Podcasts about after i've

Will The Economy Collapse? In today's podcast, I will discuss with you a common statement I hear... "This ISN'T 2008!" is a common theme I hear amongst real estate agents. They are absolutely right. It's even WORSE. In the first 15 minutes, I will share with you compelling historical evidence from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the famed "Warren Buffet Indicator" as well as the wealth gap relative to the Great Depression of 1929. After I've convinced you that not only are we headed for a depression, but a depression worse than 1929, I will share with you six practical things you must do to prepare for the coming economic collapse. Best Case? I'm wrong.. and you are prepared. (highly unlikely) Worst Case? I'm right.. and you didn't listen. Visit www.KarlBuysHouses.com for more info! #Tucson #Depression2020 #EconomicsOfCorona --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/karlbuysho/message

Day 0 RULES OF THE GROUP A good idea is to have a book or journal to dedicate solely to this practice The Meditation is for 21 days starting Monday 13th Jan. After I've sent you the daily task you will have 24 to 36 hours to complete it... as we are in different time zones .. I will send out the night before so that you have the time to complete it If a task requires writing use pen and paper... not a computer.. Before starting the task come to a calm state, slow deep breathing ... you can complete the task after the Deepak Chopras meditations. Please send messages and questions in private No need to leave comments in group as there are so many of us and it will be hard to follow. Be fully focused on your daily task, allocate time and space. If you can not participate or keep the rhythm of the program please remove yourself from the group. It's important for us to maintain the flow so that the energy input into this process does not dissipate. After completing the daily task, please write the completion statement e.g. day 1 done There may be days when I ask you to leave other comments.

The question that I often ask myself, and what I want to pose to you is, "how do you get the most out of your grocery shopping experience"? I shop online most of the time because going into grocery stories can sometimes throw me off completely. If you haven't tried out Amazon Fresh, highly recommend it, or a lot of grocery stores now are offering meal delivery services,. Know that you may have to pay a slight premium for some of those things, but it can save so much time!   In this episode, I want to share with you some of my strategies for grocery shopping:   When I go grocery shopping, I either go early in the morning, or I go later in the evening. I plan out my meals and then I write down the ingredients for the meals. Due to this, I'm laser focused, and I go in and get exactly what I want, AFTER I've made sure I've eaten something, which brings me to my next point. EAT BEFORE YOU GO GROCERY SHOPPING. I tend to stay on the outside of the grocery store because that's where my produce and protein sources can be. I spend most of my time on the outside of the store, but also, the inside of the store isn't bad. I get a lot of my frozen fruits/vegetables and dried beans/rice from the inside of the store, so don't count it out. Sometimes bulk items are on the inside of the store as well.   Bottom line, you can do it. It may take a little bit of practice to get through a few successful trips, but I believe in you!   Tag me @joyfulebony across all social media platforms and show me your grocery store trip!    

Today the Be A Smart Woman podcast welcomes a very special guest in part 2 of our series on fermented foods. Her name is Meg Chamberlain and she is the founder of Fermenti Foods. We will be talking in more detail about how fermented foods can help you. The many gifts that consuming this wonderful food group can bring into your life.This episode will be packed full of great information so you might want to get a pen and paper for this one. Highlighting and discussing all the in's and our's of fermented foods. Why you should consider including such a dynamic health food into your daily diet, how to do this in a balanced way. Especially if you are a new-be at this.We will talk about lots of recipe ideas and share some great tips on how to get your young children excited about eating these wonderful foods.We will be answering questions on this today in away you may have never heard it explained before. By the time we finish our 2 part series you are going to be looking at these little powerhouses of foods in a totally different light.We also discuss in more detail how eating fermented foods and fasting intermittently supported Meg in loosing over 200 pounds,Please keep in mind that we are sharing personal stories, we are not doctors nor do we play one here on the internet so make sure you check with your doctor for any health concerns you might have and weather using fermented foods would be beneficial for your health and well-beingAfter the show we would love to invite you to join us with Meg in our Private online forum for further conversations around these podcasts.To learn more about Meg and her wonderful company Fermenti foods you can visit her web sit atwww.fermenti.biz andwww.wncfermentingfestival.comFacebook, instagram, twitter @ fermentifoodsand on their free YouTube Channel Fermenti MountainQuotes:There are four things that you really want to have, you want to touch on in regards to fermented food and consumption. The first one is when you go to incorporate these realistically into your everyday diet, again, diversity is key. Obviously picking a ferment that you are going to want to consume is very important. I know a lot of people will buy something because it's good for them, but then they don't eat it and that's not good for them...(04:10 to 04:50)You can even use the brine from ferments as like a salad dressing. So then that's another application is probiotic rich salad dressings. You just replace the vinegar with the brine. That's probiotic rich. (09:44 to 09:56)One of the things that I find so fascinating specifically at markets at my booth is kids will come up and they will want to try something. And more often than not, a parent will come up and be like, "Oh, you don't like that. You don't want that." (25:22 to 25:41)Yeah. It's like even animals, like dogs will come to my booth and I always have a little dog dish where I put some sauerkraut. (26:46 to 26:52) Links mentioned in todays show:www.fermenti.bizuncfermentingfestival.comwww.beasmartwoman.comConnect with UsTo learn more about Claire Faithful and the Be a Smart Woman movement visit us at: http://www.beasmartwoman.comOr connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or TwitterAlso listen to this podcast on: iTunes, Spotify. Utube and at BeASmartWoman.comFULL TRANSCRIPT:Claire F.: (00:00) Welcome to the Be A Smart Woman podcast. Everyone has their own story to tell and you never know what impact your story might have on someone else's life. This is the foundation of the Be A Smart Woman movement. Our movement seeks to empower women through the sharing of their journeys with other women. Sometimes we don't even realize the lessons that our stories hold until we share them with others. I am Claire Faithfull, founder of Be A Smart Woman, and it is my hope and dream that this podcast will illuminate personal lessons for you the way listening to other women's stories has inspired me for years. We are so glad you are here. Let's enjoy this journey together.Claire F.: (00:52) We are here today for round two of our fermented foods discussion with Meg Chamberlain, owner of Fermented Foods. You'll definitely want to grab pen and paper for this one as it's packed full of information. We'll be discussing the best ways to add these fabulous foods into your diet. A little hint, it is different than you might expect. Listen in. First we talk recipe ideas and share some great tips for getting even your pickiest eaters to love them. Meg talks about her personal journey of losing nearly 200 pounds by healing her gut with ferments and intermittent fasting. Please keep in mind that we are sharing personal stories. We are not doctors nor do we play one here on the internet, so make sure you check with your doctor for any health concerns you might have. After the show, we'd love to invite you to join us with Meg in our private online forum for further conversations around this podcast. You can find the link of our website or simply do a Facebook search for Be A Smart Woman online community.Claire F.: (02:28) Wow, everyone. Welcome back to our fabulous show. I am so excited that we are going to be doing a part two with the wonderful Meg Chamberlain because I feel like we just touched the surface, and I was so excited about our first podcast. I felt like I just had to pull her right back in. And let's get some more questions answered, and let's understand on a deeper level because I got such amazing response from you guys and you all were asking about more and understanding more. So here we are. We have the wonderful Meg Chamberlain.Claire F.: (03:06) Hey Meg. Welcome to our show again. I am super excited that you're here because after our first podcast together, I just felt that there were... I felt like we just touched the surface and there were so many questions that I had and I feel like even this one is just going to be a bit more of that because there's so much I'm realizing to gut health and to our general wellbeing and where fermented food plays a role in that. So I guess my question to you would be on another level or a slightly deeper level, what is it that we need to know about fermented foods? How can we add this into our diet? Are there simple techniques we can add fermented foods into our diet? Now in the last podcast we talked about where we could buy different fermented foods and the types, but I just wondered if you could talk a little bit more about that.Meg Chamberlain: (04:09) Yes, actually there's, and thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. There are four things that you really want to have, you want to touch on in regards to fermented food and consumption. The first one is when you go to incorporate these realistically into your everyday diet, again, diversity is key. Obviously picking a ferment that you are going to want to consume is very important. I know a lot of people will buy something because it's good for them, but then they don't eat it and that's not good for them because they're...Claire F.: (04:51) Yeah, that's me. I go, oh, I'm going to try that. And then I taste one little one at home and I go, yeah, no. And then I don't do it.Meg Chamberlain: (04:57) And you're in very good company. There's lots of us that do that, myself included sometimes. So the first of the four things that I recommend when you are looking at adapting your diet with fermented foods is you want to double your servings of fermented foods to start. So in the first podcast we talked about the initial four to six weeks and how as when you start to consume them regularly, the soluble fiber takes the lactic bacteria down into your large and small intestines, and they will attach themselves to the impactions. Like if you have leaky gut or ulcerative colitis or Crohn's, it will attach to the impactions. And layer by layer, the soluble fiber is really the vehicle that helps remove those impactions from your system. So to start, if you're craving or your initial idea is to eat maybe a palm full, maybe initially have two palm fulls.Claire F.: (06:07) Oh, so you're talking about like the palm of our hand. You take a palm full of fermented food. Like we were talking about sauerkraut because I guess that's what everyone knows the name of, sauerkraut. But so you'd put that in the palm of your hand, but you would do two to start?Meg Chamberlain: (06:24) Yes.Claire F.: (06:25) So you'd actually have more in the beginning?Meg Chamberlain: (06:26) A little bit more in the beginning. So that's anywhere from an eighth to a quarter of a cup. So you might be choosing to eat a half a cup or so with every meal to, start for four to six weeks. I do recommend that you're aware that you can overdo it. Like if you were to sit down, because I have people that are like, "Oh my gosh, your kimchi is so delicious. I just sat down and I ate a whole jar. Help. Am I going to be okay?" And the answer is yes, you're going to be just fine. But you might have a little diarrhea the next day because of the amount that you've consumed.Meg Chamberlain: (07:10) So I do recommend to try to eat maybe only half a jar if you have that compulsion. But again, I always above all recommend to follow your gut because our guts are never wrong.Claire F.: (07:25) Well, I just love that saying. Follow your gut, listen to your gut. And we're talking about the gut and healing the gut. And yet we have to listen to it in the context of even how much fermented food we put in our gut.Meg Chamberlain: (07:36) Yes. And also giving yourself permission to let go of our minds because our egos and our brains very much think that they know what's best. And if we give ourselves permission to deepen into our physical beings, that is really how we go with our true intuition and our gut. So a lot of people when they're like, "Oh, I just intuitively did it." No, they put together a series of logical fallacies that led them to do something that might, yeah.Claire F.: (08:09) Well, it's just making me think about how people say to us, "Listen to your gut for your like intuition or your guidance." But I guess if your gut isn't healthy, then maybe you're not going to be able to listen to your gut so well.Meg Chamberlain: (08:26) And that's part of the healing journey that we are all on in this day and age. And it is a give and take. There is a back and forth. But over time you will learn to understand what is your ego based, I'm going to do what Maggie wants to do, versus Maggie's gut being like, girl, we need this.Claire F.: (08:50) I know. And that's the thing is how do we know what we need and how much do we... Well you're saying how much we should take to start with. And how does that go on? Like do we take half a cup of say fermented foods in the beginning, but how do we take it for a week, two weeks? I mean...Meg Chamberlain: (09:12) Again, I recommend the four to six week period is a pretty good guideline.Claire F.: (09:14) Four to six weeks you do that. With every single meal?Meg Chamberlain: (09:17) I do. I also recommend that you consume cruciferous vegetables, living, raw at the same time.Claire F.: (09:24) Raw vegetables. I mean you're talking about like raw broccoli or cauliflower, carrots.Meg Chamberlain: (09:30) Lettuces.Claire F.: (09:30) Oh, you can have lettuces, salads.Meg Chamberlain: (09:33) You can have all sorts of leafy greens.Claire F.: (09:35) I love kale. I love making fabulous kale salads.Meg Chamberlain: (09:42) That sounds delicious.Claire F.: (09:42) With a little lemon, a little olive oil on it. And black pepper. One of my favorites.Meg Chamberlain: (09:44) You can even use the brine from ferments as like a salad dressing. So then that's another application is probiotic rich salad dressings. You just replace the vinegar with the brine. That's probiotic rich.Claire F.: (09:57) Oh, I'm going to do that.Meg Chamberlain: (10:00) And we'll get more into that in a minute. But when you consume the plant fiber with the fermented food, it helps go in and release those impactions over time, layers and layers. But you want to eat at least two times the volume of fresh to ferment. So if you're having a salad, maybe you can press the leaves to two handfuls of salad leaves or greens and then one handful of ferment.Claire F.: (10:37) Oh wow. So they say two cups of vegetables, one cup of ferment?Meg Chamberlain: (10:45) Yes. And then on top of that, the last thing to remember is as you are, because ideally what you're trying to do here is to clean up your system, correct?Claire F.: (10:54) Right.Meg Chamberlain: (10:55) You're trying to undo a lot of a lifetime's worth of quote unquote damage or dis-ease that's within our system. So to do that, and I know this might seem really impossible and it feels like it at times, but to achieve optimal results, you ideally would remove sugars, like refined sugars and refined processed wheats in flours from your diet as well.Claire F.: (11:24) So in other words, if we really want to heal our gut...Meg Chamberlain: (11:28) You have to stop doing the bad things that got you where you are. Which is eating the refined sugars and flours. Yeah.Claire F.: (11:35) Right. And in a way, let's think about that. I mean like we kind of all are becoming aware now that refined sugars and flours and things that are white are not great for us.Meg Chamberlain: (11:47) Agreed. And they tend to cause inflammation, which is another concern of leaky gut is your tissue is inflamed. So if you remove the factors that are causing the inflammation, healing can take place much, much more effectively. So you're not continuingly causing a problem while you're trying to fix the problem.Claire F.: (12:11) Right. So, in other words, you could be taking the fermented foods, which will be helping you, but then if you're eating tons of sugar, well you're kind of going to be counter... It's like not really going to fully help you, is it? It might do a little bit of good, but it's not really going to help you heal.Meg Chamberlain: (12:25) It's not going to get you where you really want to be. And then on top of that, just experientially, after the birth of my daughter, postpartum hit me like a brick. So I emotionally ate and went from 165 to 345 pounds.Claire F.: (12:48) Wow. That's hard to imagine everyone as I'm sitting in front of her and she's just like this very smelt, beautiful woman. But I can't even imagine. But I'm going to take it. I'm going to take what you're saying as truth, but she looks amazing everyone.Meg Chamberlain: (13:07) Thank you. And I mean I do have photos because I don't even believe it, but the exciting thing about that is in my life I learned it was part of my healing journey was I had to go to that point to then pull back from that point because one day I looked in the mirror and I looked at my beautiful daughter and I was like, I'm pre-diabetic. I'm probably inflaming my Crohn's. Every tissue in my body's inflamed. I'm unhappy with myself. I'm being jaded in my daily interactions because I'm unhappy with myself, because I don't have the love I need inside of myself for myself, obviously because I wasn't taking care of myself.Meg Chamberlain: (13:54) I can't have that love then for my daughter or my family. So I had a really big moment where I had to make a decision to heal. And in doing that, I revisited the fermented foods because by that time, we had been fermenting on the homestead, and I had been eating kimchi and stuff off and on. But it wasn't something that I really took seriously in a way to change my reality. And I changed my reality over 18 to 22 months. It didn't happen overnight and it's not supposed to, but what...Claire F.: (14:32) Oh, so this is a process? It takes time.Meg Chamberlain: (14:35) And be patient with yourself and you have to be loving with yourself because it's not easy. But through intermittent fasting, which was choosing to eat within a four hour period every day. I didn't eat before that four hours or after. I could consume beverages. Like I didn't do just a water fast in between. Like I would have coffee or I would go to jail because I would get in trouble. So I gave myself my caffeine, and I would have teas and things like that, but I restricted the consumption of the food that I was eating within that four hour period. And the ideology behind that is to give your system a break.Claire F.: (15:20) Yeah, I've heard about that. I have actually listened to other people talking about this concept of fasting where you eat... What I've heard is maybe you eat for like an eight hour period or a seven hour period or six hours. I haven't heard four hours. This is the first time I've heard four hours.Meg Chamberlain: (15:39) And that's a little extreme.Claire F.: (15:40) Yeah. But so maybe not everyone in the audience could fathom only eating for four hours. So could you stretch it like a little bit longer?Meg Chamberlain: (15:50) You can. Six hours can work, but I find for me and for my physiology, four hours was the most effective. And if you think about it, a lot of us are so busy running around doing our day that we forget to eat lunch anyway.Claire F.: (16:04) No, I do that. I do that a lot where all of a sudden I'll go, oh my God, it's 3:30 in the afternoon. I've had my, I don't drink coffee, but I've had my tea and maybe I've grabbed like a little tiny couple of strawberries or something or half a food bar, but I haven't really eaten. Because I didn't actually call that eating. That's just, and that's it. And I go, oh my God. And all of a sudden I get to five o'clock and I think, I have to eat now. Like I can feel that my sugar level is starting to drop. So I'll make myself food. But honestly, you're right. After I've eaten this fabulous meal, I don't think about food again. If I can get to the 3:30, but I have to be busy because if I'm not, if I'm having a quiet day, that's when I kind of think, oh, let me make breakfast and oh let me have some lunch because I have time.Meg Chamberlain: (16:55) Yes. Then you're taking the food into more of a activity versus sustenance. Now I will say that something that did help me considerably was as I, and and it didn't happen overnight. I started at six hours and then went down to four eventually. But one of the things that helped me was I would get these horrible hunger pains and I was like, oh my God, I'm going to die if I don't eat right now, I need to eat right now. And I would make myself stop, and I would really drop into my body and think about it and be like, okay Meg, are you tired? Are you really hungry or are you just thirsty? So then I would drink water. I'd drink eight to 16 ounces of water. And nine times out of 10, I wouldn't think about it again. So I found that a lot of the times when I think that I'm hungry, I'm truly dehydrated or that it's my body's way of telling me to consume some sort of liquid.Claire F.: (17:58) Wow, that's great information.Meg Chamberlain: (18:00) And that's just again experiential data. But that's what I've learned. And then I paired this fasting technique with fermented foods. So during that four hours, I would eat an eighth of a cup of kimchi and a quarter cup of salsa that's fermented and a few dilly beans that were fermented. And then a few preserved lemon peels on top of a salad that I was eating, and I would consume ultimately the right amount. But I did it through diversity, through choosing to consume them more as condiments versus setting down a jar of sauerkraut on the table and being like, mentally, I have to consume half of this to dah, dah, dah.Claire F.: (18:45) Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun. I can't imagine many people wanting to do that.Meg Chamberlain: (18:49) I make it for a living and I don't even want to do that. So you don't have to make this torturous. The point of food, I believe, is to enjoy life and enjoy the flavors and spice and creativity of life. So you're not here to punish yourself. And that's why I think a lot of diets quote unquote fail, is because you come from the perspective of, oh, I've been bad, I have to punish myself to be good. And that is not sustainable.Claire F.: (19:16) No, it's not. I agree with you.Meg Chamberlain: (19:18) And who wants to be punished?Claire F.: (19:20) No one. But I think as individuals it's very easy for us to self punish. I think that's one of the things I see, especially for women that we do a lot where we beat ourselves up.Meg Chamberlain: (19:32) Well culturally we're ashamed and we're taught to shame each other. It was a way that we kept each other in check as women. And I believe if we are going to be smart women and take care of one another as we're meant to do, we can't fall into that shaming category because again, we're not only just shaming somebody else, but we are hurting ourselves by perpetuating these outdated social tools to keep us quote unquote with our legs crossed and our mouths shut. We as women are not meant in my belief to be hobbled like that.Claire F.: (20:16) Oh, I love that word. Yeah.Meg Chamberlain: (20:19) There's a saying, and please forgive me, the source is alluding me. But it's when women wake up, mountains move. And being here in the mountains and being around so many women that wake up, stuff's moving. Like we are making an effective change. And when we stand up and we make the conscious choice and give ourselves permission to be the change we want to see and thusly support the women around us be the change they want to see, that's when community comes together and we can stand together as women.Claire F.: (20:54) I know. And that, I mean this is a little side note everyone, but that is really what for me Be A Smart Woman is all about, is bringing women together in community to share together. Like we're sharing about fermented foods, and this is giving me so much personal, helpful information. It's like you have this gift and now you're sharing it with me of which now we get to personally, the two of us, share it with all the people that choose to listen to this fabulous podcast. And then they can share that with their friends and their women friends, and this is how this can spread and then we get healthier. So we can be, because I think women are powerhouses.Claire F.: (21:40) I think we can move mountains. But we also need our strength and our health. And I think that's one of, even for me with this project, I realize I have to go to bed a little earlier. I'm getting up earlier. I have to be more mindful of how I'm feeding my body because I need the energy to do all the things that it takes to put this podcast on, which is a lot. And it's fun, but I realize I need the energy. I just can't be doing some of the things that I used to do before. And so I think the fermented foods is and healing your gut, because I think isn't your gut about your energy? Because if I think about it from color, it's the center, it's the core. And I guess if that's healthy then we have more vibrance.Meg Chamberlain: (22:29) Agreed. And there's a lot of data that's being brought out now in the scientific community about how the gut is our second mind, and it's even being argued that it is our primary mind and that our intellectual brain is not really as smart as we like to think that it is. In that getting back to the visceral nature because as a species, before we cultivized or civilized everything around us, we would have an altercation let's say with a wild boar and we would run for our lives. Well, physiologically we would have to then shake that off like a deer in the wild. They'll shake things off. And through becoming civilized, we don't allow ourselves to do the things we need to let go of emotional traumas.Meg Chamberlain: (23:30) And as women in particular, we tend to push things down into our solar plexus and our womb areas. And that can cause a lot of dis-ease again. And so a lot of it for me has been yes, fermented food and yes, intermittent fasting, but also giving myself permission to take the conscious choice to go into those things that I have been told and allowed myself to be told. And that's another thing is that we allow ourselves to be coerced and then pulling these things up and looking them and seeing if they serve me well.Claire F.: (24:10) No. And I think now the time is a lot that's what women are really doing is looking at where we've been kind of suppressed and sort of shut down that we have to live in this certain way and this is how it is. And I think now we're starting to go, well maybe I just don't want to do that. And it's not about feminism and this whole women's lib thing, "burn your bras" of the 60s. Maybe that was the beginning of that movement. I think now we're in a different time. It's about women really being empowered and being smart and going, how do I take care of myself? How do I take care of my health? How do I take care of my family? Or how do I take care of my friendships?Claire F.: (24:48) How do I nurture healthy friendships in life where we care about each other as women instead of attacking each other, which was the [inaudible 00:24:57]. And I feel like that was the set in the culture too. But that's another topic. But it did make me think about something which is, okay, so we have our little children. How do we introduce fermented foods to young children? Because you know how picky they can be. And I'm figuring it would be good for children to have fermented foods too.Meg Chamberlain: (25:22) It is. And one of the things that I find so fascinating specifically at markets at my booth is kids will come up and they will want to try something. And more often than not, a parent will come up and be like, "Oh, you don't like that. You don't want that."Claire F.: (25:42) Oh really?Meg Chamberlain: (25:43) Yeah. And so...Claire F.: (25:45) So the child may be intrigued or interested.Meg Chamberlain: (25:49) Because natural curiosity. And nine times out of 10, through behavioral patterning, we help our kids be picky, a lot of times. So it's so interesting when I find a parent that is willing to let their child consume anything. And of course I always ask permission. You always ask permission, but these kids, they'll eat the beets or they'll eat the kimchi or they'll eat... I even had one eat the hot sauce. Our pickles are a huge hit with kids of all ages. And it's so fascinating because these children, and in fact at market, some of the other market kids will every week come to my booth, "I want pickle juice, I want pickle juice, I want pickles. Can I have some?"Claire F.: (26:39) So something about them that innately, they know this is good for them.Meg Chamberlain: (26:43) Yes.Claire F.: (26:44) So they're drawn to it.Meg Chamberlain: (26:46) Yeah. It's like even animals, like dogs will come to my booth and I always have a little dog dish where I put some sauerkraut.Claire F.: (26:53) So you can give this to animals too?Meg Chamberlain: (26:56) Yes.Claire F.: (26:56) Woo hoo! I'm going to give this to my dog. Oh, yay. Oh yay. Cool Monte.Meg Chamberlain: (26:59) His quality of life will improve.Claire F.: (27:01) Oh yes. I'm so excited.Meg Chamberlain: (27:03) It is exciting. And so what's so neat is that when we don't have those filters, so many of us do gravitate. And it's really funny even with the adults that are very much in those patterns of restriction, self restriction, they'll come to my booth and I've gotten quite good at being like, don't come to my booth and bring that here. Just try it. Look, I got a spit bucket. I don't look. If you don't like it, no harm, no foul, but give it a shot.Meg Chamberlain: (27:35) It's free to try. And nine times out of 10, people will try it and they'll be like, "Oh, well I actually like that."Claire F.: (27:45) They weren't expecting it.Meg Chamberlain: (27:46) Yeah, they had a preconceived idea.Claire F.: (27:49) I actually did have that when I came to your booth all those years ago. And who would've thought we'd be doing this podcast together years later? But that's really what happened to me. I came on, my husband was saying, "You've got to come and meet this lady, Meg, she's awesome." And I went, oh, but I don't like that stuff. I literally was like that. Oh, I don't know. And I went, okay, I'll come and look. And I remember I'm sure saying to you, I really don't like that stuff.Meg Chamberlain: (28:14) Oh, you were very clear.Claire F.: (28:14) I was very clear. And then you said, "But I have this one that I think you might like. Would you be willing to try it?" And I was like, okay, I'll try it. And I have to say, I did, everyone, I got this little cup and I put a little bit in my mouth and I went, oh, that's not so bad. And you know what? I thought it was going to taste like pickles. Like you know when you go to restaurants and you get the burger and the French fries and they always have to give you all of these big horrible old pickles? I just think they're so disgusting. So I always had that picture in my mind that that's what fermented foods was, and I was so wrong everyone. It's completely different.Meg Chamberlain: (28:58) And that's where I'd like to get into speaking really quickly about how to eat fermented foods because they're not always what we conceive them to be. And their application is wide and diverse. I have the incredibly talented chef, Jay Medford at Dope Donuts in Asheville. He is a donut genius, and he has agreed to work with me and we play.Claire F.: (29:22) You mean could eat donuts?Meg Chamberlain: (29:24) Yes, you can.Claire F.: (29:24) Oh my god! Okay, everyone. Now we're reaching a whole new level here. Donuts with fermented foods. Oh yay.Meg Chamberlain: (29:32) So on one note, again, you're not supposed to eat the weight in sugar, but on the realistic note, if I can have a donut, know I'm getting some probiotics, I'm rocking that. So it was a life goal for me to be able to marry the two. And he has agreed to play with, I'll make all kinds of fermented things like dragon fruit or preserved lemons or he'll take hot sauce that I make or pumpkin that's been fermented, and he makes these probiotic rich glazes for the donuts.Claire F.: (30:04) Oh my God, how wonderful.Meg Chamberlain: (30:05) It is. And I've also been working with Hop Ice Cream. They've made probiotic rich ice cream, not just regular ice cream but vegan ice cream. So the application process...Claire F.: (30:18) And this is something that then I guess you can give your kids.Meg Chamberlain: (30:22) Yes. So here you go, Timmy or Mary, you may have this probiotic rich donut. And yeah, it's your one donut week treat thing, but you know at least they're getting something of value within it.Claire F.: (30:36) And can you give kids, like say for instance when they have their dinner, because kids don't always eat the same as us, especially when they're young. They're pretty fussy. But could you just give them a little bit of the fermented food on their plate and recommend that they eat that?Meg Chamberlain: (30:54) I do that with my daughter. I always put a little bit and I'll sneak it places. I do this game where I say find the ferment, and so I've done things where like I've put sauerkraut in tuna salad or egg salad or chicken salad or tofu salad, whatever the medium is. I've also taken, like we do probiotic rich dehydrated seasonings and kraut flours. I will either take those or brines and instead of making water with my hummus, I'll put brines. And so you can have probiotic rich hummus or guacamole. I like to also, like for my daughter's birthday, I have a lot of health conscious mama friends. And so for the cupcake, what I like to do is I will take a cup of sauerkraut and put it in the cupcake mix because yes, I am human and I use a cupcake mix.Claire F.: (31:56) Yeah, I know because that's the thing. But we're all going to have sometimes yummy things, and I think that's the point here as well. It's that we can be healthy and we can eat like good foods, but at the same time we can still have some of our yummy treats. Because I think in life we have to have a little bit of yummy too. I think all food is yummy personally, but sometimes there's nothing like having, I don't know, a great cupcake.Meg Chamberlain: (32:24) And if you don't have that yummy, your overall dedication to being healthy is not going to be sustainable. I mean realistically. Like maybe once a month you need that cupcake or that doughnut, but you can put kraut in the batter. And yes, when it's baked it loses the probiotics, but you're still getting that soluble fiber and vitamins and minerals. Now to get the probiotics, I take the brine from the beets and ginger and I mix it in the icing. And I put that on the cupcake.Meg Chamberlain: (32:55) So from beginning to end, top to bottom, you have fermented foods acting in an everyday item that you wouldn't normally perceive them in. A lot of people will put of course, obviously ferments as a topping to a sandwich, like a ruben or kimchi on a grilled cheese or salad topping with the beets and ginger. Those are all pretty obvious applications. A lot of times I like to use the brines in things like smoothies or the hot sauce in things like bloody Mary's. If you're going to have a bloody Mary, you can take fermented hot sauce and put it right in. You can put fermented tomatoes as the base.Meg Chamberlain: (33:43) I do a preserved lemon where a friend of mine, like every month she has a get together with her friends and she'll take my preserved lemons and puree them up with tequila and ice and she makes frozen fermented lemon margaritas.Claire F.: (33:57) Oh my God, that sounds amazing.Meg Chamberlain: (33:59) So the application is as diverse as you want to take it and as much fun as you want to have culinarily. So it can be anything from just putting a little kimchi on pan fried potatoes next to your filet mignon, or it can be a freaking cupcake.Claire F.: (34:16) Wow. Now I know that none of us knew any of this. Now do you have like a book or anything yet that we can find out some of these ideas? Because I mean obviously it sounds very simple, but I know how we all are girls. We like to have something that we can look at, a recipe or something visual so that we can be told, do A, B, C and D, and this is what you can do to create it. I know that I would like that.Meg Chamberlain: (34:46) Well right now I am working on a recipe book. It is about a third done. I just have to find 36 hours in 24, but but it is in the works ladies. It is coming. In the meantime, I do have a free YouTube channel at Fermenty Mountain where I talk about mostly how to make, but I will be branching this summer into how to consume realistically these foods like serving suggestions. And then sometimes on my Instagram or Facebook, I'll throw things out like, hey, I just had this to eat and look how I used it.Claire F.: (35:25) Okay. So there's ways that we can find out more about some of your different ideas and creative ways of eating like basically fun foods which have healthy aspect to them even though they're fun. Because I really like that. I think that in this day and age, not everyone wants to be 100% healthy, like vegetables and fruit and nothing else.Meg Chamberlain: (35:52) Well life is short. And you should enjoy it. But again, there's ways to do both. Like last night we had some strawberries left in our garden and I sliced them and I put a teaspoon of our hot sauce and mixed it in. And then I pan fried some tempeh, which is a fermented.Claire F.: (36:12) Yeah, I love tempeh.Meg Chamberlain: (36:13) And I put the, the hot sauce berries on top, on a bed of beet greens and it was insanely delicious.Claire F.: (36:21) Wow. Oh that sounds like a good, oh I'm going to try that one. Oh my God, there is so much. I mean I just am so excited. But I think now we have to wrap it up. We've come to the end of our podcast today, but maybe Meg will come back again another day and grace us with her female tips of some ideas. Because I just feel like this is like something so important for us as women to really know for ourselves and for our children and for our significant other or how that is in our walls. Anyway, I just think you are so awesome and thank you so much for coming back on our show and sharing some more of your wisdom. I mean I love it.Meg Chamberlain: (37:08) I appreciate you having me and I'll leave you with a final quote. Fermenters Do it longer.Claire F.: (37:15) All right. Bye everyone. Meg, you are so inspiring. I could continue picking your brain for hours, and I just might. We are thrilled to announce that Meg will be our very first podcast guest that we feature on our brand new Facebook online community. We do hope you'll join us there. The link to that group and to all Meg's contact information is on our website, beasmartwoman.com. Thank you for tuning in today. And remember when women wake up, mountains move. Women are powerhouses and the Be A Smart woman team is committed to sharing stories like these that all support us all along our journey.Claire F.: (38:15) That wraps up our be a smart woman podcast for today. I hope that you discovered something about yourself during today's podcast as I truly believe we can learn something from everyone we meet. If you like what you heard today, I invite you to subscribe and leave a review. We'd love to have you in our Be A Smart Woman family. You can also follow and like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you've got questions or think you have a story to share, you can find our contact information at beasmartwoman.com. Thank you for listening and see you next time.

As more and more people get tuned into the reality that your imagination creates reality the questions have begun to roll in. Taking an episode to go over some of those questions along with my responses. There’s a good chance you may have questions once you pop the lid open too. Questions in this episode: 1. How can I convince people this is real? 2. How do I explain this to a 5-year old 3. I can't picture exactly what I want, what do I do? 4. I have too many things to imagine. What do I do!? 5. Can I only do the techniques at night?  6. After I've imagined the scene do I drop it? 7. You mentioned this is a neutral principle. How can it be abused? Rate and Review (

How can a small business dominate digital lead gen in the most competitive industry when it comes to online marketing? This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, entrepreneur and author Brian J. Greenberg shares the digital marketing formula he used to take on the giants of the life insurance industry and drive growth for his small insurance startup.  Brian has documented his process in his book, "The Salesman Who Doesn't Sell," but you can learn all about them in today's episode. Special Offer for Inbound Success Podcast Listeners: Click here to get your free audio copy of "The Salesman Who Doesn't Sell" Some highlights from our discussion include:  The life insurance industry is one of the top four most competitive industries to rank for in Google, but Brian has successfully grown traffic and leads to his website, often outranking major brand name competitors. Inspired by a talk given by Will Reynolds of Seer Interactive, Brian focuses on doing "really company stuff" in his internet marketing (basically, he doesn't try and game the system). He starts by building his website's link profile through high quality back links. Using freelancers he finds through Upwork.com, Brian writes keyword-rich articles that he gets placed on third party websites through his online PR efforts. He then shares those articles by linking to them on his website press page. Brian doesn't mind paying outsourced writers or PR experts because he knows the value of a high quality backlink (which he measures using SEMRush). He has a very thorough process for vetting outsourced writers that he uses to help with content creation. Brian is a contributor to online publications like Entrepreneur and Forbes and those sites have given him very high quality backlinks. He also writes long form answers on Quora and has found that these gain the attention of publications that then request to republish them. Brian uses cash incentives to encourage his staff to solicit online reviews and testimonials as a way of establishing site authority and boosting lead conversions. Brian measures ROI by determining the exact dollar value of a new backlink or online review. His marketing system has resulted in True Blue Life Insurance having a lead to customer conversion rate that is 10x that of its competitors. Listen to the podcast to learn, step-by-step, how to get killer inbound marketing results just like Brian has. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host):Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. My name's Kathleen Booth and I am your host and today my guest is Brian Greenberg, who is the CEO and founder at True Blue Life Insurance and the author of, "The Salesman Who Doesn't Sell." Welcome, Brian. Brian Greenberg (Guest): Hey, thanks for having me, Kathleen. Brian and Kathleen recording this episode Kathleen: Yeah, my pleasure. I got a little tongue tied there around saying True Blue. I think if I said it six times fast it would be a big jumble. Brian, I was excited to have you because I've been an agency owner for many years prior to joining Impact, and in that time I've worked with a number of insurance agencies and brokerages. I really came to appreciate that from an Inbound marketing and even just a broader digital marketing standpoint, it's one of, if not the most competitive industries. Because so much money is poured into digital marketing in insurance. There's so many 800 pound gorillas in the industry, and especially for independent brokerages, it can be very, very difficult to rank and to succeed with digital. You're somebody whose kind of figured it out, so much so that you've now written a book about what you're doing. So, before we dive too far into that, let's start by having you tell our audience a little bit about yourself and your background and what brought you here today. About Brian Greenberg Brian: Sure. I started in the internet marketing business back in 2003, so I'd kind of seen a lot of the evolution. Now I've always earned my money, been a business owner and passive income, by bringing in traffic through Google and Yahoo and MSN. I've always been able to rank real well in any of the main key words I've been able to do in the past. I have owned an organic internet marketing agency. I've owned several e-commerce agencies, there was one point where I owned about 8 different businesses at the same time. Kind of cut down on that, Kathleen. Kathleen: I was going to say Brian: Right now, I went into... Kathleen: You had eight businesses at once? I had one and that was enough to keep me up at night. About True Blue Life Insurance Brian: Yeah. Then I decided to go into True Blue life insurance - the life insurance industry, which is very profitable. It's one of the top four most competitive industries on the internet and it was a big challenge. I started a website a long time ago that had success and now I focus on it 100%. I am competing against a lot of big guys with a lot of deep pockets and knock on wood, I've been able to it very successfully for a long time now. Kathleen: That's amazing. You know, I think what's interesting to me is there are so many other business owners out there. I have a lot of listeners who are business owners. Who are naturally interested in marketing, either because they have to be, or because their businesses are a size where they can't afford not to be. There's a lot of marketing folks who are helping to grow smaller businesses. So, for somebody who's in a competitive industry, and looking at trying to get found online and to carve out a niche in the digital world, where do you start these days? You did it in life insurance, but again if you can do it there, I feel like you can do it anywhere. So walk me through what your approach is. Brian's Approach to Inbound Marketing Brian: Sure. The first thing I want to say you know, it was back in 2012 when Google came out with this penguin update and it kind of wiped out so many people that were doing too much organic SEO marketing. So Will Reynolds, he's the owner of Seer Interactive, he did this beautiful presentation, where he said from now on you have to do real company stuff. He had the abbreviation RCS. He had a profanity at the end of it, but it's RCS and what it means is that you should only be doing things that a real company would do. So, if you get offered somebody who is just going to do excessive log commenting or they're going to be spinning articles or they're going to put you in a private log network. You have to think, is that something a real company would do? So that's the first thing. Kathleen: Its seems like an obvious one right but it's surprising how many people don't get that one. Brian: Because people are contacted so often by SEO agencies that don't do things white hat. These days if you do things wrong you could actually end up hurting yourself, which is a terrible thing that I don't want people to do. So what I like to do is kind of build a website's link profile. Alright, so you're kind of building a foundation. You know, obviously you have content but below that I believe you have links and I'm trying to build up an authority website. So the first thing you should do is, you should go after all the easy links, all the directories in your markets, try to hit all the competitors. I don't know, get a listing on the better business bureau. Hit all the local directories and start getting known. And start getting those basic links and I think that's the good beginning of a link profile. Kathleen: Yeah, you know I had the CMO of Yext, Jeff Rohrs on the podcast a few months back. They're such a great service for doing exactly what you just described, which is getting started, getting your directory links set up, doing it right, making sure they're clean and all the information is consistent across them. And it's so reasonable. So, easy way to get started. So, let's say you've tackled that stage in the process, then what? Building Site Authority Through Back Links Brian: You want to start going after more authority links. High quality links. Now these days you don't need that many. So, you want to pose yourself as an expert. I am a big fan of doing online PR these days. Now online PR, you kind of gotta put yourself out there a little bit, but what I like doing is writing articles. Articles that I basically have a PR person, or I got on to Upwork and I have them release it to all the blogs, all the media outlets, and do my best to get those published. Now, there's a couple tricks on how to write these articles, to make them attractive to a lot of editors. Number one, you should always use a number in them if you can. It's definitely very helpful. "The Seven Ways This,"... "The Eight Ways This." I'm writing an article right now, "The Five Life Insurance Game Changers for 2019." I also recommend you use a catchy headline. I use a site called headlines.sharethrough.com. It is a free website, I have no idea why it's free, Kathleen. It's that good. You just kind of put your headline in there and it will give you a score, and it will also make suggestions on how to make it better. I've had great success with that. But if you give that to a PR person who has a good Rolodex, they have a good list, and you shop the around, it's wonderful to see it get picked up. And sometimes you'll get some interviews coming in as well. That's a great basis to put yourself out there. But you do as a business owner have to put yourself out there. It takes a little Chutzpah, to go after these types of links. Using Online PR to Get Back Links Kathleen: Now, you're writing these articles, do you have to already have published on your own site? Do you need to have examples of your work or are you really getting these articles published based purely on the merit of the article itself? Brian: Primarily based on the merit of the article to start. You know, once you start getting these published, you start building up a press page. I think that's a very important thing. I see so many people they'll get a great listing on Entrepreneur, or they'll do an interview at their local news station, but they won't put it on their website, which is a huge mistake. Those things are worth a lot of money. Because look, people see that on your website, it builds credibility and it lasts for such a long time. Especially if you can get it in some sort of interview on video, it's nice.  I just want to stress the importance of putting up a press page and listing all the placements you've got. It is not a form of bragging, it is an absolute must, to make it easier to get more pick ups. Kathleen: Yeah. You mentioned using either a PR firm or even going on Upwork and finding somebody who can distribute this kind of thing for you. I think for some small businesses, certainly working with PR firms can seem intimidating or it might seem too expensive. Can you tell us a little bit about how you've done it, what has the cost been to get placements? What should someone expect to spend and are there reasonably priced ways to go about doing this? Brian: The answer is yes. I think so many people who go to a big PR firm and people will charge you know at least $10,000.00 a month to take you on. You don't have to do that. There's so many people on free lancer websites, and that's a great way to find people. A lot of these people do have their own kind of websites that they do PR. Although, I can do a release for about $2,000.00. But more importantly, I get the people to guarantee me a certain amount of pick ups. So, I'll do a release, I use a company that's really good but I pay them $5,000.00, but they guarantee me at least 15 pickups, from authority websites that are real links back. Not just pickups that are a copy of a press release. They're real pickups. So, if you do that you can value how much those links are. Now in my book, a good link from a press release from an authority place is worth about $1,000.00 dollars to me. So I know how much I'm willing to pay for the links, and if you can get a PR firm to guarantee you a certain amount of links and they'll keep going until they get them, it's very hard to lose on that Kathleen. Kathleen: Now, how are you measuring authority of these links? Measuring Link Authority Brian: I'm not too strict on them. I like to use SEMrush. I have one of the toolbars that I keep open. As long as the website has basically organic traffic cost. I love this statistic. I use SEMrush and you know what they do? They take the keywords that you rank for and they convert it to if you were to pay for it on paper click, how much it's worth. So I know if the website is getting some traffic, if they're indexed, it's a valuable link. But more importantly Kathleen, it's an organic link, okay? So, even if it's not on that great of a website or that much of an authority of a website, it's a natural link and starts building up that link profile and it's worth actually a lot. Even these podcasts that I'm doing, Kathleen, is a way to build links. So you know a lot of people that run podcasts, they post the article and they'll link to my websites. Those are extremely valuable links that real companies do. Kathleen: Alright, I'm so glad you brought that up because, it's interesting, the push back that I often hear from business owners, when you say things like you need to write an article and get it published out there, a lot of times what I hear is, but I'm not a great writer. Or I don't like to write, or I can't write. And you know, I think it's great to know that there are options. Using Outsourced Writers Kathleen: You don't have to always write. You could go on podcasts and be a guest, if you find the right podcast with the right fit. And that's another way of doing this, so. Good point that you made there. Brian: I also want to say this. As a business owner you maybe a great writer, you may not. You don't have to write all your own articles. You know I have to have a knowledge of how to write articles. I read some books on writing and I practiced it. I love the book by Stephen King on writing well. Great book. But I hire free lancers to write articles. I do. Alright. You know it's very hard to keep generating these articles and run a business. I like to find freelancers. I do it on Upwork.com. You hire these people very similar to hiring normal employees. I like to get them on the phone. I interview them. When I give them an article, I'll actually have a phone call with them, for about a half an hour or an hour, and I'll go over all the content, and they'll provide it back to me. We'll massage it and make sure it's great, and then release it, because they're writing in your voice. You have to make sure you can edit it. But yes, you don't have to write them yourself, Kathleen. You can hire free lancers. There's a lot of firms that do so. So I definitely encourage people to do that. Kathleen: I'm glad you brought that up as well, because I think there's different ways of outsourcing article creation, and I've certainly had my experience with most of them. What I've seen is that where business owners outsource and they say, for example your article, Seven Insurance Game Changers for 2019. You know, if you just put something on Upwork and said I want somebody to write something on this, and you said go and write it, what you would get back would probably be, forgive my language, but total crap. Whereas, if you're outsourcing writing and you're willing to either write an outline with your key points, you are after all the subject matter expert, or if you're willing to be interviewed and find a writer who has a journalism background, often they can tease it out of you. I think taking a completely hands off approach is a tremendous, tremendous mistake. Brian: Yeah. You know it's about quality, not quantity. Absolutely. And yeah, I've made those mistakes too, Kathleen. I've hired people on a lot of these platforms iwriter, I don't know a bunch of them. You can't really just give somebody a topic and let them run with it. It's just not a good practice. What I've learned is that you want to find somebody you have a rapport with. And absolutely speak with them. If you're not going to be speaking with them verbally over the telephone, it's not really worth doing. You have to treat them almost like they're an employee. I like to find people that are quality writers, and I stick with them. Right. All these freelancers want long term relationships, and I find a couple and I stick with them. And absolutely keep having phone calls, get them on video, get them on zoom, and build a relationship with a writer because its so important if they write in your voice. And again, it's not about quantity. You don't want to pump these out. They have to be quality. Not little short blog posts, either. I like to write actual pages between 800 words and 1500 words. Kathleen: Yeah. Amen, on sticking with the writers, because it's like hiring anybody. Having that ramp up period can be painful and expensive and once you've gotten somebody to the point where they're doing the job you need them to do, hold on to them. So, alright. You're working on your back links, you're producing these articles, you're getting somebody to help distribute them out, so that you can get published elsewhere. What comes next? Contributing Guest Articles as a Back Linking Strategy Brian: Once you start building up that press page, there's a few different things you can do. I like to apply to become an editor, or a contributor. So right now I'm a contributor at Entrepeneur.com. And I am also on Forbes.com. There's a couple industry magazines that kind of come to me as well. I like to join organizations. If you can qualify for an organization, do it. I'm a member of the Million Dollar Roundtable of Insurance. Top 1% of financial advisors in the world. They keep coming to me and I write articles for them or they interview me for articles. I'm a member of the Young Entrepreneurship Council. They also have the Forbes Council. On those they have questions you can answer and you can get them published all over the web. So join organizations. I think sponsoring people is another great thing that you can do. You can just do a Google search for sponsors and find something locally, but make sure that they give you a link. One of the main things is I want to see if they're giving me a back link. I'll write testimonials for all the companies I do business with and I'll value them higher if they'll give me a link. I'm always after them. Now, some people say, “Oh, don't go after no follow links.” I'm kind of from the thinking of that I'm fine with no follow links. Do they help? I think they do. I think they build up your overall link profile. If you don't have a certain amount of no follow links, you're going to stand out in the Google algorithm as an unnatural link profile. No follow, follow, doesn't matter. Redirects, you'll want redirects. If you hover over that link, you want it to go to your website not a redirect. But every link that you build, everything you do, all I can say is everything I do, I'm looking for those link backs. Participating in Contributor Programs Kathleen: So let's go back to the beginning of what you just said, which was that you apply to be a contributor. And you talked about Entrepreneur and Forbes and those are two very well known, well regarded publications. I would imagine most business owners would be really excited to be able to contribute articles there. How hard is that to do? What's involved in that process? Brian: You have to have a little body of work. Again, it's so much as the press page. All these places they actually have a forum you'd be so surprised that you can apply to become a contributor. They don't hide it. You can say what your expertise is if you have an expertise in a certain niche, all the better. And if you have a body of work, these people want content. The other thing they're looking for Kathleen is what kind of following do you have? If you write an article they want people to come to the website. So if I'm building up a social media profile or my email list, I have 30,000 Twitter followers and 4,000 Facebook followers and I have an email list of 40,000, let these guys know then in the application. Huge. So those are the kinds of things that they're looking for to become a contributor. I do want to say, well a couple of other things, but I just want to make sure that I give you a chance in case you have questions. Kathleen: I'm curious about this because I've looked into these contributor programs before and what has stopped me from digging further is, well number one, I'm not sure that I could generate enough articles with enough frequency on top of doing my podcast. So I'm curious is there an expectation for how often you contribute? Is it however often you want to? How does the program work once you're in? And is it different from publication? Brian: I think they do want to a regular contributor, I would definitely say you're willing to do it for a month to begin. Use a freelancer to get started. What I found is though they don't really hold you to it. So if you give them a couple of articles, you can take a break for three months. Once you're in, you're in. They give you access to their admin console and you can submit articles whenever you want. So let them know that you want to do it for a month to begin. I just want to let people know that I've never had anyone holds me to it. Kathleen: That's good to know. So you said you had a few more things you wanted to add and I kind of interrupted you there. Let's go with what you were going to say. Other Back Linking Shortcuts  Brian: All right. There's a couple of shortcuts that I've been using lately. One is Quora. Quora is becoming a wonderful place to submit and contribute content. If you can write a really nice answer and format it a certain way, it actually gets picked up. I've had pick ups across the board on Forbes and sometimes you get picked up on Time, you get picked up on AOL. It's amazing how many people pick up Quora articles. You could also publish them on Medium and then you can build up a profile that way. So you don't really necessarily have to be a contributor to build up your kind of portfolio of work. When you're going on Quora, it's worth learning and you can see the people that are getting picked up, see the format that they're using and you put a link in those and you put a link back to your website and they let you have that. So I've gotten so many articles also published using Quora. Huge. I think it's kind of a secret that not many people talk about, but I'd like to share it with your listeners. The other is, I know it's kind of an old thing, but Help A Reporter Out (HARO), you can get a lot of pickups from that. It's such a pain to keep up with it. Although if you outsource it to a freelancer that really speaks in your voice and at least let them run with it, you can get pickups that way. Kathleen: Yeah, I get those HARO emails several times a day and they are gold mines and I have definitely gotten written up in some pretty big publications, but man, is it like drinking from the firehose? So now we can't keep going without stopping for a minute and I got to ask you to go into a little bit more detail on this Quora stuff because you are actually the first person who's talked about this on my podcast and I am always a sucker for these new channels and new strategies. So when you say you got to look at the way they format it, can you get detailed for a minute there and talk through that? Brian: Yeah, you have to format it. It's coming from you, so it has to be I and pose yourself as the expert. Those are huge. So right when the beginning you can say, look I've been doing this for 15 years. I've earned $50 million in revenue. Pose yourself as the expert and then organize it like a very good article. Now, there's a limit. You never want to go over a thousand words. The sweet spot is about 800 words. You want to give specifics, you want to organize it kind of with the headings on there and then they have kind of like internal blogs on Quora and you can submit it there as well. So that's the secondary thing you should do. They kind of have industry specific blogs in core that you can post your stuff. And then I just got to tell you, you'd be so surprised of how many editors and online publications are just monitoring Quora. It's so surprising, but go through some of these people that are contributing quite a bit and you can look in their profile and you can see what articles were picked up. They let you see it. And not only that Kathleen, I mean the traffic they can come from it is immense. It is kind of a lot of people may answer a question and you may not get the top spot but sometimes you will and when you do it it's so worth it. Yeah, go through there, find a question that you could answer, do your best. Have a freelancer help you with it and it's a great way to get those very elusive links without having to become a contributor. Now, you're not going to get published every time, but I'd say for me it's been about 50% of the time. Kathleen: Wow. Now, are you always creating original content for Quora or are you ever taking content you've published on your own website, for example, and repurposing it? Brian: I like to do original content and what I'll also do is I'll edit the article a little bit and also post it on Medium and that seems to be the formula. There's a few internet marketing firms, SEO firms that are kind of doing this under the radar and this is the ingredients to do so. Quora, then Medium, and then you also publish on your LinkedIn. All right, that's another group I think. Connect with all the editors. It's a simple thing. Very few people turn people down on LinkedIn and then you post it on your LinkedIn and that's a good thing. Also post it on your Twitter and Facebook and boom, let it run from there. Kathleen: Yeah, that's just so interesting. I'm going to have to test this out now because I have answered questions on Quora, but I've never really written them up like an article, so I'm curious to see what's going to happen if I try that. All right, what's the next step? We got our guest posts, we got our our back links, our press page. What comes next? Brian: You're starting to build up an authority website and most people are not in that competitive industry like I am. So just a few of those links and you're going to be way ahead of your competitors. You put a little bit of work and then you hired some writers, maybe hired some PR people to distribute. The next thing is working on your website and conversion rate optimization. I like building up reviews, that's my thing. I'm in the insurance industry and people stereotypically have a terrible reputation. Using Online Reviews to Drive Conversions Brian: I want to be the good guy in the industry. So I've always gone after reviews and the more I get the better. I value a review that on my own website at about $100 a piece and once I get a good review on my website I give them that exact same comment and I ask them to put it on Google Business or the Better Business Bureau. Those are my two, sometimes Facebook. Same comment, just give it to them and overwhelmingly people will give me additional reviews. Kathleen: Now you've mentioned about Better Business Bureau twice and I have to ask you, why the BBB? And I think I might know the answer, but I'm curious to see what you say. Brian: Well people have done studies and I've actually done a study myself. I paid 1500 people to do a survey and I asked them what is the most credible source that you would go to? Which one has the most weight? And I did Yelp, then I did a Google Business, the Better Business Bureau, Facebook. Better Business Bureau wins overwhelmingly. Not only that, it's inexpensive to get in. It's like $550 to get a membership, although they give you a seal. A beautiful seal on your website and that seal is one of the best seals you can get to increase conversion rates. So it's a double pop there. And then if you can start getting reviews on the Better Business Bureau and an A plus rating, which you kind of get automatically at start, when people look your business up and overwhelmingly people will, they'll still look up your name followed by reviews or complaints. I've done studies on this and they do do that and the Better Business Bureau comes up number one and two and they'll also display the stars. And usually that's the tipping point. They'll read your website, they'll read your services, they'll look you up. And then boom, Better Business Bureau wonderful. I trust this company. Kathleen: Yeah, it's interesting. There's been a lot of chatter in search engine optimization forums lately about whether Google is factoring in particularly Better Business Bureau reviews into its ranking algorithm. And I just read recently that they said they're not, but then there's all these SEOs who are saying, well, they might say that, but the data shows that they are. And so it's something that's been on my radar of, Oh, I kind of need to keep watching this because it's an interesting area that not a lot of companies focus, which if it is a ranking factor, it could be a major opportunity. Brian: I don't want to speculate on that Kathleen. I do believe so. I know the Better Business Bureau gives a link back and I do believe that that link back is very valuable. I'd be surprised if they didn't look at the ratings and I'd be surprised if they didn't look at the report, whether it's an A, B or C company and how many complaints. It'd be smart for them to do so. I also have the beliefs that Google actually ranks websites higher on the website statistics of how many people come to your website and stay on your website and how many page views and whether they go back and do another search for another company. Back in the day and Google I think it was called In The Plex, where they Google would measure what is a successful search? A successful search is when people type something into Google, go to a website and don't do another search. They found what they were looking for. And I've had pages on my website that I've had great statistics on into how many pages and time and those pages for me rank the best, they just do. Kathleen: Yeah. I always like to say that Google's in the business of delivering the best answer the fastest and that's why page load times and quality of information, which you spoke to and that they measure quality of information, exactly by what you said, which is how many people bounce, how long do they spend on the page, that sort of thing. Those are really key metrics for them because they're in a competitive business just like we are even though they're completely killing it, but that's the reason they're killing it, is that they look at that stuff. Brian: I agree. I think in the past so many people were thinking about technical SEO and in this one bothers me to do technical SEO, although I think Google keeps moving away from it a little bit. They're looking more at those statistics and how it serves the user. So I like to do a link profile and then the quality content that I want to answer the user's question, I want them to stay on my website. And the more I do that, the higher rank. I'm ranking against big companies, MetLife and State Farm and then also companies that have been getting funding, getting $180 million in funding, one of my competitors got. The other one got $50 million and I'm able to compete with them. So it's an even playing field on the internet and you could have a lot of fun if you put a little bit of work in it. Kathleen: Yeah, and I think time and time again, the data shows and the results show that if you solve for the user, you get better results than if you try and solve for the search engine. Because search engines change their rules all the time. You talked about testimonials. Do you have a process for getting testimonials because I know lots of companies like the idea of getting them, but then they freeze and sort of fall into paralysis at the thought of how they're going to get them. Brian: I touched on them a little bit. I value a review that comes into my website at $100 and these are reviews that I control. If someone gives me a bad review, I can fix it. I can contact the customer or I can choose not to display it on my website. I think that's something that everyone should do. I think so many people are scared to go out and ask them to review on my Google Business, to the Better Business Bureau because the fear of getting a bad review. Now, I also want to say I value a review on the Better Business Bureau or Google or any of these third party websites at $250 a piece plus maybe $50 each additional year because they stay on there. So I like to incentivize my team, my employees. I bonus them on the reviews that they get. I do believe that if you have a business that you focus on getting reviews, you're almost kind of like required to do a great ethical, honest and transparent business focused on customer service and I love that. So I like it when the more people that focus on reviews. I let my customers ask for the reviews. I have an automated process, but it comes from my sales team. I use ActiveCampaign. After I've delivered the service, I send them an email on the fourth, the eighth, and the twelfth day, and I make it very easy in the email. I have little stars, and if they click a star, they go to the review page. Alright? I have them enter in a comment. I like the stars and the comment, that way on my website I can include schema, or rich snippets, that show up in the search engines. And if they give me a five star review, I give them that exact comment in another email from the agent, automated, Kathleen. And it has the exact link for them enter in the review. Don't send them to your main Better Business Bureau page or just do a Google search. There's particular URLs that you can give so it gives them the pop-up right then and there, so they can put the star and the comment. Don't make people click around. The easier it is, the better. And if you deliver great service, it invokes the theory of reciprocity and people want to help you. And especially if it comes from the person that helped them, and it's a personal thing, and they built a relationship, they're worth so much, Kathleen. I have seen my conversion rates, and I have seen so many customers call me and say they chose me, they chose our company, because of all the great reviews. Measuring ROI Kathleen: Now, one thing that I find really interesting is that a couple of times now, you've referenced whether it's what a review is worth to you, or what an article or a backlink is worth to you. How important is it to your process, to understand the value of those things? Brian: It's so important. I think it's hard to measure ROI on these things, right? There's a lot of studies. Let's say you get a few five star reviews on Yelp, it'll increase the reservations of a restaurant by 10%. Look at Amazon, people are just scurrying to get reviews for their products to increase their sales. I like putting a value in there so people know the value of it. For me, look, if I'm getting a hundred dollars for each review, and 250 dollars for another review, I measure on the increased conversion rate, but I also know how much I can bonus my employees for it. I'll run a special for my employees that equates to about 50 dollars per review that they get from their clients. Normally, it's 25 dollars. But it's a great bonus for my team, and I track it, and I let people know who's winning. It's definitely an initiative and a main thing in my business. And if you know the value, I think that you can encourage your team to do so and make it more of an initiative for your company. Kathleen: Yeah. I see, very often, companies that offer customers some sort of bonus, whether it's a gift card or what have you, for leaving a review. But I really like the approach of offering that to your employees. Because ultimately if your customer is giving the review and not getting paid, it certainly is more authentic. You're going to probably get better reviews because they'll be from people who actually really care about your business, and it's great to have your team really invested. Brian: Absolutely. Look, I've tried the incentives, and it's a tricky path. I'll offer the incentives for an honest review, but I'll only do it for the review on my own website. But yeah, you're exactly right. I found so much more value in bonusing my team, rather than incentivizing the customer. I don't know the logic behind it, I think has to do a lot with the reciprocity principle. But yeah, boy, it's a great way to do it. And also, you want to bonus your team so they have the focus of giving great customer service, and that's what builds the relationship, and it builds lifetime value to the customers, and it starts building and growing your business for the longterm. Brian's Results Kathleen: You've talked about so many different and really interesting ways that you've built up your website's authority, and that's really how you get the traffic to the site, and then building up your credibility through reviews and testimonials. Can you talk a little bit about the results you've gotten from this? When did you start doing this for True Blue? How long did it take for you to start to see results in, and what do those results look like today in your very competitive industry? Brian: Look, I've seen growth every year, right? I think a few years ago, I was doing a million dollars in revenue. Now I'm doing five, six million dollars in revenue, and it's very profitable. Every time it goes up. Now one of the ways to keep it going up is increased conversion rates. Kathleen, my conversion rate compared to my competitor's is about 10 times more. Kathleen: Wow. Brian: A lot of my competitors are lead generators, and they'll just collect someone's name, email, and phone, to run an insurance quote and those leads aren't worth very much. They'll close maybe 7% of those. In my business, I collect application requests. I let people run a quote, I give them all the information, I let them view all the reviews. Not only from the customers, but I have people review the actual insurance companies that they buy from. They're able to do a lot of the research, similar to how they would do it on Amazon when picking a product. So when I get somebody apply, I'm closing about 25 to 30% of them. Kathleen: You're talking about, now, lead to customer conversion? Brian: Lead to customer, yes. Exactly. While my competitors are closing seven, I'm closing close to 30, which means I don't have to have that many salespeople. My competitors need to have four or five times more salespeople just to handle that volume. I got happier employees, my employees love working for us. We're dealing with customers that want to buy from us, too. We're not chasing down customers. They're happy with us, and they've chosen us. So it's a great way to do business. Kathleen: Now, you've got this really high lead to customer conversion rate, and it sounds like a good part of what's contributing to that is the way you've built out your site and the fact that you've really turned it into a resource center for them to do their research, and you're keeping them on your site while they're doing it which is always a great thing. How much of that conversion rate is being influenced by any sort of automated lead nurturing you're doing, and how much is being influenced by direct sales with your team? Brian: It's a little cyclical in my company. Sometimes they have insurance products that are agent-less. Those are great, Kathleen. People go online and they'll do it. It's an easy sale. You don't really have to pay commissions to anybody, you get them all. Most of the leads that come in, I have one of my sales team collect all the information, just because there's private information that we collect; social security number, and drivers license, and health histories, certain things we don't really want to ask online. As far as nurturing, yeah, look, we're asking for a lot of personal information for insurance so we let people save their quotes. We'll have them enter their email but not their phone. We want to be the good guys, and we'll send them a series of emails. We have a series of emails that goes out to everybody, even the people that applied that we couldn't contact. The more emails, the better. The more honest they are, the better. The more personable they are, the better. I like to assign an agent to somebody, I like to give them a picture of the agent. I like to give them the agent's LinkedIn profile. I like to let them see all the reviews that that agent has gotten, and I'll also include links to the Better Business Bureau and Google. But yeah, you have to have an automated system to chase down those customers. I'm constantly surprised at how many people respond to the tenth email or the eighth call. Kathleen: Yeah, persistence pays off, as long as it's done in a way that's not really annoying. Well, fascinating. And you've actually written about a lot of what you're talking about now in your book, correct? The Salesman Who Doesn't Sell Brian: Absolutely. I've leveraged the book to do a lot of marketing for my businesses. My goal necessarily wasn't to make a lot of money selling the book. I just wanted to give out the information. I've been very generous and liberal in giving out all the secrets. I don't want people to say, "Oh, he was too general." So I've given away as much as I can. I want to give your listeners a free copy of the audiobook, my website brianjgreenberg.com/inboundsuccess. Kathleen: Awesome. Brian: For anybody that wants to go in there, download the book, I hope they find value from it. Kathleen: Well, I'll download it because I love audiobooks. I listen to everything on Audible at 2x speeds. I'll hear what you sound like talking very fast. The book is The Salesman Who Doesn't Sell. So if anybody is really curious about an actionable way to do some of what Brian's doing, that's a great thing to check out, and I will put the link that you just mentioned in the show notes. Get your free audio copy of "The Salesman Who Doesn't Sell" at brianjgreenberg.com/inboundsuccess Kathleen's Two Questions Kathleen: Before we wrap up, I've got two questions for you that I always ask everyone I interview. And I'm interested to hear what you have to say as somebody who's come from an insurance background, even though it sounds like you're a better marketer than a lot of marketers. The first one is, a company or individual, who do you think is doing, in non-marketing, really well right now? Brian: In my business, there's a company called NerdWallet, and they started doing commercials right now. They're giving away such customer-friendly content. I love it when people give tables, and graphs, and they give recommendations. And they've been doing such a good job with it and building up so much of a link profile, and they get picked up so often from great publications, and they're ranking so well. It's almost bothersome to me. They've got a great team of content writers, and I have a lot of respect for them. Kathleen: So check out NerdWallet if you want to see a really good example. And then the next question is ... And this one's going to be really interesting, for me at least. The thing that I've observed is that the world of digital marketing just changes so fast. As soon as you figure out how to do SEO, the rules of the game change, et cetera. And I'm in marketing, so it's my job to be on top of it all day every day, and I still find it challenging. So for a guy whose business is not in marketing, although you certainly have mastered it, how do you make sure that you stay up to date and on top of all the latest thinking in the world of digital marketing? Brian: Good question. I watch Barry Schwartz's weekly video recaps on Fridays. I think he does a great job. I like seeing everything that's coming out, and I get most of my news that way, Kathleen. What I like to do is, I like to do everything per Google's guidelines and do everything on the up and up. That way, every time Google comes out with an algorithm update ... knock on wood ... The majority of time, I'll see my website go up. I don't want the stress of having these Google updates and having myself be penalized. I don't want it. So I play the longterm game, and I think as long as you're doing everything that real companies do, real company stuff, you're going to be alright. I don't follow too many people, I'm not on everything all the time. But I like to do a general swipe of it, and I get most of it from Barry Schwartz. Kathleen: Yeah. I follow Barry Schwartz as well, and he is with, if I'm remembering correctly ... Is it Search Engine Roundtable? Brian: Yeah, Search Engine Roundtable. Kathleen: He has a phenomenal email newsletter, and I definitely follow him on Twitter. Because if you want the breaking SEO news, that guy manages to somehow be everywhere at once, and he knows everything that's going on with Google, at least it feels like. Brian: Yeah, he knows everybody there. Kathleen: He does, he does. He also posts some really cool pictures of different Google offices around the world, which I always think are fun to see. Brian: I think Moz's Whiteboard Friday is really good. I've kind of stopped watching those since Rand left, a little bit. Kathleen: I know. But do you follow him at his new website, SparkToro? Brian: I do. Yeah, he has some great posts. I definitely am on his newsletter, and I don't miss those. He's such an honest guy. Kathleen: Oh, he is. Brian: Such inside info. Kathleen: He's writing some of the best thought leadership on no-click searches right now, or what he likes to call usurp SEO. It's so good. Brian: Interesting. Kathleen: I could geek-out over this for hours, but we must wrap up. How to Reach Brian Kathleen: So if someone wants to talk to you, learn more about what you've done, you've shared the URL. I'm going to ask you to say it again, and then any other information you want to share about the best way for people to find you online. Brian: Sure, brianjgreenberg.com/inboundsuccess and my main website, truebluelifeinsurance.com. You can see what we're doing over there and how we're leveraging the reviews and putting people in the sales funnel. Kathleen: Thank you, that's great, and this has been a lot of fun. I've definitely learned a few new things that I'm going to try out, including Quora for sure. I appreciate it, Brian. Kathleen: If you're listening, and you found this valuable, you know what to do. Please leave the podcast a review on Apple Podcasts or the platform of your choice. And as always, if you know someone else doing kick-ass inbound marketing work, Tweet me @workmommywork, because I would love to interview them. That's it for this week. Thanks, Brian. Brian: Thank you.

After I've been a guest multiple times on Slater's "adult" theme park podcast, Ride this One, Andrew and I have the pleasure to welcome him and his family friendly views to our show! The episode starts with a surprise call from one of our favorite fans, "Minnesota Mother" who updates us on her family's theme park season. Andrew's News looks at IAPPA's highlights, Knott's Berry Farm's water ride change, and Disney's Rock 'N' Roller Coaster Rumors.   We start to discuss Slater's history with theme parks and how he got into this wonderful hobby including his participation as Executive Producer with Coasterradio.com Episode 27 continues the conversation with Slater since he has so much personality, we couldn't fit in just one episode!

Boston-Virginia, what's the difference? After I've experienced hosting sports talk in these two markets, we discuss the dissimilarities. The good and bad of both regions and how it affects the presentation of a show. Enjoy!

I recently noticed that sometimes, even when I've played the drums accurately (meaning everything is "lining up" like it should)- that something is missing from the track. Even though I've played the parts well, and it's every bit as accurate as any other track I've played on- why is it that THIS track lacks feel? Did I suddenly lose my groove?Well those are questions I used to ask myself, until I discovered what the culprit was, and how to fix it... And what's great about this concept is that it works on tracks even AFTER I've recorded them (and no- it doesn't involve chopping up and editing my playing!). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Harry was a white dog with black spots.On his birthday, he got a present from Grandma.It was a woollen sweater with roses on it.Harry didn't like it the moment he saw it.He didn't like the roses.When he tried it on, he felt cosy and snug.But he still didn't like the roses.He thought it was the silliest sweater he'd ever seen.The next day when Harry went into town with the children, he wore his new sweater.When people saw it, they laughed.When dogs saw it, they barked.Harry made up his mind then and there to lose Grandma's present.When they went into a big store to shop,the children took off his sweater and let him carry it.This was just what Harry wanted.First he tried to lose it in the pet department--but a man found it and gave it back.Then he tried to lose it in the grocery department--but a lady found it and gave it back.He tried to lose it in the flower department--but a little boy found it and gave it back.The children didn't let Harry carry it any more.They made him wear it.As they started home, Harry was beginning to think he'd never lose it.When he got home, his friends were waiting to play with him.But Harry didn't feel like playing so they left him alone.As he sat wondering what to do, Harry noticed a loose stitch in his sweater.He pulled at the wool--just a little at first--then a bit more--and a little bit more.Harry didn't know it, but a bird was watching.In a minute, Harry had pulled out quite a long piece of the wool.The end of it lay on the grass behind him.Suddenly the bird flew down.Quick as a flash she took the end of the wool in her beak and flew away with it!It all happened before Harry could even blink.The sweater began to disappear right before Harry's eyes.First one leg--then the neck--then the other leg--then the back--and finally the whole thing was just one long, long piece of wool flying off into the sky.The sweater was gone! Harry could hardly believe it.He barked and jumped with joy!Then he ran out of the garden.He ran down the street barking thank you to the bird over and over again.The bird and wool were just a tiny speck in the sky, but Harry kept following them.He came home thirsty and tired, and was having a drink in the kitchen when the children ran in."We've got a letter from Grandma!" said one."She's coming to visit us!" shouted the other.Harry thought of the sweater and his tail drooped.Before Grandma came, the family looked everywhere for the sweater.They wanted her to see how nice Harry looked in it.Of course they couldn't find it.Only Harry knew why.When Grandma arrived, Harry ran to her with his leash.Then he sat up and begged."All right, Harry," said Grandma. "After I've had my lunch and a nap, we'll go for a walk."That afternoon, Harry and Grandma and the chilkdren started off on their walk.Harry barked happily and pulled towards the park.When they got to the park, Harry pulled harder.The children let him off his leash and he ran on ahead.He seemed to be looking for something.All at once, he stopped under a big tree.He looked up and began to bark and wag his tail.Grandma and the children came running.They got to the tree and looked up too.Suddenly one of the children said,"I see a nest!" "It's made of wool!" said the other."And it's the very same color as--""Harry's sweater!" they shouted together."It is Harry's sweater!" exclaimed Grandma.Just then a bird looked out of the nest."Look! Grandma, look!" shouted the children."Harry gave his sweater to a bird!""I wonder how he did that!" said Grandma.The bird sang and Harry wagged his tail even harder.At Chrsitmas, Harry got a present from Grandma.It was a new sweater!Harry liked this one very much.When he tried it on, he felt as cosy and snug as the bird in the nest.But best of all--it was white with black spots!

Episode 18 is the second half of my interview with J. Daniel Sawyer. I try to keep up with Dan for another hour. Perhaps not all that well, but I have fun trying :) If you haven't heard the first half of the interview, please check it out here . I'll probably have Dan back on the show but AFTER I've caught up on the list of awesome stuff that her recommends I watch/read/listen (you might want to also). Dan is always a great podcast guest and this interview is no exception :)You can find all things J. Daniel Sawyer at:Web site: Literary Abominations - http://jdsawyer.net/Twitter: @dsawyerBuy his ebooks at:Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/J.-Daniel-Sawyer/e/B003L9JM92/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1Barnes & Noble - http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?ATH=J.+Daniel+Sawyer&STORE=bookSmashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jdsawyerReviews of Dan's stuff at "View From Valhalla":"The Antithesis Progression Book One: Predestination and Other Games of Chance" - http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2009/11/18/podcast-review-antithesis-book-one-predestination-and-other-games-of-chance/"Down From Ten" - http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/2010/04/26/podcast-review-26-down-from-ten/Mentioned:Apologia Podcast - http://www.apologia-podcast.net/Bumper:Doc Coleman of:Nifty Tech Blog - http://www.niftytechblog.com/ &The Shrinking Man Project - http://theshrinkingmanproject.com/Promos:Philippa Ballantine's "Geist" - http://www.booksoftheorder.com/Paul E. Cooley's "Fiends, Vol. 1" - http://shadowpublications.com/I can be found and contacted at:Web Site: http://gowmainframe.com/Twitter: @mainframe (or @gowmainframe for tweets just about the podcast)Email: gowmainframe at gmail dot comVoice Mail: 206-350-0528 Songs used are "Space Ride" & "Around", from the album "Around" by Oursvince at http://www.oursvince.com