Podcasts about Combined

Bonus Release recorded LIVE from Southern Region ACDA in Raleigh, 2022: Today's panel is comprised of 6 educators and advocates. Combined, they bring a wide variety of experiences to the table including: K-12, collegiate, and community choir. Maria A. Ellis - ‘Girl Conductor' - is a Music Education Consultant, Creator of Diverse Music Resources, and Conductor. Jasmine Fripp - ‘The Passionate Black Educator' -  is a Music Curriculum Specialist and Anti-Racist Education Trainer. Kanisha Howard - the ‘Connected Black Educator - is a music educator and musician based in Georgia. Dr. Chantae D. Pittman is a high school choral director, adjudicator, researcher, and music education equity advocate. Christina Vehar - the ‘Full of Heart Educator' - is a middle school choral and theatre director, advocate, clinician, and graduate student at Florida State University. The panel is being moderated by Dr. Emily Williams Burch, the coordinator of music education at the University of South Carolina - Aiken, the founding artistic director of RISE Chorales in Savannah, GA, and the host of the “Music (ed) Matters” podcast. This session features an interactive panel discussion that will utilize action-based perspectives emphasized by diversity, social-emotional learning, and culturally-relevant pedagogy to apply to real-world classroom scenarios. Session attendees will have an opportunity to submit questions about how to actively approach classroom scenarios, and the panel will then discuss practical ways to support both students and the director in selected scenarios.The video of this episode and all handouts are available, especially for the Patrons of pod. It's super easy to support the podcast and join the community over at Patreon.com/MusicEdMatters. In addition to this video, Patreon get monthly meet-ups, monthly bonus episodes, special pre-release book content and more!Follow the panel on their social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Clubhouse. Maria A. Ellis (Girl Conductor)Jasmine Fripp (The Passionate Black Educator)Kanisha Howard (The Connected Black Educator)Dr. Chantae Pittman (TheeDocP)Christina Vehar (fullofheARTeducator)Support the companies that make The Music (ed) Matters Podcast possible: —Kaleidoscope Adventures - find your adventure today, kaleidoscopeadventures.com/. — The Kinnison Choral Company - check out their quality resources - or get your tracks made today - at KinnisonChoralCo.com. **Show music originally written by Mr. Todd Monsell**Show photography provided by Dr. Dan Biggerstaff

Over the last two decades Dave Asprey, “The Father of Biohacking”, has worked with world-renowned doctors, researchers, scientists, and global mavericks to uncover the latest, most innovative methods, techniques, and products for enhancing mental and physical performance. Dave has personally spent over $2 million taking control of his own biology – pushing the bounds of human possibility all in the name of science evolution and revolution.   The creator of the Bulletproof Diet, and innovator of Bulletproof Coffee, Collagen Protein supplements and many more advances in commercial wellness products, Dave's mission is to empower the entire globe with information and knowledge that unlocks the Super Human in everyone at any age. The proof of these advancements are better sleep, energy, and expanded capacity for all. Be a better partner, parent, provider, and overall human being in every aspect of life.   So, how did Dave combine the world of Biology and Biohacking with Franchising?   In this episode, Erik dives in with Dave to discuss how he brought biohacking to the mainstream and made it accessible to everyone.   Topics Discussed in today's episode:   #Biohacking #StrategicHiring #Franchising #MedicalFranchises #NonMedicalFranchises #BulletproofCoffee   and much more!   Growth is much easier when you're surrounded by like-minded, driven people. The Franchise Tribe Mastermind is full of successful Franchisees who are looking to shortcut the path to success and add value to other people while developing a tight-knit community along the way.   Sound like a good fit for you? Check out FranchiseTribe.com for more info!     Did you know you can listen to the Franchise Secrets Podcast on your favorite platforms?   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4BpskQSFxnii9nm4p6ZFMy?si=dc5599b742044aae   Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/franchise-secrets-podcast/id1460276956   Erik Van Horn is a franchising specialist, and expert in multi-unit, semi-absentee franchise business ownership. From entrepreneur to regional developer, and investor to consultant, Erik has worn many hats over the last two decades, which has provided him unique insight into complex aspects of the industry. If you're a franchisee, a franchisor, or one aspiring to be, subscribe to the Franchise Secrets channel and visit www.FranchiseSecrets.com for even more tactical and practical tools to help you buy, grow, and sell franchises like an expert.

For context, we at the K12 Security Information Exchange (K12 SIX) are a relatively new K12-specific ISAC – launched to help protect the US K12 sector from emerging cybersecurity risk. One of our signature accomplishments in our first year was the development and release of our ‘essential protections' series – an effort to establish baseline cybersecurity standards for schools. See: https://www.k12six.org/essential-cybersecurity-protections https://www.grf.org/ Global Resilience Federation We will help your industry develop or enhance a trusted threat information sharing community, obtain actionable intelligence, and support you in emergencies.   We all count on the resiliency of essential services - services from the electricity powering our homes and the connectivity of entertainment apps, to the legal systems and financial pipelines driving the global economy. But this infrastructure faces constant threats from hacktivists, criminals, and rogue states, and they are growing in sophistication.   Leveraging nearly 20 years of ISAC and ISAO expertise, GRF is a non-profit created to connect sharing communities, for mutual defense.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e441b46adfb340b05008fe7/t/611d5fceff375d79ff4507c7/1629315022292/K12+SIX+Essential+Cybersecurity+Protections+2021+2022.pdf   https://theconversation.com/cybercriminals-use-pandemic-to-attack-schools-and-colleges-167619   https://edscoop.com/texas-school-paid-547k-ransomware-jam/    https://statescoop.com/ransomware-allen-texas-school-district-email-parents/    https://www.toptal.com/insights/innovation/cybersecurity-in-higher-education   https://www.highereddive.com/spons/inside-higher-educations-ransomware-crisis-how-colleges-and-universities/609688/   https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/politics/ransomware-schools-website/index.html https://www.13abc.com/2021/02/22/toledo-public-school-students-seeing-effects-of-massive-data-breach/ 2020 report: https://k12cybersecure.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/StateofK12Cybersecurity-2020.pdf   85-89% are underneath 2,500 students Omg: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otv0KzkfLSc –Florida mom, daughter accused of rigging homecoming queen votes break silence l GMA   There are 130,930 public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., according to 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here's how they break down:   All: 130,930 Elementary schools: 87,498 Secondary schools: 26,727 Combined schools: 15,804 Other: 901 What are some of the ways you go about addressing the challenge of even reaching smaller schools? Does the isac help?   How do you communicate major security events like log4j? Do you keep track of complications with certain software stacks?   Someone listening might say “hey, I'd love to help…” what/if any opportunities can the larger infosec community do to help your org?

Hi friends! Introducing the brand new TONE Device! Struggling to lose weight or reach your fitness goals? The TONE is a new breath acetone meter which lets you know if your body is burning fat!  All TONE devices are NOW SHIPPING Worldwide!! Order the TONE here. Now shipping worldwide!!  Order the Black & Gold TONE HERE Order the Black & Rose Gold TONE HERE This the FULL GUIDE to PROTEIN POWDERS and supplementing with Shawn Wells, Registered Dietitian, Sport Nutritionist & Biochemist! Shawn has been a formulator and expert in this field and we have an in-depth discussion on the various uses of protein powders, formulations, whey vs. egg, soy, pea, rice protein, concentrates vs. isolates and SO MUCH MORE!!  Check out Shawn on Instagram Here Check out Shawn's book Here Follow @optimalproteinpodcast on Instagram to see visuals and posts mentioned on this podcast. Link to join the facebook group for the podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2017506024952802/ Follow Vanessa on instagram to see her meals, recipes, informative posts and much more! Click here @ketogenicgirl Try the Higher Protein Keto Meal Plans & Coaching: https://www.ketogenicgirl.com Special thank you to our podcast sponsor: Introducing a breakthrough NEW digestive product called kApex® by BiOptimizers! kApex® is designed to rev up your cellular metabolism, which boosts your energy and capacity to burn fat as fuel.  Combined with a solid diet and workout plan, this combination of nutrients delivers a powerful boost in your ability to shed weight and reach your body composition goals.  VISIT www.kenergize.com/fastketo10 and use the code FASTKETO for 10% off any order! That's www.kenergize.com/fastketo10 with the code FASTKETO. - Prior to beginning a ketogenic diet you should undergo a health screening with your physician to confirm that a ketogenic diet is suitable for you and to rule out any conditions and contraindications that may pose risks or are incompatible with a ketogenic diet, including by way of example: conditions affecting the kidneys, liver or pancreas; muscular dystrophy; pregnancy; breast-feeding; being underweight; eating disorders; any health condition that requires a special diet [other conditions or contraindications]; hypoglycemia; or type 1 diabetes. A ketogenic diet may or may not be appropriate if you have type 2 diabetes, so you must consult with your physician if you have this condition. Anyone under the age of 18 should consult with their physician and their parents or legal guardian before beginning such a diet. Use of Ketogenic Girl videos are subject to the Ketogenicgirl.com Terms of Use and Medical Disclaimer. All rights reserved. If you do not agree with these terms, do not listen to, or view any Ketogenic Girl podcasts or videos.  

On this Feel Good Friday edition of WUL, I talk with Aaron Reece. Aaron works a full time 9-5 and got started with Legendary back in October to build his online business on the side. Today he shares how he got started with Legendary, why you shouldn't try appearing like you have it all figured out, the power in writing things down, and a bunch more.

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg and Pricilla Chan announced their second large set of charitable gifts into the carbon removal field in the last six months. Specifically, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative announced $44 million in grants towards CDR. Combined with the $23 million they gave in October of 2021, the couple has given $67 million to support carbon removal in the last five months. They join other billionaires like Jeremy Grantham and Elon Musk, whose giving has shown they also see CDR as an important part of the climate fight. While a few foundations, such as CZI, have the resources to look deeply at supporting the carbon removal industry, many corporations rely on net-zero plans that lack full detail about carbon accounting and emissions reductions plans. A report released earlier this month by the New Climate Institute and Carbon Market Watch found that the net-zero plans of 25 of the world's most valuable companies are not specific and don't explain how they'll reduce emissions by 2050. A new coalition announced last week aims to fill this alleged gap in credibility between corporate plans and real action. Microsoft and the Climateworks Foundation announced “Carbon Call,” a partnership between 20 corporates, non-profits, and research organizations. In a statement to Axios, the group is building what they call “a carbon ledger…a global dashboard that tells you what exactly is happening in terms of emissions,” in a statement . Signatories include Deloitte, GlaxoSmithKline, and the UN Environment Program. The coalition will use their pooled resources and expertise to improve the carbon accounting methodologies used in corporate emissions reporting. Ultimately, they hope this will allow corporate and national emission data to be accurate and directly comparable. In this week's business episode, hosts Radhika Moolgavkar, Susan Su, and Na'im Merchant discuss the CZI gifts, how Carbon Call aims to improve corporate emissions accounting, and the short supply of quality carbon removal available to meet the skyrocketing demand. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/carbonremovalnewsroom/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/carbonremovalnewsroom/support

Photo:   The Hall of Space Technology in the Tsiolkovsky* State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, Kaluga, Russia. The exhibition includes the models and replicas of the following Russian/Soviet inventions: the first satellite, Sputnik 1 (a ball under the ceiling); the first spacesuits (lower-left corner); the first human spaceflight module, the Vostok 3KA (center); the first Molniya-type satellite (upper right corner); the first space rover, Lunokhod 1 (lower right); the first space station, Salyut 1 (left); the first modular space station, Mir (upper left). *[The honest-to-goodness genius Konstantin Tsiolkovky] #HotelMars: ISS continues combined NASA, Roscosmos and ESA endeav]or on Nauka Module and ESA robotic arm.  @Russianspaceweb Anatoly Zak. David Livingston, SpaceShow.com http://www.russianspaceweb.com/protected/mlm-era-activation.html#2022_0124

Stand Firm in Your Freedom Crucified or Conceited Galatians 5:23b-26 (NIV) – Against such things there is no law. [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. [25] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. NIV – [23] Against such things there is no law. KJV – [23] Against such there is no law. AMP – [23] Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge]. NLT – [23] There is no law against these things. MSG – [23] Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. 1. “Such things” is referring to the Fruit of the Spirit. a. Because love, joy, peace, etc. can never be wrong or evil, there is no law against them. b. In addition, legalism though observance to the law will never produce the fruit of the Spirit in us. (Romans 7:4-6) Romans 7:4-6 (NIV) – [4] So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. [5] For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. [6] But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. NIV – [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. KJV – [24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. AMP – [24] And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. NLT – [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. MSG – [24] Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. 2. The reason believers are to no longer live a sinful lifestyle is because that lifestyle was crucified when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior. (Romans 6:6) Romans 6:6 (NIV) – [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — [7] because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. a. Like any crucifixion, death is guaranteed, but not necessarily immediate. (Luke 9:23; 2 Corinthians 4:10) Luke 9:23 (NIV) – [23] Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 2 Corinthians 4:10 (NIV) – [10] We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. b. Therefore, though the sinful nature has been crucified, we still struggle with its influence. c. Though we will not be entirely free from the desires of the sinful nature in this life, by the power of the Holy Spirit, those desires no longer control and rule us. (Galatians 2:20) Galatians 2:20 (NIV) – [20] I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. d. We have been saved from the PENALTY of sin (hell), we are being saved from the POWER of sin (sanctification), and we will eventually be saved from the very PRESENCE of sin (heaven). NIV – [25] Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. KJV – [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. AMP – [25] If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in God, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.] NLT – [25] Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. MSG – [25] Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. 3. The best way to learn to stop doing wrong it to start living right. a. It is not enough to stop practicing the acts of the sinful nature; we must also start producing the fruit of the Spirit. b. “Keep in step” (stoicheo) means to walk in a straight line, to arrange in a row, to march in military rank. (Romans 4:12) Romans 4:12 – [12] And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. c. Keeping in step with the Spirit means following the Spirit’s leading without wavering or taking detours. NIV – [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. KJV – [26] Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. AMP – [26] Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another. NLT – [26] Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. MSG – [26] That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. 4. “Conceited” (kenodoxos) is a compound word: “keno” is translated “empty or vain,” and doxa means, “glory or praise.” a. Combined, it means vainglory, empty praise, false pride; full of empty boasting; to have a false estimate of oneself; one who talks big. b. Conceit promotes competition and comparison which provokes envy. c. And envy is one of the acts of the sinful nature. (Galatians 5:21) d. When we walk in the Spirit, we won’t think too highly of ourselves. e. When we walk in the Spirit, we won’t purposely stir up strife and dissension or covet the possessions or positions of others.

Mike Church Show -The Elites Decree The CoronaDoom Has Been Shelved For Russia, Russia, Russia Time  Red Pill Topics & Headlines 6:03am cst Welcome to the Mike Church Show on www.crusadechannel.com Call the show            844-5CRUSADE   Make Canon212 your first place to get news each day. Canon212 - News of the Church and the World.   Glory and Shine to the Crusade Channel crusadechannel.com/glory   HEADLINE RUNDOWN -  Mike Pence Ukraine and Russia situation Biden puts sanctions on Russia More Ivermectin news   AUDIO/VIDEO: ORGANIZER KYLE SEFCIK - U.S. convoy organizer has a message for Pres. Biden.   53m HEADLINE: Putin Orders Russian Troops Into Ukraine Breakaway Regions by Jack Phillips  At one time Russia was regarded as part of Christendom. What is on the rise in Russia? Russian Orthodox I think we are seeing the event playing out right now. The world is now talking about Russia, what was the lynch pin of what Our Lady of Fatima said? HEADLINE: The Crisis in Ukraine Is Not About Ukraine. It's About Germany by Mike Whitney   HEADLINE: Putin responds to imperialism accusations by Ailis Halligan   ONE TIME DONATION LINK - https://crusadechannel.com/donate-to-the-crusade-channel/   Crusade Channel Teaming Up With Epoch Times www.crusadechannel.com/epoch (affiliate link)   If you have any issues that need to be resolved, please email Maggie O'Connell directly at sales@mikechurch.com or Candace her personal email candace@mikechurch.com   Do business with those that do business with us. BullDog Kia have been with us since day one of Veritas Radio Network and the Crusade Channel. Get your Kia today from the fine folks at BullDog Kia in Atlanta Georgia.   BRAVE BROWSER: Now you can support the Crusade Channel without spending a DIME! Simply use the url to download the BRAVE browser and WE get credit: http://brave.com/mik060 We can earn up to $50,000 for the downloads if our listeners use this browser. 7:15am cst Welcome back to The Mike Church Show! Call the Crusade Channel at 844-5CRUSADE! Join our FREE LIVE chatroom where you can chat with fellow Crusaders.   Listen to us on ShortWave - 5850    HEADLINE: 27 page rebuttal letter from 8 industrial hygienists complaining about flawed CDC mask guidance by Steve Kirsch Substack This is to make scientism the NORM. CDC, FDA, NIH, IRS, CIA, FBI, NBA, NCAA, MLB, NFL, MLS, PGA, ATP, NRA - name the alphabet entity that isn't corrupt.   1h20m  HEADLINE: New JAMA paper show Ivermectin blows the COVID vaccines out of the water by Steve Kirsch Substack  Summary: It doesn't get much better than this. A paper published in JAMA showing ivermectin is three times better than the vaccines in preventing death. Combined with the risk data of the vaccines, it's clear that if you are given a choice, you'd always choose ivermectin and never choose the vaccine.   CRUSADER CONGRESS - UPON THESE ROCKS.CO  TICKET LINK - https://shop.mikechurch.com/tickets-for-the-2022-crusader-c-o-n-g-r-e-s-s-fellowship-of-the-clans/ 1h45m    AUDIO/VIDEO: Bill Gates Munich Security Conf 2022 - ‘If every country did what Australia did, we wouldn't be calling this a pandemic.' AUDIO/VIDEO: Justin Trudeau - ‘Canada will defend democracy, we stand against authoritarianism, the people of Ukraine must be free to determine their own future.' AUDIO/VIDEO: Chrystia Freeland - discusses her plans to make the Emergency Powers permanent. So are they going to go into citizens donation history and then charge them w/ a crime after the fact? At the top of the chain, at the highest level, at the end of the day we have a solution here at the Crusade Channel. We know what terrifies them, the FAITH!   1h55m AUDIO/VIDEO: Yuval Noah Harai at the WEF 2018 - How will the future masters of the planet look like?

The K12 Security Information Exchange (K12 SIX) are a relatively new K12-specific ISAC – launched to help protect the US K12 sector from emerging cybersecurity risk. One of our signature accomplishments in our first year was the development and release of our ‘essential protections' series – an effort to establish baseline cybersecurity standards for schools. See: https://www.k12six.org/essential-cybersecurity-protections https://www.grf.org/ Global Resilience Federation We will help your industry develop or enhance a trusted threat information sharing community, obtain actionable intelligence, and support you in emergencies.   We all count on the resiliency of essential services - services from the electricity powering our homes and the connectivity of entertainment apps, to the legal systems and financial pipelines driving the global economy. But this infrastructure faces constant threats from hacktivists, criminals, and rogue states, and they are growing in sophistication.   Leveraging nearly 20 years of ISAC and ISAO expertise, GRF is a non-profit created to connect sharing communities, for mutual defense.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e441b46adfb340b05008fe7/t/611d5fceff375d79ff4507c7/1629315022292/K12+SIX+Essential+Cybersecurity+Protections+2021+2022.pdf   https://theconversation.com/cybercriminals-use-pandemic-to-attack-schools-and-colleges-167619   https://edscoop.com/texas-school-paid-547k-ransomware-jam/    https://statescoop.com/ransomware-allen-texas-school-district-email-parents/    https://www.toptal.com/insights/innovation/cybersecurity-in-higher-education   https://www.highereddive.com/spons/inside-higher-educations-ransomware-crisis-how-colleges-and-universities/609688/   https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/politics/ransomware-schools-website/index.html https://www.13abc.com/2021/02/22/toledo-public-school-students-seeing-effects-of-massive-data-breach/ 2020 report: https://k12cybersecure.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/StateofK12Cybersecurity-2020.pdf   85-89% of school systems have 2,500 students or fewer Omg: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otv0KzkfLSc –Florida mom, daughter accused of rigging homecoming queen votes break silence   There are 130,930 public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., according to 2017-18 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here's how they break down:   All: 130,930 Elementary schools: 87,498 Secondary schools: 26,727 Combined schools: 15,804 Other: 901 What are some of the ways you go about addressing the challenge of even reaching smaller schools? Does the isac help?   How do you communicate major security events like log4j? Do you keep track of complications with certain software stacks?   Someone listening might say “hey, I'd love to help…” what/if any opportunities can the larger infosec community do to help your org?

The guys break down the news surrounding this year's NFL Combine, as well as some prospects who could stand out next week in Indianapolis.

The guys break down the news surrounding this year's NFL Combine, as well as some prospects who could stand out next week in Indianapolis.

Give us a call - 888-723-4630 Send us an email - podcast@ebay.com visit us at ebay.com/podcast    Welcome to eBay for Business! This week, Director of Shipping North America, Stuart Reichenbach returns with a carrier update and overview of International Standard Delivery. Nate Heyward from the Shipping team goes over the options available to sellers for combining shipments and providing shipping discounts. Rebecca and Griff answer shipping questions as well.  To have your questions answered on our eBay for Business podcast, call us at 888 723-4630 or email us at podcast@ebay.com.  To give us feedback, please take our podcast listener survey at (https://connect.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/sellerops.podcast)   00:01 - Intro 05:03- Carrier Update with Stuart Reichenbach 15:18 - Combined Shipping with Nate Heyward 34:45 - Q&A and Outro   New links for Ep 179 International Standard - https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-international-standard.html Shipping Preferences Page on eBay - https://www.ebay.com/ship/prf Combined Shipping Help Pages - https://ebay.to/34Y0Jgy Offering Combined Shipping - https://ebay.to/3v3T8I6 Shipping Discounts - https://ebay.to/3GZN6KR     Recurring Links / Phone Numbers / Hashtags Mentioned: 888-723-4630 - Call in Line  eBay Seller News Announcements - ebay.com/announcements eBay Community - ebay.com/community eBay Weekly Community Chat - ebay.com/communitychat eBay Help - ebay.com/help/home eBay Meetups - ebay.com/meetups Managed Payments on eBay - ebay.com/payments eBay for Business Podcast - ebay.com/podcast eBay Seller Center - ebay.com/sellercenter eBay Seller Hub - ebay.com/sh eBay System Status - ebay.com/sts explore.ebay.com facebook.com/eBayForBusiness eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey - https://connect.ebay.com/srv/survey/a/sellerops.podcast #ebaypodcast

Join Nick Lamagna as he sits down with guest Jason Chambers, an investor, Former Pro fighter, Jiu JItsu Blackbelt, actor, commentator host of The Jason Chambers Podcast and star of the ground breaking show "Human Weapon."  Jason earned a blackbelt under  Renzo Gracie and brown belt from Eddie Bravo.  Combined with his discipline from a life of martial arts and experience traveling the world  he brings a unique and entertaining perspective to this interview and his podcast combining life lessons as an actor and entrepreneur as well as a crypto enthusiast and investor.  Jason is a pro on the mic after  commentating for such places as Bellator, OneFC and Fightpass     .  He has been seen on such shows as Days of Our Lives, CSI and you can catch him in the upcoming move Ask Me To Dance.  Check him out multiple times a week on his hit The Jason Chambers Podcast.  Topics for this episode include: ✅ Strategies for success in marketing and business ✅ What is an irreplaceable commodity worth more than money ✅ The 80/20/30 Rule to crypto investing ✅ Niche Marketing vs wide marketing vs Joe Rogan anomaly  ✅ What is the most effective martial art after filming Human Weapon ➡️ More! See the show notes to connect with Jason!  Text Nick today to do some real estate deals together whether you are new or experienced at (516) 540-5733  Grab Danny Lamagna's Solo album and check out the affiliates page in out the link to contact Maryann at Nationwide Business Capital Group to get some money for your real estate deals! --- Connect with Jason: Jason Chambers On Youtube Jason Chambers on instagram Listen To The Jason Chambers Podcast Here Jason Chambers on LinkedIn Jason Chambers on Facebook --- Connect with Nick Lamagna www.nicknicknick.com Text Nick (516)540-5733 Connect on ALL Social Media and Podcast Platforms Here FREE Checklist on how to bring more value to your buyers

Earth, Fire, Air and Water!!! In this episode of Pop Music For Smart People I feature four musical artists or duos that represent each of these four elements. How you ask?? Ummmm I'm actually not even completely sure but it all boiled down to the feeling each of these artists make me feel with their music. The artists are Stalgia who represent water, Monica Martin who represents earth, Mina and Bryte who represent fire and Yehra who represent air. I love this episode so much and had so much fun creating it. So come and listen and get transported into each elemental beat landscape. THE POWER IS YOURS!!! (if you know this phrase then you know...Captain Planet lol) Here is the link to leave the podcast a love letter/review for Podcash which will help me to possibly get a large sponsorship for the show https://www.podcash.com/love-letters/p9H9e Wanna support and independent podcaster? Well you can at www.buymeacoffee.com/PMFSP Visit our website www.popmusicforsmartpeople.com and while there go check out our merch store --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pmfsp/message

Sean Fryer teaches from Acts 8:26-40 that when God tells Philip to go to a place that doesn't make sense, He uses Philip to change the life of one man.

A BANQUET Widowed mother Holly (Sienna Guillory) is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Jessica Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. But despite her refusal to eat, Betsey loses no weight and gains a growing faith in her newfound and enigmatic sense of purpose. At first, her condition is suspected to be an act of adolescent rebellion or a psychological break. As her daughter's personality is further subsumed by this affliction, Holly finds herself confronting the boundaries of her own beliefs and the repressed traumas of her past. In an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs. Combined with stylish photography pervaded by grotesque culinary close-ups and subtle forays into nightmarish surrealism, A BANQUET is a disquieting feast with images and ideas that leave a potent and lingering aftertaste. Director Ruth Paxton (Be Still My Beating Heart, Stay Awake, Pulse) stops by to talk about A BANQUET's literary and cinematic inspiration, the exceptional cast of actors who help make the film resonate and the satisfaction that comes with completing her debut feature film. For updates and screenings go to: abanquetmovie.com In theatres February 18, go to: abanquetmovie.com/tickets

EP287 - Amazon Supply Chain Deep Dive with Marc Wulfraat http://jasonandscot.com Marc Wulfraat is President of MWPVL, a global supply chain and logistics consulting firm, and one of the foremost experts outside of Amazon, into Amazons supply chain. In this episode to do a deep dive into all the elements of Amazon's supply chain, how it compares to other third party logistics providers, and most importantly if and how other retailers should think about competing against the enormous advantage that Amazon's logistics infrastructure provides Episode 287 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday February 17, 2022. Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 287 being recorded on Thursday February 17th 2022 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners Jason were about 300 episodes into what I would like to call our podcasting journey and sometimes our timing has been terrible over that 300 episodes sometimes we roll the dice and it comes up the right way tonight's episode is probably the best timing episode we've ever had I mention this because yesterday Shopify announced their Q4 earnings that were pretty strong but then they dropped a bit of a bombshell on Wall Street they announced that they're going to spend over a billion dollars on the next 3 years on what they call sfm Shopify fulfillment Network and they're going to compete with Amazon's FBA capabilities and they also kind of said and we're going to essentially get to 2-day delivery across 90% of the United States you and I were skeptical about that on on social media I said that's nice but Amazon has spent over 80 billion to get there and then you said. Jason: [1:37] Yeah that there are also targeting a service level that's kind of antiquated like like to day is Amazon 2010 here in 2022 you know it's at worst next day and increasingly at same day for millions of skews so I was a little surprised that they their big splash was that they were going to invest a billion dollars to get Amazon service level from 10 years ago. Scot: [2:00] Yeah that's where our timing gets interesting because you and I have long wanted to do an Amazon Logistics fulfillment Deep dive and the person that knows more about this than anyone except for the folks inside of Amazon is Mark Wolfe rat he is the president of mwp DL and we are really excited to have him on the show talk about all things Logistics. Marc: [2:23] Well thank you kindly for having just gone through some really appreciate it before this. Jason: [2:27] Oh my gosh Mark were thrilled to have you Scott's too shy to mention it but but this is a rare circumstance where Scott is a fanboy of you because, every time there's there's new data about Amazon's investment in their various elements of the fulfillment Network he's forwarding stuff to me and he's like hey did you see what Mark and cover this week so I'm probably not gonna be able to get a word in edgewise but before Scott jumps in with the questions we do always like to get a brief background of our guests and I'm super curious understand how you got into the supply chain space and and sort of what led you to found em W PV l. Marc: [3:12] Oh gosh well did I was a mathematician in my University days and, I just accidentally got a job as a consultant you know what I got out of school and it was we didn't know what the word supply chain was back then it just didn't exist so I started a Consulting and distribution and then, eventually went out and founded my own company and you know today we called Supply chains for 35 years I've been, what the cost supply chain Logistics Consulting all over the world and it's been a blast I've enjoyed every minute of it. Jason: [3:48] Very cool and does I think of you as publishing all this Amazon specific data I assume that there's a non philanthropic commercial aspect to MB mmm W PV L are you selling consulting services to people that are trying to solve supply-chain problems to analysts like what can you tell us a little like what's the elevator pitch for your firm. Marc: [4:16] You know that the whole thing about Amazon that we do is really for intellectual curiosity yet there's a little bit of money there but it doesn't it doesn't pay the bills so to speak, you know really we work for other retailers that compete against Amazon and about 15 years ago when Amazon was becoming a household name. I realized that they were very secretive about everything going on around but they didn't talk much about, how they went to Market and as a supply chain practitioner I said well. To wouldn't it be interesting to start diving into this and and I hunkered down in my basement and started to you know research the company and over the last 15 years 11 bowled we put together you know, we'll put all the grease and we put our 10,000 hours into this we've got a huge database on every building they operate globally. [5:13] We monitor the people that work in those buildings we have engineered the economics underneath the hood so to speak, productivity rates than unit volumes package volumes Etc and that's enabled us to understanding your economics for their e-commerce operation, including things like one of us automation done for them. And that enables us to be more powerful as a consultant when we go to market for the rest of the industry and and they greatly appreciate the abilities that we have in terms of being. You know conversant on areas like strategy which is a big part of what we do so I'll stop there. Scot: [5:55] Yeah very cool so yeah I mean if you got to study the best to figure out how to you know, scale up other other folks so we definitely want to jump into this a kind of defer to you on the best way to explain to listeners the shape of the Amazon infrastructure from where I sit you've got kind of the core is the Fulfillment centers and these are these giant multi million square-foot buildings that house and ship product then there's sortation centers delivery stations then they've built this kind of airplane Network across that how would you if you were at a if you were going to Justice and our listeners are pretty Savvy on this so how would you describe kind of the the core infrastructure that Amazon has right now. Marc: [6:41] You just mentioned the core of it the I think a lot of folks don't realize that even before the Fulfillment center gets the inventory, there's an important component to their supply chain which is called the inbound receiving Center and the inbound receiving Center is a holding tank, sir inventory it is not meant to serve the public it's meant to if we to replenish inventory at the Fulfillment centers, so typically what happens is when imported merchandise hits the apart. It's brought from there into one of these inbound receiving centers it stays there until it's needed at the Fulfillment center. And not doesn't just apply to Imports there's quite a bit of domestic merchandise that follows that logic as well so instead of, ramming the Fulfillment centers with inventory like Christmas wrapping paper and I arrived in say the month of June or July, instead of overstuffing and bloating the Fulfillment centers the hold it it means inventory tanks at the ports and then one month Christmas wrapping paper is needed at the Fulfillment centers they'll start shipping that say closer in November December. [7:55] So that's really the first component of the supply chain are all of the major retailers like Walmart Target Home Depot they all do something similar they just called an import Distribution Center. [8:06] Sanders come in various flavors the one that I think most of us recognize is the small sortable fulfillment center, with goods are small enough to fit inside one of those yellow totes that can ride the conveyor system and go from picking the packing, large not suitable for Fun Centers. And they are usually a million square feet of me contain all the product that's too big to fit in those yellow totes and anything from an umbrella to a gas barbecue to an appliance that kind of thing. We have specialty for Fun Centers that handle merchandise categories that are unique for a reason that perhaps they need some type of material handling. Um you know requirement that is different. For example apparel and Footwear or jewelry and even things like car parts or textbooks. And then from there you have after the performance center I mean think of the Fulfillment center as being. A place where inventory is kept and where orders are picked act and put into the shipping carton. From there the typical shipping carton will now flow to us for Tatian Center which is a primary sort those buildings typically handle a 200 mile radius. [9:25] They hit the packages get sorted by ZIP code palletized and then Trot to the nearest delivery station for that zip code. Yes it's an Amazon Logistics delivery. [9:38] Otherwise you will go to a post office or USPS post office that handles that zip code and that's typically, the packages that are destined for the room low population density areas areas where you have high population density like Urban Suburban areas, Amazon has built out their delivery Station Network. So that they can deliver those packages themselves to have better speed more control and you know shall we say the capacity energy capacity to handle their package volume that's consistently growing. And then of course there's UPS UPS picks up at the Fulfillment center so they don't go to the circulation Center the pickup directly at the foam in Center and they handle all the packages that, are what I call out of region you think of a customer that might live in Montana or Amazon has no infrastructure, PS would be delivering packages to Montana because Amazon doesn't have any Traditions Energy Delivery stations out there. [10:37] So that's kind of the threefold passion others also are free and to that extent Amazon currently leverages 43 airports around the country. Packages that are going are free or typically. Adam should have picked in a fulfillment center for a customer that's Amazon Prime at lives very far away from where that item was picked ideally in a perfect world you'd never have your free because every fulfillment center Woodstock every item. And everybody would live close to a fulfillment center so you want me to do this because it f8 in general cost seven times more than brown free. So you don't want to do are afraid of unless you have to but it's an important part of Amazon's competitive positioning because if you're going to offer first to Coast to day service level for Amazon Prime. Then you need her for you you can't get from Seattle to New York using ground free that would be five days. So that's an important component to very expensive component what they do so packages will go fulfillment center to the air hub, their hub from their planes will typically fly at to our regional airport public Dallas or Hebron Kentucky where their brand new airport Hub is been opened up last year, and then from there the plans will take the packages to their respective regions and then from there to the delivery stations that end up delivering to the customer. So that's where the I would say the main components of the supply chain I haven't talked about everything but that's the main just. Scot: [12:06] Prickle and then so so when it goes to air it's kind of a bug right because you know when it should have said Jason orders an Xbox and it's not near him in Chicago and it has to go out west or east and then fly it to him to since he's in the center of the country that may be a bad example but let's say there's someone on the west coast they order an Xbox it's not in stock and they have to ship it from the east coast and what does the network gets smart so do they have the software that would then say all right we flown six of these across the country we need to kind of rebalance and get a lot of those closer to the West Coast is that kind of how it works. Marc: [12:40] Yeah I think you're exactly right there's artificial intelligence you know where do you stock an item, becomes a pretty important aspect of their business so I don't want to put windshield wiper blades that are for the winter in Miami, in the Fulfillment center there right I'd rather have that open Detroit or Chicago so having the smarts to know if you're going to have 15 million items in a fulfillment center. You want to have the smarts to position the rate 15 million items in each one of those small sortable fun answers. And similarly if there's called 360 million items on the Amazon Marketplace that have been sold. You're not going to be able to put 360 million items in every building. So you have to have the smarts to be able to say if I see something will be frequently. Um and it's going long-distance how can I fix that problem and save money and increase, quality of service by adding either stop him or places or stock in different places so that's all part of the artificial intelligence behind the scenes that is part of the Amazon secret songs. Scot: [13:50] Yeah let's put some members on this so we've got inbound how many of those do you think are just kind of roughly are there in the system. Marc: [14:00] The inbound receiving centers. Scot: [14:02] Yeah. Marc: [14:03] We can't 29 right now within the US and there's about 11 more on the way. Scot: [14:10] Could you be more specific. Marc: [14:11] Sorry I. Scot: [14:12] I'm just kidding that's what I love that's why I love about your data it's like down to the like you know decimal points of square footage so your how about fulfillment centers just all all flavors I guess. Marc: [14:26] In the u.s. there's author fulfillment centers add up to roughly about 287. Scot: [14:37] Jason for the longest time didn't Walmart have like eight is mm I remember free comes. Jason: [14:43] Yeah Yeah by 8 to 10 for a long time yeah. Scot: [14:46] Yeah I'm sure they've increased that but still they don't they don't have 287 I'll Hazard to guess. Marc: [14:52] Northern the third scruffy but what Mark's been doing is they've been retrofitting many of their existing facilities to play a partial removal for e-commerce. Jason: [15:02] I think that's why it's tricky to count because they have a pretty robust store infrastructure infrastructure for Distributing the stores and increasingly they're repurposing a portion of those. Scot: [15:16] And then how about sortation centers that's a little tricky because some of them are attached to fulfillment centers right or do you keep track. Marc: [15:22] Now we track those step we track those those are clean they've got 96 active sortation centers that's an area of the business has really grown in the last 12 months and then 22 on the way instruction. Scot: [15:36] Wow that is big Cecil get 20% growth and then how about delivery stations. Marc: [15:44] So two flavors of the delivery station one is the small package delivery station which is what most of us, think you know think of them get an Amazon box and then there's also the heavy bulky. Where you know they have a box truck with a license truck driver maybe two people are needed to unload the coach or whatever moves you whatever it is it's big and heavy that you ordered and so it's 515 delivery stations are active. And 113 of the heavy bulky ones and we're aware of another roughly about 161 buildings that are in the works right now. Scot: [16:21] Yeah and now that's that's probably the newest part of this right because they used to from sortation they would dump it mostly before they had the DSP program they would dump all that into USPS FedEx and UPS and then that delivery station is that lacks mile where they've built and if you're saying there's 5 15 plus 113 plus 1 so there's like 700 or 800 of these those are mostly in like the last five years is that is that your recollection. Marc: [16:48] Well I ran 2014 we got started on the first couple and it was so hard for the first few years but this is the part of the business just skyrocketed you know for the last 34 years, they've been building these out not only in the cities what's interesting is last year they opened up 30 of these in the tiniest of towns. No population 5000 kind of thing and short It's seems to me they're trying to get an ecologist The Wagon Wheel they're trying to get into the rural, areas to do this work as well which tells me, did you know that lost 50% of the population where it's really tiny towns that's the most expensive part of the country to get to you know lust population density widest geography so it's the most expensive last mile delivery you can possibly make. But the fact that they're starting out with this lab test to say hey let's try these 30 a talisman, their goal is to have every one of these zip codes under their control including all of the rural ones so this is an interesting story that's unfolding. Scot: [17:53] Yeah and then the thing that's kind of a if your UPS what's tricky about this is you were in FedEx you were delivering all this stuff for them and then I imagine you know the Amazon robot in the sky the a I basically said that's a profit or out for us we'll take that over this is a prophet I can just kind of picture them like snipping the tree and then adding these delivery stations and just slowly but surely and conversely someone on the FedEx UPS side watching that all that margin go away is that kind of how you envisioned they rolled this out. Marc: [18:26] I think it's a lot simpler than the AI in the sky you know I think it's just sort the US population in descending sequence right. Scot: [18:34] Yeah okay. Marc: [18:35] Start out with New York La Chicago and so on and working way down the list until you conquered all the big cities and then keep going down from there and and. Scot: [18:43] That's not as ominous as an AI in the sky the. Marc: [18:45] Yeah it sounds better. That's really the way it works is they and it instantly for the Fulfillment center build out you know right now they're targeting towns in that four to five hundred thousand population range, I like Green Bay Wisconsin that kind of thing and you know the that's on the list of places they're going and it's because they've already done the ones that are 600,000. Scot: [19:10] Let's um so two of my favorite areas of the infrastructure to kind of poke around and is the Fulfillment centers and you know so I think the average in your data is something like 800,000 to a million and maybe that's maybe that's the small sort of bulls but, it's hard for people to imagine a building like that until you're inside of one and you know the one way I've helped people to try and understand it as it's like 22 to the 30 Walmart's just kind of stacked in the cubic volume of that many Walmarts you get inside one of these things and you can't really see the you might as well be on the moon because you can't really see the Horizon per se because it's just like it's so stack the stuff you don't really know where you are in the if you weren't familiar with it you're not really no sure where you are how do they and then Amazon is pretty unique in the ones that aren't robotic with how they put product up is my understanding what what what system do they use for that or do you know. Marc: [20:05] So you're talking about like the large no shuttle facilities where they are more manual. Scot: [20:09] Or yeah we're there more manual. Marc: [20:12] Yeah that is actually equipment being used for that is nothing special that's pretty common place it's called an order picker truck and an order picker truck is a vehicle that runs on a wire guidance that's buried in the floor. So that it doesn't go left to right it stays true to the wire and an operator goes up with the unit load rather than staying at ground level and raising a bow. The operator rise to the bull head of the 40 foot building takes the boxed off the pallet and then inserts it into the location in Iraq so it's called a man up system. That's fairly common in most walks of life that's not something you need Amazon. Scot: [20:52] Yeah and then don't they do it where the stuff they put on the shelves by shelf height they found it was kind of randomly placed on shelves by. Marc: [20:59] They use random stoics that's great and I think when you're trying to manage you know one of those large amounts sort of a building's could easily have two million items, and one of the small suitable for mysterious could easily have $15 I say items I don't mean units of inventory I mean unique SKU variety and, even when you're dealing with that are sort meant that that's that's also coming and going you know it's not like there's one new item a day, or we it's like there's thousands of new items every single day hitting you it would be, an exercise in futility to try to organize it all in some meaningful way so that the fastest-moving Needham's are positioned strategically in the building and so forth that's the way most Warehouse is try to operate whether, this is an item that generates a lot of excitement let's put it in a in an efficient place in the world of Amazon, especially in the world where robots are retrieving the product and bringing the product to the Picker it doesn't really make sense to do that so they use random stowage and it works well for them. Scot: [22:04] Yeah and then so they acquired Kiva that's been quite a while now where where are they on the Kiva robot system as it relates to fulfillment centers. Marc: [22:14] I have to tell you a true story here I was at a trade show and they bought tear and I had chest, it's done a huge interview and a big article and Kevo with the prior owners and I said to them you know this is a great system but it would never work for Amazon. And they said the continent is said hey could you strike that from the article please, I have no clue the next day they announced that they were acquired by Amazon and I thought what a what a boy Amazon overspent they spent 750 million I said, all laughing at the trade show how much money Amazon spent on TiVo you know we thought they were fools at that we were wrong, was I wrong you know I've never been so wrong the whole life that that's been a huge win for Amazon and to my knowledge there's about three hundred and fifty thousand of these Roomba star robots running around out there across the world, and we've done the reverse engineering on their labor chewing we've put a lot of Manpower and we try to figure out. What would it what would their roles look like today. If they hadn't done this if they were continuing to operate with pushcarts people walking 12 miles a day to pick these orders that kind of thing and the math we keep coming up with is she not to push out five million units a week. [23:36] Out of a small sort of a fulfillment center you need about three thousand people, if it's got robotics same building no robotics you need about 4,800 people. So the cost per unit when you look at all the labor cost in in the manual building it's about 95 cents a unit. In the automated building it's about 60 cents a unit so it's it's been about a 37% labor reduction they have a cost reduction for them. Now I was on doesn't like talking about that they like to say well actually in our automated buildings we sometimes have more people than in our manual abilities, but what they don't mention is that they're pushing out way more volume. With those extra people that they've got in Atlanta so they're at the end of the day you can't look at it that way you have to look at it is. If the volume is constant how many people would I need manual versus automated and in our opinion they're saving about 37 percent of their love the labor requirements by putting this Automation and that's why they've been, I showed in every single building that they put up in the US and and in the developed world because of the huge labor cost savings. Scot: [24:48] Very cool I had not heard that step the, so then the other one I think is really interesting is these delivery stations and some of the materials you have you have a kind of a really cool picture for how this is maybe a maybe try to walk people through kind of like how this is set up and what it does on a day-to-day basis. Marc: [25:11] Yeah I think there's a misconception sometimes that are delivering station yeah in the media they sometimes come to the room stations fulfillment centers and they get it mixed up delivery station is purely. A secondary sortation Center the first sort took place back at this rotation Center we're all the packages for a 200-mile region, were organized by ZIP code and then for a specific area within that 200-mile region that's very very tight. Call it an area where the driver can leave the delivery station and go no further than 60 Minutes of drive time to get to the market that he's making deliveries. [25:53] That's small ships unit circle, it's what's being serviced by the delivery station in there could be many of those circles within the region that the sortation center serves so this is the secondary sort and all those packages arrive at the delivery station that they got downloaded to a conveyor system, people sort those packages out, to route and a route is quite simply a grouping of streets that are close together in a neighborhood, so that a driver goes into that neighborhood will be as efficient as possible when making that last mile delivery and a delivery station you know in the old days they used to put on so that the Vans would drive through the building, and the loading process would take place in the building and that is still done in Northern climates like Chicago like where I live, because you can't effectively load of an out when it's snowing outside and so forth but a lot of the newer ones that they've got. [26:50] You could easily have anywhere from 250 to 750 Vans pulling up to the side of the building underneath an extended canopy outside, and they're getting loaded out very much in military discipline stock so you'll have a platoon of 72 Vans pulling up, in 20 minutes later they've got, all their packages for their roads and they're leaving in the next platoon of 72 is pulling in 20 minutes later they're gone the next platoon and so on and over the course of two and a half hours, three hours you Amazon's loaded out upwards of five 600 fans and they're out there on the streets doing those deliveries and it's not unusual for a bad people, quiet day with operative 175 packages or more on a busy day with upwards of 250 packages or more. [27:42] And these drivers are going over a 10-hour day and when you do the math on the time it takes for them, between deliveries some of these guys are average me three minutes per delivery. Which is astounding because these numbers no one else is hitting them this is unique to Amazon they've got enough density, and demand for their product and the service that they can go out there and every three minutes make a package delivery it's a, it's incredible how much volume they've got we think that in the US last year in 2021 the came close to six billion packages delivered through the Amazon Logistics, delivery Station Network which is incredible because when you look at that volume you compare it to seeing UPS or FedEx, UPS is our is 120 Euro a hundred three hundred fourteen year old business and they're achieving about that same volume as we speak so they've been able to build since 2014. Company a transportation company that they're on themselves that is basically doing the same volume as a hundred fourteen year old UPS. So I find that and that's over and above everything else they've done whether it's at this is just history in the making. Scot: [28:57] Yeah it's pretty amazing when they when they go to fill one of the Vans is it prepackaged like on a pallet and they just left a pallet in there or like a swarm of people are dumping packages in there. Marc: [29:08] No actually it's pretty smart what they do they. Each time a package is removed from the conveyor belt on the inbound it's being scanned into a canvas bag, the canvas bag think of it as kind of like a hockey bag almost, where you're putting a group of boxes that logically and should be together because they're close in terms of proximity as to where they need to be delivered so they doctor soil 225 packages on into the back of the van Loosely they organize it by these bags, and the operator who the driver has to make these deliveries is told what bag to go to in order to retrieve a specific, parcel that has to be delivered so it takes a problem of say 250, boxes and breaks it down into smaller subsets to make it faster for the driver to find the actual package. Scot: [30:01] So then how many canvas bags are on is it like 25 or something. Marc: [30:07] You know I don't know that's a good question that I've never been able to figure out. Scot: [30:11] I stumped you. Marc: [30:12] You stopped me. Scot: [30:14] It took awhile, yeah it's just fascinating to watch these deliver and then the thing that Amazon does is so they'll have one of these delivery stations and let's say you know to your point they'll Maybe hundreds of ants may be up to 1,000 bands that service one of these and then there's different dsps running these things and they put them in competition with each other over routes maybe say a little bit more about I don't think a lot of people realize that's going on so maybe maybe explain how that works. Marc: [30:43] Yeah so you know when you when you look at UPS unit FedEx and the other large carriers out there they all have employees. They sometimes have to deal with units transportation to heavily you know it's sector of the economy so how do you build a transportation business that's non-union. How do you build a transportation business where, no one has the ability to organize and come after you and go on strike and start causing problems for your business and how do you keep costs down, well Amazon her everything about everything you really have to respect about this company and they've done it differently. And I got thousands of stories that kind I can talk to that, you know will describe how they just don't think the same as the rest of the world they say they don't allow themselves to be stopped by existing paradigms so what they said was. [31:40] Last of all and help entrepreneurs get started. [31:45] Ruth help them get the Vans will help them Finance the whole process of getting into business, and the other load and higher the employees who will do the deliveries so they're that creates an arm's-length agreement between the driver and, Amazon it doesn't become their HR problem becomes the HR problem that DS p-- and let's make sure that every one of these delivery stations is not being serviced by 1 DS p-- no no no, we have to have that with 356 sometimes 90 a speech why because, yes p number one starts rattling assume that he's not making enough money, or he doesn't provide adequate service or something bad happens with one of the drivers or you know you can think of a Litany of other reason you fire them, and you bring in another bsp to replace them so they're all powerless, and they're all captive to Amazon so it kind of reminds me of the old family days when you know if you went off and sold Emily product at, and even space is my captive rate what could you do about nothing, in this case Amazon control is everything these dsps cannot go do deliveries for other people they're captive to Amazon Amazon own SEC passing, and the dsps have to deal with all the churn and burn that was on a high turnover labor environment that they're dealing with. [33:10] And I've got to perform because Amazon is monitoring them every step of the way there's cameras on these vehicles they can tell whether or not the vehicle is doing what it's supposed to be doing or if the driver is doing something wrong. [33:22] And they have to perform and if they don't perform them there let go so it's a way of keeping, this massive network of thousands and thousands of drivers without the ability to organize and form a union without the ability to, gain any power and yet they can guarantee fast you'll be there for them when we need it so it's brilliant it's a stroke of Genius. Scot: [33:46] They're not franchise right there their 1099 so the kind of like how FedEx set up ground is my understanding is that is it. Marc: [33:54] There are there people that often times used to work for Amazon in the warehouse. And then they took hold of this opportunity and said hey why not give this a try and they became entrepreneurs and now these business people. Are out there having to manage sometimes 30 40 50 drivers are more and everyday they're under pressure to get this job done. Show. Do I think at the end of the day Kudos Amazon for figuring out how to do this and not be saddled with labor costs that are prices high right some of these drivers, turn twenty to twenty-five dollars an hour you start looking at the wage rates fully loaded that a FedEx or UPS driver is making and, sometimes those folks are out there making 70 thousand dollars a year to drive a vehicle, number two new drivers when it's foot when you consider the benefits so that's what happens when you have employees and you know you treat them right and you have benefits everything else Amazon is gone, hello cost way to db2 see and keep their costume we think the average delivery is coming in somewhere around a dollar 75. And that's pretty hard to match you know when you start looking at the others. Scot: [35:14] Yeah what what would you say FedEx and UPS around. Marc: [35:18] It's hard to sort of cost structure is but if you you know you all you have to do is go there and say Hey I want you to shoot this package and it's still going to be 67 dollars, a portion of that 67 dollars goes towards the last mile delivery function but a pretty big portion. Jason: [35:35] So Mark I talk to other people that have kind of a simple model in their mind of how this works that way, you know gosh Amazon puts one of everything in a huge fulfillment center and puts the Fulfillment centers close to people but I think the problem Amazon solves is even much more complicated than most people realize did I hear you right a big Amazon fulfillment center holds about 15 million skus is that order of magnitude right. Marc: [36:04] That's all that's not a bad number. Jason: [36:06] And then how many skus do you think Amazon sells I have seen a number of numbers I thought I heard you say 360 million but I've seen some estimates that are even quite a bit north of that. Marc: [36:17] And to confess I only know what I read as far as that goes so the number that I saw last was somewhere around 316 million or so. Jason: [36:27] Okay so let's see. Scot: [36:28] That's her prime eligible I think I think that's Prime eligible and then non-prime eligible ev's another 300 million yeah I think I think that's where the bigger number is Jason. Jason: [36:36] That would totally make sense so to kind of frame this it's it's not like you place an order and everything can get shipped from the Fulfillment center that's closest to you right like the, you know they're strategically staging different long tail inventory all over this network and then you know. Impressively maintaining this high level high service level even when that product is in close and that's where a lot of those like are exceptions that you and Scott talked about in the beginning come in right is. Marc: [37:07] Write that obscure Halloween costume you're buying for your daughter right. That is only stocked in the Seattle fulfillment center and you're in New York he wanted two days so that's an example of something that would go by plane if your Amazon Prime. Jason: [37:24] Yeah and the. You mentioned so one funny thing so I live in a multi-unit apartment building a 12 unit Condo building and I like to think of us as an Amazon laboratory because we're in Chicago Chicago has every kind of fulfillment infrastructure here and and are 12 units get about 50 Amazon Parcels a day and it every single day in our mailroom there are Amazon labeled boxes delivered by the postal carrier there are tons of Amazon boxes delivered by Amazon you know dress dsps and their their Amazon boxes delivered by UPS is, is in your mind is that because people are ordering longtail items and they're having to use all these other delivery vehicles or are some of those boxes because, their vendor fulfilled inventory or you know things like that. Marc: [38:22] You know people ask me this kinds of questions I don't know all of the inner workings of how things function but I can only surmise so, there is a significant amount of merchandise that's sold on the Amazon platform that's been fulfilled. So if it comes in an Amazon box then it's probably Amazon Fulfillment right and if it's arriving by the post office and your, area where you live is being service primarily by Amazon Logistics drivers. Chances are it's coming the ship from location is such that it will ship by another former Senators far away. Where for whatever reason the post office was used and maybe that customer that ordered that box was not Amazon Prime so they ship it from a farming fulfillment center, and it arrived 345 days later and that was the lowest cost way of getting it there. Right and something for UPS center maybe it's coming from a location where UPS provides the best value to get it to the customer address and remember not everybody's Amazon Prime so the rush to get it, in two days is really an Amazon Prime only issue right. Jason: [39:42] Wait there people in the world that don't have Amazon Prime and I'm teasing so so now I do want to Pivot a little bit as if this kind of logistics wasn't difficult enough now there's all this demand for what to me seems like even more difficult distribution which is like all these perishable locally sourced by grocery case. Marc: [40:06] Yeah. Jason: [40:07] And what when you use it off all the various types of fulfillment centers in the beginning one thing we didn't talk about that my understanding is that like Amazon is likely also starting to build a lot of are these smaller fresh distribution centers that are you know located closer to customers you know with various degrees of same day service. Marc: [40:33] Yes of the you know Amazon's been very slow to step up to the plate for the food side of the business right so what they did initially was they opened up these Prime now hubs, many of which had fresh capability fresh or frozen so these are smaller type of operations that are interested in. My mom wanted to small running with 25,000 square feet type thing. And they would be there real life was to you know pick your order for food and have it delivered to your house and say two hours. And it was never a money-making side of the business because primarily everything that's going on here is manual so when they acquired Whole Foods. And you know they said well here's always starts right we've got those 500 stores let's leverage them as being miniature Depot's that we can depart and do home delivery. [41:33] And that's really been I think the focus over the last few years is how to get as many of those more food stores delivering your grocery orders as possible and fairly recently they did away with the free delivery, our whole foods and we put up to ten dollars. And that's the show I might add even if your Amazon Prime because it does cost a huge amount of money to do a delivery of food might say why. Well food is the type of merchandise that you can't systematically. Synergize and build-up Innovation for a day's worth of work when someone orders their food. Usually what ends up happening at least in the case of Amazon is the delivery function is made in an unrefrigerated vehicle like a car. You know I flexible driver and wait take several orders that I'm going to deliver them and that delivery function is usually within 15 to 30 minutes of the store. [42:38] Because you don't want your chicken breasts sitting in the tropical car for 4 hours or you're a scream or anything else that could cause a food safety issue. So that type of service when you're paying somebody 25 to 40 dollars to deliver a handful of borders that are food. So often times it ends up costing seven to eleven dollars to perform one delivery. And in the world of food it's a two percent net margin so you can lose your shirt quickly when you start paying for that and not charging a customer. [43:09] Amazon is still trying to figure it out and I believe what they've decided on and so the strategy here is that they will. Very gradually start building out the Amazon Fresh stores that don't require check out our cashier. [43:27] Rotisserie snout that they're working on those. And as they build up more of those stores and they get more volume to layer on top of the Whole Foods Network. I believe that Amazon will start to develop their own supply chain capabilities behind the scenes meaning. Highly automated distribution centers strategically positioned in at least seven major markets that will feed the stores. [43:55] Giving Amazon the ability to buy efficiently and to distribute efficiently. And how we do the automation will be applied to minimize the labor cost in these buildings and then we'll over the next decade. Below are very robust supply chain that's similar to what Amazon are sorry Walmart big during the 1990s. Walmart went to town they put 46 million square feet of distribution center space up in the span of a decade. And they built out all those super centers with food capability during that same decade. During that same decade Walmart put over 25 companies of business that we're long you know long-standing Regional grocery retailers. It's so the next big wave or the next tsunami of competition in the food industry will be Amazon. Are they doing it now no they're just getting started we haven't seen very much activity here I think they've really pushed this one off and they've formed a strategic Partnerships with UNFI and what's Spartan Nash but, I said come 20/20 special reference start to see a lot more activity here. Jason: [45:08] Yeah it's a it's a big chunk of consumer spending I get its lower margin and more difficult but eventually it seems like it will it'll be the place to invest I am curious though do you like I often talk about, by God this general merchandise as being like deliverable via a route and a lot of this perishable merchandise, at least at the moment people feel like you have to do point to point deliveries because you got to get the ice cream, to the homeowner when the homeowner can put it in the in the freezer pretty promptly. Marc: [45:40] Yeah and the other the other thing is the homeowner wants to know when you're coming so there's a specific delivery time window. Jason: [45:47] Exactly and and pre-pandemic all these two income households there are very you know the there was, a scarcity of squats win-win homeowners were available and it was the same slot for everyone right so it became so it's really hard some of the people some of Amazon's competitors are experimenting with these novel, you know very small things but like hey let's put refrigerators on customers porches and will deliver you to the refrigerators or let's get smart locks and you know deliver to the consumers home refrigerator like. I don't know do you you imagine the Amazon is going to have to come up with some novel solution. Marc: [46:30] No no don't forget there's all kinds of spaghetti get in front of the wall and half of it's not sticking right if so I like the idea where I'm going to let some stranger into my house to put food in my fridge, um that's not lawsuit written all over it I can't imagine that's going to last very long. Walmart's doing it and they're expanding it actually but you know I'm going to predict that once a dead duck. When you get down to brass tacks we work with quite a few retailers in the grocery sector depending on the geography we're talking about. Some of these retailers have 90% order of the orders that are ordered online or pickup at store. So some will place an order at 10:00 11:00 at night and arrange to pick it up at 5:00 the next day after the work is over. And the like that convenience because they don't have to go in the store and waste their time and it's on the way home it's from their local story anyway. [47:30] And when you think about it 90% pick up at store 10% deliver that's exactly what a grocery retailer wants because that eleven dollar delivery to the house was the way that cost goes away. Customer likes it because they don't have to spend the money on that bus too. Start looking at the cost of instacart and what it cost for a valet to go shop you ordered and delivered to your house and after you look at the markups that are put on the product that no one really knows about because they're not looking at the fine print. After you pay for the delivery fee the tip etcetera it's not uncommon that 100 all orders now 125 to 130 dollars coming out of your pocket as you want to the store would have been 100. [48:12] And that business model will be what comes Under Fire as more and more people tune into that cost increase. Amazon's proposition on the home delivery side will with the increase of these Amazon Fresh stores and the Whole Food stores I think they're going to try to go, to the pickup at store model as well more storage more opportunity for that less expense. And also try to get more efficient with scale at doing the home delivery model right because it requires scale. Really touch and if you really want to do it right you won't with refrigerated trucks that's what Kroger's doing so now you can send a driver out for a day's worth of work with a refrigerated truck, with appointment schedules and all that done and then and now you've got you know a uniform driver and a logo on the outside of the vehicle and it's far more professional than you know some Flex driver showing up at your front door. [49:08] There's lots of things going on as you can people play with the proboscis down the sidewalk to do the to do the delivery of the order, wait for a New York is doing that and we'll see whether or not any of these things and you know I've always been about Bethel that a single robot that might possibly thousand dollars. Is is a good way to spend your money to go and deliver one order 9f you doing 10,000 orders a day when I need 10,000 of these robots have been waived spend capital. Probably not so I and that's why drums never took off I am 137 million packages a year, with drones you just can't right here you're going to need billions of drones to make that happen it's just it's not realistic. Scot: [49:53] Yeah, let's pivot a little bit so let's talk a little bit about kind of the future so you've given us your really good good lay of the land of and even some future that they're you know they're there, increasingly investing in these things one of the things I've kind of long predicted you mentioned the last mile is maybe like a buck and change to deliver something do you think Amazon will eventually just compete with that axe UPS where I'll just throw some packages on my door like let's say I'm going to ship, Jason a new microphone I'll just put it on my front porch address it to Jason and when the Amazon comes they'll pick that up and take it to him for three dollars or something. Marc: [50:32] The question I get quite often asked quite often and I always start out by explaining you know Amazon is a business that there are days during Q4 were they on the hill quite a few days, in the fourth quarter the volume this ship relative to an average day is 2X. [50:54] So like a fulfillment center that there's a half a million units on an average day is spent a million units output on a busy day. Repeat it and the same thing goes for the delivery stations right you might have a delivery station doing fifty thousand packages now doing a hundred thousand on a peak day, so during the first quarter of the whole company stressed. With trying to get all these resources to work longer hours huge amounts of overtime and everybody's tired and there isn't any fat in the system, to be able to take on additional nice to have volume to try to subsidize your business. Your just got every pair of boots on the ground trying to manage your own customers and your own needs. Sorry you set something up where Logistics is a service during q1 through Q3 when you have a lot of slack in the system by frankly. Matthew 4 well one way you could do that is on your 3p Partners you could extend an offering to them and say hello, your only business partners will do your deliveries for you during q1 323 but not during Q4 and if they're small Mom & pops and they're going to get a significant cost break because of that, don't jump on board and now you've got that additional volume that you need during she wants review 3, to help Finance or subsidize your own Logistics operations and indeed that opportunity is readily available today and I think that's the first Port of Call. [52:22] 24 on the other hand they might just turn that tap off and say we don't need the revenue and what really needs every boot on the ground to support our own business. [52:30] If you're a serious ship and by that I mean spend five to ten million dollars a year on parcel free. What happens is the people like FedEx and UPS first thing in the new you they come into your place and they say look what your business, you gave us a commitment for the 10 million in volume and we'll take the whole thing and we'll give you a nice juicy discount. So it's not something that you can carve up by quarter. Commit at the beginning of the year to doing 10 million shipping volume may give you an extra Cent discount in exchange for that, and you stay the whole year with that one partner so this Logistics as a service concept is is, really something that you have to be careful with because it's a bad idea for the first three quarters but not the last one and it's not like AWS which is a commodity that you can sell to everybody. It's something that requires lots of lots of vehicles delivery stations for patients centers drivers There's real resources that are needed to make this happen. And you can't put a peak on top of a peak because that 24 Peak that's happening in the Amazon is happening everywhere else in the b2c world as well. [53:40] So I think they'll become a competitor to FedEx and UPS and I think I'll primarily compete in the b2c spaced delivering consumers because that's what they're good at they're not trying to do, the deliveries that you know it's 50 packages a delivery at a business and I'm trying to be that work that's still going to be the domain of UPS and FedEx but I see this competition really being something that, we'll probably wind down towards that fourth quarter of the year. Scot: [54:08] Finishing yeah the so we've seen an enormous amount of venture investing and go puff and what are these companies called Jason there's some cool name that you you guys use. Jason: [54:20] Like ultra-fast delivery. Scot: [54:21] Fast delivery do you yeah the gorilla and all those guys do you feel like you're going to have a better system than Amazon or do you think that they're foolishly going to crash into the Rocks the Amazon rocks. Marc: [54:35] Yeah I think I think that's what's going to happen I think all of those especially the 15 minute guys I think they're all going to burn out and I Venture Capital money is going their way of course but. You know anything to do with food requires volume, and stale and you're not going to make money and find resources that are going to. Stick around for the long run in this big worker economy of 15-minute deliveries when you're constantly under stress that that's just a recipe for disaster I wouldn't put a name on to that myself, um the good parts of the world will see I'll hold off on that when they've got 500 of these fulfillment centers that call but their time kiosks really at the end of the day and, you know it's a huge cost model to operate that way and I honestly think, um you know this is all exciting and new but when the expectation to make a profit starts to become a reality I think a lot of these guys are going to go away. Scot: [55:39] Yeah this is kind of a correlated question we're so you talked about you know some of the Amazon numbers you are putting out there you know you said they're going to add, you know, 122 sorts and more another 161 delivery stations where does this stop and you meant also mention the Wagon Wheel where they're actually starting to get out into pretty Loosely populated areas is is there a point in time where, we're done like and when is it. Marc: [56:09] Well here's an interesting sound bite for you know when we add up all the square feet that Amazon added in the u.s. 2021 including the message. Crossover in fact it came to about a hundred and thirty six point six million square feet okay keep in mind the entire Walmart Network that took 49 years to build. Totals up to about 150 million so we're talking about company during covid conditions when it's impossible to get lead times that are decent and suppliers to do the work on society Etc, this guy's built almost almost an entire Amazon just in the u.s.a. sorry and I'm tired of Walmart just in the u.s. in one ear, and when you look at what there. On schedule to build in 2022 148 million more square feet will be added in 2022 and that's the size of the Walmart Network that's been built over the last 50 years. So this thing isn't going to slow down anytime soon even though in the last quarter they announced that they're going to take a breather. Now you know when you hear that what that means is the number of new facility announcements that we would normally expect. [57:27] To happen this time of year is down way down compared to last year. So that means 2023 2024 I would fully expect this speak to start really slowing down. At least on fulfillment center side. The logistic side they've probably got another 750 to 800 buildings to put up between now and the next five years in order to hit true Coast-to-Coast coverage across all zip codes, they may change direction to say about to do that but if they do decide to do that, there's a good 800 more buildings they have put up that are Derby station since rotation centres and are hubs in the lake and that's not have to have an output of energy and but I would see within the next five years, we should expect. [58:22] That this engine will start to mature and it's quite the growth of warehouse space, for Amazon is directly correlated to the product sales growth that you see on their quarterly statements, so if sales go up by ten percent they're going to need 10% more space at least from fulfillment center perspective all of the logistics buildings are more geographically driven. So the question is your how much more will e-commerce grow. Over the next five years relative to what we know today that's a hard one to answer that I see that, in the u.s. you know our expectation is 10 percent growth this year in 2022 slowing down probably eight six and four percent over the next several years so I think the growth in just e-commerce in general. Combined with this mature Network that they've already got combined with the fact that I mean you can only build so many of these anyway. It doesn't make sense to put up a 300 million dollar building a town of 200,000 probably not. Now it's better to ship the product further than to spend all that capex and on a small town or small in time so these things lead me to believe that we're going to spoke we're hitting the top of the bell curve and we're heading down the other side. Jason: [59:42] Marc this has been great this does kind of trigger one last question that I maybe should have started with so you kind of have in a different field but the same job I have I jokingly tell people my job is to unsuccessfully helped other retailers compete with Amazon and yeah you've just painted like a pretty impressive picture of, like how daunting the the Advantage Amazon has and how far ahead of everyone they are you mentioned you work with a lot of other retailers like, at the highest level I assume it can't be your advice to anyone that they should try to catch up right like is the is the answer to like find some white space that's an alternative approach to brute-forcing this like what what do you tell other retailers that engage you. Marc: [1:00:33] No one needs me to tell them that they can't compete against Amazon me this is history in the making right we've never seen anything like this in modern in the history of modern man this speed the sheer speed at which this has happened. I can remember going to trade shows not that long ago when people said yeah but they'll ever make any money, and you know pooh-poohing Amazon is slow they're going to be extinct in real time and you know what's happened since the mid-90s till today in a relatively short period of time has been devastating. [1:01:09] To the retail industry to shopping lost every aspect of retail you can possibly imagine. And it's going to continue to happen and sir you can't say to a company, wow and become better at e-commerce than Amazon is because that's a losing battle I think you just have to understand when Back to Basics you know what made you great in the first place, don't try to become a five hour delivery firm. Because you're not going to get there without huge cock question and it kind of brings us to Shopify and how much money will Shopify end up spending. In order to get the two-day next and all the rest of it well I think determine the two days but they absolutely need to be competitive, mom you know go and build you are six or eight fulfillment centers however many that's going to end up being one put those in place either with a third-party Logistics partner through your own resources, and stop and stop it today because there's no point in trying to be next day, that just gets way too expensive and then focus on the core values right wider Shopify, exists with a high degree of success and growth it's because they offer something that Amazon doesn't offer right then it has nothing to do with its owner has everything to do with the vendor. [1:02:29] And same thing with wafer you know a lot of folks asking what about wafer wafer has a fantastic product offering. Right I mean they the customer shop on the wafer safe for the products that are sold there not because Wayfair can deliver within the same day. So don't even try to become an Amazon trying to be the best you can with the resources you have but you know focus on what makes you great first place. Jason: [1:02:56] Well Mark that is great advice and that is going to be a great place to leave it because it's happened again we've used up all of our listeners a lot of time but this was an amazing conversation really appreciate your time if listeners enjoyed this show we sure would appreciate it if you jump on iTunes and give us that five-star review. Scot: [1:03:16] Marc Lee really appreciate you taking time to share your deep knowledge of Amazon's infrastructure if folks are interested in reaching out to you maybe maybe you've piqued their interest to help them figure out some stuff what's the best way for them to reach you or read what you write online. Marc: [1:03:35] Our website wpbf.com. Scot: [1:03:38] Awesome well thanks everyone and. Jason: [1:03:42] Until next time happy commercing.

In this episode of the Viasat Podcast, host Alex Miller sits down with Brendan Sullivan, senior vice president of Intelligent Edge Solutions. This is a new division of the company that includes Intelie, an operational AI platform that came to Viasat with the 2021 acquisition of RigNet. While artificial intelligence and big data are certainly industry buzzwords, Sullivan offers some concrete examples of how operational AI can help sensor-dependent industries realize significant efficiencies, cost reductions, and added safety by making thousands of calculations a second. Combined with the connectivity power of Viasat, IES also offers video intelligence, cybersecurity, and the power of hybrid networks to bring sophisticated tech to remote operations. Topics touched on in this podcast include: How the energy industry is benefiting from operational AI, as well as other areas where Viasat Intelligent Edge Solutions can be effectively applied in the future The ways in which digital augmentation can drive substantial savings with small tweaks that add up incrementally The importance of educating customers about the right way to implement an AI platform and interpret the data The current global presence of IES and how loyalty with its current customers can aid in Viasat's global expansion How the connectivity power of Viasat will super-charge what Intelie can do, and how Intelie has the potential to be instrumental managing parts of the Viasat network

Our last episode was on Project MAC, a Cold War-era project sponsored by ARPA. That led to many questions like what led to the Cold War and just what was the Cold War. We'll dig into that today. The Cold War was a period between 1946, in the days after World War II, and 1991, when the United States and western allies were engaged in a technical time of peace that was actually an aggressive time of arms buildup and proxy wars. Technology often moves quickly when nations or empires are at war. In many ways, the Cold War gave us the very thought of interactive computing and networking, so is responsible for the acceleration towards our modern digital lives. And while I've never seen it references as such, this was more of a continuation of wars between the former British empire and the Imperialistic Russian empires. These make up two or the three largest empires the world has ever seen and a rare pair of empires that were active at the same time.  And the third, well, we'll get to the Mongols in this story as well. These were larger than the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, or any of the Chinese dynasties. In fact, the British Empire that reached its peak in 1920 was 7 times larger than the land controlled by the Romans, clocking in at 13.7 million square miles. The Russian Empire was 8.8 million square miles. Combined the two held nearly half the world. And their legacies live on in trade empires, in some cases run by the same families that helped fun the previous expansions.  But the Russians and British were on a collision course going back to a time when their roots were not as different as one might think. They were both known to the Romans. But yet they both became feudal powers with lineages of rulers going back to Vikings. We know the Romans battled the Celts, but they also knew of a place that Ptolemy called Sarmatia Europea in around 150AD, where a man named Rurik settle far later. He was a Varangian prince, which is the name Romans gave to Vikings from the area we now call Sweden. The 9th to 11th century saw a number o these warrior chiefs flow down rivers throughout the Baltics and modern Russia in search of riches from the dwindling Roman vestiges of empire. Some returned home to Sweden; others conquered and settled. They rowed down the rivers: the Volga, the Volkhov, the Dvina, and the networks of rivers that flow between one another, all the way down the Dnieper river, through the Slavic tripes Ptolemy described which by then had developed into city-states, such as Kiev, past the Romanians and Bulgers and to the second Rome, or Constantinople.  The Viking ships rowed down these rivers. They pillaged, conquered, and sometimes settled. The term for rowers was Rus. Some Viking chiefs set up their own city-states in and around the lands. Some when their lands back home were taken while they were off on long campaigns. Charlemagne conquered modern day France and much of Germany, from The Atlantic all the way down into the Italian peninsula, north into Jutland, and east to the border with the Slavic tribes. He weakened many, upsetting the balance of power in the area. Or perhaps there was never a balance of power.  Empires such as the Scythians and Sarmatians and various Turkic or Iranian powers had come and gone and each in their wake crossing the vast and harsh lands found only what Homer said of the area all the way back in the 8th century BCE, that the land was deprived of sunshine. The Romans never pushed up so far into the interior of the steppes as the were busy with more fertile farming grounds. But as the Roman Empire fell and the Byzantines flourished, the Vikings traded with them and even took their turn trying to loot Constantinople. And Frankish Paris. And again, settled in the Slavic lands, marrying into cultures and DNA.  The Rus Rome retreated from lands as her generals were defeated. The Merovingian dynasty rose in the 5th century with the defeat of Syagrius, the last Roman general Gaul and lasted until a family of advisors slowly took control of running the country, transitioning to the Carolingian Empire, of which Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, as he was crowned, was the most famous. He conquered and grew the empire.  Charlemagne knew the empire had outgrown what one person could rule with the technology of the era, so it was split into three, which his son passed to his grandsons. And so the Carolingian empire had made the Eastern Slavs into tributaries of the Franks. There were hostilities but by the Treaty of Mersen in 870 the split of the empire generally looked like the borders of northern Italy, France, and Germany - although Germany also included Austria but not yet Bohemia. It split and re-merged and smaller boundary changes happened but that left the Slavs aware of these larger empires. The Slavic peoples grew and mixed with people from the Steppes and Vikings. The Viking chiefs were always looking for new extensions to their trade networks. Trade was good. Looting was good. Looting and getting trade concessions to stop looting those already looted was better. The networks grew. One of those Vikings was Rurik. Possibly Danish Rorik, a well documented ally who tended to play all sides of the Carolingians and a well respected raider and military mind.  Rurik was brought in as the first Viking, or rower, or Rus, ruler of the important trade city that would be known as New City, or Novgorod. Humans had settled in Kiev since the Stone Age and then by Polans before another prince Kyi took over and then Rurik's successor Oleg took Smolensk and Lyubech. Oleg extended the land of Rus down the trading routes, and conquered Kiev. Now, they had a larger capital and were the Kievan Rus.  Rurik's son Igor took over after Oleg and centralized power in Kiev. He took tribute from Constantinople after he attacked, plunder Arab lands off the Caspian Sea, and was killed overtaxing vassal states in his territory. His son Sviatoslav the Brave then conquered the Alans and through other raiding helped cause the collapse of the Kazaria and Bulgarian empires. They expanded throughout the Volga River valley, then to the Balkans, and up the Pontic Steppe, and quickly became the largest empire in Europe of the day. His son Vladimir the Great expanded again, with he empire extending from the Baltics to Belarus to the Baltics and converted to Christianity, thus Christianizing the lands he ruled.  He began marrying and integrating into the Christian monarchies, which his son continued. Yaroslov the Wise married the daughter of the King of Sweden who gave him the area around modern-day Leningrad. He then captured Estonia in 1030, and as with others in the Rurikid dynasty as they were now known, made treaties with others and then  pillaged more Byzantine treasures. He married one daughter to the King of Norway, another to the King of Hungary, another to the King of the Franks, and another to Edward the Exile of England, and thus was the grandfather of Edgar the Aetheling, who later became a king of England.  The Mongols The next couple of centuries saw the rise of Feudalism and the descendants of Rurik fight amongst each other. The various principalities were, as with much of Europe during the Middle Ages, semi-independent duchies, similar to city-states. Kiev became one of the many and around the mid 1100s Yaroslav the Wise's great-grandson, Yuri Dolgoruki built a number of new villages and principalities, including one along the Moskva river they called Moscow. They built a keep there, which the Rus called kremlins.  The walls of those keeps didn't keep the Mongols out. They arrived in 1237. They moved the capital to Moscow and Yaroslav II, Yuri's grandson, was poisoned in the court of Ghengis Khan's grandson Batu. The Mongols ruled, sometimes through the descendants of Rurik, sometimes disposing of them and picking a new one, for 200 years. This is known as the time of the “Mongol yoke.”  One of those princes the Mongols let rule was Ivan I of Moscow, who helped them put down a revolt in a rival area in the 1300s. The Mongols trusted Moscow after that, and so we see a migration of rulers of the land up into Moscow. The Golden Horde, like the Viking  Danes and Swedes settled in some lands. Kublai Khan made himself ruler of China. Khanates splintered off to form the ruling factions of weaker lands, such as modern India and Iran - who were once the cradle of civilization. Those became the Mughals dynasties as they Muslimized and moved south. And so the Golden Horde became the Great Horde. Ivan the Great expanded the Muscovite sphere of influence, taking Novgorod, Rostov, Tver, Vyatka, and up into the land of the Finns. They were finally strong enough to stand up to the Tatars as they called their Mongol overlords and made a Great Stand on the Ugra River. And summoning a great army simply frightened the Mongol Tatars off. Turns out they were going through their own power struggles between princes of their realm and Akhmed was assassinated the next year, with his successor becoming Sheikh instead of Khan. Ivan's grandson, Ivan the Terrible expanded the country even further. He made deals with various Khans and then conquered others, pushing east to conquer the Khanate of Sibiu and so conquered Siberia in the 1580s. The empire then stretched all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  He had a son who didn't have any heirs and so was the last in the Rurikid dynasty. But Ivan the Terrible had married Anastasia Romanov, who when he crowned himself Caesar, or Tsar as they called it, made her Tsaritsa. And so the Romanov's came to power in 1596 and following the rule of Peter the Great from 1672 to 1725, brought the Enlightenment to Russia. He started the process of industrialization, built a new capital he called St Petersburg, built a navy, made peace with the Polish king, then Ottoman king, and so took control of the Baltics, where the Swedes had taken control of on and off since the time of Rurik.  Russian Empire Thus began the expansion as the Russian Empire. They used an alliance with Denmark-Norway and chased the Swedes through the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, unseating the Polish king along the way. He probably should not have allied with them. They moved back into Finland, took the Baltics so modern Latvia and Estonia, and pushed all the way across the Eurasian content across the frozen tundra and into Alaska.  Catherine the Great took power in 1762 and ignited a golden age. She took Belarus, parts of Mongolia, parts of modern day Georgia, overtook the Crimean Khanate, and modern day Azerbaijan. and during her reign founded Odessa, Sevastopol and other cities. She modernized the country like Peter and oversaw nearly constant rebellions in the empire. And her three or four children went on to fill the courts of Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands. She set up a national network of schools, with teachings from Russian and western philosophers like John Locke. She collected vast amounts of art, including many from China. She set up a banking system and issued paper money. She also started the process to bring about the end of serfdom. Even though between her and the country she owned 3.3 million herself.  She planned on invading the Khanate of Persia, but passed away before her army got there. Her son Paul halted expansion. And probably just in time. Her grandson Alexander I supported other imperial powers against Napoleon and so had to deal with the biggest invasion Russia had seen. Napoleon moved in with his grand army of half a million troops. The Russians used a tactic that Peter the Great used and mostly refused to engage Napoleon's troops instead burning the supply lines. Napoleon lost 300,000 troops during that campaign. Soon after the Napoleanic wars ended, the railways began to appear. The country was industrializing and with guns and cannons, growing stronger than ever.  The Opium Wars, between China and the UK then the UK and France were not good to China. Even though Russia didn't really help they needed up with a piece of the Chinese empire and so in the last half of the 1800s the Russian Empire grew by another 300,000 square miles on the backs of a series of unequal treaties as they came to be known in China following World War I.  And so by 1895, the Romanovs had expanded past their native Moscow, driven back the Mongols, followed some of the former Mongol Khanates to their lands and taken them, took Siberia, parts of the Chinese empire, the Baltics, Alaska, and were sitting on the third largest empire the world had ever seen, which covered nearly 17 percent of the world. Some 8.8 million square miles. And yet, still just a little smaller than the British empire. They had small skirmishes with the British but by and large looked to smaller foes or proxy wars, with the exception of the Crimean War.  Revolution The population was expanding and industrializing. Workers flocked to factories on those train lines. And more people in more concentrated urban areas meant more ideas. Rurik came in 862 and his descendants ruled until the Romanovs took power in 1613. They ruled until 1917. That's over 1,000 years of kings, queens, Tsars, and Emperors. The ideas of Marx slowly spread. While the ruling family was busy with treaties and wars and empire, they forgot to pay attention to the wars at home.  People like Vladimir Lenin discovered books by people like Karl Marx. Revolution was in the air around the world. France had shown monarchies could be toppled. Some of the revolutionaries were killed, others put to work in labor camps, others exiled, and still others continued on. Still, the empire was caught up in global empire intrigues. The German empire had been growing and the Russians had the Ottomans and Bulgarians on their southern boarders. They allied with France to take Germany, just as they'd allied with Germany to take down Poland. And so after over 1.8 million dead Russians and another 3.2 million wounded or captured and food shortages back home and in the trenches, the people finally had enough of their Tsar. They went on strike but Tsar Nicholas ordered the troops to fire. The troops refused. The Duma stepped in and forced Nicholas to abdicate. Russia had revolted in 1917, sued Germany for peace, and gave up more territory than they wanted in the process. Finland, the Baltics, their share of Poland, parts of the Ukraine. It was too much. But the Germans took a lot of time and focus to occupy and so it helped to weaken them in the overall war effort.  Back home, Lenin took a train home and his Bolshevik party took control of the country. After the war Poland was again independent. Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Serbs became independent nations. In the wake of the war the Ottoman Empire was toppled and modern Turkey was born. The German Kaiser abdicated. And socialism and communism were on the rise. In some cases, that was really just a new way to refer to a dictator that pretended to care about the people. Revolution had come to China in 1911 and Mao took power in the 1940s.  Meanwhile, Lenin passed in 1924 and Rykov, then Molotov, who helped spur a new wave of industrialization. Then Stalin, who led purges of the Russian people in a number of Show Trials before getting the Soviet Union, as Russian Empire was now called, into World War II. Stalin encouraged Hitler to attack Poland in 1939. Let's sit on that for a second. He tried to build a pact with the Western powers and after that broke down, he launched excursions annexing parts of Poland, Finland, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia. Many of the lands were parts of the former Russian Empire. The USSR had chunks of Belarus and the Ukraine before but as of the 1950s annexed Poland, Easter Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria as part of the Warsaw Pact, a block of nations we later called the Soviet Bloc. They even built a wall between East and West Germany. During and after the war, the Americans whisked German scientists off to the United States. The Soviets were in no real danger from an invasion by the US and the weakened French, Austrians, and military-less Germans were in no place to attack the Soviets. The UK had to rebuild and British empire quickly fell apart. Even the traditional homes of the vikings who'd rowed down the rivers would cease to become global powers. And thus there were two superpowers remaining in the world, the Soviets and the United States.  The Cold War The Soviets took back much of the former Russian Empire, claiming they needed buffer zones or through subterfuge. At its peak, the Soviet Union cover 8.6 million square miles; just a couple hundred thousand shy of the Russian Empire. On the way there, they grew to a nation of over 290 million people with dozens of nationalities. And they expanded the sphere of influence even further, waging proxy wars in places like Vietnam and Korea. They never actually went to war with the United States, in much the same way they mostly avoided the direct big war with the Mongols and the British - and how Rorik of Dorestad played both sides of Frankish conflicts. We now call this period the Cold War. The Cold War was an arms race. This manifested itself first in nuclear weapons. The US is still the only country to detonate a nuclear weapon in war time, from the bombings that caused the surrender of Japan at the end of the war. The Soviets weren't that far behind and detonated a bomb in 1949. That was the same year NATO was founded as a treaty organization between Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States.  The US upped the ante with the hydrogen bomb in 1952. The Soviets got the hydrogen bomb in 1955. And then came the Space Race. Sputnik launched in 1957. The Russians were winning the space race. They further proved that when they put Yuri Gagarin up in 1961. By 1969 the US put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Each side developed military coalitions, provided economic aid to allies, built large arsenals of weapons, practiced espionage against one another, deployed massive amounts of propaganda, and spreading their ideology. Or at least that's what the modern interpretation of history tells us. There were certainly ideological differences, but the Cold War saw the spread of communism as a replacement for conquest. That started with Lenin trying to lead a revolt throughout Europe but shifted over the decades into again, pure conquest.  Truman saw the rapid expansion of the Soviets and without context that they were mostly reclaiming lands conquered by the Russian imperial forces, won support for the Truman Doctrine. There, he contained Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe. First, they supported Greece and Turkey. But the support extended throughout areas adjacent to Soviet interests. Eisenhower saw how swiftly Russians were putting science in action with satellites and space missions and nuclear weapons - and responded with an emphasis in American science.  The post-war advancements in computing were vast in the US. The industry moved from tubes and punch cards to interactive computing after the Whirlwind computer was developed at MIT first to help train pilots and then to intercept soviet nuclear weapons. Packet switching, and so the foundations of the Internet were laid to build a computer network that could withstand nuclear attack. Graphical interfaces got their start when Ivan Sutherland was working at MIT on the grandchild of Whirlwind, the TX-2 - which would evolve into the Digital Equipment PDP once privatized. Drum memory, which became the foundation of storage was developed to help break Russian codes and intercept messages. There isn't a part of the computing industry that isn't touched by the research farmed out by various branches of the military and by ARPA.   Before the Cold War, Russia and then the Soviet Union were about half for and half against various countries when it came to proxy wars. They tended to play both sides. After the Cold War it was pretty much always the US or UK vs the Soviet Union. Algeria, Kenya, Taiwan, the Sudan, Lebanon, Central America, the Congo, Eritrea, Yemen, Dhofar, Algeria, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Chad, Iran, Iraq, Thailand, Bolivia, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Angolia, Ethiopia, the Sahara, Indonesia, Somalia, Mozambique, Libya, and Sri Lanka. And the big ones were Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. Many of these are still raging on today.  The Soviet empire grew to over 5 million soldiers. The US started with 2 nuclear weapons in 1945 and had nearly 300 by 1950 when the Soviets had just 5. The US stockpile grew to over 18,000 in 1960 and peaked at over 31,000 in 1965. The Soviets had 6,129 by then but kept building until they got close to 40,000 by 1980. By then the Chinese, France, and the UK each had over 200 and India and Israel had developed nuclear weapons. Since then only Pakistan and North Korea have added warheads, although there are US warheads located in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, and the Netherlands.  Modern Russia The buildup was expensive. Research, development, feeding troops, supporting asymmetrical warfare in proxy states, and trade sanctions put a strain on the government and nearly bankrupted Russia. They fell behind in science, after Stalin had been anti-computers. Meanwhile, the US was able to parlay all that research spending into true productivity gains. The venture capital system also fueled increasingly wealthy companies who paid taxes. Banking, supply chains, refrigeration, miniaturization, radio, television, and everywhere else we could think of. By the 1980s, the US had Apple and Microsoft and Commodore. The Russians were trading blat, or an informal black market currency, to gain access to knock-offs of ZX Spectrums when the graphical interfaces systems were born. The system of government in the Soviet Union had become outdated. There were some who had thought to modernize it into more of a technocracy in an era when the US was just starting to build ARPANET - but those ideas never came to fruition. Instead it became almost feudalistic with high-ranking party members replacing the boyars, or aristocrats of the old Kievan Rus days. The standard of living suffered. So many cultures and tribes under one roof, but only the Slavs had much say.  As the empire over-extended there were food shortages. If there are independent companies then the finger can be pointed in their direction but when food is rationed by the Politburo then the decline in agricultural production became dependent on bringing food in from the outside. That meant paying for it. Pair that with uneven distribution and overspending on the military.  The Marxist-Leninist doctrine had been a one party state. The Communist Party. Michael Gorbachev allowed countries in the Bloc to move into a democratic direction with multiple parties. The Soviet Union simply became unmanageable. And while Gorbachev took the blame for much of the downfall of the empire, there was already a deep decay - they were an oligarchy pretending to be a communist state. The countries outside of Russia quickly voted in non-communist governments and by 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and the Eastern European countries began to seek independence, most moving towards democratic governments.  The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in 15 separate countries and left the United States standing alone as the global superpower. The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO in 1999. 2004 saw Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join. 2009 brought in Albania and Croatia. 2017 led to Montenegro and then North Macedonia. Then came the subject of adding Ukraine. The country that the Kievan Rus had migrated throughout the lands from. The stem from which the name  and possibly soul of the country had sprouted from. How could Vladimir Putin allow that to happen? Why would it come up? As the Soviets pulled out of the Bloc countries , they left remnants of their empire behind. Belarus, Kazakstan, and the Ukraine were left plenty of weapons that couldn't be moved quickly. Ukraine alone had 1,700 nuclear weapons, which included 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles. Add to that nearly 2,000 biological and chemical weapons. Those went to Russia or were disassembled once the Ukrainians were assured of their sovereignty. The Crimea, which had been fought over in multiple bloody wars was added to Ukraine. At least until 2014, when Putin wanted the port of Sevastopol, founded by Catherine the Great. Now there was a gateway from Russia to the Mediterranean yet again. So Kievan Rus under Rurik is really the modern Ukraine and the Russian Empire then Romanov Dynasty flowed from that following the Mongol invasions. The Russian Empire freed other nations from the yolk of Mongolian rule but became something entirely different once they over-extended. Those countries in the empire often traded the Mongol yolk for the Soviet yolk. And entirely different from the Soviet Union that fought the Cold War and the modern Russia we know today.  Meanwhile, the states of Europe had been profoundly changed since the days of Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man and Marx. Many moved left of center and became socialized parts of their economy. No one ever need go hungry in a Scandanavian country. Health care, education, even child care became free in many countries. Many of those same ideals that helped lift the standard of living for all in developed countries then spread, including in Canada and some in the US. And so we see socialism to capitalism as more of a spectrum than a boolean choice now. And totalitarianism, oligarchy, and democracy as a spectrum as well. Many could argue reforms in democratic countries are paid for by lobbyists who are paid for by companies and thus an effective oligarchy. Others might argue the elections in many countries are rigged and so they aren't even oligarchs, they're monarchies.  Putin took office in 1999 and while Dmitry Medvedev was the president for a time, but he effectively ruled in a tandemocracy with Putin until Putin decided to get back in power. That's 23 years and counting and just a few months behind when King Abdullah took over in Jordan and King Mohammed VI took over in Morocco. And so while democratic in name, they're not all quite so democratic. Yet they do benefit from technology that began in Western countries and spread throughout the world. Countries like semi-conductor manufacturer Sitronics even went public on the London stock exchange. Hard line communists might (and do) counter that the US has an empire and that western countries conspire for the downfall of Russia or want to turn Russians into slaves to the capitalist machine. As mentioned earlier, there has always been plenty of propaganda in this relationship. Or gaslighting. Or fake news. Or disinformation.  One of those American advancements that ties the Russians to the capitalist yoke is interactive computing. That could have been developed in Glushkov's or Kitov's labs in Russia, as they had the ideas and talent. But because the oligarchy that formed around communism, the ideas were sidelined and it came out of MIT - and that led to Project MAC, which did as much to democratize computing as Gorbachev did to democratize the Russian Federation.

We live in a very goal-orientated society. So many of us are continually striving and thinking - 'what's next?' We may believe that when we get promoted at work, move into a bigger house or finally get a six pack – THEN we will be happy. However, you may have noticed that the horizon we are striving for always seems to stay just out of reach. Once one goal is ticked off – we want another one, ideally bigger – and so the sense of inner satisfaction we are really looking for is perpetually elusive.Clearly there is nothing wrong with goals, they are important. But, they are by definition in the future, whereas our values are how we want to be in the world from moment to moment. And there is good research that shows the more we live in accordance with our values, the higher sense of wellbeing we are likely to experience.One person I spoke to about values was Professor Steve Peters who came up with the Chimp Model - a metaphor for how we think, than helped many elite sportspeople from Ronnie O'Sullivan through to Victoria Pendleton and Steven Gerrard.**Follow me:on instagram https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/on twitter https://twitter.com/simonmundieAnd for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from three years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.comPlease do share this episode with anyone who may benefit, and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. It makes a big difference and is hugely appreciated.***Finally, a huge thanks to my sponsors, Puresport. Their range of CBD and Nootropics supplements have had a significant impact on how I sleep, manage stress, and focus throughout the day. I can't recommend them enough.CBD has been shown to have benefits for anxiety, inflammation, aches and pains - and it may even be good for long term brain and heart health. And anything that helps keep me well in the long-term rather than having to fix lots of niggles once they arrive gets the thumbs up from me. Combined with their range of nootropics, Puresport are paving the way in the natural wellness market.I am currently enjoying their Clarity oil, with ashwaganda and the sunshine Vitamin D - ideal for this time of year. The good news is that Life Lessons listeners can get 20% off with code Life20 at checkout. Head to puresportcbd.com to check out their extensive range and get your Life Lessons discount ** See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hi friends! Introducing the brand new TONE Device! Struggling to lose weight or reach your fitness goals? The TONE is a new breath acetone meter which lets you know if your body is burning fat!  All TONE devices are NOW SHIPPING Worldwide!! Order the TONE here. Now shipping worldwide!!  Order the Black & Gold TONE HERE Order the Black & Rose Gold TONE HERE Dr. Brian Mowll is the founder and medical director of SweetLife® Diabetes Health Centers and serves clients worldwide as The Diabetes Coach™.  He is a certified diabetes care and education specialist, master licensed diabetes educator, and is certified to practice functional medicine by the Institute for Functional Medicine. For over 20 years, Dr. Mowll has been helping people around the world to optimize their health and metabolism, control blood sugar, and reverse type 2 diabetes using a natural, personalized lifestyle approach. In addition, he is the host of the #1 rated Mastering Blood Sugar podcast and author of the #1 international best-selling book, The ProFAST Diet, Burn Fat And Reverse Type 2 Diabetes In Just Six Weeks.   www.drmowll.com Follow @optimalproteinpodcast on Instagram to see visuals and posts mentioned on this podcast. Link to join the facebook group for the podcast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2017506024952802/ Follow Vanessa on instagram to see her meals, recipes, informative posts and much more! Click here @ketogenicgirl Try the Higher Protein Keto Meal Plans & Coaching: https://www.ketogenicgirl.com Special thank you to our podcast sponsor: Introducing a breakthrough NEW digestive product called kApex® by BiOptimizers! kApex® is designed to rev up your cellular metabolism, which boosts your energy and capacity to burn fat as fuel.  Combined with a solid diet and workout plan, this combination of nutrients delivers a powerful boost in your ability to shed weight and reach your body composition goals.  VISIT www.kenergize.com/fastketo10 and use the code FASTKETO for 10% off any order! That's www.kenergize.com/fastketo10 with the code FASTKETO. - Prior to beginning a ketogenic diet you should undergo a health screening with your physician to confirm that a ketogenic diet is suitable for you and to rule out any conditions and contraindications that may pose risks or are incompatible with a ketogenic diet, including by way of example: conditions affecting the kidneys, liver or pancreas; muscular dystrophy; pregnancy; breast-feeding; being underweight; eating disorders; any health condition that requires a special diet [other conditions or contraindications]; hypoglycemia; or type 1 diabetes. A ketogenic diet may or may not be appropriate if you have type 2 diabetes, so you must consult with your physician if you have this condition. Anyone under the age of 18 should consult with their physician and their parents or legal guardian before beginning such a diet. Use of Ketogenic Girl videos are subject to the Ketogenicgirl.com Terms of Use and Medical Disclaimer. All rights reserved. If you do not agree with these terms, do not listen to, or view any Ketogenic Girl podcasts or videos.  

Drs Dekker and Grantham discuss Medial Patellotibial Ligament Reconstruction Improves Patella Tracking When Combined With Medial Patellofemoral Reconstruction: An In Vitro Kinematic Study

Gaming makes a lot of money. Now, Tech wants a piece of it

Alastair Brownlee is the only triathlete in history to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal – he won his first at London 2012 and backed it up by repeating the trick in Rio in 2016. He is also a two-time world champion, a four-time European champion and the 2014 Commonwealth championBasically - Alastair's trophy cabinet is overflowing.The theme of this week's conversation is – peak performance. We discuss a number of topics including - the power of instinct and flow, as well as the importance of preparation and letting go. We cover taking calculated risks, how you don't need to feel confident to be successful and how a lack of connection can lead to burnout – something many people can relate to over the last couple of years of lockdowns and remote working, as well as Alastair's book called Relentless.**Follow me:on instagram https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/on twitter https://twitter.com/simonmundieAnd for the 'Mundie on Monday' newsletter - featuring three of the best Life Lessons from three years and 200 of these conversations - head to simonmundie.comPlease do share this episode with anyone who may benefit, and rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. It makes a big difference and is hugely appreciated.***Finally, a huge thanks to my sponsors, Puresport. Their range of CBD and Nootropics supplements have had a significant impact on how I sleep, manage stress, and focus throughout the day. I can't recommend them enough.CBD has been shown to have benefits for anxiety, inflammation, aches and pains - and it may even be good for long term brain and heart health. And anything that helps keep me well in the long-term rather than having to fix lots of niggles once they arrive gets the thumbs up from me. Combined with their supplements range, Puresport are paving the way in the natural wellness market.Frankly, if nothing else, you have to try their Unwind Oil before bed. You'll sleep like a baby. The good news is that you can get 20% off with code Life20 at checkout. Head to puresportcbd.com and enjoy!** See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, D.O. (www.drtenpenny.com) is an osteopathic medical doctor, board certified in neuromusculoskeletal medicine. In addition, she has a proficiency certification in Integrative Medicine. She may be the most knowledgeable doctor on the planet regarding the fake "health" practice of vaccination and the damaging effects of vaccines. Combined with her knowledge on this and many related subjects, Dr. Tenpenny has the courage to tell the truth about the use of these weapons against humanity, at a time when calling vaccines what they actually are and exposing the massive injury and death they have caused is being called terrorism by the real terrorists killing their unsuspecting victims with these and many other weapons. Dr. Tenpenny is not only one of the leading voices exposing mass murder by vaccine, she has been telling the truth about all vaccines for years before the "pandemic" scam had started. We are not supposed to know that vaccines did not eradicate smallpox or polio, and instead have been a major cause of injury and death since 1796, when Edward Jenner promoted them as a preventative measure for smallpox. We are at the point in history when a new, human-friendly civilization is needed to replace the old one that has fallen under the control of satanic forces and all those who "just follow orders" in spite of the harm being done. One of the most urgently needed parts of the new civilization is a new medical system. Dr. Tenpenny is working on that project with a new organization that you can learn about at www.thetenpennyalliance.org.

When you have one of those days that seems to last forever, just be grateful you're not on the planet Mercury. There, a single day lasts for two years. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. The Sun's gravitational pull has locked the planet in such a way that it spins on its axis three times for every two orbits it makes around the Sun. Because of the Sun's changing position in the Mercury sky, that means that a “day” on Mercury — the time from one noon to the next — lasts for two full Mercury years — about 176 Earth days. That doesn't necessarily mean that sunsets or sunrises are 176 days apart, though. Mercury's orbit is lopsided, so the planet's orbital speed varies by quite a bit. Combined with the speed of its rotation, that creates some odd effects. From parts of the planet, during parts of its orbit, the Sun can rise, then reverse direction and set, then rise again. And there are double sunsets as well. Mercury is putting in a decent showing as the Sun rises in our own sky. Next week, in fact, it'll stand farthest from the Sun for its current morning appearance. It's in the southeast as twilight paints the dawn, and looks like a fairly bright star. It's so low that you need a clear horizon to spot it. Don't confuse it with brilliant Venus, the “morning star,” well to the upper right, or with fainter Mars, which is closer to Venus. Mercury will slip from view in the dawn's early light by late February.  Script by Damond Benningfield Support McDonald Observatory

Are you struggling to retain employees? Do you know how to keep scaling without burning through talent? When Robert Glazer started Acceleration Partners, he always had a vision of working with an international team. Now, his agency, which is focused on managing partnership and affiliate programs for high-growth brands, has 300 employees in eight different countries. Robert joined Jason in this episode to talk about how he avoids burning through talent, how he trains his employees to ask why, and what he invested in to get beyond the referral stage. 3 Golden Nuggets Beyond the referral stage. Robert ran a referral-based agency for about 15 years. Of course, it couldn't last forever and eventually, they started focusing more on sales and marketing so he and his partner would be less overwhelmed by the sales aspect. It's a stage every agency will go through and they faced it by investing in leadership, having great marketing, and great delivery. In the end, they have exponential revenue growth from the time they started scaling the sales and marketing team and hired a fully integrated sales and marketing team. On not burning through talent. With an agency that has been in Glassdoor's best places to work, what have they focused on when building their culture? Robert says they always had a vision of working remotely with employees from different countries. They have also focused on offering a work environment where employees can grow professionally, which is one of the main reasons people leave their jobs. In the end, agency life is not for everyone, some will love its unpredictable nature and others won't, but Robert made sure to create a culture that does not reward overworking employees unnecessarily and offers flexible hours. Asking why. On the subject of them not rewarding working extra hours with little results, Robert explains they have resorted to training employees to ask why. Why does the client need this data by tomorrow? Could this be solved any other way? Do they really need everything they think they need? “Don't assume, because they're asking for something that it's the right thing or you can't explain to them the trade-off or explain the consequences,” he says. Sponsors and Resources Verblio: Today's episode of the Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Verblio. Check out Verblio.com/smartagency and get 50% off your first month of content creation. Our team loves using Verblio because of the ease in their process and their large pool of crowd-sourced writers. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Scaling Your Agency Faster Without Burning Through Talent {These transcripts have been auto-generated. While largely accurate, they may contain some errors.} Jason: [00:00:00] What's up, agency owners? Jason Swenk here and I have another great episode where we're going to talk about how you can scale your agency rapidly without burning through a ton of talent, because all of us have been going through and going, how do we keep employees and how do we find the right talent? And on today's episode, I have a guest that's going to talk exactly about that, that's done this. So let's go ahead and jump into the episode. Hey, Robert, welcome to the show. Robert: [00:00:32] Thanks for having me, Jason. Jason: [00:00:33] Yeah. So tell us who you are and what you do. Robert: [00:00:36] Uh, yeah, I'm Bob Glazer. I'm the founder and the chairman of the board of Acceleration Partners. Acceleration Partners is the largest global independent agency focused on managing partnership and affiliate programs for well-known and high-growth brands. Uh, we have almost 200 clients and, uh, I think, uh, getting close to 300 employees across eight countries and we manage programs across 25 different countries. Jason: [00:01:02] Very cool. And so how did you start the agency? What made you fall into this? Robert: [00:01:08] Uh, like most agency owners… No, I don't know anyone who started the agency intentionally. I just, you know, I started doing some work in the affiliate space. I found a lot of problems with it. I started helping a company fix its program. Uh, that company ended up being a huge success. It was called Tiny Prints. Sold them to Shutterfly for $300 million. People then spread out from that and start saying, hey, can we do that thing that you helped us with there? And then I couldn't do enough of those. So I hired some people, so, and sort of the rest was history from there. So we were very, for years, just all referral-based, uh, word of mouth, you know, 15 years. It's really in the last five years that we've had kind of sales and marketing a little bit before. Jason: [00:01:47] So, what were some of the stages that you went through, you know, in order, like, obviously go through the referral stage, right? And you only can get to a certain plateau. And I feel a lot of people listening to the show right now, you know, are at that level, right. They're kind of plateaued, you know, it could be at 5 million, 10 million, whatever it is, they're plateaued, but you have to do something different. What were the things that you guys did different? Robert: [00:02:10] We invested a lot in thought leadership, content marketing. We wrote a book that was the first in our industry called Performance Partnerships. So we really focused on having great… someone sent me the barbell strategy, having great marketing, having great delivery, which drove the word of mouth. Eventually, though, you know, we were like, look, we don't want to sell or need to sell. Eventually, myself and Matt who is now CEO who is the VP of client services, we're just handling sales calls all day. So even if they were inbound, right, then you had to talk to these people. And we were, you know, the people that called us, we answered the phone, but we weren't following up with them and checking in and the things that you need to do to keep, uh, a sales pipeline moving. So eventually we started to acquiesce. It was like, look, even if we don't want to be cold calling people like this is a lot of, I find, to manage. But from the time we started scaling the sales and marketing team and now with a fully integrated sales and marketing team, I mean, we will, we will sell more this year revenue than we did in our for… Our revenue growth this year will be more than our first 10 years, right? Combined. So it takes a while to get those pieces working. You can go either way. Again, it depends on the type of business you want to build. I wanted to establish our marketing before our sales, like, get the demand going, but, you know, I've seen the opposite approach work too where you get account development and people calling and doing that. We had a really good referral pipeline and we thought that that thought leadership would also help on the conversion of, you know, the people who are examining us. Jason: [00:03:39] Gotcha. So what have you seen work to allow you to scale rapidly without burning through talent? Robert: [00:03:45] Yeah, look, it's hard in this business. Paradoxically, I would say, you know, we, we started by sort of in the premise, you know, five or 10 years ago that people aren't gonna stay here forever and turning that into sort of an open conversation and, you know, having a productive alumni group. But we've, we've actually always been remote. We focused on having sort of a world-class, uh, culture. We spent a lot of time and energy on our culture have been in Glassdoor's best places to work a few years. And look, agency life is not for everyone, but what's interesting is people who come here from other agencies really say to us, this is really different. Some people are a lot of people, realize agency is not right for them. Maybe that's not the work that they want. So we've done a lot to really screen the type of person who likes that fast growth, high pace. You are serving clients. If you don't like client service, probably not a great role, but they like the kind of unpredictability and working on something new and different. I think that the biggest thing that keeps your talent around is investing in your talent and helping them grow and develop. That's one of the reasons we are a growth firm and that growth has allowed for, you know, I think we've had 87 seven promotions last year or something like that, you know, across our team. So for people to see that, oh, that person started associate and manager and now they are a director or VP. And that, that path is available to them. I think these days people leave for two reasons. They don't, they don't like their manager, maybe three reasons, they don't like what they're doing or they just don't, they're not growing or don't see a path for them. I don't think anyone here is blocked. I mean, that's one of the nice things. If you go up 30% a year for a while, as we have, there's just new roles available every year. No, no one is blocked on their development path. Jason: [00:05:31] So when someone joins from another agency, what do they say it's different? Robert: [00:05:35] I think that… look, there's an interesting expectation gap. I actually think the last year has really shown some almost generational gaps in the workplace. We didn't see it before, you know, for better, for worse. I think some gen Z or people coming out now, I mean, they just, they think a 35 hour or 40 workweek is, is a work. That's the workweek and the expectation isn't above that. Some people want to learn and be exposed to a lot of things and understand that they're going to have to do that. But I think the biggest difference… so, so look there's times when there's a lot of work or whatever proposal was due and clients are, but we generally want to solve these problems. We generally don't want people, they don't work weekends. They don't work nights. And so what I've heard people express is at other agencies, people just didn't care if I was working 18 hours a day and they didn't care if I was burnt out or work weekends. They're like, no one wants that here. No, one's asking me to do that. But again, I think we all have to be honest, and this is the nature of the business. Sometimes if there's a million-dollar proposal and the client wants it on a Monday morning, someone's probably going to be working on that on a Sunday night. Like I, I, to me, that's the trade-off of flexibility. The other side is you want to go watch your kid's soccer game on a Friday afternoon? Like you can do like awesome. Go do that. So I think that's the biggest difference is people feel really supported. We are not celebrating. We actually talk culturally, we celebrate work performance, marketing, and we get paid how well these programs do. So we talk culturally about, we don't reward working hard. We reward working smart. I've seen people work a hundred hours a week and not get a lot done and really exhaust themselves and those around them. So I think that's the difference. If you haven't worked in an agency before, agency life can feel different. If you have, I think there's some ones who… again, it's a badge of honor to pull it all night, or I don't think anyone's ever done that in history of our company. Jason: [00:07:27] Are you looking for a content creation solution for your agency and/or clients? Verblio can help you with everything from blog posts, eBooks to video scripts, and a lot more. Verblio is a crowdsource solution to content creation with the pool of more than 3000 highly vetted writers who produce custom SEO-rich content. In fact, my team has been using Verblio and we love the ease of their process. With Verblio, we set the criteria for the style and the tone, and then they match you with the writers that have the expertise in your subject matter. Verblio is a platform specifically designed for agency. And that's why for a limited time, they're offering my listeners 50% off the first month of content. Just go to verblio.com/smartagency to learn more. That's Verblio, V E R B L I O.com/smartagency. Well, I mean, there's lots of people out there that talk about how much they work and how much they hustle. And that's really all they do. And that's perfectly fine for them. But I know when I'm working with agencies and I know when I'm running this business or the other agency, it's like, look, I want to do it smart. I want to be able to maintain, to take off Monday and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and only work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. That's what I want. And then you have to figure that out. Like in our mastermind, we were chatting at the end of the year, we were talking about what are the things we're going to say no to, in order to really like set the goal around time. Your goal should be around your time, not around money because you always sacrifice money. And that always makes a big difference. Cause yeah, I remember out of school I worked for Arthur Anderson and that was like a badge of honor to see how many hours, you know, oh, you got to 80 hours a week? I got a hundred hours a week. I'd be like, you're an idiot. Robert: [00:09:24] We actually train around asking, you know, why a lot. And when a client asks for panic for a ridiculous amount of things last minute, you go to them and you say, well, why do you need…? Well, my boss, I have a new boss starting tomorrow. And I wanted them to have this two years of data. And he said, hey, how about we give them X, Y, and Z? And like, I don't want to reward the person spending 10 hours on something they didn't need to do, because it didn't produce a better outcome and it exhausted them. If they could solve that problem in a half an hour by asking why, what do you need? You know, a lot of times, I think it's explaining to clients too what that means. Yes, we can chase those new to new markets, but you realize that mean the core launch mark is then aren't going to get the same support? And they'll say, well, can we do both? Can't… no, so we can either double the team or we can, I think a lot of times it actually if you're an agency that provides great services, your biggest problem is that your teams don't know how to say no well, or sort of put a lid on scope creep and they over-deliver. And by the way, what happens when you overdeliver in an agency? I go look at the PNL at the end of the month and not only is the employee upset, but we haven't made any money. So that's a lose, lose. Jason: [00:10:36] Well, yeah. And the clients are getting overwhelmed by all the stuff that you just provided them. And a lot of times they get confused, which means they're going to leave. So you just burn out your clients. Robert: [00:10:45] Don't assume, because they're asking for something it's the right thing or you can't explain to them the trade-off or explain the consequences. Again, if they say, well, let's chase this city and that city, are you okay if that deteriorates the results on the existing two cities? Well, if it's one of these things where it's 99, 1% and it's oh, when you put it that way, I know I don't want to put those campaigns at risk at all. Jason: [00:11:08] Yes. Awesome. Well, Robert, this has been great. Is there anything I didn't ask you that you think would benefit the audience? Robert: [00:11:14] Yeah, just in terms of, I think thinking about where you want your agency to go in terms of determining how you want to run it, right? I think there are a bunch of different paths, particularly, you know, there are a lot of people exiting these days, and I think there's a specific set of things that you need to do and understand your industry if you want to move towards that outcome. Jason: [00:11:33] Let's go over a couple of those. What's important in your eyes? Robert: [00:11:37] A couple of things. Cause you might hear from your friends who have SAS businesses or otherwise, but agencies are sold on EBIT. They are not sold on revenue. They're not sold on customers or clients or other things they're sold on trailing 12 month EBIT. So, first of all, you can get over the fact that you haven't started a SAS business, you know, and your friend did, and he sold it for 10 times sales. And then you need I, so I think the two things that I see really hurt the most… one is not having everything relying on the founder, right? These are the things that impact valuation. Understanding that trailing 12 months EBITDA is the primary driver and then having a proper cost accounting for your business. The amount of agencies I've seen who don't have for gross margins correctly, who aren't putting, you know, the actual people cost of doing the works in a gross margins. Like this is kind of finance 101. You can't, if the people are delivering the service, then that is, you know, you can't say you have a hundred percent gross margin and operating expenses, it doesn't, it doesn't present an accurate picture. And I would also encourage everyone out there to, you know, if you're an owner-operator, pay yourself a market salary in the business and then take the profits, so that you have a proper PNL. Because we, we've gone to look at businesses and they say their profits' a million dollars in EBITDA, and then there's three founders taking $30,000 a year. Well, those financials are not accurate. And then you're very upset, but your evaluation is not going to be there. So those are three of the things I would really encourage people to do if they're thinking about an exit down the line. Jason: [00:13:07] What do you see the multiples being in? Uh, you know, I've seen them as ranges, so let's say you're under a million in EBITDA. What's the multiple? Robert: [00:13:15] Yeah. So I built a chart on this for marketing agencies. I'm happy to share it with you. So under a million in EBITDA, I mean, right now it's hard, but it could be two to four times EBITDA with a heavy earn-out. Because again, under a million EBITDA, the owners, probably the head of marketing head of sales. I wouldn't expect them to get more than 50% of that upfront. I think two to 3 million in EBITDA these days, maybe 5, 6, 7, you know, the first inflection point, major inflection point, is 5 million in EBITDA. And I think, you know, healthy agencies have 5 million EBITDA with recurring revenue, you know, business are, are going for 10 times plus EBITDA these days. Jason: [00:13:58] Yeah, what we'll do is anything under a million in EBITDA is usually one to two X EBITDA. A million to 3 million is usually four to six. Three to about, you know, six would be a little bit more. And then if you're over the 10 figure mark in EBITDA, then it's really write your own ticket, depending on a number of different things. Robert: [00:14:20] Agencies over 10 million, 20 million are getting 20 times earnings some of them these days. But I think he made the point you made is really interesting. Again, this is why you need to focus on what your strategy is. The problem, it's hard to get one of those one to two times EBITDA deals done, because why would that founder sell when they can just have to hold on a business for two years? But they haven't created anything beyond themselves that has value. In fact, if the earnings of that $1 million EBITDA, you know, and they are the head of sales, the head of marketing, the head of whatever, that includes $400,000 of things that you'd need to pay for other people, then it's really 600,000. So that's the problem. That's why those deals don't get done. Again, if I'm the seller, do I want to give up the…? You know, you wouldn't give up one time, EBIT if it's, unless you saw it, your business is going to collapse. And even too, he said, if I just held on for two years. So if you want to get real value for your business, it needs to be a valuable business beyond yourself. And the more that you can take yourself out of functions, you know, when you start having a marketing person, when you start having a salesperson and you're not on all the sales calls, these are the things that might get you up to a two to three from one to two. Jason: [00:15:28] Yeah. My partners always get mad at me. A lot of times I talk people out and I'm like, look, you're not worth what you think you're worth, and if you are worth what you think you are, like, why do you want to sell? Like, there's lots of mastermind members that we've gotten to the level where they're the chairman and they're not in the day-to-day and they're getting millions of dollars every year. So why would they sell? Robert: [00:15:51] Let's say, it's, let's say it's a million-dollar EBITDA business and you're out of it, but it's just only a million of EBITDA, which again is not a lot of scale. And let's just say someone will pay two to three times for that. I mean, do you want to sell the golden goose or do you want to keep getting the eggs, right? That becomes a tough, tough equation. But I think if you certainly don't want to get a deal done, you go to market and you tell everyone, you know, that you want evaluation either, or you're… An agency is an agency. There could be a hot segment, but they've all, every sale has been valued generally the same for the history of, of time. And I think when you go to market and talk to people and your expectations are just nothing like the deals that are, I always say market-clearing prices. We hear a lot of rumors, right? We hear LOIs… 80% of deals I think don't close, right? So you hear a lot of headline LOI that didn't close. You don't know whether the headline number had earn-outs or not. It could have had five or six years of earn-outs. And so I, the only prices and comps you can use or what I call market-clearing prices, not the rumor that your friend said, or the LOI that your other friend said, or otherwise. Jason: [00:17:00] Yeah. Awesome. Well, Robert, what's the agency website, people can go and check out? Robert: [00:17:03] Yeah. It's probably easier to Google than it is to spell it all out. It's accelerationpartners.com. Uh, hopefully, we're doing a decent job at SEO and you put Acceleration Partners. I'm sure one of your SEO agencies listening will, uh, will give us a call and offer to fix. Jason: [00:17:18] Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on the show. And if you guys enjoyed this episode and you want to be around amazing agency owners that can see the things that you're not able to see and help you scale and grow and get to a point where you've really created the freedom in your agency, where you're making the profit. You don't have to make all the decisions. You don't have to have all the risks and your team is, you know, humming along. I'd love to invite all of you to go to digitalagencyelite.com. This is our exclusive mastermind for agency owners that are experienced. Go there now and until next time have a Swenk day.

Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 800 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Check out StandUpwithPete.com to learn more 36 mins Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing spans young readers, teens, and adults. Combined, her books have sold more than 8 million copies. Her new book, SHOUT, a memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault at the age of thirteen and a manifesta for the #MeToo era, has received widespread critical acclaim and was Laurie's eighth New York Times bestselling book. Two of her novels, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chains was short-listed for the prestigious Carnegie medal in the United Kingdom. Laurie has been nominated for Sweden's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award seven times. Laurie was selected by the American Library Association for the Margaret A. Edwards Award and has been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English. In addition to combating censorship, Laurie regularly speaks about the need for diversity in publishing and is a member of RAINN's National Leadership Council. She lives in Philadelphia, where she enjoys cheesesteaks while she writes. Find out more about Laurie by following her on Twitter at @halseanderson, Instagram at halseanderson, and Facebook at lauriehalseanderson, or by visiting her website, madwomanintheforest.com. At 1:07 mins in I welcome the great Maura Quint. Maura is a humor writer and activist whose work has been featured in publications such as McSweeneys and The New Yorker. She was named one of Rolling Stone's top 25 funniest twitter accounts of 2016. When not writing comedy, Maura has worked extensively with non-profits in diverse sectors including political action campaigns, international arts collectives and health and human services organizations. She has never been officially paid to protest but did once find fifteen cents on the ground at an immigrants' rights rally and wanted to make sure that had been disclosed. She was the co founder and executive director of TaxMarch.org  And she recently began a new gig at the Americans for Tax Fairness campaign director Listen to Maura co host their new podcast revisiting the YA books we loved in the 80s & 90s "My So Called Book Club" Support Maura and Megan on Patreon!  Check out all things Jon Carroll Follow and Support Pete Coe Pete on YouTube Pete on Twitter Pete On Instagram Pete Personal FB page