Podcasts about as scott

My Guest today is Scott Sauls from Nashville, TN. Scott is the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Prior to moving to Nashville, Scott served on staff under Tim Keller in New York City at Redeemer Church. You may ask, what prompted me to ask a pastor for the first time on this podcast? I wanted to have Scott on this podcast because I heard that when he moved from New York City to Nashville, Christ Pres had many people leave. As Scott described it, this was a rebuilding effort. Several years in, Christ Pres has grown and planted multiple campuses around the city of Nashville, TN. In addition to this, I found Scott's leadership style unique since Christ Presbyterian gives away over 40% of their income each year. This was a fun conversation where we cover: What a rebuilding effort looks like and what to expect His own struggle with approval. What he has learned to lead by principles and not by politics Why leading a large Church teaches you your limitations. Why the needs are overwhelming and what this has taught him about control What he's learning about planting campuses in the 5th most diverse city in the United States and how to give people what they need Building an organization bigger than yourself. What he is doing to make succession a smooth process And more! Scott's also the author of five books, and you can find those here: https://scottsauls.com/books/ Please enjoy this week's episode with Scott Sauls!

Scott, Karl, and Trent discuss an album you may have heard of: The Dark Side of the Moon by English rock band Pink Floyd.  As Scott points out, Pink Floyd is one of those bands that you either love or hate. Released in 1973, this particular album became one of the most critically acclaimed records in history, tallying 741 weeks on the US Billboard Charts.   The trio agrees that unlike other chart toppers from the era, this album's music and lyrics still hold up beautifully today. Tune in and learn more about one of Karl's all-time favorite albums, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com. 

Amanda is making a teacher's salary and spending her weekends working a part-time job at a grocery store. She contributes to her retirement accounts, but she could be sitting on a passive income gold mine that she doesn't realize. Attached to Amanda's home are a casita and a mother-in-law suite. The casita is rented out to long-term tenants and the mother-in-law suite has been used as a short-term rental for some time. But what if instead of keeping her casita as a long-term rental, she converted it into an Airbnb? Well, Amanda could potentially see a rent increase of almost 3x what she currently is renting at!With this house hacking model that Amanda is using, she's able to get owner-occupied financing with lower interest rates and better terms. So what if she could start doing this with other houses and slowly grow a short-term rental empire? As Scott and Mindy discuss, it's possible! In This Episode We CoverThe importance of side-income streams when you work a lower-paying jobTurning extra bedrooms into short-term rental incomeHouse hacking and the benefits of owner-occupied financing Calculating your hourly rate for different tasks and focusing on those with the highest ROIChasing financial freedom and the importance of using time how you see fitAnd So Much More!Links from the ShowBiggerPockets Money Facebook GroupBiggerPockets ForumsFinance Review Guest OnboardingScott's InstagramMindy's TwitterGet Tickets to BPCon 2021Short-Term and Vacation Rental DiscussionAvery Carl's Short-Term Rental InterviewSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scott and Karl finish their two-part discussion of Unrestricted Warfare: Two Air Force Senior Colonels on Scenarios for War and the Operational Art in an Era of Globalization.  As Scott points out, this book was largely born out of an analysis of the Gulf War. Karl asks, “If the media, as these Chinese authors argue, was a weapon of war in the First Gulf War, when did it stop being a weapon of war?”  While Unrestricted Warfare is marketed as an anti-American manifesto, Karl and Scott agree that it's a military manual, and it's even-handed. Tune in to learn more about the nature of modern warfare, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com. 

Leonard, Marianne, and Me: Magical Summers on Hydra by Judy Scott Leonard, Marianne, and Me chronicles forty years of Judy Scott's frequent summers on the Greek island of Hydra with a diverse artistic community and her friendship with singer-songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen and his legendary muse Marianne Ihlen. This memoir, based on Scott's notebooks and journals, includes incidents in their lives and their relationship to one another—at a point when it was changing forever—that have never been discussed before. As Cohen himself observed of this book when Scott sent the manuscript to him for his approval: "I particularly admire the detail and honesty of the piece." One of the more unique features in this recounting is the emerging acknowledgment the author confronts of her own sexuality, as she writes: "It did not take long for Leonard to recognize that I was more attracted to Marianne than I was to him, though I came to love him too in the end." The book also describes Hydra in the early 1970s in great detail—a unique place filled with astonishing physical beauty and an incomparable atmosphere of serenity and peaceful energy. The island contained a small foreign community of like-minded creative souls, artists, musicians, writers, and their supporters and admirers. As Scott explains, "Hydra in the late '60s and early '70s was at its creative zenith. Like Paris in the '30s, Harlem in the '40s, Greenwich Village in the '50s, San Francisco in the '60s—Hydra in the '70s was the place to be." The memoir, though it centers on Scott's most important, most impactful interactions with Leonard and Marianne, also contains several portraits of other Hydra habitués, all members of the same small ex-pat community, all close friends (and occasional lovers) of Leonard and Marianne, all uniquely interesting in their own right. Leonard, Marianne and Me is a story of a special time, place, and cast of characters—a travelogue of an enchanted island as it was back then and still is to this day, backlit by the glow of Leonard Cohen and his muse, Marianne.

Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of The Smart Community Podcast, we welcome back Scott Shepard who you may remember from Episode 139 in 2019. Scott is an urban planner with Iomob - The Internet of Mobility currently based in Lisbon, Portugal and ready to talk about all things mobility. Scott first tells us about his passion for cities, places and people and how these link together with mobility and transport. As Scott is based in Portugal, he discusses the contrast and comparison in urban planning between the US and Europe, and how he looks for best practices for sustainable urbanism this way, we then go back to micromobility in 2019 and where it was at the last time Scott and I spoke.We then talk about digital communication and digital trust and how these have shifted, as well as the focus now on human centric action and neighbourhood focused mobility as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. We talk more about the pandemic and the impacts it has had on our urban and digital environments and how some of the temporary emergency based interventions can be implemented into society long term. Scott then talks about intermodality and the need to think beyond the silos of individual modality, before we discuss how public needs are changing, and in terms of transport how their behaviour can be influenced for better sustainable mobility outcomes.We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of technologies such as electric vehicles, hyperloops, air shuttles, air taxis and personal autonomy and whether these are sustainable, scalable and the real future of mobility. As always we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, as much as we enjoyed making it!Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.communityConnect with Scott via LinkedIn or Twitter Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.communityConnect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTubeThe Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.

The online buying experience is always evolving, so it’s table stakes for companies to be on their toes and ready to adjust when the market tells them to. Especially when the company we are chatting about today was founded in 1948! But being prepared to adjust and actually making it happen are two different things. At DICK’S Sporting Goods, its customers, who are referred to as “athletes” are truly running the show, and Scott Casciato, who serves as the VP of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK'S, is the man who takes their needs and delivers a seamless experience to them via DICK’S ecommerce platform and throughout their 700 retail locations. And with their ecommerce sales increasing by 100% in 2020, Scott and his team have had to rethink many things like: how to scale up operations during peak seasons, why testing every iteration on the website is key, how to perfect the buy online pick up in-store experience, and determine how to take their athlete's feedback and transform it into a funnel for change. This episode brought back a lot of nostalgia for me, thinking about the days of wandering the aisles of Dick’s in my high school days looking for a new lacrosse stick or soccer shoes. So it was fun to hear about how much has changed, and  what investments the company has been making lately in creating the best customer experience possible for its athletes. Also, tune in to the end to hear Scott discuss the importance of great vendor relationships, how to future proof logistics, and the new in-store experiences that Dick’s is betting big on. Enjoy! Main Takeaways:The House Don’t Fall When the Bones are Good: Having a strong foundation is the most impactful thing a company can do to prepare for surges in traffic that might come during peak seasons or after highly-successful campaigns. You have to do the work, go through the load tests and constantly be improving the technology stack because there are no shortcuts when you are creating a scalable platform that can withstand anything you throw at it. With last year being a perfect case study to reflect on, dive into the data and pivot if needed so you’re ready for the surge!Bet On It … Then Test It: Building out an online experience that works requires constant testing. You can plan for outcomes and bet on how you think people will react, but until you test it, you can’t ever be certain. As Scott mentioned, following the path the data reveals can be surprising and sometimes opposite of what your intuition is telling you.Experiences For The Future: The shopping experience is going to continue to change, and the strongest companies are planning for the future by paying attention to trends and then creating experiences — both in-person and online — that will drive engagement with consumers and build trust and confidence in the company’s authority in the space. By investing early into an experience or a specific market, you set yourself up as the expert in that specialized vertical and become the retailer of choice for consumers.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Hey everyone and welcome back to Up Next in Commerce, this is your host, Stephanie Postles, ceo@mission.org. Today on the show we have Scott Casciato, vice president of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK'S Sporting Goods. Scott, welcome.Scott:Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.Stephanie:I'm really excited to have you. So I have this deep love of DICK'S Sporting Goods because there was a location in my hometown, eastern shore of Maryland, which I feel no one even knows where that is on a map. But back in high school, I would go almost every week and just kind of peruse through the aisles and look for new lacrosse sticks and shoes. And I didn't really have much money, but I remember just loving the experience and being there probably for three hours with friends, just kind of hanging out. So I was so excited when I saw you guys on the lineup where I was, "Yes, something I know well."Scott:Was that your sport growing up, lacrosse?Stephanie:Lacrosse and soccer.Scott:Nice, nice. That's great.Stephanie:Deep love there. So I'd love to hear a bit about how you got into this industry, because you had a funny quote where you said, "I don't know how I really ended up here," and I'd love to start there, how did you become the vice-president of Omni Channel Fulfillment & Athlete Service at DICK'S Sporting Goods?Scott:It goes back... I spent the early part of my career in software, supply chain software, and kind of even on the sales side, then moved into the operational side and then got into management consulting and did a tour duty in the management consulting ranks. And I got introduced to the founder and co-founder of a company called ModCloth that I was with previously. And they were looking for somebody to run fulfillment and customer service. And I just said, I don't know anything about, I mean, I know supply chain, but I don't really know anything about direct consumer fulfillment at the time. And the founder of that business was, "Yeah, I know, but you're smart enough to figure it out." Right?Scott:So and I have a bent for really high growth, high speed businesses, and it just kind of the way I grew up in my career and that was a really great opportunity. So I did that and I spent five years there scaling that business really significantly, hyper growth phase and it was awesome. I learned a ton about fulfillment and service. And then about five years in, I had this great opportunity to come to DICK'S. And the thing that was really interesting to me is, the question was how can we build a great service organization for DICK'S Sporting Goods? I'm like, "Wow, if I could do it at a much smaller company, what would it be like to come to such a great brand and try to do it here?" And and we did, right?Scott:And so we spent a lot of time building that for the first four years of my time at DICK'S and then had an opportunity to take fulfillment on. So it's interesting that I have some of the aspects of that, that previous role that I had only, a scale that is much larger and just been very, very fortunate to be with such a great business. And it's been awesome to work with the team at DICK'S.Stephanie:Okay. So you are leaving ModCloth, I mean, that's like strictly ecommerce and then you're coming to this, I would say very omni-channel company. I mean, you have over 700 locations across the US, quickly moving to digital, at least over the past couple of years. Tell me a bit about what that transition was like?Scott:I mean, and at the same time we were really building... We were just starting our transformation to building our own technology. So it was a massive... It was basically rebuilding what we had already had from an ecommerce business perspective. And I think fundamentally a lot of the things that I came in and the tools that I had were relevant, right? How you scale a business. I mean, that stuff is somewhat the same. I think one of the biggest changes was or a few of them were one, just having more teammates that knew a lot of stuff that could really help and drive the initiatives and the progress forward, whereas in a much smaller company, right? It's you're wearing so many different hats and you're doing so many different things here.Scott:It was a shock to me to say, oh, there's somebody that can help with reporting or data analytics and help us with these answers. So that was awesome. And then I just think we were all learning, right? So we were learning what we needed. We were learning what we wanted to be in customer service, we were learning what we wanted to have in terms of digital capabilities. We were learning how to run that business as we were deploying new technology, right? So how do you do pricing online appropriately? I remember a lot of conversation. How do you display things? What's the right... How do you check? What's the right checkout flow? And then we had, as all businesses do, you have to make a lot of trade-offs because it may not be the most elegant thing right at the beginning, but we just got to get it up and running, right?Scott:And so having those conversations can be tough, right? Everybody, and especially our business, we just have this DNA where we just relentlessly improve, right? And so it's tough to launch something and know that it's not the perfect solution, right, and then making sure that you go back and you iterate and you keep going, right? We just did that for a long time. But it was a lot of fun and it's really tiring, but it was a lot of fun.Stephanie:So that's amazing. What was one of the maybe projects or things that you felt most strongly about that you got maybe the most pushback on that people are like, nope, that's not a good idea?Scott:I would say, well, we had a lot of conversation about how we were going to set up, for example, in my world, we were going to set up customer service. And we continue to evolve that. I think it wasn't that people were saying it's not how we want to do it, I think it was really more what I was saying about, we want to own more of that customer service experience, right? So we had always been outsourced. And as we moved, as we did the transition, and our previous outsourcer did a great job. And as we move to the next wave of that evolution, we decided we really need to keep an outsourced view in some form or fashion of customer service, but we really wanted to try to start to build our own, right, because we were, "Wonder what we could do on our own?"Scott:So this conversation about, [inaudible] how do you scale for the hockey stick effect that we have at holiday, right, while maintaining the great experience that we have? And we want to in source, but then we want to scale a holiday. We just had a lot of spirited debate about that. So that was part of that conversation.Stephanie:Very cool. And so are you guys kind of now balanced approach when it comes to customer service, depending on what's incoming and how to route it?Scott:Exactly. Right. So we have a team of internal service people that take various types of contacts, and then we have a few outsourced partners that we work extremely closely with. And we balanced the volume across there. And then at holiday time, we scale up across all. And so it's turned out to be... And we're measuring that experience relentlessly. So it's been a great symbiotic relationship, I think, across all three of those.Stephanie:Well, now that you've touched on holiday, I do kind of want to go into peak season and maybe talking about, I mean, you mentioned that you went through this big technology evolution and implementing new things to try and get to where you are now, what did that look like, especially when it comes to preparing for big surges? I mean, I saw your ecommerce I think went up 100% in 2020 or something, so you guys have had massive growth. What did it look like behind the scenes to prepare for that plus peak demand?Scott:I think it's been this... We're very happy that we started when we did, right? when you think about what happened over the past 12 months and what has happened in the ecommerce world and the growth that everybody has seen, we're fortunate that we started four years ago down this path. Because the foundation that we built really allowed us to scale this year really quickly. We've been through all the load tests dynamics that you go through at holiday, we've built the technology stack that can support the traffic that we knew that we were going to get. We've been through the trials and tribulations of how to test, what to test, where to find the failure modes, and we've got really talented people that work on that stuff every day. We've built controls internally to manage where things might not be working appropriately and to be able to balance that.Scott:And as you think about what happened last year, specifically with curbside, it is the example of, it took us four years to become an overnight success type of situation where [inaudible].Stephanie:[inaudible].Scott:Right.Stephanie:[inaudible]. Who knew?Scott:Totally. So I think it was scaling for holiday. We scale every year for holiday. I think last year was one that we didn't quite know, nobody knew what was really going to happen. But I think we over-prepared, and we executed an extremely successful holiday because we just had every... It was so great to see everybody so engaged in solving that challenge and really thinking through every aspect of what might happen in holiday from fulfillment through the web traffic through customer service. And we really came together as a team and figured out all the ways that things could go right and wrong and covered it all. And we had a great holiday season because of it.Stephanie:That's great. So what areas do you think businesses are maybe under-prepared? Is it in the fulfillment piece? Is it in customer service? What are some of the top pillars that you guys covered down on that maybe some people might not be fully prepared for?Scott:I think that we do a great job in measuring and really paying attention to the athlete experience across all measures, right? I think we've pivoted from, I think historically in most businesses have been in a place where you manage internally, right? You're managing things like conversion or traffic or speed to athlete and things like that, and to be the customer, traditional service levels and customer service. I think those are all important, but I think if you take the outside in view, right, and you're looking at things like how are we measuring the experience, what's happening to that customer when they're out there and they're buying from us? But are they buying from us again, right, as an articulation of their commitment to the brand?Scott:And then how do we influence that purchase behavior? And how do you think expansively about that in terms of not only the shopping experience online that they have, but the post-purchase, the delivery experience, the customer service experience, how are you really measuring that data and getting good information and causal information to figure out how you can drive really great lifetime value? And I think we do that and we're really starting to do that really well across our business. And we've gotten so much support for that outside in view, across our leadership team as well that it's become a real engine of thinking across our teams.Stephanie:I mean, it seems like that holistic view is really hard for a lot of companies to get to though. I mean, I hear about a lot of companies trying to consolidate their tech stack, marketing stack, put it all in one area that things actually are connected and you can have attribution and you can see the LTV. How do you guys think about having that view that allows you to make decisions?Scott:I mean, I think that it's philosophical at some level and don't get me wrong, it's hard because I think when you look at the business on a day-to-day basis, all retailers, right, especially those that are public are driving towards hard goals. We take a much longer term view of things generally across the business, which is really refreshing and great. And so it allows us to really make good decisions. When you think about what we're measuring, how we're investing, we're not investing, I mean, obviously we care about the quarter and we care about the year, right? Don't get me wrong, but I think we're making investments that are in the long-term interest of this brand and our customers. I think, we're a really large small business in that regard. And I think we've been able to energize our teammates to deliver that experience on the front line, but also make the investments on the back end of the house that allow us to do that.Stephanie:And I see you guys have been making some big tech investments. I saw, I think Commerce Hub, you did a multi-year deal with them. And I saw something about the vendor partner program that you have. We can kind of plug and play into a bunch of vendors and have an endless aisle. And I was, wow, that could be game changing to be able to pivot quickly and offer, get to the consumer, right, wherever they are, whatever they need, especially in times right now where it's very uncertain. So it seems tech is a big piece of that, towards that investment philosophy right now.Scott:It is.Stephanie:How are you figuring out what you need and how to put the proper pieces in place?Scott:I think we have over 500 vendors in our drop-ship program. And connecting to it has them, and understanding what the inventory is, and getting them to send us the right inventory, and then order information back and forth in real time is incredibly important, which is why we made the investment in Commerce Hub, it has been a great partner for us for a few years now. And it's easy to use. So I think that's that was great for that aspect of our business. I think our vendor relationships are super strong and we're fortunate that we have them because it allows us to be really creative in the way that we go to market. Scott:And I think we're also continuing to build great brands internally, right? And so if you think about, we just recently launched our first brand and it's been a great success so far. It's great stuff. We had got our [inaudible], if you haven't tried it, you should.Stephanie:I haven't. [inaudible].Scott:That's awesome. It's a partnership that we did with Carrie Underwood about six years ago, and it's quickly become our number two selling women's line.Stephanie:Wow. That's awesome.Scott:And then we launched our DSG brand a few years ago, or a year and a half ago, which is really a value-driven brand and with very high quality, right? So when you think about the continuum of our brands, we have very specific and different strategies and they're complex depending on what we're trying to achieve within a given brand or category within that brand. But I think we're fortunate that we've built such great lasting relationships, because again, I think it gets back to, we take a longer term view of things and we really, I think we treat our vendors as partners.Stephanie:Yep. So key, especially in this industry where so much is happening, so much is changing quick and people can get burned really quickly too.Scott:Right, right, right.Stephanie:It also seems being able to plug into a vendor system like that is important, especially around... It seems a lot of companies are doing private label type of things and launching their own brands. I mean, it's not fully reliant now on the big brands and being able to have that flexibility to pull people into your ecosystem that maybe could have never sold at a DICK'S Sporting Goods before, that seems amazing and really allows access in a way that wasn't here maybe five years ago.Scott:It really does. We're always looking for those bets to make with new and upcoming brands. And our vendor director job channel is a great way to sort of test some of these things. So that's definitely, you hit the nail on the head for us. It's a strategy that we actively have and it's nice because my team who manages that part of our business we'll work with our merchants to say, "What could our strategy be with the supplier or partner X?" Right? Some of these folks are small businesses that can't handle our volumes. So if we buy a little bit more, we can test some of them or we can test it in the vendor direct channel. So it's been a real tool for us.Stephanie:Testing's interesting too. I could see kind of doing AB test quickly and see if people like this product and if they like this one more, okay, here's what we're going to go. Maybe we'll circle back with you next year in a much less risky way to bring people in.Scott:We've gotten really good at testing and specifically on the site with how we're thinking about the experience online. And we test almost everything these days, right? I mean, there's some stuff that I think is just go do things, some go do things that we do. But I think generally speaking, we've really developed a muscle around building an experience and testing it and iterating on it to figure out what's really resonating with the athlete most. So everything from shopping experiences on our site all the way down through the conversion funnel to fulfillment, right? And speed and how we're communicating with our athletes.Scott:So I think we've learned so much, and I'm like constantly reminded when we get these, we all kind of make bets, right, when we launched these tests like what do think's going to happen? And I think I'm wrong so often, it's so important to test.Stephanie:Yep.Scott:Good. Because what you think the consumer is going to do they just don't. And even when you think about surveys, I think there's this everybody lies concept, right? And it's true...Stephanie:And depends on what state they're in or where they're at in the day.Scott:Right, right. So I think it's just so invaluable to us.Stephanie:And we do surveys on the show sometimes just to see who do you want on, and how am I doing? And it's, well, it's depends on probably where that person is, if they're happy, if they're sad, it could be different depending on the place that they're in.Scott:For sure.Stephanie:So what's an example of a test that you ran where you were so sure, you're like this one's going to win, everyone was kind of on board with one scenario winning and then the results come back and everyone's wrong?Scott:That's a good question. We just ran one recently that I did win on, which is the one that was top of mind for me coming into this. Let me talk about that one for a second. So the one we launched on same-day, we're trying to figure out what are our athletes appetite is for same-day services. And we did definitely get a lot of engagement on the test. I kind of thought it was going to be more than it was, but it was still interesting, right? So I think that's something that we're going to continue to have conversation on.Stephanie:They wanted it, the majority of the [inaudible]?Scott:I think they did. It wasn't as much as I would've thought, really.Stephanie:Because that's an interesting one that some people on the show said, people just want to know when it's getting there, they're okay if it's not same day, versus if it's more of a commodity product, you better get it to them the same day. And to kind of seems it depends what it is and how much delayed gratification someone can have on it, it depends, it seems.Scott:Yeah. Some of the tests that I think that we've run that have been less intuitive, I just think how products are set up on the site and how people search, right, and find products like you would think that sometimes when you put the best or most visible sort of notable product of the top search results, that's going to create a better conversion and sometimes it just doesn't, right? So it's really people come in I think with a lot of intent around how they're shopping and sometimes what you think is going to happen just doesn't because I think there's so many different ways that people shop.Stephanie:Yep. How do you think about shifting the website either, from what you learned from last year or when you're approaching peak season, are there certain key elements that you adjust knowing that maybe the consumer's are in a very different mindset than they were at any other time in history probably?Scott:Yeah. I think I can speak more to the way that we think about fulfillment in this regard. I always, I historically had thought, that's another example of what I thought was going to happen. I historically thought that during, for example, Black Friday weekend speed was really important, right? I need it, I want to get it fast. And it turns out that weekend in particular speed is not the most important, getting what you want is the most important, right? So getting the deal is the most important. I think it makes sense because most people are thinking, I've got three or four weeks that this thing can get to me. I'm not super concerned to get it next week, just to make sure that I get it, right?Scott:So that's one that we adjust in terms of making sure that we're really being honest with how we're going to fulfill. Thankfully we've got an extraordinarily resilient fulfillment network and we do really well in speed and but historically had been surprised as we've really measured that one over Black Friday weekend. It's really about getting the deal, not the speed.Stephanie:Versus Christmas when everyone's probably last minute shopping, it's probably opposite.Scott:Very different.Stephanie:Okay.Scott:Very different. And as you get into December and you get through towards the ground cutoffs and you get, depending on what's happening, the speed becomes a real issue. Last year was was nuts. I mean, FedEx was running commercials, right? They talked about the speed or buy early. And we definitely saw a little bit of a shift in terms of how people were thinking about buying.Stephanie:So how are you building up that resilience fulfillment network that you mentioned to be able to basically say I can offer anyone the endless aisle, we have unlimited of these, in one moment and then be, okay, now next month got to go, got to be there in three days or less type of scenario?Scott:I think you mentioned it when we kicked off the show, it was we've got over 700 fulfillment locations when you think about our store network, which is a blessing for us because it allows us to really, not only be closer to our athlete and get things there faster, but also allows for a lot of flexibility when... It's just load balancing, right? When you think about a business that has a couple of three, in my past one fulfillment center, when that thing gets backed up, or you have a labor problem or you have whatever the case, would be trucks that don't show up on the receiving dock or the outgoing dock, you're kind of backed up, right?.Scott:And so while that definitely happens across everybody's network, including ours, having all of these different nodes that are moving product out each and every really helps mitigate the risk. And so it also helps us, at peak time, it helps us staff up and get stuff out. And we have we've built a really sophisticated way to manage the way that orders are routing. So we're able to identify where we might have congestion points, for example, and try to proactively avoid those as we see those things happening, right? So we can move orders to one node or another, or block a node if we've got a weather issue or something, or we've got, in the fall when you have hurricanes in Florida, right, or in the Southeast, we're able to really change the way that our orders route to get product out of different places that aren't having those issues.Stephanie:And is that kind of done in the background where it's looking at all these different inputs and then kind of making decisions that you can come in and adjust if you need to, but it's already routing it for you in the background?Scott:Yeah. So part of it's automated part of it's people, right? And it's still a lot of people, right, washing the switches each day. But we've got a great team of people that are communicating, we're communicating out of our stores to my team and fulfillment. We're communicating from my team into stores and we're using the technology that we've built to really manage the capacity and the inventory across the entire network.Stephanie:It seems that is so important too you when you essentially have two business units when it comes to fulfillment, you've got your store locations with one set of data, inventory is probably very hard to track because it's always getting grabbed, it's always getting shipped out, and then you have just maybe a fulfilment center that's a whole different beast probably. How do you get to that consolidate view? Is that part of the backend tech that's kind of looking at it at a higher level, treating it all as one?Scott:It is and it's definitely complex for the reasons that you noted. And it creates, sometimes it can compromise how close we can get to the athlete if we think we've got a unit in Austin, Texas and we actually don't. The fortunate part is instead of canceling that order on you or that unit on you, it's going to go to maybe it'll go to a Dallas store, right? And we can still stay pretty close to you and get it to you. And we're also trying to look at things like, how do we keep packages together? Of course, anybody that's listening to this that manages freight will say, yep, really important from a cost perspective. And frankly, even from, as I mentioned earlier, that athlete experience, people want to get one box, right? I don't want to order three or four different things and get three or four different boxes. And sometimes that's unavoidable, but we're trying everything we can to not let that happen.Stephanie:Oh, blessing.Scott:Totally, right?Stephanie:I get, one company I'm not going to mention their name, they will send a can of soup, anything a bone broth. I mean, it's in these little bags and they just come one at a time. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I just would have rather just gone to the store and picked it up myself than getting random of one item at a time."Scott:It's so wonderful when the customer experience need and the business need align, right? So when you think about, nobody wants to ship more packages to you, right? We want to get it to you, we want to get to you fast and we want to get it to you in one package. And that's also a great experience for you. It's the same thing we talk about with customer service, which is a traditional metric that people manage as average handle time, right? How long are [inaudible]? And I'm so careful, we collectively are so careful with this metric because it can be so disastrous to the teammate that's on the other end of the phone if they think they're being managed to a handle time, right? I don't want to just get you off the phone, however, and you need to use it for all kinds of different scheduling and making sure you have enough people on the team.Scott:But what's really aligned is generally people want to get to an answer pretty quickly also, right? I want to have an efficient, valuable use of my time. I want to get to an answer and then I want to move on with my day. So that's another example of where if we can do it right and align those desires, we're going to create an awesome experience.Stephanie:The unintended consequences, pizzas is such a tricky thing with thinking about designing roles and KPIs. I mean, I'm doing it right now. I'm thinking about sales and building a sales team and being like, oh wait, this might incentivize bad behavior.Scott:You got to really think about it, right?Stephanie:You just think really strategically about it.Scott:The outcome or the impact is very different than the intent in some cases.Stephanie:Yep. Are there any external inputs right now that you think companies aren't preparing for? I'm thinking about the algorithms that are kind of running everything behind the scenes when it comes to your fulfillment and things like that. Is there anything that you guys are watching now that maybe you weren't watching a couple of years ago and letting it help influence how things are routed or how things are kind of being redirected, anything like that?Scott:I mean, I think we're constantly trying to get to be more precise, and we're very fortunate that if everything goes right, we can get you an order really, really quickly. So we're really trying to pay attention to, where are things not going perfectly and we've called this thing the perfect order, what's our perfect order, right? And how do we get more of those? So we're spending a lot of time thinking about how we can perfect our fulfillment network. And I mean, it is, as you can imagine, just an infinite number of variables that dictate how this thing goes. But we're working a lot on that. I do not think that...Stephanie:[inaudible] like local stuff, because that's something that kind of came to mind. You're paying attention to weather and higher level things are you down in the weeds of, okay, well there's a festival this week here so that means... Is it that [inaudible].Scott:It can be. I mean, for example, when we're doing a hot market event, so Super Bowl, NCAA Tournament, they're national events, but their inventories largely local, right? So we're really paying attention to what the traffic is doing and the inventory is doing it at those local levels for sure.Stephanie:I'd love to talk about events a bit because I know that's a focus is the athlete experience online and in person as well. And I saw that you guys are opening more retail locations. You're opening, I think I saw a golf center, I soccer center, I mean, these full on experiences. And I'd love to hear how you guys are thinking about that.Scott:I'm glad you mentioned that we're really proud. We just opened recently the House of Sport up in Victor, New York, which is an expression of what we think the future can be for DICK'S Sporting Goods. And it's really an experiential retail location. So you can go in there, obviously we've got golf simulators and we've got fitting in there. We've got rock walls to climb. We've got an outdoor fitness field where we're doing things and we're engaging the community in different ways. So we're running clinics and figuring out how we can get local teams into their... Engaging in the community in this way has been a part of our brand since 1948, right? So I think, if you read the story of DICK'S and how we were involved in the Binghamton New York community, when the business was founded, it'll give you a sense for why this is important to us.Scott:And we just believe that, we say it all the time, we believe that sports makes people better. So how do we think about engaging in the community where we're at? We've done this forever in community marketing, and you see how we donate equipment to local teams and so forth. This is kind of another evolution of that, where we think we can make a big impact, we can change the way that people think about retail. And I think it'll quickly get to how do we merge the online and the brick and mortar or traditional retail experience? So I think that's a place that is really exciting to us right now.Stephanie:I was just thinking about, how do you create, you have a view where you know this person came in to this event and they were using the golf simulator, and they really liked this club. And then they either bought in store or maybe four weeks later they ended up online and bought the one that they were using? Do you feel you're moving in a direction where you're going to have that viewpoint? And it's not a hard time to get there.Scott:Yeah, I think we're getting there. I think we're really focused on data and analytics, right? And so I think our ability to stitch together these experiences, we're building that muscle. I don't think that we're totally there yet, but we've got really smart people that are thinking about this. And I think we're moving in that direction because that's the key. We're not really worried about what channel you buy in, right? I think it's more about, are we the retailer of choice for you, right? And however that experience, the experience that we can build for that, it's important to measure it because then I think it unlocks the investment in the targeted areas that are going to drive more of that for our athletes. So I think that's where we're really focused.Stephanie:Have you thought about creating essentially kind of a guide shop, but you have the soccer experience or something, and then just a small shop where maybe you can look at a few other things, but then essentially you're going back online to order whatever you played with and got to experiment with, or are you doing full on retail location as always, and then often this area we're doing our experience center?Scott:We haven't done really pop up experiences, guide shop experiences like that. We're moving more towards, how do we create a more scaled experiential experience in store and then how do we measure that in terms of who might go online to buy.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). I love that. I'm excited to see... I need to visit one of those stores, especially the soccer one. I mean, I don't know what it's going to be happening there, but I want to be there.Stephanie:I want to hear, which I feel you'll have a great answer for is what are you all most excited about right now over the next one to two years? What are you most passionate about?Scott:We're excited about a lot of things. And as usual, we have a very full plate. So I think things that we've already deployed that we'll continue to refine, things like our curbside program or a buy and pickup in store program for online, we're really excited about that. That's got a long runway of improvement, enhancement, and creativity that's going to be placed into that program. We are really excited about this merger of... I'm really excited about the merger of stores and online specifically around becoming a trusted advisor to our athletes. So if you think about the breadth of the teammates that we have, and when you walk into our stores or you talk to our people online, everybody's got a passion, right? Your passion is lacrosse and soccer.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative).Scott:How do we think about unlocking that potential, right, in terms of then being able to help our customer, whether that customer is buying first player pair of soccer cleats for their son, to getting ready to play club soccer, to getting ready to go off and play soccer at a D1 level or beyond, right? So how do we look at that continuum of expertise and really become that trusted advisor, both online and in our stores? And I think that is incredibly exciting venture. And we do it well today. I think there's an opportunity to do it even better. So we're really excited about that. We're really excited about the assortment, right, that we're going to continue to launch online. I think it's going to be differentiated. I think it's going to keep our position in the market really strong.Scott:So I think the product that we put in there, the expertise that we put in there is going to be differentiated in the market, right? And that I think is probably more incremental and more incremental expression to the core business. And then we're going to continue to press. Game Changer has been a great business for us for years. And that team is great. And they continue to build a technology that service the baseball market. But we're always looking for different ways that we can expand or innovate across the industry.Stephanie:I love that, you know what? We need like, what do you do after college? I always think about that and I'm like, I loved playing sports. But then you start working, and then you have kids, and then you're, I still want to play, but how do I get back into it? And something is missing there, Scott. [inaudible].Scott:No, but I love... So that's who we want. That's another sort of persona that we really want to love to serve in our stores. Because I'm one of them.Stephanie:I'm your person.Scott:Right.Stephanie:We're the people.Scott:We're the people. And I think what we want to be able to do, I love talking about this. I think in our stores and online, our ability to listen and inspire, right, how do we help you meet that goal, right? "Hey, I'm doing a couch to 5k first time. I'm starting to get active." Or, for me, the 5'8 guy that always had a dream of the NBA that never came to fruition because my vertical is about that high. I still play. I want to make sure that I can get all the gear that I need to be competitive, right, or to achieve my personal best.Scott:So I love the fact that we can really positively impact people's lives in that way. And I think we want to make... I would love to make sure personally that anybody that walks into our store and knows that we're not just a sporting goods retailer, right? I think we want to make sure that we're helping, we want to facilitate you achieving your dreams. And then we talk a lot about that internally. So if we can translate or transmit that feeling to our athletes, I think that's really powerful.Stephanie:And also makes me think about creating custom leagues too, where it's, this is a different kind of league. It's not the traditional school. It's not even people creating their own volleyball leagues. It's we are a part of this. We're making sure that this can happen for people who struggle to even find those networks. I mean, I know back when I was in DC, I looked for where's some other women who play lacrosse? I don't really want to play with guys who are going to be checking me and I count find it, super hard to find. I mean, it's easy to find some sports in a community setting, but it's very hard to find people in certain other sports settings.Scott:You're right. There's a social, I don't want to, careful to say social network, but there is this idea of how do I plug into people that are me within a certain geographical area, right? That would be interesting. That's really interesting. Thanks for that one. Let me...Stephanie:Take it back to leadership. We just need a parenting kit. It's, here's everything you need so that we can go play our sports and then your kids are entertained. They get many lacrosse sticks. You go there and then I'll go off on my own so I can actually play, give me the kid.Scott:I love that idea.Stephanie:I want to think like such parents. Anyone who's not a parent is probably, "What are y'all talking about right now?"Scott:What are you talking about? Yep.Stephanie:Yep. All right. So let's shift over to the lightning round. Lightning round is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I ask a question and you have a minute or less to answer. Are you ready?Scott:I think so.Stephanie:Okay. So I'm sad, I haven't asked this yet and don't know this, but what is your favorite sport?Scott:Basketball.Stephanie:Oh, nice.Stephanie:And who's your favorite sports team?Scott:It's always been the Chicago Bulls since back in the day, which is probably blasted me because I live in Pittsburgh. So to not say football and the Pittsburgh Steelers is a problem.Stephanie:You'd probably get egged.Scott:Probably. But they're close second.Stephanie:That's good. What is the nicest thing anyone's done for you?Scott:Oh, wow. I'm going to struggle. I'm going to go to my kids. I think my kids being, this is going to sound so cheesy, but it's so serious. The way that my kids treat other people with respect and kindness, I think is the thing that comes to mind for me first. And I know that's probably not the answer that you would normally get.Stephanie:Nope, I like it.Scott:To me that's pretty important. So I'm really proud of them. And I think that's probably the best thing that somebody could do for me.Stephanie:I love that. There's so much you can learn from kids. I think about that all the time. So I'm the person who is here for those cheesy kind of kid answers. You're in the right space. What's one thing you don't know that you wish you understood better?Scott:American history comes to mind?Stephanie:That's a good one.Scott:I don't think that's on topic, but that's the first one that comes to mind.Stephanie:When you want to feel more joy, what do you do?Scott:It's going to sound crazy. I tell people, thank you.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative).Scott:Right. So I just believe that there's a lot... I get a lot of energy from being grateful, right? And so that's what I do. If I'm really feeling a little down or if I'm really stressed or some of the times the way that I work out and I get the endorphins mode going, that's one way to do it, and the other way is to be grateful for things. So I feel that's the way I get a lot of energy.Stephanie:I love that. All right. And then the last one, I mean, it seems you guys are very much ahead on a lot of things within the ecosystem. What do you do to stay on top of the trends? Are you watching other companies? Are you reading things, what are you doing to stay on top?Scott:I think it's a combination of experiencing and reading. I don't read nearly enough, it's hard, right? There's so much the content that comes out and not enough time. So I'm trying to just experience things out in the wild right? I'm talking to a lot of people, whether it's parents at a game or if it's just my own experiences online, and I'm trying to translate that to what's happening and why companies would do things a certain way. And then my team is doing the same thing. So I think we're trying to stay close. We're trying to stay close that way and certainly reading and engaging in conversations like this also kind of help.Stephanie:Good. That's awesome. Well, cool. Well, Scott, thank you so much for joining us. It was really fun to hear all about what you guys are up to. Where can people find more about DICK'S Sporting Goods and find you?Scott:I think www.dickssportinggoods.com. For the story of Public Lands and Golf Galaxy, and you can find me at LinkedIn, on LinkedIn.Stephanie:Amazing. Thank you so much.Scott:Thank you so much for having me. It's been a great time.

Thank you for listening to our Finding Brave show, ranked in the Top 100 Apple Career Podcasts! “We have choices about how we show up, about the choices we make, and what we do. It’s there that we can start to listen to that deepest, highest part of ourselves. When we do, when we live in this “Full Body YES.” Then we light ourselves up and that light then reflects against everybody else’s light, and we light them up as well.” - Scott Shute Are you maximizing the time you spend doing the things you really care about? Today’s Finding Brave guest reveals how you can discover what is most important to you and why, which will set you on the path to empower yourself by zeroing in on your strengths and inner self. Scott Shute is the Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs at LinkedIn and has been an active advocate for customers and employees in the technology space for over 20 years, with roles ranging from sales, customer advocacy and customer service leadership. While serving as LinkedIn’s Vice President of Global Customer Operations, Scott managed a team of over 1,000 employees before switching gears to combine his long-time passions for practical leadership practices and operations experience. Scott's mission to change work from the inside out by mainstreaming mindfulness and operationalizing compassion has lent to his leadership style and allowed him to live in the intersection of the workplace and ancient wisdom practices. As Scott shares, by understanding that you have a choice to give a “Full Body YES” to what you really want, you’ll realize the amount of control you truly have in your life. The key is to realize that at all times it is your responsibility to take the reins of your life and move towards your own destiny, whatever that may look like to you. To learn more about today's guest, visit: https://www.scottshute.com/ 

Scaly, fire-breathing dragons don’t roam the earth anymore. (Wait, did they ever? I, for one, like to think that maybe, just maybe, they did.) But dragons tromp around in our lives nevertheless. These dragons are harder to see but arguably just as deadly.  In this episode, Scott Larson shares how he slayed a dragon he discovered lurking in his own life, stealthily and with life-suppressing intent. The whole tale looks commonplace enough from the outside, but Scott knows what it really took to deal the death blow to his personal dragon.  Few things instruct and inspire us as well as another person’s Story. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then one person’s Story might be worth a million. So I was thrilled when Scott agreed to share an excerpt from his Story for our benefit. From Scott’s story, we learn how to slay our own dragons.    How This Episode Came to Be Scott and I recently concluded a six-month coaching partnership. As our partnership progressed, it began to dawn on me that Scott’s Story exemplifies literally all of the concepts that I’ve shared in the short-form topical episodes of this podcast: especially becoming the boss of your fear, harnessing discomfort to get where you want to go, daring to dream again, moving from the cabin to the cockpit, hearing and heeding your Inner Voice, the contentment conundrum, and breaking the stuckness stalemate.  And it also dawned on me that in addition to hearing me talk about those concepts and how they’ve worked in my life, it might be good to hear how they’ve played out in someone else’s life--and in Scott’s case, over a really short period of time, with transformational effect. Which is less of a testament to my effectiveness as a coach and more of a testament to the power of the concepts themselves when applied with the kind of honest self-examination and Courage that Scott has consistently employed.     Meet Scott Larson Scott is a devoted husband and father, gifted marketing professional, and avid outdoorsman. He, his wife, and their two kids live here in Steamboat Springs--we’re neighbors, in fact--and it’s a pleasure to present a chapter from Scott’s Story to help you “see” even more clearly what I’ve been attempting to say all along.    A Dream Realized...A Dream Jeopardized Scott and his family arrived in Steamboat in February 2020--chasing a dream of life in a small mountain town with the great outdoors at their doorstep. A dream that put quality of life above climbing the corporate ladder in a city they had no interest of living in. Dream realized! Sweet! Then, just a few months after arriving, Scott lost his job. Oh, and a pandemic was beginning to wreak havoc around the globe. Crap.  Suddenly, the Steamboat Dream was jeopardized.  Now Scott began to consider that maybe he was incapable as a man, husband, father, and professional. This was their fourth move in 5 years for work, yet another in a pattern of jobs gained and jobs lost or left. Was there something more deeply wrong with him as a person? What a tough thing to begin wondering about yourself. What a heavy accusation to level at yourself!    Insight + Action = Transformation It was about that time that Scott and I began our coaching partnership to help him navigate this new and unwelcome transition. In the full episode, Scott recounts how new insights led to new actions that ultimately led to transformation. Two assessments, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) “put a vocabulary to the things that I already knew, but it helped to solidify and synthesize it for me so it was something I could speak to and relate to more readily. It brought it more to the forefront of my thinking as well.” A values exercise also helped him evaluate how well his actual life aligned with his most deeply-held values. And reconsideration of how he defines success led to a major overhaul of his definition of success. Tune into the full episode to hear more.    Creating an Owner’s Manual As the coaching partnership progressed, Scott began assembling a personal owner’s manual. A guide to the kind of human he is, his ideal operating conditions, and his adverse operating conditions. Three basic categories of content were populated: nature, nurture, and now. “Nature” were Scott’s default settings, and MBTI and HAB were the two primary tools used to populate that category. “Nurture” were those things Scott acquired along the way in life, intentionally or otherwise--like after-market modifications. The most important of those were acquired beliefs, like the definition of success that he decided to upgrade upon realizing that it wasn’t actually his definition of success. And finally the “Now” category: values, interests, opportunities, obligations, etc. that became key determinants in how he applies Nature and Nurture.    Inner Voice + Courage = Action Then, new and improved owner’s manual in hand, Scott was faced with a moment of truth: a job offer...in a situation similar to his past gigs. But the owner’s manual wasn’t enough on its own. On the one hand, it still felt like maybe the only responsible thing to do was take the job. But he paused to tune into his inner voice with new focus and resolve to heed what he heard. And the message he heard was clear. But Courage was needed to act on what he heard, so Scott chose Courage in that moment, bet on himself, and didn’t take the job.  As Scott discovered, Courage isn’t something that you have to go out and find. It’s something you choose. It’s simple on one level. But it definitely isn’t easy. And Courage is the secret sauce in Scott’s whole story.    “I bet on myself, and I didn’t take the job.”  This is the pivotal moment in this whole story--the moment of crisis, the moment of resolute action in a new direction. If this was a fairy tale, this would be the moment when the hero slays the dragon. It’s that big a deal.  It’s THE moment when Scott moved from drafting an outline for a new chapter in his story and actually began to write it. This is THE moment when Scott went from considering taking a new path and actually began to walk down that new path. This is THE moment when Scott placed one of the best bets that any of us can ever make by betting on himself. It’s the moment when Scott quit just cutting bait and actually started fishing.  What’s maybe even more significant about this moment, though, is that it was not just one big step down a new path for Scott, it was an evolutionary leap in life overall. Scott created within himself an exponentially greater capacity for change and growth and learning in this moment. Many moments and much toil and trepidation led up to this moment. Then Scott converted all of many difficult moments into powerful, positive forward momentum.  This is the way, folks--not just for Scott, but for all of us. Insight + Action = Transformation, and Courage is the activating agent.    What Now?  Having slayed a personal dragon and begun to travel down a new path, Scott’s next challenge was to figure out what to do professionally if he wasn’t going to return to the path he’d been on before. The answers weren’t automatic, but Scott was now free to pursue them with new clarity about the kind of human he is, his ideal operating conditions, his adverse operating conditions, his true definition of success, and his most deeply-held values. Eventually, Scott decided to hang his shingle as an independent marketing consultant. And it wasn’t long after that that he secured his first client--a client that he still partners with today.    Other, Less-Obvious But Incredibly Powerful Forces at Work Scott and I paused to acknowledge several other things that helped Scott successfully slay a personal dragon to access the path marked “Scott Larson’s Way.”  Scott achieved a new degree of self-permission--that privilege of adulthood that many of us have a hard time grasping. When he began to give himself more permission to look at things his own way and do what he wanted to do, he started becoming even more of the man he’s made to be and living the life that he’s uniquely made to live more fully. I think more of us doing that is a very good thing--not only for our own personal enjoyment, fulfillment, and productivity, but also because a more fulfilled Scott, for example, leads to a happier husband, an even more engaged and thoughtful Dad, a more active member of the community Scott also risked a new level of self-trust--a new willingness to tune into his inner voice, hear and heed what it whispered to him about the truth of his existence, and bet on himself.  And Scott assumed even more self-responsibility--putting himself more firmly in the driver’s seat of his life than ever before and accepting all of the consequences.    Tune in for the Full Effect These shownotes can’t do justice to the whole conversation and the value of Scott’s story to all of us. I hope you’ll tune in to the full episode for the full effect!  Also, as I mentioned at the beginning, Scott’s story exemplifies literally all of the concepts I’ve shared in the short-form topical episodes of this podcast.  Tune in to those episodes for a deeper dive:  Ep. 005 | How to Become the Boss of Your Fear: Bravery-building to Live With More Guts and Gusto Ep. 012 | How to Harness the Winds of Discomfort to Get Where You Want to Go: Becoming a Seasoned Sailor on the Seas of Life Ep. 014 | Dare to Dream Again: The Antidote to a Mediocre Life Ep. 016 | The Question that Changes Everything: The Go-to Tool for Living the Life You Were Made to Live Ep. 017 | Busting the “Balance” Myth: A Better Way Ep. 019 | The Cockpit is Yours: From Passenger to Pilot Ep. 022 | Tune Out to Tune In: Hearing and Heeding Your Inner Voice in a World Full of Noise Ep. 024 | My Top 5 Takeaways from 2020: How Conversations with My Guests Changes Me Ep. 027 | Breaking the Stuckness Stalemate: A Path to Transformation Ep. 028 | Breaking the Stuckness Stalemate (Part 2): The 5 Ingredients in the Recipe for Using Stuckness to Our Benefit, with Chad James   Bringing It Home What part of Scott’s story could you identify with most? What part of Scott’s story inspired you the most or provoked a bit of envy? Maybe Scott’s story has stirred within you fresh resolve to take action to improve your situation in some way or pursue a dream that you’ve pushed aside for too long. Courage is the secret sauce. Courage is the catalyst that moves you from Insight to Action so you can achieve Transformation. And Courage isn’t “out there” waiting for you to find it. It’s right here, right now--waiting for you to CHOOSE it.  And if you need a little extra nudge, fill your sails with the pressure of your Mortality. You really ARE going to die, and there’s no way of knowing when that day will come. But if you’re waiting for tomorrow to get moving, ladies and gents, it’s time to get honest and acknowledge that the elusive “tomorrow” never comes. There is only “today.” Take one NEW step TODAY and become even more of the person you were made to be and live even more of the life you were made to live--with guts, gusto, and abandon.     Let’s Connect I hope today’s episode has been helpful and enlightening! It’d be a pleasure to connect with you. Find me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, visit my website, or email me. Go here to learn about Graveyard Group masterminds----where we make time each week to invest in your life's most important work. Remember, you ARE going to die. But you’re not dead yet. So get after it!   Follow Andrew Petty is Dying & Leave a Review   Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher

Although we love to share travel tips and advice about travel around Asia with expert guests, there’s nothing like sharing travel stories. As Scott and Trevor have been living in Asia for 41 years, they’re well-worn, traveled, and traversed expats with quite a few travel tales. But despite spending so much of their lives in Asia, Trevor and Scott are still amazed by how often there’s something wild just around the corner on a weekly, if not sometimes daily basis. Life continues to amaze and these experiences make for good stories. In this episode of Talk Travel Asia Podcast, Scott and Trevor share some wild stories about life living and traveling Asia in the fourth part of our Tantalizing Travel Tales series. Get a comfy seat, pour yourself a drink, and get ready to be transported throughout Asia.

On behalf of F5 and Carahsoft, we would like to welcome you to today's podcast, focused around zero trust, where Scott Rose, computer scientist at NIST and a co-author on NIST's 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture publication; Gerald Caron, Director of Enterprise Network Management for the Department of State; Brandon Iske, Chief Engineer at DISA; and Jason Wilburn, zero trust engineer at F5, will discuss the pros and cons of different zero trust designs, how other federal initiatives tie into zero trust, and understanding what zero trust principles do for cybersecurity posture. Ryan Johnson: Thank you. Once again thanks, everyone, for joining. My name is Ryan Johnson. I'm a solutions engineering manager with F5 Government Solutions. Today, we have a group of exciting guests, mostly from the federal space, to discuss zero trust in theory and talk about the implementation of zero trust. First off, I have Scott Rose with NIST. Scott, would you like to talk a little bit about yourself?Scott Rose: Sure, thanks. I'm Scott Rose. I am currently at the Information Technology Lab at NIST. I am the coauthor of the NIST special publication 800-207, Zero Trust Architecture, and also, attached as a subject matter expert for the upcoming NCCOE, or National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence Project on Zero Trust Architecture.Ryan Johnson: Thank you, Scott. If anyone hasn't had a chance to read that 800-207, definitely take a look. It's well worth your time. Next off, we have Gerald Caron who's with HHS. Gerald, would you like to tell us a little about yourself?Gerald Caron: Well, I'm on detail to HHS, but technically I am the representative of the Department of State, then SES. I'm the director for Enterprise Network Management at the Department of State. Basically, the infrastructure person, do the network, active directory, a lot of the security implementation aspects of things. I am participating and starting to co-chair the CIO's innnovation council working group on zero trust. I am Forrester certified and zero trust strategist as well.Ryan Johnson: Very good. Thank you, Gerald. Next up, we have Jason Wilburn with F5 Networks. He's identity and access guru or [inaudible 00:02:20], if you will. Jason, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?Jason Wilburn: Sure. Thanks, Ryan. So, I'm a system engineer, covering the system integrator space for F5 Federal. But as Ryan mentioned, I am also the co-lead for [inaudible 00:02:35], which is anything related to access and authorization controls or access policy manager product.Ryan Johnson: Thank you, Jason. Next up, we have Brandon Iske with DISA. Brandon, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself.Brandon Iske: Yes, thank you, Ryan. So, I'm Brandon Iske. I'm the Chief Engineer for our Security Enablers Portfolio. So, that includes ICAM or Identity and Credential Access Management, Zero Trust reference architecture development, Public Key Infrastructure, PKI, and then Software Defined Enterprise. So, I'm part of the Defense Information Systems Agency. Again, it's a [inaudible 00:03:12] support agency to the Department of Defense. Thank you.Ryan Johnson: Well, thank you, Brandon. There are two topic we're going to talk about. The first is behind the theory Zero Trust, understanding federal zero trust straight from the source. The second topic is the reality, the implementation of zero trust. So, jumping into the first topic, the theory. This question to you, Scott Rose. You're one of the authors of NIST 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture. Can you tell us briefly what problem zero trust is trying to solve, and what are the main goals?Scott Rose: Well, yeah, zero trust is the new paradigm of how you want to look at enterprise security. Basically it's taking a lot of the trends that we saw emerging over the last 10 years or so and pulling them together and layering them together to solve what we see is like company attacks that the common script from attacks that you see are going out there. It's where the initial breach happens. The attacker then moves laterally through the network, and then performs the actual attack ransomware, data exfil, whatever. Then they're not discovered until the next audit, some six, eight months later.Zero trust tries to minimize that kind of attack scenario where you segment away, you micro segment away resources, you do endpoint security, you do strong authentication both inside the infrastructure, on-prem as well as outside coming in to limit that lateral movement and make sure that every connection from a client to an enterprise and resource is both authenticated and authorized. The ideas that you want to try, don't rely on your perimeter defenses anymore, but you're doing it every step of the way. So, there's a little mini perimeter around like now, every resource and every user. So, you always have, at least, more knowledge, not total knowledge, of what's going on in your enterprise.Ryan Johnson: Thank you Scott. This next question is for you, Gerald. What is the biggest misconception about zero trust?Gerald Caron: First of all, the level setting on the definition that I find is most difficult and people really understanding. No offense to any of the vendors here, but depending on who you talk to, they spend the definition their own way. So getting that common understanding of what zero trust is, is really important. Some people think its identity, but it's a little more than that. As Scott was saying, it's about protecting what's important and shifting that paradigm in that culture that we do. We're very compliance-focused culture. FISMA makes us that way, put our scorecards, things like that.But I think zero trust gets us to a more effective cybersecurity posture. Commonly, we've done that peanut butter spread approach, where we try to protect everything equally, with Frederick the Great says, "If you try to protect everything equally, you protect nothing." That quote up, basically, but great IT innovator that he was. But really that peanut butter spread approach is not sustainable. You can't cover everything you can't 100 be and 100% patched when you have 109,000 workstations across the world. It's pretty unlikely.So what's important, as Scott was talking about? What's important? Definitely, if you need to understand what zero trust is. You're grappling with that definition. Yes, definitely. Don't suggest, but do read 800-207. I believe, and Scott would agree with me that, that's going to morph as new technologies and capabilities and concepts come about, that that is going to morph and mature as we go along on this journey as well.Ryan Johnson: Yeah, I would agree with you on that. This next question's to Brandon. Looking ahead, what are the next or the biggest stumbling blocks for creating a zero trust environment?Brandon Iske: Thank you for that question. So from my perspective, I think within DISA and DoD again, we're a very large environment. So I think from our vantage point, just trying to set the standards is really what where we're at. So again, we very much leverage the 800-207 as a framework for DoD and what we develop for the zero trust reference architecture. So, we've recently approved that. So that's available internal to the DoD right now. So that's our way to get the common framework, and language, and taxonomy established across the department.Other trends, we see, again a lot of the pillars of zero trust really do rely on existing capabilities and cybersecurity efforts that we have. From my vantage point, I think there are a few gaps in those technologies, at least, for what the department has adopted from an enterprise perspective. So, I'll talk on some of those. Again, it's making sure we're doing the existing capabilities, whether it's ICAM, whether it's endpoint, whether it's network segmentation. All those things really have to start coming together. Again, it's eliminating those stove pipes and enabling more API access to these capabilities, tighter integration, and really trying to drive towards conditional access beyond just what we do with PKI, CAC, or PIV today.The one gap I see the department has been looking at pretty heavily across the board is as how do we access our IL5 cloud environments from commercial internet. Really with COVID and mass telework, that's been a big challenge for us is to enable secure, collaboration, and access to applications and data, but still from most of us being off the network. So, for [inaudible 00:09:07] that's a big challenge because, in those cases, a lot of our designs assume all the users are on inside the perimeter. So, this concept really changes that or turns the problem on its head. So again, that's secure access.We're also looking at some of the SASE-type capabilities or secure access edge capabilities. But even in that space, the duty is large. We're not going to be able to just use one vendor across the board. So, trying to drive interoperability of those capabilities, looking at what's best of breed, but also how can we... I don't want to have 10 agents on my computer just to be able to get to different applications across the department. So those are some of the big challenge I think we still see us ahead beyond just the obvious cultural challenges of getting everyone to understand the concept, build their maturity model towards that, and then adopt these concepts and integrations.Ryan Johnson: Yeah. I would definitely agree with you. This is not a single vendor solution by any means. This will be a grouping of different vendors to maybe some homegrown stuff to address these type of issues. Thank you, Brandon. Next question is to Jason Wilburn. Zero trust makes identity to the new perimeter. Why does zero trust take this approach?Jason Wilburn: So, one of the things that I always laugh when I hear that it's the new perimeter because I've heard that it's the new perimeter for 10 years. I think I even have it coined from F5 from eight years ago, they said identity is the new perimeter. So I guess my wife's car that's 10 years old is still new to her. So, the fact is, is identity, really, is a linchpin in a zero trust infrastructure because without identity, you can't really secure anything because we have to know who that person is or what is making that request. That becomes really important in a couple of things.One is the account creation. Are we creating accounts? Where do those accounts live, and how many entities of that identity actually just wrote an organization because the identity of John Smith can exist in multiple places? Really, what we're trying to do is to reduce the number of identities down to really holistically one single identity for, say, John Smith. But also, the next piece and that is really getting down to how they authenticate or how they assert themselves inside of the environment. That really gets down to things like multifactor neighbor, or if we can really get to the holy grail of going full password, which in the federal space we do a lot of password list-based authentication, doing things like smart cars, CAF, PIV, things like that.That's really what we're trying to do is truly validate that that user is who they really are because to truly achieve zero trust, a lot of things revolve around one knowing who that user is and then once that user starts doing things within the network, really, should he be able to do those things in this network based off the permission levels and their user behavior and the device they're coming from, and where they're going to, but it all really revolves around the first step, and that user... they're truly identifying who that user is.Ryan Johnson: Yeah. That ties into what everyone else has said, as well Jason. Appreciate that. The-Gerald Caron: Ryan, can I add something to that question?Ryan Johnson: Absolutely.Gerald Caron: That identity of the new perimeter thing really scares me because then people get super focused on identity and say [inaudible 00:12:57] zero trust. That's just a, for lack of a better term, a pillar. Everything Jason said is absolutely important. But if Jason's account got compromised, for instance, what's the first two questions probably the cyber guy is going to ask that's looking at the problem? What did he have access to, and is there [inaudible 00:13:16]?So it actually becomes about the data more than anything. So, it's about protecting that data at the end of the day. So I think it's really important. I think one of the things that, really, an identity itself is we do it very linear today, where it's one-time authentication, it's one-time access and then. Okay. Have a nice day. It's got to be a constant dynamic checking and rechecking of many other factors, as well as authentication and access. It's going to be continuous.Jason Wilburn: Yeah. You're completely right, Gerald. Identity really is just one more data point to determine access to something, right?Gerald Caron: Yeah, I totally agree. I just like to clarify that that's just one piece of it. [crosstalk 00:14:01].Ryan Johnson: Not the entire enchilada, if you will.Gerald Caron: Correct because I see a lot of people talk about it that way.Jason Wilburn: No, no.Ryan Johnson: Yeah, I would agree with you on that because a lot of places aren't doing that currently, and they think this is the solution, but it's just, like you said, part of the solution.Jason Wilburn: Right. The enforcement point, like to take back to Scott's document, with the 207, the enforcement point's right, they will know about the identity, but the enforcement point takes in a lot more consideration beyond just the user's identity. There's all that telemetry data that we're getting in. What's the machines coming from? What they're trying to access? There's lots more information than just the user identity to determine access control.Gerald Caron: Right. It's not always a human, right.Jason Wilburn: That's right.Gerald Caron: There's data flowing all the time and then there's data at rest. So, you got to protect that. There's not always the human involved.Jason Wilburn: Completely right. So let's go down the road of what do we do with the service account that's coming from and making an API call from one PC to another PC in the same data center. How do you validate that and secure that beyond really when I think... a lot of times when we talk about zero trust, a lot of times we talk about remote users or just users in general, talking to resources and what we've been trying to get away from [inaudible 00:15:24] the user doesn't really matter where they live, whether they live in corporate environment or whether they live at home, or they're in Starbucks, where the user live resides doesn't really matter because at a network level, that's just an IP address.We care about, one, how did they authenticate; and two, what device are they trying to access from, not just... is he on the corporate... The corporate land might give us more information and more telemetry by just being on the WiFi at Starbucks, but it's more than identity definitely.Ryan Johnson: One thing that really hits home for me is the proliferation of modern applications, and API's talking everything. You got APIs on the cloud or even within the same agency or interagency or app, however, and Gerald's point about these non-human interactions verifying those, especially, when it's so spread out with different APIs. To me that really hits home. The next question is to Scott. There are multiple architectures listed in the 800-207. Why would an organization choose one architecture over another?Scott Rose: Basically, as they need to look at whatever they're trying to push a zero trust architecture on, what workflow, what mission they're doing, all that will help decide which model will fit best for them. You got to take into account, both what they may already have owned or what technology needs they have, what can they just... what they can use anyway, just configure in a different way. Let's say they already went with vendor A and they have an installed base, but there are certain features that they're not using now, but as they move towards a zero trust architecture, they just turn those on because some things work better than others, some solutions require like agents installed, may not be able to put agents on things, especially if you're looking at [inaudible 00:17:28] an IoT kind of deployment. You can't push a lot of agents on the small form devices, but you have to go with a different model there.But when it comes to the approaches that we described, like the enhanced identity governance, microsegmentation, software-defined perimeters, I think of the most mature as zero trust enterprises and architectures out there will have elements of all three. Those three approaches, we're just calling those like what is the load bearing technology that you're using in your architecture, whereas the models are more of what kind of products are you using, that dictates the model. Whereas like what technology are you putting the emphasis on, whether you're the identity management governance part, the micro segmentation parts, or using a software-defined networking or software-defined perimeter model. All those depends what's you're doing in that initial analysis, both what is the mission or workflow that you're working on to try and make more secure, and then you develop the other set of policies and controls around those, and then those guide you as to which model that you may be going towards.Ryan Johnson: Thank you, Scott. Appreciate that. Next question is to Gerald. Looking into the future, what's next in zero trust? What technologies are going to impact zero trust security or require security in a different way than we see right now?Gerald Caron: Technology moves so fast nowadays, you can't keep up. As I'm speaking right now something new, something new just come out that I don't know about. But Brandon, I think, mentioned SASE and edge computing. I think that's something that people are very much looking at services through the cloud. One of the things I advocate for that I'm looking at is I hate being tethered to an on-premise network. We're in a new normal. Everybody's working mobily now. I have to Boomerang back just to go back out to the cloud on the internet. So, how can I be untethered but to have all the security that I need in telemetry to make the right decisions is something that I'm looking at. So, it's something that I advocate for as well.So, technology is moving so fast. I think some are a little more mature than others in this space. But I see it's going to be very much competitive because we're all looking this way now. I think, as I said before, we're all trying to become more effective at our cybersecurity, not just check marks and coming compliant. We really need to protect the data and then the things that we need to protect. I equate I get to protect the crown jewels versus the bologna sandwich. You can have my bologna sandwich. But I'm going to put my concentration on those crown jewels.So understanding what's important to you and understanding what the heck is your risk posture. A lot of people struggle with accepting and understanding what their risk is. There is a lot of non-technical aspects to zero trust that people need to understand, the methodologies, what is your risk tolerance and the processes, and what is the data, and where is your data, and what is that categorization of that data. Those are all non-technical things. There's a lot of work in those areas that people do struggle with that I find. So, there's a lot. But I see every day talking with a lot of vendors, there's a lot of maturity in the space, and I just look forward to seeing some of the capabilities because there's a lot of concepts in 800-207, like I talked about ongoing authentication and ongoing access.Right now, it's very linear still. That's something that would be maturing that people are looking at doing so. I think there's a lot. I look forward to it because a lot of people are putting their emphasis here, especially, with what we just experienced with the solar winds. There's a lot of focus in this area now, even more so if there wasn't before.Brandon Iske: Ryan, if I can add in there, I think, Gerald is spot on. I think, as we can build towards more dynamic access, conditional access, and then having applications be aware of that context to govern what I can and can't do what's on that application. I think that's where... As all this comes together, those are the type of outcomes that we start to get at, whether if I'm from a personal device and maybe a low-assurance model, maybe I can't download attachments or something, but I can view those or view some content. So, those additional granular controls, I think, start to come out there, become achievable once we have some of these capabilities, conditional access and aggregation of telemetry together as well.Jason Wilburn: If I can jump in, too, Ryan. I think that just being able to absorb the additional telemetry data, whether it be some sort of behavioral analytics coming out of a risk engine, just coming out of various security tools, I thought had mentioned this before, the breaking down of the silos between the team. I think that's one of the biggest things about zero trust. Holistically, from a security model perspective, what we're saying is that, hey, it all needs to work together as a single point of control that is closest to the resource, that Gerald mentioned. There can be some context around it that no longer is it just the firewall blocking IPEs and things like that, and DLP looking at data exfil, and antivirus looking at what's happening on the server from a virus perspective or malware happening on the client. It all needs to work together, and it all needs to come back because that becomes part of the behavior or of the workflow that's happening between the client and the resources for accessing so that we can truly understand, is this a permitted flow? Yeah, this is a permitted user coming from a permitted device to a resource that it should have allowed to.But based off not just what happened at the very beginning of the session, but what's happening throughout the life of the session, what's changed throughout the life of the session, that becomes critically important to really secure everything day one because back to Gerald's data exfil comment. Cool. You've got access to the data right now. Should you be able to download some document or upload some document five minutes into the session based off what something has changed? Maybe not.Ryan Johnson: Yeah, I agree that's what we're trying to get to. All right. That concludes the first topic of the theory. Now, we're going to jump into the second topic, the reality, adopting zero trust. The first question is once again to Scott Rose. What components are available to federal entities to assist in forming zero trust architecture?Scott Rose: Well, most of these are not real solid technologies, but it's more of frameworks and things that may help. There are existing government programs already out there. Both like a DHS, they have their CDM program. There's FICAM, things like that. These are already in place to actually build these, kind of like what Gerald called the pillars of zero trust. They've already been in place for a while. We looked at how zero trust extends those, how those reliant on those programs.I mean, as well as we have for NIST, there's the risk management framework. That isn't the end all be all, but you can think of that as a tool to help one level down. Once you've developed that architecture, the RMF can maybe help develop that set of controls and checks in place to actually ensure that what you're doing, you're implementing correctly to your stated goals. These things are in place that are basically technology neutral, that whatever vendors you're using, you can always apply these frameworks and tools to help along the way.In a way, that NIST, the Special Publication 800-207, that's also... think of that as a framework, [inaudible 00:25:53] just both on the architects, but also the way that the architects can then talk to the procurement people. They can, hopefully, understand what exactly you want. So when the procurement and the architects talk to the vendors, they're all speaking that same set of term, not just [inaudible 00:26:09] randomly zero trust or something like that. There's actually a set of rules and uses for these technologies that they can both use as a common set of terms.Ryan Johnson: All right, next question... Thanks again for that, Scott. Next question is for Gerald. What are the things that enterprise needs to understand before migrating to ZTA or zero trust architecture?Gerald Caron: That's a really good question. Think of the difficulty that some folks are going to have. I mentioned the data, understanding the data, where it is, where it's going and what classification it is. The where it's going. Where is it normally go? What is the flow? What is normal look like? How do you baseline normal? That's going to be really difficult because understanding what normal looks like will depend on when something happens now, what actions do I have to take? So understanding where that data flow is, where that data resides, what it is, who owns it because you're going to have to work with data owners. It's going to take a village. It's not just the network guys, not just the IT guys. It's going to take a village to do with zero trust in my estimate at an agency.But, as Scott was saying, be on the same page with terminology and things like that. But I think that's the difficult part. I think that answers one of the questions is how do you know what abnormal is? Well, you got to know what normal looks like to know what abnormal looks like. So I think that's really important. So, I like the inside out method, that start with the data, and then all right, what's facilitating access to that data. Device app. What do you do with those things, and then work back to the identity, given the right access to the right people at the right time.We talked about this from the end user standpoint a lot. I want to go back to this. The administrators as well are very powerful. So you have to address the administrators. I think that gets lost a lot of times when people start talking about... They talk about users accessing data. Well, your administrators need to be addressed as well in a zero trust. So that's something that's difficult.The one other thing I would say that's difficult, Ryan, is that we all, as different agencies, we all share data, we all classify it differently. If I want to share with Brandon a certain amount of data, I do sensitive but unclassified, but he may classify it in a different way. Where do we meet when we want to share data with those different classifications, so that we can properly do that? Then when I give Brandon my data, it's my data. He's going to be a good steward for it. If he doesn't have the right things in place, now, I've put my data out there. So, how can we all get on that same page? Interagency sharing is I think going to be a challenge as well.Ryan Johnson: Absolutely. It makes complete sense. That's a big, big challenge. Next question is for Brandon. Is it necessary to have a ZTA if the enterprise does not utilize cloud resources?Brandon Iske: Thank you for that question. I would say absolutely. Again, the threat is the same whether you're in the cloud or not. So, whether you have disconnected resources, or closed networks, or connected networks. You still have very similar threats to some extent. So I think it absolutely applies. Again whether you look across the pillars, whether it's identity or endpoint, we still have to do those same things and even what we're doing in DoD to enhance our identity ICAM processes. Again, it's all about authentication and account lifecycle management. Those are the big pieces that... We still have a long journey to get to from an enterprise perspective to get those under control in a better fashion than what we do today.We have CAC or PIV programs that are very strong, but again, those are a strong authenticator. It's the entire lifecycle of the additional pieces of identity that come into play. Again, all those same concepts apply regardless of where the data or applications exist. Other efforts that we've done in this arena as well, too, I would say is our cloud-based internet isolation. So again, this is a way that we move the end user browsing to a cloud environment for our actual benefit. So, in this case, basically, my browsing session is going to be terminated in a cloud environment. From a data protection and exploit perspective, those drive by downloads basically would happen in that cloud environment, not on my endpoint. So, it actually comes to help us also in this mass telework environment as well, too.So, I can split my traffic going straight to the cloud for browsing and not backhaul that all the way back to the VPN to come on to the internal network. So, that's given us a few really big benefits, again, in a very hybrid model where in some cases, we're using cloud; in other cases, we still have a huge set of legacy that's still going to be on-prem for the foreseeable future until they modernize or whatever schedule they have to modernize.Jason Wilburn: Brandon, if I could ask a question about the browser isolation component. Is this going to be in when a user is accessing internal resources inside of the agencies, or is this going to be also a service that's internet-facing? So, when a user's setting on-prem or anywhere, and he's now going to the internet once they go to Google, is all internet traffic really going to be browser isolated? Is that the envisioning?Brandon Iske: So, it is what we're doing. So, the basically .com or any commercial internet browsing [inaudible 00:31:55] capability [inaudible 00:31:57] .mil is going to bypass that. So, whether I'm on a VPN or the .mil resources already internet facing, those are the [inaudible 00:32:08]. So I mean, basically, you're not routing either way. So, it does allow us to basically not be backhauling that traffic back onto the doden or [inaudible 00:32:16] for duty terminology, for our internal network.Ryan Johnson: Thank you, Brandon. Next question is to Scott Rose. Looking to the future, what is next in zero trust? What technologies are going to impact it or acquired in a different way than what we see right now? I love the question.Scott Rose: Yeah. I don't know for sure because everybody makes predictions and are constantly surprised about how they don't pan out. But at least in the near term, I see a lot of people focusing both on IoT like we are as well. How do you get those and manage those in an automatic fashion? So, you don't actually have to have human administrators going out and touching all those devices or doing something to those devices. They're getting to the point where you can just quickly get them onboard them onto a network. You know exactly what they're doing because they say what they're doing in [inaudible 00:33:19]. Manufacturer vouches for them. You onboard them, you have go through the entire lifecycle, and you offboard them if you need to all in a more streamlined automated fashion. That's going to be coming on as people look for IoT solutions.The other one is we're seeing more people looking at machine learning when it comes to developing user profiles as feedback to what we call like the policy engine or the trust algorithm moving on. Building up again, what does this user normally do in order to see when something abnormal happens? You always [inaudible 00:33:57] this. You have a person, say, working in HR, and they connect to this database with all the user information. They do roughly, say, three to five gigs of traffic going back and forth from this database a day. Suddenly, you see that jump up to 800 gigs. That should cause a red flag going up because that's abnormal. But then again, maybe it's because there's the annual performance review, where they're downloading everything and going through everything.Maybe that happens every year at a certain time. Then again, you're building up that profile saying, "Okay, we know that does happen at a certain timeframe. So what happens outside of that timeframe, then maybe something strange is going on." Those kind of trends we're seeing, just try and improve the dynamic nature of zero trust. That's kind of the things that are just on the horizon and starting to appear.Ryan Johnson: Thank you, Scott. Next question is for Gerald. What mistakes or what are the biggest misunderstandings with zero trust in the industry or within federal entities right now?Gerald Caron: Definition. Understanding the totality of zero trust, understanding as a full architecture, full framework. People talk about it in bits and pieces. Unfortunately, some vendors will talk about zero trust, but you got to understand the whole landscape of it because they may come in and do the authentication and access management piece, but not do the data segmentation piece, or the app hardening piece, or network mapping for understanding where your data's flowing and things. So, understanding that it's not just a one-product thing. It is truly going to be an integration. It's going to take a whole effort, a whole village to do it.So, really understanding and getting level set, and understanding the use cases and understanding what your risk tolerance is, is very important. What are you willing to take risk for? What's important to you? Putting your emphasis on what's important. The cafeteria schedule, okay. But your medical records, I'm going to put a little more emphasis on that probably than the cafeteria schedule. So, and understanding where does that reside? How do I protect that and things? So, really understanding what it is you're trying to accomplish, and then we all have our little special snowflakes in all of our different agencies. So, what is our little spin on things? So understanding what your use cases are, I think's really important.Ryan Johnson: Thank you, Gerald. Next question is for Jason. Let's go to another identity question, Jason. If identity is a new perimeter, what should federal agency entities consider when looking at making identity their enforcement point? How is this achieved?Jason Wilburn: So, it's not going to be the enforcement point. It's just going to be another piece of information, a data point that can be used by an enforcement point. To Gerald's point, it needs to be looked at holistically. Identity just needs to be one part of it. I think the biggest thing is understanding really where are all your identities within an organization. Are they all in active directory? Are they all in a SaaS-based [inaudible 00:37:22]? Do each application have their own directory structure? So, while you think that John Smith's account only exists in say active directory, it might exist in multiple locations. So then you need a good strategy to onboard identity, decommission identity, and then also validate identity. That means back into needing some sort of MFA or a good authentication method.Ryan Johnson: Next question is to Scott. What are the concerns a federal entity needs to understand before migrating to ZTA?Scott Rose: Well, the concerns I need to think or that they need to worry about is, basically, they need to know what they do, they need to know their mission, they need to know the risks inherent to that they're doing their mission, and then they need to know what they have, who both.... These are accounts of the network, the devices, the workflows, they need to have those knowledge at first. They need to be able to detect and monitor things previously before they can actually start moving down this road to zero trust because you can't really build a policy and a set of checks around things that you don't actually know. So, those are the main concerns.Other concerns are how it will impact the users. We need to educate them to make sure everybody else is onboard because if the other kind of operating units in an organization or a federal agency or something, if they're not onboard, there's going to be a problem because the way things are... because they may result in the changes of the workflow of [inaudible 00:39:02] times. They're accessing things. What permissions they have or don't have? There's always that learning curve when you're trying to actually refine these policies. If that becomes aggravating, they're going to start trying to find ways around it. That's the last thing you want because then you have the shadow IT springing up behind it and things that you've sorted all these strange traffic that you're not seeing on the network, but people claim that it's very important for them to do their job. Those sorts of things. So you need to actually realize that going down the road of zero trust is a unified front. Everybody needs to take those steps together.Ryan Johnson: Yeah. Thank you, Scott. Probably the last question here, this is directed to Gerald once again. How does zero trust relate to TIC 3.0 and CDM?Gerald Caron: So, I think the great thing about CDM, for those that have been participating in it, it's such a good foundational things that I think you can build on for zero trust. I think Brandon said it, well, earlier, is like, you're probably already doing some things and taking a good inventory of some of those efforts that you already have going on, and how it fits into the zero trust architecture that... So, there may be some tweaks. TIC, I think, definitely is part of... a contributor to the solution, especially, some of these efforts that allow for the telemetry and the services to do that untethering that I was talking about, and get all that data and make decisions based off that.Definitely. I think the way CDM is taking in and doing like the asset discovery, a lot of the understanding of the mapping, eventually in the subsequent phases later on to do the network access control, so you can quarantine or trigger an action on a device. There's a lot of good things that I think they provide some good building blocks that will get you a part of your zero trust solution. Not the totality. Of course, we've already talked about that, but I think there's some good foundational pieces that they've put in place that contribute to the overall zero trust architecture.Scott Rose: Yeah. To follow up on that, if you go through the part of the NIST 800-207, we have a coauthor from DHS, and he's the head of the TIC program. We made sure that, at least, the text that we had in those sections where we talk about CDM and TIC, we had a lot of input and overview from DHS there. So, he made sure that the wordings and both of the tone and both matchly don't contradict. So yeah, we made sure that we were expressing the fact that these programs are interlaced. Thanks for listening. If you would like more information on how Carahsoft or F5 can assist your federal agency, please visit www.carahsoft.com or email us at f5-sales@carahsoft.com. Thanks again for listening, and have a great day. 

In the first episode of this two-part series, Scott and Karl begin discussing The New World Order by H.G. Wells.  Published in January 1940, Wells’s motivation for writing The New World Order was based upon the outbreak of World War II. He proposes a framework of international functionalism that he believes could guide the world towards achieving world peace.  Karl says, "Wells thinks that the human race is in danger. He believes the only way out of it is collectivization."  As Scott points out, "In this short book, he doesn't acknowledge the fact that there are people who are driven in such a way that one-world government just makes a bigger, juicer target for war and overthrow."  Tune in to hear the first part of a fascinating conversation, brought to you by onlinegreatbooks.com. 

Driven to inspire people to achieve the impossible, Scott is no stranger to setting his sights on daunting goals and then stepping into the jungle of challenges to achieve them. An unconventional entrepreneur whose consciously built a business that is purposeful from the ground up. Growing up in Africa bred in Scott both a toughness to prevail and a compassion to understand what true poverty really is. In Africa, there is no Plan B. You either survive or you die! It's from this perspective that Scott created his Wealth Movement Manifesto where he imagines an ideal world. Solving the Wealth Gap is what Scott and his team are passionate about. It's a mammoth task, but with self-belief and collaboration, Scott has already broken so much new ground. He explains Wealth 5.0 to us to ultimately future proof our financial independence. He does a live demo of his revolutionary online platform that empowers you to invest in the best global real estate like the top 1% can, within minutes. Scott is determined that money should not be a barrier to becoming an investor and strives to create platforms with opportunities for entry level investors to invest as little as $100. He arms us with his 6 Steps to Success and touches on some of the painful sacrifices he's made in cutting this trail. As Scott says, “You can sit on the side of the valley where you're safe and comfortable with mediocrity, or you can step into the jungle where it's dangerous, you might get hurt or even die, but there's a chance of getting to the other side where there's a life of fulfillment, purpose and success that most people only dream of and the world can be bloody amazing. Scott leads by example for the ultimate reward of a deeply fulfilling life. For Scott, mediocrity is not an option! Episode Themes Intro Wealth Movement Manifesto Property Mogul at 13 Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) Disruptor Mindset, Big Heart Mediocrity is not an option! Navigating the Jungle Wealth 5.0 What's your MTP? Six Steps to Success Power of the Crowd Collective Intelligence of a Great Team Choosing Business Partners Message to the World Connect with Scott Picken LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpicken/ Website: https://wealthmigrate.com/ Website: http://scottpicken.com/ FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/scottpicken YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ8l-000gWmnEkoOGVh1zxw Connect with Carmen Wilde !! SUBSCRIBE at https://bwbtv.net to be notified of new episodes via email and get new strategies every week to support you in achieving your wildest success! Email: team@bwbtv.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmenwilde/ BwB TV website: https://www.businesswithoutbarriers.tv I'd love to hear from you. Email me your suggestions, what you love, what we can improve or just to connect. To Your Wildest Success! Carmen --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/businesswithoutbarriers/message

How Do You Actually Get Things Done? How do you filter through the noise, the constant barrage of images and content thrown at you on a daily basis? Well, let's jump in and talk about it. Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose! I read a statistic this week that blew my mind recently! “On average, over 500 hours of content is added to YouTube... EVERY MINUTE!!!” That's outrageous, over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. That means you can never catch up.   Another statistic for you... Netflix currently has 200 shows and movies under production to be added to their streaming platform to be added during 2021. That means you could binge-watch a new series (not individual show) or movie every day for almost 7 mos and still not watch the same thing twice. That is mind-blowing! In fact, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently was quoted as saying that their “biggest competitor moving forward will be an individuals sleep!”   Think about that for a second, your attention is being fought for day in and day out...every second of the day. But your attention is being attacked not just to keep you from sleep, but to keep you from working hard, spending time with your family, being productive, getting healthy, every aspect of your life is being fought for by outside influences. So how do you fight back? How do you filter through all of the noise and begin to implement things in your business or organization that truly can change it! Well, it starts with putting down the distractions for a bit and making time for what truly matters most.  I was sitting in a coaching call with several of our clients last week and several of them all sat there and said, Thomas, it's so hard to just find time to get started! I have great intentions of doing the Roadmap, but I just get caught up and stuck and I look up and the day or week is gone! So, we pointed them back to the Weekly Schedule. It's why we implement this with every business owner we work with. Until you can dictate what your schedule is, you don't stand a chance to move past the chaos. You have to set a time, EVERY WEEK, to work on your business. We call it dental chair time… Think about the last time you were at the dentist with that hygienist all up in your mouth cleaning...you don't ask them to stop so you can answer an email or take a call or put out a fire. NO! You're in a dentist appointment. And here's the funny thing, we believe that a dentist appt is a better excuse for being off the radar than taking time to work on and build our business. It's no different! Set time in your schedule every week to implement. Imagine the clarity you would have if you took 2 hours a week as time to get perspective on what is going on? Imagine how freeing if you just cut your phone off or put it on do not disturb and closed that email tab at the top of your browser to give yourself enough time to filter through some of the noise and make game-changing decisions about what you want to implement. Chaos is fighting for your attention! There's no doubt about it. The question is can you push the pause button on the distractions long enough to do something about that. To cut through all of the awesome content that's being thrown at you, to process it, and figure out what you're going to implement in your business. As Scott loves to say and Joe Calloway made famous, “Vision, without implementation, is hallucination.”  Don't fall into the trap of getting distracted, but build your week up the way you want it to look, and then DO NOT WAVER from it. Implement, implement, implement. It's the only way to take your business where you want it to go.   

How Do You Actually Get Things Done? How do you filter through the noise, the constant barrage of images and content thrown at you on a daily basis? Well, let’s jump in and talk about it. Thomas Joyner here with Business on Purpose! I read a statistic this week that blew my mind recently! “On average, over 500 hours of content is added to YouTube... EVERY MINUTE!!!” That’s outrageous, over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. That means you can never catch up.   Another statistic for you... Netflix currently has 200 shows and movies under production to be added to their streaming platform to be added during 2021. That means you could binge-watch a new series (not individual show) or movie every day for almost 7 mos and still not watch the same thing twice. That is mind-blowing! In fact, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently was quoted as saying that their “biggest competitor moving forward will be an individuals sleep!”   Think about that for a second, your attention is being fought for day in and day out...every second of the day. But your attention is being attacked not just to keep you from sleep, but to keep you from working hard, spending time with your family, being productive, getting healthy, every aspect of your life is being fought for by outside influences. So how do you fight back? How do you filter through all of the noise and begin to implement things in your business or organization that truly can change it! Well, it starts with putting down the distractions for a bit and making time for what truly matters most.  I was sitting in a coaching call with several of our clients last week and several of them all sat there and said, Thomas, it’s so hard to just find time to get started! I have great intentions of doing the Roadmap, but I just get caught up and stuck and I look up and the day or week is gone! So, we pointed them back to the Weekly Schedule. It’s why we implement this with every business owner we work with. Until you can dictate what your schedule is, you don’t stand a chance to move past the chaos. You have to set a time, EVERY WEEK, to work on your business. We call it dental chair time… Think about the last time you were at the dentist with that hygienist all up in your mouth cleaning...you don’t ask them to stop so you can answer an email or take a call or put out a fire. NO! You’re in a dentist appointment. And here’s the funny thing, we believe that a dentist appt is a better excuse for being off the radar than taking time to work on and build our business. It’s no different! Set time in your schedule every week to implement. Imagine the clarity you would have if you took 2 hours a week as time to get perspective on what is going on? Imagine how freeing if you just cut your phone off or put it on do not disturb and closed that email tab at the top of your browser to give yourself enough time to filter through some of the noise and make game-changing decisions about what you want to implement. Chaos is fighting for your attention! There’s no doubt about it. The question is can you push the pause button on the distractions long enough to do something about that. To cut through all of the awesome content that’s being thrown at you, to process it, and figure out what you’re going to implement in your business. As Scott loves to say and Joe Calloway made famous, “Vision, without implementation, is hallucination.”  Don’t fall into the trap of getting distracted, but build your week up the way you want it to look, and then DO NOT WAVER from it. Implement, implement, implement. It’s the only way to take your business where you want it to go.   

Jeff invites our lifelong friend, Scott Donehoo, onto the show to discuss a song he wrote with Rocky called "Childish Things." The song is about everything we discuss on this podcast, and we break the lyrics down line by line. As Scott was the lyricist, he gives us some great insights about the inspirations behind the words, and the discussion triggers plenty of memories from our own childhoods. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rocky-seale/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rocky-seale/support

Workflow automation for lawyers and legal teams is the topic of Episode 41. Our guest is Scott Kelly, one of the founders of Community.Lawyer, which is “no-code” workflow automation software with an app builder designed with attorneys in mind.  Community.Lawyer is a way for law firms, corporate legal departments and legal aid organizations to automate common and repeatable tasks to save time and resources. Among other uses, Community.Lawyer can be used to create forms to collect data, create portals for both internal and client use, automate document creation and even collect payments. The app is centered around databases that legal teams can use to collect and reuse data relating to their clients and legal matters. As Scott discusses, Community.Lawyer is being put to some pretty cool uses both for public and commercial purposes. Law firms and legal departments are using it to create better client experiences and it is also a great tool for legal aid organizations to tackle access to justice issues. Speaking of access to justice and public sector legal work–Scott is no stranger to that. With an Ivy League law degree in hand, he started his career working for the American Civil Liberties Union. Technically Legal is hosted by Chad Main, an attorney and the founder of Percipient, a tech-enabled alternative legal services provider.

Episode 52 - November 2020 In this episode Stu is joined by joint winners of the Badge of Shame at Northern Invasion 2020 (neither of which turned up to collect their awards), Nathan and JP.  The boys talk about Morathi, sharks and the Broken Realms, about Mega-gargants and more. As Scott isn't involved, we're finished far swifter - or that may be because Stu doesn't drink in November... If you have any questions or feedback, email us at aosbatrep@gmail.com or message us on Twitter: Stu - @aosbatrep Scott - @_wee_men Liam - @liamadamwatt Nathan - @nate_watson89 JP - @jpganis   Subscribe to Northern Invasion TV on Youtube.  Like and follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/batrep  

This week, Scott and Karl read a novella by Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Published in Russian as Smert Ivana Ilycha in 1886, this short story remains one of Tolstoy's most celebrated pieces of late fiction. As Scott puts it, "This is the smallest chunk of Tolstoy that could be had."  The story provides an examination of the nature of both life and death, and how man can come to terms with death's inevitability. Ivan Ilyich, a worldly careerist, has to realize he's dying before he starts to put any value on himself. By forcing Ivan to confront the prospect of his death, it brings him face to face with his own isolation. Before having to look death in the face, Scott says, "Ivan thought everything in his life was for someone else to observe and judge."  How does an unreflective man confront his moment of truth? Tune in to learn more about the slow degradation of Ivan, but also the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.

Prompted by an activity that Ollie did with one of his classes, Ollie and Scott discuss their "origin stories" and detail how they became teachers. As Scott explains early in the episode, we deconstruct these stories to examine the bigger question "What do we teach?" Students? Or content? Both? Things that bring us joy this week: East of West (https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/east-of-west) Documentary Now (https://www.netflix.com/title/80010778); In particular, Season 1 episode named "A Town, A Gangster, A Festival". Intro/Outro Music: Notice of Eviction by Legally Blind (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Legally_Blind) Production assistance by Enzo Dreon

This episode of Veteran Voices features Lornett Vestal. Lornett Vestal is a U.S. Navy veteran that has continued his service to our country & our communities, even after exiting from active duty in 2005. Scott Luton gains Lornett's perspective on a wide range of topics, including his time spent spent on active duty, followed by a very challenging transition to civilian life. Lornett shares advice and best practices for veterans making that transition, including his challenge to "not suffer silently" but speak up and get the help you need. He shares his views on social justice - - including ways that we can all help build bridges and move our country forward.  As Scott was reflecting on this episode, he stated "our communities and conversations need more Lornett Vestals." Lornett Vestal is currently the Southeastern Campaign Representative for Sierra Club Military Outdoors. He was born and raised in Chicago, IL. He joined the United States Navy at the age of seventeen. He served four years honorably and was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. He’s traveled to various countries, including; Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Estonia, and Finland. He has a BA in Sociology from Northern Illinois University and a Master’s Degree in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. He spent several years working in education and social work at Chicago Public Schools and non-profit organizations through the City of Chicago. He currently works as the Sierra Club Military Outdoors Campaign Representative. He lives in Atlanta, GA, with his wife and two vicious hounds named Mayor and Stella.  Resources, Events, and Items Mentioned in this Episode: Subscribe to Veteran Voices and ALL Supply Chain Now Programming Here: https://supplychainnow.com/subscribe Leave a review for Supply Chain Now: https://ratethispodcast.com/supplychainnow Connect with Scott on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottwindonluton/ Connect with Lornett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lornett-vestal-3629b026/ The Evolving Man Project: https://lornettvestal.com/ Sierra Club Military Outdoors website: https://www.sierraclub.org/military-outdoors Supply Chain Now Ranked #1 Supply Chain Podcast via FeedSpot: tinyurl.com/rud8y9m Supply Chain Now Ranked #3 Supply Chain YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/yazfegov AIAG Virtual 2020 Supply Chain Conference: https://tinyurl.com/y8axeflc Download the Q2 2020 U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index: freight.usbank.com/?es=a229&a=20 WEBINAR: Stand Up & Sound Off- https://tinyurl.com/y4lcahdr AME Toronto 2020 Virtual Conference: https://www.ame.org/ame-toronto-2020 This episode was hosted by Scott Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/veteran-voices-19.

This episode is a great discussion with Scott Rybarik. Scott works to support the expansion of the sport of motorcycling in more ways than I can count...including as a guest instructor for the Yamaha Champions Riding School. As Scott says in his bio, "the motorcycling community has become an extension of my family, and I want to help others become better, safer and faster riders." Scott and I talk about lots of topics related to motorcycles and motorcycling, including community, running clubs, managing risk and performance, how people learn new skills, taking kids racing, the lessons of motorcycling that relate to other parts of life, modern motorcycle electronics and tires and are they too good, and much, much more. Episode Links * Facebook Live Video Interview with Scott Rybarik (https://www.facebook.com/1978870302235245/videos/738557970024424) * Scott Rybarik on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/scott.rybarik) * Email: scott@champschool.com * Scott Rybarik on the Yamaha Champions Riding School Web Site (https://ridelikeachampion.com/instructors/) * Yamaha Champions Riding School (https://ridelikeachampion.com/) * Episode 025: MotoAmerica Superbike Racer Kyle Wyman (https://www.soyouwanttorideamotorcycle.com/025) * Episode 054: N2 on Motorcycling, Track Days and Endurance Racing (https://www.soyouwanttorideamotorcycle.com/054) * Sportbike Track Time (https://www.sportbiketracktime.com/) * Motorcycle Road Racing Association - Colorado (https://www.mra-racing.org/) * Utah Motorsports Campus (formerly Miller Motorsports Park (https://utahmotorsportscampus.com/) * Ohvale (http://ohvale.com/?lang=en) * MotoAmerica (https://motoamerica.com/) * Utah Sportbike Association (https://www.utahsba.com/) * HEROIC Racing Apparel (https://www.heroicracing.com/) * Greg's Garage Pod (https://gregsgaragepod.podbean.com/) * Road America (https://www.roadamerica.com/) * Episode 051: A Chat with John Ewert from Road America (https://www.soyouwanttorideamotorcycle.com/051) * California Superbike School (https://superbikeschool.com/) Shout-Outs * Manny Bastos * Rob Cichielo * Chip Spalding * Kyle Wyman * Todd McNabney * Chris Bays * Robby Cichielo Jr. Contact Me * Become a Podcast Supporter (PayPal) (https://paypal.me/christophergeiss?locale.x=en_US) * Affiliates Page (https://www.soyouwanttorideamotorcycle.com/affiliates) * Podcast Supporters Page (https://www.soyouwanttorideamotorcycle.com/supporters) * Email: soyouwanttoride@yahoo.com * Twitter: @soyouwanttoride (https://twitter.com/soyouwanttoride) * Instagram: so.you.want.to.ride (https://www.instagram.com/so.you.want.to.ride/) * Facebook: @so.you.want.to.ride (https://www.facebook.com/so.you.want.to.ride) * Podcast Listeners Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2511206719123833/?source_id=1978870302235245) * Podcast Web Site (http://www.soyouwanttorideamotorcycle.com) * Podcast YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UClDjOlGOdK-SK8WB6jRdZ4Q) * Old Man Slacker on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/oldmanslacker/) * Old Man Slacker on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/oldmanslacker/) Special Guest: Scott Rybarik.

He was trained as an herbalist at the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism in September 2011. Scott is an associate of the Botanical Preservation Corps and was on the 2010 expedition to Peru collecting seeds and information on medicinal, edible, and sacred plants throughout the Andes. In 2010 Scott opened the Ethnobotanical Conservation Organization or EthnoCO which is a company based in Peru that leads expeditions and sells cultural wares. Inside the Episode: Dolphins...oh dolphins. What’s not to love, right? Well...as Scott tells us, dolphins in Peru have been spotted to have intimate relationships with men in the area. I am going to leave the remainder of this caption up to your imagination, but if you’re looking for more information - then you’ll want to tune into our podcast. Animals of higher intelligence (think primates and mammals) have been observed to seek drugs and sex for pleasure. Why? That’s exactly what we sought to learn on our podcast with Scott, the ethnobotanist and close friend of The Travelers Blueprint. Lemurs in Madagascar have been observed to seek out a very peculiar millipede. They play with it, lick it, and then rub it all over their body. Why? To get high. The chemical reaction creates an enjoyable psychoactive experience for the animal. However, what researchers have found is that unbeknownst to the lemurs, their little benders are saving their lives. The chemicals in the millipede also acts as a potent insecticide, saving these lemurs from the numerous deadly viruses and bacteria spread through other insect bites. So, the bloodline of the lemurs on this unique African island nation may depend on their drug induced rock star lifestyle. Life, uh, finds a way.  You know what’s scarier than jaguars? Jaguars on Ayahuasca….that’s right. As Scott explains this is actually one of the old tales on how the ancient inhabitants of Peru discovered this spiritual vine. Ethno-zoopharmacognosy! It's a word. It’s when people use animals for medicinal purposes, or as Scott puts it “bugs as drugs”! Sometimes, as you hear here...it doesn't always go as planned. Say no to bugs as drugs!  Contact Information/References Website:www.ethnoco.com (http://www.ethnoco.com) _______________________________________________________ Thank you for listening!  Take a moment to rate us! Screenshot your review, email us the screenshot with your name and address and we will send you a FREE travel sticker! (mailto:TheTravelersBlueprint@gmail.com) FREE Travel Cheat Sheet! Just sign up for all the latest TTB news and guest information at (http://www.thetravelersblueprint@gmail.com) For Travel Consulting Services w/ Bob: (https://thetravelersblueprint.com/travel-consulting) Our Private Community on Facebook is a great way to have your travel questions be heard and speak directly to us. Join here: (https://www.facebook.com/groups/260677938112800) For less than a cup of coffee you can be a major supporter of our time and efforts in producing this podcast. Please consider becoming a Patron by signing up here: (https://www.patreon.com/join/thetravelersblueprint) Follow Us on Social Media: (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyB8gPEriEPYP92Q1DHHkbg) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Support this podcast

In the second half of the conversation, Scott and Karl continue discussing Herbert Marcuse’s 1965 essay “Repressive Tolerance.” In the course of analyzing Marcuse, Karl creates a new word: "justism."  As Karl describes, "It's when you take a complex reality and you reduce it to one simple concept. For Marcuse, it looks like the "justism" is towards whatever his vision of freedom is, which will require the repression of the normal people who support the established order." Although Scott and Karl agree with some of his criticism on the media, they find fault in his ability to show his work and give concrete solutions. As Scott puts it, "He's a smuggler." Tune in to part two of the show and learn more about the Marcusean shape of intolerance. 

This week, Scott and Karl read Hilaire Belloc's "An Essay on the Restoration of Property." Written in 1936, Belloc attempts to rectify the wrongs in both major economic theories by approaching the problem from an entirely new angle, offering his own program for property distribution.  As Scott points out, "The whole idea underlying what he's writing about is predicated on a much different notion of 'the good' that most people carry today... Belloc's main concern is economic freedom." Property to Belloc is something that directly contributes to your economic freedom. Karl adds, "Property seems to have it's own kind of rights, at least it's own kind of interests."  Would a propertied class be a more politically active and politically savvy class? Tune in to hear Scott and Karl discuss how Belloc illustrates the practical application of many such societal questions. 

By now, you know the higher education system in the United States is broken. You didn’t need COVID-19 to prove it.Because even before the postsecondary education industry was forced to pivot to remote learning en masse, a caste system was rapidly bubbling up within its ranks: The best of the best go to Harvard and become the ruling class…While everyone else perishes in a middle-ground limboland that’s left entire swaths of the population—often low income and often minorities—robbed of the opportunity for upward mobility.It sucks that students can’t go back to campus to do things like learn and network and party in person. But that’s not the real tragedy. This caste system is, according to today’s guest and NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway. As Scott sees it, the system has enabled us to completely lose sight of the importance of unremarkable students—those who might not be MIT material, but deserve a shot at college (aka the ticket to improving your socioeconomic standing).In this episode, Scott tears apart that system (and almost every other system, for that matter) in a wide-ranging conversation about the future of higher education. Some buzzy sneak peeks:Scott: “Harvard is a streaming video platform that costs $58,000 a year.”He also says we’re headed toward a hybrid model of online and offline education that’ll bring with it a culling of the middle class of higher ed.Is there a chance big tech saves higher ed...?You don’t want to miss this episode. Listen now.

In this week's episode, Dr. Bly-Jones is interviewing Scott Bloomquist, the Regional Superintendent for Boone and Winnebago counties in Illinois. Scott has over 20 years leadership experience and began his leadership development in college when he founded and served as President of the the local chapter of FCA at Concordia University in St. Paul Minnesota. During Scott's internship and full time work with Youth for Christ, he was exposed to working with at risk youth and the world of fundraising. He started his own youth outreach organization (The Lighthouse) because of a need for youth mentoring he saw in his community. As Scott continued to grow in leadership and recognizing the power of influence with youth, he entered the field of education. Scott used the leadership principles he learned to grow from a part-time bus driver to Superintendent in 13 years. He has coached football and wrestling, helping several athletes become collegiate athletes at the Division I and other levels.  Scott holds a BA in Psychology, MS in Educational Leadership, and an Ed.S in Educational Leadership. As he continues to study leadership and is a Certified John Maxwell Team Coach, Speaker, and Presenter. Scott has had the opportunity to speak all over the nation from Minnesota to Florida and internationally in Papua New Guinea.

National Champion swimmer, lawyer, crackhead, barista and artist. These are only a few words that have described Scott Jeffries life. We sat down with him in his new artist studio that he shares with other local artists to find out more about his amazing journey. His art is what makes his happy and after losing his corporate job as a result of the global pandemic Scott became more immersed in creation and painting. This caught the eye of some of his friends who gave him a shot in the 0 empty Spaces studio in Boca Raton. He now paints, sells, installs and teaches what he loves. As Scott always says, so what, now what and what’s next. Always be open to changes and anything can happen. Please enjoy the pod and one of my best buds sharing his life.You can reach Scott on instagram @scottart, @scottart_tees or drop by his studio at 0 empty spaces in the Town Center Circle of Boca Raton.

This week, Scott and Karl are joined by Producer Trent Jones to discuss the best-selling jazz record of all time, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Recorded in 1959 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, this album brings together six other now-legendary musicians in the prime of their careers: tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb.  As a trumpeter, Davis is known for experimenting with "modal jazz" instead of the usual harmonic foundation of jazz. As Scott puts it, "he is deconstructing the art to seek some expression." Trent continues, "Structured music can push you to feel a certain thing whereas here, we are exploring. It's free-form. It's more in tune with the raw emotions and thought that is happening." Kind of Blue has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz record, Davis's personal masterpiece, even one of the best albums of all time. If something gets the moniker of 'the best ever,' you have to wonder: is it famous for just being famous? As a Davis fan, Karl says, "It's a different type of jazz. It's been influential in all sorts of atmospheric kinds of music that floats around you."  Tune in for more music and ideas, brought to you by Online Great Books.     

This week, Scott and Karl read The Inimitable Jeeves, the second collection of Jeeves stories written by P. G. Wodehouse, published in 1923. First appearing in print in 1915, Jeeves continued to feature in Wodehouse's work until his last completed novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, a span of 60 years.  The Inimitable Jeeves follows the adventures of Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves, through a hilarious parade of linked short stories. You'll find a certain harmony in their relationship that is hard to replicate. As Scott points out, "It takes two of these guys to make a complete person."  Tune in for a fascinating discussion of Edwardian English, Aristotelian virtue, and the frivolous, empty, and perfectly delightful world of P. G. Wodehouse's The Inimitable Jeeves. 

Today I sat down with Scott Darlow who is a Singer, a Songwriter, a Yidaki (didgeridoo) player, and an educator from Yorta Yorta country.You can follow Scott @scottdarlow.This was powerful for me personally to learn more about the history of First Nation people and also what it's like growing up in Australia.As Scott said, "It's through understanding that we can experience empathy, which creates the drive for change".Tune in lads.

Today Sarah chats with Scott and Greg from Supply Chain Now about the last in their super trend series: Start up Mentality. The Covid crisis has brought a pivotal moment on Earth for everyone, and therefore an opportunity to accelerate important trends. As Greg says, necessity is the mother of innovation; with the crisis, supply chain is on everyone’s mind and companies are now serious about changing. As Scott declares, now is the time to seize the moment. Organizations are now more willing to challenge norms and be disruptive. As Scott and Greg explain, companies need to embrace the startup spirit: taking action, being disruptive (instead of disrupted) and giving authority to the people on the front line. The old way of working is slowly dying out, and those that resist change will die out with it.  Greg believes that what’s most important is being humble enough to learn something new every day and being patient. Scott says that it’s important to remember that passion is not enough, that what entrepreneurs really need is obsession. In order to make a company work, you need to be willing to risk it all. Finally, Sarah reiterates that in order for effective collaboration to take place, large companies need to bring down barriers and make it easy for startups to work with them. And of course, at the end of the day, the most important is understanding what it is that a customer wants from you.  In this episode we discuss: [4.01] How to stay innovative [13.10] Embracing the startup spirit [21.40] How to really rebrand [38.37] The importance of failing [54.52] Main takeaways Resources and links mentioned: Supply Chain Now Upcoming Twitter Chat Follow #SCSuperTrends from 2pm to 3pm EST @LetsTalkSChain Super Trend #1 Super Trend #2 Super Trend #3

It's the REVENGE OF OHIO! On part 2 of our feature about music from the Buckeye State, we delve into the best bands to come out of Ohio, with a focus on modern music of the indie and punk realm especially. As Scott claims, it's best state in our great nation. Find out why!

This week, Scott and Karl read and heartily discuss G.K. Chesterson's What I Saw In America. Chesterson was a prolific English journalist and author who traveled to America on a lecture tour of the US in 1921.  What I Saw In America begins as a travelogue of his journey but eventually becomes an extended reflection on what makes a nation a nation.  Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox" and his opening line doesn't disappoint.  He writes, “I have never managed to lose my old conviction that travel narrows the mind.” Throughout his travels, the main question on Chesterson's mind— what does it mean to be an American?  As Scott points out, "He's a perpetual outsider who sees everything clean."  Tune in for a fascinating discussion on the American ideal, the drawbacks of progress, and what Chesterson deems to be the greatest guarantor of political and economic liberty. 

This week, Scott and Karl read a collection of stories starring Conan the Barbarian, a series by Robert E. Howard.  Known as the “Father of Sword and Sorcery,” Howard helped create this subgenre of fiction. To this point, Karl adds, "There is so much of your popular culture, dear listeners, that comes out of Conan." You think of other heroes that we read like King Arthur, Beowulf, and Achilles: none of them are like this barbarian. After reading about him, you may find Conan to be one of the greatest fictional heroes ever created. Open any of his stories, and you'll find a swordsman who cuts a swath across the lands of the Hyborian Age, facing powerful sorcerers, deadly creatures, and ruthless armies of thieves and reavers. As Scott points out, “Conan has absolute trust in his own senses. That’s what sets this apart from lesser pulp fiction heroes."

This week’s conversation is with Scott Barry Kaufman, a humanistic psychologist exploring the depths of human potential.He has taught courses on intelligence, creativity, and well-being at Columbia University, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.In 2015, he was named one of "50 Groundbreaking Scientists who are changing the way we see the world" by Business Insider.Scott was a previous guest on Finding Mastery (#078) where we spent time diving into his journey and what made him the man he is today.I wanted to have him back on because he just published a new book titled, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization… a bold reimagining of Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs--and new insights for realizing your full potential and living your most creative, fulfilled, and connected life.And that’s what we discuss in this conversation.If you’re not familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, definitely check it out.The needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.The interesting thing with this conversation is the timing.As Scott mentions, right now our focus is on more pressing needs at the potential sacrifice of realizing our full potential.------Please support our partners!We're able to keep growing and creating content for YOU because of their support. We believe in their mission and would appreciate you supporting them in return!!To take advantage of deals from our partners, head to https://www.findingmastery.net/partners where you'll find all discount links and codes mentioned in the podcast.

What would it mean for your business if you could free up your mental capacity to focus on what really matters in the life of your business? Does it sound too good to be true? It’s not! On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he sits down with Chris to discuss the topic of business growth. In their conversation, the guys explain how they’ve learned to chunk down their priorities, identify their primary motivations and goals, helpful tips they’ve learned along the way, and so much more. If you are ready to take your business to the next level of growth, this is the episode for you!  Diversity your brand! If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about helping sellers like you future-proof your business. One of the best ways you can future-proof your business is by diversifying your brand’s assets. Think about it this way, if the platform your business uses like Amazon or Walmart shuts you out tomorrow - would your business be able to survive? Scott stresses the value of planning for the worst-case scenario by building up your assets like email lists and social media channels. To learn more about diversifying your brand and so much more, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller!  Don’t get stuck comparing Did you know that one of the worst habits you can fall into as a business leader is comparing yourself to others? It’s true! Too often leaders like you look to their peers, not for motivation but competition. What good will it do your business to keep up with the trends in other industries? If you want to be successful, focus on what your niche market needs and your brand will be in good shape. Remember, the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, so make sure you are watering your side. To learn more about avoiding the comparison trap and other helpful tips, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! Scott’s challenge As Scott is fond of saying, it’s time to, “Take Action!” Don’t let this be just another episode where you listen to Scott and Chris’ helpful insights but you don’t put anything into action. Let this one be the one where things change and you make a step in the right direction! To help you get started, Scott has a challenge for TAS followers like you.  This week, take an hour with pen and paper handy and mentally walk through your business. What is working well? What needs attention? What do you need to change? Once you’ve sorted through what works and what doesn’t in your business, ask yourself this question, “If I had a magic wand that could make one problem disappear, what would it be?”  Once you’ve answered your question, you’ve found your primary target to address! Tune into this episode of The Amazing Seller as Scott expands on this helpful exercise and so much more, you don’t want to miss it!  OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [1:30] Chris joins Scott on this episode.  [5:30] The danger of putting all of your eggs in one basket.  [9:15] Don’t compare yourself to everyone else!  [13:00] Write out your “Why” and set your goals.  [20:00] Setting yourself up for long-term success.  [24:00] Scott’s challenge.  [25:45] Closing thoughts from Scott and Chris.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.brandcreators.com

How do brands like Bullet Proof grow from a little known startup to become a massive leader in the ecommerce industry? What is your plan to grow your brand and build a reputation for yourself? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he examines the Bullet Proof method of brand building and expansion. As Scott walks through the Bullet Proof method, pay close attention - he’s got several tools and resources that you’ll want to follow up on as you develop your strategy. Make sure you have pen and paper ready, you are going to need it for this engaging episode!  Learning from good examples As you plan your strategy for building an ecommerce business, where do you look for inspiration? Are you just making it up as you go or are you looking to other leaders who have pioneered the way forward? While Scott is as experienced and successful as most ecommerce leaders, he is also a constant learner. Harnessing his desire to learn more, Scott has compiled a helpful review of how BulletProof has built its brand over the years. Don’t just take Scott’s word for it when it comes to brand building strategies - learn more on this informative episode!  Telling a story with your brand When was the last time you really found yourself connecting with a brand? Let’s face it, brands are not usually personal and engaging but that narrative is quickly changing within the ecommerce industry. People connect with people, not brands. If you want to get people connected and invested in your brand, you need to give them a story. If you don’t have a story to tell with your brand, it might be a good idea to take a step back and rethink your approach. Learn more about the value of telling a compelling story with your brand by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller!  How to generate massive website traffic If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about breaking complex topics down into easy to follow processes. Here is a simple breakdown of the Bullet Proof approach that Scott has observed.  Research your target market on Google and YouTube.  Create three content buckets.  Do light keyword research and chose the type of content you’ll create.  Post content consistently. Commit to the process. Start choosing more competitive keywords and use the content tree method.  Where are you in your ecommerce journey? Which step do you need to pay attention to this week? Tune into this episode of The Amazing Seller to hear Scott expand on each of these steps and a lot more!  OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [3:30] What drew Scott to Bulletproof Coffee.  [8:00] How to create the right content for your brand.  [11:00] Bringing people into your brand.  [12:30] Validate your market!  [14:45] Don’t overcomplicate the validation process.  [17:15] Create three buckets of content.  [19:50] How are you going to deliver your content? [23:00] Be consistent.  [24:45] What is a content cluster?  [26:50] Scott recaps the best way to attract traffic.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.Bulletproof.com Uber Suggest www.brandcreators.com www.brandcreatorsbook.com

Our guest today is Scott Krone—founder of Coda Management Group. Coda teams up with investors to purchase strategically located, undervalued warehouse space and convert it into climate controlled self-storage facilities. They are a top three operator.Scott began his career in multifamily 25 years ago and when the crash came in '08 he began buying into the commercial realm and started seeing that there were some inefficiencies within the self-storage arena that he could take advantage of.Listen in as Scott gets into the weeds of self-storage and why it makes such a great investment. As Scott describes, “it's apartments without toilets”... a more simplified version that costs about 1/10th of multifamily. There's a lot less risk making it the safest asset class in real estate with the lowest default rates of all asset classes.We delve deep into:The costs that go into buying a buildingLocation, Location, LocationMitigating the risksA typical hold periodCreating valueThe definition of pace financing and opportunity zoneInvestor's ROIThe perfect time to sell is when you don't have to sell - Scott KronePlus, find out the biggest mistake Scott sees people make in the self-storage arena and so much more on today's Episode of The Art of Passive Income!TIP OF THE WEEKMark: Learn more about Scott and his company at CodaMG.com.Scott: Google the 12 Steps to Intimacy in Attracting and Keeping Customers. If you think about this through the same concept as going through and building a relationship with your customer, you can apply the same 12 steps to marketing and to your customer.Scott Krone: Check out the book, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron. This book has helped us the most in the past few years. The concept is—that we all have— the nine personality types; the idea of this is the more healthy you are, the less this personality types get highlighted; the less healthy you are, they become more magnified and ugly in essence.Isn't it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

What does it take to build a solid foundation for an ecommerce business in 2020? Is there a way to investigate and validate a niche market before you get too invested? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he reveals his three steps to identify profitable niches. You’ll want to pay close attention as Scott goes through several examples of how he’s used these steps in his businesses and how sellers like you can do the same. Have pen and paper ready; you’ll need it for this informative episode!  Does the market exist?  It might sound like a basic question, but you need to investigate if the market you are interested in exists. Just because you can dream up a great product, it doesn’t mean that people are out there who will buy it! Once you’ve identified that the market exists, you need to niche down in that market. Too often, Scott talks with ecommerce business leaders who fail to niche down their market while trying to maintain broad appeal - it doesn’t work! To learn more from Scott about identifying and validating a market for your ecommerce business, make sure to listen to this episode!  Making a profit  Does the market you are investigating support more than one product? Are there other ways to make an income in your niche market, or is it solely focused on a specific product? As you build your ecommerce business, you need to look for multiple ways to bring in profit to keep your business running. As Scott is fond of saying, you shouldn’t place all of your eggs in one basket! To hear more about diversifying your revenue stream and putting your business in the best position to succeed, tune into this helpful episode of The Amazing Seller.  Where is the traffic?  Have you ever seen a ton of billboards along the side of low traffic roads? No! Advertizers are not stupid; they go where there is traffic - the same is true for ecommerce businesses. If you want to build an ecommerce business that will last, you need to build a business in a niche market with a ton of traffic. If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about helping sellers like you understand the value of harnessing the power of traffic. You don’t have to figure it all out on your own, Scott has put together a program to help sellers like you understand your niche market and use traffic to your advantage. Learn more by visiting the link to the Brand Creator’s website located in the resources section at the end of this post. OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [1:45] Why it’s a bad idea to build your brand around a single product.  [5:30] Does the market exist?  [9:00] Does the market support multiple ways to generate income?  [14:30] Is there traffic in your target market?  [16:00] Scott recaps all three steps.  [20:30] Closing thoughts from Scott.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.brandcreators.com Uber Suggest Google Ad Sense Quiet Light Brokerage

Does brand building sound too challenging for you? Do you have too many factors and variables that keep you wondering? What if you had the chance to sit down with someone who could walk you through common sticking points to the brand-building process? Good news - you are in luck! On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he goes over the ten common sticking points people face during the brand-building process. The content Scott covers can help ecommerce business leaders like you succeed, have pen and paper ready - you are going to need it!  It’s not too late As Scott covers more of the brand-building process, do you find yourself wondering if it’s too late for your ecommerce brand to adopt some of these ideas? Good news, it’s never too late to make a pivot or learn from what you’ve experienced so far! If you’ve already started building on Amazon - that is ok - there are steps you can take to implement some of the lessons Scott has to share. If you are ready to put in the work tune into this helpful and informative episode of The Amazing Seller - you don’t want to miss it!  Why Brand Building works  If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about getting more sellers like you to make the switch to focus on brand building. While it might still be possible to find a profitable product to sell on Amazon, the truth is - it’s getting harder and harder every day! Why not try an approach that is designed to support and sustain your efforts for the long-term? If it’s so easy and profitable, why isn’t everyone taking the brand building approach? While brand building doesn’t have to be complicated - it will take work! To learn more about how to follow Scott on the brand-building adventure, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller!  Know your audience! Do you ever find yourself wondering why people aren’t more engaged with your brand? Most of the time – it all comes down to speaking their language! From everyday struggles to jargon – if you can capture how your audience talks about your product or service, you can make a huge impact. Scott encourages sellers like you to take the time to learn from and interact with your target audience. Do you know where they hang out online? Have you provided value to that community? Make sure to listen to this episode as Scott explains how business leaders can reach their target market!  Why you need action steps It’s gut-check time! What are your action steps for the next quarter? How about the next month? Peter Drucker once said, “What gets measured, gets managed.” At the heart of that quote is the point that if you fail to give attention and focus to something you need to change – chances are not suitable for that change to take place. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and take action; your business depends on it! To get some helpful action steps and more insights, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [2:00] Recap of Scott’s Brand Building Series.  [10:30] What if you are selling a product on Amazon already?  [13:00] Who is your target market? What are they excited about?  [16:15] Is building a brand really worth it?  [22:00] How do you increase traffic to your home base?  [24:10] What to send to your email list.  [27:10] Just start!  [28:50] Creating content ideas.  [32:00] Closing thoughts.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.brandcreators.com Fiverr

This week, Scott and Karl discuss Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The America Scholar.” This address was delivered at Cambridge in 1837, before the Harvard Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. According to Emerson, there’s a fundamental challenge American scholars are faced with— what is it they ought to be doing? Emerson has a reverence for work and the common man. The scholar must realize the importance of action in the life of the American intellectual or risk becoming a mere thinker. Emerson believes you must do action, and the deeds you do become your vocabulary. If you are in your head all the time, you lose touch. Emerson writes, “Instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm.” On the surface, this may appear to be a challenge to what we do at Online Great Books. However, a big part of what we do is achieved in our seminar discussions. As Scott points out, “the seminar is where you take action on what you read. The seminar is where you start to incorporate the book into the self. The seminar is where you dodge the bullet of potentially becoming a bookworm.” Tune in to this week’s episode and find out why Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. declared this speech to be "the declaration of independence of American intellectual life."

With Mark away this week, Scott Todd takes the reins and leads the team into a discussion about their most recent deals. in this week's Round Table.Joining Scott are:Mike ZainoErik PetersonTate LitchfieldWith an equal number of Mac vs. Surface users on the call, listen in as team MacSurf shares all the details surrounding their most recent deals including the returns and terms. In short:Erik had a 2-for-2 DOTWMike sold one on terms that wasn't too shabby and one acquisition that leaves Scott & Tate in a bidding warTate went against all rules & guidelines and agreed to collect the doc fee over timeScott shares a case of John Doe and a land swapThis leads into a discussion on the shame of cash deals and breaking the rules… and by discussion we mean more along the lines of a razzing. But, in all seriousness, the points made shows how much flexibility we have in this business.Flexibility on how you want to run your business. Flexibility to meet your customers needs. As Scott points out, it's not like houses, you can't swap out a house if your buyer decides he no longer wants that one.Also, this week, we're going to change up the tip of the week, mostly since there was no tip of the week! So, here are the Rules & Guidelines of Land Investing in the words of #TeamLandGeek.Scott—With all of these kinds of rules or guidelines, that's just all that they are. They are rules, they are guidelines, they're not laws. And what's cool is that we all have the flexibility to be ourselves, to be human.Tate—At first you want to keep it as safe as possible. You don't want to waste your time, you don't want to waste your resources, so stick to the proven path. But ultimately, you've got to be flexible, we're not banks, we're not big corporations. We're mom-and-pop land investors we're working with people who want to work with mom-and-pop organizations. So be that land seller.Mike—When someone is new to the business we don't want them to get tripped up. If you've been doing the business long enough, you get a sense for who you're dealing with, you get a sense for what's going on. But the general rule that we create is to keep people safe from getting all the docs done and then the buyer doesn't pay a dime. So, yes, as you become seasoned in this business you begin to recognize the ways that you can do deals that work. But in the beginning it is a safe rule to have as a guideline to keep you protected from putting yourself into a bad spot.Erik: I am yet to break the rule over not accepting electronic payment for terms. In other words, the only way I do a deal is if I have ACH or credit card payment for the terms deal.And, back to the razzing, the guys point out how strange it is that Mark & Scott Bossman are both away on a “trip” this week. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out next week...Isn't it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want and with whomever you want?

Writer, director, comedian and podcast host Scott Aukerman is a very busy man. He is perhaps best known for his hit podcast Comedy Bang! Bang! which has been introducing audiences to the most talented comedians and improv artists for the last ten years. And that’s just Scott’s “side gig.” He’s written for movies and television shows, like Mr. Show, and more recently, Between Two Ferns, a wonderfully awkward talk show hosted by Zach Galifianakis which is now a full length Netflix movie. Even with all of his success, Scott still marvels at the fact that he gets to be silly and make other people laugh for a living. He wonders, “At what point will people figure out it’s all a scam?”He grew up with comedy in his bones and an affinity for David Letterman. In high school, he hosted a Letterman-inspired news show on his town’s public access channel. And in college he frequently turned serious, academic assignments into sketches, including a particularly memorable ballet performance which got him into trouble with his teachers. As Scott says, “I heard my whole life that I didn’t take things seriously enough, and I finally realized I should go into comedy.”Scott joins Off Camera to talk about Bob Odenkirk’s role in jump starting his career, his Between Two Ferns guest pitch/disclaimer, and how on the Between Two Ferns film, he was almost too afraid to talk to, let alone direct, David Letterman.

Welcome To Episode #136 of the Amazon FBA Private Label Show Podcast! In this episode I talk with 8 figure Amazon seller Scott Needham of Buyboxer about the current state of selling on Amazon FBA.  Listen to this Amazon FBA Podcast! [powerpress] Inside the Mind of an 8-Figure Amazon Seller w/Scott Needham EP136 In this latest podcast episode I am joined by Scott Needham the CTO of Buyboxer. Buyboxer manages the largest assortment of skus on Amazon FBA and has done over $250 million in sales over the years. They currently have a catalog of 70,000 plus skus in their catalog and they also work with brands and businesses to help them grow on Amazon. Check out this podcast episode where I talk with Scott about the current state of Amazon. Scott will also share valuable insight on product research as well as using coupons to drive sales and conversion. Scott will also talk about the importance of filing for reimbursement claims with Amazon for missing and damaged inventory.      THE STATE OF AMAZON While Amazon continues to grow and expand over the globe it's a platform that is attracting thousands of new sellers every single year. More sellers than ever are creating thriving 6, 7, and 8 figure plus businesses utilizing the Amazon FBA platform. Just recently Amazon reported that nearly 150,000 Amazon sellers surpassed $100,000 in sales. While competition may be heating up there still is plenty of opportunity for new sellers coming to the platform.    AMAZON PRODUCT RESEARCH    Don't over-complicate your product research. Keep things simple by selling product that are currently in demand or have an emerging demand as trends start and grow. Using tools like Jungle Scout or Keepa can help you identify these product and trends. There is a lot of opportunity to sell premium versions of products on Amazon. While most sellers and Chinese suppliers tend to have lower quality products focused on value buyers you can carve out your piece of the market by positioning yourself as premium. When you do this you can charge more as long as you have a high quality product with premium packaging and a top notch experience.    Consider exploring the grocery niche for lots of future growth opportunities.   Data is great and can help with your product research but sometimes too much data can be counter productive. It's also important that you develop skills as an Amazon seller to be able to identify market opportunities without having to use tools all the time. You should be able to evaluate a current market and determine what the current market is asking for based on customer feedback, reviews and research.    As Scott mentioned it's certainly worth looking into new and emerging trends in the market. If you jump on trends early you can establish yourself as the leader early on Amazon. Using tools like Google Trends or just recognizing social trends may prove to be valuable.    AMAZON COUPONS   If you want to boost conversions and sales on your products then experiment with Amazon coupons. Most Amazon sellers aren't using these right now so the opportunity is golden to capitalize off of it. Coupons will help your click through rate as the visual green badge that Amazon displays is very eye catching. Also if you have slow moving inventory consider running coupons along with PPC to drive sales or liquidate inventory.    REIMBURSEMENTS    If you have been selling on Amazon for any period of time then chances are Amazon owes you money for missing, lost or damaged inventory. You could be owed thousands of dollars back from Amazon so it's important you dive into your reports on a regular basis. If you don't have the time or the patience to do this then hire a virtual assistant from the Jungle Market to assist with this process. You could also hire a service to assist with this as well. Consider using Scott's service Valence and see how much you are owed in reimbursements.      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   CONNECT WITH SCOTT NEEDHAM    Scott's Podcast - The Smartest Amazon Seller Reimbursement Service - Valence Services  Account Services + Brand Management - BuyBoxer  Follow Scott Needham on Instagram  JUNGLE SCOUT CONTEST GIVEAWAY!  Want to get entered to win a license for a Jungle Scout chrome extension? Subscribe to the Private Labeler Show Podcast on You-Tube and hit the notifications bell Like this video and comment “I want Jungle Scout” I will pick one lucky winner very soon! Good Luck!      Not a member of the Facebook Mastermind group yet? Join here!PLS LISTENER DISCOUNT – Chrome Extension –>>EXCLUSIVE JUNGLE SCOUT BUNDLE OFFER LINK – Chrome Extension + Web App Jungle Scout Web App – This is one of the premier Amazon product research tools out on the market now. This essential software will help you find and discovery new and hot product opportunities, track products, spy on your competitors and more. This is my go to tool right now that I use constantly. —> USE THIS LINK TO RECEIVE AND EXCLUSIVE LISTENER DISCOUNT  Jungle Scout Market – Hire pre-vetted Amazon experts to help you build, run and grow your Amazon FBA business. Created by the Jungle Scout team. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW!   I NEED YOUR HELP! If you felt you got any value out of this podcast, then please support me with an iTunes review. It's simple to do! Just click here to head to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review of the podcast. Every review helps! Inside the Mind of an 8-Figure Amazon Seller w/Scott Needham EP136

How can sellers like you transform your approach to engaging with customers and convert them into superfans? What if you had a clear method for creating superfans of your brand? Good news - you’ve come to the right place! On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and author, Pat Flynn. In his conversation with Scott, Pat opens up about his journey creating the SwitchPod, lessons he learned along the way, how he created superfans of his brand, and much more. Have pen and paper ready - you are going to need it!  Pay attention Did you know that most inventions and innovations come from leaders who have honed their ability to pay attention? It’s true! When you learn to pay attention to how people interact with products and services, you’ll notice ways to improve their experience. If you are willing to go out on a limb as Pat Flynn did with the SwitchPod - you’ll make a product people will love. Pat didn’t create the SwitchPod on a whim - he noticed people struggling with GorillaPod tripods at a convention he attended, and then the inspiration struck. To hear more about how Pat developed and marketed the SwitchPod, make sure to listen to this episode!  Don’t be afraid to fail! Too often, leaders who have a great idea that could positively impact peoples live don’t take the risk and put their idea on the marketplace because they are afraid to fail. Don’t let that happen to you! As Scott often says, “You only fail if you give up.” Put your ideas and inventions out there and see how they connect with people - if it doesn’t work - learn from the experience. Before his successful run with the SwitchPod, Pat had experimented with the idea of a large calendar, but it got bogged down in the development process. Pat didn’t let the unsuccessful run with the calendar get in the way of his next great idea - the SwitchPod! Learn from Pat’s story by listening to this helpful episode of The Amazing Seller!  How to create an “Active audience member”  What are practical steps sellers like you can take to create the “Superfans” of your brand? Is there a process you can adopt that will lead to active audience engagement? According to Pat Flynn, there are several steps you can use to get your people engaged.  Give people a reason to stay with you - think small wins - gifts - tips - etc.  Put your personality into your brand/business. Share your story!  Understand and use the lyrics your audience wants to hear. Use their language!  Get them involved - ask their opinion and input.  How will you start creating active audience members today? Are there any other steps you’d add to Pat’s list? Tune into this episode of The Amazing Seller as Pat expands on these steps and much more!  People want to be heard When was the last time you felt like a brand actually listened to you as a customer? Chances are you don’t feel heard by the likes of Nike, Amazon, Walmart, and Old Navy. As an ecommerce business, you have a unique opportunity to tap into your target audience and help them feel like you are paying attention to their struggles and needs. Don’t assume you can just throw a product or service together and then market it well to succeed - you’ve got to go deeper than that! Find out how sellers like you can go beyond the surface and really connect with your audience by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [4:00] Pat Flynn joins the podcast.  [7:20] What is the SwitchPod? How did Pat create it?  [14:00] Pat talks about his unsuccessful attempt to create an oversized calendar.  [17:00] Lessons learned from working on the calendar that applied to the SwitchPod.  [22:25] How to create a superfan.  [24:30] Creating an “Active audience member.”  [30:15] How Lego focused on their fans and turned around their brand.  [33:00] People want to feel heard.  [37:00] How to get your copy of “Superfans.”  [39:10] Closing thoughts from Scott.  RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Superfans Pat Flynn Brand Accelerator Live SwitchPod www.theamazingseller.com/314 www.theamazingseller.com/671 Travel Fashion Girl

Do you ever find yourself lost and confused when it comes to attracting traffic for your ecommerce brand? Have you tried every tool and tip only to come up empty? If so - you aren’t alone! Many sellers like you are trying to figure out the best way to drive traffic and get their business off the ground. On this episode, you’ll hear from Scott as he recaps a recent coaching call where he spelled out his eight-step plan to build free traffic assets and generate income at the same time. You don’t want to miss a minute of this helpful episode of The Amazing Seller! Steps 1-4 In a recent coaching call, Scott spelled out eight steps to build traffic assets and generate income at the same time. Here are the first four steps that Scott provided. Give your brand a name that will allow you to go a little broader down the line. Create a website and “Home base” for your brand. Create a YouTube channel for your brand. Create a Facebook page for your brand. Where are you currently with your brand? Have just now started to think about building out a YouTube channel? What about your website and home base? To hear Scott expand on each of these critical aspects of driving traffic to your brand, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! Steps 5-8 If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott loves to break things down, so you guys don’t get too overwhelmed. In that spirit, here are the second half of the steps Scott has outlined for sellers like you to build traffic assets and generate income at the same time. Create at least one video per week for your audience. Post your video to YouTube. Embed the YouTube video on your blog with a transcript and/or a write up of the subject. Build up your email list and let your audience know about your newly created content! This list is just the tip of the iceberg! There are a ton of resources and content that sellers like you can use to go even deeper with Scott’s content. Have pen and paper ready - you are going to need it! Where will YOU start? Alright, it is gut check time! As Scott often says, it’s time for you to, “Take action!” Where will you start taking action today? As you look over Scott’s eight steps do you feel good with your progress or do you feel like you need to kick it into the next gear? Wherever you are now - the only way to move forward is to plan your next step! Remember, the TAS community is here to keep you going and support you - have you jumped in yet? Learn more about the events and tools available to the TAS crowd by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [2:30] Why you should check out Traffic & Profits. [4:20] Scott walks through a coaching call he recently had. [5:45] Why you need to create a home base. [11:30] Create social media channels and push out content! [15:45] Plan out your content strategy. [20:00] Why you need an opt-in capture form on your site & how to build an email list. [24:00] Scott recaps all 8 steps to build free traffic assets and generate income. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.theamazingseller.com/671 www.tasclass.com www.ecombizbook.com GoDaddy Search trademark database | USPTO Legal Zoom HostGator BlueHost www.theamazingseller.com/resources FreeeUp WordPress SquareSpace Fiverr Giveaway Boost Rev Temi Hello Bar

By now, Matt and Scott have made a logical case, founded on the Stress-Recovery-Adaptation model, for increasing stress in order to continue progressing beyond the novice phase of training advancement. Moreover, they have argued that incremental stress should be applied with a minimum effective dose methodology, that is, using the smallest incremental amount of stress to continue driving adaptation. These basic tenets have taken us away from blind adherence to templates for programming, and toward a holistic model of programming. In today's episode, Matt and Scott outline some of the practical tools in the coaching toolbox for making changes to your program.   As Scott observed in episodes #144 and #146, we only have a few tools to manage stress in a workout: exercise selection, intensity or load (the weight on the bar), and volume. The "Big 4" compound lifts are the foundation of any strength program, and are already maximally stressful in terms of exercise selection (because they use the heaviest weights, and the most muscle mass, over the greatest effective range of motion), so intensity and volume are the first variables to change in post-novice programming. According to the SRA model stress must go up in order to drive adaptation, which we measure in terms of tonnage -- the product of load and volume. The question is, then, how should we drive up tonnage? Should we add sets, reps, weight? All three? In the same workout?   The Texas Method offers a nice heuristic for answering these questions. It calls for increasing tonnage by varying intensity and volume on different days, the intensity day (PR 1x5) and the volume day (a backoff of the PR weight for 5x5). One key observation is that it is difficult, not to mention impractical, to drive up both intensity and volume on the same day. So we tend to split up the driving variables into different days. More importantly, the program drives up both variables. As Scott points out, driving up only intensity, or alternatively only volume, doesn't last for long in his experience. Both variables need to increase, and that will happen in a waving or undulating manner.   Discounts Save 5% off any order at Dominion Belts with the discount code fahveoff.   Connect With Matt Matt on Instagram Starting Strength Online Coaching — Matt’s website Matt on Facebook Matt on Twitter Connect With Scott Scott on Instagram Silver Strength – Scott’s website Scott on Facebook Scott on Twitter Connect With the Show Barbell Logic on Twitter Barbell Logic on Instagram The Website Barbell Logic on Facebook barbelllogicpodcast@gmail.com

They may seem trivial, but warm-ups are an important part of the strength training process. Unfortunately many people either fail to do them properly (or at all), or they overdo them, missing the point that warm-ups are, well, a warm-up. Popular slogans like "our warm-up is your workout" don't help the matter, implying that the warm-up must be an intense, drawn out matter. The warm-up serves one purpose: to prepare us for the work sets, where we will actually impart the stress necessary to drive adaptation.   Physiologically, the warm-up increases circulation and oxygen flow to the muscles, improves lubrication in the joints (movement causes synovial fluid held in the cartilage to squeeze out and lubricate the articular surface of the joints), and prepares the neurological system for the complicated task of lifting. The last point is an overlooked one. As Scott argues, the center of mass in the barbell-lifter system changes rapidly during the warm-up process, as the lifter progresses from the empty bar toward his work weight. For a two-hundred pound man, the center of mass when squatting an empty bar isn't much different from squatting bodyweight. When his work sets get north of the mid-300's, however, the center of mass moves upward toward the bar, and therefore demands significantly more attention to balance. Scott argues that this is primary reason for the warm-up: to prepare your neuromuscular system for the task of producing force under very different circumstances than normal activity.   Unfortunately rank novices, and even some experienced trainees, often fail to warm-up properly. They perform too few sets, or too many, or they make the wrong weight jumps. As the Blue Book prescribes, the warm-up should comprise: Empty bar (45)x5x2 Jump #1x5x1 Jump #2x3x1 Jump #3x2x1 Work sets   For a 315lbs squat, the warm-up would look something like this: 45x5x2 135x5x1 225x3x1 275x2x1 315x5x3 work sets   Many novices get hung up on the jumps. They should be roughly equal, so that you don't make too large of a jump between sets, although most lifters prefer to get a certain weight on their back early in the warm-ups to help them stretch and reach depth. It's also OK to perform more warm-ups than indicated above. If you're feeling stiff, take an extra empty bar warm-up set (or two or three). Another problem lifters run into is over-complicating weight selection for warm-ups. Unless your work sets are close to the empty bar in weight, you shouldn't have to use change plates for your warm-ups. Use 25's and 45's, maybe 10's for your pressing movements. Don't rely on a calculator (or the Starting Strength app) for your warmups; figure out a progression that works for you and commit it to memory as well as your training log. Every so often, as your work weights climb, you may have to increase the jumps, or even add warm-up sets at the end of the warm-up progression.     Discounts Use the discount code LOGIC to save 10% off any order of Iron Joe.  Save 5% off any order at Dominion Belts with the discount code fahveoff.   Connect With Matt Matt on Instagram Starting Strength Online Coaching — Matt’s website Matt on Facebook Matt on Twitter Connect With Scott Scott on Instagram Silver Strength – Scott’s website Scott on Facebook Scott on Twitter Connect With the Show Barbell Logic on Twitter Barbell Logic on Instagram The Website Barbell Logic on Facebook barbelllogicpodcast@gmail.com

Is your ecommerce business set up for long-term success or are you just one Amazon policy change away from collapse? That might sound dramatic, but the truth is, it happens to sellers like you all the time! If you are the New Years resolution setting type person then consider making 2019 the year that you future-proof your business! On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Scott as he runs through his ten-step process for future proofing your business. Make sure to have pen and paper ready for this episode; you are going to need it! Where are you focused? It’s gut check time and what a perfect point to do it, just as 2018 comes to a close. As you look ahead, what are you focused on for the coming year? Do you plan on making small changes or are you going for big ones? As Scott looks back on the progress he has made with TAS and his new brand, he’s convinced now, more than ever that the key to success in business is showing up. Are you committed to your business? Will you work toward it even if you run into roadblocks and challenges? If you are in it for the long haul, stick around, Scott has some valuable tips and insights for leaders like you! Get to know your market. The primary reason that many ecommerce brands fail is a lack of proper knowledge about their market. Too often a well-intentioned seller chooses a market and rushes in full steam ahead without conducting thorough market research. Don’t let that happen to you! Put in the time you need to know what your market needs and how to deliver it in a way that excites and engages your audience. If you find yourself struggling to come up with a strategy for researching your market, you’ve come to the right place! Listen to this episode as Scott provides several ways that sellers like you can get started, you don’t want to miss it! Create a home base for your brand. As your ecommerce business builds momentum, what is your vision for your brand? Do you expect to build it completely dependent on Amazon or do you dream of taking your brand away from Amazon once it reaches a certain point of profitability? According to Scott, it is not too early to start building your home base, a central location for your brand. Don’t assume that you have to have a fully fleshed out home base in mind; you can start small. For some helpful ideas on what this looks like, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! Build your email list! If you’ve been around the TAS community for very long, you know that Scott is passionate about getting ecommerce sellers like you to build an email list. How is that going for you? Have you started building your list yet? An email list is one of the best assets that a seller can have in his rapidly changing ecommerce marketplace. If you own your list, you can weather any storm that might come your way. Future-proof your business by investing your time and energy into building a solid email list. Discover more about this important topic by listening to this episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:35] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [3:15] The key in any business is showing up. [5:00] Make sure to check out Brand Accelerator Live! [8:00] You need to build assets for your business. [10:00] Niche down and know your market! [12:30] Conduct your product research. [16:00] Content research. What is your niche market consuming right now? [19:30] Build your brand’s home base. [21:30] Establish a social media presence. [24:45] Chose three to five products to potentially source. [26:40] Build your email list. [30:00] Publish content on a regular basis. [31:20] Expand your brand using each step covered. [34:00] Closing thoughts from Scott. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.theamazingseller.com/live AdThrive Keywords Everywhere www.theamazingsellertv.com Alibaba Global Sourcing Sourcify