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This podcast episode explores NYC land sales, zoning, development, tech tools, and insights with Genessy Jaramillo, Managing Director of BKREA.The Crexi Podcast explores various aspects of the commercial real estate industry in conversation with top CRE professionals. In each episode, we feature different guests to tap into their wealth of CRE expertise and explore the latest trends and updates from the world of commercial real estate. In this episode of the Crexi Podcast, host Shanti Ryle, Director of Content Marketing at Crexi, sits down with Genessy to delve into the complexities of commercial real estate, particularly focusing on land sales and development in New York City. Genessy shares insights from her multifaceted career, and discusses building expertise in the industry, the impact of zoning laws, and the significance of New York's 'City of Yes' policy. Highlighting the unique aspects of being a land broker, Genessy emphasizes the importance of understanding market nuances, the role of technology in real estate, and the value of patience and persistence in the field. This insightful conversation offers listeners an in-depth look at the dynamics of one of the most challenging and rewarding real estate markets.Introduction to the Crexi PodcastMeet Genessy Jaramillo: A Journey in Real EstateGenessy's Early Career and ChallengesTransition to New York and Meeting Bob KnakalLearning the New York MarketThe Importance of Networking and MentorshipBalancing Personal Wellness and CareerDiving into Land Sales and DevelopmentUnderstanding the New York Development MarketLeveraging Technology in Real EstateStartup Challenges and ToolsImportance of Data and AutomationMarketing Reports and Using CrexiZoning Regulations in New YorkCity of Yes and Its ImpactAir Rights and DevelopmentChallenges in DevelopmentInvestment Perspectives and Market StatsRapid Fire QuestionsConclusion and Contact Information  About Genessy Jaramillo:Genessy Jaramillo focuses on land sales in Manhattan in her role at BKREA, working side by side with the company's Chairman & CEO, Bob Knakal.Previously, Genessy specialized in retail investment sales and leasing at CrossMarc Services, representing clients across the Southeast in acquisitions, dispositions, and tenant/landlord representation.Genessy began her career at Marcus & Millichap in Nashville, gaining expertise in office and industrial asset classes. Fluent in English and Spanish, she holds real estate licenses in Florida, Tennessee, and New York.With a Business Management degree from the University of Central Florida and active involvement in ULI, ICSC, and NAIOP, Genessy applies a service-oriented and market-savvy approach to assisting clients in Manhattan. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our newsletter and enjoy the next podcast delivered straight to your inbox. For show notes, past guests, and more CRE content, please check out Crexi's blog. Ready to find your next CRE property? Visit Crexi and immediately browse 500,000+ available commercial properties for sale and lease. Follow Crexi:https://www.crexi.com/​ https://www.crexi.com/instagram​ https://www.crexi.com/facebook​ https://www.crexi.com/twitter​ https://www.crexi.com/linkedin​ https://www.youtube.com/crexi

Unexpectedly, trauma-informed leadership skills are not just for disaster relief workers, they're crucial for leaders in any workplace. Dive into this podcast to uncover the surprising stories from a world-renowned trauma therapist who translated pain into understanding and despair into dignity. Hear how trauma manifests in the body and why creating a psychologically safe environment isn't just a nice-to-have, it's essential for high performance. Plus, get insights on navigating workplace cultural conflict and becoming a change agent inside organizations. This isn't your typical leadership advice – it's a deep dive into the unexpected intersection of trauma, neuroscience, and leadership. Stay tuned to discover how trauma-informed leadership isn't just a buzzword but the key to leading differently in today's challenging world. In this episode, you will be able to: Learn how trauma-informed leadership skills can transform your team's well-being and productivity. Master the art of navigating workplace cultural conflict for a more harmonious and inclusive environment. Discover the secrets to creating psychological safety at work for enhanced employee well-being and engagement. Understand the effects of global unrest on leadership and how to navigate them successfully. Explore effective strategies for overcoming employee burnout and fostering a resilient workforce. The key moments in this episode are:00:00:00 - Introduction and Invitation to Subscribe 00:02:37 - The Importance of Trauma-Informed Leadership 00:09:02 - Neuroscience and Psychological Safety 00:10:35 - Insights from Catherine Matisse 00:13:17 - Leading with Curiosity and Humanity 00:15:02 - Advocating for Change 00:15:36 - The Power of Therapy 00:16:39 - Career Satisfaction 00:17:54 - Overcoming Challenges

Now with the rise of AI, everything has become FAST. We look for short videos, quick wins, and AI tools that do everything for us. And while that's amazing in so many ways, it can also make us believe that fluency should be something that's easy, instant, or effortless. But here's the truth: some things still take time, intention, and consistency. And English is one of them! In this episode, I talk about the five must-have qualities you need to truly master English. Not tools. Not grammar rules. Not hacks. Qualities. The kind that no app or AI can give you. Because over the past couple of years, I've noticed something, not just in my own life and business, but in the lives of my students and the people I work with. It's becoming harder to stay consistent. Harder to follow through. And easier to expect results without really doing the inner work. So in this episode, I want to shine a light on what's actually holding people back from fluency, even when they're doing “all the right things.” Even when they're using amazing tools like AI. If you're ready to go deeper and get the kind of support where you can bring these 5 qualities to LIFE I'm inviting you to learn more about my membership, Beyond! Click here to learn more: https://bit.ly/4nrfM5N

I always enjoy having the opportunity to speak with business professionals and leaders. Fidel Guzman not only is such a professional, but he also works in the corporate training arena teaching his company's employees and leaders about leadership and continuous improvement. Fidel comes by his talents honestly. He grew up in an environment where he needed to learn and grow. He secured a Bachelor's degree and an MBA both from Northeastern Illinois University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Fidel started out wanting to be a kindergarten teacher, but he ended up taking a different road. He went to work for a company where he helped people progress within various industries. The company he worked for was bought by ION Group in Chicago, IL. Fidel flourished and became the Manager of Internal Training for the company. Mr. Guzman is quite adaptable and can train people within the organization even though they may well have their own expertise in different industries. Fidel and I talk about everything from leadership, the future of corporate training and we even take time to explore how AI is and will become more a part of his work and the work we all do. When not working Fidel has various outside activities. His most loved efforts go, of course, into being part of a family. He also serves as Vice President of Education for Toastmasters International. He loves to be involved in Mixed Martial Arts. He keeps quite busy at a variety of activities and clearly loves the challenges he gets to address along the way. About the Guest: Fidel Guzman is a dynamic and enthusiastic Learning & Develoment professional with a proven track record in instructional design, project management, and training development. With a Master of Business Administration from Northeastern Illinois University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, Fidel has consistently demonstrated his commitment to excellence and continuous improvement. His extensive experience spans various industries, including finance, telecommunications, and fitness, showcasing his versatility and adaptability. Currently serving as the Manager of Internal Training at ION Group in Chicago, IL. Fidel and his small but mighty team facilitate onboarding programs and training initiatives for over 13,000 employees globally. He has experience developing comprehensive new hire onboarding curricula and career progression pathways for multiple departments, ensuring effective and innovative learning solutions. Fidel's leadership extends beyond his professional role, as he actively participates in numerous company committees focused on community volunteer events, work-life balance education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fidel's passion for personal and professional development is evident in his certifications, including “Creating a Coaching Culture” from SHRM and “Coaching Skills for Leaders and Managers” from PMI. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he leverages his bilingual skills to connect with a diverse audience. Outside of his professional endeavors, Fidel enjoys podcasting, judo, triathlons, hiking, and poetry, reflecting his well-rounded and adventurous spirit. In addition to his professional achievements, Fidel has a strong commitment to volunteerism and community involvement. He is serving as the Vice President of Education for Toastmasters International and has been an MMA class instructor and coordinator at St. Bruno Elementary. His dedication to helping others is further demonstrated through his role as an academic tutor at Berwyn Public Library. Ways to connect with Fidel: (1) Fidel Guzman, MBA | LinkedIn New Podcast- The Hero in the Mirror on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44xD76FcF5YFMNyuigFmBm?si=2so3OWJdQby6F91ZaY1AUg The Hero in the Mirror also on Youtube: (3) HerointheMirror - YouTube About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Greetings, everyone. I am Michael Hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, and today we get to do the unexpected. And of course, what the unexpected is is anything that doesn't have anything to do with inclusion or diversity. So that's most things you know, in a lot of ways. Anyway, our guest today is Fidel, and am I pronouncing it right? Guzman, yes, you got it. Oh, my goodness. Comes from listening to Guzman's who play baseball. Okay, I'll take that. That's a way. So Fidel reached out to me some time ago. We're going to be doing some speaking to his company ion. But in the meanwhile, I also convinced him that he had to come on unstoppable mindset and talk with us, tell us about himself, tell us a lot about what he does and why he does it, and help to contribute to our general theme, which is that we're all more unstoppable than we think we are, and we usually underrate ourselves. So we we try to improve by discovering that more people are unstoppable than we think they are, and that we thought they were. So that works out. Well, Fidel has a degree in business. He has a Masters of Business Administration. You graduated sigma cum laude, which is pretty cool. And I did cum laude, but I didn't get to do sigma or Magna, but that's okay, but that's okay anyway. Fidel, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Fidel Guzman ** 02:56 Michael, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 03:00 Well, my pleasure, and I'm looking forward to to chatting and talking about some businessy things and anything else that you want to talk about. So let's start this way. It's always fun to do this. Why don't we start by you telling us kind of, maybe, about the early Fidel growing up and some of that stuff, and what got you started down the road of life as it were.   Fidel Guzman ** 03:20 Yeah, yeah, that's all right, yeah, let's let's go back. Let's go back to where it all started,   Michael Hingson ** 03:25 long time ago,   Fidel Guzman ** 03:30 definitely. So I'm born and raised in Los Angeles, Compton, Huntington Park area. I come from Mexican parents. They they they came here to the United States to give their their family a better future. Some first generation Mexican American, very proud. So actually, we do have a little diversity in here on this call. Oh, good. There we go. Yeah. So first generation Mexican American, my family traveled a lot when I was young. My dad's a truck driver, so wherever there was work, he would take us along. So we grew up and raised Los Angeles. I was seven or eight, then we ended up going to Mexico for a couple years, in Dallas, then St Louis, and then we ended up here in Chicago, here in the Midwest. Wow. Winter, the winters here were a bit surprising and tough. When I was in elementary school, I remember the first snow that I saw. It was, it was beautiful. After two weeks, I was like, All right, when is it? When is it gonna go away? And I was in for the the rude awakening that it's gonna it's gonna stick around for, for a few months or so, yeah, but I've had, you know, since then here, here in Chicago, we started to grow our roots. And I have five brothers and a sister. So I have a big family, a big Hispanic family, and I went to high school. My freshman year, I went to Lane Tech. Tech for all my folks who are familiar with the Chicagoland area. And then I ended up going to transferring over to Morton West in Berwyn. After I graduated high school, I went to Northeastern Illinois University, my alma mater, I got my undergrad in business management and marketing, and also got my Masters in Business Administration. So I am a proud double alumni from Northeastern Illinois University, and I really owe this, this community of Northeastern Illinois University, a lot with respect to the great teachers that they have there, the community that they try to build, and the friends and that I made along the way, as well as the education, of course, that helped, really helped me expand my career opportunities. After I graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with my undergrad, I started my first real corporate role inside of backstop solutions. And backstop solutions was a still, you know, it was a great company to be a part of lots of mentors. If I can, actually, I would like to give a quick shout out to a few mentors that I had along the way, such as Deanne Falk, Richard fu our CEO, our legacy CEO, Clint Coghill, Sarah Schroeder, and the current head of learning and development under ion. Alexander Lloyd and I really want to thank them for all their mentorship and leadership, because it's really helped me get and grow to the person that I am today. So with that, yeah, I am the manager of internal training at ion. We came I came in via an acquisition, when backstop was acquired, and throughout that period, like I was, I had some some free time, so to say, and ended up getting my Masters in Business Administration.   Michael Hingson ** 06:48 And so along the way, did you get yourself married and all that? Oh, my   Fidel Guzman ** 06:52 wife is going to kill me. Yes. Along the way, sorry about that. No, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. Can't forget, can't forget about those significant others. But yes, I am married. My wife has a master's in occupational therapy, so she's in the medical field, and I'm in, like, the business learning and development side of things, so our conversations are pretty interesting, as well as our perspectives on things. I also have a daughter. She's 16, going on 17 people are usually very surprised when I tell them the age of my daughter, but had her early when I was in my early 20s, so young dad and she was a blessing. I wouldn't, wouldn't have it any other way.   Michael Hingson ** 07:33 That's that is great. Why did you decide to go into business and study business in college.   Fidel Guzman ** 07:42 So interestingly enough, when I got into college, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. I wanted to be cool Mr. Guzman, because I also really I love kids. I love working with kids. I was also a mixed martial arts program coordinator and instructor at an elementary school on the south side of Chicago for three years, and that was during my undergrad. And I taught all grades kindergarten through eighth grade, some of the basics in boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu and kickboxing, so a bit of both. But as I was going through through my clinicals, as I was going through the the Yeah, the education aspect of it, I ended up wanting to switch majors. So I was like, I was like, hey, there's probably a lot more opportunity, a lot more opportunity for growth inside of the business segment. So I ended up switching my majors to business management, marketing, and somehow learning just found its way back into my life. So a lot of the stuff that I learned from some of those, those preliminary courses in in education. I mean, still, still resonate to this day, right? Understand your audience. Understand which students are visual learners, which ones are experiential learners. Which one need more repetitive exercise to to drill something in? So, yeah, the universe did not, did not lead me too far away from, from from teaching and being an instructor, and here I am. I know   Michael Hingson ** 09:08 that feeling well. So a couple things. First of all, I was born in Chicago, but we moved to California when I was five, but in Chicago, you start kindergarten at the age of four. So I went for a year to a special kindergarten class that my parents and others advocated for, for premature, blind kids, because there were a whole bunch in the Chicago area during the whole baby boomer area, a number of children were born prematurely and given a pure oxygen environment, which caused them to lose their eyesight. And so the bottom line is that happened to me among others. And so I went to the Perry school. I don't even know if it's around anymore. Somebody told me it wasn't around anymore, but that's where I went to school. And went there for a year of kindergarten, learned braille and other things. And then we moved to California. So I always wanted to be a teacher as well, and I came at teaching from a different standpoint, as you did. That is to say, Well, I wanted to be a teacher. My first job out of college wasn't directly teaching, except I ended up having to write training materials and do other things like that, and then I ended up going into sales, and what I learned is that the best sales people are really teachers. They're counselors. They guide and they help people, especially when you're dealing with major account sales, they help people look at products. They teach about what their product does and the really good sales people are brave enough to admit when their product might not be the best fit for someone, because it's also all about building trust. And good teachers are concerned about building trust as well. Of course.   Fidel Guzman ** 10:57 Yeah, one of my teachers when I was close to graduating, you know, one of the things that you know this teacher, Dr funk, if I remember correctly, he instilled in us, if you're able to synthesize what you learned and explain it to a five year old, you've done a good job. Like you, you you yourself understand that particular concept or that particular topic. And I really took that to heart. So now, you know, and a lot of these roles, if, from the the main instructor, I want and need to be able to explain it, you know, to my kid, to explain it in in simple terms. And, of course, you know, expand on it if needed. But, but   Michael Hingson ** 11:40 it ultimately comes down to you can provide all the information you want, but they have to teach themselves, really, and they're not going to do that, and they're not going to listen to you if they don't trust you. So trust is a vital part of what we do,   Fidel Guzman ** 11:56 exactly spot on,   Michael Hingson ** 11:58 and I have found that that developing that trust is so extremely important. I learned a lot about trust from working with guide dogs, right from the very first guide dog that I obtained back in 1964 when I was 14. It was all about building a team and I and although I didn't know how to really externally, say it necessarily, until many years later, internally, I understood that my job was to build a relationship and that I was going to be the team leader, and needed to be able to gain trust, as well as trust my teammate in in what we did. So worked out pretty well, though. So, you know, I was that was pretty cool. So what does ion do? What is ion?   Fidel Guzman ** 12:49 Yeah, I yeah for sure. So ion is a essentially, you can, you can think of it as a software company for the investment community. We provide a number of different platforms for them to streamline their processes and track information, or be end users of that of data.   Michael Hingson ** 13:07 So people buy your software and do what   Fidel Guzman ** 13:11 they can either leverage the data that's being provided to them, or they can include data within specific platforms.   Michael Hingson ** 13:20 Are you starting to see that this whole concept of so called AI is valuable in what you do, or, as I am working with that yet,   Fidel Guzman ** 13:30 yes, definitely, we are big on streamlining processes and making sure that we're maximizing the best use of everyone's time, and AI really has a really important component in that. So for for learning and development, one of the ways that we're using AI is for content creation, so whether it's just creating a simple outline for a course or starting to use that to create slides, but there, we're also taking a look at the way AI can be used on a regular basis to provide feedback for reps like let's say someone finishes a demo. If they want to do some self reflection, they can leverage AI to get some feedback on what worked well what didn't. Was there enough engagement? How was my use of technology, so on and so forth. So not only is AI being used from, you know, creating content, but also as, like a ad hoc instructor and and way to generate feedback,   Michael Hingson ** 14:31 well, and it offers so much versatility, you can really have it go many different ways. So it is very possible it can be an instructor, as you say, an ad hoc instructor, but it really can present its information in a good teaching way too. So you can have conversations with it. You can do the same sorts of things that you would do with a teacher. I think that AI clearly, is here to stay, but I think. Think over time, AI is going to evolve a lot. I am not of the opinion that AI will replace people for a variety of reasons, but I think that it's here and it's up to us to be smart as to how we use it.   Fidel Guzman ** 15:14 Definitely. I think one of the the tips that we always give people is AI does a really great job of a number of different things, but it's always going to need that human touch at the end of at the end of the day. So don't just take don't just take some content that AI has created and take it to heart. Make sure to review it. Make sure to put that personal touch on there and have it speak your language. Have it really resonate with the audience as well, especially that, oh, go ahead. Or also just on Super mechanical, super scripted,   Michael Hingson ** 15:49 well, and I think as AI grows, it's going to try to emulate, or we're going to use it to try to emulate people more and more, but it still isn't going to get to the point where it truly is me or you, and we do have to put our mark on it. I've used it to help create several articles, and what I've done when I do that is I'll tell it what I want it to write about, and let it do it, and it comes up with some pretty good ideas that I incorporate into the article, that I create, between what it provides and what I add to the mix. And it really should be that way. Exactly what I've really found interesting is the number of people like in classrooms, who say teachers, who say, you know, it's really harder and harder and harder to tell when a student uses AI to write a paper or if the student is doing it themselves. And the first time I heard that, immediately, my idea of what to do was something like this, let the student use AI if they want to, let the have ai do the whole paper. What you ought to do is to have one day after all the students turn their papers in, where you bring each student up to the front of the class and say, defend your paper. Now you have one minute if they don't really know, yeah. I mean, if they don't know what's going on, then they're not going to be able to do very well, and they fail.   Fidel Guzman ** 17:19 Yes, I am a big proponent of comprehensive exercises and also public speaking. How well? How well can you articulate the thought that you gave in that paper? Right? Some of those different talking points, right? Can you convey the same message in front of the classroom?   Michael Hingson ** 17:38 Yeah, and, and, you can tell if a person is just not necessarily a great public speaker, they're nervous, as opposed to whether they know the subject. And those, in a sense, are two different things. But you can use the fact that students are at the front of the classroom to help make them better speakers, too, which is a good thing.   Fidel Guzman ** 17:59 Yeah, no, yeah. I agree with you. If they are using AI, just, you know, turn around a paper, have them present in front of the classroom. Yeah, let's, let's talk a bit more about your paper, yeah, and, and really have it be an interactive exercise. I think that's really where the end goal is going to be, now that AI has really taken over the way the classroom dynamic has changed. So having more of those interactive exercises, really taking a look at comprehension, whether somebody really understands that topic, and giving giving students and an audience an opportunity to discuss, how do we how do we create a hive mind mentality around this particular topic, especially in a classroom, right whether, whether that's in a school setting, in academia, or whether that's in a corporate setting, inside of an office.   Michael Hingson ** 18:54 Several months ago, we had a guest on unstoppable mindset, who's an executive leadership coach in Northern California who was a major proponent of AI. And when he worked with companies, and especially with presidents and leaders who were stuck on how we evolve and how we grow, he would bring AI into all those meetings, and one day he was dealing with one such situation where he told the president, you got to use you ought to use AI to get some great ideas. The President took that to heart, called his senior leadership staff in and said, take the rest of this day and create ideas about how you think we ought to do things better, and so on, and use AI to do it. And when everyone came in the next day, they had a lot of innovative and creative ideas, and all loved the fact that he encouraged them to use AI. And that led to. Us having a discussion about, is AI going to really take over the jobs that people do? And both of us agreed, no, AI won't. Ai can't replace anyone. We can fire somebody and then put AI in their place, which doesn't really work well. But what is a better thing is let ai do what it does well. So example that he gave was say, you have autonomous vehicles. As autonomous vehicles become more and more prevalent, like trucks that are delivering supplies, like shipping vehicles and so on, let the autonomous vehicle drive, but the driver needs to still be in the cabin and needs to be behind the wheel, even though they're not doing anything, because they are going to let the autonomous vehicle do what it can do. But you can give those people other assignments to do for the company that will keep them busy and do things that otherwise might not be done quite as efficiently. So the bottom line is, you keep people busy, you use the autonomous vehicle, and it's a win win situation all the way around.   Fidel Guzman ** 21:08 Yeah, great. I I've heard something very similar to that, and maybe if I can, if I can synthesize this, it's going to be that we want to remove manual task out of people's times, and we want them to focus on more higher value add activities. Do   Michael Hingson ** 21:29 you think that's fair? I think that's true. Isaac Asimov, years ago, the science fiction writer, wrote a really wonderful science fiction story about a young man who lived in a society where everyone had a particular job to do, and you were matched with your talents. And so there you you're you take a test when you're, like, eight years old and or or even younger, and that starts you down the road of what it is you're supposed to do for the whole country. And then you take another test several years later, and that locks you into what you're trained to do. So you always do the same task, but you do it well, because that's what you're trained to do. Well, this kid was in the whole process taking his tests, and he just wasn't comfortable with what was going on. And eventually he ran away. And what, you know, he he took the last test, apparently they looked at him kind of funny when they looked at the results and he didn't like what was going on. And he just left. He said, I'm not going to do this. I don't, I don't. I don't want to be an engineer. I don't want to do whatever it is that they want. And they eventually caught up with him, and they caught him, and they said, Why'd you run away? And he told them, and then said, No, you don't understand what just happened. Some people in society are the people who create the tests, create the processes, and don't get trained to do a specific thing, because they're the innovators and the inventors that keep society going, and you're one of those kids, and this was like, what, 50 years ago that he wrote that? So it's, it is, it is really interesting, but, but very true and, and the reality is, we can be as creative as we choose to be, and some people are more creative than others, but there are always tasks that we can find for anyone to do, and that will make them very happy,   23:40 absolutely, definitely.   Michael Hingson ** 23:42 So it works out. You know, it does work out really well. Well, a question for you. You have a leadership philosophy, needless to say, and you lead a lot in instructional design, what, what are the core principles, or what are the things that kind of make up how you teach leadership, and what it is that you teach people to do, and how do you go about team development?   Fidel Guzman ** 24:13 Yeah, I think some of the core principles that I that I really focus on with learning and development and instructional design. Number one, it has to be collaboration. It really does take a community to put some some really good training sessions and training opportunities in place, and it's really leveraging all the expertise from different subject matter experts. Give them a chance to share their perspectives and their insights on certain things, but also, really, just to enhance, you know, the the use of these training programs, because people are more keen to listen to like, oh yeah, this guy's a subject matter he's an expert in this particular. Their space and for them to to hop on. So I think that collaboration aspect is, you know, getting the Lean In from managers like, hey, this training is important. Your employees are going to benefit from this training, whether it's just for to develop their their education, to develop their career, whatever that may look like. But I want to say one of the, the first guiding principles is going to have to be collaboration. The second one is going to have to be most likely continuous improvement. As we start to roll out a lot of these different training sessions, whether it's public speaking, whether it's product training, whether it's industry training, if we roll it out, we keep our ear to the ground and make sure that we're receptive to the feedback. We take a look at what works well, what doesn't work well, what needs to be tailored. How can we, how can we also manage this across different time zones? So ion is super global company, I want to say, over 13,000 employees in over 13 plus countries. So also managing what those training programs look like for everyone, for everyone, across the board. So besides the collaboration, besides the continuous improvements or the I like to also say that the Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, right, making those small improvements, the last one I want to say is going to be innovation. How can we incorporate, right? We were talking about AI. How can we incorporate some of these ladies, latest tech trends into what our training delivery looks like, whether it's something as simple as, how do we include more polls throughout a lecture to keep people engaged and participate? How do we include knowledge checks at the end of every session to make sure that people are walking away with some of the key takeaways. So, yeah, collaboration, continuous improvement and innovation. Yeah, how do we stay innovative and stay creative? I think having having some fun, staying creative along the way Definitely, definitely resonates with your audience as you're trying to do different things and trying to keep things as engaging and and fun as possible.   Michael Hingson ** 27:06 What do you say to someone who says, Look, I've really learned all I need to learn. I'm not really interested in learning anything new. That is, I know, isn't that? Yeah, but you hear it a lot, I'm sure, or too much. I   Fidel Guzman ** 27:22 think some people get comfortable right, like, Hey, I'm comfortable with what I know. And learning does require a certain level of mental energy, and it also requires a certain level of you being willing to take on a new challenge, to take on and learn something new. So to them, I would genuinely ask, what's your interest? How can we supplement what this interest looks like? You know, what are your interests in other avenues? And I think that will plant a seed to let them know that learning and development should be something learning, right? Just learning in general, it should be something that you should do throughout your life. I recently started a podcast called the hero in the mirror, and I wanted to take a moment and actually, thank you, Michael. I don't know if you remember our initial conversation. But we were talking, we were talking about, you had asked me, What ideas do you have? What are you working on? Are you working on, any books, any podcasts? And I had mentioned, I was like, Hey, I actually have an idea for a podcast. And you pause for a moment, and you were like, what's stopping it? Yeah, and it was, it was kind of like, it kind of took me back. I'm like, What? What is stopping me? Right? And sometimes, and in coaching, we call it interference, like you're you probably have a fear of failure. You have a fear that something's not going to go right, or this task seems enormous, that you don't know where to start. Yeah, so making small, small mental changes, making small steps, I think, definitely add up. Since then, Michael, I've had I've had three episodes. I've had some great guests hop on and share their story of resilience and triumph. And as I'm starting to do more episodes, I'm I'm hearing stories of people willing to have that, that mindset of, I want to continue to learn, I want to continue to expand on the person that I am and make myself well rounded in these different, different areas. So So, long story short, if somebody says I don't, I don't need to learn anything, there's always room for growth. There's always room for interest, what, what interests you, and how? And how can we follow that interest and and supplement it with some some training content.   Michael Hingson ** 29:49 I know, for me, I'm extremely comfortable with what I know, and I'm extremely comfortable with what I've learned, but I'm also very uncomfortable in knowing there's a lot of stuff I don't know and that i. Still need to learn. So I love to learn right from the very beginning, when I first discovered the internet, I regarded it and still do, no matter what there is with the dark web and everything else, I think the internet is a treasure trove of information, and it's so fun to discover new things online. And there's so many ways to go. We've got so many places where we can go get books that we never had access to before all of us. There's so many places where we can go to learn about organizations, about people. They're just so many wonderful things, and it's only one way, because I also think there is a lot to be said for real personal interactions, but I think the internet is a wonderful treasure trove that gives us the opportunity to learn a whole lot that we don't necessarily know about, subjects that we don't know anything about.   Fidel Guzman ** 30:55 The Internet is a double sided sword. It is. You can find information that will support right? Maybe you know an opinion that you have on the other side of that, you can find lots of information that does not support independent opinion that you have. And also it's a rabbit hole. Soon as you start going out that rabbit hole. But the one thing I do appreciate from the internet is the channels of communication that it's built. Yeah, and I'm appreciative of being able to have connected with you on LinkedIn, and that's turned out to us having this podcast here today.   Michael Hingson ** 31:34 I think that for me, I'm not as interested on going online and in finding something to change an opinion as much as I am finding something that will tell me about something that I didn't know as much about. Now I might change my opinion from what I thought it might be, but I I really love to try to really get as much as possible into dealing with facts or substance to teach me things, and then I'll form my own opinion from that. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Of course,   Fidel Guzman ** 32:11 gets a good grounding of all the all the materials, synthesize it yourself.   Michael Hingson ** 32:19 Yeah, I think we should do that. I think we have to be the one to synthesize whatever it is we're dealing with. That's That's our responsibility, and that should always be the way it is, which is, and I don't want to get political or anything, but which is one of the reasons that I say any politician who says, Trust me will be the first person I won't trust until I verify. I am a firm believer in trust, but verify. I don't care who it is. I think it's so important that we really take the time every single person needs to take the time to study what's going on, and and, and really look at all sides of something. I think that's important. I listen to newscasts regularly, and I like to listen to newscasts from all sides. Some I find why I don't want to listen to them very much, because of what they do or don't do, but I still think that it's important to really understand all sides of a subject.   Fidel Guzman ** 33:29 Absolutely, I totally agree with you.   Michael Hingson ** 33:32 So you know, I think it is kind of neat to to have that opportunity, and I think we learn so much when we take the time to really study. I'm amazed. I was at a restaurant once, and my wife and I were there. We were talking about newspapers and what we get from newspapers or online, and our waitress came up and Karen said, so do you read the newspaper? And this woman's 30 years old, and she says, No, I don't. I don't have time, you know. And how little she learns, because she doesn't really seek information, which is too bad.   Fidel Guzman ** 34:07 Yep, you people have to be receptive. People have to be receptive to to gaining new bits of information. And sometimes people are just happy knowing like you, like you mentioned earlier, just happy knowing what they're what they know, just comfortable in in their own space, until some more power to that, more more power to them, more power to them,   Michael Hingson ** 34:31 until something happens to disrupt the happiness and surprises them, because they really didn't learn enough to know that that was a possibility. Yep, I never thought I would be doing a podcast, but when the pandemic occurred, I started to learn about it, and learned all the value of it. Now, I had been at our campus radio station at UC Irvine for six years, and I was program director one year, so I understood radio, and when I started learning about podcasts. They went, this is really pretty cool, and I had never thought about it, and had never been interviewed on a podcast, but I realized I know what I can can do with this, and I know that I can sound intelligent on the air. And so I started to learn about it, and here we are now, just today, actually, we published online and in YouTube episode 324 of unstoppable mindset since August of 2021 Congratulations, Michael. Well, thank you. It's a lot of fun. We actually went to two episodes a week in August of 2022 Oh, wow, because we had such a huge backlog. Yeah, and I don't mind having a huge backlog, but it was growing way too much. So we went to two episodes a week, and and it's a lot of fun to to do it. And as and as I love to tell people, for me, the most important thing is I get to learn from every single person who comes on the podcast. It's so neat to be able to do that, of course. So it works out really well. Well for you, what kind of challenges have you faced? What have you done to overcome challenges, and what are some of the biggest challenges you faced, and how you did you deal with them?   Fidel Guzman ** 36:17 Okay, yeah, that's great. That's some of the questions I use on on my podcast, here in the mirror. So I'm on the I'm on the other side of that chair today. Yes, no, it's good. It's good. It's a good question. So I want to say, you know, there are, there are three main, three main challenges that really stand out for me. One I'm very vocal about, and that is my speech impediment, my stuttering problem. It was really bad when I was little kid. I had a speech pathologist. Even now, talking to you on this podcast, I have to be very conscious with what I'm saying. Some of the listeners might might have caught it in the beginning when I get too excited about a particular topic, or if I haven't formulated my thought yet, but the speech impediments is something that has really made public speaking a passion for me. It was hard for me to have a voice when I was a little kid, I used to try to raise my hand and answer a question when I was in elementary school, and the teacher would be like, All right, next one like you had, you had your turn. And so I, you know, I've struggled, you know, to have a voice. I struggled with just completing sentences, and the way that I overcame that is through a speech pathologist that really gave me the confidence to believe in myself. I remember one exercise she gave me one day is she grabbed me from my classroom. She would pick me up from my classroom every Tuesday and Thursday, and she picked me up one day, and I was kind of down in the dumps. I didn't really like going to the class. We weren't really advancing much. And she's like, Hey, we're going to try something different tonight. Different today. She's like, today I'm going to have the order of pizza. And I was still a little little fat kid, like fourth or fifth grade, so I was like, oh, yeah, I'm all for it. What's going on here? And she was like, but the catch is, you need to order this pizza without stuttering. And you know, right away, kind of my heart dropped. And she's like, okay, like, don't, don't worry, we're gonna practice exactly what you want to order. And she's like, What do you want? And I'm like, Well, I want a large pepperoni pizza with an RC, a two liter RC Cola delivered to McPherson Elementary. And she's like, okay. She's like, write it down. I'm like, Alright, great to like, write it down again. I must have written it like, 10 times. She's like, No, now practice it. So about 15 minutes of doing that, she was like, All right, I think you're ready. She hands me the phone and, you know, I pick it up. My heart's in my throat, and I'm just like, like, I'm like, hi, you know, I want to order a large pepperoni pizza with a two liter RC Cola delivered to McPherson elementary for Fidel Guzman, and I was just astonished. I hung up the phone. I was happy for two reasons. Number one, I was going to get some pizza. Number two, I was able to say it a complete, full sentence without stuttering. And she she really believed in me and instilled in me that confidence that I could overcome this. But it wasn't an overnight success. It still required me go going to the speech pathologist, you know, throughout my elementary school, throughout all those years, and even as an adult, continuing to practice and hone that in in high school, doing presentations, in college, doing presentations. So right now, I am the VP of education for our America's Toastmasters Club, and this is one story i i always tell people, and they're like, No, you don't stutter. I'm like, if I get too excited, I'll lower my words. But that was that was one challenge, that was one challenge, and it's. Is it's still something I have to be very conscious of. And I've caught myself a couple times earlier in this podcast where I kind of mumble a little bit or get caught up in a particular word. But besides that one, I want to say that the second one was more of my in college. In college, I struggled paying for school. I mentioned I'm first generation Mexican American, and I was one, one of the first, first of my brothers to attend college full time. And I did all I could to make ends meet, two, three jobs, just paying for tuition. Financial aid was great, you know, it really helped me with a portion of that, but a lot of it really ended up, you know, being due onto me. And then I had my daughter, and it was just a struggle. I was like, How can I be a dad? How can I be a student? How can I work on my career? And I had gone to a financial aid workshop, and the one thing that stood out in this workshop was when they were talking about scholarships granted in high school when you're about to graduate, they talk to you about it, but it doesn't. It doesn't really materialize until you're until you receive that bill. Yeah, you're just like, hey, here's, here's a $2,000 bill for this college class. And you're like, oh, man, this is, this is not, this is not cheap. It's pretty expensive. And the one thing you know that stood out was, you know, let the scholarships, and they started talking about scholarship applications, and I found that there were a couple common denominators with the scholarships. Number one, they wanted two letters of two letters of recommendation. Number two, they want an essay. What are you going to do with your degree? How are you going to make a positive impact in the community? And number three, sometimes, typically an interview. And so I ran with it. I was like, they want two letter, letters of recommendation. They want one essay. They want an interview. No problem. And I made that my part time job. On the weekends, I would just apply, apply, apply. And I started getting some small wins. I started getting a $250 scholarship here, a $500 scholarship there, $1,000 scholarship, you know, here, and all of it started to add up, and it started to gain momentum. And I was lucky enough to get, get, get accepted for a number of different scholarships and complete my my college education, and even, you know, be strong willed enough to go back and do it again and try to try to get my masters. So those were two, two big ones, but I'll pause here and see if you have any questions around those two challenges for me. Michael, no,   Michael Hingson ** 42:41 but I I really admire what you did. You You made a choice and you followed it through. And I think that's of course, the whole issue is that we have to make choices and we need to follow through. And if we find that, we need to refine our decisions. We do that. I know when I was a student and a program director at the university radio station, I wanted everyone to listen to themselves. I thought it was a great idea to have everyone listen to themselves on the air. And the way you do it is you record it and you give it to them. And I didn't anticipate how hard that was going to be, because for me, I was used to doing it for myself, yeah, but I I didn't realize how much resistance I was going to get from literally everyone at the radio station, they were not interested in and I'm thrilled about doing it at all. What I and the engineer at the station did eventually was to put a cassette recorder in a locked cupboard, and whenever the microphone was activated, the recorder would go on. So, you know, you didn't have to hear the music. You just wanted to hear yourself talk. And we, we really took a major step and said, You have to listen to these recordings. We gave each person a cassette. We expect you to listen to these recordings and improve accordingly. What I didn't say much was, I know what it's like. I'm my own worst critic, and I have to listen to it, so you guys do now. I've changed that, and I'll get to it in a second, but we pushed everyone to do it, and it wasn't long, not only before we started seeing improvement, but before the people themselves started recognizing that they were really getting comfortable listening to themselves and that they were taking this to heart, and by the end of the year, we had people who were loving it and wanting their cassette every day or every week, and also a. Some of them went into broadcasting. For me, what I learned, and it took many years before I learned it is I'm not my own worst critic. I shouldn't be negative, as I said earlier, I'm the only one who can really teach me. I'm my own best teacher. And I think when you make that mind shift from being your own worst critic to your own best teacher, it really puts things in a much more positive light. And I've said that before on the podcast, and I will continue to say it, because I think it's a very important   Fidel Guzman ** 45:29 concept. We actually have a similar exercise for our America's Toastmasters Club, where we'll we'll record some speeches, and we'll have people listen back to their recorded speech. And a lot of people say like, man, it's cringe to hear yourself on the on the other side, on the other side of those iPhones, but it is a very useful exercise. You get a better understanding of your your filler words, your eyes, your arms, your vocal variety, your body language. And if you're looking to be a great, I don't want to say public speaker, but if you're just looking just to speak better in general, even when it's an on a presentation, on a call, or if you have to give up a toast at a wedding or a quinceanera, for you to be able to, yeah, critique yourself and gather feedback from your from your own recording   Michael Hingson ** 46:23 well. And the reality is, the more of it you do, and the more you listen to it, having been up there in front giving the speech, you also see how people react. And if you continue to observe and listen to the recordings as you go forward, you will improve, yeah, for sure, which is which is really important. And one of the things that I try to do regularly now is to record talks. When I go and give a speech somewhere, I will record it so that I can listen to it and I enjoy it, because I discover Did I really say that I shouldn't have said it quite that way, but I'll do better next time. But listening to it helps such a tremendous amount,   Fidel Guzman ** 47:13 especially with those filler words. So when you really listen to the recording, you'll be like, Man, I use a lot of likes or SOS or ands or buts, and if you want to speak eloquently, it is, I mean, like anything, you just gotta practice it. You gotta practice it, and you have to be receptive to that, the feedback. And you have to also celebrate the small wins. One thing I am a big proponent on is celebrate the small wins. Yeah. So if you are able to do your your first speech at a Toastmasters clubs like we, we give you tons of accolades, because it is not an easy fit, an easy feat. If you're able to do the second one, even better. You're, you're progressing, and you're, you know, you're increasing your understanding of some of the fundamentals of public speaking. Yeah, so you're preaching to the choir here.   Michael Hingson ** 48:05 Yeah, no, I understand. Oh yeah, it's good, but it is really important to do, and it's fun to do. If you decide to make it fun, and if you decide that you want to become a better communicator there. There are lots of us and all that sort of stuff that people do. I've heard some people say that's really not such a bad thing. Well, I've got to say that I've never really been used to having a lot of us. And you know, there's a guy out here who I don't think he's alive anymore. He used to be a sports announcer out here. His name was Jim Healy, and you may have heard him when, well, out here in Los Angeles, anyway, he was on K lac, and he had somebody, well, he had a recording of somebody, one of the sports jocks, and he announced that he was going to play this recording, and what you're going to hear is this guy in 60 seconds say, you know, 48 times, that's and he did what's amazing, that   Fidel Guzman ** 49:17 when you when you get to Some of those, it's like, what do they say? Nails on a chalkboard? You're like, Oh, yeah. Like, what are you trying to say? Just, just say it. To say, to say the damn thing.   Michael Hingson ** 49:30 Yeah, talk a little bit slower and just say it.   Fidel Guzman ** 49:33 One thing that I'm trying to be conscious, more conscious of is pauses, like those deliberate pauses, those deliberate pauses to collect your thoughts, like I often need, just to collect myself, but also to build suspense the message and the message that you're trying to give, especially when you're in front of a group of people, in front of an audience, and you're pausing there, they're just like, oh, what? So what is he? What is he gonna say next? What's up? What's going on with this pause? So it's also you have this arsenal of tools when it comes to to public speaking and to engage with an audience and to keep them, to keep them interested in what your next thought is going to be. What What am I going to say next? How am I going to, you know, align this topic to something else that I want to discuss.   Michael Hingson ** 50:24 I love, yeah, I've discovered the value of pauses. You can make a pause last too long, and one of the things you learn is how long to make a pause. But I love pauses. They really do add a lot of value. There they get. Well, you talk a lot about continuous improvement, and clearly you you really love the whole concept. What's an example of a project where you instituted continuous improvement, and how do you make that happen? Thanks, Michael.   Fidel Guzman ** 50:56 Let's pause again. Yeah, right. I know. Yeah. All right. Michaels, Michaels, throw me. Well, not much of a curveball, but yeah, no, that's good. So I know continuous improvement. And one project that I worked on, I want to say one that comes to mind is last year I hosted a series of product boot camps. And what these product boot camps really were, were product training and networking opportunities within ion. I had just gone through the acquisition of backstop into the into the ion family, and I saw a need. I saw a need there for some product training. And what I did is I started to coordinate with subject matter experts, hence the collaboration and community principles that I have with learning and development. And started to piece together a boot camp. So a series of training sessions, and we discussed location, we discussed different components that we can include on there. We discussed remote hybrid in person, what some of those options were, and we had about, I want to say, five or six of these boot camps in 2024 and what I noticed is that for each of the boot camps we would tailor it a little bit, because each of these different products that were under specific umbrellas were for certain audiences, you know, for certain segments of the business. So we had to, I had a template, but we had to tweak that template a little bit. Who do we want to come in here? Who do we want to come in for this particular topic? When do we take breaks? If it's in person, you know? Do we take longer breaks if it's in person? How do we include some interactive components to it? How do we test people's knowledge, whether it's through live polls, whether it's using an LMS platform to do knowledge checks? How do we create a certificate based program around this? And for each of those, it was a learning experience. It was a learning experience because we, every subject matter expert, is different, right? You're building different relationships with different people, and even their style of talking or their style of teaching on a particular topic is going to be different. So those continuous improvements throughout each of those boot camps really started to to resonate and just to showcase themselves. And for each of those, we had a similar template for all of them, but we made minor tweaks to make sure that it was as engaging and and thoughtful as possible.   Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Wow. Well, that's pretty cool. Um, and I think that the very fact that you would make the tweaks and you recognize the need to do that was pretty insightful, of course, because for me, I know when I speak, some people early on told me you should write a talk and you should, you should just give that talk. I tried that once. I didn't like what I sounded like when I read a talk, and I haven't done it since. And I also realized that I do better, and sometimes it isn't necessarily a lot, but when I customize every talk so I love to go early and try to hear speakers who speak before me, or get a chance to meet people at an event, because I will learn things invariably that I will put into the talk. And sometimes I'm tweaking talks up to and including the start of the talk, and sometimes I will tweak a talk when I'm speaking and I'm getting the impression just from all the fidgeting, that maybe I'm not getting through to these people, or I'm not really doing this in the best way possible. And I will change until I get what I expect to be the audience. Reaction, because I know what an audience is like when they're fully engaged, and I also know that not every audience is the same, so I hear what you're saying. I think it's important to do that.   Fidel Guzman ** 55:13 Yeah, for you to be able to do that on the fly, kudos, kudos to that. But yeah, we you got to be able to understand that audience, understand that audience, understand what's what's going on, the dynamic of that, of that situation. So you're, you're a veteran at at this, so no surprise there.   Michael Hingson ** 55:31 Well, that's a lot of fun. Well, what do you do when you're not working you, I know you're involved in various activities and so on. So what do you do when you're, yeah, not an eye on writing, doing, training, stuff and all that.   Fidel Guzman ** 55:45 A number of different hobbies. My wife calls me the Energizer Bunny, because I'm always running around doing something, but some of my main things is right now judo. I did wrestling in high school, and I did mixed martial arts when I was getting my undergrad. And I love martial arts. I think iron sharpens iron. It's good to be around a good group of, good group of people, people who are who are like minded, people who are looking to continue to develop themselves. And yeah, if you're in a room full of tough guys, you have no other choice than to start to be a tough guy yourself. So I love martial arts. I did a couple Judo tournaments, judo and jujitsu tournaments last year, where I placed. And let's see, besides that, triathlons, I love to run, I love to bike, I love to swim. I did my first triathlon last year. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a phenomenal experience. I mean, it's two three hours of non stop movement, but it was, it was great just to be part of that, of a huge event like that, besides the martial arts and the constant running and swimming and biking, the last thing I want to say is writing and poetry. I have started to compile all all my poems. Hopefully, in the next year or so, I'll, I'll launch a small book of poems. And, yeah, I'll keep you, I'll keep you posted on that. But I do, I do like to write on the sign, you know, hopefully a book of poems. And, you know, since since having my daughter, I've always liked children's books. I would, I would love it if I could launch my my own series of children books, and I'm working on a couple templates with that. So, yeah, stay staying busy, staying busy, physically active, but also mentally   Michael Hingson ** 57:40 active. So you haven't written any books yet. I have a   Fidel Guzman ** 57:44 couple ideas, a couple ideas of what, what kids books want to do, but you don't have any books published yet? No, none yet. None yet. Well, we're anxious to see that happen. You got, you got it, you're gonna, you're gonna light that fire. You're gonna light that fire as well. No, and again, right? I do appreciate you for for really, really motivating me to start my own podcast, because you had really said, like, what's stopping you? Like, like me, I'm stopping myself, you know. But even yet, yeah, even like, you know, being an author, I know that you're an author, you know, I would love to have a conversation offline with you. You know what that publishing experience was like, because I think that's my biggest interference right now with that, is like, I don't know where to start with the publishing. I know I can self publish. I know I can go through publishers and like, the internet, like we said, a double sided sword, yeah, you have information that tells you you should just self publish, and then you have other bits of information. Was like, You should go through a publishing company and just like, where do I Where do I choose? But I think that's why having mentors, you know, and getting to network with people who are experienced, such as yourself, and these different avenues of public speaking and being a keynote speaker and having a podcast, being a podcast host and being an author. I think, I think it's great, and you are definitely an inspiration to me. Michael, well, thank you.   Michael Hingson ** 59:11 You're familiar with Jackson Hewitt, the accounting and tax company. You got it? Okay? So I can't remember whether it was night, whether it was 2016 or 2017 but I got invited to go speak at one of their events, and I did. And while I was there, I met a woman, and I didn't know what she did, and she she, she worked at a Jackson Hewitt, and I just happened to say, what do you own of a firm? Because most of the people there were supposed to be company owners. And she said, No, maybe someday. And I said, why not? You ought to own a company. You ought to you ought to become a company owner. You'll go further Anyway, last year, she sent me an email, and she said, I've never forgotten that, and I think it was like a year later, or two years later, she's. After I and she met, she said, I got my first company, and I now own 10 branches. Wow. Back, I said, that's pretty cool. Oh,   Fidel Guzman ** 1:00:09 Michael, Michael, you are just making ripples in the universe. Just ripples doing something. Yeah, that's good. I don't want to get too religious, but you're doing God's work, man, well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:18 I hope so. You know, expect Hill. Hill. Guy, guide, or she'll guide, yeah, but so what do you think is the future of work, of workplace training and learning?   Fidel Guzman ** 1:00:30 Yeah, I think we, we touched a little bit upon this. But you know, AI, you know, definitely, how can we leverage AI for content creation, creating outlines and also using it as feedback. But I also want to to bring back the the in person training. I know we've all gotten very comfortable with, you know, doing stuff remote, but similar to the example that we talked about earlier, where that teacher was like, oh, all these, all these kids are using AI for these papers, and how do I really test their comprehension? That's, that's something you know, that in person activity, yeah, I think definitely has a tremendous amount of value, not just for the instructor, but for the end learner. Yeah. So I think, I think a mixture of like, okay, great, you know, how can we use AI to create content? How can we use it to provide, you know, feedback for people to continue to improve on certain areas. But how can we bring back that in person component?   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:38 Well, see, oh, go ahead,   Fidel Guzman ** 1:01:39 yeah, to, to to unify. It was probably that pause, that to to unify, to unify a vision, you know, a vision of of continuous improvement. You know that to unify, that vision of what a team might be aiming for, yeah. So, yeah. So, I think, I think, you know, long story short, it's going to be, you know, leveraging a bit of AI and still bringing back that, that in person aspect. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:05 you know, I I've done virtual presentations as well as, of course, lots of in person presentations. I much prefer in person to virtual but my main reason for that is that I can tell what the audience is feeling. I get a lot more information if I'm doing an in person talk than I would get if I'm just doing a virtual talk. Now I've done it long enough that I mostly can do pretty well at a virtual talk, but it's still not the same, yeah, and I still don't get exactly the same information, but I can do virtual talks, and I do and it, and it's fun and and I can play games with it, because I can always turn my video off and really drive people crazy. But you know what? What advice would you give to an aspiring leader who wants to to evolve and make make changes to their organization or to themselves and so on.   Fidel Guzman ** 1:03:06 So advice I would give for aspiring leaders. I think the the main one that I really focus on is opportunities and challenges. Be ready to embrace any opportunities that come your way, but just know that each of those opportunities, it's going to come with its own set of challenges, and be prepared for both, and be okay with dealing both at the same time. And you know last, but you know not least, is that there are there are lots of stories of triumph, and to really curate yours. What does your story of triumph look like? What is your passion and how does, how does all of that connect?   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:53 And it may be evolving, and it may be different in five years than it is today, but both memories are important, yeah, which is cool. Well, Fidel, we've been doing Can you believe we've been doing   Fidel Guzman ** 1:04:08 this for over an hour? Time flies and you're having fun,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:12 absolutely. And I really appreciate you being here and being a part of this, and I really appreciate all of you who have been listening to us and watching us. We're really excited that you're here. I hope that this has been valuable for you as well, and that you've learned something. Fidel, if people want to reach out to you, how can they do that? I   Fidel Guzman ** 1:04:31 want to say LinkedIn, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. What's your LinkedIn identifier? You can find me as Fidel Guzman, comma, MBA, and I'll also give you a link so you can, you can accompany it alongside this episode, yeah, but feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. That's going to be the easiest way to get in touch with me. And I'll also have some links if you want to check out my podcast. And hopefully I'll have, I'll have that book of poems out, yeah, soon.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:59 Well, that will be. Good. Well, thank you again and again. Thank you, all of you. If you'd like to reach out to Fidel, I'm sure he would appreciate it. I would, and you're welcome to reach out to me.

Oz and Fluent welcome Euphonic back from a safe trip to Africa before they get into looking back at A Different World as grown adults; Oz extends a disclaimer about watching how they discuss certain topics online; The Boys look at the verdict in the Diddy trial; Plus, your listener letters and the Top X* Song of the Week: Olamide- "Luvaluvah" Official OWB Playlist (for Spotify listeners): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5GXcOyvHUlBRINdB3kgJX6?si=77e94d271edb4a05

Meet Olga Belosludova, a trailblazing attorney who made history as the first Russian woman to pass the notoriously difficult Japanese bar exam. Born in Siberia, she came to Japan with her family at age two. Olga's journey from a competitive childhood dream to becoming a qualified lawyer in three jurisdictions is nothing short of extraordinary. Her story offers invaluable insights into navigating Japan's legal landscape as a foreign professional, the importance of visibility in service, and practical strategies for building a successful international legal career.If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we'd love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we'd love it if you would leave us a message here!In this episode you'll hear:How Olga conquered the Japanese “Yobi” exam which only 4% of examinees passHer strategies for overcoming assumptions about foreign lawyers with Japanese credentialsHer secret dual-goal system for avoiding burnout Her view that  speaking Japanese is crucial and why internal translators outperform external onesAbout OlgaOlga Belosludova is an accomplished international attorney admitted to practice law in Japan, California, and New York. Currently, she is based in Japan, where she has lived since age two. Olga brings a unique bicultural perspective to complex cross-border legal matters. As an attorney at a prestigious international law firm constantly ranking in AM Law 20, she has built an impressive practice serving Fortune 100 companies across a wide range of high-stakes transactions and disputes.Fluent in both Japanese and English, Olga has become a trusted advisor to foreign companies navigating Japan's business landscape. Her expertise spans cross-border mergers and acquisitions, complex internal investigations, international arbitrations, and privacy and data security compliance for multinational corporations. She also counsels international banks and investment funds on investment and loan transactions involving Japanese entities, leveraging her deep understanding of both legal systems and cultural nuances.Olga's risk management expertise is particularly noteworthy—she has led over 20 internal investigations across various industries, handling everything from routine compliance matters to high-profile misconduct cases. Her approach focuses not just on resolving immediate issues, but also on strengthening organizational health and resilience for the long term. During her time at the firm's New York office from August 2023 to June 2024, she further expanded her expertise in JAMS arbitration and US litigation.The Legal 500 recognised Olga as a “Rising Star” in its Fintech division in 2023, highlighting her emerging leadership in the intersection of law and financial technology. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Olga had been dancing as a ballroom dancer for more than 15 years, ultimately competing as a professional standard ballroom dancer between 2018 and 2020. After the COVID pandemic, in her free time, Olga enjoys spending her time with her family, especially playing with her three-year-old daughter. Whether she is reading books, drawing, or just playing outside, those moments mean the most to Olga. As a new challenge, Olga also began golfing last year.Connect with Olga LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-belosludova-744758287/ Connect with Catherine LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair

✅ Subscribe now for more episodes MPF Discussion with Shima Shad RouhUnlocking Healing with  Shima Shad Rouh's  11 Modalities About ShimaShima Shad Rouh is a best-selling author, coach, and founder of Infinite Love Coaching Academy and Holistic Resort. Through her unique blend of science and spirituality, she helps people improve their health, relationships, and finances. With a master's in education and training in NLP, psychology, and quantum physics, Shima brings over 20 years of international experience to her work. Fluent in four languages and a passionate global speaker, she guides people to overcome limiting beliefs and achieve their full potential.Inspired by personal challenges—including her mother's brain tumor diagnosis—Shima founded the Infinite Love project to promote healing and well-being. Her heart-centered, mind-body-spirit approach empowers others to connect deeply with themselves and live more fulfilled lives. 

Nancy De LosaCo-FounderA'qto CyclingNancy De Losa is the Co-Founder of A'qto Italian Cycling Tours, a boutique cycling tour company offering immersive experiences in Italy. With a background in brand, marketing, and entrepreneurship, Nancy blends her deep connection to Italy with her passion for people and travel. Since launching A'qto Cycling Tours with her husband Damian Hancock in 2015, she has curated unforgettable experiences that combine cycling, cultural exploration, and authentic Italian hospitality. Fluent in Italian and deeply attuned to the country's traditions, Nancy ensures every guest, whether cycling or not, enjoys an enriching, personal journey through Italy. She is also dedicated to personal growth, mentoring women, and living with intention.SummaryIn this episode of the Big World Made Small podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Nancy De Losa, co-founder of AQTO, a boutique cycling and adventure tour company based in Italy. Nancy shares her journey from Australia to Italy, her deep connection to her Italian heritage, and the unique experiences AQTO offers, including cycling, kayaking, and hiking tours. The conversation explores the distinction between tourism and hospitality, the impact of overtourism, and the importance of creating meaningful connections with local communities. Nancy emphasizes the significance of group dynamics, managing different skill levels, and the flexibility of the non-riding partner program, making AQTO tours accessible to a wider audience. The episode concludes with Nancy's favorite places in Italy and insights into planning an adventure in this beautiful country.TakeawaysAQTO offers unique cycling and adventure tours in Italy.Nancy has a deep connection to Italy through her heritage.The distinction between tourism and hospitality is crucial.Overtourism is a concern, highlighting the need for adventure.Creating unique experiences is a core value of AQTO.Group dynamics play a significant role in the tour experience.Managing different skill levels is essential for cycling tours.The non-riding partner program allows flexibility for guests.Engaging with local communities enhances the travel experience.Italy offers diverse experiences that cater to various interests. Learn more about Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

Listen with FREE Interactive Transcript only on the RealLife App. In this energizing episode, Izzy and Ethan, with over 25 years of combined English teaching experience, break down the 5 biggest reasons why most English learners never reach fluency. You'll discover why the same obstacles appear for nearly every learner worldwide — and, more importantly, how to overcome them so you can finally speak confidently and naturally. From the busy, distraction-filled life of a modern learner to the hidden mindset blocks that sabotage your progress, we unpack how to stop making these common mistakes that are keeping you from your dream of fluency. You'll also get practical, real-world examples and wisdom from top speakers to understand how to build consistent, confident speaking habits. Listen now to learn: - Why your busy life is blocking your fluency (and what to do about it) - The truth about consistency vs. perfection in your speaking practice - Simple mindset shifts to finally speak English naturally - Real-life tips from millions of learners who have gone before you   Show notes here. .......... Follow us on: RealLife English (YouTube) Learn English with TV Series (YouTube)

This week, Oz and Fluent salute Zohran Mamdani's first step in his road to the NYC mayoral race; Oz warns the people against abusing ChatGPT; The boys give opinions and predictions about the conflict between Israel and Iran; Kevin Durant comes to Houston; Tyler The Creator's beef with podcasts. Plus, your listener letters and the Top 3 STFUs. Pour up! Song of the Week: kwn- "Back of the Club"

Whitney Way Thore is back and so am I. Let's discuss the season 13 trailer of My Big Fat Fabulous life and I will give you some life updates. Follow me on all the socials @fluentinbravo and follow the private facebook group Fluent in Bravo. Rate, review and subscribe!

Listen with FREE Interactive Transcript only on the RealLife App. Are you wondering how long it actually takes to become fluent in English? In this powerful episode of the RealLife English Podcast, Ethan sits down with Izzy, our Fluency Coach and a passionate English learner who has reached a native-like level, and shares exactly how he did it.

Achieve The Lifestyle started when a fitness pro and a healthcare provider teamed up, spotting a shared need among clients and patients: tackling health issues at the root with smarter lifestyle choices. We take a fun, holistic approach to wellness, blending medical know-how with real-life solutions for lasting health. Dan's journey from veteran to fitness professional gives Achieve The Lifestyle its edge. Fluent in Spanish and experienced in training people of all ages, he brings a disciplined yet approachable style to fitness and wellness coaching. Dan specializes in general fitness, sports-specific training, and performance enhancement, tailoring his programs to each client's unique needs and goals. His ability to connect with diverse individuals, combined with his background in resilience and adaptability from his time in the military, makes him a trusted guide for anyone seeking to transform their health and lifestyle. Janie brings a unique blend of medical expertise and lifestyle-focused health coaching to Achieve The Lifestyle. As a primary care medical professional, she saw the gaps in conventional medicine and decided to bridge them by earning certifications in nutrition and strength coaching. Her passion lies in addressing root causes, empowering clients to take charge of their health with practical, sustainable strategies. Whether guiding someone through chronic disease management or improving overall wellness, Janie's approach combines science, empathy, and a long-term vision for better living.   What we talk about in this episode: Cholesterol meds and why they are BS 70% of ppl with cardiac events have NORMAL cholesterol levels Why more drugs for heart disease but rates keep rising Why you need to be asking for a fasting insulin level Why we have eye balls The spectrum of health (on both ends) Girl sit down We want our buttholes in place If we were Bobby Kennedy Reforming medical education How does a 180k salary equate to 220m net worth You cannot advertise Whole Foods How dehydration makes you fat (seriously) Tin foil hat time Learn more about working with me  Shop my masterclasses (learn more in 60-90 minutes than years of dr appointments) Follow me on IG Follow Empowered Mind + Body on IG  Learn more about working with Achieve The Lifestyle Follow Achieve The Lifestyle on IG   

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This week, Oz and Fluent discuss crashing out at your job, B. Simone being a bad friend, Stephen A. Smith playing Solitaire on the job...and what the optics say about sports coverage as of late. Plus, your listener letters and the Top 3 STFUs. Pour Up! Song of the Week: Reuben Vincent feat. 9th Wonder- "Anything"

What happens when a British communications expert takes her political instincts and corporate storytelling skills to Germany?

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A mix, showcasing all of Panfil & Rubh's favorite new and upcoming tech, deep, bass and minimal house releases including exclusive premiers and a classic throwback. ⚡️Like the Show? Click the [Repost] ↻ button so more people can hear it!

Jesús Florez is originally from Columbia but now resides in the USA, and despite not being a native English speaker, has built up his English to an impressive level of fluency. Jesús focuses a lot on accent since he has put a lot of work into getting a natural American accent. In the episode today, we discuss a lot about acquiring an English accent and how much effort you should put into that, whether accent is important, and a bit of a comparison between UK and US expressions.Show notes page - https://levelupenglish.school/podcast329Level 3 is coming to Level Up English this August! Click here to claim your 60%! Be fast! Spaces are limited.Sign Up for Free Lessons - https://www.levelupenglish.school/#freelessonsJoin Level Up English - https://courses.levelupenglish.schoolBy becoming a member, you can access all podcast transcripts, listen to the private podcast and join live lessons and courses on the website.

Dr. Diana Londoño is a bilingual, board-certified urologist based in Los Angeles, specializing in comprehensive urologic care for men and women. She is one of the few Latinx female urologists in the United States—representing just 0.5% of the field—and is a passionate advocate for diversity in medicine and health equity. Dr. Londoño earned her medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and completed her urology residency at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles after earning dual degrees in Spanish and Biology at Claremont McKenna College.Her clinical expertise includes prostate health, urinary incontinence, recurrent UTIs, erectile dysfunction, menopause-related urologic issues, and kidney stone prevention. She takes a holistic, patient-centered approach, empowering individuals through clear communication, education, and shared decision-making. Fluent in Spanish, she provides culturally sensitive care to a diverse patient population in Southern California.A recognized leader in physician wellness and mentoring, Dr. Londoño received the 2022 Physician Leadership Award for her work supporting physician mental health and work-life balance. She continues to mentor aspiring Latinx and female doctors while delivering expert care across the full spectrum of urinary and reproductive health.

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This week, Oz, Euphonic and Fluent salute another white woman Oz has never heard of, remember the lives of Sly Stone and Ananda Lewis, discuss Michael Beasley and Lance Stephenson playing 1 on 1 basketball and Oz's takes on the BET Awards. Plus, the ICE raids, your listener letters and the Top 3 STFUs. Pour Up! Song of the Week: Jenevieve- "Head Over Heels"

Want to sound more fluent in English? In this episode, we explore a powerful technique that can transform your English speaking skills: explaining why. Learn how this simple yet effective strategy can help you create natural conversations, demonstrate critical thinking, and build deeper connections with others.Key Points:The importance of extending beyond basic statements in conversationsHow explaining 'why' creates natural conversation flow and keeps discussions goingUsing reasons to demonstrate critical thinking and decision-making skillsBuilding deeper connections through detailed explanationsReal-world examples covering topics like food preferences, career choices, hobbies, and lifestyle decisionsFeatured Examples Include:How to discuss food preferences effectivelyExpressing career aspirations with depthSharing opinions about entertainmentExplaining educational choicesDiscussing lifestyle and travel preferencesLearn More:FluencyPanion Notebook: https://shop.speakenglishwithtiffani.com/products/fluencypanion-your-english-fluency-notebookSpeak English Like A Native Course: https://speakenglishwithtiffani.com/selnIf you want to sign up for the free English email newsletter, go to https://speakenglishwithtiffani.com/newsletter

In this video, I talk about my experience learning Persian as well as the challenges and successes I've had along the way.

In this episode of Leading Through Crisis, speaker, coach/trainer, and former opera director, Elizabeth Bachman, shares about overcoming communication problems at work, particularly between men and women. We cover:- The two main thinking styles - What gets lost in translation- Showing the value of things NOT going wrong- How women get better at communicating who they are“Society teaches women how to listen to men; it doesn't teach men how to listen to women...” But we need both; companies and society are better for it.Listen in to find out the gendered expectations and "proud victimhood" we have around communication breakdowns at work, what to watch for, and how to speak up in a way that you can be heard.—Elizabeth Bachman is THE go-to person for advanced-level training in Speaking, Presentation Skills, and Leadership. With a lifetime spent perfecting the art of presenting, she helps high-level clients show up as a leader who should be followed, promoted or hired, thus getting the recognition they deserve. A sought-after speaker and strategist in Silicon Valley, nationally and internationally, Elizabeth works with leaders and influencers who need to become concise and compelling presenters. Having spent over 30 years directing such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti & Placido Domingo in more than 50 operas around the world, Elizabeth brings a wealth of tools to help business professionals become respected presenters. Fluent in 5 languages, she brings her global experience to her clients.Learn more about Elizabeth and her work at elizabethbachman.com. Or connect with her on social…LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethbachmanFacebook: www.facebook.com/StrategicSpeakingForResultsYouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCJhAhQGSpCOeBIkyO7MUCJg?view_as=subscriber

Gerardo NiklitschekOwner & FounderALSUR ExpedicionesGerardo Niklitschek is the founder of ALSUR Expediciones and one of Patagonia's most seasoned and respected adventure guides. With more than 30 years of experience exploring the wild landscapes of southern Chile and Argentina, Gerardo leads unforgettable journeys into the heart of Patagonia—combining cultural insight, deep environmental knowledge, and technical expertise.Born and raised in Chile, Gerardo is a certified Physical Education and Recreation Instructor with advanced training as a rafting, sea kayaking, and mountain guide. His work has taken him across some of the region's most iconic protected areas, including Pumalín Park, Valle Chacabuco, Vicente Pérez Rosales, Bernardo O'Higgins, and Torres del Paine, where he specializes in overland expeditions and immersive nature experiences.Now based full-time in Patagonia, Gerardo designs and leads custom adventures through ALSUR Expediciones, offering trekking, horseback riding, kayaking, mountaineering, and wildlife trips that reflect his deep love for the land. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he's known for his calm leadership, vast regional knowledge, and ability to bring Patagonia's landscapes and stories vividly to life.SummaryIn this episode of the Big World Made Small podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Gerardo Niklitschek, the founder of ALSUR Expediciones, about his journey in adventure tourism in Chile. Gerardo shares his early experiences in nature, the evolution of outdoor guiding in Chile, and the significant influence of Douglas Tompkins on conservation efforts. The conversation highlights the growing importance of sustainable practices in tourism and the challenges of building a successful team in the outdoor industry. Gerardo emphasizes the need for a connection between adventure tourism and conservation, showcasing the beauty and potential of Patagonia as a premier destination for adventure travelers.takeawaysGerardo Niklitschek is the founder of ALSUR Expediciones, focusing on adventure tourism in Chile.Chile has rapidly grown as a destination for adventure tourism over the past decade.Gerardo's passion for nature began at a young age, exploring the outdoors independently.Family support was crucial, even if they didn't fully understand his passion for the outdoors.The outdoor guiding industry in Chile has evolved significantly, with more trained professionals now available.Gerardo's early experiences in nature shaped his desire to share these adventures with others.Douglas Tompkins played a significant role in conservation efforts in Chile, influencing Gerardo's approach to tourism.Conservation is increasingly important to clients, with many willing to pay more for eco-friendly experiences.Building a successful team in the outdoor industry requires dedication and a focus on training.The future of adventure tourism in Chile looks promising, with a growing interest in sustainable practices. Learn more about Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

If you've ever avoided talking about death with a loved one because it felt too uncomfortable or culturally off-limits, episode 344 is for you. Dr. Cynthia X. Pan, a leading expert in end-of-life care, shares practical strategies for navigating these sensitive conversations with empathy and clarity. Learn how to approach topics like advanced directives and final wishes—especially across cultural lines—so you can honor your loved ones' values and find peace in knowing you did right by them.In This Episode, You Will Learn:(1:25) The evolution of palliative care(2:55) Ethics and cultural diversity in end-of-life conversations(4:30) Reframing death with dignity and celebration(5:51) The power of showing up(6:47) Family dynamics and grief during COVID(10:05) Why advanced directives matter(14:30) When systems ignore patient wishes(15:44) Navigating cultural resistance to end-of-life talk(21:56) Breaking death taboos and redefining goodbyeIn today's episode, I'm joined by Dr. Cynthia X. Pan, a board-certified physician in internal medicine, geriatrics, and hospice and palliative medicine. She holds a BA in Biology from Harvard and an MD from Stony Brook University School of Medicine. Dr. Pan completed her internal medicine residency at the University of Rochester and a geriatrics fellowship at Harvard Medical School's Division on Aging. She now serves as Chief of Geriatrics and Palliative Care Medicine and Designated Institutional Official for Graduate Medical Education at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens. A Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, she educates future healthcare providers on palliative care, cultural humility, and communication. Fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, she brings a multicultural lens to patient-centered care.Throughout this episode, Dr. Pan uses her medical background and personal experiences to share both clinical insight and emotional depth. She reflects on working in one of the most culturally diverse regions in the U.S., where sensitive end-of-life conversations require compassion and cultural awareness. Through stories of caring for her father and mother-in-law, she highlights the importance of honoring patients' wishes. She also discusses how to approach taboo topics like death with respect and indirect communication—especially in communities where such discussions are avoided. Her guidance helps us embrace these moments with courage, clarity, and connection.Connect with Dr. Cynthia X. Pan:WebsiteInstagramLinkedInBook: Exit Strategies: Living Lessons from Dying People Let's Connect:WebsiteLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterThe Grief and Happiness Alliance Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a lot of chatter these days about a possible coming recession—and the impact of tariffs— inflation, stagflation and high interest rates. But what are all those things? It's easy to get lost with all these terms. How do make sense of the economy and how money works? We talk about Economics in Plain English.

A new MP3 sermon from The Narrated Puritan is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Fluent and Fervent Christian Talk is No Sign of True Conversion Subtitle: The Religious Affections Speaker: Jonathan Edwards Broadcaster: The Narrated Puritan Event: Audiobook Date: 6/9/2025 Length: 5 min.

Treatise on the Religious Affections - Part One Negative Sign 3

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It's the weekly sports roundtable on Afternoons Live with Tyler Axness. Today Tyler, Katie Hale, Brian Shawn and Derek Hanson discuss the news of the world of sports including the court decision allowing colleges to pay athletes directly. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest Elizabeth Bachman: “Having been one of the earliest female stage directors as an opera director, I have a wealth of knowledge to share. I now work with corporate women to help them break through the glass ceiling. What I'm really excited about is that I lead groups of women called ‘Visible and Valued Masterminds.' We spend three to six months together, online and in-person, talking and discussing the issue--how do you be seen as the person that you want to be seen as? How do you present yourself in a manner that you are taken seriously if you happen to be in a position where you are not taken seriously? It is some of the most deeply satisfying work I have ever done and I've always been blessed to use my talents to make the world a better place.” Elizabeth Bachman is the go-to person for advanced level training in Speaking, Presentation Skills, Sales, and Leadership. With a lifetime spent perfecting the art of presenting, she helps high-level clients master a message that brings: the Funding they need the Allies they want and the Recognition they deserve. She describes her work as: Strategic Speaking for Results * When you want to make a difference, not just a point! A sought-after speaker and strategist in Silicon Valley, nationally and internationally, Elizabeth works with leaders and influencers who need to become concise and compelling presenters. She helps them present as smart, down-to-earth, loose, friendly even funny and still be taken seriously. Elizabeth has directed such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti & Placido Domingo in more than 50 operas around the world, giving her a wealth of tools to help business professionals become respected presenters. Fluent in 5 languages, she is adept at working with presenters from many countries, bringing her global experience to her clients.

In this episode, Charlie helps you improve your British English by focusing on how to talk about hobbies and free time naturally—both for everyday conversation and, more specifically, for Part 1 of the IELTS Speaking exam. You'll hear model answers, learn useful expressions, and get tips to sound more fluent and confident when discussing your interests. Download - ⁠How to use idioms in IELTS FREE ebook/audiobook⁠ Learn about Charlie's ⁠IELTS Speaking Course Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bobby and Jared discuss their official switch over to Spotify as a hosting platform, why Joe Rogan is so popular, the LPGA US Open, Happy Gilmore 2, the crazy stuff Bobby deals with at work, and Mt. Etna erupting.Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to the show to stay up to date on the latest releases! Make sure you check out LMNT electrolyte drink mix at drinklmnt.com! Use the following link to get a FREE variety pack with your first purchase! http://elementallabs.refr.cc/jaredmello Thank you to our sponsor MoonBrew! Go to www.noonbrew.com/jaredmello for 10% off your entire purchase!

Want to follow the Fluency Roadmap that I'm currently using? Shoot me an email! Write FLUENCY ROADMAP in the email body and I'll send it to you (it's free). https://azrenthelanguagenerd.com/contact

A Legacy of Unaffected Living, DOMUS NYC, became an iconic landmark in Hell's Kitchen from 2002 to 2024. This beloved store Domus, translating to "home" in Latin, was located in Hell's Kitchen NYC, was founded by Luisa Cerutti and Nicki Lindheimer, who drew inspiration from their extensive travels around the globe. The shop was renowned for its quirky, artsy feel, characterized by eclectic window displays, a distinctive red doorway, and a warm, welcoming sign that invited passersby to explore its unique offerings. Before launching DOMUS, Luisa Cerutti cultivated a rich background in retail. She spent five years as a footwear buyer at the prestigious Fifth Avenue JOAN & DAVID store, and prior to that, she owned Luisa Boutique in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where she showcased clothing, shoes, and accessories. Luisa's also served as an area manager for the BENETTON GROUP from 1980 to 1984, further deepening her expertise in fashion retail. Fluent in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, Luisa's linguistic skills were instrumental in her global sourcing efforts. Prior to founding DOMUS with her partner Luisa Cerutti, Nicki Lindheimer built a career in retail that combined her love for art and design with an entrepreneurial spirit. She embraced an open-minded approach to merchandising, allowing her to expand the store's offerings to include arts, crafts, and whimsical gift items. Together with Luisa, she embarked on annual trips to countries such as Vietnam, Morocco, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines, India, South Africa, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, Colombia, Laos and Guatemala, forging relationships with artisans and championing fair trade practices, allowing them to expand their inventory beyond home goods to include arts and crafts, toys, and other playful items, making their store part art gallery, part showroom, and part gift shop. Their collection told stories of artisans from around the world, with a commitment to fair wages and sustainable practices, pathways for social change. The store's centerpiece—a massive tree adorned with unique ornaments and wind chimes—served as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of various cultures and crafts represented within their walls. DOMUS NYC earned significant accolades, winning the prestigious W42ST Award for Best Retail Store three times (2020, 2022, and 2023) and being named a runner-up in 2021. The store was also frequently featured in the popular "West Side Stories" segment and received coverage from NY Magazine, acknowledging its special place in the New York retail landscape. Matty Selman wrote a book titled "The Ornaments" a children's story inspired by Luisa and Nicki's unique and wonderful gift store tucked away on a side street in New York City, which celebrates their journey and the artisan stories behind their products and the beautiful ornaments that hung on the massive tree. Beyond their commercial endeavors, Luisa and Nicki are passionate about supporting various causes, including animal welfare, arts and culture, children's rights, civil rights, education, environmental conservation, and human rights. Their philanthropic efforts have always been integral to the DOMUS mission, reflecting their desire to contribute positively to society and empower the vulnerable. They both have been a part of Ozzie's history for 22 grateful years, leaving, through DOMUS NYC without a doubt, an indelible mark on the neighborhood, synonymous with creativity, culture, and a special kind of love for the immediate and larger community. https://www.domusnewyork.com/ order@domusnewyork.com

This week, Oz and Fluent salute a local voice actor friend; Oz stands with Deante Kyle in holding Black men accountable; The Boys discuss Travis Hunter deciding not to get a prenup; Presidential pardons; Oz gives a brief update/retrospective on Ryan Clark, RGIII and the Angel Reese/Caitlin Clark debate; Plus, your listener letters and the Top 3 STFUs. Pour Up! Song of the Week: Tanerelle- "Let Me In"

Join BeFluent - https://bit.ly/3PnVR6uTelegram Channel - https://t.me/befluentinrussian

This week, Oz, Euphonic and Fluent salute a local artist acquaintance; Oz is annoyed at social media making a gender war out of a TikTok prank; The Boys unpack Kid Cudi taking the stand at Diddy's trial; Oz and Fluent question whether the Knicks' good run has come to an end; Plus, another installment of Elections Have Consequences, your listener letters and the Top 3 STFUs. Pour Up! Song of the Week: Summer Walker- "Spend It"

Join BeFluent - https://bit.ly/3PnVR6uлюбоваться – to look at something with admiration and pleasure, appreciating its beauty.заниматься – to engage oneself in an activity regularly, or occupy oneself with something, often implying study or work.просить – to ask or request something from someone, usually politely or gently, but not as formal as "request."водить – to take someone or something somewhere regularly or habitually on foot or to drive a vehicle habitually.успевать – to manage or succeed in doing something within a certain amount of time or before a deadline.разлюбить – to fall out of love with someone or something; to cease loving.разбираться – to be knowledgeable about something or have the ability to handle or figure something out effectively.доедать – to finish eating something completely, especially emphasizing that nothing is left.мерзнуть – to feel cold or uncomfortable due to low temperature, often implying physical discomfort.высыпаться – to sleep enough, so you feel fully rested and refreshed.Telegram Channel - https://t.me/befluentinrussian

Fluent speakers know how to keep going even when words fail them. This episode teaches fluency-saving techniques that help you speak smoothly—even under pressure:Use common chunks instead of building every sentence word-by-wordRephrase ideas when you forget vocabularyExpand topics naturally with detailsUse delay phrases to buy time and reduce stressRepair your speech like a native speaker

Are we expecting too much from our jobs - and is it costing us our health, relationships and happiness?   This week I'm delighted to welcome back someone who is regarded as one of the most insightful and original voices on modern relationships, the psychotherapist Esther Perel. Fluent in nine languages, Esther has her own therapy practice in New York City, serves as an organisational consultant for multiple Fortune 500 companies and is ALSO the author of the New York Times Bestselling books, ‘Mating in Captivity' and ‘The State of Affairs'.   Although Esther is probably best known for her teachings and wisdom on our romantic relationships, more recently she has turned her attention to our work relationships. The occasion for this appearance on my podcast is to celebrate the release of her brand new 100-question card game designed to transform your work culture – one story and one relationship at a time.   In this thought-provoking conversation, we explore how our expectations of the workplace have shifted dramatically – and why it's creating both opportunity and strain. Esther shares that in the past, work was primarily about survival, duty and financial stability. But today, many of us are looking to our jobs to provide identity, belonging, fulfilment and even self-worth.   We discuss: Esther's four key pillars of healthy workplace relationships – trust, belonging, recognition and collective resilience – and why these needs mirror those in our romantic lives How unresolved workplace issues can lead to emotional exhaustion, poor health choices and a reduced capacity to connect at home How our increasingly digital lives are reducing the everyday social skills we need to connect, communicate and collaborate How our personal relationship history – our “unofficial CV” – shows up at work and influences how we handle authority, conflict, feedback and boundaries Why managing conflict well can deepen connection – and how curiosity and honest self-reflection can transform how we show up in all areas of life  Throughout our conversation, Esther offers compassion and clarity, breaking down complex emotional patterns into simple, human truths we can all relate to – and, most importantly, act on.    She encourages us to approach work relationships not as transactional, but as relational, inviting us to bring the same level of curiosity, empathy, and accountability that we would bring to any meaningful connection.   At a time when so many of us are feeling isolated or overwhelmed, Esther's advice shows that even small shifts in how we relate, listen and respond can spark meaningful change at work, with our families and ourselves. I hope you enjoy listening.   Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore.  For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com.   Thanks to our sponsors: https://airbnb.co.uk/host https://thriva.co https://calm.com/livemore https://join.whoop.com/livemore   Show notes https://drchatterjee.com/557   DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.

“ Chinese consumers today are quite different — a massive middle class of 500 million people.  So big upside, but also bigger challenges.”Sarah Kochling is the Founder and Managing Principal of Shanghai Blossom Innovation, where she leads strategic growth initiatives for global brands and startups in China since 2014. With over 30 years of experience across Asia, This is a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies and early-stage ventures alike—guiding brand transformation, innovation strategy, and culturally attuned consumer engagement.Sarah got her start at Procter & Gamble in Hong Kong and Guangzhou in the early 1990s, where she managed brands across Greater China during a pivotal time of regional economic opening. Since then, Sarah's experience across China and Asia at J&J International, as well as leading innovation practices at agencies and advising several China startups. Fluent in Mandarin and deeply immersed in the Chinese market, Sarah brings a rare combination of strategic rigor, creative vision, and cross-cultural fluency—helping organizations navigate complexity and chart bold paths forward. Sarah attended is based in Shanghai, China. She studied Mandarin and Political Science from Wellesley College, and holds certifications in Chinese language and law from MIT Sloan. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Beijing Foreign Languages Normal College, and Harbin Institute of Technology. Sarah lives in Shanghai. You'll enjoy this candid conversation about a career at the intersection of culture, commerce, and innovation.This is part of our Chinese leaders series - hosted by P&G Alumni Emily Chang. Got an idea for a future “Learnings from Leaders” episode? Reach out at pgalumpod@gmail.com

Need financing for your next investment property? Visit: https://www.academyfund.com/ Want to join us in San Antonio, TX on June 11th & 12th? Visit: https://www.10xvets.com/events ____ Jason is the founder of John Galt Services, a Bali-based outsourcing company that connects businesses with high-performing, multilingual talent across Indonesia. With a focus on quality, training, and long-term impact, his team works in person from Bali to deliver reliable, professional support at global standards.  A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former Navy Surface Warfare Officer, Jason has spent over two decades leading product development and building enterprise software systems for startups and major financial institutions. He previously founded a data systems firm that served clients like Invesco and Bridgewater Associates.  Today, he also serves as a lead developer and technical leader at VeteranCrowd. Fluent in Bahasa Indonesia and deeply embedded in the local community, Jason is passionate about creating meaningful opportunities through global collaboration. In this episode of the SABM podcast, Scott chats with Jason about:   The Spark Behind John Galt Services: Bridging global opportunity with untapped talent in Indonesia. What Sets It Apart: High-caliber, multilingual professionals trained and managed locally in Bali. Jason's Path: From Navy officer and software developer to founder building impact abroad. Early Lessons: Navigating a competitive outsourcing market while prioritizing quality and purpose. What's Next: Growing one placement at a time toward full-service managed teams. Timestamps: 00:13 Reflecting on the Past Four Years 00:27 The End of Ring Knocker 01:19 Introducing John Galt Services 02:15 Discovering Indonesian Talent 04:06 The Business Proposition 08:37 The Start of a New Venture 15:45 Recruitment and Skill Matching 17:43 Goals and Future Plans 19:06 Expanding Services and Competitive Landscape 22:43 Journey to Indonesia and Life in Bali 24:52 Creating Opportunities and Making a Difference 26:36 Future Plans and Business Connections 28:03 A Story of Barbecue and Cultural Fusion   Connect with Jason: LinkedIn   If you found value in today's episode, don't keep it to yourself—share it with a colleague or friend who could benefit. And if you're a Service Academy graduate ready to elevate your business, we'd love for you to join our community and get started today.   Make sure you never miss an episode—subscribe now and help support the show: Apple Podcasts Spotify Leave us a 5-star review! A special thank you to Jason for joining me this week. Until next time! -Scott Mackes, USNA '01  

Want to transform your English from basic to fluent? In this episode, we dive deep into the essential elements that make English conversations natural and engaging. Learn how to weave together opinions, reasons, personal experiences, details, and examples to create rich, meaningful dialogue.We'll explore real-world dialogue examples that demonstrate how native speakers naturally combine these elements, from discussing travel experiences to debating social media's impact on society. Whether you're discussing apartment hunting or environmental adaptations, these conversation techniques will help you express yourself more confidently and clearly.Perfect for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to take their conversation skills to the next level. Join Tiffani as she breaks down each element and shows you exactly how to implement them in your daily English conversations.

Listen with FREE Interactive Transcript only on the RealLife App.   In this episode, Izzy and Ethan explore how video games helped RealLife English team members learn real, everyday English. Discover three inspiring stories, learn why gaming is an underrated learning tool, and get recommendations for mobile games you can start using today. Plus, take a nostalgic trip with us through some classic games from our childhood!   Show notes here. .......... Follow us on: RealLife English (YouTube) Learn English with TV Series (YouTube)

Marat Gabidullin, born in Siberia and raised in Uzbekistan, served in Soviet airborne forces until 1994, then spent three years in prison for shooting a crime boss. After security work in Russia, he joined the Wagner Group in 2015, rose to lead a reconnaissance company, and was badly wounded near Palmyra in 2016. He later advised the ISIS Hunters Battalion and fought at Khasham, but quit Wagner in 2019, briefly ran a Redut detachment in Syria, and left disillusioned. Gabidullin's 2022 memoir denounced Wagner and Russia's invasion of Ukraine; he now lives in France. Journalist and researcher John Lechner reports from conflict zones and specializes in Russian PMCs. His book Death Is Our Business (Bloomsbury, 2025) charts the rise of Wagner, following earlier work such as Beginner's Chechen and upcoming Circassian and Sango language texts. A former policy analyst for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and an emerging-markets banker at Deutsche Bank and Lazard, Lechner holds degrees from Harvard (Slavic Languages) and Georgetown (MSFS). Fluent in five languages and conversant in several others, he is a recognized expert on Russian foreign policy and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. He lives in Washington, DC. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: ⁠https://www.roka.com⁠ - USE CODE SRS https://www.americanfinancing.net/SRS NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org https://www.expressvpn.com/SRS https://www.shawnlikesgold.com https://www.hillsdale.edu/SRS https://www.shopify.com/SRS https://trueclassic.com/SRS https://www.ziprecruiter.com/SRS Guest Links: Marat Gabidullin FB - https://www.facebook.com/share/15TBVmf2mt/  Book - Moi, Marat, ex-commandant de l'armée Wagner - Les dessous de l'armée secrète de Poutine enfin révélé https://a.co/d/csNMjFH  Book - Ma vérité https://a.co/d/bLZYssf  John Lechner X - https://x.com/JohnLechner1 IG - https://www.instagram.com/johnalechner/ FB - https://www.facebook.com/john.lechner.5 Book - Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare https://a.co/d/7rKXhnI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices