was. Again, knowing the why. Where's that going? And why is it going there?

[51:06] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[51:06] ALEC BROZOVICH: So does it benefit our community?

[51:08] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yes.

[51:09] ALEC BROZOVICH: That kind of thing. So what do you think would help our country change for the better?

[51:21] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Nuance, like that gray area? I think that that is truly a big thing that we're missing right now, because people pick political parties almost like sports teams. It feels like, yeah, it's like, I'm this one. I'm that one. And we're bitter rivals rather than, you know. Well, yeah, we disagree on some things. These are the places where we do overlap, you know? And then when that gets down to, like, okay, how do we actually make that happen? Like, whew, that's an undertaking.

[51:57] ALEC BROZOVICH: And maybe we both disagree on something, but what is the common ground we can meet on? Instead of being like, no, my party says this, this is what I'm gonna do. But you're right. Where is that common ground? Where. And personally, I think it just lies in the community. It's, let politics at the federal level do what they want. But as a community, how. As our community leaders, it's, how do we bring our community together? What are the biggest issues?

[52:28] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I think the way we do money in politics is part of the problem, because if we have big corporations who can pay to encourage people to vote one way or another, then they're not there for the people. So if I were to change something, that would probably be the first one.

[52:45] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah, I definitely think money goes a big way into it. One reason I think that is tank an eagle wildlife park next year. They're becoming a destination. Right? I am a gold pass member with them. So there's a Facebook page for gold passes, and they've been doing a lot of votes with the Facebook community. Like, hey, we understand a lot of you are upset about it. What can we do different? What if we did this and they would have a vote? And it's. To me, it's like, you can talk about how democracy never works. It fails, you know, on a big scale. Absolutely. But that in itself is democracy. I believe that is. What if you want to go into forefathers, all that, if that's who you are. This is what they entailed. It's. They made a decision. They don't know if it's right. So now they're asking the community, did we do the right thing? And if we didn't, what can we do to make sure we don't make it seem like we're not here for our community? And that's one thing I think the park's doing amazing is because a lot of it is based off money. I get it. Inflation, stuff like that.

[53:49] RACHEL MCDANIEL: And the humility, too, in, hey, I might not have gotten it perfect because I'm a human being just like the rest of you.

[53:57] ALEC BROZOVICH: I got shivers when you said that because I'm like, yeah, it's a light bulb. Absolutely. Humility.

[54:01] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah. So definitely need more of that.

[54:04] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. Everyday life. But.

[54:10] RACHEL MCDANIEL: What are your hopes for the future?

[54:14] ALEC BROZOVICH: I really just hope we can really put a lot of our personal differences aside, start thinking about our children and, you know, what, are we gonna leave our children?

[54:26] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Yeah.

[54:27] ALEC BROZOVICH: Because that thought is pretty scary.

[54:31] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Mm hmm.

[54:32] ALEC BROZOVICH: So.

[54:33] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Oh, yeah. Especially with so many changes around us that we can witness.

[54:39] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[54:42] RACHEL MCDANIEL: What are we leaving them?

[54:43] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. That and probably open mindedness.

[54:47] RACHEL MCDANIEL: Mm hmm.

[54:48] ALEC BROZOVICH: That's a. Yeah.

[54:52] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I would say that mine are probably very similar. You know, I don't know exactly where I heard this, but, like, wisdom is planting a tree, even though, you know you'll never sit in the shade of its branches.

[55:07] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah.

[55:07] RACHEL MCDANIEL: You know, I I think giving better than we got is really, like, my hope for the future, because I totally agree. What are we leaving our kids? What is truly important to us? And are we letting that be reflected in our actions?

[55:29] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yep. So.

[55:33] RACHEL MCDANIEL: This was so fun.

[55:35] ALEC BROZOVICH: Yeah. I enjoyed this. It was really nice to meet you and learn a lot more about you and kind of where you came from. Same where you're going.

[55:45] RACHEL MCDANIEL: I learned so much from you.

[55:47] ALEC BROZOVICH: Thank you.