Podcasts about Figure

Jordi Visser is a macro investor with over 30 years of Wall Street experience, and he also writes a Substack called “VisserLabs” and puts out investing YouTube videos. In this conversation we break down the major forces driving markets today — bitcoin's price action, accelerating institutional adoption, the latest AI developments, internal tensions at OpenAI, and an overlooked industrial company he believes will be critical to the future economy. We wrap with a sharp look at the Fed, interest rates, deflation signals, and why easy money is still flowing through the system. ======================Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a Figure Crypto-Backed Loan (https://www.figuremarkets.co/pomp), allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! https://www.figuremarkets.co/pomp Disclosures: Figure Lending LLC dba Figure. Equal Opportunity Lender. NMLS 1717824. Terms and conditions apply.======================Bitizenship gives Bitcoin-forward investors a fast, compliant path to EU residency. Our Bitcoin Dolce Visa lets you invest in a 100% Bitcoin-aligned startup and qualify for Italy's Golden Visa with one strategy. Claim your free strategy call at https://www.bitizenship.com/pomp.======================Simple Mining makes Bitcoin mining simple and accessible for everyone. We offer a premium white glove hosting service, helping you maximize the profitability of Bitcoin mining. For more information on Simple Mining or to get started mining Bitcoin, visit ⁠https://www.simplemining.io/⁠======================Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:50 – How to evaluate bitcoin right now6:29 – The AI boom impact on asset prices & macro environment11:59 – Deflation impact & Elon says will work be optional?18:25 – Evaluating jobs data in an AI-driven economy25:57 – The AI impact on the economy41:42 – Michael Burry & Elon's view on the economy & the future48:16 – Where to find Jordi's content

The first traditional exchange-listed bitcoin and ether perpetual futures in Asia with Laurent Poirot, SGX Group's Head of Strategy for Derivatives. In today's Markets Outlook, SGX Group's Head of Strategy for Derivatives, Laurent Poirot, joins CoinDesk's Andy Baehr to discuss the launch of the first traditional exchange-listed bitcoin and ether perpetual futures in Asia. He breaks down how this groundbreaking product merges crypto-native innovation with trusted TradFi infrastructure to meet surging institutional demand. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Andy Baehr.

Dr. Theresa Goss is an award-winning media producer and the founder of NOW (Network of Outstanding Women). Amilya Antonetti is a globally recognized human behaviorist who has impacted 53,000+ employees and has been celebrated as Woman of the Decade by the Women's Economic Forum. Kathryn Porritt is one of the world's leading experts in luxury and iconic branding who has created and represented multimillion-dollar empires. Rhonda Swan is the CEO of the Unstoppable Branding Agency, elevating investors and fund managers onto the biggest media stages like Forbes and the New York Stock Exchange. Debra Poneman is a New Thought pioneer, best-selling author, and founder of Yes to Success, whose teachings have influenced thousands worldwide, including leaders like Deepak Chopra. Amilya, TGo, Rhonda Swan, and Kathryn Porritt sit down with us to reveal the real strategies and mindset shifts that unlocked their seven-figure success. The panel of successful women dives into the truth about connection and where to unlock your next level of business or career success. You'll learn how to find mentors who actually move your life forward. We also discuss the do's and don'ts of building high-value relationships, how elite networks really work, and what separates the women who rise from the ones who burn out. Join us today as we explore how these four women achieved seven-figure success, how to build confidence in high-level spaces, and how to prepare yourself for wealth, opportunity, and growth.---Dr. Theresa Goss Social Media:https://www.facebook.com/theresa.goss3/https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresagoss/https://www.instagram.com/experttalktgo/?hl=enAmilya Antonetti's Social Media:https://amilya.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/amilya/https://www.instagram.com/amilya_antonetti/?hl=enhttps://x.com/amilyaKathryn Porritt's Social Media:https://www.kathrynporritt.com/https://www.instagram.com/kathrynporritt.inc/https://www.facebook.com/kathrynporrittinc/https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-porritt/Rhonda Swan's Social Media:https://www.instagram.com/rhondaswanhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rhondaswan/https://www.facebook.com/rhondarswan/Debra Poneman's Social Media:https://www.instagram.com/debraponeman/?hl=en

The first traditional exchange-listed bitcoin and ether perpetual futures in Asia with Laurent Poirot, SGX Group's Head of Strategy for Derivatives. In today's Markets Outlook, SGX Group's Head of Strategy for Derivatives, Laurent Poirot, joins CoinDesk's Andy Baehr to discuss the launch of the first traditional exchange-listed bitcoin and ether perpetual futures in Asia. He breaks down how this groundbreaking product merges crypto-native innovation with trusted TradFi infrastructure to meet surging institutional demand. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Andy Baehr.

XRP ETFs close in on $1B of inflows. U.S.-based spot XRP exchange-traded funds continued their strong post-launch run, recording their 13th consecutive day of net inflows since opening for trade on Nov. 14. The streak establishes the XRP ETFs among the fastest-growing class of major crypto-asset vehicles, closing in on the $1 billion milestone. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily." - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

In this theologically rich episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Jesse and Tony delve into the Parable of the Lost Coin from Luke 15:8-10. They explore how this parable reveals God's passionate pursuit of His elect and the divine joy that erupts when they are found. Building on their previous discussion of the Lost Sheep, the brothers examine how Jesus uses this second parable to further emphasize God's sovereign grace in salvation. The conversation highlights the theological implications of God's ownership of His people even before their redemption, the diligent efforts He undertakes to find them, and the heavenly celebration that follows. This episode offers profound insights into God's relentless love and the true nature of divine joy in redemption. Key Takeaways The Parable of the Lost Coin emphasizes that God actively and diligently searches for those who belong to Him, sparing no effort to recover what is rightfully His. Jesus uses three sequential parables in Luke 15 to progressively reveal different aspects of God's heart toward sinners, with escalating emphasis on divine joy. The coin represents something of significant value that already belonged to the woman, illustrating that God's elect belong to Him even before their redemption. Unlike finding something new, the joy depicted is specifically about recovering something that was already yours but had been lost, highlighting God's eternal claim on His people. The spiritual inability of the sinner is represented by the coin's passivity - it cannot find its own way back and must be sought out by its owner. Angels rejoice over salvation not independently but because they share in God's delight at the effectiveness of His saving power. The parable challenges believers to recover their joy in salvation and to share it with others, much like the woman who called her neighbors to celebrate with her. Expanded Insights God's Determined Pursuit of What Already Belongs to Him The Parable of the Lost Coin reveals a profound theological truth about God's relationship to His elect. As Tony and Jesse discuss, this isn't a story about finding something new, but recovering something that already belongs to the owner. The woman in the parable doesn't rejoice because she discovered unexpected treasure; she rejoices because she recovered what was already hers. This illustrates the Reformed understanding that God's people have eternally belonged to Him. While justification occurs in time, there's a real sense in which God has been considering us as His people in eternity past. The parable therefore supports the doctrines of election and particular redemption - God is not creating conditions people can move into or out of, but is zealously reclaiming a specific people who are already His in His eternal decree. The searching, sweeping, and diligent pursuit represent not a general call, but an effectual calling that accomplishes its purpose. The Divine Joy in Recovering Sinners One of the most striking aspects of this parable is the overwhelming joy that accompanies finding the lost coin. The brothers highlight that this joy isn't reluctant or begrudging, but enthusiastic and overflowing. The woman calls her friends and neighbors to celebrate with her - a seemingly excessive response to finding a coin, unless we understand the theological significance. This reveals that God takes genuine delight in the redemption of sinners, to the extent that Jesus describes it as causing joy "in the presence of the angels of God." As Jesse and Tony note, this challenges our perception that God might save us begrudgingly. Instead, the parable teaches us that God's "alien work" is wrath, while His delight is in mercy. This should profoundly impact how believers view their own salvation and should inspire a contagious joy that spreads to others - a joy that many Christians, by Tony's own admission, need to recover in their daily walk. Memorable Quotes "Christ love is an act of love and it's always being acted upon the sinner, the one who has to be redeemed, his child whom he goes after. So in the same way, we have Christ showing the self-denying love." - Jesse Schwamb "The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace... The reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased, is because God has this real pleasure to pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire." - Jesse Schwamb "These parables are calling us to rejoice, right? Christ is using these parables to shame the Pharisees and the scribes who refuse to rejoice over the salvation of sinners. How often do we not rejoice over our own salvation sufficiently?" - Tony Arsenal Full Transcript [00:00:08] Jesse Schwamb: There still is like the sovereign grace of God who's initiating the salvation and there is a kind of effect of calling that God doesn't merely invite, he finds, he goes after he affects the very thing. Yeah, and I think we're seeing that here. The sinner, spiritual inability. There's an utter passivity until found. The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace. It's all there for us. And the reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased is because God has this real pleasure. To pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire. Welcome to episode 472 of The Reformed Brotherhood. I'm Jesse. [00:00:57] Tony Arsenal: And I'm Tony. And this is the podcast with ears to hear. Hey brother. [00:01:01] Jesse Schwamb: Hey brother. [00:01:02] Jesus and the Parable of the Lost Coin [00:01:02] Jesse Schwamb: So there was this time, maybe actually more than one time, but at least this one time that we've been looking at where Jesus is hanging out and the religious incumbents, the Pharisees, they come to him and they say, you are a friend of sinners, and. Instead of taking offense to this, Jesus turns this all around. Uses this as a label, appropriates it for himself and his glorious character. And we know this because he gives us this thrice repeated sense of what it means to see his heart, his volition, his passion, his love, his going after his people, and he does it. Three little parables and we looked at one last time and we're coming up to round two of the same and similar, but also different and interesting. And so today we're looking at the parable of the lost coin or the Lost dma, or I suppose, whatever kind of currency you wanna insert in there. But once again, something's lost and we're gonna see how our savior comes to find it by way of explaining it. In metaphor. So there's more things that are lost and more things to be found on this episode. That's how we do it. It's true. It's true. So that's how Jesus does it. So [00:02:12] Tony Arsenal: yeah. So it should be how we do it. [00:02:14] Jesse Schwamb: Yes. Yeah, exactly. I cut to like Montel Jordan now is the only thing going through my head. Tell Jordan. Yeah. Isn't he the one that's like, this is how we do it, that song, this is [00:02:28] Tony Arsenal: how we do it. I, I don't know who sings it. Apparently it's me right now. That was actually really good. That was fantastic. [00:02:36] Jesse Schwamb: Hopefully never auto tuned. Not even once. I'm sure that'll make an appearance now and the rest, somebody [00:02:42] Tony Arsenal: should take that and auto tune it for me. [00:02:44] Jesse Schwamb: That would be fantastic. Listen, it doesn't need it. That was perfect. That was right off the cuff, right off the top. It was beautiful. It was ous. [00:02:50] Tony Arsenal: Yes. Yes. [00:02:51] Affirmations and Denials [00:02:51] Jesse Schwamb: I'm hoping that appearance, [00:02:53] Tony Arsenal: before we jump into our, our favorite segment here in affirmations of Denials, I just wanted to take a second to, uh, thank all of our listeners. Uh, we have the best listeners in the world. That's true, and we've also got a really great place to get together and chat about things. That's also true. Uh, we have a little telegram chat, which is just a little chat, um, program that run on your phone or in a browser. Really any device you have, you can go to t Me slash Reform Brotherhood and join that, uh, little chat group. And there's lots of stuff going on there. We don't need to get into all the details, but it's a friendly little place. Lots of good people, lots of good conversation. And just lots of good digital fellowship, if that's even a thing. I think it is. So please do join us there. It's a great place to discuss, uh, the episodes or what you're learning or what you'd like to learn. There's all sorts of, uh, little nooks and crannies and things to do in there. [00:03:43] Jesse Schwamb: So if you're looking for a little df and you know that you are coming out, we won't get into details, but you definitely should. Take Tony's advice, please. You, you will not be disappointed. It, it's a fun, fun time together. True. Just like you're about to have with us chatting it up and going through a little affirmations and denials. So, as usual, Tony, what are you, are you affirming with something or are you denying again, something? I'm, I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm ready. [00:04:06] Tony Arsenal: Okay. Uh, it is, I thought that was going somewhere else. Uh, I'm, I'm affirming something. [00:04:13] AI and Problem Solving [00:04:13] Tony Arsenal: People are gonna get so sick of me doing like AI affirmations, but I, it's like I learned a new thing to do with AI every couple of weeks. I ran across an article the other day, uh, that I don't remember where the article was. I didn't save it, but I did read it. And one of the things that pointed out is that a lot of times you're not getting the most out of AI because you don't really know how to ask the questions. True. One of the things it was was getting through is a lot of people will ask, they'll have a problem that they're encountering and they'll just ask AI like, how do I fix this problem? And a lot of times what that yields is like very superficial, basic, uh, generic advice or generic kind of, uh, directions for resolving a problem. And the, I don't remember the exact phrasing, 'cause it was a little while ago since I read it, but it basically said something like, I'm encountering X problem. And despite all efforts to the contrary, I have not been able to resolve it. And by using sort of these extra phrases. What it does is it sort of like pushes the AI to ask you questions about what you've already tried to do, and so it's gonna tailor its advice or its directions to your specific situation a little bit more. So, for example, I was doing this today. We, um, we just had the time change, right? Stupidest thing in the world doesn't make any sense and my kids don't understand that the time has changed and we're now like three or four weeks past the, the time change and their, their schedule still have not adjusted. So my son Augie, who is uh, like three and three quarters, uh, I don't know how many months it is. When do you stop? I don't even know. When you stop counting in months. He's three and a quarter, three quarters. And he will regularly wake up between four 30 and five 30. And when we really, what we really want is for him to be sleeping, uh, from uh, until like six or six 30 at the latest. So he's like a full hour, sometimes two hours ahead of time, which then he wakes up, it's a small house. He's noisy 'cause he's a three and a half year old. So he wakes up the baby. The baby wakes up. My wife, and then we're all awake and then we're cranky and it's miserable. So I, I put that little prompt into, um, into Google Gemini, which is right now is my, um, AI of choice, but works very similar. If you use something like chat, GPT or CLO or whatever, you know, grok, whatever AI tool you have access to, put that little prompt in. You know, something like since the time change, my son has been waking up at four 30 in the morning, despite all efforts to the contrary, I have not been able to, uh, adjust his schedule. And so it started asking me questions like, how much light is in the room? What time does he go to bed? How much does he nap? And it, so it's, it's pulling from the internet. This is why I like Google Geminis. It's actually pulling from the internet to identify like common, common. Related issues. And so it starts to probe and ask questions. And by the time it was done, what it came out with was like a step-by-step two week plan. Basically like, do this tonight, do this tomorrow morning. Um, and it was able to identify what it believes is the problem. We'll see if it actually is, but the beauty now is now that I've got a plan that I've got in this ai, I can start, you know, tomorrow morning I'm gonna try to do what it said and I can tell. The ai, how things went, and it can now adjust the plan based on whether or not, you know, this worked or didn't work. So it's a good way to sort of, um, push an ai, uh, chat bot to probe your situation a little bit more. So you could do this really for anything, right. You could do something like I'm having, I'm having trouble losing weight despite all efforts to the contrary. Um, can you help me identify what the, you know, root problem is? So think about different ways that you can use this. It's a pretty cool way to sort of like, push the, the AI to get a little deeper into the specifics without like a lot of extra heavy lifting. I'm sure there's probably other ways you could drive it to do this, but this was just one clever way that I, that this article pointed out to accomplish this. [00:08:07] Jesse Schwamb: It's a great exercise to have AI optimize itself. Yeah. By you turning your prompts around and asking it to ask you a number of questions, sufficient number, until it can provide an optimize answer for you. So lots, almost every bot has some kind of, you can have it analyze your prompts essentially, but some like copilot actually have a prompt agent, which will help you construct the prompt in an optimal way. Yeah, and that again, is kind of question and answer. So I'm with you. I will often turn it around and say. Here's my goal. Ask me sufficient number of questions so that you can provide the right insight to accomplish said goal. Or like you're saying, if you can create this like, massive conversation that keeps all this history. So I, I've heard of people using this for their exercise or running plans. Famously, somebody a, a, um, journalist, the Wall Street Journal, use it, train for a marathon. You can almost have it do anything for you. Of course, you want to test all of that and interact with it reasonably and ably, right? At the same time, what it does best is respond to like natural language interaction. And so by turning it around and basically saying, help me help you do the best job possible, providing the information, it's like the weirdest way of querying stuff because we're so used to providing explicit direction ourselves, right? So to turn it around, it's kind of a new experience, but it's super fun, really interesting, really effective. [00:09:22] Tony Arsenal: And it because you are allowing, in a certain sense, you're sort of asking the AI to drive the conversation. This, this particular prompt, I know the article I read went into details about why this prompt is powerful and the reason this prompt is powerful is not because of anything the AI's doing necessarily, right. It's because you're basically telling the AI. To find what you've missed. And so it's asking you questions. Like if I was to sit down and go like, all right, what are all the things that's wrong, that's causing my son to be awake? Like obviously I didn't figure it out on my own, so it's asking me what I've already tried and what it found out. And then of course when it tells me what it is, it's like the most obvious thing when it figures out what it is. It's identifying something that I already haven't identified because I've told it. I've already tried everything I can think of, and so it's prompting me to try to figure out what it is that I haven't thought of. So those are, like I said, there's lots of ways to sort of get the ais to do that exercise. Um, it's not, it's not just about prompt engineering, although that there's a lot of science now and a lot of like. Specifics on how you do prompt engineering, um, you know, like building a persona for the ai. Like there's all sorts of things you can do and you can add that, like, I could have said something like, um. Uh, you are a pediatric sleep expert, right? And when you tell it that what it's gonna do is it's gonna start to use more technical language, it's gonna, it's gonna speak to you back as though it's a, and this, this is where AI can get a little bit dangerous and really downright scary in some instances. But with that particular prompt, it's gonna start to speak back to you as though it was a clinician of some sort, diagnosing a medical situation, which again. That is definitely not something I would ever endorse. Like, don't let an AI be your doctor. That's just not, like WebMD was already scary enough when you were just telling you what your symptoms were and it was just cross checking it. Um, but you could do something like, and I use these kinds of prompts for our show notes where I'm like, you're an expert at SEO, like at um, podcast show notes. Utilizing SEO search terms, like that's part of the prompt that I use when I use, um, in, in this case, I use notion to generate most of our show notes. Um, it, it starts to change the way that it looks at things and the way that it, I, it responds to you based on different prompts. So I think it, it's a little bit scary, uh, AI. Can be a strange, strange place. And there's some, they're doing some research that is a little bit frightening. They did a study and actually, like, they, they basically like unlocked an AI and gave it access to a pretend company with emails and stuff and said that a particular employee was gonna shut out, was gonna delete the ai. And the first thing it did was try to like blackmail the employee with like a risk, like a scandalous email. It had. Then after that they, they engineered a scenario where the AI actually had the ability to kill the employee. And despite like explicit instructions not to do anything illegal, it still tried to kill the employee. So there's some scary things that are coming up if we're not, you know, if, if the science is not able to get that under control. But right now it's just a lot of fun. Like it's, we're, we're probably not at the point where it's dangerous yet and hopefully. Hopefully it won't get to that point, but we'll see. We'll see. That got dark real fast, fast, fast. Jesse, you gotta get this. And that was an affirmation. I guess I'm affirming killer murder ais that are gonna kill us all, but uh, we're gonna have fun with it until they do at least. [00:12:52] Jesse Schwamb: Thanks for not making that deny against. 'cause I can only imagine the direction that one to taken. [00:12:57] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. At least when the AI hears this, it's gonna know that I'm on its side, so, oh, for sure. I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords. So as do Iye. [00:13:05] Christmas Hymns and Music Recommendations [00:13:05] Tony Arsenal: But Jesse, what are you affirming or denying today to get me out of this pit here? [00:13:09] Jesse Schwamb: So, lemme start with a question. Do you have a favorite Christmas hymn? And if so, what is it? [00:13:16] Tony Arsenal: Ooh, that's a tough one. Um, I think I've always been really partial to Oh, holy Night. But, uh, there's, there's not anything that really jumps to mind my, as I've become older and crankier and more Scottish in spirit, I just, Christmas hymns just aren't as. If they're not as prominent in my mind, but oh, holy night or come coming, Emanuel is probably a really good one too. [00:13:38] Jesse Schwamb: Wow. Those are the, those are like the top in the top three for me. Yeah. So I think [00:13:42] Tony Arsenal: I know where you're going based on the question. [00:13:44] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah, we're very much the same. So, well maybe, so I am affirming with, but it's that time of year and people you, you know and love and maybe yourself, you're gonna listen to Christian music and. That's okay. I put no shade on that, especially because we're talking about the incarnation, celebrate the incarnation. But of course, I think the best version of that is some of these really lovely hymns because they could be sung and worshiped through all year round. We just choose them because they fit in with the calendar particularly well here, and sometimes they're included, their lyrics included in Hallmark cards and, and your local. Cool. Coles. So while that's happening, why not embrace it? But here's my information is why not go with some different versions. I love the hymn as you just said. Oh, come will come Emmanuel. And so I'm gonna give people three versions of it to listen to Now to make my list of this kind of repertoire. The song's gotta maintain that traditional melody. I think to a strong degree, it's gotta be rich and deep and dark, especially Ko Emmanuel. But it's gotta have something in it that's a little bit nuanced. Different creative arrangements, musicality. So let me give two brand new ones that you may not have heard versions and one old one. So the old one is by, these are all Ko Emanuel. So if at some point during this you're like, what song is he talking about? It's Ko. Emmanuel. It's just three times. Th we're keeping it th Rice tonight. So the first is by band called for today. That's gonna be a, a little bit harder if you want something that, uh, gets you kind of pumped up in the midst of this redemption. That's gonna be the version. And then there are two brand new ones. One is by skillet, which is just been making music forever, but the piano melody they bring into this and they do a little something nuanced with the chorus that doesn't pull away too much. From the original, but just gives it a little extra like Tastiness. Yeah. Skill. Great version. And then another one that just came out yesterday. My yesterday, not your yesterday. So actually it doesn't even matter at this point. It's already out is by descriptor. And this would be like the most chill version that is a hardcore band by, I would say tradition, but in this case, their version is very chill. All of them I find are just deeply worshipful. Yeah. And these, the music is very full of impact, but of course the lyrics are glorious. I really love this, this crying out to God for the Savior. This. You know, just, it's really the, the plea that we should have now, which is, you know, maranatha like Lord Jesus, come. And so in some ways we're, we're celebrating that initial plea and cry for redemption as it has been applied onto us by the Holy Spirit. And we're also saying, you know, come and fulfill your kingdom, Lord, come and bring the full promise, which is here, but not yet. So I like all three of these. So for today. Skillet descriptor, which sounds like we're playing like a weird word game when you put those all together. It does, but they're all great bands and their versions I think are, are worthy. So the larger affirmation, I suppose, is like, go out this season and find different versions, like mix it up a little bit. Because it's good to hear this music somewhat afresh, and so I think by coming to it with different versions of it, you'll get a little bit of that sense. It'll make maybe what is, maybe if it's felt rote or mundane or just trivial, like you're saying, kind of revive some of these pieces in our hearts so we can, we, we can really worship through them. We're redeeming them even as they're meant to be expressions of the ultimate redemption. [00:16:55] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah, I, um, I heard the skillet version and, uh, you know, you know me like I'm not a huge fan of harder music. Yeah. But that, that song Slaps man, it's, yes, [00:17:07] Jesse Schwamb: it does. It's [00:17:07] Tony Arsenal: good. And Al I mean, it, it also ignited this weird firestorm of craziness online. I don't know if you heard anything about this, but Yes, it was, it was, there was like the people who absolutely love it and will. Fight you if you don't. Yes. And then there was like the people who think it's straight from the devil because of somehow demonic rhythms, whatever that means. Um, but yeah, I mean, I'm not a big fan of the heavier music, but there is something about that sort of, uh. I don't know. Is skill, would that be considered like metal at all? [00:17:38] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, that's a loaded question. Probably. [00:17:39] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. So like I found, uh, this is, we're gonna go down to Rabbit Trail here. Let's do it. Here we go. I found a version of Africa by Toto that was labeled as metal on YouTube. So I don't know whether it actually is, and this, this version of skill, it strikes me as very similar, where it's, ah, uh, it, it's like, um. The harmonies are slightly different in terms of like how they resonate than Okay. Other harmonies. Like I get [00:18:05] Jesse Schwamb: that [00:18:06] Tony Arsenal: there's a certain, you know, like when you think about like Western music, there's certain right, there's certain harmonies when, you know, think about like piano chords are framed and my understanding at least this could be way off, and I'm sure you're gonna correct me if I'm wrong, is that um, metal music, heavy metal music uses slightly different. Chord formations that it almost leaves you feeling a little unresolved. Yes, but not quite unresolved. Like it's just, it's, it's more the harmonics are different, so that's fair. Skillet. This skillet song is so good, and I think you're right. It, it retains the sort of like. The same basic melody, the same, the same basic harmonies, actually. Right. And it's, it's almost like the harmonies are just close enough to being put into a different key with the harmonies. Yes, [00:18:52] Jesse Schwamb: that's true [00:18:53] Tony Arsenal: than then. Uh, but not quite actually going into another key. So like, sometimes you'll see online, you'll find YouTube videos where they play like pop songs, but they've changed the, the. Chords a little bit. So now it's in a minor key. It's almost like it's there. It's like one more little note shift and it would be there. Um, and then there's some interesting, uh, like repetition and almost some like anal singing going on, that it's very good. Even if you don't like heavier music. Like, like I don't, um, go listen to it and I think you'll find yourself like hitting repeat a couple times. It was very, very good. [00:19:25] Jesse Schwamb: That's a good way of saying it. A lot of times that style is a little bit dissonant, if that's what you mean in the court. Yeah. Formation. So it gives you this unsettledness, this almost unresolvedness, and that's in there. Yeah. And just so everybody knows, actually, if you listen to that version from Skillet, you'll probably listen to most of it. You'll get about two thirds of the way through it and probably be saying, what are those guys talking about? It's the breakdown. Where it amps up. But before that, I think anybody could listen to it and just enjoy it. It's a really beautiful, almost haunting piano melody. They bring into the intro in that, in the interlude. It's very lovely. So it gives you that sense. Again, I love this kind of music because there's almost something, there is something in this song that's longing for something that is wanting and yet left, unresolved and unfulfilled until the savior comes. There's almost a lament in it, so to speak, especially with like the way it's orchestrated. So I love that this hymn is like deep and rich in that way. It's, that's fine. Like if you want to sing deck the Holes, that's totally fine. This is just, I think, better and rich and deeper and more interesting because it does speak to this life of looking for and waiting for anticipating the advent of the savior. So to get me get put back in that place by music, I think is like a net gain this time of year. It's good to have that perspective. I'm, I'm glad you've heard it. We should just open that debate up whether or not we come hang out in the telegram chat. We'll put it in that debate. Is skillet hardcore or metal? We'll just leave it there 'cause I have my opinions, but I'm, well, I'm sure everybody else does. [00:20:48] Tony Arsenal: I don't even know what those words mean, Jesse. Everything is hardcore in metal compared to what I normally listen to. I don't even listen to music anymore usually, so I, I mean, I'm like mostly all podcasts all the time. Anytime I have time, I don't have a ton of time to listen to. Um, audio stuff, but [00:21:06] Jesse Schwamb: that's totally fair. Well now everybody now join us though. [00:21:08] Tony Arsenal: Educate me [00:21:09] Jesse Schwamb: now. Everybody can properly use, IM prompt whatever AI of their choice, and they can listen to at least three different versions of al comical manual. And then they can tell us which one do you like the best? Or maybe you have your own version. That's what she was saying. What's your favorite Christmas in? [00:21:23] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And [00:21:24] Jesse Schwamb: what version of it do you like? I mean, it'll be like. [00:21:28] Tony Arsenal: It'll be like, despite my best efforts, I've been un unable to understand what hardcore and medical is. Please help me understand. [00:21:37] Jesse Schwamb: Oh, we're gonna have some, some fun with this at some point. We'll have to get into the whole debate, though. I know you and I have talked about it before. We'll put it before the brothers and sisters about a Christmas Carol and what version everybody else likes. That's also seems like, aside from the, the whole eternal debate, which I'm not sure is really serious about whether or not diehard is a Christmas movie, this idea of like, which version of the Christmas Carol do you subscribe to? Yeah. Which one would you watch if you can only watch one? Which one will you watch? That's, we'll have to save that for another time. [00:22:06] Tony Arsenal: We'll save it for another time. And we get a little closer to midwinter. No reason we just can't [00:22:10] Jesse Schwamb: do it right now because we gotta get to Luke 15. [00:22:12] Discussion on the Parable of the Lost Coin [00:22:12] Tony Arsenal: We do. [00:22:13] Jesse Schwamb: We, we've already been in this place of looking at Jesus' response to the Pharisees when they say to him, listen, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And Jesus is basically like, yeah, that's right. And let me tell you three times what the heart of God is like and what my mission in serving him is like, and what I desire to come to do for my children. And so we spoke in the last conversation about the parable lost sheep. Go check that out. Some are saying, I mean, I'm not saying this, but some are saying in the internet, it's the definitive. Congratulation of that parable. I'm, I'm happy to take that if that's true. Um, but we wanna go on to this parable of the lost coin. So let me read, it's just a couple of verses and you're gonna hear in the text that you're going to understand right away. This is being linked because it starts with or, so this is Jesus speaking and this is Luke 15, chapter 15, starting in verse eight. Jesus says, or a what woman? She has 10 D drachmas and loses. One drachma does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friend and her neighbors saying, rejoice with me for I found the D Drachma, which I lost in the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. [00:23:27] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. On one level, this is, uh, again, it's not all that complicated of a scenario, right? And we have to kind of go back and relo through some of the stuff we talked about last week because this is a continuation of, you know, when we first talked about the Matthew 13 parables, we commented on like. Christ was coming back to the same themes, right? And in some ways, repeating the parable. This is even stronger than that. It's not just that Christ is teaching the same thing across multiple parables. The sense here, at least the sense I get when I read this parable, the lost sheep, and then the prodigal, um, sun parable or, or the next parable here, um, is actually that Christ is just sort of like hammering home the one point he's making to the tax collectors and or to the tax collectors or to the scribes who are complaining about the fact that Christ was eating with sinners. He's just hammering this point home, right? So it's not, it's not to try to add. A lot of nuance to the point. It's not to try to add a, a shade of meaning. Um. You know, we talked a lot about how parables, um, Christ tells parables in part to condemn the listeners who will not receive him, right? That's right. This is one of those situations where it's not, it's not hiding the meaning of the parable from them. The meaning is so obvious that you couldn't miss it, and he, he appeals, we talked about in the first, in the first part of this, he actually appeals to like what the ordinary response would be. Right? What man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one, does not. Go and leave the 99. Like it's a scenario that anyone who goes, well, like, I wouldn't do that is, looks like an idiot. Like, that's, that's the point of the why. He phrases it. And so then you're right when he, when he begins with this, he says, or what woman having 10 silver coins if she loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until he, till she finds it. And of course, the, the, the emphasis again is like no one in their right mind would not do this. And I think like we think about a coin and like that's the smallest denomination of money that we have. Like, I wouldn't, like if I lost a, if I had 10 silver coin, 10 coins and I lost one of them, the most that that could be is what? 50 cents? Like the, like if I had a 50 cent piece or a silver dollar, I guess, like I could lose a dollar. We're not really talking about coins the way we think of coins, right? We're talking about, um. Um, you know, like denominations of money that are substantial in that timeframe. Like it, there was, there were small coins, but a silver coin would be a substantial amount of money to lose. So we are not talking about a situation where this is, uh, a trivial kind of thing. She's not looking for, you know, I've, I've heard this parable sort of like unpacked where like, it's almost like a miserly seeking for like this lost coin. Interesting. It's not about, it's not about like. Penny pinching here, right? She's not trying to find a tiny penny that isn't worth anything that's built into the parable, right? It's a silver coin. It's not just any coin. It's a silver coin. So she's, she's looking for this coin, um, because it is a significant amount of money and because she's lost it, she's lost something of her, of her overall wealth. Like there's a real loss. Two, this that needs to be felt before he can really move on with the parable. It's not just like some small piece of property, like there's a [00:26:57] Jesse Schwamb: right. I [00:26:57] Tony Arsenal: don't know if you've ever lost a large amount of money, but I remember one time I was in, um, a. I was like, almost outta high school, and I had taken some money out of, um, out of the bank, some cash to make a purchase. I think I was purchasing a laptop and I don't know why I, I don't, maybe I didn't have a credit card or I didn't have a debit card, but I was purchasing a laptop with cash. Right. And back then, like laptops, like this was not a super expensive laptop, but. It was a substantial amount of cash and I misplaced it and it was like, oh no, like, where is it? And like, I went crazy trying to find it. This is the situation. She's lost a substantial amount of money. Um, this parable, unlike the last one, doesn't give you a relative amount of how many she has. Otherwise. She's just lost a significant amount of money. So she takes all these different steps to try to find it. [00:27:44] Understanding the Parable's Context [00:27:44] Tony Arsenal: We have to feel that loss before we really can grasp what the parable is trying to teach us. [00:27:49] Jesse Schwamb: I like that, so I'm glad you brought that up because I ended up going down a rabbit hole with this whole coined situation. [00:27:56] Tony Arsenal: Well, we're about to, Matt Whitman some of this, aren't we? [00:27:58] Jesse Schwamb: Yes, I think so. But mainly because, and this is not really my own ideas here, there's, there's a lot I was able to kind of just read and kind. Throw, throw something around this because I think you're absolutely right that Jesus is bringing an ES escalation here and it's almost like a little bit easier for us to understand the whole sheep thing. I think the context of the lost coin, like you're already saying, is a little bit less familiar to us, and so I got into this. Rabbit hole over the question, why would this woman have 10 silver coins? I really got stuck on like, so why does she have these? And Jesus specific about that he's giving a particular context. Presumably those within his hearing in earshot understood this context far better than I did. So what I was surprised to see is that a lot of commentators you probably run into this, have stated or I guess promulgated this idea that the woman is young and unmarried and the 10 silver coins could. Could represent a dowry. So in some way here too, like it's not just a lot of money, it's possible that this was her saving up and it was a witness to her availability for marriage. [00:28:57] The Significance of the Lost Coin [00:28:57] Jesse Schwamb: So e either way, if that's true or not, Jesus is really emphasizing to us there's significant and severe loss here. And so just like you said, it would be a fool who would just like say, oh, well that's too bad. The coin is probably in here somewhere, but eh, I'm just gonna go about my normal business. Yeah. And forsake it. Like, let's, let's not worry about it. So. The emphasis then on this one is not so much like the leaving behind presumably can keep the remaining nine coins somewhere safe if you had them. But this effort and this diligence to, to go after and find this lost one. So again, we know it's all about finding what was lost, but this kind of momentum that Jesus is bringing to this, like the severity of this by saying there was this woman, and of course like here we find that part of this parable isn't just in the, the kingdom of God's like this, like we were talking about before. It's more than that because there's this expression of, again, the situation combined with these active verbs. I think we talked about last time that Christ love is an act of love and it's always being acted upon the sinner, the one who has to be redeemed, his child whom he goes after. So in the same way, we have Christ showing the self-denying love. Like in the first case, the shepherd brought his sheep home on his shoulders rather than leave it in the wilderness. And then here. The woman does like everything. She lights the candle, she sweeps the house. She basically turns the thing, the place upside down, searching diligently and spared no pains with this until she found her lost money. And before we get into the whole rejoicing thing, it just strikes me that, you know, in the same way, I think what we have here is Christ affirming that he didn't spare himself. He's not gonna spare himself. When he undertakes to save sinners, he does all the things. He endures the cross scor in shame. He lays down his life for his friends. There's no greater love than that. It cannot be shown, and so Christ's love is deep and mighty. It's like this woman doing all the things, tearing the place apart to ensure that that which she knew she had misplaced comes back to her. That the full value of everything that she knows is hers. Is safe and secure in her possession and so does the Lord Jesus rejoice the safe sinners in the same way. And that's where this is incredibly powerful. It's not just, Hey, let me just say it to you one more time. There is a reemphasis here, but I like where you're going, this re-escalation. I think the first question is, why do the woman have this money? What purpose is it serving? And I think if we can at least try to appreciate some of that, then we see again how Jesus is going after that, which is that he, he wants to save the sinner. He wants to save the soul. And all of the pleasure, then all of the rejoicing comes because, and, and as a result of that context. [00:31:22] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. [00:31:23] Theological Implications of God's People [00:31:23] Tony Arsenal: The other thing, um, maybe, and, and I hope I'm not overreading again, we've, we've talked about the dangers of overreading, the parables, but I think there's a, and we'll, we'll come to this too when we get into the, um, prodigal son. Um, there is this sense, I think in some theological traditions that. God is sort of like claiming a people who were not his own. Right. And one of the things that I love about the reform tradition, and, and I love it because this is the picture the Bible teaches, is the emphasis on the fact that God's people have been God's people. As long as God has been pondering and con like contemplating them. So like we deny eternal justification, right? Justification happens in time and there's a real change in our status, in in time when, when the spirit applies, the benefits that Christ has purchased for us in redemption, right? But there's also a very real sense that God has been looking and considering us as his people in eternity past. Like that's always. That's the nature of the Pactum salutes, the, you know, covenant of redemption election. The idea that like God is not saving a nameless, faceless people. He's not creating conditions that people can either move themselves into or take themselves out of. He has a concrete people. Who he is saving, who he has chosen. He, he, you know, prior to our birth, he will redeem us. He now, he has redeemed us and he will preserve us in all of these parables, whether it's the sheep, the coin, or as we'll get to the prodigal sun next week or, or whenever. Um. It's not that God is discovering something new that he didn't have, or it's not that the woman is discovering a coin, right? There's nothing more, uh, I think nothing more like sort of, uh, spontaneously delightful than like when you like buy a, like a jacket at the thrift store. Like you go to Salvation Army and you buy a jacket, you get home, you reach in the pocket and there's like a $10 bill and you're like, oh man, that's so, so great. Or like, you find a, you find a. A $10 bill on the ground, or you find a quarter on the ground, right? Yeah. Or you find your own money. Well, and that that's, there's a different kind of joy, right? That's the point, is like, there's a delight that comes with finding something. And again, like we have to be careful about like, like not stealing, right? But there's a different kind of joy that comes with like finding something that was not yours that now becomes yours. We talked about that with parables a couple weeks ago, right? There's a guy who finds it, he's, he's searching for pearls. He finds a pearl, and so he goes after he sells everything he has and he claims that pearl, but that wasn't his before the delight was in sort of finding something new. These parables. The delight is in reclaiming and refining something that was yours that was once lost. Right? That's a different thing. And it paints a picture, a different picture of God than the other parables where, you know, the man kind of stumbles on treasure in a field or he finds a pearl that he was searching for, but it wasn't his pearl. This is different. This is teaching us that God is, is zealous and jealous to reclaim that which was his, which was lost. Yes. Right. So, you know, we can get, we can, maybe we will next week, maybe we will dig into like super laps area versus infra laps. AIRism probably not, I don't necessarily wanna have that conversation. But there is a reality in the Bible where God has a chosen people and they are his people, even before he redeems them. [00:34:52] Jesse Schwamb: Exactly. [00:34:53] God's Relentless Pursuit of Sinners [00:34:53] Tony Arsenal: These parables all emphasize that in a different way and part of what he's, part of what he's ribbing at with the Pharisees and the, and the scribes, and this is common across all of Christ's teaching in his interactions and we get into true Israel with, with Paul, I mean this is the consistent testimony of the New Testament, is that the people who thought they were God's people. The, the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the, the sort of elites of, uh, first century Jewish believers, they really were convinced that they were God's people. And those dirty gentiles out there, they, they're not, and even in certain sense, like even the Jewish people out in the country who don't even, you know, they don't know the scriptures that like, even those people were maybe barely God's people. Christ is coming in here and he is going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like you're asking me. You're surprised that I receive sinners and e with them. Well, I'm coming to claim that which is mine, which was lost, and the right response to that is not to turn your nose up at it. The right response is to rejoice with me that I have found my sheep that was lost, that I have reclaimed my coin that was lost. And as we'll see later on, like he really needles them at the end of the, the, uh, parable of the prodigal son. This is something I, I have to be like intentional in my own life because I think sometimes we hear conversion stories and we have this sort of, I, I guess like, we'll call it like the, the Jonah I heresy, I dunno, we won't call it heresy, but like the, the, the like Jonah impulse that we all have to be really thankful for God's mercy in our life. But sort of question whether God is. Merciful or even be a little bit upset when it seems that God is being merciful to those sinners over there. We have to really like, use these parables in our own lives to pound that out of our system because it's, it's ungodly and it's not what God is, is calling us. And these parables really speak against that [00:36:52] Jesse Schwamb: and all of us speak in. In that lost state, but that doesn't, I think like you're saying, mean that we are not God's already. That if he has established that from a trinity past, then we'd expect what others have said about God as the hound of heaven to be true. And that is he comes and he chases down his own. What's interesting to me is exactly what you've said. We often recognize when we do this in reverse and we look at the parable of the lost son, all of these elements, how the father comes after him, how there's a cha singer coming to himself. There's this grand act of repentance. I would argue all of that is in all of these parables. Not, not to a lesser extent, just to a different extent, but it's all there. So in terms of like couching this, and I think what we might use is like traditionally reformed language. And I, I don't want to say I'm overeating this, I hope I'm not at that same risk, but we see some of this like toll depravity and like the sinner is lost, unable to move forward, right? There still is like the sovereign grace of God who's initiating the salvation and there is a kind of effect of calling that God doesn't merely invite, he finds, he goes after he affects the very thing. Yeah, and I think we're seeing that here. There is. The sinner, spiritual inability. There's an utter passivity until found. The coin doesn't seek the woman. The woman seeks the coin. And in this way, I think we see God's act of searching grace. It's all there for us. Yeah, it's in a slightly different way, but I think that's what we're meant to like take away from this. We're meant to lean into that a bit. [00:38:12] Rejoicing in Salvation [00:38:12] Jesse Schwamb: And the reason why I think it leads to joy, why God is so pleased is because God has this real pleasure. Jesus has this real pleasure. The Holy Spirit has this real pleasure. To pluck sinners as brands from the burning fire. You know, it was Jesus, literally his food and drink like not to be too trite, but like his jam went upon the earth to finish the work, which he came to do. And there are many times when he says he ammi of being constrained in the spirit until this was accomplished. And it's still his delight to show mercy like you're saying He is. And even Jonah recognizes that, right. He said like, I knew you were going to be a merciful God. And so he's far more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved. But that is the gospel level voice, isn't it? Because we can come kicking and screaming, but in God's great mercy, not because of works and unrighteousness, but because of his great mercy, he comes and he tears everything apart to rescue and to save those whom he's called to himself. [00:39:06] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. I love that old, um, Puritan phrase that wrath is God's alien work. And we, you know, like you gotta be careful when you start to talk that way. And the Puritans were definitely careful about everything. I mean, they were very specific when they spoke, but. When we talk about God's alien work and wrath being God's alien work, what we're saying is not, not that like somehow wrath is external to God. Like that's not what we're getting at of Right. But when you look at scripture and, and here's something that I think, um. I, I don't know how I wanna say this. Like, I think we read that the road is narrow and the the, um, you know, few are those who find it. I think we read that and we somehow think like, yeah, God, God, like, really loves that. Not a lot of people are saved. And I, I actually think that like, when we look at it, um, and, and again, like we have to be careful 'cause God, God. God decreed that which he is delighted by, and also that which glorifies him the most. Right? Right. But the picture that we get in scripture, and we have to take this seriously with all of the caveats that it's accommodated, it's anthropopathism that, you know, all of, all of the stuff we've talked about. We did a whole series on systematic theology. We did like six episodes on Divine Simplicity and immutability. Like we we're, we're right in line with the historic tradition on that. All of those caveats, uh, all of those caveats in place, the Bible pic paints a picture of God such that he grieves over. Those who are lost. Right? Right. He takes no delight in the death of the wicked. That's right. He, he, he seeks after the lost and he rejoices when he finds them. Right. He's, his, his Holy Spirit is grieved when we disobey him, his, his anger is kindled even towards his people in a paternal sense. Right. He disciplines us the way an angry father who loves us, would discipline us when we disobey him. That is a real, that's a real thing. What exactly that means, how we can apply that to God is a very complicated conversation. And maybe sometimes it's more complicated than we, like, we make it more complicated than it needs to be for sure. Um, we wanna be careful to preserve God's changeness, his immutability, his simplicity, all of those things. But at the end of the day, at. God grieves over lost sinners, and he rejoices when they come back. He rejoices when they return to him. Just as the shepherd who finds his lost sheep puts that sheep on his shoulders, right? That's not just because that's an easy way to carry a sheep, right? It's also like this picture of this loving. Intimate situation where God pulls us onto himself and he, he wraps literally like wraps us around himself. Like there are times when, um. You know, I have a toddler and there are times where I have to carry that toddler, and it's, it's a fight, right? And I don't really enjoy doing it. He's squirming, he's fighting. Then there are times where he needs me to hold him tight, and he, he snuggles in. When he falls down and hurts his leg, the first thing he does is he runs and he jumps on me, and he wants to be held tight, and there's a f there's a fatherly embrace there that not only brings comfort to my son. But it brings great joy to me to be able to comfort him that that dynamic in a, uh, a infinitely greater sense is at play here in the lost sheep. And then there's this rejoicing. It's not just rejoicing that God is rejoicing, it's the angels that are rejoicing. [00:42:43] The Joy of Redemption [00:42:43] Tony Arsenal: It's the, it's other Christians. It's the great cloud of witnesses that are rejoicing when Aah sinner is returned to God. All of God's kingdom and everything that that includes, all of that is involved in this rejoicing. That's why I think like in the first parable, in the parable of the lost sheep, it's joy in heaven. Right? It's sort of general joy in heaven. It's not specific. Then this one is even more specific. It's not just general joy in heaven. It's the angels of God. That's right. That are rejoicing. And then I think what we're gonna find, and we'll we'll tease this out when we get to the next par, well the figure in the prodigal son that is rejoicing. The one that is leading the rejoicing, the chief rejoice is the one who's the standin for God in that parable. [00:43:26] Jesse Schwamb: Right, exactly right. So, [00:43:27] Tony Arsenal: so we have to, we have to both recognize that there's a true grief. A true sorrow that is appropriate to speak of God, um, as having when a sinner is lost. And there's also an equally appropriate way to speak about God rejoicing and being pleased and delighted when a sinner returns to him. [00:43:53] Jesse Schwamb: That's the real payoff of this whole parable. I think, uh, maybe all three of them altogether, is that it is shocking how good the gospel is, which we're always saying, yeah, but I'm really always being moved, especially these last couple weeks with what Jesus is saying about how good, how truly unbelievable the gospel is. And again, it draws us to the. Old Testament scriptures when even the Israel saying, who is like this? Who is like our God? So what's remarkable about this is that there's an infinite willingness on God's part to receive sinners. [00:44:23] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. [00:44:23] Jesse Schwamb: And however wicked a man may have been, and the day that he really turns from his wickedness and comes to God by Christ, God is well pleased and all of heaven with him, and God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, like you said, but God has pleasure and true repentance. If all of that's true, then like day to day, here's what I, I think this means for us. [00:44:41] Applying the Parable to Our Lives [00:44:41] Jesse Schwamb: Is when we come to Christ for mercy and love and help and whatever anguish and perplexity and simpleness that we all have, and we all have it, we are going with the flow. If his own deepest wishes, we're not going against them. And so this means that God has for us when we partake in the toning work of Christ, coming to Christ for forgiveness, communing with him despite our sinfulness, that we are laying hold of Christ's own deepest longing and joy. [00:45:10] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. And [00:45:10] Jesse Schwamb: Jesus is comforted when we draw near the riches of his atoning work because as his body, even his own body in a way is being healed in this process. And so we, along with it, that I think is the payoff here. That's what's just so remarkable is that not only, like you're saying, is all heaven kind of paying attention to this. Like they're cognizant of it. It's something worthy of their attention and their energies and their rejoicing. But again, it's showing that God is doing all of this work and so he keeps calling us and calling us and calling us over and over again and just like you said, the elect sinner, those estr belongs to God and his eternal purpose. Even that by itself, we could just say full stop. Shut it down end the podcast. Yeah. That's just worthy to, to rejoice and, and ponder. But this is how strong I think we see like per election in particular, redemption in these passages. Christ died for his chief specifically crisis going after the lost coin, which already belongs to him. So like you were saying, Tony, when you know, or maybe you don't know, but you've misplaced some kind of money and you put your hand in that pocket of that winter coat for the first time that season and out comes the piece of paper, that's whatever, 20 or whatever, you rejoice in that, right. Right. It's like this was mine. I knew it was somewhere, it belonged to me, except that what's even better here is this woman tears her whole place apart to go after this one coin that she knows is hers and yet has been lost. I don't know what more it is to be said. I just cannot under emphasize. Or overemphasize how great God's love is in this like amazing condescension, so that when Jesus describes himself as being gentle and lowly or gentle and humble or gentle and humiliated, that I, I think as we understand the biblical text, it's not necessarily just that he's saying, well, I'm, I'm displaying. Meekness power under control. When he says he's humble, he means put in this incredibly lowly state. Yeah. That the rescue mission, like you're saying, involves not just like, Hey, she lemme call you back. Hey, come over here, says uh. He goes and he picks it up. It's the ultimate rescue, picks it up and takes it back by his own volition, sacrificing everything or to do that and so does this woman in this particular instance, and it should lead us. I think back to there's this virtuous cycle of seeing this, experiencing this. Being compelled by the law of Christ, as Paul says, by the power of the Holy Spirit and being regenerated and then worshiping, and then repenting, and then worshiping, and then repenting, and then worshiping. Because in the midst of that repentance and that beautifulness recognizing, as Isaiah says, all of these idols that we set up, that we run to, the one thing they cannot do for us is they cannot deal with sin. They cannot bring cleanliness and righteousness through confession of sin. They cannot do that. So Christ is saying, come to the one you who are needy, you who have no money. To use another metaphor in the Bible, come and buy. And in doing so, we're saying, Christ, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. And when he says, come, come, I, I've, I have already run. After you come and be restored, come and be renewed. That which was lost my child. You have been found and I have rescued you. [00:48:04] Tony Arsenal: Yeah. Yeah. And these, these are so, um, these two parables are so. Comfortable. Like, right, like they are there, there are certain passages of scripture that you can just like put on like a big fuzzy warm bathrobe on like sn a cold morning, a snuggy. Yeah. I don't know if I want to go that far, but spirits are snuggy and, and these two are like that, right? Like, I know there are times where I feel like Christ redeemed me sort of begrudgingly, right? Mm-hmm. I think we have, we have this, um, concept in our mind of. Sort of the suffering servant, you know, like he's kind of like, ah, if I have to do it, I will. Right, right. And, and like, I think we, we would, if, if we were the ones who were, were being tasked to redeem something, we might do it. You know, we might do it and we. We might feel a certain sense of satisfaction about it, but I can tell you that if I had a hundred sheep and I had lost one, I would not lay it on my shoulder rejoicing. I would lay it on my shoulder. Frustrated and glad that I finally found it, but like. Right. Right. That's not what Christ did. That's right. Christ lays us on his shoulders rejoicing. Right. I know. Like when you lose something, it's frustrating and it's not just the loss of it that's frustrating. It's the time you have to take to find it. And sometimes like, yeah, you're happy that you found it, but you're like, man, it would've just been nice if I hadn't lost this in [00:49:36] Jesse Schwamb: the That's right. [00:49:37] Tony Arsenal: This woman, there's none of that. There's no, um, there's no regret. There's no. Uh, there's no begrudging this to it. There's nothing. It's just rejoicing. She's so happy. And it's funny, I can imagine, uh, maybe, maybe this is my own, uh, lack of sanctification here. I can imagine being that friend that's like, I gotta come over 'cause you found your coin, right? Like, I can be, I could imagine me that person, but Right. But honestly, like. This is a, this is a situation where she's so overcome with joy. She just has to tell people about it. Yeah. She has to share it with people. It, it reminds me, and I've seen this, I've seen this, um, connection made in the past certainly isn't new to me. I don't, I don't have any specific sorts to say, but like the woman at the well, right. She gets this amazing redemption. She gets this, this Messiah right in front of her. She leaves her buckets at the well, and she goes into a town of people who probably hate her, who think she's just the worst scum of society and she doesn't care. She goes into town to tell everybody about the fact that the Messiah has come, right? And they're so like stunned by the fact that she's doing it. Like they come to see what it is like that's what we need to be like. So there's. There's an element here of not only the rejoicing of God, and again, like, I guess I'm surprised because I've, I've, I've never sort of really read this. Part, I've never read this into it too much or I've never like really pulled this out, but it, now that I'm gonna say it, it just seems logical, like not only is God rejoicing in this, but again, it should be calling us to rejoice, right? Christ is. Christ is using these parables to shame the Pharisees and the scribes who refuse to rejoice over the salvation of sinners. How often do we not rejoice over our own salvation sufficiently? Like when's the last time? And I, I don't want to, this is, this can be a lot of loss. So again, like. God is not calling every single person to stand up on their lunch table at work, or, I don't know if God's calling anybody to stand up on the lunch table at work. Right. To like, like scream about how happy they are that they're sick, happy, happy. But like, when's the last time you were so overcome with joy that in the right opportunity, it just over, like it just overcame you and you had to share it. I don't rem. Putting myself bare here, like I don't remember the last time that happened. I share my faith with people, like my coworkers know that I'm a Christian and, um, my, they know that like, there are gonna be times where like I will bring biblical ethics and biblical concepts into my work. Like I regularly use bible examples to illustrate a principle I'm trying to teach my employees or, or I will regularly sort of. In a meeting where there's some question about what the right, not just like the correct thing to do, but the right thing to do. I will regularly bring biblical morality into those conversations. Nobody is surprised by that. Nobody's really offended by it. 'cause I just do it regularly. But I don't remember the last time where I was so overcome with joy because of my salvation that I just had to tell somebody. Right. And that's a, that's a, that's an indictment on me. That's not an indictment on God. That's not an indictment on anyone else. That's an indictment on me. This parable is calling me to be more joyful about. My salvation. [00:52:52] Jesse Schwamb: Yeah. One of the, I think the best and easiest verses from Psalms to memorize is let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Yes. Like, say something, speak up. There's, there's a great truth in what you're saying. Of course. And I think we mentioned this last time. There's a communal delight of redemption. And here we see that played out maybe a little bit more explicitly because the text says that the joy is before the angels, meaning that still God is the source of the joy. In other words, the angels share in God's delight night, vice versa, and not even just in salvation itself, but the fact that God is delighted in this great salvation, that it shows the effectiveness of his saving power. All that he has designed will come to pass because he super intends his will over all things that all things, again are subservient to our salvation. And here, why would that not bring him great joy? Because that's exactly what he intends and is able to do. And the angels rejoice along with him because his glory is revealed in his mighty power. So I'm, I'm with you. I mean, this reminds me. Of what the author of Hebrew says. This is chapter 12, just the first couple of verses. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses in this communal kind of redemption of joy surrounding us. Laying aside every weight and the sin,

In Episode 222 of the Pro Series Podcast, Eric sits down with Matthew Pohl, founder, operator, author of 18 books, and father of four. Matthew grew up in a thriving entrepreneurial family before losing everything and ending up on food stamps. That pivotal moment sparked a drive that would shape his entire career.After walking away from a comfortable corporate job, Matthew and his family went all in on building a business from the ground up. The road was anything but smooth, but nearly a year of resilience paid off in a big way. By implementing a powerful model he later named Organizational ReWilding, he scaled his company, multiplied its value by 10 in three years, and exited for an eight figure win.In this conversation, Matthew breaks down the real lessons behind that success. He shares hard earned stories, practical tools founders can use right away, and bold leadership insights that challenge how organizations grow. If you want a proven and scalable system for building healthier teams, stronger cultures, and high value companies, this episode delivers the blueprint.Tune in and learn how to rethink your business from the inside out.

In today's episode, I'm talking about a completely different way to figure out what you actually want… not just for the new year, but for your whole life.If you've ever tried to think your way into clarity, this is your reminder that your body often knows the truth long before your brain catches up. I'm sharing how I'm navigating my own life transition — from testing out a new city to questioning what's next in my work — and why the real answers only appeared when I stopped overthinking and started feeling.We'll talk about:• How to tell the difference between joy and contraction• Why ADHD “starting and not finishing” is actually a strength• What Morgan Housel and Martha Beck taught me about trying things• A simple embodiment exercise that reveals your North Star• How to use your body to guide your decisions in 2026• Why your next chapter won't come from logic… but from sensation

Darius Dale is the Founder & CEO of 42 Macro. In this conversation, we break down the growing divisions inside the Federal Reserve, the real odds of a December rate cut, and who may lead the Fed next. Darius explains how Fed policy is moving asset prices in every direction and why markets are pricing something very different from what the Fed is saying.======================Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a Figure Crypto-Backed Loan (https://www.figuremarkets.co/pomp), allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! https://www.figuremarkets.co/pomp Disclosures: Figure Lending LLC dba Figure. Equal Opportunity Lender. NMLS 1717824. Terms and conditions apply.======================⁠DeFi Development Corp. (Nasdaq: DFDV) is pioneering a new category in crypto investing with the first Solana-focused Digital Asset Treasury. DFDV offers public market exposure to Solana's growth, yield, and onchain innovation, offering investors a leveraged way to participate in a trillion-dollar opportunity. Learn more about why Solana and why DFDV at SolanaTo10K.com.======================Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro1:28 – Why the Federal Reserve is deeply divided6:18 – Structural changes reshaping the US economy9:40 – Will the market force the Fed to cut rates?13:17 – The K-shaped economy: who's in recession?19:29 – Markets at risk: positioning signals flashing red22:31 – What the KISS model says about bitcoin

Sticking rigidly to your sales scripts, hiring and firing sales reps, and positioning yourself as a freelancer instead of the expert: these mistakes will cost you in 2026 if you don't address them now. 6-figure fractional sales manager, Jeff Pecaro, joins us once again to reveal his best sales insights and call us out on the mistakes we need to leave behind in 2025. Plus, we get into how he and other 6-7 figure businesses inside Dynamite Circle are scaling with just one human and multiple bots. LINKS How to work with Jeff (https://meetwingman.com/) Jeff's favorite microphone for sales calls (https://www.amazon.com/Shure-MV7X-Podcast-Microphone-Voice-Isolating/dp/B09BZZCGC8/) Get 2 months of Perspective AI FREE with promo code TMBA (https://getperspective.ai/tmba) Share your thoughts about the podcast (https://getperspective.ai/interview/tmba-feedback) [takes 2 minutes] Connect with 6-, 7- & 8-figure founders in Dynamite Circle (https://dynamitecircle.com/dcbkk) Hang out exclusively with 7+ figure founders (https://dynamitecircle.com/dc-black) 22 FREE business resources for location-independent entrepreneurs (https://tropicalmba.com/resources) CHAPTERS (00:00:13) Today's Guest: Jeff Pecaro (00:01:44) The Biggest Challenge Holding Back Your Sales (00:05:00) Start Positioning Yourself as the Expert (00:14:31) Conversion Rate Benchmarks to Aim For (00:18:59) How to Go From “Good Call” to $ in the Bank (00:26:33) Sales Best Practices in 2026 (00:32:24) 2026 Bootstrapper Trends and Predictions CONNECT: Dan@tropicalmba.com Ian@tropicalmba.com Past guests on TMBA include Cal Newport, David Heinemeier Hannson, Seth Godin, Ricardo Semler, Noah Kagan, Rob Walling, Jay Clouse, Einar Vollset, Sam Dogan, Gino Wickam, James Clear, Jodie Cook, Mark Webster, Steph Smith, Taylor Pearson, Justin Tan, Matt Gartland, Ayman Al-Abdullah, Lucy Bella. PLAYLIST: Your 2026 Business Plan in 36 Minutes (https://tropicalmba.com/episodes/2026-business-plan) [FREE Resource] $400K in Points & 100% Vibe Coded Shopify Forecasting App with “SpyGuy” Allen Walton (https://tropicalmba.com/episodes/400k-in-points-vibe-coded-app) The Lifestyle Business Playbook (2025 Edition) (https://tropicalmba.com/episodes/lifestyle-business-playbook-2025)

Tracklist and more info: https://www.bestdrumandbass.com/podcast572/Its the final episode before Let it Roll + Jungle Bells as we will be taking next week off, so we decided to go EXTRA HEAVY this week to prepare for the madness! We have a very special guest mix from Insomniacs "Discovery Project" winner FALKO, and as usual you have your resident Bad Syntax dialed in on the freshest heat available. So lock it in, and we cant wait to see you at LET IT ROLL & JUNGLE BELLS the next two weekends!Subscribe to the podcast: bestdnb.com/podcast  Virtua Point Zero - Wrath of Olympus / Giving Up [OUT NOW on Abducted LTD]Download / Stream: bestdrumandbass.com/altd132/Supported by: Doc Scott, Psidream, Figure, Nightstalker, Stonx, Jane Doe DNB, Bad Ace, Affirmation, Autopsy, Drone, dela Moon, Korax, DJ Odi, Bytecode, Direct Shift, Scout 22, ESKR, MV, Metric, Nox, Bass Bitches, Insom, Drbblz, Lennart Hoffmann, Klone, Crackindomes, Hijk, Stonerice, Needlenose, fibednb, ARI-ON, Lee UHF and more!Catch Bad Syntax alongside some of the largest names in the game in Atlanta for Jungle Bells 2025! Click the image for more info!

Too many business owners are trying to use AI as a shortcut to fire people instead of using it to multiply the output of their best people. And that mindset is killing their growth. Matt Leitz has been building automation systems for 7- and 8-figure companies long before AI went mainstream. He's seen inside the machines powering 9-figure brands… and the truth is simple: automation isn't optional anymore. If you want to scale, you need a business that compounds output without requiring more of your time. Matt breaks down how to use AI as leverage — not as a crutch. He shares where founders get stuck, which systems create the highest ROI, how to turn funnels profitable even when ads lose money on day one, and how to build automations that drive revenue for years. If you've been trying to figure out how to integrate AI without breaking your business, this conversation will completely reset your framework.     Key Takeaways 00:00 Intro 01:36 You're Thinking About AI All Wrong 02:54 AI Agents and Chatbots 05:24 Start With Strategy, Not Technology 08:09 Why You Shouldn't Automate Reporting 11:22 Prompt Engineering is Easier Than You Think 16:04 How To Build & Leverage Custom GPTs 20:41 Collaborating With AI For Better Results 27:10 AI Tool that Boosts Sales Rep Performance 30:06 Why Tool-Hopping Slows Your Growth 31:50 Why Automation Is Required To Scale Big 35:35 Are Traditional Marketing Funnels Dead? 41:03 When to Focus ON or IN the Business 45:42 The Real Path To Scaling Ad Spend 54:03 Lead Offers vs. Maximizer Offers 01:02:06 Protecting Your Time Above Everything Else     Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/F96ncjHK8jI    Let's Connect: Website | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitter | Facebook

QFF: Quick Fire Friday – Your 20-Minute Growth Powerhouse! Welcome to Quick Fire Friday, the Grow A Small Business podcast series that is designed to deliver simple, focused and actionable insights and key takeaways in less than 20 minutes a week. Every Friday, we bring you business owners and experts who share their top strategies for growing yourself, your team and your small business. Get ready for a dose of inspiration, one action you can implement and quotable quotes that will stick with you long after the episode ends! In this episode of Quick Fire Friday, host Amanda Jones interviews Taylor Victoria, founder of Level Up Outsourcing and host of the "She's Making Millions" podcast. Taylor shares how she built a 7-figure outsourcing agency after struggling to find a job at 22. She explains how outsourcing transforms lives in the Philippines and why business owners must embrace AI as a co-pilot rather than fear it. Taylor highlights the power of personal development, time audits, and team alignment for high performance. She encourages business owners to explore AI tools and automate tasks to create freedom and grow their business. Key Takeaways for Small Business Owners: Embrace AI as a Co-Pilot, Not a Threat: AI won't replace your business — but business owners using AI will. Stay proactive and learn new tools weekly. Audit Your Time to Find What to Automate: Track your tasks for 1–2 weeks and use AI to identify what can be automated or delegated to free up your energy. Invest in Personal Development: Your business grows when you grow. Events, learning, and self-reflection directly impact performance and results. Our hero crafts outstanding reviews following the experience of listening to our special guests. Are you the one we've been waiting for? Build High-Performing Teams With Clear Systems: Review your team's workflows, improve efficiency, and let people focus on high-ROI work by pairing them with AI tools. Use Outsourcing to Scale Smarter: Global talent can transform your operations and create life-changing opportunities for others, especially in the Philippines. Prepare Your Business to Be an Asset, Not a Job:  Automating processes and reducing dependency on you increases business value — making it easier to scale or eventually sell. One action small business owners can take: According to Taylor Victoria, one action small business owners can take is to upload their weekly tasks into ChatGPT and ask which processes can be automated with AI, then commit to implementing one automation within the next seven days. Do you have 2 minutes every Friday? Sign up to the Weekly Leadership Email. It's free and we can help you to maximize your time. Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.

“What is your passion? Why are you doing this?” In this episode, Nick speaks with Vincent Wanga about the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Vince shares his unique journey through the creative industry, discussing the challenges and advantages of being an insomniac and how it has shaped his work ethic. What to listen for: Insomnia can be both a challenge and a competitive advantage. Leadership requires sacrifice and understanding of employee dynamics. Passion and purpose are essential for sustainable entrepreneurship. Vision is crucial for effective leadership and business success. Scaling a business requires preparation and understanding of resources. Failure is a necessary part of the learning process. Creatives must balance their artistic mindset with business skills. “Everything that I do is passion and purpose-rooted. And that should be your first mission.” When you anchor decisions in passion, you can more naturally stay motivated during the hard parts of the journey Purpose brings clarity, so you waste less time chasing things that don't matter. Leading with what lights you up often creates the most authentic and sustainable success. Passion-driven work tends to attract the right people and opportunities without forcing it. Starting with purpose sets the tone for how you show up. “Creatives have a visionary mindset. So why can’t creatives be those same CEOs? We just lack the business acumen.” Creativity is the foundation of innovation. Many creatives underestimate how transferable their skills are to leadership. Visionary thinkers often make better long-term strategists than traditional operators. When creatives embrace structure and systems, they become unstoppable leaders. About Vincent Wanga Vince is a dynamic international design thought leader, creative keynote speaker, award-winning creative and executive, author of “The Art of Direction,” serial entrepreneur, and experienced brand consultant with an exceptional range of expertise over a distinguished two-decade career. As former vice president and head of creative for one of the fastest-growing technology startups in North America, he oversaw corporate brand strategy and creative during unprecedented company growth from pre-Series A to an over $1 billion “unicorn” valuation. Vince lives in Washington, DC, and Asheville, NC, with his dog, Okello. When he is not working on new business ventures, he passionately travels the world, collecting creative inspiration at the finest boutique hotels rewards points can buy. https://www.vincentwanga.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-wanga/ Resources: Check out other episodes about creativity and entrepreneurship: Creativity Within Us All With Joe Tertel Post Traumatic Growth, When Trauma Makes You Stronger And More Creative With Christian Ray Flores Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Send Nick an email or schedule a time to discuss your podcast today! https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/contact/ Thank you for listening! Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:01.507)Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show we have Vince Wanga. Vince, how you doing today? Vincent Wanga (00:11.372)I’m doing all right, Nick. I’m looking forward to our conversation and thanks for having me on. Nick McGowan (00:15.618)Yeah, absolutely. I’m excited, man. I think this is gonna be fun. I know there’s a lot that you’ve been through, a lot that you’ve done. One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to have you on the show was to be able to talk about creativity and how it ties into us as people, but also into the systems that we’re in, like the capitalistic system, our family systems, all those things. I grew up as a creative in a… not a typical creative house, so to say. So it felt a little weird, but that was the system that I was in. And then you get into jobs, you get into your career, and like, how do you do all that stuff? And that was one of the things that really stood out to me about having you on. So I’m gonna stop talking. Why don’t you kick us off? Tell us what you do for a living, and what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little odd or bizarre? Vincent Wanga (01:00.142)Well, thank you. I am in a weird place in my career because I’m transitioning. I have been a creative at the highest levels and the lowest levels for 20 years. Started as an intern, worked my way up through the agency world, stints as a freelance independent operator working for clients all over the world to owning my own agency and having that unique experience as a business owner and operator. and all the responsibilities that come with managing employees and being responsible for payroll and profit and loss and the other side of the industry, as well as becoming a senior executive and top 100, well, first 100 employees for a billion dollar tech startup and a crazy transformational journey. So I only preface that to say I’ve done it all in so many different industries. I’ve worked with so many different sectors, in-house, freelance. agency, you name it in the creative sector, I’ve done it. And I think that offers me a lot of perspective and advice that I can offer to people, whether you’re creative or not, particularly in the aspects of leadership, which is something I really focus on at this point in my career. But as I mentioned, I’m in a major transition away from creative and more into my real core ethos, which is entrepreneurship and taking all that creative talent, marketing, business acumen into my own businesses and consulting and other opportunities to really express my creativity in a different way. So it’s a really exciting paradigm for me. As far as something that’s really unique about me, I could wax philosophic on that. But I think the most unique thing is I am an insomniac. I get an inhuman amount of sleep and it has been a very difficult, like physical manifestation in my life because that’s not healthy, but it has been an incredible. competitive advantage in my career, where I’m able to work day and night and create businesses on a weekend and maximize my time. But as I get older, the other side of the coin starts catching up and trying to figure out how to adjust as I move forward is a new paradigm I’m dealing with. But that’s one of many unique things about me. Nick McGowan (03:16.459)Wow, I’m really glad that you consider that a unique thing. that you see that as a… there’s kind of a silver lining that you look at that instead of some people saying like, well I just… I’m struggling with this thing. It sounds like even the personality that you have, like you’ll go, well I am kind of struggling but it is what it is and this is what it is. Then I could do something with it. And it’s funny how as you get older, things will shift and change just across the board. I mean we could have a whole fucking episode just about like the specific changes that happen from your knees and your back and the way you think about things. or whatever you don’t mean I wonder at times with the people that are insomniacs that it’s something that they actually kind of crave and it’s like a mental thing where like I want to keep going and I think about it from this perspective In the human design way I’m a generator and I have to use all of my energy every day So by the end of the day there are times where I’m like I’m totally done. It’s nine o’clock at night I guess I’ll go to sleep because I’m done for the day and like all the energy’s out other times It’s like three or four in the morning and it is what it is But for the people that… Nick McGowan (04:27.617)can hear that and say, well, you’re just trying to hustle and just trying to use all that to get ahead and do the grind and all that stuff. I’m reading between the lines and a little bit I know about you so far, that’s not the case with you. So it’s more of one of those like, I do these things because I’m led to do these things, but I also have a really hard time sleeping. So how do you manage that going through each day and saying like, all right, well, I got whatever amount of sleep and my body needs more, but I also have a lot of mental energy where it’s like you can feel the physical of like, man, I’m just fucking dragging. But my brain’s still going and like that must take a toll on you. I could imagine, you know, you have a week of that. Most people would just be driven insane. So how do you how do you manage that? Vincent Wanga (05:12.344)Yeah, and I think, you know, this reminds me of that. I think it was a New Yorker editorial cartoon that had a building in Manhattan with lights on. And it said these three lights are either a drug dealer, serial killer or creative. Right. We’re the only ones up at 3 a.m. So I don’t think it’s as unique within the creative realm. But I think what makes me unique is the duality that I’m up all night in human hours, but I’m also functional in the morning. Like I’ve stayed up for 72 hours before. Nick McGowan (05:25.854)Yeah. Nick McGowan (05:37.93)Hmm. Vincent Wanga (05:40.718)on deadlines and things that push beyond human norms and are completely unhealthy, but have also, again, like I said, been an advantage historically in my career. think the way my brain is wired, and I think a lot of critics can resonate with this, is I’m my most creative and intellectual at night. I could spend the same amount of time and energy between nine to five on the same thing, and that… You know, error of time, I could achieve better results in an hour at 3am. It’s just the way these ideas flow in my mind. It’s the same mindset for anyone who can’t relate where like CEOs get up early in the morning and take a bike ride or do a run. And then they come back to the office and now they got a new product idea that everybody’s got to scramble to do. It’s the CEO brain, but it just kicks on at the wrong time. but it is, it is a burden, because it’s not healthy. And unfortunately there’s, there’s Nick McGowan (06:30.472)You Vincent Wanga (06:39.982)long-term cognitive effects that happen on that and there’s a diminishing return. But I think the most important point here is that I didn’t want to be this way. This is something that evolved from my artist background where I would the only time I had to myself and peace and quiet to create was at night. It started kind of rewiring my brain and then I went to college long story short got kicked out because of money and found myself with my career over before it even started. So I had to hustle and work twice as hard as everybody else just to get started. I started at a deficit. So I always maximize my time in order to try to achieve the results that I needed to get back into the industry. And then the third thing I think people can resonate with is if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s this paranoia when you go to sleep and you don’t want to wake up with bills. You don’t want to wake up with problems. You just want to stay up and solve everything that you can. you could have $10,000 in your bank account for that week and still feel insecure. And I think that just keeps me up at night constantly hustling and hoping that that hustle prevents the worst case scenario from happening. So it’s just this convolutions of things that are part of my experiences and my mindset. But it has been an advantage up until about now where I’m kind of paying the health effects of it, but it’s helped me become incredibly successful. And I think that’s a unique. perspective for me. Nick McGowan (08:09.086)I love when conversations head this way. I’ll ask that question every single episode. So everybody listens. They’re used to that question being asked. But I love when that question invokes us going down a different path for the conversation. Obviously, we were going to talk about creativity and leadership, and that just jives with us both. But that’s a really important thing, I think, to get into because you had neural pathways that were literally changed. And you created these paths so, so many years ago saying, like, everybody leave me the hell alone. Great, you’re all asleep. Everybody’s left me alone. I get to do the thing I want to do. And then you turn that, especially as an agency, for anybody that’s been in any sort of agency, imagine running around with your hair on fire, 15 other people having their hair on fire, and somebody just yelling at you constantly, and you’re constantly late on things that you’re actually pretty much on time for with your projects. And that’s like a typical Tuesday in most agencies. And that will drive you Vincent Wanga (08:41.592)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (09:08.848)to have more those neural pathways change because then you have to do things at night. Dude, I’ve been in the same spot where it’s like we have this thing coming up, somebody sent this thing back to me and it’s time for me to QA it or just basically give it once through. Seven hours later you have to do a complete re-haul or whatever and from a leader’s perspective you have to love on that person and help them and work through them. You can’t just go and physically slap them in the back of head and go, the fuck? That’s my first question, you know? So as a creative, I’m right there with you. think a lot of us do have that. Nocturnal energy almost to be able to create but I wonder if a lot of that does come from like when you were in middle school or high school like Just everybody leave me alone. Like when your parents tell you like go to your room. You’re like, thank God awesome now Will you all just stay can I lock the door and like just paint or whatever? I want to do and then that turns into the the systems that we’re in that tell us you have to grind you have to hustle and I I just wonder about how many people are still stuck in that because they don’t see the patterns of, well, I’m having a hard time with this. Like, you see that there’s a pattern with you being an insomniac. But how do you actually combat that, work on that, and not drive yourself crazy each and every day, you know? Vincent Wanga (10:31.522)Yeah, I think that’s a challenge. I think there’s a few ways I can approach that question. One, I really loved your point about the sacrifice of leadership. I think a lot of people underestimate that. It’s like the swan analogy, where it’s calm and collected at the top, but your feet are vigorously swimming and kicking. I think people who are employees and check in nine to five and their check clears on Monday when it’s payday. don’t understand the sacrifice sometimes that their leadership have to make to make that happen. And part of that is that paranoia that we deal with every single day. You know, I also think, you know, I’m highly functional introvert. So I love the quiet time that that allows me to think and to process and to execute on. But I also love that quote. I hope I’m not misquoting them. I think it was by Warren Buffett who said it took me 10 years to be an overnight success. There is no skipping the grind, the hustle. Nick McGowan (11:13.436)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (11:25.959)Yeah. Vincent Wanga (11:28.258)the sacrifice, know, your family hates you and you don’t see people enough and your friends are wondering if you’re okay. And that’s what it takes to build business, to build legacy, to build anything. So whether I had this unique deposition to work on godly hours or not, I think people find the will in the way because there’s no shortcuts around that to success. And that’s what you got to do. And if you’ve got a nine to five job, well, guess what? Now you got to work five to nine. and find the time that you need to execute on something. And I think it’s more of an entrepreneur’s brain than a creative’s brain. again, like I said, it’s been advantageous in ways and disadvantageous in others. Nick McGowan (12:07.259)I think they actually tie together though, the creativity and the entrepreneurship. I’ve met, god I can’t even put numbers to the amount of entrepreneurs I’ve met over the course of time, but I could probably say in one hand that the people that weren’t really creative and… Vincent Wanga (12:17.667)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (12:24.125)definitely told me like I am not creative at all. But then when you look at their processes, how they handle situations, all of it is just oozing creativity. They’re just not creative in the medium of painting or graphic design or web or whatever it is, but they’re still being creative in how they handle it. Shit, even leaders that are like, okay, well I know if I yell at you as a creative, you’re not gonna do the work that you need to do and you’re probably gonna hate it here. So how do I talk to you nicely about it? That is a creative approach. approach to it where you’ve been in spots, I’ve been in spots where somebody clearly didn’t take that spot and they just yelled at you about the thing because they’re hurt or they’re upset and they can’t manage themselves and they’re just diving it at you. But there is a lot of creativity that ties into that. And I think there’s a lot of people that talk about being an entrepreneur with really a hobby in a sense and not understanding that basic principles of entrepreneurship is you just have various means of income and you just work on things as a creative. You can sit down and work on things for six hours and you think, shit, I was doing this for two hours, but six hours later, I’ve been standing here, I’ve been working through this thing. And I want to dive deeper into this because I don’t want people to think that you’re saying to them, you just need to grind. No matter what you’re feeling, what you’re doing, just shut up and grind. That’s not the case. But how do you balance that? Because I know people that literally they take that ethos and just say, well, this is who I am. And it’s in a It’s a false way for them instead of being able to say like this is who I am because man I’m just so passionate about this thing that I eat sleep and dream this because this is my purpose in the world instead of saying well the system tells us this and my god I got a mortgage and these mouths to feed and whatever else it’s like you have to shift from that so how do you shift from that? How did you? Vincent Wanga (14:15.714)Man, I think that’s such a good point. I think too many people get enamored with the grind part, right? That’s what they teach you in investment banking. That’s what they teach you in all these other segments. Just grind and the reward will come and they’ll dangle this carrot in front of you that somehow disappears on your journey, right? Entrepreneurship’s very similar. And I’ll just say, this is the hardest shit in the world, like next to raising a child. Like it is incredibly difficult and that’s… Nick McGowan (14:37.446)Yeah. Vincent Wanga (14:42.102)what discourages most people. But I think the point that you made that was really excellent is you first have to have a purpose. What is your passion? Why are you doing this? Never have I thought when I’m in an entrepreneurial pursuit and I’m working, you know, 18 hours a day, did I ever feel burnt out? Isn’t that interesting that I can go to a typical corporate job and after five hours just can’t wait to leave, but I’ll work nonstop on my own thing and never feel burnt out. I have stress maybe related to money or something. but it’s not work stress. And I think that’s because everything that I do is passion and purpose rooted. And that should be your first mission. Don’t do this thing because you think it’s going to make you rich. You know, start that brewery because you love beer, you love the science of beer, and that you realize that by getting into that business, you are now an agriculture. You’re a farmer. You need to know about hops and the process and supply chain and fermentation. And you are a chemist and you got to figure out the right, you know, balance in order to have the best beer in the world. Otherwise, don’t do it. Nick McGowan (15:11.93)Yeah. Nick McGowan (15:21.561)Hmm. Vincent Wanga (15:41.056)So I think people need to understand what’s your passion would start there. The grind is easy if you’re passion and purpose driven and don’t let that kind of blind you. Start with your passion and your purpose. And that’s really helped keep me balanced so that I make sure the most precious commodity I have right now at this age is my time. And I make sure that just like my money, I invested reasonably and responsibly and only things that really bring me value in return. I think my second point is The grind is should be front end, you know, where your typical nine to five and there’s no wrong path is something you progressively invest in. And at the end, around 65 years old, you get your benefit and you get to go, you know, travel and live in Florida and do whatever you want with your life and retirement. Entrepreneurship is different. You literally grind for three years. The first year you’re just getting established. The second year you’re trying to become profitable. That third year, if you make it that far, you might actually thrive and have a business. And unless you’re paying yourself, Like you said, it’s just a hobby. So you have to be serious about this, understand the business fundamentals, but also understand for three years you’re in the suck and you have to work and work hard. And if you’re passionate and purpose driven, it won’t feel like a burden. And then you get your reward where all of a sudden you have enough profit to hire a COO or even a CEO as a founder to run your business and employees and your scaling and it gets easier. So you just have to understand the different philosophies between a nine to five and entrepreneurial pursuit. and make sure you’re passion and purpose driven and that will really help you keep balanced in this kind of crazy lexicon that is working like we do. Nick McGowan (17:17.338)Yeah, especially here in the States. We work much more than other people, but then there are other countries that… It’s the system that they’re in and how they go through it. I think one of things that you pointed out that really stood out to me was how when you take that approach of the passion and the purpose and you’re doing those things, you’re gonna work so much more on that because you’re fired up about it instead of doing whatever reports or whatever BS meetings or whatever you’re doing at nine to five. And you can just keep working on these things. But as you do that, you really start to stretch that muscle. So it’s like you’re able to handle things in year two, year three differently than you could in year one or even year two, let’s say, because everything starts to stack up. So in a very black and white way, for the most part, I think the people that listen to the show are leaders, at least in what they do, if not entrepreneurs, and there are a lot of entrepreneurs that are already in their business. But the people that think about, want to get out of my job, I want to get into a business, if you’ve got to go through that work anyway, and you’re just going to basically jump in a boat and go down that river. Don’t you want to go down the river with the stream instead of trying to fight up it like you’re currently doing in your nine to five? And it’s like, how do you then take that approach and say, all right, well, this is what I want. And there is a difference between passion and purpose. I think we have a seed of purpose that’s within us and there are ways that we get to show our passion with that purpose. But if you can tie that stuff together, you’re almost unstoppable. There’s shit that’s going to happen, but you’re going to get through that. When you talk to different Vincent Wanga (18:34.254)Sure. Right. Nick McGowan (18:58.138)from people about that sort of stuff and tying those two together. What’s the way that you can kind of put that into a vision to be able to show this is where these two pieces kind of can join? Vincent Wanga (19:06.818)Yeah, and I think for me to tell a little story, I was a senior designer art director at an agency in Minneapolis at the time. And I was getting really good insights on the business side of creative from the particular owner I was working with. He was very transparent about those things. So I found out how much he was profiting per employee, particularly me. And that didn’t match up with my salary. Now he’s a business owner. has every right to a profit. That’s not what I’m questioning. What I said is that my value is significantly higher than I thought it was this whole time. I thought it was defined by my salary. And the funny thing about these nine to five jobs, and I’m not knocking them, we all have done it and are having to do it, but they pay you just enough to kill your dreams. You know, I’m sure you’ve heard that before and just enough to be comfortable. And when I realized the potential there, I started taking advantage of that, you know, five to nine time that overnight time. I started, you know, freelancing and getting clients. And when I compared the numbers, I realized if I went full time with my own hustle, I could triple my income and not triple my work hours. So that was the passion part, right? So what that did is it led into my purpose and the purpose was, and I think this is really important is oftentimes when you get into entrepreneurship, Money should never be your motivation. Money is a reward that comes down later. It should be rooted deeper than that. But if you can tie your entrepreneurship with your lifestyle, your ideal lifestyle and outcome, that is the greatest gift in earth. So for example, imagine you’re a snowboarder and you just want to go to Vail and Whistler and, you know, go down the most amazing double black diamond mountains and make that a part of your lifestyle. Imagine starting a business. where you could be in that community and make profit. Now you’re in your ideal lifestyle, your ideal community, and you have a business that helps fund that. And that was kind of my motivation. So I am now independent, tripling my income. I’m working half as much. I’m able to travel the world. And as long as I have wifi, I can continue to make money indefinitely in whatever country I stay in. It was the most incredible lifestyle of my life. And there’s some limits to that we can talk about later, but it gave me this purpose. Vincent Wanga (21:29.1)and passion combined to continue to progress. And I think people just really need to identify not just passion and purpose, but what is that ideal lifestyle that you want this to lead to? What is that outcome? What is that ambition that you have? If you don’t have that goal and you’re just starting out, what are you doing? You’re making trinkets. You’re not getting paid. You have a very expensive hobby that’s probably gonna cost you your family. So you really have to understand at the end of the day, this is a business. You have to have business fundamentals and run it accordingly. And I think you’ll be in a much better place than just going on some wild adventure because you don’t want to wake up at 9 a.m. I promise you, you’ll be disappointed by entrepreneurship if that is the case. Nick McGowan (22:08.812)Yeah, and it’s interesting because that’s like, there are like shades to that almost. You know, like there are times where you call it like we can’t sleep or we have a hard time because we’re thinking we got to pay for this. We got this thing coming in. There’s this thing and I’m sure there’s a left hook that’s going to come out of nowhere and like whatever and you just kind of manage through that stuff. You work through it. But if you are in a better mental spot because of the passion and purpose that you have to do these things, you can actually handle those things instead of just being crippled by it. I’ve thought many different times about how many people got into podcasting during COVID because they were like, what the fuck? I have nobody to talk to. I don’t know what to do right now. I guess I’ll start a podcast or people that became a coach and are like, I guess I’ll become coaches. And if you look at the numbers, they all skyrocketed. then quickly after that just shot down. So many people just couldn’t do it, didn’t want to do it, didn’t have the skills or whatever. And ultimately it wasn’t right for them to be able to do it. Now there are lots of people that stuck with it. I started this in 2014. Vincent Wanga (22:47.256)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (23:15.145)So I wasn’t one of those ones that just started it in 20, but I remember thinking that too. Like well now I’m stuck at the house. What am gonna do? And had friends that I talked to and then just came a podcast and whatever else from there. But being able to actually understand like you’re going to start to take those steps and it doesn’t all have to happen at once. So even with the stuff you’re saying like you get to travel, you make money, you do these things. To somebody if they’re listening on the surface they’re gonna go okay cool you’re just another one of those guys who just like pushes this thing and says I live the best life in the world and work. Vincent Wanga (23:22.648)Right. Yep. Nick McGowan (23:45.148)two hours a day and I harvest butterflies and get four billion dollar homes. Like it’s not what we’re saying. But this is a stacked upon process. Like I talked to people at times, I had somebody on recently it was like man you were in like Idaho and Montana and doing this and you travel and it’s like yeah but this has been a work in progress. This isn’t just one of those things like last Tuesday. It’s like you know what fuck everything else and we’re gonna travel we’re gonna do this thing. It’s like you have to build upon those things so you have to take those initial steps. So for somebody trying to figure out right now. I hear what you guys are saying, I want to take these steps and I think I kind of know what I want to do but I’m afraid to do it as a creative saying I’m stuck in this system and I have to pay for things and I’ve built this whole big career and what do I do now? What advice do you give them? Vincent Wanga (24:35.496)well, the first thing is it’s mostly rooted in fear. Release your inhibition of fear because you will fail. You will fail big, you will fail small, you will fail often. I think what actually ironically makes me successful is my lack of fear of failure. I could write a whole thesis on failure and how that’s affected me. But the true reality is it’s been the greatest education of my life. More than a Harvard MBA could teach me going out there doing something really hard and failing or succeeding in that are immense lessons that you can apply to the next thing and you’ll fail a little bit less and apply to the next thing and fail a little bit less. And I just talked about earlier how your job posting a position where you, you don’t want to risk that comfortability to go out there and potentially fail, but you have to understand that’s part of the cycle and learning process that gets you to success. love that Japanese proverb, you know, fall down seven times, get up eight. That’s, that is, it’s a cliche, but it’s so true. You just have to. Nick McGowan (25:29.973)Hey. Vincent Wanga (25:35.192)get out there and fucking do it. And I think the other most important thing is people get into this journey and they’re not prepared for scale. They never think about it. I think they’re too absorbed in the lifestyle part. Like, okay, I get to work from home. I get to take my kids to baseball. This is great. I want to stay in this comfortable zone. If you’re too successful, if you fuck up, you actually have something that scales. Now you need employees. Now you need people to run your business. Nick McGowan (25:52.084)Yeah. Vincent Wanga (26:03.842)Now you need to redo your supply chain. Now things get more expensive. Now you got to pay attention to your margins. Nobody has that ambition. So always enter this with what is that ideal grand scale? If you’re just in this to just, you again, have this hobby mindset, you will fail and failure is okay, but you need to realize you’re building a business. What is the plan for scale? What is the grand ambition? What is the ideal circumstance you want to reach? And then what resources do you need to get there? I think the second most important thing is Choosing your business partner wisely. And I’m emphasizing business partner like it’s almost a requirement. Sure, you can get to a certain level by yourself. You know, there’s that saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. You need a partner. Nobody has expertise in everything. So figure out what your core competencies are. If you can’t, failure will do that for you. Figure out what you do enjoy and then go find a business partner who complements your skills or compensates for the things that you’re not skilled at. And together. that you and that person can build something really immense and double your time. Because I think the biggest dilemma, particularly in entrepreneurship, historically has been, how do you duplicate yourself? You get to a certain point, how do you find somebody else who will work as hard as you, who’s as motivated as you, who’s as passionate about you? And I think in this age of AI, it doesn’t take a founding team of six anymore. You, another competent person, and three AI agents can really get to a place where you can scale effectively and efficiently in three years. So you just have to think about the grand perspective and not treating it as a hobby. And I think that’s half the way to success and release that inhibition of failure. know the stakes get greater as we get older, but imagine, you know, I mentioned Warren Buffett earlier, if he thought that way, imagine if George Washington thought that way, if Martin Luther King thought that way, like anything worth doing is hard. So get over it, get out there and do it and fail. Take those lessons, apply it to the next thing until you succeed. Nick McGowan (28:01.332)I think something to point out with. George Washington, Buffett, anybody else. Like there are times where I bring up purpose and people are like, well, I don’t know if my purpose is supposed to be the next Steve Jobs or something. No, that was his. Let him have his. You do yours. George Washington, Buffett, everybody else had these thoughts of like, this is where I want to get to. This is what I want to do. But it wasn’t like, I’m going to do this because it’s deep in my heart that I’m going to become George Washington or Buffett or whatever else. They had to actually build upon those things. And there are people that just want to have a solo business. There are people that want to have a small business. And by small, I mean, you know, a few handful of employees, maybe they make millions of dollars, but like, it’s a group of a small group of people. There others that want to have a huge bustling business of hundreds of employees and all of that. But I think it’s important for us to actually talk to ourselves about, do you want it? Because you want the ego of purposes of, have all these employees. I have all these things. Look at the boat that I have that I never get into because I have to work and manage all these employees. What’s the actual purpose underneath that? And I think as a creative and the people that are creatives, we can rely on the creativity inside of us because that’ll always nudge us along. It’s sometimes really hard to listen to. I’m sure you’ve experienced some of that going through probably years where you’re like, it’s hard to listen to it. I’m being creative, but I’m not really being creative. You’re getting paid to be a creative, but you’re basically like churning things out or using of stuff and not really creating but everybody’s like well this looks amazing and you’re like I fucking hate it and I hate you and I hate all this stuff so leave me alone. So for people that are in that spot right now and really for the people that are on their path towards self mastery what sort of advice would you give to them? Vincent Wanga (29:47.938)Well, speaking specifically to creatives, I think you can relate. We have a very unique mindset when it comes to certain things. And I think people misdiagnose us that our advantage is somehow attached to our hands and the software and skills. It’s our mentality in the way that we think. For example, the way we solve problems are completely different. What most people would see as an obstacle, we see as a challenge and we use our creativity to get around it. With the systems that we build, the solutions that we build, that’s what we get paid for. So I think that is an invaluable skill when, whether it’s business or your nine to five is remembering that that is your core competency and your greatest value that you bring is your ability to uniquely solve problems. And that’s why we are employed in every single industry in the world and have survived all kinds of efforts to remove us from those industries. And they keep coming back to us because of that skillset. think in addition to that, you just have to really be prepared for change. And we are an adaptable force. Look at all of the journeys that we’ve been through from the digital revolution and the elimination of print to interactive and AI, all of these things we are at the bleeding, cutting edge of. So we are in a natural position to be early adapters, to see and flesh out these new emerging technologies and see if they’re viable or not, and then use them to our advantage in a competitive sense against some of our non-creative peers in order to thrive. it while others are being replaced by it. So I think we need to recognize our power in that context and use that to our advantage. I’ll also add that you look at the highest level of leadership, a CEO, right? They have immense powerful responsibilities, but the number one is to create vision. They create the vision like Steve Jobs saying, I want a thousand songs in your pocket. And then it trickles down to the rest to execute and to figure out how to make that vision a reality. So vision is a creative mindset. creatives have visionary mindset. So why can’t creatives be those same CEOs? We just lack the business acumen. And I think if I was a creative in that position, that’s the first thing I would balance and start studying is what business skills do I lack that can compliment this thing that is very rare, which is that creative mindset that could make me unstoppable in the marketplace. And I am on this mission in my life to help creatives become more entrepreneurial, to think more business minded because the hardest skill we already have. Vincent Wanga (32:15.498)So having that balance that yin and yang between the creativity and conceptual and the analytical and business mindset will really put you in a place where you will be much more successful than if you try to pursue anything with just one mindset or the other. Nick McGowan (32:30.736)Yeah, what a cool way to be able to put that too. It’s like just being resourceful in that sense. You know, if you think from a basic creative perspective, if you’re just sketching, we need paper or something to draw on. You need the pen or pencil or whatever. And then you need the time. You need these pieces to do these things. So any of these things are like, well, what pieces do I need? Even to the fact about the partners, it’s like, what am I lacking here? What am I not a 10 at? And what does somebody else attend at that I could even just Have some help with some people don’t want to take on partners. They want to do the business by themselves I think that’s where coaches mentors come into play to be able to say I’ve been through this and before here’s some suggestions Here’s how you can go about it. Even just that fact of like just reaching out and having some of those conversations There’s somebody that’s out there. There’s some information that’s out there and I I Don’t want everybody to just lean on AI and everybody’s gonna do whatever they’re gonna do, but I do think that atrophies things I use AI at times. I mean fucking everybody does. It’s more so just being pushed on us at this point. But not literally just saying, I’m just going to hand this thing off and not understand how it is. Like you pointed out earlier, if you want to have a brewery, you have to be all these different things. And if all that is too much for you, don’t do it. If you just want to be a money person, then sure, be a money person and never show up. Maybe go and have a beer every once in a while and that’s it. That’s a whole different story though. Like where the fuck did you get that money from? Did you create a business to do that? know, or some Vincent Wanga (34:00.134)Sure. Nick McGowan (34:00.451)somebody handed to you. But being able to point that out and understand the resources of that and then what you’re good, what you’re not good at, I think it’s really good stuff, man. So I appreciate you bringing that up. It’s been a pleasure having you on. Before I let you go, where can people find you and where can they connect with you? Vincent Wanga (34:14.382)No, I really appreciate the conversation. Again, I speak all over the country and internationally. So if I’m in a conference in your area, please feel free to come up to me. And I love meeting new people, especially in different industries. In addition to that, have a website, VincentWongred.com, where you can see some of my other thought leadership across entrepreneurship, creative, design. Leadership is another thing I speak on often. I also have a book called The Art of Direction. personal perspectives on the path to creative leadership. So that is available through Amazon, Walmart, all the major online retailers and for special order at your bookstore. It’s a book about leadership. And I think that’s agnostic of just the creative industry and the unique, soft and hard skills that you need to make that leap that few people are prepared for. So it also very deeply personal and talks a little bit about my experiences and my journey and of course my failures and how that led to my success. And then you can also contact me on LinkedIn and Instagram through my website. Those are the primary ways you can get a hold of me. Nick McGowan (35:20.208)And again, it’s been pleasure having you on Vince. I appreciate your time. Vincent Wanga (35:23.478)Absolutely. Thank you,

n this gripping episode of Bigfoot Society, Pastor and lifelong outdoorsman Jeffrey shares a series of chilling Idaho Bigfoot encounters from more than 40 years in the Rocky Mountains. From a mysterious juvenile figure photographed in the late 1960s near Pagosa Springs and Durango, Colorado, to a massive dark shape moving through deep brush south of Loon Lake near McCall and Hells Canyon, Jeffrey recounts multiple moments that defied all logic and every known animal behavior.You'll hear firsthand about:• A canyon-crossing figure taller than surrounding brush• A rock-throwing incident on an Idaho ridge that had no human explanation• A silent, fast-moving subject seen moments after ATV riders passed• How these encounters impacted his understanding of the outdoors—and his Christian faithIf you're looking for real Bigfoot sightings, Idaho Sasquatch activity, Rocky Mountain encounters, or discussions about how the unexplained intersects with belief, this episode is a must-listen.

In today's episode WJ and KJ, deliver another entertaining and creepy episode. KJ talks about the legend of the headless Templar Knight that can be seen in Prague from time to time during the witching hour. Bill covers a very creepy demonic Bigfoot encounter from Oregon. And some great listener mail. Please join us!  Thank you for listening!www.bigfootterrorinthewoods.comProduced by: "Bigfoot Terror in the Woods L.L.C."

Bad Bunny is closing out the year in full takeover mode, and the last week has only turned up the volume on how dominant he is right now. ABC News reports that he is positioned as the centerpiece of the upcoming Super Bowl 60 halftime show, with commentators framing it as the moment that will cement him as the defining global pop figure of this era. ABC's coverage emphasizes that he is already being treated as 2025's most powerful streaming force and that expectations for this performance are sky‑high because of the way his shows blend Puerto Rican culture, political edge, and blockbuster pop spectacle.That narrative lines up with what Spotify just confirmed in its latest Wrapped recap, where reporters from outlets like the Associated Press explain that Bad Bunny has once again become the most‑streamed artist in the world, taking the crown back from Taylor Swift. Those Wrapped numbers show he pulled in nearly 20 billion streams this year, and his album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” sits as the most‑streamed album globally, with the single “DtMF” ranking among the top songs on the platform. Coverage of the data stresses that this is his fourth year as Spotify's global king, a sign that his mix of reggaetón, trap, and genre‑bending experiments is no longer niche but the center of pop.Music and culture sites digging into that album over the past few days are still talking about how it's one of his most personal projects, describing it as a love letter to Puerto Rico and to memory itself, with critics noting that it turned into the year's streaming juggernaut rather than just a fan favorite. Commentary around his touring plans points out that the “Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour” is set to run deep into next year, and analysts are already predicting that the Super Bowl spotlight will supercharge demand for those stadium dates even further. The storyline in the trades is that Bad Bunny has moved beyond being a Latin superstar to being the default headliner for any major global stage.On the more playful side of the news cycle this week, lifestyle and entertainment outlets have been buzzing about a Grindr year‑end poll where users named Bad Bunny's “award‑winning bulge” as one of the most talked‑about pop culture moments of 2025. That tongue‑in‑cheek recognition reflects how his image — fashion choices, body‑positive attitude, and gender‑bending style — drives conversation far beyond traditional music press. At the same time, platforms covering Google's annual trend reports highlight that Bad Bunny ranks among the most‑searched Latino figures of the year, grouped with stars like Pedro Pascal as proof that Latin talent has been central to online curiosity and culture all year long.Across social media, fan accounts are amplifying all of this: sharing Super Bowl speculation, Wrapped screenshots showing him at the top of listeners' stats, and memes about his tour outfits and viral stage moments. The tone from fans is that this is the era where Bad Bunny isn't just representing a movement; he is the movement, with every new milestone further normalizing Spanish‑language dominance in global pop. Thank you for tuning in, and come back next week for more. This has been a Quiet Please production, and for more from me, check out QuietPlease dot A I.Some great Deals https://amzn.to/49SJ3QsFor more check out http://www.quietplease.aiThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

In my conversation with Iain Dale, recorded at the Warwick Words History Festival, we explore the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher, focusing on her impact on British politics, her foreign policy, and the challenges she faced as a female leader. The discussion highlights the myths surrounding her leadership and aims to provide a nuanced understanding of her political strategies and decisions.Iain is an author, podcast host, and presenter on LBC. Chapters00:00 The Legacy of Margaret Thatcher02:52 Understanding Thatcher's Impact on Modern Politics05:51 Thatcher's Foreign Policy and Global Influence08:53 Challenges of Leadership: Misogyny and Political Dynamics11:36 The Iron Lady: Image and Perception14:42 Dispelling Myths: The Pragmatic PoliticianHi! I'm Philippa, welcome to the British History Channel. I'd really appreciate your help in making this show the best it can be. I know time is precious but if you do have 10 minutes you can spare to fill out this anonymous listener survey, I'd be really grateful - http://bit.ly/britishhistorypodcast-surveyPhilippa founded award-winning Historic Tour Operator British History Tours in 2014. Find out about these luxury, fully-escorted, immersive historical experiences at BritishHistoryTours.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nikki Pechet is a mom of three who helped scale Thumbtack into a $3B business. She is recognized on Inc. Magazine's 2024 Female Founders 250 list, and she is the Co-founder and CEO of Homebound, a company started after California's devastating wildfires and now transforming how homes are built across the U.S.In this episode, Nikki joins me to talk about the raw and real side of building a company from scratch, why most female founders stay small, and how you can choose ideas that actually win.We dive into the truth about what it takes to grow a big business, and Nikki opens up about the fear, doubt, pressure, and emotional weight most founders never talk about. Nikki also reveals exactly how female founders can stop being stuck in markets that limit their potential and scale into a huge company.Nikki explains how you can know which ideas to grow and which ones to walk away from. You will learn how to handle advisors and partnerships the right way, how to keep going even when the stress does not let up, and how to manage when you still have a family at home depending on you.If you are building anything, whether you are just starting out or deep in the grind, join us today to understand every factor needed to build a company that matters.Dr. Theresa Goss is an award-winning media producer and the founder of NOW (Network of Outstanding Women). Amilya Antonetti is a globally recognized human behaviorist who has impacted 53,000+ employees and has been celebrated as Woman of the Decade by the Women's Economic Forum.Kathryn Porritt is one of the world's leading experts in luxury and iconic branding who has created and represented multimillion-dollar empires. Rhonda Swan is the CEO of the Unstoppable Branding Agency, elevating investors and fund managers onto the biggest media stages like Forbes and the New York Stock Exchange.Debra Poneman is a New Thought pioneer, best-selling author, and founder of Yes to Success, whose teachings have influenced thousands worldwide, including leaders like Deepak Chopra.In today's episode of Relaunch To A Rich Life, we sit down with these powerhouse women to break open the truth about what really stops women from reaching seven-figure success. Only 1.9% of women entrepreneurs ever get there, and our conversation gets real about why.These successful women also open up about the moments that broke them, the beliefs that kept them playing small, and how they rose back up. You'll hear the truth about self-worth, pressure, guilt, and how to overcome the lies women tell themselves about “not being ready.”You'll learn what stops women from feeling worthy of bigger rooms, why confidence collapses during major life transitions, and one factor that can either limit or accelerate your rise.Join us today as we discuss the barriers that keep women stuck under six figures, how to overcome pressure and guilt, reclaim your confidence, and step into rooms with presence.---Dr. Theresa Goss Social Media:https://www.facebook.com/theresa.goss3/https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresagoss/https://www.instagram.com/experttalktgo/?hl=enAmilya Antonetti's Social Media:https://amilya.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/amilya/

The only way to grow is to think about growth ahead of time. Whether you're thinking about a team of assistant coaches or looking for alternative paths, this conversation dives into how it's done, and what you need to focus on right now. –I'll create a profitable profile for you in minutes. Click to attract high-paying clients. https://go.taelerdehaes.com/bio-surveyJoin our Fit Pro Business Secrets Made Simple group over on Facebook for exclusive resources, trainings and help as you're growing your online fitness business. https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitprobusinesssecrets/  Follow Taeler on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/taelerfit/Learn more about working with Taeler, whether you're just starting your online coaching business or scaling to multi-6/7-figures. https://taelerdehaes.com/ 

Your biggest advantage in e-commerce is being a founder who refuses to get knocked out.In this episode of High Voltage Business Builders, Neil Twa sits down with Dan Demsky, CEO and co-founder of Unbound Merino, an 8-figure DTC apparel brand built on nearly a decade of grit, adaptation, and relentless reinvention.Dan opens up about the real challenges DTC operators are facing today: tariffs slashing margins overnight, supply chain volatility, rising acquisition costs, and the pressure to stay profitable while scaling. He explains how his team survived by tightening cash flow, cutting waste, and becoming sharper operators instead of panicking or raising prices too quickly.If you're building in ecommerce and want to understand what's actually happening on the ground, how high-AOV brands survive acquisition costs, or what retail expansion really looks like this episode is a masterclass in real-world leadership and long-term DTC growth.In This Episode, We Cover:✅ Why survival comes down to “don't get knocked out” and strong cash-flow discipline✅ How to audit spending, tighten costs, and become a sharper operator✅ Why high AOV is critical when acquisition costs hit $50+ per customer✅ Surviving COVID, freight spikes, and now tariffs as a long-term founder✅ What retail expansion actually requires: timelines, risk, buybacks, and buyers

Welcome back to Raising Confident Girls. In this episode, Melissa Jones explores the subtle emotional shifts girls often experience—those quiet moments when something feels “off,” but words are hard to find. Melissa shares five simple, heartfelt phrases that help parents connect without pressure and show steady, unconditional support.In this episode, we discuss:The small but meaningful emotional changes girls experience—and why they often go unnoticed.Why supportive, low-pressure communication helps girls open up on their own timeline.How validating your daughter's feelings builds confidence, trust, and emotional awareness.Five gentle phrases that create space for conversation without pushing or prying.The power of unconditional love and steady presence during sensitive emotional moments.Practical ways to stay connected even when your daughter seems distant or unsure.Join Melissa for this warm and insightful conversation about helping your daughter feel safe, seen, and supported as she navigates her growing emotional world.Download the Quick Tips PDF of today's episode for future reference.If you know a parent who could benefit from this conversation, share this episode with them! Let's work together to raise the next generation of confident girls.Melissa's Links:• Website • Instagram • Facebook• TikTok• LinkedIn

3HL - 12-2-25 - Hour 3 - Trying to Figure out the CFP BracketSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some hauntings cling to a house… but others cling to a person. For him, the pattern began in toddlerhood — red-eyed figures at the window, glowing silhouettes beside the bed, doors shaking under invisible fists — and every time he thought he'd outgrown it, the fear simply changed shape. From static-screaming record players that woke no one but him to sleepwalking episodes that nearly pulled him out into the night, each encounter felt intelligent, deliberate, almost curious. Now, as an adult, the robed shadow he once saw in sleep paralysis lingers at the edge of his vision, returning in cycles he can't predict or escape. And the longer he looks back at the pieces of his life, the more one chilling possibility rises above the rest: what if it wasn't the houses that were haunted? What if something marked him long ago… and has been waiting, patiently, for him ever since? #RealGhostStories #ParanormalEncounters #ShadowPeople #SleepParalysis #HauntedLife #EntityAttachment #SupernaturalExperiences #ShadowFigure #HatManStories #GhostPodcast Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:

A growing trend is emerging where a Health Savings Account (HSA) is treated not as spending money, but instead as a "Super IRA" for retirement. Could this be the right call for you?Today's Stocks & Topics: Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT), Marker Wrap, Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (PLG), “The "6-Figure HSA" Retirement Strategy”, Liquidity, Leidos Holdings, Inc. (LDOS), The Auto Industry, Emerging Markets Bonds.Our Sponsors:* Check out Incogni: https://incogni.com/investtalk* Check out Invest529: https://www.invest529.com* Check out NordProtect: https://nordprotect.com/investalk* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.com* Check out Quince: https://quince.com/INVEST* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code INVEST for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Insights into the past, present and future of crypto with Erik Voorhees. Follow the podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Venice.ai founder Erik Voorhees joins "CoinDesk Spotlight" to discuss his prediction of a sovereign bond market collapse and the predominant role of bitcoin in that future. Voorhees explains why he is fundamentally against a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve, why crypto lobbying is "gross," and his thesis that cryptocurrency was actually built for AI agents. - This content should not be construed or relied upon as investment advice. It is for entertainment and general information purposes. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit midnight.network/break-free - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠ - Timestamps: 01:20 - Voorhees' First Memory of Money Mattering04:00 - Discovering Bitcoin As a Solution to the Financial Crisis06:13 - Could Bitcoin Replace Gold Completely?07:17 - When Will There Be A Complete Financial Collapse?10:47 - The Separation of Money and State13:57 - Why Voorhees is Divided on Governments Holding Bitcoin15:53 - Crypto Industry Engagement with Politicians Is "Gross"19:49 - Voorhees' History with the SEC21:48 - From Satoshi Dice to Prediction Markets24:09 - What Does "Sufficiently Decentralized" Actually Mean?27:35 - Ethereum's Trajectory29:07 - Voorhees Predicts Base Will End Up the Predominant L232:01 - Sci-Fi and Technological Optimism34:06 - Learnings from ShapeShift's DAO Structure38:01 - Venice AI: Separation of Mind and State40:24 - How Do We Avoid a Dystopian Future?43:19 - How Venice AI Differs from ChatGPT and Gemini47:46 - Unprogramming Human Instincts for Privacy50:24 - The VVV Token54:25 - Crypto is Built for AI Machines56:56 - How He Lost 50K BTC Fighting The SEC - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Spotlight” is produced by Sam Ewen, Jennifer Sanasie, Taylor Fleming and Victor Chen.

Markus Thielen, 10x Research, predicts an imminent crypto bear market and up to a 60% correction in 2026, Is the crypto bull run over? In this episode of Markets Outlook, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, joins CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie, to discuss why we might be heading into a bear market in 2026. Thielen argues that US stocks historically perform poorly during midterm election cycles. Combining this historical trend with the "institutional fatigue" visible in recent ETF outflows, he breaks down the data suggesting a potential 60% correction is on the horizon. We also discuss the recent shift in "Whale" accumulation behavior and why the "digital gold" narrative is currently struggling to keep pace with physical gold performance. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

Will bitcoin dip below $65K? Bitcoin exited November down 17.5% in one of its largest monthly declines in three years. Traders are worried about potential MSCI methodology changes that could affect firms collectively holding more than $137 billion in digital assets. Will bitcoin continue to dip and test the $64,000 technical target? CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily." - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Announcing the Consensus EasyA Hackathon with EasyA Co-Founders Dom and Phil Kwok. EasyA Co-Founders Dom and Phil Kwok join CoinDesk's Sam Ewen to share how to participate in the Consensus EasyA Hackathon in Hong Kong this February. Plus, they unveil what industry leaders are looking for in winning projects, from technical skill and compelling narratives to the ideal co-founder team makeup. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Sam Ewen.

The Lakers are consistently underperforming against a specific kind of team. This is now a trend that dates back to how they were eliminated last season. How nervous should we be about this? To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How can we help recruiters advocate for us in a tough job market? According to people industry veteran Christy Honeycutt, our guest in episode 353, it starts with being kind and translating your experience into something a recruiter can understand. And even more importantly, it takes practice. In part 2 of our discussion with Christy, she translates deep experience in talent acquisition and recruitment that gives us insight into the current job market. You'll hear more details about the nuances of RPOs (recruitment process outsourcers), the difference between job hugging and job abandonment, and the importance of personal branding and differentiation. Stay until the end when Christy shares her reasons for turning down C-suite positions and how clarity on her long-term goals is carrying her forward into what's next. Now that you've heard someone model it for you, how will you translate your own experience? If you missed part 1 of our discussion with Christy, check out Episode 352 – People First: Systematizing Go-to-Market for Your Role with Christy Honeycutt (1/2). Original Recording Date: 09-30-2025 Topics – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins, Bad Actors and Leadership in the People Industry, Today's Job Market and Life Outside the C-Suite 2:56 – A Deeper Look at Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) When it comes to RPO (recruitment process outsourcing), is this a one-size-fits-all approach, or does it show up differently depending on what a company needs? In Christy's experience, most RPO organizations offer services like executive search, but they may offer full RPO, which usually involves hiring more than 500 people per year. Normally an RPO brings a mix of skills to the table. A client may want the RPO to take only talent acquisition or may want to control offer management, but they may want the RPO to take everything (attracting new talent, offer management, coordinating with HR for new employee onboarding). “If a company wants it a certain way, they can stop it at a certain point…. But most RPOs, full RPOs, is attraction to offer accepted and then it tees over to the HR team.” – Christy Honeycutt John has worked for companies where the recruitment or talent acquisition personnel were marked as contractors in the internal global address book but had company e-mail addresses. Would this mean the personnel are contracting directly with a company or working through an RPO? Christy says it could be either scenario. When she managed an RPO earlier in her career, they were most successful when the client encouraged the RPO to brand as the company. Someone might indicate they do recruitment for a specific company on LinkedIn but be an employee of an RPO. Christy tells us how important it is for the RPO to understand an organization's mission, vision, benefits, and culture because the RPO is often attracting talent and selling people on why they should apply and interview. “When you think about recruitment and talent acquisition, regardless, it's a lot of marketing because you've got a really cool position and you've got to find the perfect fit.” – Christy Honeycutt 5:55 – Translating Your Experience with 3 Wins Right now, recruiters and talent acquisition professionals have a distinct challenge. Many resumes look the same because candidates are using AI tools. “What people think is helping set them apart is actually making them look more similar. So now you've got recruiters and talent acquisition; they don't know if these are fake resumes. They don't know if they're real. And they're getting on the call with these people and finding out they are fake; they don't have any of this requirement.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy shares a little secret about learning recruitment. She gives the example of a recruiter needing to recruit for an executive level role in technology. Recruiters are encouraged to seek out and find the C-players to practice asking them questions, understand nuance, and grasp the terminology. This is a training exercise. Following this process, a recruiter would then have more credibility once they speak to the A-players they actually want to hire. “What I would encourage is if you are a C-player, you're not going to know it. Just be kind and know that the person you're talking to has never held a technical role (probably, most likely)…and might not understand half the stuff that you guys do. The acronyms aren't going to be the same. Just be gracious with them because the more you can help them translate your experience, the better you're going to be positioned to get you over the line…. They don't want to talk to 10 people to get 1 hire. They want to talk to 3 people to get a hire…. And remember that the TA, HR, recruiters, whatever you want to call them…there's a pretty good chance that they want to help you and that they're doing the job because they like people. And I think they get a bad rap.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy tells us about something called a slate (a group of 3-5 individuals who apply for a job that a recruiter will go and interview). Recruiters are using AI to help filter through applications. “The biggest thing I can tell you is be your own person. Be your own, authentic person. Have your stories of how you've shown up and shown out…. I tell everybody for every job that you've worked at, you need to have 3 wins…. Figure out…your top things that you accomplished at each role and have that and be ready to speak to it. And then…ask questions. Interview them too…. Make sure it's a culture fit for you.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy says things like the great resignation and quiet quitting are just behaviors that get repeated over time. Right now, there is a fearful state of job hugging. “We're job hugging. No one is hugging a job. People are trying to stay employed in the market. That's all it is.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy says if you are staying somewhere because you have a job and are not happy, figure out how to make yourself happy by determining it is not a fit, understanding your passions, and beginning your exit plan. “Companies are not our families. They are going to let us go. It's going to come down to the business.” – Christy Honeycutt It's important to keep the human element in mind if we are seeking a new role (the human element on both sides). Christy tells the story of a senior recruiter who called her about a conversation with a job candidate, and Christy knew the person was burned out, bored, and curious. “High performers are always open minded and curious, but if you fall in that category, figure it out sooner than later so you're not burning yourself out because then you're in a very dangerous situation. That job hugging is going to be job abandonment. You're going to get to boot. It's not going to be the other way around. It's just kind of level setting with your psyche.” – Christy Honeycutt 11:28 – Bad Actors and Leadership in the People Industry Going back to recruiters getting practice and experience from interviewing candidates, Nick looks at this from the lens that everyone needs at bats to gain experience. Though it may be batting practice for a recruiter, it is also practice for the candidate. We don't practice interviewing very often. Christy agrees it is practice on both sides and emphasizes that kindness is key. She's had multiple conversations with recruiters who didn't understand why a hiring manager did not want a specific candidate. We might never know all the effort a recruiter put into promoting us with a hiring manager. Some recruiters, however, should not be in their roles. Christy tells us about a time in her career when she was referred to as “The Kraken.” Christy managed a tight team of talent acquisition professionals who respected and loved her as a boss. They knew she had high expectations of her team. Christy's team members would have to launch programs for global clients within 30-60 days sometimes, for example. “So, my team had to be kind of like special ops because we managed the globe, and it was high pressure.” – Christy Honeycutt As she progressed in her career, Christy would be given individuals who were not performing on other teams. Before managing someone out of the business, Christy always gave people a chance to redeem themselves because until she met the person and they worked for her, she was only hearing one side of the story. Christy recounts being asked to join an RPO to clean it up. She met with each recruiter to understand the key metrics and performance indicators. Christy tells us that for any job opening (or job requisition) a recruiter was carrying at this time, they should be submitting 3-5 candidates for each job, and a manager would expect this within 2 weeks of the job opening. There was a specific recruiter who only submitted 2 candidates per week across 15 job openings, and Christy recounts the performance conversation with this person. “There are some people that are in roles that they shouldn't be that take advantage and kind of sit back….” – Christy Honeycutt As people gain seniority in talent acquisition and recruitment, sometimes you deal with people's egos. This is the exception and not the rule. John mentions it would probably be difficult to coast based on one's reputation in talent acquisition. Based on the metrics for success and open job requisitions, it should be obvious who is doing well and who isn't. Christy says this goes back to leadership. Maybe these individuals never had a boss who would hold them accountable. “If we go back to managers and leaders, most of them aren't trained, and a lot of them want to be liked.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy is the daughter of a Marine. This means the mission gets accomplished no matter what with the fewest amount of casualties. It's her job as the leader of a team to keep them focused on the mission and accomplishing it. Removing someone from the team may be the best option to keep the rest of the team on track in accomplishing a mission. “You're only as strong as your weakest link, so if your weakest link is not holding themselves accountable and respecting their team, then they're putting everybody else's jobs at risk. And unfortunately, there are bad actors in every industry, in every role, in every organization…and we've all seen them. They are like cancer. They really hurt retention. They hurt elevation. They are usually the ones taking credit, taking too long at lunch, whatever the case may be…we've all seen them…. It all comes down to behaviors.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy thinks leaders want to be liked and are afraid of having a complaint filed against them. For example, people might file a complaint because they were not doing their job and their manager held them accountable for not doing it. “It's weird to be in the people industry for so long because it's just behaviors. It's just humans.” – Christy Honeycutt Before someone shows up for work, we have no idea what may be going on in their life outside work. Christy encourages us to meet one another with more grace. “Those of you out there, if you're lucky enough to have a job and be employed, do the job. Because there's a lot of people that don't that will come in and do a better job than you. Honor yourself, honor your employer, and show up. But unfortunately, there's bad actors.” – Christy Honeycutt John directs the conversation back to hiring cycles. He has heard it's beneficial to apply for a job opening quickly and to be in the first wave of candidates but didn't really think about the why behind it. Christy tells us this varies based on the position, the job requirements, location, salary, and other factors. In fact, recruiters often have to reset unrealistic expectations from hiring managers (i.e. what a specific role salary should be). “If you think about a client and them opening a position, they probably needed that position 30 days before it was ever approved. So, there's already a ticking time on the recruiter whether that's fair or not because in the manager's mind that role opened the second they thought they needed it. Not when they requested it, not when it got approved, but when they realized in their brain, ‘I need this position filled,' that's when the clock starts for them. So, it's an unfair disadvantage for a recruiter.” – Christy Honeycutt Listen to Christy's description of a best-in-class 4-week process from job opening to making the right candidate an offer. 20:45 – Today's Job Market and Life Outside the C-Suite If we look at this through the lens of the current job market, how much do recruiters need to sell candidates on roles when there are hundreds of applications to sort through for a single job opening? “Tech is like recruitment, like marketing. It's always the first to go…until they realize…it went, and we need it. So, it's a boomerang effect with those industries…always has been, always will be.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy tells the story of being at the HR Tech conference with a young lady who was recently laid off from a tech company. This person walked from booth to booth and began networking with people in search of new roles and was able to leverage Christy to get some introductions. She had 5 interviews over the course of the 3-day event. “In the job market today, with recruiters not able to tell if it's an AI resume or not, with them being overloaded with a vast amount of resumes…the best thing that anybody can do is make sure that your personal brand is on point. Make sure that whatever it is that you're doing…you're sharing, you're engaging your community, and that you're seen doing it.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy was part of the same tech startup mentioned above and also lost her job. But she had been working on her personal brand before that happened. Christy was speaking at events, sharing with her community, doing podcasts, and doing many go-to-market things on behalf of her employer. Christy's heart goes out to others in her field who have been out of work for multiple years. Within 3 days of losing her role, Christy was offered 3 different C-suite positions. She turned them all down. “I've had that moment where I've realized that where I want to go and where I am are 2 different places…. If I put my focus on something, my energy is going to flow in that direction, and I need to make sure that's the direction I want to go…. Do I want to go be c-suite and kill myself for the next 4 years? …But the reason that gave me confidence is I'm 3 days without a job. I've got several job offers. And I realized, they don't care how I work with them. They just want to work with me, so why don't I go out on my own?” – Christy Honeycutt, on the internal discussions she's having after encountering job loss Christy understands she's in a gifted place only because she put in the work of giving back to her community before she was in a tough spot. Her efforts include things like hosting Inside the C-Suite and doing free mentoring and coaching for others. “It's because of all the goodwill I've done. My community paid it back tenfold. So set yourself apart in whatever it is that you're doing…. Where we are today is you have to have a differentiator, or you're going to be sitting on the shelf for 5 years.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy mentioned previously that it's lonely when someone takes a C-suite role. How did her conversations with executives on Inside the C-Suite together with her experience in talent acquisition and recruitment impact her decision to not take a C-suite role? Christy knows that she doesn't do anything halfway. If she were to take a C-suite role, she would be working 80 hours per week and traveling nonstop. Christy and her partner want to slow the pace down for their family, take time to travel, and do more purposeful things. She shares a story about Matthew McConaughey wanting to make the shift from romantic comedies to more serous roles to illustrate a shift of priority and focus. “Yeah, it crossed my mind. But it does not align with my long-term goal…. I realized I have a choice. You know, the universe has brought a lot of stuff to me. Is it because it's meant for me, or is it noise?” – Christy Honeycutt Christy has shown up, given to her community in a visible way, and found her voice. But taking a C-suite role right now is not where she wants to be. Some of the job offers Christy received came from people who had been on her podcast. Christy tells more of the story of being at HR Tech and the reactions people in the industry had to her being on the market. Christy plans to continue conversations with those people about ways they can work together moving forward. “I'm really good at certain things, which you guys have broken down and helped me understand. I repeatedly get asked for those things, and those are the things I like to do. So why not go do that? Why not go be a consultant and do the things that I really like to do for people and not do the things I don't like to do…? …I can just go do the fun stuff that they need my specialization in.” – Christy Honeycutt Christy wants to stay true to herself and honor the decision to increase bandwidth for her family. Many of the C-level executives Christy speaks to on her podcast love what they do, but they've had to learn to put themselves first. “I hear this more often than not. When they first start their organization, it's business business business. Their health fails. Their family fails. So, the ones that actually made it and recovered through that little spike and actually make it out on the other side very quickly flip to ‘take care of my body (my temple), my soul, my family, then my business. It's a battle for them.” – Christy Honeycutt At the time of this recording, Christy is thinking of starting her own firm, so she hopes she can take it slow enough to avoid these pitfalls. When we decide to slow the pace and do more of what we enjoy, can reflecting on those 3 wins from each previous job help us be confident that we can still get those wins without running at a hectic pace? Did Christy do this when thinking about what she wanted to do? Christy says she did not think about these for herself even though it would be her coaching to others in need of advice. “What I found interesting is that when you're looking for an answer, if you actually open your eyes, it's right there. It plays back to you. It plays back to you in conversations you have with people…. You often say what you need and what you want and where you're at, but you don't comprehend it. But if you hear someone you love, that you trust, repeat it back to you…it's almost like it gives you permission to accept it.” – Christy Honeycutt Sometimes instead of giving people advice, we need to act as a mirror and reflect back what they've said. Christy didn't need a C-level title. She doesn't need to go do something to prove she can do it. She's already done it. Christy understood she was ready for something different, even if it's a little bit scary to consider going out on one's own. “It's scary to put yourself out there like that, but if you don't, you'll never know. I'd rather try and fail and learn than regret and not know.” – Christy Honeycutt If you want to follow up with Christy on this conversation, you can find here: On LinkedIn On her website On the podcasts she hosts – Inside the C-Suite and StrategicShift Mentioned in the Outro Do you have 3 wins from each job or at least the past several jobs you've held? And do you know the stories that go along with these? There are prerequisites that must be met before we can speak to our wins in an interview. It starts with documenting our accomplishments on a regular basis. Consider what the 3 wins are from your accomplishment list. Maybe you have more than 3 or need to use a different set of 3 based on a job to which you're applying. Consider writing the story that goes with each win. It could be a resume bullet, but think of it as more detailed and something you can share in an interview. This is part of drafting a career narrative like Jason Belk suggested in Episode 284 – Draft Your Narrative: Writing and Building a Technical Portfolio with Jason Belk (2/2). We should not only write the draft but gain practice sharing the stories verbally in interviews, possibly conversations with our manager, and maybe even in conversations with industry peers at networking events (if and when appropriate). This is an iterative process! We like looking at conversations with recruiters as opportunities to practice telling our win stories. In the discussion with Christy, we heard about her experience losing a job. In Christy's case she had been giving to her network long before this happened in a very visible way. Maybe you are doing this in a less visible way. Consider documenting that work, but make the overall intent to help others and impact people positively. It will pay off later when you need help. Christy shared an exercise in finding clarity. She knew a C-suite role would not match the pace that was aligned with what her family wanted. It wasn't just about personal ambition. Remember to check out Christy's podcasts, Inside the C-Suite and StrategicShift. Contact the Hosts The hosts of Nerd Journey are John White and Nick Korte. E-mail: nerdjourneypodcast@gmail.com DM us on Twitter/X @NerdJourney Connect with John on LinkedIn or DM him on Twitter/X @vJourneyman Connect with Nick on LinkedIn or DM him on Twitter/X @NetworkNerd_ Leave a Comment on Your Favorite Episode on YouTube If you've been impacted by a layoff or need advice, check out our Layoff Resources Page. If uncertainty is getting to you, check out or Career Uncertainty Action Guide with a checklist of actions to take control during uncertain periods and AI prompts to help you think through topics like navigating a recent layoff, financial planning, or managing your mindset and being overwhelmed.

Do you ever wonder why it feels like everyone else is healing faster than you or your child?Comparing timelines is something I see a lot of and it's something I have experienced myself. It can be really hard to be months into your journey and see someone else making remarkable progress in just two days! There's this quiet pressure most women carry, and no one really talks about it out loud. The pressure to grow faster. Heal faster. Figure things out faster. To not fall behind. To keep pace with whatever invisible timeline we think we're supposed to be on. And when healing is part of the story, that pressure multiplies. You start comparing your child's progress to someone else's. You compare how quickly someone else's skin cleared or how fast another woman felt “better” in her body. You start thinking your timeline means something about you. Or your motherhood. Or your effort. Or the choices you've made.Your timeline is not a measure of how well you're doing. Your timeline is a mirror of who you're becoming.Healing isn't just symptoms leaving the body. It's the nervous system learning safety again. It's the mind slowly moving out of survival mode. It's the body trusting itself enough to let go of things it's been holding for years, gosh, for most of us… our entire lives. And deep growth, the kind you actually feel in your bones, never happens on a schedule. It unfolds in the pace your life can hold. The pace your motherhood can hold. The pace your nervous system can hold.Thanks for listening! I would love to connect with you ♡ Subscribe to the Nourished Newsletter Explore the Gut Rebalance Kits Visit our FAQ's Follow along on a Instagram Take the free Gut Health Quiz Email us at customercare@onleorganics.com Sending love and wellness from my family yours,xx - Juniper BennettFounder of ōNLē ORGANICS

Discover how professionals are turning to real estate to build wealth and create financial freedom!

In this episode of Bigfoot Society, Jeremiah Byron talks with Angel, a lifelong outdoorswoman from the Pacific Northwest, who shares multiple stunning encounters that changed the way she sees the woods forever. From strange predation events on a Deer Island, Oregon farm to a jaw-dropping sighting of a massive, dark, human-shaped creature crouched in the Hamma Hamma River in Washington, Angel walks us through the moments that made her question everything she thought she knew about the forest.Her story continues deep in the Willamette National Forest near Sahalie Falls, where she and her husband were forced to shelter in their SUV after a series of chilling, escalating Bigfoot whoops echoed across the ridge—sounds identical to the legendary Sierra Nevada recordings.Angel also opens up about the emotional impact of these encounters, the eerie radio interference she experienced afterward, and a surprising family connection: her father's own Bigfoot sighting decades earlier in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.If you're looking for real Bigfoot encounters, Sasquatch sightings, and firsthand wilderness experiences from the PNW, this episode delivers one of the most compelling accounts yet.

Hour Three in full

Creativity isn't just inspiration — it's a practical tool for better work, clearer thinking, and a more sustainable career. For our 300th episode, Melissa Joy, CFP®, sits down with Dr. Natalie Nixon, CEO of Figure 8 Thinking and author of Move, Think, Rest, to rethink productivity and build a healthier operating rhythm for the year ahead.Natalie draws on her background in anthropology, fashion, global business, and academia to explain why traditional “always-on” productivity models no longer serve us. She introduces her Move–Think–Rest human operating system and shows how small shifts in movement, intentional thinking time, and meaningful rest can reduce burnout and unlock creativity at every level.Together, Melissa and Natalie dig into the generational pressure many women feel to overachieve, over-deliver, and never say no — and how boundary-setting is now essential not just for wellbeing, but for strong financial planning over a lifetime.Highlights include:Why shifting from “productivity” to “cultivation” changes how we approach workHow the Move–Think–Rest framework helps build creativity into daily routinesPractical ways to incorporate movement into a busy workdayHow mind wandering and micro-retreats improve clarity and problem-solvingWhy rest needs to be modeled across an organizationThe financial consequences of burnout and stepping away from the workforce too soonHow to set boundaries when what got you here won't get you where you're goingHow to use Natalie's 66-day challenge to build new habits for the year aheadIf you're ready to rethink the way you work — and create more space for creativity, energy, and purpose — this milestone conversation is a powerful place to begin.If you're ready to rethink the way you work — and create more space for creativity, energy, and purpose — this milestone conversation is a powerful place to begin.The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only. No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING's investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING's current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https:...

Just like everyone else, we're trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the NHL this season... in general just overall. We spent the first half doing exactly that (it's figured out now). Later we discussed incredible pump-up songs, Scott Stapp, a more "optimal" league environment, and TRL.

In this video, I break down a habit I've seen almost every 9-figure founder use, including a friend who's built multiple billion-dollar companies. It's simple, but most people ignore it... You'll see how top CEOs use this in meetings, how it impacts leadership, and how utilizing it can immediately improve focus and clarity. I also share how this has helped me grow a portfolio of companies without burning out. If you're trying to scale, lead better, or make sharper decisions, then this video is for you, so watch now...

Some hauntings cling to a house… but others cling to a person. For him, the pattern began in toddlerhood — red-eyed figures at the window, glowing silhouettes beside the bed, doors shaking under invisible fists — and every time he thought he'd outgrown it, the fear simply changed shape. From static-screaming record players that woke no one but him to sleepwalking episodes that nearly pulled him out into the night, each encounter felt intelligent, deliberate, almost curious. Now, as an adult, the robed shadow he once saw in sleep paralysis lingers at the edge of his vision, returning in cycles he can't predict or escape. And the longer he looks back at the pieces of his life, the more one chilling possibility rises above the rest: what if it wasn't the houses that were haunted? What if something marked him long ago… and has been waiting, patiently, for him ever since? #RealGhostStories #ParanormalEncounters #ShadowPeople #SleepParalysis #HauntedLife #EntityAttachment #SupernaturalExperiences #ShadowFigure #HatManStories #GhostPodcast Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:

Is gold beating bitcoin in 2025? Mark Connors of Risk Dimensions argues that bitcoin is simply "too young" to rival gold's centuries of established infrastructure. With BTC down approximately 12% and gold rallying 60% in the past year, is gold winning the race as a safe haven asset in 2025? CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily." - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Markus Thielen, 10x Research, predicts an imminent crypto bear market and up to a 60% correction in 2026, Is the crypto bull run over? In this episode of Markets Outlook, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, joins CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie, to discuss why we might be heading into a bear market in 2026. Thielen argues that US stocks historically perform poorly during midterm election cycles. Combining this historical trend with the "institutional fatigue" visible in recent ETF outflows, he breaks down the data suggesting a potential 60% correction is on the horizon. We also discuss the recent shift in "Whale" accumulation behavior and why the "digital gold" narrative is currently struggling to keep pace with physical gold performance. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

Coinbase's CMO, Cat Ferdon, shares the strategy for moving beyond crypto natives, normalizing "internet money," and defining the future of finance through culturally resonant campaigns. Joining Gen C, Coinbase CMO, Cat Ferdon shares the strategy behind marketing one of the world's most powerful crypto brands. Cat discusses why economic freedom is Coinbase's core mission, how the company is moving beyond the "crypto native" audience to onboard the next generation, and her plan to normalize "internet money" by delivering culturally resonant campaigns that define the next decade of global adoption. - Links mentioned from the podcast: Cat's Twitter Coinbase Website Coinbase Brand Campaign - Everything Is Fine - Follow us on Twitter Sam Ewen, CoinDesk - From our sponsors: Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠ Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠ - "Gen C" features host Sam Ewen. Executive produced by Uyen Truong.

Most entrepreneurs stay stuck because they're constantly busy—but never actually moving the needle. In this episode, I break down the exact five-part system I use to help founders scale fast without burning out, from identifying your Optimal Selling System to mastering the ADE formula that frees you from low-value work. You'll discover how to build… The post 439 – The Blind Spot Blueprint: How 7-Figure Founders Scale Fast appeared first on Early To Rise.

In this episode, business coach Kendra Perry shares the core habits behind building a sustainable six-figure wellness business — without burnout, overwhelm, or constant reinvention. She breaks down the mindset, systems, and daily behaviors that successful health and wellness entrepreneurs use to grow predictable income, including tracking metrics, selling consistently, creating structure, and delegating effectively. If you're a health coach, practitioner, or online entrepreneur who wants to scale your business with clarity and confidence, this episode offers practical strategies you can apply immediately.In this episode you'll learn:The 7 Habits  Have a Plan and Use it FlexiblySet Actionable GoalsAnalyze Your Business NumbersSell Every Day in these 2 WaysProblem Solving and Operational ResilienceCelebrating Wins and Maintaining MotivationDelegation, Automation, and Resource Investment  Leave the podcast a 5-star review: https://ratethispodcast.com/wealthy

Neil Twa reveals how he builds 7–8 figure “virtual real estate” brands using AI, data, SOPs, and operator development—plus his path from IBM to e-commerce.In this episode of RealDealChat, Jack Hoss sits down with Neil Twa, co-founder of Voltage DM, who breaks down how he uses AI, massive data sets, and a refined operator training system to build, scale, and exit profitable “virtual real estate” brands.Neil shares his journey from IBM's early machine-learning projects to building Amazon brands doing $5M/month and helping entrepreneurs create e-commerce assets similar to multifamily portfolios. He explains how he selects products using 12 years of data, why operator mindset determines whether a business grows or stalls, and how he builds brands designed to be acquired within 3–5 years.If you're interested in business scaling, e-commerce, AI, or building assets that run without you—this episode is packed with insights.What You'll LearnHow Neil went from IBM to building brands doing $60M+/yearWhy he treats e-commerce like “virtual real estate”How he uses 12 years of Amazon data to green-light productsThe danger of operator limitations between $1M–$10MHow to scale brands with SOPs, AI, and trained operatorsWhat the 2020 supply-chain shock taught his companiesWhy some students succeed and others failHow he partners with vetted operators to build & buy companiesHow Patriot Growth Capital helps fund veteran-led e-com exits

Markus Thielen, 10x Research, predicts an imminent crypto bear market and up to a 60% correction in 2026, Is the crypto bull run over? In this episode of Markets Outlook, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, joins CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie, to discuss why we might be heading into a bear market in 2026. Thielen argues that US stocks historically perform poorly during midterm election cycles. Combining this historical trend with the "institutional fatigue" visible in recent ETF outflows, he breaks down the data suggesting a potential 60% correction is on the horizon. We also discuss the recent shift in "Whale" accumulation behavior and why the "digital gold" narrative is currently struggling to keep pace with physical gold performance. - Break the cycle of exploitation. Break down the barriers to truth. Break into the next generation of privacy. Break Free. Free to scroll without being monetized. Free from censorship. Freedom without fear. We deserve more when it comes to privacy. Experience the next generation of blockchain that is private and inclusive by design. Break free with Midnight, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠midnight.network/break-free⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure Crypto-Backed Loan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms and no prepayment penalties. They have the lowest rates in the industry at 8.91%, allowing you to access instant cash or buy more Bitcoin without triggering a tax event. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://figuremarkets.co/coindesk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

For the month of December, we look back at some favorite episodes of 2025. In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Barrett Straub, ACT's CEO, to break down your production story and explain why you don't need as many patients as you think. Stop the churn-and-burn dentistry that's burning you out! To learn how to rewrite and improve your production story, listen to Episode 976 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Dr. Straub:Send Dr. Straub an email: barrett@actdental.com Join Dr. Straub on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barrett.d.straubMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 976: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosRegister to ACT's BPA for their Financial GAPs Calculator: https://www.actdental.com/bpaMain Takeaways:There's more to the production story than just how much you produced.Analyze your annual patient value, active patient count, and gross production.Stop filling production gaps with more patients. Do more dentistry on less patients.Do you want to be a dentist that chases 4,000 patients or have fewer, right patients?Figure out your production story now so you can figure out how to write it going forward.Snippets:0:00 Introduction.1:27 Why we need a production story.2:34 Important KPIs you need to know.6:49 Do more per active patient.11:48 Countermeasures you can start today.15:44 ACT's BPA and TTT.Dr. Barrett Straub Bio:Dr. Barrett Straub practices general and sedation dentistry in Port Washington, Wisconsin. He has worked hard to develop his practice into a top-performing, fee-for-service practice that focuses on improving the lives of patients through dentistry.A graduate of Marquette Dental School, Dr. Straub's advanced training and...

Henry Kaiser: The Builder of Liberty Ships — Arthur Herman — Herman profiles Henry Kaiser, the second transformative figure in Freedom's Forge. Kaiser, a road construction entrepreneur who had previously coordinated monumental infrastructure projects including the Boulder Dam, demonstrated relentless commitment to ambitious thinking and delivery ahead of schedule and under budget constraints. In late 1940, Kaiser persuaded both British and American governments to contract him to construct "throwaway freighters"—Liberty ships—despite possessing no prior shipbuilding experience. Between 1941 and 1945, Kaiser successfully built 2,710 Liberty ships, fundamentally enabling Allied logistics and supply operations. 1941

The Genius of Early Photography: Nadar, Daguerre, and Dangerous Chemistry — Anika Burgess — Burgessdetails the risky and adventurous origins of photography as a practical medium. She examines Nadar, a visionary figure who deployed a giant balloon named Léon to fund experiments in heavier-than-air flight, having previously conducted innovative photographic expeditions into Paris's catacombs. Burgess also recounts Daguerre's 1839 presentation of the daguerreotype—a remarkably realistic, singular image created using hazardous chemicals including iodine and mercury, which posed significant occupational and health risks to early practitioners. PARIS

PREVIEW — Molly Beer — Angelica Schuyler Church and London's Educated Women. Angelica Schuyler Churchmoved to London following the war, establishing herself as a prominent figure among educated women residing in Mayfair. Angelica joined the Blue Stocking movement, which emphasized intellectual development and education for young women. Her social circle included Margaret Kemell Gage and the exceptionally talented Maria Cosway, positioning Angelica alongside pioneering intellectuals like Mary Wollstonecraft who were actively publishing and advancing education reform. 1772 LONDON