POPULARITY
Categories
Motherhood is not a performance—it's a marathon. In this episode, Joelle and Alessandra get real about postpartum health, mom shaming, and the pressure cooker of social media. We talk self-care that actually fits real life, flexible routines that keep you consistent, and why prioritizing your health makes you a better parent—not a selfish one. What we cover: Postpartum realities: hormones, energy, identity shifts Mom shaming & social media pressure: how to mute the noise and trust yourself Self-care for moms: simple recovery, nutrition, and movement wins Flexible routines: "good enough" systems that survive busy seasons Homeschooling without the chaos: structure, not rigidity Permission to be human: a clean-enough house, a kind home, a healthier you If you're tired of unrealistic standards and ready for balance you can sustain, this conversation is your reset. APPLY FOR COACHING: https://www.lvltncoaching.com/1-1-coaching The Fitness League app https://www.fitnessleagueapp.com/ Macros Guide https://www.lvltncoaching.com/free-resources/calculate-your-macros Join the Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/lvltncoaching FREE TOOLS to start your health and fitness journey: https://www.lvltncoaching.com/resources/freebies Alessandra's Instagram: http://instagram.com/alessandrascutnik Joelle's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joellesamantha?igsh=ZnVhZjFjczN0OTdn Josh's Instagram: http://instagram.com/joshscutnik Chapters 00:00 Welcome Back to the Fitness League 01:13 Mailbox Mishap and Holiday Preparations 02:01 Health Drinks and Digestive Reactions 03:36 Postpartum Changes and Hormonal Fluctuations 05:05 Lab Work and Breastfeeding Journey 07:07 Vasectomy Failures and Pregnancy Surprises 10:38 Mom Shaming in Fitness and Health 16:58 Cleaning and Parenting Perspectives 28:36 The Big Picture of Parenting 31:29 Modeling Behavior for Children 33:34 The Myth of Perfection in Motherhood 36:25 Prioritizing Health and Well-being 39:11 Awareness vs. Action 41:55 Finding Your Own Path 44:47 The Importance of Diverse Perspectives 47:24 Growth Mindset and Continuous Learning 50:32 Navigating Social Media and Expectations 54:07 Flexibility in Parenting and Life
Join me in conversation with a dynamic woman in her nineties who founded a writing group with friends that is now a sustaining source of inspiration and shared connection. We know that social connection is key to staying engaged as we age, and Mary reflects on what she's learned about why it matters. As she says so beautifully, “another element of flexibility reveals itself as we age – one that enables us to leave behind ‘what used to be,' and open ourselves fully to ‘what actually is.'” Ready to be inspired?
Jason Parker, district manager of Davey's Warminster office, walks us through what it's like to work with a Davey arborist, including the client relationship, consultations, proposals, price and safety for homeowners. In this episode we cover: Tree preservation (0:44)How does an arborist look at a property? (1:17)How arborists assess homeowners' tree concerns (2:23)Jason's thoughts on improper tree work (3:13)Davey's client base (5:38)How do arborists react to weather events? (7:40)Arborist consultation (9:50)Client relationships (11:35) (24:23)Flexible proposals, quotes and contracts (15:01) (18:42)Safety for homeowners (17:00)Do people in day-to-day life ask arborists for advice? (20:54)Spotted lanternflies in Philadelphia (21:41)Coming back to clients every year (23:27)To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.To learn more about what an arborist visit is like, read our blogs, Why You Should Hire a Certified Arborist, What To Expect When You Request a Davey Tree Free Consultation and The Risk of Using an Uninsured and Unlicensed Arborist.Connect with Davey Tree on social media:Twitter: @DaveyTreeFacebook: @DaveyTreeInstagram: @daveytreeYouTube: The Davey Tree Expert CompanyLinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!Click here to send Talking Trees Fan Mail!
On this episode of Truth From The Stand, Aaron Hepler and I catch up after a long season and miles on the boots, talking about how seasons evolve and expectations need to with them. We get into adapting under pressure, trusting your gut when plans fall apart, and why dogs and bird hunts can be the best reset a big-game hunter can get. It's a conversation about balancing technology with instinct, passing on what matters to new hunters, and learning when to let go of old goals so the hunt stays honest and fun. WHAT TO EXPECT FROM PODCAST 473 Hunting pressure forces flexibility—new spots and fresh thinking often pay off. Technology can help, but instinct and woodsmanship still drive success. Hunting is about the journey, lessons learned, and time spent outdoors—not just the kill. Hunting with dogs and bird hunting offer a mental reset from big-game pressure. Mentoring new hunters strengthens the community and reshapes perspective. Letting go of rigid expectations makes hunting more rewarding and sustainable. SHOW NOTES AND LINKS: —Truth From The Stand Merch —Check out Tactacam Reveal cell cameras — Save 15% on Hawke Optics code TFTS15 —Save 20% on ASIO GEAR code TRUTH20 —Check out Spartan Forge to map your hunt —Save on Lathrop And Sons non-typical insoles code TRUTH10 —Check out Faceoff E-Bikes —Waypoint TV Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
8 Ways to Reduce Stress in the Workplace Episode Summary Workplace stress steals joy, drains productivity, and harms overall well being. In this episode, we break down eight practical strategies employees and leaders can use to reduce stress, rebuild clarity, and create healthier work environments. If left unchecked, stress can impact performance, morale, and mental health, but the right habits and boundaries can change everything. The Hidden Cost of Workplace Stress Stress is one of the biggest barriers to engagement and performance. Millions of workdays are lost each year due to stress, anxiety, and depression. Tight deadlines, heavy workloads, and lack of support are often the biggest contributors. Ignoring stress hurts people and companies. Addressing it helps everyone thrive. 8 Ways to Reduce Workplace Stress 1. Recognize the Early Signs Irritability, worry, trouble sleeping, shallow breathing, and trouble focusing are often the first signals. Understanding how stress shows up emotionally, physically, and behaviorally helps you catch it before it escalates. 2. Identify the Source Is it workload? Expectations? A demanding boss? Interpersonal conflict? Clarity helps you respond more intentionally and set healthier boundaries. 3. Set Clear Boundaries Boundaries communicate what is acceptable and sustainable. Whether it is availability, workload, or working hours, defining your limits reduces overload and protects your well being. 4. Evaluate Life Outside of Work Your routines matter. Poor sleep, rushed mornings, and lack of recovery time amplify workplace stress. Incorporate activities that reset your nervous system like yoga, exercise, or quiet mornings. 5. Practice Mindfulness Staying grounded in the present moment reduces anxiety about yesterday's mistakes or tomorrow's deadlines. Mindfulness, breathwork, and even aromatherapy can help calm the mind and increase clarity. 6. Stay Connected Strong relationships act as a buffer against stress. Talking with trusted friends, colleagues, or family helps you problem solve, feel supported, and maintain perspective. 7. Avoid Unhealthy Coping Habits Alcohol, junk food, caffeine overload, and smoking increase stress long term. Choose healthier outlets like movement, meditation, and nourishing routines to support your mental and physical health. 8. Work Smarter, Not Harder Multitasking increases errors and stress. Focus on single tasking, prioritizing what matters most, and organizing your workload in a manageable way. Efficiency reduces pressure. Why Employers Should Care Healthy employees perform better. Organizations that prioritize well being experience higher morale, stronger retention, and greater productivity. Flexible work options, reasonable expectations, appreciation, and opportunities for connection all reduce workplace stress. Final Takeaway Stress does not have to dominate your work life. When employees understand the signals, identify the root causes, and take proactive steps to manage stress, everyone benefits. When leaders support this effort, workplace culture transforms. Reducing stress is possible – and it starts with awareness, boundaries, connection, and smarter working habits.
Laut einer Umfrage haben immer mehr Menschen Interesse an flexiblen Stromtarifen. Lundquist Neubauer von der Plattform Verivox erkärt, für wen sich so ein flexibler Strompreis lohnt und wo das Risiko dabei liegt.
When a high-achieving scientist realized the traditional definition of success no longer fit, she chose a radically different path. In this episode, Brie shares how she walked away from a predictable biotech career, trusted her instincts, and built a portfolio-style consulting business that aligns with her values, energy, and love for animal welfare. What you'll learn How to recognize when your "successful" career no longer feels meaningful Why trusting your instincts is essential when your values begin to shift How career experiments (like Social Goldilocks) can reveal unexpected paths What it takes to design a more flexible, values-aligned version of success Our book, Happen To Your Career: An Unconventional Approach To Career Change and Meaningful Work, is now available on audiobook! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/audible to order it now! Visit happentoyourcareer.com/book for more information or buy the print or ebook here! Want to chat with our team about your unique situation? Schedule a conversation Free Resources What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out! Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over. Related Episodes Designing Career Experiments and Testing New Careers (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Discover Your Strengths to Find Your Ideal Career (Spotify / Apple Podcasts) Social Goldilocks Experiment (Watch Here)
» Produced by Hack You Media: pioneering a new category of content at the intersection of health performance, entrepreneurship and cognitive optimisationInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/hackyoumedia/Website: https://hackyou.media/After building public speaking skills through brutal on-camera training and quitting a job after 15 days to go full-time on TikTok, Michael (higherupwellness) proves that authenticity matters more than polish.You'll hear why his parents being in their 70s gave him wisdom most 28-year-olds don't have, how two and a half years of mandatory public speaking eliminated his number one fear, and what happens when you realise worldly success never fills the God-shaped hole.Tune in for his framework on maxing out your stat lines in your 20s, why asking God to reveal himself changed everything after his dad died, and how silencing ego long enough to suck at something a hundred times is the barrier most people never cross.00:00 Introduction01:40 Growing up with much older parents and shaping his worldview04:14 Supportive parenting made taking career risks feel safe07:57 Comparing US optimism to UK mindset and ambition12:35 Striking a balance between monk mode and reckless fun17:27 Early career struggles and earning respect as the youngest20:22 Vulnerability online builds real connection and community23:40 Steroid accusations and the reality of 18 years training27:21 Fitting training and nutrition into a hybrid athlete lifestyle33:10 Flexible training splits and sustainable consistency38:37 How calorie awareness gives you long-term freedom44:43 Learning public speaking through immersive sales training50:48 Communicating well, even in a non-native language57:46 What Whoop taught him about sleep, alcohol and basics01:04:32 Why coaching can be draining if boundaries aren't set01:12:55 Men need spaces where they can be both strong and soft01:22:30 Even elite performers have major blind spots01:26:10 Losing his dad showed him God's presence through pain01:35:57 Exactly how to start exploring faith without feeling lost» Escape the 9-5 and build your dream life: https://www.digitalplaybook.net/» Transform your physique: https://www.thrstapp.com/» My clothing brand, THRST: https://thrstofficial.com» Custom Bioniq supplements: https://www.bioniq.com/mikethurston• 40% off your first month of Bioniq GO• 20% off your first month of Bioniq PRO» Join our newsletter for actionable insights from every episode:https://thrst-letter.beehiiv.com/» Join WHOOP and get your first month for free:https://join.whoop.com/FirstThingsThrst» Follow MichaelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/higherupwellness/?hl=enTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@higherupwellness?lang=en
The Couple With $8.5 Million… and One Salad “Bruce, I'm afraid we're going to run out of money.” He had over $8.5 million across different accounts. They were in their early 70s. On paper, they were far ahead of where most people ever get. https://www.youtube.com/live/L4phmdaJydw But his fear was so real that when they went out to dinner, his wife shared a salad instead of ordering her own—because he was afraid they “couldn't afford” it. This is what we see over and over again. People obsess over the question “how much do I need to retire?”They chase a number.They hit that number—or get close to it.And still feel anxious, fragile, and uncertain. The problem isn't just the money.The problem is the model. The Couple With $8.5 Million… and One SaladWhy “How Much Do I Need to Retire?” Is the Wrong First QuestionHow Much Do I Need to Retire? Why That Question Is MisleadingRetirement Cash Flow vs Nest Egg: What You Really NeedSequence of Return Risk in Retirement: Why Timing Matters More Than AveragesBuilding a Retirement Buffer Account to Protect Your PortfolioHow a buffer account protects your retirement portfolio:The LIFE Acronym for Retirement Planning: Liquid, Income, Flexible, EstateProblems With Traditional Retirement Planning and the 4 Percent RuleRedefining Retirement: Gradual Retirement vs Traditional “Out of Service”Cash-Flowing Assets and Alternative Investments for Retirement Cash FlowUsing Whole Life Insurance in Retirement for Guarantees and FlexibilityHow Much Do I Need to Retire? Rethinking the Real QuestionListen to the Full Episode on How Much Do I Need to RetireBook A Strategy CallFAQ: How Much Do I Need to Retire?How much do I need to retire comfortably?How do I know if I have enough to retire?What is sequence of return risk in retirement?What is a retirement buffer account?Is whole life insurance good for retirement income?How can I create guaranteed income in retirement without a pension?How much income do I need in retirement each month?How can my retirement plan serve future generations? Why “How Much Do I Need to Retire?” Is the Wrong First Question If you've ever typed how much do I need to retire or how much money do I need to retire into Google, you're not alone. The financial industry has trained us to believe that the right “number” equals security. But that question is incomplete. It ignores: How long you'll live How much you'll actually spend How many emergencies will show up What taxes and inflation will do What sequence of returns your investments will experience In this article, Bruce and I will help you: Understand why “how much do I need to retire” is the wrong question to start with See the difference between retirement cash flow vs nest egg Grasp sequence of return risk in retirement with simple examples Learn how a retirement buffer account can protect you Use the LIFE acronym for retirement planning (Liquid, Income, Flexible, Estate) Explore cash flowing assets, alternative investments, and whole life insurance in retirement Rethink retirement itself—from an “out of service” event to a purposeful, gradual transition My goal is to empower you to take control of your financial life with clarity, not fear. How Much Do I Need to Retire? Why That Question Is Misleading The classic commercial asked, “What's your number?” People walked around carrying a big orange figure that supposedly represented what they needed to retire. Here's the problem: That number assumes: A set rate of return A set withdrawal rate No major disruptions And that you won't touch your principal But real life is not a straight-line projection. When you ask how much do I need to retire, you're usually really asking: “How can I have enough cash flow for as long as I'm alive, without living in fear?” The issue is not just how much you have—it's how that wealth behaves under stress and how it converts into dependable income. Retirement Cash Flow vs Nest Egg: What You Really Need Traditional planning focuses on accumulation: “If I can just get to $X million, I'll be fine.” But what you actually live on is cash flow, not the size of your account statement. You need to know: How much income do I need in retirement each month? Which part of that income is guaranteed and which part is variable How that income will behave if markets drop or inflation spikes If you have $2 million but no idea how to turn that into reliable, sustainable cash flow, you will feel fragile. If you have a mix of guaranteed income in retirement plus flexible cash flowing assets, even a smaller nest egg can feel much more secure. The question isn't just how much money do I need to retire, but how do I design cash flow that will last? Sequence of Return Risk in Retirement: Why Timing Matters More Than Averages The industry loves to tell you that “the market averages 10% over time.” That's nice trivia—but it's not how your life works. If you're accumulating, you can ride out the ups and downs.If you're retired and pulling money out, the sequence of returns can make or break you. Here's a simple illustration: Start with $100,000 Year 1: -20% → now you have $80,000 Year 2: +20% → now you have $96,000 The average return is 0% (-20 + 20 / 2).But your actual money is down $4,000. Now imagine that on top of the losses, you're pulling out 4–6% per year to live. Suddenly, the portfolio has to recover the market loss and everything you withdrew. That's sequence of return risk explained with examples—and why relying solely on averages is dangerous. Building a Retirement Buffer Account to Protect Your Portfolio One of the most powerful ways to address sequence of return risk in retirement is using a retirement buffer account. The idea is simple: When markets are down, you do not take distributions from your volatile assets. Instead, you live off a separate, safe buffer of liquid capital. This buffer could be: Cash in the bank CDs or other stable vehicles Cash value in a well-designed whole life insurance policy How a buffer account protects your retirement portfolio: It gives your market-based assets time to recover It reduces the risk of selling low during downturns It lowers emotional stress when headlines scream “market crash” You're no longer forced to sell when everything is on sale. The LIFE Acronym for Retirement Planning: Liquid, Income, Flexible, Estate To make this practical, we often walk clients through the LIFE acronym for retirement planning: L – LiquidHow much “15-minute money” do you need to feel comfortable? This is money you can access quickly for emergencies or peace of mind—not dependent on your cash flow plan. I – IncomeHow much income do you need each month? How much of that would you like guaranteed? This is where retirement income planning really happens. F – FlexibleThis is liquid money that's not earmarked for emergencies or core living expenses. It's for things like trips, special projects, and helping kids or grandkids. It's the “I can do this without stress” bucket. E – EstateHow much do you want to leave behind, and in what form? This is where how to make your retirement plan serve future generations becomes part of the design. A well-designed mix of cash, whole life insurance, and other assets can touch every part of LIFE: Liquid, Income, Flexible, and Estate. Problems With Traditional Retirement Planning and the 4 Percent Rule Traditional planning often rests on: A withdrawal rule (4% or 5%) Market-based portfolios Historical averages and Monte Carlo simulations But as Bruce mentioned: A 100-year average doesn't matter if you're retired for 20 years Inflation erodes real purchasing power Market volatility plus withdrawals increase fragility Focusing only on accumulation creates emotional anxiety This is why cash flow vs accumulation in retirement planning is such an important shift. When you're not dependent on markets going up every year just so you can eat, your whole experience of retirement changes. Redefining Retirement: Gradual Retirement vs Traditional “Out of Service” Nelson Nash used to remind us: Retirement, by definition, means “taken out of service.” Most of us don't want to be taken out of service; we want to stay useful, engaged, and purposeful. Instead of a hard stop at 65, consider redefining retirement as a gradual retirement vs traditional retirement: Negotiating part-time work or consulting Reducing hours instead of walking away completely Staying in the game mentally, physically, and relationally We've seen engineers move to 10 hours a week, seasoned professionals mentor younger staff, and business owners step back from daily operations while still contributing. Purposeful work, even part-time, can: Supplement your retirement income Reduce pressure on your portfolio Keep you sharp and connected Retirement doesn't have to mean being benched. Cash-Flowing Assets and Alternative Investments for Retirement Cash Flow Another powerful way to support retirement is shifting some focus from growth-only assets to cash flowing assets for retirement. Examples include: Dividend-paying stocks Real estate (direct ownership or funds) Private lending Certain alternative investments for retirement For accredited investors, there are a variety of alternative investments for retirement cash flow: Multifamily apartment funds Industrial and distribution center funds Certain energy or infrastructure programs Technology and telecom infrastructure (like tower or data assets) These are not guaranteed and require careful due diligence, but they're often backed by real underlying assets and designed with yield in mind.
In today's episode, Gina talks about developing a flexibility of mind to help us overcome our anxiety and strengthen our resolve against future flare ups of anxiety. The anxious mind tends to be rigid and not flexible. Listen in for suggestions on how to stay flexible and reduce rigidity in your mind!HOW TO BE YOURSELF Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety Ellen Hendriksen, Ph.D. http://bit.ly/htbyanxietyPlease visit our Sponsor Page to find all the links and codes for our awesome sponsors!https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/sponsors/ Thank you for supporting The Anxiety Coaches Podcast. FREE MUST-HAVE RESOURCE FOR Calming Your Anxious Mind10-Minute Body-Scan Meditation for Anxiety Anxiety Coaches Podcast Group Coaching linkACPGroupCoaching.comTo learn more, go to:Website https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.comJoin our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership ProgramLearn more about our One-on-One Coaching What is anxiety? Find even more peace and calm with our Supercast premium access membership:For $5 a month, all episodes are ad-free! https://anxietycoaches.supercast.com/Here's what's included for $5/month:❤ New Ad-Free episodes every Sunday and Wednesday❤ Access to the entire Ad-free back-catalog with over 600 episodes❤ Premium meditations recorded with you in mind❤ And more fun surprises along the way!All this in your favorite podcast app!Chapters0:26 Introduction to Flexible Mind3:02 Body Awareness and Muscle Relaxation5:50 The Power of the Pause7:07 Staying with Anxiety10:15 Creating Space in the Moment11:32 Letting Go of Control13:02 Embracing What Is15:34 Connecting Mind and Body16:46 Staying Curious and OpenSummaryIn this episode of the Anxiety Coaches Podcast, I delve into the contrasting dynamics between a flexible mind and an anxious mind. My aim is to provide listeners with insights on how to transition from a state of anxiety to one of mental flexibility, allowing for greater peace and calm in our lives. The discussion begins by highlighting the rigidity that often accompanies anxiety, likening our anxious mindset to a tightly wound structure—brittle and prone to breaking under pressure.I explore the ways in which life changes, stress, and frustration contribute to our inflexible thinking, causing us to feel overwhelmed and perhaps on the verge of snapping. Recognizing this pattern is the first step towards transformation. I introduce six actionable strategies that can help us cultivate a more flexible mindset. Each strategy serves as a tool to counteract the tightness and rigidity we feel when anxiety takes over.The first strategy emphasizes the importance of awareness around physical tension in our bodies, particularly in areas such as the shoulders and jaw. I encourage listeners to check in with their physical state regularly, practicing intentional release of tight muscles to foster a sense of relaxation that communicates safety to the mind. The second point focuses on the power of the pause—taking a moment to breathe and create space before responding to stress. This allows us to break the habitual response cycle and choose a more mindful reaction.#AnxietyRelief #MentalHealthMatters #Mindfulness #AnxietyCoachesPodcast #GinaRyan #StressReduction #CopingSkills #InnerPeace #NervousSystemHealing #LetGo #MindfulLiving #OvercomingAnxiety #MentalWellness #SelfCare #EmotionalIntelligence #FloatingTechnique #RestAndDigest #HolisticHealing #StayCurious #FlexibleMind #ACPSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
If you're feeling overwhelmed and don't have the luxury of doing less, Overwhelm Is Optional offers simple tools you can use in under ten minutes a day. Learn more at oneyoufeed.net/overwhelm Help us make the podcast better—share your input in a short survey:: oneyoufeed.net/survey. Thank You! In this episode, Katy Milkman explains why you keep falling off track and shares tools that will help you start again. She shares why lasting behavior change is so difficult—and what science reveals about how people actually change. Katy also delves into impulsivity, motivation, confidence, habit formation, and why willpower alone so often fails. Katy shares research-backed tools like temptation bundling, commitment devices, and fresh starts. Listeners will walk away with a clearer understanding of why they get stuck, practical strategies to move forward, and permission to stop striving for perfection and start building change that can survive real life. If you've ever felt frustrated by starting over—or wondered why good intentions aren't enough—this conversation offers both clarity and compassion. Exciting News!!!Coming in March 2026, my new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot: The Art of Small Changes for a More Meaningful Life is now available for pre-orders! Key Takeaways vior change through a diagnostic, personalized approach The role of impulsivity (present bias) in undermining long-term goals Understanding internal barriers to change instead of relying on willpower Making goal-aligned behaviors more enjoyable to increase persistence Temptation bundling as a strategy for aligning short-term rewards with long-term outcomes The importance of confidence and self-efficacy in sustaining change Using advice-giving and mentoring to strengthen belief in one's ability to change Commitment devices as tools for overcoming procrastination and self-control challenges Flexible habit formation versus rigid routines for long-term consistency Embracing fresh starts and setbacks as part of the change process For full show notes, click here! Connect with the show: Follow us on YouTube: @TheOneYouFeedPod Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Follow us on Instagram If you enjoyed this conversation with Katy Milkman, check out these other episodes: How to Stay Motivated with Ayelet Fishbach Tiny Habits for Behavior Change with BJ Fogg By purchasing products and/or services from our sponsors, you are helping to support The One You Feed, and we greatly appreciate it. Thank you! This episode is sponsored by: Aura Frames: For a limited time, save on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com /FEED to get $35 off Aura's best-selling Carver Mat frames – named #1 by Wirecutter – by using promo code FEED at checkout. This deal is exclusive to listeners, and frames sell out fast, so order yours now to get it in time for the holidays! Uncommon Goods has something for everyone – you'll find thousands of new gift ideas that you won't find anywhere else, and you'll be supporting artists and small, independent businesses. To get 15% off your next gift, go to UNCOMMONGOODS.com/FEED LinkedIn: Post your job for free at linkedin.com/oneyoufeed. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
During a month-long honeymoon through Hong Kong, Fiji, and New Zealand, DeAndre and Taryn share a special re-release from their appearance on the Wonderland on Points. The conversation revisits how points and miles became part of their lives, blending DeAndre's background as a financial advisor with Taryn's career in management consulting to build a travel strategy rooted in discipline, planning, and long-term thinking.They walk through standout redemptions, including a multi-stop journey to the Maldives booked with points, a stay at the Park Hyatt Maldives, and the behind-the-scenes planning of DeAndre's sandbank proposal. Along the way, they emphasize using credit cards responsibly, avoiding debt, and leveraging tools like TripIt to manage complex itineraries while creating meaningful, experience-driven travel.Key Highlights:DeAndre's entry into points and miles: His journey began through client questions as a financial advisor, leading to deep research into credit cards and transfer partners.Taryn's role in the strategy: She embraced points early and became instrumental in portals, trip planning, and organization.Responsible use of credit cards: Points strategies only work when spending mirrors cash and interest is avoided.Resetting financial habits: Stepping away from credit cards can be necessary to rebuild discipline before optimizing rewards.Transfer partners matter: Flexible points unlock significantly more value than simple cash-back redemptions.Maldives redemption breakdown: Strategic routing and patience made a high-end trip possible on points.Park Hyatt Maldives value: 35,000 points per night delivered outsized luxury compared to typical cash rates.Imperfect itineraries are normal: Award travel often requires creative routing and flexibility.Eco-focused experiences add depth: Local tours in Tulum created more meaningful travel than resort excursions.Trip organization is critical: Tools like TripIt simplify complex, multi-country travel planning.Resources:Book a Free 30 minute points & miles consultationStart here to learn how to unlock nearly free travelSign up for our newsletter!
¿Qué diferencia a un buen aficionado, ese que sabe "mecaniquear" con criterio en su moto, de uno que simplemente destroza tornillos? A menudo, la respuesta está en su caja de herramientas. El "bueno" tiene el equipo adecuado, mientras que el "malo" ni siquiera sabe lo que le falta. En este vídeo no venimos a recomendarte el típico maletín de supermercado, ese que se oxida a los dos días, tiene holguras y acaba redondeando las cabezas de la tornillería de tu moto. Aquí no hay chollos ni ofertas milagrosas. Entendemos la herramienta no como un gasto, sino como una inversión. Una buena llave es eterna y, a la larga, te permite ahorrar mucho dinero y, sobre todo, mucho tiempo. Esta es la lista. 1. El Salvador Silencioso. Recuperador Magnético Flexible. Alrededor de 12€ Arrancamos con algo que cuesta lo mismo que un par de desayunos: unos 12 euros de media. Y os aseguro que os va a ahorrar horas de terapia psicológica. El recuperador magnético flexible. 2. El Pulmón del Taller. Compresor de Aire. A partir de 100 €. Los buenos. Aquí subimos la apuesta, pero te aseguro que me lo vas a agradecer Hablamos de una inversión de más de 100€ para un modelo de garaje de 24 o 50 litros. 3. La Guardiana del Aluminio. Llave Dinamométrica, unos 65€. Tercera herramienta, y aquí nos ponemos serios. Por unos 65€ tenéis una llave dinamométrica de rango medio bastante decente. 4. La Velocidad. Llave de Carraca "Buena” desde 40€. Una llave de carraca de calidad, solo el mango, ronda los 40€. ¿Por qué gastar 40€ en una sola llave si hay maletines completos por ese precio? Por los "dientes". Una carraca barata tiene pocos dientes y necesita mucho giro para hacer "clic". En una moto, donde apenas cabe la mano, a veces no tienes espacio para girar tanto. 5. El Secreto Japonés. Destornilladores JIS, unos 25€. ¿Qué narices es eso de JIS? Pon atención a esto porque es vital si tienes Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki o Yamaha. Por 25 euros te compras un juego de destornilladores JIS acrónimo de ¡Japanese Industrial Standard”. 6. El Estándar Europeo. Llaves Torx, alrededor de 30€. En cambio, si tu moto es europea como BMW, Ducati, KTM, Triumph… por ejemplo necesitas Torx. Un juego de calidad en forma de "L" o vasos ronda los 30€. 7. La Herramienta Definitiva. Llave-Tenaza unos 60€. E incluso menos. La Llave-Tenaza tipo Knipex de 250 mm cuesta unos 60€. Pero esta herramienta sustituye a todo un juego de llaves fijas grandes. Sus mandíbulas son lisas y paralelas y multiplican tu fuerza por diez. 8. Cirujano de Precisión. Alicates para Arandelas desde 15-20€ Son una herramienta específica, que te pueden salvar la vida: Los alicates para Circlips o grupillas. 9. El Ojo que no Miente. Calibre o Pie de Rey por menos de 30€ Por unos 30 euros tienes uno digital de acero inoxidable muy digno. ¿Para qué sirve? Para que el ojo no te engañe. ¿Ese tornillo es de métrica 6 o de 8? El calibre te lo dice. ¿Estás tensando la cadena? Mide la distancia exacta en el basculante para que la rueda quede alineada perfecta. ¿Están gastados tus discos de freno? Mide el grosor. Es la herramienta de diagnóstico más rápida que existe. 10. La Artillería Pesada. El "Destor-Golpe" (~25€) A veces las cosas se ponen feas. Y entra en juego este destornillador gordo y pesado que se usa golpeándolo con un martillo. Es la única forma humana de sacar los contrapesos del manillar que vienen pegados, o los tornillos de los discos de freno oxidados. El golpe clava la punta y fuerza el giro a la vez. Es esa herramienta que usas dos veces al año, pero esas dos veces te salva de tener que taladrar un tornillo y arruinar una pieza de 200€. Hagamos números. Muy bien, saquemos la calculadora. Si sumamos todo, montar este kit de herramientas "anti-tópicos", de calidad profesional y para toda la vida, nos sale por unos 440 o 450€. No hay que comprarlas todo el mismo día… Puede parecer dinero, pero pensadlo así: 450€ es menos de lo que cuesta UNA sola avería grave en taller oficial por haber pasado de rosca un cárter, o menos de lo que gastarás en grúas y recambios por mantenimientos mal hechos.
Discovering Grayslake: Unveiling the Stories and People That Make Our Town Unique
In this episode of "Discovering Grayslake," recorded at The Loop Marketing, the hosts welcome Jennifer Everett, president of Foundation 46 and a Grayslake Middle School reading specialist. Jennifer shares how Foundation 46 supports local teachers and students through flexible grants, fundraising events like Barn Fest, and community activities such as school scavenger hunts. The conversation highlights the importance of community involvement, employer donation matching, and volunteering. Listeners are encouraged to attend events, apply for grants, and help spread the word, all working together to strengthen Grayslake's hometown spirit and support its schools. How Foundation 46 Empowers Grayslake: A Deep Dive into Community-Driven Educational Support Grayslake is more than just a town—it's a community where neighbors look out for each other, and where local organizations like Foundation 46 are making a real difference in the lives of teachers, students, and families. In a recent episode of the "Discovering Grayslake" podcast, recorded at The Loop Marketing at the end of Center Street and Lake, we sat down with Jennifer Everett, a seventh-grade reading specialist at Grayslake Middle School and the current president of Foundation 46. Jennifer, along with our hosts, shared invaluable insights into how Foundation 46 operates, the impact it has, and how every community member can get involved. This blog post unpacks the main themes and actionable tips from the episode, offering a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in supporting education in Grayslake. Whether you're a teacher, parent, business owner, or simply a neighbor who cares, there's a role for you in this hometown effort. What is Foundation 46? Foundation 46 is a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting teachers and students in Grayslake's District 46. Through grants, fundraising events, and community partnerships, the foundation provides resources and opportunities that go beyond what the school budget can cover. Their mission is simple: empower educators, enrich student experiences, and strengthen the community. 1. Flexible, Teacher-Friendly Grants: Fueling Creativity in the Classroom How the Grant Program Works One of the standout features of Foundation 46 is its open, rolling grant application process. Unlike many grant programs that have rigid deadlines, Foundation 46 allows teachers to apply whenever inspiration strikes. Applications are reviewed monthly, making it easier for busy educators to access funding when they need it most. Types of Grants: Project Grants:** $500–$1,000 for classroom projects, materials, or programs. Impact Grants:** Over $1,000 for larger, collaborative, or cross-school initiatives. Application Process: Teachers submit a Google Form detailing their project, its goals, and the number of students impacted. The Foundation uses a rubric to ensure fair, transparent evaluation. If more information is needed, teachers are encouraged to revise and resubmit—Foundation 46 is committed to helping ideas succeed, not just rubber-stamping or rejecting applications. Actionable Tips for Teachers Don't Wait for the "Perfect" Idea:** If you see a need in your classroom, apply! The process is designed to be supportive, not intimidating. Collaborate Across Schools:** Projects that benefit multiple classrooms or schools are especially encouraged. Think Beyond Supplies:** Past grants have funded everything from sensory kits and STEM materials to author visits and family reading nights. Reapply if Needed:** If your application isn't approved the first time, use the feedback to strengthen your proposal and try again. Expert Insight Jennifer Everett emphasizes, "We want to say yes. If you have a creative idea that will benefit students, we're here to help you make it happen." 2. Fundraising with Heart: Barn Fest and Beyond Barn Fest: The Signature Event Barn Fest is Foundation 46's biggest annual fundraiser, held at Jessie Oaks. It's an adult-only evening packed with fun—think mechanical bull rides, live music from Stu the Piano Guy, games, drink specials, and both live and silent auctions. The event is more than just a party; it's a chance for the whole community to rally behind local schools. Key Features: Affordable Tickets:** $25 for teachers, $40 for community members (includes dinner). Community Awards:** The Tom Mescal Award honors outstanding contributors. Unique Auction Items:** From rides in fire trucks to airplane experiences, the auction is always a highlight. Themed Fun:** This year's "Denim and Diamonds" theme blends country charm with a touch of sparkle. Other Fundraising Initiatives Dine-In Shares:** Local restaurants like The Vine and Black Lung host special nights where a portion of proceeds goes to Foundation 46. Scavenger Hunts:** Family-friendly events at local schools encourage exploration and community spirit. Sponsorships:** Local businesses can sponsor events or donate auction items, gaining visibility and goodwill. Actionable Tips for Community Members Attend Events:** Your ticket directly supports grants for teachers. Donate Auction Items:** Unique experiences or services are always in demand. Sponsor a Fundraiser:** Businesses can make a big impact and connect with local families. Host a Dine-In Share:** Restaurant owners, consider partnering with Foundation 46 for a win-win event. Expert Insight Jennifer notes, "We want Barn Fest to be a celebration for everyone, not just teachers. The more the community gets involved, the more we can do for our schools." 3. Maximizing Impact: Employer Matching and Volunteer Power Employer Matching: Double (or Triple) Your Donation Many local companies—including AbbVie, Allstate, Cardinal Health, CDW, First Midwest Bank, Granger, Kraft, Discover, and Motorola—offer matching gift programs. This means your donation to Foundation 46 could be doubled or even tripled, at no extra cost to you. How to Take Advantage: Check with HR:** Ask your employer if they match charitable donations. Submit Your Receipt:** Even event tickets may qualify as a donation. Spread the Word:** Encourage coworkers to participate. Real-World Example: At last year's Barn Fest, a $1,000 donation was matched by Granger, resulting in a $3,000–$4,000 total impact. Volunteering: The Heartbeat of Foundation 46 Like many nonprofits, Foundation 46 relies on a core group of dedicated volunteers—but they're always looking for more hands and fresh ideas. Ways to Volunteer: Join the Board:** Meetings are open to the public, held the first Thursday of each month at Frederick School's Falcon Room. Help at Events:** From setup to auction management, there's a role for everyone. Spread the Word:** Share Foundation 46's mission on social media or within your school community. Jennifer's Wish: "If even a small percentage of our 500 district employees volunteered, we'd have an incredible team. Every bit helps." 4. Expanding the Mission: Scholarships and Community Engagement New Initiatives: Student Scholarships Starting in 2026, Foundation 46 plans to offer student scholarships to help cover costs like sports fees for families in need. This expansion reflects a commitment to supporting not just teachers, but students and their families as well. Community-Building Activities School Scavenger Hunts:** Inspired by Jennifer's own experiences, these events encourage families to explore local schools and connect with each other. Family Reading Nights and Author Visits:** Funded by grants, these programs foster a love of learning and bring the community together. Actionable Tips for Families Participate in Events:** Bring your family to scavenger hunts and reading nights. Apply for Scholarships:** If you need help with extracurricular costs, watch for upcoming opportunities. Stay Informed:** Follow Foundation 46 on social media and sign up for newsletters. 5. How to Get Involved: Your Next Steps For Teachers: Apply for a grant—no idea is too small or too big. Collaborate with colleagues for cross-school projects. For Parents and Community Members: Attend Barn Fest and other events. Volunteer your time or skills. Donate or secure auction items. Check if your employer offers matching gifts. For Local Businesses: Sponsor an event or donate services. Host a dine-in share night. For Everyone: Share Foundation 46's mission on social media. Encourage friends and neighbors to get involved. Attend a board meeting to learn more. Contact Information: Email:** foundation46board@gmail.com Website:** foundation46.org Final Thoughts: Small Actions, Big Impact As Jennifer and the podcast hosts remind us, supporting local schools is a community effort. Whether you're donating, volunteering, or simply spreading the word, every action counts. In the words of our host, "Do one or two random acts of kindness each day—especially during the holiday season. Together, we can make Grayslake an even better place to live, learn, and grow." Subscribe to "Discovering Grayslake" on your favorite platform to stay updated on local stories and opportunities to get involved. Let's keep the hometown spirit alive—support Foundation 46 and help Grayslake's students and teachers thrive!
Segment 1: Ilyce Glink, owner of Think Glink Media, joins John Williams to break down year-end economic trends, including inflation, unemployment, wage growth over the past 50 years, and why housing costs continue to squeeze renters and homeowners alike. Segment 2: Jim Dallke, Director of Communications, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, tells John about major developments in Chicago tech and innovation. Topics […]
BOLTS Technologies CEO Yoon Auh explains that the world sees quantum computing as an "undeniable advantage" for tech that carries the risk of breaking the blockchain. He makes the case that the technology is bearish for crypto and that regulation needs to be put in place to prevent irreversible damage. One solution Yoon explains: "post-quantum cryptography." He talks about what it means for the blockchain and the ties it has for the overall digital landscape. ======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day. Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about
In this second episode of the GridTalk Series on the EPRI Current, host Marty Rosenberg speaks with Audrey Zibelman – former Chair of the New York Public Service Commission and CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator – about lessons from New York's Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative and what it may take to scale distributed energy resources (DER). Drawing on global experiences, Audrey shares insights from U.S. regulatory innovation and Australia's efforts in rooftop solar and two-way energy systems, offering a unique perspective into how international best practices can inform U.S. strategies for resilience, affordability, and modernization. She also previews her work with the Pew Charitable Trust on a forthcoming DER playbook, focused on regulatory reform, market design, and scenario-based planning to meet surging demand from electrification and data centers. Then, join Samantha Gilman for “EPRI's Take” with Haresh Kamath, EPRI Director of Cross-Cutting Technologies and Solutions. Haresh discusses operational challenges utilities face when integrating DER and storage, including interoperability, visibility, business models, and contracts. He highlights EPRI's FLEXIT initiative and emphasizes the importance of industry-wide collaboration and common approaches to unlock DER's full potential for grid flexibility and resilience. For more information and episodes visit EPRI.com. If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe and share! And please consider leaving a review and rating on Apple Podcasts/iTunes. Follow EPRI: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/epri/ Twitter https://twitter.com/EPRINews EPRI Current examines key issues and new R&D impacting the energy transition. Each episode features insights from EPRI, the world's preeminent independent, non-profit energy research and development organization, and from other energy industry leaders. We also discuss how innovative technologies are shaping the global energy future. Learn more at www.epri.com
Complex accounts that give users a tax break result in billions lost for consumers. Advice on Flexible Spending Accounts: rules, what the funds can be used for, grace periods, and solutions to not lose money, with the CEO of Florida-based daylii, Nick Dimauro
On this episode of Destination on the Left, I'm at the NTA Travel Exchange in Ottawa to speak with eight leading professionals shaping the future of group travel, tourism, and hospitality. You'll hear insights from leaders who share the latest market trends, traveler behaviors, innovative approaches, and what's ahead for 2026. The conversations explore the strong resurgence of group tours, the rise of small group and multi-generational travel, and a growing demand for immersive, meaningful experiences—from stargazing in Utah to luxury train journeys. You'll discover how industry partnerships and collaborations, such as inter-association alliances and joint destination marketing efforts, are helping operators adapt to challenges and seize new opportunities. In this episode, you'll hear from these knowledgeable tourism leaders: Vince Accardi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vince-accardi-cae-15890033/ Wendy Dobrzynski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-dobrzynski-9604851/ Chad Ellis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-ellis-8227611b0/ Jeff Bont: linkedin.com/in/jeff-bont-832a7513 Richard Arnold: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-arnold-597ab536/ Brenna Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brennamoore Jason Murray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-murray-585426219/ Brent Dalrymple: https://www.travelsunrise.com/about/team/brent-dalrymple What You Will Learn in This Episode: How group tours are evolving, including the rise of small-group and multi-generational travel Why immersive and experiential travel is in high demand, with travelers seeking story-rich, active adventures What industry leaders are seeing in terms of major market trends, including a resurgence in demand and travelers' changing expectations How partnerships and collaborations between associations, DMOs, and attractions are strengthening the group travel industry and opening new markets Why upcoming events like the Route 66 Centennial and America's 250th anniversary are shaping new itineraries and driving tour planning for 2026 What challenges operators are facing, such as shifting consumer sentiment and border issues How technology, data, and consumer insights are being used to track travel sentiment and inform future business decisions across the travel sector A New Wave of Group Travelers At this year's NTA Travel Exchange in Ottawa, we bring together a great lineup of industry leaders to discuss key trends, challenges, and innovations set to shape group tourism into 2026 and 2027. From new tour models and demographic shifts to major anniversaries and the rise of experiential itineraries, these insights reveal an industry that's not only recovering but thriving. It's an exciting time for group travel. Both Vince Accardi and Wendy Dobrzynski explain why the "senior" market is no longer a monolithic group—retirees are younger, wealthier, more adventurous, and more interested in curated, comfortable experiences. Buses are once again filling up, often with multi-generational families and smaller groups seeking meaningful, shared adventures. Richard Arnold highlights that small group tours remain in demand, with 2026 departures already selling out. Flexible departure sizes, customized itineraries, and a willingness to split larger busloads into more intimate cohorts are key strategies for operators catering to evolving traveler preferences. Experiential and Immersive Travel Takes Center Stage Today's groups are looking for more than sightseeing, they're after immersive, story-rich experiences. Chad Ellis from Boda Borg Boston shares how activity-based attractions built around collaboration and problem-solving are striking a chord with groups large and small, from school trips to team-building getaways. Jason Murray of Southwest Adventure Tours reports a boom in experiential travel, especially among families booking private adventures to explore the outdoors and the night sky together. His new focus on "astro tourism" with Dark Sky Adventures reflects a growing appetite for education, enrichment, and unique moments under rare night skies. The Power of Partnership If there's one recurring theme, it's the transformative power of partnership. From national associations banding together in support of their members, to innovative cross-state collaborations like Wendy Dobrzynski's Dynamic Destinations, cooperation is helping travel businesses and DMOs expand reach, cut costs, and deliver even better value for travelers. Jeff Bont from Rocky Mountaineer and Canyon Spirit illustrates another kind of collaboration, working closely with tour operators and travel agencies to create sell-out trips, leveraging iconic anniversaries like America's 250th and Route 66's centennial for compelling, themed itineraries. We value your thoughts and feedback and would love to hear from you. Leave us a review on your favorite streaming platform to let us know what you want to hear more of. Here is a quick tutorial on how to leave us a rating and review on iTunes!
Music Studio Startup: Helping music teachers thrive as entrepreneurs
Today's episode is a rebroadcast of a super fun conversation I had a few years ago. I'm talking to two musicians about how they've made a career in music over the last 15 years. I think their story illustrates what it means to be not just an entrepreneurial musician, but an entrepreneur in general. You'll hear about how they've made plans and pursued ideas, while keeping an open ear to what's going on in the market and the world around them, so they can respond with products and services that meet real needs and opportunities. At points this has led them to make pivots. COVID has been one of these points, but we also talk about how the 2008 financial crisis impacted their work and how they bounced back. Here's my conversation with Barbara and Keith. The transcript and show notes for this episode can be found at MusicStudioStartup.com/episode176.
In this podcast episode, MRS Bulletin's Laura Leay interviews Nitin Padture, who is the Otis E. Randall University Professor and the founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy at Brown University, about his group's work uncovering the cracks in a substrate that was coated with a transparent-conducting oxide thin film. This cracking, they discovered, contributes toward the degradation in the electronic properties of devices. The group's next step was to mitigate the cracking. This work was published in a recent issue of NPJ Flexible Electronics.
High-quality instructional materials are designed to strengthen Tier 1 instruction, but what happens when fidelity turns into rigidity? In this episode, I explore how HQIM can function as a strong foundation rather than a script teachers are expected to follow. I unpack when whole-group instruction makes sense, when small-group instruction is more effective, and how data can guide those decisions. Using a reimagined HQIM lesson as an example, I share how flexible structures like station rotation can create space for differentiation, formative feedback, and student agency. Click here to check out SchoolAI! Episode Resources Using High-Quality Instructional Materials Flexibly to Strengthen Tier 1 Instruction Resource: Design with HQIM: Guiding Questions for Instructional Coaches & Teachers
Welcome to Day 4 of the 12 Days of Fit-mas mini-series!Today we're talking about one of the most practical tools you can use during the holidays: the 80/20 holiday plate.This approach helps you enjoy seasonal foods while still supporting your energy, digestion, and goals - without tracking, measuring, or restricting. By prioritizing protein and fruits/veggies first, you naturally feel more satisfied and less likely to overeat or spiral into all-or-nothing thinking.In this short episode, Casey explains how to use the 80/20 plate at holiday dinners, parties, and even with leftovers - making it a realistic strategy for real life.In this episode:What the 80/20 holiday plate actually looks likeWhy it works for women over 40How to apply it at any meal or eventThe mindset shift that removes guilt around holiday eatingSimple. Flexible. Sustainable.Join us in the Inspire Fitness program: Use the link here: https://inspirehw.com/ Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fit.nutritionist?igsh=MTJqZXhjODR2ZzduaA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Casey.Young.RD.CPT?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Thank you for supporting The Simple Ayurveda Podcast by listening and sharing, and for leaving reviews. Join Angela as she shares her own personal reflections from this year, in hopes it inspires you to contemplate and reflect on your own year. Learn more about: One word for the year Flexible core values based on the season of life Sacred earth and Angela's journey with Werrito Barefoot shoes, ancestral pilgrimage and delight as a nervous system regulator The village is here now- rewiring beliefs about community Resources: Join the Simple Ayurveda newsletter (Free Dharma Heart Space Workshop Jan. 25th, 2026. Link and replay will be sent out in newsletter.) Ayurveda Encompassed: Take your understanding of Ayurveda to a new level and step into a more expansive version of yourself. Join Angela in a high-level small group mentorship with personalized support and resources. For wellness practitioners and Ayurveda enthusiasts. Next cohort February-June 2026. Free 3-Part Series on Ancient Wisdom + Modern Nuance: German New Medicine, Trauma-Informed Ayurveda and Navigating the Liminal Space The Simple Ayurveda health certification program walks you step-by-step through a year-long process of integrating Ayurveda into every aspect of your life so that you are confident in your authentic abilities to share Ayurveda with your community- whether that's your family or clients. Apply here. It is a small group with personalized instruction and individual mentorship led directly by Angela. Next cohort starts September 2026.
Get 20% off Fitness Lab to receive AI-powered coaching that analyzes your meal patterns, identifies missing nutrient density, and adapts your training and nutrition based on biofeedback. Use this special link for 20% off:https://bit.ly/fitness-lab-pod20--Most people build their nutrition from the top down: calories first, macros second, micronutrients as an afterthought. That approach works from a pure energy balance and weight loss perspective but often collapses during body recomposition when you're trying to lose fat and build muscle.Discover why the traditional nutrition hierarchy is backward and the 5 specific mistakes that prevent successful body recomp. Learn the bottom-up framework that makes simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain actually work.You'll understand why micronutrients drive metabolism and energy production, how flexible dieting fails without nutrient anchors, the fiber sweet spot for body recomp, why perfect macros can't overcome poor training performance, and how to use biofeedback instead of just tracking calories.This episode gives you a practical system to optimize nutrition for strength training, muscle building, and sustainable fat loss without feeling hungry, weak, or stuck on a plateau.Timestamps:0:00 - Flipping the nutrition pyramid for body recomposition 2:52 - Micronutrients and body recomp 7:12 - Constraint theory and metabolic bottlenecks 12:16 - Carbs, fat burning, and ATP 17:11 - Building nutrient-dense meal patterns for muscle gain 20:36 - Flexible dieting with nutrient anchors (not just IIFYM) 25:56 - The fiber "sweet spot" for digestion and metabolism 31:20 - Macro targets that support strength training performance 36:12 - Meal timing and tracking gym performance 40:10 - Using biofeedback over blind calorie trackingSupport the show
The Day the “Emergency Fund” Met Real Life Rachel here. Many tell us the same story: “I saved the emergency fund, but I'm worried I'm losing ground to inflation and missed opportunities.” https://www.youtube.com/live/T7O8abZDKw8 Because for most people, the “emergency fund” is a lonely pile of cash—stuck in a corner doing next to nothing. It feels safe, until inflation and opportunity cost quietly erode it. Today Bruce and I want to reframe that pile into something far better: emergency fund alternatives that give you liquidity and momentum. What You'll Get From This Guide If you've ever wondered how to stay liquid for the unknown without parking money in low-yield accounts, this is for you. We'll show you how to: Design liquidity that protects your family and keeps compounding intact Think “emergency and opportunity,” not either/or Decide how much liquidity you actually need Compare storage options (banks, brokerage, HELOCs, and emergency fund alternatives like cash value life insurance) Understand policy loans, interest, IRR, and why control and flexibility often beat chasing the “best rate” By the end, you'll have a practical blueprint to keep cash ready for life's surprises—without stalling your long-term growth. The Day the “Emergency Fund” Met Real LifeWhat You'll Get From This Guide1) Why Most People Misunderstand “Emergency Funds”Emergency Fund Alternatives vs. Cash-in-the-Bank2) How Much Liquidity Do You Actually Need?Emergency Fund Alternatives for Real Estate Investors3) Liquidity from Cash-Flowing Assets4) Where to Store Liquidity: A Practical Comparison5) Cash Value as an Emergency–Opportunity FundEmergency Fund Alternatives Using Whole Life Insurance6) “But What About Loan Rates vs. Policy IRR?”7) Real Estate, HELOCs, and Policy Loans—How They Compare8) Early-Year Liquidity & Design Reality9) The Two Big Mindset ShiftsEmergency Fund Alternatives That Keep You in Control10) Implementation Steps You Can Start This WeekWhy This MattersListen In and Go DeeperFAQWhat's the best place to keep an emergency fund?Are whole life policies good emergency fund alternatives?How much liquidity should real estate investors keep?Do whole life policy loans hurt compounding?Policy loan rate vs. policy IRR—what matters most?HELOC or whole life policy loan for emergencies?Book A Strategy Call 1) Why Most People Misunderstand “Emergency Funds” Most picture a rainy-day stash: a fixed dollar amount “just in case.” The problem? That mindset narrows your field of vision to only bad events. You end up over-saving in idle cash, under-preparing for real opportunities, and missing compound growth. The better frame is liquidity for emergencies and opportunities—capital that can pivot quickly, without losing momentum. Emergency Fund Alternatives vs. Cash-in-the-Bank Savings accounts provide easy access but pay little, expose you to inflation, and interrupt compounding when you withdraw. Emergency fund alternatives aim to keep liquidity and let your money continue working. 2) How Much Liquidity Do You Actually Need? Rules of thumb (3–6 months) don't account for your real situation: expenses, income volatility, business ownership, real estate cycles, and your emotional comfort. Bruce and I coach clients to answer three questions: Cash flow cushion: If your income paused, how long until you're back on track? Asset mix & access: Where is your capital now, and how liquid is it (including taxes/penalties)? Personal margin: What amount helps you sleep at night without freezing progress? The right number blends math and emotion. Peace of mind matters because you'll only stick with a plan you believe in. Emergency Fund Alternatives for Real Estate Investors Great operators earmark a percent of rents for vacancies, repairs, and cap-ex—plus a broader, flexible reserve. Emergency fund alternatives make that reserve productive while keeping it accessible. 3) Liquidity from Cash-Flowing Assets One overlooked “emergency fund” is consistent cash flow. If assets deposit $5K–$20K/mo. into your checking account regardless of your job, you may need less static cash. Let the monthly stream cover life's bumps—while your capital base keeps compounding. Cash flow accumulates → periodically deploy to premium (more on that next) Short-term bank buffer exists, but money doesn't linger there You stay positioned for both emergencies and deals 4) Where to Store Liquidity: A Practical Comparison VehicleLiquidityGrowth/DragTaxes on AccessProsConsBank savings/HYSAInstantLow; inflation dragNo capital gains on principalSimplicity, FDICOpportunity cost; interrupts compoundingBrokerage (cash/short-term)High–moderateVariesPossible gains taxesOptional yieldMarket risk; sale can trigger taxesHELOCOn-demand (if open)House appreciates regardlessLoan (not income)Flexible; common for investorsBank approval; can be frozenCash Value Whole Life3–5 days via policy loansUninterrupted compoundingLoan (not income)Control, guarantees, death benefitMust qualify; early-year liquidity is lower Bottom line: Banks are fine for swipe-ready cash. But for meaningful reserves, emergency fund alternatives that preserve compounding and add optionality often fit better. 5) Cash Value as an Emergency–Opportunity Fund This is where Infinite Banking principles shine. Premium dollars build cash value (guaranteed growth + potential dividends) and a rising death benefit. When you need liquidity, you borrow against cash value. Your cash value keeps compounding uninterrupted while the insurer's general fund provides the loan. Result: Capital keeps working; you gain flexibility Mindset: Be both the producer and the banker in your life Governance: Treat loans like a bank would—repay with intention to restore capacity Emergency Fund Alternatives Using Whole Life Insurance Liquidity in days (not months) Access via loan documents—not a bank underwriter If you pass away with a loan outstanding, it's simply deducted from the death benefit; your heirs still receive the net 6) “But What About Loan Rates vs. Policy IRR?” Bruce said it well: I care less about a single rate and more about the system—control, flexibility, and volume of interest over time. IRR reflects long-term, policywide performance. Loan rate is what you pay while capital continues compounding inside the policy. Volume matters: The faster you repay, the less interest volume you pay—at the same rate. Meanwhile, rising death benefits and dividends work in your favor. Chasing the perfect spread can stop you from using a system designed to keep your compounding intact and your options open. 7) Real Estate, HELOCs, and Policy Loans—How They Compare A helpful analogy: a policy loan works like a HELOC on your house—the property can keep appreciating whether a lien exists or not. With cash value, your “property” is the policy: growth continues by contract, and you place a lien to access cash. Differences: Access: Policy loans are paperwork-simple; HELOCs require bank re-approval and can be frozen. Speed: Policies often fund in 3–5 business days; HELOC timing varies. Control: With a policy, you set repayment terms; with banks, they do. For investors, combining a small bank buffer, a HELOC, and cash value creates layers of redundancy—plus uninterrupted compounding. 8) Early-Year Liquidity & Design Reality Honest trade-off: in the first year(s), you won't have access to 100% of premium dollars. That early drag buys you guarantees, long-term compounding, and a growing death benefit. Design matters (base + paid-up additions) and expectations matter. Ask: Do I really need every dollar back in 30 days? Most don't. By years 3–4, well-designed policies are commonly close to dollar-for-dollar access on new premium—and rising. 9) The Two Big Mindset Shifts From Emergency to Emergency–OpportunityStop saving only for the worst. Start storing capital that can respond to anything—repairs, vacancies, investments, giving, tuition, tithing, trips. From Saver to BankerDon't just hold capital; govern it. Design rules. Repay loans. Value your capital at least as much as a bank would. This shifts you from scarcity to stewardship. Emergency Fund Alternatives That Keep You in Control The aim isn't a magic product; it's a governed system that preserves compounding, widens options, and serves your family for decades. 10) Implementation Steps You Can Start This Week Clarify your true liquidity need. Calculate 90–180 days of net cash flow needs, not just expenses. Segment reserves: Keep a thin swipe-ready bank buffer; move the rest to emergency fund alternatives (e.g., cash value). Document loan rules: When you borrow, how will you repay? From what cash flow? On what rhythm? Automate funding: Set recurring transfers to build capital consistently. Review quarterly: Check buffer size, upcoming premiums/PUAs, deal pipeline, and family needs. Think generationally: Policies on multiple family members expand access, diversify insurability, and strengthen your long-term plan. Why This Matters Your “emergency fund” shouldn't be a deadweight expense. With emergency fund alternatives, you can keep liquidity, protect your family, and maintain uninterrupted compounding. Cash-flowing assets provide monthly cushion. Cash value provides controlled access, contractual growth, and a rising death benefit. Together, they create a resilient system that handles storms and seizes sunshine. Listen In and Go Deeper Want the full conversation—including examples, loan mechanics, and our candid takes on rates, IRR, and real-world trade-offs? Listen to the podcast episode on Emergency Fund Alternatives to hear how we actually apply this with clients and in our own families.
China aims to broaden insurance coverage for childbirth-related medical expenses and strengthen support for pharmaceutical innovation in the coming year, according to the National Healthcare Security Administration.国家医疗保障局表示,中国计划在未来一年扩大生育相关医疗费用的保险覆盖范围,并加强对医药创新的支持力度。The goals were outlined in a report delivered by Zhang Ke, director of the administration, at its annual work conference on Saturday. The report reviewed progress in healthcare security during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) and detailed priority areas for 2026.这些目标由国家医疗保障局主任章轲在周六举行的年度工作会议上提交的报告中提出。该报告回顾了“十四五”规划期间(2021-2025年)医疗保障工作的进展,并详细列出了2026年的重点工作领域。To adapt to demographic shifts marked by declining birth rates and a rapidly aging population, the report said maternity insurance coverage for prenatal checkups will be reasonably expanded within the financial capacity of the insurance fund.为应对生育率下降和人口快速老龄化的人口结构变化,报告指出将在保险基金财力范围内合理扩大孕产妇保险的产前检查覆盖范围。Authorities will explore the creation of a basic service package that incorporates prenatal examinations, aiming to ease the financial burden on families.相关部门将研究推出包含产前检查的基本服务套餐,旨在减轻家庭的经济负担。By next year, the goal is to achieve nationwide full reimbursement for all policy-covered medical expenses related to childbirth, enabling insured expectant mothers to incur almost no out-of-pocket costs for covered services.到明年,目标是实现全国范围内对所有与分娩相关的保险覆盖医疗费用全额报销,使参保孕妇在享受保险覆盖服务时几乎无需承担自付费用。Additional expenses, such as those for premium hospital wards or medications not included in the reimbursement list, will remain uncovered.但例如高级病房费用或未列入报销清单的药品等的额外费用,仍将不予覆盖。So far, seven provincial-level regions, including Jilin, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, have implemented policies that make childbirth nearly free of charge.迄今为止,包括吉林、江苏和山东在内的七个省级地区已实施政策,使生育费用几乎免费。The administration said the number of women enrolled in the national maternity insurance program has risen to 255 million, and all regions have included fertility treatment in their basic health insurance plans.国家医疗保障局表示,全国生育保险参保女性人数已增至2.55亿,所有地区均已将生育治疗纳入基本医疗保险范围。Nearly 95 percent of fund pooling regions now distribute fertility subsidies directly to beneficiaries' personal accounts rather than through employers.目前近95%的基金池地区已将生育补贴直接发放至受益人个人账户,而非通过雇主发放。For the coming year, authorities will promote participation among flexible workers, migrant workers and individuals in new forms of employment in maternity insurance, while exploring the feasibility of extending coverage to nonemployed urban and rural residents.未来一年,相关部门将推动灵活就业人员、流动务工人员及新型就业形式从业人员参与生育保险,同时研究将覆盖范围扩大至城镇非雇佣居民和农村居民的可行性。All provincial-level regions will be required to cover eligible labor pain relief procedures under insurance and further implement and refine reimbursement policies for assisted reproductive technology services.所有省级行政区都将要求将符合条件的分娩镇痛项目纳入医保范围,并进一步落实和完善辅助生殖技术服务的报销政策。To assist the 220 million people aged 65 and older — who make up 15.6 percent of China's total population as of end of 2024 — the report called for the further development of the long-term care insurance program, which currently covers about 300 million people, and encouraged commercial insurers to develop related products.为帮助2.2亿65岁及以上人口(截至2024年底占中国总人口的15.6%),报告呼吁进一步发展长期护理保险制度,该制度目前覆盖约3亿人;并鼓励商业保险公司开发相关产品。Addressing demographic challenges was also among the priorities set by the annual two-day Central Economic Work Conference that concluded on Thursday. The conference emphasized expanding rehabilitative care services, advancing the long-term care insurance program, and strengthening care and support for vulnerable groups.应对人口结构挑战也是本周四结束的为期两天年度中央经济工作会议确定的重点工作之一。会议强调要扩大康复护理服务范围,推进长期护理保险制度建设,加强对弱势群体的照护与支持。The meeting also stressed the importance of promoting positive views on marriage and childbearing and striving to stabilize the newborn population.会议还强调了倡导积极婚姻生育观念、努力稳定新生儿人口的重要性。The healthcare security report also underscored stepped-up support for innovative drugs and emerging healthcare technologies.该医疗保健安全报告还强调了对创新药物和新兴医疗技术的加强支持。Over the past five years, 949 medicines were added to the national reimbursement drug list, bringing the cumulative total to 3,253.过去五年间,共有949种药品被纳入国家医保药品目录,累计纳入药品总数达到3253种。In the latest update released earlier this month, a record 50 first-in-class novel drugs were added, accounting for nearly half of the 114 newly included products.在本月初发布的最新的医保药品目录更新中,新增了创纪录的50种首创创新药物,占新增的114种产品近半数。At the same time, the administration issued the country's first commercial insurance innovative drug list, covering 19 medicines with significant clinical value, high innovation levels and substantial patient benefits.与此同时,国家医疗保障局发布了全国首份商业保险创新药目录,涵盖19种具有显著临床价值、高创新水平和实质性患者获益的药品。The report called for active implementation of the commercial drug list and encouraged commercial health insurers to cover more reasonable medical expenses outside the basic insurance catalog. Commercial insurers will also be mobilized to increase investment in innovative drugs to support research and development.该报告呼吁积极实施商业药品目录,鼓励商业健康保险公司覆盖基本保险目录外的更多合理医疗费用。同时将动员商业保险公司加大对创新药物的投资力度,以支持研发工作。To further foster innovation, the report highlighted the need to leverage medical insurance's strategic purchasing role, guide the industry toward healthy competition and differentiated innovation, and improve multichannel payment mechanisms for innovative drugs.为进一步促进创新,报告强调需发挥医保战略采购作用,引导行业开展良性竞争和差异化创新,完善创新药多渠道支付机制。The rapid development of artificial intelligence and other smart technologies also presents opportunities to build a more digital healthcare security platform and establish an evaluation system using real-world data to comprehensively assess the value of insurance-covered medications.人工智能及其他智能技术的快速发展,也为构建更完善的数字化医疗安全平台提供了机遇,并能建立基于真实世界数据的评估体系,全面评估医保药品的价值。Authorities will support local governments in launching competitions for healthcare security application scenarios involving advanced technologies such as multimodal AI-assisted diagnosis and noninvasive brain-computer interfaces.政府将支持地方政府开展医疗健康安全应用场景竞赛,涉及多模态人工智能辅助诊断、非侵入式脑机接口等前沿技术。Official data show the national basic medical insurance coverage rate has remained stable at about 95 percent over the past five years, with total expenditures exceeding 13 trillion yuan ($1.82 trillion). Flexible workers, migrant workers and individuals in new forms of employment have increasingly been supported to enroll.官方数据显示,过去五年全国基本医疗保险覆盖率稳定在95%左右,累计支出超过13万亿元(合1.82万亿美元)。灵活就业人员、农民工和新型就业人员参保比例持续提升。During this period, China carried out eight rounds of centralized drug procurement covering treatments for diabetes, cancer, bacterial infections and other common chronic diseases, as well as four rounds of bulk purchasing for high-value medical consumables such as artificial joints, intraocular lenses and cochlear implants.在此期间,中国开展了八轮集中采购,涵盖糖尿病、癌症、细菌感染等常见慢性病的治疗药物,并进行了四轮高价医疗耗材的集中采购,包括人工关节、人工晶体和人工耳蜗等。Local authorities recovered about 120 billion yuan in misused insurance funds and prevented an additional 9.5 billion yuan in losses by using big data and smart monitoring tools. The introduction of drug traceability codes has strengthened efforts to crack down on drug resale and fraudulent reimbursement.地方政府通过运用大数据和智能监控工具,追回约1200亿元被滥用的医保资金,并防止了95亿元的损失。药品追溯码的引入,进一步加强了打击药品转售和虚假报销的力度。maternity insurance[məˈtɜːrnəti]生育保险procurement[prəˈkjʊrmənt]采购full reimbursement[ˌriːɪmˈbɜːrsmənt]全额报销migrant workers流动务工人员
How to master cognitive flexibility by understanding the biases that keep you stuck. In WWI, generals sent horses against machine guns. Cognitive Rigidity mean they couldn't reimagine the battlefield. In this episode, I break down the five mental traps keeping you stuck. We look at why you value your own bad ideas more than good ones (The Endowment Effect) and why you can't stop scrolling TikTok instead of working (Hyperbolic Discounting). We even cover why Einstein—the genius of flexibility—eventually got stuck in his ways and rejected quantum mechanics. Actionable Takeaways: Reimagine the tool: Don't ask what it is, ask what it could be to overcome functional fixedness. Question the crowd: The Bandwagon Effect offers safety, not truth; dare to be the outlier. Respect the future: Overcome the urge for immediate gratification by empathizing with your future self. Choose to see the world differently and open the door to possibility. SPONSORS
Algorithms and automations have been buds for a decade plus.
In this episode of Logistics & Leadership, Brian Hastings interviews Jonathan Brooks, CEO of Warehouse on Wheels, to discuss how his company has grown from two locations and 4,000 trailers to nearly 40 locations and 40,000 trailers across North America. Jonathan shares his professional background—from Arthur Anderson, to multiple private-equity backed leadership roles, to now scaling a high-impact logistics solution. He explains how Warehouse on Wheels creates cost-efficient, flexible storage alternatives that save customers millions compared to traditional warehousing. Together, they explore shifting supply-chain demands, customer proximity, and agility in a rapidly evolving market.The Logistics & Leadership Podcast, powered by Veritas Logistics, redefines logistics and personal growth. Hosted by industry veterans and supply chain leaders Brian Hastings and Justin Maines, it shares their journey from humble beginnings to a $50 million company. Discover invaluable lessons in logistics, mental toughness, and embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. The show delves into personal and professional development, routine, and the power of betting on oneself. From inspiring stories to practical insights, this podcast is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs, logistics professionals, and anyone seeking to push limits and achieve success.Timestamps:(00:00) — Intro(05:12) — Cost-saving trailer strategy(10:08) — Culture beyond perks explained(15:02) — Accountability through engagement metrics(19:11) — Self-correction through ownership(21:14) — Symbolic “red chairs” culture(24:02) — Empowering every employee's voice(25:28) — Faith-driven authentic leadership(28:50) — Purpose over chasing dollarsConnect with Jonathan Brooks:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jnbrooksivConnect with us! ▶️ Website | LinkedIn | Brian's LinkedIn | Justin's LinkedIn▶️ Get our newsletter for more logistics insights▶️ Send us your questions!! ask@go-veritas.comWatch the pod on: YouTube
The agricultural industry faces unprecedented challenges, from shifting commodity markets to labor shortages and automation. In a recent AgNet News Hour interview, Nick Foglio of Foglio Commodities shared timely insights into hay markets, wine trends, raisin and nut production, and what California growers must do to stay competitive. Hay and Dairy Market Trends Foglio opened with a look at the 2025 hay market, where soft commodity prices and oversupply have shaped the season. Favorable canola and soybean meal pricing allowed dairies to supplement feed at reduced costs, while wet winters added cheaper dry-land feed, softening the market further. The first half of the year saw resistance due to imported hay inventory, but the second half required price corrections and higher volume movement. One bright spot was dry cow alfalfa, which outperformed 2024 thanks to less low-quality weed hay available. With milk prices softening and exportable inventory staying in-state, Folio expects continued pressure on hay pricing going into winter. Wine Market Shifts Alcohol consumption continues to decline, particularly among older drinkers and younger consumers who are increasingly health-focused or shifting toward cannabis alternatives. Foglio sees single-serve packaging as a strong opportunity for drawing new wine consumers by reducing the commitment of a full bottle. His advice for new wine drinkers: Choose California wines for quality and local support Explore flavors to identify their preferred white or red Visit local wineries for tasting and education For the wine market to grow, Foglio says the industry must shed its elitist reputation and present wine as casual, accessible, and versatile for everyday dining and gatherings. Raisins, Almonds, and Pistachios: Vertical Integration Required Discussing raisins and permanent crops, Foglio stresses that the future belongs to vertically integrated operations. Modern, profitable raisin production now requires: Growing one's own fruit Owning and maintaining equipment Controlling storage and processing Managing direct-to-retail sales Without this structure, staying competitive becomes difficult. Foglio highlights Sun-Maid and National Raisin as examples of operations thriving through innovation and strong marketing. Almonds and pistachios remain profitable markets, but Foglio warns that overplanting could soften pricing. Growers must carefully assess whether to maintain current orchards, replant, or diversify into alternative crops based on return-on-investment outlooks. Labor, Automation, and Rising Costs Labor remains a top pressure point. With California's minimum wage increasing, more farms are turning to automation and mechanization. But Folio warns that growers must evaluate ROI carefully: expensive tech with a short lifespan—much like wind turbine investments—may not justify its cost. Growers must make immediate, ROI-positive decisions, balancing labor shortages with the need for efficiency and long-term operational sustainability. Managing Change in Agriculture Foglio's closing message is clear: agriculture is at a crossroads. Success in today's environment requires: Flexible sourcing and pricing in soft hay markets More approachable marketing to grow the wine industry Strong vertical integration for raisins, almonds, and pistachios Careful, ROI-driven adoption of automation Growers who adapt, innovate, and invest wisely will be best positioned to meet the evolving challenges of California agriculture.
Most people think travel rewards are confusing, time-consuming, or only useful for frequent fliers. But in reality, when you understand how to earn and redeem points strategically, you can turn your normal everyday spending into deeply discounted travel — even at luxury hotels charging $1,500+ a night. In this episode, Adam sits down with Colin Stroud, founder of Go Somewhere, who has built one of the fastest-growing travel-rewards education platforms on LinkedIn. Colin breaks down how retirees, families, and business owners can use points more intentionally, avoid common mistakes, and unlock outsized value — whether you're looking for a simple getaway or a bucket-list luxury vacation. Episode Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro & topic overview 03:00 – Colin's story: From insurance job to building a travel-rewards business 06:00 – Why flexible points (Chase, Amex, Capital One) beat airline & hotel cards 09:00 – The two ways to "win" with points: Earning and redeeming 12:00 – How transfer partners unlock 4–5x more value 15:00 – The $1,500/night Hyatt example that cost only 30k points 17:00 – Biggest mistakes people make with points (and how to avoid them) 20:00 – How retirees on fixed incomes can stretch travel budgets significantly 23:00 – Everyday vs. luxury redemptions: where the real arbitrage is 25:00 – Choosing the right travel card for your specific lifestyle 28:00 – Blackout dates, devaluations & why hoarding points is a bad idea 29:00 – Tools & apps to simplify points: Daily Drop, Point.me, and more 31:00 – Two of Colin's favorite success stories (including a family of 10 flying lie-flat!) 34:00 – Colin's #1 "if you do nothing else" strategy for absolute beginners 36:00 – Closing thoughts & where to learn more Key Takeaways:
I interviewed Adriana Ramirez and Matt Gibbs, and we spoke about how a new approach to pharmacy benefits management. Episode Resources Connect with Arundhati Parmar aparmar@medcitynews.com https://twitter.com/aparmarbb?lang=en https://medcitynews.com/ Connect with Adriana Ramirez and Matt Gibbs hans.amalia@abarcahealth.com matt.gibbs@lark.com Review, Subscribe and Share If you like what you hear please leave a review by clicking here Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so you get the latest episodes. Click here to subscribe with Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe with Spotify Click here to subscribe with Podbean Click here to subscribe with RSS
What's your plan when the power goes out?If you think a generator is your only option, think again.Today's conversation, live from our RE+ PowerUp Live stage, Rachel Stotts of Jackery breaks down a new category of home energy backup: flexible, modular systems that you can easily scale and take with you. Whether you're facing tornadoes or planning a weekend tailgate, portable energy solutions cover everything from your fridge to your CPAP machine, and they're becoming increasingly popular with prosumers who don't want the hassles of traditional energy storage.No permits. No permanent installs. Just plug-and-play resilience. And up to 30% federal tax credit if you act before year's end.Rachel and Josh Beck explore why this product category is resonating with both outdoor enthusiasts and homeowners fed up with power outages.You'll hear:
Andreas Munk Holm opens the episode by introducing Charles Dunn, Principal at SV Health Investors, and Ruth McKernan, CBE and Operating Partner at SV Health, former CEO of Innovate UK. SV Health is a transatlantic healthcare specialist with a focus on company creation and full-spectrum biotech investing. Notable wins include the exit of SV-created EyeBio to Merck & Co for up to $3bn including $1.3bn upfront, and the recent launch of SV's newest company creation Driag Therapeutics, a UK-based neuropsychiatry company, which recently announced its $140m Series A financing.SV Health's approach blends early-stage company creation with later-stage venture investment. Charles emphasizes that this structure allows:Diversified risk for LPs: Early-stage opportunities carry higher risk but higher upside; later-stage investments provide more stability.Learning across stages: Experience in late-stage investing informs early-stage decision-making, and vice versa.Flexible company formation: SV Health creates companies across different development stages, sometimes even after Phase 1 data exists, as with Draig Therapeutics.
Why Flexible Points Need to Be Your Strategy for 2026 (Real Trip Breakdown + How I Picked the Best Luxury Hotel Using Chase, Amex, Hyatt, Hilton & Marriott)If you want 2026 to be the year you finally take that luxury vacation without draining your bank account, this is the episode you need in your life. Today, I'm breaking down why flexible points are the MOST important strategy for travel in 2026 — especially if you want free flights, luxury hotel stays, and maximum redemption value.And to show you exactly why flexible points matter so much, I'm walking you through a real trip I just planned where I compared multiple luxury hotel options using points from different banks (Chase, Amex). Because here's the truth:
Every year, from late November to early December, we roll up our sleeves, set the dates, map out the plan, and fine-tune the details for the year ahead.Join me today for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how we structure the program, what you will learn, the rollout date, and all the incredible benefits you can expect!Overview of the ProgramThis signature program has been a favorite among horse owners and practitioners since it launched in 2018. It has been designed to give you a strong foundation in holistic horse care and is packed with practical, easy-to-understand information to help you make the best choices for a healthy and happy horse. Updated in 2020 with even more resources, it is a hands-on, flexible learning experience perfect for horse lovers at any level.A Supportive Global CommunityCaring for horses can feel like a solo adventure sometimes, especially if you live in a remote area. This course connects you with a worldwide community of like-minded people who share your passion. You will swap stories, share insights, and learn how horse care challenges are surprisingly universal, no matter where you are.How the Course WorksThe course spans 12 weeks and includes nine in-depth modules with a few pause weeks to allow you to work through the material at your own pace. Each module builds on the last, with practical exercises you can apply to any horse.A Holistic MindsetThe course starts by helping you view horse health from a new perspective. You will learn to look at the history of a horse, spot patterns, and connect the dots between symptoms and underlying issues. It is a whole-horse approach that considers mental, physical, emotional, and even spiritual health, giving you a deep understanding of how the equine body works and reacts to care.Practical Horse CareIn modules two and three, we dive into the fundamental aspects of anatomy, physiology, and diet. You will learn how to use food as medicine, tailoring the diet to address imbalances, intolerances, or allergies. By the end, you will know how to customize a feeding plan to meet the unique requirements of your horse. Advanced Tools for HealthWe also explore therapeutic nutrition, herbs, and homeopathy. You will learn to use vitamins, minerals, and natural remedies to tackle specific health challenges. These modules are all broken down into simple and easy-to-apply, actionable steps.Tackling Common ProblemsIn the later modules, we get into the nitty-gritty of hoof health, toxins, and parasites. You will learn how to spot common hoof issues, like thrush or long toes, and how to address them naturally. You will also learn strategies to minimize exposure to toxins and manage parasites in ways that keep your horse feeling their best.Real-Life SolutionsOne of the highlights of this course is the final module, which has natural protocols for over 30 specific health issues. When you reach this point, you will have all the tools you need to create a personalized care program for your horse. You will also know how to track your horse's progress and adjust when necessary.Flexible and Easy to FollowThe course is structured to fit into your busy life. The materials are released weekly, and there are live classes every Tuesday evening (with recordings if you cannot make it). There is also a private Facebook group where you can get extra support and connect with other participants, and quizzes you can complete along the way, and you will earn a certificate at the end.Ready to Join?If you want to learn about holistic horse care and give your horse the gift of better health, this is the course for you! Join the waitlist on our
ABOUT BRYAN:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/bryanmeszarosWebsites:openeyeglobal.com (Company)marketscale.com/industries/podcast-network/experience-by-design/ (Experience By Design Podcast)experienceunitedsocialclub.com (Experience United Social Club)email: bmeszaros@openeyeglobal.comBio:Bryan Meszaros is a 25-year veteran of the digital signage and experience design industry, known for blending innovation with measurable impact. As the founder of OpenEye Global, he proved that a small, focused team can deliver big results and helped shape the early evolution of digital engagement.He later made history as the youngest President of SEGD and the first with a digital centric background, while also contributing to the Digital Signage Federation and Shop! Association to advance industry standards.Bryan is also the founder of the Experience United Social Club (XUSC), an international networking series all about bringing together creative minds from the AV, digital signage, and design industries to share ideas and collaborate. With global experience across Europe and APAC, he has spoken at major events including EuroShop, ISE, InfoComm, and DSE, and regularly contributes to leading industry publications.Dedicated to pushing boundaries, Bryan remains focused on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design.SHOW INTRO:SHOW INTRO:Welcome to Episode 83! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…In every episode we continue to follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” And as we continue on this journey there will be thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.We'll talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections between our mind-body and the built world around us. We'll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine. VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org Today, EPISODE 83… I talk with Bryan Meszaros founder of EpenEye Global. Bryan is a 25-year veteran of the digital signage and experience design industry, known for blending innovation with measurable impact. Naturally, in a world that is increasingly digitally mediated, Bryan's business is significantly focused on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a tool in his experience place-making toolbox.We'll get to more of how Bryan sees the use of AI in digital applications in brand experience places in a minute but... first a few thoughts…* * * *I grew up on Star Trek. They original version with Shatner as Captain James T Kirk. These were the sightly campy years in black and white but wonderfully prescient in foretelling what was to come. I used to say that my father, who lived to the ripe old age of 97 was so into it that was holding out until he could just beam up through the transporter to the next phase of his existence. We all watched, my 4 brothers and I every week, my mom? Well not so much…I got used to thinking about digital communication, robots, space travel and technology integrated into our lives facilitating everything from washing dishes to extending lifespans. There isn't a day that goes by now where my media consumption doesn't include something on the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. Both the amazing and the alarming. How it will make workplaces completely different replacing much of what we now do with human brain and brawn with algorithms and computer chips that can fit 1000 computers from the old Star Trek days on your fingertip. How it is changing the way human brains are wired, though when it comes to our neural networks that trundle along at a speed ridiculously slow compared to the digital pace of change that is exponential and moving at the speed of light.How as a visualization tool it is becoming indistinguishable from real life people and places. Creating deep fakes that are so good at impersonating humans that avatars are no longer cartoonish but facsimiles of us that are, well, exactly like us - but whose knowledge base is the compendium of all human knowledge that can be accessed on the internet and provide cogent answers to well-crafted prompts and have them served up in a few seconds. ‘The times they are a changin' but at a pace that even Dillan couldn't have imagined. Don't even get me started about when we finally, and I don't think it is going to take too long, get to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and what that portends for humankind. I am often concerned for my sons and the world they are growing into as young adults. I wish sometimes that they'd have had the experience of growing up in the 60's and 70's when times were simpler – but of course they weren't really. Every decade has it's messes – sometime beautiful sometimes not and sometimes each of these ends of the human experience spectrum were happening at the same time.What we are experiencing now is evolution at a revolutionary pace. A slow simmering flame has exploded into a blast furn ace of change propelling us all, whether we like it or not, on a path that at times seems to be heading towards the edger of a cliff. Concerned? Well you'd have good reason to be.But then again, if you accept the Ray Bradburry adage of sometimes while standing at the edge of the cliff ‘you need to jump and build your wings on the way down', may we all then transform in midflight into some sort of lemmings with wings.The subject of AI has surfaced a number of times on this podcast notably with data visualization artists like Refik Anadol and architect artist Samar Younes, spatial computing specialist and near futurist Neil Redding and Synchronicity Architect Justin Bolognino. Each of these creators and theorists shape the AI narrative to their own ends, each of them proclaiming the virtues and vices of the technology.Uses of AI in design and architecture, as well as other industries, is multifarious and, I would admit, well beyond my more general appreciation for using it as an ideation tool and writing assistant in my everyday work.In the world of experience design there are at least 2 ways - although I would guess many more - to look at it:- on a very basic level there is the physical integration of digital media facilitated by Ai and then there is actual content that ends up on the digital interface – be it a touch screen kiosk, a display array in a sports bar or an enormous multi-story wall in Times Square. Getting these screens to work with the environment is always a challenge. Mainly I believe because they come as an afterthought rather than an integrated design solution and part of a digital experience strategy.In the second case of content, one size does not fit all. Places and people are different. The same content being played on those screens all day are visual noise detracting from overall experience rather than enhancing it. These days, every minute of every day things are changing. Why should digital content on screen of any size and shape be any different?If purveyors of brand experiences are not changing content to adapt to customers everchanging needs across the journey, digital content simply becomes part of the visual texture of the environment slipping into irrelevancy and lending nothing to the embodied memory of a place.This is one area Ai is able to change the game – creating content to meet customer needs more directly. Now it would be difficult, if not impossible to change digital content in Times Square to continually meet the needs of the thousands of people in that digital epicenter in New York. But then we all carry cell phones – person digital devices. All of those phones are geolocated. Each of those those has an address – a personal identifier about who it belongs to and bunch of other information about you – personal, financial, home address, etc.Are a bunch of guys at google looking at you individually as you make your way across Times Square – not really – but your Hazel and Gretel trail of ones and zeros from purchases, GPS searches, app use, etc., etc., tell a lot about you should anyone want to do a little digital forensics.The idea here is that we are giving up this information every time we turn our phones on. That information isn't snatched from us without our consent (generally) it's in our service agreement terms and conditions – that impossibly long text that most of us scroll through to the end and click “agree.”But that information could be used to make your path across Times Square more relevant to you. Perhaps your device communicates with other devices or screens and changes the content that you see.This isn't quite Minority Report yet, where Tom Cruise courses through a store and the displays are talking to him because they recognize his retinas – but it is possible to create messaging that is more personalized to you, specifically, as a customer.Digital signage can change either on the wall of as shelf signage.It is about recognizing your customer and understanding that they are used to creating experience narratives that are more relevant to them because they, in part, have contributed to their making. Want to stay relevant to your customers, new or old? Support their collaboration in the shopping journey offering up opportunities for them to write themselves into the narrative. Story and strategy must be connected. Doing good by your customer is about building a relationship and Ai can support that effort but including engaging digital content that recognizes them as individuals, with relatable and relevant messaging.But the whole enterprise needs to be seamless. Sometime I think that the best tech is the tech you don't see, but it think it is also perfectly OK to see it if there are no disconnects in journey. Signature moments in the customer journey have to link up so the customer follows the bouncing ball from their first connection point through the purchase moment and then beyond. And this is where this episode's guest comes into the picture.Bryan Meszaros is a 25-year veteran of the digital signage and experience design industry, known for blending innovation with measurable impact. As the founder of OpenEye Global, he proved that a small, focused team can deliver big results and helped shape the early evolution of digital engagement.Bryan was the youngest President of SEGD and the first with a digital centric background, while also contributing to the Digital Signage Federation and Shop! Association to advance industry standards.He is also the founder of the Experience United Social Club (XUSC), an international networking series all about bringing together creative minds from the AV, digital signage, and design industries to share ideas and collaborate. With global experience across Europe and APAC, he has spoken at major events including EuroShop, ISE, InfoComm, and DSE, and regularly contributes to leading industry publications.Bryan likes the idea of staying dedicated to pushing boundaries, so he is a natural fit for the show. ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites: https://www.davidkepron.com (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645 (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore. In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design. The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.
Great cultures do not happen by accident. They are built by leaders who stay connected to their people and know how to flex when the moment demands it. In this episode, Scott sits down with Mike Valentine, CEO of Baxter Credit Union, to explore what people first leadership looks like in real life. Mike shares how BCU sustained engagement through the pandemic, how flexibility became a strategic advantage, and why relationships and continuous feedback still drive results in a hybrid world. His perspective blends humility, clarity, and conviction. Whether you lead a team of five or a credit union of thousands, this conversation offers a practical roadmap for showing up with purpose and creating a workplace where people can thrive. In this episode we talk about and answer these questions: • how people first culture drives member and organizational success • what flexible leadership looks like during disruption and rapid change • how continuous feedback and listening posts strengthen remote teams • how to maintain connection and trust in hybrid and distributed workplaces • how personal leadership habits shape culture and influence engagement • what BCU learned about employee well being during and after the pandemic Click Here to Submit Your Questions Links from show: Explore ServiStar's Vertex leadership training Subscribe to ServiStar Leadership Podcast on your favorite streaming service
Struggling to juggle real life with holiday chaos without trashing your progress or starting over in January? What if surviving the holidays didn't require perfection, rigid rules, or endless “all or nothing” cycles? In episode 2 of our Holiday Eating Series, I'm sharing my secrets to navigating December with less stress, zero guilt, and routines that actually work when life gets unpredictable.You'll learn why “perfect plans” always flop, how to create your own simple anchor meals and movement habits that keep you grounded (even when your schedule explodes), and the essential shift every woman needs to stop the holiday-backslide cycle for good. If you're ready to build a holiday game-plan you actually want to follow and how consistency can be shockingly easy with just three simple non-negotiables, hit play and let's dive in.And, if this resonated and you're ready to enjoy the holidays without sacrificing your body goals? Download your FREE Holiday Eating Roadmap here: https://mindin-my-wellness.captivate.fm/roadmap2:41 – Why Flexible Structures Beat Restrictive Rules During the Holidays 4:21 – How Anchor Meals Keep You Sane (and Full) When Life Gets Busy7:49 – The Power of Small, Repeatable Movements Over Intense Workouts 8:31 – How Rest and Routines Support Consistency (and Your Mood)12:16 – Why Anchor Habits Are Your Secret Weapon for Staying on Track Other Episodes You'll Love:Episode 139: Why Starting Over in January Keeps You Stuck (Do THIS simple reset to stay consistent all season!) | HOLIDAY EATING SERIES
PREVIEW — General Blaine Holt (USAF, Retired) — Flexible Deterrents for Russian Escalation. General Holtdiscusses American strategic options for responding to imminent Russian military aggression independent of NATOalliance consultation and collective defense invocation. Holt argues that rather than immediate direct kinetic conflict engagement, the National Security Council would prioritize implementation of "flexible deterrent options," encompassing financial sanctions mechanisms, clandestine intelligence operations, and asymmetric cost impositions designed to dissuade Moscow from executing further military escalation. Holt emphasizes that this graduated response framework preserves escalation control while demonstrating American resolve and imposing sufficient strategic costs to render Russian aggression calculations unfavorable relative to continued status quo. 1962 OPERATION IVY KING
You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Last episode Talleyrand barely escapes France ahead of a death sentence. Then the British decide he might be a spy, well he might have been an excellent spy, though we know he was not a spy.He went to America, George Washington refuses to see him, but Alexander Hamilton welcomes him.By the end Talleyrand has decided to play the dangerous game of going into opposition against Napoleon.This episode follows Talleyrand from his exile to his return and rise to power in the Directory. Talleyrand's role in Napoleon's rise to power is essential. In some ways Napoleon was Talleyrand's creation and Talleyrand became Napoleon's favorite mentor, when he was still Flexible enough to learn from others.We cover Talleyrand's thinking and writing through the events of the Consulship and the early days of the Empire. Then comes the Crisis after Tilsit. When Napoleon goes full nepotism, never go full nepotism, and plans to tke Denmark, Portugal and Spain. Talleyrand perceives that Napoleon is no longer aligned with France's interests. He goes into opposition and begins to play a truly dangerous game.
TRANSCRIPT video1290704010 Gissele : [00:00:00] Was Martin Luther King Jr. Right? Does love have the power to turn an enemy into a friend? Does it have the power to heal? We are creating an inspiring documentary called Courage to Love. The Power of Compassion explores the extraordinary stories of individuals who have chosen to do the unthinkable, love and forgive even those who have caused the most deep harm. Through their journeys, we will uncover the profound impact of forgiveness and love, not only on those offering it, but also on those receiving it. In addition, we’ll hear from experts who will explore whether loving compassion are part of our human nature and how we can bridge divides with those we disagree with. If you’d like to support our film, please donate at www MAI tt R-I-C-E-N-T-R e.com/documentary. [00:01:00] Hello and welcome to The Love and Compassion Podcast with Gissele. We believe that love and compassion have the power to heal our lives and our world. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more amazing content. Today we’re talking about not feeling good enough and what we can do to start feeling better. Our guest today is Sabrina Trobak Based out of Fort St. John BC Canada is a registered clinical counselor and author of the book, not Good enough, understanding Your Core Belief in Anxiety. She’s also a clinical supervisor, public speaker, and holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology. Before establishing her practice, she dedicated over 20 years to education, serving as a teacher, vice principal, school counselor across three school divisions. Sabrina, has extensive training in addressing trauma in its effects on daily life, [00:02:00] including anxiety and the core beliefs. Of not being good enough, not important, not valued. Her counseling agency Trobak. Holistic counseling aims to help individuals identify, challenge, and transform these core beliefs into being good enough, important enough, and value. Please join me in welcoming Sabrina. Hi, Sabrina. Sabrina: Hi. Nice to be here. It’s nice to meet you. Gissele : Oh, nice to meet you too. Thank you for being on the show. I was wondering if you could start by telling the audience what sort of led you to do this sort of work? Sabrina: I always wanted to be a teacher, you know, even in kindergarten, I was the kindergartner helper that helped other kids tie their shoes. Just was always something I wanted to do is be a teacher. Towards the end of my teaching career, I was a school counselor. And even as a teacher, I was a learning assistant teacher, so I did a lot of work in smaller groups, working more individually with students. So you get [00:03:00] to create a much deeper connection because you’re working one-on-one as opposed to a class size of, you know, 25, 30, 35, whatever it might be. And so then I went into counseling. Same thing. You really get to build that relationship. And then I went to a workshop on suicide. That was looking at suicide, more of a symptom of that core belief. Feeling not good enough. Not important, not valued. At the end of the workshop, I just thought, this is what I need to do. So the presenter, Tony Martins taught me his model of therapy. I quit teaching and started my own private practice, which really uses that as the focus point. So really going back and helping people understand and support and challenge that core belief. I started my own private practice in 2010. And within about six months I had a waiting list and I hated having to turn people away. The model I practice where we’re really addressing that core belief is a long-term model of [00:04:00] therapy. So a lot of my clients are with me a year and a half, two years, sometimes even longer. And so I decided to write the book not good enough as a way to provide a resource for people who can access counseling for whatever reason. Gissele : That’s beautiful. Thank you. And reflecting on your teaching experience, did you find that students were suffering from not feeling good enough? And do you think that’s changed? Sabrina: Students, teachers, parents, administration, support staff? Yeah, it’s kind of a worldwide thing. You know, I think it’s been there for a really long time. I think what we’re seeing a difference in is. People are talking more about mental health. So rather it being this thing that we just kept down and suppressed and pretended wasn’t an issue. Now we’re talking about it and the problem with that is we don’t necessarily know what to do with it now that we’re talking about it. So it seems like it’s kind of imploding all over the place. But you know, I think it’s been going on forever and [00:05:00] ever, and ever and ever. In fact, your core belief develops based on your parents’ core belief. If your parents’ core belief was not good enough, not important, not valued, they can’t really teach you anything else. So that means that was that generation. Well, where did they get it from? Their generation, and it just kind of goes on and on and on and on. Gissele : I really appreciated that you said that. ’cause that has been my experience that we are just now vocalizing the fact that we have these feelings. And to some people it’s like, we didn’t have these things before. That’s just simply not true. It’s just that now it’s feeling safer to talk about it. We want to address the issues and want to understand where this sort of came from. I wanted to really. Touch on the concept of not good enough. Because at least in my experience, I wasn’t that sort of person that criticized themselves. I didn’t say call myself a loser. My not good enough actually showed up in a very different way, in a [00:06:00] very covert way. I would say in terms of limiting my dreams or really negative thinking in terms of like catastrophizing. how does not feeling good enough show in different people? is there specific patterns or is it just very different depending on the person? Sabrina: I think the main pattern is it holds you back. it doesn’t allow you to feel content, feel peaceful, feel confident. That would be a common pattern, but what that can look like can vary significantly. Also, the degree of your core belief can play a significant role as well. You might be feeling, you know, actually pretty good enough, important and valued just once in a while. That not good enough, not important, not value comes up. All the way to the other where really everything, every thought you have is reinforcing and supporting that not good enough, not important, not valued. So it can look like a variety of different ways. We get clients who come into counseling for all kinds of different things. [00:07:00] Relationship issues, anxiety, depression. They can’t really sleep. They’re having nightmares. Pornography gambling, alcohol, drugs, cheating, lying you name it, all kinds of different things. What we say is. These aren’t really the problem. These are the symptoms of that core belief. If your core belief is not good enough, not important, not valued, you need to distract, but you’re gonna be going to things that allow you to distract that ultimately end up reinforcing that core belief because it gives you something to beat yourself up over. Hmm. So it can look like a variety of different behaviors For sure. Gissele : Do you ever see people with like health issues? Sabrina: Oh, all the time, for sure. Mm-hmm. Stomach issues, headaches, sore aches and pains. What happens when with that core belief not good enough? it creates a lot of self-doubt and insecurity. Anxiety is lack of [00:08:00] confidence. Not believing in yourself. You can handle something. A lot of people think anxiety is about the trigger, right? I have anxiety of driving on the highway. If it really was about driving on the highway, then no one would be driving on the highway. So it’s not about that. It’s about my belief and my ability to handle it. So if I believe I can handle driving on the highway, I’m not gonna have anxiety. If I can’t, I believe I can’t handle it. I will have anxiety. So that anxiety, that self-doubt, every time we go into anxiety, that fight, flight, freeze, adrenaline gets dumped into our body. That gives us that boost of energy to fight or to run away. But if I’m creating all of this anxiety in my head through my own thoughts, or it’s creating a sense of danger, I think I’m in danger, but I’m not really in danger. It’s the catastrophizing thoughts, the negative thoughts, the beating yourself up, the what if scenarios. Every time you go into that fight, flight, freeze, that adrenaline, that energy has to come from somewhere.[00:09:00] So what happens is it zaps all of our non-vital organs. Stomach, bladder, pancreas, kidney, liver, skin all of our non-vital organs get zap of energy. So if you have really high anxiety where you’re going into this fight, flight, freeze response, hundreds of times a day, you are going to see a physical impact. Absolutely. You know, if your stomach is being zapped a hundred times a day, don’t expect it to digest food properly. That’s, it’s just not gonna work. Gissele : Oh, thank you for that. I really appreciate that. That also got me to think about my experiences with trust. I used to have huge trust issues ’cause I was raised with like, my parents also had views and trauma and, it was when I realized that I didn’t trust myself to deal with people’s betrayal, not necessarily trusting the other people, that things shifted for me. It was me realizing that it was like, oh, this is about me. This isn’t about them. And their behavior, whatever they choose to do, is [00:10:00] entirely up to them. if they choose to betray me, well then that’s their choice. But it was about me. What are some things that can help someone become more aware of whether or not. They’re not feeling good enough. Sabrina: You know, I think that one, the one that you just kind of said where you don’t trust, you think you can’t trust in other people. Anything where you’re doing, where you’re focusing on others, blaming others caring to others, people pleasing for others, judging others, gossiping about others. All that time that you spend focusing on other people is all time. You’re not spending on yourself. Why is that? It’s usually because that core belief is there. We don’t like ourselves, we don’t wanna deal with it, so we’re focusing on all these outward things. As long as you’re fo focusing outward, there’s likely a bit of that core belief going there, and it’s not gonna get better until you focus more inward. Gissele : Mm, [00:11:00] yeah. To what extent do you feel like the systems we’ve created also perpetuate that, continue that belief? So not only the belief that kids were taught from their parents, but also when entering in these different systems that we have created. Sabrina: You know, I think a, a lot of our systems are very symptom based. So, you know, I have anxiety. Okay, we’ll do these things to deal with the, anxiety you have depression. Okay, we’ll do these things to deal with the depression. You have anger, okay, here’s some anger management strategies, rather than really looking at why is it there in the first place. What’s fueling those things? So our society in general often has a very bandaid, approach. Just put a bandaid on it. But if you have a wound and you just put bandaids on top of bandaids, on top of bandaids, that wound doesn’t just not heal. It gets worse, it gets more infected, it becomes more painful. It creates more stress, more anxiety. [00:12:00] And so we really need to take that bandaid off. But our society, you know, even medical right? I have a sore throat, they just address the throat rather than looking at is there something going on that’s feeding that right? Yeah. our, policing system is all very reactive and again, very kind of punitive and system based rather than really what’s going on here, what’s feeding all of this underlying stuff. Gissele : Yeah, and I think it comes from the separation from within ourselves, right? Like not really understanding or seeing ourselves holistically and our separation from each other and from nature. And I think that’s kind of why we have these systems. Sabrina: And I think part of why we even have that system is because if I deal with the surface doesn’t create a lot of emotion. Mm. If I go a bit deeper, ooh, that creates more emotion, vulnerability, fear. Abandoned. Lonely. I don’t like to feel those emotions, so keep it surface. Minimal emotions have to play. One of the [00:13:00] big things that drives that core belief and a big issue in our society is. We don’t really feel our emotions again, I think we’re getting better at talking about them, but now it’s almost like, oh, I’ve got emotion. I need to stop rather than I’ve got emotion. I need to feel it so I can move through it. And so that emotion piece is massive. We keep things very surface, so we don’t really have to feel. Gissele : Yeah, absolutely, as children, some of us were taught like, don’t feel or only limit the scope of emotions. You can feel these emotions are okay, these emotions are not. And this took me a long while to realize that the reason why my emotions were limited, at least by my parents and people in my life. They didn’t have the emotional girth to be able to hold space for my difficult feelings. So they did not teach me how to hold space for my difficult feelings and how to hold space for my kids’ difficult feelings. And so it was a journey where I really had to understand and it took me shifting my [00:14:00] perspective because I think originally I felt it was my fault, right? As I got older and became a parent, I realized, oh, they didn’t have the space, so they had to squash my emotions in order for them not to feel uncomfortable because they couldn’t cope with it. Sabrina: If I’m as a parent, if I don’t like to feel my emotions, now my child is feeling emotion, well that creates emotion in me, but I don’t wanna feel my emotions, so I need to shut my child down. It’s okay. It’s not really that big of a deal. It’s fine. You’ll get over it. You know, you’re worrying about nothing. Minimize, minimize, minimize, which is teaching your child shut down and suppress their emotions as well. Where did they learn it from? Right. You know, if we’re not learning how to feel our emotions, we are learning how to suppress our emotions. Gissele : Yeah. Yeah. And then that comes out in a different way, in the worst parts of my journey in learning to love myself and, step into that worthiness was I realized a pattern I had some unexpected things [00:15:00] happen in my life that were shocking to me. they had such a traumatic effect that I would actually, with my negative thinking, create negative experiences so that I could control them. does that make sense? Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Gissele : but I wasn’t aware that I was doing that, So that uncertainty was very frightening for me and it’s very frightening for very many people. I’m just curious as to your thoughts about that. Sabrina: You know what I think uncertainty. Again, what feeds that is that core belief. So we can have all kind of experiences happening. If I don’t believe I can handle them there, there’s gonna be a lot of stress over all these situations. But if my core belief is good enough, important and valued, whatever comes up, I think o okay. I got it. this isn’t gonna be easy. This is gonna be a lot of work, but I can handle it. I can figure it out. But when there’s that uncertainty and that self-doubt often, rather than again, working inward on what do I need to do to build my confidence? We work look outward on how do [00:16:00] I control these things. And of course you can’t control anything but yourself. So you may have these things under control for a period of time, but eventually things are gonna collapse and then you can go, oh, see, no one cares reinforces and support’s not good enough. So as long as you’re using control as a way to try to. Try to kind of handle situations. It, it’s not gonna be highly successful. It’s about within yourself, building that confidence within yourself. Mm-hmm. Gissele : What has been your experience with surrender? I have found in my life and my experience that the more I surrender, the less resistance I have to things, the less I need to control. the more things work out, sort of in a very smooth way. does surrender have a role Sabrina: what we kind of refer to it as is responsibility. Do I have responsibility in this? If I do, then what’s my role? If I don’t, then it’s okay to me, for me to just remove [00:17:00] myself from it. And so we wanna look at that. if I have something that I do need to be accountable, I will take accountability for my part. But I’m not gonna worry about taking accountability for everyone else’s part. And if I have someone in my life who refuses accountability over and over and over again, then I need to learn from that and realize my expectations for this person need to look very different. Maybe I choose not to have them in my life. Maybe I do. But those boundaries look a bit different rather than constantly trying to get them to take responsibility. I realize that that’s not my place. I need to just figure out me. That’s it. Hmm. Gissele : Are there any sort of behaviors that don’t outwardly seem as issues of not being good enough but are or might be? Sabrina: Busyness is a big one. You know, it’s almost a bit of a bragging rights in our society to be busy, right? Oh, I’m so busy. I got this activity, I got this, I got my kids, I got this, I got this, I got [00:18:00] this. Busyness is not good. Mm-hmm. Busyness is a distraction. As long as I’m, again, running around focusing on all these things, you know, out in front of me, that’s all time I can use to avoid and distract from what’s really going on within me. So we often see that as a pretty significant symptom. Same with control. Micromanaging. A lot of people may see that as a healthy coping strategy, but it really is not a healthy coping strategy. You know, when we look at coping strategies, one of the things we talk about is, you know, a coping strategy in itself is not really healthy or unhealthy. It’s how I choose to use it, right? Mm-hmm. So if I go out and have a drink of wine with, you know, a couple girlfriends once every couple weeks or whatever, it’s probably a healthy coping strategy. But if I’m drinking because I’m feeling emotions and I need to numb everything, and I’m drinking way too much, and it’s damaging relationships. Then it’s more of an [00:19:00] unhealthy coping strategy. So we really need to look at why are we using it, if we’re using it so that at the end we feel good, we feel content. It makes us feel proud of how we’re handling things. It’s allowing us to feel our emotions sort through things. Probably healthy coping strategy. Unhealthy usually is used to the extreme, either way too extreme or we shut it off and don’t do it at all. Like exercise Now I’m not exercising at all. And so it’s used to the extreme. It’s used to escape and avoid dealing with things. It’s used to numb our emotions so we don’t have to feel our emotions. It ultimately, after we do it, we feel guilt, bad regret, reinforcing and supporting. Not good enough, not important, not valued. So rather than looking specifically at the behavior, we need to look at why am I using it? That’s gonna give you more idea of which core belief you are reinforcing. Gissele : So what do you think the role of compassion is in [00:20:00] helping somebody go through the difficult emotions? Because as a person who has done it, who sat with probably the most challenging emotions that she has faced, a lot of the fears, it can feel really overwhelming. What helps people sort of titrate or stay in it long enough to get to the other side of it? Sabrina: You know, I think like most things, it’s really about practice. The more you practice it, the more comfortable it becomes. You know, with a lot of my clients that are in their thirties, forties, fifties, you know, my oldest clients are in their seventies. They’ve spent decades avoiding feeling emotion. And so how do you start to feel emotion where that doesn’t feel absolutely overwhelming? ’cause most of them are full up with emotion. So the thought of feeling emotion is just too much. So we always go back and start very, very small. You know, I have a emotions list on my website, but really if you Google Emotions list, you’ll, you’ll find a hundred of them. I tell my clients, print them off, [00:21:00] put them all over your house. Then when you start feeling angry, overwhelmed, just kind of off like something’s bothering you, pick up the emotion list and just read through it. The emotions that you are feeling, you’ll recognize. So now you’re starting. Don’t even have to say it out loud, just read it. So you allow yourself to feel the emotion just a little tiny bit. Doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming. Then after you’ve done that a few times, then you can say the words out loud. ’cause even saying sad out loud creates a bit of sadness. So now I’m feeling a bit more confident. I keep using that for a while, then I get to that place where I can just stop and think about what I’m feeling in the moment. But it takes time and practice. You gotta build that up. So I think a big part of compassion is. Confidence. I have to believe in myself. I can handle being compassionate to myself and to others. Once we build that confidence, then that compassion almost just seems to more just kind [00:22:00] of naturally flow because we can let our own defenses down and really just be present and in the moment with ourselves or with others. Gissele : so thank you for that. I really appreciated that. what are some of the things or signs that will help them know that they’re changing, for example, that they’re starting to feel more good enough? Because I think sometimes we are very good at saying, these are the signposts of things that aren’t working, but what are some signposts of things where people are like, yeah, you know what? Things are changing. You’re changing. Sabrina: You don’t feel as stressed at the end of the day. Mm-hmm. You’re sleeping a little bit better, you smile a bit more. Mm-hmm. You are open to other people’s opinions, thoughts. criticism, feedback you’re not as defensive. You’re able to kind of just listen to what someone else is saying. You’re getting better at feeling your emotions and sorting through your emotions. You are [00:23:00] using more healthier coping strategies that at the end of it, you feel proud of yourself. Right. Whether it’s going for a walk or listening to music or doing some journaling, at the end of it, you feel like, wow, I, you know, I, I handled that really well. You are more patient, you are more calm. you are more open to other people’s suggestions. All those kind of things are suggesting you believing more in yourself. You can handle more. That means that core belief is shifting. You’re willing to take risks, try new things, listening to podcasts, different things like that where you’re stepping outta your comfort zone, creating new opportunities and experiences. Gissele : Yeah. Yeah. Somebody that I was talking to was saying that they’re gonna take two things that make them uncomfortable, like two risks a day. I thought that was pretty cool. Like a pretty cool idea to become more, much more comfortable with discomfort, right? Sabrina: For sure. [00:24:00] Remember, anxiety is lack of confidence, not believing in yourself. You can handle something, so every time you try something new. There should be more anxiety because it’s something you haven’t done before. Mm-hmm. Right. Even just building your confidence in taking risks and trying something new where now, oh, it’s scary, but I know I can handle it. ’cause I’ve stepped outta my comfort zone many times as well. One of the things we say in this model of therapy is nothing really stays the same. Yeah. So if you are not challenging and stepping outta your comfort zone, it’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. Gissele : Yeah. Thank you for mentioning that. I’ve had many conversations with different people in my life and one of the things it’s like. I don’t like to say pick your hard but it is sort of like that if you face your, difficult emotions now, later on, it gets easier. The more that you choose from fear, the more you constrict and constraint, the smaller and smaller and smaller your world becomes. And it [00:25:00] feels much more difficult to do it. Later on do you find that your older clients tend to struggle a little bit more or is it just sort of buried? Sabrina: Well, okay. That’s a good question. So a lot of it is buried, but once we start opening it up, then yeah. And one of the things that the older clients have to recognize and acknowledge. Is the hurt they’ve caused to their adult children, their grandchildren, maybe even their great grandchildren, whereas someone who’s in their twenties and thirties, they haven’t had nearly enough time to hurt as many people. And so there’s not as much of that kind of responsibility piece with it, for sure. you know, hurt people, hurt people. So if I was hurting, the chances that I did things to hurt other people is really, really high. Part of the counseling that we do is we need to acknowledge it and sort through that. ’cause as long as I’m carrying a bunch of stuff where I’ve hurt other people, why would I believe I have the right to a happy content life? it’s not [00:26:00] balanced. So I need to deal with all those things that I’ve done to hurt people in order to really, truly heal. Hmm. Gissele : Yeah. And that’s very powerful. Shame and guilt can feel really overwhelming, right? people that don’t know how to regulate their emotions will do almost anything to avoid the feeling of shame, right? Because underneath there there’s a belief that you won’t be loved. And so what helps people work through the whole concept of shame? Sabrina: You know, I think shame loves not good enough and not good enough loves shame. They just feed off of each other for sure. And so it often is this thing that we’ve done that we feel bad about doing, and rather than just acknowledging it and addressing it, and understanding why we made the choices that we did. We just hold onto it. and as long as you’re carrying a lot of shame, you’re not gonna feel happy and content in your life. they just don’t balance out. Shame is significant. So one of the things you wanna do is, first, manage some of those other emotions. [00:27:00] Get better at feeling, you know vulnerability, loved, connected powerless, vulnerable, unheard and then start looking into the shame after you’ve had some experience feeling some of those other ones. If you start off with shame it’s almost too overwhelming and we just end up shutting it off. Then you have to acknowledge and allow yourself to feel that, take responsibility for the actions that created that shame, and then you can start to kind of move on. You know, guilt’s another one. a lot of us were raised with parents who used guilt as a parenting coping strategy. So it’s ingrained in our head that we just automatically feel guilty about everything because that’s how our parents tried to control our behaviors. So that’s a really ingrained thinking pattern more than an emotion. It is a thinking pattern. Mm-hmm. The good thing about that is we can go back and change it. The definition we use of guilt is [00:28:00] not living up to someone’s expectations, usually our own. Hmm. So once I challenge those expectations and change the expectations, the guilt goes down. So, for example, if I was always taught, you never say no, you please everyone don’t ever wanna upset or make anyone else unhappy. That’s my pattern of thinking, sacrifice to make everyone else happy. But now I’m thinking I wanna have a voice. I wanna start saying, no, I wanna start taking care of myself. Well, those collide. Yeah. I can’t say no and make everyone else happy. So I have to change and adjust my expectations. So my expectation now is I need to be respectful when I say no, but it is okay if I have a voice and it is inconvenience or awkward for the other person. That’s for them to figure out. Now as I tell myself that I’m not gonna feel guilty because I’m expecting that this may be uncomfortable for them, and that’s okay. That [00:29:00] guilt dissipates guilt’s more of a thought than it really is an emotion. Gissele : Mm-hmm. Yeah. You mentioned the difference between thoughts and emotions. And, and this is just my perspective, I usually find that. All emotions begin with a thought. So you usually have a thought first, which you have interpreted, and then some somehow have a big emotion about or not. Right? And so is it accurate that The habits that are formed from just your thoughts are easier to manage than ones that are based on thoughts and emotions. Sabrina: That’s how emotions are created. So what happens is we have a thought that creates a chemical reaction that we then feel physiologically in our body creating the emotion. Our thoughts create our emotions. So the good thing about that is if I’m feeling really anxious and I challenge and control my thoughts, the anxiety goes away. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Sabrina: Right? If I’m [00:30:00] feeling really angry and I can stop and go, what are my thoughts? And I can realize, oh yeah, those thoughts are gonna create anger, challenge, and change those thoughts, the anger goes away. So neutral thoughts gonna create neutral emotions. But if we’re having thoughts of people hurting us, of feeling taken advantage of feeling you know, of being unappreciated, that is going to create emotions that we then feel physiologically in our body. Gissele : Mm-hmm. you mentioned that whole concept of not good enough. Where does self-love fit into the whole concept of good enough? Sabrina: the more you feel good enough, important and valued, the more you feel loved and content, right? Our kind of end goal is that contentment. You just feel peace within yourself. you love yourself. I’m always a bit cautious around the word love. Because it has been warped in many situations. Yeah. I’ve heard [00:31:00] clients tell me love means taking abuse. Mm-hmm. Love means sacrificing myself to not cause any, issues. Love means keeping secrets. Yeah. Right. Then we have the other extreme where we say, I love you now almost too much. It’s almost like, hi. Like I’ll say, oh, you know I love you. Oh, and I love spaghetti. Well, Gissele : yeah. Sabrina: So what does that really mean? So I think we need to even be aware of what is my definition of love? Is it a healthy definition or is it more of an unhealthy definition? And then what? What else does that look like? Contentment. Peace, calm thoughts. You know it, you’ve gotta define it. love is almost a bit of that symptom word. We need to go deeper. We’ve gone through generation, you know, my parents were never said, I love you. Never said it at all. and didn’t have to, didn’t create any emotions. But now we still don’t wanna say feel emotions, so now we [00:32:00] say, I love you a thousand times. So it really still doesn’t create a lot of emotion. Mm-hmm. So I find that balance and really be careful of what that word means to us, for sure. Gissele : Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you for that. And so using whatever different term you’re gonna use, as long as you’re getting at the same thing which is about thriving, I think is really important. You mentioned that anxiety is lack of confidence. What’s depression? Sabrina: they go together in a cycle, right? Mm-hmm. So anxiety is that fight, flight, freeze on guard, ready to attack. Well, you can only do that for so long and it’s exhausting. So then we kind of slip into the depression where I just don’t have to feel anything. I can curl up in a bit of a ball. I don’t have to deal with anything, but then that kind of passes I feel a bit better. So I come out of that, but now I’m in that fight flight freeze again. So we often see depression and anxiety often working together in a cycle for sure. Depression, you know, is [00:33:00] another way of reinforcing and supporting that not good enough if I feel not good enough. Not important, not valued. What’s the point? Why bother? So, you know, just like we talked about how that core belief can present in alcohol, drugs, gambling, anxiety is one. Depression is one as well. Gissele : I also wanted to emphasize the fact that, you know, the work that you’re doing is focusing on people feeling good enough from within. Many people try to find it from outside, whether it be through overworking, like you mentioned, through acquiring all the things they think they should have or by acquiring love from outside. What sort of the mindset shift that needs to happen for people to realize that? It’s something that they can give to themselves from within versus from without. Because if you look at this world, everything in this world that we teach is get it from the external. Sabrina: if my core belief is not good enough, not important, not [00:34:00] valued, I don’t believe I have much to offer even to myself. But if I get it in a car, a big house, if I get a new dirt bike, if I have the best, whatever it is mm-hmm. Then I’ll be good enough. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Sabrina: As long as you’re looking externally, you’re not going to find it. But if I don’t believe in myself, I don’t really believe that I have it within even myself. So I think that’s one of the first stages, is really becoming more aware of where is my core belief at. How much do I really give myself that opportunity to feel good enough, important and valued. Once you become aware, even just becoming aware starts to develop that core belief good enough, important and valued. ’cause now you know what’s there and you’re willing to challenge it. Honestly, if I don’t think I can even handle doing that, I’m not going to. So once we even start to become aware of it, that core belief is shifting. Once that core belief shifts, then we can continue to build on it little tiny step at a time where we start to find more of our own worth and [00:35:00] value within ourselves. As we do that, we just naturally start to kind of look more inward and don’t worry so much about the outside stuff. Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Gissele : But the journey towards. Shifting from not feeling good enough to feeling good enough can sometimes feel very challenging, right? Because you are dealing with difficult emotions. What are some of the things that keep people moving forward? Sabrina: it can be absolutely terrifying, you know? Mm-hmm. I’ll say to my clients, going through and challenging and changing this core belief is going to be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done. The only thing maybe harder is living the way you’ve been living. Yeah. Right. But the only way to really keep is you gotta let all that stuff out. Well, letting all that stuff out sucks. Mm-hmm. It is lot fun. It’s terrifying. It’s a lot of work. It’s exhausting, but going very, very [00:36:00] slow helps you build confidence so you feel more in yourself. You can handle it. Reminding yourself that to heal, I gotta let this out. The more you let it out, the better it is. You are never going to feel emotion that you aren’t carrying. So if there’s emotion there, let it out. Mm-hmm. Every time you do that, it gets a little bit easier and you feel a bit better. Right? Mm-hmm. We have a good cry. We always feel a bit of a sense of relief the next day. Continuing to do that. They work hand in hand. So as you practice, you’re learning more, you’re understanding more, but you’re also feeling better, feeling more content, feeling more good enough, important and valued, feeling more pride. So they feed off of each other and you can continue to move forward. But they’re definitely, I know for my clients, every single client, there are days where they think I don’t wanna do this. Like, what’s the point? You said I was gonna get better? I feel worse than I did before. Because you’re in it, right? Part of moving and getting healthy [00:37:00] is you may have a bit of an idea of what you wanna work towards, but you haven’t figured out how to get there yet. That is frustrating, but you have to keep practicing and practicing and practicing hope. You know, I think hope is okay for a period of time, but we need much more than hope. You know, if I’m going hiking in the Outback and I say to my guide. Do you know where we’re going? And he says, I hope so. I’m probably not going with them. Right. And so hope can can get us over that lip a little bit, but we need to have a plan. We need to have practice behaviors so we know what we’re doing, not just hoping. Gissele : Mm-hmm. And you know, as you were talking, I was thinking People who have done hard things, the people that overcame, you know, the Holocaust, they saw themselves beyond that experience. They might have died, but they needed to see themselves beyond that experience. So there is an element of belief that you can do it. There is that element [00:38:00] of desire to say, I don’t know how, I don’t know when, when I’m gonna get through this, this hurdle. What do you think the role of affirmations are in helping people gain more confidence and feel more good enough? Sabrina: You know what, again, it can be a surface level thing, right? I can tell myself a thousand times that I am good enough, but if I don’t believe it, it’s not going to do any good. So what we talk about with all those kind of. Tools is, it really is just a tool. It’s up to you how much you wanna apply it. So I can have an affirmation that I say, I, you know, I stick on a sticky note on my bathroom and I see it every day. But we all know after about five days, we don’t even really notice it there anymore. It’s not, gonna be of benefit, but if I’m using that affirmation to remind myself, to reframe my thinking, to challenge myself, to see things differently. Then they can have an impact. So it’s not so much about the tool, it’s about how [00:39:00] am I using it? Am I using it to make changes to believe in myself or am I using it to actually beat myself up? Gissele : Yeah. Yeah. Are there any other tools that you think that are helpful in helping people start on their journey? Sabrina: I think there’s two really important pieces. First one is breathing. So when we’re going into that fight, flight, freeze response, and we’ve got adrenaline being dumped into our body, we also have a chemical called cortisol being dumped into our brain. Cortisol stops us from thinking we can’t use logic and reason, understand consequences feel our emotions. It has a massive impact in our brain. Breathing stops that fight, flight, freeze response from happening. So if I’m in danger, we often hold our breath shallow breathing. When I take nice deep breaths, my brain goes. Oh, we’re not in danger. And so it is a really effective tool in helping to stop and [00:40:00] break that fight, flight, freeze response from happening. What I usually say to my clients is don’t wait until your anxiety is a 10 outta 10 to breathe. You definitely need to Breathe outta 10, outta 10, but start breathing regularly throughout the day. It just brings everything back down. So breathing is a really, really effective coping strategy for sure. But the other one is make a plan. Remember, anxiety is a lack of confidence. Well, if I have a plan of how I’m gonna handle something, I’m going to feel way more confident in handling it. So a lot of times we have those worry thoughts, those what if scenarios, we just let them repeat over and over and over and over and over in our head. We say, take that thought, write it down on a piece of paper and figure out what do I do if this happens? Once we have a plan, we realize, oh, I could handle it. That anxious thought goes away. If it’s still there a little bit, it’s gonna be much less. But then you [00:41:00] just remind myself, no, I just do A, B, and C, and I would handle it. Even taking that to worst case scenario. Right. So, you know, let’s say I’m working with a student who is worried about failing a test. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Sabrina: So we can make a plan about what do you do to not fail the test. But that’s not the worry thought. The worry thought is what if I fail? So what if, if you fail your test, what do you do? You talk to the teacher, you know, you see if you can rewrite, you study more for the next ones. You do really well on your presentations so that you are bringing your markup, okay, so I can handle failing this test. Worst case scenario, what if I fail the whole course? So what do you do? You retake it. Maybe you drop out and you start working. Even the worst case scenario we could handle. So once we start making a plan, we can really help believe in ourselves more that we would handle it. [00:42:00] Might not be fun, might not be great. I probably won’t even be very graceful in doing it, but it will happen. We are way more resilient than we give ourselves credit for. You. Think about all the experiences you’ve been through in your life. You’ve survived them ’cause you’re here now. Mm-hmm. We need to stop and look at that. I’ve handled all these things. Can I handle failing a test? Yep. Probably. Mm-hmm. Won’t be fun. Mm-hmm. It’s gonna create emotion that I don’t wanna feel, but yeah, I can handle it. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Sabrina: So I think those are two really important strategies. Breathing and make plans. Mm-hmm. Gissele : Is there a level of detachment that should happen when you create a plan? during the time. When I was challenged the most creating that plan might’ve introduced a lot of resistance in me if it didn’t come through the way that I had planned. And so I think that would’ve generated a little bit more fear in me. Is there a level of detachment or maybe different options that would’ve helped and [00:43:00] the other thing that would probably have arisen in me was well, I’m feeding that experience. I’m saying that that’s gonna happen. Sabrina: Yeah. Right. Well, well, and the problem is, you probably are already thinking that’s gonna happen a thousand times in your head. Yeah. So let’s just acknowledge it and say, okay, what do, if it happens? Mm-hmm. With a lot of our anxious thoughts, they never even really happen. So we don’t even have to put the plan into place. But in knowing we have a plan builds confidence, which means those anxious thoughts are going to go down. You know, when we first start doing it, well, I think even after we’ve been doing it for a really long time. We can have a plan and the chances that it’s gonna go exactly the way our plan is, is laid out not very high. That’s just not the way life works. Mm-hmm. So the first few ones can be, frustrating, but after you’ve made plan 10, 15, 20 times, you start realizing, okay, I can adapt that piece and I can challenge that piece. And I never even thought about that, but I figured out how to handle it because it’s not even really about the plan. It’s about [00:44:00] building confidence, helping me realize I got this, I can handle it, I can figure it out. And so over time, that happens. But the, the plan is often more thought based than emotion based. It doesn’t have to be, but often it is. It’s more, you know, I’m thinking through more than I am really feeling through. Gissele : Hmm. I was just thinking of a quote that I had heard about how people with good mental health are people that are the most flexible. Flexible and flowing who are willing to go with life. It’s not that life doesn’t give you adversity or things don’t happen. it’s the willingness to be flexible and the ability to bend. And it really is the people that are the most in resistance and struggle the most, or the people that are want to control and are not. Able to adjust, Sabrina: right? More. My core belief is good enough. The more confident I’m gonna be. So the more, no matter what comes up, I got it. I’ll figure it out. Core belief, not [00:45:00] good enough. More insecurity. I don’t trust in myself that I can handle any of these things, so it’s gotta go exactly like plan. Mm-hmm. And so it’s, it’s building that we, you know, we don’t want that plan to be like a routine where it has to go A, B, C, D. It’s more about how do I handle these kind of scenarios and building that confidence rather than creating more rigid plans. For sure. Gissele : Yeah. And that flexible and flowing can make you feel like. Right. Because when you stop controlling things in your life, there’s an openness, there’s a sense of, oh, I don’t have to do all of that. I don’t have to control life anymore. I can just allow it. And that doesn’t mean that things aren’t gonna happen. You know, there’s a difference between pain and suffering, right? Everybody experiences pain, whether we choose to. Suffer is optional. Like when I think about my experiences, many times I [00:46:00] experienced pain, but I was the one who was causing myself suffering by repeating those same thoughts and constricting and all of that stuff. But it’s hard for us to acknowledge that we are doing that to ourselves. Right? Right. Sabrina: It’s that responsibility piece. I think same with the word stress, right? People often talk about how everything is so stressful. You create your own stress. If you go into it thinking, I can’t handle this, yeah, you’re gonna be stressed out. But if you go in feeling confident, knowing that no matter what comes, you’ll figure it out and you will handle it. It’s not as stressful. there are varying things for sure, something really significant happen. It may create more stress than other things, but if we’re really stressed all the time, you are creating your own stress by how you are thinking about how you’re gonna handle the event. Not the event itself. Gissele : Hmm. Yeah. Thank you. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to share where can people find you? Where can they work [00:47:00] with you? Tell us a little bit more about your book. Sabrina: Sure. So my book is not good enough. Understanding Your Core Belief and Anxiety. It’s available on Amazon’s. It is a handbook. So you’re reading about core belief and in general, but then you do an activity where you’re applying that information to your own personal experiences. So it’s a, a book about self-reflection, learning more, understanding more about your core belief, and then how is it, you know, showing up in your life. And then what do you do? What are some things you can do to challenge yourself? To start to feel more and more good enough, important and valued. I am also on on most social media. I am Sabrina Trobak on YouTube and on LinkedIn. I am NGE. So not good enough. Understand. NGE_Trobak on Instagram and NGE_CoreBelief on TikTok. And then I’m on Facebook as well in [00:48:00] Trobak holistic counseling. Mm-hmm. Wonderful I have a website, http://www.trobakholistic.org. On my website is a page to my book. It’s got a blog section, which is just short, two to four minute reads about everything. Also got a link, a page that links all of the podcast interviews that I’ve done as well. Gissele : Hmm. Beautiful. So one final question. I ask this of all my guests. What is your definition of love? Sabrina: I, I would say my definition of love is. Probably just one word. Acceptance. Mm-hmm. Acceptance of self and others. And, and sometimes that means giving love and sometimes that means moving on. Gissele : Hmm. I like that. I like that. Even acceptance of situations. Right. If you have the confidence to believe that you can overcome anything, it’s just acceptance. Beautiful. Thank you so much, Sabrina, for being on the show and for sharing your wisdom with [00:49:00] us, and thank you to those who tuned into love and compassion with Gissele Stay tuned for another episode.
Christian ; Follower of GOD Servant of CHRIST Decorated Combat VeteranCorporate; U.S. Marine Corps Urban Warfare Instrictor; S.R.T. Commander Active Shooter Response Team Law Enforcement Los Angeles Police (L.A.P.D.) Police Officer / Fugitive RecoveryF.B.I. Instructor N.R.A Instructor Competition Shooter; Multi Time State Rifle Pistol Champion Hunting; Life Long Hunter Proffessional Hunter and Guide Private Security Contractor; Several Agencies, Current.Patreon https://bit.ly/3jcLDuZhttps://account.venmo.com/u/MilitoMinistryPodGOD Provides JESUS SavesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gunfighter-life-survival-guns-tactical-hunting--4187306/support.Have a Blessed Day
The existence of a treasury policy is not a given in every organisation, and neither is a regular update where one is in place. David Mathewson, Regional Director & Treasury Advisor, VUCA Treasury, makes the case for designing and optimising treasury policy in today's challenging environment.
Healthcare coverage in America has grown increasingly expensive, placing a heavy burden on families. Medi-Share believes healthcare shouldn't be driven by money or corporatism. Rather than operating as traditional insurance, Medi-Share offers Christians a community of believers who voluntarily share the cost of medical emergencies and other eligible needs. Founded in 1993 under Christian Care Ministry, Medi-Share is a nonprofit sharing ministry rooted in Scripture. Led by chief medical officer Dr. Ian Day, it emphasizes a Christ-centered approach and a strong record of caring for members. It supports critical needs - from emergencies and telehealth to behavioral-health services - inviting believers to “share each other's burdens” and pray for one another.TAKEAWAYSMedi-Share staff members always offer to pray with you on the phone and last year they logged over 450,000 prayers1 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us that our bodies are temples, given by God - therefore, it is critical to take care of our healthThe physical component of life is connected to the spiritual and wellness is an act of worshipSecular healthcare often focuses merely on the physical symptoms, but not on the underlying causes
This is the podcast for alpaca people!In this episode, Steve recounts a chaotic food delivery for the alpacas, reflecting on resilience and how to handle frustration in animal care. He introduces us to Hermione, Alys, and Nona, sharing anecdotes that highlight their personalities and daily routines. The episode culminates in the timely arrival of the food, serving as a metaphor for navigating life's unpredictability. Join Steve for quick lessons on patience, connection, and the joys of caring for animals!(NB summary prepared by AI via Auphonic - I'm not sure what to make of it. Let me know your thoughts)Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.You can contact me by email - steve@alpacatribe.com - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
We went live, the chat exploded, and a listener voiced what so many feel but rarely say out loud: “I've followed the rules—so why doesn't my Retirement Plan feel safe?” https://www.youtube.com/live/gFQYEJWlWpI Bruce gave me the look that says, “Let's tell the truth.” Because we've seen it over and over: neat projections, tidy averages, and a plan that works—until the world doesn't. Markets don't ask permission. Inflation doesn't use a calendar. Life throws curveballs, blessings, and bills. If your Retirement Plan only survives in a spreadsheet, it's not a plan—it's a hope. Today, let's trade hope for structure and anxiety for action. What You'll Gain From This GuideYour Retirement Plan Isn't Just Math—It's LifeRetirement Planning Risks You Can't IgnoreSequence of Returns RiskInflation and the Cost-of-Living SqueezeTaxes (The Leak You Don't See)Is the 4% Rule Still Useful? The 4% Rule Is a Guide, Not a GuaranteeThe Cash-Flow ToolkitFoundations — Guaranteed Income in RetirementFlexibility — Cash Value Life InsuranceDiversifiers — Alternative Income InvestmentsRetirement Plan Buckets Liquidity / “Free” Bucket (safety net)Income Bucket (essentials)Growth / Equity Bucket (long-term engine)Estate / Legacy Layer (optional)Taxes: Design for Control, Not SurpriseBehavior, Purpose, and Work You LoveInfinite Banking—Where It Fits in a Retirement PlanWhat Makes a Strong Retirement Plan?Take the Next StepBook A Strategy CallFAQWhat makes a strong retirement plan?Is the 4% rule safe for my retirement plan?How do taxes impact my retirement plan?Can whole life fit into a retirement plan?What are retirement income buckets?How can I protect my retirement from inflation?What's the role of annuities vs bonds in a retirement plan?Who qualifies as an accredited investor? What You'll Gain From This Guide In this article, Bruce and I break down what actually makes a strong Retirement Plan for real families: Why accumulation-only thinking creates a false sense of security—and how to pivot toward reliable income. The big retirement planning risks to plan for: sequence of returns risk, inflation and retirement, and taxes. Why the 4% rule retirement guideline is a starting point, not a promise. How to use retirement income buckets—in the same language we used on the show—to avoid selling at the worst time. Where guaranteed income in retirement, cash value life insurance, and (when appropriate) alternative income fit. How Roth conversions, withdrawal sequencing, and structure put you back in control. You'll walk away with a practical framework to move from “big balance” thinking to a Retirement Plan you can live on—calmly. Your Retirement Plan Isn't Just Math—It's Life Static models vs dynamic lives.As Bruce said, no family is static. Monte Carlo averages over 50–100 years don't describe your next 20. Averages hide timing risk. If poor returns arrive early while you're withdrawing, “average” performance won't save the plan—cash flow will. From accumulation to income.Most of us were trained to chase a number. But the goal of a Retirement Plan isn't a pile—it's predictable cash flow you can spend without gutting your future. That shift—from “How big?” to “How dependable?”—changes the tools you choose and the peace you feel. Use the LIFE purpose filter.We run every dollar through a purpose lens: Liquid, Income, Flexible, Estate. When each bucket has a job, decisions get simpler and outcomes get sturdier. Retirement Planning Risks You Can't Ignore Sequence of Returns Risk How Your Retirement Plan Avoids Selling Low Sequence risk is the danger of bad returns showing up early in retirement. If your portfolio drops while you're taking income, you must sell more shares to fund the same lifestyle. That shrinks the engine that's supposed to recover—and can cut years off a plan. Your protection: hold dedicated reserves and reliable income so market dips don't force sales. (We'll detail our buckets in a moment—exactly as we discussed on the show.) Inflation and the Cost-of-Living Squeeze Build Inflation Awareness Into Your Retirement Plan Prices don't rise politely. Even modest inflation, compounded, squeezes fixed withdrawals. Bond yields, dividend cuts, and rising living costs can collide. Your protection: blend growth and income that can adjust, avoid locking everything into fixed payouts that lose purchasing power, and review spending annually so your Retirement Plan keeps pace with reality. Taxes (The Leak You Don't See) Retirement Plan Tax Strategy & Withdrawal Sequencing Withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts are ordinary income. That can: Push you into higher brackets Trigger IRMAA Medicare surcharges Increase the taxation of Social Security Complicate capital gains planning Your protection: design taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free buckets; use Roth conversions in favorable years; and sequence withdrawals to manage brackets and RMDs—not the other way around. Is the 4% Rule Still Useful? The 4% Rule Is a Guide, Not a Guarantee Stress-Test Withdrawal Rates You Can Actually Live With We don't hate the 4% rule; we just refuse to outsource your life to it. Yields, inflation, fees, and timing change the math. When low-yield years pushed chatter toward “2.8%,” it proved the point. A better approach: Stress-test 3%–5% withdrawal rates. Add non-market income (pensions, annuities vs bonds, business/real-asset cash flow). Keep dedicated reserves so you don't sell at the bottom. Turn a rule of thumb into a plan. The Cash-Flow Toolkit Foundations — Guaranteed Income in Retirement Cover Essentials, Then Take Prudent Risk A predictable floor is priceless. Pensions, Social Security, and income annuities can cover core expenses so volatility doesn't dictate your grocery list. You trade some upside for contractual certainty—and many families prefer sleeping well to chasing every basis point. Flexibility — Cash Value Life Insurance Downturn Buffer, Tax-Advantaged Access, and Legacy Backfill Done properly, this can strengthen a plan: Downturn buffer: use cash value to fund spending during market slides—avoid selling equities at a loss. Tax-advantaged access: policy loans/distributions (managed correctly) can supplement income without spiking taxable income. Legacy backfill: the death benefit protects a spouse and replenishes assets for heirs, letting you spend with confidence. This is one reason infinite banking retirement thinking resonates: control and optionality matter when life isn't linear. Diversifiers — Alternative Income Investments Accredited Investor Rules, Liquidity, and Position Size For those who qualify under accredited investor rules, private credit, income-oriented real estate, or operating businesses can provide alternative income investments with lower correlation to public markets. They're not risk-free and often lack daily liquidity—so size positions prudently. The draw is simple: steadier cash flow vs accumulation. Retirement Plan Buckets We didn't frame them by time horizons on the episode; we framed them by purpose. Here's the exact structure we discussed and use with families: Liquidity / “Free” Bucket (safety net) Cash, money market, CDs, cash value life insurance.Purpose: fund spending and surprises without touching equities during a downturn; bridge timing gaps so sequence risk doesn't bite. Income Bucket (essentials) Social Security, pensions, annuity income, bond ladders, durable dividend payers.Purpose: dependable monthly cash flow for core lifestyle needs so markets don't control your paycheck. Growth / Equity Bucket (long-term engine) Broad equity exposure and other long-term growth assets.Purpose: outpace inflation and periodically refill income/liquidity buckets. Estate / Legacy Layer (optional) Life insurance death benefit, beneficiary designations, trusts.Purpose: protect a spouse and pass values + capital with clarity. Taxes: Design for Control, Not Surprise Roth conversions:Convert slices of tax-deferred money when brackets are favorable to grow your tax-free bucket. Withdrawal sequencing:Blend taxable/Roth/tax-deferred withdrawals to target bracket thresholds, manage IRMAA, and soften RMDs later. Give with intention:If charitable, consider appreciated assets or bunching strategies; align with your estate plan. We also coordinate tax buckets—taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free (Roth/cash value)—so your Retirement Plan controls brackets, IRMAA, and RMDs rather than the other way around. A tax-smart Retirement Plan can add years of sustainability without asking for more market risk. Behavior, Purpose, and Work You Love Clarity about why the money matters anchors behavior when markets wobble. Travel with grandkids? Fund ministry? Launch a family venture? Purpose steadies the hand. And one more lever: if you enjoy your work, consider delaying full retirement. Each extra year can improve the math dramatically—more contributions, fewer withdrawal years, and potentially higher Social Security benefits. Infinite Banking—Where It Fits in a Retirement Plan Lenders profit from your lifetime financing. Strengthening your family's “bank” can keep more control in your hands: Finance major purchases through your system rather than outside lenders—recapture more interest. Maintain cash value as a volatility buffer. Use the death benefit to protect a spouse and fund legacy goals. It's not magic. It's discipline and design—complementary to the rest of your Retirement Plan. What Makes a Strong Retirement Plan? Built for dynamic lives, not static spreadsheets. Prioritizes cash flow you can spend, not just a big balance. Plans around sequence risk, inflation, and taxes—on purpose.
The discussion turns to Joseph Stalin and his relationship with the legacy of Leninism. Stalin was a more "ideologically flexible" and savvy political operator than Trotsky, who was relentlessly focused on immediate and continuous revolution. While both Lenin and Trotsky employed political violence, the terror under Stalin was a different phenomenon because much of it was directed at high-ranking members of the Communist Party and the secret police in the Great Purge. The purges were motivated by Stalin's paranoia and the need to find scapegoats for the regime's failure to deliver prosperity and freedom. The assassination of Trotsky in 1940 is often seen as wrapping up the Great Terror, though arrests and executions continued.
#685 Ever thought a “boring” business could be your golden ticket to freedom and flexibility? In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, we chat with Kate Johnson, founder of Heritage Business Services, who built a thriving bookkeeping business during preschool pick-up hours. What started as a $0 side hustle turned into a profitable, scalable career — all by tapping into a skill most businesses desperately need but few entrepreneurs want to learn themselves. Kate breaks down the real path to getting started in bookkeeping, the essential skills you need, and how to know if this unglamorous (but wildly rewarding) business could be a fit for you. Whether you're looking for a side hustle or a full-fledged business, this episode is packed with practical steps, honest insights, and encouragement for every aspiring entrepreneur! (Original Air Date - 4/18/25) What we discuss with Kate: + Turning bookkeeping into a business + Starting with $0 and no clients + Essential accounting skills to learn first + Free software certifications to test interest + How to find your first clients + Why niching down can help + Pricing strategies that scale + Subcontracting as a side hustle + Building passive income through bookkeeping + The importance of networking and referrals Thank you, Kate! Check out Heritage Business Services at HeritageBusinessServices.com. Check out Bookkeeping Side Hustle at BookkeepingSideHustle.com. Follow Kate on Substack. Watch the video podcast of this episode! To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to MillionaireUniversity.com/training. And follow us on: Instagram Facebook Tik Tok Youtube Twitter To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors. Want to hear from more incredible entrepreneurs? Check out all of our interviews here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices