Podcasts about Fantastic

Are you providing your patients with a 5-star treatment? It starts with your front office. Kiera breaks down what a full rollout of peak client care looks like, identifying five different points to utilize as soon as that patient walks through the door (or calls). Episode resources: 5 Star Treatment Planning Document Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment  Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today, I am so excited. Today is gonna be one of my absolute favorite topics, and it is getting more patients to say yes to treatment. You guys, I obsess about this, and I talk about it a lot, and I just feel that these are some really good things. And so I wanted to go through our five-star treatment planning process with you today, so that way you guys are able to help more patients say yes, be able to maximize your practice.   Because at the end of the day, a patient who comes into your practice, they want to do dentistry. There is a treatment coordinator that I worked with for years and she always says like, Kiera, my thoughts are when I go in and I treatment plan, like the reason is patients are gonna say yes to me because they're at the practice, they want to get this help. And I just think having that mindset helps so much. And so this is a five-star treatment planning and we've actually created it for the entire practice. And   one I'm gonna go through is,   specific and then we actually broke it down for our front office team, our clinical team and our doctors of this process of five star treatment planning. And what's really fun is when we implement this into a practice, we do a full rollout with the team. And then what we do is actually once they complete it, they actually get to check off their stars. And there's actually way you can become five star certified in Dental A Team. So if you're new to the podcast, welcome. I'm Kiera. Dent really is my last name. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry and I'm obsessed with teams and doctors having their best life possible.   Our team is so committed to you, to your practice, to making sure that you are thriving and not just surviving. And so really giving you guys tips and tricks that you can go implement into your practice to help more patients say yes, to be able to help your team be so thorough and so productive and really making life easier. So we love to hear from you. I love pen pals. You can always reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And if you're ever curious of, I wonder what consulting could look like in my practice.   Be sure to book a call. It's complimentary. We go through your practice with you. We assess your practice. We give you a roadmap, whether you work with us or don't, to make sure that you are always being able to positively impact your team, your life, and your community. Because our goal is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. So with that, five-star treatment planning. So these are the quick five stars that we go. And like I said, then it's broken down more in depth of what each department needs to do. ⁓   The first one is going to be more for front office team members. And it also can be for clinical team if we're actually having them present treatment in the back. And so the first star is when we go into it, we're going to smile and assume the yes. So before we even walk into the room, we have confidence. We know that we're going to go into it. We know that we're going to have patients say yes to us and we smile.   We are going to assume that the patient wants to do dentistry. Why are we going through and saying like, my gosh, this is a big case. my gosh. I don't know if they're going to accept. my gosh. my gosh. Stop that. Why are we doing that? There's absolutely no reason to do that. Patients are at the dental practice and just because they don't love the dentist doesn't mean that they don't want to have healthy mouths and healthy teeth and being able to have confidence. I say our mouths are the coolest thing ever. We get to smile with them. We get to talk with them. We get to eat with it.   Like there's so much value to it. Like it truly is, I think, the gateway to our confidence. It's the gateway to our health. And so being able to help patients have that. So I'm always going to assume, like my mantra is, everyone says yes to Kiera and there's always a solution and we will find it together. So we go in and we have that and we're going to assume the yes. We also gonna use what I call the three E's and that is edification, empathy and energy. So I'm gonna watch the patient and I'm going to edify the doctor, which is star number two.   I'm going to have empathy for what they're going through and not just assume it's run of the mill, just because it's a crown for us, doesn't mean that that might be life altering for our patients. But we're not going to put negativity out there. We're still going to be able to have empathy and positivity for them and help them see that this is the best place for them to get their treatment done and then making sure our energy matches. You guys, I come in really high. I have a lot of energy. So many people are like, Kiera, we want to consult with you because we love your energy and our team needs that. Well, guess what? Our whole team has to have that because this is who I am.   And sometimes you need to have energy and like, need to get too excited on the podcast and I need to rally you. But for some of you, I remember there was a doctor who's like, Kiera, you're like a little much for my team. And my team's more like, hey, how are you? Well, guess what? That team is actually a better fit with Britney Stone. Britney is a much better match energy wise than I am. And so just making sure that we mimic and mirror the patient across from us. So star number one is smile and assume the yes before we even walk into it.   Star number two is we want to rave about the doctor and repeat a perfect handoff. So we want our patients to feel like they're on the winning team. And I think about it, if I'm going in like, I'm going in for surgery. And if that treatment coordinator who's presenting to me, so I've met the doctor, they've diagnosed the treatment to me. Okay, so all that needs to happen before we get to this spot. But the doctor told me, Carrie, you need to come back for surgery. If that front office person that I'm talking to about my financials said to me, gosh Carrie, you're so lucky.   ⁓ Dr. Kressler is absolutely incredible and you're going to get such great care. I've seen him do this surgery multiple times. I know you're in the best hands and truly I'm here to make sure that you're taken care of. We're super excited for you and I know you're going to have great results. Like even me saying that I feel this whoosh of like confidence of OK, got it like I am making the absolute best decision I possibly can. And so this is what we do. So number start number one is smile and assume the S use our three E's. Number two is rave about the doctor. Help them see that we're on the winning team.   and use that perfect hand up. It'd be like, awesome, Kiera, you are so lucky. Dr. Jones is so incredible. He's done this treatment so many times and we're gonna get you taken care of. Dr. Jones wants to see you back for a crown. We need to get you scheduled in about two weeks. We need to do about 30 minutes and we're also gonna get your cleaning scheduled for that. This is gonna be amazing. Doctor is incredible. And then we move to the third star, is schedule the appointment first and give two options. We wanna get the commitment.   So a lot of times treatment coordinators will like come in like, how was your visit today? Meh, I'm at the dentist. Why don't we control this narrative? I'm going to smile like, Hey, it's so great to see. I'm so excited to get you helped out. Dr. Jones is so incredible. You've made a great choice. And I know he's going to take great care of you. We're to get you scheduled for that crown in two weeks. It's going to take us about 30. It's going to take us about an hour and a half. I hope a crown's not 30 minutes. It's going to take us about an hour and a half. And we're also going to get that cleaning scheduled. perfect. First things first, let's get you scheduled.   I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. That's when Dr. Jones does all of their crowns. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. The reason I wanna move right into scheduling is because this is gonna help me get a commitment. And I believe that words are free and we should use them to our advantage. So when I'm going through this, let's just make it very easy for the patient. We smile and assume the yes, we rave about our doctor and talk about our perfect handoff, and then we move right into scheduling. Now the patient might be like, well, I wanna know what this is going to cost. I say, absolutely.   I want you to feel so solid and rock solid confident moving forward. Dr. Jones is extra busy. So we always just make sure we get you on the schedule, make sure we get that appointment set. I'm to go over all the financials. I want you to be super confident with that. But we'll just get you scheduled since the schedule is so busy. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best for you. Now, if they push back again, don't stress, talk to them. But this way they're able to see the flow, how we're going to do this. Because for me, what I'm also doing on that is I'm putting emphasis of we are doing treatment. And the question is how we want to pay for it, not the question of are we doing treatment or not.   I'm not forcing a patient, I'm not making them doing it, but sequence does matter when it comes to treatment planning. And you guys, I am a dang good treatment coordinator. 50, 60, $70,000 cases paid in full same day. It is not something that is hard, but it is something that's finesse. And I do believe that it's an art, not a like set in stone science. It's an art, it's a feathering. It's a reading the patient, it's understanding. And I'm giving you guys literally how I do this and how it's worked for so many practices.   practices we've been able to add multiple millions annually by doing this process. So we schedule first, get them scheduled. Then after that, we're going to present the total treatment. So star number four is point to the amount. I don't say it out loud saying 10 grand is very loud and obnoxious and obtrusive. Pointing to it doesn't feel as bad. And I'm going to use the art of silence. So that's star number four in our five-star treatment planning. So once the patient's scheduled, we're gonna present the treatment, all right? So we're gonna go through that crown and that cleaning.   It looks like it's going to be this amount. This is what your insurance is estimated. I'm pointing with my fingers. I go down and your out of pocket total will be blank this when we see you on Wednesday. What questions do you have for me? I want you to be super confident moving forward. And then I zip my lips and I'm silent. And the patient usually will say, perfect. Nope, no questions. I'll see you then. Or they'll say, ⁓ I'm curious about that. Like that was a little bit more than I was thinking. Do you have any options? I promise you they will say that.   But instead of me right here, which is where I think most treatment coordinators and failing goes wrong is when they say, ⁓ my gosh, so do you have questions about financing or do you have any questions about this? One, I don't ever want a patient to say no to me. So I don't ever use the questions of do you want to, or do we want to do this, or do you have questions? I say, what questions do you have for me? Let's get you scheduled, not do you want to schedule? And these are just small little nuances, but if you watch yourself and you listen to yourself and doctors, same thing in your exams.   and clinical team members, same thing when we're back there. We're so obsessed with this like quick, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, I wanna get you in and out versus I want to actually solve, I want to actually schedule patients and I want to actually be thorough with my patients. So what questions do you have? Words are free, use them to your advantage, use the art of silence and don't talk, zip your lips, but people get nervous and they don't want you to break up with them and they don't wanna be rejected so they start talking and they're like, my gosh, we can talk about finances, we can talk about, do you actually wanna just for free?   This is how discounts come about. This is how doctors are like, my gosh, I just gave that, it's a way for free. Stop talking. Let them process and let them ask, what questions do you have for me? I want you super confident moving forward. And I stop and I smile. And I truly do. And I might feel awkward, that's okay. But remember, I'm assuming the yes, they're going to say yes to me. Why wouldn't they say yes to me? And my second mantra is there's always a solution. And we together, me and this patient are going to find it because my job is to make them healthy, happy, and like total full care of health.   So then we go on to star number five, and that is over objections, okay? So objections do come, but objections to me are like, just remember that they need more information. We haven't educated them on something. That's all it is. They're not rejecting you. And so I say, go beyond the no with air quotes two times. And I do it as an S because I just want to find out and I want to dig to the root. I'm not forcing these patients, but 99 % of the time an objection just means I need to educate them more. I need to answer their questions. I haven't filled them in on something and that's all it is.   So we become a word ninja, we go past it, let's find a solution. And then if I've gone past it two times and I've really done my best, then I schedule them on a two, two, follow-up. So I call them in two days, two weeks, two months. So no matter what, they're still gonna talk to me and I'm going to make sure that they get the success. So that's our five star.   And when you start tracking it, we track it as well. We look to see our patterns and it helps our treatment coordinators get better and better. So now you're like, well,   But Kiera, that's great. Now let's talk about the objections. Cause I got my fifth star. My fifth star means I got to go past objections twice. Well, let's talk about some objections. Number one is a lot of people do think about just insurance. So they're like, okay, well, what about insurance? I like to explain that insurance is a coupon. So like just like Kohl's cash or coupons at the store. Well, you still want to buy the carrots, even though they're not on sale. And so what we do is we use our insurance and we maximize every single penny of it. but we also don't want to just wait on insurance and have insurance dictate because it's never going to be cheaper.   or more predictable than it is today. So we wanna make sure that we your treatment taken care of, you're worth it, you deserve it. And we're gonna squeeze every single dang penny out of that insurance company that we can. But we just have to recognize that dental insurance is different than medical insurance. And dental insurance is a coupon, medical insurance, we pay our deductible and they cover everything else. So that's why, and so our job is to help you out with this. We're gonna get you scheduled for this. I've got Monday or Wednesday, which works best. And we're gonna make sure that you're taken care of with that. Schedule.   If they're like, I need to check my work schedule. Fantastic, no problem. I, Kieran, you gotta be careful, use your words. I, Kieran, would hate to forget about you. The truth is, I literally will. I've got like 100 patients coming today. So I would hate to forget about you and let you slip through the cracks. Let's just pop you on the schedule and if that doesn't work when you get home, me a call and I'll happily change it for you. That's it. Then you're like, okay. If I say, oh John, I would hate for you to forget about this, he'll be like, I'm not gonna forget. But if I'm like, oh, I would hate to forget about you, patient's like, yeah.   Don't forget about me, Keir, put me on that schedule. It's all about psychology and making these patients feel like VIPs. I truly believe our patients are VIPs. I love them so much and I want them to get the best dental care possible. So that's what I'm gonna do for schedule or for work. Now if it's cost, I remind them and truth be told, it will never be cheaper or more predictable than it is today. So let's get you scheduled, let's figure this out, let's work through the solutions. I have so many solutions with you. Like let's work through it. What solutions do you have? Like this didn't happen overnight, we don't have to solve it overnight.   We do need to get going on it so it doesn't get worse. We present the other side of the problem. This is what happens if we choose to wait. And I just want you to know your options, you're worth it. Let's get this taken care of. There's always ways that we can work on cost. You guys, there's thousands of ways. We can do less treatment. We can split it up. We can do layaway, whatever your practices processes are. But usually it's not cost. Usually it's fear. And I'll say, let's talk about it. Do we have savings or do we wanna talk about third party financing?   I'm not gonna give them care credit to go home and apply for. Let's just apply right now. Let's find out what our options are. Let's see what we've got here that we were able to find out. And then like, I don't want you to have to go home and make this hard. Let's make this easy to where you feel confident and we're able to find the solution for you.   How many times do we actually spend the time to do that? To me, that's VIP care. I can't tell you how many times I've watched treatment coordinators like, here's the application, go home and do it. Well, guess what? They're not. That's hard. Let's make this easy for them. Let's find the easiest way for them to say, yes, that's VIP customer service. And I know you might be like, here, I'm so busy. Guess what? This is the fastest, easiest way to fill your schedule. How many of you want to make phone calls to fill that schedule? I don't. I'd much rather sit here and do five minutes of care credit with you rather than chasing you down, trying to do care credit, figuring it out. That's way harder.   Choose our heart here. And then spouse. Spouse like, need to talk to my spouse. Absolutely. I 100 % want you to chat with your spouse. What questions you think that they'll have? I want to make sure that you're fully prepared and confident to answer those. Well, I think they'll want to know about costs. I think they'll want to know about the... They'll tell you. They will tell you. Or if they're like, oh no, I'm like, hey, I really hate to try and like relay things to my spouse that I don't know about. I'm happy to get them on a phone call so that way we can talk about this openly. I'm here as a resource for you.   more than happy to do that with you. Now there's two ways you can do this. There's pressure or there's like confidence of I'm genuinely wanting to help you out. And truth be told, like I know this is so much easier. I think in all of treatment planning, I'm thinking how's the easiest way for this patient to say yes. How's the easiest way for me to help them. And this is where we're going to go. These are how I'm going to go past these objections. And I think for so many of us, we just want to like one and done. I did my job, check the box versus like it's outcomes over activity.   my outcome, I'm trying to get as many patients scheduled as possible, not the activity of I presented treatment plans. It's very different. So if I know my goal is not just to present treatment plans, my goal is to have like 80 % success. Well, then I'm going to look at this and I'm going to work through this and I'm going to check off all five stars and I'm going to become an expert. But realizing that I have to continually improve on treatment planning is going to be a great piece for you.   So this is the five-star treatment planning. And like I said, we have it for every single position. This was more of a front office. We have it for doctors. We have it for clinical team members, but this is a great way for you guys to increase your case acceptance, help more patients. And remember, 80 % of treatment planning is psychology, 20 % skill. So when we go through this, I think this is going to really be able to help you guys, guide you guys. And I know it will because I've done it for so many practices. So let's do it for yours. And if you need help, there are practices where we literally just do treatment planning consultations.   We consult them, we work with the front office team members, and what we do is we listen to the treatment plans, we help them out. And I've done this with many offices for multiple years. And it's crazy because in those practices, they're like, what happened? You guys also became like so successful and people were noticing that. And they're like, well, it all started when we hired this consultant and they've added multiple millions, but dollars are nice. Lives changed is better. And how many lives have we been able to help? How many people we've been able to help?   because we chose to be word ninjas, we chose to use our words to the best of our ability. We chose to listen and to see and to look at the results we're getting and change our processes and not be so set and like, well, this is what I do. I tell everyone that we coach, I don't actually care. There's no script. Like, yes, you guys can have this email us. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com   But more than that, what I care about is that you're able to help these patients and that we get the outcomes, the results. We're after results. We're not after the task. So if your results are crushing it,   You don't need to change anything, but if they're not and we're not getting the results we want, then change. And I would hope that you and your practice take on that none of us are perfect. All of us are here to expand, to grow, to evolve. And that's what we're here to do. We're here to help and serve more patients. So reach out if we can help you guys. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Go implement this, go change more people's lives, go become treatment planning masters. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.  

(00:00-17:23) Friend of the Show, Keith Tkachuk joins us. Needs to pick up the pep a little bit after his trip to Italy. The night after the win is a little foggy. The experience of watching Brady and Matthew in the gold medal game. Four St. Louis kids bringing home gold medals. The Tkachuk boys and their savviness with the media. Getting to go to the White House. Fantastic goalie play in the final. Gold Medal vs. Stanley Cup. The significance of beating Canada. 3 on 3 OT in the gold medal game. Hall of Fame sperm.(17:31-40:02) It's the Rudy theme and that means it's somebody's birthday. Reading the funnies in the restroom. The epicenter for angry sports radio. Audio of Bryce Harper talking about his gut feeling on if the 2027 MLB season will start on time and if there will be a season at all. Tim's due for an Ohtani type deal. The Admiral and the Becky Thatcher. Jordan Walker wanted no part of this program. Lern and Tim's calves. A hole in the Death Star. Did Betsy Bruce buy The Admiral? Just the fellas on the boat.(40:12-1:01:27) Friend of the Show, Blues Insider Jeremy Rutherford joins us in-studio. JR's reaction to Big Walt and what happened in Milan. Seeing Big Walt in a Ritz Carlton robe in a hotel elevator. JR taking his two-part questions. Trade deadline talk. Did Binnington's play in the Olympics change anything with potential suitors? Down on 3 on 3 OT to determine a gold medal game. Would the Tkachuks want to play in STL?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

THE FANTASTIC POUR Brett welcomes The Monitor Tapes' DC Dave to the Fantasti-Lounge for a new edition of the Fantastic Pour as we talk Superman in the Silver Age! We enjoy a Lemon Drop Martini and read Action Comics #335. Join us in the Fantasti-Lounge as we discuss: Did Superman break the bro code? Re-starting the universe. Practical types of Kryptonite. And much, much more! Secret Pour-igins: Lemon Drop Martini Cocktail: Lemony Luthor Ingredients (per drink): 2 oz vodka of choice 1/2 oz Cointreau or triple sec 1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice 1/4 oz simple syrup 1 twist of lemon Sugar rim 1/2 cup granulated sugar Zest from 1 lemon Instructions Add sugar to a plate, then add zest of a lemon into the sugar and rub into the sugar with your fingers until tinted yellow and fragrant Moisten the rim of a chilled martini glass with the juiced lemon, rim the glass with lemon sugar and set aside Fill shaker with ice Add vodka, Cointreau, lemon juice, and simple syrup to the shaker Shake well and strain into martini glass Garnish with a lemon twist and enjoy Comic: Action Comics Vol.1 #335, DC Comics, 1966 Have a question or comment? E-MAIL: fwpodcasts@gmail.com You can find The Fantastic Pour on these platforms: Apple Podcasts Amazon Music Spotify The Fantastic Pour podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK: Fire & Water website: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com Fire & Water Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Fire & Water on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fireandwaterpodcast Fire & Water on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts DC Dave is the co-host of the Monitor Tapes. Listen here: https://brickcrisis.com/

Business feeling stagnant in your smaller market? Contradictory to our previous claims, adding a new practice area might be just the thing. But first, new Direct Business Search data just dropped—what do you do now? ----- Fantastic news, everybody—Google has finally segmented out your Direct Business Search results. What does that mean for you? Gyi and Conrad hash out the details to help you understand how this new data could affect your tactics and budget, ultimately bringing better focus to your marketing efforts.  Later, we've often said that finding your niche area in legal practice can be a very effective way to capture more business in your market. Buuut… is that always true? Could there, perchance, be a situation where adding new practice areas is the best move for your business? Gyi and Conrad discuss the pros and cons of practice expansion and how to stay tactical and competitive in the process.  The News: Very clever PR stunt, folks. – Cheeky law firm offers to help Native American tribe evict Billie Eilish from their land after smug Grammys rant.  Just want to offer our appreciation to Rich Ruohonen for being an awesome athlete, lawyer, and citizen of our great country – A 54-year-old personal injury lawyer from Minnesota just became the oldest US Winter Olympian Google Direct Business Search data now showing in LSAs.  Fresh Near Media Research is on its way. Stay tuned!    Listen Next: LHLM Office Hours  Connect: The Bite - Lunch Hour Legal Marketing Newsletter! Leave Us an Apple Review  Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on YouTube  Lunch Hour Legal Marketing on TikTok r/LHLM 

Ghetto Gospel WAV FANTASTiC | 04 May 2025 | 46.62 MB ‘Ghetto Gospel’ is filled with eleven of the most inspirational individual custom samples of gospel styled music. This heart-felt […]

Boomloop Classics: Oldschool Beats FANTASTiC | 04 July 2025 | 369.06 MB ‘Boomloop Classics – Oldschool Beats’ is equipped with the essential sounds and materials needed to create Oldschool and […]

'I'm an introverted extrovert - a live audience is fantastic, it's addictive, seeing in real time what people think of your comedy' - Serena Terry spoke to Frank about her new show 'Therapy', what's next and how Lisa McGee is her 'blueprint' Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Midnight Funk FANTASTiC | 04 July 2025 | 1.23 GB Discover ‘Midnight Funk’, a captivating sample pack perfect for Neo Soul creators, seamlessly blending elements of Electro and R&B. This […]

My guest on this episode of The Back of the Range is Brad McMakin, head coach of the Arkansas Men's' Golf Team. Fantastic conversation with one of the most respected coaches in college golf. Brad McMakin - Arkansas Men's' GolfThe Back of the Range - All Access Subscribe to The Back of the Range Subscribe in Apple Podcasts and SPOTIFY!Also Subscribe in YouTube, Google Play , Overcast, Stitcher Follow on Social Media! Email us: ben@thebackoftherange.comWebsite: www.thebackoftherange.com Voice Work by Mitch Phillips

In this, the very first FANtastic Episode of Beyond the Torch, Leslie Nease and Todd Herzog interview four Survivor superfans (Atticus, Bryce, Corey, and Tricia) to talk all things SURVIVOR! The conversation covers their favorite Survivor moments, players, and memories, including discussions about iconic tribal councils, emotional family visits, and underrated moments from the show's history. They share personal stories about how Survivor changed their lives, debate the role of villains in the show, discuss their predictions for Season 50, and celebrate the community that has formed around the series. This episode is a celebration of the show that changed reality TV and showcases the deep connection fans have with Survivor and how the show has brought people together across the world.Special thanks to the best Whiskey on the Planet Watertown Whiskey! Check them out on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/watertownwhiskey/?hl=en Tell them Fairplay sent you! Please Drink Responsibly https://watertownwhiskey.com/ Our new Website is live! Check it out at: www.realityaftershow.com Join our Patreon at RealityPatron.com If you would like a cameo from Jonny Fairplay order one now! cameo.com/jonnyfairplay Check us out on Tiktok @fairplaytokBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reality-after-show--5448874/support.

Introduction“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” — Irina Dunn, 1970I heard about the movement of decentering men on TikTok. With zero expectations, I decided to try it out for a month. It was October 2025. I was sick of dating apps and about to publish my second book. I'd been single for three years, but this was something different. I'm here to tell you everything about it and share all the reasons why I'm never going back.I wrote this article to give us, women, a blueprint for how to be the main character in our own lives. Our mothers and grandmothers couldn't teach us this; they depended on men (financially) to survive, and had to center them accordingly. This article is not about hating men; it's about unlearning the ways that the patriarchy has trained us to prioritize making men happy. This pressure comes just as much from the women in our lives (aunties, influencers, our mother), as from men. After all, it was my mother who let my brother get away with never doing the dishes after dinner.Starting this process for the first time scared me. I was worried that if I stopped trying to date men, I was giving up on my dream of becoming a mother. Yet as I began to decenter men, I realized that my idea of motherhood was purely a fantasy. Facing the reality of motherhood, those statistics scared me much more. In this article, I will cover everything I've learned from the internet, economists, and my own experience, so that you can decide whether decentering men and trying it for a month to start is right for you. Let's begin!

They say when man makes a plan, God laughs. His particular laughter this week was getting the site we normally record our podcast on banned on my work computer. So we scrambled and we have before you the result of minutes of furious googling, but these are the things we do for you, our dear listeners, nay, our dear friends. If there is praise, we will gladly take it. If there is criticism, well that is the fault of the school system. Best BooksCyclops #1Action Comics #1095Absolute Batman #17Generation X-23 #1Book Blurbs (Hold on to your butts, we have a lot)Absolute Wonder Woman Annual #1, Moon Knight #1, The Rocketfellers #12, Children of the Round Table #6, DC KO #4, Spider-Man Noir #5, Ultimate Spider-Man #24, Batman/Superman Worlds Finest #48, Arcadia #3, Superman Unlimited #10, Fantastic 4 #8, The Darkness #3, Uncanny X-Men #24, Supergirl #10, Captain America #7, Doctor Strange #3, The Muppets Noir #1Uncle's One More ThingWarhammer MiniaturesMarvel Cosmic InvasionEverything is Tuberculosis by John GreenThe Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

On the 23.5 episode of Hands of Z, Shawn and Keith look at two of Keith's favorite tag teams, The Fantastics facing The Midnight Express, except one Express is not like the other! Side note both matches are from 1988 AND both matches take up a full episode of NWA syndicated TV AND both matches run close to 40 minutes! Up first from March 26, 1988 (The day before the very first Clash of Champions), The Fantastics debut in the NWA to face current US Tag Team Champions, The Midnight Express of Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane w/Jim Cornette in a non-title match! Then from December 31, 1988 (Taped on 12/15 before Starrcade 88) The Fantastics defend the US Tag Titles against The Original Midnight Express of Dennis Condrey and Randy Rose w/ Paul E. Dangerously in a 2/3 Falls match! Fun episode with two fun matches! Can Keith and Shawn survive 2 matches that went 80 minutes total? Tune in and find out!

World Tech House Vol.1 FANTASTiC | 06 May 2025 | 334.90 MB “World Tech House Vol. 01” is a cutting-edge sample pack inspired by some of the hottest Tech House […]

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KARE-11 meteorologist Belinda Jensen joins Chad to talk about her retirement announcement this morning, a long and fantastic career at KARE, and a great opportunity to help fight hunger in Minnesota by bidding in an auction for her famous coats and accessories!

Welcome back to TMHS and another hilarious conversation between Glenn and Mark. Let's play a game...what are underrated or overrated qualities in sales? Tune in to listen to this comical assessment of office etiquette. Share, like, leave us a comment if you loved this episode as much as we do. We appreciate your viewership.

Bernie introduces the new federal opposition leader and where you might have met him before...... Dana unpacks Pauline Hanson's latest Islamophobic slip-up and how it applies to 34 Australian citizens (made up of women and children) trying to come back to Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Jennings and Dr. Mike Brasher peruse a series of fun facts about waterfowl, including questions such as how many invertebrates a wood duck eats, which waterfowl species is the largest, which lives the longest, which is the fastest and why is it not green-winged teal. The duo also discuss observations from past research including multiple paternity, double brooding, long-distance migration, which acorns wood ducks consider the tastiest, and several others.Listen now: www.ducks.org/DUPodcastSend feedback: DUPodcast@ducks.orgSPONSORS:Purina Pro Plan: The official performance dog food of Ducks UnlimitedWhether you're a seasoned hunter or just getting started, this episode is packed with valuable insights into the world of waterfowl hunting and conservation.Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails:Whether you're winding down with your best friend, or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award-winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.

A FANTASTIC episode this week, with Jeff Clear hosting and Sara keeping score as we welcome: Kit -  Christian - Carmela -  Bryan - Huge shout out to ArkAngelWulf for the graphics for our merchandise! Pick up some BRAND NEW MERCH with our new logos at HERE Enjoying the Show? Support us at www.patreon.com/ptebb Connect with us on Discord, Facebook, Twitter, IG, etc….at:  PTE Network | Links (ptepodcasts.com) Or contact us at frenemytrivia@gmail.com Wanna be on one of our shows? PTE Network | Appearance Request (ptepodcasts.com) Don't forget - Leave us a 5 Star Rating and write us a review and we'll see you next week for more Frenemy Trivia!

How did The Fourth Fighter Group contribute to D-Day in 1944? Why did The Fourth Fighter Group keeping flying till the last days of the war? What happened to all the aces of The Fourth Fighter group at the end of WW2? Join Al Murray and James Holland for Part 4 of this new series looking at the larger-than-life American aces that flew to every corner of the Nazi empire, starting with Spitfires in the dark days of The Battle Of Britain to P-51 Mustangs at the closing stages of WW2. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Editor: Charlie Rodwell Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Social Producer: Harry Balden Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is all about the power of a phone call, and how you can maximize it. Kiera goes into the formula for phone call success, and how it will boost your patients' interactions with your practice. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and gosh, I decided to shake up the background and hang out in my house and have you come hang out with me. And so if you're watching this, welcome. This is the studio. This is where I live. This is where I hang out and just trying a couple different things. I really obsessed about making this podcast a space where you feel like you're hanging out with me in my living room. And we're just sitting here.   chatting shop, we're sitting here talking about all things dentistry. And today I wanted to just go through a quick episode with you guys of how we can improve our conversion rates. So there's a couple quick levers of how we can improve our calls, our being able to get our forms and documents and being able to do this without spending more time because that's something that we all wanna do. And so ⁓ I think it's a lot of times like how can we convert our calls better? How can we get things done a little bit more efficiently? Do we do AI? Do we not do AI? And so.   I really feel like just small improvements. You guys know on Dental A team, I'm obsessed about small little improvements done to create efficiencies. I remember I was in a practice and they said, ⁓ okay, Kiera, like come on in, we wanna see you. And I went in and we were able to add about 13,000 to their practice. And they were like, Kiera, what did you do? I'm like, what did I do? It was just very simple, easy things. was, ⁓ we had patients stop at the front desk and start making their payments so we were able to make our collections higher.   We had them doing a handoff to their team of what were the next steps. So that way the patient felt confident of what they were doing next. ⁓ and we just scheduled patients. We assumed the yes. And those are not hard things. Those are not sexy things. Those things are just things that are going to help you guys tremendously. And so today it's like, let's figure out how we can convert a few more things. So. Dental A Team is truly a company where I believe that growing and having sustainable growth comes from optimizing before we spend more. And I know that it feels so.   Alluring and something that I want to do is I want to spend more and I want to get the magic pill and the reality is that you can probably get the exact same results with minimal effort if we just optimize a little things and so figuring out how we can catch more missed calls or how we can convert more new patients or figuring out how we can get more patients to say yes to treatment is something that's really really fun   A Team's podcast is tactical, practical, implementable. That's how we operate. That's how we like to consult. And I love working with practices. I love being able to see you guys ⁓ in your offices, being able to do things, ⁓ being able to just live your best life. Life is our passion. Dentistry is our platform. So, all right, you guys ready to dig in? Because I'm ready to dig in. The number one thing is, let's talk about our phone calls and optimizing our phone calls.   because that is our number one zone. And I think it's crazy how much we spend on marketing to get these new patients and how much we work on having a great patient experience. And then we have our newest trained person that knows nothing about our practice answering our most important phone calls. And so things on this are like when we miss phone calls or we don't handle a phone call correctly, those are little lost opportunities. And this isn't to rag on our front office team. We're busy. You guys, I've sat in the front office. I prioritize the patient in front of me over the phone. And so what are some little things that we can do?   And there are softwares. There's like patient prism and they're like, I pretty sure with weave, they have them where we can actually track and monitor and see our, ⁓ our phone calls and see how we're doing. But we want to just help our front office team. Like it is crazy. Jason, husband told me, ⁓ he was like, yeah, I, Kiera, if you don't like what someone tells you at a practice, just wait, call back and you'll get someone else and you'll get a different answer. And I think about that in practices and how often are we possibly doing this? How often is our practice maybe.   doing it where we actually are having Susie follow protocol and Sarah isn't and therefore Susie is undercut, but Sarah was trying to do what's right. They're both trying to do what's right. So this is where we're at front office teams. Let's make sure we're all saying the same thing. So no matter if they get Sarah or Susie or Kiera or Jason or John, every single one of them is the exact same. And this is going to help. So number one, we need to have actually in the front office team, especially usually there's quite a few of them. We need to make sure that one person   is dedicated to like first on phone, second on phone, third on phones. So everybody knows like, hey, what is the ring, the ring place? Now, if you're a really large practices, sometimes they put it in a call center. All those are totally fine, but we need to make sure that every single person is actually optimizing our phone calls. And so it is a, you can even get a phone tree where we optimize new patients. We have a line for billing questions. So that way we can actually know which phone call should I prioritize and know exactly this is a new patient phone call. Now, when we,   When we answer the phone, I actually put mirrors in front of a lot of our team members. We want them to smile. We want the patient to feel the energy on the other side of it. We want them to feel like they chose the best place. And I actually feel this is one of the greatest ways to optimize is if you just give your patients a little bit different experience on the phone of like, we are so excited to have you call us versus we are annoyed that you bothered us in the middle of our day. That tone and intonation is going to help patients say yes or no a lot more to you.   I remember, and I shared this example a few years ago, I was trying to find a PT and I called around to a bunch of different locations and I literally chose the place based on how they answered the phone. And I think I truly believe in today's world of AI and automations that what is going to become the number one differentiator more than cost, more than anything else is kindness. Kindness and customer service is going to be what far outshines most everything else because it's becoming a trait. ⁓   People are grumpy, people have the COVID cranks still, people are annoyed. I walk into stores and like, we're closing in 30 minutes. I'm like, fantastic, I'll just shop on Amazon. They don't yell at me. This is where I think we need to recognize our society and people want to be loved. We are human beings, we are human connections. And so really being able to give that. it is about, let's answer the phone. Let's have our intonations and our tone and that big smile.   And then let's make sure that we're following protocols. So how we block schedule, how we schedule patients, how we handle a new patient phone call. New patient phone calls are great to optimize. It is a, like we take control of it instead of saying, you have insurance? It's amazing. How did you hear about us? Let's change that tone and that vibe. So that way they feel like, my gosh, like I heard about you on Google. We absolutely love our patients. Like our Google reviews are what we're so proud of. And we strive to make sure that you as a patient coming in.   are going to be able to leave us those same reviews because you have the best experience with the best dentist. I'm Kiera, it's so nice to meet you. Let's get you all ready and set up for your appointment. What are we looking for? we coming in like when was the last time we saw the dentist? I want to make sure I set you up for the right type of appointment. We just take a few minutes to be human. A new patient phone call can literally be done in five minutes and make them feel human. It's taking control of the conversation initially. It is saying.   Hi, how did you hear about us? I'm Kiera, welcome to our practice. I know you're absolutely going to love it here. Let's get a couple of information. Let me start with your name, your phone number in case we ever get disconnected. I'm gonna make sure I get you so taken care of and we truly cannot wait to welcome you into our practice. ⁓ And then we go through, if they have insurance, fantastic. If they don't, if they're on an insurance plan that we don't take, that's fine guys. These people can still come. want you to, I'm gonna drill this down so hard on optimization of our phone calls. ⁓   Just because a patient doesn't have insurance, we are not going to let $1,000 dictate if this person comes to see us or not. You guys, $1,000, I know that not all insurances are 1,000, but that's usually about the max, but they pay so much more than that. And this is about a long-term relationship rather than a short-term transaction. I'm going to say that again, our new patients, it is about a long-term relationship rather than a short-term transaction. And if we can remind them of this is the greatest place, you're so welcome to be here. You're so like, we are so happy to have you here.   People choose that all day long. People want to know they're on a winning team. So how can we make them feel like they made the absolute best choice by choosing our practice? And I want you to audit phone calls. So for the next couple of days, I would like, and we actually track, we have trackers where it's like, let's get our new patient trackers and how many of these new patient phone calls scheduled and didn't schedule. And if you have your front office team track this for about one week, they will actually be able to see how many new patients are actually getting, how many are we converting and why are we not converting it.   Then if we actually listen to these calls back, we can fine tune one or two statements and be able to optimize and get people to come in. You guys like, this is one of the things I'm like, I don't know how much more easy I can make this for you. But if we just prioritize two or three little things on our phone calls, making sure we all schedule correctly, that we welcome them and we're excited and we just role play this for the next month, you will absolutely increase your practice. I promise you, because we're going to convert more phone calls. We're going to have more happy patients.   We're going to have patients who are more excited to come to the dentist because they're already feeling welcomed. These are little things that don't make a big, like they don't seem grandiose, but they make a huge, huge, huge impact. so making sure that we're optimizing that you guys, the phone is one of your most powerful resources in your practice. And if we have like, you do not want your billing representative and billers, this is nothing against you. am not a great biller. I was like, I don't want to go to bat. I don't want to go figure out the one penny you do. And that's why we have different roles.   You want somebody who's so excited, who loves your practice. ⁓ I've had front office team members that are in this role that are from like tanning salons or from a high end customer service or from a waiter waitress situation or a hostess situation where they just love and they want to welcome and they want to greet and they're so excited and they just make that person feel like a million bucks. so making sure that our phone calls are optimized really truly is going to help us and help us really ensure that our practice is optimized. And so with that new patient phone call,   It is a, let's snag them at the beginning, let's ask them how they heard about us, let's capitalize on that, let's find out what type of cleaning that they want or what they're calling for or when the last time was that they went to the dentist and then let's schedule them appropriately with VIP customer service. And then what I typically do is if we are using insurance, I say, fantastic, I'm gonna send over our new patient welcome information right now while I've got you on the phone, make sure it gets to you. And then I do need to get that back 48 hours before your appointment to make sure it's confirmed. Did you get that email from me?   Fantastic. When can I expect to see this? I want to make sure I don't miss it for you. And that way I can get your patient, your appointment confirmed. I have them commit to me right here, right then, because if I do that, this patient's already more locked and loaded to come into me. They've committed that they're going to get this back to me in the next two days. I'm going to look for it. And if you really, really want to stand out and shine on customer service, following up in two days, hey, Kiera, I didn't see that paperwork come through. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss it. You can set little reminders for yourself. This is not hard.   and listening as front office, you be like, my gosh. But I wanna say what is actually hard? Choose your hard on this. Chasing a patient, not getting my insurance until the day of being, like having new patients, no show on appointments, that's hard. Me following up in two days on their paperwork and making sure that they give it to me so I can, 48 hours ahead of time to make sure their appointment's confirmed, that's not hard. That's just a shift of your process that optimizes your process and makes it to where you actually have a ton less work. It feels like hard work today.   Just like if I were to say, okay, go sign your name. You're like, okay, I can sign it. Got it. If I say, okay, now sign your name, but you have to sign it every other letter, that's going to feel hard because that's actually easier than you signing all the letters. And if you practice every other letter a few more times, you actually become faster at that than you were at your initial signature. So just because it's different doesn't mean that it's hard and it's not efficient. It just means you're doing it as a different way. And so really looking at that and seeing how can I actually make this to where we can optimize our phone calls. And that's what we're going into.   You guys, just a small optimization of our phone calls, of how we operate, of how we ask for information, that's going to cut down so much more time that allows you to be in front of your patients, because you're not chasing all these forms all the time. I promise you, get patients to commit to you before they even get into your practice, and you're going to have a completely different practice. And so I want you just to remember that this is a great way for you to optimize on a phone call. Now, there's several other ways that we can optimize. We can optimize on our handoffs. You guys have heard me talk about NDTR about a thousand times.   We optimize on that and I say it's like, we don't just get a drop a sheet with our front office or we drop a patient and say like, good luck. It's a, we hand them off so they know exactly what they're doing. We hand them off every single time. It is a well-oiled baton and we practice that consistently from front office to back office, back office. Like let's not like bicker towards each other. Let's figure out what does front office information need to give us so that way we are all set for our appointment. And then what does clinical team need to make sure is in the notes so our insurance claims go out correctly.   And then what does clinical team need to bring to the front office? So that way it's a smooth handoff. And what do doctors need to say to team members? So that way we get all the information necessary while making sure the patient's front and center. That small optimization, which I will do on another podcast for you with the handoffs and the different pieces are going to be able to make it to where your patients absolutely 100 % schedule their appointments. And people are like, but it's so hard to do. Choose your hard guys. This is not hard. You want to add an up level your practice?   Optimize your phone calls, optimize your handoffs, optimize your life. I promise you, patients can feel perfection. These are things that I would recommend you do on a monthly, weekly basis where we role play this out until we perfect it and this is how we operate it. Do you think at Disneyland that they just like hope and pray that those things are gonna work out and that's gonna be perfect? The answer is no. They practice, they role play, they practice, they do it. They make sure that the way people are talking to guests is the exact same way no matter who it is and they employ hundreds and thousands of people.   So in your practice, you think that this would be doable? I hope you say yes, because when we can optimize, when we can make sure that our phone calls are the most important thing and our handoffs are the second most important thing, your patients will feel that. And then we get raving fans and then we get the reviews. You guys, reviews aren't just happenstance. Reviews are intentional. It's because they can feel the process throughout. They feel loved, they feel cared about, and they feel like you are going to take care of them. So optimize, you guys. This is the time for you to just optimize.   to have it to where it's so much easier for you, to where you're able to really, really, really drive these patients forward. So as a quick recap, let's talk about it. Number one, we're going to shine and outshine our competition by kindness and customer service. And that might be a theme that I'd roll out to your practice this year of kindness and customer service. We want patients to feel wanted in our practice and we want them to feel excited to be here with us. So what we do from there is we make sure we find out when we take a new patient phone call, what exactly, how did they hear about us?   We tell them they're on the winning team. This is the best place for them. We scheduled the appropriate appointment. We have the correct information. And then we ask for their paperwork back to confirm their appointment. Just that small shift is gonna change a lot of things for you. And then we optimize our handoffs so we're not just dropping people off. We're optimizing front offices giving clinical team the correct amount of Clinical team, think of how happy you'd be if the paperwork is already in there before the patient arrived and you're able to take your patients back on time. That would be like a hallelujah. Everybody would pop confetti and we'd say thank you.   Also, clinical team members, shout out when you do get that. Go tell your front office thank you, because what we praise typically gets repeated. So make sure that we're saying thank you for that. We take them back on time, information's passed to our doctor, doctor's back to us, us up to the front office, and we have the correct information on our claims, and we're giving that feedback of, if claims are being denied, let's tell each other what's being missed. We get those things fixed. You guys, your practice will be.   next level. And this is something where, yes, we always look for optimization and dollars on the schedule. And I will tell you, we can add 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 very quickly, but it's through very, very, very simple things. And simple does not mean easy. And I think that that's where people shy away from this, but I'm going to encourage you to be the practice that's optimized, optimizing the little ways. Maybe we use AI, maybe we listen to phone calls, patient prism, other, other platforms that are going to be great for you. Let's, let's actually have somebody go through and video our handoffs of a patient.   Like, let's just see it. Let's watch it back. Think about pit stops. There's a great YouTube video where they do a pit stop that was optimized in ⁓ racing and they practice it over and over and over and they timed themselves and they got better and better and better to where it was so fast and everybody knew exactly what they were supposed to do. And I think about a practice that way. Are we optimizing? Are we practicing the most important things? Are we obsessing about crazy things that really aren't moving the needle forward? That's your challenge. That's your choice. And if we can help you with this,   These are things I'm happy to share our new patient phone call script. Reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. Happy to share it and like, let's chat. Let's chat about your practice. Let's talk about what things we could optimize. What areas could we make more efficient for you? This is what I obsess about doing. This is what our team obsesses about doing. This is why we created Dental A Team. Things don't need to be hard for you to have success. And I encourage you to do that. Reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

(00:00-14:10) New Cardinal starter Dustin May sits down at the table. Learning from veterans who have done it for a while. Feels like a bridge between the veterans and the young guys. Coming up as a young guy with a lot of hype. Has done pretty much everything except be a closer. His health scare where his wife convincing him to to the hospital saved his life. Fantastic experience playing at Dodger Stadium in LA. Golfing with McGreevy at Grove XXIII.(14:18-21:03) You like this beat, Doug? People want to see Mizzou lose and see Jackson suffer.(21:13-27:20) The Design Aire Heating & Cooling EMOTDSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New Cardinal starter Dustin May sits down at the table. Learning from veterans who have done it for a while. Feels like a bridge between the veterans and the young guys. Coming up as a young guy with a lot of hype. Has done pretty much everything except be a closer. His health scare where his wife convincing him to to the hospital saved his life. Fantastic experience playing at Dodger Stadium in LA. Golfing with McGreevy at Grove XXIII.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Real Food Recovery developed from a society wrestling with processed food addiction and the deep ache that comes with feeling trapped in destructive patterns. After decades of obsession, frustration, and starting over more times than can be counted, Paige Alexander holds this space to speak honestly about what it takes to heal. Each episode opens the door to the real, raw, and often messy journey of recovery—offering compassion, lived experience, and the practical tools that helped rebuild a life grounded in peace instead of chaos. This Episode is not to be missed, join us as we dive deep with Dr Teitelbaum.  Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. is one of the most frequently quoted post viral CFS, fibromyalgia, energy, sleep and pain medical authorities in the world. He is the author of 12 books including You Can Heal from Long Covid, the best-selling From Fatigued to Fantastic!, Pain Free 1-2-3, The Complete Guide to Beating Sugar Addiction, Real Cause Real Cure, The Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Solution, and the popular free Smart Phone app Cures A-Z. He is the lead author of eight research studies and three medical textbook chapters on effective treatment for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Dr. Teitelbaum appears often as a guest on news and talk shows nationwide, including past appearances on Good Morning America, The Dr. Oz Show, Oprah & Friends, CNN, and FoxNewsHealth. www.EndFatigue.com www.Vitality101.com Facebook Support Group: Recovering from Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, and Long COVIDFacebook Page | Instagram Every conversation is an invitation to feel less alone. Alongside personal stories, Paige takes time to share listener questions about addiction, recovery, mindset, and the emotional work that makes lasting change possible. If you're searching for hope, understanding, or simply someone who "gets it," this podcast is here to walk with you. Questions, stories, or thoughts can be shared anytime at realfoodrecovery4u@gmail.com, and more resources can be found at www.realfoodrecovery4u.com.  

Join us as Ocean House owner and award-winning author Deborah Goodrich Royce moderates a conversation with thriller authors Christa Carmen, Karen Dukess, Vanessa Lillie, Kristin Offiler, and Tessa Wegert. About the Authors: Christa Carmen lives in Rhode Island. She is the author of The Daughters of Block Island, winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a Shirley Jackson Award finalist, the Indie Horror Book Award-winning Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated "Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell" (Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror). She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from Boston College, and an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Karen Dukess is the USAToday bestselling author of  Welcome to Murder Week and The Last Book Party and is a contributor to the upcoming anthology (November 2025) Ladies in Waiting: Jane Austen's Unsung Characters. She is also the host of The Castle Hill Author Talks, a series of virtual and in-person interviews with some of today's most exciting authors. Karen has been a tour guide in the former Soviet Union, a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia and a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations. She has a degree in Russian Studies from Brown University and a Master's in Journalism from Columbia University. She lives with her family near New York City and spends as much time as possible in Truro on Cape Cod. Vanessa Lillie is the author of the USA Today bestselling suspense novel, Blood Sisters, which was a Target Book Club pick and GMA Book Club Buzz Pick as well as named one of the best mystery novel in 2023 by the Washington Post and Amazon. The sequel, The Bone Thief, was recently released, landing a spot on the USA Today Bestseller List. Her other bestselling thrillers are Little Voices, For the Best and she's the coauthor of the Young Rich Widows series. Originally from Oklahoma, Vanessa is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She has fifteen years of marketing and communications experience and enjoys organizing book events in and around Providence, RI where she lives now. She loves connecting with readers and hosts an Instagram Live show with crime fiction authors! Kristin Offiler is represented by Tia Ikemoto at Creative Artists Agency, and her fiction has been published in the Waccamaw Journal of Contemporary Literature, the Bookends Review, and The Raleigh Review. She has an MFA from Lesley University, but most of what she's learned about writing has come from reading and taking classes with some of her favorite authors. And, of course, through a lot of trial and error with her work. She writes novels and short fiction and also loves teaching creative writing. She's a big fan of summertime, clean sheets, and reading good books on the porch of my 130-year-old house. New England features prominently in most of her work. There's something special and magical about the region, and she is forever attempting to capture it in her stories. Tessa Wegert is the critically acclaimed author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, as well as the North Country series, beginning with In the Bones. Her books have received numerous starred reviews and have been featured on PBS and NPR Radio. A former journalist and copywriter, Tessa grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime CT and serves on the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW).  For details on Deborah Goodrich Royce and the Ocean House Author Series, visit deborahgoodrichroyce.com  

Who was responsible for The Fourth Fighter Group getting equipped with long-range P-51 Mustangs? What did the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine do for the Mustang airframe? Why were the Mustangs so important? Join Al Murray and James Holland for Part 3 of this new series looking at the larger-than-life American aces that flew to every corner of the Nazi empire, starting with Spitfires in the dark days of The Battle Of Britain to P-51 Mustangs at the closing stages of WW2. To watch the ad-free, video-supported, version of this episode, please head to our Patreon page directly. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. https://www.patreon.com/wehaveways/membership?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=episode_description&utm_content=link_cta A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Editor: Adam Thornton Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Social Producer: Harry Balden Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Shelley and I explore to very different games that begin with F First we collect resources and attempt to make excellent alcoholic drinks in Fantasy Brewers by Michael Schacht from Grail Games then we get card and try to create the best ant trails in the draw and draw game Fantastic Trails by Jordy Adan from NSV Thanks to this week's sponsor Dr. Finn's Games You can sponsor the podcast directly by going to www.patreon.com/garrettsgames OR  check out the extensive list of games that no longer fit on our shelves, but belong on your table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16ovRDNBqur0RiAzgFAfI0tYYnjlJ68hoHyHffU7ZDWk/edit?usp=sharing  

A fun, dazzling exploration of the strange numbers that illuminate the ultimate nature of reality. For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac, or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths led to strange new understandings of the ultimate nature of reality. But what are these truths? What are the mysterious numbers that explain the universe?In Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity (FSG,2022), the leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star Antonio Padilla takes us on an irreverent cosmic tour of nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics, offering a startling picture of how the universe works. These strange numbers include Graham's number, which is so large that if you thought about it in the wrong way, your head would collapse into a singularity; TREE(3), whose finite nature can never be definitively proved, because to do so would take so much time that the universe would experience a Poincaré Recurrence—resetting to precisely the state it currently holds, down to the arrangement of individual atoms; and 10^{-120}, measuring the desperately unlikely balance of energy needed to allow the universe to exist for more than just a moment, to extend beyond the size of a single atom—in other words, the mystery of our unexpected universe.Leading us down the rabbit hole to a deeper understanding of reality, Padilla explains how these unusual numbers are the key to understanding such mind-boggling phenomena as black holes, relativity, and the problem of the cosmological constant—that the two best and most rigorously tested ways of understanding the universe contradict one another. Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them is a combination of popular and cutting-edge science—and a lively, entertaining, and even funny exploration of the most fundamental truths about the universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Enjoy. Order Shroud-PilledOrder God's Eye View: https://a.co/d/7CI89rvBuy the Audiobook: https://www.audible.com/pd/Gods-Eye-View-Audiobook/B0F55K2GT1?source_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdpWant to publish a book? Check out my publisher https://hemisphericpress.com/Check out our ad free substack: https://hemisphericpress.substack.com/Email feedback to godseyeviewbook@gmail.com

Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus.---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: podcast@chaser.com.auChaser CEO's Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: mediawatch@abc.net.au Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So often we try to make changes in our lives, you know, the difficult things, those entrenched behaviours that keep ruining things for us – but try as we might, somehow we always seem to fail. But worship, well, that's something that changes us – from the inside out.   Worship Sets us Free Well, welcome to this programme; it's the last programme in our four part series called, "Worship as a Way of Life". I guess the guts of it has been getting our hearts and our minds around the fact that worship is more than just going to church and singing songs on Sunday morning – so much more. And over the last three weeks we have seen that there are really two aspects to worship. Two different words used for worship in the New Testament. Worship on the inside – bowing down our lives to God, the thing that happens in our hearts, and then what we go on and do with that – living out that worship through our service, on the outside. It makes sense – look at a marriage. I love my wife, Jacqui, with all my heart – I adore her but if that's all I did it wouldn't be a very great marriage. Once a week, if I just said, "Darling, I love you", come on, what sort of a marriage would it be? I have to live out that marriage; I have to live out that love. I don't always do that perfectly, but she has to know that I love her through how I treat her and what I say to her and what I do for her and as I live out that love, it changes me on the inside and I love her even more. So this "inside", "outside" thing, well they feed off each other. The question is, is it like that in our relationship with God? Today we are going to conclude this series by asking that question. Ok, so if I worship God, what happens to me? I mean, does it change me, does it transform me, does it change the way I am on the inside and the outside? We are going to start off today back in the Book of Exodus, so if you have a Bible, go and grab it. We will go to the Book of Exodus and we are looking where Moses went up to Mount Sinai and got the Ten Commandments. Something happened to him up there. Have a look at Exodus, chapter 34, beginning at verse 29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he wasn't aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken to the Lord. When his brother Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses his face was radiant and they were afraid to come near him but Moses called to them. So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him and he spoke with them. Afterwards all the Israelites came near to him and he gave them all the Commandments that the Lord had given him up on the mountain. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face but whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with Him he removed the veil until he came out again. And when he came out and told the Israelites what had been commanded they saw that his face was radiant again. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord again. See, when you go into God's presence, you can't help it, something happens to you. And with Moses, he went into God's presence up on Mount Sinai and then in the tabernacle (the tent), which was the tent of the meeting place. When Israel were out there in the desert for forty years in the exodus, they built a tent and in the centre of that tent; in a place called the Holy of Holies, is where the presence of God rested with them. And only Moses would go in and speak with God. And when he did that there was this radiance; something different about him, when he came out from having been in God's presence. He was transformed in a way that the people, well, they really noticed this. A few thousand years later the Apostle Paul looks back on all of that and comes up with the conclusion that when we turn to the Lord our God and worship Him, something like that happens, only much better. Let's again go to God's Word and have a look at Second Corinthians, chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. This is what Paul writes: We aren't like Moses who had to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. Their minds were made dull for to this day, that same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day, when Moses' laws are read, a veil covers their hearts but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. What's this thing that Paul is talking about here? I mean the Israelites in the first century, were bound up in God's law and in legalism. You know, it was all about rules – there were six hundred and thirteen commandments and prohibitions in the Torah; in the Hebrew Law that was given through Moses and they got so rule-bound and legalistic and that's the thing that Jesus came to set us free from. I mean, Moses, in the Old Testament, was able to go into the presence of God, and when he came out he used to have to hide his transformation – the glory of God shinning out from his face, because people didn't understand it; they couldn't take it – the whole bunch of people around in his day who just didn't get it. A bit like today really. Whenever we turn to the Lord, to Jesus, the veil is taken away. And then Paul goes on to say in verse 17: Now, the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The picture here is of our faces shinning with the glory of God – not a sense of a bunch of rules that we have to keep – not that at all – a sense of freedom. See, here's what so often happens – someone accepts Jesus Christ into their lives as Lord and Saviour – right? Fantastic! All great intentions but then little by little we get bound up in rules and regulations and "you have to do this and you can't do that" – it's called legalism. And Paul is saying, "No, you get up on the mountain top and you worship God – you don't have to be like that. He changes you on the inside and you end up shinning on the outside." The veil is removed – you don't have to hide it anymore. Have you ever met someone who is just glowing with the glory of God; with the goodness of God? You know, they walk into the room and there's a kind of a light and when they leave something lingers – this sense that somehow, God is in this place. When we like Moses, go to that mountain top and worship God, it changes us; it transforms us on the inside and you end up glowing that on the outside. There's a sense that this person has been up there worshipping in the presence of God. You know what we try to do? We try to do this in our own strength. We look at God and go, "WOW, God is so amazing", and the more we look at Him the more we realise our own weaknesses, so then we set about trying to change them. We think, "you know something, I have to stop doing this or I have to start doing that, or I have to do this and don't do that", and before you know it we are peddling so hard, we're exhausted. And ultimately, we end up failing; it's too hard, we can't do it. Paul is saying here that when we worship God on that mountain top, God does something amazing. He fills us on the inside and we can't help it – it ends up shinning out on the outside. We'll take a look at that next.   Worship Transforms Us When we worship God, that bears fruit in our lives – it changes us on the inside and on the outside in ways that we simply couldn't do on our own. In fact, as we worship Him, we end up looking more and more like Jesus. Have a read here in Second Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 18, what Paul goes on to say. And we, who with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. See, that veil that Paul was talking about before and here in this passage, is the veil of misunderstanding; it's the veil of separation; it's the veil that says, "I can't come before God because I'm not worthy." In the first century the Jews had the temple, in fact, they had had it for quite a long time before then. And in the centre of the temple, on the inside, was the Holy of Holies, the place where the presence of God was. And only the High Priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement – to make atonement with God through sacrifice for the sins of Israel. Anyone else went in there they would die because they couldn't stand the presence of the Lord – He's holy and He's perfect and we're not! – and we would surely die in His presence. That's why, when Moses came down from the mountain and his face was glowing with the glory of God, people were afraid. The Holy of Holies was closed off from the rest of us in the temple, by a thick curtain or a veil. So what's changed? How come we can go into God's presence and worship Him? How is it that we can come before a holy God just as we are with our faces uncovered and our hearts uncovered open to Him? Luke explains it in his Gospel as he records the crucifixion of Jesus. You can read this in Luke, chapter 23, verse 44. It was now about the sixth hour and the darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour for the sun had stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit." When He said this, He breathed His last. See, the death of Jesus Christ paid for all my sins – He paid for all your sins And that one thing that stopped us from coming into the very presence of God, our sin, was dealt with and so God tore the veil in two – the veil that closed off the Holy of Holies. He opened that up to you and me, the instant that Christ died. That means if we put our faith in Jesus we can go and stand in His presence unveiled; just as we are and just gaze on His beauty with wonder and awe and worship Him. And when we do that then we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness from glory to glory, which comes from God who is the Spirit. Just as we stand in His presence and know that He is God, He transforms us into His likeness, from glory to glory to glory and it works its way out from the inside to our outside and we're transformed into His likeness. We end up looking more and more like Jesus. Let me ask you a question: Why is it that so many Christians are just plain hypocrites? They go to church on Sunday and yet you look at their lives for the rest of the week and they look nothing like Jesus. I'll tell you why – because they haven't adopted worship as their way of life. I struggle so much in my life when I don't spend time with Jesus. If I've been sick or I've been travelling or I'm really busy or really tired, in those times I just know that I haven't got what it takes to do it on my own. And time and time again that's what brings me back to the foot of the cross. Time and time again I discover and I rediscover I can't do this on my own. Only when I worship God on the inside and then I live that out on the outside, that's when I can look like Him. When we get off that mountain top and wander round in the marshes of day to day life, like Moses, the glory fades. But when we spend time worshipping Jesus on the mountain top, on the inside; we don't have to go out there in life and wander round on our own any more, in our own strength. Instead the joy of the Lord is our strength. When we worship God, He fills us with His joy, just as having been in His presence. The joy of just having seen Him and heard Him and experienced Him changes us – He fills us with the joy of the Lord; the fullness of His Spirit. We need to experience Jesus for ourselves – that's what real worship is – making music unto Him in our hearts – singing, delighting, resting, praying and when we do that, we who with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness, with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. I love this because we can't do it in our own strength. God has this amazing plan to transform you and me into His image from glory to glory. Just as we turn to worship Him and bow down before Him – to set us free, to fill us with the calm delight of His presence. This is where the rubber hits the road – this is so much better than keeping the veil over our hearts and trying to go out there and do it in our own strength. This is ... well, it's so God, isn't it? It's so.. Him! Do you get it? He wants to change you and me from glory to glory. He wants to transform us to, in effect, be Christ to a lost and hurting world; to look like and to walk like and to talk like Jesus – to ache like Jesus for those around us – in His image – that was always the plan.   A Treasure in Jars of Clay I was accosted recently by a man in a coffee shop in Chicago. It turns out, sad to say, that he was an Australian who heard me talking with my colleague in the coffee shop, and so he picked up my accent. Anyhow, this guy accosts me quite aggressively and starts telling me that if we believe in God, it's possible for us to be perfect here on earth. Unfortunately, I didn't think quickly enough – what I should have done is ask him, "So, do you know anyone who's like that, perfect, I mean?" Because the only perfect person I know is Jesus Christ. Now I want to deal with this because it's important. From what we've seen so far on the programme you could easily get the impression that I agree with that guy in the coffee shop. Just keep worshipping Jesus and you'll be exactly like Him – perfecto! My experience is that there are sometimes gaps between the glory – you know when it talks about us being transformed from glory to glory – I make mistakes every day, I fall short every day and my hunch is so do you. And if we think that we can end up being "perfecto", well, we are going to become very discouraged very quickly. Paul addresses this in the next few verses – go to Second Corinthians, chapter 4 and verse 6 – let's have a listen to what he says. For the God who said, "Let a light shine out of darkness," made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That kind of reinforces what we've been talking about. God does something, "He shines His light" as we get to know Jesus; He shines His light into our hearts. The same God who created light out of darkness – it's the first thing He did – "Let there be light" – that God speaks light into our hearts through Jesus Christ. But look at what He says in the next verse, verse 7. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our bodies. See, the treasure that Paul is talking about here is the wonder and the glory of God – that light that shines out from our faces and from all that we do when we are people of worship. The jars of clay, well, that's you and me – that's who we are! What a great contrast – the light shinning out the glory of God – bright and pure and perfect – but God takes it and He puts it in this rough and imperfect earthenware jar. Maybe it has some chips and cracks and that brilliant light of God's glory shines out from that imperfect and rough jar. See, sometimes we go and worship God and we come down from the mountain top and we are full of His glory and we think "everything is going to go well", but look what Paul says: We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus Christ so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. He was going through some difficult times in ministry – people were trying to kill him, they were locking him up, they were beating him, they were abandoning him. Just because we worship God doesn't mean that those things aren't going to happen to us – they do! We are in an earthenware jar. And what a sharp contrast between this beautiful, perfect, glorious light of God and this rough and imperfect and sometimes cracked and broken earthenware jar – they are so different you can tell the difference, you can't help it. And there's a reason for that. So that people will know that this light that they see on our faces – this glory of God, this all surpassing power comes from God and not from us. God is so realistic, isn't He? He doesn't expect perfection – He just wants us to come as we are – a bit rough around the edges, a bit perfect, with pressures and tensions in our lives and when we worship Him He pours His glory into us to shine out into the world. It's so easy for us to get discouraged! The more we worship God the more we see our own imperfections in His light but that's the plan – just for us to let Him take our lives as we are and for God to use them for His glory. That's worship – worship as a way of life. You go up to the mountain top and you worship Jesus – you do it with all your heart – you bow down and you worship Him in song and in prayer and in just resting in His presence and His glory with thanksgiving and with praise. And then we come down from that mountain top and we are walking around doing all the stuff we do in life and His glory just shines out into the world through the cracks in our earthenware jars. We go up to that mountain top again and He fills us again and again and we come down again and again and we live out that worship – it's just the way He made us. My earthenware jar was made for a different purpose to yours – yours is different to the next persons. We are all imperfect – that's the way it's meant to be so that nobody can be in any doubt that the glory comes from God. I love getting together with God's people and singing songs of worship and praise but you know the greatest times of worship for me are in my study with the door closed, with the Bible open, just praying and delighting and worshipping God and being filled with the sense of His presence; being filled with His Spirit. And then when I open that door and I go and do all the things I do in life, I'm a better husband; I'm a better father; I'm a better teacher; I'm a better manager; I'm a better everything because I spent that time worshipping God. Worship on the inside becomes worship on the outside – the things that we do in life. Worship – worship is a way of life.

Do the Aeronauts know if there's ever been any Fantastic Four Spin-off teams? Does Zac know who Modulus is? Email us your questions at wordballoonspod@gmail.com

What made American pilots want to fight in WW2 before Pearl Harbor? When did The United States of America join WW2? How did Eagle Squadron pilots transfer to The Fourth Fighter Group? Join Al Murray and James Holland for Part 2 of this new series looking at the larger-than-life American aces that flew to every corner of the Nazi empire, starting with Spitfires in the dark days of The Battle Of Britain to P-51 Mustangs at the closing stages of WW2. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Editor: Charlie Rodwell Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Social Producer: Harry Balden Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

https://theslyshow.com/2026/02/12/trump-bondi-did-a-fantastic-job-at-the-hearing/

Fantastic interviews with Alf Le Flohic chatting about the Sussex Lancers Motor Sport Club Photograph Exhibition.https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/event/the-sussex-lancers-tailor-made-leather-lovers/Flash popped in to update us on his charity bike ride for an amazing Sexual health service Checkpoint Canaries.http://bit.ly/emrys-flashPhillip Wragg pops in to talk about the upcoming National HIV testing week.https://tht.org.uk/news/national-hiv-testing-week-returns-2026

Joined by our friend, Katie Williams, we talk about dogs, training, getting a pup for the first time and eventually deciding to be a full-time dog trainer. It's not easy to consistently raise high-level dogs over and over but Katie does... Let's hear how she does it. Here's a few highlights from the show: Training dogs from start to finish What it takes to have an 8 week old pup grow into an awesome hunting and competition dog. “I'm never without a puppy.” Treat training, flat collars for pups, working with birds, raising several pups at a time and why that's less than ideal What to do with a pup inside the house vs outside the house Started Dogs… what to look for If you learn anything about getting pups… it's to never skip on health clearances. Support the Lone Duck Podcast | patreon.com/loneduckoutfitters Follow us on social media | Youtube and Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The seventh installment of Fresh Immigrants, Rotten Fascists introduces us to a whole host of characters that would get harassed by ICE in today's America. Writer and friend Cathy Alvarez joins us to talk about Usnavi and the rest of the Latino community of IN THE HEIGHTS!Thank you for checking this new project out, whether you are a long-time Contrarians fan or someone who's just trying to listen to people talking positively about immigrants and negatively about fascism. If you have any recommendations for future entries in the series, let us know!- Many thanks to the amazing Jordan Cooper for composing our intro and outro. Fantastic collaborator to work with - and he has a They Might Be Giants podcast: DON'T LET'S START. You can also check out Jordan's band TROUBLE'S AFOOT on Bandcamp!- Interested in more Contrarians goodness? Join THE CONTRARIANS SUPPLEMENTS on our Patreon Page! Deleted clips, extended plugs, bonus episodes free from the Tomatometer shackles… It's everything a Contrarians devotee would want!- Our YouTube page is live! Get some visual Contrarians delight with our Contrarians Warm-Ups and other fun videos!- Our buddy Cory Ahre is being kind enough to lend a hand with the editing of some of our videos. If you like his style, wait until you see what he does over on his YouTube Channel.- THE LATE NIGHT GRIN isn't just a show about wrestling: it's a brand, a lifestyle. And they're very supportive of our Contrarian endeavors, so we'd like to return the favor. Check out their YouTube Channel! You might even spot Alex there from time to time.- Hans Rothgiesser, the man behind our logo, can be reached at @mildemoniospe on Instagram or you can email him at mildemonios@hotmail.com in case you ever need a logo (or comics) produced. And you can listen to him talk about economy on his new TV show, VALOR AGREGADO. Aaaaand you can also check out all the stuff he's written on his own website. He has a new book: a sort of Economics For Dummies called MARGINAL. Ask him about it!

Nothing better than a entire country rooting for the same team Fred Smoot talks Commanders

Why did American pilots fight for Britain before the US entered WW2? When were the American 'Eagle Squadrons' formed in the UK? How did Don Blakeslee rise to prominence among his fellow pilots? Join Al Murray and James Holland for Part 1 of this new series looking at the larger-than-life American aces that flew to every corner of the Nazi empire, starting with Spitfires in the dark days of The Battle Of Britain to P-51 Mustangs at the closing stages of WW2. Start your free trial at ⁠patreon.com/wehaveways⁠ and unlock exclusive content and more. Enjoy livestreams, early access, ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and a weekly newsletter packed with book deals and behind-the-scenes insights. Members also get priority access and discounts to live events. A Goalhanger Production Produced by James Regan Editor: Charlie Rodwell Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Social: @WeHaveWaysPod Social Producer: Harry Balden Email: wehaveways@goalhanger.com Membership Club: patreon.com/wehaveways Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two-time World Team member "Mr. Fantastic" Benji Peak discusses recovering from a broken neck and returning to action just in time for the first two UWW Ranking Series tournaments of the year.

9:30 - Jeremy, Joe, Owen Parker, and Joe Cali put a parlay together for the Big Game.

Hour 4 in full

Hello and welcome to Summit in Six, from the communication and public engagement team for Summit County, Utah. Let's kick things off and get caught up! In this episode, we’ll take a deep dive into some recent land acquisitions by the county. We’re pleased to welcome our guest, Jess Kirby, director of the lands and Natural Resources Department. Jess, the county has recently closed on two major purchases involving historic ranches combined. The acquisitions have brought more than 9,000 acres under public ownership. Can you tell me a little bit about why the county would be interested in purchasing land like this? Thanks for that question. I’m glad to be here. We’re incredibly lucky in Summit County to have a county council and a county government that really supports conservation and land acquisitions. Our county council has as one of their objectives to put lands like this under conservation, and then, with the support from our community, we’ve been fortunate enough to have bond funds that allow us to do that work. When you put it like that, it makes perfect sense. We want to get into some specifics here. So we’ll start with the larger of the two acquisitions, the 910 Ranch, located along both sides of East Canyon Road between Jeremy Ranch and East Canyon reservoir. The 910 contains almost 8,600 acres of pristine forest land and vital wildlife habitat. What can you share about the 910’s history and prior management? The ranch has a very long history. Really exciting things have happened out there — starting way back with with the indigenous people. We have found some significant artifacts on the property. So we do know that we had significant use of the property from our Native American populations, which is exciting. And then fast forward into when settlement started happening in Utah, and in the 1890s the Jeremy family was the first owner of the land. They ran a sheep operation out there on almost 38,000 acres — a very big swath of land. As they sold off different pieces, part of that land is now Jeremy Ranch the neighborhood and then the elementary school there. That acquisition happened in about the 70s, and then the current landowner took over in the late 1980s–early 1990s and has been the sole owner of the property ever since. Why did the county want to acquire and protect the 910 Ranch specifically, and where did the funds come from? This is a really unique property for Summit County. It’s one of the last large contiguous pieces of land that we have in the western part of our county. By contiguous, we mean a large swath of land with one owner. It provide incredible wildlife habitat connections to other protected lands and forested lands owned by the forestry and state lands offices. There’s a state park right next to it, and there’s other forest legacy parcels that are really near it, so it creates this large swath of protected land. The funding, first and foremost, came from our community. The OSAC bond, which is the Open Space Bond that we passed in 2021, was a $50 million bond. It passed with over 70% support from our community. So we got a big thumbs up to go and do projects like this. So that $15 million as our first down payment came from the bond, and then I was tasked with finding the rest. The whole purchase was $55 million, so we had a $40 million deficit. Luckily, at that moment, we had an opportunity to go for a Forest Legacy Grant that allowed us to fill that gap, and we applied and were awarded those funds in 2023. Fantastic! I’m sure every acquisition is a little bit different, but I know we’ll be hearing more about that Open Space Bond again, when we discuss the Ure Ranch next. Before we move on, can you share what’s next for the 910? A lot of planning. For right now, it’s status quo. We’re keeping the land pretty much private. We’re not opening up, we’re not cutting the ribbon, and we’re trying to take our time and be very thoughtful about management and how we open up the property to the public. Like I said, it’s been in one landowner’s hands for a very long time. It’s kind of a wilderness area out there. It hasn’t had a lot of human interaction. There’s lots of wildlife. So we want to be very mindful about how we open that up, though we’ve been spending the last year or two doing some very overarching baseline assessments and conservation easement writing. We’ve done a forest health plan. We’ve worked on the watershed plans. We have a grazing plan. And so now we’re going to take all these plans, put them together, and put an overarching management plan together for the property, which is going to include some recreation. We’ve done several open houses and several surveys with the community, but we do hope to still engage with the community on the recreation plan coming forward. Some stakeholder meetings will be coming up here in the near future, then work session with council, and then we’ll adopt those final plans and make a plan for cutting that ribbon here soon. Going back in time just a few weeks, and traveling across the county towards the southeast: the Ure Ranch was formally acquired by Summit County in December 2025. This transferred 835 acres, split between five distinct parcels, into county ownership and kickstarted the process of placing each parcel under a conservation easement. As you enter the Kamas Valley on the east side, driving along State Route 248, you’d pass the Ure Ranch with most of the total area on the south side of 248. Who gave this ranch its iconic name, and what can you tell us about the ranch’s history? The Ure Ranch is named for the Ure family: a historic family in the Kamas Valley. They’ve been there since 1892, so 130 years this family has been on the property. They’ve run a dairy farm, different cattle operations over the years, and there were sheep there for a small minute. But that entire time it’s been ranched by that family and handed down through the family over those years. We definitely want to express our sincere gratitude to the Ure family for entrusting their legacy to Summit County and working alongside us towards this conservation goal. With that in mind, what natural resources and features can we protect now that the property is in public hands, and what changes might the public see in the coming years? So first and foremost, I think the protection of this ranch was important for us to preserve the rural quality of eastern Summit County, to keep agriculture on the land, and to keep producers on the land. So really protecting that use of the property — the historic use of the property — but also the watershed. These ranches are flood irrigated. They have great connection to the amount of water that gets into the Weber River, which then passes all the way down to the Great Salt Lake. And the Kamas Meadow is just a great big sponge. If you take that water out of the sponge, it dries up. So we really want to keep the water on the land. We want to keep the land in working hands, and protect that habitat, that resource. I think people forget about the fact that agricultural lands really serve as spaces for migrating birds like the cranes that come through every year. They nest out in those fields. They use those open spaces. It’s also winter habitat for mule deer and elk, and we have sage grouse populations out there as well. So I think there’s a lot of habitat that we’re protecting. We’re protecting a lot of heritage. There is Native American culture that we found on the property as well relics of tipi rings and different flakes that we found out there. And so we want to preserve that history as well and keep that green space open in our valleys. Are there any partners we can shout out that help make this acquisition happen? Yeah, absolutely! We couldn’t have done this without the partners that we have. Summit Lands Conservancy, first and foremost, they’ve been at the table with us from day one. Bringing in different federal grants — they did some application and we did some applications. Summit Lands worked on that North Meadows piece. We also received funding from the State of Utah’s Outdoor Recreation Initiative and the state’s Land and Water Conservation funds. So we had a lot of different funding streams that went in this to create that layer cake of funding that was needed to purchase this property. Just because I think the public would like to know, how much did the total purchase price end up being? $25 million was the final purchase price on the Ure Ranch. Thank you so much for giving such great background on these two historic properties and sharing a glimpse of their respective futures. Before we end, what’s the status of the Open Space Bond? Is there any funding left to acquire more conservation easements or properties? So with really great excitement, we’d like to announce that we have preserved almost 16,000 acres with the bond funds so far, and we do have money left! We’ve been really successful at leveraging those dollars. So with the funds that we have left, we are putting a shout out to the community. If you have land that you would like in conservation, or if you have neighbors that have land, reach out to us. Fill out an NOI, which is a notice of intent, that can be found on our website. That just gives us an idea of your property, and we can evaluate that. Yes we do have funding left over, and we do hope to get that back into more conservation lands. Whether you’re a land owner or just a local resident, how can one get involved with these conservation projects or maybe weigh in on future land acquisitions? We do have a formal board that helps determine the qualifications for funding, and that’s our OSAC board. We just recently onboarded three new members, so those opportunities come about every couple of years. Keep your eyes out if you are interested in being part of our formal board. Otherwise, you know, always can reach out to us via email or phone call, but if you’re just curious about the properties, please sign up for our newsletter. There’s a link on the lands page that you can get information. We’ll have different stakeholder meetings and public engagement opportunities to weigh in on the final management plans for both the 910 and the Ure Ranch, and we always have just different events that are going to be held. Right now, we are only holding those events on the 910 Ranch. The Ure Ranch is currently being leased back to the Ure family for another year, so it technically is still in their hands for one more year. But into the future, we’ll have events on that property. We do different kind of walks — birding hikes and education and vegetation walks — so can always engage with the Natural Resources Department with those things. Perfect! We’ll have links to all those pages as well as a way to sign up for the newsletter in our show notes. I just want to say thank you again, Jess, for joining the podcast. Best of luck in 2026 we hope to have you back with more good news in the future.

Our Goals for 2026: Jess is gonna finish a novel.Sarina is going to figure out what she wants a long haul writer career to looks like.KJ is going to write this book as hard as she can and for as long as it takes.Jennie is going to claim her authority in the writing space.Our Words of the Year are …Meanwhile: Fan of Heated Rivalry? You'll want to read these books by Sarina Bowen!Ready to talk about your own goals and words? COME ON IN. We are here for that!Hey - if you've been curious about becoming a book coach, Jennie'd like to invite you to a live training she's doing on February 4th, at 5pm PST / 8pm EST. She's going to be talking about how to become the kind of book coach writers love to pay. You can sign up at bookcoaches.com/liveWOTYs … in the episode! If you want to know what was so funny, you'll have to listen.Transcript Below!If you love us enough that you got this far…SPONSORSHIP MESSAGEHey, it's Jennie Nash, and if you've been curious about becoming a book coach, I'd like to invite you to a live training I'm going to be doing on February 4th, at 5pm PST, which is 8pm EST, and I'm going to be talking about how to become the kind of book coach writers love to pay. You can sign up for that at bookcoaches.com/live. That's bookcoaches.com/live. (bookcoaches.com/live) I'd love to see you there.EPISODE TRANSCRIPTJennie NashHey everyone, it's Jennie, and this is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, the place where we help you play big in your writing life, love the process, and finish what matters. All four of us are here today to talk about our Word of the Year for 2026 and our goals. This is one of our favorite episodes to do, and we've all been kicking our words around, and we're ready to share them with you. So Sarina, do you want to go first?Sarina BowenOkay!Jennie NashI just know you are kind of ready.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight off the diving board. No throat clearing, no chit chat. Yeah, we're just alrighty.Sarina BowenAll right, so I'm Sarina, and I write novels, and pretty much that is all I write. So my goals tend to look kind of the same from year to year, but my, but how I feel about them, changes. So in 2026 I plan to write two to three books, and when I do, I will be rolling off of two contracts with two different publishers. So that means that the other part of my 2026 is really asking myself what I want to do next. Because, you know, finishing energy is a really hard thing, but I'll be like extra super finishing energy here, because I'm finishing a commitment. And, you know, I used to have goals, like, I'm going to write more books. I'm going to write all the books. And I don't anymore, because there were, there was a while there where I only wrote books, and then last year, I did a really nice job of meeting my goals that I would also go and have more fun and take more vacations. And it worked. I did that. It turns out that planning fun takes a lot of energy and time. Oh my goodness, it was I, you know, I so I was either off having a wild time, or I was like, you know, nailed to my desk, and, yeah, so I need to do a slightly better job of that this year. Although looking at the schedule, it's a little hard to see how, because I'm spending a big chunk of March and part of April in Australia and Hong Kong, and then...Jennie NashWait you can't just throw that in and not say why. [laughing]Sarina BowenOh, well, I'm, I'm visiting. I'm doing four reader events in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.Jennie NashIt's so exciting, so exciting.Sarina BowenAnd you know, time will tell if accepting this invitation was, in fact, a good idea. When I get home, I will be—it'll be June, and I will be launching my second book of 2026, which is a romance and so, but, but then, you know, I will have turned in half of what I'm turning in this year, and I will be able to have big thoughts about what I do next. And that is the thing that is going to be hard about this year, not turning in files, but, you know, deciding what does it mean to me? And also a thing that I realized last year, while balancing my busy life is that in this job, there is no summit. It's not like you climb that big hill and then you stand there and you hear an angel choir, and then you know that the only thing that greets you after writing a big novel is that you will pretty soon, eventually write another one. So you have to enjoy the hike itself. And I am really working on that.Jess LaheyI actually have just—I have just to address what you just mentioned Sarina, I have put in my calendar in June. Since we love to—I happen to love the mid-year check-ins on goals. I put a little note to self, to future Jess to revisit Sarina's goals at mid-year so that we can talk about maybe what that second half of the year, what comes next, stuff is going to look like. So, expect that to come back around.Sarina BowenOkay, I hope there's some clarity by then, so I'll get right on that.Jess LaheyWell, and I would also like to mention that you mentioned, you know, all the work you're doing and doing fun and stuff like that. You also went back to skating this year, and you, I have loved watching you learn, relearn something fairly new, and gain skills and get determined to like, be able to do that. What's it called, when you change the side of the blade you're on? When you turn?Sarina BowenYeah, all that edge work...Jess LaheyIt's very exciting.Sarina BowenAnd those three turns. Yeah. So that is part of my leave the house and have fun plan, and that has worked out really well. It—when you do something that's so outside of your usual, like, we could just stipulate by now that I'm pretty good at writing a novel, because I have turned in a number of them and sold a number of them, but I am really not good at skating. So when you take yourself so far out of your element, and you do something that is so foreign to you, you learn, relearn all those weird little tricks about how you learned anything, and the fact that last year I could not do a three turn to save my life, which is where you turn around on one foot. And I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried to trick myself into it. And I'm like, okay, I'll take off on two feet, but land on one. I just every single thing didn't work. And then this year, now I can do it. And also, I woke up at four in the morning once and thought I could do a waltz jump tomorrow, and then the next day I did, in fact, just do a waltz jump. And I hadn't even been thinking about it. It wasn't even on my list of things I was going to try that week. So learning something really, really new is really just great for your brain and your attitude. And I don't know what the next thing that I do like that will be, but, yeah, I'm a fan.Jennie NashBut I must reflect back to you that a few years ago, you were, I think the goals had to you were working so hard and just, you know, book to book to book to book and, like, look at you now .You're going on all these trips, and you're learning to ice skate, and I know you and KJ are learning Mahjong.KJ Dell'AntoniaMahjong, yes.Jennie NashAnd you write in coffee shops like, you've kind of really changed that, that vibe. It's cool.Sarina BowenI have! I did it right? Like I said, I'm going to have more fun. I'm going to learn to write out of the house. Like I sat in a room and said to you that this was going to happen. And I did, right? But the, but then, but then, writing the actual books, it magically did not get easier. So I am having more fun, but it's still hard, and that's how I'm coming to this new realization that, like you know, I need to stop being surprised that the actual job is hard, but it's just like a piece of the fun that I'm having, and if and I can only write books that I'm probably going to enjoy, because it's still hard and it still takes a lot of hours.Jennie NashThat's amazing. I feel compelled to ask you, what are you most enjoying about what you're writing right now?Sarina BowenWell we are at maximum finishing energy, because I am finishing a revision, which is scary, right? Because then you're sending it off into the world of telling yourself that it's done. And I have to say, I have not enjoyed it all that much. This has been one of the more one of the more stressful weeks. But, yeah, I—but there are moments as I look through this manuscript, because I've just reached that point where you hate every living word of it, right? Where I read a line and I laugh, and then that's just a good sign.Jennie NashLike I'm so clever, look at me.Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheyI actually just, just for fun. I just dropped—I got to go—I traveled an hour and a half to go so that I could go sit in a coffee shop and work with these guys, because I miss them so much. And I took two pictures of Sarina while she was working there, and in one, she had this look on her face... I just dropped it in our group text just now, where she's got this look on her face like this is the hardest, worst thing I've ever done. And then I also took one of her smiling and looking like her usual happy self. But it was—I love having those two pictures together on my phone, because it's so representative of the slog. How there are these moments of really having fun and engaging with the book and loving it, and then there's those moments of editing where you're trying to just finish it and get all the words in the right order.Sarina BowenYep, it's, it's, you know that the push and pull and the trick to liking this job is that when you're in that trench of I have to be finished with this. I have to love it, and I have to set it free. You have to remember that the other side is out there. That like the drafting happy, I haven't made any big mistakes yet, I haven't sealed off all the x's yet, like that's waiting for you on the other side of it. You know, if you get too deep in one place or the other, so that you can't remember, the other one is out there for you. Then, then that's a trap. It makes the job harder.Jennie NashWell, thank you for that. Jess, do you want to go next?Jess LaheySure! Yeah, so last year, last year was weird. Last year, my, my, I'm going a little bit into what my word was last year; it was ‘amplified' because it led, it sort of guided a lot of my goals last year, which had to do with just reaching more people, but during the year, during the course of the year, reaching and educating more people on the topics that I feel really strongly about, like mental health wellness, the specifically substance use prevention, as it relates to things like self-efficacy in kids and feelings of competence in kids. I realized sort of part way through the year how much more I was enjoying and feeling engaged when I was talking to the kids, and how much more impactful I felt when I was talking to the kids, and that shouldn't be surprising. But, if you're not a speaker, and if you don't spend your time speaking to adults and kids and especially teens, you should know it takes, you know, maybe three to four times as much energy to talk to the kids as it does to the adults. In fact, yesterday, I was trying to explain to someone why a virtual event to a lot of kids, doesn't work. I can't project that much energy through a screen to captivate a big room of kids. It's just it's really hard to do. And anyway, so I realized about halfway through the year that I really wanted when I when I thought about the word amplify and expanding on the number of kids that I reach per year, and the depth to which I am able to reach some kids in particular, it comes it comes down to not just people, but just kids specifically. So I talked with my agents, and we've agreed that I'm going to try to incorporate more kids this year. That even if it's more exhausting for me, it's more fulfilling, and so that's one of my big goals for this year, is to figure out how—yes, I still have to talk to adults, and I have to help them understand how to talk to their kids about substance use and mental health and how to see, know, love, support the kids you have, and not the kids you wish you had and all that stuff. But when it comes down to it, I have to figure out ways to get in the room with kids more and...KJ Dell'AntoniaYou're a kid-travert!Jess Lahey[laughing] Apparently.KJ Dell'AntoniaWhich some people get their energy from being with people, and some people get, you know, it takes—that's extroverts and introverts. So you're a kid-travert, you get your energy from talking to kids. That's delightful!Jess LaheyIt's in the moment. In the moment, it's much more exhausting. But there was a—I spoke at a school in Los Angeles. It was one of the best days I had in front of kids. And the number of emails I got afterwards explaining why it was meaningful to them. You know, I love when the kids, anytime a kid reaches out, it's this huge honor, because, you know, I'm, who am I? I'm some adult that comes into their school because their teachers say that, and now their teachers say they have to listen to this bozo. They don't know who this person is. But over time, I've figured out ways to help them trust me a little bit more, even before I get there. Like creating these videos where I introduce myself ahead of time. So I'm trying to figure out all the ways in to getting being a trusted adult, becoming a trusted adult to more and more kids, is something that's incredibly important to me, because that's where the great education stuff lies. So that amplify word changed for me over last year, and it's reflected in this year's goals as well, which is, get in front of more kids. I track those numbers really carefully. Last year, I was in front of just shy of 10,000 people generally, and a couple of 1000 kids. And I just want to change that ratio a little bit so that it's have more heavily in the kid direction and less heavily in the adult direction. Just because it's fun and really interesting and challenging. That's the other thing is, when you've been doing something for a long time, there are some talks I can do in my sleep, because I've done them so many times, and I don't want to do that, like, why would you want to come and spend time with someone who's asleep in front of you? But you know, they look good and it sounds good, but they're not totally invested. And I think everybody can feel that. So I've had to find ways to change things up, to reevaluate my content from other angles, so that I'm not getting sick of myself, and so that I can be fresh and new and useful to people. So, and then, like, I have small goals, you know, Sarina was just talking about her skating and looking, you know, trying to do something completely new that makes you a little nervous. You know, the beekeeping thing still makes me super nervous. And as I mentioned in another episode, I think Tim saw me emotionally preparing to do something I needed to do with the bees and he said I have never seen you so nervous and so doubting yourself about your ability to do something, and I realized how good that is for me. And so we will see at the end of this winter if my bees actually made it through the winter, and if they did, I'll have a hive of bees to deal with, and if they don't, I'll have to get a new hive. But that's been really, really good for me. Sarina, did you want to add something?Sarina BowenI have a question.Jess LaheyYes, ma'am.Sarina BowenDo we have a writing goal for this year?Jess LaheyYes, we do. And that's actually at the bottom of my list, because it's new. So I've been attending this weekly, really interesting virtual Blueprint for a Book Fast Track. What is it? Jumpstart you guys? With Jennie Nash, this really great book coach and founder of Author Accelerator, and KJ Dell'Antonia and I have been actually writing—working on this novel that I've been working on for ages and ages and ages and thinking about at a minimum once a week, and I'm going to finish it this year. 100% I'm going to finish it this year. And I'm really grateful to Jennie and KJ, because being in that, in—being in there, is forcing me to ask me all kinds of questions about, why am I even bothering to stick with this thing that has stymied me for over a decade? Like, why bother if it's been that hard and I haven't ever gotten it done, why am I even doing it? And I love asking myself those questions. It's been really fun. Plus, there's like 100 other people in that virtual session asking themselves the same questions and coming up with really cool answers for why they're even writing something in the first place. And it gets at all these fundamental questions of why we do what we do. So yes, I will be, I'm researching a nonfiction thing still. I have a—I'm looking at a stack of books behind me, and but I'm going to finish this YA novel this year period, full stop, it's going to happen..Multiple Speakers[Unintelligible] [several speaking at once]Jennie NashWell what's cool is, is, I mean, YA is not children, but it's young people. So that's kind of cool. It goes with your other thing.KJ Dell'AntoniaThere's a trend there.Jess LaheyYeah. And it was funny, because when you were asking the why the other night, and one of my things was, oh, because these characters speak to me, blah, blah, blah. And KJ mentioned, oh, I do know what Jess is talking about. And maybe it's, you know, she wants to write a coming of age story, and that's 100% it. I think I have, I have. I very much love that coming of age space and the struggles that middle school and high school kids go through in that coming of age space. And I think I have an interesting insight into it, and an ability to, an ability to make it come alive on the page. And I, for me, really want to do that. I really want to see it on the page, and I'm really excited about it.Jennie NashYou do have such a compassion for that age and what people are going through and how hard it is and it's...Jess LaheyAnd I love these characters. And I said I love these characters, and I want to do right by them. And that's true too. I do love these characters, and I can't stop thinking about them.Sarina BowenThat is the best reason to finish any piece of fiction. You know?Jess LaheyYeah, no, I really it's like they're stuck until I help them get to the other side. And I would hate to leave them there. I would it would make me feel really bad.Jennie NashI love it. Well you know, committing to something that you've been working on for that long, that's a that's a big deal.Jess LaheyYeah, it's also one of those. I know it's going to feel really, really good when I finish it. It'll be like, oh my gosh, I've been harping on that for whatever it is now 12 or 13 years, and I finally finished it. So I know it's going to be one of those. I'm going to be very, very glad I did it when it's done. And is it super hard? Yes, I've, you know, bitched and moaned about this in the past, that fiction is really hard for me and dialog is so hard for me, but that's what I'm writing right now.Jennie NashThat's another, another learning edge, right?Jess LaheyYep. Yep.Jennie NashAwesome. KJ, what about you?KJ Dell'AntoniaMy only goal this year with respect to writing is to write this book as hard as I can for as long as it takes. That's all I got. I got a couple other goals. I'd like to get my Christmas tree down at some point during the year. It seems like a plan. I was pretty excited about the Valentine's Day concept a few years ago, but I don't know, people have been really negging on it. Easter also, apparently not tree material. I mean, come on the fourth? I'm seeing it. No one else is. So there's that. No, my and my big life goal is to leave more white space for myself in my day and in my calendar, to do things, to not do things, and for the unexpected things, both good and bad things. I have a real tendency to be like from 11:30 to one I'm doing this, and from 1:30 to 2:30 there's this, and hey, at three there's this. And that is, in fact, an excellent description of my day. And sometimes I like it, but I just do it to myself constantly, and I need to stop.Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jennie NashThat's all? Okay. Mic drop. I'm just thinking about that white space. What? What happens when you have white space?Sarina BowenYou know what happens to me when I have white space, because I'm actually pretty good at keeping it in my calendar, is that I get an email that's like, and today, we will be choosing among these eight narrator auditions. And then you will decide who is the narrator for this book that you haven't been thinking about for four months since you last did the copy edits, and then my whole day just explodes in a little puff of admin, like trying to get out of my own inbox is killing me. So, yeah, I don't, I don't. It's not even that I planned it. Other people are making this my, my problem, and I wish I had a 2026, goal for how to fix it.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, there's that. I mean, to some extent, I think that's my point. Is that I would like to stop doing it to myself, because I mean it through exactly the thing it is was not my was not my idea, nor was the thing, the unexpected event at eight o'clock this this morning, or the one when I walked in from the expected thing from nine to 10. I need to do a little less of it for myself, to allow for the fact that the other things in my life, I think, and I did this to some extent last year too. My final kids have actually all left for college this year, which is great, but there's still a lot of trouble. And also I have a lot of pets, and also just, there's a lot going on. So I sort of thought, and I really made this mistake in the Fall pretty hard. I thought, oh, I should probably fill like I should put some things on the calendar because I might feel sad. A, I still felt sad, and that was okay. And B, I put way too much on the calendar, given the number, amount of time I had to spend on... I'm just yeah, and here I am thinking I didn't do it in the spring, and I didn't, but I sort of am doing it on a daily basis, like, oh, look. And some of that is just that this was, what am I wrong? Was this the longest holiday season ever in the history of holiday season? Like it was still Christmas on January 17, I swear to God. And so a lot of it, I think, is I'm feeling a little dejected, because my days are really packed, because I had the sense not to put everything in the week of January 6, but I put a lot of things this week and last week. So hopefully I'll, but, but having done that, and now feeling it, I think, I hope, will inspire me to block off more time that, no doubt, will get filled with things. But that's better than it getting filled with things and my having already filled it.Jennie NashYep.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's not going so great.Jennie NashI get that. Okay, so, so for me, I made some really big moves in my business in 2025 and they worked, and that was great. And I made a decision toward the end of the year to make even bigger moves, and did some thinking about, I wouldn't say, an exit strategy or a succession plan, but I'm 62 this year, and I'm working really, really, really hard in my business day to day, running, you know, pretty big small business, and I really want more time to create. To create curriculum, to, I just like making things. You know, to work on the podcast, to work on my own book, and I'll talk about that in a minute. And so I made a training plan to teach my team to take over the things that they are fully capable of taking over, if I just get it out of my head and onto a page to teach them how to do it. So it's a really big move for me, and kind of a terrifying move. It means trusting people. It means handing over some things. It means there's some ego-y things involved in that, the idea that nobody can do it as well as I can. And so, yeah, that's, that's big. It's big mindset. It's big actual shifting of duties. It's, it's kind of the white space idea writ large. What, what would it look like for me to have more white space? And it is, it is not retiring, it's not stopping. It's just, can I do more of what I want to do and less of the—of the day to day of this business? I am constantly surprised by the thing I have made. Author Accelerator has more than 375 certified book coaches now, and it's this huge community, and they're having a huge impact. And a lot of my coaches are becoming huge their own selves and doing really well, and just we're becoming known. And all of that takes time to manage, like the, I don't know, I wouldn't call it the brand, it's, it's the community. It just takes a lot of time to manage and the kinds of inquiries that we get and that sort of thing. And I, it's a thing that needs care, and I'm the one to give it that care. So just meeting the moment, I guess, is what my goal is for the year, and as part of that, the Write Big Sessions that I've been doing here at the podcast are my stepping into that space of thought leadership and creation, content creation in a different way. And haven't talked about this a lot, but I am writing a Write Big book, and I went out and found myself a brand new agent. I did my search from scratch. I did it cold. I tried to find the perfect agent for this book, rather than somebody that I knew, because I know a lot of agents, and I don't want to, I don't want to talk about a lot of specifics at the moment about who that person is, or what's happening really, but I will say that it's taken a little minute to get it together, because that's how it happens sometimes. But the book is out on submission, even as we speak, and I was telling KJ, this agent does something that I've never heard of and never seen, and I love it so much, which is that she shares a spreadsheet of the submissions and puts the responses right in there so I can log in, you know, 10, 12, 25 times a day and...Multiple Speakers[all laughing]KJ Dell'AntoniaJust normal, healthy behavior, right?Jennie NashWhich is so fantastic. Rather than, like, why isn't she telling me, or how come we haven't heard or whatever? But it's very, very early days, and so all that's coming in are the no's, because that's, that's what happens. But the no's are so great. I love them so much. They're totally boosting me up. Because, like, people know me. They know my work. They like my work. Like I, I don't know. I'm just so delighted by the nature and quality of the no's, which is just a funny place to be, but that is, that is where I am so...Sarina BowenJennie, it's a fantastic place to be. Like I have never heard another author say the no's make me happy. Like that is not a sentence I have heard in my life. And I know a lot of authors, so the fact that you know that that's, I just have good, good feelings and good thoughts about this project, and you are amazing.Jennie NashWell, thank you. And that is not by accident. That's what Writing Big means, right? It's like I own this idea. I'm not waiting to be picked; I'm not waiting to be anointed. I'm not waiting for somebody to say, you know, good job. But, when they do, and you know, these no's are just indications, like I self-published the Blueprint Books and I sort of think of them as this little thing that I made. I made them for my coaches to use in their coaching, and I made them to, it's a model that I teach. I didn't ever think of it as a thing, but I've sold more than 20,000 copies of the Blueprint Books my own self, and, but I just didn't think like editors would know what they are. They would use them with their own authors. They would know my company. They would know my coaches, and that's what all the no's are showing me. And that I'm just, I'm just like, when do you get a mirror into your impact? It feels like the no's a mirror into my impact, and I feel, I feel like there's no doubt that something great is going to happen with this book. I have no doubt. So bring on the no's and have them be awesome, because I know good things, great things are coming, and whether, who knows what path that is going to be, but that, that is where I am, and that sharing of the spreadsheet that this agent has done is just feeding right into, I mean, for other people, it might be the biggest disaster in the world, but for me, I'm like, this is so fun. I love it. My goal is for the year to lean into this bigger vision of what I can be.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's a good goal.Jennie NashThank you. Well, I'm going to share my word first, because it just goes so well with what I've just been saying, and it's so obvious, and it's so great. And my word of the year is ‘play big'. Play big.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's two words.Jess LaheyThat's two words.Sarina BowenI get two words.KJ Dell'AntoniaShe's allowed to have two words because she's playing big.Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jennie NashAll right, we have to go in reverse order then so KJ, what's your, what's your word?KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, my word of the year is, is ‘alive'.Jess LaheyOh, dear. Okay, that's a... quite a goal you got there missy.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's a good word... laughingJennie NashCan you explain?!Sarina BowenShe can't, because she's laughing really hard right now.KJ Dell'AntoniaUm, it was going to be enthusiast, because I wanted to be sort of a welcoming both the challenges and the excitements of my life. But I really just feel like, and then it was going to be relish, but, but that's pickles, and I hate them. And then I'm just, I just feel really good about just letting it all come and, and being a part of it.Jennie NashOkay, good word.Jess LaheyOh, Sarina?Sarina BowenI've used a lot of the words.Jess LaheyOh, not yet. Sorry.KJ Dell'AntoniaShe said, reverse order.Jennie NashI'm laughing so hard that I'm crying.Jess LaheyOh, she said, reverse order. That's right.Sarina BowenWe have done this so many times, and we have never laughed all the way through it. Okay, okay.Jess LaheyKJ is right though we have used all of the words, I actually considered reusing one of my words this year, but then I thought maybe that was a cop out. So I did come up with a new word.Sarina BowenI considered it, and then I was too lazy to go look them up.Jess LaheyThat's quite a statement there, Bowen.Sarina BowenI know!Multiple Speakers[all laughing uncontrollably]KJ Dell'AntoniaI know I had savor before, that was kind of where I was going, but...Jennie NashI can't stop laughing.KJ Dell'AntoniaI don't know I feel very gritty about my... [unintelligible]Jennie NashI'm like snort laughing over here at the idea of I'm never going to not hear relish and pickles. [laughing uncontrollably]Jess LaheyI know, I know, I like it so much. I love it.Sarina BowenWell, she really doesn't like pickles. KJ is that friend where if she is served a pickle with her lunch, you can take it.Jess LaheyYeah. Absolutely.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd the bit of bread that it touched.Sarina BowenOkay Jess? Jess, I don't know how you're going to follow this, but do you have a word?Jess LaheyI do have a word, and I'm really excited about this word, because years ago, when I did a really cool conference in Abu Dhabi, I met this woman that I was shocked I hadn't met before. But her name is Elke Govertsen, Elke, and she has a Substack. Her Substack is just, it's @ Elke, is her. She managed to snag @ Elke. She has a newsletter. She has something called Open Nesting. She's got older kids. Anyway, I subscribed to her Substack. I love it. She's one of those people that when she walked down on stage to give her talk, she just glowed from inside, like she was one of those people that you just, I felt really drawn to. So I started following her and her year, her word for this year I really liked, although I thought about it in a different way than she did. Her word for the year is ‘allow'—a, l, l, o, w—and so that is my word for the year, to allow myself to do some things. For example, finishing this book, and just realizing, allowing myself to be really bad at it and hoping that I can pull it off, allowing myself to look really dumb doing stuff like the beekeeping, allowing myself some grace about the fact that I'm probably killed my bees this winter because they're not insulated enough, all of the things. But I just really liked her word allow. So that's where I am. That's my word. I was going to redo evaluate, because I really did like that one, because that the emphasis there was, like, figure out what's valuable to you, but whatever, I've used that one before, so I'm going to give credit out to Elke and go with allow.Jennie NashOkay, Sarina, what about you?Sarina BowenWell, you know, I picked a word, and I usually really struggle with this, and I never feel quite comfortable with it, but I pick something, or it just picked me one day, and that word is ‘esteem'. And my little job, my little job is having a strange little moment of esteem, because there's this show that's at the tippy top of HBO right now called Heated Rivalry. And Heated Rivalry is a book that is a queer hockey romance, which is something that I have also written since 2014, and it has; strangely, some of my best performing books ever over the last decade fall into what I thought was a niche. So I write this niche thing, and people read it and they love it, but you know, it has always stayed in its corner until now. And Rachel Reid is the author of the book called Heated Rivalry, from which this TV show was made very faithfully. And Heated Rivalry is a fantastic novel, by the way. Fantastic conflict, and an interesting story structure. So it has been quite a revelation to watch her book and story reach an audience that I did not feel it was capable of. And there is something about that, that really spoke to all the parts about my, of my business, where, for example, sometimes I have to do research. And early on, I almost felt apologetic about asking an orthopedic surgeon to talk to me about something for a romance novel, because I just assumed that they would roll their eyes. I did it anyway. Thank you, Mark, Dr. Mark, for explaining knee surgery to me. But um, so esteem is a couple of different things. It is choosing projects that I esteem and that I care about, not because I think they'll sell, but because I love them, and also just realizing that the esteem that comes to various things that we do is not always predictable or measurable or something to rely upon. So I have to esteem it all on my own before I commit the time to do that. And that is how I ended up picking this word that I that I really like. It's kind of a quiet word. It doesn't, it isn't sexy, I guess is, is a word I would describe it, not really, but, um, but it is a, it's like asks you to pause and measure how we feel about something before we commit. And that is how I ended up there.Jess LaheyI love that meaning to the word. I love it.Jennie NashSomething that also occurs to me is you spoke with such esteem about this other author and the work that that she's done, and that's something that you often do, and you lift up all the writers in lots of different ways. And that esteem you have for the process of writing and the publishing business and the hard work of it comes across as well. So I like that meaning too.Sarina BowenWell thank you. I had an interesting conversation with my 22 year old son, who is quite a reader. Right now he's trying to get to the end of Crime and Punishment before his semester really kicks in. And he asked me over drinks, on a trip to Boston that I was making time for, so go me, if I could write like anyone, like if I could suddenly have the skills of any author, dead or alive, who would I pick? And I instantly gave him a couple of names in contemporary fiction that he has never read and never will, because there are people who write books that are not for 22 year old nerds. And, um, and he, he sort of blanked and he's like, no mama, like you could have, you could be Tolstoy, you know, like you could pick anything. And I'm like, no, I'm serious. I have esteem for the things these people are doing in contemporary fiction. And it's like that, um, that George Michael quote, like, when are you going to make some serious music? And he says, you don't understand, I'm very serious about pop music. And you know, it's my right to esteem whatever I choose. And I really do choose this. It's not; it's not a runner up thing for me. This is my interest, and I'm going to value it.Jess LaheyHell yeah,Sarina BowenYeah. Woohoo!Jennie NashI feel like we should end on that.Jess LaheyYeah. I think that's a good place to stop.Jennie NashThat was some power, power language there. We would love our listeners to share in the chat your goals for the year, your words for the year, how you feel about pickles and their touching a bread. [laughing] We would love to hear all the things from you, and until next time, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.NarratorThe Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perrella. Our intro music, aptly titled, Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for the This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Kiera is joined by Dr. Paul Etchison to talk about changing the mindset of turnover = failure. This transition is part of the evolution of leadership. Both Kiera and Dr. Etchison share their own experiences in remaining true to core values, and keeping their definitions of success separate from whether a team member stuck around or not. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today is an extra special day. I have one of my faves and every time we podcast, people say, you two just seem like you love each other so much. And I really do. I've been to this man's practice. We've been friends in the industry for I don't even know how many years pre-COVID. That's a long time. And we've been on each other's podcasts a lot. He has an incredible podcast. He's an incredible human, incredible friend, incredible mentor. I got the one and only Paul Etchison on the podcast today. Welcome. How are you today, Paul?   Paul Etchison (00:28) Hey, I'm good. And I was just thinking about how you mentioned like the pre-COVID thing. You texted me a picture of when you came into my practice for two days. And it was like before COVID. And what was funny about it, and I don't know if it's funny or not, but like I looked at it and half of my team has turned over. They're all new people. So I know. ⁓   Kiera Dent (00:36) cute.   Mm-hmm.   It's real life, Paul. That's real life. It is funny and isn't because I go back and I used to   be embarrassed about that. So let's just kind of highlight on that. I used to actually be very embarrassed of like, my gosh, I don't have senior team members. And like, I hate the question. There was a hot minute. The Dental A Team felt like I was Johnny Depp in the middle of the ocean and my boat was full blown on fire. And I was like, I just hope another one shows up soon. Like I hope something comes. ⁓   And then I realized that's business ownership. Like that's real life. And yes, we built these great cultures, but you outgrow team members and team members outgrow you in life circumstances. And I'd rather be honest and real rather than perfect. And so the fact that like teams shift in a lot, mean, shoot, I used to have this vision board, Paul, you want to hear how ridiculous this was? And I took the team and I put them in the one year, the three year, the 10, and I just had this like same team follow with me. That lasted me for like six months. And I was like, rip this thing up.   Paul Etchison (01:31) Yes.   You   Kiera Dent (01:40) It's   gotten better, it's stabilized, but I think that that's real life. So thanks for talking about it.   Paul Etchison (01:44) It's hard,   yeah, I mean, we look at it and I think like the beginning of my practice career, I had very little turnover, but it was, I had to put so much into keeping that. Like it was such a hard thing to keep going. there was a lot of team members that I kept and I was able to make them happy and I was able to have it be a productive relationship and they were good at the practice. But sometimes I look back on it I'm like, man, it was just, that was a lot of energy I put into one person. I should have just moved on.   So that's how I practice now. It's different. There's a little bit more turnover and I think that's normal and that's part of business ownership. So we're okay.   Kiera Dent (02:16) What changed in your mindset for that? I have so many questions for you today. You guys, Paul and I, when we get on the podcast, it really is just like a free for all. And Paul has no clue. I have a full plan of what I'm asking you today, ⁓ but it's going to be a free for all rift of business ownership of teams. How did you change that perspective? Because I think so many people chalk that up to, I'm a failure of a boss if I've got turnover. Like I had a doctor the other day on a coaching call and she's like, Kiera,   Paul Etchison (02:19) Yeah.   Kiera Dent (02:42) What am I going to do for PR? Like I've got people turning over and how do I PR this? So anything is twofold. One, how did you get like mentally change that mindset? Cause I think it's a big mental game.   Paul Etchison (02:54) Yeah, for me, was everything that I've done in my career as far as like leadership growth and stuff, I think has always stemmed from some period of just struggle and burnout to some extent. It was like, I got to the point where I was taking everything that happened at the practice personally, every upset person at upset employees, they're bothered about something. They're they always, I mean, they're telling you how you should be doing things that not realizing that there's very complicated solutions. And sometimes there's not perfect solutions. A lot of times there's   perfect solutions. So I think what changed for me is I started looking at it from a point of my mental sanity saying I can't attribute my feelings on the happiness of all these team members anymore.   And all I need to do is just be very clear on what I want, be very consistent with the way that I treat them and hold them to that standard. But ultimately, I'm putting the ball in their court. It's up to them. And if they want to play ball, cool. If they don't, that's cool too. We can still be friends and you can go to some other office where it's more to your liking. But the biggest change for me was just realizing I can't be everything to everybody. And I did it for a long time and it was really exhausting. And I worked through that and I feel a lot better   it.   I think my team   is better for it.   Kiera Dent (04:08) Yeah, no, I don't disagree. And I'm glad you talked about that. It's been fun. think Paul, you felt like, I don't know, a big brother to me when we met and I came out to your practice and the fun things we've been able to do together and just the differences. ⁓ I think as we've grown up in the industry together, but I, I admired that because I always thought you had this amazing team. And I think to hear your version and then my version at the same time was very similar. I just realized like,   We got a killer team. Like this is an amazing company. And I think when I evolved to you're so lucky to work here, you're so like not in an egotistical way, but I think in a confidence way of like, this is a great place and we're going to attract people. I started realizing like I had confidence to make offers of what we actually wanted to pay versus what I felt like I had to chase to get people to be here. ⁓ we pivoted and I used to like chase all the time and try to be everything for everybody. And then I'm like,   Why am I doing this? Kiera, like you have built a company and a culture and a space that people love. And yes, there are changes and I will continue on forever evolve. I don't think that we're a perfectly set company, but I think that we're a pretty great, awesome place to work. And I think when I became centered, confident in me and what I was providing in the culture without having to be everything, I noticed I actually attracted a way different type of employee. I attracted somebody who wanted that same style. They, it,   It was like no more like games. think in like compensation and all this, it was more just centered. It was like, this is what we do and this is who we are and I want great people. And I also think it was very much attributed to like, got dialed in on core values. And I was like, I'm sticking to these. These are like rock solid. do not deviate from that. And if you don't fit. Fantastic. There is another opportunity, like go find your dream place and we're going to find our dream team member. And I say that in a very like confident, hopefully not egotistical. And I think you, sounds like you did a similar thing, but I.   I will say, I think you go through a space of realizing you're not a failure. It's an evolution. I think of, of leadership. It's almost like going from, I don't want to say immature. It's more like children and how's they grow. Like, I don't think a little baby is a failure for having that knowledge and that mindset. And I think some of us, are toddler baby owners. Like we've never done this before. We don't know. So we're going to have a different mindset. And then you just start to morph and evolve just like   Children grow up and they morph and evolve into these teenagers, into these college students, into like the prime of their life. To me, that also feels like a maturity of leadership as well to being confident with that.   Paul Etchison (06:42) Yeah,   I love that you point that out too, because we do, we hear a lot of complaints from our team members and then we start to, it starts to add up and then we start to really doubt.   Did we really create a great work environment? I mean, we just had an all day meeting maybe about two months ago, maybe six weeks ago,   like that. And one of the questions I asked, we use this thing called Slido. It's just in real time, you put on a PowerPoint slide and everybody can vote on their phone. There's a million like programs that do this. But I asked the whole team anonymously on a scale of one to 10, how fun is it to work at Nelson Ridge Family Dental? And I was terrified to throw that   Kiera Dent (07:03) Thank   Paul Etchison (07:19) there. I had no idea what people were going to say.   Kiera Dent (07:20) I don't blame you.   Paul Etchison (07:22) It was everybody was like eight, nine. There was like three or four sixes. Now I have 30 something team members.   So the   Kiera Dent (07:29) Yeah.   Paul Etchison (07:30) of it was very good, but it was, it was scary.   if you would have asked me what I thought it was going to   Kiera Dent (07:35) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (07:37) I did not think it was going to be that good because the squeaky wheel gets the grease. This, you know, that's what we hear. That's what we focus on. And it reminds me of this one coaching client I had, cause I coached dentists as well. had a coach coaching client named Isaac and he did very similar to you.   choir practice, he really got deep into the foundational core values of this is what the practice is. And   turned over his entire team and he said, I feel like such a failure. I feel like everybody's leaving. I feel like I'm just turning everybody off. Patients are coming in and asking where everybody is. I just don't think my leadership's good. And I told him, just hang through,   Hang, you'll find your people. And then six months later, he was like, I cannot tell you how much I love my team. And so I think the message of what you and I are saying, Kiera, is that no matter   Kiera Dent (08:12) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.   Right.   Paul Etchison (08:22) what you want to do with what kind of vision you have for your practice, your team's out there. They are there. They are waiting for someone to take charge and just make it a big deal that that's the type of people we have at this practice.   Kiera Dent (08:26) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (08:33) So if anyone's listening thinking like, have this issue at my office, get those core values out, talk to the team about it. Don't just like leave it on a document, bring it up with ⁓ a meeting and say, guys, this is what I truly want.   And sometimes apologize. I'm   I haven't been holding everyone to the highest regard or the highest standard, but I'm ready to do it and I need your help. So I love that you brought up those two points. Those are amazing things and I think everybody struggles with that.   Kiera Dent (08:55) Yeah.   I think, and I think that that's something that I feel you and I both strive to do is tell people feel like they're not alone. I think so many doctors feel like I'm the only one out there. I'm the only one who can't keep my team there. I'm the only one who has team turnover. And like, this is not the path that we were even on my radar to head, but I think it's obviously the most important path for people to hear. ⁓ I think Paul, it's the no judgment. It's the hang through it. It's, ⁓ having a guide, a mentor who's been there, done that, done that successfully. I mean, you and I can both like,   Gosh, you like grit through that and it's painful. But I also believe that while yes, painful, I feel it's an evolution of soul that you actually internally are craving. I don't believe that we rise to the call until we're ready. Like Kieran 2020, when I'm sitting on Johnny Depp like boat in the ocean, it was on fire. I was not ready for the call and the evolution that came in 2024 for me.   Like I just, wasn't ready for it, but come 2024. And I think it's a, it's a shedding, it's a shifting. It's a, like, I call it like the skin sloughing. Like it's like a snake, like you're leaving it behind. It's, I watched penguins when I was in Antarctica, like small flex there, Paul. Like the Antarctica trip was pretty rad. And we watched it. Right? We went to Antarctica. Penguins are so cute and they smell terrible. Like they're like little ketchup bottles that just squirt poop all day long. And it's disgusting.   Paul Etchison (10:11) I was just going to follow up on that. Whoa.   Kiera Dent (10:25) but they were molting when we were there and they just looked absolutely miserable. Like they sat there and they told us like, please don't touch the penguins. like, these look just, they're like, it's very painful for them. They're having to completely molt off all of these feathers. And I think that that's how I feel a lot of business owners are like, are you going through that molting process? But again, just like those penguins, just like us, I really do believe that when we're ready to be called to that higher level, one, you're not alone, two, you don't have to go through it alone.   Three, it's normal and it's part of growth, but like, there's also, you don't have to grow until you actually want to. Like, it sounds like Isaac was just ready. Like, I'm ready, I'm done. Like, I've hit my limit. I was ready, I was done. I was like, we are having a complete culture shift. Like, we're done and like, it needs to evolve. Sounds like you had it. But I also feel, and I don't know how you feel, Kieran 2020, Kieran 2024, even into 2025, leadership culture company.   keeps evolving. don't feel like I have as many of those like huge molting in 2020, huge molting in 2024, 2025. It's more of a shift in a refinement rather than a full molt. But that's, think how, at least for me, that's how I think I view leadership is.   Paul Etchison (11:37) Yeah, totally agree. It's like we go through these stages of leadership growth. And I remember for me, like leadership all the way up to COVID was like system, system, systems, consistency with team. And my team grew to like 35, 40 people and it got really unmanageable. And then when we came back from COVID from being shut down, I really wanted to try to do something different. And I wanted to keep that. ⁓   I just loved when we were shut down for COVID. I loved how it felt. It felt easy. And I said, I want that, but I don't want that craziness when we open up again. And when I did, I started to feel that same craziness. And I was going to therapy at the time. And like the therapist will tell you, just change your expectations. Don't take everything personally. And what I learned through that is there's no amount of therapy that can   broken leadership   Is that I had systems, I had consistency, but my team   had outgrown those systems. We needed more systems of leadership. So the next stage in my leadership was learning how to lead leaders and truly delegate and truly give them the autonomy to do everything. And when we did that, everything got so much better. there was parts of me that was like, I'm not the right person for this level of organization. not the right person for this size of a dental office. I'm just too anxious. I take   Kiera Dent (12:41) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (12:59) too personally. And ultimately, I think it was just I   Kiera Dent (12:59) you   Paul Etchison (13:02) set up, I didn't set up my organization the proper way. So that was the next level up for me. And I think that's me shedding my skin finally once and for all to learn how to lead leaders. And who knows what's   Kiera Dent (13:14) Paul, I think that you are actually a really good example of letting go of control. How do you do that? Like,   I remember talking to you one day, this is offline, hopefully I'm not oversharing. And you're like, a lot of people say, like, what are you going to do if you retire? And I know you sold your practice to a DSO and you're like, I've never looked back. Like it was great. Um, you're like, I'm actually the person who's okay to just like sleep in and do nothing. Like I really am okay with that. Like, how did you let go of that control with your team? Um, knowing that they weren't going to do it exactly like you, like, I think people have this in theory. They try to do it, but.   Paul Etchison (13:23) No, of course not.   Kiera Dent (13:49) Like that's another molting. That's another really hard gap to go from full control. You're in charge of everything to I'm stressed out. Now I'm going to let team members take over and maybe you're, maybe you're an anomaly, maybe you're a unicorn, but how did you do it?   Paul Etchison (13:59) Yeah.   I think it's like we talked about the growth, but I think where we screw up as practice owners when we do this is we get upset that the team members are not doing exactly the way that we would do it. And there needs to be some wiggle room. There needs to be a lot of forgiveness. But ultimately, there's got to be clarity. And not enough practice owners are having the conversations with their team members. Like I always say, like, I'm coaching dentists all the time, and they're telling me about these issues they're having at their practice. And I'm saying, well, why do you think that is? And the answer is like, well, it might be this.   kind of think it's this and it's like, well, get curious, ask, ask your team. So for me, it was about telling my team what's expected and when   Kiera Dent (14:36) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (14:42) didn't meet expectations, instead of like dancing around it, just going right at the   getting curious, what is going on with this? What is, why is this not happening? And then always like, you know, if you ask the right questions, the next step for any leadership, any leader is to validate their perspective.   no matter what it is and that will go so far. If you take one thing out of this podcast, do that. When your team members share something with you or if you're getting curious, asking them why things are happening, how they're feeling about something, validate their experience and watch how much they open up and they're.   open to behavior change and other options. And then that allows you the opportunity to then ask and invite participation in the solutions. What do you think we should do?   I noticed our cancellations are getting up there. Like, what are we doing about this?   What do you see happening? Getting curious. And they're saying, well, I don't know. Like, I got to ask some more   OK. And then validate their experience. I totally see how maybe you got busy with your other things and you haven't been asking your team. But we've got to ask the team and find out just so many little things.   For me, was getting out of the way, being clear with expectations. But then instead of trying to go around my leads and my leaders, my practice and go around them and deal with the other other teams myself, I let them do it and I let them fail and I help them and I support them.   And I think I know there's a lot of like team members that listen to your podcast, Kiera. I would hope if you're listening to this and you're team member, I would hope you understand how valuable you are to an owner. If you can take things, find solutions and hold your, your team members, your fellow coworkers to a certain standard, like you would be so valuable. Everyone's like, well, how can I get a raise? How can I contribute more value? I would people on my team, my leaders that do this for me, they are so valuable to me and every owner.   is just waiting for somebody to step in and fill that role. I mean, every practice could use   Kiera Dent (16:38) team members, their number one objective is to make their doctor happy.   every day, all day. That's like what my job is. That's what I want to do. That's how I want to serve. That's how I want to help out. ⁓ And I think as owners, I think it can be easy to see all the problems in your team. But I think it's what pair of sunglasses do I want to put on? Do I want to put on the one where I see like, what's wrong is just as available as what's right. Both are always available in every single scenario, every single situation. And so what are we bringing to the table and how are we looking at these different things?   How are we guiding our teams? How are we guiding our leaders? How are we showing up as leaders? How are we like, what is the filter I'm putting on every single day? Like those, those two sunglasses are right there as you walk out the door and which pair are you choosing to put on? Cause you're going to influence impact and create a team. No matter what we see what we want to see. And I believe that we create our own realities. I believe that reality is what we believe it is. And so, ⁓ I think shifting that seeing that, and I think having just a bigger plan, a bigger vision. know when I got very crystal clear of where am I headed?   What is my role? Like, this is gonna sound funny, Paul. I literally Googled like, what does a CEO do? I think doctors come out of school, like you're a doctor, like you do the dentistry, like that's what I'm supposed to do. And I remember one day I was sitting there and I'm like, what is the CEO even supposed to do? Like, I don't even know, like, like really, like where is a CEO, like dictionary, like job description, I realized, got it. It's profit, vision, and culture. Like those are really my main things. Stay out of the weeds and like go for it. And...   Paul Etchison (17:43) you   Kiera Dent (18:04) That's what I'm bred to do. Bring the great ideas, bring those different pieces. That's my job. That's my responsibility. I think dentists also have the second tier of you do dentistry too. So you are a clinician in there and then you have those pieces. But driving culture, driving a culture of accountability of fail, fail forward. like, gosh, I just read this really awesome book and they said, we measure it by outcomes, not activity.   Like just stuff like that. Like you start to become this person who wants to evolve your culture, evolve who your team is, evolve who you are as a person. And I think Paul, even in just knowing you, I think there's been an evolution of who you are as well. ⁓ I think that is just, and hopefully I've evolved too, like fingers crossed there's been an evolution and I'm not as quite, I don't know. I think we keep the best of ourselves. And then I think just evolve into our 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 levels. I guess I just asked the questions of   Paul Etchison (18:42) Absolutely.   Kiera Dent (18:58) I think you've got a fascinating story. You were full, full practice owner. You were in there. You sold out to a DSO. You're still in your practice. You still train. You, you've evolved. If you were sitting back when I met you, what would you tell that Paul of what you know today that would have made that whole experience, whether you're selling, whether you're growing, evolving. I mean, you have a very large practice. It's been real fun to watch you and your practice and everything. What would you have told that Paul?   Paul Etchison (19:27) Yeah, and this comes up a lot with my coaching clients. A lot of people ask me that. And one of the things, if we're looking at our practice, and I'm going back to the beginning, is if we want to sell our practice, if we want to cut back our days, if we want to have the most profitable practice ever, a lot of the times the strategy is identical. We're just trying to go through and create more freedom for ourselves as practice owners by empowering our team, getting them to do a lot of the responsibility.   Kiera Dent (19:48) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (19:57) to be accountable for a lot of the stuff. So I think if I could go back and tell myself again, man, first of all, just stop taking everything so personal. And you come in and you look at it with these different lens of leadership and maturity and all these leadership skills. It's not just at the practice. It shows up in your relationships with your spouse, with your friends, with your kids, like all these things. Like it's all intertwined. But I would have much earlier got the leaders going in my practice because one of the things   Kiera Dent (20:16) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (20:27) happen through my practice sale is I just like I mentioned I felt like it wasn't I'm not cut out for this I'm sick of being miserable I'm sick of being stressed I'm sick of taking it home and I'm sick of taking it out on people that I love and so when I sold it I said okay I'm on my three-year exit plan I'm getting out of here I'm moving on I don't know what I'm gonna do but I'm gonna move on so I said you know my associate partner Dr. Kathy she owns part of the practice too   I'm gonna pass it to her and maybe she won't be able to do it as well as me. But I need to set this up so she is just, I wanna bless her with this amazing practice that runs on its own. And in the process of setting that up with my leaders, I realized, dang, I don't know if I would have sold. And I'm still happy I sold, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I would have, but that's what I would have tried to do early in my career. I would have went, who are the leaders? ⁓ The whole thing with like the Dan Kennedy of the who, not how. Not how do we do it, but who's gonna do this?   Kiera Dent (21:11) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.   Right.   Paul Etchison (21:25) And I would have leaned into that a lot more because I think I would have been a lot happier. I would have been able to enjoy the journey more. But at the same time, it's like we learn from our mistakes and you got to make the mistakes to learn from. So it's like, so that whole Catch-22, would I change anything? I don't think so because I wouldn't be, if I didn't have the same experience, I wouldn't be the person I am today. But man, I wish I had learned it earlier. That's for sure.   Kiera Dent (21:45) Sure.   It's fair. And I'm actually happy to hear that because I feel like this is like the DSO conundrum and like the cell. And I'm happy to hear you say that because it validates what we try to coach on to. So many doctors are like, I'm just going to sell. And I'm like, well, let's just look at this. If you sell, let's look at what your life will look like on the other side of it. Let's look to see where you are today. And really, let's get to the root of why do you want to sell? And I think, Paula, if we would have asked you that same question.   Why did you wanna sell? My hunch is it was all these problems, all these issues. It was just like, I'm sick of it. Like, let's just pass this on. Let's move on. When a great leader, a great office manager, a CEO, a CFO could have easily come in, taken over for you. You could have had the exact same scenario. You just would have owned it and had more options on the table. Like you said, it's not right, it's not wrong. But I think like for everybody listening, I think today is a good reflection of one, are you going through a molt? Like, are we molting anywhere?   ⁓ and do we, or do we need to molt? Like, is there something we need to shed, let go of identity wise? And then two, I like to do this reflection a lot. And I encourage a lot of people to do it. It sounds like Paul, you do it. Like when we're in these issues in these problems, are we stopping and pausing and asking like, what is the root? Not the symptom, the top line symptom is like, I'm so stressed. And I got this and this and this, but like, do we ever stop and pause to dig to that route and find out   what is really at the root. For me, I often have many journals that are like this, this, this, and I just like list it all out of all these things are frustrating me. But what I'm trying to do is find what is a thread? What is the piece in that that's causing the chaos because then we go fix that. And that's what I love in practices because 99 % of the time what people tell you on the top line, so coaching offices, coaching doctors, coaching teams, like Paul, you know this, I know this. What people tell you at the top is not really what's the problem.   It's the bottom layered, there's something rooted, there's something under there. These are just symptoms on the top. Same thing with patients and case acceptance, right? It's the up at the top, what they're telling you is not really what they're feeling. And all you gotta do is just dig under, find out what that root is and stress and that will go away. And so Paul, thank you for, I just am curious. I've always been curious, like, would you have done something differently? Of course we never can, like, no, we're not going to. But if I could go back and tell that younger self things, like,   Kyri, get rid of your ego, honey. Like trust your team, trust that team to do amazing, trust them to do better than you are, trust them to be better than you, trust them to make better decisions than you do, because I want to create that kind of a team and me believing that is going to ultimately turn my team into that. They have the whole study about teachers with kids and IQs and like if they believe that they have a stronger IQ without doing anything different, that child actually ends up with a higher IQ. Well, why don't we take that same principle and apply it to our teams and see what happens.   Paul Etchison (24:23) Yeah.   It's so true. And I love that you say like the reflection that you did, because I noticed this with my coaching   is that there's a lot of, there's a lot of how, how do we do this? How do we fix this? But I think anyone listening, if you just sat down in a dark room, maybe not dark room, but you're sitting down in a quiet room for 30 minutes and you reflect it, what do I really, you know, I do this with my coaching clients. We call it a practice clarity and frustration exercise. What do we, what really bothers you with the practice? What is it that really just, you know, grind your gears,   it down and it sounds simple but once you write it down you can like visually see it and start to brainstorm for solutions and you start to make this progress that not only affects the way your practice runs but the way that you're the way that you feel and I think ultimately as practice owners we need to realize that the CEO hat you mentioned what does a CEO do we need time for that and we don't have time for that when you're doing four or five days of dentistry that's why when I'm working with clients the first thing I'm gonna do with a practice owner is I'm gonna get them down to three days clinic   Kiera Dent (25:10) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (25:27) And it always works. so inefficient. There's so many things we can do with scheduling and efficiency and production that we can get you down to three days clinical. But now you've got that extra day to put on that CEO hat, to reflect on the things, to write down and figure out what your plan of attack is. I mean, that's what I've got a workshop coming up in February that that's focused on that. How do we get you down to three days? And that's all I want to do in this three day workshop. We're, of course, doing these reflection activities. But I think this is over the course of my career and working   Kiera Dent (25:27) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (25:57) with people, that's what I've seen moves the needle the most. We need time and we need to give the energy where it's due. And it's not, we   be 100 % clinician. It just doesn't work that way.   Kiera Dent (26:09) Yeah, no, Paul, I love that. And think that's such a fun thing. I think dentists need this. Dentists need to have their vision, have their clarity. But I think from today, the wrap is it started out with a photo, unexpectedly, of this is what we're ⁓ kicking the day off of, going from where we were to where we want to be, ⁓ looking at that, reflecting back, seeing. Because   Paul Etchison (26:23) Yeah. How do we get here?   Kiera Dent (26:34) There's a client that you and I both know. They're pretty well known ⁓ that we work with. whenever I work with, gosh, it's so many practices. I think there's like 300 employees and I'm like, gosh, I remember all their names every time. ⁓ But they talk about how sometimes the best learning is just remembering. Remembering where we've been, remembering where we're going to go, remembering things that we've learned looking there. So it's like remembering where I've been so that way I can kickstart and project into where I need to go.   using your team to get there. Your team wants to be your best asset for that. So Paul, those are kind of my wrap thoughts. I know today has just been a real fun day. Always enjoy a good podcast with you. Any last thoughts you have?   Paul Etchison (27:15) No, you know, I would just close it off with   having the listener just believe, just believe in the possibility of what's going, what is possible with your practice. ⁓ There was a point where we talked about reflection. I reflected and I said, I wrote down everything I do at the practice and I wrote down how many of these activities bring me joy and how many of them I hate. And I believe it was something like 80 % of them I hated. So that's no way to live your practice life. You spend a lot of time at work. So why not do the reflection and put the time and energy into   Kiera Dent (27:38) Mm-hmm.   Paul Etchison (27:45) Making your practice a better place to be at it's not just gonna affect you. It's gonna affect your family. It's gonna affect your team ⁓ There's big your ripples that come from this little thing So I would say sit down find a coach find a mentor read some books it is possible believe in yourself and It all starts with the planning so sit down and write down some things journal love it   Kiera Dent (28:09) Journal it up. Well, Paul, I appreciate you so much.   I ⁓ just love what you're doing for our community. I love the things that we're able to accomplish together. ⁓ And yeah, guys, check him out in Dental Practice Heroes podcast. He's got some great stuff over there as well. ⁓ Paul, so good to have you on the podcast. I think you mentioned the event in February. If people want to know more about that, how do they connect with you on that?   Paul Etchison (28:35) Yeah, go to DentalPracticeHeroes.com slash freedom. So that's where the information on the three day workshop, it's going to   awesome. And I'm doing a money back guarantee. If you don't think you liked it, if you don't like what you signed up for, I'll give you all your money back. I believe in it that much. And I know from me coaching for the past six years, I know this is what produces results. So go check that out,   more about the courses, check out the podcast. And I'm always happy to talk to any listeners if they want some help or they just want to find out what we're more about. Please just go to the website, DentalPracticeHeroes.com.   dot com.   Kiera Dent (29:06) Amazing. Paul, thank you so much for being on the podcast. For all of you listening, I hope you do take the time to reflect. I do hope you think about where you want to go and what you want with your life. And just appreciate you guys all being here. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.  

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