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Democrats RAGING After Trump's State Of The Union Address! Andrew Branca. 16 Minute Documentary on Voter Fraud.   MEDIA REACTS! Democrats RAGING After Trump's State Of The Union Address! Andrew Branca. At the State of the Union, President Trump asked lawmakers to stand if they agreed with a simple principle: the first duty of government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Many Democrats refused. The moment sparked fierce backlash, viral clips, and crushing post-speech polling showing overwhelming approval from viewers. Was it political theater — or a revealing moment about party priorities? Constitutional stakes, the Save America Act, birthright citizenship debates, sanctuary policies, and why this single visual moment may shape the 2026 midterms. Watch this video at- https://youtu.be/NPiVyZJQrhk?si=p8i7Bj-VkMrxyGb4 The Andrew Branca Show 283K subscribers Feb 26, 2026 "BRANCA FOR SCOTUS" MUGS! https://thebrancashow-shop.fourthwall... JOIN OUR COMMUNITY! Exclusive Members-only content & perks! Only ~17 cents/day! $5/month:    / @thebrancashow   Visit Here: https://lawofselfdefense.com/getthebook "You are wise to buy this material. I hope you watch it, internalize it, and keep it to the forefront whenever you even think of reaching for a gun" -Massad Ayoob (President of the Second Amendment Foundation) The #1 guide for understanding when using force to protect yourself is legal. Now yours for FREE! Just pay the S&H for us to get it to you. ➡️ Carry with confidence, knowing you are protected from predators AND predatory prosecutors ➡️ Correct the common myths you may think are true but get people in trouble ​➡️ Know you're getting the best with this abridged version of our best-selling 5-star Amazon-rated book that has been praised by many (including self-defense legends!) for its easy, entertaining, and informative style. ​➡️ Many interesting, if sometimes heart-wrenching, true-life examples Get Your Free Book: https://lawofselfdefense.com/getthebook 00:00 “Nothing Special About Being American” Clip 00:15 Trump's State of the Union Challenge 01:03 “Protect Citizens First” Moment 01:21 Democrats Refuse to Rise 02:09 Was It Just Political Theater? 02:54 The Trap Explained 03:42 Crime Victim Stories Highlighted 04:18 Save America Act Mentioned 04:46 Polling Surge After Speech 05:48 Immigration Approval Numbers 06:09 Democrat Internal Criticism 06:53 Sanctuary City Penalties Proposal 08:09 Birthright Citizenship Debate 09:16 Midterm Strategy Implications 10:47 Democrats Afraid to Stand Alone 11:27 “Common Sense” Mandate Framing 12:29 Cost of Mass Deportation Debate 13:21 J.D. Vance on Immigration Limits 14:14 Citizens vs The World Priorities   Post Johnny Midnight  @its_The_Dr Ladies and Gentlemen, When President Trump said ALL THEY DO IS CHEAT, This is WHAT HE MEANS! THIS IS THE EVIDENCE! 2020 was an ABSOLUTE OVERTHROW of the GOVERNMENT! An ABSOLUTE COUP! Spikes in Numbers, Figures that were Not Possible and a whole Slew of issues of People that had access, IRAN, CHINA, VENEZUELA and who knows WHO ELSE! Watch here and see just how they did it! This is just the TIP OF THE ICEBERG!  

What if AI didn't just sound right — but could prove it? In this episode of the MAD Podcast, Matt Turck sits down with Carina Hong, a 24-year-old former math olympiad competitor and Rhodes Scholar, and the founder/CEO of Axiom Math, to unpack how AxiomProver earned a perfect 12/12 on the Putnam 2025 and why formal verification (via Lean) may be the missing layer for reliable reasoning. Carina argues we're entering a “math renaissance” where verified reasoning systems can tackle problems that currently take researchers months — and potentially push beyond math into verified code, hardware, and high-stakes software. They go inside the “generation + verification” loop, what it means to build AI that can be trusted, and what this approach could unlock on the road to superintelligent reasoning.(00:00) Intro(01:25) Why the World Needs an AI Mathematician(02:57) Scoring 12/12 on the World's Hardest Math Test (Putnam)(04:05) The First AI to Solve Open Research Conjectures(06:59) Does AI Solve Math in "Alien" Ways? (The Move 37 Effect)(08:59) "Lean": The Programming Language of Proofs Explained(10:51) How Axiom's Approach Differs from DeepMind & OpenAI(16:06) Formal vs. Informal Reasoning (And Auto-Formalization)(17:37) The AI "Reward Hacking" Problem(20:18) Building an AI That is 100% Correct, 100% of the Time(23:23) Beyond Math: Verified Code & Hardware Verification(25:12) The Brutal Reality of Competitive Math Olympiads(29:30) From Neuroscience to Stanford Law to Dropout Founder(33:57) How Axiom Actually Works Under the Hood (The Architecture)(37:51) The Secret to Generating Perfect Synthetic Data(40:14) Tokens, Proof Length, and Inference Cost(42:58) The "Everest" of Mathematics: Scaling Reasoning Trees(46:32) Can an AI Win a Fields Medal?(47:25) "Math Renaissance": What Changes if This Works(55:47) How Mathematicians React to AI (And Why Proof Certificates Matter)(57:30) Becoming a CEO: Dropping Ego and Building Culture(1:00:42) Recruiting World-Class Talent & Building the Axiom "Tribe"

Katie's definitely starting to show, Trey is taking full credit for not being insane, and we're still spiraling on baby names (Missouri?? Mo?? Rascal??).Support the show!Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/correctopinions #rulapodOur listeners get 15% off plus free shipping when they buy two or more pairs of prescription glasses at http://WarbyParker.com/CORRECTOPINIONS — using our link helps support the show. #WarbyParker #adReady to make some healthy swaps and become a member? Join Thrive Market with my link ThriveMarket.com/CORRECTOPINIONS for 30% off your first order plus a FREE $60 gift!Ready to stop paying more than you have to? New customers can make the switch today and for a limited time, get unlimited premium wireless for just $15 per month. Switch now at http://MINTMOBILE.com/TREYJoin the patreon!http://patreon.com/treykennedySubscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL3ESPT9yf1T8x6L0P4d39w?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe to Correct Opinions on Apple: http://bit.ly/COPodcast

Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs)! By establishing KPIs in your practice, you find ways to remove the emotion that doesn't need to be there. Tiff and Kristy explain how KPIs drive a practice — and how to implement them if you haven't started yet. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back again today and I say we again because I've got Miss Kristy here with me. You guys know how much I love her and podcasting with her is just, I told her today, like I just, you bring a sense of calm and it's great and letting it be on a, like Thursday afternoon, this is kind of cool for me ⁓ and ending my week. I've got, you know, we've got things to do tomorrow, ending calls with this is really, really cool. So Kristy, thank you so much for being here today. How are you?   The Dental A Team (00:29) Good and you?   The Dental A Team (00:31) I'm good,   thank you. ⁓ I'm... I was gonna say that, like what the heck? I'm so glad you're here though because, you know, this time last year you were here in snow and ice and I'm so glad you're here but it is cold and I heard you guys, record these, this is January right now, it'll be released in February but it's like so cold. It's like 43 degrees in the morning here and us Arizona women are just not used to that so.   The Dental A Team (00:34) It's cold for Arizona.   The Dental A Team (01:01) I agree and there's supposed to be ice and snow coming, not for us, we get rain, thank goodness, but I'm like, that's why we live here, so we don't have to deal with ice and snow. yeah, puts a little damper on travel, so we'll see. We'll see how that goes, but I am glad that you're here. This is the time of year that everybody comes and visits. February is a massive, massive time to be in Arizona. In March, we've got spring training games going, we've got...   Waste Management Open, we've got, oh my gosh, every weekend there's a taco festival or something going on. So this is the prime time to be in Arizona. If you wanna come visit, tell us that you're coming and we'll be happy to give you some suggestions. Kristy, we talk about these a lot and I'm excited because I know you actually thrive in this world a ton. You make decisions based on these. are phenomenal at projections.   four practices and the world of KPIs, which you guys, for those of you who don't know, key performance indicators, those are the indicators within your practice that tell you how you're performing. I had years and years and years ago now, like way too long to even count, I had a manager one time and she said, Tiff, I want you to start joining the KPI meetings on Thursdays with the CPA doc and I. And I said, okay. And then I ran over to my computer and I was like, Google, what is KPI? What does KPI mean? I was like, I'll be there.   That sounds great. This is like growth for me. You're putting me in. I was like, yep, I'll be there. And then I was like, what does this mean? So if you don't know what it means, you're not using them, you are not alone. I had to Google that once upon a time. And that was before Chat GPT. I feel like I would have been so much better off if I had that to break it down for me. But alas, here we are. And Kristy, I love KPIs. I love black and white decision making. I love any opportunity we have that we can remove some emotion.   from a decision, especially in the dental industry. We have a lot of emotions in the dental industry and being able to remove those and say that yes or no something is or isn't working. And my favorite piece of that is when we do that, Kristy, I think it gives us the opportunity to tackle the system and not make it personal about the person. Like it might not be that you suck.   it's that the system's not working or we're not using it correctly. And if that's the case, I'm fine. We start using it correctly or we alter it. But I think, Kristy, it makes me feel a lot better about accountability and about KPIs and just about leading teams when it's less about a feeling and a person and more about the system. So I'm excited. Kristy, tell me, why do you love KPIs?   The Dental A Team (03:41) Yeah, for the same reason, Tip, because so many times we see people focused on the wrong thing. And when you really dial into the metrics, they start to tell a story, right? And sometimes even metrics can look a little bit deceiving, but that's why I like to say the numbers start to tell a story. And then we get to dig into it and figure out the story. So, you know, just in saying that, I think if I wasn't doing what I was doing, I would be some kind of detective. And I mean,   The Dental A Team (04:09) I think   you would too.   The Dental A Team (04:10) Maybe that's why it's so exciting for me, but like, and it's truth, right? The numbers don't lie. And so a lot of times we have misperceptions on things and that's the human aspect. So to give grace on us, and I also feel like what we measure expands, it grows, right? And so if we're focused on the wrong thing, what do we get more of? And so,   The Dental A Team (04:33) Mm, true.   The Dental A Team (04:40) I just think it's the fastest way to make improvements. And it's kind of funny Tiff, because in other things we do, if we want to lift weights or we want to lose weight, what do we do? Get on the scale or we're like, we lift 50 pounds. my gosh, I added another weight. We measure it really well, but in dentistry it's like taboo. ⁓ we can't do it. Like it's so bizarre, right? But I just, again, it's the true measure. We talked about this.   The Dental A Team (05:02) I agree.   The Dental A Team (05:07) on a different podcast of winning. It truly lets us know if we're winning or losing, and maybe we'll focus on the wrong thing, right? I know you've heard it a zillion times. Doctors come on, need more new patients. I need more new patients. I need more new patients. And we look at their outstanding treatment list and it's like $3 million. And I'm like, do you really know what you mean? Right? So again, sometimes it lets us win faster because we can breathe direct and focus on   The Dental A Team (05:26) You   for sure.   The Dental A Team (05:37) what's really gonna get us there.   The Dental A Team (05:40) Yeah, I love that you said that. I love the idea of focusing on the wrong thing because I think we do that a lot. focus on the negative, right? We're like, what was our attrition rate instead of what's our new patient and our active patient count? Are those growing? Because if our new patient count and our active patient count are growing, attrition's fine. But if we're looking at attrition rate, we're like, how many are we losing? We're grasping. It's a different kind of energy and that will grow. So if you're looking at it,   you want your attrition to grow, then keep watching it. If you want your active patient count to grow, keep watching it. And if it's not growing, then you tackle the systems and assume attrition is happening. So I love that you said that because it broke it down, I hope for everyone, a little bit differently there. And our podcast today is How KPIs Drive a Practice. And I think in that simple statement and those two minutes you were just talking, you just broke it down, like verbatim on how it drives a practice because   what you focus on will grow no matter what. you're right, it's so everything in our life, we count everything. Like it's just human nature to count and track everything we do. We track our money, we track our expenses, we track our weights, we track our weight, we track everything that we do, we track our gas mileage. know, my sister's always like, ah, I got 16 gallons or whatever. I need to go get the best gas price. And I'm like, girl, I don't.   I don't know what she's like, what is your car get? I'm like, I have no idea. But there's, know, she's tracking that. But like, then we go into a dental office, it's like, don't talk numbers. Don't talk numbers. Don't track it. Because that's going to make somebody feel bad. It's like, no, we're going to track it. We're going to see that we're winning. And we're going to feel really, really good. Like my sister, sometimes she comes home and she's like, ah, I guess mileage was down. Sometimes she comes home and she's like, guess what? Simple. But that's how simple it can be.   doesn't have to be astronomical, but those small wins add up to something astronomical. And I have had so many clients that, I've had clients that have purchased practices, they're like, all right, when are we starting marketing? I'm like, well, what do you mean? You've got, like, what's your patient count? What's your active patient count? And then what's the total patient count of that practice? Because you have, every patient right now is a new patient. Starting marketing,   is a wild use of your money. Let's internal market, let's get your exams better. There's so many different avenues that we think are just the norm, so we jump on board with them. But then when we pull and extract those actual KPIs, we can find the root of what we need and the root of any problems that there might be, any systems that need to be revamped. So I love that, because that's how you're driving success, by watching the KPIs.   Kristy, and you've got, I hope everyone knows, I don't say it every time, but Kristy's done so much in her dental career and held so many titles and she's consulted for far longer than she's even been a presence here at the Dental A Team. We're so grateful for her. Kristy, in all of your experience, what do you feel are the easiest KPIs to start tracking if we're not tracking any? And then what are the most valuable KPIs maybe that people don't think of?   The Dental A Team (08:53) Ooh, that's deep. Obviously, I think we have to look at it as like two different forks in the road, right? Because so many times we hear the practice of a million dollars and then we hear the practice of six million. And I think doctors, you guys get all ramped up and think if I'm the million dollar guy, why am I the six million dollar guy? And I'm thinking, wait, wait, you don't necessarily want to be that guy. You're actually more profitable than, you know.   The Dental A Team (08:55) I I like that one.   Correct.   The Dental A Team (09:22) So it's not just what's happening in the practice, but also how profitable you are, right? And truly us here at the Dental A Team, we're looking to make sure you're hitting that profitability because that's where the true freedom is. But with that being said, the biggest KPIs out of the gate is what do I need to hit every month to be profitable? And then I measure my production, net production.   and collections. And ⁓ I am going to throw new patients in there, but in a different way, because doctors do want new patients and a lot of times they're getting them. But don't just look at how many I'm getting. Look at how many are reappointing. ⁓ you know, it's one thing that you're getting them and you might be doing limited, limited and letting them go out the back door. So again, look at those, but also   put more weight on how many are getting reappointed. And then ⁓ I also like doctors to look at diagnostics, dollars and diagnostic or sorry, acceptance dollars and percentage. ⁓ They go hand in hand. It can't just be percentage of acceptance because maybe I'm not accepting enough to even get to that goal. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (10:31) case acceptance.   Yes,   yes, I love those. Yeah.   The Dental A Team (10:46) And lastly,   probably in that tip would be your reappointment rate. How many are we reappointing? Because keep those patients of yours. Don't have to spend so many external dollars to gain more because if we just keep what we have and too often we look at how many people are sitting in our inactive pile or we don't look at it and you have a whole nother practice sitting there that you could tap into.   The Dental A Team (11:13) Yeah, I love that. I love what you said about the case acceptance dollars, the diagnostics and the case acceptance dollars. I too have doctors, I love having them ⁓ track their diagnosis and then their dollars. Number one, I hated being a treatment coordinator that had no control over how much was being diagnosed and only initially when I was treatment coordinator, were really only looking at case acceptance, which is very popular.   So case acceptance, case acceptance, and then they're like on your neck and that call these three people, why didn't these, like call the people and like I have called all the people. I can't, and we have so many clients, right, that the TC's are like I've called all the people, Tiff, can't, Kristy, I can't call anymore. Cool, it might not be in the case acceptance. Sometimes it's in the diagnosis and then to loop back to your new patient statement, all of those go so hand in hand and this is why, ⁓ heaven help me, this is why.   things like our scorecards, clients of Dental A Team that talk about the scorecard. This is why the scorecard is so important because you can look at a dental analytics screen and it's choppy, all over the place. The scorecard brings it together so that you can see what's affecting something else because to your point of the new patients, I had a practice near and dear to my heart. He hit his massive goal this year and I'm so proud of him. We worked really hard on, it was, you know,   Timelined out for five years and he hit it literally two weeks before his deadline, his date. One of the things that was holding his practice back was the new patients. He needed more new patients, needed more new patients, so his marketing company is like, all right, we're gonna ramp up new patients. And then all of a sudden we've gotten new patients, but it's like, we're not growing. There's nothing on the schedule, what's happening? And so I said, okay, what kind of new patients? And we had so many emergency, limited, transient, going through town, looking for an emergency.   He was doing a lot of same day dentistry, but not getting things booked on the schedule and not really adding to his patient count, because there wasn't reappointments happening. When we dialed that in, we found that and I was like, here's the key, switched his marketing, his new patients went up,   Then we focused in on his case acceptance. And then like you said, with the dollars, we're seeing, are they accepting fillings?   Are they accepting crowns? Are we getting the near cases? Like what is the case acceptance percentage is cool, but what are we actually, what's the procedure that's being the dollar amount and is there a ceiling maybe in our treatment planning, either back office, front office, wherever it is, is there a ceiling that our system needs to be able to help us overcome in diagnosing a certain dollar amount or treatment planning a certain dollar amount?   The Dental A Team (14:03) Yeah, I love that you say that, And as the TC, that's the one that gets me because so many doctors go back up there or come to us and say, they're just not closing it. And I always tell my practices, case acceptance is a team sport. And literally, it starts from before they even call the office. Like everything you're doing is contributing to their trust. And so ⁓ truly, docs,   I know you don't want to hear this, but it's your job to get them to yes with treatment and ⁓ financial coordinators get them to yes financially. So some of them can work heroics and they do, but it is totally a team sport. So going back to the diagnostics too, you asked a tool that I use ⁓ that maybe isn't so looked at. And I would say print your procedure count report yearly and just take a look, you know?   Are you doing four surface fillings? And I'm not saying that you shouldn't, but is it aligning with your philosophy? And are you giving patients the choice for long-term care? Because sometime that probably four surface filling is going to turn into something, you know? And let your patients decide. Let them decide.   The Dental A Team (15:18) Yeah.   Yes, I love that I have worked with many practices that they do give the options, but they assume that their patient base wants something specifically or can only afford something specifically. So they may give the options, but they kind of talk them into starting with something and started just leaving it on the table and saying what, if this were your mouth and roles were reversed, that we often say,   this were your mom, if this were your sister, if this were your brother. But I like to think, what if we were in different seats and the patient or the dentist, you were sitting in that chair, what would you want someone to tell you? Because you might even still err on the side of like, mom, when it happens, we'll fix it, but like, let's just do this patch for now, right? Because I don't, we don't want to get you numb. Like you might still err on that side for a family member, the, know, quote unquote conservative, but if you were sitting in that chair,   what would you want the dentist to say to you? And I think that makes a massive difference. And that is like your detectiveness, right? That's your detectiveness, but it works and it's what practices need sometimes. And I think, Kristy, part of those pieces, and you showed me your AR thing yesterday and how you diagnose that. And sometimes we do have to go to those spaces.   The Dental A Team (16:17) Yeah.   Yeah.   The Dental A Team (16:40) because you can't see it in the other areas. like, gosh, something is here, but that's why you look at those KPIs that are gonna drive success. And then when one of them isn't working, when one of them isn't hitting the metric that you want it to, you dive deeper. You're not just going to say, okay, every month let's pull the procedure code report. You're gonna say, if case acceptance, if we're not hitting production, case acceptance isn't working or diagnosis isn't working, now we're gonna dig a little bit deeper.   I think what tends to happen is we either go surface and we're like, everything's fine and we ignore issues or we go so deep that we're in the weeds and nobody has time to see the patients. We're just pulling reports all the time.   The Dental A Team (17:20) Yeah, it's so funny. So much psychology goes into it, right? Like our doctors get so upset in dentistry. I remember like doctors thinking, well, we're the only ones that do free consults. Medical doctors don't do free consults. Why do we do it in dentistry? You know what I mean? But yet we also complain, my schooling costs so much and they don't want to pay me what I'm worth, you know? And it's like,   Almost everything, it's funny when we get into it and I work with clients, I'm like, we kind of caused it. We taught them. How many times do we answer the phone and we go, do you have insurance before we even know their name? You know? So it's funny. It's like an oxymoron in a way, but I love that you brought that up because many times we do it to ourselves.   The Dental A Team (18:10) Yeah, yeah, we just spin our wheels on something, to find it and trying to get it right in an industry where nobody's taught how to do this stuff. guys, doctors learned how to be dentists and that's it. It's a rare occasion that you come across anybody who is taught how to run a dental practice. And dental is different than medical. So even healthcare professionals, right? People who have a degree in healthcare management, it's different.   This is why we're here. This is what we do. This is this is years and years. mean, across the whole Dental A Team team, like we should count that up. That'd be a lot of years. I don't even know anymore. We've grown to so many consultants. I don't even want to try to count that right now. We'll do that later. We'll ask Josh to do that for us. But regardless, there's so much wealth of knowledge here in.   The Dental A Team (18:57) Yeah.   The Dental A Team (19:04) ensuring that and we've done such a great job at finding the solutions and the systems to at least get templates and things started to customize for practices. I think that's just an immense value that consultants like the Dental A Team bring is that space of uniformity. these are things that we've seen work. Let's start here and then let's layer on top for you and let's adjust it for your practice and your team.   and those KPIs that drive success, pretty universal. And you said, you know, the common ones, production collections, new patients, diagnosis, case acceptance, and I loved your reappointment rate for new patients and just in general, those tell you the stories. And then from there, we dig and dive deeper. So I love it, Kristy. Thank you so much. think if I were to give an action item, it would be to revamp.   your KPIs if you're digging too deep and grab some new ones if you're not going deep enough, if that makes sense. So, Kristy, anything else you'd like to add?   The Dental A Team (20:09) No, I love it. The only thing I would say, Tip, I know you have the saying down better, but use, love the numbers, right? Don't use them as sticks, is that?   The Dental A Team (20:17) Yeah.   Yes,   yes, numbers are here to guide us. They're stars to guide us. They're not sticks to beat ourselves up with. Yeah, years and years of presenting with Kiera. Awesome, well you guys, go check your KPIs, go check your scorecards. If you're a Dental A Team client, you should have a scorecard. If you don't, get after your consultant. Everyone has scorecards this year, so we're good to go. But if you don't know how to use it or if you're confused by it,   The Dental A Team (20:26) There you go. Love it. Yeah. Love it. ⁓   The Dental A Team (20:48) or if you're not a Dental A Team client yet and you want information on it, please by all means reach out. We're here to help you. We wanna make sure that everyone is successful, whether you are a one-on-one client with us, a group client, or just here as a listener, we wanna make sure that you are all successful. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, and you guys, we'll catch you next time. Thanks so much, thanks, Kristy.   The Dental A Team (21:08) Thank you.  

On the four-year anniversary of Russia's illegal invasion into Ukraine, we need to give credit where it is due and say that this Government, or at the very least the National Party and NZ First, are saying the right things around the reality of Russia illegal actions in Ukraine and where NZ's support needs to beRyan Bridge is either a useful idiot, or maybe just an idiot, as he tried to trap Chippy again and again over the cost of a new harbour crossing in Auckland and untruths about Genisis Energy.A group of female ex-MPs from the left and right of politics have taken the Government to task over the way it hurried through changes to pay equity reforms last year. The People's Select Committee called it a 'flagrant and significant abuse of power', which amounted to 'orchestrated subterfuge'.++++++++++++++++++++Like us on Facebook.com/BigHairyNetwork Follow us on Twitter.com/@bighairynetworkFollowing us on TikTok.com/@bighairynetworkSupport us on Patreon www.patreon.com/c/BigHairyNewsCheck out our merch https://bhn.nz/shop/Donate to our work https://bhn.nz/shop/donation/

When your corporate job feels "secure" until it suddenly isn't, real estate can become the Plan B that turns into your best move…  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, DoorGrow founder Jason Hull sits down with John Casmon (multifamily syndicator, host of Multifamily Insights, and co-creator of the Midwest Real Estate Networking Summit) to break down how corporate professionals can transition into multifamily investing without becoming a stressed-out landlord. They dive into how John went from corporate bankruptcies to building a multifamily portfolio, what passive investors actually need to know before putting money into a deal, and why trust + clear expectations matter just as much as the numbers.  Jason and John also unpack what this means for property managers: how to align with investor goals, why the best operators project calm control (even in chaos), where syndicators hang out, and how PMs can position themselves to win more multifamily doors.    You'll Learn (00:00) Transforming Property Management: An Introduction  (00:59) John Casmon's Entrepreneurial Journey  (02:56) Transitioning to Multifamily Investing  (04:33) Understanding Investor Types and Property Management  (05:48) The Role of Property Managers  (07:49) Investor Control vs. Trust in Management  (09:33) Challenges in Property Management  (11:17) Aligning Goals with Property Managers  (14:19) The Real Product of Property Management  (17:14) Managing Investor Expectations  (19:50) Syndication: A New Avenue for Property Managers  (23:44) Legal Considerations in Syndication  (26:41) Calmness in Chaos: The Key to Success  (31:40) Partnering with Syndications  (33:54 The Role of Property Management in Syndication  (38:29) Finding Syndicators and Building Relationships  (42:24) Understanding Passive Investment in Syndication  (47:45) Identifying Your Investment Goals  (51:54) Assessing Risk in Real Estate Investments  (55:15) Choosing the Right Market for Investment  (01:00:12) The Three C's of Raising Capital Quotables "The first C is confidence. Confidence comes from preparation." "The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game."  "It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. And for over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. So my guest today, I'm hanging out here with John Casman, a multifamily syndicator, host of the multifamily insights podcast and the co-creator of the Midwest real estate networking summit. And in today's episode, John's going to break down how corporate professionals can transition.   into multifamily investing, how to find the best markets, how to raise capital effectively, and what separates successful operators from everyone else. John, welcome to the DoorGrowth Show.   John Casmon (01:10) Yeah, Jason, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Love the intro, your intro, not my intro, ⁓ but excited to be here and share as much as we can on our journey to help all of your listeners reach their goals.   Jason Hull (01:22) Cool. So John, ⁓ it's great to have you. I would love for people to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. How did you get to where you are now? And then we can get into your business.   John Casmon (01:34) Well, the short answer is bankruptcy, right? I worked for a couple of different companies that went through bankruptcy and that really made me consider my other options. You know, I was at General Motors back in 2007, 2008, 2009 when we went through bankruptcy and I was there and I watched what that did to a lot of my peers. I one day in particular when we were going to have a lot of layoffs, I went to work as late as I could. But when I got there, I had a red message, a little red dial on your phone.   for anybody who's worked in corporate and remember voicemails. So I had a red dot on my phone, picked it up, pushed the play button and my heart skipped a beat because I thought maybe I was getting to the can, right? And it was actually a colleague of mine who sat kind of kitty corner in front of me and he had been let go. He, you know, was diabetic. He didn't know I was going to pay for his medication. He just was venting in his voicemail. And I just remember feeling empathy for him, but also   a sense of I just never wanted to be in that situation. So it made me really start to think about Plan B. Eventually I moved to Chicago, realized real estate was going to be that path and learned everything I could about investing. So it kind of took me down that pathway to say, you know what, I need a Plan B because no matter what you do, when you work in corporate America, you do not control your future. You know, there's politics, there's policy, there's a lot of different things involved that you do not control.   And sometimes it does just come down to someone not liking you for whatever reason, or they think you're a threat. And I didn't want to spend the rest of my career navigating those issues. So I figured I had to take more into my own hands.   Jason Hull (03:16) got it. And so you start taking things in your own hands and what was the result?   John Casmon (03:20) Yes. So we landed on multifamily investing, started with small multifamily. My first investment was a two unit building. We house hacked it, which is a common popular phrase now. But back then it wasn't quite as common. But we lived upstairs. We rented out the first floor unit and it worked great. You know, it worked so great that we went to refinance and we had created enough equity in that first investment to pull out a six figure line of credit and go out and buy another property. So.   Jason Hull (03:45) Nice.   John Casmon (03:47) That really got the ball rolling. bought a three unit building, we bought an eight unit building, and at this time I'm still working in advertising, still working in corporate America, and I enjoyed what I was doing, and I just had my second child, but the agency I was working for also went through bankruptcy right at this time. We had expanded, we were growing, and we had kind of combined with a few other agencies and kind of became this little conglomerate, and it just eroded just as quickly as it grew.   I remember again, just sitting there and I've got some real estate. I've got a little bit of cashflow, but not enough to pay all my bills. New baby. And I just realized this real estate thing is working, but the exact strategy I'm employing doesn't allow me to insulate myself from these economic changes and shifts. So I had to change my strategy and that led me to syndication. Since then, we've acquired over $150 million worth of apartments.   We've partnered with busy professionals to buy these properties and give them some passive income. And that's what we've been doing ever since.   Jason Hull (04:50) Got it. So your area of genius really is helping these people that were similar to you, they're in the corporate environment transition into being an investor in real estate.   John Casmon (05:01) Yeah, exactly. And I would say too, it doesn't have to be you're going to quit your job and do this full time. And in fact, most people don't, you know, but most people do want a little bit more control over their life. You want a little bit more flexibility. You want to earn and start building up, you know, your net worth. You want to have a little bit more liquidity. You have to look at your investments to say, what should you be doing? I think most people know that their 401k, their, you know, company issued life insurance.   probably not enough to really get you on the fast track to retirement. So what else could you do? Certainly you can invest in the stock market. Lots of folks do that. But real estate is a proven vehicle. The challenge is, I don't know anyone who really wants to be a landlord, right? ⁓ Certainly you want the benefits of real estate investing, but very few of us want to get those 2 a.m. phone calls. So the shortcut there is, ⁓ hire a property manager. Great solution. But now you have to be able to manage   property managers, right, which is this whole other business. And if you don't have enough scale, then it's hard to get that person really focused on your business. So we offer an alternative, right? You get all the benefits of real estate investing, all the ownership perks without any of the headaches of being the landlord yourself. So it really is a great marriage of being in real estate without having to do the heavy lifting yourself.   Jason Hull (06:15) Okay.   Okay, so ⁓ the target audience of this show are property managers. So if they're not gonna use property managers, then what's the alternative? How does this work?   John Casmon (06:29) Well,   first of all, what we do is not always for that individual. So I think that's the key, right? You've got to understand who you are from a psychological standpoint. So when it comes to investors, there's two types of investors. One wants control, right? They're not willing to be passive. And some people think they want to be passive until they're in a passive situation and then they're calling and they want to know why you did this and why you did that and how come you did do that. That's not a passive investor. And that's fun.   Jason Hull (06:45) Yeah.   Yeah, they're anxious. Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (06:58) And   if that's you, you should be active, right? And you should work with a property manager, but you also want to work with the property manager who is going to be right for you, right? Because sometimes that is not how they operate. So you want to understand that. And that's a process to understand who you are as an investor, what kind of investment strategy fits you and what's going to be right there. When it comes to property managers, though, I think there are a couple of things. And as a matter of fact, we just left out of meeting with   property management company yesterday. They have 2000 units. We talked about some other services that we offer. And one of things that stood out to me was just understanding some of the challenges that property managers face. And one of them is property managers are really in a position to think like everyone. They're supposed to think like an investor. They're supposed to understand maintenance and kind of the construction arm enough to understand what needs to happen at a property. But they are really little CEOs, right? Because for   Our stuff, the large apartment stuff, those are typically million dollar annual revenue businesses. And this person is in charge of that asset of that business. They are making the day to day decisions. They are the face for the residents, aka the customers of that business. They are the face and their experience with that individual is how they view that business. So it really is an important role. And if you're working with property managers, it's really important to understand how to find the right people.   to connect with them and have them represent your business, your brand, company in the right light.   Jason Hull (08:30) So now you left an open loop that I want to close. So you said there's two types of investors, those that want control and maybe should go find a property manager, you said. And then what's the other type?   John Casmon (08:34) Yeah.   The other type is those who don't want control and they trust someone else to handle that. And for them, there are a couple of different ways of investing. One is investing passively with a group like ours. The other is turnkey investing where again, you hire a property manager, but you really entrust them to manage the property. The only thing I would say for either one of those groups, myself included, is you want to trust but verify. Okay. You've got to do a lot of your due diligence upfront. You want to understand how they operate. You want to talk to   some of their other clients, some of their other investors, because you need to get a really good sense of what to expect. And a lot of people are great at selling themselves upfront, right? I can tell you everything you want to hear upfront. You want to know what is it like once you sign the paperwork? How often are we going to talk? How frequently am I going to get updates? And at what point am I able to weigh in and make decisions? Because if, if you are someone who wants to be more active or be heard, or you've got thoughts and opinions,   Jason Hull (09:18) yeah.   John Casmon (09:35) You want to make sure you have a voice in your investment. Otherwise you may get really disappointed or you may bring on someone who has a different perspective of what that relationship looks like and that never is going to work out.   Jason Hull (09:47) Yeah, there's a big challenge in the industry and that's that most property management companies suck. so most investors that have dealt with property management to some degree are they have some scar tissue, they've been burned a little bit. They've a lot of property managers that started their businesses that come to me for help to grow their business. They started because they were investor and they couldn't find anyone else to manage the property good enough. And that's why they started their business, but it can be a difficult business to run. so none of them start their business saying, I want to suck.   But that's kind of the default unless they get some really good support or figure some things out through a lot of trial and error. And so that's where DoorGrow comes in. We help them with that. But one of the things I coach my clients on a lot is that they need to shift into being daddy over these rental properties. They need to like tell the owner, hey, you need to trust me. And they need to be able to have a really effective business so that they can lean into that trust.   because a lot of people are anxious. They'll come to them with concerns, but generally if a property manager is good, they're much better at this investing stuff than most investors. And they're much better at coordinating maintenance. They're much better at handling leasing. And so when an owner tries to micromanage a property manager, it kind of doesn't make sense to hire somebody to manage your asset just so you can manage them to do the job. And so I think the secret is finding a really good property manager that you can   let go of control because you can trust them. And but yes, you need to verify that they can do the job that you need them to do. And so a good property manager will take ownership of it and they'll take control and they will, they'll display a lot of certainty and confidence in how they communicate and they won't allow you to micromanage them is what I've seen. So.   John Casmon (11:37) Yeah, Jason, and I'll add to it. There's a two way street there. And I think it's easy for people to say, ⁓ most property managers suck or they're not good or whatever. And listen, there's certainly a lot of challenges there. A lot of folks who are not living up to par to the standards. But I will go back to this. We ask property managers to do the work of generally like a CEO. Right. I mean, again, they're managing million dollar businesses in many cases, yet they don't have that training. They don't have that experience. They don't have the ability to navigate.   all of these various things. So part of what owners and investors need to also understand is that you play the role of asset manager. And that means giving clear direction of what success looks like so that that property manager has a framework to make decisions. It's not to micromanage those decisions, but to help them understand how their decisions impact the greater good. And part of that is like, again, just sitting down with annual goals. What are revenue goals? What are our goals on?   Occupancy, what are our goals on in a lot? And this may seem simple, but I promise you a lot of folks don't do this. And if you don't do that, then that property manager is going to default to, for instance, I'll give you a great example. I've got a property manager. She's awesome rock star. But she always gets nervous when occupancy is not at like 96 or 97 percent of this property. So she is, you she starts apologizing profusely and all I did this or done that and like.   Jason Hull (12:58) Yeah.   John Casmon (13:04) Occupancy is one of our KPIs for sure. It's important, but that is not the KPI. I am focused on my net operating income. And if we're going to push rents, the impact of that is you're going to have higher vacancy and she is not comfortable with that. And that's probably because she's used to working with owners who want that thing fully rented and they are comfortable having 100 % occupancy.   Jason Hull (13:13) Yeah.   Hmm.   Yeah.   John Casmon (13:33) if they're leaving 50 bucks, 75 bucks, whatever it is of rent on the table. And that's the part where you've got to really align with your vision versus their vision, because what they have in the back of their mind may not completely align with what you have. Or they have residents in their face who are coming into the office. They want something fixed. They want it done quickly. They want it done right. They want it done yesterday.   Jason Hull (13:49) Right.   .   John Casmon (13:59) So they've got that pressure of this person in their face. So they may go out there and spend the money or authorize the money to get spent. And maybe they're not picking the most cost effective measure. So you have that. And I'll give you one third one. A lot of times when you run into the flip side of that is maybe occupancy is low. They say, hey, we need to increase our marketing spend, right? We got to increase our marketing budget. know, ox is down to 88 or 90%. We got to spend more money. And we're not necessarily.   really zeroing in on what the specific issue or challenge is at that property. So for an owner, your job as an asset manager is to partner with them and to help them see what the options are, help them work through with some of those challenges and solutions are and partner with them to find success. It's not to micromanage them and tell them what to do, but it's really to understand the situation better and give them that perspective.   Jason Hull (14:49) Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. think, you know, one of the things I've seen is that I've noticed a lot of property managers, they make the mistake of thinking that the goal or the product that people want to buy from them is property management. But investors don't wake up in the morning and go, man, I'm so excited to get property management today. The thing that they want. And so the way I describe it to them as they say, property management is like the flight to Hawaii. It's not Hawaii.   and you're trying to sell the flight. That's not the exciting part. You need to figure out what the investor wants, what their goal is. Where do they want to go? What's Hawaii for them, right? What's paradise? And then how do we optimize for that? And how do we help them create a path for that? Because the actual product that a property manager is selling is not what they do. It's not property management. The actual product is them. It's them and their values and their belief system and how they create trust and the team they build and the system and mechanism they build around them.   That's the actual product the property manager is selling. so a lot of property managers make that mistake. They sit there and talk to you about maintenance coordination and leasing and inspections. And meanwhile, you're just wondering as an investor, can I even trust this person? Like do our values align? Yeah. So I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but.   John Casmon (16:11) I think you're spot on, right? Because, I mean, ultimately, as an investor, you are only as good as the team you can build. And that property manager is in charge of the day-to-day aspects of the business. especially when you, you know, I've heard horror stories of folks who have done like turnkey investing, right? Where the property manager, someone owns it, they buy it, they fix it up, and then they rent it back to...   an investor. And I've heard horror stories where that property was not being well managed. And that's the fear. If you're not in that marketing, you can't come and see it. So if you got an out of town investor, you really are trusting that property manager. So that is the most important thing, right? Everything else are tactical, daily situational things that can change. But it comes down to do I have the right people, people that I can trust, people who are going to make the right decision based on the information they have.   because they may not know what I know or maybe something shifted and changed where they would have made a different decision. We can't, you know, ache on that. It really comes down to are they doing their best? Are they making good decisions? If they're not making good decisions, is it because they didn't have the correct information, which again, could fall back on you as the investor to say, hey, are they aware of what your goals are? Are they aware of maybe this situation, these tools, these resources, whatever it is? And that's on you to sit and collaborate.   But trust is absolutely paramount because at end of the day, the thing that I think most of us are concerned with is who we partner with. And there's a great book I'm reading right now. And it gets into decision making and the fear of decision making for most of us and why deals stall. Why didn't you hire somebody? Why didn't you, you know, go with the vendor or go with the contractor or with the company? And the biggest thing is we are scared of making the wrong choice. All of us in decision and no action.   Jason Hull (17:43) Absolutely.   John Casmon (18:04) is better than the wrong action for many people because they once they take action. Well, now they're blaming themselves because you didn't pick the right person. Why did you hire that guy? You should have like now this starts to go on in their head versus doing nothing. Well, at least it's you know, it's not going to get worse, you know, it will in lot of cases get worse. So for a lot of people, that is the scariest thing. So if you can take that fear off the table as far as being the right person or being someone who is trustworthy.   Jason Hull (18:07) Right, yeah.   John Casmon (18:32) everything else gets easier. So if you can do that, that's, you know, the best thing you can do as an investor or as a property manager.   Jason Hull (18:38) Yeah, I agree. think one of things that I talk about a lot is that clarity has to come before action because if you don't have clarity and you start taking a bunch of action, doing stuff, every action you take is a little bit wrong. Sometimes it's a lot wrong. so, yeah, we need to get that clarity first before we start ⁓ making moves. And you talked about, I love the example of your property manager that is trying to   optimize maybe for the wrong thing. They're like, want to optimize to the, making sure their vacancy is super low. But that might not be the goal. That's not the primary goal. The goal is money, you know, and there's a really good book is by Elihu Goldratt. It's a good book for operations people, but it's called The Goal. And spoiler alert, the guy's trying to figure out the goal through this whole book, the story and it's money. That's the secret. The goal is the of the business, should be making making money.   And what happens in this book is that people are over optimizing individual pieces in this flow at this warehouse. And it's actually not helping to make money. It's causing more constraint. And so if we over optimize at one stage, it actually creates waste, bloat, inventory, additional work for the next stage. And so sometimes the best thing certain departments can do is slow down and do less in order to get the outcome to be maximized outcome.   And there's some really great examples in that that I think are really powerful. But I think the if you're optimizing for the wrong thing, then you're not making it effective. So you want to make sure you're optimizing for the right thing. Otherwise. ensues. You get mad at somebody, but nobody understood what the goal was. And so I think, yeah, getting a greed upon set of criteria of what what the outcome is and asking the property manager, can you help me achieve this?   And they know, they know if they know what the problem is, usually they can, they know how to help you get whatever goal that you have. And they know whether your goal is probably realistic or not, because they've helped probably a lot of people do this similarly. And so, but yeah, I think it's very important. Make sure you know, where's Hawaii and maybe property management is the vehicle. Now you had mentioned like, I'm really curious about this idea of, you know, maybe creating syndications.   Some property managers are now starting to think, maybe I should create a syndication. What's your criteria for, what's a good syndication and what are some of the, I'd be really curious to get into if some of the property managers listening were wanting to do kind of a little bit of what you do, how they might be able to get started in that. Like what are the beginning steps to make sure they don't make the mistakes you probably already figured out in the beginning?   John Casmon (21:27) Well, I think the first thing is, you really want to get into it? Right. Because for a lot of people, you got to understand it's a different business. Now you're not talking about real estate investing. You're not talking about property management. You're really talking more about, you know, investment management. You're talking about bringing on private investors who are looking for a return. That is communication skills. That's building up a network and a database of   Jason Hull (21:35) Mm-hmm.   Right, returns.   John Casmon (21:54) prospective investors, it's understanding the return projections that they're looking for. And it's really kind of managing the investor expectations, not necessarily the investment. And to give you a great example here, I had a deal where the investment went great, but it was slightly lower than what we initially projected. And I had an investor who was upset.   Jason Hull (22:07) Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (22:23) about that. And we had communicated all throughout the entire process where things sat and he wasn't too upset, but he still made it a point to let me know, hey, well, this is less than what you initially thought. And that's challenging because the market shifts, right? Anybody who's bought properties in 2022 and beyond knows the market has shifted drastically over the last three or four years. So those projections made in a 2021-22 environment   Have a hard time standing up in a 25 26 environment We still make good money on that deals double-digit returns for investors ⁓ But you know there was that that was that feedback I got from one of the investors conversely We just exited deal a couple months ago, and we completely exceeded our return projections You know we delivered on a almost a 2.7 equity multiple Hit all you know mid 20s on the IRR completely unheard of stuff in this environment   And I have one investor call me and say, hey, John, I just checked my account. Is this right? And I'm like, yeah, it's it's right, man. He's like, my gosh, you guys killed it, man. my. Like, this is amazing. And it's great to hear. But again, that is separate from the investment. Right. Happy to manage the investor expectations and concerns. But that was an up and down investment where we had, you know, a moment where we actually had to put some of our general partner capital into the deal to keep it going.   Jason Hull (23:27) Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (23:48) We have floating rate debt. had to refinance out of that. And we had to kind of rush to do that before rates started to go crazy. We had moments where our construction or renovation costs were much higher than we anticipated. So there are a lot of things that we had to navigate. And I think what happens for a lot of operators, a lot of people who get into syndication, they know the real estate and want to do the real estate, but they do not understand the perspective of the investor. And when you don't communicate to investors on a frequent basis and a clear, transparent nature,   Jason Hull (24:19) Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (24:19) They fill in the blanks and   the first concern every investor has and they won't say it. Most of time they don't say it, but I promise you they're thinking it after they make that investment. my gosh, did I make a mistake? Am I going to lose money? Is this person going to run off? Is this going to be some sort of fraudulent thing? Is this deal going to fail? These are all that we're wired like that. This is caveman stuff, right? We're wired to protect ourselves.   Jason Hull (24:36) Hmm.   Right.   John Casmon (24:45) And when you make an investment, and by the way, our investments are typically $50,000 and up, right? So these are not small investments. So when you make that investment, people start to second guess that decision. So my job when it comes to this side of the business is to keep them grounded that, hey, you've done your research, you've made an informed decision, you've picked a good partner, we've done this before. ⁓   Jason Hull (24:50) Yeah. Right.   John Casmon (25:13) And it's really to make sure that they feel comfortable with that decision. It has nothing to do with the investment, right? The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game. So first thing I would tell any of your property managers when they get into this business is understand, do you actually like people? Do you want to manage investors? Are you comfortable managing people's money? ⁓ And then beyond that, you have to do it the legal way. There are a lot of regulations around accepting capital from other people.   Jason Hull (25:31) you   John Casmon (25:42) So you can do it as a joint venture. The more common way of doing it, the more accepted way of doing this is by doing a formal syndication, which requires you to file SEC documentations. ⁓ know, there's regulation D and regulation A and there's some couple others, but typically it's going to be reg D 506 B or 506 C filing, which basically is the the structure that allows you to offer ⁓ passive investment opportunity or a security to investors. So again, for some people,   It's overwhelming. they're like, nope, never mind. But for some people, they love it. They want to get into it and they can learn more about that process.   Jason Hull (26:19) Got it. Yeah. I think I love your idea that it's more about managing expectations rather than the investments. And I think, I think that's good advice for all the property managers listing. This is something we spend a lot of time coaching clients on because they think their job is to manage properties. But really, if they're not strong in managing expectations and managing the relationship, it's 10 times to 100 times harder to manage the properties.   their operational costs go through the roof because owners are getting anxious. They're asking more questions. They're getting all these interruptions and calls, tenants, owners constantly. And if they had just managed the relationship and expectations and set strong boundaries at the outset, everybody would feel calmer. And I think really for business owners, I think the thing that really stood out to me that I've been focused on, and this is I've done some personal coaching and this is just nervous system regulation.   If you can, and John, seem like you're pretty chill and pretty calm and I'm sure the investor feel safe with you, which is why you've had success. If you are a person that is anxious and you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off, you're going to have, you're going to struggle in leading anybody, especially in relationships to your spouse and like everybody else. so having a calm, regulated nervous system allows your investors.   to entrain to your nervous system and to feel safer and to calm down. And that's not something you can pretend or you can just fake. You have to be that and they can sense and they can feel that it'll come across in your tone and in your body language and how you communicate. But if you can make sure that you're in that space and that you're able to regulate your own system, you're able to stay calm when other people are coming at you.   and other people are angry and other people are emotionally heightened. And you recognize this isn't really you. It's just that's them. And you can maintain that calm. You will be able to create a lot more safety. And that's really what people want to buy. Most people out there, their primary basic need is safety and security. Most people. That's why they aren't entrepreneurs. That's why they don't go start jobs. That's why they aren't like you and me. And if you're a property management business owner listening to this,   Most people are not like you. They want safety and security. That's why they get a property manager. They want peace of mind. And so, and I'm sure investors in a syndication, they also want some peace of mind because this is a big chunk of change.   John Casmon (28:55) They do. And I will say to most of the property managers I come across thrive in chaos. Right. They're used to stuff getting thrown at them. Right. And when you talk to them and get to know them, you learn very quickly. They like it. They do. They like the fact that they don't know what the day is going to bring. It could be a. Yeah, yeah. Could be a tenant coming with some crazy issue. It could be something from it's never boring and they thrive in it. However.   Jason Hull (29:00) Yeah.   Yeah.   They like the variety and unique challenges that property management brings, for sure.   It's never boring.   John Casmon (29:25) What happens then if you if they're going to look to work with investors and particularly raise capital and kind of do their own syndications, they have to understand that while they may thrive in chaos and uncertainty, most other people want organization. You want everything you said right. You want to have the calmness. You are looking for a captain to steer the ship. And for that part of the personality, they're going to have to tap into a different side of it to demonstrate how they handle chaos.   Jason Hull (29:37) Hmm.   Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (29:54) not that they are chaotic. And I think what happens a lot of times when you're working with property managers is that they don't project that level of control. It just feels like they're reacting. So part of it is that, and they're really, really good ones. The ones who make it to that next level who are the regional managers and get those promotions, well, that's what they do. They manage the chaos and they manage up. They do a great job of telling the owners,   Jason Hull (30:06) Yeah.   Mm.   John Casmon (30:23) the leadership, whoever they need to talk to, they're telling them, hey, here's how here's our process. Here's how we're managing the situation. Here's what's going on. Here's what we're into. Hey, we had a water main burst here. Here's we bought. call three companies. We've got three quotes, but it's calm, right? It can be the worst. I'll give you a real example, right? At a fire, one of my properties and I was going to meet a property manager and I just happened to have a meeting with her that day at the property. She called me.   I was literally about to get in the car. She called me and said, Hey, I just want to let you know we've got a fire going on at the property. I'm not sure if you still want to meet. You're happy to come. We already have, you know, the fire department's here. They're they're putting the fire out right now. We already have another company that's coming in. They're going to walk through the damages once this is kind of settled. And I've already talked to the residents. Residents are good. We've got them hotels for the evening. We've checked with insurance. This is covered in your policy. So they're good to go. So you're happy to come down and talk and all of that if you want to.   Or we can let things settle down and maybe we can meet next week. This is a fire, right? This is like a scary situation. She called me.   Jason Hull (31:26) Right. A literal fire. Yeah. And there's plenty of fires   in managing properties. The literal ones.   John Casmon (31:33) Her calmness, she was so calm. Not only was   she calm, she had handled 90 % of it, right? It was the stuff you could handle in the moment. She handled it. So was like, hey, I don't think it makes sense for me to because I'm probably just going to add more anxiety to the situation at this point, right? It seems like you've got it under control. Why don't we let things settle, literally let the dust settle? And then once it's there, I'll come down. We can assess the damages, figure out what else needs to happen, what other next steps need to take place, right?   Jason Hull (31:41) Yeah? huh.   question. Yeah.   John Casmon (32:03) but had it handled like a rock star. Now, a lot of other folks would have saw the flames, called immediately, my God, there's a fire. ⁓ my God, what are we gonna do? So now you freaking out, everyone's freaking out, no one's controlling the situation, right? So now everyone's mind is just spinning and going. it does really take, kind of go back to where we started the conversation, that mindset of someone who was the boss, who was leading.   Jason Hull (32:05) Yeah, I love that.   Yeah. Freaking out. Yeah.   Hmm. Yeah.   John Casmon (32:32) who is going to take charge, even though it's not their property, they're going to take charge. Here's what needs to happen next. Maybe you have an emergency response plan already put in place, but you have these things already scheduled and ready to go. So when they happen, you're not shocked. You're not surprised. You're not asking questions that maybe you should have figured out upfront. And that's what a great property manager does. And if you convey that to owners, you're going to stand out above and beyond your competition because most people cannot convey that level of control, the level of   planning and the level of expertise that it takes to truly and effectively manage properties from the front, being proactive as opposed to just reacting to whatever the issue of the day is.   Jason Hull (33:13) Got it, okay. So ⁓ I'm reading, I just read, well, I didn't just read. I read in the past a really great book called Extreme Ownership. Really good book. Yeah, phenomenal book. ⁓ I'm going through their newer book, which I think is even better, called The Dichotomy of Leadership. leadership is what we're talking about right now, is that that,   John Casmon (33:23) Yeah, I think I got it like right here. It is right there.   Absolutely.   Jason Hull (33:38) creates a huge impact and there's a lot of misunderstandings of what leadership is, like it's control or it's being aggressive or, but yeah, it's really that calm presence of letting people know I've got it. Like we can take care of this. We've got a plan and staying regulated and calm. So I love that. ⁓ have a, so another question I have is how can the property managers listen to this? How could they maybe target or partner   with, if possible, syndications like you, like people that are doing what you're doing. Is there a chance that they could be a resource or do most syndications just in-house and do, they are a property management business?   John Casmon (34:19) No, no, most ⁓ most that I know work with third party manager companies. So I would say first and foremost, if you and syndications, I mean, it sounds like a big, huge, fancy word. But I mean, honestly, anytime you work with passive investors is technically a syndication. So it really comes down to figuring out who is looking for third party management and whether or not it's technically a syndication or not is really irrelevant. You want someone who is going to be managing or owning the property.   Jason Hull (34:24) Okay.   Yeah.   John Casmon (34:49) They want third party, but you have to understand their plan, going back to understanding the goals, right? Most syndications are looking to sell in a three to seven year timeframe, typically five to seven years. Most buy and hold owners have not decided or have not identified their exit strategy. So that's probably the biggest difference is when you have, let's just call it an individual investor or maybe it's a   Jason Hull (35:01) Okay.   Right.   John Casmon (35:17) a family or whatever that's buying and they want a third party manager, they don't know the exit. They haven't predetermined that they're going to sell in five years. So they are buying and holding it. And that goes back to the the I think the separation of understanding the objective, because for that person, having a full property is great. It means they're maximizing the revenue potential today. When you are syndicating.   most syndicators already assume 5 % vacancy. That's that's in everyone's underwriting. So you being at 100, they won't even give you credit banks don't even give you credit for it. So all of these things are already assumed. So for us to be above that is actually a miss, because it means we're not being as aggressive on the rent. So just understanding the mindset of a syndicator, which is they are looking to sell typically they're looking to double their money over a five or six year period. So how can you create value?   And that's something most property managers don't fully understand. But I would sit and I would talk to that syndicator. And if you want to be a syndicator or partners, not just be a third party vendor, but you actually want a partner, which we have seen a lot of folks look to do. You want to figure out how you can bring value to the table, because now we are aligning your interest with that syndicators interest. And now you've got a great partnership.   because every syndicator is going to need property management and they're going to need construction management to drive value. So if they can bring those people in as partners, that's a great opportunity for you. And if you're a property manager, you may have phenomenal relationships. You may already have contractor or the vendor partners that you trust in that marketplace. And if you could then take that and get a slice of the equity, that makes you very valuable for both sides.   Jason Hull (37:08) Do syndications, do they also need investors in capital or do most of them have that, are they really good at that? Okay.   John Casmon (37:15) Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   mean, I mean, syndication at its core really just comes down to the need of capital. If someone had the capital themselves, they would probably just buy it directly and not go through the process of syndication. Because the syndication is literally just raising the money from passive investors. And in that scenario, again, being able to manage that, manage the communication, ⁓ that's really what a syndication truly is.   Jason Hull (37:42) So a really good property management partner could bring property management, some of the construction elements and investors and capital to the table. So it could be a nice little.   John Casmon (37:51) That would be amazing.   I'll be honest, man. That's because I don't want your listeners sitting here like, oh, I don't have one of those. I don't know if I've ever met one that had all of those. If you do have all of them, yes, you should consider syndicating yourself because you got all the pieces to the puzzle. Typically, what happens is a property manager has the property managers. I'll give you a great example. I got a 54 unit down in North Carolina. OK, so I came in as a key principal. I've got a.   Jason Hull (38:03) Okay.   Okay.   John Casmon (38:20) to my coaching clients. It's his property that he found. He asked me to come help him with the loan, which I did. One of the members, one of the partners is the property manager. So that's kind of their role to the table is they're managing the property. That's what they kind of came on. They had a couple of relationships, but their main role is the asset and property management side of it. So that's a great way to come to the table. But. Just like anything else in business.   Jason Hull (38:33) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (38:49) It's very hard to find someone who checks every single box. I mean, that's like finding the marketer who's a CMO, who's also the CFO, who's also the COO, who's also the chief of human resource. very like no one, people don't really have like top notch excellent skills at every single one of those, right? Like you might be great at business, great at sales, great at marketing. You're probably terrible at finance, right? Like you just, you just forget to do your expense report type person, right? So it's hard to find someone who's   checks all those boxes. And I think typically when comes to property management, you want someone who's great with people, can resolve issues, but also has to be somewhat, you know, sufficient when it comes to the numbers, tracking all the data, tracking all the, you know, the rent roll, the leases, the income and expense statements, things like that. So usually they're not going to do every single box. But again, if you can find someone or that's where partnerships make sense.   Jason Hull (39:24) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (39:43) If you've got that awesome. And again, I'm not saying a company doesn't have that. I'm just saying a single individual doesn't, which is why it's great to partner. If you can find someone who maybe brings a set of skills that you don't have, whether they're joining you in your property management business or they're partnering up where you're bringing your property management skills to the table with their investing or their networking skills, that makes for a good partnership.   Jason Hull (39:43) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, I got it. Well, we've got several clients, you know, all over the U S that are really good at property management. They're really good at handling the maintenance stuff and they obviously have a pool of investors as clients and, and, know, and they know that they can't do everything. So we coach them in making sure that they would do time studies. They figure out which, what their purpose is. We start to align them towards more fulfillment, more freedom, more contribution and more support in their business.   John Casmon (40:32) Yeah.   Jason Hull (40:38) And they start to build the right team. So they're getting operators, they're getting BDMs, they're getting the things they're not like strong in. And so we just make healthier businesses. So for those of maybe my clients listening that have healthy property management companies. And, but they don't want to do syndication. They're just like, man, that's a whole nother business. If I stay in my lane, I can grow that faster. How do they find syndicates? Like, how do they find people like you? Cause you've got a lot of properties connected to you.   and they would probably love to chat with somebody like you. Where do you syndicate people hang out? What's the title? Who runs a syndicate? What are they called? Do they have a specific title?   John Casmon (41:15) You   Yeah.   Yeah, great. Great question. Multifamily syndicator is is kind of the name just syndicator. We're all over. So I've got a podcast called Multifamily Insights. I interview like minded individuals. I've been doing that for a long time. We've done our seven hundred and seventy plus episode. So lots of people, lots of syndicators there. Definitely conferences. So if you look up any multifamily conference in your city.   Jason Hull (41:25) Okay.   Nice.   Okay.   John Casmon (41:46) meetups, lot of meetups in different cities as well. Those are great places to find syndicators. I think the biggest thing though is this.   Figure out who your avatar is. Because while we're talking about syndicators, ultimately, if you want to scale your property management business, I presume you're trying to scale with folks who are looking for third party management and the best option for that. OK, and let me back up. had one of the guests out of a podcast some years back, ⁓ Ashley Wilson. Love Ashley. As you said, something really changed when I thought about the business.   And she said the best way to find any vendor, any vendor is to figure out who relies on that vendor next and ask them for referral. So if you think about it, if you want a great drywall person, ask a painter. A painter is going to know who's great at drywall because they're going to know who makes their job easy and they can come in and just start painting versus a drywall guy who maybe doesn't, you know, you know.   Jason Hull (42:38) I like it.   John Casmon (42:55) mud the drywall properly or doesn't sand it down. So they got to do all this extra work before they start their process. Right. So a painter is going to know a great drywall guy. And in this case, it's really hard on ⁓ the property manager because you guys are the ones who do the work. But if you are looking for syndicators, OK, well syndicators, person who buys the deal. Well, who sells the deal? A broker. Find brokers. Go to a broker, commercial multifamily broker and ask them, hey,   Jason Hull (43:01) I love this.   Yeah.   John Casmon (43:25) Do you know some groups or you have properties that you're going to list? Here are the kind of deals we want to do now on the flip side of that. You got to be good at your job, right? You got to sell yourself and share what you do. So if you've got a great track record, a great resume, showcase that, bring that broker through and let them know, hey, we're looking to scale our property management business here. Here are the kind of assets that we want to manage. If you come across any of these that you're going to list, would you mind keeping our main name out there or referring us or giving us introductions to any of those buyers?   Jason Hull (43:53) Yeah.   John Casmon (43:54) so that we can throw our hat in the running to manage these properties. That's a phenomenal way to do that. And it allows you to shine and expand your relationships in your core networks and in your core markets.   Jason Hull (44:06) Brilliant. think I love the, I love Ashley's idea that you shared, you know, the drywall. Yeah. The painters, like they don't want to be painting over a crappy drywall. They're like, this is a mess. Like this doesn't even look good in my job. Now I'm going to look bad. Yeah. So the brokers know who maybe those best syndicators are. And so they could just go to the brokers and say, Hey, who's, who's doing deals like this? Who who's got things going on? Like who could you connect me with?   And I avoid maybe.   John Casmon (44:36) And on top of that, keep in mind, too, like what   are the times when? Yeah, but think about to like when is a property hiring or bringing on a new property manager? Right. So it's either a current owners firing the existing property manager or the property is being sold. Right. So, I mean, if you can get in during that transition phase, that's going to help you tremendously. And if even if they're firing their existing property manager, you can think through, OK, how do I?   Jason Hull (44:51) Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (45:06) work myself and get my name out there. And a lot of times, again, you're going to ask, right? You're going to ask other investors. If I were going through that process, I'm going to call my buddies into space, right? And say, hey, man, having a hard time, my current PM is not working out or we're not hitting our objectives, looking at some other options. Do you have any experience with these guys? What do you know about these guys? Or do you have anybody you could recommend? It's word of mouth, right? So that's what's going to start happening as well. So you kind of have to get out there and network and let folks know who you are, what you do. But you want to be someone who   people can say, yeah, these guys are amazing. You know, they, they only had an eight unit, but they crushed my eight unit for me. I'm sure they kill your 25 unit or your 50 unit. And you've got to start building that rapport and building your reputation in your market.   Jason Hull (45:44) Yeah.   Nice. This is good advice, my friend. So, cool. For those that maybe are investors listening to this show, ⁓ I'd love to hear a little bit about what you do, how you do run your syndication, and how they can ⁓ make things more passive, if that's what they're looking   John Casmon (46:08) Yeah, man. So there are lots of different ways to get in. If you are looking to be more passive, ⁓ high level, here's how it works. OK, so first and foremost, me and my team would go out. We look for the deals. We focus on a really tight radius. So we're in Cincinnati. We like Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Kentucky. Really a two hour radius of the Cincinnati market is where we focus. And right now we actually think there's more opportunities locally. So we're really honed in on Cincinnati right now. But we focus on that once we find a deal.   We reach out to folks in our network. So we have folks in our investor list. ⁓ Once they're on our list, we kind of have a quick vetting process and then we can share opportunities with them. Once they see that opportunity, they get a chance to review it. We like to have a webinar where we answer any questions about the deal. I think for new investors, it's a great way to learn because we have a lot of experienced investors who ask very intelligent, thoughtful questions that   Many first time investors probably would not even think of. And that's a great way to learn, right? And ultimately when it comes to this space, it's really about education. know, it's educating yourself, understanding how you think about risk, how you mitigate risk in your investment choices. And those webinars are a great chance for you to learn about that the first time. Once you've done that, you can go ahead and fill out our official paperwork with our SEC documents.   Jason Hull (47:30) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (47:30) And then   once you're through there, you can make the investment. But the first thing is just to get on our list, you can have access to the deals. And before you do that, we've actually put together a guide that can help people because I found that when I have these calls, people don't ask great questions. Sometimes they do. But I want to make sure that you are informed and well educated because this is a big investment. You know, this is not a 599 thing. And if it doesn't work out, OK, well, I just wasted six bucks. No.   Jason Hull (47:54) .   John Casmon (47:59) We're asking you to make a pretty large investment, whether it's with us or with others. If that's what you're looking to do, I want to make sure you're well informed. So we put together a guide. It's seven questions you must ask before investing in apartments. You can get that on our website. It's casmancapital.com slash seven questions, but it gets into questions around the market itself, the operating team, what you should be looking for, the deal. What is the story of this property? What's the business plan? And it helps you identify different levels of risk because the reality is   Anything can work, but you want to mitigate risk as much as possible, particularly when you're a passive investor, because you are basically saying, I'm trusting these people to find the right deal and execute. And you want to make sure that you are finding and identifying the right individuals who have a proven track record doing the thing that they are asking to do. When I hear about people losing money in real estate. At least 50, if not 70 % of the time.   Jason Hull (48:35) Hmm.   John Casmon (48:57) It is someone doing something for the first time. It is the first time in the market, first time doing this kind of deal, first time doing this kind of business plan. And. I can't tell you how frustrating it is because it's a big red flag, and it's not to say they can't do it and can't have success. But if it's your first time, I want to see how you're mitigating that right. You want to partner with someone who does have the experience you want. Like there are lot of things that you can do to put the odds in your favor. And when you're a passive investor.   Jason Hull (48:59) Mm, yeah.   John Casmon (49:26) It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision. So this guide can help you do that.   Jason Hull (49:34) Yeah, love it. I'm going to run a quick word from our sponsor real quick. Our sponsor for this episode is Vendero. And many of you tell me that property management maintenance is probably the least enjoyable part of being a property manager and definitely the most time consuming. But what if you could cut that workload by up to 85 percent? That's exactly what Vendero has achieved. So they leverage cutting edge AI technology to handle nearly all your maintenance tasks from initiating work orders.   Troubleshooting, coordinating with vendors and reporting. This AI doesn't just automate, it becomes your ideal employee. Learning your preferences, executing tasks flawlessly and never needing a day off and never quitting. This frees you up to focus on the critical tasks that really move the needle for your business, whether that's refining operations, expanding your portfolio or even just taking a well-deserved break. Don't let maintenance drag you down. Step up your property management game with Vendero. Visit vendero.ai slash door grow today and make this the last maintenance hire you'll ever need.   All right, so John, this is super helpful. love you've got your list. ⁓ You got your webinar, you've got your guide. I would recommend property managers listening to this. If they're curious about the world of syndication, that they start getting into your stuff and seeing how an expert like you is doing this and maybe even get involved in some of the deals with you or something might be a good idea. And they can kind of get a feel for how this works. And then maybe they'll say, I don't want to do what John does.   And I'll just find people that do, but they'll at least understand how they could partner with people like that. then, or they may decide, you know what? John's clever, but I'm clever too. I might be able to figure out how to do this too. And maybe they'll do it too. And, but I think there's a solid opportunity for property managers that want to be in the multifamily space and do multifamily management to find third party people that are doing these syndication deals. They need good property managers and property managers want more doors and they want to grow.   And if you don't, because your business sucks and it's uncomfortable, then reach out to me. I'll help you out. We'll get you dialed in. But ⁓ John, what else would you say to the investors that are maybe they're familiar with this and they've done some real estate investing and they've worked with some syndications ⁓ and they get on your list to do the webinar. What would you say to them next?   John Casmon (51:56) Yeah, I think the biggest thing is understand what you're looking for. You know, I think one of the biggest challenges for investors is when you can't pull the trigger, it's typically because you haven't figured out what you're solving for. Are you looking for passive income? So you're just looking for a cash flow? Are you looking for long term wealth appreciation? Are you looking for tax benefits and to reduce kind of your tax liability? Do just want to diversify? Maybe you got feel like you have too much in a stock market, just like we put something somewhere else. So.   Figure out what you're actually solving for. Understand your risk tolerance, you know, because every deal is different. In our case, we do value add B class deals. That's a fancy way of just saying we like properties that already making money that are solid, solid tenant based. Think of when I say B class, I'm thinking of all stuff that was built maybe 30 years ago, maybe 40, maybe 20 years ago. Stuff that.   your teachers, your firefighters, your police officers, places where they might rent. So desirable locations, not luxury, not super high end, not, you know, super courts, everything. ⁓ But, you know, places that you would want your kid, your kid was in college, places you would be fine with your kid living, right? So you're thinking about that stuff. That's, you know, I don't say affordable stuff. That's not crazy price. So that's kind of what we focus on.   Jason Hull (53:15) So would   that be like, is that how you find the best markets then?   John Casmon (53:21) That's part of it. That's our strategy. There are different strategies that people utilize. I have found for us that is a sweet spot where we can take those kind of assets, modernize them and create value for potential renters. Some people like to focus only on they call it core plus right where they're buying newer stuff, stuff built five years ago or three years ago. And maybe it was, you know, leased up and they're just going to go in and hold it longer. You'll find other ways to add more money through amenities.   Jason Hull (53:35) Okay.   John Casmon (53:50) So some people do that strategy. Some people like older properties where they're buying more distressed or much older properties and are trying to fully renovate them and bring them up. There are strategies out there, something like new construction, stuff that doesn't exist. They want to build from the ground up. So it really comes down to you. Every investing strategy has a different level of risk. This has nothing to with real estate, right? This is investing in general. you're buying, you know, know, value stocks versus growth stocks versus Internet, it's the same stuff, right?   So you just have to figure out your level of risk. We like value at B-class multifamily deals. Once you understand your level of risk and balance that with your return expectations or projections, that's when you can figure out which investments actually make sense. You know, I have some folks who they like to invest in what we call trophy assets. And...   They may not know that right away, but when you send them a couple of deals and they look at the property like, ⁓ it's okay. They want something. They want something they can brag about. They want to drive you by like, see that building over there? That's me. And if that's fine, if that's what you want, understand what comes with that, right? That's going to be a lower term, right? Because these are, there's not much value to create, right? You've got a brand new property. It's A class, rents are $2,500. There's not a whole lot you can do there. And because of that,   Jason Hull (54:49) Yeah, they don't want to show that off. Look what I'm connecting.   OK, right.   Thank   Yeah.   John Casmon (55:13) There's not as much risk. So you're going to get less return because there's less risk. That's fun. Some people want to maximize their return, right? Hey, I don't need this money. I want to let it ride for 20 years. So they might want to do new construction or they might want to do a deep discount, highly distressed vacant property that needs, you know, $50,000 per unit to renovate it and turn around because the upside is there. So it just depends on that investor and your level of risk. Right. And most of us fall somewhere in the middle.   Jason Hull (55:27) Thank   John Casmon (55:43) which is kind of our strategy. figure out your level of risk tolerance, what you're looking for. And sometimes you don't know until you start looking at a Because you might think you're a cashflow person until I show you what cash flows. And you're like, oh, no, I don't want to be in that de

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109 Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Yomi 57:6-58:7 [Fragrances. Atzei, Isvei, Minei Besamim. Correct Berachos]

The Smarter Way To Pick Winning Stocks  Podcast: Find out more about Blueberry Markets – Click Here Find out more about my Online Video Forex Course Book a Call with Andrew or one of his team now Click Here to Attend my Free Masterclass Checkout the Tykr Platform here. #624: The Smarter Way To Pick Winning Stocks In this video: 00:14 – Sean Tepper – found of TYKR 04:55 – How does this software help? 08:50 – TFTC also helps create successful traders 12:25 – Is social media helpful? 16:20 – Multiple brokers or one? 22:18 – TFTC creating a trading bot program 28:16 – 60,000 stocks analyzed 32:45 – Contact Sean Andrew Mitchem Hello, everybody. It’s Andrew Mitchem here at The Forex Trading Coach. And today I’m really pleased to be joined by Sean Tepper, who’s the founder and the CEO of Tykr. Welcome along. Sean. Sean Tepper Andrew. Good to be here. Andrew Mitchem Awesome to have you. Sean, could you introduce yourselves to everybody and let us know who you are and what you do and what we’re going to talk about? Sean Tepper – found of TYKR Sean Tepper Sure. Yeah. My name is Sean Tepper. I’m the founder of TYKR, as Andrew said. And long story short, TYKRs a platform that helps people buy and sell stocks with confidence prior to that. My background is about 20 years in tech, 15 years investing, and I kind of created TYKR as a solution to a frustration in the markets. Sean Tepper And we could dive into what that frustration is, if you’d like. Yeah. But yeah, I had to create a solution because it was very hard to make decisions when I first got started. And that’s where really TYKR came from. And, but yeah, fast forward to today. We’ve got a little over, 13,000 customers in about 50 countries, including where you’re based. Sean Tepper New Zealand. Andrew Mitchem Oh that’s good. Yeah. So you had 50 countries. That’s a that’s an awesome effort. And, and Sean, I was reading about, you know, you started, on your website says, in, you know, 2011 to 2015, you were trying to figure out what wasn’t there to help you. What did you find back then? Was the biggest frustration that led to TYKR happening? Sean Tepper Yeah. So when I first got started, you know, I think I joined E-Trade. And, you know, there’s so many brokers these days, it’s hard to keep track of. But as soon as I joined, I had no idea what to do next. So I started going on YouTube researching where do you go to invest? Like looking up different investing platforms? Sean Tepper I found a few of our competitors, like Seeking Alpha and Motley Fool, and they do a fine job, but it’s still very difficult to truly know the difference between a strong stock and a weak stock is is very frustrating. And for context, my background is in tech, but to go, layer deeper, it’s actually in process engineering. Sean Tepper Like I’ve worked a lot for GE and Koehler. And the rule is in process engineering, if you have 100 data points, you cannot present that to a customer or an executive. You have to roll it up to ideally a binary decision like yes or no or a traffic light. And I was complaining at that time, like, am I the only one complaining about the fact that there’s no process engineering lens layered over investing like, this is insane. Sean Tepper Like nobody’s making it easy. And that was kind of the green light I was thinking of, like, hey, if I could figure something out here, I think the big solution is a create a process engineering solution in the world of finance and apparently I’m the only one really doing that today, other than the few platforms that say buy or sell. Sean Tepper But I don’t really recommend that. But yeah, that was that was the beginning. And it took about a year to build this Excel sheets. And I give you context here, I found a lot of inspiration from Phil Towne. He wrote a few books on value investing. Do you know Phil Towne? Andrew Mitchem No, I don’t know. No. Okay. Sean Tepper Your your audience may be interested. He wrote a book. One of them is rule one. The other one is payback time. I really provided some. Yeah, yeah. You know, rule one investing, Warren Buffett. We can talk about that. But, yeah, I, I found some of the calculus in his books, put it into Excel, and I ended up coming up with about 50 data points to analyze the stock. Sean Tepper And then on top of that, I created a traffic like rating system where stocks are either on sale, watch or overpriced. That’s green, gray or red. And I used it the next 4 or 5 years on my own, making returns between 15 and 50%, and my returns still fall in that range today. Our customers actually fall in that range as well. Sean Tepper But yeah, I, I wanted to make sure I’m using my own money testing it to make sure it works, not just like four weeks or four months. I went like that over four years. And then it was 2019 was the inflection point when I’m like, I think I’ve got a solution here, but let’s just confirm. Sent the sheet to a few of the retail investors and everybody’s like, I’m not going to use this Excel sheet. Sean Tepper This is insane. You got to create a software. So that right. That was the green light. Let’s go create a SaaS platform. And took a year to build the first version. And the first version was not pretty. But yeah, fast forward to today. That’s where we’re at. But yeah. Andrew Mitchem They Nimrod when you look back on them. Sean Tepper Yeah, right. It was like the, the metaphor I use is it felt like I was building a physical prototype made of like, and duct tape and cardboard. It was not pretty videos. It’s pretty ugly. But you get feedback from your customers and you just keep making it better, and it actually turns into something. How does this software help? Andrew Mitchem So, yeah, awesome. That’s brilliant. So fast forward then to today. Why would someone come and use what you have and I suppose in a practical basis, how does it help them? What are they. What do they input? What do they use to make decisions for them? Sean Tepper Sure. Yeah. So I’ll give you some of the the subjective reasons and then we’ll get into the objective and why that’s actually important to our, our broker partners. But our rating system again process engineering, it doesn’t sound very glamorous, but the concept of making decisions very easy for people, it is very true in most industries. So we we use the process engineering lens. Sean Tepper Plus we take a lot of inspiration from Duolingo for language learning in our opinion. Like what? They’ve got over 600 million users. They’re doing something right. We’re teaching people how to learn a language with these micro learning modules. And I’m like, we need to do the same thing in our platform, but it’s got to be investing focused. So we’ve got these modules peppered around that quickly teaches people how to invest in you put the two together, the rating system, plus the simplified education that helps people. Sean Tepper And it’s not our guarantee, but it’s it’s something we let people know upfront that 90% of customers is actually over 90. But we say 90% of customers that use TYKR are able to go from a beginner to confident an investor in 14 days or less. It’s very quick. Wow. And what does that mean from an objective standpoint? And this is what matters most to brokers, which is most brokers we’re talking to have two big problems. Sean Tepper And number one, very little transaction volumes, like somebody will join on day one and they’ll wait three months or six months or nine months, and then make another trade. And the other issue is the average account size is less than 5000. While with TYKR after five years. Now we’re we track like a lot of data points to see our, investors behavior. Sean Tepper And typically people make 30% more transactions after joining TYKR. And their average account size is about $180,000. So what that tells us is and it tells. Right. So these people are their confidence is skyrocketing and they’re adding more money from their checking account or their savings. So it’s not sitting in a low interest vehicle. So so there you go. Sean Tepper That’s how we’re different. I’ll give you one more way where different in your audience may appreciate this is TYKRs. Calculations are actually open source for personal use. And the SEC really likes that. Like we had an audit done to make sure we fall in that publisher exclusion category. We could talk about that in a minute, but making sure we’re not we’re not giving financial advice, but this firm we’re talking to and we had another we’re actually had two firms. Sean Tepper Take a look. They were both very impressed that we we put those calculations out and I’m like, I’m, I’m actually not concerned anybody’s going to take it because it’s even though it’s relatively simple math, it’s a lot of it. And try to put together in a software what would take you a really long time. So fortunately nobody’s tried to duplicate it. Sean Tepper But the calculations are out there. Andrew Mitchem Yeah, well, for the sake, I was looking on your your purchase, page. Your pricing page. For the sake of $50 a month, you just use it. Wouldn’t you? Rather than trying to reinvent it or. Sean Tepper It exact right at the base price is like, you’re saying 15, 15 bucks a month or 99 a year? You’re right. It’s like, oh, okay. So here’s the here’s the calculations. Yeah. I’m not going to reiterate. That’s where it. Andrew Mitchem Is. I mean in in lifetime working it out will spend $100 a year same. Sean Tepper Same prices Netflix their. Andrew Mitchem Data. Exactly. Yeah a lot more educational. Yes. Sean Tepper Yes. TFTC also helps create successful traders Andrew Mitchem Thank you. So it it sounds like although we’re in, slightly different markets within the overall similar markets now, we have something very similar going on, which is amazing is we’ve never met obviously, before, you know, 20 minutes ago, and that we find that our clients would be very similar to yours. The average forex person’s out there, small account, scared to trade, or they do the opposite and they do silly things and they make us even money and then lose it all, which inevitably happens. Andrew Mitchem And then they blame the break on the market. And that’s where we find our clients are different as well. You know, they have confidence that low risk approach. They they know what they’re doing, what to look for, when to do it. And therefore when they go to a broker brokers out there because, you know, the client’s got a hugely, bigger account and trading more often. Andrew Mitchem So it’s incredible how education and lack of it can affect so many people in this. Seriously. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. Now, Sean, you mentioned, about the no financial advice, you know, situation. And again, coming back, that’s where we’re similar, you know, what’s your take on the no financial advice? Sean Tepper Yeah. So with the SEC, there’s I don’t have the exact, it’s like rule 102-5 or whatever. I’m making that up. But yeah, they’re essentially three rules you have to follow with staying in the publisher exclusion category. And there are companies and there are guys out there, some women as well, that they they get into some some shaky ground or gray areas where they push the envelope and they can get into some some big legal trouble. Sean Tepper So the three rules really go as follows. Number one is all information has to be factual. Like we can’t say like, hey, because I like x, y, z CEO, I think the share price is going to $2,000 a share. That’s crazy. We have to present the data like everything we do is really based off the fundamentals. We don’t cook any books. Sean Tepper We don’t skew the financials. It’s like, hey, here’s the EPS, here’s the revenue, here’s the net income, here’s the debt. Bam, roll it up to our calculations. And there’s your score. Keep it very simple right. Number two is and this is actually pretty easy to follow is we can’t ask our customers their age their risk level when they want to retire and then give them recommendations based on that criteria. Sean Tepper That is described as personalized financial advice. So very easy. Like okay, so don’t ask those personal questions. And number three everything has to be regular. And what does regular mean. It means all information we we put out has to be like every day or every week, which it’s we update our data every day. We can’t do and this is a common problem with a lot of discord and WhatsApp groups. Sean Tepper And so I’ve been told from the SEC, which is pump and dumps, is like, hey, go buy as much of GameStop by Tuesday. And then the very next day, without telling anyone, they’ll go sell a bunch of GameStop or whatever stock they they can come up with. And that is actually a common issue because you can make a lot of money in short order. Sean Tepper So, yeah, no, no irregular posting. It has to be regular posting. So yeah, those are the three rules with the publisher exclusion. And to be honest with you, but actually pretty easy to follow. Is social media helpful? Andrew Mitchem Yeah, yeah. That’s good. Do you find you mentioned on social media type of apps? Do you find that those, causing problems generally for people because they just think they’re going to find something that’s going to solve all their life’s financial problems? Sean Tepper You mean like our customer is going on social media and reading comments. Andrew Mitchem To make sure customers, but just general people out there and in general isn’t there going to find some app and follow something and it’s suddenly going to give them all the magical answers? Sean Tepper No. In general, I think most people are skeptical, which I think is good. They’re not going to like, you know, like, for example, they’re not going to come to tinker right away and be like, oh, this is this is my savior. That’s that’s not the case. We want people to be skeptical. And we always tell people like, don’t like, I’ll talk about Tinker all day, but don’t even take my word for it. Sean Tepper I always say, go to Trustpilot, see what our customers have to say first before you even think about it. And then our model is, it’s a trial 14 day trial. And then we also have a 30 day money back guarantee. So even when your credit card is charged, if you want to refund, we’re not going to fight you on it. Sean Tepper It’s like it’s 15 bucks. That’s right, that’s right. It’s like we’re not going to split hairs on this, but it’s like you want to create a platform that it’s very easy to join is very easy to learn about. You can see what your customers are saying. It’s easy to test drive. Those are kind of the boxes I like to check when I join a platform because I’m using other software to build TYKR, whether it’s a marketing software or analytics or email marketing or whatever, right. Sean Tepper I want those things. So I’m like, I’m going to do the same thing with my own platform. But coming back to the skepticism, I think it’s good. It’s good to have a healthy amount, and it’s good for people to not only, like join TYKR, but go have like join our competitors, see what they have to say. And sometimes you’ll get things to line up like let’s say it’s a stock you really like and you’ve got, you know, TYKR, Motley Fool and Seeking Alpha are all like, hey, this is this is a strong stock, not a buy stock, but its financials are strong. Sean Tepper That creates layers of confidence is how we phrase it. Yeah. Creating those layers of confidence gives people more confidence to move forward. Andrew Mitchem Yeah yeah that’s good. And I noticed also on your on your offer there that you talk about cryptos as well Matt. Obviously it’s the, the big thing that people want to talk about and we’ll see more recently we’ve seen some big drops as well. Yeah. How, how do people finding using your software or on cryptos. Andrew Mitchem Because it’s, it’s like one of the markets that we kind of cross over on. Sean Tepper Yeah. So with crypto we weren’t originally going to add it to the platform, but a few people were like, hey, can you add crypto from a tracking perspective? Now for context, we have three assets in TYKR. We have stocks, ETFs and crypto ETFs. It’s easy to analyze because it’s really just a bundle of stocks. So we analyze each individual stock. Sean Tepper We roll them all up. If it’s let’s say 500 stocks within an ETF. You can create you can calculate what is the average score within come to that on sale watch over priced. But when it comes to crypto as you know there’s no income statement cash flow statement A balance sheet is not a business, it’s just a digital asset. Sean Tepper But again, we had customers that were like, hey, you got a lot of good tracking tools, like you can set alerts on my dates and prices and really anything you want within TYKR. And so they’re saying like, can you add crypto within so we can keep track of all of our favorite assets in one clean location. And my response to that was, oh yeah, no problem. Sean Tepper We’ll add crypto to this tool. But there’s not a lot of analysis you can do there because again, it’s not a business. Multiple brokers or one? Andrew Mitchem Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. And also I noticed that you said about the broker connection. So one of your pricing models, that’s one broker three and five. Correct. What would be the reasons around someone needing, say, three brokers or five brokers as opposed to one. Sean Tepper Yeah. So the reason is typically your employer is going to issue you A41 like here in the states, of course, we get A41KI don’t know, in New Zealand you call it a pension like they do in, Europe. Andrew Mitchem Yeah. Kiwisavers called but yeah it’s that has is our name. Yeah. Sean Tepper Okay. Exactly. So you’re going to have that is going to be one retirement vehicle. And that’s typically set up with like here in the States. The two big ones are typically fidelity and Empower. There’s also Schwab. But then you’re probably going to want to do some trading on your own. So then here in the States some of the popular choices are Robinhood. Sean Tepper You’ve got E-Trade, you know. So there’s your second one. And then sometimes you’re going to have like an inherited account from a family member, you know, that could be on a different account. And if you don’t roll it over to your current broker, well, guess what? You’ve got a third broker sitting in place. But I get this. I’ve talked to people that have they’ve had more than five different brokers on my response. Sean Tepper So that is why. Yeah. So. Right. It’s it’s it seems unorganized. But we created the three tiers the premium premium plus an advanced premium. You get one broker premium Plus you get three in advance. You get five. We usually like 99.9% of the time. We don’t see people with more than five brokers. But like for example, between my wife and I, we have like we have three. Sean Tepper So yeah. Andrew Mitchem Okay. So with this allows someone to make their analysis and then connect directly through to that broker via your software. Is that how it works. Sean Tepper Yeah. Yeah. So yeah when when you join your broker and we’re really good complement to a broker will never replace it. We don’t want to be a broker dealer. That’s a legal name for their business model because we don’t hold any assets. We don’t hold people’s money. We’re just analytics. So yeah, when people join, you can sync up with your broker. Sean Tepper And what that does is it automatically updates your portfolio in TYKR every day. And it’s a much cleaner interface than most brokers out there. I, I’m never going to talk down about brokers, but it’s like their job is to protect people’s money. But when it comes to analytics dashboards or giving, like education or analytics, it’s that’s not their specialty, nor will it really ever be. Sean Tepper So we fill that gap, we complement and we make it easy to see because some people are like, I don’t I don’t actually know how much money I have because the dashboards in my broker’s so hard to use them, like just sync up your account TYKR and it’s going to kind of summarize it for you. Yeah, yeah. Andrew Mitchem That’s interesting. That makes a lot of sense. Makes life easy for people. And also I see that you have a mobile app. So can someone get the exact same information on the app. But they can all the desktop. Sean Tepper It’s pretty much the same experience. We try to release our features, if not the same day within the next week or two. Like if we need to deploy something to web or web app, we try to do the same thing to the mobile, that allows people to write. They can kind of analyze stocks and the gold or standing in line somewhere at Starbucks, whatever. Sean Tepper The mobile app, I will say this has an additional feature, which is the Duolingo inspired learning modules that kind of like swipe right, swipe left type feel. We don’t have that in the web app today, but we’ve had a few people say, hey, can you also add that to web? Well, that’ll come soon. But yeah, it’s pretty much the same experience. Andrew Mitchem And what’s the AI investing helper that’s not like yeah, humming live. Sean Tepper Oh, that could be going live. Well, recording this video is, February 9th. That could go live on the 11th. Okay. So that’s a feature where you can, like, interact with where you’re going to be the first to hear about it here. So it’s it’s an AI tool where you can ask questions like how do I get started? Sean Tepper Or what should I do with my first thousand dollars? Or, what when is the best time to buy or best to sell? You can interact with AI and it’s actually connected with TYKRs, data set, but also the the globe and it’s put a lot of rigor, rigor into place to make sure it’s not giving you financial advice, but it’s really leaning into giving you the data and TYKR. Sean Tepper So it’s for example, if you were to ask it, hey, can you tell me how to value a stock? It’s going to first go to TYKRs data set. And with the education and give you that information. And then some general information. You know that makes it sound nicer. And then kind of spit it out. So yeah, eventually we’ll release in multiple phases. Sean Tepper So the first phase we call the helper, the second phase is the portfolio builder in a will build hypothetical like for example, build me a portfolio of ten strong tech stocks or buy food stocks or car stocks, something like that. Yeah. And of course it’ll say this is not financial advice. This is a hypothetical portfolio. But yes. And then the third phase will be an analyzer. Sean Tepper So analyze my current portfolio. Like what changes would you recommend. And that that’s going to be really, really cool. So with I will say this and then I’ll stop talking. It’s a powerful tool because it can analyze large data sets in a short amount of time. But as we say at TYKR. And this is why when I become self-aware like Skynet, I’m going to be the first one to be targeted. Sean Tepper Right? It’s, it’s smart, but it’s not that smart. So you have to put a lot of rigor in a place, a lot of guardrails, because it can, as you know, hallucinate. Yeah. So we are bouncing AI up against logic and mathematics to make sure it does not say something stupid to our customers. TFTC creating a trading bot program Andrew Mitchem That’s interesting. We’re in the middle of all we’re saying in the middle. We’ve been testing this live for over a year of getting AI to create trading bots for us, and what it’s doing is it’s spitting at a heap of bots and going through, sort of live trading on, on, you know, that are not real money. We’re trading on the money. Andrew Mitchem And then each week, we’re using the human aspect, the common sense and the knowledge that we look at as technical traders to pick which bots we’re going to be running live for subscribers for the upcoming week. And, and we’re finding that that combination of using the AI for that speed and, you know, doing the, the hard work. Andrew Mitchem Yeah. And giving us some information. But like you said, the guardrail becomes the human input in the common sense of what we’re seeing as technically on a chart. There’s no point in, let’s say, say Bitcoin over the last few weeks has been, you know, crashing. So nicely. There’s no point in us selecting bullish, crypto bots for the upcoming week when there’s technical traders. Andrew Mitchem We’re looking at it dropping. So I find that adding a bit of human common sense and knowledge, along with the AI at this stage is a really nice combination. Sean Tepper You got to do it right, and you probably seen the, the bad choices some people have made. If you let I make all the decisions, you can pull yourself into a, really bad situation. Especially. I like what you’re describing with your bots or those bots actually executing trades. Andrew Mitchem They they can, but we are more trying to set it up so the individual gets the alert and still needs to manually go yes or no as well. Good call. Because I don’t want to get into that situation where it’s completely, you know, automated, although a lot of people are want it all automated. My job as someone who teaches people is you still have to have that knowledge first to understand how to run the bots and to make a commonsense decision. Andrew Mitchem Is it making a good call or not? Sean Tepper Yeah, I’m good answer there, because the other hour I was talking to one company that was have was looking to have AI execute trades automatically. I’m like, whoa, what if they just run with the line and it’s like, go right? Like if rapid fire trades for an hour or two, it’s like, yeah, put some people in a bad situation. Sean Tepper So yeah. Andrew Mitchem Anyway, yeah, we’ll avoid that. We’re both avoid that. Yep. Yeah, exactly. I use it for the hard work and still use the brain. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? You know, what you created and what we’ve created. We’re about educating people, empowering people to use their common sense. Because I still think, after all, it comes down to it, there’s nothing better as a human, as an individual to have that, that how and that it’s almost like that feelgood factor that I know I can analyze these markets and make sound decisions and do well, you know, that’s you, you. Sean Tepper You, yeah. You just hit on the, the number one thing our customers care about like in and this will give you and your audience a little moment for me when I first created TYKR, especially the Excel sheet, I was all about getting better returns. I’m like, well, if Warren and Charlie can do it, I can do it. Sean Tepper Well, when I went live, that was my focus. But then after talking to a few customers, I’m like, they don’t agree with that. There’s actually something more important. And fast forward, I probably talked to a few thousand customers by this point over five years, and the number one thing they care about is confidence. Now, having confidence to literally do it on your own. Sean Tepper That is the home run. Feeling that supersedes, you know, getting good returns any day. Like people sleep better at night. Just knowing that, Shawn, I, I can do this on my own. That is what I’m looking for. I’m like home. So we even though the returns in tech are good, like, we actually lean into confidence. Like how do we give people more confidence is actually the bigger priority now. Andrew Mitchem Yeah, yeah, I, I fully get it. You know, we’ve been operating since 2009. Come on, Ryan, the Ryan run around the world in 111 countries and the same thing we we asked people, we, of course, you know, want to know why people join. And then we follow up after three months, six months, year, two years and keep asking people it’s the community and that knowledge of knowing what you’re doing for yourself, to have that control with low risk and, you know, really good outcomes. Andrew Mitchem But up here and then I say to people, trade any trading into, investments is emotion, isn’t it? Your head in your heart. You have to control those two. And what we’re doing is providing platforms or education platforms to allow people to fulfill that, that dream successfully and safely. Sean Tepper Yep, yep. Andrew Mitchem So it’s huge. Yeah. We can have all the AI and all the risks, all the all these flash gadgets, but ultimately it still comes back to that human wanting to have confidence in what they’re doing with their own money. Sean Tepper That’s it. Yeah. Andrew Mitchem And no. And also not just handing it over to someone as well. I think it’s important. Sean Tepper They add it and it’s actually you’re kind of alluding to this. It’s in people’s best interest to let’s say AI does 90% of the work. You want to be the person you want the human being finishing that process? Yeah. Because they, they ultimately it’s it’s better for them from an educational standpoint and from an, confidence standpoint, like they should know what was done. Sean Tepper But now, I control things. I get to execute the trade. Yes. You know, that’s right, that you want people to have that power at the end of the day. 60,000 stocks analyzed Andrew Mitchem Absolutely. And the, your software obviously does a lot of analysis just to give myself and viewers and listeners a ballpark figure. What kind of number of stocks is it kind of looking at and analyzing? Sean Tepper Sure. Okay. Yeah. So we’ve got about 60,000 stocks in TYKR around the world’s. We are up. Yeah. We’re upgrading. They’ll get this in the next month or two. We’re switching our data provider. So we’re going to have in the states real time pricing. You will have 15 minute delay. But then we’re going to have actually I can’t guarantee all stocks around the world, but most that’ll bring us closer to about 75,000 stocks around the world. Sean Tepper And then we’ll also have most ETFs around the world, which I think is closer to about 10,000. I could following in that Bow Wow. Yeah. No wonder. Andrew Mitchem They need analysis software that. Sean Tepper Yeah, right, right. It’s what we do. We run into circumstances when people, you know, they’ll join from a smaller country and they’ll be like, hey, you don’t have any stocks from our country. Winner may arriving. So it’s a lot of those requests and it’s like we knew we had to get to this point eventually. Yeah. But yeah. But then you just give transparency. Sean Tepper We’re looking at Finn Hub is, the data provider that will help us get, the more stocks and ETFs around the world. Andrew Mitchem Wow. So when you see your clients in 50 countries, if, for example, someone was here in New Zealand and they don’t want to be, and 2:00 in the morning to trade the US markets, they could be trading like the Australasian markets. Yeah. So your software. Sean Tepper Absolutely. Yep. Andrew Mitchem Oh, fantastic. That’s really good. Yeah. That, that’s blowing my way. That number. One thing as a currency trader, there’s like about eight main currencies. And so that makes, hence why there’s nothing like this for the forex market. I’m guessing because we can look at charts and read a bit of news and kind of make your analysis voice your, the information. Andrew Mitchem Someone out there with that. Your software is almost got an impossible task. Sean Tepper Yeah. We I was just checking here in tick or how many stocks from New Zealand. We’ve got a little over 187. So, do you know I like the I assume it’s the new New Zealand Stock Exchange. Andrew Mitchem Yes. In Wellington. Nice. Sean Tepper Got it. Do you know how many stocks they have? Andrew Mitchem No. I’m not, I’m purely forex. I honestly don’t know. Sean Tepper Okay. No no worries. But we’ll hopefully fin Hub will be able to get us most from from your exchange. Yeah. But that’s just a good example of like absolutely. You know we again we get a lot of people from random countries like, hey, can you add more stocks from our country? It’s like, yeah, absolutely. We’re we’re on it. Andrew Mitchem Yeah. Well, and also it’s purely that time of day thing, isn’t it. Because the you know, I suppose I get used to forex which is 24 hours a day. It doesn’t matter where you live in your world, you can trade it in cryptos obviously seven days a week now as well. But when you’re talking US stocks, they are, you know, for someone on my side of the world, some quite awkward trading hours. Andrew Mitchem So what you’re providing now would allow me to trade some of the the Japanese stocks, I’m guessing. Oh, and then the Australian ones using the ones now that you mentioned. So you really do open up your product to being truly a global, tool for people. Sean Tepper Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Andrew Mitchem That’s awesome. Sean, anything else you want to add about what we’ve not covered, about what you can help people with? Sean Tepper Yeah. Knowing that you’re more in the trading world and we’re more investing, I have to say this one detail, which is we do have about 10% of our customers are traders, give or take, and they’ll use TYKR as their starting points. You’re like, hey, let’s see. You’ve got like 100 ideas out there. Well, they’ll use TYKR to narrow it down from 100 down to ten. Sean Tepper Yeah. So that’s one main use case. It’s kind of like the short AI, as it’s been described to me. Is the short list creator TYKRs, the short list for like for traders. So so yeah, I want to add that tidbit as some people are like, well I’m not really into best thing. It’s like, you don’t have to be. Sean Tepper You can just use the tool to, narrow down your search. So I’ve selected one use case. Andrew Mitchem Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That’s kind of how I was thinking about potentially using it as well. It’s like, makes a lot of sense to do all that, that work and get it down to something more manageable. Right? Yeah. Contact Sean Andrew Mitchem And what’s the best way that someone can contact you to find out more, about what you offer? Andrew Mitchem Sure. Well, how would. Sean Tepper They add, two ways to get in touch with, TYKR or myself? You can just go to tykr.com. That’s TYKR, tykr.com. And then, I’m really active on LinkedIn. Sean Tepper, Sean is spelled the Sean Connery way. Andrew Mitchem Yes. This with the voice. Sean Tepper Yeah. I wish I had strong Scottish voice. Yes. Andrew Mitchem Awesome. Hey, Sean, we’ll put links, of course, up here as well. And we will be sharing this in around the website and social media as well, so people can contact you finding a link here as well. It’s been awesome talking to you. I’ve learned a lot about the market. I don’t know a huge amount, and it’s fascinating to hear what you do and how, you know, you going to make it from when you mentioned 60, it still blew me away. Andrew Mitchem That number, from a ridiculous number of, stocks to help to analyze something in a, in a more simplified way. So, awesome to speak to you. Thank you. Your product looks amazing. I will be trying it. And, Yeah, look forward to it as well. Sean Tepper Thanks, Andrew. This is great. Andrew Mitchem Awesome. Thanks, Sean. Bye for now. Episode Title: #624: The Smarter Way To Pick Winning Stocks Find out more about Blueberry Markets – Click Here Find out more about my Online Video Forex Course Book a Call with Andrew or one of his team now Click Here to Attend my Free Masterclass Checkout the Tykr Platform here.

Episode 511   00:00 Introduction 00:52 Supreme Court ruling on tariffs 02:42 Tariffs will be imposed for National Security (Section 232) & Unfair trade (Section 301) 03:03 Tariff decision reinforces DEREGULATION and Chevron ruling 03:49 AI Apocalypse mutually exclusive arguments 05:10 AI circular investing & money burn 05:48 AI disrupting SAAS software companies 07:31 Kodak disruption was good for the economy 08:34 Skilled Labor won't be replaced by automation 09:17 AI Apocalypse of EVERYTHING 10:25 AI flaw- it's trained on marketing propaganda 11:34 AI can't predict the future 12:52 PROSPERITY- technology reduces variable cost 14:32 AI will create more winners than losers 15:23 AI Apocalypse media narrative is foolishly CORRECT Sign up for free ALERTs & Market Commentary at:  https://www.investablewealth.com/subscribe/ ——————————————————

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Read more about Project23 and partner with us as we teach every verse of the Bible on video. Our text today is 1 Corinthians 5:12. It's easy to get worked up about everything happening "out there." We shake our heads at culture, critique the headlines, and grow frustrated with people who don't follow Jesus—as if their choices should shock us. But before Paul gives direction, he gives clarity: you can't expect the world to live by a standard it never agreed to. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? — 1 Corinthians 5:12 Paul tells the Corinthians to stop policing people who don't claim Christ. Unbelievers behaving like unbelievers is not a crisis. It's expected. What is a crisis is when believers behave like unbelievers and no one says a word. When Christians focus more energy on condemning the outside world than shepherding their own community, everything gets upside down. Jesus didn't police the world—He moved toward it. Paul didn't police the world—he preached to it. The early church didn't police the world—they loved it and reached it. But inside the church? They confronted sin, practiced discipline, and protected one another with humility and truth. They judged behavior not to shame but to restore. That's the difference. Many believers today get trapped in endless cycles of judging outsiders. We complain about politics, cultural decay, Hollywood, the news, and the morality of people who don't even claim to follow Christ. Meanwhile, friends we love are drifting, compromising, and slipping into patterns that are far more dangerous—and we stay silent. We end up policing the wrong people and ignoring the ones God called us to shepherd. The real problem isn't worldly people acting worldly. The real problem is God's people acting worldly and no one having the courage to intervene. Policing outside breeds resentment. Policing inside breeds restoration. So what does it look like to lovingly "police" believers in a biblical way? Ask honest questions instead of assuming everything is fine: "Hey, you seem distant lately. How are you doing spiritually?" Address what you see, not what you hear: "This is something I've noticed myself, and I care too much not to bring it up." Correct gently and clearly: "I'm saying this because it's dangerous for your walk, and I want to help." Refuse to normalize what God condemns: "I can't pretend this is okay. I care about you too much." Aim for restoration, not embarrassment: "I'm with you in this, and I'm not giving up on you." This is policing with a shepherd's heart—firm, honest, and aimed at rescue rather than ridicule. It's the kind of accountability that leads believers back to health and strengthens the whole church. DO THIS: Choose one believer in your life who may be drifting. Pray, reach out, and take a loving step toward honest conversation or gentle correction. ASK THIS: Where have I spent more time judging the world than shepherding believers? Who in my life needs loving accountability right now? What step could lead someone I love toward restoration instead of ruin? PRAY THIS: Father, help me stop policing the world and start loving, correcting, and restoring the believers You've placed around me. Give me wisdom and courage to speak truth with humility and protect the purity of Your church. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Take My Life and Let It Be"

Some guy got it started by claiming the right order is: Shampoo and rinse . . . wash your face . . . apply conditioner . . . wash your body . . . then rinse the conditioner out

Have we learned how to shower the CORRECT way by now?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Should you ever correct your spouse? The Bible says you should, and it tells you how (Gal. 6:1-3). First, you must not be just frustrated and fed up, but “spiritual.” Second, your goal must not be to humiliate, expose, or “win,” but to “restore.” Third, you must bring correction in a “spirit of gentleness,” not anger. Fourth, you must examine your own heart, “lest you also be tempted.” And, finally, you must “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2) — so whenever the problem persists, you’re called to be patient and longsuffering. Correcting your spouse is sometimes called for, but it must be done carefully, this way (Gal. 6:1-3).

Do your Luxembourgish sentences sometimes feel… a bit flat?Take this example:

In 1947 Dave Pace spiced up America with Salsa and this turned into a 90 Billion Dollar category. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [ECO Office Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. I’m Dave Young here talking to Stephen Semple. And the listeners may not know this because we only release these every week or so, right? Stephen Semple: Mh-hmm. Dave Young: But we often record them one after the other. And we just got done recording the episode about Doritos and Tostitos. And now you’re telling me that we’re going to talk about dip, Pace Salsa. Stephen Semple: Pace Salsa. Yeah. Dave Young: So the picante sauce people. Stephen Semple: Correct. Correct. Absolutely correct. Dave Young: And that’s great with Doritos. Stephen Semple: I never thought about it being with Doritos. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Tostitos, I would, but not Doritos. Dave Young: How about both? Stephen Semple: Okay. Dave Young: I say you can dip a Dorito into anything. I’m in that camp. I’m firmly in the camp that anything dippable is- Stephen Semple: You’re all-inclusive in your attitude towards Doritos and dip. Very open-minded. Here’s the thing I’m going to say. If someone has not listened to the Doritos, Tostitos story, you really should go back and listen to it before listening to this one because there’s certain things that kind of come together in terms of what’s happening in the world. Dave Young: Like chips and dip. Stephen Semple: And these stories are kind of linked even though this story starts in 1947. Well, the Doritos story starts in the late ’50s. They still have kind of a bit of a shared history. Dave Young: These stories that are on a collision course, a deathening. Stephen Semple: They are. And this story’s also not just about pace salsa, but it’s really about the origin of the salsa in the United States as a category, which is a $90 billion category. And the business was started by David Pace in 1947 in San Antonio and was sold to Campbell Soup in 1995 for $1.1 billion. Dave Young: All right. Stephen Semple: So not a bad little payday. Dave Young: Not a bad deal. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So now David Pace was from Louisiana and he moved to Texas after World War II. He had been running a small food business processing sugar substitutes, which were popular both during the war and shortly after the war with rationing because of the sugar rationing. But as rationing was coming off, what he knew is there was going to be less and less of a need for these sugar substitutes. So he was looking for a new idea. And so we have to remember, it’s 1947, food’s kind of boring in the United States. It’s not diverse. It’s bland. It’s meat and potatoes. The condiment that was used to improve food was ketchup. That was the condiment to improve food, right? And Mexican food was not really a thing. About the only thing that people knew about Mexican food, it was spicy. Here’s the part that I came across that really surprised me the most. In New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the world, and certainly the most diverse city in the United States, there was just one Mexican restaurant in the city and New York at the time. Dave Young: In the ’40s? City. Stephen Semple: In the late ’40s, ’47. Dave Young: Okay. Wow. Stephen Semple: There was only one. That was it. Now, you could get Mexican food in the South because let’s face it, 100 years previous, a lot of parts of the South were part of Mexico, right? Dave Young: That’s right. Stephen Semple: As we like to remind ourselves. So here he is in- Dave Young: Well, Tex-Mex started just spreading in. Stephen Semple: Yeah. So here he is in San Antonio. He was stationed in Texas during the war and he’d settled in San Antonio, but he had never had Mexican food because now he’s off the base living in San Antonio and he tries salsa for the first time. And he’s like, wow, this is great. And he decides he needs to bring it to the market. A couple of challenges he ran into. First is how to make it. There’s lots of recipes around. He wanted to make his own version to sell the non-Mexican, so he wanted to tone down the intense flavors. He also needed to be able to jar it so it had shelf life. Here’s one of the fun challenges he ran into. A couple of the recipes he worked with would ferment once put in a jar. Well, what happens in a jar when something ferments? Dave Young: Botulism? Stephen Semple: No, kaboom. They blow up. Dave Young: Kaboom. They blow up. Okay. Yeah. Stephen Semple: So exploding jars, exploding jars of salsas, not really the objective. Dave Young: That’s never a good look either. Stephen Semple: Not really. But he gets it figured out and he brands it as Pace Picante Sauce. So it was first of all, promote it as a sauce, not a dip. And he starts selling it locally. He advertises it in the newspapers, but again, not as a dip as a sauce, like a marinade, something you brush on meat before baking. That was how it was being positioned. Dave Young: Well, it’s still, that’s the label on the jar is Pace Picante Sauce. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: I’ve always wondered about that. He did that so he didn’t have to… Well, go ahead. Stephen Semple: But that was just kind of how he thought about it. And so for over a decade, he works on building up a following in Texas. It was building slowly. He liked spicy food, but most people didn’t, because even though he took the spice down, it was still spicy. Now he hires his son-in-law, Kit Goldsbury, and Kit hates spicy food, like can’t stand it, but still thinks he can sell it. And Kit starts at the bottom working every job and works his way up. And there’s a point where Kit becomes more senior. And Pace is now in five states and is making some money. They’re having some success. Dave Young: Good. Stephen Semple: But Kit’s goal is he wants us to become coast to coast. He wants to turn this into a big thing. But here’s what he notices. It’s too hot for northerners, but northerners want flavor because they’re eating Doritos. They’re eating nacho Doritos and cheese Doritos. They’re eating those things. So it’s not like they don’t want flavor. They just don’t want the heat. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: There’s a marker for something interesting, unique, and different, but to go national, he needs to mute the heat. Dave Young: Needs to call it mild. Stephen Semple: Right. And around this time, Tostitos takes off and which is being used for dipping and it’s a massive success. So he decides to lean into the dip angle because he saw what was going on with Tostitos and he said, “You know what? We need to make this as a dip, not as a sauce, but I still need to take down the heat.” So he hires tasters to try all the jalapenos out there to find out which is the one that would work the best. Here’s the problem. Taster’s results were really inconsistent. He goes, “Okay, so I’ve still got to solve this heat problem.” So he hires a food scientist to engineer a heat-free jalapeno. Dr. Rasplicka, I think is how you pronounce his name, who basically created this measurement system for capsaicin, which is about how hot it is. And from this, they were able to figure out how to remove the heat because they were able to identify each one, able to identify the source of it and create this non-heat version of salsa. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Now, you jump the gun on it a little bit, as you often do. So remember, while Americans didn’t want heat, they wanted something interesting. So of course they didn’t call it bland. What did they call it? Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell Ad] Dave Young: Let’s pick up our story where we left off and trust me you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: Well, Americans didn’t want heat. They wanted something interesting. So of course they didn’t call it bland. What did they call it? Dave Young: Mild. Well, they’ve got the three. They’ve got mild, medium, and hot. Stephen Semple: Right. And that’s exactly what they did. They had the other spice levels, but they didn’t go with bland. They went with mild. Dave Young: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This the Goldilocks rule, right? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: And so therefore, and with mild, everyone can enjoy it. And then of course they offered the other spice levels and they market it as a dip. Very quickly, sales went from $3 million to over $50 million. Dave Young: I can imagine. Stephen Semple: So successful, supermarkets started placing salsa in the chip aisle because it was not in the chip aisle previously. In 1991, salsa passes ketchup as the number one condiment in the United States. Dave Young: Not till ’91. Stephen Semple: Not till ’91. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: 1995, Campbell’s buys the business for over a billion dollars. Dave Young: All right. Stephen Semple: Now, I forget what year it was. I think it was ’92, but anyway, early ’90s, Campbell’s actually created a Heinz Salsa. Dave Young: Really? Stephen Semple: Yes. And it failed miserably. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: But if you think about it, we often bump in these situations where companies do these line extensions, right? Where it’s like, “Well, why not? It’s tomato. It’s a condiment. It’s all this other thing. We can do a Heinz Salsa.” Why wouldn’t a Heinz Salsa work? People love Heinz ketchup. They’ll love Heinz Salsa.” It bombed. It totally bombed. Like bombs so much to the degree that it only existed for about three years and they went, “You know what? Instead, we’ll spend $1.1 billion buying a competitor rather than trying to develop our own.” Dave Young: Heinz is what it is and you know what you’re getting. Stephen Semple: But how often do we see that whole line extension happen and it fails? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Right? Like Gerber’s wanting to make adult food. Dave Young: No. Stephen Semple: Doesn’t work. Heinz making salsa. Dave Young: Make adult food and call it something else. Stephen Semple: Coke understood this when they went into the energy drink market because it was not Coke energy drink. They knew that would fail. Coke understood that. They were like, “No, no. Coke’s a pop. It’s a soft drink. It’s not an energy drink. We’re going to have to do something completely different.” But it’s amazing how often businesses will make that mistake of, “Oh, well, we do this thing. Let’s also market ourselves this thing and do this line extension.” And it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. Dave Young: I think there are just invisible boundaries that if you don’t know them and you try to cross them. And in this case, it’s the style of food, right? Heinz goes on certain things, but it doesn’t go on Mexican food. You don’t dump ketchup on Mexican food. You don’t dump mustard on Mexican food. And Heinz makes ketchup and mustard and relish. Stephen Semple: And pickles. Dave Young: Pickles and all of those things, but they’re definitely not things that you put on Mexican food. Stephen Semple: It’s interesting. I was having this conversation with Michael Torbet, one of our partners, because we’re dealing with a situation with a client, an existing client where we’re struggling with getting them to think about not doing a line extension. And I was sharing with him this whole story of Heinz and we were talking about Gerber and a bunch of other companies that tried to do line extension and have failed. And we got talking about ketchup. And I was saying to him, “Well, I think the reason why it didn’t work because ketchup is something that you put on hamburgers.” But I like how you put it. It’s not specifically about hamburgers, but the foods that you put ketchup on, because again, Heinz is successful in pickles and they’re successful in mustard, but there’s foods where pickles, mustard, and ketchup go together. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And none of those foods does salsa go on it. It’s a different food category that salsa goes on. So you could make salsa and you could probably make cheese and that would actually work. Where you think about it, ketchup and salsa from a manufacturing standpoint are closer than salsa and cheese. Dave Young: Yeah. Those are weird associations. Stephen Semple: In fact, those companies do make cheese. They make cheese with a little bit of jalapeno. Dave Young: Yeah, absolutely. They’re right there next to the picante sauce. Stephen Semple: But I loved how you expressed it, hidden barriers, but they exist. And if you cross those barriers, it doesn’t work. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Very cool. I didn’t think about them as being hidden barriers. That’s an amazing observation. Dave Young: Like Rolex should never make a phone. Stephen Semple: Right. Dave Young: Right? Well, phones keep times like, yeah, but that’s not right. Anyway, that’s just an example. There’s just lanes. Stephen Semple: Right. But there’s a couple of luxury watch brands that tried to dip their toe into the smartwatch market and it didn’t work. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And Rolex was not one of them, but I can’t remember who did, but they did and it failed terribly, failed terribly. Part of the appeal to a Rolex is the handmade and craftsmanship and all this other stuff. Dave Young: Well, and I don’t know. I have an Apple Watch and I have an Apple Watch not so much so I can tell time, but so it can do some other things for me. Stephen Semple: Yes. Dave Young: It can notify me. I use the timer function all the time and I could just carry a stopwatch around my neck or some kind of timer. But I also noticed that Apple sells, you can buy really fancy, upgraded, shiny, gold, sparkly, diamond encrusted versions of Apple Watch cases. The thing still does the same thing, but I don’t know how popular that stuff is. I’m guessing it’s pretty niche. Stephen Semple: I’m going to guess it probably is. And again, it’s not a line extension. It’s an add-on to an Apple Watch. It’s not a different watch. It’s an add-on. Dave Young: I think the guy that’s buying a Patek Philippe… I don’t know. Stephen Semple: Philippe Patek? Yeah. Dave Young: Or even a Rolex. Stephen Semple: Were you? Yeah. Dave Young: You’re not buying it for the same reason you’re buying an Apple Watch of any sort. And you’re not going to be fooled by the glitz and glam of the accoutrement on an Apple Watch into thinking that you’re buying a fancy watch. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: It’s still an Apple Watch. Stephen Semple: It’s still an Apple Watch. Yeah. It’s a different thing. Dave Young: Interesting. Yeah. Stephen Semple: Anyway. Dave Young: That’s a fascinating subject to just these invisible barriers. Stephen Semple: In a great book that covers this a little bit is the 22 by… Is it Al Ries and somebody? Dave Young: Trout and Ries, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding. Stephen Semple: Yeah. And one of the laws that they go through is basically don’t do line extension. And they’ve got some great stories in that book around it. And anybody interested in branding, it’s a great… I have it on my desk and it’s a bible I refer to because those 22 laws, yeah, they are like you break them at your peril. With all of Heinz power, it couldn’t extend that and instead gave up and spent a billion dollars buying a competitor. Dave Young: And probably didn’t rename it Heinz. Stephen Semple: They did not. They kept it as Pace. Yeah. Dave Young: And they learned their lesson. Stephen Semple: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Dave Young: We’ve spent this time talking about Pace and just before this recording, we talked about Doritos, Tostitos. I’m getting kind of hungry. Are you getting hungry? Stephen Semple: Yeah. And of course we also talked a little bit about Taco Bell. Dave Young: Yeah. Yeah. Stephen Semple: As a sidebar. Yeah. A lot of food conversation here late in the afternoon. Dave Young: If people hear my tummy grumbling in the microphone, you know what’s going on. If we weren’t in different cities on the same continent, I’d suggest we go out and grab a bite somewhere, Stephen, but we’ll have to do that another time. Stephen Semple: We’ll have to do that another time. Exactly. Dave Young: I’ll bring the dip, you bring the chips. Stephen Semple: All right, you’re on. Dave Young: Thanks for bringing us the Pace story. Stephen Semple: All right. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a big, fat, juicy five star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

Experience is one of leadership's greatest assets — until it becomes unquestioned. In Episode 670 of Daily Influence, Brian Smith explores how success quietly hardens assumptions and how past wins can unintentionally block present clarity. While experience builds confidence, speed, and pattern recognition, it can also create rigidity if leaders stop examining what once worked. In this episode, Brian unpacks: How success institutionalizes thinking — and why that can become dangerous Why “we've always done it this way” frustrates teams and limits growth How SMART Six-to-Sixty planning prevents fossilized leadership Why structured feedback loops are essential to challenge inherited thinking True leadership maturity is not about abandoning experience — it's about continuously recalibrating it. Because experience informs. It should not imprison. If you are serious about responsible influence, this episode will challenge you to ask: Where might my past success be limiting my present clarity? Find your influence. Be your influence. Build your influence — intentionally.

SummaryIn this conversation, David J Bland and Dan Olsen discuss the evolution of product management, the impact of vibe coding, and the importance of cross-functional collaboration. They explore the challenges of prototyping, user research, and the role of AI in product development. The discussion emphasizes the need for strong product management fundamentals and the future of product management in a rapidly changing landscape.TakeawaysThe awareness of product management has significantly increased over the years.Vibe coding allows for rapid prototyping and testing without heavy technical resources.Cross-functional collaboration is essential for successful product development.User research is becoming more valued in product management.Prototyping should focus on learning rather than just building.AI can assist in generating ideas but lacks judgment in prioritization.The pace of innovation in product tools is accelerating rapidly.Understanding customer problems is crucial for product success.Rushing to high fidelity prototypes can lead to missed opportunities in the problem space.Product management fundamentals will be key in differentiating successful products.Guest LinksWebsite: https://dan-olsen.com/LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danolsen98/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/danolsenLean Product Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/lean-product/ Vibe Coding Product Brief: https://dan-olsen.com/vibe-coding/Vibe Coding Spectrum: https://dan-olsen.com/vibe-coding/The Lean Product Playbook: https://amzn.to/1EYCUdP Struggling to decide which bets deserve more time, money, and people?Join my AI-Assisted Decision Workshop and learn how to use AI to surface assumptions, map risk, and reach a Commit, Correct, or Cut decision in just 3 hours.

We're DIY investors and are really just looking for a sanity check in terms of what's a realistic retirement timeline and nest-egg target for a household like ours? Have a money question? Email us ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jill on Money LIVE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jill on Money Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jillonmoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jillonmoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jillonmoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ "Jill on Money" theme music is by Joel Goodman, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.joelgoodman.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can be consistent, show up every week, and share genuinely useful information and still hear crickets. If that sounds familiar, the problem probably isn't your strategy or your posting schedule. It's that your marketing is emotionally flat. People are consuming your content, but they aren't feeling anything. And when people feel nothing, they do nothing.In this episode, Danielle breaks down why emotion is the real driver behind every buying decision, even for the people who swear they're purely logical, and what it actually means to create marketing that connects. Hint: it's not about labeling emotions like "overwhelmed" or "stressed." It's about describing your audience's experience so well that they feel genuinely seen.You'll walk away knowing exactly how to audit your content for emotional resonance and start creating marketing that moves people from familiar with you to ready to work with you.Learn how to create more emotional pull in The Blueprint, my three-month one-on-one marketing program.You can get even more Marketing That Works in your inbox by signing up for the weekly newsletter.Follow on Instagram at @Danielle.R.Harris. Follow on LinkedIn

What if the reason your easy runs feel hard is because you're doing too much, too soon?Marathon training can feel overwhelming when every run type seems important and everything feels hard at once. In this episode, I break down the simple structure behind effective marathon training and explain why most runners struggle not because they lack effort, but because they train in the wrong order. I walk through the three run types that quietly build most of your fitness, why they matter more than speed work early on, and how following the right sequence helps you stay healthy, consistent, and confident all the way to race day.Key TakeawaysMarathon training works best when it follows a clear order, starting with easy runs, long runs, and threshold work before adding speed. Skipping this order is one of the fastest ways to get injured or burned out.Easy runs and long runs are not filler workouts. They build the aerobic base that lets your body recover, adapt, and handle harder training later.Speed work only helps once your foundation is solid. Without a base, harder workouts create damage faster than your body can rebuild.Timestamps[00:34] What You'll Learn[01:47] The Problem[04:10] Use This To Crush Your Next Marathon[05:17] The Solution: How To Sequence The 16 Weeks[07:35] Run Type #1: The Easy Run[09:41] Run Type #2: The Long Run[14:05] Run Type #3: The Threshold Run[18:27] Find Out What Level Marathoner You AreLinks & Learnings

Thank you for joining us for week 2 of our series called Abide where we are learning how to do life with Christ! This week, Pastor Parker leads us in 1 John 1:5-2:2. We hope you are convicted and encouraged by this message and we can't wait to see you next week! As always — love God, love others and make disciples!

"McElroy & Cubelic In The Morning" airs 7am-10am weekdays on WJOX-94.5!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Strap in as Lionel takes you to the "correct side of the truth," serving up solid food for those tired of the "mother's milk" on cable news. Lionel dissects the baffling incompetence surrounding the Savannah Guthrie case—from cleaning the pool at a crime scene to the family's hesitation to put up real ransom money. He then exposes the "militant atheist" mob targeting Yale mathematician David Gelernter for questioning Darwinism. Plus, Lionel doubles down on the reality of geoengineering, explains why the hyoid bone proves Jeffrey Epstein was murdered, and takes calls on the dark, depraved underbelly of elite society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna-Carin Svensson joins Dr. Sandie Morgan as they explore how Sweden's decision to punish buyers instead of victims has reshaped who feels safe coming forward — and how that same principle is now being applied to hold online exploitation accountable.Chapters(00:00) - Introduction: Sweden's Principle That Changed Everything (01:07) - The Equality Model: Why Sweden Criminalized Buyers, Not Sellers (07:37) - What 25 Years of Data Actually Shows (09:16) - When Exploitation Moves Online: Updating the Law for the Digital Age (14:37) - Why Multidisciplinary Collaboration Is Non-Negotiable (18:41) - The Gap Between Good Laws and Correct Application (25:02) - Prevention Starts Before the Warning Signs (29:51) - Hope, Humanity, and the Road Ahead Anna-Carin SvenssonAnna-Carin Svensson serves as Sweden's Ambassador to Combat Trafficking in Persons, representing Sweden in multilateral anti-trafficking efforts including at the United Nations. In this role, she has participated in high-level discussions related to the appraisal of the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, including the side event "Proactive by Design: Leveraging Multidisciplinary Collaboration and Digital Innovation to Prevent Human Trafficking."Previously, Svensson served as Director-General for International Affairs at the Swedish Ministry of Justice, where she led Swedish delegations in international human rights forums and oversaw Sweden's implementation of international legal obligations, including under the Convention against Torture. Across her career, she has consistently emphasized state responsibility, institutional accountability, cross-government coordination, and the importance of translating legislation into effective practice.Key PointsSweden's Sex Purchase Act, introduced in 1999, was a landmark legal shift that criminalized the buyer of sexual services rather than the seller, placing the state firmly on the side of the more vulnerable party in the transaction and signaling that prostitution is a harm to all of society — not just to the individual.A 2010 official evaluation of the law found measurable results: street prostitution decreased, criminal networks were deterred from establishing trafficking operations in Sweden, and public attitudes shifted significantly — evidence that law can have both a direct and a normative effect.As exploitation moved online, Sweden updated its legislation in 2025 to extend the same principle into the digital space, criminalizing the purchase of live, on-demand sexual acts performed remotely — because if something is illegal offline, it must be illegal online.Many victims who had been coerced into performing live cam shows said the new law would have made it easier for them to refuse, illustrating how legal frameworks can shift power back to the exploited person even before a crime is prosecuted.Correct application of the law matters as much as the law itself — broad training across all professions, not just specialized units, is essential so that any first responder can recognize a victim, give an appropriate initial response, and connect them to the right support.Multidisciplinary collaboration is not optional: criminal justice, social services, civil society, health professionals, schools, and international partners must all work in concert, because victims often feel safer disclosing to a social worker or nonprofit than to law enforcement, and that trust must be honored.Digital literacy and healthy relationship education must begin before exploitation happens — teaching young people to recognize manipulation, loverboy tactics, and online red flags is one of the most important prevention investments a society can make.Hope lies in the growing global community of organizations and individuals bringing creative, collaborative solutions to every aspect of this problem — and in the simple recognition that for every challenge, there are many possible answers.ResourcesEnding Human Trafficking PodcastGlobal Center for Women and Justice (GCWJ)UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons – 2025 AppraisalSweden's Sex Purchase Act – Swedish Gender Equality AgencySweden's 2025 Online Sexual Acts Legislation – Library of Congress SummaryTranscriptClick here to view the episode transcript.

The person you see in your head when you think “me” probably isn't you.Most of us don't perceive ourselves accurately—we see a distorted, unrealistically negative version. Not because it's true… but because your brain is trying (and failing) to protect you from pain.In this episode I explain “The Magnet”: the force that pulls your self-concept downward after experiences like rejection, failure, and embarrassment—so you'll “reject yourself first” before the world can do it.It's a defense mechanism… but it comes with two brutal costs:You trade short, sharp pain for a lifetime of dull painYou start preemptively opting out of opportunities, connection, growth, and visibilityIf you live with chronic self-criticism, low self-esteem, or an internal “lowlight reel” that plays on repeat… this episode will help you interrupt it.If my podcast has helped, my new book, The Light Between the Leaves, goes even deeperNext Steps:

Brad Evans and Pat Boyle speak on the most notable College Basketball news throughout the last 24 hours, as Kansas State fires Head Coach Jerome Tang for cause. Additionally, our thoughts on if this decision was justified and why there is one obvious candidate to replace Tang, that needs to be the top priority.

In this episode, I talk about a simple way to correct your child without overreacting or letting things slide. I explain how small, consistent verbal reminders act like course corrections, helping children adjust their behaviour before it becomes a habit. This matters because what we allow becomes normal in our homes, and small choices shape long-term character in our child's life.   In This Episode Why behaviours that seem to appear "suddenly" have usually developed gradually How what we accept becomes our child's norm The difference between correction and punishment The idea of correction as a course correction, not a big reaction How children learn something from every response we give Practical examples of simple verbal reminders Heart-Focused Parenting Action Step Over the next 24 hours, choose one behaviour you've been overlooking and prepare a simple verbal reminder you will consistently use to help your child adjust and practise doing what is right.   Read the blog here:  Verbal Reminders are a Simple way to Correct your Child   Continue the conversation If this episode resonated with you, you're welcome to join my weekly Heart Booster emails - regular encouragements for parents who want to be intentional, relational and heart-focused.     If you'd like personal support applying these ideas in your own family, you can learn more about one-on-one coaching here.  Parent Coaching   You can also find me on Instagram, where I share something most days.  Instagram.  

WEEK 5 | WE NEED FRIENDSWisdom at Home Series | Pastor Craig TurnbullIn Week 5 of Wisdom at Home, Pastor Craig explores what Proverbs teaches about authentic friendship. In a world filled with digital connection but deep loneliness, Scripture reminds us that isolation is dangerous and community is essential. God designed us for real, sacrificial relationships that sharpen, protect, and strengthen us.Through five biblical principles—Connect, Select, Correct, Protect, and Reflect—this message challenges us to pursue wise friendships and to become faithful friends ourselves.Key Takeaways:Isolation leads to danger and self-deception.Wise friends shape a wise life.Loving correction strengthens real relationships.Gossip destroys trust and unity.Sacrifice is the foundation of true friendship.Related Scriptures:Proverbs 18:1Proverbs 13:20Proverbs 27:5–6Proverbs 16:28John 15:13–15If you've been longing for deeper relationships or unsure how to cultivate them, this message invites you to pursue the kind of friendships God designed and to reflect the faithful love of Christ in every relationship.Need prayer? Visit bannockburnchurch.com/prayer

This podcast shows you how to fully recover from OCD.Each episode breaks down the exact techniques and nuances that stop rumination, reduce compulsions, and help you retrain your brain out of the OCD cycle. We cover every major OCD theme, including:Pure-O OCDRelationship OCDHarm OCDReal Event OCDSO-OCD / Sexuality OCDReligious / Scrupulosity OCDCleaning & Contamination OCDPhysical CompulsionsAll other OCD subtypesMy goal is simple: clear guidance that actually works, explained in a way that is calm, direct, and easy to apply immediately.You can fully recover from OCD. Don't give up — you're not stuck, and your brain can change.

My apologies for uploading an OLD show, rather than the correct show, on Thursday. Here is the correct one. Have a great weekend!Big 12 basketball chaos is back. Heartland College Sports basketball columnist Matthew Postins joins Pete Mundo to break down a wild week in the league.We react to Jerome Tang and Tad Boyle publicly ripping their teams, TCU's upset of Iowa State, and Kansas knocking off Arizona. Plus, we preview a massive weekend of Big 12 games, including Iowa State vs. Kansas and Texas Tech vs. Arizona.S

In this episode, Dana Irvine shares essential insights on common mistakes women over 40 make regarding breast health and practical ways to support and improve it. Whether you're new to self-care or looking to refine your routine, these tips are vital for maintaining health and confidence.The importance of regular breast health monitoring beyond annual mammogramsChallenging normalization of breast pain, tenderness, and congestionOvercoming fear and avoidance of self-breast examsThe impact of detoxing too aggressively on breast healthThe critical role of lymphatic health in overall breast wellnessHow supporting hormones, liver, and gut enhances breast healthEffects of chronic stress on breast tissue and overall wellbeingThe importance of proactive, holistic self-care over reactive health measuresResources & Links:Touch Your Tatta's ProgramFive Minutes to Wellness GuideDr. Perry Nicholson - Lymphatic ActivistBreast Health Support & Self-ExamsConnect with Dana Irvine:InstagramWebsiteIf you're over 40 and feeling:• Tired but wired • Bloated or inflamed • Hormonal and frustrated • Concerned about breast health • Unsure what testing you truly needYou don't need another quick fix. You need clarity.The Wise Divine Women Health Clarity Call is your 1:1 strategy session to uncover root causes and map out your next best steps — whether that's functional testing, thermography, nutrition coaching, or hormone support.

From rewriting Google's search stack in the early 2000s to reviving sparse trillion-parameter models and co-designing TPUs with frontier ML research, Jeff Dean has quietly shaped nearly every layer of the modern AI stack. As Chief AI Scientist at Google and a driving force behind Gemini, Jeff has lived through multiple scaling revolutions from CPUs and sharded indices to multimodal models that reason across text, video, and code.Jeff joins us to unpack what it really means to “own the Pareto frontier,” why distillation is the engine behind every Flash model breakthrough, how energy (in picojoules) not FLOPs is becoming the true bottleneck, what it was like leading the charge to unify all of Google's AI teams, and why the next leap won't come from bigger context windows alone, but from systems that give the illusion of attending to trillions of tokens.We discuss:* Jeff's early neural net thesis in 1990: parallel training before it was cool, why he believed scaling would win decades early, and the “bigger model, more data, better results” mantra that held for 15 years* The evolution of Google Search: sharding, moving the entire index into memory in 2001, softening query semantics pre-LLMs, and why retrieval pipelines already resemble modern LLM systems* Pareto frontier strategy: why you need both frontier “Pro” models and low-latency “Flash” models, and how distillation lets smaller models surpass prior generations* Distillation deep dive: ensembles → compression → logits as soft supervision, and why you need the biggest model to make the smallest one good* Latency as a first-class objective: why 10–50x lower latency changes UX entirely, and how future reasoning workloads will demand 10,000 tokens/sec* Energy-based thinking: picojoules per bit, why moving data costs 1000x more than a multiply, batching through the lens of energy, and speculative decoding as amortization* TPU co-design: predicting ML workloads 2–6 years out, speculative hardware features, precision reduction, sparsity, and the constant feedback loop between model architecture and silicon* Sparse models and “outrageously large” networks: trillions of parameters with 1–5% activation, and why sparsity was always the right abstraction* Unified vs. specialized models: abandoning symbolic systems, why general multimodal models tend to dominate vertical silos, and when vertical fine-tuning still makes sense* Long context and the illusion of scale: beyond needle-in-a-haystack benchmarks toward systems that narrow trillions of tokens to 117 relevant documents* Personalized AI: attending to your emails, photos, and documents (with permission), and why retrieval + reasoning will unlock deeply personal assistants* Coding agents: 50 AI interns, crisp specifications as a new core skill, and how ultra-low latency will reshape human–agent collaboration* Why ideas still matter: transformers, sparsity, RL, hardware, systems — scaling wasn't blind; the pieces had to multiply togetherShow Notes:* Gemma 3 Paper* Gemma 3* Gemini 2.5 Report* Jeff Dean's “Software Engineering Advice fromBuilding Large-Scale Distributed Systems” Presentation (with Back of the Envelope Calculations)* Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know by Jeff Dean* The Jeff Dean Facts* Jeff Dean Google Bio* Jeff Dean on “Important AI Trends” @Stanford AI Club* Jeff Dean & Noam Shazeer — 25 years at Google (Dwarkesh)—Jeff Dean* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-dean-8b212555* X: https://x.com/jeffdeanGoogle* https://google.com* https://deepmind.googleFull Video EpisodeTimestamps00:00:04 — Introduction: Alessio & Swyx welcome Jeff Dean, chief AI scientist at Google, to the Latent Space podcast00:00:30 — Owning the Pareto Frontier & balancing frontier vs low-latency models00:01:31 — Frontier models vs Flash models + role of distillation00:03:52 — History of distillation and its original motivation00:05:09 — Distillation's role in modern model scaling00:07:02 — Model hierarchy (Flash, Pro, Ultra) and distillation sources00:07:46 — Flash model economics & wide deployment00:08:10 — Latency importance for complex tasks00:09:19 — Saturation of some tasks and future frontier tasks00:11:26 — On benchmarks, public vs internal00:12:53 — Example long-context benchmarks & limitations00:15:01 — Long-context goals: attending to trillions of tokens00:16:26 — Realistic use cases beyond pure language00:18:04 — Multimodal reasoning and non-text modalities00:19:05 — Importance of vision & motion modalities00:20:11 — Video understanding example (extracting structured info)00:20:47 — Search ranking analogy for LLM retrieval00:23:08 — LLM representations vs keyword search00:24:06 — Early Google search evolution & in-memory index00:26:47 — Design principles for scalable systems00:28:55 — Real-time index updates & recrawl strategies00:30:06 — Classic “Latency numbers every programmer should know”00:32:09 — Cost of memory vs compute and energy emphasis00:34:33 — TPUs & hardware trade-offs for serving models00:35:57 — TPU design decisions & co-design with ML00:38:06 — Adapting model architecture to hardware00:39:50 — Alternatives: energy-based models, speculative decoding00:42:21 — Open research directions: complex workflows, RL00:44:56 — Non-verifiable RL domains & model evaluation00:46:13 — Transition away from symbolic systems toward unified LLMs00:47:59 — Unified models vs specialized ones00:50:38 — Knowledge vs reasoning & retrieval + reasoning00:52:24 — Vertical model specialization & modules00:55:21 — Token count considerations for vertical domains00:56:09 — Low resource languages & contextual learning00:59:22 — Origins: Dean's early neural network work01:10:07 — AI for coding & human–model interaction styles01:15:52 — Importance of crisp specification for coding agents01:19:23 — Prediction: personalized models & state retrieval01:22:36 — Token-per-second targets (10k+) and reasoning throughput01:23:20 — Episode conclusion and thanksTranscriptAlessio Fanelli [00:00:04]: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space podcast. This is Alessio, founder of Kernel Labs, and I'm joined by Swyx, editor of Latent Space. Shawn Wang [00:00:11]: Hello, hello. We're here in the studio with Jeff Dean, chief AI scientist at Google. Welcome. Thanks for having me. It's a bit surreal to have you in the studio. I've watched so many of your talks, and obviously your career has been super legendary. So, I mean, congrats. I think the first thing must be said, congrats on owning the Pareto Frontier.Jeff Dean [00:00:30]: Thank you, thank you. Pareto Frontiers are good. It's good to be out there.Shawn Wang [00:00:34]: Yeah, I mean, I think it's a combination of both. You have to own the Pareto Frontier. You have to have like frontier capability, but also efficiency, and then offer that range of models that people like to use. And, you know, some part of this was started because of your hardware work. Some part of that is your model work, and I'm sure there's lots of secret sauce that you guys have worked on cumulatively. But, like, it's really impressive to see it all come together in, like, this slittily advanced.Jeff Dean [00:01:04]: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, as you say, it's not just one thing. It's like a whole bunch of things up and down the stack. And, you know, all of those really combine to help make UNOS able to make highly capable large models, as well as, you know, software techniques to get those large model capabilities into much smaller, lighter weight models that are, you know, much more cost effective and lower latency, but still, you know, quite capable for their size. Yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:01:31]: How much pressure do you have on, like, having the lower bound of the Pareto Frontier, too? I think, like, the new labs are always trying to push the top performance frontier because they need to raise more money and all of that. And you guys have billions of users. And I think initially when you worked on the CPU, you were thinking about, you know, if everybody that used Google, we use the voice model for, like, three minutes a day, they were like, you need to double your CPU number. Like, what's that discussion today at Google? Like, how do you prioritize frontier versus, like, we have to do this? How do we actually need to deploy it if we build it?Jeff Dean [00:02:03]: Yeah, I mean, I think we always want to have models that are at the frontier or pushing the frontier because I think that's where you see what capabilities now exist that didn't exist at the sort of slightly less capable last year's version or last six months ago version. At the same time, you know, we know those are going to be really useful for a bunch of use cases, but they're going to be a bit slower and a bit more expensive than people might like for a bunch of other broader models. So I think what we want to do is always have kind of a highly capable sort of affordable model that enables a whole bunch of, you know, lower latency use cases. People can use them for agentic coding much more readily and then have the high-end, you know, frontier model that is really useful for, you know, deep reasoning, you know, solving really complicated math problems, those kinds of things. And it's not that. One or the other is useful. They're both useful. So I think we'd like to do both. And also, you know, through distillation, which is a key technique for making the smaller models more capable, you know, you have to have the frontier model in order to then distill it into your smaller model. So it's not like an either or choice. You sort of need that in order to actually get a highly capable, more modest size model. Yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:03:24]: I mean, you and Jeffrey came up with the solution in 2014.Jeff Dean [00:03:28]: Don't forget, L'Oreal Vinyls as well. Yeah, yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:03:30]: A long time ago. But like, I'm curious how you think about the cycle of these ideas, even like, you know, sparse models and, you know, how do you reevaluate them? How do you think about in the next generation of model, what is worth revisiting? Like, yeah, they're just kind of like, you know, you worked on so many ideas that end up being influential, but like in the moment, they might not feel that way necessarily. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:03:52]: I mean, I think distillation was originally motivated because we were seeing that we had a very large image data set at the time, you know, 300 million images that we could train on. And we were seeing that if you create specialists for different subsets of those image categories, you know, this one's going to be really good at sort of mammals, and this one's going to be really good at sort of indoor room scenes or whatever, and you can cluster those categories and train on an enriched stream of data after you do pre-training on a much broader set of images. You get much better performance. If you then treat that whole set of maybe 50 models you've trained as a large ensemble, but that's not a very practical thing to serve, right? So distillation really came about from the idea of, okay, what if we want to actually serve that and train all these independent sort of expert models and then squish it into something that actually fits in a form factor that you can actually serve? And that's, you know, not that different from what we're doing today. You know, often today we're instead of having an ensemble of 50 models. We're having a much larger scale model that we then distill into a much smaller scale model.Shawn Wang [00:05:09]: Yeah. A part of me also wonders if distillation also has a story with the RL revolution. So let me maybe try to articulate what I mean by that, which is you can, RL basically spikes models in a certain part of the distribution. And then you have to sort of, well, you can spike models, but usually sometimes... It might be lossy in other areas and it's kind of like an uneven technique, but you can probably distill it back and you can, I think that the sort of general dream is to be able to advance capabilities without regressing on anything else. And I think like that, that whole capability merging without loss, I feel like it's like, you know, some part of that should be a distillation process, but I can't quite articulate it. I haven't seen much papers about it.Jeff Dean [00:06:01]: Yeah, I mean, I tend to think of one of the key advantages of distillation is that you can have a much smaller model and you can have a very large, you know, training data set and you can get utility out of making many passes over that data set because you're now getting the logits from the much larger model in order to sort of coax the right behavior out of the smaller model that you wouldn't otherwise get with just the hard labels. And so, you know, I think that's what we've observed. Is you can get, you know, very close to your largest model performance with distillation approaches. And that seems to be, you know, a nice sweet spot for a lot of people because it enables us to kind of, for multiple Gemini generations now, we've been able to make the sort of flash version of the next generation as good or even substantially better than the previous generations pro. And I think we're going to keep trying to do that because that seems like a good trend to follow.Shawn Wang [00:07:02]: So, Dara asked, so it was the original map was Flash Pro and Ultra. Are you just sitting on Ultra and distilling from that? Is that like the mother load?Jeff Dean [00:07:12]: I mean, we have a lot of different kinds of models. Some are internal ones that are not necessarily meant to be released or served. Some are, you know, our pro scale model and we can distill from that as well into our Flash scale model. So I think, you know, it's an important set of capabilities to have and also inference time scaling. It can also be a useful thing to improve the capabilities of the model.Shawn Wang [00:07:35]: And yeah, yeah, cool. Yeah. And obviously, I think the economy of Flash is what led to the total dominance. I think the latest number is like 50 trillion tokens. I don't know. I mean, obviously, it's changing every day.Jeff Dean [00:07:46]: Yeah, yeah. But, you know, by market share, hopefully up.Shawn Wang [00:07:50]: No, I mean, there's no I mean, there's just the economics wise, like because Flash is so economical, like you can use it for everything. Like it's in Gmail now. It's in YouTube. Like it's yeah. It's in everything.Jeff Dean [00:08:02]: We're using it more in our search products of various AI mode reviews.Shawn Wang [00:08:05]: Oh, my God. Flash past the AI mode. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's yeah, I didn't even think about that.Jeff Dean [00:08:10]: I mean, I think one of the things that is quite nice about the Flash model is not only is it more affordable, it's also a lower latency. And I think latency is actually a pretty important characteristic for these models because we're going to want models to do much more complicated things that are going to involve, you know, generating many more tokens from when you ask the model to do so. So, you know, if you're going to ask the model to do something until it actually finishes what you ask it to do, because you're going to ask now, not just write me a for loop, but like write me a whole software package to do X or Y or Z. And so having low latency systems that can do that seems really important. And Flash is one direction, one way of doing that. You know, obviously our hardware platforms enable a bunch of interesting aspects of our, you know, serving stack as well, like TPUs, the interconnect between. Chips on the TPUs is actually quite, quite high performance and quite amenable to, for example, long context kind of attention operations, you know, having sparse models with lots of experts. These kinds of things really, really matter a lot in terms of how do you make them servable at scale.Alessio Fanelli [00:09:19]: Yeah. Does it feel like there's some breaking point for like the proto Flash distillation, kind of like one generation delayed? I almost think about almost like the capability as a. In certain tasks, like the pro model today is a saturated, some sort of task. So next generation, that same task will be saturated at the Flash price point. And I think for most of the things that people use models for at some point, the Flash model in two generation will be able to do basically everything. And how do you make it economical to like keep pushing the pro frontier when a lot of the population will be okay with the Flash model? I'm curious how you think about that.Jeff Dean [00:09:59]: I mean, I think that's true. If your distribution of what people are asking people, the models to do is stationary, right? But I think what often happens is as the models become more capable, people ask them to do more, right? So, I mean, I think this happens in my own usage. Like I used to try our models a year ago for some sort of coding task, and it was okay at some simpler things, but wouldn't do work very well for more complicated things. And since then, we've improved dramatically on the more complicated coding tasks. And now I'll ask it to do much more complicated things. And I think that's true, not just of coding, but of, you know, now, you know, can you analyze all the, you know, renewable energy deployments in the world and give me a report on solar panel deployment or whatever. That's a very complicated, you know, more complicated task than people would have asked a year ago. And so you are going to want more capable models to push the frontier in the absence of what people ask the models to do. And that also then gives us. Insight into, okay, where does the, where do things break down? How can we improve the model in these, these particular areas, uh, in order to sort of, um, make the next generation even better.Alessio Fanelli [00:11:11]: Yeah. Are there any benchmarks or like test sets they use internally? Because it's almost like the same benchmarks get reported every time. And it's like, all right, it's like 99 instead of 97. Like, how do you have to keep pushing the team internally to it? Or like, this is what we're building towards. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:11:26]: I mean, I think. Benchmarks, particularly external ones that are publicly available. Have their utility, but they often kind of have a lifespan of utility where they're introduced and maybe they're quite hard for current models. You know, I, I like to think of the best kinds of benchmarks are ones where the initial scores are like 10 to 20 or 30%, maybe, but not higher. And then you can sort of work on improving that capability for, uh, whatever it is, the benchmark is trying to assess and get it up to like 80, 90%, whatever. I, I think once it hits kind of 95% or something, you get very diminishing returns from really focusing on that benchmark, cuz it's sort of, it's either the case that you've now achieved that capability, or there's also the issue of leakage in public data or very related kind of data being, being in your training data. Um, so we have a bunch of held out internal benchmarks that we really look at where we know that wasn't represented in the training data at all. There are capabilities that we want the model to have. Um, yeah. Yeah. Um, that it doesn't have now, and then we can work on, you know, assessing, you know, how do we make the model better at these kinds of things? Is it, we need different kind of data to train on that's more specialized for this particular kind of task. Do we need, um, you know, a bunch of, uh, you know, architectural improvements or some sort of, uh, model capability improvements, you know, what would help make that better?Shawn Wang [00:12:53]: Is there, is there such an example that you, uh, a benchmark inspired in architectural improvement? Like, uh, I'm just kind of. Jumping on that because you just.Jeff Dean [00:13:02]: Uh, I mean, I think some of the long context capability of the, of the Gemini models that came, I guess, first in 1.5 really were about looking at, okay, we want to have, um, you know,Shawn Wang [00:13:15]: immediately everyone jumped to like completely green charts of like, everyone had, I was like, how did everyone crack this at the same time? Right. Yeah. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:13:23]: I mean, I think, um, and once you're set, I mean, as you say that needed single needle and a half. Hey, stack benchmark is really saturated for at least context links up to 1, 2 and K or something. Don't actually have, you know, much larger than 1, 2 and 8 K these days or two or something. We're trying to push the frontier of 1 million or 2 million context, which is good because I think there are a lot of use cases where. Yeah. You know, putting a thousand pages of text or putting, you know, multiple hour long videos and the context and then actually being able to make use of that as useful. Try to, to explore the über graduation are fairly large. But the single needle in a haystack benchmark is sort of saturated. So you really want more complicated, sort of multi-needle or more realistic, take all this content and produce this kind of answer from a long context that sort of better assesses what it is people really want to do with long context. Which is not just, you know, can you tell me the product number for this particular thing?Shawn Wang [00:14:31]: Yeah, it's retrieval. It's retrieval within machine learning. It's interesting because I think the more meta level I'm trying to operate at here is you have a benchmark. You're like, okay, I see the architectural thing I need to do in order to go fix that. But should you do it? Because sometimes that's an inductive bias, basically. It's what Jason Wei, who used to work at Google, would say. Exactly the kind of thing. Yeah, you're going to win. Short term. Longer term, I don't know if that's going to scale. You might have to undo that.Jeff Dean [00:15:01]: I mean, I like to sort of not focus on exactly what solution we're going to derive, but what capability would you want? And I think we're very convinced that, you know, long context is useful, but it's way too short today. Right? Like, I think what you would really want is, can I attend to the internet while I answer my question? Right? But that's not going to happen. I think that's going to be solved by purely scaling the existing solutions, which are quadratic. So a million tokens kind of pushes what you can do. You're not going to do that to a trillion tokens, let alone, you know, a billion tokens, let alone a trillion. But I think if you could give the illusion that you can attend to trillions of tokens, that would be amazing. You'd find all kinds of uses for that. You would have attend to the internet. You could attend to the pixels of YouTube and the sort of deeper representations that we can find. You could attend to the form for a single video, but across many videos, you know, on a personal Gemini level, you could attend to all of your personal state with your permission. So like your emails, your photos, your docs, your plane tickets you have. I think that would be really, really useful. And the question is, how do you get algorithmic improvements and system level improvements that get you to something where you actually can attend to trillions of tokens? Right. In a meaningful way. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:16:26]: But by the way, I think I did some math and it's like, if you spoke all day, every day for eight hours a day, you only generate a maximum of like a hundred K tokens, which like very comfortably fits.Jeff Dean [00:16:38]: Right. But if you then say, okay, I want to be able to understand everything people are putting on videos.Shawn Wang [00:16:46]: Well, also, I think that the classic example is you start going beyond language into like proteins and whatever else is extremely information dense. Yeah. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:16:55]: I mean, I think one of the things about Gemini's multimodal aspects is we've always wanted it to be multimodal from the start. And so, you know, that sometimes to people means text and images and video sort of human-like and audio, audio, human-like modalities. But I think it's also really useful to have Gemini know about non-human modalities. Yeah. Like LIDAR sensor data from. Yes. Say, Waymo vehicles or. Like robots or, you know, various kinds of health modalities, x-rays and MRIs and imaging and genomics information. And I think there's probably hundreds of modalities of data where you'd like the model to be able to at least be exposed to the fact that this is an interesting modality and has certain meaning in the world. Where even if you haven't trained on all the LIDAR data or MRI data, you could have, because maybe that's not, you know, it doesn't make sense in terms of trade-offs of. You know, what you include in your main pre-training data mix, at least including a little bit of it is actually quite useful. Yeah. Because it sort of tempts the model that this is a thing.Shawn Wang [00:18:04]: Yeah. Do you believe, I mean, since we're on this topic and something I just get to ask you all the questions I always wanted to ask, which is fantastic. Like, are there some king modalities, like modalities that supersede all the other modalities? So a simple example was Vision can, on a pixel level, encode text. And DeepSeq had this DeepSeq CR paper that did that. Vision. And Vision has also been shown to maybe incorporate audio because you can do audio spectrograms and that's, that's also like a Vision capable thing. Like, so, so maybe Vision is just the king modality and like. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:18:36]: I mean, Vision and Motion are quite important things, right? Motion. Well, like video as opposed to static images, because I mean, there's a reason evolution has evolved eyes like 23 independent ways, because it's such a useful capability for sensing the world around you, which is really what we want these models to be. So I think the only thing that we can be able to do is interpret the things we're seeing or the things we're paying attention to and then help us in using that information to do things. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:19:05]: I think motion, you know, I still want to shout out, I think Gemini, still the only native video understanding model that's out there. So I use it for YouTube all the time. Nice.Jeff Dean [00:19:15]: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's actually, I think people kind of are not necessarily aware of what the Gemini models can actually do. Yeah. Like I have an example I've used in one of my talks. It had like, it was like a YouTube highlight video of 18 memorable sports moments across the last 20 years or something. So it has like Michael Jordan hitting some jump shot at the end of the finals and, you know, some soccer goals and things like that. And you can literally just give it the video and say, can you please make me a table of what all these different events are? What when the date is when they happened? And a short description. And so you get like now an 18 row table of that information extracted from the video, which is, you know, not something most people think of as like a turn video into sequel like table.Alessio Fanelli [00:20:11]: Has there been any discussion inside of Google of like, you mentioned tending to the whole internet, right? Google, it's almost built because a human cannot tend to the whole internet and you need some sort of ranking to find what you need. Yep. That ranking is like much different for an LLM because you can expect a person to look at maybe the first five, six links in a Google search versus for an LLM. Should you expect to have 20 links that are highly relevant? Like how do you internally figure out, you know, how do we build the AI mode that is like maybe like much broader search and span versus like the more human one? Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:20:47]: I mean, I think even pre-language model based work, you know, our ranking systems would be built to start. I mean, I think even pre-language model based work, you know, our ranking systems would be built to start. With a giant number of web pages in our index, many of them are not relevant. So you identify a subset of them that are relevant with very lightweight kinds of methods. You know, you're down to like 30,000 documents or something. And then you gradually refine that to apply more and more sophisticated algorithms and more and more sophisticated sort of signals of various kinds in order to get down to ultimately what you show, which is, you know, the final 10 results or, you know, 10 results plus. Other kinds of information. And I think an LLM based system is not going to be that dissimilar, right? You're going to attend to trillions of tokens, but you're going to want to identify, you know, what are the 30,000 ish documents that are with the, you know, maybe 30 million interesting tokens. And then how do you go from that into what are the 117 documents I really should be paying attention to in order to carry out the tasks that the user has asked? And I think, you know, you can imagine systems where you have, you know, a lot of highly parallel processing to identify those initial 30,000 candidates, maybe with very lightweight kinds of models. Then you have some system that sort of helps you narrow down from 30,000 to the 117 with maybe a little bit more sophisticated model or set of models. And then maybe the final model is the thing that looks. So the 117 things that might be your most capable model. So I think it has to, it's going to be some system like that, that is really enables you to give the illusion of attending to trillions of tokens. Sort of the way Google search gives you, you know, not the illusion, but you are searching the internet, but you're finding, you know, a very small subset of things that are, that are relevant.Shawn Wang [00:22:47]: Yeah. I often tell a lot of people that are not steeped in like Google search history that, well, you know, like Bert was. Like he was like basically immediately inside of Google search and that improves results a lot, right? Like I don't, I don't have any numbers off the top of my head, but like, I'm sure you guys, that's obviously the most important numbers to Google. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:23:08]: I mean, I think going to an LLM based representation of text and words and so on enables you to get out of the explicit hard notion of, of particular words having to be on the page, but really getting at the notion of this topic of this page or this page. Paragraph is highly relevant to this query. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:23:28]: I don't think people understand how much LLMs have taken over all these very high traffic system, very high traffic. Yeah. Like it's Google, it's YouTube. YouTube has this like semantics ID thing where it's just like every token or every item in the vocab is a YouTube video or something that predicts the video using a code book, which is absurd to me for YouTube size.Jeff Dean [00:23:50]: And then most recently GROK also for, for XAI, which is like, yeah. I mean, I'll call out even before LLMs were used extensively in search, we put a lot of emphasis on softening the notion of what the user actually entered into the query.Shawn Wang [00:24:06]: So do you have like a history of like, what's the progression? Oh yeah.Jeff Dean [00:24:09]: I mean, I actually gave a talk in, uh, I guess, uh, web search and data mining conference in 2009, uh, where we never actually published any papers about the origins of Google search, uh, sort of, but we went through sort of four or five or six. generations, four or five or six generations of, uh, redesigning of the search and retrieval system, uh, from about 1999 through 2004 or five. And that talk is really about that evolution. And one of the things that really happened in 2001 was we were sort of working to scale the system in multiple dimensions. So one is we wanted to make our index bigger, so we could retrieve from a larger index, which always helps your quality in general. Uh, because if you don't have the page in your index, you're going to not do well. Um, and then we also needed to scale our capacity because we were, our traffic was growing quite extensively. Um, and so we had, you know, a sharded system where you have more and more shards as the index grows, you have like 30 shards. And then if you want to double the index size, you make 60 shards so that you can bound the latency by which you respond for any particular user query. Um, and then as traffic grows, you add, you add more and more replicas of each of those. And so we eventually did the math that realized that in a data center where we had say 60 shards and, um, you know, 20 copies of each shard, we now had 1200 machines, uh, with disks. And we did the math and we're like, Hey, one copy of that index would actually fit in memory across 1200 machines. So in 2001, we introduced, uh, we put our entire index in memory and what that enabled from a quality perspective was amazing. Um, and so we had more and more replicas of each of those. Before you had to be really careful about, you know, how many different terms you looked at for a query, because every one of them would involve a disk seek on every one of the 60 shards. And so you, as you make your index bigger, that becomes even more inefficient. But once you have the whole index in memory, it's totally fine to have 50 terms you throw into the query from the user's original three or four word query, because now you can add synonyms like restaurant and restaurants and cafe and, uh, you know, things like that. Uh, bistro and all these things. And you can suddenly start, uh, sort of really, uh, getting at the meaning of the word as opposed to the exact semantic form the user typed in. And that was, you know, 2001, very much pre LLM, but really it was about softening the, the strict definition of what the user typed in order to get at the meaning.Alessio Fanelli [00:26:47]: What are like principles that you use to like design the systems, especially when you have, I mean, in 2001, the internet is like. Doubling, tripling every year in size is not like, uh, you know, and I think today you kind of see that with LLMs too, where like every year the jumps in size and like capabilities are just so big. Are there just any, you know, principles that you use to like, think about this? Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:27:08]: I mean, I think, uh, you know, first, whenever you're designing a system, you want to understand what are the sort of design parameters that are going to be most important in designing that, you know? So, you know, how many queries per second do you need to handle? How big is the internet? How big is the index you need to handle? How much data do you need to keep for every document in the index? How are you going to look at it when you retrieve things? Um, what happens if traffic were to double or triple, you know, will that system work well? And I think a good design principle is you're going to want to design a system so that the most important characteristics could scale by like factors of five or 10, but probably not beyond that because often what happens is if you design a system for X. And something suddenly becomes a hundred X, that would enable a very different point in the design space that would not make sense at X. But all of a sudden at a hundred X makes total sense. So like going from a disk space index to a in memory index makes a lot of sense once you have enough traffic, because now you have enough replicas of the sort of state on disk that those machines now actually can hold, uh, you know, a full copy of the, uh, index and memory. Yeah. And that all of a sudden enabled. A completely different design that wouldn't have been practical before. Yeah. Um, so I'm, I'm a big fan of thinking through designs in your head, just kind of playing with the design space a little before you actually do a lot of writing of code. But, you know, as you said, in the early days of Google, we were growing the index, uh, quite extensively. We were growing the update rate of the index. So the update rate actually is the parameter that changed the most. Surprising. So it used to be once a month.Shawn Wang [00:28:55]: Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:28:56]: And then we went to a system that could update any particular page in like sub one minute. Okay.Shawn Wang [00:29:02]: Yeah. Because this is a competitive advantage, right?Jeff Dean [00:29:04]: Because all of a sudden news related queries, you know, if you're, if you've got last month's news index, it's not actually that useful for.Shawn Wang [00:29:11]: News is a special beast. Was there any, like you could have split it onto a separate system.Jeff Dean [00:29:15]: Well, we did. We launched a Google news product, but you also want news related queries that people type into the main index to also be sort of updated.Shawn Wang [00:29:23]: So, yeah, it's interesting. And then you have to like classify whether the page is, you have to decide which pages should be updated and what frequency. Oh yeah.Jeff Dean [00:29:30]: There's a whole like, uh, system behind the scenes that's trying to decide update rates and importance of the pages. So even if the update rate seems low, you might still want to recrawl important pages quite often because, uh, the likelihood they change might be low, but the value of having updated is high.Shawn Wang [00:29:50]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, well, you know, yeah. This, uh, you know, mention of latency and, and saving things to this reminds me of one of your classics, which I have to bring up, which is latency numbers. Every programmer should know, uh, was there a, was it just a, just a general story behind that? Did you like just write it down?Jeff Dean [00:30:06]: I mean, this has like sort of eight or 10 different kinds of metrics that are like, how long does a cache mistake? How long does branch mispredict take? How long does a reference domain memory take? How long does it take to send, you know, a packet from the U S to the Netherlands or something? Um,Shawn Wang [00:30:21]: why Netherlands, by the way, or is it, is that because of Chrome?Jeff Dean [00:30:25]: Uh, we had a data center in the Netherlands, um, so, I mean, I think this gets to the point of being able to do the back of the envelope calculations. So these are sort of the raw ingredients of those, and you can use them to say, okay, well, if I need to design a system to do image search and thumb nailing or something of the result page, you know, how, what I do that I could pre-compute the image thumbnails. I could like. Try to thumbnail them on the fly from the larger images. What would that do? How much dis bandwidth than I need? How many des seeks would I do? Um, and you can sort of actually do thought experiments in, you know, 30 seconds or a minute with the sort of, uh, basic, uh, basic numbers at your fingertips. Uh, and then as you sort of build software using higher level libraries, you kind of want to develop the same intuitions for how long does it take to, you know, look up something in this particular kind of.Shawn Wang [00:31:21]: I'll see you next time.Shawn Wang [00:31:51]: Which is a simple byte conversion. That's nothing interesting. I wonder if you have any, if you were to update your...Jeff Dean [00:31:58]: I mean, I think it's really good to think about calculations you're doing in a model, either for training or inference.Jeff Dean [00:32:09]: Often a good way to view that is how much state will you need to bring in from memory, either like on-chip SRAM or HBM from the accelerator. Attached memory or DRAM or over the network. And then how expensive is that data motion relative to the cost of, say, an actual multiply in the matrix multiply unit? And that cost is actually really, really low, right? Because it's order, depending on your precision, I think it's like sub one picodule.Shawn Wang [00:32:50]: Oh, okay. You measure it by energy. Yeah. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:32:52]: Yeah. I mean, it's all going to be about energy and how do you make the most energy efficient system. And then moving data from the SRAM on the other side of the chip, not even off the off chip, but on the other side of the same chip can be, you know, a thousand picodules. Oh, yeah. And so all of a sudden, this is why your accelerators require batching. Because if you move, like, say, the parameter of a model from SRAM on the, on the chip into the multiplier unit, that's going to cost you a thousand picodules. So you better make use of that, that thing that you moved many, many times with. So that's where the batch dimension comes in. Because all of a sudden, you know, if you have a batch of 256 or something, that's not so bad. But if you have a batch of one, that's really not good.Shawn Wang [00:33:40]: Yeah. Yeah. Right.Jeff Dean [00:33:41]: Because then you paid a thousand picodules in order to do your one picodule multiply.Shawn Wang [00:33:46]: I have never heard an energy-based analysis of batching.Jeff Dean [00:33:50]: Yeah. I mean, that's why people batch. Yeah. Ideally, you'd like to use batch size one because the latency would be great.Shawn Wang [00:33:56]: The best latency.Jeff Dean [00:33:56]: But the energy cost and the compute cost inefficiency that you get is quite large. So, yeah.Shawn Wang [00:34:04]: Is there a similar trick like, like, like you did with, you know, putting everything in memory? Like, you know, I think obviously NVIDIA has caused a lot of waves with betting very hard on SRAM with Grok. I wonder if, like, that's something that you already saw with, with the TPUs, right? Like that, that you had to. Uh, to serve at your scale, uh, you probably sort of saw that coming. Like what, what, what hardware, uh, innovations or insights were formed because of what you're seeing there?Jeff Dean [00:34:33]: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, TPUs have this nice, uh, sort of regular structure of 2D or 3D meshes with a bunch of chips connected. Yeah. And each one of those has HBM attached. Um, I think for serving some kinds of models, uh, you know, you, you pay a lot higher cost. Uh, and time latency, um, bringing things in from HBM than you do bringing them in from, uh, SRAM on the chip. So if you have a small enough model, you can actually do model parallelism, spread it out over lots of chips and you actually get quite good throughput improvements and latency improvements from doing that. And so you're now sort of striping your smallish scale model over say 16 or 64 chips. Uh, but as if you do that and it all fits in. In SRAM, uh, that can be a big win. So yeah, that's not a surprise, but it is a good technique.Alessio Fanelli [00:35:27]: Yeah. What about the TPU design? Like how much do you decide where the improvements have to go? So like, this is like a good example of like, is there a way to bring the thousand picojoules down to 50? Like, is it worth designing a new chip to do that? The extreme is like when people say, oh, you should burn the model on the ASIC and that's kind of like the most extreme thing. How much of it? Is it worth doing an hardware when things change so quickly? Like what was the internal discussion? Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:35:57]: I mean, we, we have a lot of interaction between say the TPU chip design architecture team and the sort of higher level modeling, uh, experts, because you really want to take advantage of being able to co-design what should future TPUs look like based on where we think the sort of ML research puck is going, uh, in some sense, because, uh, you know, as a hardware designer for ML and in particular, you're trying to design a chip starting today and that design might take two years before it even lands in a data center. And then it has to sort of be a reasonable lifetime of the chip to take you three, four or five years. So you're trying to predict two to six years out where, what ML computations will people want to run two to six years out in a very fast changing field. And so having people with interest. Interesting ML research ideas of things we think will start to work in that timeframe or will be more important in that timeframe, uh, really enables us to then get, you know, interesting hardware features put into, you know, TPU N plus two, where TPU N is what we have today.Shawn Wang [00:37:10]: Oh, the cycle time is plus two.Jeff Dean [00:37:12]: Roughly. Wow. Because, uh, I mean, sometimes you can squeeze some changes into N plus one, but, you know, bigger changes are going to require the chip. Yeah. Design be earlier in its lifetime design process. Um, so whenever we can do that, it's generally good. And sometimes you can put in speculative features that maybe won't cost you much chip area, but if it works out, it would make something, you know, 10 times as fast. And if it doesn't work out, well, you burned a little bit of tiny amount of your chip area on that thing, but it's not that big a deal. Uh, sometimes it's a very big change and we want to be pretty sure this is going to work out. So we'll do like lots of carefulness. Uh, ML experimentation to show us, uh, this is actually the, the way we want to go. Yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:37:58]: Is there a reverse of like, we already committed to this chip design so we can not take the model architecture that way because it doesn't quite fit?Jeff Dean [00:38:06]: Yeah. I mean, you, you definitely have things where you're going to adapt what the model architecture looks like so that they're efficient on the chips that you're going to have for both training and inference of that, of that, uh, generation of model. So I think it kind of goes both ways. Um, you know, sometimes you can take advantage of, you know, lower precision things that are coming in a future generation. So you can, might train it at that lower precision, even if the current generation doesn't quite do that. Mm.Shawn Wang [00:38:40]: Yeah. How low can we go in precision?Jeff Dean [00:38:43]: Because people are saying like ternary is like, uh, yeah, I mean, I'm a big fan of very low precision because I think that gets, that saves you a tremendous amount of time. Right. Because it's picojoules per bit that you're transferring and reducing the number of bits is a really good way to, to reduce that. Um, you know, I think people have gotten a lot of luck, uh, mileage out of having very low bit precision things, but then having scaling factors that apply to a whole bunch of, uh, those, those weights. Scaling. How does it, how does it, okay.Shawn Wang [00:39:15]: Interesting. You, so low, low precision, but scaled up weights. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Never considered that. Yeah. Interesting. Uh, w w while we're on this topic, you know, I think there's a lot of, um, uh, this, the concept of precision at all is weird when we're sampling, you know, uh, we just, at the end of this, we're going to have all these like chips that I'll do like very good math. And then we're just going to throw a random number generator at the start. So, I mean, there's a movement towards, uh, energy based, uh, models and processors. I'm just curious if you've, obviously you've thought about it, but like, what's your commentary?Jeff Dean [00:39:50]: Yeah. I mean, I think. There's a bunch of interesting trends though. Energy based models is one, you know, diffusion based models, which don't sort of sequentially decode tokens is another, um, you know, speculative decoding is a way that you can get sort of an equivalent, very small.Shawn Wang [00:40:06]: Draft.Jeff Dean [00:40:07]: Batch factor, uh, for like you predict eight tokens out and that enables you to sort of increase the effective batch size of what you're doing by a factor of eight, even, and then you maybe accept five or six of those tokens. So you get. A five, a five X improvement in the amortization of moving weights, uh, into the multipliers to do the prediction for the, the tokens. So these are all really good techniques and I think it's really good to look at them from the lens of, uh, energy, real energy, not energy based models, um, and, and also latency and throughput, right? If you look at things from that lens, that sort of guides you to. Two solutions that are gonna be, uh, you know, better from, uh, you know, being able to serve larger models or, you know, equivalent size models more cheaply and with lower latency.Shawn Wang [00:41:03]: Yeah. Well, I think, I think I, um, it's appealing intellectually, uh, haven't seen it like really hit the mainstream, but, um, I do think that, uh, there's some poetry in the sense that, uh, you know, we don't have to do, uh, a lot of shenanigans if like we fundamentally. Design it into the hardware. Yeah, yeah.Jeff Dean [00:41:23]: I mean, I think there's still a, there's also sort of the more exotic things like analog based, uh, uh, computing substrates as opposed to digital ones. Uh, I'm, you know, I think those are super interesting cause they can be potentially low power. Uh, but I think you often end up wanting to interface that with digital systems and you end up losing a lot of the power advantages in the digital to analog and analog to digital conversions. You end up doing, uh, at the sort of boundaries. And periphery of that system. Um, I still think there's a tremendous distance we can go from where we are today in terms of energy efficiency with sort of, uh, much better and specialized hardware for the models we care about.Shawn Wang [00:42:05]: Yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:42:06]: Um, any other interesting research ideas that you've seen, or like maybe things that you cannot pursue a Google that you would be interested in seeing researchers take a step at, I guess you have a lot of researchers. Yeah, I guess you have enough, but our, our research.Jeff Dean [00:42:21]: Our research portfolio is pretty broad. I would say, um, I mean, I think, uh, in terms of research directions, there's a whole bunch of, uh, you know, open problems and how do you make these models reliable and able to do much longer, kind of, uh, more complex tasks that have lots of subtasks. How do you orchestrate, you know, maybe one model that's using other models as tools in order to sort of build, uh, things that can accomplish, uh, you know, much more. Yeah. Significant pieces of work, uh, collectively, then you would ask a single model to do. Um, so that's super interesting. How do you get more verifiable, uh, you know, how do you get RL to work for non-verifiable domains? I think it's a pretty interesting open problem because I think that would broaden out the capabilities of the models, the improvements that you're seeing in both math and coding. Uh, if we could apply those to other less verifiable domains, because we've come up with RL techniques that actually enable us to do that. Uh, effectively, that would, that would really make the models improve quite a lot. I think.Alessio Fanelli [00:43:26]: I'm curious, like when we had Noam Brown on the podcast, he said, um, they already proved you can do it with deep research. Um, you kind of have it with AI mode in a way it's not verifiable. I'm curious if there's any thread that you think is interesting there. Like what is it? Both are like information retrieval of JSON. So I wonder if it's like the retrieval is like the verifiable part. That you can score or what are like, yeah, yeah. How, how would you model that, that problem?Jeff Dean [00:43:55]: Yeah. I mean, I think there are ways of having other models that can evaluate the results of what a first model did, maybe even retrieving. Can you have another model that says, is this things, are these things you retrieved relevant? Or can you rate these 2000 things you retrieved to assess which ones are the 50 most relevant or something? Um, I think those kinds of techniques are actually quite effective. Sometimes I can even be the same model, just prompted differently to be a, you know, a critic as opposed to a, uh, actual retrieval system. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:44:28]: Um, I do think like there, there is that, that weird cliff where like, it feels like we've done the easy stuff and then now it's, but it always feels like that every year. It's like, oh, like we know, we know, and the next part is super hard and nobody's figured it out. And, uh, exactly with this RLVR thing where like everyone's talking about, well, okay, how do we. the next stage of the non-verifiable stuff. And everyone's like, I don't know, you know, Ellen judge.Jeff Dean [00:44:56]: I mean, I feel like the nice thing about this field is there's lots and lots of smart people thinking about creative solutions to some of the problems that we all see. Uh, because I think everyone sort of sees that the models, you know, are great at some things and they fall down around the edges of those things and, and are not as capable as we'd like in those areas. And then coming up with good techniques and trying those. And seeing which ones actually make a difference is sort of what the whole research aspect of this field is, is pushing forward. And I think that's why it's super interesting. You know, if you think about two years ago, we were struggling with GSM, eight K problems, right? Like, you know, Fred has two rabbits. He gets three more rabbits. How many rabbits does he have? That's a pretty far cry from the kinds of mathematics that the models can, and now you're doing IMO and Erdos problems in pure language. Yeah. Yeah. Pure language. So that is a really, really amazing jump in capabilities in, you know, in a year and a half or something. And I think, um, for other areas, it'd be great if we could make that kind of leap. Uh, and you know, we don't exactly see how to do it for some, some areas, but we do see it for some other areas and we're going to work hard on making that better. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:46:13]: Yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:46:14]: Like YouTube thumbnail generation. That would be very helpful. We need that. That would be AGI. We need that.Shawn Wang [00:46:20]: That would be. As far as content creators go.Jeff Dean [00:46:22]: I guess I'm not a YouTube creator, so I don't care that much about that problem, but I guess, uh, many people do.Shawn Wang [00:46:27]: It does. Yeah. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. People do judge books by their covers as it turns out. Um, uh, just to draw a bit on the IMO goal. Um, I'm still not over the fact that a year ago we had alpha proof and alpha geometry and all those things. And then this year we were like, screw that we'll just chuck it into Gemini. Yeah. What's your reflection? Like, I think this, this question about. Like the merger of like symbolic systems and like, and, and LMS, uh, was a very much core belief. And then somewhere along the line, people would just said, Nope, we'll just all do it in the LLM.Jeff Dean [00:47:02]: Yeah. I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense to me because, you know, humans manipulate symbols, but we probably don't have like a symbolic representation in our heads. Right. We have some distributed representation that is neural net, like in some way of lots of different neurons. And activation patterns firing when we see certain things and that enables us to reason and plan and, you know, do chains of thought and, you know, roll them back now that, that approach for solving the problem doesn't seem like it's going to work. I'm going to try this one. And, you know, in a lot of ways we're emulating what we intuitively think, uh, is happening inside real brains in neural net based models. So it never made sense to me to have like completely separate. Uh, discrete, uh, symbolic things, and then a completely different way of, of, uh, you know, thinking about those things.Shawn Wang [00:47:59]: Interesting. Yeah. Uh, I mean, it's maybe seems obvious to you, but it wasn't obvious to me a year ago. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:48:06]: I mean, I do think like that IMO with, you know, translating to lean and using lean and then the next year and also a specialized geometry model. And then this year switching to a single unified model. That is roughly the production model with a little bit more inference budget, uh, is actually, you know, quite good because it shows you that the capabilities of that general model have improved dramatically and, and now you don't need the specialized model. This is actually sort of very similar to the 2013 to 16 era of machine learning, right? Like it used to be, people would train separate models for lots of different, each different problem, right? I have, I want to recognize street signs and something. So I train a street sign. Recognition recognition model, or I want to, you know, decode speech recognition. I have a speech model, right? I think now the era of unified models that do everything is really upon us. And the question is how well do those models generalize to new things they've never been asked to do and they're getting better and better.Shawn Wang [00:49:10]: And you don't need domain experts. Like one of my, uh, so I interviewed ETA who was on, who was on that team. Uh, and he was like, yeah, I, I don't know how they work. I don't know where the IMO competition was held. I don't know the rules of it. I just trained the models, the training models. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of interesting that like people with these, this like universal skill set of just like machine learning, you just give them data and give them enough compute and they can kind of tackle any task, which is the bitter lesson, I guess. I don't know. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:49:39]: I mean, I think, uh, general models, uh, will win out over specialized ones in most cases.Shawn Wang [00:49:45]: Uh, so I want to push there a bit. I think there's one hole here, which is like, uh. There's this concept of like, uh, maybe capacity of a model, like abstractly a model can only contain the number of bits that it has. And, uh, and so it, you know, God knows like Gemini pro is like one to 10 trillion parameters. We don't know, but, uh, the Gemma models, for example, right? Like a lot of people want like the open source local models that are like that, that, that, and, and, uh, they have some knowledge, which is not necessary, right? Like they can't know everything like, like you have the. The luxury of you have the big model and big model should be able to capable of everything. But like when, when you're distilling and you're going down to the small models, you know, you're actually memorizing things that are not useful. Yeah. And so like, how do we, I guess, do we want to extract that? Can we, can we divorce knowledge from reasoning, you know?Jeff Dean [00:50:38]: Yeah. I mean, I think you do want the model to be most effective at reasoning if it can retrieve things, right? Because having the model devote precious parameter space. To remembering obscure facts that could be looked up is actually not the best use of that parameter space, right? Like you might prefer something that is more generally useful in more settings than this obscure fact that it has. Um, so I think that's always attention at the same time. You also don't want your model to be kind of completely detached from, you know, knowing stuff about the world, right? Like it's probably useful to know how long the golden gate be. Bridges just as a general sense of like how long are bridges, right? And, uh, it should have that kind of knowledge. It maybe doesn't need to know how long some teeny little bridge in some other more obscure part of the world is, but, uh, it does help it to have a fair bit of world knowledge and the bigger your model is, the more you can have. Uh, but I do think combining retrieval with sort of reasoning and making the model really good at doing multiple stages of retrieval. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:51:49]: And reasoning through the intermediate retrieval results is going to be a, a pretty effective way of making the model seem much more capable, because if you think about, say, a personal Gemini, yeah, right?Jeff Dean [00:52:01]: Like we're not going to train Gemini on my email. Probably we'd rather have a single model that, uh, we can then use and use being able to retrieve from my email as a tool and have the model reason about it and retrieve from my photos or whatever, uh, and then make use of that and have multiple. Um, you know, uh, stages of interaction. that makes sense.Alessio Fanelli [00:52:24]: Do you think the vertical models are like, uh, interesting pursuit? Like when people are like, oh, we're building the best healthcare LLM, we're building the best law LLM, are those kind of like short-term stopgaps or?Jeff Dean [00:52:37]: No, I mean, I think, I think vertical models are interesting. Like you want them to start from a pretty good base model, but then you can sort of, uh, sort of viewing them, view them as enriching the data. Data distribution for that particular vertical domain for healthcare, say, um, we're probably not going to train or for say robotics. We're probably not going to train Gemini on all possible robotics data. We, you could train it on because we want it to have a balanced set of capabilities. Um, so we'll expose it to some robotics data, but if you're trying to build a really, really good robotics model, you're going to want to start with that and then train it on more robotics data. And then maybe that would. It's multilingual translation capability, but improve its robotics capabilities. And we're always making these kind of, uh, you know, trade-offs in the data mix that we train the base Gemini models on. You know, we'd love to include data from 200 more languages and as much data as we have for those languages, but that's going to displace some other capabilities of the model. It won't be as good at, um, you know, Pearl programming, you know, it'll still be good at Python programming. Cause we'll include it. Enough. Of that, but there's other long tail computer languages or coding capabilities that it may suffer on or multi, uh, multimodal reasoning capabilities may suffer. Cause we didn't get to expose it to as much data there, but it's really good at multilingual things. So I, I think some combination of specialized models, maybe more modular models. So it'd be nice to have the capability to have those 200 languages, plus this awesome robotics model, plus this awesome healthcare, uh, module that all can be knitted together to work in concert and called upon in different circumstances. Right? Like if I have a health related thing, then it should enable using this health module in conjunction with the main base model to be even better at those kinds of things. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:54:36]: Installable knowledge. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:54:37]: Right.Shawn Wang [00:54:38]: Just download as a, as a package.Jeff Dean [00:54:39]: And some of that installable stuff can come from retrieval, but some of it probably should come from preloaded training on, you know, uh, a hundred billion tokens or a trillion tokens of health data. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:54:51]: And for listeners, I think, uh, I will highlight the Gemma three end paper where they, there was a little bit of that, I think. Yeah.Alessio Fanelli [00:54:56]: Yeah. I guess the question is like, how many billions of tokens do you need to outpace the frontier model improvements? You know, it's like, if I have to make this model better healthcare and the main. Gemini model is still improving. Do I need 50 billion tokens? Can I do it with a hundred, if I need a trillion healthcare tokens, it's like, they're probably not out there that you don't have, you know, I think that's really like the.Jeff Dean [00:55:21]: Well, I mean, I think healthcare is a particularly challenging domain, so there's a lot of healthcare data that, you know, we don't have access to appropriately, but there's a lot of, you know, uh, healthcare organizations that want to train models on their own data. That is not public healthcare data, uh, not public health. But public healthcare data. Um, so I think there are opportunities there to say, partner with a large healthcare organization and train models for their use that are going to be, you know, more bespoke, but probably, uh, might be better than a general model trained on say, public data. Yeah.Shawn Wang [00:55:58]: Yeah. I, I believe, uh, by the way, also this is like somewhat related to the language conversation. Uh, I think one of your, your favorite examples was you can put a low resource language in the context and it just learns. Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:56:09]: Oh, yeah, I think the example we used was Calamon, which is truly low resource because it's only spoken by, I think 120 people in the world and there's no written text.Shawn Wang [00:56:20]: So, yeah. So you can just do it that way. Just put it in the context. Yeah. Yeah. But I think your whole data set in the context, right.Jeff Dean [00:56:27]: If you, if you take a language like, uh, you know, Somali or something, there is a fair bit of Somali text in the world that, uh, or Ethiopian Amharic or something, um, you know, we probably. Yeah. Are not putting all the data from those languages into the Gemini based training. We put some of it, but if you put more of it, you'll improve the capabilities of those models.Shawn Wang [00:56:49]: Yeah.Jeff Dean [00:56:49]:

This week the Boys are back...but not in studio. Sadly it's been sub zero temps and it's too cold to go outside.Good news is, We have Games!!!Game 1 - Like Share Block Story 1 - Russia is Developing Remote-Controlled Spy Pigeons https://t-invariant.org/2026/02/doves-of-the-russkiy-mir-how-potanin-s-money-and-the-institute-of-putin-s-daughter-recruit-neuroscience-for-military-service/ Story 2 - 'Blizzard Lizard' Rescued from Winter Storm in Rhode Island https://www.facebook.com/NewEnglandWildlifeCenters/posts/pfbid0XqhXj1NFCmqmnvn6mG6UaxGxnQFpmNvdoBbxTCNVKpkFMHNcTxU8PMFgJgBfECSWl Story 3 - Florida Man Arrested for Exposing Himself and Making Love to a Vacuum Cleaner https://www.scribd.com/document/988975244/Man-Arrested-for-Indecent-Exposure Game 2 - Pop Culture Fight Club The game of answering a tough question and defending your position returns! I'll ask each player for the best something or their favorite something from the world of pop culture, and they'll have to explain and defend themselves as best they can, and the best answer as judged by me will get two episode points. This week, I've been inspired by horror games - a load of my favorite horror games feature horrific acts and scares galore, but what fictional event in a video game, TV show, movie, or book, horrified you the most? What froze your blood completely? Best answer and defense wins. Game 3 - The Cost is Correct 3 items, final bids rules.Promos Beer'd Al WeedStockProudly Sponsored by Peace, Love, & Budhttps://www.plbud.com/WeedStockShoutouts to our Patrons; Mexi, Justin B, Kristin F ,Jeramey F ,Flaose, Todd, Jim, Flaos, Bridget F., David M., Dave A, Erin S, Donna/Colin Maggs,The GateLeapers, Kacey S., William M., Crunchie, DJ Xanthus, Crystal D., Jeff S, Gina W., 8Bit, Matt.Founding Members of @OddPodsMedia https://www.patreon.com/BFYTWShow Music by @KeroseneLetter and @Mexigun Our Merch Available by contacting us.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyJG-PDn6su32Et_eSiC6RQA MidnightSmoke ProductionShow #306 BFYeopardyhttps://bfytwpod.com/?p=1640

In this episode's discussions around the Community Table, explaining to clients what to expect, marketing, and getting your tech up to speed.   With new clients, take the time to set expectations and explain the process. Assumptions and miscommunication can lead to lower satisfaction when a client's uninformed expectations don't meet reality, even with a successful outcome Starting with a clear explanation of the process can lead to more favorable outcomes. Will the case go to trial, our would a settlement be better? How much would one route cost vs. another? Give clients the big picture. Real life is not a television TV drama. Is your marketing attracting the clients you want? Casting the widest net isn't always the best choice. Explain who you are and what you do honestly. And then live up to those promises. (And for Heaven's sake, get your tech in order. Clients today expect at least that: Hear the common tech shortfalls that turn clients off.)  Mentioned in This Episode: Clio ClioCon 2026, Oct. 26-27, 2026

On this week's episode of The Joy of Football, Martin Tyler and Neil Barnett take on some of the game's biggest current talking points, with a particular focus on form, trends, and how football is evolving in front of our eyes. The conversation begins with “We Need To Talk About”, as the guys dig into the modern Brazilian centre-forward. From Richarlison and Gabriel Jesus to João Pedro and Igor Jesus, the guys discuss why Brazil's production line of number nines, and who could get a shot at the World Cup. In Three of the Best, Martin and Neil each pick their standout players across generations. There's praise for emerging talents like Dango Ouattara and Mateus Mané, reflection on influential figures such as Steve Holland and Siniša Mihajlović, and appreciation for current players including Ismaïla Sarr and Angel Gomes. Martin then delivers another Letter From The Gantry, this week centred on hat-tricks (and a time when Martin saw 3 in one go) - what makes them special, how they feel from the commentary box, and why certain moments stay with you long after the final whistle. And the episode closes with Voice of Passion, where the discussion turns to whether changes in the game are really for the good of football. From Manchester City's disallowed goal to extended drinks breaks, Martin and Neil question where the balance lies between tradition, fairness, and entertainment. As ever, it's a thoughtful, experience-led look at football — past, present, and where it might be heading next. #ad Find out more about St James Place here! https://www.sjp.co.uk Join Neil Barnett (former Chelsea touch-liner announcer and football journalist) alongside the voice of the Premier League, Martin Tyler in celebrating the greatest addiction in the World!  Hosted by The Revive Lounge Ltd  UCsdye1hUxP4xhgBx9zvuSjg Subscribe to https://youtube.com/@TheReviveLounge?si=L5ddzrJrtSmErtJ5  Support the Pod https://patreon.com/TheJoysofFootballPodcast?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Read us on  Substack https://martintylerandneilbarnett.substack.com/  Follow our Twitter https://x.com/TheJOF  Follow our Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@joy_of_football_pod?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc  Follow our Instagram https://https://www.instagram.com/joy_of_football_pod/  Contact us via: therevivelounge@gmail.com  Music by Arron Clague - https://www.instagram.com/arronclague?igsh=aHg1bjQ3OHpmaXIz  Intro Sequence by Wellong Sadewo (wells.illustration): https://www.instagram.com/wells.illustration/  For incredible football artwork, check out: https://linktr.ee/marclobodaart  A massive thank you to our Patreon Supporters:  Nick Parmenter  Hillary Abbott  Daniel Butigan  Tommy Mck  Katie Watson  Benjamin Fairclough  Nathan A Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are you suffering from "Ethical Fading"? Discover actionable strategies to navigate a compromised world and cutthroat office politics without losing your soul or your competitive edge.We spend a significant amount of our collective energy frustrated by the state of the world. We look at the headlines, we watch the news, and we see a parade of compromised characters—politicians who trade influence for favors, CEOs who prioritize quarterly earnings over human safety, and public figures who seem to have surgically removed their shame. It is easy, and perhaps even cathartic, to point a finger at the screen and declare them the problem. It feels good to position ourselves as the moral observers of a crumbling society. But today, I want to ask you to do something much harder. I want you to lower that finger, turn away from the screen, and look in the mirror.This isn't about politics. This isn't about the grand stage of global affairs. This is about you. It is about the subtle, quiet, and often invisible ways that the corruption of the world seeps into our own bloodstreams. We all hate the corrupt politician, but we need to have a very honest, uncomfortable conversation about whether we fudge our own taxes. We despise the corporate liar, but do we embellish our resumes? We loathe the system that seems rigged, but do we grease the wheels of our own small lives with convenient untruths?The reality is that integrity is not a binary state. You aren't simply a "good person" or a "bad person." Integrity is a muscle, and like any muscle, it atrophies if you don't exercise it, and it tears if you put it under too much weight without training. In a world that often rewards the shortcut and celebrates the shark, maintaining your integrity is not just a moral luxury; it is a strategic necessity for your long-term mental health and professional survival. We are going to break down exactly how good people end up doing bad things, and more importantly, how you can navigate a compromised workplace—the office politics, the toxic bosses, the gray areas—without losing your soul or becoming part of the problem.We have to start by understanding the mechanism of our own undoing. Psychologists and behavioral economists have a term for this phenomenon: Ethical Fading. It is a fascinating and terrifying concept. Ethical fading occurs when the ethical dimensions of a decision fade from view, and the decision is reclassified as a business decision, a strategic maneuver, or a necessary evil. It is the process of numbing ourselves to our own small dishonesties. It doesn't happen overnight. You don't wake up one morning and decide to be a corrupt person. It happens by degrees. It is the boiling frog experiment applied to your soul.Think about the last time you faced a minor ethical dilemma. Maybe it was an expense report where you rounded up a few figures. Maybe it was telling a client that a project was "90% done" when you hadn't even started, just to buy yourself a weekend of peace. In that moment, you didn't think, "I am a liar." You thought, "I am managing expectations," or "I am just making sure I get reimbursed for the hassle." That is ethical fading. You strip the moral weight away from the action and replace it with utilitarian language. You convince yourself that the ends justify the means, or that "everyone else is doing it," or that the system is so broken that your small transgression is merely a drop in the ocean.But here is the bottom line: those drops accumulate. When you allow these small acts of "fading" to occur, you are retraining your brain. You are raising your threshold for discomfort. The first time you lie to your boss, your heart races and your palms sweat. That is your conscience working; that is your biological alarm system. But the second time, the alarm is a little quieter. The tenth time, there is no alarm at all. You have successfully numb yourself. The danger here is not just that you are becoming dishonest; it is that you are becoming blind. You lose the ability to see where the line is, and eventually, when a big compromise is demanded of you—a serious breach of ethics—you might just cross it without even realizing you have left the safety of the shore.So, how do we stop this slide? How do we maintain a rigid spine in a flexible world? It starts with a brutal personal audit. You need to look at your life with the cold, hard gaze of a forensic accountant. Where are you leaking integrity? This isn't about guilt; guilt is a useless emotion unless it drives change. This is about data. Are you honest in your relationships? Do you keep the promises you make to yourself? Do you present an unfiltered version of reality to your team, or do you curate the truth to make yourself look better?One of the most common places where this integrity leak occurs is in our professional identities. The resume is often the first casualty of the truth. We live in a hyper-competitive market, and the temptation to "polish" our credentials is immense. But there is a massive difference between highlighting your strengths and fabricating your reality. When you claim a skill you don't have or inflate a title you didn't earn, you are building your career on a foundation of sand. You are creating a future based on the fear that you are not enough as you are. And practically speaking, the anxiety of maintaining that lie, of constantly looking over your shoulder waiting to be exposed, is a massive energy drain. It taxes your mental resources—resources that you could be using to actually learn the skill you lied about.This brings us to the battlefield where most of us face these challenges daily: the workplace. The modern office is often a breeding ground for ethical compromise. We have all been there. The toxic manager who takes credit for your work. The colleague who smiles to your face and gossips behind your back. The pressure from upper management to hit targets that are mathematically impossible without cutting corners. This is where the rubber meets the road. It is easy to be virtuous when you are sitting alone in a room. It is much harder to be virtuous when your mortgage payment depends on your ability to survive in a corrupt ecosystem.You might be asking, "How do I survive office politics without becoming a politician?" The answer lies in shifting your mindset from "playing the game" to "mastering the terrain." You do not have to become a snake to survive in a snake pit, but you do have to know where the snakes are hiding and how to handle them.The first strategy is to become the master of the paper trail. In a compromised environment, the truth is often the first thing to be distorted. Your best defense is documentation. This isn't about being paranoid; it is about being professional. When a directive comes down that feels unethical or risky, you confirm it in writing. You send the follow-up email: "Just to clarify our conversation this morning, you would like me to proceed with X, despite the potential risk of Y." You do this neutrally, without emotion. You are essentially creating a reality anchor. Corrupt systems thrive on ambiguity and verbal orders that can be denied later. By forcing things into the written record, you introduce accountability. You shine a light. Often, just the act of documenting a shady request is enough to make the requester back down, because they know that their "ethical fade" won't survive the scrutiny of a written record.However, documentation is just the defensive line. You also need an offensive strategy, and that strategy is competence. In a corrupt or highly political environment, competence is the ultimate currency. People who rely on politics usually do so because they lack the substance to succeed on merit. They need the smoke and mirrors. If you focus on being undeniably good at what you do, you create a layer of insulation around yourself. When you deliver results that are tangible, measurable, and high-quality, you become harder to manipulate and harder to remove. You become an asset that even the corrupt players need to keep the ship afloat.But let's go deeper into the interpersonal dynamics. How do you handle the gossip, the backstabbing, the alliances? The pragmatic approach is to view yourself as Switzerland—neutral, observant, and armed. You can be friendly without being intimate. You can listen without participating. When someone comes to you with gossip, you have a choice. You can fuel the fire, or you can let the flame die with you. The most powerful phrase you can learn in office politics is a non-committal, "That sounds frustrating for you," followed by an immediate pivot back to work. "That sounds frustrating. Anyway, have you seen the data on the Q3 report?" By refusing to engage in the mudslinging, you signal that you are not a player in that game. You are there to work. This might alienate you from the "clique" temporarily, but in the long run, it earns you something far more valuable: respect. Even the snakes respect the person who refuses to be bitten or to bite.There is a nuance here that we must address. There is a difference between being "difficult" and being principled. Some people use "integrity" as a shield to be obstructionist or self-righteous. That is not what we are aiming for. We want to be the person who solves problems, not the person who creates bottlenecks. When you have to say "no" to something because of an ethical concern, you should always try to offer an alternative path. Don't just be the stop sign; be the detour. "I can't do X because it violates our compliance policy, but I believe we can achieve the same result if we do Y and Z." This shows that you are still on the team, that you are still driving toward the goal, but that you are insisting on getting there on a road that doesn't collapse beneath you.Now, we have to talk about the hardest part of this equation. We have to talk about the breaking point. There is a limit to how much you can navigate a corrupt system before the system begins to change you. You can wear a hazmat suit to work every day, but eventually, the radiation gets through. You need to know your "walk away" price. This is a concept I want you to define for yourself today, not when you are in the middle of a crisis. What is the line you will not cross? Is it lying to a client? Is it firing someone unjustly? Is it breaking the law? You must define these non-negotiables now, while your head is clear.If you don't define your non-negotiables, you will fall victim to the "slippery slope" we discussed earlier. You will justify the first small crossing of the line, and then the next, until you are miles away from who you wanted to be. But if you have that line drawn in the sand of your mind, when you approach it, an alarm will go off. And when that alarm goes off, you have to be willing to act. This is where the "pragmatic" part of our coaching comes in. Integrity sometimes requires an exit strategy.I am not telling you to quit your job tomorrow in a blaze of moral glory without a plan. That isn't smart; that's reckless. I am telling you that if you find yourself in an environment that consistently demands you compromise your values, you need to start plotting your escape. You need to update that resume (honestly), start networking, and save your money. Financial stability is one of the greatest guardians of integrity. When you live paycheck to paycheck, you are vulnerable. You are terrified of losing your income, and fear is the enemy of ethics. Fear makes us compliant. But if you have an emergency fund, if you have a "freedom fund," you have the power to say "no." You have the power to walk away. Money, in this sense, buys you the luxury of a conscience.Let's shift gears and look at the internal cost of corruption. Why does this matter? Why shouldn't you just fudge the numbers, play the politics, and get the promotion? Why not just lie on the resume if it gets you the foot in the door? The answer lies in the concept of "cognitive load."Lying, pretending, and managing a false persona takes an immense amount of brainpower. When you are living a lie, you have to remember the lie. You have to constantly calibrate your story to match your previous fabrications. You have to monitor other people's reactions to see if they suspect anything. This is a background process that is running in your brain 24/7, eating up your battery life. It causes low-level anxiety, chronic stress, and a pervasive sense of impostor syndrome.On the other hand, the truth is efficient. When you live with integrity, you don't have to remember what you said, because you said what happened. You don't have to worry about being exposed, because you have nothing to hide. This liberates a massive amount of mental energy. You can focus that energy on creativity, on problem-solving, on actual growth. Integrity is the ultimate productivity hack. It simplifies your life. It streamlines your decision-making process. When you know what your values are, you don't have to agonize over every choice. You simply ask, "Does this align with my values?" If the answer is no, the decision is made.Furthermore, we must consider the compounding interest of reputation. In a world that is increasingly transparent, where digital footprints last forever, your reputation is your most valuable asset. You might gain a short-term advantage by cheating—you might get the sale, or the job, or the tax break. But if you are caught, or even if people just start to sense that you are not trustworthy, the long-term cost is catastrophic. Trust takes years to build and seconds to break. In business and in life, people prefer to work with those they can trust. If you are known as a straight shooter, someone whose handshake actually means something, opportunities will flow to you. People will bring you into the inner circle because they know you won't stab them in the back. Integrity is a long-term greed. It pays better dividends over a lifetime than dishonesty ever could.Let's look at some specific, actionable steps you can take today to begin strengthening your integrity muscle. We need to move from the philosophical to the practical.First, I want you to practice "Radical Honesty" in low-stakes situations. We often lie about small things to avoid minor social friction. We say we are "five minutes away" when we haven't left the house. We say we "loved the dinner" when it was cold. Start catching yourself in these micro-lies. Correct them in real-time. If you are running late, say, "I am running 20 minutes late because I managed my time poorly." It is uncomfortable, yes. But it trains your brain that truth is the default setting. It builds a tolerance for the minor discomfort of honesty, which prepares you for the major discomfort of difficult ethical stands later on.Second, identify your "Ethical Blind Spots." We all have them. Maybe you are incredibly honest with money, but you tend to exaggerate stories to be the center of attention. Maybe you would never steal a pen from the office, but you regularly steal time by scrolling social media when you are on the clock. Be honest with yourself about where your weak points are. You cannot fortify a wall if you don't know where the cracks are. Once you identify a blind spot, set a specific rule for it. If you doom-scroll at work, use an app blocker. If you exaggerate stories, practice the discipline of understatement.Third, find an "Accountability Mirror." This can be a person—a mentor, a partner, a friend who you know will tell you the unvarnished truth. Give them permission to call you out. Ask them, "Do you ever see me compromising on my values? Do I ever come across as disingenuous?" It takes courage to ask that question, and it takes even more courage to listen to the answer without getting defensive. But that external perspective is invaluable. We are often the best lawyers for our own defense, rationalizing our bad behavior. You need a judge.Fourth, change your language. Words shape reality. Stop using euphemisms that disguise unethical behavior. Don't call it "creative accounting"; call it "fraud." Don't call it "padding the resume"; call it "lying." Don't call it "office politics"; call it "manipulation." When you use the raw, ugly words to describe the actions, they lose their seductive power. It becomes much harder to commit fraud than it is to engage in creative accounting. By stripping away the corporate speak, you force yourself to confront the reality of what you are doing.Let's return to the concept of the "Compromised World" for a moment. It is easy to become cynical. It is easy to look at the billionaire who cheated his way to the top and feel like a fool for playing by the rules. You might think, "nice guys finish last." But I want you to challenge that definition of "winning." If winning means having a massive bank account but being unable to sleep without medication because of the stress of your deception, is that winning? If winning means being the CEO but having a family that despises you and a staff that fears you, is that winning?We need to redefine success to include the quality of our inner life. A "clean" success—one achieved through hard work, smart strategy, and ethical behavior—tastes different. It is sustainable. It is robust. It belongs to you in a way that stolen success never can. When you achieve something honestly, no one can take it away from you by revealing a secret. You own it completely.There is also a ripple effect to consider. We often underestimate the power of our own example. In a corrupt workplace, one person acting with integrity can change the atmosphere. It is contagious. When you refuse to gossip, you create a safe space for others to stop gossiping. When you admit a mistake openly instead of covering it up, you give permission for your team to be honest about their failures, which leads to faster problem solving. You have the power to set the standard. You are not just a passive observer of the culture; you are a creator of it.This is particularly true for those of you in leadership positions. If you are a manager, your team is watching you like hawks. They are looking for cues on how to behave. If they see you fudge a number, they will fudge ten. If they see you lie to a client, they will lie to you. The culture of a team is a reflection of the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate—in themselves and in others. If you want a high-performance team, you must demand high integrity, and you must embody it first.Now, let's address the naysayers. There will be people who tell you that this advice is naive. They will say, "This is the real world, you have to get your hands dirty." To them, I say: Look at the long game. The graveyards of industry are filled with the careers of people who thought they were smarter than the truth. They thought they could outrun the consequences. They thought they could manage the web of lies. They were wrong. The house of cards always falls. It might take a year, it might take ten, but gravity always wins. Building on a foundation of integrity is the only way to build a structure that withstands the storms of life.Navigating this path requires a specific kind of courage. It isn't the loud, heroic courage of the movies. It is a quiet, daily courage. It is the courage to be the only person in the room not laughing at an inappropriate joke. It is the courage to say, "I don't think that's the right way to handle this," when everyone else is nodding along. It is the courage to accept a short-term loss for a long-term gain. This is the courage that builds character. And character, in the end, is destiny.As we move toward the conclusion of this discussion, I want to leave you with a strategy for when you feel overwhelmed by the corruption around you. It is called "The Circle of Control." You cannot control the politicians. You cannot control the economy. You often cannot control your company's upper management. When you focus on these things, you feel helpless and angry, which makes you more likely to say, "Screw it, why should I try?"Instead, draw a small circle around yourself. Inside that circle are your actions, your words, your work ethic, and your treatment of others. That is your kingdom. Rule it wisely. Make that circle a zone of absolute integrity. No matter how chaotic or corrupt the world outside that circle becomes, inside the circle, standards are maintained. Inside the circle, promises are kept. Inside the circle, truth is spoken.What you will find is that over time, your circle will expand. People will want to be in your circle. They will want to hire you, partner with you, and follow you, because your circle is a refuge of sanity and reliability in a crazy world.So, here is your homework. I want you to take one specific action today. Not tomorrow, today. Identify one small area where you have been letting your standards slip. Maybe it's how you talk to your spouse. Maybe it's how much effort you put into your work when the boss isn't looking. Maybe it's a small recurring lie you tell to avoid conflict. Fix it. Right now. Send the text, make the apology, redo the work. Reclaim that piece of territory for your integrity.Don't do it to be a saint. Do it to be strong. Do it because you refuse to be a passive victim of a compromised culture. Do it because the most pragmatic, powerful thing you can be in this world is a person who cannot be bought, who cannot be intimidated, and who dares to tell the truth.The world may be compromised, but you do not have to be. The corruption stops at your doorstep. The ethical fading stops with your next decision. You have the tools. You have the strategy. Now, go out there and execute. The world needs more people who are playing the long game. Be one of them.

Brad Evans and Pat Boyle discuss Kenneth Walker taking home the MVP of last night's big game, and make the case that this was ultimately the wrong decision. However, they also disagree on who should have taken home the MVP Trophy, including a call for a change when it comes to the format of the award.

In this episode of Accelerated Health with Sara Banta, I explore how to safely correct iodine deficiency during pregnancy, a crucial factor for maternal thyroid health and fetal brain development.Learn about the common causes and signs of iodine deficiency and why many pregnant women may still be at risk despite taking prenatal vitamins. I also discuss how deficiency can affect your baby's nervous system and long-term cognitive growth.This episode covers the risks of improper supplementation, emphasizing why both too little and too much iodine can be harmful, and how to maintain safe, effective levels.Discover evidence-based strategies to restore optimal iodine, including proper testing and personalized approaches to protect both your health and your baby's development.Supplements Featured In This Episode:• Acceleradine® Iodine https://www.acceleratedhealthproducts.com/products/acceleradine-iodine-supplementNot sure what food to eat and avoid? This guide is for you.⬇️

Flat feet are not genetic! Flat feet correction and prevention are simpler than you think. Discover the one exercise to fix flat feet and restore your foot's arch naturally, along with some easy flat foot exercises to strengthen the arches of your feet. 0:00 Introduction: Exercises for flat feet 0:27 Foot arch function1:38 The best flat feet fix 2:27 More exercises for flat feet 3:26 Flat foot prevention in children4:04 Vitamin D, K2, magnesium, and flat feetIn this video, I'm going to show you the best flat foot fix that you can do at home. You're born with flat feet and develop an arch when you're around 6 to 10 years old. Some people develop a fallen arch as they age because they don't exercise the muscles that strengthen the arches of the feet.The purpose of your foot's arch is to provide it with free energy. It acts as a preloaded spring when you walk, climb, or run. You can still walk if you've lost your arch, but other muscles will be recruited. The quads and PSOAS muscles will compensate for flat feet, and the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back will be underused and become weaker. Sprinting is the best exercise for flat feet, helping restore the foot arch naturally. Even if sprinting is difficult initially, you can improve within 6 to 8 weeks. Jogging is one of the worst exercises for flat feet! Strengthen the arches of the feet with these exercises and build up to sprinting:• A skipping• B skipping• High knees• Butt kicks When sprinting, sprint at 60% intensity, doing 2 to 3 sprints for 15 seconds each. To prevent flat feet in children, allow them to play in the grass or a safe environment without shoes to strengthen the arches of their feet. Look for shoes with thinner soles; barefoot shoes are best. Also, ensure there's enough space for the toes to move. This improves posture by strengthening the glutes and taking pressure off the lower back. Low vitamin D, K2, and magnesium early in life can contribute to flat feet. Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:Dr. Berg, age 60, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals and author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.Disclaimer: Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients, so he can focus on educating people as a full-time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

On this segment of KCMO Talk Radio's Ask Mundo Anything, host Pete Mundo takes calls from listeners across Kansas City. Carl from Independence asks how Pete books big-name guests, and Pete shares the importance of building relationships and trust. Dan from Kansas City discusses balancing work and family life, and Pete opens up about how his kids are now more interested in current events. The conversation also touches on politics, taxes, and the Kansas City Chiefs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Political maturity is finally admitting to yourself that the angriest, most disconcerting communist you've ever met was pretty much right about everything. If you learn enough, stay humble enough, and pay close enough attention, eventually that's what happens. You realize that, generally speaking, the really high-octane commies have the most lucid understanding of the world out of any group out there, and the only reason this wasn't always obvious to you was because you live under a capitalist power structure which aggressively indoctrinates its populace from birth into believing that communism is No No Bad Bad. Reading by Tim Foley.

It's all going on with Paul in Bradford and Sarah in Wrexham but whose taking that mug?

Mario Bros. is the biggest franchise of all time. Bigger than Star Wars, Marvel… bigger than Harry Potter. Nintendo is an empire. Dave Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I’m Stephen’s sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today’s episode, a word from our sponsor, which is… Well, it’s us, but we’re highlighting ads we’ve written and produced for our clients. So here’s one of those. [Travis Crawford Ad] Dave Young: Welcome back to the Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here with you, and Stephen Semple’s alongside, with another empire-building story for us that- Stephen Semple: An exciting story. Dave Young: It’ll take you back to childhood, but it doesn’t take me back to childhood because I’m too goddamned old. Stephen Semple: Well, it depends how you look at this, this might be- Dave Young: No, I suppose. I suppose the company [inaudible 00:01:55]. Stephen Semple: It might be older than your childhood, but depends what we decide to talk about. Dave Young: Yeah, it’s just like when the big games came out, the… So we’re talking about Nintendo today. Stephen Semple: Correct. Correct. Dave Young: And I had Atari and things like that. And my kids all had the Nintendo. I actually have a Nintendo Switch, but I didn’t get that until I was… Stephen Semple: It also originally started as an arcade game, if we go back, because we are going to go back far enough. Dave Young: Well, that’s true. That’s true. Stephen Semple: Yes, yes. But if we actually went back to the company, Nintendo, we would be going back to 1889. Dave Young: Okay. So not so much my childhood. There you go. Stephen Semple: 1889. Yeah. And we’re really not going to talk so much about the origin and Nintendo as a company, but really, the origin of the video game business, and more specifically Donkey Kong, and went on later to become the Mario Brothers franchise. That’s really what we’re going to talk about. Dave Young: Now, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Now, I don’t know everything, but I’m pretty sure video wasn’t around in 1889. Stephen Semple: It was not. Dave Young: There was no video games. Stephen Semple: No, there was not. So that’s why we’re really going to be talking about more of the recent history of Nintendo. Dave Young: A real Donkey Kong, climbing ladders and throwing barrels. Stephen Semple: Okay. That’s it. That’s it. Dave Young: Or a monkey, a gorilla. Yeah. Stephen Semple: And here’s the thing, the Mario Brothers franchise is huge. It’s one of the biggest franchises in history. There’s been 800 million video games sold worldwide, making it the bestselling video game of all time. It’s bigger than Pokemon in game sales alone. The estimated lifetime sales across all revenues for the Mario Brothers franchise is $60 billion. Bigger than Star Wars, bigger than Harry Potter, bigger than Marvel. Dave Young: Wow. Stephen Semple: The movies alone sold over a billion dollars. There’s theme park now. It’s huge. It’s absolutely massive. And the Nintendo company is very old. It was founded back in Kyoto, Japan in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. That’s it, Yamauchi. Dave Young: Oh. Stephen Semple: Boy, I’m going to struggle with these names. Dave Young: What were they doing back then? What was the company doing? Stephen Semple: The first product they did was a playing card called Hanafuda, and it was very, very successful. So they actually started- Dave Young: As a gaming company. Stephen Semple: … in game business doing playing cards. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: Now, during the 1950s, during Japan’s economic recovery, because if you remember, the economy was decimated in World War II, and through the Marshall Plan and whatnot, there was this rebuild going on. And during that time, they had a new leader, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who decided to explore all sorts of new businesses. He was doing all sorts of stuff. They had taxis, they had love hotels. Yes, you heard it right, love hotels. Dave Young: Love hotels. Stephen Semple: Instant rice, and of course, toys. And most of the things they did failed, except toys held a promise, so they continued to lean into toys. So it’s April 1978, so this is basically really where our story starts, and Taito, a competitor, releases a game called Space Invaders. Dave Young: Oh, right. I remember Space Invaders. Sure. Stephen Semple: Remember Space Invaders? And of course, this is back in the day of arcades, and you’re putting money into the games. This is so big in Japan, there’s 100 yen shortage. It would be like being in the U.S., and we run out of quarters. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: It’s so big. So Nintendo, because it’s having some success in the game space, decides to make a knockoff of Space Invaders. So it’s October 1980, they create this knockoff called Radar Scope, and they decide also to ship it to the U.S., because they’ve started up a U.S. division. And it takes four months for the game to travel from Japan to the United States, and once it arrives, the trend has changed, it’s no longer Space Invaders, it’s now Pac-Man is the big game. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So they’re left with these 2,000 unsold cabinets sitting in the United States. Enter Shigeru Miyamoto, who’s a graphic designer with Nintendo, and he has an idea, and he says to them, “Look, let’s reuse the cabinets, and let’s just create a new game. Let’s do that.” And it’s like, “What the heck? Let’s give this a try.” So Shigeru grew up in rural Japan, and this deeply influenced how he looked at games, because he grew up in a place where there was no television, none of these things, and he would go and he would play in like a cave that was nearby, and he would create all of these stories and characters. And this is the ’80s where the games do not have characters or a story. Dave Young: Okay. Yeah. Stephen Semple: They didn’t have that. Dave Young: Space Invader, you’re just knocking down… Stephen Semple: Right. Pac-Man, the same thing, there was no story. Pong, all that stuff, no stories. He takes a look around and he realizes that Nintendo has the rights to use Popeye, so Shigeru makes a suggestion to create a game using Popeye, where they already have the rights, and he moves ahead and does that. And so he also decides to make a game where characters move up rather than scrolling left to right, and there’d be different levels, which was also a relatively new idea. And he created this whole thing where they could jump, and using just a joystick in the buttons that already existed. So they started to create this game, but they hit a snag. Just before the release, they discovered Nintendo only had the rights to use Popeye for playing cards. Dave Young: For playing cards. Darn it. Stephen Semple: Now, turns out this was a gift from heaven, and the best thing that could ever happen in Nintendo. Dave Young: So it would’ve been Bluto up at the top, and Popeye trying to get up there, climbing the ladders and- Stephen Semple: And saving- Dave Young: So sort of a nautical theme? Stephen Semple: And saving olive oil. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Because remember, he would always capture olive oil. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And Popeye was this love triangle, right? Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: So what does Shigeru do? Replaces- Dave Young: Bluto becomes- Stephen Semple: … with- Dave Young: … the gorilla. Stephen Semple: Right. Popeye becomes Mario. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: And olive oil is Princess Peach. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: It’s the same story. Dave Young: Yeah. Beautiful. Stephen Semple: It’s exactly the same story. And if you think about it, even the whole idea of this gorilla capturing the princess kind of sounds like King Kong, doesn’t it? Dave Young: A little bit. Sure. Stephen Semple: A little bit. And of course, they can’t use the name King Kong, so it’s Donkey Kong. And the reason why Donkey Kong is, he went looking through English dictionaries, and there’s all this stubbornness, and all this other things that go along with it. So we went, “You know what? This monkey, this Kong is kind of stubborn.” So Donkey Kong is the name of the game. Dave Young: Did they run into any issues with the King Kong folks? Stephen Semple: Nope. Dave Young: No? Stephen Semple: No, because you think about it, it’s a completely different name, Donkey Kong, right? Dave Young: Yeah, but it’s still a big gorilla with the word Kong in it. Stephen Semple: Yeah. Nope, no. It was different enough. Dave Young: [inaudible 00:09:14] just because it’s stubborn, and it sort of went with the word Kong? Stephen Semple: Yep. So it was different enough. It was all great. And the original character was not Mario. Dave Young: Stay tuned. We’re going to wrap up this story and tell you how to apply this lesson to your business right after this. [Using Stories To Sell Ad] Let’s pick up our story where we left off, and trust me, you haven’t missed a thing. Stephen Semple: And the original character was not Mario. The original character was Jumpman. Jumpman. Dave Young: I kind of remember that. Stephen Semple: Jumpman. And the game allowed them to reuse the cabinets, and just do it. And think about it, the objective of this, because he was also just a very junior graphic designer, and the objective on this was, “Hey, if we can sell these 2,000 unsold cabinets sitting in the U.S., that’ll take the financial strain off of our U.S. operations, and it will be great, it will keep them afloat.” And here’s what happened, they sold in 1981 alone 60,000 cabinets. Dave Young: I tell you, I poured a lot of money into one of those cabinets when I was in college. Stephen Semple: So Shigeru goes from this low-level designer to the creator of one of the best performing games up to that point. And one of the things that also ends up happening, he starts making modifications to the game. And one of the modifications is, he’s walking one day, and he sees these pipes, and he realizes character should be a plumber, and the landlord for one of the Nintendo properties’ name was Mario. Dave Young: Okay. Stephen Semple: So that’s where the whole idea of Mario came from, and eventually evolved to being brothers, Mario and Luigi. And of course, there was continuing success, and other formats and differing games. And Mario Brothers grew beyond Donkey Kong, it went from Donkey Kong to really the franchise being the Mario Brothers, with all sorts of new characters being added, and all sorts of new themes, like there’s go-kart racing and all sorts of different things. But the birth of the idea happened when they had this problem of, “We’ve got to have these cabinets…” And Shigeru saying- Dave Young: “And we either have to make a whole bunch of Popeye playing cards, or we have to find something to put in these cabinets.” Stephen Semple: “We have to find something to put in these cabinets.” And Shigeru saying, “It needs to be a story.” Dave Young: Yeah. No, that’s brilliant. And I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out to our listeners here in the U.S. that Steve is Canadian, and he pronounces it Mario, and everybody I’ve ever met says Mario. Stephen Semple: Mario. Dave Young: Mario. It’s Mario Brothers. Stephen Semple: Mario. Dave Young: It’s sort of like you say Mazda, we say Mazda. Stephen Semple: Right. Yes. Yes. Dave Young: So- Stephen Semple: Yeah, that’s true. Dave Young: Here’s a weird tangential thought. Do you have a minute for one of my weird tangential thoughts? Stephen Semple: Isn’t that why we’re here? Just for your weird tangential… Isn’t what we tune in for? Dave Young: That’s the way I look at it. I wonder if the guy that shot the UnitedHealthcare… Luigi, I wonder if there was a little bump in Nintendo stock. Stephen Semple: Oh, I wonder. Dave Young: And I wonder too, what was the discussion inside Nintendo about that? At first it was probably, “Oh my God, a guy named Luigi just shot someone.” And that was probably, “Oh my God, a guy named Luigi just shot someone that… Okay.” It’s not cut and dry. Stephen Semple: Well, it isn’t, because sometimes these negative events actually have positive impacts on sales. The one that I always remember that always comes to mind, I always find bizarre, is the white two-door Ford Bronco was due to be discontinued until O.J. Simpson went and did a joyride on LA freeways, and it actually extended the sales of that vehicle several years. And to this day, the white two-door Ford Bronco is a premium price from that year. Dave Young: Yeah- Stephen Semple: It’s nuts. Sometimes these crazy things happen. Dave Young: I don’t know if it was a joyride, but yeah. But we remember it, for sure. Stephen Semple: But we remember it. But- Dave Young: And those things have these impacts that you couldn’t buy that. There’s nothing Ford Motor Company could do that would’ve done that, that would’ve saved the Bronco. Stephen Semple: So here’s the interesting thing, coming back to Nintendo, that I find… So one of the influences it had was it was the first game that came along and basically said, “We should have a story.” And if we take a look at video games today, they’re all very heavy story based. And in fact, the stories are unbelievably rich, like Zelda, and all these other ones are these very complex universes that have been created. And he was kind of the first to come along, and his influence from that came from the fact that he didn’t grow up with these things. Dave Young: Yeah, he grew up with stories. Stephen Semple: So again, it’s this whole outside… We had this graphic designer that didn’t grow up with these things saying to a game, “Here’s what it should do. It should have this story, and there should be this imagination.” And all these things. And when you think about it, there was a couple of accidents, a couple of lucky happenstances that led to the birth of this. First of all, the console. Because if you think about it, if it was the creating of a brand new game, you wouldn’t take some junior graphic artist and put on it. The objective was, “All we need to do is move these 2,000 consoles.” So it was like, “Okay, so we’ll give it to the junior guy to do.” And then it blows out of the water. The other lucky happenstance is, think about how Nintendo’s fortunes would be completely different if they actually had the rights to use Popeye. Dave Young: Yeah, it would have been, like, Mario Brothers, that whole universe would never have come about, and- Stephen Semple: Well, the whole universe would be Popeye Universe, even if it worked. Dave Young: And I can’t see that happening. Stephen Semple: Right. But even if it worked, it would not have been theirs, it would have been- Dave Young: Oh, true. Stephen Semple: The people who would have made all the money were the owners of the Popeye license, would have been a licensee. Dave Young: Yeah, that’s true. Stephen Semple: So they had a couple of really lucky, fortunate things that happened that totally changed the trajectory of Nintendo. But here’s the other interesting lesson, and look, we talk about this all the time in storytelling, is there’s a couple of things you can do in storytelling. One is, you can take an existing story and just change the characters. We just took Popeye, changed as Donkey Kong. And what you know is, we knew that story worked, so it’ll work over here with different characters. Or what you can do is, you can take existing characters, and you can change the setting. In magical worlds, you’re always talking about how Sherlock Holmes, and- Dave Young: House M.D. Stephen Semple: … House M.D. is the same story. Dave Young: Sure. Stephen Semple: It’s just one is a detective during Elizabethan times, and the other one is an emergency room doctor in modern times. Same character, different setting, changes the story. Dave Young: Right. Stephen Semple: So when you’re looking to use stories, find ones that work, and do that. Dave Young: Find the popular stories and just take the framework. And I’ll give you another example- Stephen Semple: Right. Either change the characters, make it same story with different characters, or take the characters and put them in a different setting. Dave Young: … there’s a book called the Bible that had this story about this Jesus fella. Stephen Semple: I think it’s rather a relatively popular book. Dave Young: And then in 1605, a guy named Miguel Cervantes wrote a book called Don Quixote, and he took a lot of the storylines and metaphors from this story in the Bible and created a book that became the second bestselling book of all time right after the Bible. Then a guy named John Steinbeck took a lot of the stories from Don Quixote, and renamed characters, and put them in different situations, but took the structures of the stories, and… So this works. Just do this. Stephen Semple: Oh, yeah. Dave Young: Just find a story you like- Stephen Semple: Absolutely. Dave Young: … and take the [inaudible 00:17:59]. Stephen Semple: Reimagine it. Reimagine it. Reimagine it. Either change it, keep the same story and change characters, or take the characters and put them in a new setting. Dave Young: I mean, the cool thing is, you can’t copyright a story arc, right? Stephen Semple: No, no. Dave Young: Something bad happens to someone and they overcome it. “Okay, no, that’s mine.” Stephen Semple: I’m still waiting for the overcome part. Dave Young: Yeah. Right? Stephen Semple: Yeah. Dave Young: That’s still the part of the story. Oh, I love it. Stephen Semple: I just found these things that came together for the creating of the Mario Brothers to be really interesting. And it’s also interesting when you consider who was expected to be the star of the show was the donkey, and it ended up becoming the Mario Brothers. Dave Young: Yeah. Great story. And I see it. Thank you for switching to English. American English. I’m sorry. Stephen Semple: American. Dave Young: [inaudible 00:18:54]. Stephen Semple: All right. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Where can we go play some Donkey Kong next time? Stephen Semple: Well- Dave Young: Anybody got an old Donkey Kong console? Stephen Semple: Yeah. You know what? My kids have got some old play stuff, I’ll bring it down. Dave Young: No, I want the console. I want the big- Stephen Semple: Oh, you want that… Well, I think we may have to look hard for that. Dave Young: Yeah, that’s good. Well, keep your eyes out. Stephen Semple: I will. Dave Young: Thanks for the story of Nintendo, Stephen. Stephen Semple: All right. Thanks, David. Dave Young: Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and leave us a big, fat, juicy five-star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire-building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

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I get my blood work done every 90 days and I swear it's the ultimate tip for health in the short term and in the long term and just feeling your best on he daily. So, today I'm going to try to convince you to do the same. Because there is a huge difference between being "not sick" and being truly healthy and if you aren't getting your bloodwork done at least once a year, you really don't know what's going on. Most people only get blood work done when something is wrong. When they feel bad. When they are exhausted. When a symptom won't go away. When a doctor orders it because something already happened. Instead of doing it reactively, we are talking about doing it proactively. How can you know what your body needs? What supplements or adjustments to your lifestyle… it's almost impossible without bloodwork. It tells you how your hormones are functioning. How inflamed your body is. How well you are absorbing nutrients. How your cholesterol is trending. How stressed your nervous system is. How your metabolism is working. How your immune system is functioning. Today's episode is about why doing blood work every 90 days can completely change your relationship with your health, how the top longevity experts think about tracking biomarkers, how it helps you personalize supplements and lifestyle instead of guessing, and how it allows you to catch problems early before they become a real problem.  Let's go! Your blood work is your internal dashboard. It's crazy that most people are driving their body blind!! I do full blood work every 90 days and I swear by it.  I'm going to break it all down today. Every 90 days I sit down with my functional medicine doctor, Dr. Singler, and we go through everything. We look at what's trending up. What's trending down. What needs support. What needs to be addressed. We adjust supplements. We talk about lifestyle changes. We sometimes talk about peptides. We look at stress markers like cortisol. We look at hormones. We look at inflammation. We look at cholesterol. We look at nutrient deficiencies. It's not just "do you have a disease." It's "what is your body asking for." And that quarterly check-in has become one of the most powerful forms of self-care I do. Today's episode is about why doing blood work every 90 days can completely change your relationship with your health, how the top longevity experts think about tracking biomarkers, how it helps you personalize supplements and lifestyle instead of guessing, and how it allows you to catch problems early before they become diagnoses. Because knowledge is power. And when it comes to your health, awareness is leverage. ***Why the Best Health and Longevity Experts Obsess Over Biomarkers When you listen to people like Peter Attia, Andrew Huberman, and leaders in longevity medicine, one theme is constant. You can't manage what you don't measure. They talk constantly about biomarkers. Blood markers. Hormones. Cholesterol. Glucose. Inflammation. Nutrients. Stress markers. Not because numbers are the goal. Because trends tell the truth. You don't need to wait until something is "out of range" to take action. You can see patterns forming. You can see directions your health is moving. You can intervene early. Longevity is not built by reacting to disease. Longevity is built by managing risk decades before disease shows up. Blood work lets you see inside the body instead of guessing from the outside. Energy, mood, sleep, weight, anxiety, motivation, focus, hormones, immune function… all of it leaves fingerprints in your labs. *** Why Every 90 Days Is a Sweet Spot Doing blood work every 90 days creates a rhythm. It's long enough for meaningful changes to occur. It's short enough to catch problems early. It's frequent enough to personalize your approach. This cadence allows you to: • See how supplements are actually working • Know if lifestyle changes are helping • Track hormones as they shift • Monitor cholesterol trends • Watch inflammation markers • Identify deficiencies before symptoms • See how stress is impacting your body It turns health into an ongoing relationship instead of a once-a-year appointment. Rather than living on autopilot, it becomes a quarterly check-in. "How is my body actually doing?" "What does it need right now?" "What needs to change?" ***The Power of Baselines One of the most underrated benefits of regular blood work is baselines. When you know what your normal looks like, everything changes. If something shifts, you see it faster. If you get sick, you have something to compare to. If symptoms show up, you're not starting from zero. Your baseline becomes your personal health fingerprint. This is especially powerful with hormones, thyroid, cholesterol, inflammatory markers, glucose, and nutrient levels. Medicine is often built around population averages. But health is personal. Your optimal range is not always the same as "normal." Blood work every 90 days teaches you your body. ***Personalization Instead of Guessing Most people take supplements blindly. They try what's trending. What a friend is taking. What TikTok says. What an ad promises. Blood work removes guessing. You stop throwing things at your body and hoping. You start making informed decisions. When I review labs with my doctor, we are not just looking for problems. We are optimizing. We adjust supplements based on what my body is actually showing. We talk about hormones. We talk about stress. We talk about sleep. We talk about hydration. We talk about inflammation. We talk about recovery. If cortisol is elevated, the conversation shifts to lifestyle, nervous system, sleep, slowing down, hydration, sauna, recovery. If something is low, we talk about absorption, nutrition, and targeted support. It becomes a dialogue with your body instead of a guessing game. ***Emotional Health Lives in the Labs Too This is not just physical. Your labs often reflect your emotional and mental load. Stress hormones. Inflammation. Blood sugar instability. Nutrient depletion. Your body keeps the receipts. Blood work gives you objective data to support lifestyle changes. Sometimes the answer is not another supplement. Sometimes it's rest. Sleep. Boundaries. Sunlight. Movement. Slowing down. It's incredibly empowering to see that connection clearly. It turns self-care into strategy, not indulgence. ***How I Do It and How You Could Do It The way I do it is higher touch and more expensive. I use a mobile blood draw that comes to my house. Then I schedule a long call with my functional medicine doctor to go through everything. We take our time. We look at the full picture. We build a plan. But you do not have to do it that way. You can ask your doctor to order labs. You can go to a clinic and make an appointment so you're not waiting forever. You can get a basic panel and build from there. You can even upload your results into ChatGPT and use it as an educational tool to help you understand what the markers mean and what questions to ask your doctor. This doesn't have to be complicated. It just has to be consistent. ***Why This Is One of the Best Investments You Can Make We spend money on convenience. On clothes. On food. On homes. On trips. On businesses. But nothing affects the quality of your life more than the quality of your health. Energy. Mood. Confidence. Focus. Longevity. Relationships. Joy. Blood work every 90 days is not an expense. It is intelligence. It is prevention. It is personalization. It is early detection. It is self-leadership. It is saying, "I care about how long I live and how well I live." ***Most people wait for symptoms to tell them something is wrong. But by the time symptoms show up, your body has usually been whispering for a long time. Blood work lets you hear the whispers. It lets you see trends before problems. Adjust before crashes. Support before burnout. Correct before disease. For me, doing blood work every 90 days has become a quarterly health check-in with myself. How am I really doing? What does my body need? What needs to change? What needs support? It keeps me connected to my health instead of disconnected from it. And I truly believe this is one of the most powerful forms of preventative self-care anyone can adopt. So if you take anything from this episode, let it be this. Don't wait for something to go wrong.  Start tracking your health while things are going right. There's nothing more important or worth spending your time and money on!

https://youtu.be/knpxJ7KATsU Joshua McMahon, President of McMahon Custom Homes and a business coach, is driven by a purpose he discovered the hard way: money wasn't his ‘Why.' His real ‘Why' is lifting others—helping people find clarity around their purpose, unlock their potential, and gain traction toward it. We explore Josh's journey from C-suite construction leadership and integrator roles to building his own company as an “evolved visionary.” Josh shares his Satisfaction Pyramid, explaining how customer experience is created upstream through brand awareness, team support, trade partner support, and training, which together produce the outcome every builder (and business) is chasing: customer satisfaction. Along the way, he breaks down why the construction industry struggles with talent, how coaching becomes a competitive advantage, and why McMahon Custom Homes wins through transparency, collaboration, and guiding clients to align budget with what truly matters. — Take 5 Steps to Satisfy Customers with Josh McMahon Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here, the Founder of the Summit OS group and the host of Management Blueprint. And my guest today is Joshua McMahon, the president of McMahon Custom Homes and a business coach. Although I don’t know how much time you have for that these days, josh. Welcome to the show.  Yeah, thanks for having me, Steve. We go a long way back, so it’s an honor to be a business owner and now be on your show.  Well, yeah, you are a business owner. In your previous, recent life, you was an integrator, a COO of a business. So you’ve been running construction businesses and have been C-level in other construction businesses, where we also collaborated. So we have been tracking each other’s journey, for sure. So, Josh, let’s start with my favorite question. What is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in your business?  Yeah. I think this is always a great question. And the real truth of this question, Steve, is that I didn’t know what it was for so long. I thought my personal ‘Why’ was just to make more money. And every time I made more money, I was just more miserable. I was never happy. So my ‘Why’ was never money. I really think my ‘Why’ is all about lifting others. And what I mean by that is I have this ability to extract other people's 'Why' and their purpose from them, help them better see that, get clarity around it and then help them get traction to go attack that 'Why'.Share on X And that’s really my ‘Why’, is to help other, lift other people to really achieve their greatness. So I get a lot of energy and joy from boosting others, and watching that untapped potential really take off.  That is fabulous. And I can see that, as a business coach, that's really very appealing to people when you can do that. How does it manifest in your construction business? You have these Custom Homes construction business, how does that help you there?  And this is where it was really born. So in the C-suite and as I grew in my business, the one part that you have to do is you have to know how to recruit. At least, I had to know how to recruit. And in order to recruit, you have to find the right talent at the right price. And what I was really looking for was that potential. I was looking for the right attitude—the right hunger. I was looking for those right pieces that I could make you a construction individual. I could make you a great construction manager, but I couldn’t fix those other things. And so when I could tap into that and take and help somebody see the vision of what I could do and what our company could help you do in your career, that’s where I was able to really take and 10X my recruiting ability, but also to really tap into that untapped talent that’s out there. Because, Steve, we have a hard time finding talent in the construction industry. Well, the talent’s out there. What’s making it hard is that we don’t recognize that talent, and we’re saying, you’ve got to be this perfect candidate. You've got to fit all these marks. You've got to check all the boxes.And I’m saying, no. I just need you to check a few boxes. I'm going to help you see how you can really fit into this organization and how we can help you thrive. So that's where my ability to see that in them, help them see that in themselves, and then help them tie it to our vision as a company. That's where it really gets a lot of fun.Share on X Yeah. It’s so interesting that it’s not just about doing the job, but it’s about being emotionally invested in doing the job. And how do you get your people emotionally invested? You have to find the motivation that they have inherently that you can tap into, and then you have to make your business attractive so that it inspires them, so that they feel excited to work with you there. That’s exactly what you’re trying to do. It’s like you’re not trying to fool anybody on anything, but to think people just get excited to come do work, or just do the job, or just collect the paycheck. If that’s your motivation, that’s the type of candidate you’re going to get. Then what type of culture do you have? So if you flip that and you say, “Hey, we want to help you  transform who you are, transform your career for the better, and it’s going to help us get to our vision. Well, Steve, that sounds like a win-win scenario to me. And that’s a really appealing piece. And that’s a thriving culture.  Yeah, culture eats strategy for breakfast, as Peter Drucker said. And especially in the age of AI, it's probably even more important, isn't it, that you have a great culture, because AI can copy everything, but it won't be able to copy your culture.  No, that's exactly right. I think AI is a great tool. It’s really going to help us magnify and improve our businesses. But if your culture is broken, AI is just going to magnify the brokenness of your culture, and then AI’s going to tell your people how to go find another job. That is probably true. I haven’t thought about that. So you developed this framework, we are a podcast of frameworks. I’m always looking for the framework and and you talked about this Satisfaction Pyramid framework. Yeah. Is this also something that helps create that culture? Tell me a little bit about this pyramid and how did you come up with it and what does it do?  Yeah, it’s an interesting thing, right? So you understand Maslow's hierarchy of needs. These are the things you need for survival and for happiness. And I've said, look, in home building, we've always talked about customer experience and customer satisfaction. We want people to be happy. And I'm saying, well, I don't know what that means. I don't know—if I hit my schedule, if I hit my budget, if I do everything on time, but they're still not happy—so what exactly am I missing? What's the missing link?  And kind of tying the hierarchy of needs to this triangle of customer satisfaction or happiness, I found that there are some really key fundamental pieces that we've got to lock into place to really get to the customer satisfaction and customer experience that we're seeking. For me, I think brand awareness is first. If your brand awareness is out there and it's really strong, people are going to gravitate towards it organically.Share on X That’s going to decrease your SEO spend, you decrease your marketing, decrease your turnover for people, because people want to be part of that. The interesting story on brands — and I don't know how true it is, I meant to look it up before this — but I saw something on social media about Tommy Hilfiger. And before he launched his clothing brand, he didn't have anything, but his brand was so far out in front of himself that people thought this was this great designer, and he hadn't designed anything. And it was all tied to that piece of brand. So if your brand is strong enough, you can do incredible things. So I think brand is super important.  Yeah. Let me just interject here. So probably 20 years ago, I was working with a company, and it was actually in the construction space. It was in the environmental construction space. And this company had an amazing brand. So the founder was a great thought leader, and he was blogging and talking in forums. And I really thought that this company's got to be a $50 million company. I mean, they're so powerful. And then they invited me to their board as a board member. I said, “Wow, this is such an honor.” This big company. And it turned out it was just a $5 million company. But the brand was so powerful that they looked much bigger.  Yeah. And that statement, that’s an appealing thing. So if you think of yourself as a high level achiever, an A-player, and you are gravitating to that brand, that’s what it’s going to do. You're going to bring in the right people, and then if you've got the right culture and the right other pieces, you're going to stick around with that company.Share on X So a $5 million company can look like a $50 million company and be really attractive to people that are interested in that type of world. Yeah. Super important. Love that story. The second thing for me is team support. This is where I really saw in my career as I grew. I can tell you, my first construction job at the construction management level, my VP of construction told me, and this is 20 plus years ago, I haven't forgotten it — he said, “My leadership style is to give you just enough rope to hang yourself.” And to this day, I have no idea what the heck that means. But what he did show me was he wasn’t going to support me. He wasn’t going to encourage me. He wasn’t going to help me grow. He was basically going to let me swim in the deep end. And if I made it, great. And if I didn’t, no problem — there's another guy behind me. And that’s the mentality of the construction industry. And what I said was, we do a great job of spending money for our sales team. Sales team needs training, we’ll spend the money on training. If the executives need training, we’ll spend the money on training.  But who’s training the middle managers? Who’s training the young men and women coming into the industry? Who’s training the people who don’t have the experience? There’s a big myth in that world. So I think from an internal standpoint — and mind you, coaching is a buzzword right now, just as leadership is — not everybody's a coach, and not everybody's a leader, and that's okay. But if you do have somebody who can coach on your team, and you can coach your team up internally, it’s a very big value add. And so for me, my coaching ability has been a real value add for people that I've recruited, for people I've had on my team, and people I've really invested in and helped grow.Share on X And quick story on coaching. I interviewed this young candidate, I mean, really good-looking kid. He had tons of talent, education, everything he needed, but no construction experience. Still, he had all the right soft skills. And it came down between our company and one of the big national builders. And typically, you’d go to the national builders, more money, more upside, more advantages. And he asked me, the last question he asked me, he said, “Why would I come work for you guys versus this other company?” I said, “Because they don't have me.” I said, I’m not saying this is an arrogant thing to say. I’m saying that I’m going to pour everything from me into you and help take you to where you want to go. You won’t get that anywhere else. Because when we’re done after three years, you can go anywhere you want. And that young man is currently making almost as much as I was making as a C-suite employee, and he’s out in the field running projects. And that’s only like a three or five year period. Like that’s incredible growth, but it’s because of the investment we made in him.  Yeah. There's this saying — I think it's Zig Ziglar — that people don't invest in their people, they don't coach their people, because they're afraid that they’re going to go away to the competition. And then Zig Ziglar asks, “Okay, but isn't there a greater risk that you don’t coach them and and they stay?”  Yes. This is always the thing. And I think a lot of people have a scarcity mindset where they’re so afraid of, if I pour into you, you’re going to go and you’re going to take it somewhere else. What I say is, I’m okay with that. Because when you go somewhere else, you're going to say, “Josh McMahon built me up. He gave me the foundation for my career. He put me in the position I’m in today. I have what I have because of my start. You should go there and get the training from him. There’s no sham e in that because, again, we go back to point number one: brand. That’s tight. That’s my brand out in front of our company that adds value to our company.  So I started my career at KPMG, and one of the ideas they had was this pyramid structure — up or out. But the idea was to take care of the people that even when they leave, they become ambassadors for you on the client side. And then they’re going to convince the client to hire KPMG to be their auditor. And I really like this.  It’s so special, right? Because what you, I mean, Steve, you think about this, we worked together two or three years ago. We still stayed in touch. Even though there’s no financial gain, we still help each other where we can because I want the best for you, as you want the best for me. And that’s what you’re really looking for.  Yeah, that’s true. And the thing about coaching is you have the double benefit, because the company benefits because it has motivated employees who are performing at the higher level than when they came in, and at a higher level than where you hired them, frankly. Correct.  And then they are building a career. So they are building a career equity for themselves. And actually that’s why you get a better ROI on these people, because they have more career equity, they have more skill level than what you have to pay them because you are growing them.  That’s exactly right. You’re building into those individuals that generational wealth that most of us are seeking, or think is out of reach. It's there. We just need somebody to believe in us, and that’s really that piece. The third thing for me, especially in construction, it’s the trade partners. And when I think about it, as a general contractor, look—I'm wearing a collared shirt. You're not going to see me on the job site swinging a hammer. I’m out there with the building plans. I’m verifying things. I'm scheduling. I'm doing more management-level work. That means my trade partners are carrying the lion’s share of the work that actually goes into place. And as a construction company, we don’t make money unless work goes in place.  So I have to do the same thing I'm doing with my internal staff with my trade partners. I have to build them up. I have to elevate them. I have to put them in a position to win.Share on X And this is very basic—schedule accurately. Treat them like people. Treat them with respect. When you go on the job, support them. Listen to their feedback. So if they’re sharing something that’s not working, listen to it with an open mind. And maybe we can do something different, or we can explain why we can't do something different, so they have a better understanding of the ‘Why’ behind what we’re doing. Yeah.  So the trade partners is my next big pillar.  And it’s harder to manage trade partners. I mean, I’m not in the construction, but it’s going to be harder because they are part-time with you. They have other commitments that they have to observe. They don’t wear your brand. They are being paid by someone else who may have a different corporate culture than your company has. And you have to bring them in part-time and make them as good as your standard.  Yes. The hard thing is you have to share with them your vision first. This is who we are. This is what we stand for. Share with them your core values. And then build them up and show them that they’re truly a partner in this. Most of us don’t treat them like partners. We treat them like subcontractors. We treat them like they're inferior individuals—less than me. And I think they can work for you part-time and do that. And you’re absolutely right. But if we treat them like people, we build them up, they’ll be there. Because I want to treat them in a way where, hey, you might be a great plumber, but you’re a terrible business person, and I can maybe help you better understand. I say this because I'm working with a young plumber who's bidding things, and he’s just all over the place. And I'm saying, “Hey, how did you come to this number?” “Well, I just know I need to make X dollars.” And I'm like, “Well, how do you know how much money you need to make? What's your break-even number? What's your overhead burden?” Starting to help him better understand how to break down the P&L, how to charge the right margin on the job so that you’re getting work as consistently as you want, but most importantly, so you can grow your business and continue to support my business as it grows too.Share on X Yeah, you want to create stability for them as well. And if you treat subcontractor well, then they’re going to prioritize you, won't they? So they have other customers that may not treat them as well. You’re going to get the most of the energy from them if you treat them well. And that’s also a huge benefit for your business. There’s nothing lost in that, right? Again, you’ve got brand ambassadors out there talking about, one, this guy builds a great house. He treats everybody great. You made the right choice buying with with McMahon Custom Homes. Because, Steve, if you’ve ever been on a job site, the trades will tell people what they feel, whether it’s good or bad. Yeah. So you are getting it no matter what.  Yeah. You go and you look at the construction site and ask around, and then you will get exactly the kind of general contractor you may be dealing with.  Yes. I mean, absolutely. We love to talk, and so you want people talking about good things and talking up your business and what’s happening in the field, and that’s extremely valuable. Okay, so step number one, brand awareness. We talked about that. Then supporting the team. Yes. So that they feel that they are growing and they are recognized as individuals, that you care about them. Yeah. Then the same goes with the trade partners. You support them even though they’re not your employees.  Yes.  What’s step four?  Yeah. Step four is training. Okay. And training, I think of training in terms of systems that you’re putting in place. Constant, never-ending improvement on those systems. Systems are not static, so training is a nonstop thing that we've got to continue investing in and keep helping to grow our team. So constant process improvement. Having KPIs in place, or metrics in place. And the reason for those metrics is simply where do we need to focus our attention? What levers do we need to pull? And then I go back to the training. So then we train up on metrics that maybe aren’t working the way that we want them to, or we’re not getting the result that we want to get out of them. That’s where the training really comes into place. And if we don't have that training in-house, what stuff outside of the company can we get them into? What type of training do they need to level them up? Because as I think about training, Steve, most of us think you’ve got to fit every box, you’ve got to be the perfect candidate. But you and I both know that I’m good at three out of the five things, and you’re good at two out of the five things. So we make a damn good team together. And that’s okay, and we need to better learn how to cross-train each other, level one another up, and then find those right tools.Share on X  Absolutely. Okay, so what’s the final piece of the flywheel?  Yeah. Well, I feel like if you're doing all these things, brand awareness, team support, trade partner support, and the right training, and you're doing this continuous basis, you're going to have customer satisfaction.Share on X That’s exactly what you want. You’re going to create that customer experience because look, at the end of the day, we’re only here because of the customer. If the customer’s not interested in buying my product, I don’t have a business. And so all of these pieces drive that customer experience. That’s what continues driving who I am. One thing I’m really focused on with customer satisfaction and experience is having good specifications written down. I think yes, we’re a custom home builder, but I have minimum standards that I want to achieve.  So I have the minimum standards. Now, if your budget says, “Hey, we can't quite reach that level,” well, we can certainly reduce our standard. And when I say reduce our standard, I don’t mean cut a corner. I mean change from, say, a Kohler faucet down to a Delta faucet. It’s still a great faucet. It’s still a great brand. Maybe just not the same brand that I would use at this level of home. Or we can go the complete opposite direction and elevate that standard. But just having that set in place, so that if I say, “Steve, this home's going to cost you $1.2 million,” and you're like, “Oh, great. Well, the other builder's $1.3 million, so you've got a better price,” okay, great. But what goes into the price? What are you getting for the price? So if I have those minimum standards baked in, I can tell you, This is what you're going to get for $1.2 million. Now we can go in and customize it and make it your home. Having clear expectations. How important are clear expectations even in our coaching business, right? And it’s not just clear expectations from me to you, it’s clear expectations from you to me. I need to understand what your expectations are. I need to know that I can achieve your expectations. And I think that if I believe I can’t, I need to be honest and say, look, I’m not the right builder for you. I’m not the right business for you. But here are..  Or maybe your expectations are not realistic. Sometimes, for the budget you have, you need to make some trade-offs. Maybe you can have this man cave, but you'll have to cut back on the kitchen, and you’ll have to discuss it with your wife. And that’s really key. So the thing that I love about being a custom builder is that my focus is on collaboration.Share on X If you say, “Hey Josh, the budget comes in at $1.2 million, but I really want to be at $1 million,” okay, great Steve. I’m here to collaborate with you and show you ways we can tweak things, pull this down, and future-proof your home. Because I want you to have the home that you want, and in two years you can probably afford that additional $200,000. I don't want to put you in a place where you can easily plug and play that versus oh, now I got to rip out all these walls. I got to redo this. It's not $200,000—it could be $300,000. So that’s where we can collaborate and really find the right pieces to put you in the best position.  That’s very interesting. This whole framework, the culture that you build here. Is this something that connects this whole framework, this idea that you have, how you’re projecting the culture out into the customer service? Is this why you started the McMahon Custom Homes?  It truly is. Well, two parts, Steve. One, I’m an entrepreneur at heart and I have fought this my entire life, and I’ve always thought there was something wrong with me. Why can’t I just get on board? Why can’t I just drink the Kool-Aid? Why can’t I just get in line? And two or three years I go into a company, I do great things, I start rebuilding things, and then I start to get that itch. And then I’m like, okay, I need to go somewhere else. And for a long time I thought it was, well, I’m just moving to a new company to make more money, which was true. I was making more money, but then I wasn’t happy. Again, it was never tied to the money, so it was really just that entrepreneur need. But the second piece was, I've noticed for ten years—a decade—that our industry is in need of a massive transformation. The antiquated way of doing business and how we do things. I think the builder suites and the stuff that we have at our disposal is really good, but it’s not what everybody’s looking for. But I couldn’t tell you, the owner, Hey, we’ve got to scrap this. We need to do this. Because ultimately, even as the integrator, my job is to bring your vision to life. And if this is part of your vision, then I need to bring this to life. And so I started to realize with my entrepreneur spirit and my own ideas, I needed to start developing my own home building business to start bringing some of that to life, to really satisfy who I am and do the things that I wanted.Share on X Yeah, this is so important because, as entrepreneurs, we have this frustration. We are somewhere and things are not going as well as you would like. And we don’t get to tell the boss how to do things because they have their own ideas and their own set ways, and then they just get irritated by all those ideas and they feel like we are just being disgruntled employees, and this frustration eats away at you. And at some point you say, okay, what the heck? I'm just going to rip the Band‑Aid off and try to figure it out, right? It’s very true. I mean, it’s funny now looking back on it because there were so many times where I just didn’t understand. I was like, “What the heck is the matter with me?” But you’re exactly right — you’re going to bang your head against the wall, and not everybody’s cut out to be an entrepreneur, right? I mean, it sounds really great being self-employed, doing your own thing, making your own hours. It sounds great.  But I tell you something, Josh, not everyone is cut out to be an employee either.  No doubt, Steve. So true.  So it’s the other side of the coin. I think many of us become entrepreneurs because we basically eliminate all the viable alternatives.  Yeah. Burn all the boats, right?  Yeah.  I think there’s so much value in this. The second time we really got introduced and got to work together, you introduced me to the book Second in Command by Cameron Herold. I’m a  Cameron Herold fan in the Second in Command book, and I read that book and I said, “Man, this is me. I can do this.” I love being more in the shadows, helping a visionary grow their business, and doing all that stuff. What happened was, I started to really enjoy being out there, networking, putting myself out, and getting in front of people.  And I was like, well, I’m a visionary. I can see what’s going on in the future. And I think I was more of a visionary than the person who said he was a visionary. So it was really like, then we’re clashing heads on which vision are we chasing. And I’m like, I got to get outta here because I’m steering you away from what you want to do, and that’s not fair to you.  I think there are two major types of visionaries. There are the born visionaries, and then there are the evolved visionaries. So you have the born visionary who is a visionary because they are just not able to execute, but they can come up with all the big ideas. And if they find people who can execute for them, they're in luck, and they might build a company. And then you have the evolved visionary who starts out doing the work, grinding, figuring things out, teaching themselves discipline and work ethic. And then they start to manage people because they’re doing it better, so they get more responsibility, and then they become an integrator or operator. And at some point, they want to come out of the cocoon and do it themselves. And maybe you’re that version of it, the evolved visionary.  You summed that up perfectly because that's exactly how this whole thing transpired.  Love it. So tell me about, what makes McMahon Custom Homes unique? Beyond the culture—is it the culture that makes you unique, or is there something else? From the eyes of the customer, what makes you unique?  I don’t know that it’s our culture that makes us unique. I think what really makes us unique is our process—how we do things. We start everything with an initial consultation, just myself meeting with the homebuyers. Typically, it's a virtual meeting where I want to learn more about your project. I’m interested in what you want to build, what your expectations are, what your non-negotiables are, and I just really explore everything under the sun about your project.  Then I'm going to ask the dreaded question: what's your ideal budget? Most—or a lot of—people say, “You know what, I don't want to give the budget. So I'll say, “Okay, what budget number scares you?” Because as a custom home builder, I’m going to help you design the home that you want for the price that you want. But I’m going to also share with you if it’s not possible. If you have a home design that's more than what your budget is, I'm going to share that with you in real time, as soon as I can. So I'm very transparent. And I learned this from working in my past, where we wouldn't share those numbers with clients. We had a client where we were a million dollars over their ideal budget. It was six to eight months of working with them and about $25,000 in actual costs. I don't need to tell you—the homeowner was not pleased, and the homeowner did not pay that bill.  So that was a major lost opportunity in the build, but also the opportunity cost and how much time we spent on it. I learned from that and said, “Hey, I don't want to do that. I don't need every buyer to be a yes. If I'm a good fit for you, and I'm a good builder for you, great—let's go.Share on X I want to build your house. I’m excited about building homes for people. But I don't need to build everybody's house, because for some people, it's just not the right fit. So for me, I'm your guide in this process. And that's what I really pride myself in. You want to build a home, I’m going to guide you through this process, help you with each step of the way. Help you with the county side, the field side. I’m here to guide you through that whole thing. We really work towards your budget, your ideal budget. We build it out. We’re very transparent. A lot of clarity on what we’re doing, where we can collaborate, where we can maybe say, Hey, instead of $80,000 tile package, we can get a $45,000 tile package. Because we’re really looking for what’s your vision for it.  Yeah.  What do you want to see? How do you want to feel? And we can help you pull that together.  Yeah, I think that’s very interesting, because I can see that there is value being created when you have an empathetic CEO who runs the business. You, in that case, who really gets to feel what the lifestyle of the individual is, what their vision is. You help them paint the picture so that you see it as well, and then you measure each element in proportion to their desires. Because maybe they want something like a really flashy countertop in the kitchen, but they really don’t care about what the deck is going to look like. Maybe it’s a stup*d example. And when someone buys, I don’t know, a standard home, then you are going to pay for stuff that you really don’t care about, and you are not going to get the stuff that uniquely is important to you. And with that approach that you’re doing, you are measuring everything to the right degree, and it’s going to be a perfectly balanced meal for the customer. That’s a great way of looking at it. That’s exactly right. And the deck versus man cave or versus this, that’s exactly the right way to look at it. A deck is a great add-on. It can be done anytime in the build. It can be done anytime. It's a minimal barrier to entry. Well, something on the inside of the house, the kitchen, the showstopper kitchen, that’s a different story, right? Because now you're impacting your life. You’re changing things. If we understand that the kitchen is a really prime target, then we want to make sure we commit enough money to that area. We want to make sure we commit enough design hours to that area. And maybe other areas are like, “Hey, minimum standard's great with us.” Perfect. Done.  Yeah. We only sleep in the bedroom, we don’t do anything else.  Exactly. Great point.  Which is a problem in itself. Anyhow, if someone would like to learn more and maybe learn your ideas—maybe they want to be coached by you, or they want to learn about McMahon Custom Homes, what it takes to align with your vision—and particularly if they're in Central Virginia where you work, where should they reach out and where can they find you? Yeah, so several different places. McMahonCustomHomesLLC.com is our website, so you can certainly find us there. We have an active Instagram account, McMahon Custom Homes. I have an active Facebook account, again, McMahon Custom Homes. I do have a LinkedIn account, McMahon Custom Homes, LLC. Also for myself, my wife and I host a bi-monthly podcast. We took a year hiatus, and we just started again in 2026. Our podcast is not on McMahon Custom Homes, but it's really about the construction industry, different things that you experience, and really just giving back and trying to help others learn from maybe stuff that we did or things that we’re experiencing. My wife is a designer. I'm the home builder, so you kind of get a good mixed bag. And that's Feed Me Your Construction Content, if you're ever interested in tuning into that.  Yeah. And if you would like to see what a collaboration between Josh and his wife looks like, then check out his website,  McMahon Custom Homes. You can check out his house, or their house, that they built together. And it’s a beautiful house.  Yeah. Thank you.  It's a good place to start. Josh, loved it. I loved your content. Really interesting how you created the Satisfaction Pyramid in construction. I think that parallel applies to other businesses as well. Obviously, the elements are slightly different, but brand awareness, supporting the team, supporting your partners, training your people, pouring into them, and then creating that customer satisfaction are important in any industry. So thank you. If you enjoyed listening to this show, make sure you follow us on LinkedIn and on YouTube. And stay tuned, because every week I bring an exciting entrepreneur or thought leader on this show. Thank you for coming, Josh, and thanks for listening. Important Links: Josh's LinkedIn McMahon Custom Homes website McMahon Custom Homes LinkedIn

Dr. Deb Muth 0:03Welcome back to let’s Talk Wellness. Now, I’m your host, Dr. Deb. If you’re a woman who’s doing everything right, eating clean, exercising, taking supplements, yet you still feel exhausted, inflamed, or like your body suddenly stopped cooperating, this episode is for you. Today’s conversation challenges one of the biggest myths in women’s health. That midlife struggles are just about hormones or worse, just part of aging. My guest today is Dr. Deb Heald, a naturopathic physician with one of the most fascinating backgrounds I’ve ever encountered. Yeah, she’s got a really diverse background, which is kind of exciting. She’s been an ER nurse, a stockbroker, a Silicon Valley data analysis, teaching machines to learn from microbiome research. And yes, she holds an mba, too. But it was her own menopause crash that changed everything. When the protocols she had been teaching stopped working for her, her, she didn’t double down on templates or trends. She did what she was trained to do. She followed the data and what she discovered reframed menopause, metabolism and women’s longevity in a completely different way. This isn’t about willpower. It’s not about another diet, and it’s definitely not about copying what worked for someone else. It’s about learning to listen to your body and finally understanding what it’s been trying to tell you and all along. So grab your cup of coffee or tea, settle in, and let’s dive into this amazing conversation about women’s health and menopause. And right after our guest is arriving with us, we’re going to get a word from our sponsor quick here. And then we are going to come right back to having this conversation with Dr. Deb Heald. Ladies, it’s time to reignite your vitality. Primal Queen supplements are clean, powerful formulas made for women like you who want balance, strength, and energy that lasts. Get 25% off@primal queen.com Serenity Health. Because every queen deserves to feel in her prime. But okay. All right. Welcome back, everybody. I am here with my new friend, Dr. Deb Heald. And she has such an amazing background, like I shared with you a few minutes ago. But I would love for her to give us her insight in how she got where she did, because it’s rare that you find somebody with a data background and a medical background. So, Dr. Dove, welcome. Dr Deb Heald 2:30Thank you. I am so glad to be here, and it’s a real privilege to meet you. Dr. Deb Muth 2:34I feel the same way. Dr Deb Heald 2:35Yeah, it’s. I think that the more of us that start to think and practice this way, the easier it’s going to be for women going forward. Because it’s not easy. Dr. Deb Muth 2:44It is not easy. I mean, I’ve been in this industry a long time, over 25 years. And every time I think it’s getting easy, it’s getting harder for a variety of reasons. It’s the medical system, it’s the. The clients we work with are sicker. It’s taking longer to get them to a place where they feel good. There’s just so many variables these days. So tell me a little bit about what got you here. Dr Deb Heald 3:06Well, I made the decision when I was graduating from high school to be a nurse instead of a teacher, because those were really still the two options that were common for women. I thought about medicine at that point, but my sister convinced me that if I would spend all that time learning and practicing medicine, I might not be as good of a mom. So I took the path of nurse, because nurse works around kids schedules and that sort of thing. I’d only been practicing about six months before I thought, oh my gosh, there has to be more to it than this, and toyed with the idea of starting med school at that point, but then married and started having children, and I just sort of fell into that pattern. But I typically work emergency room. There was a short stent in the post anesthesia recovery room as well. And emergency room was a place where western medicine actually shone. Right. People come in, they are no longer capable of functioning, they’re having a heart attack, they lost limb. Whatever else, they do need the, the bells and the whistles of western medicine. But when you think about it, western medicine was derived out of the Civil War where you didn’t have to say what’s the cause of the problem. It was a bullet or a bayonet, and it was, it was about patching up the soldiers and getting them back on the front line so they could continue to fight. And naturopathic medicine, which had been a lot around for an awful lot longer than that, just didn’t work in the battlefield then. The assessment was done in the early 1900s as to which style of medicine got people back to work faster. The Flexner report was all about how corporations could maximize the value of employees. And naturopathic medicine didn’t win because nutritional fixes take a long time. Taking away somebody’s stress so that they can just function more capably is. It’s a, It’s a big ask, right? So the funding of naturopathic medicine went away and western medicine became all that we knew. So in context to the emergency room, it worked. But when I saw the same person coming in, having their third heart attack, I just thought, how is this happening? Has no one told this person what, what’s going on in their lifestyle that’s creating this environment for them to continue to have heart attacks? And so that’s when I made the switch. And that was after 17 years in practice as a nurse to head on over to the naturopathic side. There was a little bit of a, a segue there, but we’d need a much longer interview to get into the details of that. I was a stock broker for six years. Anyway, when I jumped into the idea of med school, it didn’t make sense to be practicing the same thing that was already being practiced because I saw where it worked and I saw where it was failing. So hopped into the naturopathic tract. I also had one child that had a lot of physical and emotional ailments that western medicine couldn’t solve. Their answer to everything was putting her on amoxicillin. And I, I just absolutely could not convince the medical system that she didn’t have a deficiency of antibiotics, but that was their only solution. And so while she was on the antibiotics, her sinuses were clear, her sleep apnea was not an issue, and she appeared better, but her microbiome got decimated. She was on antibiotics for seven years. So, yeah, so my pursuit down the naturopathic pathway was in large part to try and figure out what else could be done for my daughter. And I did take her to a naturopath or I embarked on the field myself. And her GP threatened to call social services. Oh my gosh, yes. Dr. Deb Muth 6:22You hear these stories, I’ve heard these stories from clients before over really dumb things that they’re going to call CPS for. And it always blows my mind that we think it’s appropriate to call CPS on somebody who’s truly not injuring their child. Dr Deb Heald 6:38So anyway, that started my 17 year path in the naturopathic realm. And after, after I’ve been in practice about 10 years, an opportunity came up to move to Silicon Valley and research the microbiome and then take what we were learning from the microbiome and program it into AI. So I did that for a few years and it was amazing. There was a huge disconnect between the funding model and what its expectations were and what the research was able to do. There was a time gap, there was a funding gap. And so I thought, medicine doesn’t understand what’s important to business. And Business isn’t understanding what’s critical to research. So I went and did my MBA and wanted to be able to be the translator between those two worlds. And then the pandemic hit and then. Dr. Deb Muth 7:24Everyone’S life got turned upside down, right? Dr Deb Heald 7:26Yeah. Yeah. So I’m back in private practice. My, my practice always tended to be more autoimmune focused, which is predominantly women and predominantly middle aged women. But through my own experience of menopause and looking at how I assisted people that were in menopause before I was, you know, that the success rate wasn’t as high as it needed to be. And I started to really drill down into the biochemistry behind what was going on and then also realized that my menopause was very different than even my sister’s menopause. There we were, the same genetic template, the same lived environment, though very different lived experiences in that environment. And realized that we have to find ways to make it relevant to the person in front of us. And it’s not so much which herbs will or won’t work historically, it’s how is this person’s body responding in the immediate term to the diet we’ve put them on, to the nutritional plan we’ve suggested to the supplements, and because we’ve come so far in the data world, our whoop straps or aura rings or whatever else, there’s so many devices that are actually able to let us know whether somebody’s burning carbs or fat in this moment or ketones. We can see how an individual’s body is responding and course correct right now. And it isn’t that a ketogenic diet may not be helpful down the road. It’s right now it’s actually putting more stress on your body than it’s already under, which puts you into fight flight, which stops you from burning fat. So, and it’s not just the burning fat, it’s the inflammation. Right. So our food is completely void of nutrients. And we used to have 24 inches of topsoil, now we’ve got, so who’s eating four times the number of vegetables that we, we used to eat to get the same number of nutrients? We’re just not. And our environment is so full of plastic and chlorine molecules and just toxins that our liver says, I have no idea what that is, I have no idea how to detoxify it. And we can’t, we can’t clean the air around us. We can put air filters in our homes and try not to live under pulp mills. But the world is just becoming a Much more aggressive place to live. Dr. Deb Muth 9:33So it definitely is. I mean from the time that you and I grew up to the time that we have now, we have over 75,000 new chemical in just that short period of time. And honestly, as you and I both know, these chemicals have never been tested for this long term use or the way we’re using it, or how much we’re using them or exposing them to our kids that’s never been tested to see how safe they truly are. Dr Deb Heald 10:01I have to apologize to my children and all of the children of that generation. We use latex baby bottles that were plastic line and we linked them up in the microwave. So the wave of endocrine disruption that’s coming at us from practice feeding our infants plastic, it’s a different world. And so we have to approach it just in a completely different way. And you know, menopause shouldn’t be a disease or a state of dis ease, but it is because we’re so depleted. And women used to have predictable stresses and now because most of us are working outside of the home, many are have children that have, how do I want to put this confounders. The number of kids that are neurodiverse and the, the ext work that that creates in a household is unbelievable. So moms typically carrying most of that and then all the guilt that goes with it because moms do guilt, our nervous systems are completely fry, right? So we’re in a constant state of low level fight flight and it changes every single other biochemical process in our body. So when we hit the hormone depletion of menopause, every organ system is profoundly affected. And then we do see more autoimmune diseases cropping up. We do see more inflammatory conditions turning into organ systems not working. And the medical system is. I don’t, I hate to say this, but it’s decades from being able to figure this out. So in the immediate term, what can we do for every woman out there and, and help surround them with community? That’s the other thing that’s really missing. How often do we go next door and have tea or coffee with our neighbors? Dr. Deb Muth 11:41You don’t anymore? Dr Deb Heald 11:42No. So where’s the community supporting you? Dr. Deb Muth 11:45You don’t have one unless it’s online. And then if it’s online, you know how that goes. You can have some support and you can have not support and you can have people be really rude to you. But that support is not the same as having the neighbor next door that you can call on that you can go over and just get out of your house for a few moments and have somebody truly support you. And, and I think back in the day that’s what women did, women supported women. And today there’s so much competition that women are no longer supporting each other. We’re many times tearing women down and judging them and accusing them of doing things that aren’t right for their career, their family, their husband, their this, their that. It could go any way or any shape, but we’ve stopped supporting women in the decisions that they make, whether it’s to be at home or to work or do both or to not have children or to have children. We were just chatting earlier before we came on about having children late in life. That support is completely gone, at least from what I’ve been seeing and hearing, hearing in my practice and what I’m seeing around me. Dr Deb Heald 12:48So another form of depletion. Right. So right. Deplete. Our, our society is. And it’s a wonder we’re upright at all. And all of the other pressures that we take on. We’ve just come through the holiday season and having to have the holidays just so, so that everybody else thinks we’re doing a good job. So our family is enjoying themselves at the cost of our sanity. And the shame that goes with feeling like you’re not enough. Dr. Deb Muth 13:14Yeah. And for your family and your kids to just be like, I don’. Time to come, I don’t have time to do this. I, I hear this every day. You know, families that women mostly that are creating these beautiful experiences for their kids and their relatives. And then at the last minute you have one that calls and says I can’t come and another one that calls and says I have to go to my in laws or I have to go here, I have to go there. And then again we go back to this guilt of what did I do wrong as a woman, as a mother, to not have everybody be with me for the holidays. And I’ve worked so hard to create this environment, beautiful experience for them, for nobody to care but me. Dr Deb Heald 13:53Yes. Dr. Deb Muth 13:53And then that just depletes us more. Dr Deb Heald 13:55So, and then, and then you hit the, your breaking point and you go see your doctor who first of all doesn’t, doesn’t have the time. And I, I can’t call doctors practicing in the world today because you might be scheduled for 15 minutes, but they’re running late. I, I knew a physician quite well who in the wintertime was so busy in Canada with cold and flus, he’d see a hundred people a day. Yeah. So Sitting in front of him, trying to say, so devastated inside because of this happening or that happening. They, they don’t have or take the time to address what’s really going on there. So the number of times people say to me, you’re the first person that has actually sat and listened to me. Dr. Deb Muth 14:36And yeah, I get that same thing. And that’s, that’s part of what natural medicine is. How do you get to know somebody and understand what’s happening to them if you don’t hear their stories? Dr Deb Heald 14:45Agreed. So it’s, it’s a tricky world for women to navigate, so we have to be here for each other. And where I’m sitting right now in practice is literally just helping women replete themselves and looking at the different organ systems or the organelles within the systems that, that being supplied with what they need. And where do we start with this woman? You know, it’s not everybody that needs to have their GI tract optimized first, though. That’s a pretty common one for a lot of women that feel like they’re going out of their minds. We have to start with brain. But everything we do to, to make the environment better for the brain function also makes everything better for the cardiac function and the muscle function. But it’s, it’s just so misunderstood. And then when we get into the, the metabolism, which is where most women end up coming in, is, why am I gaining weight? Right. And so the weight is the physical manifestation that finally breaks them. But what caused them to be gaining weight is also impacting their brain and their heart and their liver and their, their entire system. It’s just, that’s the thing that finally made them come and get help. But when we look at how metabolism comes to a screeching halt in menopause, it’s a wonder that we can carry on at all. Dr. Deb Muth 16:00Yeah. So at what age do you think women should start paying attention to their situation, to their data, and not just their symptoms? Dr Deb Heald 16:0830 way, way, way before you hit menopause, let’s have a strong baseline. Let’s see what’s happening in your early adult life that is putting you into a state that right now you’ve got the tolerance to fix, but over a longer period of time is going to lead to inflammation and dysfunction. And I’m seeing my nieces actually start to pay attention and my daughter to, to their health in a different way. And I think the wearables have a huge amount to do with that. Right. So if you went out last night and celebrated and you’re paying any Attention to a recovery score. And you see that that fourth tequila took three days for you to recover from. Maybe next time don’t have four. Yeah, right. Dr. Deb Muth 16:58One or two, Right? Yeah. Dr Deb Heald 17:00Yeah. Lack of sleep. How does that actually impact you? For how many days? Something that is not. Not the best choice, though. If you’re eating well, 80% of the time, you’re way ahead of the curve. But when you. When you eat something that upsets your system, you can know that right now, literally, if you’re watching heart rate and you eat something that’s inflammatory to you, your heart rate will go up by six or seven beats a minute almost immediately. And that’s a little thing saying your immune system just kicked in. Is this the right thing for you to eat? So the. The more people pay attention without obsessing, and especially on the food thing, I don’t want to create disordered eating for people, but getting to know your body, getting to know its tolerance, and then as women start to have children, how did those tolerances change? Well, they’ll change profoundly because your sleep just disappeared. Yeah, right. If nothing. Dr. Deb Muth 17:54And your hormones changed and everything else is different. And I think that’s a really great point about the wearables. Like, people can get really obsessed with that data, but I don’t think people really understand how to use the data appropriately. You know, like, if you’re eating something that you don’t normally eat or you’re eating something that you know is somewhat inflammatory, you know, it’s the holidays. I’m gonna have some chips. I’m gonna have, you know, some cheese. I’m gonna have some nuts. I’m gonna have a variety of things. That’s really where you want to check your data, right? You know, your. You’re doing something that’s outside of the norm. And we all kind of know, like, I’m puffier, I’m swollen, my brain’s a little foggy. Maybe I have more pain. That’s the time you really want to tune in and say what’s happening? And then start tracking that. Draw the line so that, you know, like, this is the food that bothers me. Because sometimes it can be a healthy food. It doesn’t always have to be a bad food. You know, it can be a healthy food. I have patients that are allergic to lettuce, and they wonder why they’re gaining weight when they’re dieting, and all they’re doing is eating salad. Salads, and you find out they have an allergy to lettuce, and they take that out and their weight goes right back to normal. So it doesn’t have to necessarily always be a bad thing. But using that data appropriately could really make a huge difference. Dr Deb Heald 19:07And making informed choices. Dr. Deb Muth 19:08Yeah. Dr Deb Heald 19:09I was born with a dairy allergy. One of the proteins in milk. And so, and gosh, in the, in the early 60s there weren’t options for formulas that weren’t dairy based. So I was raised on evaporated milk because the heating process in evaporating the, the fluid out of the milk broke down this particular protein. So how I don’t have diabetes, I do not know. But I will elect sometimes to eat Manchego cheese and I know that tomorrow I’m going to pay for it. But I’m making an informed decision today to do it or I’m making an informed decision today. Not. Yeah, right. And so giving people the power, I think the data is power when you know how to use it. And so when women have pregnancies later in their reproductive cycle, seeing how fast that pregnancy taxation on hormones and then the, when the pregnancy concludes and the hormones fall through the floor, I have seen so many women whose ovaries never recover, they start perimenopause literally in that postpartum period. And so knowing that and making sure that you are getting, you know, the sleep that you need, making sleep kind of your, your one non negotiable. There are other things that you’ll sacrifice instead. But maybe sleep’s the most important thing to you or maybe your, your nutrition’s the most important thing. And the wearables will help you determine where you’ve got that play and where you don’t. And so making sure at a much younger age that you’re building muscle mass. We get a lot away for a really long time with being skinny fat. So we look little and everybody assumes, we assume that we’re in shape, but we’re not consciously developing the muscle mass. And for women that’s critical because when our hormones turn off and our metabolism slows down for all of the reasons that it does, the only thing that’s going to drive your metabolism in a non estrogen environment are chemicals that made in muscles. And without the muscle mass, your metabolism will stay slow. Without the muscle mass, you’re not going to have the strength to prevent falls. So if you think at 55 you can start to build muscles, it’s a really big ask. Dr. Deb Muth 21:26Yeah, it’s tough. Dr Deb Heald 21:28And testosterone is the hormone that we need to build muscle mass. And through menopause and postmenopausally most of our Testosterone is getting converted to estrogen. So starting at that point, it’s just too late. So once again, let’s go back to the 30 year old and what are you doing on a regular basis to build and maintain muscle? Dr. Deb Muth 21:49Yeah, when you’re in your prime is when we should be looking at these things. We shouldn’t be waiting until our health and our life age is declining to all of a sudden say, okay, now I’ve got to biohack my way back to being 30 at 50 or 60, because A, it’s much harder to do and B, for a lot of women you don’t ever do it correctly and so you’re trying to mimic that time frame, but it’s, it’s a major challenge for sure. Dr Deb Heald 22:15And then back to these kids that we fed plastic from day one. What are their menopause is going to be like? Because the, all that plastic will disrupt their estrogen receptors and we don’t know what impact it’s having on ovaries directly. The stronger that they can be, the more nourished they can be before their menopause starts, the further ahead they’re going to be. So this isn’t, it’s not just really targeting women that are 45 and older. It’s literally all women really need to be taking it into their own hands because the medical system, like I said so far, is not. And I’m not sure when they will. But we don’t have to wait for the medical system. There are things we can do every single day that are going to help us stay in control of our, our health. I can tell you that. Health span. Dr. Deb Muth 23:02Health span, Correct. And I, I see a lot of young people and there is maybe one out of ten of the young people that I see that have normal hormone levels for their age. I start testing hormones on young women and men around 20, unless there’s a need to do it sooner. But I want to see what they are at their peak. And I have men, young men in their 20s and 30s that have a testosterone level of 100 to 300, when they should be closer to 800, 900. I have young women who can’t peak an estrogen above 50 at 20, when in mid cycle when they should be closer to 100, 150, they’re making no progesterone, they’re making minimal to no testosterone for women. And so when we ask what has this environment done to those young women and men that we have, it’s completely destroyed their hormonal function. They are not at peace and then we wonder why they sit around and have no motivation or drive. I have young men in their 20s with no sex drive. They’re just kind of asexual beings. They don’t even look at a woman and get excited. Women don’t look at men and get excited. There’s none of that that’s happening because they’re lacking these hormones that allow them to do that. And then we wonder what is that going to do to them at menopause? Well, what is it doing to them now? You know, it is creating damage. Those hormones are necessary for cognitive function and bone health and cardiovascular health and all of that. And we’re not asking the right questions, I’m afraid. Dr Deb Heald 24:29Yeah. And, and even if we can see that the gonads are producing the hormones, what’s going on on the cellular membrane level with all those pollutants that the cell can’t absorb them? Dr. Deb Muth 24:43Right. Dr Deb Heald 24:43So anyway. What a mess. Dr. Deb Muth 24:45Yeah, it is. Dr Deb Heald 24:45And, and here’s the thing is it boils down to the naturopathic principles. Improve food, how can we improve sleep, how can we help people manage stress more effectively and, and encourage people to be exercising. I mean, this stuff is gold. Yeah. Dr. Deb Muth 25:01And it’s things that you could do very simply. We don’t, you don’t need to build a, you know, ten thousand dollar gym in your basement to do this. There are ways that you can do this very easily for no cost at home. You just need to get the motivation and the drive and understand how to do it. Dr Deb Heald 25:17Yes. And with the resistance bands that are absolutely available everywhere, even if you’re traveling, you can throw a band in your suitcase and do just the tiniest little bit of muscle reinforcement while you’re away. Dr. Deb Muth 25:32It’s so much simpler than we think. We make it very complicated. Dr Deb Heald 25:35But then also the thing that’s missing when you’re doing it at home can be that motivation. So how do we make this important enough that it’s, it is non negotiable for people? They wake up and they do, they woke, woke up a little bit late. So today Maybe they do 10 minutes, not 20, but just be doing something. Right. Dr. Deb Muth 25:54Yeah. You got to get moving it, you know, sitting around on the couch isn’t moving. You know, you have to get up, you have to move. Even if you’re sitting at your desk and you get a little bike thing underneath your desk that you can put into pedal, you know, you’re moving. It’s not weight bearing, but you’re moving. And that weight bearing exercise is so important to Us. Dr Deb Heald 26:17How does this become something that’s sexy? Dr. Deb Muth 26:21Yeah, that’s what we need to make it right. Dr Deb Heald 26:24Yes. Even, even in the realm of food, when people decide to go onto an exclusionary eating plan, so they’re, they’re going to go keto. So excluding anything that is carbohydrate based in their diet, there are a few people healthy enough to do that and they generally can do it healthfully for a short period of time. But to stay on that type of diet for a long time, that’s where I love the wearables. It’s sort of like the same thing when people are vegetarian or vegan, it’s very, very hard. It has to be a very conscious process to stay healthy as a vegetarian or a vegan. Because your liver has so many things to do. It has 500 functions that it carries on at all moments every day. And when you eliminate animal protein, you’re now also asking it to manufacture other protein and amino acid sequences on top of everything else it’s going to do. So when you make a decision like that, what are you going to eliminate from your world to take some of the burden off of your liver so it has the capacity to do extra work and you have to do these negotiations or you just end up being depleted. But the communities that are vegetarian or vegan to a greater degree and keto to a greater degree have support. You can join all sorts of online groups for people that are following these restrictive type of diet. Being an omnivore, which is eating not bread but carbohydrate in the form of vegetables and fruits, and getting some animal protein, some plant based protein, healthy fats, not the processed fats. There’s no support group for being an omnivore. Dr. Deb Muth 28:05No, there’s that. Dr Deb Heald 28:07So it isn’t one that people are going to opt into necessarily. Because who’s going to support you through your healthy eating choices? Dr. Deb Muth 28:15What are some of the biggest advancements you’re seeing right now in whole body healing that actually move the needle for us that just aren’t fancy trends but actually work? Dr Deb Heald 28:25It’s back to that individual monitoring of what’s going on. So for women that want to lose weight and go on a calorie restricted or carbohydrate restricted diet and they are deciding that they’re going to exercise at the same time. If you are in a rested state, when you go to sleep, your body will burn from fat. In the rested state, if you’re in a stressed state, it needs carbohydrate, it needs Instant energy, right? To. To break down fat into a usable fuel. Takes the liver about eight steps to burn carbohydrate. It’s instant. So when you’re stressed, you’ll burn carbs. When you’re resting or relaxed, you’ll burn fat. But if somebody goes to bed in a stressed state, they opened an email that annoyed them. They are wondering why their child came home late again. Whatever. You go to bed in a stress state, you’ll burn carbs all night long. You wake up in the morning already in a stress state. You decide you’re going to exercise in a fasted state because somehow it got imprinted in our head that you’re supposed to be fasting when you exercise to get the best benefit, and you decide to do intervals, which are a huge stress on your body, an intentional stress on your body. You’re already stressed. Stress. How much fat are you going to burn in that process? None. None. Dr. Deb Muth 29:45And you don’t have any carbs left to burn. Dr Deb Heald 29:48Right. So guess what you burn now? Muscle. Dr. Deb Muth 29:50Muscle. Dr Deb Heald 29:51So here we are working out to try and build muscle, but instead we’re breaking muscle down. So if people can use the biometric data to say, I’m in a stress state, and I know that because my heart rate is higher, or I’m using a device that can actually show how much carbon dioxide I’m exhaling. So if you’re exhaling a lot of carbon dioxide, it means you’re burning carbs. You don’t exhale carbon. You don’t need to exhale carbon dioxide if you’re burning fat as your energy store, it’s not a byproduct of fat. So if you’re already in a stress state, you can either change the type of exercise that you want to do today, so doing more of an endurance exercise, or you can eat and then do your concept. Dr. Deb Muth 30:31What. Dr Deb Heald 30:32So that’s where I’m seeing the improvement is when people are actually starting to collect their data and I interpret it for them until they can start to make those. Those correlations themselves. What. What do I need to eat right now? What do I need? What type of exercise do I need to do right now? And in everybody’s day, there is an ideal time for them to eat carbs. But for a great number of women through Perry and postmenopause that eat carbohydrates, in the evening, they get these big sugar spikes or from eating the carbs, blood sugar. And then about the time they’re going to bed, maybe an hour or two after they go to bed, their blood sugar drops and their body thinks, oh my gosh, we’re starving and it goes into a stressed state. So all night long from that point on, they’re breaking down muscle to create carbohydrate energy so that their stress system can be satisfied that they’re not starving to death. So it’s, it’s not that they can’t eat carbs, it’s that eating them in the evening is putting their body into a stressed state. But at lunchtime it might be fine. And it isn’t even eliminating every single simple carbohydrate or every, I’m going to say treat. We are a reward based society, so the treats are a thing. But maybe it means that if you want to have something sweet after a meal, you do that at lunch and your data will tell you, personally, I would eat, I’m going to call it healthy snacks in the evening mostly because I was bored, certainly not because I was in a starvation state and I started paying attention to my own data and I don’t snack in the evening anymore because it throws my sleep completely off track and it puts me into that stressed, burning carbs all night state. And it’s completely contradictory to my health plan going forward. My parents were, my dad was very long lived, he lived to 93. My mom passed at 84. But I have to say I don’t want the last 15 years of life that either of them had. Just. Yeah, at one point I think my mom thought the family vehicle had flashing red lights on the top of it because she was in an ambulance so often. So I don’t want that. And if I’m doing something that on a routine basis, this is confounding my plan for health span, I have to revisit that. I have to say to myself, you said that you’re, you know, maintaining your health is more important than maintaining your length of life. Look at what you’re doing to your body every single time you eat in the evening. Dr. Deb Muth 33:08If you had to choose one data point that really made the difference for people with a wearable or a device that completely changed how you understood menopause and all of this eating pattern, what would it be through the, through the data lens? Dr Deb Heald 33:22Heart rate variability. Yeah. And so that’s. And certain devices, well, a lot of devices measure it. Some of them are more meticulous with what time frame they’re capturing the variation in heart rate. And I guess for the listeners, we should talk about what heart rate variability is. If your heart rate is beating 72 times a minute, which used to be considered the norm. If you’re in a stressed state, if your sympathetic nervous system or your adrenaline nervous system is driving the bus, every single heartbeat in that minute will be the exact same distance between the beats. When you’re in a relaxed state, it still might be beating at 72 times a minute, but one beat might come a little bit earlier, the next one a little bit later, and there’s more variation between the time between the heartbeats. And that shows that you’re in a relaxed or adapting state. When we’re in fight flight, we’ve got one mission and that’s just staying alive. When we’re in that rest digest, it’s like if it’s a little bit slow, it doesn’t matter because I’ll just speed the next one up. And we’ve got the ability to adapt second to second. So if we are measuring heart rate variability in somebody and in it’s low, it means that they’re in that stressed nervous system state more of the time. And it causes you to burn carb more often than fat, even though fat’s a much better energy store. And the byproducts of carbohydrate combustion cause free radical stress to our body oxidation and inflame organ systems. So the more time we can spend not in fighting flight, the more healthy we will be. And so if you’re using some devices, they’re measuring your heart rate variability through a 24 hour period. So when you are in the peak of your stressed state, your heart rate variability will be little. And then when you’re in a relaxed state, it will be more. And on a 24 hour scale, it looks like you’ve got more heart rate variability. Some of the devices narrow it down to measuring your heart rate variability in the first five minutes after you come out of deep sleep. So there’s way less variability in that number. So the number will be lower than a 24 hour measure, but it’s more accurate. And so I like to, I like to narrow it down to that. But if somebody’s using a device that does it the other way, let’s just compare apples with apples. And so if your heart rate variability is improving, it’s improving. Dr. Deb Muth 35:58So that’s awesome. And that’s an easy thing to be able to measure for people. Dr Deb Heald 36:02It’s on most watches that are measuring biometrics and it’s definitely on the rings and the bands and all of the things. So just working to improve that. And if you’ve had your heart rate variability at a certain level. And then today it’s much lower. Literally just do that process in your head. What was different about yesterday? Oh, I lost my job or I ate from a buffet or whatever it is. And then the next time it has that same fall, see if the trigger for it correlated. And it’s literally just teaching us to pay attention to when our body’s in a state of stress because we’re so used to it that we don’t know anymore. The body’s screaming at us, but we’ve just become so numb to the changes to our body that we think it’s normal. Dr. Deb Muth 36:58Right. Because most of us, let’s realistically are walking out around in a State of Stress 24, 7. The only time you’re at quote, unquote rest is when you’re sleeping, if you’re lucky enough to be doing that. But we think we are because we’re not conscious anymore. And we think our body’s resting, but it may not be. Dr Deb Heald 37:17That’s right. So we are in a state of unconsciousness. But if, if we are burning carbohydrate while we’re sleeping, we are not getting into that restorative state, which means your liver is being distracted and isn’t able to do its peak detox at night. Here’s the thing. Our body is supposed to make cholesterol for us between 1am and 4am and if we’re in a stress state, the mechanism that limits the time that the body manufactures cholesterol to those three hours, that mechanism gets turned off. Off. So the body now manufactures cholesterol 24 hours a day. Oops. Dr. Deb Muth 37:53We wonder why it’s always high. Dr Deb Heald 37:55So, and, and it has everything to do with not getting into restorative sleep. So why are we getting into restorative sleep? Dr. Deb Muth 38:02Right. Well, because we’re constantly stressed and we’re not eating properly. Dr Deb Heald 38:06There we go. So we’re back to sleep and food and exercise and stress management. Dr. Deb Muth 38:11Yeah. Is there an easy way for people to. To pull their data out of their devices that they can look at it as a picture so that they can kind of see maybe the last week or the last two weeks and really start to dig in and see what that data means? Dr Deb Heald 38:29Yes. Almost all wearables now have an app attached to them. So when they know where to go to find the data, it will almost always, in an app, pull it up. But what I’m seeing now is almost all the wearables have some type of AI integration where you can literally, on the app, type in, please show Me, my heart rate variability over the last two weeks. And it’ll just populate on the app a graph. What we’re doing with biometric data and the science and the availability of analysis of that data is mind blowing. I think it could be more effective at improving people’s health than anything that we’re going to see happen in a hospital or in a pharmaceutical company’s research lab. Dr. Deb Muth 39:12Yeah, I think AI has a lot of great benefits in the medical world like this. Compiling data, looking at data over a period of time. We all know, you and I both, we’ve done research. You know, how long it takes to comb through the research and to find things and to try to put it all together. And when AI can be used to help us hack that in a shorter period of time, we are going to make new discoveries so much faster that are going to help people in ways that we’ve never seen before. Dr Deb Heald 39:46It’s the perfect indication for AI. And even when I was working with it back in 2017, oh my gosh, it was just barely an embryo back then. And the whole premise behind it was we still need the, the clinical brains, yes, to point out the relevance of the data, but the AI can take care of all of the mundane stuff that none of us like doing anyway, and it can do it instantaneously. And at this point, we still need the clinicians to show where that’s relevant. Dr. Deb Muth 40:19We started using AI this last year to look at our own data. I have data going back almost 25 years of patients that we’ve seen and protocols that we’ve done. And we wanted to see, of all the protocols that we’ve used over the years, which ones actually worked compared to those that didn’t and how much better outcome and how quickly, because we wanted to see, can we make our protocols better and which ones just should we be abandoning that just are not working for the majority of the people. And we started combing our data and it’s been incredible because it’s easy for us, us to, to see the client and think, gosh, this is working, and so I’ll use it on this person and this person and this person. But then you lose sight of those little intricacies of, well, it worked on this person at this age, but it didn’t work on this person who had this or they didn’t have the combination of these two things. And now we’re being able to see all of that so that we can get people better, faster just by simply knowing the data. Dr Deb Heald 41:20Well, and it isn’t Even so much protocols that need to be scrubbed. It’s. If you’ve got somebody on a protocol, there’s real time data to say continue or pause. This isn’t the way it should. That’s my least favorite word in the entire language but should be going, so what’s different about this person or what was different about their yesterday that we’re. We’re not seeing what would encourage us to continue. And, and every single individual has different needs at different times. Even, even twins. Right. With the studies are amazing. And when any difference in their environment they manifest completely differently. So it’s not genetics. Dr. Deb Muth 42:10No. It’s epigenetics. Dr Deb Heald 42:11Right. Dr. Deb Muth 42:11It’s our environment that changes our genetics and that is the difference. Dr Deb Heald 42:17So looking at the genes is one thing, but looking at somebody’s actual response to an intervention in lifetime. This isn’t blood work that’s going to be done every three months. This is, this is what form of exercise should I do right now or should I eat or not eat before I do it. It’s. I think that’s where medical science to me is the most exciting is literally putting the power back into the hands of the human. Dr. Deb Muth 42:46And honestly, from a client perspective, if you don’t learn this and you don’t learn how to hack your day to day stuff, there is nothing that Dr. Heald or myself can really help you with to make you get where you want to go. Like we have the information, we have the knowledge, we can teach you. But you have to be willing to learn this to hack your like life every single day to get to the optimization that you’re looking for. Because trying to depend on somebody like us to tell you what to do every day is unrealistic. It’s just not going to happen. Dr Deb Heald 43:17Agreed. Yeah. It’s almost gamifying your health. But if that’s what it takes, let’s do it. Dr. Deb Muth 43:23Yeah, why not? Why not have some fun with it. Dr Deb Heald 43:25I love waking up and seeing not so much. I can tell by the way I feel how deep my sleep was. My brain’s either foggy or it’s not. Yeah. But I still love looking at the data and then saying, oh, I did do that yesterday. And to me it’s, it’s a game in the morning to open my app and see how yesterday actually manifested in my ability to get rest last night. Dr. Deb Muth 43:53Yeah, it’s so true. I, I did some traveling on Tuesday and we have a little snow. The weather was bad. What normally should have taken me four hours to get somewhere took me seven. There was a crash on the freeway. We got diverted and like the entire drive was completely white knuckled. Right. And so by the time I arrived where I needed to go, it was 12:30 in the morning and I was super stressed. I kind of relaxed a little bit and then I went to bed and I woke up the next, I didn’t sleep well. I was up almost all night. I was up till probably four in the morning before I finally fell asleep. And it took me two days to recover from that stressor and, and I laid low and I rested. It was the holiday, it wasn’t a big deal. But when it takes you that like you have to be conscious, it took me two days to bounce back from that. And we have stressors like that that happen maybe not at that magnitude every single day, but if you’re not paying attention to how long it’s taking you to recover, that is a huge disservice. Because what are we going to do as women? We’re going to put push through. Right. We need to take care of the kids, we need to work, we need to take care of our parents, we need to check on this person, we need to do this, we need to do that and we’re just going to keep pushing in that state of stress, not realizing that that’s the last thing that we should be doing. Dr Deb Heald 45:08And so there will be non negotiables in that when and which generation where our near adult or adult kids still need us and our parents are, are still needing assistance. Maybe it just means don’t do the intense work up to day move, but just pair it back. Or if your partner suggests inviting the neighbors over for appetizers and drinks like not tonight sweetie. Right. Like literally just drawing the line because you said it. Well, we, we will just push through. Yeah. It’s our future health that we’re sacrificing when we do that. And I do not want to spend my last 15 years sick. I do not want to spend my last, last however many 15 minutes in, in a care facility. Right. Dr. Deb Muth 45:54You and me both, we both know how those are. No, that’s a non negotiable for me. Dr Deb Heald 45:59Agreed. And so when, when people are thinking, well, I know it matters but I can pay attention to it later or it costs money to do this and I’d rather not spend that money. Let’s just price out what one month in a nursing home is going to cost. Dr. Deb Muth 46:13Yeah, you’re going to spend it on the front end or the back end. You get to choose how you’re going to do that and what that’s going to look like for you. Dr Deb Heald 46:20So if that’s some wearables and some guidance up front, let’s do it. And my hope is that when we are more aware of what our behaviors do to our physical body, we’ll also start to tune into the physical signs that’s been sending us all the way along. So we don’t have to be dependent on some band on our wrist. But if you eat something that that’s triggering your immune system, you’ll pay attention to the fact your nose is running. You won’t just wipe it and carry on. It’s literally a histamine release unless it’s hot soup. But it’s saying, this is going to inflame you a little bit. Are you okay with that? And when we start to treat our bodies like the temples that they are, we won’t need the wearables. Right? We’ll say, oh, I’m starting to feel tired. So what that means is I’m going to go to bed. I’m not going to turn on a Netflix series. I’m not going to dive into some project for work that I’d like to get off my plate. My body’s asking for rest right now. So let’s do it. Dr. Deb Muth 47:23I love that this has been such a great conversation. How can people find you and work with you if they’re interested? Dr Deb Heald 47:30I agree. This has been an amazing conversation. I hope that we can do it again. I have a website which is is doctorhealed.com r h E-A-L-D.com I’m on Instagram. That’s Dr. Deb healed. And just direct message me and we will see what we can do. Dr. Deb Muth 47:48I love that. Thank you so much for joining me today. Dr Deb Heald 47:51Well, thank you for hosting and it was just an amazing, amazing time on this. Yeah. Friday morning. Dr. Deb Muth 47:58I agree. Thank you. Dr Deb Heald 47:59Okay, take care. Dr. Deb Muth 48:00This is the part of our conversation I hope you sit with. Because if there’s one truth that keeps coming up not just in today’s episode, but across thousands of women’s stories, it’s this. The body isn’t broken. You haven’t failed, and you’re not imagining what you’re feeling. You have just been taught to follow templates instead of trust data, to chase fixes instead of understanding function, and to silence symptoms instead of listening to them. My hope is that today’s conversation gave you permission to stop guessing and start getting curious about your body’s needs and how to thrive in this episode. If it resonated with you. Please take a moment to subscribe, follow and share. It was someone who needs to hear it. It means the world to us and it really helps us get in front of the eyes of more people. You can find let’s Talk Wellness now on YouTube, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts. And remember, healing doesn’t just start with another diagnosis. It starts when you finally feel seen and empowered to take your health back. Until next time, I’m Dr. Deb and this is let’s Talk Wellness Now. Dr. Deb Muth 49:08Welcome to let’s Talk Wellness now, where we bring expert insights directly to you. Please note that the views and information shared by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of let’s Talk Wellness now, its management or our partners. Each affiliate, sponsor and partner is an independent entity with its own perspectives. Today’s content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered specific advice, whether financial, medical, or legal. While we strive to present accurate and useful information, we cannot guarantee its completeness or relevance to your unique circumstances. We encourage you to consult with a qualified professional to address your individual needs. Your use of information from this broadcast is entirely at your own risk. 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If you want to listen to the full episode (XYBM 148) from this clip, search for the title: "Ep. 148: How to raise Resilient Children without Hitting Them with Dr. Amber" — it was released on January 19, 2026.In XYBM 148, I sit down with Dr. Amber Thornton, a licensed Clinical Psychologist and author, to discuss gentle and conscious parenting and what it looks like in Black families. Dr. Thornton shares how self-regulation, emotional intelligence, and intentional parenting help children build emotional resiliency without fear, control, or corporal punishment. We explore conscious parenting, the long-term impact of fear-based discipline, setting expectations and routines early, and how healing misunderstandings strengthens parent-child relationships, closing with a direct message to Black fathers.Tune in on all podcast streaming platforms, including YouTube.Leave a 5-star review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ if you found value in this episode or a previous episode!BOOK US FOR SPEAKING + BRAND DEALS:————————————Explore our diverse collaboration opportunities as the leading and fastest-growing Black men's mental health platform on social media. Let's create something dope for your brand/company.Take the first step by filling out the form on our website: https://www.expressyourselfblackman.com/speaking-brand-dealsHOW TO FIND A DOPE, BLACK THERAPIST: ————————————We are teaching a FREE webinar on how to find a dope, Black therapist – sign up for the next session here: https://event.webinarjam.com/channel/black-therapistAll webinar attendees will have the opportunity to be paired with a Black mental health professional in Safe Haven. We have had 5K+ people sign up for this webinar in the past. Don't miss out. Slots are limited. SAFE HAVEN:————————————Safe Haven is a holistic healing platform built for Black men by Black men. In Safe Haven, you will be connected with a Black mental health professional, so you can finally heal from the things you find it difficult to talk about AND you will receive support from like-minded Black men that are all on their healing journey, so you don't have to heal alone.Join Safe Haven Now: https://www.expressyourselfblackman.com/safe-haven SUPPORT THE PLATFORM: ————————————Safe Haven: https://www.expressyourselfblackman.com/safe-havenMonthly Donation: https://buy.stripe.com/eVa5o0fhw1q3guYaEE Merchandise: https://shop.expressyourselfblackman.com FOLLOW US:————————————TikTok: @expressyourselfblackman (https://www.tiktok.com/@expressyourselfblackman) Instagram:Host: @expressyourselfblackman(https://www.instagram.com/expressyourselfblackman)Guest: @dramberthornton (https://www.instagram.com/dramberthornton/)YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ExpressYourselfBlackManFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/expressyourselfblackman