Podcasts about as russell

Russell and Clinton are joined by a special guest, Jorge Zapata.  Root canal therapy is a passion of his, and microscopes make his artwork happen.  Join us to hear his adventures in the Beehive State.  As Russell prepares for Hurricane Ida, he wonders if cannibalism will be a last or first resort should things go south.  Or, perhaps going to Costco ahead of time would be easier. 

As Russell wants out, people are starting to look at a Dak for Wilson trade… feasible? l Lowered salary cap may actually HELP Dak’s quest for a monster, long-term deal l Inbounds or Out of Bounds See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode we catch up with dedicated Ashtangi, mother of two, and highly acclaimed jouranlist, Bethany McLean. She is also an author and contributing editor to Vanity Fair, who lives in Chicago. Bethany's gift is understanding where the bullshit is, and uncovering it. As Russell said “To put Bethany McLean in context, imagine if in Die Hard Jon McClane takes down Hans Gruber in a cowboy no due process kind of way, then its Bethany who uncovers the rampant embezzlement at Nakatomi Plaza!” Many of you might remember her from the 2012 Vanity Fair article entitled: Who's Yoga Is It Anyway? where she explored how the global Ashtanga yoga community grapples with the death of Guru, Pattabhi Jois, and the complicated response to Sonia Jones launching a chain of yoga studios under the “Jois” name. A name copyrighted and paid for, but a purchase that rankled the prickly egos of senior students who preferred their status just where it was: On Top. She co-author with Peter Elkind, the bestselling book: The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron . Her second book, which she co-authored with Joe Nocera, is called: All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. And her third book also co-authored with Joe Nocera, is Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants. Bethany has a particular talent for following the numbers, exposing illusions, and popping bubbles to reveal where the truth lays hidden. This notion is of particular interest to Harmony and Russell as the Alberta economy is on the brink of collapse as Covid-19 exposes the pitfalls of cheap money in a dead service: Fracking. Alberta prides itself as the Saudi Arabia of North America, but as Bethany says, its not just a dollar spent and a dollar earned: “It's much worse than that.” In her most recent book titled, Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World, journalist Bethany McLean digs deep into the cycles of boom and bust that have plagued the American oil industry for the past decade, and turns an eye to the mysterious death of fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon. Find out more about Bethany McLean and listen to her podcast Making A Killing on iTunes. As always, keep exploring my website and all my online offerings. Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Simply Click Here. To purchase your own copy - Click Here. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review ❤ and give us a 5★ rating.

As Russell nurses his injuries, we muse on unifying the coming #DemExit parties, and why the establishment can't agree on a Coronavirus relief package.

It’s striking how much the sports business industry can feel like a big family.   Just as the relationships in sports business evolve, so do the careers.    Whether you’re just starting your career in sports business or you’re searching for a new venture, there are a few tips to keep in mind.   1. There’s not just one path on which to enter the industry. Everybody has their own story of growth and evolution within the sports business industry.   2. You may be in marketing or sales, but you’re really helping people find solutions to their problems. It’s ultimately about making people’s lives easier.   3. Keep in touch with past colleagues. Many times it pays off to call up an old coworker or employer when you’re looking to enter a new vertical (especially one as tight-knit as sports business).   Appropriately, in this episode of Inside Sports Business Intelligence, former host Russell Scibetti introduces a new development: the new host of ISBI, Adam Grow!   As Russell dives into his new role with the New York Giants, Adam — COO at KORE — will take over the pleasure of interviewing sports business leaders on ISBI.   In episode #14, Adam and Russell discuss:   - Adam’s journey entering and advancing within the sports business space.   - How you can build your career in sports business.   - Why ISBI works to tackle real-world challenges for professionals in the industry. You can find this interview, and many more like it, by subscribing to the Inside Sports Business Intelligence show on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or on our website.

Today we celebrate the German reformer who added the cultivation of Mulberries and silkworms as part of his schools and the man who started the Linnean Society. We'll learn about the Salem Botanist, who was a friend of Thoreau and Emerson and the man known as the Father of Texas Botany. We'll hear the poem that takes us through the months of the year - ending with "And the night is long, And cold is strong, In bleak December." We Grow That Garden Library with one of the best books of the year, and it takes us on a tour of the world's best gardens. I start my new segment for Holiday Gardener Gift Recommendations, and then we wrap things up with the birth flower for December.   But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Most young scientists will not study plant science. So why did I? | @talkplant Great post from Dr. Rupesh Paudyal @talkplant: "The best conversation killer that I know bar none: Plant science is important because… zzzzzzz (the person switches off)" We must flip the script. Plant science needs new scholars! Recruit, Recruit, Recruit!     Chicago Residence by Dirk Denison Architects | HomeAdore @HomeAdore shared this incredible home where there is a whole lot of green going on - garden terraces, outdoor landscaping, an adjacent park, terrariums, and integrated aquariums with aquatic plants galore. Me want!    Cheesy Acorn Squash Recipe - Allrecipes.com Heres a Cheesy Acorn Squash Recipe from @allrecipes. It's a nice change from traditional sweet acorn squash. This variation is supposed to be so great that people who dislike squash like this recipe. Reviewers say to add some garlic to the sauté. Substitution ideas include using sautéed apples and onions, topping with panko breadcrumbs or bacon.   Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck - because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or track down articles - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.     Brevities #OTD  Today is the birthday of the German theologian and educator, Johann Julius Hecker, who was born on this day in 1707. Hecker recognized that a classical education didn't work for everyone, and so he founded secondary schools that prepared students for practical jobs and callings.  Hecker referred to his schools as, "the seed-beds of the state, from which the young, like trees from a nursery, could be transplanted in their proper places." Hecker's work attracted the attention of the king of Prussia, Frederick the Great). King Frederick encouraged Hecker to expand his efforts.   Hecker installed gardens near his schools to teach hands-on botany. The gardens included vegetables, herbs, and fruit trees.   And, Hecker also taught the cultivation of the mulberry tree. This was a strategic decision by Hecker, who recognized that the production of silk and the care of silkworms would find favor with the King. Thanks to Hecker, both teachers and students tended a large mulberry plantation and learned the culture of silk and mulberries.         #OTD   Today is the birthday of James Edward Smith, who was born on this day in 1759. In 1784, on the recommendation of Joseph Banks, Smith purchased the entire collection of Carl Linnaeus. When the King of Sweden learned of the purchase, he attempted to intercept the ship before it reached London. But he was too late. With the collection securely in his possession, Smith founded the Linnean Society, and he also served as the first President. The Linnean Society is the oldest biological society in the world. During the 18th and 19th century, the society was an important hub for scientific progress.     #OTD  Today is the birthday of the Salem Massachusetts Unitarian minister and American botanist, John Lewis Russell, who was born on this day in 1808. Russell attended Harvard along with his classmate of Charles Chauncy Emerson, whose big brother was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1831 and served as a minister until 1854. While he served his various congregations, Russell pursued his passion for botany.  In 1874, the Reverend Edmund B. Willson wrote a “Memoir of John Lewis Russell,” and he observed: "Wherever this man went to fill a pulpit, the lovers of nature gravitated toward him, and he made them his allies. They attended him to the fields and ranged with him the steep hills and the miry swamps. His animated talk and moist, kindling eyes as he described the graces of the ferns and the glories of the grasses and the lichens quickened the love of beauty in them. He imparted stimulating knowledge of the secrets of the meadows and woods, and ... had an ear for the mysteries of the sea, [and] the forests, [and] the moss-coated rocks." In late September of 1838, Russell visited Ralph Waldo Emerson, and they spent some time botanizing together. Emerson wrote about the visit in his journal: "A good woodland day or two with John Lewis Russell who came here, & showed me mushrooms, lichens, & mosses. A man in whose mind things stand in the order of cause & effect & not in the order of a shop or even of a cabinet." Almost twenty years later, Russell went to Concord and spent three days with Henry David Thoreau. It would not be the last time they spent together. Thoreau showed him around town and asked Russell all of his botanical questions. He specifically sought help with plant identifications. For Russell, the trip was made special by finding the climbing fern during one of their walks. Russell had a particular life-long interest in cryptograms like ferns (plants that reproduce using spores). As Russell's life was ending, he sent many charming letters to his younger family members. In a letter to his nephew, he wrote: "When this reaches you spring will have commenced, and March winds... will have awakened some of the sleeping flowers of the western prairies, while we shall be still among the snow-drifts of [the] tardy departing winter.   As I have not learned to fly yet I shall not be able to ramble with you after the pasque flower, or anemone, nor find the Erythronium albidum, nor the tiny spring beauty, nor detect the minute green mosses which will so soon be rising out of the ground.   But I can sit by the Stewart’s Coal Burner in our sitting room and... recall the days when ... when we gathered Andromeda buds from the frozen bushes and traversed the ice-covered bay securely in the bright sunshine of the winter’s day.   I often long.. for a return of those Arcadian days... As I grow older — now threescore and nearly ten — every year... interests me all the more in his [God’s] works and ways.   Every little flower I meet with, ... that I never saw before, every little insect ... is a novelty... the ever-increasing discoveries of science and art, awaken my admiration, heighten my awe, and lead me to adoring trust...   I will not trouble you to write to me, but I should like a spring flower which you gather; any one will be precious from you to your feeble and sick Old uncle and friend, J.L.R."       #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the Father of Texas Botany and legend, Ferdinand Jakob Lindheimer, who died on this day in 1879. Lindheimer immigrated from Frankfurt, Germany, and spent more than a decade searching the wilds of Central and Southeast Texas for new species of plants. The botanist George Engelmann was a friend and fellow immigrant from Frankfurt. Engelmann introduced him to other botanists from around the world, and he helped Lindheimer process and identify his numerous specimens. In January of 1842, Lindheimer wrote Engelmann: “Herewith I am sending you 180 species of plants, most of which I collected in the spring of 1840... Send me the names soon - so that I don’t have to keep creating nicknames such as I have been using as an aid... especially for the grasses; for instance, narrow ear, panicle ear, long ear, twin ear…” While botanizing in Texas, Lindheimer discovered several hundred new plant species, and many now bear his name. Over his lifetime, Lindheimer collected close to 100,000 plant specimens in Texas. There are many incredible stories of Lindheimer's botanizing. Once he came across an Indian war party and ended up in a staring competition with the chief. Lindheimer won. Another time, Lindheimer had become friends with the Comanche chief Santana who wanted to trade Lindheimer two mules and a Mexican girl for his blue-eyed, blonde-haired grandson. Lindheimer politely declined the offer.       Unearthed Words "January cold and desolate; February dripping wet; March wind ranges; April changes; Birds sing in tune To flowers of May, And sunny June Brings longest day; In scorched July The storm-clouds fly, Lightning-torn; August bears corn, September fruit; In rough October Earth must disrobe her; Stars fall and shoot In keen November; And night is long And cold is strong In bleak December." - Christina Giorgina Rossetti, The Months     Today's book recommendation: Gardenlust by Christopher Woods The subtitle to this book is A Botanical Tour of the World’s Best New Gardens, and it is a fascinating and glorious armchair read to the most incredible gardens of our lifetime. The cover of this 416-page book shows a garden that's at the Golden Rock Inn in Nevis. Miami-based designer Raymond Jungles designed the gardens under the stewardship of New York artists Helen and Brice Marden, the owners of Golden Rock.  After a long career in public horticulture, Chris Woods spent three years traveling the world seeking out contemporary gardens, and he found fifty of the best.  His book is a botanical tour of the world's best new gardens - public, private, and corporate. Chris focuses on the gardens around the world that had been created or significantly altered -this century, the 21st century.  Chris views the gardens through a variety of themes, including beauty, conservation, architecture - plant and landscape, as well as urban spaces. Chris's book was published in late September, and it's such a great reminder for us to get out of our own gardens and see and learn from other gardens - especially public gardens. Gardens Illustrated called this book, "An extraordinary collection of 21st-century gardens that will arouse wanderlust… Whether you are a garden globetrotter or an armchair explorer, this book is definitely one to add to your collection. With wit and humor, Chris describes the most arresting features in public parks in exotic locations like New Delhi and Dubai, mission-redefining botanic gardens in Chile and Australia, and the most enviable details of lavish private estates and gemlike city yards. Throughout, he reveals the fascinating people, plants, and stories that make these gardens so lust-worthy."       Today's Recommended Holiday Gift for Gardeners Crabtree & Evelyn's GARDENERS HAND CREAM - 25ML - $10 Buttery texture. Rich moisture. Botanical goodness. For hands that are always on the go, press pause and treat them to our Gardeners Hand Cream. • The nature-inspired formula, rich in herbal extracts. • Super-hydrators macadamia seed oil and shea butter help replenish lost moisture. • Created with lovers of the great outdoors in mind. • The signature Gardeners fragrance inspired by summer memories of freshly-cut grass on a sunny day.       Something Sweet  Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart As we begin December, you may be wondering what December’s birth flower is?   Well, it's no surprise that the December birth flower is the Poinsettia.   Poinsettia is botanically known as the Euphorbia pulcherrima. Pulcherrima means “very beautiful.”   Like all Euphorbias, the Poinsettia has milky sap. The Aztecs used the sap as a medicine to control fevers, and the red bracts were to make a reddish dye.   In the 1820s, President John Quincy Adams appointed the botanist Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett to serve as a US ambassador in Mexico. Poinsett soon observed a shrub on the side of the road that caught his eye. He sent specimens to his friends, and the Poinsettia became a sensation.  In 1836, English newspapers reported: "Poinsettia Pulcherrima, the bracts which surround the numerous flowers, are of the most brilliant rosy-crimson color, the splendor of which is quite dazzling. Few, if any of the most highly valued beauties of our gardens, can vie with this. Indeed, when we take into consideration the profuse manner in which it flowers, the luxuriance of its foliage, and the long duration of the bracts, we are not aware that there is any plant more deserving of a place in all select collections than this lovely and highly prized stranger."       Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

As Russell and Nick enjoy a holiday weekend, sit back and listen to an episode from the very beginning! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hate-us/message

What are the Secrets to Scaling Your Nonprofit with Lauren Cohen (archive) Global entrepreneur and #1 bestselling author Lauren A. Cohenis an attorney licensed in both the U.S. and Canada. Lauren is an expert concierge immigration and business legal advisor boasting a stellar track record of success. Lauren has first-hand knowledge of the visa process, having herself immigrated from Canada in 2001, and later becoming an American citizen in 2012. In 2008, Lauren started e-Council Inc. an internationally-acclaimed company focused on providing concierge strategic full-service solutions for businesses seeking capital and foreign entrepreneurs seeking access to the U.S. market. In 2017, Lauren established Find My Silver Lining, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping struggling single moms - and parents in general - to find their silver lining in a crowded world. Continuing in the tradition of sound strategic solutions, ScaleUPCheckUP is Lauren's newest initiative - an online risk assessment checkup tool for growing businesses in ScaleUP mode with the overriding mission of anticipating challenges before they happen. Designed in response to the challenges faced by so many entrepreneurs that simply do not understand the critical importance of proper professional guidance, and/or are afraid that the costs of protection are too high, ScaleUPCheckUP is poised to revolutionize the professional services industry and the way in which collaborative professional services are delivered. For more information go to https://www.scaleupcheckup.com Interview Transcript NPE Lauren Cohen Hugh Ballou: Welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange. This is Hugh Ballou. My guest today has a fascinating background and a real passion for helping leaders in any kind of organization. We are going to be specific about scale-up check-up and how it is of value to those of us leading charitable organizations. We like to say a “for-purpose” organization. We have for-profit and for-purpose. If you would kindly tell us who is Lauren Cohen, a bit about your background and what led you to doing this particular initiative today. Welcome to The Nonprofit Exchange, Lauren. Lauren Cohen: Thank you. I will speak as loudly as I appropriately can without screaming. Hugh, it's a pleasure to be on your show and to know you. I am excited about our opportunities together. I am originally from Canada. I moved here in 2001 and became a citizen in 2012. I was doing immigration law outside the corporate transactional work internationally for seven years. I kept seeing these recurring themes among businesses who were seeking to raise capital and for entrepreneurs and businesses who were looking to come into the country. The recurring theme was they were really focused on sales and marketing and getting coaching and moving up the ladder and making money, but they weren't so focused on getting a strong foundation in place. The reality is that you can't really scale your business or often even stay in business if you don't scale up your business. In response to this recurring theme, I developed this online risk assessment tool which helps companies find their missing pieces, their gaps, and fill the gaps so they can scale up successfully. It is applicable to nonprofits because nonprofits need to scale as much as for-profits. At the end of the day, we're all about making money. It's about where the money goes that is the main difference between a for-profit and a nonprofit. As a social entrepreneur with a social consciousness, I am very focused on helping businesses be able to scale up successfully without hitting all these roadblocks along the way. Not to say that they won't hit any roadblocks, but the roadblocks are going to be a lot more manageable, and they will be able to respond to them more effectively because they will have the right professional team and structure in place to be able to do that. Hugh: Russell, this is Russell Dennis who has jumped on the call. You can tell the difference between us because I have more hair. That's it. Lauren: That's the only difference I see. Hugh: Russell, you guys got snow out there in Colorado, didn't you? Russell Dennis: A little bit. We got a little bit out here. It wasn't a great deal, more in the mountains, about an inch or two here in Aurora. Hugh: Lauren is jealous. She is in the Fort Lauderdale area, and she didn't get any snow. Lauren: I think I mentioned I'm originally from Canada. I grew up in Toronto, and I definitely know snow. I have a lot of good friends living in Colorado, including in the cannabis industry and outside of the cannabis industry. Hugh: Lauren, tell us a little bit about- You are trained as an attorney. What kind of attorney? Lauren: I am. I have been a corporate and immigration concierge attorney doing international law and handling international people through advisory services for longer than I care to acknowledge. I am licensed both in Canada and the U.S. I have been working with local entrepreneurs all over the world. You name it, I have been there. Europe, Israel, South America, and Canada, and the U.S. even. Mexico. It's been an interesting ride. I have always felt a calling to the entrepreneurial side of my psyche. As much as I love being a lawyer and that training was great, I don't love sitting behind a desk. I love being with people and helping people and making deals happen. The M&A lawyers who are on Wall Street, I am that type of mindset, but with my own clients and having a much more hands-on approach to working with clients and making sure all their moving parts are moving in the right direction. At the end of the day, there are so many different things that entrepreneurs and small business owners have to deal with in nonprofit and for-profit. They just don't know who to trust and who not to trust. I became this trusted advisor on an ongoing basis and decided to turn it into a larger-scale opportunity to help these businesses scale and grow successfully. It's a nice system. I am happy to share all of the steps with you. It's a nice system that helps you get your structure in place as a blueprint to success. It's like a business plan. Hugh: Great. Do you have a volume control on your computer? Lauren: I do, and I have it all the way up. Hugh: That won't help. I will bring you up when I do the edit of this. Let's talk about the word “assessment.” Everybody uses it. I'm not sure any of us have a definitive paragraph or sentence that we can say to describe it. What is an assessment? Why is it important? why is it important especially for nonprofit leaders? Lauren: Our assessment is quite different than a traditional assessment because we are assessing various foundational issues. Do you have your corporate minutes in place? Have you set up your structure properly? Do you perhaps have trademarks? A lot of these nonprofits are sitting on potential trademark or licensing opportunities that they may be overlooking. Did you put a business plan in place? Do you have an exit strategy in place? For nonprofits, an exit strategy is much different because you have to have an exit strategy for an IRS requirement. It's a matter of looking at all the various components of getting your structure in place and making sure your structure is sound so you can scale and grow. What happens, you will agree with me I'm sure, is I find all too often these small business owners, these accidental entrepreneurs, came up with this idea and suddenly grew. They didn't pay any attention. It's like building your dream home on a sinkhole. Suddenly, the sinkhole collapses, and your whole home collapses with it. I am here to make sure that doesn't happen. I am there to help you get your business on a solid foundation and make sure you are not building on a sinkhole before you start spending all this time, money, and effort to scale your business. At the end of the day, you can only scale so far, and it will come crashing down if you don't have that foundation. That could be assessed. We are assessing your foundational infrastructure. We have a customized score report that we provide, and we have an analysis of what that score means and how you can improve your score so your foundation is stronger. We also have a quiz that I'll share with everybody on the call. It's a freebie, a free online quiz that helps you to see initially how committed you are and how committed your business is. Our mindset might be 100%, but our business may not be ready to match our mindset. Russell: A lot of people mistake assessment and evaluation. They look at it as, It's something I have to do to get somebody off my back. It could be the government or a donor. We are doing this because we have to. They talk about some aspects of their work when you ask them how they know you're effective, “Oh, you can't measure this.” How much of that do you see, and how do you address that when people come at you? Hugh: Lauren: If you can tell me the answer to that, I will have the idea that will get me on the front cover of Entrepreneur Magazine, which is where I'm going. It's challenging. What I'm dealing with, and when I go on stage, I am making broccoli great again. It's about that. when I am building the broccoli of your business, it's not the ice cream, it's not the fun stuff, it's not the dollar dollar dollar, but at the end of the day, it really is. Even for a nonprofit, helping you get your structure in place will allow you to get more donor dollars, allow you to have a stronger valuation, allow you to potentially grow your business successfully, and this adds zero's to your bank account. My new messaging is all about show me the money. If you have a strong foundation in place, you will be able to see more money, if it comes from donors, buyers, or both. Certainly a nonprofit can offer for-profit products and services and make money. It's about what happens to that money that separates it from a for-profit business. Hugh: You have a nonprofit yourself? Lauren: I do. Hugh: What's it called? Lauren: It's called Find My Silver Lining. I established it in 2017. Hugh: You used this assessment yourself? Lauren: I did. Hugh: When you talk about this, there is a strong element of enthusiasm and passion. Was part of the inspiration seeing so many people get stuck in the mud or walk in the wall or fall off a cliff? Lauren: I want to say around February of last year, I have been a part of this coaching program. I offered to review some client agreements at no charge as a gift. In doing so, I realized that there were many business owners in that program that didn't have their ducks in a row. Many had been in business for many years. I'm not saying that that's not possible; it's very possible. But once you hit a certain threshold, you're not a mom and pop anymore, so you could be a target, not just for the IRS, but for litigation, potentially bankruptcy. People see opportunities. People want to challenge you. If you have a disgruntled employee, whatever the case is. As soon as you are starting to scale, your target becomes bigger. I kept seeing this. Oh my goodness, these amazing business owners are exposing themselves to risk. There has to be a way to address that risk and provide a solution. Ultimately what I am building is a home advisor for profits and nonprofit business owners to provide a resource of certified, vetted professionals like you guys who can provide a range of services: strategic services like legal, financial, accounting, insurance, business planning, exit strategies, all high-level B2B services that they are just finding on the Internet. Finding these resources on the Internet is like going in the Yellow Pages. We all used them. AAA, so they would get to the front of that section. It's the same as Google Ads. The more you pay, the higher you rank. That is where they will get the most traction. It doesn't mean they're the best. Does it mean they have been vetted? No. Because they are at the highest ranking, you are going to call them first. I am trying to be the antithesis of that. We won't talk about the companies out there who are especially providing legal services that you have no idea what you're getting. I have a client now who applied for a patent in June. They didn't even know what a patent was. There is no guidance. There is nobody holding their hand. What I have been doing for so long—I wrote a book called Finding Your Silver Lining in the Business Immigration Process. Everything is about finding the silver lining. Part of the reason is because to find a silver lining through adversity, my nonprofit is for single moms and single parents to help them find their way through the clouds. It's all about that. In everything you do, if you have somebody to count on, a support system, entrepreneurs and small business owners are often running on empty. We are running on our own. We are isolated. We are trying to have an impact. It's very hard to have an impact without the support and trusted advisors around you, so that is what I am building. Hugh: You're an attorney. You look at things differently than an ordinary person. You look at it as part of a risk assessment. Lauren: That's a good way of characterizing it, yes. Hugh: You've seen people get in trouble unnecessarily. Lauren: Absolutely. Hugh: You're looking at the holes. We're looking at the donut; you're looking at the hole. You see the silver lining, but you realize there are some holes. You're talking about a corporation, be it for-profit or nonprofit, and that corporation is a liability shield. Without the right documents in place, people can sue you and come for you personally if they can pierce that corporate veil. Lauren: Very big deal. People don't realize that. They think if they have a company, they're protected, and they're not because people can come for you personally. That is another dimension of the problem. Hugh: The compliance piece- recording your contracts, putting them in the corporate record book. Any agreements or expenditures. It's about liability protection. It's also about, you mentioned empower donors. Russell, it would occur to me we don't always protect ourselves from audits, but it would make us audit-worthy if you had your records filed. What are you hearing here, Russ? Russell: For me, the first step to building a high-performance nonprofit is having that solid foundation. There are a lot of things that go in there. If you don't have the right legal protection or the right structure, moving forward, you have to have the right structure. For nonprofits, succession planning is critical, too. Lauren: Big deal. Russell: Moreso maybe than exit planning. Everybody plans to operate in perpetuity. That doesn't always happen. But to have a succession plan so that you know how things are going to flow, no matter who is in the building at any given time, that structure sets a nonprofit up for success. Mitigating risks. I don't think a lot of nonprofits think about risks, but risk is there. You have natural risks. You have legal risks just like any other entity. The thing that came to mind was a question because you deal with this so much on the structural side. We talk about it in terms of strategy, but we defer to legal experts, accounting experts, experts who have that critical knowledge in their field that will keep us in compliance and keep us operating correctly. When it comes to scaling, I know a lot of times growth comes out of nowhere. You catch fire. You go viral. All of a sudden, you have all of this money and donors and people approaching you. When it comes to being prepared in this, what would you say is the biggest gap that you see nonprofits have? What is the most common mistake they make when they are that point in time? Hugh: Lauren: It's common for both nonprofits and for-profits although nonprofits are more guilty of this. Nonprofits think that because they have this designation, they are immune from challenge, or they are litigation-proof, or something along those lines. That just isn't true. Nobody will come after us; we are a charitable organization; we have a 501(c)3 designation. Whatever the case is. Why would they come after us? We don't have deep pockets. Really? A lot of them have deeper pockets because of the fact that they can distribute the income to their shareholders or the dividends or whatever. As a result, there is a lot of nonprofits out there that are extraordinarily successful. United Way, Red Cross, Jewish Federation. There is a huge amount of donors, very large businesses. There is a colleague of mine in this coaching program who runs a nonprofit. He came to the coaching program, and he was looking to raise $2 million. That was his goal for the year. He ended up raising $20 million because he created this licensing program and sold it to other nonprofits, which is amazing. That is where there is an opportunity. It's not just about assessing legal risk or legal vulnerability. It's also about the opportunity that this presents to you. I was talking about trademarks, and a lot of nonprofits have access to trademarks but don't know about them. In my report, I talk not only about risk, but also about hidden fortune. There is a lot of possible fortunes that these businessowners or executive directors might be sitting on that they could be making a great deal of money giving back to the community and making an even broader impact. I think that is where that missing link is. They don't think about a nonprofit as a business. They think about it as a charity. A lot of lawyers are guilty of this, too. Lawyers and service providers. Lawyers run their business as fee for service. I have developed this professional resource success plan, which outlines all the professionals that are needed to fill all the gaps in your armor and to potentially help you to scale and grow. We talk about mindset and coaching and opportunity and where do you want to go and your exit or your business succession plan. You're right. Every business needs a succession plan, whether it's an exit or a legacy. No matter what, in order to be successful, in order for a for-profit business to be successful at due diligence or a nonprofit to be successful in their succession planning, they need that structure in place. they are just not paying attention it. They are coasting along, thinking about how much donor money they can get this year, and are they meeting your budget, and are their donors happy. This is all great stuff. But think about the potential of greater impact if you are able to get those pieces in place and make that difference. It's like night and day. For both of you, once we have the opportunity to work through this with some of your client base, you can see how much of a difference it makes. They are coming out exposed, and then they are going back in and getting their hair done and makeup. Now they are ready to show themselves to the public. You are not getting too much hair done over there, Russell. It is a completely different mindset. I hear a lot of entrepreneurs work in their pajamas. I can barely work sweatpants even if I am working from home because that is not the mindset I want. I want to be in work mode no matter where I am. It's important. I think it's the same for for-profit business owners who are running a sole proprietor. They are not looking at it as a business; they are looking at it as a hobby. Until you make that transition, and look at it as a business, you're going to stay at a certain plateau. You may scale; you may make money. But at a certain point, you're eventually going to collapse. Russell: As you talk about that, one of the things that comes to mind when you talk about opportunities and other things businesses have access to, a business revenue comes to mind. Opportunities for mission-based revenue. You also have unrelated business income, as far as, it's money that's possibly left on the table because people don't think about bringing a valuable service. When it comes to revenue generation and protecting your intellectual property is important, it should separately be maintained and protected. Everything should be walled off. There is another discussion. When it comes to revenue, whether it's business-related or unrelated, when you see organizations that have one or both, what are some of the biggest pitfalls you see them fall into? Lauren: One of the things is that there is a limitation, but you still have to stay true. If you are a nonprofit and are providing for-profit services and products, you still have to stay true to your mission. If you start making millions of dollars and use it as a sham, so you can pass through income at a tax-free rate, or through a nonprofit to get the benefits of that, or raise money to do advertising, that is where the problems happen. The separation needs to be clean. If you start paying an executive director, suddenly they get a 100% salary increase, where is the money coming from? Where is the money going to? Are you circumventing the rule of putting the money back into the directors' pockets? That is where the problems happen. There is also an issue of fiscal sponsorship, as I'm sure you're familiar with, and renting your nonprofit to another entity. There are ways to do it that are legal and kosher, as long as you follow the rules. But if you are just using your nonprofit as a sham or as a front for what you're really trying to accomplish or for your for-profit business, you will lose your designation. It's as simple as that. Russell: It's important to put your structure. You have to have a separate structure, especially for unrelated, but also business income, and mission-based revenue. You have to make sure the vast majority of those funds are going into your programs and operation of your nonprofit to keep from creating a tax event. Unrelated business income, you file separate returns. You pay taxes on that the way you do with others. What happens is people can get distracted. People who approach a nonprofit can get confused. Do you find that nonprofits that are successful with generating large amounts of mission-based revenue, or maybe a substantial amount, a good percentage of the revenue they generate, do you find that they have difficulty getting donors because they see, “Well, they are making plenty of money. I don't need to write them a check.”? Lauren: It's definitely a challenge. However, it depends on your mission and how impactful it is and how broad it is. I think that what happens with some nonprofits, and this is what should happen, is as they become more successful financially, their mission expands beyond their original intended scope, demographically or in terms of the people they are helping. There is room for that within the IRS code. As long as that happens, I don't see it as a problem. But as soon as that is not happening, or once there is a compromise in that, it does create challenges. Russell: The key is to structure and make sure everything is compartmentalized and appropriately reported. It's about the systems you have in place. In order to scale, you have to have really good strong systems. What are the ones that you think are essential for them to have first? If you had to set systems up in a specific sequence for nonprofits, what would that be? Lauren: Operating systems are critical for any business; I don't care what business you are. You have to have an operating system for everything that happens from the time you answer the phone to the time you deliver the service until after that, all the way through, for the life of that relationship. You have to have a system in place for every single touchpoint with the prospective donor, with the donor, with following up with the donor, with if the donor moves. You have to have operating systems for all of your internal processes. They should be externally driven, one for your outbound touchpoints and one for your inbound stuff. How do your people work with each other? Who is responsible for your bank account? How many people are signing checks? What is the check and balance there? How does that all work? Every single thing should be documented. When I started this, I didn't realize how few businesses have systems. The only systems they have are the ones they pulled offline. That is the exception, not the rule. This is true of legal documents too because everyone goes online and pulls documents from there. It's like filling out the 1023, the IRS 501(c)3 application. Oh, this is easy. I can do this. It's just some forms. If that were true, there wouldn't be all these businesses doing that. It's very complicated. Even the 1023 form should not be done on your own. You need to make sure you are following the rules, and whatever you put in there is going to be systematized within your organization. What happens if the executive director quits someday? I'm sure this has happened to your clients. Uh oh, now what? One of my messages is about dealing with the Uh oh, now what? You don't want to wake up in the morning and say, What is going to happen today? I cannot imagine going to work today. Steve is doing this, and Joe is doing that, and Nina is doing this. Nobody is talking to anybody. We don't have group meetings. Things are falling apart. The donors are frustrated. They don't know what is going on. They are going to move their money elsewhere because they don't know if they are getting their donation receipt. It's a mess. One thing leads to another leads to another. I wish it was as true for the good things. The messy things have a more quick and efficient domino effect. Russell: This is true. We call them internal controls, what you talk about, for the IRS. How do you control who handles what? What is your record-keeping like? That gives you the scope of any audit you do. The scope is based on several things. One is the corporate records. I know you mentioned that. I'd like to ask you to speak to that. As an auditor, when I walked into a corporation, I wanted the internal control polices. The corporate minute book was the first thing I reviewed. Lauren: Was this on the for-profit side? Russell: The for-profit side, yes. Lauren: It's similar. When you submit for a nonprofit designation, you submit all these bylaws, including a conflict bylaw. I can't remember the title. Russell: Conflict of interest policy. Lauren: My brain went dead. This is so big in the nonprofit world. It's almost like insider trading in the for-profit world. If you have created a bylaw and implemented it and approved it and ratified it, and it's part of your corporate record-book, and you don't adhere to it, it's as good as throwing it against the wall to see if it sticks. This can put you in more harm than not having it in the first place. You're purposefully going around what you implemented. That's not cool. Your minute book depends on your state because some minute books, Delaware is strict on their minute book requirements and updates. Florida is less strict. The nonprofit requirements are different. But you need to follow your policies. Your bylaw policy said, We are going to have a board of directors meeting once a quarter. You need to have it and put it in the minute book once a quarter. I will tell you something that you probably don't know, and I shouldn't say it out loud. If there are businesses out there that want help with their minute books, we can fix them after the fact as long as it's before the auditor comes in. You just have to get everything up to date and in place. That's important. You can't fudge it, but it's okay to do it after the minute you're supposed to do it as long as you get it done. Let's get together. Call us, and we can get it done with you so that we can make sure you won't have a problem if the IRS or any other entity shows up at your door. Today, they're not coming so fast because they're still unfortunately on shutdown. Russell: The greater likelihood over the few years is a state regulator will walk in your office because of the reduction, and the money has been moved out of regulation. That's another discussion. It's true with the 1023. There are certain things you represent that you're going to do. What the auditors do is they look at your books and bylaws: Are you doing what you say you're going to do? I know there are laws out there. But we go by what you say that you are going to do. That is a huge portion of what an auditor would look at as to determine if you are on track, if you are in compliance. Are you doing what you say you're going to do? These are important to put on the table. With good systems in place, and it takes a little time to do this, the operation smooths out. Am I on track with that? Lauren: Hopefully. It's just like anything. You could have paper in a book or online. Then it's a matter of implementing and enforcing. Unfortunately, we're all guilty of creating a policy where the consequences are not consistent. Like my child. They're not consistent, so his behavior is not good from time to time. It's my fault because I am not consistent in enforcing a consequence. Same with a minute book. It's the same concept. A lot of people, just like setting up a nonprofit and using it as a sham, put thing into place to cover their you-know-whats. That's it. It sits on the shelf. They do it to be in compliance. If they are not honoring it and adhering to it, whatever operating system or control you have, it won't matter. You can't suddenly say, “I can't have a policy for it.” If you haven't enforced it in the past three years, and the person has been doing whatever they have been doing, or their brother has been sending them money, I am far-fetched here. The reality is there is a lot of this that goes on. As more for-profit businesses set up nonprofit entities, this is an ongoing problem. I think it's all a matter of training. If your people are not trained properly on what your policies mean, it's only a piece of paper. You need to have the policy, create the manual, create the operating policies, create the training, train your people, get them to buy in, have them involved, and have consequences for noncompliance. It's a range of things that need to happen. Have a third party designated to oversee that process so it doesn't fall on the executive director. Hugh: Absolutely. That's why you have board members and advisors. They really have fiduciary and governance oversight. Let's go back to this assessment. It sounds painful and expensive. What's involved? If I wanted to go through the process and take this assessment, what's involved in doing it? What do I get from that? Does it help me figure out how to do all this? It sounds scary right now. Lauren: We don't let it be scary. I am the non-scary lawyer. I have a free quiz. It's not specifically oriented to the nonprofit world yet; we are developing one now. I'll be happy to share it with your listeners. It's ScaleUpCheckUpQuiz.online. You can take that quiz; it's about 2 minutes. We can set up a quick call to discuss your needs. The assessment is $47. I can share a $20 coupon code that makes it $27. It's a customized score that highlights your issues and lets you know how at risk you are. It gives you access to my calendar for a quick call. The assessment and a strategy session is only $197. That gives you time to go through the assessment results and talk about how they could be improved. How can you improve your score so your bottom in is better? Our big deliverable item. The regular price is $997. However, Hugh, you, I, and Russell can talk about a special delivery product for the nonprofit world and can get a coupon code. I don't want to charge that much for people in the nonprofit world. It's a blueprint that shows you everything you need to scale up your business successfully. Then we create a strategy based on your budget and priorities. If your priority is to get a business plan in place because you want to build a facility, that's what we will focus on first. That will come out of this analysis and deep dive we do for you. Hugh: That sounds interesting. The quiz, anybody can take that. We try to convince those that are running a nonprofit, which is a bad word, it's a misnomer. Those who are in a tax-exempt enterprise, a for-purpose organization, they are really, there is a high level, it's critical that we establish sound business principles. If you have an organization, you should run it responsibly. It's good stewardship, if nothing else. The quiz, we could evaluate it as a tax-exempt business. It's ScaleUpCheckUpQuiz- Lauren: ScaleUpCheckUpQuiz.online. Hugh: That gives them the free quiz. You fill something, and you have a chance to interpret it. Then the assessment could be available through SynerVision Leadership Foundation for people who want to find out how much trouble they are in. Then there is a prescriptive; this is what you do about it. Lauren: Not exactly. The prescriptive is more detailed in the success plan. The assessment, if they do it with the strategy session, we will give them some ideas and tips on how to improve the score. It's the success plan that will give you a blueprint of everything you should do to make your structure more sound so you can accomplish your goals. Hugh: Your basic website is ScaleUpCheckUp.com. There is everything about the products there. There is a toll-free number to contact you. You have this purple branding that is quite elegant. Lauren: I've always been into purple. My existing brand is purple. For as long as I've had a brand, I've had purple. Hugh: That's on your site. People can go to ScaleUpCheckUp.com and can learn about you. What have we not asked you that people need to know about this whole line of risk mitigation? Lauren: The real question is: So what if I don't do it? So what if I don't get my stuff in place? What happens? How do I get caught? What's the risk? There is a huge risk. As Russell knows, having been an auditor, you risk not only for the nonprofit organization losing your designation, piercing the corporate veil, which means they go beyond the business and to you personally. You can lose your own personal assets. You put your family at risk. These are serious issues that people just don't want to deal with. They want to deal with numbers and money. Numbers and money, this will get you more numbers and money than any sale is going to ever get you. Your sale will be stopped dead in its tracks. All that time and effort on that sale will be wasted because you haven't done what you needed to do. When you want to create a strategic partnership or synergy, for example, you and I, with SynerVision, if we have a joint venture or strategic partnership, we both want to make sure we both did certain due diligence, with the compliance checks. We have our business in place. Our licenses are kosher. Everything is right and in place. Otherwise, I don't want to do business with you, and you don't want to do business with me. They could have a multi-million-dollar prospect on the table. I had a client I was working with for a short time. They were about to enter into this multi-million-dollar deal, a very big name. Big. Big. One of the biggest. I'm trying to see Russell's face. I think he's smiling. I'm willing, they didn't have their minute book records in place. For three years, they didn't have a single document. Because this company is so big and successful, they wanted to see that all their I's were dotted and T's were crossed. Do you know this company would not pay me to get their records updated? It was $5,000 or something like that. It was nothing. They didn't want to deal with it. They lost the deal. Multi-million-dollars. It was too late because they could have had it done, and they would have been at the table. This is what happens. You lose your seat at the table. You will have someone come after you and sue you, whether it's a disgruntled employee or the IRS. You won't have access to potential huge opportunities with your intellectual property. You are putting yourself at risk every which way and losing out on opportunities to make a fortune. So let's have a conversation and see how we can help you scale your business successfully and not violate your 501(c)3 designation or your company bylaws. I think there is a lot of for-profit corporations that are purposeful. It's all confusing, right? I try to have a purpose and make an impact, even though I have a for-profit company. There are so many ways we can create opportunity for you as a company and business owner to scale successfully. It's silly to throw that opportunity away because of fear of the unknown. Hugh: Yes, it is. This is a huge inventory of important things that people don't know to ask about. Russell, before we do our closing sequence, do you have another issue we need to bring before this lady? Russell: I was thinking about a point you made earlier that is worth emphasizing again. There are a lot of tools out there. People find templates and guides to build contracts and agreements with. Nothing wrong with them. The problem is people don't have them reviewed by someone who has the knowledge necessary to make sure everything is in there to protect yourself. Just grabbing something. The other thing people don't do is read the fine print in their own contract. They create something that they are going to adhere to. If they look at it with the eyes of, This will protect us from other people, they may not be protecting themselves from themselves by clarifying what they are agreeing to do. How common is it that you see people with these boilerplate templates? How can they get them reviewed? They definitely need to do that. Is it something that will break the bank? I think that's what stops a lot of people from doing that. Lauren: Thank you for asking that question. One signature speech of mine is “7 Secret Scale-Up Success Strategies.” One of the secrets is: Don't download a boilerplate template without getting it reviewed. There are multiple reasons to have it reviewed, some of which you addressed. Also, they could name the wrong parties. They could pull the wrong template. It could be perfect, but for another situation. They may think they need X, and they may need Y. It could be covered with legalese that no one understands, including lawyers. I wrote an agreement last week for a nonprofit for a lawyer. I was working with this lawyer. I want it to be two pages. This was a lawyer who was telling another lawyer that this agreement should be two pages. I can make it four. I'm laughing. I saw him last night and was like, “Two pages?” We are trying to condense things and make them concise because you get lost in it. I can't give you a flat fee, but we do have packages that include a range of services, including reviewing up to five agreements of up to 10 pages each. We have them on monthly packages, semi-annual packages, and annual packages. You need to grab one of those. Not go to those online services, but have someone you can trust and contact and text, a live person, who can help you look at those agreements and see what's missing or not. What's missing is almost as bad or often worse than what's not missing. You won't catch everything. No lawyer will catch everything because I don't know exactly what every single business owner wants to accomplish. But if you don't have it reviewed, you may as well jump in the ocean without a life preserver. Hugh: This is helpful information, Lauren. Thank you. *Sponsor message from SynerVision Leadership Foundation* What I'm taking away from Lauren's interview today is there are things about enterprises that we don't even know we're supposed to know. Lauren, what thought do you want to leave people with?   Lauren: Think about your nonprofit or for-purpose business as a business. Take it seriously. It deserves your attention. It deserves the attention of professionals. Don't be everything to your organization. Bring in the professionals that you can trust to accomplish the goals you need. I am available to speak with any of you about how to scale up your nonprofit. I look forward to working with you, Hugh and Russell, and collaborating with you further. Don't take the risk of losing all that you've built because you're afraid to make a phone call or send an email. Russell: This has been an enlightening and uplifting conversation. Here at SynerVision Leadership, we have all sorts of people like Lauren that are here. Come join the community and have a chance to plug into conversations with people so you are not doing things by yourself. We are the source for all things nonprofit. If we don't have the answers, we know people like Lauren who do.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russell Brand thinks laughter is a door to a higher truth.  In our conversation, we explore how humor changed his life and how it can help us all alter our perceptions of reality.  As Russell charts his path from addiction to a more mindful approach to his life, we discuss love and acceptance, oblivion and transcendence, and how to see ourselves in this world more clearly.  Join me for a fun, and serious, discussion with a particularly enlightened comedian. For listeners who’d like more with Russell Brand, please find his latest book— MENTORS:  How to Help and Be Helped.

Why Dave Decided to Talk to Mark Lack: From Pro Paintballer to Personal Brander Extraordinaire, Mark Lack has developed lots of skills and strategies that just might be of interest to you. From how to establish your own brand with a budget to how you can score interviews with the celebrities in your industry, Mark and Dave hit it all. This podcast will help you on your journey to perfecting not only your brand but also towards fulfilling your dreams. As Russell always says, “You’re only one funnel away.” Now with this episode you could only be one play away. Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business (1:30) Pain Pushes Until the Vision Pulls (5:00) Your Personal Branding is Your “Trojan Horse” (9:24) Do You Create Your Audiences? (11:28) A Personal Brand that I can Afford (13:08) Become the Next Celebrity with Mark’s Celebrity Secret (18:20) Why Dave Loves Mark’s Business (20:03) You Can’t Ask If You’ve Never Given, Just Try and Ask Chase Bank (21:54) Shows = Success Quotable Moments: (1:59) “It was so cool being like a glimpse of a rockstar in my own paintball world. But Monday through Friday I was miserable at school. I just couldn’t wait to get out and go back to the place that made me feel significant.” (5:14) “Direct response marketing is how we get started with people, but as soon as you get started with people that personal brand becomes extremely critical.” (12:14) “That’s the best part and what I love about Entrepreneurship: we don’t need qualifications, we don’t need any of that stuff, we just need results” (21:49) “Interviews is like one of the secrets to a lot of big names success. How many big name people have their own show Other Tidbits: People rarely go onto social media to get sold something, BUT they do go onto social media do buy someONE There is never any better dollar spent than the one that helps your omnipresence Transparency helps you to develop more LASTING and TRUE fans Important Episode Links: ShortenTheGap.comFunnelHackingLive.com FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar ---Transcript--- [00:00] Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets, and how you can get those same results. Here's your host, Dave Woodward. [00:17] Everybody. Welcome back to funnel hacker radio. I'm your host, but most importantly, the person who I'm bringing on happens to be the personal branding guy and he has his own TV show, business rock star. So without any further ado, mark, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. He rock. I'm so excited to have you. This is been a ton of fun. We were just talking about, uh, he, I actually used to live not too far from where you're at right now. And one of my favorite places in the world down there in southern California. Indeed. Beautiful view of the ocean up on the mountains. I'm jealous. It's where it is here in Boise, but that's how I want to make sure we kind of dive right into this. First of all, congratulations on business rockstars. That's a massive, massive TV show for those of you guys have flown Delta. [01:03] You've probably seen it on there. If not, they've got podcast, they've done a ton of crazy things and mark's had the opportunity of interviewing Louis, some of the world's most profound and influential entrepreneurs and everything else out there, but the cool thing for me is kind of your whole story. I was a kind of go through some of this stuff prepping for the podcast today and one of the things mark I loved was, I think it was the quote from Tony Robbins that you use that pain pushes until the vision pulls us. If you don't mind to expound on that a little bit and then I'm going to dive right into this whole personal branding thing. Yeah. So you know, for me it's one of those things in life where I think you hit that moment where you just know you're going to make that change and if you're not there yet, you're probably experienced that at some point. [01:47] But for me, it was when I looked at my life and I realized Monday through Friday was miserable in school and the weekends I felt like a rockstar because that was one of the top professional paintball player traveling all over the world. It was so cool being like a little glimpse of the rockstar in my own little tiny paintball world. But Monday through Friday I was miserable at school. I hated it. I just couldn't wait to get out and go back to the place that made me feel significant. And so what I realized was I had to figure out how to make money to Friday, phenomenal. And I went on youtube and Google because I'm so lucky that I grew up in an era where the Internet exists and I can do that. And I came across Tony Robbins, of course, right? Trying to improve your life and get motivated. [02:27] You're going to cost the guy. And so I just started watching his videos and he said so many incredible things. You've got to be come the best version of yourself. You've got to always grow. You've got to contribute beyond yourself. And one of his quotes as well as, you know, pain pushes until the vision pulls. And so for me, I never actually had a vision for the life that I wanted to create. And so it wasn't until I decided that I thought the coolest thing ever would be to be a professional athlete. And so weirdly enough I got into paintball doing it and I only wish it was a different sport or I would have made a lot more money. But, uh, it ended up being paintball. I learned a lot of lessons, but I, as I started studying Tony Robbins, that led me into entrepreneurship and to this whole new world of how you can literally create the life you want impact so many people through business and have an uncapped earning potential and the entrepreneurial world. [03:16] And I was like, oh my gosh, I want to become a pro at that. Like created this vision for my life. And that ended up pulling me into the direction that I am today. And most people have to push themselves, right? Pain pushes. You have to push yourself to do the mundane tasks that you don't want to do. Oh, I gotta go to the gym today. You have to push yourself, motivate yourself with the pain until you have a vision. I'm going to the gym everyday now having to get into the best shape of my life because I have a vision. I'm creating the most successful abundant team and business that I possibly can because I have a vision and the vision pulls me. It motivates me to want to become my best. So it's powerful quote and it's led me to creating the life that I have. [03:55] Oh, I love it. It's funny, last night I was with the boys and my wife and the, uh, they were watching the new rocks. A shell. The titans. Yeah. Yeah. I love that thought. I was watching it too, these crazy guys on there and all of a sudden we felt so it was kind of like watching a rocky movie or something like that. That's my vision. I'm going to get on there. I'm going to do this. I think it's really cool because I believe that's so important these days, especially with. You may have mentioned that in your earlier life kind of feeling bullied and everything else, just not fitting in and I think that's the hardest thing for a lot of entrepreneurs. They don't really have a circle of friends that supports them. They don't have people who are there encouraging them and so there's that, that aspect as far as the need for the vision and I think it ties in so well to what you become so good at and that's that whole personal branding thing and I think the vision and would that personal brand. [04:46] I've seen it here with click funnels and some of the things that we've been doing and and the large that vision gets, the easier it is to create a personal brand around where you want to go. And so with that I'd like you to of share a little bit about. Because I hear all the time, you know, branding and I was one of those guys I grew up in the direct response marketing things. You know, who cares about branding. Branding doesn't matter, right? It's all about direct response marketing and it's been fun for me to see how important that branding has actually become a. I think when I look at marketing these days, direct response marketing is, is how we get started with people, but as soon as you get started with people, that personal brand becomes extremely critical. Again, I call it, I call it the Trojan horse. [05:25] It is. I'll get into that. Let's, let's dive right in and they don't care to hear from me. They want to hear from you, so let's dive right in. So the reason why I call it the Trojan horse and you hit it on the head, it's like direct response marketing is the ideal scenario. Puts something out, see the data instantly in real time and know if it's working. We're branding is kind of like you're really betting on the long term success. You're not going to get any short term benefit from branding. So trust me, I come from the direct response marketing world, probably half the books behind me, our marketing books, and because who doesn't want to put something out that they created and get instant gratification or at least results to make a pivot. I'm all for that and I think a lot of people should start there, but I also think we live in this new era where you know, nobody's going on, for example, they have no one goes on facebook with a credit card and says, Hey David, do you want me to get you anything? [06:16] Right? Absolutely right. Hey, by the way, I'm going on youtube. Did you want anything? No one says that. And so although billions of dollars are, you know, invested from advertisers and people like us in the direct response marketing space, we get to make a lot of money online hopefully. And it's fantastic, but we all know that it's incongruent to why the person's going on there. And so you and I can go to church and somebody could come up and try to sell us something. And if they were really good, we feel good about it. And we would lie, but the regular person who tries to go into the church and sell people, it's going to be weird. We're going to look at each other like why is he selling this at the church? But a really good person would make us feel good about it and we would like that the process. [06:58] And so most people, when they see ads on social media, they hate it because they're not on there for ads. Most people are very upset and in fact, I'm sure you know, you can see all the hate and the comments on ads. I'm getting so much hate and all my comments on ads from half of them. Right? And so you got to have thick skin. My point is people don't go on the platforms to have ads put in front of them, let alone to buy something. Now, obviously if you build a funnel and click funnels, you can do it really effectively. And clickfunnels has played a huge role in our success because of the back end systems and processes. But the reason why I call it the Trojan horses, because people go on social media for content, so here's the crazy thing, a business and we can agree with this, is that a business is going to be as successful as the problems it solves, and so if you can solve bigger problems at scale, you're going to get paid more money and businesses solve problems through products and services. [07:55] Right now when you go on social media, you might have a problem that a product and service can solve for you, but you're not on there to buy and so you have to be really good with your process and your campaign and your retargeting, your funnels to get them to buy and to do it in a cost efficient way. Here's the crazy thing. You can also solve a problem with content and you can do that with a personal brand because it's arbitrage. It's, it's the they're on. They're seeing a person with a person's name, not a company name. They're seeing a person with a person's name just providing content with no links, no pitch, no call to action, no nothing. If you're interested in weight loss, I could sell you products on weight loss or I could just give you education on the right food to eat the right exercises to do the right habits and mindset shifts you have to do to commit to the goal, and I could give you all of that information for free so as you start to know me like me and trust me because I've been giving you education and content for free and I've been paying to put it in front of you just like I can pay to put an ad in front of you, but the difference is you receive my content so much better because it's educational in nature, not salesy, and then I can pixel you and I can retarget you with more content and as I see you engage more with my content, I can create a custom audience bucket and only retarget my advertisements to the people who have been consuming my content. [09:23] I love that. I think that I'm going to stop you right there because I think I love what you're talking about because I. I mean, we become a content mill and we joke around all the time here in the office, well, you know, what's the cost of the b roll? It's all about. Got to find some way. How can we set this up? So because it doesn't. It has to be engaging, but I think the part that I love what you said is so important. Session for people who are just getting started. We're, we're funds are tight. A lot of people throw all this money to facebook and they get frustrated and it doesn't work. I'm like, it doesn't work because you don't have the right audience and so if you can create the correct audience by retargeting them and creating that bucket of a look like audience and things where people have actually consumed your content and who people who are like those other types of people, it allows those ad dollars to go so much further. So I think that's great. I love that Trojan horse approach [10:11] between our clients and our own companies. We've tested tens of millions of dollars and the advertising and the content marketing space and we've found that on average content, meaning you uploaded on facebook or instagram and you pay the platform to put it in front of a targeted audience, but you do not add a link that takes them off the platform. Soon as you add a link, it's considered an ad and it costs 10, five to 10 times more to run an ad than a piece of content so we can cut up a 62nd clip from this interview. I could upload it on instagram or facebook and I can put it in front of anyone on the Internet and it'll cost five to 10 times less to just have people see that and then as they start to know me and I can reach. So if you and I had the same budget and you only ran ads, hopefully you know what you're doing or you're going to go through your budget quick. I could spend half my budget reaching 10 times more people and then only run my ads to the people that saw me at scale. [11:10] I love that. I think it's the part where people miss the boat so much. We're under a lot of people are just producing a ton of content that is just content for content sake and I think it's one thing that you've. I love the content. I see that you're producing out there. It's high, high value, you know, even if you take a look at your facebook page on impact and influence, they're just the interviews and the things that you've done with people and you're providing so much value out there, whether it was whoever was with, um, but I think that the part that people need to understand is you can provide massive content without having to spend a whole bunch of money to create that content. So if you don't mind, talk a little bit about how can a person build their own personal brand on a limited budget but create massive content. Has fantastic [11:54] question. One of the best things you can do when you're starting your personal brand, and this is really anything. This is what most people try to aspire to get down the road. But it's so funny. And entrepreneurship. I think a lot of people wait until they feel qualified, they wait until they feel like they have permission or an invitation, and that's the best part about what I love about entrepreneurship is we don't need qualifications. We don't need any of that stuff. We just need to get results and so what you have to understand and how this relates to personal branding is the best thing you can do with a personal brand to collapse five years of time into your first year of personal branding authority positioning, how to become the expert, truly attend in one year as you align yourself with people who have 10, 20 years of credibility and authority, and you do that in the form of a show. [12:44] Just like you and I are doing interviews now. I align myself with Daymond John from shark tank, grant Cardone, Russell Brunson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, Tai Lopez, Lewis House, and all the other amazing men and women that I can name that you most of those names you might recognize because they've built 20, 30 year personal brands. Very successful. So if I align myself with them not selfie at an event with the backdrop and a name tag, I'm talking about aligning myself with them in an intimate environment and the form of an interview where we're having a dialogue and sharing a conversation and value for an audience after doing that enough times, sometimes even once, I will be then perceived as the next celebrity just because I've been around all the celebrities and you've seen me with all the celebrities and I'm the next person. Right? And so you can become so big from your own show, but how do you get a big celebrity person to say yes is your first guests. [13:39] Now I don't think maybe you should get your first guest is a celebrity. I think you should get good first with some smaller interviews, but when you're ready, just so you know the ace up the sleeve anytime you want, the way that you get a big person to say yes to your show is you say, grant Cardone, Russell Brunson, whoever. I'd love to have you on my show and whenever it makes sense this year that you want lots of pr and awareness because it's all about timing. For the big name people. It's all about timing. If they say no, it's because you ask during the wrong season the wrong time, so don't ask. How about next month? Say when this year all big dogs have their year mapped out. When this year do you have something coming up, a book launch and event, a charity, anything that you want lots of attention and pr and awareness on because when, when so and so grant cardone or Tony Robbins, you've ever comes on my show, I'll guarantee they get 200,000 views from entrepreneurs, from college students, from millennials, from baby boomers and no one ever asks the question with how big is your audience? [14:40] Where are they going to lose? Because they're like, wow. He picked a number and set it, and so when you get the interview, you upload it on facebook and instagram and you just pay money. Promote the interview to the targeted audience of your choice and then plugging engagement pixel on it, so all the people that see you with Tony Robbins or Gary Vaynerchuk, grant Cardone, you can retarget them with your next big name, interview and your next big and memory, so eventually you become omnipresent. You're everywhere in the same industry. Have the same people and you become a big fish in a small pond. Wait a minute, you're dave, the guy who interviews all the big name people. I love your show and then you retarget them later with your products and services because now they know, like, and trust you. Think Ellen Degeneres, Oprah Winfrey, all those people have blown up from just interviewing people and having a show and then it creates your content and in an authoritative way and then it forces you to have to promote it to lots of people and you're probably more comfortable investing the money to do that because you know it's going to be valuable when it's you with an authority figure than just promoting your own content to that many people. [15:44] So that's, that's something that'll blow your brand up. [15:49] I love it. I think the part people have to understand is there's no better dollars to spend than to spend on producing content like that and actually promoting that content. If you, again, if you can go to someone. I love that as far as I'll get this in front of 200,000 people. They're like, holy smokes, how are you doing to me because I just say, okay, a million and I got it. Trust me, I got to shell out the bucks, but like [16:11] I got the interview and I'm building a brand and over the long haul that will pay me 20, 30, 40 x in the long run. So [16:21] I love it. I think. I hope people are, as you guys were listening to what I love that you said right there, mark is over the long haul and I think that's. You have to understand you're in this for the long game. Everyone's out there just trying to make a quick buck real fast. Yeah. That never ever works on branding, but more importantly you can't. I think that you're going to get to the status that you want in life for the significance or whatever term you want to use without playing the long, blonde game. I don't care. You got to put in your 10,000 hours on here what term or an analogy you want to use. To me, that's the most important thing is to realize you're in this for the long haul, so awesome. [16:55] I try to tell people, look, if you want the achievement and the destination, that's fine. I think we all do in some level, right? We all, we want the achievements, the destination. That's what keeps us going. You got to set the bar and keep growing and keep going forward, but I think that if you fall in love with the process and you fall in love with the journey, then any achievement at any destination will happen. Like all these guys talk about scaling your business to millions, but what they don't talk about is that scaling is a byproduct of building, testing, reviewing the data and optimizing and never stopping. Building testing, looking at the data and optimizing scaling as the byproduct and all these guys tried to jump straight to scaling. They think they're going to build something. Once I'm going to build one click funnel, I'm going to test it and I'm going to just scale this thing to millions. [17:41] It's like come on guys, you have to build tests, look at the data and optimize constantly nonstop. And then scaling happens as a byproduct and you might scale for a week or a month and then it's going to draw and you got to go back to building and testing. And so yeah, I mean everything. Branding, even direct response marketing, click funnels. It's all a long game and everyone can have their, you know, eight figure, you know, Comma club like you have behind you if they just play the game long enough. Like I was telling you, I said I'm going to have that in 2020 no questions asked because I just, I'm in the game. I'm in the process. I mean the journey and everything [18:17] and I think that's the part I love so much about, especially about what you teach them, what you do is you're actually teaching exactly what you do on a regular basis and for me that's where that can grow and see comes in, especially from a branding standpoint. One of the great things about social media these days is people can pick out a fake real fast and if you're not authentic and you're not transparent and you're not congruent with your message, you might get people at first, but they will not stick. They will not engage. They will not buy the. And I think that for me has been some of the fun stuff as biggest social media's become as the transparency that's out there. I think the other thing I love about what you said Mark, and that is when you're doing those interviews with people, you're providing value to them and it's. [19:01] It's cool for me to see, yeah, you've interviewed a whole bunch of people. More important than that. You've actually developed a friendship with them and that to me is where the long game really comes into play. It's a matter of who you know and and who knows you and and the value that you provide to them. It's so much easier to go and do something with someone after they know that you've already sent them a ton of value, that 200,000, a million, whatever it might be, but when they know that you're playing the long game and your planet for them, man, it just helps you so much for what helps you sleep better at night, but more important that it allows you the opportunity to really grow something that's got legs because when the, when everything falls and it doesn't work, those relationships, at least for me, I know I've fallen back on some of those relationships multiple times when things didn't go exactly the way I want it to, so I love that. That's like [19:49] if people could understand you have to add value first. Right? I love this analogy, like looking at relationships like a bank account, like you couldn't go up to a person or a bank account and ask for a withdrawal if you've never made a deposit first. Like if I walked into chase bank that I don't go to and I'm like, let me get some withdrawals. They're like, you don't, you've never made a deposit. And like that's how people treat relationships is they're like, okay, how am I going to get something from this person and for my business, for my thing, and I look at it the opposite way. Like if you're going to add value, there's so many ways to do it. The obvious one for successful people just pay them money by their program, by their thing, go to their charity and donate. Give them a quick deposit in the form of cash because that's actually deposited, right? [20:31] Like, you know, likes and comments and shares. Those aren't, those aren't deposited at the bank. So just give people money if you can afford to, if you can't, the next commodity that you know, big name, people in business world and celebrities are willing to exchange time for it, right? They'll change, they'll exchange their time for money. Everybody will some price or they'll exchange their time for attention because attention is the new commodity. How much does superbowl charge for a ten second commercial, $5, million bucks, 10 seconds, because so many people are watching. There's so much attention and on social media, we're fighting for attention. It's costing more and more and more every year to get people's attention, and so if you can just figure out how to get anyone in the world's attention and through the form of a show and then pay money to promote that, it's usually a lot cheaper to buy a million views than to buy an hour of a big name person's tone, for sure. [21:27] Think of it that way. It's cheaper for me to buy an hour of your time for my show to promote it than it is for me to pay you to sit down with you and talk to you anyways, and it's the same outcome, but an interview is like a backdoor way to make you feel great because I'm at, I'm talking about you and everyone loves to talk about themselves and then I'm edifying you and doing it in a spotlighted way. So yeah, I mean, interviews is one of the secrets to a lot of big name people. Success. Look at how many big name people have their own show. All of them because we all know you can all you can slop. No, it's funny. You know, Russell and I were talking about this multiple times. It kind of goes back to the whole Arsenio Hall thing back on with trump when he was on the apprentice, and I don't know if you remember that whole story nor centennial hall was, was sitting there and he was trying to. [22:17] Everyone's out trying to raise money and he had all these crazy huge Rolodex, but no one returned his call because he didn't have a show, but when he had a show, the old arsenio hall show years and years ago, everybody would return his call because they knew they were going to get something out of being on a show. Exactly the. That's the part that you need to start and there's nothing better than starting with the show. And I know you've. You've done an amazing job with business rockstars. How in the world did that come about? So business rockstars, thank goodness, has these incredible co founders and investors that have built the whole thing and put it all together and I'm lucky, kind of like a Ryan seacrest of American idol and now k SFM, right? Uh, I get to be the host and the face of the whole show for the primary segment of the show, which is amazing. [23:05] And then I've been able to, because I think like an entrepreneur structure myself as a partner in the company, help kind of direct the social media part of the business which almost never existed before and then actually make them think about different monetization components from the show that they had never thought of. And now it's led to them looking at the business and a whole different way. We're actually acquiring a bunch of membership companies and doing a roll up in an IPO. Crazy, crazy stuff. I'm not dude, I who's the one writing the stuff like the contracts and the checks. These guys are [inaudible], they're in their sixties and they got multi hundred million dollar net worth and they come from the radio, television space. And so the cool thing is is I get to learn from them from their experience and they're looking at this in a way I never would have. [23:52] I was like, we should monetize it like this, this, this, this, this. And they're like, that's great, let's do that. And let's roll up and acquire companies and do an IPO. And I was like, okay, this sounds awesome. So yeah, so it's really cool because we get, I get to like, you know, the ying and the Yang. I got like my younger online social media, digital marketing mindset combined with hey, it's a lot faster to just buy a company than to build it and I'm like that's one way to look at it. So we're just buying companies and then building them with social media and online marketing and that's helping us get to our run rate that we want to do before we go crazy though. And most people think of it as just a shop, but it's so much more than that. Started off a branding kinda like clickfunnels. [24:35] It's so much more than what people probably think. They just think of clickfunnels as I'm having some fun on some acquisitions myself right now. So it's been a crazy stuff. Exactly. Well, as we kind of get close to wrapping things up, I, I know people are going to be dying to find out more of how do they get more from you? What, what's the best way for them to get ahold of you? So whether it's social media, you want to connect with me there, you want to watch a ton of our free content, you want to get free resources and watch some of my interviews, all of that is that shorten the gap.com, Jordan, the gap.com and then you guys have a a course. There's won't masterclass or something. What's that? We've ever, you know, if this fun kind of banter and dialogue has been good for people to choose to tune into and listen to and they want to know more about how they can really position themselves as an authority figure within their industry and then actually monetize that authority. [25:23] I'm just go check out our website@shortenthegap.com slash masterclass and we have a whole 90 minute free training that we put together. Kind of like you guys have so many different incredible free trainings. We've got one ourselves and it's 90 minutes long and anybody who wants a deep dive on personal branding can check that out. No, I love it. Well mark, I appreciate so much your time today and congratulations on all your success. It's super, super excited. I can't wait to, uh, basically presenting the big award to you, uh, next year at funnel hacking live. You cross the state board. I'd love that. Nothing would make me happier. I'm looking forward to appreciate you coming on here and jam with your tribe and uh, always a pleasure to connecting with you. Thanks Mike. We'll talk soon. Thanks again. [26:03] Hey everybody. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to podcasts. If you don't mind, could you please share this with others, rate review this podcast on itunes. It means the world to me. We're trying to get to as a million downloads here in the next few months and just crush through over 650,000 and I just want to get the next few 100,000 so we can get to a million downloads and see really what I can do to help improve and, and get this out to more people at the same time. If there's a topic, there's something you'd like me to share or someone you'd like me to interview, by all means, just reach out to me on facebook. You can pm me and I'm more than happy to take any of your feedback as well as if you'd like me to interview. I'm more than happy to reach out and have that conversation with you so I can go to itunes rate and review this, share this podcast with others, and let me know how else I can improve this or what I can do to make this better for you guys. Thanks.

Why Dave Decided to talk to Ken: Ken Dunn is an international speaker, author, and the CEO and founder of GoRead.com; a social media and ecommerce community for readers and a support platform for authors. He is also credited for starting a wonderful foundation: GoRead Children's Literacy Foundation; helping to fight illiteracy around the world. Ken's passion is helping experts turn their experience into highly profitable authority platforms. He has written and published 5 books, selling over 300,000 copies in 10 languages. Specializing in book publishing, Ken has developed a structured plan that helps authors and other people create a book in 30 days. Tips and Tricks for You and Your Business: Why write a book (1:55) Breaking down book writing (9:45) The book writing dual with James P Friel and Dean Holland (12:20) The 10 minute writing bursts (19:30) Dragon Dictate App (20:15) Quotable Moments: "When people are starting to write books and they think about it, they immediately get overwhelmed." "It’s ok to put everything you know in a book." "Your book will either promote you or expose you." Other Tidbits: Writing a book opens up many doors to different avenues of income. Get more tips from Ken on the Podcast: Just The Tips episode 44 - “How To Write a Not-Terrible Book” with James P Friel and Dean Holland. Links: FunnelHackerRadio.com FunnelHackerRadio.com/freetrial FunnelHackerRadio.com/dreamcar ---Transcript--- Speaker 1:     00:00       Welcome to funnel hacker radio podcast, where we go behind the scenes and uncover the tactics and strategies top entrepreneurs are using to make more sales, dominate their markets, and how you can get those same results. Here's your host, Dave Woodward. Air. Many Speaker 2:     00:18       is going to be a fun ride today. Hold on. Tight to. I want to introduce you guys to a dear friend of mine who has been crushing it in an area that's been near and dear to our hearts, and that's an old book publishing area. So Ken Dunn, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Dave can hear me okay? I can. Thanks. So for those guys, you may not know Ken. I basically. He's one of those nice guys from Canada. Every. Everybody from Canada is nice. I don't know what it is. Everyone I know from Canada, every Canadian has a nice guy, but this guy has been trying to figure out this whole digital marketing thing for years. Ironically, he acts. He's been crushing it. He's killing it. He's a CEO and Co founder of [inaudible] Dot com, which is a publishing platform more important that he's an author. Speaker 2:     00:55       He teaches other people how to write their books and I really want to make sure you guys understand the value behind this. That's why I wanted to have ken on the show today. It's helped me understand not only the value of writing a book, but more importantly falling kind of a system on how to do it quickly and that's one of the things that Ken's going to talk to you about. In addition to that, we're going to talk a little bit about the JSP freel and Dean hollins challenge on book. Writing them down. Will fill the on some of the details there. So Ken, welcome. Let's kind of dive right in. Speaker 3:     01:21       Uh, thanks a lot. Yeah, I'm excited. I know we're going to talk about some really great stuff about how any entrepreneur could write a book fast and write a good quality book and then why they should do that. But I can't wait to get into the dual. Between James P dot Farrell and dean Holland Lean hollandaise sauce. These guys are just keep trade out of it. Writing books right now. Speaker 2:     01:42       Alright, so let's tell people a little bit as far as why books. I mean this is one of the things people are like, oh, I don't want to write a book. Everybody always says I got a book inside me, but I just don't want. It's too much pain to get it out. Speaker 3:     01:55       Yeah, well I, you know, anybody that's in the ecosystem sees what you guys are doing and realizes that if they can get the book out of them, there's just a massive opportunity. The hot thing that everybody seems to be doing right now is a free plus shipping offer and those are going really well for a lot of people, but the challenge is actually writing the book and it's kind of funny. I got to take you back and tell you a little bit of the story in order to help you to really understand my passion for it. Dave, you know, this was a police detective in the past. What if I go back 18 years, I was a homicide cop and the chief interrogator, but major police department in Canada called, it's an Ottawa again and I walked away from policing. I started a business with a really amazing mentor in the mortgage industry in just three short years. We grew it from nothing to $300, million in sales and we sold it and it happened so fast that when I left that I don't know how I got into my mind, but I decided I was going to become a professional speaker, travel all over the world and I was going to write a book and one part happened for me. The other part sucked. Speaker 3:     03:03       I started traveling everywhere, but man, it took me 18 months to write my first book and then I gave up 10 pounds of blood easily. You ever tried to write a book yourself? Dave? I've tried three times, almost four times and I've given up every time. Honestly, I. There's so many other easier. That's why I do a podcast. I can't. I just hate writing. Yeah, it was painful for me. I never had any help. I mean, we're talking 18 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I just sat down and I wanted to write this book that would teach business owners how to create more sales in their businesses, some good old fashioned sales techniques and I'd start and I'd stop and I'd start and I'd stop and even thinking about it. Now I'm getting tongue tied, but what's even crazier is like 18 months later I finally get this book done. Speaker 3:     03:58       Then I go to the Internet and I'm looking for somebody to help me publish it and I've found a publisher who swore to me that it would become a best seller and I would. They were the right choice for me and Gosh, they had me at hello, and then they paid them $80,000 to edit it, to proofread it, to publish it, to print it and some big elaborate marketing strategy. And, and it was published with 280 grammar and spelling errors and it was a freaking disaster. We sold eight copies, printed, 10,992 copies of this book in my basement. My wife hates me for $10,000 a book is how much it cost to publish those. Oh baby. It was three bucks a copy. So $30,000 went into printing and I only sold eight of them. I still have the other ones though. She keeps telling me to get rid of them. Speaker 3:     04:56       I guess I should let you know what's really interesting about that is that I, by that time I was already speaking all over the world and so I had to get this book done because I had already started talking to people about it and I didn't know what to do, but I remember jumping onto an airplane. I was heading to Asia on a trip and I went into the Hudson news to grab some snacks in there. In the store was a book sitting on the counter. I mean how many times Dave, have you been in an airport and you're going into the Hudson news or one of the snacks doors and there's a book there, catches your eye and you just grab it and throw it into whatever you're buying all the time. So the. So the book, you may have actually heard of this title, but the book was called how to make people like you in 90 seconds or less. Speaker 3:     05:44       And it freaking just hooked me. I mean, I'm a sales guy, right? So I'm thinking if they liked me faster, I can make more money. Um, but I, I literally bought this book. I read it on the trip four times. I came back from my trip, it was back in 2006 and I decided I needed to meet the author because the book was so amazing. I wanted a book like that and the author's name was Nicholas Boothman. He's a New York Times bestseller and he just happened to live in Toronto where I was living. So three days after I started looking for my, found him, we had lunch together and he said hello to me and then slapped me in the head in 30 seconds because. Because I started telling him the story that you told me or that I just told you. And when I told them how hard it was to write the book, he started laughing at me and I said, why? He said, what are you laughing at? He said, well, he's. He'd written, he's written five books. He's sold over 3 million copies of them. He speaks 50 to 60 times a year at an average of 70,000 speech, makes millions here because of his books. And he said, I've never taken more than 30 days to write a book. And I'm thinking, yeah, you must be. You must be like writing 24 hours a day. And he said, no, I've never written for more than 20 minutes a day. Speaker 3:     07:02       Yeah, that's what I thought. So I, I, I convinced him to teach me this and I've, since that day, 2006 I've published, I've published four books. Each of those books that I wrote, I wrote in less than 30 days. I never wrote for more than 20 minutes a day and I've sold 300,000 copies of my personal books and it's using that system. So he actually taught me this amazing system for writing a book quick and writing it without pain and avoiding writer's block because Dave, I don't think there's anybody in your world, in the click funnels world that would argue that if they could get a book out of them, there's tons of value, tons of things they could do with that book. Is that fair? Oh, well, considering the fact we've built 100 million dollar company off to different books, I think it'd be very hard for anyone to dispute that fact. This is what I tell every single one of my clients that I teach how to use this system. I point Rachel Russel Story and I talk about how he used those books, how you guys turn them into free plus shipping offers, how you use them at live events and all the stuff you did and in a $100 million dollar company. I know because we're on a recording that you're, you're under exaggerating with the size of click funnels today. Speaker 3:     08:24       Uh, so I, I just. That was, I mean that was the start of it. I started traveling now when people were telling me how much they were struggling writing books and so I went back to nick years later and I told them to write this book and he wrote it in 30 days, less than 10 minutes a day and it's called how to write a salable book in 10 minutes. Madness. This is the entire system, everything that and we've used this book and the workbook that goes along with it now over a thousand to write entire books in less than 30 days. That's crazy. Only because I know the pain and anguish that that Russell's gone through in writing his books. That honestly, if he thought he could write it in 30 minutes, a 30 days at 10 minutes a day, he'd be thrilled. Yeah, and unfortunately I didn't actually meet him until after and I don't know if you'll ever write another one, although I heard through the grapevine there might be another one coming, but it's really cool because what I've found in all my research statement, you might be able to relate to this is that when people are starting to write books and they're thinking about it, they instantly get overwhelmed by it because they're like, I gotta get all this stuff in it. Speaker 3:     09:39       I should put this in it. Maybe I shouldn't put this in it. I don't know what to put in it. They start writing. They stopped because that. I mean I went through that, but when you use this system, the very first thing that we get people to do is create the chapters, so it's like creating a journey for a reader where you start them at where you want to get them to, and then it's just like built it. As we're talking, I'm thinking it's just like building a perfect webinar. You create the chapters, then it needs of the secrets. You've got to break beliefs and you've got to rebuild those things. Actually what we do with people when they use this workbook to do it and, and it's just amazing, but what I, what I really hope people understand is what life looks like when you get the book done and, and why it's worth trying this system if they've ever wanted to write a book. Speaker 3:     10:29       Because I mean, look at Russell, look at you, look at what's happened with click funnels because of those books. Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. It's literally. I can't even begin to imagine what the true Roi is for us on those books. I mean it's, it's literally millions and millions of dollars. So I was trying to figure out here over here, you know, I joined the inner circle two and a half years ago now, but I had never. I didn't even know what a funnel was when I joined the. I didn't realize this, but I hadn't read either of the books. I just knew Russell from way back in the early days when we're both in network marketing and everybody. I was trying to figure out how to build this company and everybody's saying go to go see Russell, go see Russell and I couldn't get any time with him because he's so freaking busy, so I found this inner circle and I jumped into it and I didn't. Speaker 3:     11:20       I found out everything afterwards, but the parallels between digital marketing in my world, I just couldn't believe it because what I realized is that if you use this system to write your book, well as you're writing a book, you're actually creating the content for your course. So because every chapter becomes a module and the way you lay out a book properly in our system, it's almost like you're creating the transcripts that you're going to use for the course. So some people are actually doing courses first or live events and then doing books using our system. It's easier to do it the other way. So you take 30 days, 10 minutes a day, you write the book. Then you go into a studio. When you take your time, your chapters, and your record, your modules. Then you launch a free plus shipping offer and you give away the book, you do the audio book, you do the Oto and you sell the course on the last page. Speaker 2:     12:09       I love it. It's so freaking easy. Well, I want to dive right into this whole dual between, uh, Mr Dean hollandaise sauce and our official James P friel. And only because I was fascinated. I think it was last last Monday. Uh, James wasn't in the office. I'm like, where's James at? And the next morning we hadn't been working out. He goes, yeah, I wrote my book. I'm like, I did. What? Did you write the book? I wrote the outline. I'm like, what are you talking about? And that's when he told me this whole idea as far as what happened when he and dean. So you were on their podcast. People understand kind of what, what it is because they don't want to relate that to what anyone was listening to. This can do the exact same thing. Speaker 3:     12:50       Right? So I was on just, just the tips, which is an amazing podcast for any entrepreneur to follow. It's, it's really a wonderful job that they're doing together and it's fun because those guys are at each other's throats. Anytime you're on the show, right? There's a lot of this going on and so this happens a lot. Whenever I get a chance to be on a show like yours and I started talking about how easy it is to write a book, it automatically creates skeptics, right? Because you've tried to write a book for so long and I'm telling you, Dave, you use this system. You can write your entire book in 30 days. It will write for more than 20 minutes a day. It'll be ready to be edited right after that. And so I, I, I said that to these two dudes and they're just absolutely adding each other right away. Like I couldn't do it. I could do it. I turned it on them. Speaker 2:     13:42       I said, well, Speaker 3:     13:43       it'd be really cool is why don't we have a competition? Were you guys both use the system and whoever writes the best book wins a prize and we'll get everybody to vote on which book is best and the winner gets an all expense dream vacation Speaker 2:     14:01       and, and as soon as I said it, it was really cool Speaker 3:     14:08       because I write on their podcasts. You can hear the episode. Maybe we ought to put that into the shows. Speaker 2:     14:16       I'll make sure she puts it in the show notes. Just the tips episode. Perceive Dean Holland and James p Friel when Ken done was on, it was probably about a month or two ago. It was really good. Speaker 3:     14:28       Funny because all I had to do was just drop the idea and they were at each other. I can write better than you. I can read these both guys and just told me that both of them tried to write books for years and struggled. Speaker 2:     14:39       Now they're like the gods of writing. Both of them actually are very good writers. I mean, Jay's p Friel is doing a ton of writing all the time. Uh, and dean just, I mean he's a master at free plus shipping offers and does a lot of writing as well. So it's kind of funny when I was talking to him, they're like, a book's different though. Books not like copy, it looks not like this. And so all of a sudden the excuses came up. Speaker 3:     15:05       Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, and that's what's happening. We're meeting once a week on the phone just to discuss their progress. And that's exactly what's happening with them too. There's always excuses that are starting to Speaker 2:     15:18       let's combat some of the worst, some of the most common excuses you're dealing with when people. Let's try to eliminate all the excuses and take down all the walls here for anyone who's listening to this podcast to make sure that by the time they get done listening to podcasts, they have total belief. They can write a book and use your system or whatever else it might take. Speaker 3:     15:33       Yeah. So, so look, the, the number one biggest challenge that I have to deal with with people is for them to understand that it's okay to put everything you know in the book because when people are thinking about writing a book, the biggest and first mistake they make is they think that they have to hold back. They think that they shouldn't put the actual, you know, their experience, their expertise into the pages of the book, that they're confused because they say, well, if I put it all in the book, who's going to want to buy the course or who's going to want to hire me as a consultant? And what I've had to show them through Russell's example and others including my own, is the more you give, the more they want. And, and this helps, like we've helped hundreds of consultants to build six figure consulting businesses because they write a book first and they use the book as the calling card. So that's a big deal is just. Yeah, Speaker 2:     16:26       I was listening to this. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes I see people do in books or even courses where they feel like there's something else I want to sell them, so if I give it to them, all right now I won't. I basically preventing someone from buying more from me and I can tell anybody who's listening to this, what Ken just said is honestly the secret sauce to having success in any venture you're doing and that is the more that you give and the more that you put out. First of all, you always will have more. You're never going to be able to give everything away, and if you do, what it's gonna do is cause you to get to the next level where you create more anyways. So I'd highly recommend you take the advice can just said, and that is you make sure that when you're writing that book, you give absolutely every single thing away. Speaker 3:     17:06       Yeah, absolutely. The second is the time, as you can imagine, especially entrepreneurs that are just trying to get their legs under them and trying to make things happen, they can't. They always. It's a. it's always a struggle to convince them that they accept, they have the time and it's so just so everybody knows it. Here's the system and you still need the book and the workbook in order to do this, but essentially all you're going to do if you use this system to write your book in 30 days is you're going to start off by creating the. I call it the reader's journey. Think about trying to cross a river. You have to get across the river, but you can't fall into the water and there's a series of stones that if you safely jumped from stone to stone, the stone you'll get from one side to the other. Speaker 3:     17:51       Well, that's the reader's journey. Your reader starts off on the left side of the river and each stone represents one of the chapters. If you just simply ask yourself right up front, what is the journey I want to take the reader on? Who is the ideal reader? Where are they going to start and what do I want to get to them? To them them to by the end of the journey, and then you reverse engineer the chapters first. So in other words, what is the first step in any journey? There's a first step. Then the second that they could logically learn it, and once you figure those things out, the rest is really simple. The next thing you do is you assign free essential elements to each chapter. The first is the training. So for each chapter you're going to literally just decide what are you going to teach. Speaker 3:     18:36       The second is one of your stories. You always want to have one of your personal examples in each chapter and the next is two to three stories of either people you've helped or people you can use as examples. That's a book, that's what Russell did. That's what any expert in the world does. And if you, if you do your chapters first and you think about that in a logical order and you get all that organization done first, everything else is really simple. And here's the coolest part. The workbook that I created that goes with the book is what you use to do everything. I've just said, and you can do it less than an hour. Then all you do after that, Dave, is once a day you just sit down and you just look at one little part. It could be so each, each, as I described them, 10 minute writing burst. Each burst is one of the three things that I said. So one day you're going to write the teaching part of the first chapter. The next day you're going to write your personal story. The third day you're going to write two or three examples and you do that each day for 30 days and you've created a 10 chapter book. Speaker 2:     19:39       So since I hate to add, congratulations. Awesome job. So two things. First of all, I hate writing, so can I just record it and have someone else transcribe it Speaker 3:     19:49       even easier than that with technology today, and I actually talk about this in the book, you can actually record it into one of three different apps and the APP will spit out the transcription for you. So when I was three, Speaker 2:     20:04       those was one of those apps out. So people listening going, oh my gosh, I gotta, I gotta get this stuff. Speaker 3:     20:09       So there's a new dragon dictate that that is a simplified version of the dragon dictate that we all know and love and it literally will spit out the transcription of what you say within 24 hours, send you it, sends it to you an email. Speaker 2:     20:25       Super Cool. I got rid of mine. So if a person wants to get the workbook or the book, where do they go to get this? Speaker 3:     20:33       Well, it's really simple. I created a really cool link because we're doing this together. They just have to go to click funnels. Freebook just like it sounds like, and it's a free plus shipping offer. Everybody in this community should know that. It's a real book. I'm going to send the workbook is there and it will do everything that you need to happen. Speaker 2:     20:51       Awesome. Super, super cool. I know that's probably one of the biggest hurdles most people have is, is what you just said. I, again, I love the idea as far as the training, a story of your own, because we always talk about you need to be creating a story inventory anyways and so start writing even as soon as you get off this podcast to start writing down the titles of what some of your stories would be, you can always put these into the book later and then I love the idea as far as two to three stories of other people who they're, you've helped or have gone through the same type of Speaker 3:     21:20       process and ideally if, if you're doing, if you're writing a book about something, most times you're already an expert in it or you're already getting there, so you've already helped some people and if you want to talk about, let's say you turn this into a free plus shipping offer, you want to talk about the most amazing affiliates, you know, the, the early movers on your dream 100 list. Put your students' stories in the book and then ask them to promote your free plus shipping offer. Speaker 2:     21:49       Oh, that is awesome. The story about you. So, uh, that's, that's exactly right. Yep. Speaker 3:     22:01       And it really, really, it works so well to help people. But you know, the other thing that's really important if you do this right, so there's, there's an old saying in my business, your book will either promote you or expose you because I've seen a lot of people that write shitty books and I'm on a quest to stop people from writing shitty. Well, could we use this system? It won't be Shitty, but because look, you heard as soon as you realize what I was telling people, you went, oh, because that's what Russell did, right? He did some teaching. He did one of his own stories and then lots of stories of other people. Every great book is done the same way, but if you don't use this system, if you don't get this free book, you're going to end up writing a shitty book. And what most people do wrong, Dave, is they all think it should be just one long meandering journey. They actually don't write books that help. They write memoirs that hurt in there. Speaker 2:     22:55       Okay? I have to tell you a quick little story here because one of my very first things I ever did the internet marketing space years, Gosh, it's actually 10 years ago to this year was this program called legendary marketers and I went out and interviewed some of the most amazing marketers in the world and one of these guys actually had a book and I was so excited to read this book because I was so impressed by this guy and that's exactly what it was. It was as long memoir. I think honestly all he did was he took a Webinar and just had transcribed, put it together and that was his free plus shipping and it was the stupid his book and I'm like, really? You get so much more, so much more you could give and that's going to be their first real tangible thing they get from you. It was just a. I was just heartbroken. Speaker 3:     23:39       No know that I know who know. You and I are both avid readers, so we could probably sit here for the next hour and try and debate who first said facts tell, but stories. Probably one of the oldest, oldest in the whole sales world, but it's true and if you use the style we talked about it. A book becomes one quarter telling and three quarters stories. It's all about the stories that are in the book. Stories break belief stories, rebuild beliefs. I mean stories handle objections. It's everything and it's, it's. I think it's the most important part. Speaker 2:     24:18       I love it. Well, again, I think that your dips and everything else had been fantastic here. As we kind of get close to wrapping things up, what are the things would you. What are some other value nuggets want to make sure people get or where can they reach out to make sure they contact you? Speaker 3:     24:31       Yeah, so, so the, the biggest thing for any entrepreneur who is trying to attract attention in the crowded space that we live in today, the things that you can do with that book, what we could list in the end of this show, it's going to raise your credibility. It's the fastest route to going from, you know, an average authority to a true spurt. As Russell describes it. It's not that you should or shouldn't do it, you can't do it, there's a double negative for you. You really need to. And this book that I've put together, we've already helped over a thousand dollars. Authors write books using the system and it's super simple and at a bare minimum, just read through the book and you'll get it and the rest will take care of itself. Speaker 2:     25:20       I love it. Alright, so again, one of the great things Ken's providing you here is a resource that you can actually get this book, so can work and they actually get a copy of your book App. Speaker 3:     25:29       So of course for a limited time we don't have many left. We've got a free plus shipping offer. I want to help as many people as possible to avoid writing shitty book. So if you jump over to, it's really simple. It's W, a s free book dot Com. It's the initials of right? A salable book was be freebook Dot Com and grab a copy of the book and it'll lead you through a link to our open facebook. Got Speaker 2:     25:59       Questions. I'd be happy to help you. Awesome. Again, it's a free plus shipping off, which is always cool. I always recommend you guys check out other free plus shipping offers. We're huge advocates of these, of this type of a funnel that really works and so again, it's w a, S, b freebook.com, so w as in Whiskey, a as in apple, s as in Sam, b as in book, Freebook Dot Com and again, go ahead and check that out. Fall. Ken, you can reach out to him on, on facebook through that link as well. Again, thank you so much. It's always a pleasure talking to you and I appreciate just again you did exactly what you're telling him. What else do and that as you told everyone exactly how to do it, same type of thing you should do in your own books and now you need to go out and get Ken's book to figure out exactly how to do it for yourself. So again, I appreciate it a ton. Oh, it was great to hang out with Speaker 4:     26:44       you, Dave and I love to do more for you anytime. Speaker 1:     26:46       Thanks. Hey everybody. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to podcasts. If you don't mind, could you please share this with others, rate and review this podcast on itunes. It means the world to me. We're trying to get to as a million downloads here in the next few months and just crush through over $650,000 and I just want to get the next few hundred thousand so we can get to a million downloads and see really what I can do to help improve and and get this out to more people. At the same time. If there's a topic, there's something you'd like me to share or someone you'd like me to interview, by all means, just reach out to me on facebook. You can pm me and I'll be more than happy to take any of your feedback as well as if people you'd like me to interview more than happy to reach out and have that conversation with you. So again, go to Itunes, rate and review this. Share this podcast with others and let me know how else I can improve this or you can do to make this better for you guys. Thanks.

Russell Doup is my nephew. Russell Doup is a 25-year-old stockbroker and former Ohio State football player. Russell Doup is living with his uncle...yours truly...while he builds his client base. Consequently, we hang out a lot. About a month ago, we watched The Founder the story of Ray Kroc who was the force behind McDonald's. We both loved the movie. Ray, played by Michael Keaton, was a champion networker. He used this skill to transform a small hamburger stand in California into a dominant multinational corporation. Russell is a 24/7 networker. We agreed that the movie was inspirational and it inspired a passionate conversation about networking.Watching the movie challenged me to inventory all the times I've benefited from networking. I met my lovely wife through social networking (this was old school social networking prior to the internet...I'm talking 1988). Every teaching interview I've landing was the result of personal and direct networking. As Russell and I sat on the couch and discussed the implications of The Founder, a thought struck me, Networking is darned important, but schools don't teach kids how to do it. I turned to my nephew and asked if he ever learned about networking in school. He responded negatively. My experience as a student was the same. In the midst of this Eureka moment, I knew I had to do an episode on networking featuring my networking nephew!

As Russell goes over his algebra homework, Sade enters to rush him off to his room. Fletcher is to visit with important adult news that needs to be discussed in private. He gets a reprieve when Fletcher grants him permission to remain. The news is delievered in melodramatic fashion, long and drawn out. The bridegroom of the upcoming wedding has disappeared. Fletcher is set to organize a massive manhunt, and he wants to stay a jump ahead of the newspaper reports. He wants to use the Gooks house and telephone as his command center. Call the police, drag the lakes, sound the alarm. Sade thinksRead More →

"As long as one keeps searching, the answers come." —Joan Baez   ~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #131 Life in many ways feels as though it is a treasure hunt. However, I have good news. If my experience is any evidence, Joan Baez's quote above certainly rings true. Case in point, stumbling across British philosopher Bertrand Russell's book The Conquest of Happiness.  I happened to have been perusing in my local bookstore, stopping in to pick up another book that I had ordered when I came across the simple bright yellow cover of The Conquest of Happiness. Mind you, the copyright is 1930 and as the new introduction, written in 2012, by philosophy professor at Tufts University Daniel C. Dennett reminds, Russell's views while quite progress at the time clearly leave laid bare his ignorance about women and minorities. However, these should be set aside as we look through the lens as though he is speaking about all people, because what he reveals gave me reason to take a deep breath of appreciation. As Russell reminds straight-away with his title, happiness is something we must cultivate. It is not something that we are born with. Now, this is not to say that we are born unhappy, no, absolutely not. However, we are born, each of us, into a culture and world we did not choose. We must come to understand our place in it, understand the capabilities that are innately ours and how to offer them to the world all the while protecting ourselves and vulnerable heart. Russell offers wise words about what we can and cannot do. What is true and what we should let go of as once assumed as true along the path to attaining happiness and identifying what we think is causing our unhappiness. I have gone through and found 38 points he shares that through welcoming as either habits, practices, approaches or shifts in our thoughts and beliefs, can usher in a true happiness we may have never thought attainable. First: Determine what you most desire Then . . .  1. Diminish your preoccupation with yourself (stop meditating on your perceived sins and shortcomings) 2. Focus primarily on external objects: the state of the world, attainment of knowledge in a variety of avenues, and individuals for whom you feel affection. 3. Practice moderation 4. Aspire to be interested in a variety of things; the more opportunities for happiness you have, the less you are at the mercy of fate since if you lose one thing you can fall back on another. 5. Even when an unexpected negative event takes place, understand that it too can give pleasure. How? Appreciate the knowledge you have gained to better understand the world and reduce unnecessary fear. 6. Bolster your energy so when you have free time you can pursue what interests you without restraint. 7. Vow to have a zest for life, an incessant curiosity. 8. Understand this truth, affection is given to those who least demand it. 9. Those who face life with a feeling of security are much happier than the contrary. 10. You are more likely to realize what you fear by believing it. 11. Self-confidence comes from being accustomed to receiving as much of the right sort of affection as one has the need for (healthy, non-dependent, etc.) 12. A person who is hardy and adventurous can endure a great deal without damage. 13. The best type of affection is reciprocally life-giving: each receives affection with joy and gives it without effort, and each finds the whole world more interesting in consequence of the existence of this reciprocal happiness. 14. Affection, in the sense of a genuine reciprocal interest of two persons in each other, not solely as means to each other's good but rather as a combination having a common goal, is one of the most important elements of real happiness. 15. A capacity for genuine affection is one of the marks of someone who has escaped from the prison of one's self-absorption. 16. Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. 17. One must cultivate external interests that bring rest and do not call for any action, rather allow you to simply enjoy. 18. Never ignore opportunities to gain knowledge. 19. Contemplate what makes greatness of one's soul. When one is capable of greatness of soul, it will open wide the windows of the mind, letting the winds blow freely upon it from every operation of the universe. 20. During times of grief, loss or pain, turn towards something that is not the source of anxiety. (This is where having many, varied interests comes in quite handy). 21. One cultivates happiness and therefore must find ways of coping with the multitudinous cause of unhappiness. By choosing to unearth the answers, happiness expands. 22. Happiness is an achievement, not a gift. 23. Do your best (effort) and then leave it up to fate (resign). 24. Having an unconquerable hope means it must be large and impersonal (hopes for humanity and being okay with the progress made, no matter how small even if the goal wasn't reached yet). 25. Let go of worry, fret and irritation as they serve no purpose. 26. In times of quandary, it is better to do nothing than to do harm. 27. A certain kind of resignation is involved in the willingness to face the truth about ourselves. 28. Nothing is more fatiguing than to believe things that are only a myth or false. 29. Happiness requires food, shelter, health, love, successful work, and the respect of one's own herd. 30. Fear is the principal reason why humans are so unwilling to admit facts and so anxious to wrap themselves round in a warm garment of myth. 31. Accepting facts and truth is a way to tackle fear and reach true happiness. 32. The happy person is who lives objectively, who has free affections and wide interests, who secures her happiness through these interests and affections and through the fact that they in turn make the person an object of interest and affection to many others. 33. The person who demands affection is not the person upon whom it is bestowed. 34. Don't think about the causes of unhappiness; get outside of it, it must be by genuine interests, not by simulated interests. 35. Once you let go of self-absorption, let the spontaneous working of your nature and of external circumstances lead you. 36. Only what genuinely interests you can be of any use to you. 37. Undoubtedly, we should desire the happiness of those whom we love, but not as an alternative to our own. 38. A happy person feels a citizen of the universe, enjoying freely the spectacle it offers and the joys it affords, untroubled by the thought of death because they feel themselves not really separate from those who will come after them. It is in such profound instinctive union with the stream of life that the greatest joy is to be found. While there is much to digest and contemplate, what left me with hope was the reality that so much of what causes us pain is self-inflicted. While yes, there are many things that are out of our control, understanding the difference is key, but so too is recognizing when we have played a role that has adversely obstructed us from potential happiness. Simply put, we need to get out of our own way, and this list will help us all to do just that. ~SIMILAR POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVES YOU MIGHT ENJOY: ~A Powerful Couple: Boundaries & Vulnerability (podcast) ~10 Things People Who Have Found Contentment Understand About Uncertainty (podcast) ~Your Fear is Speaking Petit Plaisir —Paris-Manhattan ~soundtrack for the film ~starring Alice Taglioni and Patrick Bruel (English subtitles) https://youtu.be/XwofBhEMevw   Download the Episode Image: source

Over the past couple years web security has become a staple of the nightly news. The stories usually hinge on government leaks, foreign hackers, or web encryption. There’s menacing subtext that practically everything put online is vulnerable to “cyber attacks.” Though one might wonder what steps are being taken to protect not just the government and giant corporations, but you, the individual. What keeps you safe when you stumble your way into a Wikipedia hole or click a strange link sent from a friend? To find out, I invited my colleague Russell Brandom to talk about web security, and particularly HTTPS. As Russell explains, while your information isn’t necessarily less vulnerable, websites themselves are becoming safer. This is a dense topic, but fortunately Russell brought a helpful metaphor. It involves pie. Subscribe to What's Tech on iTunes, listen on Spotify, or subscribe via RSS. And be sure to follow us on Twitter. You can also find the entire collection of What's Tech stories right here on the The Verge Dot Com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices