Podcasts about bank one

Now... 'all shall be well' sounds great, but it is sometimes truly hard to believe! In this series, we're looking at some anxiety-producing topics through Julian of Norwich's lens of faith, hope, and love.Today, Julia interviews Ron Schmidt, whose passion for creation care (especially about achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions) is filled with conviction, curiosity, and hope. Listen in as one of our sages talks about his passion for the earth, his concern about climate change, and why he believes that working towards an impossible and an important goal is both life-giving and the best use of who God made him to be.Ron grew up in a working-class family in Milwaukee and graduated with his MBA and BBA with an accounting major from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. While beginning his career in public accounting, during which time he obtained his CPA, Ron eventually moved into banking. In 1983, Ron relocated to Columbus to join Bank One, which, ultimately, became JPMorgan Chase. After retirement in 2009, Ron joined Vineyard Columbus, graduating from Vineyard Institute in 2014. Only recently (2024) did he become actively involved in creation care. Ron is married and has four adult children and four grandchildren. You can contact Ron at: ron.creationcare@gmail.com.Julian of Norwich lived in the Middle Ages through the Black Plague and is one of the church's most recognized mystics.  She wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love, in which we find her well known reflection: Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly hold me in the Faith ... and that ... I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in ... that ‘all manner of thing shall be well'. Interested in getting involved in Creation Care at Vineyard Columbus?Contact: jenney.rice@vineyardcoluumbus.orgPraxis / Redemptive Quest: https://journal.praxis.co/redemptive-quests-652259149ed8Following Jesus in a Warming World: https://bookstore.vineyardcolumbus.org/reads/p/following-jesus-in-a-warming-world-a-christian-call-to-climate-action?rq=following%20jesus%20in%20a%20warming%20world

Welcome to Episode 329 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, host Aaron sat down with Charlotte Ashton, the founder of the 'Is That Middle?' blog, as well as beloved BBC Radio Bristol commentator Ed Seabourne to discuss the major talking points ahead of the 2025 Women's Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Hampshire's marquee signing of Ellyse Perry, the incredible bowling options at the disposal of Surrey, Lancashire and The Blaze, Somerset and Warwickshire's long-term investment in youth and the highly-anticipated title race throughout the season in League Two. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!   Check out Charlotte and Ed's socials here:  https://x.com/isthatmiddle https://x.com/edcricket6 https://isthatmiddle.wordpress.com/   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Bio Moiz Doriwala is a seasoned professional with a diverse background spanning real estate finance, investment, and entrepreneurship .... Growing up in Naperville, Illinois, his interest in real estate was sparked by his father's career as a general contractor and developer. He pursued higher education, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA in Finance and Management and Strategy from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management. His early career began in the finance sector with a unique rotational program at Bank One (later JP Morgan Chase), where he gained experience in asset-backed securities trading, commercial loan workouts, leveraged leasing, and even worked in a strategic group under Jamie Dimon. He further honed his investment banking skills in the Financial Sponsor Group of J.P. Morgan Securities in New York, focusing on M&A transactions and various financing activities. In 2005, Mr. Doriwala transitioned to the real estate industry, joining S&R Land Development, LLC in Reston, VA, where he was involved in the development of residential and commercial land. Leveraging his financial acumen and real estate exposure, he later became Vice President of Perseus Realty Capital, LLC, specializing in joint venture equity, preferred equity, and mezzanine financings. In 2008, Mr. Doriwala formed his own umbrella company, Stirling Realty Advisors, LLC, a boutique real estate investment bank that provides financial advisory services, primarily focusing on raising debt and equity capital for real estate developers and operators nationwide. While initially focused on capital raising, Stirling has evolved into a vehicle for his various investment activities. Under the Stirling umbrella, Mr. Doriwala manages and invests in several businesses, including: Bookhill Park: An entity that manages a series of small funds and operates as a finance company, providing opportunistic lending across various industries and geographies Investments in mental health and behavioral health businesses Investments in one off LPs in apartment projects His role as President of Superior Living Foundation Inc., a 501c3 non-profit focused on owning businesses in the healthcare region, such as senior housing and behavioral health facilities1 .... Mr. Doriwala also has experience in the senior housing sector, having served as Treasurer for Meridian Senior Living .... Additionally, he was involved in the mobile home park business for a number of years through BHP, building and eventually exiting a portfolio of parks. Throughout his career, Mr. Doriwala has demonstrated an opportunistic and entrepreneurial approach, building strong relationships and a reputation for his ability to navigate complex transactions and provide creative financial solutions. He values strong partnerships, thorough due diligence, and trusting his instincts in his investment decisions. Show Notes [6:30] Introduction to Moiz Doriwala and his diverse business background. He manages or participates in managing at least three businesses. [7:00] Overview of Sterling Realty Advisors. Formed in 2008 as an umbrella company for advising real estate operators and developers on capital raising (joint venture equity, mezz, preferred equity, debt financing). Now primarily a vehicle for personal and business investment activities. [7:50] Discussion of Sterling as an investor. Investing in individual real estate projects and companies, often as a passive investor or advisor. [8:20] Introduction to Bookhill Park. An entity managed by Moiz, functioning as a finance company providing loans across various industries and geographies, focusing on the borrower and path to repayment. [9:10] Overview of investments in mental health and behavioral health businesses. [9:20] Moiz's role as President of Superior Living Foundation Inc. A 501c3 non-profit focused on owning businesses in the healthcare region (senior housing, behavioral health, substance abuse). [9:55] Moiz shares his origins and early life in Naperville, Illinois. Noteworthy growth of the suburb outside Chicago. [10:40] Influence of his father's career as a general contractor and developer on his early real estate exposure. [11:05] Initial aspirations to be a lawyer but a shift to finance and banking during college at the University of Chicago (Economics). [11:30] First job at Bank One and the unique two-and-a-half-year rotational program with simultaneous part-time MBA at Northwestern Kellogg. [12:15] Rotations at Bank One: Asset-backed securities trading desk, managed assets (commercial loan workout group, including the Safety Clean bankruptcy), leveraged leasing group, and "skunk works" group working directly for Jamie Dimon. [14:30] Rotation in the banks' merger and acquisition (M&A) group. [14:45] Unique aspect of the Bank One program: Obtaining an MBA (paid for by the bank) through evening classes while working full-time. [16:15] Jamie Dimon's arrival at Bank One as CEO during Moiz's time there. [16:30] Merger of Bank One with JP Morgan Chase and Moiz's move to New York to work in the investment bank's financial sponsors group. [16:45] Fond memories of working in JP Morgan's financial sponsor group. Considered a top group on the street with a strong balance sheet and access to private equity firms. [18:40] Decision to leave JP Morgan in 2005 due to his wife's desire to return to the DC area and the demanding hours of investment banking. [19:30] Intense work hours in investment banking: Regularly working 12+ hour days, seven days a week, sometimes sleeping at the office. [20:15] Wife's background in the real estate industry and understanding of the demanding work schedule. [20:20] Opportunity to join his wife's family's business in land development in the growing DC area, prompted by his father-in-law coming out of retirement to help a large home builder. [20:50] Reasons for leaving high finance for land development: Opportunity to learn real estate on someone else's dollar, educational and financial rewards, and the desire to move to DC. [21:30] Eye-opening experience transitioning from Wall Street to land development. Different work hours and the need for patience when dealing with the public sector. [23:15] Realization that residential land development was not the right fit. [23:30] The financial crisis impacting the land development industry. Fortunate timing of selling their last project before the major downturn. [24:25] Pivoting after the financial crisis to Perseus Realty Capital. A brokerage firm focused on financing real estate transactions (joint venture equity, mezzanine, preferred equity). [25:15] Reasons for choosing Perseus over larger national players: Desire for a smaller, newer firm with more control over destiny, having experienced both very large and very small companies. [26:25] Perseus's evolution to PRP real estate and shift from intermediary to asset management. [26:45] Learning curve at Perseus regarding traditional real estate financing. Understanding mortgage financing, mezzanine debt in real estate, and the role of institutional investors and private equity funds. [27:45] Focus on networking and finding new sources of capital for clients at Perseus. [28:50] Most challenging deal at Perseus: A high-rise residential building in Denver during the financial crisis where the senior loan fell through after construction began. [29:30] Securing mezzanine financing for the Denver project with another intermediary bringing in Corus Bank as the senior lender. [30:10] Challenges with Corus after Starwood took over, transitioning from dealing with a bank to an opportunity fund. [31:10] Comparison of the lending environment today (more cautious with lower loan-to-cost, higher rates, stronger covenants) compared to before COVID. [32:30] Overview of Bookhill Park's lending activities. Opportunistic lending beyond just real estate, including first and second mortgages, mezzanine, unsecured and secured loans, asset-based loans, inventory financing, payroll loans to government contractors, and factoring. [33:20] Origin of Bookhill Park's lending business: Helping a government contractor with payroll financing due to challenges with traditional bank lending for new contractors. [34:20] Higher return expectations in Bookhill Park's early lending days (17%+) compared to today (12-15%) due to increased private credit competition. [36:00] Impact of higher generic interest rates versus the decrease in Bookhill Park's targeted returns due to market competition. [36:50] Bookhill Park's patient capital base (personal capital, friends, family, investors) allows for selectivity in deals. [38:10] Evolution of Stirling Realty Advisors post-Perseus, focusing on national JV equity and mezzanine raising with a business partner. [38:50] Strategies for finding clients and investors: Networking at conferences (ULI), cold calling developers, and building relationships. [39:55] Business partner's departure and Moiz continuing as a sole entrepreneur with Stirling, leading to involvement in other businesses through new partnerships. [40:30] Evolution of the senior living business involvement. Initial capital raising for healthcare deals leading to a role at Meridian Senior Living. [41:20] Role as Treasurer at Meridian Senior Living. Initially part-time but became more significant, involving corporate infrastructure and learning the operations-focused nature of the healthcare business. [42:50] Financing structure of Meridian Senior Living: Real estate financed by traditional sources (opportunity funds, REITs) through leases, while operations were primarily financed by the three partners. [43:20] Involvement in raising capital for Meridian. [43:30] Managing banking relationships at Meridian. The partners had existing relationships, but Moiz also brought new ones. [44:20] Growth and evolution of Meridian: Hiring a full-time treasurer and assistant treasurer, and starting ancillary businesses (pharmacies, therapy business). [45:20] Parallel development of Bookhill Park and how relationships from the senior housing business led to healthcare lending deals. [46:00] Bookhill Park's unique lending advantage in the senior housing space: Ability to potentially take over management due to the operating company connection. [46:30] Bookhill Park's partnership with regional banks to do larger "A/B" structure loans, effectively syndicating the "A" piece. [48:30] Mobile home park business (BHP): Parallel investment with a different group of partners, attracted by limited supply and affordable housing characteristics. [50:15] Portfolio size of mobile home parks at its peak. [50:20] Opportunistic investment strategy leading to eventual exits from mobile home park projects. [50:45] Sale of a well-located mobile home park in Maryland after a short ownership period due to a strong offer. [51:30] Institutionalization of the mobile home park space over the last 15 years, leading to increased competition and higher acquisition costs, making current returns less attractive. [52:00] Challenges in the current mobile home park market: Increased broker presence and sellers having unrealistic price expectations. [52:50] Differences between mobile home park and traditional multifamily operations. [53:10] Section 8 in mobile home parks. [53:30] Potential future re-entry into the mobile home park market when institutional capital exits. [54:10] Formation of Superior Living Foundation Inc. (501c3) in 2017 by the principals at Meridian Senior Living to grow their presence in senior housing and healthcare through tax-exempt opportunities. [56:00] Avoiding conflicts of interest between the non-profit and for-profit entities. Independent board for the non-profit making decisions at market rates with multiple operator options. [57:15] Interesting financing assignments: Maritime claim settlement through Bookhill Park, involving learning about maritime law and insurance claims. [59:30] Recent closing of a 14-property skilled nursing portfolio acquisition by Superior Living Foundation. A tax-exempt bond deal with institutional buyers, aimed at growing the foundation's ability to provide healthcare services. [1:01:30] Reflection on John's early prediction of Moiz's success and their collaborative transactions over the years. [1:01:45] Moiz's experience in the ULI mentorship program with John as his mentor. [1:02:30] Value of their ongoing relationship and how it has led to successful introductions and investment opportunities, including a senior housing deal in Florida and multiple investments in a former mentee's multifamily projects. [1:04:40] Advice for young listeners on investment criteria and sponsor selection. Prioritizing the sponsor, location, and the sponsor's financial resources and "skin in the game." [1:07:00] Views on signing recourse loans. Moiz's partner's perspective on the development game. [1:08:00] Not personally willing to act as a co-GP solely for providing a guarantee. [1:08:30] Ability to bring both equity and a guarantor to a deal. [1:08:45] The unique aspect of Moiz's ability to raise capital and bring a group of investors to deals. [1:09:50] Investment philosophy and what sets Moiz apart: Creativity without a fixed "box," focusing on the story and exit, and a commitment to doing what they say they will. [1:12:00] Clarification on partnership structure: While Stirling is his sole business, almost all other ventures involve partnerships. [1:12:30] Importance of having partners to bounce ideas off of. [1:13:00] Time management strategies: Making lists, prioritizing, managing multiple transactions, relying on mental organization, and detailed calendar use. [1:14:20] Financial management: Working with an accountant and using QuickBooks for many entities. [1:15:15] Lean administrative structure. [1:16:00] Personal management of investor payouts for Bookhill Park. [1:16:30] Utilizing technology for tracking investments (example of Colin's investor portal) and the recommendation to invest in such technology. [1:17:00] Limited personal exploration of AI but an interest in future use. [1:17:30] Use of a wealth management firm with strong technology to track personal and investment financials. [1:17:45] Effectively having a "family office" through their wealth management firm's tracking capabilities. [1:18:30] Ensuring his wife knows the location of important financial information. [1:19:00] Challenging trends and unique opportunities in investments and capital markets today: Uncertainty due to government changes, tariffs, and financial market fluctuations. Lending still tough, potential impact of rising unemployment on real estate. Possible positive impact on office sector. [1:20:30] Trends in the senior housing business: Demographic upside ("silver tsunami") but challenges with increasing labor, food, and supply costs not yet matched by rent increases. Impact of stock market and interest rates on affordability. Financing and construction costs remain high. [1:22:00] Dynamics in the skilled nursing space: Reliance on Medicaid with capped payments and potential cuts creating nervousness. [1:23:15] Growth potential in healthcare in general and the role of AI. [1:23:45] Growth potential in the energy business, including passive energy. [1:24:00] Concerns and questions surrounding the office sector: Return to office trends, occupancy rates, and the efficiency of operating buildings with hybrid work models. Impact on retail demand. [1:24:45] Approach to future investments: Remaining opportunistic and open-minded across various sectors, continuing high-quality lending and partnerships, and focusing on good real estate in prime locations. [1:26:00] The unique value of Moiz's diverse experience across institutional finance, small entrepreneurial groups, agency, and principal roles. [1:26:15] Accepting that not all ventures will succeed and the importance of learning from both successes and failures. [1:26:45] Most surprising lessons learned: No guarantees in business or life, and the critical importance of personally verifying key information rather than solely relying on team members or partners. [1:28:30] Advice to his 25-year-old self: Be curious, be patient, be a hustler, slow down (balance opportunism with thorough execution), and be passionate. [1:29:55] Priorities of family, work, and giving back: Family is paramount with a focus on spending time with his children. Strong emphasis on giving back in the education space, both domestically and internationally. [1:30:30] Supporting various educational organizations. [1:31:30] Final question: What would a billboard on the Capitol Beltway say? "Trust your gut." [1:32:00] Reflection on times when trusting his gut paid off and, more significantly, times when ignoring his gut led to negative outcomes. [1:32:20] Accepting missed opportunities without regret. [1:33:20] Thank you and closing remarks. Similar Episodes Brad Olsen Shekar Narasimhan Ken Bacon Willy Walker

Send us a textFrom defamed to victorious: A mortgage manager's triumphant battle.In this episode, Gavin and Stephen discuss a case where the plaintiff, accused of fraudulently processing mortgages, was blackballed within the banking industry due to a defamatory alert. The court found the bank's defenses of justification and qualified privilege unconvincing, leading to significant damages, including punitive damages for the bank's reckless disregard of the truth. This case underscores the importance of careful and truthful communication, especially when wielding the substantial influence of a major financial institution. Listen For:02:21 - Defamation in Canada08:48 - Fraud Discovery17:14 - Investigator's Role24:03 - Damages BreakdownLeave a rating/review for this podcast with one clickContact UsGardiner Roberts website | Gavin email | Stephen email 

Welcome to Episode 315 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down to look back on the major moments and key talking points from the knockout rounds of the 2024 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Kai Smith's heroic 130* against Worcestershire at Edgbaston, Lewis Goldsworthy's outstanding 115* against Leicestershire in Taunton and Dan Douthwaite's crucial 55* against Warwickshire at Sophia Gardens. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran's social media handles here:  https://x.com/CP_McCarthy   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Welcome to Episode 314 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down with Somerset and former Warwickshire opener Andy Umeed to look back on the major moments and key talking points from the third week of the 2024 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Peter Handscomb's heroic 103 against Glamorgan at Grace Road, Charlie Barnard's impressive string of performances for Lancashire and Yuzvendra Chahal's spectacular 5/14 against Kent at The Spitfire Ground. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran and Andy's social media handles here:  https://x.com/CP_McCarthy https://www.instagram.com/andyumeed/   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Welcome to Episode 313 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down with Warwickshire Captain Ed Barnard and World's Best Cricket Club Member Rob to look back on the major moments and key talking points from the second week of the 2024 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Ed's unbelievable 152* and 3/16 against Gloucestershire in Bristol, Jack Home's spectacular start to life at Worcestershire and Anuj Dal's match-defining 115* against Somerset in Taunton. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out The World's Best Cricket Club's Charity Day here:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-family-cricket-fun-day-tickets-826983238127?aff=oddtdtcreator   Check out Ciaran, Ed and Rob's social media handles here:  https://x.com/CP_McCarthy https://x.com/edbarn95 https://www.instagram.com/worlds_best_cricket_club/   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Welcome to Episode 312 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down with Worcestershire left arm wrist spin wizard Tom Hinley to look back on the major moments and key talking points from the opening week of the 2024 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Tom's phenomenal 5-wicket haul against Durham at New Road, Ed Barnard's barnstorming 173* against Essex in Chelmsford and Ben Kellaway's dazzling display of ambidextrous spin bowling against Surrey at The Oval. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran and Tom's social media channels here:  https://x.com/CP_McCarthy https://x.com/tomhinley42   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Joel is joined by Aaron from the County Cricket Podcast to talk about players and teams to watch, as well as Notts' chances, in the 50 over competition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Episode 310 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down with Leicestershire spin wizard Liam Trevaskis to preview the 2024 Metro Bank One Day Cup Group Stages, shine a light on the up and coming talent that will be featuring in the tournament and also offer some predictions as to who we think will make the Playoffs come late August. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran and Liam's social media channels here:  https://x.com/CP_McCarthy https://x.com/LiamTrevaskis   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

From defamed to victorious: A mortgage manager's triumphant battle.In this episode, Gavin and Stephen discuss a case where the plaintiff, accused of fraudulently processing mortgages, was blackballed within the banking industry due to a defamatory alert. The court found the bank's defenses of justification and qualified privilege unconvincing, leading to significant damages, including punitive damages for the bank's reckless disregard of the truth. This case underscores the importance of careful and truthful communication, especially when wielding the substantial influence of a major financial institution.Listen For:02:21 - Defamation in Canada08:48 - Fraud Discovery17:14 - Investigator's Role24:03 - Damages BreakdownLeave a rating/review for this podcast with one clickContact UsGardiner Roberts website | Gavin email | Stephen email  

In the second hour of Wednesday's BBMS, the guys debate KC's plan to slow down LJ, react to the news of Jim Harbaugh's possible hiring in LA, and complete the football talk with a discussion on M and T Bank Stadium.  Is it slowly turning into one of the hardest places to play in the league?  To close the hour out, we talk to The Baltimore Sun's Jacob Calvin Meyer, who gives his thoughts on the O's slow offseason.

David Hamra is a principal and founder of Gordian Advisors, LLC, a fee-only financial planning firm.  After earning his BA in Economics, magna cum laude, from Washington & Lee University, Dave spent several years in retail bank management.  He earned his Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business and returned to banking with Bank One.  His multiple roles included the development and introduction of a prototype cash management account which combined the bank's deposit and brokerage services.    Dave then spent nine years as a principal with The Vanguard Group of Investment Companies, beginning as the assistant to John C. Bogle, Vanguard's chairman.  Dave managed a number of groups serving institutional investors and 401k sponsors and was instrumental in establishing Vanguard's first satellite operations in Phoenix.   After leaving Vanguard, he served as Chief Administrative Officer of Bradford & Marzec, Inc., a Los Angeles institutional fixed income management firm that grew from $3.5 billion in assets under management to over $6 billion during his tenure.    Dave returned to Arizona in 1999 and joined Greenberg Financial Group, a Tucson investment advisor and broker-dealer, as a principal and compliance officer.  In October 2002, Dave established Gordian Advisors to apply the many lessons learned over twenty years in financial services to helping individuals enjoy financial success.     Dave is a Certified Financial Planner™ and was previously a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst.  He has lectured on interest rates and the economy for real estate professionals and is a frequent contributor to local publications on financial issues.  Dave was also an adjunct professor in the Personal and Family Financial Planning program at the University of Arizona.   Listen to this insightful RIA episode with David Hamra about leadership and navigating change. Here is what to expect on this week's show: - How effective financial planning requires presenting concepts in terms people can understand. - How change is constant and why adaptation is necessary. - Why it's important to protect clients from investment noise and anxiety. - How financial planner should teach their clients the “why” behind financial decisions. - Why maintaining a work-life balance is important for success.   Connect with David: Links Mentioned: https://gordianadvisors.com/ Facebook facebook.com/gordiandavisors LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/dave-hamra-416b581   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bloomberg Radio host Barry Ritholtz speaks with Peter Atwater, president of Financial Insyghts and an adjunct professor at William & Mary and the University of Delaware. He studies the impact of changing confidence on consumer decision-making and advises investors, businesses and policymakers. He coined the term “K-shaped recovery" to describe the pandemic's effects on the economy. Atwater previously ran JPMorgan's asset-backed securities business and served in executive roles at First USA, Bank One and Juniper Financial.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From their trademark blown vessel forms to more recent large castings, Hunting Studio of Princeton, Wisconsin, uses glass and its myriad mysteries to tell stories of unapologetic beauty and celebration of color. The work of this father-son team, Wes Sr. and Wesley Hunting, is on view now through February 4, 2024 in Directing the Flow: The Art of Wes Hunting, at the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass (BMM) in Neenah, Wisconsin. The studio was awarded First Place and a solo show at the Museum following its 2022 Glass Arts Festival. States BMM Executive Director, Amy Moorefield: “The Huntings create blown and cast glass vessels and sculpture featuring colorful palettes and murrine inspired by past and present creations of artists working in Murano, Italy. Through the process of painting with colored glass and cold surface cutting, Hunting's newest creations invite the viewer to gaze inward into miniature worlds, paying homage to the aesthetics of overlay paperweights.” Hunting Sr. studied under glass artist Henry Halem while attending Kent State from 1975 to 1979. He served as an assistant to Richard Ritter and has taught at the University of Kansas, Tennessee College of Crafts, Florida Keys Community College, and the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  Hunting Studio's work can be found in museum collections internationally to include the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio; the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin; The White House, Washington D.C.; the Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, Michigan; the Windhover Center for the Arts, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin; the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona; the Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, Iowa; the Museum of American Glass, Millville, New Jersey; the Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, North Carolina; Cafesjian Museum of Art, Armenia; The Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington; and The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi. Hunting corporate collections include Bank One, The Hyatt Corporation, The Standard Oil Company and The Quaker Oat Company, to name just a few. In the early 1980s, a trip to Penland School of Craft in North Carolina and travel through Italy set Wes Sr. on the path he continues on today. His studio visits with artists such as Mark Peiser, Billy Bernstein, Gary Beecham, Steve Edwards, Rob Levin, and Harvey Littleton and witnessing the millefiori process of the Italian masters helped refine his own goals in glass. Now as his son assumes increasingly more responsibilities at their studio, new ideas and bodies of work are fleshed out, investigated and introduced to their enthusiastic collectors. From their early Colorfield series, the artists have expanded into new aesthetic territory in the creation of their Optical series, Remnantseries and Castings. Says Wes Sr.: “We are always striving to take the work to a new level of intensity. It has developed into a way for me to express myself by painting with molten glass. There is no other material like glass. The colors are totally unique as they can be transparent or opalescent. The way light passes through colored glasses adds a third dimension that cannot be duplicated by any other material.”  

Debt: Engine of Prosperity or Road to Ruin?   Takeaway: Gain a more comprehensive understanding of the role of debt in the economy Money Learnings: Richard had a pretty typical upper middle class upbringing. He  got an allowance and had a part-time job Bio: Richard Vague's career has spanned fields as varied as banking, energy, government, and the arts. He recently served as Secretary of Banking and Securities for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Vague previously was managing partner of Gabriel Investments, an early stage venture capital company; was also co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company; and also co-founder and CEO of two banks – First USA, which was sold to Bank One, and Juniper, which was sold to Barclays PLC. He is author of numerous books. His new book is Paradox of Debt: A New Path to Prosperity Without Crisis (Univ of Pennsylvania Press, Juuly 11, 2023). Learn more at richardvague.com   Highlights from this episode:    Richard Vague discusses how he fell into a career in banking accidentally after dropping out of college and needing a job to pay for school Richard talked about what inspired him to write his book “Paradox of Debt” Vague explains how excessive mortgage lending led to the 2008 financial crisis Discussion about government spending and debt actually creates wealth by injecting money into the economy The paradox of how debt is both beneficial in growing the economy yet also increases inequality and leads to financial crises over time Vague recommends being skeptical of both government and the private sector, as both are capable of doing good and harm. pardoxofdebt.com https://www.richardvague.com   Richer Soul Life Beyond Money. You got rich, now what? Let's talk about your journey to more a purposeful, intentional, amazing life. Where are you going to go and how are you going to get there? Let's figure that out together. At the core is the financial well being to be able to do what you want, when you want, how you want. It's about personal freedom! Thanks for listening! Show Sponsor: http://profitcomesfirst.com/ Schedule your free no obligation call: https://bookme.name/rockyl/lite/intro-appointment-15-minutes If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes: http://bit.do/richersoul https://www.facebook.com/richersoul http://richersoul.com/ rocky@richersoul.com   Some music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast   Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.

Welcome to Episode 254 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down to discuss the key moments from Leicestershire's pulsating 2 run victory over Hampshire in the final of the Metro Bank One Day Cup at Trent Bridge such as Harry Swindells' heroics, Josh Hull's ice-cool bowling at the death and the greater meaning of the competition to fans of county cricket. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran's Twitter here: https://twitter.com/CP_McCarthy   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Rhonda Vetere joins the Mission CTRL Flight crew to share wisdom from her worldwide travels, business and life adventures.  Rhonda Vetere is a seasoned global C-Suite executive who has worked in technology fields across industries.  Vetere is a global STEM Ambassador and change agent for digital transformation, she has led the way for growth with more than 23 mergers and acquisitions.  Rhonda is also the author of Grit & Grind: 10 Principles for Living an Extraordinary Life. Rhonda is a congruent servant leader and a corporate athlete who used a combination of grit and grind to climb to the top of her field.  Vetere has worked in global executive positions at Estée Lauder Companies, AIG, HP Enterprise Services, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Bank One and JPMorgan Chase.  She's lived and worked internationally-in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Mumbai and across India-and has managed more than 20,000 people.  Tune in to hear how Rhonda stays focused and sharp.  Before launching into this week's mission, Ramon and the flight crew discuss Roark Capital's acquisition of Subway, which has not changed hands since it was founded by two Connecticut families in 1965. . . Find Mission CTRL on Anchor, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and our website. Mission CTRL aims to ignite the innovative spirit inside us all through providing budding and successful entrepreneurs and community leaders with a platform to share their stories and inspire others. Tune in every Wednesday and catch up with the team at Peralta Design as we unleash the origin stories behind some exceptional leaders, share marketing/branding insights, and navigate the ever-changing currents of pop culture. Subscribe for weekly branding and entrepreneurial content here!  To learn more about Peralta Design's work visit peraltadesign.com. #welaunchbrands #digitalagency #mbeagency #mbe #digital #branding #marketing #web #startups #creative #BrandU #w2 #fulltime #leadership #contentcreator #contentstrategy #marketingstrategy #entrepreneurs #business #launchyourbrand

Welcome to Episode 250 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down to discuss the standout performances and key moments from the third week of the 2023 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Andy Umeed's spectacular 172* in Derby, Ian Holland's exceptional 5/35 in Guildford and the continued rise of prodigious Gloucestershire all-rounder Ollie Price. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran's Twitter here: https://twitter.com/CP_McCarthy   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Welcome to Episode 249 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down with Somerset commentator Harry Everett to discuss the standout performances and key moments from the second week of the 2023 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as James Bracey's record-breaking 224* against Somerset in Bristol, Charlie Allison's incredible boundary save against Middlesex in Chelmsford and the rapid rise of 19-year-old Glamorgan all-rounder Ben Kellaway. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Harry's Twitter here: https://twitter.com/HarryEverett_14   Check out Ciaran's Twitter here: https://twitter.com/CP_McCarthy   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Welcome to Episode 248 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down to discuss the standout performances and key moments from the first week of the 2023 Metro Bank One Day Cup such as Prithvi Shaw's extraordinary 244 at Wantage Road, Roman Walker's scintillating 6/43 on his 23rd Birthday in Beckenham and the continued rise to prominence of the Price brothers at Gloucestershire. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran's Twitter here: https://twitter.com/CP_McCarthy   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

Transcript: All right, so today we are, this is our fifth Monday of the month. So this is gonna be more of a quarterly business review, mastermind group, Strategy Session, etc, I got a very specific couple of things that I'm going to go over. And then we're going to open it up for live q&a, we'll stay on this call, I've got our normal hours set aside, but also got room beyond that. Everybody wants to stay on and strategize for their quarter. But that's our agenda for today. And so let me get my screen set up here. And go ahead and mute you guys. Okay, all right. So the Okay, so every single calendar quarter. For as long as I can remember, I've got a process that I go through. And I like the last. You know, it's different for everybody. Like, for me, it is the last day of every single actual calendar quarter that I do this. And so but for the sake of this group, we are reserving the fifth, Friday, or the fifth Monday, the fifth, you know, when there's a fifth meeting of the month, or the end of our calendar quarter. Okay, so it's, I plan on doing this group for probably another 1520 years. As I'm probably going to even switch my own planning that before the, you know, this particular cycle, because there's a very specific thing that I go through. And it has served me well, I learned this. Actually, I do you know, when I started this, this was in April of 2009. I had built my IT company to a point of doing $1 million a year in revenue. And there was an organization back then called Heartland Technology Group. The original group, the original founders were Arlen Sorensen. Arnie billini, who was the founder of ConnectWise, managed services and ultimately ConnectWise, the PFA tool, Eric Simpson was a part of that group who founded the MSP University. And I think there were two other people and they started HTG. So Armand Sorensen's one ticket, turned it into business, grew it to 37 mastermind groups, and I think 16 countries at the time, and I was part of HTG 08. And so that's how the structure was. And the thing I really wanted to do with this maximum I group is kind of take a lot of the stuff I've learned from that mastermind group and bring it to this group. And so some of these forms that you're gonna see things like that are things that I learned and I got through there, in order to even join that group, you had to be a million dollar business had to be at the time a managed service company, largest one in the group of 18 and a half million, the average MSP was $4.5 million. So the association alone was, was stellar. I mean, I, I, there's so many things I got out of the group. But really, the association was number one, being able to associate with successful people, upwardly mobile people, and that's one of the things so a lot of you are going to be listening to this recording. And so that's one of the things it's like, when people join this group, you know, we're maxing this particular group of 12. And the only way a spot once it gets to 12, my goal is to get it to 12 by the end of the month. And, and so I want to get there by the end of the month, because why not? I haven't even really focused on doing it. But it's, we've got a second mastermind group, we want to start in September, and that is going to be okay, you're already at $100,000 in personal income, that means that your business revenue is income in your pocket after taxes, everything. Once you hit that level, then the next group that we're starting is, is you're at that level and you want to get to a million dollars a year and top line revenue. And so we want to we're going to start that probably September one and I say we because I'm finalizing a partnership with one of the top AI companies, digital marketing agencies pretty much in the country, he and I have decided that we're going to actually form a business together. And so you're in the area of Aneesa. So, Adrian Boyle, he runs Adrian agency. And he has Lee Butler, and he is digital manager for content at scale. So he and I share very similar values, and that we want to help small business owners. Both of us came from very humble backgrounds, we both have made lots and lots of money, but lots of businesses and had it all crumble, and they had to rebuild it. So we have very similar values. But the skill sets with the two of us combined, just gonna make this call even more valuable. So my goal for this is to help everybody here really take their business to whatever level they want. But every single quarter, it's important to take the time out. Important to come in and, and really look at things. And so in the Dropbox folder, I uploaded there this morning, a thing called a quarterly business review template. Feel free, you know, in your case, Jack or the other people that you're listening to this call, feel free to take this document and make it your own, do your own quarterly business review with your own clients. And feel free to use whatever you want here. And so really, when you're coming to the table, this is what we were required to do every single quarter that we came together. And for us, it was two days, we had to fly in the night before it was a welcome dinner and then two full days. Well, one full day, from 8am till 8pm. At night. The only breaks we really got was to check our email and go you know, change but it was a working lunch working breakfast working dinner, Happy Hour was mandatory, etc. And you get to know somebody in that timeframe. The second day, we went until about 4pm. And then at the end of the quarter, the end of the two and a half days or two full days if you math. They handed out flips MLS sheet of paper and had every single business in the room, they Max they met. It was a max of 12 business owners and they had a facilitator in this group, it's going to be an acts of troll business owners. I'm the facilitator. And so for two full days, they deep dove into this and they went around the room. And they said okay, based off of what you heard over the last two days, if you own stock, I'll just use my own company, for example, Intelligent Business Network Solutions if you own stock, and IBM s John Pyron. Lee and the President, would you buy more? Based off of what you've heard over the last few days? Or would you hold your stock and give him another calendar quarter to implement what this group has given him? Or would you sell and get out while the getting's good? Well, if the majority of the room sold, you were kicked out. You're, you're done. You're out. Okay? If it wasn't. So that's how important a group was. Okay. And so over time, we want to get a culture of everybody in the group showing up playing at a higher level, hitting their goals hitting their targets, I mean, it just creates a culture that we have here, that is going to elevate everybody's business. So this is what we did, we did a quarterly business review, we would come to the table, this is all be filled out before we even got here. So we're just gonna go through it this time. So that way, the next quarter, everybody's prepare, okay, and it'll be in place before we get there next time, but highly recommend you go and download this. And each one of you can bring this than that to the group, send it to me, whatever. I'll give you feedback. What areas do you need assistance? What are the items that you need help with in the next 60 minutes? Okay, what is the biggest crisis on your hands? And then we go into the quarter, we want to baseline strategy the quarter. So for those of you that are not familiar with baseline, baseline is let's just take money to say we're going to measure money here. Let's say you look back, so the homework is this. We're at the end of August. So August, July in June. So in June, wait, we're at the end of July. So May June July, right. What are the numbers? Okay, let me give you some numbers here. That are probably important. Okay. Total probably line revenue. Total boss Have goods sold. So if you're not familiar with cost of goods sold cost of goods sold is I sell a pair of sunglasses, or a pair of reading glasses, or $1. Okay? My cost of goods sold is how much labor, Arts Etc went into making this pair of glasses. And let's just say it's $8.80. So my total cost of goods sold in that example would be 80 cents. My revenue was $1. So my profit is going to be 20. That's nice. So the next line item is going to be total gross. Profit. Total, what's called S G, the ampersand sign and a census. That's insurance, that cell phone bill that's administrative stuff that's office supplies, that insurance. That's gas, it's not being billed to client. It's all the other expenses that have nothing to do with delivering the product or service. So you have your total SGN expenses and then you have your total net profit which is called permit you're gonna want to know EB i t da, your total EBITA. Okay, which stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Okay, so earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, part of your SG and a expense and I'm going to give you this secret, while you all are still young in your business life when you start enjoying the fruits of being a business owner, meaning I pay my cell phone bill, okay, and because my son is 16 and he's over zero, because the tax thing in 2017 allows me to do this and because I am married, my wife's cell phone bill, her Apple Watch, line, my son's cell phone bill, my Apple Watch line my iPad, everything is all on one Verizon bill and it's all paid for by my business 100% legal etc. Because it is a company expense. Here's the point when under scna since find a way to categorize owner senses Okay, your salary, the insurance, payroll taxes associated with you health care coverage home office reimbursement expenses, your cell phone bill your car, you have two cars, one of them should be sold to your company. Bank One um should be used for business purposes only if you're a sole proprietor should have two separate checking accounts personal checking accounts are fine, okay. The only tip I'll give you as a sole proprietor that's very important is go to the IRS website and type in SSH for and do an EIN for your personal sole proprietorship. So you don't have to give out your personal social security number. Okay? So go there even if you're a sole proprietor, it all is going to come on to your personal return under a Schedule C. So you'll want to get your own EIN number so when somebody is having you give them a W nine you're not giving your own personal social security number. When you go to the bank and you open up a checking account, you can open up a personal checking account, it does not have to be a business account. Those things don't charge a fee for personal accounts. He is is have one for business and one for personal and don't mingle funds. Okay? You're gonna take money out of if you're a sole proprietor and you're gonna pay yourself write a check or transfer from the business account to your personal account that way it's clean. But if you start tracking your SG and a expenses and separating out all your own personal expenses when it comes time to sell the business or comes time to properly evaluate the business, it's easy for someone like me to pull out if I got rid of the owner, how much EBIT are actually exists? Right so I have a client. He owns an insurance company the the 300 almost four $100,000 a year in commissions, she's got a staff of five people. She is employee number five, escort. She's been at it for 29 years. And we've worked together for the last two and a half years for the sole purpose of giving the business to the point where she can disappear for an entire month and not have to worry about the business. So she's coming back from Alaska, I think today, she's been gone all month. Well, while she was gone, some guy reached out to her and said, hey, I'm interested in buying your insurance business. He said, No. Cash Machine. No. And then she slept on it. And she goes, Wait, everything's for sale. I wonder what I wonder what I can get. So she calls back, the guy says, Yeah, I'd be open for the right price. And so she calls me up. And I said, Well, it's outside of the purview of my normal coaching arrangement with you, but I will do it. And that's X amount of money. And so I will facilitate the whole deal. So when I went to measure the EBIT, or when I went to actually do the valuation of the business, first thing out of my mouth is I need the last three years of tax returns, I need the last three years of profit and loss statements balance sheet and the year to date, statements as well. And then when I got on the phone with her bookkeeper, she had so many different hidden expenses in the profit and loss, it took about an hour to drill down to go okay, that's a that's an expense to legitimate, but it's, it would be considered personal in nature. In other words, when she goes bye, bye from the business, that expense goes bye bye. And that's what I needed to capture. Welcome to find out after $400 in annual revenues, she's bringing in about $205,000 into her pocket and only make only 4000 a month and his payroll rest of it's just legal, legitimate business expenses that she can write off as a business owner, okay, but when she goes by by all that gets added back, okay? So that's when I calculated the EBIT. Aw. And because it's an insurance company, you can times that by three or four of the top line revenue, so we're able to sell that business for about 1.2 to $1.4 million, while the investor, the guy that wants to buy it once all that break down, okay, I have to now spend two hours of my time on the phone with the dude explaining where those things are buried. When in reality, if she just had the one category set aside for business owner expenses, I would just be able to print the report and go, here you go. When it comes to printing the report for the IRS, I'm going to take that that geo code and I'm gonna hide it and it's going to go up to the next level. And that's the one I give to the IRS. Okay. So totally legal, nothing I'm saying here is a Shamy or anything, it's what is allowed as a business owner. So baseline, always measure your baseline every single quarter if you keep track of these numbers, you track these things, okay? And you measure them but is measured will improve. Okay? And the numbers are what they are don't fudge them don't do anything else. Just top line revenue, cost of goods sold gross profit SG and a expenses, total net profit. Next, what I would track when it comes to baseline is how many total clients in this past quarter. Okay, break it down by revenue or client. And total number of transactions be the reason you want to do that is I can take the total revenue, I can divide it by the number of transactions and I can get my average transaction amount. I'm going to show you what to do with that here in a minute because once I know that number, right, I now can plan and increase that number but if I don't know the number very makes it very difficult to plan. Next is how many new clients in this past quarter meaning they were not clients of yours before. Again, we're going to break it down by revenue and total number of transactions This is very helpful in the MSP sales space. Okay, it's very helpful even in the real estate space because of the number zero, the number zero. But here's the deal. Whatever the number is, we can net we now know what the number is, right? We can we can set goals now. Okay? And so how many returning? or recurring clients? Right? Yeah, revenue Total Transactions put this calculator in place you can you can always do this on a report in QuickBooks or you can just print it. Okay. How many new client appointments are actually not you sale appointments? Meaning Did you run? Okay, me? Went there. I might have this might have been my first appointment, it might have been my fifth appointment. We're only going to count the appointment where I presented. I asked them to buy and they got an opportunity to say yes or no. And that number is is very, very important. Okay. Lastly, or maybe Lastly, depends on your business is Ada base inventory the number of suspects you need, I haven't contacted them. I don't know if they're qualified for me. So now in queue L which stands for marketing qualified leads have a suspect I qualified them. They they have identified that I should market to them. Okay. They subscribed to my newsletter, they they went through a funnel. They I talked to them on the phone. I said, okay, yes, they are qualified, they fit my target. Okay. Next is going to be SQL, which is sales qualified. Leads. Marketing has done their part. They said yes. They're interested in having a conversation with you, Jack. Yes, they are interested in having a conversation with you visa. Now they are a sales qualified lead, we're handing them off from marketing to sales. Okay. So prospects, I contacted them, I'm in sales, I contacted them, we set our initial appointment, they are now in my proposal pipeline, okay. And why it's past clients? And bosses, okay, those are all eight different tags, or eight different categories, I would segment your database into you can have all kinds of other stuff. But once you have these tags in place over time, this I'm going to be selling my clients database for it's going to be about $450,000 of the transaction. Okay, because she has it segmented properly. And it's because value your database, no matter what industry, you're in 20 years from now, 30 years from now, whether you're employed for somebody or you're not, okay. Your personal database is one of the most valuable assets you have in this lifetime in the world when it comes to business. Okay. I wished I would have learned this lesson prior to 2012. The Garrick law firm pounding this into my head to realize the value of a contract. Because there are people in my database. If I launch a new product or service, or Jack calls me up and says, Hey, who do you have? That would be a candidate for my services. All I got to do is go to my database and I can instantly give him probably 50 to 60 contacts. And he said because she's in real estate, because the person in my little tip group is in real estate and she won't call me up and she won't say hey, let's go to lunch. I'm buying, let's go to coffee. I'm buying, I want to sit down and talk to you about your database. John, if she did that, and I gave her the strategy, if she did that, she would walk away from every sit down with me with 10 referrals every single freaking time like clockwork. Okay, and they wouldn't be like, Oh, I think they might be interested in your services. Now, it'd be 10 people, you call them say, Hey, man, John Pyron told me to call you, I'm a real estate person. You know, he tells me that you're a good person, he wants me they wanted to introduce me to you. Now, I always go beyond that I was make a call myself and set you up. But that's the reason you want to have a database that segment because I used to do nothing but train realtors, and mortgage people. And I have a massive network. And it's all segmented out. And, you know, that's what you want, because you become a valuable resource for somebody. Okay? So when it comes to baseline, these are some of the things that you want to measure. And then you pick the other stuff you can put in here health, you can put in there, like I'm having a sit down with my own wife this afternoon. 530 Okay. 430 Okay. So, and I'm basically running this, we run this strategy, we're gonna run it on our marriage, our health, our fitness, our finance, our relationship, our kids. And we're gonna go, okay. And we do over the last three months. What are our goals for the next three months? But if we don't measure it? Now, I mean, we might need some counseling after today. No, I'm just kidding. But you know, but at the end of the day, we want to go into this next quarter, knowing exactly what we're going to do and what our goals are. Because life becomes more fun when you're consistently hitting your goals and objectives. What strategies were used this last quarter, right? So baseline, right, so let's just pick money, let's just say we're going to target money. And this is a strategy. So I just want to go over the strategy, and then we're going to open it up for q&a. Okay. So let's just say you did $15,000 In total revenue over this last three months. Okay, so the baseline is 15,000. Part of that baseline is okay, how much cost of goods sold? were associated with that, and how much was the profit? How much was were my expenses? How much was my net profit? How many total clients all these questions? Okay, if I have the answer these questions, great. If not, and I want to, if you want to do the work fine. Okay. But if you start tracking this going forward, when the next quarter comes around, you will have the numbers if you want to be ambitious, and go back and recreate the wheel, knock yourself out. Okay? But we're gonna measure what is the baseline, what worked, what did not work? Then we're gonna go into the rest of this, this questionnaire here, key facts, it breaks it down. Okay, year to date, revenues. How much of an increase over last quarter operating expenses? How much of an increase or decrease over last quarter EBIT? Ah, how much of an increase or decrease over the last quarter? How much cash? Okay, if I'm doing if I'm like, in Jack's type of business where I have accrual based accounting, I probably do my taxes on cash base. Okay. I want to know, how many cash transactions income expense and net operating income happened over this last quarter and on the accrual as well? What were the key issues that I faced over this last quarter? I want to update all my business objectives for that I have for the year. Where am I at year today? We're finishing up in July. So if I have a revenue number, I'm going to divide that by seven. That's my average monthly revenue, I'm going to times that by five more months. And that's if I don't do anything different. That's where I'm probably going to end up by the end of the year. Strategies, what were the strategies that you actually used in this last quarter? And be honest, man, if you didn't use a strategy? If you can't say, Hey, man, I did whatever it takes with that strategy. Don't just don't lie to yourself. Just say, I didn't even freaking try. That'll be fun. While I was doing a mastermind group, we had a green red and green yellow red. Green means I knocked it out of the park. I use the strategy freaking rock and roll. Yellow means that kind of used it but it didn't quite get it done. Red means I didn't even try. know if there was objectives that are looking at my forward looking metrics is what is my strength or strategy for the next year. Now I know what my baseline is. What are some things I can add to my baseline or subtract or modifying improve? Because all I'm going to do is I'm going to keep doing the same thing I've been doing because it gives me a result. Add modifier some tracks to my baseline going into the quarter. What were my major wins or losses for the quarter? Okay, notable items in the in the quarter pipeline, new clients prospects, etc. That's that listing at a time. Okay. What were the results of this quarter? What were the top three or four goals for the quarter? Where do you need help? Your leadership plan? Thank you And here we're going to upload a leadership plan. It's not in here. But I will we're I will upload it in here. It's a life plan, leadership plan life plan. I'll put it in here legacy plan I'll put in here as well. We'll evaluate your personal life. Okay, your work life balance, or the market conditions and trends right now? What are the conditions of the market? Okay. These are all things to look at when you're looking at you're planning out your quarter. You want to look at okay, what can I set as a goal for this next quarter? What is my top line revenues are going to going to be let's talk about business because all the other stuff is personal. Once you know this, these results of this past quarter. All these results right here from top line revenue all the way down. Then it becomes Okay, what do I want those numbers to look like? Three months from now. And so it's August. So September, October, November is the 30th, I believe is going to be a Monday. And that's going to be the fifth Monday. So those are the things stop sharing here real quick. I'm gonna go and verify that between now and November 30. No, that is incorrect. between now and October 30. August, September, October, yeah. Okay, so between now and October 30 is the next time you do this. So if you just put these things in place right now, and you measure them between now and the end of October. The nice thing is you're going to have things that you have measured. Don't allow us to set your 2024 plan a lot more accurate. Okay, because you're gonna have actual numbers. All right. So that's the lesson for today is to go through the quarterly business, review your baseline, dialed in your database updated and set your targets for the next quarter. And bring those things to the next meeting if you want or don't come to me via email and go here's my goals. Here's what I expect for the next quarter if you want me to give you some feedback on that, right. I'm gonna open it up real quick. Any questions about this first? And if not, then is there something that you would like to get dive into on this week's call? With Lisa I don't have any questions. I was just getting ready to speak No, I don't have any questions. Anything that you would like some feedback or help on today? Yeah, I have a bunch of stuff. I don't really even know where to start. Yeah, good. Yeah. So yeah, I'm taking my business kind of like on my own leaving REMAX. And so I have, you know, like when I started with my, with my, you know, II and Oh, my file system, all that kind of stuff. Alright. So are you looking to using their database right now? Obviously. Well, their file system Yeah. Your file system, their database, etc? Because you're at a broker's place, right? And you're gonna be a broker yourself? Yes. gratulations thanks. All the paperwork, you're, you're a broker now. Well, I've been a broker, but I just haven't started my own business. My license has always been a broker. Not always, you know, eight years of the 20. Yeah. Got it. And so what? So this is something that you're, you're at a point where you're considering going out on your own You're gonna run your own show. And the question is, okay, where do you start? Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. Yeah. And, and so I would say it starts with a one page plan. And treat it as it's not going to be much different than what you already have just that there's certain eyes that need to be dotted, and t's that need to be crossed when you're going to go out on your own. And looking at it and making sure that you're making the move at the right time. And that you're teed up and set up for success, right? Because you look at okay, what do I have by having my license with REMAX or it can be with you know, exp can be with whatever, right? Just use where you're at, okay? Because I have my license with REMAX, here's what I get. I pull my license, and I hang my own shingle. Okay, what am I not going to get? Thank you, what am I now going to have to figure out and once you have that list down, then and you have your one page plan, then you can either bring it to this call, we can strategize on that here. Or you can do a one on one strategy session with me if you want. And I will walk you through step by step exactly what you need. So but congratulations, that's a big step. A lot of freedom associated with that, and a lot of maneuvers you can make that are a lot more freedom, that's for sure. And you close a whole lot more deals and a whole lot more transactions. So one of the quickest way is I will go back and evaluate because you can pull this list go back and evaluate all the deals that you brought in and closed over the last three years. And list them all out. And then look could I have done these deals without REMAX? And, and you know, being a part of REMAX of that influence are closing these deals and put a checkbox next to the ones that probably could not have done it without that. You'll be able to do the math on that and go, Okay, why? Let's just say there's four deals that you really got, because you're a REMAX realtor. What can you do to make up for that? So just knowing the numbers and everything. I know personally a lot of mortgage brokers that I helped fire their broker very successful. But that was that was a you went from I have nothing and not sure where to start. That's great. That's exciting. That's fun stuff to share on these calls. Thank you. I had a real estate question for you. And I don't know where to start with this one either. So I'm just gonna fire from the hip here. So if someone is let's say if someone's quarter, for whatever level of it. Now I'm asking for a friend of a friend or a friend at this point, we'll call them like six degrees of separation from actually I've never seen the house. But they said hey, listen to me. That talks like that. But it's actually them. Yeah. Very close. You know, it's, it's funny. My so my dad, my dad was awful about this. And my mom was laughing with me that the other day she goes, Thank God you didn't get that gene, but your brother definitely did. And it's not for him. It's for someone else though. That's not directly family, but my dad absolutely was. And my brother 1,000% is a hoarder. And I'm like, I don't know how you live like this. So either follow suit or swing the other way. I'm like, I throw out stuff all the time. My wife's like, I look at my closet. And I'm like, I should probably donate clothes again. She's like, What are you going to wear my Kayani like three shirts. I have all my work shirts. And then what? What do I need stuff to work out and that's it. We'll need other clothes. So I'm trying to figure out more about the situation because there might be an opportunity for someone else but they said, you know, the house isn't really something that really staged the person has too much stuff in the way and I kind of want to be like now I've seen real bad hoarders and I've seen okay, this is a mess. But what would you say? What would you suggest to someone to make it so if they want to present the house like that because it's too much house they need to get out of? Do they need that? Does it need to get cleaned up first like You can't show it without that, or where would someone start on something like that? Speaking of not knowing where to start, I don't want to, right. So you're saying this person lives in the house and they don't stand a chance for them. They're they're having trouble keeping up on the bills, you know, was good back in the day. It's it's the house that she raised her kids and her husband passed away years ago. So now it's just one woman and her house is too big and she's retired, doesn't have money and still has, I think 100,000 Maybe less that that they owe on the house. And as I actually said, it's probably and I told my sister, because she's already told my story, this person, it's probably a great time for them to try and sell. But the problem is they have a lot of stuff. And I'm like, What's a lot of stuff like jackets everywhere? And I said, Okay, well, that's probably more of a challenge, because it's devaluing what you're showing, to some extent, right? Because you can't truly show an empty room. If say, Hey, if you just imagine all these clothes aren't here, this dresser. And you're like, but I thought this was the dining room? You're like, yeah, yeah. And I've seen some horrible situations. Where would you tell someone like that's a start? Well, I just noticed people who are hoarders really have a lot of emotional attachment to their stuff. And what when they're really ready to sell my measuring stick is, are you ready to move. So I would say move out and have the place clean as if your house has already sold. You know, that's the only way you can get the potential of looking at the house like you know, people coming in and take a look at the house and they were able to see it would none of her stuff there. Because if any of her personal item is there, people wouldn't give his full value because they can't imagine themselves in the house. And that's the biggest price tag is if somebody is able to imagine themselves in that house. Yep. That's kind of why I was thinking somewhere along those lines. I'm a little again, I'm very minimalistic. And I said so I'm going through something halfway similar right now. I'm moving into my in laws house. So when they're not looking good, we're gonna move in with my mother in law because my father in law's health isn't isn't great. So he's not able to medically probably never going to be able to come home. So clearing up stuff I'm like, I told my wife I said, Hey, I'm sorry, if I come off as instead of consensus provide my thoughts always, well, if you don't need it brought the eff out. Like we had we did a VA donation. So we didn't just like throw stuff out. And you know, try to be like, but I can't say I'm always more sensitive with this stuff. Because I've grown up just my dad owned 10 property. So when someone wasn't in the property, it wasn't emotional. It was objective, it was this this space needs to be empty, pulled the dump trailers, let me rip out what I need to rip out. But I never was connected to the person then. There was never so I try to be 1% more thoughtful. Someone I can actually still talk to someone. We're going through the same thing in my house. My father in law just moved out from you know, our house. And so we're decluttering my husband throws away everything he does his favorite things to do is go throw stuff away. The one thing I want some I kept my dad's wallet and wedding ring. It's only things I want it so my wedding ring was my dad's wedding ring. I didn't want anything else in the Kipper. Like, do you want this? I'm like, I have my dad's Michigan State jacket. And they're like, do you want this? I'm like, No, I didn't go there. I don't want this jacket. Throw it out. But he went there. It's like, yeah, he went there decades ago. That's great. It was nice. Yeah, I'm never going to where it doesn't fit me and I never went there. Yeah, so yeah, I have like, I don't know how many pieces of paper across my desk right now to because after our conversation the other day, John, I hit the ground running. Especially with some of the power partners I'm sitting down with. I also have like, I have a cyber insurance quote, I'm holding in my back pocket that for both those people that I want to sit down with tomorrow stuff to cyber insurance companies that, hey, listen, I've got some officers looking for this quote, you know, but, you know, I've given you a couple of quotes now at this point. And I've given them to more than one person sometimes I'll say, Hey, listen, John, let me introduce you to two people. And you can see who fits better for personality and coverage for you. Because I know that's important when it comes to the insurance too, because I've had people have had different experiences with that. And I do those one or two things. So if I have two people that I've worked with, and they've both done a good job. I even let the client know like Hey, I use this one like for websites they use one person who actually helps me with my nonprofit. And I have another one who does he's a more complete shop. He does the social media that on top of this the website SEO. So I say Well, which one do you need? This one's more I'd say inexpensive but not cheap and quality, but does less things. Here's a more complete thing. You can still get whatever you need, which one fits and I'll let you when you pull for them, so I've used them both. But with the cyber insurance, you know, I haven't seen reciprocation for those two. So when a meeting, actually the two of them tomorrow, I'm going to hold that that client that needs a quote in my back pocket, as I'm gonna be with a lot of the surveillance because I'm just kind of like people auditing their auto insurance, cyber insurance is getting out of control. I mean, our MSPs feels like we're taking on an extra salary per year, just just for our cyber insurance, it's 10s, if you want to throw numbers, see how much that is like, what are we talking about? It, I would say, by the end of the year, because we also our insurance is always higher, because we have to account for all of our endpoints, all the other things by by proxy of what we're connected to. So we're just looking to change our insurance to one an insurance through a company called Casaya, which is probably my my arch nemesis at this point, but they're the necessary evil in my life. But our insurance is dropping down to about I think $17,000 a year, but it was it was probably almost double or triple that actually was almost triple that. So so when you're when you're paying, you know, again, another person's salary, just an insurance just to do that, you have to think about that, like we're talking about all these costs here. You know, that's, that's somebody who's think for the business too, and not for any benefit, or additional coverage. And they're always reasonably qualified for this other program is, a lot of the solutions we bought, that we use. There's a company called Datto, which we absolutely love to say it was a company that had a breach three, four years ago. But what they did is they instead started to buy up competition, because they had so much money, they actually like the Miami Heat plays at the Casaya center. So they now own the company that we use, and we're like, oh, we thought we got away from just like, I know, you said connect wise actually have my little coffee cup here. So this is their network assessment tool. So also, they know I live off coffee, like most people know that about me. So yeah, that's one real quick before we should move on to that. Denise, is there anything else on your side that you want to talk about as far as what to do? This calendar quarter? Um, no, I mean, I yeah, I think I pretty much you know, kind of got it i It's like a similar system that I was taught before used. So let's do a one page plan. Part of the one page planning process is you're gonna list there will be a list of all the things that you need to get done. That will be a part of that plan. And then we can review it and see what help you need and just rock and roll. Yeah, there you go. And then Jack, what's on your mind man? I do like that list though. Talking about the so the Automate delegate and whatever. Really, those are the two main things or if I'm still doing it myself, automate delegate or outsource. Yep. Or is this this network partner concerned? You're familiar with the poi strategy that I've shared and taught. Right. And, and so part of that whole process is betting that person in the very beginning I give them the lead for referral. And I want to circle back and see how that referral went. And if it went well, I call personally referred them too and vice versa. But if they don't refer me somebody in return, that is part of my next conversation with and conversation kind of goes like this. It's like I wrote you know, if I was I had referred you if you and I Jack had agreed to become a POA. Right. And, you know, I did my part I refer somebody to you walk them through the process and give him a quote proposal and and here we are, we're at the agreed and agreed upon follow up time. That so it's a, it's a sandwich approach. It's very easy. And I just say, Hey, I just talked to my client a couple of days ago and the one I referred you to and he said he really enjoyed how you engaged with them. enjoyed walking through the process. I understand he didn't buy but he is considering you in the future. But the thing I liked about what he shared with music you were Professional, you contacted him you did every single thing that you said you were gonna do. And so he needed a great big thumbs up. So any feedback that you like how I referred you? Yeah, I like how you proved me right when antastic Alright, let's talk about the referral that you were that you committed to give to me. Now shut up. Let's talk about that referral that you're gonna give me. And it's a very awkward silence. Oh, yeah, shit, I've totally forgot that I was supposed to give you some money. So I go, Yeah, go ahead. I want to I know, we only have a couple minutes here. I want to ask one question about also, like I said, I'll stay on as long as you need me to go for it. I think we have our office meeting in four minutes if they're holding too because we pushed it back because I said I was on here till at least 230. Did you ever find benefit in cross training or visiting other MSPs or visiting people that are in your industry? Or is it just from networking events and other things that you continue to grow and train and hone your skills? So I have a couple that I liked that are friendly that I thought about visiting? Some might not necessarily be in the state. But I want to see that I want to see the $10 million MSP and how they operate. Absolutely, man. If they got no issues and they play nice in the sandbox and I would say go for it. Are you a part of the IT MSP users group on Facebook? No. So I see it and MSP Business Owners Group Okay. So let me invite you to it real quick. 20,000 members doesn't invite funniest one I'm in is called a tech degenerates I got invited to I thought was the funniest thing. So it was the inner circle of the people from that. That it somewhere I was at. But my God, they text like a teenager who just figured out how to use a cell phone it is I haven't looked at it. And since it's been seven days since I've looked at it, there's 2000 messages in it. So that's one I want to be a part of ever back when I had an IT company the other one is it and MSP marketing with my buddy Chris Weiser one of the top marketers in Yeah, he actually archive this group and now it's the ITM MSP business owners group. Okay, that's the new group. But yeah, I mean, he Yeah, yeah, that's right. He, he archive it is created this group. So this group 1000 people. And there are people in here that have 25 $30 million IT companies and there's people here in startup. So and just follow the rules group. Chris is an amazing guy. If you want to meet the guy got a small number. He's a good friend of mine. I'll probably take you up on that. Because I think one thing I learned was there's the old one of my favorite lines is the older I get, the less I know. And I think it's a it's a phrase that served me well, knowing that there's a lot of people out there that know a lot more than I do. And the more I open up and to learn from people, I like to be also a jack of most and master of none. As I know there's always someone who is a specialty and an expert in any given field. So I think my competitive advantage this is the Steve Jobs effect of knowing that I don't have to be the smartest guy in the room. It's sociation reading and audios and videos and if you manage those three things, always socially with people that are better than you you'll you'll always grow so I know you gotta run and you have people looking at you probably beating down your door when you're going to join the meeting. So feel free to jump off if you need to. And but Lisa, you got any more stuff you want to talk about? Are you good to go for today? Um Thank you guys. I probably want to pick up a couple of things. Sure. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, so um what your ex wife or something will in? Yeah, so do you want me to keep the recording going? Or do you want me to stop recording is just a conversation between us? Yeah, just stop the recording is conversation between you and I Okay all right yeah

Welcome to Episode 247 of The County Cricket Podcast! On today's episode, hosts Aaron and Ciaran sat down to preview the 2023 Metro Bank One Day Cup schedule, provide a greater insight into the plethora of exciting young talent that's set to take the tournament by storm and also offer their predictions for September's grand final at Trent Bridge. If you enjoyed this episode please feel free to share it with any cricket fans that you know and be sure to follow us on Twitter for daily County Cricket and Podcast updates!    Check out Ciaran's Twitter here: https://twitter.com/CP_McCarthy   Check out our Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thecountycricketpodcast   Check out our Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TheCountyCrick2   Check out our £1 Patreon membership here:  https://www.patreon.com/thecountycricketpodcast   This episode of The County Cricket Podcast was brought to you in association with our friends at Bear Cricket:  https://www.bearcricket.co.uk/

John Durham sat on the investigation for 4 years. Then he gives us a report that has information we all knew before his investigation even started.  His report took just long enough for that statute of limitations to run out so no one can be charged, but that is just a coincidence. Bill Barr and the deep ... The post John Durham and Bill Barr Laugh at MAGA All the Way to the Bank One Last Time  appeared first on The New American.

On this episode, the Chief Security Officer of Cloud at Palo Alto Networks, Bob West, joins Matt to discuss Palo Alto Network's latest State of Cloud Native Security Report. Bob joined Palo Alto Networks after more than 20 years in leadership roles with banks, product companies, and professional services organizations. Before joining Palo Alto Networks, Bob served as managing partner at West Strategy Group, managing director in Deloitte's cyber risk services practice, managing director for CISO for York Risk Services, Chief Trust Officer at CipherCloud, CEO at Echelon One, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Fifth Third Bank, and Information Security Officer at Bank One.Today, Bob talks about the latest installment of the State of Cloud Native Security Report, the severe shortcomings in Cloud Security, and the elevated cost of Cloud Security. Why is it essential to think about security upfront? Hear about the daily mindset shift required to deploy quality code, minimizing complexity to maximize efficiency, and the significant delay in threat management.Timestamp Segments·       [01:46] Bob's career-changing experiences.·       [04:17] Bob's advice.·       [11:10] The 10,000-ft view.·       [16:23] The elevated costs of Cloud security.·       [22:36] Increased deployment frequency.·       [24:54] How do security teams keep up?·       [30:44] Security tooling in the Cloud.·       [35:46] Holistic Cloud security.·       [41:18] There will always be issues. Notable Quotes·       “Be nice to your vendors.” - Bob·       “You never know who's going to be able to help you out at any point.” - Bob·       “You've got to build bridges before you need them.” - Matt·       “Common sense isn't necessarily common practice.” - BobRelevant LinksWebsite:   www.paloaltonetworks.comLinkedIn:  Bob WestResources:Out of the CrisisSecure applications from code to cloud. Prisma Cloud secures applications from code to cloud enabling security and DevOps teams.

This week, host Colbert Cannon sits down with friend and colleague Michael Fenstermacher, a Managing Director and the Co-Head of North American Core Senior Lending at HPS Investment Partners. We talk about his early days at Bank One, where he got his start in credit lending. He walks us through Bank One's eventual merger with J.P. Morgan and how he decided to make the move to the latter's New York City office during that transition. We discuss the diversity of learning opportunities and exposure to investment banking that Michael steeped himself in during that time before coming to HPS in 2008. He shares what it was like to join the firm's direct lending arm amid the global financial crisis. Then, he offers a look into the evolution of the direct lending landscape in relation to the broadly syndicated market and how current market  volatility is impacting the space.Learn more about Michael Fenstermacher's tenure at HPS Investment Partners here. You can check out our guest's Best Idea, The Cook Political Report, here. Watch The League, Colbert's Best Idea for this week, here.

Today's conversation is with Lisa L. Baker, Founder of Ascentim, a coaching practice that guides clients to live more meaningful and abundant lives. Lisa has over two decades of success in a series of leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies that include Synchrony, Microsoft, Citigroup and Bank One. At Synchrony, a company with over 16,000 employees, she he was Senior Vice President and General Manager in charge of growing the $2.5B eBay credit portfolio. One of the pillars of Lisa's coaching practice is connections — and of course, building meaningful relationships with them. That's why I invited her to the show today. We talk about the difference between networking and connecting, how relationships are essential for growing your career, and the value of personal advisory boards, sponsors, mentors, champions, colleagues, coaches, and heroes. It was a great conversation about how connections can help in almost every aspect of your career journey. I hope you find it helpful. Get this episode on our website, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor.fm or anywhere you subscribe to podcasts. Learn more about Lisa: • Website • LinkedIn • G.R.O.W. Finances Course And follower her on Twitter. Learn more about your host, Michael Piperno, here: https://www.wearecomvia.com/about/ and here: https://www.michaelpiperno.com/about-michael-piperno/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/leadership-communication/support

If you need to ship 40 tons of bricks, you of course use…parcel post.  That's what one man did to construct a two story bank...

On a cold, cloudy day in December of 1995, a teller at the Bank One in Bloomfield, Ohio was working the drive up window when a red and silver pick up pulled up. The teller recognized the truck, and the couple inside, as John and Shelly Markley were regulars at the bank. Who she didn't recognize was a man accompanying the Markley's. John was driving the truck, while Shelly sat in the middle with the unknown individual sitting in the passenger seat. Shelly signed a check and passed it to the teller. It was a personal check made to cash for $1,000. The teller took the check and handed the Markley's the money. The trio then drove away. Little did the bank teller know, she would be the last known person to see John and Shelly. This Midwest Mystery Files, Episode 25, the Disappearance of John and Shelly Markley.   Patreon and Social Media: https://linktr.ee/MidwestMysteryFiles   Crime Scenes and Cupcakes: https://linktr.ee/crimecakes   Shelly's Charley Project Page: https://charleyproject.org/case/shelly-renee-markley   John's Charley Project Page: https://charleyproject.org/case/john-j-markley-jr

In this episode we talked with Lisa Baker and discussed eliminating toxicity and building authentic relationships in the workplace.Lisa has over two decades of extraordinary success in a series of leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies that include Synchrony, Microsoft, Citigroup, and Bank One.At Synchrony, a company with over 16,000 employees, was a Senior Vice President and General Manager in charge of growing the $2.5B eBay credit portfolio.At age 54 Lisa retired to pursue her dream of helping others to reach their peak and founded Ascentim LLC, a coaching practice that guides its clients to live more meaningful and abundant lives.Join us as we discuss with Lisa how to eliminate toxicity and build authentic relationships in the workplace. Hear Lisa share her personal story of dealing with toxicity in the workplace. Learn with us the 5 C's Lisa has defined that are key to eliminating toxicity and building positive and impactful relationships.If you would like to read the show notes on this episode you can find them on our website, Business Leadership Today: https://businessleadershiptoday.com/lisa-baker-on-eliminating-toxicity-and-building-authentic-relationships-in-the-workplace If you enjoyed this interview and would like to hear more interviews like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast.Also, if you'd like to help other people benefit from this podcast, please take a minute to leave a review.By sharing your thoughts, you'll help the podcast reach more people and help those people make a decision regarding whether this podcast might be of value to them.

Mark Parsells is Founder and Managing General Partner of Montpelier Ventures. Mark is an experienced CEO and thought leader on the subject of leadership, currently ranked #14 in the world on the LeadersHum Global Power List of Leadership Thinkers in 2022. Mark coach's CEOs of leading companies around the world as well as partners in private equity and venture capital firms on how to work with their portfolio CEOs to maximize the value of their firms' portfolios. His global clients span the US, India, Brazil, and northern Europe. In addition, his firm facilitates the sale of businesses with revenues from $15-$100 Million in revenue. Mark spent 30+ years as a leader including roles as Chair and CEO of three FinTech (financial technology) companies backed by Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital Ventures, and American International Group. In addition, he was President of #1 ranked Citibank Online in the United States and Citigroup's Global Head of Online Banking Technology across 53 countries. He also ran multi-billion-dollar divisions at American Express and Bank One. Early in his career, Mark served as Special Assistant to US Senator H. John Heinz III of Pennsylvania. Mark has served on more than 20 boards including Rellevate, Soundview, Montpelier Ventures, and Inuheat currently. Prior boards include MIT's Global eCommerce Board, Harris and Harris (NASDAQ: TINY); Citibank Delaware; Banc One Insurance, Delaware State Chamber of Commerce; as well as more than a dozen non-profit boards including as a Trustee of the Harrisburg Academy for almost a decade. He earned a BA in Political Science at Emory University; an MBA with a focus in Marketing and General Management at Cornell University; an MBA from KU Leuven in Belgium with a focus in Economics and Finance; and is an alumnus of the Graduate Management Program at Harvard Business School. https://www.mpven.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-parsells-7267785/

In the episode 100 of IDEAS+LEADERS podcast I am speaking with Lisa L. Baker about leveling up your career from many different angles. I got so inspired by her holistic approach - listen to find out more. Lisa has over two decades of extraordinary success in a series of leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies that include Synchrony, Microsoft and Citigroup and Bank One. At Synchrony, a company with over 16,000 employees, Lisa was one of only nine Black female executives. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager in charge of growing the $2.5B eBay credit portfolio. Lisa retired at age 54 to pursue her dream of helping others to reach their peak. Her greatest passions are faith, family and financial freedom. Lisa is the Founder of Ascentim LLC, a coaching practice that guides its clients to live more meaningful and abundant lives. You can contact Lisa HERE Thank you for joining me on this episode of IDEAS+LEADERS. If you enjoyed this episode, please share, subscribe and review so that more people can enjoy the podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast/ideas-leaders/id1531433083

Guest speaker Gregory Stephens, a 20 year experience in financial services. This Brother worked for JP Morgan Chase back in 93 when it was Bank One. He also is a Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. He is in Kaleidoscope Magazine 40/40 Club and the Recipient of the Community Champion Award for Outstanding Service. He keeps it real on Black wealth and what we aren't doing and dives deep on how we need to move forward. This is a Black Men Sundays show you can't miss.

Today I have the honor to get some time with Rhonda Vetere..Rhonda is a tech industry powerhouse.  She has led many professional executive positions with JP Morgan Chase, Bank One, Barclays and is a Chief Information Officer at Herbalife..In addition to being in a booming Technological career, she still finds time to train for Ironman triathlons and various big athletic events around the world..Rhonda is a wife, daughter, athlete, professional, friend and a big hearted super human that loves to invest in others...She's passionate about helping others as a mentor, has a heart for the military, veteran, and first responder communities...I chat with Rhonda about her drive, work ethic, passions and her newest book "Grit & Grind" as well as her upcoming event: Race Across America (RAAM).You can find more information on their website at - https://alignedalliance.org

65. Denny Nealon - View From the Arena “A leadership culture where it's a servant leadership kind of culture, where leaders are looking out for the benefit of their teams and the organization.” Guest Info: Denny Nealon is the Chief Executive Officer for Barclays US Consumer Bank (USCB) and Barclays Bank Delaware (BBDE) where he is responsible for the overall leadership and direction of Barclays' consumer business in the United States, which includes award-winning credit card programs and retail deposits. Denny is part of Barclays America's management team and serves as a Director on both the BBDE and IHC Boards. Denny has more than 20 years of experience in the U.S. credit card industry and first joined Barclays in 2004. Most recently, Denny served as President of the USCB with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the consumer business. Prior to this, he was Head of the US Partnership business, where he oversaw strategic relationships with leading brands across the airline, travel and entertainment, financial institution, and retail segments. Prior to joining Barclays, Denny worked at Bank One and Chase Card Services, where he held leadership positions in finance, business development and partnership management. Denny graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and served seven years as a Logistics and Supply Corps officer before joining the corporate sector. He also holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, with concentrations in Finance and International Business. Favorite Quote: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." — Theodore Roosevelt   R.O.G. Takeaway Tips: Have a single mission Get into the arena Resources: Barclays Mission and Values Barclays US Consumer Bank Commits $1 Million to Delaware State University to Advance Pathways to an Inclusive Economy in Underserved Communities $1.25M grant to help Tech Impact open a workforce development center in Wilmington  Delaware Tech Receives Donation from Barclays to Fund Workforce Training in Delaware Coming Next: Episode 66: we will be joined by Thomasina Williams   Credits: Denny Nealon, Sheep Jam Productions, Host Shannon Cassidy, Bridge Between, Inc.

Dave Krepcho began his career in the advertising agency business. But the providential hand of God led him to have a heart for helping the community's hungry and needy families. His tenure in food bank management started in Miami in 1992, and since then he has grown steadily in both responsibility and breadth of outreach, including Feeding America, an effort that gathered 450 million pounds of donated food. In 2009, Dave was named "Central Floridian of the Year" by the Orlando Sentinel.

46. Dalila Wilson-Scott & Loren Hudson - Black Voices “Not only do our talent partners have to be committed, our leaders have to be committed... We need those two pieces aligned, so when we're hiring, when we're promoted, when we're providing opportunities within the organization for development and exposing our teammates, we have to have a DEI lens to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to make progress and to succeed within the organization.”  Loren Hudson  "Building on this longstanding history and commitment to getting people connected and making sure that our work is making a tangible difference in creating more economic opportunity. Social justice is rooted in economic justice."  Dalila Wilson-Scott Dalila Wilson-Scott Loren Hudson Guest Info: Dalila Wilson-Scott serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Comcast Corporation and President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation.  In this role, Dalila oversees all Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion initiatives and philanthropic strategy for the corporation, including the company's $100 million commitment to advance social justice and equality. Dalila also leads Comcast's community impact initiatives, working across the organization to provide strategic leadership throughout all aspects of its corporate social responsibility programs, including employee engagement and volunteerism.  In addition, Dalila oversees efforts to utilize Comcast's world-class media platforms to bring greater attention to the work of our philanthropic partners. In 2020, Comcast provided nearly $500 million in total support to 4,500 nonprofit partners sharing Comcast's commitment to creating a more connected and equitable world. Dalila joined Comcast in 2016 after more than 16 years at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where she served as Head of Global Philanthropy and President of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation.  She led the firm's philanthropic and economic opportunity initiatives, including the firm's $100 million commitment to Detroit's recovery, while helping to set the company's overall corporate responsibility strategy.  Prior to joining the Office of Corporate Responsibility, she served in the firm's Corporate Merger Office as an integral member of the team managing the integration of JPMorgan Chase and Bank One.  In addition to serving on the boards of Welcome America, Inc. and Box.org, Dalila is a member of the Executive Leadership Council.  She previously served as a member of the Committee for Economic Development, and the Advisory Council of My Brother's Keeper Alliance.  Dalila has been named one of the “Most Powerful Women in Cable” by Cablefax Magazine, receiving the 2019 inaugural “Wave Maker” Award; one of the “Most Powerful Women in Business” by Black Enterprise; and an “Innovative Rising Star: Building Communities” by Forbes magazine.  Dalila speaks regularly on philanthropy and equity issues, most recently at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Social Innovation Summit, MIT Solve, USC Center on Philanthropy and Public Policy and the Women's Philanthropy Institute's Annual Symposium. She earned an MBA in Finance and Management from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a B.A. in Economics from New York University's College of Arts and Science. Loren Hudson is Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer for Comcast Cable. In this role, Loren leads a shared effort to execute a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) human capital strategy that is reflective of and builds upon Comcast Cable's business goals. As the first CDO for Comcast Cable, Loren also serves as a key partner to the company's leaders and the broader Human Resources organization, with an eye toward establishing frameworks for DE&I accountability and serving as a driver of employee training, career development, and education. Since then, she has held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, most recently serving as Vice President of Human Resources for the Comcast Beltway Region's more than 3,000 employees across Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. Loren received her bachelor's degree in Labor Relations as well as a Master of Labor Relations from Rutgers University. In addition to her work at Comcast, she is an active member of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and a graduate of WICT's Betsy Magness Leadership Institute, as well as a graduate of the Women's Executive Leadership Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and a certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR).   Favorite Quote: “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.   “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  ― Maya Angelou   Resources: Dalila Wilson-Scott on LinkedIn Loren Hudson on LinkedIn Comcast Celebrates Emerging Black-Owned Businesses and Entrepreneurs During Black Business Month Philadelphia Business Leaders Invest $600K in BIPOC-led Nonprofits Working to Reduce Poverty Here are some fantastic Black-owned businesses to consider that the R.O.G. Team recommends. McBride Sisters Collection The Largest Black-Owned, Women-Owned Wine Company In The US Glow Global Events Virtual events, Hotel  + Travel management, Live events  Propellant Media LLC Digital marketing and media solutions provider TKT Provides HR services to companies with a focus on diversity and inclusion, talent fulfillment, workforce management, managed services, and spend management Lease Query Accounting software for accountants and financial professionals Impyrian IT, Cyber Security, AV Teleconferencing, Engineering  Shine Self-care app for people with anxiety and depression   Credits: Dalila Wilson-Scott, Loren Hudson, Sheep Jam Productions, Host Shannon Cassidy

Growing up on the lower east side of Manhattan, Irv Ashford, Jr.'s life changed when a mentor introduced him to an opportunity to take an exam. His score on the exam led him to earn a scholarship to the Webb School, a boarding school in Bell Buckle, TN. This opened him up to new experiences and opportunities and led him to attending Oberlin College in Ohio where he earned his BA in Religion and was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar. Following his master's education, he began to work for a series of local non-profits dedicated to community development. He eventually relocated to Texas and following his graduate business degree he began his banking career with a position in the community development division of Bank One. He has worked for the last 20 years at Comerica Bank, where he now serves as Chief Community Officer.

Discover Lafayette welcomes Jerry Prejean, newly named Acadiana Market President of IBERIABANK, a division of First Horizon. Jerry brings talent and kindness to all of his interactions with others. Prejean has 28 years of experience in the world of banking. His most recent position was Senior Vice President and private client group manager of IBERIABANK. Prejean was head of the private banking team since 2002. Though busy in the bank, Prejean still finds time to give back to his community. He has been highly involved in the Boys and Girls Club, AMIkids, Lafayette Central Park, One Acadiana, Ragan Cajun's Athletic Foundation, Community Foundation of Acadiana, Lafayette Economic Development Authority and United Way of Acadiana. Prejean's parents, Joe and Inez Prejean, had limited education and were shaped by the Great Depression. “Because of their lack of education it was really forced on their kids to really focus on getting a good education and breaking the cycle of poverty,” Prejean said. Prejean graduated from Immaculate Heart of Mary in Lafayette, and then went on to major in Finance at USL where he graduated in 1992. His four siblings are also highly educated. Prejean heard other kids at his school talking about the Boys Club. “It really resonated with me the impact that the organization had on those kids at an early age,” Prejean said. As he got into banking, an opportunity presented itself to serve as a representative on the Boys and Girls Club board. “I really probably got more out of it than the kids got out of it,” Prejean Said. He sat on the board for 25 years and recently stepped down in 2019. Prejean got his start by working full time in retail for the Abdalla family, in college. At 19, he was the full-time manager of Brother's mall store. “I think I learned more about people and about sales, networking and getting along with people, in that retail environment than in the class room,” Prejean said. He was exposed to dealing with vendors, learned how to manage client complaints, and mastered the general business of retail. He took his people skills from retail and his analytical skills from the classroom and combined them to become the banker he is today. He started with First National Bank of Lafayette in 1993 (in 1998 became Bank One), and moved to IBERIABANK in 2002 at a time when the bank was growing exponentially under the leadership of Daryl Byrd. His focus was on private banking, which caters to an affluent population. He builds relationships with people who desire only one point of contact for their banking needs. “As the relationship evolves, we start talking investments, estate planning and the transfer of wealth from one generation to the other,” Prejean said. "I like the fact that as bankers, we can help people formalize their dreams and put a plan in place to help them accomplish those dreams,” It is important for young folks to manage credit card exposure and to avoid credit card debt so as not to impede future opportunities to acquire credit." Prejean wants everyone to have a chance to acquire their own wealth, in their own ways. “You can easily paint yourself into a corner with too much debt.” We did note that Jerry Vascocu, former Acadiana Market President, has recently been named as head of the commercial lending division across the company's twelve state region for the new combined company of First Horizon and IBERIABANK. Vascocu will remain domiciled in Lafayette. Prejean has dedicated his life to helping children in need. He focused his volunteer work with the Boys and Girls Club and AMIkids. “Early on in working with these kids, I really connected with the kids and really saw them light up when they would have personal connections,” Prejean said. He mentioned how important it is for all kids to have someone see something in them, that they may never see on their own without the kindness of a mentor paying attention to them.

Welcome to the show, its your host Matt aka Matt St. Jack and, today we will be talking through the Top 5 bountied characters on One Piece I'm just a regular guy that loves Anime. Come, hang out and you just might learn something!  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/matt-st-jack00/support

https://youtu.be/N7jaq3KIeIE Alec Broadfoot is the founder and CEO of VisionSpark, an executive search, hiring training, consulting, and assessment company in Ohio, serving EOS-run companies. We discuss how firms can attract A-players using proven strategies and tools.     --- Attract A-Players With Alec Broadfoot Our guest is Alec Broadfoot, who is the founder and CEO of Vision Park, which is an executive search, hiring, training and hiring assessment company in Ohio. And what's special about Alex's firm is that they focus primarily on serving companies that run on the entrepreneurial operating system or EOS. Alex graduated and got his MBA from Bowling Green State University of Ohio. So welcome to the show, Alex. It's great to be here, Steve. Thanks for having me. So, you've been running this company, VisionSpark, for almost 10 years now. How did you become an entrepreneur? How did you get here? What's your journey? Yeah, it's a great question. I was in college, and my major was international business and economics, and I thought I wanted to be an international business person. And I had an opportunity to get an MBA right after college. They offered me an assistantship, which meant my tuition was paid for. I had to work a couple hours a week for the school. And so I decided to continue writing my MBA. During my MBA, they really were teaching us at the time how to be good corporate executives, a good corporate leader. And there was an optional Saturday program where they brought in three entrepreneurs and interviewed them. And I decided to go and I was just so inspired by these entrepreneurs. And you know, getting to listen to their stories and how they can make a difference. And my dad had worked for Corporate America and I thought, well, maybe that was my journey, but not after this and so I thought you know what someday. I'm gonna have my own business and so I was 24 years old at the time maybe and I had an offer to work for bank one Here in Columbus had interned with them a couple years and so my plan was I'll work for bank one I'll you know 15 20 years. I'll save a whole bunch of money, and I'll start a business I that's what I thought the plan was. And two years into working for Bank One, I had an opportunity along with some friends to buy a business. I took the leap, the bank said, hey, if it doesn't work out, you can come back. And I thought, well, we didn't have kids at the time and the risk was low and I decided, and that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey and that was 25 years ago. Wow. So, before VisionSpark, you ran some other companies? Before VisionSpark, yes. So I had there's a company was in the publishing industry. So that's the one that I bought. It was all self-published reference books. And we got a little bit into we had a CD-ROM program that we sold and a web. Now it's now it's web based. And then I had a business in the mid 2000s where we processed mail for all the big companies in Columbus like Chase Mortgage and the big hospitals and loved that business. And that's where the seeds were planted for VisionSpark. I met some great individuals then and they planted some seeds about making sure you have the right people in the right seats and hiring the right people and good quality assessment tools. And so that was during that time, which was a super valuable time, and I sold my interest to my business partner at the time and decided to do consulting. And I really had this passion of helping entrepreneurs with being more profitable and just having a stronger business. And what I was encountering, every consultant opportunity I had was that there were people issues. And like all these entrepreneurs, like Little Lemons, walking off a cliff, making these bad people decisions. And so in 2011 or so, there was a friend at the time and we were talking about this and we said, hey, let's start a business where we can help entrepreneurs make great people decisions,

This episode we interview my Co-Host Doug Kierstein. Doug is a Colorado native. He has always had an interest in working hard and making money. At 13 years old, he wanted to invest some money. His dad took him to the bank and Doug didn't understand a word the guy said. But he got the itch and bought his first book on finance at 15. He has three undergraduate degrees and some classes towards his Masters degree. He holds degrees in finance degree, economics, and information systems. On his own, he started a mortgage broker business and kept that going on the side. He started in the finance world with Charles Schwab trading stocks and bonds for 1 1/2 years. He liked being immersed in the stock market world but missed meeting face to face with people. Next at Bank One, he picked up his insurance license and kept his security license and worked there for 1 year. Then, with a friend, he started an advisory and mortgage business. He got married and started raising a family, so he took a more stable job at TIAPress, working at the outbound sales department. He again missed the face to face with people. After 6 years he moved on, getting closer to people. He did a fix and flip in 2013. He learned a lot through helping and doing part of the work. Doug broke even on the project, but lessons learned were: 1. The realtor overstated the After Repair Value. 2. The house was out of place in that neighborhood and it took more rehab to bring it back into normalcy. 3. He was using a hard money loan and the rehab took 6 months. After TIA Press, he works as a personal financial representative and building real estate business. Doug is a man of faith and that keeps him grounded and on track. His funny quote is: I don't always eat very well, but I sleep very well. Secrets Sauce to his Success; He believe being tenacious is a key to success. He believes in education (as you can tell by his 3 undergrad degrees! :-) ) Favorite Books: The magic of thinking big - David Schwartz How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie. George Kilder - Wealth and Poverty. Warning: Not an easy read Contact Information: Cell Phone: 303-638-7245

Ep. 84Black EyedChildren In a snowy town, within the middle of nowhere of Vermont, an elderly couple heard the sound of three loud knocks on their door. They opened the door and saw two children, a boy and a girl. "Parents will be here soon, may we come in?" The children did not make eye contact and just stood there in the doorway. The elderly couple were hesitant but after a while, they let the boy and girl inside.The kids settled on the couch while the wife made some hot cocoa and the husband asked them questions that went unanswered. The wife returned and noticed that her cat was scared and angry with the children. "May we please use the restroom?" The wife looked at the kids and she finally saw them. The children's eyes were as black as a starless universe. She directed them to the bathroom and returned to her husband who was covering his face with his hand. "Did you see their eyes?" the husband then shows her his hand full of blood from a nosebleed.  The power suddenly went out and the house turned as dark as the kids' eyes. The wife headed to the restroom and was confronted by the voice of the kids at the end of the hall uttering, "Our parents are here." The kids then exited the house leaving the door wide open. The wife then noticed that there were two men at the end of the driveway. The men were very tall and slender; the wife waved but did not receive the same friendly gesture. The two men and children then drove away together in one car. The power then came back on a little later after the kids left. Throughout the next week, weird things happened in the house; three out of four cats went missing and the fourth had been found dead in the pool of its blood. The husband continued to have nosebleeds and finally went to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with very aggressive skin cancer. That is one of the first stories to be related about today's subjects.  That story gained much attention in the paranormal circles and with alien enthusiasts. So exactly what are black eyed kids, Aliens, vampires, demonically possessed children, some other worldly entities? The black-eyed children are paranormal creatures that resemble children around the ages 6 to 16 who have pale skin and pitch black eyes and are completely soulless. Additionally, people who have been in close proximity to black eyed kids report a feeling of “unease” that washed over them. While nothing about the children’s appearance (aside from the eyes) genuinely frightened the people, they still reported feelings ranging from anxiety to terror at their presence.Some people have also reported seeing black eyed kids that have “talons” for feet or other demonic attributes, but most sightings are of seemingly normal children.Black eyed kids are also commonly described as wearing dated clothing or dressing in a manner that is not typical of a normal child of their age. The strange thing about the black eyed children mythos is that it's a fairly recent phenomena.Some people claim that these children have existed since the 1980s, however, most sources say that the legend actually originated in 1996 by Brian Bethel, a journalist from Abilene Texas. The following is his account of his original encounter as he recalled it in the Abilene Reporter News:         " Near as I can figure, this happened in 1996. I’ve managed to pin down the date that far. I feel like it happened in the spring or summer, since I remember wearing a pair of shorts, but one of my great regrets is not recording the actual date of the event. After you hear the story, you’d think it would be something you’d never forget. But given enough time between, not the case. My memory, while good, isn’t quite eidetic. I had gone down to the former site of Camalott Communications, one of the area’s original Internet providers, to pay my bill. At the time, Camalott was located on North 1st Street, near the movie theater, in the shadow of what is now Chase, then Bank One. I was using the light of the theater’s marquee to write out my check, which I planned to put in Camalott’s night drop-slot. Involved in my work, I never heard them approach. There was a knock on my driver’s side window. Two young boys, somewhere between nine to 12 years old and dressed in hooded pullovers, stood outside. I cracked the window a bit, anticipating a spiel for money, but I was immediately gripped by an incomprehensible, soul-wracking fear. I had no idea why. A conversation ensued between one boy, a somewhat suave, olive-skinned, curly-headed young man, and myself. The other, a redheaded, pale-skinned, freckled young man, stayed in the background. The “spokesman,” as I’ve come to think of him, told me that he and his companion needed a ride. They wanted to see a movie, “Mortal Kombat,” but they had left their money at their mother’s house. Could I give them a ride? Plausible enough. But all throughout this exchange, the irrational fear continued and grew. I had no reason to be frightened of these two boys, but I was. Terribly. After a bit more conversation, I looked up at the theater marquee and down at the digital clock display in my car. Mortal Kombat’s last show of the night had already started. By the time I could have driven the boys anywhere and back, it would practically have been over. All the while, the spokesman uttered assurances: It wouldn’t take long. They were just two little kids. They didn’t have a gun or anything. The last part was a bit unnerving. I noticed that my hand had strayed toward the lock on my door. I pulled it away, perhaps a bit too violently. In the short time I had broken the gaze of the spokesman, something had changed, and my mind exploded in a vortex of all-consuming terror. Both boys stared at me with coal-black eyes. The sort of eyes one sees these days on aliens or bargain-basement vampires on late night television. Soulless orbs like two great swathes of starless night. I did what I feel any rational person would do. I full-on freaked out inside while trying to appear completely sane and calm. I apologized to the kids. I made whatever excuses came to mind, all of them designed to get me the hell out of there. Fast. The aura of fear was now a palpable, black-hanging thing, almost as if reality itself was warping around me. I wrapped my hand around the gearshift, threw the car into reverse and began to roll up the window, apologizing all the while. My fear must have been evident. The boy in the back wore a look of confusion. The spokesman banged sharply on the window as I rolled it up. His words, full of anger, echo in my mind even today: “We can’t come in unless you tell us it’s OK. Let us in!” I drove out of the parking lot in blind fear, and I’m surprised I didn’t sideswipe a car or two along the way. I stole a quick look in my rearview mirror before peeling out into the night. The boys were gone. Even if they had run, I don’t believe there was a place they could have hidden from view that quickly." This is widely considered to be the earliest written account of an encounter with the black eyed kids. Creepy for sure.  There are many theories as to what black eyed kids actually are. One of the more interesting theories we've found is the following, it was listed as a psychic answer to what they are, it also involves religious overtones:            "Black-eyed Children are elementals called CHILDES. They are, & have always been, agents of God. In earlier periods, they wore the local costume or dress of human children. North & South of the equator, they now wear 19th century children's clothing: Dark-haired boy wears black velvet blazer & knee britches, wide lace-edged collar, lacy ruffles down front of white shirt, lacy sleeves. Girl wears white ankle-length satin dress with white sash at waist; a large white satin bow in her dark hair tilts to one side. Both are pale with dark circles around eyes. Distinctive giggling laughter as if playing a game together. Children who ascend (cross over to become angels) like to serve as CHILDES. Serving briefly as elementals helps all angels move up the ranks of the angelic hierarchy. But their soul evolution is halted if they are used in a hex (curse or spell). RED EYES indicate a CHILDE who is caught in a curse & needs help "going home" to the Light (5th dimension or higher). CHILDE have nothing to do with blood or vampirism. The VAMPIRE legend lumps two or three kinds of elementals together: The VIPER (its victims have two tiny bite marks like a Tazer gun), the BACHALU (bat-winged cat), & the BLESSED=BLOOD= a pale, caped humanoid elemental who can help humans by giving them a complete cleansing of all their blood (like a medical blood replacement/ transfusion by machine). CHILDE participate in official hauntings. (See my other Comments re sick houses with DHEBRO, a.k.a. Hat Man.) CHILDE are also sent to deliver the Common Cold -- mild Cold symptoms... all the way up to intense fever & CHILLS=CHILDES. Anyone who sees a CHILDE with RED EYES should ask Archangel Michael for protection." Interesting…. So another theory was briefly mentioned in that last theory. There is a thought that black eyed kids are actually vampires! There are several reasons that people like this theory. First the kids seem to be a nighttime phenomena. Every story we've uncovered takes place at night and who comes out at night… Boom vampires. Couple that with the uneasy soulless looks and pale skin and you're on your way to a vampire. Another reason people think they could be vampires is the fact that they always ask permission to get into your house or car. If you are currently up on your vampire lore you know that vampires must be granted permission to enter your house. Now another twist on this theory is the psychic vampire theory. If you are not familiar with psychic vampires here a brief synopsis. A psychic vampire (or energy vampire) is a fictional and religious creature said to feed off the "life force" of other living creatures. The term can also be used to describe a person who gets increased energy around other people, but leaves those other people exhausted or "drained" of energy. Psychic vampires are represented in the occult beliefs of various cultures and in fiction. Some people believe that BEKs are actually psychic vampires due to many people feeling drained and tired after their experiences with them. Another theory is that of demonic possession. As found in an article about signs of demonic possession The eyes play a big part in determining possession. Since the eyes are the window to the soul, physical changes can affect the eyes of the person in question also. Eye color (such as just the irises) can change to different but natural colors. Another way eyes can be a major sign of possession is when the entire eye itself becomes infected by black almost like a shark's eyes. Alterations in other physical colorings are possible through the changing of hair tones. Not only that another sign of possession is changes in the voice of the person affected. Many times in tales of BEKs the kids will have deeper than normal voices or voices of adults when they speak. In another article about possession it states Telepathic powers where the person in question knows what you are feeling or thinking without any indication from you can be a possible sign as well. Many people report that during an experience with BEKs they feel like the kids are using kind of mind control or telepathy to try and get the people to agree to let them into a house or car. Another thing that has led to the demonic possession theory involves the night time. As stated in the vampire theory, these stories always happen at night. According to many this starts online with demonic possession as the mind is most vulnerable at night therefore increasing possession activity leading to these encounters being at night.  So we have weird elementals, vampires, and demonic children. What else could there be? Oh yes, aliens, of course, how could we forget. This one's gonna be fun. The theory here is that BEKs are actually humanoid alien hybrids. The hybrids are not really aliens, but a mixed breed between the greys and humans. They came about when the greys started doing gene DNA manipulation many years ago starting in at least biblical times supposedly to replenish their own thinning gene pool after centuries of over cloning. Another theory as to why the grays started cloning is more cynical, being that they started to place the alien hybrids into Earth's society to help them overthrow the Government and take over from the inside rather than a full-fledged attack. Some even speculate that many of the alien hybrids on Earth don't know that they are of mixed nature and are like terrorist cells that can, and will be activated when the time is right for the master alien races (The greys and the reptilians). Alien hybrids have different looks depending on how their DNA was mixed by the grays and for what purpose they are being used for. These are the possible known alien hybrids from abduction accounts from around the world. One of the main differences is the eyes. We're sure you're all well aware of what aliens look like supposedly. Especially the greys. They have big black eyes.  So the alien theory begins there. Some believe there are several classes of alien human hybrids. Some believe BEKs belong to one of these hybrid classes. They are the ones that are here on Earth and pose as humans. They are possibly everywhere and it can be impossible to tell them apart without DNA testing, and even then the grays do a great job of hiding the differences. They may be presidents, teachers, kings, the working class, or really anyone in power or not. They have been said to be put here for numerous reasons from research on humans and other life on Earth to control and the slow take over of the planet. Some of the humanoid mixed breeds don't even know that they are a mixed alien breed and are being controlled without their knowledge. You can think of them as terrorist cells that will be activated when the time is right for invasion, the new world order, and the take over of Earth and its people.  That's a lot to unpack… We get it… But essentially… Prior are staying that the BEKs are alien human hybrids, which if you remember back to the very first encounter we read…it definitely has that vibe.  The other thing that may tie into Aliens is that some believe there's a man in black connection. According to some, the description of the BEKs is astoundingly close to descriptions of the men in black. We couldn't find a ton of stuff on this theory, but again looking back to the first tale, the couple described the children's "parents" as two males and that both were very tall.  There are of course the rational explanations as well. And while they aren't as fun, we suppose we should talk about them. One is that the first initial report by Brian Bethel is indeed fabricated and more of a creepy pasta type story generated for gaining attention. The rest of the stories are just the same and follow the pattern of evolving into urban legend status. Stemming from this there's the possibility that since people have actually seen BEKs but that they are just hoaxes. With the availability of contacts that make your whole eye black, it's not crazy to think there are people out there having fun at others' expense.  There may also be a physical explanation by way of a condition known as aniridia. Aniridia is marked by partial or complete absence of the iris of the eye. Vision is preserved in some patients with mild cases of aniridia. This condition occurs when the iris fails to develop normally before birth in one or both eyes. Typically, aniridia can be seen from birth. Aniridia can occur as a single abnormality or can be one of many symptoms in an underlying condition. While aniridia did not make the entire eye black one could understand that encountering someone, especially a child, late at night with this condition could definitely give off some creepy vibes.  So now you know what they are and the theories behind them, how about a couple more creepy tales of BEKs to unsettle you the rest of the way.               "On March 17, 2008 I had my one and only encounter with a black eyed kid. Before my experience I had never heard of anything having to do with the black eyed kids. I was 12. I was sitting outside of a hairdressers in an old Chevy pickup waiting for my mom to get her hair cut. About 15 minutes had passed and I saw some kid walking back and forth along the sidewalk in front of my parked car. At first I thought I recognized him as one of my friends from school so I banged on the front windshield until he looked my way. It was not anyone I knew. At this point I was not scared at all. Not yet. The boy walked over to the side of my car and just stared. I think it will let me get a good look at his eyes. To freak me out. Let me tell you.. If you have never seen a black eyed kid.. you have no idea what to imagine. Pupils black as the night sky. The boy whispers “You must let me in” and then I locked the car doors and ducked down into the space below the seats. Five minutes later he was gone. When my mother got into the car she told me a boy with black eyes had come into the hairdressers had insisted for my mother to give him the keys to the car. She refused……thank God she did." Well maybe they just wanted to play...or kill? Who knows!       "Trick or treat?This really freaked me out… Yesterday I noticed my neighbor hadn’t put out all his Halloween decorations/lights/etc. The past two years I’ve lived next to him he’s gone all out for Halloween. I don’t know him well, he’s younger, single, but I know he likes kids (not in a creepy way). His brother and sister-in-law and their kids are always visiting him and he plays with his three young nieces and nephews out in the yard. So anyway, I got home from work and was walking up my driveway and I saw him outside and said something like “Hey man, you better get your Halloween stuff up or that house up the street is going to beat you for best decorations.” He kind of smiles sheepishly and says that he’s actually going to keep his house dark this year and just put candy out. I asked if he was going out of town, but he said no, something happened last year that really scared him. Now I was concerned for my own safety if some weirdos were coming around our neighborhood (which is a pretty safe neighborhood with tons of young families living here), so I asked him what happened. He said last year he had his brother’s family over so they could trick-or-treat in the neighborhood since they live in an apartment complex that doesn’t do much for Halloween. He had a bunch of kids come to the door like always. His family took off around 10:30 and there were only a few older trick-or-treaters, but by 11:30 they were pretty much done. So he was inside, watching TV and the doorbell rings. He grabs the candy bowl and heads over, noticing that it’s a little past midnight and that’s pretty rude for trick-or-treaters to still be out, but then notices he hasn’t turned off all his decoration lights yet, so his house is still a beacon. He swings the door open and is about to yell “BOO!” or something to freak them out, but stops dead when he sees the kids at the door. He said one was probably around 13-14 and the other around 16-17 (both boys). They weren’t dressed up, but he remembers the older one was wearing a flannel checkered shirt. He was immediately overcome with uneasiness, like opening the door was a huge mistake. They just stared at him and he noticed they had really big irises and dilated pupils. He couldn’t even see the whites of their eyes, so he figured they were contact lenses. He was frozen there holding the candy bowl, like he couldn’t slam the door in their face as much as he wanted to. So he nervously tried to smile at them hoping they would “break character” and ask for candy or something. The younger one said they had gotten lost and needed to come in and use his phone. That was when he closed the door more than halfway on them and said “No, sorry” and the older one said something like “Can we just wait in your house until our parents come get us?” but by then he was convinced that his life was in danger and these kids must be high on something or intending to rob him and he just kept mumbling “No, sorry, goodnight” as he inched the door closed and locked it. He told me he was so fucking scared at that point that they were going to try to break in through one of his windows or something, but he looked through the peephole and they had turned to leave. He watched TV with the volume really low so he could hear any sounds at all and he said he stayed up till like 5 am because he was too scared to go to bed and drop his guard. The whole time he’s telling me this I’m thinking oh my god, this sounds so familiar, just like the Black-eyed kids urban legend. Then I thought hey, maybe this dude is trying to scare me because after all, he does have the Halloween spirit…so I’m looking at him incredulously but trying not to seem too gullible. So I’m like “Man, that is really crazy, sounds like the Black-eye kids.” He just looks at me blankly, “The what, is that a movie or something?” and I said no, but told him to go look it up online. Like an hour later I get a knock on my door (and admittedly, almost jump out of my skin thinking it’s a demon child). It was my neighbor and his eyes were freaking huge. He swears to me up and down that he had never heard of the BEKs before and it’s so similar to what happened to him. So we talked a while longer and I told him that quite a few people probably know about that urban legend and it’s possible it was just teenagers with black scleral contacts trying to freak people out on Halloween (which would be genius, by the way). But he said the fear he felt was so primal and came over him the second he opened the door for them. Well… Happy Halloween to him I guess!      A gas station attendant in northeast Louisiana had a terrifying encounter in November 2012. The gas station was creepy enough to begin with at 3 am, but then the power went out. Led by the light of his cell phone, the attendant was able to get the generators going, but the backup lighting was dim and only lit up certain areas, like the cash area and the parking lot, while the rest of the isolated establishment was cloaked in black. Out in that darkness, he noticed movement: three children on bikes were heading his way. They stood at the door and stared at the attendant. He felt creeped out, but they were just kids and it was way too late for them to be out. He opened the door and asked if they were okay. The young girl asked to use a phone, but as he handed his cell over to her, he realized her eyes were all black. “No, I need the real one!” She pointed at the landline inside. The thought of letting her inside sent chills up his spine. He shouted at all of them to leave as he slammed and locked the door. The children stood there a bit longer, silently staring at him through the glass with their solid black eyes. Then, they got back on their bikes and disappeared back into the darkness. The next morning, the attendant was eager to go through the surveillance footage. Unfortunately, the power outage cut the cameras off and they didn’t boot back up with the generator. He had nothing to prove the events of the night before took place So there's a couple more stories. Are they real? That's for you to decide. I suppose the best way to end this episode is with words from the man who brought the BEKs to light for everyone. The following are the weeks of Brian Bethel about his experience :             "I’ve never wanted the Reporter-News to be a venue for this story. It’s easy enough to find online, as I said. And call it a weakness, or maybe common sense, but I prefer to keep my encounters with the paranormal (ask me sometime about the ghost that haunted our newsroom back in college) separate from my award-winning journalism career. But one of the provisions my bosses at the paper made in exchange for me potentially making a fool of myself on TV was for me to tell the story here. And so, I have. Do I expect you to believe me blindly? Of course not. I might not believe it myself if I heard such a story from someone else. What did I see? Your guess is literally as good as anyone’s. I’ve had everything from vampires to demons to ghosts to aliens to a somewhat-detailed hallucination posited as possibilities. I do feel like I can say this with some authority: This was back in the day when freaky coal-black contacts weren’t widely available to a couple of kids in Abilene, Texas, for anything under a small fortune. And there wasn’t enough time to even put such things on in the short time I broke the spokesman’s gaze, if they could afford them. Will I ever know for certain what I saw? Probably not. Do I ever care to see them again? Hell, no. As much as I still don’t know about what happened that night and why, here’s one thing that I do know. It’s a gut feeling, but one that rises to a level of almost certainty. If I had given the spokesman and his friend a ride on that long-ago evening, I don’t think I would be here to type this now. End of story." Whew… So there you have it. Blacked eyes kids! What do you all think?  There seems to only be a couple movies specifically about black eyed kids, so we're going with the top movies involving evil children!  Top movies involving evil children https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=evil-child&ref_=kw_ref_typ&sort=user_rating,desc&mode=detail&page=1&title_type=movie&genres=Horror The Midnight Train Podcast is sponsored by VOUDOUX VODKA.www.voudoux.com Ace’s Depothttp://www.aces-depot.com BECOME A PRODUCER!http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast Find The Midnight Train Podcast:www.themidnighttrainpodcast.comwww.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpcwww.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcastwww.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our official YouTube channel:OUR YOUTUBEhttp://www.criticcity.com

Episode Summary: Today we’re going to be talking about how life often doesn’t go the way we planned for it to go, which often makes us wonder where God is or if he sees or cares. My guest today, Tracy Steel, is a lover of both interior design and theology who combines these two passions to creatively help women find peace and understand who God is and his purpose for them whenever their life doesn’t go as they hoped or planned for. Quotables from the episode: We can’t find comfort, security, and contentment in anything but God. The only thing that remains constant is God himself. Sometimes when we experience greater loss, it sets the stage to experience more of God’s comfort. Is God your focal point? Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 15:58 “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. Psalm 33:11 “But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.” Hebrews 2:10 “God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.” Recommended Resources: “A Redesigned Life: Uncovering God’s Purposes When Life Doesn’t Go As Planned” by Tracy Steel A 5-Day Reading Plan for Uncovering God's Purpose For You by Tracy Steel - Bible.com Reading Plan “Praying God’s Word” by Beth Moore Free Download: How To Fight Fearful/Anxious Thoughts and Win Breaking Anxiety’s Grip: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises by Dr. Michelle Bengtson Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Free Study Guide Free 7-Day YouVersion Bible Reading Plan for Breaking Anxiety’s Grip Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through Depression by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Hope Prevails Bible Study by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader’s Choice Award Social Media Links for Guest and  Host: Connect with Tracy Steel: Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at: Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast Guest: Tracy Steel graduated from Kansas State University with a BS in interior design in 1998 and has a master’s degree in biblical and theological studies from Phoenix Seminary. As a project designer, Tracy created and coordinated the design and space planning of commercial spaces for clients such as Bank One, Wells Fargo, Express Scripts, DHS, and Lockheed Martin. Moving from one type of interior design to another, Tracy then worked in full-time youth ministry, serving as the director of female students at Scottsdale Bible Church. God’s true design for Tracy now involves improving the interior space of the hearts and minds of women around her. Currently stationed in Washington, DC, this military wife and mother of two enjoys linking up with other bloggers, leading Bible studies at her local church, and speaking at various moms’ groups and women’s ministries events nationwide. She is also the author of Images of His Beauty, a 10-week Bible study for young women that focuses on identity, overcoming and healing through Christ, and bearing the image of Christ. Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson Audio Technical Support: Bryce Bengtson

Ben Pidgeon is a 15-year veteran of the banking industry, joining VisionTech Partners/VisionTech Angels as the organization’s first executive director in 2016. Ben joined VisionTech to continue to expand our role in Indiana and across the Midwest in supporting business startups, innovation, commercialization, and job creation. Ben’s focus is optimizing VisionTech’s growth, recruiting qualified investors, and attracting and evaluating investment opportunities for our members. Ben is also the former president of the Venture Club of Indiana and is a member of its Board of Directors. Prior to joining VisionTech, Ben served as vice president and private banker at Stock Yards Bank and Trust in Indianapolis. He has also worked with MainSource Bank and M&I Bank/BMO Financial, both in Indianapolis; Bank One in Greenwood, and Oak Street Mortgage in Carmel. He is professionally and community oriented.  He served as president and treasurer of the Institute of Management Accountants, Indianapolis Chapter and is a former member of the Woodruff Place Foundation Board of Directors. A native of West Lafayette, Indiana, Ben earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics from Purdue University and a Master’s of Business Administration from the IU Kelley School of Business. Learn more about VisionTech Partners Connect with Ben Pidgeon on LinkedIn Sponsors: Talevation Ninety.io Straticos Buy your copy of Level Up To Professional: Second Edition

Welcome! Craig discusses how cybercriminals are now bypassing multi-factor authentication and what you can do to protect yourself.  For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Read More: Huawei's expired US license is bad news for phone owners Security Jobs With a Future -- And Ones on the Way Out NSA & FBI Disclose New Russian Cyberespionage Malware FCC beats cities in court, helping carriers avoid $2 billion in local 5G fees Business Email Compromise Attacks Involving MFA Bypass Increase NSA and FBI warn that new Linux malware threatens national security How Fast Is SpaceX's Satellite Internet? Beta Tests Show it Hitting Up to 60Mbps ISIS Allegedly Ran a Covid-19 PPE Scam Site --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] I've been harping on multifactor authentication, and now a little bit concern because based on what kind you're using, the bad guys are getting around some of it. Hey, Craig Peterson here. Thanks for joining me online and here on WGAN make sure you tune in every Wednesday morning when I'm on with Matt Gagnon for the early morning shift, as he goes through the latest in tech news with me. It's really fun. I like having a host to talk to who really understands things, he's on the ball and Matt is certainly one of those, no question about it. Businesses are faced with the real problem as our consumers and that is how do you keep the bad guys out of your systems? One of the things that we've been using for the last few years is called MFA multifactor authentication. As I have said for decades, the best security combines something, along with something you have. So for instance, in the computer world, something, might be the email address to sign in with and of course the password that you sign in with. So there you go, something know, something you have. In many cases, it's turned out to be your smartphone and people are using the smartphone to do authentication. So you try and log in. It'll send you a text message than with that text message, you can now say, yeah, that's me and you type in the code, right? A four-digit, six-digit code and you are let in, I've explained before why that is a bad idea, using texts or SMS as it's called, and it's a very bad idea. If you have anything at risk, something to lose, there have been many cases now well-documented of people that are big business people all the way on through people who own Bitcoin. Where, what will happen is the bad guy will transfer your phone number to a phone, not yours, but one the bad guy has control over. So now he tries to log in because he got your username and your password from the dark web. If you haven't checked it out yet, make sure you go to have I been poned.com. And check out your email address, and you're almost certain to find your email has been compromised and your password was stolen along with your email address and maybe even more things like your social security number, your home address, et cetera. So the bad guys will do is say, okay, so I'm going after company X and I am going to now find out what the guy's phone number is. They use little social engineering, find out the phone number, and then once they have the phone number, they can go to the next step, which is let's transfer that phone number to my phone. Then they log as you. Let's say even your Yahoo mail account or whatever your mail account is, and then they look around and, yeah. Okay, great. He has an account at Bank of America. So they go to Bank of America site, cause they just found Bank of America emails. I count emails in your email box and they use your username and the password they got for your username. You're smart and Bank of America and your Yahoo email account use different passwords. Goody for you because now all they have to do is say I forgot my password. Where is Bank of America going to send the password reset? It's good. I'm going to send it to your email box. So now your email box has a password reset. They reset it to it, whatever they want to. And then Bank of America says yes, but wait. we need multifactor authentication. So we're going to send a text to your phone to make sure it's you and Romero. We're the bad guy. They just went ahead and tried, transferred your phone number to their phone. So what does that text from? Bank of America? Go right into their hands. So now they've got your Bank of America account and they are in, and they transfer the money out in according to the United States secret service, 90 seconds later, it is likely out of reach and out of the country. That's how bad it is right now. It's really bad. So that's why I warned you guys forever. Don't use SMS as a way to authenticate yourself as part of multifactor authentication. There are a number of apps out there that will work quite well for you. You might remember 10, 20 years ago, probably 20 plus years ago. Now actually people had these little key fobs. I think it was Bank One that had the first one that I ever used. And you put it on your key chain and it had a little six-digit number that changed every 30 seconds. So when you went to log in. You knew your username, you knew your password, and you looked at the key fob to see what the code was for this 30 second period and it would let you in. That's actually a great way to do it, but if you use one password or Google authenticator or last pass, there are a number of ways you can do it. I recommend a few. You just don't have the money. If you're not a business, just use Google authenticator. Most websites will work with Google authenticator. So what will happen is the website will pop up a QR code on the screen and you then take a picture of that QR code with Google authenticator will say, Oh, okay, great. I got it. And then it'll start giving you codes. New codes, every 30 seconds that you can use. So all you have to do is have your smartphone. Now make sure your smartphone is locked down, but it's a little harder for them. If they're in Belarus or somewhere else, a little harder for them to get a hold of that phone so that they can then hack you by looking at your phone in order to get that code. Now one password does the same thing and then we combine one password with Duo and a little key fobs and everything else. So depending on how security has to be, there may be multiple levels, but that's the basics. Dark reading has an article out this week, talking about this legacy, email clients, and what they're doing. So I explain to you the right way to do multi-factor authentic occasion right now, and it's really, it's considered to be a very strong measure to protect you against an account takeover attack. But the bad guys have a way around it and here's what they're doing. I have normal security this week is reporting that they've seen an increase in attacks where the bad guys are using legacy apps with old email protocols. So nowadays, for instance, You might be using something called OAuth 2 behind the scenes, whom you as a user probably wouldn't know that, but is used to authenticate you. We have it set up for ourselves and our clients that you have to read completely we authenticate every week, which gets to be a bit of a pain, but it's actually a very good thing. In fact, I should probably have it set up to do it every day, but every week is pretty reasonable. And it uses more advanced protocols to authenticate me. But if you've been around for a while, you're familiar with a protocol called pop, which was the post office protocol. I used that for many years, and that allowed me to connect to the mail server, download all of them. My email would be deleted off the server. I'd have it on my laptop and hopefully, I had my laptop. Backed up so that I wouldn't get totally messed up if everything went wrong, but there's an old protocol. All that really shouldn't be used anymore. In most cases, another one is called Imam and it's a more modern protocol, but it doesn't have all these security checks supported. SMTP is another one that we've been trying to. Beef up somewhat. And they've done that by putting some encryption TLS on top of this simple mail transport protocol. So what the bad guys are doing is they're connecting to your business, email server, or a third-party email server. They're collecting all of the data, all of the information that they can about you. Then there's signing in using a protocol that does not support and therefore it's not required to have multi-factor authentication. Very interesting. And they'll look at the email account information. They'll find it on paste sites. They'll find it out on the dark web. But one example is an old email client like mail bird, which allows Gmail to be set up via IMAP, and then once they're using iMac, they've gotten around the multifactor authentication. So consider all of that stuff, If you're using Microsoft office three 65, there are multiple versions of it. Microsoft has well over 12,000 skews. And in other words, individual products that you can buy. Most of the time we find businesses are buying the wrong. Microsoft office three 65 products. They have whole groupings of them, but here's what I want you to pay attention to. If you are using Microsoft office three 65, most of their licenses give your organization the ability to turn on access policies, to restrict these older protocols. Legacy access using all of these protocols we were just talking about is enabled by default called on Microsoft office three 65. So if you're a security guy, gal, You've got to go in. You have to disable legacy access on a per person basis across the whole organization. How's that for fun? Now, there are some ways to do this using some CRM, why tools looking through, but you've got to do it one per one. But even so the best protection an organization can implement is multifactor authentication and conditional access, best policies for all of these legacy apps, just like I constantly advise. You have to have restrictions, access policies by the group for different people and different groups within your organization. That goes down to the control, which in many cases is using a Microsoft tool in order to allow logins and other things. So keep an eye out for all of that.  By the way, the FBI estimated US businesses lost almost $2 billion to this type of fraud last year. Stick around. We'll be right back. You're listening to Craig Peterson. We're going to talk about the FCC and what they're doing to help you.  Stick around. We'll be right back here on WGAN and online. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

This Week's Guest Bio: Joe Evangelisti is head of Worldwide Corporate Communications and Media Relations for JPMorgan Chase. In this role, he serves as chief communications officer, lead spokesman, and head of internal communications for the firm. He also oversees the company's vast art and archives collection. Evangelisti joined J.P. Morgan in 1986 as a member of J.P. Morgan's internal communications team. Two years later, he joined the company's media relations unit as a junior press officer, and in 1993 he relocated to London, where he was head of media relations in the U.K., later adding corporate communications for the U.K., continental Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 1996, he returned to the U.S. and was appointed head of global media relations for J.P. Morgan. In 2000, when Chase bought J.P. Morgan, Evangelisti became head of global media relations for the combined firm. And in 2004, when Bank One and JPMorgan Chase merged, he became head of global media relations for the new firm. In early 2006, he took on the chief communications role. Evangelisti is a senior champion for the firm's PRIDE employee networking group and active with the company's LGBT community. Outside the firm, he serves on the board of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship and Breastcancer.org and is a member of The Seminar. Evangelisti received a BA in 1985 from the University of Virginia, where he majored in English and was an editor of a university newspaper. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/toby-usnik/support

Dream Business Radio #393 On this week’s show I interview Rich Milliman, the CEO of Extra Duty Solutions, a service that helps law enforcement agencies administer their extra duty programs. After serving as a management consult-ant for McKinsey and Company, Rich ran portfolio marketing operations at Bank One’s credit card unit. Download MP3 Connect to Rich on their website: http://www.extradutysolutions.com/

6:00 – Kid Mortify You in Public 7:00 -  Believing Hype Backfire, All They Need To Know About Someone 8:00 – Music Knowledge With Engineer Tracy, Who Should You Be Buried Next To, High School Scandal 9:00 – Build A Commercial Out of the Bucket​

Citizens Trust Bank is one of the oldest Black owned banks in the country. Founded in Atlanta GA, it helped spearhead the growth of Atlanta as a cultural hub for Black business and home ownership helping to establish some of the most affluent areas for Black men and women in the country. Check out the rest of the episode for more info. --- 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/EverydayBlackHistory/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/EverydayBlackHistory/support

Rich Milliman is the CEO of Extra Duty Solutions, a service that helps law enforcement agencies administer their extra duty programs. Rich's professional background focuses on business services and operations. After serving as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company, Rich ran portfolio marketing and operations at Bank One's credit card unit. He then ran several emerging and mid-sized business services firms for a European family office. Prior to co-founding Extra Duty Solutions, Rich played an active role in operational risk, security, and back-office operations at the world's largest hedge fund. Before Extra Duty Solutions, no service specifically helped law enforcement agencies with their extra duty programs. In 2015, Rich realized there was an inefficiency in the way extra duty was being administered and started Extra Duty Solutions with his colleague, Adam Bryan. It has grown to the largest extra duty service company in the U.S. and is now active in over 60 departments across the country. These services include handling client interaction, scheduling, client invoicing and collections, officer payment, feedback -- all aspects of the extra-duty program administration. Law enforcement agencies maintain control of all management decisions associated with their program - Extra Duty Solutions does the work and eliminates the financial risk. Website: https://extradutysolutions.com/   Twitter- @extradutysolved Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/ExtraDutySolutions YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDwZkwY_5k4Fh_oaW8ObxVA Instagram- @extradutysolutions LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/extra-duty-solutions LinkedIn (Rich)- https://www.linkedin.com/in/richmilliman/

Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. A big shout out to all the brave men and women who serve our communities and this great country. Keep up the great work and you have much support. We are so excited to be partnered with Detectachem. This amazing and innovative company is protecting our brave men and women by providing mobile threat detection available for the palm of your hand. Detecting illicit drugs and explosives. See how they can help protect your troops. Click the link on www.cjevolution.com If you love coffee, and I know most of you do, check out the great products from Four Sigmatic. This is the only coffee I drink. I love their mushroom coffee and I am willing to bet you will too. It doesn't taste like mushrooms. Head over to the CJEvolution Website and click the link to Four Sigmatic. You will get 15% off using the promo code CJEVO. In this episode Patrick welcomes Rich Milliman. Rich is the CEO of Extra Duty Solutions. A great service that helps law enforcement agencies administer their extra duty programs. Rich's professional background focuses on business services and operations. After serving as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company, Rich ran portfolio marketing and operations at Bank One's credit card unit. He then ran several emerging and mid-sized business services firms for a European family office. Prior to co-founding Extra Duty Solutions, Rich played an active role in operational risk, security, and back-office operations at the world's largest hedge fund.   Before Extra Duty Solutions, no service specifically helped law enforcement agencies with their extra duty programs. In 2015, Rich realized there was an inefficiency in the way extra duty was being administered and started Extra Duty Solutions with his colleague, Adam Bryan. It has grown to the largest extra duty service company in the U.S. and is now active in over 60 departments across the country. These services include handling client interaction, scheduling, client invoicing and collections, officer payment, feedback all aspects of the extra-duty program administration. Law enforcement agencies maintain control of all management decisions associated with their program - Extra Duty Solutions does the work and eliminates the financial risk.   A great service for any law enforcement agency. Check EDS out here:   https://extradutysolutions.com/     Find Rich here:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/richmilliman/   Stay tuned for more great episodes on The CJEvolution Podcast.   www.cjevolution.com   Pat

Michelle Lemmons-Poscente is Founder and CEO of the Global Leaders Organization, (GLO). GLO is a global membership platform made up of thousands of CEO’s, Entrepreneurs and Investors that learn, network and do business with one another. GLO has fully compliant investment portals allowing the members to raise capital and to invest in one another’s businesses.Previously, Michelle was the Chairman and Managing Partner of ISB Global, LLC. ISB Global and its affiliates, was a fully integrated brand strategy and representation firm actively engaged in corporate development, speaking, books, television, intellectual property development, publishing, merchandising, and distribution with leading, branded personalities, executives, and organizations around the world.ISB Global included: International Speakers Bureau, a twenty year old speaking agency she founded representing the most sought after speakers in the world. Celebrities, best-selling authors and sports name lined International Speakers Bureau’s roster. ISB New Media Group, a literary agency and publishing ventures group which has some 30 New York Times best-selling books to its credit in several genre’s including business, health and wellness, pop culture and comedic satire (including perennial best-selling author Chelsea Handler), and ISB Ventures which co-founded Brand Equity Holdings and M2M Brands. Brand Equity included: Healthy Home, a membership organization focused on the health and nutritional needs of mothers, children and families, and USA Association www.USAAssoc.com , a member benefits association providing a conservative alternative to AARP. M2M Brands created/sourced and marketed consumer products for celebrities.Her organizations have been recognized as one of the “Top Female-Owned Businesses” in the U.S. by Bank One, and noted as one of the top-managed companies in the United States, winning the Sprint #1 Small Business Award (sweeping the categories Customer Service, Marketing and Innovation). For more information visit:http://www.withglo.com/

In this episode of Lykken on Lending we have Barrett Burns, President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions as our guest in the Hot Topic segment. Barrett Burns is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of VantageScore Solutions, LLC, an independently managed joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the company behind the VantageScore® consumer credit scoring model.   Prior to joining VantageScore as CEO during its formation in 2006, he was executive vice president at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust's Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of global risk management and chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company, and as senior vice president and COO of Bank One's auto finance division, the largest non-captive lender in the U.S. at the time. Burns also spent more than a decade with Citibank, lastly as group credit officer for an international consumer banking division that included operations throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Topic Covered in this Interview: How does VantageScore broaden access to credit but respect safety and soundness principles?What observations has VantageScore had about Millennials?What is trended credit data and how is VantageScore leveraging it? Read more about this episode... In this episode of Lykken on Lending we have Barrett Burns, President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions as our guest in the Hot Topic segment. Barrett Burns is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of VantageScore Solutions, LLC, an independently managed joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the company behind the VantageScore® consumer credit scoring model.   Prior to joining VantageScore as CEO during its formation in 2006, he was executive vice president at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust's Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of global risk management and chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company, and as senior vice president and COO of Bank One's auto finance division, the largest non-captive lender in the U.S. at the time. Burns also spent more than a decade with Citibank, lastly as group credit officer for an international consumer banking division that included operations throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Topic Covered in this Interview: How does VantageScore broaden access to credit but respect safety and soundness principles?What observations has VantageScore had about Millennials?What is trended credit data and how is VantageScore leveraging it? Read more about this episode...

In this episode of Lykken on Lending we have Barrett Burns, President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions as our guest in the Hot Topic segment. Barrett Burns is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of VantageScore Solutions, LLC, an independently managed joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the company behind the VantageScore® consumer credit scoring model.   Prior to joining VantageScore as CEO during its formation in 2006, he was executive vice president at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust's Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of global risk management and chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company, and as senior vice president and COO of Bank One's auto finance division, the largest non-captive lender in the U.S. at the time. Burns also spent more than a decade with Citibank, lastly as group credit officer for an international consumer banking division that included operations throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Topic Covered in this Interview: How does VantageScore broaden access to credit but respect safety and soundness principles?What observations has VantageScore had about Millennials?What is trended credit data and how is VantageScore leveraging it? Read more about this episode... In this episode of Lykken on Lending we have Barrett Burns, President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions as our guest in the Hot Topic segment. Barrett Burns is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of VantageScore Solutions, LLC, an independently managed joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the company behind the VantageScore® consumer credit scoring model.   Prior to joining VantageScore as CEO during its formation in 2006, he was executive vice president at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust's Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of global risk management and chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company, and as senior vice president and COO of Bank One's auto finance division, the largest non-captive lender in the U.S. at the time. Burns also spent more than a decade with Citibank, lastly as group credit officer for an international consumer banking division that included operations throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Topic Covered in this Interview: How does VantageScore broaden access to credit but respect safety and soundness principles?What observations has VantageScore had about Millennials?What is trended credit data and how is VantageScore leveraging it? Read more about this episode...

In this episode of Lykken on Lending we have Barrett Burns, President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions as our guest in the Hot Topic segment. Barrett Burns is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of VantageScore Solutions, LLC, an independently managed joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the company behind the VantageScore® consumer credit scoring model.   Prior to joining VantageScore as CEO during its formation in 2006, he was executive vice president at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust’s Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of global risk management and chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company, and as senior vice president and COO of Bank One’s auto finance division, the largest non-captive lender in the U.S. at the time. Burns also spent more than a decade with Citibank, lastly as group credit officer for an international consumer banking division that included operations throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Topic Covered in this Interview: How does VantageScore broaden access to credit but respect safety and soundness principles?What observations has VantageScore had about Millennials?What is trended credit data and how is VantageScore leveraging it? Read more about this episode...

In this episode of Lykken on Lending we have Barrett Burns, President and CEO of VantageScore Solutions as our guest in the Hot Topic segment. Barrett Burns is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of VantageScore Solutions, LLC, an independently managed joint venture of the three national credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the company behind the VantageScore® consumer credit scoring model.   Prior to joining VantageScore as CEO during its formation in 2006, he was executive vice president at U.S. Trust, heading the National Private Banking Group and a member of U.S. Trust’s Executive Committee and the Senior Management Team of parent company, The Charles Schwab Corporation.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of global risk management and chairman of the Credit Policy Committee at Ford Motor Credit Company, and as senior vice president and COO of Bank One’s auto finance division, the largest non-captive lender in the U.S. at the time. Burns also spent more than a decade with Citibank, lastly as group credit officer for an international consumer banking division that included operations throughout the U.S. and Europe.  Topic Covered in this Interview: How does VantageScore broaden access to credit but respect safety and soundness principles?What observations has VantageScore had about Millennials?What is trended credit data and how is VantageScore leveraging it? Read more about this episode...

Since 2003, Jeff English has acted as principal and founder of Creative English Communication Consultants, which specializes in strategic communications planning and execution. Jeff earned his degree in advertising in 1990 and spent 13 years employed with some of the region’s top advertising, public relations and design firms. Over his career he has worked with such clients as NAPA Auto Parts, Bank One, Hancock Bank, Louisiana State University, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, McDonald’s, Mississippi Power, Baton Rouge Area Foundation and more, as well as a variety of state agencies. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Richard Vague is currently one of the managing partners of Gabriel Investments and the president of the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival. He is also the author of The Next Economic Disaster, a book with a new approach for predicting and preventing financial crises. Previously, he was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company that was sold to NRG Energy in 2011. Vague was also co-founder and CEO of two credit card companies – First USA, which grew to be the largest Visa issuer in the industry and which was sold to Bank One in 1997, and Juniper Financial, the fastest growing credit card issuer of the past decade, which was sold to Barclays PLC in 2004. Vague currently serves on the Penn Medicine Board, the boards of the Franklin Institute, the Museum of the American Revolution, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, the Arts and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia and Friends of Rittenhouse Square. He serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. Vague is also editor of the blog and email newsletter service Delanceyplace.com and of the website Debt-economics.org. Support Philly Who? Donate via Paypal, Venmo: @podphillywho, Become a Monthly Patron, Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat, Become a Sponsor

Another one of the top 10 guests of 2018 is returning today to review the SBA process for both buyers and sellers. We'll discuss what's changed and things buyers and sellers need to look out for in 2019. Stephen Speer of ECommerce Lending, based in Florida, is a specialist in eCommerce acquisition deals. He offers a superior financing experience to buyers and sellers. Stephen urges sellers reach out to him to get their game plan ready and advises buyers to get pre-approved in order to get the ball rolling in the right playing field. Episode Highlights: What Stephen looks for in a business when prepping SBA on the seller side. Why co-mingling of multiple business can be problematic for a seller. His recommendations for cleaning up and consolidating financials when preparing to sell. What the the “debt service coverage ratio” (DSCR), also known as “debt coverage ratio” (DCR), is all about. Where the add backs come from and where Stephen's team looks for them. He advises companies to use an external bookkeeping outfit – for a great ROI! How Steve and his group think outside the box when it comes to SBA lending and refinancing in order to make the purchases happen. What he looks for in an SBA financing candidate. Just because you can write a check doesn't mean you don't have to be likeable. Situations or factors that can stop an SBA loan. The importance of reaching out to Stephen before starting to shop for the business that falls into your price range. Stephen reveals his lending sweet spots – the floor, the ceiling, and his averages. All the financing details – down payment, terms, and interest rate. Why sellers and buyers both need to go through the vetting process. Transcription: Mark: Joe last week we aired the episode with Shakil Prasla and we started out the episode with me basically having you fess up to the fact that I have the number one most downloaded and listened to episode. Joe: You're amazing Mark. Let's just say it right now you're incredible. Mark: But you're [inaudible 00:01:07.9] with Stephen Speer and at the risk of becoming a rethread podcast where all we do is bring back our top guests. We are having back one of our top guests this week again. Joe: Stephen Speer that's right. He's an SBA lender which is interesting in that the top two podcasts that we had had been about buying online businesses and we're brokers that sell online businesses. But hey … look you are amazing and you started this company 11 years ago and your focus was education and helping buyers understand the process and helping them as much as the sellers. So it's worked. And the fact that our top two podcasts are about buying online businesses has proven out that theory. We had Stephen back because last year there were a lot of changes in the SBA policies and guidelines. The dollar amounts came down a little bit, seller financing wasn't required on certain deals, and we recapped some of that and we reviewed the process both for if you're a seller what you need to do to get yourself in good shape to be SBA pre-qualified. And if you're a buyer out there looking to build that portfolio of businesses or buy your first one what you need to do in order to connect with someone like Stephen and get yourself in a position that you best be able to act quickly when that perfect business comes along. Mark: So yeah these rules do update on a yearly basis but fortunately this year it doesn't sound like there's a ton of new changes. With that said there's a lot of good information in this podcast because we get these questions over and over and over again about what does it take to qualify. And I think one thing that … I know we talked to Stephen the other day as a company. We had him and a couple of other SBA lenders come into the company and just— Joe: Yup. Bruce from [inaudible 00:02:47.2] bank, yup. Mark: Yup. Bruce from [inaudible 00:02:48.8] bank. You know I think it's important for people to understand that there is SBA guidelines. Yeah, that's one thing, but then outside of the SBA guidelines, there are some individual bank guidelines as well. And to understand that even though these rules and these guidelines that we're going to cover in this episode might be out there they're not hard and fast when it comes to finding an individual lender. Did you cover any of those guidelines from Stephen's group with the podcast? Joe: Yeah, we went over some specific things that he looks for and his firm looks for. He's with Bank One now … or I'm sorry First Home Bank but some of the topics that we touched on on the podcast and even when we talked to him separately and that you and I talked about is why is it important to pre-qualify your business for an SBA loan? Sellers may be thinking well it doesn't matter why should I do that. And the answer is because it casts a broader net and not a broader net of buyers. There are definitely some buyers out there that only want to use SBA funds because that's … they only have 10 or 15% to put down. And then there's another pool of buyers that could stroke a check for one, two, three million dollars but they're building that portfolio like Shakil and using SBA money so they're only putting 10 or 15% down each time. So it's really important from a seller's standpoint to understand the value of clean financials and getting prepared so you're pre-qualified for an SBA loan. And from a buyer's standpoint, it's a great way to go if you're comfortable with that option. Mark: Absolutely. All right let's get into the episode, let's find out what's changed in 2019 and then also recap some of the rules and some of the things that both sellers and buyers should know about SBA loans. Joe: Let's go to it. Joe: Hey, folks, it's Joe from Quiet Light Brokerage, today I have one of our top 10 guests back for 2019 Mr. Stephen Speer. Welcome back Stephen how are you? Stephen: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me Joe I appreciate it. Joe: Awesome. Man, well listen I want to go through all of the SBA lending practices, what it takes to qualify for a business, what buyer's should be looking for, and I also want to get an update on you and your team. I think you made some changes in 2019 … I'm sorry '18 I want to cover those as well. But for those that have not listened to you in the podcast in the past can you give us a little summary, a little background on yourself? Stephen: So I have an e-commerce lending team at First Home Bank. The bank happens to be located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Our team are lending throughout the country. As a matter of fact very few of our loans are actually in Florida but I made a transition months ago with the privilege of being able to grow my e-commerce team and we provide a level of support as we go into the new year. So I'm pretty excited about that. Joe: Yeah, it's exciting and I know that we've done a number of deals together and you've done a lot of work with Quiet Light and some of the other website brokerage firms. How big is your team going to get to? Where are you at now and how big are you going to be compared to where you were before? Stephen: So my team comprises of four people. Myself, a gentleman named Bill [inaudible 00:05:55.9] who is kind of my right hand man along with my underwriter and closing team. So I'm pretty excited about that. I plan to add an additional person in Q1 and another person who I have identified for Q2. So I plan to have three people do what I do. In other words, myself and two more and then stick with my underwriter as well as the closing team. Joe: That's huge. I always worried about you getting hit by a bus. Now you can get hit by a bus and we'll be fine. Stephen: Well yeah, my wife would love to hear that so. Joe: We don't want her listening to the podcast [inaudible 00:06:32.5] buy a bus and start driving around looking for you. That's great man, that's great. One of the things that I want people listening to this to understand is that we've dealt with a lot of SBA lenders over the years and you're a … you're not a banker. You don't come across as a banker. You don't have certain boxes that you must absolutely check every time when you speak our language. And you hang out with e-commerce entrepreneurs which is great. Let's talk a little bit about what it takes to qualify for an SBA loan from the sell side of the business. What do you look for from a business? When I send you a listing and say “Hey Stephen will this qualify?” what things are you looking for? Stephen: Well, first I'd like to … I would say I'd request financials. So first what I look for is what type of business is it? Is it FBA driven, is it 3PL, or do they provide their own fulfillment? So I look at that. If it's a product based business I look at the number of SKU's, type of product. I really do dive into that because one thing I try to avoid is having … trying to finance a single type business that's [inaudible 00:07:45.1]. So that's one thing I look at. So once I get past that I really kind of dive in to the financials. When I mean financials, the holy grail of financials are the tax returns. So for example now that we've entered 2019 I look for tax returns for 2017, maybe 2016 [inaudible 00:08:05.5] year, solid tax return for 2017, and solid year ending financials for 2018, and as we continue down the path of Q1 obviously 2018 tax returns. So basically back to your question a wrap up of … in 2016 of the business, solid year of 2017, and a strong trailing 12 month or strong and the word strong – Joe: Lots of people listening that are on their business will say “Hey that's not a problem. I got tax returns. Everybody files tax returns.” and then they give you a tax return and it's co-mingled with four other businesses that they're selling and they're only selling one … I'm sorry four other businesses that they run and they're only selling one. That's a problem isn't it, the co-mingling of multiple businesses under one tax return? Stephen: That is a problem and unfortunately, it's a problem that seems not to go away despite your best effort and your team's best effort as well as my team's best effort. They just seem not to follow that advice so that is a challenge. Now I do … with that coming up so often I do have a set of things I'm able to put in place, for example, I direct this seller back to his or her accountant and be able to income streams and expenses done in a professional manner. It can't just be Quick Books and I've been able to still get financing for businesses that do have co-mingling within a tax return. Joe: Does it just take a little bit longer to get those worked out and closed? Stephen: It does take longer. Generally, it adds roughly two months to the entire process. Joe: Woah. Stephen: It does take time depending on the responsiveness of the accountant. Especially as we enter Q1 and then start working on returns and start getting buried because [inaudible 00:09:52.5] season. It does take a little bit of time but it's not something that's not doable. The biggest recommendation I have either if you're thinking about selling a portion of your business now is to get on that and have your accountant provide or put together what I call consolidated financials. And basically what we do is we take the tax return and compare it to the consolidated financial which show a delineation of the different businesses and we're able to perform. Joe: Okay so for the sellers out there listening to that and going well I don't have to have an SBA buyer I can just sell to a cash buyer. You're absolutely right, there's a ridiculous amount of money out there in the landscape for people buying online businesses. The reality is though that you want to cast this broad of a net as possible for potential buyers. And we see this over and over again somebody that's from another country that is selling a business if it's a multi-million dollar business but you're not US based, not filing US tax returns. It is more difficult to sell because the buyer pool is not as large. There are buyers out there that I know personally that have the ability to stroke a check for five million dollars but they're smart and they don't want to. They want to keep as much money as they have … as they can and buy multiple businesses and maybe use someone like Stephen and SBA lending and only put down 10 or 15%. So you do cast a broader net if you can do the consolidated financials. If you're just starting off in business your best approach is to have one LOC for that line of product that eventually you may sell. We had Syed Balkhi on the podcast as well and Syed has a number of different businesses and every time he says “okay I'm done with this one” we're able to list it and sell it very, very easily. And the last one I think we did cash … actually, I think we did two SBA loans and it was very easy because he files separate tax returns for each business. That's the ideal situation. How do you feel Stephen about someone selling a business and they're coming to you with Excel spreadsheets for their profit and losses versus Quick Books? You don't really care about that you're looking at the tax returns and a P&L anyway that's in excel format right? Stephen: Primarily if we're talking just a single business, single return, single P&L's yeah that is fine. So that's not a problem at all. Obviously, the more … accounting is all about substance over form, it's kind of an accounting term. That is true but it can't be hand written or something very unprofessional I mean because ultimately underwriters look at that. If that's just kind of run together and it doesn't make much sense it's not done by someone who knows how to do a P&L or a [inaudible 00:12:47.0] but as long as it looks presentable that's fine. Joe: Well, you and your team are betting on the future success of the business. So first you want to see that the business is run properly. And if somebody is not using Quick Books or Xero or some form of accounting software it's an indication that it's not being run in as professional a manner as possible right? So that … okay, and the buyers look at that that way as well. And I could tell you from a brokering standpoint when you're using Excel spreadsheets for your financials and co-mingling it's much more difficult to get maximum value for it because no matter what things are missed. I had a call this morning where there was several thousand dollars that was buried inside of a marketing budget that was actually a personal thing. We had to dig very, very deep to find it. And that times three adds nine, ten thousand dollars up to the value of the business. So ultimately your view is you want to make it a safe investment in financing this loan and make sure there's a success down the road for the future. Is there a … some sort of multiple barrier that is a ceiling for you? Is it … how do you … it's … I can guess you call it debt to income ratios right? Stephen: Debt service coverage. So let's say … okay, so debt service coverage is primarily what we look at. We really don't look at EBIDTA multiple. I mean we do and we don't. The valuation piece definitely we look at that but primarily we look at a debt service coverage. So for example, if the overall loan is the obligation, annual obligation for a loan is $100,000 let's say, the bottom line number on the tax returns needs to reflect at least $115,000. Giving us a debt service coverage of 1.15. Now a lot of sellers run their similar personal expenses through the tax returns. I'm able to add those back so you can't just take a tax return and say okay it's a bottom line of 115,000. You got to take whatever the bottom line number is and then their add backs. Standard add backs would be interest, [inaudible 00:15:02.7], depreciation, amortization, those are primarily some of the add backs. Some of the seller discretionary add backs might be … especially if it's an FBA setup type business where there's run expense, well, the new owner probably will just run it as a home based business, some people add that back. Some people tend to run their car expenses through even though it's a home based business. I'm able to add that back. And any one time expenses, the revamping of a website or other ancillary things or a one time they could add those back. And I take that number and determine the means and debt service coverage. Joe: Do you pull those from our spreadsheets because we have add backs and do you look at those or do you dig into the tax returns for the add backs? Wouldn't it be hard to find them in tax returns? Stephen: Yeah so both, I look at what you provide in terms of your spreadsheet but some of those I'm not able to add back like typically insurance would be really hard. It'd be hard fought to have an underwriter add back insurance expense for example. Joe: It shouldn't be added back. I agree. If it's an expense that's going to carry forward it shouldn't be an add back. Stephen: Yeah and really those … so of your add backs, the ones you reflect typically on your spreadsheet I'm able to add most of those back and those … I use that spreadsheet as a roadmap. But I do go into the tax returns and make sure that the numbers are aligned. And then I'm able to really dig into a tax return and see if there's any other type of add backs that I'm able to find. Joe: Okay, so from a seller's perspective they want to do the best they can not to co-mingle multiple businesses under one tax return. Obviously, have tax returns and a good financial so we can dig into the add backs and make sure that debt to income ratio is going to work, anything else that they should be considering? I think you said obviously you don't want a business that's balanced on just one SKU doing 90% of the revenue. Ultimately the bottom line is you want to make sure that the bank is going to get paid from the person buying the business and it's going to be a success right? Stephen: Yeah and another thing we look at if there's any sort of declining revenue or a blip where … for example I had a client last year that completely lift Chinese new year and didn't have inventory to sell. So there was a blip but I was able to explain that to an underwriter. And obviously with the new buyer who felt that this business [inaudible 00:17:38.3] little bit higher. He was able to avoid any blips in the coming [inaudible 00:17:42.9] for example. So it's also an explanation there. The key for sellers is even if you're not considering selling your business now get these things in place so when you go to sell you're going to get the most amount [inaudible 00:17:58.5] of your business. I had a lot of sellers come to me and it's kind of like they want to list now and their financials are a disaster now. So I recommended that buyers kind of get on the ball. Maybe it's a new year's resolution to fire your current accountant and hire a good one and to really get the financials in place and put certain financial things in place now or pay dividends in the future. Joe: Yeah, I'd refer people to certain e-commerce bookkeepers, two or three of them on a regular basis and have them go back … they'll go back in this case to 2019 and import all the bank statements and vendor invoices and everything and get things updated and accurate. And Quick Books actually helps the CPA do their job better. On a go forward basis, it's the best thing in my experience for a decent sized business to use somebody else. Let them focus on the bookkeeping and you focus on running the business and doing … driving revenue and maximizing profit. I think that's really going to work. Stephen: Oh absolutely. And the return on that investment Joe, I mean you had a podcast recently that— Joe: I'm touched. Stephen: The return on that investment is enormous. Joe: And it's incredible. I've seen it happen firsthand where we've had P&L's in Excel spreadsheets and the deal fell through three or four times and then the guy took the same information, hired a bookkeeper, they put it into Quick Books and we sold the business for 50,000 more of that … I think we had again three or four LOI's and it sold quickly which is fascinating; a fascinating study. Let's talk a little bit Stephen about you. About e-commerce lending and your group and how you think outside the box. Because I want to talk about this a little bit. Not all lenders are created equal. You and I have a transaction going on right now where you had to really think outside the box. And I'm going to summarize it and I want you to then just talk about what your thought process was and how you approached it. We have a buyer at Quiet Light Brokerage that again has the money to stroke a check but he is in a situation where he's building a portfolio of businesses and he's using the SBA lending process. Buyers can take up to what … five million dollars in money right? Stephen: Primarily. Joe: So somebody could buy five … I guess that would be one million dollars I'd then be putting in loans right? They're liable for up to five million. So he's buying multiple businesses— Stephen: One loan or 10 loans it doesn't matter. Joe: Okay perfect. So he has two under a letter of intent with Quiet Light Brokerage now and mine is in the process first. And he's got the wherewithal but I think he had some pretty sizable loans that threw off his overall debt to income ratio. How did you work that out? Stephen: So … and that definitely took a lot of out of the box thinking in the sense that he had … he has an Amazon loan and I can't divulge too much personal information but the monthly payment on the Amazon loan was staggering. It was five figures on a monthly basis. I looked at debt service coverage and throw in a very large five figure monthly payment through all the numbers ROI. Joe: And this is on a separate business that he owns. Stephen: Separate business that he owns. Joe: Right, okay. Stephen: Because it does affect what's called global debt service coverage. So on a separate business that he owns which happens to be an online business. Joe: Right. Stephen: He has very large payment and then he purchased a bunch of inventory and financed it through Amazon. So it threw all the numbers off. So you kind of have to dig deep and say okay how about we refinance at that, take that monkey off his … that large knot off his back and be able to incorporate, be able to reduce that monthly payment and still get the new purchase done. And that's what I'm in the process of doing. His new purchase, his loan on his new business acquisition was just approved and I'm going to process at refinancing his Amazon loan. Joe: Now the Amazon lending loan is very prevalent these days with Amazon based businesses. And you and I have done just for the record content site, SaaS business, all sorts of [inaudible 00:22:00.5] certainly not just Amazon. But in this situation, this particular individual had several hundred thousand dollars in loans and the money gets withdrawn out of their Amazon deposits. Do you recall what the interest rate was then? What his payments were? What the interest rate was and compare it to what you're going to be able to do for him? I just want to emphasize you thinking outside the box and how much money you're going to save this guy on a monthly basis. Because he's thrilled right now I got to tell you he's thrilled. Stephen: So his monthly knot with Amazon was 48,700 and something. Joe: Holy cow, okay. Stephen: It's going to be a couple of grand. Joe: No way 48,000 down to $2,000 … that's amazing. Thank you for thinking outside the box. You're helping him and you're helping a couple of the sellers of the businesses that were doing deals on now. That's fantastic. Stephen: Yeah, and you touched on something really important now. I do have a fair amount of buyers out there, actually, currently 347 buyers out there looking for businesses to buy. And quite a few of them can easily [inaudible 00:23:03.5] for a two three million dollar business but they're building a portfolio. So back to your comment about portfolios a lot of buyers out there right now are building portfolios. They want to buy two, three, four different businesses … online businesses for the course of the next two or three years. And they don't want to use up all their cash. And the fact remains is that when you're trying to scale a business cash is king. You need cash to scale a business. You need to buy additional inventory. You need to grow it. And if you're cash strapped it's really hard to grow an online business. So I'm helping several of those buyers accomplish that. So an SBA loan is not just for the person who needs a little bit lower barrier to entry. An SBA loan is also for the person that could easily pay cash but chooses not to, to stay in line with his or her business goals Joe: Absolutely. Well, let's talk about the buyers a little bit and what you look for in a buyer? You and I have never had a situation where we brought a buyer and you said yes and then it turned out they weren't qualified. But I had a situation a few years ago where I had a couple of Harvard MBA graduates. They literally just graduated a month before from Harvard. They got their Master's in business and they decided to partner on an investment in an online business. And they had some funds. One of the graduates had some funds from a parent. It went through the process. They're pre-approved from a different lender and then underwriting said these guys have absolutely no real world experience we're not betting … I think the deal was two million dollars. We're not betting two million dollars on these guys. Yeah, their pedigree is good, their education fantastic but no and the deal fell apart. What do you look for? Are you looking for real world experience? Is there a certain asset value that they need to have? How do you handle it when somebody comes to you? What do you look for? Stephen: So first I look at … I try to determine and I do interview my buyers. So once you refer them to me I do interview them as you know and one of the first things I really touch on is experience; so first determining if they have direct experience or indirect experience. And then as I mentioned in a previous podcast it's almost like going for a job interview, even if you don't have direct experience you need to make the person real comfortable with hiring you. The same goes with a loan is that even if you don't have direct experience what business … what skill sets do you have that's transferrable and also who's going to fill the void of having direct … let's say SEO experience or direct experience in the space? So those two things I look at. So if the person has direct experience, pretty much a no brainer. A person that doesn't have direct experience it's putting together the narrative like paying underwriter even though here she doesn't have direct experience but indirect experience in these categories. And additionally, they're going to have support via an employee or a contracted employee that that fill a void. Joe: I got you. Stephen: So I'm able to … I've never … honestly, I've never had a deal where an underwriter has said gosh that's great they went to Harvard but they have no direct experience. Joe: We had a situation … I'm going to name a name here but I'm only going to use their first name; a guy named Rocky. Rocky was I think he was in his 60's. He retired and ran a General Manager for some car dealership something … somewhere in the country. I loved the guy. I thought he was amazing. Just as a broker, as a lender you just … you connect with somebody like I want to help this guy. I want to find him the ideal business. Although let me say I told him he's crazy. He didn't need to buy a business. He was retired. What for? You have plenty of money I'm like you're crazy just go play golf or something. But he ended up buying something from us and he didn't have any direct online experience. He was a GM for dealerships that yeah they had websites but he didn't run them himself. I find there are a lot of people in the corporate world that are putting in 60 hours a week that look at the e-commerce entrepreneurs that are selling a business when they're working 20 hours a week and they're making more money and they want to live that life. They want to spend more time with their family, with their kids, travel. Are a lot of the folks that come to you these types of people, and is that in direct experience still okay? Stephen: Yeah so to answer your question yes a lot are. Be it Rocky or any other, they don't have direct experience. So the thing about Rocky is that … first, off he is incredibly likable, incredibly well spoken, and have a very strong resume. The guy was successful in his professional career. Joe: Yeah. Stephen: And then unlike somebody working at a low skill job the guy ran the car dealerships which he was 60 hours. Or he was probably working 90 hours a week now but with a transferable skill set. And also he filled that void of not having direct experience in running an online business but was able to fill that void by bringing somebody in. So we felt very comfortable with that and he ultimately was approved. And the last time I talked to him he's doing very well. Joe: Yeah, I think he bought a business from Amanda. I didn't have one for him at the time but Quiet Light, in general, had one. And I think Amanda loved working with him as much as you did. So the likability factor that Rocky had, when buyers come to you is that important? Do you have to like them to do business or? Stephen: Well not like … I think— Joe: Make a difference with human right? Does it make it a better—? Stephen: They are human. So an underwriter is human and if they have a good dialogue with the buyer, for example, Nathan was incredible as well. Joe: Yeah. Stephen: One of the reasons Nathan's loan sailed through is because he was very well spoken and had the incredible background to be successful. So yeah it does. Joe: Okay so we're going to just touch on that thing that everybody knows but they don't talk about and that is if somebody comes to me, if somebody comes to you and they want to buy a business we want to sell you a business. But if you are 10 times more difficult than the next person and they also want to buy a business, my client … my seller is going to say okay well I've got an offer from each which one do you like more Joe, talk about the plus and minuses. And we've got to do that. And in your case you just said you've got something like 354 buyers on your list. They're looking for a business, they're not buying it from you, they're buying it from the likes of Quiet Light Brokerage. Stephen: Right. Joe: But you still have to work with them on a regular basis and you still have to go through the process with them and be likable. Simple thing guys, everybody listening just be likable. Just because you've got the ability to stroke a check doesn't mean that you can push a guy like Stephen around. There's lots of people that are trying to buy a business, lots of people that are trying to sell businesses and being likable is so-so key because this is an online world. We're not sitting across the table from each other and it makes a huge difference being likeable in the process. Stephen: We've kind of touched on that. I was recently … I have a buyer who's been looking for a year and a half. Not to scare new buyers out there but sometimes it does take a while. But he's not likable. Joe: Okay. Stephen: And he was on a phone call … I was on it as well with the seller and he was beating up the seller on the phone in front of me like I wasn't on the call. I don't know but … and the seller chose another buyer. Joe: It's not hard. I'll talk from personal experience. When I sold my business I remember being on one of these buyer conference calls. I had three or four. Jason Yellowitz here at Quiet Light sold my business way back in 2010. And I had three or four calls with potential buyers before it went under contract and sold it. But I remember sitting … I was in the car on a call and I'm sitting in a parking lot and I've got this guy just belittling my business and talking about all the negative things and I'm just to all I can do to end the call. It's you know … to not end the call and to be polite and it was really hard. And even if he made me a full price offer … all cash, full price offer I have to take into account, sellers have to take into account how difficult that particular type of buyer is going to be in due diligence and in the training and transition period. There's a cording, a relationship it's … it ends at a certain period but you're going to be in a relationship with that person and you want to make that as pleasant and as enjoyable as possible. So being likable is critical without a doubt. Stephen: Absolutely. Joe: What are the top two or three qualities that you look for aside from good financials from the buyer? Like, do they have to have a certain debt to income ratio? Do they have to have certain assets in order to buy a business? Stephen: As I would say assets it's more present driven unlike buying a house. I think we definitely look at what's called post-closing liquidity. For example, when all the dust settles is it broke after closing or still has a fair amount of cushion. So we definitely look at that. Is there outside income? Does [inaudible 00:32:09.5] have a … what I call a day job to … for outside income? That's another thing we look at. So those are two very important variables. Credit score is important but it's not like buying a home where you get to really perfect your lending terms. It's pretty much either get a loan or you don't get a loan in the SBA world. A recent issue … if the person is being down with a ton of personal debt that's something that we look at. Generally, that's a character … it's the ones living beyond their means that's generally not liked. So those are just some of the variables. And also what I look at is does this person have the skill set to be able to scale a business or is the business going to go stagnant as it transitions over to him or her. So that's another thing we look at but [inaudible 00:33:00.5] just some of the variables. Joe: So when someone comes to you and says I want to buy a business part of what you do is you look at their financials. You look at all those variables and you say okay great you qualify to buy a business up to a certain amount. Is that the process? Do you say okay … do you give him a guide as in terms of you can buy something up to a million or two million [inaudible 00:33:19.8] like that? Stephen: Yes and a lot of the determining factor is based on their … is it direct, do they have direct experience or indirect experience? So that is going to move— Joe: Noted. Okay. Stephen: Secondly, post-closing liquidity that's really what I focus on. If the person is trying to buy a million dollar business he has to inject or put down a hundred grand and he has 110,000 in the bank that's not going to work. So we kind of have to move the needle down. Joe: And in that situation, they wouldn't … it's not that they don't qualify to buy a business but in that situation, they wouldn't qualify for a million dollar business maybe a half a million dollar business. Stephen: Right, it would move the target price down a little bit. Joe: Okay so just let me clarify that so that somebody has a $110,000 and they want to buy an SBA business and put 10% down, for those listening that's generally the number 10 to 15% down, 110,000 you're going to be left with 10 grand; not going to work. So you got to look at a half a million dollar business. Stephen: Or 800, 750 something like that. Joe: Yeah and then you look at their debt, what they have, what they need to live off of and that smaller business is not going to cash flow as high especially after the debt service from your loan. So you look at all of that and help them with what they're capable of buying first and foremost right? Stephen: Yeah, most of my buyers have what I call a day job so most of their … in most cases their day job covers their personal debt so that's rarely a real factor. Now I do have an individual recently who didn't have a day job and had tons of personal debts so that kind of blew her out of the water. But generally we do look at that. So again back to post-closing liquidity what I do is … so for all of you out there once Joe refers a client to me for pre-qualification I'm able to have an interview with that person on a scheduled call and ask some questions and also they provide me what's called a financial statement. And then I'm able to in most cases issue a pre-qualification and give them a target amount. In the case … in the example that was well over 800,000 for example. And then that person goes back to Joe and says okay I'm pre-qualified with Stephen, he told me to look at businesses around 800,000 let's go. Joe: And then they have a path which is the most important thing. Somebody that doesn't know what they're looking for, doesn't know what they're buying capabilities are is less qualified from our view. So one of the things we want you to do folks if you're out there as a buyer reach out to someone like Stephen and get pre-qualified so that it will help you narrow your focus. And then the next step is to look at as many listings as possible from the online world and figure out what you like and don't like about the business. When you find the right one if it's a great business you want to be in a position where you're already prequalified to act quickly. Because if it's a great business guess what other people are going to be looking at it and making offers as well, really important there. Stephen: Absolutely especially since there are a lot of buyers out there and if you snooze you're going to lose. So you need to kind of get your house in order before looking. Joe: Absolutely, I agree 1000%. So let's talk quickly about the qualifications of the buyer. Do they have to be a US citizen? Stephen: They could be either a green card holder or a US citizen living in the United States. Joe: That green card holder or US citizen living in the United States, the business itself does it have to be a US citizen or a green card holder filing US tax returns? Stephen: In most cases yes depending on the structure of the business. Joe: Okay, there's always a sort of gray area in the situation. Stephen: Yes, it depends on the structure, you kind of different components as in the past few company on the foreign entity— Joe: Right. Stephen: Things that does affect that answer. Joe: Right. Okay and then your business and the size of loans that you guys generally do, are we're looking at you're looking for a half a million and up two, three million, where is your sweet spot in terms of lending? Stephen: So generally my personal loan floor let's call it is half a million dollars. But obviously, if it's a client I've been working with and happens to just look at $800,000 businesses I would grant one for 400,000 on that person. My average loan amount is about a one and a half million dollar range. So … and you know looking at my 2018 numbers that's close to 60 million, 40 transactions, that's about that number. Joe: I got you. I think we have 38 of them that were directed at me I think right? No, I'm kidding. Stephen: 41. Joe: So you're loaning on the value of the business. And what about if it's an inventory based business are you loaning for the value of the inventory as well? And then working capital … does somebody, do you always loan … give working capital money so that they— Stephen: Always. So a very good topic here so obviously I'm going to finance the business itself. I'm also … if the purchase price of the business does not include inventory I finance the inventory, the on-hand inventory. And what I do is I work with you Joe in determining what that number is going to be at closing. So I finance that. I also include working capital. And that working capital I generally work it into a loan in a sense that I'm able to include it in your market … not directly your market, so okay of that 100,000 working capital 50 is going to be for additional inventory above and beyond what's being purchased with the business. And the other 50 is going to be marketing campaign or advertising campaign, it could be for hiring support staff. Joe: Okay and then lastly I want to talk about the term of the loans. We're talking five years, 10 years, 30 years, what are we looking at? Stephen: It's a 10 year loan and of all those components, by the way, it ends up being all in one loan. It's not where you have separate loans for each. So it's all incorporated into a 10 year SBA loan. Joe: Okay and 5, 6%interest rate somewhere in that range; five to seven? Stephen: Base prime plus two and three quarters, right now it's 8.25. Joe: Prime plus two and three quarters. Okay so for those that want to run their own numbers 10% down, 10 year note, prime plus two and three quarters, do the math on that. Stephen: Yeah. Joe: The seller note in 2017 and prior to that in most of the transactions that we did or did together you required some sort of seller note. And that changed in 2018 so for … got a business that's a million and a half and somebody wants to put down 15% are you requiring a seller note on a deal of that size or are you not anymore? Stephen: So up to 2017 a seller note was required by the SBA and not by the invidual lender. Joe: Okay. Stephen: So typically it was 10% down payment let's call it from the buyer, 15 from the seller or vice versa in terms of the seller note for a total of 25% down payment rejection. Joe: Okay. Stephen: In '18 the barrier to entry was lower. The overall requirement paying on a deal is the minimum 10%. In terms of what lenders require, some lenders require a seller note. We do not. Sometimes I incorporate a seller note to strengthen the loan especially if the buyer does not have direct online experience. So it gives kind of the underwriter warm fuzzies in the sense that the transition will most likely go smoother. The seller has a little bit of skin on the game. So there are situations where I do incorporate a seller note for approval purposes. Joe: So for buyers, sellers, even other brokers listening to this, this is you know you're hearing Stephen say I incorporate this or I incorporate that to help the underwriter feel better about the loan and make sure it goes through. What I do personally is when I have a deal that's pre-qualified by Stephen or someone like Stephen when I get an offer on the business A) I want to know if Stephen knows who they are and if they're working with him and how they look qualification wise. But B) I really like to send the deal structure to you Stephen and say this is the deal structure is this going to float with your underwriters? And I think that's critical to the ultimate success of the loan and the transaction process. Because the last thing that we want … it's happened once or twice and I don't recall if it was with you or not but … where you've … actually no it was with you where the underwriter looked at something and they had to tweak it just a little bit, had to increase the seller note by 5% or something like that. That's not what we want to do so now I run everything by you prior to having a letter of intent signed. I recommend everybody to do that if they're going to do an SBA loan through Stephen and e-commerce lending. Stephen: Absolutely, so that's a very good point as we continue down the path of e-commerce lending I am constantly tweaking the way I do things. And that's one thing I do is I bet really hard upfront so there aren't changes on the backend. Fortunately some of my buyers don't [inaudible 00:42:26.4] the businesses that they're looking at prior to signing a letter of intent. It's kind of an after they do that they come to me and say hey I just bought this business and here's the deal structure I want you [inaudible 00:42:38.3] well that's not going to work. Joe: Yup they don't do that with Quiet Light they have to [crosstalk 00:42:41.7] so the whole process we require that conference call. Because we … it's not, we don't want people to go under a letter of intent just to tie it up and then make a decision. We want them to make the decision, go under letter of intent, and close and go through that process. It just saves everybody a lot of time and hassle. Stephen: It really does. Joe: Okay, any last thoughts about … you want to share with the buyers or sellers that are listening to the podcast today? Stephen: Yeah in terms of sellers even if you're not selling a business now please reach out to me in general and have us put together a game plan for future sale. It's really, really important and again it will be dividends on the backend. And then for you buyers out there reach out to me. I'm more than happy to pre-qualify you for a business. You can reach me at stephen@ecommercelending.com and the first name is spelled ph or call me at 813-766-4524. Joe: Thanks. I will put that on the show notes as well. The last thing I want to say is just to reiterate what you're talking about there with the sellers and it's called choose your pain. Go through the pain of getting your financials in good shape now and having a great transaction and a sale or don't do it and you're choosing your pain later because it's going to be difficult. You're going to be … you're bank account is going to be in pain because you're not going to get as much value for your business. So make the choice and hopefully you'll choose that first one. It's not fun, it's not exciting but it's the right thing to do. Do some valuation exit planning, reach out to Stephen; reach out to anybody at Quiet Light. Go to inquiries@quietlightbrokerage.com myself, Mark, anybody on the team is happy to help you even if you're not planning to sell your business for another two, three, four years. That's what we're here for. Stephen, you're awesome as always. Thanks so much for your time. I look forward to a great 2019 with you. Stephen: Absolutely, Joe. Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to it as well. Joe: All right man, talk to you soon.   Links and Resources: ECommerce Lending Email Stephen Call Stephen 1-813-766-4524  

Suzanne Sease is a creative consultant and former ad-agency senior art buyer. She works with both emerging and established photographers and illustrators to create cohesive, persuasive presentations that clients can’t resist. Suzanne offers something rare: an insider’s perspective on how clients source creative talent. Her deep understanding of the industry is underscored by her impressive resume: 11 years as senior art buyer at The Martin Agency, seven years as an art producer for Capital One, and stints with the art-buying department at Kaplan-Thaler and the creative department at Best Buy, where she applied her expertise to reviewing bids to see which were most likely to come in on budget. Over the years, Suzanne has worked with a wildly diverse range of clients, including Seiko, Wrangler, Bank One, AFLAC, and Clairol Herbal Essence. Now, as a consultant, she is equipped to problem-solve for her clients from an unusually dynamic point of view.As a longtime member of the photo community, Suzanne is also dedicated to giving back. Through her Art of the Personal Project column on the popular website aphotoeditor.com, she highlights notable personal projects by well-known and up-and-coming photographers. The column offers these artists excellent exposure while reflecting Suzanne’s passion for powerful imagery.     Resources: Download the free Candid Frame app for your favorite smart device. Click here to download for . Click here to download Support the work we do at The Candid Frame with contributing to our Patreon effort.  You can do this by visiting or visiting the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via . You can follow Ibarionex on and .

Dr. Alice Mann with Blue Wolf Capital is an Operating Partner. The Blue Wolf Capital Funds are a family of private funds which focus on transformational investments in middle market companies. For over 20 years, Dr. Mann has advised senior executives to build high-performing leadership teams, develop winning talent strategies, and design organizations that achieve outstanding performance results. As the human capital leader, Dr. Mann drives Blue Wolf's human capital due diligence and works directly with the leadership of Blue Wolf's portfolio companies to develop their talent strategies and capabilities to deliver on their value creation plans. Dr. Mann sits on Blue Wolf's ESG committee. Dr. Mann was named Blue Wolf Operating Partner in 2018. Prior to joining Blue Wolf, Dr. Mann was the founder and CEO of Mann Advisors from 2005 to 2018. She has assessed and redesigned scores of organizations, from high growth start-ups to global Fortune 500 companies, across all major industries and sectors. Dr. Mann has evaluated and developed executive leaders and their teams at all stages of growth to achieve their strategic priorities. From 2007 to 2018, Dr. Mann was a Senior Consulting affiliate of Kates Kesler Organization Consulting, a preeminent organization design firm based in New York City. More recently, she was also a Leadership Coaching affiliate of Agile Synthesis, a leadership development firm that works with high-growth start-ups. Previously, Dr. Mann was a vice president at JPMorgan Chase Bank, where from 1999 to 2005 she led large-scale change and restructuring initiatives during several global bank mergers between Chase Bank, JP Morgan, Bank One and Hambrecht and Quist. Dr. Mann has taught a graduate course in leadership at Columbia University. Her book, Future First, was published by Routledge in May 2018 and is a practical guide for future-thinking leaders based on findings from interviews with over 50 business leaders. She is a senior contributor to Forbes.com. Dr. Mann holds a B.A. in History from Reed College and a Ph.D. and M.A. in Social and Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. Additionally, she earned a two-year Organizational Dynamics certification from the William Alanson White Institute. At JPMorgan Chase, Dr. Mann received Six Sigma Black Belt training.     00000674 0000066F 0000AF6B 0000AF6B 00041224 00041224 00007F09 00007EC1 000BF13E 0003D729

As the Chief Operating Officer at Wiretap, Greg Moran has a unique talent for asking the people around him to go beyond the limits they see for themselves – a standard he also adheres to, as he turned down multiple enterprise CIO jobs to join Jeff Schumann at this venture-backed software start-up. Greg leverages his extensive background in technology, strategy and digital transformation to scale the company, with a focus on sales and operations. A far cry from the jungle of Zambia where he grew up, Greg launched his career as an IT consultant in Columbus, Ohio, advising clients on strategy and process. It was after joining Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase), though, that Greg really started leaving his mark. As Enterprise Chief Technology Officer, Greg designed and implemented the integration strategy to convert the bank to a single, unified application platform – a platform that still runs JP Morgan Chase today. When he transitioned to Ford Motor Company, Greg’s path to success really took off. He led Ford’s efforts to build high-scale application delivery capability in every major market – across the Americas, the European Union and the Asia Pacific – overseeing a team of 5,000. Later, Greg worked closely with the Ford family to lead corporate strategy at a pivotal time in Ford’s history, leaving behind a corporate legacy well-documented in Bryce Hoffman’s book American Icon. Greg was then recruited by the CEO of Nationwide Mutual Insurance to create the Business Transformation function – a key role to propel Nationwide’s transition from a house of brands to a branded house approach. He later took over as SVP and CIO for IT infrastructure and operations, overseeing a team of 2,000 and the buildout and commissioning of one of the few Tier 4 data centers in the U.S. While working at Nationwide, Greg met Jeff Schumann, kicking off the great relationship that the pair now uses to build and run Wiretap. At Wiretap, and throughout his career, Greg creates an environment that inspires great leaders to emerge and thrive. A natural mentor, he believes in transparency and a gentle candor. This is also evidenced by Greg’s commitment to Junior Achievement, where he is a current board member and past chair. Greg is also an executive fellow on the Ohio University College of Business faculty and sits on the board and advisory board of Koios Medical and MyAgData, respectively. Greg is a graduate of Cedarville University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and MIS. A proud Pelotonia advocate, and member of the inaugural team, Greg enjoys cycling, as well as adventure, travel, motorcycling and fishing. He and his wife, Sharon, have three children (2 of whom will be Buckeyes this fall). This is the audio recording from the live event on 4/9/2018. https://wiretap.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com

Rick is CEO of Wellville, a 10-year initiative founded by angel investor Esther Dyson to improve health and financial outcomes in five U.S. communities. In addition to overseeing the national project, Rick leads the Wellville effort in North Hartford, CT, working with Community Solutions and a multi-sector collaborative focused on achieving the Neighborhood Triple Aim: improved population health, wellbeing, and investment. Rick is also founder & CEO of Collective Health, which developed the Health Impact Bond, a pay-for-success financing model that leverages future health care cost savings to generate upfront investment in prevention. Before turning entrepreneur, Rick spent nearly a decade at the health insurer Cigna, where he was Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer for the national employer segment and launched the company's Communities of Health venture. Prior to that, Rick was a corporate strategist at Ford Credit, Bank One and KPMG. Rick graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and lives with his wife and two children in Simsbury, CT. Websites: Wellville.net, Collectivehealth.net Twitter: @WayToWellville, @collectivehlth Facebook: facebook.com/waytowellville To reach Rick: rick@hiccup.co; LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rrbrush 00:00 Rick gives an overview of what Wellville is. 02:00 How Esther Dyson and Rick started Wellville. 03:00 The way to Wellville. 03:30 The communities involved in Wellville. 05:40 How the communities involved with Wellville were chosen. 07:20 The true goal behind Wellville. 09:00 How our communities affect our health. 09:20 The Social Determinants of Health. 11:30 How social relationships are critical to the outcome of health. 13:30 Looking at patterns that might be typically neglected to find ways to impact health. 15:45 “Is there a better way to invest as a nation?” 17:20 “Demonstrating the business case for doing the right thing.” 19:30 “Context really matters.” 22:00 How Wellville is measuring success. 27:00 Challenging the notion of the tragedy of the commons. 32:00 Overcoming challenges and learning as you go. 33:00 You can find out more at wellville.net or on twitter @waytowellville.

Join Scott Cluthe on FACEBOOK HERE  Get a FREE Book from 1,500 Titles from Scott HERE   8 PM EST-7 CST-6 MST-5 PST Call in: 347-308-8478 Scott Cluthe talks live with the author of the new book, The Next Economic Disaster-Why It's Coming and How to Avoid It, Richard Vague Current debates about economic crises typically focus on the role that public debt and debt-fueled public spending play in economic growth. This illuminating and provocative work shows that it is the rapid expansion of private rather than public debt that constrains growth and sparks economic calamities like the financial crisis of 2008. Relying on the findings of a team of economists, credit expert Richard Vague argues that the Great Depression of the 1930s, the economic collapse of the past decade, and many other sharp downturns around the world were all preceded by a spike in privately held debt. Vague presents an algorithm for predicting crises and argues that China may soon face disaster. Since American debt levels have not declined significantly since 2008, Vague believes that economic growth in the United States will suffer unless banks embrace a policy of debt restructuring. Philanthropist and former banker Richard Vague is a managing partner of Gabriel Investments and Chairman of The Governor's Woods Foundation.Vague was also co-founder and CEO of two credit card companies - First USA, which grew to be the largest Visa issuer in the industry and which was sold to Bank One in 1997, and Juniper Financial, the fastest growing credit card issuer of the past decade, which was sold to Barclays PLC in 2004.

Visit us at www.paranormalunderground.net to read Paranormal Underground magazine! In this episode of Paranormal Underground Radio, we talk with Brian Bethel, who came into contact with two Black-Eyed Kids sometime in 1996. "I had gone down to the former site of Camalott Communications, one of the area’s original Internet providers, to pay my bill. At the time, Camalott was located on North 1st Street, near the movie theater, in the shadow of what is now Chase, then Bank One. "I was using the light of the theater’s marquee to write out my check, which I planned to put in Camalott’s night drop-slot. Involved in my work, I never heard them approach. "There was a knock on my driver’s side window. Two young boys, somewhere between nine to 12 years old and dressed in hooded pullovers, stood outside ... Both boys stared at me with coal-black eyes. The sort of eyes one sees these days on aliens or bargain-basement vampires on late night television. Soulless orbs like two great swathes of starless night ..." Air Date: January 8, 2015 Topic: Paranormal Experience, Black-Eyed Kids, BEKs Guest: Brian Bethel Hosts: Karen Frazier, Rick Hale, and Chuck Gotski Producer: Cheryl Knight