Podcasts about calculate

Retirement isn't an age. It's a number. The problem is most people don't know theirs.Many people spend years working toward financial freedom without ever defining what freedom actually looks like. In this episode of the Exit Strategies Radio Show, Corwyn J. Melette sits down with real estate investor, entrepreneur, and host of The Personal Finance Podcast, Andrew Giancola, to discuss the financial foundations that support sustainable wealth, smart investing, and long-term freedom.Andrew shares why successful investors don't just focus on finding deals—they focus on building a strong financial framework that can withstand life's unexpected challenges. From understanding your Freedom Number to managing risk, building reserves, controlling emotions, and creating a strategy for generational wealth, this conversation provides practical guidance for homeowners, aspiring homeowners, and investors alike.If you're looking to make smarter financial decisions, protect your equity, and create opportunities for future generations, this episode delivers a roadmap for building wealth the right way.Key Takeaways:• 04:35 – Why every investor needs to know their Freedom Number• 06:27 – How emotions influence financial and investment decisions• 08:20 – Building an emergency fund using the One-Three-Six Method• 10:50 – Why sustainability matters more than acquisition• 13:39 – Common rental property analysis mistakes• 17:35 – Diversifying wealth-building strategies• 20:25 – Understanding passive real estate investing opportunities• 22:05 – Managing debt while continuing to build wealth• 24:10 – The Financial Freedom Stack framework• 26:15 – Creating generational wealth through intentional planningLegacy Building Takeaway:I am gonna be the first person in my family to build generational wealth... You can change your family's financial life."  Andrew GiancolaConnect with Andrew:Website:https://mastermoney.co/Master Money Academy: joinmastermoneyacademy.comSocial: @mastermoneycoConnect with Corwyn:Contact Number: 843-619-3005Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/⁠FB Page:⁠ https://www.facebook.com/exitstrategiessc/⁠Youtube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA⁠Website:⁠ https://www.exitstrategiesradioshow.com⁠Linkedin:⁠ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/⁠Shoutout to our Sponsor: Mellifund Capital, LLCNeed funding for your next real estate flip or build? MelliFund Capital makes it fast, flexible, and investor-friendly. Visit MelliFundCapital.com and fund your future today. Again, that's MelliFundCapital.com, M-E-L-L-I-L-U-N-D, Capital.com.

You've spent years building your business. But what if you've already crossed the finish line — and nobody told you?Most business owners spend their entire careers trying to reach financial freedom. But there's a specific, calculable threshold — called The Freedom Point — where the net proceeds from selling your business would fund the rest of your life without financial worry. And the uncomfortable truth is: a lot of owners have already crossed it. They're still grinding, still taking on risk, still saying "five more years" — without realizing they've technically already won.In this episode, CFP® David Chudyk breaks down The Freedom Point framework, walks through the exact math to calculate yours, and explains why so many smart, successful business owners stay past it without a plan — and what that costs them.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeWhat The Freedom Point is — and the precise formula to calculate itWhy your business growing could actually be increasing your financial risk (not reducing it)The "4 D's" that can destroy business value overnight — and why none of them care about your timelineHow to figure out if you've already crossed your Freedom Point using a 7-step frameworkWhat your options are once you've crossed it (hint: selling isn't the only one)The three psychological traps that keep smart owners grinding past the point of financial freedomWhy "one more year" syndrome might be the most expensive story you're telling yourselfEpisode Timestamps[0:00] — Cold Open: What if you've already won?[2:00] — What is The Freedom Point?[6:00] — Meet Tim: The business owner with 80% concentration risk[11:00] — The 4 D's: Death, Disability, Divorce, Departure[15:00] — How to calculate your own Freedom Point (7-step framework)[20:00] — What to do when you've crossed the line: 4 options[24:00] — Why smart owners stay too long: Identity, One More Year Syndrome, Fear of Irrelevance[28:00] — The free tool to calculate your Freedom Point todayThe Freedom Point FormulaThe Freedom Point is reached when:(Value of Outside Investments) + (Net Proceeds from Business Sale) > (Desired Annual Income × 33)Here's how to run it yourself:Step 1: Estimate the annual income that would make you feel completely financially freeStep 2: Multiply by 33 (based on a conservative 3% withdrawal rate)Step 3: Calculate your wealth outside your business — investments, rental properties, brokerage accounts (not your primary residence)Step 4: Get a realistic business valuation estimateStep 5: Subtract the frictional cost of selling — taxes, broker commissions (~10–12%), legal fees (~2%)Step 6: Add back any long-term business debt you'd need to pay off at closingStep 7: If Steps 3 + 5 exceed Step 2, you've reached The Freedom PointExample: If you want $150,000/year of income, you need $4.95M in total investable assets. If your business would net $4M after selling costs and you have $1M outside the business — you've crossed it.The 4 D's Every Business Owner Needs to KnowThese four events can destroy business value overnight — and none of them are in your control:Divorce — Especially devastating when both spouses work in the business or when business value becomes contested in settlementDeparture — A key partner, co-founder, or critical employee leaves, triggering buy-sell agreements and operational disruptionDisability — You become unable to work; most disability policies protect income, not business valueDeath — Your beneficiaries inherit a business they don't know how to run, often resulting in forced sales at the worst possible timeWhy Smart Owners Stay Past The Freedom PointThe math alone doesn't explain why successful business owners keep grinding after they've technically won. David breaks down three psychological forces:Identity: When the business is who you are, the idea of stepping back feels like erasing yourself — not a financial decision at allOne More Year Syndrome: The goal line keeps moving. $2M becomes $3M becomes $5M. Every milestone reveals the next one. The exit that was "five years away" has been five years away for fifteen years.Fear of Irrelevance: The quiet one. Not afraid of selling — afraid of what comes after. Who are you without the title, the team, and the 8am calendar?"The biggest threat to your financial freedom isn't market risk. It's the story you're telling yourself about who you are without the business."Your Options Once You've Crossed The Freedom PointSell a Minority Stake — Take chips off the table while keeping control; often done with private equity in a minority recapitalizationSell a Majority Stake — Significant liquidity event now, keep some equity, continue running the business under new ownershipEarn-Out Exit — Full sale with a 1–3 year transition; ideal if you're ready to step back in the next three to five yearsStay and Build Around the Risk — Keep building, but do it intentionally: key person insurance, a funded buy-sell, disability coverage, and a real succession planCalculate Your Freedom Point — Free ToolDon't guess where you stand. Take the free Personal Readiness to Exit assessment — it walks you through the exact Freedom Point calculation in about 10 minutes and shows you a real number.→ Take the Free Assessment at weeklywealthpodcast.com/prescoreRather talk it through with someone? Book a free 20-minute strategy call:→ Book a Vision Call at weeklywealthpodcast.com/visionQuotable Moments"What if you've already won — and you're still playing like you haven't?""Before The Freedom Point, risk is how you build. After it, risk is how you lose what you've already built.""Tim diversifies his 401(k) like a pro. But 80% of his net worth is a single, illiquid, non-publicly-traded asset. That's not diversification. That's concentration in a tuxedo.""One more year syndrome feels responsible. But what it often is — if we're honest — is a way of avoiding a decision you're not emotionally ready to make.""The Freedom Point isn't a feeling. It's a formula. And once you run the math, you can't unsee what it shows you."Who This Episode Is ForThis episode is essential listening if you are:A business owner with a company worth $1M or more wondering if you're "there yet" financiallyAn entrepreneur approaching your 50s who hasn't run a real exit planning calculationA high earner whose business represents more than 50% of your total net worthAnyone who has said "I'll sell when the business hits $X" — and then moved the goalpostA spouse or partner of a business owner trying to understand the financial risk your household is carryingResources & Related EpisodesPersonal Readiness to Exit (Prescore) — Free AssessmentVision Call — Free 20-Minute Strategy SessionSellability Score — Free Business Valuation AssessmentRelated: Ep. 264 — Is Your CPA Only Looking in the Rearview Mirror? (tax planning before a sale matters enormously)Related: Ep. 265 — This Is Exactly Who You've Been Looking For (David's background and advisory approach)About David Chudyk, CFP®David Chudyk is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, CLTC, and Certified ValueBuilder Advisor with nearly two decades of experience working with business owners and high-net-worth individuals. He is the founder and host of the Weekly Wealth Podcast and a fiduciary advisor with Parallel Financial, LLC. David specializes in helping business owners align their personal financial plans with their business exit strategies — so they can make the biggest financial decision of their lives with clarity and confidence.weeklywealthpodcast.comThe Weekly Wealth Podcast is produced by Parallel Financial, LLC, a registered investment advisor. All content is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. All examples, including "Tim," are hypothetical illustrations only. Consult a qualified financial advisor before making any financial decisions. Investment advisory services offered through Parallel Financial, LLC.

In this solo episode, host Alex Pardo gives a candid update on Dan's journey to buy his first self-storage facility — a deal that had strong market demographics, favorable bank financing, and real value-add upside, until one buried spreadsheet assumption changed everything. This episode is a real-world lesson in self-storage underwriting, revenue ramp-up timelines, and what it actually costs to miss a detail in your deal filter. If you're working toward your first storage deal and want to understand how to stress-test your numbers before it's too late, this episode will save you from making the same costly mistake Dan made.   You'll Learn How To: Understand why storage revenue doesn't move like a light switch after acquisition Identify the ramp-up period tab in your deal filter and how to use it correctly Calculate how many net move-ins per month is realistic for your market Stress-test your debt service coverage ratio before presenting a deal to a bank Negotiate from a shoulder-to-shoulder position with sellers when deals need restructuring Recognize when a deal that looks good on paper is missing a critical timeline assumption Surround yourself with a community that can catch what your spreadsheet can't   What You'll Learn in This Episode [0:00] Dan's deal looked solid until one buried assumption flipped everything [0:32] Alex introduces Season 2 and Dan's journey from unemployed to first-time storage buyer [1:09] Why Dan wasn't excited when he finally got under contract — and what that reveals [1:45] Why celebrating each step matters even when you've been burned before [2:06] The market fundamentals Dan liked: demographics, income, population growth [2:31] The bank terms that made the deal attractive — 5.29% fixed for 5 years or 5.99% for 10 [3:05] A cautionary tale: a well-known investor who lost $15 million when rates adjusted on a $70M multifamily deal [4:13] Why Alex jumped on an impromptu Zoom to review Dan's underwriting spreadsheet [4:33] How Storage Wins community member Casey McKillop saved $100,000 on his first offer [6:02] The specific tab Dan wasn't reading correctly — net move-ins and the ramp-up period [7:07] The real issue: Dan assumed revenue would jump from $170K to $210K overnight [7:51] It would take Dan 10 months to reach profitability — and he wasn't prepared to fund it [8:09] The bank pulled out after reviewing the deal more closely [8:59] How to explain debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) to sellers and why 1.25–1.3 matters [10:14] The lesson: growth comes from adversity, and Dan won't make this mistake again   Who This Episode Is For: First-time storage investors preparing to make their first offer Investors who have been under contract before and had deals fall through Anyone underwriting a value-add storage deal and projecting a quick revenue bump Buyers who haven't stress-tested their debt service coverage ratio Entrepreneurs who know the numbers but need a second set of eyes on their assumptions Storage investors trying to understand how ramp-up timelines affect deal viability   Why You Should Listen: Dan's deal had everything going for it on the surface — strong demographics, committed bank financing, and a clear path to raising rents. But one overlooked tab in the deal filter spreadsheet showed that revenue wouldn't jump overnight. It would take ten months to reach profitability, and Dan hadn't budgeted for that gap. That single assumption blew up the DSCR, the bank walked, and a deal that looked ready to close came apart fast. This episode isn't about what went wrong. It's about what you can learn before it happens to you. Alex walks through the exact mistake — projecting revenue as a light switch rather than a ramp — and explains why having a community to stress-test your deal before you go under contract is worth more than almost anything else in this business. The most expensive education is experience. But it doesn't have to be yours. Dan learned this lesson so you don't have to.   Follow Alex Pardo here: Storage Wins Website: https://www.storagewins.com Book a Discovery Call: https://www.storagewins.com/call Storage Wins Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/storagewins Instagram: @alexpardo25 YouTube: Storage Wins   If this episode hit home, share it with someone who's currently underwriting a self-storage deal or about to make their first offer. One conversation, one extra set of eyes on a spreadsheet, can be the difference between a great deal and an expensive lesson. Follow Storage Wins on your favorite podcast platform, and leave a rating and review — it helps more investors find the show. Ready to move from learning to owning? Head to https://www.storagewins.com/call and schedule your free ten-minute discovery call with Alex. Your first storage facility is closer than you think. Join the Storage Wins Facebook Group and connect with investors who are in the trenches just like you. The community is free, the knowledge is real, and the next deal could come from a conversation you haven't had yet.

Most independent practice owners know the practice and their personal life are supposed to be separate. Separate entities, separate accounts, separate tax returns. Almost none of them have built the structural separation that makes that true when things get hard. EP185 covers the three systems that explain why one bad quarter in the practice becomes a personal financial event, and the firewall that stops it. System 1 — The Entanglement: No formal salary. No distribution schedule. Whatever is left in the business account goes home with the owner. In a good month: $40,000. Mortgage, 529, investment contribution. In a bad month: $14,000, covered with personal savings. The savings account does not come back as fast as the practice does. System 2 — The Bad Quarter Multiplier: The cascade that runs from a billing disruption straight through to the owner's personal financial decisions. Collections drop. Distribution skipped. Mortgage still goes out. Investment contribution paused. Operational decisions made under financial stress — delay the hire, pull back on marketing, hold off on the software upgrade that would have fixed the billing gap that caused the problem. That practice is always one bad quarter away from making decisions a wealthier version of itself would never make. The Cascade in Numbers: Payer delays 45+ days → Operating account drops → Owner stops paying themselves first Denial rate spikes 5% to 14% → $28K/month delayed or lost → Personal savings tapped for household bills Key provider unexpected leave → Volume drops 30% → No distribution for 60 days Contract renegotiation stalls → 90 days cash flow uncertainty → Investment contributions paused indefinitely System 3 — The Firewall: A market-rate owner salary that does not move with revenue. A distribution schedule tied to net profit after a defined reserve threshold. Personal savings that build independent of what the practice has on hand. In a bad quarter: the salary still goes out, the distribution pauses, and the operational decisions come from strategy instead of personal financial pressure. Referenced: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz — the formula flip that makes the firewall mechanical. Three actions this week: Calculate your real owner salary — what you would pay someone else to do your job Define your operating reserve threshold — one month of payroll minimum, two months standard Schedule a financial separation review with your accountant — ask what a 30% revenue drop does to your personal finances Episode breakdown: 00:00 The $380K practice that one quarter turns 03:00 The big idea: revenue is not wealth 06:00 System 1: The Entanglement 10:30 Working vs. broken — the same practice, two outcomes 13:30 System 2: The Bad Quarter Multiplier 17:00 The cascade and what it actually costs 20:00 System 3: The Firewall 24:30 Profit First applied to a medical practice 27:00 Three actions this week 31:00 Free resource + EP185 tease Resources Mentioned Payment Posting Audit Checklist (free): eligibility.natrevmd.com/payment-posting-checklist Practice Revenue Leak Scorecard (free): eligibility.natrevmd.com/nrm-revenue-scorecard-v3 Book a free 30-minute audit call: calendly.com/heather-natrevmd RECOVER Diagnostic Quiz: natrevmd.com/quiz Book referenced: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 

The Bank of Canada decides on June 10, and last week's jobs report may have just taken the rate cut you were budgeting for offthe table. Canada added 88,000 jobs in May against a forecast of 10,000, and bond yields jumped on the news. In this one Ibreak down what that actually does to fixed vs variable, why a strong economy makes your fixed rate more expensive, and how to plan your renewal around it.

Most investors lose to the market because they're trying to pick winners in a game where only 4% of stocks have created 100% of market wealth over the past century. The math isn't in your favor—but there's a simpler path that is. Key Topics Discussed Introduction to FI 201 (00:00:00) Jonathan introduces the concept of Financial Independence 201, explaining how it builds on FI 101 to help individuals progress from control to optimization and independence on their FI journey. The Genesis of FI 201 (00:05:30) Allen and Kristen explain how they identified the need for a 201-level presentation based on questions emerging from their St. Louis FI 101 sessions, particularly around investing concepts. Asset Allocation Fundamentals (00:15:00) Allen breaks down asset allocation as 'your money pie,' discussing how to balance growth, safety, and emergency funds while considering time horizons and diversification strategies. Risk Tolerance vs Risk Capacity (00:22:00) The team explores the critical difference between emotional risk tolerance and actual risk capacity, using examples from 2008 and 2020 market crashes to illustrate real-world application. Tax-Advantaged Account Strategies (00:35:00) Allen and Brad discuss the various tax treatments of investment accounts including 401(k)s, 457(b)s, Roth IRAs, HSAs, and taxable brokerage accounts, emphasizing lifetime tax optimization. Individual Stocks vs Index Funds (00:48:00) The hosts examine the data on individual stock picking, revealing that only 4% of stocks have contributed to 100% of market wealth over the past century, making a strong case for index investing. Dividends and Tax Control (00:55:00) Brad and Allen discuss why the FI community often prefers capital gains over dividend income, focusing on the importance of maintaining control over when and how you realize taxable events. Notable Quotes "You can't save your way to FI, you have to invest." — Allen Hansen "When there's a dip, you essentially get to buy the market on sale. If you love a bargain, this is it." — Brad Barrett "Why in the world do we not think that way when it comes to the market? Our brain completely flips. We're like, ah, we're scared." — Kristen Knapp "It's not what's my tax this year. It is what is going to be my tax burden over my lifetime." — Brad Barrett "The best investing lesson: stand there and do nothing. If you're invested, just don't do anything and you're going to be rewarded." — Allen Hansen Key Takeaways Assess your own risk tolerance and risk capacity honestly by considering how you would react to a 30% portfolio drop Review your current asset allocation across all accounts and determine if it aligns with your time horizon and financial goals Calculate the difference between your marginal and effective tax rates to understand your true tax burden Identify which tax-advantaged accounts you have access to (401k, 457b, 403b, HSA, IRA) and ensure you're maximizing employer matches Track every dollar of taxable income if you're on ACA subsidies or approaching any subsidy cliffs to avoid losing benefits Consider whether you have the right balance between taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts for maximum flexibility in retirement Join or start a local FI group to benefit from community wisdom and learn from others at different stages of the journey Review your portfolio for dividend-heavy investments and consider whether you'd prefer more control over when you realize taxable events Resources & Links FI Friends Travel The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins Tax Planning to and Through Early Retirement by Sean Mullaney and Cody Garrett ChooseFI Community App St. Louis FI Group BlackBerry Documentary (Netflix) Arizona State University Stock Market Wealth Study Brian Feroldi (individual stock investing advocate) Investopedia

Six years after our “Score preparation and production notes” episode — Episode No. 2 — essentially launched the podcast, 163 episodes later, Philip Rothman and David MacDonald return to the article that inspired the conversation: David’s score preparation checklist. The principles — respect for performers, readable parts, enough time for page turns — are as true as ever. But almost every specific tool reference in the original has a fuller story now. The conversation moves section by section, serving as a reminder of the timeless principles and exploring all of the meaningful changes in the technology. Dorico’s live-reference cue system has become the standard no one else has matched — and the ease of it has quietly changed how generously cues get applied. The Dorico 6 Proofreading panel represents a new category of preparation tool, while the Sibelius plugin ecosystem has its own parallel answers. The condensing and decondensing workflows now available in both Dorico and Sibelius 2025.2 have transformed what was once among the most tedious jobs in parts preparation, and Sibelius 2025.7’s Auto-Respace toggle closes a gap that used to just be accepted. Two sections are entirely new to the checklist: digital delivery — where the iPad has become as common in rehearsal as a music stand — and a pointed look at the file-organization habits that make or break a delivery package. This one’s chock-full of tips, resources and advice — with David’s updated accompanying article to come soon. Products mentioned Notation software Dorico (Steinberg) Sibelius (Avid) MuseScore Studio (Muse Group) Finale (MakeMusic) (mentioned as discontinued) Fonts MusGlyphs (available at Notation Central) NYC Music Services / Notation Central PDF Batch Utilities Desktop publishing and document tools Affinity (Canva) (now free) Apple Pages Microsoft Word LibreOffice Other tools mentioned Claude Cowork (Anthropic) (mentioned for AI-assisted file organization) Name Mangler / Renamer (mentioned briefly for file naming) forScore (mentioned as a score-reading app) Previous Scoring Notes posts and podcast episodes Directly mentioned or closely related: Score preparation and production Notes (David’s original 2018 article) Score preparation and production checklist (Episode 2, 2020) Partying with parts, part 1 (podcast, December 2021) Partying with parts, part 2 (podcast, December 2021) Orchestra librarians want you to know about parts paper sizes (May 3, 2022) Orchestra librarians want you to know about instrument names (June 20, 2022) Behind “Behind Bars” with Elaine Gould (podcast, July 2023) Behind Bars: General Conventions edition published (June 2023) Dorico 6: Proof positive (review, April 2025 — Proofreading Panel) Dorico 6.0.22 extends proofreading capabilities (July 2025 — ignore feature) Sibelius 2025.7 brings note spacing control, UI updates (July 2025 — Auto-Respace) Sibelius 2025.2 introduces decondensing parts with staff filters (February 2025) Sibelius 2022.5 brings multi-section headers, other workflow boosts (May 2022) MusGlyphs: an advanced music text font (April 2021) PDF Batch Utilities get a major rebuild — and a brand new app (March 2026) Freshly pressed (podcast, April 2026 — PDF Batch Utilities in depth) Calculate the weight, basis weight, or grammage of paper (April 2025) Chronology of a perfect music printing job (January 2022) DJA’s Notes: Music preparation basics (Darcy James Argue, September 2023) Documenting the documenter: Lillie Harris (podcast, April 2021 — Dorico manual) David MacDonald’s updated Score Preparation and Production Notes article Other references Elaine Gould, Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation (Faber Music) — cues: p. 566; front matter: chapter 17, pp. 501–504 Elaine Gould, Behind Bars: General Conventions (Faber Music) — the first third of Behind Bars as a standalone paperback and e-book MOLA Guide (Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association) — free PDF download Sibelius plugins page (still active at sibelius.com) Darcy James Argue, Music Preparation Fundamentals for Jazz Composers & Arrangers — free download Darcy James Argue, Music Preparation for the Large Jazz Ensemble — free download (supplement to the above)

You're caught between two terrors: gaining weight and staying exactly where you are forever. You've spent years in a disordered mind with disordered thoughts creating disordered behaviors. You'll do anything to break free, but you're trying to HAVE recovery while still BEING the trapped version of yourself. Today we're flipping the script with the Be-Do-Have formula that makes recovery inevitable. In this transformational episode, you'll discover: Why most people have recovery backwards (and why it keeps them stuck) The science-backed Be-Do-Have formula that doubles success rates How to BE recovered before you feel recovered The identity shift that changes everything automatically Why staying where you are is actually scarier than changing How to stop starving for your old life and start living as your new self For the woman ready to stop settling for survival and start choosing to thrive. THE BACKWARDS APPROACH THAT KEEPS YOU STUCK Most people think: "When I HAVE food freedom, then I'll DO recovery behaviors, then I'll BE recovered." Research from Stephen Covey and modern neuroscience proves this backwards. The truth: You must BE the person you want to become, DO what she does, then you'll HAVE what you want. Dr. James Clear's identity research shows: People who say "I am someone who nourishes my body" have 40% higher success rates than those who say "I want to eat better." THE BE-DO-HAVE FORMULA IN RECOVERY BE: The woman who trusts her body completely DO: Eat without negotiation, rest without guilt, take up space HAVE: Food freedom, body peace, mental clarity BE: The woman who values nourishment over control DO: Choose pasta at dinner, have birthday cake, skip gym when tired HAVE: Energy, joy, presence in your own life The scary part: You start BEING her before you feel ready, before you see results, before it feels natural. THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE FORMULA

In episode 186 of 'On the Whorizon' SWCEO founder and host MelRose Michaels walks through the 5 retention metrics every OnlyFans creator should know how to calculate (churn rate, retention rate, average subscriber lifetime, lifetime value and net revenue retention), exactly where on OnlyFans the data lives, the math for each one using realistic creator numbers, the benchmarks for what's healthy versus what's a flag, and the 3 retention levers that actually move churn.

Can you calculate exactly how many calories, carbohydrates, vitamins, and nutrients your body needs every day?   In this episode, Shelley breaks down why nutrition recommendations are estimates rather than exact prescriptions. Learn how metabolism, stress, sleep, movement, and bioindividuality influence nutrition needs, and why overall patterns matter more than precise calculations. Read More: Can You Calculate Exactly What Your Body Needs? (And Why It's Not That Simple)

Hospitals already have felt some of the effects of the Inflation Reduction Act on 340B savings, but with the IRA set to expand to more drugs in 2027, hospitals also are starting to project how it might affect their bottom lines next year. 340B Vice President of Pharmacy Services and Education Steven Miller joins us to explain how hospitals can be making those projections now.The IRA Will Expand to Another 15 DrugsNext year, an additional 15 drugs will be subject to Medicare price caps under Medicare Part D on top of the 10 drugs that saw caps this year. Steve says this will cut into 340B savings and overall margins even more — with some 340B discounts possibly dropping to their statutory minimums. These reductions also will translate to commercial and cash-pay dispenses, changing the overall financial outlook for hospitals.Hospitals Cannot Rely on Current 340B Savings Levels for 2027Steve says the 2027 changes are key for future budgeting. If hospitals do not adjust how they are budgeting for 340B drugs subject to Medicare price caps, they are likely to be short on their budget projections. He strongly recommends 340B teams have important conversations with finance teams now about how the IRA will affect their hospital or health system next year.Hospitals Can Be Planning NowFor the rest of 2026, Steve recommends hospitals monitor list pricing and 340B ceiling pricing regularly and to increase monitoring of purchases overall, given how drugmaker pricing behavior affects future 340B prices and savings. As the IRA continues to broaden over the next several years, including to Medicare Part B dispenses, he also recommends hospitals consider securing funding or support from other areas for any 340B-funded services that might see negative IRA impacts.Resources:Prepare Your Leadership for 340B Changes From 2027 Medicare Drug Price Caps

All this week we're looking at AI and the potential role it will play in the lives of our children and teens. Specifically, were looking at some conclusions made by the Brookings Institution in their new report titled, “A New Direction for Students in an AI World: Prosper, Prepare, Protect.” The report offers a framework for schools and families to consider related to their main findings on AI. Researchers looked at potential negative risks, along with how to prevent those risks while maximizing the potential benefits of AI. Researchers are telling us as parents, educators, and youth workers to be very careful and to move slowly, as the risks of AI overshadow the benefits. They report that AI can enrich the learning experience when safety guardrails are erected and caution is taken to ensure that AI content is accurate. In addition, over-reliance on AI can put our children's learning capacity, relationships, and well-being at risk. Parents, exercise oversight and caution.

Retirement planning does not stop when you reach your savings goal. The next challenge is figuring out how to turn those savings into dependable retirement income. In this episode, David Shotwell and Nick Nauta discuss retirement income planning for Michigan State University employees, including how to estimate spending needs, structure withdrawals, evaluate Social Security timing, and think about taxes in retirement. Topics covered: Determining retirement spending needs Understanding income sources in retirement Creating withdrawal strategies from retirement accounts Evaluating Social Security timing decisions TIAA Traditional income considerations Tax planning around retirement withdrawals Common mistakes retirees make Helpful resources: Retirement Spending Worksheet Related episodes: Tax Planning Episode:S4E18 – What to Know About Taxes in Retirement Social Security Planning:Ep 116: Getting Real About Social Security Contact SRB today at 517-321-4832 or email us at info@srbadvisors.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel for more bite-sized financial and retirement tips: https://www.youtube.com/@shotwellrutterbaer The post S5E11 – How to Calculate Your Retirement Income appeared first on Shotwell Rutter Baer.

Are you running an accounting practice that relies entirely on your own personal production, or have you built a scalable business that can exist independently of you? For accounting firm owners, managing partners, and CPAs starting firms, understanding how to shift from manual operations to an acquirable business model is the ultimate goal. In this episode of Growing Your Firm, host David Cristello sits down with Joe Manganelli, the former founder and CEO of Calculate. Joe shares his incredible journey of launching, scaling, and successfully selling his outsourced CFO and accounting firm in under seven years. He pulls back the curtain on his aggressive top-line growth strategies, pricing models, and how he scaled his team to nearly 45 headcounts with zero outside funding. In this episode, we explore: - The Bootstrapped Blueprint: How Joe scaled Calculate to a $10M run rate without taking on venture capital or outside investment. - Top-Line Growth vs. Profitability: The strategic decisions behind running a high-growth firm (averaging 75%+ year-over-year) with modest margins. - Frictionless Client Acquisition: Transitioning from exhausting networking events to building a highly efficient, inbound B2B referral network. - The "Experienced" Hiring Strategy: Why your first operations managers and team members should have more experience than you do to truly offload workflow responsibilities. - The Reality of M&A: What the modern sale structure looks like for accounting firms, from equity rollovers to earnouts and transition periods.  

What if you could sit across from 10 of the most successful entrepreneurs alive, ask them one money question, and actually get a straight answer? No fluff, no sales pitch, just the real stuff. That's exactly what I did, and honestly, what came out of it might change the way you think about money forever. This episode is a mashup of some of the most powerful financial wisdom I've ever collected on The Happy Hustle Podcast. Over time, I asked 10 incredible guests two simple questions. What does happy hustling mean to you? And what's your best money hack? We're talking Dr. Myron Golden, John Lee Dumas, Dan Martell, Rory Vaden, Danette May, Garrett Gunderson, Nathan Barry, Kris Krohn, Pat Flynn, and Kiana Danial. Nine figure founders, New York Times bestselling authors, Hall of Fame speakers, and real estate moguls. I pulled all their answers together, distilled them down, and found something I honestly didn't even expect to find. Three clear money patterns that every single one of them follows. Whether you're still grinding through your first income stream or you're already running a business and wondering why the wealth still feels out of reach, this one is going to hit different. The first big lesson that kept showing up was this: stop trading time for money. My brother Myron Golden put it simply. Price your offer by the value of the result, not the hours it takes. Dan Martell added another layer with his buyback rate concept. Figure out what your time is worth per hour, then ruthlessly outsource everything below that number. CKris Krohn brought it home with real estate, reminding us that renters fund landlords and employees fund employers. The point? Your income needs to be detached from your hours. That's the whole game. The second lesson is build once and earn forever. Pat Flynn, Nathan Barry, Rory Vaden, and my girl Danette May all circled around this same idea in their own way. Build an audience. Build a flywheel. Build a personal brand with your reputation as the foundation. Danette laid it out beautifully. One book becomes a course, becomes a coaching program, becomes a product line. Your story is the asset woven through all of it. And as Rory said, reputation precedes revenue. In a world where AI can replicate almost any skill, your name and your story are the one thing that can't be copied. The third lesson is that cash flow is king and identity is queen. Garrett Gunderson said it clearly. Cash flow beats net worth. Invest in assets that pay you monthly. Kiana Danial backed this up with a deceptively simple move, dollar cost averaging into the market every single month without fail. The reason most people aren't building wealth isn't a lack of access. It's a lack of consistency. Buy, hold, repeat. Here's what I want you to walk away with. Five moves you can make right now. Calculate your buyback rate, which is your annual income divided by roughly 2000 hours, then stop spending time on anything below that number. Reprice at least one offer based on the value it delivers, not the hours it took you. Add one cash flowing asset this quarter, whether that's real estate, dividend stocks, or a digital product. Pick one platform, show up weekly for 90 days straight, no exceptions, and start building that audience flywheel. And start dollar cost averaging today, even if it's just a hundred bucks a month into an index fund. The automation takes the emotion out of it completely. This episode is short on theory and long on action. If you're serious about financial freedom and you want to hear the full wisdom from each of these incredible conversations, go listen to the full episode right now at https://caryjack.com/podcastin/. Now get out there and happy hustle. Connect with Cary!https://www.instagram.com/caryjack/https://www.facebook.com/SirCaryJackhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cary-jack-kendzior/https://twitter.com/thehappyhustlehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFDNsD59tLxv2JfEuSsNMOQ/featured Get a copy of his new book, https://www.thehappyhustle.com/book Sign up for The Journey: 10 Days To Become a Happy Hustler Online Course @ https://thehappyhustle.com/thejourney/ Apply to the Montana Mastermind Epic Camping Adventure @ https://thehappyhustle.com/mastermind/ “It's time to Happy Hustle, a blissfully balanced life you love, full of passion, purpose, and positive impact!” Episode Sponsors: If you're feeling stressed, not sleeping great, or your energy's been kinda meh lately—let me put you on to something that's been a total game-changer for me: Magnesium Breakthrough by BiOptimizers. This ain't your average magnesium—it's got all 7 essential forms that your body needs to chill out, sleep deeper, and feel more balanced. I take it every night and legit notice the difference the next day. No more waking up groggy or tossing and turning all night If you're ready to sleep like a baby, calm your nervous system, and optimize your recovery, go grab yours now at https://www.bioptimizers.com/happy and use code HAPPY10 for 10% OFF. =================================================================== My Green Mattress If you've been waking up with back pain, feeling stiff, or just not getting that deep, quality sleep. This might be what you're missing: My Green Mattress. It's made with clean, non-toxic, and eco-friendly materials, so you're not just sleeping better, you're sleeping healthier too. The comfort and support are on another level, and you can really feel the difference night after night. If you're ready to invest in better sleep and better recovery, check it out at https://thehappyhustle.com/mygreenmattress =================================================================== Ozlo Sleep If you've been struggling to fall asleep, stay asleep, or just wake up feeling actually rested, let me put you on to something that's been a total game-changer: Ozlo Sleep. These aren't your typical sleep buds. They're designed to block out noise and help your brain fully relax, so you can drift off faster and stay in deep, uninterrupted sleep. Perfect if you're a light sleeper or just want that next-level rest. If you're ready to upgrade your sleep and wake up feeling recharged, check out https://ozlosleep.com and save $80 OFF using code HAPPY.

Send us Fan MailShownotes can be found at https://www.profitwithlaw.com/534.What if the reason your law firm feels stuck has nothing to do with how hard you're working — and everything to do with what you're focused on?In this talk from the Make ADHD Your Genius™ Summit, Moshe Amsell — founder of Profit With Law and CPA to law firm owners — breaks down the exact framework he uses with his clients to go from overwhelmed and underpaid to running a profitable, scalable firm.Moshe shares the real math behind why solo law firm owners stay stuck (hint: it's not your hourly rate), why systems and processes are the last thing you should be focused on right now, and the surprisingly simple 12-month planning method that gives ADHD minds the structure and clarity to actually execute.Chapters:[00:00] Learn how to overcome overwhelm and boost law firm productivity[03:14] Discover Moshe's journey to helping lawyers achieve business growth[10:02] Why attorneys get stuck in the solo practice trap[12:44] Recognize the real law firm growth bottleneck—it's not systems or processes[16:04] See how billing efficiency impacts your practice's income[18:32] Stop waiting—hire key team members to scale your firm[20:41] Avoid costly hiring mistakes that hold your practice back[22:53] Break down big law firm decisions into manageable, low-risk steps[26:24] Build a practical 12-month plan for predictable firm revenue[28:48] Calculate how many clients your law practice really needs[30:39] Set the right law firm payroll and scaling benchmarks[32:54] Unlock attorney referrals and local network marketing on a budget[34:41] When to implement systems and processes for law firm efficiency[40:03] Master weekly planning habits for consistent law firm success Resources mentioned:

Revenue is still the number most ecommerce founders lead with. It's the easiest to celebrate, the easiest to screenshot, and the one that gets the most airtime in strategy conversations. But it's also the number that tells you the least about whether the business is actually working.Most operators are chasing a revenue target that has no maths behind it. Nobody has calculated the one number that gives a revenue target its job. Gross profit might be off. Contribution margin might be close to zero. Overheads might be quietly eating through whatever's left. And the founder usually finds out too late, when cashflow tightens or a BAS payment lands.The brands getting this right do three things differently.In this playbook, based on a conversation with Matt Byrne, founder of Day One Advisory, we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about calculating a breakeven number that actually works:Start with the sequence, not the target. Gross profit and contribution margin come before breakeven, and if either is off the breakeven will be tooThe formula takes ten minutes, but it only works if you run it twice. Once with the numbers as they are, then again with subscriptions and full people costs includedUse breakeven before you make a decision, not after. Discount campaigns, ad spend targets and stock orders should all be stress tested against it firstConnect with Matt Byrne Explore Day One AdvisorySubscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter  SMS us to Suggest a Guest Connect with Nathan Bush Join the Add To Cart Community 

Blood Sweat & Gear dives into TRT, Trestolone, carb loads, GH testing, Masteron & estrogen, Melanotan 2, cutting strategies, and real coaching insight from experienced bodybuilding coaches. We break down physique critiques, off-season nutrition, health support supplements, and what really matters for progress on cycle and in prep. Featuring Scott McNally and the crew discussing bodybuilding, PEDs, coaching, contest prep, and the science behind getting bigger, leaner, and healthier. 0:00 Intro & Listener Questions 1:00 Trestolone (MENT) as TRT Instead of Testosterone? 4:30 How Top Coaches Use High Days in a Diet 9:00 How to Calculate the Perfect Carb Load 11:45 The Most Important Part of Great Coaching 15:30 Using High Days During the Off Season 19:30 Do Taller Bodybuilders Need More Gear? 24:30 Should You Test GH Labs While Using Growth Hormone? 28:50 300 Test + 300 Masteron — Estimating Estrogen Levels 35:00 Sending PED Samples to Janoshik Explained 36:30 Melanotan 2 Protocols, Dosing & Results 40:45 Should There Be a Coaching Review Website? 44:30 Best Training Tips While Cutting Calories 50:10 Do You Need Health Supplements During a Cruise? 56:00 Live Physique Critique & Feedback 1:03:45 Behind the Schedule & Podcast Talk 1:05:30 Why Everything at Think Big Is Eccentric 1:07:00 Ms. Olympia Joins the Chat 1:10:40 Scott McNally's Client Competing in Germany

Send us Fan MailThis one is going to make a few LOs uncomfortable.Frazier and Michael are calling out one of the quietest money leaks in the mortgage business:

Send us Fan MailAI for nonprofit staff burnout is becoming one of the most important operational conversations in the sector. This episode explores how nonprofits can use AI to reduce staff burnout, protect institutional knowledge, and build smarter internal systems. Ben Hays of Your Part-Time Controller explains why burnout belongs in boardroom conversations about risk, finance, staffing, and mission sustainability.Burnout is often treated as an emotional or HR issue, but Ben reframes it as a financial, governance, and risk issue. When nonprofit employees leave, the organization loses more than a person. It loses institutional knowledge, training investment, workflow stability, grant reporting confidence, and often months of productivity.As Ben explains, “There's also a financial cost to burnout, which usually doesn't show up in the financial statements until later down the road.” That hidden cost can affect reimbursements, compliance, reporting timelines, employee morale, and even funder confidence.This informative conversation moves beyond surface-level wellness talk and into the operational realities nonprofit leaders face every day. Ben encourages executive directors and boards to examine role clarity, priorities, internal systems, onboarding costs, staff training time, and the infrastructure needed to retain people instead of repeatedly replacing them.AI enters the conversation not as a magic answer, but as a business tool. Used responsibly, AI can reduce repetitive tasks, support first drafts, assist with grant applications, speed up reconciliations, improve communication across departments, and give teams more room for analysis and decision-making.But Ben is clear: responsible AI starts with policy and training. Nonprofits need guidelines that protect donor data, client information, employee records, and financial confidentiality. “AI is not here to replace humans,” Ben says. “You still need to look it over. You still need to make sure it makes sense.”  00:00:00 Welcome to The Nonprofit Show 00:02:25 Ben Hays and Your Part-Time Controller 00:04:13 Why Burnout Has a Financial Cost 00:06:04 Burnout as a Governance and Risk Issue 00:07:05 Retaining Staff Versus Replacing Staff 00:09:51 How to Calculate the Cost of Turnover 00:11:28 Broken Systems Create Repeat Burnout 00:12:45 Why Outside Assessment Can Help 00:14:10 Building a Culture That Welcomes Feedback 00:18:29 Wellness Programs Are Not Enough 00:19:38 Responsible AI Use Starts With Policy 00:21:27 AI Can Create Time to Think 00:23:42 AI Across Finance, Programs, and Operations 00:25:27 Reframing AI as a Tool, Not a Threat 00:28:28 Final Thoughts on AI, Burnout, and Nonprofit Capacity #TheNonprofitShow #NonprofitAIFind us Live daily on YouTube!Find us  Live daily on LinkedIn!Find us Live daily on X: @Nonprofit_ShowOur national co-hosts and amazing guests discuss management, money and missions of nonprofits!  12:30pm ET   11:30am CT  10:30am MT  9:30am PTSend us your ideas for Show Guests or Topics: HelpDesk@AmericanNonprofitAcademy.comVisit us on the web:The Nonprofit Show

Hour 3: The Real Way To Calculate Strength of Schedule, Portal in the Pros, Why Doubt the Chiefs? full 2545 Wed, 13 May 2026 14:41:40 +0000 c5Isc1yfPTpu0jsKNhPELsLXoCGn8RYU nfl,mlb,kansas city chiefs,sports Fescoe & Dusty nfl,mlb,kansas city chiefs,sports Hour 3: The Real Way To Calculate Strength of Schedule, Portal in the Pros, Why Doubt the Chiefs? Fescoe in the Morning. One guy is a KU grad.   The other is on the KU football broadcast team,  but their loyalty doesn't stop there as these guys  are huge fans of Kansas City sports and the people  of Kansas City who make it the great city it is.   Start your morning with us at 5:58am!   2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. Sports False

Upgrading your ecommerce platform can be daunting, especially with the risk of disrupting sales. Experts James Gurd and Paul Rogers share strategies to modernise confidently without adversely impacting revenue.The podcast is based on a combined 40 years' replatforming experience. Discussion points include:Managing Technical DebtTechnical debt, like inefficient code and clunky integrations, can hinder platform upgrades. Addressing this debt is crucial for a smooth transition. We discuss conducting thorough audits, prioritising cleaning up bloated themes and implementing continuous code reviews to prevent new debt.Handling SEO risksSEO traffic drops are a major concern during platform changes but there's a clear process to follow to minimise risk: for example, benchmark current rankings, plan URL changes carefully and use 301 redirects. Post-migration, monitor organic traffic and keyword rankings closely to recover quickly.Building a business case for changeDespite economic pressures, replatforming can be justified through cost savings, efficiency gains and potential revenue uplift. Calculate reduced support costs, forecast growth conservatively and highlight support cost reductions to build a strong business case.Using prototyping to validate planned changesRapid prototyping allows you to test and refine concepts on your existing stack before full implementation, reducing costly rework. Focus on high-impact areas like checkout and navigation, and use low-code platforms to simulate user journeys.Modernising your ecommerce platform doesn't have to mean risking revenue. By addressing technical debt, safeguarding SEO, building solid business cases and using rapid prototyping, you can stay competitive without disrupting sales. Incremental improvements guided by expert advice are the safest route to a resilient, revenue-driving platform.Chapters:[00:30] - Introduction: Modernisation challenges and risk mitigation[02:00] - Approaches to reducing technical debt: legacy code, documentation and third-party integrations[05:00] - Common issues with front-end themes and how bloated themes impact performance[08:10] - Replatforming considerations: scope, costs and agency support[11:00] - Ensuring performance and accessibility standards in theme builds[13:00] - Practical steps for enhancing front-end performance without replatforming[17:40] - Justifying replatform ROI amid economic pressures[22:50] - Cost-effective opportunities in migration projects: feature scope and trade-offs[28:15] - Solution MVPs and phased launches for risk management[32:50] - Using existing site data for testing and benchmarking pre-launch changes[34:55] - Strategies to avoid SEO traffic drops during migration[40:20] - Increasing team agility through prototype-driven development and low-code solutions

☎️ Book Your COMPLEMENTARY CONSULTATION and CALORIE CALCULATION Call: https://calendly.com/d/2p8-mxx-dgf/free-consultation-call-zoom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our 8 Week Fat Loss Coaching Program: https://www.vitalityoet.com/2026fatloss You've probably seen it — or done it. You ask ChatGPT how many calories you should eat, it gives you a number, and you follow it. It sounds scientific. It feels like you're doing something right.But here's what nobody's telling you: the formula ChatGPT uses doesn't know your hormones, your thyroid, your stress, your sleep, your diet history, or how well your body actually converts food into fuel. It uses four variables to calculate a number that should require at least twelve.And then there's the other problem — ChatGPT is trained to agree with you. If you've been going down a low-carb path, it's going to hand you a low-carb plan. Not because it's right for you. Because it's designed to mirror back what you already believe.In this episode, Stephanie breaks down exactly why AI-generated calorie and macro calculations miss the mark for women in perimenopause and beyond — and shares what she found when she put ChatGPT's meal plan directly into MyFitnessPal.

Listeners respond to Relebogile Mabotja's open line questions asking, how much do you think you would have to pay your parents for raising you?702 Afternoons with Relebogile Mabotja is broadcast live on Johannesburg based talk radio station 702 every weekday afternoon. Relebogile brings a lighter touch to some of the issues of the day as well as a mix of lifestyle topics and a peak into the worlds of entertainment and leisure. Thank you for listening to a 702 Afternoons with Relebogile Mabotja podcast. Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 13:00 to 15:00 (SA Time) to Afternoons with Relebogile Mabotja broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/2qKsEfu or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/DTykncj Subscribe to the 702 Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this video we will be talking about 7 Ways to Stop Worrying About Money from the writings of Epictetus. Epictetus was one of the most influential teachers of the later years of the school of Stoicism. So here are 7 ways from Epictetus's discourses, that will help you to stop worrying about money - 01. Apply the Dichotomy of Control Rigorously02. View Property as a Temporary Loan03. Calculate the "Price of Tranquility"04. Shrink the Denominator05. Recognize Money as a "Preferred Indifferent"06. Perform the "Worst-Case" Analysis07. Refuse to Play the Comparison GameHope you enjoyed this video and find these insights on how to stop worrying about money helpful. Epictetus was a Greek/Roman philosopher of the Hellenistic period. He managed to overcome huge obstacles in developing from a crippled Roman slave to become one of the most popular and sought after philosophers of his time. Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BC. Even though it is over 2000 years old, more and more people are discovering how Stoicism is not only relevant to modern times, but can be applied in very simple, yet strong ways.Narration/Audio Editing: Dan Mellins-Cohen https://www.dmcvoiceovers.comSubscribe To Philosophies for Life https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp1mRTkVlqDnxz_9S0YD9YQ

In this episode of the HVAC Know It All Podcast, host Gary McCreadie talks with Eric Ruggles, Director of Engineering at Ritchie Engineering Co., Inc. (YELLOW JACKET), about airflow, static pressure, and modern diagnostic tools. In Part 2, they discuss proper system commissioning, checking pressure across components, and identifying airflow restrictions without disassembling equipment. Eric explains how tools like a digital manometer and wireless probes help measure system performance, airflow, and gas pressure. They also cover the shift from manifolds to probes, including concerns about refrigerant loss and system contamination. The conversation wraps up with practical insights on using airflow, temperature, and CFM measurements to determine true system capacity and improve service decisions. Gary and Eric discuss airflow testing, static pressure, and how modern tools improve system diagnostics and performance. They explain how proper commissioning sets baseline readings and helps identify issues like plugged coils or airflow restrictions. Eric describes how digital manometers and probes can measure pressure, airflow, and gas pressure while creating reports for customers. They also cover the shift from manifolds to probes, including concerns about refrigerant loss and contamination. They finish by explaining how airflow, temperature, and CFM measurements can confirm true system capacity and support better service decisions. Expect to Learn: How proper commissioning helps set baseline readings for system performance. How checking static pressure across components can reveal airflow restrictions. Why tools like digital manometers and probes improve accuracy in diagnostics. How wireless probes can measure pressure, airflow, and gas without losing refrigerant. How airflow, temperature, and CFM readings help confirm true system capacity.   Episode Highlights: [00:00] - Sponsor: Factory Direct Filters ad [00:42] - Intro to Eric Ruggles in Part 02  [02:03] - Checking static across devices [03:58] - Yellow Jacket Mano tool overview [05:32] - Probes vs. manifolds debate [12:08] - Calculate real BTU capacity without gauges [15:32] - 3-tool non-invasive maintenance [16:55] - Duct traverse with Y Jack Flow   This Episode is Kindly Sponsored by: Cintas: https://www.cintas.com/hvacknowitall Cool Air Products: https://www.coolairproducts.net/ Factory Direct Filters: https://www.factorydirectfilters.com/ SupplyHouse: https://www.supplyhouse.com/tm Use promo code HKIA5 to get 5% off your first order at Supplyhouse!   Follow the Guest Eric Ruggles on:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-ruggles-28a84424/   Ritchie Engineering Co., Inc. (YELLOW JACKET): https://www.linkedin.com/company/ritchie-engineering-co-yellow-jacket-/   Ritchie Engineering Co., Inc. (YELLOW JACKET) - Website: https://yellowjacket.com/    Follow the Host on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-mccreadie-38217a77/  Website: https://www.hvacknowitall.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/HVAC-Know-It-All-2/61569643061429/   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hvacknowitall1/  Follow the Podcast on:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HVACKnowItAll   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6LCBJGw0EHG03rdWHxUMce  Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hvac-know-it-all-podcast/id1359253455 

These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at Overalls What if your employees had one central hub to handle real life? Meet Overalls. A smarter way to support your team, combining expert human LifeConcierges™ with AI to solve everyday challenges across healthcare, caregiving, benefits, insurance, finances, life admin, and more. From start to finish, Overalls handles the details — using existing benefits where they fit, and filling in the gaps where they don't. So employees save time, reduce stress, and stay focused at work, while employers boost engagement and get more value from their benefits. Overalls is redefining how work supports life, helping employee teams from Reddit, Patreon, BeatBox, and more cross pesky to-dos off their lists every day. Learn more at https://getoveralls.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=pozcast Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com Key Takeaways 1. There Is No Business Outcome That Doesn't Involve People Revenue, innovation, customer experience, strategy execution — all of it runs through people. Angela's foundational belief is that HR, positioned correctly, is directly tied to every business result an organization needs. That framing changes everything about how the function shows up. 2. HR Started as Process — and Forgot About Influence Angela's diagnosis of how HR lost its seat at the table: the function got very good at processing and forgot about influencing. The path back is showing up with data, tying recommendations to business outcomes, and being part of the conversation rather than behind it. 3. Policy Should Be a Guideline, Not a Wall One of the most powerful lessons from Angela's early career: following policy to the letter can harm the very people HR is supposed to protect. The best people leaders ask "what else can we do?" before defaulting to what the handbook says. 4. Benefits Have Three Layers — and the Order Matters Layer 1: Foundations — comprehensive, affordable health, dental, and vision. Layer 2: Flexibility — in how, when, and where people work. Layer 3: Growth and recognition — opportunities to stretch, develop, and feel valued. Companies that skip to Layer 3 without nailing Layer 1 are building on sand. 5. Caregiver Benefits Are the Most Underrated Tool in Total Rewards Employees don't leave their home lives at the door. Sick parents, sick kids, and pets in need of care are constant sources of distraction and stress. Caregiver benefits that address these realities don't just help employees — they protect productivity and demonstrate that a company sees the whole person. 6. The Aging Parent Crisis Is Coming — Companies Aren't Ready As Baby Boomers age, a growing portion of the workforce will face elder care responsibilities that compete directly with their work. Companies that build caregiver support into their benefits now will be better positioned to retain experienced employees through one of the most stressful seasons of their lives. 7. Presenteeism Costs More Than Most Companies Realize Being at work — physically or virtually — is not the same as being engaged and productive. Angela's point on presenteeism is a sharp one: an employee who is worried about an aging parent, a sick child, or a personal crisis may be clocked in but effectively absent. That has a dollar value, and it belongs in the benefits ROI conversation. 8. Here's How to Pitch a CFO on Life Concierge Benefits Pull absence data. Calculate the cost of leave tied to caregiving responsibilities. Layer in the cost of replacing an employee who left because they didn't have the right support. Then present the cost of the benefit against those numbers. It's not a soft sell — it's a hard business case. 9. "My Company Took Care of Me" Is the Most Powerful Recruiting Tool You Have Word of mouth from employees who feel genuinely supported travels far. When people tell friends, former colleagues, and their networks that their company stepped up for them during a hard time, that's employer brand you can't manufacture with a marketing budget. CHAPTERS: 00:00 – Introduction Adam welcomes Angela Briggs-Paige, CPO and founder of People Power, and sets up a conversation about what modern HR leadership really looks like. 01:30 – From Pre-Med to People Leader Angela traces her unexpected path from biology major and aspiring doctor to discovering HR through a work-study job — and never looking back. 04:00 – Redefining What HR Is For Angela's core belief: there is no business outcome that doesn't involve people. How she flips the script on HR as a compliance function and positions it as a business driver. 06:30 – The Mentor Who Pushed Her The manager who challenged Angela to stop saying yes and start asking "what does this mean for the business?" — and how that changed her entire approach to the function. 09:00 – A Story She Wishes She Could Take Back Angela gets vulnerable about an early-career mistake: terminating an employee for exceeding their leave allotment instead of asking what else could be done — and what that taught her about the difference between policy and people. 12:30 – Policy as Guideline, Not Gospel How that experience shifted Angela's thinking on flexibility — and why the best people leaders treat policy as a framework to work within, not a wall to hide behind. 15:00 – The 3 Layers of Benefits That Actually Matter Angela's framework: Layer 1 is foundations (affordable health, dental, vision). Layer 2 is flexibility. Layer 3 is growth and recognition. Why the order matters as much as the content. 18:00 – The Case for Caregiver Benefits Why caregiver benefits — covering aging parents, sick kids, and pets — are among the most impactful and underutilized tools in total rewards, and what happens when employees don't have them. 21:00 – The Aging Parent Problem No One's Talking About Baby Boomers are aging. The workforce is about to face a caregiving crisis. Angela makes the case for why companies need to get ahead of it now — and what benefits can actually help. 23:30 – Peace of Mind as an ROI You can't buy peace of mind — but a company can offer it. How life concierge benefits reduce distraction, improve focus, and make employees feel genuinely cared for. 26:00 – Presenteeism: The Hidden Cost Nobody Measures One of the sharpest moments in the episode: Angela introduces presenteeism — being at work but mentally absent — and explains why it may cost more than absenteeism. 28:30 – How to Pitch a CFO on Life Concierge Benefits Angela's step-by-step framework: pull absence data, calculate leave costs, layer in retention math, and build a cost-benefit case that speaks the CFO's language. 31:00 – What's Lighting Angela Up Angela closes with what's giving her energy at Transform 2026: being surrounded by people leaders who genuinely care about making workplaces better.    

Eric, Tyson, and Slayer explore the four levels of money and the subjective nature of personal value. They discuss the challenges of scaling a business, balancing rising overhead costs with the need to pay employees a living wage. The crew critiques the "copout" mindset that money is unimportant, arguing instead that financial success is necessary for survival, freedom, and legacy. Through anecdotes about firefighting, electrical work, and pond maintenance, they illustrate how market demand and specialized expertise dictate one's worth. Ultimately, the discussion emphasizes that professional growth and a clear long-term vision are essential to avoiding stagnation and achieving a high quality of life. Key Takeaways: Focus on increasing your personal value and professional skills rather than expecting higher pay simply for the amount of time you have spent at a job. Stop telling yourself that money is not important and recognize it as a necessary tool for supporting your family and achieving your desired quality of life. Calculate your daily living expenses and overhead to understand exactly how much you need to earn to move beyond a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Align yourself with growth-oriented companies or set massive long-term visions for your own business to ensure you and your team have continuous opportunities for advancement. Seek out specific clients or "rooms" where your unique expertise is most highly valued and appreciated so you can command the compensation you deserve.

Macros explained, finally in a way that actually makes sense. Sal, Adam, and Justin break down everything you need to know about macronutrients: what they are, why they matter more than just counting calories, how to calculate your targets, and how to adjust them based on your goals and how your body feels. Whether you're trying to lose fat, build muscle, or just finally understand what everyone is talking about when they say 'hit your macros,' this episode covers it all. They also share the wild frontier story about hunters who starved to death eating nothing but rabbits, and why that story changes how you think about fat forever. Free Resource

How do you know if a clothing item is actually worth what you paid for it? Image consultant, stylist, and visual merchandiser Mikara Reid of MIIEN Consultancy breaks down cost per wear — the simple formula that helps you calculate the true value of what's in your wardrobe and why it should change the way you shop and invest in your clothing.#miien #CostPerWear #WardrobeInvestment #SmartShopping #HowToShopSmart #WardrobeEssentials #IntentionalShopping #PersonalStylist #ImageConsultant #StyleTips #WardrobeAudit #HowToDressBetter #FashionTips #WardrobeManagement #ClothingValue #shopsmart #miienconsultancy #mikarareid

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Basic-Filtering 01 Introduction This is the second episode in a four part series on a simple way to create your own HPR podcast episode. 02 This episode will cover the following topics: Basic filtering.. De-essing to improve voice quality. And normalizing to adjust audio levels for easier reviewing. 03 Filtering is removing unwanted noise from an audio signal. There are several ways of doing this. It is possible to do this with Audacity, but I don't know how so I won't try to describe that method. It is possible however to filter using command line tools such as FFMPEG and Sox. When assembled into shell scripts, these tools can become part of an automated process that you can use over and over again for each HPR episode that you record. 04 In a later episode I will discuss how to analyze audio signals to find the sources of noise that can be reduced or eliminated with filters. In this episode however I will discuss basic filtering that you can apply routinely without doing any analysis beforehand. 05 Sources of Noise A question that you may have is "why is there noise in the recording?" There are many sources of undesirable noise. 06 A very common one that you may not be aware of is electrical noise that works its way into the electronic recording circuits and is imperceptible to you until you play back the recorded audio. The most common noise signal is what is commonly called "line noise" and is a low frequency hum at 50 or 60 Hz from the electric power lines and reflects the 50 or 60 Hz frequency of the AC power lines feeding your recording hardware. 07 You may be familiar with this low frequency hum from when it emanates from large electrical hardware such as transformers as it makes the laminations vibrate. However, it can also work its way indirectly into electronic equipment as well. Good quality audio hardware may filter all or most of this out, but it is present in a lot of consumer grade hardware. 08 Other sources of electrical noise may reflect specific problems in your recording hardware. I will discuss one such problem with my microphone that I had to address. Still other sources of noise may reflect actual physical audio noise around you, such as fans. Placing the microphone close to your face will help in dealing with a lot of these problems, but you may find filtering to be of some help here as well. 09 Audio Frequency Range Let's start with some basics. A good quality stereo of the type you may have at home is typically rated to perform between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. This is the widest possible range that we need to consider. In reality, this is a far wider range than is needed for a voice oriented podcast. It is also well beyond the range of the hardware that many of your listeners will be using to listen to the podcast. 10 For example, the speakers that I have connected to my PC and a number of headphones and earphones that I have tested drop off drastically below 80 Hz or above 8 kHz, or even above 6 kHz in many cases. This is not audiophile quality hardware, but it is representative of the sort of hardware that a lot of your listeners will be using when listening to podcasts. And to be honest here, a lot of people will have difficulty hearing anything above 8 kHz even with the best quality audio hardware due to hearing loss from environmental noise exposure or age. 11 You can get a good idea of what different frequencies sound like by generating sine waves using either FFMPEG or Sox. Here's an example of generating a 1 kHz sine wave using FFMPEG. A copy of this will be in the show notes. ffmpeg -f lavfi -i "sine=frequency=1000:sample_rate=44100:duration=3" 01000hz.flac This creates a sine wave at 1 kHz and at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz for a duration of 3 seconds and saves it to a flac file named 01000hz.flac 12 Here's the same using Sox. sox -n -r 44100 -b 16 01000hz.flac synth 3 sine 1000 The -b 16 specifies using 16 bit audio to encode it, and the "sine 1000" element specifies the frequency in hertz. 13 You can test this out at different frequencies to get a feel for how your hardware responds. What the effective limits on typical hardware audio range means is that we can quite safely filter out a large part of what is considered to be the "audio range" without any noticeable loss of quality. For the purposes of our discussion here then I will limit the frequency range to between 80 Hz and 12 kHz, and that is being generous. You can probably narrow that, particularly at the top end, without any problems. 14 At the low end, the typical rule of thumb recommended by most people seems to be that for the average male voice you can set the lower threshold at 80 Hz, and for the average female you can set it at 160 Hz. Note that you don't *have* to set the threshold higher for a female. Rather, it is just that you typically *can* set it higher if you wish. Note also that these are averages, and may not reflect an actual individual. 15 Simple Filters We will now create some simple filters using the same command line software mentioned in a previous episode in this series. These are FFMPEG and Sox. 16 First let's define some terminology. A high pass filter passes through frequencies which fall above a certain threshold and blocks frequencies which are below that frequency. A low pass filter passes through frequencies which fall below a certain threshold and blocks frequencies which are above that frequency. 17 In reality there isn't an abrupt cut-off in the filters. Instead there is a gradual roll off or sloping off of amplitude below or above the specified filter frequency. This is for two reasons. One is that if there was an abrupt cut off then it would risk introducing audible distortion in the signal for frequencies on the margin. 18 The other reason is that this is how hardware filters traditionally inherently worked when they were made out of electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The sharpness of this cut off can be adjusted, but we won't be fiddling with it in that sort of detail. You will sometimes see filters specified in terms of "poles". This has to do with describing how filters were constructed using electronic components. Don't worry about it, it doesn't really matter. 19 Here is a typical high pass filter using ffmpeg which filters out frequencies below 80 hertz. # High pass filter. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "highpass=f=80" outputfile.flac Here is a typical low pass filter using ffmpeg which filters out frequencies above 12 kHz. # Low pass filter. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "lowpass=f=12000" outputfile.flac 20 Here is a filter which combines the two. # Combined filters. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af "highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" outputfile.flac And here is the same thing using Sox. sox inputfile.flac outputfile.flac highpass 80 lowpass 12000 21 Filtering Out Specific Frequencies Recall that I mentioned that a common source of noise is the 50 or 60 Hz AC power line frequency working its way through the electronics of your recording device. Because filters operate gradually and the 80 Hz lower filter threshold is close to 60 Hz, the high pass filter may not deal with this adequately. 22 Now it happens that your listeners may not be able to hear this 50 or 60 Hz noise anyway because their audio hardware won't reproduce it. That by the way includes you not being able to hear it either when you review your recording before uploading it. However, there may be some HPR listeners who are sitting back sipping a glass of wine and listening to your episode on their stereo and who can hear it. That suggests that we ought to do something about it just in case. 23 I will get into how to analyze audio signals in a later episode, but for now just accept that I looked at the frequency spectrum of a sample recording using my hardware and found a large 60 Hz noise spike which I wanted to address. 24 Experimenting with additional high pass frequencies up to 120 Hz did not improve things much with respect to the 60 Hz problem. There are other parameters which could be tweaked, but at this point it would seem most promising to attack the 60 Hz spike problem directly using a different filter method. To deal with the this 60 Hz spike we can use a "band reject" filter, which removes a specific band of frequencies. We will use this in combination with the filtering that we have already done above. 25 After a small amount of experimenting I came up with the following. I also added in a 50 Hz filter while I was at it, for the benefit of those living in areas with 50 Hz electrical supply. These filters will be included in the show notes, so don't worry if you can't quite understand all the details from a verbal description. 26 Here's the FFMPEG version. # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i input.flac -af "highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000, bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" output.flac 27 This as the following elements A high pass filter at 80 Hz, A low pass filter at 12 kHz, A band reject filter centred at 60 Hz and with a width of 20 hertz. A similar band reject filter centred at 50 Hz. 28 Here's the Sox version. # Sox version. sox input.flac output.flac highpass 80 lowpass 12000 bandreject 60 20 bandreject 50 20 Note that with sox, don't quote the filter definition strings or else it will result in an error as sox doesn't see enough parameters. This is not a problem with ffmpeg. 29 The band reject filter knocks the stuffing out of the 60 Hz line noise, and the 50 Hz parameter should do the same for that frequency as well. This basic filter should be able to be applied to any podcast audio recording without causing any problems. You can probably reduce the low pass frequency from 12 kHz down to 8 kHz without any problems, but I would suggest that you test it with your voice before making that decision. 30 I will come back to filtering out specific frequencies again later when I discuss how I solved a specific problem with the hardware that I am using. However, we have to discuss how to analyze audio signals before we can do that sort of technical troubleshooting, and I will cover that in a later episode. -------------------- 31 De-Essing An additional type of filtering is "de-essing". When recording audio, the microphone or environment may result in "s", "sh", "ch" and possibly other sounds to be exaggerated. These are all higher frequency elements of voice recordings. "De-essing" attempts to soften these sounds by selectively reducing the volume on the frequency band which contains these sounds. 32 Software Filters De-essing is accomplished via software filters. FFMPEG and Sox both have de-essing filters. For FFMPEG, the de-essing filter is built in. For Sox however, we must install an optional plug-in. I will cover this is more detail when I discuss using Sox for de-essing. 33 Do You Need De-Essing? The first thing to make clear however, is that you may not need to worry about this. If you think the audio sounds just fine the way it is, you don't need to do any de-essing to it. De-essing is a very subtle change, and you would probably need to do some careful before and after comparisons of audio samples to tell the difference. I didn't know that a thing called de-essing even existed before I started doing the research to make this podcast episode. However, at this point we are doing things more for fun than out of necessity, so I'll describe it anyway. 34 De-Essing with FFMPEG De-essing with FFMPEG is relatively simple. The filter is built in, and there are just three values to adjust. On the other hand, it is not really obvious what these values mean in practical terms. 35 I will however warn you to not rely on the AI search results from Google to understand this feature. The AI, in my experience, just makes stuff up about it and tells you to use options that don't exist and values that are not valid. I found that the only useful information came from FFMPEG's own web site, and from examples written by actual humans. 36 I then experimented with different values to see what effects they had. Since the results are rather subtle, fine tuning isn't really that necessary and I found that I could arrive at some reasonable values fairly quickly. I will provide the parameters that I found useful for me, and I suspect they would probably work for you as well. 37 Here is a typical de-essing command. ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=o" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 outputfile.flac 38 The important arguments are i, m, and f. i is intensity for triggering de-essing. The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0. By experimentation I found that "0" means no de-essing, and "1" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 39 m is the amount of "ducking on the treble part of sound". The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. By experimentation I found that "1" means no de-essing, and "0" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 40 f is how much of the original frequency content to keep when de-essing. The allowed range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. By experimentation I found that "1" means no de-essing, and "0" is maximum de-essing. I found that setting it to "0.5" gave satisfactory results. 41 Setting "m" or "f" too high can result in a distorted output as too much of the original sound is cut out. The defaults of 0.5 in both cases gave audible improvements without noticeable distortion. 42 There is an additional parameter called "s". This controls whether the de-essing filter does anything. Setting it to "o" is the normal and default mode. Setting it to "e" causes it to output just the components that it would normally have filtered out. This is useful for testing purposes so you can see what and how much is being filtered. You only use this when experimenting with different values. Setting it to "i" causes the input to be passed through without de-essing. This would be useful in scripts where you want to use a variable to control whether or not to use the de-esser while still creating the expected output file. 43 There are two other elements of the command which were included but are not strictly speaking part of the de-essing filter itself . These are " -b:a 336k" and "-sample_fmt s16". " -b:a 336k" sets the audio bit rate to 336k. "-sample_fmt s16" sets the audio sample format to 16 bit. I found it necessary to specify these in order to prevent the de-essing filter from changing formats. They are not part of de-essing however. 44 De-Essing with Sox You can also de-ess with Sox. However, this is more complex for several reasons. One reason is that Sox does not have its own de-essing filters. Instead it uses optional plug-ins, and you must find and install these. The actual plug in may vary depending on what operating system you are using. The other reason is that it deals with the issue in fairly low level parameters, and so is a bit more complex to describe. Because of this I will skip over describing this in detail and just give a very brief overview. If anyone would like me to describe in more detail how to de-ess with Sox, then send in a comment and I will do a short episode on it later. 45 Sox De-Essing Overview To de-ess with Sox, you first need to install the plug-ins. On Linux, these will be the TAP ladspa plug-ins. TAP stands for "Tom's Audio Processing" plugins. ladspa stands for "Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API" To install the TAP plugins on Ubuntu, using the following command. sudo apt install tap-plugins The plug-in we need is called "tap_deesser.so". 46 In order to use the plug-ins, you need to set the path as a variable. On Ubuntu this is. export LADSPA_PATH="/usr/lib/ladspa:" I put the above in the shell script which calls the Sox de-esser. 47 To use the Sox de-esser, you do the following: sox inputfile.flac outputfile.flac ladspa tap_deesser tap_deesser -30 4500 48 tap_deesser tap_deesser tells it which plugin to use. We need to state tap_deesser twice because the first is the name of the ".so" file and the second is the name of the plugin. A single "so" file can contain multiple filters, although in this case there is only one. -30 is the threshold in dB at which to start to apply the filter. 4500 is the frequency in Hz that the filter centres around. 49 The TAP web page has a table of recommended frequencies. These are: Male 'ess' 4500 Hz Male 'ssh' 3400 Hz Female 'ess' 6800 Hz Female 'ssh' 5100 Hz You will need to do some trial and error to find what works best for you. 50 De-Essing Summary De-essing can be used to make minor improvements to voice quality by reducing certain harsh sounds which may be exaggerated by a microphone. If it sounds like a lot of work you can probably simply not bother with it and not really miss it. -------------------- 51 Normalizing Normalizing a signal means adjusting it to meet a specified level. For audio it means adjusting the volume or sound level. You may wish to normalize the audio of your recording to make it easier to listen to when reviewing it. The copy that you send to HPR however should be the original un-normalized version. 52 Sound level is measured in two ways, dB and LUFS. The latter is a more sophisticated way of measuring things which takes into account how the human ear perceives loudness. I won't go into a lot of detail in that regards, other than to say that just accept LUFS as a unit of perceived loudness that is the international standard. LUFS stands for "Loudness Units referenced to Full Scale", and is part of the EBU R128 standard, where EBU stands for European Broadcast Union. In both cases the measured value is a negative number, with numbers smaller in magnitude being louder. Smaller in magnitude means closer to zero. 53 HPR will adjust the sound level for publication, but if you wish to check the audio before uploading it can help to adjust it to something close to what HPR will do so that you can listen to it at a volume which most listeners will hear. In my case full volume on the audio system input produced a sound level which was much lower than a typical HPR episode. However, the volume level in the flac file itself can be adjusted using ffmpeg. 54 Measuring Volume Level First we need to see what the volume level is for a typical HPR podcast. To do this we use ffmpeg. In this example we are using an episode named "hprpodcast.mp3". Pick an episode which you think is suitable and copy the file to the working directory. 55 In the following script we use a volumedetect filter. The text we want normally outputs to standard error, so we have to do a bit of bashery to redirect this to standard output so it will go through a pipe. We then grep for the string "I:". This will have the average volume level in "loudness units" (LUFS). Then we extract the number, giving us a target LUFS level. 56 ffmpeg -i hprpodcast.mp3 -filter:a ebur128=framelog=quiet -f null /dev/null 2>&1 | grep "I:" | cut -d: -f2 57 Unfortunately I can't find a Sox feature which handles EBU loudness, so we need to work in dB instead. Here is the sox version. However, note that this may not work on mp3s if sox mp3 handing is not installed. 58 sox hprpodcast.mp3 -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev 59 You can use either of these for measuring the volume or sound level of an audio file. However, note that individual episodes from HPR may vary a bit in terms of loudness. In the samples that I looked at, this however was less than 1 LUFS or dB while my own recording was roughly 5 LUFS lower in volume than a typical HPR episode. -------------------- 60 If you Google for the EBU R128 standard the AI result will confidently tell you to use a target of -23 LUFS. However, this is wrong, which shouldn't be of any surprise if you are familiar with using AI. 61 The -23 LUFS figure is for broadcast television. There is in fact no standard level for podcasts. However, there is apparently a general industry convention of using somewhere around -17 LUFS. If I look at the first two HPR episodes that I did, HPR normalized them to -16.8 LUFS and -17.8 LUFS, while the original FLAC files that I submitted were -21.6 LUFS and -22.3 LUFS respectively. 62 So HRP appear to be targeting somewhere around -17 LUFS as well. We will therefore use -17 LUFS as our target for our own copy for review. -------------------- 63 The nice thing about using the EBU filter in FFMPEG is that this is very simple. Here is the FFMPEG version. 64 ffmpeg -i inputfile.flac -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=7.0 -ar 44.1k outputfile.flac 65 "I" is the LUFS target. LRA is the loudness range target. The default value is 7.0 so I used that. TP sets the maximum true peak. The default value is -2.0. so I used that. -------------------- 66 With Sox things are a bit more difficult. There is no direct method of setting the loudness that I am aware of, so we need to measure the current sound level in dB, do some calculations, and then apply that as a gain factor to the output. 67 First we need to subtract the measured db level from our flac file from the target db level from the HPR episode we decided to use as a sample. Bash by itself normally just does integer math. However, we would like to have at least one decimal point of resolution to work with. The simple solution is to do this calculation using bc, the shell arbitrary precision calculator. 68 Then take this new value and use it in a "volume" filter. The number which we give sox is the amount to increase or decrease the volume by. Sox will then output a new file with the new volume level. You can now listen to this file under conditions more closely approximating what it will be like after HPR have done their own audio adjustments and normalizaton on it This helps when listening to the file for any problems before you upload it. 69 Rather than reading 5 lines of complex shell script to you, I will put a copy of it in the show notes. level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) targetdb="-18.9" volumechange=$(echo "scale=2 ; $targetdb - $leveldb" | bc ) sox $inputfile $outputname gain "$volumechange" -------------------- 70 Normalization should be the last thing you do to the file. It should be done after any noise filtering, such as low pass, high pass, bandreject, etc. If you normalize first, you will be amplifying the noise as well as the desired signal. 71 The exact normalization level used for review purposes doesn't matter, as HPR will apply their own later. All we are doing at this point is adjusting the volume to something which approximates a normal episode so you can listen to it for final review. 72 When you send your file to HPR, send the original *unnormalized* version, not the normalized version. When you normalize an audio signal, if you are not careful you may introduce things which cause problems with later additional processing. HPR probably do more things to the audio than just normalizing and so they need the unnormalized file so that they can do their own normalizing last. -------------------- 73 If at this point you are happy with the recording as is, you are ready to send the *unnormalized* version to HPR. The scripts to implement the features discussed in this episode will be in the show notes. 74 Conclusion In this episode we covered basic filtering using ffmpeg and sox. We discussed what noise was and some of the origins of noise. We talked about the audio frequency range and the limitations of common hardware used to record and listen to podcasts. We covered basic high and low pass filters used to limit the audio frequency range in order to remove possible low and high frequency noise. 75 We discussed specific filters to eliminate 50 and 60 Hz electrical power noise. We talked about de-essing, what it was, why you may wish to use it, and some basic de-essing filter implementation details. We discussed normalizing, what it is, why you may wish to use it, and how it relates to podcasting conventions. 76 In the next episode we will discuss analyzing audio signals to help find the sources of noise problems. We will also discuss creating filters to eliminate any problems that we found. In my case I had a problem with the microphone that I use, and I describe how I used filters to deal with that problem. 77 This has been the second episode in a four part series on simple podcasting. -------------------- EBU R128 Loudness Measurement using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash echo "EBU r128 loudness measurement using FFMPEG" for inputfile in *.flac *.mp3 ; do level=$( ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter:a ebur128=framelog=quiet -f null /dev/null 2>&1 | grep "I:" | cut -d: -f2 ) echo $inputfile $level done -------------------- DB Sound Level Measurement using Sox #!/bin/bash # Sox version. May not work for mp3 if an mp3 format handling is not installed. echo "dB sound level measurement using Sox." for inputfile in *.flac *.mp3 ; do level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) echo $inputfile $leveldb done -------------------- EBU R128 Loudness Normalization using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash # Adjust the volume to a desired level. for inputfile in *.flac ; do j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j""-normff.flac" ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname echo $outputname done -------------------- DB Sound Level Normalization using Sox #!/bin/bash # Adjust the volume to a desired level. for inputfile in *.flac ; do j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j""-normff.flac" # Measure the volume level and extract the mean volume. level=$( sox $inputfile -n stats 2>&1 | grep "RMS lev dB" ) leveldb=$( echo "$level" | rev | cut -d" " -f1 | rev ) # Calculate the difference in dB desired. Scale specifies the number of decimal places. # Target db is the volume measured on hpr4506 (UCSD-P-System). targetdb="-18.9" volumechange=$(echo "scale=2 ; $targetdb - $leveldb" | bc ) echo "Using sox: File: $inputfile Original level: $leveldb Change by: $volumechange" # Adjust the volume. sox $inputfile $outputname gain "$volumechange" done -------------------- Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts using FFMPEG #!/bin/bash #!/bin/bash # Full processing pipeline for making simple podcasts. # ====================================================================== # Concatenate multiple flac files into a single flac file. # This is used to combine podcast recorded segments into a single # flac file for uploading to HPR. concataudio () { outputname="$1" # First create the list file. printf "file '%s'n" [0-9][0-9].flac > podseglist.txt # Now concatenate them ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i podseglist.txt "$outputname" rm podseglist.txt } # ====================================================================== # Basic filters. filter () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Using ffmpeg. # The high and low pass filters. hlpfil="highpass=f=80, lowpass=f=12000" # Band reject filters filter for 60Hz and another for 50Hz. linefil="bandreject=f=60:width_type=h:w=20, bandreject=f=50:width_type=h:w=20" # Using ffmpeg ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af "$hlpfil, $linefil" $outputname } # ====================================================================== # De-Essing. deessing () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 option=$3 # De-essing filter. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -filter_complex "deesser=i=0.5:m=0.5:f=0.5:s=$option" -b:a 336k -sample_fmt s16 $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Normalizing the audio to EBU R128 standard for review using ffmpeg. normffmpeg () { inputfile=$1 outputname=$2 # Normalize to EBU R128 standard. ffmpeg -i $inputfile -af loudnorm=I=-17:TP=-2.0:LRA=4.0 -ar 44.1k $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Output an MP3 version to help with reviewing. mp3convert () { inputfile=$1 # Get the name of the file and then create the output file name. j=$( basename $inputfile ".flac" ) outputname="$j"".mp3" # Convert to MP3. ffmpeg -i $inputfile $outputname } # ====================================================================== # Concatenate the separate audio files. concataudio fullpod-unfiltered.flac # Basic filtering. filter fullpod-unfiltered.flac filtered.flac # De-essing. This is the version to send for publishing. # The third argument should be "o" for de-essing, or "i" for pass through without de-essing. deessing filtered.flac fullpod.flac o # Normalized for review. normffmpeg fullpod.flac fullpod-norm.flac # Output an MP3 copy for review. mp3convert fullpod-norm.flac -------------------- -------------------- Provide feedback on this episode.

Welcome to the Monday Minute, brought to you by Podium — your weekly reset to lead better, think clearer, and build your independent dealership with intention.Most independent car dealers think they're tracking their advertising. But if you're measuring leads, clicks, and phone calls — you're tracking activity, not results. And activity doesn't pay the bills. Car sales do.In this episode, Luke and Jeff break down the shift every used car dealer needs to make: stop measuring leads per source and start measuring sales per source. A marketing channel that sends 100 leads and closes 5 deals is not better than one that sends 20 leads and closes 10. Volume can lie — conversions tell the truth.They walk through how to tie every deal to an advertising source, how to calculate your true cost per sale by channel — whether that's CarGurus, Cars.com, Facebook Marketplace, or Google — and why training your sales team to ask the right questions is the foundation of smart ad spend. If the data going into your CRM and DMS is broken, every budget decision you make from it is broken too. Disciplined independent dealers know exactly where their money is working — and they invest accordingly.Review this week's Sunday newsletter at TheIndependentDealer.com for the full theme and exercises.Not subscribed yet? Sign up now. https://theindependentdealer.us19.lis...Let's build this together.SPONSORED BY PODIUM: www.podium.com

3 'Dumb' Strategies That Beat PhD-Level Planning Every Time Summary Ever wondered why your genius friend is broke while your "average" neighbor owns multiple properties? Shocking research reveals that people with average IQ outperform those with the highest IQ 70% of the time, and intelligence only accounts for 25% of career success. The brutal truth is that IQ explains just 9% of income variance and a measly 2.4% of actual wealth accumulation – meaning 91% of financial success comes from factors that have nothing to do with how smart you are. This isn't about dumbing yourself down – it's about understanding why traditional intelligence often becomes a financial liability. Research from Ohio State University tracking over 7,000 people reveals the hidden patterns that separate the wealthy from the struggling, regardless of IQ scores. If you're tired of watching less "intelligent" people surpass you financially while you overthink every decision, this video exposes the real factors that drive wealth accumulation and why your biggest asset might actually be holding you back from the financial success you deserve. Entrepreneur tips that actually work: Tracy Brinkmann reveals why brilliant parents with advanced degrees build less wealth than average-IQ entrepreneurs. Drawing from Jay Zagorsky and Daniel Goleman's groundbreaking research, discover the 3 "dumb" strategies that beat PhD-level planning—and how to escape the intelligence trap holding back your side hustle and online business growth. In this eye-opening episode, Tracy Brinkmann reveals the uncomfortable truth about intelligence and wealth: your brilliant mind might be your biggest financial obstacle. Drawing from research by Jay Zagorsky and Daniel Goleman, Tracy explains why people with average IQs outperform those with the highest IQs 70% of the time when it comes to building wealth. Through real stories and practical frameworks, he breaks down the three intelligence traps keeping smart parents broke and provides actionable strategies to escape them. This episode is essential listening for any parent entrepreneur who's been "figuring it out" for too long without seeing real financial progress. DarkHorseInsider.com Key Timestamps 00:00 Opening: The Kitchen Table Reality Check 01:10 Episode Overview 01:35 The Jessica Story: PhD vs. High School Diploma 04:05 Intelligence Trap #1: Analysis Paralysis 06:45 Intelligence Trap #2: Smart Kid Identity Protection 08:25 Intelligence Trap #3: Broken Risk Radar 10:05 Three "Dumb" Strategies That Create Wealth 13:20 The Shift 14:50 Whiskered Wisdom   Strategies Shared The Three Intelligence Traps: Analysis Paralysis - Seeing all variables leads to endless research without action Smart Kid Identity Protection - Avoiding situations that might make you look uninformed Broken Risk Radar - Overestimating risk and choosing "safe" slow progress The Three "Dumb" Strategies: Model, Then Modify - Copy successful frameworks before innovating Zone of Genius Focus - Be strategically "dumb" about everything except core strengths Simple Scales - Use the "Five Ones" framework for focused execution Risk Recalibration System: Identify your scary investment Calculate percentage of annual income Apply the failure test   Resources Mentioned Jay Zagorsky Research - Ohio State University study on IQ and wealth correlation Daniel Goleman - Emotional intelligence research showing 70% performance advantage Carol Dweck - Stanford psychologist's work on fixed vs. growth mindset Wright Brothers vs. Samuel Langley - Historical example of action vs. analysis Yahoo/Google Case Study - Smart vs. dumb risk assessment example FedEx Origin Story - Fred Smith's $5K Vegas gamble David Tran/Huy Fong Foods - Sriracha's billion-dollar simplicity model Ikigai Concept - Japanese methodology for finding zone of genius "Intelligence without action is just expensive entertainment. Your bank account doesn't care about your test scores - it only cares about the value you create and capture in the world." - Tracy Brinkmann Sources: 1. ScienceDirect (Zagorsky Study)   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289607000219 2. The Society Pages   https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/02/06/correlations-of-iq-with-income-and-wealth/ 3. Institute for Family Studies   https://ifstudies.org/blog/can-intelligence-predict-income 4. Ohio State University News   https://news.osu.edu/you-dont-have-to-be-smart-to-be-rich-study-finds/ 5. IQ's Corner   http://www.iqscorner.com/2007/05/temp.html  

Cheap wedding venue… or financial trap? In this bonus episode, we're breaking down one of the biggest budgeting decisions you'll make during wedding planning: choosing between a lower-priced blank space venue and a higher-priced all-inclusive option. At first glance, the DIY venue looks like the obvious win.  Lower rental fee.  More flexibility.  Total creative control.  It feels like the ultimate budget-savvy move. But here's where impulse can quietly take over. That "great deal" can spiral fast once you start layering in rentals, catering, staffing, power, restrooms, décor, insurance, and all the little logistical details no one warns you about. Meanwhile, the all-inclusive quote might make you choke on your coffee — but it may also include far more than you realize. In this episode, I walk you through six major cost categories you must have detailed pricing for before deciding if a blank space venue is truly the money-saving move… or if it could end up costing you more in the long run. Early access to new episodes + bonus planning resources are available inside WPP Premium on Apple Podcasts.  Tap "Subscribe" for instant acess. Links & Resources Start your wedding website with Minted and enjoy free designs by independent artists, all your details in one place, and exclusive listener perks: weddingplanningpodcast.co/minted

Protein is having a moment. Coffee chains are adding it into lattes. Many snack companies are labeling their products as high-protein. But how much protein do you really need? Host Marielle Segarra talks with NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about the different factors to consider when planning your protein intake.Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here.Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at lifekit@npr.orgSupport the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitTo manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Protein is having a moment. Coffee chains are adding it into lattes. Many snack companies are labeling their products as high-protein. But how much protein do you really need? Host Marielle Segarra talks with NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey about the different factors to consider when planning your protein intake.Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here.Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at lifekit@npr.orgSupport the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitTo manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Have you ever wondered how the big real estate players pick winning properties? Today, we're uncovering the key metric that commercial real estate investors use for evaluating deals - the cap rate. It's more than just a formula, so make sure to stick around until the end of this episode to know how to use the cap rate effectively. Join Our Investor Club: https://bit.ly/4tmCHS4 This episode was originally uploaded on November 1, 2024.

BONUS: Why Your Plan Is Lying to You — #NoEstimates, Throughput, and the Superstition of Project Management This episode is a cross-post from The EBFC Show, Felipe Engineer-Manriquez's podcast exploring Lean and Agile in construction. In this conversation, Felipe interviews Vasco about the #NoEstimates movement, throughput-based planning, and why traditional project management is still stuck in the middle ages of managing creative work. The Human Side of Scrum That the Scrum Guide Doesn't Cover "When you go into a daily meeting and you start looking at the people in that room, maybe they are the exact same people that were there yesterday, but the team is totally different. Somebody might have had a bad night's sleep, somebody might have had an argument with their spouse. These are human beings. These are not machines that you can just distribute work to."   Vasco's path to agile coaching started with a realization that most practitioners eventually reach: the problems in software development aren't technological. They're about people — getting agreements, sharing information at the right time, making the collective brain of a team actually function. The Scrum Guide gives you organizing principles — how many meetings, who's in them — but it says almost nothing about the real-time feedback cycle between humans that makes or breaks a team. That's why the Scrum Master role exists: to be the lubricant for human interactions, to break down complex ideas into items the collective mind can process. It's the piece that makes Scrum work, and it's the piece that's hardest to teach. From Project Manager to #NoEstimates — The Bet That Changed Everything "The PM wanted 15 items per sprint, and the team said 'yeah, we can do 15.' I said, this is not gonna happen. The team had been delivering between five and eight items per sprint. I said, I'm gonna be positive — I'm gonna say seven. And no surprise, by the end of the sprint, they delivered seven."   Vasco started as a project manager — and not the easy certification kind. He went through IPMA, which means six months of training, a four-hour written exam, and an expert interview, just for the entry level. Planning and estimating was the job. Then he ran his first Scrum project, specifically to prove it couldn't work. By the second month, he couldn't understand how anything else could work. The team delivered something to show every single sprint — something that never happened with traditional project management. The turning point came when he made a bet with a product manager: the PM needed 15 items per sprint, the team committed to 15, but historical throughput was 5-8 items. Reality delivered seven. That moment crystallized the #NoEstimates insight: we can't fight reality, but we can choose which seven items to deliver. Reality Is a Bitch — Why Linear Predictive Planning Fails "Never believe the plan. Or as in Scarface — never get high on your own supply. It's so unbelievable how project managers still today believe their freaking plans."   At Nokia, Vasco managed a program of 500 people across 100 teams on four continents. No way to get everyone in a room. So he tracked system-level throughput — features delivered to integration per week. Six months into a twelve-month project, the data said they'd be at least six months late. He told the program manager: cut scope now. The program manager did what every PMI-trained program manager does — sent an email asking all 100 teams if they'd deliver on time. Every single team said yes. Nobody wants to be first to admit they're late. Twelve months in, they discovered they were six months late. The project got canceled. 500 people, millions of euros, all because somebody believed the plan. Linear predictive planning is useful for exploring what might be possible if nothing goes wrong. It is not reality. The only tool that reflects reality is throughput — the number of items completed per unit of time. Earned Value Management — George Orwell at His Best "It's not earned, it's spent. It's not value, it's cost. It's not management, it's just observation. Monty Python could not have come up with a better name."   Felipe shares a story that mirrors the absurdity: an industrial project with a dedicated 35-person earned value management department. Before the meeting even started, the department head announced, "Let's all acknowledge that earned value management is more an art than a science." Their charts were made up, the contractor's charts were made up, and the goal of the meeting was to agree that the project would finish on time — regardless of what any data said. This is where traditional project management ends up when it disconnects from throughput: a $30 million scope addition with zero additional time, defended by charts that a mediocre attorney can invalidate in the first week of litigation. Felipe knows — he spent a year being cross-examined by forensic schedulers whose full-time job is proving that construction schedules are fiction. One Small Experiment to Test #NoEstimates "Never convince anyone. Convince yourself. Once you're convinced, whatever other people say, it doesn't really matter because you're not gonna take them seriously anyway."   Here's how to validate throughput-based planning with your own data: take the last 10 sprints (or periods). Calculate the average throughput and control limits from the first five. Then check whether the next five sprints fall within that range. They will. If you're in software and using Jira, you already have this data. You don't need anyone's permission. You don't need to change anything. Just look at what your team actually delivers versus what they planned to deliver. The gap between those two numbers is the gap between superstition and reality. About Felipe Engineer-Manriquez Felipe Engineer-Manriquez is a best-selling author, international keynote speaker, Project Delivery Services Director at The Boldt Company, host of The EBFC Show podcast, and a proven construction change-maker implementing Lean and Agile practices on projects from millions to billions of dollars worldwide. He is a Registered Scrum Trainer™ (RST), Registered Scrum Master™ (RSM), and recipient of the Lean Construction Institute Chairman's Award. His book Construction Scrum is the first practical guide for applying Scrum in construction.   You can link with Felipe Engineer-Manriquez on LinkedIn.

Bumper to Bumper Radio, the car guys on KTAR, 92.3 FM in Phoenix, AZ, broadcast every Saturday from 11:00 am ...

In this episode, Stan Parsons delivers a hard-hitting analysis of the modern livestock business model, challenging producers to rethink how they measure success and profitability. The episode explores the difference between financial survival and true economic viability, emphasizing that many ranches operate with positive cash flow while failing to cover the real costs of land, labor, capital, and overhead. Stan reframes ranching as a business first, urging producers to move away from production-focused thinking and toward disciplined economic management. Through practical examples and clear benchmarks, this episode highlights the key drivers of profitability—and the costly habits that hold operations back.

Jennifer talks with Sarah Eppler, a Niche community member who used the Seven Figure Sales tools to rebuild her service suite around real profitability. After digging into the numbers and realizing her pricing didn't reflect her actual time or overhead, Sarah reached out with questions, leading to a deeper look at how to make the math actually work. In this episode, they break down how to work backwards from your income goal, track your time, and price your services based on real labor, trip complexity, and client expectations. Sarah shares what surprised her most when mapping out her time, how she restructured and raised her trip design fees, and how that clarity completely changed her confidence in client conversations. You'll also hear how to qualify clients upfront, reduce time drains like endless revisions and drawn-out timelines, and stop over-delivering in ways that hurt your bottom line.After the episode, come continue the conversation inside the Niche community where we share real advisor strategies, trainings, and support. → JOIN NICHEAbout Sarah Eppler:Sarah is the founder of Sarah Eppler Travel, a luxury travel agency specializing in exclusive, meticulously planned experiences for busy professionals and their families. Before launching her business, she spent over 20 years as a marketing leader with various professional services and media companies, building revenue-generating marketing functions that aligned go-to-market strategies with how people actually buy. She brings that same commercial rigor to conversations about the foundational work that drives a profitable service business — knowing your audience, nailing your positioning, and building a pricing strategy rooted in real numbers.sarahepplertravel.cominstagram.com/sarahepplertravelToday we will cover:(02:45) Sarah's career pivot from B2B marketing to travel advisor(05:30) Why doing the math matters; new packages and pricing(12:40) Client reactions to charging fees(16:00) Should you put your pricing on your website?(22:40) Time tracking reality check; mapping your buyer's journey(30:10) Nice-to-haves vs. must-haves in your process(35:10) What Sarah would do differentlyRecourses mentioned in this Episode:Seven Figure SalesFOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM @TiqueHQThanks to Our Tique Talks Sponsors:Cozy Earth - Use code COZYTIQUE for 20% offFlytographer - Earn commission on professional vacation photographyTravel Collection - Connect and learn more about TC's DMCs

Hosts Pastor Robert Baltodano and Pastor Tim Hamilton Question Timestamps: Joe, YouTube (2:50) - How many books were not considered inspired? Can you give a little bio on the King James Translation? Douglas, NY (8:01) - If Jesus was crucified on Friday and resurrected on Sunday, how do we get three days and three nights? Dave, YouTube (15:15) - How could it be heaven without our pets? Carrie, YouTube (17:13) - Did the Jews learn how to prepare the dead in Egypt? Was Jesus buried without a shroud? Do you think God gave Absalom time to repent because of David's prayers for his son? Ramon, NJ (23:20) - Was Nazareth a despised place like a hood or ghetto? Dawn, NY (26:03) - Do we know who the second disciple along with Andrew is in John 1 verse 35? William, NJ (34:18) - Can you explain the situation where Saul and the witch of Endor brought up the spirit of Samuel? Pamela, AL (40:42) - I have friends that are in a same-sex marriage. Can they get into heaven? Maria, ID (45:43) - Does the Bible give any instructions for baptism for the dead? Susan, NY (48:50) - If God doesn't change, how did He change His mind about Hezekiah's death in 2 Kings 20? What does the phrase "put your house in order" mean in that passage? Jason, SC (53:31) - Can we pray to have someone's heart softened? Ask Your Questions: Call: 888-712-7434 Email: Answers@bbtlive.org

How do we begin to understand the full economic, human, and environmental impacts of war? This hour we talk with someone who is doing that math. Plus, a look at the opportunity costs of spending on war. And, the costs of The American Revolution. GUESTS: Neta Crawford: Professor of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor at The Costs of War Project. She is also author of books including The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions Joseph Ellis: Author of fourteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize winning Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, and National Book Award winning American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. His newest book is The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding Music featured (in order): The World Is A Ghetto – War Loose Ends – Sergio Mendes, Justin Timberlake, Pharoahe Monch The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar – Bob Dylan When the War Came – The Decemberists Hiway 9 – Eliza Gilkyson Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) – Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most agency owners have read Built to Sell. But many have internalized the wrong lesson from it—fixating on that final chapter where the protagonist drives off into the sunset with a pile of cash, rather than the actual business-building advice throughout the book. The result is owners spending years building businesses optimized for a sale that may never happen, or that won’t deliver the outcome they’re imagining. In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss Chip’s “Build to Own” philosophy as a counterpoint to the built-to-sell mindset. The core principle: focus on creating a business that serves you today, not some hypothetical buyer tomorrow. This doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t sell—it means you stop treating the sale as the primary objective and start treating ownership as the thing you’re optimizing for right now. Chip breaks down the TMRW framework for thinking about what you want from your business: Time (how much you spend and what flexibility you have), Meaning (what gives you satisfaction—clients, team, impact), Rewards (financial outcomes that fund your life today and tomorrow), and Work (the actual role you’re crafting for yourself). Gini shares her decision to retire from speaking despite conventional wisdom saying agency owners should be out there raising their profile—because the anxiety wasn’t worth the marginal business benefit. The conversation tackles the uncomfortable reality that most agency owners counting on a sale to fund their retirement are likely building businesses that won’t command the multiple they’re hoping for. Meanwhile, owners who build businesses that throw off enough cash to fund retirement directly—while also being enjoyable to run—end up with something far more attractive to buyers when and if they do decide to sell. Gini tells the story of a friend who prepared five years in advance for a sale: removing himself from day-to-day operations, hiring a president to build culture, ensuring the business wasn’t founder-dependent. The result? An 18x multiple. But the episode’s point isn’t “here’s how to get a great sale”—it’s that you should make every decision through the lens of “would I still be happy with this if I never sold?” Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “What’s the point of taking on all the risk and stress of owning the business if you’re not getting what you want from it? At that point you are working for the business you own rather than putting the business to work for you.” Gini Dietrich: “If you think about it from the perspective of let’s just pretend you’ll never sell the business, what do you want right now? Write those things down and be really honest with yourself, and then build the business around that. I promise you that if you do those things, you’re gonna be much more attractive to a buyer later.” Chip Griffin: “You should always ask yourself the question, would I still be happy with this decision if I didn’t sell? Because that is candidly the more likely scenario for most people listening to this show.” Gini Dietrich: “If you’re implementing somebody else’s plan, just go work for somebody else. There’s no reason to have all the risk and blood and sweat and tears, just go work for someone else.” Turn ideas into action Define your TMRW priorities this week. Block 30 minutes and write down what you actually want from your business right now across four areas: Time (how many hours, what flexibility), Meaning (what gives you satisfaction), Rewards (what financial outcomes you need), and Work (what role you want to play day-to-day). Be brutally honest—not what you think you “should” want, but what you actually want. This clarity becomes your filter for every business decision going forward. Audit your last five major decisions against your ownership goals. Look back at recent significant choices—a new service line, a hiring decision, a client you pursued, a speaking commitment you accepted. For each one, ask: “If I never sell this business, would this decision still make sense for what I want from ownership?” If more than half don’t pass that test, you’re optimizing for the wrong outcome. Calculate whether you’re funding your future or gambling on it. Open your financials and answer three questions: Are you paying yourself a competitive salary (what you’d make if you took a job elsewhere)? Are you contributing to retirement at the level you’d need to retire comfortably without a sale? Is the business profitable enough to sustain both? If the answer to any is “no,” you’re counting on a sale rather than building a business that works for you today—and that’s a bet most owners lose. Resources Chip’s Build to Own philosophy Related Build to Own: Getting More From Agency Ownership Build for TMRW to get more from your agency Adopting the Build to Own Mindset The Build to Own mindset Building the agency you want to own (featuring Chris Williams) View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And I think we’re gonna talk about construction today, Gini. Gini Dietrich: We are. Chip Griffin: We’re gonna talk about building. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Structure. I, Nope, I can’t do it. Sorry. Chip Griffin: It’s my job to torture things. You’re, yes, you’re, Gini Dietrich: yes. I, Chip Griffin: you are too grounded in reality. I’m the one who’s off in Never Never Land making up weird stuff. So, yes. No, we are not talking about about construction, I think. Gini Dietrich: No, but we are talking about building. Chip Griffin: into all sorts of zoning violations and probably code compliance issues and all that. Don’t listen to us on that stuff. Gini Dietrich: We’re not touching construction. Chip Griffin: We are talking instead about my Build to Own concept because it’s something I’ve talked about a little bit over the years, but haven’t really focused on well enough. So I wrote an article about it recently to try to underscore a little bit about my overall philosophy about how you ought to go about running your agency. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I think it’s a really good topic because you know, there’s the book called Built to Sell, which I think probably most of us have read, which the idea is that you’re building process and procedure to be able to sell your business someday. But what does that look like if you don’t sell or that’s not part of your goal, or you’ve built a lifestyle business, or you’re in the middle of it, and you’re like, Ugh, how much longer do I have to do this? Right? And so changing your mindset to be around built to own is, I think a really good one. Chip Griffin: Yeah. And look, I mean, I, I think that there is, like everybody else I have read Built to Sell, I think it is a great book. There’s a lot of good advice in there. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: I think, you know, my issue with it is that a lot of people don’t read all of the advice. And so instead they think about the title of the book. Right. And so it’s, it is very much, a build to sell is, or Build to Own rather, is a definite counterpoint to built to sell because it does two things. First of all, instead of looking in the rear view mirror as built to sell does with the word built instead of build. And also it helps you to understand that you need to think about what’s going on with your business today. Gini Dietrich: Right? Right. Chip Griffin: Yes. Maybe someday you’ll sell, but if you focus just on the maybe someday. You may have a miserable existence until then. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Yeah. Chip Griffin: And too many people read Built to Sell and they dwell on the last couple of pages of the book. Yep. Where it makes it seem like the owner has driven off into the sunset and is sitting on some beach in Tahiti sinking drinking mai tais for the rest of their lives. That is an unlikely scenario. Yes. For most agency owners. We’ve talked about that before. So fundamentally the same things that you want to do in order to be appealing to a buyer, typically, you’re gonna make it more appealing to own as well. But it’s changing your mindset to think about first and foremost, what you want from the business. And, and starting from there, instead of saying, what might somebody else want? Why should I, you know, I wanna get into this particular sector because that’s a hot sector that someone wants to buy, or I wanna focus on growing revenue because if I grow it by, you know, 50% a year, someone’s gonna be excited about it. But what does it mean for you today? Gini Dietrich: Right. Yeah, I think it’s a really good question to ask yourself and, and I think we’ve also talked about this too, that it changes, right? It may not, it may not be the same that it is right now. I mean, in 2012, I remember looking ahead to 2020 and thinking like 2020, the year 2020, like perfect vision, here’s the things that I want to have accomplished. And we all know what happened in 2020, right? Just the, right? So things change. Things… you know, the world happens, the economy happens. Sectors change. Your needs change, your desires change, all of those things. And I think it’s really important to say, what is it that I want to build right now? And be okay with the fact that it may evolve in three years. It may evolve in five years, and that’s okay. Yes. But what is it that we’re trying to build right now and, and how can I be satisfied with that? And I think you raised some really good points in your article, which I will not steal your thunder on, but there’s some really good points in there about how to think through that and figure out what it is that you want right now. Chip Griffin: Yeah, and I think as you say it, it can change regularly. So you ought to be reviewing this regularly. You shouldn’t assume that whatever you decided two years ago is still the right direction because your life changes, the world changes, you learn more. All of those kinds of things. And, so what I typically encourage people to do is, is to think about tomorrow. And I spell that of course, in the, the weird texter way of TMRW because you know, I am, I am that hip and, and that’s, you know, typically how I, I text people too. Sure. At least whenever I can figure out how to even type something into my, my phone because I, I’m terrible at that. But it’s it. So it’s focusing on four things. It’s focusing on time, meaning, rewards, and work. So in other words, you need to think about how much time do you want to spend in the business? What kind of flexibility do you want in that time? What kind of things do you want to carve out additional time for. You need to think about meaning what, you know, how are you gonna get satisfaction from the business? Is it the kind of clients you’re working with, the people that you’re working with? Is it building something that people are proud of and say, wow, this guy did a great thing. What is it that gives you meaning out of it? Rewards pretty self-explanatory, but you know, it’s the financial aspect of it. Are you getting what you want from it? Is it setting you up for your future that you’re trying to have? Whether that’s paying for your kids’ education or funding your retirement or what have you. And you should focus on the business today doing that, not some magical, mystical, possible sale somewhere down the road that may or may not happen. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: And then finally, you need to think about the work that you’re doing because ultimately, if you wanted to do work that you were miserable about, you could go work for somebody else. At least for a while, you probably make some more money than what you would make off of your own business. So you need to make sure that you’re crafting a job, a role that you actually like. So if you think about those things in terms of how you want to build something that you’re happy to own, that’s a good way to start by thinking about the TMRW mindset. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I think it’s really important to do that. You know, it’ll be two years in August that I decided I was retiring from speaking. And, not because of any reason other than it makes me super anxious. It, I get really, really, I get super, super nervous. I get really anxious leading up to it. It’s fine once I’m on stage and it’s fine after, but leading up to it is way too much for me. And I discovered through data that I actually make more money when I don’t leave my desk that often. Right. So while it does help with awareness and all those kinds of things. I’m significantly more productive when I sit at my desk. So I said to myself, from a rewards perspective, what is it that I want to do with the business and with my life? And one of those things was giving up speaking. And you know, to this day, people ask me to speak and I, it’s, it’s hard for me to say no, but I do, because I’ve said to myself, in myself inside my head. You’re retired from speaking. Now I’ll do it virtually and you know, all those things. But getting me up on stage, I’m just not gonna do it anymore. Yeah. And that was a reward for me that I wanted to have, and that, you know, it’s been almost two years. It still remains today. So that may change. I may change my mind, you know, later and want to get back out there again and do it again. Maybe. Maybe not, but, to your point, that’s one of the things that I think about is, you know, how is, how is my life structured right now and what do I want to change so that I’m happier doing it every day? Chip Griffin: Well, and that’s a perfect example of the Build to Own approach because it really allows you to craft something that makes sense for you, even though it violates almost every quote unquote rule that experts would tell you, right? Yes. I mean, most expert advisors, yes, will tell you, you know, as a business owner, as an agency owner, you need to be out there speaking and yes, raising the profile for the business and all of these things. And look, that works for some people. But if you don’t like it, if you don’t want to do it. You shouldn’t. You should think of other ways that you can grow the business. Yep. Same thing with, you know that you will read, including in Built to Sell and elsewhere, that you should get yourself outta day to day client work. Okay. I mean. If that’s what you want, great. If it’s not what you want, figure out how to structure the business so that, that you can do that client service work ’cause that’s what fulfills you. I mean, really, and I know I say this a lot, but what’s the point of taking on all the risk and stress of owning the business if you’re not getting what you want from it? Right. I mean that’s just, yes. It makes no sense. Yes. ’cause at that point you are working for the business you own. Yep. Rather than putting the business to work for you. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s such a good way to look at it, because if you think about it from the perspective of let’s just set aside that you will, let’s just say pretend you’ll never sell. You’ll never sell the business. You know, we don’t know what’s gonna happen to it in the future, but that’s off the table. What do you want right now? Is it the ability to do client work? Is it the ability to work on innovative projects? Is it the ability to sort of think about the future and what that might look like for your business? Is it to make a crap ton of money? What is it that you want? Write those things down and be really honest with yourself, and then build the business around that. And I promise you that if you do those things, you’re gonna be much more attractive to a buyer later than you are if you’re trying to build a business to sell it. Chip Griffin: Exactly. I mean if, if you’re able to build a business that throws off enough cash that you’re able to fund all of your current needs, to fund your retirement and all of those things, that’s the kind of business that a lot more people are going to want to buy. Yeah. If you’re counting on that maybe someday sale to be your payday that allows you to actually retire or those kinds of things. And I see a lot of owners who are in this position. You probably have built something that you’re not gonna get that much of a premium on. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: And so you actually are helping your future sale by collecting more money from the business today. You’re not actually holding back your opportunities, you’re creating more of them. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I think it’s really important to remember that. And you know, I have had several situations with friends who own agencies who have come to me and said, Hey, I’m thinking about putting the business up for sale. I need to be out in the next year. And you’re like, you can’t…. This… what? And have done no preparation for that other than that’s like, I want to retire and that’s the end goal is to sell the business. And there’s no profitability in the business. They haven’t paid themself a fair wage. Like there’s no preparation for it. You know, one of the biggest lessons I learned is I sit on several boards and in 2019, I sat on a board that sold right before the pandemic. And leading up to that five years before he put the business up for sell, he knew he was gonna put the business on the market in five years. He started to look for, first of all, he started to look for ways to take himself out of the business, so it was no longer founder led, and he put key personnel in place. Three years out of selling the business, he hired a president who was building the culture and that the team relied on so that that person would be sold with the business. And he did all of these things to create process and procedure so that when he put the business up for sale, it was not about him as the founder, it was about the business. And he got… I think he ended up with like 18 times multiple because of it. But he spent five years doing that, right? And he built a team and he built key personnel and he ensured that those people had the right contracts in place and the right salaries in place that they would then go with the business when he sold it. And he, of course, he had a little bit of an earnout, but it wasn’t as significant as if he were the, as if it were founder led. So there were all these things he did that he did to prepare for that for five years. So my team and I look at every 90 days, we do a 90 day sprint and we look at what process is broken right now and how can we fix that. But at the same time, I’m not doing anything that I don’t enjoy. I’m focused on the things I want to do and I’m building the business around it. Will we put the business up for sale someday? Maybe. I dunno, we’ll see. But right now we’re building a business that I enjoy owning. We’re having a blast. Chip Griffin: Right. Well look, I mean, you know, as I say over and over again, because I, the biggest objection I hear when I talk about Build to Own is, geez, you know, I, but, but I wanna sell someday. I, I, you know, I don’t wanna do this forever. Okay. Build to Own in no way precludes it. Gini Dietrich: Right? Right. Chip Griffin: And it, all I’m saying to you is that instead of making selling your focus, you should focus on the ownership piece because you know that you own the business. You know that you will own the business. You’re not sure if you’re going to sell. If you are, you certainly do want to take the steps to prepare that your friend did. And, and the more, time that you have to prepare and think about and structure the business, the more likely you are to have success. But it’s still not a sure thing, right? You may not get right the kind of offer that you’re looking for, you may not get the terms that you’re looking for. Yep. And so you should always, even if you’re thinking about selling one day and you want to generally position for that, you should always ask yourself the question, would I still be happy with this decision if I didn’t sell? Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: Because that is the, that is candidly the more likely scenario for most people listening to this show. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, and I think it’s reality. Your, your advice to focus on things as a business owner, which are funding your retirement. Making a livable salary. Making a salary that, you know, if the business were bought, you would, they have to see that you’re making a salary that would compete with, like if you went to get a job, would you make $80,000 a year? Would you make $30,000 a year? No, you would probably make mid to high six figures. You have to be able to pay yourself at that level. You have to have profitability. Like those things are the things that you should be focused on. And if you do that and you never sell your business, you’re still okay. Correct. Because you’ve funded your retirement and you’ve paid for the things that are going to support your lifestyle. Chip Griffin: Correct. And you weren’t miserable in the process. I mean, you know, look, it’s often said that life is short. You don’t know what the future holds. And so, you know, are you happy to spend five or 10 years being miserable because you think right, that maybe someday, maybe someday you’ll be able to sell for some big number. Gini Dietrich: No. No. Chip Griffin: Why would you do that? No, and and I’m not, I’m not some woo woo, Oh, you know, you, you have to be happy and everything, and Gini Dietrich: You’re definitely not. Chip Griffin: It’s all sunshine and unicorns and all of that. I mean, no, no. I mean, even if you follow my, my Build to Own approach, you’re still gonna have some. Really miserable days as a business owner. Gini Dietrich: Yep, yep. Chip Griffin: It’s not all going to be fun. Mm-hmm. You have to do a lot of things you do not want to do. You do not enjoy. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: However, those should be in the minority and they certainly shouldn’t be because you’re doing something with the sole objective of maybe someday selling. Gini Dietrich: Right. Yeah, that’s absolutely true. It’s funny you say that because I had a miserable Friday last week and today is Monday when we’re recording this and I feel much better. But yeah, I mean, you’re not, I, I love my job. I love what we do. I love what we’re building, but it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. That’s life. Chip Griffin: That’s life. It’s entrepreneurship. It’s, it’s the risk and the stress that I talk about. It’s, it’s all of those things. But you can still structure it in a way. Yes. That gets you more of what you want. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Chip Griffin: And is not following someone else’s formula for success. Right. Or what someone else might be interested in potentially buying. Yes. Is figuring out what works for you? What gives you what you need and want from the business? And I think if you’re, if you spend your time looking at those and evaluating all of the decisions you make in your business, whether that’s, you know, what kinds of clients you’re pursuing, what sectors you’re working in, the service mix that you provide, the people that you hire to be around you, how you compensate yourself, all of these decisions should be looked at through that frankly rather selfish lens. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: Of what you want as an owner. Gini Dietrich: Absolutely. Chip Griffin: Because it, it will not only make you happier, it will likely make you have a better business. Because if you’re just implementing someone else’s plan, you’re not gonna be as committed to it as something where you can understand, I’m doing this for me, I’m doing this for my family. I’m doing this to get what I want from my business. Gini Dietrich: And if you’re implementing somebody else’s plan, just go work for somebody else, Chip Griffin: right? Gini Dietrich: There’s no reason to have all the risk and flood and sweat and tears, like just go work for someone else. Chip Griffin: Yeah. I mean, it’s, it is really, if you’re going to be an owner, you have to have an owner’s mindset. Yeah. You can’t have an employee’s mindset as an owner because that you, you’ll just, you’ll fail and you will feel miserable at the same time. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. Chip Griffin: That’s not a good combination. Gini Dietrich: I, I think, I mean, I’m sure Jen will include the link to your article in the show notes. It was, it’s really well done. I read it and I was like, we need to talk about this because it’s, it really helps you change that mindset from building a business to sell it and versus building a business to own it. And I think you still can absolutely, to your point, still sell it someday, but you’ll be much happier if you’re building a business to own it right now. Chip Griffin: Imagine if the, if the sale is the gravy, right? Imagine if you’ve already stockpiled your nest egg and you know, I don’t have to sell. I mean, first of all, that takes the pressure off you. You can negotiate a much better deal if you’re not forced into doing it. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: And we all know this, right? I mean Yep. Anytime you can walk away from a deal, you’re likely to get better terms. Gini Dietrich: Absolutely. Chip Griffin: So, so if you can say, look, I’m confident. Now take it or leave it, buddy. This is, this is what you’re gonna have to pay me for this business. This is what you’re gonna have to give me in terms of an earnout and an employment agreement and all of those kinds of things. And if you don’t, that’s fine. Yeah, I’m still good. I can walk away. Good. Right. Imagine how much more powerful that is. And imagine now you’re thinking about your sale as something that allows you to do something maybe extra special with your retirement as opposed to just having a comfortable one. Gini Dietrich: Right. Chip Griffin: I mean, I’ll take that any day of the week. Gini Dietrich: Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Chip Griffin: With that, I hope, hope you had a good day of the week by listening to us. That was kind of a tortured wrap up, but you know, it is what it is. We constructed some good ideas for you today. I dunno, we just, we, Gini Dietrich: no terrible. No, no. Chip Griffin: We’re just gonna let this go here. So with that, we’ll wrap up this episode. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: I’m Gini Dietrich Chip Griffin: and it depends.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey joins us for a wide-ranging conversation recorded in one sitting for both podcastsSenator Booker first rose to national prominence as the mayor of Newark, where he built a reputation for hands-on leadership and bold policy ideas. He has now served more than a decade in the U.S. Senate, becoming one of the most prominent voices in the Democratic Party.He's also entering a new chapter personally: Booker recently married and is expecting his first child—something that clearly shapes how he thinks about issues like childcare, family economics, and investing in America's future.Our conversation comes as Senator Booker unveils a new proposal called the Keep Your Pay Act—a plan that would eliminate federal income taxes on the first $75,000 of income, a move he says could dramatically increase take-home pay for many middle-class families. In this conversation, we discuss:• The Keep Your Pay Act and how it could affect American households• Why Senator Booker believes the tax system is “rigged” against working families• The rising cost of childcare and early education in America• Immigration reform and the climate of fear many immigrant families feel today• The growing power of big media companies and why independent creators matter• The economic implications of the war in Iran, including rising energy costs• Whether Booker sees a presidential run in his futureCalculate how much Booker's proposed tax act could save your household. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary Auditing your expenses can dramatically improve financial awareness, helping you identify money leaks and understand your true living costs. In this episode, the hosts present a structured four-step framework aimed at facilitating regular expense audits, which ideally should be conducted annually. The discussion includes practical strategies for tracking subscriptions, variable expenses, and distinguishing between required and discretionary spending. By adopting a calculated approach to expenses, you can effectively mitigate lifestyle creep while ensuring every dollar serves a purpose. Key Tactical Takeaways Conduct an Annual Expense Audit: Establish a routine to review expenses at least once a year to stay on top of spending habits and identify areas for improvement. Categorize Every Expense: Break down expenditures into necessary (fixed costs) and discretionary (variable costs) categories for clearer insights. Use a Value Matrix: Assess expenses based on their joy and necessity to inform which should be retained, reduced, or eliminated. Track Subscriptions and Variable Costs: Pay attention to recurring payments, particularly those related to entertainment and services like streaming or software. Calculate the Long-Term Impact of Small Savings: Remember that cutting small monthly expenses can significantly affect your financial independence number over time. Core Rules & Formulas Rule Explanation Annual Expense Audit Review all expenses once a year to prevent overspending and identify leaks. Categorization of Expenses Differentiate between Required (fixed) and Discretionary (variable) expenses. Value Matrix Implementation Organize spending into High Joy/ Low Joy and Essential/ Eliminate quadrants. Prioritize Necessary Expenses Always account for essential bills, including utilities, groceries, and housing costs. Evaluate Impact of Expenses Each $100 cut from monthly expenses reduces your FI number by $30,000 and if invested can generate $60,000 over time (20-year horizon). Tools, Accounts, or Strategies Mentioned Tool/Strategy Link/Description Expense Audit Spreadsheet Download here     Value Matrix Framework Framework for analyzing the necessity and joy of expenses. Resources & References ChooseFI Episode 009: Travel Rewards Framework Expense Audit Spreadsheet: Download What To Do Next Join the Expense Audit Challenge: Participate in the community challenge to gain insights and support while auditing your finances. Download Your Bank and Credit Card Statements: Begin your audit by gathering statements from the last few months. Categorize Your Expenses: Use the expense audit spreadsheet to identify necessary vs. discretionary spending. Reflect on Your Findings: After auditing, identify any hidden expenses or subscriptions that can be cut, and share insights with the community at choosefi.com/login. Conducting an Effective Expense Audit: A Step-by-Step Guide Understanding the Expense Audit Definition: An expense audit is a systematic review of your expenditures to identify unnecessary spending and money leaks. Goal: The aim is to clarify how much your life actually costs. Importance of Regular Expense Audits Frequency: Conduct an expense audit at least once a year to keep track of spending habits. Long-term Tracking: Monitor for lifestyle creep, which can happen gradually and affect your financial health over time. Action Steps to Begin Your Expense Audit Gather Financial Data: Download your recent bank and credit card statements (last 3 to 4 months). Check statements for variances and patterns in spending. Categorize Your Expenses: Separate them into categories such as housing, transportation, food, entertainment, and miscellaneous. Include all necessary and discretionary expenditures. Identifying Money Leaks Subscription Services: Track all recurring subscriptions and evaluate their necessity. Variable vs. Fixed Expenses: Distinguish between fixed permissible expenses (mortgage, insurance) and variable spendings (dining out, entertainment) to identify areas for improvement. Implementing a Value Matrix Categorization: Create a value matrix to differentiate between: High Joy (essential to happiness) Low Joy (non-essential) Essential (required for daily living) Eliminate (unnecessary expenses) Analyze Each Category: Assess each item in terms of value and joy to decide if it should remain in your budget.

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin answer four Pump Head questions drawn from last Sunday's Quah post on the @mindpumpmedia Instagram page. Mind Pump Fit Tip: How to Calculate Volume and Progressively Overload for MAX GAINS. (2:09) Fish roe vs fish oil. What's the difference? (23:21) Bringing out the science dork in Adam. (25:32) Getting your head in the right place before a MASSIVE change in your training. (31:14) The benefits of the 'water pump'. (38:07) Levers and pulleys. (41:31) Do asthma medications stunt growth in children? (45:56) An 'Our Place' unboxing. (49:21) #Quah question #1 – Are there any actual benefits to vibration plates, or is it another gimmick in the fitness industry? (53:53) #Quah question #2 – I'm new to lifting with a barbell, and I have a home gym. I frequently lift when I am home alone. My goal is to progress to heavy squats, but I'm afraid of hurting myself or getting stuck at the bottom. What is the best rep range for me? (57:09) #Quah question #3 – What grip/type of pressing movement would be easiest on the rotator cuffs? (1:01:32) #Quah question #4 – I have an L5 bulging disc that causes me pretty frequent pain, and I am trying to recover/heal it, but my chiropractor says it could take 3- 6months to fully heal. How am I supposed to train when I can't load heavy? Especially the lower body exercises like squats, deadlifts, etc. (1:04:25) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Paleovalley for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Discount is now automatically applied at checkout 15% off your first order! ** Visit Our Place for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code MINDPUMP at checkout to receive 10% off sitewide. 100-day trial with free shipping and returns. ** February Promotion: Feb 1 - Feb 14th - The Couple's Bundle (Aesthetic, HIIT, Muscle Mommy, No BS 6-Pack Abs), $498 value, only $197!  Visit: https://www.mpvalentine.com  Mind Pump Store Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Asthma drug may stunt growth permanently Visit Joymode for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Enter MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off your first order. ** How to Choose the Correct Weight for a Lift - YouTube Suspension Training Series – 3 Favorite Shoulder Exercises The Face Pull Variation You NEED To Try (Healthy Shoulders!) Handcuff with Rotation (Mind Pump) - YouTube The Wall Test | Mind Pump TV Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Mike Salemi (@mike.salemi) Instagram Justin Brink DC (@dr.justinbrink) Instagram  

5 Simple Systems That Turn Evening Hours Into Recurring Revenue Streams   Episode Summary Discover how digital entrepreneurs, especially busy parents, are leveraging AI automation to create profitable side hustles that fit into just 90-minute evening blocks. This episode dives deep into five "boring" but lucrative AI automation systems that require no coding skills, generating $1,500 to $5,000 in sales each. From email categorization to podcast repurposing, these digital marketing strategies solve real business problems while helping you build recurring income streams. Whether you're new to digital products or looking to enhance your online entrepreneurship journey, this guide is packed with tips for entrepreneurs aiming to make money online without sacrificing family time. Tune in to learn actionable email marketing tips, automation workflows, and other digital product ideas perfect for parents striving to balance business and life. Key Timestamps & Insights 00:00 - Opening 00:55 - Episode Overview 01:25 - The Parent Advantage 02:45 - Immersive Success Story 06:20 - The 5 Profitable Automation Systems 14:25 - Newsletter CTA 15:00 - Intelligent Elevation 16:20 - Whiskered Wisdom Strategies Shared The 90-Minute Build Strategy Leverage limited evening time for focused automation building Use constraints to force clarity and essential features only The Boring Beats Brilliant Approach Focus on simple, linear workflows over complex AI agents Solve obvious problems for obvious money The Local Network Launch Start with businesses you know personally (dentist, daycare, coffee shop) Observe repetitive manual tasks before proposing solutions The Referral Multiplication Method One satisfied client becomes your best sales force Same system, different clients, recurring revenue The Problem-First Framework Identify pain points before building solutions Focus on time-saving value over impressive technology Resources Mentioned Make.com - Visual automation platform (no coding required) Apify - Data scraping service for lead research OpenAI - AI processing for email categorization and content N8N - Alternative automation platform AI Escape Plan Newsletter - Step-by-step automation guides for parents Action Steps to Take Immediate Action (This Week) Pick one small business in your network Spend 15 minutes observing their repetitive manual tasks Write down potential automation opportunities Learning Phase (Next 30 Days) Create free Make.com account Build simple email sorting system for yourself Document your learning process Validation Phase (Month 2) Approach one business owner with observed problem Calculate time/cost savings of automation solution Propose pilot project with clear ROI Scale Phase (Month 3+) Refine successful system for replication Build referral network through satisfied clients Develop recurring maintenance contracts Subscribe to the AI Escape Plan Newsletter - DarkHorseInsider.com - Get practical, AI-powered strategies to start, grow, and streamline side hustles designed to protect family time while boosting income. Next issue includes step-by-step automation building guide with screenshots and parent-tested workflows.   Episode Quote "Boring beats brilliant when it comes to building wealth. While everyone else is chasing the latest AI agent or complex chatbot, you're going to focus on simple, linear workflows that solve obvious problems for obvious money."