Podcasts about fort worth texas

BROOKE LIVELY is the founder and CEO of Cathedral Capital. She earned her MBA in investments and corporate finance. Brooke built a seven-figure company in under two years before starting her own company, Cathedral Capital. As a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), she and her team have worked with Hall of Famers, Inc. 5000 businesses, CEOs, and small business owners. With expertise in growth management, creative problem-solving, and profitability strategy, Brooke was named to the “Top 25 Women to Watch” and “Fort Worth's 2016 CFOs of the Year” lists. She is a highly regarded speaker and the author of several books. Brooke has been featured in international media, including Forbes, Fort Worth Business Press, Diversity Journal, Attorney at Work, and on podcasts, such as Playmakers and Find Your Tribe.Learn more: http://cathcap.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-brooke-lively-founder-and-ceo-of-cathcap

In episode 215, Coffey talks with Gabriela Norton about employee engagement challenges, performance management approaches, and hiring process improvements based on current workplace trends and research.They discuss Gallup's mid-year survey showing low engagement and high turnover intent; psychological safety and mental health support strategies; individualized management approaches vs one-size-fits-all policies; problems with forced ranking performance systems; ongoing feedback versus annual reviews; the costs of poor management training; rebuilding disengaged teams through bias awareness and peer input; and streamlining hiring processes that currently involve excessive interview rounds.Links to stuff they talked about are on our website at https://goodmorninghr.com/EP215 and include the following topics:Gallup: Anemic Employee Engagement Points to Leadership Challenges.Web Pro News: Big Tech Mandates Low Performer Quotas, Eroding Morale and InnovationHarvard Business Review: 6 Steps to Reset a Demotivated TeamReddit: What is up with 3+ Rounds of Interviews for jobs paying less than $100K? : r/interviewsHR Reporter: Are employees building emotional connections with ChatGPT?Reddit: ChatGPT is my best friend : r/ChatGPTReddit: My Boyfriend Is AIReddit: AI Soulmates HR Reporter: With IBM laying off 100s of HR people, is automation replacing HR? | Canadian HR ReporterThe Wall Street Journal: IBM CEO Says AI Has Replaced Hundreds of Workers but Created New Programming, Sales JobsHarvard Business Review: Research: Executives Who Used Gen AI Made Worse PredictionsTopgrading, 3rd Edition: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance by Bradford D. Smart, PhD https://a.co/d/9N2pJXlGood Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for three-quarters of a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.About our Guest:Gabriela established People Performance Resources (PPR), a full-service Human Capital consulting firm, in 2010. Since then, Gabriela and her team have continued to expand their reach in providing strategic and best practice expertise with a proven track record of enhancing operational excellence.Gabriela is a highly regarded and sought-after trusted advisor to many local, national, and international organizations and their decisionmakers. Here are a few of Gabriela's areas of focus: bilingual/bicultural expertise, organizational analysis and development, C-level business continuity planning, executive coaching, executive compensation, change management, strategic planning, employment compliance, board governance guidance, and more.Gabriela serves as board of directors for Out Teach, Catch Up & Read, and The Dallas Summit. In addition, she supports several local and national causes that empower education, social justice, women's causes, children at risk, and conservation efforts. When not enjoying her professional adventures, Gabriela is a foodie who loves traveling, running, hiking, snorkeling, and spending time with her friends, family, and rescue dog, Harley.Gabriela Norton can be reached at: https://www.pprhr.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielanorton https://www.facebook.com/pprhr https://www.instagram.com/ppr_hrAbout Mike Coffey:Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business.Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community.Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas' 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week.Mike and his very patient wife of 28 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.Learning Objectives:1. Create psychological safety environments where employees can openly discuss workload concerns and receive supportive responses rather than punitive reactions to mental health needs.2. Implement ongoing performance feedback systems with specific behavioral expectations and regular check-ins instead of relying on annual reviews with subjective rating scales.3. Design efficient hiring processes with clear competency rubrics and bias acknowledgment techniques while limiting interviews to three meaningful rounds focused on skills and cultural fit.

In this episode, we hear how a police force, on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas and 50 miles from Dallas, is having success battling ORC with practical tactics and the partner-focused approach. Stefanie Hoover chats with Chief JT Manoushagian from the Lake Worth, Texas police department about their successful reduction in retail crime, retail partnerships, and his recommendations for retailers on ways to allocate their resources more effectively. Putting retailers' limited capital where it will do the most good makes sense—listen in as Chief Manoushagian breaks it down for us.

This message covers Pastor Matt Wakefield's sermon on the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” He explains that the command is not about God competing with other deities but declaring His exclusive authority. Pastor Matt highlights how modern believers often create “idols” out of good things—family, work, money, or even ministry—when they take God's rightful place. He emphasizes that anything we depend on for security, identity, or fulfillment apart from God becomes an idol. The message calls the church to wholehearted devotion, warning that divided worship leads to spiritual compromise, but surrender to God alone brings life, freedom, and clarity of purpose .

BrownTown talks all things immigration under Trump 2.0, June protests in Los Angeles, and how ICE ain't shit with immigration attorney and new homie Khiabett Osuna. As Trump tests the waters of his draconian federal policies, financially backed by the Big [Fucking Ugly] Bill, and using ICE as his Gestapo-like muscle, we turn our focus to community resistance in all its forms. Khiabett leans into her work in and outside of the legal field as one piece of this larger puzzle to ensure that no human is illegal on stolen land. From protestors, organizers, and healers on the front lines in Los Angeles to mutual aid and rapid-response networks in Chicago, BrownTown and Khiabett unpack our neoliberal past, technofascist present, and what will be a desperate future unless we fight back. Originally recorded July 18, 2025. GUESTKhiabett Osuna is an attorney with Kriezelman Burton & Associates, LLC. While at DePaul College of Law, Khiabett worked at a local immigration firm and was involved in the Asylum Immigration Clinic. She volunteered with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas, helping screen women and children at the South Texas Family Detention Center who had recently arrived in the United States. After law school, Khiabett was hired through the Department of Justice Honors Program as a Judicial Law Clerk, where she clerked for Immigration Judges in El Paso and Fort Worth, Texas. She then worked at immigration firms in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, assisting clients primarily in removal proceedings. In Chicago, Khiabett works at a full service immigration law firm, continuing to represent clients in removal proceedings, as well as individuals seeking family based and humanitarian relief. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the AILA Chicago Chapter Advocacy Committee, and the Federal Bar Association. Khiabett also volunteers at her local church providing consults to community members. Mentioned in the episode:Correction: WWII ended under U.S. President Harry S. Truman, not FDRSocialism Conference 2025 session on community defenseLA Tenants UnionBirthright U.S. CitizenshipICE and Homeland Security budgets over timeThird Act documentary film by Tadashi NakamuraBnB Episode 116 - America: The Last Dance?Kelly Osbourne...incorrectly calling out TrumpMigrant dies in ICE raid (1, 2)ICE Mass Arrests Spark Chaos In South Loop (Block Club Chi)ResourcesICIRR Support #: 855.435.7693Midwest Immigration Bond FundOrganized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD)Pilsen Neighborhood Watch CoalitionNew fees for asylum seekers (1, 2)SoapBox's 2020 Census projectPalestinian boy dancing with drone above (Aljazeera)Defectors by Paola RamosImmigrants in tree outlast ICE (Reddit)LA Anti-ICE protest Instagram highlights--CREDITS: Intro soundbite from Alderperson Byron Sigcho-Lopez at a STOP ICE rally on June 8, 2025 in Chicago. Outro music FUCK ICE 2 by MANNY SÁNCHEZ. Audio engineered by Kiera Battles. Production assistance by Jamie Price. Episode photo by unknown.--Bourbon 'n BrownTownFacebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Linktree | PatreonSoapBox Productions and Organizing, 501(c)3Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Linktree | Support

A mix of sun and clouds today with a cold front bringing a chance for an afternoon thunderstorm. It will also bring a little relief in the temperature for a few days. Today's high will be 89. Clouds and a chance for more rain and rumbles of thunder this evening with a low of 70.  The high won't get out of the 80s tomorrow. Thursday will be back in the 90s but another cold front is on the way that may drop temperatures back to the 80s by the time the holiday weekend comes around. In other news, A DART bus crashed at White Rock Station on Monday morning, injuring five people. At least one person had to be extricated from the vehicle. It was not immediately clear how many people were on the bus, or what caused the crash; Dallas plans to increase its budget to maintain its buildings after discovering earlier this year the city is spending half of what it needs to keep up with all of its facilities. The recommended budget includes about $36 million for the facilities and real estate management department, which is about $2 million more than last year's budget; with less than three weeks to go before the second special legislative session ends, Gov. Greg Abbott is still waiting for nearly all of his priorities to land on his desk; nd Fort Worth's political and business leaders have touted the city's economic success for years, but new data is backing up those assertions. Among large American cities, Cowtown ranks fifth best for economic growth, buoyed largely by strong marks in education and international trade, according to a new study from Coworking Cafe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tựa Đề: Để Bắt Đầu Sự Kêu Gọi Mới; Kinh Thánh: Công-vụ các Sứ-đồ 1:12-26; Tác Giả: Mục Sư Đặng Quy Thế; Loạt Bài: Hội Thánh Tin Lành Báp Tít Fort Worth

It's the 11th running of the Race For the Future in Fort Worth, TX on September 14, 2025. This is YOUR chance to make a difference in a industry we all love so much. Important links: All the money goes to The Foundation For Dental Laboratory Technology: https://dentallabfoundation.org/ All about the Race: https://dentallabfoundation.org/news-events/race-for-the-future/ Race website: https://fortworth.californiatriathlon.org/ TO DONATE: https://fdlt.memberclicks.net/donor-form#/ Select: Race for the Future Enter the name of the racer you want to support: BARB WARNER or THE CROWN JEWELS Enter the amount (One Million Dollars) Full Arch Immediate Load Hybrids is still one of the most profitable restorations to a lab. The skill and confidence to do them is difficult, but thanks to Dr. Brandon Kofford, the day of surgery is getting even easier. Two years ago, Dr. Kofford came on this podcast to talk about Smart Denture Conversion. The workflow to make a faster and better converted denture. Well after a lot of work and FDA planning, they are back as Smart on X and have introduced the Omibut (https://smartonx.com/pages/omnibut), a new MUA that can be used at any angle. He also talks about improving the original version to make Smart Denture Conversion 2.0 (https://smartonx.com/collections/smart-denture-conversions-kits/products/pre-coated-tibase-recharge-kit)and the use of prefabricated arches (https://smartonx.com/pages/rapid-arches). Let's be honest. There are a LOT of zirconia on the market these days. How do you know which is which? Is one better than another? Is there one that can handle every situation? Check out a FREE webinar from Ivoclar (https://www.ivoclar.com/en_us) called Zirconia Unboxed with Jeff Smith, CDT. (https://www.ivoclar.com/en_us/course/zirconia-unboxed/246115?utm_source=External+-+Voice+from+the+Bench&utm_medium=QR+code&utm_campaign=Academy&utm_term=August) "This introductory webinar is the first in a five-part series designed to address the most frequently asked questions by dental labs when selecting zirconia for their restorations. With a focus on practical guidance, this session explores the key considerations in choosing the right zirconia, including material properties, esthetics, and processing techniques. This introductory webinar is the first in a five-part series designed to address the most frequently asked questions by dental labs when selecting zirconia for their restorations. With a focus on practical guidance, this session explores the key considerations in choosing the right zirconia, including material properties, esthetics, and processing techniques." Check it out at: https://www.ivoclar.com/enus/course/zirconia-unboxed/246115?utmsource=External+-+Voice+from+the+Bench&utmmedium=QR+code&utmcampaign=Academy&utm_term=August Special Guest: Dr. Brandon Kofford.

Live from Fort Worth, Texas! The Bardtenders head to Fort Worth for the second annual Heard House to bring you live episodes with some amazing hospitality professionals. The Bardtenders had the chance to stay at the Heard House sponsored by Heard Card Game where bartenders from around the country came together to share their stories, gain access to education opportunities, and create some amazing memories along the way. Join us over the next several weeks as these bartenders share their experiences of their time in the hospitality industry!In this episode of "The Mixing Glass", Gina Michelotti talks about what it takes to start your own events company and how focusing on building a local brand and supporting local businesses is an important asset to any events company. ------------Gina Michelotti Started social214 events on a whim. She always wanted to work for or as an event planner and took her entrepreneurial chance when the timing in her life was right and necessary. She hasn't looked back yet and doesn't plan on stopping any time soon! ------------Don't miss out on any of the action!  Head to www.bardtender.com to stay up to date with all of the Bardtender content, find resources for mental and physical wellbeing, get access to education materials, and check out what all of our bards are up to! You can also check out our Linktree at https://linktr.ee/Bardtenders to find ways to listen to the show, join our Discord, or subscribe to our Patreon for bonus content, ad-free episodes, and so much more! | Support the show

This week Ann Zadeh is out of town, so EJ & Wesley were joined by Chris Tackett.BIG STORY: Chris Tackett of See It Name It Fight It talks about how Fort Worth votes blue, and spells out a playbook for how Fort Worth can become deeper blue to counteract gerrymandering on a couty & state level.SHORT STORY 1: Nicole Collier held in Texas House Chamber & Texas Republicans pass gerrymandered redisticting maps.SHORT STORY 2: Tarrant County dramatically reduces voting locations.SHORT STORY 3: Eddie García tapped to be Fort Worth's next police chief.WINS: ‘Let's ride!': Fort Worth high school students to receive free transit rides from Trinity MetroTrinity Railway Express to be upgraded for World Cup transportationFort Worth names new director for economic development, Jessica RogersNew director at the Modern leans into museum's future following national controversyFort Worth park memorializing Black lynching victim closer to being fundedLOSSES: O'Hare: Anticipated TxDOT master plan ‘huge boon' for Fort Worth-area economic developmentTarrant County Judge O'Hare calls on cities to run ‘business-minded' governmentsFort Worth lands $761M AI supercomputer plants as Wistron selects AllianceTarrant faith leaders urge officials to condemn GOP chair's anti-Muslim social media postsACTIONS:What should Fort Worth spend $3B in taxpayer money on? Here's how to weigh inDistrict 7: 6 pm Aug. 25 at Boswell High School District 6: 6 pm Aug. 27 at Southwest High School LibraryDistrict 3: 6 pm Sept. 3 at LVTRise Community CenterDistrict 4: 10 am Sept. 6 at Basswood Elementary SchoolDistrict 11: 2 pm Sept. 6 at Eugene McCray Community CenterDistrict 9: 6 pm Sept. 8 at University Christian Church District 5: 6 pm Sept. 10 at the Fort Worth East Regional LibraryDistrict 2: 6 pm Sept. 11 at Northside Community CenterDistrict 8: 6 pm Sept. 15 at the William M. McDonald YMCA

In the sleepy Fort Worth enclave of River Oaks football, like in all Texas towns, was king. The energy surrounding Friday nights under the stadium lights was electric. Football wasn't just a game, it was a way of life. The players were hometown heroes, the cheerleaders their shining counterparts, and together they stood at the center of the community's pride. To many, they were untouchable teenage gods living out through their glory years. But when whispers of fear began to spread, that illusion of safety cracked. Someone out there was watching the cheerleaders. Hunting them. One by one, the girls who had once been celebrated as the town's brightest stars would become targets in a chilling game of obsession that would end in blood. What seemed like the plot in the newest slasher film quickly became the reality for the students of Castleberry High School in 1981. Sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dangerous-reunion/ Murder Under the Friday Night Lights, Season 1 Episode 1  https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/convict-to-return-to-prison-for-jailhouse-romance/285-342720631 https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/second-court-of-appeals/2010/21828.html https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/tx-court-of-appeals/1410329.html https://www.tuko.co.ke/facts-lifehacks/celebrity-biographies/485957-where-wesley-miller-today-retha-strattons-prison-sentence/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dangerous-reunion/ Newspapers.com

Dan Buettner discovered the five places in the world (dubbed “blue zones”) where people live the longest, healthiest lives. He has devoted his life to studying them.In this episode of the Align Podcast, New York Times bestselling author Dan Buettner shares what really drives longevity and happiness (spoiler: it's not just supplements or strict routines.) Dan breaks down the common traits in Blue Zones around the world, exploring parallels between modern society and ancient civilizations, and how reshaping your surroundings can change everything. We cover powerful insights from his new book Blue Zones Kitchen: One Pot Meals and how you can apply them in your everyday life to feel better and live longer.OUR GUESTDan Buettner is a National Geographic Explorer and multiple New York Times Bestselling author. He discovered the five places in the world – dubbed blue zones – where people live the longest, healthiest lives. His articles about these places in The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic are two of the most popular for both publications.Buettner founded Blue Zones LLC, a company that works in partnership with city governments, hospital systems, and insurance companies to implement insights he gleaned in Blue Zones to help make cities healthier. In one such city, Fort Worth Texas, obesity rates dropped by 3%, and the city reported $250 million in projected health care cost savings. To date, over 70 cities have adopted Blue Zones Projects, improving the health of more than 10 million Americans to date.Dan's newest book, Blue Zones Kitchen: One Pot Meals; 100 Recipes to Live to 100, hits shelves on September 2. Backed by research and designed for busy Americans, this book tackles the root of chronic disease: ultra-processed food. With the average American eating out over 100 times a year—consuming 300 extra sugar- and sodium-laced calories each time—Dan makes the case for a powerful solution: cooking at home. To make it doable, he teamed up with a Stanford AI lab to analyze over 670,000 popular recipes, isolating the most-loved flavor profiles. The result? 100 fast, affordable, plant-based one-pot meals built on the principles of longevity—and designed to add up to 12 extra years of life.DAN BUETTNER

Recorded on 8/17/25. We're about three things at @CityPostChurch: Build, Equip, and Send.BUILD Kingdom, EQUIP Believers, and SEND out Agents of the Gospel to saturate Fort Worth with the light and love of Jesus. All under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.Let's Connect!www.citypostchurch.org or email us at info@citypostchurch.org

THE VIBEwith Kelly Cardenas presents Jasmine Seliga is the Founder and CEO of Affixify, a company that has been described as the “Tinder of technology.” Through Affixify, she helps businesses get matched with the right tech for their needs, beginning with hotels in the hospitality space.Jasmine lives in Fort Worth, Texas, where she and her husband are raising three energetic boys. Her faith is the foundation of her life and work, and she is unapologetic about doing everything for God's glory.Her background is as unique as her journey, growing up across the world, attending 13 different schools, and spending her early years in South Korea, she developed a deep love for Asia and a passion for traveling the globe.Jasmine's story as a devoted wife, mom, and entrepreneur reflects the wild, beautiful balance of family, faith, and building something that makes an impact.https://www.getaffixify.com/A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORSINCHSTONES PLAYBOOKhttps://a.co/d/hil3nloSUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER⁠https://thevibebykellycardenas.substack.com?r=4nn6y5&utm_medium=ios⁠BUY THE VIBE BOOK ⁠⁠https://a.co/d/6tgAJ4c⁠⁠ BUY BLING ⁠⁠https://shop.kellycardenas.com/products/kelly-cardenas-salon-bling⁠⁠ CARDENAS LAW GROUPhttps://www.cardenaslawgroup.com/THE BEST MEXICAN FOOD ON THE PLANEThttps://www.lulusmexicanfood.com/EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - BROOKLYN CARDENAS ⁠⁠https://www.brooklyncardenas.com/⁠⁠

Eddie García, the former Dallas police chief who departed for Austin last year despite efforts by city leaders to keep him, will be Fort Worth's next police chief. The appointment comes less than a year after García became an assistant city manager in Austin, joining former Dallas city manager T.C. Broadnax. García's swift return to North Texas was driven by a realization during his time in Austin that he was “born to be a cop.” In other news, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, the North Texas mother accused of killing her young son, is now in Tarrant County custody, FBI and Tarrant County officials said Thursday; the Powerball jackpot rose to $700 million after no one won the big prize Wednesday night. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, while the odds of winning some sort of smaller prize are about 1 in 25. And the first White Castle burger in Texas is expected to open in The Colony in the summer of 2026, a spokeswoman for the fast-food company confirmed to The Dallas Morning News. And if you'd like to learn more about the North Texas food scene then listen to Eat Drink D-FW, a podcast produced by the Dallas Morning News. A new episode just dropped with the title, ‘Chefs are just like us!' and you can find it in this feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the electric utility industry, vegetation management plays an integral role in reliability and resiliency. For this episode of the Line Life Podcast, we are featuring an interview with Dr. Anand Persad, the founder and director of research with Tetra Energy Sciences Research and Consulting. I interviewed Dr. Persad at last year's Trees & Utilities conference in Fort Worth, Texas, to learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the utility vegetation management (UVM) industry. He has written several articles about UVM for the T&D World website, magazine and annual Vegetation Management Supplement, which we publish in partnership with the Utility Arborist Association (UAA) each June.  To learn more about utility vegetation management, make sure to register for the 2025 Trees & Utilities conference this September in Knoxville, Tennessee. The 2025 T&D World Vegetation Management Supplement will be available in the UAA booth. I look forward to seeing you there! Also, if you have an idea for an article for the 2026 Vegetation Management Supplement, please email Amy Fischbach.   

In episode 214, Coffey talks with Joe Frodsham about CMP's fourth annual national pulse check on C-Suite mental health, wellbeing, and leadership challenges.   They discuss executive mental health normalization since COVID; executive well being; clinical support and performance psychology for executives; individual vs one-size-fits-all wellness approaches; ROI metrics including career health indicators and management reviews; improved communication and engagement trends; remote work impacts on introverts vs extroverts; executive job security varying by ownership structure with private equity creating highest stress; and the importance of clear cultural decisions during mergers and acquisitions. CMP's C-Suite State of Mind Pulse Check 2025 is available at https://www.careermp.com/csuite-pulse-check-2025.  Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. Business Credit for SPHRs. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest: Joe Frodsham is President of CMP, the largest minority- and woman-owned talent solutions firm in the nation. CMP supports thousands of professionals in career transition annually while deploying contemporary assessment, coaching, and training solutions for targeted succession and development. Joe has extensive experience across Fortune 500 companies in leading human resource functions and building cutting-edge talent management systems. Joe is a regular contributor to Forbes, co-hosts the American Narratives podcast, and has co-authored two seminal books on careers—Make it Work and Don't Dread Monday. Joe will be presenting at the Fort Worth HR Strategic Mindset Conference on September 12th. And you can learn more about that conference at fwhr.org. Joe Frodsham can be reached at https://www.careermp.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfrodsham About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas' 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 28 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  Learning Objectives: Recognize that executive mental health directly impacts business outcomes and implement clinical support resources and individualized wellness strategies rather than generic programs. Develop better metrics for measuring engagement including career health indicators, management reviews with upward feedback, and individual assessment tools that drive real-time conversations. Understand that job security and stress levels vary significantly by ownership structure (private equity vs public vs privately held) and tailor retention strategies accordingly. 

Industrial Talk is talking to Greg Christensen, Founder and Host of CMMS Radio Podcast about "Your source for all things Asset Management". Scott Mackenzie interviews Greg Christensen about his podcast, CMMS Radio, which focuses on asset management and reliability systems. Greg shares his background in building maintenance and software development, leading to the creation of CMMS Radio in 2021. He emphasizes the importance of people, process, and technology in maintenance management. Greg discusses the challenges of sustaining reliability efforts, the impact of leadership changes, and the need for meaningful data collection. He also highlights the complexity of integrating various maintenance management systems and the importance of collaboration among industry professionals. Action Items [ ] @Scott MacKenzie - Attend the SMRP conference in Fort Worth, TX in October and take advantage of the 10% discount using the code "CMMS10". [ ] Reach out to Greg Christensen on LinkedIn to connect and potentially be a guest on the CMMS Radio podcast. Outline Introduction to Industrial Talk Podcast Scott MacKenzie introduces the Industrial Talk Podcast, emphasizing its focus on industry professionals and their innovations. Scott highlights the importance of celebrating industry professionals who solve problems and collaborate. Scott introduces Greg Christensen, the guest for the episode, and his podcast, CMMS Radio. Scott mentions the common threads among industry professionals and the importance of their passion and vulnerability. Greg Christensen's Background and CMMS Radio Greg Christensen shares his background, starting in the building maintenance industry in the 90s. Greg discusses his experience working in various skilled trades and manufacturing environments. Greg talks about starting a software company to manage the process of account management and work orders. Greg explains the inception of CMMS Radio in 2021, focusing on maintenance management, people, and process, rather than just technology. The Evolution of CMMS Radio Greg describes the initial idea of starting CMMS Radio with monologs and the transition to including guests and videos. Greg mentions the inspiration from other podcasters and the importance of adding value without selling. Scott and Greg discuss the challenges of starting a podcast and the importance of perseverance. Greg emphasizes the importance of having real conversations and not trying to satisfy everyone. Challenges in Asset Management and Reliability Scott and Greg discuss the challenges of maintaining asset management and reliability programs over time. Greg talks about the impact of leadership changes and the importance of preserving effective systems. Scott shares his experience with deploying systems like Indus Passport and the challenges of sustaining reliability efforts. Greg highlights the importance of continuous process improvement and the need for incremental changes. The Role of Technology in Asset Management Scott and Greg discuss the role of technology in asset management and the challenges of implementing comprehensive systems. Greg explains the similarities and differences between various asset management systems like CMMS, EAM, and APM. Greg emphasizes the importance of meaningful data collection and the role of frontline maintenance technicians. Scott and...

Lindsay and Madison discuss the 1897 Aurora UFO Crash, as well as why you shouldn't drink contaminated well water, that crazy things can happen at 6 am, and how to not be a dick in a cemetery. Information pulled from the following sources 2024 Atlas Obscura article by Eric Grundhauser 2024 Fort Worth Texas article by Michael H. Price 2024 Medium article by Ryan Sprague 2024 Texas Hill Country article by Max McNabb 2023 Burials and Beyond blog post by Kate Cherrell 2021 Now Magazine article by Angel Morris 2016 Kera News article by Christopher Connelly 2014 Chron Houston Chronicle article by John Boyd Aurora Legend Find a Grave Mufon (Mutual UFO Network) publication by John F. Schuessler Tui Snider blog post Wikipedia Send us your listener questions to bit.ly/AskYOC. Become a member on Buy Me A Coffee for as little as $1/month to support the show.  Get your groceries and essentials delivered in as fast as 1 hour via Instacart. Free delivery on your first 3 orders. Min $10 per order. Terms apply. You can write to us at: Ye Olde Crime Podcast, PO Box 341, Wyoming, MN 55092. Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser, Spotify, Podcast Addict, Audible, or Goodpods! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building a successful business often means solving problems nobody else sees coming. In this episode of Building Texas Business, I sit down with Merrilee Kick, founder of BuzzBallz, to talk about how she transformed a poolside idea into a ready-to-drink cocktail empire she sold to Sazerac in 2024. Merrilee shares her journey from high school teacher to manufacturing pioneer who bootstrapped through engineering challenges and suppliers who refused to sell her essential components. Her approach demonstrates that when traditional paths close, entrepreneurs must forge their own. We explore how Merrilee built a family-like culture with minimal turnover through practical benefits like daily cooked meals and extended holiday breaks. She discusses why fairness matters more than equality in building loyal teams. During COVID, she created an on-site school for employees' children and manufactured hand sanitizer for hospitals, showing how adaptability serves both business continuity and community needs. Merrilee reflects on mistakes that shaped her success, from coconut cream that solidified at room temperature to trusting the wrong people. She emphasizes that entrepreneurs must trust their gut instincts and move quickly when something isn't working. Her discussion about selling to Sazerac reveals the cultural shifts that come with acquisition and why selecting the right buyer matters as much as the price. The conversation reveals how a teacher's frustration with glass by the pool became a multi-million dollar business through relentless problem-solving and genuine employee care. Listen to discover why sometimes the best business education comes from cleaning your own warehouse bathrooms. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS "S#@t doesn't smell any better with age" - why firing fast is critical to maintaining culture and performance When suppliers demand hundreds of thousands for R&D, sometimes you have to source from Canada and figure it out yourself A $10 daily lunch investment eliminated production delays and built the family culture that kept turnover near zero Creating an on-site school during COVID kept the production lines running when competitors shut down People quit managers, not companies - know your employees' kids' names and eat lunch with them Trust your gut over resumes - the West Point MIT grad who couldn't deliver taught her that credentials don't guarantee performance LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About BuzzBallz GUESTS Merrilee KickAbout Merrilee TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode, you'll meet Merrilee Kick, founder of BuzzBallz. Merrilee shares her story of going from a high school teacher grading papers to a multimillion dollar manufacturer of ready to drink cocktails by trusting her instincts, being honest and fair, and keeping sales concepts funny. Merrilee, I want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thank you for taking the time to come on in the podcast. Merrilee: Thanks Chris. Chris: So let's start. You founded a very interesting company called BuzzBallz. Love the name. Tell the listeners what is BuzzBallz, what is the company and what's it known for? Merrilee: So BuzzBallz is a ready to drink cocktail company. It's a manufacturing company based in Texas, and I started it back in 2009. Our first sale was in 2010 and I sold it. I ran it for 15 years and then I sold it last year, may of 2024 to Sazerac, a big company, one of the world's largest manufacturers of bourbon and alcoholic spirits. And they were very interested in us because it was the convenience store channel and it was ready to drink. And so it was a little bit different twist for them. Chris: Very good. So what was the inspiration for you in 2009 to start a alcoholic beverage company? Merrilee: I was going through some hard times with my marriage and I was a high school teacher at the time and I wanted to be more financially independent. And my high school that I was working at said that they would give me a teacher's enrichment program to where I could go get my master's in administration and be a principal. And I was like, oh my God, no, I don't want to be a principal. No, I want to go into my own field, which was business because I taught entrepreneurship, business law, international business marketing, computer science, all those kinds of wonderful subjects to high school kids, and I wanted to get my degree and get my MBA in that. So I convinced them to let me do it. Got my MBA and BuzzBallz was my master's degree thesis project. I was grading papers by the pool thinking of what should my project be for my capstone, my final project for my MBA and I had a little vo of candle with me and drinking a cocktail like a good teacher would, and I should probably not have a glass glass out here by the pool where I'm grading papers. I need to have something plastic. So I came up with the idea and the concept of a little party ball, a little ready to drink cocktail in a ball shape. Then my family and I, we sat down at dinner and we came up with the name Buzzballz. I love it. So catchy. And so that's where it came from and it stuck, you know, and it's one of those names you don't forget. So, that's the genesis of it all. Chris: What a great story. So high school teacher grading papers by the pool comes up with a cocktail and turns it into a wildly successful business. That is a coolest story I think I've ever heard. Merrilee: Yeah, we started out with six different flavors and they were pretty edgy. I'm a pretty edgy person, I guess. So, we came out with names like OJ Screamer because it was right when OJ Simpson was on trial and we had an orange juice and vodka screwdriver and we thought, okay, this will be funny, and funny sells, and it makes people laugh again. It makes it fun. So, We came up with some funny, funny names, strawberry Rum job, you know, like kind of edgy, dirty names, but funny and people loved it. Since then, it's kind of calmed the waves a little bit. We've mellowed it down a little bit, toned it down for the general grocery store shoppers, and more more family focused. But we've been through many renditions, many different flavors and sizes and things over the years. Yeah, Chris: It is really cool. Let's go back to kind of that 2009 or maybe time period. So I guess you had your MBA and you had this idea, but what did you do to get this off the ground and what kind of hurdles were you facing in order to do that? There Merrilee: Was so many hurdles. I didn't know anything manufacturing. I didn't know anything business. I was told by bankers all around Texas that I've applied for loans with that you're just a teacher, you don't have any experience, you don't have any collateral, you don't have any knowledge of manufacturing, how are you going to pull this off? And I just googled everything. Google was a really good friend, but I was looking at how many pounds per square inch does a Coke have on the inner walls of its container and will my container hold that and will this plastic have BPA in it and will it leach into my product? And what is the oxygen scavenging ratio of will oxygen permeate this plastic and degrade the product and what kind of petaloid base do I need on this? So there's a lot of engineering involved to create the container because it is a custom container. And then I was almost to the finish line and then a company, I wanted to put these metal lids on the container and a company came to me and they said, we want you to pay us hundreds of thousands of dollars so that we can r and d and see if your product really can be a good product for the market. And I couldn't afford it, so I just did it myself and I had to launch it myself and they said they wouldn't sell me any lids because of it. So I had to buy 'em from Canada. I had to buy 'em from overseas and then do it myself. So one of the things I learned is you just have to do everything yourself. You have to clean the bathrooms, you have to clean the warehouse, you have to set up the equipment, you have to do all the QuickBooks, you have to do the shipping, you have to do the billing, you have to understand all the details of this business inside now before you can pass it on to anybody. Chris: That's a very common theme amongst entrepreneurs, especially in the startup. You have an inspiration or a passion or something or idea that you believe so much in and are so passionate about that despite all the hurdles you run into, you just figure out ways over the hurdles. Merrilee: That's because if you don't, your failure to do anything and try to get it right means bankruptcy. And most entrepreneurs are going on their last thread, maxed out their credit cards. They can't afford a complete and utter failure. They can afford mistakes, but they quickly pivot and fix it and keep going. They keep swimming Chris: To that point. So you said you have to be able to do everything to get it going. Those are early days. How do you then transition once you've got some legs underneath it to start letting go of some things and bringing people in because it's your baby and you have to learn to trust some people to take care of it, Merrilee: And you make a lot of mistakes trusting people too. So you'll have a lot of duds people that you hire, some family and friends I would steer away from as much as possible unless that family is under your control, like cousins, aunts, uncles, those are more difficult to work with than your own sons because your sons will do whatever you tell 'em to do. Chris: And I know you have your sons in the business, Merrilee: But it was difficult when I hired friends because they were entitled. They thought they would be able to have more. So it's very different when you're having to hire people that are friends, Chris: That's having a strong team around you is so critical to the success of any business. What did you learn along the way? And aside from maybe don't hire friends to really hone in on your process to improve your hit rate on making sure you were hiring people that you could trust and they could do the job Merrilee: Well, sometimes you hire somebody based on their resume or their referrals or whatever, and that's a good first step, but you're going to still make mistakes. I remember I had a guy that had all the accolades in the world. He was a West Point grad, he was MIT, he had all these accolades, but he couldn't seem to get anything done and talk about delegation. I had to have my son because I was out of town. I was like, Hey, you get to fire this guy and here's this guy that's 30 years his senior and my son has never fired anyone before. And he had to have that experience. It was difficult. But one thing I've learned is crap doesn't smell any better with age. So you've got to get rid of people that are toxic or that even if you have a relationship, a friendly relationship with them, sometimes it just isn't going to work for whatever reason. Either something legal that they did or something that was immoral that they did or just basic laziness or in capability to get the job done. So sometimes if you don't feel it, it's almost like a gut feel. If it's not working right, then there's something wrong and you got to make moves. A Chris: Couple of things there, right? First I think the adage of hire slow fire fast is very true. Easier said than done. I Merrilee: Don't hire slow. I don't like that. I don't like that saying because I think sometimes you hire fast and it's okay. I think the important thing is fire fast if you have grounds to do so and try to get somebody to replace them as quickly as possible. You got to do everything fast when you're an entrepreneur. Chris: So on the fire fast side, right? I mean I think it's whether it's performance or cultural fit, if it's not working, the sooner you move, the better your organization's going to be. Merrilee: But on the cultural fit too, that's a big one because they may have the capability to do it, but maybe at their own pace or maybe not at your pace or maybe they just have a different idea of work altogether. Chris: And one of the things we say here, it doesn't necessarily make 'em a bad person. This isn't the right organization for them and they need to go find that organization that will fit them better. But speaking of culture, how would you describe the culture that you built at BuzzBallz? Merrilee: Okay, so my culture at BuzzBallz, we hardly had any turnover because I treated it like family. I think that people quit managers, and I've heard that before, but people do quit, managers and they quit companies that don't believe in them. And I think that is a big cultural learning. You've got to do things together, you got to take them to lunch, you got to talk to them, you got to get involved with their family life, know their kids' names. You need to know something about the people that report to you. Now when you have a thousand people reporting to you can't possibly do all that, but you can have parties and you can have celebrations and you can recognize people at every level of the totem pole. And I think some of the things to do to build culture, we would have a cook on staff that cooked for everybody every day because that $10 a day savings meant more to, and it meant a lot to me because they could start the lines on time. I didn't have to wait for somebody to go get a burrito down the street and come back. They could just go ahead and keep together. And it built culture that way too. They started to trust each other, they started to rely on each other. And the other thing that we did was we all rolled up our sleeves. It didn't matter whether you were the lead accountant or if you were the CEO, if something needed to get done, you go do it. Chris: I think Merrilee: That's great. So it's not that it's above you or it's somebody else's job. Chris: Yeah. Kind of lead by example, right? No task is above anyone. It's all about getting the job done. Merrilee: Correct. Chris: And I think to your point of knowing your people as best you can, when you start to scale the business as you did, I think it breaks into tier. So within your direct reports or a level or two, you have the ability to get to really know them. And then I think it's important to teach them that they take it another level down and really have good connections within their direct reports and then you can layer that through the organization so that people feel connected. And so Merrilee: One thing I learned too, Chris, is I learned that people are better managers than me. I'm more of an inventor. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm not really a good manager of people. I'm a good people person and I'm a good salesperson, but I don't like doing the management of the day to day of my car broke down or I'm sick or I need PTO approved or I need blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't like doing any of that. All the administrative stuff that comes with management I'm terrible at. It's not that I'm terrible, it's just that I don't want to do it. I would rather have somebody that's better at it do it. I think that it's really important that people see your genuine self and that you're honest and fair to them more than equal. Equality is different than fairness. And I think fairness trumps equality, fairness. Somebody who comes to work every day works their butt off every day, takes care of you, always says they're going to get it done. That person is a person I want to hire versus somebody who's complaining and moaning about equality. If you gave them a day off, I want a day off, I need a PTO day just because I just need a de-stress day, it's buzz off. I don't need you to complain about your daily work. Chris: Everybody has stuff. So despite that, we still have to get a job done and that gets lost sometimes. And that just goes back to the hiring process and making sure, and I agree with you, no hiring process is perfect. It's more of an art than a science, but if you really focus on some of the right things, you're going to have better hits. But again, like we said earlier, once you realize you've made a mistake, you got to make a move. Merrilee: And also about the speed of hiring. When you said hire slow, I've been with companies that hire too slow and they drag prospective employees on for so long doing too many rounds and they lose them Chris: For sure. I guess it slows relative, but yes, if you drag it out immersively long, if you have a good process, you know what you're looking for. And within a couple rounds of an interview, you should know whether that person's going to hit fit or not. We talked a little bit about culture and I guess one thing would be interesting is how do you believe that you've been through a transition in the last 12 months? Has that culture been impacted by that Merrilee: Tremendously? Yeah. Culture is completely different with a big company versus a small entrepreneurial company. Entrepreneur companies are more freewheeling, more giving in terms of the things they allow people to do. They help people more. Bigger companies are more rigid. They have more rules because they have to, they're just bound by more legal problems if I could say. So just they've got more issues to have to Chris: Worry, maybe legal hurdles and regulations and such, Merrilee: And they have just a bigger spotlight on them. So people are always looking at them trying to find fault and trying to sue them for anything possible. There's rules and regulations that they have to abide by that I didn't. So culture has changed also with they had to let go a lot of people and that was really hard because these are people that I loved and people that I cared very dearly about that helped me build the business, but they had their own internal structure and people already filling some of those roles so it didn't make financial sense or business sense to string them along and have two people doing the same thing. So there were some business decisions that were made that affected culture. Yes, Chris: It's almost inevitable when that type of combination happens, right? Because there's going to be some overlap and a business has to run efficiently and can't have two people doing the same thing Merrilee: And they just run it differently. It's not that one's better or one's worse. They just are different. And I tried to pick a company to buy us that would be as close as possible to our culture and I tried to pick one that was privately owned and family owned and manufacturing instead of some other kind of company. I didn't want private equity or anything like that. I wanted somebody that held some of the same beliefs I did and I think I did a good job with this company. I really like them and I think they have a lot of great ideas, but it's different than how I would've done it. Chris: Hello friends. This is Chris Hanzlik, your building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations and business leaders. Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm@boermiller.com and thanks for listening to the show. So let's talk a little bit about innovation because what you did there was nothing like it on the market. Obviously the initial concept seems unique and novel As you grew the company over those 15 years, how did you incorporate or encouraged innovation within the company to keep it going? Merrilee: We would have so much fun together. We always had happy hours after work and we would sit and brainstorm with a cocktail in our hand and just anything goes. We would talk about anything and everything and we would do fun marketing things too. Things that were a little edgy maybe too far. Like we had Buzz Ball condoms for spring break and we had crazy stuff for marketing and now the marketing is a little more toned down because it's going to the general populace instead of just craziness. So I think that that's changed for sure. Tell me again what you were asking about Chris: Kind of incorporating innovation into Merrilee: Innovation. Yeah, so it's just Chris: Propelling success. Merrilee: We would try different flavors and this tastes gross or this tastes like medicine or no, I don't like it or I don't like the color of it or whatever. So we had an r and d team and they were fun people and that was really important to me. I wanted the ability to have the science aspect of it, but I also wanted the ability, we had a good formulation going so that we could do that. Now, one thing we decided when it was around, I don't know, four or five years in, we were thinking, oh, sales are starting to slump a little bit, wonder what's going on. We should start our own vodka and our own rum and our own gin and our own bourbon and start making those. We could do that. And so we started doing that. The thing we didn't do well was marketing of those products. So those products felt flat over two or three years. We had distribution, but we didn't know how to sell it because we had been selling in a different channel in a different way. So we went back and focused on our core learning from that mistake, just innovation is something else. Do you want to make things in a different shaped container? So we came out with the biggie, the giant biggie, and I had always wanted to make a big bowling ball sized buzz ball and everywhere I went, they were like, no, the Chris: Party size, we Merrilee: Can't do it party size, we can't do it. That's what they kept saying, you can't do it, you can't make it. It won't work. We found a way to make it work and it's one of the coolest looking things on the market and we've got witches potion coming out pretty soon. We've got biggie, BuzzBallz everywhere. Chris: I think one of the things you mentioned there, just it's okay to try new things and expand, but you've got to stay on top of 'em and I guess you said with the vodka and the bourbon and whatnot, eventually we're not as good at this. So you have to know just higher or firing fast, you have to know when to cut that off and go back to your core to really just focus on what you're good at and be the best at that. Merrilee: And so what we did with all that excess booze that we made is we just drank it in our bar. We had it at our bar at work. We had a nice big bar at work, so we would Chris: Some cost savings. We had to go buy support Merrilee: Our habits. Chris: So I'd be interested to know, you said you were in the Dallas area when you started this company. Do you feel that being in Texas as a entrepreneur and startup business had its advantages that allowed you to achieve the success that you have? Merrilee: I knew that Texas is a little bit cheaper than some of the other big cities out there, la, New York, and it's centrally located, so that helps a lot in terms of shipping, but I don't think that Texas particularly helped me other than this is where I grew my family and it was home Chris: Cheaper real estate. I think typically a legislature at the state level that's business friendly. Merrilee: Yeah, yeah, it is. I think that the other thing I wanted to make a point of is we have a big labor pool, not necessarily good though, it's a big labor pool, but sometimes you have to go through a bunch of people to find the right kind of people. What's that work ethic thing? Chris: Of course. So let's talk a little bit then about leadership and how you would describe your leadership style and how you think that evolved over time. Merrilee: I'm a hugger. I walk down the hall, I smile at everybody, I talk to everybody. I give them a hug, I eat lunch with 'em. It's an open door. So I think that is one thing that's different about me. I care about my employees so much. When COVID hit, one of the things we did that I'm especially proud of was we started our own little school. So I knew I needed employees to show up for a manufacturing plant, but how could they do that if they had to stay home to take care of their kids? Their kids' school was closed, so I was like, I'll start a school. And so I started a school onsite, a buzz ball school, hired a Texas education, the agency teacher and an aide, so a TE, a certified teacher and an aide, and we converted a conference room, big conference room into a kids learning center and we got headphones and we had them get their PCs from all their different schools. We had kids' books, we had play mats, we had tents, we had all kinds of stuff. We cooked breakfast for 'em, we cooked lunch for 'em, we gave them a snack, we helped them with their homework and then their parents could bring 'em to work at 6:00 AM before school starts, but 6:00 AM We had somebody there to greet those kids when their shift started, the people working and we'd help the kids, give them a snack, give them their homework, make sure they got everything done, and then their parents could eat lunch with them if they wanted to during that day and then pick 'em up at two or three o'clock in the afternoon when their shift was over. But that's one of the things I'm really proud of. That's like a different thing that we had to do for COVID. So we did a lot of things like the lunches, the free lunches. We also gave everybody time off between Christmas and New Year's, right around December 22nd to January 2nd, I just said everybody gets that time off because of when I was a teacher. That was really important to have that family time and when you're working your job for your first year when you're out of college, or even if you never went to college, you get two weeks vacation. That's not enough for the whole year. So two weeks vacation plus a week of PTO for sick time, and then you get this extra 10 days off paid and you don't have to come to work. You can make that plan and go to New York for your family. And then we also give them a bonus at Christmas so that they could buy some Christmas presents. Some of them were paycheck to paycheck and so it meant lot. Yeah, just little celebrations, chili cook-offs and dinosaur races and silly stuff, but it was good. It was a good relationship, good culture. Chris: What you just mentioned about the school during COVID is fascinating to me and brilliant by the way, so kudos to you that would fit within my definition of innovation. Thinking outside the box and going, one, you have to keep your business going and so how can I do this given what my workforce is dealing with? And you found that is an amazing solution. Merrilee: We also decided that we would be an essential business, so we made BuzzBallz, hand sanitizer, we took some of our spirit based vodka and rum and gin and put these little toppers on them instead of the 50 ml size that's on the airplane that had a screw cap, put these tops on 'em and then made hand sanitizer, gave it out to all the lab corps, all the hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, all of the grocery stores, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, spirit Airlines, we gave it out to so many people and all the hospitals and everything. So that was one way that we could stay in business made us essential. Chris: It's funny, I had some clients do some similar things with hand sanitizers during that time. Of course, looking back, if you remember the spike in alcohol cells during COVID, it seems like it would've been a natural essential business anyway, right? Merrilee: Straight answer from any kind of government saying essential business or not. I was like, we're going to make ourselves essential, and people wanted to buy our hand sanitizer and I'm like, no, we're giving it for free. We're not doing it for money. We're doing it for the betterment of mankind. Chris: At that point, it was so uncertain, right? Merrilee: Yeah, we thought we were going to die, we're going to all Chris: Die. Thank goodness that didn't happen. We've suffered that. I think there's been a slow progression back to normalcy in the business world as a result of COVID. You see it more and more the work remote versus now just this year a lot more about five days a week back in the office, which four or five years ago, you never thought that would happen. Merrilee: That really made me mad too, that everybody was expecting to work from home forever, and I was just like, that's not real life people. You need to collaborate with other people. You need to get things done. And you can't do it in a bubble unless you're like a computer programmer and that's all you do all day is sit in front of your pc. It doesn't make any sense if you're in a people oriented business. Chris: I couldn't agree with you more. And that's what our firm is, people oriented, customer service, customer facing professional services, and we say we're better together and the collaboration is key. It's where learning and training and development come from, and we think where our best client service comes from. So we got to be together. We actually got back in the office in May of 2020 in a smart and safe way, but it was that critical. Merrilee: It's changed time and leveraging technology. I've just noticed such a flowing in customer service and an accountability and when you call somebody to set up an appointment for something, you get some robot on the phone and you push one and you push two and then you push one and then you push three and then you get somebody that's a voicemail or whatever. It's so frustrating. There is such a decline in accountability. It's like somebody's always passing the buck to somebody else or that's not my department. I don't do that. And companies have gotten so big, and I'm talking about the big at ts, the big companies that don't ever answer their phone, they don't have a human that answers their phone. You can't get support. And I think that when it's just so refreshing when you have a company that actually answers their phone, that actually responds to your email that you sent, even if it's a complaint, somebody listened. Somebody responded, oh crap, I'll buy their stuff forever because of that. I was mad, but now I'm happy. Chris: So true. So you mentioned something, it was a while back, but you talked about making mistakes along the way. Can you give us an example of maybe one or two where you're like failure or mistake, but that you learned through persevered through made you better because you had that experience? Merrilee: Yeah, so I had so many mistakes. I think that it's so important to make mistakes because you don't get better unless you make mistakes. Mistakes don't mean failure. Overall. Mistakes mean it's an opportunity to change it for the better, to make your product better, to make it more solid. One of the things early on that I did was I was making a pina colada and I was using real coconut cream. A lot of these entrepreneurs come to me, I'm going to do everything with real stuff. It's healthy, it's this, it's that. It's whatever. I'm not going to use anything artificial. That's great. Okay, go for it. Is it shelf stable? Was it going to rot on the shelf? All those kinds of questions I have that come up when you do a commercial product. But anyway, I was making this pina colada coconut cream. What I didn't know, what I didn't Google was that coconut cream freezes and turns solid at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So I'm sitting here making this coconut cream. Oh my gosh, taste is so good. The pina coladas were so awesome. And then after that sat there on the shelf for about two or three months, it started to clump up and it looked like cottage cheese in the container. So when people would open it up, they're like, so that was one mistake that I learned from and had to fix, and we did and it's awesome. Another mistake I made was I was using real orange juice in my, instead of triple suck, I was using some orange juice in my tequila, Rita, it was a margarita, and I wanted just a little tad of orange juice in there. That orange juice pulp turned brown over time and you don't notice it when you make it. You don't notice it when you test it, but it looked like fish food floating around in the bottom of my container. You could see through my container Chris: Once it goes on the shelf and sits for a while right then, Merrilee: And people are going, I'm shaking it and there's brown specks going around in here. What is that? So these were all early lessons learned, just things you learned just by running the machinery or by cleaning products or by making the containers. I can't even tell you how many mistakes I've made, but I think most of my mistakes were later on more with people than with product And also just learning who to trust. Trusting your gut instinct I think is one of the most important things entrepreneurs have to do. When you feel something's wrong, it is wrong. Even if you meet somebody that seems to be nice or really important, they might just be weird or they might have a problem. So got to keep your distance. Chris: That's good. On that point, any advice you received along the way from someone that really stuck with you and helped you through the journey? Merrilee: There was lots of times I had advice, but it wasn't really framed in terms of advice. I remember when it was pretty early on, my dad came to see me and it was before we knew any level of success and he sat there and he looked at the buzz ball and he goes, I think you might have something here. And that just felt so good to me to hear that from someone else. And it wasn't because he was my dad, it was just like he was just a normal person looking at a normal product and he was judging it and I thought, wow, okay. He said that. Another one that comes to mind is Blair Casey. He was an original distributor for me, and he was the first guy to bring in my buzz ball product into Texas. He worked for Glazer's at the time, and then I hired him in 2017. He came on board and became my head of sales. Anyway, this guy was always positive. I relate him to Ted Lasso, but he's just so positive. But he always was, glass is always half full with that guy, and I always remember his way of being more than him saying the glass is half full, but the glass was always half full with Blair. And even when you focus on how it's half empty, you got to remember that it's also half full. Chris: Look for the positives in the learning though. That's great. Great stuff. Merrilee really appreciate your insights and sharing your story. A couple of things just to maybe wrap things up more Texas specific. Is there anything, having been in Texas for a long time, any traditions or things that you and your family like to do in the state or in the dallas Fort Worth area? Merrilee: I like to go to Stars games and things like that. My husband loves to play golf. My kids, I've got five grandkids now, so home is special to me. My home is the most important place to me and there isn't really, I can't say I like State Fair of Texas or the PBR Rodeo or anything like that is sticking out in my mind. I like to go occasionally, but I like to stay home a lot and I like to spend time at work a lot and I love Christmas holiday lights. Just the holiday season, seeing all the lights, it just warm my heart. It just makes me feel good. Chris: That's great. Okay. Here's a question for you. Do you prefer TexMex or barbecue? Merrilee: TexMex with lots of cheese. Chris: Lots of cheese. I can relate to that. Merrilee. This has been great. I really appreciate your time. Congratulations on just what a cool story coming from a teacher to a very successful alcoholic beverage manufacturer. Merrilee: Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm on my new things now and I'm actually making some barbecue sauce and doing some other things with gourmet land that's a completely different new products, new company, and that's where I'm spending a lot of my time now. And RAC is carrying the torch for BuzzBallz and they're doing a great job. Chris: Well, it sounds like you meet the definition of some of my favorite people, which is serial entrepreneur onto the next thing. Merrilee: Can't stop. Chris: I love it. I love it. This has been a pleasure. Thanks again and wishy continued success. Merrilee: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Chris: And there we have it. Another great episode. Don't forget to check out the show notes at boyer miller.com/podcast and you can find out more about all the ways our firm can help you@boyermiller.com. That's it for this episode. Have a great week and we'll talk to you next time. Special Guest: Merrilee Kick.

Rep. Nicole Collier, who has been on the House floor since noon Monday said, “I'm so grateful for their support. There has been a crowd out here all demanding my release, and they're doing what they can to show their resistance. They're tired of this government overreach.” Twenty-four hours earlier, Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows told Collier and the rest of the Democrats on the floor who had been absent the previous two weeks that they could not leave the House unless they were accompanied by a Texas Department of Public Safety agent or officer every minute they aren't in the Capitol. Collier refused the police escort, choosing instead to spend the night at her desk. In other news, Fort Worth police said Tuesday that a driver who was shot a day earlier while in traffic has died from his injury, and a suspect is now facing a murder charge in connection with the shooting. Police have not publicly disclosed the identity of the victim or the suspect as of Tuesday evening; new data shows electric vehicle sales in Texas continue to rise — but the charging network remains spotty. The automobile class represented just under 7% of the state's new light-duty vehicle sales in the first quarter of 2025, according to an analysis by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation; nd it's been nearly four years since Texas implemented one of the country's most strict and punitive abortion bans, ushering in the most seismic change to women's health care in a half-century. The Dallas Morning News set out to explore how overlapping abortion laws in Texas have altered the landscape of obstetric health care across the state. Through more than 100 interviews with physicians, researchers, healthcare experts, patients, and families, reporters documented deviations from what was in the best interest of the patient and other unintended consequences. “Standard of Fear,” a new investigative series, reveals how the abortion laws have been sweeping in their collateral damage, leaving patients, families, and medical providers caught in the middle. Read the entire series now at dallasnews.com/texasabortions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The episode kicks off with a bizarre headline out of Fort Worth: where a country singer is accused of fatally shooting a man he believed was following him. The crew dives into the strange details, which leads to a hilarious and surprisingly informative discussion on THC potency over time. Then, the gang mourns the loss of a local institution: Sneaky Pete's on Lake Lewisville. After decades of pool parties, catfish platters, and questionable decisions, the city is shutting it down to build a resort.

When Brian Bateman and his wife moved into a 1914 Craftsman in Fort Worth, Texas, they thought that they had found the perfect place to start their empty-nest chapter. Instead, they found themselves in a home with a history as dark as it was hidden. From 1914 to 2023, five people died within its walls and the street itself had seen more than its share of tragedy. At first, Brian tried to shrug off the odd occurrences. But as the strange activity grew harder to ignore, it became clear that something in the house wasn't ready to let go. His unsettling experiences would inspire the fictionalized novel Ghost Writer by Jennifer Brasington-Crowley, a story rooted in the real hauntings and the neighborhood's dark history. In this episode, Brian shares what really happened behind closed doors—and why in this house, the dead don't leave. This is Part Two of our conversation. Follow them on TikTok and Instagram at Ghost Writer House. Become a Premium Supporter of The Grave Talks Through Apple Podcasts or Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) There, you will get: Access to every episode of our show, AD-FREE! Access to every episode of our show before everyone else! Other EXCLUSIVE supporter perks and more!

In this message, we kick off our new series The X Commandments by exploring the foundation of God's law through the lens of radical love and how loving God is the only way to truly keep His commandments.

Miss G

We are beyond proud of Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth, who today refused to agree to a Texas DPS tail in order to be allowed to leave the Texas House floor. We talked to her live from there this evening, and will continue to follow.Learn more about Rep. Nicole Collier at https://www.texasrepcollier.com/.

On this episode of the Family Docs Podcast, Dr. Cynthia Chen-Joea discusses physician wellness and the pursuit to recapture the joy in medicine with Drs. Lauren Brown-Berchtold and Kim Yu.  Guests: Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, MPH, CPH, FAAFP - Dr. Cynthia Chen-Joea is a physician career and life coach, double board-certified in Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine, and the founder of Thrivation, dedicated to coaching early-career physicians break free from burnout and build sustainable, fulfilling careers. She is also the co-founder of Physician Contract Negotiation, empowering physicians to advocate for their worth and navigate their careers with confidence. She serves as the Director of Inpatient Medicine at Charles Drew Family Medicine Residency Program and Medical Director of Copa de Oro Medical Group.  Her previous leadership positions include, Physician Advisor, Secretary-Treasurer of the Medical Staff and Department Chair of Family Medicine at Emanate Health.   A passionate advocate for physician well-being and healthcare transformation, Dr. Chen-Joea has held multiple leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels working in advocacy within her specialty organization. She currently serves as the New Physician member on the AAFP Board of Directors, working to create a more sustainable future in medicine.   Kim Yu, MD, FAAFP, DABFM - Dr. Kim Yu is a national and international speaker, executive family physician leader, past president of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, and current Speaker of the California Academy of Family Physicians. Based out of California, Dr. Yu lives to #inspirecreatelead and currently works at the American Board of Family Medicine as the PRIME National Strategy Consultant and as Director of Health Care Strategy at KCS Inc., a multisite FQHC in Orange County, CA, serving the Asian community and the underserved in Southern California. Dr. Yu has served as the chair for the AAFP's Global Health Member Interest Group and as convener for WONCA's Special Interest Group in Health Equity. She currently serves on the AAFP delegation to the AMA, Wonca Working Party of Women in Family Medicine - USA country lead,  and has interests in physician wellbeing, population health, practice management, health IT, value based care, global health, health equity, advocacy, disaster relief, and a wide range of primary care topics.  Lauren Brown-Berchtold, MD, FAAFP -  Dr. Lauren Brown-Berchtold is the program director for the Valley Consortium for Medical Education (VCME) Family Medicine Residency program in Modesto, California. She previously was a core faculty member and later program director of San Joaquin General Hospital for 8 years in total. She graduated from Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, then joined John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete her family medicine residency and Maternal-Child Health fellowship equivalent training. Dr. Brown-Berchtold is a fervent advocate for physician mental health protections and burnout prevention, and spends a lot of extracurricular time working on this topic nationally. When away from the hospital, she loves to read as well as explore life with her husband and very active daughter! Resources: https://www.aafp.org/pubs/fpm/issues/2018/0700/p38.html Dr. Kim Yu Finds ‘Reason for Being' in Family Medicine Advocacy - https://www.theabfm.org/dr-kim-yu-finds-reason-for-being-in-family-medicine-advocacy/ Ikigai - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai / https://positivepsychology.com/ikigai/  26 hours of work per day: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-022-07707-x Weidner AKH, Phillips RL Jr, Fang B, Peterson LE. Burnout and Scope of Practice in New Family Physicians [published correction appears in Ann Fam Med. 2018 Jul;16(4):289. doi: 10.1370/afm.2281]. Ann Fam Med. 2018;16(3):200-205. doi:10.1370/afm.2221 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5951247/ Pixar Films mentioned - Inside Out and Inside Out 2 Learned helplessness - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4920136/  Job crafting - Amy Wrzesniewski - https://hbr.org/2010/06/managing-yourself-turn-the-job-you-have-into-the-job-you-want  Baader-Meinhof phenomenon / frequency illusion - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/frequency-illusion  Nine recs for physician wellbeing for c-suite article: Shanafelt TD, Noseworthy JH. Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being: Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017;92(1):129-146. doi:10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.10.004.  https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(16)30625-5/pdf  AMA Cost Of Burnout:  https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/interactive/16830405  Physician coaching: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2740206  Family Medicine POP: Prism of Practice conference, September 5-7, 2025 (San Diego) - www.familydocs.org/pop CAFP's All Member Advocacy Meeting (AMAM), March 14-16, 2026 (Sacramento) - www.familydocs.org/amam  Information: The Family Docs Podcast is hosted by Rob Assibey, MD, FAAFP and Cynthia Chen-Joea, DO, FAAFP.  The Family Docs podcast is developed, produced, and recorded by the California Academy of Family Physicians. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or the California Academy of Family Physicians. More information at www.familydocs.org/podcast. Visit the California Academy of Family Physicians online at www.familydocs.org. Follow us on social media: Twitter - https://twitter.com/cafp_familydocs  Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cafp_familydocs  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/familydocs  LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/california-academy-of-family-physicians 

On this week's episode of Shop Talk, Jeremy, Jeff, and Will break down what's moving in the markets, from housing and REITs to oil and debt. They dive into why banks are racing to build new branches, Taylor Sheridan's massive studio project in Fort Worth, and finish with a full preview of the Big 12 football season.Articles Mentioned:https://therealdeal.com/texas/fort-worth/2025/08/13/taylor-sheridan-ross-perot-jr-tap-texas-film-incentives/https://product.costar.com/home/news/1858422611?tag=18

When Brian Bateman and his wife moved into a 1914 Craftsman in Fort Worth, Texas, they thought that they had found the perfect place to start their empty-nest chapter. Instead, they found themselves in a home with a history as dark as it was hidden. From 1914 to 2023, five people died within its walls and the street itself had seen more than its share of tragedy. At first, Brian tried to shrug off the odd occurrences. But as the strange activity grew harder to ignore, it became clear that something in the house wasn't ready to let go. His unsettling experiences would inspire the fictionalized novel Ghost Writer by Jennifer Brasington-Crowley, a story rooted in the real hauntings and the neighborhood's dark history. In this episode, Brian shares what really happened behind closed doors—and why in this house, the dead don't leave. Follow them on TikTok and Instagram at Ghost Writer House. Become a Premium Supporter of The Grave Talks Through Apple Podcasts or Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/thegravetalks) There, you will get: Access to every episode of our show, AD-FREE! Access to every episode of our show before everyone else! Other EXCLUSIVE supporter perks and more!

It's the 11th running of the Race For the Future in Fort Worth, TX on September 14, 2025. This is YOUR chance to make a difference in a industry we all love so much. Important links: All the money goes to The Foundation For Dental Laboratory Technology: https://dentallabfoundation.org/ All about the Race: https://dentallabfoundation.org/news-events/race-for-the-future/ Race website: https://fortworth.californiatriathlon.org/ TO DONATE: https://fdlt.memberclicks.net/donor-form#/ Select: Race for the Future Enter the name of the racer you want to support: BARB WARNER or THE CROWN JEWELS Enter the amount (One Million Dollars) All good things must come to an end. No, not this podcast... but the recordings we got while with the AMAZING people of exocad (https://exocad.com/) at IDS 2025. It was a wonderful trip and we got to meet and talk to a lot of fantastic people from around the world. This week is no different as we meet a married couple that met in a lab, married, and now own a lab. Agata Bak is from Poland but went to London to find more opportunities for dental technology. Iman Ansari is from Iran and also ended up in London. They both worked at the same lab and it took Iman a while to win Agata over, but he did, and they fell in love. After getting married and working at a few other labs, they put everything on the line and opened Black Pearl Dental Lab (https://www.instagram.com/agatabak.dt/reels/?hl=am-et) where they specialize in high end fixed work. Then we meet the past President of exocad (https://exocad.com/) North America Larry Bodony. Larry recently retired but still stopped by to tell us the awesome story on how he got the job when at IDS 2011. Taking a chance on a new design software and them taking a chance on Larry, set into motion of growing exocad in North America. It took time and work, but soon exocad was gaining popularity. Larry talks about those early years, his use of "reverse" tradeshows, and now that he is retired, working with another new exciting software Bite Finder (https://bite-finder.com/?v=0b3b97fa6688). Let's be honest. There are a LOT of zirconia on the market these days. How do you know which is which? Is one better than another? Is there one that can handle every situation? Check out a FREE webinar from Ivoclar (https://www.ivoclar.com/en_us) called Zirconia Unboxed with Jeff Smith, CDT. (https://www.ivoclar.com/en_us/course/zirconia-unboxed/246115?utm_source=External+-+Voice+from+the+Bench&utm_medium=QR+code&utm_campaign=Academy&utm_term=August) "This introductory webinar is the first in a five-part series designed to address the most frequently asked questions by dental labs when selecting zirconia for their restorations. With a focus on practical guidance, this session explores the key considerations in choosing the right zirconia, including material properties, esthetics, and processing techniques. This introductory webinar is the first in a five-part series designed to address the most frequently asked questions by dental labs when selecting zirconia for their restorations. With a focus on practical guidance, this session explores the key considerations in choosing the right zirconia, including material properties, esthetics, and processing techniques." Check it out at: https://www.ivoclar.com/enus/course/zirconia-unboxed/246115?utmsource=External+-+Voice+from+the+Bench&utmmedium=QR+code&utmcampaign=Academy&utm_term=August Special Guests: Agata Bak & Iman Ansari and Larry Bodony.

In the sweltering summer of 1969, the tranquil shores of Lake Worth in Fort Worth, Texas, transformed into a landscape of dread. The dense thickets of Greer Island, nestled within the lake's embrace, became the epicenter of a chilling mystery that gripped the community. The Lake Worth Monster, a towering, half-man, half-goat creature with shaggy fur, glistening scales, and long, clawed fingers, emerged from the shadows, leaving a trail of fear and fascination. Join Gary and GoldieAnn as they delve Within the Mists of Texas to discuss the Lake Worth Monster.Facebook Fan Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/544933724571696Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/withinthemistpodcast/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@withinthemistpodcast1977 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the sweltering summer of 1969, the tranquil shores of Lake Worth in Fort Worth, Texas, transformed into a landscape of dread. The dense thickets of Greer Island, nestled within the lake's embrace, became the epicenter of a chilling mystery that gripped the community. The Lake Worth Monster, a towering, half-man, half-goat creature with shaggy fur, glistening scales, and long, clawed fingers, emerged from the shadows, leaving a trail of fear and fascination. Join Gary and GoldieAnn as they delve Within the Mists of Texas to discuss the Lake Worth Monster.Facebook Fan Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/544933724571696Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/withinthemistpodcast/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@withinthemistpodcast1977 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BIG STORY: Taylor Rehmet is a union leader running as the only Democrat in a special election jungle primary for Texas Senate District 9, which comprised roughly half of Tarrant County. The election is in November, going against 2 far right extremists.SHORT STORY 1: Tarrant County Commissioners Court wants to reduce voting locations by 40%.SHORT STORY 2: Fort Worth's city budget proposal focuses on lowering taxes & cutting services.Tarrant County proposed budget considers lower property tax rate & tighter budget.SHORT STORY 3: Regional Transportation Council's Transit sub-committee is working on a plan to spend $217 billion in public transit infrastructure over the next 25 years. WINS: No Cuts to TREConfluence Program by the Conservation Alliance seeks to fund enviromental non-profits led by people of color.Streams and Valley's has a plan called confluence as well, and just hired a new executive director, Lauren Deen.Millions for public art could go before Fort Worth voters in a 2026 bondLOSSES: Lost opportunities without the Community Arts CenterFort Worth weighs the $58 million cost of graveling alleyways to tackle weeds Thankfully this is is not moving forward. ACTIONS:Donate Now -> Support Tarrant For ChangeLet Tarrant County Commissioners Court know that you oppose reducing voting locations before the vote on Tuesday, August 19th. Community Design Fort Worth has two in-person events this week. Transit Mixer on Wednesday August 20th from 4:30-6:30pm at Acre Distiliing and a Urban Design Talk on Design Justice Thursday, August 21st at 6pm at Texas Wesleyan University. SteerFW's Civic Summit is Saturday, August 23rd from 10am - 3pm at Simpli.fi in the Stockyards. It's a half-day conference about the most pressing issues in our city. Buy your tickets here.

Grab a beer and join us tonight as we start our series on Mark David Chapman. Part 1 tracks Mark from a 1955 birth in Fort Worth through a tense home, rocking tics, and the “Little People” fantasy, into a teen slide—drugs, skipping school, a short runaway to Miami—followed by a 1971 born-again turn. We cover his YMCA work (the kids called him “Nemo”), his relationship with Jessica, Covenant College, cheating on his girlfriend and the guilt that sent him into depression, and a failed suicide attempt in Hawaii—where a passing fisherman woke him up. From there we follow the hospital stay, a steadier stretch, meeting and marrying Gloria Abe, and the jobs that didn't stick. By 1980, the debt is paid off but the mood swings get worse. Catcher in the Rye moves to the center, the Little People come back, and his anger at John Lennon grows—burned records, “bigger than Jesus,” and calling out “phonies.” We end with October 1980: the gun purchase, the “John Lennon” signature crossed out on his resignation, and flying to New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To file your claim over the AT&T Data Breach: https://www.telecomdatasettlement.com/ The weather warnings are back for parts of North Texas. A heat advisory has been announced by the National Weather Service's Fort Worth office from noon until 8 p.m. today. The alert warns of heat index values up to 107 degrees across the region. Dallas-Fort Worth may be slightly lower, as the max heat index forecasted for DFW International Airport is 104. Counties across northeast Texas are all under the advisory, as well as much of Oklahoma. Denton, Tarrant and Ellis counties make up the western edge of the alert. In other news, Texas House Democrats signaled Thursday they will likely return to the state for a second special session on redistricting and “take this fight to the courts” after the Legislature adjourns the current session on Friday as planned; amid a strained school budget and declining enrollment, the Plano Independent School District is halting school bus service for hundreds of students, leaving parents scrambling to find safe transportation for their children; AT&T customers whose information was stolen in two separate data breaches can apply for their share — up to $7,500 — of a $177 million settlement. The Dallas-based company agreed to settle a class action lawsuit following data breaches last year that resulted in the leak of sensitive information of millions of customers; and The Ramble Room and Monarch restaurants are hosting fundraisers for victims of the floods in the Texas Hill country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Taylor Sheridan is bringing a big production studio to North Fort Worth

Bird tourism is booming, and in many parts of the world we've seen countries invest in conservation and tourism infrastructure to take advantage of it. Certainly birders are drawn by unique species, but  perhaps our choices for bird-watching destinations have as much to do with other factors as they do with the presence of really great birds. It's the subject of a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal People and Nature by Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela and Scott Winton, who join us to talk "bird capital" and birder wants.  Also, a much loved birding hotspot in Fort Worth, Texas is closed indefinitely.  Subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a rating or a review if you are so inclined! We appreciate it!

Support the show

In this episode of On The Clock, Strategos Partner and host Todd Dallas Lamb sits down with Dr. Karen Molinar, Superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), for a dynamic conversation about education's evolving role in a rapidly changing Texas. With over 27 years of experience in the district, Dr. Molinar brings deep institutional knowledge and a forward-thinking vision to the table.Together, they explore how Fort Worth's explosive growth—now one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S.—is driving demand for a future-ready workforce. Dr. Molinar discusses how FWISD is meeting that challenge head-on by aligning career and technical education (CTE), early college high schools, and industry partnerships with the city's expanding economic sectors, including technology, automotive, HVAC, and even film production, thanks to the local presence of producer Taylor Sheridan.The episode also delves into the power of community collaboration. From FWISD's work with three city chambers and a mayor's council, to its groundbreaking partnership with Tarrant County College and the city-backed T3 initiative, Dr. Molinar explains how the district is preparing students, many from underrepresented backgrounds—for high-wage, high-demand careers without the burden of student debt.Dr. Molinar's personal story, leadership philosophy, and belief in the potential of every student underscore a powerful message: when schools and communities work in unison, education becomes the engine of opportunity. If you're an educator, policymaker, or parent, this episode is a masterclass in how to lead a district with heart, strategy, and purpose.Key Moments05:51 Tech-Focused CTE Reevaluation Plan07:16 "Building Community and Career Pathways"11:20 "Successful College Partnerships Expansion"13:15 First-Generation Graduation Inspires18:32 Diversifying Experiences: Sports & Education21:13 Community Support for Fort Worth Schools22:44 Fort Worth ISD Superintendent InterviewConnect with Dr. Karen MolinarLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-molinar-86a753b2Website: https://www.fwisd.org/

In episode 213, Coffey talks with Vianei Braun about how HR leaders can effectively work with boards of directors.  They discuss the strategic vs operational divide between board oversight and executive execution; skills needed for senior HR roles including broad industry perspective and data-driven insights; the importance of moving beyond compliance mindset to strategic partnership; executive compensation benchmarking and peer analysis; culture preservation during mergers and acquisitions; AI implementation ethics and workforce planning; the critical role of data in board communications; and characteristics of successful senior HR leaders including truth-telling, collaboration, and ambiguity management. Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit—business credit for SPHRs! To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.  About our Guest: Vianei Braun leads the employment law practice at Decker Jones, P.C., a full-service law firm in Fort Worth. She has been recognized as a Texas Monthly “Super Lawyer” and is listed in Best Lawyers in America for Labor & Employment Law.  Vianei is also a member of the Board of Directors of First Financial Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIN), a banking institution with assets of $14 billion and 79 banking locations throughout Texas. Vianei serves on the board's Compensation, Nom/Gov and Risk Committees and chairs the Advisory Board of First Financial Bank's Chisholm Trail Region. In addition, Vianei serves on the Board of Trustees and the Audit & Compliance Committee of Texas Health Resources.  Vianei is an honors graduate of Princeton University and the University of Texas School of Law. Vianei has been honored as a “Great Woman of Texas” by the Fort Worth Business Press, and as a member of the “Fort Worth 500” by Fort Worth Inc. Vianei Braun can be reached at www.deckerjones.com www.linkedin.com/in/vianeibraunattorney About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business' small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas' 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 28 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  Learning Objectives: Develop strategic thinking capabilities that focus on industry trends and long-term organizational health rather than just operational HR tasks when communicating with senior leadership. Present data-driven recommendations to boards using benchmarking, competitive analysis, and concrete evidence to support HR initiatives and policy changes. Shift from a compliance-focused "department of no" mindset to a collaborative problem-solving approach that offers solutions while managing organizational risks.  

Former agent Brooke Plesnar reviews the Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis, where a British national took four people hostage, including Congregation Beth Israel's rabbi. The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) was deployed. While negotiations for their safe release were underway, the hostages were able to escape unharmed. HRT engaged and killed the hostage-taker. Brooke investigated this case while assigned to the Dallas Division as a member of the Fort Worth, Texas, Resident Agency's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). She served in the FBI for five years. Check out episode show notes, photos, and related articles:  https://jerriwilliams.com/365-brooke-plesnar-colleyville-synagogue-hostage-standoff/   FBI Agents Association Statement on Reports of FBI Agent Firings https://www.fbiaa.org/fbi-agents-association-statement-on-reports-of-fbi-agent-firings/     Video Statement from Mike Clark, President of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1LpgzZQFf2/     Buy me a coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JerriWilliams Join my Reader Team to get the FBI Reading Resource - Books about the FBI, written by FBI agents, the 20 clichés about the FBI Reality Checklist, and keep up to date on the FBI in books, TV, and movies via my monthly email. http://eepurl.com/dzCCmL  Check out my FBI books, non-fiction and crime fiction, available as audiobooks, ebooks and paperbacks wherever books are sold. https://jerriwilliams.com/books/ 

In this episode of School Business Insider, we head to the Lone Star State for an honest and engaging conversation with Dr. Tracy Ginsburg, Executive Director of TASBO, and Heather Wilson, TASBO Board President and Assistant Superintendent of College Station ISD.Heather shares her experience transitioning to a new district after nearly two decades in her previous role—discussing what it takes to build culture, relationships, and trust from day one. Tracy reflects on TASBO's role in supporting school business leaders through professional development, peer networking, and legislative advocacy in what they both call a “deficit world.”We dive deep into the current financial pressures facing Texas school districts, the challenges of equitable compensation, and what it takes to lead in times of fiscal uncertainty. Plus, we preview this year's ASBO International Annual Conference & Expo in Fort Worth, Texas, with some local flavor and must-visit spots shared by our Texas insiders.Whether you're a seasoned SBO or just starting out, this episode offers insight, inspiration, and practical wisdom.Contact School Business Insider: Check us out on social media: LinkedIn Twitter (X) Website: https://asbointl.org/SBI Email: podcast@asbointl.org Make sure to like, subscribe and share for more great insider episodes!Disclaimer:The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the Association of School Business Officials International. The material and information presented here is for general information purposes only. The "ASBO International" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service. The presence of any advertising does not endorse, or imply endorsement of, any products or services by ASBO International.ASBO International is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and does not participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for elective public office. The sharing of news or information concerning public policy issues or political campaigns and candidates are not, and should not be construed as, endorsements by ASBO Internatio...

It’s Monday so let’s examine some current events from a prepper and pragmatic view point. Bitcoin is about to “uncork”, Trump is making peace & trade deals, Fort Worth just ditched DEI, we now have reverse tariffs and more. Join Me Today To Discuss… The AI Course Round Two Goes on Sale on Sept. 8th – preregister The TSP-25 Workshop goes on sale on Sept. 13th at 9:00 AM CST – more info BTC is drying up on the OTC Trading Desks – link Jack Dorsey is dropping a new BTC American Made Mining Chip this Week – link Looking … Continue reading →

Born into a tumultuous marriage between Emory and Elva Moad in the midst of the Great Depression, Neota Green's childhood was marked by physical and emotional abuse. The shocking violence that Elva endured at the hands of her husband set the stage for the unraveling of the Moad family—and for the tragedy that would unfold years later.The episode dives deep into the harrowing details of Neota's death on March 24, 1963, a night that began with a social outing and ended in a devastating house fire. As investigators uncovered grisly evidence, including blunt-force trauma to Neota's head and a suspicious blaze that may have been set to cover up a murder, all signs pointed to Neota's companion that night—Ronnie Blankenship, a married man with deep connections to Fort Worth's elite circles.Despite the mounting evidence, Blankenship was acquitted, leaving questions about Neota's death unanswered. Was it a crime of passion, a tragic accident, or something darker, buried in mafia connections and buried secrets?If you have any information about the death of Neota Moad Green, please contact the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office at 817-884-1213.You can support gone cold and listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com/gonecoldpodcastFind us at https://www.gonecold.comFor Gone Cold merch, visit https://gonecold.dashery.comFollow gone cold on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, YouTube, and X.Search @gonecoldpodcast at all or just click linknbio.com/gonecoldpodcastSources: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, and The Tyler Morning Telegraph. #JusticeForNeotaGreen #Benbrook #FortWorth #TX #Texas #TrueCrime #TexasTrueCrime #ColdCase #TrueCrimePodcast #Podcast #ColdCase #Unsolved #Murder #UnsolvedMurder #UnsolvedMysteries #Homicide #CrimeStories #PodcastRecommendations #CrimeJunkie #MysteryPodcast #TrueCrimeObsessed #CrimeDocs #InvestigationDiscovery #PodcastAddict #TrueCrimeFan #CriminalJustice #ForensicFilesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.

Keith fields listener questions on: changes to realtor fees, down payment strategies for investment properties, and how the new 100% bonus tax depreciation really works, then staggering inflation statistics that motivate you to invest in real assets. He explains that realtor fees have shifted from a 6% listing fee to a 3% seller fee, with potential buyer contributions negotiable.  For down payments, he advises maximizing leverage while avoiding over-leverage.  Bonus depreciation allows for significant tax deductions in the first year, benefiting high-income investors.  Resources: Connect with a recommended cost segregation engineer to take advantage of bonus depreciation here. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/566 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai  Keith Weinhold  0:00   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, fielding your listener questions on changes to realtor fees, your down payment strategy, and how the new 100% bonus tax depreciation really works, then staggering inflation statistics that motivate you to invest in real assets today on Get Rich Education.    Keith Weinhold  0:26   Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, and delivers a new show every week. Since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests include top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com   Speaker 1  1:12   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  1:22   Welcome to GRE from Athens, Pennsylvania to Athens, Georgia to Athens, Greece, and with listeners across 188 world nations. You are listening to get rich Education. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, yeah, you and I are back together for a 566th wealth building week. This is not where you learn how to create wealth through careful sports wagering at DraftKings. We also don't try to do everything like WalMart. We talk about investing actually pretty aggressively yet reasonably and responsibly at the same time. Usually those attributes are opposites, but because we are leveraging the most proven wealth building vehicle of all time, real estate, where you don't have to be the landlord. You don't need to get deeply hands on with house flipping, and you don't need to own property in your local market, though you could. We are not day trading. We are decade trading. There's not a get rich quick element here at GRE, because that doesn't work. We're owning mostly long term rental properties, bringing the financially free beats debt free approach and cognizant that compound leverage Trumps compound interest. And from the day you start focusing on this, you can retire in five to 10 years, and you can take it as far as you want, because unlike many professional sports, the sport of real estate investing doesn't have any salary cap at all. I'm starting off with three of your listener questions today. You write into the show with your questions and what I've got a few that I think could help a lot of you. I answer them here. And as usual, I start with the more introductory question, and then I proceed to the more advanced. The first one comes from Sherry In Sellersburg, Indiana. I know where that is. It's just across the river and to the north of Louisville, Kentucky. Sherry asks when I go to sell my duplex, how have last year's changes in realtor fees affected my sale costs? Yeah, thanks for the question, Sherry. And a lot of people still wonder about this first and a big little technical here, but this benefits other listeners Sherry is that a realtor means that they are a member of the NAR, the National Association of Realtors. So not all people that you enlist to help you market and sell your property are realtors, because not all agents belong to the NAR. In fact, the best catch all term for this person is not an agent. Depending on the state you're doing business in, it's probably licensee, someone licensed to act as your professional intermediary in a real estate transaction. And by the way, the name of an NAR member is a realtor. It is not pronounced real utter it's realtor, like doctor and lawyer. You wouldn't call a doctor a doctor two syllables, realtor, but to get to the crux of your question, Sherry, the changes to realtor compensation took effect almost exactly a year ago. It was last August, and it has less. Of an effect on the industry than many thought. I stated last year that it likely wouldn't affect things much, especially here on the investor side, and it really hasn't. The simplified version is that the old landscape was that when you used to list the property for sale, the listing agent charged you a fee, traditionally, 6% they offered half of that to any cooperating broker that brought the buyer to you. That was simple, and that worked for decades. That changed one year ago now, when any realtor or really licensee, when they work with you, now they simply contract with you for their fee, only like 3% as a seller of the property, you no longer have an obligation to pay for the buyer side agent as well, like you used to. But when you sign a listing agreement, you can indicate that you may be willing to concede and give an allowance to the buyer when they engage a licensee on their side to help them purchase your property. So Sherry, your voluntary contribution to the buyer side is negotiable, and it's part of the offer that the buyer presents to you. Now that's what you'll see as the seller and what you should expect as a buyer. The new landscape is that buyers negotiate a personal service agreement upfront with their licensee. Their service isn't free. I mean, these people can't work for free, and the buyer side licensee acknowledges that they will try to negotiate to get the seller to pay that fee. So Sherry, in reality, that's still what often happens. So the seller still pays that fee. In the end, the reason why is that not only is this traditional, but buyers cannot normally afford to pay for their own representation on top of their down payment and closing costs. They're often spread pretty thin already, but sellers can typically afford it. They have the upper hand financially in the form of equity in the property. And here, when you're buying properties at GRE marketplace, you don't have to pay any of those fees. We use a direct model without a licensee. So that's sort of the short version of the change, and why. I hope that helps sherry. It's a good question. Even licensees are struggling with the new rules.    Keith Weinhold  7:38   The next question comes from Jezebel in Yonkers, New York. Jezebel asks, what is the ideal percent down payment that I should make on a rental property? I'm trying to figure out the trade off between debt level, cash flow, leverage and risk. I'm still trying to get past the mindset that paid off property is best. All right, that's Jezebel's question, and Jezebel The short answer is that you want to make the smallest down payment possible while avoiding over leverage. Over leverage, meaning that your monthly payments are so big that you struggle to make them. Now, many investors that buy rental property, they're going to make a 20% down payment on a conventional loan for a single family rental. At last check on duplexes and up the down payment has to be at least 25% now you can make a down payment as low as 15% at least on a single family rental, although you would then be subject to an extra fee a PMI premium. Now, why would one do such a thing for the leverage? Because leverage is almost seven to one at 15% down, but you've got to balance that with a PMI premium. Run the numbers and see what works for you. Now, since you can make just a 20% down payment on a single family rental, conversely, why would you put 25% down? Your leverage position would slide from five to one down to four to one, where you can often get a slightly lower interest rate if you put 25% down. But when you run the numbers, you'll find that it's often better to maintain strong leverage and only put 20% down. Now, Jezebel, as soon as you start putting 30% down on a property that is questionable at 30% or more, because at that point you really have to start asking why the rate of return from home equity is always zero. It actually makes your risk go up, like I've discussed extensively before, with 30% down, your leverage ratio has been cut to 3.3 maybe the answer could be that 30% down is what it takes to produce. Positive cash flow, but putting 30% or more down is clearly not ideal. Think about how good we've got it as real estate investors here, for example, imagine that you're attracted to a dividend paying stock because it pays a 4% yield, unless you're borrowing on margin, you would need to make a 100% down payment to get that 4% cash on cash return from a dividend paying stock, 100% sunk into this, which isn't even a down payment anymore. That's just an outright free and clear stock purchase. Well, instead, in real estate, when you realize that property prices rise or fall in value regardless of how much equity is in a property, you don't have an incremental increase in your equity growth. It's a quantum leap. And here's what I mean. Jezebel, say you're investing 100k in real estate, that's how much you're going to put into it, and it appreciates at 5%. All right, there are two scenarios with that. Scenario A, you put that 100% down into just one 500k property, well, then you've got just a 25k gain after a year. Instead, with Scenario B, you put 20% down on five 500k properties, then you've got a 25k gain after a year, not just 5k Said another way more powerfully. Scenario A, you only got a 5% return on one property. In Scenario B, you got a 25% return on all of five properties. Wow. That's why the leverage light bulb, when that goes off, that is an incredible flex that you've got. That's why I say it is not an incremental gain in your wealth. It is a quantum leap. So I hope that some of those considerations really help temper your strategy there. Jezebel, that really helps you see how financially free beats debt free and exposes the opportunity cost of a paid off property. Thanks for the question.    Keith Weinhold  12:19   The next question comes from Ed, and he is a personal friend of mine, so he submitted this question by text message to me, but I wanted to address his question here, because I've had other people in my friend group ask me about this. It's about bonus depreciation, what it is. It's about bonus depreciation, what it is and how it works. And what's interesting here is that even those that aren't active real estate investors have been asking me about bonus depreciation. This was part of Trump's OB BBA, the one big, beautiful Bill Act that was signed into law back on the Fourth of July, and I told you about that last month, but because of all the questions about it and the lack of clarity around people's understanding of bonus depreciation, although it gets a little busy, let me give you a real world example with numbers on how bonus depreciation really works and how you can put 10s of 1000s of dollars in your pocket with it the next time you file your taxes. And by the way, my friend Ed that asked this question is a cargo pilot, so he is probably the most well traveled friend that I have. Yeah, through our chats and on social media, I often see that he's in China or Vietnam or a bunch of other places, but he lives in the US. In fact, bonus depreciation is encouraging more people that haven't even been real estate investors previously to newly invest in real estate because it is for properties acquired January, 20, 2025, or later, Trump's inauguration day for his second term or later. And I expect this to be effective for at least four years from that date. I think I mentioned that part to you a few weeks ago. All right, the property has got to be newly placed in service, not something that you bought, say, five years ago. Bonus depreciation does not apply to primary residences. We're talking about rental property, although it does apply to more than just rental property, because it can apply to property used in a business, like equipment, machinery and furniture, but within rental property, it applies to certain components of the real estate, not the building itself. That is on a regular depreciation schedule, and not the bare land. Land cannot be tax depreciated at all. All, neither through regular depreciation or bonus depreciation. You probably already know that a residential building itself can be depreciated over 27 and a half years. That works out to 3.6% of the value each year that can be depreciated or written off on your taxes, right? Well, what if there were portions of your building that you could write off faster, like over just five years, meaning 20% of their value each year you can, and others over seven years, meaning 14% of their value each year you can. And there's 15 year items as well. All right, so what if, instead of all that, you could take those five seven and 15 year components and just write them all off in the first year of ownership, so that you didn't even have to wait the five seven in 15 years, you can, you can write them all off in year one of your ownership of the property, and that is what 100% bonus depreciation is right there. That is in addition to writing off the main building over 27 and a half years. All right, with that understanding generally, let me break this down in more detail. Use an example, and that will also help reinforce what I just taught you, the components of rental property that bonus depreciation applies to, include the stuff that wears out faster than the building, and they are indoor items, appliances, flooring and cabinetry. At times, it can include HVAC systems, all right, that is written off in five to seven years. And then outdoor items known as land improvements, that includes fences, parking lots and landscaping. They're typically written off over 15 years. All right, let's look at a real world example on how this can benefit you. You can use bonus appreciation on single family rentals, duplexes, fourplexes and larger buildings. Let's use an example of an apartment building that you purchase for $1.2 million one we'll say the land value is 200k that is not depreciable. So the building, the depreciable asset, has a value of $1 million you must have performed what is called a cost segregation study in order to break down that $1 million building into those erstwhile faster depreciating components. And no, you cannot do the cost seg study yourself. You need to pay a few $1,000 to hire a Cost Segregation engineer to do this study. All right, let's look at the cost seg breakdown, the result of what he or she finds for you, let's say the personal property that's worth 150k its recovery period is five to seven years, and yes, it is eligible for bonus depreciation. Then you have the land improvements say that's another 50k over 15 years for a recovery period. And yes, it is bonus depreciation eligible. And then finally, you have the structure, or the building worth 800k It has a recovery period of 27 and a half years. No, it is not eligible for bonus depreciation, just the regular type. All right. Well, let me define more of this personal property for you here these five or seven year assets, these are what are eligible for 100% bonus depreciation in qualifying years. So we're looking inside the units, appliances like refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, microwaves, washers and dryers, also flooring, carpet, vinyl and removable floating floors, not typically hardwood or tile, cabinetry and countertops in some cases, especially if they're not load bearing. Window treatments like blinds, drapes and curtain rods, ceiling fans and light fixtures, they've got to be detached from the structure and furniture, if it's a furnished rental, like perhaps a midterm rental or short term rental. So we're talking about things like beds, couches, in chairs and then in common areas. This five to seven year personal property includes fitness equipment in the gym, leasing office, computers, desks, chairs, clubhouse furniture or TVs, package lockers, like places where your tenants have their Amazon packages, playground equipment and trash compactors. All right, to be clear, that was all personal property that can be depreciated over five to seven years. And then there are those land improvements, the. 15 year assets also eligible for bonus depreciation, sidewalks, fencing, landscaping and irrigation, parking lots and striping, outdoor lighting, retaining walls and signage. Okay again, those are the land improvements, the 15 year items, things that are not eligible for bonus depreciation are the building structure itself, like I mentioned. That includes the roof framing, drywall foundations, and also things like elevators, structural plumbing and wiring and HVAC systems that serve the whole structure. Okay, all that stuff falls in the category of regular 27 and a half year depreciation. All right, so what is the 100% bonus depreciation effect? All right, well, your eligible amount in our example is 150k of personal property plus 50k of land improvements. That's 200k that you can deduct all in one year, rather than having to spread it over five and seven and 15 years. But all in year one of you owning the property that's 200k and again, the remaining 800k structure is depreciated over 27 and a half years. That works out to about 29k a year. This is where it gets exciting. Here we go. So your total year one depreciation, the year that you bought this asset and put it into service, with your bonus depreciation items adding up to 200k and your regular building depreciation at about 29k your total year one deduction is about $229,000 Wow, before I break that down some more and tell you about how it really helps you, let's just be really clear. How did you really get to the 200k of bonus depreciation. All right, let's say the cost segregation study allocated 80k to appliances, flooring and fixtures. Remember, they are the five to seven year items. Another 70k to common area, furniture and office equipment, that was the seven year stuff. All right, so there's 150k or personal property, and then another 50k to that outdoor stuff, the depreciable items known as land improvements, like the parking, landscaping and fencing, those 15 year items, that's how we got to 200k all bonus depreciation eligible, all fully deductible in year One under the 100% bonus depreciation rules, all right, so here it is. Here's the takeaway. You have front loaded an extra 200k of deductions in year one, and you have greatly reduced your taxable income. This is the outcome. This is the result. You just reduced it by 229k between the bonus appreciation and the regular depreciation. All right, so what is the effect of you reducing your taxable income by 229k in one year? Well, if you're in the, say, 32% tax bracket, you keep an extra $73,000 in your pocket. That's $73,000 that you would have had to send to the IRS for the next tax year. But no, you don't, and that is the power of bonus depreciation. That's how it works. Ed, and for all of you that asked about it, I know it's not that simple, and there were a lot of numbers flying around there, it got a little heavy, but that's a complete breakdown. That's why so many people are excited about the return of 100% bonus depreciation, as laid out in law with the one big, beautiful Bill Act, as you can see, it's going to help higher income people more than anyone. If you'd like to get this going and connect with GRE recommended Cost Segregation engineer, or just check and see if it's worth paying several $1,000 for the cost segregation study, we can help you with that. In fact, you might remember that I interviewed him on the show last year, and we will make that introduction for you and help ensure that you have a successful cost seg and bonus depreciation experience regardless of the size of your portfolio, even if you don't own million dollar apartment buildings. You don't have to have a huge income for this to benefit you. It just benefits those people the most. Well, you can set up a time to chat with us about that completely free of charge at GRE investment coach.com I think you know that's where you can also get a completely free strategy session about growing your overall real estate investment portfolio. You might as well do that at the same time at GRE. Investment coach.com. More next, I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to get rich education.    Keith Weinhold  25:07   The same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties, they help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequel and even chat with President Chaley Ridge personally. While it's on your mind, start at Ridge lendinggroup.com. That's Ridge lendinggroup.com.    Keith Weinhold  25:39   You know what's crazy your bank is getting rich off of you, the average savings account pays less than 1% it's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4% you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns, and it compounds. It's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back, no weird lockups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing, check it out. Text family 266, 866, to learn about freedom family investments, liquidity fund. Again, text family to 66866,   Blair Singer  26:49   this is Rich Dad, sales advisor, Blair singer. Listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold. And above all, don't quit your Daydream.    Keith Weinhold  27:07   welcome back to get rich Education. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, if you have a listener question that you'd like to have answered on air, get a hold of us at get rich education.com/contact that's where you can either leave a voicemail or write in to us. I'd like to tell you the frequent guests that we have here on the show, all from the rich dad school, if you will, are going to be speaking in person at Penn State University in just a few weeks. Here it is on the 29th of this month. Yes, an event you can attend in person. It's going to be Robert Kiyosaki, Garrett Sutton and his son Ted Sutton and Tom wheelwright, the four of them speaking live and in person, sponsored by Penn State's Borrelli Institute for real estate studies. The event is named Rich Dad revealed Real Estate Wealth and wisdom. If that's of interest, look it up and check it out. From listening to the show and being a savvy investor that's inflation aware, you know that the mission is to turn a really fake asset, a conjured into existence asset, like $1 convert that into a real asset. Here is some astonishing clarity on why. That's the mission in this could leave you flabbergasted. Since 1980 The United States has one and a half times more homes, two times more gold today, and 42 times more dollars today. My gosh, that is almost laugh out loud material here. Yes, since 1980 the year that Jimmy Carter was president and Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, was the top grossing movie. The US has 56% more residential housing units today. So basically, since the year that Darth Vader told Luke Skywalker, I am your father, there are about one and a half times more homes, twice as much gold mined and brought into existence, and 42 times more dollars created out of thin air for the future, all of these trends are expected to continue at roughly the same trajectory and proportion to each other. Now, there's a reason that people use precious metals to measure inflation. It makes a particularly good measuring stick because commodities like gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium and copper, they don't change over time. Unlike a car or a bottle of soda, these items are on the periodic table of the elements, an ounce of gold 1000 years ago is exactly the same. As an ounce of gold today. That's why commodities like this are such good long term inflation measuring sticks. And then there's Bitcoin, something that didn't even exist until 2009 there will only ever be 21 million of them in existence, and 95% of Bitcoins, about 20 million have already been mined into existence. So yes, only 5% more will be issued, and it's going to take about the next 100 years to do that. If bitcoins were the size of a quarter, all 21 million of them could fit inside a single shipping container. There's some fixed supply scarcity. Let's listen to this. It's about 30 seconds long, and it's called all there will ever be.   Speaker 2  30:50   Every day the Fed prints an average of $465 million that's 26,000 shipping containers a year, created out of thin air. Maybe that's why the dollar loses value over time. But there's one thing they can never print more of Bitcoin at the size of a quarter. This is all there will ever be. Shouldn't the store of value hold its value?   Keith Weinhold  31:16   That's actually a Coinbase video advertisement that we just listen to the audio of there together. Yes, what they show at the end is a shipping container where, if bitcoin were the size of a quarter, all of them that will ever exist would fit in one shipping container. And like it said, every single year, on average, the Fed prints enough dollars to fill 26,000 shipping containers, just staggering. There are so many dollars now, I'm thinking of replacing my insulation with stacks of ones. Same R value, better liquidity. Pretty soon, we won't count dollars anymore. We'll just weigh them. Welcome to the Zimbabwe starter kit. We have gone from sound money to clown money. That's another way to think of it. Oh, they say money doesn't grow on trees. That's true. It grows in spreadsheets. Now, though, one keystroke at the Fed and poof, there's another trillion just like that. Just hit the control, plus the print key. That's all it takes. All right. Well, let's take a look and see how this manifests in your life as a consumer and as a real estate investor and as a worker since January of 2020 to today, a $100,000 salary has the same buying power as 125k today. Guess over just the last five years, the dollar has lost 25% of its value, and now I'm talking in terms of the CPI here, the consumer price index. So of course, all these figures I'm using could really be higher, like we say, therefore these figures are only the inflation rate that the government is willing to admit to. How does this break down by region? So yes, we have 25% national inflation over five years, but different regions have different rates of inflation, including the region where you are, and this is due to reasons like climate and the composition of industries and even cultural preferences. For example, a southern climate with a lot of air conditioner use spends more on electricity. So if electricity costs are high there, then that region's inflation rate could be higher than that of a northern climate. A place like Omaha, Nebraska is proximous to a lot of agricultural crops and beef, but a place far from where those items are sourced could be more sensitive to changes in beef prices or less sensitive. So over the past five years, here's how much annual inflation in these select cities have experienced again, per the CPI from lowest to highest San Francisco is just 3.3% per year. So in San Fran your 100k salary in 2020 would need to be almost 118k today just to maintain purchasing power. New York City, 3.9% annual inflation over the last five years. Chicago, 4.2% Philly, 4.3 Seattle is at 4.8 Dallas, Fort Worth 4.9 St Louis, 5% Atlanta, 5.1 Miami, 5.4 we're really getting up there now. Phoenix, 5.9 San Diego, 6.1 and the major. Major city with the highest inflation rate over the past five years is Tampa, Florida, at 6.4% annually, Tampa's had some of the highest real estate appreciation over the past five years as well. So this means that a 100k salary five years ago in Tampa would have to be 128k today just to maintain purchasing power due to its 28% cumulative inflation the past five years. But that's the CPI. The real figure could be 40% plus in Tampa. All right, now this information is useful, because even if you believe that the CPI is understated, which most everyone that's looked at it does, as long as the methodology is consistent, you can see the regional variation here. Again, San Francisco was lowest at 3.3 Tampa about double at 6.4% the ever present force of inflation. It's merely surreptitious, until you have a big wave of it peaking in 2022 that everyone noticed. Let's look at how it's contributed to the real estate price run up since 2020 All right, so in the first quarter of this century, you might find this unbelievable in itself, in the year 2000 the median priced Florida home was 195k I mean, that's the median price. Then the investor sweet spot is usually lower than that. It might have been 130k in Florida in the year 2000 so again, 195k in Florida for the median home price as recently as 2000 today, it is 412k gosh, almost as surprising in Texas, It was just 153k in 2000 and it's 338k now, I mean, don't these prices like 153k in Texas, make it seem like the price for a dog house already, New York, 276k up to 576k Also from the year 2000 to today, Washington, DC, 293k up to 643k Colorado, 377, up to 582k Florida, more than doubling 393, up to 833 And Washington State also more than doubling 313k up to 630k my gosh, price increases like this. They're a function of both monetary inflation and appreciation, and it's really a chief reason that the Fed has not cut interest rates this year. It's because the memory of soaring inflation is still much too recent.     Keith Weinhold  38:05   To review what you've learned on this week's episode. Changes to realtor fees have made less industry impact than many expected. The smaller your down payment, the more powerful your leverage fulcrum. The return of 100% bonus depreciation has many investors, and even non investors, interested in adding income property to their portfolio, and staggering inflation is a motivator for adding real assets to your life. Hey, if you would, I would love it, and it would mean the world to me. If you found this episode valuable enough that you would share it with a friend. I put a lot of thought into it, just like I do every single week, friends are probably going to find explanations about realtor fees and bonus depreciation highly helpful this week, you can either share the episode by word of mouth or take a screenshot of this episode and put it on your social media. You might want to write out that it's get rich education in your social posts, because it only shows GRE on our podcast, cover image in some views. Thanks for telling a friend about the show. Until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Unknown Speaker  39:23   nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  39:47   You know, whenever you want the best written real estate and finance info, oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access and it's got paywalls and pop ups and push Notes. Vacations and cookies, disclaimers, it's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters. And I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read, and when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video course, it's all completely free. It's called The Don't quit your Daydream. Letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text gre to 66866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text gre to 66866   Keith Weinhold  41:02   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, getricheducation.com.