Podcasts about Congratulations

Tonight, It's the 20th Anniversary of Porsche Colorado Springs.  Congratulations to Don, Joe and the rest of the team.  We've got Jason Schmitt on to talk F.A.T. Ice Race and more.

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Hi. On today's episode, Katy, Cody, and Jonathan talk about the "reassigning" of Kristi Noem, Marco Rubio's incoherent explanation for the start of the Iran War, the disappearance of JD Vance, and the horrifying reality that the U.S. military probably bombed that elementary school.As always, we recorded right before that big thing that happened.PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/join#EvenMoreNews #Iran #KristiNoemSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's very rare for me to demand that the readers of my #AmReading substack pre-order something. And the bar to be my “Just One Book” is high. But here we go: The book is The Fountain—debut speculative fiction from Casey Scieszka—and you'll want to read it, but even more, you'll want to hear us talk about what it took to pull this big, beautiful novel from her Tuck-Everlasting-loving soul. And here's the question her agent asked her that is now stuck on a post-it on my computer and may be my next tattoo: How can you reveal these things in action?Casey is reading:Open Throat by Henry Hoke (“It's funny and deeply tender and unlike anything I've ever read.”Follow Casey on Instagram and Substack: Spruceton Inn.Transcript Below!EPISODE TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaThis is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, the place where we help you play big in your writing life, love the process, and finish what matters. I am KJ Dell'Antonia, and today we're talking with Casey Scieszka. And I meant to ask Casey how to pronounce her last name before we started. How'd I do?Casey ScieszkaI think you did great. Especially over in Poland, we say “SHESH-kah” over here, but I've been corrected many times. I think it's supposed to be more like what you said. So… bravo!KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay… SHESH-skah… SHESH-kah… all right, off we go. Y'all, you're going to want to know how to spell it, because you're going to want to order Casey's debut novel, The Fountain, and it is spelled S-C-I-E-S-Z-K-A. But to carry on with my introduction, Casey is a ridiculously well-traveled innkeeper in upstate New York, and we are just going to let that fantasy sit there for a minute without talking about the amount of snow she's going to be shoveling tomorrow, because we're recording this in January and are talking about the fact that I can see her and she is wearing a full-on puffer. So… romance, Hallmark, innkeeper, debut novel—all the things—and also a puffer and snow shovels and pipes and, yeah. You will hear this episode just as Casey's first book, The Fountain,, comes out, and that is what we're here to talk about, because I happened to have gotten an advanced copy of it, and I happen to actually have read it—which does not always happen—and even more relevantly, loved it. Therefore, here we are. And Casey, welcome to Hashtag AmWriting.Casey ScieszkaThank you so much. I am so thrilled. I'm like really just beyond that you enjoyed it so much.KJ Dell'AntoniaAh, I'm so—I'm, I really did. I will be encouraging everyone to pick it up. It's mind-boggling that it's not… and it is your debut. So I'm going to go ahead and—is it, is it really? Like, I mean, I know it's your debut, but like, is it the first book you've written? Oh no, you've, you've got a kind of a memoirs situation out, right?Casey ScieszkaI wrote like a young adult travelogue with my now husband that he illustrated about when we lived like in China and West Africa and wound up literally out in Timbuktu. So I had some experience that way, but that was nonfiction and for a totally different audience. All that said, this novel is my first published one, but you better believe I have a bin in the drawer.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's what I meant.Casey ScieszkaDrawer. (laughing)KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Yeah. So, The Fountain, is—just as briefly as possible—it's the story of an immortal woman who really would like to die, for excellent reasons, because immortality is a weight that is really, really heavy, and you convey that beautifully and wonderfully in this book. And so I want to just start right off—I maybe should let you describe the book—and then I'll just warn you that my next question is going to be, “Man, how did you have the guts to swing for the fences like this?”Casey ScieszkaWell, I think it probably began when I read Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting as a fifth grader in English class, which is about a family that—or a little girl who comes across a magical spring that an immortal family is guarding, and then she has to decide, ultimately, throughout the book, what she's going to do with this information and this knowledge while other people are hunting it down as well. And those questions just haunted and delighted me for decades, and I kept returning to them, and at some point I was working on a novel, had a whole manuscript going, was deeply frustrated, and I started a little something on the side where I was like, this will just be a short story. We'll see where this goes. This is nothing, and I think, because… I don't know, maybe you've experienced this before too, where if you're not looking it directly in the eye, sometimes it can just take off, and it all of a sudden had a life of its own. Essentially, this grown-up version of Tuck Everlasting, where it's about a woman who has come back to her small hometown in the Catskill Mountains, where she was born in the 1800s, 214 years later, to figure out what did this to her so she can reverse it and finally be released.KJ Dell'AntoniaWow, you really have the… the short pitch. What's your book about? Down! Congratulations! That's a tough one. Yeah, you, you nailed it. That is what it is about. And I will say that it took—one of the things that I loved about it, and that I like in a book—is that not only was I not sure at some points what the protagonist wanted for herself, I was not sure what I wanted for her. All I knew was that I wanted “something” for her. And that makes for a really interesting reading experience. Because normally, you know, you find yourself sitting there going, well, just, you know, just tell the person, or just, you know, kiss them or accept your reality, or you'd normally—you know what you want—like, take the ring, Frodo, or whatever. Or don't take the ring, Frodo. And now there's no book. But, and in this one, we didn't. How hard was—was that for you to write—sort of, I don't know… did you know what you wanted the protagonist—or what you wanted the reader to want for her? Or…?Casey ScieszkaYes and no.KJ Dell'AntoniaHow did you feel about that?Casey ScieszkaRight. Yes and no, and yes and no. I think when you're writing, ultimately, later on in draft, you have to be very clear about what your character wants. But in the early process, I had no idea. The whole thing, like I said, began as a short story, and that's really just the first chapter or two, and then I was essentially hunting with her. When I was writing that first draft, I was like, what are we looking for? What has happened in the past 200 years in your life that would make you feel one way or another? And then every time I had a different little angel or devil on my shoulder, whatever you will, who was the—well, what about this point of view? What if? Wouldn't this type of—wouldn't someone say, well, living forever would be amazing, because you could share that type of science with other people, and you could, you know, have these wonderful medical advances or, you know, things like that? I could then have other characters essentially embody those, those other points of view as well. Although, I'm really glad that you say that in your reading experience, you still weren't quite sure what she wanted, because I definitely didn't want, you know—I mean, no, no author wants characters to just be symbols for points of view.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh yeah, no, absolutely not. And I should say that I know that she wants to reverse this. That's never in question. But this sort of—there—you're always aware of the question of what does she really want? Because that's kind of only part of it to want…Casey ScieszkaRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaAn end to this pain, but, but why and what other alternatives there are. And then, of course, I just—I did not know how you were going to end it. I could not imagine how you were going to land that plane. It must have been a tough one. Did you always know where you were going? We will not in any way spoil this.Casey ScieszkaRight. No spoilers.KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, no spoilers.Casey ScieszkaI'd say that about halfway through my first draft, I just saw the ending. I was like, “Oh, this is…”KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's amazing.Casey ScieszkaThis is like that very last moment. I was like, this is where I need to get. And those handful of chapters before the penultimate one, whoa, boy, those were the ones that are like I wrote, like seven different books, you know?KJ Dell'AntoniaOh yeah.Casey ScieszkaCompletely different versions to actually get there.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo what was your… what's your hope for the reader experience of this book? Besides, you know vast entertainment and pressing it into the hands of their friends.Casey ScieszkaRight. Naturally.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah…Casey ScieszkaBeyond that…KJ Dell'AntoniaWe love that.Casey ScieszkaUm, I mean, I love books that essentially look at what it means to be human and what makes a life worth living. And those are the type of questions that I hope someone would then linger on in their own life after putting down the book. Even in between chapters, you know? That you would be able to reflect on the choices that each character is making and think, like, oh, I would do this. I wouldn't do that. Or, you know, to kind of just bring that back into your own life that way. Because… I don't know. Time is perspective, like ever—what is—what does it mean to live forever? What is a long life? Is it? You know, when you're when you're little, a summer lasts an eternity. I guess what I'm saying is like our perspective of time is always bendy, and that was an interesting challenge in trying to write a 214 year old woman, where it was very tempting to just turn her into a superhero, where I'd be like, “Oh, well, she'd know 10 language.”KJ Dell'AntoniaShe'd know things, yeah.Casey ScieszkaAnd she'd be like, amazing at all these things. And I had to be like, Casey, you have a lot of time on your hands as well. Like, you're, you know, you're 40 years old. And do you know 10 languages? Do you know five languages? Like, what are, like what are we talking about here?KJ Dell'AntoniaOn that ratio you should at least know two. (laughing) Uh, maybe three. If we're going to say 200 is 10… you know you got, yeah, you should have at least two.Casey ScieszkaExactly. So just kind of examining, like, why would I—why would I have expectation, different expectations for someone simply because they've lived longer, and, you know, those types of things?KJ Dell'AntoniaSo you mentioned that you had a bunch of books in a drawer. So what's bigger about this project than maybe the thing that you put aside to focus on it? Is it bigger?Casey ScieszkaI don't know if it's bigger. I think I just had, I had better tools in my toolbox at this point. Like I might return to that other one, but I didn't have the full heart of the question I was getting at there. I think I had more of a premise, or something like that. Whereas this one, when I was writing, I felt like the problem was I had own—like in the writing was like I had too much meat, I had so many questions, I had so much I was wrestling with. And then it also really helped that, I mean, it's, its set in a small town in the Catskills, and, spoiler alert, that's the type of place that I now live.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Casey ScieszkaAnd knew. People always tell you like, write what you know. I am, I am not, secretly, 214 years old. I know you can't see me on camera, guys.Multiple Speakers(both laughing)Casey ScieszkaMy skin's not that great for a… you know? But, but I do know what small-town life is in the Catskills. I do—there are some characters who are opening up a business. I know what it's like to open a business. Like, it was really fun for me. I felt like I had this endless well of inspiration to keep pulling from that way. And that was something I couldn't have written 10 years before. You know?KJ Dell'AntoniaYou also handled the depth of the questions that you're dealing with remarkably tightly. Did you have to clear away a lot of like… asking for a friend…(laughing). Did you have to clear away a lot of mulling over these questions by people or? I guess what I'm getting at is these are really deep and big questions, like you said, but I don't feel—you did not Atlas Shrugged these. You know, there's not like a 20-page dissertation by John Galt in the middle of it. How hard was it to keep that from happening? Or did it come a little more easily for you?Casey ScieszkaI think, nothing, nothing, none of it comes easily. We know this.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Casey ScieszkaI mean, sometimes you reach the flow state, you know? And it is funny to even think back on these things, because I have a, like, a willful blindness, almost in the same way that, like, I have given birth to two children, and, like, I can't believe I did it a second time, you know? But it's by, you know, it's by design, some—perhaps similar with writing. Once you know how the sausage is made, sometimes it can be hard to do again. But anyway, all of this is to go back and actually answer your question. I was very wary of doing the… this is how I feel about something info dump. And one of the things that my agent as an editor has been helpful with from early drafts was, how can you reveal these things in action? So anytime I was tempted to just start explaining things, I was like, Casey, is this happening in action? Like, is this a character actually finding something out? Like from another character in a natural way. So that…KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's a great question.Casey ScieszkaRight. That really, that really helped me. And then also sometimes with the writing I did, just let myself write a whole bunch, you know, because sometimes, especially if you know it's the beginning of your writing day, maybe it's, it's that equivalent of the throat clearing—you're just or the dog who's doing circles before they sit down, like you're, you're getting around to the thing that you actually want to say. And then when you re read it, you're like, “Oh, well, those first four paragraphs can go, and here's where I actually start to say…”KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, here's what i meant to say.Casey ScieszkaYeah. Yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaTake this. Put it up at the front— delayed all this. Yeah. No. I get it. So how long did this take you?Casey ScieszkaWell, I started the short story in 2021 and then it comes out now. I will say we had, like; everything was in the can, if you will, at least, like a year and a half ago, just kind of waiting for this springtime pub date. But, yeah, it's a journey. That's a—I feel, you know, like another thing you don't want to hear when you're like, 25 and are like, I'm going to write a book, and you hear an interview with someone who's like, it took me 10 years, and I was like, my god. And I'm like, well, girl.KJ Dell'AntoniaI can do it faster than that.Casey ScieszkaThis one is five years. But…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, yeah, no, it takes, it takes a long time, and it's hard, and it takes a lot of painful thinking, and yeah, all of those things are true. So now, now that you can look back at this project with hopefully a little bit of distance, and you're about to be talking about it a lot, I suspect. What do you love most about it?Casey ScieszkaOoh. I love most that these characters feel so real to me still that I sometimes catch myself wondering, like, what they're doing. You know?KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's amazing.Casey ScieszkaLike I lived with them, and I just, I'm so excited that I actually, like made—was able to make that for, you know, not just myself, though, that I surely entertained myself in the process. But it is such a humbling dream that this story is now existing in other people's brains, that these are characters who have felt real to other people as well.KJ Dell'AntoniaWhat, as you look back, what would you say was the hardest part of the process?Casey ScieszkaAside from all of the waiting?!KJ Dell'AntoniaAll of it! Aside from all of it.Casey ScieszkaWhich felt like…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah I was going to say aside from…Casey ScieszkaIt felt eternal.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Yeah.Multiple Speakers(both laughing)Casey ScieszkaI think the very hardest part is early on, when you don't know—well, the earliest, earliest is delightful, because you're in just your little creative cocoon, and you're having these wonderful ideas, and you don't have to solve any of the plot problems yet, or things like that. You know, you're just like being your own little creative genius for yourself. But then it's I feel like that, that first real revision phase when you don't know fully if this is actually going to become a book where you're—and time, you know, to talk about time again, is precious, like I, you know, I run this other hotel. It's open half the year. But when I began it, it was open seven days a week, all year long; I had two children under the age of four at the time. Like, time was precious. I was writing during nap time, like things were being sacrificed in order for me to do this. And it is. It just feels audacious and possibly insane to be doing it when you're in it, and when you're on the other side, you're like, oh, but the road was always pointing here, and you just, you just don't know that when you're in it.KJ Dell'AntoniaNo.Casey ScieszkaYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou could easily have, really think, you know, you could easily still be sitting on this going, well, I'm going to finish this…Casey ScieszkaExactly. And, you know…KJ Dell'AntoniaWhen the kids are… you know… or whatever.Casey ScieszkaYeah, exactly I have these other, you know, unfinished or manuscripts that haven't seen the light of day. But, at this point, I tell myself, and I 99.9999% believe it that those were necessary to write in order to write this.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I sure hope so.Multiple Speakers(both laughing)Casey ScieszkaThere's just that other point 0.0001 that's like—KJ Dell'AntoniaWhat?!Casey ScieszkaYeah, it's like, no, no, it really was necessary.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, you have to. You have to do it. Well, I hate to be, you know, not trying to raise the bar here, but, but what is next after, you know, a topic like this and a big book like, like this? Do you know yet? Are you, are you thinking about it? Where are you in your process?Casey ScieszkaI have been working on something else which is fun. And I definitely have, like, you know, while as much as I know how, how wild it is with how the sausage is made and what I'm, you know, the many revisions and things I'm looking down the barrel at, I also have another level of excitement, because I know, like, wow, I have an agent this time who's actually excited to read it, and I have a working relationship with an editor. Like, I'm trying to appreciate that…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, because it's what you wanted before.Casey ScieszkaAnd it can be so easy to just, you know, slip back into the like; you know, I don't know, the chaos feelings. But, I will say, I'm not going to say much about the project, other than historically, for everything I've ever been drawn to, and including stuff I love to read. I always love when character, when there's a character who knows like way too much or way too little, like in their situation.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's a very like tempting pitch without having anything you'd like to put your fingers in.Casey ScieszkaWithout…KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's good. That's good, that's clever.Casey ScieszkaI told you nothing.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou told me nothing, and yet I'm like, ooh yeah, that does sound… that does sound interesting. Well, I as I've as I've said I wholeheartedly enjoyed this. It was twisty. You had me thinking things that were not what was so at many, many points of the book.Casey ScieszkaI love to hear this. Love to hear.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah and when we are off, off recording, I'll tell you some of them, because that is always kind of fun. I really feel like this book is such an achievement. For someone who's just getting started, it's great. I can't wait to see what you do next. And I guess, on that note, what's something you have read recently where you also felt like the writer was, was really big, really playing big. Is there anything that you would like to press on into people's hands the way I want to press The Fountain, into their hands?Casey ScieszkaI've loved this. Thank you again. One book I keep pressing into many people's hands is Open Throat by Henry Hoke.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay.Casey ScieszkaIt's very slim. You can read it in like a day, although I recommend taking a little bit longer, because you'll want to enjoy it. It is told from the point of view of a mountain lion who lives under the Hollywood sign.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, I—I think I've heard the description, even if I don't remember the—okay.Casey ScieszkaIt's so funny and so deeply tender, like and just unlike anything I've read recently, and I just really felt like, like he was swinging for the fences with this, like it's from the point of view of an animal, which should be ridiculous, but after…KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd not just an animal, but an animal that lives under the Hollywood sign.Casey ScieszkaYeah, like that's a mountain lion who's—it open up or he's overhearing like you know hikers discussing therapist, you know? It's just, it's so silly, but it's also so deep and kind of truly experimental, but still so accessible and I just feel like it's the type of thing that I don't know. Maybe when he sat down to write it, he was like, this, someone's going to tell me, I'm nuts, but I just connected with it so much.KJ Dell'AntoniaI…yeah. Alright I love that then, and that is a great response to the question, because that really is somebody else swinging for the fences, and that's what we're just trying to talk about here for everyone. So where? Well, listeners can find you, obviously they can, they can buy The Fountain,, and they should. You're inn is called?Casey ScieszkaThe Spruceton Inn, a Catskills Bed & Bar. We're a little nine-room hotel.KJ Dell'Antonia(laughing) Bed and bar. That's awesome.Casey ScieszkaYeah. I mean, I don't, I don't really mess with breakfast. I mean, you get very nice coffee and some pop tarts. I love a good highbrow, lowbrow, and we are five miles down a seven mile dead end road in the middle of the mountains.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay, I love this for everyone. And is there any particular social media where you are fun and joyful?Casey ScieszkaYeah, you can find us on Instagram at sprucetoninn. That's also like some writing stuff and same with Substack. Only other thing I'll say about the inn is we also run an artist residency program, an annual one. So every August we open it up to folks, writers, 2D artists. Basically, if you can make it in a motel room without disturbing your neighbors, come on and make it with us, and you get, you get, like, a week-long stay. No cost, in the month of November.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat is so fun and so cool. And I bet you're going to get a lot more applications than you can handle this time around. Alright, well, thank you so much for spending this time with me.Casey ScieszkaThank you so much for chatting.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd amazing best of luck with the book, which I loved. All right, kids, I'm signing this off with our new sign off. Until next time, stop playing small and write like it matters.NarratorThe Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perrella. Our intro music, aptly titled, Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Between family, work, ministry, responsibilities, and the everyday demands of life, it's easy to slip into striving rather than resting in God. In today's episode with Scout Parker, we talk about what it truly means to abide in God—not just as a spiritual concept, but as a daily practice that sustains us.Jesus reminds us in John 15 that He is the vine and we are the branches. Our strength, wisdom, and fruitfulness don't come from doing more—they come from staying connected to Him. When we try to manage life on our own, exhaustion follows. But when we remain rooted in God, He provides the help, grace, and guidance we need for every season.Abiding in God allows us to navigate busy seasons, carry heavy responsibilities, and still live with peace and purpose. God never intended for us to do life alone. His presence is not just for Sunday mornings—it's the source that sustains us in the middle of everyday in life.Congratulations to Cassadie Waits Smith and Karlie Dalton, the winners of our giveaway for the book Smooth Sailing written by the Robinettes!If you'd like to order your own copy, click the link below:https://a.co/d/02BKsu1i

Tell us what you think of the show! This Week in Cleantech is a weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in clean energy and climate featuring Paul Gerke of Factor This and Tigercomm's Mike Casey.This week's episode features special guest Evan Halper from the Washington Post, who wrote about some MAGA figures who are warming to solar despite Donald Trump's longstanding criticism of it.This week's "Cleantecher of the Week" is David Jankowsky, CEO of Francis Energy. Francis Energy provides ultra-fast charging stations for EVs, and focuses on expanding charging access to underserved and rural communities to ensure no community is left behind in the transition to electric vehicles. Congratulations, David!This Week in Cleantech — March 06, 2026 Don't Look Now, but the Green Transition Is Still Happening — The New York TimesWhat Trump's war on Iran means for the US energy crunch — The VergeWhat AES' $33.4 billion take-private says about energy and AI — Latitude MediaEurope Is Learning An Uncomfortable Truth About Local Battery Production — InsideEVsWhy Katie Miller and other MAGA influencers suddenly love solar power — The Washington PostWant to make a suggestion for This Week in Cleantech? Nominate the stories that caught your eye each week by emailing Paul.Gerke@clarionevents.com

Why Guarding Your Heart & Mind Is EssentialScripture: Proverbs 4:23 — “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it spring the issues of life.”Proverbs doesn't say to guard your heart casually. It says, “with all diligence.” That means intentionally, consistently, and seriously. Why? Because everything in your life flows from what you allow into your heart and mind.Accept Jesus Today: https://youtube.com/shorts/bIwAUlz7Kg4?si=BNOhv44iLWIR4eVJIf you would like to accept Jesus into your heart today, pray this simple prayer:****God, I have sinned against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, who died and rose for my sake. I ask you to forgive me for my sin. I place my trust in You for salvation. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, I am forgiven! Amen!"****Congratulations! You are now a child of the most high. John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. If you just prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, I welcome you to the family of God. Subscribe to my channel and type in the comments right now, “I just prayed that prayer.” I would love to connect with you and chat with you about all the amazing things God is doing in your life.Click here for FREE eBook Download: https://tinyurl.com/ISAIDTHEPRAYERShow your love, support the channel:*PayPal: PayPal.me/malachimitchellministry*Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MalachiMitchNote Journals and Puzzles: https://tinyurl.com/WalkinFaithPublishingAuthored Books: https://tinyurl.com/BooksofMalachiJoin Our Support Club: https://tinyurl.com/Support-ClubInvesting Opportunity: https://coinholders.hnocoin.com/signup/?refer=Malachi2uFREE Ways to Support Me:

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Today's episode is a special one as we celebrate the 500th episode of the show and over 11 million downloads worldwide. I'm joined by Jess Giacobbe from my team, who turns the microphone around and asks me the questions listeners have always wanted to ask about my journey, my work, and what I've learned along the way. We talk about how this podcast began, the real behind-the-scenes moments that challenged me, the times I almost quit, and how learning to trust my intuition changed everything. I also share what "downloads" actually feel like, how triggers reveal unconscious beliefs, and why real change can happen faster than you think when you shift your response. *Congratulations to the winners of our 500th Episode Giveaway - Heather R. & Joellen G. Thank you to everyone who shared the podcast or left a review!* In this episode, you'll learn:  How the podcast began and why I almost didn't start it What intuition and "downloads" actually feel like in real life The biggest lessons I learned from setbacks and rebuilding my business Why triggers reveal old beliefs and how to use them for growth How to stay grounded in your Adult Chair even during life's hardest moments Resources from this Episode: Get your free trigger kit here! In case you haven't already, get your copy of The Adult Chair book now MORE MICHELLE CHALFANT Website: https://www.michellechalfant.com Membership: The Adult Chair Collective https://www.michellechalfant.com/collective  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themichellechalfant Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMichelleChalfant The Adult Chair® Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theadultchair YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Michellechalfant

Survivor AU: Redemption Week 2 Exit Interviews Mike Bloom catches up with the latest players voted out of Australian Survivor as Paula Drew, Harry Hills, and Johnson Ashak reflect on the moves, misreads, and rivalries that led to their eliminations during week two of Australian Survivor Redemption. Paula Drew discusses the alliance she built with Harry Hills and how a key misread of tribe dynamics, particularly underestimating Lahy, allowed the numbers to slip away from her before Tribal Council. She shares how quickly the power shifted and why she believes the blindside ultimately came together. Harry Hills breaks down the increasingly desperate position he found himself in and reveals the unconventional tactic he attempted to stay in the game. He explains how he tried to leverage the tribe's flint as bargaining power in hopes of forcing a last-minute deal that could flip the vote. Johnson Ashak, known to many viewers from Big Brother Australia, talks about entering the game with a strong strategic reputation. He dives into his rivalry with Mark and how being perceived as a threat made it difficult to build lasting trust within the tribe. Host Mike Bloom unpacks the blindsides, shifting alliances, and strategic decisions that shaped week two of the season. 0:00 Congratulations, Shannon 3:21 Paula Interview 20:00 Harry Interview 48:16 Johnson Interview Check out Peace Corps: https://peacecorps.gov/serve Never miss a minute of RHAP's extensive Global Survivor coverage! LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor Global podcast feed WATCH:  Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT:  Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

Tyler breaks down the last two weeks of craziness that he has gone through after Northern California was bombarded with a massive snowstorm. Tyler watches over the NorCal 4×4 Rescue page on Facebook, and he helps organize volunteers to go and help people in need. During this crazy storm, there were multiple people who needed rescuing on the Mormon Emigrant Trail. All in all, there was five vehicles that ended up getting left behind, and a week later, Tyler and crew when to save them. Facebook NorCal 4×4 Rescue: https://www.facebook.com/groups/412330832456303/ MORRFlate Giveaway at 900 Reviews on Apple Podcast. But our next giveaway is when we reach 800 reviews; we are giving away an OnX Elite Membership. We will also give away an OnX Elite membership when we get to 850. However, when we reach 900 Reviews, we are teaming up with MORRFlate for a $1000 MF Product Giveaway. Go over to Apple Podcasts to leave your review now and become eligible to win. Congratulations to A13XMONT, who won a set of tires from Yokohama Tire! Call us and leave us a VOICEMAIL!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. 4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple, and after answering the questionnaire, we ensured we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground. SnailTrail4x4 Podcast is brought to you by all of our peeps over at irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)! SnailSquad Monthly Giveaway February’s Giveaway is with our good buddies over at GlueTread. They gave us an Expedition Kit Tire Repair Kit. This kit has everything you could possibly need to repair your tire while you’re in the outdoors. It comes with a plug kit, colby valves, razor blade, sand paper, and of course, the famous adhesive and patches that GlueTread is known for! Sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4 Congratulations to long-time supporter Evan Cook for winning the Gearwrench giveaway. We got some more goodies to give away to a lucky winner. If you want a chance to win this amazing giveaway, all you need to do is sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4. Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% offIronman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% offBackpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate LinkLaminx Protective Films – Use the Link to get 20% off all products (Affiliate Link) Show Music: Outroll Music – Meizong Kumbang Midroll Music – ComaStudio

The 2026 Charge – Powering Energy Brands conference, hosted at the offices of CPS Energy in San Antonio, was a tremendous success. The event brought together leaders and innovators from across the energy and communications space for an unforgettable experience focused on connection, insight, and creativity. We were thrilled to once again record The Green Insider podcast live from this Charge North America event, featuring an outstanding lineup of guests: Rob Cantrell, CEO, Atlantic Energy Timothy Wang, Managing Partner, Keymaker Jake Edie, Managing Partner, RenewComm Mush Khan, CEO, Alchemy Industrial Jacob Yang, CEO, Amp Your Story Together, these conversations highlighted how Charge continues to deliver on its promise of networking, education, creativity, and recognition across the energy ecosystem. Congratulations to all this year's conference award winners—you can learn more about them here. Special congratulations and thank you to Fridrik Larsen, Natalie Bacon, and the entire Charge team for producing another exceptional event. And to our Follower Friday listeners and guests: thank you for being part of the journey—we truly couldn't do this without you. Become a Green Insider Be sure to subscribe to The Green Insider, powered by ERENEWABLE, wherever you get your podcasts—and don't forget to leave us a five‑star rating! To learn more about our guests or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, please contact ERENEWABLE and The Green Insider Podcast. The post 2026 Charge – Powering Energy Brands Conference Recap appeared first on eRENEWABLE.

Congratulations, its a podcast! Josh is joined by PR pro and new podcast creator Maddy Myer! They talk about their mutual fandom favorites, who is their favorite Spider-Man and Maddy's new show, Maddy Mania!

Living Bold, Not BoundScripture: Romans 8:15 — “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”Romans 8:15 makes something very clear—fear is not your identity, and bondage is not your portion. God did not give you a spirit that chains you to worry or paralyzes you with uncertainty. He gave you the Spirit of adoption. That means you belong.Accept Jesus Today: https://youtube.com/shorts/bIwAUlz7Kg4?si=BNOhv44iLWIR4eVJIf you would like to accept Jesus into your heart today, pray this simple prayer:****God, I have sinned against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, who died and rose for my sake. I ask you to forgive me for my sin. I place my trust in You for salvation. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, I am forgiven! Amen!"****Congratulations! You are now a child of the most high. John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. If you just prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, I welcome you to the family of God. Subscribe to my channel and type in the comments right now, “I just prayed that prayer.” I would love to connect with you and chat with you about all the amazing things God is doing in your life.Click here for FREE eBook Download: https://tinyurl.com/ISAIDTHEPRAYERShow your love, support the channel:*PayPal: PayPal.me/malachimitchellministry*Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MalachiMitchNote Journals and Puzzles: https://tinyurl.com/WalkinFaithPublishingAuthored Books: https://tinyurl.com/BooksofMalachiJoin Our Support Club: https://tinyurl.com/Support-ClubInvesting Opportunity: https://coinholders.hnocoin.com/signup/?refer=Malachi2uFREE Ways to Support Me:

(00:00-3:00) Congratulations to Shooter McGavin for being named the TMA Listener of the Month for February. Is he Listener of the Year material?(3:08-18:05) The Design Aire Heating & Cooling EMOTD(18:15-25:46) Doug's REALLY pissed about the return music. Sports Illustrated ranking MLB's 30 Opening Day starters. Would you rather play in The Fecal Depot or Tropicana Field?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Replacing Doubt With TruthScripture: Mark 9:24 — “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”Doubt does not always mean disbelief. Often, it means faith is under pressure. In Mark 9, a man comes to Jesus desperate for help and speaks one of the most honest prayers in Scripture: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” That tells us doubt can exist alongside faith. The presence of doubt does not cancel faith—but how you respond to doubt matters.Accept Jesus Today: https://youtube.com/shorts/bIwAUlz7Kg4?si=BNOhv44iLWIR4eVJIf you would like to accept Jesus into your heart today, pray this simple prayer:****God, I have sinned against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, who died and rose for my sake. I ask you to forgive me for my sin. I place my trust in You for salvation. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, I am forgiven! Amen!"****Congratulations! You are now a child of the most high. John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. If you just prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, I welcome you to the family of God. Subscribe to my channel and type in the comments right now, “I just prayed that prayer.” I would love to connect with you and chat with you about all the amazing things God is doing in your life.Click here for FREE eBook Download: https://tinyurl.com/ISAIDTHEPRAYERShow your love, support the channel:*PayPal: PayPal.me/malachimitchellministry*Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MalachiMitchNote Journals and Puzzles: https://tinyurl.com/WalkinFaithPublishingAuthored Books: https://tinyurl.com/BooksofMalachiJoin Our Support Club: https://tinyurl.com/Support-ClubInvesting Opportunity: https://coinholders.hnocoin.com/signup/?refer=Malachi2uFREE Ways to Support Me:

This week on Inspire Change, Gunter deep dives on how geo-political environments affect us.  In a time of global conflict, political polarization, and social fragmentation, what psychological forces are shaping our world?In this episode of Inspire Change with Gunter, we explore the psychological roots of patriarchy and authoritarianism — and how fear becomes a powerful organizing force in both individual and collective life.  Gunter examines patriarchy not merely as a social structure, but as a moral economy — a system linking control, safety, and worth. When threat perception rises, attention narrows. Fight-or-flight intensifies. Emotional complexity collapses. Fear becomes weaponized.This episode explores:• How patriarchy operates as a moral economy• The psychology of authoritarianism and narcissistic defenses• How fear narrows cognition and fuels polarization• Loneliness as a public health crisis and its role in social fragmentation• The decline of global democracy and its psychological effects• The erosion of shared reality in modern information environments• Practical strategies for rebuilding psychological resilience as social trust declines and democratic norms weaken, emotional literacy and vulnerability become not weaknesses — but protective capacities.Gunter offers grounded interventions for maintaining psychological freedom in turbulent times:✨ Restoring emotional complexity✨ Rebuilding local trust✨ Practicing cross-community contact✨ Daily habits that strengthen agency✨ Cultivating inner work as ethical groundingWhen fear becomes power, it shapes systems.But resilience begins in the individual psyche.This conversation is not about politics — it is about psychological agency, community repair, and the emotional foundations of democracy.GratitudeHello to all our listeners, we thank you for tuning in and promoting positive social change.  This makes you a part of Gunter's efforts in transforming not only men's lives but lives in general and we are grateful you have joined us.   This week we are sharing our gratitude both globally and in the USA.  Let's start with our listeners from Canada.   We want to thank our listeners in Toronto & Ottawa Ontario, Montreal Quebec, Victoria & Vancouver British Columbia, and Halifax Nova Scotia as you're responsible for getting Canada all the way to #4 on the Global Listeners List!And now for the USA, a special shoutout goes to the city of DeMoines (duh-MOYN) for bringing Iowa to #9 on the USA Top 10 Listeners List!CONGRATULATIONS!!!We thank you so much for your continued support as we appreciate your efforts toward positive social change!  I, DeVonna Prinzi the Co-Exec Producer and our Show-runner Miranda Spigener-Sapon sincerely thank you and ask that you please take the time to like, follow, subscribe, and share as your efforts make a difference to everyone here at Inspire Change with Gunter.We would love to hear your stories of social change!  Please remember If you want to share, you can reach out  to the show directly. Please see the show-notes for our contact information as we look forward to hearing from you!  As always thank you to each and every one of our listeners, and most importantly please keep Inspiring positive social change.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/inspire-change-with-gunter--3633478/support.PatreonIf this episode resonates with you and you'd like to go deeper into practical exercises and guided reflection, Gunter offers extended self-development resources and exercises through our Patreon community: www.patreon.com/inspirechangeSponsorDistil UnionThis episode of Inspire Change with Gunter is brought to you by Distil Union, creators of beautifully designed, functional everyday carry accessories that help bring organization, simplicity, and intention into your daily life.Distil Union blends craftsmanship with thoughtful design to help you carry what matters most — without the clutter.

Boston 25 meteorologist Shir Spear has something major to celebrate! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does courage look like under fire? In captivity? In command? In service? This edition of Long Blue Leadership was recorded on location at the U.S. Air Force Academy's 33rd National Character and Leadership Symposium. We've explored these questions with our guests and captured the conversations for you. Ted Robertson, Multimedia and Podcast Specialist for the Air Force Academy Association and Foundation, hosts this special episode featuring voices shaped by combat, crises and lifelong service. Their message to cadets is clear: Leadership is earned through character, and character is forged in hard moments. - Seg. 1: Lt. Col. Mark George and C1C Jaime Snyder, officer and NCLS cadet director, respectively, set the stage for this year's NCLS and for the podcast. - Seg. 2: Senior Master Sgt. (Ret.) Israel "DT" Del Toro on courage in times of crisis. - Seg. 3: Task Force Hope developer and facilitator Maj. Tara Holmes on preparing future leaders to handle crisis before it happens. - Seg. 4: Former POW Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Edward Mechenbier '64, on leading in circumstances out of your control. - Seg. 5: Annapolis grad and Vietnam-era aviator, Capt. (Ret.) J. Charles Plumb on how character breeds courage. All of our guest's lives and careers reflect the reality of this year's theme through combat, crisis and service.     CONNECT WITH THE LONG BLUE LINE PODCAST NETWORK TEAM Ted Robertson | Producer and Editor:  Ted.Robertson@USAFA.org Send your feedback or nominate a guest: socialmedia@usafa.org   Ryan Hall | Director:  Ryan.Hall@USAFA.org  Bryan Grossman | Copy Editor:  Bryan.Grossman@USAFA.org Wyatt Hornsby | Executive Producer:  Wyatt.Hornsby@USAFA.org      ALL PAST LBL EPISODES  |  ALL LBLPN PRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR PODCAST PLATFORMS     FULL TRANSCRIPT OUR SPEAKERS:  - Host, Ted Robertson, Multimedia and Podcast Specialist, United States Air Force Academy Association and Foundation  - Seg. 1: C1C Jaime Snyder, NCLS Cadet Director; Lt. Col. Mark George, NCLS Officer  - Seg. 2: Senior Master Sargent Israel Del Toro  - Seg. 3: Maj. Tara Holmes, Task Force Hope  - Seg. 4: Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Edward Mechenbier '64  - Seg. 5: Capt. (Ret.) J. Charles Plumb   Ted Robertson 0:00 Welcome to Long Blue Line Podcast Network coverage of the 33rd annual National Character and Leadership Symposium. I'm Ted Robertson, multimedia and podcast specialist for the Air Force Academy Association & Foundation, coming to you from Polaris Hall located here at the United States Air Force Academy. This year's symposium centers on the theme Courage to Lead in the Profession of Arms: Combat and Crisis-tested Character, where attendees and cadets will explore how courage in all its forms shapes leaders when uncertainty, fear and consequence are real. Our coverage will start with the Center for Character and Leadership Development's Lt. Col. Mark George and NCLS director, Cadet 1st Class Jaime Snyder. They'll set the stage not only for NCLS, but for today's coverage. Then we'll talk with four key leaders speaking at the symposium, including Senior Master Sgt. (Ret.) Israel Del Torro on keeping courageous during times of crisis. We'll also talk with Task Force Hope developer and facilitator, Maj. Tara Holmes, on preparing leaders to handle crisis before it happens. Then, former POW, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Edward Mechenbier, USAFA Class of '64, on leading in circumstances out of your control. And finally, Annapolis grad and Vietnam-era aviator, Capt. (Ret.) J. Charles Plumb, on how character breeds courage. All of our guests' lives and careers reflect the reality of this year's theme through combat, crisis and service. So I want to bring in our first two guests to help, as I said, frame the discussion today. We're going to dig in to learn what this is all about and sort of the “why” behind it. Cadet Jaime Snyder, 2026 NCLS director. Cadet Snyder, you've helped lead the organizing of the National Character and Leadership Symposium — 33rd year for this, as you know, and part of that work, you've trained cadets and permanent party. I'm going to ask you to explain permanent party, all of which helps strengthen your own public speaking and leadership communication skills. You want to kind of expound on that a bit? C1C Jaime Snyder 2:20 Yes, sir. So a part of my role being in NCLS is to, one, provide the guidance, the support and resources on the cadet side to succeed. But what really makes NCLS special is that we integrate permanent party with cadets. So oftentimes me, in supporting and training permanent party, is giving them cadet perspective, because while they're over here and the Center for Character and Leadership Development, we're over there in the Cadet Wing, and I can be the mediator between both parties. Ted Robertson 2:46 Let's talk a little bit about permanent party. What does that term mean? Who does that describe? C1C Jaime Snyder 2:52 Oh yes. Permanent party describes the civilian and military faculty that works in the Center for Character and Leadership Development that assists with the execution of NCLS — the National Character and Leadership Symposium. Ted Robertson 3:05 How big is the team behind this event every year? C1C Jaime Snyder 3:08 It's kind of complex where we'll get search cadets. We'll get a large number of volunteers, approximately around 300 from the Cadet Wing. Internal staff consists of 50 cadets who work it throughout the entire year, and around 50 staff members who are permanent party who work in the Center for Character and Leadership Development. Ted Robertson 3:29 I want to bring in next Lt. Col. Mark George, who is the experiential and training division chief and NCLS program director, the very fortunate man that gets to work for some incredibly talented cadets. Col. Mark George 3:43 That is absolutely true. Thanks to for having us on. Cadet Snyder has done an outstanding job leading this team. I came into this a little bit late. You know, we've had some reorganization here at the Academy, and after some shuffling, I got the honor and the privilege to take over NCLS while the planning was well underway. So my job was to just make sure this train kept rolling, that people had the resources that they needed, the top cover they needed. And as Jamie said, he was training me as a permanent party member to make sure that I had the cadet perspective. And then, you know, we were moving this ball forward as we got to this event. Ted Robertson 4:23 So coming up in the podcast we'll get to the sort of “why” and what's at the core of NCLS. Colonel, let's start with you. What is National Character and Leadership Symposium designed to do for cadets?   Col. Mark George 4:38 Sure. The National Character and Leadership Symposium — NCLS — is designed to bring exemplars that embody the core values and the traits that we want cadets to have when they become leaders on Day 1 and inspire them to a lifetime of service.   Ted Robertson 4:57 Cadet Snyder?   C1C Jaime Snyder 4:59 We definitely see at USAFA, there is a clear correlation with NCLS and character development. One thing we want cadets to get out of NCLS is to further develop leaders of character who are going to join the fight in the Air Force and Space Force, and that's why I see the epitome of NCLS as it's an opportunity to hear people's perspectives as well as learn from it and apply it to their daily lives. Ted Robertson 5:24 Gentlemen, this year's theme focuses on the courage to lead in the profession of arms. Cadet Snyder, we'll start with you. How did that theme come together, and why is it especially relevant for cadets right now? C1C Jaime Snyder 5:40 With our current structure at USAFA, we've had some implement of change. We recognize that the future war conflict is more prevalent than ever, and that it's important for the cadets to understand that we're changing the way we approach training, as well as what we're learning in curriculum. So this NCLS was an incredible opportunity to discuss courage when leading in the profession of arms, but furthermore, courage and crises-tested character. Which is what we're trying to further push along with what we do in training as well as what we teach in leadership. Ted Robertson 6:15 You make good decisions when your character is strong. You make those decisions with integrity when your character is intact and it's strong. Would you agree with that, Colonel? Col. Mark George 6:25 Absolutely. And I think Cadet Snyder hit the nail on the head that we really want the cadets to understand that the environments that they're stepping into are going to require that courage to do hard things. In my day, like we didn't necessarily think about the fight in that way. You know, we were kind of stovepiped in. And these cadets, whatever environment they may be stepping into, the next conflict is going to require a lot, a high demand of them, and their character is their foundation for that. Ted Robertson 6:59 One of the things you can say about this event is that it brings together voices from combat, crisis, athletics, academia and industry. How intentional is that mix, Cadet Snyder, and what do cadets gain from hearing such different perspectives on leadership and character? C1C Jaime Snyder 7:18 I think by hearing different perspectives, you get to see how universal courage is. When we say courage, it's not just one thing, it's also moral, social, spiritual. And by looking at different versions of courage, you can understand that there's different ways to actually apply courage. Understanding that courage is not the absence of fear, also knowing that courage is not simply being a confident individual. That it's more complex than you may define courage, and so you can then apply it that way — by looking at different perspectives. Ted Robertson 7:53 Colonel, I'll address this one to you as well. Col. Mark George 7:56 Sure. Courage — we're talking about courage here, and there's a heavy focus on the combat side with this year's speakers. The thing that sticks out to me is that courage always involves a decision to do the hard thing. And that's what all of our speakers brought this year. They're showing how in different environments, whether it's in a prison cell in Hanoi or up on the Space Station or — there's a hard decision and the right thing is sometimes pretty obvious, but it doesn't mean it's easy. It does not mean it's easy to do. And so courage always involves a decision to do the right thing. Ted Robertson 8:39 Cadet Snyder? C1C Jaime Snyder 8:40 What he said I find to be very true — understanding that courage is not simply doing something physical, but also in a leadership role, especially — we're talking to cadets who are going to soon be commissioned officers. It's important to know that you need to make the right decision on and off the battlefield. Ted Robertson 8:58 So from your perspective as a cadet — and this one is just for you, Cadet Snyder — what does it mean to help shape an event like NCLS while you're still developing as a leader yourself? C1C Jaime Snyder 9:10 What I've seen through NCLS is taking the time to relax. Don't focus on the future and focus where you're at right now, and that's character development. So don't let the pursuit of tomorrow diminish the joy today. We all have this aspiration to graduate, throw our hats in the air, Thunderbirds fly over. But right now it's important to focus on character development as that's going to be important as future officers. Ted Robertson 9:35 That makes 1,000% very clear sense. But I do want to ask you, less than 100 days from the day you toss your hat — you're giving me a big smile right now — talk about how that feels right now for you. C1C Jaime Snyder 9:47 It's incredible, and a part of it is less daunting, because I can say this institution has really prepared me to commission, and so it's more liberating than daunting for me. Ted Robertson 9:58 Col. George, I'm going to direct this one straight to you, and this is an ask of you from the leadership perspective: How do we events Like NCLS fit into the broader effort to intentionally develop leaders of character here at the Academy. Col. Mark George 10:14 So I get the honor of leading the experiential and training division in the Center for Character and Leadership Development. So we're all about creating experiences and those opportunities for cadets to have different types of environments where they'll learn about character. And right now, NCLS is an opportunity to listen to where people's character was tested, how they overcame it. And then we also have different events that we try to put the cadets in where we'll actually test their character. And that could be on the challenge tower, it could be through our character labs where we're having discussions. NCLS is a huge part of that, because the planning cycle is so long. Ted Robertson 10:59 Cadet Snyder? C1C Jaime Snyder 11:00 Yes, sir. One thing I wanted to add on to that is with NCLS, one thing that makes this event the most unique experience that I've had is the fact that we get to engage in meaningful dialog. This isn't a brief. This is an experience for everyone who attends. I've had the opportunity to talk to Col. George's son, who aspires to possibly come to the Air Force Academy. So I don't want to say this is just for cadets, but it's also a promotion tool. And understand that what we do at NCLS is very important. And anyone who wants to attend can come and see what we're doing and how important it is.   Col. Mark George 11:33 I want to thank you for that, by the way. He looks up to you, and that meant a lot.   Ted Robertson 11:37 That's pretty visionary stuff. That's touching the next generation. That's fantastic. All right, this is for you both. When cadets look back on NCLS years from now, what do you hope they're going to remember feeling or being challenged to do differently?   C1C Jaime Snyder 11:56 There is a very strong human component to NCLS, and with that, there's a human experience. Understanding that we're getting speakers and we'll see their bios that they're incredible. They have incredible stories of making the right decision when tensions were high, and getting to hear their stories and understand that they ultimately were no different than we are. Some of them were Air Force Academy graduates. Some graduated from the Naval Academy, West Point, other colleges, but they were young, 20-year-old people like we were as cadets. And so getting to understand where they're coming from, human experience is vital to NCLS, and how do we grow and understand where they're coming from? Ted Robertson 12:38 Col. George? Col. Mark George 12:39 Yeah, I think what I would want the cadets to remember is how these speakers made them feel. You're right, you won't remember every nugget of wisdom that was said. I just had the opportunity to talk with Gen. Scott Miller, and he was an incredible leader. And I feel like everything he was saying was gold. I wish I'd been able to write it down. But he really makes you feel like you understand just how important your role is going to be as a young leader. And when you come away as second lieutenants from this place, you've had incredible opportunities and now you're stepping out in the real world. I would think I want the cadets to remember that like, “Hey, what I do matters, and how I lead is very important to getting this mission done.”   Ted Robertson 13:24 Lt. Col. Mark George and C1C Jaime Snyder, officer and cadet in charge of the 33rd NCLS. Congratulations on the event. Well done, and thank you for spending time here with us on the podcast today. Hearing from both the cadet perspective and the senior leadership behind NCLS makes one thing very clear: This symposium is intentionally designed not just to inspire but to prepare future leaders for moments when character will be tested. And that brings me to my first featured guest, a man whose life story embodies what combat and crisis-tested character truly means. Israel “DT” Del Toro, welcome to the podcast. It's an honor to be with you here at the National Character and Leadership Symposium. Senior Master Sgt. (Ret.) Israel Del Toro 14:18 Thank you, Ted. Thanks for having me. Good to see you again.   Ted Robertson 14:21 Yes, it's not the first time we've gotten to spend some time together. Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 14:24 It's always great to talk to people, try and spread the word of the whole spark and the promise of my dad. Ted Robertson 14:30 The spark and the promises are the two things that really stood out to me about that interview — your heart and your soul man, from a very, very early age. Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 14:39 You know, losing my dad at 12, and then a year and a half later, losing my mom to a drunk driver, and being the oldest, you know, having to now kind of step up to be, like, the parent figure to my younger siblings. It was challenging.   Ted Robertson 14:55 Out of all of that, you wound up as a retired — you are currently a retired senior master sergeant. You took responsibility for your siblings, as you say, after you were orphaned as a teenager, and ultimately in the service combat-wounded airmen, and you survived catastrophic injuries against incredible odds, and that did not keep you down. One of the things that you did was you became an Invictus Games gold medalist. You're now a national speaker, and you talk a lot about resilience and purpose.   Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 15:27 Yes, sir. Yeah, Invictus, I won gold in shot put. It was pretty awesome. You know, everyone was just going nuts. Ted Robertson 15:37 You kind of make me feel like that was a soul-feeding, motivating time for you.   Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 15:42 It was. At that time, I was probably one of the senior guys, kind of. Obviously, I was one of the senior guys, wounded guys on the team, and so a lot of people looked up to me. And sometimes I wish — people would say, “Man, it's great. You're such trailblazer.” You're sometimes like, “Man, I just want to be one of the guys. I just, I just want to be No. 10.” You know, everything's all done, and no one's focusing everything on me. But it's a burden that I'm willing to carry on to try and continue to help people.   Ted Robertson 16:19 I want to linger here in your background a bit, because it's more than just impressive. I think impressive is pretty trite to describe what your background is. Let's start with before the Air Force and before combat, and just how your life demanded responsibility at such a young age. And what I want to ask is, how did stepping up for your family shape the leader that you became? Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 16:40 Well, I contribute that totally to my dad. I truly do. My dad was there. My dad, you know, I went everywhere with my dad. My dad — you know, he came from Mexico to this country, and he gave up a lot. You know, my family in Mexico is very wealthy, their ranchers and all that. He came here with nothing. And he always used to tell me, he's like, “Don't ever be envious of someone that's successful. Learn from them. Ask them questions.” He also used to tell me, “If you don't succeed, it's no one else's fault by yourself. Don't blame where you came from, where you grew up from, the situation. It is only your fault.” So my dad always had told me these little lessons and obviously the last lesson he gave me the night before he passed: Always take care of your family. And that just stayed with me, that kind of continued to shape me all throughout my life, all through my journey, at a young age to teenager to young adult to the military and to now, to this day, that really guided me to who I am. Now, it's like, I always hear people say, “Oh, man, I don't know if I can do it.” I was like, “Yeah, you can. You Just never know. You weren't ever put in that situation” I always believe — you always hear the fight or flight. “What are you gonna do?” I just fight, and I continue to fight. I just don't see the flight in me. And, you know, being the promise of take care of your family. Yes, I tell people, that originated with my family — my brothers and sisters. But throughout time it has evolved to now anyone I see that's having a hard time that needs maybe to hear a story or read a book or hear a journey to help them find that spark, because I see them now as my family. I see that as my family, as my mission now.   Ted Robertson 18:50 Let's stay with spark for a minute. It's just one of my favorite things that you've ever talked about. You're down, you've been badly burned, you're worried about whether you're going to survive, and a medic is helping you out, and he does something for you. He says something to you.   Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 19:07 Yeah, you know, the medic — I always like to say, you know, yes, I'm Air Force. Those guys were Army, and we bust each other's chops. But, we're all brothers and sisters, and we're down range, you know? We take care of each other, we tell stories, we talk about our family. So these guys knew what had happened in my past with my family. So when I'm, you know, laying there, after I coordinate getting air, and I started the adrenaline going down, I started getting scared. I was having a hard time breathing, and I just wanted to lay down and sleep. The medic came and reminded me, “DT, remember what you promised your son, that you'll never let him grow without his dad. Fight for your son. You got to fight for your son.” And he's just making me yell it. You use anything you can to keep your guy motivated, to help that spark go, keep going. And that's what he did. He found that spark to keep me going, to keep me fighting until that medevac came and to get me on that helicopter, to the FOB, to the hospital, and then to eventually San Antonio. Ted Robertson 20:24 After that injury, that's when the fight shifted. You had to get off the battlefield. You had to get that out of your head. You had to start battling for your recovery. So what did courage look like when progress seemed like it was slow and at one point nothing was guaranteed? Israel Del Toro 20:46 Yeah, it, you know, when he had a shift from now being on the battlefield to now a different kind of battle and your recovery, your way of life — it's difficult because you have people telling you this is what your life's going to be. You know, being told that you're never going to walk again. You got to be in a hospital for another year and a half, respirator for the rest of your life and your military career is pretty much over. You know, I like to say there's two choices again: Who you're going to be? Are you going to take the easy path, which is, I'm going to sit in a chair, accept what they say, hate life, you know, curse the world. Are you going to take the hard path where I want to fight? I'm going to show you I can do this. I'm going to prove that I still have value, and I want to come out of this ahead and show not only my son but the rest of the world. You stay positive, you find that spark, you will come out ahead. Ted Robertson 21:48 All right, last question on your background, because we're going to roll all this into why you're here and what messages you want to share with the cadets and the attendees that are here. You did something I don't think most human beings would even think about after that ordeal that you had been through all those years, everything. You reenlisted, and it wasn't just a medical milestone. It wasn't because you could, it was a conscious decision. So what internal commitment had to come first for you to make that decision. Israel Del Toro 22:22 You know, I guess it was, for me it was I loved my job. I knew I could teach, I could be prepare these next guys to [be] the next generation operators. Ted Robertson 22:38 You've never stopped being committed. You've never stopped. So it brings you to NCLS. This is the 33rd year for NCLS, and when you speak to cadets here, what message do you want them to take away with them? Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 22:53 I guess my message more is about that when you're in the military, no matter whatever happens to you, you still have a role to play. Even when I got hurt, did I miss being with my teammates? Yes, but now refocusing, OK, I'm here in this hospital, and I see all these wounded guys here as I guess I'm wounded also, but in my head is like I was still NCO in the Air Force. I still have a job to do. Yes, I'm hurt, I'm wounded, but the job of a leader is, no matter where you're at, is you try and take care of your troops. You try and make things better for them, even if you never see any of the benefits — that is your role. And so that's kind of what I want to leave with these guys that, you know, you're going to always have  challenges throughout your career, but you've always got to remember it's not about you, it's about the guys under you to take care of you. You know, I had a group of cadets yesterday and they were just asking me about leadership. So you know what? The best way to be a great leader is to earn the respect of yourtroops. If you demand it, you're not a leader, but when you earned the respect and they'll die for you, that is the greatest feeling. You know, I gave an example of one of the best moments I had after my injury, is after I got hurt, they sent my replacement, and he comes in and obviously introduce him to the scout team, to the Army company, individuals in leadership, and then the SF team, and all these guys I'm supporting. And the guy comes in like, “Hey, I'm here to replace DT.” And all of them, “You can't replace DT.” And I told that was the best moment that that's the best moment of respect, because I had Army guys saying, “He's our guy.” And that's the thing I told them, it's like, when you get to that moment when your guys say, “Nah, he's our guy,” I was like, “He can't replace him.” That is where you've truly earned the respect of your troops.   Ted Robertson 25:21 Israel, the only word that I can pull out of myself right now for your journey to describe it as “remarkable,” and you continue to give of yourself, and that's a wonderful thing. Your opportunity for a couple of final thoughts here, before we close out.   Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 25:38 Final thoughts, man, putting me on the spot, aren't you. I guess my final thoughts would be, you can't do it on your own. I'm not here right now, because I did it my own. I did it. I'm never gonna say that I did. I had friends, I had family, I had my wife that were by my side all throughout my journey to medical individuals. And I had those dark times, and I'm going down that spot, that rabbit hole, they were there to pull me out of it. So I think it's like, you know, don't try and do it on your own. We all need help. You know, the goal is, don't be prideful. There's a reason pride is one of the seven deadly sins. But, you know, ask for help, ask for advice. It's not going to hurt you. If anything, it will make you stronger and better. That's parting thoughts for the individuals listening to this. Ted Robertson 26:53 Perfect. Israel “DT” Del Toro, what a privilege to sit with you again. Want to say thank you from all of us for your service and continuing to lead by the example, which is a very rich and broad and deep example. Your story reminds us, and should remind us, that courage doesn't end with just survival. It always continues in service to others. Israel, thank you for being here.   Senior Master Sgt. Israel Del Toro 27:18 Thanks, Ted. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me again.   Ted Robertson 27:21 Israel's story reminds us that crisis and moral injury don't always arrive on a schedule, and that leaders are often expected to navigate those moments without ever having been taught how. That's where our next conversation takes us: into the intentional work of preparing leaders before crisis arrives. Maj. Tara Holmes, welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you with us as part of the National Character and Leadership Symposium.   Maj. Tara Holmes  27:46 Thanks for having me; glad to be here.   Ted Robertson 27:48 You are currently deputy chief of staff here at Headquarters USAFA. You are formerly chief of cadet development for CCLD, the Center for Character and Leadership development. By way of background, you flew.   Maj. Tara Holmes  28:01 So I am a B-52 electronic warfare officer by trade, and then moved over into white jets. So instructed in the in the T-1 and I've kind of been in education and training for, I'd say, since about 2017.   Ted Robertson  28:19 You also hold a Doctorate in Business and Management, and you are an AETC master instructor. I will let you explain AETC.   Maj. Tara Holmes  28:27 Air Education Training Command, that's one of the that's our majcom that's responsible for education and training, and they have a pathway to become a master instructor. So I finished the qualifications for that while I was in white jets and working over at Squadron Officer School.   Ted Robertson  28:46 So let's talk about your work with Task Force Hope. We'll talk about what Task Force Hope is, but you are and have been a developer and facilitator of Task Force Hope, which is a crisis and moral injury leadership workshop.   Maj. Tara Holmes  29:01 Task Force Hope is about providing immediately useful tools to our workshop participants to prepare them to lead through crisis, whether that is no-kidding combat related, or whether that's crisis on the home front, going through stuff in life that's really hard. We work through a series of key concepts and exercises, through storytelling and participant engagement that hopefully provides our participants some self-awareness and some tools to recover as it deals with their relationships.   Ted Robertson  29:39 We talked about this. There's a lot of nuance in what you're teaching these people. There's discernment in it. Who should you talk to, who you should trust with information that you want to share? Because ultimately, some of this becomes a pressure release valve, right?   Maj. Tara Holmes  29:52 Yeah, so one of the key concepts that we talk about is worthiness, right? I think often people feel pressure to not share what they're going through because they don't think their problems are worthy of attention, whether theirs or someone else's. That's one thing that we spend a lot of time on. And like you said, you know, who to who to share with, and at what level, some people are more free with sharing than others, and that's OK. So we work through some frameworks that help illustrate how people can kind of work through those levels, or gain some self-awareness and some clarity around where they fall. Something that is a, you know, deep seated secret for you, maybe something that somebody else is willing to openly share, they just don't see it as that big of a deal. So it's definitely about self-awareness and learning some tools to help relieve some of the pressure and drain on our batteries, as it were, that comes from holding these things in.   Ted Robertson  30:52 People who are attending the workshop are going to learn some things that they may not realize are draining their batteries. You're teaching them to discern what those are, and to be careful to try to avoid those. It sounds like an example to me of things that we don't realize we do, that drains us, right, instead of energizes us.   Maj. Tara Holmes  31:10 So we use the kind of metaphor of a smartphone, right? So there are things that drain us, that are big, that we're taking a lot of energy to conceal the hard things that we're dealing with in our life. But then there's, like, the pesky background apps, there's the things that are always running in the background of our lives that drain our energy without us really even noticing it. You know, so for me as an officer, but also as a mom and a spouse, some of the things that are always draining my batteries are my to-do list, the laundry app, maybe social media apps. Sometimes I've probably spend way too much time reading the news these days. That's kind of always on for me. We have these big things that are draining our batteries, but then we have these like small things that are constantly going on, right? So Task Force Hope is about recognizing what those things are for us and then making a commitment to ourselves to make this space and time to recover.   Ted Robertson  32:09 So that brings us to a really unique place. You kind of function at the intersection of character, leadership and development pretty much every day. So how do you define character when you're responsible for shaping it across an entire Cadet Wing.   Maj. Tara Holmes  32:24 To me, character is the essence of who they are. It is how you show up day after day. It's the habits that you have. That's why, when you do something out of character, people are able to say that. You know, we talk about building character strengths as building blocks towards certain virtues. And virtues is really excellence of character. So it's easy to talk about how to be an excellent athlete, or how to be an excellent academic, right? And that's one of our core values, is being excellent. Well, how do you have excellent character? It's really about leveraging your character strengths in a way that can lead you to be more virtuous, and that's the goal.   Ted Robertson  33:05 You've served, both operationally and as an instructor. Tell me how those things shape the way you think about preparing leaders not just to perform but to endure.   Maj. Tara Holmes  33:19 What comes to mind is the importance of training and building those habits. We're, you know, in the previous question, we talked about it in terms of character. You know, you can, you can use any kind of training. It's about building readiness, right? And being able to build those habits so that when you are faced with a challenge, you have a way to work through the challenge, right? That really came out for me, both operationally and as an instructor. So operationally, you rely on your training to get your job done, and then as an instructor, you're helping others build those habits so that one day when your students are faced with challenges, they can rely on their training as well.   Ted Robertson  34:01 We've talked a bit about your experiences and how they shape the way you think about preparing leaders, not just to perform but to endure. And now let's bring it right down to the direct connection between Task Force Hope and why you are here talking about this program to attendees at NCLS. When we talk about Task Force Hope, it's a program that is really designed to prepare leaders to navigate crisis and recover from both emotional and moral injury. What can you tell me about a gap that a workshop like this fills, that traditional leadership education sometimes or often misses?   Maj. Tara Holmes  34:38 Task Force Hope is preventative in nature. It's training to prevent people from letting their burdens get the best of them so that they can show up. They have the tools to show up fully charged when stuff hits the van. And not only that they do that for themselves, but then they can help their teammates or their subordinates also get there. It's self-awareness, because we all perform self-care differently, and what you need to recharge your batteries is different from the way that I would do it. So it's being intentional and having some tools to be able to identify what works for you and then how to make space in your life, and building that commitment to yourself, to make that space so that the next time that you face a crisis, you're not facing it at 10%, you're full up, you're ready to go. So it's that sustained self-care, if that's what you want to call it. And it's important to say that you know, in a 75-minute session, we're really doing our best to provide exposure to key concepts and these tools. What we hope is that people walk out with the start of something. It's not it's not the end of their work to be done.   Ted Robertson  35:54 How often do you hear the question, “Why didn't I hear this earlier in my career?”   Maj. Tara Holmes  36:00 Every workshop. Last year, after the workshop, we had a 1970-something graduate say that exact thing. For me personally, I had four people say something, you know, “Hey, I was a cadet here in '90-something, '80-something, 2000-something. And, you know, I really wish that I would have had this earlier.” So that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to bring it as early as we can.   Ted Robertson  36:26 OK, so our last question of our visit, if cadets take just one lesson from Task Force Hope and NCLs this year, what is your hope for that lesson to be?   Maj. Tara Holmes  36:39 My hope is that they're worth it. No problem is too big or too small to be dealt with, and like we talked about earlier, I think often people keep things to themselves because they feel like they shouldn't bother others, or there's their supervisors or their teammates with what's going on in their lives. And that's a drain. Like, that's a drain on the system. It eats up your energy, right? But our cadets are worth it. Whatever they're dealing with, big or small, is worthy of being addressed. I hope that's the takeaway, and that we all deal with things, right? We don't always know what other people are dealing with.   Ted Robertson  37:22 Maj. Holmes. Thank you for the work you're doing to prepare future leaders, not just to lead in moments of clarity, but to stand firm in moments of crisis. We appreciate you being here.   Maj. Tara Holmes  37:32 Thanks, Ted.   Ted Robertson  37:33 That focus on preservation, resilience and moral courage brings us to our next conversation, one shaped by combat, captivity and a life of service under the most demanding conditions. Coming up next, my conversation with Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Edward Mechenbier. Gen. Mechenbier, welcome to the podcast. It is a huge honor having you here, sir.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier 37:56 I hope you feel that way in a half hour so well,   Ted Robertson  37:59 Well, the conversation does promise to be interesting, because your life is… interesting. That was a pregnant pause, sir.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier 38:07 Yeah, I've enjoyed it. It's different.   Ted Robertson  38:11 Just to sort of frame things, you retired as a major general, and what year was that, sir,   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier 38:15 2004   Ted Robertson  38:16 And you were USAFA Class of '64. You're a Vietnam-era pilot, having flown F-4s, you were shot down on your 113th combat mission, but that was you also your 80th over North Vietnam. OK, prisoner of war. Then for almost those entire six years following that, being shot down. You come with 3,600 flying hours across lots of different aircraft.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  38:42 I was privileged fly either for primary capability or for familiarization with 43 different airplanes.   Ted Robertson  38:49 And now you describe yourself as a lifelong advocate for veterans and public service.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  38:56 Well, yeah, I mean, I go to a couple prisons in Ohio, and “work with” is probably overstating my role. Veterans who are incarcerated for long periods of time. But my role is just to go there, spend some time, shoot the breeze with them, no agenda, no desired learning objective and let them know that somebody outside knows that they're there.   Ted Robertson  39:19 What I want to do is spend some time in your background. All right, I want to start with combat and captivity and how that tests leadership in its most extreme forms. And this is in course in keeping with the theme of NCLS here, what did character mean to you when circumstances were entirely beyond your control?   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  39:38 The Vietnamese kept us in small groups of one and two or three guys. I mean, we never really until near the end and later on when we got a little organization. But it got very down, very personal, when at one time, I was in a cell with four guys, three Class of 1964 Air Force Academy graduates and one poor Oklahoma State University graduate, and amongst the four of us, we had a senior ranking officer. And of course, you got the same rank, you go alphabetical. And so we made Ron Bliss the senior ranking officer in our room. We had a communication system. We had guidelines that, you know, which were basically consistent with the code of conduct. You know, name, rank, serial number, date of birth, don't answer further questions. Keep faith with your fellow positions. That was the key. Keep faith. Never do anything that you'd be embarrassed to tell somebody you did.   Ted Robertson  40:34 What you're explaining is how different leadership looks, and even how you describe it, how different it is from command. So now it comes down to trust and accountability and courage, and how do those show up in those conditions?   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  40:51 It was really a matter of, we always knew we were still in the fight. That was one thing that was with us, and so you just kind of conducted yourself with, OK, I'm not going to let myself be used. Now, we also knew that the more you resisted pushed back, the less likely they were to make you go meet an antiwar delegation or write a confession or do something else like that. So they tend to pick on, if you will, the low-hanging fruit or the easier guy to get to. So we always wanted to set the bar just a little bit out of their reach.   Ted Robertson  41:25 All right, having gone through all of that, it really can change people quite profoundly. So when you look back at it, what leadership lessons stayed with you long after you got out of captivity?   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  41:39 In the movie Return of Honor. Capt. Mike McGrath, Navy guy, describes the guys in their ability to resist torture and do things. And that's what you learn. Everybody's got a breaking point. If mine's here and somebody else's is there, that doesn't make me better or worse than them. So you learn to appreciate the talents and the weaknesses. If you know the foibles, the cracks in everybody around you and not to exploit them, but to understand them, and then to be the kind of leader that that they need.   Ted Robertson  42:12 Sir, one of the recurring themes when you're discussing leadership with leaders right is knowing something about each of your people so that you can relate to them in a way that that works for them and motivates them.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  42:23 Yeah. Mark Welch, who's also a graduate and he is a chief of staff of the Air Force, always had a saying: “If you don't know what's going on, it's because you didn't ask.”   Ted Robertson  42:32 Now we're going to roll all that into your long journey between captivity and your visit here to NCLS this year. When you're speaking to the cadets at this year's event, what's your main hope? What do you hope they understand about courage before they even ever face combat?   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  42:54 Well, courage is a reaction to a clear and present threat. Nobody knows how they're gonna — know he's gonna say, OK, I'm gonna go to Vietnam and I want to get shot down, and when the Vietnamese capture me, I'm going to give them a middle finger and I'm going to be the meanest bad ass and hardest-to-break prisoner. Yeah, it's how you respond to the to the immediate perception of bodily harm or being used or something else like that. So courage is, yeah, it just happens. It's not something that you can put in a package and say, “OK, I've got courage.” It's how you respond to the situation, because you might respond quite differently than what you think.   Ted Robertson  43:35 And I have to say, you presented your story and you delivered your message in kind of a unique way. You drew from some contemporary references, specifically three clips from a movie that you like, that I was curious. How did you sum up your entire life in three movie clips from Madagascar? How did you do that?   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  43:57 Well, the three movie clips — when I watched the movie, I was looking at it, I have got two favorite movies. Madagascar is one, and the other is a Kelsey Grammer movie, Down Periscope. I mean, I think that is a perfect study in in leadership. But in the movie Madagascar, the premise was penguins can't fly, but yet it opens up with them applying resource, innovation imagination, and they eventually get this airplane to fly. OK, great. Success. Well, like everything else in life, things go wrong, and you got to have, No. 1, a backup plan, an exit ramp or a control mechanism for the disaster that's pending. So that's the second movie clip we saw. And then the third one was towards the end of the movie, when the crash landing has happened and the skipper asks for an accounting, and he's told that all passengers are accounted for, except two. And he says, that's the number I can live with. And the message there is, you go through life — you're going to have successes, but you're going to have failures, and failure has a cost, and it's not always pleasant, but that's OK, because that's life.   Ted Robertson  45:15 How do you explain how leaders can prepare themselves morally and mentally for moments they can't predict or control.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  45:25 Watch movies like Madagascar and Down Periscope. You know, there's a breadth of unintentional, if you will, guidance on how to be a leader, if you know where to look or if you're looking for it. I mean, that's part of the whole progress program at the Academy. Nobody's going to say, OK, here's a scenario, lead these resources to a proper conclusion. It's kind of like, OK, here's the situation. What do we do? What can we do? What can't we do? It's like, in my presentation, I talk about being able to run across a pasture in nine seconds, in 10 seconds, but if the bull can do it, you're in trouble. So you got to realign your thinking, you got to realign your goals and you got to realign the application of resources. So that's the leadership part, right there. It's a realization of what you can and what you can't do. It's a realization of what you, your people, your resources, can and can't do. It's a realization of what the technology you have at your disposal to do your mission can and can't do. So it's all about workarounds and being flexible. And then the other thing is, we live in a world that just seems to be everything's got a prescription and a protocol on exactly how to do everything. Doesn't work that way. You got to be able to go left and right. You got to be able to be a little imaginative.   Ted Robertson  46:42 What parting thought did you leave the cadets with?   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  46:45 That failure is part of life. It's not death. And I'm part of an organization called American 300 — we go around and talk to young enlisted people and all the services to get them to understand that failure is a learning opportunity. It's not a dagger in the heart, and don't be afraid or ashamed to try, because if you don't, you'll never know what your true potential is. So with the cadets, we close with that last part from the movie Madagascar that basically said, OK, success comes with a price. Be aware and accept it.   Ted Robertson  47:23 All right, we've got to close it out here, but recap, if you would one more time that message that you want cadets to leave here with from having heard you speak.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  47:32 You are now a living, breathing, viable, productive part of our United States Air Force. You bring talents that are unique. Apply them, but understand that they're all very transitory, and you have part of a larger community. If you stick with a community rather than the “I did,” “I want,” I have,” you'll go a long way.   Ted Robertson  47:54 All right, and stepping outside of that very briefly for your final thoughts, what would you like to leave listeners with today.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  48:01 Be proud of the young men and women who are in our military now, not just those at the Air Force Academy. You know, our whole military structure has changed over the years. You know, it's a dynamic world. You got to be flexible and embrace change. We're so reluctant to change. Change is fine, except when you try to change me, is the old saying, but we all have to change. We have to be part of the world in which we live.     Ted Robertson  48:26 Gen. Mechenbier, I want to thank you from all of us for being here sharing those leadership lessons of yours and a lifetime of service that will continue to shape others — future leaders — for a very, very long time to come. We appreciate you very much.   Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier  48:43 Thank you much.   Ted Robertson  48:44 Our final conversation brings us to leadership at the strategic level, where decisions affect institutions, alliances and the nation itself. Capt. Charles Plumb, welcome to the podcast today, sir.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  48:56 Thanks, Ted. Appreciate being here.   Ted Robertson  48:59 It is a privilege to have you. You retired as a Navy captain in 1991 and you have not slowed down, not one inch since. We're going to talk a little bit about the work that you're doing in some very interesting spaces. And what informs all of that. Naval Academy, Class of '64.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  49:15 Yep, the Great Class of '64.     Ted Robertson  49:17 The great —that's how you express class pride?   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  49:20 Everybody knows the Great Class of '64.   Ted Robertson  49:23 So you are an Annapolis man.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  49:25 I am, in fact.   Ted Robertson  49:26 No doubt. And a pilot. You flew F-4 Phantoms, and you are a Vietnam-era pilot. You spent most of your time over North Vietnam. Sometimes you got sent to South Vietnam, depending on what was going on. But you said that you have flown 74 combat missions.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  49:45 Actually 74 and a half, Ted. I have one more takeoff and I have landings.   Ted Robertson  49:50 We should remember that, because it's a very important part of your life we haven't talked about yet. Since you got out of captivity, and then you retired a few years later, you became a published author and a speaker, and as such, you have been to every state, several countries, 5,000 presentations you've delivered in the leadership and character development space. Is there any reason you should not be here at NCLS?   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  50:24 Well, I appreciate that. You know, this is a great symposium, and I'm really proud to contribute to it.   Ted Robertson  50:32 Captain, you are a former POW.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  50:36 Yes, I was shot down on my 75th mission and captured, tortured and spent the next 2,103 days in communist prison camps.   Ted Robertson  50:49 You said you got moved around a lot.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  50:52 We did. I was in six different camps, and some of those camps more than once. We never really understood why. We kind of suspected that they wanted to try to deny any fraternization with their guards, and they wanted to keep us on our toes, because they recognized that being military guys, we were going to have leadership, and we were going to have organization and community and we were going to organize, to fight them, and they didn't want that. So they moved us around and kind of shuffled us up, which didn't work. We always had a military organization in every camp that I ever went to.   Ted Robertson  51:31 You found ways to support each other. You found ways to have a leadership structure, even in captivity.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  51:39 We were all fighter pilots or air crews and most of us were we, you know, we had 10 Air Force Academy grads from '64 in five Naval Academy grads from '64 and so we had in a lot of other academy grads. I don't remember how many, but probably 70 total academy grads. And so, you know, we were, we were dedicated. We were lifers. We were, you know, we were very focused guys, which helped out a lot that we knew a lot about military leadership.   Ted Robertson  52:11 You grew up in the Midwest, and you married a Midwestern girl.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  52:15 I did, my high school sweetheart the day after I graduated from Annapolis, we got married in the chapel, and my buddies were holding up their swords as we came out of the chapel. So it was a beautiful day.   Ted Robertson  52:27 Let's go back to how you found your way to the Naval Academy.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  52:32 I was a farm kid from Kansas. Never seen the ocean, never been out of the four states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri. Never been in an airplane, and I needed an education. Found that the Naval Academy offered me an education.   Ted Robertson  52:50 Outside of Air Force Academy circles, you probably already know that we think of, you know, salty sea dog sailors when we think of people going in the Navy, but you chose aviation.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  53:02 I did. As a kid, I would see these Piper Cubs fly over and I was fascinated by flight, and wondered if I'd ever be able to ride in an airplane. That was my thought when I was a kid. I didn't have any hopes of ever being a pilot, you know, let alone a fighter pilot. That was, I was out of the realm. Nobody, as I grew up, ever told me that I could do that, or I should do that, or, you know, it would be a hope of mine to ever pilot an airplane. But I went to the Naval Academy and found out that was one of the options, and I took advantage of that option.   Ted Robertson  53:43 Yeah, and it led you, of course, to over North Vietnam, and the rest is that part of your history   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  53:51 Launched on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk on my wife's birthday, the 5th of November, wave goodbye to her, and promised her I'd be back in eight months. I didn't make it.   Ted Robertson  54:04 Hard. Very hard story to hear. Let's talk about all of that informing your presentation now, again, 5,000 of these delivered in the leadership and character development space, but you talk a lot about, in your presentation — and you keynoted here at NCLS — the mental game side of this, the integrity, the choices that you have to make, and character that sort of frames all of that.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  54:38 My message to the cadets, and really to most of my audiences, is around challenge and adversity. And I tell the cadets that they work awfully hard trying to get a degree. They study, they go to computers, they read books all to get a degree. And what I point out to them is that more important than the degree that they will get from the Air Force Academy is a character that they build while they are here. That the integrity first, you know, is part of their motto. And if, in fact, they can learn and live that integrity, if they can learn and live the commitment that they have, if they can learn in and live these kind of ethereal things, the things that you can't measure, things you can't define, the things that, you know, that crop up in your in your mind, in the back of your mind, are more important than the lessons they learn from a computer. And so that's kind of my message.   Ted Robertson  55:49 You know, we're in a leadership laboratory here. The art and the science is character development. And you're talking about a kind of character that leads people to make good decisions and make those decisions with integrity in mind. How did that play into your captivity and getting you through that?   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  56:09 You know, of course, I studied leadership at the Naval Academy, and I think that my period of experience more than teaching me anything, it validated what I had learned. And the whole idea — and I love the fact that this is called, you know, the Character and Leadership Symposium, because lots of times you see leadership without character, that's a negative kind of leadership. And if a leader does not have character, he doesn't last very long, and he's not very effective. And so if you can keep your character up front, the leadership can follow easily. And that's pretty much what we had in the prison camps. Several of the qualities of leadership that I promote are the things that almost came natural in a prison camp. First of all, we had to find a focus, a reason. We had to find, you know — and that was developed by our leadership in the prison camp. Return with honor — that was our motto, return with honor. And we all rallied around that.   Ted Robertson  57:22 So all of that said, you're standing here in front of a really big group of people as a keynote speaker, lot of cadets, mostly cadets, yeah.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  57:31 Now there were cadets. I'm speaking on a panel with Ed Mechenbier, my good buddy, and we're on a panel with mostly cadets. The first presentation, the keynote was by invitation only. So there were a number of civilians in the audience, number of cadets. There were Naval Academy midshipmen in my audience today. And we had ROTC people, and, you know, from all over the country. So it was quite a wide audience.   Ted Robertson  58:04 Quite a wide audience. And so if we were just focusing on what you leave with cadets, what do you want them to take away from their experience today?   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  58:15 I hope they understand my message, that more important than the degree that they graduate with, is the character that they graduate with, and the importance of the integrity that that they learned here, because that was vital in the prison camp, is integrity. We had to have each other's back, and when we when we finally were released, we refused to be released until all the sick, injured and enlisted men had gone home, and it was a question of integrity, is a question that this is the right thing to do. It's not the easy thing to do. Largely, the integrity thing to do is not the easiest thing to do, and that's what I wanted to leave with the cadets. In addition, I want them to know that regardless of what situation they're in, they still have a choice, and their choice is the way they respond to the surrounding adversity situation that they're in.   Ted Robertson  59:21 An Annapolis grad of '64, Midwest kid from Kansas who makes it into the cockpit, and like you said, 74 and a half flights, then some time in captivity, then to a published author with thousands of presentations all over the country, and some in in other countries. What final thoughts would you like to leave today, sir?   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  59:47 Well, you know, I think I've already told you, you know, you're a great interviewer, Ted, and I appreciate your questions. I think, finally, this whole idea of self-determination and I think that we all, and not just the cadets, but graduates and families and business people, families. You know that we all have choices, and sometimes when we deny the choice and give up that ability to make our life better for ourselves. And you know, we do it sometimes even when we're not even thinking about it. It's just automatic to blame somebody else for the problem, and in doing so, we give away that choice.   Ted Robertson  1:00:34 Don't give away the choice. Yeah, build that character and stick by your integrity all the time. Capt. J. Charles Plumb, what a privilege it is to meet you, sir. Glad that you're here at NCLs and keynoting like you are, and I do hope that our paths cross again.   Capt. J. Charles Plumb  1:00:52 Ted, thank you very much. I appreciate your willingness to tell my story. Thanks for that.   Ted Robertson  1:00:57 You're welcome, sir. Thank you. Ted Robertson Close As we've heard throughout these conversations, courage isn't a single moment. It's a lifelong practice, from cadets just beginning their journey to leaders shaped by combat and crisis to senior commanders responsible for forces and futures. Character is tested when certainty disappears and it's revealed by how we choose to lead. That's the challenge of the National Character and Leadership Symposium, and it's a challenge that extends far beyond these walls. I'm Ted Robertson, thank you for joining me for our Long Blue Line Podcast Network coverage of the 33rd National Character and Leadership Symposium. This podcast was recorded on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.         The Long Blue Line Podcast Network is presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association & Foundation      

Congratulations goes to Indigo Ag and its biotrinsic Nemora FP being named The Scoop’s new product of the year. PJ Smith, Senior Global Product Manager at Indigo Ag, gives insights on how biologicals have grown as a category and as a brand how “when people hear Nemora, they immediately think, no more nematodes.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether we realize it or not, there is a spirit world that exists beyond what we can see. In today's message, Pastor Jeff Ables discusses realities that exists behind the "seens" and how God is always working on our behalf.Prayed to accept Jesus? Congratulations! Text SAVED to 337-222-3210 or click here https://bit.ly/CC_saved New to Crossroads Church? Learn all about us at https://mycrossroads.org 

Trusting God with the UnknownScripture: Proverbs 3:5–6 — “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”If you don't already know it let me tell you, fear thrives in uncertainty. It asks questions without answers. It imagines outcomes you can't control. And it fills the gaps with worst-case scenarios.Accept Jesus Today: https://youtube.com/shorts/bIwAUlz7Kg4?si=BNOhv44iLWIR4eVJIf you would like to accept Jesus into your heart today, pray this simple prayer:****God, I have sinned against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, who died and rose for my sake. I ask you to forgive me for my sin. I place my trust in You for salvation. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, I am forgiven! Amen!"****Congratulations! You are now a child of the most high. John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. If you just prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, I welcome you to the family of God. Subscribe to my channel and type in the comments right now, “I just prayed that prayer.” I would love to connect with you and chat with you about all the amazing things God is doing in your life.Click here for FREE eBook Download: https://tinyurl.com/ISAIDTHEPRAYERShow your love, support the channel:*PayPal: PayPal.me/malachimitchellministry*Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MalachiMitchNote Journals and Puzzles: https://tinyurl.com/WalkinFaithPublishingAuthored Books: https://tinyurl.com/BooksofMalachiJoin Our Support Club: https://tinyurl.com/Support-ClubInvesting Opportunity: https://coinholders.hnocoin.com/signup/?refer=Malachi2uFREE Ways to Support Me:

Today's daily comedy episode proves two things: kids are expensive, and karaoke should absolutely require a permit.We kick things off with an email that had the entire studio arguing like a courtroom drama sponsored by Fisher-Price. A military family's kid chucks a Lego at a friend's 75-inch QLED TV (because of course it was a 75-inch QLED), leaving a tiny but permanent “oops” mark. They do the right thing and offer to replace it — $1,200 later — only to find out the “damaged” TV is getting relocated to the daughter's room. Wait… what? Is that justice? Is that capitalism? Is that just the cost of letting children exist in your home? Rizz, Moon, and King Scott debate responsibility, friendship, and whether the real solution is simply moving to a new town and changing your identity.Then we dive into the wildest dating trend we've heard in a while: “Alpine Divorce.” It sounds like a seasonal IPA. It is not. It's apparently when someone strands their partner in the wilderness as punishment. Romantic! Nothing says “I love you” like abandoning someone mid-hike because they forgot a water bottle. We unpack the psychology behind it and question how this is even a thing. Ghosting? Bad. Ghost-lighting? Worse. Alpine Divorce? Congratulations, you're on a watch list.And then — because we care about the people — we establish the official list of karaoke songs that should be considered arrestable offenses. Whitney Houston? Jail. Bohemian Rhapsody? Straight to court. “My Heart Will Go On”? Emotional felony. The crew breaks down the crimes, the charges, and the sentencing guidelines for murdering everyone's ears at your local bar. It's the kind of public service announcement only a true daily comedy show would dare to provide.Between parenting disasters, dating red flags, and musical war crimes, this episode has everything you expect from your favorite St. Louis daily comedy chaos factory.You've been warned. Bring snacks. And maybe don't bring your kids anywhere.Follow The Rizzuto Show → linktr.ee/rizzshow for more from your favorite daily comedy show.Connect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → 1057thepoint.com/RizzShow.Hear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.She sang her national anthem during karaoke. Now she's under arrest‘Alpine Divorce' Explained: Meaning and Why People Are Talking About ItThere's a toxic new dating trend called 'ghostlighting.' It's even worse than ghosting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Mike McGarity sits down with Tyler and Jimmy this week to talk about the 2,200 miles of trails that were taken from the off-road community in Mojave, CA. The bigger issue is not that we are losing the trails its how it all happened. The simple explanation is that a Federal Judge said yes, close the trails without talking to anyone else. He didn’t follow the order of operations to make these closers. CORVA:Website: https://corva.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.o.r.v.a/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CORVAca/ OnX Mapping Software: https://www.onxmaps.com/ Tread Lightly: https://treadlightly.org/Keep Our Deserts Clean: https://www.instagram.com/keepourdesertclean/Sons of Smoky: https://www.sonsofsmokey.com/ MORRFlate Giveaway at 900 Reviews on Apple Podcast. But our next giveaway is when we reach 800 reviews; we are giving away an OnX Elite Membership. We will also give away an OnX Elite membership when we get to 850. However, when we reach 900 Reviews, we are teaming up with MORRFlate for a $1000 MF Product Giveaway. Go over to Apple Podcasts to leave your review now and become eligible to win. Congratulations to A13XMONT, who won a set of tires from Yokohama Tire! Call us and leave us a VOICEMAIL!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. 4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple, and after answering the questionnaire, we ensured we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground. SnailTrail4x4 Podcast is brought to you by all of our peeps over at irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)! SnailSquad Monthly Giveaway February’s Giveaway is with our good buddies over at GlueTread. They gave us an Expedition Kit Tire Repair Kit. This kit has everything you could possibly need to repair your tire while you’re in the outdoors. It comes with a plug kit, colby valves razer blade, sand paper, and of course, the famous adhesive and patches that GlueTread is known for! Sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4 Congratulations to long-time supporter Evan Cook for winning the Gearwrench giveaway. We got some more goodies to give away to a lucky winner. If you want a chance to win this amazing giveaway, all you need to do is sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4. Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% offIronman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% offBackpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate LinkLaminx Protective Films – Use the Link to get 20% off all products (Affiliate Link) Show Music: Outroll Music – Meizong Kumbang Midroll Music – ComaStudio

Keith breaks down where the U.S. housing market appears to be headed and which regions and states are quietly winning or losing in the population shuffle since 2020—and what that could mean for real estate investors.  You'll also hear about an intriguing cash-flow play in single-family rentals in select Southern markets. Then, Keith is joined by financial strategist and comedian Garrett Gunderson, who challenges the usual "scrimp and save" advice. Together, they explore how to build real wealth without sacrificing your life today, how high-net-worth individuals often get money wrong, and a different way to think about financial independence, freedom, and investing in yourself. Resources: Get Garrett Gunderson's Killing Sacred Cows audiobook free: DM @GarrettBGunderson on Instagram with the words "Keith Cows." Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/595 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Keith, welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, is the future direction of the housing market trending up or trending down? Which states have seen the most population growth? Then powerful wealth mindset tactics with a financial comedian today on get rich education   Speaker 1  0:20   since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads and 188 world nations. He has a list show guests and keep top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast or visit get rich education.com   Keith Weinhold  1:04   the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President chailey Ridge personally. While it's on your mind, start at Ridge lending group.com that's Ridge lending group.com   Speaker 2  1:38   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  1:54   Welcome to GRE from Mount Rainier to Mount Rushmore and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and this is get rich education. I am not a Lambo driving influencer that will take any brand deal just to shill a gambling platform instead. Our core strategy at GRE is aging. Well, I've spoken with a lot of LP investors with capital calls and deals that lost all their money. Well, we approach wealth building with discipline and consistency. It doesn't sound dazzling, but it really shines when things go wrong elsewhere, because at least for the core of our portfolios, we get long term fixed rate debt for income property get paid five ways and win the inflation triple crown, and we do it all with a high degree of passivity. Right before I took the mic today, I got a two sentence email from a property manager that said an air conditioning unit's air handler board had to be replaced for $420 I don't even know what an air handler board really is. Now, the manager sent some photos in a written estimate. I quickly checked chat GPT, and I saw that the price was about right, and replied to my manager to go ahead and have that done. That's it an example of relative passivity. US residential real estate has nominally appreciated over every single 10 year period in modern history, despite some occasional short term downturns, even those are not common. Well, we recently had a guest mention that it's 20 years at the longest like 20 years or less is the period of time between which real estate never goes down. He was right. But you actually can't find any 10 year period where home values fell. What about the 2008 global financial crisis, I think that's the first place that the mind goes. Well back then, home values bottomed out at 208k in 2009 before they started growing again. And 10 years before that, the median price it was 157k in 1999 so even when home values hit their GFC low at that point, they were still up 32% from the previous 10 years. So you can confidently say then that over any 10 year period, home prices are up nationally. Now, how about the future? Well, for the future, there is more evidence of rising home prices. Building permits for new homes have fallen to their lowest level since 2019 that's according to the census bureau. So fewer single family homes are being built. Now we plan to discuss that more on. Next week show when we dive deep on does America really have a housing shortage? But this week, more reasons for future home price bullishness is that the labor market now, it's not doing that great. It sure isn't white hot, but unemployment, which was already low, that recently dropped a touch lower to just 4.3% inflation has fallen to 2.4% and wages are rising faster than that. In fact, our own Fed Chair recently remarked at how he's surprised at the strength of the economy. The property market analytics firm kotality, they now expect home prices to appreciate another four and a half percent this year. They and other firms continue to believe that the Midwest will be the hottest area of home price growth even more than that four and a half percent in that region. That is because not only is the Midwest underbuilt, it's that the prices are so affordable that it's attracting young people. The other factor is that mortgage rates recently dipped just below six into the high fives again, and that can release this pent up housing demand, and think about where we've come from. In late 2023 mortgage rates were about 8% and now lower mortgage rates also reduce the lock in effect, so it can create both more sellers and more buyers. The thing to remember is that 70% to 80% of home sellers are also home buyers because they've got to live somewhere. And first time homebuyers, of course, they buy only, they don't sell anything. In fact, former GRE guest in housing wire lead analyst Logan modeshami and Barry Habib were just positing on this at housing wire's latest summit on how the volume of home sales has been depressed for so long that lower rates could very well trigger a rush of buyers, these kind of people that have been delaying purchasing for years, this pent up housing demand being released if indeed rates go lower. People think they know the future, but we don't really know that that's going to happen for sure. But a lot of optimism about this phase of the housing market supported by not great, but decent economic conditions. Of course, that new housing demand is going to manifest unevenly across the nation. So let's talk about the places that have seen the most population growth from 2020 to today, basically the states that support that housing demand. Well, between 2020 and today, the US has grown by about 10 million people. That's over 3% nearly every state grew. But the bigger story is where that growth is happening. And really, here's the jaw dropper as a region, the South, gained more people than all of the other regions combined, about 7.6 million new residents in the south since 2020 the South's population is up 6% the West's almost 2% the Midwest population is up more than 1% and The Northeast up seven tenths of 1% again, this is not per year. This is total population growth from 2020 to today, Florida and Texas, they led the nation among the big states, both up almost 9% sprinting like they just found out that income tax is optional. The Carolinas in Tennessee are big southern growers too. People clearly keep moving toward warmer weather, a lower cost of living, lower taxes and job markets. Nothing new there. California in New York are the biggest losers in absolute numbers, California losing half of 1% of population in New York, a full 1% people keep moving away from these traditionally expensive, high tax coastal states like a buffet when the crab legs run out, people just getting up and leaving. That's not any sort of news story there, either. These trends help cash flow residential real estate investors like us, because the south aligns with that favorable landlord tenant law and those high ratios of rent income to purchase price. Luckily for us, that's where people are moving too. The Midwest has those phenomena as well, although their growth has been slower.    Keith Weinhold  9:39   Now a few Midwest highlights for you. Since 2020 the population of Indiana is up 2.8% quietly benefiting from Illinois. Escape Velocity, Missouri up almost 2% and that's growing mostly in Kansas City and St Louis suburbs. Ohio at almost 1% that's pretty modest growth overall, but Columbus up 5% that is flexing like it just landed a semiconductor plant there in Columbus, the intermountain west has bicep bulging growth, but it rarely works for us, because rents are only a little higher, but property prices are way higher. Yes, those pretty Rocky Mountain states, great Instagram, tough cash flow now Louisiana, it is a state that confounds people. It's a warm place, and it has a low cost of living, you would think Louisiana would be attracting people in droves for those reasons. Well, then why is its population following Louisiana down nine tenths of 1% since 2020 Well, you've got bleak job prospects that make Louisianans leave its tax competitiveness ranks 31st property insurance costs are high thanks to environmental risk. Louisiana has more swamps than beaches. Even the NFL saints were six and 11, and if they had made the playoffs, that wouldn't have made people move back. And hey, no personal shade here, I enjoy going to the New Orleans investment conference in Cajun culture, in Airboat Tours through the alligator filled Bayou, fun stuff, but for income producing property, you got to seek out different characteristics than just vacation Glee or how Good the gumbo tastes keep emotion separate from investing, Hawaii is America's biggest percentage loser. Its population is down one and a half percent since 2020 its cost of living is stratospherically high, with a median home value of just a little over a million dollars. That results in net outmigration to the mainland parts of the Aloha state now experience natural decrease. That means that deaths exceed births. Natural decrease. That's mostly a phenomenon on the Big Island. That's not where Honolulu is. That's where you have Kona and Hilo when young people can't afford to stay demographic gravity kicks in population loss. Hawaii is also highly dependent on tourism, meaning more volatility in recessions. It has contractor availability issues and higher repair costs, partly due to shipping materials to the remote islands. What about the upsides of Hawaiian real estate? Well, you're just going to have this inherent, strong, long term land scarcity and lifestyle desirability overall. Hawaii isn't bad. It's just hard. And I like Hawaii as a place to vacation, so the best times in my life were in Hawaii. Now, with all this said, These are broad generalities about states which are big places themselves right now. There are certainly Missouri real estate investors listening to me that are actually losing, and Hawaii real estate investors that are winning, and even cash flow positive. I'm talking general trends here, and this is with respect to long term rentals, not short term rentals. If your rent to price ratio is as low as point three or point four, like it often is near the coasts, well then you are speculating on appreciation. That's what that means. All 50 states have opportunity. All 50 states have no go zones. People keep moving south. That's a trend that the pandemic accelerated six years ago. More opportunity is concentrated there. That's got nothing to do with vacation excitement. That is population math, and I'm talking about swimming with the tide here in our Don't quit your Daydream newsletter I recently sent you that colorful population change map that I was describing some of there. More recently, I also emailed you that great and rare map of landlord friendly versus tenant friendly states mapped out and a lot of other great stuff.    Keith Weinhold  14:17   Before we bring in our firebrand guest, Garrett Gunderson, I just learned about a really strong opportunity for a provider of single family rentals and duplexes in Memphis and Little Rock. They're providing a locked in 5% interest rate and 5% property management for five years. Yeah, that's not a throwback to 2020 it's what mid south homebuyers calls their triple five program. They are the oldest and most trusted, maybe turnkey investment provider in the country, operating since 2002 and what they do is they offer these fully renovated, occupied rental properties in Memphis and Little Rock, two of the strongest cash flow markets in the South. With financing and management and rates that make the math work like it hasn't in years. So again, 5% interest, 5% property management fees for a full five years. You know those markets, they already had these investor advantage numbers with rent to price ratios mere point eight in Memphis and Little Rock. But yeah, that low 5% mortgage rate, even for renovated properties, not just new build. That's the kind of spread that turns a good deal into a great one. So to give you an idea, if you get a 30 year fixed rate mortgage loan amount of 125k with a 7% mortgage rate, your principal and interest payment is 832, at a 5% rate, it's just 671, so that's $160 more cash flow right there, and it's made a tad sweetener than that with just a 5% Property Management rate. And I don't know how long that offer is going to last, but it is available now and for the next little while, you can ask about it. When you visit mid southhomebuyers.com that's mid southhomebuyers.com and you can ask them about their triple five program. More next. I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to Episode 595, of get rich education.    Keith Weinhold  16:19   Flock homes helps you retire from real estate and landlording, whether it's one problem property or your whole portfolio, through a 721 exchange, deferring your capital gains tax and depreciation recapture, it's a strategy long used by the ultra wealthy. Now Mom and Pop landlords can 721, the residential real estate request your initial valuation, see if your properties qualify@flockhomes.com slash GRE, that's F, l, O, C, K, homes.com/gre. You know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year, I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program. Why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There's real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program when you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom family investments.com/gre, or send a text. Now it's 1-937-795-8989 Yep. Text their freedom coach directly. Again, 1-937-795-8989,   Dani-Lynn Robison  18:08   this is freedom family investments. Co founder, Danny Lynn Robinson, listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your Daydream. You Brenda.   Keith Weinhold  18:24   Today's guest is someone that America knows as the long haired, bearded money guy in the past, he's drawn physical appearance comparisons to Jesus Christ. He's a prominent financial strategist. Founded an eight figure company, hit the Inc 500 he's both a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. He is just an electric speaker, including appearances in front of dozens of billionaires. And he's just got this great way of speaking to financial freedom that hits you differently. He even has a comedy special that's great to welcome back to the show. Garrett Gunderson,   Garrett Gunderson  19:02   that's good to be back. Man. Is really good. Love your energy. Has a nice intro.   Keith Weinhold  19:07   Well, you give a lot of like, nice guidance to people that's somewhat different than they're used to hearing. You know, Garrett, I think a lot of the conventional guidance is, you know, it's not very far above Elementary School advice like, put your credit card in the freezer so you don't use it too often, but a lot of times you speak to either business owners or people that have already had some success, and I think a lot of your underlying mantra is, hey, you better live your best life now   Garrett Gunderson  19:35   I kind of feel like you are your greatest asset, and if you starve out that asset because you don't feed it with knowledge, or you don't invest in yourself, or you don't gain the skills that really matter because you're so addicted to scrimping and sacrificing and building your balance sheet right, trying to build savings accounts and retirement plans and doing all you can to pay off that mortgage. Yeah, you could become a millionaire on paper. But will you live like one? Will you enjoy your. Life. What about all the memories that you miss along the way? What about having quality of life today and creating a life you don't want to retire from? The wealthy people, they didn't get that way because they shrunk their way there. They didn't get that way because they were amazing budgeters. They built businesses. They created value. They learned how to, you know, sell or speak or market or have business acumen that grow business or to hire people, and having those systems that actually impact more people or more deeply impact the people that they serve, because it's about value creation and their value creators. And I think this notion of just thinking, Oh, I could just trade time for money and set money aside. Man, that's a really painful way to get to a million dollars, but Northwestern Mutual, they just put out an article that said, 32 or 34% of millionaires don't feel wealthy, because if you have money tied up in an account that isn't kicking off cash flow, it doesn't feel like wealth. You can't spend that net worth. It's just a statement if you don't learn how to create cash flow. And I love financial independence, where people have cash flow from assets to cover their expenses now their lifestyle is covered from that cash flow. Now they can reinvest every active dollar into themselves and their quality of life, into more cash flowing assets, into taking trips along the way, not just waiting until they're too old to enjoy it.   Keith Weinhold  21:13   You work with business owners all the time, and you've even worked with some ultra high net worth people that still seemed to scrimp and save. Do you think really, what is that the function of? Is it more of the wrong mindset or the wrong tactics when someone acts that way?   Garrett Gunderson  21:32   It's a mindset that's really kind of handed down to them? Yeah, maybe from their parents or grandparents or from a different era, like there's people that were, you know, in the Great Depression, that then tells stories to their family about how tough it was, and you never know when that money could go away. So you got to hold tight, and it's a scarcity mindset. So one of the wealthiest clients I ever had, I mean, this was a guy who he was worth a lot of money, but you would never know it. I saw him on TV one day. I was like, Dude, he needs new clothes, and we found a strategy to save him a bunch of money. He was just buying his inventory with cash or like, let's buy it on a plum card, and you'll get cash back. I just said, Just take 10% of that cash back, which was over $100,000 a month, and spend it on yourself. He's like, Well, I wouldn't know to spend it on I'm like, Well, how about some new clothes to start with? He's like, Okay. And then the next month, he bought a nest system for his house. The next month he bought a sound system. Eventually, saved up enough money to buy a Tesla, which he really wanted, like it was money that was there for him, but it changed his entire paradigm, because now he had a quality of life. He was very philanthropic and donated money. He built massive businesses, but he never treated himself well. He'd never felt like it was okay to spend that money because of his upbringing, because the way that his parents viewed money and the way that their parents viewed money, and it was always something that felt scarce. So it felt like, okay, will this go away? And the reality was, we just found money in your couch cushions, essentially. So why not enjoy it along the way? He eventually bought a home that he loved on the water, that he loves the garden. I mean, it was like a total transformation with that one simple thing to help him heal his relationship with money, overcome scarcity, because he was already highly productive. He just had to break free from this budgetary mindset.   Keith Weinhold  23:09   That's great. It was almost like, Dude, I can see it in you. Before we even talk. You got that code off the rack at Burlington. I swear you can do better than this. Come on, now   Garrett Gunderson  23:17    30 years ago, 30 years ago too. You know, it doesn't even fit anymore.   Keith Weinhold  23:23   Well, you know, I recently dedicated a complete episode Garrett to the way I put it is that the risk of delayed gratification is denied gratification. Now, there are some good things to be said for delayed gratification, I think, especially when you're younger, or you're just starting out in the working world, and you just tried to cover rent for your apartment and you don't have much else. Delaying some gratification is good. You need to form capital. You need to get liquid. I try to avoid saying stacking savings, because that gets people in the mindset of becoming super savers sometimes, and they miss out on returns. But what I mean about the risk of delayed gratification, being denied gratification, if it's taken too great of an extent, is, you know, I'm talking about the guy where, when he was 24 he used to say, Oh, I'm going to visit the Galapagos Islands someday. That's what I want to do. But you can just tell by the time you talk to the dude, when he's 48 he begins to use the past tense for things he wanted to do, for example, then he might start saying, Oh, well, I guess I never did visit the Galapagos Islands. You know, you can tell with people when they use the past tense, and that's when you know that their future is not bigger than their past, and a lot of that is the reflection of their financial status.   Garrett Gunderson  24:40   I got married at age 23 and the first two years, well, it was really like the first year and a half, maybe I was just such a miser. I gave my wife a $400 a month budget for an apartment, and we found out that there's places you don't want to live in Utah. I didn't know it, but she's like, is this what you want? And I was like, This doesn't feel like a safe neighborhood. And then you. Know, I was like, All right, maybe $600 I was still kind of really scarce. And my parents were like, Why don't you just live in our basement, rent free, and my wife's like, sex free. If you think that's where we're living, I'm gonna live in my parents basement, you know? Because I just thought money was something to save. So I saved me over 50% of my income. And a lot of people were like, that's amazing. Congratulations. Great job. And so I felt really good about it, and then I realized that my business wasn't growing as fast as this other person my age. I met him at an event, and a year later, he was doing better. And I was like, Dude, what's going on? I could hear it in your voice. I could hear like, you're just a different person. He goes, Oh, I'm doing two things. One, I just hired this guy, Steve D'Annunzio, and he changed my entire life. And I was like, I need to meet him. He's like, he happens to be here in Vegas. He's from Rochester. Introduced me. I hired him as my coach right away. I'm hearing all these people talk about strategic coach at the same event, and they had a booth. So I signed up for Strategic Coach, which meant I had to part with some of my money. Think it was $7,500 I hired Steve as a one on one mentor, and all of a sudden I was investing in myself, yeah. And I broke free from those chains of like, reduction and restriction into the game of production. And then I even had a situation where a woman called me out at the same event. This was a life changing event where she's like, I wonder what it's like living in a financial prison you built for your wife. It's like, Oh, see, that's what happened. I thought I was responsible, and building that responsibility that's actually building walls. And when I came home for that event, my wife and I started looking for our home. Within a few months, we found one. I bought a home. It was very easily within my means. I basically made as much as I paid for this house that we loved. We lived there for nine years. We built so many memories. You know, we had our two kids while we were there, I started host study groups, and that year, I grew my income by $170,000 with the coaching of strategic coach, Steve dnunzio And this woman, Nancy, calling me out. The next year, it grew by even more because the skills started to compound. I decided from that moment forward, I would spend at least $40,000 a year, which I might be able to reach for some people, but at least $40,000 a year on mentors. Is a guy named Alan. He writes my meal plans and my workouts, and I'm at 10% body fat because he knows exactly what they do. I do what he says. It was worth this $10,000 investment, because now I pay attention what I pay for, and I look at like if I'm my greatest asset, how can I create more energy? How can I create more value? How can I feel better about myself? How can I show up the very best version of I am, so I can deliver the most to the other people. And so I've always just been in amazing groups. I just got back from two different events in Beverly Hills around amazing people, learning incredible things that allow me to grow. I haven't spent a huge amount of money on a mentor last year to figure out something that I hadn't been able to figure out to this point. It's the same thing I did to become a speaker, to become a writer or even learn how to sell or market, you've got to invest in the skill, not just in the savings account. You grow yourself first, and then you grow your money. If you starve yourself out because you're in that miserly mindset, you're going to stunt your growth and never be fully fulfilled.   Keith Weinhold  27:56   You're your own best investment. And yes, this stuff is the varying definition of investing in yourself. Don't live below your means. Grow your means and all of that.   Garrett Gunderson  28:05   Grow your means and be more efficient within your means. I mean, the best way I know how to save is not overpay on tax, which 98% of business owners are doing that today. You know, don't overpay on interest, because you either restructure your loans, renegotiate your interest rates, reallocate underpouring funds to pay it off, or you remove investment drag. A lot of people have unnecessary fees and hidden commissions that drag on their investments. Or just design your insurance properly so it's more efficient. Those four i's, IRS, interest, investments and insurance show you how to keep more of what you make, take some of that money, build up your foundation so you have a peace of mind fund, so you have staying power, at least six months of liquidity and then invest more into yourself or learn how to create cash flow. This is the game the wealthy play. But the poor middle class, they think it's about paying off a mortgage and funding the retirement plan, and they will argue about it until it's too late, when they get there and now their homes paid off, but the property taxes are higher than their mortgage was 20 years ago, you know. Or they have home maintenance they have to take care of, or inflation has destroyed the value. Like if someone were to put away 100 grand and they wait for 30 years if they got 10% which the market did the last 30 years, if you reinvest dividends, they're going to have right around $1.7 million but if they have to pay 2% in fees, fiduciary fees, 12 b1 fees, which are marketing fees for the fund expense ratio, you know, the fees of maybe a retirement plan, and they now have 2% fees. It only goes to 1.1 million. Huge difference. And that 1.1 million if we account for inflation, even if we said inflation was low, like 2.7% over that 30 years. Well, by the time we pay for inflation and tax, guess what? The purchasing power value is like, 300 grand $300,000 that's a problem, and it's because they didn't learn to create cash flow. It's because they didn't learn to invest in themselves. It's because they relied completely on a market they don't control. I'm not saying the market is completely something to avoid. I'm saying we go in sequence. How do you grow your income for. First, then how do you keep more of the income you make with? You know, financial savvy and plugging leaks. Then learn to grow your money, but maybe growing your money. For some I like to think of like three dimensional assets, like real estate's three dimensional. It can grow in equity, it can create cash flow, and it has tax advantages. But my business is three dimensional, the more my business creates cash flow, without me, the more equity it has, and that business has major tax advantages. So most people are one dimensional, pay off a loan, put a money in retirement account. That's the poor, middle class. Wealthy people build a system where they've got three dimensional assets, equity, cash flow and tax savings. And that is a complete game changer, because then they can employ the buy borrowed I strategy, if you have assets like, you know, an individual stock, or if you have assets, like a piece of real estate or a business, you could borrow against it. There's no tax on that five for life, right? You keep refinancing. Or you can even do charitable trust to avoid the taxes upon the sell of those paying no tax when there's gains. Or you can pass it on to the next generation with a step up in basis, which means they get it at the full value and not have to pay the difference. And if you have life insurance, the life insurance will pay back the loan that tax free as well. So buy, borrow, die. I mean, it's a completely different thought process of defer taxes. If you defer taxes, I get it. You could do a Roth IRA or Roth 401. K Sure, that'll let you put after tax money in and grow it. But where's the cash flow? What's the underlying investment? How does it help you create financial independence? How does it help you does it help you grow your skills to become a better investor? We've been taught to be lazy, not that people are lazy. We've just been taught to be lazy with our money. We've been fed a narrative. I don't have the time, I don't have the skill, I don't have the interest, but I want to have it, so I just hand it over. And who do we hand it over to Keith Wall Street. Wall would you trust Wall Street? Like you flew to Frankfurt not long ago. Would you get on Wall Street airlines where they're like, hey, sometimes our planes go up, sometimes they go down. That would brand, and he'd feel inspired, right? Would you go to Wall Street, you know, hospital? Or like, hey, he lost one of your kidneys, and by loss, we stole it and resold it. You know, like, Wall Street doesn't have a brand. That's good. It's boiler room. It's Wolf of Wall Street. It's the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas. You know, greed is good like yet that's what people put their money into. And you can go to any downtown and any major city, and guess who has the biggest buildings, insurance companies, banks and Wall Street investment companies. So you're taking the size of your home and shrinking it to build up their building and put money in their pocket. And their story is, it's because they're Ivy League, they're smart. They try to make it complicated, but you don't have to know most of the things you think you need to know about finance. The foundational things are important, how to protect your assets, how to design insurance, to transfer risk, how to have some liquidity, how to automate your savings. And then you focus like Warren Buffett would teach. He said, You know how people would become a better investor if they only had 20 investments they could make over their lifetime? He says, I don't diversify because I'm in the know. He's like, I'm a good businessman, therefore I'm a good investor and I'm a good investor because I'm a good businessman. I don't separate the two. Yeah, most people think he's a stock market investor. No, he buys out the companies in the stock market. Rarely does he have minority stakes in it. He does have some of that, maybe with Coca Cola and apple, but he bought a lot of companies outright, whether it was Geico, whether it was See's Candies, whether it was like he buys these companies, he's so far outperformed the stock market by billions of dollars from an index fund like what he has, versus someone that put the same money in an index fund, Warren has billions more from his investments than the person that put all their money in the index fund, even if it was the same amount. It's completely about strategy, not about luck.   Keith Weinhold  33:30   Yeah, it's the Andrew Carnegie, put all your eggs in one basket and then watch your basket. Yeah? Watch that basket like a hawk. Totally. Yeah. I mean, stacks mutual funds, they have what I call those five simultaneous drags. If you think you're getting a 10% long term return over time, subtract out inflation, emotion, taxes, fees and volatility. What do you have left? Not much. But there's no friction there. It is just the easiest thing to do ever since decades ago, 401 K contributions begin to become automated throughout your paycheck, sometimes even automatically, automated   Garrett Gunderson  34:04   values your permission opt out. It's easy. You have to opt out, right? It's Big Brother. You don't know what's best for you. And by the way, how crazy are four one K's. Part of the reason the market has gone up in value is because people consistently fund for one case, whether the market's going up or down, they're told $8 cost average. So that's artificially fueling the market. When we see the numbers, there's a buffet index, and it's like 2.9 times higher than what he's comfortable with, with the stock market, because of how overinflated the market is, partially due to inflation, partially because people put money in. But let's remember, why did 401, K's even come about? Because pensions failed. And by the way, these pensions failed and they had world class money managers managing these multi billion dollar pensions, but they didn't know about something called disinvesting, or didn't know enough about it. When the market goes down and pension money is owed, they still have to pull money out of the pension to pay the employee which disinvests, which pulls more money out of the account. So now instead of just being 10% down, they might be 17% down. And so even if the market comes back 10% it's 10% of only 83% of the money. So not even back to square one. And if it goes down a second year in a row, they're in real trouble. It starts to chip away at the principal, and they can't recover. And that happened to pensions, and they said, Oh, here, we can't handle these. We're going bankrupt. We're going to get rid of pensions. You take care of it. Well, guess what? Vanguard says, the average balance in a 401, k right now is $148,000 how someone's supposed to live on $148,000 even if you could get 10% that's $14,800 a year taxable, that's not going to do it. Even if you have a million dollars, where are you going to put the million dollars to get the return without risking it going down? Maybe you're going to be in treasuries at 5% that's $50,000 taxable per year. You're a millionaire on paper, but living poorly. That's why I'm here to call these things out. I think that my book Killing Sacred Cows, which was my original New York Times bestseller, which is probably how we met. Yeah, I rewrote it. I rewrote it, rereleased it in 2024 and I'll give people the audiobook. They just have to DM me on Instagram. Garrett B Gunderson and DM the word cows with Keith's name, cows and Keith or Keith and cows. I'll hook you up with the book for free, so you can learn about the nine financial myths. We're talking about some of them here, but there's also some comedy in there, so they can laugh after each chapter. I threw some comedy in there. You know, if you like my comedy, I'm not the funniest comedian. I'm just the funniest money comedian. That's the reality.   Keith Weinhold  36:33   When we had the very inventor of the 401 k plan, Ted benna, come onto the show, he revealed to us that when 401 K plans rolled out, they were first called salary reduction plans. They had to scrap that name in order to foster participation. But reducing your salary is still principally what it does to you. You got to think about it that way and blow up some of these myths. But Garrett, you've already given a lot of great technical information about what someone can do, how someone can think differently. Bigger pictures, we're sort of winding down here. You know, when I'm thinking about this whole delayed versus denied gratification thing, how do you meter it out right throughout your life? I mean, what's your earmark your family legacy? How do you meter it out, right so you don't have too much or too little at the end of your life?   Garrett Gunderson  37:15   I like to see this strategy of, like, what would the rockfellers do that I wrote about is, you know, the beginning before that strategy is you pay yourself first, which has always been around Richest Man in Babylon. Tons of books talk about it. My argument is you want to pay yourself at least 15% of your personal income, off the top, to a separate account. Once you get six months in that account, now you start to invest that money, but you build your stability with that peace of mind. And we want 15% because the luxury once enjoyed becomes a necessity. So you want more money in the future, not the future, not less propensity to you know, there's also, just like planned obsolescence, things break down. You have to repair them. Technological change, we're buying new technology that doesn't even exist. I have now subscriptions to a bunch of AI things that help me out, right? But I'm spending more money. There's also taxes, those could go up in the future, or 38 trillion in debt as we film this, which is a crazy number. And there's also inflation. If we give 3% to each of those five factors, that's 15% now again, use the four i's, IRS, interest, investments and insurance to find that money, not just budgeting. But then here's the magic. At least 3% of your income should go to a separate account called the Living wealthy account. That's your guilt free spending, value based spending account, so you enjoy some money along the way. These are the things that are the finer things in life that people might say are wasteful. You know, there's a book called unreasonable hospitality that talks about this, 11 Madison Avenue was the number one rated restaurant in the world. And, you know, will who wrote the book talked about they had 3% of their budget to just go wild on their customers dream making money, right? So to create the special experience in the restaurant, and even the bear, I think was season three, showed some of that process of how they do that. So I highly recommend taking a certain percentage. You get to enjoy along the way. It could be higher than 3% but start there, and you're going to feel better, you're going to have different energy, you're going to show up in a different way. And then from there, I just believe in having trust, so that your money's outside of your estate, and protecting financial predators so you own nothing but control everything. And I personally use life insurance. I use just standard over, you know, like basically properly structured, optimally funded whole life, so that death benefit will come in after I die. It allows me to spend more of my money and then have it replenished so I can enjoy more of my money along the way, because I know that death benefit will be there for my wife or even for my family trust after I'm gone, so I don't disinherit the people that I love.   Keith Weinhold  39:31   Garrett Gunderson, he can take you through these steps, which he calls financially fit, to financially independent, and then finally to financially free. Tell us a little more about that going through those steps.   Garrett Gunderson  39:44   So financial fitness means your financial house is in order. You've got everything handled properly, car insurance, homeowners, liability, disability, medical life insurance, your corporate structures as a business owner, how you pay yourself, your taxes the last three years and move. Moving forward your investments. It's like, you know what it's going on. You've improved your cash flow, and you're dialed in. You're as safe as you could possibly be. Then financial independence is, how can we create income, especially from a business that comes in when you don't, that's people, that's processes, that's technology, so that you can be involved, but you don't have to be involved. This is the part most people miss, yeah, and I think it's crazy. A lot of people have this notion they're just going to work so hard so they can sell their business one day, I'm like, What about just creating a business that you love so much you don't want to sell it? What about giving up the things that are burning you out and have the employees that can take care of that so you do the things that you love and then just enjoy life along the way, take some little trips, take some time off and come back in. The business grows up when you're away, they learn how to do things without you, and then you can still create value into that business. I sold the business in 2021 and really regretted it, because I kind of was so removed from the business. I kind of felt like it lost its soul and I didn't feel connected to it. So this time around, I started a business in July of 2024 I'm like, I'm only going to work with the P with the people I love, building things that I love, and I'm not going to let myself get burned out by doing too much. We're going to take two weeks in Hawaii coming up here in April, just enjoy some time together as a family. We do quarterly family retreats with my wife and kids. We do traditions with my family up at my cabin, like I want to have this great life where it's blurs the lines between work and play. I have a little quote from someone else that talks about that art of life is blurring the lines between work and play, but also just having complete play sometimes that there is no work. So I come back refreshed, relaxed, rejuvenated and ready to create. And so really, that financial independence gives you permission to swing for the fences and what you do, knowing your foundation is handled, knowing that your lifestyle is covered, from assets to create cash flow gives you work optional freedom. But instead of retiring, think, what could your biggest impact be like? Create the life you don't want to retire from. Create a vision so compelling you can dedicate your life to it and find that the win is actually in the work, not just the outcome. I think that is the elegance of we win when we play, and when we have more play in our life. We don't try to escape from something. And when you start something, you might have to do things you hate, but you can eventually delegate it, and then life becomes great. I mean, one of my early coaches, Dan Sullivan, who I mentioned, a strategic coach. He's in his 80s, still behemoth of creating value in the in the market. To listen to him, you know, he's phenomenal. He's made such a huge difference in my life, and he has no intent of retiring. He just gets smarter every year, adds more value, builds more infrastructure, and he's the one that taught me the merit of free days, just taking time off, taking time away. So, yeah, that's financial independence. Is cash flow, and then financial freedom is a state of mind. It's when money is no longer the primary reason or excuse you would do or not do something. It's a consideration, but it's no longer the consideration means that you have a healthy relationship with money. Money is an asset and an ally, not an enemy. You don't come from a place of scarcity. You come from a place of abundance. You can be more present with your family and doing what you do without feeling distracted. I think wealth is our ability to be present, not necessarily how much money we have in a bank account. I think we have a good amount of money in a bank account, and we can be present. That is like true wealth.   Keith Weinhold  43:12   It harkens back to the John D Rockefeller, he who works all day has no time to make money. Rockefeller would have said, you can architect a wealth plan if your head is down on the assembly line, that means gradually move your offer. It's from trading your time for dollars over to owning assets that pay you to own them. Garrett's comedy special is called the American Ream. There's no D in that word, R, E, A, M. You can look that up, Garrett. It's been enlightening as always. Thanks so much for coming back onto the show.   Garrett Gunderson  43:43   Hey man, good to be back.   Keith Weinhold  43:51   Always. A lively conversation with Garrett, besides some great mindset perspective, he's really good at saving you tax and setting you up with asset protection. Though he's not as real estateish as me, he's pretty savvy. For example, He's aligned on the fact that, for example, say you have an 80k debt. Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that it makes sense for you to pay that off sometimes it does, but what happens to your net worth anytime you pay off an 80k debt, well, let's see. You've reduced your asset side by 80k and you've reduced your debt side by 80k so your net worth is the same, and retiring the debt means that you might have lost leverage, lost cash flow and lost tax advantages, all at the same time on Instagram, send a DM with the two words, Keith Cows to Garrett B Gunderson, and he'll hook you up with his book for free next week on the show, we go deep on does America really have a housing shortage with an expert analyst. Until then, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.    Speaker 4  45:01   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively   Keith Weinhold  45:29   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth. Building, get richeducation.com  

(00:00) Toucher and Hardy congratulate Nick Gemelli on the birth of his new child. (18:27) The guys discuss what happened last night in the world of sports. Jayson Tatum did not return, but the Celtics still took down Philly in the primetime matchup. (36:10) Toucher and Hardy touch on the Red Sox weekend down in Florida. Please note: Timecodes may shift by a few minutes due to inserted ads. Because of copyright restrictions, portions—or entire segments—may not be included in the podcast.For the latest updates, visit the show page on 985thesportshub.com. Follow 98.5 The Sports Hub on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Watch the show every morning on YouTube, and subscribe to stay up-to-date with all the best moments from Boston's home for sports!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Do The Work | Mindset Mastery, I am coming off one of the highest moments we have ever experienced as a team. Ignite 2026 was the biggest one yet. The energy. The recognition. The collaboration. The stories. The numbers. The celebration. I could barely sleep that night because I was watching it unfold from perspectives I do not always get to see. Behind the scenes, Carla and I are focused on execution. But through social media, through your messages, through your faces, I got to witness what it meant to you. And that is when something hit me. Every single year, people walk up to us and tell us what they are going to accomplish next year. Ten million. Fifteen million. Twenty million. And almost every single time, the ones who say it and commit to it actually do it. But here is the tension. There is a difference between declaring something with conviction and announcing something for a dopamine hit. In today's world, you can post that you are starting a diet, running a marathon, building a business, and immediately get applause. Congratulations. Fire emojis. Likes. Validation. And that initial rush can feel just like the accomplishment itself. It feels done before the work even begins. That is dangerous. Because when the lights turn off, when the music stops, when the stage is gone, you are left with the same marriage, the same finances, the same limiting beliefs, the same pipeline, the same habits. And if you are not grounded, that vision that felt so certain at Ignite can feel overwhelming just a few days later. So the real question is this. Who are you when things do not go your way? Right before Ignite started, we realized we had signed off on a much larger expense than expected. A surprise bill. A big one. It would have been easy to get frustrated. To lower my energy. To let it throw off the entire event. But how can I stand on that stage and ask you to go for ten million if I let a surprise expense shake my belief in abundance? The moment tested me. And that is what I need you to understand. You do not become a ten million dollar producer when everything is perfect. You become one in how you respond when it is not. If an appraisal comes in low and you spiral, you are not there yet. If a binzer does not go your way and you shut down, you are not there yet. If one client disrupts your momentum and your energy drops, you are not there yet. The numbers you wrote down at Ignite are possible. I believe that fully. But you have to stop chasing the high and start building the foundation. Events like Ignite are the cherry on top. They are not the foundation. The foundation is built in the in between. It is built in the daily deposits. The power deposits. The purpose deposits. The profit deposits. It is built when you post one video today instead of promising five every day and burning out by Wednesday. It is built when you upload ten contacts into your CRM instead of saying you are going to rebuild your entire database in one sitting. It is built when you follow up today. Not when you feel like it. Not when motivation is high. Today. The top producers who spoke on that panel did not get there by accident. It was strategic. It was methodical. It was disciplined. They got mentally right. Physically right. Spiritually right. Emotionally right. Then they executed. That is not a concept anymore. It is a fact. And the fact is this. You do not need to go chase conferences, happy hours, or environments that sell you a false narrative. You do not need constant highs. You need consistent wins. When I used to chase that conference high, I would come home depleted. Irritable. Blaming my circumstances. Because reality did not match the energy of the stage. That is addiction. That is not growth. Growth is when your baseline is strong enough that even your worst day is still better than your old life. That is what we are building here. Some people avoided Ignite because they were ashamed. Maybe they did not get the award they wanted. Maybe they did not get one at all. But hiding from reality does not help you grow. Facing it does. You should have been on that stage. If you were not, that is not shame. That is information. Now do something with it. Between now and your next review, what are you going to change? Not next year. Not someday. Today. Swing for singles. Get on base. Win today. The grand slam comes when you stack enough singles. If all of you hit the numbers you declared, we are looking at over a billion dollars in production collectively. That is not fantasy. That is math. But math only works when the daily inputs are consistent. You do not work up to a client. You work through a client. You do not stop when you get an appointment. You keep running the race. You do not pass the baton. You stay in motion. And above all, you cannot get thrown off by the small things. The next level version of you does not respond with frustration. They respond with composure. They respond with solutions. They respond with discipline. Ignite set a new bar. But we do not top fire dancers and sparklers with more theatrics. We top it with more of you on stage. That is how we win. Now the question is simple. Are you willing to want it more than I want it for you? Reflection Questions When things do not go your way, what is your automatic response and does it align with the level of producer you say you want to become? What are three small deposits you can make today that move you closer to your declared number? Are you chasing environments that make you feel accomplished, or are you building habits that actually make you accomplished? Notable Quotes "You do not become a ten million dollar producer when everything is perfect. You become one in how you respond when it is not." "Events are the cherry on top. The foundation is built in the in between." "We do not top it with more fireworks. We top it with more of you on stage." Follow A.Z. Araujo on Social Media: Instagram: @azaraujo Facebook: A.Z. Araujo TikTok: A.Z. Araujo YouTube: Do The Work Podcast   For Real Estate Agents in AZ: Learn more about Do The Work Coaching and A.Z. & Associates: dothework.com/azaa   Upcoming Events: If you're a real estate brokerage owner, sign up for one of our upcoming events. Visit: dothework.com bigmoneybrokerage.com Join my mailing list for updates!   New Do The Work Gear: Check out the latest DTW and Do The Work Gear! Hats, shirts, journals, and more: • • shop.dothework.com

Most family historians spend a lot of time thinking about what they still have left to find. There is always another record to track down, another county to search, another family story to check, and another ancestor who refuses to come into focus. That is part of what keeps genealogy interesting. There is always one more question waiting. But in the middle of all that searching, many people miss something important. They miss how much they have learned. That is worth noticing. Genealogy is not only about collecting names, adding dates, and filling a chart. It is also about learning how to think like a researcher. It is about learning how to ask better questions, how to study records more carefully, and how to tell the difference between a clue and a conclusion. Those skills do not appear all at once. They grow over time, often so gradually that you do not realize how much stronger you have become. You may still have hard lines in your tree. You may still have problems that seem impossible. You may still stare at a record and wonder what you are supposed to do with it. None of that means you are not growing. In many cases, it means you are deeper into the work than you used to be. It means you have moved past the early excitement of grabbing every new name and have started learning what good genealogy really looks like. That shift is important... Podcast Notes: https://ancestralfindings.com/genealogy-skills-are-growing/ Ancestral Findings Podcast: https://ancestralfindings.com/podcast This Week's Free Genealogy Lookups: https://ancestralfindings.com/lookups Genealogy Giveaway: https://ancestralfindings.com/giveaway Genealogy eBooks: https://ancestralfindings.com/ebooks Follow Along: https://www.facebook.com/AncestralFindings https://www.instagram.com/ancestralfindings https://www.youtube.com/ancestralfindings Support Ancestral Findings: https://ancestralfindings.com/support https://ancestralfindings.com/paypal  #Genealogy #AncestralFindings #GenealogyClips

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. New hosts Welcome to our new hosts: Vance, not_toby. Last Month's Shows Id Day Date Title Host 4566 Mon 2026-02-02 HPR Community News for January 2026 HPR Volunteers 4567 Tue 2026-02-03 Movie Recommendations for Hackers Deltaray 4568 Wed 2026-02-04 Book reading The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll Henrik Hemrin 4569 Thu 2026-02-05 Kiosk with guest mode on Linux Klaatu 4570 Fri 2026-02-06 Playing Civilization V, Part 8 Ahuka 4571 Mon 2026-02-09 Data processing retrospective Lee 4572 Tue 2026-02-10 Uncommon Commands, Episode 3 - strace Deltaray 4573 Wed 2026-02-11 Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 6 Thorium Reactors Whiskeyjack 4574 Thu 2026-02-12 UNIX Curio #0 - Introduction Vance 4575 Fri 2026-02-13 Making First Contact Ken Fallon 4576 Mon 2026-02-16 Responce to Lee/Elsbeth eps operat0r 4577 Tue 2026-02-17 HPR Beer Garden 10 - Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy Kevie 4578 Wed 2026-02-18 Alex's journey into Amateur Radio thelovebug 4579 Thu 2026-02-19 Happy by shower Antoine 4580 Fri 2026-02-20 The First Doctor, Part 4 Ahuka 4581 Mon 2026-02-23 Sharp Intake of Breath City (A.K.A.) How I learnt to stop worrying about the fork bomb not_toby 4582 Tue 2026-02-24 Hackerpublic Radio New Years Eve Show 2026 Episode 1 Honkeymagoo 4583 Wed 2026-02-25 Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 7 Small Modular Reactors Whiskeyjack 4584 Thu 2026-02-26 Recording a show, and crappy audio Archer72 4585 Fri 2026-02-27 mpv util scripts candycanearter Comments this month These are comments which have been made during the past month, either to shows released during the month or to past shows. There are 37 comments in total. Past shows There are 2 comments on 2 previous shows: hpr4562 (2026-01-27) "Software development doesn't end until it's packaged" by Klaatu. Comment 1: Steve Barnes on 2026-02-03: "(Yeah!)" hpr4564 (2026-01-29) "MakeMKV error" by Archer72. Comment 1: candycanearter07 on 2026-02-05: "regression testing?" This month's shows There are 35 comments on 11 of this month's shows: hpr4566 (2026-02-02) "HPR Community News for January 2026" by HPR Volunteers. Comment 1: Whiskeyjack on 2026-02-03: "Community News for January - Scheduling of Episodes"Comment 2: Ken Fallon on 2026-02-04: "response to Whiskeyjack"Comment 3: Whiskeyjack on 2026-02-04: "response to Ken Fallon - Episode Scheduling Guidelines"Comment 4: Ken Fallon on 2026-02-04: "You're right"Comment 5: candycanearter07 on 2026-02-06: "my two cents"Comment 6: Whiskeyjack on 2026-02-06: "Response to candycanearter07 on episode scheduling"Comment 7: Ken Fallon on 2026-02-07: "re "reschedule shows which don't need to be on a specific date forwards or backwards"" hpr4567 (2026-02-03) "Movie Recommendations for Hackers" by Deltaray. Comment 1: Kinghezy on 2026-02-03: "Office space lumbergh"Comment 2: Antoine on 2026-02-04: "An attractive invitation to watch"Comment 3: Henrik Hemrin on 2026-02-04: "Inspiring recommendations"Comment 4: ClaudioM on 2026-02-05: "Awesome Episode!"Comment 5: Jim DeVore on 2026-02-06: "Great Show!"Comment 6: hobs on 2026-02-23: "Loved the show!" hpr4569 (2026-02-05) "Kiosk with guest mode on Linux" by Klaatu. Comment 1: operat0r on 2026-01-18: "weee"Comment 2: candycanearter07 on 2026-02-05: "very informative!"Comment 3: Jim DeVore on 2026-02-06: "I learned some things that I will try out"Comment 4: candycanearter07 on 2026-02-06: "RE: I learned some things that I will try out" hpr4571 (2026-02-09) "Data processing retrospective" by Lee. Comment 1: Henrik Hemrin on 2026-02-10: "Conversation"Comment 2: Beeza on 2026-02-18: "A Special Episode" hpr4572 (2026-02-10) "Uncommon Commands, Episode 3 - strace" by Deltaray. Comment 1: Ken Fallon on 2026-01-13: "My future self thanks you"Comment 2: candycanearter07 on 2026-02-10: "fantastic learning and debugging tool!"Comment 3: Some Guy on the Internet on 2026-02-11: "It's MAGIC!"Comment 4: Paulj on 2026-02-18: "Great Information" hpr4574 (2026-02-12) "UNIX Curio #0 - Introduction" by Vance. Comment 1: brian-in-ohio on 2026-02-12: "This will be a good series"Comment 2: Vance on 2026-02-14: "Thanks, brian-in-ohio!"Comment 3: Paulj on 2026-02-18: "Thanks for your first show, and upcoming series!" hpr4576 (2026-02-16) "Responce to Lee/Elsbeth eps" by operat0r. Comment 1: Elsbeth on 2026-01-16: "Thank you" hpr4577 (2026-02-17) "HPR Beer Garden 10 - Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy" by Kevie. Comment 1: Gan Ainm on 2026-02-18: ""Scotch" Ale from the Baltic Sea" hpr4578 (2026-02-18) "Alex's journey into Amateur Radio" by thelovebug. Comment 1: Archer72 on 2026-02-17: "Congrats!"Comment 2: Trey on 2026-02-18: "Congratulations! " hpr4579 (2026-02-19) "Happy by shower" by Antoine. Comment 1: candycanearter07 on 2026-02-20: "timing"Comment 2: Antoine on 2026-02-26: "Re # 1 -" hpr4581 (2026-02-23) "Sharp Intake of Breath City (A.K.A.) How I learnt to stop worrying about the fork bomb" by not_toby. Comment 1: Archer72 on 2026-02-17: "First episode"Comment 2: Trey on 2026-02-23: "Welcome!"Comment 3: Steve Barnes on 2026-02-24: "Potted Plant Emoji" Mailing List discussions Policy decisions surrounding HPR are taken by the community as a whole. This discussion takes place on the Mailing List which is open to all HPR listeners and contributors. The discussions are open and available on the HPR server under Mailman. The threaded discussions this month can be found here: https://lists.hackerpublicradio.com/pipermail/hpr/2026-February/thread.html Events Calendar With the kind permission of LWN.net we are linking to The LWN.net Community Calendar. Quoting the site: This is the LWN.net community event calendar, where we track events of interest to people using and developing Linux and free software. Clicking on individual events will take you to the appropriate web page.Provide feedback on this episode.

TJ Johnson and Gerald Glassford share thoughts on the trending topics in pop culture. The guys go over the WWE, and with the company on the Road To WrestleMania, why does it feel they're not currently connecting with their audience? They also discuss the prospects of Scream 7 (which earned almost 100 million worldwide in its first weekend) and the Scream franchise for more future iterations. The guys also tackle the state of Pixar, and with Hoppers coming soon to theaters, can this storied animated studio ever find success again, bringing out an original IP? The guys try to answer all those questions and more as we head back into the Pop Culture Cosmos!Gear up with your favorite Pop Culture Cosmos shirts and gifts in our TeePublic store at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/user/pop-culture-cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Questions for us? Hit us up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠popculturecosmos@yahoo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or @popculturecosmo on Twitter!Don't forget to Follow, Like, and Subscribe to our shows and leave us that 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pop Culture Cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Zero Cool Films, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ThriveFantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the novel Congratulations, You Suck (available for purchase ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lakers Fast Break⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pop Culture Cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Inside Sports Fantasy Football⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DripShow Shop, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Happy Hoarder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Retro City Games⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Breaking the Cycle of WorryScripture: Matthew 6:27 — “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”Worry is fear that has learned how to repeat itself. It's the same thought playing over and over again in your mind. The same concern. The same question. And the same “what if.”Accept Jesus Today: https://youtube.com/shorts/bIwAUlz7Kg4?si=BNOhv44iLWIR4eVJIf you would like to accept Jesus into your heart today, pray this simple prayer:****God, I have sinned against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, who died and rose for my sake. I ask you to forgive me for my sin. I place my trust in You for salvation. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. In Jesus' name, I am forgiven! Amen!"****Congratulations! You are now a child of the most high. John 1:12 says, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. If you just prayed this prayer to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, I welcome you to the family of God. Subscribe to my channel and type in the comments right now, “I just prayed that prayer.” I would love to connect with you and chat with you about all the amazing things God is doing in your life.Click here for FREE eBook Download: https://tinyurl.com/ISAIDTHEPRAYERShow your love, support the channel:*PayPal: PayPal.me/malachimitchellministry*Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MalachiMitchNote Journals and Puzzles: https://tinyurl.com/WalkinFaithPublishingAuthored Books: https://tinyurl.com/BooksofMalachiJoin Our Support Club: https://tinyurl.com/Support-ClubInvesting Opportunity: https://coinholders.hnocoin.com/signup/?refer=Malachi2uFREE Ways to Support Me:

If you wish to support the show and PFC Irvine's Journey you can find his Ebay store here----> PFC NETWORK  Learning To Deal Is a podcast about the host's (PFC Irvine) Journey in being a coin dealer while dealing with life and invisible combat injuries. 

You know how every +1 sword in 5e feels like it came off the same enchanted assembly line? "Congratulations adventurer — your reward is… statistically adequate." This week, the crew grabs a metaphorical chisel, carves glowing symbols into that boredom, and asks: What if your weapon didn't just hit harder — what if it screamed cosmic philosophy while doing it? From axiomatic swords enforcing universal order to anarchic axes overthrowing alignment conventions, we dive into Pathfinder 2e rune system mechanics, shamelessly loot them for D&D 5e magic item customization, and then escalate into tone-bending chaos where you might play villain henchmen or survive horror scenarios for fun. Because nothing says "balanced campaign design" like rewriting metaphysics with Nordic graffiti and then handing the party an axe that hates bureaucracy. Show Notes In this episode, the RPGBOT crew examines one of tabletop fantasy's most persistent mechanical gripes: magic items in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition often feel numerically incremental rather than creatively transformative. The discussion pivots toward Pathfinder 2e's rune system, positioning it as a compelling model for deeper customization through layered item enhancement rather than static bonuses. The hosts unpack the distinctions between fundamental and property runes, emphasizing how property runes add unique mechanical effects to weapons and armor, producing gameplay that's both expressive and modular. They explore how these mechanics could be translated into homebrew D&D campaigns, addressing balance through level-based restrictions, rarity adjustments, and vulnerability considerations. Attention shifts toward practical experimentation — allowing multiple runes per item, adjusting enhancement bonuses, and porting armor runes to broaden defensive options. The conversation also touches on systemic design trends like emerging magic item pricing guidance in OneD&D, which could make cross-system adaptation easier for DMs. In true RPGBOT fashion, the episode expands beyond mechanics into narrative structure: The crew suggests using rune-inspired item shifts as gateways for tonal experimentation, recommending session-zero communication, short tonal arcs, villain-perspective one-shots, or survival-horror side stories to re-energize campaigns. The result is an episode that blends TTRPG system design analysis, cross-system mechanical hacking, and campaign tone strategy, demonstrating how rules innovation can reshape storytelling possibilities at the table. Key Takeaways Standard D&D 5e magic item mechanics often rely on numeric scaling rather than narrative identity. Pathfinder 2e rune mechanics provide modular item customization through layered enhancements. Property runes introduce unique combat and thematic effects beyond simple bonuses. Use level restrictions and rarity mapping to maintain balance. Experiment with multiple runes per item for player agency. Extend rune logic to armor for broader gear diversity. Price transparency (e.g., OneD&D item costs) supports homebrew adaptation. Rune mechanics illustrate modular system design principles applicable across TTRPGs. Discuss tonal changes openly with players before implementation. Run experimental arcs or villain POV sessions for variety. Horror survival scenarios can reframe player motivation and stakes. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati  

You know how every +1 sword in 5e feels like it came off the same enchanted assembly line? "Congratulations adventurer — your reward is… statistically adequate." This week, the crew grabs a metaphorical chisel, carves glowing symbols into that boredom, and asks: What if your weapon didn't just hit harder — what if it screamed cosmic philosophy while doing it? From axiomatic swords enforcing universal order to anarchic axes overthrowing alignment conventions, we dive into Pathfinder 2e rune system mechanics, shamelessly loot them for D&D 5e magic item customization, and then escalate into tone-bending chaos where you might play villain henchmen or survive horror scenarios for fun. Because nothing says "balanced campaign design" like rewriting metaphysics with Nordic graffiti and then handing the party an axe that hates bureaucracy. Show Notes In this episode, the RPGBOT crew examines one of tabletop fantasy's most persistent mechanical gripes: magic items in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition often feel numerically incremental rather than creatively transformative. The discussion pivots toward Pathfinder 2e's rune system, positioning it as a compelling model for deeper customization through layered item enhancement rather than static bonuses. The hosts unpack the distinctions between fundamental and property runes, emphasizing how property runes add unique mechanical effects to weapons and armor, producing gameplay that's both expressive and modular. They explore how these mechanics could be translated into homebrew D&D campaigns, addressing balance through level-based restrictions, rarity adjustments, and vulnerability considerations. Attention shifts toward practical experimentation — allowing multiple runes per item, adjusting enhancement bonuses, and porting armor runes to broaden defensive options. The conversation also touches on systemic design trends like emerging magic item pricing guidance in OneD&D, which could make cross-system adaptation easier for DMs. In true RPGBOT fashion, the episode expands beyond mechanics into narrative structure: The crew suggests using rune-inspired item shifts as gateways for tonal experimentation, recommending session-zero communication, short tonal arcs, villain-perspective one-shots, or survival-horror side stories to re-energize campaigns. The result is an episode that blends TTRPG system design analysis, cross-system mechanical hacking, and campaign tone strategy, demonstrating how rules innovation can reshape storytelling possibilities at the table. Key Takeaways Standard D&D 5e magic item mechanics often rely on numeric scaling rather than narrative identity. Pathfinder 2e rune mechanics provide modular item customization through layered enhancements. Property runes introduce unique combat and thematic effects beyond simple bonuses. Use level restrictions and rarity mapping to maintain balance. Experiment with multiple runes per item for player agency. Extend rune logic to armor for broader gear diversity. Price transparency (e.g., OneD&D item costs) supports homebrew adaptation. Rune mechanics illustrate modular system design principles applicable across TTRPGs. Discuss tonal changes openly with players before implementation. Run experimental arcs or villain POV sessions for variety. Horror survival scenarios can reframe player motivation and stakes. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sarcasm, and community chaos. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati  

Congratulations to author Zeeva Bukai for winning a National Jewish Book Award from the Jewish Book Council for her novel The Anatomy of Exile. On our episode, we spoke about her new book, The World Between, which is a slim, powerful narrative about a woman who travels to Tel Aviv to the home where she first started her marriage and revisits later in her life. It's about mental health, the after-effects of World War II, recovery, mistakes, lost love, shame, survival, and healing. It's really short and definitely worth reading: immersive, thought-provoking, soulful. I can't stop thinking about it — and was thrilled to hear she won the award! Share, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens!** Check out the Z.I.P. membership program—Zibby's Important People! As a Z.I.P., you'll get exclusive essays, special author access, discounts at Zibby's Bookshop, and more. Head to zibbyowens.com to subscribe or upgrade and become a Z.I.P. today!** Follow @totallybookedwithzibby on Instagram for more about today's episode. (Music by Morning Moon Music. Sound editing by TexturesSound. To inquire about advertising, please contact allie.gallo@acast.com.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Orlando and Gerald Glassford are back as they tackle the tough issues going on in pro wrestling. They are talking about Elimination Chamber and the build-up, what's gone wrong with ticket sales for both AEW and WWE, was it Tony Khan or WB that blew it for Brody King, and will the current violence spell the end of CMLL'S historic run.Gear up with your favorite Pop Culture Cosmos shirts and gifts in our TeePublic store at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/user/pop-culture-cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Questions for us? Hit us up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠popculturecosmos@yahoo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or @popculturecosmo on Twitter!Don't forget to Follow, Like, and Subscribe to our shows and leave us that 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Presented by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pop Culture Cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Zero Cool Films, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ThriveFantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the novel Congratulations, You Suck (available for purchase ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠), ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lakers Fast Break⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pop Culture Cosmos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Inside Sports Fantasy Football⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DripShow Shop, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Happy Hoarder⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Retro City Games⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

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Tyler tells everyone about the new vehicle he acquired. It doesn’t run; it needs a bit of love, but it’s going to be an awesome addition to the MF fleet. Jimmy was supposed to go snow camping this last weekend, but with so much snow, they all decided to go to the cabin instead. MORRFlate Giveaway at 900 Reviews on Apple Podcast. But our next giveaway is when we reach 800 reviews; we are giving away an OnX Elite Membership. We will also give away an OnX Elite membership when we get to 850. However, when we reach 900 Reviews, we are teaming up with MORRFlate for a $1000 MF Product Giveaway. Go over to Apple Podcasts to leave your review now and become eligible to win. Congratulations to A13XMONT, who won a set of tires from Yokohama Tire! Call us and leave us a VOICEMAIL!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. 4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple, and after answering the questionnaire, we ensured we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground. SnailTrail4x4 Podcast is brought to you by all of our peeps over at irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)! SnailSquad Monthly Giveaway February’s Giveaway is with our good buddies over at GlueTread. They gave us an Expedition Kit Tire Repair Kit. This kit has everything you could possibly need to repair your tire while you’re in the outdoors. It comes with a plug kit, colby valves razer blade, sand paper, and of course, the famous adhesive and patches that GlueTread is known for! Sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4 Congratulations to long-time supporter Evan Cook for winning the Gearwrench giveaway. We got some more goodies to give away to a lucky winner. If you want a chance to win this amazing giveaway, all you need to do is sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4. Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% offIronman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% offBackpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate LinkLaminx Protective Films – Use the Link to get 20% off all products (Affiliate Link) Show Music: Outroll Music – Meizong Kumbang Midroll Music – ComaStudio

Lesley Logan and Brad Crowell unpack insights from Brad Walsh, founder of the Empowerography Podcast. In this recap, they reflect on the transformative power of boudoir photography and how seeing yourself in a new light can change how you think, feel, and show up. This conversation digs into resilience, authenticity, and why sharing your story might be the very thing that helps someone else keep going. If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:Boudoir photography helps women see themselves differently.Why resilience is the courage to keep rising.The importance of sharing experiences to inspire others.Why true authenticity requires dropping the mask of perfection.How trusting your path frees you from fear of missing out.Episode References/Links:Agency MINI Waitlist - https://prfit.biz/miniPoland Contrology Pilates Conference - xxll.co/polandVintage Friends & Contrology Brussels - xxll.co/brusselsPilates On Tour® London - https://xxll.co/potOPC Spring Training - How to Get Overhead - https://opc.me/eventsEmpowerography Podcast - https://empowerographypodcast.comEmpowerography Podcast Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/empowerographypodcastBrad Walsh LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradwalsh70Brad Walsh Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brad.walsh.56Empowerography Live Conference 2026 - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D7QAc3hFx If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00  He said when they see who they truly are and how they're captured, they leave a completely different woman. And there's not enough words, he said, to encapsulate the power in that as a photographer. Lesley Logan 0:09  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.  Lesley Logan 0:53  Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the powerful convo I have with another Brad. Brad Walsh. Brad Crowell 0:55  Another Brad. Lesley Logan 0:55  In our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that interview, then actually listen to this one. You should go back and listen that one. It's pretty good. I liked it. Brad Crowell 1:05  That's a great interview. It was, I'm not gonna lie you, you spoke my thoughts out loud. Lesley Logan 1:10  I did? Brad Crowell 1:11  Yes. Like. Lesley Logan 1:12  Did I say that I have to say Brad's thoughts? Brad Crowell 1:14  No, but two. There's another comment I can't remember. It'll come back to me. But you know when, when I heard you introduce Brad Walsh as someone who is entirely devoted to platforming and empowering women, I was like, a man is doing that? Okay, okay. I was like, I guess, I guess I'm I didn't even know. I was dubious and a little curious and then encouraged and excited at by the end. So, yes, it's great.Lesley Logan 1:45  Turns out you can be really successful if you platform women. Turns out. Brad Crowell 1:50  How about that? Lesley Logan 1:51  Yeah, it turns out there's, there's things like, there's like, good things that happen when you do that.Brad Crowell 1:55  You did mention that you had similar thoughts to him, and I was laughing, because I was like, okay, I'm not alone. Lesley Logan 1:59  Yeah. I'm intrigued. Well, we'll get into that in just a second. But first today is February 26th 2026 and it's Black Lives Matter Day. Black Lives Matter Day is celebrated annually on February 26th in remembrance of Trayvon Martin, an African American teen who was killed by a white American out of hatred. The acquittal of the killer, George Zimmerman, from the murder charge and is roaming free, caused a wave of widespread anger, which led to nationwide campaigns centered around fairness and justice for black people. Black Lives Matter is a chant against systemic racial discrimination which has shaped and increased the risk of violence towards black people. Join in the movement to end discrimination, declare equality for all.Brad Crowell 2:39  Yeah. So one of the things that I wanted to address is we're obviously not black. However, we have heard a lot of people who are not black say, well, what about white people? Or what about other, you know, people as well? Shouldn't we be focusing on them as much as we are focusing on black people? And ultimately, I would say Black Lives Matter does not say other lives don't matter. But what Black Lives Matter is saying is that there is a historical, documented like systematic approach against that has not given the same opportunities in our society, in our in the United States of America, to black people, whereas it has favored, white people. Lesley Logan 3:37  Oh one thing and I heard that I heard this in 2020 and I'll share it here. It doesn't mean you didn't have to swim uphill, it just meant that you had a paddle, it just means that, like, you could have had a hard life but there, the research is there, even if your family came here like mine did in the 1912 all this stuff, the research is, is, is very much there, the status are there that because after slavery, we didn't, we did not treat black people the same as white people, the wealth that their families could pass down, which whether or not you got any money, because I didn't either whether doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that you that there was less opportunity for their generations of families to have options. And there's actually a black family, a guy who was able to buy slaves, the black man who was able to buy his family as slaves. And so then when when slavery ended, there was this whole, basically reparations for the slave owners. And so he was given money for the slaves that he lost, and you can see his family and the generations that came from his family, and how different their lives were compared to other black people and so especially as we're watching this right now where brown people are being targeted in an insane way, black and brown people, but we're seeing a lot of it with brown people because of ICE. I'm just gonna say who it is, because of that. The reality is, is because.Brad Crowell 5:02  Because of ICE directed it by, you know, Stephen Miller and our president.Lesley Logan 5:06  And our president and his vice president, we're gonna add in there. Because some people think if we just got rid of Trump at life would be better. No, you'll still have a shit sandwich. So the reality is, because we've never had Black Lives Matter, we are all being affected. All every other color is going to have a hard time. And by the way, white people, you are too, your life is not going to get easier because they got rid of some brown people, or they only pull over black people. You're this is a community.Brad Crowell 5:32  But I want to go back to this. I agree with the things that you're saying, but I want to go back to this by saying let white lives matter too. We're actually sidestepping the issue. And that's the problem. The problem is not that white lives don't matter. That's not what we're saying, and that's not what you know, that's not what, when someone says Black Lives Matter, they're not saying white lives don't matter too. But what they but when we say white lives matter too, we're we're just derailing the conversation away from the fact that there has been systemic oppression of people in our society for 400 years, right?Lesley Logan 6:05  And also, by the way, if you vote for the people of color who are different than you, you benefit too. By the way, if you've not, I'm not saying vote for people of color. I'm saying if you vote for the people who will represent the people of the least of these, you will benefit. You'll benefit in so many different ways.Brad Crowell 6:20  But here's the thing, that, yes, that you will absolutely benefit when there is, like, cultural and systemic racism against a particular group, it almost empowers violence towards that group, and that is where the that's where everyone got really, really frustrated with this murderer who was literally set free, you know, and, and I couldn't agree more, you know, it's, it's, it's wrong.Lesley Logan 6:50  It's just fucked up. I mean, to be honest, the whole thing that he stood on, that law that he stood on, is stupid, and it's in several different states, and people and like kids have been killed since then because they knocked on the wrong door. A black kid last year knocked on the wrong door looking to pick up his brothers, and they shot him because he's a black kid at their door. Like, what the, I'm sorry, that is infuriating. And we, we are not done. And I think, like, we got past 2020. Brad Crowell 7:18  It's like a mix of fear and racism and the fact that they're ever like. Lesley Logan 7:21  But they're, I won't even give them warrant over fear they're fucked up. Like, come on, I'm sorry.Brad Crowell 7:26  Like their bread fear is like, spued into their life.Lesley Logan 7:31  Right, I guess. But also like, we live in a world where you can curate your own algorithm and and these people are not taking the time to even, like, think about somebody else's experience at all, just their own, and they're so self-centered, and then they vote for people who lie to them and use them and use fear to use them. And now look where we're at. People are dying, and they're like, but my life still sucks. Yeah, it does. You voted for people who made sure it fucking sucked. And I am just like, the guns are the fucking problem. And then we have to. We voted we got rid of Trump the first time. We're like, oh, good. All this stuff is better. No, it's not. The Democrats didn't work fucking fast enough. And now we're here in this place of shit where black people still don't have the rights that white people do, and now brown people are being attacked in crazy ways. And by the way, like, if you're so concerned with, like, immigrants and crime. Like last year, immigrants killed three people, and ISIS killed 33 people from the stats that I just looked at. So like, I just think that, like, there's things that we could be taking into perspective, and it requires us to be more considerate of people who look different than us, and also fighting for their rights, because it will help yours. Anyways, end of rant. And by the way, that's a long conversation that we were like trying to get out. So if we like, that's something a little weird forgiveness, because we're all growing. We're all learning. You get amped up. Lesley Logan 8:50  So anyways, I want to get into what's going on. We just wrapped up Agency Mini last week, and so you missed it. Brad Crowell 9:02  Congratulations, it's over. Lesley Logan 8:57  Congratulations. You can't get on the waitlist, but you can get on the waitlist for the next one. We will do one more this year, prfit.biz/mini prfit.biz/mini that's profit without the O and it is for Pilates instructors and studio owners who work for themselves or want to so highly recommend it. Now we're getting up and we're gearing. We're gearing. We're gearing up and getting ready because we will be gone for an entire month in Europe. Brad and I, we're not taking Bayon on this trip. On this trip, and so we'll be first in Poland at the Controlology Conference to Contrology Pilates Conference in Wroclaw with Karen Frischmann, xxll.co/poland you can come from anywhere to go to that. Karen and I speak in English, and it will be translated into Polish. So if you can do either of those languages, that conference is for you. And then after that, Brad, Karen and I are going to go to the Contrology. We're going to Brussels to Pilatels like Vintage Pilates and friends. Ignacio is going to be there. El is the owner. She's going to be there. The four of us are gonna be teaching workshops and classes. It's gonna be a long, fun filled days. I promise these are something you don't wanna miss. Els really throws a party with these xxll.co/brussels, and I guess we're gonna be like in Bruges. So that's really cool. Don't quote me. It's all on the site. Just go there. Brad Crowell 9:02  Sounds fun. Lesley Logan 9:02  We have a lot of eLevate and other people that we know are going to that one. So it's gonna be a really fun party. And then after our second honeymoon, which your recommendations for things to do between Brussels and Paris that get us to London are welcomed, because we're going to take that train. I think, hopefully we can. That's the plan. We clearly haven't looked up anything. I just heard you can go from Paris to London, so that's what we're going to do. But you can join us at POT London. My Saturday workshop is filled, but there is a few spots left in the Sunday workshop that I'm teaching, but you should come to any of the workshops, because there's some excellent presenters at the POT in London, xxll.co/pot. By the way, that link will take you to all the POTs that Balanced Body is doing right now. Right now the only one on that schedule that I'm going to be at is POT London. We will have a booth at a couple others, but if you want to take workshop from me in Europe, you've got three weekend options, and that is it for at least a year, maybe two. So check it out xxll.co/pot, and then we come home, we're gonna get ready for spring training. Brad Crowell 11:16  Yeah, really looking forward to it. This year we're gonna change it up. Lesley Logan 11:19  How to get overhead. Brad Crowell 11:20  How to get overhead. So last year's spring training was so fun. We had people join us from all over the world. We had teachers join us from all over the globe, all the OPC teachers, and it was a big party. And we were digging into, well, each year we're digging into a different topic. So this year's topic is how to get overhead. And I know we kind of said this last week on the pod. But you don't have to be able to get overhead right to come learn. Lesley Logan 11:46  I don't like that. It's not have to get overhead, it's a how to. It's really finding your own version of overhead exercises. It's really just, you're here to find your own and that's what Pilates is making your own personal practice practice. It's called Contrology, the study of control. Not controlled.Brad Crowell 12:02  Yeah, not controlled. So come join us. Go to opc.me/events opc.me/events to grab a spot on the waitlist so that you're gonna be the first one to know when we do that in May. Before we get into this great interview with Brad, let's dig into this question. So on YouTube, @wanderlustonwheels asks, I would love to see recommendations for us perimenopausal ladies on the Cadillac. I am also hyper mobile, so I can't really do any mat work without fabricating and crunching my joints and pinching my nerves. I always end up with neck cranks that keep me from sleeping when I do mat work. So this is like multiple things rolled up into one. Lesley Logan 12:45  Yeah, I'm gonna keep it tight, because I appreciate your question about perimenopausal exercises on the Cadillac. And unfortunately, the way that Pilates has been changed, in some ways, is that people think I need to know this type of exercise for this piece of equipment, but really it's a system. And actually all Pilates is available to any perimenopausal woman on any piece of equipment. So what's cool about Pilates is it actually is a low cortisol producing workout, or it should be. And if yours is not, then you're probably not doing Pilates. It's a mind body connective work, and you're not moving super slow or super fast. There's some moments with zest and there's some moment with rhythm. But in in all honesty, most Pilates exercise classes session should actually be low cortisol producing really great for building strength and for getting that mind body connection, which will bring down that cortisol levels. And you should be able to sleep really, really well. So I'm not gonna say which exercises are great for perimenopause, because they all are, but depends on which ones your body needs right now. And that actually has nothing. That has very little to do with perimenopause, and more to do with like, what's going on with your body, the fact that you're hyper mobile, you didn't mention that you have EDS. So if you had EDS, this was a it's a different story, and you should definitely be working. You should really make sure to find an EDS teacher near you, trained teacher near you or online. Because the fact that when you do mat work your nerves are pinched and you have neck cranks makes me actually nervous that you're not doing actual Pilates exercises, and somebody is using the popularity of Pilates to entice you in, because if you're doing Pilates from your center on the mat as a hyper mobile person, the worst case scenario you're going to have is that it's easy. I'm a hyper mobile body, and so it would just feel easy to me because I was just locking my joints out and over stretching things and kind of hanging off of things. But the fact that you're actually having pinched nerves and neck cranks tells me that there's some sort of pressure that's being pulled to you in these exercises.Brad Crowell 14:46  Well, I think, I think, like, okay, so also hypermobile here. And did you know in like, super intense yoga for like, a long time before moving to Vegas and so now I do yoga differently, but before it was like, you know, 3, 4, 5 days a week doing yoga. And I definitely understand the idea of, like, crunching joints and pinching nerves, or I don't understand fabricating. That doesn't mean anything to me. But, you know, just because you can force your body into a shape doesn't mean you're doing it correctly. Lesley Logan 15:18  Well and also, I think that, like, something that you had to learn was that not every cue is for you. And I think sometimes in a class we hear them say something, so we do it in a hyper mobile people, we can keep going like, our end range isn't there, whereas a tighter person would be like, get stuck on something.Brad Crowell 15:35  I mean, look, I you know, I could put my head, my foot behind my head on the first day of class, the very first day, like, and they were like, your yoga practice is amazing. I was like, I'm brand new. What are you talking about? Right? So.Lesley Logan 15:46  And that teacher should have been like, oh, even though you can do that, you should not do that, because you don't know what you're doing.Brad Crowell 15:51  Right. You don't know how to engage your muscles, to protect your body. And that's what, to me, that's what it sounds like here, when you have crunching joints or pinching nerves, like in Pilates, we talk about the five spine shapes. And the spine shape that that you should focus on as a hyper mobile body is tall.Lesley Logan 16:07  Yeah, look at you, Brad. Brad Crowell 16:09  Oh yeah. Lesley Logan 16:10  Look at you. So so @wanderlustonwheels, like, here's the thing, if you were an OPC member and I was you sent in a video of you doing a couple of the mat exercises, just a couple reps, I don't want you to hurt anything, I could actually see what's going on. Without being able to see it just based off what I'm reading, it sounds to me that the person who's teaching the class is not teaching your body. They are teaching a class, and that is hard because it's more accessible for you to go to a class or to watch a YouTube video, but not everything is going to be for you. And so actually learning how to move from your center is going to be key, and that might mean investing in some time or some money to get either an OBC membership or a studio near you, where a teacher can actually look at you and go, oh, that's too high. Oh, that's too much. Or here are these exercises, because the mat work, like I said, as a hypermobile, it should just feel easy, and the fact you're getting hurt, really, like alarm bells are going off for me. Brad Crowell 17:03  There's a second thing I wanted to say on this, and I'm not a physical therapist, but also being a hypermobile body, the best thing that has that I've done for my body in the past five years is lifting weights.Lesley Logan 17:16  Well and, for perimenopausal women, you should be so people who actually do Pilates say I should lift weights. It's not an or it's an and I do both. I lift heavy weights and I do Pilates.Brad Crowell 17:27  Because, because the strength, here's here's where this has been weird for me, because I am, like, super competitive, the guy who wants to be the guy who can, you know, bend over backwards and and, like, you know, touch my toes backwards. I want to be that guy, because if they can do it, so can I. That's how my mentality has always been, and I could do a lot more flexibility things, maybe not properly, but with my hypermobility before I started becoming more strong, but with the strength added, which, you know, has been like, a process over multiple years. My body hurts way less, way less. I can still jack myself up, and I can still be like, oh man, I'm in my lower back right now. I can feel it, you know. But because my, because I've been like, my shoulders don't hurt anymore. They used to. My knees are hurting less they, you know, my back especially has been hurting less, and then, you know, I haven't had neck issues the way that you're describing them. But like, you know, if you strengthen your neck, imagine.Lesley Logan 18:31  Well, that's the thing that people, especially while we're doing that, going back to that spring training with overhead, I ask you, like, what they're nervous about and everyone's afraid of their neck. And I'm like, one, you should be on your neck. And two, your neck should be strong. Most people, like, are so afraid of hurting their neck that they're not actually strengthening their neck anymore, and their necks getting weaker. And so guess what? It's actually gonna you're gonna hurt it just sitting around. So I, I really, like, I feel for people because, like, what if? So what if @wanderlustonwheels, like, can't go to any place, right? What if she, like, doesn't have money or the time, and she like, I get that it's about listening to your body. And really true, like, sometimes you have to film yourself, because if you're looking at someone do something, and then you're trying to make yourself look like them. But then when you actually film yourself, you go, oh, wow, look at how hyperextended or look where my chin is like that could help you or if you can invest in even just some privates, going hey, I need to know these foundational exercises for my body. I need to know these foundational weight training exercises for my body. I'm hyper mobile, then you can I truly believe you can do Pilates on your own once you have those foundations. And that's I wouldn't have created OPC if I didn't think so, and you can train on your own. That's why gyms exist. So at any rate, like also, I just really wonder if the person teaching that mat class is actually teaching real mat Pilates or doing lots of extra reps or something. They might be doing Pilates exercises, but doing a ton of reps, or doing it too fast, or adding heavier weights. I say, like, what? I was like, oh, I want lightweights for a class, right? And I showed up and they're like, the lightest one's worth five pounds each. And I'm like, that's not Pilates. That like that should be in a gym, because Pilates is a one pound weight. So like, sometimes, you know, people want to fill the burn and so, and then studios lean towards that, because that's what I think, is there gonna be money, and what we're not doing is educating people, you know? (inaudible)Brad Crowell 20:12  Thanks for writing in that question. There's a lot there, but, but. Lesley Logan 20:17  We have a great workshop on OPC that Mindy Westfall did about Pilates for hypermobility, so I highly recommend taking a look at that.Brad Crowell 20:24  Yeah, that's a great point and and sorry for interrupting you there. But yes, if you have a question, we want to hear it, so text us 310-905-5534, or you can submit it through beitpod.com/questions beitpod.com/questions where you can leave either a win or a question. So send us some wins, people, we want to celebrate with you. Stick around. We'll be right back. We're going to talk about Brad Walsh. Brad Crowell 20:49  All right, let's talk about Brad Walsh. Brad is the host and founder of the Empower Podcast, a Toronto based platform dedicated to amplifying women's stories and strengthening their voices. A lifelong photographer. He discovered his passion in high school, and later transitioned from a 12 and a half year career as corporate audiovisual technician to full time photography, eventually specializing in boudoir work that helps women see their own strength and beauty. His commitment to women's empowerment is rooted in the example set by his mother and grandmother, whose courage shaped the values behind his work today. Lesley Logan 21:23  Yeah, and some cool women in his life. And we've had one photographer on before, and so I was, I was excited to talk a little bit about boudoir photography with him, because I grew up where a lot of women changed their bodies because of what they thought men would like, and then him being a male boudoir photographer who's like, literally loving everybody as it is and showing them how beautiful they are in their own bodies with these photos. And then then they can see how beautiful they are in those photos. It's fucking cool. I think it's great. Thanks, Brad, for not being a dick, you know, like there are some good men out there. Brad Crowell 21:56  If you haven't listened to his episode just yet, his you know, he shared his story a little bit. His dad left, or his mom left his dad, who was, you know, off cheating on her, basically, when he was 10, and they went through it like they were broke. They got an apartment. Mom slept on the couch, because he also has a brother, and he said, you know, her strength and courage to stand back up after 15 years of marriage and say, I'm done with this abuse. She left with nothing but the clothes on her back. And, you know, and then when she got a job because she needed to, after being out of the workforce for over a decade, grandma helped in, you know, stepped in to help. So, you know, very inspirational story there. And also, like, definitely lays the foundation for why he would be encouraging, you know, women and empowering women. So I appreciated hearing a little bit of that. But what are the what is one of the things that he talked about that you really loved?Lesley Logan 22:54  Well, he said, the gift of her seeing herself for the first time a light she's not used to seeing herself in. He said, like, it's so powerful to be able to give that to another human being and.Brad Crowell 23:03  You're specifically talking about his photography, yeah, boudoir photography.Lesley Logan 23:06  Yeah. He said when they see who they truly are and how they're captured, they leave a completely different woman. And there's not enough words, he said, to encapsulate the power in that as a photographer. I mean, I.Brad Crowell 23:19  His conviction, like, was, was so. Lesley Logan 23:21  Oh yeah, you have to hear it. Brad Crowell 23:22  Yeah, it was. It was very compelling. Because he's like, I don't, I don't have the words to say how much that has impacted me. Lesley Logan 23:28  Yeah. Well, I think, like, first of all, ladies, if you're like, I hate being on camera. I don't have (inaudible) you're the one who fucking needs to have your picture taken. Because, like, I was like, oh my God, we have a photo shoot tomorrow, and I love our photographer, and I love our makeup artist, and so I'm like, it's, I know it's going to be a great time, and it's a long day, like we talked about Brooks Tyler's book last week, and it's like, to be on an eight-hour shoot, you you have to have stamina, endurance, and I really think Adderall would have helped, like, just, just to stay focused right for that many hours. But when you see the photos at the end of the day, you're like, oh my God, I'm fucking stunning. And then you like, wake up the next day without hair and makeup, like, I'm fucking stunning. Like, it just keeps going. So, like, I highly recommend doing it, because it does change how you think about yourself. And when you change how you think about yourself, you change how you act, you change how you act, you change how you be it till you see it. I mean, there's no other way to say it. So what did you love?Brad Crowell 24:25  So I really dug when he was talking about resilience, right? And it stemmed from a conversation about being tired of the word resilient. You know, like, I've been told so many times you're so resilient. Well, I don't want to be resilient anymore. Why do I have to keep being resilient?Lesley Logan 24:37  My friends are like, you're the most resilient person, I know I'm like, over it pretty done.Brad Crowell 24:42  And he took a step back and paused, and he's like, well, this is how I see what resilience is. It's, it's courage and inner strength, specifically, when you you keep getting back up after being knocked down time after time, right? And he said, he said it's really important that women be resilient so they can share their experience, and inspire other women by being vulnerable, by sharing their experience. It's a permission slip for others. It shows them what is possible, right? And I thought that's totally relevant and important. And he said, while it can certainly be tiring, it serves a greater purpose, right? And it makes your efforts bigger than just you. You know, it makes your efforts towards whatever it is that you're working on. When you share those things and you continue to get back up, you know, you're giving permission for others to keep going on their journey, which we don't know what exactly what it is, but there's clearly going to be something relatable. He said, even if you're only influencing one person, right? It's worth it. He said, think about that impact, and how you know that you can have and how you can help. Maybe, you know, maybe by sharing your story, your struggles, it will prevent someone from having to go through something similar that you experience, because you know you're sharing how you got through it. So, I mean, that's honestly, like half the reason we do this podcast is hearing, you know, how did they get from A to B? How are they being it till they see, how they get to where they are today and, you know, it's inspirational. I hope you found it as well.Lesley Logan 26:08  I did. I really did. And I couldn't agree more. I mean, like, you're, you know, it's not a podcast I used to listen to before I was ever like when the first they just ended their first season, which is like, more like an ending of a show. I think they call the end of a season one, because they could always come back. But it was like 968, episodes. And I know. And I was just like, interesting. I wonder what it'd be like, like, well, how do you, how do you think about ending it? I read, like, their statement, which is, like, everything that we did worked, and like, look, we've inspired people. And I was like, there must have been a point where they, like, thought it wasn't adding anymore, you know, and but, and every time I'm like, is this podcast like helping anybody out? And then we go on tour, and someone's like, I loved this. And I'm like, well, fuck, we got to keep going because it's fucking hard work podcasting. But I know every stupid bro makes it look like it's the easiest thing you ever did in your life. This is a fucking hard thing that we do every week.Brad Crowell 27:00  Yeah, we're surrounded by a whole team to set us up to be able to even do this.Lesley Logan 27:03  Yes, and you just get to, like, vent or rant or like, I don't know what the fuck they think they're doing, but like, you actually have to, like, have structure and, like, think about these things and think about the people you're platforming. You know, I know that dickhead CEO podcast is like, I'm not platforming these people. I'm having a conversation. No, you're fucking platforming them, right? So, like, sometimes I'm like, oh, do I should I be platforming this person? Because I want to change lives for the better, right? So, and it's difficult because you're like, how do I know this person? How am I going to there's so many things to think about, but I do agree. It's like, if you can change one's person's life with it, like, then it's worth doing, worth all the effort. Brad Crowell 27:33  Yeah, well, stick around. We'll be right back. We're going to dig into those Be It Action Items that we got from your conversation with Brad Walsh. Brad Crowell 27:42  All right, welcome back. So finally, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your conversation with Brad Walsh? He said, you just have to be authentic. Don't try to be something that you're not. And the two of you went back and forth about we need to take back the word authentic, it's overused and overplayed, but there's still something to it. You know? He said, look, when we only show the happy, shiny, beautiful part of the thing that we went through, we're not being honest, and that's not being authentic, because there was definitely some shit we had to go through to get there too, right? And so I think it's fair to say that you can still be selective about all of the shit. You don't have to share everything. We're not airing our dirty laundry, but it's important to show that there's a struggle as well, and that that like contributes to that authenticity. It makes it actually authentic, right? So drill down, you know, be selective, but take that mask off and actually like, be genuine. So what about you?Lesley Logan 28:42  Oh, well, you know, I love this his father's wisdom, who said, what's meant for you will never go by you. And the mantra that I say, which means the same thing, is, like, what is for you will not pass you, or you will not pass you. And I think that that's a really important thing, because it's really easy to, like, hang on to something because we're afraid that something else won't come along. But like, if it's meant for you, will not go by you. And it's something that, like, as our career has taken off, as our business continues to grow, I have to say no to a lot of things, and that means worrying. Oh my god, am I letting something go? Am I saying no to something that could have, like, changed the trajectory? And it's like, I have to trust that what is meant for me will never go by you. What is for me will not pass me. So I hope that gives you something to think about, because it's not going to be all fucking rainbows and glitter, especially right now. Like, it's really hard right now. And I want to recognize every single one of you are listening like, you open up the news and it's fucked, and then you have to go to work and go, how are you? Well, all things considered, not shitty, but, like, it's hard, especially especially as people who have empathy and feelings and and caring. And so you have to keep getting up, doing the best you can. If you live somewhere where you can call someone who represents you and yell at them for what they need to step up, do that, it's part of a great day, and then keep going because if you can affect one person's life to make it better, it does matter. I love that. Brad Crowell 30:04  Yeah, me too. Lesley Logan 30:04  I'm Lesley Logan.Brad Crowell 30:06  Well, before we do that, we just wanted to shout out. Brad has an upcoming conference that's called Empowerography. It's a live conference for 2026 It is Friday, April 24th, through Sunday, April 26th, and I'm pretty sure it's a virtual. Lesley Logan 30:21  It's virtual so you can go. Brad Crowell 30:22  So you can find tickets and information about it on Facebook. Search for Empowerography. That's E-M power ography. You know, Empowerography Live Conference. Just search for Brad Walsh. Lesley Logan 30:33  We'll put the link in the show notes as well. That might be easier. Okay, go do that. And I'm Lesley Logan. Brad Crowell 30:38  And I'm Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 30:39  Thanks so much for listening. Thanks for being you. Thanks for calling your congressman and your senators and laying on the peppy if you're American and if you are European or somewhere from anywhere else you there's ways to lay on our shit too. So you can, you can help make change in this world. I believe it. I believe you and you. And if you don't want to do any of that, then leave me a review, please. Thanks so much. Until next time, Be It Till You See It.Brad Crowell 31:01  Bye for now. Lesley Logan 31:03  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 31:45  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 31:50  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 31:54  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 32:01  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 32:04  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode of Destroy The Hairdresser, David and Cyd accidentally prove a point.What starts as a conversation about social media strategy, live video, and “visual hooks” quickly spirals into stink bugs in microphones, lice trauma, wolf spiders, sponsorship rants, and whether salons should infect clients to create recurring revenue (kidding… mostly).But here's the experiment:They hit record.They go live.They stop trying to be educational.And they let the nonsense unfold.And if you're still listening to the end… that's the point.This episode explores:Why voyeur-style content is the futureWhy audiences don't want lectures — they want accessThe shift from “teaching” to “being watched”Why going live as a salon might be smarter than you thinkHow influence really works in everyday conversationsThere is no polished takeaway.There is no 5-step system.Just proof that attention is built through presence, not perfection.And if you made it to the end?Congratulations.You're part of the experiment.

Congratulations on getting through nearly two months of the audio Bible in a year. This week we continue through Numbers as the Israelites continue wandering through the Wilderness! If you have any questions and queries contact me at jwfrazer@presbyterianireland.org

Stefan Molyneux looks at how mysticism, philosophy, and communication overlap, in response to a listener's question about higher powers, emphasizing the use of reason and precise definitions to cut through vagueness in talks about belief. The discussion covers ideas like consciousness, love, and attachment, with him arguing that genuine moral love goes beyond basic instincts. He points out the problems vague terms create in society and pushes for common definitions to improve how people communicate. On dreams, Molyneux sees them as straightforward experiences from life, not as sources of mystical insight. He wraps up by noting the role of clear thinking and rational talk in dealing with complicated aspects of life, and encourages people to express their thoughts with care.Emails:Hello Stefan,Following your most recent, as of today, FDR podcast.(6292). I wanted to hopefully offer you some perspective that may or may not be helpful. As before, I understand that your time is valuable. I do think though that my perspective, linked to IQ and seeing things very differently to you, might be of aid. The reason I have added this onto an existing email is just for familiarity because I will mildly use this backdrop for additional thoughts. I did talk to you briefly on podcast 6147. But I wanted to offer you my thought process here because it might offer you some insight into your value in a way you had not considered. Firstly, what I believe is important background as to my perspective on this entire mysticism thing. I do believe in the existence of something higher and more powerful and that has communicated with us. Certainly, a little through the bible. But mostly not through the bible. There is channeling, including the human design chart, to back this up. So I do believe the new age at its core has some good concepts. BUT, I also believe that there is a huge, and incredibly powerful toxic element of the new age. There is a mix of non complete understandings and such. For this reason, I do think that your perspective and that of many who have similar perspectives is valuable. In that keeping things to objective reality. To challenge said toxicity. There is more to this understanding. But I think that explains the core of my thoughts. People that are truly inclined to the spiritual stuff I look at will find it. But people that don't really commit and use the bare minimum of it to justify madness. It is good that that is challenged. it is similar in some ways, if you imagine a society that has innovators and Socrates following philosophers. The innovators want to do innovating and the Socrates people want nothing to exist or be real or whatever. Even though philosophy as a discipilne is extremely useful and powerful. Some of those innovators might be best served in dismissing it as the ravings of lunatics and just getting on with Innovating. So I want to describe the dream I had that stopped me talking further about mysticism. I fully acknowledge none of this makes sense since I have no following. But it still might offer an interesting perspective. It is of course not likely that if I offered a genuine challenge to your view on that that evildoers would pick it up and run with it. But apparently the dreams thought it was a suitable fear to highlight. So I went with it. My argument on mysticism would be as follows. This is not something I am committed to or care about but it was what I was thinking. It is now the story in something else I want to express. Firstly, your original statement is that mysticism is the gateway to mental illness. Firstly of course, I wrote to you on the definition of mysticism. Which I would use my own after having defined it due to the problems with yours that I highlighted. I would further refine that now by defining a primary and secondary faith. But anyway, per your argument, I would say, if mysticism is a gateway to mental illness. Then that would assume it would not in general, be used to solve mental illness. I would further refine the use of symbolic things to reach understandings. Such as tarot cards. By asking why do we dream. Why does our subconscious communicate in such a way? I would answer this by saying what is the alternative? The alternative being that without the subtlety and indirectness. The subconscious would communicate more like a dictator. Even giving the information without veil would have this effect. Since once we know the right thing to do we have more responsibility and consequences than before we know that. So what does this sound like? This sounds like schizophrenia! I would then talk about how a possible theory for it, is that if the problem gets too serious. If the subconscious mind is screaming too loudly. It busts through the conscious/ subconscious barrier too loudly, and that's where this comes from. (This is roughly what I think happened with my schizophrenic break, some of my ideas come indirectly from the psychologist Elinor Greenberg who talks about how dreams help low level schizophrenics)This would then correlate schizophrenia, and that kind of non objective, symbolic understandings. More with the symptom of other problems than with it being the cause. I would also define mainstream faith based Christianity as mysticism. As per my earlier example. And show times when this has been used to help people. Such as when the Ukraine war used to go a bit crazy women on Gab used to put loads of Christian sayings out. Women cannot biologically deal with war, but they still have fear, so a tool like mysticism to reduce the fear is perhaps highly positive. So now I get to the point. Like I said and strongly believe. It is unlikely evildoers would take such a reasoning as this and run with it to dent your power. But the dreams still responded like this was the case. The dream I had, (I do not like to tell others my dreams I prefer to interpret but I am making an exception here). I was about to make a few youtube videos on this. But I had a dream with Pearl Davis being aggressively tortured. She has mentioned a few times over the years how she has been sued and things. It was a pretty shocking dream. It felt kind of real. But what I think it could mean, is that your platform and output in this kind of social war, was significantly impacting people like Pearl by pushing back on intensely female and active toxicity we are currently witnessing (Taking us back to the point on mysticism and the Socrates philosophers analogy).I realise you might not interpret it the same way. Like, you might believe that all individuals in our dreams are parts of ourselves along a Family Systems therapy line. But I just wanted to provide that feedback in case it does provide some perspective or help in some way. Best Wishes,Joe ---It has been some years since I listened to your last podcast, 'Why animals can't love.' At that point, I quit Molyneaux. It has occurred and re occurred to me that you continued to make consciousness or choice the mandatory when it comes to capacity to love.This thinking backs exactly into a contradiction. We know that infants have neither consciousness nor choice, yet, any parent knows the infant loves. Toddlers are compelled to love, but they love nonetheless. Teenagers, etc. Not only compelled to love, but can be. Of course, Molyneaux would say, 'But that's no real love.' But some of it is. The child still wants to love the parent even when virtue (lack) seeks to negate. Some part of that child does still love. I always believed that your false philosophy on animals and love conditions backed directly into the right, even obligation, to abort children. The threadline of your 'philosophy' justified abortion. Since the infant has no choice or consciousness. He is more animal, less human. The right to kill seems elementary. That's always deeply concerned me that something is off center in your work. Mean spirited. Resentful. Death-loving. A hint of Crowley, even though 98% of your takes are good. I know you made your cash on bitcoin. Congratulations. Make an atheist like yourself proud. Your constant promise that you'd go down as a philosopher great, today and/or in 400 years from now, shows no evidence.GET FREEDOMAIN MERCH! https://shop.freedomain.com/SUBSCRIBE TO ME ON X! https://x.com/StefanMolyneuxFollow me on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@freedomain1GET MY NEW BOOK 'PEACEFUL PARENTING', THE INTERACTIVE PEACEFUL PARENTING AI, AND THE FULL AUDIOBOOK!https://peacefulparenting.com/Join the PREMIUM philosophy community on the web for free!Subscribers get 12 HOURS on the "Truth About the French Revolution," multiple interactive multi-lingual philosophy AIs trained on thousands of hours of my material - as well as AIs for Real-Time Relationships, Bitcoin, Peaceful Parenting, and Call-In Shows!You also receive private livestreams, HUNDREDS of exclusive premium shows, early release podcasts, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!See you soon!https://freedomain.locals.com/support/promo/UPB2025

Want to Start or Grow a Successful Business? Schedule a FREE 13-Point Assessment with Clay Clark Today At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com   Join Clay Clark's Thrivetime Show Business Workshop!!! Learn Branding, Marketing, SEO, Sales, Workflow Design, Accounting & More. **Request Tickets & See Testimonials At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com  **Request Tickets Via Text At (918) 851-0102   See the Thousands of Success Stories and Millionaires That Clay Clark Has Helped to Produce HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ Download A Millionaire's Guide to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Money-Generating and Time-Freedom Creating Business HERE: www.ThrivetimeShow.com/Millionaire   See Thousands of Case Studies Today HERE: www.thrivetimeshow.com/does-it-work/  

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The MacVoices Live! panel critiques Mark Zuckerberg's blame of Apple for his issues, debate whether music lyrics should be locked behind YouTube Premium, and examines how different generations consume music. David Ginsburg, Chuck Joiner, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jim Rea, Jeff Gamet, Mark Fuccio, and Brian Flanigan-Arthurs also discuss Discord's proposed age verification and privacy risks, and their reversal after user protests. The discussion wraps with congratulations to Apple World Today's anniversary and commentary on Xfinity internet frustrations and broadband access realities.  MacVoices is supported by Squarespace. Check out https://www.squarespace.com/MACVOICES to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using offer code MACVOICES. MacVoices is supported by Hello Fresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/macvoice10fm to gett 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan.  Show Notes: Chapters: 00:00 Meta criticism and platform responsibility debate00:39 YouTube music lyrics and premium subscription discussion09:11 Generational music habits and platform usage differences12:48 Discord age verification proposal and backlash15:46 Data privacy concerns and verification security risks23:15 Congratulations on Apple World Today anniversary25:26 Xfinity internet reliability and broadband alternatives Links: Mark Zuckerberg continues to blame Apple for Meta's problemshttps://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/05/mark-zuckerberg-continues-to-blame-apple-for-metas-problems YouTube Music lyrics now require a Premium subscription https://9to5google.com/2026/02/07/youtube-music-lyrics-premium/ Discord will soon require face scans or ID for all users, or restrict accesshttps://9to5mac.com/2026/02/09/discord-will-soon-require-face-scans-or-id-for-all-users-or-restrict-access/ Discord backtracks on controversial age verification rollout…kind of - 9to5Machttps://9to5mac.com/2026/02/10/discord-backtracks-on-controversial-age-verification-rolloutkind-of/ If you have any choice besides Xfinity for Internet, take ithttps://appleworld.today/2026/02/if-you-have-any-choice-besides-xfinity-for-internet-take-it/ Happy Birthday to Apple World today (We've Turned 11)https://appleworld.today/2026/02/happy-birthday-to-apple-world-today-weve-turned-six/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Jim Rea built his own computer from scratch in 1975, started programming in 1977, and has been an independent Mac developer continuously since 1984. He is the founder of ProVUE Development, and the author of Panorama X, ProVUE's ultra fast RAM based database software for the macOS platform. He's been a speaker at MacTech, MacWorld Expo and other industry conferences. Follow Jim at provue.com and via @provuejim@techhub.social on Mastodon. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon     http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:     http://macvoices.com      Twitter:     http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner     http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:     https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:     http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:     https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes     Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Lesley Logan sits down with Brad Walsh, photographer and host of the Empowerography Podcast, to explore what it really means to be seen. Brad shares how his journey from corporate work into storytelling and photography led him to amplifying women's voices—and why resilience isn't just about getting back up, but about creating a path for someone else to follow. They talk about authenticity, body image, and the shift from a “me first” mindset to leading with service. This conversation is a grounded reminder that sharing your story can create impact—often in ways you don't expect. If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:How his photography helped women see themselves in a new light.Using resilience as a permission slip for other women's strength.Realizing every body is beautiful regardless of the package.Shifting from a “me first” mindset toward service-driven work.Letting go of comparison by owning what makes your work unique.Episode References/Links:Empowerography Podcast - https://empowerographypodcast.comEmpowerography Podcast Email - https://www.empowerographypodcast@gmail.comEmpowerography Podcast Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/empowerographypodcastBrad Walsh LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradwalsh70/Brad Walsh Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brad.walsh.56/Empowerography Live Conference 2026 - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1D7QAc3hFxGuest Bio:Brad Walsh is a podcast host/producer, photographer, a published #1 International Best-Selling Author and an International Speaker and who found himself wanting to inspire others during the pandemic. He birthed the idea of EMPOWEROGRAPHY, a Top 1.5% Globally Rated Podcast, a platform that highlights strong, inspirational, dynamic women who share their stories of success, triumph, resiliency and transformation. He had no idea that what started as a simple concept would take on a life of its own. He is excited to share this platform with you and continue to EMPOWER, ELEVATE and EDUCATE by amplifying the voices of women all over the world. He is so excited to share this platform with you and continue to EMPOWER, ELEVATE and EDUCATE by amplifying the voices of women all over the world. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Brad Walsh 0:00  It is un-fucking-believable. It is so powerful to be able to give that to another human being. And that's the most beautiful part for me as the photographer to be able to do that and show a woman who she truly, truly is.Lesley Logan 0:17  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 1:00  All right, Be It babe. This is a fabulous conversation you're about to hear. I'm so excited. I really enjoyed being on this person's podcast. They had the most amazing questions for me, and I was like, this person is very unique. I need to share their story on my podcast. And I was excited about it when I asked them. And now that I've interviewed them. I'm even more stoked about it. So you're in for a ride. You're in for a great conversation. I hope you feel like you're, you know, you're at coffee with us and chiming in. And I hope that this also inspires you to be it till you see it in a bigger, badder ass way, because you're amazing. That's not even a word, but I'm making it one. So here is Brad Walsh of the Empowerography Podcast and let us know what you think. Lesley Logan 1:47  Hey, Be It babe. Okay, we're gonna have a really fun conversation, because I already have had a wonderful conversation with our guest today, and after having those over on his amazing podcast, I had to have Brad Walsh, our guest today, over here on the Be It Till You See It podcast. So Brad, will you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at? Brad Walsh 2:04  Yes. Well, first of all, I'd like to say thank you so much for having me and bringing me on board on your platform. I'm excited to be here and share with your listeners a bit about me and what I do. So I am based in Toronto, Canada. My name is Brad Walsh. I am the host and founder of the Empowerography Podcast platform, which was created to help elevate and amplify the voices of women through sharing their stories. I also host women's empowerment conference online every year. We did our fifth one this year, and that's that's my thing. I love holding space and sharing, sharing the stage and shining a light on women to share their stories.Lesley Logan 2:40  So cool. Five, that's amazing. Congratulations. The first few are so hard. And then you get to five, and you're like, whoa, I'll keep doing this.Brad Walsh 2:51  Yeah, well, next year, actually, we're doing it live and in person here in Toronto.Lesley Logan 2:55  Oh, my God, that is amazing. In person is so powerful. Okay, but have you always been a storyteller? Like, have you always been like an event producer? Like, tell us the journey.Brad Walsh 3:07  No, the event producing is new because of Empowerography. Well, new. Five years new, I guess. The storytelling, yes, in a way, because I'm a photographer, so I tell stories visually through capturing images, through capturing moments in time. So yeah, storytelling has always been a part of the journey. My photography, that's my first love, my first passion. That's where everything started for me. I took a photography class in high school, and from the first moment I stepped into that class and into the dark room, it was first love. I fell in love with the art form, and I've been in a love affair with photography ever since. So it's been 35 years there around so, yeah, it's been an amazing journey. There's just something so magical about being able to capture an image in camera and then to develop the film yourself and to see an image come to life on a piece of paper is such a magical and beautiful process. I there's not enough words to describe the beauty in that. So that's where my journey began. I worked in corporate for 12 and a half years as an audio visual tech at one of the big four accounting firms.Lesley Logan 4:22  Like you know, I would never have thought that an accounting firm needed an audio visual tech.Brad Walsh 4:27  Oh, yeah, absolutely. Oh for sure, video conferencing, webcasting, meetings, off site events, yeah, absolutely, there's, yeah, there's a huge need for it, absolutely.Lesley Logan 4:39  Oh, well, that's so cool. I mean, least you got to experience the corporate side of things.Brad Walsh 4:43  Yeah, well, it was, it was for the first six years I loved it. The last six and a half were just terrible. I hated going to work. I didn't like my boss. I didn't love the work anymore. I fell out of love with it because I was constantly thinking about my photography, all the while, while I was working full time as an audio visual tech, I was running my photography business part time, but at that time, I was only creating I was creating art. I wasn't photographing people. I had no interest whatsoever in photographing people. That wasn't my thing. It was more architecture, landscapes, urban exploration, although that shifted a little bit for me during my corporate career, because I ended up getting, to put it politely, tasked with the responsibility at my corporate job, with doing the corporate headshots. Yeah, but I fell in love with photographing people.Lesley Logan 5:36  You're like, oh, you do photos? You can photograph a building, you can photograph a face.Brad Walsh 5:41  Yes, of course. And hey, why not? We've got this guy on staff. He could do this. We could save ourselves thousands upon thousands of dollars by having him do it for free. We don't have to pay him, because we're already paying him a salary. So I mean, that's where I fell in love with photographing people. I loved having that one on one time and that connection that you would get when you when a person sat in front of your lens, it just it created a connection there. And so through that, I a few, a few years after that, after my falling in love with photographing people, I was connected through a mutual friend to a boudoir photographer who was based in Florida, and I fell in love with her work and the mission and the message behind that genre of photography, with what you can help women accomplish in terms of body acceptance, self-love, self-confidence. And I ended up mentoring with her for six months. And when I was done my mentorship, it was just one of those light bulb moments. I just knew that that's what I've got to do with my photography business, when I make the jump, and that's where, that's really where my journey into the whole women's empowerment world started, is through the boudoir photography.Lesley Logan 6:49  Okay, this is so cool. I had no idea. So we had, yes, we had a boudoir photographer on earlier, and y'all are probably hearing this in 2026 so earlier in 2025, and I couldn't agree more. Like I, definitely, so back when I lived in LA, I had a girlfriend who wanted to work on boudoir photography, like, can you just, like, be my practice person? I was like, okay, like, whatever. But then you see the photos of yourself, and you're like, I had no idea the eye was so beautiful and like, that looks so amazing. Because, like, you know, first of all, most of all, most of us see ourselves in the lighting of our own homes, which is not always up to par. And you know, mirrors are interesting how they're not consistent. So like, you don't realize, like, the beauty that you have or the power that you have, and until someone does that. And yet, so many people are afraid of doing that, or think that they wouldn't be good enough for that. So I love this. So this is how you got into telling women's stories. And okay, but was it easy to switch? Was it did you have like this? Because I actually am sorry. I'm getting really excited right now. Okay, I'm halfway through my coffee this morning, guys, we are alive. So I love your journey, because it sounds like so many people. It's like I did this, and I kind of fell in love with it, and then I went to corporate, and then I was fine, and then I got bored, and then there was this other thing I was doing. And so I love this, because it's a journey that we all go on. But then to make the big switch to doing something you're really passionate about, there's still so much fear there.Brad Walsh 8:13  Oh, absolutely. I mean, with just back to the photography for a second, that gift that I am able to give a woman of her seeing herself for the very first time, like truly who she is. It is un-fucking-believable. It is so powerful to be able to give that to another human being. And that's the most beautiful part for me as the photographer, to be able to do that and show a woman who she truly, truly is. Because, as you said, you don't think about yourself. A lot of the women don't think about themselves that way. But then when they see the images, and they see who they truly are and how they're captured, it's inner and outer beauty, and it is so magical, the transformation that takes place in a 90 minute session with me is unbelievable. She walks in one woman, she leaves a completely different woman. And that is what it's about, is being able to show a woman herself in a brand new light, or a different light, a light that she's not used to seeing herself in, or a light that she's never seen herself in. That process. It's, it's, honestly, there aren't enough words to encapsulate the power in that. For me as a photographer, it is so beautiful.Lesley Logan 9:31  Yeah, because you're like, we wrote in something like a, like, a storyteller doula, but like, you are like, like, an empowering me, empowering women doula, you're like, and now go off and, like, impact the world, because it's why I do this show. It's probably why you do your your photography. It's like, I'm really good at what I do, and I love what I do, but my bubble of influence is this. It's whatever it can be, and if I can then influence another woman to be it until she sees it and does something that's so incredibly impactful. Her bubble of influence. And so all of a sudden, like, in my world, the way I envision this, it's like we get all these bubbles, and it's, like it can cover the whole world then, right? Because it's not about one person, it's about all the people feeling their power.Brad Walsh 10:14  That's right? And so with the photography, I got to a point I was probably about two years into my business full time, and I started to feel like I love this. This is amazing. What a beautiful gift this is that I get to do this, and I get paid to do this, but I want to reach more people. I want to have a bigger impact. I want my bubble to grow. And so I thought, Why don't I take the purpose, the mission, the values of the work I do as a photographer, and turn that into or transplant that into a podcast where I focus the platform solely on women. At the time and even now, I don't know of any other platform in the world out there that has a man as a host who solely, 100% focuses on amplifying and elevating the voices of women.Lesley Logan 10:57  Not gonna lie, Brad, when I saw what you're doing, I was like, what an interesting dude. I wonder why he does it.Brad Walsh 11:02  I so I thought, Well, I'm gonna give this to I had no experience interview. I had no idea how to interview someone. No clue. I just thought, you know what, fuck it. I'll figure it out. I'm just gonna jump in. So I reached out to seven or eight friends of mine, women who I had met through my photography journey, and I explained what my idea was for the platform, and of course, it was in its infancy back then, but I shared with them and asked them if they would help me get it off the ground by letting me interview them. They all said, yes. I did the interviews, I created the content, and at that same time, my photography business started to pick up traction. I was getting more inquiries, more booking. So I thought, Okay, I have to, I have to shift all of my energy, my focus, to the business. That's why I left corporate. I shut down the and shelved the podcast, focused on the business. And then, of course, we hit March of 2020. Screwed my business. I couldn't be photographing women. So I thought, Okay, well, you got two choices here. You can go through door number one and sit around and commiserate and complain about what's going on with over half the world. Or you could go through door number two and and see this as a gift that we've all been given and use it to put something good out into the world. We could use that right now. So I reignited the podcast, and here we are, five and a half years later, and it's been an absolutely incredible journey. I have interviewed some of the most beautiful, powerful, inspirational, resilient, courageous women. You being one of them, Lesley, and I mean, it has just been such an incredible journey. It has opened so many doors for me. I and at the foundation of it all is my mom, my grandmother. They are the the inspiration for it. My mom left my biological father when I was 10, he was running around on her having an affair. Back in those days, of course, women stayed home to raise the children while the husband was the one working. So when I look back on that, the fact that she had the strength and the courage to stand up after 15 years of marriage and say, No more. I don't have to put up with this shit. I'm taking my boys and we're leaving, and we left with nothing but the clothes on our back. We moved into a one bedroom apartment. Mom slept on a couch. My brother and I shared a bedroom, and she had to get a job after being out of work for 10 years, because she sacrificed to stay home and raise us and so when she was at work, my grandmother would step in. So for me, those two women are my heart and my soul. I wouldn't be the man I am today without them. And then, of course, all of the women that I've had the honor and pleasure of sitting down with and sharing in their stories, they have all contributed to who I am today because of their stories, because of the lessons and the insights I've I've received from all of these women I take inspiration from every single woman I interview, so they have all had a hand in creating who I am today.Lesley Logan 13:47  Brad, I couldn't agree more. Like I feel that in being able to interview people, even people who I don't really always agree with, I'm like, wow, that's an interesting way to be it until you see it. I probably wouldn't do it. But like, even in doing even in doing that, like, your ability to empathize and see people's whole people, because, like, we, we live in a world where people want to go that person did a bad thing, so they're a bad person. This person did a good thing, so they're a good person. And people are so complicated. They're so complicated. And when you know, growing up, you would hear about like, women who left or divorced people. And of course, the woman always gets the shade like because they're divorced, the divorce (inaudible) and knowing what I know now about when she could get a credit card, when she could get a bank loan, when she you're like, whoa, every single one of those women is the biggest badass I have ever heard of, because that would have been the hardest thing to do, like, because they're though the world was against them, and so like what strength and foresight and like to make sure that you guys saw something different. I, I am in the mood of like reading and re listening to women's stories from the past that have been painted in one way, and hearing the full capacity of it, you're like, oh, actually, you know that's that person is is stronger than we thought, or better than we thought, or cooler than we thought.Brad Walsh 15:07  Yeah. And I mean, then you add into the mix, if they've got children, they have to do what they have to do to help those kids. But to your point about hearing the full story, this makes me think of something I just discovered recently is the Salem witch trials, and what bullshit that was and what the real truth is, holy shit.Lesley Logan 15:30  You guys. We are. We are. I might have got chills. I got chills. We are recording this on Halloween. But like, I actually am in love with the acronym of WITCH, which is, like, woman in total control of herself. Like I am, like, obsessed with the song, I'm obsessed with the acronym, but you're correct, like the Salem witch trials, and also just the witch trials in general, which is just like, oh, she is a healer. She had power, or her husband's dead, and she has got money.Brad Walsh 15:53  She has real estate, yes, exactly. Lesley Logan 15:53  And they're just killing these women. Brad Walsh 15:57  I could not believe it when I went down that rabbit hole, I thought, Holy, fuck the amount of lies that we have been told about that and how women have been painted in such a horrible light, which is totally false, totally bullshit. Lesley Logan 16:11  In fact, you know what? Y'all I'm not saying that this is the most accurate statement, but I think if you've ever heard a historical woman being painted as this horrible person, I would just assume that there's probably a 180 story on that, like. Brad Walsh 16:26  Mary Magdalene? Lesley Logan 16:27  Okay, you read my mind. Because, like, you know, you're like, Oh, she's this poor sex worker home girl was fucking rich. She was she was absolutely bankrolling those dudes.Brad Walsh 16:39  It's crazy. The shit I have learned is unbelievable.Lesley Logan 16:43  Like, do you ever okay? Do you ever wonder, like, Is my whole life a lie? Like, was my whole like, my whole life was a lie? And sometimes I'm like, and so I have been reading there's, um, there's an Instagram channel that his name is for, like, I'm not remembering this moment, but she, like, talks about these, like, women in history that, like, we've just, like, erased, didn't listen to and I'm just like, made myself go every day I'm gonna read one, because it just makes me realize, Wow, we are stronger than we've ever been told we are. And in fact, like all these stories of history and people like, I think it's like these little digs to make sure women feel, Oh, I can't do it. Oh, bad things happen, right? Brad Walsh 17:23  Yep, it's horrible. Lesley Logan 17:25  Okay. The like, you've been platforming women, you've brought up the word resilience, and I, I'm someone who, like, everyone is like, Lesley, you're so resilient. And then what? Some days I just want to go fucking tired of being resilient. I just would, like to.Brad Walsh 17:39  I just spoke with someone the other day, and that's exactly what they said. I don't want to be fucking resilient. I'm so tired of that word.Lesley Logan 17:47  Like, I like, I like, I'm like, you know those, like, those punching bags where you hit them and they come back up again. I'm like, I just don't, I don't know if I should get back up or stayed. I don't know anymore. Like, just leave me. Let me be over here. Yeah, I guess, like, since you've interviewed so many women, you told so many stories, why should we want to stay resilient?Brad Walsh 18:10  Because it because I think that staying resilient by doing that you're giving a permission slip to other women. Because I think I see resilience as courage and inner strength being getting back up that eighth time after being knocked down seven times. That's what resilience is to me. And so when I think, when women do that, it's a permission slip for others, it shows other women what's possible. So yeah, I think, as much as you don't you hate the word, and I understand. I get it. I totally understand. But think about the other women that you are inspiring by doing that. And yes, of course, and there's nothing wrong with getting tired of hearing it. And maybe, maybe you don't have to get up every single time. But I think that by doing so it you are inspiring other women and showing you are proof of what's possible, in my opinion.Lesley Logan 19:00  Yeah, you're right. I mean, I'll keep getting back up, but I do, I.Brad Walsh 19:05  Somehow I can't see you staying down anyway. Lesley Logan 19:07  I don't even think I would know how to, but I, but I also, I also want to highlight that you said, like, it inspires others to actually maybe step outside and get outside, and I think, like, I think that's also why women have to tell their story, and I also think that's why your platform has to exist for women to tell their story, to have a platform if they don't have one, you know, because, like, so the other day, you don't know this, Brad, but I'll just tell you. So the other day, I got a comment on my YouTube channel, and it was like, Oh, I've loved your videos for so long, but you've been gaining weight, and it was better before.Brad Walsh 19:48  It was better. The content was better before you gained weight.Lesley Logan 19:50  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because yeah. So I and first of all, they had they so they wrote in Spanish. Which is fine. Like, that's their language. No problem. There's Google Translate. So I see this, like, common in Spanish, and I know enough Spanish to, like, pick up. And I was like, that's not saying what it what it says. So I put it through, no, it said exactly what I thought it said. And then, of course, a couple of my subscribers on YouTube, like, they defended it in the best way that they could, which is, is fine, the person then doubled down. So even if we thought, like, maybe it's a cultural thing, like, look, we have, we have a place in Cambodia, and they will ask you, like, point blank, like, why don't you have kids? Why are you bigger? Why are you looking so old? And it's not here. We would take that as, like, what an asshole. There, it's like, if you're heavier or you don't work, you must be rich. Like, so, like, you know what I mean? Like, it's a different and that's a whole different thing, right? Like, to have weight on your bones is sign of money, where, here we're, like, a sign of wealth is, like, can you just be as skinny as possible, right? And then also, like, look like a child forever. So anyways, so they doubled down on it. So we are clear that it's not a cultural thing. This is their opinion. So I, you know.Brad Walsh 21:02  And this was a man, I'm assuming. Lesley Logan 21:04  Yes and I couldn't tell from the handle, until when I called them out and I said, Hey, like, I really hope that when your body changes and it will, that you have space and grace for yourself and others in your life that you love. Because I am, for the record, since you've called it out, 40 pounds heavier than the one I started this channel, and I am stronger and I'm healthier, and I have more longevity, and I will not tolerate fat phobic comments on this channel. Thank you so much, right? And then the person, like, didn't apologize, but was like, Oh, I didn't mean to offend you, which is like, Okay. And then they signed off, and it was a man. And I was like, fucking why the fuck, why is it always a man? Why? But then you know what, here's the thing, I will I will clarify. I've had many women say some nasty things too. So, so I, so I went to the point of the story is, I went on my Instagram account and I shared the story, and I said, you know, like, I am saying this for the women who actually do have to walk into a room that people question. Like, I still go, I'm like, thin passing, right? Like, if we're going to talk about, like, like, I can walk into room and no one's going, Oh, is she? Can she do the exercise? Like, you know, like, what is she doing here? Like, I that doesn't happen to me, but there are women who are in bigger bodies that that happens to and so I just, you know, shared like, this is wrong. Like, bodies do not, size of bodies does not determine if they're a good teacher, a good a good athlete. None of this stuff. The every comment was positive. Every comment was thanking me for sharing, because they felt so seen and so to your point, the resilience of like, I'm gonna get up, I'm I mean, like, if I could punch a bag, that's what I would have done. I'm not a violent person, everyone, but I do think you should punch a bag you know.Brad Walsh 22:46  Yeah or scream into a pillow, whatever it is you got to do,Lesley Logan 22:49  Yes, yes. And so I shared it, and we're talking a 500 comments of women, that is, it was overwhelming. How many people like we're saying, this is what I or like they'll say, like, thank you for saying this. Or some of them are saying, this is what I'm afraid of. And I had to say, like, this is why you have to post, because people don't see that real bodies are out there. They're all the only people who feel like they can post are these 20 somethings. And nothing wrong with the 20 somethings. If you're listening, like, enjoy the metabolism you have while you have it like, have the best time. But we do have to, if we have a story, tell it so that we can inspire other people, yeah.Brad Walsh 23:28  Yeah, for sure. And that, you know what this is, something I love about being a photographer too, is I got to photograph all types of bodies, and every body is beautiful. I don't give a shit what anyone says. Everyone's body is beautiful. It's just a different package that we're looking at that's all and I love that you had the courage to post about it and share it. Because again, and this is exactly what I was saying by you sharing, look at all the comments you got. Look at all the women that stepped up and said, thank you. This is exactly why women need to, not need to. I shouldn't say that. This is why women should be resilient and share and be vulnerable. And I know it's not easy sometimes to be vulnerable, to share your your inner stuff. Think of the impact you can have and who you can help. And that's why storytelling is so very, incredibly poor, important because, and I don't care, I've heard many times I don't have a story. Who's going to want to listen to my story. I guarantee you, as I sit here right now, if you share your story, it will impact one person's life, I guarantee it. And that's all that we're here to do, is have impact. So share your story, as scary as it might be, you can you can edit it. You can decide what parts you want to share. I'm not saying you have to go and share every single detail of your story, but share your story because you will inspire someone else, and maybe by you sharing your story and your struggles, whatever it is, maybe you will help prevent someone from having to go through a similar thing by sharing your story, because you're sharing how you got through it. Lesley Logan 24:14  Yeah. Oh, you. Oh, I love this, okay. I also love the idea like sharing your story even impacts one person. Because, like, if we just, like, who knows? Like, maybe, maybe women are 50% of the population, right? Like, let's just make it even, if you share one, if you share your story and impact one person, you can impact the whole other half of the world. You can impact even just the women around but you can impact, I do think that sometimes we get frustrated with with men sometimes, and it's like, Well, did any women in their life ever tell like, did any woman in their life ever tell them like, hey, don't say that thing that actually you know about others, or here's hey, when you said that, here's a story, like, here's my story, how like that might change it and and that takes courage and conviction. It's not always easy. Some family members suck. So maybe it's maybe it's a co worker, maybe it's a neighbor, but I do think it is important that even if we impact one person, we are changing the world and how it sees everybody.Brad Walsh 25:56  For sure, because that will also ripple out to the person that the people that surround that one person. So you are, in effect, impacting more than one person, because yes, you've impacted that one person directly, but indirectly, you've you've impacted the people around her, because it will uplift her and shift her way of thinking. It'll shift her mindset. It'll help her, which then, in turn, helps everyone else around her, because it lifts her up. Lesley Logan 26:21  Okay. So we've been saying that we should, you know, consider sharing a story of ourselves. We, you know, edit how we want. Where do you like? Where do you get started? What makes a good story? Like we got perfectionist listening. They're gonna want to know some action steps.Brad Walsh 26:36  Yeah, just, just be authentic. Don't bullshit. Don't try and be something you're not. Just be genuine. Tell your story shit. Figure out, drill it down to what you want to share. First, figure out to what part of your story you want to share, and then just share it with authenticity. Just be who you are. Don't put on some facade. Don't put on a mask. Take the masks off and share who you genuinely are. Because I think when you are genuine, when you are authentic, and I know authentic, everyone uses that word, but it's true when you're authentically who you are that resonates with people. People want to see the mess. People want to know that you're human if you're portraying this perfect person that's gone through, you know, with no struggles, no hassles, no, come on, be who you truly are. Share your struggles, but again, you could be selective in what you share. Just be messy, because we are all perfectly imperfect, and it's okay. I think people will resonate with that more when you're authentic and you're genuine, it just it resonates for people, I think.Lesley Logan 27:39  I think so. And I know, like, people have really ruined the word authentic. We got to bring it back, because it's such a good word. I really, and I I think, like, you know, I think some people go, Well, you know, Lesley, Brad, I don't have like, a tragic story. Like, I think people because all the stories they hear is like, somebody like, survived, like, falling off a cliff, and then they turned into, like, some TED Talk speaker, and it's like, hold on, like, you know, like it can, like your story is so it, it will make someone else feel so seen. Like it doesn't have to be that you serve you're the lone survivor of a car accident. You can, you know, you can actually have.Brad Walsh 28:17  No, your story matters. Lesley Logan 28:18  Your story matters. You're correct. It could be that you struggled in school, and then you like, led you to like doing art, and it made you realize, like, you know, art tells I think, that we all are harder on ourselves than we need to be.Brad Walsh 28:30  Oh yes, we are own worst critics, our own biggest hurdles. We are terrible to ourselves terrible. And something someone said to me quite a while back, is when, when I, because I went through I negative talk. Of course, we all do at some point here and there. And I had someone say, Would you speak that way to your best friend? Would you speak that way to your mother? No, of course you wouldn't. So why are you doing it to you the most important person in your life? You. Stop, stop the shit. You don't deserve it. You're amazing. You're incredible. Every single person has a beautiful light within them. It's just a matter of finding it and then shining it. But surround yourself with the right people. Find your like and heart minded people to surround yourself with. Community is everything, absolutely everything. Community, connection, it's community is relationships are currency. You need them. We all need them, but share your story. It's so important.Lesley Logan 29:35  So I get like, what comes up for me on that is like, one, I love that you said we are the most important person our own lives. Like, holy moly. Like, I've never heard it so succinctly, and it's just like, Duh I am if I don't feed myself and sleep and like, I'm the most important person. Yes, of course. And so love that. So you know maybe you can share from your own personal experience, or maybe from. Any of the women's stories you've heard. Like, when you are trying to be more yourself, authentic, share your story. Sometimes your community doesn't exactly like cheer cheer for you. Like, sometimes your community puts those little doubts in your head because of their own fears, of their own shit, and it requires us to, like, find either new community or or or new things to say to ourselves. Like, did you have to go through that when you were making a big transition from, like, corporate to being a photographer or being a podcaster?Brad Walsh 30:27  Like, how did you handle that? So there were a few things when I first, before I was when I decided I was going to make the jump, I had so many people saying to me, are you crazy? There's so many photographers out there, how, like, why would you even do that? It's so you have a you have a good paying job, you have benefit, like, but I'm not happy. So why am I going to stay in something? I'm miserable. So many people stay stuck in that position because it's comfortable, because it's easy, because I have benefits, but they don't want to be there. It's not on their heart. So why you think about the fact that we spend so many years of our lives working? Why the fuck do you want to be miserable every day? Find and you know, you hear the excuse, well, I can't, because I can't. I need money for this. I need money for that. I've got better Okay, great. Those are, those are your reasons. That's your reasoning. Find what you love, start doing it part time, until you can build something up enough that you can do that. I know you know, working a full time job and then pursuing this, but I guarantee you, if you find your purpose, your passion, something that lights you up, that just has creates such a fire in your belly, it will change everything for you. I say it's, for me, it was like winning the lottery twice. Once, because I found my purpose, second, because it impacts people. That's what we're all here for. So when I first left, yeah, I dealt with imposter syndrome. Who the fuck am I to do this? Why would anyone want to work with me, all the things, comparisonitis, I would sit there and, well, why is this person, this photographer, so far ahead of me when I'm here? And I thought I would be here, but all of these things and around that piece of it, I thought, well, when I So, the first thing I did was get a mentor. It was the first thing. He helped me get to the point where that comparisonitis and the imposter syndrome. Well, the imposter syndrome was still there a bit, but the comparisonitis stuff he helped me realize that my only competition is me, as long as I can look back at for me as a photographer and see that my work has grown, my work has improved, that's the only competition now, I don't give a shit what that person's doing as a photographer. It doesn't matter. It has no bearing on me. Because first of all, to compare, comparing someone that's at their five year and I'm at my two year, that's like comparing apples to oranges. You cannot compare the two. It's pointless, right? Secondly, no one has, again, speaking about the photography, no one has my eye. No one sees images the way I see them. No one provides the client experience that I can, because no one else is me. That's part of your superpower. That's part of your gift is nobody else on this planet can do what you do the way you do it, I'm saying. Yes, anyone. I mean, look. Lesley Logan 33:31  I love it. I tell people this. I tell people all the time, you are the only person who can do what you do the way that you do it doesn't matter what industry you're in doesn't matter what your dream is. Even if two people are baking an apple pie from the same recipe, it's going to taste different because of what they put into it, what the energy they put into it. Yeah.Brad Walsh 33:50  Give, give three photographers the same image to shoot the same thing to shoot, all three images, I guarantee you will be different in some way, shape or form, because we don't have the same eyes. We don't see things the same way. And so through that mentor helping me with that, I also I had a me first kind of attitude, too. When I first jumped into photography, like I would, I was starting to go in with, go into brands, companies, and say, you know, wanting to collaborate with them. And I was going and say, well, what, what can you do for me? Like, how can we work together? What am I going to get out of this? And my mentor said to me, said that, Brad, I'm You're going nowhere fast. You have to shift that mindset and go into these companies and say, How can I be of service to you? What can I do to help your brand? It will come back to you if you go in with a mindset of service. It's a fucking game changer, I promise you. It will change everything but the comparisonitis, the the imposter syndrome, the nerves, the fears, all of that thing, all of those things. I, the comparison, I just no more. I don't deal with that anymore. I'm done. I've got my tools. And this is the thing is, get a mentor. Watch videos on YouTube. YouTube University. It's a great place, talk to people who are in your industry. Talk to people that are further along in their journey. They have the experience and the wisdom. Ask questions, it can only lead you up. It's it's so helpful. Just trust in yourself, believe in yourself. And I know it's easy to say, but I'm telling you, it will change everything once you start to believe in yourself, don't worry about competition. I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what business you're running, what company. There is no such thing as competition. Competition comes from lack. You are unique. Lesley Logan 35:53  Yeah, I couldn't agree more. We coach a lot of Pilates studios and like, they'll be like, oh, so and so is going with this many classes, and they have this many performers, and I should have the same and I'm like, what are you talking about? You don't even know if they're successful. They look successful because they made it look pretty. We don't know that could be a way that their family is writing off the business and having a loss. It might be purposely there to lose money. And I say that because I had a friend whose whole existence for her business was to bring the couple's money down because their tax bracket was really high. So like, if I was comparing myself to her, who looks like she has it all together, I could have driven my business into the ground. Like, you have to, look, market research is real, do the thing, but then also, like you have to do it for you, and the impact you want to make and the service want to be. I love this so much. And I also couldn't agree more, like getting a mentor is like it was, and this might be a terrible joke, but for those who I went to public school, I was homeschooled, I went to private school. So I can say this, from this experience, I feel like when you get a mentor, it's like taking your your business, or your idea or your passion, and putting it in a little bit of a private school, putting in a little bit of a because you get extra attention, you have smaller class sizes, you you get someone who's really invested in you. And I'm not saying, like, public school teachers, you're amazing. Thank you for all the work you do, but, like, it just takes your thing to the next level, or you can still do all the things for free, but you've got to make sure that you're going, okay, my YouTube University, I this, I It's like I paid for this. I like invest in that to make sure that I'm applying those things I'm learning. Yeah.Brad Walsh 37:31  Comparison is the thief of joy. Do not compare yourself, because no one else is you. And listen, when I first jumped well before I actually jumped into photography full time, I was doing free shoots. Sometimes that's what you have to do, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I did the free shoot so I could enhance and hone my lighting skills. Because I had never worked with artificial light before. I'd always worked with natural light. I had to learn how to pose women properly. With boudoir if you don't know what you're doing with lighting and posing, forget it. You're fucked. That's it. It's over.Lesley Logan 37:54  Yeah, the opposite effect could happen. Brad Walsh 38:03  Yes, so I was doing free shoots for friends to hone my skills and to learn. That's how you learn. And I know people say, well, I don't have the money for a mentor, and there's nothing wrong with that. But what you can do is trade services, maybe, find someone you could trade services, what you can provide for them, and do it in trade. There's nothing wrong with that either. I'm hearing a lot more people talk about doing things in trade. There's nothing wrong with that. Lesley Logan 38:33  Yep, yeah. And especially, like, I think that it's easier to put a wall up than open a door, you know, and I think, like, if you don't have the money, and I've been there, y'all, I have been homeless. I've had, like, credit cards, max to the brim, student loans, all the things. And today there is a podcast for everything you want to do, and that person is giving you, I promise you, they're giving away all the stuff they coach on for free in the wrong order. So if you have you either have money or you have time, and so what you could do is take that free stuff, figure out the right order through experimentation, and not compare comparison, and you will get to where you can actually take the money and invest it so it will work out for you, but you have to believe in yourself. And I think that's really the hard thing is that so many people are hope, looking for other people to believe in them first. And this is where I don't know how to like, truly help everyone I want to help. It's like, how do we get them to believe in themselves enough to take the first step? Because they really are amazing, you know? And they're just, they don't know it, you know?Brad Walsh 39:39  You just have to support them. You just have and you have, it's conversations like you and I are having right now and then taking the time to sit with someone and talk to them and find out hey, why you feel if it's a friend or someone you want to help, why are you feeling this way? How can we help you get to the next level? What can we do to support you? How can we get you there? Because everyone has the ability within them. Every single person on this planet is capable of doing anything, anything, anything in the world that they want to do is possible, you just have to. It starts here with us. We are the foundation for all of it, you have to do the inner work. Lesley Logan 40:17  Oh, you are so, I could talk to you forever. I really hope this is an episode people like, like, I hope they're as fired up as I am from this, because it really there's, there's so much possibility out there. We're gonna take a brief break and then find out how people can find you, follow you, work with you and your Be It Action Items. Lesley Logan 40:39  All right, Brad, where do you hang out? You said Toronto. But where do you hang out online? How can people hear more of your amazing tips and these brilliant stories?Brad Walsh 40:43  Instagram, at Empowerography Podcast, my website, empowerographypodcast.com, and Facebook, those, those are the three places I'm on LinkedIn. I'm starting to build up a profile and following on LinkedIn as well. But those are the three main is Instagram, Facebook and my website.Lesley Logan 41:03  Yeah, yeah, no, I'm with you. I with you on the LinkedIn, like, oh my God, if you've been listening podcast for the over 600 episodes, where you guys, I still haven't gone. And honestly, here's where I'm at. I'm just gonna have someone do it for me. I I just, like, I'm not a corporate person, so I don't get half the stuff that it's doing. And I just, I just want to do other things. So that will be my 2026, 2027 goal is to just find someone just rock that LinkedIn for me, but, but I do love my I love my platforms I'm on, so y'all go check them out. Follow, check out the podcast. I mean, if you want to hear resilient stories from amazing women, like, what a great way to fill your cup each week, especially if your community isn't doing that for you. Like, you can start with just hearing a story on a podcast. Okay, Brad, you've actually given us some great tips, but we like them at the end, bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us?Brad Walsh 41:56  Something that my father always said is what's meant for you will never go by you. So if you don't get that thing that you are hoping for, and don't worry, it wasn't meant for you, and something bigger is around the corner, I promise you, just be patient. Wait for it. It will happen. The universe always has your back. It will never, ever let you down. So like I said, if you're not, if you don't get that TED talk, or you don't get that job you wanted, you don't get that client you wanted to work with, it's okay. It wasn't meant to be something else. I promise you, bigger is coming around the corner for you. So be patient and wait for it. It will happen.Lesley Logan 42:35  I think there's such a good like mantra to have, like, written somewhere, like, start your day with it, end your day with it. Like, because I have to say to myself too, like, what is for me will not pass me. Like, what is for me will not pass me. Because you do get doors, like, you're like, Oh, I'm excited about that. Someone asked you to do something. You're like, Yes, I'm in. And they go, Oh, we're going a different direction. You're like, Oh, it feels so deflating. And then you're like, but you have to remember that like, there's another reason why that space is open in your calendar, in your life. Yeah, yeah.Brad Walsh 43:05  That's right. I just sent an email off to invite a guest that I really wanted to have on the show. And they came back and they said, sorry, her calendar is full, so no. And I just thought, Okay, well, this I wasn't meant to interview her now, and no means next opportunity.Lesley Logan 43:22  Yeah, at least you got an email back. That's great. Sometimes people just don't even say no. And so you're like, should I bug him again? Like, that's a door open for later on going, like, in the new year, like, Hey, how's that calendar? Like we can we have the whole 12 months where we want to put it? Brad Walsh 43:37  That's right, that's right. Lesley Logan 43:39  Brad, thank you. What a great, well, for me on a Friday, interviewing you, what a great way to like end my week. I feel so fired up. For those of you who listen to us on a Tuesday, thank you for listening to the Be It Till You See It podcast. We are so excited to have you. Please make sure you share your favorite takeaways with Brad at Empowerography on Instagram or Facebook, or you can check out their website and listen to their podcast and share this with a woman who needs to hear it. You know, like, even that can be the helpful thing you can say to your friend, like, hey, you've been feeling stuck. Brad Walsh 44:10  He you should check this out. Lesley Logan 44:11  Check this out. Like, sometimes that's the thing that helps people get out of being stuck or being in a rut or feeling like they're not seen. So thank you for sharing it. Until next time, Be It Till You See It. Lesley Logan 44:21  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 45:04  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 45:09  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 45:14  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 45:21  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 45:24  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In a quick attempt to catch up on SnailMails, Jimmy and Tyler dedicated a Mondays episode to some voicemails. Caller 1: Nick from Montana talks about Camping vs Glamping Caller 2: Nathan from Pittsburg says congrats Caller 3: Jeff from OR asks about battery’s 100 Ah Battery that Jimmy Bought: https://amzn.to/46o6aSJ Caller 4: BJ from North Carolina talks LTL Caller 5: Boat Down likes the 12v talk Caller 6: FU Bob talks about his full size Tundra Caller 7: FU Bob gives love to all vehicles Caller 8: Richard from Atlanta talks about Health Caller 9: Nick from MT talks about wearing a mask when grinding MORRFlate Giveaway at 900 Reviews on Apple Podcast. But our next giveaway is when we reach 800 reviews; we are giving away an OnX Elite Membership. We will also give away an OnX Elite membership when we get to 850. However, when we reach 900 Reviews, we are teaming up with MORRFlate for a $1000 MF Product Giveaway. Go over to Apple Podcasts to leave your review now and become eligible to win. Congratulations to A13XMONT, who won a set of tires from Yokohama Tire! Call us and leave us a VOICEMAIL!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. If you have any negative feedback, you can call our negative feedback hotline, 408-800-5169. 4Wheel Underground has all the suspension parts you need to take your off-road rig from leaf springs to a performance suspension system. We just ordered our kits for Kermit and Samantha and are looking forward to getting them. The ordering process was quite simple, and after answering the questionnaire, we ensured we got the correct and best-fitting kits for our vehicles. If you want to level up your suspension game, check out 4Wheel Underground. SnailTrail4x4 Podcast is brought to you by all of our peeps over at irate4x4! Make sure to stop by and see all of the great perks you get for supporting SnailTrail4x4! Discount Codes, Monthly Give-Always, Gift Boxes, the SnailTrail4x4 Community, and the ST4x4 Treasure Hunt! Thank you to all of those who support us! We couldn’t do it without you guys (and gals!)! SnailSquad Monthly Giveaway February’s Giveaway is with our good buddies over at GlueTread. They gave us an Expedition Kit Tire Repair Kit. This kit has everything you could possibly need to repair your tire while you’re in the outdoors. It comes with a plug kit, colby valves razer blade, sand paper, and of course, the famous adhesive and patches that GlueTread is known for! Sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4 Congratulations to long-time supporter Evan Cook for winning the Gearwrench giveaway. We got some more goodies to give away to a lucky winner. If you want a chance to win this amazing giveaway, all you need to do is sign up for the Giveaway Tier on Irate4x4. Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 –SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate – snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits4WheelUnderground – snailtrail 10% offIronman 4×4 – snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4×4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad – snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope – snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus – SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor – SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply – ST4x4 for 10% offBackpacker’s Pantry – Affiliate LinkLaminx Protective Films – Use the Link to get 20% off all products (Affiliate Link) Show Music: Outroll Music – Meizong Kumbang Midroll Music – ComaStudio

Congratulations, you've completed the Egypt & Exodus period and you've arrived at the Desert Wanderings ! Jeff Cavins joins Fr. Mike to provide us the context for the book of Numbers and the book of Deuteronomy. They discuss how this period is marked by Israel's rebellion against God as they wander in the desert for forty years striving to regain their narrative and identity. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

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