On Monday March 20, 2023, the Daviess County CEO class had the honor of speaking with U.S. Senator Mike Braun. Mike Braun has represented the state of Indiana and in the U.S. Senate. He spoke to the class about his life experiences in the business world and then transitioning into the political world. Mike grew up and lived in Jasper during his childhood . Mike briefly spoke about his time in college by explaining how he started as a biology major then switched to political science, and then also went to business school. He gave the class the advice of, “You’re going to come to forks in the road, and it’s important how you handle those situations.” Growing up, and through most of his adult life he had his father to bounce ideas off of. His life in an entrepreneurial aspect began in the small town of Haysville. He started a truck and equipment business, and it started out with a lot of challenges. He struggled for a very long time on growing his employee numbers, and could not get more than fifteen employees. But after a lot of hard work and dedication, the 15 employees turned into 300, and one location turned into ten. After achieving this, for the next 27 years he never had to take a penny out of the bank. Then, Mike gave the class a big tip in getting employees to want to work for you. He said, “If you want people to work for you, don’t pull up to their house looking insanely rich and wealthy.” He also explained how growing revenues is a big struggle in business. He gave the advice, “Don’t ever assume that what is growing your business now is going to work in five years.” After running the business for 37 long years, his three children now run it. His advice to his sons on working together was to always be fair with one another. Another piece of advice he gave to the class for the business world was, “Working hard is apart of any formula.”

Then, Mike transitioned into the political part of his life. He explained how the start of his political journey was when he was elected for school board. He was on the board for ten years before doing anything on a bigger scale. Then, after being on the board for ten years he decided to run to be a state representative. He states how he believes that term limits are necessary on the federal level, but not on the local level. He chose to step out of his comfort zone and run for the U.S. Senate. He advised the class, “Always be humble when you accomplish big things in life.” He explained how name recognition was the biggest challenge when he was running for U.S. Senator. When speaking on time management, he stressed that he keeps family as the main focus in his life.

Thank you so much Mike for taking time out of your busy schedule to spend time with the Daviess County CEO class. It was an honor to get the opportunity to speak with you!