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Struggling with restless nights, stubborn inflammation, or the roller‑coaster of perimenopause? In this powerhouse episode of The Women's Vibrancy Code Podcast, functional‑medicine women's health expert and Host Maraya Brown, unpacks the real story behind melatonin—the multitasking hormone scientists now call “the next vitamin D". What you'll learn: Melatonin myths vs. facts: why this hormone is way more than a sleepy-time gummy. Gut–brain connection: your intestines make 400× more melatonin than your pineal gland—discover how that shapes energy, nutrient absorption, and bloating. Circadian sabotage: how blue-light overload creates “darkness deficiency,” suppressing melatonin by up to 80 % (plus quick lighting fixes). Antioxidant & mitochondrial power: melatonin outperforms vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione at neutralizing free radicals and repairing cellular energy. Detox & immunity: the hormone's role in liver cleanse, glymphatic “brain wash,” long-haul viral recovery, and inflammation control. Symptom checklist: migraines, PCOS, insulin resistance, rheumatoid arthritis, neuro-degeneration—how low melatonin links them all. Smart supplementation: plant-based (phyto) melatonin vs. synthetic, starter micro-dose 0.3–1 mg, and how to avoid next-day grogginess. Life-stage shifts: why levels plummet after puberty and crash at 50 (and how peri- & post-menopausal women can benefit). Action blueprint: 6 step-by-step fixes—morning sunlight, evening screen curfew, fiber-rich gut foods, daily movement, Dutch Plus + GI-MAP testing, and rhythmic sleep hygiene.   Listen now to reboot your rest, detox like a pro, and reignite your vitality. Share this episode with a sister, friend, or client battling burnout—and leave a 5‑star review so more women can hear the show! Timestamps: 03:00 Why experts now call melatonin “the next vitamin D” and why you should care 04:30 How your gut makes 400× more melatonin than your brain—and what that means for energy, bloat, and nutrient absorption 05:50 The antioxidant/mitochondrial super‑powers of melatonin that outclass vitamins C & E 07:30 Exactly how blue‑light and “darkness deficiency” slash melatonin levels (plus quick lighting fixes) 8:30 The symptom checklist: migraines, insulin resistance, PCOS, brain fog—how low melatonin ties them together 09:40 Night‑shift detox: how melatonin cleans your liver and brain while you sleep and boosts immune recovery 11:20 Smart supplementation: phyto‑melatonin vs synthetic, ideal micro‑doses, and avoiding next‑day grogginess 14:25 Life‑stage drops & the 6‑step protocol—morning sunlight, evening screen curfew, gut‑friendly foods, movement, testing, fine‑tuning _______________________ Feeling exhausted and burnt out? It's time to hit PAUSE. Join us for a free 7-day virtual experience designed to help you reignite your energy, confidence, and clarity in just one hour a day. Save your seat now: https://marayabrown.com/pause/ _______________________ The Women's Vibrancy Accelerator Trifecta: Your 90-Day Health Reset Ready to take your health to the next level? The Women's Vibrancy Accelerator Trifecta offers deep, personalized support to help you regain control of your energy, hormones, and well-being. This program includes: Three one-on-one calls with Maraya Dutch Plus Test and full assessment Bi-weekly live Q&A sessions Self-paced health portal covering energy, hormones, libido, and confidence   Podcast listeners get an exclusive discount. Use code PODCAST. Learn more and enroll now: https://marayabrown.com/trifecta/ _______________________ Free Wellness Resources Access free tools like the Menstrual Tracker, Adaptogen Elixir Recipes, Two-Week Soul Cleanse, Food Facial, and more. Download now: https://marayabrown.com/resources/ _______________________ Subscribe to The Women's Vibrancy Code Podcast Listen on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify. _______________________ Connect with the Show Find us on Facebook,  Linkedin | Website | Tiktok | Facebook Group _______________________ Apply for a Call with Maraya Brown Start your journey with personalized support. Apply here: https://marayabrown.com/call  _______________________ About Maraya Brown Maraya is a Yale and Functional Medicine-trained Women's Health and Wellness Expert (CNM, MSN). She helps women feel energized, confident, and connected to themselves and their lives. With over 25 years of experience, she specializes in energy, hormones, libido, confidence, and deep transformation. _______________________ Disclaimer The content of this podcast is for informational, educational, and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical or professional advice. Listeners should consult with a qualified professional before making any health decisions.

Back by popular demand, “Build Me Up” invited FMI's Partner and Managing Director of Research and Analytics, Jay Bowman, and KA's EVP and COO Rich Jacobson back to chat! They join us each year as we look to see what the new year is going bring the built market.    Jay specializes in construction spending forecasts, strategic planning, and research and analytics for the A/C/E industry. We recap our 2024, talk fed rates and building material prices, how AI and tech fits into our world, and of course predictions for 2025! Jay brings in the national perspective of what we can expect, and Rich gives a more focused, local approach of what is going on in the Midwest market. 

Join Bill Bellows and Andrew Stotz as they discuss what actions (or inactions) make us worse than thieves and how that relates to expiration dates, and acceptability vs desirability. Plus, stories about job swapping, Achieving Competitive Excellence, and birthdays. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.3 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 31 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. Today is Episode 9, and it's entitled "Worse Than a Thief." Bill, take it away.   0:00:27.2 Bill Bellows: Welcome, Andrew. I haven't seen you in a while, and great to be back.   0:00:29.1 AS: It's been a while.   0:00:32.0 BB: Here we are. Episode 9 already. Gosh, [chuckle] time flies when we're having fun. First, let me say a shout out to people who are reaching out to me on LinkedIn. I spoke with another one of them this afternoon. It's always exciting to connect with them. And then I ideally connect in a regular basis and help them as best I can, and learn from them as best I can.   0:01:03.0 AS: Yep.   0:01:03.2 BB: So, for those who are thinking about it, they keep hearing you say, "Hey, you know how to reach Bill? Find him on LinkedIn." So, a reminder for those who are waiting for a nudge, here's a nudge. So, "Worse than a thief" is an expression that Dr. Taguchi used when he say, Andrew, "Don't be worse than a thief." And we'll get to that, but let me just give our audience some context on that.   0:01:37.8 AS: Yep.   0:01:39.0 BB: Dr. Taguchi would say... And actually, I don't know if Dr. Taguchi explained it. Someone explained it to me this way. He said a thief could be someone who steals your wallet, finds $20; which means they're up 20, you're down 20; which people refer to as "zero sum gain." Right? So, the thief's gain is my loss, zero sum. What could be worse than that? Well, "worse than a thief" would be a situation where what someone gains is nothing compared to what I lose. A simple example is, [chuckle] I'm not the only one who does this, but if I'm going to the supermarket and I get out of the car and I see a nail in the parking lot or a piece of glass in the parking lot on my way in. So, I'm not talking about walking all around the parking lot. I'm talking about if on my way into the store I see a nail, something that could puncture a foot, a tire, and I spend a few seconds to pick it up, throw it in the trash can right by the door, then my theory is the reason I do that, the reason others do that, is the belief that that little bit of time that I am spending doing that could potentially save someone far more than the few seconds it took me.   0:03:20.9 BB: Well, "worse than a thief" would be, I see that broken bottle, let's say a bunch of shards of glass. And having worked at my father's gas station, I've seen... A nail on a tire is one thing. Nail creates a puncture. A piece of glass in a tire creates a fracture. A piece of glass can destroy a tire 'cause you get a crack and it spreads, and that's hard to repair. A puncture with a nail, yeah, it's inconvenient, but that doesn't destroy the tire. So, I'm overly sensitive when I see pieces of glass in a parking lot, that that could ruin a tire.   0:04:04.8 AS: And ruin a day.   0:04:06.2 BB: Ruin a day, oh yeah. And so the idea is that for someone to not take the time, and the time they save cost you more than they saved, that's worse than a thief.   0:04:19.8 AS: Right.   0:04:20.0 BB: So, if I meet a set of requirements, leave the bowling ball in the doorway, deliver minimally, but in the world of acceptability, what do we call that, Andrew? It's good.   0:04:35.3 AS: It's good.   0:04:36.0 BB: Right? It's good. It's just within requirements, but good.   0:04:41.8 AS: It's not beyond looking good.   0:04:43.9 BB: And forget about beyond looking good; this is looking good. So, I leave the bowling ball in the doorway. I deliver to you the absolute minimum, which is still good. So, your response to that, Andrew, is, "Thank you, Bill." [chuckle]   0:05:00.0 AS: Yeah.   0:05:00.1 BB: And I'm not saying you know what I did, but let's say the situation where I am unaware of the loss function. I'm unaware that what I'm doing is make making your life worse.   0:05:12.2 AS: Right.   0:05:13.3 BB: But the idea is that my shortcut to deliver the D minus; D minus, minus, minus, minus, minus. 'Cause that's still not an F. What Taguchi is talking about is that the amount of resources I save, may be a fraction of what it cost you in terms of extra effort to use it. So, my savings of an hour, a minute, a second causing you far more than I saved, is worse than a thief. But in the world of acceptability, there is no such thing. In the world of acceptability, a little bit within requirements on the low side, a little bit within requirements on the high side, it's all the same. Again, there may be a situation where if you're putting a shelf on a piece of wood on a wall as a shelf and it's a little bit longer, a little bit long on either side, that may not have an impact; may not be touching anything on either side. It doesn't have to fit in.   0:06:25.9 BB: Now, this past weekend, our son and I were installing a new floor at our daughter's condo, and we wanted the pieces to fit in-between other pieces and this laminate floor which is a [chuckle] lot of work. Our son is turning into quite the artist when it comes to woodworking and things. But it's very precise getting things just right, just right, just right. And that attention to detail, that attention to making sure the gaps are just right, minding the gap and not the part. And there were pieces of this floor that he was trying to install. And it was driving him nuts, and finally... He's trying to figure it out and he finally figured it out what was going on. 'Cause he wanted that floor and the spacing between not just to meet requirements [chuckle] not that our daughter gave him and set the requirement, but he wanted the floor in those gaps to be invisible. He wanted things to... Right? He had a higher level, a higher standard.   0:07:25.3 BB: Now, this is the same kid who when he was 13 left the bowling ball in the doorway. But I would've done that. You would've done that. So, anyway, that's the difference between... Another reminder of, one, the difference between acceptability and desirability. But to add to this idea of "worse than a thief," embedded in the concept of desirability is not to be worse than a thief, is to understand the consequences of your action on others, and the amount of time and your decision on how you deliver it and how you meet the requirements. The idea is that, the less time you take in order to save at your end might be causing the person downstream in your organization more than you're saving.   0:08:22.8 AS: In other words, something small, you could adjust something small that would have a huge impact down the line, and you just didn't... You don't know about it.   0:08:32.2 BB: Again, that's why I go back to the nail in the parking lot. To not pick up the nail could cause someone so much more than the few seconds you didn't spend. But again, that could be...   [overlapping conversation]   0:08:44.0 AS: And one of the things that makes it easier or better for a working environment is you know your downstream.   0:08:51.8 BB: Yes.   0:08:51.8 AS: When you're walking in the parking lot, you don't know your downstream; it's just anybody generally, and hopefully I've stopped something from happening here, but you're never gonna know and all that. But with a business, you know your downstream, you know your upstream, and that communication can produce a really, really exciting result because you can see it and feel it.   0:09:11.8 BB: Well, and thank you for bringing that up, because I've got notes from... Since the last time we met, I keep a file for the next sessions we're gonna do. And so as things, ideas come up from people that I'm meeting on LinkedIn or elsewhere, then I, "Oh, let me throw that in." And so I throw it into a Word file for the next time. And so somewhere, I can't remember who, but since the last time we spoke, someone shared with me... Hold on, let me find it here. Okay. In their organization, they do staff rotation. They move people around in their organization. And the question had to do with, "Isn't that what Dr. Deming would promote? Is having people move around the organization?" And I said... Hold on, I gotta sneeze. I said, "Well, if I am the person that makes the parts that you have to assemble, and I make them just within requirements unaware of the downstream impact... " I don't know where they are within the requirements, let's say.   0:10:30.0 BB: All I know is that they're acceptable. I machine it, I measure it, the inspection says it's good, I don't know where within it's good. I don't know. So, I'm unaware. All I know is that it met the requirements. And I hand off to you on a regular basis, and then the boss comes along and says, "Bill, I wanna have you go do Andrew's job." So, now, I'm on the receiving end. And maybe you are upstream doing what I used to do. And you are likewise unaware that... You don't know that you're delivering acceptability. All you know is all the parts you deliver are good. You're trained the same way I'm trained, I'm doing your job. Does that change anything? [chuckle] If I take on your job and let's say, banging it together, whereas the week before you were banging it together, does that rotation create the conversation?   0:11:27.2 AS: So, you're saying rotation for the sake of rotation is not necessarily valuable if in fact, what could be more value is just the two of us sitting down and saying, "So what is it that you're doing with yours and what do you need?" and maybe visiting the other side or something like that.   0:11:44.9 BB: My point is, until the thought occurs to either one of us on the distinction between acceptable and desirable, neither one of us is the wiser as to why we do what we do. So, having people move around the organization and take on different roles, absent an understanding of this contrast, absent an understanding of what Dr. Deming is talking about, which includes these distinctions, that's not gonna do anything.   0:12:16.0 AS: Right.   0:12:16.8 BB: I would say it's a nice idea, and you hear about that all the time about oh the CEO's gonna go work at the front desk. But if the CEO goes to the front desk, again, unless he or she has a sense of what could be, that things could be smoother than what they are because of where they've worked before and it's so much smoother over there, that could lead to why at the Atlanta office does it take so much longer than the LA office. Now I'm beginning to wonder what might be causing that difference. But if I just take on your job for the first time, or if you and I every other week change jobs. So, I'm doing your job, we are both doing assembly, we're both making the parts. Absent an understanding of the contrast between a Deming environment or a non-Deming environment, which would include an appreciation of what Dr. Deming would call the System of Profound Knowledge and the elements of psychology and systems and variation, the theory of knowledge, just not enough. Insufficient. Nice idea. But it's when at Rocketdyne we would call "reforming."   0:13:39.0 BB: And we started 'cause Russ... Dr. Deming talks about transformation, and Russ talks about reforming. And so I started thinking, "How would I explain what... " I just thought it was too... My interpretation of what Dr. Deming is saying of the individual transform will begin to see things differently, okay. My interpretation is, I begin to hear things differently, I begin to hear the contrast between somebody referring to their son as "their son" versus "our son," my idea versus our idea; I start paying attention to pronouns, so I start hearing things differently; I start to think about, see things as a system a little... I become more aware, visually more aware.   0:14:43.9 BB: And to me, another aspect I think about relative to transformation is that, if I'm the professor and you're the student in a class, or in any situation, I don't see... I think about how I've contributed to whatever it is you're doing. I have somehow created the headache that you're experiencing. If I'm upstream of you in the organization, whether that's me delivering a report or a tool, or I'm the professor delivering the lecture, I began to realize that your issues I've created, and I begin to see things as a... I begin to see that I am part of the issue, Part of the solution, part of the problem. When I explained to students this, I began to realize as a professor that I am not an observer of your learning, asking "How did you do on the exam?" I am a participant in your learning, saying "How did we do in the lecture?" And to me, that's all part of this transformation.   0:15:53.0 BB: Now, the other word, "reform," which is associated with things I've heard from Russ. He talks about... Yeah, I'll just pause there. But I started thinking, well, Deming's talking about how I see the world, how I begin to see relationships differently, think about variation differently. That's a personal transformation. Reforming, and others began to explain to people at Rocketdyne and I do with clients and students is, reforming is when you and I swap jobs. Reforming is when I look at the process and get rid of a few steps. Reforming is changing titles. Reforming is painting something, [chuckle] changing the color. I think I shared, maybe in the first podcast series, I was doing a multi-day, one-on-one seminar with a pediatrician in Kazakhstan, who came to London to meet me and a bunch of other friends to learn more about Dr. Deming's work. And the entire thing was done through a translator.   0:17:07.1 BB: And so I would ask a question in English, it would be translated to Russian then back to me in English. And so at some point, I said to Ivan Klimenko, a wonderful, wonderful guy. I said, "Ivan," I said [chuckle] to Yuri, the translator, I said, "Ask Ivan, what's the fastest way for a Red Pen Company, a non-Deming company, a "Me" organization, to become a Blue Pen Company, otherwise known as a Deming company or "We" organization." And these are terms that we talked about in the first series; I don't think in this series. But, anyway, I said, "So what's the fastest way for a non-Deming company to become a Deming company? A Red Pen Company to become a Blue Pen Company?"   0:17:44.9 BB: And so he asked, and I'm listening to the translation. And he says, "Okay, I give up." I said, "Spray paint." [chuckle] And that's what reforming is: Getting out the red spray paint, having things become neat, clean, and organized, and you're just going through the motions. There's no change of state. And so, "I do your job, you do my job," that's not sufficient. But get us to think about the contrast of a Deming and a non-Deming organization, then you and I changing roles could be enormously beneficial as I begin to understand what it's like to be on the receiving end. Now, we're talking. And I think I mentioned in a previous podcast, I had a woman attend one of the classes I did at Rocketdyne, and she said, "Bill, in our organization, we have compassion for one another." It's the same thing. It's not sufficient. And that's me saying, "Andrew, I feel really bad. I lost a lot of sleep last night thinking about how much time you spend banging together all those parts that I give you. And if there was anything I could do to make things better, I would love to help you. But at the end of the day, Andrew, all the parts I gave you are good, right? I don't give you bad stuff, right? Have I ever given you a defective part, Andrew?"   0:19:12.0 AS: Nope.   0:19:13.1 BB: "So, everything's good, right? Everything's good that I give you? Well, then, if I could help you, but I don't know what else to do. Everything I give you is good. So, it must be on your end." [laughter]   [overlapping conversation]   0:19:24.1 AS: And I'm busy. Yeah.   0:19:26.6 BB: Must be on you. And that's what I'm talking about. Now, if I understand that I'm contributing to your headache, I'm contributing to the trouble you're having with an example, now I'm inspired; now I understand there's something on me. [chuckle] But, short of that, nice idea, it's not helping.   0:19:50.0 BB: [laughter] So, the story I wanted to share before we're talking about this role-changing. Again, role-changing by itself, nah, not sufficient. So, see if this sounds familiar. It has to do with acceptability. I'm pretty certain it's part of the first series. I wanna make sure it's part of the second series. So, I was in a seminar at Rocketdyne on something to do with quality. And I think United Technologies had purchased Rocketdyne. They were bringing to us their new quality management system. Not just any quality management system, Andrew. This was called ACE, A-C-E. And, when we first learned about this, I remember being in a room when their United Technologies, ACE experts started to explain it. And some of my colleagues said, "Well, what is ACE?" They said, "Well, it's Achieving Competitive Excellence." "Well, what is it? What is it, 'competitive... '"   0:20:52.2 AS: It sounds like you wanna put that up on the wall as a slogan.   0:20:56.0 BB: It was a slogan, "Achieving Competitive Excellence." And people says, "Well, what is it?" I said, "Well, it's Lean Six Sigma." Well, so why do you call it ACE? Well, our arch rivals, General Electric. they call it Lean Six Sigma. We ain't gonna call it Lean Six Sigma. So, we're calling it ACE, A-C-E, Achieving Competitive Excellence. But it's the same thing as Lean Six Sigma. [chuckle] And so we had all this mandatory ACE training that we would all sit through and pray that the rosters were never lost, were never lost so we wouldn't have to take the training again. So, in the training, there was a discussion of, how does the environment impact quality? And I don't know how it came up, but similar, there's a conversation about the environment could affect quality. And, so when that was raised, I think it was a question that came up.   0:21:56.9 BB: How does the environment affect quality? The physical environment: How hot it is, how cold it is. So, one of the attendees says, "I've got an example." He says, "I worked for a Boeing supplier," and it might have been, "I worked for Boeing in Australia." I know he said he worked in Australia. They made parts, big parts, very tall parts like a 15, 20... Very long section. And I think he said it had to do with the tails, part of the tail for Boeing airplane. [chuckle] He says, "When we would measure it," he said, "we knew that if we took the measurement first thing in the morning before the sun came up and it started to get hot, then there's a good chance that the length would meet requirements. And, we knew that once that part saw the heat of the sun and expanded, then it wouldn't meet requirements. So, we measured it first thing in the morning, [laughter] and that's an example of how the environment affects quality." And, my first thought when I heard that was, "You can't make that story up, that I will keep measuring it until it meets requirements." That, Andrew, is me shipping acceptability. Do I care at all about how that part is used, Andrew? [chuckle]   0:23:18.7 AS: Nope.   0:23:19.9 BB: Do I know how that part is installed? Am I watching you install it and go through all, you know, hammer it? Nope. No. Again, even if I did, would I think twice that I measured it before the sun came up and that might be causing the issue? No, that still would not occur to me. But the other thing I wanted to bring up on this, on the topic of ACE, remember what ACE stands for?   0:23:46.0 AS: Achieving Competitive...   0:23:50.0 BB: Excellence.   0:23:50.3 AS: Excellence.   0:23:51.8 BB: So, Rocketdyne was owned by United Technologies of Pratt and Whitney, division of West Palm Beach, for 10 years or so? 10 long years. ACE, ACE, ACE, ACE, ACE. So, I kept thinking, [chuckle] I said to some of my Deming colleagues, "There's gotta be another acronym which is A-C-E." Achieving Competitive... What? What might be another E word? 'Cause it's not... Instead of ACE, Achieving Competitive Excellence, I kept thinking of this, what might be another way of what this is really all about? And it dawned me. The embarrassment is how long it took me to come up with what ACE translated to. And it was "Achieving Compliance Excellence." [chuckle]   0:24:42.9 AS: Excellent.   0:24:45.0 BB: Does it meet requirements? Yes. And so what is compliance excellence? It gets us back to acceptability. So, traditional quality compliance. But then while I was on the thought of Achieving Compliance Excellence, and then, well, there's a place for meeting requirements. There's a place for compliance excellence. I'm not throwing it out the window. I would say, if I ask you, Andrew, how far it is to the closest airport and you say 42 miles, 42 kilometers, or you say it takes an hour, then embedded in that model is "A minute is a minute, an hour is an hour, a mile is a mile, and all the miles are the same." Well, maybe they aren't. Maybe they aren't. Maybe I'm walking that distance, and I'm going uphill and downhill. Maybe I'm driving that distance. And those changes in elevation don't matter as much. So, then, what I thought was, there's Achieving Compliance Excellence that's acceptability, and then there's Achieving Contextual Excellence, which is my understanding of the context.   0:25:56.7 BB: And given my understanding of the context, if you say to me, "How far is it to the nearest airport?" I say, "Well, tell me more about the context of your question. Are you driving there? Are you riding your bike there? Are you walking there?" 'Cause then I'm realizing that every mile with Compliance Excellence, I just treat it as "a mile is a mile is a mile." They're all interchangeable, they're all the same. With Contextual Excellence, the context matters. And I say to you, "That's a... I mean, 42 miles, but boy, every mile is... They're brutal." And so then just the idea that context matters, that the understanding of a system matters. All right. So, next thing I wanna get to, and we've talked about this before but we never got it in, but I wanna provide, I really... Well, what I think is a neat example. [laughter] Okay. Calm down, Bill. [laughter]   0:26:54.8 AS: Yeah. You're excited about it.   0:26:57.0 BB: All right.   0:26:57.1 AS: So, about your idea... [chuckle]   0:27:00.2 BB: All right. So, again, in this spirit, my aim in conversation with you is to provide insights to people trying to bring these ideas to their organization. They're either trying to improve their own understanding, looking for better ways to explain it to others. And towards that end, here is a keeper. And for those who try this, if you have trouble, get back to me. Let me know how it goes. Here's the scenario I give people, and I've done this many, many times. What I used to do is give everyone in the room a clear transparency. That's when you had overhead projectors. [chuckle] 'Cause people say, "What is a transparency? What is an overhead projector?"   [overlapping conversation]   0:27:45.0 AS: Yeah exactly.   0:27:46.8 BB: It's a clear piece of plastic, like the size of a sheet of paper. And on that sheet, on that piece of plastic was a vertical line and a horizontal line. I could call it set a set of axes, X-Y axis. And the vertical axis I called "flavor." And the horizontal axis, I called "time." And, so everyone, when they would walk into a seminar, would get a clear transparency. I give them a pen to write on this transparency. And I'd say to them, "Here's what I want you to imagine. The horizontal axis is time. The vertical axis is flavor." And I would hold up a can of soda and I'd say, "Imagine. Imagine, inside this can, imagine before the lid is put on, soda is added to this can," any kind of soda. Right? "Imagine soda's in the can. Imagine in the can is a probe, a flavor meter. And the flavor meter is connected to the pen in your hand." And what that... Wirelessly, Andrew. So, there's this probe that goes into the soda, into the can. It is, let's say, with Bluetooth technology connected to the pen in your hand, such that you have the ability with this magic pen to trace out what the flavor of the soda in the can is at any point in time.   0:29:31.0 BB: And so I would put on the vertical axis, right, the Y axis, I would put a little tick mark, maybe three quarters of the way up the vertical axis. And so everyone started at that tick mark. And I would say, "Okay, get your pen ready, get it on the tick mark. This flavor meter is inside the can. It's transmitting to your hand and the pen the flavor of Pepsi. If I was to seal this can, put the lid on it, and I say, 'Now the device is activated.' As soon as I put the lid on the can, the pen is activated and your hand starts to trace out what is the flavor of the soda doing over time." And I would say, "If you think the flavor gets better, then you have a curve going up. If you think the flavor of the soda's getting worse, then it goes down. If you think it stays the same, it just goes across."   0:30:37.1 BB: And I would just say, "What I want each of you to do, as soon as that can is sealed, I want you to imagine what the flavor of Pepsi, Coke, whatever it is, I want you to... " The question is, "What do you think the flavor of soda is doing in a sealed can over time?" And I would say, "Don't ask any questions. Just do that." Now, most of the people just take that and they just draw something. They might draw something flat going across. [chuckle] Now and then somebody would say, [chuckle] "Is the can in a refrigerator?" [chuckle] And my response is, "Don't complicate this."   [laughter]   0:31:26.1 BB: So, I just throw that out. Most people just take that and just trace something out. And for the one who says, "Is it refrigerated? What's the timescale? Is the horizontal axis years or minutes?" I'd say, "Don't complicate it." [chuckle]   0:31:46.8 AS: "And don't ask questions."   0:31:48.9 BB: "And don't ask... " But you can bring me over and I'll ask you a question. You can ask your questions, I would just say, "Don't complicate it." So, what do we do? Everyone gets a few minutes, they draw it. I take all those transparencies that you can see through, and I put them on top of one another. And I can now hold them up to the room and people can see what I'm holding up. They can see all the different curves.   0:32:17.0 AS: Right.   0:32:18.0 BB: 'Cause they all start at the same point. And then I would say to the audience, "What do they all have in common?" Well, they all start at the same point. "What else do they have in common? What do they all have in common?" And people are like, "I don't know." Some of them are flat. They go across, the flavor doesn't change. Most of them think it goes down at some rate.   0:32:43.4 AS: Yep.   0:32:45.0 BB: Either concave down or convex down. Now and then, somebody will say it goes up and up and up; might go up and then down. But most people think it goes down over time. That's the leading answer. The second leading answer is it's constant. Up and down, rarely. So, I've done that. I've had people do that. I used to have a stack of 500 of transparencies. I used to save them and just go through them. I've done it, let's say in round numbers, 1,500 to 2,000 people. So, all the curves start at that tick mark in the 99.9999% of them either go down or go across. What's cool is, all those curves are smooth. Meaning, very smoothly up, very smoothly across, very smoothly down. Mathematically, that's called a "continuous function." And what I explained to them is, if I draw a vertical line halfway across the horizontal axis, and I look at every one of those curves, because the curves are smooth, if I draw a vertical line and how each curve, your profile and all the others go across that line, immediately to the left and immediately to the right, it's the same value because the curve is smooth.   0:34:28.3 BB: But I don't ask them to draw a smooth curve. I just say, "What do you think the flavor does over time?" They always, with three exceptions, draw a smooth curve. And so when I ask them what do they have in common, you get, "They start at the same point." Nope, that's not it. I don't know if anyone's ever articulated, "They're all continuous functions." Very rarely. So, then I explained, "They're all continuous functions. But I didn't ask you to draw a continuous function." Well, when I point out to them that three times, three times, Andrew, out of nearly 2,000, somebody drew a curve that goes starting at the tick mark, zero time, and it goes straight across halfway across the page at the same level, and then drops down to zero instantly, it's what's known mathematically as a "step function."   0:35:26.9 BB: So, it goes across, goes across, and then in zero time drops down to zero and then continues. So, three out of nearly 2,000 people drew a curve that wasn't smooth. Again, mathematically known as a step function. And each time I went up to that person and I said, and I comment on it, and each of them said, there's a point at which it goes bad. And each of them had a job in a quality organization. [chuckle] And so why is this important? Because in industry, there's this thing known as an "expiration date." What is an expiration date? It's the date past which you cannot use the chemical, the thing. And what's the assumption? The assumption is, a second before midnight on that date, Andrew, you could use that chemical, that acid, that glue, whatever it is in our product; a second before midnight, before the expiration date, you can use that. But a second after midnight, we put this tape and we call it "defective." And so I've worked with companies that are in the chemical business, and they literally have this tape. At the expiration date, we don't use it. A second before midnight, we do. And so what you have is a sense that it goes from good to bad, you know how fast, Andrew?   0:37:15.0 AS: Tick of a clock.   0:37:17.0 BB: Faster than that, Andrew. Zero time.   0:37:21.0 AS: Yeah.   0:37:22.0 BB: Zero time. And so what I ask people is, "Can you think of any phenomenon that happens in zero time?" And people call that's... "Well, the driver was killed instantly." No, it wasn't zero time. "Well, someone is shot." It's not zero time. And so what's cool is, when I ask people to describe a phenomenon, describe any physical phenomenon that happens in zero time, that we go from one location to another, from one state to another in zero time, I've not been stumped on that. Although actually, [chuckle] there are some situations where that happens. Well, the reason that's important for our audience is, that's a demonstration that expiration-date thinking is an organizational construct. It's not a physical construct. Milk goes bad fast. [chuckle] I'll admit, the expiration date on the half gallon of milk, it goes bad fast.   0:38:27.2 BB: But a second before midnight and a second after midnight, it's still the same. So, expiration-date thinking is what acceptability is about; that everything is good, equally good, but once we go across that expiration date, Andrew, then the flavor changes suddenly. And so what I used to kid people is, imagine if that really happened, right? Then we'd have this contest. I'd say, "Andrew, I had a can of Pepsi recently. And have you ever done this, Andrew? You get the can of Pepsi that has the expiration date on it. And if you listen to it at midnight, on the expiration date, you listen closely, you can hear it go from good to bad, Andrew." [chuckle] Would that be awesome? [chuckle] So, I was sharing some of this recently with our good friend, Christina, at The Deming Institute office.   0:39:31.0 AS: Yep.   0:39:32.7 BB: And it happened to be her birthday. And, so I sent her a note and I said, "Happy birthday." And I said, "So, did you change age immediately on the second you were born?" 'Cause she said, 'cause I think she said something like, "My mom reached out to me and she reminded me exactly what time I was born." And I said, "Oh," I said, "so did you feel the change in age as you crossed that?" And she said, she said, "Hi, Bill. Of course, I felt instantly different on my birthday. My mom even told me what time, so I'd know exactly when to feel different." [chuckle] Now, so here's a question for you, Andrew. Can you think of a situation where something changes from one value to another in zero time? In zero time. Again, we don't go from living to dying in zero time. The change of Pepsi doesn't go from one value to another in zero time. The quality of any product is not changing, you go from one side to the other. But can you think of anything that actually happens in zero time: Across that line, it goes from one value to another?   0:41:05.0 AS: Nope, I can't.   0:41:08.8 BB: Oh, come on, Andrew. You ready?   0:41:16.2 AS: Go for it.   0:41:20.0 BB: Did you ever hear of the German novelist, Thomas Mann, M-A-N-N?   0:41:24.0 AS: No.   0:41:25.7 BB: All right. I wrote this down as a closing thought; it may not be the closing thought. We'll just throw it in right now. So, this in an article [chuckle] I wrote for the Lean Management Journal.   0:41:38.0 AS: By the way, it's gotta be the closing thought because we're running out of time. So, perfect.   0:41:43.7 BB: Fantastic! Well, then here's my closing thought, Andrew. You want my closing thought?   0:41:47.1 AS: Do it.   0:41:48.1 BB: All right. So, from an article I wrote for the Lean Management Journal, so here's the quote. "I have witnessed industrial chemicals in full use right up to the expiration date, and then banned from use and tagged for immediate disposal with a passing of the expiration date only seconds before the chemicals were freely used. While they may rapidly sour, it is unlikely that they expire with a big bang, all in keeping with a sentiment of German novelist Thomas Mann's observation about New Year's Eve," Andrew. What he said was, "Time has no divisions to market's passage. There's never a thunderstorm or a blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when the century begins, it is only we mere mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols." So, at midnight on December 31st, a fraction of a second before midnight, we're in 2024 and we go to 2025 in zero time, Andrew. So, legally things change as you go across a line. You go from the United States to Mexico across a line of zero thickness. So, legally things across a line change instantly.   0:43:17.0 AS: Well.   0:43:18.0 BB: A coupon, Andrew, expires at midnight. [laughter]   0:43:22.7 AS: Yep. All right. Well, on behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for this discussion. And for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And if you wanna keep in touch with Bill, as he mentioned at the beginning, just reach out to him on LinkedIn. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. "People are entitled to joy in work."

Assine o Café Brasil em https://canalcafebrasil.com.br  O convidado de hoje é Sérgio Molina, – atual CEO do grupo Criadores de Experiências (C+E). Quando tinha 17 anos, Sérgio trouxe para o Brasil o conceito de decoração de natal que já era muito comum nos Estados Unidos, provocando um profundo impacto cultural na sociedade brasileira, que perdura até hoje. Tivemos uma fascinante conversa sobre o marketing aplicado às experiências humanas. Um papo que fará sua cabeça viajar para o futuro. Como estará o mundo do marketing dentro de cinco ou dez anos? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Assine o Café Brasil em https://canalcafebrasil.com.br  O convidado de hoje é Sérgio Molina, – atual CEO do grupo Criadores de Experiências (C+E). Quando tinha 17 anos, Sérgio trouxe para o Brasil o conceito de decoração de natal que já era muito comum nos Estados Unidos, provocando um profundo impacto cultural na sociedade brasileira, que perdura até hoje. Tivemos uma fascinante conversa sobre o marketing aplicado às experiências humanas. Um papo que fará sua cabeça viajar para o futuro. Como estará o mundo do marketing dentro de cinco ou dez anos? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this month's episode, we're joined by Dr. Bonnie Snyder to discuss BVM as well her recently published paper in Resuscitation: Association of small adult ventilation bags with return of spontaneous circulation in out of hospital cardiac arrest.    During the episode, you'll hear us cover:   There is nothing basic about the BVM - it is not a benign intervention Rate and volume based on the guidelines  Consequences of excessive rate/volume Consequences of under ventilation  General airway management positioning  suction airway adjuncts mask seal C-E technique 2 person technique  waveform capnography and other real time feedback importance of proper volume importance of proper pressure  BVM sizing  Dr. Snyder's study  research question/impetus P-I-C-O results feedback  next steps

Back by popular demand, "Build Me Up" invited FMI's Partner and Managing Director of Research and Analytics, Jay Bowman and KA's EVP and COO Rich Jacobson back to chat! They join us each year as we give in to a look ahead for the year.   Jay specializes in construction spending forecasts, strategic planning, and research and analytics for the A/C/E industry. We talk about strategic planning, tech, workforce challenges, and industry trends for 2024. Jay brings in the national perspective of what we can expect, and Rich gives a more focused, local approach of what is going on in the Midwest market.  

En el episodio de hoy, abordamos una decisión que ha sacudido el mundo del transporte: el acuerdo entre Pedro Sánchez y Mohamed VI para permitir que los camioneros marroquíes conduzcan en España sin necesidad de realizar ningún curso previo. Anteriormente, el canje de permisos de conducir solo se aplicaba a los permisos de coche tipo B, pero esta medida amplía la validez a los carnet de camión y camión con remolque C y C+E. Aunque se espera que esto solucione el déficit de conductores profesionales de camión en España, ha generado preocupación entre los profesionales del sector debido a las condiciones laborales y a la seguridad vial. Mientras tanto, en las noticias del transporte, hemos sido testigos de un espectacular accidente en la A5 causado por un reventón en la rueda de dirección. Afortunadamente, no hubo heridos, pero este evento destaca los riesgos inherentes en las carreteras. Además, discutimos el crecimiento sorprendente del mercado de camiones en España, con un aumento del 37,4% en las matriculaciones en febrero. Este incremento sugiere un panorama próspero para el sector, aunque también plantea desafíos en términos de seguridad vial y congestión en las carreteras. Por último, abordamos la controversia en torno a la propuesta de la DGT de retirar el carnet de conducir a mayores de 65 años y su posterior desautorización por parte del Parlamento Europeo. Mientras que la DGT argumentaba que los mayores de 65 son una fuente frecuente de accidentes, el Parlamento Europeo consideró esta medida discriminatoria y en su lugar aprobó una nueva regulación para garantizar los derechos de los conductores mayores. Todo esto y más en nuestro episodio de hoy, ¡no te lo pierdas Presenta: Fernando Rivas https://twitter.com/rivasportauto Coordina: Jose Lagunar https://twitter.com/JoseLagunar Colabora: Rafa Soto: https://twitter.com/rafa_soto_1980 Transporte y Movilidad: https://www.youtube.com/c/TransporteyMovilidad Todos los programas del transporte en AutoFM los tienes en esta lista: https://www.ivoox.com/camioneros-transporte_bk_list_9971505_1.html Y también tienes todos los podcast del transporte en nuestra página web Podcast Motor: https://www.podcastmotor.es/camioneros-y-transportistas-en-podcast-motor/ Puedes seguirnos en nuestra web: https://www.podcastmotor.es Twiter: @AutoFmRadio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autofmradio/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC57czZy-ctfV02t_PeNXCAQ Contacto: info@autofm.es

Another episode from the No Limits With Christian and Eddie Podcast. In this Episode, C&E speak to a good friend of the show and get a lesson into the LGBTQ community. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/otmwitheddie/message

Gain actionable insights into her groundbreaking approaches, empowering employees, and reshaping corporate culture. Join Lesley with guest Ryan-Mae on this podcast episode to discover the keys to creating a forward-thinking, employee-centric organization.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co . And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:Why more people need to speak up inside corporate walls?The human element in what HR does.Are you speaking your truth to the right people in the company?How to finding the self you need to serve in that moment.Why intent is a huge thing in the people space. Episode References/Links:Follow Ryan-Mae on LinkedInFollow Ryan-Mae on IGCheck out Blackthorn.ioMelissa Doman BookCheck out Good Call New York  If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.Get your 15% discount for Toe Sox – use coupon code LESLEY15Be It Till You See It Podcast SurveyBe in the know with all the workshops at OPCBe a part of Lesley's Pilates MentorshipResourcesWatch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable PilatesSocial MediaInstagramFacebookLinkedInEpisode Transcript:Ryan-Mae McAvoy: [00:00:00] We build up, like you said, we build up these stories good, bad, in between and it's, it's really a disservice to our own self to be like, but can I change the story? What? Like, how can I change the story? Some things can't change. There's loss, there's events that happen, but also you can look at that and say, okay, but what can I do now?And that's really what I'm just trying to put out there is what can you do now? And how can you change and how do you be more than just what people say you are.Lesley Logan: Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear.Each week, my guest will bring bold, [00:01:00] executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. All right, babe, how are you? Welcome to Be It Till You See It interview. I am so thrilled for this interview this week because it actually goes on like's little journey and I'm really excited for it because when I first was introduced to this person I was like, you know, that could be cool. And then I was like reading about her and I was doing a little bit of research. I'm like, you know what? Actually I think this is really cool because I too often have had people who've like, like said goodbye to the nine to five middle finger to the boss. Peace out. I'm on my own. I'm being until I see it.But we don't often interview people who are like, yeah, you can work for a place and you can actually like tell people that you would like it to be a little bit more like this, or you could be a little more like this. And also, what I'm really excited for you to hear is the humanness that can be at a corporate job. It's possible. I'm not saying it's happening at your [00:02:00] job, but it can. And maybe there's a way that you can make that happen or maybe this interview will help you seek that out. And we also talk about so many other things. This is like a nice little fun conversation that I am thrilled for you to listen to.Ryan MaE McAvoy is our guest. Melissa Doman is the person who introduced me to her. Her interview is in the show notes. It's all about like, why we need to talk about mental health at work. So, today's interview is just fun. It's a lot of fun. I learned a lot. I, I think as a person who doesn't work at a corporation, I have my own corporation.And I don't yet have like a whole HR team. But you know, we're growing into that space, as a person on that side of it, I felt like this interview gave me a lot of insight on like, what is possible, like what I can create. Because I've gotta be honest, like when I thought, oh gosh, we have to have HR team.Okay, gotta button it up, gotta find someone who's like, you know, you know, here's your paperwork. But that's not true. So it doesn't have to be that way. And [00:03:00] we all listen to this podcast whether you work for yourself, wanna work for yourself, or you work for someone else. We can't actually be the change that we wanna see in places where people get to be more human being, which is I don't think a phrase, but I'm gonna make it one. So here is Ryan Mae McAvoy. I hope you enjoy the conversation. I hope you have fun. I hope you feel like you're talking with two girlfriends and we wanna know what you said on the other side of it. And then her Be It action item is just really awesome.It's actually something I think we all need to do, no matter who you are, where you work, what you're up to, and what you wanna be it until you see it. Here's Ryan Mae McAvoy.Alright. Right. Be it babe. Here's the deal. I'm so excited because today's guest is actually a referral from another past guest. And, um, y'all remember you loved her. I'm now losing my voice because, I'm picking up on our guest today, Vegas Voice, the sexy. Yeah. So, um, We're just gonna blame it on Vegas. She was just in Vegas.I live in Vegas and sometimes that casino just takes your voice away. Anyways, today's guest is Ryan Maid McEvoy, and what I'm so excited for [00:04:00] you to hear about her is we often have entrepreneurs, people who've like left the nine to five goodbye, peace out word to your mother. I'm working for myself now, and today's guest is actually like, no, I'm in it.I'm in the space and I'm making it work, uh, for me and I really wanted to share that cuz not everyone has that opportunity or wants to. So, Ryan May, can you tell everyone who you are and what you're rocking at? Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Yeah, I am Ryan May McEvoy. Uh, my corporate self is the head of people for blackor.io. We are a SaaS company based out of New York.Uh, I say that loosely. We actually don't have an office. We're very much like work where you are. Um, I have been doing kind of HR plops in many, many fashions in a very weird, non-traditional way. I worked at an animal hospital for several years. I worked at a ski area. I moved to the Silicon Valley and kind of got that like, oh, so you're good at like being an EA and did that to like break back into the people space, um, and really just not.Having that like, oh, I just wanna [00:05:00] be like self-employed and do the van life. And it's, I think we miss a lot of, like corporate still has a lot of potential and we need people to speak up inside corporate walls to change. Not because we need to everybody to be in corporate, but there still has to be. It's always like, there's always gonna need to be the firefighters, the policemen, the garbagemen.Everybody has a spot. And so what do we do in our ourselves to make that spot as cool and as like open and wonderful as possible? Lesley Logan: Oh my God, I love this. And also so much to like things that I'm gonna highlight there. Um, especially because, um, First of all, I, my friend was in a college, like, I'm gonna go work in hr.And I'm like, what does that even mean? Like, what does that, what do you do? Like make sure people like clocked in and out on time, like signed their contracts. Like you a babysitter? Sometimes. Sometimes, yeah. But also like what sounds so cool about hr? Is that you have, you've been able to like kind of cool into different unique spaces.Like it sounds like you've been able to [00:06:00] like work in the, an animal hospital, but then now you work for this other company and you can kind of like. Put yourself in a creative space if you want to. But I wanna highlight, you said this, you're changing the way you're changing the corporate world from where you are.Like I think people are like, if I leave it and I go Van Life it, which by the way, the New York Times, the whole article on like, is Van Life really awesome? And the girl's like, this is terrible. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: I feel like, like day three, I'd be like, so this, my Instagram looks fire, but I'm gonna need like, To just go home. (Lesley: Yeah.) I'd be like, we made it to Reno guys. Time to just pack it back, pack it back to the West coast. Lesley Logan: Um, but um, but I, I love that because I think often we're like, oh, I have to leave to make things better. But actually you can, things don't change if you leave, like sometimes we, sometimes it is a better, better option to stay and like make the changes from where, where you are if it's possible.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: If it's possible. There's a couple things I really wanna capture on that. Um, I think leaving does have a powerful impact. Um, and it doesn't mean leaving has to be leaving the [00:07:00] corporate world, leaving the, the space you're in. Um, I love tech. I love startup. I think it's a very creative new age, kind of.There's cool ideas we're trying to problem solve, um, but sometimes it is leaving. I left an employer before Black Thorn, uh, that I loved. Personal relationships. I, these are people I still hold near and dear to my heart. I have a lot of love for them, and I had amazing mentors that came in. I'm like, but what about you?Like, you are not happy. This isn't filling your cup. And I think sometimes you do have to leave to like do that change. And you have to find your spot and something I, I actually highlighted this on LinkedIn a while ago. Our leadership team and our team is amazing for me. It's incredible. It is. It works for me.It is the best thing. Are there people, even in the HR worlds, I'm like, oh no, you, you would be so unhappy. We wouldn't be stoked on you. That's not a fit. And I think that's where change comes from is being able to say, why does this work for me? But if it doesn't work for you, and that's [00:08:00] okay. Um, and now finding my personal philosophy on HR is, Hrs now turning into people ops and we're touching a lot more stuff.And I always joke, there's like old school HR and I think of the lady from Monsters Inc. Where she's like, where's your paperwork? And that's still really like kind of the, the brand we have in a lot of places. And it's so much, it's so much time like trying to resell yourself. Yeah. And then be like, it's not, it's not just paperwork, it's not just compliance.It's helping people get benefits from medical care. It's talking about diversity, inclusion, and every day is a new adventure and every day is learning and finding new things. Even last week we had an employee highlight something I, I don't wanna share cuz I wanna respect their journey, but I was like, it's not even on my radar.I didn't even think about how are we not talking about this? And I. I do tend to get fired up. So now I'm like, this is my cause and I'm gonna go like talk to everybody about it so we can fix this [00:09:00] problem. But I think that's where people mistake us for like, oh, we're just checking your time card. We're just making sure you're not doing things.Lesley Logan: So, okay. This is so fascinating because like I think in every industry, no matter who's listening and where are they work, like there's the old guard of whatever that job was and then, and then there's like, Opportunity to kind of make it your, make it what is calling to you and it and, and that, and it obviously, it requires you to be in a place that honors that, but, but it sounds so cool.So can you just, like, for people who are like, hold on, back up. What's hr, whenever I got called there, I was getting written up. Um, what, what is, what is like, aside from like the Monsters Inc. Lady, what are like a typical HR and like what is it that you've made HR be so that you. You get excited about it because you're like excited about it.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: I'm excited about what I do and I think that's the thing is like typical HR is, oh, you're just here to protect the company. You're just here. My most like engaged LinkedIn post was one our, I was like, you go, here's the common [00:10:00] misconceptions. We only care about the company. We only are here to protect them.We are here for the company, but we also, I know every good people in HR person that I interact with. That's because we know it's people's paychecks. It's dance lessons for kids. It's the European vacation you want to take for your 25th, your 30th, whatever milestone in your life. If there's not the company that's a lot of people's livelihood.And so it's easy to like kind of villainize it and say, oh, well you just wanna protect the company. I. Maybe, but why? But what is my intent behind it? If it's like, oh, I just don't want us to get sued, that's probably not great. Um, I, I don't want to think that most of us come from that place. I think we do think about the people.Um, and then it was, oh, well you're just, you're a corporate and you wanna follow rules. I'm also an employee. I still get a paycheck. I use the medical benefits I take sick time. And that really kind of gets moved away from. The human element of what we do. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot [00:11:00] of hard news that comes with what we do.(Lesely: Yeah) If you're doing layoffs, if you're terminating someone, if there's an injury, if someone's not performing, yeah. We're involved, and that's a conversation. Um, my childhood best friend wanted to work together, and I, we had this really open conversation where I was like, you have to understand if it doesn't work, I have to be in that meeting.I don't have to agree personally. I can know your side. I can know their side. It's, that's my function. That is my function is being there to like, here's how we transition, here's what that conversation is. And I'm not always comfortable. There are people, I'm like, I, you can't, I won't refer you because I don't wanna ruin that.I would never work with my husband. Like, you guys are so amazing. I'm like, she's a rockstar. Cuz I'm like, we have to have our separate things. Husband is like the friendliest, nicest guy. Everyone loves him and everyone's always like, oh, it'll be so cool if you guys work together. I'm like, but how do you separate that?(Lesely: Yeah) And some people can, I know there are [00:12:00] people in HR, they work at the same company. Like we're in different departments. It doesn't matter. I, I have, I've, I have such a, like a not good poker face. If we were doing a layoff or he was getting terminated, there's no way. I'm like, Hey, what's for dinner? Also dinner.Oh, you, there's no way that would be like possible's your like, how's your resume? Like, no reason. I'm just like, just like curious. Like this is normal conversation. Right? Like, we never talk about this, but I'm just like, maybe just shoot that to me on like my personal email tonight and we'll just take a little gander.Like I never wanna be in that position. Yeah. But I also think that makes good HR people, Lesley Logan: You know, here's what like I am what I love that you're saying, cuz I know that like, I do think, and I have thought, oh, HR is this weird thing that companies hire to be there for the employees, that really it's protect the company.But the way you've explained it is like it humanizes it a little bit and to me it's almost like a Venn diagram. HR is kind of like the overlap of where like the company needs to be protected, but so do the employees and like that's where you live and wow. Do you get to be like [00:13:00] one foot on an island and one foot on a canoe at all times and like, I hope you have good inner thigh strengths.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Well, I, I, (Lesley: together) listening to you, so now I feel like I have to go a Pilate slice. I have to go try this. So maybe that'll be my, my new set. Lesley Logan: Yeah, yeah. Side plus on the reformer is up for you. But, I think, like, I think it's what your highlight is also just like extremely, it's like being a human being in your place of work is so important.And if you are not able to be a human being where you're working, then. It's a really good sign that maybe you should go talk to your HR department and see like if you're in the right place. So like, lemme just ask if I had an HR, I mean obviously not every HR is you, but if I was at your company and I was struggling, like are you like able to see that I'm in the right position?Are you able to see like if I should be doing a different kind of transfer, are you also able to say like, Hey, this isn't the right place for you. Like what? (Ryan-Mae: So we try) What do, what do people do with, with you if as an employee, other than say, Hey, I would like you to think about this over here. [00:14:00] And that's the thing.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: So we try, we are multifaceted. We have an anonymous tool where people can say like, Hey, I'm just not feeling this. It, like, the first question is like, how was your month? How are you feeling over the month? And you, I think it's like n very unhappy, happy neutral. So we utilize those tools. We do quarterly surveys.Our leadership, and this is something I I'm beyond grateful for, this is a village effort. I don't take all the credit for this. It is not just me. There's amazing humans that I think the universe just kind of put us all in the same spot and was like, let's go, let's do this. Our COO, our CEO, everyone's like, Hey, if you're here and you're unhappy, let's talk about it.Is there another rule for you? Maybe? Is there not? Maybe, if you just say like, Hey, I actually think you're all terrible and I don't wanna be here anymore. We'd rather you tell us, we can figure it out. Instead of you just like randomly quitting in the middle of something. Cuz that's hard for you.It's hard for us. I also just don't know if people feel safe to utilize that. We really try and we [00:15:00] mm-hmm. All of our leadership is open about like, here's where I'm at today. I always sometimes joke our, I'm a cat mom. It's like a weird thing. Our cat like fell one day and I thought his leg was broken.And I was like, I have to be offline. Like, we're going to the vet and I'm just like crying and all this. And nobody was like, What is this? What's going on? Everybody's like, okay, do you need anything? Are you good? Like mm-hmm. We really try and make that. I don't know if it's util obviously, like, I'm like, I want everyone to feel safe.We do try and say like, if you don't wanna come to me, here's an alternative. If you don't wanna go to your boss, here's like, everyone's kind of allowed to go where they need to go. Yeah. But I don't think people are still super comfortable with that. And I think it comes from this is a new wave. This is a new wave of people.People you have. The older generation, and I don't, I don't wanna like classify him for like boomers or whatever because it's, there are people that are argued to that act this way because it's how they were trained. And I think it's a matter of, we're just coming into this new thing. Five years ago, mental health was kind of being talked about.[00:16:00] Now you have CEOs going, oh my gosh, I was struggling with my mental health. So I'm doing these like psychedelics under doctor care and I'm like, What, 25 year old me was like, oh, we wouldn't, we don't talk about that. Like that's not, and now it's, so it's, we are still learning too. Yeah. And I think the struggle is some of us are like, yes, let's talk about it.Let's change things. Let's build a different version of a company. And other people are still like, oh, they're gonna sue us if we talk about mental health. They're gonna, they're gonna abuse leaves. And so I think you have to. Lesley Logan: Well, it sounds like it's coming from an, It sounds like where you're at, there's a, an inherent trust.Like we believe in what we're doing and we want you to be part of it and enjoy yourself while you're here. And like, I think that like it does come from people at the top being human or at least having someone who can remind them that they're human. And I think, you know, it is true. Like I just heard the mayor of San Francisco on an interview and she was talking about like, [00:17:00] this is what she'd like to have for Ben, the guy who actually used to give everyone flowers and now he's has dementia and he lost his house.Like people, the, the people that I hear talking about mental health, I'm like, whoa, hold on. So I think it's so important, but I also think like, it sounds like it's also two parts. So if you're listening to this and you work for a company and you're like, oh, my company doesn't like that. It makes me wonder, like sometimes I think that, like, are we also the employee, are we also saying, Hey, here's what I need.Like are we actually saying what we need to the right people in the company, or are we just assuming that they won't give it to us and, and just. Putting up a block Ryan-Mae McAvoy: I think that's very much, there's just this mental like, oh, I don't know. Melissa, you mentioned Melissa Doman.Yeah. I send her book to everyone. I, I'm obsessed. We have like the coolest uni universal cosmic crossing of paths and really that's the fine. The thing I find myself saying the most is I can't solve problems I don't know about. (Lesley: Yep) So, If [00:18:00] you're not comfortable coming to me, is it the anonymous tool?Is it you going to someone else? What does that look like? Because I can't, if I don't know what's happening, I can't help it. And then the second part is always be very, very upfront. I will tell someone, like I said, we had an employee ask some really great questions last week, and I was like, Hey, it's on my radar.I'm not promising to change this in a day. A year, but I now know about it. I will keep updating you. And sh she was very grateful. She's like, we just talked about it. That was very like, yeah, helpful. And I think the biggest thing I would encourage anyone, and it's not even just hr, it's if you have a question ask, like is it uncomfortable sometimes?Yes. We did a four day work week, which is actually, I think how Mel kind of like pushed us together. I'm all about employee perks, the benefits, and I was like, you guys are out of your mind. This is not gonna work. We're 15 months in and it's working. Wow. And you're doing four days a week? [00:19:00] Yeah, we do. We have Fridays off for people to just like have a life and I think, but it was more than just one piece and it's something, it becomes a bigger thing.It's the seed of the garden. To being more than just your job. Just a parent, just a, a neighbor, just a whatever it is you identify as. And for me, I had a really rough 2021. I had some health issues. Our wedding kept getting post cuz of Covid. Life was kind of all over the place. And I joined Black Thorn. It was kind of funky.It was weird. And I was like finding myself ready to like, we have to do this for the employees and our leadership being like, yeah, we trust you. You got this. And I was like, whoa, whoa, I don't have to like fight you. Oh, okay. That's weird. And, and I explain even now, like I'm almost a year and a half in and I keep talking to people and I'm like, I still sometimes look at 'em like, do I get to do this?This is really how things are going. And I think it seeds into other things I. I gained a bunch [00:20:00] of weight in 2021. I had some really bad physical challenges. Our CEO is one of the most incredible human beings I've ever met in my life. He's super fit, and so I always felt self-conscious about it, like I felt very self-conscious about it.And we did a miles challenge in the fall of 2022. I'm also very competitive, so I was like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna win and it's gonna be great. And. I remember him and I were, were messaging and I was like, yeah, I did five miles. And then like, I saw your pace and it took me like an hour and a half and you did it like 40 minutes.He's like, but five miles is five miles. Why do you care? You did it. Yeah. And I was like, whoa. And so it's, and it develops into more things. Like I got up Monday morning, I'm in Las Vegas, I'm in this great hotel room, it's a party town. Got up and walked on the treadmill and I just like sent him a message and I was like, Hey, I want you to know like you affect more than just work me.(Lesely: Yeah) I know now that 30 minutes in the morning, if it's treadmill, if it's going outside and listening to a podcast, if it's going outside and having a phone call before I kind of start my day, that [00:21:00] time and that piece that I've created is really meaningful to me and I need it. Yeah, and it's something that is just really incredible and I think that when we have that openness, And we all talk about our struggles cuz he's very much like, I don't want to people just talk to me cause I'm CEO or be afraid to talk to me cause I'm CEO.Lesley Logan: Yeah. I think like, okay first of all, if you're like wondering who Mel is, you guys will link her book in the show notes. We'll also link to her episode you guys, I picked her up for the show. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: If you don't like your HR person, I will anonymously send her book to them. Cause I have been known to do like some also a little petty.Lesley Logan: Oh yeah. Let us know. Or you could, or if you're listening, just un honestly. Yes. I a guitar person. Yeah. But, it is all about talking about mental health at work and why we have to, and also it came, it's a great episode on like, like wellness shaming, which can happen at work one, everything. But, so I so just wanna put a pin on that.You feel like, who is Mel? That's what we're talking about now. I wanna also say like, you know, the stories we tell ourselves are like, so huge. Like, like, so it's like if we're telling ourselves that I can't talk to [00:22:00] hr, And HR is over there going, gosh, I really wish people talked to me. And also minding me saying, Hey, come talk to us.But you might be hearing cuz you've just told yourself a story. So it's like really? You know, it's important for you wherever you are to listen to this and like, understand what you want and like go say it and then understand that they might be able to do it tomorrow, but like at least say it so you know it's been said and you can then find out who they are and how they'll operate and if it's gonna work for you because maybe you don't need to leave or as you mentioned earlier, maybe you do.Man, oh, we had an episode on stress with Dr. Bender and she talked about how whenever we're feeling stressed out as human beings, we like to reason, we like to make up a reason and. Then that reason becomes, oh, well I got stressed out if my boss left the room. So actually it's my boss that stresses me out.Now, it might not have been your boss at all. It might have just been like something else that happened in your brain triggered something, and like then you're stressed out. So then you're leaving your job because your boss, you think your boss stresses you out. But really, it might have just been [00:23:00] like the food you ate that caused stress in your body.Like there's a lot of things. And so it's like we have to really be mindful of like how we're feeling and then. Being okay with being a human being, feeling those feelings and then talking to somebody about it so that we can actually go, oh, you don't have to feel shame about it taking however long it took you to five miles, because actually you did fucking five miles and that's pretty awesome.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Exactly. And I think sometimes like we our own, my therapist constantly reminds me, he's like, well, the relationship you have with yourself is. The most permanent, it's 24 7. Like if you wanna walk away from your pet or your child or your husband, you can probably, hopefully take two or three minutes at the minimum, if not more.Lesley Logan: And I think it applies to more than work. I think speaking your truth, like I don't think it's the permission to go out and be like, I hate your shoes and I think you're tacky. I do think you have to speak your truth, like, Hey, I'm not comfortable with this. And I think that's something, I was actually telling someone about your podcast yesterday and I was like, she did this episode about the 40 for 40.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: [00:24:00] I just turned 39, and I had someone be like, oh my gosh, you're gonna be 40. Like, how does that feel? I was like, I'm so stoked. I'm so, so stoked because my thirties, like, I look at how it started and how it's closing out and I'm like, it can only go up from here. Yeah. Like it's only gonna go up from here.And really, It's because I really learned myself, like my good, my bad. And being able to be like, I'm just being an asshole right now. Like, this is just me. Like I'm just this, I'm sorry. Like I, and sometimes you don't know in the moment, but I think there's a lot of power professionally and personally be like, hey, wasn't my best self.No excuses, just wasn't my best self made a mistake. Here's where we're going now. Yeah, and I think that that, but I think it applies to more than just hrs or C E o. I mean, you do Pilates and you're a podcaster and you do all this other stuff, and there's probably a voice in time that's like, well, I'm on this, should I do this too?And I think there's something really powerful [00:25:00] to be like, why? Why can't I do this? Yeah. I, five years ago would not have spoken out about, yeah, I think you should be able to go to your boss and be like, Hey, va, that wasn't okay. And this is how I feel. Yeah. Now I might sometimes do it a little aggressively and have to be like, Hey, so I should, I should have toned that down.But I think we, we build up, like you said, we build up these stories good, bad, in between, and it's, it's really a disservice to our own self to be like, but can I change the story? What? Like, how can I change the story? Some things can't change. There's loss, there's events that happen, but also you can look at that and say, okay, but what can I do now?And that's really what I'm just trying to put out there is what can you do now and how can you change and how do you be more than just what people say you are. (Lesely: Yeah) Not a pun on the name, but they kind of was. Lesley Logan: Yeah. I love this so much. You know what I, first of all, what I'm loving and I hope those who are not working in a corporation are like actually like seeing this cuz like as an owner of a company like [00:26:00] I.First of all, I'm con I'm, I'm aware that like, especially as a woman in her forties who may or may not be perimenopausal, like I'll be in a meeting and I'm just like, this meeting, I'm, I don't wanna be in this meeting. (Ryan-Mae: I don't wanna do this anymore.) This meeting sucks. Whenever we have this meeting, it sucks.And my husband, whose CEO is like, yeah, I think financial meetings just suck. And I'm like, no. I think at some point they should not suck. I would like, I want to have a fun one. I wanna have like a fun finance call. Yes. But like, I think, um, Being a human being is really hard, and I think sometimes whether or not you are the person listening who's running a business and it's solo and you've got a VA or you are an employee somewhere, like it is hard to be a human being because we all think we need to be better than whatever we decided.Or we have been told we need to be better and may or may not been given the tools to do that. And there's just all this pressure and the more we can be honest with how we're feeling and like [00:27:00] acknowledge like, oh, I was actually really an asshole in that meeting. Like I was like, you guys, I am just, I'm not in a good space today.So I think I'm just gonna take myself out of this meeting. Thank you so much. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go now cuz I gotta go cry in my room, but it's gonna be, it's not your fault. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Yeah. And I think that there's, that's powerful though. That's extremely powerful, especially because it pulls into other things. Oh, well she's just being hormonal so she can't run a company or he's not allowed to have emotion cuz he's a man, or dads shouldn't be on parental leave and things.And it ties into so many factors and we joke. I, I've been working a lot. My husband's fortunately been able to pick up some of the house stuff and somebody's like, wait, he does the laundry? I'm like, well, he wears the clothes. So yes, he does. And sometimes we don't do laundry for two weeks and we just wear, like, I'll be wearing a concert t-shirt because them out of like options.Yes. But I think that like it plays [00:28:00] into so much more than just corporate. It plays into personal and something I really try, I don't believe in resolutions cause I always break 'em. Yeah. But I always focus on like one thing that I really wanna improve. And one year it was like I just stopped drinking soda or pop, depending on where you're from because I was like, I'm just, this is like, this isn't healthy and like it's not good and it like, I just don't wanna do it anymore.And I'm just like, okay. So that's my, that's my thing for, I think it was 2019. And in 2020 I found myself having some really pivotal relationships. I probably bit off more than I can chew, not knowing what was coming early down 2020. Yes. But I really decided, I, I default to anger. My default emotion is anger.I get frustrated. I want to cuss, I wanna yell, I wanna throw things. I wanna be like up in the mix of like, oh, they suck and they're this and they're that. And, and I really was like, I need to get to a place where like I, maybe we don't see eye to eye. Maybe we've had a falling out. You can. You can be over there.I'll be at my table. It doesn't mean I wish you get hit by [00:29:00] lightning or anything. Mm-hmm. You just don't have a speed, a seat in my table anymore and that's okay. I'd rather have a table that's genuine and supportive, but it also means, it doesn't mean I have to be like, oh my God, she's the worst. Like, can you even believe?Lesley Logan: Right. You can just let it go. Yeah. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: So it's just, so every year I work on something like that, and this year I'm really trying like authenticity, like I'm not saying that right. But yeah, being super authentic. Like I know I'm too much for some people.I'm loud. I have a terrible body mouth. I hopefully, I love that you're in hr. Like I love everything about you being in hr. All right. I'm like the anti, I have a sticker in my, I was like, I'm not regular hr, I'm cool hr. But literally I like, I'm trying to be my, and I. I have to like put myself in check and be like, there are people you really admire.They're a little soft spoken. They don't, they don't love. And I constantly joke, I'm like, and then I like Kool-Aid man out through the door. I'm like, Hey everybody, what's up? Do this. And having to learn [00:30:00] like maybe they don't dislike me, but maybe I'm not their flavor. Lesley Logan: Yeah, like it's, there's all these different Kool-Aid flavors. You might not be the right, yeah,Ryan-Mae McAvoy: It might not be the right one. And I try, and I'm trying really hard to incorporate that into everything. Like, if you're a business, do I wanna spend my dollars with you? Do I believe in your principles? Do I believe in your vendors? And even it's brutal out there. We all know what's going on with the economy.We all follow the news. I feel so bad for salespeople. They're just, they're trying so hard and you don't wanna pull them. Sometimes y'all, I, I gotta call him out. Like we had a gentleman, he emailed me on Thanksgiving via LinkedIn and was like, I love everything black do's doing in the culture and the, the Boric life balance and the best.I'm like, okay, you're not in the us maybe, or I don't know, but it's Thanksgiving. So like, I'll get to you Monday. And then on Sunday he was like, did you read my email? Or what are your thoughts? Like really just gotta like connect in synergy and jive. And I was like, sir, if you actually were authentic and read anything I've ever written, [00:31:00] I have been out for four days and I sh I'm not going to respond on your pitch.Even if I need your product at this point I'm out. And I genuinely hope like you tone down the hustle, you find a company that works for you and doesn't want you just to grind 24/7. Cuz it was really sad and he like called me out. He was like, I emailed a prospect and he like made this big LinkedIn post and everyone kind of agreed with me. I was like, You respect people's boundaries? Lesley Logan: Yeah. I mean like there's awareness of yourself, an awareness of like not everyone's going to like you, and then awareness that not everyone's going to like you. So when they don't like you, it's not personal. And I think that, that's a really incredible thing I wanna highlight, like I love how each year you pick something cuz it's like a be it till you see it.Okay, this year I'm gonna be it until I see this song, dogs gonna have pop. Okay, this year I'm gonna be it till I see it as someone who like, lets go of relationships that no longer serve me and it doesn't have to be a big deal. And now you're like, okay, I'm gonna be it till I see it in my authentic way.Like I'm gonna like, this is how [00:32:00] I feel this, I work for a company that also believes this way. And so we want. We're gonna hire people, we're gonna, we're gonna buy from people who believe this way, and I think everybody, no matter where you are in your work life, we can all be until we see it in the brands we interact with and the companies we buy from and the things the, the, the, the pages on social we engage with because all of that is information that we take in and then we go off to work or whether it's for someone else or ourselves.And then we tell ourselves a story based on like these 17 things that like connected all at the same minute as you're walking into work. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: And then you pick the one and you're like, that blue shirt that John has just pisses me off every time I see him. And you're like, (Lesley: Yeah), is it it really that, or like, does he happen to just like, you got cut off in traffic this morning and he was the first person you saw, like (Lesley: Yeah)it's just really, and it, again, it plays into such bigger things. I, the world is so opinionated right now, and we all have our side and we all have our right and we're all, and I, I get it. I have firm beliefs. I have things [00:33:00] that I am not gonna waiver on and things I'm not gonna compromise on. Sometimes I don't need to yell about it, and that's something I'm learning.(Lesley: Mm-hmm.) Other people do need to yell about it, but I've also noticed by kind of stepping back, the conversations I'm having are opening doors that I never would've thought because I can hear more. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I can hear more about someone who, I'm a straight white woman, there's a lot of things I need to learn, and it's really just like opened up the doors for those conversations and I'm like, wow, I'm actually like harder into this and I'm learning things.And now you get on the other side, everyone's got an opinion. I know when I travel, people are like, where are you from? I live in California. Oh hmm. Are you gonna come and jack up our real estate prices? I'm like, probably not. I don't know. Like this is cool, but no, maybe I just look at realtor cuz that's what I do not cuz I'm like trying to like single-handedly destroy your economy.Lesley Logan: It is the, it's the most hilarious thing. Okay. This is a total side note. Y'all we're gonna go on a tangent. I was in, I [00:34:00] was in a different state in an Uber and I said I was from Las Vegas and, and the person started talking about something that I like, didn't really actually agree with, and I didn't want to like, I didn't want to get in an argument with them.I'm an Uber, (Ryan-Mae: like dropped off on the side of the road) just trying to get, I'm just trying to like get to where I'm going. I really should. Like, I really, it should just say like, I don't wanna talk to you. And it's not cuz I'm an asshole, just cuz I got the other things. I'm in the Uber for a reason anyways, so I just said, you know, before that I was living in Los Angeles and the whole conversation just stopped and I was like, okay, well that's one way to end a conversation you don't wanna have.But it's also hilarious because like, just because you're living from someplace, moving somewhere doesn't mean you're trying to jack up the real estate. Everyone, people are allowed to move. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: I noticed this a lot. I have a, one of my dear friends is a veterinarian.Will not tell people because like it'll be the most random. Be like, what do you do? You're out like a social thing. Oh, I'm a veterinarian. I just happen to have this picture of my pet's butt. Does that look normal? And you're like, well, (Lesley: Yeah) and then it, [00:35:00] I'm sure people do it with you. They're like, oh, you have Pilates.I had this instructor and they were terrible. Or, oh, answer my HR question. I do this with, actually, we mentioned Mel previously, and I know we're trying to make this whole episode of her, I'll text her and be like, I need your professional opinion in the mental health space. Are you able, or like, I just need you to be my friend.Like, and (Lesley: Yeah), we actually brought this into our marriage. Like obviously in hr I have some, some skills and some knowledge. So my husband will have a work challenge and I'm like, okay, do you need like wife me or do you need HR me? Because I need to know what lane to be in. Lesley Logan: Yeah. And this all keeps coming back to like, I, I, it just comes back to like making, like honoring the pace that you're in and not everything has to be an argument and not everything has being antagonist again, not everyone is against you.People that you might think are on the opposite side of the aisle of any like opposite of be of your boss, opposite of the aisle, however you vote. There's actually always a Venn Diagram of like, we all just want, we want the world to be here tomorrow. Like, that'd be really awesome. [00:36:00] And if you are in a workplace as an employee, of course your boss wants things to work out.Because then they can pay you. (Ryan-Mae: Yeah) So of course they wanna hear like, they want you to work out here ideally, cuz it costs a fuck ton more to hire someone else. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Oh my God. So does the refill, the backfill is, is a real thing, but it's also just like, and I think that's where my, my passion comes from is like there's, we get labeled and it's, oh, you're, you're a woman, you're in California, you're in Vegas, you're this, you're that.And I don't. We're more than that. We're all more than that. Mm-hmm. Every, I don't care what, what you believe in or any of that, you're not just that one thing. Yeah. Maybe you support that one thing that I'm like, ugh, not so much for me. But what are the other things that maybe we do agree on? Yeah. Even if it's something small or even if it's just like, again, finding the self that you need to serve in that moment is something that we have to, and the intent, the intent is a huge thing.And I love that you mentioned that because we find in, especially in the people space, [00:37:00] did you have a toxic workplace? Have you come from a boss that was just probably really awful to you, maybe even unintentionally, and they didn't realize it, okay, we're gonna support you. We're gonna try and set you up for success.It's also, you have to come to the table ready to like not assume every I still to this day, if I'm randomly dropping a meeting on someone's calendar, we'll send them a message or something and saying like, hey, I'm grabbing time. This is why. Because, yeah. If anybody's getting like a random meeting from their HR leader, they're like, well that was, that was a good run.So I try and be intentional with my communication cause I don't wanna cause anxiety. (Lesley: yeah, yeah) And it was, my CEO was a really great example when I first started. He like, I think I was like doing something. He's like, Hey, do you have two minutes? I'm gonna call you. And I was like, oh, I'm in so much trouble.I don't know what I did. And he's like, why do you, why did you assume that?Lesley Logan: Because we all do. Because everyone, all do, all do. So everyone just tell people why I need 15 minutes of their time. And do not say to pick your brain, just like actually say, I need, I have, I would like to talk about X thing. And people (Ryan-Mae: exactly) will actually say yes to meanings.And that's like, and [00:38:00] I'll be like, hey. Or if it's something a little sensitive, like, Hey, you've said you've got some struggle. You told me that thing I'm mentioning in the calendar, it's gonna be called this or it's gonna be this. And most of the time I'm gonna give away some of the secrets. HR people don't come for me.If you're getting terminated. HR is not usually the one sending the meeting. We just kind of like come in from the back and are like, Hey, we're here too. So that's actually, there's a lot if that helps anyone's fears. It is very rare. It does happen. I, I can't speak, I do not speak for every organization.But most of the time, and I, I also encourage people cuz we're busy. We're, I, I mean, I send things out. If you're not sure, ask if you would rather take two minutes and be like, Hey, we're you asked me to connect, or, hey, you seem short in that email most of the time it's easily explained away. (Lesley: Yeah) And I think that that's something we don't feel powered to do just in life in general.(Lesley: Yeah) Like it's very, it's very hard to be like, you just seem really snippy via text and they're like, what? No, I, I, I was at the grocery store, I was in the car, I was [00:39:00] using Siri and. Lesley Logan: Yeah, it's like, it, it's like if you either, either we all need to stop pretending that it's about us all the time, or we actually have to bring it to their attention. That, that felt a certain way is everything okay? Ryan-Mae McAvoy: And I, I think in the workplace, especially, like, I try and say, I say this to myself, I, I give this advice to employees and to fellow management and stuff in a company. None of us are really the star of the show. Like, even if you go like Steve Jobs, like everybody knows him from Apple.Yeah. He was running the company and he was doing, like, (Lesley: he didn't make the phone). He's not building the phones. And like, that's the thing is I think like it's, it's easy and again, I, this is advice I give myself when I'm like, everybody hates me and they're super mad at me. I have to be like, you're not actually like the hero slash star.You're, you're a supporting player in this movie that we're making together. And it's, it's sometimes easy to be like, okay. It's okay. Yeah, and I, I think that we [00:40:00] all inherently are our own hero and we are all our like own superstars, so it's easy to be like, oh my gosh, I bet you that Leslie and Mel were talking about me before I came on the podcast, and Mel like warned her and this and that.Instead of being like, no, Mel probably was like, Hey, you should talk to Ryan May. Like she's got some cool views. That's the of it. (Lesley: Yeah) It's easy to build it up, like you said, it all goes back to we create this narrative. And sometimes changing the narrative to ourselves, even what we say to ourselves mm-hmm.Is, is hard. And there was a, there's a book someone gifted me, it's actually about parenting and I was kinda like, this is weird, just growing up again. And it talks about, as a parent, how do you change what you've come from? And it really just kind of, it's very heavy, like into the generational trauma and stuff.But it was very much like, okay, I had kind of a weird childhood. There was some stuff. It's a lot. Big proponent of therapy if you're not your best self. But it gave me some insight on like, I can actually just choose to not be upset about that anymore. (Lesley: Yeah) Like I [00:41:00] can choose to not carry that on like Lesley Logan: We should I'll read that book, whether you're having kids or not, because take, it's like a great thing to even like, Take into the workplace and take into, or working for yourself, which you can tell yourself some whoppers, Brian, may you somehow have managed to make HR sound so fun. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: And, there's a lot of dark sides to it too. There are some, in most industries, there's some not great people. But honestly, if you, if you aren't sure, just ask. Lesley Logan: Yes. Okay. That, like right there, that's the title of the show. Okay. We're gonna take a brief break and then we're gonna find out where we can find you, learn from you, and also your beat action names.All right, Ryan, may, where do you like to hang out? You said LinkedIn? Is that your jam? Ryan-Mae McAvoy: I mostly live on LinkedIn. I'm a little bit hard to find cuz I, I have, it's just Ryan Dash May with an E and then the letter M and the Lord's P H R which is a certification for professional and human resources. I do live on Instagram.It's mostly cat photos, so if you're looking for like hard [00:42:00] hitting. Professional content? Lesley Logan: No, we got some cat lovers. They'll just come there for the cat. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: It's literally like, usually like cats. And I'm, I'm slowly becoming like a very much, I wanna get my somnia at some point. That's like my next career move.So there's usually like heym a winery here, Hey, I'm doing this. So lot of memes, I use humor Lesley Logan: Oh my God, I wanna go back to being a social media person who just put up pictures of my dogs and tequila and some memes like, oh my God, what if that could. So well and it, I missed 2005.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Right. I'm like sometimes it was so much simpler. Yeah. But yeah, I live on LinkedIn and I actually, I love LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn is becoming like more of like my favorite social media, which is really weird.Lesley Logan: Yeah. Brad is gonna want to tell like pick your brain on that in a big way. Cuz he's like really convinced that way we should like do some stuff on LinkedIn and I'm like, I, I'm just so, I got so tired of being sold, like, I'm not gonna even say the company's name cuz I don't want 'em to come for me. But the, you know, I discuss all of them. There's being sold every single, Ryan-Mae McAvoy: There's no one, there's, there's [00:43:00] the 10 ones that are like, you said you liked yoga here we offer these 40 packages. And you're like, that's. Okay. I think I would love to talk Brad about that cuz I am a very big proponent of LinkedIn and I think the community is being built and there's so much stuff you can see that you're like, oh, I never thought of that.My new personal passion project in the HR space is second chance hiring. You made a mistake when you were younger. You have a crime. They're so, I, I could go for hours.Lesley Logan: I'm obsessed like you guys. I need another podcast if we're gonna talk about this because, I'm obsessed with Second Chance Hiring and I have a family member who literally cannot get a job he is overly qualified for because of something he did at 18 years old.And I'm like, okay, then we have to find. A criminal defense attorney and try to get this expunged from your record. It's been 20 fucking years. You haven't done shit since. Like, and that thing is crazy. And you look at, that was the thing I always joke of. He was like, oh, did you after this? I was like, maybe I'll go to law school.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: And you look at public defenders and they're [00:44:00] lacking. And so then you get a lawyer that usually bills $500 an hour and they're like, oh, you're pro bono for this guy. He's not giving you his a game. And so I'm actually doing some volunteer stuff with a company called Good Call, New York. They have an algorithm right now that if you are arrested in New York, they're gonna start going across country. They'll get you connected with Law Enfor, law enforcement representation, whether it's an attorney, illegal aid, something just to get you on the right track, no charge, low cost, and there's some orgs just doing some great work, honest jobs outta Denver.They literally are a talent platform management for finding like, hey, you have a criminal record, you know that you acknowledge it. Let's get you placed. (Lesley: Love this..) it's just such a passion project. Lesley Logan: Guys. We'll forget these links and I'll put 'em in the show notes. Yeah, I'll send them please, because, I'm like, I think.Some, there's a lot of shit going on in the world and you gotta pick something that you're passionate about and like, it can't, we all, like, if we all just donate to the world, like it's not gonna work. Like we have, like there's all these little problems at home that you can actually make a massive impact on. I love what you're talking about. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Well, and it's not even like dollars at point. Like I literally reached out [00:45:00] to Good Call and I was like, hey, I know you guys are small. Here's what I can offer. I would love to give you 10 million to fund your project. I don't have it. I'm sorry. So we're doing those kind of things and I think it really just comes from LinkedIn now as opposed to LinkedIn. Even in like 20 19, 2020. I was connected with them cuz someone liked a post that was talking about it. And they're CEO Jelani, who's an amazing human, who I should totally connect you with.Was just like, he was like, Hey, here's my email if you have any input. And I, I just like emailed him. It was very random and cold connection like, hey, I'm some lady from California, you know, nothing about, but I'd really like to help. Oh, please do. Cuz I would love to highlight them cuz like, I would know how you even start something like that and like, It's so, there's so many good orgs.I'll send you all the links. Yeah. And I wanna highlight them, because I want more people to know and how like somehow support them. Okay. Real quick, cuz we can obviously talk forever. You're amazing. (Ryan-Mae: ditto) Yeah. Be It action items, bold, executable, intrinsic, targeted steps people can take to be it until they see it. What is your tip for them today? [00:46:00] Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Do not label yourself as one thing. You are a multifaceted human being. You are a, your career, you're a parent, you're a spouse, you're this. Serve the version of you in that moment that serves you best? Yeah, sometimes I am not. Ryan-Maeerson, I'm Ryan-Maeand I just have to be in that role.And sometimes I'm Ryan Mae who's having a really hard mental day that needs to be the cat lady on the couch with her Netflix and some mac and cheese. And I think the more you deny the layers of yourself, you become less authentic in each version. Mm-hmm. And you get consumed. I could let my job consume me if I wanted, cuz I, I, I like it.There's a lot of work to be done. I fortunately have now colleagues and people outside of my life that are like, Hey girl, take a break. How you feeling? What are you doing? Did you eat? Are you, are you watering? Did you go on a walk? Like, what are you doing? And I think you have to really acknowledge and honor even the bad parts.Like you were saying, you hate finance meetings. I think you can be like, okay, I'm LL in the [00:47:00] finance meeting. This is the worst version I'm gonna be today. Let's get it done. And that's okay. You're serving that version of yourself. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's okay. I, my husband (Lesley: team, I hope you just heard that.I get full permission just to be that person.) They're gonna message me on LinkedIn and be like, now you have to be our HR lady. I'm in HR, this, but yeah, so it's, I think you have to deserve the good, the bad, and you have to acknowledge all of it. And you have to learn what is that there are parts of ourselves we're not gonna love.It's unfortunate. I, you can get any woowoo, love every moment of yourself,Lesley Logan: No, I had a therapist. Best advice she ever give me. She's like, you don't have to like that version of you like, like there's like that, there's an eight year old LL who likes to like freak out about money whenever I have it.And I can actually go, you know what? I heard you. Thank you. You can just go back to your seat. Appreciate it. Ryan-Mae McAvoy: I think that's like, I think that's okay. Like I struggle. I had some parental stuff and I think it's very like disarming to people when I'm like, yeah, my parents weren't the greatest.Sometimes it's not discounting the good that [00:48:00] they did. Right. It's okay. It's also, I say all the time when people are getting in new relationships and stuff. The partner I am to my husband is so much better than the RM that dated all everyone before. Yeah. Long term short term, because one, I saw the value in our relationship.I liked myself a lot more and I was more comfortable with the good, the bad, and like being that very, like being in a marriage is very intimate for like even non-sexual reasons. Like you're just, it's 24 7. Your everything, your finances, your mental health, your physical health, everything is Oh yeah, intertwined.And there's a part of me that honors, like, you know, that guy I dated before, Phil? I wasn't really good to him. I'm not saying he was great to me either. We probably weren't good for each other, but everything I took from that, I can sit here and say, here's how I'm gonna do it different and why. Mm-hmm. And I think that you have to acknowledge it.I'm the same way about money. Like I, [00:49:00] my husband's a responsible one and like, he'll be like, just buy it. And I'm like, What if we're gonna like, lose our house? Then I internalize, like people will talk about, oh yeah, I'm, I'm gonna get fired for my job, whatever. And I'm like, we have to eat Ramen. Where's all our money?What are we doing? And he's like, so we're good. Like that has nothing to do with us. And I like pull it on myself. And he's like, I don't know where this is coming from. And we talk about it and he is like, oh, my mom was a C p A, so she taught me about finances and did all this. My parents were like, good luck.Lesley Logan: Yeah. Oh yeah. No, my, my husband's parents were accountants, so, um, Ryan-Mae McAvoy: oh my gosh. I feel like we have like seven more episodes. Lesley Logan: We do. We do stuff. We do. I love this, I love that. I love just honoring the version of yourself and not just labeling yourself as just one thing. I think it gives so much freedom and I hope, and it actually allows you all to be it till you see it.So Ryan Mae be who you need to be in that moment and accept that sometimes this is not the best version of yourself. Ah. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Ryan Mae thank you for being here and sharing anytime, sharing all of your, all of your parts of you, and also making HR sound like I [00:50:00] somebody I wanna hire.Ryan-Mae McAvoy: Um, well, if you ever, I, HR goals. Now, if you ever need some advice, I'm a quick email or LinkedIn a way (Lesley: you're, you're on the list).. Love that. Um, but thank you for having me. Like, honestly. Oh. Lesley Logan: Yeah. This is so fun. This is such a fun conversation. You guys. What are your takeaways? What parts of the story like resonate with you?What parts are you actually going? Oh dang, I'm gonna use that. Let us know. Uh, tag Ryan May, um, and her cats On Instagram, yes, or on LinkedIn. Um, I'm also on there. My team makes sure, uh, and also share this episode with a friend. And until next time, be it till you see it.That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram.I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. [00:51:00] Have an awesome day.Be It Till You See It is a production of the Bloom Podcast Network. Brad Crowell: It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan: It is produced and edited by the Epic team at Disenyo. Brad Crowell: Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production, music, and our branding by designer and artist, Cianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan: Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals and Ximena Velazquez for our transcriptions.Brad Crowell: Also to Angelina Herico for adding all the content to our website, and finally to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Stephen Engel is an Emmy Nominated Showrunner of Dream On. He's known for The Big Bang Theory, A.N.T. Farm, Mad About You, and Just Shoot Me! Join Michael and Stephen as they discuss how Stephen broke in, what it takes to make it in Hollywood, and how he approaches story.Show NotesStephen Engel on IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257145/Stephen Engel on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_EngelFree Writing Webinar - https://michaeljamin.com/op/webinar-registration/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistAuto-Generated TranscriptsMichael Jamin:You're listening to Screenwriters Need to hear this with Michael Jamin.Hey everyone, this is Michael Jamin. Welcome back to another episode of Screenwriters. Need to hear this. My next guest is a great dude and one of the first dudes I've ever worked with in Hollywood as a TV writer, Mr. Stephen Engel. And his credits are, well, geez man. These guys come fantastic credits. Dream on which you ran. He was the showrunner of Dream on. I did. We're going to talk about that because that was one of my favorite shows. Mad about You. All right. Already. Which you created. You co right? You co-created it orStephen Engel:You created I didn't create it. I ran it though. You ran it? Executive. I supervised an executive who the pilot and then ran the series. Co-ran the series.Michael Jamin:All right. Okay. Just shoot me, which we worked on together. Work With Me. Which that were you cr Wait,Stephen Engel:Did you create That? I created, that I createdMichael Jamin:Now was it work with Me or Work With Me? ItStephen Engel:Was work with me. It was work with me. It was Work with meMichael Jamin:Inside Schwartz, which I know you created and I, yes. Remember I helped out for a day or a day and a half. Yeah. I think I gave you a three hours worth of work in a day and a half.Stephen Engel:It was very appreciated.Michael Jamin:The big house. Yeah. Quintuplets, the war at Home, big Bang Theory. Ant Farm, mighty Med Sigman and the Sea Monsters. Yeah. Yeah. You got a lot of credits, dude. Now I,Stephen Engel:I've been around. I've been around. You'veMichael Jamin:Been around. Tell me, well, let's first begin with the beginning. Okay. Because I know you started as a lawyer.Stephen Engel:That is correct.Michael Jamin:And how long were you lawyering?Stephen Engel:It felt like forever, but it was really only three years maybe. AndMichael Jamin:This is in New York, right out of law school.Stephen Engel:I went to law school, which was a very big mistake. I knew within a month that I'd made a terrible mistake, maybe sooner.Michael Jamin:But why?Stephen Engel:I just got there. I went straight from college. Really? Cause I didn't know what else to do. And back then I didn't know I lived in New York. I grew up in a town away from you. And I didn't know what the TV was. I didn't know anything about. And so I was good at going to school. So I went to law school, I applied, I got into a good law school. I went and I just got there and it was like just stultifying, if that's the word it was. ButMichael Jamin:I thought, what I've heard is that law school is interesting. It's being a lawyer. That's not fun.Stephen Engel:No, I had all through college, I wasn't really do a lot of creative writing. I didn't take creative writing courses. But I was actually looking back at some, I found some of my old economics papers and I reread them and I wrote them as if they were Woody Allen vignettes for the new they, they had these big tee ups that were comedic. And then I would get into the substance, but it was with examples that were funny. And then I would sort of sum them up at the end and my professor would always be like, thank you. After reading 25 papers, there's a pleasure to read something that was entertaining. Oh,Michael Jamin:That's nice. SoStephen Engel:When you get to law school, there was no leeway for that. It was, everything was just completely dry. So intellectually it was kind of interesting, but it was very creatively stifling.Michael Jamin:But as a kid you didn't do any creative. No. You were in the theater, you weren't doing anything like that?Stephen Engel:No, not really. I mean, I was interested in comedy. If I look backwards, I could see all of these things that I did. I did a TV show in college, a game show that I wrote and hosted. I taught a class on 20th century humor and satire. So all of the things were there. In retrospect, you could see a path that was leading to writing comedy. But I didn't know that it was a job. And it wasn't really until law school that I started exploring doing comedy. I started doing standup a little bit. Really?Michael Jamin:I didn't know that.Stephen Engel:Yeah.Michael Jamin:But then how did you realize it was a job? At what point?Stephen Engel:At the time, I had a friend who was doing from college who was doing standup also. We, our girlfriends were best friends and he was a year behind me. He was applied to law school, didn't go and decided he wanted to try to break into writing. And we were both doing standup. And then we said, we just started talking and said we should write a movie. We're like, okay. So we kind of got together one weekend. He was living in la I was in NYU law school. I interviewed for law at law firms in California. So they would fly me out so that we could get together and talk about movie ideas.Michael Jamin:OhStephen Engel:Wow. Yeah. So we came up with an idea. We started writing separately and we knew nothing. We literally knew nothing about writing screenplays. We just had seen movies and you knows. And so we were like started writing this idea that we thought it was really great. We had about 50 pages that we thought were fantastic. So we ended up through, a friend of a friend had lunch with a guy who was a professional screenwriter and he told us, you know, should read this book screenplay by Sid Field, which everyone should read. They're trying to write. So we read this book and we're like, oh no, you're doing it wrong. We dunno anything. And we realized that the 50 pages that we wrote that we thought were gold should have been five pages. Nothing was happening. It was just character development, character development, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, funny scenes. So we took those 50 pages, compressed them down to five pages and came up with a proper structure. And then we were writing this whole movie. Well, he was pursuing his career and I was a lawyer guy guy's name by the way is Rob Burnett, who we were writing partners. And he went on to great success at David Letterman. And he was executiveMichael Jamin:Producer of le. But was he the head writer or executiveStephen Engel:Producer? Head writer, executive producer. And basically president of Worldwide Pants. And we wrote five movies together for studios, various studios. And ultimately I got a job on Dream On and moved out to LA to write by myself because he was writing a Letterman by himself. And at that point we didn't need to collaborate because we both had individual careers.Michael Jamin:You skipped a step. How did you get hired on Dream On?Stephen Engel:Okay. He and I were writing this movie. I got a law job when I graduated. They, I'd worked there for the summer. They offered me a job when I graduated. And I did the first risky thing I'd ever done in my life. I had never done anything remotely rebellious. And I decided that I was going to take probably the first gap year that anyone ever took. Oh wow. I asked the firm if I could defer my job for a year because I was trying to write. They're like, okay, yeah, no problem. You'll have a job waiting for you in a year. So during that year we kept working on this screenplay and trying to finish it and hone it. And he was still working at Letterman and he at that point had had risen from an intern to work in the talent department to being a writer.So he worked with a woman, we finished a screenplay and he worked with a woman. He shared an office in the talent department with a woman who had been there a long time and decided to leave to become a manager. And her only client at that point was I think Chris Elliot who had been on Letterman. So he knew, she knew that we had this movie because Rob had mentioned, she's like, let me see it when you're done. I'll see if I could do anything with it. So she read it and she sent it out and got us hired to write a movie for 20th Century Fox. Oh wow. A week before I started my law job. And I didn't want to not start the law job because we were a writing team. It was like guild minimum. I thought this may be the only writing job I ever have and I have a pretty high paying law job. Let me try to do both and keep both paths open as long as I can. So I did that essentially for three years. I practiced law while I was writing the entire time writing movies for studios.Michael Jamin:And Wait, and you were practicing law out here in la?Stephen Engel:I was in New York. YouMichael Jamin:Were still in New York?Stephen Engel:I was still in New York. And essentially the law didn't know what I was doing. So I had this double life where I was treating my law job, this very prestigious law job. I was a bartender gig writing movies at the same time. And eventually I couldn't keep all the balls up in the air. The law firm said, you know what? We want you to go, we got a great treat for you. We're going to send you back to law school at night to get your master's in tax law. I'm like, that's fantastic. And I didn't tell them was, now I had two jobs and I was going to school at nightMichael Jamin:And you couldn't turn down. You couldn't turn on their offer.Stephen Engel:I couldn't tell them. And eventually I couldn't do it anymore. I was getting too much work at the law firm. I had school screenplays, deadlines. I just finally kind of went into work one day and just kind of said, I no moss.Michael Jamin:How'd that go over?Stephen Engel:They were like, you know what, this makes so much sense because we were all, you seem really smart and you're really good at what you do, but it just didn't feel like your heart was in it. Yeah, right. So they could tell and it answered a lot of questions for them. So then I quit and decided to write full time panicked that I had just thrown my entire life away. So we ended up getting, because by the way, that manager was Lori David. She went out to marry Lori Leonard who went out to marry Larry David and divorce Larry. David and then produce an Inconvenient Truth as she won an Oscar for that.Michael Jamin:But then she submit you to get, how did you your Hands fund forStephen Engel:Dream On? For Dream on. So I had, eventually what happened was we got a second screenplay deal to write another movie and she said, by the way, I am not allowed to negotiate your deal cause I'm a manager, so I'm going to bring an agent in to negotiate your deal. And we kind of said, well then I guess maybe we should look for an agent rather than just have this guy come in and do the deal and I'm not sure we really need a manager and an agent. Back then you didn't. We ended up getting an agent at icm. Right. A feature agent. And we then did a couple of other projects and eventually I started between drafts of a movie I was writing. Rob by the way, was at this point a writer at Letterman and I quit my law job. So I was like, well if he has a day job while we're writing movies at night, I need my own career as an individual.So I wrote a movie by myself, gave it to my agent, he shopped it around. I got a lot of meetings and stuff. And then I wrote a just a TV spec on the whim between drafts of this movie because I felt like taking a break from it. And I gave that to my feature agent. He gave it to a TV agent at ICM who loved it and started submitting me around. And I ended up meeting with Kaufman and Crane for a show, not Dream On, they had Dream on. And they had another pilot that was going to series on nbc.Michael Jamin:What show was that? AndStephen Engel:It was a show called The Powers that nobody saw. It was with John Forsyth and Right. David Hyde had an amazing cast. So I go to meet with them and my agent had sent me episodes of Dream On and had sent me the pilot of the show. So they come in and they go, what'd you think of the pilot? I go, yeah, it was pretty good, but I really like Dream on. I'd never seen it before. And I kept talking about Dream On and how much I loved it. And we had a really good meeting. And then when I get back, my agent calls me and says, just so you know, when you go up for a show and someone says, how'd you like the pilot? And that's the show you're up for. Yeah. You loved the pilot and it gets the show you want to work on. Right. They're not hiring for Dream on right now and they don't want to hire you on this pilot cause you didn't seem interested, interested. I'm like, okay. Yeah. And then a month later they were hiring for Dream On and they remembered me and they hired me for that instead. So I did. And in fact, I ended up back backing into this job that I much preferred.Michael Jamin:How, but how many years were you dream on before they bumped you to showrunner? Okay,Stephen Engel:So I was a stor. I went as staff writer, not had not worked a day in television. Really? Andy Gordon was Andy and Eileen. It was their first day right writer named Howard Morris. It was his first day. We were all three staff writers, but I had written five movies. So I had a pretty good understanding of story structure and if you can write a movie, you can write a tv. So I did the first season Astor as staff writer. The next season I was a story editor and then the showrunners left and they needed to find a new showrunner and they couldn't find anyone they liked. And eventually they just said, I think Stephen can do it. So I literally went from being my second year, I was a story editor or executive story editor, maybe I got a bump at the end to showrunner.Michael Jamin:That's crazy.Stephen Engel:So I was, I didn't know if I was ready at all. I was just, the only reason to say no would've been out of fear. And I realized worst case scenario, if I completely flame out then so they bring someone in over me and I'm still in the same position.Michael Jamin:And then what were they? Or they fire you, but they getStephen Engel:Rid of you. Well, I don't think they probably would've just kept me around because I was the only one who knew the show.Michael Jamin:And how many years did you run it for?Stephen Engel:I ran for the next two seasons, the last and then the show ended.Michael Jamin:And why do you think they left? Why did they leave the show? Their own show. They had a deal somewhere.Stephen Engel:Har and Crane created the show, ran it for three seasons. They were getting paid like a dollar to do this. They had never done anything. It was insane how little money they were making. And they got a deal at Warner Brothers. So between season two and three, they had created a show before Friends called Family Album. And I went and worked on that between Seasons of Friends, between Seasons of Dream On. And then I went back to Dream on as the showrunner. So the season, the second season, two other writers who had been on, who had been producers, Jeff Greens son and Jeff Straus rose to showrunner, then they left and took a deal at Universal. So there was nobody, because they weren't paying a lot, so people were going to more lucrative jobs. So they needed a showrunner and nobody had else had worked on the show. And they were like, we could bring in someone else who doesn't know the show or we could let Steven try.Michael Jamin:And I mean, you were not intimidated by, I mean, IStephen Engel:Was scared shitless.Michael Jamin:Right. I mean,Stephen Engel:I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea. I learned, fortunately I learned from really good people,Michael Jamin:But I remember when we worked together and just shoot me the first six episodes. First season, yeah. I was, was useless. And I didn't know what to say. And I would look at you guys, the more senior writers. I'm like, how did they know what to say? How did they know? I mean it was real. I was so lost. Yeah.Stephen Engel:I think part of it had been that I was a little older than you were. I had already been a lawyer for, so I was like 30 when I had my staff writer job. So maybe I was a little bit more confident just in Gen general. You were like 25, 23.Michael Jamin:I was 26. I was 26. Ok. But ok.Stephen Engel:So I had gotten my first writing job when I was 26 writing a movie. And I, so I done a bunch of movies, I understood structure, I had a confidence in that I knew how to tell a story. So I guess I kind of, the first day of Dream On, I remember pitching something where they were telling a story that had a fairly conventional ending where everything worked out really well. And I pitched this subversive twist on it where the character looks like the character was going to win. And then at the end it all got pulled out from under him. And they were all, I think that's better because I had just not really been around network television or even any kind of television. So I was pitching kind of a lot of, I don't know, movie, more movie-like ideas I guess.Michael Jamin:That's so interesting because I really remember, I remember on jhu Me, you would stand at the board a lot. I remember, to be honest, we often disagree with Levitan. And you made such a compelling case and you're always at the board. You had immaculate handwriting and you're always standing at the board breaking the story and you'd make an argument. And it was so compelling. I'm like, maybe we should be listening to this guy. It was dooms. If we don't what's going to happen, of course there's many ways you could do it, but of course I was like, of course. I was like, wow, what's going to happen if we don't do it that way?Stephen Engel:It's very funny. I remember the first season of Dream on Howard Morris who I love. He's a great guy, very emotional guy. And I was very logical in a lot of ways. And he had written a script and he had this whole run that he really was in love with. And the script was long. We needed cuts. And I was like, I think we can cut from here to two pages later. And you really, the story actually, not only would you not miss it, but the story would actually be working better and be more tight. And he was like, you can't do that. You can't possibly do that. This is the greatest thing that's ever been written. It is really good. But I think we need cuts. And I don't think it's actually, and one by one, everybody in the room was like, I think he's right. And he was losing his mind. He was like, right, don't listen to him using his logic on you. He's a magician. And we ended up cutting it and it ended up working better. So it's funny that I guess the legal training came in, I guess to some useMichael Jamin:Well, yeah, I, but I also remember you saying, I quote you as this saying this, that I have to get this right. Your worst day as a writer was still better than your best day as a lawyer.Stephen Engel:It was probably, I'm not sure that's true anymore.Michael Jamin:I believe thatStephen Engel:For a long time that was true. I would say there have been some dark days. But whatMichael Jamin:Do dark days look like then for you? Yeah. What isStephen Engel:It? Well, the day your show gets canceled, right? There were days, there was a, one show got canceled where I was like, oh, thank God. Right? Because I had a deal behind it and it was like a nightmare. And I hated going there every minute. And I was like, I had to go into the room and pretend like I got really bad news. Everyone, the show's been canceled. I was like, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me. There are sometimes when it's so bad you're like, just end it. Just fucking euthanize me. So that there are days where it show you isn't going badly, gets canceled and then it's kind of heartbreaking.Michael Jamin:Now do you have a preference? Cause you've done a lot. Do you have a preference between working single camera R? Right. Writing.Stephen Engel:I prefer single camera. Why? I think it comes from my feature writing career. It was funny, I made such a conversion when I worked on that show family album with Kauffman and Crane. We went in and there was some joke in my script and it was a good joke I thought. And we go to the table read and it doesn't do great at the table. This is my first time I've ever had been to a multi cam table read ever my first multi cam script. And everyone in the room is kind of like, yeah, I think we maybe want to punch this joke. And David Crane to his credit was like, no, I believe in this joke. And there's a really good smart joke. So we go to the run through first run through, it dies. And again, everyone's like, maybe we want to pitch on this. And David's like, no, no, I really, let's give it one more day. I don't think, I feel like they didn't do a great job on it. Let's give it one more day. By the third day it dies again. And same thing. And David's like, let's give it another day. He goes, I think it's rye. I'm at this point I'm completely converted. I'm like, fuck rye. Rye is fucking crickets.We could pitch 20 more jokes. It took me three days to realize that, you know, can't get away with clever. You need to get real laughs.Michael Jamin:Right.Stephen Engel:And I'd like, I like it. I just like the storytelling in Multicam a little bit better. OrMichael Jamin:Just you, the storytelling multicam better.Stephen Engel:No, no. In single Camm a bit better. Yeah. Frankly, I used to think a perfect job for me would be you write the scripts and then you send them out magazines. You don't actually have to produce them. Oh yeah. That was always where the hard,Michael Jamin:It's never as funny as it is. It's never asStephen Engel:Funny. Sometimes it is. It depends on your cast. But other times it's the rewriting and the endless rewriting. It's just have them read it and let them imagine what it might look like.Michael Jamin:It's called a book.Stephen Engel:It's called a book. Yeah.Michael Jamin:There was a episode, I think it was, not sure if you were there then, but I, I was fighting, I fought with Sievert, my partner about a joke that I wanted in the script. I go, this joke is going to kill. And he's like, this joke is terrible. I'm like, it's going in, it's going. And we got blows over it. We put it in the script, we go to the table and the joke just dies. It gets nothing. And then I start laughing hysterically. He goes like, cause how could I have been so wrong and so arrogant? And I'm laughing hysterically Now everyone's looking at seabird because they're like, it's his joke. You're laughing atStephen Engel:Him. And now I'mMichael Jamin:Laughing even more. I'm like, yeah, it's his fucking trouble.Stephen Engel:There's nothing more humbling than watching your jokes die on a stage. Like after a while you get used to it. But the great thing about single cam on, dream on, we'd write it, we'd go out and film it. And if no one's laughing, you never know.Michael Jamin:You never know. Right. But did you can't believe in it. But you did table reads for Dream on, I'm sure, right? DidStephen Engel:Not do table reads.Michael Jamin:That's so interesting. How did you get away away with that?Stephen Engel:They had no, they didn't. They gave no notes. H B O gave no notes. I remember getting one note one time and being like, I can't work like this. This joke is, I'm not changing this joke. And I was like, indignant a playwright. Eugene O'Neal had beenMichael Jamin:MarriedStephen Engel:To change a stage direction. And then I got to network and it was like, oh, okay.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Now these are notes. This is how it works. When you were, now you've done also a lot of kit shows. I mean, you get a lot of notes on Kit shows more or less. Oh myStephen Engel:God. Yeah. You'd get tons of notesMichael Jamin:More than networks.Stephen Engel:I did. Oftentimes you get a note, it's like, I please take some of these jokes out. I we doesn't need to be this funny,Michael Jamin:Real, what's the problem with, all right,Stephen Engel:I can get you the best punch down. Writers in. Yeah,Michael Jamin:Bring them in. But really they don't want fun. Is that what kind of notes they give you in these show? I did aStephen Engel:Show, did a show this, show this Sigma and the Sea Monsters reboot, which wasMichael Jamin:Very scaryStephen Engel:For Amazon. And the first thing we turned in there, it was very funny. And they were like, we don't really do this. It's like, we don't want this to be funny. As nearly as funny as this script is, it's just don't feel compelled to put a joke on every page. I'm like a joke. You don't want one joke on it on every page. And they're like, no, if it's warm and fuzzy and they just were afraid that it was going to feel too Disney or tooMichael Jamin:NoStephen Engel:Jokey networky or jokey or whatever.Michael Jamin:Because when you look back at sitcoms from the sixties and seventies family affair, there weren't a lot of jokes in Family Affair. I mean,Stephen Engel:No, I think that's what they were going for. They were going for just kind of poignant and sort of warm. They, I feel they felt like jokes would alienate people and be too controversial. Or they kept referring to their viewers as customers,Michael Jamin:Buyers. TheyStephen Engel:Want buyers.Michael Jamin:Buyers,Stephen Engel:Our buyers, our customers don't really want that. I'm like, okay, all right.Michael Jamin:That's so good. I wonder if that's, that's really how they saw them is like, yeah, what else were they going to about?Stephen Engel:Yeah, yeah. It was,Michael Jamin:Oh my God. Did that make the hours easier since you didn't have to punch upStephen Engel:Or doing a sort of family shows?Michael Jamin:Are you getting out earlier?Stephen Engel:Yeah. Yeah. I think so. For the most part. We never phoned it in. We were always trying to do, and we never wrote down the shows that I worked on. We made them as funny as we could and as bendy and weird as we could, oftentimes we would get notes saying, this is too, I think you're, you kids aren't going to get this. But what they don't get, they'll ask their parents or their older siblings and let's not underestimate the audience watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. You're going to still laugh and you may not get every level. So we were kind of writing it for the adults.Michael Jamin:You were able to push back on that.Stephen Engel:Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess their recourse was ultimately to cancel you if you weren't doing what they wanted you to do.Michael Jamin:Well, do they have different ways of I they must, different ways of measuring. We haven't done too many streaming shows, but measuring when people are dropping off, what kind of stuff they like more statistics. Do they share that with you?Stephen Engel:No,Michael Jamin:No, never.Stephen Engel:I only did mean the Amazon was the only streaming show and they never really wanted this show. I don't think to begin with. I think it was inherited from the previous regime or something. It was like the whole thing was driven by puppets and they were, if we had our druthers, we wouldn't even have the puppets in it. Well, well the main character is a puppet, so you're kind of stuck.Michael Jamin:So, oh man, that's Hollywood man. Yeah. Now do you, but you must get more obviously opportunities in the children's businesses.Stephen Engel:I don't. I don't. Don't. And I don't pursue them. I didn't really want to do it. Right. I basically did it. I only did it because it was a show writing opportunity and I didn't want work on someone else's show at that point. And I also leveraged it into, I wanted, I said, I'll do it if I can direct.Michael Jamin:Okay.Stephen Engel:So I ended up getting in the DGA and directing a handful of episodes.Michael Jamin:And they were single camera?Stephen Engel:No, they were multiMichael Jamin:Camera, multi and so interesting.Stephen Engel:And it was kind of fun. I mean, I had just sort of aged out of coaching my kids little league and basketball teams and stuff. So they were now just had just more or less finished that. So working on a show, that was almost like being a coach or a camp counselor in a weird way. You'd go to the stage, the kids would be thrilled to see you, you'd get down on one knee and get eye level with them and give them a compliment sandwich. Do you know that from coaching?Michael Jamin:No. What is that?Stephen Engel:A compliment sandwich is basically in baseball you would literally get down on a knee and you'd say you're doing tee-ball. And in tee-ball what happens invariably is a kid hits the ball to left field and every kid on the field runs to get the ball from every position, or at least a handful of them do. So you get down on the knee and you go, I love your hustle and great enthusiasm. Then you put the criticism in the middle and you're like, but you know, need to stay where your position is so that everybody has their own spot. And if the balls it to you, the ball, you know, field it. If the balls it to left field, they field it. But again, great energy and keep up that enthusiasm. So you put the constructive criticism in between two compliments. IMichael Jamin:Would think that they would remember the first thing and the last thing they heard.Stephen Engel:Well, that's great job. We did a joke like that. We did a joke like that where a character on an forum was giving a note to somebody. They were doing a musical performance or something, and the main character said to this other character, I really like your enthusiasm. Try to hit at least any of the notes if possible because your singing's not good at all. But again, great energy. And the character goes, thanks. Hey, thanks.Michael Jamin:Yeah, that's what I would, so that's so interesting. And were you dealing with a lot of parents on adult momager orStephen Engel:Whatever? Yeah, there was a lot of that. It was fun, but creatively it was like, I'm done. This I just want to do, I'd rather not work and just write stuff I want to write than write on a kid show at this point. Because I also felt like they weren't really looking for you to do anything smart and that smart or that funny. It's changed. I think they're trying to be more creative and more inventive now, but at the time it just felt like, I don't really feel like doing this anymore. It's just not like someone would say, what are you working on? I'm like, it's not important. Don't worry about it. You're not going to watch it. It's fine.Michael Jamin:WellStephen Engel:Fine for what? But I don't watch it. You're not going to watch it.Michael Jamin:But when you say working on your own stuff now, so whatever, you'll just write stuff on spec and hope toStephen Engel:Sell. Yeah, I'll pitch stuff. I'll write stuff on spec. I've written a bunch of specs recently where I've tried every possible way to skin a cat in this business. I'm like, it's all I'm going to write spec scripts. That way they'll totally see what the show is. And then I would have a bible behind it to pitch all of these things. And I've had a couple of things where I had studios say, let's go out with this, but let's pitch it. You didn't write itMichael Jamin:Right yet.Stephen Engel:I'm like, well, why would you do that? Because I've got it right here. AndMichael Jamin:Because they want to put their thumbprints on, theyStephen Engel:Want to put their imprimatur on it. So the way I put it is, if you give, give someone a baked fully baked cake, they'll be like, this is a, it's a good cake, but I've got this recipe for a cake. Yeah, that's going to be the best cake that's ever been made and we're going to put in all these different ingredients and make it even better. And then that gets turned in and they're like, it's a cake. There's always that unknown potential of what a pitch is going to be. Whereas a spec, they'll go, well, there's this one thing I'm not sure about or this other thing and they want to get involved.Michael Jamin:But have you ever sold anything on spec? BecauseStephen Engel:When you, honestly, I don't think I have. IMichael Jamin:Know haven't written a few.Stephen Engel:I have a project, I have a project right now that it, we're going back and forth on negotiations, negotiating an option for them to, to option the script. And they're trying to decide whether we should go out with the script or go out or whether I should reverse engineer the pitch.Michael Jamin:ButStephen Engel:We have an option. They have an option for a year within a purchase with a purchase price to buy the script. What would happen is if we pitch it, they would basically go, okay, just wait three months and then turn in the script that you've already written because we left the script. But again, it's unclear as to what my feeling is. We should send out the script because the idea and it's in and of itself is not necessarily that unique. It's the execution of the idea. That's unique. Of course. And I think that's what got you interested. If I had just pitched you this idea, you probably would've said, well, I don't know. It seems like there's stuff out there like that. But it was my script that got you excited.Michael Jamin:Right, right. I remember early on, I wonder if you still feel this way. I remember I just shoot me, you telling me, yeah, because you were ready to leave, move on. And you're like, yeah, I want to go back to running a show. And then you did couple many shows. Yeah. But do you still feel that way? Do you care so much whether you're running it or,Stephen Engel:No, I've had good experiences and bad experiences doing both for a while after the big house, which was a good experience. My kids were at that point, maybe, how old were they? Eight and six. And I was running a show was very all consuming. And you, yeah, you never go home. I mean, yeah, even when you're home, you're like, you've got outlines to read, you've got cuts to watch, you've got the weight of the show on your shoulders at all times. You can't get away from it. And I was like, I really want to be more present. I want to be able to go to my kids' games. I want to be come home and be able to relax. So I'm like, I want to go on be someone else's, like consigliere, I'll be the number two. Yeah. I'll go, here's what I would do. Do it. Don't do it whatever you want. And then go home and be like, I'm done for the day. And I did that for a while. And I think in retrospect it sort of took me off of the showrunner showrunner's list for doing that for three or four years. I think people were necessarily remembering or thinking me necessarily when they were looking for showrunners because I was all of a sudden now someone's number two. But I don't regret it because I got to spend the time with my family.Michael Jamin:But now I now want to go back to running. I mean, it is a lot of work,Stephen Engel:My kid, well, right now, honestly, nobody, you know me, but anyone under the age of 40 doesn't, has never worked with me and doesn't know who I am. So for me to get a job on another show, because I, it's been a while since I've worked on a show where with people who would be young enough to go, oh, we need to work with this guy. He's really smart and good and funny. If I'm going to get a job, it's because I'm going to create a show myself and run it. And that's the job I'll have. I don't even know if my agent even submits me. I have no idea. So I'm back to just pitching and writing my own stuff and if it sells, of course I'll run it. So look, they both have their perils. I missed my kind of adolescence as a TV writer. I went from being right a second grader to a college student. I never had that. So I got to go and be on someone else's show. And sometimes it was good and sometimes it was bad. I worked in the Big Bang theory and it was not funMichael Jamin:From a lot of people. TheStephen Engel:Most fun place to work, it was delightful show. But I used to not going to work every day. Right. Cause I didn't take the tone of the show, the work environment, I mean the tone of the show, I was fine not dictating the tone of the show, but I was not enjoying the tone of the work environment.Michael Jamin:I got you. I know what you'reStephen Engel:Saying. So it was not a good experience. I dreaded going every day. It was a job. It, I might as well have been a lawyer again.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not going to spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michaeljamin.com/watchlist.Yeah. You've had many experiences like that though. Were you like you pitting your stomach every morning?Stephen Engel:Not that many once on my own show, just because I had a difficult situation with one of the stars who it's not worth going into, butMichael Jamin:At least on the air.Stephen Engel:What'sMichael Jamin:That? At least? At least not on the air. NotStephen Engel:On the air. But most shows have been, some are better than others. I worked on a show that it was very dysfunctional and I've gone into work on shows where, where I had a deal where they were like, we need you to go help on this show. And it's kind of in shambles. I'm like, I'll go in and help, but I'm going in between the hours of 10 and seven. And if they start at five, I'll be there from five to seven.Michael Jamin:But okay, you can make that deal with the studio. But then the minute the showrunner finds out about that, during I made itStephen Engel:With the show, I made the deal with the showrunner.Michael Jamin:Oh, okay.Stephen Engel:Because they needed the help. And I was like, I'm not going down this sinkhole. I've already, I'm in a deal. I don't, I'm doing this. I'm helping out because I want to be a team player, but I'm going to help out within the hours that are reasonable hours. And it was so dysfunctional, people would show up and play guitars for four hours and play ping pong. And I'm like, are we going to work or not work? So I'm like, let me know when we're starting and I'll be there.Michael Jamin:Yeah, I know. I wonder, I don't know if that happens so much anymore. I think that's something that's been cleaned up a little bit.Stephen Engel:I don't know. I don't know mean, look, some shows, some showrunners are not, some creators become writers, become creators are not prepared to be a showrunner. They don't know how to manage a business. That'sMichael Jamin:Exactly right.Stephen Engel:And it's a different skillset being a talented writer and being a manager or a C E o or different skillsets. And some people are lucky enough to have both skills. Some people are good CEOs but not great writers and they need a better team. And some people are great writers and need someone to help them literally get through the day. AndMichael Jamin:People don't realize that because no one goes into comedy writing to become a manager of people. No.Stephen Engel:And if you have the talent, you eventually rise to a level where you're expected to all of a sudden be in charge of 150 people and to show up every day on time and to try to be responsible and actually conduct yourself in a way that's professional. And not everyone can do that.Michael Jamin:And always the trickiest thing. I think as a show runners, no one went to push knowing how far you can push back against a network note or even a difficult actor. Yeah. And what's your thought on that?Stephen Engel:Well, what I used to do is they never would give me a note. The trick to getting and addressing notes is to get them to realize that they're being heard. And you'll say, we're not going to figure this out right now together. I hear you. I know what, I know exactly what to do. And then go off and change it enough that they feel like you've taken their, at least into consideration their thought, their thoughts into consideration. But oftentimes what I would sometimes do is they'd give a note. I'm like, we can do that. But just so you know, here's the ripple effect. If we do that, then this scene here no longer makes sense because this scene that you really love won't make sense because we've already revealed this information. So this scene doesn't play and then this scene doesn't work because whatever this and this and this, we can do it. And I'm have to change those scenes and I'm willing to, but just realize that it's not as simple as making this one change here. There are ripple effects throughout the rest of the script. And they're like, you know what? You're right. Stuff's working great. Don't worry about it.So they don't know. They don't necessarily always see the big picture and understand how pulling one thread could unravel the entire sweater. So I just present it to them and go, would you like me to do that? We can do that. And then they go, no, no. Like I, I hear what you want and I'll massage it without having to do those things. But I hear what you're saying and I'll try to adjust it as best I can without unraveling the whole scriptMichael Jamin:And then working. What about working with difficult actors?Stephen Engel:That's harder. That's harder because you can'tMichael Jamin:Put the words in their mouth. You can't make mistake, you can'tStephen Engel:Make them do it. I mean, had an actor who literally was so he just wanted to take over the show and was, he never should have done it. They backed up a money truck to get him to do it and he didn't want to do it. And he did it reluctantly and didn't wanted it to be his show and not my show. So I think wanted tried to get rid of me and came to table reads with sunglasses on and just looked down the whole time. And which was the best thing that ever happened because the network saw that he was not doing his job. He was doing my job, but he wasn't doing his. But they'reMichael Jamin:Still going to take his side. TheStephen Engel:Show went down, but I didn't get, they were like, you handed yourself really professionally. And that person,Michael Jamin:Were you worried so much about that? Are you worried so much about protecting your reputa reputation like that within the industry? I mean,Stephen Engel:You always have to be a little bit worried. I, I would probably think that just given my, I don't know, I guess I have a, it's maybe it's coming from being a lawyer. I can see, if you tell me, like I mentioned, if we should change this joke or this line or this, do we need this? I can see all of the ramifications all at once. So sometimes I will, by pointing out the flaws in the note, some executives don't want to hear that. They don't want to know. They just want to think that they're right. Or they also want you to basically, I remember in one situation on a show where they were like, we've got great news. The network wants to do a mini room. I'm like, great.Michael Jamin:How's that? Great news? The news?Stephen Engel:I thought the deal was they're either going to pick up the show or not. That's why we went there. It'sMichael Jamin:Great news for us.Stephen Engel:They're like, well, why wouldn't you want to delve into the characters more? And I do, but that's not the deal we negotiated and now you're basically, I have to do all the same work for one 10th of the money. And they didn't want to hear that. So I think sometimes it's just best to be like, and I would also maybe sometimes have a tendency if somebody is lying blatantly to me and I say, wait, I don't understand last, yesterday you said X, Y, and Z, but now you're saying A, B, and C. So I'm confused. And they just want to go. They don't want to be called out on that.Michael Jamin:Right?Stephen Engel:So they're like, look, why are you being difficult? I'm like, I'm not, I'm just asking for clarification. Cause it seems like you're telling me two different things and I don't understand as opposed to just going, okay, I hear you. We'll do it without any. So I think sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and just eat shit and not speak up about it.Michael Jamin:The problem is you're saying, I feel like most of those fights are not winnable.Stephen Engel:They're not winnable. So there's no point in pointing it out. But sometimes I'm just, I don't, don't understand. Just tell me what, what's going on and then we can move forward. But they sometimes they don't even remember what's what they're spinning.Michael Jamin:I don't think I've ever convinced an studio or network executive that I was and they were wrong. I don't think I'veStephen Engel:Ever, it may have been a per victory, but I have.Michael Jamin:You were fired shortly afterwards.Stephen Engel:No, I mean it just may be whatever. Yeah, you're right if you're doing it this way. But in the long run, they just maybe weren't that happy with the direction, generalMichael Jamin:Direction. Right.Stephen Engel:I did the show where this kid show, and it was about a superhero hospital and there were villains and there were heroes and superheroes and super villains. And we wanted the villains and the heroes to have distinct personalities and flaws and be funny. They could be a villain and be funny at the same time. They're like, look, just have them villains. Just be scary and don't give them, they don't have to be funny. But we're writing a comedy and eventually we took a lot of the jokes out, but we didn't want to deliver a show that we didn't believe in. And then ultimately they were like, we did two seasons. And they were like, this is not really what we want to do. So they didn't do a third season. So you either go down with your ship and what you do, the show you want to do and have it not get picked up for another season or do a show for four seasons that you don't believe in.Michael Jamin:Though a lot of people on social media, they say, well, they don't understand. I think all the writers in Hollywood terrible, because if all the shows I'm like, you don't understand how shows are made. It's like, no, no. Sometimes the system is designed to make a show bad and there's really nothing you can do about it other than either,Stephen Engel:I mean, no one's looking to make a show bad. It's just what the creator thinks is good and what the network thinks is good may not be the same thing. There's that famous story about what those guys who did that Stephen Weber show called Cursed,Michael Jamin:I dunno if I know this story. Okay.Stephen Engel:Steven Webber did a show, there was a show starring Stephen Webber, it was called Cursed. It was for n b NBC back in the nineties. And the premise was, Stephen Webber is like this kind of womanizing dating machine who goes on this date and with a I, you shouldn't even say Gypsy, I guess, I dunno if it's derogatory, but a woman who puts a spell on it, he basically ghosts her or doesn't call her or is not nice to her on a date. And turns out she puts a curse on him that he's never going to find love and oh, his romantic life is going to be a disaster. Okay. So the cast, Steven Weber, he's super charming and funny. They decide to pick up the show and they go, we're picking up the show, but we have one elemental change if we'd like to pick. It's a small note. They're like, okay, what is it? He goes, we don't want him to be cursed. They're like all cursed. They're like, well, we can change it. We'll like so. Well, well, the Steven Weber show.Michael Jamin:Okay,Stephen Engel:So now what's the premise about Steven Weber dating?Michael Jamin:Oh, okay. But he is not having a hard time dating. He'sStephen Engel:Just, he either is but there's no curse.Michael Jamin:There's no curse.Stephen Engel:Yeah. Okay. Nig did a show called Inside Schwartz, and the whole idea of it was that you're inside the main character's head. Right. So the idea is that, you know, get to see his internal and hear his internal dialogue with characters he's talking to that only he can see. All right. And at one point about halfway through the series, the president of the network came to run, came to talk to me after a run through and said, look, we really like the main character. He's a great actor, but he's like, we want it to be more of a Michael J. Fox character dives into things without thinking. I'm like, well, the character is written is an overthinker and he's thinking about everything. And we dramatize those in the forms of him talking to these people who only he sees. He goes, well we, no, we don't. We want him to not be an overthinker. We want him to be just to jump into stuff. I'm like, so I'm writing inside Schwartz and you want outside Schwartz, right? And they went exactly perfect. I said, all right, I guess. But at that point it's like, how do you turn a aircraft carrier aroundThrough, and you've got four or five scripts that are ready to go that are all, hold on, I'mMichael Jamin:HollywoodStephen Engel:That are written inside Schwartz, and you want outside Schwartz. And they're like, well come up with new scripts, you know, can take an extra week, a hiatus and change. So we had to basically change course and make an adjustment. So just because they think, what if they changed their minds? They love something when they saw it and then they start to panic that they think it should be this, and they the next day have a completely different idea. But it, it's just, that's the idea they woke up with.Michael Jamin:Or often it's whatever was a hit over the weekend, that's what they want and make it more like that.Stephen Engel:Exactly. Exactly. So that has ramifications and real life ramifications that you've then got to make work. And it's your job, unfortunately sometimes is to try to turn a cat into a monkey. It's just like, all right, that's what I'm going to have to try to do.Michael Jamin:And are you able to do this with a good attitude?Stephen Engel:I to, I think I have probably, I have a better attitude about it now. I'm just more mature and it's like, all right, it is what it is. I understand it. Back then, I think I took everything much more personally and I was agonized more about it. Now I'm just like, I come, it's coming and you just have to deal with it or not deal with it or whatever. I, I've walked away from it. I've walked away from a deal on a show where I was like, I didn't feel right about it.Michael Jamin:What do you mean you didn't feel right about it?Stephen Engel:I just didn't, I don't know, I just wasn't comfortable ultimately with the people I was going to be working with. As I got to know them better, the deal wasn't the greatest deal and I was like, I don't think this is worth it. I think this is going to be a nightmare. And I just said, I turned wouldn't, they didn't come up. I just said, you know what, no mean, at the time I was running a different show, so this was development behind it, so I didn't need the job, but I was like, I see the writing on the wall here and if I can't, you can't meet my numbers and this is going to be unpleasant. And I can already tell. AndMichael Jamin:How do you think they took it when you did that? No one likes to hear thatStephen Engel:They were really not happy. I mean, yeah, really. I said, look, I'm just not comfortable with it. And I just, things had changed. It was an idea that it's not worth going into. It was easier to just say, forget, don't rather not do it than go into what I know is going to be a shit stormMichael Jamin:Right now. Not enough money. The industry has changed so much even in the past maybe 10 years or so. But I dunno, what are your thoughts on it? What are your thoughts on where it's going? Look,Stephen Engel:I'm one of those people who, whatever, everyone who's not in the industry says, oh, must be so great now, all these different streaming networks and some to sell shows. I'm like, it's not great. First of all, these places are, you know, do all the same work and you're doing six episodes or eight episodes or 10 episodes, and that's exactly when the curve starts to get, there's a very steep curve getting a show off the ground. And then it's like, now I get the show and now it's sort of the, it's heavy lifting at the beginning and then it sort of tapers off and it's always heavy lifting, but you start to figure it out. And then for the back nine it's like, it's not as hard if you stay on top of it and you get stories broken on time. So you're doing all of the heavy lifting without any of the economies of scale and you're only getting paid by the episode and you're working 40 weeks to do seven episodes or eight episodes instead of 40 weeks to do 22 episodes.Michael Jamin:Okay. So in, cause they make, that's not the case on many of the shows we're doing. Maybe they're lower budget, they just usually bring you on thete, the writing staff in pre-production. And so then you're the showStephen Engel:Runners. But as a showrunner, you've got to do, you're there for whatever the eight saying you're doing eight episodes, you're going to do eight weeks of pre-production and writing. You're going to do eight weeks or more of production, then you're going to do eight to 10 weeks of post. And yeah, you're working 35 weeks to do those eight episodes. Whereas if you're working on a network show for 22 episodes, you work 40 weeks and you do, you get 22 fees. So the writers who come in and do their six or 12 weeks get paid for their eight episodes and not, that said they work there eight weeks and they do their 12, their eight episodes. Do youMichael Jamin:Feel this affects the quality of writers that you're able to hire now because they have less training?Stephen Engel:I think so. They're not around production. They don't understand or understand production as well. It, it's tricky. I also think that to some extent, I may be alone in this. I think that some of the storytelling and streaming, it feels like a lot of shows feel like they, someone took a movie and they probably didn't sell this movie, and they said, I got an idea for a series and it would be a great movie. But what they end up doing is they, it's those chest spreaders if you were to have a heart bypass or something, it's like they put a chest spreader into the screenplay and they open it up and they jam six episodes of filler in the middle. And the beginning is the first half of a good movie. And the last two episodes, this is the second half of a pretty good movie, and the middle is just treading water. And you're just like, yeah, each episode becomes a chapter in a book. So a lot of writers are not learning how to tell an episode that has a beginning, middle, and end because it's all middle.Michael Jamin:Right?Stephen Engel:Episode one is a beginning, episode eight is the ending, and everything in the middle is middle. No. Those episodes don't have a beginning, middle, and end. They're picking up from the middle and ending somewhere else in the middle. They're moving the ball down the field. But you don't have a kickoff and you don't, I think a lot of writers maybe don't know how to tell a complete story anymore because there aren't any freestanding episodes.Michael Jamin:How do you think these new writers are breaking in today? It's very different than when we were breaking in. How are they getting in?Stephen Engel:I teach a course at UCLA and I always, they always ask the same question. How do you get an agent? How do you break in? I guess it's not that different other than the fact that there are maybe fewer barriers to entry. You want to write a web series and shoot it on your phone and send it out to a million people on. Now the trick is it's getting people to see it, but no one was going to read your screenplay. If you're a new writer and you say, Hey, will you read my script and you're in my class? They're like, Hey, can I send you a new script I just wrote? I'm like, no. Yeah, I'm not going to read that. But if they send me, Hey, I wrote a one minute episode, you want to, would you watch it? I'm like, okay. I mean, I could watch a one minute episode of something.Right? And if it's interesting, then you could go, that's really kind of interesting. Let's talk about it. So there are ways to get in. I hired a writer on an farm I was writing with a guy named Dan Sinner. Sinner, great guy, funny writer. And we were looking for an assistant. So we met this woman and she came in and she had no experience as an assistant, but she had just graduated from Harvard six months earlier. But she mentioned she had a Twitter feed and that she had written a couple of jokes that somehow Maude Aow had found. And she was like 12. And she tweeted it, retweeted it, and then because Judd Aow followed her and saw the jokes, he started following her and retweeted it. And then a lot of his followers were started following her. So all of a sudden I had 10,000 followers.So anyway, we finished interviewing her. I really liked her. And I'm like, what's the feed? What's the Twitter feed? She told me And I went and I read it and there were, I read the first 10 jokes. Eight of them were a plus jokes. And I said to Dan, I'm like, let's hire her as our assistant. If we need jokes, we, she's really good at joke writing and we're still looking for a last staff writer. And she was our assistant for a day. I'm like, do you have a spec? You've written? Like, I wrote a 30 Rock. So I read it and it was green, but first five pages, five great jokes. So finally Dan and I were like, let's hire her today because in three years we're going to be looking for her to hire us because she was that talented.Michael Jamin:Have had three years passed.Stephen Engel:She very quickly became very successful and has over a million Twitter, Twitter dollars.Michael Jamin:But is she working as a writer?Stephen Engel:She ended up working on Silicon Valley and Oh wow. Parks and Rec and she ended up working on The Simpsons. And soMichael Jamin:You were right. The good place.Stephen Engel:Yeah. I mean she was really talent. It was undeniable. So I always tell writers, write Jo, if you could write jokes, you'll work to, you're 90. To the extent shows like to have jokes anymore, which a lot of them don't. Right. I always think about that joke. I dunno if you remember this from the Emmys, maybe like four or five, six years ago, Michael Chay and Colin Jost hosted the Emmys. And I always tell this to my class, Colin, Joe says that the opening monologue, he says, tonight we give awards for the best comedies and dramas in television. And for those of you who don't know, a drama, a comedy is a drama that's 30 minutes long.Michael Jamin:Yeah.Stephen Engel:There's just so many shows now that are not really that funnyMichael Jamin:That I ain't going for it. What is this club, what's the class called that you're teaching at U ucla?Stephen Engel:It's in the professional program through the school of the Film School write writing a half hour pilot.Michael Jamin:So a graduate. So they have a grad, graduateStephen Engel:Program. It's not a M ffa and it's not undergrad. It's like a professional program where you can apply, it's a one year program. You take three quarters, 10 weeks each, and you go from basically Idea to finish script in 10 weeks.Michael Jamin:And it's at, you say, so it's not used to extension, it's something else.Stephen Engel:No, it's not Extension. It's a, it's through the School of Television, film and theater. Wow. That's theater, film and television, I guess it's called. Yeah. So eight to 10 people. And you're kind of, wow. I kind of act as the showrunner, but I want to hear, get everybody's input. Everyone gets input from each other about their ideas. So it's like a writing class group.Michael Jamin:They'd be lucky to get in your class. For sure.Stephen Engel:Yeah. I tend to give them a lot of, I think, very thorough notes and hopefully it's helpful. And I don't mince words. I mean, I'm gentle with it. I'll always, I'll do my notes and then I'll go back and soften them. I'll be like, instead of this, I don't think this is working. I would say, I wonder if some readers might think this is a bit confusing as opposed to, this is confusing. Or I remember confusing.Michael Jamin:I remember. And just shouldn't be turning to you. I can't remember. It was a script. Levi 10 was running the show, and I think we had a problem with the scene. And I seem to remember you helping us. You pulled you aside, Hey, how do you think this scene should work? Because we were lost and you were very helpful.Stephen Engel:Well, I had at that point already run Dreman for several years and and had some showing experience. And look, Ste, Steve was a great showrunner and one of his, he's smart enough and secure enough to know that I will benefit by having other experienced showrunners on working with me and other very experienced writers. Cause I may not have the answer all the time.Michael Jamin:Oh, I also remember thinking that I don't want to bother the boss. I'll bother someone who's not the boss.Stephen Engel:Yeah. But again, was you were your first job and you're want to make sure you don't do any. I've worked on shows where staff writers are told, don't even say a word.Michael Jamin:Oh, really?Stephen Engel:More or less. It's just you're there to generate jokes on your own and just keep quiet. Which is to me is if I can get a joke from a pa, I'll take it. I don't care where the joke comes from. If it helps make the script better. If a PA comes in and delivers a pizza and goes, what'd be funny? I'm like, that is funny. Right. I'll put that in.Michael Jamin:Right. Yeah. You whatever gets you home earlier. Yeah. Yeah.Stephen Engel:And makes the script better. And hopefully makes the script better. It's all going to make you look better as a showrunner.Michael Jamin:Yeah, it was. And you're right, dude. I mean that show that it was really top heavy, just shoot me. It's top heavy. And it was, that's probably what was so intimidating to me was everyone was so funny. And I remember even turning to Marsh after several weeks. It was like, Marsha, I, I'm laughing too much. I'm not pitching enough. I'm enjoying myself too much. Right. What do I do? Because I'm not here to observe.Stephen Engel:I can see how it would be intimidating. I was lucky enough that on my first job it was Kauffman and Crane were the showrunners. Greenstone and Strass were like the producer, co-producer, exec producer, kind of supervising producer level. And then we had three staff writers who were all pretty new. So it felt democratic. But you come into a Topheavy show and you're, you were the only staff writers. Yeah. There.Michael Jamin:And there's Tom Martin. There's Tom Martin. Oh,Stephen Engel:Tom. Right

You'll discover the secrets behind the massive global exposure and recognition achieved by companies like Twitter and individuals like Elon Musk. Our guests are two PR experts, Bob and DeAnna. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the strategies and tactics used by these industry heavyweights to captivate the world with their brands. From understanding the importance of PR in building a strong brand image to mastering the latest techniques, you'll gain valuable insights and inspiration that you can apply to your own PR efforts. Whether you're a business owner, marketer, or just someone interested in the world of PR, you won't want to miss "The PR Power Play: How Twitter and Elon Musk Took Over the World with Free Exposure." Links and Resources: DeAnna's LinkedIn Bob's LinkedIn Bear Ice Box Website If you are interested to read the book, Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy by Cindy Alvarez, it's available on Amazon https://amzn.to/40qfGzC I'm reading this amazing book named Lean Customer, and one of the common problems that we see over and over and over again is that most Nors  Start a business...  based on their idea, and they're not necessarily solving a problem that the public actually has. There's a completely different mindset that you want to employ when you're thinking about starting a company. There's a really valuable story in the book that I wanted to just outline for you really, really quickly, and that story is about a business that sells milkshakes. So right away when you're thinking about milkshake sales, you're probably thinking about textures and flavor. Maybe ingredients. And that's exactly what this company did. They asked their customers to describe their ideal milkshake. Those recipes and ideas were gathered, and they started making those exact recipes that their customers said they wanted. And guess what? Sales didn't budge at all. They then discovered that 40% of their milkshake sales happen first thing in the morning. Remember, you want to solve a problem with your business. So rather than asking customers to describe their ideal milkshake, they ask customers what job they hired the milkshake to do. That question is important because it shifts the customer's focus from the product itself to why they actually purchased the milkshake in the first. So after reframing that perspective, the customers would tell stories about having a boring hour-long commute, how they weren't yet hungry yet to order food, but they wanted something that could hold them over until noon. Most of them were in work clothes, so they didn't want to worry about making a mess, and they only had one hand to be able to use to eat whatever it was that they wanted to. So think about the difference between each of those goals. Originally, our goal was to sell more milkshakes, and there are only so many ways that you can do that. But when you approach the problem from a problem-solving perspective, just think of how many more opportunities you're able to reduce the pain of your customers who are hungry, bored, one-handed people. Who doesn't want to make a mess of their clothes, you can branch out into all kinds of other opportunities like smoothies or any food that can fit in a cup holder and be eaten with one hand.  On Invest in Sqft, we help business owners invest passively in multi-family real estate. My name is Matt Shields and my mission is to help all of you entrepreneurs out there grow and protect your business the way that the wealthy do. Today we're gonna be talking about PR and the impact that it can have on your business. Obviously, companies like Twitter and people like Elon Musk use PR to generate massive, massive global exposure and establish themselves as household names. If you're trying to build a powerful business, obviously PR plays an important role in building a strong brand image and capturing the world's a. Today we have the founders of a trailblazing PR firm from Chicago named Bayer Icebox. Together, Bob and Deanna's clients have been featured in some of the largest publications in the world, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Lifewire, and Crunchbase, just to name a. They've helped international brands grow and establish their US presence. They've catapulted startups to new heights and even reinvigorated a tired old nationwide company to become a thought leader in their industry. If I asked you what you thought would be better working with a smaller PR firm or a huge PR firm, what would be your answer? You're going to learn that and so much more on today's episode of Invest in Square Feet.  I feel like a lot of people may not necessarily. Know what the difference is between a PR firm and a marketing firm. Um, can, can you elaborate on what the differences are there?  Including sometimes clients, right?? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure they're like listening. I don't wanna No, it, it's, it's okay. It, the way I describe it is like, marketing is sort of a broad category. Uh, PR is sort of, uh, is, uh, a function of marketing, although, I'm gonna contradict myself. PR can also sort of be the quarterback that drives everything too. So the way that I look at public relations is, and the way we look at it, is, uh, really anything that you're doing that's gonna be public-facing, whether it's the thing people think about, or news releases or articles in, in publications or video interviews. Uh, you know, podcast appearances. That's all public relations. But also a lot of what we do for our clients is a strategy around how they're gonna message important things both internally and externally. So, uh, that, that's something that, that the bigger an organization gets, the more, you know, important it is to have that message when you've got, you know, we've gotten applied, uh, clients that have an employee base of a thousand plus or several thousand employees. They need to do PR internally. Like they need to figure out how we're gonna communicate this change to our employees. Um, you. We're fortunate that our clients aren't doing this, but as we look ahead to 2023 of people thinking about potential hiring freezes or layoffs, how do you communicate that effectively? Because what you're saying internally can become external very quickly. We saw with that C E o, I think it was from better, where like he had like the zoom mass firing. I can't remember if it was better or not, but that became a viral story where like, wow, he really handled that poorly.  It's interesting and I'm actually glad that you brought that up. I'm, I'm curious what your perspective is, right? So obviously Elon just took over Twitter, and when he took over the same thing. You, you saw these mass, uh, layoffs and, and you know, quite frankly, you know, kind of crass way of laying people off, like, you know, here's a picture, you know, in your email, you're fired. Right? That's like how some people were reporting. And, um, you know, when you, when you think about it, right? You know, from a delivery stand. The wrong way to do it, right? Yeah. But from. Uh, from a pr, from a, from a, you know, making a wave and making a push out into the market, like that's the stuff that people are gonna be talking about. And, you know, again, Elon knows that everybody has a phone or has access to social and all of that, so the more that he can get people talking Yeah. The, you know, the more he's gonna be out there. And, and I, I, I guess I'm, I'm curious what your perspective is on that and, and, You know, is, is there a, I know there's a thing, obviously, we're going through the whole FTX thing. There's a certainly mm-hmm.  a, a negative, um, you know, bit of news or, or, uh, a negative way of doing things. But at the same time, you know, is there, like, again, that that sort of, there is nothing as negative publicity or something like that, right? Does that, does that make sense? Yeah, no, I think it's spot on. Outside looking at it, it is an interesting case study in like, you know, different types of communication. And, and the reality is we don't know the internal numbers, but from what Elon is saying, people are using it more than ever because it's out there. Like, Hmm, i, I, you know, people wanna see what he's gonna do next. , it's obviously impacting people's lives and you know, unfortunately, people are out of jobs. But you're right from a pr, like a, like a, a media perspective, he is getting a ton of press for Twitter way more than we, than we got, than, than they would've gotten, like, you know, over the last 12 to 18 months. So, um, as a PR pro, I err on the side of, you know, I think it, it, you know, we're representing clients, so I think. It's almost like a lawyer where it's like, we can be really aggressive or we can sort of be really, really, um, conservative in our approach to arguing this case. We have the tools and the toolkits, like, how aggressive do you want to get, you know? Mm-hmm. , and I think that's the key is like, I'll have that conversation with clients. If we wanna be edgier, we might get more pr. The trade-off is we might get some Article headlines that we don't love, but we're getting pr, you know? And, I think that that's a conversation, just a double edge sword. Yeah. We had that conversation earlier though, because, um, we can get aggressive. I mean, we, you know, we're, we're following those types of stories and trends, but. Um, it's really the client's comfort level that you've gotta be okay with. And I, again, I keep going back to like a lawyer where what's your comfort level? How aggressive do you wanna get when we argue this, you know?  I think the reality is like you. There's no PR professional that knows exactly how the public is going to respond to something. Mm-hmm.  and in an era of social media, everything's so heightened that you are kind of rolling the dice when you go public with the messaging. But again, the trade-off is nobody knows who you are. Right. So I always say like, either, you know, if you're not out there in the public space, then, then you're, yeah, we have, we have friends who are like, I'm not even on Twitter and me. Reading and, and, and I'm thinking about getting an account now just to be in the note. Right. Um, and so to, to see that there are people who, a, haven't been using it. And now this is the only reason why you're interested in it.  Gotta be some endgame in his head, you know? We don't really know it yet, but there's some sort of end   I feel like PR is a tool that has helped build amazing wealth for countless companies over the years, but at the same time, it's a tool that is relatively misunderstood, I feel, by a lot of company owners. What would you say is one of the biggest uh, I guess misconceptions? A lot of people may not necessarily understand about pr.  yeah, I think the wrong way of looking at PR is that you're gonna have a definitive. ROI on this article or this news release, this piece, or this mention. And unfortunately, there are people out there that are looking for that and I always kind of tell them like, if it's not possible, right? Like it's, you're creating a broader awareness, broader buzz. You know, the things that you know, I think you should be looking for in an agency is like, do they have experience in your industry? Um, do they have experience telling stories? About companies like yours. Um, even if they don't have industry experience, I think they have to have some sort of understanding of how to create a campaign for like, we do a lot of stuff in manufacturing and supply chain logistics. We've had clients in that space that helps us. But even if we don't have a client in direct space, I think it's like, you know, we try to tell prospects, like, you know, in our experience it is something that can be recreated. So, uh, we. We find that like, um, understanding a client's voice, working with them to identify that, and then figuring out the channel. So it might be news releases if we have something that's relevant. One thing I wouldn't say is like, uh, and I'm seeing brands do less of this, is like, don't put on a news release every month because you feel like you have to, like, if they're not news, don't, don't. Otherwise, it just feels like, you know, a boy who cried wolf and there's not really anything there. Um, I think one of the things that. Must be doing is, especially like we, we primarily work in b2b, but like having a LinkedIn voice, not just for the corporation, but for other thought leaders in, in the, in the, uh, brand. Um, doing contributed articles in publications is super valuable. Doing podcasts like this, I think is super important. You're creating content you can share on LinkedIn in emails that you can share in, you know, with prospects. The, the, the, what you wanna get out of an agency is the momentum to create the kind of content across different channels that you can, uh, package and, and amplify your voice. Mm-hmm. And it's the energy that agencies give. So we don't, you know, we, we have some clients worked with for six years. We have some clients, we do a, a year-long campaign, six months. But it's that energy that you get for a third party whose sole focus is getting you awareness, whatever channels make the most sense for you. Yeah.   I, I do believe that the creative side of what a PR agency can do. Mm-hmm.  for you is important too. I mean, you can hire someone to write a blog for mm-hmm. , your LinkedIn, your website, um, you know, but, but what are you really doing? With this information that can be, you know, beyond like, it, it has to be, you know, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, not e evergreen. It, it, it has to be long lasting. Yeah. E ever e evergreen content. You're right, Dee. I mean, I think the, the, it's not necessarily we do tasks for our clients, but it's really more, um, The consulting part that I think clients find the most value in mm-hmm.  is like, what have we done? What's it worked over the years? Uh, what do we have, what kind of crazy ideas do we have? Um, you know, cuz when you're, our, most of our clients are marketing directors, chief marketing officers, communications directors. They're busy day-to-day with the minutiae of being internal at a company, or if they're CEOs or founders, they're even more busy, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. So I think., you're not hiring somebody to take things off your plate. You're hiring an agency to, try to push you and be, be bolder and bigger. Yeah. Yeah.  What are some of the things that people, I guess, should be bringing to the table if they're, if they're looking for a PR firm? You know, is there, are there materials or things that you know, they can bring or, or that they should have, you know, when they're looking to hire a PR firm to be able to, you know, again, communicate their voice, their message, there, you know, whatever it might be. Um, like what are some of those assets, I guess, that they can bring to the table, to help you guys do your jobs better? Mm-hmm. , if that makes sense.  Well, we look at ps, it's a two-way street. Mm-hmm.  at the end of the. Um, and what I mean by that is there has to be some back-and-forth communication. So what clients can bring to the table, whether it's, you know, the C M O or communications director, is time to actually give us the information that we need. Mm-hmm. , we can run with it, but a lot of times reporters. They, want to hear a voice. They, they, they just, they, you know, email interviews, those are definitely happening. Um, but sometimes they, they, they want to hear it from straight, from your mouth. And so to be able to dedicate that sort of time where even if you just give us a recording where we can have your information, um, directly. You about your brand and what your vision is and what your goals are, and what you do, who you serve. All of those kinds of questions are really important. So, I think time is probably the most important thing. If you don't have the time to actually apply yourself or engage with your agency. Um, good luck. Yeah. Yeah. You're not gonna get that my time is important, even before that. Yeah. So making sure you've got dedicated. But then, the biggest thing is like giving us all the materials we need, which would include, like, we have a client that gave us access to their intranet right away. And so we can look through case studies and comb through sales materials and training and everything. Are we using all that stuff? No. Like, we're not sharing that with media, but we, we, we are doing a crash course and who they are, what they do. So from there then we can have interesting ideas because we already know the foundation of who they are and what they're trying to accomplish. Um, sometimes, especially with clients who've never worked with an agency, it's like they feel like if they tell us something, we're gonna like go to a journalist right away and share all their secrets, you know? Mm-hmm. ,  and I'm like, just the opposite. We wanna know all this stuff. Um, you know, we're your counsel, like tell us everything. And. We will, will use our discretion, and work with you to figure out what we wanna share. But yeah, the more we know the better. And so, that also includes time putting those things together. Mm-hmm.  and the clients that don't work out. And we've had this over the years where it's like, you know, can you guys just, um, Just draft something? Well, we can, but if we draft everything, it's gonna sound like a PR agency wrote it. You know, like we, we need to Yeah. Need to sound like a, there there's a human element, you know, the public relations part. Yeah. Of what we do. Um, I'll also throw in there that, that sometimes going through the information and, you know, you're digging, you're researching, you're gathering it all. You might even discover pain points. Mm-hmm.  that. Organizations didn't know they had mm-hmm. , you know, where your material actually isn't getting the message across because of what you're saying to me right here mm-hmm. is different than what you're putting on LinkedIn. Yeah. Interesting. And so going through that information, and, and again, the, the, the time to talk through these things, you can, you can actually learn a lot about what clients are missing out on. And you say that one word or you know, you evoke that one emotion, and all of a sudden people. What I found is cross departments, like bigger companies, well, we say it this way, we say it that way. There's like no synergy or, you know, um, an across messaging. And so to Deanna's point, that might not seem like a big deal, but if it's like playing a game of telephone, if it's too, you know mm-hmm. dispersed across and, not accurate like it's, you know If you have a challenge internally, or externally, your message is probably not getting conveyed in the right way either.  Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. I never really even considered, you know, how, how, how powerful that can be to just get everyone, you know, sort of aligned and in that, uh, and, and all speaking, you know, that, that same direction.  So looking at some of your past clients and past relationships that you've helped grow, does anything come to mind when we talk about challenges or things that people or companies were trying to overcome, whether that might have been a miscommunication or P problems, either internally or externally? I'm trying to hone in and get people to think of it. What types of problems have been solved using PR that maybe they might not have necessarily thought of before in the past?  I think one company comes to mind. Um, we worked with them, you know, we, we, we remained close to there, their former president, but it was a, um, it was a big franchise. There was an acquisition. They basically were bought out a year and a half ago. Um, had been a 35-year franchise business, you know, but when they came to us, uh, one of my first sort of full-time clients in 2017, and, um, really what she said is we had, we had done some pr. Over the years, but really the last 10 years have done kind of nothing. So I thought it was an interesting challenge because there was like, everything was kind of like stale, what was out there. They needed a refresh and they chose to work with me because like, you know, she's like, we're gonna get the attention from a small firm that we wouldn't get at a bigger firm. So we, for them, our challenge was to get, you know, immediate exposure for her as a thought. Um, and to also continue to generate buzz for these new franchises they were selling. Um, ultimately, you know, it not to say like, you know, p uh, uh, you know, this, it was because of our campaign solely, but like over a three year period, like with a lot of buzz and energy, um, you know, they got the attraction of from a, a large in investor and we're acquired, right?   And so that's the kinda example of like, you know, getting the word out. When, when you're a brand looking to be acquired, let's say, um, you know, obviously those companies are doing their due diligence, checking you, your financials, but there's also like an emotional element. Like if this brand is out there in the public sphere, I'm seeing articles about them. I'm seeing 'em in the New York Times, the Washington Post. We're hearing those. It's like that can help when you're packaging your brand to something that really has value beyond just, the p and l sheets. Yeah. So, yeah.  I would say, you know, over the last probably year and a half, we've seen quite a few of our clients, um, go through acquisitions, which is really interesting. Um, you know, for, for me, someone who's, and it's bittersweet cuz sometimes, well, and sometimes the, you know, it's, they get fired and they're like, oh, this out. But, you know, we, we still feel like, again, building up on these stories and. Building up, the, person. People trust people. Mm-hmm.  people buy from people. Mm-hmm... And so when, when you can be not just a thought leader, I mean, that's a lot of what we do, but it's almost like, I don't know, I, I think of like your insurance guy. Okay. We know him on a first-name basis. We, I can picture what he looks like. Um, because there's, there's a person you're not, Going with whoever is the top one. Like you, you connect with the person. And so yeah, I think what we do a lot of, a lot of calls and a lot of conversations with our clients, um, it pays off when the person comes through. Mm-hmm.  and all of this messaging mm-hmm. , um, we can, you know, Bob's a, a great writer. I sit next to him sometimes and I'm like, you just put that out in like two seconds. Like, how did, how'd you do it? Writing is one thing, but you can't develop a whole personality. Like you, you have to build that up over time. Mm-hmm. And so I think the value of what we do and what we've seen with many of our clients is that that personality comes out and that's where people are finding the strongest connection. Mm-hmm.  and, and that as you're defining it, you know, personality. It could also be, you know, a combination of everything, you know, for a company. So that company creates, you know, is, is creating that personality, if you will, that feeling, you know, you can kind of know or expect what you're going to feel and get when you interact with that company. Would, would you agree with that?  Yeah, I mean, the biggest compliment we get is like we've, uh, we've got a couple of clients where like our team member. They, they'll just be like, you know, they'll forward something over and like, uh, you know, our agency can write something, right? So they realize that we've understood their personality, their identity, and sometimes we have to be like, is this really in scope You know, but, um, but yeah, I think the point is like the, the, the company has a personality and a brand. The best one that I see out there, one of the better ones is like, on Twitter, going back to Twitter is like, um, this is like an iconic example, but like Wendy's Twitter brand is just great, right? It's a, it's a personality. It's funny, it's edgy.  and I think a lot of brands are trying to try to like recreate Wendy's on Twitter. Just you can't really, you know, yeah. Can't do that. You gotta have your own personality. But I think that you're spot on. Um, you know, brands have. Identities too. And personalities, man. Yeah,  At what stage should someone start thinking about reaching out to a PR firm again, like, you know, when's too early? When, you know, when, obviously, you know, you, you said that someone hadn't really, Done any PR in the last 10 years. , but, but when is, when is the right time, I guess, to be able to reach out? Like, and again, you even mentioned like, don't feel like you have to put out news, you know, every day. Like there any examples of like, these types of things that you should be going through that you should be experiencing or trying to communicate? Um, and, you know, those would be the right types of things to do a press release or, you know, hire a PR firm to be able to communicate those types of. Yeah, the first thing that comes to mind is probably cuz we're working with a handful of brands in the space, but like when you've got private equity money and you're looking to grow quickly and maybe you're looking to acquire brands, it's great to have a PR agency because you're, you know, you're gonna have some news that's just like hard-hitting news that's, that's coming up. Um, that's a great example. Mm-hmm. , I think also, you know, sort of on the flip side, if you're like a startup, Looking for more VC money, or maybe you're in sort of series B and you're looking to expand another great reason to, to get PR awareness. Um, but really I'd say in terms of the stage like you gotta have a product to market, I think. Yeah. The times when it doesn't work is, and over the years we've taken clients like this and we kind of realized, you know, trial and error, right? It's like If you don't have a product ready for the marketplace, but there's only so much we can share with media, right? Mm-hmm. , there's like not a story there. Mm-hmm. , you know, you can only say it's coming only so many times. Yeah. So, and I think as media wants to see what kind of customer base you have, what kind of revenue you have, what kind of, you know, how many employees do you have? So I think like, I think there's a bit of excitement with, you know, brains that are just starting mm-hmm. and they think PR is gonna really get us there. And, you know, the, the missing link in that situation is a reporter's gonna say, Hey, can I test the product? Yeah. Mm-hmm. , can I see your website? Um, and if it's not ready, they're moving on to the next story. Yeah. Um, and then there's, or giving a bad review. Right. Bad review.  Um, but that's probably another reason why you might want a PR agency. Um, you know, if, if there is something negative out there, um, yeah. You know, whether you made a mistake in saying something or, you know, there's the situation last year of the, the C E O who apparently made her staff work at the factory, um, during the hurricane. Oh yeah. And you know, that was a situation. , I immediately was like, there's gotta be more to this story. You know, I don't, I can't believe, a person would say, Nope, you have to come to work during these dangerous conditions. Um, and, the more I read, I was like, oh, that facility was actually safer than some of their homes. So there's a way where that story just got, The wrong message about that got out, I think, in my  opinion, when perhaps there wasn't a PR council kind of helping. Well, I think bridging that along. So there, there are situations where, yeah, you might want someone to come in and help actually explain what happened. You know, tell, tell your story about a situation. I don't wanna say cleanup messes because, you know, if you made a mess, you sometimes do have to own it. Mm-hmm... Um, but yeah, startup brands, that's, that's a little bit more difficult, I would say. If you're starting a brand and you're really excited, um, there are definitely some things you need before pr. Now, one thing I would say is if you're an established company, starting a new division, or a new product launched, then it makes sense to have somebody on, you've already got revenue. Looking to expand the industry. We also have clients bring us on if we're looking to expand in a particular vertical. So one of our clients is really making a push in warehouse automation. Um, and, you know, we, we have experience in that field, so like, They're engaging with us to really sort of expand in 2023 beyond what they've been doing. So, yeah, I, I, I think that, hopefully, that answers your question, Matt. Yeah, no,  That makes perfect sense. Yeah. And, and, and Deanna you kind of touched on this too, I guess the, uh, the, the intended outcome of. Of PR is to essentially get other people interested in whatever you are doing, you know, other reporters or other bloggers or what, whatever it might be, uh, so that they start, you know, reaching out and, and asking you for more, so they kind of just spiders out. Is that, is that basically correct  One, of the reasons that people would want PRS to get the exposure.  and exposure in, in most cases can lead to web traffic, sales, um, you know, acquisition. Mm-hmm... Um, in, in some cases the c e O really wants to be the expert. Mm-hmm.  at this thing. Mm-hmm. , um, sales and everything will, will follow, but I want to be the, the person you think of when you think of automation or, you know, whatever their industry is. Mm-hmm. , so that's, that's also something. That folks look for. Yeah. There's a bit of a, yeah. Maybe a healthy ego sometimes PR, right? Um, yeah. But I, I think, I think you're spot on D Yeah.   All right, so we learned exactly how important it is to decide if you want to work with a small PR firm or a very large PR firm. Your experiences are going to be completely different depending on the size of the company. If you're interested in reaching out to Bob or Deanna, they can be reached@bearicebox.com. So that's B E A R icebox.com and both of them are available on LinkedIn as well. And that's Bob or DeAnna Spoerl, S P O E R L. We also have one. Amazing piece of information from Bob and DeAnna, and you can only get that in our newsletter. So make sure to head over to Invest in SqFt (Invest in Square Feet)  and subscribe to that newsletter so you don't miss a step there. And of course, subscribe to Invest in SqFt (Invest in Square Feet) on whatever podcast platform it is that you use.  

On this episode of Project: Shadow, we'll be discussing a personal struggle: the rise in transphobia and how it affects me, C E. Dorsett, as a nonbinary trans writer. We'll explore the challenges of creating content while also facing discrimination and hatred in the current social and political climate. We'll discuss how I navigate my identity as a nonbinary trans writer and how it influences my creative work. We'll also talk about the importance of representation in media and the responsibility of creators to accurately and authentically portray marginalized communities. We'll dive deep into my personal experiences and share tips for staying motivated and productive in the face of adversity. We'll explore how self-care and finding a supportive community can help us navigate difficult times. Join us for this raw and personal episode of Project: Shadow, as we shed light on the struggles faced by nonbinary trans writers in the current state of things and explore the importance of representation and authenticity in media. Check out my other podcasts and writing at ProjectShadow.com. Music: Intro music by Project: Shadow If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett Or buy me a Coffee on Ko-fi. Join my Discord. Myth Weaving, my Writing and World Building Podcast= https://anchor.fm/mythweaving Project: Shadow YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/c/Projectshadowsite/ Personal YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/ Site: https://www.projectshadow.com Dragon's of Night: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/dragons-of-night Twitter: https://twitter.com/cedorsett Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/projectshadow/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/projectshadow/support

Can The Flash Breath New life into the D.C E.U, or will this fall short of our expectations? comment bellow and let me know what you think.

날 ▶ “보일러 틀기 겁나요” 2022 난방비 절약 총력전 “너무 추워도 보일러는 잘 안 틀고, 옷을 껴입어요.“ 최근 ‘열요금'과 도시가스 비용이 급격히 인상되면서올해 난방비는 작년 대비 약 38%나 오른 상황. 실제로 각 가정에서 체감하고 있는 난방비는 작년 대비 두 배 이상이라고 한다. 이 같은 상황이 벌어진 이유는 러시아·우크라이나 전쟁 발발 이후 국제 에너지 가격이 치솟았기 때문인데. 천정부지로 치솟는 난방비! 과연 난방비 인상은 언제까지 계속되며, 다시 안정세로 회복될 가능성은 있는 걸까? 급등하는 난방비 부담에 ‘덜덜' 떨고 있다는 서민들의 이야기, 에서 직접 취재했다. CCTV로 본 세상 ▶ 지난 8월, 한 무인 편의점에서 재고정리를 하던 점주는 이상하게 상품이 부족한 것을 발견하고 CCTV를 돌려본다. 그리고 충격적인 장면을 발견하게 되는데. 한 60대 남성이 하루에 한 번, 많게는 열 번까지 매장을 찾아와 당당히 과자와 음료를 훔쳐 갔던 것! 실시간으로 감시하여 겨우 남성을 잡은 점주. 그런데, 그 남성 알츠하이머 환자라 처벌을 할 수 없다는 말만 들었다는데. 범인을 잡았음에도 문제는 해결되지 않는 상황! 이 남성은 왜 처벌을 받지 않는 것일까? ▶ 한파 주의보가 내려진 16일 오전. 수원시에서 때아닌 물난리로 인해 도로가 물에 잠겼다. 이 한겨울에 인근 왕복 4차로 도로까지 침수시킨 이 많은 물은 도대체 어디서 온 걸까? 그리고 이 물난리의 원흉은 바로 상수관로의 파열이었다는데. 맨홀에서 뿜어져 나오는 분수같은 물로 인해 사고가 날 수 있는 위험한 상황. 이 물난리로 인해 주민과 주변 상가는 어떤 피해를 입었을까? 또 한파주의보가 내려진 그날 상수관로가 파열된 것에는 연관이 없을까? 에서 알아본다. ▶ 인천 신도시의 한 아파트단지 cctv에 늑대만한 들개떼들이 포착되었다. 밤이면 밤마다 7~8마리의 들개들이 야산에서 내려와 아파트단지 등의 민가를 배회하며, 고양이나 강아지를 공격한다고 하는데. 오래전부터 종종 나타났지만 점점 범위가 넓어져 인천 서구 곳곳에서 출몰하고 있다는 이 들개들. 구청에서는 덫을 놓지만, 들개들이 요리조리 피해 다녀 포획조차 쉽지 않은 상황이라고 한다. 다행히 아직까지 인명피해는 없지만 언제 어디서 나타나서 공격할지 몰라 두렵다는 주민들. 과연 이 들개떼는 어디에서 왔으며, 어떻게 조치해야 하는 걸까? 미스터리 M ▶ 하얀 연기를 뿜는 동굴 수려한 산세를 이루고 있는 김해시의 작약산. 칼바람이 부는 영하의 날씨, 온기 한점 느낄 수 없는 산길 한가운데서 따뜻한 바람이 불어온다? 하얀 수증기를 폴폴 내뿜으며 훈훈함을 퍼뜨리는 있는 곳은 바로, 동굴이다! 추운 겨울, 대체 이 동굴 속에선 무슨 일이 일어나고 있는 걸까? 추워질수록 더 따뜻한 바람을 쏟아내는 작약산 동굴의 비밀을 에서 취재했다. 블랙박스로 본 세상 ▶ 오후 3시의 한가로운 도로. 교차로에서 정차 중이던 제보자 앞에서 커다란 화물차 한 대가 좌회전을 했다. 그런데 화물차가 제 갈 길을 잃고 제보자의 차량으로 돌진하는 게 아닌가. 경적을 울렸지만 피할 수 없었던 충돌. 좌회전 유도선을 침범하여 일어난 사고임에도 화물차 운전자의 대처는 그야말로 적반하장이었다는데. 대체 무슨 일이 있었던 것일까? 에서 알아본다. ▶ 출근 중이던 제보자는 억울한 사고를 겪었다. 주행 중인 제보자 앞으로 갑자기 사람이 뛰쳐나와 부딪히고 만 것인데. 횡단보도도 아닌데다 버스에 가려져 있어 빨리 손을 쓸 수 없었던 제보자. 하지만 사고 담당 경찰관은 이번 사고는 ‘보행자 대 차량' 사고이기 때문에 제보자에게 과실이 있다고 이야기했다고 한다. 내가 잘 못 한 것이 하나도 없는데도 가해자가 됐다는 제보자의 주장. 정말 제보자는 가해자인 걸까? 수상한 소문 ▶ 산성비보다 위험한 산성눈? 많은 눈이 올 거라는 예보에 또 한 번 화젯거리가 된 소문이 있다. 바로 겨울에 내리는 눈이 산성비보다 더욱 치명적이라는 것인데. 과연 그게 사실인지 만약 그렇다면 어떤 이유에서인지 그 진상을 알아보기로 했다. 풍문에 의하면 올해는 약 10년 만에 최악의 황사가 예상되며 이는 한파와 더해져 미세먼지가 대량 생성될 수밖에 없다고 한다. 하지만 더 큰 문제는 농도 짙은 미세먼지를 비롯한 대기오염물질이 강설로 변했을 때라는데. 눈은 PH 5.6 이하로 강한 산성인데다 표면적도 넓기 때문! 실제 비와 비교했을 때 눈의 산성도와 위험성은 얼마나 될까? 에서 확인해 본다. 먹자! 포구 ▶ 추워야 더 맛있다! 겨울의 맛 대게 바닷물이 차면 찰수록, 살이 꽉~ 차올라 제맛이라는 이것! 겨울 바다의 맛! 바로 붉은 대게의 계절이 돌아왔다. 다리 하나 하나 마다 살이 차고, 단맛은 더 올라 지금 대게가 정말 맛있는 때라는데~ 날마다 만선의 기쁨을 누리고 있다는 소식을 듣고 먹자포구 팀에서는 강원도 주문진항으로 달려갔다! 새벽 4시에 주문진항에서 조업 경력 37년차 이창규 선장을 만나 대게를 잡으러 1시간 가량을 나가보았는데~ 과연 대게는 얼마나 많이 잡혔을까? 살이 통통하게 오른 대게의 속살만 쏙쏙 빼 먹는 비법이 있다? 대게 먹는 것도 요령이 있다는데~ 대게 달인이 알려주는 대게 살 야무지게 먹는 방법 공개! 대게찜부터 대게딱지볶음밥까지 살과 맛이 잔뜩 오른 제철 대게를 맛보러 지금 주문진항으로 떠나보자 주 소 : 강원 강릉시 주문진읍 신리천로 19 (주문진 신대게나라) 연락처 : 0507-1315-2244 화제 ▶ 달콤하게 맛있다! '국산 키위'의 모든 것 겨울철이 되면 감기 예방이나 면역력 강화를 위해 과일을 많이 먹는데 그중에서도 사람들이 즐겨 찾는 과일이 있다. 바로 ‘키위'다. 비타민C·E는 물론 항산화 물질이 풍부한 키위는 겨울철 면역력 강화에 도움을 주는 것으로 알려져 있다. 요즘에는 국내에서 생산된 국산 키위가 사람들에게 사랑받고 있다는데, 우리 땅에서 자란 키위는 영양뿐 아니라 새콤달콤한 풍미와 부드러운 과육을 자랑하기 때문이다. 아이들 영양간식으로도, 요리 재료로도 손색이 없는 키위! 겨울철 과일의 제왕이라고 불리는 키위에 대한 모든 것을 알아봤다.

Most entrepreneurs are “playing business.” They're shuffling papers, installing new CRMs, and making sure their website looks schmick and fancy. They're always “busy”, never have time to make sales, and their life is in total disarray. The end result?  They've got $100 to their name. Meanwhile, the people with millions to their name are crushing it. They're constantly growing their business, and pulling on the levers that actually make a difference.  So if millionaires aren't doing “busy work”, then what are they doing? In today's episode, Mark reveals a simple solution used by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to take accountability of your time.  Listen now.  Show highlights include:  How to actually achieve financial freedom by “energy auditing” (a tool used by Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk) (3:55) The simple way to scale your business (and have more freedom with your kids) by double-clicking on this Google app (5:10) Why attending an event that starts with “m” and ends with “s” squanders precious time that could be spent building your financial empire (5:50) How to avoid wasting countless years of your life by asking yourself “C&E questions” (8:51) Why Mark gave up drinking a year ago (and how he skyrocketed his productivity levels within days) (15:18) How watching educational webinars leave you feeling confused and stuck in a state of permanent inaction (22:03) Tired of unreliable (and slow) word-of-mouth marketing? Here's how to spread your products and services to the masses on a budget (26:44) Make a donation to Operation Underground Railroad and help save children from sex trafficking by going to https://my.ourrescue.org/deal. If you make a donation, shoot me a message on Instagram at @MarkEvansDM and say “operation underground railroad,” and I'll send you a cool gift.  Did you enjoy this episode? Let me know by leaving a 5-star review. Then send me a DM on Instagram @MarkEvansDM letting me know you left a 5-star review and I might send you a pretty cool gift.  If you want exclusive content and the first chance to grab my new book Magicians vs Mules when it releases, head over to https://markevansdm.com/ and sign up for updates.  For cool gifts, gear, and a chance to enter a giveaway I'm having, head over to https://magicianvsmule.com/ and enter your email address.

※ 投稿邮箱：418150505@qq.com※ 本文章发布于订阅号：百车全说，订阅号阅读更加方便，欢迎关注。前30分钟聊极氪009，后面聊的不可言表。今天这期节目咱们聊聊前不久刚上市的极氪009。这是一款纯电MPV，售价49.9-58.8万。可能很多听友觉得夸张，什么人会花50多万去买一台纯电动的MPV呢？难不成又是给富豪们造的一台大玩具？毕竟纯电车型都有续航焦虑，这个定价普通家庭消费不起，商用领域又缺少实用性。其实，电动车的使用非常场景化，今天这期节目咱们就聊聊这款非常特别的车型，纯电动的极氪009，它到底有哪些亮点和槽点？希望为大家在今后选车换车的时候，能有一些启发。极氪009定价贵不贵？我觉得吉利不可能没有做过调研，在纯电动消费领域，目前最主流的车型是SUV，大家可以看到特斯拉上市ModelY之后，销量一直不低，甚至还抢走了自家Model 3的客户。蔚来上市这么多年，从ES8、ES7、ES6到EC6全都是SUV车型，直到最近2年才推出了轿车产品ET7和ET5。如果理想也算是增程式电动车的话，从理想ONE到现如今的理想L9、L8、L7，也全都是SUV车型。那么，极氪为什么偏偏不做SUV呢？第一款上市的时极氪001，轿跑造型的电动车，现在上市的极氪009，又是极其冷门的纯电动MPV。其实我觉得这应该是从品牌营销的角度出发，毕竟现如今市场上纯电动SUV实在是太多了，从10几万就能买到的小鹏G3，到80万一台的高合HiPhi X，每一个档位都挤进来无数的玩家。极氪作为一个新品牌，想在这个领域杀出一条血路，难度可想而知。另一方面，极氪的定位明显是要高于吉利的，所以产品的定位和定价起步还不能低。因此，第一款极氪001入门就接近30万，满配要超40万，特斯拉Model 3后驱版才27万多，高性能版定价34万多。明显极氪001根本不是用低价来吸引客户，而是把配置、性能、设计都拉满，就是硬刚对手，至于喜不喜欢，那只能是“我尽管努力，剩下的交给天意”了。不过好在，极氪001开局比较顺利，大部分媒体都给出了很高评价，市场上订单也接近破万。但随着而来的负面新闻也开始增多，比如大量客户反馈车机BUG严重， 正常使用也会黑屏死机，辅助驾驶也经常不能使用。今年7月极氪官方宣布，为所有极氪001车主免费更换8155芯片，而且在7月19日之后推送极氪OS 3.0版本，新增29项功能，优化体验204项。虽然极氪怒砸3个亿真心诚意想解决这一问题，车主一开始也是直呼良心。但是，没过多久大家发现，该有的系统BUG还是会出现，这就又出现了不少网络上的投诉维权案例。我觉得极氪001作为极氪的第一款产品，如果打分的话，应该给到80分左右。硬件不差，驾乘体验也没有问题，但是这套车机可能从底层就得推倒重建，这可是个大工程。甚至有很多极氪001的客户都在期待，极氪009上市之后，会不会推送一个新版本给到极氪001车主同步更新呢？谁知，并没有收到任何OTA升级的消息，反过来看，我们只能祝愿极氪009的车机匹配更完善一些，别出现极氪001上面的类似问题。对于大多数家庭来讲，哪怕是买豪华品牌，30多万的奔驰C、宝马3系就算过上品质生活了，如果预算再充足一些，买40多万的奔驰E级、宝马5系，说明你的小日子过得已经十分滋润了。再往上，7、80万甚至百万级豪车，不是说富裕家庭买不起，而是根本没必要。奔驰S、宝马7系更多的是符号化的意义，买C级、E级、3系、5系的客户，主要还是针对品牌、空间、动力、配置各方面都想要有改善。而到了7系、S级这种，没几个客户是冲着空间和配置去的，而是他们的生意做到了这个阶段，就差这么一台车彰显一下身份而已。那么极氪009售价49.9-58.8万，你猛然一看，觉得很贵。但是仔细想想，蔚来的首款产品ES8售价不也是49.6-65.6万吗？为什么蔚来ES8没有那么多人说贵，而极氪009大家就不接受这个价格呢？其实，说到底还是“锚定效应”的问题。ES8在上市之前，已经通过媒体把价值千万的EP9炒的人尽皆知，几乎所有人都认定这是一个定位高端的电动车品牌，蔚来顺势推出ES8，再提供当初市场上还没人玩的换电服务，以及后来圈了一波粉丝的私域流量玩法，甚至有人觉得ES8就是进入高净值社群的一张门票。这台车被营销手法赋予的软实力，我曾经有一起节目专门分析过。那么反过来看 ，极氪009的定价被人吐槽太贵，是不是在软实力的包装上缺一些火候？所有对外宣传都是针对产品本身，然而纯电动MPV这个概念，本就是让大多数人比较难以接受的。就好比我一日三餐已经习惯了吃米饭，但你告诉我生酮饮食更健康，你可以改变一下饮食习惯。说实话，除非我对身材管理有非常明确的目的性，否则我绝对不可能坚持这种生活方式。因此，纯电MPV到底是哪类人在买？它对比燃油和混动MPV，到底有哪些突显优势的使用场景？这些都需要厂家用生动的案例来教育客户，而不是“哐啷”把这款产品丢市场上，然后告诉大家我可是使了劲地堆了很多料，你看完这么有诚意，不来一台吗？极氪009到底怎么样？极氪的发布会我也看了，CEO提出了5个所谓的灵魂拷问。第一个问题：为什么MPV都长着千篇一律相似的前脸？结果极氪009设计出了一个极富争议的前脸。当然，如今汽车圈的设计风格，我觉得有争议反而是好事，关键是看你这个品牌能不能Hold得住争议。就比如宝马新一代车型改大鼻孔的时候，大家也有争议，最后4系该加价还不是加价？奔驰改三角眼的时候也是争议很大，如今该没有优惠依然没有优惠。第二个问题：MPV的安全为什么很难做？大家都知道某百万级豪华MPV碰撞后起火，车门打不开的事故。MPV不同于其他车型，经常路上经过的一辆MPV，里面坐着是一家甚至两家的三代人。这种把鸡蛋放在一个篮子里的车型，对安全有更苛刻的要求是理所应当的。所以极氪009用了全球量产最大一体式压铸后端铝制车身，还把第三排头枕到车尾玻璃的距离设计得更远。除了被动安全，主动安全配置也都拉满。官方想表达的意思就是，咱们真的是砸了真金白银去搞安全性了。不过这些其实说不说都没有一次碰撞测试来得更有意义，现在不都喜欢玩双车对撞吗？前不久非常火的一个视频，岚图梦想家对撞丰田埃尔法，最后主持人以一句“丰田完蛋了”结束。这个热点不蹭白不蹭，咱就用极氪009对撞岚图梦想家，如果赢了，咱们主持人也可以用一句“岚图要努力了”结束。第三、第四个问题：为何大家都在追求MPV的舒适性？大多数人认为买MPV就是买两个沙发，而对于第三排的体验厂家和客户都没有太过重视。我本以为极氪009的第三排座椅能有什么黑科技，但是听了半天，发现也就是第三排与前两排一样都是SoftNAPPA真皮，靠背可以180°躺平，其他方面也没什么突出特点了。我觉得除非二排三排都是头等舱座椅，否则都别提二三排座椅。但是二三排都头等舱座椅，除了车身尺寸得再扩大一圈之外，实际体验也并不一定会更好。毕竟一台车上不可能同时坐四个身份地位完全一致的老板，家庭地位还分高低呢。况且，航空座椅只是坐着舒服，它并不能完全折叠放倒，这就导致后备箱想要扩容空间，第三排如果是航空座椅，那根本扩容不了。不过极氪009二排带按摩，驾驶座头枕带YAMAHA音响，车舱中顶还要15.6英寸大屏幕，甚至还要隐藏式小桌板，全车有18个独立空调电机，10个智能电动出风口，空调温度还能再侧面门板上进行调节，我相信这点创新应该会让客户眼前一亮，这有些类似中央空调的感觉了。关于二三排座椅，还要一个争议很大的点。极氪009为了让二排座椅更宽大舒适，就取消了中央通道，因此如果要进入第三排，需要一键位移，让二排滑动到最前端，靠背前倾，这样就让出了进出三排的空间。但这样的前提是，三排先上乘客，二排乘客再进入。当然，让老板在车外站一会儿也没有问题。可关键是家里如果有宝宝，又需要安装儿童座椅怎么办？其实，我觉得这个问题也可以解决。因为你不可能把二排两个航空座椅全部按上儿童座椅，你可以安装在主驾驶后方的座椅，平时上下车通常都是从右侧车门下车。即使有两个孩子，另一个儿童座椅，大概率也是安装在主驾驶这一侧的第三排位置。还有五个问题：MPV是不是一定无法做到好的操控？其实这个问题是为极氪009，或者说是为纯电动MPV量身定制的，这明显是有些小心机了。市面上纯电中大型MPV本就不多，除了极氪009，还有岚图梦想家、腾势D9、荣威iMAX8 EV，以及上汽大通MAXUS MIFA 9。这里竞争对手本就不多，而且各个加速都不慢。所以很明显，这问题得从燃油和日系混动车里找答案。极氪009零百加速4秒5，号称MPV里唯一进入4秒俱乐部的车型。WE版续CLTC续航702km，ME版续航822km，还标配空气悬挂，CDD电磁减震系统，并且是前双叉臂，后多连杆全铝独立悬架。配置看上去很顶，但是我又有疑问了，别克GL8卖的好是因为它提速快吗？当然，任何车在操控性上又优势，你不能说它是缺点。但是MPV想要面面俱到，是不切实际的。我们感觉买MPV的车主都一样，要么公司接待客户，要么家里二娃三娃。实际上，每个买MPV的客户，都能对市面上任何一款MPV挑出各种毛病。比如，觉得极氪009没有二排中央过道，觉得腾势D9的二排坐姿偏高，觉得大众威然的三排靠背角度不合理，觉得除嘉华外二三排私密性不够好，觉得赛纳的第三排横向空间偏小， 甚至还要觉得三排通风加热都很重要，市面上也就GL8艾威亚，还要上汽大通MAXUS MIFA 9有这个功能。但是我想问一句，客户会因为这些小细节就放弃一款车吗？大概率不会，他们最终看的还是口碑、保值率、基础的实用性，大部分人还是相信保有量大，能见度高的MPV，起码买这种工具车，采坑的风险比较小。配置该怎么选？关于极氪009这款车本身，如果从购买角度分析，我更偏向于直接冲顶配。毕竟无法更换电池包，WE和ME版两个配置差价11万，就是续航里程相差120km。如果你觉得这11万换来120km续航根本不值，五菱红光MINIEV同样1-200km续航才卖3-4万。当然价格不能这么算，你在家里泡杯速溶咖啡，跟去星巴克点杯咖啡，价格和体验能一样吗？况且，当你就差那百来公里没电回不了公司，回不了家，带着一车去找充电桩，这种尴尬场面遇到一次，你都会后悔当初没有加这11万直接上顶配。虽然说顶配也就多了24度电（WE版116度，ME版140度）。而在颜色选择上就看个人喜好了，我各人不太喜欢方方正正的镀铬进气格栅，造型特别像厨房里用来削土豆的刨子。实际上极氪009的前格栅还有车身同色版，如果是我，我会选择黑色车漆+同色版本的进气格栅，而且同色版本的进气格栅是免费，镀铬的还需要加8000块。极氪009的长宽高分别为5209/2024/1848毫米，轴距3205毫米，车重接近3吨。这个尺寸和腾势D9、蓝图梦想家差不多。而且相比埃尔法，宽度多了174毫米，轴距长了2205毫米。对比别克GL8，宽度多了 146毫米，轴距长了117毫米。空间体验，大家其实去试一次就明白了。而在内饰方面，极氪009和极氪001的布局大体一致，10.25英寸液晶仪表+15.4英寸中控屏的组合。在车机上，009和001也是出奇的一致，搭载了一套ZEEKR OS系统，配备高通骁龙8155芯片、5G车联网。同时，009的后排还配备了一块15.6英寸的中央顶屏，这块屏幕内置会议模式，在车内可以完成线上会议。而且还支持SWITCH游戏机接入和手机无线投屏等功能，所以能在车上玩SWITCH不再是理想独有。按照官方的说法，极氪009宜商宜家。009目前的两个版本都是2+2+2的6座布局，据说六个座椅全部标配了SoftNAPPA中间加了减震层，然后又加了层海绵，但是我们编辑去试驾体验回来，感觉坐起来并没有什么特别之处，可能需要跑长途，才能体会到这个座椅的好处。第二排座椅还有3挡强度可选、5种模式的按摩功能以及座椅记忆功能，并且电动腿托支持电动四向最大65°调节，最大长度50cm，几乎就是平躺的姿势。不过，我们前面提到的第二排小桌板，是不能前后伸缩的。对于009的空间，理想的创始人李想之前还发微博怒怼009说“官图中的第三排乘客怎么感觉蹲在了后备箱，三排座椅好像没了。”吉利副总裁杨学良还回复李想，“别瞎说，没蹲后备箱。这是二排调到最后的三排空间，欢迎亲自对比体验呀。”客观地说，009定位中大型MPV，车长5米2，轴距3米2，所以空间上绝对不是问题。只是那个官图太夸张了一些。不过根据实际操作来看，二排的滑轨一直延伸到三排，如果将二排调到最后，靠背会紧贴三排坐垫，所以是坐不了人的。因此那张官图大概率只是因为角度或者焦距的不同，营造出了二排空间巨大的感觉。不过它本身的空间确实很大，不管是家用还是商用绝对够了。那张照片只有两种可能性，一是广角镜头，把二排空间放大了。二是二排的确移动到底了，第三排男士是盘腿坐在座椅上的。在动力上，009用的和001一样的双电机四驱系统，前后为双永磁同步电机，综合最大马力544匹，最大扭矩686牛·米，官方公布的0-100公里/小时加速时间为4.5秒。一个3吨的大MPV百公里加速仅仅只要4.5秒，确实有点耸人听闻。在续航方面，WE版搭载容量为116度的电池，CLTC工况续航里程为702公里；而搭载电池容量为140千瓦时CTP 3.0麒麟电池的 ME版，CLTC续航里程822公里，所以即便是打7这也有570多公里的实际续航。在智能驾驶辅助上，极氪009搭载了ZEEKR ADL2级驾驶辅助系统，包括带车道居中保持的跟车巡航、自动变道以及遥控泊车等功能。但是很遗憾，没有一步到位给到激光雷达。在购车权益上，没有整车终身质保了，而是三电系统终身质保，整车6年或15万公里质保。此外，免费救援、终身流量、中央吸顶屏的一年影视会员。其实我觉得极氪009更适合特定场景下的某些商业用途，比如我每次去机场停车，都会选择机场附近的一些私人开的停车场，这些停车场停一天的费用才20-30元，非常便宜。每次跟老板约好时间，我开到停车到场之后，他就会开车送我去航站楼。这两年，机场附近停车场接送用车全都换成了电动车。因为他们一天就要点对点跑3-4百公里，用电动车可以省下一大笔油费，以及保养维修的费用。当然这部分小老板，是肯定不会用极氪009这么豪华的车来接送客户的。但是，类似这样的机场周边酒店，是不是会考虑购入这类车型呢？同样这种两点一线接送客户的场景，我相信在现实生活中还是会有很多的。而纯电MPV市场本就没有几款车型可选，极氪这个品牌对于不少人来说，有吉利这种成熟厂家的背书，又有可以看得见的设计和配置，应该还是会有人买单的。而那些原本就考虑别克GL8、世纪、赛纳、奥德赛、艾力绅和广汽传祺M8的客户，我觉得大概率不会转买极氪009，这不是价钱高低的问题，而是关乎到今后使用的便利性和实用性。对于长途旅途且行程可能随时会变的人来说，用纯电动车跑长途面临的就是充电会占用太多时间，影响出行效率。所以我一直在想，为什么主打换电的蔚来，为什么不出一款MPV呢？另外还有一点值得注意，那就是部分用户乘坐纯电动车辆会有不适，我媳妇就是这样的人。每次出门都不愿意坐我的电动车，说坐在后排心慌想吐。要知道，我这车加速并不快，我自认为开车也还算温柔。但是没办法，电动车的起步响应几乎是无延迟的，而松开电门又会有制动力回收。你开车的人习惯了倒还好，但是坐在后排的乘客，可能真会有些不适。如果大家经常打网约车，也可以聊聊打到的燃油车与电动车，坐在后排的不同感受。我还有一个推测，就是极氪目前的两款产品，主要任务是为了拔高品牌的高度，特别是极氪009，卖多少不重要，重要的是把高端形象立起来，这也是为后期的车型铺路。比如后期大概率会出纯电单电机版，因为MPV没必要这么快的加速，即便百公里加速10秒，只要价格到位，绝对不愁卖。甚至后期还会推出增程版来进一步拉低售价，因为增程版只需要一块小电池+油箱，就可以无限续航，这一下子就解决了续航和成本两大问题，那时候才是真正出手的时候。此外，极氪009我觉得还是要有一个清晰的产品定位，像别克世纪或者理想L9那样，商用就商用，主攻老板；家用就家用，主攻奶爸。有舍才有得，虽然短期内销量可能会受影响，但是从长远角度来看，一旦名气打出去，形象立住了，后期的销量才不用愁。写在最后现如今，各大品牌争相推出MPV，二胎、三胎政策放开是一方面。另一方面，MPV市场之前几乎都快被那几款合资车给垄断了，尤其是别克GL8、传祺M8、奥德赛、艾力绅，赛纳等等。这些车还可以经过后期的改装，换装头等舱座椅、木地板、大屏幕和娱乐系统，这条后装生产线已经非常成熟。像这种成本不高、改动难度也不大的活，你说主机厂看了能不眼红？这种蛋糕怎能留给这种后期的小厂？所以各大品牌看到这块蛋糕之后争先恐后的推出MPV产品。再加上MPV这种大型车又大又重，如果是纯燃油那肯定很费油，你看GL8就知道了，百公里13-15个油都是常规操作。所以MPV+新能源那就是绝配，动力又足，成本又低，消费者自然愿意买。但是现在处于MPV的发展中阶段，后期还会有更多的MPV车型。所以只要不是刚需，我建议还是再等等，因为真正的好戏还在后面。可以添加微信46415254加入我们的社群音频图文更新在订阅号： 百车全说每期抽三条留言，每人赠168元的“芥末绿”燃油添加剂一瓶点击订阅，每周三，周六更新会有提醒新听友可以搜索：百车全说2014，百车全说2015，百车全说2016，往期300多个小时的节目可供收听

想知道C羅繼上星期之後的故事以及他在國家隊的事蹟嗎？關注體育人生繼續說給你聽！ 主持人：練宗翰、陳業盛 E-mail: hwakangfm88.5fm88.5@gmail.com Facebook

想知道C羅的傳奇故事以及如何成為世界著名的足球巨星嗎？關注體育人生這星期說給你聽！ 主持人：練宗翰、陳業盛 E-mail: hwakangfm88.5fm88.5@gmail.com Facebook

Join us this week as we discover the clandestine missions of the United States Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron in Vietnam and Operation Pony Express. Operation Pony Express was one of the most successful operations conducted during the Vietnam War, and the efforts of the United States Air Force 20th SOS went beyond the borders of Vietnam in direct opposition to communist pursuits in the whole of Southeast Asia. You can find the Hardtack Community on all of our socials via our linktree. If you have any feedback on our episodes or suggestions for future episodes, please send us an email: hardtackpod@gmail.com Don't forget to rate us and smash that subscribe button! Make your Own Hardtack! Hardtack Recipe (Survival Bread) - Bread Dad Civil War Recipe: Hardtack (1861) – The American Table Sources: Anderson, David L. The Columbia History of the Vietnam War. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017. Haas, Michael E., and Dale K. Robinson. Air Commando! :1950-1975: Twenty-Five Years at the Tip of the Spear. Hurlburt Field, FL: Air Force Special Operations Command, 1994. Leary, William M. “CIA Air Operations in Laos, 1955-1974 Supporting the ‘Secret War.'” Studies in Intelligence, 1999, 71–86. https://www.cia.gov/static/b0ded4a88b63ece00c9eb41369812fda/CIA-Air-Ops-Laos.pdf. Mullen, Max, and Keith Mullen. Pony Express Pilot Max Mullen's Flight Log December 1967. Keith Mullen, May 20, 2020. Mutza, Wayne. Green Hornets: The History of the U.S. Air Force 20th Special Operations Squadron. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007. “T. O. 1H-3(C)E-1 Flight Manual USAF Series CH-3E and HH-3E Helicopters.” United States Air Force Printing Office, September 1, 1973. “TM 55-1520-210-10 OPERATOR'S MANUAL ARMY MODEL UH-1H/V HELICOPTERS.” Washington D.C.: Headquarters Department of the Army, February 15, 1988. Vergun, David. “Grueling 38-Hour Struggle in Jungle Leads to Medal of Honor.” www.army.mil, September 15, 2014. https://www.army.mil/article/132963/grueling_38_hour_struggle_in_jungle_leads_to_medal_of_honor. Vietnam Outline Map Without Political Boundaries. Mapsofworld.com. Accessed December 17, 2021. https://www.mapsofworld.com/vietnam/vietnam-outline-map.html. Whitlow, Robert H., and Jack Shulimson. US Marines in Vietnam. Www.marines.mil. History and Museums Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1982. https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/US%20Marines%20in%20Vietnam%20An%20Expanding%20War%201966%20%20PCN%2019000308600_1.pdf?ver=2012-10-11-164136-230. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hardtackpod/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hardtackpod/support

This is episode 6 in the “All Psyched Up About” series dedicated to the work of clinical psychologist, Daniel McMillan and his team at Assured Psychology, whereby each episode seeks to highlight a variety of issues and topics around mental health. §§§ In this episode, I was joined in the studio by Cody Harper, a social worker in the Assured Psychology offices here in the City of Calgary. Cody took a deep dive into providing guidance and recommendations around “How to stay present during Life's Stresses”. The discussion during Episode 6 focused around: ⇒ Good stress vs. Bad stress ⇒ Stress hormones – Cortisol ⇒ Rumination ⇒ Two methods to avoid or stop ruminating: (1) The “R-A-I-N” method and (2) the “A-C-E” method §§§ CONCLUDING THOUGHTS FROM CODY HARPER: Much of our stress is generated from the fear of not being good enough. Check your expectations; are they realistic? Accept your emotions and stop trying to control others §§§ To learn more about the work of Cody Harper and his colleagues at Assured Psychology, click on one or more of the following links: Assured Psychology Website | https://www.assuredpsychology.com LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/assured-psychology/ Facebook | @assuredpsych or https://www.facebook.com/assuredpsych/ Instagram | @assuredpsychology §§§ Mental Health | Psychology | Psychologist | Health Clinic | Counselling | Counseling | Mental Well Being | Therapy | Community Support | Shame | Compassion | Mental Illness | Vulnerability | Vulnerable | Self-Esteem | Self-Value | Loneliness | Isolation | Depression | Self-Criticism | Self-Abandonment | Self-Care | Self-Worth | Couples Counseling | Men's Mental Health | Anxiety | Stress | Resilience | Calgary | YYC | Alberta | Podcasting | Podcast Guest | Canada Podcast | Emotions | Reactions | Relationships --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/allen-wazny/message

Comentarios y análisis de la victoria del Eldense en el campo del C. E. Sabadell. Nos hemos ocupado de la jornada 7 en el Gr. 2 de la Primera Federación y hemos hablado con la atleta del Club Atletismo Elda, Pilar Rubio tras proclamarse subcampeona de Europa en 50K ruta con la Selección Española

Última hora del C. E. Sabadell, Bm. Morvedre, Bm. Almoradí y Hospitalet Bellsport antes de enfrentarse, este fin de semana, al C. D. Eldense, Elda Prestigio, Bm. Elda - C.E.E. y Nueva Elda Finetwork

New episode! Slash chords are not chords named after Slash, the amazing guitarist of Guns 'n' Roses fame! Rather, slash chords, are chords that look, for example, like this, C/E.  In this episode Marlene explains slash chords and gives examples of how to play a couple of common ones.  Guitar Courses/Learning Resources Learn to Play Guitar in a Day!  Lesson of the Month Club Coaching Sessions Support this podcast show Become a Patron Marlene's Music website www.marlenesmusic.com Available on... #ApplePodcasts #Spotify #iTunes #GooglePodcast #AmazonMusicPodcast #iHeartRadio #Pandora #Stitcher #Castbox #PlayerFm #FeedSpot and more! @applepodcasts @applemusic @spotify @spotifypodcasts @podbean @amazonmusicpodcast  Credits: Creator, Host, Producer: Marlene Hutchinson This podcast was made possible in part by I Create Sound For help getting your best sound, go to www.icreatesound.com

Elizabeth talks with author C. E. Fitch about her new book "When You Give a Woman the World: A Woman's Travel Journal."

SUMMARY HEADS UP producer Jo de Vries shares her personal story of healing from acute anxiety attacks that started when she was 12 years old. Now in her sixties, and after 20 years of taking two psychotrophic medications, she is in the process of healing with the help of two medical professionals. Family physician/psychotherapist Dr. Warren Bell guides her along a path of discovery to unearth her disorder's root causes, while pharmacist Sahil Ahuja advises her on how to safely taper off medication. In this compelling episode, they dig into how Jo's experiences can inform and inspire others, and explore arguments made by acclaimed journalist and author Johann Hari in Lost Connections, the book that kick-started Jo's empowering encounter with herself and the outside world. TAKEAWAYS This podcast showcases: Personal stories of healing from anxiety and depression Progressive education for pharmacists The role of personalized care and holistic healing from mental health challenges Primary considerations for deciding whether to take medication for depression/anxiety Potential side effects of some medications for depression/anxiety Potential side effects of, and recommendations for, tapering off those medications Role of psychotherapy and other treatments for depression/anxiety Role of trauma and chronic stress in depression/anxiety Benefits of feeling, identifying, processing, and learning from both positive and negative emotions Impacts of COVID on people's willingness to talk about mental health challenges Johann Hari's personal story of depression and arguments for science-based alternatives he subsequently laid out in Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression & the Unexpected Solutions Using science to debunk the myth that chemical imbalance is responsible for anxiety/depression, and that medication is the only solution Disconnection (the nine causes of anxiety/depression) Reconnection (a different kind of antidepressant) Role of culture in sharing about, and healing from, anxiety/depression Role of livable communities that support the social determinants of mental health in preventing anxiety/depression SPONSOR   RESOURCES Antidepressants Going off Antidepressants Bounceback Patient Health Questionnaire Depression: Resource Guide for Patients   GUESTS  Sahil Ahuja, PharmD Sahil Ahuja is a licensed pharmacist practising at Two Nice Guys Pharmacy in Kelowna, BC. In this setting he provides patient-centered care that starts with listening to the person in front of him. In collaboration with that patient's health care team, Sahil provides a range of services including patient education, medication recommendations, and prescriptions. While completing his Doctor of Pharmacy degree at UBC, Sahil encountered mental health struggles of his own. Having made it through those difficult times, he believes the best way to reduce any remaining stigma around mental health is by openly sharing his own experiences. Professionally, Sahil's current focus is on the Toxic Drug Crisis and ensuring patients experiencing substance-use disorders have reliable and non-judgemental access to medication. These efforts have helped Two Nice Guys' Pharmacy earn recognition as Unsung Heroes in the community. In his personal life, he is prioritizing trying new hobbies and experiences (e.g., skydiving) to continuously expand his comfort zone. Dr. Warren Bell Dr. Warren Bell has been a general practitioner for more than 40 years. For decades he has advocated for peace, social development, the environment, and the anti-nuclear movement, as well as the integration of healing modalities of all kinds. He is past founding president of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, past president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Canada and the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of BC, past president of medical staff at the Shuswap Lake General Hospital, and current president of Wetland Alliance: The Ecological Response (WA:TER). He has written several peer-reviewed clinical pieces and for online publications such as the Vancouver Observer and National Observer. Warren received a College of Family Physicians of Canada Environmental Health Award and the Queen's Medal for Canada's 125th Anniversary in 1992.  Email: cppbell@web.ca Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/warren.bell.714 HOST Jo de Vries is a community education and engagement specialist with more 30 years of experience helping local governments in British Columbia connect with their citizens about important sustainability issues. In 2006, she established the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) to “inspire community conversations for sustainable change.” FOF's highly acclaimed events include Building SustainABLE Communities conferences, Reel Change SustainAbility Film Fest, Eco-Blast Kids' Camps, CommUnity Innovation Lab, Breakfast of Champions, and Women 4 SustainAbility. FOF's newest ventures are the HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Summit and HEADS UP! Community Mental Health Podcast. Website: Fresh Outlook Foundation Phone: 250-300-8797   PLAY IT FORWARD The move toward optimal mental health becomes possible as more people learn about the challenges, successes, and opportunities. To that end, please share this podcast with anyone who has an interest or stake in the future of mental health and wellness. FOLLOW US For more information about the Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) and our programs and events, visit our website, sign up for our newsletter, and like us on Facebook and Twitter.   HELP US As a charity, FOF relies on support from grants, sponsors, and donors to continue its valuable work. If you benefited from the podcast, please help fund future episodes by making a one-time or monthly donation. Sahil Ahuga and Dr. Warren Bell Interview Transcript You can download a pdf of the transcript here. The entire transcript is also found below: RICK  0:10 Welcome to the Heads Up Community Mental Health podcast. Join our host Jo de Vries with the Fresh Outlook Foundation, as she combines science with storytelling to explore a variety of mental health issues with people from all walks of life. Stay tuned. JO  0:32 Hey, Jo here. Thanks for joining me and my two special guests as we delve into my own story of healing from anxiety attacks that started when I was 12 years old. Now 67, and after multiple rounds of medication, the latest one lasting almost 20 years, I'm in the process of seeking freedom from fear and anxiety with help from two medical professionals. The first is Dr. Warren Bell, a GP who also practices psychotherapy in Salmon Arm, BC. He's guiding me along a path of discovery to find the root causes of my disorder. Hi, Warren. Warren  1:12 Hi, Jo, I'm delighted to be here. And I just like to say that the fact that you are sharing your story in this public way is an act of courage on the one hand, but it's also something that I think will lead to many other people who listen to this podcast, understanding your dilemma and the trials you've been through, and also be grateful for the fact that you have shared this very personal voyage that you've been on. JO  1:41 The other vital member of my team is pharmacist Sahil Ahuja, who's advising me on how to safely taper off two medications. Welcome Sahil. SAHIL  1:52 Hi Jo. Thank you for having me. Likewise, very grateful to have this opportunity, and appreciative that you're willing to share your story. We talk a lot about decreasing stigma around these concerns. I think this will be beneficial to a lot of people. JO  2:07 I can't tell you how grateful I am to have you both on my side and here today for the podcast. Two things before we get started. First, a big thank you to our sponsors for this episode, the Social Planning and Research Council of BC, Emil Anderson Construction, WorkSafeBC and AECOM Engineering. And second, please note that I'm sharing my story for informational purposes only. This is very important. If you're experiencing mental health challenges or want to taper off medication, please seek advice from your doctor and/or mental health professional. Okay, so imagine you're lying down tied to a railway track. You start to feel vibrations in the ties and a hum on the rails that can mean only one thing, a coming train. As it rounds the corner, you hear the whistle scream warning you to jump or else, but you can't. As the scenario unfolds, your breathing shallows while your heart rate spikes. You feel increasingly weak, dizzy, sweaty, and/or nauseated. You quickly move from feeling agitated to being terrified you'll die, and then maybe even wishing you would so the overwhelming physical and emotional sensations would stop. After what could be minutes or hours, the train roars over you, the danger seemingly past, but in its place comes the fear of what will happen next time you're tied to a track, or more likely must give a speech, or take an exam, or feel uncomfortable, insecure, or unworthy. That's anxiety's gift that keeps on giving. The continual fear of fear itself. My panic attacks started when I entered puberty when my hormones raged for the first time. My second bout was triggered again by a hormonal imbalance after the birth of my first daughter. That time it was more serious and involved depression as well. To make a long story short, I started thinking, what if I hurt my daughter and then spiraled into terror so visceral, I couldn't be alone for fear I'd go crazy and do the unthinkable. I was trapped in a vicious cycle. Feeling depressed made me more anxious and feeling anxious worsened the depression. My father who was a doctor said I was experiencing postpartum depression and prescribed an antidepressant. I also saw a psychiatrist who said that with the medication, I would recover. That's how it was done in 1983. No mention of lifestyle changes, counseling, or other potential treatments. The pills worked, so I took them until after my second daughter was born, too afraid to again face postpartum symptoms. When life settled down and my marriage and career seemed stable, I weaned off the medication and managed well for a number of years. My next experience with paralyzing fear came at the end of my first marriage, emotions were high, my anxiety levels were higher. Again, I was prescribed medication, this time by my GP. I did get counseling, but unfortunately, the counselor decided my husband was a jerk, and that I'd be better off without him. So I concluded the anxiety was situational, and didn't see the need for further counseling to get to its root causes. Fast forward to the beginning of my second marriage. I'm feeling good and decided to taper off medication again, which was fine until I accepted a job that turned into the worst experience of my working life. Eighteen months later, just after I resigned, I descended into what can only be described as hell on Earth. I lived in the emotional storm of an acute, unending, anxiety attack for three days. I couldn't think, I couldn't eat or drink without vomiting. I couldn't be alone for fear I would die. And at times, I wished I would because I didn't think I could stand another minute. I was prescribed three medications in large doses. A benzodiazepine for sleep, an antidepressant, and an antipsychotic, which is sometimes used to treat anxiety and depression when just the antidepressant isn't enough. Well, I don't regret taking the medications as they dulled the anxiety and lifted the depression to manageable levels. They did make me look and feel somewhat like a zombie for a number of months. With that first stage of recovery under my belt, I started thinking again about tapering off my medications. Like many other people who take them, I thought I was weak and wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't. First, I tapered off the sleeping pill. Then I significantly reduced the antipsychotic but decided to stay on the same dose of antidepressant, and there I sat for almost 20 years. In the early years, I tried a few times to wean off the antidepressant, but always experienced low-level anxiety and other minor side effects such as disturbing dreams. Mainly though, I was still afraid of being afraid, not wanting to look inside to find what was hiding there. Fast forward again to a little more than a year ago when I was 65. I must have been ready for a change of perspective, because a transformational book came across my desk while I was researching a Heads Up podcast about depression. It's called Lost Connections, Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression, and the Unexpected Solutions. It's by John Hari, an award-winning journalist and best selling author who has an experience of depression that he weaves throughout his book. Hari's book made me look at my situation differently through a lens of evidence-based findings, on the effectiveness of medication for depression and/or anxiety. And it made me question the medical system's long-standing pharmaceutical approach to symptom management, and the crutch it had perhaps become for me. So with input from Warren and Sahil, I developed a plan for tapering off the medications. I felt ready given that my life is now vastly different than it was 20 years ago, and that I'm truly invested in optimizing my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. The three of us agreed that tapering off should be done very slowly. Given that I'd been on hefty doses for almost two decades. And because I'd had side effects when I last tried to cut down. You'll learn more about this from Warren and Sahil a little later. Starting last spring, I cut my antipsychotic medication over several months by almost 90 percent. It surprised me that I experienced no anxiety during that time, and it thrilled me that I felt increasingly more energetic and alive as the doses dropped. I delayed tapering down from the antidepressant until this spring, given that winter can be a challenging time for me. In April, I reduced the dose of my antidepressant a small amount. As with previous tapering attempts, I felt stirrings of anxiety and had vivid, sometimes disturbing dreams. But I persisted and that past. A week or so ago, I tapered down again, and I'll stay on that dose for a month or so before deciding whether to cut down further. That's slower tapering than people typically do. But I'm fine with that. Most importantly, Warren, Sahil, and I agreed that I needed to be realistic about my ability to taper off completely. I've accepted that and we'll take this process one day at a time, watching for symptoms that might be too much for me. I realized I may have to take medication for the rest of my life. And I have no shame or guilt around that. Nor should you if you're on medication that improves your mental health and quality of life. My journey of finding freedom from fear and anxiety has led me to new places, both within myself and in the world around me. I've embraced proven science while being embraced by compassionate care. I now have feelings that are big, and raw, and real, and so welcome now that I understand they're to be revered, not feared. As Eleanor Roosevelt recommended, I also try to do one thing every day that scares me. Today, it's being vulnerable by sharing my story, which I hope will inspire you to get the help you need. If you're struggling, start by making an appointment with your doctor and/or a mental health professional. And please check out the resources in the Show Notes page on our website at freshoutlookfoundation.org/podcasts. Time now to bring in the experts who can add some meat to the bones of my story, and John Hari's book. Let's start with you Sahil. I found you at Two Nice Guys Pharmacy in Kelowna, BC. Great name by the way. My daughter recommended this because of your amazing, personalized service. We met, and you agreed to help me taper off the medications. You also promised to read Hari's book and then share your insights on this podcast. Let's start by you telling us your story, and why you find such meaning in helping people along their healing journeys. SAHIL  12:31 I'm glad that you've had a good experience. I've never had someone ask me to read a book and be on their podcast. So, it was a neat experience for me as well. My story, the part that's kind of relevant to the mental health conversation here, is that in undergrad I was in sciences and living at home in Kelowna, going to UBCO. And everything was good. But when I was accepted into pharmacy school, and I had to move to Vancouver and go into this Doctor of Pharmacy Professional program, that's where things started to unravel a little bit, I would say. When I moved away, it was great. I was living with one of my friends. But in those first couple of months of being away from home and being in a new program and in a new city, I started to feel a lot of discomfort. I remember times when I was studying, and I couldn't focus anymore on the slides in front of me, and I would have to go lie down. Eventually, I got to the point of having a conversation with my doctor, and we realized that I was having panic attacks, which was very foreign to me. And the identity that I had for myself of being this high achieving person who just is able to do anything and everything, and to have that, quote unquote, what I felt as a setback was tough to process. And I wasn't able to really get a handle on the anxiety in those first few months, then kind of depression was becoming a part of that as well. And they are sometimes related but also very distinct things, and I felt the distinctions there. I eventually started on medications, and I found them to be very helpful. I remember in those first few months of being on fluoxetine that I felt that if everyone was taking this medication, that there would be less crime in the world, everyone be happier. It was amazing. But as in the book, I had a similar experience as the author where that effect faded, and then we would increase the dose I would feel well, and the effect would fade. And that cycle continued whether with new medications or new doses for a few years. And then near the end of pharmacy school, I was getting tired of it. And I tapered myself off the medications and it took probably a year after that for me to feel like okay, I'm actually through this phase of anxiety and depression. It was interesting for me because I subscribed very heavily to the chemical imbalance narrative, in part because I had everything else going for me in life. I had amazing support systems in my family and friends. Even though I had left my family, they were still very supportive. And I had friends there. I had a great career ahead of me with meaningful work. It didn't make sense to me. And that was one of the most frustrating parts of like, why am I feeling this way. So, the chemical imbalance narrative really helped, to be like hey, it is out of your control, but kind of working through it and getting through it. I think it was the purposelessness that really got me and meaning to life that got me, and I found it in social connections, I found it in really savoring the moments that I have with friends. Meaningful conversations like this one, when you're 40 minutes into a cup of coffee with someone, I find so much meaning and joy in those moments, and I soak in that joy. And I would say it's still a work in progress. And not every day is a great day. But I definitely have much more joy in my life. I have more good days than bad days, and the bad days aren't as bad anymore. JO  16:00 Thank you so much for being vulnerable and laying that out for us. And I agree your story too will help other people. How has your experience impacted in a positive way your ability to help your clients who are experiencing mental health challenges? SAHIL  16:17 I think my experience gives me an insight into what the human in front of me is experiencing. I understand how difficult it is to even get to the point of standing at the pharmacy counter. There are so many pieces in between one of just recognizing and understanding what's happening that took me a bit of time, then being willing to address that concern and eventually talking to a physician or whichever healthcare provider getting to the point of like, okay, I have this prescription in my hand, am I going to go fill it? Okay, I go drop it off at the pharmacy counter, am I gonna go back? There's so many points there, where things could fall off or the mind could change. So when that person is in front of me, I have a sense of like, okay, it was not easy to get here. And I want to make sure that I can hopefully make it a bit easier moving forward. JO  17:13 Sahil, before meeting you, my interactions with pharmacists had been what I call clinical, which I guess is fair. But the training you received is changing that. Tell us more. SAHIL  17:26 I graduated in 2019 from UBCs PharmD program, and it is very patient-centered care. We are not just looking at the condition and throwing a medication at it. We're looking at the human that's in front of us and saying okay, this condition is part of what's going on. But let's look at everything else that's going on. And as a pharmacist, our training, the first thing we even think about is, is a medication even necessary, is it even the best treatment? For example, in school, we were being assessed when we were counseling a medication to a patient. We had to give three or four non-medication ways, non-drug measures to help address any particular concern, whether its mental health related or blood pressure or cholesterol. Those non-pharm measures or non-drug measures are very important, and the first line of therapy, frankly, in the majority of conditions. If those don't work, then we look at medication. JO  18:22 When you say patient-centered or personalized care, what does that mean? SAHIL  18:28 It's about assessing what's important to them and what their values are, depending on whether they're in school, what their age is, what their priorities are. It can help us guide the antidepressant we choose, for example, because depending on their side effect profiles, some side effects, for example weight gain, may be acceptable to some and not acceptable to others. So that's where the personalized approach comes in of, okay, let me learn about this person, what's important to them. And then we can make more informed decisions together and give them the appropriate information. JO  19:02 When you speak to your clients first about taking antidepressants, what do you tell them? SAHIL  19:07 Sometimes the majority of the times the benefits aren't immediate. And that's really frustrating when you're living through anxiety and depression. You're feeling unwell in all these ways to hear that, hey, I'm gonna have to stick through this for another 246 weeks before I really feel better. So that's one thing, it is a bit of a process. And also, the first one may not be the right one. We have a lot of options. We have a lot of medications that work in different ways that have different side effect profiles. So we can hopefully over time find the right one. And the things that probably do work more immediately are those non-drug measures, whether it's starting to look at CBT, and there's a lot of free CBT resources out there, whether it's from Anxiety Canada or MindHealthBC? Maybe the first line of therapy is being more mindful about hanging out with your friends, which is really difficult to do when you're living through it. But if there's a way that you can go for that cup of coffee and feel a little bit better, or go for that walk in nature and feel that sense of calm, those things might be more immediately soothing, and that will give the medication some time to kick in. JO  20:18 What about the primary potential side effects? SAHIL  20:24 There's a whole host of things depending on the medication that you take. So to say main potential side effects is a little bit tricky. And everything's in context as well. So I always hesitate from saying things broadly. But I will say some of the big things to watch out for is that, especially in younger patients, there is an increased risk of self-harm. And that's something that is top of mind for me. So when I am talking to my patients I, especially younger patients, I'd like to mention this is something that we've got to watch out for. There's regular things like nausea, and dizziness, and all of these things that usually, we can help mitigate or get better as the weeks go on. Certain ones might have a higher risk of sexual dysfunction, for example, others have very limited risk of that. Some have a little bit of risk of weight gain, and others are less. Some cause trouble sleeping, some help more with sleeping. That's why the personalization part is really important. If I have a patient who has insomnia with depression, then we want something that causes drowsiness, depending on if that's what they want. If we have somebody that they are unable to get out of bed at all, they're sleeping 12 plus hours a day or whatever, and I was on that side I would sleep all day long, we want something that might have energized them a little bit more, a little bit more activating. Side effects are also tricky term because sometimes that effect is something we want to happen. So it's very personalized and patient specific. JO  21:51 What about side effects associated with tapering off, and your tips for minimizing these? SAHIL  21:58 What I've seen in my short career so far practicing for a couple years is we really want to take it slow; we want to go over weeks or months. And that will help minimize the withdrawal symptoms. So it can be some of the things that patients experienced in the beginning, maybe some dizziness, or the strange one to me that I wouldn't think about is flu like symptoms. People can actually feel unwell in that way. There can be some irritability, appetite affects, sleep changes. You might even feel that irritability or depression coming back, but sometimes it's temporary, right? It's just the body getting used to not having the medication. And it's not necessarily that the depression is actually coming back. The other one that I hear patients talk about sometimes even if they miss a dose or two, is brains zaps or just that abnormal sensation there. These are the things to look out for. And if they're happening, this is how we can manage it or just even knowing that something can happen, helps mitigate the surprise of when it happens and makes it less scary in that way. JO  22:59 Thanks Sahil. That's great info and will really help me by the way, which brings us to our next guest, Dr. Warren Bell and his decades-long practice of combining medical and pharmaceutical knowledge with psychotherapy and downhome compassion. Just building on what Sahil was explaining to us, what do you see in the way of side effects or symptoms of people tapering off of these medications? Warren  23:29 The principle that Sahil referred to, which is to do it slowly, is probably more important than any other principle with respect to withdrawing or tapering off medication of this nature, psychotropic drugs. People experience a variety of symptoms when they start to reduce medication, including symptoms that are very similar to the ones that they experienced before they began to take them. These are withdrawal symptoms, but they seem to be very similar to what they experienced prior to starting medication. And as a consequence, there's a sense that maybe their condition that led to them taking medication has recurred. But it's actually a withdrawal process. And the best way to deal with it is to do it very slowly. I've had people who were withdrawn off medication in six weeks by one of my psychiatric colleagues, experience a terrible withdrawal pattern. And when I was involved with repeating it, because they cut back on the medication, we changed it from a six-week withdrawal to a two year withdrawal, and it was effortless. JO  24:36 I'd like to build on Sahil's insights about patient-centered care. You and I have talked about your practice of getting to know people in the round, versus using only biomedical measures for treatment. Why don't you share your story of integrating treatment modalities and how it's helped your patients with mental health challenges? Warren  25:00 My background prior to medicine was not pure sciences. My background was actually, believe it or not, music and creative writing. So I had a sort of artsy kind of perspective on life. So when I came to medicine, it was with a very different perspective from many of my fellow students. I understood science, but it wasn't the only thing that I had studied. As I went through medical school, I found the narrow approach on biomedical matters and physical health issues, to be challenging, because I was only too aware of my own psychological responses. So early on in my training program, one of my preceptors, who was the head of psychiatry at McGill, noticed that I had a bit of an aptitude for exploring the psychological experiences that people were having. And that led to learning about different kinds of approach to therapeutic interventions in that area. And I eventually fastened on a procedure, or a process, or an approach called short-term anxiety provoking psychotherapy, which at the time, short-term meant 12 to 15 visits as opposed to two years of weekly visits that psychoanalysis was focused around. So it was shorter term, but it was still longer term than what is commonly done with psychiatrists these days. And after I had graduated, I worked in a psychiatric outpatient clinic for a year, and I also engaged in palliative care. Much of it is intensely psychologically oriented. When I came back to BC and began practicing in the small town of Salmon Arm, I just felt the need for a variety of reasons to explore other modalities. And I embarked on what amounted to a 20- 25-year process of learning about every kind of therapeutic opportunity that there is ranging from physical interventions like manual therapies, massage, cranial-sacral therapy, chiropractic, and of course physiotherapy, one of the standards, and osteopathy, and then also mind approaches. Sahil mentioned CBT, which is a fairly formulaic form of psychological intervention, but it's been used and has been validated as having some value. But then there's other things like yoga and meditation and mindfulness. And side-by-side with them was the process that I was bringing into my practice, which is insight-oriented therapy, where you spend a long time asking challenging questions and essentially, having patient hear themselves say things that they haven't said before, and understanding things inside their own consciousness that are new, and developing insights. That way, it's not a system where I give people advice. It's a system where I probe, and their responses end up being their therapy. And I've done it now for over 45 years. So it's been a central part of what I do, because once you explore people's minds, you find out what they are like, as you said, in the round. You find out more of the totality of their life experiences, not just the disease, or the condition, or the injury that they present with. So it inevitably makes you think holistically when you approach anybody. JO  28:42 During my psychotherapy sessions, we talk about many things including the mental health impacts of my upbringing, my Type A personality, my perfectionism, and so on. But my biggest takeaway was the realization that I bottled up what I thought were negative emotions for decades, only acknowledging and sharing the positive side of myself. Warren, you along with Brene Brown taught me to sit with my not so nice feelings, to really feel them, and then to identify them, process them, and maybe most importantly, learn from them. I'll give you a simple example of that. About six months ago, I was cleaning out my kitchen cupboards, and I came across a set of china that I had inherited when my Mom passed away. And it brought back wonderful memories of Easter dinners, and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners and us all around the tables. And my mom loved those occasions. She loved her crystal, she loved her china, and her cutlery, and everything was set so beautifully, and she was so proud. And I decided that I really didn't have room for this china anymore. So I called my sister and I said, you have a lot more room, would you like this china? And she said, sure. I went downstairs, got some boxes, brought them up, and I started packing away this china. And I started feeling increasingly more sad, to the point where I started crying, which is really unusual for me because I'm not a crier. And I just felt worse and worse and worse. And so I went and lay down. And I started thinking about the china and what it meant to me and came to the conclusion that I didn't want to give it away. I really needed to keep this as a connection to my mother. So I packed up the china and I put it in this very special place, and decided that I'm going to use it on occasion, even if it's not a special occasion. So that, for me, was a cathartic experience of feeling something, identifying what it is, processing it, and then responding in a way that met my emotional needs. It has really played a remarkable role in my healing. I've said all that to ask this question. Warren, in the patients you've seen over the years who are experiencing anxiety or depression, what role do you see unprocessed negative emotions playing? Warren  31:34 They play a central role, because they embody things that are unresolved in one's own life experience. There is a social pressure on all of us to hold back expression of any kind of negativity. If you meet somebody in the street and they say, hi how are you, you don't say, well actually I'm having a really bad day, and let me tell you about it. Partly because we know that the chance of them stopping and paying attention to those remarks will be very limited, they might be frightened away. But also, it seems like exposing ourselves to having other people see the vulnerability in us. And so it's quite natural, at a social level in many social situations to suppress the expression of negative feelings, fear, anger, frustration, terror, all experiences which we define as negative. What they are, of course, is responses of our central nervous system to things that are troubling to us, that disrupt our lives, or that appear to threaten our security. When you do that, and those experiences come to the surface, as you described in the story about your mother's china, you often will experience an emotional reaction that takes you by surprise. And if it's the wrong kind of setting, for example, there's a bunch of people looking at you and you're on stage, and you happen to open your mother's china there, you would be under intense emotional pressure internally, to not start to weep on stage. Now, if it was a psychotherapeutic group therapy session, you wouldn't have that same feeling. But if you're on stage, and it's a public performance, you would feel horrified at the fact that you were losing emotional grip on yourself. So setting has a lot to do with it. And often in our early years, we have settings where we are discouraged from expressing our true reactions to things. A parent who tried to be helpful says, "Don't make so much noise in this room, keep quiet." You don't know why they want you to do it, but they tell you to do it. And you want to make a big noise, you feel full of exuberant energy, and you can't do it. And so you learn to put those feelings and that expression away. And then you get into a situation where you start to cheer at a sports event and suddenly you are feeling giddy, you feeling strange and kind of uncomfortable, and maybe a little anxious, like I'm being too exuberant. I'm expressing my feelings too vigorously. So what the negative emotions that are suppressed or unprocessed do is they influence a lot of our day-to-day behavior. But much of that behavior as an experience is of feeling anxious, or in this case that you just described, you feel sad, but they are highly legitimate emotional responses that are present in us when we're first born. And so to suppress them tends to be kind of unhealthy. It's not so much that you express them anywhere. You find out where it's appropriate to express them as you grow older, but you don't get rid of them. That's the key I think. SAHIL  34:38 I'm going to jump in here just to add a little bit more of my story and how I think processing those emotions helped out. When I originally had my symptoms, I felt defective in a sense. It's interesting how you would never think that of somebody else but when it's yourself, there's more harsh judgment, something that I have worked through thankfully. But I went on a self-improvement binge. And in doing so, I think developed a little bit more EQ, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness. With that self-awareness, I noticed and was actually able to see those negative emotions, sit with them, and process them in ways that you two have mentioned. So I think it's extremely important to get to that point where you can recognize and deal with what's happening. JO  35:23 What about the role of chronic stress and depression and anxiety? Warren  35:29 Chronic stress is usually the result of a habit. We live by habits, our lives are guided by habits, habits are shorthand ways of dealing with events that occur over and over again in our lives, and that we have to develop a sort of patterned response to. If there are patterned responses to all or most expressions of a certain part of our own inner world that is valuable and important to us, then it produces a chronic state of feeling anxious, depressed, or just out of sorts. Because we're putting aside a part of ourselves on a day-to-day basis. And the habit of putting that part of ourselves aside, has been so firmly entrenched in our vocabulary, our emotional vocabulary, that we never think about it when somebody says, are you scared, you say, oh no, even though we could be terrified, because we don't allow ourselves to think that we're terrified. Because if we thought we were terrified, we'd start to act like we were terrified. And that would produce the kind of reaction Sahil was just describing, doing things that you feel uncomfortable, that make you look more vulnerable. But in fact, as we become more integrated, our personalities become more integrated, and the different parts of ourselves get to know each other better, then stress levels tend to go down markedly. That's one of the reasons why insight-oriented psychotherapy can be so useful, because at the end of the road, you have an understanding of why you get agitated in certain situations, and not in others. SAHIL  37:04 So just to add to that chronic stress piece, it was stressful to be in a new city and learning how to fend for myself in that way. And the pace of professional school is very different from undergrad. It's hard to keep afloat in those settings sometimes. So I do think that chronic, ongoing feeling of drowning and rat race sometimes, I felt that even in my career, I think that does add to the situation. JO  37:30 For personal reasons, I'm interested in the link between genetics and anxiety and depression, as there's a history of those in my family. My dad experienced anxiety and depression. My paternal grandfather was hospitalized because of mental health challenges. And my maternal grandmother took her life by suicide when my mom was just eight years old. I also wonder about the impact of trauma and have tried to unearth the traumatic event in my past that might have triggered my challenges. Warren what can you tell us about that? Warren  38:06 Trauma is something that depends very much on the context in which a particular behavior occurs. And the trauma is not always explosive, violent, and deeply disruptive. Sometimes trauma can be the lack of a response to a certain behavior on our part as children. The adverse childhood experience body of research is often shortened to ACE, A C E, began in 1988. But it's research that really explores something that's deeply rooted in human experience. And that is that if things go really bad when you're young and vulnerable, then it can shape your response to the future quite dramatically. If somebody has a father who's an alcoholic, the father may never be violent or aggressive or invasive into that child's life, but they may be absent, they may be sort of non-existent, the parenting role could be almost completely removed because of a preoccupation with the state of consumption of alcohol. Sometimes parents are away a lot, they're absent. So trauma takes different forms. I think it's generally recognized that an accumulation of extremely disruptive events, things like a parent going to jail, things like the death of a parent, things like physical, mental, social, and sexual abuse. All of these really invasive, intensely disruptive forms of trauma clearly shake, sometimes shatter the sense of personality, self-esteem, self-trust, trust in others, and that can have impacts throughout a person's life. There's quite strong evidence that if you accumulate a certain number of traumatic experiences in your early years, it will have a permanent effect on your development as a human being. That said, you mentioned the genetic component of mental distress and mental difficulties. There is some degree of that, but with most genetic components, they offer about five, maybe 10 percent of the reason why things happen. What you may have genetically is a tendency, but not necessarily a condition. And so you might be more susceptible to certain kinds of inputs. But it's not that you're going to go ahead and behave in a certain way because of your genes overwhelming your judgment. JO  40:49 Warren, you've been doing this for decades. Have the levels of anxiety and depression increased over the last 10 or 20 years? Warren  40:59 My observation would be that certain kinds of anxieties have increased. And certain kinds of social and environmental, and I mean environmental in the broadest sense of the term, pressures and disruptions have come into the lives of many, many people around the world. On the broad scale, there is widespread anxiety, and particularly among young people, children ages, say six to 15. Anxiety about their future, on a planet that is increasingly degraded by human activity and the presence of so many of us on the planet. That's a genuine anxiety. And there have been surveys. The BBC did one recently that showed in every country, they analyzed children's responses, they found this kind of anxiety underlying their daily lives. They don't go around talking about it all the time, but if you ask them how they feel, they're very explicit and describe quite disabling, sometimes senses of anxiety. One of my colleagues who works in an emergency room here, had three young people over a period of some months who had all come to the emergency room because they were either feeling suicidal, or they had made a suicidal attempt, because they were so depressed about the future of human society. They felt that there was no hope for us. And I think the heat dome and the fires during the summer really intensified those anxieties. There are also other stressors like the enormous disparity between the very well to do and the very underprivileged and financially insecure. So I think there are increased levels of depression and anxiety about those kinds of things. But to be honest, the primary things that bring on anxiety and depression are personal factors, elements, and events, and experiences within a person's own life. That's where those kinds of experiences take place. And I would say, there's probably in this part of the world, more of that going on in communities, and neighborhoods, and individuals to some extent than there are in many other parts of the world where connection and interaction and a sense of community are much more strongly developed. But I would say these broad disruptive impacts are being felt by people all over the world. JO  43:25 Sahil, what's your observation about mental health over the last couple of years since COVID? I have heard that statistically, mental health has declined over that period. But I've also heard very promising statistics about how many people have taken this as an opportunity, like yourself, to build themselves in a positive way. SAHIL  43:54 It's hard for me to assess the exact statistics on what's happening. But what I do feel confident saying is, it's a conversation that more people are willing to have. It's something that became a societal level conversation during COVID lockdowns on how are you actually feeling. I think it prompted a lot of self-reflection in individuals. So maybe that's why we're seeing both improvements, because people are seeing things that they can work on, and maybe more conversations on people not feeling well because you're actually recognizing what's happening. And not just burying it with the busyness of life. JO  44:32 A big chunk of Hari's book outlines his research findings about the effectiveness of pharmaceutical solutions for depression and/or anxiety. He also questions the long-held belief that brain chemistry changes are the primary causes of those disorders. Sahil, what do you think about the book and Hari's arguments? SAHIL  45:00 So I mentioned my story, I did very much subscribe to the chemical imbalance narrative. And I do think there is still some truth to be had there. I think it's good to have a conversation around that on, okay, maybe that's part of the scenario, but maybe not the whole scenario. And there are things that we can work on. I did really enjoy the book. I enjoyed the breakdown of all these connections, and frankly, then all of the solutions that can help chip away at it. I don't know if I bought all the arguments in their entirety. But I think there is enough in that book to reflect on and learn from. Warren  45:38 The book was interesting for me, because I was familiar with a lot of the research that he explores. From a journalist point of view, he went and interviewed the people who had done, for example, the meta-analysis of antidepressants with the SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor category. I was familiar with the fact that the full meta-analysis, which was done by obtaining all the studies that have been done on these drugs, rather than the ones that have been published at the time the drugs first came out. It was possible to do say, a dozen studies, find four that said what you want them to say, and then the other eight said things you didn't want them to say. In other words, they were not so positive about the drugs in question and their therapeutic benefits. And never publish those eight and only publish the four that you like. So what the researchers on that particular meta analysis did, they went and got all the studies. They nagged the Food and Drug Administration, so they finally gave them the actual raw data from those studies. And when that happened, it showed that the evidence used to promote many of the psychotropic drugs was quite skewed. It was quite directed towards a marketing end rather than a therapeutic end. And that's nothing new. Nobody should be surprised. The nature of the corporation and most large pharmaceutical companies or corporations, is to deal with the shareholders expectation of profit. And that's the sine qua non, the other part of it is of importance, but it's not the central issue. What I liked about the book was that I was hearing some of the sort of personal trajectories, the narratives of the people who did the research and why they did it, and what they felt about the research when they had done it. And that was adding another sort of personal element to stories that I had heard, written up in clinical journals. I particularly appreciated the fact that Hari was very open about his own struggles, which I think is important. It makes it clear that say an investigative journalist or a public figure, is not somebody who sprang out of the earth fully formed. They are like everybody else, in a process of evolving, and changing, and coming to new understanding about something that they might have thought they understood very well, for sometimes a very long time. So that was helpful for me. And then some of the individual stories about changes that took place in people's lives, I found quite illuminating, and quite heartening, as well. JO  48:20 What were your favorite stories and why? SAHIL  48:23 One of my favorite parts is right at the beginning, when the author talks about the initial experience with the medications which paralleled mine, of there was a benefit, it would fade, there was a benefit, and it would fade. And specifically, there was this part where the author felt compelled to evangelize about the medications. And I felt that as well. I was singing the praises because I had felt so down and so unwell. The correction of that, or the fixing of that, however, I felt in that moment was so significant to me, that I felt that everyone should consider whether or not they need these medications. So that point of relatability from the beginning, stuck with me and probably added to the authenticity of the book for me, or added to the reliability of the author's narrative throughout. Warren  49:15 The story that captured my imagination the most was the story he told about arriving in Berlin, he's originally German so this was kind of like coming home and coming across a small community of people rejected on all sides by society. Some of them were immigrants from other countries that didn't speak English, or German, or other as a first language. Some were people who had been disabled. Some were people with sexual orientation that was not accepted in German society. And somehow, they just didn't feel comfortable in the value system of the society they we're living in. All of them had been kind of isolated from society as a whole but also from one another. And then an elderly immigrant woman decided to just sit out in public and be visible, because she was having trouble with attaining some goals in her life, from the government. And around her coalesced a whole new community that formed, and was established, and strengthened, and sustained by the energy that each of these marginalized individuals brought to the broader nature of their gathering of people. It wasn't just a heartwarming story, it was an analysis of how community is established. You reach out, you find commonality, you ignore the superficial differences, you look for the deeper values that you share. And then when you do that, you gain an enormous sense of personal and shared satisfaction. And I think if there was any way to give an example of how to enhance mental health, I would say that story to me stood out very much so. SAHIL  51:03 I agree. Not only was it heartwarming, I found it to be so empowering. In those most dire of circumstances, they were able to come together. And that sense of community that they built was inspiring and empowering on any time you find yourself in dire straits, you can build that community that will help you through it. Warren  51:22 And I would compare that to say, a very wealthy suburb in a large urban setting where all the houses are grand, the trees are beautiful, and the neighbors don't always know each other. And they're often sort of in competition to have the nicest lawn, or the biggest swimming pool, or whatever. And sometimes, not always, but sometimes, just very wrapped up in material values. And then at some point in time realizing that what they really want is a sense of relationship with others. JO  51:58 Much of the book focuses on what Hari feels are the nine major causes of depression and anxiety, including trauma and genetics. He describes them as disconnection from other people, or meaningful values and work and from status and respect. He also talks about us being disconnected from nature, and from a hopeful and secure future, which are inextricably linked. He goes on to talk about solutions, or what he calls different kinds of antidepressants. And we don't have time to talk about all of these, but I would like to dig a little deeper into what I believe is the most important message in the book. And that's the vital role social connection plays in mental health at all scales, individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. So first of all, Sahil being of Indian descent, your experience with social connection is much different than ours in the Western world. Tell us about that, and how it played out in your life. SAHIL  53:07 My parents are from India, moved here kind of in their 20s. Typical immigrant story, came with very little, have kind of worked their way up the social ladder. I'm born and raised in Canada. Being Canadian is my primary identity. And then I so happen to have this background. And with that background, I think comes a greater sense of family and importance on family. The social connection that I have with my parents and with my sister, that family household connection is so central to my existence. Leaving that when I left Kelowna to go to Vancouver for pharmacy school, that definitely had a role of being further from my greatest support system. And there was never a sense that I would be abandoned. When I look at more Western culture of kids moving out at 18, it seems such a difficult way of life. I don't know if I would have been able to get to where I'm at in life, if that was the culture that I came from, or if that was the situation I was in. So that value on a family and supporting each other, this mindset of my parents support me until I'm self-sufficient, and then eventually, the responsibility becomes mine to take care of them. So we're always being taken care of and supported in that way. There's no sense of time out in the world by myself. Warren  54:33 The Indian culture is, in some ways, far more mature than the kind of hybrid culture that we have in this part of the world. And many, many other cultures really have maintained a sense of community and family. There's no question I've observed in many, many situations how having sometimes just one healthy relationship can mean the difference between somebody being really distressed almost all the time, and feeling a sense of relief and security. Maybe I can recite a story that was told to me by two prominent members of Indigenous community here. They talked about the fact that everything that happened in Indigenous community was for the community. And as a result, everything you did was to make sure the community survived. So if food was scarce, and hunters brought back a deer or something like that, or there was some kind of plant that they could harvest, it would be shared equally among the community. And even if somebody was a hunter and needed more energy, then others would make sure that the hunter had a little bit extra. We certainly don't think of the communitarian values that underlie our behavior all that much. We're doing a better job now, but we've got a long way to go. And I think we can learn a lot from the Indigenous experience. JO  55:59 Sahil, you have one foot in Canadian culture, the other in Indian culture. Tell us what you've learned about your Indian culture that would help us build more mentally healthy communities here. SAHIL  56:12 It's hard for me to speak for all of South Asian culture. Even just India is a country of a billion people, and there's a lot of nuances. But what I can say from my personal experience is, I'm lucky to have a good family dynamic. And that's taken work. It's taking conversations, it's taken establishing and respecting boundaries. So I think the takeaway for me is put time and effort into cultivating the relationships, maintaining the relationships, because that is kind of the foundation of everything else. If you have those, you can work through a lot of the other difficulties that life throws at you. JO  56:55 Warren, you and I have talked a lot about the importance of livable communities that are designed and built to foster social connection. Dig deeper into that for us. Warren  57:08 Absolutely, and with considerable enthusiasm. How you construct a community, how you actually build the infrastructure in a community has an enormous impact on the ability for people to connect with one another. I remember an article in Scientific American that showed a small English village before the advent of the automobile. And the road was narrow, and the paths on the side of it, what we might call the sidewalk was large. And there were people all over the sidewalk, and very few vehicles, and most of them were horse drawn in the roadway. After the advent of motor vehicles, and a few decades gone by, the roadway had expanded, the sidewalk had shrunk. And the vehicles on the road clearly overwhelmed any walking activities that took place, and the sidewalk was really just a kind of a narrow front in front of stores and other kinds of buildings. And the structure there did not facilitate people crossing the road to talk to one another. So when we do that kind of change in a town, even a small English village, without realizing it, we've disrupted social patterns and a sense of social connection. The changes that we've introduced with what they call concrete jungles, downtown areas where every surface has been built. And the only place you can actually meet somebody is by going in a door into a building and typically presenting something about yourself. Either it's you want a hotel room, or you want to buy something. But the interactions that are just the casual interactions are very hard to come by. I live in a small town. I've been here for 45, 43 years, and I walk down the street and it's a social event. I meet people every few feet practically, who I know and have a few words with. So I think how you construct a community has an enormous impact. Walking trails, park benches, park spaces where people can just hang out and be sociable. All of those things and many others make a huge difference in terms of facilitating social connection. SAHIL  59:17 This theme of the environment, and how ever you define it keeps coming up and is really important. And I think that starts even in your bedroom. What do you have there, and what is that promoting in your life? All the way to, yes, the greater community and the planet. And something that I've been reflecting on more recently is cultivating as much as I can, the environment that's going to bring the behaviors out of me or create the mindset in me that I'm wanting. JO  59:45 I've been a public outreach and engagement consultant to local governments in BC for 30 years. And I'm thrilled to say that things are definitely getting better at the community scale. When I started in the early 90s, municipalities didn't have sustainability plans or programs, climate action plans or programs, and very few were thinking about the social and cultural considerations of community well-being. I'm thrilled to say that there have been dramatic changes in these areas. Communities of all sizes across Canada are working with residents to plan and mobilize efforts to enhance and integrate social, cultural, environmental, and economic well-being. Warren  1:00:32 Joanne, that is such an important thing that people who are in governance systems can do to make communities what they have the potential to be, which is hubs for people interacting at multiple different levels and in multiple different ways. And in almost all of them positive. And there are many ways you structure both the physical structures and the social structures. The way support systems are given to people or not given to people can make a huge difference in the way their lives work out. And I think that is a critical element that all leaders and communities can play and make a huge difference. JO  1:01:13 Warren, I know you're also passionate about the social determinants of mental health, and how they impact people's well-being. These include things like housing, employment, education, physical environment, security, and financial stability, to name just a few. Knowing that you promote universal, basic income at every opportunity as a way to optimize these factors, tell us more and why it would improve mental health across the board. Warren  1:01:45 There's two pieces of evidence around mental health and what a universal basic income does to that part of our lives. The empirical evidence is that every experiment that has been done in this area has shown a massive uptick in positive emotional state in the people receiving the universal basic income in whatever form it occurred. There was an experiment done in Dauphin, Manitoba in the 70s and early 80s. And one of the universal findings there was everybody felt so much better about their life. There was an experiment done in Ontario for about three years before it was shut down by a new government. And it showed exactly the same thing, something like 87 percent of people had this enormous uplift in their state of mind, because they felt cared for. They felt nurtured by the community at large. It wasn't that they were given this cheque and they just went off and spent it. They looked at the cheque and they said, "This is all the other people who live in this community, contributing a few cents to my financial security." And that was a very powerful thing. The other piece of evidence is drawn from human health. And if you look at physical health outcomes in countries where there's more income equality, and what a universal basic income does is it puts a floor under which nobody will sink. The evidence from many different countries in the world shows that human health at the physical level improves very significantly. Countries with greater financial disparities between the wealthy and the financially underprivileged. Every study shows that people use hospitals less often, they go to doctors, less often, they suffer from chronic illness less often. So I think it's very hard to argue against universal basic income. SAHIL  1:03:39 I think on a broader scale, it's a great idea. We want everyone in society to be taken care of, to be fed, to be housed. The social determinants of health are something recently learned in school. Income inequality is such a predictor of health along with education and the other determinants. We talk about medications a lot, but these basic foundational societal concerns, if these can be addressed, then were working on prevention rather than treatment, and I think that's a great approach. I am probably not as well educated on the economic consequences of these policies and decisions, but definitely something I'm curious about and want to learn more about, because the promise, I think, is there. JO  1:04:30 This has been an informative and inspiring journey with you both personally and as a producer of this podcast. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for sharing your stories and your incredible insights and passions. So let's close with a question for each of you. Warren, you've been doing this a long time. What are you seeing in treatment modalities and health care now that gives you hope for the future? Warren  1:04:59 I've been reflecting on this quite a bit recently because I'm veering towards retirement, and it makes you think about what is the nature of healthcare and your role in it. And what is the system itself doing, which I've been observing for nearly five decades overall. One of the big changes is that the information that is now available to people is far more abundant than it once was. At one point, you could only get information about health from either a specific healthcare practitioner or from somebody who was selling you a product. Abundant and accurate information about human health, in all its aspects and every aspect that we've talked about today, it's now available online. Now, there are of course, sources of information that are entirely questionable and distorted. But much of the information is really eye opening for many people. And that's taking the emphasis off just say going to the doctor or going to see another health professional, and sort of democratizing access to information, which I think is a really important step. And I think that's revolutionizing how healthcare happens. JO  1:06:19 Sahil giving your lived experience of depression and anxiety, your expertise as a progressive pharmacist, and what you've learned from Hari's book, how do you see the future for the one in five Canadians who have or will have depression and or anxiety? SAHIL  1:06:37 I see a hopeful future. I think it starts with that first step of that self-awareness and identification of what's happening before it's becoming too severe. Trying out all the non-medication measures, some mentioned in Hari's book, and some we've mentioned throughout the podcast, and then having your health care team in place if you're needing it to work on from the psychotherapy aspect or

It's been 5 weeks since our last weekly episode and we missed you all! But what happened?  Why the break? We talk about consistency is so important (in fact it's one of the “C”'s in Stone's formula for success -  3(C+E). Well, we explain everything to you and, in true LOPC fashion, share some valuable takeaways.

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Welcome to Cannabis Daily - Your daily guide to cannabis news, industry trends, and trade ideas in under 5 mins.Episode Summary:Mississippi power company, Tennessee Valley Authority, announcement causes confusion.CEA Industries announces a $24 million public offering.India Globalization Cap(AMEX:IGC) completes phase 1 trials of a THC-based drug to treat Alzheimer's.Needham maintains a Sell rating on Aurora Cannabis(NASDAQ:ACB). cbdMD (AMEX:YCBD) miss their earnings by around 300%, which was followed by a 17.7% increase in share price.Elliot's Watchlist For The Day:Harborside(OTCQX:HBORF)Innovative Industrial(NYSE:IIPR)Ascend Wellness Holdings(OTCQX:AAWH)Anebulo Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:ANEB)Hosted & Produced By:Elliot LaneAaron Thomas Contact us at: cannabishour@benzinga.comFollow Benzinga Cannabis On Social MediaInstagramTwitterYouTubeLinkedInSubscribe to all Benzinga Podcasts at https://www.benzinga.com/podcastsSubscribe to the Cannabis Insider Newsletter to get more cannabis news and trending links delivered to your inbox.Tune in weekly to Cannabis Hour at 4 pm ET every Thursday for Cannabis News & Executive Interviews at bzcannabishour.comHit us up at https://www.benzinga.com/cannabis/ for more news today, tomorrow, and everyday.Access All The Cannabis Daily Episodes HereFor Top Gainers & Losers Cannabis stocks of the day check out https://www.benzinga.com/cannabis/stocksNOT FINANCIAL ADVICEThe Information Contained on this Podcast is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, financial adviceUnedited Transcript:Thanks as always to Aaron Thomas for producing this wonderful show. We are here to bring you your cannabis news and insights on the markets on the industry every morning in five-ish six-ish minutes or less. So let's dive right in Harbor side and pylorus equity group complete their first funding traunch totaling around 45.3 million. Polaris will be funding, Harborside, urban leaf, and loud pack ahead of the close of. House holdings transactions. So once all these three merge they'll be called state house at the moment, there's still three becoming one about Polaris equity funding. This in a major way. Polaris is well-known I think is one of the main lenders and REITs in this industry or REIT being a real estate investment.Next up if you missed it, Mississippi announced a medical marijuana bill earlier this week that passed the house, passed the Senate. Governor signed it into law. Next part of that story, if you missed it earlier this week, Mississippi power company, Tennessee valley authority announced that they would refuse to supply power to marijuana businesses as they are still federally, as marijuana is still federally illegal and TVA is a federal company.They received quite a bit of condemnation from advocates, from conf, from congressional lawmakers and from a key Mississippi regulator, they are now walking back the threats to do so by saying it won't be taking such action, but would be looking for federal guidance on the matter, LOL TVA's announcement caused major confusion. According to one Northern Mississippi commissioner. And caused some businesses to reconsider. Having their facilities, having their cultivation land in Northern Mississippi. So TVA has done nothing but cause harm to the young industry that is their cannabis, medical marijuana program in the state on maybe.Good bits of news, South Carolina state Senate formally sends their medical marijuana bill over to the state house of representatives. Next step CEA industries announces a $24 million public offering and a NASDAQ listing C E a D will be the ticker CA D is focused on controlled environment, agriculture systems, engineering and technologies.AKA. They are an up and coming, if not. Solid competitor in the hydroponics landscape of the ancillary side to cannabis and other agriculture India. India, globalization capital. This is nicely listed. IGC is a company headquartered in Maryland. They're also engaged in the development of cannabinoid based therapies for health care applications announced their Q3 2022 earnings.I thought this interesting as we've not called them out on this podcast to date but their company completed phase one trials of a T H C based drug to treat all signers. They're planning to submit a phase two trial. With of course, a lot of placebo applications to it, to the FDA relatively soon. The company has a line of CBD topicals recognized by USA CBD expo as the best full spectrum hemp CBD topical revenue was around 135,000 last quarter, as opposed to 56,000 the prior year.Overall, I think a watch Lister than that. Value of this company, to me is the THC based on Alzheimer's drug relatively early, but something definitely to keep an eye on keeping in the theme of pharmaceutical based cannabinoid companies. We have NASDAQ listed and Nebula pharmaceuticals, a N E B announced Q2 2022 earnings.They initiated a phase two trial of their drug, which was focused on developing novel solutions for people who are suffering. Cannabinoid intoxication and substance abuse. So they are. Looking to treat those who are affected negatively by cannabis intoxication. They currently have around $18 million of cash and cash equivalents. Their quarterly operating expenses were around 1.1 million. So overall I think a decently strong pharmaceutical company for this industry, neither. Needham maintains a cell rating on Aurora that's NASDAQ listed ACB after Aurora's Q2 2022 financial results at Aurora's earnings showed no reduction in net loss.The company reaffirmed adjusted EBITDA. Profitability by the first half of 2023, and ideally realizing 60 to 80 million in cost savings. By that same timeframe, Aurora reported a $75.1 million loss in the quarter with net revenues of six. Million, not a strong showing from one of the oldest cannabis companies globally.I P R this is innovative industrial properties. One of the leading real estate investors in the game of cannabis they acquired a New Jersey property to expand their real estate partnership with ascend wellness holdings, which is listed as a w H on the OTC two very strong stocks in this industry.Being a major investment vehicle. And AWS being one of the leading tier two MSO is probably approaching tier one status in the next year or two, definitely a watch list or for me last but not least CBD MD, miss their earnings by around 300%, which was followed by a 17.7% increase in share price. The revenue was at around 3 million year over year. This is forming a trend looking at Neptune yesterday and CBD MD on the larger scale. In terms of the missed estimates that the revenue up year over year seems to be a stronger indication than the estimates as to how the markets will react to these earnings. With that being said, if I'm looking at this today, I'm thinking Harbor is looking good.That's H B O R F on the OTC. I'm thinking IPO. On the NASDAQ, I'm thinking a w H on the OTC, I'm also going to keep an eye as a watch list or on a Nebula eight. And he be on the NASDAQ for quite some time. But with that being said, this is Elliot lane. I hope this is interesting. I hope we're bringing you the information you want as an investor into cannabis and into the cannabis industry.Let us know what you think until Monday. Fabulous weekend. Hey investors, thanks so much for tuning in to Benzing. As cannabis daily stock picks and news podcast everyday pre-market. Once again, this is not financial advice. Please do your own research. We hope we bring you the best and most efficient news for your investing.Continue to find us on benzinga.com/cannabis spending a.com/podcasts or on YouTube on Benzing has channel.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/cannabis-daily/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode 177: Pull my Digilink! This week, West Side Story underperformed, C@E@ happened, George Perez' health news, RIP Mike Nesmith, Mike got boosted, Jeff's TV viewing, Jeff vs. Dungeon crawling, Ivan's DJ gigs and his move, Hawkeye & Yellowstone discussion, HasLab's Rancor fail, geek news, and more! Thanks for listening, and thanks to our Clubhouse guests for stopping by! Available on YouTube, Spotify and the Apple & Google Podcast apps! Anchor: https://anchor.fm/sotrt​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Email us at sotrtpodcast@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sotrtpodcast/​​

Doug explains Christmas to Pesach: the customs, history, and meaning. Pesach asks about the date of Christmas, the differences from Easter, and teaching the practice of gift-giving to children. And then there's those people that Doug refers to as "C&E"s. (Judaism has them too!)

More often than not when we think of web accessibility we think of the challenges blind people face with inaccessible websites. In fact, the lack of web accessibility encompasses all disabilities.   Our episode this week is the second part of a webinar series I conducted for accessiBe.  This week we will present The Accessibility Gap part two. You will meet Josh Basile, a C4-5 quadriplegic, who will discuss the challenges he has with the internet. Josh will show you from his vantage point why businesses and companies should make internet accessibility an important part of their presence on the web. Some directories do not show full show notes. For the complete transcription please visit https://michaelhingson.com/podcast About our Guest: Meet Josh Basile a C4-5 quadriplegic, power wheelchair user, disability rights advocate and lawyer. In 2004, at the age of 18, Josh was paralyzed below the shoulders in a beach accident. Soon after he formed a 501(c)3 to empower newly injured families through SPINALpedia.com and its 21,000 paralysis-related videos. As a medical malpractice lawyer and disabilities rights advocate, Josh serves persons with disabilities both in the courtroom and through policy initiatives. As a community leader and change-maker, Josh works tirelessly to improve the quality of life the persons with disabilities and to continuously break down existing barriers to access and inclusion. To improve web accessibility and usability, Josh joined accessiBe and that accessFind initiative as the Community Relations Manager. About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes Michael Hingson 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson 01:20 A pleasant Good afternoon to everyone wherever you may be. I'm Michael Hingson. I and I am here hosting the webinar series we call the Accessibility Gap in CO hosting and with me today is Josh Basile. If I could talk straight, I'd be in good shape. Josh, welcome. Josh Basile 01:38 Thank you, Michael. It's great to be here. today. Michael Hingson 01:42 We're excited about this series of webinars because it talks about something that most everyone isn't addressing. And that is this concept of the accessibility gap. Last month, we did one, our first in the series with Curtis Chung, who is a well known assistive technology expert, a longtime consumer advocate. And we talked about the nature of the gap. And basically what we discussed last month was that there is a very significant gap between on the Internet, what exists, and the number of people with disabilities who can access what exists. And that gap grows wider every day, as more and more websites are created that are inaccessible to those of us who happen to have a disability. The world, the industry, and most all of us are not doing anything to bridge that gap. And we thought that today, one of the main ideas that we can talk about and one of the main objectives we have is to make you aware that it crosses disability lines, it isn't just blind people, although we tend to be pretty visible at dealing with the accessibility gap because of the fact that we don't get a lot of access to content for a variety of reasons. But no one thinks about the fact that it goes further than that, and that it isn't just blind people. So Josh happens to be a quadriplegic uses a wheelchair. And I've mentioned last month my wife has a paraplegic who uses the chair, but she doesn't have a lot of the issues that say Josh does, and Josh will talk about that. For my part, I have been blind my entire life. I have been using the internet, since it's been around I have found some websites that work pretty well have found a lot of websites that are not very accessible and don't work pretty well. And more recently, even finding that some of the websites that I can access, when people actually do the work of remediation of those websites. That is they work to make them accessible. A lot of content becomes visible and usable for me that I've never been able to access in use before. And I'm sure that Josh also has lots of stories about that. So Josh, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit. I think some of the people here know my story more than yours. So why don't you go ahead and tell us about you. Josh Basile 04:14 Thanks, Michael. So, hi. Hello, everyone. I'm Josh basil. So just let you know about my journey. I grew up in Maryland, and was an avid tennis player and loved all sports. And after my freshman year of college, this is back in 2004. I was on a family vacation at the beach and a wave picked me up, threw me over my boogie board and slammed me on my head that day I shattered my neck. I was facedown in the water unable to turn over. And luckily my friends saw me floating and they pulled me onto the sand and that was the start of being a sea for fact quadriplegic. I'm paralyzed below the shoulders. So I use a mouth control to operate my computer, I do have enough movement in my hand, that I'm able to operate my joystick, I can't even lift my hand off my joystick. But that's my level of injury. But I never let my spinal cord injury or my unique abilities stop me from moving forward and continuing to wheel after my dreams, I ended up going to community college after my injury, then went to undergrad, and then went to law school and graduated magna cum laude without ever flipping a page with my fingers. Technology's pretty amazing. And I think a lot of what we're going to talk about today is how technology is advancing in beautiful ways to bridge the accessibility gap. I have a nonprofit called determined to heal. And we help simplify the transition for newly injured families through information, videos, through adventures. We just try to live with an adventurous spirit, adventurous wheels and, you know, keep moving forward. There's no point to really reinvent the wheel. others in the community can show you what's been done before you and give you ideas on how to customize your journey forward. Mike, thank you for letting me have an opportunity to speak. Michael Hingson 06:11 Well, Josh, let me start by asking you a question. Because I'd like to really hear it from your perspective. What, what do you feel is the accessibility gap? How would you break it down? If you're dealing with it in terms of all of us? Josh Basile 06:26 I think the simplest way to think of the accessibility gap is we have accessible websites, and we have inaccessible websites that exist. And the gap is what's that divide? What how is it growing? Is it is the gap coming closer together? Are you getting to put more inaccessible websites, or they're getting to be more accessible websites at any given moment. And unfortunately, the gap is growing in the opposite direction, every single day, every single second, there's more inaccessible websites being launched than accessible ones. And it's just it's not the direction we should be moving in. It's unfortunate, but so much of it is because so much of the content management systems that exist out there, make it so darn easy to build websites no longer with manual coders that know how to build it right from the beginning. And right now it's just anybody can go and plug in and pull over and build a website with a click of a button and not actually put in the accessible elements needed for people to explore, understand what's in front of them, and be able to really, truly experience a webpage as any person without disabilities experiencing it. Michael Hingson 07:43 Let me add to that the gap is not only in the actual fact that websites are inaccessible in the number and the in to some degree, the percentage of websites that are inaccessible is growing. But we have another gap, which is really what leads to the title of today's webinar, which is different disabilities, same goal. The fact is that while people are making their websites and as Josh said is becoming easier and easier to do, what we're not seeing is any major effort on any level, to make business owners who make websites more aware of the need for accessibility. And we're not seeing those who really should be involved in addressing the issue. We're not seeing them increase awareness. Programmers aren't learning about access. The schools aren't training coders and programmers about access the content management systems that Web site creation systems, especially the ones that make it easy, like a WordPress or site builder and any number of other systems that are out there. They're not mandating access, and they're not incorporating access right from the outset. And the reason is because of the real gap that exists, the awareness gap. There's not much of anything being done to address this whole concept of awareness. And that is what we really need to do. I don't think, and I'm sure Josh, you would agree. And I want to hear you and what you say about it, but I don't think that anybody really Mullah is malicious and they're ignoring making websites accessible. They just don't know Don't you think? Josh Basile 09:44 Yes and no, I think there's many different sides of the coin of why people don't make their websites accessible. One is definitely an awareness issue. before my injury, I really didn't know anybody with a significant disability. And you know, my injury gave me a new perspective, a new way of experiencing the world, for me a new way of seeing the world, in so many different things that I never knew, or was concerned about. But a lot of the times, it's, you know, as you're building a website, so much of the business world look at it, like, it's, it cost me, you know, $100 $200 to build a website, and to make it accessible, it might cost me 10 times that amount, or even more, and then they make decisions on money, which, you know, in respects, it's, if it could be done right from the beginning, you wouldn't have that issue. Or if you rely on other types of solutions, that you can get it done in a much more financially feasible manner. But I think so much of it, like you said, is basically not knowing, not being aware. But I think there's definitely a lot of different factors that contribute to why the internet is not accessible. Michael Hingson 10:57 But I think that the majority of people if they understood, things like 20%, of all people are one out of every five persons in the world has a disability. And most of them can't utilize the web, the way the other four out of five can. If people who are creating websites understood that one out of five people aren't able to take advantage of their websites and thus do business with them. They would be even if it's just a financial motivation, want to make websites accessible, but it still goes back to that level of awareness that they don't know that and they don't know about accessibility, most people don't. And unless they have direct interaction, they probably won't. Until the time comes, that disabilities truly become a topic that we're as a society willing to discuss and bring to the forefront. In the past several years, we've certainly heard a lot about diversity with issues regarding women like women in Hollywood, we saw a lot of that dealing with the Oscars last Sunday, or different races and so on, and how all of that is changing. And that landscape is changing. But the landscape for persons with disabilities still is not because the mainstream of society has yet to decide to make its mindset inclusive, that to bring all of us in for whatever reason, it still is that way. And I think that's something that that we need to deal with. And hopefully things like this webinar will help raise some awareness and find that more people will become aware, because I do think that mostly people, if they understand want to do the right thing. The other part about it, Josh, is, as you said, it needs to be inexpensive, and it needs to be easy to make happen. And the reality is that there are a lot of people who have found some pretty easy solutions that have made their websites accessible, they feel that it has no one has objected to the websites, since they've put technology into play that makes their website accessible. So they're happy. And they're able to go on and do their business. And of course, that works until something doesn't like the the website server goes offline or something like that, then they don't have a website, or it can be that somebody says, you know, I tried to do something on your website, and I couldn't make it work. Can you help me with that, or they people will speak up and say, we have an issue. And then when that happens, the good website owners will address the issue. And hopefully that they have resources to make that happen. Josh Basile 13:52 When it's about the fact that businesses just are not are not tapping into the disability community. If you have one out of five different potential customers that could potentially benefit and purchase or access the information on your website. Why wouldn't you want to reach that audience that we're talking about billions of dollars of untapped customers that because a website's not accessible, that they can't fully reach that audience. And even studies have been done over the years that the disability community is the most brand loyal community in the population in the entire world. Once we are treated properly and cared for and acknowledged, we go back and back as repeat customers, to these businesses. And it's not only just us, it's our family members. It's our friends, because we speak about it. We talk about Yeah, we went to that place and treated as well. And we go back and again, we invite people there we let them know. We love being mentors to other community members. Michael Hingson 14:59 So tell them So tell me, why is there such strong brand loyalty when that happens, Josh Basile 15:05 because if you look, you know, there's 350 million websites in the United States, or that's tapped in with with within the United States. But yet, less than 2% of those websites are accessible. So just thinking about just businesses in general, when you only have a select few of businesses that truly speak and serve our community, you remember those, and you go back to those, because that's where you're going to get the best experience, you're going to get an experience with less struggles, less frustration, it's just going to be easier. And that's what customers want. And that's what persons with disabilities want. That's what anybody wants. Michael Hingson 15:51 One of the one of the strongest messages that any good salesperson learns is when you establish a rapport with your prospects and with your customers, when you get them to feel like you're speaking to them, not pressuring them, not just trying to, as a lot of people would say, buy used car salesman, sell them, but you're speaking to them, you are concerned about them, they're going to pay attention to you. There's so many examples of that if you deal with people in real estate, the good real estate agents will tell you that, although we may have sold someone a house, the fact is that if we keep in touch with those people, if we know what's going on in their lives, even though they're not going to buy from us for a while because they're not moving. They'll refer other people to us. And when they do need to move, they will remember us and they will come back to us. And and the reality is that works when you have that genuine concern. And the the 2% of websites that are accessible, are transmitting a message, we care, we are working to make ourselves available and accessible to you, whoever you are. And the result is we're going to be brand loyal. And we are brand loyal to those people that really touch us and talk to us. And that is I think one of the most important things that we as people discussing this today and people who create websites, and more important the people who are going to be involved. And the companies that are going to be involved in fixing websites, the most important thing they can know is it really is about the consumer, much more than the business. Because you may get a business as a customer. But ultimately, it's about getting the consumer, the users of those websites to both the accessibility that has been created. And then obviously, the products that you want. My favorite example that I came up with just on the spur of the moment, once a couple of weeks ago is that you can have websites that people work on and do things with and supposedly make accessible. But if consumers have a problem with it, it's like cat food. If you are a company that manufactures cat food, and you sell it to your customers, that's really great. But it only works until the cat tastes it. And if the cat doesn't like the taste of it, and if that tends to be a general consensus, you've got a problem somewhere until you please the cats, nothing's going to work. You know what I'm saying? Josh Basile 18:47 Absolutely. So I think so much of having an accessible website, just talks to like, like you said about caring, about respecting about just inviting someone to have a seat at the table, or to really open the door enough to let somebody in, that might be peeking in, because it's not fully accessible. And, you know, in order to truly experience a website, you need to experience all four corners of it, you need to experience all the pages, if you can see the product, you can read about the product, but you can't check out and purchase the product. You know, that's just half of the picture. That's half the half of the puzzle. And you know, that's the trouble of some websites. You know, you just can't navigate the full thing without you know, calling in a family member or friend to help you get across and to tell you the truth. Not everybody has those people next to them to help them at any given moment. So it's making the website accessible is just so important. And right now as the accessibility gap is going in the opposite direction. It's something that we need to do. And like right now we're talking about the issues which is the first stage of have an understanding that there is a major problem. And then it allows us to figure out solutions on what we can do to bridge that gap, and how we can work together as a united front to bridge that gap. And I'd love to talk a little bit about how we've done this well in the past, and how we haven't done it well in the past, within the disability community. Michael Hingson 20:23 Sure, but before we do, can you maybe give us a couple of stories of your own experiences, or what you've what you've experienced or seen about people who've had real accessibility gap problems in your community, and then I'll tell a couple also, well, Josh Basile 20:40 so too often, the way that I've seen this, experienced it, and just witnessed it from the history lessons of diving deeper into the wall into kind of the past, is that the disability community, as always, or for the most part, in an afterthought, products are rushed to market industries are created. And the disability community is not thought of until years later, when we basically, let's say, with with build, building a building, like before the ADEA was existed, buildings were built, and you know, if they were built accessible is one thing. If not, you know, later on, they would create a ramp to let somebody in. And probably the best industry right now that you look at it in recent years, is the ride sharing industry, the Ubers, and the lifts of the world, they basically came onto the market, crushed the taxi industry, which had regulations on accessibility, and then basically came into this new ride sharing world and had zero accessible vehicles out there for persons with disabilities. And it made it so hard to, to get picked up if you run a power if you're in a manual wheelchair, and really almost impossible if you're in a power wheelchair. And now, as years go on, enough persons in the disability community have spoken loud enough, and enough things have been getting into the media. And now these companies are starting to say, you know, we want to help this customer base now that we're being forced to. And, you know, we don't want to force businesses to do the right thing. But at the same time, it's the way it's been done over the years. And it's unfortunate. And as the accessibility gap becomes wider and wider, it's just, we need to keep the conversation going to let businesses know that they need to do this. Michael Hingson 22:37 Yeah, that's a good point. And continuing with the rideshare example. I was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit a few years ago against Uber. Because Uber wasn't dealing at all with the issue of blind people with guide dogs traveling in Uber vehicles. Drivers would show up, discover it with a blind person with a guide dog and drive off. And we didn't even know that they were driving off or if we did no, because they said I'm not taking you because you have a dog and I'm not putting any dogs in my car. And they would drive off Uber's response was even at the beginning of the litigation. Well, we don't have any responsibility in that because all we're doing is matching drivers and passengers. So we're not involved in that, well, yes, they are their contract employees, the Uber drivers, we're not letting blind people in with guide dogs and the Americans with Disabilities Act specifically addressed that kind of a concept. So what took a lawsuit, and even now with the lawsuit that was finally settled, there are countless cases of drivers with Uber and and some with Lyft as well, that continue to not accept blind people, even though especially with Lyft, there's been a fair amount of training. I just read a situation last week where a woman after the lawsuit had over eight to 18 or 20 different examples of where Uber drivers would refuse to take her would send the information to Uber didn't get very many positive results, filed a case it went to arbitration and she got over a million dollars because Uber wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. So there's still a lot of resistance in the industry saying you're not going to force us to do something that we don't want to do. And the reality is that shouldn't have to be that way because there's no magic about a blind person and a guy dog that is well behaved going on any or in any Uber vehicle. You know, and that is just as true with the internet and my my example that comes to mind is when target refuse to deal with the internet and making their web site accessible for blind people back in the early 2000s. And it took a lawsuit filed by the National Federation of the Blind, and an $8 million settlement to get target to finally address the issue. It wouldn't have cost anywhere near that for target just to go off and make the website accessible, but they weren't going to be forced. And that's unfortunate, because they were missing up to one out of five persons in the United States or in the world, their worldwide, being able to use the website. And I don't know whether Target has addressed the issue for all disabilities. And I think that's a very relevant point for us to deal with. Your website isn't accessible unless it's really dealing with all disabilities. It isn't just being blind, it isn't just dealing with what a person in a chair a quadriplegic has to deal with, take a person with epilepsy, and they go to your website and start to see a lot of different blinking elements on the site that can invoke seizures, it's just as pertinent even persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, oftentimes without having good captioning. And without videos being captioned, can be a problem for blind people, those same videos, without audio descriptions of the videos, that can be a problem. There's a lot to accessibility. And it is something that we all do need to address. Josh Basile 26:32 Well, it's the unique functionality that you're saying, of almost, you know, for each person with a disability, we're experiencing a website differently based on our unique abilities. I find it amazing that, you know, we have AI solutions now, that can create profiles, based on your functionality where you go to a website, where if you have epilepsy, you can click a button, and it can turn off, you know, gifts and other types of blinking lights. Or if you have a cognitive disability, it can make that information that's on the page easier to absorb. Or if you have a quadriplegic, you can use keyboard navigation, to be able to get through all the dropdowns and get through all the different parts of the page. And for the blind community. It has so many different integrations with jaws, and screen readers and other things of the sort. The biggest thing that, you know, we have the ability now through technology to have a united front on how we can come together to make websites accessible. Too often, if you look in the history, and just I see it, I live outside Washington, DC. And when I go to Capitol Hill to advocate, it's always every unique disability group advocating for themselves and having a fight with legislators, please help us. But what too often doesn't happen is that we have a united front of all disability groups coming together for you know, a mission to make a particular thing accessible. And I think that's what we need to change with the internet like we are going in the wrong direction when it comes to the widening gap. And the only way to bridge it is if we all come together, persons with disabilities, unique populations of persons with disabilities, persons without disabilities, people that are manual coders, people that are in the artificial intelligence world, the more and more people we come together in the business community, we all unite under a common mission to make the internet more accessible. And we can do beautiful things together if we do that. But the trouble is, how do we get messages like we have in today's webinar out to the world to start a movement to get people involved to get people to have a call to action. And I hope we're starting that right now. And I know other people chimed in about this in the past, but we just got to keep having this conversation. Michael Hingson 28:55 And you know, it is true that people with different disabilities do have in some senses different needs. And there's relevance in advocating for specific needs. But there are also areas of commonality. And it would be very difficult to imagine that the reality of making the internet accessible for you, is really different than making it accessible. For me. It's all about access. It's something that we all should work on together. And we need to get more business owners and more of the companies that are involved in making the internet accessible to work together. There's not just one way to make the Internet accessible there. There are some who say that there are some who say the only way to do it is you got to code it. You got to do it right. By hand. There are those who say the only way you're truly going to make it happen is if you start with accessibility right from the outset. Well that's definitely true. That is, if everything were such that you could not create or publish an internet website and content without ensuring its accessibility because the technology demanded it, then a lot of things would go away and there would be access. But the reality is, that's not working for us. So the ideal is a wonderful thing. But it is an ideal, and it isn't something that anyone is going to make happen in the near future. So you do have a lot of different other kinds of alternatives and aspects that need to be addressed. So that the fact is that whether it's being done through artificial intelligence, or whether it's being done through manual coding, the goal is the same, the results will be the same. And the deed, certainly that is the need to make websites accessible, is the same. And the reaction, the reality is that should all be a unified front, you know, we'll see, maybe things like the World Wide Web Consortium will recognize that and that is, of course, where a lot of the standards come from. And I guess it's relevant that we talk about standards just a little tiny bit. That is to say, there are standards, there are guidelines, well, not so much standards today as guidelines that say this is what you need to do to have a website be accessible. And those generally rely on putting in codes, and in doing the website accessibility remediation through a coding process. But that doesn't work. Because it's a one by one kind of a solution. That is you got to do it to each website. Well, now we're finding that some companies, and I will mention accessiBe is the one that I know, of course, I'm a little bit I won't say bias, but oriented toward accessiBe because I've seen it. But the fact is, artificial intelligence is a solution that will help make websites accessible, it's doing it. And that makes perfect sense. Because artificial intelligence is all around us in the world, whether we happen to have an echo from Amazon of Google Home, whether we have technologies that that use other ways of interacting with the internet, we have Netflix and other websites that use artificial intelligence to talk about our shopping habits. For heaven's sakes, Apple just updated their iPhone iOS software, because Apple felt that there were too many websites or companies that were invading the privacy of users and looking at what they do, and using that to customize advertising. That's AI, right. So it is all around us. But we all could work together. And we all could resolve and solve pretty quickly this accessibility gap, don't you think? Josh Basile 32:50 working together is basically everything you said is we have to have many different pieces of the puzzle. In order to do this, we can't just have one piece of the puzzle and expect the whole picture to come out. But with that being said, I'm a big believer, you know, my my world as a quadriplegic, it was 20 3040 years ago, the difference in my life is has always been technology, technology changes everything, for someone that is paralyzed below the shoulders. And when it comes to the internet, I think we're getting to a point where, because of artificial intelligence solutions, we now have scalable ways of really attacking the accessibility gap in ways that never existed before. And it's only gonna get better as we invest more time, resources and energy, like you said, into artificial intelligence, machine learning, all these other components that where we can break down those accessibility barriers, with either just embedding a specific piece of code that ends up going over the website, behind the scenes with computer software, like the manual coding, yes, if you can do it right from the beginning with manual coding, that is an awesome option. But the second that you update that website, you have to go back and make sure that it's accessible again, because if you don't have that accessibility element and for updated information, you know, you're closing the door slowly and slowly on that website when it comes to accessibility. Michael Hingson 34:21 And that's part of the the challenge that a lot of businesses have is that the only way to do that if you're coding is you've got to keep someone on retainer. And if we use the last year as an example, the pandemic has made that all the more difficult because the money just isn't there to do that. But even in a non pandemic time for smaller businesses that that want to create accessibility if you have to keep someone retained. That's going to significantly eat into your profits. Should you do it. You got to find a way to keep the website accessible but remember part of the justification Is that you're going to have a lot more potential traffic going to your site. And if you start to tell people, hey, my websites accessible, come and see me. People who come and discover that will, because of that Nielsen study that we talked about earlier, will be brand loyal, I can tell you from personal experience, that's always going to be the case. And I've been in sales and marketing, since, well, literally since 1976. But even before then, I've been in sales my entire life, because as a blind person, I've had to sell just to convince people to let me take my diet guide dog somewhere, long before the ADEA, I've had to sell in so many ways, all of us have Josh, you've had to sell to convince people and as a lawyer, you're always selling. And I don't mean that in a negative way you are arguing a case is a sales presentation in a broad sense. Josh Basile 35:53 For me, it's always advocacy, ever since my injury. So when I was first injured, I was on a ventilator for five weeks, and wasn't able to speak a word, I was only able to blink with my eyes to communicate with my family. And ever since that day that I got my voice back. I promised myself I would never be silenced again. So I've exercised my vocal muscles, my my vocal, my advocacy with my mind to make sure that every word counts. And so much of what we're doing right now is figuring out how can we advocate for a more accessible internet. And we, because we live it, because we speak disability, we understand what we need to do to make this possible. And we need to do it together, we need to have actual solutions that are scalable, and we need to attack the 315 million websites that exist right now to make them accessible is not going to be an easy feat. But the if we don't do something about it, it's just going to get wider and wider. And that scares me. Michael Hingson 36:56 And it's 350 million, by the way and growing. And that's of course, the issue. I am on some email lists, I've got a cut down on the number of unsolicited emails I get. But I'm seeing a number that talk about how Amazon is changing the way it operates. And so join this webinar to learn how you can set up a sales system with Amazon and sell products on Amazon, even if you don't have your own or how you can set up a system to do this or that or whatever. All of those are websites. And all of those websites come without any specific process of making them accessible. So Shopify is a major marketing system that's out there, and you can get a website set up on Shopify, but the basic Shopify system doesn't, in of itself, create real accessibility, a website might be usable, because the words are there, although we may or may not be able to see the pictures. One of the interesting things about Shopify, having looked at it from the the viewpoint of accessibility is that there is someone who has put something up that says that if you have a Shopify website, here's how you can put accessibility on it. Whether it's accessiBe, or something else, the bottom line is, we mostly aren't paying attention to it still. And that's the gap and it's going to continue to grow. Josh Basile 38:27 Well, I think that this year alone with the pandemic, just shows how much we we rely on the internet to access the world. We've all been stuck in our homes for so long. Can you imagine, you go to persons with disabilities, let's say you know, everybody that's that doesn't have a disability. And you gave them the problems that we faced with internet accessibility. There would be outrage, people would not people would be so mad that they couldn't access the world. And the fact is that, you know, we've had to live this year with a lot of this and accessibility and it's getting wider. It's I think the pandemic is one of those moments in time that it's going to push persons with disabilities to realize that if we don't do something now, we're gonna I want to say too late, because I think as technology advances, more and more breakthroughs can happen. But we this is the time to do something about it. Michael Hingson 39:24 Research In Motion was the company that invented the Blackberry, and I know how familiar you are with the Blackberry. But there was one night when their servers dropped. And people went 12 hours without being able to use their blackberries. And I heard and read reports about how people panicked they couldn't get anything done. And it was a night by the way here in the US. Some people committed suicide over it. A lot of people were very stressed because their access to the world as they viewed it was gone. and it can happen in so many ways. For us, the access is gone a lot most of the time. And what we're saying is, let us be part of the solution. Let us be invited to the party, and let us have access. We want to help you make it happen. We're not trying to abuse anyone. But no one should resist the concept of trying to bridge the gap. Josh Basile 40:31 Absolutely. And so right now, we were about 45 minutes, and I was just looking at, and I would love for our participants, the people at our party, our webinar party to ask any questions, so we can keep these conversations going. So please go to the chat. And let us know your questions. And we can Moderator 40:50 So guys, we already have a few questions. We can definitely attend. Michael Hingson 40:54 Let me just before you start, we started about three minutes late. So we'll go until well, I'm on the West Coast, and Josh is on the east coast. So we'll go to 103 or 403. Or we're Gil is it's later than that. Go ahead, Gil. Moderator 41:10 Yeah, it will start and thank you. Michael Hingson 41:11 Thank you for being here. Gillen, for staying awake for us. For sure. For Moderator 41:15 sure. As Michael, it's my pleasure. So we'll start and say that because there were a few people were asking if we're gonna publish this or oracare archive these recording. So we'll definitely be using social assets. Yeah. So the first question we got from the audience, is there a cookbook that define the necessary accessible elements for a variety of cryptic, categorial disabilities? Michael Hingson 41:42 There is, and Josh can add to it. But again, the World Wide Web Consortium has created guidelines and things that it says needs to be involved in an accessible website. I want to, though say that those standards don't guarantee accessibility. That is to say accessibility goes beyond whatever guidelines that are created to talk about how to code a website, how artificial intelligence can make a website accessible. The fact is a website is accessible if ultimately, it is fully functional and usable. And so one of the examples I would give is, I have a website and I think I gave this example last time, but it's worth repeating. My website was updated earlier, well, late last year now, actually, in August or September. And when it was updated, it was done by a person who I discovered didn't really have a lot of expertise in accessibility. But he updated it and there were images on the website. There were other things on the website. And one of the specifics on the website was pictures of me and my guide, dog, Roselle, who you can for those of you who can see it, Roselle is behind me over my right shoulder. Roselle and I were in the World Trade Center on September 11. And we escaped I was the Mid Atlantic region's sales manager at the time for a company and artificial intelligence when we brought accessiBe onboard. Artificial Intelligence interpreted that image as man in black suit hugging yellow Labrador retriever, which is correct. That's exactly right. But that's not really saying what that image is showing that I would want people to know, what I want people to know is Michael Hanson, hugging Roselle. And, you know, the process will continue to improve. But the standards would have said, if the all tags were put in the image was described, even though it's not what I would want it to be. So there are standards and Josh, if you want to talk about that, but I'm just saying it does go beyond the standard as well. Josh Basile 44:00 So I think you answered that very well, Michael. Moderator 44:04 Great. So Michael, we talked about you took you talked about the person who will create your website and this, this is a great, so we're for the next question. Who do you think should be responsible of the accessibility of the website? Is it the website owner or the person or the agencies that creating the website? And how can you? How can you know if your website is accessible or not? Josh Basile 44:29 In my opinion, I firmly believe we all need to be accountable. If you're a website owner, if you run an organization, if you run a business, you need to understand all of your consumers and you need to serve all of your consumers. So just because so at any given moment, you're always thinking about all these different demographics that you're serving. And if you end up forgetting one of those demographics, you're losing out and and I think the response to ability has to be on those that can be held accountable with the decision makers. And you know, as a decision maker, you need to take the extra time to dive deeper into making sure that your business is reaching the max number of people. And so that's my opinion to that go. Michael Hingson 45:20 Yeah, I think, ultimately speaking, if you're going to do and ultimately speaking, it would be the website owner, that is they're responsible for their website. And they should be obligated to make sure that their website is accessible. So I think in one sense, they're responsible. But I am also with Josh, we're all part of the solution. So when we discover websites, we should contact the owner. And I'm going to comment on that statement in just a second. But we should contact the owner and say, you know, your website is not accessible. The reality is a lot of us who have disabilities who are in the disabled community of persons with disabilities, we know enough to suggest places to go or what you need to do, we can introduce website owners, and I think that they should be responsible for, for making the website accessible, but we can help with that. Josh Basile 46:23 A good point there, Michael, it's, you know, it's not just the accountability of the website owner, but us as a community to have that conversation to let them know when it's not, because it's just not I was on a friend's website the other day, and I saw a few broken videos, you know, until he or she knew that those videos were broken, it was gonna go undiscovered control, that owner stumbled upon it themselves. So I think having that discussion about accessibility, you know, brings accessibility to light, and people start making it a point to do it. Michael Hingson 46:56 I absolutely agree. And I think that the companies that are involved in website access, need to and making websites accessible, need to be part of the solution, in a general way, and certainly, different companies are going to promote their products. But I think they should also provide people with just general conceptual articles, general conversations, discussions about accessibility. And, yes, we all promote our own products. But you know, there are a lot of colleges and universities in the United States, for example, and in most countries, and we compete for students, in our colleges and universities. But what we don't see is by and large colleges and universities saying, Well, anybody that goes to this kind of school is really going to a scumbag organization. Maybe they do it, and I haven't seen it. But the reality is that colleges and universities promote their programs, but they generally tend to do it in a positive way. And they don't deny the fact that if somebody goes to another school unless it truly demonstrates that it's not a good school for all sorts of reasons that we don't need to go into here. But unless they demonstrate that, then the fact is, we all need a college education. And the first thing colleges and universities will tell you is you need a college education, which is of course what they're promoting. And they'll say even if you don't go to to Harvard, but you go to the University of Southern California, that's good school. And so sorry, we didn't get you. We think that we're better but you went there, you're still getting a college education. And that's important. Moderator 48:43 Moving forward to the thank you so much for that. Moving forward to the next question. Can you provide some examples of website in the 2%? weren't doing this? Well? Michael Hingson 48:56 Gil, or Josh, do you want to or? Josh Basile 48:59 I think, yeah, I'd like to see how Okay, Michael Hingson 49:02 okay. I'm going to just send people to the access of the website because there are a list of sites that they use, or that they have remediated, and you can go there and see them. I'll name a few Oreo calm, which is the company that makes Oreos Energizer the battery company. I learned last week that the Los Angeles Lakers store Lakers store.com is accessible. You can go to any of the consumer organizations like the National Federation of the Blind. They have they have not used accessiBe but they have made their website accessible to a good degree, although there's more work that can be done to do that. There are a number of sites that are out there. By the way, if you want to know and I think you've asked this skill if you want to know if a website's accessible. You can go to accessiBe.com www.accessibe.com, where you will also see something mentioned called A C E. ACE is a free website audit tool, and there are a number of them out there. But ACE is a free website audit tool that you can use in will ask you to type in a web site name. And then it will audit that site and tell you based on the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines, the web Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and so on, it will tell you how accessible that site is. And so that's another place to go to look at whether a website is accessible or not. But ultimately speaking, what you can do is to go visit a website and see how usable it is. And how usable it is needs to include. If you're blind, for example, the things that you don't see, and they and even though you don't know about them, that's where programs like Ace can help. And you can learn about them. There are so many examples of people who thought their websites were accessible and didn't do anything. But as I said, they don't do menus, they don't do image descriptions. And they don't do other things that give us the information that we need to have. Josh Basile 51:18 With that in mind. It's a question from James that the vast majority of 350 million websites are small businesses or smaller, what tools can those small businesses and nonprofits use and survive the costs? So I know, first of all, you know what I'm going to say. The small business purposes, yeah, accessiBe provides the services at a much much lower rate than manual coding. thing I love about the nonprofit of that is that accessiBe, as we said that they are going to provide the accessory services 100% free for nonprofits. So for like my nonprofit, I was able to get it up and running for free, and which I'm now loving so much. So all in all profits, it's just sharing that with your communities that this exists for them is an incredible, I'm making it accessible. Michael Hingson 52:10 I'm on the board of a nonprofit that added accessiBe independent of me to their website about a month ago, accessiBe has also said that if anyone knows, or is involved with a COVID-19 site, especially vaccination websites, and so on, that accessiBe will provide its product free of charge to any COVID-19 site. And Kaiser Health News, or Kaiser Health Net, did a survey a couple of months ago, they surveyed 94 websites that were related to COVID 10 of them had some amount of accessibility and the other 84 did not. That's not what should be going on. Especially when among other things, government agencies are supposed to know about the stuff. Josh Basile 53:01 That's it's really scary that during COVID That you're not allowing or making sure that your website is accessible before you make it go live. That just is such a disservice to to persons that are the most vulnerable to COVID. And that, you know, it's in my eyes it is it's life or death. And if you don't have the ability to get that vaccine, or delay that vaccine, that it's so terrifying. Michael Hingson 53:29 Yes. Moderator 53:31 How do you think COVID is affected accessibility, especially with the rise of CFS? S and E long COVID, resulting in more disabled people? Michael Hingson 53:45 Well, I think that answer is part of it. If as more people become persons with disabilities in one way or the other because of COVID, they may, depending on what has happened to them need to have website access that they don't have today. We have seen some companies respond really well. Zoom, for example. I don't know when it first started. But when zoom became very popular, it became visible that Zoom actually has an access team and whenever something is reported to the team that is not accessible with Zoom, they jump right on it. And I've seen fixes to accessibility issues within a matter of years, even just a few days. That one came up last week. Were regarding a keyboard command to to start a meeting. And it's been fixed. It was an access issue. There was a button there was a key command to to utilize that became broken. It's now been fixed. So they've been great at responding. I don't know of any other companies that have put that level of commitment into the process. But it is something that, that all companies should do, especially large companies, for small companies. If you rely on accessiBe, for example, reporting to accessiBe helps, because accessiBe will address it or let you know that it's not an accessibility issue or what they can and can't do and so on. And I think it's all about response. So the companies that are going to succeed are the ones that are truly responding, ultimately to the consumers. And I think we have maybe just about, well, three minutes. So do we have another question? Moderator 55:43 Yeah, just one more for symbolic way to sum up this webinar. So you mentioned at the beginning of the webinar, that there are 250 million websites out there and only 2% of them are accessible. So how optimistic are you that is that there is a true chance to close the gap. Michael Hingson 56:07 There absolutely is a true chance to close the gap, by the way that 350 million is in the US alone, I think the estimate is something like 1.5 billion worldwide, and it continues to grow. And I want Josh to answer as well. But absolutely, there are ways and there is a chance to bridge the gap x SMB says that they want to work toward getting the internet completely accessible by 2025. Great goal. And I believe that the commitment of the company is genuinely to make that happen. I know that there are many other people not related to accessiBe who also want to make the Internet accessible. And the fact that there are people who want to do it, in and of itself means there's a chance. So we just need to find ways to work together and collectively make our voice a much stronger voice. Josh Basile 57:02 Just investing energy and time into scalable solutions. And the reason why I emphasize scalable is because the gap is so darn large. If you go in and expect to bridge that gap just manually, we don't have enough skilled people that know how to do this. And the ones that can do it are incredible at what they do. But there's just not enough of them. There's not a big enough army. But from a scalable solution with technology. Having the software be near your army just makes it that much easier to bridge that gap. So I'm really investing my heart energy and time and an ability to advocate for continuing to strengthen the AI solutions that we have. And they will get better and better. As time goes on, which excites me so much. Michael Hingson 57:55 Josh, I want to thank you very much for being part of our discussion today on the accessibility gap, bridging the gap and different disabilities. Same goal because I think we've demonstrated as vividly as we can, it is the same goal, and that we all can work together. To find a solution. We just need to have the commitment and the drive to do it. We will be holding more of these webinars and we will make sure everyone is aware of it. If you have more questions or want to communicate, you're welcome to email me I'm easy to reach it's Michaelhi@accessiBe.com M I C H A E L H I at accessibe.com You can also go to my website and reach me through that Michael Hingson.com or you can go to web to accessiBe and send emails through the contact process there and they'll reach we do want to hear from you. So I want to thank you all for being here and helping us Bridge the Accessibility Gap. Michael Hingson 59:07 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Bud Light Ugly Sweater Seltzers are reviewed with a guest, and Trivia!!!   Thats right we have a guest back!!  Alex has joined us once again, it has been quite some time since Alex was last on the show, but we are thrilled to have him back.  Its something about having guest on the shows where all hell breaks loose, and this one is no different, we have a lot of fun this episode.  We start out with our new segment "SNARFNOUNCMENTS!" Just to fill you in on whats coming up the pipeline for Snarf, we have a lot going on with C@E@ coming up this week, Christmas, and our 150th Show celebration!!     Alex brought the Seltzers for us to review, Jerry was not overly thrilled as the last pack we tried was not his favorite.  Turns out these may not be much different, I will say they aren't horrible, but the flavors are interesting to say the least. Last but not least we head in to some Trivia that Chris found for us, we give it a whirl with the first game all about Batman!  Who will win Chris, Jerry, or Alex???   Tee Shirts and Sweatshirts are available for purchase online and from our website.  Make sure to get in contact with us to get yours purchased today!! As always thanks for listening and go ahead and leave comments or reviews on any of our Social Media links below, and make sure to check out our multi-cam video podcast NOW ON YOUTUBE! Thank you for being a friend! SnarfComics.com Patreon.com/Snarftalk YouTube.com/Snarftalk @Snarftalk Instagram @Snarftalk Facebook @Snarftalk Twitter Please subscribe and leave us a review on the Apple Podcast App or iTunes, and send us your feedback, comments, and show ideas!

0 (2s): Every Sunday, every, every family Sunday here at harvest streets, we like to do one of the songs that the kids have been doing and their own worship services. And so this is one of them. And if the kids, if you're a kid in here and you know, the, you know, the hand motions, just do them anyways, take a long minutes. 1 (22s): you have rescued being she read out. Jesus says to cross the D gray, like you have one we understand that play last meeting face to face. 1 (1m 41s): I am yours. Jesus, you are 2 (4m 33s): Psalm 95. One says, come let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. 1 (4m 49s): we live for you. 1 (9m 37s): Jesus, the name Jesus with you and . 3 (14m 39s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord God. We're honored to be here to worship you, to turn our attention and offer a words of praise and Thanksgiving and adoration. Thank you, God that you hear our words of praise and adoration and Thanksgiving, you hear then Lord, and you're honored by those Lord. I thank you that we can honor you in this way. And I pray that our lives 24 7 would do that same thing that we would just long to honor you long to serve you long to give you first place in our lives or die. 3 (15m 27s): God help us never give up. God help us to stand strong. We feel like we're growing weary. Lord, God help us to remember promises. When we feel like help is distance and there's no answers in sight, Lord God, I pray God that you would spark our hearts and our minds and our spirits with your truth, Lord God that you would remind us of truth in Jesus name God, that we would believe it. And we build our life upon it would say yes and amen to your promises, Lord God. Yes. And amen to your goodness. Lord yesterday mentioned your provision, Lord God, that we would say yes and amen to all of the good things. 3 (16m 14s): And, and we would say yes and amen to the correction that you bring to our lives. Lord God, God, when we're convicted of sin and of Rikers has God that we would say yes and amen to that, God that we would just allow you to be Lord and leader God that we would indeed allow you to be in charge of our lives. You are the Lord and you're the king. You're eternal and you're forever and you're good. And you're just, God, help us see you. Believe you. And to trust you, we pray. Thank you, Lord. We need you. We need you to speak to us. God, everybody's in a slightly different place today. Some are rejoicing over the good things that are going on in their lives. 3 (16m 56s): Think about Cathy, Sally. Who's here after fighting COVID and being in the hospital or grief. We rejoice. Lord God, others are going through hard stuff. I think my little Scarlet, who's a couple of weeks old and in the hospital, dealing with sepsis and fighting for her life. And Lord, we just pray for her and for every person that she ever since we pray for healing and grace and help Lord God and encouragement in life. And Lord, we pray for those who are in need relationally and financially and spiritually. We pray that you'd bless and wash over. We pray for our shut-ins for those who are ill and in homes who are not able to be here, we bless them. Lord God, we bless them in Jesus name. 3 (17m 37s): We pray for those who are watching online and who are wanting to be here, but for reasons are not here and cannot be here. We just pray blessing upon them. Lord God, within everybody within earshot, Lord God, that's pour out your grace. Lord God, your truth, your revelation, your help. God, we, we need you more. God help us to build our lives on that truth of who you are, the truth of who we are in you. Jesus, and help us to stand firm in that Lord God and never give up. Never give up toward God, help us to never give up. We pray. Thank you for your goodness. We stand firm in you, Lord God, we stand firm in you. 3 (18m 17s): We love you. We bless you in Jesus name in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you very much. So as we get ready, look at the guns on this girl, by the way, she's just got, this is not a light podium. It's not light anyway. So it's a, she just handles it. She takes care of it. Thank you for the pastor. Appreciation the recognition, the gifts, the love that that you've communicated to us. There, there are so many people besides the pastors who are constantly working behind the scenes, there are about a dozen other staffers who are working faithfully behind the scenes. 3 (19m 6s): We're, we're S we're so grateful for our elders who serve are the parishioners, takes hundreds of people to do what we do each and every week to serve and to be a part of all of the small groups and the stuff that we do on Sunday morning and the mid week stuff it takes literally, I think we've counted up. It tastes like a couple hundred people just to get the job done. And so we're so grateful. You've noticed Tim and Amanda up here, we've never really publicly said, Hey, they're on the team. And they're a part of what we're doing. But Amanda who brought the podium here and Tim who was helping to lead worship this morning, they're on the team and the staff team. We're so grateful, Julie, Spillers new to the team. 3 (19m 46s): Good stand Julie Spiller. There she is. Julie's, Julie's actually been a part of the church almost since the beginning 18 plus years. And she was, she's just always done bookkeeping and HR stuff. And so when we were in need of a new HR bookkeeper person, cause Ron has been doing that. And then when Dave retired, we needed to put Ron into more pastoral duties. And so we called Julie and said, Hey, Julie, you want to come join our team? And she said, yes. So we got her. And so we're grateful. And so God continues to add to our team. And so we're so grateful for that. We're looking at Hebrews one today and we're going to spend the next few months in Hebrews kind of studying through Hebrews. 3 (20m 31s): And I've titled the message don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. So the author of Hebrews and we don't know who the author is, it could be Barnabas, Apollos, Paul. It could be Dr. Luke. We don't really know. And it's not really that important because all of the Bible is ghost written by the holy spirit. And so we know that the holy spirit has written. What we're reading about is studying in Hebrew. So we can trust that through the inspiration of the holy spirit, God worked through somebody to write to this audience. And we're not even totally sure who the audience is. 3 (21m 11s): Other than from reading through the text. It seems like the author is writing to Jewish people who converted to Christianity. So Jewish Christians, messianic Jews, people who decided to believe the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we see that they're writers writing to these people. Why is he writing to them? He's writing to them. It appears to encourage them because as you can imagine, as they transitioned from Judaism to Christianity, they probably endured some harsh criticism from family, from the culture, from the people in their Jewish community. 3 (21m 57s): But they saw something in Jesus where they realize that in Christ God was in their mitts, that he came in the form of a child born of a Virgin in the incarnation. He took on human flesh, lived, preached, taught, and died and was resurrected for our sins so that we might be called sons and daughters of the living. God, that message, that gospel message resonated with these people. And they adopted this faith in Christ Jesus. 3 (22m 37s): And so the author of Hebrews is writing. Hey, don't, don't give up. Have you ever wanted to give up in life? I I'll tell you a story about this. This goes back a number of years ago, I was running a lot and I decided I wanted to run a marathon, never run a marathon before I had run half marathons, five Ks, 10 Ks, all kinds of other races, but I'd never run a full marathon. So I was training for months for the event. I think it was the Ventura marathon that I was going to be participating in. So you train for, you have to train, at least typically you train three, four or five months to get prepared for something like that. And so I've been prepping for months. 3 (23m 18s): I've been running for years, but I've been prepping buds. And the preparation is you're, you're running long, long distances and just kinda getting your body conditioned. Well, my schedule changed and I was going to need to fly out of, I think I flew out of the country and wasn't going to be able to run the marathon and then get on the plane the next day and fly out of the country. Just wasn't gonna make sense to sit on a 14 hour flight after running a marathon. And so, so I decided to cancel the marathon, but I called my son Curtis, and I said, Hey, Curtis, I want to still run my own private marathon. I've been practicing and training and I don't want to have to go to waste. So I said, would you ride your bike? And just kind of be my support person, you know, giving me water and electrolytes and food and whatever I need for the run. 3 (23m 60s): And would you just help me to get this done? So we agreed and we set a date and I started running an Oceana and I run up, run up to San Louis. And on the way back from San Louis, I I've been eating and drinking a lot. So I needed to stop to go to the restroom. So I stopped at Avalon hot Springs there, and I decided I wanted to use their bathroom. And so I go to the bathroom and then, so I'm 18 miles into it. And then I start to try to run again and I get so cramped up. I can't hardly move. And so I keep trying to run, but I'm not able to run. My legs are, they've got a mind of their own. They're just, they're tweaking and freaking out. And I, you know, I put my body through a good amount of abuse and they're letting that they're not liking it, right. 3 (24m 43s): My legs are not liking and my whole body's just kind of resisting it. So I decided the only way to finish this race is actually this run is actually just a walk for the next eight miles. And so I walked the next eight miles back to Oceana where I had started and Curtis is next to me and we're just talking and, and just enjoying the eight mile walk, but I wanted to give up by, I, you know, I wanted to give up and there's been many times in my life where I've wanted to quit, wanted to give up, wanting to throw in the towel, but by God's grace in his mercy, he's shown me the path forward and been able to move forward. 3 (25m 24s): And so it's just been an incredible journey as a follower of Lord Jesus Christ. Well, last night I was invited to this banquet. Coastal Christian school celebrated their fifth year anniversary last night. Can you met 50 years? I can't believe since 1971. I know most of you weren't even born at that time, but that was a joke 50 years though, of ministry. So as they shared stories about their 50 year history, I was resonating a lot with what they were saying. So going back 50 years to 1971, they started this school and students started to show up, but things were at lean and they were in a rented campus. 3 (26m 7s): And then two rented campuses to how's their students and Pam quake and share this story. Last night, Pam quake has been like an administrator to school for decades. She's finally retired now, but she shared the story, how one particular paid period in the month, they weren't going to be able to make payroll. And so she said to the head of school, the principal, Hey, we're we, we don't have enough in the coffers to make payroll. And the principal being a man of faith said, no, don't worry. It will come. And just within a couple of days before payroll, somebody walked in with a very generous donation, a very generous donation that covered all the payroll and then some but things were still lean. And so the board of the school decided, Hey, let's cut everybody's salary by 10%. 3 (26m 50s): And that's pretty significant cut, but everybody believes so much in the school and nobody complained. Nobody quit. Everybody just kept right about their business, doing what God had called them to do. Teaching discipling young people in their academic pursuits. And over the years, things began to change for them. 40 plus years ago in their 50 year journey, somebody gave him 27 acres out on Oak park road and it took them over like 42 years before they could build on it. So for 40 plus years, they've been praying that God would give them the capacity, the ability the funds to build. 3 (27m 30s): And finally, so I had kids, all four of my kids go through CCS. And so we were praying for this building project for 14 years. And then my youngest graduates after my other three, graduated from high school, my youngest Leslie graduates. And then the very next year they get on the campus. So for 14 years, we're praying and believing that God's going to bring the camp. And then it was after my kids had gone that they got into the campus. So we're like, ah, we missed it, but we've been able to celebrate with them and be a part of the process. And so that was all part of their initial, just get on the campus deal and they've got modulars and that sort of thing, but, but phase one in their real construction there they've been raising money for it's a $13 million improvement that they, that they want to make. 3 (28m 16s): But the good news is that God has been faithful and they brought in $9 million up to last night. And then they got a $2 million matching fund that said, the donor said, Hey, if you can raise 2 million, I'll give you a $2 million for dollar. You know, you raised a million, I gave you a million, but if you raise 2 million, I'll give you 2 million. So last night I just got a text message this morning from the board chair. They S they raise almost a million dollars last night. So that will be matched to two millions and other at 11 million. And they still need just a couple of million to get started or to get their project going. But I just think about all of the faithfulness of God and all of the challenges along the way. 3 (29m 1s): And I was as Pam or Stan or anybody who was up there talking about the history I began to think about and reminisce about our almost 19 year history as a church here at Harvard harvest church. There's so many parallels where there've been plenty of times where we've been so lean. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to make payroll. And at times we'd have to wait for payroll an extra week or whatever, and, and God would provide. And then we started meeting out at Lopez high school for, and we were there for a couple of years, but we knew we wanted to move into the village of Rick, Randy. And so a lot of you have heard this story, but a lot of you haven't. So I'll just kind of recap a bit of our 19 year, almost 19 years of history. 3 (29m 42s): So we decide we had like 60 people in the church at the time. And, but we knew we wanted to have a greater impact in the community. And so we began to pray specifically. In fact, I think it was Wanda Hildreth. One has been gone home to be with the Lord, but she felt specifically that we should be in the village and we all resonated with that. And so we began to pray. We said, yeah, we agree with that. We want to get into the village. And so we began to pray that God would open up an opportunity for us in the village. Now the village is smaller. There's not a lot of church building opportunities here in this small little space, but this building became available. And I I'll be honest with you. I've I've been living here since fifth grade, and I've never noticed this church building up to that point, but I'm driving through the village. 3 (30m 26s): I'm clueless just telling me I'm closed. All right. But I'm driving through and I see this big four foot by eight foot sign that says for lease. I pull over and I come in and I meet Amanda Lambert for the first time. Never met her before she never met me before. I said, Hey, Amanda, we're, we've got a small church, 60 people we're trying to move into the village. Would you lease your space to us? And on the spot, she said, yes. She said, yeah, this place needs to be a church. She had other people who wanted to move in a yoga shop, wanted to move in attorney's group, wanted to move in, but she said it needs to be a church again. So on a handshake in that moment, she didn't know me. I didn't know her. We moved forward with that project. And so we got some estimations, what would it cost to make this place a church again? 3 (31m 8s): Because it was an interior decorating business and interior designers business. And that's what Amanda did. She was an interior designer. So we get some estimates and I'm told by contractors and architects that it's going to be about $35,000. So not a lot of money, 35,000 to renovate the space. And so we're like, okay, there's always overages in construction. So let's raise $50,000. So I go to the church, 60 people, I say, let's raise $50,000 for this renovation. So we can move into the village and have a greater impact in the community. So we ended up raising $55,000. So we have 55,000 that we'd raised. Plus we had about 30,000 in the coffers at the time. So we have 85,000. 3 (31m 48s): So we're ready to go. So we're, we start the project. And one thing runs into another leads to another. And we open up the foundation, the floor, the wood sub floor, and the whole building is sitting in the dirt on this backside over here, we ended up having to redo we floors. And we had to, the city was concerned that the building would slide down the hill. It hadn't moved in over a hundred years, but the city, he was concerned that they would slide down the hill. So we had to pour four foot by four foot by four foot, big concrete pads down there and tie helical anchors. 3 (32m 28s): He'll call anchors are these big screwed in anchors and connect it to the building in four different places. So the building went and move, and then we had to put in fire sprinklers and sound equipment, all kinds of stuff and thing leads to another. And it's not 35,000. It's not 50,000. It's not 85,000. It's an excess of a hundred thousand dollars. And so at one point we're like dead in the water because we're completely out of money. We're just out of money. And people begin to ask the city calls pastors in the community parishioners, Hey, when are we getting moving with our project? And I finally just had to say, Hey, we're out of money. So many overages we couldn't foresee. 3 (33m 8s): And so we're just waiting. We're just waiting for the Lord to provide. So we waited and I can't remember if it was a few weeks or a month or whatever it was, but over time in just a short amount of time, God gave us the rest of the money so that we could finish the project and move in. So we, we were so excited to rehab this old 1887 building. And we were so excited about that. We, 10 years later, we decided to buy an 1865 building. So we, you think we would have learned our lesson, but we're, you know, 10 years passes. It's like childbirth, I guess you kind of forget all the pain, right? And so you do it again. And so we buy this house, this old bed and breakfast next door, it built in 1865, older than the sanctuary in worse condition than the sanctuary. 3 (33m 55s): But we're thinking we can go in there. In fact, we had a Workday after we bought it, 60 or 70 people show up and we're having cleaned up the outside. We're cleaning up everything in the inside. We're thinking we're going to slap a little paint on this thing, like lipstick on a pig and it's going to be good to go, right? No such thing. We got into this thing. We ended up having to take it all the way down to the studs, replaced all of the electrical, the plumbing we replaced. We renovated both the bathrooms, put in new cabinets, new floors throughout. We ended up eventually putting on a new roof on the place. And so we spent in excess of a hundred thousand dollars there. 3 (34m 35s): So every time we turn around we're into these projects in these old buildings that we kind of have the impression that God has got us here in this, in the village to do two things, to renovate old buildings and to renovate people, to renovate people. They go hand in hand, we all need renovation, right? Old buildings need renovation old and young people. We need renovation. God's been working on me for a long time. I know he's not even close to being done cause I'm, I still need lots of work, but the renovation continues. So then all of these other buildings that we've been working on over the years, we, we, same thing. We get into the parsonage and there's all kinds of stuff that needed to get done there, cabinets and plumbing and bathrooms and all kinds of stuff. 3 (35m 16s): And we just continued on renovating old buildings. And then we get this great idea to rent this space. 1 0 2 west branch. That was it's a 70 year old building as well. So it is 70 year old building as well. So it's not quite as old as some of these other buildings, but it's an equally bad shape we discovered. So we think in the beginning, it's going to take 125,000 bucks to renovate this thing. Why do you guys, we bought all this sound equipment that we've been using outside. And in my naive thinking, I think we can take all of that sound equipment, move it inside, but I'm not a tech engineer. So I have no idea what I'm actually talking about. And so they tell me no, it's we can't actually use that equipment. We need different equipment and it's going to cost $150,000. 3 (36m 1s): Okay. So there goes that a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars budget. So then we say, okay, it's going to be double that then. So we think it's going to be $250,000, but then we run into sewer line issues. The sewer line was completely eroded corroded. It was sitting in the dirt. There was actually no sewer line on the bottom. All of the sewage was running into just into the dirt. So we have to saw cut in the building eight 40 or 50 feet just to get the old system out and put in a new system. And then we realized we need to add an a second handicap accessible bathroom. We need to put it in fire sprinklers. We're thinking with the walls, we can just paint them. 3 (36m 43s): And they're all good, but they're in such bad shape. The dry Waller said, you know, we can float it and make it smooth and make it look good. But we're going to spend so much time doing that. You might as well just rip out the old stuff and put in new stuff. So now we're like ripping out all the dry wall and we're down to bare studs and, and we need to insulate the ceiling. We did. I mentioned fire sprinklers. We needed to do all that. Every we realize every door, every exterior door is bad. Every the exterior, the windows are bad. So we're realizing that we're into this money pit and we're spending all kinds of money. And so last week, or maybe 10 days ago, I asked the bookkeeper, asked where's Julia, she's still there. 3 (37m 23s): Her size. Julia said, how much money have we spent so far? She's like about 300, $8,000. Oh, holy cow. I said, are you kidding me? And I might, I got to figure out how much it's going to cost to finish it. So I go to all the contractors and I say, okay, guys, help me out. What's it going to cost? Because everybody pretty much is doing time and material because you can't bid an old job, the building like that. So they go in, they're like, we're not sure what we're dealing with. So we'll do time and material. And they've been gracious. A lot of guys have discounted their, their hourly rate and they've helped us with material and that sort of thing. But we still are in this thing over $300,000. So I compile a list of everything from painting, plumbing, electrical flooring, all of the above doors, windows, all of that kind of stuff. 3 (38m 11s): And we realized we still need $200,000 to finish the project. My half a million dollars. This isn't, this is a lot of money, but I got with yellers this week and I said, Hey guys, this is the, this is the scenario. This is the dilemma. And they said, well, this is nothing new. Like, like this, this is par for the course with old buildings, every old building that we've ever renovated just takes a lot of money. And so I said, okay, well, what do you want to do? And they said, well, we talked about some things. And, and, but then as, as I was sitting at CCS as banquet last night, it occurred to me. 3 (38m 51s): I needed to just full disclosure, just bring this to the people and say, Lord, your will be done. So this is what I'm asking you to do. This is what I'm asking you to do two things I need to do. I need you to be praying and participating in two ways. Number one, we still do not have a building permit for that building. We're waiting out of one little hurdle. They sit in that, the city said, do all the work that you want to do, that you can do without shedding everything you want without closing it all up because we need to inspect it. So I said, okay, so we did $300,000 work without closing anything up. And, and, and we're about ready for inspections on electrical and plumbing and that sort of thing. But there's a question about the air flow in the building. 3 (39m 33s): And, and we upgraded the HVAC system. There used to be 3, 2, 3, 10 units on the roof, and we put 2, 5, 10 units on the roof to crease capacity and air flow and that sort of thing. So that's the final hurdle. So we've submitted to the planning department, our planned for that, and we think we've got it through, but we haven't received a permit yet. So pray, pray that God helps us over that hurdle so that we can get a building permit because our plan is to begin to call for inspections on all of the roughed in plumbing and electrical, so that we can begin to insulate the walls and dry wall the walls and get all the finished, done, and finished out the bathrooms and that sort of thing. 3 (40m 13s): But, but it's going to take another $200,000 to finish it. So I'm asking that you pray again, you guys have been so incredibly generous with your prayer and with your participation in this project. So many people have given labor at no charge have helped with cleanup days and helped with all kinds of stuff. But as it goes, we're still short $200,000. So I talked to the elders, they said, Hey, this is what we do know. We know that God led us into it. We know that he will lead us through it. He will provide for us. 3 (40m 53s): We know that it was the right decision for our church to be in that space. It allows us the expansion that we need for our kids and for our adults. And so we know that God's in it. We just need to kind of navigate together to figure out how to finish the project and get in the building. Our goal is to get in by Christmas, December 24th. So just over what's today, 24th, that's good timing. So in two months, that's what we got. We got two months to kind of wrap this thing up. And so we're asking you that you would pray and ask the Lord if he would have you to participate by giving extra to the building program. Now, I never want people to give, unless they feel the joy of the Lord around their giving. 3 (41m 39s): We've never been heavy pressure about giving and that sort of thing. I don't want you to feel compelled to give because of guilt or anything like that. But if you pray and you sense, the Lord says give, and that's what we would ask you to do and, and do it quickly because we're, we need to get the same time. So, so initially when I realized we were in this predicament, I called the elders and I said, Hey guys, we have to set the, the kind of the standard here. So I'm asking each of the elders to give sacrificially to this program. And every elder stepped up and gave sacrificially to it. And so now that the elders have led by being generous and by trusting the Lord and by giving, I'm asking the congregation to do the same thing. 3 (42m 27s): So as you pray, God will lead as you listen, God will provide. And by God's grace and his good plan, we'll hopefully be in by December 24th. So with that, what I'm going to do is have us all stand and pray. We've got 10 minutes left in the service. So we're going to get through the first point of Hebrews chapter one today, first, a five-point message, but it's just service kind of lended itself to this. Can we get this microphone on Todd? And then I'm going to pray. And then if you feel led to pray, I want you to come out and pray into the microphone so that everybody else who's on different parts of the campus can agree with us. 3 (43m 7s): And so Lord, we want to pray and we want to declare a God that you are Jehovah Gyra. You are our provider. We've, we've seen that for 18 plus years. You have always provided for us for all of our operational expenses, for our contributions to missions and ministry outside of harvest church. As we've sent missionaries all over the globe, Lord God, you've always been faithful to provide for that kind of stuff. With the purchase of buildings and renovations of buildings, you've always been faithful, but we always run into the same issue where we're in a building. That's just old Lord. So we just pray God that you would show yourself faithful. Once again, we will continue to ask and seek and knock and ask and just trust God that you're going to respond with provision for this space. 3 (43m 56s): So we pray your will be done. We pray for favor with the building, the planning department, Lord, that they would give us the stamp of approval and give us a building permit so that we can continue to move forward. We pray that that would happen quickly. Lord, I don't know if December 24th is my idea or, or your idea, but Lord, I know that this building is, is your idea. So whatever the timing is, Lord God. We want to get in there and, and get the, get, get going with that building. So help us with that. We pray. Jesus. Thank you. If anybody else wants to come up and just pray, the microphone is ready to go. 3 (44m 39s): Thank you. You do. But we want everybody to be able to hear you though. Yeah. Here, can you talk into that? There we go. There we are. 4 (45m 9s): Yeah, he always does. 3 (45m 19s): Nice Joanne. You're awesome. Awesome. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Yeah, there, there are creative ways to give, obviously to come up here and come on up. Obviously money is good, but we can also take stocks and we've had people donate stock and property and that sort of thing. So that's always an option as well. Here we come and help you. All right, Gary, 5 (45m 47s): That's great Father. We know that the book of Hebrews tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please you backyard. And we know father that you always honor faith. There's not a time in the Bible and the lives of the people there that you didn't honor, their faith. You came through in ways that they didn't even imagine. And God you're still the same today, yesterday and forever. We thank you father that you as Steve Perry or Hova, Gyra, God who provides, we pray father, that you would fill us all with faith that we would trust you, that we would give as you inspire us to give. 5 (46m 45s): And that blessings would flow Lord among your people, because we know we cannot give you. There's no way you always do more for us than we do for you. And we just commit this building into your hands and all those who are laboring on it, keep them safe, keep them strong and just have your way Lord in Jesus name. 3 (47m 9s): Amen. Thank you. Thank you. All right. You may be seated. Let's continue on. We'll get to a little bit of a steady and Hebrews. Thanks for listening. Thanks for praying. Thanks for believing God with us. We're not giving up title of the message don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. As we said, the writer to of this letter to the Hebrews is to encourage people. People who have converted to Christianity, but who are feeling a poll back to Judaism, to their old way of thinking. And they're being ostracized. Some of them by their families and they're being criticized and they're being persecuted by zealous people who don't understand their decision. 3 (47m 52s): So in Hebrews 10 verses 32 through 36, the writer encourages the people he says, think back. Think back on those early days, when you first learned about Christ, remember how you remain faithful, even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten. And sometimes you helped others who were suffering. The same thing. You suffered along with those who are thrown into jail. And when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things awaiting for you that will last forever. The scripture says, so do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. 3 (48m 36s): Remember the great reward. It brings you verse 36 patients in Durance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will then you will receive all that he has promised. So don't give up. Jesus can be trusted. Let's jump into Hebrews chapter one, verse one, it says long ago, God spoke many times. And in many ways to our ancestors, through the prophets. So God spoke his promises and his covenant to the Hebrew people. There's an intimacy about God, of the God, of the universe, speaking revelation and truth to humble people. 3 (49m 21s): God spoke. He spoke his promises and his covenant to the Hebrew people. God made a covenant with the Hebrew people. They would be his people and he would be their God. There's an intimacy that God is calling us into in the old Testament. And especially in the new Testament, God communicated his law so that his people and all people would know his standard. And that's where we get the 10 commandments. You must not have any other God, but me. The Lord declared, you must not make for yourself an idol of any kind. You must not misuse the name of the Lord. Your God. 3 (50m 1s): Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it, holy honor, your father and mother, you must not murder. He must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not bear false witness against your neighbor and you must not covets the law of God. If we could just keep the law, we would be faultless. How many of try that? Lailey the Bible says that if we keep the whole law, but stumble, and one little part of the law, we're guilty of breaking the whole thing. So why was the law given to us? If we could never be expected to follow it letter by letter Galatians three 19 answers that question. 3 (50m 44s): It says this Galatians three 19. Why then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. This is the purpose of the giving of the law. It was given to show people their sins given alongside the promise, who is Christ the Lord. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. We're talking about Jesus in the incarnation. God gave his law through angels, to Moses who was the mediator between God and the people. And now God is speaking, not through Moses as a mediator, but he's speaking through the Lord, Jesus Christ, Hebrews one two says, and now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son, capital S son, God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the sun, he created the universe. 3 (51m 41s): And so we're beginning to get a glimpse about who this son is. Jesus, the Lord coming in the form of the incarnation, living, teaching, dying resurrecting. But before all of that, he's been eternal. He's been eternally present in the universe. And before the universe has been eternally present, period, he's eternal. And that will beginning and know in and John one, one, it says in the beginning, the word already existed. The word was with God. And the word was God, verse two. He existed in the beginning with God and God created everything through him. And nothing was created except through him. 3 (52m 24s): Don't give up, Jesus can be trusted. Number one, in your notes, Jesus can be trusted because he is God, he can be trusted because he is God. And so we know all of the attributes of God that he is our provider, our healer, our soon coming king, that he is the one who stands with us. He's a friend who's closer than a brother. He's the one who recognized our desperate need for salvation. And in the incarnation, he offered himself to come as a living, sacrifice a substitutionary sacrifice on the cross so that our sins might be blotted out and forgiven. He decided to take the wrath of God upon himself because the Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 3 (53m 12s): So sometimes we're tempted to give up or tempted to give in, but God is saying, don't give up. You can trust me to help you to navigate life. Maybe you're in a difficult place in a relationship and God is telling you don't give up. Maybe you're feeling attempted to drift from your faith. Your first love as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And Jesus would say, don't give up, don't lose heart. Continue to press in. Continue to believe me. You, Jesus can be trusted because he is God. It says in verse three, the sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God. 3 (53m 53s): We know a lot about the character of God, just by reading the scripture about God we read in the old and the new Testament that God is just, and that he is good, that he is faithful, that he is reliable. That we, he is dependable that when his people trust him, he always, always comes through. I think about other people in the wilderness, as they travel to the promised land, they, they get desperate because they don't have any water and they get desperate because they don't have any food in God. It comes through and provides water. And Nana, he provides for them as they traveled through the wilderness, preparing them for the promised land, where they tested were always tested. 3 (54m 35s): There got to a point in the wilderness where they're like, Moses, did you bring us out here to die? We've got no food. We've got no water. What are we going to do? And Moses continues to turn the people to the Lord. Remember his faithfulness. He delivered you out of your old life. He delivered you out of Egypt with a plan and a purpose to deliver you into the promised land. Is, are there challenges along the way? Oh man, there are challenges along the way. I've had three or four conversations this morning. And what I thought were going to be lighthearted. Conversations turned out to be very difficult conversations with people, just going through very, very hard things. 3 (55m 16s): We look around and we think everybody's doing fine, but not everybody's doing fine. I'm thankful for the days in which we are doing fine, but there's always days in which we struggle. We struggle to believe God. We struggled to put our faith in him and to trust him. But every time we turn our attention back to him, he reminds us and reassures us. I've had to do a lot of prayer walks lately because I've been anxious about this building down the road. And every time I do, I'll go out and walk and I'll say, Hey babe, I'll tell Jolene I got to go pray. And I'll just go on a walk and pray. 3 (55m 56s): And I'll come back in about an hour, hour and a half later. And I'm just refreshing my soul because I'm reminded of God's faithfulness. I'm reminded that we've been here before and that God will get us through it again, because he always does that. I'm reminded that my attention and my focus needs to be not on the problem, but on the solution who is Christ the Lord. And so as I open up the scripture and remind myself about the faithfulness of God, and as I pray, press in and talk to the Lord here in minds, me by his spirit of his goodness. So don't give up, we're not going to give up moving forward. We got good stuff in store for us as God leads and guides and directs us. 3 (56m 36s): And we're confident that God's going to give, give us what we need for that building. And then beyond is there's more beyond, as we continue to be salt and light in this community with that, let's go ahead and stand up and we'll finish the next four points to this message here. When I get back to it, we're going to take communion. How many received your elements? Yeah, go ahead and stand up. And if you need elements, raise your hand and we will get elements to you, Jim, if you could make sure that people will get some elements, just keep your hand up in gym. We'll get elements to you. We're going to take communion. Why? Because communion reminds us, the Bible says do this as often as you do in remembrance of me. 3 (57m 20s): So we take communion because it reminds us of God's faithfulness on the cross. We take communion because it refreshes our soul because in doing so we say, thank you Lord, for forgiving my sins. Thank you Lord, for staying by my side. And for, and for walking this course of life with me first Corinthians 1123 is our passage that we typically read. It says this. So everybody has elements now, okay. These are our COVID elements. And so they're all sealed and ready to go. So make sure you know how to peel off the top layer to get to the wafer. And then the bottom layer to get to the juice. Here we go. 3 (58m 1s): First Corinthians 1123 for I pass on to you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the bread. Oh, thank you, Lord. 3 (58m 40s): Thank you for the reminder, Lord, we need the reminder. Don't we Lord. We need it. Lord. Thank you that you remind us. And as often as we take communion, we're, we're reminded. And so we thank you and thank you for your sacrifice for me, for us, for your church. We love you, Lord. We're so grateful. Verse 25 says in the same way, he took the cup of wine. After supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the death until he comes again. 3 (59m 24s): So let's take the juice. Oh thank you, Lord. I got them refreshed to my soul. When I take communion, refresh us, Lord refresh us in our soul. And our spirit Lord in our lives got refresh us with that truth of your grace. God, if any, any of us have been struggling with sin, Lord, I pray that you would refresh us with your, your plan to forgive us and to set us free and then do that good work. We pray, Lord God, do that. 3 (1h 0m 6s): Good work. Thank you for your patience with us, your kindness toward us. It's unfathomable your goodness in your patients. We don't fully comprehend, but we're thankful. We're thankful. Lord, if there's anyone here, who's never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If you're here and you recognize that you need your sins. Forgiven sins are just another words for mistakes faults, the breaking of the commandments. Falling short. If you're here and you know, in your soul and your life that you've fallen short and you've never accepted the grace message of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (1h 0m 48s): You can simply accept him. Now. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead. You shall be saved. Confessing that Jesus is. Lord is a simple declaration, a powerful declaration, a profound declaration that says I no longer want to lead my own life. I want you to lead my life. I recognize you as Lord, as king as God. And I say, I submit to you. I give my life to you. I believe that you were born and you lived and you died. And you resurrected from the grave, conquering, sin and death, giving us the victory over those things. 3 (1h 1m 36s): You took my place receiving my penalty. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Lord. And so, as you recognize your need for Jesus and you and welcome him into your life, you're welcoming him into your life to be your Lord and your leader, your king, and the one who washes away all of your sin and adopts you into his family. So if that's you go ahead and do that in the quietness of your own heart. Maybe you're here today and you just need to reaffirm your commitment to follow Jesus. That's why communion is so important. We do this and often as often as we do in remembrance so that we might refresh ourselves in the Lord. 3 (1h 2m 16s): So Lord, we refresh ourselves in you. As we, as we, this final worship song, we just say, Lord, thank you. We love you. Your will be done with our lives in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship. 1 (1h 2m 33s): the way the was a close look at the space between I used to be. I had no standing next to the there wasn't holding back the C should I have a need? 1 (1h 3m 28s): How I've been set free. There is a cross. The best dad for being there is another C E .

Dr. Hollie Chessman (she/her) serves as the Director of Research & Practice with the American Council on Education and resident college student mental health and well-being expert for ACE. Joining the organization in December 2018, Hollie brings almost 20 years of professional experience in higher education. Prior to her current role at A-C-E, she was the Director of Research Projects at the Council of Independent Colleges and a post-doctoral associate at A-C-E. Hollie earned her PhD from George Mason University in 2015, prior to which she spent 17 years as a student affairs professional serving in various roles and institutions – including 10 years in housing and residence life. Her primary interests include college student mental health and well-being, student affairs professional well-being, graduate student choice, and organizational change and leadership.

Vocabularul zilei:   *podcast 106 C&E despre "țap ispășitor" *a se sparge (ceva) în/de capul cuiva *a veni (ceva) pe capul cuiva *o neplăcere, o situație neplăcută *un necaz *o proporție mare *un licean - mai mulți liceeni *o profă (o profesoară), un prof (un profesor) *de zi-cu-zi *a cere socoteală cuiva *precipitații *în momentul de față *a se da bolnav *un dosar *un protestar *a-și cere drepturile   O mini-serie de Cuvinte & Expresii zilnice. Veți avea zilnic mini-podcasturi cu expresii sau cuvinte în doar câteva minute. Scurt. Efectiv. Constructiv. Fiți pe fază.   Mă poți găsi aici: post@cameliaweb.com || www.cameliaweb.com Sinonime și explicații suplimentare aici: https://www.patreon.com/cameliaweb1

Most men haven't thought about which values lead to a fulfilling life. And it's hard to know which values are driving you now and which would give you the life you want. Your values affect your relationships. And values that mask your vulnerabilities will make you feel unworthy of love. But when you discover the values that open you to your higher self, your life opens up to loving, trusting relationships. Find out which values attract love into your life in this episode of The Masculine Psychology Podcast. Show highlights include: Why designer clothes, exotic cars, and gold credit cards prevent you from finding unconditional love (1:07) Striving to be your “best self?” Why it may be sabotaging your relationships (3:33) How to use the the “goodness filter” to find people who enrich your life — and remove those that don't (6:19) Why your “I Can Fix It” mentality prevents you from building strong connections (7:09) How do you spot a psychopath on your first date? (8:13) The “I'm gonna cry” moments (that you usually hide) which instantly deepen your romantic relationships (11:10) The “C&E” practice that improves your intimacy (especially if you're a “bad boy”) (15:47)  Why revisiting long-held beliefs accelerates your emotional growth (23:07) Does your neediness, fear, or insecurity sabotage your success with women? Do you feel you may be unlovable? For more than 15 years, I've helped thousands of people find confidence, fulfillment, and loving relationships. And I can help you, too. I'm therapist and life coach David Tian, Ph.D. I invite you to check out my free Masterclasses on dating and relationships at https://www.davidtianphd.com/masterclass/ now. For more about David Tian, go here: https://www.davidtianphd.com/about/ Get access to all my current and future online coaching courses by applying for the Platinum Partnership program today at: https://www.davidtianphd.com/platinum

video available here:https://youtu.be/NDRhZ0N8Dx0 Risen! (in G) intro: G         G The Passover Lamb was slain for the nations       Em7 For all tribes and tongues He purchased salvation  C                                 G             D Now it is finished and now it’s begun!  C                                                Em               D           G/B     D His Kingdom is coming and His kingdom has come! chorus:                         G Risen!  He is risen!                         C/G      G Risen!  He is risen! G/B  C                                    C    D-Em-C The grave is defeated and death is undone G/B  C                         C  D Em  D/F# The battle is over the victory won!         F         C       Em  D  G The Son of God is Risen! (in C)         C With You we have died and with You we have risen      Am7 And all of our sins are completely forgiven       F                                          C                     G    The way is now open through what You have done    F                                       Am               G        C/G     G The old man is buried And new life has come! chorus 2:                         C Risen!  You are risen!                           F/C      C Risen!  You are risen! C/E  F                                          G-Am-G The grave is defeated and death is undone C/E  F                         G Am  G/B The battle is over the victory won!                          C Risen!  You are risen!                         F/C      C Risen!  You are risen! C/E  F                                          G-Am-G And we who believe in Him shall never die C/E  F                                           G Am  G/B For we have been raised with the Author of Life        Bb        F       Am  G  C The Son of God is Risen!

Hi Basementeers.... We have a band called: ACE...yep you heard right....ACE....... They had 3 lp's but we pulled off some good stuff from all 3. They were known as a 1 hit wonder in 1975...yes they should had a few more hits I think !!!. So form form your own opinion about this band called: A C E .... Intro: Gleaning In The Gloom 1. Why 2. Found Out The Hard Way 3. You Can't Lose 4. The Real Feeling 5. Let's Hang On 6. Ain't Gonna Stand For This No More 7. Time Ain't Long 8. I Think It's Gonna last 9. How Long 10. I'm Not Taking It Out On You 11. Sniffing About 12. Rock & Roll Singer 13. Message To You Outro: 24 Hours

Poker tournament results;  Dr. Mike marches down to the 10;  Mark "makes" a C&E bet;  Average daily theoretical

EP 26 Is Balance for Busy Working Moms Really Even Possible? The ONE GREAT IDEA That Could Change Your Life! Intentional Life Coach Private Coaching Session What is balance? What does that even mean? Because as you know, you know, as we work full time, as we are moms, wives, we are working in our church. We are serving and volunteering. We are the sports soccer mom. We are classroom mom. We are homeschooling kids, all of these different hats that we wear, how in the world do we create this balance? Every woman deserves to live her life, feeling fulfilled in every area of her life. Girl, Let's walk this thing out together, you deserve your Wholly Made Life™! Have you taken the assessment yet? Take it here!  http://bit.ly/shortassessment Find me on IG: @angietoninirogers Join our FB Community: http://bit.ly/whollymadelifefbgroup Wholly Made Life™ Short Assessment: http://bit.ly/shortassessment Get the Podcast Episode Updates 1st: https://angie.gr8.com/ Tune in to the Nurses on Fire Podcast, with host Naseema McElroy on March 18th!  https://www.financiallyintentional.com/podcast Welcome back to this episode of Wholly Made Life™. How are you today? I am good. Thank you. Sometimes I wish there was a feedback where we could actually be talking so, but did you know that we can do that? We can talk. We can connect in real life. If you go over to my Facebook group, Holy made life and we can comment. We can play. We can hang out over there. So make sure if you haven't already go ahead and request to get into the Holy made life, private Facebook group, and it's free. There's nothing you need to do other than just go request it on Facebook. So Holy made life W H O L L Y made life™ just like the podcast. Okay. So today I want to talk about an interview that I just did with the host of nurses on fire Naseema. And I was really excited to do this with her. She is fantastic. Is a matter of fact, I'm going to have her as a guest on this podcast because she has an incredible story about how she has paid off. I think up to a million dollars in debt, don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure her story includes that, but I know she paid off a ton of debt. She is a labor and delivery nurse working full time. She's got two kiddos. She's amazing. So she just wrote a book called smart money, the step-by-step personal finance plan to crush debt. And I binge read this, I got it on Kindle and I've been dreaded so you can get it on Amazon for your Kendall. And she has a hard copy too. I think it might still be on pre-order it's so new, but anyway, she goes through a nine step plan on how to get your finances back in order. And I know some of you guys who have taken that Wholly Made Life short assessment. If you haven't already, you can click the link to take your short assessment in the show notes on the episode page. So go ahead and do that if you haven't. But some of those scores that I am seeing are related to feeling a little bit unbalanced for your finances. So this book is really helpful with that. It tells her story about how she paid off a ton of debt while working full time. And so it's really valuable. But what I was going to say is I'm going to have her on the podcast so she can tell you her story and walk through some of these things, these easy steps that you can start to take. And I know in the one episode that I did about finances and what does God say about money? I talked about doing a savings account and making sure that you guys get to a place where you have a thousand dollars in savings. She recommends that as well. So, and if you haven't heard that episode, go back to the one that says, what does God say about money? Find it at Episode 18==> What does God say about My Finances? And it'll tell you a little bit about how you can go ahead and get a thousand dollars saved up in your savings account and how that will kind of free you to deal with any emergencies, things that come up like that. So anyway, I was on her podcast and that episode is going to release on nurses on fire next week on Thursday. And that date is what is that day going to be? That's going to be the 18th of March. So that will, if you want to listen to that, that will be up on her podcast and nurses on fire. She's got a lot of great tips over there. So they feature all nurses. And of course you guys know I'm a nurse, she's a nurse. And so that's her specialty is she, she just showcases nurses with different stories and in different areas of your life. So it's a great podcast, whether you're a nurse or not. What I wanted to talk about today though, was she asked me a lot of questions about my coaching and my coaching program and what I'm providing and what I'm helping ladies with. And so the number one question she was asking was, okay, you talk about balance in your life. What is balance? What does that even mean? Because as you know, you know, as we work full time, as we are moms, wives, we are working in our church. We are serving and volunteering. We are the sports soccer mom. We are classroom mom. We are homeschooling kids, all of these different hats that we wear, how in the world do we create this balance? And so what I explained was it's such an individualized thing because the real reality is, is that balance is going to look different for each person. And it's not what the society says. That balance is. It's not this perfect little pie where you have a full piece of pie and in every area of your life, it's not this perfect thing. It's going to ebb and flow depending upon the seasons of your life. And thankfully we're graced for the times where it's ebbing and flowing a little higher or lower in some of those areas of our life, where we're having to spend more time in our marriage or more time at work or more time because we're getting a business off the ground or more time because one of our kids is going through something. So it's always going to ebb and flow. There's never, you're never going to have a perfect wheel. That's perfectly circular and full in every area of your life. All the time. The goal is, is to define what balance looks like for you based on your desires, based on what fills you up, based on the impact that has on your family and your job and your coworkers and your friends, and figuring out what that is, and then work within that definition of what balance is for you. So it's very individualized. So that's the first thing we do is I talk about the reality and get us out of this hole. We have to be perfectly balanced in every area of our life, all the time to be successful, because that's just a lie. You are successful already. You are already equipped with everything that you need to wear. All the hats that you're being asked to wear. Sometimes it's related to your boundaries. And you've said yes, to too many things. And some of that gets identified when we talk about the reality and the definition of what balance is for you and what, where you need to be. Okay. So the second thing that I do once we have some of that defined for that person is we come up with an idea and that is an acronym for some of the steps that I use with my clients, an idea I D E a idea. So let me tell you quickly about what this acronym idea means. So the I in idea means to identify, we are going to identify what it is that is going on in your life, in all areas of your life, because the reality is until we even identify what that thing is, that's making you feel either uncomfortable or burnt out or stressed out or overwhelmed, or just in a place of restlessness or a place where you're not finding joy in either one or many areas of your life. We have to identify that in the first place. A lot of you guys come to me and talk about where you are and not really understanding or knowing why you're feeling the way you're feeling, you're just feeling met, or you're just feeling blocked. You know, you're wearing that emoji that, that met emoji, and you're just walking through life every day. And it's kind of on repeat, but you're not really intentionally going after the things that make you feel filled up or spark that joy for you. So sometimes it's just a, not even realizing what it is that's causing these feelings in you, or not even realizing that, you know what, I don't remember the last time that I laughed or the last time that I found some joy in something and really thinking about, did I find any joy in anything that I did today? And so it's just that honing in on that identification of that, there is something going on, we just need to figure out what it is. So we're going to identify the issue, the feeling, the emotion, the circumstance, the thoughts around those circumstances. We're going to identify that there's something that needs to change in the first place. So the second step is to define this is the D we're going to define what it would look like to spark that joy again, to put laughter back into your life, to feel balanced. What is it that balance is we're going to define the balance and we're going to identify what it is going on in each of those pieces of the pie and what, what it looks like to feel that joy again, to feel fulfilled in those areas. What does that look like? You don't know if you're winning in something you don't know. If you are meeting a goal in something, unless it's defined. Sometimes we have this big, huge, audacious thought of what each area of your life should look like in your spiritual, your physical, your relational, et cetera. But we don't really know what that means for you. You know, you're, we're just going by what society says that we should look like, feel like be doing in each of these areas of our life, but you haven't really defined those areas. Well, what would make you happy in those areas? What would make you feel joyful and fulfilled? What would make your kids and your husband and your friends and your coworkers feel fulfilled in these areas? What is, what is it? You have to define it. You got to know what you're going after in order to get there. You can't just get in your car and say, I'm going to go to Hawaii and not have a plan and just start driving. Because at that point, if you don't ever reference a goal, a direction, a plan, you won't get there. You've got to have a definition of where it's going. And you know, actually in the define stage, you don't even know that you're going Hawaii. You just know you're getting in your car and driving, but where are you going? I mean, none of us do that, right? We don't get in our car and just start driving around, not knowing where we're going. Unless that's something that fills you up to just go take a drive and be by yourself. Now that's a different situation. Okay. But in as far as destination and getting to a goal, you got to know when you get into your car where you're going to go so that you know how to get there. Okay. So that's the second step define the third step is going to be embrace E M B R a C E embrace. Cause we got to do two things here. We've got to embrace what it is that we individually are defining as what would feel successful for us and be okay with that. Despite what other people are saying, despite what other people are defining for us, we have to define that ourselves and embrace that we have to be ready and fully ready to accept what it is that we define as success. Okay. You know what, in the mornings, if I get my kids to school on time, that's a success to me. It doesn't really matter. Everything in between the end goal is did they get to school on time? Were they dressed? You know, where are they fed? Do they have what they need? Did they get their backpacks? I mean, this morning I got not halfway, maybe a third way to school. And my youngest is like, Oh my gosh, we only have one shoe. And I was like, you've got to be kidding me. Okay. So I was in a frenzy like, Oh my gosh, we got to turn around. And I'm like, how in the world you get in the car with no shoe on. And my other one, my middle one, Elijah was like, Oh yeah, I saw that ball at the car. And I was like, Oh, what in the world? How do you see this shoe fall out of the car? And you don't say anything and tell him, Hey, get your shoe. It just fell out of the car. He was like, I don't know. I was on the, on my phone with my dad. I'm just like, and then I forgot. And I was like, Oh my gosh. So, you know, had I defined success in, you know, did I make sure my kid, my 11 year old, my fifth grader had his boat issue on. Then I'd be like, okay, I totally bonded today as a parent, I bombed, but I got them to school on time still. So despite the fact we had to turn around, come back and get the shoe, which was on the garage floor. And get turned back around and get them to school. They both made it on time and nobody was harmed. Okay. So that was a success. Okay. So it's important how you define those things and you know what? I have to embrace it. It just is what it is. Stuff happens. Life happens and it doesn't make me a bad parent. It doesn't make him a bad kid. We got to school on time. Everybody had their shoes on. Everybody had what they needed. They had their backpacks, they have their masks and it's all good. Okay. So we're going to embrace our definition of what success is. Okay. And we're going to work on that because that may be, especially for a recovering perfectionist, like myself, that would have been something I would have beat myself up about, but you're like, Oh my gosh, I can't do anything. Right. I can't even make sure my kid has two shoes before we get in the car. Like, I'm horrible. I'm a failure as a mom. That's where that would have gone to in the past. But at this point, no, I'm not going to define it that way. I'm going to embrace that. Life's going to happen. Things aren't going to be perfect. They're not going to go exactly. As we thought, I didn't plan on turning around this morning and getting back, but we did it and we made it and everybody's living and we're all good. Okay. So we're going to embrace what it is that we define it. And we're going to continually work on our mindset and our thoughts and our feelings that come around that what our definitions have been so that we don't end up beating ourselves up when things don't happen exactly as they are. And when they don't measure up to that whole perfectionist expectation. Okay. Cause that's not real. All right, we're going to break that. And there, we're going to embrace that action plan, that, that goal that we build for ourselves to get us to where we are and we're going to embrace that life happens. And sometimes we're going to meet it and sometimes we're not. Okay. So we're going to do a lot of mindset work during this embrace stage. The final letter in this acronym is a, and this is going to be to activate. This means that we're going to take action. We're going to move into action. So we're going to come up with a plan of action, small steps that are attainable and manageable. When you look at them, you say, yes, I can do that today. We're going to look at one step at a time, one small action at a time because we know that all the small things that we do on a daily basis build up to bigger things. Your small action steps you take every day, we'll come to bigger things, bigger accomplishments. They, everything adds up. It's like compounded interest. Okay. You take little steps today. And it gets the same little step tomorrow will compound on the little steps we took yesterday. That's where we get results. And by the way, it's opposite to, in a negative way, the little steps we don't take today can add up to bigger things tomorrow. So it's kinda like, I think about when you are trying to eat healthier and you choose to eat a piece of cake, which by the way I do. Okay. I am not the epitome of an example of physical health at this point or not health, but physical small steps. So, you know, there's some times I choose not to do the workout. There's sometimes I choose not to order the baked fish instead of the fish and chips, like right now on Fridays, those kinds of things. So there are some things that happen, but if I make those choices every single day, then my bigger outcome down the road will show that my body will not be as strong, not be as spit, not be as toned. I will gain weight. So it's not about one small step you didn't take and you beat yourself up. So then you say, okay, well, I chose that. So now I'm going to choose the ice cream and the chips and everything else. Okay. It's about the consistent small actions we're taking and not letting one small decision we make or small action we do, or don't take ruin the rest of our little decisions. All right. So I don't want you to beat yourself up on that, but so it's about consistency. It's about taking small actions and understanding that these small actions will result in bigger things and you have to just be accountable to whatever that bigger thing is. If I don't like the way I look in the mirror, I don't like the way my pants are fitting. Then I have to start taking smaller actions. It's not about anything else other than me and my action plan. Okay. All right. So in the activate stage, again, small action plans, or I'm sorry, a plan to take small action steps every single day that are attainable, you can feel good about and an understanding that your big results are going to come in the future. They're not going to come today, but today you can embrace what your plan is. You can embrace the, the mindset that you can decide, how you feel about the action steps you've taken today. And if you don't feel good about it, then you take different action steps tomorrow or later today. Okay. Just cause you take, don't do what you wanted to do an hour ago doesn't mean that you can't make good choices and good on your action plan to right now. Okay. So identify, define, embrace, and activate. That is how we work in the coaching program individually to come up with a way that you can feel good about getting yourself to where you feel more balanced. Okay. All right. Any questions about that? Please email me at Angie, tonyRogers@gmail.com. I will be accepting private clients. And if you have questions about the coaching menu, a half-hour session, our session, and I will email you back and we'll discuss what you're looking for and whether or not it's a good fit for us to work together. Okay. All right, guys, thank you so much. And again, don't forget to tune in to the Thursday episode next week on the 18th on nurses on fire to hear the interview that I did with miss Nisima and I we'll have her on our podcast here in the near future to talk specifically about how she was able to pay off a ton of debt. Okay. She's got a great action plan that I think it's simple for any of us to follow, especially when we're talking and breaking it down into little action steps. The other big announcement that I have is that I am so, so excited to announce that I am going to be interviewing Ms. Stephanie gas. She has this Stephanie gas show. It was mompreneur mastermind show, but now it is the Stephanie gas show. She just rebranded. This is my personal friend and mentor and coach. She has actually helped me with all things podcasting. The whole reason why I even have the title that I do was that I had personal coaching sessions with her. She helped me with all of my jumbled ideas that I had and she helped me hone it in. And we prayed about it. She is a Christian coach and she prays with her clients. It's amazing. Really? So anyway, I am going to have her on a podcast episode because she is going to talk with us about how to balance our professional piece of the pie. She's amazing. She's done amazing work. And if you haven't already looked at or listened to her show, it's the Stephanie gas show. G a S S take a listen, but she is going to be a special guest. I'm interviewing her next week. So it should drop an episode with her interview in the next couple of weeks. Okay. So I'm really excited about that. I also have some other exciting guests that I am booking to interview. So I'm going to have some great things for you guys coming up. I'm really excited about it and I hope you guys are too. All right, guys, don't forget. Hit me up on the Facebook group. Get in that Facebook group so that we can live this thing out together. Okay. All right, girls, I love you guys. And we will see you on the next episode. Hey, before you go, I'd love for you to hop over to my podcast and give me a review. And you know, I'd love five stars. That's how we can share this thing with other women, just like us. You're five stars and written review really helps me get the word out. You can also take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in your Insta and Facebook stories. And I'll give you a shout out right back, leaving a review and sharing this episode is the best way you can show me some luck. Thanks so much. And I'll see him the next episode. And remember your smile is like a boomerang, throw one at somebody and it'll come right back.

Welcome to the Wellness FOURplay Podcast! Episode 8: Antioxidants   1. WHAT ARE THEY? - Substances that fight free radicals in your body. Free radicals are compounds that can cause damage to your cells that can lead to all kinds of aging problems. 2. WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT? - Antioxidants can help balance out the free-radicals, leaving the ones needed for your immune system to work properly and neutralizing the excess that cause cell damage that leads to health issues 3. HOW CAN THEY HELP YOU? - They help protect your cells while leaving the good free radicals to boost your Increase the support of your healthy Immune System! response -Reducing cell damage can also lead to a longer, healthier lifespan 4. WHERE CAN YOU GET THEM? - 1) We can TAKE them: (Direct antioxidants) - Vitamins A, C & E, fruits like berries & oranges, vegetables like deep green leafy veggies, sweet potatoes, broccoli, etc. We can also eat whole grains, nuts like almonds, pistachios & walnuts, seeds, herbs and spices, juices,

Firstly, let's begin with the difference between detoxing and fasting because contrary to popular belief they are different.  Fasting means we are abstaining from eating and drinking all together for a set period of time. A water fast is the most common type of fast, where only filtered water is consumed. While fasting will lead to a detoxification of body systems it is not necessary to fast in order to detox  To detox means to cleanse something. To do this we need to stop bringing in rubbish (ie toxins) into the body.  Imagine your body is a pool and you have been neglecting it for a while. The pool is dirty and the filtration system is clogged. You need to clean the pool but if you continue filling the pool with dirty water the pool will never be cleansed. This is the same for detoxing. In order to detox properly we need to support the body to cleanse itself of the toxic load AND reduce the toxins coming into the body from food and drinks. It is also important to consider what toxins we may apply to our skin (in the form of creams, perfumes, antiperspirants etc) and what we breathe in (environmental pollution, smoking etc). What we put into our bodies during a cleanse plays a BIG role in the effectiveness.    How are our detoxification systems impacted by increased toxic load? There are many types of detoxing including gut, liver, lymphatic, kidney, matrix and then finally intracellular. All of the detoxes mentioned (except intracellular) relate to different parts of the body which act as filters for toxins within our bodies.  The liver is our major detoxification organ and so this is often (but not always) where we begin the detoxification process. You can imagine the liver like a sponge mopping up the body's mess (the toxins). You can also imagine that the sponge can out ring out (release the toxins) a certain amount of times per hour. It does a good job but if there is more mess to clean up than what it can ring out each hour, then it is going to become full and the toxins will leak out into the bloodstream.  From here the toxins are pushed out of the blood (where it is dangerous for the body to hold toxins), into the extracellular space called the matrix. The lymphatic system then pulls the toxins from the matrix and attempts to drain them from the body.  What we need to understand is that if the liver is full of toxins, the matrix will eventually get really full. This then puts added burden on the lymphatic system which eventually will not be able to drain any further. At this point the skin and lungs become an organ of detoxing (rashes, itching, bad breath can all indicate the need to detox).  While this is happening you can imagine how the matrix (the space outside the cells) is becoming increasingly full of toxins. and this pressure is going to push toxins into the cell and so we are also going to have to detox the cell (intracellular space).   How do we know where to start? Most of the time we are deciding what body system to focus on first with a detox we divide it into outside the cell detox and inside the cell detox.  The majority of detoxing in the body happens through three phases through your liver & gut and liver & kidneys. Phase 1 (of detoxification) begins when there are toxins present in the body. The liver breaks these toxins down (through oxidisation) and sends for further processing (stage 2) and excretion either via the kidneys (urine) or gut (stools). Nutritionally, we need to consume anti-oxidants and other Vitamins (A, C & E) and minerals (zinc, manganese, selenium) to support the oxidisation process in phase 1.  The most common problem of detoxing is in phase 2 when the gut is sluggish, usually due to lack of the required nutrients for this part of the process to occur ( Eg Sulfur, amino acids, Vit B12, Glutathione). If the gut cannot complete phase2 of the detox, the toxins are reabsorbed into the blood and the liver will have to process them again. Phase 3 is the transportation of the processed toxins out of the body (elimination) via the urine or stool. How much water do we need for detoxing? This depends on where you live (temperature/humidity), exercise, diet, size etc but on average around 1.2 to 1.5 lt per day is good. Some people however, need 4 to 4.5 litres per day so you really need to look at your individual circumstances. We need to note here that while water is an important partof effective detoxing, there are other factors that are just as important. For example, for effective flushing we also require good bowel movements. And if we are looking at improving the bowels then we need to look at the liver and which plays an important role in getting the bowels to move. The liver also helps with digestive processes (eg breaking down fats) and thus supporting the liver means you are supporting the gut.    How often should we move bowels? Again everyone is different depending on metabolism. Someone with a fast metabolism will move their bowels about 30 to 40 minutes after every meal. Vegetarians also tend to move their bowels more because of the fibre in plants.  On the other end of the spectrum are people who, genetically speaking, do not have the ability to produce mucous and thus cannot hold good bacteria in gut. As a consequence they have difficulty moving their bowels. These people need probiotics, magnesium, extra fibre and a very healthy diet to maintain their gut health. With all that being said, one movement per day is the minimum expected and it is normal for some people to have 2 or 3 movements per day.   Liver Detoxing Detoxing the liver is very important and we can assume that if the liver is not working well then the matrix will also be congested. The matrix has a semi-fluid consistency which, when it thickens (usually from body acidity), makes it difficult for the body to detox. This is why alkalising the body is important during a detox. With this process occuring the kidneys then also require support.   Signs we need detoxing If your body is producing an excess of anything it is often a good sign you need detoxing. For example, diarrhoea, rashes, acne, weepy eyes, ear wax or inflammation.   If we don't have these signs should I still detox? There are other signs of a need to detox, including fatigue, hay fever, allergies and parasites.    Where do I start? In our clinic we ask you questions about your diet, lifestyle, symptoms etc and then we look through the microscope at your blood. Here we can see if the lymphatic system is congested or not.  We can also see if the liver requires detoxing, depending on how the red blood cells appear.  From here we know that if the liver and lymphatic system require support, then the kidneys will definitely need support too, especially if pH is very low (acidic).  By detoxing the liver, lymphatic system and kidneys we are automatically supporting the bowel as well.    When detoxing can we still eat a normal diet? Not unless your normal diet is in alignment with the guidelines we provide for you.  As we said earlier, we need to make sure we aren't pouring in toxins into the body while detoxing. For example, if you drink two glasses of wine per day while detoxing it is going to defeat the purpose because alcohol is full of toxins (preservatives, nitrates etc) and makes the body acidic.  What we want to do is to focus the diet onto alkaline or neutral pH foods and avoid food and drinks which cause body acidity and/or contain toxins. We give diet recommendations to our patients based on their individual needs.  How long should a detox take? Each person will have a limit as to how quickly they can detox. You cannot detox too much at once because you will end up with headaches, nausea, gut issues etc because too many toxins are trying to get out of the body at once.  Again, we look at each person individually. Sometimes we might do 2 weeks on liver and kidneys and then add the lymphatics after and then intracellular. The process can take up to 2 months.   Intermittent fasting Intermittent fasting is not just about weight loss. It is about allowing the body resting periods in which it can detox and heal so when you bring things back in, it is ready to deal with the load.  This works for many people but if you have a high stress life, do a lot of sports or have a lot of energetic output generally, then intermittent fasting may not be for you. This is because your adrenals need the support of small frequent meals.    Is keto a detox? No. Keto tends to be high fat. This helps to lose weight but too much animal fat creates stagnation in the liver leading to fatty liver. This eventually means the liver cannot detox and weight gain follows.    Tools we use in the clinic We observe you (skin condition, tongue, nails etc) We ask questions We look at your blood under the microscope We monitor how you respond to certain treatments and lifestyle habits and make changes as required We use a range of supportive treatments including essential oils, homeopathics, herbs and supplements. We reassess after 6 weeks.    How often should we detox? Once to twice per year is usually enough. Note that lymphatic detox can be done other ways too and not just through diets and nutritional support. For example jumping on a trampoline, skin brushing, walking and temperature changes all stimulate a lymphatic flush.    How do I book an appointment? Appointments are available both online and in person (Applecross Western Australia).  To book an appointment head to https://www.aurorahealingcodes.com/ for more information.   Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

人會老化主要有三個原因：第一、紫外線傷害，第二、抽菸（以及環境自由基），第三、地心引力。 地心引力無法避免，除非離開地球搬到引力更小的星球居住。只要是住在地球上一天就受到地心引力的影響一天。地心引力造成組織器官下垂，越垂越顯老，這也是美容醫學要對抗的重要敵人。 抽菸是最可以、最容易避免地老化因子，香煙中的尼古丁、焦油、pm 2.5、自由基、致癌物都會對人體造成傷害，老化只是其輕、致癌才是其重。如何避免？很簡單，戒菸就好。甚至連二手菸、三手菸都要畀接觸。 紫外線的傷害，一半可避免一半不可避免。怎麼說呢？正午時分紫外線B最強烈的時候，盡量避免外出，如果要外出，記得擦上防曬乳液，這樣就可減少紫外線B的傷害。其他時間紫外線A仍然會讓皮膚老化、產生黑斑和細紋，如果能使用防曬乳液當然最好。不過據觀察，每天這樣用防曬乳液的人是少之又少，所以，這個時候，多吃一些抗衰老的食物就有意義了。 植物因為要利用日光進行光合作用，無法避免紫外線的傷害，所以演化出「植化素」抵抗讓光的傷害，這些植化素包括花青素、類黃酮等多分的抗氧化劑，和維他命C、維他命E、胡蘿蔔素……等等。含有這種植化素的植物多半是深綠色蔬菜和深紅色水果。深綠色蔬菜例如：花椰菜、菠菜、地瓜葉……等等；深紅色水果包括番茄、南瓜、香瓜……等。 當然這些水果也有熱量，多吃還是會讓人發胖。所以最適當的做法是，同樣要吃蔬菜和水果，盡量選擇上面這幾種，而不是沒事在正餐外又大吃特吃這些食物，這樣才能取其優避其弊。

Due muli, ultra ventenni: le mie stampanti hp.Ho sempre cercato di farne funzionare una condivisa tra win e linux, ma i miei firewall hanno sempre complicato le cose.Oggi ho detto basta: voglio la stampante dal mio pc, basta convidisioni in rete.E magicamente ho scoperto l'utilità di un cavo usb prolunga di due metri.A volte l'hardware risolve prima e meglio.Cosi', tanto per sorridere insieme.ps: i miei muli funzionano troppo bene. Non posso pensare di sostituirli. Rapidissimi e affidabili.pps: C'e' un valore aggiunto nell'avere una stampante in un'altra stanza. Obbligarsi ad alzarsi dalla sedia e muoversi un puo' :) Naturalmente l'allenamento fisico e' migliore con le stampanti wifi ben lontane dalla nostra postazione, ma ricordate gli adempimenti del GDPR per impedire che altri leggano i vostri documenti, alla stampante cosi' come nei cestini ...

un = precedes all masculine nouns, even those that begin with vowels. The exception is those masculine nouns beginning with ps, gn, z, or s and a consonant. un bambino = a baby un orologio = a clock uno = precedes masculine nouns beginning with ps, gn, z, or s and a consonant. uno specchio = a mirror uno psicologo = a psychologist una = precedes all feminine nouns beginning with a consonant. una scrivania = a desk una fragola = a strawberry un' = precedes all feminine nouns that begin with a vowel. un'ora = an hour un'arancia = an orange Essere = to be io sono = I am tu sei = you are (informal) Lei e' = you are (formal) lui/lei e` = he/she is noi siamo = we are voi siete = you are (plural) loro sono = they are C'e' = There is OR Is there? Ci sono = There are OR Are there? C'e' un insegnate qui? = Is there a teacher here? C'e' una mela per l'insegnante? = Is there an apple for the teacher? Ci sono due pere. = There are two pears. Ci sono tre belle donne. = There are three pretty women. Quanti cani ci sono? = How many dogs are there? Ci sono molti cani. = There are many dogs. Quante banane ci sono? = How many bananas are there? Ci sono molte banane. = There are many bananas. cravatta = tie camicia = shirt abito = suit vestito = dress scarpe = shoes calzini = socks pantaloni = pants letto = bed doccia = shower armadio = closet lavandino = sink spazzolino = toothbrush dentifricio = toothpaste sapone = soap asciugamano = towel pettine = comb rasoio = razor schiuma da barba = shaving cream shampoo = shampoo bigodini = curlers These colors must match the number and the gender of the noun which they modify: bianco = white nero = black rosso = red giallo = yellow grigio = gray camicia bianca = white shirt pantaloni bianchi = white pants vestito bianco = white dress scarpe bianche = white shoes These colors must match the number only of the noun which they modify: verde = green marrone = brown celeste = sky blue arancione = orange abito marrone = brown suit cravatta marrone = brown tie pantaloni marroni = brown pants scarpe marroni = brown shoes These colors will never change: blu' = blue rosa = pink viola = purple vestito blu' = blue dress scarpe blu' = blue shoes vestito viola = purple dress scarpe rosa = pink shoes Di che colore e' _____? = What color is _____? Di che colore sono _____? = What color are _____? Di che colore e' il limone? = What color is the lemon? Il limone e' giallo. = The lemon is yellow. Di che colore sono le fragole? = What color are the strawberries? Le fragole sono rosse. = The strawberries are red. Di che colore e' l'arancia? = What color is the orange? L'arancia e' arancione. = The orange is orange. Di che colore sono le porte? = What color are the doors? Le porte sono blu'. = The doors are blue. Di che colore e' l'asciugamano? = What color is the towel? L'asciugamano e' bianco. = The towel is white. Di che colore e' lo spazzolino? = What color is the toothbrush? Lo spazzolino e' viola. = The toothbrush is purple.

Welcome to the History of Computing Podcast, where we explore the history of information technology. Because understanding the past prepares us for the innovations of the future! Todays episode is on the History of Symantec. This is really more part one of a part two series. Broadcom announced they were acquiring Symantec in August of 2019, the day before we recorded this episode. Who is this Symantec and what do they do - and why does Broadcom want to buy them for 10.7 Billion dollars? For starters, by themselves Symantec is a Fortune 500 company with over $4 billion dollars in annual revenues so $10.7 Billion is a steal for an enterprise software company. Except they're just selling the Enterprise software division and keeping Norton in the family. With just shy of 12,000 employees, Symantec has twisted and turned and bought and sold companies for a long time. But how did they become a Fortune 500 company? It all started with Eisenhower. ARPA or the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which would later add the word Defense to their name, become DARPA and build a series of tubes call the interweb. While originally commissioned so Ike could counter Sputnik, ARPA continued working to fund projects in computers and in the 1970s, this kid out of the University of Texas named Gary Hendrix saw that they were funding natural language understanding projects. This went back to Turing and DARPA wanted to give some AI-complete a leap forward, trying to make computers as intelligent as people. This was obviously before Terminator told us that was a bad idea (pro-tip, it's a good idea). Our intrepid hero Gary saw that sweet, sweet grant money and got his PhD from the UT Austin Computational Linguistics Lab. He wrote some papers on robotics and the Stanford Research Institute, or SRI for short. Yes, that's the same SRI that invented the hosts.txt file and is responsible for keeping DNS for the first decade or so of the internet. So our pal Hendrix joins SRI and chases that grant money, leaving SRI in 1980 with about 15 other Stanford researchers to start a company they called Machine Intelligence Corporation. That went bust and so he started Symantec Corporation in 1982 got a grant from the National Science foundation to build natural language processing software; it turns out syntax and semantics make for a pretty good mashup. So the new company Symantec built out a database and some advanced natural language code, but by 1984 the PC revolution was on and that code had been built for a DEC PDP so could not be run on the emerging PCs in the industry. Symantec was then acquired by C&E Software short for the names of its founders, Dennis Coleman and Gordon Eubanks. The Symantec name stayed and Eubanks became the chairman of the board for the new company. C&E had been working on PC software called Q&A, which the new team finished and then added natural language processing to make using the tools easier to use. They called that “The Intelligent Assistant” and they now had a tool that would take them through the 80s. People swapped rolls, and due to a sharp focus on sales they did well. During the early days of the PC, dealers - or small computer stores that were popping up all over the country, were critical to selling hardware and software. Every Symantec employee would go on the road for six days a week, visiting 6 dealers a day. It was grueling but kept them growing and building. They became what we now call a “portfolio” company in 1985 when they introduced NoteIt, a natural language processing tool used to annotate docs in Lotus 1-2-3. Lotus was in the midst of eating the lunch of previous tools. They added another devision and made SQZ a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet tool. This is important, they were a 3 product company with divisions when in 1987 they got even more aggressive and purchased Breakthrough Software who made an early project management tool called TimeLine. And this is when they did something unique for a PC software company: they split each product into groups that leveraged a shared pool of resources. Each product had a GM that was responsible for the P&L. The GM ran the development, Quality Assurance, Tech Support, and Product Market - those teams reported directly to the GM, who reported to then CEO Eubanks. But there was a shared sales, finance, and operations team. This laid the framework for massive growth, increased sales, and took Symantec to their IPO in 1989. Symantec purchased what was at the time the most popular CRM app called ACT! In 1993 Meanwhile, Peter Norton had a great suite of tools for working with DOS. Things that, well, maybe should have been built into operating systems (and mostly now are). Norton could compress files, do file recovery, etc. The cash Symantec raised allowed them to acquire The Peter Norton Company in 1999 which would completely change the face of the company. This gave them development tools for PC and Mac as Norton had been building those. This lead to the introduction of Symantec Antivirus for the Macintosh and called the anti-virus for PC Norton Antivirus because people already trusted that name. Within two years, with the added sales and marketing air cover that the Symantec sales machine provided, the Norton group was responsible for 82% of Symantecs total revenues. So much so that Symantec dropped building Q&A because Microsoft was winning in their market. I remember this moment pretty poignantly. Sure, there were other apps for the Mac like Virex, and other apps for Windows, like McAfee. But the Norton tools were the gold standard. At least until they later got bloated. The next decade was fast, from the outside looking in, except when Symantec acquired Veritas in 2004. This made sense as Symantec had become a solid player in the security space and before the cloud, backup seemed somewhat related. I'd used Backup Exec for a long time and watched Veritas products go from awesome to, well, not as awesome. John Thompson was the CEO through that decade and Symantec grew rapidly - purchasing systems management solution Altiris in 2007 and got a Data Loss Prevention solution that year in Vontu. Application Performance Management, or APM wasn't very security focused so that business until was picked up by Vector Capital in 2008. They also picked up MessageLabs and AppStream in 2008. Enrique Salem replaced Thompson and Symantec bought Versign's CA business in 2010. If you remember from our encryption episode, that was already spun off of RSA. Certificates are security-focused. Email encryption tool PGP and GuardianEdge were also picked up in 2010 providing key management tools for all those, um, keys the CA was issuing. These tools were never integrated properly though. They also picked up Rulespace in 2010 to get what's now their content filtering solution. Symantec acquired LiveOffice in 2012 to get enterprise vault and instant messaging security - continuing to solidify the line of security products. They also acquired Odyssey Software for SCCM plugins to get better at managing embedded, mobile, and rugged devices. Then came Nukona to get a MAM product, also in 2012. During this time, Steve Bennett was hired as CEO and fired in 2014. Then Michael Brown, although in the interim Veritas was demerged in 2014 and as their products started getting better they were sold to The Carlyle Group in 2016 for $8B. Then Greg Clark became CEO in 2016, when Symantec purchased Blue Coat. Greg Clark then orchestrated the LifeLock acquisition for $2.3B of that $8B. Thoma Bravo then bought CA business to merge with DigiCert in 2017. Then in 2019 Rick Hill became CEO. Does this seem like a lot of buying and selling? It is. But it also isn't. If you look at what Symantec has done, they have a lot of things they can sell customers for various needs in the information security space. At times, they've felt like a holding company. But ever since the Norton acquisition, they've had very specific moves that continue to solidify them as one of the top security vendors in the space. Their sales teams don't spend six days a week on the road and go to six customers a day, but they have a sales machine. And the've managed to leverage that to get inside what we call the buying tornado of many emergent technologies and then sell the company before the tornado ends. They still have Norton, of course. Even though practically every other product in the portfolio has come and gone over the years. What does all of this mean? The Broadcom acquisition of the enterprise security division maybe tells us that Symantec is about to leverage that $10+ billion dollars to buy more software companies. And sell more companies after a little integration and incubation, then getting out of it before the ocean gets too red, the tech too stale, or before Microsoft sherlocks them. Because that's what they do. And they do it profitably every single time. We often think of how an acquiring company gets a new product - but next time you see a company buying another one, think about this: that company probably had multiple offers. What did the team at the company being acquired get out of this deal? And we'll work on that in the next episode, when we explore the history of Broadcom. Thank you for sticking with us through this episode of the History of Computing Podcast and have a great day!

Speaker Cables - What does High Quality Cost? I was going through some of my typical AV websites the other day and came upon an article at Electronic House about speaker wires and was very interested to see what a site for installers had to say about the subject.  We have been saying for years now that you should buy high quality cables to get the most out of your system. However, we have also been saying that high quality cables don't have to cost a lot of money.  We will examine the article, credited to EH Contributor, and give you our take. First assertion: Copper and silver are the two most common conductors used in speaker cables. Make sure the cable manufacturer is using high-purity conductors.  A quality speaker cable manufacturer should be able to tell you what purity level the conductors are that they're using to build the cable. This makes sense and from physics we know that copper is good, silver is better, and gold is really good! But if you want the BEST, you are talking platinum. For that, may we recommend the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 7 Speaker Cable New 7 Series? As one reviewer put it all that matters is sound. Two five meter cables will cost you a cool $40K! I recently decided to upgrade my audio system and decided that I needed a firm budget to keep costs under control and to avoid the temptation of overspending on products that are ridiculously overpriced. These cables fit the bill nicely. As I was about to put these in my cart, I had an existential crisis and thought that perhaps the $40k would be better spent on feeding, clothing, and housing an entire town of people in Africa. This only lasted a second however and I decided on the cables because really, the sound is all that matters in the end, am I right? Bravo Wireworld, bravo. All kidding aside,  you are looking for cables made out of copper. You will find some really cheap cable made out of copper clad aluminum CCA. Those will work just fine and the vast majority of people won't notice the difference between CCA and solid copper. Since solid copper wire is not expensive at all, we recommend going with solid copper wire. Second assertion: Quality cable manufacturers will typically braid conductors together to ensure the conductors aren't running parallel next to one another. By running parallel, they could be acting like an antenna, thus making them more susceptible to picking up radio-frequency interference (RFI) from cellphones, Wi-Fi or traditional radio signals. This is true! But only if you can hear frequencies well above what the typical human can hear. In reality at 20KHz there is less than .01 db difference. However, if you don't believe instrumented test results. Go ahead and buy braided cables. Just don't spend a lot of money. Here is an option that will set you back about $25 for a pair of 10 foot cables - Monoprice Affinity Premium 14AWG Braided Speaker Wire with Gold Plated Banana Plug Connectors. If monoprice scares you, SVS has some high quality braided cables that will set you back $100 for a pair (SoundPath Ultra Speaker Cable). Third assertion: A well engineered cable can be hampered by a poor quality connector. Make sure the speaker cable you're interested in has a well engineered design and is made of conductive materials such as copper and silver. It is OUR assertion that the statement is true. A poor quality connector will hamper the cable. It's also OUR assertion that a high quality connector will make the install clean and easy to connect. We choose to use banana plugs for convenience and aesthetic. However, there is no sound quality difference between bare wire and banana plugs.     Fourth assertion: Teflon is considered by most to be the best insulation for wire conductors. It is believed to have the least impact on the conductors.  However, there are other insulation materials out there that work well, so do your homework before choosing a cable purely because it has Teflon insulation. Let's assume that the “It is believed to have the least impact on the conductors” portion of the statement is true. That doesn't mean that PVC insulation is bad. In fact, the difference is negligible at best based on instrumented test results. This was a throw away assertion. The author then states “However, there are other insulation materials out there that work well, so do your homework before choosing a cable purely because it has Teflon insulation”. So why bother even making the assertion? At the end of the article the author makes three recommendations for speaker wire: AudioQuest Type 4 – $209.00 per 6' pair   www.AudioQuest.com Kimber Kable 8TC – $401.00 per 6' pair   www.Kimber.com Cardas Audio Iridium – $260.00 per 2m pair  www.Cardas.com Which we think are ridiculous! Nothing in this article changes our recommendation. Buy high quality wire but don't over pay. With that said here are some recommendations we have.   If you must have braided wire, and we don't think you need them, buy the monoprice wire we discussed earlier. For all other wire, these are our recommendations: Mediabridge 14AWG 2-Conductor Speaker Wire (100 Feet, White) - 99.9% Oxygen Free Copper - ETL Listed & CL2 Rated for In-Wall Use $29.99 for 100 feet of 14 gauge wire. C&E 100 Feet 14AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Loud Speaker Cable (For In-Wall Installation) $26.95 for 100 feet of 14 gauge wire. Monoprice 102821 250-Feet 14AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Loud Speaker Cable $64.58 for 250 feet of 14 gauge wire. We also recommend buying some banana plugs to make installs easier and cleaner: Sewell Direct SW-29863-12 Deadbolt Banana Plugs, 12-Pair $23.95  

On VPLive Vape Team Episode #86: "Take Back Your Vape", It's not to late for us to fight the negative public attack on electronic cigarettes and vaping. We also have video from our tour of the Epic Juice lab in California. In the “Vaping News” ,vaping apparently leads to amputated limbs… we explain! In the “New Vapers Corner” James breaks down the Copper Mod and Dimitri gives us his take on the INNOKIN iTaste VTR. Bit.ly Bookmarks Bundle for this show, links to everything we talked about, including Vapemeets: http://bit.ly/vt86links Have a Roku Box? Want to watch the Vape Team on it? Check this out: http://youtu.be/2YZOwa_DiIc We are now broadcasting on YouTube Live! Check out the show stream on Wednesday nights! Shoutouts: Thanks to Kevin from Vapersplace for coming on to discuss his plan to get a PR firm to tell our side of the story. If you have any questions, suggestions, donations, or want to name his organization e-mail info@vapersplace.com If you are in the New York City area please help Russ from ClickBang! Radio defeat proposed e-cog legislation. Plan to attend a health committee meeting on October 30th or make your voice heard: http://bit.ly/defendnycvaping Find your daily action plan to take action and protect vaping. http://vapersplace.com/takeaction Videos: Dr Ross' Forbes op ed: Why Smokers are shielded from good news about e cigarettes? http://bit.ly/drrossoped Dampfermesse 2013 http://bit.ly/19GJ2dm Vaping News: Seeing the effects of Tobacco Smoke and Ecig Vapor on Heart Cells http://bit.ly/17uKZYd Vaping News: V2 Full Page Ad in the New York Times http://bit.ly/v2nytad Rochester D&C: E-cigarettes will burn users in the long run http://bit.ly/legsfalloff WAVY 10: E-cigarette regulation debate heats up http://bit.ly/wavyecigs Forbes: Why Is The FDA Shielding Smokers From The Good News About E-Cigarettes? http://onforb.es/17sKyxA CNBC: E-cig sellers jockey for market position before FDA issues regulations http://bit.ly/cnbcecigs E-Cig Research: Evaluation of the cytotoxic potential of e-cigarette vapor on cultured cardiac cells: a new study http://bit.ly/drfpublished The New Vapers Corner: The Copperhead from Johnboy (of Lavatanks fame) http://on.fb.me/H549x1 The Innokin iTaste VTR http://www.innokin.com Find more information about the Vape Team at: Our Website: http://www.vapeteam.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vapeteam Google+: http://gplus.to/vapeteam Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/vapeteam DISCLAIMER: VPLive Vape Team is an opinion based video talk show and podcast about the vaping and electronic cigarette community. As such, all views and opinions expressed herein, regardless of authorship, do not represent the views or opinions of any presenter's employer or people, institutions or organizations that the presenter may or may not be related to or affiliated with unless explicitly stated otherwise. All contributors on VPLive Vape Team are non paid, independent vapers, or when specifically stated, representatives of electronic cigarette vendors. The only purpose of this program is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This program is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. Instead, we encourage you to discuss your options with your healthcare provider. This podcast is intended to be viewed by adults of legal smoking age. It is not intended for viewers under the age of 18. Full Disclosure: CJ, the Vaping Monkey, is the owner of VapingMonkey.com and VaperVenue, a web and brick and mortar vaping shop based in Southern California (http://www.vapervenue.com)