This show proudly sponsored by Real American Freestyle Wrestling.
Some days call for working up a sweat. Yeah. Working on your passion. And endless action. Ditch the glitch with Liquid IV's new energy multiplier sugar-free, refreshing flavors like strawberry kiwi and blackberry lemonade.
Scientifically formulated to support physical energy, hydration, focus, mood, and social stamina. Liquid IV's new energy multiplier sugar-free, hydrating energy. Tap the banner to learn more. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. fiscally responsible.
financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.
Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. The point being is that we as entrepreneurs, everyone in this room, I think it's one of the things that makes this country so exceptional and important, I agree, because it creates new wealth, it's new risk in the marketplace, and it delivers for the consumer, the customer, and the citizen. New ideas, better products, and it's that constant competition is always refining us towards a better version of success.
So that is, of course, Charlie Kirk. But he's speaking to Andrew K. Smith, restaurantur, co-founder and managing director of the Savory Fund, and the last person to interview Charlie Kirk, a man he got introduced to through, because he knows Charlie Kirk's cousin. And Charlie Kirk was coming at the tenant. He says, why don't you do an interview with me first?
He does it at the Entrepreneurial Conference that Charlie Kirk is really an entrepreneur too as he grew up turning point. And Andrew, you had no idea that day would be Charlie's last interview. What's it like hearing that just now? Yeah, it's still surreal. I mean, I'm still kind of grappling with it.
I think that my team is too. I think that the people that were in the audience, we had 500. 50 people in the audience listening to this interview. I don't think any of us knew. How to I think we're still trying to figure out how to process it, but.
It's hard to hear when you say that, too, because it was just a week ago. I mean, it's hard to understand. The last interview is available now on Fox Nation, right? It is, yes. It lasts how long?
34 minutes. And I honestly, I could have talked to him for hours. It was that easy to talk to that guy. And I'm sure he's very interested in you and how you did it. You got 500 plus restaurants in your fund, and the people in the audience, and how they did it.
And he talked about the risk that they took. In what way was he like you guys? Yeah, I think that entrepreneurial endeavors is really kind of the great equilibrium, right? For all backgrounds, political backgrounds, opinions, ethnicities, doesn't really matter. Entrepreneurship is in all segments of the industry, right?
For us, when we were talking to him, it was easy to talk to him about his entrepreneurial journey because it all applied to everybody that was in the audience as well. And you didn't really know anything about him, but the more you learned about him, the more you liked him, because you maybe had some preconceived notions. Sure, I did. Another conservative guy that thinks that Trump is great, and I don't know how many of my audience is not going to like that.
So it's a risk for you when you have a conference to bring in any idea logic. It was a total risk. And initially, when Brian is his cousin, Brian is the president of one of our companies, Houston Hot Chicken, around the country. And he said, Hey, listen, why don't you talk to Charlie? And I'm like, Isn't he kind of divisive?
Isn't it? It's like, well, You know, maybe, but you should talk to him because you really built a great business. I had a Zoom call with him. We talked for 45 minutes. And at the end of it, I said, man, I'm really impressed with your entrepreneurial mind.
Your business mind is fascinating to me. And what you've built, too. You have a thousand employees. That's a good-sized business in America, right? And 100-plus million in revenue and all the different things he's doing.
He wasn't doing just TP USA, Turning Point USA. He was doing so many other things. And I didn't know that. Either did I. What was he doing?
He was doing real estate. He was making investments into... crypto and crypto companies. He's made investments into funds. He was telling me he was investing into a bunch of different things.
And then he had a couple new projects he was going to be launching later this year that were new business initiatives too that I will let his team talk about. But at the end of the day, I'm like, well, your mind is like any other entrepreneur. And that is, you're gritty, you're passionate, you're excited. That was what I was really impressed with. And I said, you need to come tell that story at my conference because we all learn from each other as entrepreneurs.
And he said, I would love to. And when people heard him, At the end of it, they're like, I had no idea. And that's why with Fox Nation having it right now, You can see the real Charlie Kirk like I did, and everyone should watch it. Yeah, here's another clip. Let's try Eric Cut Eight.
The more I spend in the economy, both as an analyst and actually as a participant, The more I realize that so much of this is psychological, that if people believe things will be better, they will be better. You guys are the top. Like the biggest one-to-one correlation of that statement that I could imagine. I agree with that. Either people eat out because they think things are good or they do not think things are good, right?
And so. I would say that the more that we can cheerlead the economy, the better. And the more that we can say that it's good, the more that it will be good. I would much rather be the United States than continental Europe right now. I would much rather be the United States than a lot of these other countries.
So That's true, right? It's incredible, right? It's a mindset. It's a mindset. And I think that it's all about optimism, though, right?
If we can be optimistic and we can push that off into others that are in the economy, the economy will start turning around because people will feel like, you know, things are actually not too bad here. It's a mindset. And he's way beyond his years to even say that because it's true. It's a momentum thing right now. If you think it's bad, it's going to be bad.
Back to real life. His his team had to go. And they go out the back door and they're gone. How did you get word that he's been shot? How did you find out that he died?
Yeah, he and I took a picture in the back and he said, you know, it was a lot of fun. I would love to do this again. I love the entrepreneurial journey that I was able to share, but I also liked the vibe that I got in that room with the other entrepreneurs. It was very unifying in there. And it was not polit it was apolitical, the whole conversation.
And so as he was standing back there, he said, Hey, let's let's snap a pic. We took a pic together and he said, Let's talk after my event, walked out the back stairwell, got into the suburban and left. It was a forty minute drive down to Utah Valley University. I know that he was shot at 12:23, I think is what it was. He left me at 11:21 a.m.
So it was under an hour. And did you have to tell your audience? We did. We walked out and we actually announced it just because we knew that people would find out the wrong way. And so we announced it.
And yeah, it was a deafening silence and some gas. I think everybody was just like, he was just here on our stage, laughing and having fun and sharing wisdom that he had. It was wild, Brian. What about for you, knowing you're the last person he interviewed with? Yeah, it.
I think I'm still a little bit in shock, and I think that I'm going to have to figure out how to get through some of those feelings. But I'm reeling a little bit, and I keep telling my wife and some of my team members that. I'm just trying to understand how. How close we all are to death if we're not careful, and how. We really do judge each other in America for the wrong things.
Because if people would have really known what we saw at that conference and what we heard for those 34 minutes, I think people's opinion would have changed of them. You know what I also feel part of me? What a waste. What a waste. Like the world needed him to live.
Yeah, they we need people like him across the board, people that are going to be bullish like him and optimistic, and he was all that. I mean, the whole time we talk, and you'll see it in the in the interview that that Fox is releasing. He is so optimistic and forward-thinking and I I don't think that He really wanted to just make everyone feel the optimism he had, and he did. Right. And by talking to people, it just removes a lot of the obstacles where people just say, I don't want to talk to him.
He's a Republican. I don't want to Democrat. And all of a sudden, but no, I want to talk to you. And then you engage and they listen. And if you listen, you could actually try to win people over.
That was his goal. That was his whole goal, and he accomplished it. Andrew K. Smith, the restaurateur entrepreneur, but it's going to be known for a long time as Charlie Kirk's last interview. It is on Fox Nation right now.
Andrew, it's great to get to know you. And thanks so much for sharing the interview with us and our audience. Thank you, Brian. This is Jason Chaffetz from the Jason and the House podcast. Join me every Monday to dive deeper into the latest political headlines and chat with remarkable guests.
Listen and follow now at FoxnewsPodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts.
