Podcasts about Conducting

In this solo episode, Josh Hadley explores how the CEO's role evolves as an ecommerce business scales. He traces the journey from hands-on operator managing every detail to strategic leader focused on high-level priorities. Drawing from his own experience, including a four-week time study, Josh outlines where CEOs should invest their time at each growth stage. Key focus areas include attracting top talent, defining brand vision, building strategic partnerships, and optimizing financial models. His core message: delegation and strategic focus, not micromanagement, are what drive businesses toward eight and nine figures.Bullet Points:The evolving role of a CEO in an ecommerce business as it grows.Transition from hands-on management to strategic leadership.Importance of delegation and hiring specialized talent.Conducting time studies to identify CEO-level tasks versus delegable tasks.Challenges of micromanagement and the need to trust team members.Strategies for investing regained time effectively.Attracting and retaining top talent within the organization.Defining and communicating a clear brand vision.Developing strategic partnerships to enhance business opportunities.Financial stewardship and optimizing revenue models for growth.Timestamps:00:00:00 Introduction to the Evolving CEO RoleThe host introduces himself and the topic: how a CEO's responsibilities must change as an e-commerce business grows.00:02:00 The CEO's Time StudyThe host shares his personal experience conducting a four-week time study to identify and delegate non-CEO level work.00:03:04 The "Subject Matter Expert" PhaseIn the beginning, the CEO is the hands-on expert, handling everything from product research to PPC campaigns.00:04:03 The First Million-Dollar MilestoneAfter hitting $1 million, the CEO's role shifts to reinvesting for growth, often by expanding product offerings.00:05:07 The Cycle of Growth and DelegationThe CEO identifies bottlenecks, hires specialists to solve them, and then doubles down on other sales-generating activities.00:06:57 Leading Through PeopleCrossing the $20 million mark requires a transition from hands-on execution to leading managers and department heads.00:08:00 Common Pitfalls for CEOs with Free TimeCEOs who delegate successfully must avoid wasting their newfound time or, most damagingly, starting another distracting business venture.00:09:53 Investing in Your TeamThe first priority for a CEO should be retaining talent by improving team experience, building culture, and supporting people.00:11:21 Focusing on Brand VisionThe CEO must clarify and communicate the brand's long-term vision to guide the company and retain key employees.00:13:13 Developing Strategic PartnershipsCEOs should spend time building relationships with key industry players, potential hires, and co-branding partners for future growth.00:14:11 Overseeing Financial HealthA key CEO role is allocating resources effectively, managing cash flow, and ensuring the business can support its growth.00:15:11 Architecting the "Money Model"CEOs must focus on engineering the business model to maximize customer lifetime value, not just front-end acquisition profits.00:17:21 The CEO's High-Level FocusThe CEO should work on the big picture—people, vision, brand, and money model—not tactical day-to-day tasks.00:19:19 The Most Important CEO Skill: SellingA CEO's number one skill is selling the vision to recruit and retain top talent, which provides the most leverage.00:20:20 Helping Others Become MillionairesThe ultimate mindset shift: a CEO's goal should be to build a business that helps their key leaders succeed financially.Links and Mentions:Tools and Concepts"AI": "00:02:00""Time Study": "00:02:00""PPC (Pay-Per-Click)": "00:05:07"Books"$100 Million Money Models by Alex Hormozi": "00:16:49"Key Concepts"Product Market Fit": "00:04:03""Brand Vision": "00:11:58""Customer Lifetime Value": "00:15:41"Recommendations"Develop Partnerships": "00:12:51""Financial Health of the Business": "00:13:45"Quotes"If you want to become a billionaire, you've got to get really, really, really good at helping other people become millionaires.": "00:20:42"Transcript:Josh Hadley 00:00:00  Today, I'm going to dive into how the role of a CEO entrepreneur has to evolve over the growth of that business and the tasks and the roles that that CEO is responsible for. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. First of all, my name is Josh Hadley. I am a man of faith. I am a husband to a beautiful wife and a father of four children. I have been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade, doing multi-million in revenue on channels such as Amazon, TikTok, Shop and Shopify. And I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs. And that is E-com breakthrough. Today, we're going to talk about what it means to actually be a CEO, especially when you're the entrepreneur who built the organization from scratch.Josh Hadley 00:00:58  And here's the challenge. There's not a direct playbook that applies to every single business that you have to follow. And so the role of the CEO is, frankly speaking, quite nebulous. And it requires a massive amount of adaptability and extensive leadership skills in order to pull this off in a significant way. At the end of the day, if you look at any $100 million brand, it all goes back to how good the original leader or founder was or was not. Sometimes there is kind of like lightning strikes and it's a really crappy leader and a really crappy founder, and they just hit a significant product market fit. That does happen. And honestly speaking, those are more often than not, a lot of the news stories that you hear about doesn't mean they were actually that good of an operator or that great of a leader. And so with that being said, what do you do and how do. How does your role as a CEO have to evolve as your ecommerce brand is growing over time? And so let's talk about it because this is something that has happened for me in my own business, and I'm speaking from experience.Josh Hadley 00:02:00  And to be honest with you, right now, I'm going through another weird inflection point in my business, and that's where this is coming from. I recently conducted a four week time study where I studied my time literally from sunup to sundown. I jotted down everything I did in 15 minute increments, and using AI and using my own human intelligence, I thought through and said, hey, what am I doing right? That is actually CEO level work, and what am I doing that like, is not CEO level work that needs to be delegated, deleted, or sometimes doubled down on. And so it's from that mindset that I understood, wow, there's a lot of things that I need to add, delete and delegate to other people. And that honestly leaves me in this like weird spot where, hey, if I'm delegating that to somebody else, what am I supposed to be doing? And so it's in that question of me asking ...

Gaby Dijkstra is an outdoor enthusiast, solo traveller, and researcher with a passion for remote mountain environments. Whether climbing, skiing, or paragliding, she feels most at home in the mountains and has travelled to all seven continents, breaking barriers as a solo female adventurer. After years of working in education and girl empowerment projects, Gaby became increasingly curious about the construct of gender and how societal expectations shape our behaviours, opportunities, and experiences. This curiosity ultimately led her to pursue a PhD at Rotterdam School of Management, designing her own research project to investigate the role of gender in extreme environments. In 2024, Gaby spent 191 days in the Himalayas, including 132 days living on the mountains, conducting fieldwork during a full climbing season in Nepal. Her research explored the role of gender in the extreme mountaineering industry, particularly among the people who work and operate in these challenging environments. Along the way, she joined a commercial expedition to climb Ama Dablam, visited the Khumbu Icefall and the Manaslu region, and was invited to take part in an exclusive winter expedition to Annapurna I. Through interviews, observations, and lived experience, Gaby gathered what she describes as "a mountain of data" on how gender norms continue to shape the culture of mountaineering. In this episode, Gaby shares what she learned from her time in the Himalayas, why the traditional heroic narrative of mountaineering can be harmful to both men and women, and how understanding gender as a social construct can help us rethink leadership, decision-making, and belonging in extreme environments. Listen to this episode to learn about conducting a PhD in one of the world's most challenging landscapes, the hidden gender dynamics within the mountaineering industry, and why talking to other women and pursuing your curiosities can open doors to entirely new adventures. ***  New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast drop every Tuesday at 7 AM (UK time)! Make sure to subscribe so you never miss the inspiring journeys and incredible stories of tough women pushing boundaries.  Do you want to support the Tough Girl Mission to increase the amount of female role models in the media in the world of adventure and physical challenges? Support via Patreon! Join me in making a difference by signing up here: www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast.  Your support makes a difference.  Thank you x *** Show notes Living in Amsterdam, Netherlands 37, freelancer and researcher  Having a background in sports management  Using sports to help society tackle challenges PhD at Rotterdam School of Management  Designing her own study project - the role of gender in extreme environments  Gender as a social construct  How social constructs can limit us in who we are and how we behave What is appropriate behaviour for societies gender expectations  Study something that is interesting for you Looking at gender and not understanding the construct  Loving all types of outdoor sports.  Being most happy when in the mountains  Where are all the women - always being surrounded by men Starting to work in leadership project. Girl empowerment projects. Introducing girls to sports  Getting frustrated and wanting to learn more about the construct of gender  Wanting to know how this plays out in extreme environments  If there are no obstacles - where would you like to go for your PhD? Wanting to go back to the Himalayas  191 days in the field, spending 132 days on a mountain Conducting fieldwork in the mountains of Nepal for a full climbing season  Looking at the role of gender in the climbing industry - especially for people working in the mountains Studying only from the Nepal side Taking part in a commercial climbing expedition - climbing Ama Dablam (6,812 metres (22,349 ft)) Doing a participant observation study - What it means to be a client in the industry  Being invited to join an exclusive winter expedition - visiting Annapurna I Visiting the Manaslu Region Vistiting Mt. Everest and the Khumbu icefalls  Speaking with women climbing and working  The lessons and learning from the research - having "a mountain of data!" Her PnD based on three articles  The first article based on doing a discourse analysis based on 100 years of expedition reports - looking at gender norms and how they can be identified  The 2nd and 3rd articles based on her experience  Looking at the theory of sense making, decision making  Not looking at the different between men and women The heroic sense of mountaineering  - the summit above all else…. The traditional norms and how it can harm both men and women Women being extra tough on other women How to connect with Gaby to find out more about her work  Wanting to be outside rather than on social media Words of advice for other women who want to purse their interests  Talk to other women    Social Media Website: www.sportsleadership.nl  Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/gabydijkstra 

In this episode, host Josh interviews Eric Kooymans, an online marketing expert with 18 years of experience. Eric shares actionable strategies for e-commerce growth, including in-depth keyword research, competitor and paid ad analysis, and cost per acquisition estimation. He emphasizes the importance of product bundling, expanding sales channels, and leveraging tools like SEMrush and Facebook Ad Library. Eric offers practical tips on using Google and Facebook Shopping integrations and provides advice for building sustainable, scalable e-commerce brands that attract long-term investment.Chapters:Introduction to Eric Kooymans and His Expertise (00:00:00)Eric's background, experience, and notable clients in e-commerce and online marketing.Starting a Growth Strategy: Self-Audit & Audience Analysis (00:01:34)Initial steps for developing a growth plan: self-audit, understanding target audience, and identifying customer problems.Keyword Research and Demand Analysis (00:02:05)Using tools like Keyword Keg, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner to analyze search volume, demand, and seasonal trends.Building a Demand Growth Strategy (00:02:56)Translating keyword research into a demand-driven business strategy, considering seasonality and cost per acquisition.Evaluating Cost per Acquisition and Product Bundling (00:03:52)Assessing average order value, cost per acquisition, and the importance of bundling products for profitability.Keyword Research Tools and Competitor Analysis (00:04:41)Comparing keyword research tools and introducing competitor analysis using SEMrush for deeper market insights.Deep Dive into Competitor Analysis (00:05:36)How to audit competitors, analyze their strengths, weaknesses, and identify cost-effective keyword opportunities.Paid Advertising and Ad Analysis (00:06:52)Conducting paid ad research using SEMrush, SpyFu, and Facebook Ad Library to understand competitors' ad strategies.Estimating Cost per Acquisition with Industry Data (00:08:50)Using WordStream and industry benchmarks to estimate cost per acquisition and conversion rates before launching campaigns.Optimizing Product Assortment and Bundling (00:11:24)Developing product bundles and assortments that increase average order value and align with customer passion.Actionable Takeaway 1: Activate Shopping Channels (00:12:37)Quick win: Turn on Google Shopping, Facebook Shopping, and use plugins to expand product reach.Actionable Takeaway 2: Focus on Product Bundles (00:13:49)Group winning products into bundles or seasonal packages to improve ad ROI and scale growth.Actionable Takeaway 3: Expand to New Marketplaces (00:14:44)Leverage platforms like Faire and other marketplaces to increase exposure and test new channels with bestsellers.Closing Remarks and Resources (00:15:58)Eric thanks the host, offers to answer questions, and mentions show notes with additional resources.Links and Mentions:Keyword Keg: "00:02:05"  SEMrush: "00:02:05"  Google Keyword Planner: "00:02:05"  SpyFu: "00:07:14"  Facebook Ads Library: "00:07:14"  WordStream: "00:09:48"  Sales and Orders: "00:13:19"  Transcript:Josh 00:00:00  Today I am super excited to introduce you to Eric Kooymans. Eric is an online marketing expert with over 18 years of experience in e-commerce development, search engine optimization, Facebook ads, influencer marketing and much more. With a portfolio boasting over 180 different companies including the American Cancer Society, passion, passion, City Church and Chris Tomlin. Eric's specialties include WordPress, Shopify and Magento e-commerce, as well as various marketing automation tools like Activecampaign and HubSpot. Get ready to learn from the best of in this business on today's podcast. So with that introduction, welcome to the show, Eric.Eric 00:00:42  Thank you for having me. I appreciate your time.Josh 00:00:44  Every single listener is going to want to hear, like, what are those growth strategies that you implement? Right? What are those the tactical things that you do that help diversify, provide comfort. But I think it's not even just the aspect of diversification. I think it is building a comprehensive brand that private equity truly would be hungry to acquire, right? Because they don't just see you as a fly by night Amazon seller.Josh 00:01:14  You had success on that, but you can't repeat that success anywhere else. so Eric, let's let's dive into those strategies. Somebody comes to you, you know, how do you work them or how do you start to develop that 6 to 24 month, you know, growth strategy? I guess ramp up for them.Eric 00:01:34  Sounds good. Yeah. So the first off, before we do it, we basically have we want to ask the basic questions and we kind of we normally have a little questionnaire that we have that we'll provide in the show notes. But the big question that you always want to kind of do a kind of little self audit. And we need to be able to understand, you know, who you are, who is the target audience? You know, what specifically is their problem or what are they looking for? Like what's their big, you know, when they're looking for your products? Kind of. What is that? What are we think of that is kind of what's the keywords, what's the what's the the symptom or the problem that they're having.Eric 00:02:05  And then with that, also, when it comes to the types of gifts or ways that this product could be used in, if it were to be a, a type of a gift or a, you know, holiday type thing. We put together all the different audiences and we do what we call the keyword research around that. And that's basically using cool tools like, keyword keg. there's also, SEMrush. There's also Google, Keyword Planner, but these are tools that we put it in there. And that basically tells us over the last 12 months what is the search volume and not just what we think we want to offer, but what are all the other things that we never thought of. And from there, we're then able to kind of have a lay of the land of what's the demand? Then we put together what we call the demand growth strategy, which basically is a how do we build our business around where the opportunity is. We don't want to just go buy a whole bunch of products and hope it works.Eric 00:02:56  We actually have to plan for it. And so the way that we do that is, is we understand what's the demand and what how many people are searching for what. And then and that's not just only at what times of the year as well, because you want to know what our seasonal business is. And if you have something that's big and and at Christmas time, well, how do you get busy in the summertime? You know, how do you not have the slow months? And how do you build products in a company around a sustainable growth strategy with that? And so we really kind of look at the seasonal trends. and then lastly, when you look at the keyword research, we're then able to understand what's the average cost per click and, and what the key thing to note is that is that if we were to go say, let's go do this, let's go and put together, a strategy, what is the average cost per acquisition? And those are the things that really allow us to say, hey,...

David Daoud details the escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, noting that Hezbollah's refusal to disarm has prompted the IDF to prepare for a major operation. Israel is currently conducting "clearing operations" to destroy Hezbollah installations near the Al-Aishiyeh Ridge. Daoud highlights the recent deaths of senior commanders from the elite Radwan and Badr units, which indicates that Hezbollah's operational security remains compromised. Despite these losses, Hezbollah is working with Iran to rebuild its command structure and has attempted to smuggle advanced weaponry, including cruise missiles, into Lebanon. (7)

In this episode of our Cross-Border Catch-Up podcast series, Patty Shapiro (shareholder, San Diego) and Kate Thompson (associate, New York/Boston) kick off an informative three-part series on global workplace investigations. In part one, they discuss how to prepare for an investigation, resolve conflicting legal frameworks, and understand cultural considerations. They also offer insights on assembling the right team, maintaining confidentiality, and complying with data privacy laws.

Most lawyers build damages by documenting what their client earned. Andrew Robb explains how to build damages by proving what your client still could have become.In the 100th episode of Best Practices with Kenny Berger, Andrew shares the framework his firm has developed through decades of catastrophic aviation litigation to uncover, develop, and present damages that many lawyers never think to pursue. Rather than stopping with employment records and economic projections, he explains how to investigate a client's ambitions, opportunities, relationships, and future potential to paint a more complete picture of what was truly taken.What You'll LearnAndrew shares practical strategies for:Developing stronger economic damages by proving future potential, not just past earnings.Investigating the people, experiences, and evidence that reveal your client's unrealized future.Using powerful liability evidence to maximize compensatory damages instead of relying on punitive damages.Building credibility with jurors by presenting realistic damages models and giving them meaningful choices.Conducting root cause analysis to identify the specific failure that caused a catastrophic event.Presenting emotional damages in a way that earns trust instead of creating juror resistance.The Bigger LessonThe conversation goes far beyond aviation.Andrew explains why the most valuable catastrophic cases are often built by asking better questions, looking deeper into your client's story, and making strategic decisions that maximize what your client can actually recover—not simply what a jury might award.Whether you're handling a wrongful death case, a trucking collision, medical malpractice, or any other catastrophic injury claim, this episode offers practical ideas for developing stronger damages evidence, making more thoughtful litigation decisions, and ultimately achieving better outcomes for your clients.

En el episodio de esta semana, Karla y René platican sobre el análisis de Grupo IUSA; el aumento en las vacantes para chief of staff; Eli Lilly and Company México y el crecimiento de Mounjaro; la popularidad de Candy Crush; y los viajes de Estados Unidos a Europa.Whitepaper Off The RecordRecomendaciones:London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth (English Edition)The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New LifeThe Mysterious Art of Conducting

Full Show: Chiefs First Unofficial Depth Chart, Conducting a Royals Rebuild, Tough Tuesdays, NBA Season Release, One Word, Josh Allen Treatment VS Mahomes Treatment full 10529 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:00:35 +0000 H8ug2g7kxHsLBAOcOnXNQYv2L5TZDDuP nfl,mlb,patrick mahomes,kansas city chiefs,josh allen,kansas city royals,nba season opener,depth chart,sports Fescoe & Dusty nfl,mlb,patrick mahomes,kansas city chiefs,josh allen,kansas city royals,nba season opener,depth chart,sports Full Show: Chiefs First Unofficial Depth Chart, Conducting a Royals Rebuild, Tough Tuesdays, NBA Season Release, One Word, Josh Allen Treatment VS Mahomes Treatment Fescoe & Dusty are huge fans of Kansas City sports and the people of Kansas City who make it the great city it is. Start your morning with us from 6-10 as we talk all things Chiefs, Royals, Jayhawks, and more, with plenty of tangents along the way! 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

Firas Rahhal, M.D., partner of ExSight Ventures and Retina Vitreous Associates Medical Group, and Scott Usiak, co-founder of ExSight Ventures, join host Carey Powers on the Eye on Innovation podcast to discuss their new venture, ExSight Catalyst. They dive into the services they provide to investors and colleagues, how they're filling a gap that a fund alone cannot fulfill, and what a client walks away with from their experience at Catalyst.  In this episode, learn about:  How compliance, risk, and operations from a global financial institution translate into advising early-stage ophthalmic innovators Conducting due diligence on companies how that's helped with Catalyst What to expect from Catalyst in the next year The importance of being a doer and operator for an enterprise 

This week, the Colonial Theatre of Westerly is the subject of the program with Marion Markham, Director, and Miles Menendez, Stage Manager. We talk about their current production of “The Roommate” and the next program, “Merry Wives,” and listen to music that relates to those performances. For more information, you can go to colonialtheaterart.org

"Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth" by René Descartes is a foundational text in philosophy, renowned for the phrase “cogito ergo sum,” or “I think, therefore I am.” This work presents a systematic method of skepticism, encouraging readers to doubt everything to clear their minds of preconceived notions and approach the world with renewed clarity. Descartes' exploration of reason and truth laid the groundwork for modern natural sciences, making his insights profoundly relevant today as we navigate a complex world filled with information and uncertainty.

//The Wire//2300Z August 5, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: ALLEGED DRONE ATTACK REPORTED TARGETING UKRAINIAN AIRCRAFT AT GERMAN AIRPORT. MERCHANT SUNK IN THE SOUTHERN RED SEA IN DRONE BOAT ATTACK. MAN ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA AHEAD OF PRESIDENT TRUMP'S VISIT TO GOLF CLUB YESTERDAY.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Red Sea/HOA: This morning one merchant vessel reported being struck by an Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) near the Bab el Mandeb Strait. The UKMTO reported the vessel as being sunk during the attack. The incident occurred so quickly that the UKMTO was not notified during the attack, and the ship sank almost immediately after the incident.Analyst Comment: If the Houthis are now using USVs during this phase of operations, this war just got a lot more serious. The Houthis have demonstrated this capability in the past (such as the war with the United States last year), but have refrained from using this tactic so far during this campaign. Sinking a vessel using a USV is a new step toward closing the Bab el Mandeb, and the response from insurance companies will be an indicator to monitor, as this chokepoint becomes a warzone once again.Germany: This morning a series of possible explosive drone attacks was reported at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Just before midnight, one quadcopter-type drone was observed operating over the airport, prompting drone procedures to be enacted and aircraft grounded. During this response, a search of the airport resulted in the discovery of a second quadcopter lying on the tarmac near a Ukrainian cargo plane. This drone appeared to contain an explosive charge, though no contact detonation apparatus was visible in the provided photos of this device. After this incident was concluded and flight operations resumed, a DHL cargo aircraft collided with a third drone (of unknown type) upon takeoff from this airport, which resulted in the aircraft declaring an emergency and diverting to another airport due to the damage to the airframe.-HomeFront-USA: Around the nation cyberattacks on critical infrastructure continue. Over the past few days, water utilities in a total of 12x states have been affected by malign actors since last month. After the large-scale cyberattacks which resulted in dozens of water districts being locked out of their systems in Minnesota, many more states have reported similar incidents. Georgia is the latest state affected by cyberattacks, and this afternoon New Jersey also reported two water districts being targeted, both of which had to cut access to unspecified computer systems and switch to operating manually.Analyst Comment: As with most infrastructure attacks, these incidents are usually not immediately disclosed to the public unless the public would find out about it anyway, so the timing of all of these cyberattacks is not really known. The Minnesota attacks last week were publicized immediately due to the immediate impact to the public, and now that more eyes are on the issue (and various federal agencies have issued warnings of more attacks), more lower-level municipalities are disclosing that they had similar breaches over the past two weeks.As far as the malign actors behind these cyberattacks, it could be anyone. It does not take a nationstate level actor to breach a system that was using the default passwords or wasn't secured properly in the first place, but the targeting of a nation's water supply indicates the motive is probably in the military realm. No ransomware or demands have been noted, and no hacking group has claimed credit yet. These attacks were meant to directly take services offline, ruling out financial motives for the time being.California: Yesterday the DoJ announced the arrest of an individual tied to a possible security breach at the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles. The press release states that Jeanine John Taele was observed conducting surveillance by the initial Secret Service advance team that was sent to the Golf Club ahead of President Trump's visit. Taele was observed wearing an earpiece and taking photos of the security practices at the club, which drew the eye of the USSS. The suspect departed the facility and transited to his home, where he was apprehended by the Secret Service. During a search of his belongings agents found a few firearms, a pair of binoculars, and a generic badge used by security guards. Additionally, authorities discovered several notebooks containing "concerning statements" at his residence.Analyst Comment: The press release left enough ambiguity to make it difficult to determine what actually happened here: This could be extremely serious, or just some idiot who got too curious. The mention of the earpiece is an important detail, because depending on what that earpiece was, this could be a big deal. The way the release is written, this could easily have been a bluetooth headset as is customarily displayed by those who prefer the rather garish utilitarianism of wearing at all times. Or, this could have been a more substantial security threat that expands beyond just one person. If this individual was acting suspiciously, taking photos of security equipment, speaking into a "radio signal device" with an earpiece, and had vaguely described manifesto-esque notebooks at his residence...this was probably way more serious than just some guy walking around.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: The drone incident in Germany will be heavily scrutinized as this is a major escalation which can be interpreted in many different ways. First off all, it must be noted that the one extremely blurry photo of one drone may or may not actually show an explosive charge. What looks like an explosive charge could also be the battery pack, it's hard to tell based on the photo. If there were explosives onboard, it would have been a very small charge and not the flying artillery shells that have become common during the war.At the wavetop level, it is hard to believe that a nation-state level actor which has undeniably mastered the art of conducting attacks with sUAS platforms in war...would fail. If Russia was behind this attack, and really intended to target Ukrainian aircraft on the ground in Germany, a 100% failure rate using multiple explosive drones is extraordinarily unlikely. As a result, it's possible that this was either a false-flag attack intended to blame Russia, or it was Russia sending a message to NATO. Conducting a drone attack, but deliberately leaving the detonator disconnected so that the debris is found and forensic analysis of the explosives leads to a Russian factory, would be a classic Russian message...that's their style perfectly. This is the Kremlin's version of "per my last email", and proves two very serious ideas: NATO's aircraft are vulnerable on their home turf, and Russia already has clandestine forces located near NATO airports poised and waiting to eliminate NATO aircraft before they ever get off the ground. That message is more valuable than taking out one Ukrainian transport plane.However, this whole saga could also be the Ukrainians trying to expand the war, continuing the trend that has been expanding for some time. Since the very start, Zelenskyy has been trying to draw the whole world into their war, and has conducted attacks involving other European nations (such as Monaco and Turkey), which have served as an attempt to bring other nations in to the war to fight the Russians for them. From the Ukrainian perspective this makes sense, and every nation on earth fighting such a nasty war would also use trickery in a similar manner. But for the DHL pilots who almost died and other collateral damage over the years, this is hardly reassuring.The truth will probably be indirectly told in the mainstream media, by what rhetoric is being pushed. If this incident is downplayed and memory-holed, it probably was the Russians. If the mainstream media sources in NATO countries start an information campaign to spin this in their favor, the chances of this being a fake attack go up. For everyone who does not have the ability to forensically analyze the devices themselves, the true culprit might never be known. All the while the new Cold War becomes increasingly more hot, every single day.Analyst: S2A1 Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269 Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report. //END REPORT//

In this episode, ecommerce entrepreneur Josh Hadley shares his weekly operating system for structuring a productive business week. He argues that most business owners don't have a time problem, they have a calendar problem. Josh breaks down his weekday by day: Monday for KPI reviews and one-on-ones, Tuesday for deep work on growth initiatives, Wednesday for consolidated meetings, Thursday for strategy and product development, and Friday for planning and documentation. His core principles include protecting deep work, grouping meetings, reviewing before reacting, and using the calendar strategically to drive real business growth.Bullet Points:Weekly operating system for structuring business activitiesImportance of addressing calendar issues over time managementStrategies for protecting deep work and minimizing distractionsDetailed breakdown of a structured weekly scheduleFocus on reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) and cash flow forecastingEmphasis on deep, uninterrupted work days for growth initiativesMeeting-heavy days for consolidating discussions and maximizing efficiencyStrategic planning and product development sessionsDocumentation of processes and decision-making frameworksCore principles for effective time management and productivity in businessTimestamps:00:00:00 The Calendar ProblemMost business owners don't have a time issue, but a calendar problem, getting hijacked by distractions instead of focusing.00:01:54 Introduction to the Weekly Operating SystemJosh introduces his weekly operating system for running an eight-figure brand, designed to protect attention and align leaders.00:02:56 Monday: Grounding the Week in RealityMonday's focus is on reviewing KPIs, ensuring the team met goals, and identifying what is off track.00:04:03 Monday: Cash Flow ForecastingThe second priority is reviewing the 12-month cash flow forecast to understand the business's financial health and available resources.00:05:47 Monday: Auditing Personal TimeThe speaker audits his previous week's time to identify distractions and improve productivity, sometimes using a time-tracking app.00:06:46 Monday: One-on-One MeetingsThe rest of Monday is for one-on-one meetings with direct reports to set strategy, solve bottlenecks, and provide direction.00:08:37 Tuesday: Protected Deep WorkTuesday is dedicated to deep, uninterrupted work on growth initiatives, with a brief leadership huddle to start the day.00:11:33 Tuesday: Structuring MeetingsAny necessary meetings on Tuesdays, like vendor calls or interviews, are scheduled back-to-back at the end of the day.00:12:21 Wednesday: The Meeting DayWednesday is a deliberately meeting-heavy day, consolidating recurring discussions, including a 90-minute leadership meeting to solve business issues.00:13:18 Thursday: Strategy and ProductsThursdays are for zooming out from daily operations to focus on strategy, future hiring needs, and new product innovation.00:16:19 Friday: Planning and DocumentingFriday is for solidifying the week's takeaways, proactively planning the next week, and documenting knowledge to scale the business.00:18:06 Key Principles of the ScheduleThe speaker outlines six key principles behind his schedule, including giving each day a job and protecting deep work.Links and Mentions:E-commerce Platforms Mentioned: "00:00:30" CEO Dashboard Podcast Episode: "00:04:03" Weekly Cash Flow Planning Podcast Episode: "00:04:58"  Timing App: "00:06:43"  Conducting a Two Week Time Study Podcast Episode: "00:06:46"Transcript:Josh Hadley 00:00:00  Most business owners don't actually have a time issue. They have a calendar problem. Today I'm going to be sharing with you how to structure your week properly so that you are focused on the right things so that you can scale not only an eight figure business, but a nine figure business and beyond. Welcome to the Ecomm Breakthrough Podcast. I'm Josh Hadley. I've scaled my own ecommerce brand from 0 to 8 figures, and I'm actively building towards nine figures in sales. This podcast is where I document that journey and share the systems, the strategies, and the lessons learned in real time so that you can learn what actually matters and scale your own business. My name is Josh Hadley. First and foremost, I'm a man of faith. I'm a husband to a beautiful wife and a father of four children. I have been selling in the e-commerce space for over a decade, doing over $20 million in annual revenue and doing multi-million on sales channels such as Amazon, TikTok, Shop and Shopify. I am also the host of the number one business strategy podcast for ecommerce entrepreneurs, and that is E-com breakthrough.Josh Hadley 00:00:57  Today, I want to share with you exactly how you should be structuring your week in order to ensure that your focus is on the highest priorities, rather than getting caught up in just putting out fires and basically dealing with the thick of thin things. So I'm sharing this with you from my exact like schedule, in my exact structure that I have in my own business. For you to be able to use that as like a framework to structure your own week. So here's the problem. Most founders don't have a time issue. You actually have a calendar problem. And the reason why is because, like you're just getting hijacked by slack email, reactive meetings, WhatsApp notifications, a bunch of different like mastermind groups that you're in that are slacking you or texting you, etc. and ask me why. I know that because like, I was the guy who used to have that happening to me all the time, but now I literally turn my phone on silent mode and do not disturb mode, and I ignore the WhatsApp messages that are happening throughout the day.Josh Hadley 00:01:54  And to be honest with you, I'm frankly amazed how much interaction is happening during the day when people theoretically should be working on their business. Instead, they're reaching out and asking questions or predictions about this. You know, travel hacks about that. All those things are good, and they are decent conversations to have. However, I'm not going to sacrifice my time in my deep work that's actually going to grow the business to go chit chat and have random side conversations. Because actually, the moment you like are distracted and turn your attention to something else, it's ten times harder to bring it back to the focus that you originally had. So this is the exact weekly operating system that I use to run our eight figure brand, and how I protect my attention, align my leaders, and carve out enough time to actually move the business forward, rather than just kind of like staying stationary and keeping up with just the regular admin of maintaining the business as it is today. Let's dive into Monday. Monday is one of the most important days in the entire business.Josh Hadley 00:02:56  And it's not only important for me, but this carries out through the rest of my leaders Their Mondays are structured very, very similar to mine, and Monday is about grounding the entire week in reality, not urgency. Right? It's this is where the strategic planning and prioritization really comes into play here. Okay, before anything else gets my attention, I review what happened this previous week. So let's talk about that. The very first thing that I do Monday mornings is I'm looking at my weekly KPI tracker. And if you're wondering, well, what KPIs does Josh actually track and look at? If you go check ...

//The Wire//2300Z August 4, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: IRANIAN ATTACKS CONTINUE IN KUWAIT AND STRAIT OF HORMUZ. TURKISH MERCHANTS STRUCK BY UKRAINIAN DRONES IN BLACK SEA. WILDFIRE RESPONSE CONTINUES IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST AS ARSON REMAINS A CONCERN.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Middle East: This morning Iranian attacks continued in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting more vessels which have attempted to transit via the unauthorized southern route. Around the region, Iranian forces targeted American installations in Kuwait overnight, with locals reporting large fires allegedly in the vicinity of Camp Buehring. Analyst Comment: This is the first round of strikes that was not explicitly tied to the tit-for-tat American strikes, and this is one of the few times the Iranians have launched an attack during this war, that was not purely retaliatory. This is the latest indicator that the Iranians are becoming increasingly less likely to allow the United States to conduct strikes, and then let the markets cool off by the time the opening bell rings. Conducting strikes on their own terms and timing, is likely a tactic Iran will continue to exercise while the United States tries to buy more time to figure out how to win the war.Europe: The war in Ukraine has remained hot on multiple fronts as attacks on merchant shipping in the Black Sea continue to involve more third-party nations. This morning, Ukrainian drones targeted the M/V NADEZHDA (IMO: 7702657) just off the coast of Novorossiysk. This vessel is a Roll-on, Roll-Off (RoRo) vehicle transportation vessel, and was owned and operated by Turkey, with a mostly Turkish crew. In addition to this strike, another vessel was also struck in the same general area. The M/V YASAR (IMO: 9276341), a smaller regional containership was struck at roughly the same time as the NADEZHDA. Both vessels had recently departed port Novorossiysk before being struck.Analyst Comment: So far, Turkish authorities have played their hand very carefully, and there haven't been any public statements indicating how serious they are treating these strikes. The Turks have called on both Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea, which is exactly the kind of milquetoast statement that would be expected for a NATO member which also buys a lot of Russian military hardware. Nevertheless, this duality of defense is only going to last for so long, especially if this war expands to include the deaths of Turkish civilians onboard Turkish civilian ships.-HomeFront-Pacific Northwest: Wildfire concerns remain paramount as disaster recovery efforts continue in Washington state. Spokane is the biggest urban interface affected by the wildfires, and many suburbs and surrounding towns have burned completely to the ground. The National Interagency Fire Center status report for this morning stated that the three main wildfires burning in the Spokane area are still zero-percent contained, though major gains were made in combatting two of the fires threatening local homes in the suburbs. So far, most of the firefighting efforts have prioritized immediate risk to life within the residential areas of the city, in addition to aiding evacuation efforts for much of the population.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: In eastern Washington, weather is going to play a factor over the next few days and the region at large is not out of the woods just yet. The National Weather Service Fire weather update from this morning indicated light and variable winds forecasted for tonight, increasing tomorrow. Temperatures today were a bit cooler, but temps are expected to rise (and humidity expected to drop) ever further tomorrow, as winds begin to rise. This afternoon's weather forecast continued to indicate increasing winds of over 20mph are likely throughout central and eastern Washington on Friday and Saturday. As a result, fire behavior conditions can change quickly, and increased situational awareness is vital while the crisis continues. This is especially important considering the origin of the fires. At least one arrest has been made due to at least some of these fires being arson, and the risk of continued malign action is likely while these weather patterns continue.Analyst: S2A1 Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269 Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report. //END REPORT//

"What I do with the high school choirs is important. I always tell them, 'I'm really just trying to convince you to do what you already know you can do, to give yourself to it, to create this big whole beautiful experience for yourselves. Then your audience is privileged to get to see what you can do.' That's the inner calling. It's using conducting, singing, and teaching to try to inspire people to connect with their music-making magic, just trying to connect people."Hailed as a “composer of energized and soulful music,” Zanaida Stewart Robles is an award-winning artist whose vibrant works have been performed worldwide by professional ensembles, community choirs, educational institutions, churches, and individuals world wide. A sought-after composer, vocalist, and educator, she blends rich harmonies, rhythmic drive, and influences from gospel and jazz to progressive rock, creating music that connects deeply with performers and audiences alike. Her works are available from MusicSpoke, E.B. Marks Music, Pavane Publishing, Oxford University Press, Gentry Publications, Hinshaw Music, and Stainer and Bell.Dr. Robles is performing arts instructor at Harvard-Westlake Upper School in Studio City, CA. She served for 2 years on the advisory board for the California Choral Directors Association as Repertoire and Resources Chair for Choral Composition. For three years, she served as chair of the board of directors for the Grammy-award-winning choral group Tonality. She also served for four years on the board of directors for the National Association of Negro Musicians.As a concert soprano soloist, studio vocalist for film and television, and professional ensemble singer, Dr. Robles has sung throughout the United States, and in parts of Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. Some of her film, television, and video game credits include “Glee,” “Godzilla,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and “Wicked.”Dr. Robles holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral music from the USC Thornton School of Music, a Master of Music degree in conducting from CSU Northridge, a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from CSU Long Beach, and she is a graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.To get in touch with Zanaida, you can visit zanaidarobles.com or find her on Facebook (@zanaida.robles) or Instagram (@zanaidastewartrobles).Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.Podcast music from Podcast.coPhoto in episode artwork by Trace Hudson

Busyness can create the illusion of progress, but movement alone doesn't mean you're moving in the right direction. This Empowering Moment challenges you to take an honest inventory of the areas that matter most—your faith, relationships, finances, health, thinking, and use of time. When your intentions and your actions tell two different stories, an honest evaluation can reveal where recalibration is needed.CONNECT WITH CT JOHNSON

Puddingstone Music of Newport is the subject of this week's program with Clemens Teufel, pianist and Executive Director. We talk about what has been happening with the organization as well as the concerts on August 14th and 21st and other events taking place this season. For more information, you can go to www.puddingstonemusic.org

Conductor Alexander Briger has led orchestras all over the world. But his niche occupation is not the only fascinating thing about him. Alex's family history is wild.Alexander Briger has stood in front of musicians all over the world, summoning a gigantic, beautiful noise from them.Classical music was a huge part of Alex's story growing up.He is the nephew of the famous conductor, the late Sir Charles Mackerras; and descended from the so-called "father of Australian music", Isaac Nathan.Another branch of Alex's family tree astonishingly connects him to the man who murdered Rasputin.Rasputin was a Russian peasant and mystic, whose abilities as a faith healer drew him into the inner circle of the Russian Tzars.Fearing his destructive grip on the monarchy, a posse of aristocrats led by Alex's ancestor, Prince Felix Yusupov, drew Rasputin into a trap, luring him to his death in a Saint Petersburg basement in 1916.In recent years, Alex was invited to Russia to conduct a modern opera, coincidentally called and about Rasputin, in a full circle moment.Alex is back in Australia right now as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Australian World Orchestra, the only ensemble of its kind in the world.The Australian World Orchestra is playing in Melbourne on 19 August and in Sydney on 20 August. You can find out more about the orchestra and its performances online.This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.It explores classical music, Russian revolution, family history, Paris, Munich, Berlin Philharmonic, conducting, symphony, Mahler, the great Western composers, Wagner, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Jewish Australians, whacky history, Yusupov, how did Rasputin die, European politics, Bolshevik Revolution, the October Revolution, exile, ballet, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australian classical music, Australian expats.To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Closing the Valuation Gap: Eliminating Founder Dependency and Engineering Autonomous Revenue Engines with Muriel TouatiIn a recent episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast, host Josh Elledge sat down with Muriel Touati, the Founder and CEO of Exit 3D Studio and author of The Valuation Gap, to examine the systemic operational flaws that trap service-based founders in relentless daily execution. Muriel, an international business growth strategist and enterprise exit advisor, details how B2B agencies and professional service firms routinely cap their own equity and valuation multiples by relying on founder-driven sales, unwritten processes, and word-of-mouth client acquisition. This conversation delivers an essential strategic playbook for business owners looking to build predictable inbound lead pipelines, successfully delegate high-ticket sales closing, and transform an exhausting job into a highly scalable, autonomous corporate asset.The Asset Autonomous Paradigm: Systematizing Sales Delegation and Closing the Service Valuation GapThe fundamental constraint capping the valuation of most service-based companies is "founder dependency"—a condition where revenue generation, client retention, and daily fulfillment rely entirely on the personal network and physical hustle of the owner. When a founder remains the sole sales closer and primary problem-solver, the business operates with severe structural fragility, causing prospective buyers and private equity groups to heavily discount the firm's exit multiple. True enterprise value is unlocked when an owner systematically audits their daily involvement, identifies single points of failure, and implements standardized operating procedures (SOPs) that allow non-founder team members to run critical sales and delivery functions independently.Transitioning away from founder-led sales requires a disciplined, step-by-step framework for recruiting, onboarding, and handholding a dedicated sales closer until they consistently match or exceed the founder's conversion performance. Many business owners make the critical error of completely stepping away from the sales process too early, mistaking delegation for total abandonment without providing proper training. To build a predictable revenue engine, founders must join live sales calls alongside new closers, provide detailed post-call debriefs, and gradually transition deal ownership only after the representative demonstrates complete mastery of the company's sales playbook. Pairing this hands-on sales onboarding with an inbound content strategy that invites prospects into the brand's narrative—rather than relying on cold outreach or unpredictable referrals—ensures a steady stream of pre-sold, warm leads ready for the sales team to convert.Ultimately, preparing a service business for a lucrative exit requires closing "the valuation gap" long before an owner actively seeks a buyer or liquidity event. Because professional service firms lack traditional tangible assets, buyers evaluate the business based entirely on intangible strength: operational process maturity, team autonomy, client concentration metrics, and repeatable customer acquisition systems. Conducting routine "exit drills"—where the founder intentionally steps away for extended periods to test operational resilience—exposes hidden dependencies and allows leadership to refine backend workflows before entering negotiations. When an enterprise synthesizes predictable inbound lead generation, documented SOPs, and an autonomous sales infrastructure into a unified corporate architecture, it eliminates founder friction, maximizes profit margins, and secures premium market valuation.About Muriel TouatiMuriel Touati is the Founder and CEO of Exit 3D Studio, an international growth strategist, and the author of The Valuation Gap. Drawing from an extensive background building and scaling digital marketing enterprises and guiding B2B acquisitions across global markets, Muriel specializes in helping service business owners eliminate founder dependency. She is a dedicated exit strategy advisor focused on helping founders build predictable revenue engines, delegate high-stakes sales closing, and maximize enterprise equity.About Exit 3D StudioExit 3D Studio is an elite business growth and exit-readiness advisory firm engineered to help B2B service companies scale sustainably and increase market valuation. The firm specializes in delivering comprehensive founder-dependency audits, inbound sales pipeline engineering, sales team onboarding playbooks, and strategic SOP documentation frameworks. Through tailored growth blueprints and resources like The Valuation Gap, Exit 3D Studio enables professional service providers to remove operational scaling debt, build autonomous sales infrastructures, and execute high-value exit strategies.Links Mentioned in This EpisodeExit 3D Studio Official Website: exit3dstudio.comMuriel Touati on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/murieltouatiKey Episode HighlightsThe Founder Dependency Audit: Testing organizational vulnerability by taking extended breaks to identify which operational and sales functions break down without the owner.The Sales Closer Handholding Protocol: Implementing a step-by-step shadowing and debrief framework to safely delegate sales closing without risking conversion rates.Inbound Relationship Architecture: Transitioning away from cold outreach to publish narrative-driven content that attracts pre-sold, high-intent B2B prospects.Standardizing Intangible Assets: Documenting recurring operational workflows into clear SOPs to build enterprise value in service-based companies.Closing the Valuation Gap: Preparing for a business exit years in advance by diversifying revenue streams, eliminating key-person risk, and proving predictable growth.ConclusionThe conversation with Muriel Touati underscores that building a business capable of running without its founder is an intentional, step-by-step architecture rather than an unreachable ideal. By standardizing internal corporate governance, building a hands-on sales delegation pipeline, and focusing on the intangible assets that drive buyer demand, business leaders can transform an exhausting daily operation into a highly structured, self-sustaining corporate asset.More from The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

What Peers Actually Give You That Nobody Else Can In this episode, Allison Dunn explores how leaders at high levels can overcome loneliness and information gaps by cultivating the right peer relationships. She emphasizes practical steps to build honest, context-rich connections that foster better decision-making and resilience. Key Topics: Differentiating peer groups from networking events, masterminds, or mentorship The importance of lateral relationships at the same leadership level How shared context accelerates honest and meaningful conversations The significance of honesty without consequences in peer relationships Learning to see outside the system through outside perspective How peer reflection rewires leadership operating systems Practical steps: conducting an honest relationship audit The necessity of modeling vulnerability to enable open dialogue Finding intentional communities that foster real thinking out loud Building resilience by sharing burdens and embracing honesty Timestamps: 00:00 - The real purpose of peer relationships at the executive level 00:30 - What peer groups are not and common misconceptions 01:26 - The power of shared context for high-quality conversations 02:23 - Honesty without consequences as a critical element 02:51 - Gaining outside perspective to identify blind spots 03:17 - How peer feedback influences decision quality 03:45 - The shift from loneliness to shared understanding 00:00 - The operating system update that peers can catalyze 00:24 - Conducting an honest audit to identify trustworthy peers 00:51 - Showing vulnerability to model honesty and open dialogue 01:19 - Seeking environments that foster honest thinking 01:48 - Closing tips: building resilient leadership through authentic peer relationships 02:09 - The impact of credible, honest peer support on leadership longevity 02:38 - The power of intentionality and honesty in navigating leadership challenges 03:08 - Promotion of the book "Think First" for strategic thinking habits Resources & Links: Think First by Allison Dunn Deliberate Directions Think First

Compass Hardware in Charlestown, RI, is the subject of this week's program with Skip Graf, General Manager. We talk about his role in this over 60-year-old, locally owned institution. It's an amazing story of what originally started as a store that mostly sold coal to what has become a very diversified establishment. For more information, you can go to www.compasshardware.com

Theatre By The Sea's third production of the 2026 season, Titanic, the Musical, is the subject of this week's program with Kevin Hill, Director, and Karen Kessler, General Manager. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the very interesting songs from the show that runs July 23rd to August 15th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com

Civilization is starving for macro-innovation. For our species to pass Fermi's great filter in the next few centuries, we need more of the kinds of scientific breakthroughs that occurred in the 20th century. But science and academia are broken, so the duty of innovation falls on the shoulders of the individual.And my guest, Dr. Andrew Colarik--a traveling scholar, nomad, and entrepreneurial academic--has a solution in the form of his Problem-to-Publication Method (P2P Method) for accelerated mastery.02:27 Meet Dr. Andrew Colarik and his background03:41 Why are we stuck in micro-innovation mode?07:32 The solution: The Problem to Publication Method17:09 Conducting a smart drug trial and its potential26:56 Making a better cup of tea: A scientific approach30:26 No love without truth, no truth without love33:19 Success stories: Mentees' achievements in 12 weeks40:48 The 12-week mastery program details46:46 Common mistakes in pursuit of mastery49:29 The danger of dogma and ideology55:10 Custom courses and personalized mentorship57:55 The five-day program option59:41 The value of independent thinking and critique01:02:53 Feedback on the book HourglassRead

Jonathan Schanzer reports on the restart of hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz, where oil prices have hit $87 per barrel. The US is conducting air strikes against Iranian naval assets and drone bases. Schanzer questions why these strategic targets were not hit earlier in the conflict. (3)

In today's episode, I will be answering a question posted on instagram - choral vs orchestral conducting.The essence of all conducting is to convey your understanding of the music to influence and support the musicians' music-making.When we have different ensembles, it's important to look at different needs of choral singers, and to adjust the height of your conducting gestures, and to show phrasing and support breathing.All About Chaowen Ting 

Block Island's Mary D. Fund is the subject of this week's program, featuring Marguerite Donnelly, Executive Director. We talk about her life on the Island, how the Fund got started, where it is today, and the major event coming up on July 18th...The 62nd Annual A Cappella Festival and listen to some of the music that will be presented. For more information, visit the Mary D Fund on Facebook.  

DM me "AUDIT" to connect to learn how together we can increase your leads, revenue, and confidence in your salon business.  ⁠Instagram.com/jenniferjadealvarezGRAB YOUR FREE FREEDOM CALCULATOR™ ⁠⁠⁠https://jenniferjadealvarez.myflodesk.com/freedom-calculator⁠⁠The #1 tool to help you plan to work less BTC and into Salon CEOIn this episode, Shelbie Moser, founder of Lightning Hair Lounge and Lightning Lifestyle Coaching, shares her transformative journey from depression and burnout to creating a successful, balanced life. As a seasoned salon owner and lifestyle coach, she offers practical strategies for avoiding overwhelm, delegating effectively, and cultivating sustainable routines. Whether you're a stylist, salon owner, or industry leader, Shelbie's insights provide a blueprint for living and working with purpose, passion, and resilience.Shelbie's inspiring journey from working 100 hours a week to achieving work-life balanceThe importance of daily routines and habit stacking for mental healthHow to conduct a lifestyle audit to identify unnecessary tasks and delegate effectivelyImplementing small, realistic self-care "lightning bolts" to prevent burnoutVirtual assistants as a cost-effective way to streamline salon managementBuilding a resilient team through coaching, accountability, and empowermentOvercoming fears of Leaving the salon to travel or pursue personal goalsThe power of faith, gratitude, and morning routines for long-term successPractical systems for training and replicating yourself in your salon businessEmbracing rest and self-care to sustain growth and happinessTimestamps:(00:00) - Introduction to Shelbie Mosier's story and mission(01:05) - From high hours behind the chair to launching Lightning Lifestyle Coaching(02:30) - Recognizing burnout and making intentional lifestyle shifts(04:00) - The seasons of hustle and importance of prioritizing self-care(06:00) - The impact of mental health struggles and breakthrough moments(08:00) - Shelbie's mindset around success, dreams, and motivation(10:00) - Building structure and the role of delegation in growth(12:00) - The “climb” mindset and learning to enjoy the journey(14:00) - Conducting a lifestyle audit to improve daily habits(19:30) - Creating small, achievable self-care routines ("lightning bolts")(22:45) - Balancing daily priorities with larger to-do lists(24:30) - Achieving personal goals like moving out, buying property(26:00) - Delegating tasks to virtual assistants to free up time(30:00) - The importance of systems and training for team development(34:00) - Morning routines, faith, and gratitude for mindset success(35:30) - The trip to Africa: overcoming fears and embracing adventure(38:00) - The importance of leading by example to inspire team confidence(42:00) - Consistent communication and accountability tools for remote leadership(45:00) - The significance of rituals like "Sunday Soul Day" for renewal(53:00) - Final wisdom: limiting beliefs and unlocking potentialResources & Links:Shelbie Mosier on InstagramLightning Lifestyle CoachingThe Power of Habit by Charles DuhiggThe 5 Second Rule by Mel RobbinsThirst ProjectConnect with Shelbie:InstagramWebsiteFinal tips from Shelbie:Start with small, realistic changes—aim for daily "lightning bolts" of self-care.Implement systems to delegate and streamline your business.Prioritize rest and gratitude to sustain long-term growth.Believe that your only limit is your own mindset.

For more on this our Western Correspondent, Pat McGrath in Killarney.

A growing number of young people are using AI companions and chatbots for emotional support, friendship and even virtual relationships, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota. Despite the growth, most teens aren't advertising that they're using it – for many, it is stigmatized. Researchers at the U of M are exploring teen use of AI companions. Xiaoran Sun, an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development and co-lead at the U of M Teen and A-I Study, joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about what her team is learning about teens and AI companions.

In this latest episode of Timeless Wisdom, Dennis provides a thought-provoking exploration of values, morality, and personal growth. In this episode, listeners are treated to a wide range of topics, from the importance of classical music to the dangers of pride and the role of morality in society. If you're looking for a podcast that will challenge your thinking and inspire you to live a more meaningful life, then this episode of Timeless Wisdom is a must-listen. Join Dennis Prager as he explores the complexities of human nature and offers practical advice on how to live a life of purpose and integrity. Follow on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timeless-wisdom-with-dennis-prager/id1517302239 Follow us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4SZEYeH4tuLr2FvG4ok1rl Learn more about Dennis Prager: https://pragertopia.com/ Follow Dennis on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DennisPrager Follow Dennis on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedennisprager/ Follow Dennis on X: https://x.com/DennisPrager Learn more about the Salem Podcast Network: https://salempodcastnetwork.com/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

This week, Newport Classical is the subject of the program with Oliver Inteeworn, the new Executive Director, and Elise Felker, Director of Marketing. We talk about their upcoming Festival season, which runs from July 2nd through July 19th, and listen to music related to those performances. For more information, you can go to www.newportclassical.org

"For years, I felt that there was no connection with my hands and the sound. My perception of conducting at the time was that everything needs to be free and relaxed, no tension - and no tension when you sing. There has to be tension when you sing and conduct, because if there's no tension in the body, you're basically bones and skin on the ground. It's a matter of where the tension is. Is it good tension? Is it bad tension? There's an idea of feeling a sense of weight in the gesture, in the breath."Dr. Gary Seighman is a Professor, Director of Choral Activities, and Chair of the Music Department at Trinity University. Under his leadership, Trinity's choirs have earned numerous accolades, including invited performances at state and national conferences, tours across the United States and abroad, unique artistic collaborations, and commercial recordings. A charismatic and passionate artist, Seighman is highly sought after as a clinician, guest conductor, and speaker. He received the 2023 Innovative Concert Programming Award from the Texas Choral Directors Association and, more recently, the Guy H. Ranson Memorial Award for excellence in teaching, research, and service from the Carlos Alvarez School of Arts and Humanities. He is honored to conduct the 2025–2026 Texas Private School All-State Choir.Since 2015, he has conducted in East Asia six times, including leading the Peking University Summer Opera Program, offering graduate masterclasses in Taiwan, and participating in engagements in Japan. In 2019, he was artist-in-residence at University College Dublin, with additional work in London, Cambridge, and Liverpool. He served as chorusmaster at the Classical Music Festival in Vienna (2018) and led the TU Chamber Singers on a 2024 tour of the U.K. and France, featuring a live-broadcast evensong from Winchester Cathedral. His Carnegie Hall conducting debut came in 2022, followed by returns in 2023 and 2025 to conduct the National Honor Choir.In 2021–2022, Seighman served as a TU Public Humanities Faculty Fellow. He has authored over a dozen publications in book chapters and peer-reviewed journals, released a published conducting  masterclass video with Forward Motion, and presented more than thirty sessions at conferences nationwide. Always eager to explore new artistic and creative outlets, Seighman has been signed as a model and actor with Avant Agency since 2018, appearing in print, online, on billboards, and in radio and television. His new book The Choir Playbook: Tools for the Imaginative Conductor is available from GIA Publications. In his spare time, he coaches soccer, softball, and baseball for his children, Gabrielle and Justin.To get in touch with Gary, you can find him on Instagram (@gary_seighman) or Facebook (@gary.seighman) or email him at gseighma@trinity.edu.Email choirfampodcast@gmail.com to contact our hosts.Podcast music from Podcast.coPhoto in episode artwork by Trace Hudson

Guest: Julia Adams, Clear Ice & Bitters - What if the most memorable part of a party wasn't the food or the music—but the feeling that someone created just for you? In this episode of Changing the Rules, Ray Loewe and co-host Mary Ann Steinhauer talk with Julia Adams, founder of Clear Ice & Bitters, who is redefining hospitality one guest at a time. Drawing on her background as a classical musician, conductor, and educator, Julia approaches cocktail creation as an art form designed to make every person feel seen, valued, and unforgettable. Rather than asking, "What would you like to drink?" Julia begins by asking questions about your favorite memories, colors, aromas, and flavors. The result isn't simply a custom cocktail—it's a personalized experience that reflects who you are. From crystal-clear ice and handcrafted garnishes to thoughtful conversation and presentation, every detail is orchestrated to create connection. This episode isn't really about cocktails. It's about changing the rules of hospitality, discovering the power of intentional experiences, and learning how small, thoughtful touches can transform an ordinary gathering into an extraordinary memory.

In this special episode, the LTP is joined by friends ThemePark Conductor and George the Disney Italiano. They talk about the latest park news and also talk about their Disneyland origins. 

The Kingston Chamber Music Festival is the subject of this week's program with Natalie Zhu, Artistic Director. We talk about the upcoming Festival and listen to some of the amazing music that will be presented from July 24th to August 2nd. For more information, you can go to www.kingstonchambermusic.org

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip!This week Pip is joined by the awesome actor and now also game designer ABUBAKAR SALIM!What an absolute gem of an episode you have before you right here, as Pip checks in with Abubakar, one of the most power-move making-est actors in the game. You'll likely/surely recognize him from House Of The Dragon (Alyn of Hull), or Raised By Wolves (serving iconic costume realness), but chances are you might have also come into contact with his game 'Tales Of Kenzera' too. Even if none of those ring any bells, Abubakar is someone you'll get along with from jump, and has tales and perspective for days - working with Ridley Scott and what that process taught him, how the House Of The Dragon casting came about (crank call instincts on high alert), and how the inclusion of game design factored into life. A lovely chat with loads to enjoy for wherever you connect in those touchpoints, so enjoy!PIP'S PATREON PAGE if you're of a supporting natureIMDBINSTAGRAMHOUSE OF THE DRAGONRAISED BY WOLVESTALES OF KENZERASPEECH DEVELOPMENT WEBSTOREPIP TWITCH • (music stuff)PIP INSTAGRAMPIP TWITTERPIP PATREONPIP IMDB Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Training without implementation is just a box-checking exercise." Episode Chapters 05:25 Leadership training challenges 08:16 Importance of actionable plans 12:39 Conducting regular customer service check-ins 13:39 Quarterly team feedback meetings Sending employees to training is easy. Turning that training into lasting culture change is the real challenge. In this episode Tim Dyck and Jody Maberry discuss why group training can be a powerful tool for organizations. Those shared learning experiences help strengthen culture, align expectations, and create accountability. The difference is rarely the quality of the training. More often, it comes down to whether leaders participate, reinforce the message, and create opportunities for people to apply what they learned together. When learning becomes a shared experience rather than an individual event, expectations become clearer, conversations become stronger, and culture begins to shift. The real value of training is found in what happens after everyone leaves the room. Connect with Tim and his team: Website: https://bestculturesolutions.ca/ LinkedIn: Best Culture Solutions, Inc Instagram: @best.culture.solutions   Email: tim@bestculturesolutions.ca Jody Maberry: jodymaberry.com Katie Currens: katiecurrens.com

Theatre By The Sea's production of Grease is the subject of this week's program, with Nick Cortazzo, who plays Danny, and Andrew Tusano, who plays Sonny. We talk about the musical and listen to some of the show's very popular songs, which run from June 25th to July 18th. For more information, you can call (401) 782-8587 or go to www.theatrebythesea.com

John Hardie reports that Russia launched a massive barrage of 70 missiles and 600 drones against Kyiv, damaging a historic monastery. Simultaneously, Ukraine is conducting a "logistics lockdown" campaign to isolate Crimea by striking fuel convoys and bridges. Despite Russian gains near Kostiantynivka, Ukraine's manpower reforms are improving battlefield stability. (9)1896

Entrepreneurs and founders often struggle with balancing their tasks and responsibilities. Delegating tasks and offloading responsibilities can be challenging but is essential for long-term success. In week's Turbo tip, I create a game plan for making videos, checklists, and manuals that can help train and onboard new team members more efficiently.. Conducting a time and energy audit can identify patterns and areas for improvement.⁠Get Your Free TIME ACTION ENERGY AUDIT WORKSHEET⁠⁠⁠Connect With JosselyneWebsite: beunmessablewith.comInstagram: @beunmessablewithFacebook: UnmessablewithnessLinkedIn: josselyneherman-saccioYouTube: @beunmessablewith

"The best annual performance reviews are built all year long." Chief, in today's Minisode I run you through how to run Annual Performance Reviews really well, so much so that they are enjoyable, collaborative and result in your people giving sustained extra effort and kicking goals for the company. I know for many of you, these meetings and processes can be stressful and you might not like delivering them. And if that's the case, you might find that the person you're reviewing will definitely not like experiencing them! Today, I walk you through the exact frameworks I use for his process and how you can lead with distinction and be the leader to your people that you always wanted to be.

This special Conducting Conversations program features Artist Del-Bourree and Kristen Bach. We discuss their amazing artistic talents and their involvement with the local community. For more information, you can go to www.del-bourreebach.com

Series: N/AService: SermonType: SermonSpeaker: Ralph WalkerEphesians 4: 11-16

What happens when a business leader looks completely fine on the surface, but is secretly running on empty behind the scenes?  In this episode, Jeannette dives deep into the concept of "silent burnout”, the subtle, creeping exhaustion that happens behind the LinkedIn posts, the boardrooms, and the strategy sessions… You'll Learn Why: Silent burnout is arguably more dangerous than obvious burnout because it aggressively creeps up on you while you appear perfectly successful on the outside. Conducting a regular personal audit across sleep, diet, exercise, social life, and relationships is vital to catching hidden stress early. Implementing the "4Ds" framework (Ditch, Delay, Delegate, Do) is the fastest way to reclaim control over a chaotic calendar. Reconnecting with your core purpose and establishing non-negotiable boundaries is the key to sustaining your health and becoming a better leader for your team and loved ones. This episode is living proof that no matter where you're starting from — or what life throws at you — it's never too late to be brave, bold, and unlock your inner brilliant. Visit https://brave-bold-brilliant.com/ for free tools, guides and resources to help you take action now

Send us Fan MailWhat happens when the thing you love most becomes the thing you can never completely walk away from?This week on Here's What We Know, conductor and pianist Robert Emery returns for a conversation about creativity, music, and the curious ways our minds work. From practice rooms to Abbey Road Studios, Robert shares what life is really like for a professional musician, why creative people often struggle to switch off, and what he's learned from spending a lifetime immersed in music.Gary and Robert also trade stories about family, parenting, travel, questionable hotel experiences, and the challenges that come with building a career around passion. They explore the lives of Mozart, Franz Liszt, and Berlioz, uncovering the very human struggles, quirks, and triumphs behind some of history's most celebrated composers.Robert also shares the story behind Orchestral Meditations, his latest project featuring meditation music recorded at Abbey Road Studios with a full symphony orchestra and choir.In This Episode:• Why musicians never really leave work behind• The truth about practicing and mastering a craft• What Mozart and Michael Jackson may have had in common• How creativity affects everyday life• Stories from Abbey Road Studios• The fascinating history of Franz Liszt and musical celebrity• Why travel helps reset the mind This episode is sponsored by: Reed Animal Hospital Bio:Robert Emery is a conductor, pianist, and serial entrepreneur. He is lucky enough to travel the world; ranging from performances in London's Royal Albert Hall, through to the Sydney Opera House, Robert has seen them all.Besides music, he is the Founder & Director of The Arts Group, one of the most diverse entertainment companies in the UK. Within the portfolio is a national music tuition agency, symphony orchestra, choir, artist agency, record label, and production company.Aside from that, he lives in London and Cambridge, has a wife (Mrs. E), a toddler (Master T), a baby (Master A), and 4 cats.Website: https://robertemery.com/Orchestral Meditation: http://orchestralmeditation.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/robertemeryofficial/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertemeryofficial/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertemeryofficial/Tags: Robert Emery, Creativity, Classical Music, Professional Musician, Music Career, Mozart, Franz Liszt, Music History, Conducting, Pianist, Abbey Road Studios, Orchestral Meditations, Creative Process, Creative Life, Music Industry, Composers, Arts & Culture, Creativity and Purpose, Work-Life Balance, Performing Arts, Creative Careers, Music Education, Connect with Gary:Gary's WebsiteFollow Gary on InstagramGary's TiktokGary's FacebookWatch the episodes on YouTubeAdvertise on the PodcastThank you for listening. Let us know what you think about this episode. Leave us a review!

What if the stress you're carrying isn't happening to you, but through you?Steph dives into the idea that stress is a choice, challenging listeners to rethink how their perceptions and responses shape their everyday experience. Through personal insights and real self-reflection, she explores how personal responsibility and self-awareness can transform the way we relate to pressure. Steph walks through practical questions designed to shift your stress response from reaction to empowerment, and introduces the concept of amor fati as a tool for emotional resilience. This one is a call to action for anyone ready to reclaim their mindset and take control of their mental health.In this episode you'll discover:Stress as a choice and perceptionPersonal responsibility in stress managementPractical questions to shift stress responsesYour takeaways:You have more power over your stress than you think, and it starts with recognizing that your perspective creates your experienceA few honest questions can interrupt your default stress response and open the door to empowermentEmbracing your fate, rather than fighting it, is one of the most freeing acts of self-care you can practiceChapters00:00 Understanding Stress: A Personal Journey04:23 The Choice of Stress: A Paradigm Shift07:40 Reframing Stress: From Reaction to Empowerment11:16 Embracing Amor Fati: Love Your Fate12:19 Conducting a Stress Audit: Self-Reflection and Growth

A Special Industry Update with Jason Diamond and Mindy Diamond A replay of part one of a two-part series, Jason and Mindy Diamond unpack the real advisor transition playbook—from due diligence and culture fit to portability, enterprise value, and the evolving landscape of advisor choice. In Summary Why do advisors really consider changing firms or models—and what separates thoughtful due diligence from reactive decision-making? In a replay of the first of this special two-part Industry Update, Jason and Mindy Diamond unpack what actually drives advisor transitions, the misconceptions that derail decision-making, and the questions sophisticated teams should be asking long before they're ready to act. The conversation also explores how the industry landscape has evolved around independence, portability, enterprise value, and advisor optionality—drawing context from Diamond's role in the landmark OpenArc breakaway from Merrill and much more. The Storyline Most advisors assume transitions are primarily driven by recruiting economics. Jason Diamond and Mindy Diamond suggest that recruiting economics may get the headlines, but advisor transitions are usually driven by a far more layered set of considerations. What tends to happen instead is more gradual: a growing disconnect between how advisors want to serve clients and the constraints of the environment around them. Sometimes it's bureaucracy. Sometimes it's limitations around growth, marketing, technology, or flexibility. Sometimes it's simply the realization that the industry landscape has evolved while their assumptions about it have not. This conversation examines what actually happens between the moment curiosity begins and the moment a move becomes real. Rather than treating transitions as transactional events, Jason and Mindy frame due diligence as a strategic process of self-assessment—clarifying what matters, identifying trade-offs, evaluating long-term optionality, and pressure-testing assumptions before making consequential decisions. The discussion also offers a rare look inside the mechanics of advisor movement itself: how teams evaluate culture, how portability is assessed, why some advisors choose ownership over upfront monetization, and what sophisticated client communication really looks like during a transition. The backdrop throughout the episode is Diamond's role in facilitating the historic OpenArc breakaway from Merrill—a move that challenged longstanding assumptions about scale, independence, and what even the industry's largest teams are now willing to reconsider. Topics Covered Advisor transition due diligence Wirehouse limitations and advisor frustration Independence versus traditional firm models Enterprise value and long-term ownership Advisor portability and client transition strategy Boutique and regional firm recruiting trends Culture evaluation during due diligence Reverse due diligence and evaluating firm stability Transition economics and recruiting deals The OpenArc Merrill breakaway story Advisor optionality and industry evolution How technology and AI are changing transitions   > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why do advisors actually decide to leave firms? (06:20) Mindy explains why most transitions are driven less by economics and more—by mounting limitations around growth, flexibility, client service, and long-term alignment. What is the biggest mistake advisors make when beginning due diligence? (18:12) The conversation explores why many advisors evaluate firms before gaining clarity around what they truly want to improve—often creating confusion instead of insight. How should advisors evaluate culture beyond a firm's sales pitch? (32:41) Jason and Mindy discuss the importance of speaking directly with advisors who have already made similar moves—and how to pressure-test what firms promise. When should transition economics matter most? (47:03) The episode breaks down the difference between short-term monetization and long-term enterprise value creation—and why many elite teams are increasingly prioritizing ownership and optionality. Why are more advisors reconsidering independence? (56:48) Using the OpenArc transition as context, the discussion explores how today's independent landscape has evolved far beyond the traditional “build it yourself” model. How long does a real due diligence process take? (1:06:10) Jason and Mindy explain why thoughtful transitions often unfold over many months—and why some advisors remain in exploratory conversations for years before acting. How should advisors think about portability and client communication? (1:16:20) The conversation details how sophisticated teams assess portability risk—and why the client-facing rationale for a move matters more than recruiting economics. Have advisor transitions become easier over time? (1:24:12) Mindy explains how technology, legal infrastructure, and industry specialization have improved the process—while emphasizing that transitions still require risk tolerance, effort, and patience. Key Takeaways Most advisors do not move primarily because of recruiting deals. The larger driver is usually a growing disconnect between what they want to build and what their current environment allows. Due diligence tends to fail when advisors begin by evaluating firms before clarifying what they actually want for their business, clients, and long-term future. The industry landscape has evolved dramatically over the last decade, particularly around independent and supported-independent models, creating far more customization and optionality than many advisors realize. Transition economics matter — but sophisticated advisors increasingly view upfront monetization as only one component of a much larger enterprise value equation. The ability to articulate a compelling client-facing value proposition is one of the strongest tests of whether a transition opportunity is truly viable. Conversations with advisors who have already made similar moves remain one of the most valuable forms of real-world due diligence. Even the industry's largest teams are reassessing assumptions around independence, ownership, control, and scalability. Quotable Moments “The biggest mistake advisors make is beginning due diligence before they've gotten clear about what they actually want.” “A recruiting deal can't be the first thing you consider. But it would be foolish not to consider it at all.” “The landscape looks entirely different than it did five or ten years ago. If you haven't gotten educated, you're doing yourself a disservice.” “The real question is not whether you can move. It's whether you can clearly explain to clients why the move makes their experience better.” FAQs Why do advisors typically begin exploring a move? In many cases, the process begins gradually. Advisors may still feel successful and reasonably satisfied, but start questioning whether their current environment fully supports how they want to grow, serve clients, or build long term. Often, curiosity precedes dissatisfaction. Is advisor movement mostly driven by recruiting deals? Not usually. While economics are an important consideration, the episode explains that most sophisticated advisors weigh a much broader set of factors, including flexibility, culture, client experience, growth limitations, ownership opportunities, and long-term enterprise value. How long does a typical due diligence process take? There is no universal timeline. Some advisors move relatively quickly once they decide change is necessary, while others spend months – or even years – getting educated and evaluating options before acting. For many teams, a thoughtful due diligence process unfolds over roughly six months. What is the biggest mistake advisors make during due diligence? The episode suggests the biggest mistake is evaluating firms before gaining clarity around personal and business priorities. Without understanding what they actually want to improve, advisors often become overwhelmed by options, recruiting pitches, and conflicting information. How can advisors really assess a firm's culture? One of the most valuable approaches is speaking directly with advisors who have already made similar moves. Jason and Mindy discuss why real-world perspective – particularly from advisors with comparable client bases or business structures – is often far more revealing than formal presentations or recruiting materials. How should advisors think about independence versus traditional firms? The conversation frames the decision less as “right versus wrong” and more as a question of alignment. Some advisors prioritize ownership, control, and long-term enterprise value. Others value infrastructure, brand recognition, or operational support. The industry landscape has evolved enough that advisors now have far more flexibility to design around the trade-offs that matter most to them. In many cases, the process begins gradually. Advisors may still feel successful and reasonably satisfied, but start questioning whether their current environment fully supports how they want to grow, serve clients, or build long term. Often, curiosity precedes dissatisfaction. Not usually. While economics are an important consideration, the episode explains that most sophisticated advisors weigh a much broader set of factors, including flexibility, culture, client experience, growth limitations, ownership opportunities, and long-term enterprise value. There is no universal timeline. Some advisors move relatively quickly once they decide change is necessary, while others spend months – or even years – getting educated and evaluating options before acting. For many teams, a thoughtful due diligence process unfolds over roughly six months. The episode suggests the biggest mistake is evaluating firms before gaining clarity around personal and business priorities. Without understanding what they actually want to improve, advisors often become overwhelmed by options, recruiting pitches, and conflicting information. One of the most valuable approaches is speaking directly with advisors who have already made similar moves. Jason and Mindy discuss why real-world perspective – particularly from advisors with comparable client bases or business structures – is often far more revealing than formal presentations or recruiting materials. The conversation frames the decision less as “right versus wrong” and more as a question of alignment. Some advisors prioritize ownership, control, and long-term enterprise value. Others value infrastructure, brand recognition, or operational support. The industry landscape has evolved enough that advisors now have far more flexibility to design around the trade-offs that matter most to them. Related Resources The Advisor Transition Playbook: The Latest on Due Diligence, the Move, and Everything In Between – Part 2Jason and Mindy Diamond revisit the transition playbook, this time focused on how advisor priorities are shifting. From AI and enterprise value to stability and flexibility, they unpack what's changing in due diligence and what it means for advisors evaluating their next move.  The $129B Blockbuster Move: Shirl Penney on Why This Transition Marks a New Era for the IndustryThe $129B OpenArc breakaway marks a watershed moment for wealth management. In this Rapid Reaction episode, Louis Diamond and Shirl Penney unpack what it means for the RIA model, advisors, and the future of industry competition. The Missing Narrative of the $129B Merrill Breakaway StoryThe largest (and quite possibly most significant) advisor breakaway in industry history made news this week. Yet instead of leading with the scale or significance of the move, headlines centered on Merrill's lawsuit alleging corporate raiding. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… The Advisor Transition Playbook: Inside Baseball on Due Diligence, the Move, and Everything In Between A Special Industry Update with Jason Diamond and Mindy Diamond. Jason Diamond: Welcome to a replay of one of the most popular episodes from our podcast series for financial advisors, The Advisor Transition Playbook: Inside Baseball on Due Diligence, the Move, and Everything In Between. It's Part 1 of a 2-Part Industry Update with Mindy Diamond. I’m Jason Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more, who change firms, are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at (908) 879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms, and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Jason Diamond: Everything about a transition can seem incredibly overwhelming. From understanding the whys of a move, then conducting due diligence, and onto aligning the right models and selecting the best firms, it might seem like a fairly linear process. And for some, it can be. But for others, the layers of minutia can be daunting. Essentially, it comes down to the adage, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” So the goal of this episode is to share some inside baseball in how to get from here to there. I asked Mindy Diamond to join me to help draw from decades of experience in helping advisors through their transitions. We’ve dived into the misconceptions, the common traps, the aware of a big check and much more. Essentially, it’s a download of what you need to know when considering a move. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it. Mindy, so excited to have you join me for this topic. Mindy Diamond: Yeah, I’m really happy to be here. And I’m just thinking to myself, “Yikes, decades of experience,” you’ve said, and yes it is, decades of experience. Jason Diamond: It most certainly is, 30 years in the business. So the seeding for this topic was, “You’ve been in this business now for 30 years, how many hundreds of thousands of conversations with advisors is that?” Some who moved, plenty who certainly did not. But ultimately, what we thought would be useful because it’s a question we get most commonly from advisors that we speak with is, “Tell me what I don’t know. What are the questions I should be asking?” So I’m going to just pepper you with some of the most common questions we get, and I would love to share the benefit of your wisdom and experience with our audience. That sound good? Mindy Diamond: It sounds great. I just want to say that we are recording this two days after one of the largest deals probably in the history of the industry broke that I am gratified to say we facilitated the OpenArc team who left Merrill with 129 billion in assets under management, broke a couple days ago to go independent. I’m hoping we have the opportunity to talk about some of their best practices and things we discovered along the way because I think it’s relevant. And a deal like this gets a lot of attention, people always want to know what they do and what went wrong. Jason Diamond: It’s a good point. I’m glad you bring it up. First of all, it’s so timely, but I think you can almost use it as a case study a little bit to answer some of these questions. So let’s dive in with that. I want to start with the big picture, “Why?” Because that’s the number one thing I think people want to know is, “Why do advisors move?” And I think there’s an assumption that 95% of transitions happen because of a big check or because of economics. I’m certain you’re going to touch on that to some extent, but give me your sense of what are the main triggers of advisor movement. Mindy Diamond: Yeah. Look, are there some advisors that move because they need to recapitalize or they want the money? Sure. But the absolute vast majority are moving because they come to a place where one of two things is true, and oftentimes both. One, the pain of staying is great enough. Meaning there’s enough frustrations or limitations that they’ve gotten to a point where despite efforts to the contrary to make it better, despite gutting it out and saying, “On par, it’s good enough,” they come to a point where there’s limitations in how they can serve their clients, how they can grow the business, and that’s just untenable for them. Hopefully, simultaneously, they are equally excited and have identified an opportunity that they believe is needle-moving enough, it’s worth the hassle, the disruption, the everything to make this move. I’ve never done a move where it doesn’t fall into one of those two or, hopefully, both of those categories. Jason Diamond: Let’s go a little deeper there. You mentioned limitations. Give me an example either using this recent deal or even just any recent advisors that you’ve worked with about, “What are some limitations that people experience at,” let’s say, “the wirehouses that potentially would be a catalyst for a move?” Mindy Diamond: Generally speaking, the biggest limitations have to do with how they’re able to grow their business and serve their clients. So anything to do with excess bureaucracy, anything to do with an incongruence, if you will, between the advisors or the team’s goals for how they want to serve clients or grow the business and what the firm is allowing them to do. Using this enormous deal as an example, you’ve got a team that was doing extraordinarily well. Oh, my god. They were the biggest team at Merrill, so talk about having a batphone to the top and the attention of senior leadership. If anyone was going to be able to break through the red tape or get things done, or eschew the limitations, it was them. And for a long time, they did. But they were sort of increasingly unhappy, let’s say, over a decade. Despite their size, every year, they became a little bit more frustrated. And after probably six or seven years of saying, “We’re just too big to move,” they came to a point of saying, “We can’t ignore this anymore. We’ve got a tiger by its tail. We have this extraordinary business that is growing exponentially. We’ve got clients that are complaining to us. And more importantly, we’ve got team members that are feeling stifled.” And that’s where it comes from, where there’s problems you just can’t ignore even if you want to. Jason Diamond: It almost feels like one of those things where advisors know they’re limited, they can just feel it. But if you’re fighting against the firm, and instead of with it. I’ll give you one other one that comes to mind as we’re talking here, that seems to come up a lot in advisor conversations, which is freedom of marketing. And that might seem like a fairly minor limitation, but I can’t tell you how many times, certainly myself, I’m sure you too, get call from an advisor who is heated. They’re angry because they were trying to send some timely market commentary and the firm took two weeks to approve it. Does that fall under the same category of limitations, in your mind? Mindy Diamond: Oh, without a doubt. And it’s funny you say that because in this world of social media where the news is consumed or can be consumed within seconds of an event happening, there’s nothing more frustrating for an advisor than wanting to write a newsletter to update their clients with scale as opposed to having to make one phone call at a time and not being able to do so. It absolutely puts them on a back foot. And then, I think it’s the lack of freedom to differentiate themselves. Most advisors that work for big firms have a firm website that is templated, the same sort of structure of the website and the picture of the team and the same basic wordings, and that’s hard to deal with. Jason Diamond: Well, you bring up an interesting point, which is sometimes… For example, advisors might say or wirehouse advisors might say, “Oh, the marketing is good enough.” But a lot of times, and we’ve had advisors on this podcast who talk about exactly this, they don’t realize how limited the sandbox they were playing in is or was until after a transition. And that’s when their eyes open and they realize, “Oh, my god. I was basically playing with one arm tied behind my back.” We’ve heard advisors use that metaphor. Let me ask you this then, and this is a tough question, what do you think advisors get wrong? What is the number one misconception that advisors have prior to approaching due diligence and thinking about a move? And maybe it’s something as simple as like, “Eh, it’s the same everywhere,” but tell me what you think you hear most commonly. Mindy Diamond: There’s certainly those myths, the assumptions or presumptions that it’s the same everywhere or there’s nothing that’s going to change anyway, for sure. But I think the biggest and most fundamental thing they get wrong is a lack of clarity around, “What it is they’re trying to accomplish, and why?” I’d like to say that I think one of the things, the thing, we do better than most, I’m not going to say everyone else but better than most, and something we’re really good at, is helping advisors to answer the really tough questions, the smartest questions, to get a sense of what it is they’re looking to accomplish, what it is they want to improve and why, “What does success look like?” Because if you don’t do that, then a lot of folks do it backwards. They get a phone call from a manager at Morgan Stanley or from somebody at Schwab or somebody at Dynasty, or whatever it may be, and they say, “I’ll take a lunch, why not?” And of course, the job of the manager from Morgan or the sales rep from Dynasty, or whatever it is, is to tell you all the good things about independence or about Morgan Stanley. But if I, as the advisor, am not really clear about what it is I’m looking to accomplish and why, it’s going to all sound good and I’m going to wind up more overwhelmed than when I started. And that is probably the number one thing that we see advisors getting wrong. It makes the due diligence process, if you choose to enter it, exceedingly inefficient. Jason Diamond: I totally agree. So I’m an advisor, I want to start due diligence in earnest. I know in my head, things are suboptimal. I’m not going to go so far as to say,” I definitively want to move.” But I’m a wirehouse advisor and I’m thinking for the first time in my career, “I’ve built a nice business, but it’s time for me to start getting educated.” So what do I do? Do I just say, “Hey, John at Morgan Stanley, what’s your recruiting deal look like these days?” Tell me, for an advisor who’s never thought about this before, what are the ABCs of this process look like? Mindy Diamond: Yeah. It’s definitely not, the first step, calling Morgan Stanley, even if you’re pretty sure Morgan Stanley is where you want to go. I’d suggest that’s probably one of the last steps, and I’ll tell you why. The first thing is to give yourself permission to say, “Even if I’m not 100% certain that a move is in my future or that I know I’m unhappy enough to go through the hassle and disruption of making a move,” to give yourself permission to get educated. The world, the industry landscape, the ecosystem, the everything looks entirely different than it did five and 10 years ago. And if it’s been five or 10 years, or even three to five years, since you last got educated, asked the questions, looked under the hood to get a sense of, “Is there or could there be something that’s better than where I am?”, you’re doing yourself and your team a disservice. Yeah, it takes time and it’s annoying and it’s overwhelming, and it’s all of it, but that’s honestly why people like us have a job. We don’t approach this that we think people should only come to us when they’re sure they’re going to make a move. In fact, it’s the opposite. We love the calls we get when somebody says, “I’m really happy here. I’ve been here 40 years. I’ve been here 30 years, it’s really good enough, it’s working well for me.” “But all of a sudden, I’m beginning to be curious. Or all of a sudden, I feel X, Y and Z. Tell me what I don’t know.” Those are the best calls. Those are the smartest calls. That’s the best thing an advisor can do. Jason Diamond: Yeah, I agree with that. Are there things you think an advisor needs to ask for during the diligence… I guess what I’m getting at is, do you trust the process that if you go through this process with, let’s say, three to five strategically picked firms… So you work within a recruiter or, a shameless plug, however you approach this, and you end up with your short list of contenders. Do you trust that, by going through the due diligence process, these firms are going to give you the building blocks that you need to do proper due diligence? Or are there things you, as an advisor, need to ask for? I’ll give you one example that comes to mind, which is… There’s obviously been some firms that have had financial troubles recently. So do you think an advisor, for example, needs to ask for financial statements from a firm they’re potentially considering due diligence on? I’m curious what your thoughts are. Mindy Diamond: Yeah. Particularly, if you’re looking at sort of in this new world order, if we think about the landscape as a continuum and the newer boutique multifamily offices on the right side, absolutely. Conducting what we call reverse due diligence and getting to see the financials of the firms you’re considering, to make sure that they’re sound and solid and that the equity valuation is exactly as advertised, of course, yes, that’s true. So the answer is, in part, you trust the process. You trust that if you’ve asked the right questions, if you’ve gotten clarity around what’s important to you, and as a result, you’ve crafted the right questions, and therefore, the manager or the representative from the firm or options you’re considering has put together the right due diligence plan, you can trust that at least 90% of what needs to be gotten right has gotten right. But there are always things around the margins that aren’t addressed. One is you can’t just outsource the due diligence process. You need to be paying attention. And much like people who trust their doctor and presume the doctor just always has it right, you need to be your own advocate. I would say, the same thing here. That as the process unfolds, there will be additional questions, additional sort of gaps and holes, and you shouldn’t stop until you’ve gotten all of your questions answered. That’s really the best advice I can give. Jason Diamond: You are talking to John from XYZ firm and Jim from ABC firm, and they’re going to tell you what’s great about their firms. So how do you know that you’re not just buying a false bill of goods, it’s just a glossy kind of sales pitch? I’ll give you my answer first. Part of it is, I think, you test drive the systems. I think another step I suggest a lot is calls with advisors on the platform. So an advisor who left UBS to go to Morgan Stanley, probably the best possible person to ask about Morgan Stanley. Any other additional thoughts on that one? Mindy Diamond: You took the words right out of my mouth. Absolutely, that is the number one way to do it, is that you ask for an opportunity, and you can do it in a name-blind way without identifying yourself, to talk with advisors that have made the move that are two things, that either came from the firm you’re coming from, so you get a similar perspective, but it’s equally important to talk to advisors that have similar business mix. It doesn’t matter what firm they came from, even if it’s not the same as yours, but, “How does someone that services international clients, how are they better able to serve those international clients at this new firm or new model than they were where you are?” We’re talking about it as if it’s wirehouse-to-wirehouse. But very often in today’s world order, especially looking at this giant move from this week, it’s about wirehouse to some version of independence. So there’s so much more due diligence, so many more questions that are required. It is even more important in that world to really get an understanding of what it’s like from the perspective of somebody that’s walking in those shoes. I will tell you, Jason, and you know this, that literally the number one reason I started this podcast more than a decade ago, and why we continue to do the podcast and the feedback we get, is because the feedback from advisors that have joined a platform already is the very best feedback, the best way, in a discreet confidential manner, to hear the truth from somebody who doesn’t have a horse in the race who’s just sharing their perspective with you. And that’s the feedback we continue to get. In a couple of weeks, I’m interviewing, as an example, Neil Rubinstein. Neil’s an advisor in Texas that came from Merrill that we moved to Rockefeller. A perfect example. So many advisors that are considering a move if they’ve got high net worth clients are going to look at Rockefeller. Well, what better way to understand what Rockefeller is about than to hear it from an advisor that’s walked in the shoes, not only of a Merrill advisor, but services high net worth clients and then have information or perspective similar to Neil. What do you think about that? Do you agree with that? Jason Diamond: 1000%. First of all, the podcast, I will say, a little bit of a sales pitch, has one thing going for it that a call with an advisor doesn’t, which is complete discretion and confidentiality. I will say, I think we’ve done a good job of doing facilitating name-blind calls between advisors. We continue to harp on this point even though it sounds somewhat minor, because it really is the very… You can talk to people like me and people like the recruiters from the firms until you’re blue in the face. But the right way, the best possible way to learn the, “Is this guy selling me? How does the technology compare to Merrill? How does the day-to-day compare? What’s it like working for this manager?”, all those types of questions, I think are best answered by another advisor. So completely agree with you. Mindy Diamond: Yeah, and I’ll take it one step further. Somewhere in the process, you take advantage of the opportunity to either listen to a podcast and hear somebody’s perspective of what the move was like, and how it’s bettered their life and where the pitfalls are, and/or you take the opportunity to talk with other advisors that have made the move, so you can ask your own specific questions. But after you’ve had the opportunity to do that, then it’s really important, and this is the part that why you can’t entirely outsource or let the due diligence process just go on autopilot, to take some of that perspective and the manager that you’re interviewing with, hold his or her feet to the fire. What do I mean by that? So I talked to an advisor that talked about the fact that the number one concern about Rockefeller, I’m making this up, is that they’re going to be the next Merrill, or that they just added a fee that now is going to have to be passed on to clients. While this advisor said it doesn’t bother them and they had a lot of good reason of why it’s not an issue, I’d love for you to tell me why it could be an issue. What are some of the things you’ve gotten wrong? When someone doesn’t join Rockefeller, why is it? I’m making that up- Jason Diamond: Yeah, smart. Same thing. Even let go, this advisor mentioned that technology is a step back from the firm I’m coming from. And I’m not asking you to argue with me, but perhaps the manager might be able to say something like, “We’re investing substantially in the platform, and we have these rollouts coming in the next several months that are going to close that gap.” So I completely agree. That’s a really smart- Mindy Diamond: And a follow-up question to that example, Jason, which is a great one, is, “How can I trust, how can I get a sense of security, if I join here in the next couple of months that in fact that investment is going to be made? And how that investment in technology will actually impact thing?” So again, it’s constantly being your own advocate, constantly paying attention, and constantly questions beget more questions. Jason Diamond: I agree we. Haven’t talked at all about the dollars and cents of this, and I think we need to because it’s important. Right? You can have the best platform on the planet, but the reality is a move comes with risk, a move comes with hassle, and there is a market for advisors’ books of businesses. That’s one of, I think, the major kind of paradigm shifts we’ve seen in the last, call it, decade is advisors know their books are assets, their book is a business, and that business is worth something substantial. At any firm, even at their current firm via retire and place deals, the book is worth something substantial. So if you had to put a percentage to it, I’m an advisor making a decision, 100% waiting, how much percent waiting do I put on the economics and how much waiting do I put on culture, platform, everything else? Mindy Diamond: The answer is, absolutely, it’s an inside job, personal, and it depends upon the advisor. There are some advisors, they’re wrong, but they will put all the weight on personal economics. They’re making a big mistake, if that’s the case. And most advisors will put much more weight on getting it right, meaning, “What’s life going to be like afterwards? And will I have a better ability to serve clients and grow the business?” But here’s what I would say, they’re both equally important. So no advisor who’s got a decent enough runway ahead of him or her and who’s looking to really grow the business and who cares about their clients can’t be unconcerned about the culture of where they’re going and what life is going to be like and what are the limitations, all of the questions we’ve been talking about. But an advisor who’s built a great business would be a fool not to consider their own personal economics. It just can’t be the first thing they consider. And in the book I wrote, Should I Stay or Should I Go?, I wrote that 100 times that it’s all about, “Lead with what’s important to the business and important to clients, do the right thing, but you can’t ignore personal financial gain.” Let’s talk about this move of OpenArc, this $129-billion Merrill team. You can only imagine the number of zeros at the end of a check that this team was offered by every major firm on the street. And in the span of a decade, they got those offers. Independence, making this enormous leap, was not the first thing they looked at, was not necessarily their first choice. But as they began, in their case, to really consider how limited they felt on the things they wanted to be able to do for clients… By the way, I don’t want to steal anybody’s thunder because we’re going to be launching a podcast specifically talking about this deal and this move, so I’ll save that for… Louis Diamond, our partner, and Shirl Penney, the CEO and founder of Dynasty, are going to be talking about it and they’ll cover all of that. But I just want to give the example that as this team began to realize, certainly in the last five years, how much things had changed at Merrill and how incongruent they felt between their goals, the goals for the business, the goals for serving clients, and what the firm was asking of them since Bank of America came to town, it became impossible to just say, “Holy cow, we can get a check with a lot of zeros at the end of it.” They couldn’t not see the benefits of everything else, the benefits that creating their own independent entity could bring them. Jason Diamond: I agree with that. I will play devil’s advocate a little bit here and say, “I think what you’re really talking about is the trade-off.” They’re not martyrs, they’re not altruistic and said, “We don’t want your hundreds of millions of dollars.” I think what you’re talking about is the trade-off between near-term upfront recruiting deals, which is the primary means by which the wirehouses, the regionals, the boutique firms recruit. Right? The traditional forgivable loan structure is all about a short term de-risking of the move, a monetization event in the near term where they’re paying you some percentage of revenue, 350%, 400% of revenue, tied to a forgivable loan. But that’s your bite of the apple in that example. With the example of a move to independence, you’ll lose, in some cases, all of that upfront monetization. So this example you’re talking about is a good example where they got no upfront transition dollars because they launched an RIA. But, and this is a very important caveat, they know they are building equity and ownership in something that is going to, at the current rate, be worth a preposterous multiple if and when they decide to sell it. So I assume that has to be part of this conversation around independence is, it’s not that you don’t care about monetizing the business, it’s that you plan to monetize the business in a different and probably more significant way. Fair? Mindy Diamond: Beyond fair. 1000%, that’s absolutely correct. Again, not only making it about this example, but it’s a good example. So again, the possibility of getting a check with a lot of zeros on it, and by the way, also tapping into an already established well-familiar, well-run infrastructure. Think about how much easier the move would’ve been, to jump from Merrill Lynch to Morgan Stanley, and not probably was their first choice, if they were going to go the traditional route. Think about how much easier the due diligence process… how much less heavy the lift would’ve been in terms of due diligence, but certainly from a short-term upfront perspective. And that’s really the key, is that not everyone has the appetite to bet on the long term. To me, that’s the beauty of the industry landscape as it’s evolved and the waterfall of possibilities today. If you’re a great team, and there are so many great teams, you’re growing, you’ve got a multi-generational bench of advisors, you’ve got a succession plan, you’ve got sticky clients, you don’t have 5,000 clients but you have 100 or 200 relationships, you’ve got a great business that you’ve got options for it, there’s no right or wrong. It’s, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”, and, “How do I want to live my business life?” And if you query 10 of those great teams, five of them will wind up moving to the traditional space. That doesn’t make it wrong, it’s just, “That’s what’s right for them.” But the other five will have entrepreneurial drive, will value the long term, and willing to forego the short-term upside in order to bet on themselves for the long term. And holy cow, again, we’ll save that for the episode that Shirl and Louis do to talk about what those multiples could look like, but I don’t think there’s enough zeros on the calculator to begin to think about what that business… OpenArc’s business will be worth even as little as five years from now. Jason Diamond: I agree with that. I think the one point I would probably make in defense of people who go the traditional firm route… Actually, two points. Number one, I don’t think it’s only about, “I am not willing to bet on myself, and I don’t want to delay the monetization event.” I think for some people, the idea of being independent and putting the toner in the copy machine and the little K-cups, that’s just not appealing. I like going into a branch and they have everything, my desk is all set up. So that’s one caveat I’d make that some people just prefer the traditional firm world. The other caveat I’d make is there are advisors who, rightly or wrongly, believe in the brand name of the firm mattering. So there are some advisors who say, “Look, I am a good advisor, but my ability to land and grow business is tied very closely to XYZ firm/brand, Morgan Stanley.” I think, a lot of times, we find that’s not always the case as much as advisors believe. But I’m just trying to think of a couple scenarios where there are advisors who genuinely prefer or need or want the stability, big brand, resources of the biggest firms on the planet. Mindy Diamond: I totally agree. Actually, thank you for bringing those two caveats up because, I’d say, there’s a third caveat. Someone can’t go independent, they don’t have a next gen. They don’t have someone that could do the heavy lifting, if they’re not capable of doing it on their own, to build an independent firm. They don’t have entrepreneurial spirit. They’re three years from retirement, and they don’t have the kind of time that it takes to really build the value of an independent practice. And we have great respect for those people. But again, the cool thing about the industry landscape is that as it’s evolved, there’s something for everyone. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the only choice is stay put or go to UBS. Jason Diamond: Agree. In fact, there’s probably even versions of independence. For example, if you don’t have a successor, well, there are versions of independence that might work where there’s a monetization event on the backend where somebody can buy and inherit your book. So that is probably the coolest or most interesting thing, the most exciting thing anyway, about the industry landscape in the last, really call it, five years anyway, probably even a little sooner than that is, especially in the independent side of things, there are options that check just about every box. You as the advisor choose what elements… And this gets back to your begin with the end in mind. Choose what elements of the business you like, and want to maintain control over. Choose what elements of the business you don’t, and there is probably a solution out there that works to check those boxes. Mindy Diamond: And then, that goes back to what we were saying. Even if you are 90% satisfied and 99% certain you would never make a move, if you haven’t gotten educated, in some capacity, whether it be listening to a podcast, reading articles, talking to a recruiter, talking to other firms, talking to friends and colleagues at other firms, or some combination of all of the above, in the last five years, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice. And again, not because in any way we’re trying to sell you on making a move, but because we believe knowledge is power and it looks different than it did. So make sure that you’re challenging your own assumptions, and that you’re really crystal-clear that what you believe or what you believe five years ago is still true today. Jason Diamond: This is a little bit of a gear shift, but I think there’s a tie in here. If you are an advisor now, or a point in their career, they’re wise to at least get educated, pick their heads up, understand what’s out there. But then, there’s the question of, “When is due diligence done?” But I’m going to frame this through a different lens here, which is, “Now, I’m an advisor, I’ve done due diligence, I’ve talked to maybe three to five strategic firms.” Is there typically an aha moment when an advisor says, “Oh, my god. It’s RBC, and I need to go that way and I know I need to move”? Or is it more process driven than that? What are your thoughts? Because I think a lot of advisors struggle with that. And I often find myself telling advisors, “Trust the process here and you’ll know when… You don’t have to know right away in the first inning of due diligence which firm or which model you’re meeting, or even if you’re going to make a move.” But curious what your thoughts are on this one. Mindy Diamond: Yeah. In fact, we hope you don’t. We hope that you don’t go into this process with preconceived notions, we hope that you don’t make a decision after one meeting, because we do think that there’s value in the process. And people get to that aha moment at different times. You and I are working with a team, right now, that is 22 meetings in. And that’s not to say every process takes 22 meetings, but the team is sort of taking it slowly. They started out looking at five or six firms. They’ve narrowed it down now to three. The goal is to get to two or one, then to get to a home office visit to the one that’s their first choice. They’re absolutely getting closer. And I’m probably exaggerating at 22 meetings, but I’m making a point, that even at this point in the game, which is probably a good, would you say, five months into the due diligence process, I don’t know that they’ve had an aha moment. They have an aha moment that they know they don’t want another wirehouse. They don’t want to be independent because the senior member of the team is exactly that person we just described, that he doesn’t have the kind of time in the business in order to make independence worthwhile- Jason Diamond: Or drive. They just don’t want independence. Mindy Diamond: Right, and the next generation doesn’t really want it. So at this point of the game, the aha moment is think we want a regional firm or a boutique firm. But it’s not an aha moment yet that it’s going to be this firm, and that’s I think a good point. A lot of times, the aha moment is the model, first, and then the firm. Jason Diamond: Sometimes, deal can be the type like, “Okay. I know I love the regional firms, but one is offering a deal that’s 100% better,” and that’s often when we actually will counsel advisors, “It’s okay to consider the deal.” The deal is a factor, as you said earlier. Mindy Diamond: If I can, that’s actually a great point. That’s the perfect example of where, “Always consider the deal, just don’t make it your primary or first consideration.” Jason Diamond: Right. Mindy Diamond: So if you’ve done all the right due diligence and two firms or two opportunities stack up next to each other perfectly, they both will allow you to move the needle significantly enough. If they both will allow you to do better for clients and grow faster, and do everything else that’s important to you, then it’s absolutely time to make deal the tiebreaker. Jason Diamond: So you threw out five months and talking about 22 meetings, let’s table that. An advisor calls you, Mindy, this morning and says, “Not unhappy, but I’m getting that itch.” Give me the average time it takes them from that first call this morning to the moment they resigned from their firm, and then give me the quickest they could do it if they needed to. Mindy Diamond: Yeah. Let me start out by saying that those calls we get from advisors come in two different categories. One is, “Yeah, getting the itch. The straw that broke the camel’s back happened yesterday when X happened.” But the other call, the one we mentioned earlier, which is, “I am 90% happy. I am growing exponentially. I get time to coach my kids’ soccer game. I have great quality of life. I have a great team. I’ve been here 30 or 40 years, and life is good. I’m watching more of my colleagues go or I’m feeling more pain,” fill in the blank for whatever that is. “Even though I’m 90% happy and I’m 100% convinced I don’t want to move, that moving is a hassle, I can’t not see the handwriting on the wall and I at least need to get educated.” So let’s assume that we get one of those calls. The reason I am calling out the difference between the two is because the time it takes to do the due diligence is usually different. If someone is already at the point where they know that they’re unhappy and likely to move, the due diligence process usually runs quicker. The due diligence process for somebody that’s mostly happy and just beginning to get curious, sort of the latter example, might take a little longer. Jason Diamond: Give me some real parameters to it. Mindy Diamond: Well, I’d love to hear what you think. What’s swirling in my head, it’s all over the map, but I’m going to say typically six months. Jason Diamond: Six months was the number I was about to throw out as well. And I think the quickest you want to do this is three months. Anything beyond that starts to be basically a fire drill. We’ve done deals quicker than that obviously, an advisor’s going to or has been terminated. But I think six months in earnest is a good, healthy timeline. Especially, by the way, because a lot of firms are busy, we’re hearing this from a lot of the firm side of things these days. Depending upon what firm you’re moving to, you need to make sure that the firm can handle you. You want to get their A team upon your breakaway and your transition, no matter what firm that is. Mindy Diamond: Do you think, Jason, that it’s six months from, “Gee, I’m a little curious. I want to start to look. I want to begin to do due diligence. What does that look like?”, to, “My butt is in a new seat”? Jason Diamond: No. Because I think in the example where you’re just like, “Eh, I’m a little unhappy,” those early innings conversations typically play out slowly because the guy who’s 90% happy is in no rush to say, “Set me up with a bunch of firms, and let’s talk about it.” In those instances, it could take a year and a half because I think what happens really there is then there’s a catalyst event that takes them from your category two to category one. Right? They went from a little unhappy, just curious, to the straw that broke the camel’s back. And that’s when then they shift into the more… or they say the firm has… A good example, UBS, upset a lot of advisors with the compensation plan. They recently walked back a lot of those changes. I’m certain there will be some advisors who say, “This is a nod to attrition. I’ve seen from management what I need to see, and I’m going to stay put.” Equally, probably plenty of advisors who say, “It’s too little too late.” Mindy Diamond: Let me say something, and again, not to make this episode at all about this team in Atlanta, but that was a ten-year conversation for us. Literally, 10 years ago, maybe even 12 years ago, but let’s say 10, one of the senior partners on the team had called to say, “Curious, really happy, doing incredibly well. Zero chance we are moving in the next year or two or five.” But look, what don’t we know? And every year, we would then have a conversation about what the landscape looked like. But I’m going to say it was six years ago when the conversation shifted from, “Really happy, convinced we’re staying,” to, “starting to think we might leave at some point,” but another six years until this really happened. Now, that’s a good example because they were going independent. The transition itself probably took a year, year and a half. Jason Diamond: And the size and complexity of the team, by the way, probably amplifies that as well. Mindy Diamond: Well, there are outliers on either side, and that’s the point I wanted to make. Correct. Jason Diamond: Very fair. I’m glad you bring that up because there’s no cookie-cutter answer. It totally depends on the makeup of the business, where you’re going, how you’re going, when you’re going. I think we have time for two more questions, and I want to make sure we get to this because we’ve talked about this through the lens of the advisor and the advisor’s team. We haven’t talked much about the client experience, and that is clearly self-portability, in general, is something that gives advisors anxiety rightfully so. I think if you could tell a lot of advisors with 100% certainty that their book would move, I think many more would be interested in moving. I think concerns about portability, a lot of times, would keep advisors in seats. I guess what I’m getting at is because that initial client conversation is so important, is there anything you coach advisors to think about or to say to clients or potential clients as they consider a change, a transition? Mindy Diamond: Well, you have to be mindful certainly of your own employment agreement and legal considerations of pre-soliciting- Jason Diamond: Important point. Mindy Diamond: No way are any of us advocating for pre-solicitation. But you do have to have a pretty good sense in your mind without asking the client specifically, who is likely to come and who not. And the determination, the sort of hypothesis or the supposition, of who will come and who will not has everything to do with where you’re going and the value proposition, “Will I be able to make a compelling enough point? Will I have compelling enough reasons where it’s not about me, the advisor, it’s about you, the clients, about how I will better be able to service them? And if I’m able to say to a client, ‘If I make a move or I’m making this move and I’m now going to be able to do X, Y, and Z for you,’ I’m much more confident that they will be able to come?” In the case of this OpenArc deal, the Atlanta team, they did a lot of retirement plan business, so they had to be really concerned about how they were going to position this move and the new brand separating from Merrill brand, how they were going to convince their Fortune 500 clients that this was the right move. So it always has to start with what’s best for clients and how will I pitch it, if you will. Jason Diamond: I love how you answered that because it’s like two different answers to me. Part one is handicapping the portability, and that’s pre-transition during the due diligence process. Honestly, if you’re an advisor, you could do that now, right? If I were to make a move, “Here’s my client who I know with 100% certainty would follow me. Here’s the maybes, here’s the no,” you come up with a weighted average portability metric. I totally agree with you on that. And then the second piece of it is you have to be constantly thinking this option might sound the best to you, but remember, and I agree, not pre-solicit, but post-transition, you’re going to have to sell it to your clients. So you need to be thinking about every conversation you have with every firm through that lens. Do you agree with that? Meaning I’m going to move my business from UBS to Morgan Stanley. You get paid a big check, but can you articulate the clients- Mindy Diamond: Yeah, 1000%. It’s such a good point because, and we’re going to give you some inside baseball here, the number one question that any advisor who is in traffic with any firm or any model needs to ask is, put words in my mouth, “If we were fast forwarding to the day I made a move and joined your firm or joined your model, help me to understand what would the pitch to my clients sound like.” And then, you need to sort of absorb that pitch from the perspective of your clients. Put yourself in the shoes of your oldest clients, of your youngest clients, of your most important clients, of your middle-of-the-road clients, of your middle net worth clients, of the institutional clients, fill in the blank, “Does that value proposition fit?” That is one of the best ways to assess whether a firm or an opportunity is better enough or good enough for you. Jason Diamond: It’s such a good answer, and I love the inside baseball look there. Also, by the way, it has this side benefit of you’re forcing the managers or the recruiters to articulate almost like a succinct value prop on their firm. Right? Tell me, hypothetically, what would I say to clients about, and you’re just picking on Morgan, “Why is Morgan Stanley better than my current firm?” And that answer ought to be compelling. In closing, I want to wrap this up with a question around the difficulty of a move. You’ve been in this business now 30 years, I think it’s almost exactly 30 years. Has it gotten easier logistically to transition? And do you see that trend continuing, let’s say, because of partially things like AI, DocuSign and the like? What are your thoughts on the nuts and bolts of transitioning? Mindy Diamond: There’s no question it’s gotten easier. There’s no question that, from a legal perspective, the advent of broker protocol certainly makes it less scary or less risky to make a move. But there are plenty of moves that are made as a non-protocol move, and that’s not always the case. And the ecosystem, I should say, has gotten better to support the advisor in transition. Legal counsel, all they do all day long is facilitate these moves. Third-party consultancies, people like us that have been at it 30 years and have seen it all, and all the mistakes have already been made, we know how to do it. But with that said, moving is a hassle. No matter how much better the support system has gotten, no matter how many times a manager or a firm has transitioned advisors, it is a hassle to move. It is disruptive. It is a lot. And again, this statement is not going to win me a place in the headhunter hall of fame, but you should absolutely not consider a move unless you have the appetite for some risk, for some breakage, meaning some loss of clients, and you’re willing to shrink to grow, and you’ve got an appetite for some hassle factor to work perhaps harder for a short period of time than you have in a while. If you don’t have that, then no matter how unhappy you are, you really need to seriously consider whether moving is the best way to solve your problems. Jason Diamond: Yeah. It’s a really great way to tie a bow on this episode. It was a lot of fun. I’m excited. I think that would be 2037 based on your 12-year timeline. So the next $129-billion team, we’ll have to schedule that episode out for 10 or 12 years from now. But Mindy, thank you so much for sharing your years of wisdom and expertise with us. This was a fantastic episode. I had a lot of fun. Mindy Diamond: Yeah, I loved it too. Thank you, my pleasure. Jason Diamond: Thank you for joining us. We'll be back with a new episode next week, so be sure to listen in. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty, and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibility seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms, or could a better option exist? Should I Stay or Should I Go? is a book written with you in mind. It’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and road map to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively, whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook.     The Advisor Transition Playbook: Inside Baseball on Due Diligence, the Move, and Everything In Between A Special Industry Update with Jason Diamond and Mindy Diamond. Jason Diamond: Welcome to a replay of one of the most popular episodes from our podcast series for financial advisors, The Advisor Transition Playbook: Inside Baseball on Due Diligence, the Move, and Everything In Between. It's Part 1 of a 2-Part Industry Update with Mindy Diamond. I’m Jason Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more, who change firms, are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at (908) 879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms, and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Jason Diamond: Everything about a transition can seem incredibly overwhelming. From understanding the whys of a move, then conducting due diligence, and onto aligning the right models and selecting the best firms, it might seem like a fairly linear process. And for some, it can be. But for others, the layers of minutia can be daunting. Essentially, it comes down to the adage, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” So the goal of this episode is to share some inside baseball in how to get from here to there. I asked Mindy Diamond to join me to help draw from decades of experience in helping advisors through their transitions. We’ve dived into the misconceptions, the common

My friend Jeff Strong (married father of five, grandfather, former mission president, retired senior executive consumer goods) join us to talk about his new book. Jeff introduces his book with the story of his son Cale leaving the MTC and then leaving the Church—and Jeff's desire to better understand. Jeff's book (with a forward from Steve Young) focuses on: Conducting the largest LDS focused study on disaffiliation (20,000 respondents + interviews) About 40% of those that were active in 2000 have left the church 25 years later The “four patterns” that emerge from the data—super insightful Importance of culture—needs to nourish and create belonging—and how we can do better “It isn't about lower standards; it's about more love” Framing of the tension—four areas Powerful story of reconciliation with his son Cale Jeff's book is so needed in our community—bringing the data forward and then framing it a way that gives us tools and insights to do better. I encourage everyone to read and share this book—and consider what we can do better to create the culture/belonging that Jeff's talks about in his book. Thank you Jeff for writing this book and being on the podcast. You are making a huge difference for good in our community. Links: Jeff's website: www.tornbyjeffstrong.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588509745251 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tornbyjeffstrong/ Steve Young's Root talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpMJkBbTqB0

13. Joe Truzman identifies Ashab al-Yamin, an Iranian front group conducting arson and IED attacks across Europe. These low-sophistication strikes target Jewish and Western institutions to distance Tehran from direct blame. Authorities struggle to respond as the group recruits petty criminals through the internet to execute missions. 131920