Podcasts about for ben

We're back! Phil and Ben kick off Season 2 of the podcast with a movie swap. They each put forward one of their favorite comedies: For Phil, it's I Love You, Man, a role-switch rom-com bromance that stars the untouchable Jason Segel. For Ben, it's The Naked Gun, a ridiculous police spoof classic. But first, find out what the guys have been up to on their break. Phil's been busy at the movie theatre and Ben has been, well, watching Outer Banks. But not Loki. For some reason. The boys team up for this week's WAYWA and break down Marvel's Black Widow, as well as the new off-screen battle between Disney and Scarlett Johansson. Episode segments: 1:47 —Welcome back + Outer Banks, Green Knight and vacation recap 9:40 — Movie Swap 10:50 — The Naked Gun 28:20 — I Love You, Man 44:40 — WAYWA (Black Widow) Be sure to follow the podcast on Twitter @WEDIDNOTWATCHIT for episode drops, show news, and the most unique entertainment takes you've never heard!

Ben grew up in Barry's Bay, Ontario in the Ottawa Valley, cycling and paddling. Growing up being self sufficient and self propelled became a focus for Ben and after convincing his parents, he took his first big bike trip as a teen from Pembroke, Ontario to Niagara Falls which kick started his desire for cycling long distances. He wanted to find a way to still do what he loved and make a career out of it so after a Guiding course, he was off and running. He saw that TDA Global Cycling was offering a Silk Road expedition and sent them his resume. His persistence paid off and soon he was guiding a trip from Istanbul, Turkey to Beijing, China on the Silk Road.For Ben, one of the most meaningful parts about being a guide is witnessing his guests grow and learn on tour. He said, people don't give themselves enough credit. They are resilient and he finds seeing them progress very rewarding.Ben works for Wilderness Tours and is a lead instructor of a two year Outdoor Adventure Guide Diploma Program through Algonquin College. Ben practices what he preaches and trains guides to help them find their path in the world Adventure Guiding.We discuss his path to becoming a guide and instructor as well as some of the adventures he's been on. We chat about balancing a busy career in outdoor recreation with satisfying his own adventurous drive along with fatherhood. And finally Ben shares some fun stories from his trips.If you want to learn more about what Ben has been up to, please checkout his website, benshillington.com and sign up for his newsletter. Ben also wrote the book Winter Backpacking: Your Guide to Safe and Warm Winter Camping, which you can find on Amazon.I hope you dig it!Save 25% off a consultation at Cycling 101 when you use the code VIP50 at checkout.Save 25% at Dynamic Cyclist when you use the promo code MB40 at checkout.Save 10% at Ancestral Supplements when you use the code MB40 at checkout. Save 10% at Ranch BoxThanks to Lakeside Bikes in Invermere for supporting me!Visit Rollingdale Cycle!

Ben Roberts is the director of Optipus, a company with one goal: to do SEO the right way. He helps build trust and credibility for his clients by looking at the marketing they own and create, such as their websites and blogs. He then blends it with earned marketing such as reviews, media mentions, and guest posts.  Ben spent nearly 10 years leading marketing teams at a SaaS startup, a top 100 UK insurance broker, and a large specialized outdoor e-commerce company. Ben spends much of his time building his personal brand which includes conference speaking, consultancy offerings, and media mentions. In 2018, he launched his book, Marketing Buzzword to Marketing Authority, where he uses all of those experiences to help other people build their businesses and careers. Building a Platform on Land He Owned Ben wanted to start his career before he finished university. While studying marketing, he started getting his feet wet by growing a business and learning how businesses actually worked instead of just hearing about it in a classroom. He started learning about real-world social media and SEO. In 2016, Ben went to the Social Media Marketing World conference where he was exposed to podcasts and he decided to give it a try. When Ben was at that conference, he noticed many buzzwords he didn't recognize. He decided he should launch a podcast to break down common marketing buzzwords for his audience. Three years later, Ben had created nearly 100 episodes while working full time. The podcast became the basis for his book, Marketing Buzzword to Marketing Authority.  Before Ben started his business, he spent years building his platform and constructing it on land he owned. He built his own podcast, his own email list, and his own brand. Even when the world fell apart during the global pandemic, he was able to launch a business successfully, all because he had built it on land he owned—his own email list.  Ben wishes he had started building his email list from the very beginning. It would have been a bigger and better list by now. He also believes that one of the hardest things to do when we're starting a business is to stay consistent. One of his biggest lessons he's learned during his journey is that less is more. When we have so much on our plate, we become inconsistent with our efforts in building our business. Once we lose our consistency, it's harder to get important things done and to get back on track.   Don't be afraid to reach out to potential podcast guests  We can't be afraid of reaching out to people. Ben believes one of the reasons his podcast is successful is because he had the confidence to speak to as many people as possible. We might think that it's hard to find people who'd want to come on our podcast but people are willing and love it when we ask them to share their stories and insights.  When we reach out to people the right way, no one is too far out of reach. Before we reach out to potential interviewees, we need to learn about them and what they've already done. Ben finds this a good way of showing that we care. We should reach out to them personally if we want this person to come on our show as opposed to sending a generic email that doesn't show we know who they are or care about what they do. Building an Effective Email List Ben also shared his top two secrets for building an effective email list.    Give people a reason to join an email list   We have to give our customers a reason to join our email list. It helps to give people incentives and reminders about the benefits of being on our email list. If we just have a box asking them to sign up to our email list, people will not do it. By giving them an incentive, we motivate them to join our email list. This can be a discount or exclusive access to part of a group. Either way, there has to be a hook somewhere as opposed to just asking them to join our email list. If people don't know who we are, they're not going to subscribe. We need to give them a reason to subscribe to our list.     Be consistent and helpful   Over the years, Ben has learned how important it is to be consistent and helpful. We need to make sure there is value in every single email we send. When we send something, it helps to ask ourselves a fundamental question, “Would I want to receive this?” If the answer is no, then why are we sending this to someone else? Everyone gets so many emails. Since we want to be customer-centric, it's good to put ourselves in the customer's shoes. We want to be building rapport with the people that have joined our email list. We want to send them something that connects with them, so when they receive our emails they know it's going to include something they want to receive. We should always ask ourselves, “Is it helpful? Does it provide enough value?” Benefits of Writing a Book  Many people are scared about writing a book. It's a major project that can take 18 months to two years to complete. It's not an easy undertaking yet it can have many rewards.  Ben considers publishing a book based on his podcast one of his biggest successes. Over the years, his podcast has built an audience that the book was able to leverage to start his monetization journey. Ben is now able to speak on international stages across different countries.  For Ben, much of what he does revolves around SEO and personal branding. Even though the podcast was doing good, he wanted to do something that would be long-lasting and improve his credibility. A book would be something he could send to clients and leverage for increased media outreach. It would allow him to put together all the things he had learned from the podcast along with his knowledge and experience.  Writing a book has opened up many doors for Ben. He has received offers to speak at different conferences around the world, online and offline. He was able to connect with different people that he never thought he could connect with. His email list also grew exponentially because of the book. It's the crux of owned marketing. His email list is something that he owns, has full control of, and builds his trust, credibility, and further extends the reach of his business and personal brand.  Voice Marketing Ben believes voice marketing is having a much bigger impact than people realize. It's predicted that 15.8 billion people will be using digital assistants by 2023 (Source: Statista). Currently, approximately half of the world's population - 3.5 billion - uses voice-activated search and assistants across the globe (Source: review42.com). The shift is particularly noticeable in Gen Z where the stats show that 38% of them are willing to purchase via voice-activated ordering (Source: review42.com). Key Takeaways Thank you so much Ben for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:   It's better to start building our email list as early as possible. When we reach out to people the right way, no one is too far out of reach.  To build an effective email list, we need to be consistent and provide value to our audience. We also need to give people a reason to join our list. One of the benefits of writing a book is that it is long-lasting and will improve our credibility. Voice search is one of the major shifts impacting businesses today.    Connect with Ben If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Ben or connect with him, you can find him on LinkedIn. You can also visit his website at ben-m-roberts.com or listen to his podcast at marketingbuzzword.com.      Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer? Did you like today's episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content: Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.  Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.   Share Your Story  How has consistent publishing helped grow your business? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.   Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/?p=8133 

While it is easy to associate leadership with perfection, there is a lot to be said for leaders who show up as authentic human beings that still have a lot to learn. Today's guest is Ben Vance, and he joins us to talk about how this approach to leadership informs his role as Director of Business Valuation and Transaction Advisory with Postlethwaite & Netterville. Our conversation starts on the difference between management and leadership, and Ben makes some critical distinctions. For Ben, management is all about ensuring a project is perfect and delivering it on time. In contrast, leadership is more interpersonal and thus more complex and more challenging to get right. Ben tries to see himself as a constant student in the art of leadership, and he talks about the value of accepting that we won't get things right the first time around when it comes to leading people. This aspect of admitting our shortcomings is a crucial part of being authentic, and it is authenticity that helps us empathize with, connect to, and motivate our staff better at the end of the day. Ben also shares some valuable points about the challenge of knowing when to take command as a leader versus letting staff make mistakes and learn on their own. Another key subject from today is how to stay motivated and keep up a spirit of learning once we master our professional roles' technicalities. We cover a lot more ground on the complex subject of leadership today, so be sure to tune in for the whole conversation! Key Points From This Episode: The difference between management and leadership.Why being a good leader is a continuous learning process.The deadlines and deliverables of management versus the people business of leadership.Being a manager requires being perfect, while being a leader is about being comfortable with not being perfect.The leadership style Ben advocates for of giving his employees agency.Knowing when to take control versus give employees the space to fail and learn.The value of downtime for leaders and knowing when to give it to employees.Learning leadership lessons by going through cycles of stress and recovery.How Zoom calls in the pandemic have allowed people to show more authenticity.Being a more empathetic leader by remembering people have a lot going on in their lives.Knowing when to prioritize family versus work: an essential leadership skill.How to overcome decreasing satisfaction and stay energized.The mindset piece of good leadership; being mentally prepared for the challenge.How much better of a leader one becomes by being authentic.Ben Vance on LinkedInPostlethwaite & NettervilleThe Way We Work Isn't WorkingThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleSimon SinekAlex Drost LinkedInBranch Out Podcast LinkedInConnection Builders LinkedInHave thoughts or comments? We want to hear from you. growth@connection.builders

Hey everyone. This is Laz Jackson of Detroit Bad Boys, and on this week's episode we talk about your 14-35 Detroit Pistons. Ben Gulker and I talk with former host of Locked on Pistons and current PlayMichigan.com writer Matt Schoch about Killian Hayes' return, Saddiq Bey hitting the rookie wall, and a term I just learned on the pod - "Emotional Hedging."  Matt was a gracious guest, we really appreciated his insight, and you should check out the projects he teased in our episode when they come to fruition. In the meantime, though, visit PlayMichigan.com for your coverage of the Sports Betting Industry in Michigan to support Matt and his work. For Ben and I, as always, we appreciate your continued support of the podcast. The best way to do that is to share, subscribe, and leave comments - please leave comments on the discussion post on Detroit Bad Boys, that's the best way for us to have the conversation we want to have around the podcast. In order to do that, though, you have to follow DetroitBadBoys.com, the best place on the internet for Pistons' news and analysis this season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone. This is Laz Jackson of Detroit Bad Boys, and on this week's episode we talk about your 14-35 Detroit Pistons. Ben Gulker and I talk with former host of Locked on Pistons and current PlayMichigan.com writer Matt Schoch about Killian Hayes' return, Saddiq Bey hitting the rookie wall, and a term I just learned on the pod - "Emotional Hedging."  Matt was a gracious guest, we really appreciated his insight, and you should check out the projects he teased in our episode when they come to fruition. In the meantime, though, visit PlayMichigan.com for your coverage of the Sports Betting Industry in Michigan to support Matt and his work. For Ben and I, as always, we appreciate your continued support of the podcast. The best way to do that is to share, subscribe, and leave comments - please leave comments on the discussion post on Detroit Bad Boys, that's the best way for us to have the conversation we want to have around the podcast. In order to do that, though, you have to follow DetroitBadBoys.com, the best place on the internet for Pistons' news and analysis this season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grab your Free Copy of “The 4 Biggest Mistakes That Stop Companies From 10X’ing Their Revenue” at https://www.scalerevenue.io/10xBen started working in logistics and supply chain. He then landed his first sales position ever at Mintel. They gave him the territory of the south-east US, their worst-performing region. After turning Mintel’s worst-performing region into their best-performing region, Ben got asked to manage their Account Management group. In 2012, he got sent over to London. There, he had three excellent years running sales for CPG with a team of twelve nationalities, speaking sixteen different languages. After that, he got sent back to Mintel in Chicago, where he is currently, to manage a business unit and the broader part of the Americas commercially. Ben had amazing teams! He learned from them quickly. Then he got them to work well with one another to drive growth.Ben looks at building cohesive teams and then getting them to work well together as one of his skills.Ben is hungry to learn all the time - from absolutely anybody with whom he comes in contact.After spending so much time helping his customers understand the market, Ben’s top distinctions are:Ben works with organizations with open innovation teams. Open innovation teams are looking ten years into the future. Within Mintel, they have a team that focuses just on the future and on trends.At the executive level, when you get into the C-Suite and above, fuzzy ideas work best. Executives feel comfortable working in abstract and fuzziness.Mintel has subscription models and databases, which make things much more prescriptive. That works well for their entry-level employees.Everyone should have a vision for the future and a career plan. If you have those, you need to dial in and get even more specific. You need to know where your opportunities lie down the road. Think about what you always wanted to do that you have never done. And what you would do, after you have managed to make more money than you will ever need. Then, consider the impact that would have on your family and your career. There is a gap between wanting to be a manager and wanting to step into a leadership role. That gap goes from being an excellent manager to setting a vision. Or alternatively, pushing and helping your teams set visions and then stepping out of the way to let them develop those visions.  The people around you will ultimately let you know if they want to follow you and call you a leader. Ben defines leadership by looking at the people he would aspire to be, historically. Two of those are President Lincoln and Coach Wooden. They both had confidence yet remained humble. And they surrounded themselves with excellent people. A side-effect of those qualities in sales leaders is revenue growth. Ben’s team is always looking for what they can do to get themselves to where they want to go.  A positive energy element is necessary for building a cohesive team. For Ben, the Ted Lasso show epitomizes much of what he loves in terms of that energy element.Ben has a group selling single-copy reports. They have traditionally done it in a specific way for a long time. Now they have two individuals working on it who have a growth mindset, coupled with the humility to go out and learn from others. Their new ideas that they are breaking what they were doing in the past. Their net goal is to double the revenue that they were doing. Now, single-copy reports are becoming a funnel-generator. Something that was pretty unexciting before is now one of the most exciting and important aspects of the business. Because two leaders refused to continue doing things in the way they were getting done in the past.Links and resources:Book mentioned: Disrupt You by Jay SamitBen Dietz on LinkedIn

It is another week full of beers and plenty of gaming chat. We have all played Out of Sight, a new hidden object game from NinjaDuck Games and Ben asks a question of comfort following his brief stint with Final Fantasy XIV alongside Aadil. For the beers, Lucy drinks a cider! She starts with a Sicilian Lemon Cider from Alska then gets back on the beers with Fractal from Equilibrium Brewery. Aadil drinks Revenge of the Pith from S43 Brewery and follows with New Bristol Brewerys Twice upon a Time. For Ben it’s Outrun the Bear from Newtown Park Brewing Co and then another New Bristol Brewery beer with What Time is Love.

Do you bleed? You will...when you listen to the Podcast!! For Ben's birthday month the Brothers took a look at "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" Ben watched the theatrical cut, Gus watched the extended addition. This film has split the fandom, did it split the Brothers as well?? Tune in!!

The extreme weather in Texas made for a tough week. The snow, ice and frigid temperatures created physical, mental, emotional and financial setbacks for millions of people. For Ben and the Calm Cash podcast, there were two key takeaways that are discussed on this week’s episode. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

Ben is a health care entrepreneur, a business icon, a passionate philanthropist, a father to 3, a grandfather to 8, and a budding author (3 books in the works). He believes every moment presents a chance to shine your light. For Ben, joy is a force in nature, a spontaneous exuberance of existence, and the exhilaration of life itself. Joy is the wellspring of sustainable happiness.

Why Do We Dream is a podcast based off of David Eaglemans article in Time Magazine that talks about the amazing agility and plasticity of the human brain. We are amazing beings and the more we become aware of what we are capable, the better we become. When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had retinal cancer in both eyes. After chemotherapy and radiation failed, surgeons removed both his eyes. For Ben, vision was gone forever. But by the time he was seven years old, he had devised a technique for decoding the world around him: he clicked with his mouth and listened for the returning echoes. This method enabled Ben to determine the locations of open doorways, people, parked cars, garbage cans, and so on. He was echolocating: bouncing his sound waves off objects in the environment and catching the reflections to build a mental model of his surroundings. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jocelyn-somers/support

When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had retinal cancer in both eyes. After chemotherapy and radiation failed, surgeons removed both his eyes. For Ben, vision was gone forever. But by the time he was seven years old, he had devised a technique for decoding the world around him: he clicked with his mouth and listened for the returning echoes.

Today Pete speaks to Ben Ivey, a coach and speaker who works with ‘overwhelmed’ entrepreneurs to live a great lifestyle and reach business success. They talk about entrepreneurship, mindset, vulnerability and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Overwhelm is different for everybody. It comes in a variety of different forms. For a lot of us it is down to technology and always being ‘switched on’. It’s easy for business owners to become overwhelmed when they are focusing on all the different areas of the business and not taking care of their own needs. For Ben, Fire in the Belly is what drives you when you get out of bed in the morning. Ben as a coach, focuses on what gives people long term benefit that is sustainable. As well as being inspiring on stage Ben always wanted to be humorous when speaking. It’s something he hasn’t completely mastered but already he is feeling the benefit of working it into his speaking. Ben had a very fortunate childhood but found it hard to connect with people as a young child. But when he became a teenager he felt he came into his own, particularly after his parents divorced and he took more ‘ownership’ of himself. Ben started entrepreneurship at an early age, he ran his first ‘business’ in school, selling confectionary from his locker! Part of Ben’s strength came from having to be strong for his family after the suicide of his father when he was in his early twenties. The best coaches in the world deliver what people want but they also give people what they really need. BEST MOMENTS  “I’m not perfect, no one is, but the cool thing is I have a lot of tools that help keep me on track and stop me going into downwards spirals that I definitely did previously” “Why is it you do what you do, what are you passionate about? And what gets you through the tough times?” “I became a rock and emotionally hardened to that” “There are a lot of people in my life that have helped inspire me and have helped me become the man I am today” VALUABLE RESOURCES Subscribe to Fire In The Belly Podcast on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-in-the-belly/id1499375061) ABOUT THE GUEST Ben Ivey Coach and Speaker based in the UK https://www.ben-ivey.com/overcome-overwhelm/#! ABOUT THE HOST The ‘Mighty Pete Lonton’ from the ‘Mighty 247’ company is your main host of ‘Fire In The Belly’.  Pete is an Entrepreneur, Mentor, Coach, Property Investor, and father of 3 beautiful girls. Pete’s background is in Project Management and Property, but his true passion is the ‘Fire in The Belly’ project itself. His mission is to help others find their potential and become the mightiest version of themselves. Pete openly talks about losing both of his parents, suffering periods of depression, business downturn and burn-out, and ultimately his years spent not stoking ‘Fire In the Belly’. In 2017, at 37 years of age that changed, and he is now on a journey of learning, growing, accepting, and inspiring others. Pete can connect with people and intuitively asks questions to reveal a person’s passion and discover how to live their mightiest life. The true power of ‘Fire In The Belly’ is the Q&A’s - Questions and Actions! The ‘Fire In The Belly’ brand and the programme is rapidly expanding into podcasts, seminars, talks, business workshops, development course, and rapid results mentoring. CONTACT METHOD https://www.facebook.com/mightypetelonton/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mightypete https://www.facebook.com/groups/430218374211579/ Support the show: https://www.facebook.com/groups/430218374211579/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What was it like to form memories in 2020? For Ben and Courtney, things were far more vivid when we were still able to travel, so this first half of our annual "Remember When" is heavy on January. Have our thoughts on ATP Cup changed with the passage of time? And how about those donations to the Australian bushfire relief? Where were we when we realized coronavirus was going to be serious? And how did our outlook on the year and our lives shift?Part 2, which covers April to the present, out later this week! Happy Holidays! Thank you again for the incredible support for NCR we've received this year on the NCR Patreon! If you'd like to join in as we bring you the best shows we can each week, check out our five tiers and see which might be right for you! And thank you to the many listeners who have already given their support! (And thank you to G.O.A.T. backers J O'D, Mike, Nicole Copeland, Anna Welinder, and Pam Shriver!) As always, thanks for following us on Twitter and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

The "Dirty Sons of Pitches" took extra time to deliver an extra helping of their podcast right before a holiday known for people gorging themselves. The gents are sharing another pairing of Movies That Made Us, films that had a formative impact on who they are, and this family edition looks at movies that their dads still guilt them over having seen in the theater for their children. For Ben it's the 1997 Power Rangers movie "Turbo," and for Nate it's the 1990 sequel "The Never Ending Story Part II." Both sequels, both bad, and both dads are right to continue holding this over their sons' heads. Available on Apple and Spotify Check us out at Patreon.com/dirtysonsofpitches Episode 284 includes: -Disney is trying to rewrite copyright law... again. -"Wonder Woman 1984" coming to you on streaming now and theaters if you'd prefer COVID. -"Christmas musical Jingle Jangle" confounds Ben. -"Run" is a lean, mean thriller but not much more. -The Movies That Made Us -- Films Our Dads Still Guilt Us Over! -Ben discusses the woeful Power Rangers big screen sequel/reboot "Turbo" and has no fun whatsoever. -Nate shares the 1990 sequel to the classic "Never Ending Story" that is quite far from classic.

What makes you tick? Is it a backcountry trip in the foothills of Montana? How about a boat ride out to the fishing grounds? For Ben, finding his drift came in the form of an apparel brand dedicated to the outdoor community. In this week’s episode, I had the great fortune to catch up with Ben Shuptrine, the creator of Drift Dog Outfitters. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Ben, where we touch on the importance of the outdoors, his process for creating designs, and of course, what it means to find your drift. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter and give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Dirty Sons of Pitches" are back and revealing the movies that helped to shape them as young adults and lovers of cinema, and this week The Movies That Made Us features coming-of-age tales that left an impression. For Ben, it's 1995's "Angus," and for Nate, it's 1993's ensemble dramedy "Dazed and Confused." Available on Apple and Spotify Check us out at Patreon.com/dirtysonsofpitches Episode 282 includes: -New Marvel TV casting news ahoy with Moon Knight and She Hulk. -Would you buy a James Bond movie for... $600 million? -Ben cannot follow "Over the Moon" where it goes. -"The Trial of the Chicago 7" and "Borat 2" are political movies of relevance and both worth watching. -Movies That Made Us -- Coming of Age Connections -Ben shares 1995's "Angus" about a fat kid trying to find his place in school and win over his crush. It's more than a kick-ass soundtrack and unfairly forgotten. -Nate shares Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," a hangout movie about the last day of school in 1976, with over a dozen characters, and Ben couldn't stand it.

Ben and Samantha binged the entire Hulu series Helstrom in order to talk about it before Halloween! This conversation starts with a SPOILER-FREE review, to see if they recommend it and who they recommend it to! So was it good? Is it even MCU? Is it worth watching? We talk about it here! For Ben, […]

The truth is, if I’d known what Cicada was going to be about, I’m not sure I would have watched the film.  I would have read the three sentence synopsis and surmised that it would be too painful, too grueling and that it would break my heart - and it was, and it did.  Though, beyond the stomach-knots and frustrated tears, there is so much beauty and love I would have otherwise missed.  To me, the cliche of having to know pain to know joy is only sometimes true.  There is nothing purposeful or deserving about any of this, which just sort of ends up making me want to go find a few people depicted in this movie and slash their tires, but I digress. Deep Breaths… Let me tell you about Cicada (Disclaimer: I was really hoping to find a Wiki link to the plot synopsis, because a writer I am not.  Also, as a straight, cis, white woman, I’m feeling particularly fraudulent.  That said, Cicada deserves to be represented in the best way. And alas, there isn’t a Wiki page, but it’s important to me that you know about this film, so here we go, and I am ever-so sorry in advance.) Cicada is a queer love story that follows Ben (Matthew Fifer) who is the co-writer/director of the film.  Fifer plays a fictionalized version of himself and allows us to watch the story of his own very personal struggles unfold.  It’s alluded to early on that something has happened to Fifer as a child, through a series of brief flashbacks. The film opens with a pretty intense montage of Ben’s numerous sexual encounters (TMI, but I’ve dated ~4 people in my life, so after the first 20 minutes, it did take me a bit of time to scrape my jaw off the floor). For Ben, it’s not about who, but more about how much and how often.  Beyond this, Ben feels perpetually ill (you’re unsure if it’s legit or hypochondria, but what matters is that he doesn't feel well) and continuously looks for ways to self-medicate (in ways your Doctor would not recommend).  There is reprieve, as we are introduced to some of Ben’s family. His Mom, Debbie (Sandra Bauleo) is overtly supportive of Ben’s sexuality and his sister, Amber (Jazmin Grace Grimaldi) talks about Ben’s conquests with breezy indifference. In what seems like Ben's next potential sexual encounter, we meet Sam (Sheldon D. Brown), who is the co-writer/director of the film.  Sam is a young Black man who is walking a seemingly endless tightrope of shaping his public persona to align himself for corporate success and getting comfortable with his personal identity as a gay black man.  We also come to find that Sam has not shared his sexuality with his family. While disheartening, it leads to one of my favorite scenes of the movie, when the couple has dinner with Sam’s father (Michael Potts). The meeting of Ben and Sam is where the film pivots.  For a while, the melancholy seems to melt away.  Suddenly you’re swept up in the swirl of fresh starts and the possibilities that come when you meet a person you really connect with.  I would compare what comes next to how I felt watching Before Sunrise.  It's breezy and conversational, you know, when you’re still figuring each others’ favorite foods and colors (before you discover they pre-soak their dishes for 48 hours and they have weird tics about leaving the car keys in a small bowl on your kitchen counter).  You are a fly on the wall of a budding connection and if almost feels as if you're intruding on their intimate experience. The couple faces a lot together.  Each must grapple with their respective traumas and discover their paths towards emotional and physical healing. Deeper Breaths… Let me tell you about Matt Fifer There were only 14 tiny hours between watching Cicada and sitting down to talk to the film’s writer, director and star, whose life the film was based on.  My emotions were still tangled with anger and frustration, hope and admiration.  Fifer was quick to point out that this is not just his story.  It’s Sheldon Brown’s story. It’s co-director Kieran Mulcare’s story.  And you know what, it’s my story too. And it’s your story.  We all have things about ourselves we’re afraid to share, for fear of how people will react.  Our inclination is to think the deeper we bury something the less it will consume us.  But instead, the catharsis ends up being in our vulnerability. I’m still reeling from Cicada’s honesty. In our chat with Fifer, I wanted to touch on his goals in making the film.  Was it to normalize queer or interracial relationships or was it a personal catharsis for his experienced trauma? Before I had a chance to get there, Fifer was quick to share that this project was something that he needed to do.  His vulnerability. His catharsis. This was the point in the interview where I almost shared my plans to slash tires and hand out some free knuckle sandwiches, but I kept my cool. Instead, I offered what I hope you will also offer this film: admiration for the film’s truth and vulnerability and reverence for bringing a voice to those who have not yet found their own.

On the show today we have conscious filmmaker, musician, mystery guide and life coach, Ben Joseph Stewart! Apart from recently working with Pete on the docu-series The Magic Plant, Ben has made many amazing and important films that explore the subjects that present themselves to him. He is a big believer in seeking the truth, following intuition and allowing the stories he tells to come to light in the most powerful way possible. Ben is also dedicated to sprinkling his films with silver linings and positive calls to action — he does not want to produce only doom and gloom!For Ben, it is about changing the narrative and framing the conversation, on perspectives that might get overlooked or even covered up. In this episode, we hear from him about his personal journey of discovery, a bit about each of his different projects and how he has managed to stay afloat through all of life's challenges. We cover a vast array of topics, touching on the importance of sleep and dreams, staying present and mindful, and dealing with information overload.We also unpack Ben's connection and adoration of nature and how he seeks to present natural beauty and the wisdom it has to offer us. Ben is generous enough to share some of his sacred practices around cannabis use and how he views the idea of ceremony. We finish off the chat with a meditation on the state of the world right now and some of the nefarious agendas that are coming to the surface as a result of the so-called pandemic!I’d love to know your thoughts and experiences - join the conversation on my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/paleochefpeteevans. For more episodes of Evolve, find us on iTunes at https://apple.co/2NpsIba, Spotify at https://spoti.fi/2NpSiN0, Acast at https://play.acast.com/s/pete-evans, click the link on https://peteevans.com, or just look up "Evolve" in your favourite podcast app. I'd love to spread the knowledge in these podcasts far and wide. If you liked this episode, I'd love it if you could share it with your friends, and perhaps even leave a review on iTunes. This podcast is proudly presented by The Institute For Integrative Nutrition, or IIN for short. I've completed this amazing health training course through IIN, and I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone wanting to start a career in the health coaching and wellness space.This course is conducted over a year long period and it's constructed in a way that if you're a full time worker or a busy parent or wherever you are in your life will still be able to complete all the required curriculum and modules. Please see the link included in this post on my Facebook or Instagram page or on iTunes, to access the free sample class and first module of the program, to get a great taste of the format and structure as well as utilise my special discount that I can offer you if you decide to sign up.Make sure you tell the admission team that you're part of the Pete Evans tuition savings to claim your very substantial discount visit https://www.integrativenutrition.com For more information on high quality essential oils and to register with doTERRA please visit https://petehlc.com/pete For information on Waters Co Filters and... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jen and Sandi have an in-depth conversation with Ben Harris, President of Production Solutions, about how to be an effective leader when leading a primarily remote workforce. Ben shares his experience, insights and strategies after having transitioned his company to over 70% remote working in 2015. For Ben's website, Click Here For Sandi's website, Click Here For Jen's website, Click Here

On this week's Pig Wrestling podcast we are joined by Ben Milhench. Ben offers his unique insights into the sporting world, as he played both professional ice hockey and golf before beginning a flourishing career in professional sport. A self-confessed highly motivated, intelligent and enthusiastic person, Ben sets high standards for himself, whether that's playing sport, studying sports companies or raising his 16-month old, Freddy. For over 6 years Ben has lived with Freddy and his wife Charlotte in Beverly. To his name, Ben has a series of awards and accolades, including England and Great Britain International Ice Hockey Player, Assistant Captain Great Britain under 18’s Ice Hockey Team, East Riding and Yorkshire Golf Team member, member of the Grey Goose Gateway and Hooters tour and former member of the Professional Golfers Association. Despite this list of achievements, Ben has a self-deprecating view of his sporting career. He confesses on our podcast, "I was an ice hockey player turned professional golfer. Turns out I was shit at both, and then started working in professional sport and have done ever since." When Ben's time as a professional golfer ended, he did not view the end of his professional golfing career as a loss. Rather, he saw it as an opportunity. "I've believed throughout my career is as soon as one door closes, another one opens." For Ben, another door did well and truly open as he began a successful career in the business side of professional sport. He reveals on our podcast a quote he has always lived by is "you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." He continues to use this phrase to inspire his life and encourages our listeners to "take, take. Don't be afraid to throw yourself out there." Many people don't shoot their shot due to fear of rejection, but Ben takes a unique view of this. "I was always scared of the word no. And evidently, that's the best word in the world. Because if somebody says, no, you don't have to waste your time on them anymore." Listen to this week's podcast with Ben Milhench as we cover everything from the importance of following your gut to the cheap purchase that keeps his toddler endlessly entertained. Sponsored by: Moodbeam, Hopen, Talk suicide Powered By: Think Cloud

Being a parent for the first time is such a special, exciting, and challenging time. You go through a healthy pregnancy and dream of the moment you can snuggle up to the little one. For Ben and his wife Laura, it was no different. They eagerly awaited the arrival of their first child, Jonas. In the midst of the jubilation, joy, and overwhelming love they had for Jonas, the doctors realized right away that there were challenges ahead for Jonas’s vision. Always entrepreneurial, and now new parents, Ben and Laura’s story of creating beauty out of their challenges is inspiring. In this episode you’ll hear about their journey through healthcare and ultimately founding Jonas Paul Eyewear… so millions of children around the world will be impacted by their blindness prevention programs, and millions of littles are full of style.

We almost called this episode "Robocop 4: The future of security law enforcement", but we actually hope that movie happens so we didn't want to jinx it...But security law is our prime directive today, as on this episode we have an interview with Tanya Forsheit, partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz and co-chair of the firm's privacy & data security group. Tanya is considered one of the world's leading data privacy and security counselors and litigators. During our chat, we talk about why the United States needs a privacy law at the federal level, similar to what the European Union has done with GDPR. We also talk about what the future holds for data privacy in the next 12-24 months, within the context of COVID-19 and an increasing amount of IoT devices. Tanya is also highly experienced in data breach incidents, and is often involved in data rescue operations for her clients. So she has some great views on response planning and business continuity.Before that, Noureen brings us some fascinating stories from her recent mentor and mentee workshop sessions, including how people who were made redundant back in March at the start of lockdown have been able to find new jobs in the cybersecurity industry. We also have a chat about careers and job descriptions, and why perhaps more thought needs to go into some of those descriptions in order to attract more people who are passionate about the industry.For our "Emerging Threats" section Ben has been doing some very in depth research into the ransomware variant "WastedLocker". He talks about the nuances of this attack and how the bad actors spread across the network to further compromise additional systems until all the key systems are under their control. You can read more in his blog here.And finally for "On this Day" our time travel machine takes us back to 2003, and the story of the Blaster worm. For Ben, this was a trial by fire as he had just started work in a threat intelligence company and this was his first project. Hear him relive some not so fond memories!

Are you a burpees in the morning person or more of an evening run person? Or maybe like us, you're more of a snacking during Netflix person! For Ben and Felicity, the founders of TotalFit Brighton, fitness isn't just about staying physically in shape, but also about justice and community. Join Dan, Kat and Chris as they build up a sweat, talking all things fitness and justice. The post Ep 36 – Finding justice in the gym with Ben & Felicity appeared first on We Are Tearfund.

We met Ben on Day 207 of the 366 day journey of meeting someone new every day. Ben told us that when he was very young he thought about how he wanted to live his life and how he could have an impact, and came to the conclusion that it's all about people so he wanted to dedicate his life to serving people. At 21, Ben was required to write a book to finish his Degree and asked himself the question "What do I know, I'm only 21?" ⠀⠀He then left College and went into service and we were amazed by all the things he did; Nurse, Medic, Police Officer, Crisis Worker and Hostage Negotiator are only some of Ben's achievements! After experiencing life more, Ben did write a book.⠀⠀Ben is now founder and host of Get Up Nation Podcast, where he interviews people who have faced adversity and challenge, to help people build resilience and learn to turn their struggles into strengths and grow from them and become grateful. For Ben, helping people through that transformation is an honour.

In today’s episode we’re chatting with Ben Barnes. This British actor (and skilled musician) has charmed audiences as the heroic prince in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and surprised them as the enigmatic Logan Delos in HBO’s science fiction thriller Westworld. His love for storytelling began early: on stage performing with the National Youth Music Theatre. Since then his career has told the story of an artist who possesses true grit, a love for craft, and a desire to explore whatever he hasn’t done. He shares how blind persistence landed him his first agent, and how a secret injury helped him create one of his most recognizable roles. For Ben, perspective and perseverance is key. Moving through the peaks and valleys of this industry requires trusting what you have to offer and choosing to be empowered regardless of circumstance. And that’s exactly what Ben continues to do. His work includes an array of diverse film and TV credits such as Easy Virtue, By The Gun, Seventh Son, Big Wedding, Sons of Liberty, The Punisher, Gold Digger and a lead role on Netflix’s soon to be series Shadow and Bone. Guest links: INSTAGRAM: @benbarnes TWITTER: @benbarnes FACEBOOK: /BenBarnesOfficial EW.COM: "Netflix announces Shadow and Bone cast and fans are excited to see Ben Barnes as the Darkling" For exclusive content surrounding this and all podcast episodes, sign up for our amazing newsletter at AlyshiaOchse.com. And don't forget to snap and post a photo while listening to the show and tag me (@alyshiaochse)! Show Links: SELF-TAPE TO BOOKING: Audition Process Post-Quarantine (Use promo code TOA20 for 50% off) INSTAGRAM: @alyshiaochse INSTAGRAM: @thatoneaudition WEBSITE: AlyshiaOchse.com ITUNES: Subscribe to That One Audition on iTunes SPOTIFY: Subscribe to That One Audition on Spotify STITCHER: Subscribe to That One Audition on Stitcher Credits: WRITER: Alysia Livingston WRITER: Lizzy Dalla Betta SOUND DESIGN: Zachary Jameson WEBSITE & GRAPHICS: Chase Jennings ASSISTANT: Elle Powell SOCIAL OUTREACH: Bebe Katsenes

We got into the discussion of things we used to think were disgusting but now love. For Ben, it was mayonnaise. For Kelly, it's guacamole. The reason why we used to hate them is the kicker..

Sadly, this is our final episode of Credits Due. Thank you for enjoying us on this fun ride. I hope this podcast has brought you a new appreciation of watching or re-watching old movies as much as it has done to us. For Ben, Tyler, and Neil. Thank you. Topics Discussed on this episode: What’s the trashiest movie that you really love? National Treasure Immortals Mortal Kombat Spider-Man 3 What We're Watching Now Season 7 of Clone Wars Dave Extraction (Neil joined the Review Revue Podcast to discuss more) Tyler on Twitter at @TylerOwen and find his games at randomseedgames.com. Follow Neil on Twitter at @DinoNeilMan. Follow Ben on Twitter at @CroghanMaster and listen to his music podcast Pivotal Tracks. Follow Credits Due on Twitter at @CreditsDuePod One again. Thank you for listening.

Metal Heads! This episode is another in our tour of Kloaka Metal's 2018 best-of albums list. For Ben, this will be the first time listening to Amorphis since 1996's Elegy. What will he think of Queen of Time's significant stylistic shift? Tune in and find out. Also, as a bonus, Tracey does his best Andre 3000.

This is the final episode of the beach series, the first covering the power of masterminds. If you haven’t started looking into getting into your own mastermind, you are missing a huge opportunity for your business. The second covered innovation in the bookkeeping industry and making sure we are prepared and ready for the developments coming in the next six months. [1:00] Reflection is crucial. Take the time to get away from the daily grind, turn off your electronic devices, and escape. The only tools that Ben takes with him when going into reflection time are a pad of paper and a pen. [1:40] Go into your time of reflection with a single thing you want to think about. For Ben, his focus has been on how he can better serve bookkeeping professionals. Ben believes that if he focuses on that aspect of the business first, the profitability will fall into place. [2:30] What is your vision for your business? Articulate it in several ways and then just sit back and think. Don’t worry about your thoughts wandering, just be aware of your focus and be disciplined in bringing it back to the thought exercise at hand. [3:05] Taking a day away to reflect is very powerful and it will move the needle on your business, but the same exercise can also be used in other areas of your life. No matter when you choose to reflect, make sure you are in a distraction-free environment away from where you have your routine. [3:50] Even taking just five minutes to reflect on the heavy stuff is very important. It leads to clarity and allows you to grow personally and professionally. [4:05] Masterminds, innovation, and reflection are powerful tools that will put you ahead of the curve and reveal opportunities that you didn’t know existed.

Ben Bailey and Marc share a particular gripe as comics. Both of them became widely known for beloved projects they started doing on a whim. For Ben it was Cash Cab, for Marc it was this podcast. And as much as they love those projects, they really just wanted to be known as stand-ups. Ben tells Marc how he got his start answering phones at The Comedy Store and how he really wanted to be a marine biologist before he got into comedy. He also describes his lifelong fascination with fish tanks and other tank-based aquatic environments. This episode is sponsored by the Unspooled podcast.

Today we have a special edition for you! WHY IS THAT? Because we are handing the keys over to a guest host today! The guest host is Ben Muell, a Living Sport Advisory Board Member and program mentor, who has spent years working as a sport business professional in the collegiate and Minor league baseball industries. For Ben’s first Living Sport Podcast hosting gig, he chose to take it to the next level and record Living Sport’s first international guest! In this episode, Ben chats with his former colleague and close friend Kate Orme, from Perth, Australia. Kate is currently the Digital and Social Media Producer with the West Coast Eagles Australian Football team. We will dig into what exactly the sport of Australian Football is and how Kate made a career out of it in more ways than one! We have a great episode for you but we can’t ignore the terrible bushfire crisis that Australia is currently going through. These fires have burned more than 17 million acres of land affecting more than 2,000 homes. If you are able, we encourage you to please support Kate and millions of other Australians by making a donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief of Australia at redcross.org.au. Are you ready to learn more about Kate and the makeup of sport in Australia? Sit back, relax and take a listen to Ben and Kate!

We’ve all had shady clients. The question is what you should do when encounter one? For Ben, he gets rid of them as quickly as possible. [1:15] There isn’t an easy solution if a shady client makes up a good portion of your business’s revenue, but working with an unscrupulous person can put your business in jeopardy. [1:45] The first signs of a shady client will come up when you’re marketing. When you connect with a potential client, you should try and get a sense of how they feel about taxes. [2:10] Everybody should avoid taxes as much as possible, but there’s a big difference between avoidance and evasion. If the person insinuates an interest in evading taxes, walk away. [3:10] If your potential client is hiding something, that means they are lying, and if they are lying to the IRS, do you think they are going to have a problem lying to you? [3:30] When you’re consulting with these clients, look for things that are off. But if they are already a client and things start to feel wrong, there are some steps you can take. [4:00] If you start to see warning signs, the first thing to do is to document it and bring it to their attention. First, assume they don’t know and get them on the phone. It may be an innocent mistake, but if it’s not, you’re going to want to call out your client immediately. [6:15] Ben’s general rule of thumb is one mistake can slide, but if they make a second “mistake”, that’s a pattern and that’s the end of the relationship. Even if the shady things seem small, if you’re seeing them more than once, you should end your relationship with that client. [7:00] It’s okay to get rid of shady clients. You don’t need to serve them. Most people are fine, but for people that want to pull something over, it’s okay to turn them down. Handle them with care when severing the relationship, and consult an attorney if you need to. [8:20] You want to work with quality clients that respect you, that respect the laws, and obey everything that they are supposed to.

#ALB 58 – The PE teacher who climbed a mountain (or six...)  Who is Ben Knight?.... Ben Knight is the founder of High 5 Sports and Activity Camps. There's a saying: all who wander are not lost. This would probably be a good way to describe Ben's life so far. Wanderlust means a strong desire to travel. And this is certainly something that Ben can relate to. The planning, challenges, new experiences, that feeling of stepping out of the comfort zone is and has always been something which both excites and scares him in equal measure. Be it through travel, extreme sports or more recently, endurance sports challenges. Ben is one of our One percenters and has several businesses, including sports camps, bubble football and tennis coaching. He's also a qualified Bodyboarding instructor, Ultimate Frisbee leader, Beach Lifeguard and is mountain medicine trained. He has run two half-marathons and a full one too, in aid of charity, an alternative triathlon, doing stand-up paddleboard, bike and run. Ben has won several tennis double tournaments and represented his county, Devon as a Junior and a Veteran. He's been bodyboarding and snowboarding all over the planet for the last 25 years. And most recently climbed the six highest peaks in six different countries, raising money for a local charity. One Life, Live it….. Ben has always had a real lust for life. A passion to sort of see and do many things, there's so much he wants to see and visit and places he wants to go. There are also many things that Ben wants to accomplish. And he sometimes feels there's not enough time to a certain extent. And every year that ticks by and every time he has to waste time on things that he doesn’t want to be doing, he thinks to himself there is so much other stuff that he wants to be doing. So, Ben makes changes in his work to try to help to facilitate that and tick off as many things on his bucket list as possible. Ultimate Frisbee Ben has launched Ultimate Frisbee in his holiday camps which is proving to be a big hit. It is a game aimed at older kids as you need to be slightly more competent in throwing the frisbee. Ben tells us the secrets and tactics to throwing the ultimate frisbee, he says getting the frisbee to go where you want it to go, get it to go straight. If you don't hold the disc flat, it curves, good players use that angle to make it curve around people, to teammates. But if you can't get it flat and get it to go straight then that tends to be where people come unstuck. Ben the traveller Travel is a BIG thing for Ben, which stemmed from his childhood, his father was a PE teacher and every year would organise the school skiing trip, as soon as Ben could pretty much walk he was on a ski slope two to three months of the year. Ben would then spend the week skiing in the Alps. Ben grew up to be a confident skier, and by his own admission took it for granted that not everybody skied for three months of the year, on the dry slope and then went somewhere snowy. It was only when Ben got older and met people who couldn't ski that he suddenly realised that actually his dad's job and the free places he got on the ski trip was really a kind of lucky thing to be able to do. Ben fell in love with the mountains from those experiences. The travel probably was linked to his love of the beach and the sea. And the fact that the best waves, in this country, are in the coldest conditions. The colder and stormier it is, the better the surf is, but he think’s of the West Sea. Ben also has a love for surfing and has surfed the waves in Belize. Ben has developed a tolerance of the cold, more than a love, and tells us that some of the products out now are amazing for example, dry rayon towels, they're really thick, they're not cheap, but it makes a huge difference getting changed, because a lot of it's wind chill. Given the choice even with his towel, cold or Belize, Ben say’s it would be Belize, any day. What's Ben’s main business normally about? Ben is slowly moving away from tennis coaching, which has always been his profession. Ben runs multi-sport holiday camps for children, called High 5 Sports Camps. And they run out of three sites now, in Devon. Ben would like to see that grow and really develop. It’s the key thing he spends a lot of his time on. Ben also acquired, Bubble Football, which if anybody doesn't know what Bubble Football is, they're giant inflatable balls that you get inside, your legs poke out the bottom, you have a harness and some hand straps. Then you run into other people and bash each other with a high chance of landing upside down! A real laugh out loud game. Ben has moved away from being the face of the business or being the business certainly with the tennis coaching side of things, he’s done it for twenty years, so it has been a big part of his life. But as the business grew, it become all about him and his business partner.They were the faces and the ones that everybody wanted, but there are so many hours in one day, so they decided to bring on new people but those people wouldn't be as passionate or they wouldn't be as trained. There's quite a few hoops to jump through to be a qualified tennis coach, so, finding staff, training staff, keeping staff, was a challenge as well. When did it all change? For Ben, it all changed when he had children. When Ben’s first child was born, his hours on the tennis programme were 7:15 to 8:45, four mornings a week, before school and some adult stuff during the day, admin in the afternoon and then coach 4:00 'til 7:00pm after school, coach all Saturday morning 'til 2:00 in the afternoon. And he suddenly realised that he had a son that didn't really know him ,and his wife was single person parenting and that wasn't sustainable long term. Ben’s mind set started to change and he started to think that perhaps, he needed to find a different way. Ben feels it doesn't matter how much money you've got, your time is more valuable to kids than any amount of money or any five-star holiday. “I think for me, it took me a little while to suddenly realise that my presence was more important. And as I started to realise that, that was the big thing for me.” So what does an Ambitious Lifestyle Business look like to Ben? For Ben, it's the freedom of time and that doesn't mean all his time because everybody has to do something otherwise you would be retired. It's the freedom of time to be able to make choices about when he works and that doesn't mean that he doesn’t ever want to work. Ben is happy to be put into situations where, at certain times of the year, he has to work. This includes working long hours at some points, but actually, for periods of the year, he is able to step back and say “okay I'm going to do the school run every day” or  ”I'm going to spend the weekends with my family” or  “We're going to book those holidays and we're going to spend some time at the beach or we can spend some time in the mountains”. “I'm happy to work hard as long as I can play hard”. Time to climb a mountain… Ben has recently completed six peaks in six different countries over a 2-month period. Ben wanted to do something BIG for his 40thand has spent many evenings, looking up at Mont Blanc and talking about the fact that it's a pretty impressive mountain, he has talked many times about climbing it. Initially it was only going to be the one mountain, that was until Ben met Ruth from a charity called Families for Children and it all changed!! To find out what Ben did click play…….. For links to everything we talk about, including the video recording of the episode and transcription of everything we talked about, head over to the show notes at bigidea.co.uk/podcast. And to watch the LIVE recording of each episode of the Ambitious. Lifestyle. Business. Podcast, join our Facebook Group for FREE - you can then watch our ugly mugs in glorious technicolour every month, as well as get BONUS in-between-isodes, and direct access to both of us to ask any questions about this, or any other episode.

In our first ever conversation, Ben Haggard of Regenesis Group shares his history with and perspective on permaculture. This episode catalysed waves of reflection that are blowing my mind. Yes, I was struck with the profound clarity and depth of what Ben shared. Then the sheer resonance of the relevance to exactly where Making Permaculture Stronger is at - well that pretty much knocked me off my seat. You could say I'm still climbing back up off the floor :-). I don't know about you, dear listener/reader, but I have the real sense that this conversation is itself a nodal intervention in Making Permaculture Stronger's ongoing evolution. It is like I can feel the energy shifting and growing and generatively transforming throughout my entire being and hence the being of this project. New levels of Will are awakening. I mean I use the terms potential and development (who doesn't) and before this chat I would have said I had a fairly clear, coherent grasp on what they are. Not any more. I was almost dazzled by the clarity Ben gives these terms in a way that resonates deep in my bones. Then, when he spoke about the idea of permaculture's originating impulse, well, game over. Let me pen a few reflections on each. Potential After decades of experience and reflection in collaboration with a tight-knit community of practice, Ben has reached a fascinating perspective on what potential is. As I understand him, he sees the potential (or the possible contribution) of something as existing in the tension between that thing's deep, enduring, inherent character and the ever-changing reality of the context in which it is nested and in particular what this context calls for in this particular "historical and evolutionary moment." To identify the potential of a farm, a garden, a person, a family, a business, an organisation, a blog project, we need to ask: what is the unique character of this being? thenwhat is currently called for in the immediate, local, and greater wholes it is nested within?, andwhat could happen here that would harmonise these two things? Which brings us to... Development Clearly, potential often remains latent. For Ben, development is then the practice of actually revealing and manifesting the potential inherent in something, which involves removing anything in the way and becoming more and more relevant and valuable to context. Originating Impulse When Ben first mentioned this phrase late in our chat, I knew immediately it was going to inform my very next steps with Making Permaculture Stronger. So take this as a sneak preview where I'd invite you to start sitting in the space of this all-important question: what was permaculture's originating impulse? Please don't rush - take your time with this - there will be space to chime in with what arises for you very soon. One thing here I'd invite if you come across any sound bites or text that speaks of this originating impulse to you, especially if from the early days of permaculture, please send it through to me and I may well include it in the upcoming post. Other Notable Threads what Ben said about permaculture's usual initiation/conversion experiences and how these can make it very difficult to bring the ideas into one's existing ways of working I think was well worth further exploration. I mention it here as a reminder to come back to this in future as appropriate. Any thoughts?This idea of the word place as a rare world in English in that it includes people, landscape etc etc...the idea that if you can be with a person or other living entity as it is, you are taking it as whole (as opposed to our default pattern of fragmenting things by paying attention to their various attributes) Links to Stuff Ben is involved in Visit Regenesis Group here.Learn about the Regenerative Practitioner Training here.Learn about the book Ben wrote with Pamela Mang here (Regenerative Development & Design: A Framework for Evolving ...

Erin has had her bookkeeping business for just over a year. She was a stay-at-home mom facing a divorce and needed to figure out something flexible and lucrative. In many ways, bookkeeping seemed too good to be true. [3:00] Erin was formerly a school teacher, so she never had any experience with bookkeeping before getting into the business. After getting into Ben’s program, she had an aha moment where it all came together. Bookkeeping is like learning a language; it takes some time and has a bit of a learning curve, but it can be done. [5:45] Erin is currently serving seven clients, with word-of-mouth being the main way she landed each of them. One of the major things she did early on was to get in touch with a local Vermont bookkeeper to vet the course, and that relationship has yielded three clients so far. [6:50] There is a lot of job security for bookkeepers who know what they’re doing. [7:15] Erin would love to build a team. She wants to grow her business and build her empire, but she isn’t 100% positive on what that ultimate vision looks like yet. Her main question today is knowing how much work to take on at any given time. [9:40] Erin has almost been burned by taking on too much, especially as a single mom. You can only stretch yourself so thin before it becomes a problem. [10:40] Never ever stop marketing. That doesn’t have to mean spending money or that you have to take on the clients though. Be selective with the clients you choose continually marketing will take you off the roller coaster. [12:05] Taking on a new client will always involve a learning curve, but that can be minimized by implementing processes and systems. [13:45] Another option to reduce your potential workload is to raise your fees. For Ben, he has a rule of thumb where approximately 25% of prospective clients don’t want to work with him because of his fees. If everybody is accepting your price, you can probably raise your fees. [15:45] Erin doesn’t even have a website yet. If you are landing clients already, don’t worry too much about not having a website until a prospective client turns you down because of it. There are a number of simple options that will get your business online in the course of an afternoon. [17:55] If you’re not having people complain about the lifestyle you’re leading, you’re not growing too fast. If you can’t meet deadlines, that means you’re probably growing too fast. Unless you have those problems, keep growing. [19:25] Stagger your potential clients and start them at different times. Temper their expectations right at the beginning so that you aren’t wasting their time or yours. You can make clients wait if you have to. It lets them know that you are in demand and are upfront with everything. [22:30] Client compliance is a common issue that Erin is facing, especially with onboarding. Start with a specific checklist for the client verifying what you need. You can also schedule a future one-hour call with the client where you can get everything you need all at once. If you don’t have everything, you can’t start the work. If you make that clear, you will put a fire under them to get what you asked for. [27:00] One of the biggest things that people don’t like is the pain involved in switching bookkeepers. If you can make that painless by helping them through the process, you’ll have much more success. [27:30] When Ben’s doing the marketing, he likes to put them in situations that he’s going to be experiencing with them when they are his clients. It’s like dating and marriage; the client is probably going to be a bit better during the courting phase so it’s good to know what you’re getting yourself into. [28:50] You can have the best processes and efficiencies, but if your client is the bottleneck, everything suffers. [29:30] Don’t shy from charging a setup fee. Make that part of your engagement letter. If people continue to drag their feet, you can call the whole thing off. This is something about which they have to be serious. [31:15] Don’t think in terms of people; think in terms of tasks. Do the task audit and hire a VA who can take those tasks off your plate. Don’t go out and hire a bookkeeper right off the bat. [33:10] In many ways, the business is like a puzzle where you are putting the money-making pieces together to make everything easier.

Ben Golden lives in Thomasville, Alabama, which is a town of only 1800 people. He sold his practice in Florida five years ago and purchased a construction company, but he wanted to get back into the business, just not the compliance side. He saw Michael’s program, but had some major concerns about living in a rural area. [4:00] Ben’s original practice did the things that a traditional accounting firm would do other than auditing. Buying the construction company was a lucky move for Ben but he couldn’t get away from his love of helping people with their taxes, he just wanted to get out of the compliance game. [5:45] When Ben got out of college he worked for a regional firm in San Francisco for a few years before moving back to Alabama and buying his first accounting practice. He grew that business pretty quickly, but the trouble came when he agreed to sign a client’s payroll account. [6:50] The client didn’t pay his payroll taxes and the agent at the IRS failed to follow procedures correctly and started chasing Ben to cover the $170,000 in taxes the client owed. Ben looked into the procedures and learned that she had acted inappropriately, which led him to push back on the IRS and speak to the agent’s territory manager. [10:00] The final result was that the agent was pulled off the case and given a 30-day suspension. The client subsequently went out of business and only paid $35,000 of the total amount. Ben didn’t have to pay anything that he was originally assessed for. [11:30] If we see something that’s not fair, we stand up and fight. What the IRS tried to do to Ben was criminal and is an example of what makes tax resolution and IRS representation so important. [12:20] The IRS essentially violated all of Ben’s privacy rights, which is why he was compelled to pursue the issue. Ben has also had experience having his tax identity stolen a few years prior. [15:00] When Ben purchased the Tax Domination system, he wanted to plan and set his company up for the greatest amount of success he could. He studied the material in the program for several months before even starting his business. [17:40] Ben landed his first client at the end of 2017 and it was a $25,000 case. That first client proved to Ben that he could make some real money in this business while also helping people who really needed it. [19:30] This past August was Ben’s biggest month ever with over $100,000 in revenue. He projects that he will generate about $300,000 by the end of his second full year in business. Ben operates completely remotely so all communication with clients is done over the internet. [20:50] Ben has been focused on the lessons in the Tax Resolution system and implementing them the same way as Michael said to do, with some minor modifications due to the nature of the remote work. For Ben, the number one thing is to take a proven strategy and replicate it. [23:00] As an enrolled agent or a CPA, you don’t have to be licensed in all 50 states to operate all over the country. You just have to be in good standing in your home state. Ben currently has clients in Hawaii, California, and Alaska. The key is to have a good plan on how you want clients to come in. [24:00] Pricing is very important, it should be done in a way that you show the value of what you do instead of billing per hour. The fee schedule is a major asset. [26:30] Communication and setting expectations correctly are crucial to a positive customer experience, even if you can’t get that customer the greatest result. Clients feeling abandoned is a common problem in the industry. You need to communicate with your clients, especially when there is nothing going on with their case. [28:30] Locate your bottlenecks and do your best to clear them away. Do your best to teach every client that you work with that you work hard for them. Being a specialized technician with specialized knowledge doesn’t guarantee success any longer. [31:00] When Ben started his practice in Florida, he was charging $35 an hour for his work because he didn’t feel like he was worth more than that. Now the education he’s received has given him the confidence to charge higher rates that actually reflect the value of what he’s providing. [34:30] There are so many people that need help. There’s enough business for everybody since everyone in this country knows someone with a tax problem. The business involves hard work so bring the passion and you will find success.     Mentioned in this episode: Golden Tax Relief Michael Rozbruch's Tax & Business Solutions Academy

Design Your Life podcast E023 with Vince Frost in conversation with London Design Festival co-founder and Director, Ben Evans. One of the most influential people on the London design scene, Ben Evans co-founded the London Design Festival with Sir John Sorrell in 2003. Now in its seventeenth year, the festival has grown from 45 events and exhibitions to around 400, with over 2,000 international design businesses taking part and audiences from 75 different countries reaching almost 600,000. A true Londoner, Ben has dedicated his life to the arts. He has been a Governor of the University of the Arts London and since 2017, he has been Chairman of the Mayor's Cultural Leaders Board, a statutory advisory board to the London Mayor, and he was awarded an honorary degree from the Royal College of Art, where he graduated in 1989. For Ben, design is an “infinite number of stories to be told”. In this episode, Ben talks about the power of design as storytelling, the crisis of design education and the potential repercussions of a looming Brexit. Stay tuned for the next episode of Design Your Life featuring Umbrellium co-founder Usman Haque.  https://www.londondesignfestival.com/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation starts with a discussion opening of American football season. From sports, we enter into a conversation around music touching on the artists we enjoy or have made an impact on us. For Ben and myself, we've always connected with Tom Delonge of Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves. We also talk about concept albums; albums meant to be listened to in sequence. Erich share a recent album of Mike Posner A Real Good Kid - The album shares how Mike dealt with the lose of his father. We close with a discussion around storytelling. We mostly centered around impactful films like The Matrix, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. We talk about what makes characters compelling. Why do we enjoy characters with nuance and flaws more than black and white? Subscribe on your favorite platform: Anchor | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher | RSS Other Episodes you might like: #61 - Jordan Criss: Creating With A Purpose #45 - Ben Kapolnek: Invisible Battles #44 - Dante Brooks and Jordan Criss: Cultural Chameleons Checkout our blogs: The One Who Wears The Mask by Jordan Criss Poem - Digging the Hole by Erich Wenzel Spiraling Upwards: A Poem on Being by Joe Jackowski Connect with Us on Social Media: Twitter: @erichwenzel & @feedingcuriosity1 Instagram: @evwenzel & @feedcuriosity Facebook Page Support the podcast directly! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/feedingcuriosity/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/feedingcuriosity/support

Voices In My Head Podcast Episode 330: Ben DeLong - There's A God In My Closet: Encountering The Love Who Embraces Our Skeletons   There's a God in My Closet Encountering the Love Who Embraces Our Skeletons Author Ben DeLong Forward: Brad Jersak   Many have been taught to see God as a terrifying agent of wrath who spews anger at any sign of imperfection. At the same time, they’ve been taught that they are inherently flawed and devoid of goodness. Where does that leave us? For Ben DeLong, it left him hiding his skeletons from the monster he believed God to be. This proved to be a perfect recipe for anxiety, depression, and insecurity. But what if God accepts our skeletons? What if he actually embraces them in love? How would that change our outlook? For Ben, it changed everything. This book is about his journey to find what was always true: we are eternally embraced by God, skeletons and all, and he is never letting go   Buy The Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1532658710/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1532658710&linkCode=as2&tag=rickleejame00-20&linkId=a9a2f03a8b4aa7dac447d1327d0e8208 Ben DeLong’s Web Site: https://www.bdelong.com/ As always, thank you for listening to Voices In My Head.    About Your Host: Rick Lee James Official Web Site: www.RickLeeJames.com Get Rick Lee James Latest Album: https://fanlink.to/RLJThunder For Booking Inquiries  Click Here or contact Gary Stripling By Phone: 904.745.9151 By Email: gary@themanagementagency.com Management General Office Hours:Monday – 11Am – 5PM Tuesday – 11Am – 5PM Wednesday – Office closed Thursday – 11Am – 5PM Friday – 11AM – 5PM Saturday – 11AM – 5PM

The guys catch up first to learn about Ford’s gin being purchased by Brown Forman. The background of Ford’s gin stems from the 86 Spirits company, co-founded by Simon Ford, a  bartender forward spirits company. After starting with a variety of spirits, Ford’s gin stood above the rest and is now a part of the Brown Forman family. But let’s move onto the fantastic Paloma! Made from Jarritos grapefruit soda (or Squirt) and your favorite tequila, whether reposado or blanco, but not an anejo. But don’t forget the limes, because you need limejuice. And a grapefruit to use as a garnish. This cocktail is built in the glass. No tools necessary. A lovely tall glass, add ice, and you’re good to go! Ben talks of his first Paloma, a few years back, when he had heard of it while bartending at Cinco. So he grabbed a case of Jarritos grapefruit and tried it himself. Fast forward to today, there is a house version on draft at Cinco! Ben’s spin consists of a grapefruit liqueur, Giffard’s, a vanilla bean syrup, lime juice, spicy salt on the rim of your Collins glass, and topped with club soda. Kim on the other hand, hasn’t had many Palomas in his life, he’s more of a margarita man. Maybe he thought it was too simple, but after years of experience, simple is better. It is an old drink, but isn’t everywhere. If you look at old cocktail books, like Savoy or Jerry Thomas, there are virtually no tequila cocktails. The apocryphal version says there’s a pap, from Meehan’s, popular Cocktails of the Rio Grande by famous bartender Don Javier Corona of La Capilla in the town of Tequila. Ben went and had a famous La Botaña, a derivative of the Paloma, tequila, lime and coca cola and stirred with the same knife used to cut the lime. Don Javier has denied authorship of the pamphlet. but David Wondrich put out an artsy flip book called Killer Cocktails. He traces the origin back to a Squirt advertisement in Mexico suggested combining Squirt and Tequila. You want a tall glass and for the bubbles to travel north. For Ben’s Cinco Paloma, an ounce and a half of blanco tequila, quarter ounce of vanilla bean syrup, three quarter ounce of grapefruit liqueur and a half ounce of lime juice, topped with soda and good to go. If you’re going traditional, at home, two ounces of tequila, half an ounce of lime juice and Squirt to taste! And a salt rim. Which enhances the flavor of tequila. When you’re sipping tequila in Mexico, you’re enjoying it with Sangrita, a salty tomato-based drink. A drink that may be hard to find unless you make it yourself! Paloma means dove, a great name for a drink. Maybe do a purple Paloma and called it “When Doves Cry.” And to get the drink purple, you can buy butterfly pea blossom, dried, steep them in the tequila and will color the spirit without any additional odor or flavor. Check out Kim’s @kimstodel instagram for pictures. Some background to know about tequila, you’ll want a 100% agave tequila, from one of the two regions in Jalisco, the lowlands and the highlands, and will take on complexities similar to the terroir of wine. Because it’s a plant based spirit, it should be the only ingredient. In the lowlands the soil is volcanic, drier, arid and the agave are working harder to build their agave sugars until maturity, where the flavor will be drier, more peppery, briny like olives. The highland tequilas have mineral rich red clay soil, where the climate is cooler, more moisture and precipitation. The plants build their sugars under relatively little stress, causing the tequila to become sweeter, green as in fresher, vegetal, lemon citrus quality. David Suro did a presentation for Ben and the guys at Cinco, who describes the highlands tequilas are feminine and the lowlands tequilas masculine. Find tequilas that aren’t using additives. Product labels often misinform customers, so be sure to read 100% agave on your label. If not, chances are you’re actually drinking a Mixto, which means it has to be at least 51% of the distillate is 100% agave, you can call it Tequila. You can’t say 100% agave, but you can say tequila, which deceives a lot of the general public. 100% agave is a mark of purity. But it doesn’t end there. Back in the old days, before transparency in production, many taquilleros, were using additives. Some of them used it to distinguish their tequila from someone else, but others were using residual sugars, agave sugar, vanilla, agave nectar. There are a lot of companies still doing this, cutting corners in production. Because they’re making money they have clout with there CRT and so forth, so many producers got grandfathered in and are allowed to utilize one percent of additives in the tequila. Home bartenders out there, look for 100% agave AND tequila on the label. Learn about rimming the glass with salt! Learn about making vanilla syrup!

In January of 2018, Christopher was two years away from retiring from the military and was thinking about the future. He wanted to figure out how he was going to make money once he was out and found the Bookkeeper Business Launch course and thought that it might be a good fit. Turns out it was. [3:45] Chris got his first client one month after completing the course. He connected with them on Craigslist and is still working with them today. [4:30] Chris used the money from the first client and joined the BNI (Business Networking International). Using only BNI referrals, Chris got to ten clients by October. He also got five more clients using paid leads from Thumbtack. [6:50] BNI meetings are structured so the first fifteen minutes are meant for networking with the members and occasionally giving ten minute presentations. For Chris, being in BNI is not his natural environment. He was actually voted “Most Likely To Eat Alone” in high school because he was such an introvert, but he faced his fears and did it anyway. It took him a good six months to feel comfortable at the meetings but now he really enjoys them. [10:00] Some people are good at talking to people and starting a business which seemed to be the case for Chris. He feels like it was just something he had to learn, so he did. His one regret may be not having gone to college sooner because the different learning techniques you pick up in school could have been an asset. [13:20] Chris has to serve one more year in the military before he can retire, and because of that it has forced him to hire more employees as his business expanded beyond what he was capable of handling. [14:30] Chris’s vision for his future business is to essentially just manage the business, do the marketing, and bring in the clients while other bookkeepers do the numbers work. [16:15] Chris’s main challenge/potential opportunity is just keeping track of everything and keeping focused. Working with clients is a lot like juggling, when you have just four in the air it can be managed. Once you start juggling 27, things start to get hectic. The good news is that nothing major has slipped through the cracks yet. [19:35] The goal is putting processes in place, not necessarily revenue or clients. Chris needs to create order from chaos. [22:30] The easiest way to create a new process is to just record yourself doing that task. Record your screen while you’re doing the work, narrate what you’re doing, and make sure you keep it short. Once it’s recorded, you can transcribe the audio using a service like Rev.com. With the transcription you can condense the process into a checklist that contains the major important points of that process. Once you’ve got that finished, not only did you get the work done, but you’ve also defined a process and put yourself ahead of 90% of all bookkeepers. [28:15] The biggest mistake that Ben made in his business was feeling that he was so busy that he need to hire people to take care of all the chaos in his business, but all that resulted in was more chaos. [29:20] You will have to change your mindset as you transition from doing the work to reviewing the work. What got you here isn’t going to get you to where you want to go. [30:35] Start with the processes you like least and that are the most client-facing. Give it time and you will eventually start to enjoy the process. [33:10] Your business is a system and a system is a series of processes that get the work done. The value in the system is in clearly defined processes, especially if you are interested in eventually selling the bookkeeping business that you’re building. [34:30] You have to be committed to the process, it’s always a challenge to do something new or something big. [35:40] Chris is looking at a couple of different software options to help him track what he’s working on but so far he’s been falling back on just using a spreadsheet. Lots of bookkeeping professionals believe all they need is one more app but that’s not necessarily the case. Sometimes you just need what will get the job done. Start mapping out your processes with a pen and paper well before you get to an app or a spreadsheet. Look to the function before you look for a shiny object. [41:10] You don’t want to be dependent on a person to get things done, you want processes that people can do. That way if someone leaves the team, you can move things around without causing chaos trying to find a new perfect person to fill that role. [43:55] A virtual assistant may be just the answer that Chris is looking for. [45:00] Keep your big goals front and center. For Ben, that means a giant whiteboard positioned in front of his desk that keeps his goals and projects always on the top of his mind. Technology is great, but you should lean on your process first. [48:45] When you need to get something done, don’t think of “what”, think of “who”. Who has done what you want to do and how can you talk to them? [50:30] Chris’s wife has been crucial in terms of support for the growth of the business. A common thread for people who have succeeded in the bookkeeping business is having a supportive spouse. [52:05] The ultimate vision for Chris and his wife is to be able to travel in their RV while still running their business from wherever they are.

Business is a brutal battlefield. For Ben and Tim it's their second battlefield. In an episode requested by listeners, Ben and Tim reach deep into their camouflaged knowledge banks all the way back to their time at the ‘College of Knowledge' (The Royal Military College (RMC)) – as they take a look at the applicability of the Principles of War to the corporate environment.  As is mandatory for all lessons at RMC, they outline some Carl von Clausewitz theories before examining each of the ten Principles of War and how they can assist the campaigns we now mount on the ‘second battlefield' – the cutthroat and unforgiving world of business. As a special bonus, we even throw in an eleventh, unsanctioned (but, we think, very relevant) Principle of War.  And along the way, we suffer through Ben misquoting numerous dead generals and failing miserably in his attempt to recite the Role of the Infantry. Enjoy!   Intelligence Summary (INTSUM) 1:28 – Some fun facts on Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) can be found here: https://www.clausewitz.com/mobile/faqs.htm  6:42 – Ben unsuccessfully tries to demonstrate knowledge. The correct reference was Horst Ritter and Melvin Webber coined the phrase ‘wicked problems' in 1973, in their seminal work Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.  Sounds dry, but it's actually a great read: http://www.sympoetic.net/Managing_Complexity/complexity_files/1973%20Rittel%20and%20Webber%20Wicked%20Problems.pdf  9:00 – Richard Thaler was the 2017 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for his research into behavioural economics: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/t/richard-h-thaler   20:41 – Ben is pretty much wrong again.  Von Moltke was a student of Clausewitz rather than a peer….  27:39   – William H. McRaven, Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice.  A precis of the key concepts McRaven proposes in this book is contained here: https://www.amazon.com/Spec-Ops-Studies-Operations-Practice/dp/0891416005  28:13 – The Australian 2ndCommando Regiment's motto is ‘Foras Admonitio', Latin for ‘Without Warning':  https://www.army.gov.au/our-people/units/special-operations-command/2nd-commando-regiment   31:36 – More information on Robert Heinleincan be found here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein  32:49 – Again, Ben throws out another half-cocked, only semi-correct reference – it was actually General Omar Bradley who said ‘Amateurs talk tactics.  Professionals talk logistics'    

Consider the following questions: How do you run a marathon? How do you write a best-selling book? How do you eat an elephant? One step, one sentence or one bite at a time of course. When we are able to fix on the small task directly in front of us, any lofty goal seems doable. To do this it is important to let go of past fears and stress of the unknown future. Focus on the moment and before you know it, you can look back on miles of road ran or chapters of a book written. (I’ll leave the last example up to your imagination.) Ben Newman has coached many professional athletes to success by focusing on taking one step at a time. He also believes in experiencing challenges for himself to understand and better relate to those people he teaches. Ben emphasizes mental toughness in his storytelling and teaching, giving examples of his own life and the lives of inspiring people he has met. We broke down some of those stories and pieces of advice to help you become the best version of yourself. Listen to this episode of the Running for Real podcast, or read along to be inspired today! Mental Toughness Translates A sound lesson that Ben teaches to Fortune 500 companies and professional athletic teams alike, is that mental toughness is transferable. You have the ability to draw on your previous successes when you are faced with a new challenge. For example, a mother who has hit the wall on mile 21 can remind herself that she can accomplish anything because she has given birth to a child. Or maybe you have completed a marathon before but you are facing a nerve-wracking job interview. Tell yourself that you can do hard things because you have done them before. Use your experiences in life to your advantage while you train for race day. Then use your power as a runner to conquer everything else in life. It works both ways. Who is Your Teri? When believing in yourself is hard, or it seems impossible to bring to mind a previous success of yours, look to those who inspire you or believe in you. Having a mentor that believes in you or a family member that loves you can make all the difference when you are facing a heavy task. For Ben, this person is Teri Griege. Ben first met Teri at a speaking event when she told about her battle with cancer and her love of marathon running. Ben instantly became inspired to run a marathon. Later he had the opportunity to meet Teri who then helped Ben train for a marathon and was there to watch him run across the finish line. That’s nice, but what if I don’t have a Teri in my life? Find one! Ben believes in mentors we have never met. Read books, listen to podcasts, find someone through social media, or ask a friend who they look up to. There is an inspiring person for every personality. You can also take a moment to think about people who have reached out a hand to you that you may have brushed aside. If you need to mend bridges to find the support you need to accomplish your goals, do it. There is a mentor out there for everyone. In life we have people that inspire us and people that look up to us. Whether we realize it or not, there are people watching us and seeing what we will do in life. Having someone that believes in you because they want to be like you can be just as powerful as having a constant mentor. Be a Teri for those people. Who Will You Become? A practice that Ben encourages everyone to do is to tell yourself “I am” statements. These are statements in something that you can achieve but haven’t yet. For example, if you want to open a bakery you can say, “I am a small business owner.” What does a successful marathon runner, father, painter, or underwater basket weaver look like today? Whatever you want to be, act like you are already there, taking the steps that you would take if you had already succeeded, because those steps are what success looks like. Find your Teri. Be a Teri for someone. Know that you can do hard things because you have done them before. Take one step at a time and you will see what winning today looks like. Resources: Continued Fight Instagram Coach Ben Newman Instagram Ben’s Website Ben’s Twitter Teri Griege’s Website Free Play Book Ben’s Youtube Channel Jon Gordon’s Instagram   Thank you to Bodyhealth, Athletic Greens, Dang for being the wonderful sponsors of this episode of The Running For Real Podcast.   If you are struggling to recover quick enough from your training, my little secret is to use BodyHealth Perfect Amino to get you there. It contains all the essential amino acids, and is very easy for your body to use and begin the repair process. Click the link and use code TINAMUIR10 for 10% off. Athletic Greens is a simple and easy way to get 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole food source ingredients. Just to help my immune system be stronger and greater! It is so simple to do and it taste good as well. Now you can get a free travel pack with 20 servings with your first purchase, Visit here to learn more! I have truly been enjoying Dang products for years! And I am so excited I will be able to have them as sponsor, now they have something that is perfect for runners, Dang bars. They are easy as a grab and go snack and come in the flavors cardamom chai, toasted coconut and cinnamon chocolate. Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Ben, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

David went to school to be a math teacher but ended up in engineering and getting a math degree. Due to the recession, he got laid off and found himself wondering what to do without a job. He started working at a church and did some of their admin work, which was David’s first real exposure to bookkeeping. One bookkeeping gig turned into another. [4:45] David realized that bookkeeping was a skill that he could start a business with and since he always wanted to start his own business he thought it might make a good fit. For David, one of his core motivations is building something new. [6:50] David currently works with 16 monthly clients which he has acquired over the past 15 months since December of 2017. After his first gig with the church, David started searching for ways to create a bookkeeping business and that’s how he found Bookkeeper Business Launch. [9:40] David established his business and then started building relationships. Those conversations have naturally led to more opportunities with new clients. [11:10] The only advertising money that David has spent so far has been on his website. Having the site is probably the most important thing he has done for marketing since he’s started. [12:40] There was a distinct point where David had to make a decision to either go find a job or go all in with his business. After discussing it with his wife they made the decision to jump in. They made a calculated risk and it has paid off for David and his family. [15:30] The biggest game changer of running his own business has been his ability to spend time with his family and adjust his schedule. Flexibility and freedom are huge. [17:20] There is tremendous opportunity as a bookkeeper and if you want to succeed, you have to be able to do a good job. Focus on whatever the next thing is that you need to do, don’t get overwhelmed by all the different things you could do. [19:50] David is now serving small retail operations and currently doesn’t feel the need to hire someone, but if his business keeps growing he’s going to need to bring someone else on and that’s a big challenge for him. [22:30] David and his wife decided to pick the income level they are going to live at. In terms of vision for what he wants for his business, David wants to be able to work 20 to 25 hours a week while maintaining his income level. You have to really visualize what a day looks like for you in the future in order to build your business in a way that allows you to accomplish your vision. Bring your compelling vision to life. [28:00] You don’t want to hire somebody, you want the result of what hiring someone will bring. For David, that means taking tasks off his plate that he’s not excited to do. A lot of the everyday routine tasks are the ones that David doesn’t enjoy. Before you can hire someone, you need to have processes in place that they can fit into and processes are one of David’s current weaknesses. [33:20] Screen capture software is a great way to create videos that convey your processes. For David, he can record the tasks that he normally does for his clients while narrating what he’s doing. Once the videos are created, he can get them transcribed and create a checklist for each task. Cover the major things that need to be done and then you’ve got yourself a process that can be easily implemented. Store it wherever you and your team can access it online. [40:35] Start with the processes that turn the dial in your business and the ones that you really don’t like doing. Processes are your freedom lever. [42:30] Transitioning from doing the work to review the work of someone else is a tricky thing, but it can be done. Once you figure it out, you can approach the work from the role of an advisor as well. Be aware that in the midst of the transition it feels like chaos, but it does pass. [45:50] For each client, write down everything you do for that client over the course of a week. Assess the list for the things that fall under your unique ability, those are the tasks that you’re good at and energize you. Then look for the ones that you are competent at, those are the ones you should start creating processes for and outsourcing to someone else. [49:30] You’re not looking for an employee in the beginning, you’re looking for a virtual assistant that can handle the task. Start small with the tasks that you really don’t want to do. You can hire them for only 2 hours a month if you need to do so that means you can avoid the pressure of having to keep an employee busy. [51:50] What are the $10/hour tasks? $50/hour? $1000/hour? Start with the lowest value work at offload that so you can focus on the work that really adds value to your business and your client’s business. [55:30] An example task that David can hand off to a virtual assistant is managing email. For Ben, his assistant filters through his email every day and saves him 20 to 30 minutes a day. You have to be intentional about outsourcing, keep it simple or it will tend towards chaos. It starts with the task audit, but it’s guided by your vision for your business. [59:30] David’s action items include doing a task audit, documenting his processes, and then finding someone he can give some of those tasks to. The big item on the list is the one that most people like to skip, creating the vision for his business is the first step.

What does it really mean to keep an open mind? For Ben, it wasn’t just trying something new or even changing his mind - it was falling into an incredible passion for something he didn’t even know existed. Ben is a screendance artist, lecturer at UC Berkeley, and founding member of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. With a resume like that, you’d think he was a born-and-raised dance artist - but the truth is that he’d never even heard of screendance until halfway through his college career. Throughout his career, Ben has become a wealth of knowledge in the world of screendance, video production, and finding passion in your career, and today he’s sharing his tips, tricks and advice. Join us on this episode to hear about Ben’s creative process, the most important thing he teaches to his students, and having a healthy relationship to failure. Learn more about Ben at www.benestabrook.com Follow Andrea on Instagram and check out the latest blogs, vlogs, and videos on Facebook or at amchoreography.com

How does one craft the elements that will allow the greatest chance for success? In this episode Ben Delaney shares his experience answering the questions he asks himself as he continues to pursue his potential in running. For Ben, trusting the process, fixing what doesn’t work, perfecting a running “recipe,” and sharing his experience with others are the factors that have unlocked the door to a new and powerful performance level. Ben’s is an inspiring journey of working hard over many years to figure out how to get the most out of himself.  Ben is also a talented baker. Listen as he describes the similar approach he takes to a recipe in the kitchen as he does to a training plan. Ben is a creative thinker and runner. (And when he bakes we are all happy).

Following on from the amazing interview with Alex Harvey I wanted to talk with more people who have inspiring stories. People who ahve found ways to work with their mental health and mindset in serious adversity. For Ben this meant a newborn daughter who was diagnosed with cancer and how that impacted the lives of the whole family. Ben went from being focused on his daughters health, to then needing to focus on his own, before now shifting his focus to helping those within the company he works for. A truly inspiring man with a truly inspiring story.

For Ben's birthday pick we're talking about the Coen Brother's classic, The Big Lebowski, starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Tara Reid, Flea, John Turturo, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Thewlis and Sam Elliot! This episode was recorded like... two weeks before the weird Jeff Bridges teaser for that Stella, Superbowl commercial. This was all just some crazy, cosmic convergence, man. Please review us over on Apple Podcasts. Got comments or suggestions for new episodes? Email: sddpod@gmail.com. Seek us out via Twitter and Instagram @ sddfilmpodcast Support our Patreon for $3 a month and get access to our exclusive show, Sudden Double Deep Cuts where we talk about our favourite movie soundtracks, scores and theme songs!

Our guest today, is Devon. He has a heck of a story and is willing to share some of the sacrifices he had to make in order to get sober. Getting sober can be challenging. If it were easy everyone would be doing it. There are sacrifices that have to be made. Some of them aren't too bad, but some of them are so difficult not everyone can make them. Devon has done what it takes to become sober, and he shares that with us here today. Show Notes [02:56] Devon has 80 Days of clean time. [03:28] Devon has gotten clean in the past, but the longest it lasted was 110 days. [03:25] After 45 days of treatment in Florida, he went home and worked the program for about a month, he didn't work the program in the last month and that's when problems happened. [04:02] His biggest accomplishment so far is graduating from high school early and getting an opportunity to go to any Big Ten college he wanted to. [06:14] At age 11, he started taking Vyvanse prescribed by his doctor. [06:58] Vyvanse is a stimulant similar to Adderall. [08:02] He switched from Vyvanse and Adderall over to marijuana. [09:29] After High School, he experimented with other things from Xanax to alcohol. [10:32] The first time he tried rehab he didn't put in the work. He just thought of it as sort of a vacation. [14:26] Going home after getting sober can be extremely uncomfortable. We can't be in the same atmosphere we used to be in. [16:19] Devon missed the birth of his child while he was in rehab. He also had to give up his old lifestyle. He also doesn't have family in Florida. [17:46] Devon had to give up certain jobs that he had back home, because they would be a bad influence towards his sobriety. [18:38] He even created a whole new social media profile, so he could keep up with people in Florida and not be influenced by his old friends. [19:08] For him, the big sacrifices are giving up comfort and familiarity to embrace a new healthier lifestyle. [20:51] He talks to his family daily over FaceTime. He gets to see his mom and his daughter and his sister. [23:23] It would be selfish for him to have his girlfriend move down to Florida when all of her family and support group is back home. [24:49] People are often afraid to go to treatment and leave their children behind, but if you look at the path of destruction they have been on stepping away is the best thing. [26:37] After having recovered, Ben has the opportunity to be the best dad he can possibly be. [28:29] This is also an extreme life change for Devon's girlfriend. To be a good dad, Devon can't bypass this process. [31:04] It can take yours from going from a liability to an asset in a family. It takes time for people to recognize that. When the tables turn and your family reaches out to you for help it feels good. [31:51] Some accomplishments that Devon wants to achieve is he wants to hit 90 days and then go for that all-important year. He also wants to finish the 12 steps. He also plans to go back to college. [32:20] He wants to major in architecture or auto body paint. [32:47] Devon really wants to be the best father I can be for my child. Devon wants to be an asset for my family. He wants to own his own home, get a car, and set himself up for retirement. [35:14] What you are doing now is directly going to affect what happens in the future. [36:44] For Ben, getting sober was the hardest thing he ever did in his life. [37:33] The challenge of alcoholism and addiction is underestimated by many people. [39:20] Final thoughts are to stay sober and do the right thing.

It’s week three of the Mindful Moments Slow Experiment, and today’s episode is all about gratitude as a tool for mindfulness. For Ben, the importance of cultivating gratitude has been one of the biggest lessons he’s learned from slow living. For Brooke, gratitude is an invaluable way to prevent that shift into negative thinking that can happen when life is busy or stressful. It’s a practice that can take just a minute or two in your day, but have incredible benefits for your life. So let’s dive in! First up, the guys break down exactly what gratitude is, and identify that it’s the specific kind of thankfulness that they’re focusing on, not the rose-coloured glasses approach to life. They then share some different examples of gratitude practices: a gratitude journal, having a chalkboard in the kitchen where everyone in the house writes one thing they’re grateful for everyday, writing a thank you note, using technology, loving-kindness meditation, sharing at the dinner table and more. These techniques help us to be mindful as they require us to shift out of autopilot and pay attention to and engage with what’s around us, and be thoughtful about what we have to be thankful for. They then go on to look at the benefits of gratitude, which are vast. From developing love, compassion and empathy to helping us sleep better at night, there are so many benefits for our physical and mental health. Grateful people feel fewer aches and pains, feel healthier (and generally are healthier), and are more likely to exercise regularly, get regular checkups with a doctor and live longer (say whaaaat?!) It’s also the antidote to the build-up of toxic emotions, and helps to build resilience, perspective and self-esteem. Brooke shares that gratitude helps her to really savour the good moments, and allows them to be the bits of her day she remembers, rather than the less-amazing times. So give it a try - connect on Facebook and Instagram by sharing one thing you’re grateful for this week, using the hashtag #slowexperiment.  And go from there. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/256/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! === Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/slow See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week’s episode Brooke and Ben continue their month of Mindful Moments for the Slow Experiment, looking at the technique of mindful attention or observation. This is something that Brooke has been practicing for a few years now, and is an excellent example of just how simple mindfulness can be. At its core, mindfulness is paying attention, and this technique takes that to a granular level. Try sitting in study of a tiny detail for a couple of minutes, noticing something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and then see how you feel afterwards. Another way to do this is a body scan, where you sit and rotate your awareness through each of your five senses for a couple of minutes in total - getting very specific about what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Brooke still remembers the impact this had on her at the height of her overwhelm and depression years ago, and the way it would pull her into the present moment and out of resentment and anxiety. For Ben, this mindful attention technique translates to the workplace as single-tasking. After years of being told multitasking is gold, he now breaks projects down into tasks and then works through those tasks one at a time, focusing on nothing else until the one at hand is complete. There are so many benefits to these techniques of stripped-back mindfulness. Brooke shares a study she found that said even after one week of a short daily mindfulness practice, participants showed significant improvements in attention, energy and ability to cope with stress, as well as in processing, working memory and executive functioning. We’d love to hear how you’re going if you’re playing along, and whether you’ve noticed any benefits like these. Let us know how you go - connect on Facebook and Instagram. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/255/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join in on our live monthly video calls. And thanks so much for listening! === Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/slow See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Starting each day with intention can be the easiest path to fulfillment and purpose but do you have the willpower to follow through? Benjamin Hardy joins Drew to discuss the main points of his book, Willpower Doesn’t Work, which describes why it’s easier to eliminate things from your life instead of going down the neverending rabbit hole of willpower. Ben shares social psychology examples of how humans adapt to their environments, tips for changing your environment, and how creating new experiences and investing in yourself can increase your chances for success.     If you like the podcast subscribe & review it on iTunes | Stitcher.   Key Takeaways: [5:50] Ben leans into his core concepts when life gets busy. [7:54] How Ben went from having zero accountability to studying social psychology. [14:51] Tips for shaping your environment to live an intentional life. [27:45] How to maintain momentum and prevent burn out. [33:33] Creating new experiences for kids. [36:12] For Ben, journaling is an emotional regulation tool and imagination igniter.   Sponsors: Complete Wellness Supplements — Shop for Drew’s Hand-formulated Powdered Greens, Krill Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar in Pill Form, and now Keto Boost with Cordyceps and Beet Root Powder Dry Farm Wines — Use this link for a bottle of wine for $.01 with any order Dollar Workout Club   Mentioned in This Episode: Benjamin Hardy Willpower Doesn’t Work: Discover the Hidden Keys to Success, by Benjamin Hardy @BenjaminPHardy on Twitter Fit2Fat2Fit Watch this episode of Fit2Fat2Fit on Youtube Fit2Fat2Fit on A&E Fit2Fat2Fit on Facebook Fit2Fat2Fit Book Drew on Social Media: @fit2fat2fit Email Drew: Drew@fit2fat2fit.com

Death Cab For Cutie is back with some pretty great new music. The band has just announced that a new album is on the way called Thank You for Today. And in this special episode of All Songs Considered, singer Ben Gibbard shares and talks about the first single, "Gold Rush." "Gold Rush" is a song that looks at how neighborhoods change. For Ben, that's Capitol Hill in Seattle, where he's lived for the past 20 years. In our conversation, he talks about how and why he'd wanted to write this song for a while. "As I've gotten older," he says, "I've become acutely aware of how I connect my memories to my geography and [how] the landscape of the city changes. I'll walk down Broadway and walk past a location that used to be a bar I'd frequent with friends, or somewhere where I had a beautifully intense conversation with somebody that I once loved very much. The song is not a complaint about how things were better or anything like that. It's an observation, but more about coming to terms with the passage of time and losing the people and the moments in my life all over again as I walk down a street that is now so unfamiliar."

Many of our favorite businesses were built out of someone loving something and then figuring out how to make it better. Yvon Chouinard created Patagonia because he loved rock climbing, hiking, and being outdoors.  Everything else stemmed from that. Ben & Jerry loved ice cream, Jake Carpenter of Burton snowboards just wanted to find the perfect ride.  There are lots of reasons for someone to start a business but loving something and then working to make it better is one of the most fulfilling.  If you own a business, why did you start yours?  What do your love and how are you making it better?  The answers can drive you and frame the direction you go in the future. Our guest today loves music.  Specifically, early 90’s grunge and all of the many steps in it’s evolution into modern Indie Rock.  The way he found to make it better was to start a small record label.  To find artists he loved and help spread their music to as many people as possible.  Ben Swanson built Secretly Canadian based on a search for the right sound.  Now he helps hundreds of artists around the world record, brand, and share their music with as many ears as possible. We’re glad you joined us! Listen Here: Here are some highlights: What childhood memories led Ben to starting­­­­­­­­ Secretly? (1:59) Ben grew up with his older brother Chris in Fargo, North Dakota.  His dad and his uncle built a vitamin supplement business from their garage.  Ben remembers his dad in the garage pouring powder into tiny capsules by hand.  That company is now Swanson Health Products one of the largest vitamin suppliers in the world. Ben’s dad loved music and he would take them to shows sometimes.  Fargo happened to be a stop over for bands as they traveled to the Northwest so they had the chance to see a lot of shows.  In the late 80’s early 90’s, Ben was a teenager and was able to see tons of the bands that seeded the Seattle grunge explosion of the early 90’s. He started collecting albums and paying attention to the music that certain labels put out. Eventually, his brother Chris moved to Bloomington IN for college.  Ben followed two years later and they decided it would be fun to try and start their own music label. They dug into the explosion of independent music but also loved the catalogs of labels like K Records and Discord. They finally started to figure out how to physically make records and cassettes.  Then they would go to shows of musicians they loved and see if the musician would let them be the ones to manufacture and market the album.  Their first taker was June Panic and then Songs: Ohia followed. How do you attract artists? (11:07) For Ben, it’s all about just being a fan first.  Artists tend to want people surrounding them that understand and get what they’re doing.  Ben has always just approached it that way. What’s the story behind the name Secretly Canadian? (14:05) Being from Fargo, North Dakota Ben had a connection with Canada.  They really loved and connected with a ton of Canadian talent, from music to comedy and beyond.  They started joking around about the fact that all good things must be secretly Canadian.  What’s it’s like to work with your brother? (15:35) There are definitely pros and cons.  The hard part is getting over the big brother little brother stuff.  Ben happens to be the little brother.  One positive is the short-hands that they speak.  They can get really heated and then get over it and move on.  Sometimes that would devolve into wrestling.  One of Ben’s favorite moments is when he finally won one of those wrestling matches. What does Secretly look like today? (18:18) They are a global music company.  They’re a record label, the Master side helping artist to write and pitch the music they create, physical and digital distribution throughout the world, an artist management service, and a vinyl plant. What kind of artist is an ideal client? (21:13) Incredible musician, incredible artist, smart person, sells a few records.  The bottom line is that Ben wants to love the artists music.  It can work out from there. Secretly represents Indy music artists primarily but they dig into tons of genres. What are traits of successful and unsuccessful artists? (23:35) Bands can really easily get in their bubble.  The good ones are able to connect with others.  Other artists, other industry folks, whoever will listen.  You have to reach out and build relationships.  The more you can get to know people and the industry the better you’ll do. How does it feel to own a multi-national business? Weird. What is similar and different between you and Richard Branson? Ben really likes how fearless Richard is.  He gets into a lot of different spaces, builds a lot of brands, and is always ready to grow.  That’s a similarity. Richard Branson is a totally outgoing guy with tons of other people running the show.  Ben is simply a part of the team.  His hands are on most things in a way that certainly is different than Virgin Records. A book we should totally read? The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss An artist that we should listen to? Serpent with Feet What are the key types of people musicians should connect with? Other artists are the low hanging fruit.  Connecting with an established artist or two is the key.  Labels like Secretly hear about new artists all the time from their existing artists. What’s Secretly look like in 5 years? Not necessarily bigger, but more streamlined.  Finding ways to sta­­­­y interested by chasing new ideas but not getting too sidetracked from the core mission. Special thanks to Ben Swanson for taking the time to share the Secretly Canadian story with us. The show was produced and edited by me Jeremy Goodrich. The music is by my high school buddy Mark VInten and Secretly group artists June Panic, Songs: Ohia, Bon Iver and Serpent with Feet. If you enjoyed this podcast, there’s a couple of things we need you to do right now.  First subscribe to Scratch Entrepreneur on itunes, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you listen to podcasts so you can hear future episodes as soon as we release them.  While you’re there, please give the show a review.  We’d love to know what you liked, what you didn’t, and what you want to hear next. Until the next time, We truly appreciate you listening.   Mentioned in the episode: Secretly Group Swanson Health Products K Records Nirvana Kill Rock Stars Discord Fugazi June Panic Songs: Ohia Bon Iver Jason Wilber The 4 Hour Work Week Tim Ferris Serpent with Feet Musical interludes by Mark Vinten Need Shine in Your Life? More great stories & information at: Youtube - Blog - Podcast Facebook - Twitter  

Benjamin Oxley was a Professional Opera Singer for 30 years singing alongside Andrea Bocelli and Tony Bennett and many other well known operatic stars, but there comes a time when another direction beckons. This was the case for Benjamin. When many people approach 50 or when a time, place and career needs rethinking, what do you? Look at your passions even those when you were young.  What steps do you take, how do you decide what’s next? Ben’s approach was practical, which he suggests others do when in the same position. Talk and Talk, do an appraisal of what you do, what you love, and what others have suggested, then go away for a few days, get clarity. For Ben, he came across his ‘sweet spot’ drawing on event management, performing experience, compassion and much more. That spot landed firmly on a much needed service and business where rarely families pre-plan not only their funeral or loved ones funeral but the more difficult choice of music until one or two days before it’s all required – all of which compounds the feelings of grief and stress. Out of that Ben developed his business Celebrating Life in Music (see website)  but he helps even more by using his operatic skills. For those starting a new venture Ben suggests looking at whether you are creating a new business, or a 'service' – in his case he wanted to convey he provides a compassionate and professional consultancy. For the Opera Singer turned creator of Celebrations of Life In Music for Funerals, Ben loves what he now does, and feels wonderful about helping people, plus he says his life is better organized and joyful.

"Mental Capacity".That's a term we hear from time to time, but what does it really mean and how is it defined? For Ben this question forms part of his every day work, along with the delivery of Safeguarding Training... but there's more to this business than understanding law and teaching - and that's the care & compassion; have a listen and you'll hear it in everything Ben has to say. The fact that we all retain the right to make what might be seen as eccentric or unwise decisions is also good to know.  

With nearly 50% of all e-commerce sales occurring on Amazon, many crowdfunders are asking the question, “how can I take my product and sell on Amazon?” On this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, Khierstyn has a conversation with Ben Arneberg, founder of Product Fuel and creator of crowdfunding giants Willow & Everett and Terra Mat. Ben shares his top tips for crowdfunders looking to move into the e-commerce space after a successful campaign, how to rank highly within Amazon’s categories, and many more trade secrets that you don’t want to miss. Be sure to listen to this episode - your product will thank you. Crowdfunding platforms and Amazon are delicate partners - here’s how Product Fuel makes it work Turning a successful crowdfunding campaign into an equally successful brand online is hard work. That’s why Ben created Product Fuel - to help entrepreneurs move their products from crowdsourcing platforms into digital marketplaces. While it may be easy to list products on Amazon, it’s extremely difficult to allow that product hit its full potential. Product Fuel has successfully taken campaigns such as Wilcox Boots that earned over $140,000 through Kickstarter and helped them bring in over $80,000 monthly Amazon sales. When a campaign is nearly complete, Ben and his team will begin conversations with the client to determine product flows and shipping methods. This allows both parties to fully understand the desired outcome for the product and make a game plan that is tailored to each product, target audience, and sales goals. To hear how to get your product on Ben and Product Fuel’s radar, be sure to listen to this episode. The art of combining a crowdfunding campaign, a stellar website, and selling on Amazon Product Fuel attracts clients who already have a successful crowdfunding campaign in progress. Ben encourages aspiring creators to go to a crowdsourcing platform first, rather than trying to launch solely on a website or directly to Amazon. There’s a trifecta that leads to the most success: a successful crowdfunding campaign, an interactive website, and ranking highly on Amazon (leading to more sales.) The campaign is the first integral piece in the process - aside from having an innovative product that fills a market gap. Campaigns create “an amazing halo effect” as Ben explained, and when harnessed properly the momentum drives organic traffic to Amazon and pushes your rankings higher. Without all three of these pieces, your efforts will be much more difficult. For Ben’s full explanation on this cohesive approach, be sure to listen to this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Why accurate keywords and appropriate pricing is key for Amazon success To explain the importance of great keywords and appropriate pricing, Ben uses a hypothetical coffee mug scenario. Even if you have a stellar coffee mug that sells well for $50 on your website, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will sell well on Amazon. When compared to $7 competitor mugs, if your $50 mug only has a 5% conversion rate on Amazon, it will be pushed down in the rankings and be seen by very few customers. This is the point of critical balance - your product needs to be priced accordingly to not be immediately written off by the client, and it needs to be matched with the right keywords and categories. Product Fuel can help you with this process. For all of the insights on Amazon success, don’t miss this conversation with Khierstyn and Ben. Ben’s best advice for achieving success selling crowdfunding products on Amazon In addition to all of the selling strategies Ben discusses on this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut, he encourages crowdfunders to always communicate with a campaign’s backers. You want to avoid launching on your website or on Amazon before your most loyal supporters receive their product. You can also use this window of time for feedback - see what your backers like and dislike about the physical product and then make slight adjustments before releasing it to the general public. He and Khierstyn also discuss the importance of always fulfilling sales through Amazon and why you should stay away from Amazon Launchpad. To hear more of Ben’s expert advice don’t miss this episode of Crowdfunding Uncut. Outline of This Episode [0:53] Khierstyn introduces her guest for this episode, Ben Arneberg, founder of Product Fuel and Amazon seller guru [3:59] Why Amazon and crowdsourcing are delicate partners [7:17] Why Ben was hesitant to use Kickstarter for Terra Mat, and what changed his mind [8:38] The difference between product selection for Kickstarter and Amazon [12:20] Pros of putting an established brand on Amazon [17:45] Ben’s best tips for future Amazon e-commerce sellers and why you should stay away from Amazon Launchpad [20:44] Ben’s suggestions for organizing product fulfillment [22:57] The timeline for creating your e-commerce process [31:21] How to get connected with Ben and Product Fuel Resources & People Mentioned SPONSOR: Gadget Flow - get your project in front of over 25 million people per month and receive 10% off your service with code “Uncut10” Ben’s company - Product Fuel Willow & Everett Cube Fit Terra Mat Wilcox Boots Jamstack guitar amplifier Connect with Ben Arneberg Ben’s email Product Fuel’s website Product Fuel and Amazon e-commerce Connect With Khierstyn www.CrowdfundingUncut.com On Twitter: @KhierstynRoss On Facebook On LinkedIn

On the Island, Sayid makes the choice to trade one human for another in order to get into Lapidus's helicopter and see what's happening on that boat. In the Flash Forward, he makes the choice to as an assassin FOR BEN, which ends with a bullet to the gut of another pretty blonde girl he's been sleeping with. Meanwhile, Daniel does an experiment where a rocket is sent from the boat to the Island, only it takes an extra 31 minutes to show up after the boat says it should have. Timey wimey wibbly wobbly...stuff.

A move. A pivot. A layoff. And a whole lot of pursuit into the unknown. For many of us, this kind of change, disruption and lack of clarity can be unnerving. For Ben and Beth, they are choosing to see an alternative plan for how best to approach work and the art of living a purposeful life. Becoming familiar with their story, one could easily be reminded of the lyrics to Divine Intervention, the opening track to Matthew Sweet's classic 1991 album, Girlfriend. "I don't know where I'm gonna live Don't know if I'll find a place I'd have to think about it some And that I do not wish to face I guess that I'm counting on his Divine intervention." Hopeful, heartbreaking, funny, honest and real — these are perhaps the best ways in which to illustrate a conversation with two big-hearted creatives that are pursuing a path less traveled with no regrets.

https://youtu.be/RAMZzudRhf4 Biggest Takeaways: In life, you’ll come across people whose fierce strength and determination will inspire you to wrestle harder towards your own goals. For me, Ben Kjar has been that inspirational person. Challenged with the rare craniofacial anomaly called Crouzon Syndrome which affects one’s head and face development in early life, Ben had to struggle through several critical medical operations starting at the age of one and again when he was five. His condition also made him a vulnerable target of bullying by other kids which resulted in him questioning his own personal worth. Luckily, his parents did a fantastic job of constantly giving him an affirmation that he is enough and pushed him to live as a victor rather than a victim. They allowed him to find a method of confidence by letting him join different sports of his choice. Wrestling was one of them. Wrestling sparked Ben’s passion, it gave him the confidence of who he is and what he can become. When he entered Centerville Jr. High, he became the very first wrestler to have an undefeated season. His success in wrestling rippled from there where he became a three-time state high school champion and gained him the opportunity to compete for 3 National Titles in college and later narrowly missing an opportunity to represent the USA in the Olympics. For Ben, one is a sum of all the people that he surrounds himself with, and he was able to gain these immense achievements in sport by surrounding himself with pillars who made him dream big and allowed him to visualize his success before it happens. Ben did not stop being an inspiration after wrestling. In 2011, he took a bold and brave step of opening up about his experience with Crouzon Syndrome in front of crowds as huge as 10,000 people and of multi-million dollar companies. He was driven to make an impact on these people by his belief that being great is already an innate attribute that only needs uncovering. Like everyone else, this Superman also struggled with his career despite his past successes. About 3 and a half years ago, he was let go at his job because he simply wasn’t cut out for it. Trying to find his right fit, he got an opportunity to attend a real estate event that reshaped his business aspirations. He invested in an education platform call Renatus, which have communities of investors all over the country. He attended calls that discuss investments every week and earned himself a support group that helped him take his knowledge to the next level. The platform also provided him with great tools such as a deal analyzer which helped him run his numbers. Ben started implementing what he learned and has built a very successful investment and fix & flip business. He made an astonishing $41,000 in his first 6 months and was able to jump from one profitable flip to another. At present, he has already flipped 55 units and has more than 50 rentals all over the country. His new career created a fun and rewarding lifestyle for him and his family and he attributed a great part of it by having the right people on his team and the quality of work that they do. If there’s one great piece of advice that Ben can give to those who are in the same industry, that is to be strategic and to always run your numbers. Ben stressed that one should know his walkaway number and must have pre-designed preferences of the units that he would like well before considering a deal. In deciding whether to keep the property or sell it, he follows his 1% rule on rental. If he can collect a gross monthly rent of 1%, then he keeps it as an investment. He usually finances his deals with either his own funding, some with private money, or others with hard cash. When it comes to Seller’s Financing, it boils down to building a win-win situation according to Ben. One should build a relationship that’s beneficial for all side. It’s also about understanding who you’re dealing with,

Cirque Physio by Dr Jennifer Crane acrolibrary.com/cp =============== Physio Flex by Dr Jennifer Crane & Catie Brier acrolibrary.com/pf =============== Dr. Jennifer Crane is a physical therapist, athletic trainer, board certified orthopedic specialist, and published author. She has been a sports medicine professional for eight years, and has worked with a wide variety of athletes and performing artists throughout that time. Most recently, she worked as a physiotherapist living in China with the Chinese Olympic Teams in preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympics. While in China, she worked with multiple sports teams: diving, weight-lifting, fencing, gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and track and field. Of the athletes she worked with, 18 of them went on to get an Olympic gold medal in Rio. Now happily back in San Francisco, Jen's practice is based at Circus Center, where she specializes in injury prevention and treatment of athletes and performing artists.  When she's not working with circus artists, she can usually be found standing on her hands, swinging on flying trapeze, or spinning on a single point trapeze. acrolibrary.com/cp Catie Brier is a flexibility and contortion instructor based in San Francisco, California. She began her training at Dance and Circus Arts of Tampa Bay at the age of 11, learning from Debra Brown (renowned choreographer, Cirque du Soleil) and internationally acclaimed contortionist Laurence Racine. Upon moving to San Francisco, Catie trained with acrobatics legend Master Lu Yi at the San Francisco Circus Center, and Mongolian contortionist Serchmaa Byamba. Soon after, Catie performed in countless shows across North America, with companies including Quixotic, Circus Bella, Trapeze World and New Pickle Circus. For the last eight years, Catie has honed her skills as an instructor, and developed a thriving and entirely unique contortion program at Circus Center in San Francisco. In 2013 Catie established the Contortion Intensive, a one of a kind intensive summer training program specifically for contortionists. Today, her highly personalized, safe and effective techniques attract students from all over the world. Throughout her career Catie has been passionate about teaching the art of contortion, while inspiring people to push the limits of what their bodies can do. acrolibrary.com/pf ============================ For Ben's free Handstand tutorials visit http://acrolibrary.com/freevideo For Ben's Ultimate Handstand Tutorial visit http://acrolibrary.com/uht Cirque Physio Active Flexibility Programs can be found here http://acrolibrary.com/cp Physio Flex flexibility training http://acrolibrary.com/pf Additional stretching exercises will help increase the shoulder mobility and make all Handstands easier. http://acrolibrary.com/easyflexibility Additional gymnastic conditioning such as GMB will help overall movement ability http://acrolibrary.com/gmb Resistance bands, parallettes and other bodyweight fitness equipment can be found at Rubber Banditz http://acrolibrary.com/rubberbanditz Ben Lowrey’s UK Handstand Workshops can be found here http://acrolibrary.com/workshop

In the latest podcast, Sam takes the lead with Spit Or Swallow, in which she chews over something that's rankled with her this week and something that's tickled her pink. For Ben's tasting, he'll prove there's more to Australian beers than their infamous cooking lagers. And if you're a gin fan, make sure you catch Tom's Legend of Liquor.www.thinkingdrinkers.comwww.themistressofwine.comhttps://twitter.com/thinkingdrinkshttps://twitter.com/mistressofwines See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tommy Riles and Art Eddy are inspired by this week's guest, actor, director, comedian, and author, Ben Falcone, and ask if each of their kids wrote a book about them as dads what the title would be and what their kids would write about them. For Ben, he penned his thoughts in a book about … Continue reading #250 – Ben Falcone →

Paying the Price to Get Paid How many times have you saw someone’s work and thought to yourself, “Man, I wish I could get paid to do something like that.” Did it cross your mind how could anyone know to hire you if you’re not exploring the type of work you want to be known for and better yet, get paid to do? This is your queue for starting a side project in 2017. Side projects as Lauren Hom likes to call them are your secret weapon for getting paid for the type of work you want to create. Let’s hit on it a little more on how side projects will help you attract the kind of work you want to get paid for by telling you a bit about good friend Ben Hagarty, aka BenRealVSWorld. The Long Road to Getting Paid By Your Dream Job My friend Ben Hagarty has been creating music and playing with cameras since late junior high. This obsession has elevated him to a level 53 Wizard at producing amazing video content around music. Basically, I’m just saying he is a pro but getting to where he’s at now all started with side projects. His passion for making music, especially hip-hop, resulted in some side projects with one being his group called Skool’d. This project led to them opening up for some of the biggest names in the industry like J.Cole, Big KRIT, and Timeflies just to name a few. His passion for video led to him always creating the content for the music they made. He made music video singles, weekly YouTube videos, promo and hype videos which allowed him to flex his video skills along the way. He learned early that consistency was key for building a reputation. Ben’s also big on quality. You could always find him studying other music videos, vlogs and countless tutorials on how he could improve upon what others were doing. Not everyone he worked with in his music projects shared the same vision as him so he created the side project identity of BenRealVsWorld that could house all of his personal projects. He started building relationships and networking with others in the industry trying to get his foot in the door to pursue his solo writing and rap career. Creating videos and his love for music opened the doors of opportunity. He got a gig shooting a SXSW festival and then got a chance to fly out to LA to shoot some behind the scenes footage for a Chris Brown project. From there he realized he needed to be in the middle of the action and took the risk of flying to LA to start his music career. To makes some money and build relationships, he fell into doing more work for Chris Brown which began building a name for himself for his video editing and content creation. This led to an opportunity to work with EA Sports for a Madden release which he got to work with Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski, Von Miller and the rapper Lil’ Dicky. Ben was hustling his ass off in LA making all of his Iowa family and friends proud. His hard work continued to pay off because the relationship he built from his SXSW gig landed him his biggest dream job / client yet. He was contacted by the TDE group to be Schoolboy Q’s main photographer and videographer on his worldwide Blank Face Tour. TDE is Top Dawg Entertainment which houses the talent of Q, Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock just to name a few. As the tour just wrapped up, it’s safe to say Ben killed it by catching praise from the likes of Macklemore and Tyler the Creator for his high-quality work. His vlog edits for Q dominated the huge hip-hop sites like WorldStarHipHop.com and he even did a Reddit AMA takeover recently. If a dude from a small town in Iowa can start a side project and get paid off the work he loves to do, why isn’t it possible for you? Paying the Price to Get Paid I believe in one rule for building a successful side project: You have to pay the price to get paid. For Ben, it started with finding something he was passionate about and was good at. From there, it took research, deliberate practice, perseverance and the ability to believe in yourself even when things didn’t always break your way. Pursuing a side project isn’t all fun and games, you have to pay to play. However, when you slowly build momentum and see a few wins, you start realizing that you’re onto something. Everything starts small and it grows by taking it one day at a time. I repeat you grow by taking it one day at a time. Turning your side project into a paid dream job isn’t a sprint—it is a marathon and it’s all about pacing yourself. Ben has been working on his craft well over 10 years. Nothing happened overnight. There were countless times he had to pull all-nighters to shoot, edit and meet deadlines. There were countless times of sleeping on floors, not making a lot of money and getting stressed out for him to finally get that first of many dream clients. These things don’t happen overnight as big rewards and wins need to be earned. People like Ben and all the other people you look up to in the creative industry understand that you get back what you put in. Attract the Work You Want to Get Paid For So what side project do you want to start? Do you want to be a successful hand lettering or visual artist with big clients? Do you want to run your own jewelry or clothing line? All of this starts with beginning a side project. Landing the dream job or the dream client happens by starting and sticking with it. Side projects are your opportunity to master a new skill or medium on your own terms with no one handing down an agenda to follow. Side projects allow you to attract the type of work you want to get paid to do. Side projects start with you. You have a fresh slate here in 2017 to get started, what’s holding you back? Next week’s episode we wrap up the series with the 3 ingredients for getting your side project exposure and attention. You don’t want to miss it! Key Takeaways Pursuing a side project isn’t all fun and games, you have to pay to play. Everything starts small and it grows by taking it one day at a time. Turning your side project into a paid dream job isn’t a sprint—it is a marathon and it’s all about pacing yourself. These things don’t happen overnight as big rewards and wins need to be earned. You have to pay the price in order to get paid. You get back what you put in. Show Notes Lauren Hom - Side Projects: Your New Secret Weapon Ben's Website Ben's Instagram - BenRealVsWorld Ben's Twitter - BenRealVsWorld Ben's Facebook - BenRealVsWorld EA Sports Madden '17 Cuts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tHF7C9sIK0&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JGi3qQf35k&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JGi3qQf35k&feature=youtu.be Schoolboy Q's Blank Face Tour - Groovy Tony [Pt. 1 of 6]

To begin the Dads Don’t Know series, it was fitting to start with a raw and frank discussion about child birth. For Ben, it was only two months ago when his first child arrived and the memory of the emotion charged day is still fresh in his mind. He shares his story, including the grunts and tears. Tom recalls managing to “bash out a column” for his media employer during his wife’s labour, while Andrew enjoyed his wife’s show while snacking on pizza shapes. A key part of Dads Don’t Know is the true analysis of children’s television. Tom kicks off the regular segment with an extensive review of Fireman Sam, with grave concerns for the town of Pontypandy and juvenile delinquent Norman Price. Dads Don't Know takes you deep into the minds of fathers, to get their insights and real perspectives on all facets of parenting. Hosted by Andrew Montesi, Ben Avery and Tom Richardson. faacebook.com/dadsdontknow

(Check our website for loads of links!) Rising like corpse from the graaaaave is the last pre-Nano episode! Okay, so maybe that Halloween intro is a little dated by the time you listen, but bear with us as we give you those perhaps last minutes jolts of info and inspiration for your characters and setting. Inspiration comes from all sorts of unexpected places. For Ben it, occurred at a car dealership. In addition, Jim points out some places online that you can use to keep those wheels spinning with characters, setting, tone and more. Also, thanks to the help of listeners we have a few more audio and suggestions as well. If you're reading this on or after November 1st, we hope you've had a productive day of writing.

Russell just had an epiphany that changes the way he will forever communicate with his email list. Listen to this podcast episode to find out what it is and how you can apply it too. ---Transcript--- Hey everyone, this is Russell. Welcome to the Marketing in your Car podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day today. Some good news, I was right. If you listened to my podcast yesterday about the one thing, we did the tests and it is crushing it. I’m excited. I’m glad that my hypothesis is doing good. It more than doubled sales from the two other versions. One was written by me and one was written by a really good copywriter who is not me. I’m excited and fired up. That’s good news. If you missed that episode, go back and watch it. Today, I had an idea. If you look at our business, we have a bunch of really cool front end products. My end goal is to get people into my inner circle. My inner circle is where you get to hang out with me, we get to do cool stuff, I get to work on your business, way more fun. I can change your business better than anything. We kind of set it up where anyone buys anything from any of my funnels, they come in and then we have a sequence that tries to push them to apply for inner circle. The applications have been coming in but I wanted to get more. I wanted to make it more consistent. I think today I had an epiphany, I think. Again, I’m going to test it out and I’ll get back to you guys and let you know. It’s been interesting. I’m looking at Ben Settle. If you guys know Ben, I talked to you guys awhile ago about the Seinfeld emails. Ben is the one I referenced that taught me that concept. He does these daily Seinfeld emails. It’s really cool the way he does it. He just keeps pushing and pushing these emails to go out. Everyday, he’s promoting one product. He has his email players where every single day, there’s an email promoting that one product. I kept thinking in my mind, “My business is tough because I have so many different products and services. What do I send out? There’s not just one thing I do, teach, or talk about.” But when I started thinking about it this morning, but my one thing, my core thing I want for people is to be in my inner circle. I make the most money out of it. I help people the most. I have the biggest impacts on a business or company in there. It’s like the best, I think it’s the best thing we have. I started thinking, “What if my typical auto responder sequence is someone comes in, they get some emails and I’m pushing everyone into this sequence where the daily emails are all pushing back to our inner circle?” Everyday, I just find something really cool to share, talk about it, and then be like, “Hey, by the way, if you’re on in our inner circle yet, join here.” Then the next day, I share a story about someone in the inner circle, talk about how we helped him, boom, if you’re not in our inner circle, go here, and just start emailing every single day, pushing people back to that thing. I’m really excited and intrigued and interested to see how that concept works and goes. That’s what I’m going to be testing out. For you guys, I want you to think about that. What’s the one core thing you want people to ascend to? What are you trying to push people to? I think I always struggle with this a little bit because Ben’s main thing he’s pushing people to was a $97 a month newsletter but that’s like the only product he really sells. He kept pushing people and pushing people there. Again, because we have 30 different products, what do you do? Do you just push people to a different one everyday? What do you do? I think it’s really coming back to how can you affect people the best. For Ben, that’s his front end and his back end. That’s his only product he sells. I always thought the goal of it was to push people to your front end but I think the goal of daily Seinfeld emails is to push people to your back end. That’s an epiphany I just had today. I’m going to be testing it out to see if I’m right. I think I am. That way, I can bring people to any funnel I want but then I’m always pushing them to apply for our inner circle and the right people will weed themselves out, kind of interesting. I’m excited by that. I hope some of you guys, that gets you excited as well to start sending out daily emails. I’m excited because my daily emails are going to be awesome stuff. Some of you guys have seen a couple we’ve been putting out lately where I’m pushing really cool videos, content, and ideas. I’m going to put out the best stuff possible because I think that’s what is going to attract the right people in the inner circle. I’m going to say something, teach something, or show something cool and people will be like, “Man, Russell has taught me a little nugget. Imagine what he would do if he could work on my business directly. I’m going to go apply for his inner circle.” Focusing on that every single day, I think everyday will get a new group of people coming through. I’m fired up. It gets me excited. I hope it gets some of you guys thinking about it as well. I’m at the office right now. For any of you guys who want me to look at your business and play around with it, tweak it and make it better, you should come to my inner circle. Maybe I’ll start pitching that more on these podcasts. Look, these podcasts are fun. Hopefully you guys get good ideas and things from them but if you really want me to affect your company and your business, we have to play at a different level. There are two ways to really get to that level in life. One is to go and to work your way in which is what a lot of us do. You work hard and eventually over a couple of years, you get there or the second way is to buy your way in. I remember I was at an event one time and I met this guy. I can’t remember, he had a weird name like Scovia Smith or something like that. He was a young kid. I remember meeting him at this event. He was telling me how he joined every mastermind. First off, I’m like how can you afford that. Second off, why did you do it? He told me, “Russell, there are two ways to be successful in this life. One, you can work your way in and it takes a long time. Number two, you just buy your way in.” That was the first thing he told me. Then he said, “What I did, I had an email list of people. I emailed them all. I said, ‘Hey, I’m single. I have nothing else going on right now. I can go to all these different events but I can’t afford them. If you all want to pony up some money, I’ll go to all these events and come back and teach you what I learn.’” I think he got 10 or 12 people to send him 10 grand. Then he used that money to go sign up for everyone’s mastermind groups, and he bought his way in. He got to know everybody, got direct access to his business and worked really quick. There’s definitely a lesson inside of that. I’ve taken that lesson and bought my way into a lot of things. It’s a lot faster sometimes than working your way in. If you’re interested in the inner circle, it’s just InnerCircle.DotComSecrets.com. Thanks you guys and gals. I’m at the office. I’m going to go check out some applications and see who I’m going to be working with today. I’m excited. Talk to you soon.

Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri on the relevance of his talk at the Gibraltar Literary Festival. Considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions, Ben likens literature to ‘the magic thread’ in the mysterious labyrinth of life. For Ben, Gibraltar was the most appropriate location to speak of the conjunction of Africa and Europe.

For some people, making add-ons for popular games is a hobby. For Ben "Bronto ϟ Thunder" Retter, it's his livelihood. What are the ins and outs of creating your own commercial content for a game made by people you don't even know?