Prescott Paulin for IL State Rep

The results are in. I lost.

Losing isn't easy, especially when your movements and views are under a microscope, but it's worth talking about if my lessons learned can help an aspiring leader or technologist.

First things first -- Congratulations to my opponent, Lisa Smith. You fought a tough race with honor and class. You won, fair and square.

You have my full support moving forward to beat our common adversary, Sue Scherer, whose policies incentivize mooching more than producing, and whose policies push small businesses over the border - or out of business entirely.

Dr. Smith, you have done a more effective job in this election, convincing our neighbors of your approach to run on Republican social values and lower taxes, as we've seen resonate in many major cities around the country with our recent Supreme Court decisions.

When the final totals come in, I will remain proud that two thousand more people have heard about (and believed in me to deliver) the benefits of supporting cryptocurrency, internet-owned DAO corporations, and fiscal responsibility for our state. (Timing is also key: It’s been difficult to spark this belief when Bitcoin has lost half its value since I started this campaign! 😳)

Thank you to my supporters, to Christopher Weisenborn for your help in managing this campaign, to Tim Viewig + Kevin Breheny, to my family, my girlfriend, and especially to every neighbor who was willing to sign their name or vote for my unorthodox approach to change.

The hard lessons I learned tie back to basic user experience design principles: listen more, pivot faster, and always seek to build a better solution for your customer by using the language that matters to them.

I am also proud of gaining two thousand votes without putting out a single yard sign and deploying only a few hundred dollars, which was part of this grand experiment -- to reveal what percent of the vote I would earn by running a 100% digital election. It's clear to me that traditional messaging still matters to win these days, which I believe is partly based on the principle of repetition to build trust with your audience. Voters need to see your name again and again to decide that you are someone worth voting for. Obviously your values and the language you use matter in conjunction with trust. The same goes for social proof: If you see a lot of signs in your neighbors' yards, you might think that candidate is more popular and worthy of your vote.

Dr. Smith, you did a great job hammering home the ground campaign. As Dan Caulkins said, at the end of the day, this is a popularity contest. I have learned that it is *HARD* to take nuanced language about technology and make it popular for the average voter.

Our neighbors cannot prioritize technology and fiscal responsibility over their personal financial situations when they are struggling to pay for physical needs — housing, food, gas. The residents of our district have decided that they are not prioritizing cryptocurrency or internet-owned corporations right now. Our market and economy have clearly shifted voters' immediate needs since I started running for office.

This election was worth a shot, if nothing else, because I got to know our neighbors so much better. Even when many disagreed with my policy perspectives, I listened to their concerns and dove deeper into their reasons to understand WHY. I have even greater respect for all of our Illinoisans after participating in this process, and that knowledge will be deployed to help our other candidates moving forward.

One thing that wasn't all digital: I knocked on doors. A LOT of doors. And it still hurts my heart to know how many single old ladies are at home all by themselves without any neighbors checking in on them. We should all get off of our phones from time to time and check in on our neighbors. Relationships, built in person, are the glue holding our community together. As trust is established, sharing a homemade meal can be a heavenly gift to an older person who struggles to prepare their own food.

To all of our neighbors, the majority of you have spoken by voting for Dr. Smith, and I will work with her to support the outcome you're seeking while remaining true to my beliefs that reaching across the aisle is possible if we continue to listen and be respectful to one another. The 96th is a blue district, and the other side will not flip to bridge the middle if we do not make an effort to understand and accommodate them.

America is hurting. Illinois is hurting. But we have not lost our nation or state, and as in the past, there is more work to be done.

I will continue to commit myself to serving our fellow small business owners and neighbors as we design better policies that will increase revenue and profitability within our state while keeping our neighbors safe, fed, and employed. I plan to help Dr. Lisa Smith, Darren Bailey and Stephanie Trussell with their campaigns in the general election, and work with them to improve Illinois.

Today I also announce my new role as an emerging tech scout and Scalable® business advisor, under Ryan Deiss' mentorship, after he founded DigitalMarketer(dot)com as well as the largest marketing conference in North America (Traffic & Conversion Summit). I will resume helping seven figure businesses scale to eight figures by installing new operating systems, improving their digital marketing, and injecting new technology. I have three new clients as of this morning, and I am excited to continue helping our businesses grow, especially within the defense industry, as we serve our Warfighters to combat rising aggression from the CCP and Russia.

God Bless you all. God Bless America and our great state of Illinois.

Congratulations again to Dr. Smith and her wonderful family. Keep up the good fight!

Guns save lives in Illinois. Police could be up to an hour away, and you need the ability to defend yourself and your family. I will fight for your second amendment rights - and to eliminate the FOID card.

Guns Do Save Lives: Here's Nine Examples From Last Month Alone Armed citizens stopped at least one mass shooting.