Podcast appearances and mentions of bob stevens

Bob Stevens prepares the church for communion. Steve Buhler gives feedback from Manitou Lake Bible Camp, and then shares from the Word about our relationship with Jesus and living as followers of Him.

This sermon was delivered on 7/21/24. Speaker: Bob Stevens Scripture: 2 Samuel 7: 1-14a ONLINE GIVING EBLAST

Artificial intelligence in software development has been top-of-mind for federal technology leaders once ChatGPT was popularized. This concern is documented in the recent “Request for Information on Open-Source Software Security: Areas of Long-term Focus and Prioritization” which was issued in August of 2023.  Their concerns include the Secure Open-Source Software Foundation, incentives to secure open-source software, as well as research and development. If you are interested in commenting on this RFI, you may want to review a recent survey by GitLab. They recently published its 2023 Global DevSecOps Report: The State of AI in Software Development.  They surveyed 1,000 software professionals and asked about concerns ranging from data security to training.    Today, we will sit for an interview with Bob Stevens, the Vice President of Public Sector from GitLab to focus on this study and where results may be able to be applied to federal agencies. One curious finding of the study was the fact that software developers spend 75% of their time on concerns that do not include writing code.  Because software development is changing so fast, 81% of respondents indicated that they needed more training.   Follow John Gilroy on Twitter @RayGilray Follow John Gilroy on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Listen to past episodes of Federal Tech Podcast  www.federaltechpodcast.com  

This episode was recorded over video conference call in June, 2023. This is the second play episode of the fourth season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Golden's Lobstermen in Love was directed by Avery Kester, who also lends their voice to the stage directions. Jaime McMichael and Lyla Meadows read for Shelby and Mayor Flotsam respectively. Resident artist Bob Stevens reads for Roscoe. Voice Actors double to read for the human characters.

In this one-off special. Murf is joined by Bob Stevens of The MPS Society to discuss what exactly is MPS and the rare diseases it covers, How it affects people and families, Bob's journey with his sons, and how the money you have donated will help many people. Plus a lot more.Find out more about the MPS Society here: https://www.mpssociety.org.uk/Donate to our JustGiving Page here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/5-Yard-Rush-2023Help us raise the £5,000 and go beyond this figure for this amazing charity. This is truly a special episode. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/5yardrush. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was recorded over video conference call in March, 2023. This is the first play episode of the fourth season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Yourd's Remain in Light was directed by Jaime McMichael, who also lends their voice to the stage directions. Avery Kester and Lyla Meadows read for Cor and Ree respectively. Resident artist Bob Stevens reads for Sarge. Returning guest reader Taylor Veary reads for Lieu, and we welcome new guest reader Jace Cypress who reads for Cap.

Show Notes Will Bachman and Nicholas Eisenberger discuss his career path since graduating from Harvard. Nicholas explains that he was always interested in the environment, but there was no real outlet for his interest in school or business at the time.  After graduating, he took a year off and a friend of his from Princeton called him from Budapest, Hungary and told him that action around environmental issues were happening there, so he made his way to Hungary where he and his friend started the Environmental Management Law Association in Eastern Europe. The company was a hybrid between a nonprofit and consulting organization. Within a couple of months Nicholas and Peter Kellner were advising the Environmental Minister of Hungary.  They wanted to help the locals catch up to the West in terms of environmental management. They won a contract from the EPA, in conjunction with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in California, to train regional mayors outside of Budapest on environmental management.  Nicholas traveled to California from Hungary to meet with the International Director of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund where they talked about how to implement the EPA contract. At the end of the meeting, Nicholas was offered an environmental legal job with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, which he knew he should have been elated about since he was accepted into Law school and had planned a career as an environmental lawyer, but he felt deflated.  Inspired to Create Solutions to Environmental Problems However, he had an epiphany and realized he did not want to be a lawyer and sue people, but rather  that he wanted to use the tools of business to create solutions that addressed environmental problems. This became his journey. He was inspired by the post cold war zeitgeist of harnessing the tools of business to solve problems, and he wanted to combine business and environment in a way that was impactful, profitable, and good for people.  Nicholas went back to Cambridge for law school where he learned a lot and could apply it in several ways. He found the professors who had an environmental intersections, including environmental management, environmental economics, and spent his time studying the intersection between environment and business, and in an exchange program, he took an entrepreneurship class at The Business School in Berkeley. At that time in California the Internet was exploding. So, he started an internet company called MyPoints.com, an email marketing company that encouraged people to accept spam. It went public and Nicholas had to make the decision to become an advisor instead of  taking a full time position and went back to law and for two years worked in environmental law at a large San Francisco law firm where his goal was to bring together cleantech businesses and investors. He convinced the law firm to sponsor a CleanTech pitch event for companies starting to come up with business concepts to solve environmental problems. After a few positions where he was bringing together business and environmental solutions, he  Businesses Focused on Environmental Solutions After a few years and  positions where he was bringing together business and environmental solutions, he was asked to partner at a small consulting company called Green Water, which focused on helping business institute greener practices and products. They helped to develop a strategy for GE's Ecomagination campaign, the success of which inspired other corporate leaders, who wanted to compete in this space. Ultimately, the company was sold and this led to a new chapter where Nicholas began doing more work in sustainability, including starting the non profit DACCoalition.Org, CircularCarbon.Org, and PureEnergyPartners.Com. Global Thermostat, a company founded by his father and a partner from Columbia, was created to be a game-changing company that could help with the effects of greenhouse gas. Nicholas was an early investor and advisor. It was realized that simply limiting what we put into the atmosphere is not enough, and that we need to extract billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere on top of stopping the emission of it. This needs to be done in the next 70-70 plus years, which means tens of billions of tonnes a year need to be extracted. Reducing CO2 Emissions on Global Level Will and Nicholas discussed ways to reduce CO2 emissions on a global level. Biological methods such as planting trees and mangroves, restoring natural ecosystems, and stopping deforestation are important, but they are not sufficient to address the amount of emissions that have been produced in the last 150 years. Direct Air Capture, a technology developed by Global Thermostat can extract more carbon dioxide than trees can in a single year, per square meter. This technology works like a sponge, using an ultra high surface area material to attract and bind CO2 molecules. Industrial fans are used to suck the air through the material, and then low temperature heat is used to drive the molecules off the contactor and collect them so they can be sequestered or used in products. This technology is helpful in removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. Inspirational Professors and Courses Professors and courses that had an impact on Nicholas include Stephen Jay Gould, and the History of Earth and Life, and the scientific magic of our existence; Michael Sandel's course on justice, and Bob Stevens at the Kennedy School who taught about the discipline of economics. Timestamps: 06:08 Environmental Entrepreneurship 08:22 Building a Community of Diverse Professionals in Hungary 09:44 Career Paths and Environmental Intersections 20:04 Reflections on the Founding and Sale of Green Order Consulting Firm 33:41 Carbon Capture Technologies 39:16 Discussion on Global Carbon Emissions and Strategies for Reduction 47:58 The Cost and Safety of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration 49:38 Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Carbon Capture and Storage Links: circularcarbon.org/market-report/  pure-energy-partners.com  https://daccoalition.org/ CONTACT INFO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neisenberger/ Globalthermostat.com  

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has one of the first civilian software factories. USPTO uses the software factory to support a remote workforce of nearly 500 thousand employees and has shortened the development of programs from years to weeks Jamie Holcombe, chief information officer at U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Bob Stevens, vice president of public sector at GitLab, discuss the effort and how the DevSecOps approach is accelerating innovation across government. The Department of Health and Human Services has a nationwide network of regional and field offices across the country. The agency says more than 70% of its employees work outside the Washington, D.C. area. Gerald Caron, chief information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, explains how his organization is leveraging a hybrid cloud architecture and securing their expanded perimeter. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

This episode was recorded over video conference call in December, 2022. This is the fourth and final episode of the third season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Bruce's Plenty of Light at the Starlight All Night Diner  was directed by Avery Kester, who also lends their voice to the stage directions as well as the role of News Reporter. Jaime McMichael and Lyla Meadows read for Danni and Sam respectively. Resident artist Bob Stevens reads for Dr. Franklin Moxie PhD. Returning guest reader Alexandria Stevens reads for Jessa.

Ep#130 Join Host, Helen Edwards and special guest, Mr. Bob Stevens on the subject of the Apache language and the Apache Way. About our Guest, Mr. Bob Stevens. He is a San Carlos Apache tribal member, historian, culture specialist, traditional teacher of the Apache way of life and certified Apache language instructor. Born and raised on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona. 59 years young and Field Supervisor for the San Carlos Apache Tribes Language Preservation Program.You can find more on Mr. Stevens on his Facebook page: Bob Stevens or on the Facebook page: Apache Language Preservation. Thank you for all the continued support. Please leave us a review on iTunes, Spotify, or our Facebook Page: Sexy Freedom Media  You can also send us a note or review to SexyFreedomNow@gmail.com  Thank you for your gifts and financial support of this podcast through Venmo @SexyFreedomMedia  Sexy Freedom Media Podcast -Good vibes, Inspiration, true life, freedom of expression, and cool humans. Creator of Speaking Events, Workshops, Retreats, & Podcast. International Author: Nothing Sexier Than Freedom & Your Inner Evolution.  Find our #Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes Hosts, Helen Edwards and January LiddellTo get your copy of the book, Nothing Sexier Than FreedomCLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION::https://linktr.ee/sexyfreedommediaSupport the show "Buy us a coffee"https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Helofajo...https://www.buymeacoffee.com/januarylidl**Want to start your own podcast? We love using Buzzsprout! Following the link in the show notes let's Buzzsprout know we sent you, gets you a $20 credit if you sign up for a paid plan, and helps support our show. https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1879136Support the show

This episode was recorded over video conference call in November, 2022. This is the third episode of the third season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Pennington's Annex was directed by Jaime McMichael, who also lends their voice to the stage directions. Avery Kester and Lyla Meadows read for Lee and Elliot respectively. Resident artists Lindsay Partain and Bob Stevens read for Georgia and Michael respectively. Returning guest reader Calvin Porterfield reads for The Kid. New guest readers Alexandria Stevens and Taylor Veary read for Belinda Carlisle and Christopher respectively.

YA Bob Stevens har en ny inriktning, till stor del nya medlemmar och nästan helt ny repertoar och en ny turnébuss. Lyssna på Christoffer Bengtsson och Ulf Sjöstedt när de berättar om Nya Bob Stevens och planerna för framtiden! Trevlig lyssning! Kram! https://bobstevens.se/index.html Bob Stevens Hemsida    / Bob Stevens - Topic    Bob Stevens Youtubekanal https://www.facebook.com/bobstevensda...  Bob Stevens Facebook https://www.instagram.com/bobstevensb...  Bob Stevens på Instagram

This episode was recorded over video conference call in October, 2022. This is the second episode of the third season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Eppchez' They Extract! was directed by Lyla Meadows, who also lends their voice to read the stage directions, as well as the character of Mother. Jaime McMichael and Avery Kester read for the character of Woolen. Resident Artists Lindsay Partain and Bob Stevens read for Vera and EMOTUS respectively. Returning Guest Reader Calvin Porterfield reads for Pop-Pop.

When the Navy Department set about the process of simplifying its journey to modern software development, officials decided it didn't make much sense to reinvent the wheel. So instead of building a software factory and development pipeline from scratch, they borrowed heavily from the Air Force's Platform One initiative and tailored it to the Navy's needs where necessary. On this week's edition of On DoD, Jared Serbu talks with Manuel Gauto, the chief engineer for Black Pearl, and Bob Stevens, a vice president at Gitlab, the company that provides the development platform Black Pearl runs on.

This week, Carolyn is joined again by Bob Stevens, AVP Public Sector at GitLab, this time to talk about the power of hyperautomation. Listen in as Carolyn learns what can be gained through fast, accurate application security. Episode Table of Contents[00:32] What is Hyperautomation [09:02] What Has Changed in Hyperautomation Episode Links and Resources What is HyperautomationCarolyn: I'm excited to welcome back Bob Stevens, Area Vice President of Public Sector at GitLab. Bob is a seasoned veteran in public sector technology with over 36 years of experience. As the AVP at GitLab, he is responsible for helping government organizations become more productive, efficient, and effective. Bob has experience on both the industry and the government side of things. Prior to industry, he served in the United States Air Force as a computer specialist at the White House Communications Agency. Today, we are going to talk about artificial intelligence, machine learning, and what hyperautomation is exactly. Why Bob thinks it will be 2022's biggest trend. Bob, welcome back to Tech Transforms. Bob: I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Appreciate it. Carolyn: I'd like to talk about an episode that you just did with GovExec Daily. And on this episode, you mentioned that hyperautomation will be 2022's biggest trend. I'm going to be honest. I haven't really heard hyperautomation. And I get automation. I can deduce what hyperautomation is, but I would love for you to explain it to me. What's the difference between automation, hyperautomation, DevOps, all of that? Bob: Yes, I mean, it's the strict definition of the word. It's rapidly identifying, vetting in automated processes in order to produce whatever it is that you're working on as fast as you possibly can. And it trends today because if you think about the government space, they have a lot of compliance issues that they need to deal with. The Benefits of HyperautomationBob: If they can automate those compliance processes and ensure that when they build software, in the end it's going to be compliant and they don't have to go back and vet it. I mean, that's going to save them a world of time. Carolyn: Are you talking about missed compliances, automating some of those missed controls? There's 300 of them, I think. Bob: Yes, those. I think you're talking about FedRAMP. Carolyn: Yes. One of. Or authority to operate has all of those. Right? I mean, I don't know all the details. Bob: Yes, no. There's the STIGs. That the government has to put all software through and that's all about compliance. The government has to get the authority to operate, ATOs, for everything that they run. Carolyn: And renew them every two or three years. Bob: Or sooner. It depends on how much of a change occurred in the application. If you can hyperautomate all of that by the use of AI or machine learning. Again, and so by the time you produced that software, all those compliance issues are addressed. You know they're addressed because you've got confidence in the system and the way that it was done. It didn't require as little human intervention as possible, which is unfortunately, where some mistakes are injected. Then you've saved a world of time and you've made life really, really easy for the folks that are doing the development. As well as the folks that are using the applications in the end. Because they don't have to sit and wait to get the authority to operate, which sometimes can take a year.The Bad News: We Haven't Tried HyperautomationCarolyn: Is the differentiator between automation, DevOps, and hyperautomation really adding in, automating those compliances? And are you telling me that that hasn't happened before now? Bob: Unfortunately, it has not happened. I mean, that's evident by the fact that the government still has to produce ATOs and they still are doing STIGs at the end of the development cycle. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened. I think the government will embrace it and has...

This episode was recorded over video conference call in May, 2022. This is the first episode of the third season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Bella Poynton's The Girl in the Washroom is first in the episode, and was directed by Lyla Meadows, who also lends their voice to read the stage directions. Jaime McMichael reads for Stanley. Resident Artists Lindsay Partain and Bob Stevens read for Daisy and Drake respectively. Avery Kester's Butterfly Play is second in the episode, and was directed by Jaime McMichael, who also lends their voice to read the stage directions. Avery Kester reads for Narrator. Returning guest artist McKenzie Brock reads for Lapis.

Bob Stevens, AVP Public Sector at GitLab joins Tech Transforms to talk about the imperative mission of DevOps to combine efficiency, speed and security. With emphasis on empowering teams to fail fast, moving security to the left, and a deep dive into Platform 1, you won't want to miss this episode! Episode Table of Contents[00:27] DevSecOps' Speed of the Mission [09:02] The Cultural Shift That Needs to Occur to Upgrade the Speed of the Mission [19:21] The Future of DevOps Episode Links and Resources DevSecOps' Speed of the MissionCarolyn: This week Bob Stevens, Area Vice President of Public Sector at GitLab is joining me. Bob is a seasoned veteran in public sector technology with over 25 years of experience. As the AVP at GitLab, he is responsible for helping government organizations become more productive, efficient, and effective. Bob also has experience on both the industry and the government side of things. Prior to industry he served in the United States Air Force as a computer specialist at the White House Communications Agency. I am excited today to dive in and talk about the ways that we can use DevOps to modernize and secure government IT, and what the outlook for DevOps is. How are you doing, Bob? Bob: I'm doing great. The weather's getting better in DC, so it's good to see the sun from time to time versus what we've had. But yes, doing fantastic. Carolyn: Well, good to hear it. So let's just dive in. And let's walk through what DevOps is and why implementing these practices is critical to helping modernize and improve government IT? Bob: Great. So I guess DevOps is combining efficiency, speed, and security all into one. And creating software at what I like to refer to as the speed of the mission for the government. The business side is a little different. But for the government, it's all about the mission and you being able to accomplish the mission faster and stay ahead of our adversaries. In the case of DoD and on the civilian side, it's to ensure that all of the citizens that any given agency supports gets the best possible support that they can. If you look at the organizations like the Veterans Administration. You can imagine they've got a lot of applications that they've written. The Platform the Government Is Looking For to Improve the Speed of the MissionBob: To help the vets accomplish what they need to accomplish in a timely manner. So DevOps really will help them to produce the software at speed, more securely, more efficiently, and provide the most or the best service that they possibly can to all of the veterans out there, just as one example. Carolyn: So, you know Tech Transforms is vendor agnostic. And I would love for you to just take a couple of minutes and talk about how GitLab helps with that. And just what GitLab does. I've read the marketing statements and it's a little nebulous for me. I would love to have you explain what GitLab does and how it's helping agencies achieve this? Bob: I appreciate that you're letting me do this in a vendor-agnostic community. I mean, there are a lot of tools that are required to produce software. But the way that the industry or the government in particular is heading, and you can see this in some of the articles that DoD has recently released. Is they're looking for one platform that encompasses the entire software development life cycle. As you can imagine right now, I know agencies that have anywhere from 14 to 20 different tools that they're using. And the issue with that is that there's developers that like the tool that they like. So they bring their own and they develop their portion of the software. Unfortunately, when it all comes together, it doesn't always work because they've used different tools across the development organization. And so, with the use of a single platform, you can ensure that at the end, everything is going to work. The nice thing is you can continue to bring some of those other tools. Because they integrate...

On a quiet cul-de-sac, a husband and wife of 47 years are stabbed to death in the stillness of dawn. Honest and unassuming, John Sheridan, famous for never raising his voice, played against type in the rough-and-tumble world of New Jersey politics. Could the Republican lobbyist have killed his wife Joyce—a veteran public school teacher and no-nonsense mother of four sons—then set their bedroom on fire before knifing himself? That's the version of events authorities say happened in the early morning hours of September 28, 2014. But, in more ways than one, the theory doesn't add up. Key voices interviewed in episode:• Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor• Chris Stevens, Joyce Sheridan's best friend• Bob Stevens, husband of Chris' Stevens• Mark Sheridan, eldest of the Sheridans' four sons, lawyer for Governor Chris Christie's campaign and for the state Republican party for more than a decade• Peter Sheridan, John's younger brother and federal judge in Trenton since 2005• Mary Kay Roberts, hired by John Sheridan at Riker Danzig, a New Jersey law firm. Worked with him closely for a decade in the Trenton office• John Farmer, a former state Attorney General and friend of John Sheridan who runs a political research center at Rutgers University A previous version of this episode referred to Mark Sheridan as the “personal lawyer for Chris Christie.”  In fact, he was the personal lawyer for the Chris Christie campaign.  We have updated the episode to correct this.

In this episode of Artistories, we hear from Bob Stevens and Robert Wilson, staff members of the Apache Language Preservation office on the San Carlos Apache Tribe. Bob Stevens, Apache Language Instructor, begins by sharing the goals, inspiration, and urgency of the Apache Language Preservation program on the San Carlos Apache Tribe. As an instructor, Bob talks about the broad dissemination of the Apache Language Preservation services across the tribe and throughout Arizona. He reveals his deep passion for the language and the importance and intricacies of “expression” in one's delivery to communicate multiple meanings and sentiments with the same words.⁠ ⁠ We then hear from Robert Wilson, who supports the department through digital media assignments and technical support. He shares his perspective as a staff member and as a student in Bob's language courses. ⁠ ⁠ Bob and Robert conclude by sharing intimate stories about how the Apache language has impacted their lives and family relationships, and their charge to keep the language alive and accessible for all generations to come.⁠ To hear all this more, listen to the full-length podcast by clicking the link above! To listen to the mini, click below! https://kxci.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Language-Preservation-MINI_mixdown.mp3 Field activity on hunting for winter food. Photo: Language Preservation Program Classroom teaching with community youth. Photo: Language Preservation Program

This episode was recorded over video conference call in Decembe, 2021. This is our fifth and final full episode of the season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on iTunes and Bandcamp.Guerila Sabbath was directed by Avery Kester, who also lends their voice to read the stage directions. Jaime McMichael reads for V and Lyla Meadows reads for Arson. Resident Artists Steph Landtiser and Bob Stevens read for Elizabeth and Lawrence respectively. Returning Guests Rebecca Yeager and Calvin Porterfield read for Sy and Flicker.

Chatting with Robert, aka Bob, Stevens about the amazing principles he has experienced come to life by upgrading our speech and understanding our body responds to US - words included. This episode is FULL of so many little nuggets of wisdom that for us to implement, play with, and learn from. -----------------------Robert Tennyson Stevens, Founder and CEO of Mastery Systems, is a masterful facilitator of individuals and organizations that choose to transform their lives into healthy, creative, loving and fulfilling experiences. Participants in Robert's classes receive highly effective, fast-acting tools for immediate replication in their daily lives, as well as application in our health, business, education, and other professional arenas.Conscious Language Book : HereMastery Systems Website ---------------------Leslie on InstagramThe High Vibe Soul Collective (private community)

Bob Stevens, Area VP of Public Sector at GitLab, joins host John Gilroy on this week's Federal Tech Talk to discuss the entire process of the software development life cycle and provide guidelines on ways to incorporate testing in all aspects of project completion.

This episode was recorded over video conference call in November, 2021. This is our fourth full episode of the season, and features music by Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season, you can find his music on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp.Impossible Children was directed by Lyla Meadows, who also lends their voice to read the stage directions. Avery Kester reads for Alice, Resident Artists Steph Landtiser and Bob Stevens read for Brenda and Russell respectively. Returning Guest Rebecca Yeager reads for Anne; New Guest Readers McKenzie Brock, Abbey Kester, and Jaime McMichael read for Theresa, Octavia, and The Impossible Child Respectively.

The diagnosis of Hunter syndrome compels families to re-evaluate their priorities and rethink their future plans. Bob Stevens joins us again, but this time from a parent's perspective, to share his family's journey as his two adult sons navigate life with the attenuated form of Hunter syndrome. VV-MEDMAT-52004

Subtitled: Chaos is fun. This week, we're thrilled to welcome back our friends Mikey C and James Schapiro, as well as a fan of the pod who has previously appeared in a limited capacity, Kata's dad, sportswriter/anchor Bob Stevens, to talk about this year's World Series and baseball through the ages, in a panel that shan't be missed! Afterwards, Mike Rose has a confession, and our AFTER Further Review segment is overtaken by conversations about the big events in NFL Football that have occurred since our last pod—the ballad(s) of the Las Vegas Raiders, and Aaron Rodgers disappointing us all. See you next week! [This podcast has been edited and condensed for length and clarity, if you can believe it.] *Please don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review, and follow us on all of our social media... @ufrvodcast* Slide into our DMs or shoot us an email at helloufr@gmail.com to say hi or ask a question about anything you want: fantasy football, media, or romance! @ufrvodcast Facebook // Twitter // Instagram *** Under Further Review was created by Kata Stevens and Andrew Lemieux. It is produced and hosted by Kata Stevens and Mike Rose. This show was edited and mixed by Kata Stevens. Mike Rose curates the @ufrvodcast social media accounts. UFR theme is composed by Connor Hollifield. UFR brand imaging is designed by Taylor Lach. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This episode was recorded over video conference call in July 2021. This is the final Summer Short of our second (2021) season, and features music from Professor Downfall. His song "Cronos" from his album "Sol" is our intro/outro music this season. You can find this song and more from him on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp.Preparedness Status was directed by Lyla Meadows, who also lends their voice to read the stage directions.  Avery Kester reads for Lou, our newest Resident Artist Steph Landtiser reads for Riley, returning guest readers Trevor Harter, Calvin Porterfield, and Bob Stevens read for Dad, Owen, and Mr. Slinky respectively. New guest readers Julia Neuder and Mary Schiermann read for Creamsicle and Mrs. Gasparini respectively.

Dahn Tran & Bob Stevens - Butter Cloth (Shark Tank) Danh always hated wearing dress shirts. "They're stiff, they're scratchy, and you can't move in them!" So, he set out to make a dress shirt that felt like his favorite t-shirt. Using a special blend of 100% long fiber cotton and a unique manufacturing process, he developed a profoundly soft fabric he named "Buttercloth." 

In the wake of 9/11, one man’s exposure to a rare and deadly illness sparked widespread panic in the U.S. On September 19th, Bob Stevens opened a letter containing a strange white powder. A week later, he was fighting for his life as a victim of a biological weapon. It left many wondering who was responsible… and would they be next? 

In this inspirational episode, hear from Chris Pan, the founder of MyIntent Project and sought after speaker for his ability to deliver huge impact in a short time. Chris helps people connect from their head to their heart, their purpose, their passion, and their intention. The MyIntent Project's mission is to be a catalyst for meaningful conversations and positive action via handmade wearable daily reminders! The Project has helped millions of people have meaningful connections through finding their intention. It has also served everyone from Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Melania Trump, Elon Musk, Justin Bieber and has been featured on the cover of Time magazine and a 4 minute segment on the Today Show. Read more at: https://myintent.org/Executive Spotlight Speakers:Danh Tran and Bob Stevens are the founders of Buttercloth, a men’s apparel company that makes extraordinarily soft shirts - the world's most comfortable shirt! They feel like you're wearing your favorite t-shirt and look like sophisticated casual dress shirts. Their newest edition is the “Icy Cotton” shirt, which is made using patented Icy Cotton fabric, which is infused with the natural cooling power of organic mint fibers. Read more at: https://buttercloth.com/Visit the Entrepreneur Presenters for September 6th at their Websites:Shauna Ahmadian is the founder of Pronutz, offering gluten free and non GMO pistachios with a probiotic coating available in an array of tasty flavors, at https://pronutz.com/Angela Wolf Quaintance founder of Angela Wolf Video, offering video and post production services for corporations, small businesses and entrepreneurs, at https://www.angelawolfvideo.com/ Visit https://passagetoprofitshow.com/ for the latest updates and episodes.

In this inspirational episode, hear from Chris Pan, the founder of MyIntent Project and sought after speaker for his ability to deliver huge impact in a short time. Chris helps people connect from their head to their heart, their purpose, their passion, and their intention. The MyIntent Project's mission is to be a catalyst for meaningful conversations and positive action via handmade wearable daily reminders! The Project has helped millions of people have meaningful connections through finding their intention. It has also served everyone from Jay-Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Melania Trump, Elon Musk, Justin Bieber and has been featured on the cover of Time magazine and a 4 minute segment on the Today Show. Read more at: https://myintent.org/Executive Spotlight Speakers:Danh Tran and Bob Stevens are the founders of Buttercloth, a men’s apparel company that makes extraordinarily soft shirts - the world's most comfortable shirt! They feel like you're wearing your favorite t-shirt and look like sophisticated casual dress shirts. Their newest edition is the “Icy Cotton” shirt, which is made using patented Icy Cotton fabric, which is infused with the natural cooling power of organic mint fibers. Read more at: https://buttercloth.com/Visit the Entrepreneur Presenters for September 6th at their Websites:Shauna Ahmadian is the founder of Pronutz, offering gluten free and non GMO pistachios with a probiotic coating available in an array of tasty flavors, at https://pronutz.com/Angela Wolf Quaintance founder of Angela Wolf Video, offering video and post production services for corporations, small businesses and entrepreneurs, at https://www.angelawolfvideo.com/ Visit https://passagetoprofitshow.com/ for the latest updates and episodes.

In this episode we read 2019's WINNING play of the Queer Playwright's Contest, The Place that Made You by Darcy Parker Bruce. Originally this piece was slotted for full production but as a result of Covid-19 we have had to postpone this production.Feel free to join our email list at www.theatreviscera.com to stay up to date with information regarding the full production of this piece.This reading was recorded over a Zoom call and was directed by Avery Kester. Avery also lends their voice to read the stage directions. Gray Ashford is back in this episode, this time reading for Jonah. Our own Lyla Meadows reads for Ben as well as hosts the episode. Our own Jenna Cady reads for Emily, and we have special guest readers Bob Stevens and Calvin Porterfield. Calvin reads for Bud, and Bob reads for Brendan.If you would like to read with us in the podcast email us at theatreviscera@gmail.com

This week on Federal Tech Talk, Bob Stevens, vice president, Americas at Lookout, joins host John Gilroy to discuss how his company is helping agencies protect the phones and computers of employees who are teleworking during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Learn more about ButterclothDue to COVID-19 we are no longer asking for financial support for the show, instead you can now join free mentorship group calls with Fabian to get through this together. Join here.Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:Welcome to the show, Dan and Bob.B Stevens:Good morning, Fabian.F Geyrhalter:It's always great to have two people on, especially right now doing this crazy quarantine that we're all in. I know that everyone is in a different house, in a different spot. I had founder and co-founder pairs on Hitting the Mark in the past, but this is the first founder and COO, so chief operating officer combo. How long have you guys been working together?B Stevens:I met Dan, Fabian, almost 20 years ago or thereabouts. At that time I had a manufacturing company in the footwear business and Dan actually helped me out in the design areas, back when he was in school, he started. So we've known each other for many years. I've been able to watch him evolve and grow and blossom over the years, and so I had sold the company in 2016 and right about the time that Dan had decided to jump from his current head designer post into having his own company. He called me up one day and he said, "I quit my job today," and I go, "Oh my gosh." "I want to start this company. Would you help me?" Of course, there was no question. Dan had helped me for many years and I was all in to help him.F Geyrhalter:That's amazing. Let's go into that story a little bit. Dan you worked in a small tailor shop in Vietnam with your parents and then you came to the US where you took fashion classes at a local college and you actually landed a job at Mattel, designing clothes for Barbie, which is just so crazy cool, and then you saved enough money to study at Otis, which is also where my wife graduated from and it's up the street, and afterwards, you worked for various fashion companies including 7 For All Mankind. When and how did you decide to say "This is the time and now I want to start my own company"? How did that happen and what was the drive?D Tran:I've been in the fashion industry for probably around 20 years and then been head designer for 10 years at a big brand in LA, and then one day I just wake up and thinking I had to have my own brand because I'm getting old. I don't want to regret later, this is something I really want to do, and then I have this idea to create a brand, Buttercloth, and then that's how the drive kind of kicked in and then I just walk in my boss's office and just quit my job and then started.F Geyrhalter:Just that easy, right? I hear that from a lot of entrepreneurs on my show that they're doing well, they're up in their career, they do what they like doing, but they don't do what they love doing, like they know that there's something else and they take this huge leap of faith because they know looking back, even if they would fail, they would not regret having done it because it's something that they just needed to do and it's always so inspiring to hear that.D Tran:I only called my best friend that I talked to, and I asked him, I tell him like there's something wrong with me because I go to work, I'm not happy, and I have something in me to start my own business, but I don't know what it is and I'm also scared and afraid to quit my comfortable job and I have to quit all the income coming in and comfortable life and all that, and then it just bother me and that's why I decided to quit my job and go for it.B Stevens:I'll tell you a quick story. During that time, Dan was battling with himself about giving up that comfortable six figure income and so forth. He would talk to me about it weekly, and then I was watching television one morning and I saw Steve Harvey on there talking about his new book called Jump, and it's a story of him jumping off and doing his own thing to encourage other people, and so I said, "Wow, this is the book for Dan," so I bought it and I sent it to him. I think Dan read that book in three days and on the fourth day, he went in and quit his job.F Geyrhalter:I hope that is a review that you wrote on Amazon for the book because it really should be. That is fantastic.D Tran:That book has helped me a lot and it seemed like that book is talking about my life and guided me to where I'm at right now.F Geyrhalter:That is so great.D Tran:That is the inspiration book. I end up like buy few books and give to all my entrepreneur friends.F Geyrhalter:That is fantastic, and you guys branded your company to make the world's most comfortable shirt, and I'm always suspicious of these claims, right? Because they feel, to be honest, a little bit cheesy and not believable, but, and this is important and that's why you're on this show, you come from the fashion background. Knowledge of fabrics is deeply ingrained in you and you would not be launching a brand with that claim if you could not justify it first to yourself, but also to the world. So the question is what makes it the most comfortable shirt? As part two of that question, are you able to protect that claim? Is it very ownable for you?D Tran:Yeah. The fabric that we come up with is finished on both side of the fabric. That's why it touching the skin is very comfortable. Most of the fabric, they finish it only one side which is the outside, so when you touch it, it's smooth, but what we did, we finish it on the inside as well because I'm thinking, the inside is as important because it's touching your skin. So that's what we did, the double face finished fabric. That's why when our customer receive the short and they put it on, and then they're like "Oh my God, this is like the most comfortable I ever worn." I get that, a lot of that email and I had a lot those comments.F Geyrhalter:You used the words of your clients to create the positioning of the company in a way, right? You reuse what the clients say, which in my eyes is extremely, extremely smart and I have been doing that even for my own company when I just interviewed my past clients and I say "What have I really done for you?" and then they tell me things that I would have never thought I actually did for them, right? I would describe them very differently.D Tran:That's true. We have some of the customer say like "Oh my God, you guys," what's that they say? Under promise but over delivery. Whatever we're advertising out there, when they receive it, actually it's even better. They say like not only like the fabric is comfortable, also the design, the little detail they love, they liked it, all the hidden detail on the short. That's the reason they come back and bought again.B Stevens:Fabian, to bring it back to branding for a minute, one of the things that from the beginning, we had this claim, we really believed it was the softest, the most comfortable shirt in the world, and I believe in branding, you have to be bold. It's not enough to say that you have good pizza. You have to say it's Long Beach's best pizza, right? The best pizza in Long Beach, and of course you have to live up to that, but you have to make that claim and then you have to be able to prove it, and we had early... This is also I think very important in branding is to be careful who you're listening to. I've come to realize that there really are no experts, you, me or anyone else. We all have an opinion and we all have experience that we bring to the table, but there's really no experts, and if we would have listened to all of the experts that we talked to, Buttercloth wouldn't even exist. Because we had people tell us, "Oh no, you can't make that claim. Don't make that claim. You're going to get sued," we had one expert us. We had another expert tell us, "Oh, Buttercloth, horrible name." If we're going to listen to those people, we wouldn't have the brand that we have, so be careful who you're listening to, trust your instincts, make bold claims and stand behind them.F Geyrhalter:Very interesting. This is a brand expert interviewing you so I'm totally on the spot now. I think it's really interesting because that's the next wave of direct to consumer brands that have less of that fear of... A large corporation would never make a claim like that because they know they could get sued, right? But for you, you don't, you don't try to trademark it, you make a claim because you believe in it and your customers repeat it after you and you just say "Well, what could possibly go wrong?" There's a lot of truth in acting on that gut instinct, as we can tell by your success, right? Immediately after you guys appeared on Shark Tank where you got a quarter million dollar deal with investor Robert Herjavec, you have done three million dollars in sales and you sold over 30,000 shirts in seven months. That is a Testament to the idea of how you talked about your brand intrinsically, right? And how someone like Robert Herjavec believed your story, they believed the product, they believed the positioning and he said "Look, we can make a lot of money off of this brand. We can do this together," so you really didn't invest in branding much in the beginning. Everything was pretty much bootstrapped, right?B Stevens:That's right. We think we had some core pieces in place for branding, that is the name, the tagline, the logo, but we didn't have a lot of money, and so we had to bootstrap it, of course.F Geyrhalter:Everything literally started out of a garage? Is it the typical story where you just had a couple of shirts and you started?B Stevens:Literally. I have to stop and realize, I tell people to see, this is April, so literally 16 months ago, we were in a garage in Long Beach, a double car garage shipping and there were just three of us, four of us.F Geyrhalter:Unbelievable. You might've been right next to me in Long Beach. Who knows? We might be neighbors. I could have just picked up a shirt from you. How did you go about defining your audience? Because I always liked doing that. I go to a podcast guest's Instagram account and I just slowly scroll through to the very, very end of it, right? Because that kind of shows the truth of our brand actually changed, and with your Instagram account, it feels like you pretty much targeted every man alive. I mean it started with a very young, super macho kind of guy and then it moved to a very aspirational man, kind of like the Most Interesting Man in the World by Dos Equis, it has a little bit of that feel, and then now it's very much like realistic guys like myself and maybe yourself, Bob, like 40, 50 somethings that want a stylish, easy to maintain shirt. Who is your audience and how do you define it or how do you go about that? Do you use data from the sales or how do you kind of like go in between these different audiences?B Stevens:I'll talk a little bit about that and then let Dan expand on it because Dan is the guy that really knows the customer, I mean he really is, but in the beginning, of course you have some thoughts about who your customer is but you really don't know and we didn't know. When we launched, we were advertising to every man, right? But very, very quickly, we picked a pretty good time to launcj I guess that was to our favor. We launched Black Friday week of 2017, so that was a pretty good time to launch a brand and we immediately, thanks to our digital people. We had, you know, a great launch and we had some good data in there, but the data showed us immediately that our core audience really was in that 35 to 55 group. We were getting some between the 25 and 35 but we're selling $120 shirt. So you have to be realistic. Not that many millennials were buying from us in the beginning. We've been able to stretch to the younger side. I think in part, as the brand has grown and people have been more willing to realize that it was worth the investment, that they're getting more value out of our shirt because they can wear it to work and wear it on the weekends and out at night and so forth, so they're getting more value out of it, but I would say still, our core audience is that 35 to 55 year old guy.F Geyrhalter:Which makes a lot of sense to me that. Dan, do you want to add anything to that or did Bob pretty much take care of it?D Tran:I think he pretty much take care of it, but yeah, quickly after, I think few months, we recognized that our audience focus is 35 to 55, so we will design and create inspiration around that, and then that's how Buttercloth hit really spiked up.F Geyrhalter:How do you guys feel like you're currently branding Buttercloth? How do you feel like people get to know your brand? How do you market, how do you speak to people? Is it mainly at this point word of mouth and because of reviews? How is the brand being fueled? I think it's so fascinating with especially D to C brands like yourself that are very much based on a product that they claim is just superior and you just push product and hope that you get a lot of great reactions, which it seems like that's how you're growing right now, but tell me, I'm super interested in this.B Stevens:At the end of the day, it's all social, of course. It's all social media. Some of it's organic and some of it's paid, with a mix of publicity in there. We've had our fair share of publicity, starting with Shark Tank. You would consider that publicity I suppose, and being able to get our message out by talking with you, Fabian.F Geyrhalter:That's it. Hundreds of thousands of shirts will be sold after this. Forget Shark Tank.B Stevens:We'll have to turn up the bandwidth on the site after this. We started out with one channel, which was Facebook. That was our beginning channel and we got some legs built under us with that and the next thing, we started doing Google and YouTube display ads and search ads, and then affiliates, we betted on affiliates. We just grow these channels channel by channel and get more bandwidth out there, if you will.D Tran:I would say that means very loyalty to the brand whatever the brand they stick with, and our brand was very consistent and comfort, so that's why we have a high number of repeat customer and that's how we was lucky to, in order to expand, those customer and then word of mouth from those customer to their friend, families, and that helped us a lot.B Stevens:That's right, and right now, we have I think approaching 50,000 Buttercloth customers out there, and a lot of them take advantage of our referral program we offer which is a great way to see organic social growth just from those customers referring their friends to Buttercloth, so it's been another great channel for us.F Geyrhalter:How does the referral program work?B Stevens:We give a 20% discount, isn't it, Dan, 20?D Tran:Yeah.B Stevens:20% discount. If you're a Buttercloth customer and you send it to your friend and he buys something, he gets 20 off and then you get 20 off of your next order, so both of you get 20 off.F Geyrhalter:It's very smart. Back to what you were saying, Dan, you really have a fantastic customer. That customer, a guy in his 30s, 40s, 50s, when it comes to shirts, is so loyal. I know that because I am your guy, right? I'm 45. I'm smack in the middle. I'm a professional, I wear shirts every day, dress shirts to work even if I don't have a client meeting, and usually it's only one brand and one cut. Very often even one color, right? Because once you have something that you really like that works for you, we're guys. For us, it's just like "Let's reorder as many of those as possible," right? Because that's all I'm going to wear from now because I feel good in it, so you have a really great customer cut out for yourself.D Tran:Yes. Exact-F Geyrhalter:Too bad... Sorry, go ahead, Dan.D Tran:Exactly. Our customer is when they buy one already, they come back and buy 10 more. We see that trends almost like every day. We look at the history of orders almost every day and then we see this guy buy and then as soon as we ship them to him and then they receive it, and then the next few days, and then they come back and bought again right away.F Geyrhalter:That's really, really great.B Stevens:Just to point out, as Dan said before, we try to and I think we're known to under promise and over deliver, and it's that experience, it's that unboxing experience and that person opening up that shirt that is a wow factor. Because they're buying the shirt based on the the promise of this comfort, right? But when they get the shirt, they open up the package and they go, "Wow, this is nicer than I thought it was going to be" before they even put it on because of the weight of the fabric and the way it feels and the design, the unique detail that Dan built into the design and the buttons and the trim and all those things just... They may not even be able to put their finger on what it is about the shirt that they like, but they realize they like it, and then they put it on and wear it to the office and then right away, somebody says to them, "Where did you get that?" Then they're a customer for life.F Geyrhalter:How is that unpacking experience, because for so many D to C brands, it became this big thing, right? Because you show it on YouTube of how to unbox something. Did you do anything special with the box? Is there something in there that kind of creates some delight or is it literally the shirt that is just so exciting or did you do something around it as well to engage in that experience?B Stevens:All of the above, right, Dan?D Tran:Yeah. Beside the nice tissue and the logo and the colors in a nice box, but we have one insert card in there that when they first open it, they will see like "Far into the world of comfort," a guy were falling and on top of the cloud and stuff like that and then we get a lot of reaction on those customers filming the video and they say, "Wow, far in the world of comfort. Let's check it out and see how comfort they are," something like that.F Geyrhalter:It's also exciting because you are at a price point that is slightly aspirational so people do like to share it. It is a little bit of gift to themselves as well. It's a very fine line. Very interesting. Now we talked about social, we talked about packaging. Let's talk about retail for a second. I know that you had a pop up shop at the Beverly Center. Is retail dead? I mean now, after the virus even more so, or do you see a future in brick and mortar for Buttercloth?B Stevens:We have diverging opinions on that, so I'll let Dan talk first.F Geyrhalter:I love it, this is great.D Tran:Bob and I kind of have different opinions. I tell him that everything is go to e-commerce, everything bought online. Nowadays too, they don't go shopping. It's perfect for the online, but Bob have a different opinion.B Stevens:I believe that it's a big world and retail's never going to be "Dead", right? It's changing, it's going to evolve for sure. You've seen the Bonobos model, the popup models. Retail is turning more into showrooms without inventory where people can go, but at the end of the day, humans are social. We'd like to get out, we'd like to do things, so retail is never going to die. It's just going to evolve and change. I was at an event about a year ago where a lot of experts were showing the growth of e-commerce against retail and showing a lot of people think that e-commerce is bigger than retail today. It's not. It might be exactly today because of COVID, but I mean in the whole perspective, it's not, but the growth line was showing that it was going to catch up and exceed brick and mortar within 10 years globally. About 10 to 12 years. I think COVID is going to make that happen maybe in three or four years. It's going to change very rapidly now, but will it ever be dead? No, there's always going to work. At the end of the day, we're social people, we're always going to be out, and so finding a way to get outside our little e-commerce world into the social, real world out there, we just have to find the best way. Whether that's our own stores or whether it's popups or whether it's a leasing space in some of the big brands or the big box stores that are going to survive, wherever it is, we're going to be in other marketplaces and we're going to be out in the real world somewhere.D Tran:That's what we're going to compromise is popups store or have our own store as a showroom.F Geyrhalter:Totally, which I think is very much where Bob is heading with that and we're at Bonobos and a lot of them were also going. I'm an expert so I'm not going to have an opinion. How has the COVID-19 pandemic, since we touched on it, how has that impacted your business as well as its plans for this year? I mean you must feel an impact especially with a dress shirt that a lot of people are using for work and it's a little higher price point, how are you guys doing right now? How are you getting through this pandemic?D Tran:We are very lucky that we are on the e-commerce side. Our sale drop but it's not dropped very much, and I would say probably around 40% because we were lucky we didn't have any pop up store or have our own store or retail. Our focus is on e-commerce.F Geyrhalter:That's true. See Bob, how Dan got us back?B Stevens:Yeah. Conversion rates have obviously come down. Your point, a $120 shirt is not something that everybody is focused on today, but as Dan said, sales are still, maybe they're down 40% or so, but we're still shipping, our logistics people are working and shipping every day, our team, our office team, all of our designers and marketing and other people are working from home and we're making it work for us. We'll certainly get through. Fortunately, we had a very, very strong foundation. Dan is extremely conservative, so we had a good foundation and we'll weather the storm.F Geyrhalter:That's great.D Tran:We were very lucky that our company is all about comfort, so even people work from home, they still have to wear a dress shirt when they do the Zoom call or video call, so it is probably just perfect for them even they work from home, and on top of that, we have loyalty customers. They always come back and bought it.F Geyrhalter:Your shirts are iron free, right? You don't need to iron them, they're wrinkle free so this is even better for the time like today where no one goes to dry cleaners. That's a big benefit. You guys are obviously known for your shirts, right? But I read on CNBC last night that a while back, they wrote that you were thinking about diversifying your product portfolio and that you were planning to move into polos and sweaters last year. Is that still the case? Are you guys still having plans like that or are you going to stick to shirts?D Tran:Yes, we did launch a polo and sweater the last year, and this year, in May, we're going to launch T-shirts, and then this fall, we're going to launch jackets as well. We build little by little. It's going to be a complete lifestyle of four categories.F Geyrhalter:Since your brand was known for comfort, with all of the polos and the diversifying product portfolio, is it all still about comfort or what is kind of like that North Star of the brand? Is it still comfort even though you expand into all these other things?D Tran:That's a good question, because our mission is all about comfort. That's how we started from the beginning because when I started this company, thinking like the whole world going to be, go for comfort. So you see, the comfort shoes, everything is comfort, so that's why we start this Buttercloth, and then our mission is when we do any category, it's going to be comfort, it's going to be double face fabric, it's going to be stretching, six way stretch, so that even polo jackets, we're going to find a way to make it comfortable for our customers. Comfort is the key for our brand.F Geyrhalter:I'm really glad to hear that, and it all goes back to your name which I by the way think is a really good name because it's so memorable and it's so descriptive and it has longevity, right? Now in your fourth year or third year, expanding the brand, they can still go back to that idea of how a shirt actually feels. Now that you've bootstrapped branding for the last couple of years, what does branding mean to you guys as a term?B Stevens:For me, it represents the connection between you and your customer. How they see and remember you, how they feel about you, and I think it's fair to say that we want them to see us for what our mission is, to redefine what comfort is for men's apparel, and also the personality. Every person has a personality and so does a brand and we feel like our personality is one that we try not to take things too seriously so you'll see a little bit of humor, what we think is a little bit classy humor in our advertising. It's the way that we connect. It's our connection to the customer and how they see and remember us.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. Now that we're slowly coming towards the end here, I wanted to ask both of you, what is a piece of brand advice for founders as a takeaway? Say there's an entrepreneur with a big dream just like you were, Dan, years ago. What is the most important aspect to keep in mind about launching a brand? If you don't have that background, like you guys, you didn't have that launch experience, there was a lot of different product and operations experience, but what is advice of what not to do or what to do?D Tran:I think I would say trust your instinct and know your customer inside and out, and then make sure that create a product that could be commercial so it go to mainstream, because sometimes you create a product and then it couldn't be made in production. That's not going to be fun because what if you launch it and most people liked it and then you can't produce mass market, and then also take risks and don't be afraid. Don't worry to... Afraid to fail. If you fail, it's okay. Take risks but recognize that when it doesn't work, quickly change it.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely, but Bob, anything to add from your end?B Stevens:I would say just be careful who you listen to. Again, like Dan said, you have to trust your instinct. You want to talk to a lot of experts but you've got to have your filter turned up very high to filter out what doesn't go with your instinct and then stay with it. If you believe and it's strong enough, you're going to make it happen, so just be careful. Keep that filter turned up.F Geyrhalter:I so agree. There's a service called Clarity, it's clarity.fm, and there's a lot of experts there and so what I do, I'm on there too but what I do, when I seek an expert for anything, I just have a call, like a paid call, right? But with like five people for 15 minutes just to get the best out of all of them and then make up my own mind instead of hiring one expert for like a month, right? I totally agree with that idea. Not to diss experts but I think that you want to get the most out of an expert, and even to find out who you actually like and who you look eye to eye with. It's not easy to find that person. But now to my most important question, when will you have a simple black shirt back in stock? I'm waiting. Where is it? Where is the simple black shirt?D Tran:We couldn't get it on the shelf.F Geyrhalter:What?D Tran:We ordered a lot of those black shirts every month and it just sell like crazy.F Geyrhalter:Dan, I think I expect an email from you personally when it's back in stock.D Tran:For sure.F Geyrhalter:Listeners who are intrigued by your brand, where can they find the shirts that you say, and I quote you, "Make you feel like a Friday night but feel like a Sunday morning," which by the way I love. Where can they find Buttercloth? It's all buttercloth.com?B Stevens:You can find your look at buttercloth.com.F Geyrhalter:Nice. Even rehearsed. Thank you both Dan and Bob. It was great to have locals on the show without even knowing that you guys are local here. Totally appreciate your time, totally appreciate your insights and great luck with Buttercloth and I'm so glad that you guys are weathering the storm nicely now. It says a lot about how lean you were launching and how well you were positioned, so best of luck and thank you.B Stevens:Thank you, Fabian.D Tran:Thank you very much for having us too.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. My pleasure. 

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we interviewed Danh Tran, founder, and Bob Stevens, co-founder of Buttercloth, a men’s apparel company providing the comfort of t-shirts with the style of dress shirts. Essentially, Buttercloth uses a special cotton fabric blend to provide stretchability and wrinkle resistance for a wide variety of chic button-ups, polos and sweaters. Listen in to learn why and how Danh started the company as well as what’s to come for Buttercloth in the future. Topics Discussed and Key Crowdfunding Takeaways The Buttercloth story, including Danh’s background and where the unique selling proposition came from The initial process of deciding and then designing the menswear features How they got NBA legend, Metta World Peace, to be an investor and brand ambassador How the fashion brand has evolved into what it is now Their experience on the popular entrepreneurial show, Shark Tank Links Buttercloth Jump by Steve Harvey Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Transcript

Bob Stevens has been in and around the communications and broadcasting industry his entire life. For anyone that loved ESPN’s flagship show ‘Sportscenter’ you will remember Bob from his time there as one of the shows anchor hosts from 1996-2002. After leaving ESPN he went on to become an on-course reporter for PGA Tour Radio on XM Sirius. Over a 40+ year career in and around the sporting and golf worlds he’s seen and accomplished a lot. In today’s show he discusses what he’s seen, gives his thoughts on some of the hottest topics in golf, and tells some amazing stories.

Bob Stevens, vice president for the Americas at Lookout, discusses the strides his company is taking to help ensure mobile phones are secure from hackers, and what you can do to protect yourself as well.

December 20, 2019: How does a rural community attract private, federal, or state capital? Friends, Craig Miskovich and Bob Stevens, view redeveloping buildings to include affordable (with a lower case "a") housing is a community investment. Theme music by http://rhtt.net (Red Heart the Ticker)

Bob Stevens, VP of Americas at Lookout, and Cyber Work podcast host Chris Sienko, discuss election cybersecurity strategies, tips and ramifications for 2020. View the transcript, additional episodes and promotional offers: https://www.infosecinstitute.com/podcast. Join us in the fight against cybercrime: https://www.infosecinstitute.com.

Bob Stevens startade redan 1958, var nerlagt några år och startade sedan 1987 igen. Men vilka var Bob och Steven? Mats som har varit med längst började hoppa in i bandet redan som jätteung. Vi får förklarat för oss hur man spelar gitarr ”flytande” och vi sänker humornivån rejält och det dras många vitsar. Vi pratar om ”kasedans”, norsk Swing och andra dansstilar och hur danskulturen skiljer sig runt om i Sverige och Norge. Dessutom diskuterar vi ägarskap och drift av bandet, låtval och kommande album. Trevlig lyssning! Kram! http://bobstevens.se/ Bob Stevens hemsida https://www.facebook.com/bobstevensdansband/ Bob Stevens facebook https://www.instagram.com/bobstevensband/  Bob Stevens Instagram https://open.spotify.com/artist/7AJfRWIj9YqyLusD0c9aXM?si=5HIcOW_eTSOnwVW82GXrng  Bob Stevens Spotify

This week's guests are:   Bob Harig, Senior Golf Writer ESPN (espn.com) Jeff Babineau, Chief Communications Officer SKYiGOLF (skyigolf.com) Gary Van Sickle, GWAA President (MorningRead.com) Bob Stevens, Former host on PGA Tour Radio (pgatour.com/radio)   On this episode, the Golf Insiders recap a historic weekend at Augusta National where Tiger Woods came from behind on Sunday to capture his 15th major championship and 5th green jacket.   Sunday at the Masters is always dramatic, but this year golf fans around the world witnessed something that most of us thought we would never see again. ESPN's Bob Harig, as well as Jeff Babineau and Gary Van Sickle join the show to share their thoughts about Tiger and how much this win means not only to him, but to the entire sport of golf.    Former PGA Tour radio host, Bob Stevens also joins the show to help us preview the RBC Heritage.   All of this and more on this week's show!

Come on out to the Delta 109 Tavern & Eatery. This will day will be an ARCTIC blast!!!!!Host Jim Kenzie and John Purdy.Acts include: Jeff Stewart, Tina Mae, John Schwind, John Reichte, Becta Nease, Mike Hallock, Sunny Neunschwander, Chris Jaquillard, Bob Stevens, John LaPrarie, Stan GuideraAll proceedes to benefit Anne Grady Services

Read the complete transcription of the podcast on The Sales Game Changers Podcast website. BOB'S CLOSING TIP TO EMERGING SALES LEADERS: "I'll say that a lot of salespeople think, "I can't ask for the purchase order" or "I can't ask the difficult questions like do you have the money, do you have the time, what is the timeline?" Frankly, these are not difficult questions. These are questions that our customers expect us to ask. I would say don't ever be afraid to ask the question, because if you don't ask the question the answer's always no." Bob Stevens is the Vice President for Public Sector for Lookout Federal Systems. Prior to coming to Lookout he was at Symantec, Brocade and Juniper Networks. Find Bob on LinkedIn!

Allentown's winter warming station for the homeless has been shuffled around among locations and organizations for the past 5 years. It almost had nowhere to go this winter. Then a miracle happened. Finally, some good news on Valley View this week. Special guests include Morning Call columnist Bill White; Bob Stevens, pastor of Zion's Liberty Bell United Church of Christ; and David Fagerstrom, CEO of the Greater Valley YMCA. Valley View is a production of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, sponsored by the Lehigh Center for Clinical Research. Kayla Dwyer is the host and producer. Music in this episode is by Gavin Skinner, Timothy Whitelaw, Lee Rosevere and Paul Lawler.

In today's podcast, we hear about the cryptowars down under. Major DDoS incident in Finland. Bears in the home routers, and concerns about IoT and power grid security prompt a US Senator to demand answers. Smart cities present big attack surfaces. Preliminary notes on patches. ZTE and Huawei devices formally disinvited from US Government networks. Cyber retaliation expected from Russia and Iran over sanctions. And locking people in a room to teach them good cyber hygiene. Justin Harvey from Accenture on threat hunting. Guest is Bob Stevens from Lookout discussing app-based malware on mobile devices.  For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief: https://thecyberwire.com/issues/issues2018/August/CyberWire_2018_08_14.html

Dr. Bob Stevens has been an oncologist for 25 years. He has seen how incredible the human body and mind is first hand.  In this episode Dr. Bob and I not only discuss his mindset in the area of oncology but also the mindset of the patients that he works with everyday. We talk about life, death, breaking edge cancer care and lots more. For those like myself intimidated by the topic of cancer or even feel insufficient as to not having the right to discuss the topic, this is the episode for you. Dr. Stevens tells incredible stories and realities of just how amazing people are. Sacrifice for others - (7:55-8:50) Learn to feel emotions - (21:10 - 26:35) Mindset for work everyday - (25:48 - 26:35) Dealing with the pressure of ones life - (26:40 - 35:05) The word "Cancer" - (35:05 - 37:10) The odds are irrelevant - (40:35 - 45:20) Prolonging life - (44:00 - 45:25) Peace in death - (45:25 - 48:47) Evolution of cancer treatment - (48:50 - 57:20) TruLocal Dr. Stevens Instagram  Ben Fanelli Instagram Ben Fanelli Twitter My email: ben@heroicminds.live

Sandy Stevens has witnessed how wrestling has saved lives. For 34 years, Stevens was known for announcing the NCAA Division I Championships. She has been the voice at multiple world championships, numerous independent and high school tournaments along with a pair of Olympic games (1984 – Los Angeles; 1996 – Atlanta). She tells the story of how wrestling helped her husband fight cancer and overcome the odds from being raised in a disadvantaged neighborhood.

sermon transcript Why are we here? We are looking this morning at just one verse of Scripture. I do not usually do that, but I am doing it this morning. One verse of Scripture, Matthew 24:14, which says, "This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." There is so much in that one verse, and I hope we have a chance to unfold it today by the power of the Spirit. Back in 1984, I had the privilege of going to the Urbana Missions Conference at University of Illinois at Urbana. And the opening speaker, John Kyle, said, "We are here because of the Great Commission." Well, I know he was talking about the Urbana conference, but those words stuck with me, and I think they apply to us here this morning, at least in part. We are left on Earth by God after our salvation because of the Great Commission. There is still work to be done. We have assembled here to worship God and to give him glory and praise, but also that we might be renewed and strengthened for the Great Commission work that we have to do. It is still before us. We are here because of the Great Commission. You know something? Sometimes I forget that. I do. I get wrapped up into my life, I get wrapped up in what we are doing. It is easy this time of year to forget it. We get involved in the busyness of schedules. I talk to my wife all the time about the most wonderful time of the year. Well, sometimes it feels like the most over the top time of the year. I do not know what we can do about it. We are all caught in a vortex, aren’t we? And we are spinning along and what can we do? What we can do is separate ourselves out and say, "Why am I here? Why am I alive? Why has God saved me? And why has he left me here?" And the answer, at least in part, is that we are here because of the Great Commission. A Life-Changing Encounter I will always be thankful to God for an encounter I had with a young woman named Kim years ago at New Meadows Baptist Church up in Topsfield. It changed my life. I have no idea where she is today, I have no idea what is going on with her today, and I could guarantee she does not know she is being preached about this morning. I can guarantee that. But she changed my life. What happened was in our small little Southern Baptist church up there (about 40 people on a Sunday) a number of them were going out with InterVarsity on a mission trip, a summer mission trip. I was working as an engineer. I had graduated from school. I was settled in my life, had a fruitful ministry, a good Bible study, different things going on: a nursing home ministry, engaged and excited, praying for missions, doing different things, giving, but just being an engineer. She came up to me after Sunday worship and she said, "Well, we’re going. A number of us are going on a mission trip.” I said, “Well, I know, Kim. I’ll be praying for you.” She said, “Well, have you prayed about going?” And I said, “Well, no.” She said, “Why not?” I said, “Well, it’s 10 weeks. They don’t give you 10-week vacations in the engineering world. I’d have to quit my job to go on that mission trip.” She said, “Well, have you prayed about it? You should ask God. It’s not your life, you know?” I will never forget her saying that. I was really taken aback. I had thought it was my life. But really what she was saying in a very simple, basic way is, “You are not your own. You’re bought at a price, and therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20). So, I told her that I would pray about it. “Yes, Kim, I will pray about quitting my engineering job and going on a 10-week mission trip to Kenya.” Well, I forgot about that promise. You know how you forget about promises that you did not really think you had to make. And so, I went on and about a week and a half later, I was having my quiet time and the Lord brought it to my memory. “You said you would pray about it,” and so I said, “Alright, Lord. (I’ll try to get the attitude.) Lord, do you want me to quit my job and go on a 10-week mission trip?” “Yes. Yes, I do.” No question about it. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord wanted me to quit my engineering job and go on that mission trip. “Well, Lord, I have another question. What do you want me to do when I get back? I do not assume I am going to die as a martyr over in Kenya. What do you want me to do when I get back?” The Lord led me to go to seminary full-time and on a path that led me eventually here. I had no plan for my life, I was just going week by week. I hope that this message or some conversation you have with someone like Kim this morning or over the next few weeks might change your life. If God is calling on you to serve him in a cross-cultural setting, to go overseas, to do something different with your life, whether you’re a retired person or a college student or somewhere in between, or even just as a youth, you’re starting to think about your life, thinking about what God might have in store for you, get this in mind: We are here because of the Great Commission. There’s work to be done. Let’s glorify God in our body. The Goal of the Church We are here this morning to worship God, and that is a good thing. Worship is a good thing. John Piper said concerning missions that we need to realize that missions is not the ultimate end or goal of the Church. This is what he said in Let the Nations Be Glad: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of a church, worship is. Missions exists because worship does not. When this age is over and countless millions fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.” So, it is for here and now that we consider missions. The ultimate end is that people who do not know him yet, who have not called on his name, might call on the name of the Lord and be saved, and that they might eternally feast at the feet of Jesus and worship. That is the whole point. Missions is not the ultimate end. Worship is. An End Time Purpose As we look at Matthew 24, we come to an end time chapter. Now, frankly, all of the New Testament is end time, isn’t it? Because the end times came when Jesus came. But Matthew 24 is an eschatology dream. People love to read it and try to find out signs of the end and to wrestle with it. I like to do that too. I like Matthew 24. It is an exciting thing to consider the end time. The ultimate purpose of missions is eschatological, an end time purpose. We have the big picture in mind: What is God doing in the world in the end? And so, it is right for us at this time in missions to bring the two together and look at Matthew 24. What I find in Matthew 24 is a good companion verse to the Great Commission. You know the Great Commission. It says in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said, “All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.” That is a commission. It is a commandment that we should go and make disciples. A Promise Fulfilled What I find in Matthew 24:14 is a promise that the Great Commission will be fulfilled. It is Jesus giving us a guarantee that it is going to work. It is a remarkable statement: “This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” It is a promise from Jesus Christ. We tend to focus on the command and miss the promise, don’t we? We tend to focus on the commission and miss the guarantee, and the guarantee is most certainly that this work will be done. And so, I think God deserves thanks and praise for how much of this Commission he has already fulfilled. We should be standing here and saying, “Thank you, Lord, that you have done what only you could do, that you have taken the Church from a small, kind of fearful Upper Room group, 120 or so in Jerusalem, and you have conquered much of the world. Only Jesus Christ could do that.” What we are going to do this morning is glorify God together in three ways. First, we are going to understand this promise in Matthew 24:14 biblically. Secondly, we are going to recount some of God’s mighty acts over the last 200 years, to try to understand how he has really accelerated the fulfillment of the Great Commission. For that material, I am indebted to the Perspectives class. And if any of you have not taken the US Center for World Missions’ Perspectives class, talk to Bob Stevens. This is a wonderful class that you can take. He is right over here. I will not have you stand, Bob. But at any rate, if you want to know who he is, come and talk to me. But the US Center for World Mission has put together a wonderful class called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement.” I learned so much about what God has done in the last 200 years. We are going to look at that very briefly. Thirdly, we are going to rededicate ourselves to the remaining task. Matthew 24:14 in Context Let us look at it biblically: Matthew 24. I told you I am just going to preach on one verse, but I just cannot take a verse out of context. Let us do a little context work. Matthew 24:14 is found in Matthew’s gospel. Matthew’s gospel is all about the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. Specifically, it is about the King of the Kingdom of Heaven and his glory, Jesus Christ. So, from the very beginning of Matthew’s gospel, in which the record, it starts out, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David,” it establishes Jesus as the Davidic king, the promised Messiah. He is the king of the Jews. But as it unfolds, it is clearer than ever as you just go on and read Jesus is really the king of the kingdom of heaven. That’s what he is because he preaches, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He is talking about an advancing kingdom. As the kingdom advances, we find that it is a rejected Kingdom. Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey, the people are all shouting and saying hosanna, and they are laying down cloaks and palm branches. But very soon after that, Jesus goes into the temple and cleanses the temple. I believe it is at least the second time that he cleansed the temple. And he, again, joined battle with the scribes and Pharisees, with the Sanhedrin, with the chief priests and the elders, the teachers of the law, with the powers that were at the time religiously, because they were doing wrong, they were using religion for their own personal gain. They were filled with greed and self-indulgence, they were devouring widows’ homes, they were living for this world. They were looking good on the outside, but inside they were full of dead men’s bones. Jesus takes them on, and it culminates in Matthew 23 with the sevenfold woe that he speaks on the scribes and Pharisees: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.” He goes through this seven times, a sevenfold condemnation from the one who will be the judge of all the Earth. He has the right to do this. He has the right to speak a sevenfold woe on these false leaders and teaches. He calls them blind guides. At the end of that, he laments over the spiritual state of Israel, focuses on the city of Jerusalem, and says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, your house has left you desolate. For I tell you that you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” And then Jesus left the temple. That is the desolation. When Jesus leaves, that is the desolation. His symbolic exit from the temple at that moment was very significant. You know how the Prophets did symbolic actions that showed spiritual truth? It was very significant when he said, “Behold, look now and watch, because your house has now left you desolate because you’re not going to see me again.” And out he goes, “Until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Oh, I have to put in that hopeful thing, because some day they will say it. Amen? They will say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” but they were not ready to say it then. So, it was a rejected kingdom. As I have mentioned before, the disciples, having no clue as to what was going on, came up at that moment and said, “Master, what magnificent buildings! Isn’t the Temple so ornate? Isn’t it magnificent?” They are kind of like country folk. They don’t get to the city much, and so they were just impressed by the architecture. That was bad timing, wasn’t it? But for God’s purposes, wonderful timing. And so, Jesus said, “Do you see all these stones? Do you see all the glory? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down.” What a shock! How can it be? And they are waiting for Jesus to take up his throne, and they’re wanting to sit on the right and the left, and they’re thinking, “I’m going to be undersecretary of whatever real soon.” That is not going to happen. “What do you mean the temple is going to be destroyed?” That does not fit. And so, they came to Jesus privately, because I think they were afraid of the answer, and they said to Jesus on the Mount of Olives, it’s called the Olivet Discourse, “Tell us, when will this happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” The threefold aspect of the disciples’ question makes Matthew 24 one of the hardest chapters in the New Testament to interpret. When will this happen? What is this? The destruction of the temple. And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? How do we unravel the strands? How does it work? It is very complicated. Thankfully, we do not have to do it this morning. We are just focusing on one verse, remember? So, we are going to zero in on that one verse, and Jesus is beginning to answer the question. From verse 4 up through verse 14, he begins… And this is the context. Certain and Uncertain Signs As he is discussing it, he is talking about what I consider to be uncertain signs. Look what he says in verse 4 and following. He says, “Watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name, claiming I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.” There are false Christs and false prophets that come just like Judas the Galilean and Theudas who appeared during the time of the census. Gamaliel referred to them in Acts 5. Have you ever heard of Theudas and Judas? Well, if you had not read Acts 5, you would never hear of them at all. Let me tell you something, that is what makes this so magnificent. Jesus is just another religious leader, right, sitting up on a mountain saying, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” No, he is not just anybody. Because when he says it, it happens. When Judas the Galilean says things, nothing happened. He ends up getting killed and his followers are scattered. When Theudas says something, nothing comes of it. He gets killed and his followers are scattered. Jesus is the Christ, and when he says something that is going to be true from here to the end of time, you know what, it is. That is the way Jesus is. And so, he says, “False Christs and false prophets are coming. You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you are going to be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you’ll be hated by all nations because of me.” What are these? These are what I call uncertain signs of the end. What do we have as we take that whole section? You have political events, geopolitical events, nations rising and falling, empires rising and falling. You have famines and earthquakes and cataclysms, and you have persecution and difficulty. These are uncertain signs of the end because they are true of every generation from the time that Jesus came until now. You cannot use them to identify any one generation. In 1526, Martin Luther, as he looked at the political events of Europe, wrote to a friend: “Now, what had happened is the Turks had conquered a section of the Hungarian empire and were just literally knocking on the gates of Europe. They were ready to overrun.” Most people thought that the Turks were going to overrun Europe. Luther thought so too, and he said that he believed that the end of the world was so imminent that he would not have the time to finish translating the Bible into German before the end of the world came. By the way, he finished seven years after that. Yes, he was wrong, but let me tell you something. It’s always been a passionate interest of Christians to find out by looking at the equivalent of the New York Times or The Jerusalem Daily, whatever, Bugle, whatever they had back then, looking at the headlines and saying, “What’s going on? We are definitely in the last 40 years,” or whatever. How Lindsey did it with the establishment of secular Israel. And so, he began writing The Late Great Planet Earth and all that. We are looking at the signs of the times. Jesus said, “Let me give you a sure and certain sign. This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So that is a sure and certain sign of the end. Five Aspects of Matthew 24:14 Let us look at the verse itself and unfold it a little bit. I am going to look at five aspects of the verse very briefly: First, the message in the verse. Secondly, the method. Thirdly, the mission. Fourth, the motive. And fifth, the mystery. 1. The Message First, the message within the verse. What does he say? This gospel of the kingdom. The word “gospel” means good news. This good news of the kingdom is going to be preached. Good news. What is the kingdom? Well, it is God’s sovereign right to rule over what he has created. He has the right to be king over what he made. But it goes deeper than that, doesn’t it? The fact of the matter is that the kingdom of heaven’s advancing has to do with human beings through repentance and faith, coming under the submission of the king and glad about it. They are glad that Jesus is King now. They are delighted that God is ruling. They are delighted. It is glad submission. That is where it is. Demons are subject, remember, in Christ’s name. They are not glad about it all. They are terrified of Jesus. Kings that do not even know Jesus are subject to his sovereign rule, though they know it not. Because the king’s heart is like a water course in the hands of Lord. He directs it whatever way he pleases. But they do not know about it. It is unknowing. It is ignorant. We are talking about glad submission to the authority of Jesus the king. That is what is going to be preached. Such as it says in Psalm 97:1, “The Lord reigns, let the Earth be glad. Let distant shores rejoice.” Be glad about it, that God reigns. Be delighted in it. And so, we desire to be delighted in the fact that God sits on his throne, and we want to find out what his will is and do it. That is the advance of the kingdom. Now, why is it good news? Why it the gospel of the kingdom? Because God is a good king, and everything he ordains is right, and fruitfulness and beauty and order come from his reign. Amen? It is a delightful thing that the kingdom is advancing. We skipped a little keyword there at the beginning: “this gospel of the kingdom.” Very interesting. Don’t forget that he was speaking to his apostles sitting there on the Mount of Olives, they’re listening to him say these words, “this gospel.” Were they hearing a gospel? Were they seeing a gospel? Yes and yes. Because they were the eyewitnesses. They were the specially chosen ones, the twelve apostles. They were chosen to be in one sense the foundation of the church along with the prophets, it says in Ephesians, and how is that? Because of their eyewitness and their testimony. They saw the actions of Christ. Their minds were like little camcorders. They are just observing, and they are taking in. Do they understand it? Well, we already said they did not understand. That is why they asked about how great the building was, remember, but they are taking it in, they are absorbing. Later, after Jesus had died on the cross and had been resurrected, and risen to heaven, “the counselor, the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says, “whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said to you.” All of a sudden, “Hey, you remember when Jesus said this and things are…” They are starting to understand and to remember the events of Jesus’ life and his words exactly, and what it all meant. And so, we get the Gospel of Matthew, you get Mark, you get Luke, and you get John, you get the foundation of your faith. “This gospel,” what does it mean? This gospel is the key to the advance. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” And so, what is “this gospel of the kingdom”? Well, what the apostles observed. We preach a biography first. We talk about Jesus. We talk about that he was born of the virgin Mary, which we celebrate this time of year. We talk about how he led a sinless life, how he came and preached to the people of Nazareth and of Capernaum, and in the region of Galilee. We talk about what he said. We give people who have never heard the name of Christ a history and a biography of a man who really lived and who did incredible miracles, who spoke to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him, who fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, who was able to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and to drive out demons, he could do all these things. As one person said, “For us, he’s done all things well.” And so, we also have a record of his incredible teachings: the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching of the Good Shepherd and of the bread of life. We have all these teachings, and so we preach this gospel of the kingdom, it is a biography. So we preach a biography. 2. The Method Secondly, it says, concerning method, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a testimony.” I want to take those two things and put them together. There is the preaching aspect of the advance and there is the testimony aspect of the advance. How do I understand it? Well, the preaching is the proclamation, like a herald does of the good news, so that we take the message across mountain ridges and across oceans and across rivers and other places, through great danger to a people who have not heard of his fame or seen his glory. We proclaim, we preach. We tell them the gospel. We preach that biography. We speak it, we live in a very advanced technological age on you what they tell us that preaching is soon to be obsolete. Don’t you believe it. This verse right here tells me that preaching will be here to the end. Are you understanding what I am saying? Even though I am not like an MTV exciting thing. Do you have an attention span long enough to follow and track? I think you do. Oh, I think they undersell you all the time. Preaching will be with us to the end. That is not just this, it’s what we did, what I did at the water cooler, the coffee breaks. It’s what I did when writing with co-workers on two-hour trips to a vendor or something. It is the preaching of the gospel. It is the verbal proclamation of Christ. All of you can do it, but there is also the testimony part. You know what that means? It means your life has to live up to what it is you claim. Now, none of us are going to be able to do that perfectly, but we are like witnesses, and the witness cannot be discredited. We have to live up to what we proclaim, and none of us will do it perfectly. Oh, how humble we are when we see our wickedness and our sin, but we must preach and we must give a testimony by our life. 3. The Mission Thirdly, what is the scope? Well, there are three aspects, there is the geographic aspect, and there is the ethnic aspect, and there is the chronological aspect. It says, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world.” That’s geographic: “As a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So, you get three aspects. First, geographic, the whole world. Is there any part of God’s world you can say, “Well, this chunk doesn’t belong to God”? Oh no, he claims it all. He has his flag in every bit of it because, “The Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” That verse is over the beautiful map, here, right outside. If you have not seen it, go and look above and see that it has been claimed for God. It is all his. So, the geographic scope, the whole world. Secondly, ethnic, to all nations. This phrase has gained greater insight. We have learned more about what these ethnic groups are. I am going to talk about that more in a moment over the last 200 years. It is going to be preached to all peoples, all nations, and chronological. This preaching, this gospel advance, is going to go on to the end of the age. Like Jesus says in the Great Commission, “Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age,” chronologic advance. 4. The Motive Fourthly, what is the motive? What is the motive of this gospel advance? Well, it says, “And then the end will come.” Well, I must say in the Bible, it is not the greatest statement of motive. But I think if you understand what ends God has in mind, then you will understand how this is a magnificent statement of our motive. What is the end? The Greek word is telos. What is the end that is going to come? Well, there is just the end of the world, what we call the day of God, judgment day and beyond, when God forever destroys evil and wickedness, when he purifies the world, and when we have the new Heaven and the new Earth, the home of righteousness. That end. Do you want that to come? Are you looking forward to the new Heaven and the new Earth? Well, it says, “If you’re looking forward to the new Heaven and the new Earth, then you should speed it’s coming,” it says in 2 Peter 3:12. Speed, it’s coming. How are we going to speed its coming? Well, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony all nations, and then the end will come. And not before. So that means that there is still work to be done. There is still an advance, there is a border, a boundary, only God knows what it is, but there is an advance. But perhaps there is a second meaning, the end, the telos is the purpose, then the purpose will come. What is the end purpose of God? God’s purpose is always the same, ultimately his own glory, that he might be displayed, revealed, and made known that he might be worshipped, that is the end that will come. “Then the nations will fall on their faces before him and gladly say, ’The Lord reigns, let the nations be glad.”’ That is the end that will come, and that is our motive as well, the end of God, what his purposes are. You know what? It will end what I consider to be the greatest injustice in the history of the world. You know what it is? It is that Jesus Christ does not get what he truly deserves for what he did, that he is denigrated, that he is thought of as an afterthought, that he is no big deal, that he is not special, not the center of your life or other people’s lives. That is a great injustice, and it will end when the end of the world comes. 5. The Mystery Fifthly, mystery. What is the mystery? Well, you do not get it in this one verse, but you get it in the context. Look at verse 36, Matthew 24:36. Now, I know you said I am just doing one verse. I could not control myself. We are just going to look at this one other verse, Matthew 24:36. The mystery is this: no one knows about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father. That is a mystery. Like William Cowper said, in God Moves in Mysterious Ways, “God is his own interpreter.” Do you know what I mean? He decides when the nations been reached, he decides when 24:14 has been fulfilled. He is the one who is allowed to do that. Until then, we have to wake up and say, “Oh, the sun came up. There is more work to be done. I’ve still got work to do.” We are here because of the Great Commission; there’s still Commission work to be done. Five Aspects Summarized In summary, the message is this gospel of the kingdom. The method is that it will be preached as a testimony. The mission is the whole world to all ethnic groups until history is over. The motive is then the end of the world and God’s purposed end will come. The mystery is that no one knows when that day will be. I want to take a moment and look at how it has gone from that point. Jesus is not Judas the Galilean, and he is not Theudas. He is not a false Christ. Has he been as good as his word? Can we see the progress? I can see it. We started in the Upper Room, 120 believers. Now, there are countless millions who claim the name of Christ in almost every tribe and language and people and nation worshipping him. Jesus has been as good as his word. Isn’t that thrilling? He made a prediction, and it has come true. The Last 200 Years of Christian Missions Over the last 200 years, the gospel has especially exploded, where was biblical faith 200 or so years ago? In Europe? In the new nation of the United States? Certain outposts in other parts of the world, in Latin America, in Africa, mostly near the coast. Carey had set up his work in Serampore… That’s it. And a few other little outposts where there was trading and there were some Christians there. Since that time do you see the progress that has been made? There is not a geographic nation on Earth that there is not a New Testament church in it. Isn’t that thrilling? That was not true 15 years ago, but the fall of the Berlin Wall has opened up countries like Albania. Other things have happened: the events in the Islamic world have opened up countries like Afghanistan. Things are happening, things are moving, it’s a thrilling thing to see. God used four individuals to really help us understand Matthew 24:14, and we do not have time to go through them today. But let me tell you who they are and what they contributed briefly. If you are interested in more, then I have done my job for Bob Stevens and the Perspectives class saying, “Boy, tell me more about William Carey and Hudson Taylor and Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran. I want to know more about these guys.” They have helped us understand Matthew 24:14. William Carey William Carey basically told Protestants, “The work isn’t done. It was not just for the apostles. The Jesuits, the Roman Catholics, are sending out missionaries all over the world, but we want the true gospel to be preached, and so we need to find out how we as Protestants can advance the gospel. We need to exert ourselves. We need to expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. So, get moving, Protestants, let us get into the mission game.” That’s what he did. And so, some call him the father of modern missions. Hudson Taylor Hudson Taylor looked at where the work was being done, and it was all on the boundaries, on the edges. He went to China, and he is there in the missionary outpost, and he is seeing that these missionaries are living comfortable lives. They are not venturing out much, there are a few converts, but not much. And he said, “What about the vast teaming unreached millions in the inland regions?” I will never forget a quote I read concerning Hudson Taylor. As he looked at this map of China with all its provinces, he realized there was no witness in the inland regions. He was in a worship service in England. Now, when you think of 19th century England, think 21st century America. It was kind of the center of Evangelical faith, of missions’ interests, of good preaching of all kinds of things, of books and publishing, and all kinds of gospel wealth. This is what he said, his own words on Sunday, June 25, 1865: “Unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone in great spiritual agony, and there the Lord conquered my unbelief and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all the responsibility as to issues and consequences must rest with him, that as his servant, it was mine to obey and follow him. His to direct, to care for and to guide those who might labor with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart.” What would you feel about our worship service? Would he see a bunch of satisfied, comfortable people who are rejoicing in their own security while millions are perishing? I do not think that that is too far from what happens in America, in American churches. My feeling is let us not be that way. Let us follow people like Hudson Taylor. Say, “The work is not finished yet.” He began praying for mission teams for each province of China, and God raised them up. His watch word was this “God’s work, done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.” That is his spiritual secret. Cameron Townsend Thirdly, Cameron Townsend. Cameron Townsend was a missionary in the early 19th century in Guatemala. He was preaching the gospel to Indian tribes in Guatemala in the national language, Spanish. He comes to one Indian household, and he is sharing the gospel in Spanish. They know Spanish—it was the national language and all of that—but finally one of them said, “If your God is so smart, how come he can’t speak my language?” Wow! Well, that struck him. Good point. And so, he began looking into the issue of languages. At first, he thought there were 500 languages in the world. Then he upped his estimate to a thousand, and then 2,000. By the time he died in 1982, he thought there were 3,000 languages in the world. Now, the estimates are around 5,000. The group he founded, Wycliffe Bible Translators, understand how much work there is yet to be done to get God’s word into the heart language of these nations and peoples, and they are continuing to do the work. Donald McGavran The fourth man working about the same time as Cameron Townsend was Donald McGavran. He was a missionary in India. As he looked around and saw what was going on in India and all the complexities of their society, he started to notice cultural groups that he called homogeneous units. They were similar in language, culture, and history. They saw themselves as a group, and he said, “You know, this is probably what Matthew 24:14 means when it says, ’To all nations.’ It is not two geopolitical nations like represented at the United Nations. No, there are groups within China and within India and within Latin America that need to be reached with the gospel. God is his own interpreter but apparently, the work is not done yet, so maybe we need to look a little more closely and say that there are still some nations that have never heard the gospel.” He came up with the idea of the hidden peoples, the so-called unreached people groups. Initial estimates, when he started looking at this idea, put it at 24,000 unreached people groups. That was in 1950. In 1980, it was down to 17,000 unreached people groups. Now, the number may be about half that. Isn’t that remarkable? The Remaining Task The progress is being made right in front of our eyes. It is thrilling to me. I remember praying when I was a student at MIT in Campus Crusade for Christ. We were praying for 15,000 unreached people groups. It is far less than that now. Amazing statistics about God’s glory. I could give you number after number what God is doing. Let me give you this one, and then if you want the others to come in, I will give you the first of you, this sheet. But in AD 100, about a generation or two, depending on how you define it, after Christ, get this: there was an estimated twelve unreached people groups per church congregation. That means every church congregation needed to reach out to 12 unreached people groups. With five million Christian congregations worldwide, get this: there are at least 500 congregations for each unreached people group. All I have to do as pastor is to find our other 499 sister churches, get together, and find that one unreached people group, and we’ll be set. We will have done our part, right? Let us get those 500 churches together and go reach that one unreached people group. Brothers and sisters, this is doable. Do you see it? It is doable if people are willing to sacrifice. If people are willing to believe what I said at the beginning of this message, and that is, we are here for the Great Commission, we are not here for the other reasons. And it is so confusing at Christmas time. We forget, “Why am I here? What is going on? What am I doing in my life?” Five hundred congregations for every one unreached people group. Brothers and sisters with God’s help we can do it. There is still a great work to be done, isn’t there? Look at the 10/40 window, look at the Muslim world. Are those folks going to be easy to reach with the gospel? What do you think? I think some of these unreached people groups, the price will be a martyr’s blood. Guaranteed. I have no idea, but there might be even martyrs sitting today that God might use to open up. To open up a group. And it is not just one, it is usually a history, and then little by little, they start to see what is happening and they come to faith. It is not going to be easy, but we have this promise, listen: this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Now, what application can we take this? Illustration: Insider Trading I want to take odd illustrations or analogies to put it together. The first is insider trading, and the second is horse gambling. That is just unseemly, right? I am not advocating either, insider trading or horse gambling, but insider trading says, “I’ve got some information about what’s going to happen, and you need to get in on this so you can make a killing.” Do we not have that, brothers and sisters? Do we not have some inside information on what is going to happen? Don’t we need to invest in this so that we can make an eternal killing with God? I think we do. I think anything else you invest your money and your time and your life in is going to be a waste, but this is a blue-chip stock, folks. This is most certainly going to happen. Illustration: Horse Racing How about horse racing? We used to live in Louisville, and they have the Kentucky Derby. I never went down there. There are always around a quarter million people, and you could not get near it. Besides which, my faith frowns on gambling and so should yours. But it is a great illustration. Can you imagine, if you wanted to bet on a horse, a $2 bet, I guess is what they go for, and you went with a race three quarters or four fifths over and there’s Secretariat out in front by 50 lengths or 40 lengths or whatever, and say, “I’d really like to place a bet, can I place a bet?” What do you think they are going to tell you? “The window is closed. You can bet on the next race, but not while the race is going on.” Invest in Christ My friends, you can invest or bet or whatever while this race is going on. Jesus is winning, the gospel is advancing. Invest in Christ. This is most certainly going to happen. It is a guarantee. There is no way that you can lose any dollar invested lighting. Each one of those lamps represents $1,000 except one of them. Jack told me it represents $500, sorry. OK, but he lit it, praise God. I said, “Jack, we’re going to light that lamp fully. And then the rest of them.” Our goal is $50,000 for missions. Can you think of a better way to spend your money, $100, $300, a $1,000? I can’t. Invest your money because you know what happens? The way it works with Lottie Moon is that money goes directly into putting mission units, that is, families who are missionaries, on the field to advance the gospel. Pray. Ask the Lord to raise up laborers for his harvest field. He will most certainly answer that prayer. Then go and find Kim. I don’t know where she is, but have Kim talk to you about your life. And say, “You know, our pastor thinks really highly of you.” “Who’s your pastor?” I do not even know if she would remember me, but just find a Kim in your life or somebody like that, to challenge you to do something dangerous, something risky with your life, to take your vacation, or to quit your job, or to take your retirement and go. We are looking as a ministerial staff at some interesting and fascinating ways in various parts of the world for short-term mission to go on. We are already doing work in various places in East Asia, and in the Caribbean, in Haiti, and other places. There are opportunities in Eastern Europe if you are interested. Keep aware of what we are doing. We are looking at some strategic things: smaller teams sent for shorter amount of time to serve as an encouragement to missionaries. We are looking to do more and more things. Get involved.