Podcasts about before covid

Over the past three decades, Matthew Stafford has successfully built several businesses across various industries, including Concrete, Brick and Mortar Locations, POD, and Software-based ventures. Matthew, the Managing Partner of Build Grow Scale and an equity owner of some in-house eCommerce brands, has mentored thousands of store owners through paid eCommerce groups and live events. His experience has also allowed him to help hundreds of ecommerce brands scale past the million-dollar mark - with many hitting the $10 million mark. To top it off, he's been speaking on stages about eCommerce optimization for the past seven years! Before COVID-19, BGS hosted the largest yearly eCommerce-focused event in North America - BGS LIVE. What you will learn How optimizing your eCommerce site can double your revenue without increasing traffic. Why asking customers what almost stopped them from buying can unlock major sales growth. How simple changes to checkout forms can reduce abandoned carts and boost conversions. Why AI is reshaping traffic strategies and what it means for your eCommerce business. How top eCommerce brands use customer experience to drive repeat sales and long-term success.

In this episode of Through My Eyes, Ralph Renzulli interviews United States Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran Charlie Tipton.Before COVID, Renzulli had started a series of interviews with Little Falls Vietnam Veterans. The show was produced by The Creative Outpost and was filmed at the Little Falls Library in the China room. Thirteen episodes were completed before the program was shuttered. Initially, it was only Little Falls Vets, but he thought if someone was willing to do it, why not Ilion, Mohawk, Herkimer, Dolgeville, Fort Plain, or Canajoharie? "Anyone willing to do it," he stated.Renzulli has expanded it to include any veteran from World War II through Afghanistan. "I don't know how many people we have around here who have participated in those wars, but there have to be quite a few.”If you are interested in being the show, you can email Ralph at ⁠rrenzul1@twcny.rr.com⁠.

Productivity is at all all-time low in New Zealand. Possibly not the most uplifting thing you've heard this morning, but sadly, it's true. In the year ending March 2023, New Zealand saw a drop in labour productivity by 0.9%, marking one of the biggest falls in recent years.  As a nation, we've struggled for decades to improve our productivity levels, despite politicians of all shapes and colours promising solutions. One of our leading economists, Doctor Eric Crampton, describes productivity nicely. He says the economy as being a bit like a commercial kitchen. If you take the same set of workers, equipment, and ingredients, and reconfigure the kitchen so that everything runs more smoothly and more patrons can be served, that's a productivity increase. Coming up with new and tastier recipes using the same amount of ingredients and effort - that's also a productivity increase. For economists, productivity isn't about making everyone work harder. It's instead about finding better ways of doing things, better processes, and discovering new products and services that provide more value for the same amount of time, effort, and materials. So… because we appear to be consistently useless in the productivity kitchen, once again, we're talking about get rich quick schemes for New Zealand. And at the coalface of all the desperation to do better, to make more money and to get New Zealand back in the black - is mining. So what's mining worth to New Zealand? Mining makes a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy, particularly in the regional areas where mining takes place. 7,000 people are employed in the extractives sector and the economic contribution is $2.61 billion to GDP annually. It's fair to say that mining products make a major contribution to New Zealand and its economy. But how does that compare to tourism? Mining is all about taking, exploiting the land and digging your way to the bottom of a limited commodity. Before COVID-19, tourism was New Zealand's largest export industry and delivered $40.9 billion to the country. 40.9 billion - compared to mining with 2.61. Tourism made a significant positive impact on many of our regional economies supporting employment by directly employing 8.4 percent of the New Zealand workforce. Mining employs about 7000 people. It's pretty obvious that those numbers could well and truly be increased for mining if we completely lost our collective marbles and allowed more of the massive overseas owned companies to come here and ‘dig baby dig' or 'drill baby drill' - or to expand on what they're already doing. What's more obvious to me though, is the yet to be realised ability to increase tourism numbers, to get more people interested in coming to New Zealand with their strong currencies, deep pockets, and desire to buy what we have on offer. We have to remember that one of the key reasons why tourists want to come here, is that we haven't yet completely destroyed the ecological aspects that make this great nation so unique and desirable. News travels fast - and if we expand upon the very businesses that have left parts of the world looking like a post-apocalyptic movie set, then we effectively kill the kiwi that consistently lays the very large golden eggs. Do we want to be compared to the Pilbara Region of Western Australia? It's time we thought about the longevity of tourism and the very limited lifespan of mining, so that we can collectively orchestrate the best path forward economically. For all New Zealanders, not just those who scratch the backs of politicians, with the questionable expectations that follow. Tourism is the closest we'll ever get to making New Zealand rich with the ‘take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints' ethos. There's no way the same can be said for mining. No matter how the industry tries to dress the concept up. Stick it in high heels, give it a coat of makeup, or a designer dress - it's still ugly. Any increase to mining is quite literally a race to the bottom. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As you probably picked up from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's State of the Nation speech on Thursday, 2025 is apparently all about financial growth and saying ‘yes'. Those are two trends I am trying to adopt in our house for 2025 as well, especially saying ‘yes' when I ask someone to do something... I digress, back to the nation. Before COVID-19, tourism was New Zealand's largest export industry, so it's clear why the Prime Minister and his newly minted Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis have identified it as a priority area for the country to earn more. Data released in January reveals that in the year ending November 2024, visitor numbers increased to 3.26 million, an increase of 360,000 from the previous year, and 86 percent of pre-pandemic levels. So, the numbers are going in the right direction, but international tourism still remains our second highest export. There is more work to do! New Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston is the fifth minister to hold the portfolio in five years - so some stability in the portfolio is a good place to start. Nicola Willis has suggested the new Minister will look at how funding is currently being used, the visa processing system, and marketing campaigns. All good places to start - although you'd have hoped this happened when the coalition came to power over a year ago. The Minister will also be looking at how funding from the international visitor levy is being spent, after the levy increased from $35 to $100 in October last year. Increasing levies, adding user charges and targeted taxes on visitors has been recommended by MBIE in the past as a way to fund tourism - and we have seen DOC increase hut and campsite fees and the trialling of car parking charges at Punakaiki, Franz Josef Glacier, and Aoraki Mount Cook. But what about the visitor bed tax? Perhaps a crude idea in 2020 when hotels were empty; but with the industry recovering - is it time to resurrect the idea? Auckland Council has long advocated to central Government that some form of bed night levy or tax is required to support funding major events, destination marketing and visitor attractions. If one is not implemented by the middle of this year, there will be a budget gap to fund major events. The Government is not buying into the idea that tourism needs infrastructure support. In their view, if regions get more tourists then they can deal with it themselves. When it comes to one of our busiest tourist spots, the Government is very quick to point out that Queenstown is getting a $250 million roading upgrade. But that's not enough. As Queenstown mayor Glyn Lewers told me on Early Edition this week - “I'd welcome more tourists if there is a proviso that the infrastructure to support and accommodate more tourists and visitors is accounted for”. He pointed out Queenstown's airport needs to be better staffed with more customs and security staff to function well as an international airport. We all want growth and a thriving tourism industry. But we also want it to be sustainable - avoiding the degradation and overcrowding of our wilderness, pressure on infrastructure, and communities carrying the cost. So, if the Government wants growth - and tourism back in the number 1 export earner spot - it should perhaps consider putting in a little bit more so it can get more out. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

January is a month often filled with new gym membership, NFL playoffs, and even snow. Before COVID, we didn't associate it with debilitating and devastating illnesses, but COVID-19 changed that. In January of 2020, “Joyful” Joni Gold was the fourth person in her small community to get covid and, for her, this month will never be the same. Living in Los Osos, California with a population of 14,485, Joni faced life-threatening challenges. In a community with few medical providers, she needed quality care. As someone in a nation with little understanding of the disease, she needed advice and support. Now, living with long covid, Joni talks about her experience and how her spirituality helps her live with her disability. On top of hearing from jovial Joni, we have a commentary from Pushing Limits collective member Adrienne Lauby on COVID, unity, and Mr. Trump. Stay tuned! This episode of Pushing Limits is written and produced by Jacob Lesner-Buxton. It is hosted and edited by Denny Daughters. Joni Gold The post Long Covid in a Small Town – Pushing Limits – January 24, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

In this episode of Through My Eyes, Ralph Renzulli interviews Vietnam Veteran Bruce Hartness, who served as an infantry soldier in the Army from May 1967 until May 1968. He said that he hadn't paid attention to the war when he was in school, but when he graduated, he was drafted six months later. “I had never really thought about it,” but when he got the notice, he said it felt sudden, startling, and eye-opening. Hartness grew up in Holland Patent but most recently is a Dolgeville resident. He said that he had never really talked about his experience to anyone before this and that after coming home, it was probably one of the reasons he got into drugs. Before COVID, Renzulli had started a series of interviews with Little Falls Vietnam Veterans. The show was produced by The Creative Outpost and was filmed at the Little Falls Library in the China room. Thirteen episodes were completed before the program was shuttered.Initially, it was only Little Falls Vets, but he thought if someone was willing to do it, why not Ilion, Mohawk, Herkimer, Dolgeville, Fort Plain, or Canajoharie? "Anyone willing to do it," he stated. Renzulli says he intends to expand it to any Veteran - from World War II through Afghanistan. "I don't know how many people we have around here who have participated in those wars, but there have to be quite a few.” If you are interested in being the show, you can email Ralph at ⁠rrenzul1@twcny.rr.com⁠. Editor's Note: Bruce is very soft-spoken, and we've done the best we could to boost his portion of the audio. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/studio25/support

In this episode, Ralph Renzulli interviews Joe Mastrocco, a St. Johnsville resident and WWII Veteran who served two years in the Navy at Pearl Harbor. Before COVID, Renzulli had started a series of interviews with Little Falls Vietnam Veterans. The show was produced by The Creative Outpost and was filmed at the Little Falls Library in the China room. Thirteen episodes were completed before the program was shuttered. Initially, it was only Little Falls Vets, but he thought if someone was willing to do it, why not Ilion, Mohawk, Herkimer, Dolgeville, Fort Plain, or Canajoharie? "Anyone willing to do it," he stated. Renzulli says he intends to expand it to any Veteran - from World War II through Afghanistan. "I don't know how many people we have around here who have participated in those wars, but there have to be quite a few." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/studio25/support

Before COVID, Ralph Renzulli had started a series of interviews with Little Falls Vietnam Veterans. The show was produced by The Creative Outpost and was filmed at the Little Falls Library in the China room. Thirteen episodes were completed before the program was shuttered, but that all changed last week when a new episode was recorded at the Studio 25 location in Canal Place. Originally, it was only Little Falls Vets, but he thought if someone was willing to do it, why not Ilion, Mohawk, Herkimer, Dolgeville, Fort Plain, or Canajoharie? "Anyone who's willing to do it," he stated. In fact, Renzulli says that he intends to expand it to any Veteran - from World War II through Afghanistan. "I don't know how many people we have around here who have participated in those wars, but there has to be quite a few." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/studio25/support

Have you ever wondered how small fitness tweaks can unlock your leadership potential and supercharge your energy? In Episode 41 of Sweet on Leadership, host Tim Sweet welcomes back Erin Ashbacher, a CSEP-certified personal trainer and senior health advisor, to discuss the powerful connection between physical fitness and leadership performance. Erin reveals that even the smallest changes in your daily routine, like a brisk walk or standing on one leg while brushing your teeth, can recharge your mental and physical energy, helping you grow stronger in both your personal and professional life.Throughout the episode, Tim and Erin dive into the challenges executives and caregivers face in maintaining their health while leading others. Erin offers practical, bite-sized strategies to help listeners integrate wellness into their busy schedules without feeling overwhelmed. From building mental resilience through exercise to the importance of proper hydration, the conversation is packed with actionable tips to boost your personal energy and leadership capacity. Whether you're a leader managing a team or a caregiver balancing responsibilities, this episode offers empowering insights to help you thrive in every aspect of your life.About Erin AshbacherErin Ashbacher, a distinguished Senior Health Advisor and CSEP-certified personal trainer, is a driving force in health, wellness, and fitness. Armed with a Bachelor of Kinesiology from The University of Calgary, Erin, a powerlifter and former dancer, seamlessly combines expertise in movement, nutrition, and motivation.As the owner of ERA Fitness, Erin boasts a top 10 industry performance since 2016, offering personalized training and coaching services. Her approach, emphasizing life balance and aligning health with professional goals, positions her as a key collaborator for leadership development clients in Calgary and beyond. Erin's superpowers encompass listening, goal-setting, movement expertise, and the ability to create customized programs, both in-person and online. Rooted in a famous Alberta rodeo family, she brings a unique appreciation for farming and ranching to her multifaceted lifestyle, which includes enjoying outdoor activities with her partner, Doug. Resources: National Saftey Council 2019: Cost of Fatigue in the WorkplaceCentre of Disease Control 2016: A good night's sleep is critical for good healthA purpose in life by day results in better sleep at night: Northwestern 2017 StudyJulie Freedman Smith --Contact Tim Sweet | Team Work Excellence: WebsiteLinkedIn: Tim SweetInstagramLinkedin: Team Work ExcellenceContact Erin Ashbacher | Shred Sisters: Website: Shred SistersLinkedin: Erin Ashbacher -- TranscriptErin 00:01Take the disruption in the season or in the schedule as an opportunity to reassess and add in something new or change what you're doing right. All summer long, I was on my bike, and it was amazing. And now that it's fall, it's getting a little bit cooler, and taking it as an opportunity to reassess my activity schedule and get back into the gym and lift some weights again. So it's okay to do that. Tim 00:25I'd like to ask you some questions. Do you consider yourself the kind of person that gets things done? Are you able to take a vision and transform that into action? Are you able to align others towards that vision and get them moving to create something truly remarkable? If any of these describe you, then you, my friend, are a leader, and this show is all about and all for you. I'm Tim Sweet, and I'd like to welcome you to Episode 41 of the Sweet on Leadership podcast. Tim 00:56Well, Hey everybody, welcome back to the Sweet on Leadership Podcast. I'm excited, once again, to introduce my friend, personal trainer and TWE Health and Wellness Consultant, Erin Ashbacher. Erin is a CSEP-certified personal trainer and a senior health advisor. She's been involved in several different sports, and I'll let her tell you all about that, but she brings a wealth of experience to the table, and because 90% of the executives that I help have concerns in the health area. I am wonderfully privileged to have Erin on staff so that I can pass them off to her because she's infinitely more qualified than I am to help them in that space. So welcome again, Erin. Thanks for being here. Erin 01:41Thanks for having me again. Tim. Tim 01:44So on that note, you've done so many cool things. Tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe a little bit about your history, and what's got you moving and active right now. Erin 01:55Yeah, I did my degree at the University of Calgary in kinesiology, and I fell in love with how the body moves and how it reacts to different inputs, and I've had an amazing career working in cardiac rehabilitation and then working with high-level executives in downtown Calgary, as well as lots of different athletes from across a multitude of sports, both getting ready to compete, as well as some rehab and some prehab. So I just spent the entire summer on my bike, coaching mountain biking and getting athletes ready to hit the trails. Few that were looking to get faster for some races, but a lot of just kind of recreational people wanting to get out and enjoy the beautiful place that we live. Tim 02:42Right, and I mean, we are at the foothills of some amazing riding, and as we know, we've got several friends in that industry, and such a joy to be able to work with people that are involved in that sport and putting on awesome events in that sport. So really good. So before we go too much further, we've got a little tradition here, as you know, and that is that we have our previous guest lob a question at possibly the next guest, who often they never know who it is. So your question comes from Massimo Bacchus, who's a fellow leadership coach and my new friend. I love new friends. Massimo asks, what is the one thing that you are most afraid of to let go, and if you did let go of that thing, who would you be? Erin 03:29Ooh, it's a great question. I would say that my biggest fear is being able to confidently tell others about my value and what would I bring to the table, it's always been this pull of you can make money or you can be genuine and authentic, and I know that that's not true, and so I would love to be able to kind of let that go, and I know that I would be able to make a much larger impact if I can get it for that. Tim 03:59What would the first few days of a relationship with a new client look like if that stress was off you? Erin 04:07Oh, I would probably sleep better in the night before I met a new client. Yeah, I mean, I know that I would come into things a lot more confidently. I wouldn't be worried about kind of this, like background of what the bill looks like at the end of the day, and just being able to walk in they would see that they know that, right? Tim 04:29Well, it's funny that you say that, and it almost sounds like a plant, but I assure you, dear listeners, that it is not. We're going to be talking today about capacity. We're going to be talking today about our personal energy, and the energy that we're able to put into the workplace and put into our professions and put into our lives, and that body battery, that mental battery that each of us has, because Erin is the perfect person to talk about, how do we increase the ability of that battery to take more energy in, to use it more effectively, to recharge faster. Am I expecting too much from you there, Erin?Erin 05:07Uh, no. Not at all. Tim 05:09You're totally game. Right on. A couple of little stats here that we were talking about before we got going. You know, when we look at the state of the workplace, and I have, I would say, almost all of the clients that I have, all the teams that I deal with, especially as we've come through some fairly tumultuous times, fatigue in the workplace, ability to feel like you've got anything left at the end of the week is an issue. Before COVID, the National Safety Council down in the states had done a study, and this was from 2019 where they figured at that time, it cost the US economy $136 billion in lost productivity when businesses weren't able to properly manage their capacity and manage their fatigue levels. And the Center for Disease Control at the same time told us that one in three adults didn't get enough sleep. Now, that, to me, is not surprising. In fact, I would be really surprised if that number, that number was from that number is actually from 2016 pardon me, if that isn't higher now, because of all the distractions and whatnot we've got plaguing us. Erin 06:17Absolutely. Tim 06:18Doom scrolling right before bed. Erin 06:21Right, well, and thinking about quality and quantity of sleep, right? So, yeah, interesting. I'd love to see the new stat on that. Tim 06:29Well, so as we launch into that, what do you see as the connection between physical and mental wellness and being able to show up and be the professional, be the leader, be the decision maker? How do you see that? Erin 06:45Yeah, well, I mean, there's a lot of research that shows that exercise of all types, of light, moderate and vigorous exercise will help to enhance your mood, improve your energy levels, and promote your quality of sleep, and when we have all of those things, we can show up at our nine to five with more energy, right, more to give, right? And exercise is also going to be decreasing our stress hormones, right, increasing our endorphins when we exercise, so those feel good chemicals that we get in our body, and also decreasing our stress hormones, our cortisol levels. So, decreases in anxiety and increases in our mental health. Tim 07:31For anyone that is able to get out for a walk when they are stressed, I was talking with a team around when they were dealing with high conflict in the workplace. And what do you do when you have to address a really, really difficult situation where you've got somebody that's in near on crisis, or at least is panicking, the ability, even just to get them out walking, switch the script. And I know that that's more the act of and it's a bit of a distraction, but I really believe that you know you're outside, you're breathing. In the moment, you can process things. You can set everything else aside. And that's, I mean, that's in the short term, but of course, you're also talking about in the long term, long-term capacity. Tim 08:13Absolutely. And that's that whole like light exercise, right? Going for a 15 minute walk when something's really intense. Yeah, we see those that increase in heart rate right, when in a good way, right? And it helps to create, give us more clarity and more creativity, so that we can come back to our difficult thing with open eyes. Tim 08:35So last time you were here, we talked about sort of the common challenges and resistances that people have to putting in the work or finding time throughout the day to exercise and take that time for themselves, and that it's really difficult mentally for some people to value themselves enough to do that. As you've worked with so many, I would say, executive clients you were working with clients that are at the top of their game, their CEOs, VPS, you're right in that space. What are some of the common health challenges that you have seen over the years crop up in that particular subset of people? Erin 09:17The ones that aren't taking care of themselves? Tim 09:19Or maybe they come to you with something? Erin 09:21Yeah, they come to me with something. I mean, there's a lot of high blood pressure and a lot of sleep problems as well. When we are not taking care of ourselves, we're not taking care of our mental health, it can start to affect our sleep, right? Sleep is the number one predictor of health. So, you know, that's one of those things that we need to also take care of. Tim 09:42There was a stat around the sleep connection that said it's like a virtuous cycle, right? That when people are getting better sleep, they are able to make more difficult decisions quickly. They're able to handle more stressful situations, as you say. But then also, if they get through those situations, if they are happy with their job, if they're content with their career, if they're happy with the staff that they've got, they can see up to 63% less sleep disturbances. In 2017 Northwestern did this study where they said, if you are satisfied at work, if you have less work stress, how does it impact your sleep? And they said it's well over a 50% increase that you can now put back into your day. So to me, that tells us that it's like you're getting the chance to not just refill your battery. It's like this virtuous cycle. It's getting better and better and better. Better sleep, a little more productive through the day. More productive through the day, less stress about taking an hour for yourself to go out and sweat. Erin 10:55Absolutely, and I mean, I can speak to that in my own personal journey, right? When I was downtown, I was 12-14 hours a day, face to face with clients, and I would get my hour workout in, you know, five days a week minimum. And people always ask me, how do you do it? I'm like, I love what I do. That's how I do it. And, yeah, when I go home at the end of a day, I'm invigorated, because I feel like I've made such an impact, and working in an environment that is positive, right, surrounded by great people, it just, it's that cycle that you just keep feeding in, and then you have great night's sleep, and they feed in again, and it feeds you, yeah. Tim 11:36Yeah. You know the challenge of being able to wake up on a Monday and be excited to get to work. It comes with its own challenges. I mean, you got to be careful not to work through your vacations and stuff. But you know, being excited and eager to do what you're doing with the people you want to do it with, there's no better way to feel like you are where you belong. And it's always surprising to me when there's people have yet to experience that, and they can just sit back and say, Wow, I really enjoyed that week. I can't wait to hit the ground running next week. And you know, I would say, I've got a brand new client, and he was telling me that, but we're working on capacity with him and his team, and I started talking about electric cars. And, you know, we have to work capacity from two sides. One is that, yeah, we have to have the environment and the systems and the head count and everything to be able to handle the work that we're doing. Or, you know, if it's just us, we need to have the flexibility to really rise to an occasion and operate at a greater output for short periods of time, or whatever that is. Yeah. Okay, that's your personal capacity. The next thing is, is your job and the people you work with and the quality of your team filling your bucket as you're doing that. And I said, it's like regenerative breaking. It's like the difference between having a an EV that can climb a hill and and handle those dips and yaws in the road to one that can do that and regenerate in the process when it's going down the other side. So that's what we're building into his practice. And I'm pretty happy with that metaphor. Actually, I'm gonna keep using that sucker. But, when you are face to face with clients who have these demands and they've got a lot at stake, what are some of the strategies that you suggest that can help them manage their responsibilities to themselves? Erin 13:39I mean, the best thing is, if you have control of your own schedule, I had one one person 10am every single morning, whether she was working out with me or whether she was just going for a walk around downtown, that was her time, and she blocked it off, and her entire team knew that 10am to 11am is her time. And I mean, that's an imperfect world that you can just be really hard headed about putting it in your schedule. I have another client that we discovered that he is a better parent, a better spouse when he takes a break between the work and returning home, so rather than sitting in a car, or like, you know, on the bus, takes time to walk every single day. If he can't walk, he, you know, comes for a workout with me, goes to the gym, but yeah, when he is working from home because a lot of us have hybrid models these days, he still takes that half an hour to 45 minutes to break up his work life and his home life, which I think is amazing. Yeah, recognizing that it doesn't have to be big, right? Sometimes it's a 15 minute walk in the morning before you have coffee, or while you're having coffee, pick one ritual that you're already doing and see if you can make it active. Tim 14:59Julie Freedman Smith, she's our parenting and family associate at TWE, I believe it was she who introduced me to the term transition time. Both for the kids, when you're going to ask them do something, you got to give them a bit of transition time. You got to help them switch gears. But also for me as a dad, I had to have that. And interestingly enough, I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to an old client. I mean, he's been around forever. We still coach, but we're more friends now than anything, and he does what you just said. He'll stop, and he will sit in the car and transition for like, 10 or 15 minutes. I think that's a really good strategy that he has. He's able to then, like, really clear his slate before he goes in and dads, but why not walk like, why not walk for that 15 minutes? Or, you know, what would I'm gonna suggest that to him? What would, what would the net benefit be if he did the exact same thing, but just didn't do it in his car? I mean–Erin 15:58Make it active. Tim 16:00Totally. Just, you know–Erin 16:02Just a small thing–Tim 16:04Little Erin Ashbacher boost to your day. Erin 16:06Right? Well, hey, you know, I have a client who's recovering from an ankle injury, and I'm like, you brush your teeth, how many times a day? Twice day? Okay, stand on one foot while you're brushing your teeth, right? Just a little thing that can start to have a bigger impact–Tim 16:21Sounds familiar? Erin. Erin 16:26I love finding ways to tweak your routine, right? It's already there. Let's add one thing. Tim 16:33That's awesome because the next question I was going to ask you was incorporating small little habits. So let's talk about that standing on one leg, standing alone one leg would be a total gimme. Like, why can't you do that when you're standing on two legs? You got an option, right or left, right? What would be some other give us more. Come on. Give me. Give me. Give me. Give me. Give me. Erin 16:54Thanks. One of the things that I gave one of my other clients was she had to get down to a filing cabinet. She's an older, older client. And I just like, instead of getting down onto your knees to search through that, like, is it possible to squat down to get there, right? Just changing the way that we're moving in the office even, right? Instead of using the stool all the time, maybe we stand up and reach and kind of get a little off balance in a safe way. I love making my meetings with clients and my meetings with friends more active, too. So I love a walking meeting, or if the weather permits, getting out on our bikes and taking like a nice cruisy bike side by side. We have beautiful pathways in the city, so makes it easy. Yeah. Tim 17:40My friends over at OSP, we just had the OSpluza, which they have done every year. I was there as a speaker for one of their very first ones. I think I was there in 2018, I want to say, but anyway, every year they've got this great event that is such an expression of their culture. But you're always moving. Last year we did a scavenger hunt around the zoo. So we did professional development for a day and a half. And then scavenger hunt, holy moly, it was a blast. And then this year– Erin 18:10Running around the zoo? Tim 18:14You know, it was crazy. It was timed. And then, and we put in a lot of steps. And then, and I was on new pegs, right, like I that was one year into my into my knee surgery. And so, man, I was gained because there was no way I would have been able to do that a year before that. And then this year, it was bowling. So it's funny, I thought of you during that, because we were, we went to the the bowling alley, and I had to put on those shoes. And I thought, Okay, I better do like, a full straight bend, and really bend this out. Because, as Erin knows, I mean, some of you might have heard this. I mean, I suffered a fall saving a hamster. It's a long story. Ended up with, you know, nine to 10 months of spinal damage, Hamster related spinal damage. So anyways, a little stiff. Let's just say this my form was coming back. But, you know, when you've got big hands and you've got to use a double x, not a regular bowler, but you've got to use a double x, old ball, they tend to be, you know, 14 to 15 pounds. So you're swinging this 14 to 15 pound thing. And if you've got any self respect, you know, you're going to do your best to do you know, even though it's just casual, you're gonna do your best. I'm fairly competitive anyway, so I was stretching beforehand, thinking Erin would tell me this. Erin 19:29My other favorite hack is staying hydrated. So especially if someone is coming into the gym and working out, lifting weights, and they're fairly new to it, or they're new to it again, obviously water is going to help us recover, and it's going to help, but even if we're sitting at our desk and we're not sore, just drinking lots of water forces us to get up and walk the office and go to the bathroom and then walk back. Yeah, so I'm a huge pusher of staying hydrated, which research shows that Staying hydrated also plays a vital role in our brain function and in our concentration. Tim 20:09Tell me this. I've tried many I still, I mean, I track most of the time. I have done the big jug thing. You know, I try to drink as much water as I can, but it's what's your personal favourite hack? And I mean, I'm still, I'm always looking for tricks, because I will forget to drink.Erin 20:30Right, if you're a visual person, having it right in front of you is pretty good. But I have clients that I set a reminder for them, I'm like, you should be drinking you know, one cup, 250 milliliters every 15 minutes. So I'm a sipper, but like, hey, if all you need is a 15-minute ding on your phone to tell you to drink some water, go for it. Tim 20:53Yeah, I'm not a sipper. I'm a guzzler. Like, I we've always had, uh, no TV where we eat dinner. That was always a rule for my wife and I and our kids, and we always have a pitcher of water on the table, and it's always full, and we often without thinking it, start off the meal with all of us sort of pouring a glass of water, because it's kind of nice to have people pour water for you, and then I always drain it, like I drain just I but that's just the way. I think it comes from working in the kitchens or something, when we used to get really hot and you would just or planting trees because–Erin 21:32You have time, take it. Tim 21:34Well, and you couldn't cool yourself any other way. So you're using this hydration as almost a cooling tool. But yeah, no, I'm not polite when it comes to I just it's kind of a race. I don't know if it's kind of a personal thing, but it's like–Erin 21:47I will finish my glass first. Tim 21:49I rarely put down a full glass or even a glass with any water left in it. Erin 21:55The other trick I have is that if you know, you're a tea sipper or a coffee sipper, that you always have a one-to-one ratio. I'm pretty hard about that, because caffeine is, uh, not great. It's okay, in small quantities, but people are drinking. I drink no water at all, but I drink two cups or two pots of coffee a day; maybe, switch that. Tim 22:18This sounding familiar again, Erin. Erin 22:18It's getting a bit personal. Tim 22:20It is, although my dentist always said, always have water when you're having tea, like, always order a coffee in a water, or always order a tea in a water, if for no other reason than the fact that you need to rinse that stuff off your teeth. Right? So all good tips. I'd be really interested when we publish this; if you've already listened, go to the posting for this on my LinkedIn account, and enter your best water hacks. And then we'll put those on a giveaway, and we'll make sure everybody gets, we'll doing one of in our newsletters. Hey, we'll put, you know, here's your top 20 water hacks, goldfish bowls, not just pretty, but delicious. Anyway. Cool. All right, let's keep going. So we've got a lot of good reasons why a person should be exercising in order to increase their capacity and recharge their brain and be resilient, and the data is fairly sound that this is valuable. The one thing I wanted to ask you about was this, and that is, you'd mentioned that you had leaders that have teams that are supportive of them going out for their walk, things like this. I would throw in the middle of all this that you're either feeling guilt or shame or discomfort or fear trying to take time for yourself and work out, or you feel like you're inconveniencing your staff, or you can't leave your team alone, or your days are far too full. You might be in an environment that simply will not afford you the time, and so look for design changes that you can make. You know, how do you increase the productivity of your staff so that you can take some time off? Are you doing everything for everybody else and covering other people's work? Or do you need to shuffle how things are done, or even the people that are doing it? Don't subsidize your team or organizational health, with your life, with your own health, because it's just not a good deal, and it's so often really unnecessary, and that terrible shit tornado that just tears us down into a vicious cycle, right? Erin 24:33I like to always say, don't be the person that if you win the lottery tomorrow, your entire team is going to fall apart, right? I used to say, get hit by a bus, but I'd like to be much more positive than that, so I'm going to say, win the lottery, right? So make sure that you're giving your team all the tools that they can be successful, and so that you can guilt free take that time, yeah. Tim 24:58Well, and also so that they can take that time. Right? Oh, and that raises a really interesting thing that you and I talked about last week, and that was, we're not just talking about professionals and people who are leading in an organizational capacity. We also have people that have new roles thrust upon them, right? And this could be, you know, you've got kids going to school, okay, we're just entered the school year, now you got a whole brand new way of parenting. You might be a stay at home parent and you need to you're at a whole different level. My son just he's had a knee injury, but we just found out that he's going to have to have meniscal repair. So my wife now is gearing up to, like, have to be a caregiver and focus on him for three to five months, because he's going to need more support. And you and I were talking about that in terms of the caregiver, whether you've got a, you know, a parent or I'm of the age where the parents are getting sick, talk a little bit about that. Erin 25:53I mean, we very easily when we were sitting on a plane. It's like, you know, you put your oxygen mask on first before you help others. And that concept rings true when it comes to our everyday life, but realistically, it's very easy to grab the oxygen mask when it's physically right in front of your face. When we take a look at putting on our own oxygen mask in our lives, it's much more difficult to understand those things, and there's tons of research that shows that caregivers are at higher risk for physical and mental health issues. They're at higher risk for sleep problems, and they're at higher risk for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure. So if those caregivers can think about being preventative and taking care of their mental and physical health before those things happen, then they can be better caregivers, right? Take care of yourself, take care of others. And so yeah, knowing that it's not selfish to take that time and carve out that so that then you can be better for those people that you're helping to take care of. So in your wife's case, your son, right, she needs to take care of her own physical and mental health so that she can help him when he's recovering. Tim 27:05Another client, their spouse, is going through a total knee replacement, like I did, so they've been asking me questions about it, and they're gearing up to be their caregiver for eight months. My advice to them was, don't just think about being a support to the other person. You as the caregiver, need to think about your caregivers. So can you increase your own support? Can you afford cleaners or something? Or can you make, can you make life a little bit easier? Or can you let yourself off the hook when it when it comes to, you know, putting out fancy meals, and instead, you know, opt for something that you can produce on mass or whatnot, or just ask for help, you know. Erin 27:43Wait, you can ask for help. Tim? Tim 27:46You can, you can risk some, some questionable lasagnas. But, yeah, you can, you can ask for help. All right, cool. So we've, so what have we covered here? If I think back to everything you've said, Erin, we're sitting at this time of the year where we've got a lot of things changing. People have new roles thrust upon them, new responsibilities, and they're feeling fatigued, and like so much in business, you know, we have to not think about the cost of taking time for ourselves. We have to think about it as an investment, and we have to say these things will pay back if we can just get started, even if that's small. Hydration is an easy place to start. Standing on one foot is an easy place to start, doing a squat instead of bending over is an easy place to start. Pretending you're tying your shoes but actually stretching before you bowl at a team-building event is an easy place to start. You know, make it easy, like, do the easy thing. Do the thing that doesn't always feel like it's the big, fancy new thing. Just do the easy thing. Erin 28:56I have a shout out to my dearest friend who this year, started every single morning with five sun salutations. So basically, just touch your toes, go into a plank, stand up. For those of you who don't do yoga and it's a two minute practice and it's made a huge difference in their lives. Tim 29:18Yeah, I think that's true, and I'll give a shout out quickly to you. You know, when I was coming back from this tkr, you said 20 minutes, Tim, just every day, an intentional 20 minutes. And I've managed to keep that up, regardless of what's been happening, and that, if nothing else is just says I did it. I did my 20 minutes. You know, even if it's not always stellar, but check I'm gonna start doing–Erin 29:42Something is better than nothing. Tim 29:44You know. And how often do we say, if it's not perfect, we're not gonna do it? I mean, barf, all right, cool. It's been great. So as I always ask, we've covered all this ground. If people were to take one thing away, if you were to see people transform in one way, if you had to ask it a simpler way, if you had one wish for people who are listening today, what would it be? Erin 30:10Take the disruption in the season or in the schedule as an opportunity to reassess and add in something new or change what you're doing, right? All summer long, I was on my bike, and it was amazing. And now that it's fall, it's getting a little bit cooler, and taking it as an opportunity to reassess my activity schedule and get back into the gym and lift some weights again. So it's okay to do that. Tim 30:32I love that. You know, pop the bubble. Change doesn't have to be a threat, right? It can be an opportunity. Cool now to continue on to our tradition. If you were to lob a question at our next guest, not exactly sure who that would be, why don't you fire one at me? Erin 30:53My question is, how do you stop your big, juicy challenge that you've been dreaming of doing from sitting on the shelf. How do you anchor that? Get into it? Tim 31:05Okay, so we've got some guests coming up that I think are going to be perfect to throw that at, so I'm looking forward to that. Okay, thank you very much. Erin, before we go tell people what you've got going on, anything you'd like to share that you're excited about. Erin 31:24Starting with Cochran minor hockey this fall, doing some team training. Very excited for their off ice season coming up. Yeah, just looking forward to a few changes in my personal life that maybe I'll share next time. Tim 31:37Yay, maybe you'll share next time. I'm going to throw one in there too, and that is that you've already helped several of the people that are my clients. And so if you're already doing leadership development, or you're already doing personal coaching or something like this, layer in, it's a great time to layer in the physical aspect, especially if it's the number one thing that bugs you, if it's the thing that's really got you down, no amount of professional coaching is going to overcome grief of a bad physical situation. Start with the biggest constraint, right? And if that's your sense of self, at least work at it in parallel, which is what I'm so happy for you to be on the team. So thanks so much. All right. Well, I think that wraps us up. It's so awesome to have you back. Erin 32:29It's great to be back. Tim, thank you. Tim 32:31Okay, well, we look forward to talking to you, hopefully right before the new year, if not right early in 25. Erin 32:37Sounds great. Tim 32:39Listen for updates and look for Erin to be offering in some writing and some posts as we move forward throughout the year. If you want to follow us, you're welcome to sign up to our newsletter, and in the meantime, Erin, go get him. Tim 32:56Thank you so much for listening to Sweet on Leadership. If you found today's podcast valuable, consider visiting our website and signing up for the companion newsletter. You can find the link in the show notes. If like us, you think it's important to bring new ideas and skills into the practice of leadership, please give us a positive rating and review on Apple Podcasts. This helps us spread the word to other committed leaders, and you can spread the word too by sharing this with your friends, teams and colleagues. Thanks again for listening, and be sure to tune in, in two weeks' time for another episode of Sweet on Leadership. In the meantime, I'm your host, Tim Sweet encouraging you to keep on leading.

It was a big affair.  The entire Shinsei Bank retail staff were assembled for a series of updates from the Division Heads on what each Division was doing and where they were going.  One of my erstwhile lifelong banker colleague Division Head gave his presentation.  It was dull, monotone, low energy and not engaging in the least.  Unfortunately for him, it was my turn next.  By this time, thanks to my previous work as a Senior Trade Commissioner and Consul-General for Australia,  I had given hundreds of public speeches, mainly in Japanese, to audiences of all different stripes in Japan. I knew how to give this talk in a way which would be interesting for the audience and in a way in which I could grab their attention.  My sharp elbowed colleague instantly recognised there were light years between his miserable efforts and my professionalism.  Did he commit to self-improvement, to build the biggest skyscraper in town, to become excellent in public speaking?  No.  He sought out ways to pull down all the other skyscrapers, so that his could be the tallest instead.  He informed all in earshot, except for me of course, that “Greg is all style and no substance”.  When this comment was duly reported to me, honestly, I just burst our laughing.  Not in an exaggerated thespian, ironic way, but a genuine belly laugh, because the idea was so ridiculous, so preposterous, so revealing about his insecurities.  I had given enough public speeches by that time to know it wasn't just style that was engaging my audiences.  What was ironic was that originally I was scouted to leave Austrade and join Shinsei's Retail Bank, because of a speech I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce here in Tokyo.  In fact, that speech changed the direction of my career, although I didn't realise it at the time. Recently, I was reading an article by Kathryn Brownell in the Financial Times, where she referenced the first televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960.  Nixon didn't understand the medium of television as well as Kennedy.  Kennedy saw the opportunity to speak directly to voters, rather than just relying on highlighting policy differences. I recall some reports I have come across at different times, which said that those who only listened to the debate, gave it to Nixon, while those who watched, gave it to Kennedy. Nixon certainly made the complaint that the televised debate format brought in a new era where “politicians focused on style over substance”.  It was a dividing line between eras and the future belonged to those who mastered the skills needed to be successful with the new medium. Kamala Harris killed Donald Trump in the recent debate and that wasn't just style and no substance.  She was extremely well prepared and brought all guns blazing to what Trump thought was going to be a knife fight. So what about businesspeople presenting here in Tokyo?  I recall coaching a Japanese President who forsook the opportunity to do a professional speech, because he felt his vendor audience wouldn't be ready for it.  He knew what to do but chose to not do it. That was highly perplexing to me as his coach, but standing out in Japan is never a popular course of action. He just gave the same old boring monotone performance, because that was the norm for his company and industry. It was painful for me to watch and know what he could have done instead. I saw another local businessperson give a very good performance, as he was a skilled presenter.  However, when I sat back and thought about what he was saying, as opposed to just being mesmerised by how he was saying it, I felt there wasn't much meat in that speech.  Before Covid, I saw Shigeru Ishiba, a Liberal Democratic Party hopeful, currently  trying to secure the Party Presidency and thereby become Prime Minister, give a talk as part of a panel discussion. He was slumped in his chair, looking bored and his comments were lifeless, monotone and dull.  However, when I closed my eyes and listened to what he was actually saying, it had more impact. If he wants to run this country, I hope he has improved as a communicator since then. It is obviously not a choice between style and substance.  We need both, and I want to replace the word “style” with “professionalism”, to make the point clearer.  Talking crap fluently is no help and neither is being valuable, but not being heard.  The big difference between Harris and Trump, I believe, was in their understanding of the occasion and the preparation for it.  This is precisely the same for us in business.  If we spend all of our time crafting the slide deck and none on the rehearsal, then our talk will not be optimised. Observe any public talks today and even the good speakers face some people in the crowd who have whipped out their phones and are no longer concentrating on what is being said.  Having great content, which is ignored by the audience, because we are unskilled and so boring is no better than turning up with weak content.  We fail to have any impact.  Let's wrap our numbers up in stories, so that people can remember them. Let's work on our professional delivery skills, so that we can keep the listeners with us, from start to end. Let's defeat the mobile phone, as the escape alternative to what we are saying.  By the way, it will only get worse. We have no time to lose to improve our communication capability.  

HVAF's food, clothing, and hygiene pantry is open for veterans on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Before COVID, we were seeing around 100 veterans per month. Now, we're seeing more than double, with a record high in July of 258 veterans. As we see an increase in visits, donations to our pantry are more critical than ever before. Thankfully, we have many partners around the community that help us stock the pantry. One of them is Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, who helps keep our shelves full of essential food items. Today on Roger That, you will meet Gleaners CEO Fred Glass. Fred became the president and CEO of in 2022, and it's the largest food bank in Indiana and part of the national Feeding America Network.   SHOW NOTES: Podcast questions? Topic ideas? E-mail Lauren: LVCarpenter@hvaf.org Sign up to receive our e-mails: https://hvafofindiana.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=84c1e98757e710e154ef48517&id=35b0d23a76   Follow us on social media: @hvafofindiana Are you a veteran needing help? Contact us today: 317-951-0688https://www.hvafofindiana.org/i-need-help/ Fred Glass' bio: https://www.gleaners.org/fred-glass/ More on Gleaners' programs: https://www.gleaners.org/our-programs/ Get involved with Gleaners: https://www.gleaners.org/volunteer/ Get involved with HVAF's pantry: https://www.hvafofindiana.org/take-action/ More information on HVAF's pantry: https://www.hvafofindiana.org/our-mission/pantry/ Map the Meal Gap 2022 results: https://www.gleaners.org/map-the-meal-gap-2022-data-shows-sharp-rise-in-food-insecurity/

Denise Musselwhite is the founder of Tech and Thrive. She is a dynamic person that is memorable. We have been connected through a number of Women's groups that focus on technology. One of the words she shared to describe herself is Deliberate, and the definition of this word means to carefully think or talk something through. Slow and measured, the pace of this kind of careful decision making. As the daughter of immigrants to the US she learned to move through life with a heavy focus on her serving her clients. She believes this  is essential for success for her clients as well as her own business.     She grew up in an entrepreneurial family that focused on service. She helped her family by translating technical writing into Spanish for her parents.    When thinking through what she wanted her career to be, she knew it would be in technology.  She was the first gen in her family to attend college and started with Valencia College when it was a 2-year college.    As a woman in technology and working her way to become a Chief Information Officer, she represents less than 2% of the workforce as a latina woman in the tech world. She started her own business because she grew up watching her family be entrepreneurs. She went back to get her masters degree when she turned 45 and focused her master's thesis on the barriers that hold women back in their careers. Before COVID, she discovered that stem careers focused more on men rather than women. Women are still not represented in technology leadership roles. Only 26% are leaders in the tech world. Less than 3% Latinas make it to the top of the tech leadership.   When asked what is the best mentoring advice you want to share with our listeners? Her response was that in order for you to accelerate your own growth and development you have to understand who you are and decide who you are. If you allow someone to decide who you are for you. One needs to understand what you need and a strategy with a plan of action to move towards your strengths   We hope you enjoy this week's episode of The Intern Whisperer. The Intern Whisperer Podcast is brought to you by Employers 4 Change - Increasing #Skills #DiversityEquityInclusion #recruitment and #management for #interns and #employees alike.  Apply today to be an #Employer4Change that invests in #intern #talent and #employees.   Want a break? Play Intern Pursuit Game on Steam.    Thank you to our sponsor Cat 5 Studios. Podbean: https://internwhisperer.podbean.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8c_T19-pyfghVuAEbOMmHg     Follow us on our social channels  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/employers4change   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/employers4change   X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/employer4change   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/employers4change   #iHeartRadio #ApplePodcasts #Spotify #Podbean #YouTube #Employers4Change #E4C #internships #radio #podcast #innovation #employers #smallbusiness #business #FutureOfWork #ValenciaCollegeRadio 

Reported cases of people with pertussis -- or "whooping cough" -- are increasing in the United States and back to pre-pandemic levels. Before COVID, there were about 10,000 cases a year in the U.S. Now, the CDC reports, there have been nearly 9,000 cases so far this year. WRAL Health Reporter Grace Hayba shares what health officials are recommending, especially ahead of a new school year.

A great beer from a revered and respected brewery is always a pleasure.

But when you bring together three such outfits, creative forces that are admired across the UK, Europe and beyond then you know you're in for a treat.

And last week - a collaboration that took place in Lewes, in sunny East Sussex - is proving to be just that. Before Covid came crashing into people's lives, Mark Tranter of Burning Sky Brewery and Yvan De Baets of Brasserie de la Senne were in Lewes and a visit to Harvey's and its head brewer Miles Jenner was on the cards.

Over some glasses of beer in the brewery's sample room, the trio mooted the idea of working together on a beer of their own. The plan was simple, to make a beer that was entirely distinctive from anything they produced individually.

And now, some four or so years since that initial conversation, the beer has become a reality. 

Tripel Alliance was mashed in at the Bridge Wharf Brewery last Friday - the 19th July. It was brewed with Pale and Munich malts, together with Spelt and Oats. 

These provided the base for a range of different German hops that encompassed a range of traditional and new varieties, all introduced at five separate stages. And of course, the beer was brewed with Harvey's spring water and yeast.

It will launch at the upcoming Tripel Alliance beer festival, which is taking place on Friday 9th & Saturday 10th August across three Sessions in Harvey's Brewery Rear Yard. But to tide us over until then, let's hear from Mark, Miles and Yvan about this special collaboration in a conversation recorded on-site with us perched atop the many bags of malt housed in their grain store.

Dr. Anthony Fauci served under seven U.S. presidents. Before COVID-19, he fought the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Ebola, and Zika. Reset's Sasha-Ann Simons sits down with Fauci to discuss his new memoir, his “nightmare” that came true, and what really went on behind the scenes between him and the Trump Administration.

Phil Soper, president and chief executive officer, Royal LePage, discusses why renters still want to buy a home despite the costs. Video interview can be seen here. Phil Soper PRESS RELEASE TORONTO, June 20, 2024 /CNW/ – One third of Canadians live in rental accommodations, and that figure has been gradually increasing in recent years, as affordability challenges in the resale market persist. According to a recent Royal LePage survey, conducted by Hill & Knowlton, 27 per cent of Canadians who currently rent their home say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years. Among those aged 18 to 34, that figure jumps to 40 per cent. Meanwhile, 69 per cent of renters say they do not plan to buy a home in the near future. Among them, more than half (54%) do not feel their income will be sufficient to afford a property in the area where they wish to live (61% among respondents aged 18 to 34). “The rental sector is not immune to the significant affordability challenges stemming from Canada's acute housing shortage. High mortgage rates have made it difficult for many to purchase a home, forcing some to move into, or remain longer than planned, in the rental market,” said Phil Soper, president and chief executive officer, Royal LePage. “Despite a short-lived decline in prices and demand for rental units during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the available supply of rental properties in most major markets remains ultra low.” Of renters who say they plan to buy within the next two years, half (50%) say they will have a down payment of less than 20 per cent. Twenty-six per cent say they will put 20 per cent down, while 15 per cent say they will have a down payment of more than 20 per cent. In Canada, mortgage insurance is required for homes purchased with less than 20 per cent down. When asked how they will come up with their down payment, 53 per cent of respondents said they will use savings accumulated over the years, while 46 per cent said they will take advantage of the First Home Savings Account (FHSA), and 29 said they will draw on their RRSPs using the Home Buyer's Plan (HBP). Twenty-five per cent said they will use a financial gift from family or an inheritance. Respondents were able to select more than one answer. Forty-four per cent of renters planning to purchase in the next two years believe they will be able to afford a home in their current city of residence, while 37 per cent do not. Among those who don't believe they can buy in their current location, 40 per cent say they will have to travel more than 50 kilometres to buy within their budget, while 21 per cent believe they will have to search for a property within a 31-50 kilometre radius and 18 per cent say they would need to look within a 16-30 kilometre radius. Only 9 per cent of respondents are confident they could buy within 15 kilometres of their current location. According to the Royal LePage 2024 Most Affordable Canadian Cities Report, 50 per cent of people living in the greater regions of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, say they would consider relocating to a more affordable city, if they were able to find a job or work remotely. Among renters in these regions, 60 per cent say they'd be willing to relocate, while 45 per cent of current homeowners say they would consider it. “We know that Canadians widely consider home ownership a worthwhile long-term investment and a quintessential part of the Canadian dream. So much so, that many are willing to relocate in order to make their home ownership dreams a reality. This is especially true for young Canadians and those who have remote work flexibility. I believe we will continue to see migration from southern Ontario and high-priced regions in B.C. to more affordable markets across the country in the future,” said Soper. Nearly a third of renters hoped to buy prior to signing their lease Before signing or renewing their current lease, 29 per cent of Canadian renters say they considered purchasing a property. Among them, 41 per cent say the lack of a sufficient down payment led to their decision to rent instead. “While a third of Canadian adults are currently renting, and there are families who are perfectly content doing so, the desire for home ownership remains strong among a large portion of this segment of the population. Our latest research reveals that a material number of renters wish to transition to home ownership. Understandably, the greatest barrier to entry is the ability to drum up the initial capital for a down payment,” continued Soper. When asked about the motivating factors behind their decision to continue renting rather than buy, approximately one third of respondents said they were waiting for interest rates (33%) and property prices (30%) to decrease. Twenty-two per cent said they are continuing to rent while saving for a down payment, and 20 per cent said they did not qualify for a mortgage. Respondents were able to select more than one answer. “Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada announced its first rate cut in more than four years. Falling borrowing costs will lower the threshold to qualify for a mortgage, helping renters become owners. However, this creates a double-edged sword. Increased competition as they enter the market will put additional pressure on property values. While some will wait for home prices to become more reasonable, Canada's housing shortage will leave them waiting indefinitely,” added Soper. Rising rents and low vacancy rates Nearly four in ten Canadian renters (36%) spend up to 30 per cent of their net income on monthly rental costs. Meanwhile, roughly the same amount of renters (37%) spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their income on rent, and 16 per cent spend more than 50 per cent. In Canada's most expensive housing markets, Vancouver and Toronto, the proportion of renters who spend more than half of their income on rental costs increases to 27 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively. That figure dips to 10 per cent in Montreal. According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent nationally for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 8.0 per cent higher than a year prior. Vacancy rates sat at 1.5 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments. “From coast to coast, Canadians are struggling with housing affordability in the wake of one of the most aggressive interest rate hike campaigns in history. Across many regions, rental demand vastly exceeds supply, making affordable housing a challenge. The housing industry and government must collaborate on innovative solutions to increase inventory, including rentals, and support those most impacted by these escalating market conditions,” concluded Soper. The 2024 federal budget, released on April 16th, announced several measures intended to more effectively protect tenants and strengthen their path to buying real estate. In addition to a renewed commitment to incentivize purpose-built rental buildings, a highlight was the creation of the Canadian Renters' Bill of Rights, which proposed a national standardized lease agreement and the disclosure of a property's rental price history. In addition, and perhaps most intriguing, this bill also proposed a recommendation for financial institutions to allow tenants to report their rental payment history to credit bureaus in order to better their credit scores, thereby strengthening their future mortgage applications. Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart ATLANTIC CANADA In Atlantic Canada, 28 per cent of renters say they considered buying a property rather than renting before signing or renewing their lease. Looking ahead, 22 per cent say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years, while 59 per cent will not. “The rental market is shifting. Construction of purpose-built rental properties has drastically increased as the city's population continues to grow. Government programs and development incentives have encouraged the creation of new rental supply in Halifax. Newer buildings tend to attract newcomers who are not able to qualify for a mortgage right away, but want a high-quality place to live as they get established,” said Scott Moulton, sales representative, Royal LePage Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “We saw a wave of residents from Ontario and other parts of the country come to the East Coast during the height of the pandemic. And, as was the case in the resale market, rental prices were also pushed up as demand swelled. This mass migration has since died down.” Moulton added that institutional landlords are the predominant supplier of rental stock in the Halifax region, particularly downtown. Rising interest rates have not had a profound impact on property management companies who have been able to cope with elevated costs compared to smaller-scale or individual landlords. According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent in Halifax for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 11.0 per cent higher than a year prior. The vacancy rate in purpose-built rental buildings remained extremely low at one per cent. Among renters living in Atlantic Canada, 29 per cent spend up to 30 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs, while 38 per cent spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their income, and 24 per cent spend more than 50 per cent. “There is a desire to build rental supply in Halifax, but permitting and application approvals are both time consuming and expensive,” said Moulton. “More rental inventory is required to ease the region's housing supply shortage, but it will take many years for such buildings to be completed.” Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart QUEBEC July 1st is known as moving day in Quebec, the province with the highest percentage of renters per capita in Canada.5 Leading up to this date, 28 per cent of Quebec renters say they considered buying a property rather than renting before signing or renewing their lease. Among them, 42 per cent say they are waiting for property prices to go down, 41 per cent are holding off for interest rates to decrease, and 37 per cent say the lack of a sufficient down payment led to their decision to rent instead. Respondents were able to select more than one answer. Looking ahead, 22 per cent say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years, while more than half (58%) will not. Of those planning to purchase, 40 per cent believe they will be able to afford to buy a property in their current city of residence. Of those not planning to purchase a property in the next two years, 51 per cent say it is because they do not believe their income will allow them to afford the property they desire. “The results of this survey highlight the challenges faced by Quebec renters in the current context of a housing supply shortage,” said Geneviève Langevin, residential and commercial real estate broker, Royal LePage Altitude in Montreal. “However, the desire to become a homeowner persists for many, despite the financial obstacles, which is encouraging since this trend will continue to put pressure on public policy-makers to create housing that meets demand and population growth.” According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent in Montreal for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 7.9 per cent higher than a year prior.6 Vacancy rates sat at 1.5 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments. While 2023 saw record low housing starts in Quebec, CMHC expects the province to see a more vigorous increase than elsewhere in Canada in 2024.7 However, new residential developments will remain too few to meet growing demand. “The gradual easing of interest rates, which began with the first cut in the Bank of Canada's key lending rate on June 5th, should stimulate construction in the rental market. However, this expected increase in housing starts will not have an immediate impact on the province's housing supply,” said Langevin. “I'm pleased to see that the various levels of government have begun to think together about alternatives for rapidly increasing housing supply. Unfortunately, the results of these concerted efforts will take time to materialize.” Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart ONTARIO In Ontario, 30 per cent of renters say they considered buying a property rather than renting before signing or renewing their lease. Among them, 47 per cent say the lack of a sufficient down payment led to their decision to rent instead. Twenty-eight per cent say they are waiting for property prices to go down, while 26 per cent are holding off for interest rates to decrease. Respondents were able to select more than one answer. Looking ahead, 31 per cent say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years, while nearly half (49%) will not. Of those planning to purchase, 43 per cent believe they will be able to afford to buy a property in their current city of residence. Of those not planning to purchase a property in the next two years, 61 per cent say it is because they do not believe their income will allow them to afford the property they desire. “For many, renting is an inevitable step on the path to home ownership, as saving to buy a home in one of Canada's most expensive cities can take many years,” said Gillian Ritchie, broker, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd. in Toronto. “In recent years, we have noticed a much-needed increase in purpose-built rental supply in the city. Currently, Toronto's rental market is flush with one- and two-bedroom condos for lease, but does not have an adequate inventory of decent larger units or freehold rental accommodations. This has made it increasingly difficult for families to find suitable rental housing, whether they are waiting for the right time to buy a home or are looking for a temporary residence amid relocation or renovations.” Ritchie added that young professionals and students make up a large part of Toronto's renter demographic. Walkability is a top priority for renters attending post-secondary institutions, while others desire access to amenities, entertainment and their place of work. According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent in Toronto for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 8.7 per cent higher than a year prior.8 Vacancy rates sat at 1.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments. By comparison, the average rent in Ottawa for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 4.0 per cent higher than a year prior. Vacancy rates sat at 2.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments, according to CMHC. Among renters living in Ontario, 35 per cent spend up to 30 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs, while 36 per cent spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their income, and 18 per cent spend more than 50 per cent. “Many investors bought rental units at the onset of the pandemic amid the record-low interest rate environment, and took advantage of low borrowing costs by purchasing multiple properties. As mortgage carrying costs have materially increased over the last two years, we have noticed some investors offloading their units, potentially reducing available rental stock,” noted Ritchie. “Meanwhile, new developments are bringing more inventory to the rental market and putting downward pressure on prices in some communities. With rates now on the decline, we anticipate that many current renters will step into the resale market as the threshold to qualify for a mortgage begins to ease. However, further rate cuts are needed for this trend to fully materialize.” Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart MANITOBA & SASKATCHEWAN In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 44 per cent of renters say they considered buying a property rather than renting before signing or renewing their lease. Looking ahead, 36 per cent say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years, while 34 per cent will not. “The pandemic was a pivotal turning point for the rental market. Before COVID-19, one-bedroom rentals were in high demand. Now, as working from home has become more common, renters' need for more space has grown. However, the desire to be close to downtown and have access to conveniences both within their neighbourhood and their rental buildings remains strong,” said Laura Foubert, sales representative, Royal LePage Dynamic Real Estate in Winnipeg, Manitoba. “Winnipeg rental prices have increased over this past year as landlords and property managers aim to make up for price freezes implemented during the pandemic. Meanwhile, incentives like move-in bonuses, parking spots and top-tier amenities, are being offered on new developments to attract quality, long-term tenants.” Foubert added that many current renters are downsizers who have sold their homes and chosen to rent to avoid the upkeep of home ownership – many have no intention of buying another property. According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent in Winnipeg for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 4.4 per cent higher than a year prior.9 Vacancy rates sat at 1.8 per cent for both purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments. By comparison, the average rent in Regina for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 7.9 per cent higher than a year prior. Vacancy rates sat at 1.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments, according to CMHC. Among renters living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 50 per cent spend up to 30 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs, while 36 per cent spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their income, and nine per cent spend more than 50 per cent. “Some individuals are renting until they buy their first home, while others are renting purely because they enjoy the simplicity and convenience of the lifestyle,” said Foubert. “Demand for rentals is expected to remain strong for the foreseeable future.” Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart ALBERTA In Alberta, nearly a third of renters (29%) say they considered buying a property rather than renting before signing or renewing their lease. Looking ahead, 27 per cent say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years, while 45 per cent will not. “The rental segment has been in transition these past few years. We came out of a balanced market that had healthy vacancy levels and robust demand, and headed into a crunch starting in the spring of 2022. We are now in a scenario where multiple offers on rental properties are being seen more frequently, a new phenomenon in Calgary,” said Andrew Hanney, sales representative and property manager, Royal LePage Mission Real Estate in Calgary. “Demand for rentals in Alberta has been coming from all directions, including residents relocating from Ontario and British Columbia in search of a lower cost of living. One-bedroom apartments have some of the highest vacancy rates, as many renters are choosing to live in larger units with roommates in order to lower their monthly living expenses. This has created difficulties for families looking for multi-bedroom rental options.” Hanney added that purpose-built rentals were common in the 1980s and 1990s, but faded from popularity as developers focused their attention on building condominiums for ownership. Now, developers are creating purpose-built rentals once again, in response to increased market demand and a series of new government incentives. According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent in Calgary for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 14.3 per cent higher than a year prior.10 Vacancy rates sat at 1.4 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments. By comparison, the average rent in Edmonton for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 6.4 per cent higher than a year prior. Vacancy rates sat at 2.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively, for purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments, according to CMHC. Among renters living in Alberta, 39 per cent spend up to 30 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs, while 34 per cent spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their income, and 17 per cent spend more than 50 per cent. “Many young Albertans look at housing differently – for those who do not want the responsibility of home ownership, renting is an intentional choice, one that suits their needs and lifestyle,” noted Hanney. “However, there remains an important cohort of Albertans for whom renting makes the most financial sense, while they save up to buy a home. As interest rates continue to fall, we will see more tenants move out of rentals and into home ownership.” Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart BRITISH COLUMBIA In British Columbia, 26 per cent of renters say they considered buying a property rather than renting before signing or renewing their lease. Looking ahead, 27 per cent say they plan to purchase a property in the next two years, while 52 per cent will not. “With a boost in rental supply in Vancouver, competition in this segment is improving, although affordability remains a challenge for tenants facing some of the highest rental prices in the country. Still, demand to live in one of Canada's most popular cities remains consistent,” said Nina Knudsen, property manager,11 Royal LePage Sussex in North Vancouver. “Empty nesters and working professionals make up a significant portion of our renter demographic, as do tenants who are landlords themselves. It is not uncommon for renters to buy an investment property in a less expensive market and lease it out while they continue to save towards the purchase of a primary residence.” Knudsen added that tightening provincial legislation on rentals has caused some would-be landlords to step out of the market, a potential challenge for the creation of rental supply. According to the latest Rental Market Report by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the average rent in Vancouver for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 8.6 per cent higher than a year prior.12 Vacancy rates sat at 0.9 per cent for both purpose-built rental buildings and condominium apartments. By comparison, the average rent in Victoria for a two-bedroom unit in October 2023 was 7.9 per cent higher than a year prior. The vacancy rate in purpose-built rental buildings sat at 1.6 per cent, according to CMHC. Among renters living in British Columbia, 23 per cent spend up to 30 per cent of their net income on monthly rent costs, while 42 per cent spend between 31 and 50 per cent of their income. Twenty-five per cent of renters spend more than 50 per cent of their net income on rent, well above the national average of 16 per cent. “As interest rates have increased over the past two years, higher monthly carrying costs have put considerable strain on entrepreneurial landlords, prompting some to offload their units onto the resale market,” said Knudsen. “With rates now beginning to trend downward, some investors may be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. However, the most recent rate cut by the Bank of Canada will not be enough to encourage those landlords from selling their properties if further cuts are not made in the near future.” Royal LePage 2024 Canadian Renters Report – Data Chart: rlp.ca/2024-Canadian-Renters-Report-Chart Royal LePage resources for aspiring homeowners: To help aspiring homeowners, Royal LePage has published a number of online resources available at the following links: From renter to homeowner: Your complete guide to home ownership in a competitive real estate market 8 new housing policies announced in the 2024 federal budget Real estate terminology 101 Expert Q&A: What you need to know about buying a property pre-construction 6 tips for a seamless moving day Saving for your first home? Here's what you need to know about Canada's First Home Savings Account (FHSA) What is the Home Buyers' Plan? Get matched with Your Perfect Neighbourhood! About the Survey Hill & Knowlton used the Leger Opinion online panel to survey 1,506 Canadians, aged 18+, who rent their primary residence. The survey was completed between June 7th and June 10th, 2024. Representative sampling was done across all provinces (Atlantic provinces were aggregated). Weighting was applied to ensure representation between and within provinces, according to 2021 household renter census figures. No margin of error can be associated with a non-probability sample (i.e., a web panel in this case). For comparative purposes, though, a probability sample of 1,506 respondents would have a margin of error of ±3%, 19 times out of 20. About Royal LePage Serving Canadians since 1913, Royal LePage is the country's leading provider of services to real estate brokerages, with a network of approximately 20,000 real estate professionals in over 670 locations nationwide. Royal LePage is the only Canadian real estate company to have its own charitable foundation, the Royal LePage® Shelter Foundation™, which has been dedicated to supporting women's shelters and domestic violence prevention programs for 25 years. Royal LePage is a Bridgemarq Real Estate Services® Inc. company, a TSX-listed corporation trading under the symbolTSX:BRE. For more information, please visit www.royallepage.ca. Mario Toneguzzi Mario Toneguzzi is Managing Editor of Canada's Podcast. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list. He was also named by RETHINK to its global list of Top Retail Experts 2024. About Us Canada's Podcast is the number one podcast in Canada for entrepreneurs and business owners. Established in 2016, the podcast network has interviewed over 600 Canadian entrepreneurs from coast-to-coast. With hosts in each province, entrepreneurs have a local and national format to tell their stories, talk about their journey and provide inspiration for anyone starting their entrepreneurial journey and well- established founders. The commitment to a grass roots approach has built a loyal audience on all our social channels and YouTube – 500,000+ lifetime YouTube views, 200,000 + audio downloads, 35,000 + average monthly social impressions, 10,000 + engaged social followers and 35,000 newsletter subscribers. Canada's Podcast is proud to provide a local, national and international presence for Canadian entrepreneurs to build their brand and tell their story #business #CanadasNumberOnePodcastforEntrepreneurs #entrepreneurs #entrepreneurship #Homeownership #Homes #Housing #RealEstate #small business

What truly drives your business's success? Is it your product, or is it YOU?Join us this episode as we explore the heart of what makes your business thrive: your personal touch. Before COVID, it was all about in-home parties and genuine connections. Then, the pandemic hit, and we had to adapt with online parties and social media. But something got lost along the way: the real YOU.As we navigate the present, it's time to ask: Do you still have the grit to adapt? Your clients love you and crave that personal connection. So, let's rediscover how to show them YOU. Pick up the phone, go live, host a party, and connect like never before.Tune in for success stories and tips on how to keep your business flourishing by being authentically you. Rediscover your grit and let's thrive together!  #YoAdrienneTalks #BusinessSuccess #PersonalTouch #AuthenticConnections #CustomerCare #Grit #DirectSales #PodcastFor Coaching information - https://yoadriennetalks.com/Come visit the Yo Adrienne Talks Communityhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/160183006086769

Most people would find just getting on top of a unicycle challenging, let alone actually maneuvering it. However, some athletes are not only doing that but also playing hockey competitively whilst doing so. Some of Australia's best players in this unusual sport compete in one of the rounds of the Australian Unicycle Hockey championship. Players from teams across Australia, from Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney are battling against each other as the remaining teams get whittled down. “I love how it's so high energy and everybody is so into it. And you've got to be here in one place and focusing on this spot and it's so, chaotic,” says player Hannah Sheperd. Player Michael Watson says interest in the game is growing following a fall during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Before COVID, we had 6 or 7 of these interstate competitions in a year. It was bigger, we had more teams, but at the moment we're recovering numbers,” says Watson. Unicycle Hockey shares much of the same rules as traditional hockey. Balance, speed and accuracy are all necessary skills for the sport, which is particularly popular in Europe and the United States. “Same as standard hockey games, the nets are the same, we use ice hockey sticks and tennis balls and the rules are pretty much the same, but you can't come off,” says player David Buchanan. Players of all ages can be seen participating─from teenagers to old-timers in their 60s. “Age doesn't matter. It's just the best because it doesn't matter how old you are. It's just what you can do,” says Watson. While the rules of the game do not allow for contact between players, contact with the ground is inevitable, even for the most skilled players. However, it doesn't take long for competitors to get back in the saddle. “It probably doesn't take much longer to learn to ride than a bike, you really just have to get a unicycle which is very cheap and a wall, and find some YouTube videos and just stick at it,” says player Steven Hughes. This article was provided by The Associated Press. 

Before Covid, few of us had ever been subjected to a quarantine. But that experience effectively isolated us in a bubble. In a spiritual sense, sometimes believers are constantly isolated from the world in a self-imposed quarantine. We don't want to be OF the world so we try not to be IN the world. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how that neglects one of our most important responsibilities. It's the kick off of a new series in Acts called The Upside-Down Life. Harvest Crusade 2024 --- Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org . A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Covid, few of us had ever been subjected to a quarantine. But that experience effectively isolated us in a bubble. In a spiritual sense, sometimes believers are constantly isolated from the world in a self-imposed quarantine. We don't want to be OF the world so we try not to be IN the world. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how that neglects one of our most important responsibilities. It's the kick off of a new series in Acts called The Upside-Down Life. Harvest Crusade 2024 --- Listen on harvest.org --- Learn more and subscribe to Harvest updates at harvest.org . A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before COVID, few of us had ever been subjected to a quarantine. But that experience effectively isolated us in a bubble. In a spiritual sense, sometimes believers are constantly isolated from the world in a self-imposed quarantine. We don???t want to be OF the world, so we try not to be IN the world. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how that neglects one of our most important responsibilities. It???s the kick off of a new series in Acts called The Upside-Down Life.Support the show: https://harvest.org/resources/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Covid, WWE and UFC were key to push the envelope of MMA in China, now, independent promotion companies like Middle Kingdom Wrestling are left to pick up the momentum. Featuring- Adrian Gomez: Middle Kingdom Wrestling - FounderTo go further- Middle Earth episode  #65 China's winter sports market : How to get 300 million snow enthusiasts?- Middle Earth episode #51 Pop Mart : How to Make an Addictive Toy (featuring Yang Yaling)With thanks to Yang Yaling of Following the yuan for co-producing the episode and Middle Kingdom Wrestling for poster's picture.Middle Earth is made by China Compass Productions and hosted by Aladin Farré. If you have a China-themed cultural project, like shooting your next documentary, or are looking for a specific talent, please get in touch! Chinese speaker? Follow our Bilibili account 阿拉丁_说电影

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Dear EA, please be the reason people like me will actually see a better world. Help me make some small stride on extreme poverty where I live -- by the end of 2024., published by Anthony Kalulu, a rural farmer in eastern Uganda. on April 12, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. This message is for everyone in the global EA community. For all the things that have been said about EA over the recent past -- from SBF to Wytham Abbey to my own article on EA in 2022 (I have a disclaimer about this at the very bottom of this message) -- I am asking the global EA community to help me make only one small stride on extreme poverty where I live, before 2024 ends. Let's make up for all the things that have been said about EA (e.g., that EA doesn't support poor people-led grassroots orgs in the global south), by at least supporting only one poor people-led grassroots org in a part of the world where poverty is simply rife. Be the reason people like myself will actually see a better world, and the reason for people like us to actually see EA as being the true purveyor of the most good. FYI: I come from a community that purely depends on agriculture for survival. For this reason, the things that count as producing "the most good" in the eyes of people like me, are things like reliable markets for our produce etc, as opposed to things like mosquito nets, deworming tablets etc that EA might view as creating the most good. About me: My name is Anthony, a farmer here in eastern Uganda. My own life hasn't been very easy. But looking at people's circumstances where I live, I decided not to sit back. Some clue: Before COVID came, the World Bank said (in 2019), that 70% of the extreme poor in Sub Saharan Africa were packed in only 10 countries. Uganda was among those ten countries. Even among those 10 countries, according to the World Bank, Uganda still had the sluggishiest (i.e., the slowest) poverty reduction rate overall, as shown in this graph. Even in Uganda: Eastern Uganda, where I live, is Uganda's most impoverished, per all official reports. Our region Busoga meanwhile, which has long been the poorest in eastern Uganda, has since 2017 doubled as the poorest not just in eastern Uganda, but also in Uganda as a whole. In 2023, The Monitor, a Ugandan local daily, said: "Busoga is the sub-region with most people living in a complete poverty cycle followed by Bukedea and Karamoja. This is according to findings released in 2021/2022 by Mr Vincent Fred Senono, the Principal Statistician and head of analysis at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics". Even in Busoga itself, our two neighboring districts Kamuli & Buyende, being the furthermost, remotest area of Busoga on the shores of Lake Kyoga, have the least economic activity, and are arguably Busoga's most destitute. In short, while Uganda as a country is the very last in Sub Saharan Africa in terms of poverty reduction, our region Busoga is the worst in Uganda, and even in Busoga, our 2 twin districts Kamuli & Buyende, being the remotest, are simply the most miserable. Help us see some good before 2024 ends: I am asking the global EA community to help the Uganda Community Farm (the UCF), a nonprofit social enterprise that was founded by me, to accomplish only two goals before 2024 ends. Please be the reason people like us will actually see a better world. Goal one: Size of Long Island. That's, expanding the UCF's current white sorghum project to cover every village in Kamuli & Buyende - a 3,300 sq km region the size of Long Island (New York). Since 2019, the UCF has trained many rural farmers in Kamuli & Buyende, in eastern Uganda, on white sorghum. Our goal right now, is to expand this work and cover every village in Kamuli & Buyende, with white sorghum. Kamuli & Buyende are two neighboring districts in Busoga, Uganda's most impoverished reg...

The earth is not flat. Vaccines work and they don't make you magnetic. Global warming is real. Covid is airborne. But you will hear a great deal to the contrary, too, from vaccine and climate deniers, flat-earthers, and plenty of conspiracy theorists willing to die on the hill of their chosen belief. Why? What happened? I thought it might be interesting to do a little time travel. What if we looked a book arguing for science and the humanities to join forces and stop science misinformation… BEFORE Covid. Heck, before Twitter was much of thing, even. Before the social media monoliths we explored in Cory Doctorow's recent work. Let's go all the way back to 2009—when I was still a graduate student—and revisit a collaboration between a journalist and a scientists: Unscientific America. We'll talk live to Sheril Kirschenbaum, host of SERVING UP SCIENCE on PBS, executive director of ScienceDebate, a national nonprofit that encourages politicians to address science and innovation, and director of The Energy Poll at The University of Texas at Austin. A prolific writer and scientific thinker, she brings a lot to the table when it comes to getting science on the ballot (and into the public). How has Unscientific America changed? What do we make of this new, science denying world? Bring your questions and your debate hat and let's get political! Only on PBC. Episode was recorded live March 14, 2024. Follow us on Twitter (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@peculiarBC⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), Facebook (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/groups/peculiarbooksclub⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thepeculiarbookclub⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), and Youtube (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/PeculiarBookClub⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)!

Before Covid and certain political changes, the business world was relatively normal with buyer confidence where it needed to be for businesses to thrive. But things quickly changed as lockdowns, inflation and other politics started changing the way people view the world, dramatically lowering buyer confidence. People contracted, preparing for worst case scenarios. Times have changed and so sales techniques need to change too.On March 23 - 25, 2024, there's a virtual event that will dive deep into what these new times look like, how it got here and most importantly, how you can achieve greatness using new techniques that appeal to the hearts and minds of people in a post Covid world.Soar Live is about making people, businesses, and entrepreneurs uncensored, unleashed, and unstoppable. It's a 3 day event to activate greatness, help you discover your purpose and achieve your dream life. You'll discover what's stopping you and how to get back into your flow. You'll be made aware of changes in the world and marketplaces including the top 5 reasons VSL and webinars stopped working, and the top organic strategies that don't cost money that actually bring in clients. Also, people are recklessly preaching AI but users don't realize what they're losing in the process. Over these 3 days you'll learn how to intelligently use AI in a way that maintains your unique message so that you don't fall into the sea of AI copy.Soar and Roar costs only $333. For more info and to register, go to https://www.soarandroar.com/soarlive.Visit eCircleAcademy.com and book a success call with Nicky to take your practice to the next level.

https://Art2Life.com - Austyn has completed art residencies all over the world. She landed in a residency at the Mendocino Art Center right before Covid hit. Before Covid, the majority of her work was black and white and ornate. She'd sculpt solid and draw with an ebony pencil on the surface.  Her time in Mendocino allowed her to crystalize what she wanted her art to convey. She shifted toward bright dominant colors and hasn't looked back. In this conversation, Austyn shares how her global experiences have helped her channel her art, what her creative process looks like, and what she hopes to accomplish in the future. ================================ LISTEN IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN… How Covid transformed Austyn's work [3:35]  Austyn's creative process [9:29] What's influenced Austyn's work [20:10]  What's on the horizon for Austyn [24:40]  ================================ RESOURCES MENTIONED The Art of Your Life Free Workshop: https://a2lworkshop.com/5-days-workshop/ Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will: https://www.amazon.com/Determined-Science-Life-without-Free/dp/0525560971 Austyn's show at the COVA Gallery in the Netherlands: https://www.instagram.com/covagallery/ ================================= CONNECT WITH AUSTYN TAYLOR Austyn's website: http://www.austyntaylor.com/ See Austyn's sculptures on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austynaustynaustyn/ ============================= CONNECT WITH NICHOLAS WILTON AND ART2LIFE: Get the Free COLOR TIPS PDF: https://workshop.art2life.com/color-tips-pdf-podcasts/  Follow the Sunday Art2Life Vlog: https://art2life.lpages.co/sign-up-for-the-a2l-vlog/  Follow Nicholas Wilton's Art on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholaswilton/  Follow Art2Life on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art2life_world/?hl=en  Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Art2Life

Ben Broussard, Chief of External Affairs for Catholic Charities of Acadiana, joins us to discuss the nonprofit's mission. Since 1973, Catholic Charities has worked to provide essential services to the most vulnerable people in our community who experience hunger, homelessness and poverty. A separate nonprofit organization from the Diocese of Lafayette, many services are 100% donor funded and others are buttrosed through grants from government and private organizations. The organization has traditionally taken care of our most vulnerable neighbors through outreach efforts for disaster response, as well St. Joseph Diner, St. Joseph Shelter for Men, St. Michael Center for Veterans, the Stella Maris Center, and the Monsignor Sigur Center. In the past several years, other critical services have been added to Catholic Charities' umbrella of services including The Emily House in 2018, which offers an emergency shelter for homeless women and children. They have also added new responsibilities by taking over the Immigration Services and Deaf Action Center formerly run by the Diocese of Lafayette, as well as assuming management of FoodNet Food Bank and Rebuilding Together Acadiana.  In 2019, Catholic Charities also became entrepreneurs by taking over ownership of Crossroads Catholic Bookstore, which is now known as Crossroads Collective.  "I feel that all of us are called to do something for our neighbor who stands to suffer. It is easy to think about it during the cold weather or a disaster, but in someone's every day disaster or situational crisis, they also need help." The recent extreme cold snap in January 2024 has presented a challenge to the organization as our community's homeless population has risen dramatically. And then, the ancient heating system in St. Joseph's Diner broke on January 15, 2024, and needs to be entirely replaced. Day in and day out, Catholic Charities is here for our community. It's time for more of us to be there for them. A quick background on Ben Broussard: for eleven years, Ben previously worked as Chief of External Affairs for the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association with the late Don Briggs. His heart was always in sync with service to others, so when Kim Boudreaux, Executive Director of Catholic Charities, approached him to serve with her organization, Ben's temperament and ability to mobilize the troops when needed was a ready fit. Ben is an articulate and passionate spokesperson for Catholic Charities and is inclusive in his call for help in whatever way concerned community members feel they can step up. You do not need to be Catholic to be involved, nor do you need to be an active church-going member of any congregation. "The entirety of the 70501 zip code in Lafayette is a food desert. We have very vulnerable clientele come in and St. Joseph Diner is one thing they can bet on, that they can get a meal there. It is very much a very volunteer-centric operation with many volunteers coming in throughout the day." On any given day, Catholic Charities' St. Joseph Diner feeds 700 to 800 meals.....breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days per week. On any given night, Catholic Charities also houses about 160 people, including men, women, children and Veterans. With the recent deep freeze, Lafayette Fire Chief Robert Benoit gave the OK for more people to be sheltered than would normally be allowed by law to accommodate the dire need for a warm space. Catholic Charities' permanent housing program has traditionally been an extremely successful tool to help our homeless population get back on their feet in a stable environment while dealing with the underlying causes that led to homelessness, such as addictions, mental illness, physical disabilities, etc. Before COVID, Lafayette's occupancy rates were at about 80% and Catholic Charities could work with landlords to negotiate affordable rates for their clients. Now, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Ida,

Before Covid, Most Americans couldn't imagine the staggering loss of life that earlier generations experienced during epidemics of smallpox, diphtheria, polio and other fatal infectious diseases. We've been living in a golden age since WWII, when widespread use of vaccines and antibiotics eradicated the biggest killers and doubled life expectancy. But the catch-22 of medical discovery is that over time, we collectively forget the horror of the diseases from which we were saved. Today, a look at our never-ending quest to escape contagion. We also talk about the myth of ‘Patient Zero' and a lunar pandemic that never happened. GUESTS:  Richard Conniff: National Magazine Award-winning writer for Smithsonian magazine, National Geographic, and other publications. He's  also a former Guggenheim Fellow. His most recent book is Ending Epidemics: A History of Escape From Contagion. Leyla Mei: New York City-based writer and medical historian. She has a PhD in American history and writes about disease, risk and race.  Dagomar DeGroot: Associate professor of environmental history at Georgetown University. His work has appeared in Aeon magazine, The Conversation, and The Washington Post, among other outlets.  His most recent book, Ripples in the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History of Humanity's Place in the Solar System, will be published in 2024.  The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.  Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired on June 22, 2023.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey friend! Does it really matter whether you show up to your life looking and feeling like yourself? Is it really a problem for you to feel self-conscious? After all, doesn't everybody?   I think it does matter, and in this episode I'm going to give you a glimpse into my personal life to explain why and then I'll share some personality-based tips to give you a boost.   But first I want to invite you to grab my free wardrobe planning workbook, The Wardrobe Pyramid. you can download at the link below, or on my website Signature Style Systems.   Before Covid, because of some things going on in local politics, there were alot of people talking loud about the best strategies for getting people off the streets and integrated back into society. At the time, I was volunteering with a local recovery program and the hero was parking next to a train trestle and getting to know one of the residents there.   Then in one day driving through town and seeing the people walking across the street with all the earthly possessions, I had two realizations: 1) I could do more. There was so much need and I could do more. 2) Pretty much anybody, in any job, could do it such a way as to improve the life and the chances of others. And not just specific others, my vision is universal flourishing. I honestly believe we need everyone contributing at their greatest point of impact to solve the mammoth problems we have: homelessness, cancer, global warming. Loneliness.   So, what has that to do with you feeling self-conscious about how you look? For years, I was not seen as who I am and therefore I didn't attract opportunities that were inline with my gifting. I looked like a generic mom, so people asked me to babysit.   And I wasted alot of time and money on shopping for clothes that I didn't end up feeling like myself in. So my why is for you to be able to waste less of your life on shopping and trying to make outfits and to have more time to do more important things, and more impact by being seen for who you truly are.   Ready to begin to discover your Style DNA? Visit my website: SignatureStyleSystems.com. Thinking about a capsule wardrobe? Grab the workbook: The Wardrobe Pyramid and discover what clothes you really need for your lifestyle. Just want to take the first step in getting your wardrobe systematized? Get a bite-size closet project in your inbox every week.

From an outsider's perspective, Jason Wise, director of the SOMM movies and founder of SOMM TV, has been able to find stories in the world of wine that interest a broad audience. To control more of the content pipeline and how the shows are distributed, Jason founded SOMM TV. Using "Somm" as more of a curator, SOMM TV has wine at its core and covers food, travel, and other alcohol, making it appealing to a broad (and younger) audience. Learn more about the business of wine films in this episode of XChateau! Detailed Show Notes: SOMM movie (2012) - Genesis of the movieMade when he was fresh out of film school (where he didn't focus on documentaries)Met Brian McClintic, who asked him to watch their tasting practiceJason found the practice similar to a sporting eventMet Ian Cauble and found his determination to become a Master SommelierThe success of the filmThe obsessive personalities made the filmBuilds to an actual event (the MS exam)The wine industry was ready for something like the movieNot a "wine film," a different way of looking at wineIntroduced a new group of people who can tell you what to drink (vs magazines)Documentaries became popular with NetflixNot made by wine people, the outsider perspective made it enjoyable for outsidersMedia business modelMovies usually have a distributorTheaters are a big marketing arena for wineiTunes - make a % of revenueNetflix - pays the distributor a fixed fee; if put on the 1st page, it can reach millions of people. It often pays based on what it costs to make. They can own rights outright or rent the filmAmazon - get paid 6+ months after it's up, get a tiny cut of incremental revenueYouTube - don't make any money onCreated SommTV to control more steps in the business model - more control of content pipeline, partnerships, and a place to premiere new films (e.g., SOMM 4)Before Covid - events were a big part of the businessMedia platformsHulu - Jason's favorite, takes the biggest swings in contentStars - has the best moviesNetflix - very careful; content is very similar to each other; often licenses something then makes their version if it works (e.g., Uncorked is a similar series to Somm)Cost of making filmsBig range - SOMM 2 ~$100k vs ~$850k for another wine film made by someone elseDocumentaries - can be millions, when there's real music, at least $500kDo not pay people to be in the filmSommTV business modelEmployees on salary, which is unusual in film90% original contentIt started with originals and, now, trying to license other contentFocused on wine, food, and alcohol; food is going to be a big partIt started the streaming service because it's an underserved audience, and wanted to super-serve themContent pipeline - they would ideally love to have new content every dayHundreds of thousands of subscribers (as of Jan 2022) - believes the potential audience is in the millions"Somm" is defined by Jason as someone who curates - wine at the center, but food, travel, etc…surrounding itPricing - $6/month, $50/yearLower cost doesn't necessarily mean more subscribersTechnology - a mix of own-developed and 3rd party apps; the goal is to bring the technology in-houseSommTV subscribersYounger, usually 24-37 years old (~70%), middle classScreenings/events - more varied audience52% male, 48% female - women growing fastKey markets - US largest by far, UK, Brazil, Nordic countries (not allowed in Iran or China) Get access to library episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are all looking for peace ( whole ness, rest , fulfill ment) Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors! The angels claim that peace has been here all along ( Luke 2:14 ) Before COVID, 9/11, Jim Crow laws, two world wars, the holocaust, the great depression, the Spanish…

Restaurant owners on Valencia Street — at one time one of the most popular streets in San Francisco — are saying that crime, drug abuse and low tourism are killing business, according to a recent article. "If you took me back before I signed the lease, I would have opened somewhere else," restaurant owner Rafik Bouzidi said. "Before COVID there was no way in hell you could find an available space on Valencia Street," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Now it seems like another restaurant shuts down every week," he said. Support the show

Tony Fauci was running a test on Covid strains in Montana before the pandemic began. We are just now learning about this, and not from the US press. There is an upside to this, which is that Fauci is personally responsible for many people realizing that the pharmaceutical complex has been lying to us for years. Under oath, the godfather of vaccines admitted to using experimental vaccines on orphans, female prisoners and their babies, and a million people under colonial rule. But, he's not the worst. The so-called godmother of vaccines said she was bullied into admitting the truth, that her study had nothing proving that these injections do not cause autism. We also discuss the evidence of vaccine deaths: the case is closed.What does God's Word say? Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebelsAnd companions of thieves;Everyone loves a bribeAnd chases after rewards.They do not defend the orphan,Nor does the widow's plea come before them.Mark 10:42-45 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Episode 1,195 Links:REVEALED: Anthony Fauci-run lab in MONTANA experimented with coronavirus strain shipped in from Wuhan a year BEFORE Covid pandemic beganBREAKING: "Died Suddenly" is being caused by the COVID vaccines; I have the data. OR=2.22 p=.005. In other words, the debate is over. The "safe and effective" COVID vaccines are responsible for the increase in "died suddenly" events. No doubt about it anymore.Stanley Plotkin “The Godfather of Vaccines. When he is under oath he has to speak the unspeakable. I have more coming your way shillsFormer Pfizer VP Dr. Mike Yeadon tells Dr. Drew that the mRNA COVID vaccines were deliberately designed to cause blood clots and attack the immune system.A sweeping ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees of private Texas businesses is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk, carrying a $50,000 fine for employers who punish workers for refusing the shot.Covid Villain Profile: Peter DazsakWe've followed the money and identified how Joe Biden received $40,000 in laundered China money.@RepJamesComer lays out the money trailI ask @GavinNewsom about the lessons learned from COVID.What do we do right/wrong? Did we shut down schools too long?"We allowed local control. In some cases, yes they waited too. In other cases, they didn't."He says the state had little ability to determine that.Watch the “Godmother of Vaccines” Vaccinologist Dr. Kathryn Edwards wilt before your eyes during a deposition in preparation for a vaccine injury trial. The issue at hand is, how can the government and its pharmaceutical company interlocutors assert their products do not cause autism, if the proper studies have never been conducted in order to prove that?4Patriots https://4patriots.com Protect your family with Food kits, solar generators and more at 4Patriots. Use code TODD for 10% off your first purchase. Alan's Soaps https://alanssoaps.com/TODD Use coupon code ‘TODD' to save an additional 10% off the bundle price. American Financing https://americanfinancing.net Visit to see what American Financing can do for you or call 866-887-2275 BiOptimizers https://bioptimizers.com/todd Use promo code TODD for 10% off your order. Bonefrog https://bonefrog.us Enter promo code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your subscription. Bulwark Capital http://KnowYourRiskRadio.com Find out how Bulwark Capital Actively Manages risk. Call 866-779-RISK or visit KnowYourRiskRadio.com Patriot Mobile https://patriotmobile.com/herman Get free activation today with offer code HERMAN. Visit or call 878-PATRIOT. SOTA Weight Loss https://sotaweightloss.com SOTA Weight Loss is, say it with me now, STATE OF THE ART! Sound of Freedom https://angel.com/freedom Join the two million and see Sound of Freedom in theaters July 4th. GreenHaven Interactive https://greenhaveninteractive.com Digital Marketing including search engine optimization and website design.

BestPodcastintheMetaverse.com Canary Cry News Talk #685 11.03.2023 - Recorded Live to 1s and 0s WHEAT AND TARE ORE | Devil Comet, Israel MAGA Fallout, Fauci Findings, Alien Abyss Deconstructing Corporate Mainstream Media News from a Biblical Worldview Declaring Jesus as Lord amidst the Fifth Generation War!  The Show Operates on the Value 4 Value Model: http://CanaryCry.Support      Join the Supply Drop: https://CanaryCrySupplyDrop.com                                  Submit Articles: https://CanaryCry.Report                           Submit Art: https://CanaryCry.Art              Join the T-Shirt Council: https://CanaryCryTShirtCouncil.com Resource: Index of MSM Ownership (Harvard.edu)                    Resource: Aliens Demons Doc (feat. Dr. Heiser, Unseen Realm) Tree of Links: https://CanaryCry.Party         This Episode was Produced By: Executive Producers Sir LX Protocol V2 Knight of the Berrean Protocol*** Dwight B***   Producers of Treasure Shana M Sir Marty K Knight of the Wrong Timeline Malik W Dame Gail Canary Whisperer and Lady of X's and O's DrWhoDunDat Sir Morv Knight of the Burning Chariots Veronica D Sir Casey the Shield Knight Sir Scott Knight of Truth   Art Producers for Episode 685 will be properly thanked on Episode 686!   CLIP PRODUCER Emsworth, FaeLivrin, Joelms, Laura   TIMESTAPERS Jade Bouncerson, Morgan E   CanaryCry.Report Submissions JAM   REMINDERS Clankoniphius   SHOW NOTES/TIMESTAMPS Podcast = T - 4:10 from D-Live                                HELLO, RUN DOWN 7:10 V / 3:00 P DEVIL WORSHIPPERS/CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM/PSYOP/WW3 8:22 V / 4:12 P Headline: Mysterious "devil comet" that looks like Millennium Falcon to flyby Earth 2024 (Salon) *MAGA and Christian Nationalism: Bigger threat to America than Hamas could ever be (Salon) → Officials eye legislation to strip citizenship, residency from terror supporters (Times of Israel) → Resource: CCR 159 - The Truth about Christian Nationalism   DAY JINGLE/V4V/EXEC. 34:49 V/ 30:39 P   FLIPPY 55:05 V / 50:55 P Robots are servicing short-staffed restaurants. But what happens to the human waiters? (ZD Net)   COVID/FAUCI 1:08:34 V / 1:04:24 P REVEALED: Anthony Fauci-run lab in MONTANA experimented with coronavirus strain shipped in from Wuhan a year BEFORE Covid pandemic began (DailyMail)    NEPHILIM UPDATE 1:17:30 V / 1:13: 20 P Anomalies Deep Inside Earth Are Wreckage of Crashed Alien World, Scientists Propose (Vice)    SPEAKPIPE/TALENT/TIME 1:26:55 V / 1:22:45 P V4V/TIME END

Connecticut judge OVERTURNS Democrat Primary, orders new mayoral primary after surveillance videos show possible ballot stuffing, Anthony Fauci-run lab in MONTANA experimented with coronavirus strain shipped in from Wuhan a year BEFORE Covid pandemic began , and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan joins the show. Check Out Our Partners: Patriot Mobile: Go to https://www.PatriotMobile.com/Benny and get FREE Activation Allegiance Gold: Go to http://www.protectwithbenny.com/ and get up to $5,000 in free silver with a qualifying purchase Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is John Gilroy It is hard to believe that I have done over 1,000 podcast interviews. Some guests get four hundred impressions on LinkedIn, and some get 4,000. How do you explain the difference? -- keep listening . . .. Hit the music, Manny . . .  = = = Ever since Covid, I have been doing lots of in-person interviews – at BBQ places, Fish Shacks, breweries; we have had fantastic success; most guests ask how they can leverage their appearance to increase reach and improve brand awareness for their company. Let me share with you four ways to take advantage of your podcast appearance. ·      Tell the story visually. ·      Be specific. ·      Make it easy to reach you. ·      Ask  = = = =       Number ONE           Tell the story visually – I realize this is counter-intuitive, but our small human brains react to images much better than audio or text. Studies have shown that your optic nerve is 40x faster than your audio nerve. So . . . >Make sure you have a great publicity photo. I have changed the publicity photo on LinkedIn       for clients and have seen their followers double. > Even better, get a photo doing the podcast face-to-face; it's not that difficult. You can ask the podcast producer if they can record at a conference. The “where” is not important. LOGO When you do your promotion, people will see the image first. An image of a guest in a Zoom and an image of a guest in front of a microphone with a logo is like night and day. >You need three elements for a successful on-site interview:   a microphone with a logo, a professional photographer, and an audio engineer. MICROPHONE – A “flag” is the logo that appears on a microphone – make sure you have one. PHOTOGRAPHER: The professional photographer will get you fantastic images for promotion, but also for your LinkedIn profile, and your website. You can use it when you ask to get on other podcasts. AUDIO An audio engineer using a directional microphone can bring life to the interview. The listener hears noises in the background, it makes the interview authentic. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  = = = = = = = =  = = = = = = = = = = = =   Number TWO          In order to be terrific, you gotta be specific. Before the interview, rehearse a short “origin” story and a “customer benefit” story, include details and colorful language. Example: Yeah, we have been in business for a while now. Example: We were founded in 2016 by two Google engineers who had a better idea of how to manage networks. = = = From there, develop statistics about the problem you solve. Listeners will remember the story, but the numbers will make it emotionally comfortable to justify listening to the podcast. = = = Covid has really had an impact on system administrators managing cloud applications; how has Covid impacted your log volumes? Example:  Many companies have increased the numbers they manage Example:  ·      Before Covid we were managing 200GB per day in log data ·      After Covid, we now manage 100TB a day in log data. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Number THREE   Make it easy to reach you. >This is equally true if you have a big company or a small company. Example:  just look me up on Google, my name is Dennis Szymanski. That's hard. I have interviewed companies like Kenetica, Savyint, Ardalyst How to make it easy:  register an easy to remember website and redirect it to your company. Example:  I got a tough last name, Szymanski. The best way to contact me is with my website, federal tech podcast dot com. My name is hard to spell, but the fundraiser is easy: bike for your beer dot com. You can expand this to your call to action at the end of the interview. Once you have an easy to remember website, then have a call to action that will benefit the listener. Example:  Go to FederalTechPodcast.com and download the scorecard on How to Leverage your Podcast Appearance. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  = = = =  = = = = = = =         Number FOUR    Ask. >Ryan Leveque once wrote a book with a one-word title -- “Ask,” let us apply “ask” to your podcast appearance. >> Ask the host to mention the call to action verbally and on the show notes page with a link. >> Ask the listeners to download the valuable PDF from the URL you mentioned. >> Ask your company to include your appearance on the company website – you can slip it into a blog, a press release, or an event. >> Ask your social media team to prepare for the release of the interview and then hit hard, especially during the first 72 hours. Personally, for each guest I do 25 Tweets, audiogram, LinkedIn, transcript, show notes with image logo, and link to company: email, paid advertising, and much more. If that is what I do, your team should double my efforts. >> Ask your followers on LinkedIn to comment, not like. A twelve-word comment is worth a hundred “likes.” You can prime the pump by asking questions – “What do you think of a software bill of materials?”  >> Ask to get on other podcasts based on your appearance – now you have a website with a show notes page to reference when you approach other podcasters.  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  = = = = = = = = = = = Conclusion: how to leverage your podcast appearance. ONE    Tell the story visually, not verbally. TWO  Be specific. THREE   Make it easy to reach you. FOUR    Ask   I'd like to thank our guest, John Gilroy, moderator of the Federal Tech Podcast. . ..    

Cindy Gaines is Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at Lumeon, a clinical workflow automation company. While standard practices are often in place in a healthcare setting, leadership is often surprised at the variations in execution and the opportunities for automation. The goal is to use technology to extend the providers' practice and serve the patients in a familiar, convenient fashion. Cindy elaborates, "As much as we think we have standardized workflows today, I will talk to leaders who are like, "Oh, this is how we do it." And when you talk to the front lines, "How do you do this work? " you find a lot more variation out there than expected by the leadership team. So, that's sometimes where the consulting part of this company comes in. Some people think we're much more standardized than we are, and that's the opportunity to take those standardized workflows and make them easier for the teams to follow. It's this gap between clinical intent and clinical execution." "So when you think foundationally about a medical record, it meets the organization's needs but can't take care of everything by itself. That's why I believe other solutions and organizations are looking for solutions that can work in collaboration with their EMRs. That's, again, when I think about clinical workflow automation. It's about how it works as an agility layer with your EMR. Not to compete with it but to extend an EMR's capabilities. That's the opportunity people are looking for with those solutions that can extend the capability instead of competing with the capability." "If one benefit came out of COVID, it helped people embrace this in the environment. Before COVID, I used to hear providers, when you talked about virtual care and patients actually doing things themselves, it'd be, "Oh, my patients, they're too elderly to do that. They couldn't manage this technology." COVID forced us, in many ways, to advance technology for our customers and consumers. And suddenly, you had 70 and 80-year-olds doing virtual visits, and they didn't want them to go away after COVID." #Lumeon #AutomatedCare #CareAutomation #CareOrchestration #ClinicalWorkflowAutomation #ClinicalWorkflow #PatientExperience #DigitalTransformation lumeon.com Download the transcript here

Cindy Gaines is Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at Lumeon, a clinical workflow automation company. While standard practices are often in place in a healthcare setting, leadership is often surprised at the variations in execution and the opportunities for automation. The goal is to use technology to extend the providers' practice and serve the patients in a familiar, convenient fashion. Cindy elaborates, "As much as we think we have standardized workflows today, I will talk to leaders who are like, "Oh, this is how we do it." And when you talk to the front lines, "How do you do this work? " you find a lot more variation out there than expected by the leadership team. So, that's sometimes where the consulting part of this company comes in. Some people think we're much more standardized than we are, and that's the opportunity to take those standardized workflows and make them easier for the teams to follow. It's this gap between clinical intent and clinical execution." "So when you think foundationally about a medical record, it meets the organization's needs but can't take care of everything by itself. That's why I believe other solutions and organizations are looking for solutions that can work in collaboration with their EMRs. That's, again, when I think about clinical workflow automation. It's about how it works as an agility layer with your EMR. Not to compete with it but to extend an EMR's capabilities. That's the opportunity people are looking for with those solutions that can extend the capability instead of competing with the capability." "If one benefit came out of COVID, it helped people embrace this in the environment. Before COVID, I used to hear providers, when you talked about virtual care and patients actually doing things themselves, it'd be, "Oh, my patients, they're too elderly to do that. They couldn't manage this technology." COVID forced us, in many ways, to advance technology for our customers and consumers. And suddenly, you had 70 and 80-year-olds doing virtual visits, and they didn't want them to go away after COVID." #Lumeon #AutomatedCare #CareAutomation #CareOrchestration #ClinicalWorkflowAutomation #ClinicalWorkflow #PatientExperience #DigitalTransformation lumeon.com Listen to the podcast here

Every superhero has an origin story.  Superpodcasts do, too.  Guys of a Certain Age was born in Robbie's brain - those around him are not sure if it was before or after he was bitten by a radioactive Mississippi mosquito.  Then the idea was shared with Art and Jay over lunch in those glorious golden years, somewhere around 2019 B.C. (Before Covid.).  And the rest is broadcasting history.   On this epic episode which The Guys mostly agreed would be milestone number 250, they tell the story of starting, share favorite episodes, and even talk a bit about what comes next.   Unfortunately, a majority of the Geeks of the Week have to do with endings: two out of the three are obituaries.  Thank goodness Robbie had updated news of a rebirth of one of his favorite movies.  If you haven't listened to the previous 249 episodes, don't worry - this is not Ahsoka.  

Preventative maintenance with Emily SchmittAs of February 2, 2021 - Emily Schmitt, a third-generation family member, was been promoted to Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel. She leads the legal, human resources, communications, strategic planning, and administrative functions of the company. Emily earned a bachelor's degree in business management from Iowa State University in 2008, and went on to earn a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law with high honors in 2011.  After graduating she began working for Sukup Manufacturing Co. in Sheffield, Iowa as corporate counsel.Schmitt is the granddaughter of founder Eugene Sukup and daughter of current president and CEO, Steve Sukup.As the only lawyer at Sukup — which employs more than 500 people — she plays a vital role providing legal counsel at all levels of the company.When said out loud, what does preventative maintenance mean to you?In your role, why is it important to be thinking ahead?How far do you see yourself thinking ahead?Does that change depending on the situation or time of year?Emily Schmitt has fond memories of walking to the Sheffield, Iowa, office after school, playing good-natured pranks on staff members who felt like family. How did growing up around the company help you gain perspective for the role you currently have?Would you compare the childhood perspective you gained to that of a kid growing up on a farm?TELL US ABOUT THE FAMILY MEMBERS INVOLVED AT SUKUP AND HOW YOU WORK TOGETHER.I work with my husband on a daily basis. My two kids are known as the recycling directors. Before COVID, they would take a wagon around and fill it up with everybody's recycling and collect some candy. My brother-in-law, my dad – oftentimes we work five days a week. What is the key to keeping family and work tougher but separate?  We have listeners that right in wanting the solution to not being mad or resentful at a parent or a sibling involved in the farm or business.DID YOU ALWAYS KNOW YOU WANTED TO COME BACK TO THE COMPANY FOR YOUR CAREER?What would you say to our listener who is currently in school or college or working off the farm that is trying to find their fit in the family business?In your role as CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER AND GENERAL COUNSEL. Is this where you were able to have a real focus on the future of the company and what needs to get taken care of now for growth to happen in the future?In 2019 Emily was named to the business record 40 under 40.  One of the main reasons what the preventative maintenance she does with the Sukup Employees.Giving employees purpose. Getting to know the employees further ingrains my dedication to them and the company. An interesting fact about Schmitt: She created a jewelry line in high school, Gems by Em. She is using jewelry to help residents of Haiti.What do you do to tackle the tasks each day knowing that each day will be different?What is your key to prioritizing?How does this help with stress and your mental health?How do you get things done quickly when relying on other people? Do you have any tricks that have helped you become better at thinking further ahead?What do you think about the phrase “Don't assume you know what others need”Don't be afraid to ask for feedback or insightPerseveranceThe business world is a highly unpredictable and stressful environment. It's all up to specific individuals and their ability to learn and reach their goals despite the uncertainty around them. Anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?What do you enjoy most about working with and for farmers?Summary & Challenge

Today we dive into the fascinating world of the cosmetic injecting industry, but this time from a recruitment perspective. Before COVID, this industry was booming, with a surge in demand for procedures like lip injections. But how has the landscape changed since then? How do you get an injectable job? Where do you start? What do employers really want? All this and MORE covered in this fabulous episode!Our guest, Michelle, is a recruitment expert with nearly two decades of experience in the recruitment field. She'll shed light on the challenges and opportunities in the aesthetics and cosmetics industry, and share valuable insights on building a successful career in this rapidly growing field.Stay tuned as we explore the world of aesthetic recruitment, the role of a recruitment consultant, and what it takes to stand out in this competitive job market. Let's unlock your hidden potential and discover the keys to high performance in the nursing industry. Don't miss this empowering episode of High Performance Nursing!TIMESTAMPS00:00:19 Michelle has decades of recruitment experience and is the founder of Aesthetics Recruitment Australia.00:03:58 Summary: Body language, preparation, and value to employer.00:09:05 Recruiters connect employers with suitable candidates.00:12:42 Nurses have untapped potential, need encouragement.00:17:21 Communication, listening, reading people, questioning, writing, sales, negotiation, resilience, organization.00:21:57 Beauty industry booming pre-COVID, declined post-COVID.00:27:24 Nurses face challenges finding jobs in aesthetics.00:32:23 Understanding your "why" is crucial. Being a cosmetic injector requires articulating your passion, education, connections, and commitment. Flexibility and taking less desirable conditions initially are necessary. It's hard work with risks and sales targets, and there's a disconnect between nurses and clinic staff.00:37:38 Knowing your "why" makes a difference.00:41:31 Balancing work at hospital and injecting cosmetically00:46:31 Some employers can't hire certain professionals.00:48:14 Your compelling "why" is crucial before spending.Thanks for listening!Loved the episode? Leave us a review!Want to dive deeper into this episode and search for something particular? Use our AI to search here!5 Ways we can support you in your nursing career ✅Join our Free Nurse Career Growth Hub and access our free nursing application, interview and career growth guides here!Join our Nurse Career Academy and work with us to help guarantee your next nursing role!Book a free Career Clarity Call with Liam to discuss your career situation!Join our private FB community to surround yourself with like minded nurses!Check out our Youtube Channel for more nurse career support!

Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi, and welcome to the Sales Enablement PRO Podcast. I'm Shawnna Sumaoang. Sales enablement is a constantly evolving space, and we're here to help professionals stay up to date on the latest trends and best practices so that they can be more effective in their jobs. Today I’m excited to have Rachael McCormick from Vonage join us. Rachael, I would love for you to introduce yourself, your role, and your organization to our audience. Rachael McCormick: Thanks, Shawnna, and thanks for having me here today on Sales Enablement PRO. As mentioned, my name is Rachael McCormick and I’m one of the managers for Vonage’s Global Sales Enablement Team. My journey actually started with a marketing degree. When I graduated, many of the marketing positions I was looking into required years and years of experience, which I think many recent grads tend to find, and instead, I got into sales. I had success in that role and learned a lot of skills that I still utilize today and incorporate that perspective for enablement. Ultimately, when Vonage acquired the first company I was working with, there were a handful of us who were promoted into an operations role. From there, I found my love and passion for enablement. As for our team, we focus on selling skills, systems training, and content creation for tenured reps as well as new hires. That being said, we’re also responsible for sales new hire ramp just overall in general. Being that there are only so many of us on the selling skills, systems training, and content creation team, our team tends to work closely with the product and technical enablement team as well. As one solid team together, we support all of our global sales route sales to markets. I’ve been with Vonage for about eight years now. SS: Rachael, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. I’m excited to talk to you. You mentioned you’re responsible for a lot of the new hire processes, including optimizing the ramp process for new hires on the global sales team. Now, in today’s sales environment where productivity is a top priority, why is effective onboarding so critical? RM: Great question. In general, an effective sales new hire program is critical because it helps acclimate, engage, and retain good employees. If we focus specifically on the impact it can have on sales productivity, the knowledge shared during onboarding, whether it’s product, process, sales skills, or system knowledge, can really boost an individual’s confidence during a time that can be quite uncomfortable for some and simultaneously set them up for success to become a productive team member right off the gates. SS: I love that. Now if we drill a little bit to understand onboarding, in your opinion, what are some of the key components of an effective onboarding program? RM: I love this question. I’m going to focus on four components specifically. First, it’s important to integrate employees into the company’s culture and get them really excited about their career choices. A program should really embody the shared values, attitudes, and behaviors that your company aligns with. This specifically gives new joiners resources to also make professional connections. For example, make them aware of the employee resource groups that your company may offer. We work closely with the organizational effectiveness team to actually do this. Second, keep it engaging by utilizing different delivery methods or formats, which appease different learning styles throughout their entire ramp time. Before COVID, we had all-day in-person training and it was information overload. Our new hire survey scores actually increased by approximately 30% when we moved to a more flexible training because we were able to utilize different delivery methods I mentioned, like live webinars, microlearning, and gamification. We started to present information long-term to help with that information retention. Third, identify objectives that a sales new hire will need to achieve for effective job performance. You can identify the learning behaviors or techniques that a sales hire will need to execute that support the specific objective. Based on that, you can determine the enablement delivery method that supports the technique. I have an example of that. One objective could be that a sales rep needs to understand how to use a CRM. The behavior they need to execute might be to effectively use the CRM on their own to input leads or create a quote. Then you’d decide the delivery method to help them achieve that, which could be utilizing a test environment or even a gamified quiz. Lastly, number four, keep it modernized and continuously listen to feedback. Our team likes to joke that sales enablement is like changing tires on a moving car or an 18-wheeler during busy times. We have to keep what is currently running and continuously evolve our programs and content to be up to date while simultaneously keeping into account, feedback from our audience and department leaders for improvement. SS: Thank you. I think that is a great definition of the key components. What would you say are some of the common obstacles that sellers might experience as they are trying to ramp, and what would you say are some of your best practices to help mitigate those through onboarding? RM: I’ll start with identifying those three common obstacles that we tend to see. Information retention, which I did mention in the previous response, and then lack of confidence as well, and third is lack of feeling connected in a virtual or hybrid work environment. In terms of information retention, we’ve adopted a model for just-in-time learning so that resources are short, targeted, and at our audience’s fingertips whenever they need it. To support this, we’ve enhanced our resource repository tools and have standardized this by working closely cross-functionally with different departments, and we utilize the same tools altogether and align on the same messaging. This has been really impactful because, again, we have such a large audience across different time zones. Second, to mitigate a lack of confidence, it’s important to incorporate opportunities for simulated activities to practice. Whether it’s in a system test environment or role-playing sales skills, we really believe that repetition is key and we have a layered approach to that as well. Lastly, to help new joiners feel more connected in a virtual or hybrid environment, we’ve implemented a buddy program where another sales team member works closely with the new hire to further welcome them, address questions, and help them navigate a new organizational culture. SS: I have to say I love the buddy approach. It is like an instant friend whenever you enter a new organization. I think the other role that plays a key component in onboarding new hires is often the frontline sales manager. How do you collaborate with sales managers to reinforce the knowledge and skills learned in onboarding for these sellers? RM: Another excellent question. We collaborate with sales leaders in two ways. First, we have regular communication with them, whether it’s during live calls or written out via collaboration software and weekly sales update newsletters, where we tend to provide updates on existing enablement initiatives, taking in feedback for enhancements, as well as making sure that they’re aware of some of the improvements from an onboarding perspective. This really gives us the opportunity to continuously collaborate. Second being we’ve launched an enablement program for our sales leaders, where we’ve coached and collaborated on methods and tools that we also use during onboarding so they can continue to reinforce that message. For example, one focus for the sales leader training was data hygiene. We focused on that specifically on the ‘why' it’s important so that managers can continue that message. We’ve had really great feedback from sales leaders on those resources and the release of these collaborative workshops to help them and their reps be more productive. SS: I think those are fantastic approaches. I’d love to understand a little bit in terms of metrics or definitions. How do you define what it means for a rep to be fully ramped? What are some of those key metrics or maybe even milestones that you track throughout their ramp-up journey? RM: We support all routes to markets with various ramp lengths, but on average, I’d say about 90 days. We ultimately break milestones up into buckets, whether it’s product, process, sales skills, or systems. For product, the rep might need to obtain all of their product badges that are specific to their role. For sales skills, the rep might need to submit a mock sales pitch that their manager approves and passes. For processes and systems, the rep might need to attend a training and then execute that process in a test environment to pass. In each one of those buckets, there are different milestones that need to be achieved over the course of those first 90 days or so. SS: Amazing. Last question for you, Rachael. How do you assess and evolve the impact of your own onboarding programs to continually optimize the ramp time? RM: Great question. We currently assess by evaluating NPS, so Net Promoter Score. We collaborate with sales leaders on the enhancements by utilizing internal cross-functional focus groups that our wonderful transformation manager actually does lead. As mentioned earlier, we’re really passionate about listening to feedback and hearing from our internal customers on what’s going well and where areas of improvement potentially sit. With recently launching our new enablement system less than a year ago, the next phase is to implement and utilize their integrated data analytics to further optimize ramp time in general, as well as further build out role-specific material for each route to market. SS: I love that, Rachael. Thank you so much for joining the podcast today. RM: Thank you, Shawnna. This has been great. SS: To our audience, thanks for listening. For more insights, tips, and expertise from sales enablement leaders, visit salesenablement.pro. If there's something you'd like to share or a topic you'd like to learn more about, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you.

Do you feel in a way like you are an old soul living in this foreign new world where up is down and right is wrong? It's easy to think you're the crazy one. But what's right doesn't change simply because someone is screaming it at you from every direction.   You aren't crazy.  You're an old soul living in someone else's vision of a new world.  And the good news is. You don't have to accept someone else's altered reality. You don't have to accept anything that feels wrong to you. And it isn't our job to fix someone who has a different opinion and believes an altered reality but it also isn't our job to cater to it.  Someone wants to believe something crazy.  The consequences are for them not for me. But I won't be a party to it. And we do have friends that have kids that are struggling with some of the latest fad altered reality and I do go out of my way not to offend but Im not gonna step on my old soul beliefs, the things I know to be true to cater to someone else's insecurities.  And I know it seems like life has been really hard the last few years. Mainly since Covid. And it's easy to just feel so negative and like things are so bad and it doesn't seem like it's getting better.     But I believe things are getting better every single day.  Now, Hear me out before you call me crazy for saying that.  Think about it. Before Covid people blindly trusted that just every single medicine a dr prescribed is for our own good. They know better.  We thought Drs were only looking out for our health but now we know that maybe that isn't always the case. Maybe just maybe we ought to be taking a little more responsibility for our health and not handing that job over to a dr that is taught to prescribe medicine for a living not get to the root of the problem.   Drs are not bad people but you aren't sick because your body is deficient in the latest pharmaceutical.  There's a root problem that needs to be addressed. People are waking up to personal responsibility because of the monster that was Covid, it's waking people up to maybe we should be looking at our health from a different perspective. I know for me it's been a real eye opener.  But you see that's all good things, that awakening is going to make us healthier and less dependent on drugs.   Covid did that.  Seemed super bad on its face but that's what it took to get people to be more responsible for their own health…and not leaving it to drugs and pharmaceutical companies that profit from it so something really good and life altering actually came from Covid.  That's why it so good to Always look at situations from the question ….How is this working in my favor?   It also opened the eyes of parents to what their kids are being taught in school. Some of this altered reality is being Force fed our kids from kindergarten. To what end I don't know but it can't  be good. But you see you don't have to accept that.  Your child is your child. Your child is not the governments child. You get to instill the values you want, and look if someone else wants their child to have an altered reality, it's not our job to change that. Leave it alone. You being an old soul means you rise above it. You raise your kids with your values and if you see someone trying to influence them intentionally in a way that will hurt them you remove them from that influence.  In whatever way you can. It may mean homeschooling, a private school or moving school districts.  I don't know but you don't have to accept an altered reality.  We don't have to accept someone else's vision of a new world where wrong is right and right is wrong.   You have just as much right to your belief as anyone else does. You are not less than because of your values and beliefs but remember someone else is just as entitled to their values and beliefs as you are.  And it's not our job to change someone else's values and beliefs. It's only our job to live true to ours. 

It's In the News, a look at the top stories and headlines from the diabetes community happening now. Top stories this week: a new pilot program will allow some pharmacists to prescribe CGMs, Georgia becomes the latest state to pass a law securing Glucagon for schools, new info about COVID-19 and new cases of T1D, insulin pump infusion set and skin reaction study, does kombucha tea lower blood glucose and more! Moms' Night Out early bird specials will end soon for Texas and Rhode Island!  Please visit our Sponsors & Partners - they help make the show possible! Take Control with Afrezza  Omnipod - Simplify Life Learn about Dexcom  Find out more about Edgepark Check out VIVI Cap to protect your insulin from extreme temperatures Learn more about AG1 from Athletic Greens  Drive research that matters through the T1D Exchange The best way to keep up with Stacey and the show is by signing up for our weekly newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter here Here's where to find us: Facebook (Group) Facebook (Page) Instagram Twitter Check out Stacey's books! Learn more about everything at our home page www.diabetes-connections.com  Reach out with questions or comments: info@diabetes-connections.com Transcription: Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I'm Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now XX In the news is brought to you by AG1. AG1 helps you build your health, foundation first. XX New pilot program to allow pharmacists to prescribe CGMs. This comes from the American Pharmacists Association Foundation, with support from Helmsley Charitable Trust. While many patients with diabetes may not even have access to a primary care physician, the average person interacts with their community pharmacist 12x more often than their primary care provider. The program will launch in 20 community pharmacy practices across the U.S. There will be a 90-day enrollment period followed by 12 months of monitoring and management https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230720044367/en/The-APhA-Foundation-launches-patient-enrollment-for-a-program-to-expand-access-to-pharmacist-provided-continuous-glucose-monitoring-CGM-devices-and-services XX We told you recently about Mobi's approval, that's Tandem's tiny pump, billed as the world's smallest durable automated insulin delivery system. Convatec Group now saying they've partnered with Tandem on a new five-inch infusion set for the Mobi. Not a lot more information than that, but interesting because while Convatec makes infusion sets for just about every tubed pump, last year, Tandem acquired another infusion set developer, Capillary Biomedical. https://www.outsourcing-pharma.com/Article/2023/07/18/Convatec-to-manufacture-new-infusion-set-for-Tandem-Diabetes-Care XX New law in Georgia to make sure all schools have emergency glucagon on hand and that it can be used for any student. House Bill 440 took effect on July 1, 2023. It will allow public and private schools in Georgia to acquire and keep a supply of glucagon. It allows prescribers to provide standing orders or prescriptions for ready-to-use glucagon to schools so that this medication can be rapidly administered to students in an emergency. Schools will also be able to work directly with glucagon manufacturers or third-party suppliers to obtain the products for free or at fair market or reduced prices. In 2018 a school nurse in Illinois used another students glucagon on a different study having an emergency, breaking the law. It's since been changed in Indiana and now, in Georgia. Disclaimer: the state rep who sponsored this bill, Doug Stoner is married to my dear friend Trip Stoner who lives with type 1. https://www.thegeorgiavirtue.com/georgia-legislature/georgia-bill-to-help-schools-treat-hypoglycemic-emergencies-becomes-law/ XX I think most of us know this but good to see research on it. A new study shows skin reactions at insulin pump infusion sites are common among people with type 1 diabetes who use the devices and can lead to delivery failure. researchers at the University of Washington, in Seattle, used biopsies and noninvasive imaging to compare insulin pump sites with control sites in 30 patients. They found Several differences were found at pump sites in comparison with control sites, including fibrosis, inflammation, eosinophils, a disease-fighting white blood cell which indicated an allergic reaction here. The inflammatory response, they say, "may result in tissue changes responsible for the infusion site failures seen frequently in clinical practice." Nearly all patients (93.3%) reported itchiness at the site, and 76.7% reported skin redness. While the researchers think preservatives in the insulin or the makeup of the infusion sets are probably to blame, they admit they don't really understand it fully yet. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/995068 XX Very large new study seems to confirm that the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a jump in cases of type 1 diabetes in children and teenagers. This study pooled data from 17 previous studies and looked at 38-thousand people under the age of 19. They found the incidence of type 1 was about 14-percent higher during 2020, the first year of the pandemic, than in the previous year. The incidence rose higher still in the second year of the pandemic, up 27% from 2019. Before COVID-19, the incidence of type 1 diabetes in children was rising at a steady rate of around 2–4% a year. The meta-analysis did reaffirm that children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes tended to present with more severe forms of disease during the pandemic than before. The incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening complication of new-onset type 1 diabetes, rose by 26% from 2019 to 2020, probably because people were hesitant or unable to seek emergency care when early symptoms appeared. It's still unclear what triggered the sudden increase in diabetes and how long the trend might persist. It's also important to keep in mind that a few researchers have spoken out that they believe the increase sounds implausible. And that Studies from Finland7, Scotland8 and Denmark9 could not directly link coronavirus infections to the increase in type 1 diabetes. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02322-0 XX Commercial – AG1 XX New research shows the best time to predict childhood type 1 diabetes is ages 2-6, when screening detects 80-percent of future cases. Research shows screening children ages 2-6 best predicts childhood type 1 diabetes, successfully detecting 80% of future cases. Early screening also leads to more timely treatment, better health outcomes, and less diabetes distress. These researchers reviewed findings that screened 90-thousand children under the age of 6 and 32-thousand children under 18. These researchers emphasized the need to work towards the adoption of universal screening at the state government, payer, and healthcare provider levels. https://diatribe.org/early-diabetes-screening-kids-can-improve-quality-life XX Very small pilot study suggesting that kombucha reduces blood glucose levels in adults with type 2. I'm including this because you'll likely hear a lot about it.. but keep in mind, the sample size was too small for statistical significance. A total of 12 participants with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to consume 240 mL of either a kombucha product or placebo daily with dinner for 4 weeks. They then waited 8 weeks and switched to the other product for another 4 weeks. Kombucha significantly lowered average fasting blood glucose – on average from 164 to 116. Kombucha tea is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/995035 XX Afon, a Welsh based company, is working on a non-invasive glucose sensor that has the potential to revolutionize the way blood glucose levels are monitored. We've heard these types of promises before, but are yet to see something materialise into a real-world product. With the development of optical sensors in the early 2010s, the concept of using technology to monitor glucose levels in a non-invasive manner was first brought up. Light is used by these sensors to obtain signals from beneath the skin. For several years, there has been discussion about incorporating such technology for glucose monitoring by smartwatches. Afon adopts an entirely different approach. Its blood glucose sensor is called Glucowear. It is an RF sensor that fits under the base of the wrist. The gizmo uses radio frequencies to obtain signals from beneath the skin. Unlike optical sensors this technology provides real-time monitoring with no time lag. Hoping for a 2024 launch date The company stated that they hope to have the device on the market by early 2024. This is an extremely optimistic goal given the stringent requirements imposed by health regulators. There is no information available on how well Afon is progressing with regulatory approval, and the company's website makes no mention of the regulatory process. So far the Afon Blood Glucose Sensor has undergone three rounds of testing at Profil, a world-renowned diabetes research center in Germany. A multi-phase trial of this technology will be conducted at Swansea University's Joint Clinical Research Facility (JCRF) later in 2023. There will also be other multi-site trials before the device hits retail in 2024. Glucowear delivers real-time continuous glucose monitoring through its wireless integration with a smart device. Designed to be placed under a user's smartwatch, the sensor allows the said device to serve as an integral part of the monitoring system. Afon promotes the Glucowear as a comfortable wearable and ensures that the painless CGM has a battery lifespan of up to 14 days when fully charged. https://gadgetsandwearables.com/2023/07/24/afon-blood-glucose-sensor/ XX https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/cultureclinic/105707 XX On the podcast next week.. talking to Justin, better known as DiabeTech, who was diagnosed with T1D by TikTok! Last week I talked to the author of Sweeite! That's In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.  

Despite the United States accounting for around 5% of the world's population, it houses nearly a quarter of the world's prison population. This often discussed metric begins to make sense when examining the major cities like Los Angeles, New York and others, where things like poverty and mental illness are often considered “crimes.” Host Robert Scheer digs into this phenomenon in Los Angeles on this week's episode of Scheer Intelligence with Melissa Camacho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.“First of all, it has to do with the criminalization of poverty, the criminalization of mental illness. What are we talking about? These are people who are innocent at this moment and they have not had any day in court,” Scheer expressed. Together, Scheer and Camacho discussed the recent small victories in L.A. county, where subhuman conditions set for detainees have gradually improved, including new limits on how long detainees can be held at inmate reception centers and how long they can be chained to chairs and benches. Camacho explained that the fight for the improvement of these conditions has been ongoing with the ACLU for over 50 years.Before this recent victory, detainees would be subject to environments people often associate with third world countries. “[Detainees] were getting stuck in the [inmate reception center] for days at a time, and those who were the sickest were stuck on the front bench, chained to the front bench for literally 24, 48, 72 [hours]. I talked to somebody who had been on the front bench for 99 hours,” Camacho said.Camacho also mentioned the efforts to control the levels of overpopulation often experienced at these jails. “Our L.A. County jails are authorized to hold around 12,400 people, but they consistently operate above that level, 14,000, 15,000. Before COVID, it was up to 17,000,” Camacho said. As a resident of Los Angeles, Scheer describes how he sees and knows that most of the time, the people who are getting arrested are part of the thousands of houseless people who line the streets of the city.

Before Covid, Most Americans couldn't imagine the staggering loss of life that earlier generations experienced during epidemics of smallpox, diphtheria, polio and other fatal infectious diseases. We've been living in a golden age since WWII, when widespread use of vaccines and antibiotics eradicated the biggest killers and doubled life expectancy. But the catch-22 of medical discovery is that over time, we collectively forget the horror of the diseases from which we were saved. Today, a look at our never-ending quest to escape contagion. We also talk about the myth of ‘Patient Zero' and a lunar pandemic that never happened. GUESTS:  Richard Conniff is a National Magazine Award-winning writer for Smithsonian magazine, National Geographic, and other publications. He's  also a former Guggenheim Fellow. His most recent book is Ending Epidemics: A History of Escape From Contagion. Leyla Mei is a New York City-based writer and medical historian. She has a PhD in American history and writes about disease, risk and race.  Dagomar DeGroot is an associate professor of environmental history at Georgetown University. His work has appeared in Aeon magazine, The Conversation, and The Washington Post, among other outlets.  His most recent book, Ripples in the Cosmic Ocean: An Environmental History of Humanity's Place in the Solar System, will be published in 2024.  The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we are living in a world where access to all of the knowledge of humanity is getting easier, faster, and more accessible to all. This means that know what and how to ask questions to obtain the required answers have become a skill onto itself. On this episode, we have a dialogue with Jon Berghoff about the power of questions, and how to know if you're asking the right questions. Jon Berghoff is the founder of XCHANGE Approach, a company that delivers legendary group learning experiences designed to blow open exponential thinking, and exponential results. Jon's a living legend for a reason, and he's a ton of fun. We promise you; your brain will thank you for listening to this dialogue today. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go. Jon Berghoff on creating an experience where people feel safe The conversation starts off with a question for Jon, particularly on how he could create successful digital events in a world where people don't fully subscribe to them yet. Jon shares that he drew his drive from his own experience back in high school, where he felt like he was left out and was disconnected for other people. In time, he realized that breaking through this disconnect is one of the important details in getting people excited for conversations, meetings, or on his case, digital events. Because they have a place where they feel safe and where they feel they belong. Jon Berghoff on the role of questions The next part of the dialogue focuses on the importance of asking the right questions and creating meaningful experiences in meetings and gatherings. Christopher recognizes that a company's success is attributed to asking the right questions, listening, and creating a positive experience, and Jon is an expert at asking questions and creating a safe environment. They then talk about the difficulty of adapting to a rapidly changing world and how it relates to ineffective meetings. Jon emphasizes the importance of designing meetings that address complex issues and move away from the notion that a few people have all the answers. The Ego-centric design of meetings The conversation then shifts to the ego-centric design in meetings and conversations. Christopher observes that some meetings have the feel of dictatorial ego-centric events in which a few people present their vision and have all the answers. Jon agrees and explains that many meetings are unconsciously designed with an ego-centric approach, in which either a few people have all the answers or participants are more concerned with convincing each other of their own ideas. They do, however, recognize the need to tap into collective intelligence and shift the paradigm to engage everyone's thinking. Jon emphasizes the importance of questions in this process, stating that the world's complexity requires less emphasis on having all the answers and more emphasis on asking the right questions. He refers to John Kelly's view that future intelligence will be measured by the ability to ask the right questions rather than what one knows. To hear more from Jon Berghoff and the power of questions in today's knowledge-driven world, download and listen to this episode. Bio Jon Berghoff is the founder of the XCHANGE Approach, a scientific approach to unlocking collective wisdom in any group. These are extraordinary times, which call for exponential conversations. Which is why innovative leaders have run to XCHANGE as the solution for bringing together companies, communities, customers in powerful ways. Before COVID-19, XCHANGE was leaned on by companies like Facebook, BMW, Costco, to facilitate powerful, large-scale conversations... when the stakes were highest. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, change agents of every type: coaches, consultants and thought leaders... are using XCHANGE to create connection,

Before COVID more and more children around the world were receiving their routine vaccinations on time and in full. But COVID severely interrupted that progress. Now, we are seeing lagging indicators of interrupted childhood vaccinations in the form of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria.  To reverse this trend a number of global health entities have joined forces for what they call “The Big Catch-up” to boost vaccination among children following declines driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. joining me to discuss trends in routine childhood vaccinations around the world, the impact of COVID 19 on those trends and what can be done to restore progress is Dr. Ephrem Lemango, associate director of immunization at UNICEF headquarters in New York.       

Blyss Young is a seasoned home birth midwife who has so much knowledge, experience, and a special heart for VBAC. Blyss hosts her own podcast, Birthing Instincts, alongside her cohost Dr. Stuart Fischbein where they normalize physiologic birth outside of the hospital.We asked our VBAC community what questions you have for a midwife who supports home births after Cesarean and Blyss has answers! You will leave feeling inspired, educated, supported, and loved for whatever your birthing choices may be after listening to this beautiful discussion. We absolutely adore Blyss and know you will too!Additional LinksBlyss' WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsThe VBAC Link Facebook CommunityFull Transcript under Episode DetailsMeagan: Hello, hello women of strength. It is Wednesday. Actually, it's Monday the day of this episode and we are coming at you with another Cesarean Awareness Episode. I am so excited to be doing extra episodes this month. Today we have our friend Blyss Young. You guys, if you don't follow her and her podcast with Dr. Stu, you need to do that right now. Push pause and go find them because they are amazing. They are a wealth of knowledge. They just make me smile. I feel like every time I'm done listening to an episode, my face hurts because I've just been smiling. Really, though. I remember I fell in love with Blyss and Stu years and years ago. We've been so fortunate to have them on the podcast before and Blyss agreed today to be on the podcast blessing you again with her wealth of knowledge and answering some of your questions. We put out in The VBAC Link Community, “What questions do you have for a midwife?” and we got quite a few surrounding home birth. I know this might sound like a really heavy month of talking about home birth because Julie and I got a little salt at the beginning of April talking about a home birth but it's just such an important topic that a lot of people don't know is an option. Review of the WeekSo we're excited to dive into today's episode with cute Blyss but of course, I have a review of the week that I would like to read. The title says, “Thank You” and it's from cara05. It says, “I just wanted to drop a review and say thank you. Because of listening to some of your podcasts, I felt empowered to talk to my OBGYN about skipping the repeat Cesarean in the event that I go past my due date. This was something I had in my head that I really wanted. Opting for induction to still try for a VBAC was important. She was and just over all of this so supportive.” Sorry, that was a little weird for me to read.“She was so supportive of the idea and totally on board which helped me get more excited about championing–” Blyss, I can't read this morning. Sorry, Cara. “--this VBAC so thank you.” Oh, man. This is where Julie always would come in handy. She would really read reviews really well. So going on and having her VBAC. Congrats, Cara, for feeling empowered and that you were able to talk to your OBGYN. This is something that is so important whether you are a VBAC mom or not. We want to have a good relationship with our provider and we want to make sure that we can have those tough conversations. When they may be suggesting induction or a repeat Cesarean for going past your due date, but if something in your heart is telling you no or you are seeing the evidence and you're like, “That doesn't feel right,” have those conversations. I encourage you to have those conversations with your providers. I mean, is there anything that you would say to that as well with being a provider in the world? I feel like as a provider in my head, I would want someone to tell me their thoughts and feelings. Blyss: My relationship with my clients is very intimate. Meagan: It is. Blyss: Yeah. One of my teachers, Elizabeth Davis, who wrote Heart and Hand is a longtime midwife and teacher. She talks about the more we do prenatally, the less we have to do in labor. So I feel like that relationship that we have and hearing the internal landscape of the client is so important because when we are in labor, our body responds. Our hormones respond to feeling safe and having trust and being able to really relax. That's true for every one of my clients but especially with my VBAC clients because they have another level of trauma many times that they are having to go with. That could be their experience that happened in the hospital or maybe they were transported from a home birth and had a Cesarean. And then there's that level of, “Does my body really work? Can I trust my instincts?” So the more that we can dialog about those things and start to really pull that apart and work with them prenatally, I feel like the better chances we have in having that successful experience. Meagan: Yeah, absolutely. I will never forget it. I transferred to my midwife at 24 weeks with my third, my son, my VBAC baby. I just remember looking forward to those days when I got to go see my midwife because I would be feeling angst and hearing all of the static in the world. I remember just walking and she would always greet me with a hug and say, “How are you doing today? What do we need to talk about?” We talked. We dissected those fears and really talked about the things that were going through my mind at that time. I remember always leaving, going with a weight on my shoulders and leaving just feeling refreshed and more connected to her. Blyss: Yeah. Meagan: I think it's important. I know that it's hard in the system because we have providers that are restricted on time. They have so many patients. They've got bogged schedules. They're tired so it's a little harder for them to be more intimate, but I still encourage our listeners to have those conversations, to let them know where you're at so like you said, you can work through it prenatally so that during the birth, those things aren't coming up. We talk about that in our course. VBAC can be different and need more time prenatally. So yeah. If we don't do those things ahead of time, it can definitely impact us during labor. Blyss: Yeah. You know, expect that kind of care. You're not getting that kind of care if you're not feeling the way that you just described when you leave your provider's office. Start to think about what it is that you really want. I know not everybody has the option to either financially or because of availability be able to work with a midwife necessarily, but plan to have somebody on your team that you do feel can support you that way whether it's a doula or maybe doing some concurrent care with a midwife in your area where she can hold the space for you and give you those positive feelings that can help prepare you for your delivery.Meagan: Absolutely. Talking about that, I did dual care for just a little bit as I was debating a little bit and figuring out logistics. Just doing dual care made me feel so much better. I would go to one place and hear one thing and then go to the other and have to work through that. She did have the time and the resources to provide me with that comfort. I love it. Q&A with Blyss YoungMeagan: Okay, well like I said, we have some questions and I think they are really good questions from our listeners. We'll just dive into those if you don't mind and then feel free if we need to stagger away from them on any other topics or passions. This is one of the questions actually that was put in. We talked about this right before we jumped on. What is a CPM versus CNM or a licensed midwife? There are so many questions that people ask. There is a myth that CPMs are not qualified or able to handle VBAC and especially HBAC. I feel like this is the big myth. If you wouldn't mind, could we debunk this a little bit? I don't necessarily agree with that. Blyss: Yeah. I think it all comes down to what you feel aligns best with your values. Just so you understand a little bit about how we're trained. Certified professional midwives, our licensing body is different across the United States. This is one of the problems with our systems whereas we look at other European countries where midwives are integrated into the medical system, we don't really have it together in that way here in the States. The licensure is different from state to state depending on the local jurisdiction. CPMs' certification is our national certification. I practice here in California so when I take my board exams, I'm licensed by the medical board. It's the same licensing board that licenses OBs that gives me my exams. I take my exam and I take the CPM and the LM. That may not be the case across the country. We learn our bookwork and then we have an apprenticeship. We work side by side with midwives or doctors to learn our hands-on skills and then we take a board exam similar to many doctors and nurses and people like that who have this professional capacity. A CNM is a certified nurse midwife. They are licensed by the nursing board and they become nurses first and then have their specialty added to it of midwifery. As professional midwives, all we train for is out-of-hospital birth. That is our specialty. We specialize in low-risk, normal, healthy pregnant moms and their babies. A mom who has had previous Cesarean labor and delivers exactly the same as any other mom. They have an increased consideration because they have this scar so the integrity of risk has been affected but other than that, everything is exactly in terms of their pregnancy and their labor and delivery. We absolutely are champions for these moms being able to have and experience a vaginal delivery for the healing of all of that trauma that we talk about. And also because of your long-term health as a woman who is delivering maybe multiple babies in your lifetime, it's actually much better for you to be able to have a vaginal delivery than to continue to go and have Cesareans. The benefits for the baby of being able to pass through the biome and have those mechanics that help empty their lungs as they are delivered and all of those things that the baby benefits from having physiologic birth. We are champions for that for these moms and for these families because we know. There are some things that we watch for in case there is a uterine rupture or dehiscence as we would say where the scar opens a little bit. There are things that will be a little bit different than a mom who has not had a previous surgery, but other than that, this mom is just a mom who is pregnant and wants to have her baby. So we're absolutely skilled to be able to support that. If you look at the statistics of success because a mom who has had a previous Cesarean is a TOLAC. She is desiring to have a trial of labor after a Cesarean. I lost my train of thought. Meagan: You are just fine. You were just talking about uterine rupture. We have a small increased risk but we are just having a baby as well so at home we have to pay attention to uterine rupture and dehiscence and things like that. There are signs and then you were going to the statistics. Blyss: Yeah, there are signs that we are skilled to be able to look for. Meagan: Yeah. Statistically, uterine rupture happens at 0.4-1%. It's pretty minimal but having someone who is trained in out-of-hospital birth is a little bit different but it doesn't mean that anyone is less qualified to support someone giving birth after having a previous Cesarean or previous Cesarean. Blyss: Oh, yeah. So what I was going to say and where I lost my train of thought was the statistics in terms of success so actually having that vaginal delivery is much higher out of the hospital with a midwife than it is in the hospital. That is something to consider as well. If that's your desire, you want to put yourself in a situation where you're going to have the best possible support to be able to have the vaginal birth that you are desiring. Meagan: Absolutely. That's what Julie and I spoke about at the beginning of April kicking this special episode series of home birth and the chances of success outside of the hospital. We talked about how I want to say it was 18% of people may transfer. Tell me if you know the stat. I think it was 18 or so percent. But within that 18% of transfers, it was usually exhaustion, needing an epidural, or maybe we've got some scar tissue or something that we can't work through, it's a failure to progress, and maybe we need something else if we can't get a homeopathic way to work. I want to say that was what we found. Is that approximately what you would say?Blyss: That's not my statistic. Meagan: Well, yeah. Your statistic is low.Blyss: I would say for a mom attempting to have a vaginal delivery after a Cesarean is the same statistic as a mom who is attempting a first-time delivery. We treat them in the same way in a lot of ways because they haven't had that pushing phase. They haven't pushed a baby out. Their labor depending on how far they dilated in their previous labors is going to give us some information as well. If a woman got all the way to 10 and was pushing her baby out and then they for whatever reason decided that a Cesarean was appropriate, her labor is going to be more like a multip, so someone who has labored except for that pushing phase. And someone who maybe didn't ever get to have labor– you're raising your hand. Meagan: Yep. Blyss: Or I think one of the questions that is coming up is that you only dilated to so far and you're not sure if you're going to be able to get past that point? Those moms are going to be treated more similarly to a mom who has never had labor before. We are going to support them in that way. You have to really, I think this is what we don't understand. A lot of the studies and statistics that are done when you're looking things up or hearing about things are from a medical perspective. They're from medical perspectives. The way that they treat– and I was a doula for many years before I owned a center. I was a doula for many years before I started doing a private home birth practice. I know what it looks like in the hospital to support a VBAC. I've been there with them. Your provider and their faith in you and the way that you are treated by the nursing staff and all of that has a huge impact on your ability to be able to labor and progress normally. We are mammals so our bodies are going to respond the same way a cat or a dog or a cow who wants to go and be off by themselves and have privacy and not feel like they're being watched. Your hormones respond to that. Labor moving straightforwardly in a normal way is affected by you feeling that way. That's what I was saying when we were talking about the different licensure. It really depends on where you're going to feel the most comfortable but you want to have a team that really believes in you and makes you feel, as we were talking about in the beginning, relaxed, comfortable, and empowered because those are the things that are going to affect your body progressing normally. Meagan: Absolutely. Absolutely. As a doula, I've supported VBAC clients both in and out of the hospital but there are times where there is a lot of pressure and angst that is created. That is not helping our labor. Julie and I mentioned it in our episode. We have to think about it like we wouldn't give birth in the same place where we conceived. We don't conceive in front of a whole bunch of people with bright lights on a bed with things strapped to our bodies, right? Blyss: Right. Meagan: But then we do give birth this way. It's just something to be mindful of for sure. Blyss: I didn't get a chance to say that my statistics for first-time moms are a little bit higher than for moms who have already had a vaginal delivery. That statistic is about 10%. As you pointed out, the majority of those are not emergent transports. Those are transports where we are ready for something a little bit different. Again, this is when even midwives have a different level of comfort in terms of how they care for you. I don't transfer someone to the hospital because I'm ready for them to go. I transfer people to the hospital unless there is a medical indication. If there's a medical indication then obviously, I'm like, “Okay, we need to go,” but in terms of this exhaustion and wanting something different and maybe wanting to rest and get an epidural or get access to Pitocin to augment the labor, those kinds of things, for me, if everything is looking great medically, then this is the mom's choice. This is not something that I'm going to make that decision for her. I had a mom the other day. This didn't happen to be a VBAC mom, but just in a normal labor. She had the pushing instinct. It went away. We labored with her for another nine hours because she had a lip and then she pushed her baby out. All of the doulas who were with us were talking about how if that happened in the hospital, that mom probably would have definitely been augmented, definitely not left alone, given a lot of pressure, a lot of vaginal exams, and then probably would have ended up having a Cesarean or a “failure to progress.” But what that mom needed was rest. She needed to eat. She needed to feel like she was ready for the next level of her labor. It was a very mental thing for her we believe. That's not something that is always given either at home or in the hospital. Sometimes, especially, I was just talking to a VBAC mom right before we got on the phone because she went in to see if she could get a consult with a backup doctor in her local area. I sent her to the most common doctors that are supportive of transport. This doctor said, “No doctor in their right mind would back up a mom attempting to have a vaginal delivery at home.” And this is the best we've got. We got on the phone and we were talking about her feelings about all of that because she would really love to know if she's going to have a repeat Cesarean, she would really like to know the person with who she's having a Cesarean. Meagan: Totally. That's one of the reasons why I did it. Blyss: Yeah. That's a reasonable thing to desire but what she's finding out is that she might not have that option and just being in that doctor's office, she said that the nurse came in and said, “Can you take off your pants so we can do a pap smear?” She said, “I'm not coming in for a pap smear.” Just that was a perfect example of being treated like every other person and not being individualized. This woman was coming in for a consult. But it solidified her desire, “This is why I'm not going into the hospital again. If I need it, then it's a good option but it's not something that I'm feeling like I want to choose.” It's just solidifying her desire to have this out-of-hospital experience. Meagan: Absolutely. I think for those who are doing dual care, it's important to still learn the stats and the facts because they can sometimes inflate these numbers and these statistics then you are left thinking, “Wait, am I making the right choice?” My provider told me, “Good luck, no one is going to want you out there.” It was a little different than what she was told but very similar. No one was going to want me out there. It made me question, “Why? Am I that scary of a patient?” That's just not a good feeling and it's not how you should be feeling during pregnancy and especially not during birth. I'm going to lead into one of the first questions that were actually written. Why is there so much backlash around HBAC? When we were talking about backlash, I think it really just means so much hate and distrust about HBAC. I mean, do you find that a lot of people are coming to you saying, “Everyone's telling me not to do this,” or maybe they're even scared? I feel like maybe by the time they come to you, they are confident in their decision, but do you ever have any clients come to you who are still unsure?Blyss: I think that people can be in care and still feel a little unsure. There is part of the process of just unraveling the experience that you had last time and being with somebody who consistently says, “Everything looks good. You're doing great,” and just normalizing the experience of having a joyful pregnancy. The mom that I just talked to, she's like, “There are risks in everything.” I think that's true too. You can look at a statistic that says, “You have a 1% chance of having this happen,” and you can try and say, “I want to try and take that risk down to zero.” Obviously, there is risk in everything. You can't have no risk, but there are people who look at it and go, “I have a 99% chance of having success.” Meagan: That's what we say. Flip it and be like, “I have a 90.9 or 99% chance of full success.” It's like, “Well, dang. That means I'm pretty high up there.” Blyss: Yeah. That's probably how you look at life in general. So if you're wanting to flip the script for yourself not just about this particular instance but about how you look at life in general because you talk about how the birth of your child is just one day. You're actually going to be raising this baby and they're going to have all kinds of risks. Do you want to spend the rest of that time with this child being worried all of the time about what possibly could happen or do you want to enjoy what life has in store for you? That's a lifestyle thing, but you can have a transformative experience and you have this thing in your life that people are looking at. They are projecting onto you their own fear. You have the ability to ground yourself in your own belief about how you are wanting to take control of not just this delivery but your life in general. I think it can help you move into feeling more confident about your choices in general. Meagan: Absolutely. I think you just nailed it right there. A lot of the time, the people that are feeding the backlash are people that have experienced an unfortunate circumstance or have experienced something personal. They are feeding it out there to the world because that's where they're at. Blyss: Yeah, or not. Or they haven't had any. Meagan: Or they haven't. Exactly, yeah. Blyss: You know, I had a mom one time in my care who was attempting to have an HBAC. Her previous doctor was sending me the records. She was transferring out of care. She was like, “This is so dangerous. How are you going to know how the baby is doing? How are you going to know the signs?” She didn't even know what we do at a home birth. She didn't know that we monitor the baby, that we have all kinds of medications, and the ability to be able to manage things at home. I think a lot of times, there is just ignorance too. There is just not an understanding of the role that midwives play. We're not doing a seance with our incense and our Birkenstocks and just hoping for the best. We actually have been trained to know what to look for. Because we do normal all day every day, that's our specialty. When something is not normal, it stands out. It's like a bad nook. You're like, “Huh. This is not normal.” If there's something going on with the mom's uterus during labor and delivery, there are going to be signs. There's going to be pain in between the contractions near the site that's unusual. There might be bleeding that's unusual. The baby's heart tone might be unusual. The patterns of her labor might be a little bit funky. There are a lot of things that will stand out to us as “This is not normal labor progressing. Something is going on.” If you're being conservative and it's a question mark, “Huh. Does this mean that something is happening with the scar?” then you can conservatively transport to the hospital and be monitored continuously because we use intermittent monitoring. Maybe nothing. Maybe you'll have a vaginal delivery at the hospital, but you have the ability to do that and not wait for something catastrophic to happen. You have plenty of time to get there and do the more conservative management of this labor just in case. Meagan: Right. One of the questions was, what are the stats of transfer for an emergency? Again, everyone's stats might be a little bit different, but what she is saying is that there are signs that indicate a change of plan before there is a crazy emergency.Blyss: Right. Meagan: I do think that what you are saying is that she didn't know what the care was. It circles back to the backlash. I think that a lot of people don't.My mom said some really crazy things. Years later, it wasn't until I really understood the mental process of my mom and everything. She was saying those things out of fear, the unknown, and uncertainty. She didn't know what out-of-hospital birth looked like because she only knew what Cesarean birth looked like. It's so important to learn those things and learn those signs but know like Blyss said, that it's not usually even just one. Blyss, you would know way more than I do. But from my experience, there are usually a couple of symptoms. It's not usually one. It's like, “Okay, we've got this, this, and this” or “We've got this happening. Let's transfer. Let's take a plan of action.”Blyss: Yeah. You were talking about my cohost, Dr. Stuart Fischbein, and one of the things he says– he was a doctor in the hospital for many, many, many years and has now been providing out-of-the-hospital support for families for 12 years now. He has the benefit of both worlds. He talks about when we say that a uterus has a rupture, we imagine a tire bursting on the freeway where it's all of a sudden a pop. But usually what it is, is what we call dehiscence. There's a little opening in the uterus. Oftentimes, that can go without having any real incidence and the only way they would know that happened is if they went in and did another surgery. So a lot of times those things will heal on their own. I think you were saying there's a 6.2% out of the people that do have a dehiscence or a rupture that have something really catastrophic that can happen. The statistics are really on your side but you have to be the one who makes that decision to say, “I would really just rather have another Cesarean,” or “I really want to try,” because there is such a high statistic of having success.One of the things that I was saying to this mom earlier is what I notice and I would consider myself a specialist in VBAC. I really love caring for these women. One is because I feel like their options are limited especially in the area that I am in. There is actually a ban on VBACs in the local hospital where they would deny these women pain relief if they came in to try and have a vaginal delivery. The women in my area are driving 40 minutes to go to a hospital in another town to be able to have this support. I feel really honored to provide this option for people who desire that. It's really important to me. And, I was transported in my first delivery and had a forceps, an instrument delivery. I didn't end up having a C-section. But when I had my vaginal delivery on my own at home after that, the triumph of reclaiming my body and knowing that my body wasn't broken and that it was just a mismanagement of my labor that led to that. I know what it's like for these women to be able to have that redemptive birth after the surgery. What I notice with VBACs is that they're totally straightforward and normal just like another mom giving birth which I talked about earlier or they come really fast. It's like the uterus knows, “I can't do this for very long. I need to be super effective.” I actually just had a woman who had a VBAC after two Cesareans with me and it was so fast that I didn't make it. That's how fast it was. I was so happy for her and her husband because he's a paramedic and he caught the baby and it was absolutely amazing. I was on the phone and on my way there. All the work that we did to prepare her for this and she just popped that baby out like she had done it her whole life. Or we might have a labor that meanders. The uterus is wise in that way too. It's like, “I need to be really conservative with my energy.” So you might have these contractions that are really far apart. Just like I did in that birth when I was telling you that we gave her nine hours to try to have that lip back, nothing was wrong. We weren't getting any signs that anything was wrong. If you're a mom attempting to have a vaginal birth after a Cesarean and you have labor like that, you want somebody with you who is going to honor and respect that your body is progressing, it's just going to take a little bit longer because the integrity of that scar, the uterus knows, “I just need to be smart about this.” If you augment that labor or push that body past what it's saying it can do, that's when you can have a problem. Meagan: Yeah. I love that you said that because I was one of those where my uterus tinkered around for a little bit. I had a 42-hour-long labor. I was like, “This is never going to happen,” but it did and I'm so grateful for that. I think that's just what my uterus needed. It needed to take its time and then it was 6-10 hours to get baby out really quickly. It just took a long time to get there. Blyss: You said you hadn't had labor before, right? Meagan: I labored like a first-time mama. I only went to a 3. My water broke before contractions really started so it had to kick in. There was a lot. Blyss: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes first-time laborers can be that way. I tell my families to be prepared for three days. That's normal. That's normal labor for a first-time dilation and delivery. I don't think that's what you're going to hear from a medical provider because they don't know normal. They only know what they decide as being normal so most of those labors get augmented in some way. Either they're induced or they give them Pitocin at some point or they just call it and say, “Your body's not doing this so we're just going to give you a Cesarean.” Meagan: Yeah. That's what happened with my second. They were like, “Oh, it's just not going to happen.” It hadn't been very long. So it does happen. Another question was going into failure to progress. If we didn't want to transfer and if there was no need to transfer but maybe we're getting tired and we're trying to progress at home, obviously we know time is our best friend. Time, trust, and faith in our body, and sometimes it is going to sleep, getting some food, and maybe doing a fear clearing. I truly believe, I've seen it so much through my own doula work and my own personal self and through the podcast and everything, that clearing your mental fears during labor can change our pattern just like that. It's crazy. But for home birth midwives, are there things that they can do to help things progress? In the hospital, we talked about how you are more likely to be augmented with Pitocin or something like that. Maybe they'd break your water. But are there things that you can do out-of-hospital to avoid a transfer because it's not really necessary at that point but to help progression if we're starting to get tired and things like that?Blyss: Well, I think that when you do have that scar, you want to be mindful of pushing the body like I said. I'm not against augmenting a VBAC but it's something to really give really good informed consent and talk through. I would probably lean more toward, “Let's sleep. Let's take the pressure off. Let's figure it out.” If you're in early labor, sometimes you can take a Benadryl and maybe even have half a glass of wine. Sometimes that can help you sleep. If you're in full-blown labor, it's a little bit harder to do. But like you said, maybe having a conversation about, “Is there something that you're afraid of? Are there people at birth that are nervous and that's affecting you?” Sometimes you have too many people there too early. Your mind can be wanting to take care of those people like, “Gosh, this is taking forever. I feel bad that my midwife is here and that my mom is here.” Send people home. Keep one person there just in case, but clear it out. You can refresh the space. If you've been in labor at home for a long time, sometimes you just change the smells. Clean up a little bit. Meagan: Go outside. Blyss: Go outside. We send our mama outside barefoot in the grass in her backyard. Those things can be really healing. I send people on walks all of the time. I know it's really hard. You don't want to get your clothes on and go outside but this is going to be really good because it takes your mind off of it. Also, going back to that hormone flow, you want to increase oxytocin so do things that can do that. Maybe put on a funny movie and get distracted that way. Maybe you and your husband can go and get in the shower together. You can have a little bit of making out and a little bit of nipple stimulation. If your bag is intact, I know this sounds totally crazy, but I've had people actually have sex and it's very effective. Or if you have a toy or something. I just saw a post the other day talking about how masturbating during labor can bring on the sensation of being able to relax a little bit more. Meagan: I've had a client do that. Blyss: Yeah, totally. Meagan: It totally worked. He did it for her but it totally worked. I was like, “I don't know what you just did and I don't need to know the details.” I was like, “Why don't we all leave? Why don't we grab some lunch? You guys do your thing.” We came back and it was business. Baby was coming. I mean, seriously, baby came three hours later. It can work, yeah. Blyss: Totally, 100%. One of the other things you can do is have a dance party. Change up the music. You don't need the spa music and Hypnobirthing or something the whole time. Put on some fun music and laugh. Shake your booty a little bit. All of these things can be really helpful. Doesn't that sound much better than laying in a hospital bed being monitored and strapped? Meagan: Or hooking up to a pump?Blyss: Yeah. So facilitating oxytocin is another one that can be really, really helpful. But you know, midwives have homeopathy. We have herbs. Our big gun is castor oil. Those things can be utilized. I think it's just a matter of really talking it through. The first thing I would always recommend is respecting the body and respecting that there's a reason why it's having a challenge. If labor really can't get going and you're really tired, then the hospital might be the appropriate place because that again might be your body telling you, “This may not feel the right way for my uterus. There might be something else going on that the uterus is protecting itself from working too hard and causing that scar to maybe not keep its integrity.” Meagan: Yeah. That's a really good point. I want to talk about how you did transfer. You weren't a VBAC. You have transferred. I want our listeners to know that if a transfer takes place, that's okay. That is okay. You're not failing because you left and changed your plan. There is no giving up because you decided that you wanted an epidural. There's no failing in that. It doesn't need to be negative is what I'm trying to say. A lot of the time, people writing in are a home birth turned Cesarean and feel totally deflated like they failed. That's just not how it is. It's not how it is. You are doing an amazing thing. You are birthing a baby. You are birthing a child out of your body. You are giving birth and you are becoming a mother to a human being. It doesn't really matter how you do it or if the plan has to change but like Blyss said, sometimes we need to tune in and say, “What is our body saying right now?” Is our body saying that we need to do nothing? Is our body saying that we need to do something? I think that is one thing that we need to remember. I think sometimes too that people think, “Oh, home birth midwives will do everything they can to avoid a transfer.” I really disagree with that. Yes, they are going to help you get the birth that you want. They are going to do everything they can and they are passionate, but I'm telling you right now listeners, or an OB that helps at home too. We know that those exist with Stu and I think there are some others. They're not going to just do something for themselves. They're not just going to keep you. “You can't leave. Nope. You can't leave because you're going to change my statistic.” It's just not going to be. It's important for you to remember that you are going to be safe. They are going to have these discussions with you and it's okay for you to have those discussions if you're feeling like you need to transfer. If your intuition is saying, “Something is not feeling right,” and not feeling like you are giving up, failing, or disappointing anybody because you're not. You're doing what's best for you. Blyss: Yeah. Again, going back to the work that you do prenatally is going to really help you in labor. The more that you can tune into your own body and know what's important to you and what you need as a sovereign person, the more you're going to be able to tune into that in labor. You don't want to be handing over your power to a provider. You want to be the one who is in charge of what's happening to yourself. They may give you information and consult with you about how things are going from their expertise, but ultimately, it's about you being the one who's saying, “This is really what I want and this is what my body is telling me.” You don't want to just wait until you get into labor to do that. You want to practice that throughout your whole pregnancy. I think that is a really important piece. And yep. Thank God we have medical advances. What I find with my clients is if we end up transferring, we've done all of these things. They've had great prenatal care. They've been able to talk and process all of these things. If they're going to have a repeat Cesarean, what they would like to do differently this time that they learned from their last experience? So if they get to that point, they know that they did everything that they could to give themselves the best chances and they feel empowered throughout the process. I think that the most important thing is that you feel like you weren't bullied or made to do something and that each step of the way, you are making a choice that feels right for you and your family. As human beings, we deserve that for everything. We deserve to be able to make these choices for ourselves. Meagan: Yeah, and I think with being able to make those choices and to feel that empowerment to be able to do that, even if the outcome isn't what we planned on, we're going to have an overall better view from that experience because we aren't going to feel like birth happened to us. We're more likely to feel like we were the active participant in our journey and the leader or the driver in the seat and have a better postpartum experience.Blyss: Yeah. And welcome to life, right? Meagan: Yeah. Blyss: Our lives don't turn out exactly the way that we planned. We ultimately have to meet life on life's terms and know that we are not in control of every single thing that happens. It's how you respond and how you move forward through a challenge that really makes you who you are and gives you the life experience that you want to have because labor and birth and being a mom is the greatest lesson in not being in control of things. It's an important one. It's a really important one. The only thing that you can really have control over is going in and deciding, “I'm going to deliver on this day and have a repeat Cesarean.” That is within your control. But if you are really wanting to trust your body and to have a physiologic birth experience, you have to be willing to let go of that control and ride the waves and see where it takes you and meet each moment with the best that you've got at that time. Meagan: Yes. Oh, I love that. I love that. Ride the waves. That is the perfect ending. I have one more question but I want to just end on that. Ride the waves. Ride the waves. Trust your body. So if I'm having an out-of-hospital birth, what should I be asking? Are there specific questions I should ask my midwife? Do I have qualifications? Are there certain things where you would say, “You're probably not a good candidate for a VBAC at home?” Are there any final tips that you would give as people are researching this option and talking to people?Blyss: Yeah, I think it goes back to what we were saying in the beginning. How do you feel when you are in this person's presence? That's a big one. Telling your story to them, telling them how you feel and what you are desiring this time and then just really feeling into do you feel that this is somebody that you want to have by your side? Ask them about their experience with VBACs. Ask them what would be the situation in which they would require a transport or that they would want to transport? See if that aligns with how you are feeling about this decision and what you would want from a provider. Maybe ask their statistics how many VBACs they have done. What is their transfer rate? When did they transfer with those people? I think that's all really important and how comfortable are they? Are you a mom who has had multiple Cesareans? How comfortable are they with those risks and do you feel aligned with what it is that they are sharing with you about their philosophies? I think that is a big part. Again, your provider and how they feel and how they approach things whether it's in the hospital with an OB or a certified nurse midwife or at home with a CPM, their feelings about it and their trust in this process is going to have a huge impact on your experience because they are going to bring those fears or concerns into the birth room or into your pregnancy and you don't need that. You need someone who believes in you 100% and when you're with them, you feel better than when you got there. That's what you're looking for. If you don't have those options available in your area, find somebody who can provide that for you virtually or find a doula who can be there with you as a continuity of care that you do have that connection and trust and faith with. I feel like that is probably the most important part of the process. Meagan: Absolutely. That's what I was looking for. I had a lot of questions at my visits but ultimately, one of the biggest things I was looking for was how I felt in their presence, their confidence in me, my confidence in them, and yeah. I mean, I liked to know what would happen if I needed to transfer or what would they be looking at to make me transfer so I would know, “Okay, this is happening. She talked about transfer,” but overall, I needed to know that that person was in my corner because I had never been in anybody else's corner if that makes sense. I was in my own corner with my first two babies and I didn't want to feel that way again because it's a very lonely corner. Blyss: Yeah, yeah. The only contraindication would be a classical incision. Other than that, I think that it's just about exploring what the risks are. Let's say it's a short interval or something like that. I think giving true informed consent to that family and making sure they understand the increased potential risk, if this is an option that they want, I would rather be able to support them in this option than send them to the hospital if that's not necessary or having those people maybe do an unassisted birth because no one's willing to support them. That's me. Not all providers feel that way but I believe if this is something that you've researched, you understand the risks, and this is what you're desiring, you deserve to have somebody there by your side. That's what we're there for. Birth is meant to happen with nobody around just like a mammal. We're designed to survive. Our babies are designed to survive. You don't actually need anybody with you, but when you hire somebody to be there by your side, we are there to be able to help you decide when it is time to get support or be able to step in and offer that medical support if needed. So if someone never wants to deal with any kind of complication that may potentially arise in childbirth, you probably shouldn't be a provider because that's our job. We're the ones who are supposed to step in calmly and help you make a decision that's going to keep you and your baby healthy. Like you were saying earlier, us keeping you home when you don't want to stay home, none of us want to have a bad outcome. We don't go to work thinking that we want to force somebody to stay home and have a bad outcome. We all want the same thing, a healthy mom and a healthy baby. For us, there's that additional layer of transformation, elation, joy, rights of passage, and having the family have an experience of understanding that this is how we were meant to deliver our babies. Meagan: I have feelings about the healthy mom, healthy baby. Just like you were saying, I add to it. Healthy mom, healthy baby, and a good experience. That's going to look different for everyone. I hope that as you are listening to this episode, you know you have options. You have options. I know sometimes Blyss talked about financially or maybe even location-wise, you are feeling that those options are stripped or you are feeling restricted. I understand that and I know it sucks. But don't ever hesitate to explore your options or maybe look for those virtual support meetings and things like that. Or maybe drive 40 minutes because deciding what is best for you is most important. Here at The VBAC Link and Blyss, I'm going to speak for you, there's no judgment in the way you birth. There's no judgment. We just want you to have a good experience and know your options. Blyss: Absolutely. Thank you for having me on. I love you and as I said, I love supporting families in general but I have a special place in my heart for VBAC moms and for the work that you are doing so thank you so much for inviting me to have this conversation. I am available for people to come out to Santa Barbara if they feel like they don't have options which I know is not for everybody. I'm also happy to do consults with people over the phone if they just need somebody who can tell them that they can do this. Meagan: Yes, I know it sounds crazy that I'm going to go to another state and have a baby, but you guys, people do it. Before COVID, I had a Russian clientele. People from Russia would come to the states here to Utah. Think about how far that is. It's not super crazy. A lot of the time, people are like, “It's a lot of money. It's a lot of effort. It's a lot of this.” You guys, this is one day in your life that will impact you forever. It really will. I will never forget my births. Money will come and go but your experience will stick with you. Blyss: Forever. Meagan: So if you can make it work, if you have a VBAC ban, or you are restricted or something like that, check out Blyss. Check out midwives in the next state over. Look at these options. Expand your ideas. Expand your ideas and know that you have options. Blyss: Yeah. Take back your power. Meagan: Take back your power. Take back your power and know that it's okay. It's okay to do something that seems weird. People are going to be like, “What are you doing?” but it's okay to do that. Blyss: And that's how change happens. If we all do the same thing, no one is ever able to see that this is possible. You deserve that. You deserve to listen to your own heart and your own instincts and what your soul is telling you is right for you. That's okay if it's not right for everybody. Meagan: Yes. Absolutely. Just like we were talking about earlier, there are going to be different outcomes and that's okay if that wasn't your outcome or if that wasn't your choice. We have people who after learning about VBAC and the statistics, the risk is too much for them and that is okay. That's okay. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Amelia Wilcox is the Founder and CEO of Nivati, a platform designed to make access to mental health solutions easier for employees. They have been recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US twice and have raised $5.7M to date. Nivati also provides flexible work to 1200 practitioners, including counselors and coaches, across North America and is used by 11,000+ employees in 60+ companies. Before Covid, Amelia ran Incorporate Massage, one of the fastest-growing companies in the US multiple years in a row, providing onsite massage services to 4,000+ corporate clients. Within ten days of the pandemic and their clients shutting down, Incorporate Massage revenues went from $6M to $0, and she had to think fast and find a new need to serve. After talking to Incorporate massage clients, she realized there was an enormous need around mental health, which her company was uniquely positioned to solve better and faster than anyone else, and that's how Nivati was born. Amelia has received many entrepreneurship awards, including being named one of the 2021 Women in Business to Watch by Startup Weekly.More Info: NivatiSponsors: Master Your Podcast Course: MasterYourSwagFree Coaching Session: Masterleadership.orgSupport Our Show: Click HereLily's Story: My Trust ManifestoSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/masterleadership. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.