Podcasts about david how

Check out the first of this series on prayer from May 21, 2025 Msgr. Tom Richter joins Patrick to Discuss 6 Foundations of Prayer (Part 1) (4:01) why is it important to develop foundations of prayer? (11:05) First foundation of prayer: Awakened Faith (20:20) Break 1 David - How can I get more awaken faith if I already experience it in the past, but it has fallen away? How to reinvigorate the awaken faith and bringing it back? (26:07) What is the second foundation of faith: Getting God Right. (40:32) Break 2 Patrick shares an email about offering daily activities in getting God right? (41:46) Third foundation of prayer: The Cross

Patrick tackles grief and faith head-on, answering tough questions about martyrdom, church law, and sacramental practice following the Minnesota church shooting. He fields real-world calls, from Teri’s struggle with Sunday obligations as a caregiver and Teresa’s anxiety over smartphones in the confessional, blending practical Catholic wisdom with sharp awareness of modern technology’s impact. Moments of reassurance and challenge are laced with candid reminders that intention alone cannot replace confession or the sacraments. Vincent (email) - Can the deceased victims of the Minnesota church shooting be considered Catholic martyrs? If so, how is this decided upon or declared by the Church? (00:57) Teri – I didn’t receive communion because I was sick. Can I go receive communion the next week without going to confession? (08:40) Teresa - I went to Confession last week. The priest had his phone with him and I don't want someone listening to my Confession. What are your thoughts? (11:25) John - I heard that you can still receive in a state of mortal sin as long as you want forgiveness. Is this true? (26:34) David - How is mortal sin different from the baptism of desire in regard to going to confession? (41:18) John - I want to point out that a lot of these priests are on call and they don't have an option to turn their phone off. Many priests don't have the luxury to turn off their phones. (47:19)

Here's why tariffs aren't the problem. Because there's always someone who's buying. Sometimes it's harder to find them. Sometimes it's easier to find them. So if, as a result of tariffs or anything else, it's going to be harder to find people, we understand that. But it doesn't mean that business is over and it doesn't mean that we can just sit and stew, because that just doesn't work. David: Hi. Welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I'll be discussing the fact that tariffs are not the problem. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to to see you, David. How you been? David: Been doing great. Great to see you as well. Kevin: Yeah. We're talking about a topic that is in the news a little bit these days. You introduced the topic as tariffs aren't the problem. What do you mean by that? David: Yeah. I mean, if you're watching the media, you would think they are, but... Kevin: Yeah, I would say so. David: What I mean by that, and I'm not saying they're not a problem. What I'm saying is they're not THE problem. Okay, difference in the title. Tariffs aren't the problem. Okay? The reason this came up is I was having a conversation with someone in the promotional products industry who was talking about some of the issues that she was dealing with, and she mentioned the tariffs, and how the tariffs really had her very concerned. And I said, well, it's understandable because it creates a level of uncertainty that people are generally not happy with. I said, Kevin: Sure. David: How many orders have you actually lost as a result of the tariffs? And she said, well, none. I'm like, okay. Well that's a good start, right? If you haven't lost any orders so far as a result of it, that's a great way to start. And we just talked about the fact that everyone is dealing with this, everyone in the United States, anyone is dealing with this. And so, we're on an even playing field with any competitors, right? Because any competitors that we have are likely dealing with this as well. When we focus on things that are not the problem, like the thing that's actually keeping us from getting clients or getting reorders, or getting referrals, when we focus on those things, we're going to be a lot more productive in terms of being able to accomplish more things in less time, without focusing on the things that are not the immediate problem for us. Kevin: I mean, are business owners using tariffs or other external factors as as an excuse, if maybe they're having poor sales or things like that? David: Probably not consciously, I don't think they're consciously using it as an excuse. But it's easy to see it happen. And it's not just tariffs. Anytime anyone is concerned about the growth of their business, not being able to get enough new orders through the door, not able to get enough new customers through the door. Whenever they're not doing that, they're looking for reasons. And when you think of it logically, you'll look at the reasons that are actually happening. Well, what are the reasons this is happening? But when there are any sort of scapegoats in the market, people are likely to look at them, or point to them, or express concerns about them. Very often the concerns are about the things that could happen, that might happen, that could potentially happen, as opposed to what is actually slowing them down right now? Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think, it's dangerous to blame outside forces, like tariffs, instead of addressing in ternal issues. Because if you do that, you're going to potentially either ignore or downplay maybe some internal issues that you might have within your company. Is that a fair assessment? David: Yeah, and it's just not productive. When we're having interactions with clients, and let's say a client does raise the issue that they have concerns about pricing or they have concerns about how tariffs are going to impact their pricing and all that sort of thin...

Check out this great encore show from May 21, 2025 Msgr. Tom Richter joins Patrick to Discuss 6 Foundations of Prayer (Part 1) (4:01) why is it important to develop foundations of prayer? (11:05) First foundation of prayer: Awakened Faith (20:20) Break 1 David - How can I get more awaken faith if I already experience it in the past, but it has fallen away? How to reinvigorate the awaken faith and bringing it back? (26:07) What is the second foundation of faith: Getting God Right. (40:32) Break 2 Patrick shares an email about offering daily activities in getting God right? (41:46) Third foundation of prayer: The Cross

Msgr. Tom Richter joins Patrick to Discuss 6 Foundations of Prayer (Part 1) (4:01) why is it important to develop foundations of prayer? (11:05) First foundation of prayer: Awakened Faith (20:20) Break 1 David - How can I get more awaken faith if I already experience it in the past, but it has fallen away? How to reinvigorate the awaken faith and bringing it back? (26:07) What is the second foundation of faith: Getting God Right. (40:32) Break 2 Patrick shares an email about offering daily activities in getting God right? (41:46) Third foundation of prayer: The Cross

As the property management industry continues to evolve, it's important to stay up to date on the latest innovations in technology. In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth expert Jason Hull sits down with David Normand from Vendoroo to talk about AI's role in the future of property management. You'll Learn [01:29] The AI Revolution [08:47] The Importance of Empathy and Human Touch [22:21] Decreasing the Cost of Maintenance Coordination [32:29] New Features Coming to Vendoroo Quotables “As any property manager believes, we know how to do it the best.” “If you're not reading articles and studying up on this, I think that's going to catch you by surprise pretty quickly.” “Empathy is the magic lubrication that makes everything better.” “Empathetic reflection and empathy is a magical ingredient.” Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript [00:00:00] David: If you're not building AI tools from working with your partners, from being on the ground floor with them and using the data and building tools based upon the data and their pain points and their failures, buyer beware. If somebody's coming to you and saying, Hey, we figured this all out in the lab. [00:00:14] David: Come use it. Yeah. Right. Buyer beware. [00:00:18] Jason: All right. Welcome property management entrepreneurs to the DoorGrow Show or the Property Management Growth podcast. I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive group coaching mastermind for residential property management entrepreneurs. We've been doing this for over a decade and a half. [00:00:39] Jason: I've brought innovative strategies and optimizations to the property management industry. I have spoken to thousands of property management companies. I've coached over 600 businesses. I've rebranded over 300 companies like Bar Rescue for property managers, cleaning up their businesses, and we would love to help coach you and support you and your growth. [00:01:01] Jason: We have innovative strategies for building out growth engines, for building out your operational challenges, for helping you figure out how to get to the next level in your business and one of the cool tools that I'm excited to showcase today with my guest here, David Norman, is Vendoroo. We've had you on the show before. [00:01:19] Jason: Welcome back David.  [00:01:20] David: Yeah. Thank you for having me. It felt like years ago, it was only about, I think eight months ago since we did this, so much has changed over the time, so it's great to be back. Yeah, it's great to be back.  [00:01:29] Jason: Good to have you. I know you're in the middle of this AI revolution, which AI is just innovating and changing so rapidly. It probably does feel like years ago, so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been crazy. You guys have made a lot of changes too, so, you even changed your brand name from the last time we had you on the show. Yeah. Which was I think Tulu. Yeah. Right. And so, yeah. So why don't you get us caught up on what's going on 'cause, you know, there's been a lot.  [00:01:55] David: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you first of all for having me here today, Jason, and from the entire Vendoroo group of us, which, you know, the team has grown 10 x over the past eight months, which has been awesome. And I just also wanted to start in thanking everybody from what we call our client partners who have jumped in into this great unknown that is AI and is going to be like, how is this going to work in our industry? And so that's really what we've been focusing on the past eight months. You know, it's been a unbelievable journey of both failures, successes learnings and insights. And ultimately we're getting excited here at the NARPM broker owner which is in Denver to unveil Vendoroo. Like this is the coming out party. And so we're super excited if you're going to be there. We have a massive booth that we have set up that we have the ai alliance with other people that are working in the AI space, and I really hope that you guys come over and check it out. I promise this. [00:02:53] David: You'll never see a booth or a display like we have set up. At the NARPM broker owner. So.  [00:02:58] Jason: Now I want to go attend it. Yeah. Just so I can see your booth.  [00:03:01] David: So, let me put it this way. You may see the robot from the Jetsons walking around the booth walking around the NARPM broker owner, so, okay. [00:03:07] David: Yeah. Rosie? Yeah. You may see something like that. So she'll be vacuuming with her apron? Yeah. She'll be doing a little social engagement. It'll be cool. So, okay. Okay.  [00:03:17] Jason: Yeah. Very cool. Yeah, so catch us up on what, like, let's get into the kind of the background and the overview for people that have never heard about Vendoroo and what you guys do and how you got into this. [00:03:29] Jason: Yeah. Give people kind of the backstory. Yeah.  [00:03:31] David: Yeah. Thank you for that. So really the backstory is that, you know, we know of this AI economy that's coming, right? And there was a few of us, you know, I've been in this industry for 18 years. You know, I've managed you know, portfolios of 40,000 doors. [00:03:47] David: I've managed them for governments. You know, I started off with our own property management. Much like you guys. We started off with 80 doors. We grew to 550 doors in four years. So it was exciting to know that technology that was coming that promised duplication because, you know, as any property manager believes, we know how to do it the best, right. [00:04:05] David: And so what we decided to do is to come together and say, Hey, if AI's coming, there's two things that we need to figure out. Number one is how is this going to help us show value in this new industry to this new generation of property owners that is here, that is coming, that has been raised in the technology world too, right? [00:04:25] David: And two, can it actually duplicate our efforts? Can it actually be an employee for us? Right? And I don't care what people are promising about ai, you don't know until you get into what we call like, you know, get into the weeds, you got to get into the trenches. And so that's what we did, right? We went out and we were the guys that grabbed the torch and we said, we are going to take all the risk. [00:04:46] David: We are going to jump into the mix. We're going to ask people to jump onto the bandwagon with us and we're going to figure this out. And oh my gosh, what an unbelievable eight months it has been in learning and insights. And I can't wait to get into all the things that we've learned about the property management industry. [00:05:01] David: But that's really what we've been focusing on here the past eight months, right? So we started off with well hey, can the AI assist the va? Can it turn them into a super va? Is that what it's going to be? And, you know, some people were like, yay. And some people were like nay, you know? And so, and you know, because that human failure still was there, right? [00:05:21] David: And you know, what happens if they left? There was that inconsistency. And then it was like, all right, well what can the AI own? Right? What can it do? What can it perfect? And you know, can AI actually be the last employee that I ever hire? Right. That's really, that's a really cool thing to do. [00:05:39] David: But the property managing community had some really specific demands that they said that if this is going to be the last employee that I've had, it has to do this. And that's what I'm excited about our new technology 'cause it's doing those things. You know? [00:05:52] Jason: Yeah. And now you guys have made some big moves. I know, like I've, I have clients that we've sent over to you and they've shared some incredible stories. Like one client, I think he had 154 units or something like under management, and he said in the first day you're of turning on Vendoroo, like it closed out like 80 something work orders. [00:06:12] Jason: Yeah, like, it was crazy. Another client, they had a little more doors. They said it was like 50 something work orders were closed out in the first day of turning it on. And so, I mean, you're creating some dramatic stuff. Like this is a very different thing than what people are used to in maintenance. [00:06:27] David: Yeah. Yeah. And really what the exciting part about this, Jason, is that maintenance is actually really easy. And I know people laugh when I say that it's managing communications that is extremely difficult. Okay. Okay. Right, because you have, you know what AI told us about our industry over the last eight months is when we dove in with it and it took a step back and it said, whoa, you guys don't have a data problem here. [00:06:51] David: You guys have a emotion problem here. There's very specific categories of emotion that are in this space, right? Like, how do you build a technology that senses something? And I know this relates with property managers, 'cause I know this for myself. A property manager can walk into their office, sit down at their desk, and their spidey senses go off and they know something's wrong. [00:07:15] David: There's no screen that's telling them anything. There's no spreadsheet. They know something's off. Right. And so the AI is like, well, the statuses really don't matter that much to me based upon the feedback that I'm seeing from the property managers. Because the status and the communication all seem to be in order, but there's a disruption somewhere. [00:07:35] David: So I need to know about people's emotions. I need to understand about is the resident happy? Does the owner feel supported? Is the vendor being directed? And does the property manager believe that I can own the outcome for this? And it was really cool to start seeing its learning and understanding and picking up on these cues where, you know, people say that this is a data-driven industry. [00:07:55] David: It's really in an emotion driven industry.  [00:07:57] Jason: Oh yeah. It's a relationship and emotion industry for sure. Yeah. Yeah, big time.  [00:08:01] David: And it's really cool to see, and it's really started happening over this past last 60 days, the amount of residents, I was actually just looking at one before I jumped on here, that are like thanking the system, right? [00:08:15] David: Imagine that, like think of all of us that actually worked with the chat bot at like Verizon. I've never thanked that chatbot at Verizon for being their customer service. Right.  [00:08:25] Jason: And how do I get a representative? Representative. Representative!  [00:08:28] David: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Versus you seeing people, you know, seeing individuals saying to the, you know, saying to the Vendoroo maintenance coordinator, Hey, I really appreciate feeling supported and how fast you acted because you know, there's empathy that's inside of its law and learning. So I don't want to get too much into the details on there. But yeah, these are some of the exciting things that we're working on.  [00:08:47] Jason: I mean, empathy is the magic lubrication that makes everything better. [00:08:52] David: Yeah,  [00:08:52] Jason: I mean they, they've done studies. Teams, even in working in warehouses, are more productive if the team has a higher level of empathy. Yeah. And doctors perform better. Yeah. If there's a higher level of empathy, there's less malpractice suits, like empathetic reflection and empathy is a magical ingredient. [00:09:10] Jason: I coach clients to add that in during sales. Yeah. 'cause their close rate goes up dramatically. Yeah. Right. So yeah. So leveraging and like getting the AI to actually be empathetic in its communication. Yeah. When that's probably not a natural skill for a lot of maintenance coordinators to be empathetic. [00:09:26] David: It's not, it's not a natural skill for a lot of people in the maintenance industry. Right? Yes. Especially when you talk about burnout. People begin developing views of the rental community, right? Like, oh my gosh, they're calling again, and that empathy meter goes lower and lower and lower. [00:09:41] David: Yeah. As people have been in the industry longer. But isn't it great that you have an employee now that knows that, yeah, it's my duty, rain or shine, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 a year to always operate at the highest level of empathy? I never have a bad day. I never take a day off. [00:09:57] David: I'm never upset. I'm never short with somebody on the phone, never tired, never like, oh my gosh, Susan is calling me again. I'm going to let the phone just ring because I'm annoyed of talking to her. And it just is constantly hitting that same level of standard. And this is what's exciting to me, is that there are people that that have played around with this and have been a part of what I call the pain phase, right? [00:10:20] David: The pain phase is that understanding the way that agentic AI works, right? It's input in output. Input, output, right? The more that you're putting into it, the better the results are that you're going to get out of it, okay? Right. It's just like training an employee. So over the last eight months, what we've seen is that the community has trained this to be the level of a person that has now been working in the industry for five years. [00:10:46] David: In eight months. It's got five years of learning in eight months. Okay. Wow. In the next six to 12 months, we're probably looking at somebody that has 10 to 15 years understanding in the next six to 12 months and understand the level of type of tasks that it can do, especially getting into estimates and getting some other work. [00:11:04] David: And again, just you know, having empathy in my own life towards the people that jumped in that are like, what is this all about? Like, how does AI fail? Like, you know, there's still people that are involved and it was like this big like momentous train of like, you know, all these people were jumping on and giving ideas and people are in the loop and now it's weeding everything out and the AI stepping in and saying. [00:11:27] David: Hey, I appreciate all the input that you've given me. Thank you for all your effort. I'm now ready to step up to the plate and to own the outcome. Right. And that's what we're seeing at the NARPM show that's coming out. There's five AI tools. There's a master agent, five AI tools. And you know, I'll give you a couple of pieces here that, you know, we had feedback from our property managers like number one across the board. [00:11:50] David: A property manager said, if I'm hiring AI as my last employee, that has to work in my system. Yeah. Okay. Right. Like I don't want another, I don't want another technology. Yeah.  [00:11:59] Jason: I don't want a new system I got to get every vendor to use or a new system I got to get my team to use or figure out. We don't need another tool to make our lives more difficult. [00:12:08] Jason: No. They've got to use our stuff.  [00:12:09] David: They got to use, we have our existing stack. Yeah. So now the AI is fully integrated into all the most common PMS systems. You know, you have a cool chrome extension that you can download and there's a little yellow kangaroo right right there. And it's actually reading the work order that you're working on, and you can literally just ask it a question now and just being like, Hey, did anybody express frustration or concern on this work order? [00:12:32] David: Right? Because that's the emotion behind the status that you need to know. And it's like, yeah, two days ago Sally said that, you know, she was actually really frustrated about the multiple reschedules by this vendor. And it's like, great, that's a person I should be reaching out to and that's what I should be knowing that a status is never going to tell you. [00:12:47] David: Right? Yeah. It's in your slack, right? So if I have, if I'm on my phone, I'm talking to my employee and I'm laying in bed and I have a panic attack as a property manager, and I'm like, oh my gosh, did we take care of John's refrigerator and the office is closed? I can't get ahold of my employee. Yeah, you can. [00:13:03] David: Your employee works 24 7 now. Hey, can you give me an update on the refrigerator replacement at John's place? Yeah, it was scheduled this day. I contacted John. Everything's good to go. You know, go to sleep. You know, like, like that's the power. Full audit. Full syncing. So it's in your platform. That's really cool. [00:13:21] David: The other thing, it's got to be branded, right? This is a thing that we really learned about, like how important branding is to the community of property managers, right? Yeah. So the communications that go out have to be from your area code that's done. The emails that go out have to have like, you know, your company name and your logo on it. [00:13:39] David: The AI is doing that as well too. So that's being sent out, which is really cool. So people are feeling like, you know, that loyalty to brand is super important. And also do you know now that the AI can ask the residents to give a Google Review and we can link to the Google reviews and give you instant Google reviews to your page through the ai, which is cool, like how it's, it will know that if the success of a Google review is high on the way that the work order was done, that it's probably best to ask this person and it will send them a little thing. [00:14:11] David: Hey, can we get a feedback from you? And we link up to your Google review. And it posts that Google review to generate those 'cause we know those are super, super valuable to property managers. So that's actually going out today. That's kind of a little teaser there. That's the emails out now. [00:14:23] Jason: Nice. We'll have to get you to also connect it to our gather kudos links for clients 'cause then people can pick which review sites. So it diversifies the review profile.  [00:14:32] David: Love it. Love that. I'm going to hook you up with our guy Dotan. He's running that. He's one of our head of product. He's, actually out of Israel. [00:14:39] David: He's a amazing guy. I'd love to get you connected with him. Yeah. Cool. Let's do it. Cool. And then the biggest one too is like, I need a single point of contact. Right. And we knew that before there was a lot of people were still involved. There was a lot of oversight that was going on there, having that confusion and single point of contact. [00:14:56] David: Now it's in your phone, it's in your Slack, it's in your phone extension. It doesn't matter what's going on. You have one point of contact. It's your employee. You ask the question, get the answer, Jason, you can even ask for a change. You can even say, Hey, I want to change a vendor on a job and you'll see that the vendor gets changed for you in the system. [00:15:17] David: You can even say to your ai, and this is the big one: hey how do you triage this work order? And I want you to do this, or I want you to do that. And you just do it right through Slack or right through your PM chat and it makes the change for you. And now you have custom triage and all property managers have the ability to train their own AI for their company. [00:15:36] David: Think how cool that is. A person with 75 doors now, and the product that's being released has their own AI agent customized for their company, right? Yeah. Like, that's what happened over the last eight months, so you can see my excitement. There's been a lot of hard work in this. [00:15:54] David: Yeah, that's amazing. But this has been all the effort and a huge thank you out to everybody who's tried us, you know, even said that this wasn't for them at that point in time because those learnings went into what's going to make this product the best product in the property management space and is going to help people leverage sales and leverage efficiencies and blow their owners' minds away in ways that, that we have never thought about. [00:16:15] David: Oh yeah.  [00:16:16] Jason: Yeah. So I know like initially when you rolled this out, a lot of people were nervous about AI and you guys had kind of a human layer in between the AI and any communication Yeah, initially. Yeah. And so there was like, they had like a reps and a lot of people associated, oh, I've got this rep. [00:16:33] Jason: Yeah. You know, Steven or whatever is my rep or Pedro and I've got Pedro and like, oh no, what if Pedro leaves? And they were associating with that while the AI is really doing the crux of the work. Right. And so you guys have shifted away from even that now the AI is directly communicating with people. [00:16:52] Jason: Correct? Yeah.  [00:16:53] David: Yeah. So let's talk about that. So, definitely, so in the beginning there was like, we all had like lack of trust. We believed what it was going to do, but it was like we had a ton of people still trying, like, you know, using qualified VAs, training them. Like, you know, like, you know, if it fails, like, you know, you have to have a person stepped in and so let's talk about that. [00:17:12] David: So, you know, it was definitely that human layer. And let's talk about where we're at today. It is very clear to us, and the one thing that separates us from everybody is we still believe that humans are super important in this process. Okay? Yeah. And where humans are very important in this process are going to be when the AI says, Hey, I need you to make a phone call to this person for me, right? [00:17:35] David: Hey, I've reached out to this vendor three times and they haven't responded yet. I need you to give a phone call to see what's going on. Right? Hey, I need you to recruit a vendor for me. I need you to reach out and do a recruitment for the vendor. For me. Hey, this owner is asking questions about this estimate. [00:17:51] David: I need you to give a call for me. So the AI is basically able, on a standard work order, the AI can handle 95% of the workflow, no problem. Work order comes in, gets assigned to the resident. It gets out to the vendor. It's under the NTE not to exceed. It's great. The work gets done, the resident uploads its photos, the AI says to the resident, are you happy? [00:18:14] David: Everyone's good. It closes the work order out. Cool. Right. And then if a human...  [00:18:19] Jason: and how is it communicating with the tenant and with the vendor typically? [00:18:24] David: Yep. So, it's very clear that and this isn't a surprise to anybody. Everybody loves text messages, right? Yeah. I mean, that's just, it's just what it is. [00:18:32] David: You literally, like, people will get a phone call and they won't pick up and the text will come back and like text back. Yeah, text me. What do you need? Yeah. Text me here. But, so here's the things that people don't see behind the scenes that we'll talk about. So the complexity that went into. [00:18:51] David: Mapping out how to allow vendors... so a vendor could have like 20 jobs, right? And we don't want to send him like a code that he has to text for every work order so that it links to the right work order. Like what guy wants to do that? Okay. Like that's not how he works. So we figured out how to allow a vendor through AI just to use his regular phone and text anything about this thing. And it's understanding it and it's mapping it, it's routing it to all those work orders because we knew that in order for this to be the last employee somebody would have to handle, it also means that the vendor has to be happy and the same for the resident. [00:19:30] David: They can just text that they have multiple work orders. It understands what work order it's going to. If it's not quite sure, I would ask them, Hey, is this question about this work order? And they say, yeah. And so there's not like, again, codes and links and things that they have to do. It has to be seamless if they're working with a person. [00:19:46] David: So yeah, text message is massive. Email is second, and then phone is third for sure.  [00:19:51] Jason: Got it. So is your AI system calling people yet or you or telling the property manager to make the phone call?  [00:19:58] David: Yeah. People are okay with. If they're calling in like our new front desk agent, which if a person calls in and they want to get information about a listing or if they want to get information about a work order or something like that, or, you know, they're okay with getting that type of information. [00:20:13] David: Yeah. But they are, it is very clear that they are not okay with AI calling them when they're asking for an update on a work order like that. Like that line in the sand very clear. Yeah. And so we have people on on the team. That are constantly monitoring into ai, giving feedback, hitting improvement. [00:20:31] David: I want everybody to know there is not a work order that is taking place that is not touched by a human at least twice.  [00:20:38] Jason: Okay.  [00:20:39] David: Okay. Right.  [00:20:40] Jason: So there's a little, there's some oversight there. There there's, you're watching this, there are humans involved  [00:20:45] David: And then the ai will when it hits certain fail points, right? [00:20:51] David: It then escalates those things up to what we call the human in the loop, right? So there's an AI assistant, we there's people now that we're training a whole new generation of people that are no longer going to be maintenance coordinators. They're AI assistants now, right? And so when the AI says, Hey, this work order is not going down the path that I think it should go to be successful. [00:21:12] David: I'm escalating this up to a human, and so now as a property manager, not only am I getting this AI agent workflow that's standardizing the empathy and the workflows and all the stuff that we talked about in the communications, I also now get a fractional employee that when the AI says, Hey, I need help, I already have an employee that it can reach out to that can make that phone call or call the vendor. [00:21:36] David: But it's also monitoring the AI for me on top of it. So yes, there is, and that's one of the big thing that separates us apart is that the platform comes with what we call a human in the loop, an expert in the loop and so we're training the first generation of AI assistants in the property management industry. [00:21:55] David: Yep.  [00:21:56] Jason: Got it. So the AI maintenance coordinator. Has human assistance. Yep. Underneath it.  [00:22:02] David: And before it was the other way around where Yeah. The AI was assisting the human right. And now the humans are assisting the ai. That's what's happened in the last...  [00:22:11] Jason: that may be the future of all of our roles. [00:22:12] Jason: So,  [00:22:13] David: If you're not reading articles and studying up on this I think that's going to catch you by surprise pretty quickly. Yeah. Learn how to write prompts. I'll tell everybody right now. Yes.  [00:22:21] Jason: Yeah. Interesting. So, now what about this, you know, there's the uncanny, you know, sort of stage where people get a little bit nervous about AI and what do they call it? The uncanny valley or something like this, or right where it gets, it's so close to human that it becomes creepy. And there's some people that have fear about this, that are concerned. You're going to have a lot of late, you know, adopters that are like resistant. "I'll never do ai." [00:22:49] Jason: What would you say to somebody when you get on a sales call and they're like, well, I'm really nervous about this AI stuff, you know, and they just, they don't get it.  [00:22:57] David: Yeah.  [00:22:58] Jason: I'm sure there's people listening right now. They're like, oh man, AI is going to kill us all and it's going to take over the world and it's going to take our jobs. [00:23:05] Jason: And they think it's evil.  [00:23:06] David: Yeah. Yeah. I, and you know, I really want to hear that fear and I want to like, again, have empathy towards that. 'cause I do understand that fear of change causes people to get... Change in general. Yes. Right. It's like, whoa, I like everything the way it's going to be. Right. And we are historically in one of those phases of like, you know, the industrial revolution, the renaissance, like the automobile from horse. [00:23:34] David: Like, this is what is taking place. This is, this will be written down in history. It's massive change. It's a massive change. Massive. So what I would say to them, and not to, not from a way of fear. But to inspire them is there are a lot of hungry entrepreneurs out there that are embracing this head on. [00:23:57] David: Yeah. That are pushing the boundaries and the limits to be able to bring insights and customer service to their clients at a much higher level. And if you want to compete in this new AI economy. I would definitely encourage you to understand and get in and start investing in yourself now. But understand that investing in AI means having some pain threshold. [00:24:21] David: Like you got to get in, like you, you need to be able to give the feedback. You need to understand that if it falls short, do you have to be able to give it the time and the energy and the reward and the payoff of what I'm seeing for property managers who've embraced that when they're sitting there and they're going, I don't touch maintenance at all anymore. Yeah, it's wild. Right? And those are the people that in the beginning of this relationship, and there's a few that come to my head, are the ones that were sending me emails constantly saying, David, this is failing me. I believe in this, but this is failing me. And as my technology partner, I know that you're going to help us get this better. [00:24:58] David: And there is, you know, I have this word down that struggle equals great con conversation, right? Like, and so they had a struggle and that opened up a great conversation and because of that, their technology and the technology is getting better. So yeah, I think that from a personal point of view in this industry, one thing that I want to solve with AI is I think that we can all say that over the past 15 years, we've probably yelled at a lot of vendors or yelled at a lot of VAs or yelled at a lot of people. Let's start yelling at the ai. And then hopefully that the AI will actually eliminate the need for us to ever have to yell at anybody again because it knows us. [00:25:36] David: Yeah. It never fails us.  [00:25:38] Jason: You know? It really is amazing. I mean, your company is creating freedom for the business owner from being involved in maintenance. Yeah. Really?  [00:25:46] David: Yeah.  [00:25:47] Jason: And it just, and they get used to that pretty quickly. Like maintenance is just running and they're like, yeah. It frees up so much head space for them to focus on growth. [00:25:56] Jason: It gives them a whole bunch of like just greater capacity. Yeah. So they feel like, yeah, we could handle adding any number of doors now and we know we can still fulfill and do a good job.  [00:26:07] David: Yeah. Fixed cost scaling. Right? That's a term that we came up with is now that you know that I have a price per door that will cover all my maintenance. So if I went in and brought on 75 doors, I know that I don't have to go out and hire another employee. The system just grows with it and I know exactly what my margin is for all those doors. Right. And as we know previous, before fixed cost scaling a property managers is like, I have enough people. [00:26:32] David: I don't have enough people. Someone quit, someone didn't quit. My profit margins are good. My profit margins are bad. Yeah. And now with these AI tools. You know, you have your front desk employee, you have your maintenance coordinator, you have these fixed cost scales, and now somebody calls you up and says, Hey, I want you to take on 25 doors, and you're like, I have the resource resources for maintenance, which is, we know is 80% of the workload already. I don't have to go out and hire another maintenance coordinator 'cause the system just grows with me, which is cool.  [00:27:00] Jason: So one of the things you shared at DoorGrow Live and you're our top sponsor for the upcoming... Can't wait for DoorGrow Live, can't wait to, so we're really excited to have you back so. [00:27:10] Jason: Everybody make sure you're at DoorGrow Live if you want. Our theme this year is innovating the future of property management. And we're bringing, we're going to be showcasing, innovating pricing structures that are different than how property managers have typically historically priced, that allow you to lower your operational costs and close more deals more easily at a higher price point. [00:27:30] Jason: We're, we'll be showcasing a three tier hybrid pricing model that we've innovated here at DoorGrow, and we've got clients using it. It's been a game changer. We're going to be sharing other cool things about the future hiring systems, et cetera. Right. So you guys will also be there showcasing the future. [00:27:46] Jason: One of the things you shared previously that really kind of struck me as you showed, you did some research and you showed the typical cost. Per unit that most companies had just to cover and deal with maintenance. Yeah. And and then what you were able to get it down to.  [00:28:03] David: Yeah.  [00:28:04] Jason: And that alone was just like a bit of a mind blowing. [00:28:07] Jason: Could you just share a little bit of numbers here?  [00:28:09] David: Yeah. So one of the first things that we had to do when we started way back in the day is figure out well. Like, like what's the impact of AI going to be us from like a cost perspective, right? Is it a huge change? And so we went out on a big survey mission and we were surveying property managers and asking them, what's your cost per door for managing maintenance? [00:28:30] David: How much do you spend every door to manage maintenance? Now the first thing is less than 1% of property managers knew what that cost was. Sure.  [00:28:37] Jason: Oh, sure. Right. Because, but then they got to figure out, oh, we got a maintenance coordinator and we've got these people doing phone calls and they cost this, and yeah, it's complicated. [00:28:45] David: It's complicated. So we built a calculator. Okay. And then people could start adding in that information out into the calculator, and the average person was around $13 and 50 cents a door.  [00:28:56] Jason: Okay. Okay.  [00:28:57] David: Wow. Right, right. So that was where the average person was, somewhere in the low twenties. Yeah. [00:29:01] David: And others were actually pretty good. Like, I'd say like, you know, some of the good ones that we saw were maybe around like, you know, 10, $11 a door or something along that line.  [00:29:09] Jason: They probably had a large portfolio would be my guess.  [00:29:12] David: Yeah. And also I think a lot of it's just like, you know, I don't know if they were still accounting for all their software and everything that they had. [00:29:19] David: Maybe they're not factoring everything. Yeah. No, I think if we really dug in, it'd be different. So now we know that, you know, the base package of what people are getting in. The average cost of what people are paying for 24 7 services that's emergencies around the clock is about $7 and 50 cents a door, right? [00:29:37] David: So right off the bat in AI's first swing, it said we cut the cost in half. Yeah. Okay. Right. So 50% reduction. I mean, to me as an owner, a 50% reduction in cost. That's like. You know, alarms and celebration going off, you know? For sure. And then, yeah.  [00:29:55] Jason: And that's, if everything just stayed the same, like it was still the same level of quality, cutting in half would be a solid win right there. [00:30:03] Jason: Yeah.  [00:30:03] David: Yeah. That's just like status quo stuff. And now what, with the release of the new Vendoroo product that, that's actually being announced here today. The email's going out to all of our existing clients of all the new features that are coming out now, we're starting to see that. You know that quality is now increasing to where if you were to go out and hire that person, you may have to be spending, you know, 55,000 or $65,000 a year. [00:30:29] David: Right? So now it's like saying, okay, if we can get as good as what these people are using for their VAs right, and we know what that cost is, and they're saying that's, you know, that's what their factors is. Well, what happens in the next six to 12 months when this is a seasoned person that you would've to pay $85,000 a year to? [00:30:45] David: Right. Yeah. And right, because they have knowledge of. Estimates and knowledge of vendor routing and knowledge of, you know, it can handle...  [00:30:53] Jason: you've invested so much time into them, so much attention. They know your properties and know your portfolio. They know the vendors. Like you've invested so much into this person that now they sort of have you by the balls so that they're like, Hey, I want 80 k or I walk.  [00:31:06] David: Yeah.  [00:31:06] Jason: You're like, you've got to come up with it.  [00:31:08] David: Yeah.  [00:31:09] Jason: Right. You've got to do it.  [00:31:10] David: Yeah.  [00:31:10] Jason: And you know, because that's not easy to create. And a lot of people, in order to have a good maintenance coordinator, they need a veteran of the industry. Veteran of industry. [00:31:19] Jason: They need somebody that's been doing this a long time.  [00:31:21] David: Yeah.  [00:31:22] Jason: And that's really hard to find.  [00:31:24] David: Yes. It's extremely hard to find as we know. One of the things that I think that we're doing for this industry is we're actually preserving knowledge that I don't think is necessary getting passed down. [00:31:33] David: Yeah. You know, there's a lot less people that I think are as handy as they once were in the Americas and so we have a lot of that knowledge. Like, you know, we know that the average age of an electrician is in the sixties, the average age of a plumber's in the sixties. And these guys, you know, they have wealth of knowledge that it can troubleshoot anything that's going on in a house. [00:31:54] David: And so to be able to try to preserve some of that, so maybe if a person does come in, you know, maybe there's some knowledge sharing along the lines. But let's take it even in another step forward Jason that in the future, you know, the AI is going to know the location of the hot water tank in that house. [00:32:10] David: It's going to then add it automatically to the system, like. It's going to know more knowledge than they will because it's going to have maps of every single property that's all currently sitting inside of, you know, that maintenance coordinator's head, right? And so it's going to, it's going to actually know more than them, you know. [00:32:26] Jason: Yeah. That's wild. Yeah, it is. Absolutely. It's the future. Cool. Well, you're rolling out a bunch of new features. You're announcing these today. You've told me a little bit, but why don't you tell the listeners what's changing, what's new, what innovations have come out? What are you guys launching? [00:32:41] David: Yeah. Exciting. Yeah. So, the biggest one I think is, which is the most exciting is, is Resiroo, which is the first one that actually handles all the communications with the resident and does the triage and troubleshooting. First one of what are you talking about? So we have our products. [00:32:57] David: So you have these AI tools, right? These agents. Right.  [00:33:00] Jason: And so, you know, every, so think of them like different sort of people?  [00:33:04] David: Skill sets. Yeah. Different person. Okay. Exactly. And so that's when you come and see our display at the NARPM conference, you'll actually will see these five agents kind of in their work desk and in their environments, kind of cool. [00:33:15] David: Okay. Able to see them right. So the coolest part about that one is we're doing a major product you know, update on that for not only the knowledge base, but we're actually turning that over to the company. We were talking about this a little bit before, and now they own their own AI agent and they can customize it into how they want it to ask questions or the type of questions and the mindsets when it's triaging stuff. [00:33:41] David: Triaging work orders for their portfolio. Like super cool. So fully customizable to your company, right?  [00:33:49] Jason: So now sometimes the more humans get involved, the more they mess stuff up.  [00:33:54] David: Yes. We make sure they don't mess it up. So everyone's going to learn how to write prompts and they'll submit it into us. [00:33:59] David: And we have a great team of AI engineers that when that knowledge base is written or what they're doing. We will ensure that it is put in so that it actually produces the desire outcome, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's a very exciting one. The second one that I'm that I think is so cool, do you know that only 10% of all estimates get approved by the owner without one or multiple questions? [00:34:23] David: Because owners really struggle with trust when it comes to estimates. Like 10%. Like, that's a really bad number, I felt as the industry that owners only believe us one out of 10 times. Like that's the way I took that. Yeah. Right. And so, Owneroo is what I coined inside, is the estimate of the future. [00:34:41] David: That really was looking in understanding like what was, what questions was the owner asking when they were rejecting a bid that that we could proactively ask the answer for them to help guide them to understanding the value in this estimate that they're looking at in historical context of the property. [00:35:00] David: How many other people have experienced this issue? Like, like there's a whole bunch of factors that should go into an estimate and an estimate should no longer be like, here's a cost from Frank. Right? Like, like that was like, like that was...  [00:35:14] Jason: here's what Frank said it is. Yeah. Like that was like from the 1940s. [00:35:17] Jason: That's good. How do I trust that?  [00:35:18] David: How do I trust that? That was from the forties and we're still...  [00:35:21] Jason: how much went into this decision? Was this just out of the blue, like pulled out of your ass or is this like legit?  [00:35:27] David: Yeah. Yeah. What's the, you know, we live in a data-driven world, so what's the intellect behind this estimate? [00:35:33] David: And so I'm really excited about Owneroo, which is going to be the new standard for the way the estimates are created. We have the front desk agent which is coming out. So, that one is going to handle phone calls that are coming in, be able to talk about available listings, actual general questions about leases route phone calls over to property managers for you. [00:35:54] David: So again. Very human-like interaction, great AI voice. Actually. We feel it's going to be the best in the industry. So a person's calling in, just like they're calling your office able to handle all those front desk things. We, we have the PM chat, which is now the employee which is fully integrated into all of your systems. [00:36:14] David: It's in Slack. That's your employee that you get to talk to. We believe that if you're going to hire somebody, they should be inside of your communication channels. You have the Google Chrome extension that it's on right inside your AppFolio or your buildium or your Rentvine software that you can ask and talk to it. [00:36:31] David: So, yeah, so we have a lot of exciting products that have come out. And then of course the backbone of all of them in the middle is Vendoroo, which handles all the scheduling, all the communications. You know, a resident asks for an update, responds to them, an owner asks for an update, it responds to them. [00:36:48] David: And you know, it handles actually the body of the work order. So you have those five tools, we believe are what the property management industry said. If you are going to give me an employee, this is what the employee has to be. This is what makes up that employee. So we say that these tools, these agents were actually built by the property management industry. [00:37:08] David: And that excites me because if you're not building AI tools from working with your partners, from being on the ground floor with them and using the data and building tools based upon the data and their pain points and their failures, buyer beware. If somebody's coming to you and saying, Hey, we figured this all out in the lab. [00:37:25] David: Come use it. Yeah. Right. Buyer beware.  [00:37:29] Jason: Yeah. So you guys connect with Slack. They can communicate through Slack, but it slack's a paid tool. Have you guys considered Telegram? I love Telegram Messenger.  [00:37:37] Jason: Alright. Could you do that? Write it down. Telegram Messenger is like the iMessage tool that works on every device. [00:37:44] Jason: It's free. It's one of the most secure, it's not owned or controlled by Facebook. Like, WhatsApp, like, yeah. But WhatsApp might be a close second, but we use Telegram internally, so I love Telegram.  [00:37:58] David: We'll definitely take that into, into consideration for sure. Yeah, check it  [00:38:02] Jason: out. Because I, what I love is the voice message feature and I can just listen to my team and others at like high speed, but internal communications and it's free for everybody, which is great. [00:38:12] Jason: So, yeah.  [00:38:13] David: Yeah. I think a lot, for a lot of people it was like you know, who was Vendoroo in the beginning and Vendoroo was like the team of like people that were trying to figure out like how is AI going to work in this industry? [00:38:26] David: How is it going to solve the needs of our property management partners? And this is why I say to everybody, if you thought about Vendoroo, if you came in and the experience wasn't great with Vendoroo, if you're one of our existing clients that has been with us and you're and you're still moving forward, and we thank you so much for your dedication to this, the Vendoroo product, everything that we've done, everything that we worked at is being showcased at the NARPM broker owner. The email's going out today. This is who Vendoroo is. We are a team that is a technology partner for the property management industry that is helping building meaningful AI tools, specifically by demand, by our industry to help us show value and to preserve this great industry. [00:39:09] David: For the future in this new AI economy, right? Like we need to step up. We have clients that are adding doors left and right because they're showing their clients that they use an AI maintenance system and their clients are like, this is what I expect from a property management in this community. [00:39:24] David: Right? And again, Owneroo, that estimate, we believe that in the future. Like, like owners are going to say like, I'm not approving an estimate unless it's like the estimate of the future, right? Like, like that's the new standard. So you got to know what the new standards are and you got to get technology that are going to help you compete with those new standards that will be in your community and are will be in your community in the next week, the next two weeks. [00:39:46] David: And definitely some really cool products in the next six months.  [00:39:49] Jason: All right. Well, yeah, I'm really excited to see what you guys have been able to create so far. So yeah, it's pretty awesome. Yeah. All right. Well David, it's been awesome having you on the show. Sounds like you guys are really innovating the future. Everybody come to DoorGrow Live. David, are you going to be at that one? I will be there. All right, so you can come meet David in person. [00:40:08] Jason: We've got some amazing people that are going to be at this. We've got technology people. There's a gentleman there, one of the vendors they created another really cool tool, but he had a hundred million dollars exit, you know, in a previous business, like there's really amazing entrepreneurs and people at this event, so come to DoorGrow Live, get your tickets, and if you do, we have just decided that we're going to give out to anybody that registers. [00:40:34] Jason: You can pick from one of our free bonuses that are well worth the price of the ticket. Or coming or anything in and of itself, including our pricing secrets training that goes over a three tier hybrid pricing model or our sales secrets training, which goes over how we're helping property managers crush it and closing more deals more easily at a higher price point. [00:40:55] Jason: And reputation secrets, which are helping our clients get way more positive reviews by leveraging the psychology and the law of reciprocity and getting the majority of their tenants in order to give them positive feedback online. Maybe some others. So you'll be able to pick from these bonuses one of these that you might like and that's our free, most incredible free gift ever that we'll give to each person that registers for DoorGrow Live. [00:41:19] Jason: So.  [00:41:20] David: Cool. Awesome man. Always great to see you. Looking forward to seeing you at DoorGrow Live and love that you guys are working on pricing because AI is going to make people think different about pricing. It's going to be way more efficient, so you guys are ahead of the curve on that. Great job, Jason. [00:41:33] Jason: Awesome. All right, so how can they check out Vendoroo, David?  [00:41:36] David: Just visit, Vendoroo.ai, go to the website, request a demo with one of our great sales reps, and yeah they'd love to help you out. See all the new products, see how far it's come. And again, we thank everybody from the bottom of our hearts for all their effort, people who've tried us out. [00:41:52] David: Come back and see what you built and yeah. Come check us out at Vendoroo.  [00:41:57] Jason: Got it. Go check out Vendoroo, it's vendor. If you know how to spell that, V-E-N-D-O-R-O-O dot A-I, go check it out. All right? And if you're a property management entrepreneur, you want to add doors, you want to make your business scalable, you want to get out of the day to day, you want to increase the capacity so your company could easily handle another 200 plus doors without having to make any significant systems changes, reach out to us at DoorGrow. We will help you figure it out. So until next time to our mutual growth. Bye everyone. 

How does a young boy from Lima, Peru grow up to become a world-renowned conductor? What is the role of the conductor in the music their orchestra is performing? What new goals do the Shepherd School of Music have for the 2025-2026 school year?Miguel Harth-Bedoya is an Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated conductor, and also the Mary Franks Thompson Professor of Orchestral Studies at Baylor University and overseer of the Shepherd School's preeminent orchestral programs in the 2025-26 season. Miguel and host David Mansouri discuss Miguel's journey to finding a love for music and he explains some about his philosophy on conducting. They talk about Miguel's educational initiatives, his thoughts on the future of classical music - the surprising reason why he wouldn't use that word himself, and his commitment to community engagement, working with kids, and broadening the audience for orchestral music. Harth-Bedoya also discusses conducting Peter and the Wolf featuring John Lithgow in both English and Spanish, his upcoming role at Rice and his plans to enrich and expand the school's musical outreach. Let us know you're listening by filling out this form. We will be sending listeners Beyond the Hedges Swag every month.Episode Guide:01:21 Miguel Harth-Bedoya's Early Life and Musical Beginnings03:18 First Steps into Conducting07:34 The Role of a Conductor14:27 Working With People Instead of Instruments16:08 Joining the Shepherd School of Music20:06 Community Engagement and Future Plans23:27 Creating More Opportunities for Young People27:43 Caminos del Inka and Musical Legacy35:04 Rapid Fire Questions and ConclusionBeyond The Hedges is a production of the Office of Alumni Relations at Rice University and is produced by University FM.Show Links:Shepherd School of Music at RiceRice AlumniAssociation of Rice Alumni | FacebookRice Alumni (@ricealumni) | X (Twitter)Association of Rice Alumni (@ricealumni) | Instagram Host Profiles:David Mansouri | LinkedInDavid Mansouri '07 | Alumni | Rice UniversityDavid Mansouri (@davemansouri) | XDavid Mansouri | TNScoreGuest Profiles:Faculty Profile at BaylorMiguelHarth-Bedoya.comInstagramEpisode Quotes:Conductors works with people, not just with instrument14:23: [David] How do you build a relationship with, or chemistry with, the musicians that you're conducting? What does that look like? Are there things that work particularly well, or things that don't work as well, in building that chemistry or relationship?14:39: [Miguel] Well, you've hit another big, important aspect of what we do, is we work with people. And conductors need to remember that we are working with people, not with instruments. These are human beings, and each of them have their own lives, their own emotions, their own feelings, their own knowledge, their own background. And we all are sharing the same piece of music. Now, unfortunately, or fortunately, we are the individuals that have to bring units. And sometimes you have to agree to disagree or have others understand that maybe you did it this way, but I think it's this way. So understanding people's willingness and desire to sound good is number one.On building connections beyond music26:22: I love being very active in connecting with non-musicians. As a matter of fact, what I bring to Rice, or what I will be doing at Rice, is what I've been doing officially since I joined academia, which is: I teach musicians, I teach artists, music teachers, and I teach music lovers. We, as musicians, have to know people in every aspect if we want to think about doing what we're talking about. You cannot have a plan about engaging people in what we do and not be part of it. So, in other words, you have to get your hands dirty. If you want to plant the soil, you cannot just correct from above and let others.How Miguel is opening doors to music and life beyond performance34:26: In the current times that we live in, the 21st century, and with the technologies that we have available to connect throughout the world, I think creating the doorway—it's both literally a door to get into a building but also a virtual door to expose, first of all, what a musician is and what life as a musician is as well. And because we see somebody performing surgery, it doesn't mean we know the life of a surgeon. In creating more of that, in promoting that, that gateway is there early on, rather than waiting until you're out of high school before you dare to come to my building. And the one way I do this, personally, is by keeping in touch with the younger crowd.

Hello Libration Nation! Ready to go back ti the 90s? Today, we're talking about one of the defining books of a generation: Generation X by Douglas Coupland. I'm joined by David How—father, husband, music lover, and proud Canadian

Patrick kicks off with a powerful moment of Pope John Paul II singing the Pater Noster, touching hearts with his remarkable voice. He discusses Kamala Harris's controversial tenure as the U.S. border czar, and reflects on voting with a moral conscience. Patrick also shares a humorous yet eye-opening exchange between a cab driver and an irate customer, highlighting the complexities of modern politeness.   Audio: Pater Noster sung by JPII in Holy Name Cathedral Chicago (02:07) John - What happened to David Daleiden who did the sting operation on the Planned Parenthood? (05:14) Audio: For profit media's before and after about Harris being the “Border Czar” (06:43) Juan - How can we receive the Eucharist if we are voting for parties that are in favor of abortion? (11:04) Audio: A cab driver says “Thank you, Miss” and pays the price for it. (14:32) David - How do you understand Genesis where light was created before the Sun and Moon. (23:18) John - What is the Catholic position on the war in Israel since both sides of the war are in favor of abortion? (30:58) Audio: How Palestinians are able to so successfully victimize themselves (40:58) Josh - How do I talk to my wife who is very caught up in pro-choice movement? (45:39)

How can past crises teach us how to deal with challenges in today's world? Our guest NEIL HOWE is a renowned historian and generational theorist, known for co-authoring the seminal books "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069" and "The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy." In this timely one-on-one conversation with SCOTT HARRIS -- a seasoned facilitator and trainer for Tony Robbins -- Neil discusses his latest book, "The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End."  Drawing on his expertise in history and cycles, Neil reveals how different generations experience and shape our world. Howe also helps us better understand the multiple crises that we're facing today, and how upcoming challenges will affect each generation differently.  How can understanding generational cycles in "The Fourth Turning" help us prepare for today's societal and economic challenges? Neil offers insights on how individuals, communities, and families can effectively prepare for the future. This discussion is particularly crucial, as we approach a critical juncture expected by the early 2030s.  Join us for this insightful conversation and learn how to stay multiple steps ahead in business and life! To watch this episode, click here. SHOW NOTES: [00:18] Scott's Intro  [02:42] The life cycles of society  [05:01] What precedes a Fourth Turning  [08:03] Win or fall apart as a country  [10:22] How we broke out of the last Fourth Turning  [13:44] Fourth Turning characteristics  [15:05] The decline of Western Civilization  [17:58] Golden Age after crisis  [18:30] War included  [21:30] Change to move forward  [23:52] The cycles of social behavior  [25:44] How younger generations can fix the world  [28:20] Lost Generation vs. Millennials  [31:00] Millennials and the rising economic inequality  [33:52] Millennials post Fourth Turning  [38:24] Prepping for what's ahead economically  [41:02] The importance of community virtues  [46:30] Neil's advice for secure geographical investments and promising industries  [56:15] Why living standards haven't improved  [57:07] Awakenings vs. crisis  [01:01:37] Question from David: How will the next year or two play out in this cycle?  [01:07:09] Question from Michelle: What changes or shifts have you observed between your initial book and most recent one?  [01:10:29] Michelle's second question: What role does immigration play on awakenings?  [01:15:57] Casey inquiries about the origin of the word saeculum and its relevance to shorter lifespans in centuries past.  [01:18:30] Casey's second question: With advancements in biosciences and longevity technologies leading to longer lifespans, will a saeculum consistently represent four generations, or will a fifth generation emerge?  [01:21:38] Casey's third question involves examining historical data and inquiring if regression analysis has been utilized to predict election outcomes.  [01:23:36] Jeffrey's question concerns relocating to safeguard one's family from impending turmoil on the planet.  [01:31:50] Scott signs off   

The theme for May 2024 is "Conversations with God - A Kingdom United (David/Solomon)." Our editor of the month, Shelby Carter, discusses the question as Samuel annoints David - "How long are you going to mourn for Saul?"Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/zoo/clarityLicense code: UL9CSCKZ4YPM52DF

The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT The health care sector has long struck me as having environments and dynamics that would benefit a lot from using digital signage technology. Accurate information is critically important, and things change quickly and often - in ways that make paper and dry erase marker board solutions seem antiquated and silly. But it is a tough sector to work in and crack - because of the layers of bureaucracy, tight regulations and the simple reality that medical facilities go up over several years, not months. People often talk about the digital signage solution sales cycle being something like 18 months on average. With healthcare, it can be double or triple that. The other challenge is that it is highly specialized and there are well-established companies referred to as patient engagement providers. So any digital signage software or solutions company thinking about going after health care business will be competing with companies that already know the industry and its technologies, like medical records, and have very established ties. LG has been active in the healthcare sector for decades, and sells specific displays and a platform used by patient engagement providers that the electronics giant has as business partners. I had a really insightful chat with Tom Mottlau, LG's director of healthcare sales. Subscribe from wherever you pick up new podcasts. TRANSCRIPT David: Tom, thank you for joining me. Can you give me a rundown of what your role is at LG?  Tom Mottlau: I am the Director of Healthcare Sales for LG. I've been in this role for some time now; I joined the company in 1999 and have been selling quite a bit into the patient room for some time.  David: Has most of your focus through those years all been on healthcare? Tom Mottlau: Well, actually, when I started, I was a trainer when we were going through the digital rollout when we were bringing high-definition television into living rooms. My house was actually the beta site for WXIA for a time there until we got our language codes right. But soon after, I moved over to the commercial side and healthcare, around 2001-2002.  David: Oh, wow. So yeah, you've been at it a long time then. Much has changed!  Tom Mottlau: Yes, sir.  David: And I guess in some cases, nothing has changed.  Tom Mottlau: Yep. David: Healthcare is an interesting vertical market for me because it seems so opportune, but I tend to think it's both terrifying and very grinding in that they're quite often very large institutions, sometimes government-associated or university-associated, and very few things happen quickly. Is that a fair assessment?  Tom Mottlau: Absolutely. There's a lot of oversight in the patient room. It's a very litigation-rich environment, and so there's a bit of bureaucracy to cut through to make sure that you're bringing in something that's both safe for patients and protects their privacy but also performs a useful function.  David: I guess the other big challenge is the build-time. You can get word of an opportunity for a medical center that's going up in a particular city, and realistically, it's probably 5-7 years out before it actually opens its doors, right? Tom Mottlau: That's true. Not only that but very often, capital projects go through a gestation period that can be a year or two from the time you actually start talking about the opportunity.  David: And when it comes to patient engagement displays and related displays around the patient care areas, is that something that engineers and architects scheme in early on, or is it something that we start talking about 3-4 years into the design and build process?  Tom Mottlau: Well, the part that's schemed in is often what size displays we're going to need. So, for example, if somebody is looking to deploy maybe a two-screen approach or a large-format approach, that's the type of thing that is discussed early on, but then when they come up on trying to decide between the patient engagement providers in the market, they do their full assessment at that time because things evolve and also needs change in that whole period that may take a couple of years you may go as we did from an environment that absolutely wanted no cameras to an environment that kind of wanted cameras after COVID. You know, so things change. So they're constantly having those discussions.  David: Why switch to wanting cameras because of COVID?  Tom Mottlau: Really, because the hospitals were locked down. You couldn't go in and see your loved one. There was a thought that if we could limit the in-person contact, maybe we could save lives, and so there was a lot of thought around using technology to overcome the challenges of contagion, and so there was even funding dedicated towards it and a number of companies focused on it  David: That's interesting because I wondered whether, in the healthcare sector, business opportunities just flat dried up because the organizations were so focused on dealing with COVID or whether it actually opened up new opportunities or diverted budgets to things that maybe weren't thought about before, like video? Tom Mottlau: True, I mean, the video focus was definitely because of COVID, but then again, you had facilities where all of their outpatient procedures had dried up. So they were strained from a budget standpoint, and so they had to be very picky about where they spent their dollars.  Now the equipment is in the patient room, but at the end of the day, we're still going to get the same flow of patients. People don't choose when to be sick. If it's gonna be either the same or higher because of those with COVID, so they still need to supply those rooms with displays, even though they were going through a crisis, they still had to budget and still had to go through their day-to-day buying of that product.  David: Is this a specialty application and solution as opposed to something that a more generic digital signage, proAV company could offer? My gut tells me that in order to be successful, you really need to know the healthcare environment. You can't just say, we've got these screens, we've got the software, what do you need?  Tom Mottlau: Yeah, that's a very good question. Everything we do on our end is driven by VOC (voice of customer). We partner with the top patient engagement providers in the country. There are a handful that are what we call tier one. We actually provide them with products that they vet out before we go into production.  We go to them to ask them, what do you need? What products do you need for that patient? I mean, and that's where the patient engagement boards, the idea of patient engagement boards came from was we had to provide them a display that met, at the time, 60065 UL, which is now 62368-1, so that they can meet NFPA 99 fire code.  David: I love it when you talk dirty. Tom Mottlau: Yeah, there's a lot of stuff out there that.  David: What the hell is he talking about?  Tom Mottlau: Yeah, I know enough to be dangerous. Basically, what it boils down to is we want to make sure that our products are vetted by a third party. UL is considered a respectable testing agency, and that's why you find most electronics are vetted by them and so they test them in the patient room. It's a high-oxygen environment with folks who are debilitated and life-sustaining equipment so the product has to be tested.  We knew that we had to provide a product for our SIs that would meet those specs as well as other specs that they had like they wanted something that could be POE-powered because it takes an act of Congress to add a 110-amp outlet to a patient room. It's just a lot of bureaucracy for that. So we decided to roll out two units: one of 32, which is POE, and one that's 43. Taking all those things I just mentioned into consideration, as well as things like lighting.  Folks didn't want a big night light so we had to spend a little extra attention on the ambient light sensor and that type of thing. This is our first offering. David: So for doofuses like me who don't spend a lot of time thinking about underwriter lab, certifications, and so on, just about any monitor, well, I assume any monitor that is marketed by credible companies in North America is UL-certified, but these are different grades of UL, I'm guessing?  Tom Mottlau: They are. Going back in the day of CRTs, if you take it all the way back then when you put a product into a room that has a high-powered cathode ray tube and there's oxygen floating around, safety is always of concern. So, going way back, probably driven by product liability and that type of thing. We all wanted to produce a safe product, and that's why we turned to those companies. The way that works is we design a product, we throw it over to them, and they come back and say, okay, this is great, but you got to change this, and this could be anything. And then we go back and forth until we arrive at a product that's safe for that environment, with that low level of oxygen, with everything else into consideration in that room.  David: Is it different when you get out into the hallways and the nursing stations and so on? Do you still need that level, like within a certain proximity of oxygen or other gases, do you need to have that?  Tom Mottlau: It depends on the facility's tolerance because there is no federal law per se, and it could vary based on how they feel about it. I know that Florida tends to be very strict, but as a company, we had to find a place to draw that line, like where can we be safe and provide general products and where can we provide something that specialized?  And that's usually oxygenated patient room is usually the guideline. If there's oxygen in the walls and that type of thing, that's usually the guideline and the use of a pillow speaker. Outside into the hallways, not so much, but it depends on the facility. We just lay out the facts and let them decide. We sell both.  David: Is it a big additional cost to have that additional protection or whatever you want to call it, the engineering aspects?  Tom Mottlau: Yes.  David: So it's not like 10 percent more; it can be quite a bit more? Tom Mottlau: I'm not sure of the percentage, but there's a noticeable amount. Keep in mind it's typically not just achieving those ratings; it's some of the other design aspects that go into it. I mean, the fact that you have pillow speaker circuitry to begin with, there's a cost basis for that. There's a cost basis for maintaining an installer menu of 117+ items. There's a cost basis for maintaining a Pro:Centric webOS platform. You do tend to find it because of those things, not just any one of them, but because of all of them collectively, yeah, the cost is higher. I would also say that the warranties tend to be more encompassing. It's not like you have to drive it down to Ted's TV. Somebody comes and actually remedies on-site. So yeah, all of that carries a cost basis. That's why you're paying for that value.  David: You mentioned that you sell or partner with patient engagement providers. Could you describe what those companies do and offer? Tom Mottlau: Yeah, and there's a number of them. Really, just to be objective, I'll give you some of the tier ones, the ones that have taken our product over the years and tested and provided back, and the ones that have participated in our development summit. I'll touch on that in a moment after this. So companies like Aceso, you have Uniguest who were part of TVR who offers the pCare solutions. You have Get Well, Sonify, those types of companies; they've been at this for years, and as I mentioned, we have a development summit where we, for years, have piled these guys on a plane. The CTOs went off to Korea and the way I describe it is we all come into a room, and I say, we're about to enter Festivus. We want you to tell us all the ways we've disappointed you with our platform, and we sit in that room, we get tomatoes thrown at us, and then we make changes to the platform to accommodate what they need. And then that way, they're confident that they're deploying a product that we've done all we can to improve the functionality of their patient engagement systems. After all, we're a platform provider, which is what we are.  David: When you define patient engagement, what would be the technology mix that you would typically find in a modernized or newly opened patient care area? Tom Mottlau: So that would be going back years ago. I guess it started more with patient education. If Mrs. Jones is having a procedure on her kidney, they want her to be educated on what she can eat or not eat, so they found a way to bring that patient education to the patient room over the TVs. But then they also wanted to confirm she watched it, and then it went on from there.  It's not only the entertainment, but it's also things that help improve workflows, maybe even the filling out of surveys and whatnot on the platform, Being able to order your culinary, just knowing who your doctor is, questions, educational videos, all of those things and then link up with EMR. David: What's that?  Tom Mottlau: Electronic medical records. Over the years, healthcare has wanted to move away from paper, to put it very simply. They didn't want somebody's vitals in different aspects of their health stored on a hand-scribbled note in several different doctor's offices. So there's been an effort to create electronic medical records, and now that has kind of been something that our patient engagement providers have tied into those solutions into the group.  David: So, is the hub, so to speak, the visual hub in a patient care room just a TV, or is there other display technology in there, almost like a status board that tells them who their primary provider is and all the other stuff?  Tom Mottlau: So it started as the smart TV, the Pro:Centric webOS smart TV. But then, as time went on, we kept getting those requests for, say, a vertically mounted solution, where somebody can actually walk in the room, see who their doctor is, see who their nurse is, maybe the physician can come in and understand certain vitals of the patient, and so that's why we developed those patient engagement boards that separately. They started out as non-touch upon request, we went with the consensus, and the consensus was we really need controlled information. We don't want to; we've had enough issues with dry-erase boards. We want something where there's more control in entering that information, and interesting enough, we're now getting the opposite demand. We're getting demand now to incorporate touch on the future models, and that's how things start. As you know, to your point earlier, folks are initially hesitant to breach any type of rules with all the bureaucracy. Now, once they cut through all that and feel comfortable with a start, they're willing to explore more technologies within those rooms. That's why we always start out with one, and then over the years, it evolves.  David: I assume that there's a bit of a battle, but it takes some work to get at least some of the medical care facilities to budget and approve these patient engagement displays or status displays just because there's an additional cost. It's different from the way they've always done things, and it involves integration with, as you said, the EMR records and all that stuff. So, is there a lot of work to talk them into it?  Tom Mottlau: Well, you have to look at us like consultants, where we avoid just talking folks into things. Really, what it has to do with is going back to VOC, voice of the customer, the way we were doing this years ago or just re-upping until these boards were launched was to provide a larger format, and ESIs were dividing up the screen. That was the way we always recommended. But then, once we started getting that VOC, they were coming to us saying, well, we need to get these other displays in the room. You know, certain facilities were saying, Hey, we absolutely need this, and we were saying, well, we don't want to put something that's not rated for that room. Then we realized we had to really start developing a product that suits that app, that environment, and so our job is to make folks aware of what we have and let them decide which path they're going to take because, to be honest, there are two different ways of approaching it. You can use one screen of 75”, divide it, or have two screens like Moffitt did. Moffitt added the patient engagement boards, which is what they wanted.  David: I have the benefit, at least so far, of being kind of at retirement age and spending very little time, thank God, in any kind of patient care facility. Maybe that'll change. Hopefully not.  But when I have, I've still seen dry-erase marker boards at the nursing stations, in rooms, in hallways, and everywhere else. Why is it still like that? Why haven't they cut over? Is it still the prevalent way of doing things, or are you seeing quite a bit of adoption of these technologies? Tom Mottlau: Well, it is, I would say, just because we're very early in all this. That is the prevalent way, no doubt.  It's really those tech-forward, future-forward facilities that are wanting to kind of go beyond that and not only that, there's a lot of facilities that want to bring all that in and, maybe just the nature of that facility is a lot more conservative, and we have to respect that. Because ultimately they're having to maintain it. We wouldn't want to give somebody something that they can't maintain or not have the budget for. I mean, at the end of the day, they're going to come back to us, and whether or not they trust us is going to be based upon whether we advise them correctly or incorrectly. If we advise them incorrectly, they're not going to trust us. They're not going to buy from us ten years from now.  David: For your business partners, the companies that are developing patient engagement solutions, how difficult is it to work with their patient record systems, building ops systems, and so on to make these dynamic displays truly dynamic? Is it a big chore, or is there enough commonality that they can make that happen relatively quickly? Tom Mottlau: That's a very good question, and that's exactly why we're very careful about who's tier one and who we may advise folks to approach. Those companies I mentioned earlier are very skilled at what they do, and so they're taking our product as one piece of an entire system that involves many other components, and I have full faith in their ability to do that because we sit in on those meetings.  Once a year, we hear feedback, we hear positive feedback from facilities. We see it but it really couldn't happen without those partners, I would say. We made that choice years ago to be that platform provider that supports those partners and doesn't compete with them. In hindsight, I think that was a great choice because it provides more options to the market utilizing our platform.  David: Well, and being sector experts in everything that LG tries to touch would be nightmarish. If you're far better off, I suspect I will be with partners who wake up in the morning thinking about that stuff. Tom Mottlau: Yeah. I mean, we know our core competencies. We're never going to bite off more than we can chew. Now granted, we understand more and more these days, there's a lot of development supporting things like telehealth, patient engagement, EMR and whatnot. But we're also going to make sure that at the end of the day, we're tying in the right folks to provide the best solution we can to patients. David: How much discussion has to happen around network security and operating system security?  I mean, if you're running these on smart TVs, they're then running web OS, which is probably to the medical facility's I.T. team or not terribly familiar to them.  Tom Mottlau: Yeah, that's a very good question. Facilities, hospitals, and anything that involves network security bring them an acute case of indigestion, more so than other areas in the business world. So these folks, a lot of times, there's exhaustive paperwork whenever you have something that links up to the internet or something that's going to open up those vulnerabilities. So, Pro:Centric webOS is actually a walled garden. It is not something that is easily hacked when you have a walled garden approach and something that's controlled with a local server. That's why we took that approach. Now, we can offer them a VPN if there is something that they want to do externally, but these systems were decided upon years ago and built with security in mind because we knew we were going to deploy in very sensitive commercial environments. And so not so much a concern. You don't need to pull our TV out and link up with some foreign server as you might with a laptop that you buy that demands updates. It's not anything like that because, of course, that would open us up to vulnerability. So we don't take that approach. It's typically a local server and there is the ability to do some control of the server if you want a VPN, but other than that, there is no access.  David: Do you touch on other areas of what we would know as digital signage within a medical facility?  Like I'm thinking of wayfinding, directories, donor recognition, video walls, and those sorts of things. Tom Mottlau: Absolutely. I mean, we see everything. Wayfinding needs have been for years and years now, and those are only expanding. and we start to see some that require outdoor displays for wave finding. So we do have solutions for that.  Beyond displays, we actually have robots now that we're testing in medical facilities and have had a couple of certifications on some of those. David: What would they do?  Tom Mottlau: Well, the robots would be used primarily to deliver some type of nonsensitive product. I know there's some work down the road, or let's just say there's some demand for medication delivery.  But obviously, LG's approach to any demand like that is to vet it out and make sure we're designing it properly. Then, we can make announcements later on about that type of stuff. For now, we're taking those same robots that we're currently using, say, in the hotel industry, and we're getting demand for that type of technology to be used in a medical facility.  David: So surgical masks or some sort of cleaning solutions or whatever that need to be brought up to a certain area, you could send in orderly, but staffing may be tight and so you get a robot to do it. Tom Mottlau: Absolutely. And that is a very liquid situation. There's a lot of focus and a lot of development. I'm sure there'll be a lot to announce on that front, but it's all very fluid, and it's all finding its way into that environment with our company.  All these future-forward needs, not only with the robots but EV chargers for the vast amount of electric vehicles, we find ourselves involved in discussions on all these fronts with our medical facilities these days.  David: It's interesting. Obviously, AI is going to have a role in all kinds of aspects of medical research and diagnosis and all those super important things.  But I suspect there's probably a role as well, right down at the lobby level of a hospital, where somebody comes in where English isn't their first language, and they need to find the oncology clinic or whatever, and there's no translator available. If you can use AI to guide them, that would be very helpful and powerful.  Tom Mottlau: Let me write that down as a product idea. Actually, AI is something that is discussed in the company, I would say, on a weekly basis, and again, I'm sure there'll be plenty to showcase in the future. But yes, I'd say we have a good head start in that area that we're exploring different use cases in the medical environment.  David: It's interesting. I write about digital signage every day and look at emerging markets, and I've been saying that healthcare seems like a greenfield opportunity for a lot of companies, but based on this conversation, I would say it is, and it isn't because if you are a more generalized digital signage software platform, yes, you could theoretically do a lot of what's required, but there's so much insight and experience and business ties that you really need to compete with these patient engagement providers, and I think it would be awfully tough for just a more generalized company to crack, wouldn't it?  Tom Mottlau: I believe so. I mean, we've seen many come and go. You know, we have certain terms internally, like the medicine show, Wizard of Oz. there's a lot out there; you really just have to vet them out to see who's legit and who isn't, and I'm sure there are some perfectly legitimate companies that we haven't worked with yet, probably in areas outside of patient education we, we have these discussions every week, and it's, it can be difficult because there are companies that you might not have heard of and you're always trying to assess, how valid is this? And, yeah, that's a tough one.  David: Last question. Is there a next big thing that you expect to emerge with patient engagement over the next couple of years, two-three years that you can talk about?  Tom Mottlau: You hit the nail on the head, AI. But you know, keep in mind that's something in relative terms. It has been relatively just the last few years, and it has been something that's come up a lot. It seems there's a five-year span where something is a focus going way back, it was going from analog to digital.  When I first came here, it was going from wood-clad CRT televisions to flat panels, and now we have OLED right in front of us. So yeah, there's, there's a lot of progression in this market. And I would say AI is one of them, and Telehealth is another; I guess we'll find out for sure which one sticks that always happens that way, but we don't ignore them.  David: Yeah, certainly, I think AI is one of those foundational things. It's kind of like networking. It's going to be fundamental. It's not a passing fancy or something that'll be used for five years and then move on to something else. Tom Mottlau: Yeah, true. But then again, also, it's kind of like when everybody was talking about, okay, we're not going to pull RF cable that went on for years and years because they were all going to pull CAT5, and then next thing, you know, they're saying, well, we have to go back and add CAT5 because they got ahead of themselves, right? So I think the challenge for any company is nobody wants to develop the next Betamax. Everybody wants to develop something that's going to be longstanding and useful, and so it's incumbent upon us to vet out those different solutions and actually see real practical ways of using it in the patient room and trusting our partners and watching them grow. A lot of times, they're the test beds, and so that's the benefit of our approach.  By providing that platform and supporting those partners, we get to see which tree is really going to take off.  David: Betamax, you just showed your age.  Tom Mottlau: Yes, sir. That made eight tracks, right?  David: For the kiddies listening, that's VCRs. All right. Thanks, Tom. That was terrific.  Tom Mottlau: Thank you very much, sir.  David: Nice to speak with you. 

Join Fr. Matthew Spencer as he journeys through fascinating topics and questions, always aiming to deepen our understanding and love for the Catholic faith.   Victoria - Is Veronica and Mary of Magdalene the same person? (03:13) Maria - Why isn't the Chalice offered at Mass anymore? I miss it. (09:21) Susan – How do relics get scattered about the Church? Why can't we spread ashes? (16:08) David - How can we show best reverence for the Eucharist and what are the different styles of receiving? (22:12) Denise - Is there value in asking for the Cross to be taken away when suffering? (30:11) Delores - Why did Jesus tell Mary not to hold on to him, but he told Thomas to put his finger in his side? (36:05) Mike - My daughter is going to college in the fall. How can I help guide her in her faith without being overbearing? Janet - My daughter wanted some remains of her dad in her house so she can have him there. Is that okay? (45:01)

There are steps involved with making prospects and clients comfortable with you. You can't go from, "I have no idea who you are," to "I'm completely comfortable with you and I trust you implicitly" without steps. It just doesn't happen. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Bianca Eastfound and I will be discussing the topic of making prospects and clients comfortable with you. Welcome back, Bianca. Bianca: Thank you so much, David. Definitely one of my favorite topics. And please tell us, what does it take to make prospects comfortable with us? David: Yeah, that's sort of a magic key, isn't it? What does it take? Well, I think it takes desire, certainly starts with the desire to want to do it, because a lot of times we're just so focused on selling what it is that we want to sell that we don't really think about that too much. We just think in terms of introducing ourselves and letting them know what we do and hoping that they're going to want to buy it. But so much of that, can never really happen until and unless we get to the point where they're comfortable enough to even want to hear what it is that we have to offer. Bianca: Well, that's absolutely great. And yeah, I definitely agree with you. So who do we need to do this with? David: Pretty much everyone, pretty much every prospect, every client we ever interact with, we need to create a level of comfort. In some of my early training, I talked about sort of four levels, if you picture a target with archery practice it's a series of rings and outside the rings, there's this area outside the target. That I think of as total obscurity. They don't know who you are. They don't know what you do. They have no idea why they should do business with you at all. So that's sort of outside the target. And then the first level inside the target is recognition. They recognize that you're alive. They recognize that you're taking in air on the planet, but they don't know exactly what you do or how you do it, or if they should use you at all. They just recognize you. Okay, I recognize you. So you move from obscurity to recognition. That's sort of the first step. And then after they recognize you, then you can start to move to comfort. Because until I even know who you are, there's no way I'm going to feel comfortable with you. So there's that next level. So you move from obscurity to recognition, and then recognition to comfort. And then from Comfort, you can eventually, if you do your job well and consistently, you can get to loyalty, right? We didn't even talk about loyalty in the topic today, but ultimately that's kind of the goal. And Comfort is one of the steps we need to get through in order to get to any sort of level of customer loyalty. But when we talk about making prospects and clients feel comfortable with us, it really is a process. And in our total market domination training, we talk about different methods of interaction. In other words, we have entry level awareness. So entry level awareness is designed to make someone aware of the fact that we exist and we do what we do. From there, we can then move on to that comfort level awareness, which is designed to expand the relationship a little more. Okay, I know who you are, I know what you do, and now I feel comfortable enough with you to place that first time order with you. And then once that happens, if I deliver well and consistently, and then you order again, and I deliver well and consistently, then eventually that can lead to loyalty. But I think a lot of it goes to recognizing that there are steps involved here. You can't go from, I have no idea who you are, to I'm completely comfortable with you and I trust you implicitly. It just doesn't happen. Bianca: Wow. And that's a great answer, but I know for some people it may be like a lot. So how do we really do it? David: How do we create that level of comfort? Bianca: Yes.

Patrick explains the distinctions between panentheism and traditional Christian beliefs, providing ways to help a child understand God's presence in the world. Patrick then moves on to discuss the concept of indulgences and offers insights on true contrition and interior freedom.   Patrick responds to an email about a person who doesn't go to Mass because he has a one-on-one relationship with God and asks “why does God allow children to die?” (01:39) David - How do I explain to my 6-year-old son that God is in everything? (20:45) Mike - How do you make sure you are free of venial sin? (27:32) Charlie - Do you think that the more sin you have the less effective your prayer is? (36:14) Zachary – Thank you so much! Jacinto - How do I talk with someone who says that faith alone is all you need to be saved? (45:55)

Patrick discusses the profound changes to the Mass post-Vatican II, addressing concerns about doctrinal shifts and the underlying intent. He explores the significance of language changes and their impact on the Church's tradition. Patrick offers historical insights into Mary's perpetual virginity and the lasting power of Jesus as symbolized by the sacrificial lamb.   Linda - Why did God pick a lamb for the sacrifice for the Hebrew people during Passover? Why not another animal? (00:47) David - How do you defend Mary's virginity and what would you say to someone who says that Jesus did things very differently so what's stopping him from giving Mary to his supposed siblings? (12:19) Emily - I became Catholic about 3 years ago. I was a Jehovah Witness for many years and I wanted to encourage people who know Jehovah Witnesses to keep praying for them because coming into the church is the best thing they can do! (19:37) Kip - Question about these parts of two prayers: “They shall be newly created” and “our life, our sweetness, and our hope” Wilfred - After Vatican II, why didn't the Roman Rite just translate the Mass into English instead of changing it? (37:02)

Patrick demystifies the misconception of selling one's soul, highlighting redemption through Jesus. He shares insights on fasting with pure intentions, guided by St. Francis de Sales's wisdom and examines grief, and the concept of time in the afterlife, and Jesus as the 'Son of Man.' Emphasizing the core message of scripture, Patrick clarifies that entrance to heaven is not earned, but granted through Jesus's love and forgiveness. John - Are there different levels of Grace? How long does the Eucharist last in us after we receive it? (05:19) David - How can I forgive a brother of mine who hurt me? Email – What should I write in a card to compassionately address the tragic passing of an acquaintance's children? Francisco - How do I properly understand Matthew 12:7? Danielle - Matthew 16:27: Question about the “Son of Man”. Also, James and John are sitting at the right hand of God. Who is supposed to sit at the left hand God? Hayden - How is it possible that humans can be transformed more when Purgatory is a place outside of time? (32:13) Marci (email) – How can someone sell their soul to the devil if our souls belong to God? Jenny - Is there a good book on fasting that I can read for Lent? Gabriel - If Jesus asked you “why should I let you in” when you die, how would you respond? (44:58)

David - How many creeds are there? I know about the apostle creed and the Nicene creed and what is the difference? (01:24) Do all priests need to be celibate and why? Gideon (16-years-old) - I called in a little bit ago regarding a speech. You helped me out a lot.  Thank you for your help. Email – Is it ethical to become pregnant using someone else's fertilized embryo so the embryo isn't destroyed?     (13:20) Maureen - I was in a relationship with a man. We fornicated and I am concerned about my soul. What should I do? William – What is the best way to talk about Saint Anthony of Padua to help inspire others? Emily - My mom is on hospice and one of her care givers is stealing medical supplies from the house. What should I do? Joanne - What do you think of a parent taking a 13-year-old to a bingo night with a drag queen as the MC? David - Can you get baptized in the Catholic church if you are married outside of the Church?

Get ready for new AITA reddit stories!Dive in with Jolie, David and Jermaine, as all three respond to three brand new AITA posts on Reddit that discuss challenges of being mixed race in today's world.Jermaine is an aspiring actor and model, who is graduating from college in Spring.David works as a dance teacher, attends school, and has won many competitions.@408maine (Jermaine)@kingmachl90_ (David)How can we bridge the gaps within our mixed race community based on experiences, geography, skin tone, and upbringing to become more united?DOWNLOAD and SUBSCRIBE to Generation Mixed, on Apple, Spotify, IHeart, or Spreaker!FOLLOW US: Instagram: @generationmixedpodcast | https://www.instagram.com/generationmixedpodcast/Tik-Tok: @GenMixedpodcast | https://www.tiktok.com/@genmixedpodcastSubscribe to our newsletter at www.nuwavemedia.orgE-mail us with any questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes: Generationmixedpodcast@gmail.comWanna be on the show? Text or call 510-852-9550!What it means to be multiracial in America, one story at a time, from the studio to the streets. –Exciting news! JMarc has partnered with NuWave Community Media, a non-profit promoting digital literacy. Support our cause by donating or volunteering at www.nuwavemedia.org. Explore our diverse podcasts for insightful content. Join us in building a digitally empowered community

Hey friend! Have you ever wondered if your past is too much for God to use you? What can He do with all of the ways we struggle? Have you ever bargained or wrestled with God?  One of my favorite guests (and fan-favorite!) Max Lucado is here to talk with us about it all today.  Called “America's Pastor” by Christianity Today, Max is the bestselling author of 45 books and counting. He is a pastor and speaker who says he “writes books for people who don't read books.” Max is a father of three, grandfather of two, and he lives with his wife in San Antonio.  In his newest book, God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob's Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy, and God's Relentless Love, Max examines the life of Jacob in Scripture, how God loved and pursued Jacob, and what that means for us.  Join Max and I for a great conversation as we talk about:  Where he gets his  book ideas Why there aren't as many books about Jacob as there are about biblical heroes like Daniel and David How to discern when our understanding of God has become too small Why Max connects with and treasures the story of Jacob God's faithfulness to his people, no matter what You'll also love hearing my chat with Max about how to have hope in a divided world. Check it out here. Favorite quotes: “In the story of Jacob he is hot and cold, in and out, weak, and then he's strong. He has dreams and then he wrestles with God. Then he falls and flops. It is every person's story.” “Jacob's relationship is a transactional relationship with God. You do this. I'll do that. That really strikes home with many of us.” “All of us go through some negotiation or transactional relationship with God.” “It is okay to wrestle with these things. Ultimately there is one authority and it is not you or me.” “Be kind to yourself. God hasn't given up on you. Don't give up on yourself.” Coaching this week:  Three truths about business you won't find anywhere else on the internet.  (31:40) Links to great things we discussed:  Max Lucado Website God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob's Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy, and God's Relentless Love These Days - Jackson Browne The Chosen 1883 1923 PXG Golf Irons The Wino and I Know - Jimmy Buffett Migration - Jimmy Buffett The Coach School The Coach School Instagram 3 Secrets to Become a Successful Coach Order your copy of Remaining You While Raising Them here. Hope you loved this episode! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and slap some stars on a review! :) xo, Alli https://www.alliworthington.com  

If you believe it is a good idea to hold even a small amount of Bitcoin, the next step is to educate your clients and decide on the strategy that will have the best chance for success.  In this episode of the PFP Section podcast, David Oransky, CPA/PFS, shares how he approaches this with his clients. Mark Astrinos, CPA/PFS, poses the following questions to David: How to you respond to criticism of Bitcoin from other advisors? What is your approach with clients to include Bitcoin in their portfolio? How do you explain that Bitcoin is money versus a traditional investment that produces cashflow? Why are retirees most at risk if Bitcoin is successful long term (and they haven't allocated a portion of their portfolio to Bitcoin)? How do you assuage fears given the volatility of Bitcoin? Should advisors be worried about compliance regulation or lack thereof?  Where can listeners go to learn more? For more resources related to this episode: Tune in to the first episode and second episode in this series. Listen to David's in-depth webcast on Bitcoin and access the related slides. Check out the various books to learn more that David mentions at the end of this episode. This episode is brought to you by the AICPA's Personal Financial Planning Section, the premier provider of information, tools, advocacy, and guidance for professionals who specialize in providing tax, estate, retirement, risk management and investment planning advice. Also, by the CPA/PFS credential program, which allows CPAs to demonstrate competence and confidence in providing these services to their clients. Visit us online to join our community, gain access to valuable member-only benefits or learn about our PFP certificate program. Subscribe to the PFP Podcast channel at Libsyn to find all the latest episodes or search “AICPA Personal Financial Planning” on your favorite podcast app.  

Patrick shares and comments on a new Gallup poll - Belief in Five Spiritual Entities Edges Down to New Lows. He offers real solutions and tools we can use to stay grounded in our faith and to help our friends and family come home to the Church Patrick shares the disturbing news of a giant gallstone that might break the world record Ivan - Why is the Lutheran Church not able to confect the Eucharist but the Orthodox Church can? Ray - What do you think about knocking on wood meaning going to the wood of the Cross for all your needs? Email – What is Adoration? David - How do I address people who are talking during mass? Grace - What should people do who want to adopt but it is too expensive?

When you're working in a family business and you want more money but there isn't more to go around, what do you do? You start a side hustle of course! That's what pushed today's guests Jennifer Cornelius and David Swojanovski to launch Rubble Road Soapstone Carving Kits. They've gone from selling 30 of these soapstone pieces a month, to selling thousands per month. Where once the saw that cuts the silhouette pieces ran just 4 hours a week, now it needs to run at least 12 hours a day. Is developing a business teaching students and adults soapstone carving using these kits something you'd be interested in doing as a side hustle? Then you'll want to reach out to Jennifer and David. But first, for inspiration in whatever your current or future side hustle might be, check out today's episode.  What You'll Hear: 05:20 Want more money? You'll need to figure out a side hustle. 06:20 Being encouraged to teach carving in the schools 07:08 What the lesson looks like 08:50 Expanded from 6 shapes to offering 26 shapes in 3 different sizes 09:15 The overwhelming response at trade shows made them realize they were on to something 11:31 Statue of David: How did Michelangelo know he was in there? 13:20 Why all their stone comes from Brazil 14:38 Listening to customers has shapes their product line 15:48 Teacher's conventions gave Rubble Road great exposure 16:20 Piggybacking her sister's tradeshow proved lucrative for them, but not so much for her sister! 17:25 Go to where your ideal client is 17:50 40% of revenues come from other companies using their kits to teach in schools 18:53 Profit margins on kits 20:10 Potluck carving nights! 21:21 Teaching carving remotely 22:20 Remote teaching has given remote schools access to this program 26:02 Another income source: the “traveling jewelry classroom” 27:40 The biggest challenge in growing Rubble Road 30:13 Next steps for the business 32:38 Jennifer & David's best tip 35:06 The value asking questions 35:10 Being open to learning something from everyone you meet   Connect with Jennifer & David: https://www.rubble-road.com/ https://www.tiktok.com/@rubbleroadsoapstone https://www.instagram.com/rubbleroadsoapstone/ https://www.facebook.com/rubbleroadsoapstone Connect with Joan: https://www.instagram.com/joanposivy/ https://www.facebook.com/posivy/ https://www.joanposivy.com/ Check out Joan's #1 success course! https://courses.joanposivy.com/p/turn-your-thoughts-into-wanted-things The Way Success Works Book http://thewaysuccessworks.com/ Be on the show! https://www.joanposivy.com/be-our-guest.html  

David is a performance excellence coach focused on teaching, consulting and executive coaching for small to medium sized businesses, including many restaurants. David spent six years as a business/excellence coach for Pal's Excellence Institute. Pal's – or Pal's Suddenly Service – is a drive-through only 31-location restaurant chain located in northeast Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. The restaurant is known for its speed, hospitality, cleanliness and people. Pal's relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. That word-of-mouth allows Pal's to spend roughly half as much on marketing as some of its similar competitors. According to David, COVID gave restaurants a second chance to make a first impression. Restaurants that were struggling before the pandemic were struggling after the pandemic, pointing to an internal flaw that contributes to that struggle. Some restaurants used the pandemic as a chance to reset and improve themselves to make a second first impression and win over new customers after the pandemic ended. Quotes “What we see now is a lot of sculptures and spokescharacters have been discontinued. Architecturally speaking, we're getting modern boxes that don't have much life.” (Joseph) “If you look at the new (restaurant) designs, they're all basically the same. You really want to stand out in a sea of sameness.” (David) “How often in life do you get a second chance to make a first impression? If customers are coming back (after the pandemic), we have a chance to win them over and leave all that past behind.” (David) “If people aren't buying it, it's because they don't want it.” (Joseph) “If you think about a restaurant and what it does, it's really a manufacturing operation. You're manufacturing food in real time for a specific order based on your menu.” (David) “Systems are one thing, but activating them tends to be where the rubber meets the road and where most people hit the road.” (Joseph) “Twenty percent of the effort is putting a system in place and 80% of the effort is sustaining it. You have to make it a habit. You have to change in a way that it's harder to go back than it is to go forward.” (David) Transcript 00:00.91 vigorbranding Everyone today I'm joined by my friend David Jones he's the president of a company called the excellence advisory which we'll get into in a little bit. Um, but before we do David why don't you say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:11.50 David M_ Jones Well hello joseph and thanks for having me on today I considered a personal and professional honor to be here with you speaking to your audience and I'm actually an engineer by training 25 years in corporate America and then I had the great blessing and ability to work with. Pals through their business excellence institute which I hope we get to talk about and did that for 7 years and ah and today I do teaching consulting and coaching executive coaching for small to medium sized businesses including a lot of restaurants. 00:49.83 vigorbranding That's awesome. Yeah, so pals is um, essentially what prompted our connection on Linkedin. Um, and honestly it's a concept I had never heard of they're they're not here in Georgia or in Central Pennsylvania so I just never come across them. But what really grabbed my attention and prompted our discussion was. Um, pal's sudden service is what it's called has these amazing huge sculptures on their buildings sculptures of their food like hamburgers and drinks and all kinds of things and this just struck me as such an amazing thing. Um. Before we get into why they're doing that can you give us just a little bit of a rundown about what pals is all about. 01:28.79 David M_ Jones Oh absolutely. Yeah, it's so it's a drive through only 31 unit chain in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia they are known for their speed their hospitality, their service, their cleanliness, their value. And they're people. They're amazing

Steve Bowman and I answer a series of questions submitted by the BoardPro community as part of a recent webinar that we participated in (find the replay here: https://www.boardpro.com/resource-centre/webinars/qa-everything-governance). Submit your question for a future Board Shorts Podcast episode: https://bit.ly/BoardShortsQuestion Questions (06:02 - Ateel) What is the fine line [for the Board getting involved] in appointing Office Staff - e.g Business managers, Front office staff. Is it an operational matter? What are your thoughts? (11:28 - Michelle) What do you like to see in a board pack? How much before the meeting do you like to receive it? And how do you encourage people to read the board packs before each board meeting? (23:44 - Annette) We are currently making changes to our Agenda Template. Looking for information on best practice Agenda layout and specifically how to relate agenda items to the Strategic Plan. (41:18 - David) How can we make time for digital, to deeply incorporate this into both strategy and risk? Digital transformation and cybersecurity can easily be crowded out of the agenda by short-term operational issues, and there's only so much time/attention when small organisations have several board meetings per year. About Steven Bowman Steven Bowman is a governance expert and seasoned Board adviser, with a great depth of experience and skill in facilitating Board reviews and the strategic planning process. He has held numerous senior executive, CEO and Board positions in the USA and Australia, and has authored and co-authored over 14 books on governance, strategy, risk and executive leadership. Steven has built a reputation around the world as an adviser who empowers his clients by offering multiple perspectives on any given challenge. Connect with Steven Conscious Governance TV: https://www.consciousgovernancetv.com/conscious-governance-tv-home Conscious Governance Moments: https://www.consciousgovernancetv.com/podcasts/conscious-governance-moments Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenbowmangovernance Thanks to our sponsor BoardPro Visit boardpro.com/boardshorts and use the promo code boardshorts (all one word, lowercase) to get a 30-day free trial AND 20% off the price of your first year on any plan.

This is an extract from Rupert's workshop with Brother David Steindl-Rast at Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC in August, 2011.00:00   Brother David Steindl-Rast: Making a thing out of the soul; AI Sentience 04:08   Rupert Sheldrake: Golem/Frankenstein myths and robot consciousness07:07   Rupert: Analog computers as possible framework for machine consciousness07:57   David: So it is possible?08:23   Rupert: Promissory Materialism will "prove" that people are machines 09:04   Rupert: The genome wager with Lewis Wolpert 14:13   David: Science as limited faith, one without hope15:00   Audience: if Science and Faith both seek truth, they must converge15:41   Rupert: we all have implicit biases; materialists in particular have huge blindspots17:31   Audience: Truth emerging like a flower17:54   Rupert: Institutionalized science, grants, educational conformity19:32   David: How can you do it?19:36   Rupert: I was forced to work independently, not recommended21:04   Rupert's excommunication by Nature Editor John Maddox22:29   Rupert: Pluralism in politics, but not science "we know the truth"24:13   David: Questioning establishment power25:32   Audience: A rebirth of creative thinking?25:43   Rupert: Trouble with the academic system; funding reform; medical system fatigue; alternative therapies29:10   Audience: Morphic resonance, homeopathy, interpersonal neurobiology, setting science free30:17   Rupert: Comparative effectiveness research, pragmatic medical systems, most scientists are from Eastern cultures (India, China)32:35   Audience: What if you talked to a radical cosmologist?32:48   Rupert: Mainstream cosmology IS radical, multi-verse theory, laws of nature must be fixed34:58   Rupert: Martin Reese's simpler hypothesis "get's rid of God"36:09   Rupert: Stars being conscious too much for Martin Reese37:48   Rupert: Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, creation story, popularized science, natural philosophy

"Viruses are the dark angels of evolution, terrific and terrible, without which, the immense biological diversity gracing our planet would collapse."In 2013 veteran science writer David Quammen wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times titled, The Next Pandemic: Not if, but When?  Seven years later he found himself writing about the horrors of the very thing he had foretold, as the Covid-19 virus surged throughout our world. This week, continuing our special Zoonotic Disease In the Spotlight month, David joins us for a second time round to discuss his book BREATHLESS: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus. BREATHLESS  is the story of SARS-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us.Through conversations with 95 expert scientists, David examines how Covid and other strange viruses emerge from other animals and infect we human apes, leading to global catastrophe.  This week on Talking Apes, we ask David:How did Covid-19 start?How are bats linked to Covid-19? Why do bats cause pandemics? Why do zoonotic diseases emerge from wet markets? Are all viruses bad?Did governments respond badly to the Covid-19 crisis?How can we prevent future pandemics?  Click HERE to visit David Quammen's Website. Click HERE to learn more about zoonotic diseases. Support the showTalking Apes is an initiative of the nonprofit GLOBIO. Official website: talkingapes.orgInstagram: @talkingapes_podcastTwitter: @talking_apes Click here to support the show.

In this week's episode, I tackle your questions regarding image, sex and dating! I answered four questions about communication, group sex, kinks and how to bring the five love languages into your relationship, this is a must listen!  Please tell us your thoughts about the Q&A over on Instagram @celestemooreimage, and be looking forward to more of these in the future! In this week's episode we discuss:  [1:36] Question 1 (Alan): What to do when your partner will not listen to your challenges or stories?  [3:40] Question 2 (Brian): What do you do when your partner wants to have group sex but you don't?  [5:33] Question 3 (David): How do you bring up a taboo kink to a partner?  [9:20] Question 4 (Chris): What are the best ways to understand your partner's love language?  Let me know your thoughts on today's episode because I always love hearing from you all. You can find all the links and resources in the show notes of the episode on my website, www.celestemoore.com.

In this episode of How to Attract Abundance: Clearing your Energy Field -NLP and the Law of Attraction: Part 1, we'll be sent through a series of activities of NPL and we'll learn how to attract abundance into our lives easily. We're here to experience the different ways to target our old system. Today, David talks about the amazing effect of clearing our energy field in order to achieve a better life. One that is abundant and free of negativity. Standout Quotes: “But I'm never here to embarrass anybody. I'm never here to make anybody feel bad. My job is to show you what's possible.” – [David] “Because most of us have aches and pains and we'd rather learn but the feelings that you're carrying around, do not mean you're broken. They do not mean you're broken. Nobody here is broken.” -[David] “How we can custom design all of the experiences we have, the ones we want to create, and the ones that will come into our world through ways we didn't directly program. It's a hologram.” -[David] Key Takeaways: The goal of the program is to help people and to end as much suffering on this planet. All of the holographic data encoded within your neural system manifests as feelings in your body. They're also the same as the vibrational frequency you've emitted and radiated. So, for every vibrational frequency, you have a range of corresponding phenomena. In other words, chemical. The law of analogy is one of them. These are the basic principles that govern the law of attraction. And if you don't comprehend them, you're at a serious disadvantage. Episode Timeline: [00:30] David's goal in the program [00:52] Resolution frequency generator [01:30] Vibrational Frequency [01:46] Law of analogy [02:07] Law of attraction [04:07] Dominant Thoughts [05:40] Idea of point and fix. [06:23] Golf Correspondence [07:51] Embodied Cognition [09:30] Play pretend activity [10:34] Why focus is important [11:34] Hit Smart person syndrome [11:53] Get playful [12:24] Activity on feeling wonderful feelings [15:11] You are the god or goddess of your world within your own [16:46] Holographic Mind [17:02] Two types of mind states [20:15] Navigation System [21:10] Everything is variation of reality [25:24] Safe place activity [30:05] Series of questions activity [32:33] Karma [35:51] Script out your perfect life [36:54] Colors connected to feelings [38:35] Meditation resets neurology [41:02] The unconscious mind is always first to respond [41:33] Familiarity is safety [42:27] Holographic Memories [43:00] Hologram [44:01] Consciousness is holographic [45:02] Holographic Memory Resolution [46:42] Terminal Event [47:31] Trauma Defense system [50:42] Get out of Jail Card [52:54] Vibrational Phenomena [56:51] Phantom Pain

The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT There have been a few companies that have come along in recent years offering a platform that used templates, image library and stored data to largely automate the production of videos - but few if any of them had their heads wrapped around how that might work with and for digital signage networks. A Louisville, KY start-up is taking a run at the concept, and the big difference with Adificial is that its CEO and co-founder started and ran a digital signage software company for many years ... so he has his head around the desire for content automation when it comes to videos that find their way to screens. Some listeners will know Brian Nutt as the founder of Codigo, which had built up a strong and interesting business focused mainly on regional banking. That business was acquired in 2018 by Spectrio, which now also owns and publishes Sixteen:Nine, and Brian spent a few years away from the business, before thinking about and pulling together Adificial. It's a platform that uses web services and the scalability of cloud computing to enable HTML5-driven motion media files to be generated quickly and easily, by the hundreds or thousands. At scale, a motion file unique to a person or place can cost only pennies. Nutt is a digital signage guy, but he's launching Adificial with a focus on media embedded in staff and customer emails. That makes sense, as the idea is that this platform can generate many thousands of custom videos for emails, versus the dozens or maybe hundreds that might be needed by a digital signage network that wants different messaging for, let's say, each store in a chain. But the capabilities are there to make this relevant for digital signage. Have a listen. Subscribe to this podcast: iTunes * Google Play * RSS TRANSCRIPT David: Hey, Brian. Thank you for joining me. For people who don't know you or maybe recall you from your past, can you give me your background and what you were doing with Codigo?  Brian Nutt: Sure and great to talk to you again, Dave. Codigo was a digital signage company that I founded back in around 2004, so set up kinda early on in the trajectory of digital signage. That morphed into us introducing a number of different retail media products, interactive kiosks, overhead music, on-hold messaging, all that type of, and we had a focus on financial institutions, really, like regional, local banks and credit unions. Although towards the end there, when I sold Codigo in 2018, we had installations around the world and all sorts of different industries from restaurants, universities, office complexes, and all the places that you would see a digital sign installed today, or retail media, as I said.  Did that and sold that in 2018, took a few years off and launched this new project which is pretty exciting.  David: So what is Adificial?  Brian Nutt: Yeah, so Adificial really began I guess in terms of me thinking about this back before I sold Codigo, so Codigo and I think like a lot of digital signage products, at least today, maybe not back then, but we had the pretty robust online content engine for creating content that could be either sent down to a kiosk or digital signage or any of the devices, whether it was on-hold messaging or any of those things, you could create the content on the web, and so I had this idea that might be an exciting product as a standalone product. We never launched it, and it's probably a good idea because folks like Canva came along, and Promo and these other products came along, and they did a pretty good job so I'm glad I didn't do it, but after little time off, I was still thinking about the product and just how video is forcing businesses to do things differently, and this requirement today to personalize content for folks that are your customers or are interested in the product. So the idea of an Adificial is to solve the problem that's traditionally been around video, which is, it's expensive, it's time-consuming and yet the requirement of it by consumers continues to race forward daily, and then the age today where data, people are willing to share their data with brands freely and why is video passive still? Why is it that it's audience-based where I press play and I watch it and Dave gets the same video as I do, even though we have totally different lives and we live in different spots and have different ages and all those things.  It's this idea that you can make videos personalized with data. What I know about you, I should be able to map brand assets, audio, video, and language even, and insert interactive elements, calendar invites, pdf, downloads, buttons, and anything like that into the video. So it's fully interactive and engaging in ways that just really haven't been largely available and at reasonable rates. David: So this is a content automation platform?  Brian Nutt: Yes. I would wrap it up by saying we're not in the marketing automation space. We're not trying to compete with Mailchimp or anything like that, what we're trying to do is automate the production of the video with data and available assets and return that piece of content back to the market automation platform that would then send it out, primarily via email, although I can see this transition to social and SMS in any other way that you communicate to consumers.  David: So if I'm running a digital signage network, and I have a hundred different stores and I want a video for each of those stores, but I want it localized to each of those stores, instead of getting an agency or in-house designer to generate a hundred different videos, you would run it through this and it would use data to generate those hundred videos? Brian Nutt: That's a decent comparison, but this product's really not built for digital signage. So imagine a little bit bigger than that. You know the value of data on your consumer today is tremendously high. So if you have a CRM that has 10,000 people that are either current customers or leads or somewhere along the customer journey. What we do is we could produce videos for all of them and you insert video into your marketing stack, into the customer journey and send it out via email.  David: Oh, okay. Are the files not big enough to run on a large format screen?  Brian Nutt: They could, and in fact, when I initially started this, the idea was to send content to any device, but we've narrowed that down and focused on market automation platforms. But there's no reason it couldn't morph into a digital signage play. It's just not today.  David: Right, because there's more scale in those and it's just a bigger business.  Brian Nutt: Yes.  David: So it's one of those things like Poppulo, App Space, and some of these other companies that are starting to blend platforms, where it's one stock that can send to a digital screen, that can also send to a smartphone, to a tablet, to a website, whatever. It would kind of plug into that kind of thing.  Brian Nutt: Yes, and here's the other reason that I've gotten into this, and I'm a huge believer in power digital signage, obviously. But at Codigo, our growth was really built around this incredible drive to build more stores, more locations, more branches in the banking space, and so we leveraged that and grew off that and really benefited from it. But today what's happening is, in fact, I was looking just recently, they're suggesting that in the next five years, 50,000 retail stores will close. Since 2009, when we were going into the great recession, banks and credit unions numbered about 15,000 total, that's not branches. Today, there are about 7,000. So it's this consolidation and push not including the number of locations that close during the pandemic, what 20,000 retail stores, something like that.  So what's happening, in my opinion, is the store or branch does a couple of things. One, it's meant to educate a person in person on the product, build trust, and sell products. But if stores are closing, people aren't going to the store, how do you communicate to them personally and to me, the conversation today is done in data. If I'm willing to give a brand my data, trust them with that, even if it's unreasonable. I'm not going to the store. I never wanna meet a person that's going to tell me about a shoe or a bank loan or whatever, but that doesn't mean I don't expect you to communicate back to me with things that are specific to me, to help me learn about products, build trust, and ultimately sell me something. So that's taking it from the digital science in-store installation, that's the next progression of what we're trying to solve.  David: It's another output.  Brian Nutt: Yeah, exactly.  David: So how does this work? Brian Nutt: I guess, where do you want me to start? It did take quite a while to figure it out honestly. You start with this gigantic idea and then try to distill it down into something actionable. So that's where we are now.  But at the finest level, it's really not that dissimilar from digital signage. It's just one level deeper in how you're delivering the content, so you know the right time, right place, right person, all those things. And a large well of content that's either procured the third party ShutterStock, et cetera, or first party to the brand and then using technology to map these pieces of content to data, and data could be something like just knowing your name and having it be, “Hello Dave”, and so if the first name equals Dave, then show the text Dave on the first screen and if language equals Spanish, say, “Hola Dave”, and that's really what it is.  It's mapping data smartly to assets, no matter whether it's something as simple as text or a background image or a video, things like that, and then you stitch those together based on where you are in the process towards, or whatever it's you're involved in. It could be something like onboarding an employee. It could be obviously selling someone, onboarding them on a product, or following up with a customer service issue, and you do it at scale. Because you can automate it.  David: So if you have the data tables, you have the image assets, and you have maybe some core templates, you could conceivably generate 10,000 videos that are all tailored to each individual? Brian Nutt: That's exactly right.  David: Are you dependent on templates? Brian Nutt: Again, it's very similar to digital science in many ways. So what we're doing, just like we did at Codigo, is leveraging a high degree of design skill and allowing folks to manipulate that as they choose. Now we've done a couple of things a little smarter this way, which is we're building in functions where we call it a branded function, which I guess is kinda out there in the market in software where you just click a button and it'll map your brand assets the best it can to template that we're building, but the same thing with Codigo is that we have a pretty high-end content editor that allows you to build whatever you want.  David: Do you need to have graphic design skills? Brian Nutt: Not a high degree of them. As I said, it's very similar to what we did at Codigo from a user experience perspective. David: So you wanna have somebody using this who has some core design chops and knows not to use Comic Sans for a font, or use pink and everything?  Brian Nutt: Exactly. I can barely sign my name much less, create a piece of content that's gonna be sent out to thousands of consumers and I'll never do that. But the thing about this is not the design skills. It's meant to be, the whole set it and forget it attitude, which is once we have content mapped and I have the data that's associated with different pieces of content, and I have the story, we call it a story setup, and maybe I'll give you an example: If they use a CRM and I have David Haynes who showed interest in Red Wine and you wanna join the wine club, the Friday Wine Club at the local wine establishment. So you show interest in that, and in their CRM you meet a condition that says, “Hey, Dave just joined the wine club” and what traditionally happens is when you meet that condition, you're sending an email and the email says, “Hey Dave, thanks so much for your interest in the wine club”, and it's got a picture or something of it, there, and maybe it shows people what the wine club. Well frankly, that's boring. So what we wanna do is take that same approach and it's all that is: a form, it's all merge fields. “Hello, first name” - it just that it happens to be Dave. “Thank you for your interest in Product ID” - wine club, or whatever that it might be. Brian might be a white wine drinker, but it all comes from the same engine, so it's effectively a similar approach. We're taking data from those systems, current systems, we're not trying to be a CRM and mapping that to assets that we have, whether they're the first party to this, in this case, the wine club or something that we've provided you from a third party library, and then turning that into video, right? Stitching each of these assets together with dynamic fields that represent, “Hey, Dave, thanks for your interest in the wine club. All the red wine drinkers are meeting down the road on Friday afternoon. Come by. Would you like to attend?” You could click yes.  David: Gotcha. So this is rules-based, it's not AI?  Brian Nutt: Today, no.  David: So there's a plan? Brian Nutt: There's a grand plan.  David: So what are the outputs like? What's the output file?  Brian Nutt: The output file as well as a URL, and so what we're generating is a PURL, a personalized URL.  David: So it's not an mp4, it's not a video file of any kind, it's an HTML5 file? Brian Nutt: Yes.  David: Do you work in parallel with a CRM system or how do the two platforms play together?  Brian Nutt: Yeah, now we're going to beta in February. Today, there are a number of different ways to do it. You can either upload it yourself or you can, there are a number of systems that can automate the transfer of data, like Zapier, et cetera. And you map these just like anything else. If you have a list of people that meet conditions, like the Red Wine Club, you take that data and get it to our system. As long as we understand what the fields are, then we can choose the correct content to weave together and return it back to you as a PURL, which can then be sent out as an email. David: How seamless will it be?  Brian Nutt: It should be very seamless. Take any system, let's take Mailchimp for example. There are custom fields and automation that allow you to insert links into an email template or a landing page. So we're routing on top of those existing systems and the features that they have and so once you have that, you can have a custom record for each person, like Dave O'Brien or whomever that updates itself, and when those conditions are met, it knows to send the email.  David: So would you use APIs or would you use middleware like you were mentioning like Zapier?  Brian Nutt: That's the first way to do it. Oddly in the financial space, it's more of a security requirement. Rather than doing that, oftentimes I'll just use SMTP, which seems old school, but there are reasons to do so, like man-in-the-middle attacks, and things like that. But there are ways to do this. Now, do we wanna integrate with as many systems as we possibly can? We'll let the market dictate that.  David: Because it's HTML5, is it responsive?  Brian Nutt: Responsive to the size of the device? Is that what you mean, like web responsive?  David: The screen resolution, and if it's going out on Facebook, it's a 4:3 square and if it's going out on a larger screen, it's a 16:9 rectangle?  Brian Nutt: Yeah, again, it's very similar to the product we had with Codigo, which is, you can do custom resolutions, you can do whatever you want, but then again, it's gotta be responsive to the area of the device, or in this case, the browser, whether that's mobile or your laptop or tablet or whatever.  David: So when you look at this from financial aspects, what's the benefits argument of doing this versus producing individual videos? It's pretty obvious, but tell me nonetheless.  Brian Nutt: As I said, producing videos is incredibly expensive, and I've termed it the content gap, which is what I call, it's the distance between what consumers require in video - and they want everything in the video - and what businesses can reasonably produce. So it's not just the cost, a lot of times people outsource this stuff, and then it's got a shelf life.  But with what we're doing we think we can reasonably produce hundreds of thousands of videos, for pennies on the dollar, and I say video because that's what people understand, but it's actually HTML that you render, that's the other component that is good. It's favorable. Now, will that be something that every brand wants? Do they want rendered videos? Sure, there might be folks that require rendered video, and maybe we'll do that at one point we actually did, at Codigo, we ended up using a very similar approach. Then we built a rendering engine that rendered as HTML5 to true video. But today it's HTML5 and it's just from hosting to production to the delivery of it, it drives the cost down to prices that were impossible. David: So when you go to market in a couple of months, two or three months, what am I paying? Am I subscribing to something? Am I buying an enterprise license? Brian Nutt: It's a SaaS model, and it's usage-based too. So it's a tiered-based model similar to the digital signage space, there definitely be some content creation elements to it where we assist clients if they need the content made, and you probably remember at Codigo we did that as well. It's the same approach here, and it really depends. It's hard to give you a specific pricing point. But I think most customers will probably land somewhere between $500 and $1500 a month. That's where I think it would be. It could be far higher, depending on usage.  I was at a trade show recently and there's a customer of mine, who said that they sent out emails last month. Well, If you make 140,000 videos, it might be a little higher, but that's what we're trying to do, we're trying to do the same thing as the last business, which may get a very attractive price that they can leverage.  David: So that's the scale argument why it makes more sense for a cable company or a phone company or power company, something like that, that has tens of thousands of subscribers and customers versus something like a digital signage network, which as I said, might have a hundred iterations of a similar ad, and you don't get the same economies of scale from. Brian Nutt: That's right, and in a lot of ways I feel like this is very similar to when I started Codigo. I remember telling people, I'm going to replace printed posters on the wall with flat screens, and they're like, what? And I'd say it's called digital signage. They'll say, oh, you mean like those LED, those red blinky lights that go across like that? I'm like no. That's not what I mean, and I would go around with a 42-inch screen, and those things were heavy, and so it's almost the same thing where I have to show this to everyone so they can understand this, and go oh I can use this. There are all these different permutations of a relationship with a client or an onboarding of one or whatever it is and then they kinda get it so that's where we are. David: Yeah, that's very familiar to me. Years ago, back in the mid-2010s, I had a little spin-out product that I did with a Korean partner called Spotamate, and it was automating videos based on templates and by far my biggest challenge was education. Because people just couldn't wrap their heads around it. So how are you gonna deal with that?  Brian Nutt: I think that today, the state of the consumer today around video is totally different, and the other thing is that I think Spotimate was sort of Adobe-reliant, right? David: Yeah, it was an Adobe plugin.  Brian Nutt: Yeah, so we're skipping all that. So from a user perspective, it makes it a little easier to get started, since it's a lot fewer steps to take, but from an education standpoint, I think people are starting to expect this. It's like if you log in to Netflix and you see all these interesting shows that you know, that makes you think, oh, wow, boy, that's something I would watch, you understand that there's a data-driven decision behind that, and whether it's content while you're scrolling through on Instagram or across the web, all these technologies exist and I feel like most folks understand that when they see something like this, they get it, where before it might have and it still can be creepy. I'm not saying it can't be, but depending on the use, before it was perceived entirely like that.  With the pandemic and, if you go back before the pandemic, or let's go five years back, a lot of people didn't wanna take videos. They didn't wanna do a zoom call or whatever. They wanted to do it on the phone or they shut off their camera. But today, if I have a Zoom call with you and you don't turn your camera on, I think something's wrong. What's going on? So it's this drive to video and the requirement of a personalized experience that when people get this, I think they'll be like, oh yeah they'll understand.  David: So I realized, as you've said that your core market is email marketing, maybe social media, some of those things. If you have digital signage, software platforms, or solution providers who are interested because maybe they do this whole omnichannel thing and they see this as an opportunity, how would they work with you? Would it run in parallel?  Brian Nutt: That's a sort of broad question to ask. I'm not sure I don't have that nailed down yet. But I'd take all inquiries, so to speak. Because again the idea is to insert this into the marketing stack. So whether it's digital signage or traditional email marketing, or any omnichannel approach, as you said, contacting a customer, why aren't you using video? And so it does seem as I said from my perspective, the growth of digital signage, which isn't anywhere, relies on footprint and as it declines or appears to decline at least from different ways. This is one of those ways to pick that up.  David: Yeah, and I think you're gonna start seeing a lot more screens, but in places other than what people thought about, which was, in stores and so on, but there are all kinds of operational messaging that could stand to be personalized based on location, not personalized to individuals, but to the dynamics of that, area of a building or whatever. Brian Nutt: Sure, and the same thing holds true. The level of personalization is all really based on the quality of the data that you have and if you try to make it too deep and too complicated, folks I think will shy away because, yeah, it might not be possible, remember, it's the same thing with digital signage. You can make things super, super complex, and try to do all these really neat things, but the reality is a lot of people don't have that capability. So you can only deal with what is reasonably available to you from a data perspective, but there's no reason you have to be specific to a person. Obviously, digital signage doesn't do that but automates it specific to an area, of the work floor, or whatever that's doable. David: You've been out of digital signage for roughly four years now. I'm curious now having kinda left the industry, what's your perspective on it now?  Brian Nutt: I think there has been a tremendous amount of consolidation, including me, right? So a lot of the players that existed before have been rolled up in some ways. So it's like the wild west that existed when I really was looking back in the wild west, but it's gotten a little more sterile, at least that's my opinion. I think that the interesting pieces of it are in the hive stack arena with retargeting and programmatic ad buying, which I was never a really big proponent of the ad model. I think we talked about it before, but there are interesting ways to serve content and that's really more, kinda what, where you're going with what your comments were before, how do you serve that content to folks in a unique and timely way, and I think there will be, and there already has been this approach to multi-device from a screen, just one big screen, but honestly, since I got out, I haven't paid a tremendous amount of attention to it.  David: What you're doing is very current in terms of the shift more and more to using data integration and automated content so that it's always relevant, so you're doing what the industry's doing. Brian Nutt:  All right, there you go. David: So if people wanna find out more, where are they gonna find you online?  Brian Nutt: Yeah, it's www.adificial.io - we're signing up beta users, although it'll be a closed group and already have a pretty good number that we've signed up from some past relationships. But anybody who's interested, just go on there and there's a beta sign-up little form there, and you can learn about it. David: And you're bootstrapped?  Brian Nutt: Yeah, bootstrapped in entirety. I've got one co-founder who was actually with me at Codigo as well, and we've got a team of six developers working on this thing full-time and are pretty excited about it. David: All right. It was great to catch up with you.  Brian Nutt: Yeah, you too, Dave. 

A Separate Crow 1 year special Glock - Famous Dex Edge 3rd titantron intro song playing through speakers  u think u know me Holding gun to head and in mouth the whole episode Edge Game 53 suicide by cop. Published as axon body cam footage. Approaching cop with Glock pointed, screaming HELLO IM GAY AND IM YOUR HOST GERALDO RIVERA!!!! SOMEBODY STOP ME!!! SSSSSSMOKIN!!! LiveLeak watermark iFunny BestGore DocumentingReality EFukt Kaotic.com Each camera is a different watermark  Facebook live greenscreen cell phone cam swinging from ceiling fan And then change my mind at the end (?) Whispered voices/auditory hallucinations   Tuesday, November 1, 2022 Corn (Deflection word)   Monday, October 31, 2022 Live by the sword, die by the sword One who uses violence can expect a violent response.   Remember! We live in a world of misunderstanding.   Not good vs. evil!   Above all Be true to your self!   You, if anyone ever reads this, got this. :)   I love you.   Sincerely,   David   How to cope with loneliness https://youtu.be/NJh5idlanrc Just Dance 2017 PC Unlimited Rasputin 4K   The underwhelmingness of life It HAS to be underwhelming.   Otherwise we lose gravity and fly into outer space!   How to connect with anyone Humble yourself    Gaining true***** independence takes time! If you still feel like you're kinda still a high schooler, like me, give this article a read.   It talks about the slow, healthy, steps needed to be taken in order to gain authentic and true independence!   So you can be freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee: https://thoughtcatalog.com/holly-riordan/2020/10/being-strong-and-independent-doesnt-mean-you-do-everything-on-your-own/ Happy reading!   Take care. :)   Perspective We all have our histories and own perspectives.   And who could blame us for making our own assumptions moving out into the world when it's all we've ever known?   Nevertheless, try your best to look beyond your own eyes, your own ears, your own mind, and your own heart.   And you may start seeing things that you've never seen before!   You got this.

If we asked David: How do you do it, how do you live abundant life in the midst of world's chaos?  I believe King David would reply, "The Lord is my Shepherd." David knew how important it is to have a good shepherd.  Pastor Rick teaches from Psalm 23 and John 10 to CrossPoint Church on Taste of CrossPoint Sunday.

Today my guest is David West, CEO and Cofounder of Proscia What we discuss with David: How he became interested in biomedical engineering and how he discovered pathology Starting Pathology Cloud and how that led to the founding of Proscia The mission of Proscia The Concentriq platform and some of its features How Concentriq can be used in both research and clinical settings The importance of interoperability in digital pathology Some of the partnerships between Proscia and other companies The automated QC feature and how this can save time and money His thoughts on the future of digital pathology Links for this episode: Health Podcast Network  LabVine Learning The ConfLab from LabVine Dress A Med scrubs   Proscia on Twitter Proscia Website Pathology's Digital Future David West of Proscia: Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup   People of Pathology Podcast: Website Twitter

I'm starting a new kind of episode called "Snippets of Wisdom". In these episodes, I will be selecting my favourite, most insightful moments from previous episodes of the podcast. ݆⁣ The first one which I chose to begin with has a very strong personal meaning for me. It's a conversation I had with David Strickel, presented in episode #126. At that time in 2021, just over a year after I had launched Personal Development Mastery, I was feeling that the growth of the podcast was very slow. So during our conversation, I asked David: “How can I spread the podcast's message to a bigger audience?” ݆⁣ The answer I received was one of the most profound aha moments that I had during the podcast. It inspired me and guided my subsequent steps about how I look at my podcast's growth. The wisdom shared in this message will be very valuable for you, if you're someone who feels impatient, who feels that despite all the work, the results are not showing. ݆⁣

David is the Founder and Director of Strategy at 3 Owl, an award-winning creative agency that creates websites that stand out from the noise. They've worked with companies like Mellow Mushroom, Great American Cookie Company, VitaLink, Taco Mac, and Wahoo. At the start of Covid-19, David had to fire 80% of his agency's staff in one day. Despite the setback, he and the small team that stayed on never missed a deadline and continued to generate millions of dollars in added revenue for their clients. They also managed to grow 3 Owl by 20% each year since. In 2021, David also wrote the book Small By Design about how to scale a small business all while staying intentionally small Highlights Who David Feldman is What being a small team means for David How he operates a small team as a big company As a small team, what was their experience like creating value and receiving feedback from their clients What the important is for being always available for clients What a small by the design team is What is the next goal for the book Where to find more information about David and his team Episode Resources Connect with Raul Hernandez Ochoa https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogoodwork https://dogoodwork.io/work-with-raul https://dogoodwork.io/podcast Connect with David Feldman https://smallbydesign.co/ https://3owl.agency/ https://www.facebook.com/3owl.agency/ https://www.instagram.com/3owl.agency/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/3-owl-media/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-feldman-atl https://www.instagram.com/dfeldatl 

The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT Integrating data has increasingly climbed the priority list for more ambitious and involved digital signage and digital OOH projects. The big driver for that is how near or real-time data makes what's on-screen automated and triggered, which means more timely, targeted and therefore relevant messaging. Lots of CMS software companies offer some degree of data integration and on-screen presentation, and we're starting to see some third-party companies that work mainly in digital signage - like Screenfeed - also offering data display toolsets. We're also now seeing well-established data handling companies making themselves known in this sector, particularly to help make some of the more complicated set-ups both happen and then reliably, and securely, work. ClicData is a software firm based up in the northwest of France, but has clients globally that use its Business Intelligence platform to bring data in from more than 250 sources - into a single, harmonized data warehouse. I spoke with co-founder and CTO Telmo Silva about Clicdata's roots, how its platform works and how it can be applied in digital signage applications. Subscribe to this podcast: iTunes * Google Play * RSS TRANSCRIPT David: Telmo, thank you very much for joining me. Can you tell me what ClicData is all about?  Telmo Silva: I started ClicData in 2008 as a pharmaceutical-focused data analytics company, and later branched out a little bit into making it a wider-used data analysis, data management and data intelligence tool for all sectors, and hence the name, ClicData from ClicPharma before, and yes, this tool is really the culmination of that learning in the pharmaceutical sector that we thought is applicable to really any sector.  David: Okay. So if I'm sitting here listening to the beginning of this podcast, some people might be wondering, those in digital signage and the AV sector, might be wondering, okay, why am I listening to this? How does it plug into that sector?  Telmo Silva: Absolutely, and it's funny, Dave, because an acquaintance of ours asked me, should we do this podcast? And I said, yes, absolutely, because everything generates data and digital advertising is definitely one of the factors.  You have to know where you're spending your money and what you're requiring and who's looking at things, and one of the first clients we had in the early days was actually a Canadian company out west that had this technology on elevators to take snapshots of peoples and try to recognize their age group and their demographics and as they're playing the videos on the small screen on the elevator, try to figure out what's the retention? Are their eyes moving and moving away from the screen and so forth, and how long do they stay hooked for those short 30-second clips, and things like that? And that was actually my first introduction to digital advertising and a use case for ClicData, a very successful use case, and I was hooked on that.  I was hooked into that so much that where ClicData is based out, which is France, there's a very large history of retail companies here that spent a lot of money on aisle advertising, and they start using those concepts, not only in terms of video and monitoring but also in terms of monitoring the paths of customers through their stores, optimization of aisles and things like that, where to put the digital signs and advertising and so forth, and all that generates a lot of data that you have to make sense of. And this is really well ClicData comes in, right? Those point solutions with digital advertising are part one, but without actually collecting all these from the different stores, and different locations that start making sense of it, it's just data, right? It does not turn into information until you do something with it and that's really where we come in, in trying to bring as much data from the different systems and different points of information really that a company may have, or a client may have and bring that into something that makes sense, that you can aggregate, that you can slice and dice, and then further down the line, then expose that to your customers, and say, okay, this is what you paid for. David: So you're aggregating and harmonizing and developing insights around the data as opposed to being a collector of data, right? Like you're not doing any of the computer vision or sensor-based work yourself?  Telmo Silva: We do not, but we do have all the necessary connections just with the different systems. Unlike potentially other systems that are very well standardized, each vendor of those displays of those collectors may have their own interfaces, APIs and so forth. They may have their own storage formats and as you use the different systems, your challenge is really to understand, how can I connect to this one now, and how can I extract information that I want out of that. And our connectors are actually quite flexible in that sense where we have fixed connectors for some of those systems, but for others, we have generic connectors that you can kind of configure to tap into that data.  David: Would this be something that might be called middleware? Telmo Silva: I would say potentially, yes. It depends on your definition of middleware. Ultimately we see business intelligence at least the portion of data analytics and reporting that we offer, as the next step before you feed it back and you go, okay, now I understand the results that I've received here, what improvements are we gonna make? And we start to cycle again, right?  So again as an example, you may start receiving data from certain videos and start saying, okay, this is the demographics and so forth, can I make some adjustments to my campaigns or to my videos or to the sequence of videos that I'm displaying? Again, I'm going back to that video on the elevator concept and optimising that, so it is part of that loop of data collection, data analysis, making decisions based on that data, and then feeding that back into the loop again. David: When you started the company accessing data from all kinds of different data sources was very complicated and time-consuming, and you had to get all kinds of permissions and all kinds of meetings and phone calls and everything else to work it out.  One of the things that I gather has changed over the last decade or so is that most platforms now have APIs, it's easier to get stuff out of them, and so on. So has your role lessened, or has it increased because they're always changing and there are so many and if you're an independent company, like a digital signage company, a software company, you have to stay on top of that, or you would use a company like ClicData that's spending all their time doing that and making it easy?   Telmo Silva: To answer your first question, it has actually increased, right? Whereas before we would ask a vendor whether that be Facebook or Google and say, our mutual customers have data on your advertising network, right? And again this kind of can expand to any type of data vendor or data collector that we may tap into and before they would basically know it's our data, and the consumers of course start reacting against that, right? Today, If you do not have an API, if all you do is get my data into your system, but not give me anything back in return, then I don't want anything to do with you. And we've seen backlashes at times with Facebook, Cambridge Analytics and things like that, where those types of sharing are also kinda gone another way rather, but nonetheless, today, if you do not have an API, then you're a second-class citizen on the internet and on the software technology stack. So that is great but an API is still an API. It is a programming interface and it does require some knowledge and it's not a standard. Just because we call it an API does not mean that they'll follow the same standard, it's very well organized, and it's very well understood. So every API has its nuances, its little quirks and its own way of paging through the amounts of data that it can offer. And so our role has actually increased due to that, because again, as I was mentioning before our connectors know how to deal with those different variations and those different formats and schemas that the data may be provided with. So in that sense, it's actually increased the need to have a tool, like ClicData, to be able to tap into those APIs and bring it into a format that is easily digestible by any analytics tool, including our own tool. David: How much is involved, if you wanted to do this yourself and let's say you wanted to Integrate information from four different business system sources or whatever, within your company? Is that something that would take a morning, a month, or a year to do if they weren't using something like ClicData? Telmo Silva: If they were not using something like ClicData, they obviously need somebody technical, but it would take an extensive amount of time for development, and again, large companies still do that, where they write custom interfaces to bring the data and amalgamate them into one single source of truth. This is where millions of dollars are being spent on data warehousing projects and business intelligence implementations and so forth. So not having a tool like ours definitely would require a good technical team, and again, depending on the sources, potentially database analysts, database experts, SQL developers, API developers, whether they do it in Java or Python or what have you. And then bringing all that into a data warehouse will definitely take more than just a few days. In my previous life, prior to creating ClicData, that was my bread and butter, and these projects would go on for 3-6 months. With ClicData, if we have the connector that you need or if you can configure your API connector and you have a basic understanding of APIs, you should be able to do that within a day, to connect three or four data sources and start seeing the data flow through into ClicData.  David: So on a project launch basis and certainly on an ongoing operating basis, it sounds like if you're running a spreadsheet model on this and a business argument, it would take a huge amount of cost out of the equation and time, and these are people you don't need to hire?  Telmo Silva: It goes on to just beyond hiring and the people behind it, because, having somebody who can accompany you if you're not an expert or in the technical side, then it may be worth it. But the bottom line is the continuity of it as well. It's okay to build a prototype. It works once but the next day, you don't want to have to do the same thing, right? You don't want to have to copy and paste the data into Excel or out of Excel again and repeat and so forth. And also, technology is what it is, business evolves as it is, and so you always need these adjustments. It is an investment that you have to make towards being data-centric, being data-focused and to say, I want to build these systems that collect the data on an ongoing basis that I can automate the reporting that can save you time as well in reporting these numbers back to your team or your clients or your management team and all this combines into the ROI that you're looking for, and yes, there is a technical side of it as well that there will be savings, whether it's in consulting or in minimizing, at least the number of times that you involve them, to gain access to your data.  David: If I'm a customer, what am I buying and how am I paying for it? Do you buy an enterprise license or is it software as a service?  Telmo Silva: It is totally software as a service. We do not offer any on-premise installations of software, and this is because we want to be rapid at giving new features, new connectors. Connectors continuously change, and there's new software in the market and we wanna be rapid in making those available. So software as a service is really our model, and what you get when you subscribe to when you get one of these subscriptions, which is monthly or yearly based, is you get basically all the connectors. You get a data warehouse, a database available to you through Microsoft Azure, that's our partner, and you can have your data stored in over eight different regions around the world: US, Ireland, Canada, Germany, France, and a few others, and once you have that data warehouse, that's your piece of the database there, the data starts flowing through the connectors. Once that is in your data warehouse, then from there you can actually build downstream flows, you can tap into it directly with Excel if you want, or you can use our dashboard tool to start creating dashboards and graphs and charts and tables indicators.  You can share those dashboards with other people. You can publish them to your customers, et cetera, and then you can just automate these things so that it just does that every day or every morning or every hour. David: Is that the primary output that you would see for digital signage and digital out-of-home home networks, probably more so on the digital signage side, would be data visualizations and dashboards?  Telmo Silva: I think that would potentially be one of the use cases, analyzing the data that's coming through and making decisions based on those as normal reporting and analytics data tools would. The other part of it and some customers of ClicData do this is they just use the collection capabilities of ClicData and the data warehouse to store their data, but then they feed that into other tools of their choice, tools that potentially they wanna do some more advanced machine learning on the data, maybe they want to write their own special code to analyze it, or maybe simply feed another system that requires this data to consume it and so forth. ClicData is really a multifaceted tool that can be either used just for collection and aggregation of the data or all the way through to data visualization and analytics.  David: Okay, so you would have almost like templates or widgets of some kind that would be able to do develop dynamic charting and things like this based on what you select? Telmo Silva: Absolutely, much like you would do on a pivot table in Excel, to drag and drop some columns, and the chart starts taking shape with columns, rows and so forth. That's exactly our design, it's very user-friendly as much as we can, we do have a lot of options for styling because not everybody likes the same styles and colors, but in essence, it's very much an Excel-like data visualization tool built into ClicData. David: If I'm a digital signage CMS software provider and I'm working with, let's say a financial services company and they wanted data visualization, if I wanna put that visualized chart into a schedule, so it shows up on the digital signs around the workplace. Is that an HTML file or how do you get that up on a screen? Telmo Silva: If you want to embed our dashboards into third-party applications, into screens, we have quite a few customers that have screens around the office, we have a railroad train station system that actually publishes our dashboards on every single station and stops with the schedules and things like that, and their performance, so are they late, etc.  So you can definitely embed that, and it's just simply a URL. You put that inside an iFrame, inside your web page, and the iframe immediately refreshes if the data has been refreshed, so you don't have to do anything, you just have to open it up in a browser, maximize the screen and boom, your dashboard is live and will refresh automatically.  David: Aare there any kind of limitations on how real-time it is or is it just how you wanna set it and how it works at the other end, in terms of data generation?  Telmo Silva: Our schedules have the ability to go on a minute basis to your data sources and pull the data in, however you can use our API, because we too have an API, to push data in, and in that case, the push is up to you. If you wanna send it once per second, you can. These will not be full data loads. These have to be small packets, a few rows, a few hundred rows at a time, potentially.  But you can use our API to bring in real-time data, and again, the same concept, whether we pulled it or you pushed it, everything downstream gets refreshed and gets activated for you. David: I suspect that's a conversation that you and your sales engineers have at times with resellers and end users, “Sure we could do real-time, but for the application you're talking about, do you really need that, or is every minute or every five minutes fine?”  Telmo Silva: Absolutely, and this is why we stopped our schedule at one minute. Again, you have to be really in a high traffic, high volume situation, and to be able to make a decision in real-time, and that's ultimately the key, right? It really is up to you and there's the cost associated with you developing a push notification to other systems as well. So it really is up to the customers, but yeah, in some sectors there are times that some folks ask for real-time when in fact, their data doesn't change on a daily basis. Case in point, Facebook, they themselves only refresh their own metrics or expose their own metrics on a much larger time scale. So for us to do real-time with certain systems and certain data sources is just refreshing and using bandwidth for nothing.  David: Do you have to make statements and assurances around privacy of the data or that's not really your issue, whoever's collecting that data or you're gathering that data is the one that's gonna have to worry about that, you're just enabling the use of that data?  Telmo Silva: Even though obviously data privacy and respecting the customer's data is our number one thing, we do have a role to play. If we're talking in Europe, GDPR is a huge thing. Every country has their own protection laws and privacy protection, like the California Data Protection Act. Every country and state and province has their own or has started some type of laws and regulations.  Us being a European company, but with customers in North America, we have to be very careful. This is why we're almost the only ones that actually are able to start your data warehouse in any country that you wish in those eight regions that we've mentioned, and that's step number one, but we are a data processor for you. We don't know what your data is, but we are processing your data for you. It's our application, and we are responsible to make sure that there's no external access to it, that if there are court orders, we have to make sure we validate and check them with our customers and so forth.  Luckily that has never happened, but we don't know what your data is. So we are not able to be really responsible for it, but that's part of our terms of service. If you put data that you are not entitled to use or process if you put data that is not legal for you to own, that's the responsibility of our customers, but obviously, we would have a role to play in that in this GDPR system where we are responsible to at least point out or give it out if asked legally, obviously.  David: I assume you get a lot of questions around security as well. Telmo Silva: Oh, absolutely, and again, this is why we partner with Microsoft Azure. Our expertise is really making the software intelligent, and easy to use, that it processes fast, that we can process thousands and thousands of files and sources and dashboards a day, an hour really, and not really on the physical and digital security of these data warehouses and systems. And this is why we rely on Microsoft Azure severely. We have a strong SLA with them to protect our property and our customer's property, their data.  David: I know almost nothing about the technical side of what your company and others like it would do, but I assume that a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of security is on the Azure side and you take advantage of that and you let them worry about that, but, make sure that you're working according to their policies, right?  Telmo Silva: Absolutely, but it also takes our knowledge to encrypt the data and to make sure that their configuration is set up correctly. I think that is the positive and negative of cloud-based systems, like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. It's so easy these days to just start a server anywhere and start putting data into it. It's much harder to make sure that nobody else has access to it and to make sure that it's protected and so forth. And even within Microsoft, there are some checks and balances there as well. We can't say, just because it's Microsoft's or Amazon or Google that takes care of your data, we're pawning it off on them, and if something happens, let's go to court. That's not how it should be handled. There has to be some responsibility on the people using those systems, and how we code the application, and to make sure all the settings are set up correctly. So it is a team effort between the vendors and us, and also our customers to make sure that they're comfortable with the fact that we are ISO certified, SOC certified HIPAA compliant, et cetera. This is time and an investment on our part to make sure that they should not be just for the sake of having a stamp, on your website saying, “We are ISO certified” and that's it. It does take effort from both companies and all parties involved to make sure that the data is secure and private.  David: So Microsoft is a major business partner, but they're also a competitor, through Power BI? Telmo Silva: That is correct. Power BI, their visualization tool is a competitor to our data visualization module, not necessarily to the whole ClicData platform, and they do an excellent job at it as well.  David: But I assume your company has its share of competitors, right? Telmo Silva: I believe there's data visualization for every type of business in the world. Power BI, Tableau, ClickView. I don't wanna name more than three, but there are at least three hundred of them, and let's not even go beyond those, let's just talk about Excel, there's some amazing visualization in Excel and it has been around for years. So there's a lot of great experience, but again, these are tools and they are distinct separate tools, and if you have to load up Excel or Power BI or whatever every day to hit refresh, and then export it out and think about security and access, then that's the downside of these tools. They do a great job for that initial data investigation but are terrible for the ongoing maintenance of it.  So what we say is, whereas we may not be as advanced as some of those tools, potentially. If you're trying to do something very specific that only Power BI can do, maybe we cannot do it. The upside of using our tool is that you don't have to do anything else. The data is there as soon as it's refreshed, the dashboards know that the data is refreshed, it immediately sends emails out to the people that are on the list for receiving this dashboard, and they get it on their mobile app. They get an alert, whatever, right? It's all automated for you.  So if you want to spend less time wasting copying and pasting and using Excel and these tools, then, these are the types of platforms that you need to look for.  David: I assume the other thing is that you stay on top of it because APIs change and data sets change and everything else and if you just had it developed yourself internally or if you outsourced the development, a month later, the schemas and things could change and all of a sudden it doesn't work, right?  Telmo Silva: Absolutely. We see that with the big players obviously, Google, Instagram, Facebook, and others are constantly improving their APIs. Security keeps changing around the world. We're phasing out certain types of security, TLS 1, TLS 2, et cetera, and APIs need the security, they need to be compatible with it. So this is really where most of our customers get their benefits is to say, okay, ClicData is taking care of all that for you, and then make sure that the data keeps coming in, and flowing into your data warehouse.  David: So if I'm a digital signage content management systems software provider, or Perhaps an AV/IT systems integrator who has an ask from clients or wants to incorporate this into their service offers, what's involved? What are the first questions you have to ask them? Do you support this, do you support that, or are there any really real barriers?  Telmo Silva: We start by looking at their data sources, right? If we can't bring the data, if they're using a very specific format of a very specific system that we cannot gain access to, typically very old ones then we're upfront about it. We say that you're not gonna get this data in, and you're not gonna be able to report it. David: It's on a mainframe system or something? Telmo Silva: Mainframe, believe it or not, we can connect to it. It is important for us and believe it or not, there are still a lot of customers, especially in the retail sector that does mainframe, IBM series of servers, those things that we thought don't exist. They exist and they exist in quite a lot of companies. So we still support those. But sometimes it's just very cryptic or the format. I cannot give you an example off the top of my head but we have this, as I mentioned before, a very robust kind of API connecting connector that takes a lot of options, and most of the time we can configure it to fit. But yeah, if you're a provider of data that pretty much says: I'm not giving you access. I can only give you monthly reports or something like that. Yeah, you can import those reports monthly by hand. Is that something that you really wanna do, et cetera? So we discuss alternate solutions like that. But yeah, that would be the first step. The second step is what are their objectives? Are they looking for visualization and embedding these dashboards and putting them back to their customer in a self-service mode so they can monitor the success of their campaigns, their ads network, et cetera? Or is this internal use for analytics and so forth? So we discuss those items to make sure that ClicData is the right solution for them, and if all checks out, I think then the next step is just to get a trial account for 15 days and connect a couple of data sources, see what you can build. We have an in-app chat tool that allows them to ask questions as they go along during their trials. Ask your questions, ask how you can do things and get that first initial prototype, and that's a big advantage of being a SaaS product, there's no installation, you lose nothing, right? You don't have to install or return servers. You just get started, start connecting your data and start playing around with your data and start visualizing and prototyping within your team, get success quickly, get motivated quickly as well. That's a big part of it, and from there, you just start your subscription level. David: What level of skill do you need?  Telmo Silva: To do complex things, you definitely need some SQL sometimes, some function programming, as you do with Excel, we are all different experts in Excel. There are those of us that use Excel just to type in numbers and your basic drag and drop, and that's it. And then there's those that know to do Lookups and they know a few more functions and then there's those that do Macros in Excel, right? There are different skills, and with us, it's the same thing. It really depends on what you need to do and how much your data needs work. So we have our own kind of Excel-like language that they can use, very similar to SQL as well. They can do a lot of things with the data.  We needed to make ClicData very powerful, and very flexible to ensure that we will not be stumped by a specific need or a specific customer request. But at the surface, we also try to make it easy with a strong UI to write those hard-to-write functions behind the scenes through an interface that is a little bit easier to use. David: So at a minimum, you want somebody who has an interest or a knack for this sort of thing, as opposed to Margaret in Sales and Marketing saying, “Here, you do this!” and she gets the deer and the headlights look?  Telmo Silva: Absolutely. Now you can, if you have, and some customers of ours do this and they split the work of connecting and making the data available versus consuming the data, right?  You have your technical person, the person that knows the data very well to create these kinds of slices and catalogues of data and make them available to the rest of the team, and the team then goes in, either with our dashboard editor or report editor, and does their own dashboards and their own kind of visualizations or with other tools as well. So there are also those splitting of functions that sometimes are important to put in place into a company. David: ClicData is in Northwest France based in Lille, correct?  Telmo Silva: Yeah, we have three major offices. That is our head office, the engineering office in the north of France. We have one in Toronto, Canada, and we have one in Texas so we're all over the place a little bit. David: So Europeans are gonna engage through your European offices and Canadians and Americans can find a couple of offices on this side of the pond?  Telmo Silva: That's correct.  David: Where do they find you online? Telmo Silva: ClicData.com  David: It's important to say there's no “k” in the click. Somebody got to it before you could get the one with the “k”?  Telmo Silva: I believe so, or maybe at that point in time, we wanted to make it very even with four and four, Clic and Data, I'm not sure. David: Oh, they'll find it. Thank you very much for spending some time with me.  Telmo Silva: Thank you for having me.

Episode #239 - How do you invest during inflation? How do you avoid losing money when asset prices are so high? How do you live without worrying about money? These and more are the topics of this interview with David Stein, a former money manager of billions of dollars for investor clients who now teaches how individuals can understand money, invest it, and live without worrying about it. Companion Article/Show Notes:  https://www.coachcarson.com/davidstein/ David's excellent podcast: https://moneyfortherestofus.com/episodes/ Free Course from David - How to Beat Inflation: https://moneyfortherestofus.com/inflation/ David's Community - Money For the Rest of Us (Plus): https://moneyfortherestofus.com/hub/ ________________________

“There’s nothing quite like immersing yourself in somebody else’s culture. And I think that’s the difference between transactional sales and relationship sales” – David How do you avoid the siloed nature within organizations? What impact can internal alignment bring to your organization? In this episode, you will be listening to the aftershow with David Rueda. […]

We have as our guest this time David Larter, a noted commentator on US Navy matters and also global naval developments. First up for discussion will be the naval side of Ukraine War, with David giving his perspective on the Russian blockade, plus growing realisation of the global impact of Ukrainian grain shipments being blocked. Podcast host Iain Ballantyne asks what can be done. Can it be broken by force? If so, who would do it? Iain and David discuss the ‘War by Hunger' that is potentially about to inflict starvation on some of the world's poorest countries. Their chat also touches on echoes of what happened when the British imposed a sea blockade on Germany in WW1 and were themselves victims of U-boat attacks against maritime trade.  The overall Russian strategy today - and how it is driven by President Vladimir Putin's urge to ensure Russia is not cut off from the sea - along with his desire to emulate Tsar Peter the Great in establishing his nation as a great imperial power, is also a topic of discussion. Turning to other aspects of the Ukraine War at sea, and indeed the entire conflict, Iain suggests that the most important battle on land and sea is in fact for possession of Odessa… Iain asks if David agrees that, if the Ukrainians get cut off from the sea and lose Odessa, it is ‘game over'? The USA of course is deeply involved in leading the West's effort on Ukraine, but it also has a world of troubles to look out for, not least the rise of an aggressive China. And so in the vanguard of all that is the US Navy, with Iain asking David: How mighty is the USN these days? Is it being pushed to its limits and beyond by the world of troubles? WARSHIPS POD likes to also touch on history and culture in addition to current naval topics and geopolitics, which sees the discussion segue to an ancient movie history artifact - namely ‘Top Gun' and its sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick.' Spoiler alert for this section of the podcast! Iain and David reveal they have both seen it and so discuss their reactions to ‘Top Gun: Maverick'. Does it fly or crash and burn?  • In addition to being a well-established Navy reporter David Larter is a US Navy veteran, - now working in the aerospace industry in Los Angeles, but who still engages on naval issues. His comment on the podcast are in a personal capacity as a navalist and not reflective of any organisation's opinions. David can be found on Twitter @DavidLarter  • Iain Ballantyne is the Editor of WARSHIPS International Fleet Review magazine. For more details on the magazine http://bit.ly/wifrmag Follow it on Twitter @WarshipsIFR and on Facebook @WarshipsIFR Iain Ballantyne can be found on Twitter @IBallantyn 

David, Joe, and Korbin answer questions submitted by the listening audience. David then visits with Casey White, Senior Director of Technical Services and Innovation at Central Life Sciences, about Fly Control. Casey describes the highly, highly effective products, ClariFly and Altosid IGR, and how/when to use them. The guys cover dozens of your submitted questions and talk about everything from marketing, breeding and crossbreeding, the future of industry, protocols, inflation and demand, how to be an advocate, diversifying, trusting your eyes, and so much more. Mentioned in this Episode:Montana RanchThe Montana Bred for Balance Bull and Female Sale — Call David at 406-210-5605 or send an email to Bulls@MontanaRanchAngus.com if you're searching for semen from balanced trait sires!Rafter 5M Land & CattleBruin RanchFacebook @AngusUndergroundInstagram @AngusUndergroundContact AngusUnderground@Yahoo.com or call 406-210-1366 if you are interested in becoming a sponsor for Angus Underground.BreederLink.comGeneBrokers.comCentral Life SciencesGeorge ChambersSouthern Cross RanchClariFlyAltosid IGRAmerican Angus AssociationQuotes:“I just hope that when I get where I'm going, I'm where I need to be.” — Korbin“The customers pay an immense premium to get to do business with us and the more I can spend my time with those folks getting to understand their needs, wants, directions, goals… that's the best marketing tool.” — Joe“Continue on the path that you're on and capitalize.” — David“Your cattle still have value even if they have numbers.” — Korbin“Produce something different from everyone else, and let everyone know what you have.” — David“Find people that raise the kind of cattle you like and really quiz them.” — David“Develop your own biases, develop your network… but also trust your heart and trust your own eyes.” — Joe“Be an advocate for the beef industry.” — David“How do we grow our demand for our beef? We just have to produce good beef and we have to be good stewards of the cattle, of the land, and we have to sell that message to the general public.” — David“It's about empowering a new generation of breeders.” — Joe“Every animal has to add value no matter which lane you decide to be in or if you decide to tackle multiple lanes.” — Joe“Trust your eyes, trust your heart, do what matters to you. Don't pay attention to what the crowd says.” — David

Yves Gravelle is a V15 boulderer from Canada and a 3x APL World Champion (i.e. grip competitions). We talked about lessons from grip training that we can apply to climbing, the importance of simplicity and consistency, how to break down a bouldering project, basing your training on the demands of a specific goal, top 3 finger training methods, how to train full crimps, and much more.Check out Athletic Greens!athleticgreens.com/NUGGETUse the link above to get a free year's supply of vitamin D + 5 travel packs!Check out Grasshopper Climbing!grasshopperclimbing.cominstagram.com/grasshopperclimbingTell them I sent you to save $500 off a fully kitted out 8'x10' Grasshopper board! Check out Chalk Cartel!chalkcartel.comUse code "NUGGET" at checkout for 20% off your next order!We are supported by these amazing BIG GIVERS:Leo Franchi, Michael Roy, David Lahaie, Robert Freehill, Jeremiah Johnson, Scott Donahue, Eli Conlee, Skyler Maxwell, and Craig Lee Become a Patron:patreon.com/thenuggetclimbingShow Notes:  thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/yves-gravelleNuggets:0:07:18 – How to pronounce Yves' name, and living in Ottawa0:09:20 – The most legendary training montage I have ever seen, and an introduction to APL0:12:32 – Why Yves thinks climbs could represent themselves well in grip sports, and what a competition is like0:15:22 – Specializing vs. being a well-rounded athlete in grip0:18:11 – Balancing climbing goals with grip competitions0:19:28 – What Yves has learned from grip sports, and taking training ideas from powerlifting0:22:26 – How Yves bases his training around the demands of a specific boulder or goal0:24:49 – Is it possible to combine outdoor climbing with quality finger strength training?0:31:07 – An example training week with outdoor bouldering on Sunday0:35:05 – Preparing your body for the amount of training you want to do, and progressively working your way up0:36:19 – Building capacity, and learning about nutrition0:37:55 – Reading nutritional research about bouldering0:39:33 – How Yves has changed his diet0:42:28 – Maintaining finger strength during off-seasons, and pushing hard for goals0:45:51 – Finger training principles, keeping things simple, consistency, writing things down, and using RPE to measure your training0:51:38 – Training strength when you are fresh, finishing fresh, and not going to failure (adding a buffer)0:54:14 – Yves' session load calculator spreadsheet0:57:36 – Preparation cycles, and competitive cycles1:00:45 – Jazz1:02:13 – How Yves trained for ‘So What' V15, and building shoulder strength and mobility1:05:15 – Patron question from fdclimbs: Any tips for building climbing-specific shoulder strength?1:07:34 – Yves top 3 finger training exercises for climbing1:12:01 – Progressive warmup for finger training1:13:58 – Micro edge training1:15:39 – Contact strength training1:19:20 – Summary of Yves' top 3 finger training methods1:21:08 – Patron question from Alan: Does Yves have a favorite way to train full crimps?1:22:39 – Yves' full crimp story, and how he prevents finger injuries1:26:14 – Patron question from fdclimbs: Tips for training individual fingers? (And Yves' grip positions and anatomy)1:29:53 – Patron question from Alan: How does Yves balance different methods of training fingers and grip strength?1:33:19 – Prepping for ‘Terremere' and Hueco1:34:17 – Patron question from Daniel: Any plans to travel to world-famous bouldering areas and try the classic V15s or V16s?1:35:38 – 1-7-11 on the campus board (with slightly different spacing)1:37:00 – Patron question from Daniel: Is there such thing as “enough power”? What about finger strength?1:38:18 – Patron question from Xander: Do your finger strength gains still transfer to climbing?1:39:28 – One of Yves' favorite coaches to learn from1:40:59 – When you are starting off almost anything will work1:41:44 – Patron question from Michael: What is the smallest edge you can hang with one hand? What about two hands?1:42:54 – Being muscular and still being strong on tiny holds, and putting on muscle mass in the right places1:44:30 – Patron question from David: How does Yves look after his skin, especially splits and tears?1:46:48 – Contributing to local bouldering areas, and winning the world championships1:47:41 – Yves' daughters and gymnastics1:50:26 – Listen to your body, and enjoy the process1:53:10 – Be present1:54:39 – Wrap up

Patrick addresses possible propaganda and answers a question from Gigi where she says she's not able to find accurate information about the casualties in the Ukrainian/Russian war so far. David – How can I get my 86-year-old mom baptized? These Campaigns Hope ‘Deepfake' Candidates Help Get Out the Vote Jose – Is it Ok to baptize my children without godparents? Democrats lose fight to strip abortion funding restrictions from spending package Kevin - We used the wedding coordinator as godparents and it worked out well Patrick shares what the Catholic Church requires to be a Godparent Ted – Can kids be baptized protestant if they don't have godparents?

David Burkus is one of the world's leading business thinkers. Since 2017, David has been ranked as one of the world's top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. His best-selling books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. As a leadership coach and organisational psychologist, David's work is changing how companies approach innovation, collaboration, and leadership. "Leading from anywhere. The essential guide to managing remote teams", David's latest book is the topic of this conversation. Here are a few things that I have discussed with David: -How to set up and lead remote teams. -Feedback culture within remote teams. -What's the future of WFH will look like. To learn more from David how to lead teams remotely, check out those links: Website: https://davidburkus.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidburkus/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidBurkus/featured Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidburkus?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor If you enjoyed this episode and are committed to becoming a better leader, please subscribe and leave a review. It will help me grow my podcast and invite more amazing guests to my show. Have a great day on purpose!

I did a Facebook Live "Ask Me Anything" the other day on the Podcast Talent Coach Facebook Page. On it, you got answers to your podcast questions. We talked about everything from selling and monetizing your show to using text messaging as a way to interact with your listeners. I thought I would share those answers with you today. BOOTCAMP Before we jump into it, I want to invite you to a powerful event I am holding where I will help you build your podcast monetization strategy. We actually get stuff done in this day-long bootcamp. So many times, we go to webinars hoping to learn something only to find out it is full of fluff. We might walk away with one or two ideas after an hour. But we are really only there for the sales pitch. You now have a chance to join me for a 6-hour Podcast Profits Bootcamp where I will walk you through the entire process to build your podcast monetization strategy. It's actually 7 hours, but you get an hour for lunch. During this event, we will build a few ways to monetize your show that are perfect for you. This isn't one size fits all. It is specific to your podcast. You can enroll at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/bootcamp. You will get a workbook that will help you stay on track as we develop your strategy. During the bootcamp, we walk through the workbook step-by-step. We will start with your foundation to ensure you are building on solid ground. Then, we will develop your purpose. I'll show you why most podcasts don't make money, so you can avoid those pitfalls. Many people think ads and sponsorships are the way to make money with your show. That is a myth. It is the worst way. Sponsorships require a very large audience and a lot of sales time. Ads also have a revenue ceiling. I'll show you a better way during the Podcast Profits Bootcamp. I won't just show you, we will build it together. We will discuss the various ways you can monetize your show, and we will pick the strategy that is right for you. Finally, you will have plenty of time to ask me questions to refine your strategy. This is so much more than a webinar or workshop. It is a bootcamp where we will actually get things done. Where most webinars last an hour, this is an all day event. REGISTER Registration for the Podcast Profits Bootcamp is $197 for this 6-hour bootcamp and your workbook. More importantly, you walk away with your monetization strategy for your show. Right now, you can enroll for $197. Enroll now and secure your spot. You can enroll at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/bootcamp. If you are ready to build your podcast monetization strategy, the Podcast Profits Bootcamp is for you. You've spent enough time attending empty webinars and trying to find sponsors. Now is the time to build a real strategy. Let's sweeten the deal for you a little more. If you enroll in the Podcast Profits Bootcamp, You will also get a bonus prep call to get you ready for the event. This is where we help you gather all of the information and ideas you'll need before the bootcamp begins. Let's get you registered for the Podcast Profits Bootcamp. Jump in right now at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/bootcamp. QUESTIONS My biggest challenge is growing the audience. What's the best way? - David How do I maximize the content while minimizing the time & effort? - Anne I'd love to know if you have any thoughts on SMS text marketing? I think I'd be able to get more engagement if my busy moms could simply text me a question about a product or service instead of sending in a voicemail or sending an email. Do you have any recommendations for a service provider to work with? - Laura How do I direct people to more than the freebie. - Karen How do you know your worth? I'm not good at selling. - Mike Offer things without making it sound like an ad. Hard to make yourself likable while selling something. - Cheryl How does the podcast fit into the whole marketing plan? - Bruce GET ANSWERS – ASK ME ANYTHING I will be doing more "ask me anything" sessions on the Podcast Talent Coach Facebook page. If you are not following me there yet, head to PodcastTalentCoach.com/Facebook. I would love to have you join us and get your questions answers to your podcast questions. BOOTCAMP Come join us for the Podcast Profits Bootcamp. It is a powerful event that will help you build your podcast monetization strategy. So many times, we go to webinars hoping to learn something only to find out it is a big sales pitch. We might walk away with one or two ideas after an hour. But we are really only there for the sale. You have a chance to join me for a 6-hour Podcast Profits Bootcamp where I will walk you through the entire process to build your podcast monetization strategy. During this event, you will discover 9 different ways to monetize your show. Then, we will build your specific way to generate revenue that is perfect for you. This isn't one size fits all. It is specific to your show. You will get a workbook that will help you stay on track as we develop your strategy. During the bootcamp, we walk through the workbook step-by-step. We will start with your foundation to ensure you are building on solid ground. Then, we will develop your purpose. Many people think ads and sponsorships are the way to make money with your show. That is a myth. It is the worst way. Sponsorships require a very large audience and a lot of sales time. Ads also have a revenue ceiling. I'll show you 9 better ways during the Podcast Profits Bootcamp. I won't just show you, we will build it together. We will discuss the various ways you can monetize your show, so you can pick the strategy that is right for you. Finally, you will have plenty of time to ask me questions to refine your strategy. This is so much more than a webinar or workshop. It is a bootcamp where we will actually get things done. Where most webinars last an hour, this is a 6-hour, all day event. REGISTER Registration for the Podcast Profits Bootcamp is $197 for the 6-hour bootcamp, your workbook and your monetization strategy for your show. You can get the details at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/bootcamp. If you are ready to build your podcast monetization strategy, the Podcast Profits Bootcamp is for you. You've spent enough time attending empty webinars and trying to find sponsors. Now is the time to build a real strategy. Let's get you registered for the Podcast Profits Bootcamp. Jump in right now at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com/bootcamp.

Watch the video version of this show on YouTube »Matthieu Rouif is the co-founder and CEO of PhotoRoom. PhotoRoom enables anyone to create studio-quality photos on their iPhone. Before founding PhotoRoom, Matthieu was the Senior Project Manager at GoPro. Matthieu is also the co-founder and CTO of HeyCrowd, and co-founder and CEO of As-App.Matthieu earned his graduate degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford University, and his bachelor's degrees in economics, and physics from École Polytechnique. While at École Polytechnique, Matthieu was a member of the skydiving team and debate team. Matthieu also served as a Parachutist Commando Officer in the French Air Force.Matthieu started developing apps in 2009 as a student at Stanford, and subsequently started two iPhone app companies. He was part of the Replay app team when they won App of the Year in 2014. Matthieu started PhotoRoom after leaving GoPro in 2018.In this episode, you'll learn: Matthieu's retention strategies for keeping app users subscribed Innovative and clever ways to get users to demo your app Balancing your app's pricing and features How churn can be an asset Links & Resources YC HeyCrowd GoPro Photoshop Zenlea Shopify Poshmark Depop Corel Matthieu Rouif's Links Matthieu on Twitter Matthieu on LinkendIn PhotoRoom is hiring! 10 Tools to Ship an iOS App in 2 Weeks PhotoRoom's Website PhotoRoom API PhotoRoom on Twitter Follow us on Twitter: David Barnard Jacob Eiting RevenueCat Sub Club Episode Transcript00:00:00 David:Hello, I'm your host, David Barnard. And with me as always, Jacob Eiting, RevenueCat CEO. Our guest today is Matt Rouif, co-founder and CEO at PhotoRoom, the app for removing backgrounds and creating studio quality photos right from your phone.On the podcast, we talk with Matt about how his time at GoPro led to founding PhotoRoom, how churn can actually be an asset, and how being locked in Apple's basement led to one of PhotoRoom's biggest marketing wins.Hey, Matt. Thanks for joining us on the podcast today. How are you doing?00:00:48 Matthieu:Great. Hey David, Hey Jacob.00:00:51 Jacob:Hi, it's nice to finally meet internet/virtual face-to-face. We've known each other for a little while. I've become fortunate to know you kind of through RevenueCat, but not actually know-know you. So, it's nice to finally put a face to the name.I was looking back through my email and I think the first I ever heard of you was from our mutual friend, Cisco, if I say that correctly?00:01:23 Matthieu:Yeah, Francisco.00:01:24 Jacob:Francisco, who shared with me a blog post that I had seen that you wrote where you talked about RevenueCat as part of your stack. Since then, I think we talked as you were thinking about going into YC, and then after YC, I put in a little bit of money, so this is a good opportunity to check in on my investment.I'm super excited to dive in, because there's a lot of questions. I kind of have followed you guys and kind of seeing some of the stuff you've been doing, but I don't know, like the behind the scenes decision making processes and like, and all that stuff. So yeah, I'm excited to hear the story firsthand.00:02:04 David:Yeah, but before we get into PhotoRoom, you've got quite a history in app development. So, I want to go back to the beginning and talk war stories. A lot of people were in the industry way back when. Jacob and I both started really early as well. So, you got your start during the Stanford class and you were actually a teaching assistant at Stanford at the time, right? I'm kind of stealing your story, but yeah. Tell me, tell me how you got into it.00:02:34 Matthieu:Yeah. Actually I wasn't a teaching assistant in physics. I was doing a master's in physics at Stanford, right at the moment of the first iPhone class. And, I actually went to Stanford because I was fascinated by the entrepreneurship. And I had this business idea of printing photos and sending them.And that seemed a lot easier not to buy hardware, but just use the iPhone which just started at that point. So, I was at Stanford, there was the iPhone class. I wanted to do a photo app. So, see, 12 years later....00:03:05 Jacob:A 12 year overnight success.00:03:07 Matthieu:That's what they say. Exactly. And, yeah, I got, I actually, I got started, programming.I was doing physics before, and I didn't know anything about programming. So I took a class with a friend that went through the basics, and I just wanted to push products on apps. And I found that the iPhone was the best at that point. And actually the photo app became something else.The first company I started back in grad school and they became like a ski resorts app. I shipped, we had all of the major ski resorts. And, It was a great, I did that for two years and a major ski resorts and, yeah.I started an apps company after that, one called HeyCrowd around a social network. So like we had surveys that you could answer to with polls, like, a bit like Instagram stories now, and that didn't work so well compared to the ski resort, but, yeah, I got into iPhone apps right since the beginning.00:04:18 Jacob:I remember the Stanford course. It was on iTunes U that was mass disseminated or was it the later one?00:04:25 Matthieu:No, it was the one that it wasn't Stanford U. There was a, the guy from Fitboard during the class. I don't know if it was doing that.00:04:42 Jacob:Yeah. I remember. I remember it being like the moment when we were like, oh, this is going to go mainstream. Right? Like, because up to that point, you had to learn iOS by doing basically Mac OS. That was like the one point there was the big nerd book you learned Mac OS, and then the SDKs came and you like tried to learn quickly, like what worked and what didn't.But, if you were like me who came from no Mac programming, there was really no iPhone entry into it. I remember when the Stanford course came out. It was like one year too late for me. Because like at that point I had already done a lot of stuff, but it was still really great.I still watched the whole thing. I remember watching it. But it's interesting. We have the same path. I don't know if we ever talked about this, but I was studying physics in undergrad as well. Yeah, I didn't go to Stanford, but I went to a small state school instead, just cause, you know. But yeah, kind of similar story where like I was in, I wasn't in grad school, but I was physics, undergrad.Didn't really know what I wanted to do. I really loved physics and the math and all that stuff, but like, there's a stronger economic pull, let's put it that way, to work on apps. That was the same story for me. Like took a little bit of what I had learned, writing code for experiments and things like this, and then kind of started making apps.And then, yeah, the rest is history.00:06:06 Matthieu:Yeah. I think one of the introduction to physics is like how fast data applies to the real world from science to real world. And you don't find that in a, like a physics job where you kind of find that back in, like a software development where you like, can we solve a math problem, a computer science problem, and you can directly apply it to real00:06:25 Jacob:Yeah. Or like, even with business modeling and stuff too, you know, you think about how a business moves and like what number moves this number. And there's no physics there. You're not approximating a physical system, but some of the same principles apply. Right. You're like trying to find some laws that are underlying it and work from there.So yeah, I found it hasn't been terribly unrelevant, but, but yeah, that's interesting. What else, what else do we have in common? Let's keep going.00:06:48 Matthieu:Yeah, sure.00:06:49 David:Well, actually, I, I want to jump in. I want to get to PhotoRoom, so we're actually going to skip over. You've done a lot now. So after, after that you went to replay and replay was like onstage at a keynote. And you're the co founders that you were working with, you know, as, as you joked, before we started recording, spent a month in the basement and apple, as everyone does before a keynote.But then you ended up at GoPro working on imaging. so just tell me about that. Leaving GoPro. I mean, Great company done a lot of innovative stuff. but tell me about leaving to start a PhotoRoom and what the inspiration, I guess we've heard part of it, you know, 12 years of working on imaging and wanting to build a photo app.But yeah. Tell me about the founding of, of.00:07:36 Matthieu:Yeah, I, I, so GoPro is an amazing company, but it's more marketing and hardware. And, I really wanted to, I grew a bit frustrated about like how we could, do better software. Yeah, a few frustration from that I, as a product, I was product manager by them. So I was like frustrated with the design tool, like a Photoshop and, and, you kind of have to move to, and by that time you had to move to California to move the stuff.And I was based in there in Paris and I decided to stay there with the family and, and kind of, we had an amazing missionary team at GoPro in Paris, but it's really difficult to. To change the paradigm of a kind of a software, like a, if it works from a kind of more deterministic way. So I kind of realize that it's really tough to ship a new software with new paradigm, and we've mentioned our new insights.So I thought there was a big opportunity with the new, new hardware coming on, the iPhone formation, learning the new, the new, yeah, this new kind of way of thinking about software. And, I left the GoPro to start a company and we've just ideas in mind. And I also, at the time realized that there was a. A lot of apps, you know, like after 10 years on the app store, you kind of know the tricks of the app store. And I knew there were a lot of apps in the top of the photo apps that were around razor and background eraser. I realized like, okay, if they're just kind of a, you know, I say scam, but it's certainly scam, but all these apps that are built quickly, there must be some demand around it.And so that's, I started with the background remover idea. Like I saw that there was a mission learning team at GoPro that there was some background removal, paper and all that. Okay. There must be some demand. Let's ship something quickly and see how it goes. And that's kind of the nice thing of like 10 years of development, you know, the right tool to go fast and just shipped a prototype in two weeks.We've actually referring at, by then I have a blog post on like the 10 tools I use there and, And, yeah, it was, it went super fast, super fast to the store and we have some machine learning and, on-device machine learning by then. So it's as a, and it kind of caught up, like you tried a dozen ideas on some kind of stay on the wall on some, like, and just stay on the wall.00:09:43 Jacob:So at the time it was called BGE app background app. Right. was the focus initially, did you have like a big scope for it or was that your entry? You were like, Hey, I know that they there's these photo apps that kind of suck that are doing this background thing. I think we can do it better. And like, let's see where it goes from there.Or did you have like a bigger plans or longer term aspirations? 00:10:04 Matthieu:I think there was, an understanding that people kind of needed that and the tech tech was 10 X better as they say. So it was really interesting, but I didn't, I mean, we didn't have the full plan for that. It's really a few months in that we are understood with Elliot the kind of the market fit.And we understood also like this idea of, and we call it, we translate pixels into concept that makes it much easier to, to, to edit. So w for the room is the best for digital for entrepreneurs. And the idea is that instead of using mask and layers and pixels, you just like, the machine learning, understanding what are the.The big cells and they just tell you, okay. A cat. So we call it cat to catch up on the cat. And you should have actions that are relevant to a Catholic changing the fur color. if it's, if it's a piece of clothing, it should be the texture of the clothing. If it's a, if it's a kind of graphic change of color, you know, kind of, it makes it much more accessible than what exists in like 10 year, 20 years, software that exists by for the editing.00:11:03 Jacob:So, so yeah, I mean, I think that sounds like a very much a pitch and a story that somebody would be taught at Y Combinator. So I'm curious, like what I'm curious, like, how did that evolve? Like how so you, you, you, you guys launched the app in the, I remember I was talking in like the spring of 2019.00:11:20 Matthieu:Yeah. Like may 2019. Exactly. 00:11:22 Jacob:And then, you started YC in the fall or the winter?Yeah.00:11:25 Matthieu:No, we actually, so we started YC in the following summer. We were supposed to do the winter batch after that. So seven months. And, we, we couldn't because our visa issues, at some, with the family, I couldn't move to, to, to YC. Yeah. 00:11:42 Jacob:Can tell you there's one way to solve that problem.A global pandemic.00:11:49 Matthieu:Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly right. So we did it involve, I think we shipped super fast. We failure my co-founder who is like a, like a machine learning genius. and we follow early on the YC startup school, which is kind of the, first step to. And, and so what does it help you? It kind of, you measure the, yeah, the progress.So, how much customer you're talking to, Ahmed, how much money you made and how happy you are doing what you do. And so that's kind of how we iterated 00:12:24 Jacob:You were 00:12:25 Matthieu:Months. 00:12:26 Jacob:During, startup school or 00:12:28 Matthieu:Yeah, the school kind of asks you every, every week, discussion and you make sure you make progress on that. I think these are the right question to make progress on your business.And here's, what's kind of, kind of natural, like two months later. So we started in may, may, June on that, application for YC where I probably in September, like, so, so we did like all summer, we did the startup school scheme and then framework and made some progress on that. And we got the YC application in September and the interviews actually in Paris, In, I think November.00:12:57 Jacob:And then, ha had you, I guess like, your, your aspirations or your reasons for applying, I guess, are in some ways, self evident to somebody. You know, obviously you don't need to convince me, but for the listeners, I, what was your, yeah. What were your motivations? Like? Why did you, well, I guess for one there's, you know, I don't know.I always hear there's a couple of reasons, right? Like sometimes it's prestige, like people want to the prestige of YC, sometimes it's, it's the help, which I honestly think is the, the, the best reason. Cause I, you know, it's, it was honestly really good for us, but then there's also like, you know, it's, it's a great way to springboard venture back.Thing, right as well. So like, did you have like strong reasons? Was it all of the above or what was the motivation for, for getting on the venture? 00:13:44 Matthieu:Yeah, that's a good question. so I think number one reason was, ambition. I think like a lot of your brain startups, you Batara, can be not ambitious enough. And I think if you're ambitious, like YC is really a way of, the alpha taking the ambitious path. Okay. Then how to make it like a business and a product that has a strong impact, like on a very large number of people.So that was, that would be my number one. I think then it's kind of the learning. we are at the beginning of the company, we sit for failure, then what's what kind of is the most important, you know, for their culture. And we talked about it also. And, one thing we really value is learning fast and I think YC kind of helps you, you probably a lot of like, you learn so much faster because you're at the right contact.So it's, I mean, it's. It's on the partners. Like every time we have a office hour, almost every time, like, wow. Blown away, there is like also Atlas. I get the right investors, I mean on the revenue, on the like mobile subscription and like, yeah, like you like auger from Blinkist, like, someone from, John from Spotify.So that's really helpful and also extra connection like we have in AI, we have the VP of AI and locale Facebook, and I don't think we could reach this network with, with. 00:15:01 Jacob:Yeah, the network thing is depends on, you know, what your background is. Obviously you had been in the peninsula, but still it's hard to be really deeply networked and still it's hard to. Invest in your engineering skills. Right. And like your IC skills and invest in a network at the same time, which was kind of my world.Like I had an okay network, but like, it wasn't super well networked. So YC was like a big like boost to that. Right. You could get interest to people. You could get a little bit, it's still, a who, you know, game Silicon valley is still in a lot of ways or the broader concept. 00:15:33 David:Before we move on. I wanted to talk to us a little bit more about the, about the ambition of PhotoRoom, because, and this is something I think is, would be really relevant to a lot of our listeners who are, are building apps in the space. And, and I, as an indie developer for 12, 13 years, feel like I've, I've, I've worked too much with, with blinders on.Not thinking about the bigger opportunity. So like the first app I launched was trip cubby. It was a model it's log tracking app, to get reimbursements from taxes or get reimbursed from your company, for your mileage. And I just, I treated it like a little tiny indie business, lifestyle, business, and everything else.Meanwhile, 00:16:19 Jacob:IQ00:16:20 David:IQ built a huge 00:16:23 Jacob:Probably launched about the same time. Right. I would think. 00:16:26 David:No, they launched much later actually, which is even again, it's like I had a multi-year lead as kind of the, how to do that 00:16:33 Jacob:Assuming the market was there. Like my, like you probably came when the market was finally there, 00:16:37 David:Starting to grow, but yeah. But what's so cool. Is that, I think there's so many opportunities in the app store that people overlook that seem really niche. Like you just started out replacing backgrounds in photos, 00:16:50 Jacob:And now you're going to be the next generation Photoshop. Is that a good one? Is that a good pitch? I don't know what the 00:16:54 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:16:57 David:What, what's the ambition that, where that took you from, okay.We can replace background images too. This is, could be a huge business because we're, un-bundling one of the like key parts of Photoshop, which is a massive business. So what, what, what is the, what was the ambition and what is the ambition that you feel that this, this can be such a big thing. 00:17:21 Jacob:How did you, how did you convince yourself of that? The ability to do that?00:17:25 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:17:25 David:Yeah.I mean, it's, it's amazing.00:17:27 Matthieu:I think it's, well first like working on photo, video editor, like I realized that, I mean, video is big. Like we got, I think we free-play then named quick by GoPro. We got to $100 million. It's kind of tell you like, and most people, they are still using like photo collage. So everyone's working on photo and video is too complex for most people.So like, if you get 100 million for a video, then it's probably like any good, like yeah. Project improvement like 10 X product improvement on photo must get like 1 billion users. And I think it's like, that's one of the YC model, but it was really starting from a pain point of myself, like creating the assets for actually for the app store.Like you have to create a PSD. And I was like, you spent so much time on non creative task. And I was like, I want to make that much simpler. And I think the big heart moment was kind of talking to the user. So, and also like talking, yeah. Talking to people like we kind of build in the open and people told us, it's like, yeah, Yeah, it's a, it's like a actually it's like programming, like a U instead of you're you're doing like, object oriented, editing, like you understand what kind of objects you have and you make actions that are relevant to that.And that's, that's kind of done myself, like really burning myself away. Like it's much simpler. Like you have an object and you, you offer it to the user. What's the logic for the subject lines, Photoshop. It's such a pain to learn. Like I think everyone would remember is kind of the blown away part of Photoshop, but also the pain it is to understate.00:18:51 Jacob:And it hasn't gotten easier in 20 years. Like the only way now you can paint on a sphere or something like, there's nothing like new, I still open it and it's comforting. Cause I learned in CS two or whatever, and it's all still the same, but like, I don't think it's necessarily, like, I think, I think there's even a broader near you.I'm going to make your, your $10 billion company, a trillion dollar company. But I think there's an even broader narrative there around just like the future of software and how machine learning. Further like narrows the gap between like in software, like programming, not in the traditional sense, but like telling a computer what to do and the computer telling, like asking us or like bringing us like the things it can do.And you see this in like varying degrees of it working well. Right. like Gmail, like suggesting like absolutely insane sounding replies that I would never say, like, that's kind of that, but, but I think that's all maybe a little bit too far, but I think what you guys are doing, it's really great. You know, like segmenting photos, like giving people those tools, like taking, especially for a tool like email it's like writing, like, I don't know.An AI assistant to like, say, thanks like I can, I got that. Thank you. But for, for, yeah, like, like cutting backgrounds out and like setting up. Yeah. Just building like, things that to a human, because we're so visual in the way we think seem really basic, right? Like I want the cat in front of a blue background, right?Like that. Just tell the computer and it can do that right now. The existing tooling is like very manual and very skills driven. And you guys are bridging that gap. So like yeah. Who knows something? I don't know. Maybe photos, aren't the end of it for you guys, maybe next you just start tackling the next software domain.Right? I, you know, I don't know that we'll get to 10000000001st and then we'll worry about the trillion dollar.00:20:28 David:And that's the really magical thing about your app and your onboarding that I wanted to ask you about. So exactly what Jake was saying. When I think of removing a background and I've worked in Photoshop literally since the nineties, late nineties, I'm old. but it's, I've tried that like a hundred different times.And even in the most modern Photoshop, I don't even know how to do it. I expect it to be. I downloaded PhotoRoom and in like three taps, your onboarding is magical because you don't get in the way of the person having a desire to get something done. And then seeing it happen. So in like three tops from opening the app, I see a background removed and it was just like00:21:16 Jacob:Okay. 00:21:16 David:Instant, like mindblowing experience. 00:21:19 Jacob:Yeah.00:21:20 David:This thing that like, I know it's so hard and I think of needing professional tools and needing to be a professional to even figure it out. It just happens magically after three or four taps in your app was that I assume that was very intentional. Did you have different onboardings before and kind of iterate to that point?Or what led you to just such a focused get the person to that?00:21:45 Matthieu:Yeah, that's a good grade. She was our interview. I think, we like, if we, especially in the beginning every week, we'd go to McDonald's and pay a meal to student or anyone. And they like the tagline for McDonald's and Frances com. Everyone can come in and come as you are. So we really met like tourists students professionals, and like doing user interview.We got so frustrated. I think that people didn't get to the step of removing background that kind of like00:22:12 Jacob:Oh, so you would give them an unlogged out like a brand new device and like, watch them go through onboard.00:22:17 Matthieu:We would like pay the meal initially for downloading the app. We'd like first ask you three, four questions about their photo usage on their, on their phone. kind of ask them to download the app and yeah. Blinded as yeah. And, and we were like came sneaking. We just were, we were just iOS at the beginning.So try to find people with iPhones and not Android, and that was stuff, but yeah, I mean, people usually stopped before and they don't understand something and like to build trust with them, we figured out like the best is to short tech. So I can we get to the point where. We actually have all these people, we try the app that actually see the bag, the magic effect of Futterman like, so like taking a white sheet of paper, we valued microphone and like thinking, how can we do that?And it got to like adding that as early as possible in the onboarding. I think that's, that's, that's fine.00:23:06 Jacob:I think, I remember now reading about the McDonald's testing and your, your, YC application and being like. That's the moment I knew these guys were going to make it, I guess like it's was brilliant, right? Like I, I don't know how much user testing, like real good user testing is. If you do it in some sort of like professional context, it's probably really weird and like expensive and like hard.And this is dead simple, super scrappy. Right? People don't do it because I don't know nerds. Don't like talking to people like we don't like, you know, it's, it's, it's tough to put your, your app in front of somebody and see them. Not, it's one thing to read like bad retention numbers on amplitude is another thing to like, see somebody actually churn and like, but honestly that's the best way to learn.Like this is the best way to like, get really actionable feedback. So, I'm sure that was, that was super beneficial.00:23:53 Matthieu:Yeah, it's a, it's a trick from Zenly. So the social network and maps, like that really is, one of the best, app in embarrass and they, and we apply that and yeah, it requires some. It's not easy, I must say. But, you really, you learn so much and the pain today is more like we have more qualified users.So it's really easy in the beginning when you're in your photo apps and people just as the app and everyone has photos. So it's easy to explain. Then you want to like talk to your kind of retain user. It's difficult to get them at the McDonald, but now we're friends with all the vintage shops around the block.So in Paris, so we get.00:24:28 Jacob:So that, yeah, that was I kind of my question I wanted to ask. I'll just slide it in now, but like I've noticed, I don't know. I don't know if you had this intention initially, but it seems like you've found a new. Even amongst these apps in something I would say commerce or even e-commerce it seems like a lot of people use these, use your app to take photos of objects, to use as like advertising or gone Shopify.Is that, is that true and statement or am I just like misreading investor updates?00:24:56 Matthieu:No, it's totally true. Actually, it's not. The interesting thing is it came from a personal lead, like using, as you say, Photoshop and wanted it much easier for me, but I wasn't clear who was using the CRA's background apps. I'm talking to like user at McDonald's. We realized like there was all these reselling apps, especially in the Europe and the U S where people.Yeah, they're just like selling Poshmark on vintage in Europe and they, there is no app that's focusing on their photo need. Like everyone's doing like selfies or I dunno, whatever lens on video you can make or, but, no one's in it helping them. And it actually came from the user interview like, oh, that some user told us like, oh, my girlfriend would love that she's selling on Depop.And, and we kind of like it after multiple user asking us in support. asking us, and in talking at the user interview of my goal, we realized that, oh, that's a niche that we should kind of focus on. So that's Allie Kim, 00:25:51 Jacob:Was that pre YC, like pretty early in the process.00:25:55 Matthieu:And it came in a few, just not in one day, but it, I think early, after being taken at twice a 00:26:02 Jacob:Okay. 00:26:03 Matthieu:Like early 20, 20,00:26:04 Jacob:So then my next question, I guess, is like, how do you decide then? So you have a car for strong product. You, you, you might have like varying. This is, I think this is very common for a lot of apps and companies is like, you have probably different levels of product market fit depending on the market.Right? So like maybe broadly across all users of iPhone, your product market fit may not be as strong. But then when you look at this one niche, like maybe it's really strong. And then I think some. End up in a situation where you have to kind of decide, like, do I want to go for this maybe less fit, broader market, or maybe a tighter market with a stronger fit that I'm starting out with.Did you have that internal conversation? And then did you make an active decision? Like we're going to focus on this and then yeah. And then what's the plan after that? Like, or is that the forever plan?00:26:48 Matthieu:I think we, the easy part is as a product guy, I'm really convinced that our usage is really deep. Like we're starting from a different Lego brick, like, okay, you don't need it mask or square pixels, you edit like objects. So, I mean, any app that kind of want to copy that Nike that's to stop doing what it does today.So it's kind of the thing that relates to the missionary understanding excelled in the beginning. So we were confident. Digging into this usage and this product paradigm and like product basic block is interesting. And then we decided to focus on the pro usage and, and it's difficult as a follower. You want to serve everyone at the beginning, we were even doing a video plus photo, like in December of 2019, we dropped the video, just for animation.And then we dropped kind off the casual use case to focus on the pro and, and it's, it's been helpful. You're not like giving up on the other users. You, I mean, some of the features, they're still going to use it, the other, the casual, the people doing memes from, from the app, but she just like when you build features, you think about them.And I, around that, I think YC is helpful because. like if you reach local maximum from one vertical, like product market fit, then you investing so much on the take. It gets better than the, all the local maximums or, or adjustment. Like you can reach them after, and it's not a big deal and kind of believe and believing and trusting that helps you on, on like a, okay, we're going to focus on this one for, let's say three months and we say,00:28:14 Jacob:Yeah. I mean, I think that's a really good point in that I think can trip up people early in the process is that you think. That making an active choice to close yourself off to part of the market as a mistake. Cause you're like, well, I want to serve everybody or, well, I want to, you know, I want to have the most broad appeal I can cause it does, it feels wrong, right.To not serve a use case. but often tactically it's a bad choice because yeah, in the early days, anything. Hey find any users that love your product, even if it's a small group, there's, it's a, it's a closer step to like, get your foot onto that than it is to try to get sustainability on like mediocre product market fit across the broad market.Because then also it makes, yeah, it makes your McDonald's discussions easier. Well, maybe you don't have McDonald's discussions anymore. It makes your product discussions easier. Cause you can say like, okay, these are pilot. We're not going to do all this stuff. We're going to focus on this stuff, which gives you more of a loss city.I just really feel there's so much to getting that velocity early. Right. Like getting something that's like moving and growing and getting fast. And I think that's one of the things, I mean, I don't know, I won't, I won't docks you guys on retention numbers and stuff, but you know, when you have a, I'll just say that when you have a pro user base, that's using it for something non casual retention gets easier, right.Like have a reason to come back. And so if you, I mean, there's not that many apps like that. That on it's hard, it's hard, it's hard. It's rare to find mobile apps that have that opportunity. Right. So when it's there, you need to take it00:29:45 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:29:46 David:How do you think about pricing for that value creation? Since, since those that kind of pro segment really probably gets a lot more value than you're even currently charging. because they're actually making money with your product. Like how did you think through your print pricing? And did you iterate to this point from a more kind of consumer pricing to them to a, I mean, to me it feels like you're in the middle still of somewhat consumer-friendly and really honestly, probably cheap for a professional use case.So how did you land on your current price?00:30:24 Matthieu:Yeah, to be honest, it's like most of the photo apps. I mean, when we started and maybe it's different, they are all pricing like 10 bucks a month and that's kind of given by, I guess, Spotify Netflix, like it's kind of the, the glass ceiling of the price of subscription, even for prosumer. And, and we kind of iterated on the under yearly from 40 bucks to 69 bucks, in, in the U.So we didn't like, we kind of landed on that quite early. you don't want to alienate the user, especially if you put the up-selling in the onboarding, like, to be too expensive. I think we have a major opportunity though, to like address the more advanced business and the more than one person in a shop, it's just, it's really difficult to build this a B2B case in in-app like, you don't have that many apps that use that in the up-sell of the phone.So you probably have to show it like. The the first price, to every user and on the pro you probably can to brigade them after, I think it's something we can do later, like focusing on the product for now and make it simple as much as you're like, if you start with two prices, like the support, basically it is going to go crazy.We still do the support of the users. That's something we try to maximize for simplicity here.00:31:37 Jacob:I mean, it's a good point to make, especially too. It depends on, depends on your cashflow constraints as well. Just like how much, how extractive you want to be, how much you want to push it. Right. because you know, when you have good retention, like there's an argument, an argument to be made to not mess that up by because you're raising your price will hurt your attention, right?Like it's kind of at least on paid, right? Like more expensive. It is. People are going to churn more. and if you're compounding your total, like paying subscribers, that might be more important and then extracting an extra, an incremental $2 or $10 or whatever from each user, right. It might be better off just to keep them happy and longterm.And that's what makes it, I don't know, pricing just so complicated. It's about finding that equilibrium to maximize like the longterm area under the curve and not just, not just like the individual LTVs.00:32:27 Matthieu:Yeah, exactly. I think there was one. yeah, we, you want to talk to, like, you don't want to. Expensive at the beginning, you should have too expensive. Like one of the really source of feedback was also our support. And like, if you're too expensive, you get less pro. And the goal, I mean, the reason we launched after two weeks with was like the feedback from process so much more valuable than the feedback from, for users.I mean, you still want people to pay, like, just stop at 500 bucks in long month is going to be like, there's no way people are going to pay for that. So, and I was actually talking on Twitter that like, we actually put forth first a monthly plan because we wanted people to churn and be able to talk to them.So there was really a focus on learning from the 00:33:07 Jacob:Interesting. 00:33:08 Matthieu:Early days.00:33:09 Jacob:Yeah, I've always. Yeah. The, the short, I think, long, the annual subscriptions obviously have a bunch of benefits to, to, to app developers, but you do end up flying blind for a very long time. Right. Until you really know what those numbers look like. So if you're on monthly, purely, it does kind of simplify things early on.Which is another case to be made for just not over thinking your pricing, like initially, right? Like you guys launched just with the monthly and it was fine that you added, I don't know when you added an annual product, but you brought it in when the time. 00:33:40 Matthieu:I think the logical, so learning from GoPro and replay days is the pricing is quite elastic. So you double your price, you divide by two, the number of pros like minus plus 10%. And so, so it doesn't, I mean, it's, I mean, when you get bigger, it's way of doing experiments on pricing, but in the early days it's worth, it's not worth like taking too much time on that.00:34:01 Jacob:Yeah. I mean, it's good to know if you have an elastic curve, it means you're pretty close to, to the optimum already, right?00:34:06 David:Did you start from day one at that $10 a month price point?00:34:10 Matthieu:I think we were at eight or nine. it's pretty much like every pro for the pro apps. Like not selfies was at that on the photo and it's, and I think. The co, I mean, it goes from Spotify on Netflix. Like, everyone's like a, it's like if comparing industry report, they tell you a comparing you to Spotify on that fixed anyway.So it's a, I think it's a good, like a way to start on as they increase the price, they increase kind of the time of all the possible ATV of all the apps, which is really good. Thank you.00:34:40 Jacob:If they don't take care of it, inflation will don't worry. 00:34:43 David:But, but that's just amazing two weeks, to an MVP that you could charge $8 a month for, and people actually paid it.00:34:50 Jacob:Well, 12, 12 years in two weeks, David, if00:34:52 David:Well, right, right, right. No, no, that's a great point. But the point being that there, there are still opportunities that when you have experience and domain knowledge, that it's not the, the programming, it's not the, it's not such a monumental task to build something that's really valuable to people in this space on mobile, that you can build something good quickly with that experience.00:35:17 Matthieu:The first app was really crappy though. Like I think we 00:35:20 David:Yeah. 00:35:21 Matthieu:A few weeks before having our pay first paid users.00:35:23 David:Gotcha. I did want to talk a little bit about your marketing, so, What did you do at launch? Did, did you get a little pressed? Did you, you know, talk to apple, how did you get that initial code?00:35:35 Matthieu:So yeah, we were super, I mean, apple has been super supportive to us. I think. Before GoPro, GoPro acquired replay. so we play was, app of the year, senior as, elevate. So 00:35:46 Jacob:You guys at the year in France, is that what the00:35:48 Matthieu:No, so so I have a card, I brought the screenshot that, 00:35:52 Jacob:The U S 00:35:53 Matthieu:So we didn't, yeah, we didn't, get the U S we didn't get the U S and north America, and it's kind of a private, taser, but it's, we got like most of the Europe and Asia. And, yeah, and then I was seeing like the star that elevate their they're thinking the other U S and we should get that. 00:36:14 Jacob:It was good for you that we hadn't localized maybe 00:36:18 Matthieu:Yeah, 00:36:19 Jacob:That was the thing we were like only English at the time.00:36:22 Matthieu:Well, elevate is such a difficult business to localize. So I think it's a photo video is easy to localize it. Yeah.And, and so we got like, we got the keynote, so, and we kind of, I mean, the app is really good at marketing. using the latest technology of, apple in, like the metal and using the lasers, the GPU, I kind of build a relationship from there, with the apple team and also like learning AR that's kind of the narrative of apple, like to showcase apps.Leveraging the latest technology. They do their marketing through developers and that's awesome for us. Like it's super opportunity. And so what was that? When we started, it was well, we're using a Carmel to do the background removal and we did use like really early on in September of 2019, we use our KPIs to remove the background, to do some live preview of the photo.And so we got into, there is an accelerator inference in the biggest, like sexual life is one of the biggest things. Accenture and apple has a program there and we got in there and they helped us and like marketing and, and business, during the summer. And we had some tech workshop and in September we got Macy's, marketing from the using Eric.He, three, I think, API APIs. So I think all the days was marketing through, using the latest tech software and hardware from.00:37:42 David:And where did it go from there? Yeah. So after, after you've, you've gotten some traction in some of those early customers. did you jump into paid user acquisition 00:37:52 Matthieu:No. 00:37:54 David:Of, of, paid to, organic growth?00:37:58 Matthieu:Yeah. So we got into, we didn't do paid until like, we really got traction and market fit. So early 20, 20, and we started to have some, we got Gary V tweeting about us, like a video, farmer. So that was like a viral video demoing the app. And we kind of, I mean, the thinking was if some videos of demoing for term or viral, it probably works so-so as ad.So we kind of use these viral videos and try ads on that. Started ramping up, I think before YC, Facebook ads. So in April of last year and, it kind of, yeah, it was a good, channel of acquisition for us. And we always had in mind, like, we don't want to spend too much, we wanted to have it under control, but the payback was really good.So we kind of, added mix like, I don't know, it was three 17, maybe at that point in between the, between paid 30% beta and the 70%. And, yeah, organic and so that we ramped that up and I think it wasn't a good time to all this marketing and we kind of fast in that, at that point, because there was a COVID, the beginning of the COVID and all marketing was going down.So it was super cheap to try stuff there. 00:39:09 David:Yeah. 00:39:09 Matthieu:So I tried to be a part of these tick on that an influencer. I like a lot of times. So like all of that, we were at the right time and at the right moment for that day,00:39:17 Jacob:So how much, like are you balancing? I mean, obviously there's always so much you're balancing as a founder. but you know, how much are you thinking about investing back in the app and like broadening your appeal, making it better new markets, like new platforms versus. The scale of approach, like how can we scale marketing and, and continue to grow?Or is it like 50, 50? Like, do you have a top priority right now? Or, or how has the, like, how has your, your mind thinking about like your biggest growth levers?00:39:48 Matthieu:Yeah, we try to try to have a higher, level kind of privacy laws. So let's focus on retention or let's focus on this specific kind of users. So, in the U S for just three months, and we tried to align product and growth, on like a three months of that. And so that's kind of. that's yeah, that's how we think about it with Elliot and, and try to have it on growth and on product and kind of put us to talk more to these kinds of users, so to improve on, on these kind of shoes or just, just niche for instance.And, I don't know if people are selling on this marketplace for a month and then we'll see maybe another nation, another country, but still improve the experience for everyone.00:40:29 Jacob:And are you thinking about marketing in terms of like specific people selling on specifics, like marketplaces, like the you're actually going like channel by channel that, that, that, that closely. And does that inform like features or does that inform creative or how does that feed back into your part?00:40:44 Matthieu:Yeah, we're good. We're getting into that. Like we tried to understand bearer by a persona use case. What's the LTV and what's the retention is, and I think we are at the scale where we start to do that, but before it was like a general, a general creative for everyone and kind of demo the value of the app.And we were super lucky that our creative we're working for them. And I think like now, like the way marketing works, it's, like a. Facebook or Google are doing most of the optimization and you're more into like, what can I add up my creative so that it fit the focus I want to do for it. I don't know if the U S so I'll be a make sure you're in English.I'll make sure if you're like looking at multiple countries, try not to be too localize. I think there is a Netflix called neutralize, or they have a specific wording on making the, the artwork or the creative, not to localized, not to English, for instance. Okay. So you just content that's good. So it's kind of, that dictate kind of what we try to do with growth and marketing.00:41:39 David:That's great. Well, I have a million more questions, but we do need to, to wrap up. We're going to put links into the show notes to find you on Twitter and LinkedIn and, and PhotoRoom is such a great name, easy to Google, easy to find on the App Store. but you're also hiring, what, what positions do you have open?00:42:02 Matthieu:We're hiring a lot. We're hiring on growth and paid acquisition, hiring project designer, iOS developer, Android developer. And the way we think about the team is really to have a, like, we are 10 people, and we have a strong impact to millions of users. So, really leveraged like a small team, high impact.I think it's possible because of apps. So, we're looking for really senior people for that, and mostly in Europe. So we have like a, two, three days a month, in the Paris HQ, but, you can work from anywhere in Europe.00:42:35 Jacob:Yeah. And I'll, I'll second that. I think working on this product would be really interesting. Purely based on my insider knowledge as an investor and your friend, but for real, I mean, a lot of apps don't, you know, get to the point you have. You've got a lot of tailwinds and I think actually, the upsides are go far beyond the App Store.The future is very, very, very big. And you guys are ambitious. So take these jobs. Thank you.00:43:02 David:Yeah. 00:43:03 Matthieu:Yeah. We were thinking be everywhere. We stopped for a while, but we were like mobile first, not mobile only. And we have the web app web tool that we launched last week. We have an API for any developer that wants to remove the background. We have photo and attribution, and have the module folks using it.So it's really, I think we want to be close to the entrepreneurs, and we want to communicate through pro images that sell. And so sometimes it's not an app, it's just a photo and button. And so you can use the API for that. So, yeah. 00:43:33 Jacob:It's pretty great when you have a good product market fit, it just gets really fun. 00:43:37 Matthieu:Yeah. And we have that kind of, now that we have money, we kind of, we have like super smart people on the machinery team. So, we have the best thing on the market to do that. And that's super exciting. Now we're shipping new machinery next, I think next week. And it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to see the result on the analytics.00:43:52 David:That's amazing and 10 people. I thought you were bigger. I guess you want to be, you want to be, 15 or 20 with all the postings you have. 00:44:01 Jacob:That's why I'm really bullish on this market, David.00:44:04 Matthieu:Yeah. 00:44:04 David:Yeah, 00:44:05 Jacob:A small team can do a lot of stuff in this space. It's crazy.00:44:07 Matthieu:Yeah, It's00:44:08 David:It is crazy. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. It was great chatting, and thanks for sharing your insights, Matt. 00:44:13 Jacob:Yeah. We'll have to catch up again in two years to see how, see how it's going. 00:44:17 Matthieu:Yeah, of course. With pleasure. Thank you guys.

This week on The Writ podcast:In the newsDavid Coletto is the CEO of Abacus Data and hosts inFocus with David Coletto. He joins me to discuss how the race has unfolded so far and how the Liberal-NDP switchers are the key electorate that could decide the outcome of the election.Coletto also describes the PPC's emerging voting coalition, what is contributing to their rise and whether their vote will turn out on election day.Questions and answers (with David)How to explain the difference in the PPC's support between online and IVR polls?How do pollsters weed out dishonest respondents and avoid being tripped out by demographic unicorns?What's the best way to estimate who will turn out to vote?Polls of the weekA run-down of where the federal parties stand. Read more in Wednesday's article on The Writ.#EveryElectionProjectThe 2015 Canadian federal election.This week's podcast title musical inspiration:If you have any questions you'd like me to answer in next week's episode, leave a comment below, tweet me or send me an email. You can also listen to episodes of The Writ on YouTube by subscribing to my channel here.Thanks for listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thewrit.ca/subscribe

Think you've heard it all about St. Joseph? Think again. Matthew Leonard is joined by Dr. Brant Pitre for a scintillating discussion that reveals some incredible Scriptural insights and new revelations about Our Lord's earthly father. You do NOT want to miss this episode! GET 20 FREE Video Lessons of incredible spiritual formation in the SCIENCE OF SAINTHOOD! Text SAINT to 66866 (US Only) OR go to ScienceofSainthood.com. Matthew and Brant discuss: - The secret identity of St. Joseph - The important clues regarding Joseph in the genealogy of St. Matthew - The darkly illuminating backstory that explains the awful Massacre of the Innocents Jesus barely escaped - The vital importance of the census story in Bethlehem and the House of David - How we know the royal line of David in Jesus' time even though all records had been destroyed - The one powerful word Scripture indicates St. Joseph uttered

Kate Nash from Purple Space and David Caldwell from UK Home Office explore the role of disability staff networks in building partnership excellence within an organization. As part of this conversation, they touch on how accessibility leaders can support the development of disability staff networks, the role disability staff networks play in developing a culture of accessibility awareness, and how disability network leaders can be vital support and allies for accessibility leaders.  HOST: Please welcome Kate Nash and David Caldwell.  Kate is the Head of Purple Space, the world's networking and professional development hub for disabled employees, network, and resource group leaders.     David is the Head of Accessibility and Digital Inclusion at U.K. Home Office, a UK government department. His main focuses at the Home Office are accessibility strategy, policy, and assurance.      Today they will be discussing the role of disability staff networks in building partnership excellence within an organisation.  They will touch on how accessible leaders can support the development of disability staff networks, the role disability staff networks play in developing a culture of accessibility awareness, and more!    DAVID: My name is David. I'm -- I currently work at the Home Office in the UK as the head of accessibility and digital inclusion and I'm really pleased to be part of the strategic leader in accessibility working group, and today we'll be focusing on one of the domains that is inside the book of knowledge and as part of the work that we've been doing. The domain we are looking at is partnership excellence and we are focusing specifically on disability staff networks, and I can think of nobody else in the world better qualified to talk about disability staff networks than Kate Nash. So, Kate, hello. Welcome. Give us a bit of an introduction. KATE: Thank you, David. A really great pleasure to be able to join you today. I was thoroughly excited to be able to join David in any conversation, but this of course is a subject so dear to my heart. I have the great pleasure of heading up Purple Space. It's a small social business and we set up in 2015 as a result of a book that I wrote some years ago, Secrets and Big News. And now we have a growing membership and what we do is support organizations, employers to set up and or to improve the effectiveness of their employee resource groups or networks and there is such cross over in terms of the wonderful work the access champions and access professionals are doing. So, delighted to be here David. I think my picture, my photo is short hair. I think COVID has now meant we cannot go to hairdresser, but it is me and it is lovely to be with you. I am looking forward to this conversation. DAVID: We wanted to start today's session setting a bit of context about networks in the world that we live in right now and Kate, I know that Purple Space just before Christmas around the International day of Persons with Disabilities launched their impact report that looked at networks in the world of COVID. I wonder what are your thoughts about that and what are you seeing from networks around COVID in particular around accessibility and accessing company systems remotely. KATE: Yeah, thank you. So, a few things, a few things. I mean in terms of the context of ERGs and networks, we're seeing massive growth, so organizations, whether they're global business or a local business within a specific jurisdiction, we're increasingly seeing that they're becoming vehicles to accelerate the pace of change when it comes to disability confidence, so as we know, most businesses or businesses of a certain size will have a diversity and inclusion professional specialist, and they often work across really large brief in order to build a more inclusive workplace, and resource groups and networks are really used to augment and supplement and to really hasten the pace of change, so that's happening per se. In terms of COVID and some of the things that came out of the impact working group. Two things really struck me. One is that disability networks, ERGs, have meant that they are a really good focal point in raising issues and surfacing challenges and spotting trends when it comes to access issues. So, they are a really natural vehicle for surfacing those pre-existing challenges. And what COVID has done, and of course we've proven in an instant how easy it is for many of us to work remotely and from home and this is something that many disabled employees have been calling for for many years. We've now almost proven the point that it's relatively easy to be able to work extensively from home. Of course, that brings challenges so that's the first thing that really struck me is how COVID has accelerated the surfacing of pre-existing challenges when it comes to the access requirements not just for disabled people but anyone who wants to become more proficient in using tech and more productive and more efficient in their work. So that is the first thing. I think the second thing is they're often -- and it really came through in the impact report, David. I know you were part of the working group, but often networks and resource groups provide a very strong role in noticing the solutions, you know, so lots of chat between and across disabled people some who have the same impairments, some who have different impairments, but they're often a rich source of advice and support as to how you can switch on certain features when it comes to access tech. And what we're seeing through COVID is often they were the go-to agent for organizations who wanted to really start to think about how you automate certain features within tech. So those are the first two things that struck me.  What about you? What did you see from the impact report? DAVID: Yeah, I think it's probably similar to you. I think the way I summarized it when I was talking to some colleagues about the report and we were discussing it was, I think the thing that comes through a lot is that the impossible was made possible in an instant, and I think actually it's shown that the reluctance to do some adjustments and -- was there -- has been there for a long time but in some ways unjustifiably. And I think that sometimes it just takes these big events to happen to shake things up a little bit, and what I like in what you were saying about how networks are like a conduit for those issues bubbling up, and I suppose I wonder -- I wonder what you see in that – in that kind of being that conduit about the role of network leaders in speaking that truth to power and being the voice for those that they represent in the organization. What's your thoughts there in terms of how networks can do that? KATE: I think one of the strongest roles that they play is in clustering the common themes that come out in terms of inaccessible tech as well as inaccessible environment as well as inaccessible ways in which we work. The reality is most people with a disability are individuals who acquire that health condition or disability through the course of their working life. We know that some 83 or 84 percent of all disabled people are those who acquire their disability from the age of 16 and 65. What that means is people are often grappling with a change of identity as well as often a change in the way in which they have to work and a change in the way in which they interface with their working environment as well as the people who work around them and it can be incredibly hard to accommodate and feel good and to feel good about yourself within that change of identity. And therefore it becomes very complex and harder and longer for individuals to articulate what their needs are. One of the things that we saw, for example, in the book that we wrote years ago is it can take on average someone two to three years to even ask for a workplace adjustment because they feel that there are favors. We know on the one hand that these things are not favors. They're enshrined in law, but it's altogether different. So, to come back to your question I think what networks and ERG do so powerfully is that they provide what I call an advocate type role. They start to surface the themes and the constant truths around inaccessible tech or environments, and they start to depersonalize the needs to provide solutions for groups of people who might share the same impairment so whether that's individuals with a vision impairment or people who maybe have a hearing condition, they are theming those things rather than an individual having to ask for a particular workplace adjustment and it's just accelerated that. DAVID: Absolutely. There's some interesting comments from Ray around people being taught to be grateful for what you do have and not to ask for too much, and I think I've definitely seen that. I've definitely seen disabled staff go, well, you know, I got this bit of -- I got one of the ten things that I needed, and I kind of felt bad for asking for more. So yeah, I've seen that. I also, just on Tracey's point, so ERG is Employee Resource Group so we tend to talk about employee networks and employee resource groups. There's a whole plethora of different ways of saying the same thing, isn't there, Kate? KATE: Yes, absolutely. Different organizations will use different language to describe often the same thing. As David says, the most common used languages are networks or employee resource groups, but we equally see some organizations use the term business resource groups, sometimes special interest groups, sometimes affinity groups. Particularly when it comes to this subject you often have accessibility networks or user testing groups as well. So, it's really vehicles of individuals who don't have a dedicated role in mainstreaming disability within the workplace but individuals who want to support the business to do differently and better. DAVID: I want to pick up a little bit on one of the things you just mentioned there about the informal role of networks in as much as, you know, most network leaders and most networks are volunteer led. There are very few examples where it's a formal part of somebody's job. And what challenges do you see with that in terms of those network leader's role when it comes to this topic of accessibility, digital accessibility, workplace accessibility in general, what impact does that have, these people have a big remit but they are volunteers? KATE: Yeah, and there lies the rub (laughs). And one of the great things that ERG leaders and network                leaders have in abundance we say is passion, energy, commitment, dedication, and a real desire to support their organization to do differently and better. They're very often individuals who have experienced disability themselves in one way or another. Often that's direct experience, but it equally can be somebody who may be a parent of a child with a disability or indeed someone whose parents had a disability. It may be individuals who are line managers, exceptions but you're absolutely right. They also have a day job and the day job comes first. So, I suppose the great -- the greatest role, the greatest benefits that networks can play is in clustering some of the themes and the common features of inaccessibility for disabled people. But their roles are naturally very broad. They're often involved in supporting an organization to improve workplace adjustment policy. They're often involved in delivering storytelling campaigns, which you know so much about yourself, David. And they also can be involved in user testing groups, but their roles are very, very broad, and I think where some of the networks that are led by some of the accessibility leaders and the unique role that accessibility leaders can play is a real focus on the access issues because they're slightly different. You know, disability is a complex human experience, and for some it's about leveling the playing field when it comes to kit and gizmos, technical terms. But sometimes it's not about that. Sometimes it's about noticing the self-limiting untruths that we have of ourselves and the things that we need to do to improve our confidence, so, yeah, but to answer your question, ERG leaders are busy bunnies. They have a very broad remit.  Some of that is about access but if that can be augmented by great leadership when it comes to access champions, then that's fantastic. That's when the magic happens. DAVID: Yeah. HOST: IAAP membership consists of individuals and organizations representing various industries including the private sectors, governments, non-profits, and educational institutions. Membership benefits include products and services that support global systemic change around digital and the build environment. United in Accessibility, join IAAP and become a part of the global accessibility movement. DAVID: How do we encourage people to tell us about their disabilities and then how do we encourage them to ask for adjustments to make sure that they are best supported in the workplace, and I've got some thoughts, but I'd love to hear yours first. KATE: Yeah, well, I think some of the more common ways in which you can support people I suppose to hasten the process by which they ask for a workplace adjustment is to really give good, consistent, and easily visible information about how you can access the workplace adjustment. Those employers that really start to motor on this are those that tend to have, you know, a one-stop portal of information that's very visible. It can be available as you on-board an organization. Senior business leaders know where it is and tend to socialize that information with their own teams, with human resources and the DNI departments will routinely get information about where you can get that access adjustment, so that's really, really important. I think the other thing that networks can do to support people to know that a business is really serious in wanting to deliver adjustments is some of the storytelling campaigns. Many organizations whether they're very small public sector organizations in a locale or whether large global multinationals, one of the most powerful instruments of change is to get individuals to share information about their disability, and not just for its sake. It's not a cathartic exercise. It's about saying this is me. This is my impairment. This is what I do for the business. This is how I deliver well for the business. And by the way, I have bipolar and mine is a good news story because as soon as I asked, I was able to get a soft adjustment in terms of how I work. And those little micro stories have the most powerful impact in helping people to notice, wow, the business is really serious about this. We know from our membership how hard it is often for individuals to share information about their disability with an organization. It can take a very long time, and it can take a wee bit of courage. And when the wonderful John Armichi talks about trust and how organization need to earn that trust. So, yes, of course individuals can do differently and better and learn as they go along about how to be who they are – how can they preserve and protect their brand as a high-performing employee with a disability at the same time as being who they are. But it's often the case that people will need a bit of courage to share that information formally, and as you call out when you've done that, you at least expect I suppose the business to say, okay, so what do you need and how can we help and when do you need it, yeah. DAVID: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that we talked about before we jumped and looked at some questions is about how networks can help to I suppose provide a sense of themes and a general helping to scope those areas. I wonder, one of the things I've been thinking about recently is about what's the role of an accessibility leader to help disability network leaders almost focus a bit to provide some of that time to be a sounding board and to be I suppose a confidante rather than having to do it themselves, almost helping, go well look, this is what we've got, you know, we've got this side of the table when it comes to accessibility. What we need some help on is this stuff. So almost helping for us some of the shaping around the role of disability networks in this conversation about accessibility in the workplace. KATE: Yeah, agree. I mean a number of thoughts strike me when you offer that up, David. I think the first is -- of course, we talk about access in the round and that can mean different things. It can mean access to tech as well as access to the built environment. As well as access to flexible and agile working policies. Access is a broad term. But that said there's often what I would call an occupational psychology that sits behind some of the exceptionally gifted access leaders and champions. What I mean by that is they tend to be -- dare I say without stereotyping access leaders is they tend to be very systematic in the way that they work. They tend to be those individuals who can do root and branch analysis. They tend to be those that really hone down on what the problem is and therefore surface what the range of solutions are and therefore for the business can understand what the best solution is. So, the interplay I think between access professionals and leaders and champions as well as the ERGs of work on a broader level is, one, to be able to get the bit between their teeth and really hone down on solutions. They can unblock what I call the consistent themes, the challenges that go round and round and never get resolved. Maybe surface one year and then three years later, guess what the big problem is, it's the same thing that surfaced six years ago or three years ago. And some of the greatest access leaders and champions are those who chose to table thump and say this is not good enough or not in my name or leave that with me and I'll go back. So they set the bar high and as you say, can often counsel and mentor ERG leaders. Does that make sense? DAVID: It does. It makes absolute sense, and I think what I've seen and certainly what I've learned from other folks in this working group and in the IAAP and similar groups in places like the business disability forum in the UK, and the ILO, the international labor organization groups is as much as you get accessibility leaders who maybe come in have a focus on say digital accessibility, we end up -- because we're such a passionate bunch of people, we end up getting involved in areas like build environment and might not be part of our official remit to look at workplace adjustments because that's traditionally an HR thing but we're going to get stuck in, and I think it comes down to the fact that we live in this sort of ecosystem of things and it's no good to just make the digital things accessible if our stuff can't get workplace adjustment so they can't get into a building. So, I think it's increasingly -- like I say, whilst people are coming with this digital angle and this tech angle. I'm increasingly seeing and feeling that access, is not workable, doesn't stack up like that because you end up kind of doing half the job really, which is difficult because you end up with network -- with accessibility leaders who are spinning multiple plates. But I think that's the role of networks comes in and helps accessibility leaders to say I've got all these things, I need you to help me understand what's going on, on the ground to be able to then go, right, that plate, it's about to fall off, but it is not actually going to cause anybody any problems. Let's deal with this plate that is still spinning and it's going to spin on for a bit longer but the second it drops it's going to break, it's going to smash. KATE: Absolutely. DAVID: I wonder as well. One of the things that I've been thinking about as well is about that kind of useful tension that can exist between networks and accessibility leaders and thinking about it from the perspective of very often I've seen and I know colleagues see is that networks and individuals in networks will perhaps raise an issue that they think affects a lot of people, but actually when you dig under it, it's a lack of understanding, it's a challenge that individuals because of a specific reason but that's not been surfaced. So, I wonder whether you think there is a useful tension in having them as the separate groups and separate entities and the accessibility not leading the disability network or not being on the steering committee, for example. KATE: Yeah, real pros and cons, and I think like you say, David, I think I'm more inclined to notice the benefits of the creative tension that comes with those two groups and those two issues. We -- I mean, as we know, in the disability inclusion, building more inclusive workplaces is about coming at the topic of disability and mental health from different dimensions and different perspectives, and inclusion can mean a number of things, and part of it is about access to kit, access to buildings, access to technology, access to policies, access to know-how, access to people. We know that. But inclusion is also about encouraging in this case non-disabled allies to be part of our world and notice the benefits of recruiting and retaining and developing employees with disabilities. So, you know, I think there's a lot of benefits in disaggregating the responsibilities between the access leader and the ERG leader, but the reality is both are allies of each other, and so the reality is all organizations will do it differently, all organizations. We see, for example, subnetworks of user testing, mystery shopping, individuals, very patient people who want to be genuinely used to test out kits and to test out technologies, etc., and others don't want to do that at all. They're busy with their day job, and they are like “Thank you very much”. So yeah, we're challenged there but a good challenge I think. DAVID: Lets turn, Maybe spend five or ten minutes talking about the culture around accessibility and the role of networks. You talked a little bit about storytelling, and I wonder what your thoughts are about how that can be used and the telling of lived experience stories to kind of bring to life the reasons why organizations need to be accessible not just, you know, in their systems but in their workplace environment and the simple things like their communications and the videos from the CEO and those sorts of things. So be interested to hear your thoughts on that. KATE: Yeah, really powerful, really, really powerful. Telling gritty stories about actual individuals within an organization can be one of the most powerful drivers to sustain motivation and direction and ambition and standards when it comes to accessibility. So, there's nothing quite like -- and of course, it takes a little bit of practice. Not everybody wants to share their story, and the majority of individuals are continually perfecting the way in which they describe their story of disability or difference. It is never once and done, it's a story of continued practice. But where we see real power is where you can hone down somebody sharing a bit about themselves, a bit about blocks they have had, the challenges, the obstacles, the barriers, the inaccessible ways in which the business has interfered in them being productive, the solutions that then came about, particularly the individuals that helped unlock those solutions, our champions, our allies that can unblock that and then as a result of that how either productivity went up or efficiency went up and/or one's level of, you know, motivation goes up because of course we want to work with organizations who want us to do well. So, I think storytelling can be an incredibly powerful vehicle and a technique for accelerating the process of accessibility change within an organization, really, really powerful. DAVID: Yeah, and from my experience I hear it quite a lot when we get asked about how do you help people to see beyond compliance and beyond box checking, and it's very often that the thing that changes people, people's perceptions and people's approach to accessibility regardless of what version of accessibility that is, is watching somebody or being involved with somebody with a disability trying to complete a task, for example, trying to, you know, have a look at their pay slip, for example, or watch that really important video that lays out the next thing that their CEO wants to do or simply getting into the building, getting up to their desk, using that new fangled touch screen lift system that nobody thought about how somebody in a wheelchair was going to use or someone who is blind was going to use. I think that is really impactful. That's another type of storytelling, but it has to be, we have to be careful how we do those things and so that we don't -- so we don't overuse the -- certain individuals and we don't overplay somebody's ability or inability to do some things. So, it doesn't, we're not, so people understand that we are not going this people can't do their job, it is actually we're putting barriers in this person's way because I think it is very easy and a fine line between those things. KATE: Yeah, absolutely. It's about reframing, I think. DAVID: Absolutely. We talked a little bit; you mentioned a couple of times and I know that a lot of people use disability networks as a way of finding people to do testing and to get them to do user testing of their systems or of their buildings. I think the one thing I've kind of realized come to over the last couple of years particularly in this role that I have now actually is that I think they are, there's definitely a use -- there's definitely a way we can leverage disabled staff to do that. But I think we have to do two things. Firstly, we have to make sure that those individuals who are involved in that are trained and skilled in their assistive technology and in the types of things that they need to be talking to people about, and very often what I've seen is unfortunately where the individual is using a very sophisticated piece of assistive technology, but they don't understand it and therefore they come up with all these problems that aren't really accessibility issues. It's an issue with their setup or with their knowledge of their system. So, I think we need to make sure that the people we get involved in user testing like that are suitably supported in that way. And I also think we need to find ways to say thank you and rewarding them because it is an extra thing. As much as it's good to involve staff that don't have disabilities in that type of work, it doesn't happen very often because we roll things out, we just give people stuff. So that extra and the extra thank-you, the extra little reward and generally can't pay them in the way you might pay somebody externally, but I think there's ways we should reward people who volunteer and take part in that type of activity, and lastly it shouldn't be the only thing. We should definitely be encouraging organizations to have people doing this as part of their jobs and making sure we do it in a way that doesn't rely on the goodness and the kindness of volunteers. KATE: Great tips there, David. I really enjoyed hearing all of those. I mean picking up on your point on thanking people, it can be one of the simplest easiest things to do but it's the most commonly missed. You know, we see for example in our membership -- we do see some fantastic practice. I just saw the other day and if you're listening, Sodexo, well done. We saw an amazing thank you going out from senior business leaders to those who are doing a good job in terms of leading ERG networks, and I think when it comes to user testing and mystery shopping and using your own people to surface where there's constant challenges, a simple thank-you is really powerful. Doesn't do it, not everyone wants to be part of that user testing, but for those that do, they are investing their time in the organization in terms of how we could be doing things differently and better. So, a simple thank-you is very powerful. DAVID: Kate, I want to say a big thank you to you for generously giving us some of your time and talking to us about the world of networks and about that useful opportunity that accessibility leaders have to be closer to their disability networks. HOST: The IAAP Accessible Document Specialist (ADS) credential is intended for accessibility professionals who create and remediate accessible electronic documents and their related policies. The ADS credential represents an ability to express an intermediate level of experience designing, evaluating, and remediating accessible documents. The ADS credential is beneficial for people in or aspiring to be a User Experience Designer or Tester, Web Content Manager and Administrators, Project, Program, and ICT Managers and more! Check out the IAAP ADS certification webpage to learn more!     

In this episode of The Best Thing, Antonio Neves talks to NBA life and optimization coach, author and motivational speaker, David Nurse. In a powerful conversation, David talks about what it's like to work with top NBA basketball players and how he responded when he was fired from his dream job with the Brooklyn Nets. This episode will shift your perspective off of you and your current situation and help you step into personal acceleration through the art of serving others.    LINKS: Pivot & Go: The 29-Day Blueprint to Redefine and Achieve YOUR Success David's website: davidnurse.com David's Instagram @davidnursenba   Quick Episode Summary: Get to know David How good is the 12th player? A healthy ego is self-aware It's just a scrimmage, but not to me. Small 1% steps will get you where you want to be The best thing When one door closes, four more open Rebounding from setbacks Failures are preparations for the opportunities to come It takes 10 years to become an overnight success If you make it about you, you'll never reach the spot where you want to be

Born in an affluent household during Apartheid South Africa; Robi was always a free spirit who loved and rescued animals from an early age. Robi moved to Israel, raised her children and had a successful career in Public Relations. In 2002, a Palestinian sniper killed her son David. Robi soon joined The Parents Circle where she travels the world alongside Palestinian and Israeli bereaved families speaking about reconciliation and peace. Find out more about Robi's career in Episode 1 of the Social Change Career Podcast.     In this episode we discuss:     Growing up in Apartheid South Africa as a privileged person in a liberal household Her lifelong passion for animals and how she stole a horse at the age of 5 How her uncle defended Nelson Mandela in the first treason trial The influence of the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission (and how it prevented what could have been a terrible blood bath) How she came to Israel in 1967 Robi moved to Tel Aviv with her kids David and Eran Robi opened a PR office and did that for many years The knock on the door (when soldiers informed her of the death of her son David) How her life is her mission not work The importance of working on the ground for real insights How her PR work informed her work with The Parent Circle Remembering David as a Philosophy of Education Masters student How Robi found The Parents Circle to help prevent other families from experiencing this pain Find something that gives meaning to your life Robi's first meeting with other bereaved Palestinian families and discovering the shared pain Robi's work with The Parent Circle Robi in London with Tina Brown “Women in the World” Robi's story of Bushra : a story of transformation from hatred Busha's trip from a tiny Palestinian village to NYC and her love for hamburgers How Bushra and Robi spoke to 3,000 people in NYC, then Delhi, London and Canada spreading a message of reconciliation and peace Robi's meeting with black bereaved mothers of police mothers in Atlanta Robi's lunch with a mother of Sandy Hook and how she is preparing to speak with a mother of the Columbine massacre Robi's next project Robi's advice on how to be a meaningful academic Robi's career advice Robi's take on failure Three things for a career of social impact according to Robi   Links The Parents Circle Sandy Hook Joan B. Krock Institute for Peace and Justice Women in the World Georgetown University Encounter Point Another Side of Peace One Day After Peace Two-Sided Story   Related topics   Check out our weekly blogposts and monthly webinar from the PCDNs Career Series. To take you from passion to hired!   Need career advice? Need it now? Join PCDN Career Helping Line. Go ask your questions, help answer others and participate in fruitful discussion to advance your social change career.