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He co-wrote the letter signed by nearly 450 churches pressuring Ontario to re-open in the spring of 2020. By December he was given a hefty fine for exceeding the COVID restrictions at his church. Pastor Aaron Rock from Harvest Windsor joins the show to discuss the church's response to COVID-19. Rock raises concern for the ramifications that the pandemic is having on Christians, and he makes his case for why churches should tactfully challenge the government. Read more here...>>>
In this episode of The Plant Trainers Podcast, we offer you an opportunity to create your vision and to look back on 2020 and look forward to 2021. This episode is short, but we hope you will go through it and press pause to think hard, reflect within and answer the questions. We hope this will help you find more direction and create a plan to follow your internal compass moving you towards your 2021 goals. How to reflect on your year: In 2020, What were some of your wins? What were some of the challenges YOU had control over? Where are the gaps? How can you take action to fill in those gaps for 2021? How do you feel with overall satisfaction in your life? By December 31, 2021, Where do you want to be professionally? Think about where you want to be financially? Where do you want to be personally/socially? Think about where you want your health to be? Where do you want your fitness to be? Where do you want your nutrition to be? 1-2 hobby/lifestyle items, where do you want them to be? How do you want to feel with overall satisfaction in your life? Let’s break that down now to know what you need to do to achieve these goals: What do you need to do? How much time do you need to do it? What days will you do it? What particular tasks need to get done during that time? How will you hold YOURSELF accountable? Do you need to find an accountability partner? Will hiring someone to do something FOR YOU help? Do you need to hire someone or take a course to LEARN HOW to do it for YOURSELF? ARE YOU COMMITTED? Write your vision statement: I am happy and grateful that I --, --, --, --, --, --, on or before Dec 31, 2021. Write out your vision, put it on your mirror, fridge, dashboard, and even screen savers. Links to things we mentioned:
By the end of 1977, John Wayne Gacy had murdered over 20 young men. By December of 1978, that number had grown to over 30. Fifteen year old Robert Piest would be John’s last victim. John was the number one suspect in Robert’s disappearance, which resulted in 24/7 police surveillance. The pressure quickly led to John’s spiral and confession of killing over 30 young men. After a quick jury deliberation, John was sentenced to the death penalty. Justice would be rightfully served for the 33 victims of John Wayne Gacy.
By December, an array of diving birds that nested at far northern latitudes are wintering on temperate waters across the continent. If we could watch them under water, we'd see this Common Loon racing like a torpedo. A goldeneye dives under water and swims about 10 feet from the surface, while
By December, many Americans have some experience with COVID-19, whether they know someone who has contracted it and maybe even perished from it, or have had it themselves. One of those individuals happens to be the mayor of Akron. Mayor Dan Horrigan joined the Ray Horner Morning Show on Thursday to talk about his personal experience with COVID-19, which, luckily and thankfully, was a mild case. He urges the citizens of Akron to keep their guards up with social distancing, masking, and avoiding crowds, especially during the no gathering ordinance. The main goal with the virus in the community, according to the mayor, is to not overwhelm the hospitals, but if that occurs, the city has backup alternative facilities that can be "fully implementable." As for city services in the home stretch of 2020 and into 2021, Horrigan says services such as leaf pickup and snow plowing will continue, even while federal dollars are not flowing in.
As an act of original jusrisdiction, the Supreme Court appointed a river master to resolve a dispute between New Mexico and Texas over the Pecos River back in 1949. Over 70 years later, the actions of this river master are now in question. After a tropical storm in 2014, overflow water from the Texas reservoir Red Bluff was impounded at a federally owned reservoir in New Mexico. Texas argues that when New Mexico released the impounded water, they wasted it. Because of this claim, the river master did not originally reduce Texas' rights in the 2014 and 2015 annual reports; however, upon New Mexico's request, the river master changed the 2015 reports and reduced its delivery to Texas because of the 2014-2015 flood water. By December 2018, Texas had filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court, with argument now scheduled for October 5. Tony Francois joins us to discuss the oral argument. Featuring:Anthony L. Francois, Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.
Where are my creative program designers? On today I share some truth bombs about designing and implementing effective programs. I have been facilitating groups since I was 11 years old (teaching jewelry making). I got my BA in K-12 Health and Fitness Teaching Certification and spent 1.5 years teaching middle school math (without proper training) and middle school PE, followed by elementary PE with only 1 year of PE experience from high school. I studied my tail off in college but had a lot of substitute professors that didn't know what they were doing and not a lot of cohesion within the leadership. I didn't let that stop me from being my personal best. I went back to get my MS and had $60,000 tuition paid for by Oregon State University in exchange for teaching college level fitness classes (without any prior experience). I taught myself because I was NOT TAKING ANY MORE STUDENT LOANS #RealTalk. By my 2nd year in grad school I impressed the head of the cardio department so much so she asked me to co-facilitate her faculty/staff fitness class (which they paid memberships to be a part of). I also was substitute teaching and was offered a job as a music teacher through my Masters "Project Asthma" (songs/dances I created to educate about asthma and actually taught 2 principals and 2 music teachers during my interview process). After graduate school I was supposed to go back to teaching but was laid off the same week I did my final MS Presentation #SuckySeason. I didn't give up though! That was in 2012. By December of 2012, I had 5 part-time jobs teaching all around WA state creating my own curriculum and helping change lives everywhere I worked. The following January I was invited to interview for an opportunity to be a part of a Pilot Program for the US Army and US Air Force through the Armed Forces Wellness Center. Over 1000 people applied, over 100s were interviewed and I was selected along with 8 other women. We helped measure baseline Cardio respiratory Submax Vo2 testing, Plysmography (body fat testing) using Bod Pods that the NLF uses, Basal Metabolic Testing, Biofeedback Resilience based training using HeartMath Technologies, and group Nutrition education classes. From their results we also provided 1:1 health coaching to Active Duty Soldiers, Spouses, and Retired Veterans. My standards of excellence when it comes to anything I choose to do in life is Platinum Standard. I used the same methods of empirical research before designing the Move Happy Facilitator Program©️for my patients in a locked psychiatric hospital. Listen all the way to the end for the fun contest you can be included in
How bad do you want to become a real estate investor? Our podcast guest for today wanted it so much that he knew he will make it happen no matter what happened. Out of his dorm room, Antoine Martel devoured all the information he could to make him fully equipped in winning real estate investing, an endeavor he knew he’ll enter right after college. True enough, right after graduation, he did not look for a job, instead began scouting for the first property they’ll be investing. Fast forward to six months after graduation, they had eight to 10 single-family homes in Memphis in the exact same neighborhood of their first property. This happened in the year 2017, but Antoine’s entrepreneurial inclinations began way earlier in his life. He is the kid in middle school selling candy and soda. In his junior year of university, his brother took him and his dad to a real estate investing seminar where they learned about flipping houses, rental properties, the BRRRR method, apartment buildings, etc. That’s when his interest started and never waiver. To this day, three years after, Antoine is doing 10x as much as what he thought he would be doing, having a hundred units portfolio in Memphis. They are also helping other people become wise investors through their Martel Turnkey services. If you are someone who understands the weight of real estate ownership and would like to learn more about how to do it successfully, then this episode is 100% for you! Antoine is sharing important tips about real estate investing, from what to consider when choosing your first investment property to how to scale them and investing in larger properties to pave way for more cash flow. Learn which mistakes to avoid. When you have the right mindset, knowledge, and guidance, you can not underestimate the things you can accomplish in a short amount of time. Be sure to listen to this episode in full and get ready to roll! Here’s What You Missed How Antoine developed his interest in real estateTips on criteria on finding your first propertyWhat is BRRRRWhat is turnkey property?How Antoine build their turnkey property business?What are the biggest mistakes investors make? Knowledge Nuggets [11:26] Criteria on finding the first property: Job growth, population growth, the diversity of the workforce, major employees, their industry, crime rates and then also just the property values. And so the median price for a home and the median rent for a home. [14:51] "By December, six months after graduation, we had like eight to 10 single-family homes in Memphis in that exact same neighborhood." [15:19] BRRRR: It's a way that you can grow a scalable portfolio with less than a hundred thousand bucks. You buy a property, all cash, you renovate it, you rent it out. Then you refinance it and because you rehab it cause you bought the property and renovated it and now it's worth more money. Now you can go to a lender and do what's called a cash-out refinance since you own it all cash. And the lenders, essentially going to write you a check, give you a mortgage on that property. And so you can have most of your principal investment back, um, and have very little cash left in the property. So you're able to turn that 50 grand over and over and over and over. [18:28] Selling properties like 'turnkey': Not just me doing it for my family, but doing it for other families as well. And so that's kinda when we started buying properties, renovating them, renting them out, but then selling them and then helping our clients get financing, insurance, property management. And so selling properties like turnkey with the tenant in place already. [20:24] Once I knew that there was a possibility of me selling it turnkey, I would go and find properties. I would make like an investment package and I would go to those investors and I'll be like, Hey, let's partner up on this. We have two options. we can either burn it together or we can flip it to one of these people that I think we can sell it to. And so you fund the deal, I'll manage the project and we'll split the profits 50 50. [25:52] The turnkey business was creating a lot of cash, but it wasn't creating any passive income. [26:55] On apartment buildings. You dumped your money into something you're good. You're good for the five or 10-year loan term that you have on that, on that apartment building. [32:40] On starting the turnkey business: That's kind of why we started the turnkey company too. I think it fills that void with people who had money saved up wanting to invest but didn't know where to start. That's all the two things that you need is 700 credit score in 20 grand in the bank. [37:59] So what we do for a lot of people, as we try to help them get to that 10 homes, and then what we do is we can either help them by selling those products, we can help them by refinancing those properties into a big portfolio loan and pull some of that money out. [40:47] On the biggest mistakes new investors make 1. They're choosing an investment strategy that doesn't make sense. With their resources, time, and cash that they have, it doesn't make sense for them to be wholesaling or flipping houses or doing ground-up developments. I always recommend just getting started and getting in the game and you'll figure it out later. [43:19] On being a dreamer: Just not being satisfied with where you are, I guess would for me be a dreamer and striving to do better and to do more. [45:42] The only way that you grow is by getting out there and doing it. Would you rather pull the trigger and take the risk or regret never pulling the trigger at all? Important Reads and Links Recommended Books: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert KiyosakiSell It Like Serhant by Ryan SerhantThe 10X Rule by Grant Cardone Antoine Martel Website: https://martelturnkey.com/ Antoine Martel Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martelantoine Antoine Martel Twitter: https://twitter.com/martelantoine Antoine Martel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoinemmartel Love #DreamNation? Check Us Out on Apple Podcasts! At Dream Nation, we’re all about building dreams. We do that through podcasts that motivate, educate, and entertain our listeners with some of the best entrepreneurs from around the world to get you to the best tips to level up your game in business in life. If you enjoyed this episode and want to keep building your dream,subscribe to the DreamNation podcast using the links below. Catch your host on Instagram (@casanova_brooks) If you are in DreamNation, thank you! Feel free to leave a review or share with a friend.
BIO: Amra Sabic-El-Rayess grew up in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina. After surviving ethnic cleansing and more than 1100 days under the Serbs’ military siege, she emigrated to the United States in 1996. By December 1999, she earned a BA in Economics from Brown University. Later, she obtained two Masters degrees and a Doctorate from Columbia University. Currently, she is a professor at Columbia University working on understanding how and why societies fall apart and what role education can play in rebuilding decimated countries. She has published extensively on education-related issues, and has lectured around the world to adult and adolescent audiences. In her students’ feedback, Amra is consistently praised as one of the most inspiring professors they have encountered. Check out the following: sabicelrayess.org @amrasabicPHD
This is the 4th part of a short series about healthcare and digital health in South America. Venezuela is a country in the current severe turmoil because of a political crisis that also turned into a medical crisis. At the beginning of 2019, the government refused to accept medical supplies from abroad through humanitarian organizations. By December 2019, 1.8 million people fled to Colombia. PEGASI is an IT company specialized in digital health and the smart management of healthcare information. With a solid base in Venezuela, PEGASI is currently expanding into Chile and the Dominican Republic. In contrast to Venezuela, according to The Startup VC, Chile is perhaps one of the most attractive countries to form a startup in Latin America. CORFO offers seed money to startups from all over the world. In ten years, CORFO funded over 1,600 startups from 80 countries. The CEO of PEGASI Luis Santiago, has been involved in the company since his teenage years because his father founded the company in 1992. While Luis pursued a different career path at first by studying journalism, he then dived into programming to be able to lead and develop the company further. South America series recap: https://www.facesofdigitalhealth.com/blog/digitalheath-south-america How to leave a review in iTunes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_xz5XbWQTg How to leave a review on Stitcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn9aPUTK7n8
EXCITED ABOUT ZOOM BUSTERS There’s a reason I’m so excited about the Zoom Busters my friend Kellye Abernathy is sharing with us. Here’s one story that explains why. A VERY ROUGH YEAR When my kids were 9 & 11, our family had a particularly rough year. It was one of those seasons in our family when everything that could go wrong, did. Things started out with a bang in March of that year when my father-in-law took a nasty fall and was hospitalized. It went downhill from there. By December, we had survived: the death of my father-in-law, two very serious car accidents, a cardiac scare (me), appendicitis (my husband), and a slew of job-related stresses. All things that kept us in a constant state of anxiety - which is why I’m sharing this particular story. STRESS AND THE BODY Whether we’re aware of it or not, our bodies carry the stress, worry, anxiety, and chaos of what is happening in our minds. Case in point – that cardiac scare of mine. It started (like all good stories) with a road trip. Six hours, in the driving rain. Four kids and one dog in the back seat. A mother-in-law in the passenger seat whacking my shoulder every time she was scared by the road conditions. By the end of it, my left arm and neck had been numb for the last hour of the trip. Once we got home, I called my doctor’s office. Of course, the nurse told me to run, don't walk, to the hospital. Like a crazy person, I drove myself to the nearest ER (did I mention my husband was traveling for work?) They immediately whisked me into triage and started poking, prodding, and testing me. After an overnight stay, we got the good news. It wasn't a cardiac event at all. It was purely stress and anxiety. STRESS AND OUR TEENS Right now, our world is going through a collective time of stress and anxiety – including our teens. Whether they’re doing their learning virtually or face-to-face, our landscape has changed, drastically. Not only does the coronavirus pose a real and present danger, but there is also the civil unrest gripping our country. Not to mention a contentious election that is at the forefront of the news cycle right now. ANOTHER SOURCE OF ANXIETY I’m not going to go into the complexities of all those things, because that’s not the point. The point is that our teens are absorbing all of this. In addition, they’re taking on developmentally appropriate stress. The kind that comes from not getting to see friends, participate in activities they love, or experience milestones they’ve long anticipated. And that anxiety? It’s sitting on their shoulders, constricting their chests, and curling in the muscles of their limbs. ZOOM BUSTERS FOR THE WIN That’s why, for the past couple of weeks, my good friend Kellye Abernathy and I have been sharing the Zoom Busters that she created. These stretching and breathing exercises help teens reset and refocus as they learn virtually, but their purpose goes deeper than that. Using these Zoom Busters will create more body-mind awareness in your teens and help them identify where there is stress stored in their body. When they can do that, they are empowered to use movement – like these exercises – to release that stress. Which makes for healthier teens. And healthier adults too – I’m throwing that in because these Zoom Busters can make a huge difference in your day too. MEET OUR ZOOM BUSTERS CREATOR Kellye Abernathy is a rock star of a human being, and I can’t wait for you to get to know her. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with over 500 hours of specialized training. She is also the very best example of a life-long learner that I’ve ever encountered. Her passion for brain research and exploring how humans connect with the natural world is beyond inspiring. I love how she brings everything that she’s learning to the table as she writes, teaches yoga, and comes alongside crisis survivors. Be sure to head to the Referenced in this Episode section below to watch the videos of Kellye leading us through the Zoom Busters. STRESS AND THE BENEFITS OF BREATHING Before I close out I also want to share a couple of things I learned as I prepped for this series of episodes. One, stress can manifest in the body in all kinds of ways. That includes things like headaches, upset stomachs, and muscle aches and pains. In the Referenced in this Episode section below, I’ve included an article on some of the physical things your teens might be experiencing that could indicate they’re experiencing anxiety. Two, there’s a lot of research that points to breathing exercises as an antidote to stress. Specifically, using a variety of breathing exercises is best. That means Kellye's Zoom Busters are extra-awesome because she walks us through a different kind in each set. I’ve included an article about that as well. PLEASE REACH OUT If anxiety in your teens is something you’re concerned about, nothing beats a trip to your family doctor or a counselor. Please reach out to your support system for help with this.
This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island. In July of 1863, Union troops arrived on this island to build a prison. By December, some 5,600 Confederates—many captured during the Battle of Lookout Mountain—had arrived here to face one of the worst winters on record in Rock Island. By March, 679 prisoners had died.
Episode 072, with Colin Stuckert, Founder and CEO Wild Foods Co & The Ancestral Mind.com Colin Stuckert is the CEO/Founder of Wild Foods Co and The Ancestral Mind.com. He is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful businesses under his belt. His past life as a professional poker player, CrossFitter, and gym owner laid the foundation for finding his life’s work and moving to Austin, Texas to pursue his next big thing. Colin is also focused on making a difference in our current understanding of health and nutrition. His passions include Ancestral Health, Productivity, Mindset, Real Food and Ingredients. He is obsessed with the truisms of health, Colin lives his life based on the "Ancestral Mindset." By understanding our evolutionary past, he believes we can reverse our failing health through a consciously designed lifestyle that eschews "common knowledge" from so-called "experts." He is on a mission to save as many people as possible from the dangerous dogma promoted by bad science, big pharma, and big food. About Wild Foods: Wild Foods was founded out of his passion for food, nutrition and a personal obsession with optimizing for health and longevity. Wild Foods sells Real Food products and supplements focused on supporting a healthy body and mind and living in accordance with nature. In Jan 2015, Colin listed his first Wild Foods product on Amazon and made $350 in sales. By December of that year, he reached the $500,000 in sales mark, with average monthly seals surpassing $50,000. The second year in business, the company hit 7 figures and has grown every year since. Here is Wild Foods Mission: Our Wild Mission is to empower 50 million people with the knowledge they can use to say NO to Big Food, Big Pharma, Bad Science and Dangerous Health and Nutrition Dogma! On this episode we discussed: How to increase the efficiency of your team by engaging in more focused "Deep Work" What exactly is Ancestral Health, and why should it apply to all humans Colin's best practices for being a successful entrepreneur Colin's advice on marketing (common mistakes, best practices, ideas, etc.) Why you should read Steven Pressfield’s War of Art (hint: it applies to entrepreneurs also) Colin's advice on increasing your focus Production Credits: This Self Made Strategies Podcast is a SoftStix Productions LLC jawn. This episode was produced, edited, and hosted by Tony Lopes, REMOTELY (because we are obeying the COVID-19 isolation orders) in Philadelphia. The Self Made Strategies Podcast is sponsored by Lopes Law LLC (www.LopesLawLLC.com). Follow us on: • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • LinkedIn
Episode 072, with Colin Stuckert, Founder and CEO Wild Foods Co & The Ancestral Mind.com Colin Stuckert is the CEO/Founder of Wild Foods Co and The Ancestral Mind.com. He is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful businesses under his belt. His past life as a professional poker player, CrossFitter, and gym owner laid the foundation for finding his life’s work and moving to Austin, Texas to pursue his next big thing.Colin is also focused on making a difference in our current understanding of health and nutrition. His passions include Ancestral Health, Productivity, Mindset, Real Food and Ingredients. He is obsessed with the truisms of health, Colin lives his life based on the "Ancestral Mindset." By understanding our evolutionary past, he believes we can reverse our failing health through a consciously designed lifestyle that eschews "common knowledge" from so-called "experts." He is on a mission to save as many people as possible from the dangerous dogma promoted by bad science, big pharma, and big food.About Wild Foods:Wild Foods was founded out of his passion for food, nutrition and a personal obsession with optimizing for health and longevity. Wild Foods sells Real Food products and supplements focused on supporting a healthy body and mind and living in accordance with nature. In Jan 2015, Colin listed his first Wild Foods product on Amazon and made $350 in sales. By December of that year, he reached the $500,000 in sales mark, with average monthly seals surpassing $50,000. The second year in business, the company hit 7 figures and has grown every year since.Wild Foods Mission:Our Wild Mission is to empower 50 million people with the knowledge they can use to say NO to Big Food, Big Pharma, Bad Science and Dangerous Health and Nutrition Dogma!On this episode we discussed:• How to increase the efficiency of your team by engaging in more focused "Deep Work"• What exactly is Ancestral Health, and why should it apply to all humans • Colin's best practices for being a successful entrepreneur• Colin's advice on marketing (common mistakes, best practices, ideas, etc.)• Why you should read Steven Pressfield’s War of Art (hint: it applies to entrepreneurs also)• Colin's advice on increasing your focus Production Credits:This Self Made Strategies Podcast is a SoftStix Productions LLC jawn. This episode was produced, edited, and hosted by Tony Lopes, REMOTELY (because we are obeying the COVID-19 isolation orders) in Philadelphia. The Self Made Strategies Podcast is sponsored by Lopes Law LLC (www.LopesLawLLC.com).Follow us on:• Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • LinkedIn
Robert Louis StevensonR L Stevenson was born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenons in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died aged only 44 in Samoa. He was phenomenally successful in his time and is still remembered for such classics as Treasure Island, Kidnapped and of course The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Robert Louis (he changed his name from Robert Lewis Balfour when he was around 18) was an only child. His father Thomas Stevenson was a famous lighthouse engineer, from a line of lighthouse designers. His grandfather Robert Stevenson and his uncles were in the same line of work. R L Stevenson's mother Margaret Balfour came from a line of landowners from Fife, but her father was a Church of Scotland minister. Stevenson suffered from respiratory problems as a child, an ailment he shared with his mother and maternal grandfather. He never fully recovered from his chest problems. After school, he went to Edinburgh University to study engineering. He used to go to the family engineering works in the summer and accompanied his father on a tour of lighthouses in Orkney and Shetland on 1868. By 1871, Robert Louis told his father he didn't want to be an engineer but wanted to pursue a career as a writer. His family took it relatively well but suggested he change to studying Law at University to give him some security. He was 21, and in common with many 21 year olds, he became more Bohemian, taking to wearing his hair long and sporting a velveteen jacket. In 1873, he went to stay on the French Riviera for the good of his health for a year but came back to Edinburgh and was admitted to the Scottish Bar in 1875. He met and fell in love with an American woman called Fanny Van de Grift Osborne from Indianopolis who had come with her children to study art in France. She was married but her husband was multiply unfaithful so they separated. She retured to the USA after they had spent over a year together and eventually in 1878, he travelled to meet her in San Francisco. He wrote about his journey across America, but it ruined his health. He was reputedly almost dead when he arrived in Monterey, California. By December 1879, he was well enough to travel on to San Francisco. He described the time as being 'All alone on forty-five cents a day and sometimes less' He met up again with Fanny in San Francisco. She was divorced by that time, but by the winter of 1879, he was at death's door again and Fanny came to nurse him. They married in 1840 and travelled to the Napa Valley for their honeymoon in an abandoned mining camp on Mouth Saint Helena. In August that year, he sailed back to Liverpool in England. Because of his failing health, Stevenson looked for suitable places to live, staying on the south coast of England, to France and in places in Scotland. After Stevenson's father died, he went to live in Colorado. By 1888 he chartered a yacht in San Francisco and decided to set ail for the east and central Pacific, stopping in Hawaii, Tahiti, the Gilbert Island and New Zealand. He ended up in Sydney, Australia, and in 1890 set out on another voyage and arrived at Vailima in Samoa where he bought land and became part of the local community. He was to die of a stroke in 1894 while opening a bottle of wine. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'Jekyll and Hyde' was published in 1886. Stevenson finished it in six days during a period of illness and gave it to his wife who didn't like it. It is written a little like a mystery where Mr Utterson the lawyer is the detective. The truth of what happens is actually more or less laid out in the first section for those who have eyes to see. We see the evil Mr Hyde draw a cheque in Jekyll's name, and Mr Utterson wonders how one man could go early in the morning and come out with a signed cheque in the name of another. With hindsight it is obvious and that is of course the... Support this podcast
I Found The Source of the Coronavirus.Watch this video at- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpQFCcSI0pU&feature=youtu.belaowhy86Hey Laowinners, After 2 weeks of painstaking searching, I refute the claim that the Coronavirus started outside of China. ◘ Support me on Patreon for early release, and much more! http://www.patreon.com/laowhy86 ◘ Donate and support this channel through Paypal http://paypal.me/cmilkrun ◘ OR Become a Sponsor on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChvi... Thanks to Snarky Guy for the footage - Check his China channel here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaUl... ◘ My TV show: Conquering Northern China: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/conquering... ◘ Conquering Southern China https://vimeo.com/ondemand/conquering... ◘ Discount code for both shows: laowinning ◘ Join me every week for videos about China! Don't forget to subscribe! http://www.youtube.com/laowhy86 Be a Laowinner! Like comment subscribe! ◘ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laowhy86 ◘ Instagram: http://instagram.com/laowhy86 Music in this video - The Muse Maker https://soundcloud.com/themusemaker ◘ Music used most of the time - New World Hip Hop https://soundcloud.com/apollodrivenz https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgir... Links for proof: http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/ http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201911... http://www.whiov.cas.cn/105341/201912... http://159.226.126.127:8082/web/17190/20 http://159.226.126.127:8082/web/17190/46 http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/zxpy/yjsswgg/2... http://rfi.my/5OFG http://rfi.my/5OSZ http://gd.whiov.cas.cn/tzgg/201111/t2... http://www.whiov.ac.cn/tzgg_105342/20... http://blog.creaders.net/u/3027/20200... https://www.backchina.com/blog/261460... http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/02... https://bbs.pku.edu.cn/v2/post-read.p... Article Mentioned- https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-china-trail-leading-back-to-wuhan-labs/The Trail Leading Back to the Wuhan LabsBy Jim GeraghtyApril 3, 2020 1:20 PM Medical workers in protective suits attend to a patient inside an isolated ward of the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, in Hubei Province, China, February 16, 2020. (China Daily via Reuters)There’s no proof the coronavirus accidentally escaped from a laboratory, but we can’t take the Chinese government’s denials at face value.It is understandable that many would be wary of the notion that the origin of the coronavirus could be discovered by some documentary filmmaker who used to live in China. Matthew Tye, who creates YouTube videos, contends he has identified the source of the coronavirus — and a great deal of the information that he presents, obtained from public records posted on the Internet, checks out. The Wuhan Institute of Virology in China indeed posted a job opening on November 18, 2019, “asking for scientists to come research the relationship between the coronavirus and bats.” The Google translation of the job posting is: “Taking bats as the research object, I will answer the molecular mechanism that can coexist with Ebola and SARS- associated coronavirus for a long time without disease, and its relationship with flight and longevity. Virology, immunology, cell biology, and multiple omics are used to compare the differences between humans and other mammals.” (“Omics” is a term for a subfield within biology, such as genomics or glycomics.) On December 24, 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology posted a second job posting. The translation of that posting includes the declaration, “long-term research on the pathogenic biology of bats carrying important viruses has confirmed the origin of bats of major new human and livestock infectious diseases such as SARS and SADS, and a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified.” Tye contends that that posting meant, “we’ve discovered a new and terrible virus, and would like to recruit people to come deal with it.” He also contends that “news didn’t come out about coronavirus until ages after that.” Doctors in Wuhan knew that they were dealing with a cluster of pneumonia cases as December progressed, but it is accurate to say that a very limited number of people knew about this particular strain of coronavirus and its severity at the time of that job posting. By December 31, about three weeks after doctors first noticed the cases, the Chinese government notified the World Health Organization and the first media reports about a “mystery pneumonia” appeared outside China. Scientific American verifies much of the information Tye mentions about Shi Zhengli, the Chinese virologist nicknamed “Bat Woman” for her work with that species. Shi — a virologist who is often called China’s “bat woman” by her colleagues because of her virus-hunting expeditions in bat caves over the past 16 years — walked out of the conference she was attending in Shanghai and hopped on the next train back to Wuhan. “I wondered if [the municipal health authority] got it wrong,” she says. “I had never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China.” Her studies had shown that the southern, subtropical areas of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan have the greatest risk of coronaviruses jumping to humans from animals — particularly bats, a known reservoir for many viruses. If coronaviruses were the culprit, she remembers thinking, “could they have come from our lab?” . . . By January 7 the Wuhan team determined that the new virus had indeed caused the disease those patients suffered — a conclusion based on results from polymerase chain reaction analysis, full genome sequencing, antibody tests of blood samples and the virus’s ability to infect human lung cells in a petri dish. The genomic sequence of the virus — now officially called SARS-CoV-2 because it is related to the SARS pathogen — was 96 percent identical to that of a coronavirus the researchers had identified in horseshoe bats in Yunnan, they reported in a paper published last month in Nature. “It’s crystal clear that bats, once again, are the natural reservoir,” says Daszak, who was not involved in the study. Some scientists aren’t convinced that the virus jumped straight from bats to human beings, but there are a few problems with the theory that some other animal was an intermediate transmitter of COVID-19 from bats to humans: Analyses of the SARS-CoV-2 genome indicate a single spillover event, meaning the virus jumped only once from an animal to a person, which makes it likely that the virus was circulating among people before December. Unless more information about the animals at the Wuhan market is released, the transmission chain may never be clear. There are, however, numerous possibilities. A bat hunter or a wildlife trafficker might have brought the virus to the market. Pangolins happen to carry a coronavirus, which they might have picked up from bats years ago, and which is, in one crucial part of its genome, virtually identical to SARS-CoV-2. But no one has yet found evidence that pangolins were at the Wuhan market, or even that venders there trafficked pangolins. On February 4 — one week before the World Health Organization decided to officially name this virus “COVID-19” — the journal Cell Research posted a notice written by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology about the virus, concluding, “our findings reveal that remdesivir and chloroquine are highly effective in the control of 2019-nCoV infection in vitro. Since these compounds have been used in human patients with a safety track record and shown to be effective against various ailments, we suggest that they should be assessed in human patients suffering from the novel coronavirus disease.” One of the authors of that notice was the “bat woman,” Shi Zhengli. In his YouTube video, Tye focuses his attention on a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology named Huang Yanling: “Most people believe her to be patient zero, and most people believe she is dead.” There was enough discussion of rumors about Huang Yanling online in China to spur an official denial. On February 16, the Wuhan Institute of Virology denied that patient zero was one of their employees, and interestingly named her specifically: “Recently there has been fake information about Huang Yanling, a graduate from our institute, claiming that she was patient zero in the novel coronavirus.” Press accounts quote the institute as saying, “Huang was a graduate student at the institute until 2015, when she left the province and had not returned since. Huang was in good health and had not been diagnosed with disease, it added.” None of her publicly available research papers are dated after 2015. The web page for the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Lab of Diagnostic Microbiology does indeed still have “Huang Yanling” listed as a 2012 graduate student, and her picture and biography appear to have been recently removed — as have those of two other graduate students from 2013, Wang Mengyue and Wei Cuihua. Her name still has a hyperlink, but the linked page is blank. The pages for Wang Mengyue and Wei Cuihua are blank as well. (For what it is worth, the South China Morning Post — a newspaper seen as being generally pro-Beijing — reported on March 13 that “according to the government data seen by the Post, a 55 year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted Covid-19 on November 17.”) On February 17, Zhen Shuji, a Hong Kong correspondent from the French public-radio service Radio France Internationale, reported: “when a reporter from the Beijing News of the Mainland asked the institute for rumors about patient zero, the institute first denied that there was a researcher Huang Yanling, but after learning that the name of the person on the Internet did exist, acknowledged that the person had worked at the firm but has now left the office and is unaccounted for.” Tye says, “everyone on the Chinese internet is searching for [Huang Yanling] but most believe that her body was quickly cremated and the people working at the crematorium were perhaps infected as they were not given any information about the virus.” (The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that handling the body of someone who has died of coronavirus is safe — including embalming and cremation — as long as the standard safety protocols for handing a decedent are used. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether those safety protocols were sufficiently used in China before the outbreak’s scope was known.) As Tye observes, a public appearance by Huang Yanling would dispel a lot of the public rumors, and is the sort of thing the Chinese government would quickly arrange in normal circumstances — presuming that Huang Yanling was still alive. Several officials at the Wuhan Institute of Virology issued public statements that Huang was in good health and that no one at the institute has been infected with COVID-19. In any case, the mystery around Huang Yanling may be moot, but it does point to the lab covering up something about her. China Global Television Network, a state-owned television broadcaster, illuminated another rumor while attempting to dispel it in a February 23 report entitled “Rumors Stop With the Wise”: On February 17, a Weibo user who claimed herself to be Chen Quanjiao, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, reported to the public that the Director of the Institute was responsible for leaking the novel coronavirus. The Weibo post threw a bomb in the cyberspace and the public was shocked. Soon Chen herself stepped out and declared that she had never released any report information and expressed great indignation at such identity fraud on Weibo. It has been confirmed that that particular Weibo account had been shut down several times due to the spread of misinformation about COVID-19. That Radio France Internationale report on February 17 also mentioned the next key part of the Tye’s YouTube video. “Xiaobo Tao, a scholar from South China University of Technology, recently published a report that researchers at Wuhan Virus Laboratory were splashed with bat blood and urine, and then quarantined for 14 days.” HK01, another Hong Kong-based news site, reported the same claim. This doctor’s name is spelled in English as both “Xiaobo Tao” and “Botao Xiao.” From 2011 to 2013, Botao Xiao was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and his biography is still on the web site of the South China University of Technology. At some point in February, Botao Xiao posted a research paper onto ResearchGate.net, “The Possible Origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus.” He is listed as one author, along with Lei Xiao from Tian You Hospital, which is affiliated with the Wuhan University of Science and Technology. The paper was removed a short time after it was posted, but archived images of its pages can be found here and here. The first conclusion of Botao Xiao’s paper is that the bats suspected of carrying the virus are extremely unlikely to be found naturally in the city, and despite the stories of “bat soup,” they conclude that bats were not sold at the market and were unlikely to be deliberately ingested. The bats carrying CoV ZC45 were originally found in Yunnan or Zhejiang province, both of which were more than 900 kilometers away from the seafood market. Bats were normally found to live in caves and trees. But the seafood market is in a densely-populated district of Wuhan, a metropolitan [area] of ~15 million people. The probability was very low for the bats to fly to the market. According to municipal reports and the testimonies of 31 residents and 28 visitors, the bat was never a food source in the city, and no bat was traded in the market. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization could not confirm if bats were present at the market. Botao Xiao’s paper theorizes that the coronavirus originated from bats being used for research at either one of two research laboratories in Wuhan. We screened the area around the seafood market and identified two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus. Within ~ 280 meters from the market, there was the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention. WHCDC hosted animals in laboratories for research purpose, one of which was specialized in pathogens collection and identification. In one of their studies, 155 bats including Rhinolophus affinis were captured in Hubei province, and other 450 bats were captured in Zhejiang province. The expert in Collection was noted in the Author Contributions (JHT). Moreover, he was broadcasted for collecting viruses on nation-wide newspapers and websites in 2017 and 2019. He described that he was once by attacked by bats and the blood of a bat shot on his skin. He knew the extreme danger of the infection so he quarantined himself for 14 days. In another accident, he quarantined himself again because bats peed on him. Surgery was performed on the caged animals and the tissue samples were collected for DNA and RNA extraction and sequencing. The tissue samples and contaminated trashes were source of pathogens. They were only ~280 meters from the seafood market. The WHCDC was also adjacent to the Union Hospital (Figure 1, bottom) where the first group of doctors were infected during this epidemic. It is plausible that the virus leaked around and some of them contaminated the initial patients in this epidemic, though solid proofs are needed in future study. The second laboratory was ~12 kilometers from the seafood market and belonged to Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences . . . In summary, somebody was entangled with the evolution of 2019-nCoV coronavirus. In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories. Regulations may be taken to relocate these laboratories far away from city center and other densely populated places. However, Xiao has told the Wall Street Journal that he has withdrawn his paper. “The speculation about the possible origins in the post was based on published papers and media, and was not supported by direct proofs,” he said in a brief email on February 26. The bat researcher that Xiao’s report refers to is virologist Tian Junhua, who works at the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control. In 2004, the World Health Organization determined that an outbreak of the SARS virus had been caused by two separate leaks at the Chinese Institute of Virology in Beijing. The Chinese government said that the leaks were a result of “negligence” and the responsible officials had been punished. In 2017, the Chinese state-owned Shanghai Media Group made a seven-minute documentary about Tian Junhua, entitled “Youth in the Wild: Invisible Defender.” Videographers followed Tian Junhua as he traveled deep into caves to collect bats. “Among all known creatures, the bats are rich with various viruses inside,” he says in Chinese. “You can find most viruses responsible for human diseases, like rabies virus, SARS, and Ebola. Accordingly, the caves frequented by bats became our main battlefields.” He emphasizes, “bats usually live in caves humans can hardly reach. Only in these places can we find the most ideal virus vector samples.” One of his last statements on the video is: “In the past ten-plus years, we have visited every corner of Hubei Province. We explored dozens of undeveloped caves and studied more than 300 types of virus vectors. But I do hope these virus samples will only be preserved for scientific research and will never be used in real life. Because humans need not only the vaccines, but also the protection from the nature.” The description of Tian Junhua’s self-isolation came from a May 2017 report by Xinhua News Agency, repeated by the Chinese news site JQKNews.com: The environment for collecting bat samples is extremely bad. There is a stench in the bat cave. Bats carry a large number of viruses in their bodies. If they are not careful, they are at risk of infection. But Tian Junhua is not afraid to go to the mountain with his wife to catch Batman. Tian Junhua summed up the experience that the most bats can be caught by using the sky cannon and pulling the net. But in the process of operation, Tian Junhua forgot to take protective measures. Bat urine dripped on him like raindrops from the top. If he was infected, he could not find any medicine. It was written in the report. The wings of bats carry sharp claws. When the big bats are caught by bat tools, they can easily spray blood. Several times bat blood was sprayed directly on Tians skin, but he didn’t flinch at all. After returning home, Tian Junhua took the initiative to isolate for half a month. As long as the incubation period of 14 days does not occur, he will be lucky to escape, the report said. Bat urine and blood can carry viruses. How likely is it that bat urine or blood got onto a researcher at either Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology? Alternatively, what are the odds that some sort of medical waste or other material from the bats was not properly disposed of, and that was the initial transmission vector to a human being? 14Virologists have been vehemently skeptical of the theory that COVID-19 was engineered or deliberately constructed in a laboratory; the director of the National Institutes of Health has written that recent genomic research “debunks such claims by providing scientific evidence that this novel coronavirus arose naturally.” And none of the above is definitive proof that COVID-19 originated from a bat at either the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention or the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Definitive proof would require much broader access to information about what happened in those facilities in the time period before the epidemic in the city. But it is a remarkable coincidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was researching Ebola and SARS-associated coronaviruses in bats before the pandemic outbreak, and that in the month when Wuhan doctors were treating the first patients of COVID-19, the institute announced in a hiring notice that “a large number of new bat and rodent new viruses have been discovered and identified.” And the fact that the Chinese government spent six weeks insisting that COVID-19 could not be spread from person to person means that its denials about Wuhan laboratories cannot be accepted without independent verification. JIM GERAGHTY is the senior political correspondent of National Review. @jimgeraghty
On December 4, 2019, Dr. Drew Gitomer and three colleagues published an article in the American Educational Research Journal. It was titled "Assessing the Assessment: Evidence of Reliability and Validity in the edTPA." By December 5, the article had nearly gone viral on Twitter by opponents of edTPA. Drew joins us today on Anchored in Education to talk more about this article and why we should be concerned with edTPA being used as a tool to decide if teacher candidates should receive a teaching license. Drew and his colleagues make valid arguments for why a moratorium should be issued on the high-stakes use of edTPA. After listening, head over to www.escottengland.com to read more about Drew. You will also find a link to his article in the resource section.
From the Simplr studios in San Francisco, this is your daily briefing. IntroductionThis is Today in Five with Madison Huffman, for today, Monday, February 17th. Here are today’s headlines in digital disruption.DTC has been a rapidly growing trend in the age of online shopping. According to Shopify’s COO, direct-to-consumer retail is more than just a fad, it’s here to stay. First, here are the latest headlines.Stitch Fix Shop Your Looks Feature Out of BetaThe new Stitch Fix Shop Your Looks feature is out of beta and available to all women’s and men’s customers in the U.S. The company’s CEO announced in October that the company was testing the algorithm-led sub-service, which allows customers to choose among items that would go well with pieces they already own, rather than leaving that choice up to their stylist. By December, she reported the beta test had been expanded to about a third of its female clientele and would extend to men. She also said that those using the feature interacted with the company multiple times and that it boosted sales. The new tech introduces a level of traditional e-commerce that departs from the company’s curated boxes. L Brands Close to Deal to Sell Victoria's SecretL Brands is nearing a deal to sell its Victoria’s Secret brand to private equity firm, Sycamore Partners, in a deal that could be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. For Sycamore, a deal to buy Victoria’s Secret would be a bet on a dominant player in the large intimate apparel industry. Bras are a $7.2 billion dollar category, and Victoria’s Secret, which also sells, pajamas, perfumes, and other accessories, had roughly $7.4 billion dollars in sales last year. Sycamore would also be betting it could reinvigorate the lingerie brand after it has faced several setbacks and losing share to competitors like ThirdLove, who prioritize comfortable styles. Walmart Shutting Down JetBlackWalmart is shutting down its JetBlack personal-shopping service. Most of its 350 employees will be laid off after the retailer failed to find investors for the unprofitable operation. The company will stop delivery services on February 21st, according to a Walmart spokesman. Last year, Walmart worked to spin-off the unit, which had less than a thousand customers as of last year. The retailer discussed an investment with several potential partners, but people familiar with the matter said those talks have ended. The news comes at a time when Walmart is working to stem its losses from its smaller e-commerce units, selling acquired brands or cutting staff in those businesses.Shopify COO Says DTC Is “No Longer A Fad”DTC retail has emerged as a key strategy in the age of online shopping, with big brand names like Nike and Tesla Motors taking advantage of the trend. Now one of the top e-commerce platforms is saying their performance speaks to a broader shift in digital commerce. According to Shopify’s COO, the company’s holiday quarter performance is indicative of emerging retail trends. The e-commerce platform recorded almost $3 billion dollars of global sales over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period last November, a 61 percent increase from the year prior. In an interview, the COO said, “That is the example where direct-to-consumer is no longer a fad...It is now a steady-state, and it’s being powered by Shopify. We’re at the center of that.” Shopify’s holiday numbers are part of a better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report. The company grew its top line by 47 percent year over year to $505 million dollars in the December quarter, crushing analyst estimates. The COO said, “This is the story of independent brands and entrepreneurs doing really, really well, and the consumers are voting with their wallets...I think Shopify is powering the entrepreneurship movement.” ClosingMost leaders feel overwhelmed when the unexpected impacts the customer experience. With Simplr customer service, you'll always have on-demand staffing to answer every customer question—so you can be in control and stay focused on growing the business. Head to Simplr.ai to learn more. That’s S-I-M-P-L-R.ai.Thanks for listening to this latest episode of Today In Five. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Stephen Pankhurst was the co-founder of Friends Reunited along with his wife Julie. In 1999, Stephen’s wife Julie, was pregnant with their first child. She had just used the internet to track down her long lost Grandfather that she had never seen. Realising the power of the internet, and a desire to find out what some of her old school friends were up to, she came up with the idea of FriendsReunited, exploiting a gap in the UK market following the success of US website Classmates.com. Friends Reunited was officially launched in June 2000. The very first version of the site looked pretty horrible. Stephen was not a graphic designer, so he just knocked together anything. However, the functionality worked and very soon they started to get people coming to the site and registering themselves against schools. Nine months later, after a redesign, some hard work, lots of extra features, encouragement from users and the odd mention or two in the press, things started to get interesting. By the end of the year, it had 3,000 members, and a year later (2001) this had increased to 2.5 million. By December 2005, Friends Reunited had over 15 million members and was bought by British TV company ITV plc for £120 million ($208 million), plus further payments of up to £55 million based on its performance up to 2009. In 2007, ITV Chairman Michael Grade described the site as "the sweet spot" of the internet and stated that "Friends Reunited is one of the great undersung jewels in the crown ... one of the most important bits of ITV going forward, a massive presence, and profitable" That year the site made a profit of £22 million, but its market valuation had fallen sharply from the £120 million paid by ITV in 2005 and it achieved growth in UK traffic of only 1.2%, compared to Facebook's 2,393% and Bebo's 173%. In March 2008, after losing 47% of unique users in the previous 12 months, the site dropped the subscription fee required to contact members, but the decline continued. In 2009, Friends Reunited was sold for £25 million to Brightsolid Limited. By December 2011, Brightsolid estimated that Friends Reunited was worth only £5.2 million, a fifth of the price it paid to ITV two years previously. The company relaunched Friends Reunited in March 2012 with a new emphasis on nostalgia and memories. On January 2016, Friends Reunited revealed that it would be closing down the website after 16 years of operation. On February 2016 the site closed down.
By December 31st of 2020, the whole "vision" thing might be played out. It's a pretty obvious thing to latch on to, but all the same, it's cool right now. We need vision. We need it as men, as individuals, but also for our families and our nation.
Multifamily Risk and Reward balance most of the time, unless you are Jorge Newbery. Jorge Newbery, is a high school dropout with more drive and focus than most successful real estate investors. His drive for success has led him to create multiple successful companies and amazing success. Entrepreneurial Before the age of 25 and prior to investing in real estate, Jorge had several entrepreneurial endeavors. He purchased a refrigerated tricycle and pedaled through his neighborhood selling ice cream to the neighbors. He became a record producer for hardcore punk bands in the Los Angeles, CA. Olympic Cyclist: He competed in an Olympic trials for a chance to go to the Olympics. Real Estate Mortgage Broker - worked to become the top representative in one company, then started a successful mortgage brokerage. Multifamily Risk and Reward In 1992, Jorge recognized the opportunity in undervalued real estate based on all the loans he had been making to his clients. So, he purchased his first investment property, a 4 plex. Like his prior entrepreneurial endeavors he did not stop with a 4 plex. Subsequently, he purchased a 19, 50 and a 298 unit property all in Southern California. The properties Jorge was purchasing were the most challenged properties available. This was because he recognized he could most positively add value in these unwanted, undervalued properties. There were some hiccups along the way, like the time when he was sited for 32 housing code violations and the threat of jail. Fortunately, his prior work and reputation was recognized by the authorities, and jail time was avoided. When he sold his Los Angeles multifamily properties, he had a proven value add system, over $1,000,000 in profit and a sense that he was unstoppable. More Risk More Reward After his success in Los Angeles, Jorge turned his sites towards the Midwest in search of more risk and reward. His search led him to Pickwick Plaza Apartments in Kansas City, MO. The 233 unit property was distressed, and for Jorge, this was another opportunity. The purchase price was $1.6 M and he put another $1.5M into the value add rehab. Upon the renovation completion, the property appraised for $8M, which allowed Jorge to refinance, take some cash and find another property. When he traveled to these locations, rather than rent a hotel room when he visited his properties, Jorge would take up residency in one of the property’s vacant units. Because he was buying such rough properties, this made him intimately aware of the living conditions residents were experiencing. Sometimes, the local press picked up on this and would publish stories about how the out of town owner was moving in with the residents of the roughest property in town. Success breeds confidence. Jorge had successfully turned multiple rough properties into handsome profits. His track record attracted bigger challenges and capital to do the next big challenge. BIGGEST Challenge Looking for the next big challenge, Jorge was led to Columbus, OH. There he found an 1,100 unit property named, Woodland Meadows, aka Uzi Alley due to the gang activity. He purchased the property at auction for $13.5 M and promptly moved in. The property had its own onsite armed security patrol with a jail. The security patrol was all white and the residents were primarily minority. When Jorge saw the jail with a tenant locked up, his first act was to release the tenant. Soon after, he closed the jail, terminated the security force, and assembled his own unarmed Community Patrol made up of Jorge, his managers and paid volunteer residents. The Transformation Originally, the property was built as workforce housing. When Jorge acquired the property, over 40% of residents received Section 8 vouchers. Many unemployed residents with lots of time on their hands On patrol, it was common to find a large group of intimidating teenagers gathered on a street corner. Pizza delivery drivers refused to deliver in the community due to safety concerns. The Community Patrol would ask the group to leave. Ultimately the kids would leave one corner and move to another corner. The frequent inner actions with the teenage residents let the teens to ask Jorge for jobs. Jobs for Residents The continuous request for jobs made Jorge ask his contractors, if there a way to train the kids and put them to work? He was spending millions of dollars to rehab the property, and the contractors had more than enough work. The contractors agreed to put a training course together for the residents. For residents wanting jobs, the contractors training course taught basic skills needed to work in construction. The opportunity for the residents was this: If they showed up everyday on time and did not miss any of the training for two weeks, at the end of two weeks, they would get jobs. The first class had three participants. After the two weeks, the three trainees had jobs. Word of the jobs for trainees quickly traveled through the community. The next class had 40+ trainees. The transformation was incredible to see. At first the trainees would show up dressed with their pants falling off. Within a few days, trainees started showing up dressed like they were going to church. They really wanted to learn and wanted the jobs. Change from Residents The residents wanted change. Once they were employed in the community, they took pride in their work and community. They self policed, the community, and if someone wanted to harm their community, employed resident would actively discourage the would be trouble maker. Community pride was contagious. Jorge was able to prove that by providing training and jobs to local residents, he created responsible citizens. Instead of paying the outside contractors money that they took home to their neighborhood, the tenants received training and compensation for the work they did to improve their community. The work gave the residents money so that they could pay their rent. Some of the trainee graduates went onto create their own businesses that are still in business today. Pizza Delivery Drivers were no longer afraid to deliver pizza Now he had a value add formula on how to turn around the biggest challenge he could find. Not only was he changing the property, but he was changing lives. By December 2004, the property renovation was complete and occupancy had increased to 80%. Disaster Strikes Christmas Eve 2004 an ice storm struck Collumbus, Ohio. Trees & power poles were knocked down, and power was out for all of Woodland Meadows. With no power, the electric boilers were unable to generate heat. For four days, the temperature was below 0 degrees and the water in the pipes froze. When the power came back on, it was clear that things were out of sorts. As the temperature rose, the frozen pipes thawed. Water started pouring through cracked pipes, into the apartments. Insurance Realizing the damage caused would need a lot of money to fix, Jorge called his insurance company to see what help his policy could provide. The adjuster made a quick inspection of the property, and returned to his office. A couple of days later, the adjuster called to say, “you are not covered. The damage was caused by your boilers. You do not have boiler coverage, and you are not covered.” Jorge’s attorney explained that on large claims, insurance companies often will use a strategy of delaying payment in an effort to force the claimant to settle for a reduced amount of money rather than the amount provided by the insurance company. Jorge knew he had coverage and thought the insurance company would eventually pay the claim. Rather than wait until they paid, he elected to borrow against the equity in his other properties for some cash to pay for the repairs needed at Woodland Meadows. He figured that when he received the insurance settlement, he would pay off the loans. After a couple months of trying to work with the insurance company to resolve the claim and their refusal to pay, left Jorge with no option but to sue his insurance company. By August 2005, Jorge was running out of money. He had over 200 people working everyday to repair the damage. To preserve cash, he reduced his labor body count from 200 to 20. Then the city representatives visited the property asking, “why progress is slowing down?” The City The City, unbeknownst to Jorge, had decided that they wanted to acquire Woodland Meadows. When the city visited in August, they sensed Jorge was at his breaking point, and they acted. In an effort to acquire the property, they notify Jorge that he has 3 days to evacuate the property. The city claimed that a prior owner had made a construction shortcut and given that the buildings had filled with water, the buildings were imminent danger of collapse. Jorge hired an engineer to inspect the buildings, and he found no such evidence of danger of collapse. The court awarded Jorge a temporary restraining order against the city of Columbus and 6 months to complete the repairs. Jorge then authorized his attorney to make the best deal with the insurance company to collect money and get the repairs made. The damage was estimated at $45 million. The insurance company settled for $32 million and work was back on schedule. HUD When the city was unable to acquire the property under the false claim of imminent danger, they notified HUD of the conditions at the property. Under HUD guidelines, property owners receiving Section 8 income are required to maintain properties to a certain standard. Due to the damage caused by the ice storm, Woodland Meadows was below the standard. HUD notified Jorge that he had 30 days to complete the repairs, or lose the funding for his Section 8 tenants. Jorge appealed to the local municipal court who requested HUD show up in court, but HUD refused stating that they are a Federal Agency and not bound by municipal courts. Thirty days later, HUD returned to the property and terminated contracts worth $200,000 per month in rent. The loss of rent forced Jorge to accept the gravity of the situation and surrender. Six months later the property was evacuated by the City of Columbus. Since then, all of the buildings have been demolished and a new high school has been built on the site. Hindsight Hindsight is always 20/20. Had Jorge understood the city’s desire to acquire the property, he believes he would have acted differently. In the city’s efforts to acquire the property, they had offered to help him acquire a different property. If he had accepted, he could have then taken a reduced settlement from the insurance company and moved on. Could a, should a, would a, didn’t. Unfortunately, Jorge saw a problem that needed a solution. He acted in the way he believed was best to fix the problem. Out from Under the Loan In order to get the money he needed to fix Woodlawn Meadows, Jorge got loans against his other properties and signed as a personal guarantor. This had never been a concern in the past, because nothing had ever gone wrong. However, this time was different. Creditors pursued Jorge personally for the outstanding loans. When he could not pay, the lenders pursued foreclosure on the properties. At the foreclosure auction, the bank bought the Kansas City property for what was owed on the first position lean. Jorge’s experience as a mortgage broker made him realize that when the bank foreclosed on the property, the second position loans were extinguished. This meant that the second loan against the Kansas City property which was used to purchase the Oklahoma City property meant that the OK property free and clear. Debt Cleanse This foreclosure experience caused Jorge to review all of his loans, where he found multiple mistakes, from minimal to egregious. These mistakes provided leverage for him to negotiate more favorable settlements with his lenders. In one case, the bank ended up paying him to settle the debt. Shortly after this chapter in Jorge’s life, the Great Recession struck. Jorge recognized that millions of Americans needed help negotiating settlements with their banks. Jorge then started Debt Cleanse, to help others in need, find the errors in their loans in order to negotiate better settlements with their lender. BIGGEST RISK Each week I ask my guest, “What is the Biggest Risk Real Estate Investors face?” BIGGEST RISK: To not learn from the past. And so that would be for me to look at my own past and the past of others and see what has happened, how they navigated it and, whether it makes sense to, or how that should influence my actions today. And I'll give you a real life example, is that you know the market. I've been through a couple of downturns in the real estate market and towards the end of every up cycle is like today. Today there are the lenders are, freely giving out money. It's very easy to qualify. They have these, you know, kind of almost subprime loans called non QM loans, and things have gotten very easy and that happens every time. At the top of the market that the money is free flowing, the pricing gets expensive, everything gets really competitive. I'm trying to buy loans and other people coming up with money pay more than me, And they could be the winner of the bid. But really, time will tell whether they're the winner, the loser. So today, I think the biggest risk today is ignoring the past and the fact that we are probably in a very overheated real estate market and just overheated economy, which is likely to turn down very turn down in the near future. It's hard to say exactly when it happens, but now would be the time to take some chips off the table and avoid or at least minimize that risk. For more go to: Website: DebtCleanse: https://debtcleanse.com/ Book: Burn Zones https://ahpservicing.com/
“A person really needs to look at the math and their belief system, those two things. And if you get those two things adjusted correctly, you can make a quantum leap in your business in a very short period of time.” - David Neagle WORK WITH EMILY iheartmylifebooking.com info@iheartmylife.com ABOUT OUR GUEST David Neagle knows how to help you achieve whatever dream your heart desires – no matter where you're starting from. After his brush with death, David began to study his own potential. In the 12 months following his accident, despite being unable to walk for more than a month, he tripled his income! By December of 2000, David had expanded to become an executive corporate manager, a stock investor, and a business owner! Over the years, David continually sought new mentors with each new level of success he attained. He began to study every great person in history – but it wasn't until David began studying “The Science of Getting Rich”, by Wallace D. Wattles, that he fully understood the transformation he'd undergone. Wattles' book uncovered the exact change in David's thinking and in his attitude that had gotten the ball rolling; to create his unstoppable success. Today, David Neagle is the best selling author of The Millions Within and is known as one of the architects of the coaching and personal growth industry itself, having worked alongside other well-known mentors like Bob Proctor, Marianne Morrisey, Tony Robbins and the like for decades. Connect with David at https://davidneagle.com/ DURING THIS EPISODE David and I talk about how you go about turning your yearly income into your monthly income. We also talk about his journey from making $20,000 a year up to multimillions, just in a short space of time, how he was able to make that happen and how he recommends you do the same in your life in business. PREPARING THE FOUNDATION FOR YOUR QUANTUM LEAP You must be able to answer the following questions to prepare the foundation for your quantum leap: Where are you going? Do you believe you can get there? Where are you in your growth and preparedness to move forward? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do you need to improve in order to get where you want to go? THE LAW OF POLARITY The law of polarity is, is a tool that allows you to start to conceive the truth about anything that's in your life. It is basically showing you the opposite sides of the same thing. It lets you know that the opposite of anything you're experiencing also exists at the same time, in the same place. Even if you can’t see it, it’s there. The reason most people don't see the opportunity is that their mind is trained to see something that they don't want. SELF AWARENESS The more you understand the truth about yourself, the easier it is to create your dreams. We're raised to believe what other people think about us, not what we think about us. So in order to do that, you've got to strip away all the beliefs that you carry, that other people told you that you were and told you that the world was, and then find out what is it in your core and why are you here. When you do that, instantly the world changes right before your eyes and it becomes an amazing journey. RESOURCES MENTIONED You Squared by Price Pritchett ABOUT THE I HEART MY LIFE SHOW Tune into the I Heart My Life Show with Success Coach Emily Williams to learn how to design a life you love, manifest more success and wealth, move past fear and blocks and create joy in your life and business. Emily and her world-renowned guests will help you create a life that’s better than your dreams and give you tangible action steps to get there — quickly. She’ll cut through the fluff and share what’s worked for her and the world’s most successful people. She believes that success is an inside job — not just about another strategy. The I Heart My Life Show will help you finally heart your life, experience extraordinary success, make more money, live according to your own desires and give you permission to go after what you really want. SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-heart-my-life-show/id1330534524 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Zw6fI37FrfVjZMXlMiZZ6 CONNECT WITH EMILY https://www.iheartmylife.com/ https://www.instagram.com/iheartmylifenow/ https://www.facebook.com/iheartmylifenow https://www.linkedin.com/company/i-heart-my-life/ LEARN MORE ABOUT EMILY More about Emily, her company I Heart My Life and her coaching programs can be found at www.iheartmylife.com. Emily Williams is a success coach, entrepreneur, and author with a seven-figure business who, at one point, couldn’t get a job at Starbucks. After experiencing a quarter-life crisis, she moved from Ohio to London (where she knew no one!) and in 2014 launched her business, I Heart My Life. She made $442 in her first month—and then went on to hit six figures in six months, before her 30th birthday. She grew it to seven figures in under 18 months. Today, she works with female entrepreneurs all over the world, helping them bust through the obstacles that hold their dreams and goals hostage so they can free themselves to live the lives they want, build their own online business and hit their money goals. She’s been featured in Money, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, Forbes and Success Magazine.
David and Helen take a step back to unpick the tortuous history of how we got to the Brexit referendum in the first place. Does the justification Cameron offers in his new memoirs stack up? What was he trying to achieve? And why did we end up with an in/out vote when the political risks were so great? A conversation linked to David's review of Cameron's book in the current 40th anniversary issue of the LRB. https://www.lrb.co.ukTalking Points: Why did Cameron call for an in/out referendum?He wanted to reconfigure Britain’s relationship with the EU, not abolish it.Let’s take the story back to 2004-2005 and the new constitutional treaty.The key question was consent.In Britain, there was a push for a referendum. Although Blair was initially opposed, he made a u-turn. But the Dutch and the French voted the treaty down before it could happen.Then came the Lisbon Treaty. Brown decided that this was different than the constitutional treaty and he ratified it without a referendum.This creates a political problem. The Conservative Party opposed both the Lisbon Treaty and the way it had been legitimated.The constitutional treaty made the EU wary of using referendums to legitimate treaties.But Cameron thought there would be another treaty—was this a mistake?The European Union Act of 2011 required a referendum for any treaty that would increase the power of the EU.By December 2011, Cameron had two issues: the domestic politics of consent, and the risk of being a permanent minority on financial service matters.In 2011, it became clear that the ECB would pursue a policy that would make it more difficult for London’s clearing houses to be the center of European trading. Ultimately, Britain could not fundamentally reconfigure its relationship with the EU. Cameron’s attempt to renegotiate became a perfect example of British weakness and fueled the Leave campaign.For what is Cameron personally culpable?He knew that Leave could win, but he didn’t make contingency arrangements for leaving.When Leave won, the UK entered a constitutional crisis and Cameron just walked away.Mentioned in this Episode:David’s review of Cameron’s memoirCameron’s Bloomberg speechMacron’s 2017 Sorbonne speechMore on ChiracAnd as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: lrb.co.uk/talking See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This is a snippet from Breaking Walls Episode 94: Radio And The Drugstore/Malt Shop (1940 - 1955) _________________________ Network radio opened the 1948-49 season fresh off its 14th consecutive year of record earnings, but television’s market surge had begun. By December of 1948 more than ten-thousand homes were turning on TVs each month. Soon over a million US homes had sets. It’s no coincidence that collectively, the top 50 rated radio shows lost an average of a million listeners. In early 1949, NBC found itself in the unfamiliar position as the nation's number two network. CBS had overtaken their rivals thanks to a willingness to push new programs. They also allowed stars like Amos n Andy and Jack Benny incorporate as businesses and sell their shows to the network. This saved the stars millions in taxes under Capital Gains laws. NBC had spent years letting their dramatic programming atrophy. They responded by hiring Young and Rubicam’s head of radio Sylvester “Pat” Weaver to be NBC president. He immediately gave opportunities to rising stars. In January of 1949 Jack Webb intimated to Radio Life that his days playing guys like Novak were almost over. His next character would be called, “Joe Friday.”
Shift The Plan | Where It Is Never Too Late To Change The Game
EP 33 Born in Winston Salem, NC but raised in Charlotte, NC, Jania was taught to give back at a very young age. She loves helping people to the best of her ability because she knows the value of opportunity. Being raised in a single parent home and having a supportive family to motivate, support and encourage her has been very instrumental in her willingness to help others. She earned her bachelor's in Biology with a Minor in Chemistry and Psychology from Winston Salem State University in 2004 and continued her education by obtaining her Master's in Healthcare Administration from the University of Phoenix in 2007. She has over 11+ years of experience in healthcare industry with knowledge of Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. She is a member of Junior League Charlotte and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, INC as well as former board member for several local non profit organizations. She was one of the 2015 40 under 40 honorees at Winston Salem State University. In May 2016, Jania was selected as the 1st US advocate for Mama Hope, a non profit organization who trains impact entrepreneurs from around the world. By December 2016, she was recognized in the Charlotte Observer as one of the, Seven to Watch in 2017, for her work in the Grier Heights community teaching youth ladies in the Stiletto Boss University youth entrepreneurship program. Currently, Jania is running Stiletto Boss University in addition to coaching and consulting for her clients under the JSM Consulting brand. She is also the Co-Founder of Women Entrepreneur 2.0 which empowers women to start their own business within the community. She is an avid volunteer in the community and maintains balance in her life through her relationship with God. For leisure, Jania loves to travel, eat great food and spend time with her family and friends. Her goal is simple, living out loud through implementing her dreams in giving back, making a difference and being the difference in the community. ______ Connect: IG: Instagram: @dearjania | @jsmconsultingnow Website: https://www.jsmconsultingnow.com/ ______ Share, Subscribe, and Leave a Review ______ Shift The Plan - @shifttheplanpodcast Rhonda D. Evans - @therhondaevans ______ Join The Tribe - @shift.makers.clt ______ Listen on Anchor.fm, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shifttheplan/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/shifttheplan/support
Sudan has been involved in ongoing civil wars since 1983. The wars were about religion, culture and resources. By 2005, approximately two million civilians had died. In 2011, the southern part of the country voted to secede from the north, creating the new country of South Sudan. But there were still three regions that were claimed by both north and south: Abyei, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan. These regions are rich in oil and have fertile farmlands, so politicians and humanitarians predicted there would be violence following the secession. Civilians in these regions, mostly farmers and shepherds, would be caught in the middle.Content Note:Discussion of genocideNathaniel Raymond is a human rights investigator. He was looking into an alleged massacre in Afghanistan when he was introduced to the idea of using satellite imagery for humanitarian purposes. At that time, satellite images were sometimes used for documenting force swells and finding the locations of mass graves. But Nathaniel wondered if he could figure out a way to use satellite imagery proactively; what if he could figure out a way to see an attack coming and sound an alarm before anyone got hurt?Nathaniel wasn’t the only one who had this idea. Actor George Clooney had also been researching ways to use satellites as “anti-genocide paparazzi” in Sudan through an organization he co-founded called The Enough Project. The Enough Project and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and others sponsored the project. The Satellite Sentinel Project partnered with the private satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe, who gave the SSP permission to point some of their satellites where they pleased and take pictures. By December 2010, the Satellite Sentinel Project was in full swing, inventing a new methodology for analyzing satellite imagery of active conflict in real time. The mission of the Satellite Sentinel Project was threefold: Warn civilians of impending attacks,document the destruction in order to corroborate witness testimony in later investigations, and potentially dissuade the governments in both Sudan and South Sudan from returning to war in the first place. “We wanted to see if being under surveillance would change the calculus… If they knew we were watching, would they not attack?” The Satellite Sentinel Project would release their reports at midnight so that they would be available in time for morning news in East Africa. Critics of Satellite Sentinel Project say that South Sudan shouldn’t be a playground for experimental humanitarian efforts bankrolled by a foreign movie star. And Nathaniel says the critiques are valid. “It was always a Hail Mary pass. And, we must be clear, it was always an experiment, which in and of itself is problematic. But… what else are we going to do, sit on our hands?” Satellite Sentinel Project released a total of 28 reports over 18 months. The methodology Nathaniel and his team developed is still being taught at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Today Nathaniel Raymond is a lecturer on Global Affairs at Yale’s Jackson Institute. Special thanks to Ziad al Achkar, one of Nathaniel’s colleagues from Satellite Sentinel Project that helped us with this episode. Producer: Garrett TiedemannEditors: Bethany Denton and Jeff EmtmanMusic: Garrett Tiedemann
This week I speak to Aidan Kenealy the Director of Hole in One Ventures.Aidan co-founded EMGN.com in January 2014, EMGN quickly became one of the fastest growing websites in history, attracting over 30 million unique users per day by the end of its first year. By December 2015 the site was ranked in the top 10 US mobile websites and in the top 500 global websites. EMGN.com was sold in Mid-2016. Aidan has since moved into the mentoring and advisory space, with a particular focus on start-ups, and has been working with many companies to help them navigate the challenges of successfully growing young companies. On top of this work, he has been actively investing and facilitating capital activities for a number of start-up companies. His mission is to help those with high growth businesses realise their vision for success. If you enjoy this interview be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your network. Stay awesome Eli SmitFounder & HostGround Breaking Podcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Listen HERE Build The Wall GoFundMe Founder Is Back Recent Reports That Money Was Returned Are "Fake News" The We Build The Wall Non Profit Has Raised $22 Million and Counting PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Brian Kolfage, the founder of the border wall GoFundMe campaign, is full speed ahead with building the wall and has a heavy hitting advisory board across industries to help - Steve Bannon, Tom Tancredo, Curt Schilling, Kris Kobach, (Ret.) Brig. General Dr. Rob Spalding, John Daniel Moran and more. We Build The Wall, Inc. was created by Brian Kolfage to continue to raise private money from everyday Americans to help build a wall on the southern border. Misreports incorrectly stated that the money was being returned - that is not the case! Available to correct the record and give an update on his plan to move forward with building the wall is Brian Kolfage, the originator of the GoFundMe page and subsequent founder of WeBuildTheWall, Inc. Setting the Record Straight To date, he has raised approximately US$22 million to privately fund the wall. Once the GoFundMe transitioned to a 501c4, all donors were contacted and asked if they wanted their donation to be refunded or if they want it to count toward the new “WeBuildTheWall, Inc.” The default setting was that if 90 days went by without confirmation, the donor would be automatically refunded so as to ensure their money was allocated with their consent. When will construction begin? Our team has already begun the process of identifying zones along the Southern Border that are known to be high-traffic areas for illegal crossings and smuggling operations. We are presently working with US Customs and Border Patrol experts and other US Border Security Service professionals who are highly experienced in these matters. We are beginning extensive due diligence and the commencement of feasibility studies and will be engaging leading experts in a variety of fields necessary to construct our Border Wall. These professionals will continue to provide us with critical guidance on the legal, engineering, contracting, environmental, accounting, maintenance, and real estate issues required to build a Wall along the Southern Border. About WeBuildTheWall WeBuildTheWall Inc. evolved after Brian Kolfage launched a GoFundMe campaign at www.gofundme.com/thetrumpwall on December 17, 2018. By December 31, 2018, the campaign raised ov
Colleen & Catie's Picks for Spring Break Colleen Place to avoid? Florida, California - Anyplace that’s popular Alternative Spring Break destination? Lake Geneva, Wisconsin - An easy drive from Chicago and not swamped with tourists for spring break. Favorite hotel there? Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, WI - Nice rooms or villas, plus a club Lounge, spa, golf, and skiing. Favorite restaurant? Geneva Chophouse - Steaks, seafood, wine. Be sure to make a reservation (they get busy)! Favorite activity? Skiing, sleigh rides, golf How to save money on a hotel during Spring Break? Book early and look for packages that include breakfast, parking, cocktail hour, and other perks. How to save money on flights/transportation during Spring Break? Drive, don’t fly. Spring break travel tips? Look for cities that aren’t as warm/sunny. Even north in Florida might be a good option, as it’s not as warm. Also, go to places in the off season, and stay during the week vs. on weekends, to save money Catie Place to avoid? Avoid theme parks during spring break. Go when kids are still in school. Alternative Spring Break destination? Austin, Texas Favorite hotel there? Archer Hotel in North Austin - 8 story hotel that mixes Texas limestone and wildflowers with the soul of Austin. Favorite restaurant? Franklin BBQ - Draws lines down the street for their world-renowned brisket. Favorite activity? Barton Springs Pool - A recreational outdoor swimming pool that is filled entirely with water from nearby natural springs. How to save money? Food truck scene. Check out the cluster of trailers on South Congress! Cost of flights? Anywhere from $100 to $350 roundtrip. Spirit or Southwest are generally the best value. Spring Break Travel Tips? Try not to post too much on social media if you are not home. Security wise it alerts people that you and your family are not home. If you’re flying to a popular destination, you should book your flight 90 days in advance before spring break (By December) "What's" with the "Trip Sisters" What’s in Your Suitcase? iPhone XR - Starts at $749 on www.Apple.com With a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display, a faster core processor while using less power, easy wake gestures, Haptic Touch on the keyboard, and an incredible camera with a variety of features for your best portrait photos yet, this is a must-have for your next vacation! What’s on your phone? Roadtrippers: iPhone & Android - FREE Offers a database of amazing places to help you map out your next road trip (restaurant, hotel, national park, roadside attraction, etc.), giving you a cheaper alternative to flying during spring break. What’s the tip? Dos and Don’ts of flying for Spring Break (Hopper) Don't: Depart on Friday - Friday is the most popular day to depart and the most expensive and flying on Friday will cost you 20% more than flying on Tuesday. Do: Travel mid-week - Tuesday is typically the cheapest day of the week to depart. Plus, hotels will also be cheaper, as Saturday night hotel stays will cost you 4% more than midweek. Don’t: Fly home on Sunday - It will cost you 10 percent more than returning on a Friday. Do: Fly home on Friday - Although Friday is the most expensive day to depart, it's the cheapest day to return. The second cheapest option is Saturday, which will cost you 4% more than Friday. Don’t: Travel during peak spring break travel times - The most expensive times to travel from a U.S. airport this spring are between April 2 and April 15, when flights can have a 25 percent premium. Do: Try to be flexible with arrival/departure days - Even a shift of one week before/after the peak can make a huge difference. Don’t: Wait until the last minute to book your flights. Booking less than two weeks before departure will cost you 25% more than monitoring prices in advance. Booking in the final days will cost you 50% more. Do: Set up a trip watch on Hopper to get alerted about when to book. Don’t: Fly non-stop Do: Fly indirect. Nonstop will cost 8% more than indirect flights.
As the war restricted automobile use, many Americans were forced to take public transportation. By December of 1943, railroads were carrying nearly two million people per month, many of which included military personnel. Threatened by a railroad strike, President Roosevelt ordered the War Department to take control of the railroads. By January 14, Railroad workers accepted terms with the government and returned to work.
By December 1943, General MacArthur was prepared to launch the final phase of Operation Cartwheel, the landings on the Island of New Britain. U.S. troops landing in mid-December 1943 were met with little resistance. On December 26, U.S. Marines landed unopposed at Cape Gloucester.
The priesthood is regarded as a noble vocation. Priest are so close to god that sometimes we forget that they’re people too, just like the rest of us. And like every person on earth, we all have our flaws, and as the people on this list will show, some are much worse then others. These are the top 5 Most Sinful Priests. Please support Scary Mysteries! Check out our Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries... - There's a lot of cool access, giveaways and even a custom episode! Buy awesome original shirts made by Scary Mysteries https://newdawnfilm.com/scary-mysteri... Subscribe for Weekly Videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiE8... _________________________________________________________ Top 5 MOST SINFUL PRIESTS 5. Reverend Mike Tabb Fromer Navy chaplain, Rev. Mike Tabb and his family moved from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina to Troup, Texas where The small town of 1,900 people welcomed them with open arms.” All seemed well within the household until August 5, 2002 when a frantic call from the Reverend reached the local police station. Investigators rushed to the scene at around 6;30 pm, where they found Marla, the reverends wife, lying in a pool of her own blood. 4. Pastor John Canning – Sebring, Florida In sebring Florida Pastor John Canning delivered a 30-minute eulogy at the funeral of Lee and Hazel Gleese. The slain elderly couple, both 90 years old, were found strangled to death inside their home and Pastor Canning told attendees he was so close to them that he even called them “mom and dad.” Just six weeks later, Canning would be arrested for their murders. 3. Father Gerald Ridsdale Born in Western Victoria Australia, Father Ridsdale first took his vows into the priesthood at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1961. In the first year of his services, the church already received complaints about his behavior but somehow, they never did anything about it. He was proclaimed chaplain of St. Alipius Primary School, an all-boys boarding school in 1971, and from there, his sexual misconduct only escalated. Initially, the Archdiocese of Ballarat had denied knowing about Ridsdale’s misconducts but later investigations revealed they had known about it earlier than they admitted and somehow, even protected the priest by moving him to different appointments instead. 2 Father Joseph Maskell – Baltimore City, Maryland Born Anthony Joseph Maskell on Aril 13, 1939, he opted to use the name Joseph when he entered the seminary . Those who knew him describe the preist as being an intelligent man who loved psychology, someone who would often offer his counselling services to students at any time. But underneath the seemingly noble exterior, Maskell was actually a complete monster. 1. Father Hans Schmidt – New York / Louisville, Kentucky Father Hans Schmidt lived and grew up in Germany. From a young age He exhibited a strong fascination with blood and dismemberment and one relative recalled how he beheaded his mother’s geese and kept their heads in his pocket. During his seminary days, he was charged with forging diplomas. Although prosecutors wanted him jailed, his lawyer managed to get him off the hook due to mental illness, which were said to have been present on both sides of the family. By December 23, 1904, Schmidt claimed to have been ordained into the priesthood by Bishop Georg Kirstein. His family questioned whether he had the moral and mental fitness to serve as a Catholic priest but nevertheless, he began receiving parish assignments. So there were the Top 5 MOST SINFUL PRIESTS ------- Priests are the pillars of Christianity and deemed to be “people of God”. And while many of them may mean well, sometimes they let ones in that commit heinous and atrocious acts, all while hdiding behind the power of their status.
Jane Whaley recently turned 80-years-old. Obviously, the Word of Faith Fellowship can’t go on forever. At least not the way we know of it today. So, who’s taking over? Can it go on without Jane Whaley’s vision and authority? Or will it all just fall apart? John Huddle, a former member, says that Jane’s biological daughter Robin Webster is believed to take over the church. But he suspects that, when Jane Whaley dies, there will be a power struggle within the church.The case against the Word of Faith Fellowship We’ll talk more about this alleged attack in the next episode. Today, we’re going to focus on how we got to this point. Before Brooke Covington was charged with kidnapping and beating Matthew Fenner, she was actually the person who recruited him into the church. How did she go from being his spiritual leader, to being charged with beating him? In order to understand the case against Brooke Covington and the Word of Faith Fellowship ministries, you first understand how Matthew Fenner joined the church. Cults recruit the vulnerable The biggest questions I get all the time is, how do people get sucked into a cult. Everyone says that they would never fall for it, so how did Matthew and his family become one of them? Before Matthew Fenner joined the Word of Faith Fellowship, he thought they were freaks. He heard rumors of the demonic possessions and members vomiting in buckets to evil spirits. Let’s just say that he wasn’t exactly a perfect candidate. And on top of that, Matthew was openly gay and considered himself an atheist. So, how does someone like him get sucked into a ultra conservative Christian cult? The Word of Faith Fellowship found Matthew Fenner, and his family, when there were at their lowest point. Matthew’s family rejected his sexuality, his mother was in a bad marriage, and they were running out of money. These were desperate times. Matthew attended his first service in February 2010. During this time he had friends, was a member of a dance troupe, and attended public school. By December of that same year, he cut ties with everyone he knew, quit dance, and enrolled in the church’s private school. How did it happen? How can someone go from gay atheist to a god-fearing cult member? Matthew Fenner describes his journey into the Word of Faith Fellowship. Listen to episode 10 of the Prophet on Apple podcast, Google Play, Spotify, or Stitcher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1978, a movie hit theaters that showed just how far special effects had come. Superman The Movie Wowed audiences and set the bar really high when it came to special effects. The tagline in the marketing campaign for Superman The Movie was, “You’ll believe a man can fly.” That tagline was something of a message to the creators of the new Star Trek movie. By December 1978, principle photography was wrapped and it had moved into post-production. But you could say that with Superman’s impressive special effects and story, Star Trek needed to ensure that audiences, “would believe space travel is real.” And pressure was already mounting internally on the production as it ran over schedule and budget. Visual effects were going poorly, as well, as the company in charge of producing them fired not long after. Then, there was Superman The Movie, a huge blockbuster hit in the same genre. That had to add the pressure to the production team. But Superman did something else for The Motion Picture. It got audiences ready. It’s safe to say that the two franchises probably share fans. So Superman just got that fan base jazzed up and excited. After the dust settled from Superman and we were well into 1979, fans most likely began looking to December for the premiere of Star Trek The Motion Picture.
President Trump Speech at the United Nations 2018 Best speech ever? Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity think so President Trump Returns to the U.N.—with a Mountain of Evidence for ‘Peace Through Strength’ September 25, 2018 5 minute read SHARE: ALL NEWS President Donald J. Trump helped kick off the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City yesterday. Along with a series of bilateral meetings with allies this week, the President is addressing the full Assembly in a major speech Tuesday morning. “The scourge of our planet today is a small group of rogue regimes that violate every principle on which the United Nations is based,” President Trump told the Assembly last September. “They respect neither their own citizens nor the sovereign rights of their countries.” One year later, the bold diplomacy of the Trump Administration has diminished many of the threats the President cited that day, including the most critical ones from North Korea, Iran, and ISIS. Among these accomplishments, the historic Singapore Summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-Un stands out, marking the first-ever face-to-face meeting between an American President and a North Korean head of state. At the summit, the two leaders committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. At last year’s UNGA, President Trump foreshadowed this development. “It is time for North Korea to realize that denuclearization is its only acceptable future,” he said. Just last week, leaders from both North and South Korea met to reaffirm that vision and begin drafting a plan to achieve it. Last year’s speech identified another significant threat to the American homeland: terrorism originating from turbulence in the Middle East. Two bad actors, ISIS and the Iranian regime, share much of the responsibility for the death and destruction. “We must deny the terrorists safe haven, transit, funding, and any form of support for their vile and sinister ideology,” President Trump said. The President has also condemned regimes’ and terror groups’ use of hostage-taking and prioritized the recovery of Americans held hostage or detained overseas. To eradicate the first of these threats, ISIS, President Trump changed the rules of engagement on the ground, empowering U.S. commanders with broader authority. The results are unmistakable. ISIS has lost nearly all of its territory, more than half of which was liberated in less than 18 months under the Trump Administration. The chips fell quickly. In October 2017, ISIS’ self-proclaimed capital city of Raqqah was liberated. By December, the Iraqi government announced that all Iraqi territory had been liberated from ISIS control. On Iran, President Trump used last year’s UNGA speech to reiterate his profound objections to a nuclear deal that put the interests of diplomats ahead of the Iranian people—and, indeed, peaceful people the world over. By lifting sanctions and unfreezing financial assets, the Obama Administration’s deal gave the Iranian regime a cash windfall while failing to advance America’s national security interests. “Rather than use its resources to improve Iranian lives, its oil profits go to fund Hezbollah and other terrorists that kill innocent Muslims and attack their peaceful Arab and Israeli neighbors,” President Trump said. “This wealth, which rightly belongs to Iran’s people, also goes to shore up Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship, fuel Yemen’s civil war, and undermine peace throughout the entire Middle East.” In May, the President made good on his promise to withdraw the United States from that deal. A new agreement, he emphasized, must permanently deny Iran any path to a nuclear weapon and address the totality of the regime’s malign activities, including its support for terrorism. While North Korea, ISIS, and Iran constituted three of the biggest threats to peace, they were far from the only aggressors President Trump called out in New York last year: “The actions of the criminal regime of Bashar al-Assad, including the use of chemical weapons against his own citizens—even innocent children—shock the conscience of every decent person.” In April, the United States joined Britain and France in launching precision air strikes on targets associated with those chemical weapons capabilities. “The Venezuelan people are starving and their country is collapsing. Their democratic institutions are being destroyed. This situation is completely unacceptable and we cannot stand by and watch.” In March, the Trump Administration expanded its sanctions against Venezuelan leaders, upping pressure on the corrupt Maduro regime. “In America, the people govern, the people rule, and the people are sovereign. I was elected not to take power, but to give power to the American people, where it belongs. In foreign affairs, we are renewing this founding principle of sovereignty.” In keeping with that vision, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced this month that the Trump Administration would take all necessary steps to protect American soldiers and citizens from unjust prosecution by the unaccountable International Criminal Court. By prioritizing peace through strength, the rate of progress for American foreign policy over the past 12 months has been staggering. President Trump makes it clear that this work is only just beginning. On Tuesday in New York, he will build on last year’s message to the U.N.—that strong, sovereign nations must work side-by-side to confront the gravest threats to our civilization. “If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph.”
We sit down with TJ and talk about his path to joining the tech industry and what people of color can do to engage it further.Learn more about tech: ROOTsTechnology.infoConnect with us: https://linktr.ee/livingcorporateTRANSCRIPTAde: I'm sure many of our listeners can relate to the concept of familial pressure, and as many immigrant or first-generation young adults may know, the career path for us is often limited to that of a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. I chose the path of a lawyer when I was younger. However, as I've evolved as a person so have my interests, and I'm not alone in this. Many of us have seen leaps in technology that have piqued interest in previously unexplored fields. So with that in mind, it should be of no surprise that it is one of the fastest growing industries in the world with revenue within the industry projected to reach $351 billion. It also makes it an inviting field for groups that have been underrepresented in this industry until now. The question is what does it look like to make the pivot? My name is Ade, and you're listening to Living Corporate. [intro]Ade: So today we're talking about non-conventional entries into tech. As many of you may know, this would resonate with me. I've shared at least two or three times this season, but for those of you who are new, I'm actively making the career pivot into software engineering, which was not my focus in college. The journey so far has included some extremely long hours, some late nights, a ton of mistakes, a couple of wins--a couple of little wins--and many, many failures. Zach: Yeah. You know, we could've done a better job promoting your journey through Living Corporate's Instagram because your IG stories are great. Like, I'll see you posting pictures of your laptop screen with a bunch of code on it, you being in all these all-day workshops, books you're digging in to help build your technical chops. It's been inspiring to see.Ade: Thanks. Thank you. Part of what I am interested in is making tech more accessible. It's all around us, and engaging in tech means often--more than just being a coder. Being a coder is awesome, but there is so much more to tech than that.Zach: Right. I mean, to your point, because there's technology in everything that we do, there's a myriad of ways to work in tech. As an example, I'm a change management consultant in technology. I don't know how to code a thing, yet, but I'm still actively engaged in the industry because I bring other skills to the table to help implementations and things of that nature to be more successful.Ade: Right, and along that train of thought, there's space for all of us at the table--word to Solange--but it comes down to exposure and engagement. For me, I had two primary barriers. One, I didn't know what tech meant. It seemed like this vague, really nebulous space, and that was scary. I like when words mean things, and I like when I understand what those words mean. And the second big barrier for me was that I did not know how to get there. I had no road map. I had graduated from college, and there was no counselor, adviser who was like, "Take these classes and you'll get there," and "These are the steps." I had to figure it out for myself, but in figuring it out for myself I came to understand that the tech space is made up of people, some really amazing people, and therefore completely accessible. Just like you are a person, they are people, and so this is a space that you can absolutely find your way in. Zach: Right, and as you alluded to in the intro, professionals of color as well-served to seek entry into industries that are growing and positioned to be on or around the top, but it would be great if we could speak to someone more about this topic, right? Someone who--maybe they're, like, a first-generation American who changed their career, made a career pivot after college and got into tech, but not only that, they leveraged their passion and network to teach other ethnic minorities skills to get them into the tech space as well.Ade: Wait, you mean like our guest TJ Oyeniyi?Zach and Ade: Whaaaaaaat?Zach: Sound Man! [makes air horn noises] Come on, drop 'em in. You know it. Just put 'em right in there. Let's go. Ade: [laughs] All right. So next up we're gonna get into our interview with our guest, TJ. Hope y'all enjoy.Zach: And we're back. TJ, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for joining us.TJ: Thank you. Thank you so much, Zach. Appreciate you.Zach: Hey, no problem, man. So look, for those of us who don't know you, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?TJ: Yeah. So my name is Tolu Oyeniyi, and most people know me as TJ, which I completely made up while watching Smart Guy one day. I was born in Nigeria, [inaudible], and I grew up in Dallas, Texas. I did my undergrad at UT Austin and grad school at Arizona State, and I am currently in the second year of my career switch as a software engineer. Zach: Man, that's amazing. So look, today we're talking about non-conventional entries into tech. Before you got into technology or the tech space explicitly, what were you doing? And what spurred your interest in the tech space?TJ: Ah, what was I doing? So I was working as a business analyst at a small health tech company in Austin at the time, and I was also a really big volunteer in Austin. Like, when I moved back to Austin from Dallas for work, I told myself, like, "Anything black," like, just anything dealing with underrepresented groups, I wanted to volunteer time to just help and, you know, just try to, like, give back any way possible. And I ended up, like, volunteering for a host of different events 'til I stumbled upon this one event called hackathon at Huston-Tillotson University, which is an HBCU and actually the first higher education institute in Austin during South By, and the purpose of the hackathon was to basically introduce black and brown students to tech, and I volunteered as a mentor to basically help students flesh out their ideas and, you know, ultimately try to build, like, a working product at the end of those two days for the hackathon. And what, like, really triggered the idea of, like, learning to code or just teaching people how to code was when I parked in front of this, like, brand new house across from, like, HT in east Austin, which, you know, used to be, like, an old black neighborhood in Austin. And, you know, this house was a reminder that this area was being gentrified, largely by a lot of people that are--that come into Austin because of tech, and just kind of, like, thinking, "Man," like, "All these black and brown kids," and just, like, families in these areas are being priced out of here because they don't really have access into this industry and don't really know, like, the basics, you know, to even be able to try to, like, you know, have a chance to, like, try in this industry. And that kind of frustrated me a bit, and I thought one day, "You know what? It would be real impactful if somebody was teaching these kids to code," and I just, like, jokingly mentioned to a friend--you know, to my friend at the event, like, "Bruh, you know, I think I'm gonna mess around and learn how to code so I can teach these kids to code."Zach: Wow. [laughs]TJ: The guy I was talking to was a software engineer for IBM. He was like, "Oh, really? Can you code?" I was like, "I do," but I didn't know anything about coding, bruh. I worked as a business analyst. I did, like, design software, but I don't actually build it. But yeah, I had the crazy idea of learning to code so that I could learn to teach black and brown kids to code. And I didn't really learn to, like, make a career switch. I just wanted to basically help other people, like, break into the industry. And I did that for about a year until I basically got this useless promotion at work. [laughs]Zach: Why was it useless? [laughs]TJ: It was useless, man. I was--I was working as a business analyst, making--you know, for a health tech company, making 37,500 in Austin--Zach: Wow. Wow, that's really low.TJ: Ooh. Man, you said wow and it just--it brought back all the pain from those days. [laughs] Oh, God. But yeah, and I had gotten a promotion to senior business analyst, right? You know, big time. I'm thinking big time. Everything got a promotion [inaudible]. My [inaudible] got a promotion, my responsibilities. Everything but my salary.Zach: Oh, no. But that's really what happens though.TJ: Yeah. I'm like, "Hold on, bruh." [laughs] "Hold on, bruh. Wait, what's going on?" 'Cause my, you know, coworkers got a raise. Why in the world did I not get one? So I started having this, like, back-and-forth with my manager like, "Hey, man. You know, I've been doing all this," you know? "My output is looking really good," et cetera, et cetera. Like, I've been here for over a year, you know? What's up? And I just got promoted. So he eventually went to bat for me with the CEO, and they got me a promotion. Like, I--man, I remember that day well. He came into the office and we had a meeting, and he was so happy to, like, announce to me that I had gotten a raise. I was like, "Okay. What's that money looking like, bruh?" He's like, "Yeah. So TJ, we're gonna take you from $37,500 to $39,998."Zach: Oh, no.TJ: I was like, "Hey, bruh. You guys really couldn't have added a couple dollars more?" [laughs] You know, to at least make it 40K, bruh. Really? I was--I was like, "Okay, wow. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it." I mean, I went back to my desk with this look like, "I'm leaving." I was, like, mid-twenties, just thinking, "Man, I'm not gonna be fighting for 40K." Like, "I'm not trying to build my life and career off of that," 'cause--you know, 'cause the question then was how long 'til I reach, like, 60K?Zach: Right. No, it's a real question. Right.TJ: Yeah. I'm like, "Bruh." Man...Zach: God forbid six figures, right? Like, come on. Right, yeah.TJ: Yeah, exactly. I'm like, "Jeez, I'ma be, like, 40 to 50 years old before I see any kind of money where, you know, I can just kind of be at peace?" Basically, right? 'Cause I had, like, a lot of loans coming from grad school 'cause I also did grad school out of state. But yeah, so I was very, like, frustrated by that, and by this time I had been learning to code for about a year and, like, you know, teaching it as well, but at that time I basically just knew the basics of building, like, web pages and websites. You know, just simple HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap. You know, that type of stuff. But I went home and I was just like, "You know what, man? I'm not gonna be here fighting to try to make 40-something K." Like, my financial goals were way bigger than that, and I was like, "I have to make a change," and all of my software engineer friends are banking, and, you know, so far this stuff seems pretty straightforward. So I basically went to this event or something at IBM I think, and I saw this printout of a job posting for an engineer role at IBM, and it had all these skills and requirements. You know, just basically all this stuff on there, and I basically used that posting to update the curriculum that I was using to teach.Zach: Oh, wow. Yeah.TJ: This happened, like--man, I think this happened around June or July 2016, and I basically took that job posting and I put it, like, right next to my desk in my room, and I put a date on there. Like, December 2016 was how long I gave myself. I was like, "By December 2016 latest, I should be working as a software engineer. Period." Zach: Let's go. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing.TJ: So yeah, basically that is what kind of spurred me making that career change, and it's just crazy how it all started, how I actually only started learning to code so that I could teach other people so they could break into the industry and make more money when I was over here broke. [laughs] Maybe I should make the switch.Zach: Right. You know, I'll say this. It's funny. I truly believe any time you attach your purpose with people you're going to see rewards on the other side, right? TJ: Oh, yeah.Zach: Right? So your whole angle, your whole mission was "How can I serve someone else?" And then as you were building to serve others, the fates came together to make sure that you were taken care of. So that's really exciting, and I think something else that I hope our listeners are picking up on is that you were tenacious about it, right? So the information was out there, you did your own research, you put yourself out there, you were willing to be uncomfortable, and you drove to get there. Let me ask you something about this program that you started to teach other folks, specifically youth, how to code. What is the program, and why do you believe coding is so important? Why do you do it today? Like, why do you continue to do it today?TJ: Well, so the program was called ROOTs Technology, and I was basically teaching classes on Saturdays at the time in, like, a lower income part of Austin. Yeah, and for me, at the time I thought it was, like, a really good chance to provide an opportunity for kids that were already interested in tech somehow to just learn more of the hard skills to try to, like, pick up the chance to try to break into the industry or to ultimately start, like, their own stuff on the side in terms of, like, building websites for people or just, like, building--or just building their own app ideas [inaudible] actually. So yeah, I mean, that--man, teaching is hard, bruh. Teaching is very hard. I always knew that our teachers were undervalued, underpaid and underappreciated, but that, like, knowledge took a different form when I actually, like, experienced being in the shoes of a teacher for just, like, a couple hours once a week, because there were some students in my class that they didn't know where they were going to eat unless they came to my class because Subway, like, sponsored lunches. You know? So it was like--there were so many, like, hurdles outside of the actual class that basically made it hard for students to retain information and to basically achieve the goal that they set out to achieve. So yeah, that was tough, and I ultimately had to, like, pull back on the program. So now I have the curriculum online, and it is open to any and everybody to use, and I just make myself available as a mentor to help people to get unstuck as they are working through the curriculum, you know? Because everything is online and self-paced, so.Zach: So let's make sure that we'll--we'll make sure to put those resources in the show notes because I think that's amazing. I think--you know, certain people--for me as an example, right, I'm a good Googler. Like, I don't have an issue looking something up and figuring out or, you know, reaching out and talking to people, but that isn't always--that's not everyone's strong suit. Having a place where all of that information is consolidated and available I think is a big deal, and there's plenty of people out there that really see tech as, like, this big, just amorphous thing that you can't really wrap your arms around or that it's only for super, super quantitative math geniuses and things of that nature. So let me ask you this. If you could give people, especially minorities, who don't have a tech background but want to get into the space three tips, what would they be?TJ: One, decide what you want to do, and if you don't already know what you want to do in this industry or you just don't know anything about tech, just start looking for local tech meet-ups in your area and start attending and just--just ask questions. Like, you will always find people that are willing to just, like, answer questions and at least help you and point you in the right direction. And two, like, find people that want--once you figure out what you want to do, find people in this industry that are where you want to be and approach them to basically help you come up with a plan to get there. And then three, you have to really, like, sacrifice and grind. Like, set a timeline and let other people know to basically help to keep you accountable to your goals and get to work, you know? Like, this--this, like, took me over a year and a half of just, like, teaching myself and just grinding, and my last, like, five months, I actually--like, once I decided that I wanted to make the switch into being an engineer, I think I spent about, like, seven months of just, like, really sacrificing and grinding. No more happy hours. No more brunch. Dollar mimosas, and God knows I love, like, dollar mimosas. Like, I--Zach: Dollar mimosas, yeah. [laughs]TJ: You know? I basically I had to give, like, so much up. Like, I was working full-time and coming home, and basically from 6:00 P.M. to, like, 1:00 or 2:00 A.M. I was just studying. Seven days a week. Just grinding and sacrificing. The only people that saw me on a regular basis were my coworkers and my sister 'cause she lives with me, but that was it, you know? I basically went into a hole to, you know, try to put in the work to achieve my goals, and I basically showed up with a brand new software engineering job a few months later.Zach: Well, see--that's just so inspirational, right? Because, again, I think we talk a lot about things we say that we want to do, but the reality is it takes work. It takes sacrifice. Anything that you want to really build that's gonna be sustainable, not a fad or not something passing in any way, it takes time, and it takes actual work. And it's funny because, you know, you didn't pull those hours out of nowhere. You had to give up some comfort so that you could eventually get where you wanted to go. So that's--that's just amazing. I'm really encouraged by this story. This has been a great conversation. Before we wrap up, TJ, do you have any shout outs?TJ: Man, I have a lot of shout outs.Zach: Go ahead. Get it going.TJ: [laughs] So yeah, first shout outs will be to Dara Oke and Sammy [inaudible]. They were my engineering friends at the time that basically helped point me in the right direction when I was coming up with this self-paced curriculum to, you know, teach people, and then after that, shout out to Yusuf [inaudible] and the African-American Youth Harvest Foundation, which is where the classes for ROOTs Technology were at, and Yusuf was another engineer at the time that basically started learning to code back then like I did and wanted to make the switch over, and he would actually volunteer with me to help teach the class as well. And yeah, again, he achieved it as well. He has been working as a software engineer for the past two years. And also shout out to [inaudible] for just being, like, a really big support--just a really good friend and mentor in this, like, tech journey. Like, E is an engineer. He's worked at IBM on the Watson project, DO doing, like, [inaudible] stuff, and now he's over at GitHub, and he always does a very good job of just, you know, trying to help lift as he's climbing, and I was, you know, one of those people that he, like, really helped along the way in my own journey. And also a big shout out to my fiance Queen and my sister [inaudible], who gave me a place to live while I was--while I didn't have my own place for a few months. And just a really big shout out to all of my family and friends that were there to support me and to, like, push me on throughout this whole journey.Zach: Man, that's beautiful, man, and again, we thank you for your time. We love your story. We definitely consider you a friend of the show. We hope to have you back, man.TJ: Awesome. Awesome, sir. Thank you so much, Zach. Appreciate you.Zach: All right, man. Peace.Ade: And we're back. I can tell that you and TJ had a lot of fun on that one, and to be frank, I was incredibly energized by his story. It was really motivating to hear because he's out of the old, so to speak. I'm definitely still in "stay low and build" mode, but hearing his story is encouraging, and it's motivating, and it lets me know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Zach: Yeah. I think his story comes down to the power of execution. He made up his mind to do something, and he didn't use any excuse. He researched, he studied, he prepared, and then he went for it, and he didn't take years and years. It's really--frankly, it's been a super short journey for him, and I'm happy for him because I know he's just getting started.Ade: For sure. We'll definitely need to make sure to list all of those resources and contacts in the show notes because, like you said, there are so many of us out here who are interested in a genuine approach to the industry but aren't necessarily sure where to start. We'll have a starting line for you.Zach: Absolutely. Well, with that being said, we're gonna be right back with our Favorite Things. Can't wait to share.Ade: Awesome.Zach: And we're back with our Favorite Things. So folk who know me know that I am a blerd, or a black nerd. Two amazing games dropped this month. One was 2K19. Yes, like many younger black men, I loves my 2K, my NBA 2K. For those who are not in the know, NBA 2K is a basketball simulation game. This isn't even an ad. I really enjoy 2K, especially My Career, where you take a player--you make one, you create one, you take him through the journey of being a rookie to a Hall of Famer. And Spider-Man dropped. Both for PS4, so I'm really--I'm enjoying myself.Ade: 2K, huh? Okay. So what's your style? Are you a shot-creating slasher? A playmaker? What's up?Zach: I'm actually a slashing, shot-creating small forward. I'm 6'10" on there, and so if you want to catch a body, you want to be put on a poster, you find me at the park. My gamertag is RevNunn, R-E-V-N-U-N-N. I'll see you out there.Ade: RevNunn gonna put you on a poster. All right. This week my favorite thing is a book called Weapons of Math Destruction. Yes, I did say math. It's a book that came out in, I believe, 2016, and it just examines the societal impact of algorithms and big data. We tend to think of--kind of following in the conversation we were having about tech spaces, but we tend to think of data and tech and science, the STEM space, as a relatively bias-free zone because it's presented to us that way. However, this book just talks about those spaces can actually--and that work, the creation of algorithms, actually can be used to reinforce pre-existing inequality and systemic inequality. I love it. It's by a mathematician known as Cathy O'Neil, and she talks about, you know, the reinforcement of discrimination using systems that we would otherwise consider or would otherwise hope are unbiased. So it's been a fun read. Okay, maybe not fun. Fun is definitely not the term I'm looking for, but it's been a very illuminating, insightful read, and I encourage everyone to take a look at it. Oh, that reminds me. Before we go, we are actually going to be opening up our Favorite Things to you, our listeners. So if you have a favorite thing, please get at us. DM us through IG or hit us up at our email address, which we'll list later on at the end of this show. You can also contact us through the website or Twitter, and we'll make sure to shout you out.Zach: Dope. Well, that does it for us. Thank you for joining us on the Living Corporate podcast. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at LivingCorporate, Twitter at LivingCorp_Pod, and subscribe to our newsletter through living-corporate.com. You know what? Also, we actually bought a bunch of other domains. That's right. Sound Man, go ahead and drop some air horns right here.[Sound Man complies]Zach: That's right. We bought livingcorporate.co., livingcorporate.tv, livingcorporate.org. We are everywhere except livingcorporate.com. So if you type in Living Corporate you will find us, okay? If you have a question you'd like for us to answer on the show, make sure you email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. And that does it for us on the show. This has been Zach.Ade: And I'm Ade.Ade and Zach: Peace.Kiara: Living Corporate is a podcast by Living Corporate, LLC. Our logo was designed by David Dawkins. Our theme music was produced by Ken Brown. Additional music production by Antoine Franklin from Musical Elevation. Post-production is handled by Jeremy Jackson. Got a topic suggestion? Email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. You can find us online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and living-corporate.com. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned.
Dogecoin started life as a joke. Jackson Palmer, Tweeted "Investing in Dogecoin, pretty sure it's the next big thing." This was a reference to a popular meme featuring a breed of dog called a Shiba Inu adorned with Comic Sans text. Jackson was poking fun at the rapid proliferation of so-called "altcoins" cryptocurrencies that hoped to rival the success of Bitcoin. But the response to Palmer's joke was enthusiastic and positive. Still, the joke might have ended there if not for a programmer named Billy Markus. Markus had dabbled with creating his own cryptocurrency in the past and he contacted Palmer to offer his services. Together the two men cooked up Dogecoin, an altcoin cryptocurrency inspired by a joke about how there were too many altcoin cryptocurrencies being created. Naturally it featured the clueless face of a Shiba Inu dog. The cryptocurrency launched on December 6, 2013. By December 19, the value of the joke currency had skyrocketed, quadrupling it's value in just a few days of trading. The money based on a meme seemed to have a memetic appeal all it's own. Three days later the currency would lose 80% of its value, but by now it was at the very least being talked about in serious cryptocurrency circles. However three days after THAT on December 25, a hacker managed to manupulate a popular Dogecoin storage solution called Dogewallet and stole $12,000 worth of Dogecoin. As if that wasn't enough drama for the cryptocurrency that was still less than a month old, the Dogecoin community, led by the makers of Dogewallet launched an initiative called "Save Dogemas" to make whole those who had had their Dogecoin stolen. This generosity of the early Doge community was not a one-off. In 2014 they led a Dogecoin fundraiser to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Olympics, and then they helped build a well in Kenya. But the happygolucky Dogecoin community hadn't seen the last of its share of troubles. Throughout 2014 a user in the Dogecoin reddit subreddit who called himself _Moolah started engratiating himself to community by generously tipping other community members in Dogecoin seemingly for no reason. And once he had their trust he asked them to invest in his new business venture, an online Dogecoin exchange called Moolah. But after accepting investment from the community to get the site up and running and then accepting deposits of Dogecoin into his newly created exchange, Moolah experienced a "critical bug" and many users lost the ability to withdraw their Dogecoin. The man behind Moolah was eventually identified as Ryan Kennedy, a man with a history of cons and scams. And because of the nature of Dogecoin it was difficult to know what could be done about it. Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies aren't "money" in the legal sense, so people who had been scammed had no clear legal recourse. Dogecoin also suffered price manipulation at the hands of cryptocurrency "investors" looking to make a quick buck in the largely unregulated market. By 2015 the shine had worn off of Dogecoin, and even creator Jackson Palmer said he wanted to take a step back from the cryptocurrency community. Why? Because he didn't care for the kind of people he saw taking an interest in cryptocurrency. "All in all, the cryptocurrency space increasingly feels like a bunch of white libertarian bros sitting around hoping to get rich and coming up with half-baked, buzzword-filled business ideas which often fail," Palmer told coindesk.com. He had also become dissallusioned with the lack of security in the world of cryptocurrency. He had created a version of cryptocurrency that had made regular people feel comfortable investing in this new kind of financial market, and the result was that many of those people had lost significant amounts of money and there was no recourse for them. The irony is that Palmer had CREATED dogecoin to point at the flaws in the altcoin market. Even back in 2013 new cryptocurrencies were being created all the time. They were presented as investement opportunities, but they were often the tools of what are called "pump and dump" schemes where the creator of a cryptocurrency artifically inflates the price of that currency and then sells off their holdings to gullible investors. And the process shows no signs of slowing. As of March 16, 2018 there were 1,638 different cryptocurrencies. In the end Dogecoin itself isn't the bad idea here. But it's entire history has been a lens through which we can view the problems with cryptocurrency in general and alt-coins in particular. Cryptocurrency isn't even a good idea as an investment. At the beginning of the year the market capitalization of Dogecoin was 1.5 billion dollars. Today it has plunged along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market to where it is today at 386 million dollars.
In May 2010 Stephen Griffiths appeared in the magistrates' court giving his name as the Crossbow Cannibal. By December he was found guilty of the three brutal murders he was charged with. Who was Stephen Griffiths? And why did he commit these crimes? CREDITS: Producer: Poppy Damon Artwork: George Leigh Music: Dan Wansell CONTACT: Twitter: @BloodTies_Pod Instagram: bloodties_pod Email: bloodties.podcast@gmail.com
In This Week’s Show, episode 179, Jenn’s gone so we scoured the internet for inappropriate headlines… enjoy. Sooory eh. Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, while Rangi (the Maori sky god) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying his patience! Shea’s Life Lesson This week I learned that revealing the intimate details of Donald Trump’s sex life to the public is only going to make the opioid crisis worse. Jenn’s Actual Lesson Is dying, as per the usual… Har har har har. Since it’s a sausage fest, here’s a fact about the Maori god, Rangi, considered the father of mankind. He fathered multiple gods through the earth mother goddess, Papa, then left her for some new brides to make people. That’s right, ladies. They even get tired of goddesses. But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer! This Week’s Beer Cellar Blender - New Belgium BA Link:http://bit.ly/2pxAINx BA Rating:3.89/5 Style: Sour Beer ABV: 7.5% Aaron: 9 Shea: 9 Steve: 5 This Week’s Show Round Table Discussion Patron - Dave the British Yeti! Here he is among the best people on earth, our patrons! You can become a patron too at http://bit.ly/2qqJxcqks extra story... it's about drinking gravy! Skeptics Round Table What have we been up to? Aaron: Make’n Cheese Jenn: Plague-stricken, yet again. Please keep her in your thoughts and iTunes Reviews - those are better than prayers… (It’s more like bronchitis, but thanks for playing. ~J) Shea: Got a new tablet Steve: Today is my 19th wedding anniversary and I’m spending some of it with you fine people. My wife is fine with it. Actually, when we decided to record today, it was Aaron who reminded me (and me, my wife) that it’s our anniversary, so if it wasn’t for this show, we’d have likely forgotten… again. Hot Shots (Pew Pew) Can Ya Feel Me Now? - https://dailym.ai/2HuYAsP A Chinese man with an “itchiness” he couldn’t scratch enlisted the help of the worlds last corded phone by cramming the useless device’s cable up is urethra to “scratch” at a burning sensation. As anyone who's ever unplugged a computer knows, cables tangles themselves up as if by magic. Unfortunately, for our would be Urologist, this tangling occurred in his bladder, requiring emergency surgery. No word yet on whether Ma Bell is considering this a “long distance” service… Who Doesn’t Love Getting A Little Head, Eh Marti? - http://bit.ly/2qrGhNJ 41yo Virginia woman Roena, apparently dissatisfied with the head she was getting, decided to take her cunnilingus to-go and decapitated her 29yo bo… named Bo. Another body part of his found in woods nearby, presumably after it slid off the roof of her car, as is the fate of all styrofoam doggy bags. When Have A Coke And A Smile Goes Wrong, What Do You Do? - http://bit.ly/2qrGi4f Why blame the weather of course. When officers pulled over a car and said they smelled pot, passenger and Florida woman (I know, shocking), Kennecia Posey, admitted the weed was hers but insisted that the small baggie of cocaine in her bag wasn’t hers, saying, “I don’t know anything about any cocaine. It’s a windy day. It must have flown in through the window and into my purse.” It seems the cops didn’t find the story credible since they arrested her. Don’t enter into verbal contracts with roofers. - http://bit.ly/2qrGikL Dickhead roofer in question, Andrew Jackson Higdon, was charged with criminal trespass and damage to property after removing the shingles and roofing felt after the homeowner didn’t pay him as quickly as he wanted. They’d agreed in June that he’d be paid after the insurance money came through. By December he decided he’d waited long enough. Get your contracts in writing folks. Nipples For Sale - http://bit.ly/2qrGiBh 31-yo Danny Ruxton quit his job to spend three years designing fur-fringed, rainbowlicious, Hershey's Kiss unicorn nipples. Because it’s the internet, and that’s how we fund startups now. Leaving us wondering what the internet won't bu...
Former Team Leader Brent Gove Joins eXp Realty from Keller Williams On Today’s episode we have Brent Gove. Brent has been in real estate for about 21 years. He spent 12 years at Remax and 8 years at Keller Williams before transitioning to eXp Realty. Brent’s business is currently in 37 states, and he has over 1,489 brokers and agent associates. In this episode you’ll hear about Brent’s experience with the market crash in California in 2005, how he found himself at eXp, his thoughts on the eXp business model and what’s taking place at eXp Realty. Learn More about eXp Realty - Click here to watch a quick 7 Minute Intro Video. Remember our disclaimer: The materials and content discussed within this podcast are the opinions of Kevin Cottrell and/or the guests interviewed. This information is intended as general information only for listeners of the podcast. Listeners should conduct their own due diligence and research before making any business decisions. This podcast is produced completely independently of eXp Realty and is not endorsed, funded or otherwise supported by eXp Realty directly or indirectly. In this episode Culture and growth at eXp Other companies in comparison with eXp The transition to eXp Want to Learn More about eXp Realty? If you are interested in learning more about eXp, reach out to the person who introduced you to eXp or contact Brent to inquire or ask questions. Contact Brent via text at 916-223-5555 Noteworthy “I saw the benefits; webinars that explained how to acquire stock, how to get leads, the five to 10 Cloud classes a day to train my team and then the revenue sharing component. Those four things, I was like wow this is this is shockingly better than I thought it was going to be.” “I am ten times more excited to be at eXp because of what it does.” SHOW TRANSCRIPTION KEVIN: Welcome to the show Brent. BRENT: Thank you Kevin. KEVIN: Well for people that maybe haven't heard of you before which probably not very many. Can you give a little bit of your background in real estate because I know you and I both were team leaders at Keller Williams but you've done a lot team wise as well. BRENT: Sure yeah. Been in real estate since 1996 or 1997 I can't remember what year it's been about 21 years now and you know start off struggling like everybody else. Then he kind of figured out at the end of your first year in year 2 I did better three I think my fourth year I sold 48 homes. I kind of found my stride. Friend of mine talked me going to Toronto to hear Craig Proctor who at the time was the number one Remax agent in the world up in Toronto which Craig Proctor super conference loved it. Met great people like Jeff Williams and Jay Kinder and Todd Walters and all kinds of wonderful people spent years learning that system and I went from 48 sales a year which I was matched to over 400 sales a year then 169 million in annual volume. And really when you are about leverage and building a team and then of course the market crashed in summer of 05 in California. I remember June I closed on 55 homes in a single month, got paid 55 times in a month which is great. The guy netted about 288.000 net that month so I was a good month financially. But you know we bounced around you know it would go 55 45. You know it might drop five or 10 sales but the next month we closed on 19 Homes we'd never drop like 35 sales and I thought that maybe we were distracted with the Fourth of July and I took the team to Scottsdale go golf and how fine and then the next month 17 and 14. By December we closed nine homes and I had 47 buyers agents working for me and that was our total close volume by December forty nine for forty seven agents. Everybody went bankrupt. Everybody lost their homes their cars. It was brutal. And that happened this summer and fall 2005. So people said oh the market didn't crack until 08, 07 maybe around the country but in California it was 2005. And so from there things got worse. By 2009 it was just I was losing 30 40 50,000 a month for years and by 2009 Keller Williams came knocking on my door. They said hey we'll pay a base of 288 thousand plus bonuses up to half a million come believe Remax be a part of Keller Williams. You can keep running your team to normally do. But that's the only way I would come and I came and it was great experience for me of course Remax said it will be terrible you'll hate Keller Williams and you're making the biggest mistake of their life it didn't matter where I would have gone whether it was Coldwell Banker Century 21 or wherever they would have said it was a terrible idea because I was leaving their team and gone for the opponents right thing. They were wrong though Keller Williams was way better for me not saying they're better than Remax it is better for me personally. They were wrong. Keller was great. I was there for eight years. So 12 years a ReMax eight years. Keller that was my 20 years. Then about a year ago I left Keller and you know I didn't like Keller at that time I loved him. Was never ever ever going to leave Keller Willaims. What could possibly be better than Keller Williams used to run the number one franchise in America. We made more money in 2009 than Austin Texas. Our Roseville Keller Williams is markets and it was number one and profitability for the entire nation. And that was in 2009 and last year I left the company that I loved and I was of the value proposition for eXp was so powerful so amazing I had to leave when I did. Of course Keller Williams like Remax said hey it's a huge mistake you're making a giant mistake don't do it. And bottom line I was leaving their team for the opponents team and they were wrong. My last 16 months here at eXp has been nothing short of miraculous and life changing and unbelievable. So in 45 days I get to retire from real estate. I don't have to list homes anymore. I listed a bunch of homes this week. Presenting three offers now I've sold three to me personally not my team me I'm a very active agent. But in 45 days I get to retire I'll give all my listings to my listing specialist on my buyers and I'll just kind of run the team and keep an eye on it. But it was the eXp that got me to the point where I no longer had to bring in a sixty thousand dollar a month monthly income to keep the lights on you know to pay my home bills and the office bills and the overhead it was 60000 a month. Well because we don't need to govern that money anymore. It's been amazing. And now I'm at eXp and absolutely loving it. KEVIN: You know Brett what's interesting about your comment and I would echo what you said right. I was a team leader at Keller Williams and was there and a big team in St. Louis Missouri and the most common comment is what you just said which is most of us were extremely happy. We were very happy where we were. And it's almost like we were sort of astonished at this value proposition of eXp realty that came by and went Wait a minute. I can't not look at this because I'm a business person. I think you're like decisive like I am right. Driver personalities and I know you dug right into it and you made a decision pretty quick didn't you. BRENT: Ten days but I was fortunate enough when I saw the benefits webinars that explained how to acquire stock, how to get leads the five to 10 Cloud classes a day to train my team and then the revenue sharing component. Those four things I was like wow this is shockingly better than I thought it was going to be and wow I don't have those six ways to acquire stock Keller Williams so I don't have the ownership piece and the revenue share piece and that literally saw a way to earn over a million dollars a year outside which I will do twice that much this year. But outside of real estate sales to make a million dollars a year, I go that is significant. So the benefit I had just dumb luck was the very next week they were doing their annual convention in San Antonio Texas. They're like hey if you're crazy get yourself an airline ticket get out here next week and meet us meet the founder of the company Glenn Sanford. Meet the CEO Jason Guessing. Meet Vicki Bartolomé our president. Come out here and meet us. And I said I'm crazy and I bought three roundtrip airline tickets. Seven hundred each. Because it was last minute was 2100 dollars just for the airfare. Bought tickets to the event it was like 300 400 bucks for each person. I spent like four or five grand to come check out eXp as a Keller Williams agent. I brought my CEO chief operating officer who runs my company and I brought a local independent broker with me. I said look we won't be going to San Antonio if I wasn't excited I won't be paying for all this and do all this I am interested. I'm excited about the opportunity. So I don't want you guys to come here be excited. In fact I want you to come here and be negative. I want you to tear this thing to shreds. If there's a fly in the ointment let's find it. Either this thing passes the mustard test or it doesn't. And we must have interrogated a hundred people over that three days brokers from Colorado or New York or Florida agents that were brand new in Seattle that were brand new in Phoenix. The agents had been doing this for four or five years in different parts of the country six seven eight years and were like really did they do they pay like like they slow pay. They were bounced the commission check. Did they pay revenue share every month. Do they pay late and have they ever bounced the revenue share check and basically it came back roses after three days and so because I was able to see the Webinar, fly to Texas that next week I left Keller Williams. Never thought I'd do it. Loved Keller was a wonderful company. They just don't offer five to 10 training classes a day. They don't have the lead component. We're able to turn on people's phones and deliver 100 to 300 leads a month to their phones that will change an agent's life. The training and the leads are then finally six ways to acquire stock. I have about half a million. After 16 months after past 20 years zero I like my program better. I then find the revenue share to a company that would share revenue because we're cloud based they could do it. Are these other companies cannot copy the model because they are going to pay for these behemoth offices and so the whole cloud based things huge so I think that was a long answer to a short question. KEVIN: You touched on some of the stuff in the answer that I was going to drill down on. So for anybody listening to this you know Brent had this rocket ship ride and if anything it's accelerating even further now. So Brent you join and you were a team leader and granted the timing worked out and it was 10 days but you were a team leader at Keller Willaims before as I'm going to ask you a question that I know the answer to because I was a team leader just like Gene Frederick was for a long time for a guy like Brent Gove and his team to move in 10 days when you were a team leader in a previous franchise system. Did that ever happen? BRENT: No no no it take months sometimes a year or more to get people to move. I know Keller Williams started talking to me in 2001 and it was only in 2009 in the bottom of the worst market correction since the Great Depression were they able to get me to move. It took them nine years to get me to move and eXp the value proposition was so great. Dave and Keller flew me to Texas took me out to steak dinners brought me all kinds of events and the last two years there was a hard push from 08 and through 09 or 07 and 08. So whereas eXp I paid for all my own stuff. I mean eXp didn't even buy me a cup of coffee. The value proposition was so powerful. I was gone in ten days so that we see that all the time. It's irresistible. KEVIN: Well for somebody on the outside that is now because we'll talk about what's going on 16 months later is what's going on now has to be shaking their heads right. If they're in a large franchise system whether they're in one of the big massive market centers or they're in a established Remax operation or even an independent they look around their marketplace and they're seeing massive movement. I mean I talked to somebody the day before yesterday and the comment was we're in San Diego and I've never seen anything like it. Right. Well you know Daniel beer comes over and then they go from like 10 or 15 agents at eXp in that market to 100 in less than a month. So yeah the comic you get on a rare occasion I know you have talked about how many states you have agents in a revenue share now but the comment that sometimes in I'm gonna make this statement people will say well in my market there aren't very many agents. Maybe it won't work here. What do you say to that. BRENT: My gosh escape your market. Here's a cool way I used to live in Chico California college town. And when I finally moved down to Sacramento a suburb of Rosewell my income went from you know I was making I don't know a 150 thousand a year 180 to over 400 thousand a year because I moved to a bigger market. But if you don't want to leave your town which many of you don't. Here's a way by telling people about the eXp you're able to escape your town. I have an agent who joined us up in Anchorage she has 60 listings now there are 60 eXp listings overnight in Anchorage. Talk about an expansion model. Honolulu Hawaii we have that number one Keller Williams luxury agent one of them doing one to five million. She moved the eXp. Now I get paid on wholesales in Honolulu where in 37 states they answer your question. But my first year I thought I think it's a work I got admit I like well it's either going to work or not I'll get me eXp six months. If it doesn't work I'll go back to Keller Williams, they'll take me back. Six months later it had worked beyond my wildest dream. Some people this is your stay at your company. I could have done that. I had the regional owners begged me to stay offer me ownership offer me. What do we have to do to get you to stay. Nothing. I know what Keller Willaims is it's great but he can't offer me this opportunity. I'm going to go try it but I'll be honest with you. Kevin I go six months it's either good work or it's not. And my first year I earned almost half a million in stock over 400000 and I got paid liquid cash over 500000 in rev share. When you combine the two that's 900000 dollars outside of my team I came to the eXp with 18 agents at the end of the year I had 18 agents. They were 100 percent retention. It was funky or weird. Some of them would quit. It's an important distinction to note. We had a 100 percent retention zero attrition because they're all acquiring stock. They're all acquiring revenue share they're getting more leads and they're getting training. They love to have 100 percent there year later. Plus we added five more buyers agents wasn't even trying to do that. So now 23 unbelievable by the way. We just had a star agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Los Gatos just leave Keller Williams. This year he'll do a quarter of a billion in sales. His name is Brett Jennings. Gary Kilar heard about it last week. He said called him up personally said get on a plane come see me in Austin. I've arranged for you to fly out tonight. First class ticket on a red eye. You'll get here tomorrow. Gary spent six hours with Brett and said hey here's what we're doing. It's amazing. Brett Jennings came back and he thought long and hard and that was this weekend and Sunday night he packed up his office with his agents and his staff. There were close to 20 there in Los Gatos this morning in Los Gatos the Silicon Valley the Bay Area. They come in their star who's doing a quarter of a billion. He the number one Keller Williams aged Northern California Hawaii. His office was empty and he Just in ya know some trash cans and desks and tables left in office. They were free. Talk about a mic drop where to go. People already call me he's at eXp. And if you listen this you need to investigate eXp, it's real it's the fastest growing most dynamic real estate company in North America. All the stars are coming. It is exploding I heard what people in the queue. We have ten thousand agents now. When I was here 16 months ago there were fourteen hundred and now we're at 10000. That's not doubling or tripling or quadrupling it's exploding it's it's unbelievable what's happening and we will be at 30 and 40000 agents in the next year or two and then we're going to 80 to 100000. I'll tell you this we're growing internationally across Canada we're going to open up Mexico we're going to open up the Philippines South America, Brazil, Chile Argentina. I'm going to get paid on home sales in South America and South Korea, Japan and China. It's going to happen Coldwell bankers worldwide Remax is world worldwide but we will grow faster and here's why there are 206 countries in the world. There are 25 million real estate agents and brokers and I'm telling ya eXp is going to have a couple million of those 25 million and I plan on having hundreds of thousands a part of my organization. I'm working hard for people. Kevin you're working hard for people. Gene Frederick is working hard. Rob Flixscott and Tracy Lewis there are so many amazing people at this company and it's just exciting to see what's happening. You know I was thrilled to be Kelly Holmes. I am ten times more excited at be eXp because of what it does. People have so much hope they like can't sleep. So excited I can't sleep. And it reminds me of Keller Williams back in the late 90s and they invented something that was better company exploded. They're a great company their a fine company. They just don't have six different stock awards. They don't have the revenue sharing components. They don't have five to 10 classes a day at least at this point that we have access to that eXp does in the cloud and they don't turn on agents phones and have the ability to deliver 100 to 200 300 leads a month through conversion and we're coming up with Cavey care. I think is it Cavey Care, am I saying it right. KEVIN: Cavey Core. BRENT: Victor Core which is like conversion times 10 with the tools it is unbelievable. Buckle up the world is about to see the most dynamic real estate company ever to hit planet earth like a Netflix like a Google like an Amazon. This is a game changer and it's for real. KEVIN: Well some of the stuff you touched on a lot of mega agents and mega mega agents and expansion agents are going to listen to this and I want to make something very clear that you touched on which is you're going to get called to Austin or wherever headquarters is for the franchise system you're in and they're going to offer you the world but don't get confused by waved caps right. If you look at it let's say they wave 200 300000 dollars where the caps for him how much equity you have. Right. BRENT: By the way Brett Jennings has offered four hundred thousand dollars by compass and turned it down. KEVIN: Sure. So you look at the value proposition but what I'm dealing about in the franchise system I want people to hear this pretty clearly they're going to attempt to lure you back with free caps so even if you've got in this case this mega mega team. A quarter of a million three or four hundred thousand dollars in waved caps which is why you're going to go to that's their only lever. Don't get confused with the fact that you are passing equity because here's what they're trying to do. They're looking to do a Silicon Valley play which is if you can keep a key executive off of the playing field so they can't earn equity and they can't earn incentive compensation until the opportunity is gone. They no longer have the incentive to leave. And so if they could keep them out of play for a few years by giving them a free cap he doesn't get to own the equity or the revenue share. So if you're hearing this and you're thinking about doing something we'll talk about due diligence steps here in a minute. Don't ever get confused about why they're doing this. They want you to get to the point where you don't have an opportunity for revenue share you have the opportunity for equity. Brent you said after 16 months what does your equity look like right now. BRENT: Close to half a million in stock. And this year my CO sitting over here will make close to 2 million liquid cash my second year. And if the stock does well who knows I won't go on record right. Definitely have my thoughts on how that stock's going to go. I can tell you this it was three dollars a share when I got in 16 months ago and it's trading at over 12 dollars a share today. You know what I'll trade at tomorrow but that's kind of interesting. What was it before that. Years and years ago it was 13 cents a share and 20 cents a share than a dollar of the two and then three and six then nine now it's 12. Who knows what the future will be maybe to go the other way. But I had 20 years of zero I do want to say this Kevin. When you go back to your broker and go well what do you think this is what I think your broker. And it doesn't matter where you go if it's eXp and you're a ReMax agent you're thinking about going to Coldwell Banker or Coldwell Banker agent and you're thinking about going to Better Homes or you're a better homes agent and you're thinking about going to Keller Williams. It doesn't matter where you're going your brokers even go that's so awesome. You're leaving our company Century 21 and you're going to Better Homes wow we're so excited. That's a that's a great idea. That is not going to happen. They get really negative. Every reason reasonable world why you shouldn't be at Remax why you shouldn't. Go to Coldwell Banker. Why Keller Williams is a huge mistake and Remax did it with me when I went to Keller. They were wrong. Keller was better and then Keller didn't tell me about eXp, passionately told me this was a bad idea and about a listen to him. I wouldn't be making a few million dollars this year. And I wouldn't have all the stock in it so great to see people's lives change. I have many people many many many many people making 5 15 20 25 30 thousand a month Revenue shares. Some of them just a lousy thousand 2000 dollars a month. I know my second month I earned five thousand dollars. Revenue sharing my first month 9800 by my third month I was making ten thousand a month. And by fifth month I was making 25000 a month revenue share outside of sales every single month compared to profit sharing which after eight years I was averaging four hundred a month. And because our office was no longer as profitable and if you're not as crud I'm making 2000 a month congratulations your office is running very profitable right now. I was no longer running the office wasn't in charge of the bottom line and mine had dropped to 400. But to be able a little point where I was knocking down 25000 a month every month like clockwork. Not a year but a month and then go to the point where I was making 40 50 60 and 70 thousand a month every month, not year. You're special. Come on. I mean that you know you do the work you earn the money. I went enroll 24 people in three and a half months. And it just went berserk. Go do that. Just go give it a shot. Learn more about the company but just remember your brokers not going yay that's so cool eXp such a great idea. They will offer you ownership. They will offer you money they will offer you free offices, they will give you 100 percent cap. They will do anything they can they'll offer to fly you to Austin first class and spend six hours with you. If you're a big enough player which is exactly what Gary Keller did personally with Brett Jennings and you know what after that Bret goes wow it's impressive thank you. He's grateful to Keller. But the value proposition is so powerful he had to leave the company he loved like me for eXp and he is excited. And today's his first day eXp there's a big huge empty office at Los Gatos Keller Williams homes and they're in shock that their star left their star agents are leaving the top brokerages nationwide. I'll just tell you this Kevin in Sacramento we pulled the numbers Coldwell banker is losing agents not gaining not for the month but for the year they're down Century 21 went down Remax down Keller Willaims down that number one company losing agents is Keller Williams actually followed by Coldwell bankers, Century 21 to Remax. Now the companies that are growing third place Homes Smarts second place Realty One first place eXp. 16 months ago not a sale today 10 percent market share. One of California's largest metropolitan cities was scratched the 10 percent market share. This year we're probably at a 20 25 percent market share eXp is coming on like a hurricane. Check it out. Check it out. Check it out. KEVIN: You know what's interesting about this Brett. You got the red eye flights into Austin right. We're just talking about one example right Remax all the same thing. But the next card to be played. Mark my word is going to be pressure on the market center owners in the OPs to drop their caps to try and give people incentives to stay. They don't get it. They don't understand the market's been disrupted and all that's going to do and I'm tying this down to your point when you see that if you're at the franchise system where they just cut the caps in half. Brett what would that have done to your Roseville market center if somebody came to you and said you going half what happens to profitability. BRENT: Profitability was already totally hurt. So yeah I mean the way it decimates slopes are going to push back and they're in a tough situation they've got these commercial leases signed on these giant behemoth options that hold two or three hundred agents in some cases 4 5 6 hundred agents they've got 5 10 year commercial leases they're in big trouble. They'll say stuff like Well is it a sustainable model why don't you tell me when the market corrected last time at two thousand five six seven whatever you want to say till 2011 or 12. Who was hurting and people of big offices were hurting. eXp is cloud based. Now we have a joint venture with Regis, we have thousands of locations there are 12 Regis corporate suites in Sacramento. Some are amazing, some aren't as nice. Plus I have my own private office many agents have offices. So if you have an office keep an office just move out of where you are into some business park or corporate suite you'll be surrounded by people who aren't real estate agents or brokers. I mean it's so ironic well I like only the office really are surrounded by agents and brokers at my beautiful office I'm surrounded by a hundred forty professionals. You don't have real say license but they buy and sell real estate. List sell buildings. I mean it's been unbelievable for business, get out of your office and get out into a community and the best way to do that is be cloud based but if you like an office which I do. I have my own office you can afford and you get a pretty three hundred a month to work with your stockbroker your Allstate agent your nations wide insurance agent farmers financial planner a lot of these people have offices they're not even using. Hey can I move for free and you can still have an office environment but eXp doesn't have it. So when times get tough the model that's not sustainable or the old way of doing things just ask Blockbuster. Ask Toys R Us asked Yellow Cab ask the hotel industry that's given their fanny handed to them by air BnB I mean the cloud based technology driven is where it's at. We got here 9 years ago. We've got a nine year headstart they'll be competitors that come in but baby were publicly traded we're we're growing and it's going to be nothing short of amazing so I'm just stoked if can't tell. KEVIN: Oh I'm right there with you. So if somebody is listening to this Let's say I'm a mega mega agent or a capper and I want to do the right thing I need to dive in and do some due diligence. What are the two or three things you think they should do to get the right answer. Before you answer one of the things I'm going let's say this as a caveat and we've done this on every interview is it doesn't matter who introduced you the eXp you'll hear Brent give his contact information at the end. We don't care how you got to introduce the eXp. Everybody is here to get you the right answers if you need to talk to Brett Gene or me or pat Hayes or whomever. We're all here to help regardless of how you were introduced to eXp. So Brent would a two or three things be that you recommend. BRENT: Well number one whoever turned you on eXp they got to this point you owe them a big old fat thank you a hug and kiss on the lips whatever you want but you need to stick with that person that person in my opinion should be your sponsor your rolling sponsor at eXp. The kind of thing where you shop around. If it wasn't for them he would even know about the opportunity. So a) My sponsor was a single mom out of Texas I've never met but I've changed her life. She's I don't know. Last I heard she's making 40000 a month revenue share. That will change a single moms life. And you know she helped me for the first two or three months and we were off running. You know so a we were you always been that should be your sponsor so if you reach out to Pat Hayes or Scott Tracy Lewis or myself or Gene Frederick and you already talking to someone we will love to talk to you and tell you about this amazing company. But whoever turned you on to the company in my opinion that should be your enrolling sponsor. End of story. End of story. I've had nine people ask me to sign them up I'm like nope. Because you've thought about this through somebody else whoever it is you need to go back to them. They need to sponsor you. I don't know that well I didn't know my sponsor either. I met her one time for 60 seconds. Thank God she called me and turned me on to this. I knew I would be interested in the eXp. I mean my gosh what could possibly be better than Keller Williams. In my mind I'll be like your company. I didn't like mine. I loved mine and for this company to do what it did for me. I'm so grateful to her so it doesn't matter whether you know your sponsor but you should call people ask questions get going and if someone tries to recruit you away from ever turned you on to this I highly recommend you not enroll with them because they have no integrity and it's just it turns my stomach. So someone is trying to convince you to go with them over somebody else. They have a massive lack of integrity. MAJOR red flag. I highly recommend you not go with them and you go with the person who turns you on eXp in the first place. Yet owe it to them. So that's my two cents I got off topic on that one a little bit but I just want to cover it. KEVIN: I'm glad you did because for the vast vast majority this is a culture that is not visible to the outside world eXp. I mean we both came from a franchise system that talks about culture and win win and values. I can tell you haven't been and experienced it in that franchise system and here. The culture is amazing from a standpoint of people helping you know it and it doesn't matter if it's me or Jean or you Brent it doesn't matter how you came into the system were here all the way down to the agent in Anchorage you mentioned. Doesn't matter who gets tapped on the shoulder to help the culture of win inside of you eXp is amazing. So before I let you drop off Brent any final thoughts and then I want to get your contact information in case somebody wants to reach out to you. BRENT: You bet. I do want to say one thing about the culture of this company. It is amazing. It's always great people from all the greatest companies coming together. The culture is unreal. Well I'm doing four hundred million a year. I got you know sixty five buyer's agents. Why would I want to do this. Because 16 months ago I only had 18 and I was severed to the market conditions are Sacramento California now. My business is up and up throughout 37 states. I'm diversified and I now have as of today 1489 brokers and agent associates of the eXp that I get to share revenue on and they are thrilled to be here. So my team went from 18 to 14 189 across 37 states and throughout Canada. So I highly recommend you look at this because where we you 16 months ago. I don't know 40 50 agents what you got now 60 maybe that a hundred and look at how powerful this model it's not me it's the value proposition. How powerful eXp is. I hope you come to our next big annual conference which is in New Orleans in October. By the time this goes out we'll have past our shareholders meeting in Las Vegas which happens April 5th and 6th it's probably by the time this hits the open market that a year passed. But we do two events here the next on 22nd 23rd 24th double check the dates in October in New Orleans. It's going to be an absolute hottest ticket in real estate in North America the fastest growing most dynamic real estate company that is changing people's lives like I've never seen eXp come out there. Check us out. Bring people. I did. And I got an unfair advantage and my business exploded because of what I learned from that event. So that's all I've got to say. KEVIN: Fantastic Brent. Somebody who is listening to this. They want to get a hold of you, what's the best contact information for you. BRENT: I'd be happy to answer your questions and send it right back to them and they should be your sponsor. End of story. 916-223-5555 is my cell phone 916-223-5555. Text me not going to give out my email address because I gave up reading email last summer. My staff reads my email. I don't do email. Course I do email but my staff will be the talking to my staff not me. You want to talk to me. Text me. That's how I prefer to communicate. That's what happens when you're 59 and you're a baller. You get to call the shot. So the number is 916 223 5555. Text me your question if you want to talk just text me the words Call me and tell me who you are and where you're from and I'll reach out to you when I get a break. Probably the same day usually within an hour or two just depends on what I've got going so I hope this was helpful Kevin. KEVIN: Absolutely. Thank you for coming on the show. BRENT: All right take care. Bye everybody.
In the summer of 2013, twenty year old Heather Elvis had an affair with Sidney Moorer, a much older married man she met through her job. When Sidney's wife, Tammy, found out, the relationship was severed and Heather became the subject of threats and insults. By December, Heather was moving on with her life and hoping to leave Sidney and Tammy in the past. She went out on a date and was excited for her future. In the early morning hours of December 18th, Heather mysteriously vanished. Her car was found abandoned at a remote boat landing not far from the Moorer's home. Over the next few weeks, Police investigated the possibility that Sidney and Tammy may have been involved in Heather's disappearance. The two were charged with murder, as well as indecent exposure, kidnapping and obstruction of justice. Most of the charges were dropped before going to trial, leaving the Elvis family wondering why. The Moorer's pointed the finger at Heather's father, accusing him of murdering his own daughter. The Elvis family felt the Moorer's were responsible. Others began to wonder if Heather could have run off, or if her date that night may have had dark intentions. What happened to Heather Elvis? Did she choose to run away from a troubled life to start over? Does her date know more than he is saying? Did Heather's father lash out against his own child? Or, do Sidney and Tammy Moorer possess all of the answers investigators have been seeking? Join host Steven Pacheco as he explores this complicated and confusing case in hopes of answering the question: What happened to Heather Elvis? For more information please visit: https://www.trace-evidence.comhttps://www.patreon.com/traceevidence Social Media:https://twitter.com/TraceEvPodhttps://www.instagram.com/traceevidencepod/https://www.facebook.com/groups/traceevidencepodMusic Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Heather_Elvis | https://www.postandcourier.com/news/sc-woman-gets-years-in-prison-for-kidnapping-heather-elvis/article_0099c11c-d631-11e8-9bd0-b3fe82f50271.html | https://nypost.com/2018/10/19/wife-on-trial-for-allegedly-kidnapping-spouses-lover-says-she-forgave-her/ | https://people.com/crime/heather-elvis-father-speaks-missing-south-carolina-woman/ | https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article220101140.html | https://wpde.com/news/local/its-gotten-harder-heather-elvis-family-opens-up-about-being-back-in-court | https://www.insideedition.com/mother-missing-waitress-heather-elvis-pleads-information-case-47872 | https://honey.nine.com.au/2018/10/18/10/56/the-disappearance-of-heather-elvis | https://www.live5news.com/2018/12/19/annual-event-being-held-tuesday-night-five-year-anniversary-heather-elvis-disappearance/
By December 1536 there were 50,000 rebels camped around Pontefract Castle while inside their leader Robert Aske composed a petition of 24 articles, to re-instate traditional religion and the Pope. No royal army of any size stood between them and London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Editor’s Note: On August 4, 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany, and in so doing, entered the world’s first Great War. By December of 1915, more than 100,000 British soldiers had lost their lives in service to their country. That month Charlotte Mason addressed the home front in The Parents’ Review. Even while acknowledging …
Wolves are a grizzlies best friend - at least in Yellowstone Yellowstone has become a world renowned laboratory for what can happen when long absent carnivores are returned to the landscape. For decades across North America, predators were seen as the enemy, and targeted for extermination. Bounties were paid for the pelts of wolves, coyotes and other carnivores in order to make the wilderness a more human friendly place. The program resulted in a natural system that ran amok. Food chains evolved over millions and in some cases 10s of millions of years. Every hoofed animal was partially designed by its need to escape predators that were in turn designed to eat them. In some cases, as in the case of snowshoe hare and lynx, both predator and prey evolved the same strategies. Snowshoe hares gradually developed huge back feet to enable them to stay atop deep snows and escape the lynx. In time, the lynx evolved to also have huge feet, negating the hare's advantage. As biologists, we call that co-evolution - two species evolving in concert with each other in the age-old chess match of hunter and hunted. Over time, the predator control programs were very effective over much of their range and wolves were long ago extirpated from places like the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. In their absence, nature didn't rest on its laurels. It continued to evolve based on the now more limited numbers of actors on the stage. In a 2013 study, a research study looked into what impacts removing wolves from Yellowstone may have had on other species, in particular grizzly bears. Normally, we think of animals like wolves and bears as adversaries, both competing for similar prey. Hop onto Youtube and you can find countless examples of wolves and grizzlies battling over carcasses. However when you remove the wolf, might the entire equation change? This study tried to look at what how the Yellowstone ecosystem was impacted by the removal of wolves and how it was further impacted with their return. Looking at mountain landscapes is not all about the pretty pictures that we as visitors take home. Less wolves meant, more elk. Tourists love to take photos of elk. They are one of the main large, charismatic animals that bring tour bus after tour bus into the mountain west. However we also need to remember one important fact. Elk are…what's that word again…oh yah…food! Elk are here not because they are cute and charismatic. They are here because they are made of meat. Ecosystems are a combination of predator and prey. Pressure from predation stimulates adaptation and evolution in their prey animals. This in turn forces the predators to also adapt. Take away the predator and the prey population simply explodes. This is what happened in Yellowstone. With an absence of wolves for more than 70 years, elk and deer numbers had exploded. Everything that was edible was, well, eaten. During this same time, the population of Yellowstone grizzlies also suffered. Could there be some relationship between wolves, elk and grizzly population? This study looked to quantify this relationship. We like to think of bears as carnivores, but in reality, they are omnivores. Most of their diet is made up of plants rather than meat. Uncontrolled elk numbers may have impacted the bears by simply grazing on the plants that produced berries important to those bears. This study examined the idea that taking wolves off the landscape simply changed the landscape to make it less suitable to bears. Grizzlies thrive in forests of aspen, poplar and willow because they tend to have a diverse understory of berry-producing plants like buffaloberry, Saskatoon or Serviceberry and chokecherry. Too many elk, meant that these shrubs, and even the new shoots of aspen, poplar and willow trees were mere fodder for the endless appetite of the ever growing elk population. In the early days of the absence of wolves, the park did some elk reductions but they stopped those in 1968 with a population of some 3,000 elk. With the programs cancellation, by 1994 the population had grown to a high of approximately 19,000 elk. New growth of trees and shrubs essentially stopped during this period as every edible shoot, leaf and berry was consumed by the elkopolypse. In a further hit to bear populations, the park closed all of its garbage dumps in 1971. Anyone visiting parks like Yellowstone, or even Banff in those days knew that if you want to see the bears, go to the dump. For bears already stressed by a loss of berry crops, the loss of the easy calories offered by landfills represented another loss in food opportunities for grizzlies. Coincidentally, in 1975 the grizzly bear was designated as a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Could reintroducing wolves reverse this trend? In 1995 wolves from Jasper National Park in Canada were captured and reintroduced to Yellowstone. The results have exceeded any expectations although this report was looking at just the impact on grizzlies. With the return of the wolf, populations of both bison and beaver increased, likely due to the increase availability of food. Did the increase in forage improve bear habitat as well? This study looked into the situation before and after wolves were re-introduced. When looking at the amount of fruit composing the diet of Yellowstone grizzlies prior to the reintroduction, they found it was just 2 to 4% as opposed to 28% in British Columbia and 18% in Alberta. In normal ecosystems, fruit composes a critical part of the grizzly bear's diet. The contain huge amounts of carbohydrates that are easily converted to fat. In fact, in episode 42, I spoke about the amazing realization that grizzlies in Alaska will choose Elderberries over salmon when given the opportunity. It seems that berries are the way to go. You can check out that episode at: www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep042. So, we brought the wolves back. Did it make a difference? Well, OK, it exceeded anyone's expectations. Returning wolves to the Yellowstone released something biologists call a trophic cascade. This means that by reintroducing wolves, biologists returned the balance to the landscape and the benefits trickled down through the entire ecosystem. More wolves meant less elk. Even today, the wolves take very few bison simply because they are very formidable prey. Elk, on the other hand are manageable, even in cases where bison are more plentiful. Removing elk allowed forage to grow. Poplar, aspen, and willow, in turn allowed bison and beaver populations to increase. More importantly they also allowed plants to grow. Aspen, poplar, and willow trees thrived. Beneath their canopy berry bushes also began to regenerate. Looking into the effects on the diet of bears, the study showed that fruit consumption more than doubled with the reduction in elk numbers. In some years, fruit consumption could account for up to 29% of the diet of male bears and as high as 39% for females once the wolves were returned to the landscape. Wolves reduced the elk population by an order of magnitude; from an average of 12.1/km2 in the absence of wolves to just 1-2/km2. If we look at the real benefits of the reintroduction of the wolf and the downward cascade of benefits we would see many things. Wolves preyed on elk, but more importantly changed their behaviour in order to avoid the wolves. They moved out of the valleys allowing those areas to regrow. The height of trees skyrocketed with the freedom to simply grow. Long absent forests of aspen, poplar, and willow thrived. This brought in songbirds that used the trees for nesting sites. Less competition for trees allowed beaver populations to grow as well. The beavers helped the ducks, the fish, the muskrat and even the otters. Wolves are a big predator of coyotes, and as they did this, rabbits, hares and mice numbers exploded, helping to spur populations of weasels, hawks, fox and badgers. Many scavengers rely upon animals like wolves to open up carcasses to allow them to feed. As a result, raven and bald eagle populations increased. We've already mentioned that the bears benefited with more available berries. Remember thought that bears will take a significant amount of newborn elk and moose calves. This meant that the bears worked in concert with the wolves to reduce elk populations, while at the same time benefiting with more available berries. Ok, now are you ready for this. The wolves impacted the landscape, and with that the rivers. The regrowth of plant life helped to stabilize the riverbanks and in turn helped to change the course of the rivers. Scientists call this a trophic cascade. It refers to situations like this, where a predator can create a series of benefits that trickle down the entire food chain. I'll include a link in the show notes to a great video that highlights some of the incredible changes that wolves have brought to the Yellowstone ecosystem. Most importantly for this story though, the wolves have helped the bears to thrive in this renewed landscape. This study also helped to reveal a historically negative aspect of this story. Grizzlies once roamed the mountain west all the way south to Mexico. Looking at the history of the mountains, people moved onto the landscape and culled predators, allowing herbivores to reproduce unchecked, while in many cases introducing cattle to the landscape. All of this would have reduced the forage necessary for bears to survive. Think of this as a grizzly bear famine. 20 to 30% of their normal annual food budget had been removed by overgrazing. Perhaps associated with this, grizzly populations began to drop. This means that the removal of wolves may have played an important role in the disappearance of grizzlies from much of the southwest. Could programs like wolf reintroductions allow bears to also be reintroduced to new landscapes? While bears are much more difficult to reintroduce, I'd love to see the scientists make a concerted effort and investigating the possibilities. It all starts with wolves. Trails - the good and the bad Let's talk about a few trail projects in and adjacent to the Rockies. First I want to talk about the grand-daddy of them all - the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail. This month, the world's longest recreational trail opened - and it's in Canada. Formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, Canada's "Great Trail" has officially opened. In total, it covers some 24,000 km, traverses all 10 provinces and 2 territories, and travels from ocean to ocean to ocean. The announcement means that you can now hike across the country from coast to coast, with an option to head all the way to the Arctic Ocean at Inuvik (although you'd need to follow the East Channel of the Mackenzie River a bit to truly meet the ocean. It is not a true trail, but a collaboration of hundreds of trails, each operated by differing jurisdictions, and then joined together by stretches of road or river where necessary. All-in-all, there are more than 400 trails winding their way across all 10 provinces with a potential detour to the far north. Like any network of its kind, it's a work in progress. Over time, sections involving walking on the shoulder of roads will be replaced by bonafide trails, but after 25 years, it's now a reality. Can you hike it all? Not yet. Think of this as a multi-disciplinary trail. The best way to take in the magic will be to combine hiking, cycling and paddling. Like the earliest days of Canada, for some stretches, the waters show the way. Some 26% of the trail follows waterways, so best to practice your J-stroke if you want to conquer this trail network. Other stretches that are dominated by connecting roadways are better covered on two-wheels. If you want, you can even strap on cross-country skis (or if need be fire up a snowmobile) for some sections. The great trail is a reflection of Canada. It crosses diverse landscapes with varying amounts of development and urbanization. Each section will offer its own unique challenges along with its own vistas. Traveling west across the country, when the trail reaches Edmonton, you'll have to decide whether you want to head south towards Calgary to continue the westward section of the trail, or north towards Inuvik and the Arctic Ocean. Along this northern route, you can select a land-based or aquatic route depending on your preferred mode of exploration. As Canadians, most of us have never traveled from coast to coast to coast. It was less than 10 years ago that I finally traveled west to east but I have yet to explore the north. Perhaps the magic of the Great Trail is in its possibilities. It offers each of us the ability to explore Canada in our own way. Lovers of history can follow the footsteps, or paddleways of those that traveled long before we did. Urban explorers can look for trails that connect in ways that allow them to cycle or perhaps hike from hotel to hotel. Nowhere else is there a network like this one. In some ways, it's not ready for the prime time, but in others, it's prime time to begin to imagine the possibilities that await you on the existing pathways, as well as where new additions of the trail may beckon. As you can imagine, this didn't emerge out of the ether. It took 25 years of volunteer hours and thousands of individuals to bring the trail to the point that we are today. If you'd like to learn more, check out their website at: www.tctrail.ca. If you can contribute to the effort, the Federal Government will contribute 50 cents for every dollar you can spare. There is also an app available on both Android and iPhone to help you navigate along the way. I'll see you on the trail. Now onto another trail. Over the past year, I've spoken at length about a proposed bike trail planned to run between the town of Jasper all the way to the Columbia Icefields, and eventually to Lake Louise and Banff. This trail was poorly conceived and rammed through with little or no public input, and against the best advice of Parks Canada's own scientists. You can read more about the trail plans by checking out episodes 3, 23, and 26. Episode 26 especially, brings out the backroom dealings that occurred in order to force the trail through the approval process. You can listen to it at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep026. The public opinion on the trail has been overwhelmingly negative and it seems that, for the moment at least, the trail has been put on hold. The trail was tied to dollars that had a deadline of 2-years to be spent and that time is running out. Jasper currently has hundreds of kilometres of trails that are virtually impassable due to a decade of neglect during the Harper years. During that time, all the focus was on getting more and more cars through the park gates so they could claim the $8 bucks a head per day. The backcountry was largely forgotten. I first came to the mountains in 1980 to walk the South Boundary Trail in Jasper. At the time, this 176 km trail was the longest in the mountain parks. Today, parts of the original route are impassable. $86 million dollars could go a long way towards repairing overgrown trails, replacing bridges and upgrading long neglected backcountry campgrounds, hanging racks and outhouses. It now seems that there is hope that this trail will be cancelled. The time limit on the money is running out. The park is now, after being pilloried in the media, doing more extensive public consultations, but the trail is no longer connected to any definite timeline. According to a recent article in the Rocky Mountain Outlook, Parks spokesperson Audrey Champagne stated: “After the consultation periods, if the decision is to move forward with the concept, new project timelines would be established” If the decision is eventually made to move forward, they'll try to get a continuation on the original $70 million that was earmarked in the 2016 budget. As the author of two books on mountain biking, I'm not opposed to mountain biking as a valid use of the backcountry. However ill-conceived trails will always be ill-conceived. New trails need to take into account new realities, like wildlife movement corridors and habitat patches for endangered or threatened animals like caribou and grizzly bears. This trail not only traveled through critical habitat for the endangered mountain caribou, but also that of grizzly bears, a threatened species in Alberta. At the same time, creating a trail would also create openings in the canopy which would promote the growth of buffaloberries. Bikes and buffaloberries don't mix. The trail would increase the likelihood of bear bike conflicts along its route. The public consultation ended in April of 2017, but the Indigenous consultation is just in the process of ending. There should be an opportunity for further public and indigenous consultation once the draft of the detailed impact analysis is competed so stay tuned. I'll leave a link in the show notes so that you can stay on top of current updates on the trail's status (https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/ab/jasper/info/plan/sentierdesglaciers-icefieldstrail) Hopefully, we'll see this project quietly slip into the dustbin of history and see the dollars dedicated to iconic trails that have been neglected in favour of the frontcountry. Parks are for all Canadians, and not just for those visiting the paved corridors. Let's all fight to make sure that the backcountry trails are refurbished to make sure that tomorrows wilderness wanderers will have an opportunity to explore the further reaches of the park. Thars Gold in British Columbia Many years ago, I wrote a magazine article on the legend of the Lost Lemon Mine in Alberta. I interviewed a long time prospector, Mike Czech who had prospected in the Yukon and southern Alberta in search of the famed Lost Lemon Mine. I was writing an article on this legendary bonanza when suddenly, his wife looked at me and said…"don't get the gold fever!" Her message was that once you get the fever, there is no inoculation. She had been married to a prospector for more than 50 years and had moved from place to place and the hope for the big strike had always been a part of her life as well. Gold Fever is real…once you catch it, it stays with you, and the genesis of British Columbia can be, to a great extent, connected to gold fever. Now if you're not familiar with the symptoms, they often began/begin accidentally. Wilderness wandering was often a pre-requisite. Gold doesn't just pop up anywhere but, like finding a unicorn, it suddenly appears to that individual that not both wandered and observed. In British Columbia, like most places where gold is discovered, discoveries began with a rumour, which evolved into a story which excited the imaginations of adventure seekers, leading to a sudden migration into a wilderness area lacking utilities, support systems, or any of the things people took for granted in civilization. In 1851, a 27 oz nugget from the Queen Charlottes, known as the Haida Gwaii today, was traded in at Fort Victoria. Now you can't just walk into a trading post, drop of an almost two pound chunk of gold and then just wander back to your pickup like nothing unusual has happened. A nugget means people take notice and after this nugget was traded for 1,500 Hudson's Bay Company Blankets, it was brought to the attention of Governor Richard Blandshard. He sent a message to the British Secretary of War and the Colonies (Yup, we were part of the department of war). In it he stated: "I have heard that fresh specimens of gold have been obtained from the Queen Charlotte Islanders. I have not seen them myself, but they are reported to be very rich. The Hudson's Bay Company servants intend to send an expedition in the course of the summer to make proper investigations. The brigantine Huron was dispatched accordingly, ostensibly to trade, but really to search for gold. Failing in which, the men broke up part of a quartz ledge, and carrying pieces on board their vessel, returned in triumph to Victoria" In the end though, this first goldrush didn't produce much gold, but it did see enough people flooding into the territory that the region was designated as the unified Colony of British Columbia. Prior to this, there was a colony on Vancouver Island, with James Douglas as the governor. Douglas was also an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company and so was also in charge of the lands on the mainland although they were not part of the original colony. In a way, the crown colony of British Columbia owes its genesis to the search for gold. While the first taste of gold in the Haida Gwaii had not panned out, in 1857 rumours surfaced of a new gold strike on the Thompson River, downstream of Fort Kamloops. The gold was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company and in Feb of 1858, Douglas dispatched the steamship Otter to San Francisco with 800 ounces of gold for minting. Within weeks, miners began to arrive on the Fraser River. The first gold strikes were around just a few kilometres above the city of Hope. The new governor of the Colony of British Columbia, James Douglas, hired gold commissioners to intercept American prospectors and make them buy licenses, stake claims and record their progress. This was needed to help maintain sovereignty over the new colony as much as it was to make sure that the gold didn't disappear into the U.S. without helping to enrich British Columbia first. In the spring of 1858, shiploads of miners from San Francisco began to arrive at Fort Victoria. Now keep in mind that Fort Victoria was home to a mere 400 people, but between May and July, some 23,000 gold seekers departed San Francisco to arrive at a Fort completely overwhelmed. When they arrived at the growing tent city, only then did they learn that Fort Kamloops was still 600 km distant, and on the mainland, across the Strait. Many built their own boats to try to beat the crowds across the 32 km crossing and up the Fraser towards Fort Yale. Many miners simply began to pan there, pocketing 4-5 ounces per person per day. The more adventurous though, headed upriver on foot. If there was gold in the gravels, then the motherlode must be upstream. Some miners brought with them both experience and instinct. Some, it seemed, could smell the gold. One of these included a group of five Americans led by Peter Curran Dunlevy from Pittsburgh. Like their contemporaries, they began staking claims upstream from Fort Yale, but soon ventured upstream, far upstream. By May, they were panning near the confluence of the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers, near to present-day Junction Sheep Range Provincial Park. While there, they met a native named Tomaah, the son of Chief Lolo St. Paul. When he asked what they were doing, they showed him a few flakes of gold. Tomaah then claimed that he could "show them a river where gold lay like beans in a pan." The miners would need to stock up on supplies though, and Tomaah promised to meet them at Lac La Hache, some 65 km east as the crow flies. The party purchased a tonne of provisions and 12 packhorses in Fort Kamloops and headed to Lac La Hache. Tomaah, asked his friend Baptiste to show them the river of gold and after several days of travel, they came to a river that they named the "Little Horsefly" because of the hordes of biting flies that plagued them. One of the party, Ira Crow panned the very first gold from the area of British Columbia that would soon be known as the Cariboo. Dunlevy's party had swelled to some 12 men but they struck it rich. They left the area with gold rumoured to have been worth more than a million dollars - that's a million dollars in 1859 dollars. It's the equivalent to winning the lottery. They took their money and moved on. Some, like Dunlevy, continued to invest in the goldrush, opening roadhouses and freighting operations to help other miners along the Cariboo Road as it the area was opened up to easier access. The route to the Cariboo was long, hard and dangerous. James Douglas, the acting Governor of the Crown Colony, informed London: "Another important object I have in view is the improvement of the internal communications of the country, which at present are, for all practical purposes, nearly inaccessible beyond Fort Yale." A road to the Cariboo would not only assist the miners in traveling safer, but would also assist in making sure that the 49th parallel remain as the border between Canada and the U.S. Long before getting permission to build the road, Douglas met with miners and promised that his government would trade them transportation, equipment and food in exchange for a 1.2 metre-wide mule trail through the wilderness as far as Lillooet. To make sure they didn't desert, the miners were required to place a $25 deposit which would later be redeemed in supplies from Lillooet. It also helped to add a few dollars to the road building fund. This road wouldn't follow Fraser past Yale though, but would rather follow the route of the Lillooet River across Harrison, Lillooet, Anderson and Seton Lakes. Alexander Caulfield Anderson had traversed the route in 1847 and was put in charge of the construction. Workers were organized into groups of 25 and dispersed along the route. There were 500 workers on the road by mid-August. In the meantime, the British Government replied to Douglas' original dispatch: "Her Majesty's Government propose sending to British Columbia at the earliest possible opportunity an Officer of Royal Engineers and a Company of Sappers and Miners made up of 150 non-Commissioned Officers and men." By December, 1858 it was reported by the Victoria Gazette that: "Good boats are running on all the lakes, while numerous houses for public entertainment are opening up all along the line. " In one of the strangest stories of the Cariboo Goldrush, Gustavus Blin Wright imported 23 camels at the cost of $7,000. He believed that they could carry twice the weight and cover more distance than mules and horse. What he didn't count on was that their feet were far too soft for the coarse terrain and the fact that horses and mules would stampede when they smelled the strong smells that the camel radiated. In the end, the idea was a total bust. Miners petitioned to have the "Dromedary Express" banned from the road and, in the end, they were simply turned loose. The last one died in 1905 south of Kamloops near present-day Westwold, B.C. Douglas then shifted his attention to the Fraser Valley route to the Cariboo. In 1860, he sent out construction parties to improve the road between Yale and Lytton. There was already an established route from Lytton up to the gold fields. In the end, this Cariboo Road turned out to be a much faster route than Douglas' original route to Lillooet and it quickly took on the majority of the traffic. In just over a year, Douglas has built two major roads towards the gold fields of the Cariboo. He has developed a system of gold commissioners to monitor the miners, the claims and the findings. For many, he is considered the father of British Columbia. Next week we'll follow the story as the Cariboo really begins to get the gold fever. And with that it's time to wrap this episode up. I want to thank you for sharing your time with me and be sure to check out the show notes for links and additional information. You can find them at www.MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep045. Don't forget to click the subscribe button - cmon…do it now! To make sure that you don't miss any episodes. And as always, if you'd like to reach out to me personally you can drop me a line at ward@wardcameron.com or hit me up on twitter @wardcameron. You can also visit our FaceBook page at www.Facebook.com/wardcameronenterprises. And with that said, the sun's out and it's time to go hiking. I'll talk to you next week.
By December 31st, I want to hit 100,000 YouTube subscribers on my channel. But, VERY few channels ever reach 100,000+ subscribers on YouTube. To get to the next level, I needed a coach to teach me the YouTube strategies most people don’t know. For help I reached out to Tim Schmoyer from Video Creators TV — one of the experts on YouTube growth. I didn’t want to keep Tim’s lessons secret, so I recorded them for you. Use these tips, tactics, and strategies for your own YouTube channel. Full show notes at http://okdork.com/podcast/33
Finding The Root Cause of Diseases http://learntruehealth.com/finding-the-root-cause-of-diseases/ Resolve Underlying Issues That Make You Sick When we acquire illnesses or diseases such as cancer, it's not all about our genes nor the food we eat. My guest Trina Hammack went through severe health issues which led her on a quest in finding the root cause of her illnesses. I can't wait to share her story with you. She's such a ball of energy! Not many know that emotions play a big part in our healing. It is frustrating how Western medicine plays it down by masking our symptoms with pharmaceutical drugs. Because of this, Hammack made it her mission to empower people by using natural methods to heal. Battle One: Lyme Disease Hammack was living a blissful life in Big Sur until one day in 2003. Developing a rash after a mushroom harvesting activity with her son, Hammack initially thought that it was because of poison oak. However, when the increasing symptoms went from bad to worse, it set off Hammack's alarm bells. The exhaustion gradually became consuming, and Hammack found herself often catching her breath. Trying to sleep likewise was an effort after she started having seizures. What made it more frustrating for Hammack was that even doctors were clueless about her condition. After countless efforts to finding the root cause of her illness, the verdict finally came out---Hammack got Lyme disease in the brain. The news came as a surprise to Hammack. How did she get the disease when she led an active lifestyle? Apparently, Lyme disease hides well in the body. Despite that, Hammack was determined to find a cure through natural methods since she already had reservations about conventional medicine. Hammack's healing journey included homeopathy, biofeedback, as well as nutrition and detox protocols. Going down the path of Natural Medicine proved to be a good move since Hammack eventually got better. Battle Two: Heavy Metals, Molds Poisoning, and Parasites While Hammack seemed to have healed from Lyme disease, it was apparently too early to rejoice. She eventually found out she had an infected root canal and poisoned with heavy metals like mercury and lead. In addition to that, Hammack was also mold-poisoned after she moved into her house that time. It got so bad because the micro-toxins were building up in her system. Apparently, clearing up molds turned out to be a regular job because the layers are deep. To make it worse, Hammack, later on, learned that liver fluke parasites were feeding off the heavy metals that were poisoning her. She found it out through a quantum analysis process and hence, needed to do a liver fluke protocol. Battle Three: Ovarian Cancer One would think the worse is over, right? Wrong. In 2008, Hammack received the biggest blow --- she had ovarian cancer. She was understandably devastated and shocked. The avalanche of emotions was simply overwhelming! Getting a grip on what is her biggest challenge, Hammack was determined to fight a different battle. This was after Hammack witnessed the futile chemotherapy treatment of her mother for breast cancer. Understanding How Cancer Works It's so easy to jump on the treatment wagon especially when it is something as serious as cancer. However, Hammack says, no matter how hard it may seem, we have to calm down to first clearly understand how cancer works. "Trauma from early on is a trigger to cancer now. When you have trauma or shock, and you don't resolve it, you carry that in your brain until you resolve it," Hammack explains. "You'll see patterns play out in your life and your subconscious is getting you to address it." Hammack further explains that after you 'let go,' that's when cancer shows up. And because while you are in that conflict, either one of two things is happening---you're breaking down tissue, or you're building mass. Hope 4 Cancer Turning instead to her friend Dr. Antonio Jimenez, Hammack sought remote treatment at Hope 4 Cancer. In this institute, Hammack worked on finding the root cause of her cancer and was eventually healed. Looking back at her health journey, Hammack realized that we must not stop searching for answers. Consequently, digging deep for questions sheds light on the real reason why we get sick from illnesses like cancer or toxins. "The more root factors you have, the bigger issue you can trip. When there is inflammation of the cell wall, it blunts the hormone and nutrition receptors," Hammack explains. "So you can't get the nutrition in, and you can't get the toxicity out." The Seven Key Principles of Cancer Therapy One may ask, what is so special about Hope 4 Cancer? Well, for one thing, they uphold the seven fundamental principles of cancer therapy which is a new approach to fighting the disease. The fundamental principles cover the mind, body, or spirit that is affected by cancer. Furthermore, these principles are essential to allow the body to heal and recover from cancer. According to the Hope 4 Cancer website, the seven key principles include: 1. Non-Toxic Cancer Therapies 2. Optimize Immune System 3. Full Spectrum Nutrition 4. Detoxify 5. Oxygenate 6. Eliminate Microbes 7. Spiritual and Emotional Integrity Sono-Photo Dynamic Therapy Do you know that cancer and other illnesses can be healed with light and sound? It sounds crazy but it's true and it has been proven. Hope 4 Cancer offers the Sono-Photo Dynamic Therapy wherein sound and light were used to destroy Hammack's cancer cells. The institute claims it to be an effective therapy, with a 20 to 30% reduction in tumor size in a short span of eight to ten days of treatment. The treatment has been proven more effective with Holistic nutrition practices and detoxification programs. This led Hammack to learn other types of health alternatives such as Germanic New Medicine, Homeopathy, Functional Nutrition, and emotional, physical as well as energetic components of healing. Frequency Specific Micro-current Therapy When Hammack started her journey in finding the root cause of her illnesses, she eventually learned how to work with frequencies' micro-currents. The Energy Medicine is actually not a new kind of treatment. In fact, the healing method was invented way back in the 1920s. "I use a machine on my clients to take down the trauma and inflammation in the brain, as well as the nervous system in one session," said Hammack. "I can mix and match different frequencies with the conditions and problems, so it is also great for emotional stuff." Cellular Detoxification According to Hammack, her cellular detoxification program is likewise an effective treatment for clients who are looking into finding the root cause of their illness. A primary purpose of the program is to find ways of detoxing the cells. Success Stories Hammack recalls a female client in her 30s who is a mother of two and had a stressful job. Since the woman was not responding to chemotherapy, she sought out Hammack for treatment. "Chemotherapy doesn't work 97% of the time, especially if there is an emotional trauma in the brain. The chemotherapy procedure stops the healing phase from finishing itself," explains Hammack. Because she had breast and bone cancer, Hammack deemed it best to first work on the emotional aspect of healing. When treatment commenced on June 2014, the results were not immediate. However, with continued energetic and emotional healing methods, things started looking up by September 2014. By December that same year, Hammack happily shared that the woman was finally cancer-free! "Most people don't die from cancer itself. They die from an obstruction or from treatment," Hammack said. Co-Relation Between Emotions And Healing The late Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer's Germanic New Medicine apparently found a co-relation between emotions and healing from illnesses. According to his study, trauma marks on the brain can be seen via a CT scan. Hammack strongly affirms this fact. It turns out that her ovarian cancer was linked to a childhood trauma wherein she was taken away from her father at the age of 3. Since Hammack didn't see her father for 43 years, that signified a deep loss conflict. "If you look at my brain scan, you can see my trauma marks. It represents a particular type of conflict," Hammack explains. "That type of conflict co-relates with a very specific organ. As for my ovarian cancer, it was because of a deep conflict." Hammack says this concept applies to other health conditions as well. The following are some examples of conflicts which Hammack says are co-related: Lungs - relates to a feeling of dying Breast - relates to somebody taken away from you. This can also signify a home or work conflict. Bone - relates to a deep self-devaluation about not being a good mother. Liver - relates to survival conflict Colon - relates to holding on to anger in the family. Weight Loss And Healing Hammack says weight loss likewise has an emotional component. Apparently, we put on weight as a protection for some kind of trauma. When we start beating ourselves up for having extra weight on, we put on more weight. Putting on weight protects us not only from our original trauma but also from ourselves. Hence, that is why we get fat. "A root factor of weight issues is also molds and micro toxins that your body can't filter out. It can be tricky to detect because it is invisible," said Hammack. Hammack's Website Hammack's website is so empowering! Hammack is aptly dubbed as the "Root Cause Warrior For Health." Leaving no stone unturned, Hammack teaches others how to reclaim their strength and vitality while making each step feel natural and effortless. Hammack is also currently preparing to launch a new treatment program called Cancelling Cancer. The 2-part program first works on the with the physical toxic load and detox at the cellular level, while the second part works on the emotional aspects of healing. Resolving Emotions For Healing Lastly, for those who wish to try Hammack's method of healing, she suggests that you look at the emotions surrounding something in your life. As you write down the first emotion, follow it up with the next emotion. Once you have completed your list, look at the set of emotions and think of what it reminds you of earlier in your life. This way, you can find patterns in what you need to resolve as well as identify its co-relation to a particular disease. Trina Hammack CHC, FDN is an internationally sought after holistic Health and Wellness expert working with people who desperately want to reclaim their health and vitality. She shows them how to ditch the band aid approach and resolve their underlying Root Cause issues once and for all so they can look and feel terrific. Having healed herself naturally from Lyme Disease and Ovarian Cancer, Trina understands how it feels to be faced with a serious diagnosis. Trina has made it her mission to spread the word on how to become empowered and heal using natural methods. Her amazing story and teachings have been featured on The Truth About Cancer Docu series, The Chronic Lyme Disease Summit, The 21-Day Body/Mind Detox Summit and The Global Health and Healing Summit. Get Connected With Trina Hammack! Official Website Recommended Reading by Trina Hammack Enlightenment Comes In The Dark - Katherine Davies The Links You Are Looking For: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Become A Health Coach Learn More About The Institute for Integrative Nutrition's Health Coaching Certification Program by checking out these four resources: 1) Integrative Nutrition's Curriculum Guide: http://geti.in/2cmUMxb 2) The IIN Curriculum Syllabus: http://geti.in/2miXTej 3) Module One of the IIN curriculum: http://geti.in/2cmWPl8 4) Get three free chapters of Joshua Rosenthal's book: http://geti.in/2cksU87 Watch my little video on how to become a Certified Health Coach! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDDnofnSldI ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If this episode made a difference in your life, please leave me a tip in the virtual tip jar by giving my podcast a great rating and review in iTunes! http://bit.ly/learntruehealth-itunes Thank you! 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Bringing innovation to a place where rules, hierarchy and tradition are deeply ingrained in the very fabric of the institution can be difficult. How does an organisation overcome this obstacle? We talk to Commodore Chris Smallhorn, about how the Navy is creating a culture of innovative behaviour. The Royal Australian Navy and our country is entering into a period of unprecedented Naval ship building over the coming decades. However part of the Navy has been in a focused re-capitalisation for some years. By December this year the RAN’s Fleet Air Arm will have replaced all of its aircraft across four Squadrons. Such change requires innovative behaviours to ensure the capital investment meets our nation’s military needs to the best and fullest extent possible. The Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Time Barrett, has set his Navy on a course of building innovation at the core of business. Commodore Chris Smallhorn is the Commander of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Australian Navy and has taken this strategic direction and is at the forefront of creating a culture of innovative behaviour. CDRE Smallhorn’s innovative behaviours directive seeks to implement the Chief of Navy’s vision in Naval Aviation and the ideas employed may well be suitable for your business or complex endeavour. You can subscribe to this podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Libsyn or wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow us online on Flipboard (flip.it/jdwqTP), Twitter, or sbi.sydney.edu.au. For show notes and links for this episode visit sbi.sydney.edu.au/podcasts
John the Baptist 135:0.1 (1496.1) JOHN the Baptist was born March 25, 7 B.C., in accordance with the promise that Gabriel made to Elizabeth in June of the previous year. For five months Elizabeth kept secret Gabriel’s visitation; and when she told her husband, Zacharias, he was greatly troubled and fully believed her narrative only after he had an unusual dream about six weeks before the birth of John. Excepting the visit of Gabriel to Elizabeth and the dream of Zacharias, there was nothing unusual or supernatural connected with the birth of John the Baptist. 135:0.2 (1496.2) On the eighth day John was circumcised according to the Jewish custom. He grew up as an ordinary child, day by day and year by year, in the small village known in those days as the City of Judah, about four miles west of Jerusalem. 135:0.3 (1496.3) The most eventful occurrence in John’s early childhood was the visit, in company with his parents, to Jesus and the Nazareth family. This visit occurred in the month of June, 1 B.C., when he was a little over six years of age. 135:0.4 (1496.4) After their return from Nazareth John’s parents began the systematic education of the lad. There was no synagogue school in this little village; however, as he was a priest, Zacharias was fairly well educated, and Elizabeth was far better educated than the average Judean woman; she was also of the priesthood, being a descendant of the “daughters of Aaron.” Since John was an only child, they spent a great deal of time on his mental and spiritual training. Zacharias had only short periods of service at the temple in Jerusalem so that he devoted much of his time to teaching his son. 135:0.5 (1496.5) Zacharias and Elizabeth had a small farm on which they raised sheep. They hardly made a living on this land, but Zacharias received a regular allowance from the temple funds dedicated to the priesthood. 1. John Becomes a Nazarite 135:1.1 (1496.6) John had no school from which to graduate at the age of fourteen, but his parents had selected this as the appropriate year for him to take the formal Nazarite vow. Accordingly, Zacharias and Elizabeth took their son to Engedi, down by the Dead Sea. This was the southern headquarters of the Nazarite brotherhood, and there the lad was duly and solemnly inducted into this order for life. After these ceremonies and the making of the vows to abstain from all intoxicating drinks, to let the hair grow, and to refrain from touching the dead, the family proceeded to Jerusalem, where, before the temple, John completed the making of the offerings which were required of those taking Nazarite vows. 135:1.2 (1496.7) John took the same life vows that had been administered to his illustrious predecessors, Samson and the prophet Samuel. A life Nazarite was looked upon as a sanctified and holy personality. The Jews regarded a Nazarite with almost the respect and veneration accorded the high priest, and this was not strange since Nazarites of lifelong consecration were the only persons, except high priests, who were ever permitted to enter the holy of holies in the temple. 135:1.3 (1497.1) John returned home from Jerusalem to tend his father’s sheep and grew up to be a strong man with a noble character. 135:1.4 (1497.2) When sixteen years old, John, as a result of reading about Elijah, became greatly impressed with the prophet of Mount Carmel and decided to adopt his style of dress. From that day on John always wore a hairy garment with a leather girdle. At sixteen he was more than six feet tall and almost full grown. With his flowing hair and peculiar mode of dress he was indeed a picturesque youth. And his parents expected great things of this their only son, a child of promise and a Nazarite for life. 2. The Death of Zacharias 135:2.1 (1497.3) After an illness of several months Zacharias died in July, A.D. 12, when John was just past eighteen years of age. This was a time of great embarrassment to John since the Nazarite vow forbade contact with the dead, even in one’s own family. Although John had endeavored to comply with the restrictions of his vow regarding contamination by the dead, he doubted that he had been wholly obedient to the requirements of the Nazarite order; therefore, after his father’s burial he went to Jerusalem, where, in the Nazarite corner of the women’s court, he offered the sacrifices required for his cleansing. 135:2.2 (1497.4) In September of this year Elizabeth and John made a journey to Nazareth to visit Mary and Jesus. John had just about made up his mind to launch out in his lifework, but he was admonished, not only by Jesus’ words but also by his example, to return home, take care of his mother, and await the “coming of the Father’s hour.” After bidding Jesus and Mary good-bye at the end of this enjoyable visit, John did not again see Jesus until the event of his baptism in the Jordan. 135:2.3 (1497.5) John and Elizabeth returned to their home and began to lay plans for the future. Since John refused to accept the priest’s allowance due him from the temple funds, by the end of two years they had all but lost their home; so they decided to go south with the sheep herd. Accordingly, the summer that John was twenty years of age witnessed their removal to Hebron. In the so-called “wilderness of Judea” John tended his sheep along a brook that was tributary to a larger stream which entered the Dead Sea at Engedi. The Engedi colony included not only Nazarites of lifelong and time-period consecration but numerous other ascetic herdsmen who congregated in this region with their herds and fraternized with the Nazarite brotherhood. They supported themselves by sheep raising and from gifts which wealthy Jews made to the order. 135:2.4 (1497.6) As time passed, John returned less often to Hebron, while he made more frequent visits to Engedi. He was so entirely different from the majority of the Nazarites that he found it very difficult fully to fraternize with the brotherhood. But he was very fond of Abner, the acknowledged leader and head of the Engedi colony. 3. The Life of a Shepherd 135:3.1 (1497.7) Along the valley of this little brook John built no less than a dozen stone shelters and night corrals, consisting of piled-up stones, wherein he could watch over and safeguard his herds of sheep and goats. John’s life as a shepherd afforded him a great deal of time for thought. He talked much with Ezda, an orphan lad of Beth-zur, whom he had in a way adopted, and who cared for the herds when he made trips to Hebron to see his mother and to sell sheep, as well as when he went down to Engedi for Sabbath services. John and the lad lived very simply, subsisting on mutton, goat’s milk, wild honey, and the edible locusts of that region. This, their regular diet, was supplemented by provisions brought from Hebron and Engedi from time to time. 135:3.2 (1498.1) Elizabeth kept John posted about Palestinian and world affairs, and his conviction grew deeper and deeper that the time was fast approaching when the old order was to end; that he was to become the herald of the approach of a new age, “the kingdom of heaven.” This rugged shepherd was very partial to the writings of the Prophet Daniel. He read a thousand times Daniel’s description of the great image, which Zacharias had told him represented the history of the great kingdoms of the world, beginning with Babylon, then Persia, Greece, and finally Rome. John perceived that already was Rome composed of such polyglot peoples and races that it could never become a strongly cemented and firmly consolidated empire. He believed that Rome was even then divided, as Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and other provinces; and then he further read “in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And this kingdom shall not be left to other people but shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” “And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom never shall be destroyed.” “And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” 135:3.3 (1498.2) John was never able completely to rise above the confusion produced by what he had heard from his parents concerning Jesus and by these passages which he read in the Scriptures. In Daniel he read: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom.” But these words of the prophet did not harmonize with what his parents had taught him. Neither did his talk with Jesus, at the time of his visit when he was eighteen years old, correspond with these statements of the Scriptures. Notwithstanding this confusion, throughout all of his perplexity his mother assured him that his distant cousin, Jesus of Nazareth, was the true Messiah, that he had come to sit on the throne of David, and that he (John) was to become his advance herald and chief support. 135:3.4 (1498.3) From all John heard of the vice and wickedness of Rome and the dissoluteness and moral barrenness of the empire, from what he knew of the evil doings of Herod Antipas and the governors of Judea, he was minded to believe that the end of the age was impending. It seemed to this rugged and noble child of nature that the world was ripe for the end of the age of man and the dawn of the new and divine age — the kingdom of heaven. The feeling grew in John’s heart that he was to be the last of the old prophets and the first of the new. And he fairly vibrated with the mounting impulse to go forth and proclaim to all men: “Repent! Get right with God! Get ready for the end; prepare yourselves for the appearance of the new and eternal order of earth affairs, the kingdom of heaven.” 4. The Death of Elizabeth 135:4.1 (1499.1) On August 17, A.D. 22, when John was twenty-eight years of age, his mother suddenly passed away. Elizabeth’s friends, knowing of the Nazarite restrictions regarding contact with the dead, even in one’s own family, made all arrangements for the burial of Elizabeth before sending for John. When he received word of the death of his mother, he directed Ezda to drive his herds to Engedi and started for Hebron. 135:4.2 (1499.2) On returning to Engedi from his mother’s funeral, he presented his flocks to the brotherhood and for a season detached himself from the outside world while he fasted and prayed. John knew only of the old methods of approach to divinity; he knew only of the records of such as Elijah, Samuel, and Daniel. Elijah was his ideal of a prophet. Elijah was the first of the teachers of Israel to be regarded as a prophet, and John truly believed that he was to be the last of this long and illustrious line of the messengers of heaven. 135:4.3 (1499.3) For two and a half years John lived at Engedi, and he persuaded most of the brotherhood that “the end of the age was at hand”; that “the kingdom of heaven was about to appear.” And all his early teaching was based upon the current Jewish idea and concept of the Messiah as the promised deliverer of the Jewish nation from the domination of their gentile rulers. 135:4.4 (1499.4) Throughout this period John read much in the sacred writings which he found at the Engedi home of the Nazarites. He was especially impressed by Isaiah and by Malachi, the last of the prophets up to that time. He read and reread the last five chapters of Isaiah, and he believed these prophecies. Then he would read in Malachi: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers toward the children and the hearts of the children toward their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” And it was only this promise of Malachi that Elijah would return that deterred John from going forth to preach about the coming kingdom and to exhort his fellow Jews to flee from the wrath to come. John was ripe for the proclamation of the message of the coming kingdom, but this expectation of the coming of Elijah held him back for more than two years. He knew he was not Elijah. What did Malachi mean? Was the prophecy literal or figurative? How could he know the truth? He finally dared to think that, since the first of the prophets was called Elijah, so the last should be known, eventually, by the same name. Nevertheless, he had doubts, doubts sufficient to prevent his ever calling himself Elijah. 135:4.5 (1499.5) It was the influence of Elijah that caused John to adopt his methods of direct and blunt assault upon the sins and vices of his contemporaries. He sought to dress like Elijah, and he endeavored to talk like Elijah; in every outward aspect he was like the olden prophet. He was just such a stalwart and picturesque child of nature, just such a fearless and daring preacher of righteousness. John was not illiterate, he did well know the Jewish sacred writings, but he was hardly cultured. He was a clear thinker, a powerful speaker, and a fiery denunciator. He was hardly an example to his age, but he was an eloquent rebuke. 135:4.6 (1499.6) At last he thought out the method of proclaiming the new age, the kingdom of God; he settled that he was to become the herald of the Messiah; he swept aside all doubts and departed from Engedi one day in March of A.D. 25 to begin his short but brilliant career as a public preacher. 5. The Kingdom of God 135:5.1 (1500.1) In order to understand John’s message, account should be taken of the status of the Jewish people at the time he appeared upon the stage of action. For almost one hundred years all Israel had been in a quandary; they were at a loss to explain their continuous subjugation to gentile overlords. Had not Moses taught that righteousness was always rewarded with prosperity and power? Were they not God’s chosen people? Why was the throne of David desolate and vacant? In the light of the Mosaic doctrines and the precepts of the prophets the Jews found it difficult to explain their long-continued national desolation. 135:5.2 (1500.2) About one hundred years before the days of Jesus and John a new school of religious teachers arose in Palestine, the apocalyptists. These new teachers evolved a system of belief that accounted for the sufferings and humiliation of the Jews on the ground that they were paying the penalty for the nation’s sins. They fell back onto the well-known reasons assigned to explain the Babylonian and other captivities of former times. But, so taught the apocalyptists, Israel should take heart; the days of their affliction were almost over; the discipline of God’s chosen people was about finished; God’s patience with the gentile foreigners was about exhausted. The end of Roman rule was synonymous with the end of the age and, in a certain sense, with the end of the world. These new teachers leaned heavily on the predictions of Daniel, and they consistently taught that creation was about to pass into its final stage; the kingdoms of this world were about to become the kingdom of God. To the Jewish mind of that day this was the meaning of that phrase — the kingdom of heaven — which runs throughout the teachings of both John and Jesus. To the Jews of Palestine the phrase “kingdom of heaven” had but one meaning: an absolutely righteous state in which God (the Messiah) would rule the nations of earth in perfection of power just as he ruled in heaven — “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” 135:5.3 (1500.3) In the days of John all Jews were expectantly asking, “How soon will the kingdom come?” There was a general feeling that the end of the rule of the gentile nations was drawing near. There was present throughout all Jewry a lively hope and a keen expectation that the consummation of the desire of the ages would occur during the lifetime of that generation. 135:5.4 (1500.4) While the Jews differed greatly in their estimates of the nature of the coming kingdom, they were alike in their belief that the event was impending, near at hand, even at the door. Many who read the Old Testament literally looked expectantly for a new king in Palestine, for a regenerated Jewish nation delivered from its enemies and presided over by the successor of King David, the Messiah who would quickly be acknowledged as the rightful and righteous ruler of all the world. Another, though smaller, group of devout Jews held a vastly different view of this kingdom of God. They taught that the coming kingdom was not of this world, that the world was approaching its certain end, and that “a new heaven and a new earth” were to usher in the establishment of the kingdom of God; that this kingdom was to be an everlasting dominion, that sin was to be ended, and that the citizens of the new kingdom were to become immortal in their enjoyment of this endless bliss. 135:5.5 (1500.5) All were agreed that some drastic purging or purifying discipline would of necessity precede the establishment of the new kingdom on earth. The literalists taught that a world-wide war would ensue which would destroy all unbelievers, while the faithful would sweep on to universal and eternal victory. The spiritists taught that the kingdom would be ushered in by the great judgment of God which would relegate the unrighteous to their well-deserved judgment of punishment and final destruction, at the same time elevating the believing saints of the chosen people to high seats of honor and authority with the Son of Man, who would rule over the redeemed nations in God’s name. And this latter group even believed that many devout gentiles might be admitted to the fellowship of the new kingdom. 135:5.6 (1501.1) Some of the Jews held to the opinion that God might possibly establish this new kingdom by direct and divine intervention, but the vast majority believed that he would interpose some representative intermediary, the Messiah. And that was the only possible meaning the term Messiah could have had in the minds of the Jews of the generation of John and Jesus. Messiah could not possibly refer to one who merely taught God’s will or proclaimed the necessity for righteous living. To all such holy persons the Jews gave the title of prophet. The Messiah was to be more than a prophet; the Messiah was to bring in the establishment of the new kingdom, the kingdom of God. No one who failed to do this could be the Messiah in the traditional Jewish sense. 135:5.7 (1501.2) Who would this Messiah be? Again the Jewish teachers differed. The older ones clung to the doctrine of the son of David. The newer taught that, since the new kingdom was a heavenly kingdom, the new ruler might also be a divine personality, one who had long sat at God’s right hand in heaven. And strange as it may appear, those who thus conceived of the ruler of the new kingdom looked upon him not as a human Messiah, not as a mere man, but as “the Son of Man” — a Son of God — a heavenly Prince, long held in waiting thus to assume the rulership of the earth made new. Such was the religious background of the Jewish world when John went forth proclaiming: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 135:5.8 (1501.3) It becomes apparent, therefore, that John’s announcement of the coming kingdom had not less than half a dozen different meanings in the minds of those who listened to his impassioned preaching. But no matter what significance they attached to the phrases which John employed, each of these various groups of Jewish-kingdom expectants was intrigued by the proclamations of this sincere, enthusiastic, rough-and-ready preacher of righteousness and repentance, who so solemnly exhorted his hearers to “flee from the wrath to come.” 6. John Begins to Preach 135:6.1 (1501.4) Early in the month of March, A.D. 25, John journeyed around the western coast of the Dead Sea and up the river Jordan to opposite Jericho, the ancient ford over which Joshua and the children of Israel passed when they first entered the promised land; and crossing over to the other side of the river, he established himself near the entrance to the ford and began to preach to the people who passed by on their way back and forth across the river. This was the most frequented of all the Jordan crossings. 135:6.2 (1501.5) It was apparent to all who heard John that he was more than a preacher. The great majority of those who listened to this strange man who had come up from the Judean wilderness went away believing that they had heard the voice of a prophet. No wonder the souls of these weary and expectant Jews were deeply stirred by such a phenomenon. Never in all Jewish history had the devout children of Abraham so longed for the “consolation of Israel” or more ardently anticipated “the restoration of the kingdom.” Never in all Jewish history could John’s message, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” have made such a deep and universal appeal as at the very time he so mysteriously appeared on the bank of this southern crossing of the Jordan. 135:6.3 (1502.1) He came from the herdsmen, like Amos. He was dressed like Elijah of old, and he thundered his admonitions and poured forth his warnings in the “spirit and power of Elijah.” It is not surprising that this strange preacher created a mighty stir throughout all Palestine as the travelers carried abroad the news of his preaching along the Jordan. 135:6.4 (1502.2) There was still another and a new feature about the work of this Nazarite preacher: He baptized every one of his believers in the Jordan “for the remission of sins.” Although baptism was not a new ceremony among the Jews, they had never seen it employed as John now made use of it. It had long been the practice thus to baptize the gentile proselytes into the fellowship of the outer court of the temple, but never had the Jews themselves been asked to submit to the baptism of repentance. Only fifteen months intervened between the time John began to preach and baptize and his arrest and imprisonment at the instigation of Herod Antipas, but in this short time he baptized considerably over one hundred thousand penitents. 135:6.5 (1502.3) John preached four months at Bethany ford before starting north up the Jordan. Tens of thousands of listeners, some curious but many earnest and serious, came to hear him from all parts of Judea, Perea, and Samaria. Even a few came from Galilee. 135:6.6 (1502.4) In May of this year, while he still lingered at Bethany ford, the priests and Levites sent a delegation out to inquire of John whether he claimed to be the Messiah, and by whose authority he preached. John answered these questioners by saying: “Go tell your masters that you have heard ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness,’ as spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘make ready the way of the Lord, make straight a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; the uneven ground shall become a plain, while the rough places shall become a smooth valley; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” 135:6.7 (1502.5) John was a heroic but tactless preacher. One day when he was preaching and baptizing on the west bank of the Jordan, a group of Pharisees and a number of Sadducees came forward and presented themselves for baptism. Before leading them down into the water, John, addressing them as a group said: “Who warned you to flee, as vipers before the fire, from the wrath to come? I will baptize you, but I warn you to bring forth fruit worthy of sincere repentance if you would receive the remission of your sins. Tell me not that Abraham is your father. I declare that God is able of these twelve stones here before you to raise up worthy children for Abraham. And even now is the ax laid to the very roots of the trees. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is destined to be cut down and cast into the fire.” (The twelve stones to which he referred were the reputed memorial stones set up by Joshua to commemorate the crossing of the “twelve tribes” at this very point when they first entered the promised land.) 135:6.8 (1502.6) John conducted classes for his disciples, in the course of which he instructed them in the details of their new life and endeavored to answer their many questions. He counseled the teachers to instruct in the spirit as well as the letter of the law. He instructed the rich to feed the poor; to the tax gatherers he said: “Extort no more than that which is assigned you.” To the soldiers he said: “Do no violence and exact nothing wrongfully — be content with your wages.” While he counseled all: “Make ready for the end of the age — the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 7. John Journeys North 135:7.1 (1503.1) John still had confused ideas about the coming kingdom and its king. The longer he preached the more confused he became, but never did this intellectual uncertainty concerning the nature of the coming kingdom in the least lessen his conviction of the certainty of the kingdom’s immediate appearance. In mind John might be confused, but in spirit never. He was in no doubt about the coming kingdom, but he was far from certain as to whether or not Jesus was to be the ruler of that kingdom. As long as John held to the idea of the restoration of the throne of David, the teachings of his parents that Jesus, born in the City of David, was to be the long-expected deliverer, seemed consistent; but at those times when he leaned more toward the doctrine of a spiritual kingdom and the end of the temporal age on earth, he was sorely in doubt as to the part Jesus would play in such events. Sometimes he questioned everything, but not for long. He really wished he might talk it all over with his cousin, but that was contrary to their expressed agreement. 135:7.2 (1503.2) As John journeyed north, he thought much about Jesus. He paused at more than a dozen places as he traveled up the Jordan. It was at Adam that he first made reference to “another one who is to come after me” in answer to the direct question which his disciples asked him, “Are you the Messiah?” And he went on to say: “There will come after me one who is greater than I, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And his shovel is in his hand thoroughly to cleanse his threshing floor; he will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff will he burn up with the judgment fire.” 135:7.3 (1503.3) In response to the questions of his disciples John continued to expand his teachings, from day to day adding more that was helpful and comforting compared with his early and cryptic message: “Repent and be baptized.” By this time throngs were arriving from Galilee and the Decapolis. Scores of earnest believers lingered with their adored teacher day after day. 8. Meeting of Jesus and John 135:8.1 (1503.4) By December of A.D. 25, when John reached the neighborhood of Pella in his journey up the Jordan, his fame had extended throughout all Palestine, and his work had become the chief topic of conversation in all the towns about the lake of Galilee. Jesus had spoken favorably of John’s message, and this had caused many from Capernaum to join John’s cult of repentance and baptism. James and John the fishermen sons of Zebedee had gone down in December, soon after John took up his preaching position near Pella, and had offered themselves for baptism. They went to see John once a week and brought back to Jesus fresh, firsthand reports of the evangelist’s work. * 135:8.2 (1503.5) Jesus’ brothers James and Jude had talked about going down to John for baptism; and now that Jude had come over to Capernaum for the Sabbath services, both he and James, after listening to Jesus’ discourse in the synagogue, decided to take counsel with him concerning their plans. This was on Saturday night, January 12, A.D. 26. Jesus requested that they postpone the discussion until the following day, when he would give them his answer. He slept very little that night, being in close communion with the Father in heaven. He had arranged to have noontime lunch with his brothers and to advise them concerning baptism by John. That Sunday morning Jesus was working as usual in the boatshop. James and Jude had arrived with the lunch and were waiting in the lumber room for him, as it was not yet time for the midday recess, and they knew that Jesus was very regular about such matters. 135:8.3 (1504.1) Just before the noon rest, Jesus laid down his tools, removed his work apron, and merely announced to the three workmen in the room with him, “My hour has come.” He went out to his brothers James and Jude, repeating, “My hour has come — let us go to John.” And they started immediately for Pella, eating their lunch as they journeyed. This was on Sunday, January 13. They tarried for the night in the Jordan valley and arrived on the scene of John’s baptizing about noon of the next day. 135:8.4 (1504.2) John had just begun baptizing the candidates for the day. Scores of repentants were standing in line awaiting their turn when Jesus and his two brothers took up their positions in this line of earnest men and women who had become believers in John’s preaching of the coming kingdom. John had been inquiring about Jesus of Zebedee’s sons. He had heard of Jesus’ remarks concerning his preaching, and he was day by day expecting to see him arrive on the scene, but he had not expected to greet him in the line of baptismal candidates. 135:8.5 (1504.3) Being engrossed with the details of rapidly baptizing such a large number of converts, John did not look up to see Jesus until the Son of Man stood in his immediate presence. When John recognized Jesus, the ceremonies were halted for a moment while he greeted his cousin in the flesh and asked, “But why do you come down into the water to greet me?” And Jesus answered, “To be subject to your baptism.” John replied: “But I have need to be baptized by you. Why do you come to me?” And Jesus whispered to John: “Bear with me now, for it becomes us to set this example for my brothers standing here with me, and that the people may know that my hour has come.” 135:8.6 (1504.4) There was a tone of finality and authority in Jesus’ voice. John was atremble with emotion as he made ready to baptize Jesus of Nazareth in the Jordan at noon on Monday, January 14, A.D. 26. Thus did John baptize Jesus and his two brothers James and Jude. And when John had baptized these three, he dismissed the others for the day, announcing that he would resume baptisms at noon the next day. As the people were departing, the four men still standing in the water heard a strange sound, and presently there appeared for a moment an apparition immediately over the head of Jesus, and they heard a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” A great change came over the countenance of Jesus, and coming up out of the water in silence he took leave of them, going toward the hills to the east. And no man saw Jesus again for forty days. 135:8.7 (1504.5) John followed Jesus a sufficient distance to tell him the story of Gabriel’s visit to his mother ere either had been born, as he had heard it so many times from his mother’s lips. He allowed Jesus to continue on his way after he had said, “Now I know of a certainty that you are the Deliverer.” But Jesus made no reply. 9. Forty Days of Preaching 135:9.1 (1505.1) When John returned to his disciples (he now had some twenty-five or thirty who abode with him constantly), he found them in earnest conference, discussing what had just happened in connection with Jesus’ baptism. They were all the more astonished when John now made known to them the story of the Gabriel visitation to Mary before Jesus was born, and also that Jesus spoke no word to him even after he had told him about this. There was no rain that evening, and this group of thirty or more talked long into the starlit night. They wondered where Jesus had gone, and when they would see him again. 135:9.2 (1505.2) After the experience of this day the preaching of John took on new and certain notes of proclamation concerning the coming kingdom and the expected Messiah. It was a tense time, these forty days of tarrying, waiting for the return of Jesus. But Joh
HEARTREPRENEUR 14 – CAITLYN DOEMNER I am very excited to have a special guest with me today. A guest who I really believe can help you in your business. I have Caitlyn Doemner. After studying at Oxford University and getting her MBA, Caitlyn launched virtual coaching sales and that was back in March of 2013. Listen to this woman. Within two weeks, they had sold over $250,000 for their client. That turns me on. That is why I asked her to come. By December of 2015 they closed over 3 million in new business for their clients. They also generated a million for themselves in their first 33 months of business. I know that you have been listening to the show and you know how few businesses do a million. Especially female operated business. Caitlyn is the author of the Unseen Sales Machine: How to scale and automate your high end sales. And something that speaks to me: Sell with heart. How to grow your company with love and authenticity. Her vision is to empower entrepreneurs to become CEO’s by scaling them out of their own sales process so they make more money doing less selling. I know you all want that. Caitlyn and her husband outside of LA with 4 kids and 11 chickens and 4 turkeys. I am so happy to have you. Caitlyn: Thank you so much for having me Terry. Terri: You are welcome. Let’s jump right in. What kind of sales was your client doing? All of a sudden you have $250,000 in two weeks. What kind of sales? Caitlyn: Her name is Margaret M. Lynch and she is an expert speaker and the author of happy into wealth. She helps people unblock their money mindset and step into their power. Financially and personally. It’s in the coaching industry is where we started. We worked with many great people. We really have been blessed to work with amazing female coaches in the industry. We support them in their sales. Terri: What is different? Coaches out there trying to sell themselves. What is the secret sauce that you bring? Caitlyn: I have to admit, when I first started virtual coaching sales, it was when my coach asked me to sell for him. He wanted me to sell for him. I told him, I don’t know how to sell. I told him I never sold anything in my life. My background was academic. I was afraid of selling. My business partner at the time was this coach’s sales consultant. Together we came up with a two part model. Find the problem and then create a solution. I thought, I would love to do that. So I scheduled an appointment for my boss. The thing I wish someone would have told me at the time, all that work I was doing was actually selling. It took me a long time to recognize that selling is not some secret formula. It’s simply listening really well to what people need and want and then coming up with a solution that is profitable for you and fits in their value equation. This two part model, setting the appointment, then closing the deal on the second call, it really broke the sales process into two very easy to do pieces so that nobody felt they had to take them from a cold lead to a closed deal. It’s very grueling for a single person. Also, it provides a level of credibility for the closer and the coach we are doing this for. We have 3 degrees where if the first person can’t get through then the second and third may try. It provides a level of consistency and reliability to the sales process. This is something many entrepreneurs lack. There is no system in place to make sure that leads are qualified and educated and engaged and invited into the program day in and day out. Terri: I love this. I have trained 5000 coaches so I know this is something they need. I will say it resonates one of my books is Sell without Selling Lessons from the Jungle for Sales Success. It’s all about what I call … Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join Heartrepreneur® Radio community today: heartrepreneur.com Heartrepreneur® Radio Facebook Terri Levine Twitter Terri Levine Instagram Heartrepreneur® Radio Pinterest Terri Levine YouTube Terri Levin LinkedIn
When we hear The Battle of New Orleans General Andrew Jackson is perhaps the first person who comes to mind. His name would become immortalized in story and song defending the Southern city that had only become a part of the United States just over a decade prior with the Louisiana Purchase. Yet, in late 1814, it was Daniel Patterson who foresaw the British attack on New Orleans. In the middle of September he lead a force to the Southern Louisiana Base of the notorious Jean Lafitte at Barataria Bay, where, in routing the pirate, he laid claim to his ships, bringing the French-American Pirate to the aid of the American cause. General Jackson wanted Commodore Patterson to sail with his small makeshift fleet to Mobile Bay to engage the British. Patterson would refuse. To engage the vastly superior British navy there would allow for them to bottlenecked. His small fleet at that inlet to the Gulf of Mexico, making them an easy target. Instead he set about laying the defense of New Orleans. By December 12th sixty British ships under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, Commander-in-Chief of the North American and Jamaica stations anchored 14,450 soldiers and sailors in the Gulf of Mexico. The British would begin their move on New Orleans. It would be Commodore Patterson’s defense that would delay the British. With a small, rag-tag band of ships that were no match for the power of the British fleet now in the Gulf he would push back, in the hopes that the reinforcements would soon arrive. It would save the city from being overrun by the British. Still, on December 27th, 1814 the USS Carolina, a schooner launched only 2 years prior from Charleston, South Carolina, would take heated shots from the British in an effort by the Royal Navy to destroy the resistance of the American force. The crew would be forced from her as she caught fire, and eventually exploded. It would be the last ship in Patterson’s little fleet that had caused the British so many difficulties in trying to lay claim to New Orleans. Yet if they thought that the destruction of the Carolina would have opened the door wide for an invasion of the city they would be sorely mistaken. Despite losing the last of his fleet that day Patterson had largely been effective in what he set out to do. He bought the time that the Americans needed for reinforcements to arrive. At the defense of the city, Patterson, a naval officer now with no ships any longer, would find his place offering artillery support to his compatriots, once more contributing to the decisive American victory that would push the British from Louisiana. Praised by Jackson, had it not been for Patterson, there would have been a distinct possibility that New Orleans would have fallen. What that would have meant is perhaps a mystery as the Treaty of Ghent had already been signed to end the War but was yet to be ratified by the US government. Regardless, for his efforts Patterson would go on to be promoted to Captain and would serve in the Mediterranean Squadron in command of the USS Constitution, the flagship of Commodore John Rodger’s Fleet. He would continue to serve in the Navy until his death in 1839 at 53.
In this episode, I'm chatting with Matt Pritchett. He is a UX developer and lives in Tennessee. We're talking the good, the bad and the ugly about local development environments. What's out there now and why Matt plans to build one of his own called AnchorWP. Matt is a super smart guy and I've had the pleasure of being in a weekly mastermind group with him this year. Let's get started. Meet Matt Pritchett Matt is known for transformational WordPress development and bringing integrity to each relationship, sale, project, and interaction. He's a developer, blogger, business owner, product maker and proud husband and father of three. Show Notes Matt's Website: Pritchett Media Matt's Blog: Matt's Blog AnchorWP link: AnchorWP Helpful Links: Desktop Server MAMP & MAMP PRO Vagrant Varying Vagrant Vagrants Docker Local by Flywheel (formerly Pressmatic) VersionPress Migrate DB Pro (Awesome!) Special Offer for listeners Receive 15% off Version 1 of AnchorWP when it launches. Use code RETHINK. Visit AnchorWP. Complete Transcript: Open PDF version of this transcript in new window Jackie: Hey everybody, it's Jackie D'Elia with another episode of Rethink.fm for you. Today, I have my guest, Matt Pritchett. Hey Matt, how are you? Matt: I'm doing well, Jackie, how about yourself? Jackie: I'm well. Thank you very much for joining me. For those folks who don't know who you are in the community, would you introduce yourself and tell us what you do? Matt: Sure, my name is Matt Pritchett and I hail from Atlanta, Georgia. I am a UX developer at Lift UX. We are a small agency that focuses mainly on UX development and design. We're scattered all over. We're a remote first workplace. We're scattered all over. We've got people in Florida, and Texas, and Michigan. I'm the only person in Georgia for now, but we're scattered all over the place. Jackie: Very cool. When did you start as a developer? Matt: I took my first developer position in August of 2007, straight out of high school, actually. I worked for a small missions non-profit that sent high school and college students overseas. I took the position because I was interested in non-profits and the church world. I spoke fluent Spanish at the time and I know I don't speak it fluently anymore. At the time I did and I served as a translator for them and took teams overseas. Part of the role and how they were able to hire me was I was the director of multimedia, which basically meant I took care of hardware and software. I had to learn how to do websites. I started out with table based development in Dreamweaver, like a lot of people did, and taught myself from there. It's been a journey ever since. Jackie: You didn't start off developing in WordPress then. When did WordPress come into the picture, and how big of a part of it is in your daily work now? Matt: In August, I started that position. By December of that year, part of what my role was they had this ancient PHP system that allowed teams, when they were overseas, to upload these text and picture based updates so parents could keep an eye on their kids while they're overseas and make sure they're not in harm's way or anything like that, but this thing was so ancient that anytime you touched it, breathed on it, looked at it the wrong way, it fell apart, it errored out, it deleted things. Honestly, I found WordPress because I was in trouble with my boss for having deleted a bunch of the updates from previous trips on this system. I was like, "I don't understand how this system works. We need to replace it." I'm in trouble, I've got to figure out a quick win, and I came across WordPress and it was the answer to a prayer, almost. It was easy to use, we could do exactly what we needed to do, it worked on terrible third world internet connections. You could use it on slow internet connections. Started doing,
By December 7, 1776 George Washington had successfully retreated across the Delaware River. The British forces pursing him decided to bed down for the winter. Washington however, has a different plan in mind...
One of the subjects I am most vocal about is entrepreneurial burnout. Why? Because I experienced it firsthand and want to save you from doing the same. By December of 2009 I was working like a mad man - 15-16 hour days, 7 days a week. Business was very good, but working so much was taking its toll on my health and impacting my family. I ended up in hospital from exhaustion, and knew something had to change. My wife and I took some time away, during which we decided I would become the virtual CEO of our business. By 2010 we had done it; now I have 3 day weekends every week, and work 6-7 hours a day Monday through Thursday. On today's episode of Youpreneur FM I share my personal recommendations on avoiding burnout and setting yourself up for the long-game of entrepreneurship. Listen in and take notes so you never have to go through what I did. Essential Learning Points From This Episode: How to pace yourself with your business. Why minor wins will help you achieve major victories. How many people did I have to hire to replace myself in 2010? Why turning off your phone notifications is a small but important action. The necessity of a holiday: when and why you should plan your next one. Much, much more! Important Links & Mentions From This Episode: Episode 127 (https://www.chrisducker.com/podcast/quick-start-guide-virtual-assistant/) -The Quick-Start Guide to FINALLY Getting Started with Your First Virtual Assistant Youpreneur Academy (youpreneuracademy.com) Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose mine, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the top and bottom of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes (https://www.chrisducker.com/itunes) , they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don’t forget to (https://www.chrisducker.com/itunes) , to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!
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Tinder is the location-based dating app which was launched on October, 2012 and made a real breakthrough. By January 2014, the app boasted more than 10 million users. By December of 2014, the app had been downloaded more than 40 million times with users swiping 1 billion times per day. On February 3rd the company reported that Tinder saw 100% year over year growth in monthly active users.