HS 330 - The Surprising Secrets to Happiness with Melissa Francis

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Welcome to the show. This is Jason Hartman, your host. And every 10th episode we do something kind of special, kind of different. What we do is we go off topic. So regardless of which show it is on the Hartman Media Network, whether it be one of the financial shows, economics, real estate, investing, travel, longevity, all of the other topics that we have, every 10th episode we go off topic and we explore something of general interest, something of general life, success, value. And so many of our listeners around the world in 164 countries have absolutely loved our 10th episode shows. So that's what we're going to do today. And let's go ahead and get to our guest with a special 10th episode show. And of course, on the next episode, we'll be back to our regular programming. Here we go. It's my pleasure to welcome Melissa Francis to the show. You've probably heard her name. She is an anchor on Fox News and Fox Business. She's author of the book Lessons from the Prairie. The Surprising Secrets to Happiness, Success and sometimes Just Survival I learned on America's favorite show. Melissa, welcome. How are you?

Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited to be with you today.

Good stuff. Well, it's great to have you on the show. If the audience doesn't know, but they probably do. In addition to being a news anchor, you are also an actress, right?

Well, I was. I was a long time ago. I grew up in Hollywood. I did my first commercial when I was six months old, so I'm told. I certainly don't remember. I was a Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo commercial and after that I did more than 100 commercials and I was a series regular on three different shows and I did a bunch of movies and movies for television, all kinds of stuff. But I left that all behind when I left Hollywood. When I was 18 years old and I went off to study economics at Harvard. And since then, I've only played myself on television. I have been an honest broker of journalism and facts and everything that's going on. And I have to tell you, I talk about this in the book. It suits me a lot better. I love digging for my own facts and saying my own words and having debate on the air. And what I didn't love about acting was the idea that I felt sort of like a puppet or a marionette saying someone else's words. And this suits me a lot better.

Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, that's a great perspective. Tell us about some of the stuff you're covering in the news. And let's talk about the news a little bit first. Especially, you know, our listeners and investors are especially interested in the economic angle and what the current administration means for all that. And then let's talk about the book a little, little bit, too, because you have a surprising and unique perspective that you talk about in the book as well.

So I told you all the different things that I was on, and what sticks out to me is this idea so many years later. One day I was leaving this out about Numbered, which is our noon show, where we sit around the couch. I was actually doing that show today. And when we come out, there are people waiting in the breezeway for us. They're nice enough to sort of stand there and say hello while they're on their vacation to New York. And one day when I came through, somebody said, can I get your signature? And I said, you don't want mine. The ladies coming out behind me are a lot more famous. You're going be disappointed when you see my name. And the woman said, no, I know you. You're the Little House in the Prairie one. And, you know, it's funny to me because I've spent my whole life trying to sort of reinvent myself as something different, which is why I kind of bristle when you say you're still an actress. You know, I'm not now. I'm my. And I'm a real person. But you can never get away from that way that you sort of started life. And I realized that it actually did so much to form my way of thinking and my point of view. You know, it informs so many of the things that have made me happy and success, the time that I spent on Little House on the Prairie, that rather than trying to get away from it and be, oh, I'm a serious journalist now, to rather embrace the lessons that I Learned things like, I mean, Michael Landon was an incredibly frugal person and he was so smart about business and the economy. He was one of the first people in Hollywood who realized that in order to make a mint, you had to own the show, write it, direct it, produce it, star in it. It was his cottage industry. He was one of the first entrepreneur small business owners he created for himself. And as a result, you know, he was cheap as hell because the whole thing was his business. And he had a tiny dressing room, which is not what people in Hollywood do normally. They have the big Winnebago, the bigger the shows, how important you are. He had a little economy one and he sort of said, if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for everybody else too. And he looked humble and modest. Reality was his money. So he was saving a fortune on everyone. And he really taught us this idea that we were there, part of a product in an industry that we were proud of, that people valued. But you had a responsibility to your job. You had to show up. Lines learned, ready to go, face scrubbed, well rested, hit your mark, know what you were doing, whether you were a kid or you were an adult. And he treated all the workers in his business, in his organization, the same respect. The actors weren't special. We were the same as the people who were driving the truck, the people who put the marks down on the ground where we were going to land, the people who did the hair and makeup. Because as smart business owner, he knew that every employee counted. And it took every employee to make the show a hit. And I may have only been eight years old, but I was on a bunch of sets before and a bunch of sets afterwards. I could see the difference, even as a child, could feel the difference. We moved through an episode so much faster. You know, I knew at the time a normal one hour show, it took about two and a half weeks, sometimes even three to shoot one episode. With him, it was about six days.

And that was for. For economy, right? That was to be efficient, right?

Yeah, that was to be efficient, to save himself money, to make his margin bigger and. But you appreciated it as someone on the set, because it's boring to stand around. I mean, as a kid, you didn't want to stand there while they did it a million times in the hot sun. The whole thing, it worked for everybody. And he was just smart about all that kind of stuff. And I really took note. And I also noticed as a kid that I had to memorize a lot more lines at night because we Moved along F. So I really had a basis for comparison, and people were happier. And it stuck with me. I mean, to this day, first of all, I respect every job. I think every paycheck has dignity. Anytime somebody outside the house is paying you for a job well done, that's a tremendously powerful feeling. I mean, it's empowering to you as a person. It deserves respect. It's really something. And, you know, he drilled that into us and the privilege and the responsibility that goes with that. When I left Hollywood and I went to Harvard, I worked in the kitchen underground for minimum wage to earn money so that I could go out and have unpaid internships and news over the summer and make the transition. I worked in restaurants. I did all kinds of things. And people have said to me, you know, after earning a huge paycheck in Hollywood, was it humbling to go wait table? I said, absolutely not. Every paycheck has value and deserves respect. I was willing to put elbow grease in for the thing that I wanted, and Michael would have been proud. And that's what he taught us. That's what I teach my book. That's what I teach my own children. Today. I have three kids. These are the important lessons that I think get lost in America right now where we give so much away. We give so much away through entitlement.

Yeah, no question. No question. So you've said a bunch of things there. So, first of all, Michael Landon basically owned the show and he sold it to the network. Right. That's what. That's what you mean when you say that. Right. And so he was a. He was a entertainment entrepreneur rather than a hired actor, per se. What year was that? That he. He did that because. And that was a pretty. It sounds like that was a pretty groundbreaking idea at the time. I know that Oprah did that as well. And that was one of the big secrets to her success, is that she owned her show and then sold it to, you know, the highest bidder, I guess. Right.

She sold it to the distributor, and I think eventually she was a distributor as well. But Michael Landon was doing this in the 70s, and as far as I know, and I talked to people about this. Yeah. I mean, I think that Lucy and Desi Arnaz own their production.

Oh, interesting.

They were one of. They were one of the few. And not a lot of people had figured that out or realized, you know, actors aren't necessarily great at math. They don't understand the property of owning the production. Now they do. Now they get it. They've seen enough People do it and they'll get the producer title, and they're not actually doing any work. He was the first one there in the morning, the last one to leave. At the end of the day.

Okay.

I mean, it was sweat equity for him.

Got it. Got it.

He figured it out, and he got it done.

One of the other themes that you seem to be saying, and it's a saying I love, because, you know, like, you talk about this sense of entitlement, and of course, with Generation Y and the millennial generation, you know, this is a big problem nowadays, right? That old saying in Hollywood. I love it. I love this old saying, there are no small parts, only small actors. And I think that all of us need to remember that in life, no matter how successful we become, you know, there are no small parts, only small actors. In other words, treat everything you do with respect and give it dignity. You know, do your best at it, rather than acting as though you're entitled to something. You know, that's just not a recipe for success in life, you know, you want to remember there are no small parts, only small actors. Okay. Also, some of the theme of what you said already is just exactly why government doesn't work, right? The dysfunction of government is that I always say, when it's everybody's money, it's nobody's money. And, you know, there's no person that really cares because, you know, you get all these people, especially on the left, but on the right, too, unfortunately, they've come too close together, the two parties. They're just waste, waste, waste. It's pork barrel legislation, you know, it's just beyond ridiculous, Right?

Absolutely. And I mean, I saw that in person, in the example. I mean, he ran that set so much more efficiently than any other one I had been on. And that's because he was working with his own money, and he saw every cent that went out as profit. He was missing, and everyone got that. And he rewarded them with decades of steady work, which in Hollywood, no one ever found. So you wanted to do it his way because it was a pleasure to be on the set. We were doing something we loved, but he was successful, and you wanted to stay on that train. And in Hollywood, you know, you're getting fired every other day. The show comes to an end, the production comes to an end. He had a magical formula where he had three series that had very long runs, so people wanted to stay there. And I saw it work, and so it was easy for me to understand. My dad was somebody who believed in Adam Smith and the Invisible hand.

Oh, me too.

At a very young age. Yeah. So I always felt like anytime government gets involved, they just create waste, whether they have good intentions or bad intentions. If you're not spending your own money, it's not the same. But I take that even a step further with this idea that when you think you're being compassionate by giving out handouts to people, you're actually crippling them.

Of course you are. You're making them dependent.

Yes. You're making them dependent and you're disempowering them. And I learned at a very young age that thrill when someone outside the family who has no commitment to you, no obligation to you, pays you for your work because you're doing something of value. Wow, that is a powerful feeling. I've known my whole life, and it's always saved me as a woman. I never felt like I needed. I'm happily married. I love my husband. We've been married for almost 20 years. But I never felt like I needed someone to take care of me because I had taken care of myself my whole life. And I have two sons and a daughter. And regardless of gender, I want them all three to know that feeling of power, that you don't need the government and you don't need someone else. Also, that there's. Every job is worthwhile. You know, I always say that if I was let go from this glamorous career tomorrow, I would have honestly have no problem working at McDonald's, working at Walmart, whatever it was. And I would work my way up through diligence when I waited tables, when I chopped vegetables in the basement of my dorm and other students sneered at me and really did and really talked down to me for that. I wasn't shamed. A little piece of me was, sure. But I felt like I am putting in my time for something better. And I also know that this is worthwhile. By the way, I am chopping up your lunch that you are going to be quite grateful for when it comes up from the basement. You know, I mean, I really learned this lesson, and this is something I want my kids to know. And it is getting lost in our society of handouts and of this race to see who's the biggest victim. I mean, it's not compassionate. It's crippling to people. It's wrong.

Talk to us a little bit about what's going on in the news and maybe let's kind of talk about these in the context of some current events or, you know, recent events, you know, especially with the last Administration, you know, you've got this attitude of hand people everything. And then, you know, when we talked about big government and so forth, when it's everybody's money, it's nobody's money, and everybody wants to make this like, like a partisan issue. And to some extent it is. In all fairness, you know, one party does want to spend more than the other, but they're both big spenders, if you ask me. That's why I defected, to become a libertarian. But this idea that people, we should take away their responsibility and hand them things, it's just pathetic. It's been proven over and over. It doesn't work. And ultimately it just makes the people in power more powerful and the people that are getting the handouts more dependent. Both parties will agree that government is corrupt and inefficient and wasteful. So I just say the bigger the government, the more waste. There will always be corruption and waste in any human organization. It's just the unfortunate way it is. So if you just make it smaller, then the corruption and waste and inefficiency will be smaller. If you make it bigger, it's going to be bigger.

Seems obvious, but amen. I mean, absolutely. And I have a feeling that your listeners understand this very well. And the book is Lessons from the Prairie. I'm Melissa Francis. I talk about it a lot in here, but everything you just said, the essential difference, I think, between the two sides and the parties and the two point of view is one thinks government's the answer and one thinks government's the problem. And I'm someone who thinks we do need government for some things. National security, we need policing, we need some basic things. But the more they get involved with, the more they muck it up. And they are not good stewards of my dollar. And when I look at today's politics, I mean, Mick Mulvaney, our OMB director, he is so good at putting into words this philosophy. One of the best things I heard him say in the last month or so was he said, we're so busy having compassion for people, you know, the left. It's all about compassion for this group and that group and this one, and this is wrong. And he goes, how about if we have some compassion for the taxpayers who are sending in their money? And I think that's what the Democrats have really lost. And one of the most interesting things that I've noticed is there has been this in the parties that I don't know that we've ever seen. It used to be that the Republicans were the party of the rich and all of a sudden, the 1%, the super wealthy, Nancy Pelosi, the Clintons, all of the tech titans and tech billionaires, all of the CEOs, almost all of the CEOs on Wall street, they're all liberal Democrats and they all give to that party. And it has become.

People don't think that though, you know, the debate, the big population of voters out there doesn't think that. They think they're all a bunch of rich Republican. So, you know, it's the opposite.

They figured it out. I don't know. No, I don't.

I just, I hope you're right.

Figured it out. When I said that on air and it got tweeted, it went viral and a lot of people responded and understood it's the party of the very rich and the very poor who the very rich have enslaved to keep as voters. Charles Payne from Fox Business talks about Charles Payne. Yeah, he grew up in the projects. He saw it firsthand. And he really takes the Carson point of view that there's something very nefarious going on, that it's a group of people that are trying to enslave and keep down that population, which I think some of them do have good intentions, they're trying to do good. Either way, it has bad results. But the entire working population in the middle is suddenly identifying with Republicans who are saying, wait a second, you know, sending my money to Washington. Why in the world would you think that anyone a million miles away in Washington is a better steward of your money, can make better decisions for your family, your children, their education, your tax dollars, who to give charity to? Why would you ever think that those people that far away are, are better at it than you are?

It makes no logical, it makes no sense whatsoever. And I think it's almost in a way, it's like a self confidence issue is if the people that are relinquishing their power and their money to big government, they don't have enough confidence in themselves in a way that they can run their own life and make their own decisions, you know, the nanny state has to be there for them, you know, or something. I, I, it's just weird. Yeah, it's totally logical.

It's a great point. And it kind of brings me back to why this book, Lessons from the Prairie and why this foundation is so meaningful and it's kind of gotten lost because if you look at the stories of Little House and even I reread the books recently and they are still fantastic. They still hold up. My kids are reading them in school. But it's about people who are totally self reliant. Yes, they come together as a community. Yes, they're willing to lend a hand to their neighbor, but they're very proud and resilient and they hate taking handouts. They depend on their family. They believe in God. They get, you know, church is where charity is. But they're resilient. They overcome tremendous hardships and they don't rely on someone, the government to come to the rescue. And that whole philosophy has nearly been lost. And I've carried it through my life. I saw it on this set, I saw it in the book. I'm teaching it to my children. I think there are like minded people out there. I wrote the book for you, Lessons from the Prairie. If you feel that way. And it's the lessons, I do it through humor. I make fun of myself for a few hundred pages because if you don't have a few laughs while you're reading, then it's not entertaining, it's easy to get through. But in the end you come away from strategies and lessons how we can preserve and hang on to and teach our children these values that they're not going to be taught in school. They're not going to be taught by Democrats that are largely shunned in our society. But I care enough and they're probably.

Not going to be taught by Republicans either. So let's.

No, yeah, I hear you. No, absolutely. I mean this is about really self reliance, pride, resilience. I mean all the things that compassion, faith, lots of things like that that get pooh poohed in our society. But I refuse to let them go away.

Very good point, Melissa. Give out your website.

Melissa Francis Official is the real website. You can find everything there. I'm Melissa A. Francis on Twitter and for radio listeners only, my mailman here at Fox thinks crazy. If you buy Lessons from the Prairie, buy it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever you see it. Send it to me at Fox News headquarters. We're at 1211 Six Avenue Google Fox News headquarters in New York City. You can find it. Send it to me here. I will sign it and send it back to you. I'll get the signature of your favorite Fox or Fox Business talent if you would prefer that to mine. But you guys are so smart. You are the intellect and the courage out there. You are listening with your minds, with your ears, with your heart. I love television. It pays the bills. But you're not watching TV for the glitter and you're not listening to music right now. You're listening with your minds. I love you. You are the country's future. Send me your book. I'll sign it. I'll get whoever you like. Like here. I appreciate you and thanks for having me on.

Melissa, you're gonna lose a bunch of money on shipping on that deal.

I know I am. I know. I don't care. I don't care. I didn't do this to make money.

Shipping and handling costs are gonna eat up all your profits. That's okay.

I don't care. I don't care.

Good stuff. Well, Melissa Francis, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me on.

Thank you so much for listening. Be sure to check out Hartman me for appropriate disclaimers and terms of service. Remember that guests opinions are their own. And if you require specific legal or tax advice or advice in any other specialized area, please consult an appropriate professional. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode.