Podcasts about emphatically

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola emphatically rules out the chances of Kevin De Bruyne leaving the club for Saudi Arabia this summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jonathan Agnew is alongside Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan and Carlos Brathwaite on the Trent Bridge pitch for reaction to Shoaib Bashir taking five wickets and England bowl the West Indies out in just one session to seal the series against West Indies.Captain Ben Stokes reveals he didn't see a victory coming so quickly, whilst Bashir reflects on a "special" evening taking five wickets in his first time bowling on home soil. Player of the match Ollie Pope tells Aggers that he's pleased to return to form following a slow start to the season with Surrey, and downbeat West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite is still looking for improvement from his side despite a strong first innings with the bat.Roland Butcher takes a look back on his career with Daniel Norcross, and hear the 'lighter' moments from the TMS commentary box during the test at Trent Bridge.

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. We will be focusing on verses 9-23 this morning. You can find that on page 1123. This summer, we are working through Romans 9-11. Last week, we started with the opening few verses of chapter 9. In it, the apostle Paul revealed his heart. Every fiber of his being desired to see his fellow Jews who do not be in Christ, come to know Jesus as the Messiah. He was willing to be accursed if God would open their hearts to know the promised Savior. We should have that same heart and desire. Paul also answered an important question. Since the vast majority of Israelites did not believe in Jesus, does that mean that God's Word and promises failed? The answer is no. Paul revealed that there has always been a distinction between the natural descendants of Abraham and the descendants of the promise. God's Word has therefore not failed. Ok, that brings us to these verses. He continues the argument and works through some important matters. For a little context, I'll start reading from verse 8. Reading of Romans 9:9-23 Prayer Is God sovereign or does man have free will? The answer is yes and yes. Sometimes we set those two statements in opposition. But the Scriptures teach both. Is God sovereign? Yes. Can we act according to our will? Yes. God has created us with the ability to think and reason. We are responsible for our actions. God has given all mankind common grace, as we call it, by which people can choose to do honorable and kind and generous things, or not. However, in our fallen state, that is, since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, there is one thing that no one can do. Noone is able, in his or her own will, to choose God and salvation. No, rather, the Bible is clear that we are dead in our sins. Spiritually dead. Only God can turn our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Only the Holy Spirit can awakens us. Only he can give us a new heart to see our sin and to grieve it. It is at that point that we are then able to turn to God in Christ and pursue holiness and righteousness in him through his Spirit. Are you following me on the distinction? So yes, God is Sovereign. Yes, man is responsible. And yes, we have free will. But our free will is limited by our nature. In our fallen nature, we are spiritually dead and cannot pursue God. In our redeemed nature, we are alive in Christ and able to pursue him and the things of God. I bring that up because in the middle of Romans 9 (these verses), Paul is speaking about salvation. Specifically, he is speaking about election. It's about those to whom God has determined to give his grace. In context, the apostle Paul is answering the question, why did God choose to give some Israelites his mercy and believe in Jesus and others he did not? Of course, the question applies to all people. He'll make that clear in the next section. And let me say this. This chapter is a beautiful chapter, but it is also a hard chapter. It's beautiful because it is about God and his mercy. And it's hard because it is about God and his mercy – specifically that he chooses who will receive his mercy. There are two things that I hope and pray that you will leave here with today. ·      First, a renewed sense of who God is - an understanding of who God is as your creator. ·      Second, I hope and pray that you will see the mercy of God in these verses. Yes, these verses speak of God hardening people's hearts, but the emphasis is God's mercy. With that in mind, let's begin by considering the historical examples. Last week, we touched upon Abraham and Sarah. Remember from last week, God declared that his covenant promises would be fulfilled through Isaac's descendants and not Ishmael's. Isaac was Abraham and Sarah's son born to Sarah in her old age. Ishmael was born to Sarah's servant, Hagar. Remember, Abraham and Sarah didn't think that Sarah could conceive a child, so they came up with their own plan. But that was not God's plan. Paul's point in bringing up Isaac was to differentiate between the natural descendants and the descendants of the promise. God ordained a subset of Israel, a remnant, to be his true people – spiritual Israel. Now, someone *could* argue that God did not choose Ishmael because of external reasons – after all, Ishmael's mother, Hagar, was not Abraham's wife. In fact, Ishmael was born due to Abraham and Sarah's lack of faith. So, someone could argue that for those reasons, God instead chose Isaac. However, that is not what Paul is saying. He wants us to be absolutely sure that we get it – God is the one who chooses. And so, he gives a second example in verses 10 through 13 - Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau are both the sons of Isaac. We are just one generation down from Abraham. Isaac marries Rachel and they have two sons. Not only that, but they are twins. Esau was born first and Jacob second. Some of you know this, but I have a twin sister. In fact, I was born first. And, of course, I would remind my sister about that. “I'm older than you.” Sometimes she would tell people that she was born first. And you know what… they would believe her and not me! That always bothered me – but I think I'm over it. Back to Esau and Jacob. Before Rachel's twins were born, God told her that the younger would serve the older. Before they were born, God determined to choose Jacob. Paul brings that up because God's choice of Jacob was not based on anything external. It was not based on anything that Jacob did or did not do. It was not based on anything that his parents did or did not do. It was not based on birth order. That is the point of verse 11. “though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.'” That would have been especially surprising in that culture. God chose Jacob because that is who he chose. Some of you will remember what happened between Jacob and Esau. Esau was born first – he was a great hunter. Isaac, their father, favored Esau over Jacob. Isaac loved the wild game that Esau would hunt and kill. Rachel, on the other hand, favored Jacob. And one day, Esau came home from hunting, and he was starving! Esau was so hungry that he was desperate. So, Jacob took advantage of that. He offered food to Esau if Esau, in exchange, would give Jacob his rights as firstborn. And Esau did it. He gave away the privileges and inheritance of being the firstborn son. And not only that but when they were older, Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing. He pretended to be Esau. And Isaac, who could hardly see at the time, gave Jacob the family blessing. That whole account reinforces Paul's point. God chose Jacob even despite his status as second born and despite his deception. Which bring us to the difficult and weighty statement in verse 13. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” It's a quote from the prophet Malachi who is speaking about God's love for Jacob and his descendants, and his judgment on Esau and his descendant, the Edomites. “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” It's hard to hear because it comes across as unjust. Doesn't it? From our perspective, God arbitrarily chose Jacob and not Esau. Is that fair? and that is why in verse 14, Paul poses that very question “Is there injustice on God's part?” And look at his answer. “By no means!” In the book of Romans, this is the eighth out of ten times that Paul answers his own question with that exact phrase. “By no means!” Emphatically no. God is not unjust to choose some for life and mercy. And in the rest of our verses today, the apostle gives reasons. Before we look at them, I want to share some personal things. I've had a few transformational moments in my life. You know, times when God did something in me and either the trajectory of my thinking or my life path changed in some way. We all have them. For many of you, the biggest transformational moment was when you professed faith in Christ as your Lord and Savior. For me, I grew up in a Christian home and I don't remember exactly when that happened - which, by the way, is a great testimony to God's faithfulness. However, I've had other transformational moments. One was in high school when I really owned my faith. Another was during a summer in College - I was hiking the Inca trail in South America and God saved my life – literally. That's a whole other story. Another moment happened in my early 20s – I think I was 22. I was reading through the Bible. I had all these questions swirling in my mind about God and about our will as humans... you know, questions about God's purposes and plans and about predestination… and questions about man's free will and choice. One evening, I was reading these very verses in Romans 9, and it all hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember feeling the profound weight of this chapter. It was a very emotional moment. There were two things that were impressed upon my heart and mind. First, God's sovereignty in salvation. And second, his underserved mercy and grace in my life. It was overwhelming. Every time I read these words, I go back in my mind to that time in my life. I can't always recapture the feelings, but I'm reminded of God's mercy. God's mercy is the overwhelming emphasis in verses 15-23. Yes, God's judgment is present in these verses. We'll get there in a minute. But first, look with me at how many times God speaks through Paul about his graciousness in these verses. It's where he begins in verse 15. God said to Moses “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” Mercy, mercy, compassion, compassion. Verse 16 emphasizes God's mercy, “it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” Verse 18, “mercy” is highlighted again, and in verse 23, he speaks of “vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.” Five times God's mercy is emphasized, twice more he uses the word compassion. Something really important to understand is this: We do not begin in some neutral state in relationship to God. No. One of the foundational principals taught in Romans, and the entire Bible, is that we were dead in our sins and trespasses. Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All were or are spiritually dead, but God in his mercy chose some to know him and to believe. That is why God's mercy is God's mercy. He shows compassion and mercy on those whom he brought from death to new life. It's God's mercy because there's nothing that we bring to the table. That is why God's sovereign choice is not unjust. The just thing for God to do would be to leave us all in our state of sin and rebellion and his just judgment. No one deserves God's mercy, but yet he is merciful. What I am saying is that to understand these verses, requires us first to understand the nature of God's mercy and compassion. God's mercy is undeserved. Yet, God has given it to those whom he has chosen. So, the primary answer to the question of whether God is unjust is no, rather, he is merciful. Now, there's more here. These verses also speak about God himself and why some receive mercy and others do not. Those things are related and the answer centers on God. God is described here as the potter. He is our creator. The creator of all things. He is the only one who deserves glory. He is the only one who deserves his name and might to be proclaimed. Therefore, God will do whatever he wants to do, if it will bring more honor and glory to his name. In other words, God's very purpose is that he himself would receive more glory. That may sounds very self-serving to our ears. And the reason is, it is self-serving. But think about it this way: God is infinite and eternal. He is perfectly and eternally just and holy and powerful. He is the only one worthy of ultimate glory. In other words, because of his very nature, it is right for God to seek his own glory. And part of seeking his own glory includes choosing who will receive mercy and who he will harden. Now, that may not make sense, initially, but Paul illustrates it for us. He reminds the church about Pharaoh, the king of Egypt… this goes back in the time of Moses. I wont go through the whole history, but here's the short story: Jacob's 12 sons and their families ended up in Egypt. God used Jacob's second youngest son, Joseph, to save them from a famine by bringing them to Egypt. Over 400 plus years, the grew great in number. But because of their great number, Pharoah became worried. And so he enslaved the Israelites. He put heavy burdens on them. He appointed unrelenting taskmasters. That was when God raised up Moses. He was an Israelite, but ironically he was brought up by Pharoah's daughter in Pharoah's own palace. And when Moses was older, God called him to confront Pharoah. Moses commanded Pharoah to let God's people go. But something happened. God hardened Pharoah's heart. That is what Romans 9 verse 17 is talking about. And why did God harden Pharoah's heart? It was so that God could display his glory. God did just that. He sent ten plagues. He turned the Nile River into blood and sent hail. And then darkness, and locusts, and sores and others things. Plague after plague that displayed God's power. And after every plague, Moses called on Pharoah to let God's people go. But every time either Pharoah hardened his own heart or God hardened Pharoah's heart. Those descriptions went back and forth. It demonstrated that Pharoah was also responsible for rejecting God. Pharoah continued to refuse to let the Israelites go. That is until the final plague. The Passover. The first born in every Egyptian family died but the Lord passed over the Israelite homes if they put the blood of a lamb over their doorpost. And so, Pharoah relented and he let Moses and the people go. But again, God hardened Pharoah's heart. He and the Egyptian army decided to pursued the Israelites. God's purpose, again, was to display his glory through the pillar of fire and cloud, and the parting of the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptian army. Through it all, God displayed his power and glory. Listen again to verse 17, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'” God in his sovereign will and for his purposes hardened Pharoah's heart, so that his glory would be made known in all the earth. It's a clear example of how God works out his sovereign purposes in election for his glory. God is the one in control of all things and all things work out for his glory. Paul closes out his argument in verses 22 and 23 with this question: “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” He begins there wth the phrase “what if God” but it's not really a question. Rather, Paul is saying “have you considered this? …what if God's purpose in election is not only to display his power, but what if God also desires those who receive mercy to know the amazing riches of his grace through the contrast of his judgment on others?” What if this is so? Well, it is so. It is just a sensitive way of responding to the honest questions in the earlier verses. He is saying that our understanding of God's mercy is enriched when we recognize the just wrath that we deserved in contrast to the riches of grace that we receive. When we recognize the utter depth of his mercy, God is more glorified. He is more glorified in election because, first, his power is displayed… and, second, his mercy is made clearer to those who have received it. Here's the summary. First, God is God. He is the one in whom and for whom all things exist. He is the potter. We are the clay. He is the one whose purposes come to pass. He is the one who turns hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. He is the one who calls us out of darkness. He is sovereign over all things including and especially salvation, and it is all for his glory. Second, no one deserves God's mercy. All of us fall short of the glory of God. We are all at fault and all deserve his wrath. But God…. But God in his mercy has ordained some to everlasting life. And in doing so, his mercy and power and glory are displayed. And those who have received his mercy, give him more glory. We recognize that there is nothing in us that saves us. It's only God's mercy. And that mercy comes through Jesus Christ alone. You know, one thing about these verses is how they highlight both the mercy and wrath of God. And, God's mercy and wrath are fully displayed and achieved in the cross of Christ. The way that God gives his mercy to those whom he has called, is by pouring out his wrath on Jesus instead of them. To use the words of Romans 9, Jesus became the vessel of wrath in your place, so that you may become a vessel of mercy. That is how we receive his undeserved mercy. And part of that mercy is a future glory with him. Did you notice that at the end of verse 23? It says – “vessels of mercy, which God prepared beforehand for glory.” The mercy of God comes not only through Jesus enduring God's wrath, but it also comes through his resurrection. The eternal glory that we will share with him forever, was achieved when he rose from the grave. Mercy upon mercy. Compassion upon compassion. It was and is all God's mercy and grace. In closing, if you are asking yourself, am I among God's elect? Am I a vessel of mercy? There's one simple test. Has God opened your heart to see your sin, to see God's undeserved grace in Christ, and have you received his mercy in Christ? If your, that is your great assurance. If you have not seen that yet…. is God working in you now? Are you feeling the weight of your sin and your need for his mercy? If so, there's one simple step – turn to the one who offers his grace and who will give you God's mercy. Turn to Jesus. And when you do, you will know that you are his. May God make known to all of us the riches of his grace, as people who have received his undeserved mercy. Amen

Today's modified "around the horn" segment highlights all the major remaining SCOTUS cases this term (with some opinions dropping today!), and then our "deep dive" explains why Louisiana is entirely justified in requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in all the state's public school classrooms. Josh then dives into the Trump veepstakes for today's "closing argument." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drake has responded to Kendrick Lamar in emphatic fashion with his unofficial track 'Push Ups (Drop & Give Me 50)'. We breakdown the lyrics and really discuss if this beef is winnable for anyone involved.TIMECODES:0:17 - Intro3:54 - Thinking Drake's diss is AI  5:56 -  What's Beef sample?7:46 - Kendrick is at a disadvantage  8:47 - Contract discussions   9:46 - Distract lyric breakdown12:36 - When is the Kendrick track dropping?15:20 - Drake's writing speed18:19 - Did Kendrick expect Drake to reply?19:45 - Adriel is worried for Kendrick20:29 - What does it take to win a beef?23:34 - What happens if Drake beats Kendrick Lamar in a beef?  27:04 - The Drake-French Montana cease and desist28:30 - More Drake lyrical breakdown30:30 - What would've happened if J.Cole didn't back out of the beef?31:49 - Kendrick is on his own, how is he going to handle the beef now?32:23 - How many songs do you think the beef will go? Follow us:YOUTUBE:https://www.youtube.com/@AlbumModeTikTok:Album Mode: https://www.tiktok.com/@albummodepod Adriel: https://www.tiktok.com/@adrielsmileydotcom Démar: https://www.tiktok.com/@godkingdemi Instagram:Album Mode: https://www.instagram.com/albummodepod/ Adriel: https://www.instagram.com/adrielsmileydotcom/ Démar: https://www.instagram.com/demarjgrant/ Twitter:Album Mode: https://twitter.com/AlbumModepod Adriel: https://twitter.com/AdrielSmiley_ Démar: https://twitter.com/DemarJGrant

Sean & Jamie reflect upon Dalton Smith's coming-of-age victory over Jose Zepeda and how that victory could propel him into big fights. Also on the show, the conversation turns to Campbell Hatton's valiant effort against James Flint and Sandy Ryan's dismantling of Terri Harper. Subscribe https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/btr-boxing-podcast/id1433752118 We are also available on Player FM, Spotify, and many more podcasting apps Follow us at: https://twitter.com/btrboxingpod https://www.facebook.com/btrboxingpodcast Become A Patron patreon.com/btrboxingpodcastnetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On the latest RAW, Trev Downey, Guy Drinkel and Hari Sethi discuss Liverpool's 6-1 win (11-2 on aggregate) over Sparta Prague which saw them progress to the Europa League quarter finals. As ever, the performances were assessed and key moments analysed with a particular focus on Mo Salah, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a 52-point loss to the Boston Celtics on national television on Sunday, the Warriors responded in prime time with a 125-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, and John Dickinson brings you a cheerful "Dubs OT" postgame from Harmonic Brewing. After what looked to be another nightmare unfolding in the early stages of the 3rd quarter, when the Warriors had their 20-point halftime lead cut down to 6, their response was sparked by rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had an incredible night in 19 minutes of play. TJD finished with 15 points on 7-8 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 4 blocks against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Stephen Curry (29 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists. 6-10 from 3pt) and Jonathan Kuminga (20 points, 9-14 shooting, 3 blocks) also had fantastic evenings, and the Warriors quickly turned a scare into one of their best wins of a tumultuous season. The Warriors (33-28, 9th in the West) face the Chicago Bulls tomorrow on the second end of a back-to-back, and they'll look to protect home court once again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a 52-point loss to the Boston Celtics on national television on Sunday, the Warriors responded in prime time with a 125-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, and John Dickinson brings you a cheerful "Dubs OT" postgame from Harmonic Brewing. After what looked to be another nightmare unfolding in the early stages of the 3rd quarter, when the Warriors had their 20-point halftime lead cut down to 6, their response was sparked by rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis, who had an incredible night in 19 minutes of play. TJD finished with 15 points on 7-8 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 4 blocks against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Stephen Curry (29 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists. 6-10 from 3pt) and Jonathan Kuminga (20 points, 9-14 shooting, 3 blocks) also had fantastic evenings, and the Warriors quickly turned a scare into one of their best wins of a tumultuous season. The Warriors (33-28, 9th in the West) face the Chicago Bulls tomorrow on the second end of a back-to-back, and they'll look to protect home court once again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm watching the sharp edges of the second hand turn into a feather here. Here in the space between the real and the infinite, feeling real infinite these days. Working alongside you, body doubling — I am elsewhere, I am here, WE ARE HERE. Emphatically here and the air is heavier. Our breathing is heavier. Our breathing is like fire now. Weightless and heavy with life. Tune into this episode for a strategy, a tip and invitation to remember how to breathe fire. Resources: Download the Creative Offer Questionnaire to Oneself Subscribe to Seeda School Substack for weekly podcast releases straight into your inbox Follow Ayana on Instagram: @ayzaco Follow Seeda School on Instagram: @seedaschool The quote, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution" is by Emma Goldman Cover Art: A screenshot from HBO's Love Craft Country created by Misha Green. In this still from "Rewind 1921" (S1:EP9), at the 42:40 timestamp, Hattie grabs Leti's hand to pray as she holds the Book of Names and the house around them burns. During this scene there is audio of Sonia Sanchez ⁠reading⁠ "Catch the Fire" amidst the backdrop of the Tulsa Massacre.

NOW we're REALLY back! For a few weeks, at least. But still! TWO COVERS! Show Notes: Run Time: 1:43:48 Right off the bat, a new upcoming schedule!  Wednesday, February 28th: Record Episode #275: Choke in Megalopolis Tuesday, March 5th: Release Episode #275: Choke in Megalopolis Friday, March 8th: Record Editor's Note #77 Tuesday, March 12th: Release Editor's Note #77 Tuesday, March 19th: Release Surgery-sode! After that, things depend on how recovery goes, and whether or not I go to PAX East. We'll keep you updated as we know more! Sorry for things still being so up in the air, but it's for very good reasons, at least! And then, to the episode! Do we tell a tale? YES! Emphatically yes. We cover a lot, and we do the whole thing live! Remember: we're recording the next episode TOMORROW! So, if you have any questions, now is the time to submit them! SUBMIT!

No centre-backs, no problem. Join Matt Clark (@MattClark_08) and Ben Sully (@SullyBen) as they look back on a weekend where Real Madrid overcame a defensive injury crisis to smash Girona's dreams of achieving their fairytale ending.Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham played starring roles in the demolition job, moving Carlo Ancelotti's side five points clear at the top. Elsewhere in Part One, we discuss another poor home result for Barcelona as they play out an entertaining 3-3 draw against relegation-threatened Granada. There was also disappointment for Atlético Madrid, who lost out to a rejuvenated Sevilla side at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.Real Betis swept past struggling Cádiz to move into sixth place as goal-shy Real Sociedad dropped down to seventh with a home defeat to Osasuna. Meanwhile, Celta showed all their fighting qualities at the Coliseum to come back from two goals down, only for Getafe to land the killer blow late on. Matt and Ben also discuss all the other fixtures from the weekend, including another solid win for surprise European hopefuls Las Palmas.With the UEFA competitions set to return, make sure to subscribe to lllonline.substack.com to get unlimited access to all of our content throughout the week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No centre-backs, no problem. Join Matt Clark (@MattClark_08) and Ben Sully (@SullyBen) as they look back on a weekend where Real Madrid overcame a defensive injury crisis to smash Girona's dreams of achieving their fairytale ending.Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham played starring roles in the demolition job, moving Carlo Ancelotti's side five points clear at the top. Elsewhere in Part One, we discuss another poor home result for Barcelona as they play out an entertaining 3-3 draw against relegation-threatened Granada. There was also disappointment for Atlético Madrid, who lost out to a rejuvenated Sevilla side at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.Real Betis swept past struggling Cádiz to move into sixth place as goal-shy Real Sociedad dropped down to seventh with a home defeat to Osasuna. Meanwhile, Celta showed all their fighting qualities at the Coliseum to come back from two goals down, only for Getafe to land the killer blow late on. Matt and Ben also discuss all the other fixtures from the weekend, including another solid win for surprise European hopefuls Las Palmas.With the UEFA competitions set to return, make sure to subscribe to lllonline.substack.com to get unlimited access to all of our content throughout the week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie emphatically declares that he is a better singer than Adam Wainwright

If you missed the other episodes with thoughtbot Incubator Program partcipants and founders Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito of Goodz, you can listen to the first episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e2incubatorgoodz) and the second episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e4incubatorgoodz), and the third episode (https://podcast.thoughtbot.com/s3e6incubatorgoodz) to catch up! Lindsey Christensen and Jordyn Bonds catch up with the co-founders of Goodz, Chris Cerrito and Mike Rosenthal, where they share insights from their journey during the Incubator program, including the usefulness of the application process in aligning their vision and the challenges and benefits of user interviews and the importance of not overreacting to single user feedback and finding a balance in responding to diverse opinions. They reveal the varied reactions of users to Goodz's product, highlighting the different market segments interested in it. As the Incubator program nears its end for Goodz, Chris and Mike reflect on their achievements and future plans. They've made significant progress, such as setting up an e-commerce site and conducting successful user interviews. The co-founders discuss their excitement about the potential of their product and the validation they received from users. Mike mentions the importance of focusing on B2B sales and the possibility of upcoming events like South by Southwest and Record Store Day. Transcript: LINDSEY: Thanks for being here. My name's Lindsey. I head up marketing at thoughtbot. If you haven't joined one of these before, we are checking in with two of the founders who are going through the thoughtbot Startup Incubator to learn how it's going, what's new, what challenges they're hitting, and what they're learning along the way. If you're not familiar with thoughtbot, we're a product design and development consultancy, and we hope your team and your product become a success. And one way we do that is through our startup incubator. So, today, we are joined by our co-founders, Mike Rosenthal and Chris Cerrito, Co-Founders of the startup Goodz. And we also have another special guest today, Danny Kim, from the thoughtbot side, Senior Product Manager at thoughtbot. So, I think, to start off, we'll head over to the new face, the new voice that we've got with us today. Danny, tell us a little bit about your role at thoughtbot and, specifically, the incubator. DANNY: Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks for having me on, and thanks for letting me join in on all the fun. I'm one of the product managers at thoughtbot. I typically work for the Lift-Off team. We usually work with companies that are looking to, like, go into market with their first version MVP. They might have a product that exists and that they're already kind of doing well with, and they kind of want to jump into a new segment. We'll typically work with companies like that to kind of get them kicked off the ground. But it's been really awesome being part of the incubator program. It's my first time in helping with the market validation side. Definitely also, like, learning a lot from this experience [laughs] for myself. Coming at it specifically from a PM perspective, there's, like, so much variation usually in product management across the industry, depending on, like, what stage of the product that you're working in. And so, I'm definitely feeling my fair share of impostor syndrome here. But it's been really fun to stretch my brand and, like, approach problems from, like, a completely different perspective and also using different tools. But, you know, working with Mike and Chris makes it so much easier because they really make it feel like you're part of their team, and so that definitely goes a long way. LINDSEY: It just goes to show everyone gets impostor syndrome sometimes [laughter], even senior product managers at thoughtbot [laughter]. Thanks for that intro. It's, you know, the thoughtbot team learns along the way, too, you know, especially if usually you're focused on a different stage of product development. Mike, it's been only three weeks or a very long three weeks since last we checked in with you, kind of forever in startup time. So, I think the last time, we were just getting to know you two. And you were walking us through the concept, this merging of the digital and physical world of music, and how we interact with music keepsakes or merchandise. How's my pitch? MIKE: Good. Great. You're killing it. [laughter] LINDSEY: And has anything major changed to that concept in the last three weeks? MIKE: No. I mean, I can't believe it's only been three weeks. It feels like it's been a long time since we last talked. It's been an intense three weeks, for sure. No, it's been going really well. I mean, we launched all sorts of stuff. I'm trying to think of anything that's sort of fundamentally changed in terms of the plan itself or kind of our, yeah, what we've been working on. And I think we've pretty much stayed the course to sort of get to where we are now. But it's been really intensive. I think also having sort of Thanksgiving in there, and we were kind of pushing to get something live right before the Thanksgiving break. And so, that week just felt, I mean, I was just dead by, you know, like, Thursday of Thanksgiving. I think we all were. So, it's been intense, I would say, is the short answer. And I'm happy, yeah, to get into kind of where things are at. But big picture, it's been an intense three weeks. LINDSEY: That's cool. And when we talked, you were, you know, definitely getting into research and user interviews. Have those influenced any, you know, changes along the way in the plan? MIKE: Yeah. They've been really helpful. You know, we'd never really done that before in any of the sort of past projects that we've worked on together. And so, I think just being able to, you know, read through some of those scripts and then sit through some of the interviews and just kind of hearing people's honest assessment of some things has been really interesting. I'm trying to think if it's materially affected anything. I guess, you know, at first, we were, like, we kind of had some assumptions around, okay, let's try to find, like...adult gift-givers sounds like the wrong thing, adults who give gifts as, like, a persona. The idea that, like, you know, maybe you gift your siblings gifts, and then maybe this could be a good gift idea. And I think, you know, we had a hard time kind of finding people to talk in an interesting way about that. And I think we've kind of realized it's kind of a hard persona to kind of chop up and talk about, right, Chris? I don't know [crosstalk 04:55] CHRIS: Well, it also seemed to, from my understanding of it, it seemed to, like, genuinely stress out the people who were being interviewed... MIKE: [laughs] CHRIS: Because it's kind of about a stressful topic [inaudible 05:03], you know, and, like, especially -- LINDSEY: Why? [laughs] CHRIS: Well, I think, I don't know, now I'm making assumptions. Maybe because we're close to the holiday season, and that's a topic in the back of everybody's mind. But yeah, Danny, would you disagree with that? Those folks, from what we heard, seemed like they were the most difficult to kind of extract answers from. But then, if the subject changed and we treated them as a different persona, several of those interviews proved to be quite fruitful. So, it's just really interesting. DANNY: Yeah. It really started, like, you kind of try to get some answers out of people, and there's, like, some level of people trying to please you to some extent. That's just, like, naturally, how it starts. And you just, like, keep trying to drill into the answers. And you just keep asking people like, "So, what kind of gifts do you give?" And they're just like, "Oh my goodness, like, I haven't thought about buying gifts for my sister in [laughs], like, you know, in forever. And now, like [laughs], I don't know where to go." And they get, like, pretty stressed out about it. But then we just kind of started shifting into like, "All right, cool, never mind about that. Like, do you like listening to music?" And they're like, "Yes." And then it just kind of explodes from there. And they're like, "This last concert that I went to..." and all of this stuff. And it was much more fruitful kind of leaning more towards that, actually, yeah. LINDSEY: That's fascinating. I guess that speaks to, especially at this stage and the speed and the amount of interviews you're doing, the need for being, like, really agile in those interviews, and then, like, really quickly applying what you're learning to making the next one even more valuable. MIKE: Yeah. And I think, you know, like, we launched just a little sort of website experiment or, like, an e-commerce experiment right before Thanksgiving. And I think now, you know, we're able to sort of take some of those learnings from those interviews and apply them to both sort of our ad copy itself but also just different landing pages in different language on the different kind of versions of the site and see if we can find some resonance with some of these audience groups. So, it's been interesting. LINDSEY: Are you still trying to figure out who that early adopter audience is, who that niche persona is? MIKE: I think we -- CHRIS: Yes, we are. I think we have a good idea of who it is. And I think right now we're just trying to figure out really how to reach those people. That, I think, is the biggest challenge right now for us. MIKE: Yeah. With the e-commerce experiment it was sort of a very specific niche thing that is a little bit adjacent to what I think we want to be doing longer term with Goodz. And so, it's weird. It's like, we're in a place we're like, oh, we really want to find the people that want this thing. But also, this thing isn't necessarily the thing that we think we're going to make longer term, so let's not worry too hard about finding them. You know what I mean? It's been an interesting sort of back and forth with that. CHRIS: From the interviews that we conducted, you know, we identified three key personas. Most of them have come up, but I'll just relist them. There's the sibling gift giver. There was the merch buyers; these are people who go to concerts and buy merchandise, you know, T-shirts, albums, records, things along those lines to support the artists that they love. And then the final one that was identified we gave the title of the 'Proud Playlister'. And these are people who are really into their digital media platforms, love making playlists, and love sharing those playlists with their friends. And that, I would say, the proud playlister is really the one that we have focused on in terms of the storefront that we launched, like, the product is pretty much specifically for them. But the lessons that we're learning while making this product and trying to get this into the hands of the proud playlisters will feed into kind of the merch buyers. MIKE: Yeah. And I think that, you know, it's funny, like, this week is kind of a poignant week for this, right? Because it's the week that Spotify Wrapped launched, right? So, it's like, in the course of any given year, it's probably, like, the one week of the year that lots and lots and lots of people are thinking about playlists all of a sudden, so trying a little bit to see if we can ride that wave or just kind of dovetail with that a bit, too. LINDSEY: Absolutely. And do you want to give just, like, the really quick reminder of what the product experience is like? MIKE: Oh yeah [laughs], good call. CHRIS: This is a prototype of it. It's called the Goodz Mixtape. Basically, the idea is that you purchase one of these from us. You give us a playlist URL. We program that URL onto the NFC chip that's embedded in the Good itself. And then when you scan this Good, that playlist will come up. So, it's a really great way of you make a playlist for somebody, and you want to gift it to them; this is a great way to do that. You have a special playlist, maybe between you and a friend or you and a partner. This is a good way to commemorate that playlist, turn it into a physical thing, give that digital file value and presence in the physical world. LINDSEY: Great. Okay, so you casually mentioned this launch of an e-commerce store that happened last week. MIKE: It didn't feel casual. LINDSEY: Yeah. Why [laughter]...[inaudible 09:45] real casual. Why did you launch it? How's it going? MIKE: I don't know. Why did we launch it? I mean, well, we wanted to be able to test some assumptions. I think, you know, we wanted to get the brand out there a little bit, get our website out there, kind of introduce the concept. You know, this is a very...not that we've invented this product category, but it is a pretty obscure product category, right? And so, there's a lot of sort of consumer education that I think that has to go on for people to wrap their heads around this and why they'd want this. So, I think we wanted to start that process a little bit correctly, sort of in advance of a larger launch next year, and see if we could find some early community around this. You know, if we can find those core people who just absolutely love this, and connect with it, and go wild around it, then those are the people that we're going to be able to get a ton of information from and build for that persona, right? It's like, cool, these are the people who love this. Let's build more for them and go find other people like this. So, I think, for us, it was that. And then, honestly, it was also just, you know, let's test our manufacturing and fulfillment and logistics capabilities, right? I mean, this is...as much as we are a B2B, you know, SaaS platform or that's what we envision the future of Goodz being, there is a physical component of this. And, you know, we do have that part basically done at this point. But we just, you know, what is it like to order 1,000 of these? What is it like to put these in the mail to people and, you know, actually take orders? And just some of that processing because we do envision a more wholesale future where we're doing, you know, thousands or tens of thousands of this at a time. And so, I think we just want to button up and do some dry runs before we get to those kinds of numbers. CHRIS: I think it also it's important to remember that we are talking in startup time. And while this last week seems like an eternity, it's been a week [laughs] that we've had this in place. So, we're just starting to learn these things, and we plan on continuing to do so. MIKE: Yeah. But I think we thought that getting a website up would be a good way to just start kind of testing everything more. LINDSEY: Great. Danny, what went into deciding what would be in this first version of the site and the e-commerce offering? DANNY: I mean, a lot of it was kind of mostly driven by Chris and Mike. They kind of had a vision and an idea of what they wanted to sell. Obviously, from the user interviews, we were starting to hone in a little bit more and, like, we had some assumptions going into it. I think we ultimately did kind of feel like, yeah, I think, like, the playlisters seem to be, like, the target market. But just hearing it more and hearing more excitement from them was definitely just kind of like, yeah, I think we can double down on this piece. But, ultimately, like, in terms of launching the e-commerce platform, and the storefront, and the website, like, just literally looking at the user journey and being like, how does a user get from getting onto a site, like, as soon as they land there to, like, finishing a purchase? And what points do they need? What are the key things that they need to think through and typically will run into? And a lot of it is just kind of reflecting on our own personal buyer behavior. And, also, as we were getting closer to the launch, starting to work through some of those assumptions about buyer behavior. As we got there, we obviously had some prototypes. We had some screenshots that we were already working with. Like, the design team was already starting to build out some of the site. And so, we would just kind of show it to them, show it to our users, and just be like, hey, like, how do you expect to purchase this? Like, what's the next step that you expect to take? And we'd just kind of, like, continue to iterate on that piece. And so... LINDSEY: Okay. So you were, before launching, even showing some of those mockups and starting to incorporate them in the user interviews. DANNY: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we tried to get it in there in front of them as early as possible, partially because, like, at some point in the user interviews, like, you're mostly just trying to first understand, like, who are our target customers? Who are these people? And we have an assumption of or an idea of who we think they are. But really, like, once you start talking to people, you kind of are, like, okay, like, this thing that I thought maybe it wasn't so accurate, or, like, the way that they're kind of talking about these products doesn't 100% match what I originally walked into this, you know, experiment with. And so, we, like, start to hone in on that. But after a certain point, you kind of get that idea and now you're just like, okay, you seem to be, like, the right person to talk to. And so, if I were to show you this thing, do you get it, right? Like, do you understand what's happening? Like, how to use this thing, what this product even does. And then also, like, does the checkout experience feel intuitive for you? Is it as simple as, like, I just want to buy a T-shirt? So, like, I'm just going to go by the T-shirt, pick a size, and, you know, move on with my life. Can we make it as seamless as that? LINDSEY: And so, you mentioned it's only been a week since it's been live. Have you been able to learn anything from it yet? And how are you trying to drive people to it today? MIKE: Yeah, I think we learned that sales is hard [laughs] and slow, and it takes some time. But it's good, and we're learning a lot. I mean, it's been a while since I've really dug deep in, like, the analytics and marketing kind of metrics. And so, we've got all the Google Tag Manager stuff, you know, hooked up and just, you know, connecting with just exploring, honestly, like the TikTok advertising platform, and the YouTube Pre-Rolls, and Shorts. And, like, a lot of stuff that I actually, since the last time I was heavily involved in this stuff, is just totally new and different. And so, it's been super interesting to see the funnel and sort of see where people are getting in the site, where people are dropping off. You know, we had an interesting conversation in our thoughtbot sync yesterday or the day before, where we were seeing how, you know, we're getting lots of people to the front page and, actually, a good number of people to the product page, and, actually, like, you know, not the worst number of people to the cart. But then you were seeing really high cart abandonment rates. And then, you know, when you start Googling, and you're like, oh, actually, everybody sees very high cart abandonment rates; that's just a thing. But we were seeing, like, the people were viewing their cart seven or eight times, and they were on there sort of five times as long as they were on any other page. And it's this problem that I think Danny is talking about where, you know, we need to actually get a playlist URL. This gets into the minutiae of what we're building, but basically like, we need to get them to give us a playlist URL in order to check out, right? And so, you sort of have to, like, put yourself back in the mind of someone who's scrolling on Instagram, and they see this as an ad, and they click it, and they're like, oh, that thing was cool. Sure, I will buy one of those. And then it's like, no, actually, you need to, you know, leave this, go into a different app, find a play...like, it suddenly just puts a lot of the mental strain. But it's a lot. It's a cognitive load, greater than, as you said, just buying a T-shirt and telling what size you want. So, thinking through ways to really trim that down, shore up the amount of time people are spending on a cart. All that stuff has been fascinating. And then just, like, the different demographic kind of work that we're using, all the social ads platforms to kind of identify has been really interesting. It's still early. But, actually, like, Chris and I were just noticing...we were just talking right before this call. Like, we're actually starting to get, just in the last 12 hours, a bunch more, a bunch, but more people signing up to our email newsletter, probably in the last 12 hours that we have in the whole of last week. Yeah, I don't know, just even that sort of learning, it's like, oh, do people just need time with a thing, or they come back and they think about it? CHRIS: Yeah. Could these people be working on their playlists? That's a question that I have. MIKE: [chuckles] Yeah, me too. CHRIS: It's like, you know, I'm making a playlist to drop into this product. It's really interesting. And I think it gives insight to kind of, you know, how personal this product could be, that this is something that takes effort on the part of the consumer because they're making something to give or to keep for themselves, which is, I think, really interesting but definitely hard, too. DANNY: Yeah. And I also want to also clarify, like, Chris just kind of said it, like, especially for viewers and listeners, like, that's something that we've been hearing a lot from user interviews, too, right? Like, the language that they're using is, like, this is a thing that I care about. Like it's a representation of who I am. It's a representation of, like, the relationship that I have with this person that I'm going to be giving, you know, this gift to or this playlist to, specifically, like, people who feel, like, really passionate about these things. And, I mean, like, I did, too. Like, when I was first trying to, like, date, my wife, like, I spent, like, hours, hours trying to pick the coolest songs that I thought, you know, were like, oh, like, she's going to think I'm so cool because, like, I listen to these, like, super low-key indie rock bands, and, like, you know, so many more hours than she probably spent listening to it. But that's [laughs] kind of, like, honestly, what we heard a lot in a lot of these interviews, so... LINDSEY: Yeah, same. No, totally resonates. And I also went to the site this week, and I was like, oh damn, this is cool. Like, and immediately it was like, oh, you know, I've got these three, you know, music friends that we go to shows together. I'm like, oh, this would be so cool to get them, you know, playlists of, like, music we've seen together. So, you might see me in the cart. I won't abandon it. MIKE: Please. I would love that. CHRIS: Don't think about it too long if you could -- [laughter]. LINDSEY: I won't. I won't. CHRIS: I mean, I would say I'm really excited about having the site not only as a vehicle for selling some of these things but also as a vehicle for just honing our message. It's like another tool that we have in our arsenal. During the user interviews themselves, we were talking in abstract terms, and now we have something concrete that we can bounce off people, which is, I think, going to be a huge boon to our toolset as we continue to refine and define this product. MIKE: Yeah, that's a good point. LINDSEY: Yeah. You mentioned that they're signing up for, like, email updates. Do you have something you're sending out? Or are you kind of just creating a list? Totally fine, just building a list. MIKE: [laughs] No. CHRIS: It's a picture of Mike and I giving a big thumbs up. That's, yeah. [laughter] MIKE: No. But maybe...that was the thing; I was like, oh great, they're signing up. And I was like, gosh, they're signing up. Okay [laughter], now we got to write something. But we will. LINDSEY: Tips to making your playlist [crosstalk 19:11] playing your playlist -- MIKE: Yeah [crosstalk 19:13]. CHRIS: Right. And then also...tips to making your playlists. Also, we're advancing on the collectible side of things, too. We are, hopefully, going to have two pilot programs in place, one with a major label and one with a major artist. And we're really excited about that. LINDSEY: Okay. That's cool. I assume you can't tell us very much. What can you tell us? MIKE: Yeah. We won't mention names [chuckles] in case it just goes away, as these things sometimes do. But yeah, there's a great band who's super excited about these, been around for a long time, some good name recognition, and a very loyal fan base. They want to do sort of a collection of these. I think maybe we showed the little...I can't remember if we showed the little crates that we make or not, but basically, [inaudible 19:52] LINDSEY: The last time, yeah. MIKE: So, they want to sell online a package that's, you know, five or six Goodz in a crate, which I think will be cool and a great sort of sales experiment. And then there's a couple of artists that we're going to do an experiment with that's through their label that's more about tour...basically, giving things away on tour. So, they're going to do some giveaway fan club street team-style experiments with some of these on the road. So, first, it's ideal, provided both those things happen, because we definitely want to be exploring on the road and online stuff. And so, this kind of lets us do both at once and get some real learnings as to kind of how people...because we still don't know. We haven't really put these in people's hands yet. And it's just, like, are people scanning these a lot? Are they not? Is this sort of an object that's sitting on their shelf? Is it...yeah, it's just, like, there's so much we're going to learn once we get these into people's hands. LINDSEY: Do you have the infrastructure to sort of see how many times the cards are scanned? CHRIS: Mm-hmm. Yep, we do. MIKE: Yeah. So, we can see how many times each one is scanned, where they're scanned, that sort of thing. CHRIS: Kind of our next step, and something we were just talking about today with the thoughtbot team, is building out kind of what the backend will be for this, both for users and also for labels and artists. That it will allow them to go in and post updates to the Goodz, to allow them to use these for promotion as people, you know, scan into them to give them links to other sites related to the artists that they might be interested in before they move on to the actual musical playlist. So, that's kind of the next step for us. And knowing how users use these collectibles, both the kind of consumer Good and the artist collectibles that we were just talking about, will help inform how we build that platform. LINDSEY: Very cool. And right now, the online store itself that's built in Shopify? MIKE: Yeah. The homepage is Webflow that Kevin from the thoughtbot team really spearheaded in building for us. And then, yeah, the e-commerce is Shopify. LINDSEY: Y'all have been busy. MIKE: [laughs] LINDSEY: Is there anything else maybe that I haven't asked about yet that we should touch on in terms of updates or things going on with the product? MIKE: I don't know. I don't think so. I think, like Chris said, I mean, we're just...like, now that the site has kind of stood up and we're really switched over to kind of marketing and advertising on that, definitely digging into the backend of this kind of SaaS platform that's going to probably be a big focus for the rest of the, you know, the program, to be honest. Yeah, just some other things we can do on the next front that could eventually build into the backend that I think can be interesting. No, I guess [laughs] the short answer is no, nothing, like, substantial. Those are the big [crosstalk 22:26] LINDSEY: Yeah. Well, that was my next question, too, which is kind of like, what's next, or what's the next chunk of work? So, it's obviously lots more optimization and learning on the e-commerce platform, and then this other mega area, which is, you know, what does this look like as a SaaS solution? What's the vision? But also, where do we start? Which I'm sure, Danny, is a lot of work that you specialize in as far as, like, scoping how to approach these kinds of projects. DANNY: Yeah. And it's interesting because, I mean, we were just talking about this today. Like, part of it is, like, we can, like, really dig into, like, the e-commerce site and, like, really nailing it down to get it to the place where it's like, we're driving tons more traffic and also getting as low of a, like, cart abandonment rate as possible, right? But also, considering the fact that this is in the future, like, large-scale vision. And there's, like, also, like, we're starting to, I think, now iron out a lot of those, like, milestones where we're kind of like, okay, like, we got, like, a short-term vision, which is, like, the e-commerce site. We got a mid-term vision and a potential long-term vision. How do we validate this long-term vision while also still like, keeping this short-term vision moving forward? And, like, this mid-term vision is also going to, like, help potentially, either, like, steer us towards that long-term or maybe even, like, pivot us, like, into a completely different direction. So, like, where do you put your card, right? Like, how much energy and time do we put into, like, each of these areas? And that's kind of, like, the interesting part of this is starting to talk through that, starting to kind of prioritize, like, how we can maximize on our effort, like, our development and design effort so that things just kind of line up more naturally and organically for our future visioning, so... MIKE: Yeah. A lot of different things to juggle. I saw there was a question. Somebody asked what the URL is, but I don't seem to be able to [crosstalk 24:10]. LINDSEY: The same question as me. We got to drop the link for this thing. MIKE: Yeah, getthegoodz.com. CHRIS: That's G-O-O-D-Z. LINDSEY: Get in there, folks MIKE: Yeah, get [crosstalk 24:23]. LINDSEY: And let us know how it goes. MIKE: Yeah, please [laughs]. Any bugs? Let us know. Yeah. I think that those...yeah, I mean, it's a good point, Danny, in terms of juggling kind of the near-term and longer-term stuff. You know, it's a good kind of reminder our big focus, you know, in the new year is going to be fundraising, right? We're already talking to some investors and things like that. So, it's like, okay, yes, as you said, we could tweak the cart. We could tweak the e-commerce. Or, like, can we paint the big picture of what the longer-term version of this company is going to be in a way that makes it compelling for investment to come in so that there can be a long-term version of this company? And then we can build those things. So yeah, it's definitely a balance between the two. LINDSEY: Oh, also, just casual fundraising as well. [crosstalk 25:06] MIKE: Yeah, yeah. LINDSEY: [laughs] MIKE: But it's hard. It's like, you wake up in the morning. It's like, do I want to, like, write cold emails to investors? Or do I want to, like, look at Google Analytics and, like, tweak ad copy? That's actually more fun. So, yes. LINDSEY: Yeah, life of the founder, for sure. All right. So, that's getthegoodz (Goodz with a z) .com. Check it out. We'll tune in and see what happens with the e-commerce site, what happens with the SaaS planning the next time that we check in. But Chris, Mike, Danny, thank you so much for joining today and sharing what's been going on over the last few weeks: the good, the bad, the challenge, the cart abandonment. And, you know, best of luck to you over the next few weeks, and we'll be sure to check in and see how it's going. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions. Transcript:  LINDSEY: Thank you to our viewers and listeners. We are catching up once again with one of the startups going through the thoughtbot Incubator. My name is Lindsey Christensen. I'm joined today by Jordyn Bonds, who heads up the thoughtbot incubator, as well as our Co-Founders of Goodz, Chris Cerrito and Mike Rosenthal. Welcome, everybody. MIKE: Thanks, Lindsey. LINDSEY: Before we get started, before we put Chris and Mike back in the hot seat, at the top here, Jordyn, we have a special announcement for our viewers and listeners. JORDYN: Application window is open for session 1 of 2024, folks. You can go to thoughtbot.com/incubator and apply. And Chris and Mike can tell you how easy or hard applying was. MIKE: It was easy. It was totally easy. It's a very straightforward process. CHRIS: Yeah, it was way more straightforward than a lot of applications that we've dealt with in the past, for sure. JORDYN: Ha-ha. And if you've got a business idea that involves software but you haven't gotten anything out there yet, come talk to us. We will help you make sure that it's a good idea and that there are people who might buy it, and maybe get you even a little further than that. MIKE: We actually have a friend who's considering applying. I'll tell him applications are open. He's worried his idea is not big enough to actually be a business idea, so we'll see. CHRIS: Even the process of doing the application was really helpful for us because it helped us get aligned on exactly what we were doing, yeah. JORDYN: I love that. And I found that to be true when I was a founder applying to some of these things, in particular, applying for an SBIR grant was one of the most challenging things that we did, but it was so productive. I was so annoyed by it at the time, and then I cribbed from that thing. It actually sort of forced us to make a business plan [laughs], and then, basically, we ran it, and it was great [laughs]. CHRIS: Yeah. I think that was, for us, that was our point where we were like, "Is this idea fleshed out enough to move forward?" And we were like, "Yes, it is. Let's go. Let's do this." JORDYN: So, use the application as a forcing function, everybody. It will help you clarify your thinking. LINDSEY: Yeah. Jordyn, what would you say to Mike's friend who's questioning if their idea is big enough? How do you respond to that sentiment? JORDYN: That is a fascinating sentiment because I feel like so much more often, I am trying to help founders with the opposite problem where they think this thing is so big that they are not thinking about what step 1 is going to look like. They're just, like, in 10 years, we're going to be the next Amazon, and I'm like, "Maybe [laughter]. Let me help you figure out how to get to that giant vision." So, I don't come across the "Is this big enough to be a business?" question as often. And, I don't know, what would I say? I guess I need the details. LINDSEY: It could be a perfect fit MIKE: It could be. JORDYN: It could be a perfect fit. LINDSEY: In a way, that's what you're answering, right? MIKE: Right. LINDSEY: In some of this work. MIKE: That is true. So, yeah, you guys would certainly...just thinking through the process we've gone through the last two months, it would definitely help them flesh that out. LINDSEY: Which is a great segue. MIKE: Great segue. LINDSEY: Chris and Mike, we're actually coming up to the end of your incubator time. CHRIS: It's so sad. LINDSEY: Can you believe it? MIKE: It's gone by really fast. I mean, eight weeks is not a long time, but it has gone by very, very fast. CHRIS: It felt like a very long time in the middle of it. MIKE: [laughs] CHRIS: But now that it's over, it feels like a blink that it's coming to a close. MIKE: I don't know. It's funny. I think we had some note in our retro today that was like, maybe the very end of the year is not the best time to do an accelerator just because you have, like, the holidays kind of jumping in here in the end. So, that might have helped make it feel like a... I feel like the end of the year always feels like a rush anyway. So, I think just life gets a little bit busier this time of year, too, but yeah. CHRIS: Yeah, my gingerbread man decorating game is, like, really down this season because we've been so busy. Tragic. LINDSEY: Chris, can you remind our viewers and listeners who might not be familiar what was the idea that you and Mike have been exploring with the incubator or, like, what did you come in with? CHRIS: So, with Goodz, what we're trying to do is make little, physical collectibles objects that connect back to the digital content that a user loves. The idea being that today, we are awash in these digital files, links, so many things on our desktops, on our phones, on our devices, and it's really hard to tell which part of those are really, really important to us. So, by giving them a presence in the physical world, that denotes that's something that's really important, worth keeping, worth sharing, and showing off to your friends and family. And to start this off, mostly because Mike and I are both kind of music nerds, we're starting off with a music focus, but at some point, we're hoping to move into other realms, too. LINDSEY: And a lot of the incubator, as repeat listeners will know, is focused on really kind of evolving user interviews all the way through and narrowing in on, you know, a core audience, a core market. Mike, how has that evolution been? I think the last time we chatted was around three weeks ago. What has the latest iteration of user interviews looked like in terms of the people you're talking to and even what you're asking them? MIKE: It's been a really fascinating process. I mean, I'm trying to think of where we were exactly the last time we talked to you, but I think we'd probably just launched the e-commerce site that we had been experimenting with putting up. LINDSEY: Yeah, exactly. MIKE: And so, and we really then started cranking on user interviews kind of once that was live. And so, moving away from the conceptual and more into like, "Okay, share your screen. Here's the link. Like, tell me what you think is going on here," and really sort of getting users who had never, you know, never heard our pitch, never been involved with us to sort of try to wrap their heads around what we are and what we're doing just based on that website and trying to sort of make iterative changes based on that. You know, for me, because I had not done user interviews very much in the past, like, it's very tempting, like, you get sort of 1 note from 1 person in 1 interview, and you're like, oh, we need to change this word. That word didn't make any sense to them, or this thing needs to be blue instead of pink. I think, for me, it was like, all right, how do we kind of synthesize this data in a responsible way? And it emerged naturally, which, I mean, Jordyn and all thoughtbot folks said that it would, but you sort of started hearing the same things again and again. And we never really got to a place where, like, you heard the exact same things from everyone. But there were enough buckets, I feel like, where we're like, okay, like, this part really isn't making that much sense to people, or, like, we do really need to, you know, structure this differently to convey. So, it was a bunch of that kind of work over the last three weeks or so and sort of just getting a sense of like, are we conveying our message? It's hard. I mean, it's a new, like, we're not the only people making physical products with NFC chips in them, but it is not the most common, like, product. Like, it is kind of a new category out there. And so, really trying to understand just right off the bat, do people get it? And you get wildly different answers [laughs] as to whether they get it or they don't, which has been fascinating, too. JORDYN: Yeah. [crosstalk 7:12] LINDSEY: Chris or Jordyn, anything to add there? JORDYN: Yeah. You get the best, like, bootcamp in the don't overreact to a single user interview experience in some ways because we [laughs]...it would literally be like, interview in the morning someone says this thing. Interview in the afternoon, someone says the exact opposite thing [laughter]. And you're like, okay [laughs], like, which one of these things are we going to respond to, if either of them? CHRIS: Yeah. It's hard. As somebody with, like, a strong desire to please, it's hard to reign yourself in and want to change things immediately, but it definitely makes sense to do so in the long run. MIKE: But yeah, but, I mean, like I said, I do feel like it kind of came down to buckets. It's like, okay, you're that. I can, like, categorize you with all those other people and you with all those other people. And yeah, I hear you. I'm like, yeah, it's tempting to want to please them all. But I think with this one, we're fighting hard to be like...or we sort of have a philosophy that this product is emphatically not for everyone because, at the end of the day, you get a lot of people who are like, "Wait, you're just putting a link to a streaming playlist on a physical object? Why don't I just text someone the link?" And sometimes that breaks down by age group, like, 18-year-olds being like, "What are you talking about, old man? LINDSEY: [laughs] MIKE: Like, why the hell would I do that? It makes no sense." But it sort of skews all over the age ranges. But then there'll be other people who are 18 or 20 years old who are like, "Wow, I never had cassettes when I was growing up," or "I never got to make, you know, mixtapes or CD-Rs for people." And like, you know, so it's, yeah, it's about finding the people who are the early adopters. As Jordyn has said a lot, it's like, we need to find those early adopters and, like, make them love us, and then other people will come later. CHRIS: I mean, some of the most gratifying moments, I think, are there's been some interviews where people have been so excited that after the interview, they've gone and purchased our products, which is just, like, the coolest feeling ever. LINDSEY: Wow. MIKE: Yeah, it's pretty cool. LINDSEY: Are you open to sharing a little bit more about what those buckets or what those segments look like? CHRIS: I mean, I think there's folks who outright just get it almost immediately, and I think those people tend to be hardcore music collectors, hardcore music fans, Jordyn and Mike, please feel free to jump in if you disagree with any of this. They just get it right off the bat. Then I think there's, in my experience, there's another bucket of people who are a little more hesitant, and maybe they wouldn't buy it, but they seemed really excited about the idea of getting one as a gift, which is really interesting. They're like, "I don't know if I'd buy this, but I'd really like to have one." And then there is another segment, like, which Mike just mentioned, of folks who just don't see the value in this whatsoever, which is totally fair. MIKE: Yeah, totally. I think it's also...I see it almost as, like, a matrix. There's, like, desirability, and, like, technical understanding because people were like, "I technically understand what this is, and I do not want it in my life." Or like, "I get what this is and, oh my God, I have to have that," or like, "I don't really understand what you're talking about, but, man, I love physical stuff. Like, sure I want..." you know, it's like, it goes across those two planes, I think. JORDYN: I will say that it, I think you alluded to this before, Mike, but, like, we're going to run a whole analysis of...because we did a ton of interviews, and we haven't actually done that, like, sort of data-driven thing of like, are there trends in the demographics somewhere that we're not getting? Because the pattern has not been there. Like, someone will talk to an 18-year-old, you know, at 1:00 p.m. who is just, like, "Why on earth would I ever want this?" And then I, like, you know, will talk to a 21-year-old who is like, "I love this." And it's like, why? Like, this is the answer. The thing we're trying to get out now is, like, what is the difference between those two people? It's not a demographic thing that we can see from the outside, so what is it instead? But with consumer stuff like this, often, you don't necessarily...you don't need that in such great detail when you're starting. You just kind of, like, throw it out there and see who grabs it, and then you start to build sort of cohorts around that. And that is kind of what these interviews have shown us is that there are people who will grab it, and that was part of what we were trying to validate. Are there people who Mike and Chris do not know personally who will, like, get this and be psyched about it immediately? And that is, you know, check unequivocally true. Like Chris said, there are people that we were, you know, that we had recruited on this user interviews platform [chuckles] who then just turned around and bought the product because they were so psyched about it. One of the guys I interviewed was like, "Can I invest in your company right now?" Like, during the interview, and I was like, "Maybe?" [laughs] CHRIS: There was, like, another person who wanted to work for us immediately... JORDYN: Yes, great. CHRIS: Which was really interesting and kind of awesome. JORDYN: Yeah, they're like, "Are you hiring?" You're just like, okay. So, it's validating that there are people all over that spectrum. Like, where those trends lie, though, which is, I think, what you were asking, Lindsey, not as straightforward and in a fascinating way. So, we still have a little more, like, number crunching to do on that, and we may have an answer for you later. LINDSEY: That's exciting. Exactly. I'm curious: what are the connecting dots between the folks who are really into it, and how might that impact how you approach the business? MIKE: Yeah, it's hard. It's definitely going to be a niche to start. And so, we got to figure out kind of got to crack the code on how we find those people. LINDSEY: And, Mike, I think you had also mentioned last time that, you know, you or both of you have a network kind of in the music industry, and you've been floating the idea past some people there. Have you been having more of those conversations over the last few weeks, too? MIKE: We have, yeah. Well, so yeah, we've had a couple more just kind of straight-up pitch calls versus like, "Hey, there's this cool thing we're doing," and having those people be like, "Cool. Let's do a pilot." And so, they're ordering, you know, 500 or 1,000 units at a time, which is rad. LINDSEY: Whoa. MIKE: For the first...yeah. LINDSEY: Okay, very cool. MIKE: Yeah. The first two or three of those should happen in January or maybe early February, but yeah, those are done and in production and arriving soon. So, that's really exciting with some cool bands. We won't say the names in case it doesn't [laughs] work out, but it does look like it's going to work out. LINDSEY: And so, it's specific bands that are creating merch for their fans. MIKE: Yeah, yeah. So, we're working with one artist manager on a band that he manages, and then we're working with a record label. And they're going to try with a couple of smaller artists. And so, yeah, it's actually really good for us. One is going to be straight-up sales, most likely, and it's, like, selling these things. And the other ones will be given away as kind of promo items on tour artists, which is also a really interesting use case for us, too, that we're excited about and using them as a way to sort of get email addresses and, like, fans engaged and stuff, so... And then yeah, then I had another conversation, and they want to talk about doing some pilots. So far, like, that side of things is going great. We're sort of 3 for 4 in terms of initial calls leading to pilots right off the bat, which is kind of unheard of from [laughs] my experience. LINDSEY: Yeah, I'd say so. No, a lot of very good signals. MIKE: Really good signals. But then we were able to turn some of those into user interview conversations, actually, as well over the course of the last couple of weeks, which has been really helpful, like, talking to manager and label-type people about what they might want out of a software product that is associated with this because we're not just thinking about making physical products but sort of coupling that with an online toolset. And that part, we haven't gotten as far along as we did with the direct-to-consumer e-commerce, but it's been fascinating. LINDSEY: So, what has been happening with the online shop? As you noted the last time we talked, it was just a baby less than a week-old Shopify site getting, you know, some first hits of people going around maybe putting things in their basket. I'm sure a lot has happened over the last few weeks. What kind of work, what kind of insights have you seen around the site? CHRIS: We've been, I mean, we've been selling stuff at a slow but steady pace. It's been great because it's enough to, you know, because our product really straddles the line between physical and digital; there's a lot of physical aspects to this that we need to figure out and kind of the level of orders that we've been getting have been really...it's, like, the perfect number to think about fulfillment issues, things like what kind of package does this go in? How do we mail this out? Things along those lines, just very basic, practical questions that needed to be answered. But yeah, it's been great. We actually, I mean, we hit our goal for the amount of these that we wanted to get in people's hands before Christmas, which is pretty awesome. And we continue now with the lessons learned. I think our plan is to try and make a push for Valentine's Day because these seem like they would be a great Valentine's Day present: make a playlist; share it with your loved one; share it with a friend; share it with somebody you don't like at all. Who knows? LINDSEY: [laughs] CHRIS: But yeah, that's kind of our next sales push, we think. LINDSEY: The hate playlist. CHRIS: [inaudible 15:40] hate playlist. MIKE: Yeah, perfect. Real passive-aggressive. CHRIS: Just Blue Monday, like, by New Order, like, 14 times. LINDSEY: [laughs] Yeah, every song is just like a sub-tweet... MIKE: [laughs] LINDSEY: About something they've done and [inaudible 15:53] Have you updated the site? Like, how do you decide what gets updated on the site? [laughter] Everyone laughed. MIKE: It was a little haphazard, I would say, there for a minute. But -- CHRIS: We got the site up very, very quickly. And from my perspective, I've been dealing a lot with the physical side of things, just getting great product photos up there, which is, like, something that thoughtbot has actually been super helpful with. You know, everybody on the team is starting to submit photos of their Goodz in the real world and using their Goodz, which is great. And we continued to update the site with that but also making sure our text made sense, refining copy in response to things that people said during user interviews. The checkout process, the process of adding the URL that we point the Good to that, we did a bunch of experimentation there based on what people were saying during user interviews. So, it has been a little haphazard, but we have made a bunch of changes. LINDSEY: Jordyn, has there been any experiment, like, structured experimentation around the site or how you're getting people to the site? JORDYN: Mike actually did a little bit of ad funnel work that I don't think we've, like, even remotely scratched the surface of. So, I wish I could say that was conclusive, but I think we've found a little bit more...here are plenty of sales that are from people that nobody here knows. MIKE: True. JORDYN: So, people are finding out about this somehow [laughs]. But I think it's a little bit, like, word-of-mouth sort of chain of events is our sense so far. I wanted to say, though, about the site, we did get what Chris was saying about, like, this experiment was, in part, about fulfillment and figuring out how fulfillment would work and packaging, and not just messaging and not just closing the sale with consumers, but also, just, like, how do you fulfill these? But one of the really fun things we've managed to do in the last, since we talked last time, which I can't even believe...I feel like this wasn't even a gleam in our eyes for this project, but we managed to get out, like, stood up and out the door, and working in production in the last few weeks is a way for folks to actually assign the URL to their mixtape themselves. Previously, the plan had just been for Chris and Mike to do that, which is fine but a little bit unscalable, right? CHRIS: That was a huge dream or, like, that was high on our wish list. And we didn't think we'd get to it. And it's been pretty amazing that we have, yeah. JORDYN: Yeah, so that was one thing that is an update to the site. So, then we had to do a little bit of, like, micro iterating, on, like, the messaging around that. Like, how do you communicate to people? This is, like, a little bit of an abstract challenge, right? Like, here's this object. It's going to point to a digital thing. How do you tell the physical object which digital thing it's pointing to [laughs]? So, a lot of our recent interviewing has been to sort of get inside the mind of the consumer about how they're thinking about that and how we can best communicate that to them. So that's been a lot of the, like, recent iteration is getting that mechanism stood up and then the messaging around it. CHRIS: It's also really cool because it adds to the utility of the object itself in the sense that now our Goodz, when a user gets one, they can add a URL to their Good themselves, but they can also change that URL. So, it's much more malleable. JORDYN: Which is something that in one of our early user interviews was, like, a hot request [laughs], and we were like, "Someday, someday." And it's, you know, I should actually go back to her and be like, "Someday is today." [laughter] MIKE: Well, yeah, and just as Chris was saying, it just makes it so much easier to ship these out without having to manually load them, and you could sell them, and yeah, retail outlets, like, it just opens up a lot of opportunities for us for them. LINDSEY: And Mike mentioned that some of the, like, kind of future looking aspirations for the solution are, you know, how might you figure out the B2B, like, SaaS aspect of it? Jordyn, is that something that's been explored at all at this point, or is it early? JORDYN: That experiment I just described is actually sort of the link between the two projects. It sort of proves the concept and proves the value in some ways, and it has given us a little bit more visibility into sort of how we're going to execute some of this technical stuff. Like, how easy, how difficult is it going to be? These little experiments all build your confidence around your ability to do those things and what it's going to look like. And so, this experiment absolutely feeds into that question. But I would say it was really this week where we got to have a really fun brainstorming sort of blue sky conversation about that that I don't think would have been nearly as both creative and blue sky or rooted in reality as it was if we hadn't done these experiments and hadn't talked to so many...we had so much work...we could participate in a conversation like that so much more confidently and creatively because all of us had a lot more shared context. So, we really got to dream big, like, what is a SaaS platform built around these physical objects? And I don't want to, you know, I'm not going to give it away at this moment because we had a lot of, like, really cool ideas. It's one part talking to the B2B customer, which, you know, you mentioned earlier, getting what their pain points are, and what they're looking for, what they need, but then also dreaming big about now we understand the technology a little bit more and how it feels to use it. What does that unlock in our brains? The analogy I used in that conversation and that I use all the time is like, the users of Twitter invented hashtags, right? Twitter did not invent hashtags. And so, hey, everybody out there, newsflash: users invented hashtags, not Twitter or something else, if you didn't realize that Twitter was where those things kind of emerged. But there was just a user behavior that was happening in the wild, and Twitter was just very good at making that easier for them, looking at that and being like, "Oh, hey, is this a thing you all want to do? Here, we'll make that even more useful for you." And it was part of Twitter's early success that they were able to do that. And so, that was the kind of thinking we were trying to employ here is, like, now that we have these objects and we understand a little bit more how it feels to use them, you get these second order effects. What does that then make us think of? What is then possible to us that we wouldn't have been able to dream of previously because we didn't quite get it? So, that was really happening this week. LINDSEY: So, as the incubator time wraps up, what are the kind of final activities or deliverables, one, that Goodz wants and you know that they're going to get? What are the parting gifts as we send you out into the next phase? MIKE: Yeah, well, loads of stuff. I mean, we're getting all that code that [SP] Guillermo and the guys worked on to let people set their own playlist settings. And we've got that up in a GitHub repository now. And we've got a bunch of great design work that's all being handed over, like Chris was saying, product shots that a bunch of the team members were taking, synthesizing all the user interviews. We're actually sort of making some kind of final reports on those, so it's kind of more usable, actionable data for us. The whole website, you know, that didn't exist before. And that will sort of continue to grow as the entire website for Goodz moving forward. I don't know. That's a lot. What else was there, Chris? CHRIS: As a result of all that, I mean, one of the things I'm most excited about is now we have a small user base who actually has the physical products that, hopefully, we can get them to answer questions. That's huge for what's coming next. Starting the path towards the SaaS platform, too, it's really helped narrow our scope and think about, you know, how to make that successful or if it will be successful. LINDSEY: Yeah, that sounded like a big discussion this week that I know has been on your minds from the beginning. Wait, the last time, also, you said you were starting to get emails, too. Have you emailed anyone yet, or are you still holding on to them? MIKE: Oh. No, I still haven't sent a newsletter out [laughs], actually, but we have Mailchimp set up. Yeah, no, we've got a good kind of core of our, yeah, early folks on there. We'll start getting a newsletter out with some sort of regularity. We're building up the socials very slowly just focusing on Instagram mostly right now and trying to get back into that game. It's been a long time since I've had to do kind of social marketing stuff. And so, it's a lot of work, as it turns out, but we'll get all that cooking. I think this was just such a sprint, working with the thoughtbot folks and trying to get all this stuff done. Before the end of the year, now we can sort of take a breath and start engaging folks in the new year. LINDSEY: Yeah. Well, so, do you know what you want to do next or what the next phase looks like? Are you going to do fundraising? MIKE: We're certainly going to continue to have some fundraising conversations. We've had some conversations emerge over the last, you know, since we've been in thoughtbot, again, not the greatest time of year to try to be raising a round. But we're also not, like, desperately, urgently needing to do that right this second. I think, you know, part of it is the fundraising landscape, you know, doesn't look amazing. And we're still sort of building out a lot of traction, and sort of every week, there's some new, exciting thing, or we've got some new, big artists who wants to do something. So, I think, in some ways, to the extent that we can bootstrap for a little while, I think we will, yeah. So, we will focus on...I'd like to get back to focusing on, like, B2B sales. I'd like to hit the ground in January and just start talking to a bunch of music industry folks. And thinking ahead a little bit, sort of Q1 and Q2, like, what are the big tentpole events? You know, you got South by Southwest coming up in March. You got Record Store Day in April, or whenever it is. But, you know, there's, like, a bunch of those sorts of things that it's like, oh, let's not let those things suddenly be tomorrow. Like, right now, they're all still two or three/four months out. Like, let's make sure we're queued up for those things and see what happens. And Jordyn has been giving really good advice on the fundraising side where it's just like, just keep getting cool stuff like that and just do almost like little drip campaigns with funders who aren't maybe giving you the time of day or think it's too early, and just kind of keep going back to them. Like, the best excuse to go back to funders is like, "Hey, we just closed this new thing. We just launched this new thing. We just got this thing working. Hey, we're launching with this major band," Like, enough of those happen, and I think the fundraising will happen more organically. It's a strategy. CHRIS: I think we're really lucky in the fact that, you know, now, at this point, we're not talking about vapourware, you know, like, these are actual things that actually exist that, like, anybody could go onto our site right now and buy, which is awesome. And because of that, the product's going to continue to evolve, and, hopefully, our sales record will continue to evolve, too. LINDSEY: Amazing. Well, that feels like a good place to wrap up, maybe. Are you going to hang around in our incubator Slack, the thoughtbot incubator Slack for all our past founders? MIKE: Yes. Emphatically, yes. LINDSEY: Okay. We're holding you to it then [laughs]. CHRIS: I'm excited about that. We met with the other founders yesterday for the first time, and it was a really great and interesting conversation. It was cool seeing how diverse all these projects are and how folks are working on things that we had no idea about and how we're working on stuff that they have no idea about, and it was really great. It felt like a good cross-pollination. MIKE: Agreed. LINDSEY: That's awesome to hear. Jordyn, any final thoughts? JORDYN: [inaudible 26:58] out there listening and watching and want to join this community of founders [laughs], don't you want to have office hours with Chris and Mike? LINDSEY: All right, thoughtbot.com/incubator. You can apply for session 1 of the 2024 incubator program. And yeah, you two, if you have more recommendations, referrals, definitely send them our way. Chris, Mike, Jordyn, thank you so much once again for joining and catching us up on all the exciting developments for Goodz. MIKE: Thank you. LINDSEY: A lot of really cool milestones. JORDYN: I got to say, so much good stuff. And like, you know, just wrapping it all up almost diminishes the impact of any single one of those things that we just talked about, but it's, like, pretty amazing. People out there, apply to the incubator but also go buy yourself a Goodz mixtape. It's cool with playlists on it. MIKE: It's a good point. JORDYN: Give it to your BFF. Come on. LINDSEY: Getthegoodz.com. MIKE: Getthegoodz.com. Awesome. LINDSEY: All right. Thanks, Chris and Mike. AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions. Special Guests: Chris Cerrito, Jordyn Bonds, and Mike Rosenthal.

The opening 2023 ABB FIA Formula E world championship race at the 2024 Mexico City EPrix was no classic but it still offered up some points of interest and one big controversial flashpoint. That was the investigation in to Porsche's starts, and while they were cleared of any wrongdoing, The Race's Sam Smith and Andrew van de Burgt delve in to the backstory of the investigations. Wehrlein's conclusive win is also contextualised, as is the fine performances of Sebastien Buemi, Nick Cassidy and Maximilian Guenther. The Antonio Felix da Costa and Nico Mueller incident is analysed, and the podcast is joined by Mahindra boss Frederic Bertrand who talks about his teams start to the season and the return to the championship of Nyck de Vries. The latest news is also discussed, including a major announcement that will hit the newsstands on Monday 22nd January! Follow The Race on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Check out our latest videos on YouTube Download our app on iOS or Android Click here to join The Race Members' Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only? PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC! Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like? It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft? Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter Windows 11 Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason Microsoft 365 Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date AI OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI Interesting details about negotiations between the two Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good Xbox Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18 Minecraft Legends, RIP Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more Layoffs at Twitch After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce Tips and Picks Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only? PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC! Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like? It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft? Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter Windows 11 Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason Microsoft 365 Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date AI OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI Interesting details about negotiations between the two Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good Xbox Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18 Minecraft Legends, RIP Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more Layoffs at Twitch After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce Tips and Picks Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only? PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC! Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like? It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft? Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter Windows 11 Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason Microsoft 365 Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date AI OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI Interesting details about negotiations between the two Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good Xbox Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18 Minecraft Legends, RIP Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more Layoffs at Twitch After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce Tips and Picks Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only? PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC! Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like? It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft? Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter Windows 11 Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason Microsoft 365 Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date AI OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI Interesting details about negotiations between the two Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good Xbox Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18 Minecraft Legends, RIP Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more Layoffs at Twitch After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce Tips and Picks Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only? PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC! Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like? It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft? Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter Windows 11 Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason Microsoft 365 Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date AI OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI Interesting details about negotiations between the two Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good Xbox Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18 Minecraft Legends, RIP Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more Layoffs at Twitch After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce Tips and Picks Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

It's CES, so let's observe a moment of silence for all the stupid #*$% our colleagues are covering right now! But there is some wheat in the chaff, of course Intel announces 14th Gen Core desktop and mobile chips. But wasn't Meteor Lake was mobile only? PC makers announce a lot of Meteor Lake PCs: Acer, Acer again, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, more, plus the MSI Claw mobile gaming handheld and the first ASUS NUC! Paul's been using an HP Spectre x360 14 for the past month, what's the AI stuff really like? It's not just Intel: NVIDIA goes nuts on AI and AMD has new AI-powered CPUs Google announces improvements across the Android ecosystem - Quick Share Amazon adopts Matter Casting - and now we have too many of these things - what about Microsoft? Thread will finally fix networking and thus Matter Windows 11 Microsoft announces a Copilot new key for Windows keyboards - settle down, everyone Beta channel (last Thursday): Bug fixes - after the Dev/Canary updates of last Wednesday Quick Windows 11 Field Guide update - 160 pages of new 23H2 content in two months, now 1058 pages long, so download the latest version Microsoft is reportedly looking to add AI writing assistance to Notepad. For some reason Microsoft 365 Awesome! Microsoft PC hardware to be sold now by Incase Almost four years later, it looks like Microsoft will finally make Teams (free) an actual Teams client Apple tries to stamp down the CES hype, announces Apple Vision Pro launch date AI OpenAI responds to the NYT and... yikes. Did AI write this? It admits that ChatGPT does what the NYT claimed Has met with "dozens" of news orgs but can only cite four actual partnerships, and licensing costs are confidential Emphatically cites the fair use argument, which is an open discussion and not clear-cut Offers an opt-out for news publishers, but only since August, so after it used all the NYT content Says the NYT is not telling the full story. Right, it's telling its side of the story. Just like OpenAI Interesting details about negotiations between the two Seeks constructive partnership in a final olive leaf EU is investigating the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, following U.S. FTC and UK CMA Pennsylvania adopts OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise OpenAI launches GPT Store for ChatGPT Plus, Team and Enterprise users Now we know which Microsoft executive is sort of on the OpenAI board Duolingo lays off staff because AI is so good Xbox Microsoft could be bringing Xbox exclusives to PlayStation Microsoft is bringing back the Xbox Developer_Direct event on January 18 Minecraft Legends, RIP Big changes to GeForce Now: New Xbox titles, day passes, more Layoffs at Twitch After its failed coup of the userbase, Unity lays off 25 percent of its workforce Tips and Picks Tip of the week: We need to talk about password managers App pick of the week: Alternative web browsers RunAs Radio this week: Hardening Active Directory with Jerry Devore Brown liquor pick of the week: Bearface Triple Oak Hosts: Leo Laporte, Paul Thurrott, and Richard Campbell Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: canary.tools/twit - use code: TWIT GO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT cachefly.com/twit

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Effective Aspersions: How the Nonlinear Investigation Went Wrong, published by TracingWoodgrains on December 19, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. The New York Times Picture a scene: the New York Times is releasing an article on Effective Altruism (EA) with an express goal to dig up every piece of negative information they can find. They contact Émile Torres, David Gerard, and Timnit Gebru, collect evidence about Sam Bankman-Fried, the OpenAI board blowup, and Pasek's Doom, start calling Astral Codex Ten (ACX) readers to ask them about rumors they'd heard about affinity between Effective Altruists, neoreactionaries, and something called TESCREAL. They spend hundreds of hours over six months on interviews and evidence collection, paying Émile and Timnit for their time and effort. The phrase "HBD" is muttered, but it's nobody's birthday. A few days before publication, they present key claims to the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA), who furiously tell them that many of the claims are provably false and ask for a brief delay to demonstrate the falsehood of those claims, though their principles compel them to avoid threatening any form of legal action. The Times unconditionally refuses, claiming it must meet a hard deadline. The day before publication, Scott Alexander gets his hands on a copy of the article and informs the Times that it's full of provable falsehoods. They correct one of his claims, but tell him it's too late to fix another. The final article comes out. It states openly that it's not aiming to be a balanced view, but to provide a deep dive into the worst of EA so people can judge for themselves. It contains lurid and alarming claims about Effective Altruists, paired with a section of responses based on its conversation with EA that it says provides a view of the EA perspective that CEA agreed was a good summary. In the end, it warns people that EA is a destructive movement likely to chew up and spit out young people hoping to do good. In the comments, the overwhelming majority of readers thank it for providing such thorough journalism. Readers broadly agree that waiting to review CEA's further claims was clearly unnecessary. David Gerard pops in to provide more harrowing stories. Scott gets a polite but skeptical hearing out as he shares his story of what happened, and one enterprising EA shares hard evidence of one error in the article to a mixed and mostly hostile audience. A few weeks later, the article writer pens a triumphant follow-up about how well the whole process went and offers to do similar work for a high price in the future. This is not an essay about the New York Times. The rationalist and EA communities tend to feel a certain way about the New York Times. Adamantly a certain way. Emphatically a certain way, even. I can't say my sentiment is terribly different - in fact, even when I have positive things to say about the New York Times, Scott has a way of saying them more elegantly, as in The Media Very Rarely Lies. That essay segues neatly into my next statement, one I never imagined I would make: You are very very lucky the New York Times does not cover you the way you cover you. A Word of Introduction Since this is my first post here, I owe you a brief introduction. I am a friendly critic of EA who would join you were it not for my irreconcilable differences in fundamental values and thinks you are, by and large, one of the most pleasant and well-meaning groups of people in the world. I spend much more time in the ACX sphere or around its more esoteric descendants and know more than anyone ought about its history and occasional drama. Some of you know me from my adversarial collaboration in Scott's contest some years ago, others from my misadventures in "speedrunning" college, still others from my exhaustively detailed deep dives in...

For review:1. Israel Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) press conference.  Emphatically states that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will not control Gaza after the defeat of Hamas.2. Israel informs several Arab states (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, & Egypt) and Turkey- that it will propose security-buffer zone between Gaza and Israeli territory at the war's end.3. Oshkosh Defense will continue to produce Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) through 2025 to support foreign sales.4. Boeing out of the E4B Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) aircraft competition.  Sierra Nevada Corporation 9SNC) remains the only known competitor. Contract award expected in 2024.5. Boeing on contract to provide 15 more KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers for the USAF. Contract is worth $2.3 billion.6. Canada to procure Boeing P8A Poseidon aircraft as a replacement for aging CP-140 fleet.  Initial acquisition to be 14 x aircraft with option for two more at a later date.7. US Navy Virginia-Class Submarine Maintenance in Australia via AUKUS Arrangement will occur in Summer 2024.8. Joint Statement of Intent for Defense Cooperation: UK & Turkey.9. Joint Statement of Intent for Defense Cooperation: France and Philippines. 

POSTCAST: The Jacksonville Jaguars Close Out The Pre-season Emphatically by defeating the Miami Dolphins 31-18 in front of a fans that felt like a regular season crowd. The biggest story is how smooth the offense looked, how great Travis Etienne and Calvin Ridley looked, the run blocking of the offensive line, and last but not least the takeaways by the Jaguars defense (again).Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Harry'sGet your best shave ever this summer with Harry's razors and skin care products. Get a $13 Starter Set for just $3 at harrys.com/NFL.  GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.birddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNFL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL for a white tech hat with any order. You won't want to take your birddogs off we promise you.BetterHelpThis podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. Visit BetterHelp.com/Lockedon today to get 10% off your first month.Underdog FantasyThis episode is sponsored by Underdog Fantasy! Sign up HERE with the promo code LOCKEDON to get your first deposit DOUBLED up to $100.Must be 18+ (19+ in Alabama and Nebraska, 21+ in Massachusetts and Arizona) and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www dot ncpgambling.org; In Arizona call 1-800-NEXT-STEP; in New York, Call 1-877-8-HOPENY; in Tennessee, call 1-800-889-9789eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let's ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON! FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

POSTCAST: The Jacksonville Jaguars Close Out The Pre-season Emphatically by defeating the Miami Dolphins 31-18 in front of a fans that felt like a regular season crowd. The biggest story is how smooth the offense looked, how great Travis Etienne and Calvin Ridley looked, the run blocking of the offensive line, and last but not least the takeaways by the Jaguars defense (again). Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Harry's Get your best shave ever this summer with Harry's razors and skin care products. Get a $13 Starter Set for just $3 at harrys.com/NFL.   Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. birddogs Go to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNFL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL for a white tech hat with any order. You won't want to take your birddogs off we promise you. BetterHelp This podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. Visit BetterHelp.com/Lockedon today to get 10% off your first month. Underdog Fantasy This episode is sponsored by Underdog Fantasy! Sign up HERE with the promo code LOCKEDON to get your first deposit DOUBLED up to $100. Must be 18+ (19+ in Alabama and Nebraska, 21+ in Massachusetts and Arizona) and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www dot ncpgambling.org; In Arizona call 1-800-NEXT-STEP; in New York, Call 1-877-8-HOPENY; in Tennessee, call 1-800-889-9789 eBay Motors For parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let's ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. LinkedIn LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Make Every Moment More. Right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON! FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

India should be understood as a test case of democracy outside the Western world.Rahul VermaAccess Bonus Episodes on PatreonMake a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.Rahul Verma is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He is also Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Ashoka University. Recently, he wrote “The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy” in the recent Journal of Democracy.Key HighlightsIntroduction - 0:44India's Democracy Paradox - 2:24Reconciling Illiberalism - 15:54Sources of Indian Democratic Deficits - 20:02Overstating and Understating Indian Democracy - 30:50Key Links"The Exaggerated Death of Indian Democracy" in Journal of Democracy by Rahul VermaCentre for Policy Research Follow Rahul Verma on Twitter @rahul_tvermaDemocracy Paradox PodcastAshutosh Varshney on India. Democracy in Hard PlacesChristophe Jaffrelot on Narendra Modi and Hindu NationalismMore Episodes from the PodcastMore InformationDemocracy GroupApes of the State created all MusicEmail the show at jkempf@democracyparadox.comFollow on Twitter @DemParadox, Facebook, Instagram @democracyparadoxpodcast100 Books on DemocracySupport the show

Does love mean never having to say "I'm sorry"? Emphatically, Judaism says "No"! Peace and harmony can only emerge after we embrace humility and clear away any discord that remains between one another. Pull Up A Chair 03AUG2023 - PODCAST

Lesley shares her listeners' journey of becoming a Pilates teacher and getting the job they manifested. Tune in to find out why you should stop self-sabotaging and start making time for what you want.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co . And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:Reflecting on the journey to becoming a better teacher.How the Remember When game worked for Allison at landing a job. How Lesley overcame overwhelming challenges and self-sabotage.Making the time and creating a “Fuck It” list.  If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.Be It Till You See It Podcast SurveyBe in the know with all the workshops at OPCBe a part of Lesley's Pilates MentorshipResourcesWatch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable PilatesSocial MediaInstagramFacebookLinkedInEpisode Transcript: Lesley Logan: [00:00:00] It's Fuck Yeah Friday. Brad Crowell: Fuck yeah! Lesley Logan: Get ready for some wins.Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Brad Crowell: Hello. Welcome to Fuck Yeah Friday. I'm so happy you're here. You're fucking awesome. Do you know that? Do you tell yourself that? You are amazing. If you're not watching this on YouTube, I looked you right in the eye. I'm like, you are amazing. If you're listening [00:01:00] to this, I'm looking at you from the sky.You are amazing. So, as you know, I share one of yours. I share one of mine. So here we go. So, first one is from Lisa. She has a T L D R. Lisa is in our eLevate round three. So eLevate is my mentorship for Pilates instructors and she's in the third round and this is her T L D R first. And then I'll share the whole win cuz it's not too long to read.So she's like, I got to crow. Um, first I got to meet my Pilates partner, crystal and was blessed with a fantastic session. I was feeling so grateful to have her model for me, how to get me moving. So it happened to side note. Her partner Crystal was teaching her. Okay. Um, back to her win, to get me moving into my body with a sense of ease and knowing she's exactly the teacher I aspire to be.And when it was my turn, I just allowed myself to be as I was without putting myself down. That's my little win. This is my big win. All right. This is her big one. Are you [00:02:00] ready? So she watched herself teach. I need to tell you a little side note, in eLevate we have them, I have them do assessments. They have to film themselves and themselves teaching, and I give feedback on their teaching.So anyways, she watched her video back and she's like, I let myself feel the cringe and to judge and notice what I wanted to change and see all the things I could improve. In parentheses. Hello? Over cue over. Coeur over coeur all over the place. Let me tell you all the things, verbose teacher that I am in parentheses during this process, so many things came up.Such a sense of shame of not being where I expected myself to be on my teaching journey. I started teacher training at Balanced Body in 2017 and finished in 2019. The story I was telling myself was that I have been at this for five years. Why am I not a better teacher? I want it. I watch all these younger teachers doing their teacher training at different places, and then they kill it leading the class and owning it.I'm jealous and [00:03:00] admiration at their ability to cue with clarity and move bodies where I am just now feeling solid enough. And then it dawned on me. Have you really been teaching for five years? Not really. Hello Pandemic. Five years elapsed and diminished teaching hours to practically nothing. Have I really done all the things to improve my teaching? Emphatically, no, I jumped and I figured it out on a lonely process. Did I shout shadow teachers? Hardly. Did I ask for feedback on my teaching? Maybe once or twice. Did I take my own class? Hell no. And this is what surprised me most of all, despite the uncomfortable exercise, I watching myself, it made me so happy because this whole process has already been so informative.Plus, I now get to do all the things in this supportive environment. And then I remembered the hard stuff. Becoming a better teacher wasn't a priority until recently, because I was caring for my mom whose breast cancer had metastasized when she passed away in December, 2021. Oh yeah, that and [00:04:00] all this to say, becoming a better teacher is fucking hard and courageous.Lesley Logan: So yay to all of us for signing up on this journey. I'm so being it with all of you and happy dancing, Lisa. You're fucking awesome. I'm so happy you're part of round three. And this is exactly, like, your win is exactly why eLevate exists. You're exactly who I taught. I brought this for because my goodness, very few people have had a training journey that is ideal.And also we see things that others. That they've not seen in themselves and we put them on a pedestal and we don't realize how fucking awesome we are. So thank you for sharing this. I also have one more one cuz I do need to update you on the journey of Allison. So y'all remember her FYFs cause I've been sharing them along the way and, y'all, she applied for her position at Washington University. She asked for she wanted, and she, um, and she was like, Ugh, I went on the interviews and all the things, and she was afraid that they didn't go so [00:05:00] great. But then she got the job. She got it. So then, what'd she do? She immediately put her notice in, took a two week vacation to see her husband who's in another country for a while, and is gonna be starting a job.That's exactly what she wanted. So she played that Remember When game, and it worked. So maybe you should too. Okay, so now let me tell you my win. So my win, y'all is this, we had these trips planned for us to go to a wedding in Philly. We had to go to Korea. As you know, I've been telling you about these wins.You also know about my way about going to Connecticut, and I had said yes, even though I had all these things coming up. Also, we had hired this amazing company to help us with a project that we wanted to do, and that meant I had to do more filming. So for me to film the amount of content we film for our companies in a month is about 70 pieces of content, and that doesn't include [00:06:00] all the tutorials I refilm when I do flashcards, which I was doing.So in the month of April, I only filmed all of April's 70 pieces of content. I also finished filming all the exercise tutorials for the chair slash cards, which are shipping in June. And I filmed all of May's content. Yes. All of that. And as I'm recording this for you, I just wrapped up the stuff I had a film for this company and I have to tell you, there was a couple times when this part of me, this old part of me, this part of me that I've been trying to like let go of who was like gets a little perfectionist about things when things don't go well and things a little freaked out, that it's not gonna work out.And I like almost sabotage myself. Well, I didn't do it. And I finish it all. I'm so fucking proud of it. And I share this with you because it is a journey to get your stuff done. It's a journey. And you, when the pressure is on, you can be so hard on yourself and the [00:07:00] content, and you're like, why am I doing this?I'm just gonna procrastinate. You know what? I'm not even fucking gonna do it. And I was like, no. I committed to doing all these things so I could have a vacation. When I went to jsu, I have this dream and I'm met the right people at the right time, and I told them if they wanna work with me, they have to do X, Y, and Z because I have to be able to get it done before I go.And so I set the bar and they're like, here, we're at the bar. And then I had to meet the bar and I did it, and it wasn't easy. I'm so proud of myself and the team. I'm sharing this win with you because you, there are so many things you wanna do and it's so easy to get in your own way because, ugh, the mic needs to be recharged or it's not good enough.So you think or there's just not enough time in air quotes and my dear there is, you can make the time. If you care about it enough, I bet you could let go of something. Remember that one guest we had who was like, you have to have a Fuck It list. Like, [00:08:00] what are you gonna say, fuck that, I'm not doing it?So you can do the things that are on your bucket list. So thank you for being here. Thank you for letting me share wins of people in my communities. Thank you for letting me share my win, to help inspire you to share your win. And by the way, I wanna hear your wins and I wanna share your wins on the next FYF.So make sure you send them to me. And so we can share them with other people and inspire other people to take messy action, ditch perfection, and Be It Till You See It.That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See it is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. Brad Crowell: It's written, [00:09:00] filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan and me, Brad crowell.Lesley Logan: It is produced and edited by the Epic team at Disenyo. Brad Crowell: Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music, and our branding by designer and artist Gianfranco Cioffi. Lesley Logan: Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals and Ximena Velazquez for our transcriptions. Brad Crowell: Also to Angelina Herico for adding all the content to our website. And finally to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Let's get wild... wild west! Show Notes: Run Time: 1:17:42 We start off by talking about... legislation?! Yeah, OK, weird, but look. It's scary out there. We're concerned. Then we do some math. Sorry. Then! We talk a bit about the Sentinels of the Multiverse: Disparation BackerKit campaign that is currently ongoing but about to finish up! Check it out while you can! And finally, we tell a story. Or! A few stories! Pretty cool stuff, if we do say so ourselves. And we do. Emphatically. Join us next week for an episode about a Hero turned Villain!

Is the Mothman a good consporacy theory? DJ DJ Lewis says no. Emphatically. Repeatedly. Forever. We talk about other stuff on this epidose but we promise you the detailed and nearly deranged level that DJ has dived in on the mothman and come out FURIOUS is what you're gonna remember most. It's truly hilarious. 

CW: discussions of fictional child abuse and violence against children (0:17:25-0:19:19), (0:35:06-0:36:06) We return to the Avatar franchise (blue, not good) to discuss its latest installment. How easy is it to fall in love with a space whale? (Easy.) Is Quaritch a good guy after all? (Emphatically not.) And who wants to live forever? (Me. I don't care what Zardoz says.) Hang ten, or eight, or however many toes na'vi have these days! Find resources for abortion and pro-choice advocacy at: podvoices.help Discord (NEW! EXCITING! WOW!): https://discord.gg/Y5Uw6sdmU2 Email: findingmonsterright@gmail.com Twitter (for now?): @monsterrightpod

Are you in need of a bit of fat burning? Emphatically? Well fear not as we've got a skill or two for that ⚖️ --- Feedback, comments, demos pleas to ✉️ thedottodotpodcast@gmail.com

On the final Sideline Guys Powered by Gainbridge in 2022, Pat Boylan and Jeremiah Johnson look back at the 180 the Pacers franchise has taken in the past year. They'll also discuss the significance of Tyrese Haliburton's explosive performances, and debate the keys to 2023. Minute Markers: 1:30 - Haliburton Takes Over in Huge Week 15:50 - A Comparison to 17-18? 23:25 - Haliburton Lifting Scoring Potential? Haliburton vs. Trae Young 38:00 - Massive Buddy Hield Month 46:45 - Ending 2022 vs. Ending 2021

Consuming beverages of an alcoholic nature: a subject that raises many questions.  Is it dumb?  Is it a waste of money?  Is it a waste of time?  The answer to all of these questions is yes.  Emphatically yes.  We still have a lot to say about it, though - so watch and see where this spirited conversation goes!  Did you get the joke there.  Spirited.  Like spirits.  A type of alcoholic beverage.  Good thank you.Thank you to Collective Corruption for sponsoring this episode!Follow us on the Instagrams:@ notcamdamage@ wickedwren @ corncornerpod@ collectivecorruption

ESPN's Chris Fowler weighs in on Rich's fashion choice of Birkenstocks as footwear today, recap Serena Williams' “staggering” US Open 2nd round upset of #2 Anett Kontaveit and if she can continue her run at Flushing Meadows, previews this weekend's huge Ohio State vs Notre Dame game, and weighs in on the Big Ten's expansion and the possibility of adding more teams to the College Football Playoff mix.  Brockman continues his pre-season NFL power rankings reveal with his ‘Burning Questions' for teams 25 through 21 on his list including the Washington Commanders, Carolina Panthers, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, and New England Patriots. Rich EMPHATICALLY weighs in on the Shohei Ohtani vs Aaron Judge for AL MVP debate and EMPHATICALLY tells Mets fans that the slugging outfielder IS NOT changing addresses in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quiet Time Coaching Episode 329 | Psalm 27, “One Thing I Ask” Series | Part 3 | Malcolm Cox Today we continue with a series based on Psalm 27. I spoke on this Psalm's theme, and especially verse 4, for the Watford church of Christ. We are part-way through a series based on the “one thing” phrases found in the Scriptures. If you haven't already done so, I recommend listening to the first episode which covers some background thoughts on the context of the Psalm.  Now, on to today's verse.  “When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.” (Psalm 27:2 NIV11) David has problems. His enemies not only have evil intent, but they aim to destroy. They want him gone, out of the picture, eliminated. Have you ever had an experience like that? What does it do to your peace of mind and confidence about the future? Let's see how David responds. First of all, we note that David faces reality head on. He is not unaware of his predicament, nor is he trying to pretend it is not as severe as it is. One of the keys to spiritual well-being is to acknowledge our challenges, to recognise the motives of those who would harm us, and to take it all to God. The word ‘devour' can mean to ‘eat'.  This is a reminder of the frail nature of our physical existence. It can also mean to ‘slander' from an Akkadian idiom ‘to eat a piece of me'. Who does this remind you of?  “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:8–9 NIV11) Satan is a roaring lion looking to devour us. But, he can be resisted and he will flee. He flees not because of our strength, but because he recognises the strength of Christ in us. Emphatically it is David's enemies that will fall and not he himself.  He has the light (v1) - they are in darkness where stumbling is a natural consequence of not having light. The tables are turned.  The enemies expect to be victorious, but they are the ones who will fall, and not David.  They will not be falling at David's feet, but falling at the feet of God. It is he who fights our battles. You might like to look up this song on such a theme by Michael W. Smith: https://youtu.be/YBl84oZxnJ4  People ‘falling' at the power/revelation of God was a common experience in Scripture, Ezek. 1:28; 44:4; Dan. 2:46; 8:18; 10:9; Acts 9:4; 22:7; 26:14; Rev. 1:17; 19:10; 22:8, and when the soldiers approached Jesus. “When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6 NIV11) The story is told of the Christian woman who heard a knock at the door. She called out, “Who's there?”. “The devil”, came the reply. “Can I come in?” “Yes”, she said, ‘but you should know that Jesus is here with me.” “Ah!”, said the devil, “I'll come back another time.” What is the lesson from this verse? When under attack David does two things:  i. He turns to God in prayer   ii. He turns to God in faith These two actions are adequate to quiet his soul.  Both actions require courage. The courage to step away from our anxiety long enough to pray, and the courage to trust God for a future which we cannot yet see. How could these two simple actions help you with whatever you feel I might ‘devour' you? We will conclude today's podcast with the song I wrote using the words of Psalm 27 verse 4. Next week we will proceed to the third verse of the Psalm. In the meantime, please add your comments on this week's topic. We learn best when we learn in community.  Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here's the email: [malcolm@malcolmcox.org](mailto:malcolm@malcolmcox.org).  If you'd like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/).  Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review.  “Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)  God bless, Malcolm

“Pressing Towards The Prize~ Philippians 3:12-21.Theme Chpt. 3 “Christ Our Goal” Philippians 3:12-21 12 Not that I have already attained,[c] or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have [d]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already [e]attained, let us walk by the same [f]rule, let us be of the same mind.17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. The Christian Life shown in A Metaphor of An Olympic Marathon Race Pursuing the Prize 3:12-13 A Good runner Never Looks Back 3:13 This Race requires Spiritual Stamina & Consistency 3:15-17 Some have dropped out of the Race 3:18-19 Knowing Our citizenship will Cause us to win the Prize 3:20-21 1.)Pursuing The PRIZE…3:12-13 “The measure of a persons desire is the Pursuit” Vs. 12)Not that I have already attained,[c] or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me “Grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasps me”- JB .Phillips “PRESS ON”- the Greek connotation means ‘an urgent chasing after towards a FIXED Goal or Point' This is in the continuous present tense I am DOING this NOW, I am chasing after this NOW…I am PRESSING Towards  this NOW “That I May Lay Hold of” The idea here is Paul is not just satisfied with the pursuit…HE will NOT be satisfied until  he has laid hold of, apprehended, GRASPED ( taken a hold of) that PURPOSE Christ has intended for Him 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 2:8-10 1.)Pursuing The PRIZE…3:12-14 “The measure of a persons desire  is in  the Pursuit” Vs. 12)Not that I have already attained,[c] or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me “, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has LAID HOLD of Me”….speaking of His Damascus Road ENCOUNTER of Christ…yet MUCH More!!.....  (TWO Things) I Cor. 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. TWO Things………… a)Phil. 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, b)Eph. 3:1-13 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. MYSTERY (Mysterion- Moo-stay-dion..Grk.)derived from a word meaning to ‘shut the mouth'…a secret counsel, purpose, or understanding…of God…something hidden from men…only coming from divine revelation or illumination from God's Spirit…requires an initiation understand my insight …(synesis—soon-es-is) literally a running or flowing together of Knowledge & understanding…a quickness of apprehension which precedes ACTION! “To Have an APOSTOLIC CALLING, Is To Have An APOSTOLIC ENCOUNTER” 1.)Pursuing The PRIZE…3:12-14 “The measure of a persons desire is in the Pursuit” Vs.13)Brethren, I do not count myself to have [d]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, Count ( logizomai )is to reckon, account, suppose , consider after deliberate  & careful Thought …refers  back to vs. 12…Paul realizes he has NOT attained perfection yet (some were haughty at Philippi & thought they did!)…sinless perfection!? …vs. 2 was the past fact that had happened with Paul…Here is referring to PRESENT Process of his pursuit Phil. 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, LUKE 14:25-33 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish'? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. Apprehended ….But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me.(JB. Phillips)…like verse 12 Job 17:9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger. Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is like the shining [a]sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. Psalm 63:1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. Psalm 84:2 My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. I Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith Lay hold of eternal life II Peter 1:5 giving all diligence 2.) A Good Runner Never Looks Back..Vs. 13,14 Vs.13)Brethren, I do not count myself to have [d]apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, but one thing I do What is your ONE Thing!?...sums up His Christian conduct & purpose in the NOW…the greek implies LIMITING & ISOLATING oneself to a fanatical Focus…NOW he has gone from contemplation(‘Count' vs 13) to ALL OUT ACTION Mode! forgetting those things which are behind Forgetting  grk….completely forgetting, to neglect, EMPHATICALLY forget & neglect (obliterate the memory!!)…Here Paul in His metaphor about a runner in a race is referring to that Runner NOT even looking back AT ALL or paying a bit of attention to runners behind him as he races toward the goal….VERY good picture of our Christian RACE…just like a racer impedes his progress with this distraction so likewise we will be hindered in our progress for the prize IF we are looking at our past sin ,shame & failures…. Luke 9:62  But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”….Genesis 19:26 Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. reaching forward… (EPEKTEINO) A stretching forward…a reaching forward in an INTENSE athletic motion (hence comparison to a marathon race) 14 ) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I press toward the goal (kjv=Mark) only used here in NT LITERALLY  “ I Pursue down upon the target”……concepts of a watchman (Phil. 2:4)& shooting target shown here For the Prize…A prize (brabeion-grk. Derived from the word for an umpire who gives the prize) bestowed or deposited  in connection with the games…it could be monetary… here used as a metaphor for spiritual  incorruption & eternal life of the upward call  literally “of The upward calling” is A CALL from Heaven TO HEAVEN ( (NOT our earthly life's calling here)…our eternal reward   2.) A Good Runner Never Looks Back..Vs. 13,14 14 ) I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 3:1,2 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. “The prize is bound up with the calling ; promised when the call is issued, & given when the call is fulfilled”~M.R. Vincent I Cor. 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. “This goal continually moves forward as we press on ,but never out of sight”~A.T. Robertson Luke 16:16 “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. II Tim. 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Hebrews 6:1..I Cor. 4:16-18…II Peter 1:3   3.)This Race Requires Spiritual Stamina & Consistency… 3:15-17 15-17Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already [e]attained, let us walk by the same [f]rule, let us be of the same mind.17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern This IS a Marathon Race  …Cross Country MemoriesJ “Mature/Perfect”  Grk. =Telios complete, perfect, mature, of full age finished, ‘wanting nothing'…Col.1:28, Col. 4:12,II Tim. 3:16-17,Hebrews 5:13 Contradiction, Sarcasm !?(vs. 12 Not that I have already attained,[c] or am already perfected) Vs. 12 Paul was speaking of a TOTAL FINISHED PERFECTION ( received in Heaven)…here in vs. 15 he speaks relatively…where though some may have reached maturity (Himself included)there is STILL Growth & Development to be obtained…this speaks of well rounded Christian Character NOT Christian Infancy “Have This Mind” in other words KEEP thinking like the above phrase I Cor. 2:6 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.   3.)This Race Requires Spiritual Stamina & Consistency… 3:15-17 15-17Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already [e]attained, let us walk by the same [f]rule, let us be of the same mind.17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern IF and if in anything you think otherwise…Epaphroditus had made Paul aware of some in the church who were teaching sinless perfection was needed…he said God would take care of the issue Psalm 139:23-24 Search Me & Try me… Jn. 7:17 17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. “otherwise” a negative use of the word…as some in Philippi thought they had ‘arrived' spiritually, with no further growth needed!? Vs. 16) Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already [e]attained, let us walk by the same [f]rule, let us be of the same mind….meaning ‘Keep on Keepin' on…keep doing the same things consistently that MATURE saints do LITERAL….to walk in a straight row….walk  prosperously,,,to turn out well, to direct ones life..TO LIVE Vs. 17) 17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern Together or jointly as the church Be Imitators of (me) Paul as he follows Christ (Not Christ here)…of how I walk the Christian Life…I Cr.4:16, 11:1…Hebrews13:7 “Note” = Mark = fix your attention on intently.. Ps. 37:7 Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright; For the future of that man is peace. JAMES 1:4-5 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be [a]perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 4.) Some have dropped out of the Race Vs. 3:18,19 18-19 )For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. Professed Christian Greeks, possibly had walked with the Philippian church in times past but fell into Epicurean tendencies…Epicureanism taught satisfying physical desires was the highest aim of man (sex, food drink)…GAL. 5:13 13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Romans 16:18 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord [a]Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. They thought Lightly of God's Grace Romans 6:15 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord [a]Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. Jude 1:4 4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord [a]God and our Lord Jesus Christ.(see vs. 12,13) I Jn. 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.   5.) Knowing Our Citizenship will cause us to Win the Race(Prize) 3:20,21 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Citizenship is In Heaven …commonwealth…literally ‘The commonwealth of which the Saints are citizens is FIXED in the Heavens' Eagerly wait……An Intense Yearning & eager anticipation…totally FIXED on what one is waiting for , with a total ABOUT face from inferior things(see running for the prize) Hebrews 9:28 so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him. so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him   Vs. 21)Transform/change …to fashion a new,Refashion.. Matthew 17:2 He was transfigured before them…a change in the body from what's on the inside to an outward expression of that…the change that will take place at the Rapture or 2nd Resurrection Col. 1:22 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— WORKING = energeia …energy…power in operation I Jn. 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. Romans 8:23 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. I Cor. 15:42-48  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[a]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also a   CONCLUSION: This RACE that our Christian Lives is compared to requires Patience & Persistence On Being Persistent: Obstinately refusing to give up or Let Go To Be Insistently Repetitive To Commit to being Indefinitely Continuous 07/25/22  

As humans, we are undeserving of God's grace. Emphatically so. But so was Peter. And yet still, God's grace extended emphatically to him. And God's grace does toward us as well. May we receive the grace of God today!

Christ Jesus is on His way coming!!!  You can reach out to us on gospel2020project@gmail.com Visit the following links to subscribe and connect with us! Telegram link https://t.me/rhapsodyfm Google Podcast link https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yaGFwc29keS5yZWN Apple Podcast link https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/word-of-life-podcast/id1507564447   To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19). Every Christian is called into the ministry of reconciliation. That means we're called to be soul winners. And in carrying out our ministry of reconciliation, we're not alone. The Lord is working with us—confirming the Word with signs following. We're His witnesses to the world that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. He sent us to the whole world, to let them know that God isn't counting their trespasses against them. There's no one on earth today who's suffering or would go to hell because of his or her sins. Why? Jesus already paid the full penalty for sin for everyone. Does that excuse sin? Emphatically no! But it's important for us to see from God's perspective and put things in their right places. Did you know that Jesus went to hell? He did on our behalf because our sins were laid on Him. He suffered that no man would ever need to suffer. The only reason anyone would be condemned and go to hell is for the ignorance and rejection of salvation in Jesus Christ. Then, they'd face judgment, because they didn't receive what was paid for them—the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus—that's the reason for hell and the lake of fire. But it's not God's will that any should perish and go to hell. That's why He sent us to tell them who Jesus is and what He's done for them. They can only know, believe, and receive eternal life if we take the message to them: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent…” (Romans 10:13-15). We're His sent ones. Jesus said in John 20:21, “…Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Hallelujah! We bear His message of love, salvation and righteousness. CONFESSION Today, through me, the light of God shines ever so brightly, delivering men from darkness into light and from the power of Satan unto God. I'm committed to preaching the Gospel, that men may embrace life and righteousness and the blessed hope in Christ Jesus. Amen. FURTHER STUDY: 2 Timothy 4:1-2 (KJV) I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. Mark 16:15-16 (KJV) 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 2 Peter 3:9 (KJV) 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN Acts 9:1-31 & 2 Chronicles 35-36 2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN 2 Corinthians 6:11-18 & Isaiah 7 To give towards sponsoring free copies please kindly click the below link  https://buy.stripe.com/bIYcOj8vQepC3eM6op

On the latest episode. Erik has Game 1 recap from Madison Square Garden as the Rangers thumped the Bolts 6-2.How much was on the goaltending? Erik gives his insight from NY on the rest vs rust" argument? And, why Tampa Bay looked tired and what has to happen looking ahead to Game 2 of the series?Hear it all on the "Lightning Insider Podcast" and make sure to follow/subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, etc.!!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Cal Cates, Corey Rivera, and Laura Bryant-Earner went to the International Massage Therapy Research Conference on May 12-13. In this episode, they sit down and talk about the conference, research, and what is hopeful and frustrating about being together in meat space again. ********** Check out this practice based research network (as mentioned in the episode): massagenet.org ********** Continue the conversation in the Healwell Community: community.healwell.org ********** You can support your favorite podcast AND get early access to episodes AND super secret content at our Patreon: patreon.com/interdiscplinary

The Boston Celtics couldn't miss for much of Game Two of the Eastern Conference Semifinal and evened the series at one with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Memphis Grizzlies received an inspired performance from Ja Morant, after losing a key player early on, and tied the Western Conference Semifinal with the Golden State Warriors at one. The Toronto Maple Leafs have endured playoff futility for a very long time, but this is the year they break the spell. Also, the Colorado Avalanche dominated the Nashville Predators, the Washington Capitals stunned the Florida Panthers in game one, the Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars in game one, and the Houston Astros gave Dusty Baker his 2,000th career victory and they did it against the Seattle Mariners.Linktree.com/LockedOnNBALinktree.com/LockedOnNFLLinktree.com/LockedOnMLBLinktree.com/LockedOnNHL Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Blue NileThis Mother's Day give mom something she'll treasure forever with fine jewelry from Bluenile.com, and LOCKEDON SPORTS listeners get $50 off $500. Use code LOCKEDON at checkout.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Boston Celtics couldn't miss for much of Game Two of the Eastern Conference Semifinal and evened the series at one with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Memphis Grizzlies received an inspired performance from Ja Morant, after losing a key player early on, and tied the Western Conference Semifinal with the Golden State Warriors at one. The Toronto Maple Leafs have endured playoff futility for a very long time, but this is the year they break the spell. Also, the Colorado Avalanche dominated the Nashville Predators, the Washington Capitals stunned the Florida Panthers in game one, the Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars in game one, and the Houston Astros gave Dusty Baker his 2,000th career victory and they did it against the Seattle Mariners. Linktree.com/LockedOnNBA Linktree.com/LockedOnNFL Linktree.com/LockedOnMLB Linktree.com/LockedOnNHL  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order. BetOnline BetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Blue Nile This Mother's Day give mom something she'll treasure forever with fine jewelry from Bluenile.com, and LOCKEDON SPORTS listeners get $50 off $500. Use code LOCKEDON at checkout.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dustin's Vinyl Episode 48 with Hosts Dustin Chafin and Anthony Kapfer This week we're checking out a couple of our favorite albums of 2021 with Cheekface's "Emphatically No." and Black Midi "Cavalcade." Watch Dustin's Vinyl LIVE every wednesday night at 7 pm EST/3 pm PST on ComedyHub on Twitch: twitch.tv/comedyhub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The BIlls have swept the Dolphins for the 3rd straight year! In this show we break down how the Dolphins capitalized on the BIlls shortcomings, and yet the Bills found a way to respond EMPHATICALLY for the win. From tailgate crowd to the Bills swap of runs for screen passes & seam attacks in the 2nd half, to the Bills DL abusing the MIami OT's & an unlikely "Hero of the Week", this game was one that we're going to remember for a very, very long time! tickpick.com/rockpile Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This Friday at noon I'm going live with Frank Pepe!We'll be talking brazilian jiu jitsu, imposters & how to be the most bad ass person you can be!Tune in for this energetic conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by clicking here.Show NotesSegment 1Starting off today's show on the Entrepreneurial Web, Jeremy introduces his guest of the week Frank Pepe. Frank talks about how he's been doing jiu jitsu for two years, and how during those two years, jiu jitsu has opened up a new world for him. Emphatically, he describes that his confidence levels have been through the roof. Before he started doing this practice, Frank says, he would have described himself as a team sport guy, but the fact that jiu jitsu is an individual sport has allowed him to grow further and work on his mental health. Frank and Jeremy then compare the trust that is built in jiu jitsu to the trust that is built within business. In the comparison, Frank details how often in jiu jitsu you are put in the position to trust that others are not going to hurt you. Similarly, in business, you must trust that the people around them are going to help each other out.Segment 2Returning to the show, Frank and Jeremy have a discussion about the pros and cons of using LinkedIn. This prompts them to make a slight shift in conversation, and to talk about how often people who are just starting out in their career are great in theory but not yet in practice. Next, they discuss how, due to the nature of jiu jitsu, they both feel that their worries and problems dissolve when they work on the mat. Compared to running or lifting weights, they say, during which you can check your phone and there's generally no problem solving, in jiu jitsu, you have to completely and actively focus on the task at hand. The conversation then drifts to how in both jiu jitsu and in business, when you find yourself in a bad spot, if you allow yourself to go with the knee-jerk reaction and try to change something immediately, you may end up in a worse or equally bad position. Patience is key, they say.Segment 3After the second break, Frank and Jeremy discuss how jiu jitsu is like a mythology; we pass down generations of information through movement and technique. At some point, they describe, you don't have to speak anymore. Jeremy then asks Frank how jiu jitsu relates to his current career, considering that his occupation is translating and relaying information. This leads Frank to talk about how jiu jitsu is essentially translated from one person who is more skilled to someone who is less skilled. He describes examples of people he worked with who did not know the fundamentals yet. Thus, he says, translating main elements of jiu jitsu is similar to how he translates in his work. Jeremy and Frank then talk about the idea that if you really wanna be good at something then you should try teaching it. There's a lot of value, they say, training with someone less skilled than you. They even connect it to business, pointing out that surrounding ourselves with people who don't necessarily know as much is helpful to learning in that context as well.Segment 4After the final break, Jeremy and Frank talk about how jiu jitsu studios were like during the pandemic. When pandmeic first hit, studios closed for a few months and then started slowly opening up over the course of the pandemic. Over fall, they say, it just exploded. Jeremy talks about how before jiu jitsu studios were open again, he found himself practicing in empty apartments, basements and even a motorcycle shop. The main reason why these studios close, they talk about, is because jiu jitsu is the opposite of social distancing. Returning to an earlier topic, Jeremy and Frank talk about how people may be overly confident when they first start out but once they're in the studio it's a different story. When you have major opposition or adversity, they say, it might be different. Jeremy then wraps up the show with a few notes about the pandemic.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-entrepreneurial-web/donations

Rangers four-game winning streak emphatically comes to an end against the Islanders in a 6-1 loss. Why the Islanders are such a difficult matchup for the Rangers right now. Jacob Trouba suffers an injury and has to leave the game in the first period. Why he's an underappreciated Ranger. How might the Rangers look to replace Trouba if he has to miss games? Could we see noted Islander killer Alex Georgiev the next time the Rangers play the Islanders? Episode 338. Intro song is “Leave the Lights On” by Passafire from their 2009 album, “Everyone On Everynight.”Listen to The Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 presented by Audacy and the Locked On Podcast Network. April 19th-26th. Follow the feed today!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AG There is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built Bar Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you'll get 15% off your next order.Rock Auto Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen now | Emphatically Not Financial Advice with Pavel Trades Using the historical trends of crypto prices, 2021 should be a massive year for bulls. I asked Pavel to come back and talk about what he thinks is around the bend for crypto projects, tokens he’s bullish on, and tips and tricks (but not advice) on trading. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at www.blackbirdpodcast.com/subscribe

Welcome back to the Beneath the Surface podcast. In this episode—the thirtieth(!) installment— Corey and Sean alleviate apprehensions about paddle boarding. After all these years, still one of the most common questions people have about paddle boarding is: “Can I do it?” The short answer? Yes. The 25-minute answer outlined in this podcast? Also yes. Emphatically yes. As Corey says, “This sport wouldn't be so popular if it wasn't easy.”In Beneath the Surface: You Can Do It, Corey and Sean detail why paddle boarding is an activity for everyone. Not just that, but why it's an excellent activity for everyone. They also dive into some of the best standup paddle boards based on people's interests and ability levels. And of course, as always, they have a grand old time doing it. So sit back, press play, and enjoy.Links from the Episode Find the right board for you. Take the quiz. Don't fall in. Get the most stable board on the market. Want something a little more maneuverable? Get the paddle board that suits any excursion.Who's in the EpisodeLead Designer, Co-Founder, and CEO at BOTE, Corey Cooper is a licensed engineer hailing from Auburn University. Corey is the pioneer of the DarkRoom, assisting with the design of the machinery, concepting the layout and ultimately developing the workflow used in DarkRoom production. Corey's passion for this project is so strong that on any given day, regardless of how busy things are at BOTE, you will often find Corey working in the DarkRoom.Sean Murphy is the Director of Photography at BOTE and a world-renowned photographer based in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. After spending most of his career based in Los Angeles, shooting for brands like Adidas, Red Bull, and Toyota, just to name a few, Sean moved back to the Redneck Riviera. You can find Sean capturing gritty America and spontaneous moments that translate into visually stunning photography.  Sound Bites“As an inexperienced paddler, the bigger the board you get, the easier it's going to be in the beginning. However, the downside is: you're going to overcome that uncomfortable phase real quick. You're going to acclimate to the board in less than a week. So don't overbuy to the extent that you're no longer having fun with the board once you acclimate to it.” – Corey Cooper, CEO and Co-Founder at BOTE