Podcasts about by friday

Cubs fans had a rough weekend. Trade rumors started Thursday about who the team would be losing, and who they would be getting as the deadline loomed. By Friday, The Chicago Cubs front office had broken up the stars of their 2016 World Series, including Anthony Rizzo who went to the New York Yankees, Kris Bryant who headed to the San Francisco Giants, and Javier Baez to the New York Mets. They also sent closer Craig Kimbrel to the White Sox. We'll see how that goes this weekend when the Cubs and Sox face off in the Crosstown Classic. In the end, the Cubs traded nine players and added 12 players to their roster. Cubs' Head of Operations Jed Hoyer said it was all necessary in order to rebuild the team that's currently hovering on the bottom of the National League Central. But, fans are pissed and sad to say goodbye to the crew that made the “lovable losers” champs in 2016 and gave fans new hope. Sports reporter Cheryl Raye-Stout talks to host Jacoby Cochran about how the Cubs made history in 2016, and what's happened since. Guest: Cheryl Raye-Stout, WBEZ (@Crayestout) Follow us on Twitter: @CityCastChicago Sign up for our newsletter: chicago.citycast.fm

By Friday, July 30th at 4 pm Eastern time, the baseball world will know which teams are the real deal and which are not. Which organizations are pushing their chips to the center of the table, and which ones have folded. Starkvillians anxiously await the litany of moves that will, hopefully, take place before the deadline. But in the meantime, Jayson and Doug are here to host a nuanced trade deadline preview extravaganza with the help of national baseball writer for The Athletic and the 1999 MLB Executive of the Year, Jim Bowden! Jayson, Doug, and Jim zero in on which names could be on the move, like Max Scherzer, Trevor Stroy, Joey Gallo, Kris Bryant, and more! Which teams are considered buyers and sellers? Plus, Jim shares some delightful trade deadline stories! Follow Jayson on Twitter: @jaysonst Follow Doug on Twitter: @dougglanville Follow Jim on Twitter: @JimBowdenGM Trivia question provided by: @dasbradley Get 33% off an annual subscription to The Athletic! Visit: theathletic.com/baseballshow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special edition of CORYTALKS… VICTORIAN LOCKDOWN – part two The day after the last special edition on the Victorian Lockdown, the state's Premier Daniel Andrews announced that while the signs were encouraging, Victoria would need more time to get a hold of this Delta variant of COVID-19. The Premier announced the lockdown would be extended for a further seven days. New South Wales removalists seem to have a thing for Victoria. Victoria Police turn some away from the border in Mildura, in the north of the state. Not before fining them. By Friday things got worse for New South Wales which puts other states at risk. The NSW Premier wanted extra Pfizer vaccines from other states to deal with the Sydney burgeoning numbers. But that's not happening, and the Prime Minister put a Band-Aid on the situation extending the length of time between the doses to ensure enough people in New South Wales get their first dose. If that isn't a clear indication the Federal Government don't have nearly enough Pfizer vaccines! The arrogance of the New South Wales Premier when almost two months ago she appeared on radio and said NSW would not be helping Victoria out with extra doses during the states first Delta variant outbreak at the time. Protests in NSW, Victoria and Queensland over the lockdowns has almost certainly guaranteed the lockdowns will have to continue. New Zealand has put an at least eight-week pause on the Trans-Tasman Travel Bubble until the outbreaks are under control in Australia. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also has a plan to evacuate Kiwi's currently in Australia. If only Australia had a strong and effective leader like Ms Ardern. At the time of recording, South Australia and Victoria will be coming out of lockdown tonight, but in Victoria there will still be COVID-19 restrictions. All the details are at https://coronavirus.vic.gov.au Love to find a nice “and finally” story. It's hard during a pandemic, but this one is a gem. It's a report from ABC News Australia of a group of taxi drivers from my home city of Geelong, who have been putting their hands up to help the community right back to the first lockdown in March 2020. After you listen, read the full story at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-22/covid-19-lockdown-acts-of-kindness/100307768 Subscribe and turn notifications on so you can be alerted when new editions drop. The show's available on Anchor, Apple, Google, Spotify and other podcast platforms plus YouTube. Cory Talks website, Twitter, Email News sources: ABC News Australia, BBC News, Independent Australia, Michael West, The Guardian. CORYTALKS. A PODCAST FROM CORY O'CONNOR CORYTALKS.COM --- 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/corytalkspod/message

TrueHoop readers and BRING IT IN listeners know David Thorpe has been talking about the Bucks’ good title chances all season. When Giannis shifted his attack in the middle of conference finals, David published a story saying this Giannis can win a title, and he picked them to, so long as Giannis was healthy. After the Bucks stumbled out of the gate against the Suns, David could see a way the Bucks would turn it around, and then documented a new wrinkle to the Bucks’ offense with the potential to stymie the Suns.By Friday’s BRING IT IN, though, David said that he didn’t know who to favor, but that in the end his best guess was that Jrue Holiday couldn’t be terrible on offense forever. He foresaw a Holiday offensive recovery and a Bucks win. That probably looked pretty crazy one quarter into the Suns Saturday night home game, as they rolled to a big lead before their delighted home crowd.The Bucks started the second quarter with Giannis on the bench. Then Jrue Holiday came alive. Over about half a quarter, as the Suns went minutes between buckets, the Bucks were almost perfect:Jrue Holiday made four of five, with a 3, and four assists,Brook Lopez made two of three, with four rebounds, Khris Middleton made three of four, with three rebounds and three assists,Pat Connaughton made a 3,Bobby Portis made three of four (including two 3s) with two offensive rebounds.It happened fast, and it was decisive. It could very well be that we will look back at the second quarter of Game 5, when Jrue Holiday’s offense came alive and the Bucks roared back into the lead, as the turning point of the Finals. Holiday finished with 27 points and the best plus/minus of any player in the game. Game 6 is Tuesday in Milwaukee. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.truehoop.com/subscribe

Looking to disrupt your industry and cut through the white noise? There are 3 ways every business can strategically innovate! Its not rocket science, not just for those with cool offices and ping pong tables, not even for just the industry titans. It's time for you to... Own Strategic Innovation! Strategic innovation is rewriting the rules of your industry, adding unique value. It's different then constant never ending improvement Everyone is so focused on Innovation- that it's just become a new buzz word. The act of innovating isn't just an idea- or a new version of something. Because those become easily replicated. SO how do you create a long term competitive advantage with innovation? When you make innovation a part of your organization at every level- and train every team member the right questions to ask, and how to connect the dots; then you have what very few organizations have. Mass adoption in your organization- (aka synergy and alignment). Don't worry if you don't have a massive R&D budget like some of the industry giants such as GE. Innovation is methods, frameworks, and tools that every entrepreneur and their team can utilize no matter the size of your business. In today's episode I'm diving into 3 ways you can strategically innovate How to develop your thought process and mindset to be an innovative leader. 9 questions that will identify where to strategically innovate in your business and what to move forward with. 5 Areas every business can strategically innovate in! It's not just the what and the why… like every guru out there. It's actually the how! Just like the Innovative Entrepreneurs who are obsessed with their business and solutions- we are obsessed about meeting the needs of our clients! This episode will deep dive in the 3 ways you can strategically innovate in your business and give you the clarity to move forward into our Daily Innovation Briefings the rest of this week. By Friday (yes in 5 days) you will have an exact plan in place to strategically innovate in your business! Listen now! Make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you get notified when the implementation episodes come out daily!

This week you draw up the final blueprints for your manifest destiny and push the button. Your heart and emotional commitment must remain consistent. By Friday, a sun/jupiter vortex pulls you into the next story with yourself.

This Week: The CDC announced this week children as young as 12 can receive the coronavirus vaccine and that fully vaccinated Americans don't have to wear their masks outside and inside in most situations. FOX News Washington Correspondent Rachel Sutherland speaks with Dr. Sally Goza, past president of American Academy of Pediatrics about vaccinating young people and how to reassure parents who may be worried about getting their children vaccinated. On Wednesday, House Republicans voted by secret ballot to replace Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) as the Chair of The House Republican Conference. By Friday, the party had replaced Cheney with Representative Elise Stefanik of New York's 21st district. Fox News Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram discusses what this ousting of Representative Cheney says about Republican Party, and the state of her political future, as she plans to run again in 2022. This week, President Biden met with the big four congressional leaders at the White House to discuss coming together on a definition of infrastructure. The following day, President Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg met with a group of Senate Republicans led by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), for a conversation which Senator Capito described "productive." Fox News White House Correspondent, Peter Doocy, joins the podcast to discuss where President Biden's proposals stand, and how lawmakers are doing in their pursuit of common ground. Filling up the gas tank became a bigger chore this week as many drivers flew into a panic over the cyber-attack on the Colonial pipeline. Even as the pipeline reopened, the run on gas left pumps dry in parts of the east coast. Rachel Sutherland speaks with FOX Business Network contributor and Senior Account Executive and Market Analyst at the Price Futures Group, Phil Flynn about this week's cyber-attack and what people should do if they're planning on traveling for Memorial Day weekend.

We all have expectations! When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, the crowds expected a king who would take charge, set things right, and relieve them of oppression. So, they worshipped and praised His holy name! By Friday of that same week, they cried for His crucifixion. Why? Jesus did not meet their expectations. What about you? Are your expectations based on the promises in God's Word, or are they founded on worldly hope?

Nick Cater, Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre/Columnist with the Australian & Author of 'The Lucky Culture', joins Michael to discuss his latest article that looks at Daniel Andrews once again taking to whacking the COVID virus with a sledgehammer to cover up his government’s bureaucratic bungling.   Mr Cater writes, ‘It would have been a busy week at the excuse desk of Dan Andrews’ Department of Premier and Cabinet as its staff searched for something strong enough to immunise the boss from a new outbreak of bureaucratic ineptitude.’   ‘Their task was made harder by an unfortunate outburst of hubris on Tuesday when the Victorian Premier appeared at a news conference sans masque.  He boasted of Victoria's "gold-standard" hotel quarantine system, even as early cases of the Holiday Inn outbreak were under investigation.’   ‘By Friday the mask was back as Andrews revealed some selected facts about breaches in protocol in a dowdy airport hotel to justify plunging the entire state back into lockdown hell or, as the Premier prefers it, “a short, sharp circuit breaker”.’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Six semi-finalists will begin interviewing in early February for the APS Superintendent's job. By Friday all 309 long term and assisted living facilities in NM will have been offered vaccines. College teams can now practice back in NM.

A glimpse behind the scenes of what’s happening inside of the five day lead challenge. Hit me up on IG! @russellbrunson Text Me! 208-231-3797 Join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com ---Transcript--- What's up everybody. This is Russell Brunson. welcome back to a very late night edition of the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today I want to talk about the five day lead challenge, the new OFA and a whole bunch of other, really, really cool things. All right, everybody. So I hope you're watching what I'm doing, even if you don't buy my stuff. That's cool. I get it. But hopefully you're watching what I'm doing. I'm trying to give you guys an education in marketing every single day. I could really, really, really easily just be done. I don't need more money. I don't need more things. Business is running, sales are happening. I'm good. But I keep doing this for a couple reasons. Number one, I love this game. It's so much fun. Right? I'm addicted to it. I'm not going to lie. I can't stop. It's really, really fun. Number two, I feel like half of my role here at ClickFunnels, if not all my role is to do things that you guys can model and have success with in your business, right? And so I want to just talk to you guys about what I'm doing right now, so you can look at it and hopefully you can model it inside of your business. Okay? A lot of you guys know that man, two and a half, three years ago, we launched our first ever One Funnel Away challenge. And hopefully most of you guys have had a chance to go through it. We've had over 70,000 people go through it. If you haven't gone through yet, go to onefunnelaway.com and join it. In fact, now's the time to join it because starting Monday. So you guys are going to be getting this on a Wednesday I believe. On Monday is the new OFA. It's the first time I updated it in two and a half years. I'm doing it live for 30 days. So if you haven't done yet now is the time, okay? But we did that. We've run it. And it's been running for a long time and it's been amazing. It's helped people build funnels, it's helped people understand, ClickFunnels, our culture, our everything. And it's been awesome. We decided this year to go back and to redo it. And as I was brainstorming and planning out, I'm like, "The one problem with the One Funnel Away challenge is that somebody has to know what a funnel is to want to do the One Funnel Away challenge." I went to my mom, I'm like, "Hey, want to do the One Funnel Away challenge?" She'd be like, "What's a funnel?" Well, my mom would know because ClickFunnels. But most people will be like, "What are you even talking about? You sound crazy." Right? And yeah, the challenge has been very successful. So I started thinking, "Okay, how to take one step back to open up our net even wider?" If people in business don't know what a funnel is, what is universal? What is the thing that people know and they understand? And for me, the thing that people know and they understand is a lead. In fact, it's interesting. I don't know if you guys all remember when we started this game five and half, six years ago, seven years ago now, whatever it was. Our big competitor was a site. It was a company called Lead Pages. And I used to tease them and have fun with it because they created pages that in fact, it was a funny story. The very first marketing that we ever went to, the two sponsors were ClickFunnels and lead pages. And it was this little tiny hallway and they had their booth there and we had a booth right across. And then funny about this is Todd's wife, Ashley was... It was just basically me, Todd Dylan, a handful of people. And Todd's wife was at this event. And we made these big, huge signs that had a fun landing page, order form, thank you page, upsell, downsells, membership site. And just a really cool little like banner. And then on top it said, "Can your landing page software do this?" And so we're literally three feet away from their booth across this little tiny hall and they're like, "Landing page software." And then ours is, "Can your landing pages offer do that?" We had t-shirts that had it. It was awesome. Okay? And it's funny, because for me, when I first got in the game, I'm like, "Hey, people use lead pages to generate leads." And then they come to us because they've realized that then they need more just leads. They need a funnel. And it was funny because I had somebody one time asked me like, "Why do you hate Lead Pages so much?" I'm like, "I don't hate Lead Pages. Lead Pages is literally the best front end out there in the market for us. They're one step ahead, one step earlier in the conversation to a customer." I have to explain to you what a funnel is and all these sorts of things. And so you go one step backwards to a lead, it was like every business knows what a lead is. There's no company online in the world that offline, online that doesn't know what a lead is. And so Lead Pages did great because it was so simple. Like, "Wait, you need leads?" "Yeah." "Get a lead page." "Okay." And people did it. And then we came in saying, "Hey, leads are good, but do you want to sell something? Okay, here's the funnel." And so they were our best lead source back when they were growing. They haven't grown in years, but for a long time, I loved it. So I was thinking about this. I'm like, "One Funnel Away challenge is awesome, but how do we go broader to cast a net that's even bigger?" And so I started thinking about Lead Pages. I was like, "Well, we should do a lead challenge and build a very simple lead funnel, a two-page lead funnel. Show them how to build a lead magnet, a lead funnel an email sequence, and then drive traffic." And so that's when this whole concept of the five day lead challenge was born. Okay? And the five day lead challenge is free. In fact, a lot of you guys are probably in it right now. I think by the time this comes out, it'll be day three of the live lead five day lead challenge. And I'm doing this challenge for free and it's live this first time around. And I'm doing it. And what's crazy is when we launched this thing about 30 seconds before I stepped on stage, we refreshed the stats we just passed 35,000 people that had registered for it. And so far of all the things I've ever done, that's the most people that have ever registered for anything I've ever done. So the numbers are insane. Now obviously ClickFunnels has a lot of momentum now, as we always do, which is exciting, but also it's something that everybody can grasp, like leads. I need leads. I don't care if you're network marketer, internet marketer, chiropractor, doctor, dentist, you need leads. And so the lead challenge made sense. It was broader challenge. But also notice this is a free challenge. One Funnel Away challenge costs a $100 for somebody to go through. Where this one's completely free. So it's cast a bigger net. It's free. They come in. They go through this five day process. And in the process, we help them to figure out to understand here's what a basic funnel looks like. Here's how to build a lead magnet. Here's how to put these pieces in place. And the end of the five day challenge, then we're going to invite people to take the next challenge, which is the One Funnel Away challenge. And the new version of the One Funnel Away challenge I'm really excited for. It's brand new from the ground up. If you've done it in the past, you should do it again because this is completely different. It's me teaching it live every day for 30 days. And we're building a very certain, very specific type of sales funnel. One that I love. One that I use a lot. And that's where we'd be teaching, excuse me, teaching everybody how to use. And so I wanted to share it with you guys for a couple reasons. What's your version of the five day lead challenge? Obviously whatever you're selling, there's probably some sub market or say sub something, right? You're targeting certain people, but what's one step back? How can you cast that net a little bit bigger? And then can you do a challenge that's free, that's five days, that gets the cast the net in? They could bring somebody in and at the end of it, then you introduce them to the core thing you're trying to sell. As someone goes through the five day lead challenge, by the time they're done, they know what a funnel is. They know what a lead magnet is. They know what a framework is. They know what a lot of these core things are. Now they're ready for the One Funnel Away challenge. Whereas now we get people who try to come to One Funnel Away challenges. It's confusing. What is a funnel? What is this thing? And we're kind of starting before a lot of them are ready. And so that's what's happening. Anyway, I don't know if you've been watching the five-year lead challenge we got some really cool things. One of the original co-founders of ClickFunnels, his name's Dylan Jones. He's the one who built the original ClickFunnels editor. He came out of his semi-retirement and just built a new product called Onepager. And so I've been using Onepager in the trainings, have you guys noticed it? Every day, I teach a strategy live and then I give them a Onepager. And on Onepager is a video that shows the tactics. Because the tactics are hard to teach live in front of everyone. Like "Here, let me show you how to actually do the steps." It's really hard. So I teach the strategy live. I do it on whiteboard. They're like, "Oh, that's cool. I see the strategy. I understand what I'm doing." And I send the Onepager. The Onepager has a video. It's the tactical, let me show you me doing the thing. And then the Onepager lets them have forms and checklists, so they can actually make sure they do everything you're saying. It's really, really cool. And so what's awesome too, is I'm launching that new company, Onepager.io with Dylan. And day number two in the challenge we're teaching people how to build lead magnets with Onepager. Like I'm using now, I'm trying to get them using it. And so in the process of us creating this challenge, it's really cool because we're able to make money on a lot of different things. We make money when somebody buys Onepager in the future. We make money if somebody buys ClickFunnels. We make money if they sign up for the One Funnel Away challenge. And so by doing these challenges, you can introduce people to different products or services or things you sell. If you're a health person do a weight loss challenge and introduce them to your weight loss shake, and then your workout plans. You can introduce people to different things. Jim Edwards built a whole bunch of really cool scripts for people in the five day lead challenge that we're giving them for free to help them with every single step the copy they need in every single page. What's going to happen is people usually get excited by it. Like, "This is awesome." And then they're probably going to upgrade to FunnelScripts. So this free challenge is really cool because it teaches people, it gives them a result. By the end of the five days, everybody will have a lead magnet, they'll have a funnel. They'll have an email sequence and traffic coming into that funnel. But in the interim, they've had a chance to test all of our products and our services and try them out, see how they work. So what's your equivalent of the five day lead challenge? What could you do? What's something to cast a big net? What's something that introduces people to your core products and your services? What's something that when someone completes the challenge, they leave with a tangible result? Not just like, "You're going to learn how to blah, blah, blah." It's like, "No, when you leave, this will be done. This will be finished." I want to give somebody a tangible so when they're done they're like, "Oh my gosh, I did this five day thing with Russell and I have a funnel, I have a lead magnet, have an email sequence. I need to do the, One Funnel Away challenge because I want to build a sales funnel. Let's go to the next step." if I can give them that result, they're more likely to come and do the next thing. So anyway, I just want to share with you because I'm in the middle of it. I literally just finished recording all the tactic videos a few seconds ago for the Onepagers for the rest of the funnel. And had some energy. I was excited and I thought I'm going to just kind of share this with you guys. But if you haven't seen it yet, go experience it. Funnel hack me. Even if you're like, "I know how to generate leads Russ." Like, "Cool. I don't care." Come follow the process. Half of what I'm doing is for you to model the process. Go to fivedayleadchallenge.com. The number five day lead challenge.com and go join it. Okay? By Friday of this week, when we finished the live, live version, it'll be an evergreen version and we will be driving leads there for forever. My goals in the next year to have over a million people go through the five day lead challenge, right? If I do that, if I get 10% to go to OFA, that's an extra 100 000 people through OFA. How many people does that bring to ClickFunnels? How many people does it to bring into Onepager? How many people does it bring into FunnelScripts? How many people does is it bringing to my world? How many books do I sell? All by doing this challenge on the front end. So anyway, look at it, model it for your business. Figure out how to replicate that concept and see what happens. And let me know how it goes. Thanks you guys so much for hanging out. I appreciate you all. Hopefully you got some guidance from this one. If you did, please go to Instagram, Facebook, wherever you post it, take a screenshot of this episode, tag me in it. I do see those. I do read the comments and it's so much fun to kind of see the takeaways you guys are getting from them. With that said, thanks for listening. I appreciate you all. And I'll talk to you all soon. Bye everybody.

Absolute power is now within the Democrats' grasp. By Friday, we could live a one party system like China. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tens of thousand of SDG&E customers lost power late Wednesday evening and Thursday morning as Santa Ana winds combined with dry weather conditions led to high wildfire risk. By Friday, the number of customers without power had dropped, but the utility has warned that outages may return soon.

I was shouting at my ipad telling Professor Adrian Hill, Director, Oxford Uni Jenner Institute to stop talking with Becky Anderson of CNN, when she asked him to explain the results of the Vaccine tests announced on Monday 23rd Nov, instead he said; "We don't fully understand that [how the vaccine results were different] but there's several ideas around as to how it might work, and we're exploring those," By Friday the stock was down 6% and stories of Korean hackers were circulating. I provide an antidote to the self inflicted wounds of Astra Zeneca - Oxford Uni, and explain the process how to use PR as a tonic not to poison the patient.Create content using AI - Trylately! Automatically generate social posts from videos and podcasts into dozens of social posts.Unless.com Build drop in site experience Optimize your existing website for each individual.Earth.ai models human interaction. Earth.ai provides access to a bias-free view on what really drives behaviour.How to #getnoticed mastermind. #getnoticed with courses and masterminds developed by experienced PR agency owner Jim James.Support the show (http://www.paypal.me/eastwestpruk)

It seems like Almost Yesterday when the community of Greenville, Missouri experienced a disastrous flood. The event was the most extensive flood in the history of the small town on the St. Francis River, and caused such destruction that it permanently altered the region. The flood was precipitated by a persistent rain that fell for nearly one week, followed by a heavy downpour on the night of August 19. By Friday morning, August 20, the St. Francis was rising at the rate of twelve inches per hour. By six p. m. the river inundated the town. Residents of the community moved most of the livestock to safety, raised furniture, and took refuge on the second floors of the school, business buildings and the homes of friends who lived on high ground. But, the high level of the water that spread across the town was not anticipated, reaching a depth of five feet in homes and streets, with significant damage to homes and businesses. Heavy rains in the middle of August were rare and this one

The Fresno County Health Department has asked more than 40 people to self-quarantine following the recent COVID-19 infection of Fresno County Supervisor Steve Brandau. Some of these people, including mayor-elect Jerry Dyer who also tested positive, attended an election night dinner party with the supervisor. Granville Homes President and CEO Darius Assemi was another guest who attended the private dinner party last Tuesday. By Friday evening, he found out he had tested positive. “It is very upsetting, very upsetting to me. But it is what it is. Here we are,” Assemi said. While hosting a Facebook Live talk Tuesday, Assemi confirmed his diagnosis. He said he wore a mask to the dinner but took it off to eat. Supervisor Steve Brandau was also on the talk and said he regrets not being more cautious. He started feeling a scratch in his throat the afternoon before the party. “The mistake was not that I should have gone to the party and worn a mask. The mistake was that I shouldn't have even

We start our Monday with solid intentions to crush a diet. By Friday, we throw in the towel and eat horribly all weekend. Just to start a new diet on Monday again. Why do you keep failing your diet? Or why does your diet keep failing you? Find out in this week’s podcast episode. These factors might be just what you need to hear to make true progress on your true weight loss journey.

The Major Markets saw the gains bleed away last week after three consecutive positive weeks in the domestic market. The greatest losses appeared in the Technology centric Nasdaq. This was especially apparent at the sector level as the Information Technology Sector fell 2.2% This broke a four-week run after September’s pullback. Optimism faded last week as neither the White House nor Congress could come to an agreement on another Stimulus Deal. Ironically, the gains after Monday’s initial drop were fueled at least in part in the hopes that Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin had narrowed their differences on a new bill. However, political anxiety ramped up as Joe Biden’s son and Amy Coney Barrett’s supreme court nomination fueled an already tense week. Thursday’s presidential debate then served as the exclamation point to these events. As tensions flared, the longer-term end of the yield curve rose. By Friday’s close, the ten-year treasury climbed 9 basis points while the 30-year rose 12 basis points. The gains in interest rates supported financials which was one of the four segments of the S&P 500 which managed to close higher for the week by Friday. Yet the greatest gains were seen in the Communication Services Sector. The S&P 500 Communication Services sector is the newest and one of the smallest segments based upon the number of companies of the Blue-Chip index. Launched only two years ago in September 2018, the sector was created to address the changing landscape of technology and telecommunications Last week, Snap, one of the 26 constituents in the Communication Services sector, beat their earnings forecast when their report broke causing the company to surge 52% in just a week, dragging the overall sector higher. This week, earnings season continues, hopefully serving as a productive distraction from the political horrors you may be feeling ahead of Election Day.

President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden faced off in the first presidential debate last Tuesday. By Friday, the conversation about how the debate, which was full of interruptions, proved less than informative for American voters, was overshadowed by news of the president’s COVID-19 diagnosis and his subsequent hospitalization. That whirlwind of a week and what comes next was the focus of this week's conversation between Roby Brock from Talk Business & Politics and John Brummett, a political columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette .

Who Hires the Barb Schlinker Team to Sell and Buy a HouseMany of our listeners know, you and your team are the only people I would recommend if they have a real estate need, but I think people often want to know who hires your team to buy and sell homes?We want to help as many families as well can because we are on a mission to raise money for Veterans’ causes like:Fisher HouseUSOTunnel for Towers – Smart Homes ProgramI’ve built our team to support people from all walks of life but here are some examples:DoctorsPolice OfficersActive Duty Military MembersLawyersCEOsBusiness OwnersEngineersRetired People looking to down sizeReal Estate developersReal Estate investorsPretty much all walks of lifeWhen you want a service, it’s always best to hire someone who is a professionalWe recently went to get a security systemI thought I hired a large company who were pros but because quickly disappointedPrice quote changed – went up 3 timesMonthly fee changed – went up 2 timesUpsold me equipmentIt was so bad I just could not commit to them and decided on a smaller firm who had years of experience – in that big box environment and that person:Listened to my needsWas able to present a workable solutionExecuted on that solutionTime and time again I get calls from people who hired, people they ‘knew’ that ended in frustration and no sale.Out of the 4900+ agents – 74% have sold 3 or less homes in a YEAR.Would you hire a beginner to handle one of your largest assets?That actively works on the business, who has some knowledge and expertise and has skills of:MarketingSalesNegotiatingClosingProviding Wow ServiceFollowing UpWe are talking who hires the Barb Schlinker Team to buy and sell a home. Barb, why is this something that matters?When someone is buying a home, very few agents are skilled at the ‘getting the home’ for their buyers. We train on how to do this all the time. Some of the crazy stuff I get in offers include:Move out but I want a chance to back out all the way until closingRequest for information about the neighborsOr about the future value or future buyer use of the propertyOffer hedgesLeast favorite: failure of the lender to appropriately vet the buyer to obtain a loan Just last week, we sold two homes for over asking price with multiple offers. But not in 1 day!I watch the MLS activity all the time.The behavior I see is that most agents leap at presenting the first offer as quickly as possible. Someone who does not know how to market to get top dollar, will do just that.I set up 3 homes to show in Thursday inthe 575-600K price point for a Saturday AM showing.By Friday evening the listing agents cancelled two of them.How do those home sellers know that my buyer would have not offered more? Because they would not wait. They don’t! By the way, these homes had NOT been sitting on the market for weeks, they were on the market for just 1 day!!Speaking of selling Fast for Top Dollar we are featuring a Hot Home of the Week3040 Woodview Ct, 80918: $349,999Barb, you and your team are the only company I would recommend to people out there thinking of selling their homes and downsizing to a smaller home, how can they get more information?They can call 719 301 3900 When we come back e will be discussing: How to GET a House in this Hot Market and Hot New Listings!

By Friday our pulses will return to their normal resting heart rates, but until then, we're AMPED and in utter disbelief over these Cardiac Bills!

Last week, a Houston Chronicle reporter tweeted an image from Jerry Falwell Jr.’s instagram. The image showed the Liberty University president posing with his arm around a woman at a party with their zippers down and midsections exposed. By Friday, Falwell Jr. agreed to take an immediate and indefinite leave of absence from Liberty University, which he has led since 2007 as president and chancellor. As CT’s reporting noted: During his tenure—succeeding his father and the school’s founder, Jerry Falwell Sr.—the younger Falwell has expanded Liberty into one of the biggest Christian colleges in the world, now reporting an enrollment of over 120,000 students. But his leadership has also drawn controversy, including around his politics—such as his friendship with President Donald Trump—and personal life—like photos of him and his family at a Miami nightclub.In June, Falwell apologized for a tweet that included an image of the yearbook photo from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal. Dozens of black alumni said he should “withdraw the racist tweet” and resign to focus on politics.This week on Quick to Listen, we wanted to discuss how Liberty University and its president fit in the larger landscape of Christian higher ed. Bill Ringenberg is faculty emeritus at Taylor University, where he was a longtime history professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and the author of The Christian College: A History of Protestant Higher Education in America and The Christian College and Academic Freedom. He joined global media manager Morgan Lee and editorial director Ted Olsen to discuss where Liberty is positioned the Christian higher ed world, how athletics make a difference in how the school sees itself, and why it took a photo on Instagram for Liberty’s board to react to Jerry Falwell Jr. Take Quick to Listen’s survey! What is Quick to Listen? Read more Rate Quick to Listen on Apple Podcasts Follow the podcast on Twitter Follow our hosts on Twitter: Morgan Lee and Ted Olsen Music by Sweeps Quick to Listen is produced by Morgan Lee and Matt Linder The transcript is edited by Bunmi Ishola

For five blistering days, most of what we heard about was face coverings -- also known as masks. Yes votes, no votes, "education," "marketing plans," litigation, masks having some imaginary connection to the state's economy and for reasons that should be criminal -- politics as well. All over as simple a thing as trying to save lives -- our own, our friends, our family, our community. By Friday, most of us were numb and confused. The adults needed to take control. They did so in such a way that any executive order signed by a one-term governor trying to bully local governments would have the impact of a dying fly. The private sector stood up and won't be seated any time soon. Starting with Starbacks and later including Walmart, Sam's Club, Kroger, Publix, Target, Kohl's, Lowe's and Home Depot, some of the biggest names in retail make it easy for all to understand: Wear a mask or stay out of our stores. By midday Friday, Harbin Clinic did the same, requiring all patients and visitors to all offices to wear masks during the entirety of their stay. We expect others to follow. And soon. Does the private sector have the clout? You bet. Now's the time for the locals, the moms-and-pops to step up as well. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/john-druckenmiller/support

Exactly What To Say - Building Your Public Speaking Business James Taylor interviews Phil M. Jones and they talk about exactly what to say to build your public speaking business. In today's episode Phil M. Jones talks about Building Your Public Speaking Business. What we cover: Building the base of your public speaking business The 6/6/6 rule The one phrase you need to sell yourself as a public speaker Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl067-exactly-what-to-say-building-your-public-speaking-business/ James Taylor Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode. Hey, there's James Taylor. I'm delighted today to be joined by Phil M. Jones. Phil Jones has made it his life's work to demystify the sales process reframe what it means to sell, and help his audience to learn new skills and power, confidence, overcome fears, and instantaneously impact bottom line results. Author of six international best selling books and the youngest ever winner of coveted British excellence in sales and marketing award. Phil is currently one of the most in demand speakers and advisors to companies worldwide. It's my great pleasure to have Phil join us today. So welcome Phil. Phil M. Jones Great to be here. James. Thanks for inviting me on. James Taylor So share with everyone what's going on in your world just now. Phil M. Jones Oh, what's going on in my world? Like always, my world is chaotic and busy in an organized mess of travel quandaries and, and client demands and different types of audiences in different ways. So I'm forever putting my hat on saying what group of people is it that I'm serving today? So I've just just come off the run of of six weeks worth of an abundance of different types of events across the world in different ways. So what's happening for me right now, today Here's the first day I get to breathe in a little while. So I'm kind of excited about that. James Taylor Now, I'd love to know your journey into speaking because I was looking very early on in your life. You've also had a very strong, entrepreneurial, bent to what you do as well, I think I saw that you by the age of 15, you're actually earning more than your teachers school, because you hear out some friends now. So tell us that that journey from from budding entrepreneur at school into what you do today is really known as a keynote, keynote speaker and author and trainer. Phil M. Jones Yeah, I mean, I started in business from a very young age. So I wanted to make some extra money to better get some of the things that my parents decided they didn't want to buy for me. So I started a little cleaning business at the age of 14, like we realized there by the age of 15. I was kind of not going to school as often as I should. And I remember getting invited in by my school teachers questioning my attendance. And I responded to those guys with the questions like how much money are you making, and they refused to tell me at the time but I was making more money. than most of my school teachers by my 15th birthday. And I continued like on an entrepreneurial journey through my teens still built studies around my businesses. So I still took school pretty seriously. But I viewed them as quizzes and puzzles that was a was a fun thing for me is that I had to kind of get these these puzzles dealt with in the most efficient period of time. And at the age of 18, I had a dilemma, big university opportunity in front of me to go to one of the best schools back in the UK. I didn't want to go and I became the youngest ever sales manager for business called Debenhams department stores that you'll know from the UK. And I guess even from my early kind of corporate days, I had a speaking inspired background even though I didn't know that's what it was at the time. So I did a lot of store openings, a lot of trainings towards store openings in those retail world. So I guess my first gigs was me at 18 years of age stop stood at the top of escalators in a new department store environment, addressing an audience full of employees, getting them inspired about what we're going to go on and achieve over the next six weeks and then keeping that updated. So that got me very, very comfortable. But also going through that environment of being a very aspirational employee in a leadership role is we'd have a lot of leadership conferences, we'd have a lot of guest speakers coming together to talk to our audiences and I thought one day I'd love to be able to do that. Now I continue through a number of a number of kind of things with my career where I became a store manager sales training consultant for DFS furniture group, went from there to become head of retail at Birmingham City Football Club. And from there to do the same at Leicester City Football Club with Mila Mandarin, then I built a big property business, property business was were quite a lot of our clients through seminars. So again, that always had me stood in front of rooms full of people and in fact, every one of my entrepreneurial career choices or corporate lead career choices always have me speaking to a roomful of people. My property, business and a bump in 2008 I'm sure some people might look to be able to have some memory towards that too. And we had a great business on a Monday. By Friday, we had a product we couldn't give away. So wondering what I was going to do next, I was being invited by business networking groups to say, can you come and help some of these local business owners? through some of these recessionary times by delivering back some sales skills, I was at quite a strong voice in those small business environments, of offering advice and guidance. And I was delivering those education slots for free didn't think about it being a speaking career. And then I thought, well, there were just so many people in this world are good at a thing, but don't know how to acquire customers or grow that business so they can get to really be good at the thing. So I wrote a one day sales training course. And I started to invite people from that small business environment to my one day program. And that was, yeah, back into 2008. So almost 10 years ago, and six people became 12 people became 20 people became 30 people became Can you come deliver this to my team became me then speaking externally to sell places on my workshops. So I'd speak at larger events for without fee to be able to drive people towards my workshop that then became a coaching business, then became a consulting business. Then I wrote my first book in 2012. And then I went on the road internationally delivering more of what we would now call speeches. But my business here today is I deliver somewhere in the region of 100 paid presentations a year takes me all around the world, written six best selling books. And I do anything from a from a 12 minute keynote up to a three day program with audiences and then have somewhere like 30 different revenue streams in my business around that to the that have now become remarkably fun, but it's been a it's been a beautifully organic journey driven by ambition, aspiration, and a simple belief that if somebody else can do it, can somebody else be me? James Taylor Well, I've always looked at what a great journey well, fascinating journey through all those everything. Obviously, sales is Been that has been the kind of golden thread that's kind of gone through a lot of that as well. And I'm wondering, like, as you were kind of going, you mentioned, almost 10 different types of presenting. So there was the more kind of workshop training style, then there was more platform selling style, where you're giving a talk for free in order to get people to come to your workshop or consulting. And then there's more keynote speaking. So which I can know you for for today, who are your mentors, because they're all slightly different flavors. And and they require slightly different skills I would imagine. Phil M. Jones Yeah, it is hard to define specific mentors if I if I'm to look, early days, I was always hugely inspired by Guy new call Peter Lee and Peter Lee was somebody I collaborated with and work with and was taught by when I was part of a management training program back in, in the furniture days, maybe 1520 years ago, and he was the first guy who bought the Dale Carnegie programs to the UK. So I got to study Dale Carnegie's work quite in depth for that and I loved the way that Peter would engage Ah, and would facilitate within an audience and had both the gravitas of a powerful speaker, but also had the charm of, you know, the guy in the pub that would be able to have a conversation. And quite often when you say these audience didn't matter how many people were in it, you felt like he was talking just to you. So I love that. There's also a guy in the UK called Richard Denny. Richard Denny is kind of like the godfather of professional speaking when it comes to UK background. And I remember being in a conference that Richard delivered and I may have been 17 years of age at the time, and I thought that guy's cool. And I got to know Richard quite well through the years and got to learn a little from him. And then on the marketing side of the business, and we might link into this shortly is is a guy called Peter Thompson. So Peter Thompson is somebody who's been around a long, long time. When we then look towards role models outside of of those three, there's two other categories I would consider. One is is the people that have mentored me from a distance, so I might not have had personal conversation with them but I've studied and and and then model their behavior. So that could be as much as as a Jim Rowan. And but it could also be the fact that I'd stick myself in the audience as often as I possibly can about the people performing to say, what would I like about that? What worked well? Where can I get some role modeling from other people's efforts, and then also stand up comedians. So I've got like an abundance of stand up comedians, because I think in the world of professional speaking, stand up comedy is about as tough as it gets. So to look towards that, to to push the envelope was huge. And then the flip side of all of this role model stuff is all the negative role models. James Taylor So you basically look at them and say, This is not why I want to become not the kind of Correct, Phil M. Jones correct and I think this is important to look towards those groups of people as it is towards those that you have aspiration towards. Because there are hundreds of ways you can build a business as a professional speaker hundreds, and it's very easy, particularly in today's marketplace where information is so easily and readily available. That what you do is that you think you have to be all things to all people that you that you think, well, if somebody else is successful, I need to be more like that. And we end up then seeing copycat speakers. And the trouble with that is you can't be what you're not. It's like an impossibility. You can take influence from other people. But if you're trying to be what you're not, then what happens is one that you get found out or you feel bad, because you don't feel like you're being you and what it is you're doing, but you've built a reputation for being something you're not and you can't break out of that shell. So a level of authenticity is important, but you need to discover that through looking at what it is that other people do. I'll take a piece of that. I'll try it on for a while. And I view it like, like, if you went out shopping for a day, you might have an idea of what you would like but until you put something on, and you take it for a walk or you look at yourself back in the mirror with it. You don't decide whether it's something you like or not. So, people early on in their career, I think they should they should just soak themselves up. In the world, and learn it, learn the different business models. And the business models are as important as the as the presentations themselves. Because without a business model that supports your ability to get to speak regularly, then the game gets over real quick. James Taylor What do you use? I mean, on this summit, we've got there was a thing I was a little bit concerned about when I'm interviewing so many different speakers and they have such different role, different business models and what they're doing. Yeah, was that for the for the someone that's watching this, just now they can feel a bit discombobulated, and they can feel that, oh, that's what I want to do. Any advice that you would give in terms of helping the speaker that's watching this, or the aspiring speaker that's watching this, to have some kind of compass to kind of help them guide themselves so they can know? Those things are not, you know, they're interesting, but I don't necessarily want to want to do Phil M. Jones in order to be able to successfully speak you need a number of audiences and then clients that would pay to put you in front of those audiences. What often people don't do is put themselves in one singular box. When it comes to winning business, you can't aim at just one thing any one period of time because what you need is you need some business that will feed your family on Friday. You need some business that can sustain you to be able to live for a year and then you need something to be able to chase. I'm a big believer that the in the world of sales, you cannot manage any more than 18 prospects at any one period of time. And having trained over 2 million people, I've still found that same thing to be true 18 prospects is the most that you could ever have. So if you can get yourself laser focused on 18 prospects, you can become what I call devilishly productive. And the reason I call it devilishly productive is because we split that magic a team into groups of six, six and six. My advice would be at any given period of time when you're looking at what kind of speaking business you want to build is give yourself three different categories of types of events or types of things that you might want to do. So say for example, it might be where the low hanging fruit is at that bottom end. Is this is what I have within arm's reach right now this is where I have some wind at my back. This might be the industry that you've grown out of this might be the geographic location of where you based it might be something you deliver online because you've already built an audience, low hanging fruit, which was when with easy reach that you can get a yes to relatively quickly put some money on the table for Friday. For me at the early stage of my business, that was my one day sales workshop. always working six prospects towards my one day sales workshop. What did I really want to do? Well, when I first started, I wanted corporate training events that could give me 40 5060 people in the room, pay me a handsome fee to be able to deliver a half day or a full day workshop. What that would then be is a slightly longer pipeline but always be working six prospects there. And then my dream gigs at that point in time when I was first starting was i'd love the keynote the main stage, the 45 minute keynote the 60 minute the 90 minute the big fee, everybody like loves you. You love them. You sell a load of books every Things beautiful then you disappear again for the next day. So always be working six prospects in those camps. What then happened though was is as your career progresses, is what was then my low hanging fruit now becomes something we don't do anymore things then start to be able to shift through that moment. So always what you're looking for is to say, what is going to feed my family right now? What is going to give me some sustenance to mean that I can have peace of mind and reassurance and then what am I shooting at big time. So we're playing three different business models that potentially feed each other at the same time. And then try those three on if you then find something that doesn't work, switch one out, play with something else but three target markets, three different types of businesses progressive step two business model, and you'll find what you love. This is the most the best job in the world and the worst job in the world. If you're not with your people, if you're not serving audiences that serve you back, if you are putting yourself into a situation Where your travel schedule is overwhelming your life, then it takes over your ability to better enjoy what you do on the platform. James Taylor So wondering that terms as you as you have been building that, and now where you are in your own career, thinking about the kind of the sustainability. So moving out of the, I just need to get speaking gigs, where it was workshops, public workshops, corporate, you're now at a stage in your career, where you're making different types of decisions. And wondering the weather. Let's think like the recurring type of models start to come into that. So going up and keynotes is amazing. But it's like a little bit like being the kind of rock star going to a gig and you're doing those shows, and that's great, or being that comedian going doing that live tour. But when you're not on the road, there's maybe nothing happening. So how do you start to think about like building in sustainability and things that those revenue streams that could be coming in when you don't necessarily have to be on the road? Phil M. Jones Yeah, and I think that's what you're always looking at in that middle group of six people that you're working with. different things for different people. And if I gave a child a cupcake, what is the only part of the cupcake but they would like to eat James Taylor that nice cherry sitting on the top there. Phil M. Jones They want the cherry on the top of the frosting and sprinkles but they don't want the cake itself. They want all the stuff that's on top of the cake. Now most speakers are the same. What they want is they want the cherry they want the frosting, they want the sprinkles on all the good stuff. Trouble is you can't live on that sweet tooth piece alone, we needed some substitutes. So I encourage anybody looking to build a speaking business to go build the base of the cupcake first. The way I look to do that is firstly understand what your what your livelihood personal expenses are, whether it's 3000 a month, 5000 a month, 10,000 a month, 15,000 a month, whatever it might be, build a sustainable business model in that place that says my bills are covered, I can live my life. from that position. You can have a down sell and upsell from that position. So for me right now my author business sustains my life. I make it recurring revenue based revenue from my books and the work we've done to mean that I can pay for everything we have in our life. And it doesn't leave me a comfy comfy life. But I don't have to worry about paying a single bill based on the author business that we built. Historically, that used to be a coaching business. Historically, that used to be a retained number of training events like a 20 gig contract with one client that the paid me out. And it's also been recurring revenues off online coaching programs too. But I've always had something in that space that says, I've got something working here that pays for everything, and I focus on that but it's not sexy. What that means though, is then when I get a hifi speaking gig come in. It feels like it should feel it feels like Rockstar money because it's on top of what I need if I had to take that Rockstar money and then use it to pay my bills this month. I don't feel like the rock star should feel like it feels a little incongruent with that rock star. So it's worth building the base to give you the feeling of saying that the good stuff is the good stuff. Now the down sell there also could then be the good stuff. So then means you could start to look at it and say well when I do these workshops or these training events, what can I do to get extras? I was at an event yesterday in Rochester, New York, it was a small group full of people it was like 35 people. My down sell for fun was that we did a book for everybody in the room. Like 35 $15 now I don't care and the fact that I get big six figure fees and things on occasions for contracts, I still love walking out with 500 bucks extra on the back of an event. I still love it. It's like a buzz. But we can then look at say how do we commercial be commercial? As we build a business but getting your speaking business right means that you should try on different models but always be working three always work the base of the cupcake then you enjoy the sprinkles love that love James Taylor that analogy. And what's your cause your background, you have such a strong background in the sales piece. I wonder what advice you would give To the speakers out there when it comes to, I mean, actually, I see sales. But one of the things I've noticed about you is actually how brilliant your branding is. And so that's kind of going but I didn't, I class can, like marketing moving into sales in this kind of place in between. But I can look at your book, I can look at your website from standing at a distance. And I know it's you. Right? And because there's a look at some feel it pulled, some people may not appeal to others, but I'm guessing for your target audiences. It's this the thing that connects and it's very it's kind of a classy kind of thing. Does it have a black background with orange writing, it's kind of feels like New York Times there's a there's a substitute like a substantive there. So I'm interested to know a little bit the branding piece of what you do, how much you kind of thinking about that for what you do, but also how the the any advice you would give to speak as in terms of the sales especially as they starting to just be speaking more and they're getting more and more band coming in and how to do those inquiries? Phil M. Jones Well, let's do the two things is is to develop the piece of the brand. It takes forever of trial and error like like you. I mean in this game 10 years right now we are on website iteration number 23. We, you know, I rewrite my copy. I have a recurring piece in my schedule every six weeks or a story look at things seasonal needs to tweak what needs to change and if your career is doing this, your BIOS out a day every three months. Right and so things need to continue to look to change. What you do want to look at though in terms of setting your stall out is the biggest thing that a potential buyer is thinking when they're looking towards booking somebody it's not Will you be brilliant? It's Will you not suck if this risk mitigation, correct is is what they're looking at is to saying you know, if I'm putting my reputation on the line, is my reputation potentially going to be tarnished by this not is my reputation going be amplified by this. So what they want is anything that can give them some confidence that you've done this before and people like them have had a pleasant experience in the past. This means getting real authentic testimonials. This means getting great photography. One of the reasons that my branding materials look so good is that we've been photographing and recording every event since I first started and I've been putting my own people in to be able to do that most of the time. video content is key. So don't think you have to have all of these things in the first instance But no, it's your quest to get them and continually be on the quest of being able to make it better. And model off somebody if you need to write is find somebody that you quite like this stuff and you draw influence from it and say how do I make my stuff at the same but the brand is key and build it out on everything you know, business card, email signature, your thank you cards that then follow up towards other people. If you're running your own events, what do your banners look like in the room? What are the pens look like that your your delegates Using what are the pads look like that they're working on? We see we control that entire process. And I have done since my very first workshop to create an experience that says, This guy looks like he's done this 100 times before even my first workshop, we look like a giant organization. But what did I spend? I spent a few hundred pounds on making you look like we've done that before. That's the goal of most of your branding. James Taylor And then when it goes like when I think about something like Debenhams, for example, they've always been very good at that the aim of a certain type of customer My wife is probably like the type of customer and and everything you go in has a certain kind of feel as a certain quote, you know, certain kind of quality. You can see it trends and it has obviously changed over the years. You can see it being replicated in their print their TV as they're online, you can stand a distance you can go into the store, there's all those little triggers that you get to see that it relates to that brand. Phil M. Jones Now when it comes to the sales piece, there's two things that I want everybody to think about is First things first, there are two questions that you need to know the answers to before you Entering into this world of professional speaking. And I think many people forget this because what they want to do is want to be a speaker, they can speak on anything to anybody about like almost any subject. That's where they think often. Two questions that people should know the answers to ahead of time is number one, who are the people that they serve. And the narrower that position is, the easier is to start going out hunting and looking for opportunities. And the second lowest questions is which problems do you solve for them? I'll share this super quick with an analogy is if you are looking to open a tin of beans, what would you be looking for to better help you on that quest? You know, not a Swiss Army knife. Yeah. I might. I might do a few in a pretty desperate thing. You take a Swiss Army knife. Yeah. But first thought is I want to open a tin of beans. I need a tin opener on open a can of beans. I want to count out right. That's what you're looking for. And the same thing is true when it comes to people looking for a speaker. So if you're a leadership speaker, well, there's 1000 leadership speakers in the world. If you're a leadership speaker that helps independent retailers and you're an independent retailer, it now becomes easy for me to pick you if you are a you know an innovation speaker, but you're an innovation speaker for the accountancy profession they can't see professional looking and so you get me what an audience is looking for to get the show me that you know me type vibe. So the more that you can say these are my people, the easier it becomes to find business and I know that's kind of counterintuitive, but when you're aiming everybody you're not the right fit for them and they're not the right fit for you. When you say I'm aiming here, we can find a perfect match a little bit easier. James Taylor Can you mention those those two the six six and six years so can would you advise the someone who's maybe just getting started to fitting say people that are already up and running with the speaking of those those those three buckets? would you advise that maybe it's the same same kind of problem that they're solving, but maybe do you choose different audiences or should you go that's that's maybe the way to do it. Phil M. Jones Yeah, yeah, the the problem that you solve is is, is really kind of straightforward. And the problem is, for example, the problem that I solve for my audiences, and I help them make more of their conversations count. But that's what I do for people. And I help them understand how the importance of the right words at the right time can drive the right kind of actions. Now, as my reputation is growing, that means that the breadth of audience can start to get wider because I get bookings, because I'm Phil Jones, not because of the problem that I solved. But it's taken 10 years to get to that point in time. I started saying I helped small independent business owners that didn't understand the sales process to understand how they could sell more effectively to try to have a recession. So that was the problem that I helped solve. That was a group of people, small, independent business owners that were looking to trade our recession. Well, I'm a small independent business owner, I'm looking to trade our recession, this guy could probably help but positioned myself as a sales trainer that think they didn't need it. sales training was what I delivered. But the people I helped in the program myself are two completely different things and see I changed the conversation. James Taylor Yeah. As my friend said, recently, you had something you have to hide the broccoli in the cake. So, so that I'm interested as you were kind of going your own journey, because I think this is one that maybe maybe platform speakers can struggle with when they can start to move out into the corporate world. So you were even that small business owner. It's It feels like more of a b2c type of relationship because they don't have the credit card. Phil M. Jones their money. James Taylor Yeah. How do you when you started moving, so you develop that market? And as you started moving into the more the corporate world, which is more of a b2b relationship, so it's in on invoice, let's say, and yeah, how did you did you? What did you have to change to make that make that move? Phil M. Jones The biggest commonality is more apparent than the differences. The commonality is, is you're in the people business. What starts to happen though, is that Firstly, you realize you're spending other people's money so instead of them investing money with you to mean that they might be able to send the kids on vacation this year. You're they're spending money with you to help And get that promotion. So so what happens is the motivation in the individual that's responsible for making the purchase changes, that's the only thing that changes, you're still helping people. The other difference is, you've got to be aware that the procurement process is sometimes different that you're going to wait 90 days on invoice or that you have to then have more rigid procedures in your place when it comes to having things like your insurances, your contracts, your just your procedures in place to say that I'm going to play your game when it comes to getting paid in terms of doing the work, what doesn't change that much, just how you pay gets James. James Taylor So you talking about this moving into the sales piece, as those speakers once they can identify, you know, who do they serve? What problems they're solving for people as well. Where does it need to go? Where does it need to go next on that Phil M. Jones we're going to find yourself in conversations with people and what we must firstly understand is what selling really is and selling is earning the right to make a recommendation. What selling isn't is is isn't embellishing a product or service with features or benefits hoping something's going to stick. The mistake here is what people do is that they were looking for is we're looking to get validation that the problem that we believe that they have is a problem that is true to them, and then find credibility towards the fact that we might be the people to fix it. Take for example, a typical inbound inquiry for speaker, typically inbound inquiry for speaker. Isn't the phone ringing. It's a web contact form or an email coming in. And that email typically asked the same two questions. Number one is are you available number two is what you see. That's the typical kind of doesn't matter how it's flowered out. That's the typical inquiry that comes in. We're going to know the answers to those questions. And Firstly, we don't actually know the need to know the answers to those questions. Because who's the person who's in control of every conversation? James Taylor It should be you as the as the because you don't have almost no have enough information at that point? Phil M. Jones Yeah, the person who's in control of every conversation is the person who's asking the questions. So what happens is when you get questions asked of you, if you want to gain control of that conversation, it isn't an answer that you need. What it is that you need is a question. Yeah. So the answer to the question isn't an answer at all is the question to the question. That's what we should be looking to better think about. Okay. So inquiry comes in and says, Are you available? What's your fee? What the typical response is, is yes, hell yes. I'm definitely available and what's your budget? That's what many people come back with, which is the worst thing we could do. Something every speaker needs to know for certain is their fee. What is your fee? Now I don't care what that number is. But you need to know that you have a thing or not, you're prepared to accept whatever you can get. What is it you place a value of your time in now you might get paid different numbers to that fee, but you've got to know at every given period of time, what your fears. I also don't want you necessarily to disclose this at this point in time inquiry. He comes in, what I would like to do is to respond to that inquiry using a different means of communication to the one in which the inquiry came in. So if the inquiry comes in via an email, my first response would be via telephone, I'd be calling them myself, because I want to be seen as demonstrably different to every other person that they have put a an application out towards. So I would respond, my words would be something along the lines of it's just a quick call. Why would I say it's just a quick call, because I don't want to get into the meat of the discussion right now. Thank you so much for your inquiry coming in. I've checked my schedule. And as I can see, right now, I do have some availability on that date. I'm happy to be able to place it on hold for you. But answer me this Just tell me what is it about me in my work that makes you think that I might be the right fit for this kind of event? James Taylor So I responded with a question what do they now do that providing more information to you as well and you're getting more nuance? Phil M. Jones Yeah, and I'm getting the whole backstory more often than not, they do my job for me. James Taylor So they start to almost tell you the things and you're sitting there, able to able to speak that but actually to speak This is what any good salesperson is doing. It kind of goes back to Dale Carnegie's, seek first to understand then be understood, Phil M. Jones same difference. And what we're doing is we're getting, we're getting some backstory on it. So I think it's remarkably important that we ask those kinds of questions of people. We can then go on to ask kind of ongoing questions. We can ask things like, so what's your experience of working with a paid professional speaker? James Taylor That's an interesting one, because that's, that's. And that's a very interesting one, because you're basically pulling it you mentioned earlier, they're just speaker's negative role models as well. So you're in their head, you're getting all the things that they really really dislike about working with speakers, Phil M. Jones I'm getting the whole thing but also just like the new ones, and I'm one of the world's leading experts when it comes to writing intelligent questions to avoid objections. It's like the thing that i doing any of my consulting work and I love it for fun. But that question there is what's your experience of working with pay professional speakers does a few things. Number one, it positions you as a paid professional speaker Yeah. The other thing is is you find out where you've been out with things in the past so they say things like well last year we booked someone so and we've had this person in the past etc, etc, etc. They want to have a conversation with you about money so you say well what have you paid your previous speakers? Now I get some form of benchmark if they choose to be able to tell me I haven't said what's your budget I've said What did you pay your previous speakers? What I can now say is I can say things while you're looking for this your speaker to be better or worse. They could say things well, hopefully better you could say well, would it be fair to say that you want it better than you've had before that it would make sense that you might need to pay a little more James Taylor you're having a very very different conversation there and and, and obviously, it was important that you switched modalities got switched mediums in terms of going from someone on email to going on the phone. I wonder about that question or that part there. Where you know, we hear more and more, maybe less on the CEOs but maybe on the on the event planners, maybe younger, they might you know, phone is not such a Big things. How do they feel when they get that call from you? Phil M. Jones More often than not, they feel great. I mean, I had one yesterday, right? So yesterday inquiry comes in via referral for a multi gig event across the US. Join email goes in, somebody might want to consider for the event is Phil Jones, response comes back. Thank you for the introduction. Phil, can you let us know some times that we might need to get together to have a conversation? What do I do? I pick up the phone. So I don't respond saying hey, sometimes meet my meet my assistant, Bonnie, I'll get something set up for you, etc. I respond with a phone call. Hey, Leah, it's Phil whenever an email dialog right now. I got 45 minutes before I go on stage in a second. And I thought I'd try and catch you right now without clogging up some future time. She says Well, that's great. Thanks for jumping on this. I wish more speakers would do this. Where am I in this negotiation. Now, James Taylor you're in a very strong position because you're set yourself apart once again, from all the other speakers that probably would just done an email response. Or unfortunately, we hear a lot of speakers that don't even respond as well. So you're, you're instantly at that top of that, that that line now, Phil M. Jones and I want the listeners in to understand something really important right now is there's nothing that I'm sharing today that will work with all of the people all the time. So it's not like oh, feel free to call and I try to call them and they didn't pick up or they didn't like it. That's a load of rubbish. It's this is stuff that works with more of the people more of the time, should you choose to apply it. So it's not for everybody. But what would happen if I didn't get to connect on that phone call? Well, I might shoot a quick email, I might do it deliberately from my phone. So it says sent from my iPhone on the bottom as opposed to with my six email signature. My response might be, hey, received your inquiry, just try to reach on the phone. Just so you know, I'm free between four and six this evening. And I'm going to be traveling to the airport on my way back from a gig it might be a great time for us to be able to connect, shoot me know if we can make that time work. So I'm moving out of that. Corporate piece and out of that scheduled formality rigidness and moving it towards a more friendly conversation and showing that I'm in on this too. And that they're going to have a conversation with the person as opposed to be pushed through the process. James Taylor And on that call, sometimes, if that email has come initially from let's say, not the final decision maker, let's say it's come from the persons organizing the conference. So you're calling back the person that has organized the conference, not as a decision maker, how are you? Are you are you trying to get onto that, get that decision maker then on the call after that, so that you can do that or you just happy to go with just the the person who is contacting you initially? Phil M. Jones Well, what you generally find in the speaking world is the decision maker is the person who's going to sign off on it, but that decision maker takes 95% of the influence over that decision from the person that you're speaking to. Okay, so, you know, they might not be signing off the purchase order or the check, etc. The event planner or the initial inquiry person is somebody who actually carries a huge amount of influence in that The minute I try to disregard the level of influence of that first person has and go over their head, I actually lose their support. So what I want to do is I want to train this person to have an effective conversation internally to mean that I'm the only choice. James Taylor So how do you do that? And when you're having one of the things that you want to ensure this person understands, and all that they're going to when they have that conversation with with their boss, then they can ensure that they're helping you in doing your job? Phil M. Jones Well, the things that I want to understand from them is not what they need to understand about me is I want to get them to have the confidence that I understand what they need. So what I'm looking at is, those series of questions again, is tell me what's your experience of working with a paid professional speaker in the past? So how many people you've got coming to the event? Is this the first time that you've done an event of this nature? What is the theme or the outcome that you're looking for? Tell me if somebody was also what could they deliver in this session for you right now that would mean that you would go away feeling them and Be proud of you choice. No, I'm asking series of questions that they get this other person to say, I understand your problem as well, if not better than you do. So there's no Let me tell you how freaking awesome I am. What there is, is let me discover and understand what it is you're looking for and see if that see if these fit is right. Now sometimes I go through this round of discovery with the client, and I'm like, I don't think I'm the right guy. Sounds to me, what you're looking for is somebody that's more like this. Would this be fair? Well, yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking for. All right, somebody you need to speak to is, yeah, would you welcome an introduction to somebody like that? Because I think they might be able to deliver your brief slightly better than I can. James Taylor So it's almost like what you're doing there is instead of going, this is me, I'm brilliant. Here's the problem. here's, here's, here's how I solve your problem. Here's how I deliver the solution. And then finally, you this your problem. You have basically flipped around the other side, you're focusing on one Your challenges, what's your problem? Finding out from then? Like, how has the waste of solute, solve that problem? Maybe not just the keynote, maybe there's other things that you can also be doing in terms of training and other stuff. And then finally, you're coming to yourself. Phil M. Jones It's got it's kind of flipped. And very rarely do I need to tell somebody about my ability to be able to train and deliver from the stage because they already knew that that's why they reached out to me in the first place. Yeah, that's we think about the way the world is right now. It's rare that somebody jumps into a conversation or reaches out to somebody or finds themselves considering a conversation with you, without them, having a look across your website, checking out your LinkedIn profile, watching a video or two. They understand that you've got something about you. What they're looking for is, is Do you understand the problem that we have? And do you feel that you've got the ability within your toolkit to go out and be able to do over deliver in this environment? Is that something you feel confident about? And I've learned to walk away from more opportunities recently. Then Then try and force myself into something that isn't right. And the busier you get, you start to learn so I probably have room in my schedule for around 50 keynotes a year that limitation is fun because it means what I could do is I could be on stage in the wrong gig delivering the wrong message to the wrong audience. And okay Am I got paid and they might have been like a solid performance or I could have took that same day that same moment and made a real difference with people that really have a need and a requirement for the problem I solve and I could have had a blast, the day would have passed regardless so James Taylor one of the things that helps you do that is kind of going back to what we spoke at right at the start is your belt that base so that you can you're having those conversations from a position of of confidence of strength and feeling you can you can walk away You don't have to be taking this if you're not the race speaker, they don't say I'm already speaking you may suggest someone else for example, but your if you didn't have that base, it might feel you might feel okay, just Yes. Phil M. Jones You have to Yeah, and I've been there too in the past but and that's what taught me the importance of the bass. So I you know, every year I want to start every year saying my bills are covered. And and you know, I do 20 gigs a year with the same client year in year out, that isn't my dream work. It isn't like me doing the thing that I love. I just quite like it. Like I quite like it. I'm really good at it and it delivers a result. It isn't me living my dream. But it is me getting a regular recurring revenue coming in every month teaching teaching, teaching teaching, which allows me the freedom to go find the things that make my heart sing to make those decisions. James Taylor So when when you when we don't have too much time this because I'm conscious of your time just now as well. And when we start to you get on the gig itself and you get there to the to the place other other things that you're looking to do, when you're actually there to ensure that you really over deliver on outside of just that the keynote, there are other things that you're enjoying that you want to try and do there, Phil M. Jones there's a few things that I do is number one is I always like to get to my venue the day before the event. Like it's not always possible. And I want to see the room before I close my eyes. sounds stupid. But if I've seen the space that I'm going to work in, then what I've got is I've got some familiarity to how I'm going to use that room, how I'm going to work that room, what potential constraints could exist to me, I want to get there early, I want to shake the hands of the AV crew. I also do something that almost no speakers do. But I think for me is absolutely essential. And every time I do it, I get further positive reinforcement. That's the right thing to do. It doesn't matter what time I'm speaking, whatever that audience have heard that day. Ahead of my speech is imperative to me. So if I'm on at 4pm, I'm in that room from 9am fly on the wall at the back listening to everything was delivered before me. Because my job is to serve that audience not to deliver my speech. The mistake could happen is that if I deliver something out of context, but don't tie it back to something That was said by somebody else earlier, don't link those examples. I could be in conflict when in fact, so I'm actually saying the same thing from a slightly different angle. Yeah. And that is disservice to my audience. So I do that without fail ahead of time. I also plan how I'm going to utilize the stage. What am I doing in terms of props, I come on and off the stage, you know that I kind of actively work in audio. That James Taylor was one of the things I really enjoyed about your I mean, there's last thing I enjoyed about hearing you and seeing you speak before but one of the things that I thought made a really big impact in the room was that you were you were moving around, you were having that and it feel much more interactive. And you you were going and spending time with an individual person in the room having that conversation. The whole room was then transfixed on you having that that conversation with that person. Phil M. Jones Yeah, so that requires prep, too. So what I might need to do is I might need to find the types of personalities in that room that if I'm going to pick on somebody individually, how do I get the right Love energy or vibe? Or do I see somebody as a as a strong influencer, particularly in a smaller room that I think will if I can sway that person and get engagement from them then I'll change the energy in the whole room. How am I going to map if I'm going to work through a set of tables or down some some rows and alleys etc? Where is my safe places to walk? Have I tested the microphone towards any potential feedback spots with speaker systems etc? What am I doing to be other than get back onto the stage because that could be Crikey embarrassing, like I jump off the stage, realizes no steps, and I've got to get back on elegantly in some way. And I I live in this fear of rip in the back of my trousers or pants, and that being the thing that I get remembered for so I I try and mitigate any any kind of risks there. And what I'm looking at is a really simple principle is that I always want to control my controllables there's so much stuff that you're at sea with so much stuff that you rely on your experience you rely on being able to be in the moment. And the more that you control your controllables in your performance, the more you can actually find freedom and enjoyment in the delivery of your performance. Because what you've done is you've anchored down everything you possibly could do to allow you to be able to bring your true brilliance in the moment. James Taylor So on that control your controllables wasn't your speaker bag, what is in that bag that you carry with you to all of your speaking engagements that you'd never, never leave home without, Phil M. Jones um, I have three slide clickers. Because I'm always fearful of one guy and wrong. Replacement batteries. I have two versions of every adapter that I could possibly ever need. If I need my slides to go on. I have photographs of my passport in case I ever lose it. I have multiple thumb drives with presentation decks on them as well as the things that I've sent across. I carry throat coat tea. I carry entertain the secret to be able to lubricate my throat sometimes if I'm struggling a little bit on the road I carry airborne or Baraka, you know like the vitamin things in order to be able to take care of my health when I travel what else is in my bag and extra extra charges I got this great little charger In fact I was gonna show it to you where it's like a portable pack that has multiple USBs in it as well and replaces the need to be able to put an outlet in the wall. So anything I can that I'm kind of gadget like, like mad it can save me save me time. In fact, I got this little thing as well I bought the other day this is kind of super cool. So this is like an outlet and then it's multiple USBs and things so if I want to work on a plane, instead of having like something plugged in somewhere I can plug this little thing in that doesn't fall out that then allows me to better plug multiple things in on my desk when I'm traveling and compression socks to make sure that I don't like lots of stuff to be able to make sure I'm still healthy on the road. Yeah, more Other than delivering the performance, thank you cards. And then I have a bag full of thank you cards, because there's always people I meet on the road. And I want to say thank you to. And I carry stamps for both of us in the UK with me at all given times to if I want to mail something to somebody. James Taylor And what about apps? Is there any particular apps, online tools, online resources, you find really useful for yourself as a speaker, Phil M. Jones I guess probably the biggest resource for me as a speaker outside of all the ones that you're going to hear from everybody else is I use an app called I talk. And I talk is a voice recording app that directly syncs up with Dropbox. And sometimes if I'm working on a new bit, or I'm playing with the idea of a new opening, or perhaps even that I want to take a recording of my own speech, then sometimes what I do is I I run I talk recording in my in my pocket, or I talk into ahead of time, and then what I've got is it is an audio file of my speech. Some of the things I can then do with that is if I deliver something that I really liked, but I didn't know what he was I've got the audio track to better go back to I'll then push that through rev calm. Yeah. And rev.com is a transcription service. There's lots of others out there. And I'll rip out the the transcription word dot play with that, dial it up. Now sometimes I'll get blog articles from there. Sometimes it's just for my own reference. And you'll know what it's like as a speaker. Sometimes you do something in the moment, and it's brilliant. But you can't remember what you did. James Taylor Yeah, yeah. Or there may be as a camera sitting up up there, fixed up to the back of the room. And the audio is lousy, because you don't have anything near you to be able to pick that up. Phil M. Jones Yeah. So so so the ability to be able to do that. And equally, you know, I'm often just dropping ideas into a talk for me just and I might have my headphones on while I'm walking through an airport and it's recording in the background. And I'm, I'm talking to myself about, you know, planning in a new opening. I do a lot of customized openings events, particularly given that I've listened to the whole session in the morning on the closing keynote. I'll read Work my opening, in order to be able to bring contrast or something has happened towards the rest of the event. And it kills because they realize this isn't a canned presentation yet, even though so much of it is structured, the ability for me to be able to create a level of tailoring in is is something that event organizers really enjoy. James Taylor What that book is there one particular book, you would recommend not one of your own books as Yeah, I've got your book. And it's I'm actually starting to go through your book just now. And I would say of this summit, if there was a one book that was recommended more than any other book, it's actually been your book this year. speakers, which is a great testament to you. So that's exactly exactly what to say Phil M. Jones or exactly how to sell James Taylor exactly what to say. Yeah, exactly what to say. So if it was one book, we're gonna have links to your book here as well. If there's one other book you would recommend to speakers or aspiring speakers, what would that book be? Phil M. Jones I think there's a book that everybody should read. And it's a book called the coaching habit by Michael bungay stanier. Yeah. And it's a really short and easy read. It's meant with the purpose of helping busy managers, so Have more effective coaching, coaching conversations. But the brilliance in that book is just about having more effective meaningful conversations there is there is links towards sales language in that that it was never intended to be. But often what we're looking to do with our clients is to coach them into doing what it is that we would like to be able to do or to coach them into seeing that we're the right choice not to tell them and Michael's book there, I think it opens up, maybe the ability to look at something that you've previously seen as something you might deliver to your clients, but learn to how you can use it to have more effective conversations to get more of what you want. That would be maybe a random but useful recommendation. This James Taylor is a great book. I had Michael on the on the podcast A while ago. And actually, if anyone is thinking about releasing a book and be as an author, his description of how he launched that book is fascinating because he didn't go the traditional route, especially in the marketing so it's worth just checking out but we'll put a link in here but guys a great book. So a final question. For you, let's imagine you woke up tomorrow morning. And you have to start from scratch. So you have all the skills, all the tools that you've acquired over the years. But no one knows you, you know, no one, what would you do? How would you restart Phil M. Jones a self hosted event that that fixes the problem I know that exists within my locality. And, and I would charge for that event. So I take the skill that I'm good at, I find groups of people who can make quick decisions. And I'd go back to where I very first started. And when it comes to being able to host a live event, then what you do is you take the problem that exists. So let me talk you through the exact language pattern here. So I wrote a sales training workshop that helps independent business owners to get a train out of a recession. I'd ask a series of questions to people like me, and I'd network like crazy to better filters. First question would be How's business? Everybody says business, you know, yeah, that's good. So So I follow up with another question. It's not really a question. I just phrased it as a question. The question I'd ask is the word really And I said, Well, you know, what things could you know, things could always be better? I'd say, Well, what kind of things are you doing right now in order to be either improve or grow your business? And you know, they'd say, No, no law. I'd say how open minded would you be to running through a program and spending a day together for us to better learn some new skills you could put into practice that might help you improve your business from where it is right now? Let's say Yeah, sounds good. That say, well, when is it? I'd say, What do you free the 24th of April? that say, Well, I'm not so sure yet. I'd say what are you free on all? This? Oh, no, I could probably be free. I'd say great. Well, I'm running a one day workshop. And these are the details. Let me get your pencil in and out, go out and have those conversations. And the thing that everybody needs to remember is that questions, create conversations, conversations, build relationships, relationships, create opportunities and opportunities lead to sales. Everybody goes looking for sales, what we should be looking to do. Where can we ask questions of the type of people that we'd like to help? So the same thing that happens here, right is that say, for example, that you know who it is that you want to serve back to the point that we made earlier on? How can you get into a position where you're asking questions of those people? Because those questions were great conversations will build relationships as relationships, great opportunities and opportunities will lead to sales. could be as simple as a workshop could be as simple as something like what you're doing here where you're interviewing experts, that you could start asking questions of the experts that you'd like to be able to serve. And chances are, then that will result in you having some conversations, building some relationships, create some opportunities, and making some sales James Taylor asking better questions. I love that. I love that idea. And where should people go if they want to learn more about you? We've spoken about some of the books here as well, where's the best place? Where's your central hub for all that? Phil M. Jones I'm PhilJones.com is my website. That's the site that you talked about earlier on. And from there, you can find all of my social channels you can link out to any of the other stuff that we do and and I love to hear people when they put things into action, so come find me on LinkedIn or Twitter or my Facebook page, any of those things. Tell me what you'd like. Tell me what you put into practice. Tell me what's worked. And I'll answer your questions. If your questions relate to something you've tried, and you want to learn how to do it better. If you're asking questions about something you haven't had to go out yet, have it go in at first, then I'll give you some time. James Taylor Awesome. Well, first of all, a pleasure speaking to you again, I love the work that you do. I think you do. You're doing some amazing, amazing, cool things just now. I look forward to getting a chance to hear you again on stage really soon and catching up. So thanks so much for coming on today. Phil M. Jones You're welcome, James. Thanks, everybody for listening. Real pleasure. James Taylor Today's episode was sponsored by speakers you the online community for speakers and if you're serious about your speaking career then you can join us because you membership program. I'll speak as you members receive private one on one coaching with me hundreds of hours of training content access to a global community to help them launch and build a profitable business around their speaking message and expertise. So just head over to SpeakersU.com to learn more Website: www.philmjones.com More of Phil M. Jones Learn More About SpeakersU #speakerslife #speakersU

Quote “I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes, several attack me all at once.” -Ashleigh Brilliant Welcome to the Sensory Strides podcast. Observations of the world through activity, reading, listening, and everything else. 52 Hike Challenge – Join us! There are free challenges and lots of swag you can buy. https://www.52hikechallenge.com/?rfsn=3543491.754f73&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=3543491.754f73 #52hikechallenge2020 Last week I was in the depression bubble again and really struggled to come out of it. I was not feeling successful at work, but I knew it was more than that and couldn’t pull myself into a more positive mindset. So instead, I gave into it and ate more food than normal, didn’t give full attention to my other podcast, and sat in front of the tv. By Friday night I had enough tv and choose instead to indulge in reading. I finished 4 books over the weekend. By last night I was beginning to feel slightly better and when I woke up today, I felt ready to face others again. I am still struggling with balancing what is acceptable to me in going out in public and what others are doing. Prior to the pandemic, Sunday was truly a day devoted to God. I would go to Mass, then we would go to my husbands church where he would teach Sunday school, then have church there, come home, have lunch, and then head back out in the evening for Bible study. My church opened last weekend and I am not even considering going yet and am instead continuing to watch livestream Masses. My husband’s church opened yesterday. He went, but I stayed home. Even in church, I am not ready to trust other people’s willingness to keep everyone healthy quite yet. On Saturday, I decided I was ready to attempt a small step back into the world. I recently purchased a standing desk converter. However, the table I was using it on didn’t really work. I decided to go to some local furniture thrift stores to see if I could find something that would work. I figured that either there would be way too many people and I just wouldn’t go in or there wouldn’t be anyone I would need to worry about and be able to keep my safe space. On my way to the next town over and the first potential stop, there was a small subdivision with a series of garage sales. I drove through and one of the houses had a desk in the middle of the driveway that looked just about like what I wanted. I stopped and the desk was fairly wobbly, but I could tell it would be easier to reinforce with some brackets underneath to stabilize. I got the desk for $7. I brought it home and my husband and I were able to easily take it apart into its pieces – legs, sides, and top separate. We glued it back together and cinched it with a strap overnight. The next day the desk didn’t wobble at all and is perfect for the desk converter. I think this project also helped my mental state. Thanks for joining me. Be sure to check our show notes for links to inspiration items and … don't forget to stop and smell the roses. Find us on Social Media Facebook fb.me/sensorystrides Twitter @sensorystrides Instagram @sherylmrobinson

The bright Moon is getting ready to run a gauntlet in the pre-dawn sky – a gauntlet of three planets. The planets align to the left of the Moon at first light tomorrow. The Moon will move past them over the following mornings. The Moon is in its waning gibbous phase for the next few days. That means that sunlight illuminates more than half of the hemisphere that faces our way, but not the whole hemisphere. The word “gibbous” comes from a Latin word that means “hump.” It indicates that the Moon looks like it has a hump on its back. Over the next few days, though, the hump will be getting smaller – where the “waning” part of the title comes in. Tomorrow, the Moon will be about 80 percent full – the Sun will light up 80 percent of the lunar disk. For the following few days, though, that fraction will drop by about 10 percent per day. By Friday, only about 40 percent will be in sunlight. At that point, the Moon will be in its waning crescent phase. The crescent will grow thinner until the Moon disappears in the dawn twilight. Watch the Moon as it grows thinner over the next few mornings – and passes by a beautiful array of planets. The brightest of the three worlds is Jupiter, the brightest object in the sky at that time other than the Moon. It’s to the left of the Moon tomorrow. Saturn stands close to the left of Jupiter, with orange Mars a good distance to their lower left. We’ll have more about the Moon and Jupiter tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield

The resurrection is crucial to Christianity. Calling people to embrace Jesus, the risen King is the central topic of Apostolic preaching and writing. Last week, Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna!” He was treated like a king. But by Thursday night he was being arrested, mocked, and beaten. By Friday morning the Romans were scourging and crucifying him. Easter or Resurrection Sunday transitions from Christ's humiliation to exaltation. No longer the crucified King, The post Worship Christ, the Risen King appeared first on Grace Clovis Presbyterian Church (PCA).

The resurrection is crucial to Christianity. Calling people to embrace Jesus, the risen King is the central topic of Apostolic preaching and writing. Last week, Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna!” He was treated like a king. But by Thursday night he was being arrested, mocked, and beaten. By Friday morning the Romans were scourging and crucifying him. Easter or Resurrection Sunday transitions from Christ’s humiliation to exaltation. No longer the crucified King, […] The post Worship Christ, the Risen King appeared first on Grace Clovis Presbyterian Church (PCA).

It’s Holy Week. Jesus enters Jerusalem with joyful celebration on Palm Sunday. By Friday, his people will have turned him over to power-hungry authorities—religious leaders and government officials—to be put to death. After three days, he will rise.Mark 10:32-34 (ESV): Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, 33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”Isaiah 53:1-5 (ESV)1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground;he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

TGIF. Usually Friday marks the end of a busy week at work or school, running errands, transporting kids, keeping appointments, etc. By Friday, everyone is anticipating some down time at home and looking forward to sporting events, date nights, parties and church services to name just a few fun things. Over the course of several weeks it has become difficult to even realize it is Friday. Most people are (hopefully) staying at home and limiting contact with others and all those out and about activities are cancelled until further notice. COVID-19 has turned the world on its end and anything that was “usual” is likely to be changed. Those changes affect all of us differently. For some, life is now at a slower pace, while for others, the pace has ramped up to crazy levels. Many are experiencing stress like they never have before. This is a heavy load to bear and we are all in it together. It will get better, but it is not going to go away quickly. Even when it does, things will probably not be exactly like they were before.It is easy for those who remain healthy to focus on the many inconveniences and disappointments that we are suffering. For many it is much more than that, as they are dealing with being laid off, not knowing how they will pay their next bill or caring for those who have become sick, or worse, due to this virus. I fully realize that some individuals do not have the luxury to be thinking about if their family is eating around the table together or exercising together. But as your “Wine-Loving Dietitian”, personal trainer and accountability coach I am going to do my part towards helping the world by doing what I do best. I want to give you inspiration to keep healthy habits at the top of your priority list, so you get through this unusual, crazy, difficult time without losing all the beautiful momentum that you have worked so hard to build.Now is a great time to embrace the Directioning Not Perfectioning mindset. Our barriers have changed and are continuing to change. I love that my kids are home now. They are fun to be around, homeschooling has even been a pleasant surprise, but my kid focus is trumping all… trumping my workouts, my communication time, my client time and podcasting creativity! A huge part of my problem is that I usually get a lot of my inspiration by listening to others through podcasts, sermons, etc… all currently not happening how they used too. I am having to “Direction not Perfection” my way through my days and you can do the same.We need to give ourselves permission and grace … allowing ourselves to lay our head down at night and be proud because we did the best we could for that day, for these circumstances. We could also take this time to build insight… build gratitude… and strengthen our relationships with those around us.Surprising Benefits of Being Quarantined:1. More time with family. We can jokingly complain about all being stuck together or we could take this time to pour love onto our family and let them know how much we love them. Pull out the board games, fire up the family TV shows, hit the living room couches and everyone grab your favorite book! My DNP example here is that you don’t have to look like the Brady Bunch or Leave it to Beaver. Your time won’t look perfect, but it will never be wasted. Remember, we are only human and it’s ok if tears or yelling happen because sometimes. that’s just life!2. Dinner can be at the table every night! No sports, no crazy amounts of schoolwork. My DNP part of this is that eating around the table doesn’t necessarily have to be around the table. It could be on the couch (all together). It could be a picnic outside. The food might not be perfectly healthy… the point is, its together and making it happen.3. You now have time for cooking. You can investigate recipes and have fun in the kitchen. The DNP here is not to get caught up in crazy detailed recipes or super healthy recipes… use this time to build the enjoyment of being in the kitchen. You can even pull the kids in to help.4. Walks with the family. The DNP here is that happy movement will look different for everyone! You could call and check on a friend while walking or you could throw in a workout DVD and escape to a different room for some alone time.5. Saving money, catching up on reading, spring cleaning, enjoying kids’ activities online, pets loving all the interaction… and everyone’s lists go on!!6. Create your own list of surprising benefits.Resources:www.healthaccountabilitycoach.comwww.facebook.com/houselifestyles

You love your work, and you can’t wait to get started! But somehow, the day never goes as planned. You get derailed by low-leverage tasks, and half the time you don’t start your big project until after lunch. By the end of the day, you realize you’ll have to finish up at home. By Friday, you’re totally exhausted—and still not done!  Nobody knows rollover like we know rollover. After more Saturdays at the office than we care to remember, we’ve found a way to end the rollover problem once and for all. You can do that by bookending your day with workday startup and shutdown rituals.  When you do, you’ll finally quit leaving the office with a laptop full of take-home work. You’ll get your margin back and be more productive than ever before. In this episode you will— Find out why you never seem to “get finished” for the day.  Learn the best way to stop rolling tasks over to the next day.  Understand how the never-ending to-do list is undermining your productivity. Identify the simple fallacy that causes us to take on too much work.  Gain the simple trick that will help you start and stop work in a controlled way.  Start to feel a sense of completion at the end of the day. This episode of Focus on This is brought to you by Compass, a monthly program to help Full Focus Planner users stay on track with their goals. Learn more at leadto.win/compass.

“I'm not sure if you feel things the way I do,” she said. “I feel everything.” I was twenty-one, she was twenty-three. The window looked out at a brick wall in my Lower East Side apartment. “I have emotional needs, and you're buried in your books and your work. You can see me.” That was how it started on a Sunday afternoon. By Friday, I was helping her load CDs and tattered books into the trunk of a taxi. My first big breakup. Need to know more? Probably not. You've probably lived some version of this yourself, maybe more than once.  The quality of our lives are very much defined by the quality of our relationships, and that person next to you in bed is the most important relationship of all. So how are you doing with that? Do you have a plan? Are you growing or just getting by? Like most of us, it's probably a work in progress. On this week's podcast, you'll meet relationship expert Maya Diamond shares her experiences from her field work.    Listen and learn:  How to determine and establish values and standards - and hold yourself to them Why emotional responsiveness is crucial to a lasting partnership Why men and women often express desires differently, but ultimately seek the same thing  How to navigate online connections, text messages, and modern technologies in your love life  Links & Resources:  Maya's website About Our Guest:  Maya is a Dating and Relationship Coach. She is also a YogaTeacher and Massage Therapist. She has a great TEDx talk you can find online, she holds a Master's in Somatic Psychology.  Nutritional Tip of the Week: Maca Got Questions? Send me a voicemail here: Ask Lucas a Question Or write to us: podcast@yogabody.com  Like the Show? Leave us a Review on iTunes

On Thursday, Haryana ended with a hung assembly with the ruling party BJP emerging with 40 seats but still six short of the halfway mark needed to form the next government. The split verdict triggered hectic political activity with two independents, the infamous Gopal Kanda and Ranjeet Singh boarding flights to Delhi for a meeting with BJP leadership.  By Friday afternoon, things had progressed quite a bit with the independents pledging their support to BJP thereby paving way for Khattar-led BJP party to stake claim to form the government again. The Congress won 31 seats, the Jannayak Janta Party won 10 seats in its maiden elections and the Indian National Lok Dal and Haryana Lokhit party one each. Aam Aadmi Party which contested 46 seats was completely decimated. Eight ministers of the state cabinet lost the elections and only 2 out of 10 ministers who were fielded by the BJP will be returning to the state assembly. The Suno India Show reached out to Ajoy Ashirwad, Deputy Editor of The Wire who has extensive political reporting experience to understand more what the Haryana results mean for the BJP and for the future of Congress party led by Bhupinder Hooda in Haryana. For more stories like this, you can listen on www.sunoindia.in. Also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

Flash Flood and Fire Weather Threats Out West. Thunderstorms may continue to produce heavy rainfall and localized flash flooding across portions of the Desert Southwest. To the north, dry and windy conditions will lead to critical fire weather conditions across parts of Wyoming. By Friday, the focus turns to the central Plains and Midwest where severe thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, and flooding are forecast. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/xtremeweather/support

Leaders like to plan their work and work their plan. The problem is that real-life gets in the way. Interruptions, distractions, and unforeseen problems can make a trainwreck of your week even before it leaves the station. By Friday, you can feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and wonder, “What did I really accomplish?” There’s got to be a better way to plan your week.   Well, there is! And we can teach it to you. We’ve seen our share of Monday to Friday chaos, and we’ve developed a simple system that lets you take control of your week and ensure that you stay focused.  Try these next-level strategies, and you’ll finally escape the sickening feeling of never getting anything done. You’re going to start loving Mondays again! Don’t miss out on the free download that goes along with this episode, the Perfect Progress Checklist. It’s a simple tool to tuck inside your Full Focus Planner to kick your weekly planning into high gear. Get yours now.  Your Friends Need This We’ll bet you have at least one friend who really needs these tips on weekly planning. Why not help them out by texting a link to this episode right now?  You can also share it on your favorite social media platform. Just click one of the links in the sidebar and use the hashtag #leadtowin.  Resources from This Episode The Quick Win Full Focus Planner  “Self-Care as a Leadership Discipline”  by Michael Hyatt The Perfect Progress Checklist 

This week was dominated by news of the Mueller report, which was delivered to Attorney General William Barr last Friday, but has yet to be given to Congress or the American people. On Sunday, AG Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress, which he characterized as a “summary” of the Mueller report, but later in the week, in a second letter, wrote it “did not purport to be, an exhaustive recounting of the Special Counsel's investigation or report” which was revealed to be nearly 400 pages long. Barr's Sunday letter said that Mueller did not find evidence Trump or his campaign knowingly colluded with Russia, but on obstruction of justice charges, Mueller did not render an opinion. Barr and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein however concluded not to proceed with criminal charges, and Trump instantly weaponized the information to falsely claim he was fully exonerated, and pivot to attacking Democrats and the media, with the help of his allies. The media was caught on its heels, as some of the initial reporting incorrectly cited the Mueller report, including the front page of Monday's New York Times. Trump aides who had been jailed or investigated by Mueller's team were given media opportunities to declare themselves as victims of an overaggressive prosecutor. By Friday, bowing to public pressure, Barr in a second letter said he would release a redacted version of the Mueller report by mid-April or sooner. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-124/

On Monday Jim Goetz woke up a healthy young man. He trained to be in the best shape of his life and preparing for an upcoming elite Spartan race. He was not training to finish, he was training to win. By Wednesday, Jim was fatigued and Thursday was exhausted with a high fever and darkness around his elbow. By Friday the darkness had spread to his hand and shoulder.  Jim Goetz was admitted to Bayshore Community Hospital and found himself in a race now for time to keep his arm and life. Over the next few days, Jim underwent extensive testing and high doses of antibiotics. This podcast encapsulates the true story of racing for fun to racing for life.    Functionised Podcast Show Notes  Instagram Facebook Do you have questions or comments? Leave your reply below and we will reply.   Functionised Integrative Therapeutics is located in Colts Neck, NJ. It is a fully integrative health practice with services ranging from chiropractic, wellness coaching, functional nutrition, body fat loss, sports performance, baseline concussion testing, concussion treatment, balance testing and treatment, laser therapy, soft tissue treatment, massage therapy and home of the ARX Fit (Give us 15 minutes and we will give you a lifetime of health).

This is going to be an emotionally honest episode, because I went into it feeling both motivated and excited, but also somewhat defeated.  On the one hand, it's the start of a new quarter. And during our team meeting yesterday, we talked about new objectives, new processes, and all of those great “turning over a new leaf” feelings. The kind of stuff that makes you feel refreshed and ready to take on the world. On the other hand, the end of last quarter, which concluded last Friday, ended in… well, failure. Quite a bit of it. And I was still emotionally licking my wounds. It was a shame, too, because, in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the end of the quarter, I was energized about what I was working on. I felt positive about it. But then, on Tuesday, things began to unravel.  By Friday evening, I felt like I had just survived a Michael Bay movie. (Unfortunately, not in the, "I saved the world!" kind of way. In the, “My home that I just remodeled was blown up by aliens or evil robots from space,” kind of way.) But the point of this episode is not to rehash those nitty gritty details -- that's not healthy or productive. Plus, don't let this temporary dip fool you; I didn't choose the agency life because I wanted to do something easy.  Plus, it's failure. We've all failed in some way or another. We've all been there. I know this because we're drowning in think pieces on Medium, Inc., Fortune, and every other rag that caters to entrepreneurs about how failure is a necessary pre-requisite to success. Failure has been re-branded and romanticized to the point where we've forgotten how much it can really hurt. So, that's what we're talking about this week. How you emotionally pick yourself back up, dust yourself off, and get back on the horse. Because it's not always as easy as it seems.

By Friday of this week I hadn't heard from Bruce and, knowing that there was some fiercely cold weather in the region, I was starting to get a little concerned for him. I needn't have worried. He's about as prepared as a man could be for this journey and eventually got through to me at lunchtime on Friday. In the meantime, I had spoken with his lovely daughter, Brooke. She has spent the previous weekend with her father on his journey and they had had a blast. You can see from the photos that Bruce sent me that he's certainly needed his microspikes, with the snow turning to ice and giving him tricky conditions underfoot. The really great thing is that he is having a blast, learning as he progresses, and his gear is working out for him. Make sure you catch up with Bruce's blog at rtkchallenge.com and check out the great trail food options from our sponsor, Trailtopia.  

I speak for both Andy and myself when I say it is a pleasure to be back and we are going weekly!! By Friday 7pm (UK Time) you can expect a new YAP episode!... But anyways:   In the this episode Andy finally jumps on the hype train I created by playing Yakuza 0 along with PUBG (including a lengthy debate with me as I have also played it thanks to him) and Naruto... which suprised me. As for me, I have been playing a lot of my Switch, the Sea of Thieves closed beta and Dragon Ball FighterZ!

The racist press parade continues this week with Trump's "infrastructure" press conference on Tuesday. By Friday, scabby Steve Bannon is tagged as the official white supremacist scapegoat, and subsequently fired. Julie and Brandy celebrate (?) the ousting of Bannon while mourning any semblance of hope they had left. Toss one back with the girls for all the (non)homies that are gone, along with all of their dignity! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, you download a new productivity app. On Tuesday, you load it up with all the tasks you need to accomplish. By Friday? You’ve abandoned that list - and you’re in the market for the next new app that’s sure to change your life. That’s why Amir Salihefendic, the founder and CEO of the productivity startup Doist, says his company is out to solve a psychological problem, not a product problem.

In chess, the Endgame is the third and final phase of the game. At this point, most of the pieces have been cleared from the board. The outcome of the game draws closer with every move. Each king begins his final march, hoping that the victory will be his. The only question that's left is which king will emerge victorious? Which king will win in the Endgame? In Luke 19, we read the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is the event that kicks off the final week of His life. More than that, it's the event that sets His Endgame into motion. Over the course of the next week, most of the pieces will be cleared from the board. The end of His life will draw nearer with every passing step. By Friday, the King will be dead. But, what no one could have expected was that the King had one final move to make. Selected Quotes: "Everything that happened to Jesus was part of the plan. It was foretold years in advance. God knew what needed to happen. He was still on His throne." "God redeemed the cross. He took this symbol of death and turned it into a symbol of life. If He can do that – if He can redeem the cross – then He can use anything in our lives." "The resurrection, though incredible, is not unbelievable. There are reasons for faith. There is evidence we can trust. The resurrection was an actual, historical event that offers proof to the doubting."

In chess, the Endgame is the third and final phase of the game. At this point, most of the pieces have been cleared from the board. The outcome of the game draws closer with every move. Each king begins his final march, hoping that the victory will be his. The only question that's left is which king will emerge victorious? Which king will win in the Endgame? In Luke 19, we read the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is the event that kicks off the final week of His life. More than that, it's the event that sets His Endgame into motion. Over the course of the next week, most of the pieces will be cleared from the board. The end of His life will draw nearer with every passing step. By Friday, the King will be dead. But, what no one could have expected was that the King had one final move to make. Selected Quotes: "Jesus ended the separation between God and men." "Have you ever felt betrayed? Have you ever had one of your friends turn on you? Jesus has been there." "Have you ever felt let down? Have you felt like the people in your life just aren't coming through? Jesus has been there." "Have you ever felt falsely accused? Felt like people are judging you unfairly? Jesus has been there."

In chess, the Endgame is the third and final phase of the game. At this point, most of the pieces have been cleared from the board. The outcome of the game draws closer with every move. Each king begins his final march, hoping that the victory will be his. The only question that's left is which king will emerge victorious? Which king will win in the Endgame? In Luke 19, we read the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is the event that kicks off the final week of His life. More than that, it's the event that sets His Endgame into motion. Over the course of the next week, most of the pieces will be cleared from the board. The end of His life will draw nearer with every passing step. By Friday, the King will be dead. But, what no one could have expected was that the King had one final move to make. Selected Quotes: "Everything that happened during Passover was just a whisper of something to come." "Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover feast!" "Jesus is pointing us toward the truth that he is the ultimate fulfillment of this meal." "When Jesus sits down to share in this meal with His disciples, He is about to provide the ultimate exodus from the tyranny of sin and death." "When we gather around the table, we’re remembering the historical reality of the Good Friday events." "One of the ways that eternity is described through the Bible is as a feast."

In chess, the Endgame is the third and final phase of the game. At this point, most of the pieces have been cleared from the board. The outcome of the game draws closer with every move. Each king begins his final march, hoping that the victory will be his. The only question that's left is which king will emerge victorious? Which king will win in the Endgame? In Luke 19, we read the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is the event that kicks off the final week of His life. More than that, it's the event that sets His Endgame into motion. Over the course of the next week, most of the pieces will be cleared from the board. The end of His life will draw nearer with every passing step. By Friday, the King will be dead. But, what no one could have expected was that the King had one final move to make. Selected Quotes: "The final week of Jesus’ life doesn’t begin with this happy flannel graph parade. It begins with controversy. It begins with an act of war." "Its not about you. Jesus brought you here. He gave you talents. He gave you opportunities. It’s not yours. It’s not about you." "We may want God to be kind and loving, but we need Him to be just. We need Him to set things right."

As a kid, I loved the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle book series. It featured a magical and resourceful lady who lived with all her children in an upside down house. When money was tight for Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, she would send all of her kids through the house to find hidden treasures. That story stuck with me from the moment I read it. As a kid, I felt ready for any moment when money came up short—I’d just go on a treasure hunt! Does it surprise you to learn that my perspective hasn’t changed, even now that I’m an adult? What's more, I no longer wait for the “running out of money” moment before I set out on a treasure hunt. Not when I have a five-step treasure map that leads me right to the gold. As an entrepreneur, there are going to be times when cash is tight. It’s natural for you to feel the squeeze when you’re just starting out. Even after your business has liftoff, you might feel strapped from time to time. Or maybe you are looking at investing in some kind of new business tool or business opportunity and you need a little cash before you do so. Running your business means living through cycles of financial growth and…dormancy, shall we say? If that’s where you find yourself now, these hidden money opportunities will definitely speak to you. I’m going to reveal five very specific hidden money opportunities that I’ve used in my own business to bring quicker cash flow. The key to a good treasure hunt is knowing you have gold hiding somewhere. And you do! Let’s go on a treasure hunt together, and find the places where your gold is hiding. Opportunity #1: Finish Your Online Training Program You might have an online training program, nearly finished, waiting in your digital library. Maybe you've tinkering with it, fine-tuning the details. Or maybe you just have a growing list of ideas for programs that you know have huge potential…once you finish them. So what are you waiting for? This not-quite-finished training program has money hiding under it. Seth Godin has a great term for this occasion: “Ship it!” It's the online marketing equivalent of Nike’s motivational slogan “Just do it.” Get your program out there. Don’t keep procrastinating under the "it's not finished yet" excuse. Instead, release it as a beta test, and get some feedback from people. As it happens, I’m doing that very thing right now, with a Facebook Ads program I created. Believe me, I understand the temptation to keep tinkering until your program feels ready to join the really “pro” trainings already out there. But that’s not where you need to start, especially if this is your first online training program. Start with something simple; call it your “introductory product.” Include a few videos, transcripts, maybe a PDF of your slide decks, some supporting documents, and that’s it. The point is to get it out there and get some feedback to develop your product, while at the same time creating a little buzz for yourself. If you’re ready to get aggressive about claiming this hidden money, set a completion date to get that online training program. Get it user-ready in 30 days. Take another 30 days after that to promote it. Then release. It doesn’t have to be a perfect or a huge launch. My Experience My business dramatically changed when I finally just got a product out there. It was a program to help authors launch their book online—it had nothing to do with what I ended up becoming known for. I just had some expertise in helping authors in this way, and knew that I had something to offer. I so wish I had released this training sooner! Once I put it out there, I got great feedback, learned a ton about my target audience…and found out that I didn’t love that topic enough to grow in that direction. Releasing that program was a huge help in moving forward with the business I really wanted. You’ll never move forward if you don’t get something out there. And you definitely won’t make any money from a program that’s never offered to the public. Need Help? It’s Free! Maybe you've never attempted to create an online training program. In that case, the “hidden money” doesn’t exist for you…yet. But if you're ready to start developing in this direction, I’ve created a free PDF giveaway that is just what you need. It’s called A Course Creation Starter’s Guide, and it's going to get you moving in the right direction for your program. This freebie is great even for those who are already working on online training programs. If you’re looking for some ways to be a little more efficient in how you deliver this program or how you create it, skip to the section called "The Seven Power Tools." This is something I use with every single online training program I create, and you can easily incorporate it into your existing workflow. EPISODE FREEBIE Get "A Course Creation Starter's Guide" FREE DOWNLOAD Listen to Episode 46 to get all the details on how to make the most of hidden treasure in your business. Opportunity #2: Do a Mini-Promotion and Make an Offer There are three ways you can access this hidden treasure: 1. Create A Webinar If you’re a regular follower of my content, you know about my love affair with webinars. Take it from me—they are a great way to build your business. And contrary to popular belief, creating them is neither overwhelming nor stressful. First, you choose an existing program, product or service and decide what you want to say about it. Spend some time outlining the content, bearing in mind how long you want this webinar to be. (My webinars typically last for about 90 minutes, and the first 45-60 minutes is me presenting my content.) Your goal is to teach participants something they can apply as soon as they walk away…and then offer your program, product or service for sale to anyone who wants a jump start on what you just taught them. Once you’ve determined what your content will be, focus on the way it flows inside your webinar. Get specific and strategic about how you move from content to a sales promotion. You don’t want to just put a bunch of text on a slide. Believe it or not, the kind of images and number of slides you use makes a huge difference in the number of conversions you get from your webinar. For example, 20 to 25 slides for a 60-minute webinar is not nearly enough. People get overloaded easily when there’s too much text on each slide. Overloaded people hit “pause” or start multi-tasking, and wander off. When you lose attention, you lose a lead. For a 60-minute webinar, you want at least 80 slides, each with minimal words on it, plus imagery. Your goal is to use your slides to simply punctuate your point; you don’t want your entire script on the slide. Keep your audience’s attention by constantly switching slides, and using great imagery and lots of it. (Note: avoid cheesy stock photos. There are some great sites out there where you can find really beautiful imagery. BigStockPhoto is my personal go-to.) Another part of creating good flow is aligning your content with your sales offer at the end. You’ll spend 45-60 minutes of your webinar on content; the final 15-20 minutes is when you transition into talking about your program, product, or service and what’s in it for them. A great way to make this transition is open up a Q&A session. For example, I’ll say “For the next 15 minutes I’m going to take some live Q&A,” and I have a few questions (and answers) ready, in case people aren’t jumping forward to ask questions. I also make it worth their while to take action now. I don’t want them to get off the webinar and think about it later. That’s why, in between questions, I’ll say “For the next 15 minutes, if you buy while we are on this webinar, you get this fast-action bonus.” This could be a cheat sheet, a checklist, anything related to what I just taught them. Finally, it is extremely important to follow your webinar with an email series. I typically send out a replay as my first email, linking to the webinar so they can watch it again, and ending with a pitch about the program I’m offering at the end of my webinar. After this, I send a series of three more emails, talking about the benefits of the program, giving case studies, showing them they can’t live without my program or product. See how that works? Believe it or not, this is something you can do within a week, especially if you already have a program or product you want to promote. You can do it all live, or you can do an automated version called “evergreen.” For this, you record the webinar in advance and then let people sign up for different dates and times. My favorite tools for live webinars are GoToWebinar or Google Hangouts. If you want to do an automated webinar, I use Evergreen Business Systems. I’ve also heard good things about Stealth Seminar. Right now, I'm running an ad for a free webinar called "7 Strategies to Get Your Business Up and Running on Facebook" and in it, in addition to offering 45 minutes of highly valuable content, I promote my Facebook 101 program, Jumpstart Your Facebook Marketing." If you want to see my webinar sequence in action, you can sign up for the webinar here. By using Facebook ads to promote it, this webinar is generating an average of $1,500 a day as well as helping me grow a very quality email list. Bottom line: webinars work really well. 2. Create a Live Mini-Training This is something you can truly do next week if you already have a program, product, or service ready. When I say “live” I don’t mean in person; it’s a live event. You “sell tickets,” record yourself doing a live event, then release the recording to buyers. You can do this alone, or with a partner. About a year ago, David Siteman Garland and I collaborated on a two-hour live training. Anyone who bought tickets could attend the event or simply receive the recording, along with a PDF of our slide deck and some support documents (cheat sheets, checklists, etc.). We spent a week creating the event. We both emailed our lists and promoted the training for another week. All told, the event made us about $70,000…all for just a couple weeks of work! 3. Set Up a 30-Day Challenge, Followed By an Offer The best kind of mini promo I know of is the “30-day challenge” variety, where you get people enrolled in a kind of movement with you. They opt in to go on this journey with you for 30 days, and then at the end you promote whatever it is you want to offer. Here are some highly successful examples I know about: Simple Green Smoothies:They do a 30-day challenge for creating a green smoothie every day for 30 days. They run Facebook ads to the challenge. They build up their list like rock stars. At the end, they promote an eBook or some kind of guide for smoothies. Money Love Challenge: My good friend Kate Northrup recently did this…not to sell something, but to start building her list with quality people that truly care about what she is putting out there. She had amazing success, with tons of engagement and a big opportunity to promote at the end. 30-day list-building challenge: My good friend, Natalie Lussier does this regularly. She uses imagery, hashtags, all of the stuff that gets people engaged and active in a way that’s fun for everyone. Opportunity #3: Creating a Four-Part Email Sequence That Leads to an Offer  You don't need a big list for this one to work. In fact, it’s better to try this one when your list is still small, because you’re going to get better and better at it as your list grows. These sequences consist of four emails that get sent over a short period of time. Your goal with them is to paint the picture of a challenge you know your audience is facing…the solution to which is, of course, your program. What makes this opportunity so powerful is that people on your list might have already received an opportunity to buy your program, but chose not to. After all, we all buy at different times, for different reasons. So don’t be afraid to put this out in front of people who have already seen your program promotion. This may be the moment when they make the decision. In the first email, you are easing people into the idea that there is a challenge and you have the solution. Get their attention by letting them learn something, and assure them that you are there to offer value. The emails that follow will be a little more aggressive in terms of selling the program—not in a spammy way, but demonstrating the features and benefits of your program. It’s going to help them do X. It’s going to solve problem Y. It’s going to take away stress and overwhelm around Z. Make the email about your audience, and tell the story of what will happen to them when they buy your program. Use case studies and examples, images, and screen shots from inside your program. Don’t be afraid to serve it up—these are not short emails with a link to your sales page. These are meaty emails that paint the picture. The final email is going to be the one that introduces scarcity. You can say that you are running a special promotion with a discount or free bonus when they purchase by a certain date. Make it very time-sensitive: “By Friday, this offer is going away. You are not going to get another opportunity to get this bonus when you purchase.” Click here to download this week's valuable freebie, "A Course Creation Starter's Guide." Opportunity #4: Offering Your Services to Your Audience Caveat: I’m not a huge fan of the service model of business if your goal is to create a more automated system. I am passionate about teaching you how to build a business that does not rely on trading your time for dollars. This is a temporary, special opportunity, offered to a small group on your email list. Choose a special skill or a knowledge base that you have, and create an opportunity to offer your time and services to this select audience for a premium. Again, this is temporary. This is not something that should take over your business and derail all your other projects in the meantime. This is a little bit on the back burner for some quick extra cash. Maybe you are a nutritionist and you can help people make a 30-day meal plan. Maybe you’re great at hacking website-building platforms and can offer your expertise to others. In my first two years of business, I set up an opportunity where I would review others’ Facebook marketing strategy. I would review people’s Facebook pages and profiles, interview them about how they were using Facebook, and about how their program or product came into play. Then I would create a report—I’d made a template for it, so it wouldn’t take me hours and hours. I would create the report to offer you insight in ways you could make your Facebook marketing better, how to brand your Facebook Page in a different way to get a bigger impact, all that good stuff. I knew Facebook so well that this didn’t take tons of time and energy. But it was really valuable to my audience. Taking on just a few of these projects per week provided instant revenue, in the midst of building my online training programs. Just think of your niche and decide what you can offer that help boost revenue for a short time as you get things going. Opportunity #5: Becoming an Affiliate to Somebody Else’s Program or Product I saved this one until the end because you can use it in tandem with Opportunities #1-4. Webinars, 30-day challenges, mini live promos, four-part email sequences…all those can all be used as an affiliate. You’ve heard of this before, I’m sure. But have you actually done it? Have you done it right? I have been an affiliate for many years for different programs and products. For instance, you’ve probably heard me talk about my B-School Bonus.  I am a proud member of B-School and I promote it any chance I get because I know it changes lives and businesses. This is a huge part of my affiliate revenue. I am also an affiliate of Lead Pages. They do amazing things and they have changed businesses quickly based on how easy their tool is. But I don’t let it take over my business and I definitely never want it to make more money than my own programs. The idea is to let it complement all of the stuff I am doing on my own. Three tips for smart affiliate marketing: 1. Believe in it. You have to have used the program or product you’re helping to market. You must know that it works, have your own results that you can talk about, and be so excited to sing its praises. You know you’ve made a good affiliate marketing partnership or connection when you tell everybody about it even if you’re not going to get money for it. 2. Build a funnel with your affiliate. Webinars, four-part email sequences, and mini trainings all work for this. For example, if you click here, you’ll find an affiliate promotion that I did a training for. I literally walk you through how to use Lead Pages. For B School, I have an entire B School bonus experience: five bonuses you can’t get anywhere else, including the live two-day event, including a special Facebook ads program, including my new webinar program that’s not even out yet. You only get this stuff in B School when you use my affiliate link. 3. Read this article My good friend, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, wrote a post on his blog “Smart Passive Income” called Five Ways to Unbox the Mystery and Increase your Affiliate Income. It’s a really smart strategy for affiliate marketing, especially for those just starting out. Definitely check that out, along with his other great article, How to Stop Hoping and Start Earning. One Final Tip These are all ways for you to find hidden money that can add to your cash flow. But an equally helpful action is to find the hidden places where you are losing cash. I can almost guarantee that you are paying for something right now that is not necessary to your success. We all have been guilty of this. To find the leak and make it stop, spend 20 minutes right now going through your latest credit card statement and checking account statement. Make a quick list of everything you are paying for monthly for your business: apps, tools, subscriptions, etc. Are you using everything you are paying for? If not, stop paying for it. You’ll instantly start saving cash. Voila! Instant money that you can start spending where it will actually work for you. EPISODE FREEBIE Get "A Course Creation Starter's Guide" FREE DOWNLOAD Make sure to listen to the entire episode for more tips and personal insights from my experience in hunting out hidden money opportunities. And don't forget to download this week's valuable freebie, "A Course Creation Starter's Guide" for creating your own online training programs. Click here to download it now.

Today is the Palm Sunday. It is the day Jesus entered Jerusalem to the cheers of the crowds laying down palm branches for his donkey to ride on. By Friday the crowds would turn against him.

Breana’s first birth was not only an emergency Cesarean at 24 weeks due to severe preeclampsia, but she was also given a classical incision and told that under no circumstances would her body be able to tolerate labor in the future. The news broke Breana’s heart as she longed deeply for a natural, unmedicated birth. Breana researched extensively and found a community of women who also had special scars. When birthing unassisted seemed like her only option, Breana found Amish midwives who were willing to attend her birth. Her VBAC was triumphant, restorative, and wonderful in every way. When our bodies are properly fueled and nourished, our birth outcomes are better and our babies are healthier. Breana is a perfect example. We’ve always been told that preeclampsia has no known cause, but what if there WAS something we could do to prevent it? *Additional links* Special Scars, Special Hope ( https://specialscars.org/ ) Silent Knife: Cesarean Prevention and Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (VBAC) ( https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Knife-Cesarean-Prevention-Vaginal/dp/0897890272 ) My Homebirth after Preterm Classical Cesarean - Issue 47, Natural Mother Magazine ( https://www.naturalmothernetwork.com/#fb0=47 ) The Brewer Pregnancy Diet ( http://www.drbrewerpregnancydiet.com/ ) Blue Ribbon Baby Pages ( http://web.archive.org/web/20120809060223/http://www.blueribbonbaby.org/ ) The VBAC Link Blog: Birth After Premature Cesarean ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/vbac-after-preterm-cesarean/ ) C-Section Incision Types: Learn More About Special Scars ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/special-scars/ ) *************** Full transcript *************** Note: All transcripts are edited to correct grammar and to eliminate false starts and filler words. *Julie:* Welcome, welcome. It is Women of Strength Wednesday and you are listening to The VBAC Link podcast. This is Julie and Meagan is here with me today. We have a really neat story for you today. It’s been a while since we have had somebody on our podcast with a special scar, which is a scar that is different than the low, vertical incision or the bikini cut scar that most parents have when they get a Cesarean. *Meagan:* More horizontal, you mean? *Julie:* Yeah. Did I say vertical? *Meagan* : Yeah. *Julie.* Oh, well. *Meagan* : That’s okay. *Julie:* Different than the low, horizontal incision that most parents get when they have a C-section. There are lots of different types of special scars. This type that we are talking about today is a classical incision which means it’s over the top of the uterus and it goes vertical down the belly, or down the uterus rather. Sometimes it’s vertical on the belly and sometimes it’s not It just depends. But I’m really excited because Breana, our guest today, is from Pennsylvania. I’m actually just going to read her bio and what she wrote. Before I go into that and introduce her, I want to have Meagan share a Review of the week with us. ------------------ Review of the Week ------------------ *Meagan:* Okay. This is from Gaby and she is on Apple Podcasts ( https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vbac-link/id1394742573 ) and her subject is “Hopeful for a VBAC.” She says, “I feel so lucky to have the time and space each evening (after my littlest has gone to bed) to listen to the meaningful and beautiful birth stories on The VBAC Link. I am hopeful for a VBAC in early September after having a traumatic birth story with my first child. Whatever this new story holds, I will be able to handle it better because I educated myself with this podcast. Thank you for sharing these stories with us all.” I am assuming that was-- let’s see. That was July 4th of last year, so she has had her baby by now. *Julie:* Are we going to stalk people? *Meagan* : Yeah, I was going to say. We are either going to have to stalk her on The VBAC Link Community ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/VbacLinkGroup ) on our Facebook. If you are not on that, definitely tune in to that on Facebook. Just search The VBAC Link Community, answer the questions, and we will make sure to get you in there. It’s an amazing community and yeah, Gaby. If you are still listening, email us. We would love to hear how things went and yeah. I’m going to turn the time back over to you, Julie. -------------- Breana’s story -------------- *Julie:* All right. Here we go. Breana is really, really incredible. Her story is really awesome and I am just going to read her little bio for you because I don’t think I could say it better myself. She says, “My name is Breana and I am a wife and stay-at-home mom of two girls. In April 2018, my first daughter was delivered at just 24 weeks due to severe preeclampsia via a classical Cesarean.” I’m just going to do a little pause there for a minute. She had a preterm Cesarean and it’s a classical incision with a special scar. This is kind of a big deal. We have a blog about birth after premature Cesarean ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/vbac-after-preterm-cesarean/ ) and also about special scars ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/special-scars/ ) , but she has both of these. So she says, “I was told I would never be allowed to carry past 36 weeks and that I would need repeat Cesareans for all future babies or I would have a uterine rupture due to the classical incision I have been given. After much searching, I discovered the Brewer diet for preeclampsia and the Special Scar Organization ( https://specialscars.org/ ) , both of which were answers to my prayers. In August 2020, after a healthy, full-term pregnancy, I had a lovely home birth after classical Cesarean with wonderful, Amish midwives.” Okay. I want to pick apart all of these things and talk about them. But instead of doing that and taking up the whole time, I am going to turn the time over to Breana and let her share her wonderful story because this is a must-listen, I think, for everybody because it covers so many things. And then after she is done sharing her story, we are going to pick something to talk about. *Breana:* Okay, thank you so much. Yeah. My name is Breana. I have been married to my husband, Michael, for almost four years. I am a stay-at-home mom of two beautiful girls and we live near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In November 2017, I got pregnant with my first baby. I was seeing midwives at a birth center in Pittsburgh for prenatal care and was planning to have an unmedicated birth at the center, but I had a really difficult pregnancy from the start and was dealing with severe morning sickness, like, vomiting every day several times a day. It was really hard for me to eat due to that and I think that my empty stomach was only making me sicker, but I didn’t realize it at the time. As a result, I wasn’t being well-nourished. That was a really bad start. When morning sickness didn’t go away by the second trimester, I expressed to the midwives my symptoms, which were severe nausea, persistent, debilitating migraines, and swelling. The midwives just dismissed my symptoms as common side effects of pregnancy and they blamed my migraines on hormonal changes. They told me to take Tylenol along with caffeinated coffee for the migraine and they assured me that the nausea would probably ease up soon. But by mid-April, I had a prenatal visit which included routine testing for which I was instructed to fast. When I got to that appointment, I was feeling really hungry, tired, and weak. When the midwife took my blood pressure, she looked shocked and asked if I was feeling all right. I remember being sort of frustrated and saying, “No. I really don’t feel well, which is what I have been trying to tell you for weeks.” But they had acted like it was all normal and no big deal. I just thought, “Okay, I guess this is how pregnancy is for everyone.” It was my first pregnancy, so after taking my blood pressure a few times, it was still super high and was what they considered to be within the hypertensive crisis zone. It was 180/110. After a quick urine dip test, they concluded that I needed to go immediately to the hospital for some additional tests and monitoring. That’s how it was put to me, so I really didn’t understand the fullness of the situation or realize how it serious it was. I imagined that I would just go in for a quick ultrasound, or blood test, or something and be home by that evening. But obviously, that wasn’t the case. When I arrived at the hospital, they told me they were surprised I hadn’t already had a stroke and said I needed to go to the ICU immediately. *Meagan:* Whoa, scary. *Breana:* Yeah. They told me I had to be prepared for an emergency C-section at any moment and that I would not be leaving that hospital pregnant. So it was extremely scary to have all of that thrown at me out of the blue. They told me that I had severe preeclampsia for which there was no known cause or cure and that the only possible way to save mine and the baby’s life was to deliver as soon as possible. They said there was this fine balance between giving my baby as much time to develop as possible and also not holding off so long that my body would begin to shut down from the preeclampsia. I was admitted to the hospital on a Tuesday and my daughter was born on the Friday afternoon. We spent four days in the hospital leading up to the C-section. By Friday afternoon, we were told that delivery could no longer be held off and that my daughter’s best chance was for me to have a C-section immediately. I expressed to them my wish to give birth vaginally, but I was told that she may not survive a vaginal birth. So it was a recommendation that we proceed with a C-section. They explained to me that given the extreme prematurity of my pregnancy, they would probably have to do a classical C-section so as not to risk cutting the major uterine arteries on my under-developed lower segment. They said that would mean a vertical incision on the upper portion of my uterus, which came with more risk and will make it impossible for me to ever deliver vaginally for future pregnancies. Obviously, the idea was pretty horrifying to me not only because surgery was my worst fear, but also because I had really wanted an unmedicated, natural birth and I was crushed at the prospect of never, ever getting to experience that. I was super hesitant after hearing that and my mind was reeling. Then, they told me that if I didn’t consent to the C-section right then and there, they would have to do one anyway, but in that case, there would be no time to give me an epidural, so I would be put under general, which I was terrified of, and also that they would definitely have to give me a classical, but that if I consented now, we would have more time to take it slow and maybe do the low transverse after all. Looking back, there was definitely a lot of pressure and I wasn’t really in my right mind because of all the drugs they had me on. It was honestly a struggle even to keep my eyes open. I asked that my husband and I be left alone so that we can think about what to do. I was a young 20-year-old, first-time mom and was trusting that the experts knew best. Obviously, I mean, I would have cut off my limbs if they told me it was necessary to save my baby’s life, so I was willing to do anything they said. Our daughter, Aurora, was born at 24 weeks weighing just 1 pound, 8 ounces, and measuring 12 inches from head to heel. We only got to see her for a brief moment before she was whisked off to the NICU, so there was no immediate skin-to-skin whatsoever. I couldn’t see her for probably the first 12 hours and they didn’t let me hold her for over two weeks. Even after that, it was often a fight with the NICU. So I often felt really alone trying to be an advocate during that time. She had a lot to overcome in the NICU and we ultimately spent 104 days there. She was born in April and we didn’t get to take her home until August. When we finally did leave, a respiratory therapist who had been there at the beginning told me he hadn’t thought she was going to live more than a few days. But she is two now and has absolutely no health problems at all which is really remarkable for a baby born so premature. *Meagan* : That’s awesome. Yeah. *Breana:* She’s so smart, and beautiful, and healthy and we are so, so proud of her and just so thankful to God for getting us through such a challenging time. I was also able to exclusively breastfeed her which I had been told wouldn’t be possible with a micro-preemie and I was actually laughed at when I let the NICU know I was staying full-time so that I could be with her and breastfeed her. So I just want to encourage other NICU moms to fight for and advocate for their babies in the NICU. I want to mention that during the four days leading up to the C-section, I was confined to a bed with IVs and constant monitoring. I was denied all food and drink during that time. I was absolutely starving and so thirsty but was told that it was too dangerous for me to eat in case we needed to suddenly rush in and do a C-section, in which case my stomach would need to be empty. Of course, it was really frustrating to try and go along with that reasoning when the days kept ticking by and a C-section just wasn’t happening, and all the while I was starving and just feeling weaker and weaker. I was also given magnesium sulfate through my IVs to prevent convulsions and diuretics to flush fluid out of my lungs. *Julie:* Oh my gosh, that is the worst. *Meagan:* Yucky. *Julie* : So awful. *Breana:* Yeah. I’ve since learned that diuretics are contraindicated during pregnancy due to their ability to deplete blood volume expansion and preeclampsia, which, of course, was the entire reason I was there in the first place. But essentially, they gave me a drug that accelerated the problem and it was within just hours of receiving the diuretic that they told me the C-section could no longer be put off and it was the only way to save my baby’s life. *Julie:* That makes so much sense. I had preeclampsia with my first and I had the magnesium sulfate drip during labor and my preeclampsia got way worse the first week after he was born than it had been my entire pregnancy. I was swollen up like the Michelin Man, or whatever you call it. All the way up from my feet to my legs were swollen up like a balloon and listen to that. I am just reading about the Brewer’s diet and I am super intrigued. So we are going to talk about that when you are done, but I am not going to keep interrupting I am going to let you go on with your story right now. *Breana:* Thank you. I am trying to pack it all in and not be a chatterbox the whole time, but thank you for giving me the time. Yeah, so that was terrible and again, I was a first-time mom and I was just like, “Okay, I am at the hospital. They are supposed to help me. They obviously know more than I do, so I’m just going to trust them.” When I’m asked if I think my C-section was unnecessary, I hesitate to answer because the C-section itself may have been necessary at that point, but only because of the improper care I received leading up to it. I was admitted into the hospital for preeclampsia symptoms, given high doses of magnesium sulfate, of which a side effect is breathing difficulties. Then, I was given a diuretic for problems rel to breathing difficulties and I was then given a C-section for severe preeclampsia symptoms, which the diuretic is known to exasperate. So this is a quote, I am going to read it real quick, from the documentary “The Business of Being Born”, which I think is a really great thing. Everyone should watch. It sums up how I feel about my experience. It says, “Step-by-step, one intervention leads to a series of interventions and then that result is the mother finally ends up with a Cesarean and everybody says, ‘Thank God we were able to do all the interventions to save your baby.’ But the fact of the matter is, if they hadn’t started the cascade of interventions in the first place, none of that would have been necessary.” So obviously, I was extremely sick when I arrived at the hospital and something needed to be done for me, but based on the studying I’ve since done regarding the decades of research on preeclampsia, I believe that ensuring I received proper nutrition should have been the first order of business that day instead of what did happen, which, unfortunately, was the opposite. My C-section recovery was pretty brutal. I had never experienced pain like that and I haven’t since. The hours immediately after the surgery consisted of me going into shock and having persistent vomiting and dry heaving that I couldn’t get under control which was pretty excruciating since I had just been freshly stitched up. It took a while, probably weeks, for me to be able to stand and walk without wincing in pain. It was not an easy recovery. When I was counseled in the ICU after the C-section, I was told that I had indeed been given and a classical incision after all which meant I would now need repeat C-section’s at 36 weeks for all future deliveries and that under no circumstances will I ever be able to labor because the risk of uterine rupture was just too great for me. I was told this by doctors who claimed to be very VBAC supportive. They told me that I was not a candidate because I had a classical scar. The way they talked made me feel like I had been given this crazy, outdated procedure and was now forever damaged, so that was really hard to work through. But it also got me thinking about how if this procedure was, in fact, so outdated, then what about the women who had a VBAC in the early 1900s? I thought they had to have existed and wouldn’t that mean that someone somewhere must have done it? Another thing they told me upon discharge was that it was likely that I would get preeclampsia again and there was nothing that could be done since there was no known cause or cure other than delivery. So now, I was pretty terrified of getting pregnant again, but at that time, I just had to focus on my daughter who was in critical condition in the NICU. When we got home from the NICU, I looked everywhere and I couldn’t find any stories of anyone who had had a VBAC with a classical scar, so that was pretty discouraging. Everyone has the low transverse scar and everything I came across just said what I had been told before which was that classical scars could never, ever VBAC. Basically, it seemed to be a unanimous consensus that VBACs can and do happen, however, I was just that one exception. Eventually, I think after searching the keyword “classical VBAC”, I came across the book online called Silent Knife ( https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Knife-Cesarean-Prevention-Vaginal/dp/0897890272 ). I hadn’t even read it yet and I didn’t know what it had to say about classical scars, but I thought, “What the heck? I will see if I can find this author on Facebook.” I did find her and she ended up being a practicing midwife in Boston, actually, the midwife who coined the term “VBAC”. I ended up sending a message to her asking if she had ever known anyone to have a VBAC with a classical scar. She got back to me and told me that yes, many women with my kind of scar go on to have a lovely, normal, natural birth and I had to reread her message a couple of times. I was in shock. I actually cried because it was the first time I ever heard a “yes” from a birth worker like that. I was like, “Did she understand my question? Is this really what she is saying to me?” She was so wonderful and was willing to speak with me over the phone. She connected me to a couple of underground or non-traditional midwives over the country who were maybe closer to me or maybe willing to travel to me when I did decide to get pregnant again. This was around the time I also found the Special Scars Special Hope organization which was extremely helpful to me. I no longer felt like this freak who was the only person since 1950 to have been given this scar. I now could connect with thousands of other women all over the world who were like me and had all been told the same thing, that we couldn’t VBAC, yet many of them had gone on to have their VBACs, so I was just so thrilled and so encouraged to get to talk with him and hear their stories. Of course, it was around that time I also stumbled upon The VBAC Link, which was just another amazing resource for me and I was so encouraged by these other women’s stories. I couldn’t believe how much I was able to relate to them. I listened to it every day as I made dinner or folded laundry, so being on the other side of it like this is just really so surreal. I especially enjoyed the special scars episodes and was so grateful to your guys for including special scars and not leaving us out due to the negative stigma that surrounds it. I want to take a brief moment to hopefully sum up what I was referring to earlier when I spoke of the decades of research on preeclampsia. One of the things I came across when searching for answers about preeclampsia was the Brewer diet. I don’t like to refer to it as a diet because really, it’s just a nutritional outline to ensure your body is well-supported for pregnancy. The creator of the diet, Dr. Tom Brewer, was an obstetrician who, in the late 1960s and early 70s, formulated a nutritional guideline based on his findings as well as decades of research from other doctors. Of some 7000 pregnant women whose care Dr. Brewer oversaw, only 0.5% ever presented with mild symptoms of preeclampsia. He eradicated preeclampsia in populations where it had previously been upwards of 40%, which is really remarkable. I strongly encourage everyone to look into the diet. Once you understand the science behind the physiology of pregnancy, it becomes obvious why the Brewer diet has been so successful. I’ve run into a few people who have insisted that preeclampsia can’t be prevented or reversed with diet since it hasn’t been accepted by mainstream medicine. This is largely due to the fact that Dr. Brewer found it unethical to conduct a placebo study. He was also a champion for racial equality which, sadly, I believe played a part in his work being snubbed and overlooked, particularly because of the social climate of his day. I’ve always been puzzled by those who claim that diet has nothing to do with preeclampsia. Why would anyone argue the fact that a healthy diet promotes health? Why would you be so eager to dismiss the theory when the alternative is basically just accepting defeat? What I mean by that is that currently mainstream medicine has no answers and says there is no cure for preeclampsia, yet it is among the most common complications of pregnancy, affecting thousands of mothers annually. The unfortunate truth is, no one makes money from a healthy person which I, unfortunately, personally believe is one of the driving factors why the Brewer diet is ignored. But nevertheless, I encourage everyone to, at the very least, look into it and see what it’s about. Dr. Brewer wrote several books and there is a free website and Facebook group called Dr. Brewer Pregnancy Nutrition ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/1582949685279015 ) that was incredibly helpful to me. Without the Brewer diet and the support I received from the ladies in that group, my VBAC would not have been possible. So it was really important to me to just take a minute to talk about that. After I had studied so much and been blessed with all the support and information surrounding preeclampsia and VBACs, I began to get to the source of my fears regarding another pregnancy. I realized I was letting this fear dictate my life since my husband and I knew we wanted a family and we believe children are a blessing and a reward from God. So after a lot of prayer, my husband and I felt convicted to just entrust our family planning to God. At that point, I felt like I at least had a rough game plan as to how a second pregnancy would look going forward. I happened to get pregnant again in November 2019, so my due date was within days of when my first son had been. It was incredibly healing for me to be able to continue to carry that pregnancy full-term and pass those year marks from two years before. I planned to follow the Brewer diet, which I did, and I fully believe it is the reason I was able to have a successful, full-term second pregnancy completely free of preeclampsia. I did have some brutal morning sickness again, but this time, I knew how to manage it much better by eating small, healthy snacks and not really allowing my stomach to get empty. I think that helped me a lot. I initially thought I would have an unassisted birth because no hospital was willing to let me VBAC on a classical scar and I honestly felt pretty let down by those I had put my trust in the first time, so I didn’t really want to give birth in a hospital anyway. I did have contacts with midwives in other states that I mentioned before, but honestly, I knew I wanted to labor alone and undisturbed for the most part, so it felt silly for me to hire a midwife from a few states away and go through the whole process of having her stay with us just to make her wait in the other room while I labored. So ultimately, I decided to contact the Amish. I have gone to Amish country for festivals and stuff since I was a kid and I thought, “Okay. The Amish must be having home births. So, who is helping them?” I had this crazy idea to ask my friend if she could give me the address for one of the Amish guys that worked on her house. I thought, “What do I really have to lose by writing a letter to his wife and asking her who her midwife is?” So that’s what I did. This Amish family, they were just so kind and went out of their way to connect me with the Amish midwife who had been a midwife for 40 some years and attended hundreds of birth a year, upwards of 100 births a year. So she had a lot of experience. She was a gem and I was so fortunate. That midwife works with a non-Amish doula who is also a midwife learning and working with the Amish community. The Amish family told me that yes, the midwives were willing to assist a Yankee woman. That’s what they call us non-Amish and they gave me the doula’s phone number. I gave her a call and I remember hearing it ringing and thinking, “This is so dumb. She’s going to hang up on me when I tell her I have a classical scar. Why am I even bothering?” But to my surprise, she didn’t hang up on me. She actually asked, “When would be good for us to meet in person?” She also let me know that there was an Amish woman in their community who had had three home births after an inverted T incision and would be willing to meet with me as well after some encouragement and support. That was the first time I actually met another person in real life, not online, who had a special scar. That meant a lot to me. It was really just crazy how it worked out. It felt really meant to be. I felt so secure and comforted with them whenever I met them. *Meagan* : I love that. *Breana:* They were so respectful of my wishes throughout the whole pregnancy as well as the birth. They were hands-off when I wanted them to be and hands-on when I needed them to be. I didn’t want any ultrasounds or testing at all and they were okay with that. I took my own blood pressure and weight, and our prenatal visits were super laid-back just in my living room. It was amazing. I really couldn’t have asked for anything better. So when I was 38 weeks and 2 days, I went into labor at about noon on a Saturday. You know what they say about a full moon and it actually was a full moon that weekend. My birth was one of four or five that my midwives attended that weekend. Anyway, I didn’t recognize that it was real labor at first. I just thought Braxton Hicks or something, but I didn’t take it too seriously until the time when I was literally on my bed moaning and I acknowledged, “Okay, maybe this is real.” About that time, I went to the bathroom and realized I was losing my mucus plug. I let my doula know what was going on and it was the middle of the night at that point. I told her I wanted to labor undisturbed anyway, so they didn’t have to bother coming just yet. My contractions were mainly felt in my lower back and wrapped around, so what I really had, for the most part, was back labor. At this time, I was having contractions three to four minutes apart. I was just laying on my bed trying to relax my body as much as possible and even sleep in between contractions when I could. At that point, everything I had learned from HypnoBirthing became really valuable and helpful to me. My husband pressed the heating pad into my lower back each time I had a contraction and that counterpressure was really what got me through. I also alternated from the bed to the shower and would run the hot water on my back. So that was how I spent most of the night and my contractions were three to four minutes apart most of the time. Eventually, I could tell I was entering transition because I was getting chills and shaky legs and it was getting so much harder for me to work through my contractions. So I told my doula that I would like for them to come at that point. I think it was about 5:00 a.m. by the time they ran to my house and there were three of them. I had the older, Amish midwife who I had first mentioned, the non-Amish doula and midwife, and the Amish woman who had had three homebirths on her inverted T scar because she had offered to come to my birth and I was really happy to take her up on it. Her additional support and encouragement just meant so much to me and I knew that she really got it. She knew what it was like because she herself had done it and she is also my sister in Christ. They all are. So the whole thing was just such a blessing. When they arrived, they offered to check my cervix to see how far dilated I was which I didn’t want. I was also nervous that I would get discouraged if it was a lower number, I would have a hard time, so I told her I wanted her to check, but not to tell me the number. She checked and told me she really didn’t think I was going to be disappointed, so would I like her to tell me? And I said, “Yes.” She told me I was 9 centimeters and that my cervix was paper-thin. She told me that she could feel the baby’s head under the bag of waters and she offered to break my waters if that’s what I wanted because the pressure of the waters had made me feel a little more pushy than I was. I just really didn’t want any interventions at all though, so I opted to labor somewhere and let my body do its own thing. I sent them downstairs and it was just my husband and me again since our two-year-old had been sleeping this whole time. My midwives did my dishes and made breakfast. It’s funny because that’s what I love about home births, just how laid-back and normal it is. So eventually after laboring in bed somewhere, I was laying on my side, my husband was doing the counterpressure with a heating pad and I was working through a contraction, and I heard a loud pop and a splash because my waters had broken. I did swell up right after that just because of the rush of hormones, but after that, I felt so much better. I was just really glad that I had waited for it to happen on its own because that’s the way that I wanted. At that point, I was feeling like I could push and I ultimately pushed for a good two hours. I pushed on the bed and the shower, leaning on my husband, leaning on my doula, and the yoga ball, and the toilet, and everything. Eventually, I was just so exhausted that I crawled back into bed and I was kind of on my side, kind of on my back and one of them suggested I try using a towel to play tug-of-war to help direct my pushes. I was just so tired from being up all night and pushing for so long. I had been laboring for 21 hours at that point, so the tug-of-war trick really worked for me. It was probably within minutes that she was born. We named her Athena and she weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces, and was 21 inches long. Her size was such a lovely surprise, especially considering that she was born at 38+3. My midwife said, “Just imagine how much more she might have weighed had she come out any later.” But ultimately, it was just a really amazing experience. She was born on a Sunday morning and we just checked the time on my husband‘s watch. It was just so laid-back and exactly how I hoped it would be, but probably better than I hoped it would be. After it happened, I just laid there thinking, “I can’t believe this actually happened. I can’t believe I really did it.” You know, after you have been told you can’t do something how many times, that moment was just-- I felt amazing. I was able to pull her up to my chest for skin-to-skin immediately. I was able to breastfeed right away and they left us alone. We put off the weighing and the measuring and everything for a little while because I just really wanted that golden hour to be undisturbed and I wanted to do delayed cord clamping. My older daughter was able to come to meet her right away because she happened to wake up right after she was born which was perfect timing. I didn’t have any tears, which I was pretty grateful for with an over 9-pound baby. I was pretty sore from all of that pushing, but honestly, my postpartum was a breeze, and just a couple of days later, I was walking her down the street to show her off to my neighbors, so I felt pretty good. It was just an amazing experience. I am so grateful for the support I had and the opportunity to have such a restorative experience. I told myself that if I ever got to have a VBAC, I was going to make a big deal about it so no one else would have such a hard time finding answers like I did. So I just really appreciate this opportunity to share more than you know and I thank you guys for all you do. It really does make a difference. It definitely, definitely did with all those episodes. I’m almost done, but I did write down some key takeaways that I wanted to sum up for the listeners if that’s okay. The first one is, your body was carefully designed by a creator who loves you. He didn’t forget anything or leave anything out. Bodies heal and a scar on your uterus does not mean you are any less capable than the next woman in doing what your body was designed to do. Along those lines, something that I think maybe subconsciously made an impact on me was that when I was a teenager, I got to witness one of my younger brothers be born in the car on the way to the birth center. I think that that experience showed me how when left alone, birth really is, for the most part, simple and straightforward. I think what I took from one of your older episodes was the idea that if I were to do nothing and not schedule a repeat C-section like they were telling me I had to do, then my body would instinctively know what to do and would give birth vaginally. Obviously, uterine rupture does happen it should be taken seriously, but so should the risk of multiple Cesareans. That should always be an individual choice, not one for your doctors to make for you. The other thing that I had was to know what you want and fight for it. Find a provider who will meet your needs and respect your authority and choices even if it means thinking outside the box, like writing a letter to the Amish. You don’t need anyone’s permission to use your own vagina. I also wrote an article that’s in Issue 47 of Natural Mother magazine ( https://www.naturalmothernetwork.com/#fb0=47 ) if anyone is interested in reading some things I may not have covered on this episode. But that was all the bullet points I had written down to share, so thank you for letting me ramble on that entire time. --------------- The Brewer Diet --------------- *Julie:* No, we love it. You have lots of good information in that episode. I feel like we almost don’t have to do any educational piece, but I want to talk about something that we don’t talk about a lot on our podcast. But before I get into that, I want to let you know that we have a blog about VBAC after premature Cesarean ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/vbac-after-preterm-cesarean/ ) and about special scars ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/special-scars/ ) that you can find by going to our website thevbaclink.com/blog ( http://thevbaclink.com/blog ) and just in the search bar, typing those terms in, and it will pull the blogs right up. It will give you all the information you want to know. But I want to talk about diet during pregnancy. We have one podcast ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/podcast/ ) about pregnancy nutrition. We have a blog ( https://www.thevbaclink.com/2-herbs-to-help-you-prep-for-vbac/ ) about pregnancy nutrition. Normally Meagan is the nutrition/exercise guru of the bunch, but I am going to kind of take over this time on that topic because I was reading some really interesting things about the Brewer diet while Breana was sharing her story with us. So I wanted to go through and just talk about a few fun little statistics that I found and we will cite these in the show notes. The first one is from the website drbrewerpregnancydiet.com ( http://www.drbrewerpregnancydiet.com/index.html ). There is a tab called “Preeclampsia” on the left-hand side. Click on that tab and it talks all about the Brewer diet in relation to preeclampsia. There’s a lot of content taken from books on the subject, and studies, and things like that. A lot of the information is outdated, but nutritional needs are still pretty consistent, I think, across-the-board. There’s also a lot of up-to-date information in there as well. But I wanted to point out a couple of things. So first of all, we know that the medical system is more likely to recommend prescription medications and medical treatments to prevent and treat things than they are to recommend food to treat things. But on this website, drbrewerpregnancydiet.com ( http://www.drbrewerpregnancydiet.com/index.html ) , on the left-hand side, click “Preeclampsia”. It’s really, really interesting because like I was saying before, the medical system will recommend prescription drugs. They will recommend early delivery. They will recommend all sorts of medicalized things to take care of whatever it is that we are dealing with, but the medical system is not designed in a way to set up proper nutrition to help heal your body with food and to help you learn how to eat better and do better so that your pregnancy can avoid these things in the first place. It’s just not the same that way. It would kind of hurt itself by preventing the things that it is being paid to treat. Not that I’m against the medical system because I am very grateful for when it is needed, but I think there needs to be a really good balance between treating your body naturally and then using the medical system we need to. It’s really funny because the medical system, or scientists, or doctors generally claim that we don’t know what causes preeclampsia. We think it might have something to do with when the placenta is developing, but we can’t really pinpoint a cause. But Dr. Tom Brewer, the obstetrician, has pretty good logic about what causes preeclampsia. I’m just going to read a quote here from him on that website I was just telling you about. He says, “Low blood volume, which is the inevitable result of dehydration and the use of diuretics contributes directly to eclampsia, premature birth, and low birth weight. And now, there is a whole group of hypertension drugs that have come out in the last 10 to 15 years. These drugs just ravage women. They cause direct damage to all of the cells in the mother’s body, particularly to the liver, a little to the kidneys, and then to the placenta and fetus.” It’s really interesting because like you were saying earlier, diuretics, excessive doses of magnesium and things like that prevent the body from being efficient in the blood flow and it inhibits the blood from getting to the fetus, to the placenta, and to the uterus, which all are really critical for helping baby grow, right? It’s really interesting in here because he says-- I’m just reading on his website and then, let’s see. Where did it go? “The cause of preeclampsia was discovered in the 1950s and 1960s,” and I read that I was like, “Wait a minute. Doctors don’t know what causes preeclampsia, right?” But, listen to this. “Preeclampsia is caused by abnormal blood volume, which is caused by malnutrition or food deficiency.” Now listen, it might seem strange to you. Like with me, I’m like, “I was definitely not starving myself when I was pregnant with my first baby,” because I had preeclampsia with my first and I was definitely eating lots of food, but I was working really hard and I would eat a salad for lunch thinking I was being healthy, right? But when you deprive your body of the critical nutrients that it needs, it doesn’t matter what you are eating, but if you’re not eating foods that are rich and nutrient-dense, then you are malnourished. And when you’re not drinking enough water, your blood volume can’t increase in the way that it needs to in order to effectively and healthily support you, a healthy placenta, and a healthy baby. So it’s really interesting because it talks about how this particular diet that he recommends following really helps the blood volume expansion. I mean, there is a whole bunch of sciencey stuff in here that I could go on, but basically eating a high protein diet with lots of salt helps the body create the blood volume that it needs to sustain the pregnancy which essentially prevents preeclampsia and other blood-related issues. I definitely need to learn more about it and I encourage you to read more about it too, but it shows some really interesting statistics here, where normally we think like, “Oh, salt is bad. Salt is bad. Salt is bad.” But in pregnancy, salt is necessary for us to remain hydrated and again, for our circulatory system, and for our overall well-being. They compare studies of people that were on a high salt diet versus a low salt diet and the outcomes are way better on the high salt diet. Instances of preeclampsia were 37 per 1000 in the high salt diet versus a low salt diet had 97 in 1000 cases. So, three times more likely to get preeclampsia according to this study when you eat a low salt diet. Isn’t that interesting? It also goes on to compare perinatal deaths, C-sections, and placenta abruption which are all significantly higher in the low salt diet group. But the Brewer’s diet is not just about drinking lots of water, and eating protein, and increasing your salt intake, but there are some really cool things that they recommend eating including eggs, milk, meat, and fish every day. Dark, green, leafy vegetables, lots of vitamin C sources, nice, healthy grains, servings of healthy fats and oils, and vitamin A are all things that he recommends in the Brewer’s diet. Now, Dr. Brewer‘s website is called the Blue Ribbon Baby Pages ( http://web.archive.org/web/20120809060223/http://www.blueribbonbaby.org/ ) , but that website has been archived now so it’s not an active website, but you can still find it if you search “Blue Ribbon Baby Pages”. That website is directly authored by him. There are lots of spreadsheets and checklists and things like that if you want to follow that diet because what that diet does is, it helps your body increase the blood volume that it needs to sustain a healthy pregnancy. Now my mind is spinning in all of these different ways because there were things I did in my second pregnancy to avoid getting preeclampsia and a lot of it-- I didn’t follow the Brewer diet as described here, but a lot of it was following these recommendations. Plenty of water, making sure I am staying hydrated, not limiting my salt intake, and eat lots of protein, especially eggs. I ate eggs like crazy when I was pregnant with my second. It is just really, really interesting. I know that-- trust me. I was just sitting here eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream when we were recording our last episode, so I am definitely not the epitome of health. And so, it can feel overwhelming. I know especially when you’re pregnant you’re like, “Oh my gosh. Do I really have to make all these diet changes? Am I going to ruin my baby if I don’t follow this very strict diet? Or how much water do I need to drink or how much protein do I need to eat?” It is so easy to get overwhelmed, right? Because I know that I do and I am not even pregnant right now. But this is the thing. The Brewer diet is a nice, healthy diet. It goes right along with the guidelines that are recommended to just maintain health overall. It follows what ACOG’s recommendations are for a healthy pregnancy. It just expands on that a little bit more and there is some really solid evidence to support following this diet drastically improves birth outcomes. But you don’t have to go making all these big changes. You don’t have to go from eating a pint of Ben & Jerry’s a day-- no, I don’t eat a pint a day. Eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and to a complete 180 never eating anything with sugar in it ever again. Just making small changes in your diet, incorporating more nutrient-rich foods like healthy meat, healthy fats, lots of green, leafy vegetables, and vitamin A, and vitamin C supplements are going to do better. So focus on adding things into your diet more than you focus on taking things out would be my advice from a not-so-healthy mom to maybe other not-so-healthy moms right now. Meagan, what would you add? Are you completely embarrassed by my nutritional advice? *Meagan:* No, no. I think it is so important. This is not in conjunction with preeclampsia. It is in conjunction with how we as women in the world sometimes, our minds just go because being skinny, and not gaining too much weight, and bouncing back, and being back in our jeans and-- you know what I mean? There’s so much pressure in a lot of things. So when it comes to VBAC, I have personally had clients be like, “Well, my baby was so big last time and I was overweight, so I had better not eat.” I had a client specifically, one client that literally starved herself her entire pregnancy because she said, “I can’t have a big baby because if I have a big baby, I won’t have a VBAC, and then they won’t let me, and if they think my baby is big, then I won’t, and if I gain too much weight, then they will just tell me I am fat, and then I can’t have my VBAC,” and I am just like-- *Julie:* Did she have high blood pressure or preeclampsia or gestational diabetes? *Meagan:* So the crazy thing, she actually did have a repeat Cesarean. Her body tapped out because it wasn’t fueled. And so, it’s just in general. We need to fuel our bodies. But in life, because there’s so much pressure to be skinny and all of these things, right? And not gain too much weight, we cut, like you were saying, we cut out our nutrients that are insanely needed. And so, if we are cutting it out before we even get pregnant, because a lot of people are like, “Oh, I want to lose this weight before I get pregnant,” and then they get pregnant, and then they were cutting out these things and not adding those necessary things like the Brewer diet talks about, it is important to understand how it can truly impact you, your baby, your outcome, etc. We don’t know the exact cause of preeclampsia, but there are things that we were going over and were shared in this story. There are things that we can do to help that have been proven to help. And so, why not do these things and pay attention to these things? I just think it is so important in general. Pregnancy, not pregnant, preeclampsia, diabetes, anything. Fuel your body because your body gives you so much and we are asking so much of our bodies every day to perform. If we cut what it needs, it is not fair to ask that. Does that make sense? Is that silly to say? *Julie:* Yeah. I just think like-- I have anxiety. Everybody knows that by now. I have a very anxious mind. I just think of when my mind gets anxious, it is because there are things going on that are influencing it, right? I liken that to not feeding your body. It’s like those outside things influencing my anxious mind. Not fueling your body does not allow your body to perform well. It doesn’t allow it to function effectively, just like your mind. With my mind, with my anxiety, when my anxiety is high, the whole world is falling apart. It doesn’t even matter if nothing is a big deal, but everything feels like a big deal. And so, when you are depriving your body of those nutrients, even the smallest thing your body is working hard to do will feel like a big deal to it. It can exhaust it and it can make it harder for it to do normal things when it's most important thing to do is growing your baby. *Meagan:* Yeah. I love everything that Breana was talking about. It doesn’t matter who you are. Check it out. Just check it out. It doesn’t do you any harm to check it out. *Julie:* Yeah, you can just Google “The Brewer Diet.” It is Brewer. I know we say Brewer’s because I like it to be possessive, but it is by Tom Brewer. *Meagan* : It’s because, in my head, I think Brewer’s Yeast, so I say Brewer’s. It is Brewer. *Julie:* Brewer. B-R-E-W-E-R. Take a look at that. It looks like a really good, healthy diet. So, good thing to do. Take care of your body. Keep nourishing those babies and improve your chances of lots of different birth outcomes. ------- Closing ------- Would you like to be a guest on the podcast? Head over to thevbaclink.com/share ( http://www.thevbaclink.com/share ) and submit your story. For all things VBAC, including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Julie and Meagan’s bios, head over to thevbaclink.com ( http://www.thevbaclink.com ). 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