Podcasts about as gary

As Gary, Thomas, and Jessica witness the pricey opulence of the grand city of Opula, they scramble to get Dot the best care they can afford. Don't forget to tweet using #drimbus to be entered for a chance to win a Dungeons & Drimbus sticker! Support the show by using code “Drimbus10” to get 10% off at https://theherosjournal.co/ to turn your goals into a quest Support Us Visit Our Website: http://www.drimbus.com Support Us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/drimbus Buy us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/whimsic Buy our Merch: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DrimbusShop Use code “Drimbus10” at https://theherosjournal.co/ Cast Michael Pisani (Jessica Feltcher)(Editing) Nick Benetatos (Gary Mogbile)(Sound Design) Nicholas Palazzo (Thomas Phelps) Giancarlo Herrera (DM)(Editing)

The first week of free agency is in the books, and Conor and Gary are ready to overreact to all of it: *A look at the quarterback signings: why Bears fans are rightfully bummed about Andy Dalton, why Washington is doing just fine with Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins get a steal in Jacoby Brissett, and Mitchell Trubisky finds a good home in Buffalo. *As Gary has been saying since the beginning of time, free agency was a bummer for many good young receivers this offseason. But Kenny Golladay gives the Giants exactly what they need for Daniel Jones as their QB enters Year 3. *Plus, the Jon Gruden era for the Raiders takes another strange turn, the Titans remake their defense, the Chiefs find reinforcements for the offensive line, the Patriots spend big on some nice fits, and the Jets are the undisputed champions of free agency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 2011, Gary Mendell's 25 yr old son, Brian, died by suicide after struggling with addiction for a decade. As Gary was supporting Brian through his recovery, remission, and relapses, he realized that, unlike other diseases, there was no real place to go for help. No huge foundation funding research. No 5k’s. So in the wake of Brian’s death, Gary created it himself. This week, Nzinga talks to Gary about the formation of Shatterproof, ATLAS (a treatment locator, assessment, and standards platform), and the immense importance of providing evidence-based education, resources, and treatment options. Please note, In Recovery contains mature themes and may not be appropriate for all listeners. Start your planning early at www.havenlife.com/inrecover. Haven Term is a Term Life Insurance Policy (ICC17DTC) issued by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Springfield, MA 01111 and offered exclusively through Haven Life Insurance Agency, LLC. Policy and rider form numbers and features may vary by state and not be available in all states. Our Agency license number in California is 0K71922 and in Arkansas, 100139527. Lemonada Media has a new show! Check our  Our America with Julián Castro Resources mentioned in the show: https://www.treatmentatlas.org/ Stronger Than Addiction Fundraiser www.shatterproof.org Have an addiction-related question? We want to hear from you! Call 833-4-LEMONADA (833-453-6662) or submit your question through this form: bit.ly/inrecoveryquestions See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 7th June 2020, protestors in Bristol rewrote the city’s history by pulling down a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, and dumping it in the harbour. The damaged statue has since been retrieved and there are plans to display it elsewhere, complete with the red daubs of protestors’ paint, and Black Lives Matter placards. The event has triggered a discussion amongst Britain’s curators about what objects are acceptable for display in museums and galleries in 2020. Some museums have entire collections established on the wealth of the slave trade or acts of colonial plunder, others have items that might now be deemed racially or culturally insensitive. For some, it’s the context and settings of collections that reveal a distinctly racist interpretation of history. As one museum curator has put it, “in Britain, you’re never more than 150 miles from a looted African object”. Gary Younge speaks to the curators as they currently review what's on display in UK museums and how they’re re-writing the way we revere, remember and acknowledge Britain's historical moments. As Gary finds out, when the public is re-admitted to museums after the current lockdown, there is a distinct possibility that some display cases may have notable absences. Producer: Candace Wilson Editor: David Prest A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 Photo credit: Candace Wilson

Gary Hamel is the author of five books including bestsellers What Matters Now and The Future of Management. His upcoming book is called Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, which comes out in August.  Gary has been on the faculty of the London Business School for more than 30 years and he is the director of the Management Lab. He has been named “The World’s leading expert on business strategy” by Fortune magazine, “the management innovator without peer” by the Financial Times, and he has been ranked by The Wall Street Journal as the world’s most influential business thinker. He is also a fellow of The Strategic Management Society and the World Economic Forum.   This episode is brought to you by Cisco. Nearly overnight, the entire world has found itself adapting to a new way of working. The future of work requires a modern approach to collaboration – helping people securely connect wherever they work, while staying safe and being productive. Cisco is shaping this path forward. Check out their new page devoted to the future of work to learn more and check out their resources including articles, videos, and a workplace maturity assessment. There are some companies that seem to dominate at strategy and innovation--like Google, Airbnb, and YouTube. These companies found a way to create rule breaking strategies that have pushed them into the forefront in their industries. But why is it that some companies can figure out how to do that, while others (the majority) have such a difficult time innovating? That is what Gary has been trying to figure out over his career and what he found was that most organizations are alike--they are all using the same bureaucratic model that stifles creativity, innovation, and adaptability. As organizations we need to move away from this old way of leading, but how?  Why we haven’t moved away from bureaucracy One of the major reasons why organizations have not been able to move away from this outdated model is because leaders do not trust their people. But because of that lack of trust, it ends up being a self fulfilling prophecy. If leaders feel that they have to treat their people like children because they can’t be trusted, the people will feel that and they will stop making decisions on their own. If leaders try to control every aspect of the work, then what motivation does the employee have to do something new and innovative?  Gary says, “I make the point in the book that there's a great irony in the fact that most of us, you know, at some point in our life, we're going to buy a car or two or three as we go through life, many of us will ultimately buy a dwelling of some sort. And yet those same human beings go to work and can't requisition a $300 office chair without somebody's permission. And we know from a kind of academic research that when you shrink somebody's autonomy, you also shrink their creativity, you shrink their courage and people just kind of give up. And so, where they may be very engaged in other parts of their life, they're not very engaged at work.” The reason why Gary wrote his book was because he became frustrated looking around at a majority of companies that aren’t focusing on innovation. They are only changing when they face a crisis and have to change. And while 87% of CEOs think innovation is the top three priority, 94% will tell you their organizations are not very good at it. So Gary wanted to help organizations to see that you cannot become more capable of innovation if you don’t change the structures and principles that have kept organizations in a stand still up until now. He also saw that organizations are not utilizing their people to the fullest. Not only that, they are actually holding the people back.  We have been using the wrong definition of leadership There are many definitions of leadership, if you ask a room full of 20 people to define the word you will probably get 20 different answers. But Gary says we have been defining it all wrong. Over the last few decades the words leader and manager have been used interchangeably. And usually when we think of leaders we think of the top 20 people inside a company who make all the decisions.  How does Gary think we should define leadership? He says “Ask yourself, if you had no budget at work, if you had no title after your name, what can you get done? And so people who need the stick of bureaucratic authority to get something done, I don't think most of those people are leaders, maybe very good administrators, they're not leaders. Leaders are people who know how to mobilize the people around them, know how to get folks to move forward together, and can be catalysts in making that happen. But they're not necessarily defined by a particular place in the organization. So probably, since Drucker was writing, we really know how to train managers, I don't think then or now we really know how to train leaders. But we kind of gave everybody a battlefield promotion when we started referring to managers and leaders. My argument is there are not a lot of managers who are leaders, anybody can be a leader. It has nothing to do with credentials. It has nothing to do with hierarchy, whether you have the courage, the compassion, the sense of community to step up and make something happen, even when you lack that positional authority.” So should we get rid of the concept of management altogether? Gary says, we may need to change our language when it comes to management, as it does not refer to a layer of the company or a certain elite group of people. Management is really anything that helps us combine our efforts, do something consistently with purpose effectively multiplying our individual work. Gary believes most people and most teams today are capable of managing themselves. So we need systems and processes of managing together, but we don’t need multiple ranks of managers who see their primary role as control and oversight.  How Adidas got rid of bureaucracy Gary worked with Adidas and they brought him in to help them get rid of bureaucracy and to build a more innovative culture. They were lagging behind Nike and Under Armour in North America and they wanted to fix that. Gary says that in this instance he was able to train a couple thousand employees on how to think like business innovators. These employees were frontline, retail people who were now trained in innovating and then the company opened up the conversation to get ideas from these employees. Thousands of ideas were created in these open meetings and it got the employees excited and inspired for the first time in their careers. This was so successful they had a second round, but this time they focused on their manager model. They opened up the conversation about the business and the manager model to thousands of employees, which took a lot of courage on the part of the CEO. But that courage paid off big time.  A lot of times it is the CEO standing in front of the organization giving their perspective on problems and issues. They are the ones giving the roadmap for how to move forward. But what if any individual inside the company could give an opinion, could have their voice heard, could help solve problems.  Gary says, “ If you look back at all the people who changed our world, that's what they do, they're not waiting to be asked. They do not assume they're helpless because they don't have a title after their name. They see a problem. They build a community. They go, they build. They try something and they go from there. So these are the hackers. These are the activists who've changed things. And it's kind of amazing to me that, you know, I hear all these CEOs that say, “Gary, our organization needs to change faster”. So I ask them a question, “have you trained every employee to think like an activist? Do they know how to build a prototype? They know how to build a community around them to go try something.” “No,we've never done that.” So how can you complain that your organization can't change fast enough? Well, you haven't taught every single person how to be an agent of change in your organization.” The 7 Principles of Humanocracy In his book, Gary shares seven principles of humanocracy that define the DNA of a Human-Centric organization. They are:    The Power of Ownership--Companies have a wealth of talented employees, but they aren’t given ownership of their work. Which means their ideas never see the light of day. Employees want to be passionate, engaged, and inspired. So give them the power to do so.  The Power of Markets--While markets can’t function in the absence of appropriate regulatory structures, they are unmatched in their capacity to harness human wisdom and initiative.  The Power of Meritocracy--If you want a human-centric organization you can’t have rigid hierarchies that make executives king-like and employees like underlings. Hierarchies should be natural and dynamic, based on an individual’s performance, not title or tenure.  The Power of Community--As human beings we are programmed for community. We need to feel like we belong and that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. Leaders need to strengthen the bonds of community within the organization.  The Power of Openness--It is important for everyone in the organization to feel that they can voice their opinions. And people should be encouraged to voice different opinions and not feel they have to agree with the boss. Diversity of thought, background, culture, etc…is extremely important to the success of an organization.  The Power of Experimentation--The pace at which any organization evolves is determined in large part by how many experiments it runs. You shouldn’t let your organization sit still and wait for a crisis to change. In good times and in bad, you must go try something new.  The Power of Paradox--Conundrums are what make life interesting. You have to help your organization become a master of paradox. When you can master it, work will become more interesting and the organization will be more capable If we want to see change inside our organizations, we can’t keep defaulting to the old way of work. As Gary shares in his book, “We need to embed new human-centric principles in every structure, system, process, and practice. If we’re serious about creating organizations that are fit for human beings and fit for the future, nothing less will do”

The Prison Chronicles, Episode 1 – The Murder of Heather Dunn – “The Prison Chronicles” begins with the murder of Heather Dunn on the Benicia High School Campus in September 1986 by Leonard Rubio, who graduated the year prior. In 1988, Leonard was convicted of second-degree murder for Heather’s death, and he received a life sentence. After spending 23 years in San Quentin, Leonard was paroled in 2010 and released. Heather’s murder stunned the community of Benicia, located about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco. Two families lost children that day - one to prison, and one to the grave. Friends of Leonard and Heather also lost somebody that day.  And the community lost its innocence. The damage from Heather’s murder remains over 30 years later. We use the death of Heather as our touchstone. Prison reform is not accomplished in a vacuum, nor is it simple. Corrections is a multifaceted mix of varying governmental institutions, private corporations, unions, academic researchers, public values, societal challenges — and the victims. We keep our eyes and hearts on Heather and her loved ones through the series because forgiveness is harder than redemption.  And some pains defy time. Executive Producer/Host Pete A. Turner, a senior at BHS at the time, opens the Prison Chronicles by speaking with his close friend Gary Cady. Gary and Heather had Spanish in 5th period; lurking outside that classroom was Leonard. As Gary walked Heather out of class, she said, “Oh no, there’s Leonard.” Less than 5 minutes later she was dead. (Editor’s Note: Leonard Rubio refused to take part in the project) The main characters of “The Prison Chronicles” are seven formerly incarcerated men -- five of whom had been sentenced to life sentences for murder. Each man released from prison to different circumstances - a successful recording artist, a journalist and author, a business development specialist, an entrepreneur, a change agent for at-risk youths, a veterans’ rights advocate, and a member of the non-profit space. In Episode 1, we introduce the main characters and reveal aspects of their lives that preceded their incarceration. This initial survey of our subjects suggests, staying out of prison is not as simple as making good choices. Often, underlying factors: physical, sexual and child abuse, abandonment, neighborhoods, even combat environments, lead people down the path to prison The main characters are: (). The Prison Chronicles examines our subjects’ lives detailing their experiences before, during and after prison. This series will look at life within the prison walls from a rehabilitative standpoint. What programs are in place for prisoners to help themselves? This series will also look at the change process within each prisoner.  What does it take for somebody to realize that a change is possible and necessary?  This series will study the work of academics who have written about the prison system, including its strengths and deficiencies. Finally, the series looks at what changes should be made to make the prison system more effective for inmates and for society.

Shifts can shake even the best of leaders to their cores, but in order to come out successful on the other end, they have to pivot. As Gary explains in the first episode of season 4, pivots start by remaining safe and strong. Only then can we look after others in our personal and professional circles. Press play to hear how Gary moves forward in times of adversity.

Mike joins me again this week as it was moving day for Gary and his family during the day of our recording.  As Gary gets his studio ready for future recordings, Mike, Mike and Doug are hit with a dilemma.   During this lengthy quarantine, the three of our wives have had enough and threw us all out of the house on the same day.  We all have a suitcase and we have to come up with a plan.  One thing is for certain.  We're moving to Orlando and are looking for jobs at Disney World.  We've narrowed our job searches down to (5) per man.  We also discuss what bars we'd frequent and where we would do eat and do take-out.  Where would you want to work?   Thanks for listening, Mike and Gary

Starting COVID-19 with the End in Mind! In this episode, Gary talks you through the process of starting with the end in mind and how this relates to covid-19. As Gary has said before, we need to use this time positively and productively. Now is the time to plan and take action to build the life we want to have after the virus has gone! If you enjoyed this episode of the Mortgage Pro Podcast, please leave a rating and review and we will see you on the next episode! What Is Covered: This is only the start of the coronavirus. What do you want to be doing at the end of Covid-19? You need a plan and a goal! You need to keep the structure… even in the half term! What business do you want to build and what does it look like? You will get to where you want to go quicker if you know the end goal! We need to share ideas to get better results! What do you need to learn the most? Use convo-19 to learn that skill! When you understand your why, the how becomes easier. Build your plan and take the action to make it happen. What are your thoughts on Covid-19? What are your plans for Covid-19 and what are you going to get done? Channels Join the Mortgage Pro Free Group Buy my book The Self-Employed Mortgage Guide Follow me on Instagram   Visit me on Facebook

One of my all time favorite songwriters is Gary Chapman.  Whenever I hear his songs, I have to stop and listen ...and they continue to stir my heart.  Especially TREASURE.  Gary is also a caregiver...on several levels.  As Gary reflects in this interview, the journey he had with his father through Parkinson's and other issues helped prepare him for his little girl's recent brain surgery to remove a tumor. Gary writes the way he does ...because he's willing to be vulnerable about his fears, failures, and faith. It's always a privilege when he calls the show, and he leaves me better than he found me. I made him promise to call again in the Spring for a longer conversation! https://www.facebook.com/ahymnaweek/ https://www.facebook.com/garychapmanmusic/   Sponsored by:    

In this episode Scott and guest Gary Black tackle how our struggles with shame--both from things done to us and things we have done--rob us of our identity. We'll talk about how God wants to restore us and steps we can take towards peace. Shame is usually rooted in things we have done or things that have been done to us. Which of these do you resonate with most? Why? Gary mentioned that we should never introduce ourselves or define ourselves by our deficiencies, but rather as a much-loved creation of God who therefore has significant value and worth. What self-deficiencies tend you plague your self-definition? How do you think Jesus would define who you are? Shame can come from many different sources, even those we are unaware of. It can come from ourselves, our church, teachers, coaches, parents, spouses, friends, even strangers on social media. Which relationships have caused you to be the most aware of shame? What was it that was done or said that has hurt you the most? In the battle against shame, we need to help people recognize their woundedness. What have been some of your most profound or longest-lasting wounds?  Discuss the fact that anger in men is often a sign of shame. In men, anger often stems from a place of masking a desire to never let anyone see our weaknesses. Once you have located the root of your shame, you need to see it in light of how God sees you: Forgiven and free of shame. As Gary mentioned, “You need to accept your unacceptableness.” What area(s) of your life do you struggle to accept?  Before we begin our self-improvement program, we must fully understand and fully accept God’s grace. Gary says grace is much more than just the cross—it is an all-encompassing, radically amazing, overwhelming sense of God’s love and favor for us. How does this challenge your past understanding of grace?  Forgiving someone, especially of a deep hurt, is not a “one and done”... it is more like the beginning of a journey. Share about your journey to forgive others. Is there someone specifically you struggle to forgive? Where are you at today with forgiveness? Forgiveness is a choice, it is not an emotion. Write a list of all the emotions that the person who hurt you has caused you and why. And then decide, from today on, that you will live in the freedom of forgiveness... and that you will not give that person power over you anymore.

Earlier this month my good buddy Dustin Brohm, host of the Massive Agent podcast, and I got the opportunity to go to Hudson Yards in NYC to interview Gary Vaynerchuk! In this episode GaryVee himself shares some incredible insight on how mortgage and real estate professionals can dominate in today’s market! Gary Vaynerchuk is the chairman of VaynerX, a modern-day media and communications holding company and the active CEO of VaynerMedia, a full-service advertising agency servicing Fortune 100 clients across the company’s 4 locations. Gary is a highly sought-after speaker, a 5-time New York Times bestselling author, as well as a prolific angel investor with early investments in companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Venmo and Uber.  He also manages brands like PureWow, ONE37pm, VaynerSports, Green Street and Empathy Wines. Gary has an online video show, DailyVee, is the host of The GaryVee Audio Experience and a social media Q&A show, #AskGaryVee. As Gary mentioned in the podcast, make sure to sign-up for special offers at www.WineText.com  Follow us on social media for marketing tips, and don't forget to "enable Mortgage Marketing Expert" on Amazon Alexa to get our “Marketing Minute” flash briefing.  MME is a founding member of the Industry Syndicate Podcast Network – NOW AVAILABLE: Industry Syndicate mobile app.

I could make excuses or maybe even point a finger, but That would all be wrong. Let me just report how the podcasting team helped get it right. Here's their revised intro. Hello Tidbiters. If you are a regular listener, I know that you were expecting Gary to get things started. If this is your first visit, I usually don’t kick things off. I’m here to get things straightened out for Gary. He is fairly new at this lead podcaster role and didn’t get it quite right this time. He has included three of Kevin’s songs and two tips that you will find very helpful as you make a difference to folks who make a difference to you. That all went well, but the intro and a couple of the transitions didn’t go so well for Gary. No worry though. Others on the podcasting team have jumped in to get it right for you. Please relax and enjoy. I think you will see what we have done for you. As Gary likes to say, do well, be well and here we go.

How much emphasis do you put on play in your life? Somehow, as we enter adulthood, we lose our affinity for play. Today’s guest has made it his mission to bring play back into the lives of busy adults, and he’s here to tell us how his intensity has made it all possible. Gary Ware is someone I first met at the World Domination Summit this past year. People are drawn to his playful energy, and he is twice-exceptional, with ADHD and dyslexia. Gary will share how he’s learned to channel his energy in positive ways to help himself and many other people as he teaches them how to bring more play into their lives. Gary is the founder of Breakthrough Play, and he’s a sought-after corporate facilitator and keynote speaker with nearly a decade of experience as a performer in improv theater. He assists teams with unlocking creativity, confidence, and sparking collaboration with experiential methods proven to drive peak performance. Gary spent over a decade in the corporate world and originally pursued improv to master public speaking. He discovered that combining improv and play could be a powerful solution to achieve various business challenges. Naturally, he created workshops for his team and other executives in his network to deepen relationships and improve creativity. Gary became obsessed with learning how to use play as a transformational tool, and, as a result, happily transitioned from marketing to pursue facilitation full-time. When Gary isn’t leading workshops and keynote speaking, you can find him learning magic or off on an adventure with his wife, Courtney, and son, Garrett. Show Highlights: Gary’s intense passion for helping people be more authentic Why people feel uninspired and unengaged at work today Why finding joy in what you do is a conscious choice How Gary uses his personal brand of intensity to find different ways to solve complex problems, even using hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming As Gary grew up, he was a curious and playful ball of energy, and always the class clown The cultural factors that affected his intensity because he attended a different school almost every year because of his father’s military career Becoming a “social chameleon” to fit in wherever he was, but never really knowing who he was Gary’s identity crisis as an African-American How Gary had to learn what was necessary to survive and how to operate with a filter The story of an out-of-control moment of a food fight in school How Gary uses his superpower of making people feel comfortable How Gary harnesses the power of his intensity in being his goofy self, but always in connection with others Why Gary views his ADD as a superpower now Why Gary calls play “a gift” and a “form of meditation” The best advice Gary ever received: “You are perfect just the way you are.” Books that have helped Gary: Play DHD, The Big Leap, and The Happiness Advantage (see resources below) How Gary brings playful methods to interesting situations Gary’s advice for listeners: “Think about how you played as a young child, and think about how you can bring that back into your life.” Resources: Breakthrough Play Find Gary Ware on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Books: The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor Play by Dr. Stuart Brown Play DHD by Kirsten Milliken The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks Check out Embracing Intensity for more info about the Befriending Your Brain course series, launching in the fall.

After the outpouring of responses to our pastors and suicide episode a few months ago, Gary Wilkerson answers some of the questions that viewers sent in about the nature of depression. He also addresses some misconceptions surrounding suicide, particularly in the church. As Gary responds to viewer comments and questions, he also encourages believers with specific ways they can find healing for this kind of deep hopelessness. View show notes (https://worldchallenge.org/podcast/why-are-pastors-struggling-suicide?utm_campaign=gwpodcast&utm_medium=wc-audio&utm_source=PodBean) Support this podcast

This Podcast is a little different. As Gary sez we went off the rails. We clear up some things from episode 5. We talk about other form of relationships and Shea Butter ........... Dee does a little ASMR for your listening pleasure. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thingsgrownfolkssay/support

Talking Through The Storm We talked through The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 16, which is titled, The Storm. This week, guest host Alex joined Brian and Mark to discuss the season finale! The Storm was written by Angela Kang & Matthew Negrete, and was directed by Greg Nicotero. SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven’t watched this week’s episode, then you should probably stop reading now. Winter is coming? Forget that! Winter has come! It’s taken nine seasons, but we finally got to see winter on The Walking Dead. Like birds, The Whisperers shambled south for the winter, so the enemy this week wasn’t Alpha, Beta and the rest of The Whisperers, but a big winter storm. Unfortunately, despite our anticipation about finally seeing the winter, it didn’t work for us. We all come from northern climates, and we’re used to snow. I have a hate/hate relationship with the snow since having a few close calls in winter storms over the years, so I am intimately aware of what a winter storm looks and feels like. This was not convincing to me at all. It looked OK for some of it, but when it counted, there were some things that just didn’t ring true. There should have been a lot more snow on the ground. There were leaves on the trees and bushes – all the leaves should have fallen by that time. Some of the close-ups of the snow didn’t look realistic. Did you really need a caravan and a human chain to just walk from one house to another in Alexandria? The snow on the ground during the snowball fight, with RJ playing in it, looked like cotton balls, mothballs and styrofoam. It felt like it was a snowstorm created by people who didn’t know what a snowstorm was actually like, only what they had seen on TV, movies, and photos. I appreciated what they tried to do, but the show would have been a lot better off doing a location shoot where there are actual winter conditions, such as Canada, Minnesota, or upstate New York. You know, a place with actual snow, cold enough for snow to fall and stay frozen. It seems like such a big effort to simulate snow when it would have made so much more sense to go to where there is actual snow. Other series do that. Why didn’t TWD? Game of Thrones has done great winter scenes. They should have emulated what they’ve done and gone on location. And The Whisperers weren’t even there? Yup, you got it. They were an afterthought this week. They went south, which made me shrug. Since they left the area, why would they even go back to Virginia in the spring? Why get into a conflict when they come back? Why not just stay in the south or go somewhere else? I just didn’t get that at all. It made no sense. The King and Queen’s reign is over. The Kingdom has fallen into disrepair and sorrow over the losses, and Ezekiel and Carol split over their grief. This was very sad. I hated seeing this happen. It’s very realistic. This often happens with grieving parents, but death is something that happens in the Zombocalypse, so I would have thought they’d be strong enough to weather it. They may come back together in Season 10, but this was a downer in an otherwise down episode. At least Jerry keeps his spirits. Kingtop it is Jerry!!! Negan may not be unredeemable after all. This may have been my favorite part of the episode. I loved the change in Negan, and him saving Judith. I also loved the scene with Michonne. A bad guy doesn’t think he’s a bad guy indeed. It really seems that little girl has opened him up to redemption. Who was that on the radio? As Gary asked in his feedback, this would have been much more effective had this been Rick, Maggie, Jadis, or even Alicia from Fe

Talking Through The Storm We talked through The Walking Dead Season 9 Episode 16, which is titled, The Storm. This week, guest host Alex joined Brian and Mark to discuss the season finale! The Storm was written by Angela Kang & Matthew Negrete, and was directed by Greg Nicotero. SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! The rest of this blog post requires a SPOILER WARNING!!! If you haven’t watched this week’s episode, then you should probably stop reading now. Winter is coming? Forget that! Winter has come! It’s taken nine seasons, but we finally got to see winter on The Walking Dead. Like birds, The Whisperers shambled south for the winter, so the enemy this week wasn’t Alpha, Beta and the rest of The Whisperers, but a big winter storm. Unfortunately, despite our anticipation about finally seeing the winter, it didn’t work for us. We all come from northern climates, and we’re used to snow. I have a hate/hate relationship with the snow since having a few close calls in winter storms over the years, so I am intimately aware of what a winter storm looks and feels like. This was not convincing to me at all. It looked OK for some of it, but when it counted, there were some things that just didn’t ring true. There should have been a lot more snow on the ground. There were leaves on the trees and bushes – all the leaves should have fallen by that time. Some of the close-ups of the snow didn’t look realistic. Did you really need a caravan and a human chain to just walk from one house to another in Alexandria? The snow on the ground during the snowball fight, with RJ playing in it, looked like cotton balls, mothballs and styrofoam. It felt like it was a snowstorm created by people who didn’t know what a snowstorm was actually like, only what they had seen on TV, movies, and photos. I appreciated what they tried to do, but the show would have been a lot better off doing a location shoot where there are actual winter conditions, such as Canada, Minnesota, or upstate New York. You know, a place with actual snow, cold enough for snow to fall and stay frozen. It seems like such a big effort to simulate snow when it would have made so much more sense to go to where there is actual snow. Other series do that. Why didn’t TWD? Game of Thrones has done great winter scenes. They should have emulated what they’ve done and gone on location. And The Whisperers weren’t even there? Yup, you got it. They were an afterthought this week. They went south, which made me shrug. Since they left the area, why would they even go back to Virginia in the spring? Why get into a conflict when they come back? Why not just stay in the south or go somewhere else? I just didn’t get that at all. It made no sense. The King and Queen’s reign is over. The Kingdom has fallen into disrepair and sorrow over the losses, and Ezekiel and Carol split over their grief. This was very sad. I hated seeing this happen. It’s very realistic. This often happens with grieving parents, but death is something that happens in the Zombocalypse, so I would have thought they’d be strong enough to weather it. They may come back together in Season 10, but this was a downer in an otherwise down episode. At least Jerry keeps his spirits. Kingtop it is Jerry!!! Negan may not be unredeemable after all. This may have been my favorite part of the episode. I loved the change in Negan, and him saving Judith. I also loved the scene with Michonne. A bad guy doesn’t think he’s a bad guy indeed. It really seems that little girl has opened him up to redemption. Who was that on the radio? As Gary asked in his feedback, this would have been much more effective had this been Rick, Maggie, Jadis, or even Alicia from Fe

Gary welcomes to the Booth two true Chicago theatre professionals - both long-time stage managers at Steppenwolf Theatre - Malcolm Ewen and Laura Glenn. No one has better behind-the scenes stories than great stage managers. Malcolm has been at Steppenwolf since 1987 and was most recently welcomed into the company's elite Ensemble, an honor he didn't even know was possible. He is the first stage manager to become an ensemble member. Malcolm has taken 4 shows to Broadway, including The Grapes of Wrath and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which were both honored with Tony awards. He has also stage managed at the Goodman, Northlight, and Remains Theatres, among others. He has directed at the Weston Playhouse Theatre in Vermont during summers for 30 years. Laura has been with Steppenwolf for 25 years with an impressive resume of memorable shows including Buried Child, Superior Donuts, and The Rembrandt. From her Actor's Equity bio: "I was fortunate enough to work with and be mentored by many great stage managers, including my hero, Malcolm Ewen. I have been a part of world premieres, great revivals, taken shows to international festivals and Broadway – both with Steppenwolf and my other creative home, Northlight Theatre." Laura and Malcolm address the age-old question, "What does a stage manager do?", with wit, sincerity and personal insight. As Gary well knows, having started his career in the theatre as a stage manager in New York, being an SM involves a myriad of responsibilities, including establishing a safe and collaborative space in which the actors and director can feel free to create, fail and try new ideas. There are also the tangible elements of scheduling, communicating, and upholding the Actors' Equity rule book, which Malcolm describes as jigsaw puzzle work. The two colleagues and dear friends reminisce about past show experiences, including some of their most satisfying and rewarding projects - Bruce Norris' Downstate for Laura and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff for Mal.  Laura talks about the special bond she had with the late John Mahoney. As a teacher of stage management, Malcolm has reminded his students to find their own rewards and reasons for individual achievement in a profession that can have very few accolades or public job recognition. Laura likens stage management to being a catcher on a baseball diamond. While you direct the traffic on the field and may even call the no-hitter, it's likely most people will not see your face behind the mask. Malcolm discusses his most challenging project to date - Paul Simon's Broadway musical The Capeman. This 1998 Broadway show was a commercial and critical failure, and Gary compares it to his experience on the ill-fated Peter Allen musical Legs Diamond. The three stage managers recall how the most stressful projects are the ones where the many elements that go into making a stage piece either don't come together or were ill-conceived from the start. Large casts and financial risk are also contributing factors. In our "Good Times and Bum Times" segment, we learn about the ex-wife of a man who declined to take him back even after he won the $275 million Mega Millions lottery. "I have morals," Eileen Murray said. Then there's the story of the man who tried to strangle his Lyft driver for singing out-of-season Christmas songs. Silent Night indeed! Everyone loves to hear stories of theatrical near-disasters and Malcolm, Laura and Gary have their share of tales to tell. From The Grapes of Wrath (41 actors for starters) to John Malkovich in a scenery train wreck, these stories bring to light the backstage trials and tribulations of stage management and production. And they're hilarious to boot! Gary announces the 2019-20 Steppenwolf season of shows, which contains two basketball-themed plays, as well as a world premiere musical called Lindiwe featuring the music of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Malcolm and Laura will both be working on that project,

Have you ever considered what its like to introduce a TV show, or get paid for reading a script? This week we find out just what it takes to work as Voice Over artist. Welcome to episode 18 of the Get Work Savvy podcast where we discover how people have found a way to get paid for what they are passionate about.This week we speak to Gary and find out how he followed his dream of working in broadcasting, specifically in the world of Audio Voice over work. Gary's Key Takeaways Go for it! - Have confidence in pursuing your dream, Gary was told he shouldn’t pursue his dream of getting into broadcasting and now more so than ever there are more opportunities for us to find a way of excelling in what you do. Get experience – not only will this help you learn your craft but also it will also enable you to demonstrate why you are the best fit for the role you are applying for or proving your worthiness if your working for yourself.Find the right equipment to suit you and your budget – Its important to consider your budget and get the basics right, if we look at Gary’s example, you can invest in a post microphone, but if you don’t have a quiet recording space or have the interface to support it, then it wont guarantee a better quality product. If you don’t buy a ticket you wont stand a chance - As Gary explained apply or audition a is often as you can, in his industry often you are lucky to get a response 1 in 10 times you apply. Have a tough skin – you will find those who don’t believe in you or what you do, but equally you will have those that are your biggest fan’s. Treat any failures as a lesson – You are going to make a mistake, its important to understand that no one is perfect. Instead of giving up or being too hard on yourself, use this as an opportunity to learn how do this differently in future. Gary's Book RecommendationYou Too Can Make Money In Voice Overs by Sharon Brogden Amazon Link - https://amzn.to/2GWLAid

In this episode Connect, Share, Prosper, we continue to dig into the impact Master Networks can have on your life. Seven years ago, Gary LaRue and his wife started their debt settlement and litigation company with the singular mission to be the Credit Cops – here to protect and serve your credit. For the first few years, it was a struggle. Gary was in the corporate world and they were working nights, looking for key connections to grow the business. “It’s opened so many doors. There is no education to learn how to be a successful entrepreneur and 80 percent of businesses fail in the first 2-3 years. Master Networks gave us the tools and education to be successful, but it also provided camaraderie and fellowship needed for a rich business.” Listen now and hear his story of how Master Networks served as a catalyst to his business and ultimately enabled him to leave the corporate world and be the master of his own destiny. As Gary wisely states, if you build the relationships, revenue follows. If you want to be the best version of yourself, you must be educated and informed. Join the movement of Master Networks and gain access to dedicated Success Coaches who will guide you on building a success story similar to Gary’s. www.masternetworks.com 

As Gary and Shannon close in on McGillivray's killer, they are thrown a curveball that threatens to detail the entire investigation. Cab they re-focus on a suspect with a near-homonym first name?

Could you be overlooking investment opportunities in Asia? What's the best way to find exposure in the region? In this podcast, Richard Edgar, Editor in Chief, talks to Fidelity’s Gary Monaghan, Hong Kong-based Investment Director for Equity, and Luc Froehlich, Head of Investment Directing for Asian Fixed Income, about who is putting their money where in Asia - and it might not be what you expect. They also discuss the recent addition of Chinese mainland listed stocks to the MSCI flagship emerging markets index and why it’s a game changer for investors.---This podcast is for investment professionals only and should not be relied on by private investors. This podcast is provided for information purposes only and is intended only for the person or entity to which it is sent or downloaded by. It must not be reproduced or circulated to any other party without prior permission of Fidelity. Fidelity Personal Investing does not give personal recommendations. The value of investments can go down as well as up so you may get back less than you invest. For other important legal notices please see our website.   Transcript  Richard Edgar: Why should I reconsider my allocation to Asia? That’s the question Fidelity answers. In this podcast we explore the very latest in the investment world in Asia, challenge some received wisdom, and find out who is putting money where in the region - and it might not be what you expect. I’m joined here in our Hong Kong studio by two investment directors and experts on the region: Luc Froehlich from fixed income and Gary Monaghan who covers equities. Welcome to you both. We’re recording this just after the announcement of which Chinese mainland listed stocks are to be included in the MSCI flagship emerging markets index - that’s a benchmark for over a trillion and a half dollars’ worth of assets. Gary, is this a game changer for the region as well as for China? Gary Monaghan: It is, in that Chinese mainland shares can no longer be ignored. I think it’s fair to say that if we if we consider where investors have been putting their money for the last 10 years, or even longer than that, it’s been very easy to ignore the mainland because it's not in the index. Suddenly they move into the index and you can no longer ignore it. So in that sense definitely it is a game changer. And what it also means for asset manufacturers - if you like, the likes of Fidelity - is that if you haven’t already been looking at A shares you’re going to have to start doing that and it's not an easy task. The companies generally report in Mandarin. The company reports will be written in Mandarin as well. So you need to get your analysts in place in order to do that and it’s not an easy task. Richard Edgar: Well I’m sure you’ve been brushing up your own Mandarin, Gary. But nobody is denying that is one of the greatest hurdles to investing in China: that the companies are of course reporting in their own native tongue. So you’ve got to be able to master that. How do we cope with it? Gary Monaghan: Quite simply, there is no substitute for having people on the ground. So we’ve got analysts here in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai as well, who speak the language and go meet the companies face to face. Richard Edgar: Luc, in the fixed income world you must be fed up with the attention that your equities colleagues are getting with all this MSCI A share index excitement, but is there a halo effect of raising the profile of investing in the region in all asset classes as a result of all this? Luc Froehlich: Well Richard, I’m actually not fed up. We have also a little revolution going on. Actually a few weeks ago the Bloomberg Barclays index announced that they were also going to include China onshore in their own index. So this is causing a little revolution in our bond markets too. As Gary mentioned, it is definitely attracting more attention toward the onshore market in China. The inclusion is going to lead a lot of the benchmark followers - which is a large amount of institutional money - to direct a bit more attention toward the onshore bond market. So we are talking about 5 per cent in this Bloomberg Barclays index - 5 per cent for China onshore. It’s not very large. If you compare this to the size of the China onshore bond market, which is about 12 trillion US dollars, it’s a drop, but it’s a beginning. Gary Monaghan: And I was going to add to that - what we’ve seen in the last 12 months is equities have done a very good marketing job in terms of talking about MSCI including A shares. And when we go to meet clients the questions are always directed towards the equity world. And it seems to me that it’s often not ignored but not well known that this is happening in the fixed income space as well. And that's something which I think is quite important because it's not just equity money coming into the mainland but the fixed income money as well, which is probably on the whole a bigger wall of cash. [Skip to here] Richard Edgar: How are their clients changing? Who is putting money into China? Is that changing? Luc Froehlich: On the fixed income side, if you look at the bond market, the main players are still institutional money. If you look at the overall China onshore bond market, overall we have about less than 2 per cent of foreign ownership. And if you look at the composition of this ownership it’s mostly institutional clients like central banks, sovereign wealth funds. The retail investors should come, but later on. Richard Edgar: The message hasn’t reached that far yet. Or is it confidence - a lack of confidence? Luc Froehlich: It’s simply a different stage of development of the market. You would typically see first the institutional money going there - they have more resources to analyse the market and following that the retail investors. Gary Monaghan: Yes, it’s exactly the same really for the equity space in that the key that unlocked the A share market for investors was Stock Connect. And that is really something that institutions can use and it’s not that easy for the retail guy to do that unless they invest in companies like ourselves. Richard Edgar: And thinking about the questions that these institutional clients are asking you both - how have they changed over the past couple of years? Gary Monaghan: Much more receptive I think to A shares. Before it was very easy to ignore because it was never in the benchmark. Also you could pretty much say, “We don’t know the companies very well. There’s corporate governance issues…” and then you could just ignore the entire market. But don’t forget the market itself. If you look at Shanghai and Shenzhen, they’ve got a market cap of about 7.5 trillion. Compare that to Tokyo, which is 6.8 trillion. So the mainland is actually a bigger market than Japan. So you can’t ignore it. But people were because of the point that they were not in the index. Luc Froehlich: We see a similar development on the fixed income side. I’ve been in Asia for the past seven years and what I would say is we are entering the third phase. The first phase was going to Europe, meeting some international investors, and the question was, “Why? Why would I put my money in Asia and specifically in China?” A few years after that the question was actually, “Can you give me a positive argument for me to invest in Asia or in China?” Because they wanted to convince their investment board to start putting money in China and in Asia. And now we are entering the third stage and third stage is, “How? How do I do that?” [Skip to here] Richard Edgar: Gary, let’s talk a little bit more detail now about the MSCI. It’s about to push huge companies - some still unknown abroad - onto the world stage. What impact is that going to have on their business? Gary Monaghan: Well first of all you should see more, let’s say foreign institutional investors on the shareholder register, which can bring some more questions. So you tend to get maybe a little bit more activist type investors and particularly a greater focus on ESG which as you know is a key theme at the moment. Richard Edgar: And something that management teams perhaps until now have not had to concern themselves with. Gary Monaghan: Not so much. I mean it is a growing theme globally anyway so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to any company. But as you get more international investors on the shareholder register do expect to see a lot more focus on ESG, corporate governance, and just general questioning around what’s going on with the business and the direction it is heading. Richard Edgar: What are they going to do with the money that this investment represents? Gary Monaghan: Well hopefully the good companies will get a greater percentage of the cash that comes in. Particularly if you think of us as an active manager we can choose the businesses that we invest in. So hopefully the better companies get more cash which they can then reinvest in the business, at hopefully greater rates of return. Luc Froehlich: One of the comments that I frequently hear from international investors when I tell them, “Hey, look at this market, it’s growing so fast.” I often hear, “Well, that means the companies are just piling up more debts. So actually from a risk point of view this is not a good thing.” It’s actually not really the case. It also has to do with the stage of evolution of the company. Most of the companies in Asia, in particular in China, have been extremely reliant on the banking system - using loans to finance their working capital or their expansion. Now if you continue evolving, becoming more sophisticated, you need a larger amount of capital which the bank cannot provide you. So you need to go to the capital markets. The other thing is that the more sophisticated you become, the more diverse you want to your sources of funding to be. That’s also a motivation for these companies to come in to the Asian US dollar bond market or international market. So it’s not necessarily the same company issuing more debt, it’s actually more companies. And we see that every month you have a maiden issuer - a new name coming on the market. It requires a lot of research power, but at the same time that’s significantly increasing the diversification potential in our space. Gary Monaghan: So if we’re thinking about, let’s say away from the very mega cap companies in the A share market, do you see them starting to use fixed income markets? Because I’m assuming a lot of the smaller companies don’t really have much experience there. Are we seeing that happen more and more, do you think? Luc Froehlich: The challenge that these companies have at the moment is twofold. Firstly, for smaller companies they tend to be higher risk, more in the high yield space, and in China onshore there is not yet a high yield market. Most of the high yield companies that you’d find are actually fallen angels. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that at the moment, if you see these little names trying to issue on the US dollar bond market, they would have to pay a yield that would be so high - just to make their offer palatable - that it would not make sense for them. So it is going to take time for the small guys to come on this market. [Skip to here] Richard Edgar: Gary, you mentioned active management but I wonder whether the inclusion in an index heralds the decline of active in China because now investors can park their cash in a fund that tracks that index, get the exposure and get the diversification, for example that China offers, but they can do it very cheaply. Gary Monaghan: First of all, what you have to remember: the inclusion at the moment is what they call a 5 per cent inclusion rate. So effectively they’re there capping the size of the Chinese stocks to only 5 per cent of their true size. And there’s only 234 that are moving into the index. There’s about 4,000 to 4,500 listed companies. To be frank, a big chunk of those are relatively uninvestable for investors like ourselves because of liquidity constraints and such. But there is a lot of companies which are not in the index for a start, so active managers can look beyond the boundaries of the index, which creates alpha hopefully if you get your stock call right. Luc Froehlich: This is actually another question that I frequently get: “Why would I use active management to invest in a market like China onshore?” I’m very open about the use of passive investment in certain markets - highly developed, efficient markets - it can make a lot of sense, especially as a compliment to an active strategy. Now if you look at specifically the China onshore bond market, one of the big challenges there is to properly assess the credit risk of issuers. Onshore, they have a different rating system; the local rating agency only use three ratings - AAA, AA, A - and effectively it’s only a relatively recent trend where we see differentiation in the credit spreads of the different rating groups So the challenge if you are an international investor and you try to follow those ratings, especially if you are doing it passively, is you are just going to invest randomly and you don’t know which are the credits - the spread of which are going to widen and the ones that are going to tighten. So it is really a market where active management makes a lot of sense. Richard Edgar: Much less diversification in terms of the official rating but your point is that there is diversification in the reality of how companies are being managed and the risk they represent. Luc Froehlich: Absolutely. It is a normal market but the ratings don’t necessarily reflect this reality. [Skip to here] Gary Monaghan: If you’re investing with active management you can choose the company managements you believe are working on your behalf as a shareholder. So don’t forget that if you are investing in passive, particularly in China where there’s a great deal of state owned enterprises (SOEs), you’re embracing certain risks that maybe you’re not aware of. Particularly if a large chunk of your passive market is a state owned enterprise, you are investing in companies where you don’t really have a say in what’s going on. And the management is generally government driven somewhat and they can be called upon to do national service and sometimes that leads to poor capital allocation. Richard Edgar: So in other words, the company is being asked or told to behave in a way that suits the country rather than shareholders. Gary Monaghan: So I could be a state owned bank and Luc may be coming up with the best new idea we've ever seen but you happen to be an industry that employs 2 million people and the government may say to me, “Well, you’ve got 500 million dollars, you’ve got to give it to Richard because they’re keeping two million people employed,” whereas really if I'm thinking from a shareholder perspective and future growth I should be giving that money to Luc and then he can create incredible returns and that’s the industry of the future. So without really realising it sometimes in passive you’re putting money to companies where you don’t have the greatest control and there can be some misallocation of capital. Richard Edgar: And what about the governance in normal companies that have a normal structure - or one that we’re more familiar with perhaps than some state owned enterprises? What about the management priorities there? Is that different, or is there a development that has yet to happen in some of those companies? Gary Monaghan: One thing when people talk about China - and this is actually true for Asia, it’s not just a China story - people will say, “Oh, corporate governance is poor.” I think we have to think about what we mean by that. Actually quite often, particularly when you’re meeting companies that are not the mega caps who’ve already got experience, the company will be owned majority by the founder and a couple of his friends, let's say, and they've never really had to deal with shareholders before. So it’s not that they’re cowboys and they’re going to run off with your money and they have fraudulent accounting, that’s not true at all. It’s just that they haven’t had to deal with the expectations of shareholders. That’s not bad corporate governance it’s just inexperienced corporate governance. Richard Edgar: So do we engage then with companies like that? That’s a large part of what Fidelity investment professionals talk about externally. So what are the conversations like? Gary Monaghan: There’s no other substitute to having your feet on the ground and going to talk to them. Whether that’s through the analysts, the portfolio management team, or quite often for equity capital markets team whose role is corporate engagement to discuss some of the things that we hold dear from our investment perspective. And discuss things that we will vote on and talk about. Luc Froehlich: That’s a very important point and it’s something that’s sometimes misinterpreted outside of Asia. Effectively, if you look at large or even small Asian companies, the ownership is usually more concentrated. It’s usual to have the founder who is the chairman who is the CEO. There is nothing really wrong about that. But to some extent it also explains the explosion of the bond market in Asia. If you look back in 2010 when the European bank started pulling out of Asia, we saw a lot of these issuers coming on the market. They effectively had to change their mentality, show more to investors. If you issue a bond and you want to get it rated you need to disclose quite a lot of information, like when you list a company. This has really helped to improve the governance of the companies that we cover. [Skip to here] Richard Edgar: So these are still emerging. There’s some way to go still, but a lot of development has already happened. Luc Froehlich: Yes. I would just be careful with the term “emerging” because it’s a slightly different topic. But one of the things that I usually struggle with investors that are not necessarily familiar with the Asian space is that Asia gets put in the same bucket as emerging markets. And it leads people to say, “Oh, Asia is so expensive, look at LatAm - you get much better yield, much better returns etc.” You are not comparing apples with apples. The reality is that when you invest - I’ll focus on the fixed income side - in Asia, you invest in about 16 different markets. Richard Edgar: And some of them are very developed. Luc Froehlich: Some of them are highly developed. If you look at countries like Hong Kong or Singapore, they have a very high level of development. If you look at the GDP per capita of Singapore, it’s actually higher than the GDP per capita of Germany. My point is that it’s a little bit dangerous to talk about “emerging” because we are talking of a good mix between developed and emerging economies. Richard Edgar: You make a really interesting point because people are beginning to shift from emerging market debt to Asia for precisely this sort of reason. That you change the risk profile. There is the diversification away from other debt markets but you are lowering the risk perhaps that goes along side that. Luc Froehlich: I don’t know if we’re lowering the risk. I think there is more awareness for what Asia has to offer. Until recently, when people were looking at Asia they were mostly looking at the yield that you can get - this chase for yield. And effectively, if you look at the investment that you can make in the bond market in Asia, you would get a much higher yield than you get in Europe you would get a similar yield as you get in the US but for lower duration. It’s a very attractive proposition just in terms of a risk profile. Then people also start looking at the different sectors where you can invest in. If you focus on the Asian US dollar bond market, it’s a market that has grown by about 20 per cent on an annual basis every year over the past 10 years. And this has led also to the emergence of new sectors. A few years ago, if you wanted to bet on the consumption of gaming you would have had one or two names. Now you have a real sector. So what people are seeing is not only about yield it’s about diversifying their portfolio into different industries. [Skip to here] Richard Edgar: And the types of outcomes that people are looking for has moved on as well, Gary. Asia isn’t just about growth now. Gary Monaghan: No. There are other factors that we see as being quite interesting within the region. For example dividend. It often shocks people to think of Asia as a dividend market but if you look in markets like Thailand where the yield currently is around 2.7 per cent, Taiwan where it’s above 3.5 per cent. We’ve got markets - as Luc said it’s diversification - that offer different things for different types of investors. And actually someone was saying to me yesterday that they’d read a study that one of the key drivers for share price return and share price capital growth is an increase in dividend within the Asia region. So it’s telling you that there are other factors other than growth. But of course to grow your dividend you generally have to grow your business and grow your cash flow. So it is linked but there are other factors which we find quite interesting. Richard Edgar: Luc, when investors put their money into Asian fixed income what exactly is it that they’re buying? Luc Froehlich: One point that we’ve touched is this good balance between developed markets and emerging markets. I couldn’t stress enough this point. Besides this, what they’re also buying is diversification, lower correlation with other markets. We started by talking about the China onshore bond market. Again a lot of people are looking at this market because it offers slightly higher yield than other markets. But from my point of view what is the main benefit - especially in a market where a lot of people talk about stretched valuations, are scared about volatility - what China onshore is providing you with is an asset class which has close to zero correlation with other asset classes. So you tell me what it is better in your portfolio in terms of diversification. I think this is really what institutional investors are more and more looking for. They go beyond the yield and look at the diversification potential. [Skip to here] Gary Monaghan: And I think apart from that, [for] a bigger picture type of view, buying Asia and particularly the equity market is you’re buying a future. New businesses are developing in the region which don't exist anywhere else in the world. Tencent is a great example. This is a platform through their WeChat platform that has multiple functions that don’t really exist in the west. And western companies will look in and say, “Wow, I wish we could do that.” So you’re investing in the future. You’re investing in the future growth as well. So just to throw out some stats: we’ve got 4.5 billion people in the region which is about 60 per cent of the global population; 35 per cent of the global GDP. Yet that is growing faster than most places in the world. So you’re looking at places like Indonesia - 5 per cent plus GDP growth, China - 6.5 per cent, India - around 7 per cent growth. So that 35 per cent of GDP, which should grow over time if we continue to see the current trajectory, which we don’t think will slow down. Richard Edgar: There seems to be no reason to see a change in Europe or the States at the moment. Gary Monaghan: We do expect GDP to continue growing at the rates that we’ve been seeing. Yet at the same point in time, Asia ex Japan is only 4.5 per cent of the global equity index. Richard Edgar: So there’s an enormous mismatch there. I know it’s the same in fixed income as well, that the proportions that are allocated to Asia are much smaller than they ought to be on that measure. There are perhaps reasons for that though. We’re coming to the end, so after an inspiring discussion perhaps on the good reasons for investing in Asia, what are the things that investors need to watch out for? What are the potential downsides? Because you can’t just plough in. Luc Froehlich: The traditional risk that is seen in markets like Asia, is the higher volatility. This is typically what people would tell you - that in a period of uncertainty you’re going to see much higher volatility in emerging markets, including Asia. It’s actually not been the case. If you go back to the Brexit referendum vote or the Trump election what we’ve seen actually is that the Asian US dollar bond market, especially on the investment grade side, has been a safe haven. Because you are able to shift money into an environment which is pretty well sheltered from the rest of the world and where your opportunity costs are actually not high at all. Richard Edgar: It’s an amazing turn of events. Gary? Gary Monaghan: It is. And alongside that increased volatility I must say that there is generally greater retail participation in some markets which does sort of create more churn. And so therefore you can be on the wrong side of that. So there’s an element of risk there. But also one of the things which I mentioned earlier: there’s a lot of state owned enterprises in the region and they are a big chunk of the market and if you are a passive investor in particular you are taking on state owned enterprise risk which is you don’t always know what’s happening with the capital that the company has. So there are elements of risk that you have to be aware of. Therefore going back to the point of why active - that’s one of the key selling points for active in the region is you try and avoid those areas. Not all SOEs are bad, I want to say that, but there is a risk of capital misallocation. Richard Edgar: Luc? [Skip to here] Luc Froehlich: So we are going hear, probably over the next few months if not years, about more default in China. This is already making the headlines of all or most of the national newspapers. The reality - the way we see it from on the ground - is it’s a positive development. It’s a positive development in the sense that it improves the capital allocation. The bad companies that are piling [up] debt, who are just doing M&A in an inconsiderate way - they are going to be sanctioned. The government is stepping away and saying, “Look, investors, you need to realise the risk that you are taking.” So it is beneficial for bourse companies because it helps them allocate capital properly. If you’re a good company you should pay less for your funding. And it’s good for investors because now when you put your money in the company you know that you’re going to be compensated for the risk that you’re taking. Richard Edgar: So it’s a more efficient market that is maturing and that brings with it benefits. Gary Monaghan: And one other risk to think about is that you are taking on institutional risk and by that I mean that you’re still seeing some developments within the regulatory environment. It could even be legal fields, in some cases governments - Thailand is a great example - where we’re going to see some elections, the first elections for a number of years, next year. So there are those risks as well that you’re embracing when you’re looking at the region. But again you just need to be very selective. Richard Edgar: So plenty of opportunity but go in with your eyes open is perhaps the best way to summarise it all. Let me thank you both: Gary Monaghan and Luc Froehlich for joining me.

Welcome to the first Insureblocks episode! In this "genesis" episode (a punt to the blockchain community, regarding the first block of a chain often referred to as the genesis block) we have a chat with Gary Nuttall, managing director of Distlytics., who explains to us the basics of blockchain. Have a listen to our podcast above or read some of the show notes below. 2 minute definition of blockchain A good starting point is to try and define what is blockchain? Gary takes a very pragmatic approach which recognises that there isn't a formally agreed definition on what is blockchain as there are many different types of blockchains. He tends to describe blockchain in two ways: A protocol - essentially an agreed way of doing business or transactions. So blockchain is a protocol as much as TCP/IP is a technology protocol for the World Wide Web The second and probably easier one to digest, is that blockchain is a write only database which is decentralised, distributed, time-stamped and cryptographically secured I hear you! What do you mean by "cryptographically secured"? All it is, is the application of computer generated algorithms (mathematical formulas) that transform the data in a manner that it can be securely shared between people. Smart Contracts I loved Gary's quote regarding smart contracts as being "the most misnamed thing I've ever heard". "smart contracts... the most misnamed thing I've ever heard" The fascinating thing about smart contracts is that they're neither smart nor a contract. All they are is effectively a computer program that enables a blockchain to interact with external activities or triggers. So for example with a flight delay insurance policy a smart contract can be used on a blockchain to determine whether or not your flight is delayed. If it is delayed then an automatic payment is made to your bank account without the insured having to make a claim. Here is an example of such a flight delay policy by Axa insurance with Fizzy:   Blockchain in the insurance space Having analysed the entire insurance value chain for commercial insurance, Gary has identified around 88 potential use cases for blockchain. Ultimately his view is that anywhere you've got data that is shared between multiple parties, with a need to prove the accuracy and completeness of it all in an efficient manner, is an opportunity for blockchain. Of course for the insurance world this means reducing the inefficiencies in the bordereau process, claims process, and even managing your KYC checking for on-boarding an organisation to name a few. By reducing those inefficiencies and costs you open up the opportunity for truly innovating product developments with other emerging technologies from Internet of Things (IoT) to artificial intelligence (AI). When combining these new technologies with blockchain you open yourself to some very exciting opportunities. One of the qualities of blockchain is that it helps to remove intermediaries. As we all know there are numerous intermediaries in the insurance ecosystem and everyone wants to make sure that they're not the one who will be disintermediated. As Gary found out that depending on who you speak to, brokers will say there will be no need for underwriters in the future, underwriters say there will be no need for brokers in the future and when you get them both in the room they'll say that it's the likes of the bureau that won't be needed in the future. So everyone's just trying to protect their own turf in some way. What we can all agree is that it is unclear what will happen in the future but it will definitely be very different in a few years. Your turn! Gary shares many other fascinating points in this podcast, so please have a listen and tell us what you think? If you liked the podcast please do review it on iTunes or Google Play. If you have any comments, suggestions on how we could make it better please don't hesitate to a add a comment below.

People were going about their normal everyday lives, heading in to the city from the Blue Mountains, on their way to Sydney when disaster struck. Unknown to all those involved, this was never going to be a normal day, a day that would have lasting consequences. 41 years ago today, on January 18th 1977,  the Granville Train Disaster happened, killing 83 and injuring 213.   Last time on the Australian Rescue Podcast, we didn’t have enough time to hear all of Gary Raymond‘s story. In this episode we continue his story and memories from the Granville Train Disaster. If you missed part one, go back and have a listen to it first for some good background. In this episode we’ll hear more info about what the conditions of the search and also a real fascinating insight in to what it’s like catching up with survivors. One of people in the story Gary connected with was Debbie, and you can read more about her story here.   As per the last episode, Gary shares even more of his Christian faith, but as per the previous episode, but as mentioned in the first part of this interview it’s Gary’s story so it’s important to leave it in there, given the fact that he’s also a Chaplain as well. Even though Gary is very busy, he’s also a Chaplain and therefore has all the time in the world if you need.   If you’d like to contact him, you can do so at his Facebook page via a direct message. Gary has been to these significant jobs in the past: • Hilton Hotel Terrorist Bombing – 3 dead & 7 wounded • Luna Park Ghost Train Fire – 6 children and 1 adult dead • Granville Train Disaster – 83 dead & 213 injured • Christmas Day Savoy Hotel Fire, Kings Cross – 15 dead • Pacific Heights Nursing Home Fire – 16 dead • Newcastle Earthquake –13 dead & 162 injured & 500,000 buildings damaged • Sri Lankan Tsunami – 35,000 dead, 1 million homeless  • Cyclone Larry in North Queensland – winds 200 kph – damage 1 billion dollars • Thredbo Landslide Disaster – 18 dead – Stewart Diver rescued • 1140 ton Manly ferry the ‘Collaroy’ ran aground and collided with cliff – 4 injured & 500 rescued from ferry • Earthquake – Christchurch, New Zealand – 185 dead – 1500 injured As Gary has been to so many jobs, do you have a favourite you’d like to hear from specifically?  If you’ve enjoyed hearing these stories from Gary, you can read more stories in a series of books called “Top Cop” that were written by David Nicholas. These can all be purchased from good book stores. These images are linked to the products directly.           Read more →

Dr. Gwen Schiada interviews Gary Szenderski on creating positive change by tapping into the power of our thoughts. The theme of this episode is belief. As Gary profoundly states, “The only thing that separates the you today from the new and powerful you that’s meant to be is the step your heart is begging you […]

Jonny and Jeff have a conversation with Gary Hanson about what it's like to be in ministry and be an introvert. As Gary says, most people think of pastors as people persons, extroverts who love to be in the limelight. That is NOT true - because so many pastors are planners, administrators, thinkers, creative, crave alone time, and are anything but extroverted. The truth is, the extroverts desperately need the introverts in order to finally get anything accomplished, and the introverts likely only mildly need the extroverts, just to remind them that there are others in the building. :-) Gary and Jonny get pretty honest about their friendship and working relationship. Then we all try to draw some encouragement from the well for the pastors who might be introverts, but who wish they weren't - they wish they were more outgoing... and why that is the wrong direction to think!

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 10 October 2017 Presentation skills…. Not generally considered the forte of small business. But in this age of “genuine connections”, face-to-face networking events and the perfect pitch nailing your message is crucial to getting out there and being heard. There's a lot of noise online and it's difficult to cut through; we can learn the tricks of this trade easily enough but being present in the room with a potential client or business connection is a harder skill to master. Well, luckily we have an help today for our small business listeners. Dr Gary Wohlman is one such expert, here to share his  wealth of expertise and years of experience working with individuals, consultants as communications skills coach, bringing people's voice and message out into the world as they've always dreamed possible. Welcome to the show, Gary. Topics we’ll be covering: Integrating the 3V’s of communication – the Verbal, Vocal & Visual components, delivering your key messages with greater ease, efficiency and inspiring your listeners to action. Developing Self-Talk to empower presentations on all stages of your life - Practice 3 keywords and matching gestures you came up with as a way of ‘getting into the zone’ instantly just before speaking or making a presentation, so what you say and how you say it are in tune and aligned – making it easier than ever for you to reach people with your intended message. Feel free to contact me for further assistance in matching your verbal message with your physical delivery, and watch your business and relationships soar. The Grid System for ‘walking your talk’ as you place each key PEA (Point, Example, Application) in specific spots on whatever stage you are on, to clearly choreograph your communication and streamline remembering your content, while simultaneously training your audiences to easily grasp what you are talking about as you move consistently through these same spots during any live presentations you give. The “Modeling the Hero” exercise to reclaim disowned qualities projected onto heroes, role models and mentors Other questions: 1) How do you see yourself as a transformational presentation coach?2) Give us a sound bite of the type of presentation breakthroughs your clients typically have through working with you…3) What is one of your most powerful tools you can guide our listeners through, to enhance the impact and effectiveness of their live presentations?4) Tell us what you mean by the 3 V's of communication…5) What is the Hero exercise?6) What is one further tip you'd like to share with our audience?7) What upcoming workshops do you have where people can have an opportunity for a presentation breakthrough?8) What other means of support can you offer our listeners to help them bring out their voice and message into the world as the've dreamed possible?To find out more, visit Dr Gary’s website : www.mypresentationdoctor.comWhile living in the United States, Gary graduated with honours from the esteemed Horace Mann private school, receiving the Headmasters award for the top student excelling in both academics and athletics. Graduating with a combined Pre-Med. and Psychology degree from Johns Hopkins University, Gary saw his future as a child psychiatrist and set his sights on medical school, yet felt a greater calling from the burgeoning new field of self development.He moved to the west coast, where he pursued humanistic studies in the Human Potential movement, taking courses in San Francisco at the Californian School of Professional Psychology, which encouraged all manner of innovation. Here he developed his own system of transformational body therapy that grew over four decades into the presentation coaching that is now the Wohlman method.In 1990, Gary was invited to visit New Zealand as a keynote conference speaker for health care professionals. As a practitioner who was accustomed to working one-on-one with clients, Gary presented in the way he knew how, by inviting individual audience members onto the stage, one by one, to work with them on the challenges they had in presenting communicating and connecting.News of Gary’s presentations soon spread. His authentic, real life scenarios were a lively change to stultifying power point keynotes which proliferated the stage, and he was invited back to Australasia for a series of workshops. As Gary’s presentations became more popular the triad of his life – athletics, academia and self development – and his devotion to integrating body, mind and spirit – fell into place. As new frontiers opened up for his pioneering personality, he picked up his sticks and moved down under to Australia in 1997.To Gary, unlocking the dynamic energy system by the ability to feel centred and in command had a natural synchronicity with his early acclaim as a gymnast, track star, and springboard diving champion. Integrating this physicality into the core of presentation coaching is the foundation of the Wohlman method, which was government accredited in Australia in 2002. During this same period he received a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy.‘Getting into the zone’ is as much a part of preparing for sports competitions as for any stage presentation. In harnessing the power of the zone as an athlete, it became anchored in Gary’s mind that he needed to create tools and resources to coach individuals to connect inner purpose to outer presentation, and align intention with performance.For Gary, there is always an overarching sense of achievement working with people to unlock the stored physical, emotional and creative energy – and release the related anxiety, tensions and self-talk holding them back.Dr Gary’s clients generally come from two paths: firstly performers, leaders or high-profile spokespeople. Their goal is to persuade, entertain, inform or educate and leave an impression. Secondly, those that want to achieve similarly, and may be challenged in expressing themselves, lost for words, floundering for material, simply stuck or nervous.Companies that have engaged Dr Gary include global corporations, such as Chifley, Capgemini, 3M, Xerox, Geovital, American Express, Air New Zealand, the Intercontinental hotel, Australia Post – as well as a string of not for profits, Make-a-Wish foundation amongst them, and thousands of individuals.Dr Gary’s quest is to assist his fellow presenters find their authority, authenticity and audience engagement with the simplest, swiftest, most sustainable systems possible. “Here’s to unlocking your true self, speaking from the heart and being heard – with your fullest vitality, physical presence and connectedness – on all stages of your life. It’s an honour for me to assist you in enhancing the impact and effectiveness of your live presentations, and in bringing your voice and message out into the world as you’ve always dreamed possible”.

As Gary and Tom celebrate a half dozen episodes, they ruminate about odd names, herd-mentality behavior, and introduce a new feature: “I Decree”.

As Gary continues his quest for the perfect mic, the Petecast must carry on. This week Gary, Bryan, and Josh discuss the highs and lows of Amazon customer service, Nioh, Persona 5 Reviews, Splatoon 2, and just what the hell was going on between a certain 3 characters in Iron Fist.

How CSI and profit can be sexy. But first, as part of SERVICE DRIVE REVOLUTION tradition, the guys start out with some catch-up talk on their week.Chris and Gary went from Las Vegas to Washington DC.to Florida, and had some hilarious mishaps on the way. Gary just so happened to book a meeting during Daytona 500 so the city was packed. Furthermore, Gary thought it would be a good idea to book an AirBnB for the weekend, which seemed like a perfect plan. Then Chris realized Gary had read the ad wrong and booked a room in someone's house, rather the entire house as he had intended. That wasn’t going to work for Chris so no big problem - just book a hotel room - only it was Daytona 500 and you couldn’t book a room no matter how hard you try. Listen to the FULL EPISODE to find out how they hilariously get out of the predicament! Other highlights from the trip involve finding a bookstore with original signed Bukowski books, bumping into Donald Trump’ s motorcade and discussing who would be the best sponsor for the podcast - they’re thinking Cholesterol medicine brands such as Lipitor or Prilosec.The guys nail down onto the focus content for this week. “One of the main things that we took away from the meetings was that we need to execute and create momentum”. Chris leads this on with how guys are missing the basics. They discuss how less is more, and that the subtly can be sexy. As Gary furthers “You can have all the new sexiest equipment like the tablets, but all that stuff doesn’t matter unless you have the solid foundation”. Although tools like this can be really helpful, Chris and Gary discuss ‘ blocking and tackling', a repetitive formula of fundamentals is what succeeds. Gary brings up Jair’ s amazing talk on‘ The Visionary Roadmap', which looks at how companies, such as Starbucks, implement step-by-step processes to map out each moment of the customer's experience. To finalize their point, Gary uses a case study of when he worked at Mini and how another store doing way better in profit and CSI than the store he was in. To find out what they were doing different, Gary caught a flight and was shown very simply and very quickly what he was doing wrong in his store. Click the link below and listen to the full show to find out what this simple SOLUTION was. This solidifies the logic that understanding the basics is way more effective than searching for a magic pill.This week’ s show paves the way in mindset, leadership, and management skills. Chris will reveal the POTENTIAL of effective systems and how creating a culture of belief is the big first step. It will help takes your SERVICE DRIVE to the next level and to record-breaking results...“There is no trick, the trick is just doing it!”Follow us on Social Media: https://twitter.com/ccgamification https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriscollinsinc https://www.youtube.com/user/72ccollins See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gary Edwards is a Cultural Support Provider for Residential School Survivors at All Nations Hope in Regina. A survivor himself, Gary was rounded up by a gunboat and issued to a residential school in Ile Ste. Croix at the age of 2. Gary talks about his experience, painting pictures with his words- his phrasing almost poetic. He speaks of his journey to healing, the Indigenous way of life, and the many guides who have supported him on his path. It is my hope, as it is Gary's, that someone hears this episode who needs to hear it in order to help in their own healing, As Gary says: "Let's hope that one day this conversations never happens".  

On the line today is none other than social media icon, and New York Time Best Selling Author of the “how-to” social media book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook”, Gary Vaynerchuk, to talk details on how to crush it on his favorite platform, Twitter!   We start off asking the question, “Why Twitter?”   For Gary, that was an easy one.  He says Twitter is the one place where we can get consumer’s points of view for free and not pay for data and we can action on these points of view, such as joining a conversation, and you’re welcomed rather than shunned for joining.   One challenge Gary points out (which is a great tip if you can be patient) is that Twitter is a long-term play.  If you try to move too quickly before you’ve built rapport and added value you aren’t likely to see success on the platform.     As Gary points out, you can’t just throw “right hooks” (which is to take or ask), you have to throw jabs first (which is to give or provide value).   In Gary’s opinion, Twitter is the only true social media platform as it is predicated on community and conversation, as opposed to a platform like Facebook which is all “push” driven.   When it comes to establishing your account, Gary highly recommends using your own name, rather than your brand or company name.   Gary’s recommendation for how to get in the game on Twitter is to go to twitter.com/search and just find people who are talking about your topic.  The key though, is again, the “jabs”.  You can’t just go straight at people with your sales pitch.   Gary sums it up well with a great analogy.  “Twitter is a cocktail party.  You don’t go to a cocktail party and deliver a presentation.”   It’s about connecting and building relationships.   When it comes to searching, you have to search what people are actually going to say, like “drinking a smoothy” or “hitting the gym” vs. just “smoothy” or “exercise” where you may get a lot of unrelated content or spam.   Another tip Gary shares is to weave what is trending into your content (without overdoing it, of course).   So much great Twitter feedback packed into one episode!   Gary, you rock!   To get a free copy of Gary’s book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World” (just pay the shipping) go to http://lifeonfire.com/gary-book/!   Digging this episode??  If so, please write us a review in iTunes telling us what you love about Life on Fire TV and leave us a 5-star rating.   Thank you for subscribing to our podcast in iTunes!  You’re awesome!

This week Gary and Jonathan, aware that the Festive Season and more are in front of us all, sit down with the most recent 'Forthcoming Books' issue of Locus and do their best to assemble a quick, on-the-fly list of books we're looking forward to from October through to May next year. As Gary and Jonathan both say on the podcast, the list has been quickly assembled and certainly misses many worthwhile books. Still, it's a start.  Here's the list. These are books we'll be reading, discussing and possibly recommending in coming months.   October 2014Bacigalupi, Paolo, The Doubt Factory, (Little, Brown, nvl-ya, hc) Bear, Greg, War Dogs, (Orbit US, hc) Carroll, Jonathan, Bathing the Lion, (St. Martin's, hc) Gibson, William, The Peripheral, (Penguin/Putnam, hc) Leckie, Ann, Ancillary Sword, (Orbit US, tp) Newman, Kim, The English Ghost Story, (Titan, tp) Nix, Garth, Clariel, (Hot Key Books, nvl-ya, hc) November 2014Baxter, Stephen, Ultima, (Orion/Gollancz, hc) Herbert, Frank, Frank Herbert: Collected Stories, (Tor, cln, hc) Sherman, Delia, Young Woman in a Garden, (Small Beer Press, cln, tp) Williams, Sean, Crashland, (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, hc)  December 2014Ellison, Harlan, The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison, (Subterranean Press/Edgeworks Abbey, hc) January 2015 Morrow, James Galapagos Regained (St Martins, hc) Walton, Jo, The Just City, (Tor, hc)  February 2015Abercrombie, Joe, Half the World, (Ballantine Del Rey, hc) Gaiman, Neil, Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Discoveries •(HarperCollins/Morrow, cln, tp) Link, Kelly, Get in Trouble, (Random House, cln, hc) McAuley, Paul, Something Coming Through, (Orion/Gollancz, hc) Park, Paul, Other Stories, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) March 2015Robson, Justina, The Glorious Angels, (Orion/Gollancz, tp) Wilson, Robert Charles, The Affinities, (Tor, hc)   April 2015Bacigalupi, Paolo, The Water Knife, (Little, Brown UK/Orbit, hc) Baxter, Stephen, Remembrance: A Xeelee Collection, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) Bray, Libba, Lair of Dreams, (Little, Brown UK/Atom, hc) Liu, Ken, The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty) (Saga, hc) McDonald, Ian, Mars Stories, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) McDonald, Ian, Only the Best of Ian McDonald, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) May 2015Ashby, Madeline, Company Town, (Angry Robot US, tp) Blaylock, James P., Beneath London, (Titan, tp) Okorafor, Nnedi, The Book of Phoenix, (DAW, hc) Rajaniemi, Hannu, Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction, (Tachyon Publications, cln, hc) Robinson, Kim Stanley, Aurora, (Little, Brown UK/Orbit, hc) Invitation:  As Gary and Jonathan mention on the episode, please feel free to add your own recommendations in comments here or at jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp. 

On the line today is none other than social media icon, and New York Time Best Selling Author of the “how-to” social media book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook”, Gary Vaynerchuk, to talk details on how to crush it on his favorite platform, Twitter!   We start off asking the question, “Why Twitter?”   For Gary, that was an easy one.  He says Twitter is the one place where we can get consumer’s points of view for free and not pay for data and we can action on these points of view, such as joining a conversation, and you’re welcomed rather than shunned for joining.   One challenge Gary points out (which is a great tip if you can be patient) is that Twitter is a long-term play.  If you try to move too quickly before you’ve built rapport and added value you aren’t likely to see success on the platform.     As Gary points out, you can’t just throw “right hooks” (which is to take or ask), you have to throw jabs first (which is to give or provide value).   In Gary’s opinion, Twitter is the only true social media platform as it is predicated on community and conversation, as opposed to a platform like Facebook which is all “push” driven.   When it comes to establishing your account, Gary highly recommends using your own name, rather than your brand or company name.   Gary’s recommendation for how to get in the game on Twitter is to go to twitter.com/search and just find people who are talking about your topic.  The key though, is again, the “jabs”.  You can’t just go straight at people with your sales pitch.   Gary sums it up well with a great analogy.  “Twitter is a cocktail party.  You don’t go to a cocktail party and deliver a presentation.”   It’s about connecting and building relationships.   When it comes to searching, you have to search what people are actually going to say, like “drinking a smoothy” or “hitting the gym” vs. just “smoothy” or “exercise” where you may get a lot of unrelated content or spam.   Another tip Gary shares is to weave what is trending into your content (without overdoing it, of course).   So much great Twitter feedback packed into one episode!   Gary, you rock!   To get a free copy of Gary’s book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World” (just pay the shipping) go to http://lifeonfire.com/gary-book/!   Digging this episode??  If so, please write us a review in iTunes telling us what you love about Life on Fire TV and leave us a 5-star rating.   Thank you for subscribing to our podcast in iTunes!  You’re awesome!

Today on Cause Talk Radio, Megan and Joe talk to Gary Laermer, Senior Vice President & Chief Development Officer of the YMCA of Greater New York, about lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy one year later. The YMCA of Greater New York was at ground zero for Hurricane Sandy. The Y was caught between dealing with the damage to several of its 22 facilities and using its resources to aid the displaced victims of the storm. Gary reflects on how nonprofits can better deal with crisis and bounce back. They also discuss how nonprofits within devastated communities are ideally suited to meet the needs of community members. As Gary points out, these needs are not always connected with money, and nonprofits need to distinguish between crisis problems and chronic problems that existed in the community before the disaster struck. Tune in for an episode that will educate, inspire, and prepare you for the crisis we hope you never have to face.

Gary U.S. Bonds joins host Robin Milling to talk about his new book, By U.S. Bonds, That's My Story. Written with a foreword by Steven Van Zandt, it's an autobiography that's a love story, according to co-writer Stephen Cooper who helped Gary organize his life into 20 chapters. Impossible as that seems, the stories are classic such as meeting Bruce Springsteen and forming a friendship that still thrives. As Gary recalls Bruce came to his show in New Jersey circa '76 and years later called him to record Dedication. Gary tells Robin he repaid the favor, gifting Bruce a '57 Chevy with 'Dedication' emblazoned on the fender. Bruce still proudly drives it around Jersey. Gary's career began during the racially charged '50s where music might be color blind but the world certainly wasn't. He says he'd perform at all-white clubs, painfully aware of the segregation, but blended in as an entertainer and never had a problem. It was only touring with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars in the early '60s that he experienced racism when he couldn't stay at the same hotel as white bands like Bobby Rydell. At 74, Gary has lived a life of music and still does celebrating his birthday at BB Kings in NYC where musicians come to honor his musical legacy. There's plenty more story to be told. Visit http://www.garyusbonds.com

Episode 26: Gary's recording of this episode comes from the hotel in San Francisco, where he's appearing at the Course in Miracles Conference. Approximately 450 attendees are at the conference; and over 40 speakers -- all of whom Gary has worked with before, so it feels like "a reunion" for him! Attendees came from as far away as Macedonia, and mainland China, where DU is officially "banned" by the government there, yet underground versions are now available and being read by many Chinese people. Gary discusses with Gene how he goes about the process of speaking in public, and how it's only with the Holy Spirit's constant guidance (and a certain excerpt from A Course in Miracles) that he is able to feel so comfortable about doing it. Gene and Gary discuss –and very much in line with what Gary speaks of in public– how the undeniably central focus of ACIM is the practice of Forgiveness. Gary then talks a bit about California topics, and while discussing "The Governator", asks Gene to do his Ah-nold impersonation, where the Terminator becomes "The Illuminator!" The discussion returns to the Course, and how one's entire life should reflect one's study and practice of Course teachings, particularly in terms of applying forgiveness to whatever comes up in our daily lives - especially the things that push our buttons. Gary brings up a question that had been raised by a conference attendee earlier in the day; he discusses his answer, and quotes a section from ACIM to bring home the point. As Gary is short on time (his presence being expected back at the conference), he asks Gene (and the listeners) to hold off on "Questions for Gary" until the next episode... but closes out this show with some commentary on how to deal with suffering from a Course perspective, as promised from the previous podcast.