The QBS Express

QBS_Ep21_ChrisCroft
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Scott Heidner: [00:00:00] welcome listeners to the ACEC Kansas Podcast, the QBS Express. I'm your host, Scott Heidner, and it is my delight today to have as my guest state representative Chris Croft, who represents the eighth House District and uh, as of a few weeks ago, was also elected House majority leader for the 2023 and 2024 Kansas legislative sessions.

Representative Croft thanks so much for being here.

Chris Croft: Scott. Thanks for having me on.

Scott Heidner: Well, we've been excited to have you on the show and get a chance to visit with you. And as listeners know, we, we really are on this show, not as much focused on the, the political and the policy side so much as, you know, getting to know the person that's gonna be playing such a large role in the policy [00:01:00] arena for all of our clients and, and colleagues.

And as we always do, let's rewind the tape all the way back to the very beginning. Tell listeners where you were born and grew up and, and a little bit about your childhood and what a, an average day in, in the life of a young Chris Croft look like. .

Chris Croft: Well, I I was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and grew up in Orlando.

My mom was a, a college teacher at a community college, and dad left when I was young. So mom, it was just the two of us. I have no brothers or sisters. And so every day, you know, consisted of my mom made sure that I, you know, after school I was in every sports program known in fact, at one point I think I played on two football teams at the same time.

So she just made sure she, that I had a lot of models around me, people around me that, you know, kind of gave me examples of where she wanted me to be. Yeah. You,

Scott Heidner: you appeared to have avoided the CTE despite being in two football leagues at the same time. Yeah. Isn't that the acronym for the, the, yeah.

Yeah. Before you [00:02:00] move any further, just outta curiosity, what did your mom teach?

Chris Croft: She taught basic skills business skills. Mm-hmm. for folks that were trying to get a job, administrative assistants, things like that, how to type write. So that's why I can type. Yeah. I learned how to Run the IBM typewriter that actually had a computer in it way back then.

She didn't know how to do it, so I did it for her. I think I was eight years old. How funny. Came in and helped her teach the class. Yeah. And so that was a lot of fun. So she did a lot of those things. But that was the basic. And then she taught basic accounting and things like that. So

Scott Heidner: we we could have used Ms. Croft right here at Braden Heidner Lowe, one of my very own partners who I won't name, but his initials are Travis Lowe. Still types with two fingers. You know, he he could have benefited from being in, in Ms. Croft's business typing twice.

Chris Croft: We'll have to work on him with that . Anything I can use to mess with, with young Travis, I would love to do it.

Scott Heidner: Well, you you should light him up about that, but Oh, I will, will. But, but be fully warned, he is a borderline, violently proud of the pace at which he types with [00:03:00] two fingers. He's he's like the, the undersized kid on the school ground that every time he gets challenged he's like, I'll fight you right now.

He, he's, he's like, we'll sit down and, and have a type off. I bet I can type more words a minute than you can.

Chris Croft: Well, I've experienced him this last couple years ago. Right. working with that licensing bill. Yeah, I experienced his fight , so,

Scott Heidner: oh, well back on, back on your youth. What, so a lot of sports obviously you already talked about, but what what were your other hobbies as a, a kid and what filled your time?

Chris Croft: Well, you know, just being outside playing. That, that was what I, I, I would stay out till well past dark with the kids. We'd play kick the can, we'd, we'd get on skateboards, go down the street. In fact, I just recently went back to my road that I lived on. Hadn't it'd been 25 years. That road is so much shorter than I remember.

It seemed like it was really long when I was a kid, but boy, it's, it's kind of short. Yeah. But no, that was what we did. We were out there all the time hanging out with friends and, and and then occasionally then when I got [00:04:00] older and mom needed me to come over there and help and then I would sit around the back of the classroom and watch her teach and see that process.

And, and actually at the community college, Valencia Community College, they had a golf course, three holes. So they were teaching people how to play golf that one of their things. And so they let me go out there and that's why I started playing golf was because of that time when mom didn't have enough money to send me to, you know, daycare or anything else, or be have somebody watch me.

I went out there and hung out. I'll be darn those things. So yeah, it's kinda neat.

Scott Heidner: It is a

Chris Croft: business.

Scott Heidner: Well, it is a skill. That's true. I mean, it is. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a wish. I was better at it though. Yeah. You and me both. Well, this is gonna make us both sound heinously old, but I'm gonna say it anyway. You know, we grew up in the era where it literally was go make your own fun.

Right. You know, oh yes, there's the door, sun is shining. Go find something to do. You know?

Chris Croft: Absolutely. Yeah. Bicycles into the, in the woods and, yeah.

Scott Heidner: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay, so let's transition. You're [00:05:00] going into high school, maybe getting to the age where you have to think about what comes next. What were your ambitions then?

Did you have an aspiration in your late high school of what you wanted to do? And then what did you end up doing post-graduation?

Chris Croft: Yeah, so in high school, I, I, again, I, I transitioned over to golf and I did play in the band a lot and, you know, wanted to. You know, maybe thought about that. Not really that good.

So I realized that wasn't gonna work.

Scott Heidner: Doesn't stop a lot of us .

Chris Croft: Well that wasn't that good . That doesn't stop a lot of us, let's put it that way. So, ended up as I came out of high school, I wanted to go into I had a great physics teacher. I was in AP physics and he, he talked me into going to chemical engineering.

So I thought that's kind of what I wanted to go down that path. Being an engineer. , but you know, obviously that didn't work out very well, but , as we go a long life. But that was the idea in high school, I, I tried to play baseball and obviously you, you know, when it's your [00:06:00] time mm-hmm. and those weren't my times, football wasn't my time anymore.

I'd done that for long enough and it was time to go on and do other things and so I was really happy, had really a lot of focus in that chemical area, chemistry area and the, and the physics. And so that's why I went down that path.

Scott Heidner: Very cool. Yeah. And so that path literally physically led to,

Chris Croft: well that path led me to University of Florida where I started my education, went into that area and realized, How little I actually knew when I got there, I learned a little bit about how, you know, you need to be prepared for college and wasn't quite there.

Learned the value of maybe going back to a community college. Mm-hmm. . And then that's where I ran into the Army folks and kind of got involved with that process. I really ran into a couple folks that that brought me in and just kind of shepherd me in that pro and going through applying, getting accepted and then and

Scott Heidner: how, how old were you at that time?

Chris Croft: See, I started college at 17, actually, I started college at 15. Cuz I went. Some night classes with my mom. [00:07:00] She did that, but so they weren't official. But the, the real start was at 17, so I think I was 18 when I signed a contract with the Army, with a, with the army to go in. So I got a three and a half year scholarship to become an engineer in the army.

And you don't always get to do in the army what, what your education is, right? . So I learned that at going through the process, but, but I also didn't make it to the end of being an engineer. That's pretty tough business there, you know, pretty impressive folks that managed to make it through. But I ended up in computer science was real, my real area that I liked.

Scott Heidner: Very cool. So well give us that. So this next question will, you know, candidly is probably the bulk of the podcast because it was the, the vast bulk of your career. Give us the to the extent you're, you're legally able to and comfortable doing so, give us the download of what you did, your areas of service, your areas of specialty, you know, deployments.

I know you know you've served overseas as well. Your, your graduation through the ranks. Graduation is wrong. Your, [00:08:00] your elevation and promotion through the ranks. Yeah, give us the, the outline of your career.

Chris Croft: Okay. Now how much time do we have?

Scott Heidner: As much, as much time as you want.

Chris Croft: So you know. Okay. So I stopped there now.

We ended, I did not graduate from Florida. I ended up, you know, when I was 18, and this is something I can tell you later on, finished the story later on. But when I was 18, I told my roommate, I said, the next girl I date, I'm gonna marry. Oh, holy cow. And so I met my wife on the volleyball court cuz I played competitive volleyball.

And I'm a setter. I can't jump, I literally can bar barely get a piece of paper under my feet when I jump. I have never touched the net on a basketball court , not the rim, the net. I, I literally can't jump. And I met her, tried to get her to date me for a year. She finally dated me and I married her.

And so when we got married, we decided to move down to Central Florida back home. And we moved to, I went, finished my my af my AA degree at community college and then went to Central Florida and that's where I graduated. Okay. Alright. So we, in that transition, I met [00:09:00] a great guy and his name is Peter Berry.

And this is a guy, so like when I was a kid, you know, we had talked earlier, one of my first jobs I ever had was uh uh, I mowed lawns and I was still mowing lawns all the way up into college. I also worked at Popeye's Fried Chicken. Outstanding. You know, I started there in the back, sweeping the floors.

Then prepared the chicken, then cooked the chicken, and then ran the the drive-through. And it was one of the second most busy in the nation. And so we learned about processing, how you get things going. So it was a great experience going through there. But as I went into this part of where we're at you know, as I was mowing lawns, this one guy, there was one gentleman again, Peter Berry pulled me aside and said, Hey, I'll pay three hours for you to mow my lawn.

It took 30 minutes. I'm like, yeah, this is great. I'm gonna make some good money. What he didn't know was he was gonna be the, one of the very beginning member mentors for me throughout my entire career. So he so for 30 minutes I mowed the lawn, and then he'd go, okay, come on, let's sit down. I, I have, I've got two and a half more hours.

And he'd say, okay, let's talk about what does it mean to [00:10:00] be. Husband, what does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a, a military leader? And he took me through all these things and just kind of educated me and treated me like one of his own kids.

Scott Heidner: Can I interrupt and ask you a question?

Chris Croft: Yes, sir.

Scott Heidner: Had you, had you officially joined the Army at this point already?

Chris Croft: So I was still an ROTC at this point, so, okay. And so I was a college student. Uhhuh , still going through. And he was part of the mentor program that we were supposed to have mentors to come out. And, you know, I wasn't the best student.

I wasn't the best cadet. I was married, we had a child. I was busy, I had four jobs at the time. So I was trying to just make ends meet and just get done with things. And this guy, for him to take that time, see something in me that I didn't see in myself is something that I've always wanted to give back and be able to do.

And so, and that's the way it is, is I'm gonna sit here and talk about through my career. That's what I've had all the way through my career. Every stop along the way, I can tell you about an individual. that has taken the time to put me under their wings and say, Hey, let's, let's talk about things and let me help you achieve.

And it's my job to do that for others. And [00:11:00] that's the way I've always believed. But so as I came in, the army didn't think I was gonna be on active duty. There was a transition period where we had done a big military buildup and now we were doing a little bit of military down, right? And so I didn't get the active duty slot.

I got a reserve slot and I didn't know. And all of a sudden now I. Come back and have a job. So I got into computer science. I started my own computer programming company as well as I was in real estate, but then I had to go off to school for my ROTC to become an officer. Right. So you get promoted or you get commissioned and then you have to go to school, your basic school, call it.

And for me it was transportation Officer basic school. So I'm a transportation officer by trade. I love, in fact, my whole skillset through the time is strategic transportation. And so while we were there, they had an opportunity to win an active duty slot. And it was a competition. Make no, make no bones about it.

It was, it was a tough competition and we had to go through the whole process and So I came down to the last day, I was number three in the class, in the numbers of, of, for [00:12:00] the education numbers. And it came down to the interviews. And so there's a long story about that we can cover another date, but at the end of the day we won the active duty slot and they said, where do you want to go?

And I was like, you know, I've never been outta the southeastern part of the United States. Never been on an airplane, I don't think. He said, well, how about Europe? I'm like, that sounds great. Europe. So, so they said, well now we don't have an exact assignment yet, so we're gonna take a little bit of time. So I called Connie, she was down, she was down in Florida and I was up in Virginia for the school.

And it was one of the only times in our career that we actually separated from time and space just because I knew I was only there for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. And I said, Hey, you good with Europe? She goes, yeah, sounds good. We'll go. And I said, but they don't know anything for several months, so I've gotta pick some schools.

So I picked going to Airborne School. . Mm. Yeah, it sounded really cool. At the time, , I just didn't realize one of the first planes I was gonna be on, I was gonna jump out . So, I have six more takeoffs and I have landings. . [00:13:00] Yeah. Yeah. I'm good. I'm, I'm, there's a lot of people that jumped a lot more than I have, and God bless 'em.

I love him because I don't have to do it anymore. I've done my six. So, so while we were in school though, they said, Hey, would you guys consider going to Italy? And we looked at the globe like, you know, remember they had those old globes spun around? Oh yeah, absolutely. So we looked at the globe and said, Hey, wait a minute.

Italy's south of Germany. Let's do that. It looks a lot warmer there. Growing up in Florida, I'm not really a big fan of the cold. So we said, yeah, we'll take Italy. So they sent us to Italy only to find out it was an airborne post, and I was an airborne school. And so we're going through that, that experience and show up there and.

Yeah, it was my very first day there. My wife wasn't allowed to travel with me, so she actually literally walked me on the airplane with our daughter. Then she left. Then we take off, and I land in Italy and. And you come out of the airplane and it's a, here's all the guard dogs, people with Uzi and military everywhere, barbed wire fences.

And you're like, whoa, [00:14:00] what did I just walk into? So it was a culture shock for me walking into that. And then my very first day Larry Kilworth, my first sergeant, remember I told you about all these people, right? Yeah, yeah. Am I gonna go to everybody? But I'm just gonna go there. So Larry Kilg comes in, he goes, that haircut's not gonna work.

Haircut? Oh yeah. First day. Okay. I mean, I've walked off the plane, that haircut's not gonna work. He goes, we don't block our haircut. And to my Air Force friends out there, he goes, it is not the Air Force. We taper our haircuts, . So I'm sure, I'm sure that that Adam Turk and some other guys, Blake Carpent are gonna beat me up on this one.

But so anyways I walked over to the barbershop to get a haircut and I sat down. They said, Hey, first sergeant's already called. I go, okay, no, what I'd like to do. She goes, no, the first sergeant's already called and she proceeded to gimme a flat top, like instantly just ripped it right off. And there we go.

So I now had a new haircut. I walked back over, he's like, yeah, we don't do middle names in the Army. We do first names. So you're now Chris. Well, that was my mom's name. So I never went by my first name. I always went by middle name. And [00:15:00] so my wife shows up 30 days later. I've got press uniform, shine boots.

I've never had that in my career. And I'm totally changing all that process. And that gentleman to this day is why I dress the way I do, the way I, I carry myself because of that individual. Yeah. I even had an experience where many years later I was General's Aid and I had two devices on my belt. They were beepers back then, and he saw it in a picture and he called me to tell me that the army regulation said one and I'd better get it right or he, cuz he's watching.

Wow. So I learned that there's people always watching everything you're doing and all these stories and all these experiences are things that affect me and the way I, I carry myself every day. So yeah, I'm, I'm sure I haven't gone to a whole thing, but, so that was Italy. That was just my first assignment, man.

That was three years.

Let me ask you this before you move on to assignment number two. What did Mrs. Croft think of, of the new new and improved Chris Croft ?

Well, it took her a little while to get used to that. She's like, now what happened to my husband ? And it became kind of a story. It was a while [00:16:00] before she actually converted over.

Yeah. You know, and And then it'll become a new, new thing because then everybody that knew me before the army was my middle name, and everybody that knew me in the army was my first name. So it, it's gradually transitioned. Yeah. And I bet you people couldn't even tell you what my middle name is at

this point.

So, this has taken us back to your pre-military service just for a minute. But I also meant to make the comment earlier you said you told your roommate, the next woman I date, I'm going to marry. So clearly that worked out swimmingly well for you? Oh, absolutely. And I would venture to say you are probably one in 10,000 when I think about mentoring young people on how to map their life.

Telling them to marry the next person they date is probably not no. Nope.

I wouldn't say that's the way to go, but yeah, it was just something I just walked in my roommate and said, and I'm like, he goes, you're, you're crazy. Yeah. And ,

Scott Heidner: well, it was crazy,

Chris Croft: but it worked. It did work. Yeah. And she's been [00:17:00] great.

She's been with me the whole time. We have two kids and six grandkids. We just had our six one born in November. Oh, congratulations.

Scott Heidner: That's awesome. Well, I interrupted so back to No, you're fine. So three years in

Chris Croft: Italy. Three years in Italy. Mm-hmm. and our daughter, you know, one of the cool things was we went on a field trip there and, and our daughter was in an entire school called the Zillow.

And so we went on a field trip with him. And we heard this little girl in the back talking in Italian, like, God, that sounds like our daughter, but I don't think she's, yeah. Never speak Italian around us. Walked back there and it was her just going to town. She is fluent in Italian. Crazy. And then her, what was neat about that was when she got married, she married a Mil, a guy that joined the military and uh, she's the one that has the six kids by the way.

And then their first assignment was vis Italy as well. No way. So right back to the same spot. She went back to the same places she'd been to and it was really just kind of a neat experience for her. That's cool. So yeah. So her second assignment, these are tough assignments. I know the Army doesn't sound very tough at this point cuz our second assignment was Hawaii.

Oh

Scott Heidner: my [00:18:00] gosh. Oh right. . So, oh, the humanity.

Chris Croft: Yeah. But they trust me, they got their, their pound of flesh out later, they, they've never got to go to those cool spots again. Yeah. But three years in Hawaii, you know, and people would say, man, did you get bored on that island? I could have stayed there 20 years and never gotten bored.

There's so much to do. There's so many great people, just the environment's. Wonderful. Had some good experiences with the military and commanded there. And then we left there and went to and, and this is where kind of things started changing cuz now you started getting options. Now you've been in, you know, six years had the opportunity to go to, to be a training with industry officer at Sears and Roebuck.

Hmm. They had just established a brand new LI logistics division and that's where I was heading. And I got diverted to go to this thing called the Military Traffic Management Command. And it was in dc, Washington, DC and had happened to be a guy I met when I was a second lieutenant. I brought him in, he came to go do a speech and I was his escort officer and I had worked with him and talked to him and taken care of him in that whole trip of [00:19:00] like four days.

And in those four days, We established a relationship that, that gentleman is Roger Thompson Jr. West Point class. He, he went to West Point and then he went to Vietnam as field artillery and then changed over to transportation. He was now making his second star and he hired me to be his General's Aid.

And you know, I'll never forget, he called me in the first day. He goes, Hey, you, as long as you remember, I wear the stars, you wear the bars, we're gonna be good . And I know Travis has heard me say that quite a few times and and some experiences. And he, he's just, he, he's a super professional guy.

Al always wants to think and be a part of the process and never be Be a problem to the process. And just, again, another gentleman that took me under his wing and he's the one that started me on this, this program that I've done now is about how everybody that I work with or, or I'm around, talk about a 10 year plan.

What is your 10 year plan? How you gonna get there? How can I help you achieve that? And that's how you also get people to understand where they're at and what they see in themselves. And so we did that and then he taught me [00:20:00] my, he had me read my first really big book where I had to explain myself. It was 1200 pages once an eagle.

And I've now read that book three times and and we, we've talked about it a ridiculous amount of times. And so I was his aid for three years. And I joke about that cuz I say that, you know, most people do a general's aid job one time, one. , and I'm a slow learner, so it took me three years to learn what most people learned in a year but, but it truly I was with him there. We traveled probably 250 days out of our first 365. We were all around the world as command was everywhere. And then I left there and went to the Penta. And in the Pentagon, I had some incredible experiences there. I worked in the strategic mobility division and you know, we were talking earlier a little bit about that.

You know, one of the things that happened there was this thing called a mobility requirements. Bottom up review RS Bru. And cuz you know, we do acronym pretty well in the Army, right? Of course. I will tell you, I'm sitting over there in that building and I hear an awful lot of acronyms. In fact, I heard my first [00:21:00] whole sentence the other day in acronyms.

I thought that was pretty impressive, . And by the way, it was an engineer. Ah, of course it was. Of course it was. So, so, but that study was all about the infrastructure, right? When we went into war and desert Storm, we had a lot of infrastructure failures. We, our rail stations weren't, our rail yards weren't working well.

We didn't have enough rail cars. Our ports weren't, you know, doing the best. We didn't have enough equipment there. There was just a lot of things that were prominent in the shipping. And that's where I also learned about the Jones Act and many other things. But you know, and I got to go around the country and it's amazing in that time, just going around and seeing, and I'm pretty sure that we got to go to Fort Riley and see.

What it was they were trying to do. And now to get to go back there and see Fort Riley and how it is, it's pretty amazing that everything that was visualized is now real. And if you look at, there's only two divisions that are actually in the interior part of the United States. It's the first and the fourth.

And they can only be there to be reflective to go either direction because of the infrastructure that we have. And that [00:22:00] was all because of that study and all because we had those failures back in the nineties that we had to fix. And kudos to everybody that was involved in that process. It was a long process.

I wasn't involved in it that long. I was only a short period. But man, very impactful experience.

Scott Heidner: I'm to listeners, Chris and I had lunch before the podcast and got to chat about a lot of this stuff. And I shared with you in one of the first comparisons that came to my mind and it really surprised me that you said you had never thought of it in that context, but you were doing sort of a.

Stem to stern review of how military equipment and resources will be transported and transferred across different modalities. The first thing I thought of was Eisenhower's, you know, famous and, and to some extent really the first time it had happened here in America, commissioned to do that same sort of study, which of course led to the interstate highway system.

That's right. And, and yet you said you'd even after working in it so many years, that you'd never really thought of it in that parallel [00:23:00] before.

Chris Croft: No, I didn't. But it was a great, id a great thought you had I, but, but it's so true. Yeah. But I guess cuz we already had the infrastructure of the roads where he was doing it from scratch.

Yeah. Right. He was, and that was kind of unique. Yeah. Ours was about how do you rebuild what's already there, which sometimes can actually offer some very different challenges. Mm-hmm. , you know, cuz it's the way we've always done it. Well, how do we not do it the way we've always done it and how do we do it better in the future?

So there was, there was some of that in there and. Yeah, but I, yeah, he's Eisenhower, by the way, is pretty

Scott Heidner: impressive. He Oh, yeah. What a, what a treasure. Not to, not to, especially for our state, not to derail us here. Pun half intended while we're talking about rail transport. But the last podcast we did was with the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, and Oh, wow.

Yeah, that is, that is cool. As a matter of fact, if oh, I'm gonna be burning up tape here when people would rather be listening to you. But I have to tell you one story that I hope the inter listeners will find interesting too. So, We went and visited them [00:24:00] and did a podcast, and we got a great tour of the place.

It's just been renovated, so it's spectacular. And even if you've, somebody's been there before, it's worth going again. But they have all these exhibits and one of 'em is a, a big poster board, very famous photo, which I'm sure you've seen. He's with paratroopers the day before D-day visiting with the guy.

He's got the camo paint on his face and, and Eisenhower has his hands in the air and what we know now, but didn't know until decades after was, you know, who was that paratrooper and what were they talking about and everything, and. It's just amazing. The exhibit itself was cool because they had the actual uniform that the paratrooper was wearing in that picture, but what was really cool was how they got it.

And I, I, I still can't get my head around how this happened. They were just doing some random tour on some random Tuesday in 1988 or [00:25:00] something, pre-internet, you know, pre-site before somebody could go and check and see are they open or are they closed for renovations or whatever. And that paratrooper who had remained anonymous, even while the photo had exploded and become very famous, lived in, I think Michigan or something like that, got is 1977 Old's mobile or whatever, and drove all the way down to Abilene, Kansas, got in line, you know, paid.

$2 or whatever, and joined the tour group, went all the way through it, and at the end, as the people at the museum were bidding them all, goodbye, he said, oh, hey, just by the way, that's me and I've still got the uniform if you want it. And by the way, he was talking to me about fly fishing. That's why he had his hands up in the air like he was casting.

But how, I mean, just how crazy is that? You know, they didn't find it [00:26:00] at an auction or through an internet search or whatever. Literally the old guy just. Got in his car from Michigan and drove all the way down and just casually mentioned to him at the end of the tour, I'm the paratrooper in that, you know, incredibly famous photo.

But anyway.

Chris Croft: No, that's crazy. I mean, but a lot of that happens. It happens a lot. Yeah. You know? Amazing. How many times you run into something to go, Hey, do you happen to know? Well, as a matter of fact, I do. Yeah. You know, we were in the same unit. You, we talked sometimes here is that, you know, there's some other folks that are in this building that we work with that I was actually in combat with.

You know, Barker, judge Barker and I were in Italy right about the same time. In fact, he had Barker there and he had David French came in between and then I was there That overlapped with David French in Bechen, Italy at the same time. I'll be darn. We didn't know each other then, but I mean, it happens lot more than you

Scott Heidner: think.

Yeah. John, John, it's crazy. John has extraordinary stories to tell about. Yes, he does. Yes. Yeah, yeah, he does. Many of [00:27:00] which may not be a podcast eligible .

Chris Croft: I won't, I I won't do say one way or the other. I'll just leave it alone.

Scott Heidner: So, okay. So I think to pick back up, I, I, I derail this a little bit there. That's right.

But time, three years with the General's Aid and the strategic transportation study.

Chris Croft: And so I was in the Pentagon. Did that Actually, one of the nice things as, as we were talking to was, so I got to do a presentation because again, my skillset is about strategic mobility, and I did a presentation on strategic dominant maneuver, our ability to project forces into combat directly in, in influence, and using the nation's power.

Right. You know, we talk about what are the nation's power? It's the dime, right? Diplomacy, information, military and economics. So you only use the military when you have to. But when it's time to use 'em, you need to use 'em. They need to be able to get to the fight. That's the difference between us and others, is we have the ability to get to the fight because of our infrastructure, because of the, the shipping, the airplanes and everything else that we have.

That's what's different about all of us right now. And so I gave a presentation on that. That presentation book is still sit, [00:28:00] is it in my office right now, because it was many years later I went to my boss, it was a three star general, and he handed me this book and goes, Hey, by the way, I was in the back of that room when you gave that presentation.

Good job. And Oh, this is years later. Oh, it was, it was easily 20 years later he gave me that book. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was definitely 20 years later. That's a cool moment. It was a cool moment. And he was a gr he was a great boss. Another good mentor to me who just recently retired and You know, of course he, he, he likes Coach K, so that's not a good thing around here.

I get that, but that's the only negative part. But I get it. Coach, coach,

Scott Heidner: coach K's retired. We have to find a Dayton there at some point. .

Chris Croft: That's right. And then so anyway, so then I left the Pentagon and the General picked up his third star and I went with him to Scott Air Force Base and You know, what they always say about the Air Force is they build out their golf courses first, the, the housing and the officers clubs for the clubs, and then they don't have enough money for the runway, and then they ask for more

[00:29:00] But here's what I'll tell you.

Scott Heidner: You are going to catch hell from some of your, oh no,

Chris Croft: I say these stories all the time, so they know. But the point is, it's true. They have the best housing. They're incredible. And and so that was probably the best house we lived on in, in, in our entire career. It was really a super place.

And it's also the only, other than Fort Leavenworth, it's the only place Our house still exists. Huh? All the other places have been torn down and redone because they were so bad. This one was It, it's still there. Our time at Scott Air Force Base was incredible. It was a good place. And amazingly how much they have that, that's the hub of the Air Force in its understanding of, of, of how they all their airframes and where they're flying right there at Scott Air Force Base and they do it right there, always do it right.

And we had a great time doing that job there. Got to do that for a year and then and then I transition transitioned over into an initiatives group where it was all about what is the strategy of the future? How do we need things to be, and how do we develop a plan to get there? So all of these things about me has been [00:30:00] about.

That strategy part of it and looking at the bigger picture of things and how do the pieces and parts fit together and to make that strategy of the future. So don't just come. It's not just about this one off this or one off that it's okay, that's great, but how does it fit in the overall scheme? And if it doesn't fit in the scheme, then maybe we oughta hold off.

So that's what I learned in that job. And then I left from there and that's just when I got associated with Kansas. I had come, I came here for commanding General Staff College for my first year of school, and that was in 90. 2000. So that's when the dreaded, you know, it's y2k, what's gonna happen.

Mm-hmm. . And the next morning we woke up and went right back to school and kept going. Right, right. No, no big deal. And then I got offered to stay at a second year and go to the school advanced military studies. So that's where I got my master's degree. And it's a full year of study of strategy and it was more at the operational level, but it's still about the strategy and how do you make things fit together and why do, how do you find the problems and try to solve the problems.

And they're always not one in one like a problem. Doesn't always have a simple solution. Well sometimes it has five or six. [00:31:00] And then what are the key nodes that you need to attack to get those things to make the problem get resolved? And it's not always a frontal assault on it. Sometimes you have to approach it from the side.

So that's what we learned in that whole year. And we basically read a book a. For an entire year. And it was an intense year. I will tell you that, that was very intense for me, but it changed my life on things. I'm so happy that I was told to go do that. It threw me off my 10 year plan. Yeah. But it ended up making my 10 year plan.

Perfect.

Scott Heidner: So this is not a loaded question. Don't feel like you have to say yes, but did you start to fall in love with Kansas at that time?

Chris Croft: Oh, we had a great time in Kansas. My daughter got her first horse here. They, my wife and daughter, they were riding, doing rodeos and competitions and, and so they had a great time.

My daughter met her husband here. I much to my chagrine at the time. , I wasn't real happy about it, but you know, it's like a dad, right, right. So, you know, you're like, eh, that's nice. No. Right. My daughter learned to drive here. I put her on the back. We were on one of the [00:32:00] gravel roads and I put her on her hill.

She, we had a stick shift car, made her learn how to drive a stick shift, working with the hills and everything else. So there's a lot of positives for us here in Kansas. And so, yeah, I would say that's when we. Cool. You know, everybody always knows you want to come to Kansas for CGSE, but you're thinking about it from a school perspective, but from a personal perspective, you know, it's all those other things.

This is the year that most people get to spend a year with their family they don't get to spend time with. That's one huge thing right now today that many of these folks deploy, deployed multiple times. This is the first time they get to spend some family time. The other thing that's kind of neat up here about Leavenworth is that you have all these, all these international officers, and so they come here and they, they study with us and they do things and they go on to be leaders in their country.

But they learn about America. When they learn America based off Kansas, because they're in Kansas all the time. They get to do little trips here and there, but every day. So what they believe and know about America is Kansas America. That's what it is. And that's, [00:33:00] that's kind of a cool experience. That's pretty darn.

And when you start realizing that, that is, yeah,

Scott Heidner: no doubt. Yeah. I will say too as a lifelong born and raised Kansan, and a darn proud one at that, It is in some ways, you know, I love my fellow Kansan that, like me, are, are born and raised and died in the wool. But in some ways it's almost even cooler when somebody's here because they choose to be, you know, somebody that was born and died in the wool somewhere else and then came here and saw what Kansas is all about and says, this is where I choose to be.

Right. That's pretty cool.

Chris Croft: Yeah. Well we we definitely chose it here and we love it. Yeah. You know, the people are great. I, I, I, this is what I say is the people are great. They are, we have great infrastructure. We don't have any traffic. I love that part. well say,

Scott Heidner: say that again. We have great what infrastructure?

Yes, we do. I could hear, I could listen to you say that all day

Chris Croft: long. Well, listen, I, I mean, when we were driving around for the, for the elections and stuff like that, We were driving on, on gravel roads at 65 miles an hour. I can't drive on some of the other roads in [00:34:00] these neighboring states at 65 without blowing a tire.

Yeah.

Scott Heidner: And, and you know, all kidding aside, let it not be unsaid that we do have great infrastructure, but as you know, and, but I can't miss the opportunity to say it doesn't happen by accident. Right. We have had decades of thoughtful policy makers that made hard choices to invest in that and make that become a reality.

We are incredibly blessed in Kansas in that regard.

Chris Croft: Yeah, I, I would agree. And, and I would also encourage, though, as you're looking out for where we are, you can't be satisfied with where we're at. Never. You gotta be looking at the future, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we've got the electric cars we gotta worry about.

You got, you got the the vehicles that may have no drivers. Right? Yep. How do you deal with that? What are all the process, but then again, what's the next step? What's the next transportation structure here? You know, we've talked about high speed rail. We're a natural place for the center part of high speed rail, you know?

Yeah. Something we ought to think about. You know, [00:35:00] especially as the ships have become so big they can't go through the Panama Canal, and I know the Panama Canals widening, it's doing its thing and it is a very and narrow, but to download there and cross the, the country and back on the other side, that's more difficult than it is here.

Why can't you use the United States in its great structure? Yeah, there's opportunities here. We just, again, we gotta get. Unify on these things and come together and make it happen. Well, let me

Scott Heidner: ask you if, I'm sorry I got way off track. No, no, no. I, I think I led you off track, but before I, I you know, use up all our good time.

Bring us to the conclusion of your military service. So you've gone through all their, the strategic transportation initiative Right. Times of the general's age, the command college at Leavenworth. Two years finishing your masters. What was the last chapter?

Chris Croft: Well, I mean, so just real quick, I'll run through it.

So we left here, went down to Fort Hood, and that's where we deployed direct. So that was the last time we've actually no notice deployed a heavy division. And that's where I got to use all those assets that, that were talked about in the R sbu. So we used the 35 ships that are part of the ready reserve [00:36:00] force that are laying around.

We used all the rail infrastructure. We put elements from Kansas down in there, into into Texas. So I left there. I spent a year in Iraq during the initial invasion, came back and then was Basically, I, it was time to leave for a little bit, and a lot of people stayed. I, I, I needed to get away for a little while.

So went to Washington, DC and worked with training with industry. So it's where an army, an active duty guy gets to go spend a year in a company. So I remember my first day there. I was there at six 30. Nobody was there. The doors were locked. , what the heck? Like there's a gym. So anyways, the doors open around seven 30.

I get inside, I go to the gym, get up to my office at eight 30. Boss comes in at nine, we have a meeting scheduled. He goes, okay, great. Welcome board. Here's what I want you to get done. I go, okay, great. Start working on it. About that afternoon, we finished it, turned it. . He's like, yeah, you got nothing else to do for the next two weeks, so go figure it out.

It was a great [00:37:00] experience to also learn how you also gotta pace yourself too. You gotta learn how to slow down a little bit and take a bigger picture. Cuz what I had turned in at the beginning and then what he made me return it at the end was not the same. Mm-hmm. . And that was the whole point of this thing is sometimes slowing down will give you an opportunity to see the bigger picture and you can, it isn't always about the speed if you're going right, it's not about mo motion, it's about movement.

And so I thought that was very important to me. And then left there after 10 months, got selected for command and went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky and that's where I deployed a second time. So I got deployed there as a battalion commander of a National Guard Battalion. So that was kind of different for an active duty guy.

And all my guys were combat arms. We could talk a lot about that experience. Enlightening to me at how much experience is sitting in the National Guard structure that you don't even think about. Just a quick story. We had our vehicles had to have fabrication shops. If something hit them, you had to send 'em to a fabrication shop, took several months to get it back.

One day it would just happen to walk in. As you're talking about, the Eisenhower story [00:38:00] happened to walk in the right motor pool. And I said, Hey, by the way, does anybody in here have a clue about fabrication? And one of the guys stand, he was an E force, says, well, I actually own a fabrication shop in California.

This guy's never going on the road again. . So we put him in the shop and he fixed all our vehicles. Now, you know, I guess it's on radio now. It's not good. But it's, it's past the time. So anyways, we fixed the vehicles and off they went, and we never had another down one because of that capability. So there's so much there.

Yeah. And just I could tell you, we could do this podcast for days about the, the heroics and the greatness of the individuals that, that were in my formations. They were, they're incredible people. Not because they were in my formation, but I know it because they were in my formation. Yeah. Many of those guys, those folks were people that I, I look up to and what they were able to do in, in the, in the line of fire carrying bodies through bullets, bouncing all around them and just doing things that just, just will boggle your mind.

So anyways, left there came back and ended up in Washington DC again. And I was there at the human [00:39:00] resources command where we actually assign people and work on their development of their careers, which fit right in with my 10 year plan. Came back, did that, moved it to Fort Knox, Kentucky. We literally moved the entire command and nobody knew we moved it because that was the game plan.

I mean, it was physically announced, but the. The actual movement people didn't know, cuz the way we were able to echelon the process and make sure it worked it was that time. My son was a college football player and he had won a state championship while I was gone, but but so he was playing college football right near there.

And so I got to see my son play ball and my daughter get married and have all the kids and, so as we were leaving that place, I got to go to New York City for a one year fellowship at Columbia University. Very eye-opening experience. And then from there I got to compete to be the director of the Army's Leadership Center right here at Fort Leavenworth.

And and I was the, I was the underdog. I wasn't supposed to even be in the, the fix in the, in the fight because I was, I didn't command at a brigade level and I won the. Part of it was cuz that story I told you about that briefing. And so I got to do that [00:40:00] job for four years, go around the world, teaching about leadership and setting up leadership centers with our, our allies.

And like you said, I mean we spent our last five years in military right here in Kansas. So we've spent the most time of our career actually in Kansas. Hmm. And the house there was a beautiful house. It's right on the river. It's an old 1908 home. . But yeah, it's good. It's just great.

Scott Heidner: It's gotta be pretty cool too.

They're at Leavenworth to think of the footsteps you're walking in. Oh, I mean, the, the names that have gone through there, it's just humbling.

Chris Croft: It very much is. Has to be. Yeah. Yeah. And especially they take a good time to teach you about the history of all that. Yeah. So you get to sit down, especially when we went to Sam's School of Military Studies, they, they spent a lot of time teaching us about leaders and, and working through that and making sure we understood the history.

So,

Scott Heidner: so that's a a Sorry, I didn't make it very short, did I? Oh, no, I didn't want you to. I mean, that's a fascinating story. It's just more interesting than most of us [00:41:00] have to tell about our careers and, and obviously appreciate your service and it, it's a tremendous commitment to the country and a tremendous demand on the family.

And it's a story worth taking time to tell. But with that, I will maybe segue us. You know, I mentioned earlier, it is so cool when somebody chooses Kansas to be the forever home, and you obviously did that when you got outta the military for good. And when you moved here permanently or moved into, you know, your civilian home or whatever you call it take me from there up to the moment you decided to run for the legislature, but stop there.

Did you have other elected offices that you held? Did you have any causes that kind of pulled you into the policies for sphere or were you just kind of living a blissful life outside of that whole orb? What what did your life look like right up until you decided to [00:42:00] run for office?

Chris Croft: Yes, for the legislature.

Yes. So it, it actually had crossed a little bit. All right, so, , I left my job. I was still in the Army for six months. And so they have a program where you can go out and experience businesses and do things. The program was just underway, right? So I didn't really get into what I wanted, but I got the opportunity to spend time getting my health stuff squared away.

Cuz we don't typically take care of all that stuff. It's, you don't want to do any of that. You wanna just do your job. So I left the job one August and then I was retiring one February. And so I still have work to do, but I didn't have my job to do. I had other things and in the process I, I had never thought about going into politics and, and in, in the policy side of things, it's public service.

Absolutely been doing that my whole life. It's what I love to do. I happened to go to this breakfast. It was an accelerant breakfast. It was a meet and greet. It was a networking breakfast. And one of the gentlemen I sat with . He looks over at me after about 10 minutes of talking. His, his name is Christian, and looked over and he goes, Hey, have you ever thought about going into politics?

And I'm like, no, , I haven't [00:43:00] thought about it. Not gonna think about it this time. You know, I'm gonna leave this area and we're go to something else. So anyways, we're talking. The next month came by, we're at the same breakfast. And he goes, you thought about it some more? And I'm like, no, I'm, I'm seriously just trying to get myself taken care of the army.

Cuz in the Army, look, I did not pay attention to that stuff. In fact, if you look at the old days, they talked about why do you vote? You know, I, I think you should vote. And, and I think the army came around to that process because we didn't wanna be political. Right? But you still have, you're still a citizen, you still have a right to vote.

And so in that process there, you know, it's important, but it was never one that I thought that I would. Should be coming over here. I thought it was left for others. Yeah. And then, you know, a couple months into this process, he commenced me to come. And so we started talking more and more about it. So then I said, you know what, I'll just love to help somebody out.

That's all I wanna do is help somebody's campaign. And just kinda worked through that process. And so as it went more and more long as I was transitioning, we were looking, you know, we have family in Virginia, you know, [00:44:00] South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, all over the place. And we were like, where do we want to live?

And we kept coming back to here. And quite frankly, I was at the va. My wife had saw this house on, on Zillow. And many folks have heard me tell this story and my phone was blowing up and I didn't answer. Cause I was in the dock and I come out and I called my wife. She says, Hey, by the way, I've been trying to get you.

I'm like, I know I was in the dock. She goes, well, oh, it's okay. We just bought the house, . So I didn't see the house, didn't know where it was, didn't know anything about districts. Had no clue. Just that it was a house in Kansas she was happy with. I was happy. Happy wife. We're good. . So plus we've been together so long, she knows what I like in a house and I know what she likes in a house.

And so it, it worked out. It was a wonderful place and it still is a wonderful place. And we so anyways, we settled in there and then started thinking more and more about it and, and it just became something that was real to me is about an opportunity to continue to serve because I've done it for so long, [00:45:00] it's just in a different realm and the ability to bring.

Learned in the military into this environment seemed natural to me and truly in this process, it has been natural. But you told me to stop there, so I'll stop . So, okay, fair enough. I've tried to follow Instructions .

Scott Heidner: So now you've, are you, you've crossed the Rubicon and you've warmed up to the idea of, of running.

Was the state legislature the first place your mind went, or the first opportunity that availed itself to you?

Chris Croft: Well, I mean, it was one of the first places that was presented to me, Uhhuh who, who had the seat at the time? Patty Markley had the seat. For the house that I'm in, honestly, when I started looking, it wasn't about a seat.

It was about where Yeah. And what to do. And so, you know, naturally for me in the military, I really love Garrison Commanders. They're great because they have to work with our communities. They work cuz you know, bases are pretty much a closed city. Right. And I always thought a mayor would be kind of a neat job because just what you have to do.

So that was [00:46:00] actually my first, in my first thought was maybe the. And then I started looking into it and J and then the other things. And so it just kind of naturally settled into this. It made the most sense for what my experience factor was. Maybe that made one day down the road or something. I don't know.

But that's how we kind of leaned into that.

Scott Heidner: So you ran in 2018? Mm-hmm. or elected? You were elected and. Sworn in, in 2019, which would make this your fifth session, right? Right. Stood election three times. Now and a lot of our listeners may know this, but your career pretty quick. If you look comparatively speaking into the leadership position you're in now, you, in a five year period, you went from being, you know, the, the, the truest of freshman, you know, back benchers, getting your feet wet to, you know, the second highest elected post over there.

As House Majority Leader, how has your career as a legislator changed in that transition from, I don't wanna say rank and file legislator? That sounds a little pejorative, but you know what I [00:47:00] mean? You know, into more senior roles and then eventually into house majority leader.

Chris Croft: Well, yeah, so I'll tell you again.

I think coming into this process, the military taught me well, right? You go in there, in the first 30 days, you, you immerse yourself into the job and you learn the process first. If you get all the process down, you get the terminology down, you get the things down, then you can go out and do your job. And then it's important that you have some people along the way that kind of mentor and guide.

And, and I feel like that's what's happened in this process. And by the way, although I've moved pretty fast in this, there are people that have moved really fast in this process. I'm not the fastest in this. I'm just, you know, there's, it's also, there's so many factors that go into it, and I'm so fortunate to be in that process, in this situation where I'm at right now.

When I came in, I did not have a lot of experience in this arena, but then I had two mentors pick me right up. Barker was one of 'em. Steven Johnson's another one. You could, I could name about three or four others that have kind of just sat me down and said, okay, Ron Highland, all these guys sat me down and said, okay, let me teach you this [00:48:00] process.

And then Johnson was my first one that made me do something. He walked, Steven Johnson walked up and he says, Hey, there's an amendment I want done on this bill. Get with these folks and. And we'll see over the, you come back in in five minutes. Oh, that happened to be with this organization with Sandy.

Oh. And she, we did it over the top of a garbage can outside , and we're writing the bill up at the most, it was a conceptual amendment amendment, and Steven Johnson allowed it in there. And and so I, they helped me draw it all out. I wrote it all out, made sure I had exactly the right statements to make, and I walked inside, sat down, he goes, you good?

I'm like, yes, Mr. Cherry. He goes, all right, go. And then I, you know, went through the process and got done and. That was my first experience of doing that. And, and that was early on. I mean, that was within my first, what, three weeks, so, or four weeks. So again, it's, I've, I've been very fortunate in this process.

I've had people that have taken me under the wing and teach me to [00:49:00] teach me things. I try to maintain an open mind in this whole process. No matter if I agree or disagree with you, I, I wanna, and, and I'll tell you, there's been some I'll tell you, Alan Cobb and I were ready to go at it one day on some bill and I got on a bus with him and I said, we're gonna have, I wouldn't let anybody on.

We're gonna, we're gonna have it out right now. And I walked outta there about 10 minutes later going, wow, I hadn't thought about all that stuff. And again, it's about people willing to take the time to talk to you about stuff. show you the other side of it, and, but you also have to be the one that has an open mind.

You have to be willing to listen to it and be willing to change your mind if that's, that's appropriate. Now, there's certain things I'm not gonna change my mind on. I'm pretty, I'm pretty set on some of my, my beliefs and Sure. Where I'm at. So I'm not, those are non-negotiable things.

Scott Heidner: Well, a couple thoughts there.

First you know, Chris, if you didn't already know, here at Braden Heidner Lowe, we do some of our best work on the top of trash cans. That's use the tools that you have. Hey, it's a memorable experience. Yeah. You know, that's actually pretty cool. Not only that, you know, it was your first, was somebody that's a partner here at our shop, [00:50:00] but yeah, that's all pretty cool.

Your comment about an open mind I want to ask you a couple questions specific to your role as majority Leader now, but there's a, a saying, and you've probably heard it, but I just think it is so, so clever and true. The vast majority of people, in my experience in the legislature, they genuinely do aspire to have an open mind.

You know, most of them, if you can get to 'em and if you can bring good data, most of them you know, are receptive to that and they, they just wanna do the right thing. But for those few that are just, you know, obstinate or whatever, there are a few people, not just in the canceled legislature, but everywhere in the world they're the kind of people, the old saying is they use data and facts the way a drunk uses a lamp post, you know, only for support, not for illumination.

And I always thought that was such a clever way to say that. And it's true. You know, people that are trying to do [00:51:00] well, they use that lamppost for illumination. They use data to reach the right decision. But there are some people that just wanna cherry pick the data and use that lamppost to support, you know, and not learn.

Anyway, let's move on. So your time as majority leader now, we've plucked you early for this podcast. You've only been in the job a few weeks now, so, probably still many experiences yet to be had. But having said that, what's the most interesting part about being majority leaders so far?

And are there things that our listeners would be surprised to know, come with the territory of being a majority?

Chris Croft: Well, okay. Because I will tell you, you know, getting back to your first comment there about the people. Mm-hmm. , I will tell you one of the most interesting things I've found, and it's not just because of this job, but remember I was also the R H C chair, so I got to do a lot of things that were more than just worrying about my district.

It's the incredible diversity of experiences that are sitting in that. [00:52:00] and the, the thoughts and just getting the opportunity to sit down and talk to people. I wish we actually had more time. That's some of the frustrating part is that we're only here for such a short time and we don't get to spend a lot of time together.

Scott Heidner: Can I interrupt you and offer a thought to, to your exact point? I didn't say it earlier, but when you were talking about what a treasure it is with your National Guard units and the expertise you find to your surprise within the unit, the thought I had at that moment is it's not entirely dissimilar to what you find over here at the Capitol.

Chris Croft: Exactly right. Yeah, and that's what I was saying. I mean, I would tell you my military experience prepared me well for this. Yeah. You know, in the military you don't get to, and, and, and as far as that relates to this job, you don't get to pick your team. You just have to accomplish mission with your. . Well, I, this team is picked by the people, as it should be, and we have to work together as a team to get there.

That's why we've been talking about one team for the last four years. Right. And that, for me has been the, the most [00:53:00] fun about the whole process. And in the job now, I'm kind of freed up from worrying about one bill or two bills for me. And now I get to worry about things for everybody. And that's the heart that I've been transitioning to try to make sure I do well is now how do I see all the different things that are going out there and how you start putting them together and making things work together and helping people get their.

Mission accomplished that they're trying to do for the people of Kansas. That's why I love the better way. The commitment we've created is not about five or six leadership bills anymore. This is about, we set a framework listening to everybody around the state, what did they have to say and how Then we put that into a, a areas and everything that's coming in.

We have what, 205 bills I think right now. And how they're fitting in every one of those categories. There's a couple that don't fit quite and you know, but they're all pretty much right in there and we are, this is how we're gonna hold ourselves accountable, what we're doing, the people of Kansas doing for the people of Kansas.

And, and it's just it. That to me is a lot of my [00:54:00] excitement and how we can start focusing that effort back on the people. Cool. Yeah. Very cool. And then you had talked to me, one of the other things we had talked about is what's one of the differences mm-hmm. or is that what you were about to ask? Well, no.

Fire away. Yeah. Well, no, just one of the differences I've experienced , you know, I'm used to sitting in my office reading about my, you know, focusing on what I gotta get done on my bill, ready to go, oh man, I got five minutes. I walk upstairs and I get the chance to walk through as you, as we talked about the the gauntlet, if you will.

Right. Whatever. It's actually for me, fun. I enjoy talking to everybody out there. In fact, usually I'm late getting in because I'm sitting out there talking.

Scott Heidner: Hey, do you mind if I interrupt? Just, yeah, go ahead. I wanna make sure listeners know what it is you're talking about. So, for when you are a, a legislator, not in leadership, right?

You have an office in the, you know, the main area between your office and getting into the chamber, right? That's where all of we lobbyists, lurk, and loiter and lay in weight and ambush and whatever. And so what, what you're saying, which I appreciate and I wanna make [00:55:00] sure listeners know, is, is that you always embraced.

Absolutely.

Chris Croft: You, you looked forward to that? Well, because honestly, that's where, you know, a lot of times you'll sit there and say, oh, you know, I couldn't find you. Let's talk real quick. And you get to learn a bit, a piece of information that, that's the hardest part about this job is getting all the right all day information that's out there and it changes so fast.

And there's little things that change here that can completely unhinge a bill. And it's important to know those things. Like, oh, by the way, hey, this is coming up. Or that I really enjoyed it. I wish I actually would spend more time out there. But now that I'm on the other side where I'm coming in from the other angle, I miss that because now I'm focused on, I've got a mission to do in the chamber.

And so sometimes now I try to walk out there, but then it's a matter of time. So this is, it's, it's a learning process. Yeah. And I think that was probably the most interesting thing that I've had in this experience right now.

Scott Heidner: Yeah, that's, that's interesting. And I, I do think, you know, whether you're in corporate America, the military, or the Kansas legislature to some extent, you know, the more senior you become it, it [00:56:00] gets harder to have that exposure in time with what I'll call, you know, the masses.

You have to almost be more intentional about it. Whereas, you know, when you're a rank and file legislator, it comes to you. When you're in leadership, you almost have to make an effort to go to it.

Chris Croft: Well, you absolutely. I mean, and that's what, you know, in the military, we called it leadership by walking around mm-hmm.

right. And so I do that. I try to do that. I, I block time on the calendar every day to walk around, see folks. I have, you know, not getting as well out there as I wanted to. The other thing that I've had to. 15 minute meetings. Right. I love to get in and just chit chat about stuff and I can do that for an hour and, and so I've gotta get serious about where they're going and get to the point fast.

Yeah. And so we can get onto the next thing. Cause there's just so much to do.

Scott Heidner: That's where a diligent and time sensitive chief of staff becomes worth his wait and platinum.

Chris Croft: That's for sure. I feel, I feel pretty fortunate there. .

Scott Heidner: Oh, listeners were laughing cuz his chief of staff, Travis gr Holtz is sitting at the table with us.

So we're we're talking about him [00:57:00] right in front of him. Well that is all . You know, it's always great to hear the perspective and the stories from folks in leadership role and, and yours is extremely interesting too with the, the background the story that you have, that you brought to it. But let me wrap up with some things totally unrelated to your career or your time in the legislature, all about Chris Croft, the person were you to ever have the elusory free day or free time?

What kind of hobbies? And, and you can't say family or something that has to do with work, this has to literally about you. If you were taking some you time, what what type of activities would you enjoy?

Chris Croft: Mm, well, I like to golf. Mm-hmm. , you know, but then again, I like to golf with my wife so that, you know, that's who I'd rather play golf with.

But Hmm. Yeah, I mean, it's just getting around and, and I'll tell you what, one of the things I love to do is I like to go shopping on Black Friday and on Christmas Eve. You're kidding. Oh, I love it.

Scott Heidner: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Holy cow. . [00:58:00]

Chris Croft: I do. Yeah. My wife thinks I'm insane.

Scott Heidner: So let me ask you, is it and maybe it's both, but it, you know, is it a, the, the competition aspect of it, of, you know, I'm going to sort of get the best of the system?

Or is it because you're such a people person, you just love standing in line and chewing the fat with every other poor sucker that's out there in the cold?

Chris Croft: Yeah, I normally don't stand in line cause I'm not buying, cuz you know what they do? They just jack the price up and give you a sale price. So absolutely.

I don't feel like you're getting any benefit. . Okay. I just like to go out there and see the, you know, see what all's going on, and I'd love to see the activity. Yeah. I, I, I actually, there's a lot of people that don't like groups. I love groups.

Scott Heidner: So it's its own little sociology microcosm that you can enjoy.

Chris Croft: Oh, absolutely.

In fact, we would go watch movies on, on the Thursday night, the min one that gets outta midnight just so we could go out. , my son and I would go shopping at night. My son likes to do it with me, but we haven't done that in a while since he's married off on doing his own thing. . [00:59:00]

Scott Heidner: That's hilarious. Yeah. I can honestly say that's the first time we've received that answer on what to do with free time.

Well, your last question, we'll leave you with this, and we had a couple good laughs over lunch talking about this. Things like books and music and movies. What would we find on on the Croft Shelf at home? What are some of your favorites?

Chris Croft: Well, you'd find hundreds of, of leadership books just because that was the job, right?

And but you wrote down one I mentioned earlier, books wise, once an eagle. Mm-hmm. , really good book about, you know, depending about where you are, what your focus should be as a leader. The other one I love about book is logic failure. It's sometimes to understand. Things fail today because the decisions made 30 years ago.

And why? The importance of making sure the decisions you make today are ones that will test the time for 30 years. You know, you hear that a lot about, well, we'll do trailer this, trailer that. I don't, I don't like to do that. I like to consider things slow down. That's what bureaucracy is about. It isn't supposed to be fast.

Sometimes it's meant to be a little bit slow, so you think about things and that's the value of that [01:00:00] book. And I loved, you know, we have some books that we, we did in the, in the military talking about our uh, parachute jumpers into the fires. Oh, those guys are incredible. Yeah. Folks are incredible. Not just guys, just folks are incredible that go in and do that.

and yeah, so just learning how they live with things and do things was pretty powerful to me. So that's the book-wise. And I got a lot more books. We could talk about books forever too. And then, did you say music and movies? Mm-hmm. ? I did. So music-wise, AC DC my big one,

Scott Heidner: yes. That's outstanding.

Chris Croft: little bit of Def Leopard like country as well. A lot of the, you know, Old country, but some of the new country's good too. You know, I'll go with that. You're more forgiving than I am. Well, you know, we, as we were talking, we joke about this cuz when we take trips in the car, cause we drive a lot, we don't fly a lot, we drive cuz we have a puppy.

My wife and I like to be in the car together. It's our time together. She could name artists all the way through talking country artists and I can't even name. I, I couldn't, they, my son and my wife would pick on me cuz I was, you know, terrible. I couldn't [01:01:00] even if they gave me two hints and I'd still get it off

Geez. I'm terrible.

Scott Heidner: Well, you know what you like when you hear it, you don't have to know the name. That's right.

Chris Croft: And then in fact, I probably don't even know the words to be honest with you. . And then movies wise for me gladiator the 300. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 300 came out when we went to Iraq the second time as a battalion commander.

So that was. One of my favorites, of course, then Monty Python, quest for the Holy Grail. Kind of hilarious. That's awesome. So,

Scott Heidner: So in the movie 300, I'll tell you my favorite line in that movie, it's, it's not one of the, the big three that people quote all the time, but I love it when he's come and he's menacing these guys and he says, our arrows will blot out the sun.

And the guys real calmly says, then we will fight in the shade. Shade. I love that line.

Chris Croft: Oh, it's the greatest line. Yeah. I love it. There's a lot of really good lines in there. There. Absolutely. Yeah. And if I actually had a good voice like you did, I probably could have quoted some of those things and made, made videos.

But

Scott Heidner: [01:02:00] we That's alright. We spent enough, Travis and I spent enough of your discretionary time at lunch quoting movies already. We, I think we used up our allotment . Yeah. Well, speaking of that, I don't know how long we've been going, but I'll bet you in nickel it's longer than I told Travis to, to schedule you for.

So I sure do appreciate your patience and, and taking all this time to share your story. It's been a blast to have you on the program.

Chris Croft: Well, I appreciate it. Thanks. It's, you know, I don't get a lot of time to talk about my family. I love my wife. She's great. Yeah. She's been through thick and thin with me.

You know, all those moves in the military and gave up her career for. and for what we do for this country. And so I can never give her enough and enough praise and my kids just going around and doing the stuff they've done and what they're doing. Now, my, my son-in-law's a police officer, former military guy.

My daughter's a, a trained nurse, but takes care of the kids. And then my son's a scientist for the Navy for the, yeah, for the Navy. Cool. And

Scott Heidner: yeah, very cool. Much to be proud [01:03:00] of. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's been a joy to have you here listeners. This has been state representative and House majority leader, Chris Croft.

Thank you so much for making time. Oh, thank you. All right, listeners, thank you for tuning in. We will catch you on the next episode of the podcast.