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An antiquated California law makes the use of autonomous equipment in the vineyard challenging. Michael Miiller, Director of Government Relations at the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) explains that workplace safety standards developed in the 1970s based on 1940s equipment state that self-driven tractors must have an operator onboard. To update this law, CAWG is working closely with manufacturers and countries that allow autonomous equipment to aggregate data on safety. Automation has many potential benefits to farm workers include developing transferable skills, upward mobility, precision agriculture, and increased safety. Learn about how the law works today and about funding opportunities to train staff. Resources:         117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 120: Autonomous Drone Vineyard Spraying 219: Intelligent Sprayers to Improve Fungicide Applications and Save Money California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) Legislative Action Center California's ongoing ban of autonomous tractors a major setback Department of Industrial Relations Regulation Title 8 Section 3441 Operation of Agricultural Equipment Electric, self-driving capable tractors roll into California North Coast vineyards. North Bay Business Journal. (Partial pay wall) Frequently Asked Questions Self-Propelled Agricultural Equipment (CAWG Member Login required) Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Michael Miiller. He is Director of Government Relations at the California association of wine grape growers. And thanks for being on the program.   Michael Miiller  0:09  Thank you for having me.   Craig Macmillan  0:11  The talk today is where we're at with autonomous tractors as they give a presentation, and you brought up some of the issues we were facing. And I know you've worked on this a lot as well, if you can tell us as of where we are here, end of February 2024. Are we going to get our detractors or not?   Michael Miiller  0:30  That's a really good question. And you can approach them in a whole bunch of different ways. One is we already have them, the technologies there. Now they're being used in many vineyards, across companies around the world. They're also being used in orchards and fields and other commodities. And the reasons for that are in that it's not just economics, it's also about availability of workforce. It's about precision, agriculture, precision, viticulture, making sure that we are good stewards of the land. And it's also about looking to the future, making sure that we have a sustainable industry to grow by grower sustainable vineyard is a huge investment in So on one hand, yes, we already have that. On the other hand, there are continued complications of California law with it. The law states that if you are using self driven tractors, and that's the language in the California workplace safety standards, self driven tractors, then that means that you're supposed to have a driver on board that equipment. So if you have an autonomous tractor that is self driven, meaning that it's programmed to operate without a driver on board, but through electronic means through technology, then you're supposed to have a driver on that board, no matter what. And that law obviously very antiquated. It was, you know, created in the 1970s is one of the very first workplace safety standards in California, is based on 1940s technology. And it's basically targeting for a guided tractors and seeding you mechanisms, as well as irrigation, those kinds of things. And that really targeting the tractors or technology we have today just wasn't even a fathem of possibility back in the 40s 50 60 70. So this is all new logic doesn't address that issue. So in that sense, we're not there yet. But we're getting there.   Craig Macmillan  2:24  Reading up on this topic. But first of all, I can see why it came about. Because I remember growing vegetable fields where people were laying irrigation pipe, and there was nobody in the trenches. And I thought, wow, and then also I thought that was really dangerous is someone who then has to jump up into the tractor to train the roads. So they're putting the wheels and things I can understand that. And yeah, nobody had any idea we'd be here today. So where's the resistance coming from this point from this code from Cal OSHA that coming from the legislature was we're, what's the book that we're reading from?   Michael Miiller  2:57  So it's a couple of things. One hand, while there is resistance for some talk about where where we have embraced, right, where we have people welcoming, you have to remember that the California is the place where agriculture and technology intersect, right? We're largest agricultural state in the nation with a home of great innovation technology. So for these things to come together in California, um, it isn't by happenstance, you know, it's because the technology is here that needs parties here. And people generally understand that this technology, you know, while it seems new, or there's something that is up and coming and in development, it is here already, and it is here to stay. So people do genuinely know that, you know, looking at regulators looking at politicians, they generally get that there is a need to get this right. Okay. So that's the good part of it. The resistance comes in a couple places. One, you have labor unions, who basically fundamentally think that they're gonna lose jobs, technology, right? That for every track that has being driven and remotely, yeah, that's one less tractor driver. And they see that as a job loss in this example. We don't see it that way. We fundamentally believe that in California, there are two tractor jobs for every one tractor driver, you know, we just don't have enough workers to do the job. So in that reality, we're not losing jobs. We're just not. That's just not the reality. And the other part of it, too, we also know that if you take the average person who was working on a tractor and say, Hey, would you rather ride that tractor all day long? Or would you rather operate that tractor remotely from a laptop computer with a skill that is transferable to other industries? I would say more than 99% of those drivers say, yeah, you take me off the tractor. If I can do it remotely? Absolutely. Why would I want to be on the tractor? We don't really see it as a job loss issue. We also see more as a job safety issue. And we know that with technology, the firm is much much safer. It just is because of how the machine is designed to be used. If you're spraying pesticide with it with a machine It is going to be more precise, where it is applied. And it's going to be lesser in amounts and how much is applied. So we think that that is increased worker safety, as well as the basic fact that there's nobody on that tractor, it's less likely that someone's going to get hurt by that tractor. So we really fundamentally believe that is actually as a increase worker safety, increased environmental safety, as well as no job loss. But that is really views are coming from they're fundamentally concerned about job loss, I would never speak for them, you should talk with them yourself. But that's what they testify to in public hearings, then you look at the other issue, the big the bigger public perspective, and the bigger political conversations that happen around it. And we talked about anything that is automated, as far as you know, equipment, vehicles driving around, the first place people go to as those taxis in San Francisco, and they look at it from that perspective, okay. You've got busy roads, you've got hills, you've got curves, you've got pedestrians, you have all of those factors. And then they look at the videos that are, you know, online and computer, you know, YouTube, whatever. And they see those occurrences which, frankly, are very infrequent and not the common occurrence, but they're an infrequent occurrence. But they see those infrequent occurrences and they see them as commonplace, even though they're not. And then they see them, as is something that, you know, applies to all autonomous equipment, all self driven equipment. And in reality, if you're looking at, you know, the tractor moving two and a half miles per hour through a vineyard, when nobody's there, you have a very different situation than, you know, 1000 pound, you know, semi truck going down the interstate for a taxi in downtown San Francisco, was a very different situations. And so we think that we really just look at ag equipment autonomously in a vineyard, because we represent winegraoe growers, that it should be a whole separate conversation from all of the other, you know, autonomous equipment conversations,   Craig Macmillan  7:03  There are autonomous tractors in other states, right, and other countries. So is it possible to bring in these races from these other places, and make an argument that would be persuasive?   Michael Miiller  7:17  That is exactly what we're doing. We believe, whenever you're writing, a workplace safety regulation, this should be based on data should be based on evidence should be based on facts. It shouldn't be based on hyperbolic concerns and discussions, right? Although there's always you know, the the element of people to be safe and where there are concerns. And those concerns or concerns are expressed broadly. Some people I think, take anecdotes and view them as facts or evidence, when in reality, an anecdote is not, you know, conclusive evidence. So we're looking at that evidence from not only other states, but other countries as well. You look over Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, I mean, this equipment is in use, and they have data of the manufacturers have. And they put that together, some of the labor unions have resisted that data, they think that if the worker isn't represented by a union, then the worker is afraid to file a complaint or speak up and therefore the data isn't reliable. And in California, you've got less than point 5% of our ag forces represented by a union. Most workers in California don't want to be in a union, they don't see any gain to their advantage in that. In that reality, then it's incumbent on us to come up with all that right data and all that right evidence. And that's what we're doing. We're working closely with those other countries, manufacturers, those countries and others. I recently met with the company from New Zealand, and they were had a very interesting presentation about how they have a robot that goes through the vineyard. And it scans in real time looking for viruses and diseases. If you think of for red blotch, for example, right, the robot will go through it a cup, and then the grower and your manager will get on their computer screen, an image of that vineyard with specific locations of where there's a problem and where it needs to be treated. So that grower can then take a robotic tractor, go into that vineyard the next day, and sprayed just those locations where there are problems. And they're doing that in New Zealand and heavy hills, all kinds of terrain, and they're doing it successfully in a very safe way. And that's evidence that we that we you know, gathering and putting together and we think that that's ultimately gonna be very helpful to us.   Craig Macmillan  9:37  You brought up an interesting point that is certainly talked about autonomous tractors and tractor are mentioned or equipments mentioned in either zero. This is Cal OSHA regulation?   Michael Miiller  9:47  Correct.   Craig Macmillan  9:48  Does this apply to things like automated robots?   Michael Miiller  9:51  Probably because remember, when you're talking about self driven agricultural equipment equipment.   Craig Macmillan  9:56  Yeah, then can be very broad. Interesting, interviewed a number of different posts for the podcast that are working on automated robots to do all kinds of stuff. And this exact problem had really occurred to me.   Michael Miiller  10:10  If you think about it from the perspective of some of the sprayers that are out there now, there's a sprayer that has like three different models. And there is no, you know, driver's seat, there's no steering wheel, there's no accelerator, brake, clutch, gear shift none of that. It's all operated remotely. So even if you wanted to put somebody on top of that sprayer and have it running through the vineyard, there's no place a person to be. It's just not physically possible. Right?   Craig Macmillan  10:39  Where are we have what's coming up next? We're in February 2024. And you had mentioned public hearings and testimony speaking in the Senate, what's the next phase on this topic?   Michael Miiller  10:49  So we're working closely with the manufacturers, we believe that the best way forward is mobile a couple of things. If your viewers are members of the California Association of wine grape growers, we put out a FAQ fact sheet that we think will help growers to use equipment under California law legally in California, in California, the key is that we using that equipment, it shouldn't be anybody else in the vendor, right? If the tractors going through doing his work, just make sure that there's nobody there. Because if you do that, then it is not really a workplace. Remember, the regulation is a workplace safety standard that applies to a workplace. So if there's nobody there is not a workplace, that law doesn't apply to that. And again, I'm not your lawyer. So I encourage you to read our FAQ sheet, but that also talk with your legal counsel and your HR professionals. Make sure that works for your specific situation. Very broadly speaking, if there's nobody in the in the vineyard, then it's not really work because it should be elaborative. But that means you should also keep the records of that, how do you how do you document that there's nobody there and keep your payroll records, make sure it's all detailed, keep time logs about when the machines that use or where it's in use, you make sure you've got all that documented for a minimum of six months. So that if there's ever a citation issue, if somebody files a complaint, you can then say, Okay, here's what you know, here's what we did, here's how we did it. And there's nobody there. Therefore, it's not a workplace, and therefore, there's no basis for the citation. So that's in the short term, because, again, I have visited a number of venues where the equipment is in use. And that is fundamentally how it's often used right now, with nobody around the equipment they the operative late at night, they operate on doing equipment that doesn't really require anybody to be in the vineyard. So it fits what's in practice today is to really look at that separate from a workplace safety standard, because it's not really a workplace. So that's the short term. And the long term, we really got to fix this regulation, we just have to the regulation is goes back to the disco age, for God's sake, right, music has changed. So it's technology. So and so was fashion, right? So yeah, I don't have any bell bottoms anymore. So so we need to think about, you know, how that regulation, you know, should read and how it should apply to just autonomous equipment and what that would look like. And part of that is going to have to come from the manufacturer, industry from the from that sector, because they're the engineers, they're the experts, they know how to do that, right? The agricultural end of it, we can bring all kinds of evidence to bear about why it's needed, and why it's appropriate, why it needs to be updated, the details of the equipment itself, what if defined with equipment is in a way this engineer and how its technology is used, then you have to look at how to operate that equipment safely and what that looks like and how that, you know, operates. And then you go look at where is equipment intended to be used and for what purpose. So you've got to put all that together in a regulation that your reflects the science, not only of today, but also where things are going. So because we have to keep going back and just as regulation of science, develops, technology grows over time, is gonna be a long, long continual investment process of the regulation. And we think it should be written in a way that reflects what's happening today, with also our appreciation of what's coming down the road, is we know that there's more coming. I mean, we're at the tip of the iceberg of what the technology can do right now.   Craig Macmillan  14:35  Oh, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I the role of humans in this is always the tricky bit. It's kind of an aside, but I'm old enough to remember when laser cutters first came out. It was kind of a panic that you're gonna put an eye on you're gonna blind somebody with these, you're gonna and no, I don't want to shine in my eye but they're all over the place. I use them all the time and they're just they're not illegal. Don't put it in an airplane. Hopefully we can kind of get past some of it. So one of the reasons I say that is, again, I've talked to many guests, they're going full on in this area. And they've got federal funding, like you said, it's being it's being implemented in all over the world. And we need to catch up.   Michael Miiller  15:13  Frankly, if you're a grower in California, and you're not thinking about looking at precision agriculture, and how do you use this technology, you're making a mistake, because it really will benefit every part of the industry. I firmly believe that and it'll benefit our workforce, our communities, everybody involved. Well, another example perhaps for me too, is you mentioned laser printer. The other ones, I remember the 70s When I was a kid, the invention of scanning groceries, the barcodes at the cash register, right? That didn't exist before early 70s. Right. And one of the places where there was a lot of pushback on it was from cashiers, they thought you're going to replace my job with these machines are going to scan the groceries. And if you talk to the average grocery cashier today, they would not want that job otherwise, because it makes their job a lot easier.   Craig Macmillan  16:05  You still need cashiers.   Michael Miiller  16:07  Correct. Yeah.   Craig Macmillan  16:08  Yeah. I mean, that role didn't go away. You know, when I first met you, I saw you give a talk. And I asked you a question. I'm gonna answer this question here. That does a really interesting answer. We're definitely moving this technology direction. There's no doubt of it. When we're talking automation, we're talking robotics, we're talking electrical driven motors, on and on and on, this is going to take a pretty sophisticated workforce to not only operate, but also to maintain nationally or in California, are we bringing people into learn these topics in these areas?   Michael Miiller  16:46  That's a good question. It's a several layered answer. You know, one is one hand. Yes, we are. I mean, when you're looking at some of the manufacturers who are doing some of this product testing, they're making sure that there are people trained to operate their machines, and there's the training themselves as part of the package, when you buy the tractor, you're gonna get some assistance and training your employees to have a part of it as you have Fresno State university, UC Davis, Cal Poly, a lot of community colleges, who are already training in some of this work, they're they're making sure that where there is training of agriculture industry, that that training includes technology, right. They're training people, you know, for all of that, as well as for the marketing in the industry, product, all of it. So the training is already happening as well, or I mentioned earlier, where we know that there's some embrace of this issue, the governor just recently announced that there's going to be a $10 million program at the EDD employment training panel, where there's some money being provided for agricultural employers to train their employees and various things, not just technology, it can be all kinds of different issues. But the idea goes to make sure that we have a sustainable workforce of workers are getting trained in skills that will benefit them through upward mobility, transferable skills, and all of that. And that $10 million is for that purpose. So if you're the if you're the grower, who's wanting to make that change, and move, move from, you know, traditional tractors to self driven automation, whatever kind of equipment you're going towards, you know, it might be an option for that grower to, to apply for a grant for the ETP, to get some funding to train those people in that new skill. So there is a lot of recognition of the need to train workers and to make sure that that people have the skills necessary. One of the big ones you mentioned was how do you maintain these tractors, right, if you've got an electric tractor, you know, that's operating on the battery. And it's a whole different mechanism than if you have a tractor, that's diesel gasoline, you know that how you repair that equipment, how you service equipment, you maintain it, it's a bit of a different skill. So we need people who are trained in that as well as how to operate it. So there's a pretty substantial need for training people. And I think that that's kind of the appeal of it too. Because all those skills are transferable. When we look at our workforce, we see that the average ag worker is getting older and older. That's because we're not bringing in a lot of younger people, right? They don't want to do the ag work, they want to do something different, right? They're more interested and motivated to do other kinds of work. So if we can look at that reality for younger workers and say, how do we make this job more appealing to them? And we're applying these kinds of technologies and skills, they will come back because at work in the 70s is very different than ag work today with this technology. It's just an entirely different thing.   Craig Macmillan  19:46   If there was one thing that you would tell a great or on this topic, what would it be?   Michael Miiller  19:52  I'll start with this. I'm a Midwestern kid. I was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I spent most of my childhood in Iowa and Wisconsin, my tie back to agriculture is from that Midwest experience, right. And my uncle has a farm outside of Mitchell, South Dakota. And I would go help them as farmers and I drive tractor and do whatever he had. He had hogs. He had some cattle, he grew soybeans, corn, alfalfa, all kinds of stuff. He was very diverse in what he did every year. You know, he relied on Mother Nature for rain in new irrigation back there, right? So I remember talking with him after I come out to California, just touching him, see how he's doing? And I asked him, so what's your most reliable crop right now? How are you doing with it? How was how's the industry has environment, it's my most reliable crop right now is a cell tower, that I lease on the corner of my land, that is guaranteed income every year, every year that's guaranteed income. With that in mind, if I talk to a grower today and say, what's, what's the one thing they should really think about, think about where your opportunities are to actually, you know, save money, invest in the future, reduce your cost, and actually create those reliable sources of income and sustainability, right. So if you're looking at things like carbon sequestration in the vineyard, you're looking at cover crops you're looking at, you know, all of that kind of stuff. You're looking at, you know, a technology that is down the road, you're looking at stuff that's coming, and I would pause, take a breath and look at all of that, because there are huge opportunities there is some growers laughed at my uncle for putting up this tower. He's like, Yeah, but this is cash income every month. And I'm good to go with it. Yeah. So yes, I say continue looking at the technology and see how it applies to your bottom line. Because you will be surprised at how much and how big of an advantage it is for growers to actually look at this technology and make that investment.   Craig Macmillan  21:55  I'm from the Midwest, myself. I'm from Iowa, Soux Falls Iowa.   Michael Miiller  21:58  I lived in Waterloo as a kid.   Craig Macmillan  22:00  You're kidding me.   Michael Miiller  22:01  No, Waterloo!   Craig Macmillan  22:02  We need to edit this part out! Well, then you can well, then you really can relate to this. You know, I was involved in farming, I was a city kid. But we had, you know, members of our church, or folks that we knew who had farms and side of town, they had to make some big decisions. Sometimes, you know, depending on the price of corn, they may have to store it, I may put it in a silo. Or maybe I should look at another crop or another type of livestock or something like that. Since that time, we now have farms with tractors that are running on GPS that have intelligent sprayers all programed. And a family can farm quite a bit of ground with again, a lot of safety, but they weren't big investments. They were risks. That's that's what I hear from around other crops. It's like Nope, that was a big jump. But once we did, it made tons of sense, it worked out great. I do want to kind of underline your idea that we should definitely be looking and thinking and doing the math. And then especially as technology becomes more adopted.   Michael Miiller  23:00  Everybody's got to make the decision as a grower by grower or video by vineyard basis. But in speaking in general terms, I think growers would be surprised actually beneficial it is to them.   Craig Macmillan  23:10  Where can people find out more about you in these topics?   Michael Miiller  23:13  You go to our website www cwg.org orgy my email simple Michael at cwg.org Send me a text anytime email I'm easy to get a hold of. The contact information is on the website. And there's some information on there as well mentioned our FAQs etc website and it gets available for our growers and viewers who aren't caught growers should be known I could help you with that as well.   Craig Macmillan  23:39  Okay, sounds good. This today was Michael Miiller. He's Director of Government Relations, California Association of wine grape growers. Thanks for being here.   Michael Miiller  23:46  Thank you so much. Enjoy yoru day.   Craig Macmillan  24:22  Waterloo, Iowa   Michael Miiller  24:24  Yeah! yeah, go cyclones.   Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

On this very special bonus episode of the One Heat Minute Productions podcast, I find an excuse to gush about BATMAN RETURNS with the powerhouse film mind of my friend Priscilla Page.Thank you so much for the ongoing support!FROM PRISCILLA'S PATREONHey! I'm Priscilla Page, and I'm a writer who's been published by Hagerty, Birth.Movies.Death., Autoweek, Polygon, Empire Magazine, The Guardian, Inside Hook, and Bright Wall/Dark Room. I love all kinds of movies but mostly cover genre, especially actioners, thrillers, sci-fi, horror, crime, pulp, westerns, and noir. These days I write a bunch about movies with cool cars and car chases. Most of my car-related film writing can be found here, and a lot of my other essays are here. Freelancing, as it turns out, is hard as hell. The pandemic eliminated both my primary outlet (RIP Birth.Movies.Death.) and my day job (petsitting), so it's Patreon that allows me to keep writing, to share deep dives on my favorite movies and TV series as well as some of my articles that have previously only been published in magazines... and maybe even a few interviews. Frankly, I love having the luxury of being able to write about what I want regardless of how topical my subject is, to create my own deadlines, to research as much as I need, and to avoid clickbait bullshit altogether. I get to be beholden to my actual readers, rather than what an outlet thinks their readers want. Basically, Patreon and my patrons give me (much-appreciated) security, time, and freedom. It lets me keep doing what I love to do.So pledge what you want, and if you can't pledge anything, don't sweat it - every post will be available to patrons and non-patrons alike, for free, forever. My letterboxd. My ko-fi. My car blog.One Heat Minute ProductionsWEBSITE: oneheatminute.comTWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPodsMERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productionsSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-heat-minute-productions/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is fascinating to engage church leaders and members about their understanding of discipleship. Frankly, it means different things to different people. Sam and Thom discuss the importance of getting clarity about discipleship in a local church. The post The Confusion about the Word “Discipleship” appeared first on Church Answers.

As he stepped into a Manhattan courthouse on a frosty Monday, Donald J. Trump, our beloved 45th president, didn't hold back his criticism of New York's hush-money lawsuit against him. He minced no words in calling the case a blatant 'political witch hunt' coordinated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and none other than President Joseph R. Biden himself. 'What's unfolding here is nothing short of a broader attack on our great nation. Such circumstances are entirely unprecedented. Legal experts far and wide agree that this frivolous lawsuit is an anomaly, a case without any solid grounding.' Trump's frustrations with this case are felt and echoed by many across the nation -- even by those who don't consistently align with his beliefs. Take, for instance, the esteemed constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz, who isn't known to lean to the right politically. During an interview with National Desk in March, Dershowitz said, 'This appears to be a clear-cut case of targeting and politicizing the justice system, certainly not the American way. To say it's a disappointing day for justice would be an understatement. Frankly, without seeing the indictment, I cannot make certain judgments, but based on what we've gathered about this case so far, it appears to be one of the weakest I've ever encountered in over half a decade of experience.' As per reports from Fox News, Trump is facing an unprecedented 34 charges related to falsifying business records -- accusations that are all built on a seemingly inventive legal premise, as suggested by ABC News. Trump, not one to back down easily, further stressed, 'This isn't just a persecution, it's a political witch hunt unlike any we've seen before. It's a case that shouldn't have seen the light of day.' 'This is an unashamed assault on our great nation, and that's why I stand tall and proud today. This isn't just an attack against me, it's a distressing indictment of our failing country. It's a country fought over by a clueless man who is, unfortunately, deeply embroiled in this case. This seems nothing less than a strike on a political rival, and that's the crux of the matter. So, it is with great honor I stand before you today; I thank you all.' Thankfully, the principles of America's legal system are strong in face of these trials. Trump's command and influence make him a robust contender for the 2024 presidency. Based on the polling averages from Real Clear Politics, Trump has consistently been outperforming Biden in recent nationwide polls. Contrary to popular belief, Republican presidential candidates can still triumph in the election, even without winning the popular vote – reminiscent of the victories in 2000 and 2016. As we look to the future, the possibilities for Republicans in 2024 seem boundless, particularly if they effectively deliver their agenda and pointedly challenge the Biden administration's 'America Last' policies. The course of our beloved nation's future may very well hinge on these developments. It calls for rallying around a plan that rings true with the American spirit. Our focus should be on the 'American Dream' – protecting life, ensuring liberty, and nurturing the pursuit of happiness for all citizens, wholeheartedly.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

Recorded April 8 2024   Description In this week's Frankly, Nate offers a list of things he is absolutely certain of… or as certain as any human can be. Each of us has grounding beliefs about the reality around us with which we shape our outlook on the world and how we'd like to interact with it. How will planetary and energetic limits interact with human society and culture in the future? Can we recognize truisms about our world without becoming closed off to ways of learning and understanding? What are the fundamental realities of the world around us - and how do they constrain our pathways for the future?    YouTube Link here    For Show Notes and More: 

Transcription Notes “Upili program”? Yes and it isn't even a misspelling. Our guest, Carla Birnberg will tell us all about Upili, where it comes from and what it is. Carla started life in Pittsburg, but nearly thirty years ago she ended up in Austin, TX. Prior to Austin she worked in North Carolina where she owned her own personal trainer business. She sold that company when she moved to Austin which was due to marriage. Carla has always been quite the storyteller. Her Bachelors degree was in English Literature, but her mom convinced her to go to graduate school where she earned a Master's degree in Educational Counseling. After her move to Austin she became a successful blogger and internet writer for a number of major brands. Four years ago she, as she would say, pivoted to working with the Next Step Foundation to help persons with disabilities in East Africa. We have quite the informative and interesting conversations about disabilities and how they are viewed in Kenya as opposed to the United States. Carla makes a strong case for why in reality the treatment of persons with disabilities between the two countries is not too different although in Kenya possibly the treatment of people with disabilities there is more visibly negative. Carla does say overall the views of us are pretty similar. While you may hear some things discussed that have come up in other episodes of Unstoppable Mindset I think you will discover in Carla a person with a wealth of knowledge. Among other things, she describes how in Kenya where the Upili program is used, counselors with disabilities are brough into schools and organizations so the people there see good models to enrich and inspire them. This was a fun and wonderful conversation. I hope you enjoy it. About the Guest: Carla has dedicated her professional journey to cultivating connections, whether between individuals, places, or concepts. As a passionate advocate for amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, she most recently wove together her gift for ethical storytelling, her passion for uplifting others, and her academic experience/Master's degree in Educational Counseling to create the Upili program. Upili, Kiswahili for secondary as in secondary schools, engages Counselors with Disabilities to provide group therapy for Students with Disabilities in Kenyan “special schools.” (In Kenya, Students with Disabilities are educated at “special schools” according to their disability, e.g., schools for the blind, schools for the deaf, etc.) Youth with Disabilities are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression, especially in East Africa where stigmatization, marginalization and discrimination are still prevalent. The lack of early intervention of essential psychosocial support creates additional barriers that keep Persons with Disabilities from being able to obtain and maintain meaningful employment. Next Step Foundation's Upili Program addresses this pervasive mental health challenge by providing support for secondary school Students with Disabilities, their families, and communities. By meeting the psychosocial needs of students, training teachers, staff and peers to serve as “psychological first responders,” and offering support to parents and caregivers the Upili Program instills self-confidence, improves academic performance and provides the tools to successfully navigate future discrimination so that Youth with Disabilities can achieve economic independence. In her recent role as the Chief Culture and Inclusion Officer at Stepwise Inc., Carla played a pivotal role in advancing impact sourcing initiatives. Stepwise, a frontrunner in the impact sourcing movement and the first B Corp certified company in East Africa, benefited from Carla's leadership in leveraging AI technology to empower marginalized groups, particularly individuals with disabilities and young women, enabling their full participation in the digital economy. Driven by a commitment to fostering a positive organizational culture, Carla has created initiatives aimed at enhancing employee retention amidst Stepwise's rapid growth. Her innovative approaches, including "stay interviews," upskilling opportunities, and mentorship programs, have infused the company's core values into daily operations, cultivating a workplace where employees are not only motivated to come to work but also eager to remain with the organization, even across vast distances. As a collaborative leader Carla has developed and implemented comprehensive training and support programs for cultural integration within organizations undergoing expansion through acquisitions. Her approach, which includes individual and group coaching as well as fostering cultural sensitivity, has proven instrumental in navigating organizational transitions. Carla's earlier career in marketing showcased her aptitude for connecting communities, influencers, and brands. With a track record of success in developing innovative branding and marketing campaigns, she has left an indelible mark on the industry. Her pioneering use of omni-channel media, blending lifestyle with product placement alongside esteemed personalities and leading brands such as Venus Williams, FILA, and Walt Disney World, made her a trailblazer in the realm we now simply refer to as 'influencers. Ways to connect with Carla: Next Step Foundation website https://nextstepfdn.org/ Upili Program website https://www.upili.org/ Upil Instagram https://www.instagram.com/upili_program? Upili Twitter https://twitter.com/upiliprogram? Carla Birnberg Substack https://carlabirnberg.substack.com/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hello, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Our guest today, my partner in conversation that is Carla Birnberg. Carla has a really interesting story to tell. She lives in Austin. And I don't know where else in the US she's live. But we'll find out because we'll drill down and, and get it out of her. But she spends her waking hours thinking of and assisting people, especially children with disabilities in Kenya, and helping them to become more accepted, which makes a lot of sense. And of course, needless to say, that's near and dear to my heart. And we will we will get to all that as we go through our discussions. But for now, Carla, I want to welcome you into unstoppable mindset. And thank you very much for being here. Thank   Carla Birnberg ** 02:14 you so much for having me. I know it took a beat for us to get the date together. And I'm so glad to be here.   Michael Hingson ** 02:21 Well, we made it happen, which is really good. There you go. Tell us about the early Carla growing up and stuff like that.   Carla Birnberg ** 02:29 The early Carla   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 Yeah, gotta hear about the early Carla.   Carla Birnberg ** 02:34 I laughed because I've been thinking a lot. You know, that question that career counselors and coaches ask you What did you dream of being when you were little? And I don't know. This will date me that book Harriet the Spy. You're a man you might not be familiar with more of The Girl type read. But Harriet walked around her neighborhood pretending she was a spy with a notebook writing everything down. And I kind of think that my current career as chief storyteller, I've achieved it. And there were some deviations along the way. But my whole life that's really been it, listening to stories and amplifying what other people are doing.   Michael Hingson ** 03:15 Carla the spy no doubt about it.   Carla Birnberg ** 03:17 I know maybe they can make it into a movie.   Michael Hingson ** 03:20 Well, why not? Now who played Harriet? I'm trying to remember was it?   03:27 I can't remember her. Donal, I think she was. I think it was Rosie O'Donnell.   Carla Birnberg ** 03:32 I think you're right. I'd forgotten. I don't know where   Michael Hingson ** 03:34 she was Harriet, or she was the mother but she was in there with the mom   Carla Birnberg ** 03:38 she was. And that was I mean, I can really remember walking down my street. It's a kid with that notebook and the pencil. And I hadn't thought until right now. So thank you about how far I've come and how not far.   Michael Hingson ** 03:54 So now no pencils, keyboards. I   Carla Birnberg ** 03:57 know keyboards, voice notes and our phone all of it.   Michael Hingson ** 04:01 So you, you absorb stories and all that and tell me a little bit more about you and growing up and all that.   Carla Birnberg ** 04:10 I was pretty theatrical. I did a lot of television work when I was younger. And I thought for about three minutes that I wanted to be on air talent and I interned at our CBS affiliate and then I quickly realized that wasn't my gift. Again, it goes back to I didn't want to be on the screen like you. I wanted to be more behind the scenes writing the stories ended up in college for English English literature, small liberal arts school in Ohio where there was not much else to do but read. And I kind of stayed on this books and storytelling and marketing path my whole life.   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 Now, where are you from? Originally?   Carla Birnberg ** 04:55 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shout out to the Steelers. Yes, I'm a Pittsburgh girl at heart, even though I've not lived there and maybe 30 years.   Michael Hingson ** 05:04 Oh, that's okay. There are people in New York who say the Dodgers will someday move back to Brooklyn and stinky white. Sure that's going to happen. Of course now with Shohei Otani, I don't think they can afford to move back to Brooklyn. So that's another story. But yeah, but you never know. It isn't gonna happen. They're gonna stay out here. But anyway, that's cool. So you, you, you love to be creative. I interviewed. Well, I keep saying that I shouldn't. I had a conversation with a gentleman yesterday. And his name is Wolf born, he changed his name to wolf born, his middle name was born. In honor of his father, Max Born who was a very famous physicist. He had the name of wolf. He was a nickname, his original name was Randall, Born ready for this? Newton John. He's, he's in Australia. So who do you think so? Who do you think his aunt was?   Carla Birnberg ** 06:11 Olivia? This thing now, I loved Olivia Newton John's talk   Michael Hingson ** 06:17 about a guy who comes from a really creative family. And he, he's, he's, he calls himself a corporate shaman, because he really wants to help organizations and people, people especially move closer to nature and understand that nature has a lot to it can do to guide us and teach us and, and so he really is heavily involved in that. But that   Carla Birnberg ** 06:43 is fascinating. And I'm, I'm with him in terms of, I'm not myself, this is why I don't move back to Pennsylvania. Because of the cold. I need to be immersed in nature every day, preferably barefoot in the grass. It helps me ground myself, so I can show up for other people. He   Michael Hingson ** 07:02 would say, though, that there is time to deal with cold as well, because we we race around so much that we're we way too hot. And so the result is that we don't really deal with nature. We don't tune into nature, which goes in cycles. And we ought to do more of that.   Carla Birnberg ** 07:20 Oh, I'm such a believer. And I just kind of emerged from wintering with Michael, I thought I invented but clearly I did not. When we fall back to we spring forward, I really tried to get still and plan for what's coming next both at work and personally.   Michael Hingson ** 07:41 Yeah, well, I, I learned a long time ago that I'm not going to worry about spring ahead and falling back. Frankly, what I do is go to bed an hour earlier when it is spring. And that way, I come right out adjusted to the time anyway. And as far as falling back, I won't stay up an hour later. I like to get the extra hour asleep. So I'm good. And   Carla Birnberg ** 08:11 you know, that is I think the Kenyan my team. That's the biggest that's the most challenging time of year when we fall back. I'm further so when I'm it's 8am. For me, they're done. It's 5pm for them. I like when we spring forward, because I get that extra hour where they're in the office, they have to adjust a lot to my USA schedule.   Michael Hingson ** 08:34 Yeah, well, I do a lot of work, of course, with excessive B. And the thing about excessive B is that they just switched yesterday night, I guess to daylight saving time. Oh. So they've so it's been a challenge because some of the scheduling hasn't always been coordinated very well. Microsoft hasn't really done some of the things that it was supposed to do.   Carla Birnberg ** 09:09 So I can guess that night before the Sunday before the first Monday after we sprung forward. I was like Carla, you've been doing this for years, but let's focus. Okay, so 8am Do we need to switch this out? Look didn't change the meeting time. Like you said, it's on us.   09:24 Yeah, literally cope. We did.   Carla Birnberg ** 09:28 That's because we're resilient and we're creative.   Michael Hingson ** 09:30 So what did you do once you left college? Well, I'm before you said your degree in college was what in right in writing English English literature. Yeah,   Carla Birnberg ** 09:42 you know, it seemed like a really good idea. I have a daughter who's 18 and my liberal arts degree has been great for cocktail conversation, and it's a lovely degree, but I wasn't really ready to do much after with it after graduation. So I as one does work In an outdoor store, I loved climbing and hiking, and I worked there probably for a year. And my mother, God bless her Jewish intellectual parents came into the store one day and said, Guess what? You're going to graduate school. Now, I'm not paying for this, but it's time to get doing something else. And so I got my master's degree in Educational Counseling. Okay, I use it every day. And I don't use it at all. It's one of those, it's been very helpful, but I've not used it in a traditional fashion.   Michael Hingson ** 10:31 Fair. I understand and empathize a lot, I got my bachelor's and master's degrees in physics. But wow, circumstances, ended up having me go in different directions. But I would never regret the times. And all that I learned in physics, the details, the kinds of things I learned some of the more basic life lessons like pay attention to details that are so important. And there's some examples of that in terms of why it's important in physics. But for me, I took it more to heart in a general way. And really work to pay attention to details, more of us ought to do that and observe what goes on around us, and learn to recognize what is working, what's not working, do really pay attention to the details to find out if the details are going the way we expect. And if they're not, why not? Because it might very well be that they have something to teach us. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 11:30 a really, phenomenally interesting takeaway from a physics degree I wouldn't have thought of. And you're right. That's a skill we all need. Because we need to know when to pivot when to change what we're doing. And if we're going too fast, we don't even notice. Right?   Michael Hingson ** 11:47 So you've got a master's in education. Yeah.   Carla Birnberg ** 11:53 And then what, and then I moved for a job, I was very excited, I packed up my car, I'm going to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a job, I get to Chapel Hill, and welcome, but there's no job anymore. So again, if it and this kind of took me, I don't really believe we get off our path because everything comes together. But I ended up becoming and if you knew me in my childhood, this shocks, everybody actually straight up through college, a personal trainer, and not athletic at all. And I ended up opening a personal training studio, but with that using them it was master's in education with an emphasis on counseling. So those counseling skills, yes, I did need the fitness knowledge. But the counseling skills really helped make me successful as a personal trainer. And then I sold my training studio moved to Austin, and became a big online, personal brand all sort of by accident.   Michael Hingson ** 12:56 Why personal trainer, what what got you to do that?   Carla Birnberg ** 13:02 Back then I probably would have said because I love paying my rent and my bills. And it seemed like something I could do to make some money. But I know myself and what comes easy to me, I'm not a good teacher of I could never have taught the clarinet came very easy to me. I could have taught math because I struggled with it. I'm not naturally someone who's very adept with fitness, terrible hand eye coordination. And yet I knew when I started lifting weights briefly in college, for women, leaving much more than men, it's where we can find our voice. It's where we can discover our power. And so after that happened for me, I kind of wanted to proselytize or evangelize and share that with girls, mostly University of Chapel Hill, undergrads and women in the area. I believe in it's so much teaching us to be strong and take up space and speak up. It's really where I found my voice.   Michael Hingson ** 14:05 Why didn't you stay with it, though? You sold it eventually and move to Austin,   Carla Birnberg ** 14:09 sold it and move to Austin and no more brick and mortar for me ever. I mean, I   Carla Birnberg ** 14:18 it was great. But   Carla Birnberg ** 14:22 I knew there was a way and I figured it out sort of with another with group of. We call ourselves the OG bloggers across the United States. How could we give away what we were passionate about what our knowledge was in what our skill set was really for free on the internet. So I was working at the Austin American Statesman by day writing features working in their education department, and a blogger by night until the blogging by night got so big that I left the statesman and made that full time.   Michael Hingson ** 14:55 Ended up getting out of the newspaper business. none   Carla Birnberg ** 14:58 too soon to my chagrin. I mean, I'm sad that it's kind of dying off. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 15:03 Yeah, I think it'll be a sad day if we lose newspapers. I   Carla Birnberg ** 15:10 absolutely agree. I mean, that's some of my best memories of being a family growing up this Sunday, New York Times the local Pittsburgh paper.   Michael Hingson ** 15:21 So, you, you really got into blogging and what were you blogging about? Or what were you doing?   Carla Birnberg ** 15:29 It's that master's degree. It was personal development and fitness, but not prescriptive, not go to the gym and lift this weight and do it this way. It was more, what's your language of encouragement? A few iterations back? What's your why? How do we get to the gym? How do we commit to fitness? How do we figure out why this is even important to us so we can achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 15:55 well, going back even a little bit further and deeper. Why Austin? Ah, this   Carla Birnberg ** 16:01 marriage came down. Yes. And you know, it is I love the city. It's changed a lot. But I'm still not one of those. And there are many of them now. Just old Austin was better. And as we've grown, it's changed. And I love it just as much. I've been here 24 years. Long time. Hmm. Yes. And I have no plans to leave yet until unless they priced me out, then maybe?   Michael Hingson ** 16:26 Well, so. So you got into blogging and all that. And that's a good thing. But as you pointed out, needing incomes and so on, so how did all that work for you?   Carla Birnberg ** 16:44 So Well, I mean, I gratitude. There's I read somewhere once and I'm sure someone famous said it, and I should quote them, but I can't remember who if you woke up tomorrow with only what you were grateful for today. What would that look like? And I have such a gratitude practice kind of framed around that. And I was very lucky financially with the blogging got in at the beginning worked with some big big names Phila Birkenstock Wonderful Pistachios, Sears, who I think is no more worked with Venus Williams and really made it into a lucrative and enjoyable and impactful I could help people career until everyone became an influencer. And I read that landscape and thought it might be time to get out.   Michael Hingson ** 17:36 So the idea was, they were sort of sponsoring you, or they were paying you to write blogs for them. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 17:42 it, you know, they would come I mean, this was back in Paleozoic Era, like 2006. Let's say when I started, they would come with Okay, we have $35,000, what can you do for us? How many videos how many posts? Will you write, and we can put it on our website, Sears Venus Williams Birkenstock? Can you do print advertisement for us, though it was before everyone was an influencer? Where I get it. If I were the brand, I would think I'm going to pay 50 Different UT students $50 Each and see what I get versus these big paychecks to the original influencers? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 18:24 So you did that. And, and again, at some point, it sounds like you pivoted into what?   Carla Birnberg ** 18:34 Wow, let's go back to March 2020. It was before then that I read the landscape. You know, I had some podcasts that I hosted. So I know how hard you work. And I had written a book. And at that point, I was working with Venus. She blurbed, the cover of my book, and I thought, Where do I go from here? I was doing LIVESTRONG with a big website at the time, some content creation for them. And I was just in that moment of what should my next be when the world sort of started looking like it was changing. I had already been in conversations with a startup in Austin and Nairobi about doing some marketing for them, potentially just fractional short term CMO. And I thought I don't know what's happening here. COVID And I'm gonna do this because I don't think it's the time to work the gig economy even though I don't know what's happening. And I mean, again, gratitude said yes, took the leap had never done anything like this. I'd done the marketing I'd never worked globally and just thought, I'm gonna give this a shot. And I mean, it is no understatement to say it is the best Yes, I've ever said second to working with dentists. It's the best death I've ever said.   Michael Hingson ** 19:50 Why is that?   Carla Birnberg ** 19:54 It has changed my life. I mean, I traveled a lot as a child. My dad was a professor So he would take his sabbatical in. He did it twice in London. So I lived in Oxford and I've been exposed to the world but not, not in this consistent way. And the backdrop of my entire life I'm Jewish, but I'm not religious is Tikun Olam, which means repair the world. And really, it's we can't fix everything. So let's take our little tiny corner and try to fix it up as best we can. And I'd watched my parents do that. And I done some volunteering, but this global experience and given me an opportunity to really take my gifts and use them in a different way and meet so many different people. And it's just shifted my life perspective. And I'm so grateful.   Michael Hingson ** 20:48 Well, yeah, so tell me more about kind of what you did and what you're doing. Now. I'm assuming it's all related.   Carla Birnberg ** 20:57 It is the short version with the startup as with many startups, our whole goal was to eventually have the entire C suite team moved to Kenya, after about two and a half years. That's what happened. And I can tell you, I could have looked for a totally different job at that point, not gotten up at four in the morning. But gratitude spiritual practice, I just really felt that my work in Africa wasn't done. And I shifted to our foundation and became I was the head of culture and inclusion with the for profit startup, and moved kind of back to marketing on some level and became the chief storyteller, for next step Foundation.   Michael Hingson ** 21:44 And the next step foundation. Sounds pretty fascinating. Tell me more about that, if you would,   Carla Birnberg ** 21:49 we focus on helping the historically and it gets back to semantics, you and I had a really great pre interview chat about that the historically excluded I now do not love the word marginalized, mostly from my, my project persons with disabilities, but the whole foundation, it's women and youth and persons with disabilities by we recruit them, we assess what they need, we accommodate whatever their needs are. Maybe this is a young woman who has no digital skills, maybe this young man needs a screen reader. And then we train them. And unlike many nonprofits in the Global South, we don't just train, we then transition them into the job and support them in the job, after mentorship, kind of making sure that they have everything they need, so that they can be successful and feel successful. It's not all about the career. It's also about feeling really good about the work that they're doing.   Michael Hingson ** 22:55 So where does the next step foundation function primarily?   Carla Birnberg ** 22:59 It is mainly in Nairobi. So it's yes, it's been a big shift, when I was with the for profit entity, there are probably 17 of us in the States. Now there to go around noon, it can feel like a ghost town. I love my team, because they'll stay up late for me. But mostly in Nairobi, we have a small office here.   Michael Hingson ** 23:26 And so tell me a little bit more about about what you do. And we definitely can have the discussion here that we had ahead of time. And I'll let you kind of lead that as to where you'd like it to go. But tell me a little bit more about what what you actually do now and and kind of how all that works.   Carla Birnberg ** 23:46 I'm so it's such perfect timing for us to talk. You know, I started chief storyteller, this is great. I got to help with some marketing language. That was fun. And my favorite aspect of the job, which is not my new project is helping to create the impact narratives of our participants. Because I mean, it's almost like a puzzle where I interview them. And then I get snippets half of the time, it's in Swahili, so I pull in other team members to translate and kind of get that opportunity to weave it into a story. And our focus at the foundation is ethical storytelling. I have nothing to do with the story. My perspective doesn't matter. And in addition to that, and I know that the participants and people with whom I've worked at Next Step sort of chuckle, but we always ask for vigorous and consistent consent. So if I write a fantasy story, and he says, yep, here's my story. Yes, he's my picture. He approves everything. I put it on LinkedIn. And then I want to share it on Twitter. I'm going back to him, because it's really important to us as a foundation and me as chief storage Heller, at any time, a Fontas could say, You know what, I'm kind of over it. I don't want you to share my story anymore of going from x and acquiring my disability and then doing this and getting this job. And we would say, okay, so I love that facet of my job, the storyteller, and yet I had a little gap of time. And that's how this new project was created. The one that you and I have spoken about. And can I transition into that? Yes, you are excited. Okay. It's, I'm so thrilled we just finished our pilot program. It's called oo p li, which means secondary and key Swahili.   Michael Hingson ** 25:39 And how do you spell that? Up?   Carla Birnberg ** 25:41 i Li. Okay, great. I know I actually had on my appealing necklace. And then I've no idea why I thought I would be a grown up and take it off. Because I'd like to wear it in the community. So people say, hey, Carla, actually, I have a keychain. They'll say, hey, Carla, what is your necklace? What is your pili? And then I whip out my keychain, Michael with the QR code on the back. And I'm like, Thank you for asking, here's the website and how you can give me money. very appealing means secondary. And we thought I thought, wouldn't it be amazing if we went into these special schools in Kenya, which is their way of defining the schools that are created only for persons with disabilities, typically, very segregated schools for the blind schools for the deaf, there are some which are for all disabilities. And there are some which they also call integrated, which means for people who do not have a disability and those with disabilities, the plan was to go into these schools and meet material needs, build perimeter walls, give them new desks, supply hot water heaters, things that are very important and that I thought, this is the answer we went to visit. And I suddenly it dawned on the entire team. This is great, giving physical items. But this is all for something many, many NGOs are already doing. They'll come in, every Oprah gets a new desk, they'll come in, we will paint and build new hospitals, what we would call dormitories. So I met with our team who went to joy town, this is where we did our pilot there all the antics, persons with disabilities and said, Okay, a lot of people are meeting this need for the physical items. What else is in need? That is even more pressing. And this is when the conversation began around what I was aware of, I thought through doing the impact storytelling, I was not aware of the deep degree. And we started talking about the stigma around being a person with a disability and Kenya, the stigma from childhood, the discrimination as they grew older, and the more we talk as a team, the more we realized, it's therapy. It's counselors with disabilities going into these special schools, and doing group therapy with students with disabilities to give them that psychosocial support needed, filling the gaps with what they might already be getting at school. So they build their self confidence. So when they graduate, and finally graduate, I know I'm excited, an equal rate as their non disabled peers, they can thrive, they can get their jobs because they process this past trauma.   Michael Hingson ** 28:50 So in general, how our disability is treated in Kenya, as opposed to in the US or in East Africa in general, how are how are they treated differently? Or are they treated differently? Or do you think that there are a lot of similarities? I   Carla Birnberg ** 29:06 would be the first to say that I am not. I'm, as not evidenced in this moment. I'm a listener more than a talker. So I've had an interesting conversation about this with friends with disabilities in the States. I would still say that the stigma is tremendous. We've come a little bit further here. I've written the stories of a lot of my team members and the pressure on their parents after they were born to leave the baby at the hospital to euthanize the baby. Because there's still that fear in the villages not so much in Nairobi, that the child has a curse. The family is now curse. They hide the children away frequently. I remember one student was talking about how her mother had tried to To kill her, and the assumption I came from was, Oh, that's very sad, you know, she was a baby, and she was probably 13 or 14, no, this had happened last spring break from school, there's so much shame and fear that I just don't see here.   Michael Hingson ** 30:21 Or at least hear, it may be covered up more, but there's still a lot of it. We still hear of, oh, say blind parents who want to who have a child, and the courts want to take them the child away, or their ballot battles around that, or parents who just shelter their children with disabilities and don't let them explore. So I had to write, I think, I think it may be that, that the hiding is more sophisticated in some ways. But I think to a very large degree, it's still there. And I think that it is because of what you said, it's the fear. And what we don't realize collectively, as a society, is that disability shouldn't mean a lack of ability, as, as I tell people, and then they say, well, but disability starts with dis. And I said, Yeah, and so does disciple, and so does discern. So what are you saying? You know, the the fact is that dis isn't the issue. It's the perception, it's the fear. It's the prejudice, that we all need to overcome, and get to the point where we truly recognize that what disability is, is a characteristic that every single person has, except that it manifests itself differently for different people.   Carla Birnberg ** 31:53 Yes, I mean, my past four and a half years have been like a PhD, and I don't know what it would be, but I have been so educated by my team. And what you said made me think of a couple of things. One is my go to I couldn't do anything without her. Mariam and degla. She's my up Lee everything campus liaison. She has said repeatedly, you know, my parents she has cerebral palsy hadn't just been her mother and her grandmother, go, you're like any other child? No, we're not going to make accommodations for you, she said always says to me, I would not have come as far as they didn't shelter me. And that she credits that to her success in life.   Michael Hingson ** 32:38 Yeah, and actually, there are differences between accommodations. And yes, you're right sheltering. But I know what you're saying. And the reality is that we we make accommodations for sighted people all the time, right? We have lights in our buildings so that people can see where to walk, we have your right, we have a coffee machine so that people can get coffee or tea or hot chocolate or something, even though it's touchscreen nowadays, so it's not even accessible for everyone. We have so many different things that we offer. But we like it to be more one sided. We don't recognize that those are just as much accommodations as providing a screen reader for providing a ramp.   Carla Birnberg ** 33:27 And curb cut effect I had not heard of until four years ago. We use them all the time, the captions, all of it. And yet we avail ourselves of things that aren't created for us.   Michael Hingson ** 33:42 Right? The reality is that we all have gifts, and we all have things that we don't do as well as other people. And it is it is so unfortunate that we haven't even in this country taken the leap to really understand that.   Carla Birnberg ** 34:04 No, and I think I see that much more clearly. Now, I see that much more clearly not doing the work in East Africa. I do. You know, I think and I was thinking about this earlier, and I almost reached out to you by email, and then I thought now you're such a brilliant man, I'm gonna corner you And wouldn't you think that our therapists so we always use counselors with disabilities, first of all, so that the students see the counselor and think that's pretty amazing. I could do that. I had never I didn't dream that was possible. But also they have shared lived experience. If we'd had a counselor, even Kenyan go into his run this group therapy group who didn't have a disability, they would waste two or three sessions trying to explain to him or her, this is what it's like being me in Kenya. So he went in and thought okay, we are going to To practice affirmations using a mirror, this is going to be very interesting, the students might need some help bolstering their self esteem and coming up with the affirmations. I'm on it. She was surprised. And again, woman with a disability, that most of the students in therapy groups were completely unable to look in the mirror, because they had kind of integrated all of the negativity that had come at them from their families from the village. They couldn't even look at themselves in the mirror. And even she was shocked by that. And I'm really curious, your thoughts on is that unique to Kenya and that vast amount of negativity and stigma around having a disability? Or do you think that might be paralleled in the USA?   Michael Hingson ** 35:47 Well, I think there is a fair amount of it in the USA. I've not heard of anybody who said that they can't look at themselves in the middle. Except for vampires, but. But I do seriously think that there are a lot of similarities. So I've told the story a few times on unstoppable mindset. But I did a talk a few years ago, it was a hybrid talk. And I talked about disabilities. And I talked about the fact that for blind people. In reality, the term visually impaired is one of the most disgusting things that people can say to describe us, even though it's what the so called experts in the field created years ago, but visually impaired is a problem for a couple of reasons. One, visually, we're not different simply because we're blind to lose your eyesight, it doesn't mean that you're visually different. So that's a problem. But the bigger issue is impaired. Why am I being at all compared with person with eyesight? Why is it that I have to be considered impaired simply because I don't see if you want to talk about vision? I think I got lots of vision, I just don't see good. Like, I'd love to tell people. Don't I talk? Well, anyway. So I think that the term visually impaired is a problem. And I mentioned that in my talk. And I also said, the better terminology is blind and low vision. A lot of people hate blind, but you know what, that's what I am. And I happen to be physically blind. And there are a lot of idiots out there who are mentally blind, and we won't go there.   Carla Birnberg ** 37:30 We won't go encountered a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 37:32 But But anyway, so the the issue with the talk is I gave this talk. And then I opened it for questions. And people could in the audience, ask questions, or people could call in and this one woman called in, and she said, I am visually impaired. And that's all there is to it. And I said, No, you're not, you're blind. No, I have I just I have some eyesight, then you're low vision. No, I'm visually impaired. See, the problem is all too often we buy into it. And we don't understand how that kind of language continuing to be promulgated around, contributes to the view that people have about us. I love that phrase buy   Carla Birnberg ** 38:18 into it. That's it, I   Michael Hingson ** 38:20 am not impaired. And if I'm going to talk about being impaired, even though your disability is covered up so much, because you have access to electric lights, just have a power failure and see what you do, you immediately look for a smartphone or a flashlight so that you can get light back, because Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb for you. You like dependent people. But the bottom line is it still is only covering up your disability. Disability is a characteristic that we all have every single person on the planet. And it only manifests itself differently depending on what your gifts are and what your gifts are not.   Carla Birnberg ** 39:03 Okay, super interesting. And well, I'm sure I should have thought about this. But 54 and a half, I hadn't really thought about it much because I've never broken anything. And I'm just getting to this point. But again, Mary and my right hand woman will frequently say, in high school, I advocated for youth students with disabilities and people who had temporary disabilities. And that's a pretty big refrain from her. And the more she said it the more I've thought, oh, yeah, everyone is going to experience some sort of something, whether it's breaking your leg, whether it's becoming low vision, better phrase,   Michael Hingson ** 39:44 or, or whether you suddenly lose power and you can't see what you're doing. And that's my point. Yeah, no, that's my point is that the reality is the disability is there anyway. Yeah, but we do work. And right At least so to offset disabilities that limit us like a lack of light, it's okay, I have no problem with the fact that we have light bulbs, we have so many different mechanisms and ways of producing light for people. But be honest with yourself, it still is a disability, because the time can come when you don't have access to it, the time can come that a person who happens to be blind, might be somewhere and not have access to information that we would like to have access to and ought to have access to. Yeah, and only over more time, will society recognize that it has to provide information to us in in ways that work for everyone, I have a favorite example, I'm not gonna really not be able to describe this very well. But I'm going to try. There's a TV commercial that goes on out here. And the commercial starts out with this woman saying, you know, dad had this. And I don't want you to get it either. You have to really take care of yourself and take care of this right now. Because if you don't, it is going to run your life. And I know that you're one of these, you don't really like anyone telling you what to do. Well, that's the end of the commercial. And I don't know what goes on. There is absolutely nothing. And I don't know whether you've seen that commercial earlier. But there is nothing that says what that commercial is about. Now, someone this morning, I talked with someone who told me that it has to do with some sort of medical thing. And but But even she couldn't remember exactly what it was because there is not a single verbal cue in that commercial telling you what it's about. Much less making it accessible to be Yeah, yeah. And the reality is that, as we all know, many times people don't sit in front of their TV during commercials, they look away or they get up and they go to the bathroom or whatever. It is such a poorly designed commercial because of that. And, and it's unfortunate. But somebody figured, well, we don't need to worry about it other than people being able to see it, and they'll see it and they'll get it. No, they won't. Because it's all too often that people don't watch the screen. And as I said this morning, the person I asked who I regard as an extremely observant person couldn't even tell me what company that commercial was about.   Carla Birnberg ** 42:45 Oh, interesting. And you're right, the world's not, it's not set up accessively. In many instances, it's   Michael Hingson ** 42:53 not set up. Well, accessively or inclusively, we are much less inclusive than we ought to be that commercial could have been created in a much different way to provide information to everyone. But they didn't. And it's so unfortunate. So it shows in some senses, although I think we've made progress in this country. It also shows how far we have not come because that kind of thing still exists.   43:26 Yes. Yes.   Carla Birnberg ** 43:29 I mean, I've thought so much about this, since we set the date for the podcast and just every day at work that my perspective doesn't matter. It's been interesting to me to see. There's a feels like there's a big differential as far as the trauma, outgrowth of being a person with disability. But other than that, that's really the only major difference. And that's what made us think, okay, we need to focus on mitigating this trauma so that the students can be successful.   Michael Hingson ** 44:00 Well, there's a lot of merit to having role models. And when you bring people in, who are true role models, it makes a lot of sense to do that. And I think there's a lot of precedent for that. So having counselors having people who come from the same kind of environment that they come from, is very relevant. I spoke in Japan, back in 2012. Well, it was the publisher of thunder dog. My book in Japanese brought me over for two weeks. And one of the things that I learned there was that if you are a blind person, I don't know if it's changed since then. But if you're a blind person, you are not allowed to sign a contract. Period. You can't see a contract period. How am I asked this Someone who was in the insurance industry why? And his response essentially was was it should be very obvious because you could be cheated. And I said, Oh, so you're telling me that no sighted people in Japan are ever cheated when it comes to signing contracts? Oh, exactly. Even though today, there is technology that allows me to fully read contracts. Right? All right, with that time, the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the mobile KNFB. Reader Mobile, although it hadn't come out in Japanese yet, but it has since. But the reality is, again, it's the prejudice. For many years, the Gallup polling organization and surveying people's fears, said that one of the top five fears that people had was going blind, not even disabilities, but losing eyesight, because that's for her that because that's what we emphasize eyesight. But it's not the way it ought to be. Over time, it will change. And I firmly believe that we will see a day when television commercials like the one I described earlier will be not tolerated. But I think we're not anywhere near there yet. Somebody once said to me, I look forward to the day when we don't have to even use the word accessible, because it's just such an automatic thing, that everything is included for everyone.   46:33 That's it.   Carla Birnberg ** 46:34 That's it. And I don't know if you know who Judy human is. I've been okay. But we both became really far. In her lifetime. And I don't know, I'm curious, your thoughts? Will we get there? I mean, I know we're trying to in Kenya, where companies hire these, again, like which they are persons with disabilities, they're trained, they're brilliant, they're ready to go, and they just start work and everything they need isn't an accommodation. It's just the way the office is. And I hope we get there here.   Michael Hingson ** 47:15 Yeah, I think we will. But I do think that the way the world is now we have to legislate it, because attitude only we're not there. You know, one of the big discussions in the world has been the internet. And many people have not made their websites accessible. Yeah, hence the need for companies like excessive be. Yeah, but but people have said, well, but we we don't need to do it because the internet came along, after the ADA. So the ADA covers physical things, but it doesn't cover the internet, because it's just the way it is. Well, yeah. The reality is is not what the ADEA says it doesn't talk about specifically and only physical places of business. And finally, in 2022, the Department of Justice, II dicted, if you will, that the internet is covered under Title, two of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and website should be made, accessible and inclusive. Yeah, but even so   Michael Hingson ** 48:30 a lot of well, most website owners don't pay attention to it, they think it's too expensive. But again, hence companies like accessibility and what access to be brings. But also, the the other aspect of it is that most people just don't even know they don't think about it. It doesn't need to be expensive to make the internet or your website accessible or inclusive. But it's also the right thing to do, because it covers more than just blindness. And the fact is that there's so many different kinds of disabilities that are affected by not having full access to the internet. And it's easy enough to do. And there are procedures and guidelines that describe exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. If people would just do it. That's it   Carla Birnberg ** 49:24 and people don't. Five years ago, I was people like and it's no better do better. I sent to a big social media person the other day. I love your I don't know, we're calling them exes, your tweets, but you never use alt text on your picture. And he said, I don't even know what that is. Yeah. And so I thought it's what you said that sometimes people are lazy websites and as people think it'd be too expensive. Sometimes they just don't think   Michael Hingson ** 49:54 some people just don't know. Yes, it we don't teach it In computer science schools very much like we should. I'm involved with an organization that is creating its website. And they went out and got bids from two local places to make the website up and running to get it up and running and operational. And I said, as as part of a discussion, and what are they doing regarding accessibility? Oh, they say that they know how to do that. And I said, Tell me more about that. Well, one of the companies said, Well, the fact is that it isn't the website design that has to be addressed. The person with a screen reader has to make the accommodations and make the modifications to work on the website.   50:47 Oh, that's not what we want to hear. Well, oh, that is so wrong. Oh, my God, and so neither ms on them.   Michael Hingson ** 50:55 Yeah. And so accessible is going to be the the product that they use, rightly so because the company, the website owner doesn't have a lot of money. But it will be possible to make the website accessible. And we found another company that will do the job for the same price or less than any of the other companies. And it will include accessibility. And they will actually use accessibility, because it's such a great product to use for making this kind of thing happen. But the reality is, the the original people who were looking at getting the website quotes, also were clueless. And they were ready to buy into well, it's got to be the sky with the screen reader just got to fix it. Until they learned, we don't teach it yet. We don't teach real inclusion yet, as a part of what we do, and it's something that we really need to look at. We'll get there. You're   Carla Birnberg ** 51:57 right, you're right. And it's people like me who I'm not doing any sort of web design. But I launched a substack. I was late to that party, and I wanted to make it accessible. So I always have a voiceover. And a bunch of readers have said to me, that super me that you read it. I'm like, well, it is super neat, but it's for accessibility. And like, oh, I don't even think about that. So I think it's the lay people, we need to start spreading the word. And I don't know how we do that, except for leading by example, practice living   Michael Hingson ** 52:27 by example, writing more articles, including disabilities in the conversation. And all too often we don't do that.   Carla Birnberg ** 52:35 And that's why one of the biggest reasons why I love where I work, I'm taking the backseat. And when it was the for profit, I had a whole team of persons with disabilities who told me what was what and how things should be and what language to use. And I listened. And now same thing, I will look to marry him or Daniel or Terry or Becky, what do we need here? Why do we need it all make it happen? But you tell me I don't have the lived experience?   53:04 Yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 53:07 as I said, I think the most important thing we need to do is to really push the conversation to always involve disabilities. When you talk about diversity, you know, what is there? What is diversity to you?   Carla Birnberg ** 53:19 And, you know, I think I would have answered differently 10 years ago, but now it's always inclusion. It's well,   Michael Hingson ** 53:27 but that's, that's not diversity. Tell me what diversity is. And use your answer from 10 years ago. Okay.   Carla Birnberg ** 53:34 10 years ago, I would have thought it's bringing persons of color into the conversation and not having everybody looked the same   Michael Hingson ** 53:43 race, gender, sexual orientation,   Carla Birnberg ** 53:46 and maybe not even sexual orientation, because I think I would have been 10 years ago. Yeah, would have been,   Michael Hingson ** 53:52 but three and four years ago, yeah. But today, race, gender, sexual orientation. Diversity is about difference. And we don't include disabilities. We don't include persons with disabilities or or   Carla Birnberg ** 54:11 we do with the foundation. And when you what are your thoughts on that? Well, I think   Michael Hingson ** 54:16 the issue is that that's why I gave a speech entitled, moving from diversity to inclusion. You can't be inclusive, if you are not bringing disabilities into it, like as part of the population. But but we're, we're inclusive of color and so on, but you're not inclusive. You can't get away with it if we don't allow it. So we're not going to let inclusion be screwed up, if you will, like we have allowed diversity to be screwed up and not including disabilities. And that's what what we really need to do is to take that step of recognizing that we're all part of the same planet And we all need to recognize that and it's important to do that.   Carla Birnberg ** 55:06 And I know I mean, that's kind of where my project fits into the greater umbrella of the foundation is. The youth with disabilities, students with disabilities weren't graduating. And so the office landscapes weren't inclusive or reflecting the true population. And we need to help the students graduate so that the foundation can step in and train them and job place them so that we're inclusive. And the makeup of the officers look like the real makeup of society.   Michael Hingson ** 55:41 So what motivates you to get up in those, do those early morning or stay up for those late night phone calls?   Carla Birnberg ** 55:47 Oh, my gosh, thank goodness, I think this all the time, even if I didn't get up early. I'm not late night. So thank goodness, I don't work for a foundation in India. You know, I'm passionate, somewhat my Nespresso, which I love. But I've mentioned Mary Ann's name a million times, Beth, what do goo I love my team. And I think when the alarm goes off at four, it's noon, or it's one o'clock, what's going on? I just love it. It's, I don't know, it's my why it's that notion of, I'm not making huge difference in the world, somebody in the middle of Iowa has no idea who I am. But I'm making a tiny little impact, and I'm loving what I'm learning, and I'm loving every minute of it.   Michael Hingson ** 56:37 And that's the important thing. You love it. You know, you love it. And you're gonna continue to do it. If people want to reach out and learn more about the next step Foundation, or maybe become involved in some way, how can they do that?   Carla Birnberg ** 56:52 I would love it, I am up for a zoom anytime the best way to find me would be going to LinkedIn. And it's U P I L I Upili. message us, I would love to chat. We're always looking for insights for mental health professionals in the United States. Clearly, we're always looking for donors, but just conversations around what we're doing. And I'm always curious what other people are doing as well how they are making an impact.   Michael Hingson ** 57:23 So just search for U p i l i on LinkedIn. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 57:28 right Upili, we have a website, it's upili.org. But either of those two ways. You can find me. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 57:35 and that's and that's all connected to the next step foundation.   Carla Birnberg ** 57:38 Yep, we're a project underneath them. Cool.   Michael Hingson ** 57:41 Well, I hope people will reach out. I know that they've heard me say some of these same things before a number of times. But it's great to hear the progress that you're making and the things that you're doing. And I really hope that we're able to contribute to bringing progress, both in East Africa and that we through this conversation, we'll get more people talking about it here in the US as well.   Carla Birnberg ** 58:10 Yes, and I always loved listening to you and talking to you. Because it gets me thinking in a different way to   Michael Hingson ** 58:15 well, we should do more of it than total, we can both learned to to get different perspectives. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And I want to thank all of you for and I want to thank you all for listening. We really appreciate it or watching if you're on YouTube. But wherever you're experiencing the podcast, we would really appreciate it if you'd give us a five star rating. We love those and we love your reviews. So please do that. If you'd like to reach out to me and have any questions or want to chat further about this, please feel free. You can reach me at Michaelhi at accessibe.com That's m i c h a e l h i at accessiBe  A C C E S S I B E.com. Or you can go to our podcast page, which is www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. And Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcasts. So we'd love to hear from you. And if any of you, including you, Carla, have a thought of anyone who else we ought to have on as a guest love to hear from you. We are always looking for people who want to come on and tell stories and talk about interesting things. And even if we talk about some of the same things we've talked about before on the podcast, I don't think it gets boring. And the more we do it, the more people will gain an understanding of it. So we sure look forward to hearing from you with ideas of guests and other people who want to be part of the podcast. So thank you very much and really appreciate your your involvement in that. But again, Carla, I want to thank you for being here and for taking the time to be with us today. Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:07 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

There's at least one important principle of advertising we need to consider today, and that is you have to demonstrate the need for your product in order to sell it. I'll tell you someone who was good at it some years ago in one of the classic commercials. It was Alka-Seltzer, one of those old commercials I still remember. They would show some irresponsible eater who consumed some nightmare menu, and then the camera just made him look all distorted, like one of those trick mirrors. I still remember the one with that poor guy holding his stomach and he's going in and out of focus, and he says, "I ate too much. I ate too fast. I ate too much. I ate too fast." Actually a lot of us don't really eat our food, we inhale it, we gobble it, we basically gulp it. And sometimes we lose it because of the way we ate it. Just because you ate it doesn't mean it's going to do you any good. I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bible - So Much More than Checking the Box." Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8. Joshua is facing the great challenge of his life. He's preparing to enter the Promised Land - this great leadership challenge of taking God's people in. Here's God's word to him, "Do not let this Book of the Law" - the Bible, that is - "depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Now, if you dig into this verse, you find that there's an implied eating image here. We started out talking about how we eat, and this verse is about that. In fact, the Hebrew word for meditate is literally the word that's used to describe a cow chewing its cud. Now, I don't know what all cows are good at, but I know that they are the world's best chewers. Man, you've got to hand that to them. They just keep on chewing it! Well, God says, "I want you to keep chewing on what you get out of My Book." He wants us to do that with our daily intake from the Bible. Frankly, most of us don't. We just sort of stuff in some verses - "I ate too fast." And we never think about them again. That has two results. Even though we're reading the Bible, there's no real growth. We stay spiritually undernourished with a superficial faith. Secondly, if you keep stuffing in the Bible without chewing it properly, you get indigestion. The Bible starts to be dull and boring, and you say, "I'm not getting anything out of it." Well, of course not! You're not chewing it. That's how you get the good out of spiritual food. How do you chew spiritual food? Let me quickly give you seven steps in chewing your spiritual food. Compare it with what you're doing now. Number one, take in only a few verses - bite-size chunks. Two, go over them a few times. Three, look for a connection to something that you're going to face today. How does what God's saying connect with something in your life? Fourthly, pray back to God that connection that you found. Ask for Him to help you make that verse literally a part of that situation that day. And then fifth, write down what you digested. As you write it, it will deepen your understanding and it will deepen your commitment to Him. And then six, consciously refer back to it throughout the day; keep going back to that sentence, that phrase out of the Bible. And finally, go to sleep that night reviewing your word for today from the Word of God and how well you activated it. This command is followed by a great promise. If you do it you'll be prosperous and successful. In-gesting the Bible, it isn't enough; you only get its value if you di-gest it. So, when it comes to your daily Bible breakfast, chew your food properly.

Five-time Grammy winner Mike Post joins The Film Scorer podcast! A lot of you will probably be familiar with Mike already, who boasts one of the most impressive tv resumes of all time. For those of you that aren't, Mike's responsible for the two-note “dun-dun” sound in Law & Order, as well as themes and scores for shows like The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, various Law & Order shows, and many, many more. He's also played for and with tons of classic artists, like Sonny & Cher and Kenny Rogers, and has produced albums for a number of artists, including Van Halen. Frankly, it's one heck of a career. Despite all that, Mike and I focus our conversation on something a bit different: his new album, Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta (though of course we still talk a bit about some of those other pieces too - they're too intriguing to pass up!). Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta marks Mike's first non-tv album in something like 55 years. I assumed that would be particularly exciting, releasing music that's his, but he surprised me by saying "[t]he music I make for TV is my own music, it's just attached to somebody else's art.” It's a very cool mixture, with half of the album being an exploration of an orchestra and bluegrass rhythm section and the second half exploring orchestra and the blues. He's also pulled in some of the heaviest hitters in each respective genre to make up the rhythm sections - highly recommend looking up each player! You can find out more about Mike on his website. Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta is currently available on all major platforms here.

Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence by Yaroslav Trofimov https://amzn.to/43KnfUl “Our Enemies Will Vanish achieves the highest level of war reporting: a tough, detailed account that nevertheless reads like a great novel. One is reminded of Michael Herr's Dispatches . . . Frankly, it's what we have all aspired to. I did not really understand Ukraine until I read Trofimov's account.” —Sebastian Junger A revelatory eyewitness account of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and heroism of the Ukrainian people in their resistance by Yaroslav Trofimov, the Ukrainian chief foreign-affairs correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Yaroslav Trofimov has spent months on end at the heart of the conflict, very often on its front lines. In this authoritative account, he traces the war's decisive moments—from the battle for Kyiv to more recently the gruelling and bloody arm wrestle involving the Wagner group over Bakhmut—to show how Ukraine and its allies have turned the tide against Russia, one of the world's great military powers, in a modern-day battle of David and Goliath. Putin had intended to conquer and annex Ukraine with a vicious blitzkrieg, redrawing the map of Europe in a few short weeks with seismic geopolitical consequences. But in the face of this existential threat, the Ukrainian people fought back, turning what looked like certain defeat into a great moral victory, even as the territorial battle continues to seesaw to this day. This is the story of the epic bravery of the Ukrainian people—people Trofimov knows very well. For Trofimov, this war is deeply personal. He grew up in Kyiv and his family has lived there for generations. With deep empathy and local understanding, Trofimov tells the story of how everyday Ukrainian citizens—doctors, computer programmers, businesspeople, and schoolteachers—risked their lives and lost loved ones. He blends their brave and tragic stories with expert military analysis, providing unique insight into the thinking of Ukrainian leadership and mapping out the decisive stages of what has become a perilous war for Ukraine, the Putin regime, and indeed, the world. This brutal, catastrophic struggle is unfolding on another continent, but the United States and its NATO allies have become deeply implicated. As the war drags on, it threatens to engulf the world. We cannot look away. At once heart-breaking and inspiring, Our Enemies Will Vanish is a riveting, vivid, and first-hand account of the Ukrainian refusal to surrender. It is the story of ordinary people fighting not just for their homes and their families but for justice and democracy itself. Yaroslav Trofimov is a Ukrainian-born Italian author and journalist who serves as chief foreign-affairs correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. Previously he wrote a weekly column on the Greater Middle East, "Middle East Crossroads," in The Wall Street Journal.

You might know the name Jeff (or Jeffri) Chadiha from his time at Sports Illustrated or ESPN, or what he's doing now at the NFL Network.But Jeff, who makes his home in the Kansas City area, is a great spark for several nonprofits in the KC community.In fact, he's been vital to several things we've done at C You In The Major Leagues during the past seven or eight years.He was a part of the curriculum committee to help develop what became the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program, he has participated in our Wiffle ball and Topgolf fundraisers, and he's been one of our Character Champions to help raise money for C You In The Major Leagues. He's recruited some of our mentors, and so much more. Frankly, C You In The Major Leagues is lucky to have him involved.This is a conversation between Jeff and C-10 Podcast (and CYITML Executive Director) Matt Fulks in front of our C-10 students and mentors at Music Theater Heritage inside Crown Center on Wednesday night, March 13.  LINKS:For more information about the C-10 Mentoring & Leadership program for high school students, visit our website.To sponsor the 3rd Annual C You At Topgolf event, go here.To make a financial gift to give students life-changing one-on-one mentoring and to help families in crisis, visit our secure donation page.For all episodes of the C-10 podcast and ways you can listen, click here.If you'd like to make a comment, have a suggestion for a future guest, or your company would like to help underwrite this podcast, please visit our contact page.

This topic here feels way too big to even address, dang, it's huge. Earlier this week I planned a half-hearted attempt to do something about it, but then stopped. With the subject looming overhead, I tried to just move on with my daily activities, you know, staying busy and trying not to think about it. Alas I could not escape, I had no choice. A few days ago I started to do something about it, I began planning a public event in Madison for this week, planning it for today actually, for Thursday April 4th. Lining up a few different critical tasks, I prepared for a Facebook-publicized event pronouncement, but then something shifted, and I convinced myself no, no, I had to stop. I couldn't, it was too big, and perhaps the chore was also too dirty-ego-centric to follow through on, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I paused, I didn't do anything resembling renting space, or arranging food for invitees, or the like. Still, the gosh-darn notion consumed me. So, as lame as my attempt may turn out to be, here I will try to explain. If you're too busy with other tasks, just click on the attachment below and you can listen to me tell the tale instead of taking time to read about it.Leading with intention makes for a better life, that is if not coming unglued when unexpected results follow.Time, and change.Time, certainly a fascinating topic. Is time more about math, or is it rather the accumulation of wonder, hope, hard work, and a little bit of mysticism?Speaking of time, how long does a decade feel? 10 years, is that a long time? How much change occurs in our individual realities across such span? Are we different today than we were a decade ago? How much have we grown, learned, and evolved in 10 years?Do our undesirable actions, behaviors, and addictions bubble up time and again as we journey, so to dispel that we have learned anything at all? Or can we say with objective show-me-like truthfulness that indeed we have mastered those habits that once domineered us?10 years sounds like a long-ass-time. Try to imagine where you'll be, how will you look, who will you be with, what will you be doing, and not doing, will you be happy, or disgruntled? It's a long…ass…time. Hell, five years almost feels like forever. Three years, well, that's also almost unimaginable. Even a single turn of one new calendar creates question. Frankly, I do not know all that will occur in the next 12 months, both those things intended, awhile the variables flying in from left field. I can barely imagine the final result. How much control do we actually have over the outcome? Is the freewill to steer our own ship an illusion as some claims say? Is our destination predetermined, and despite all attempts, can we legitimately become someone new, someone different, someone better? Of course change occurs. Change is one of two life certainties, we have no choice. Change, surely change happens. The other one is death and that's it. That's all there is to be sure of in life, those two things: Change, and death. So ok, we do change our lives don't we, or maybe is it that life changes us? Regardless, day by day we metamorphosize into a brand new us, forever different than who we were yesterday, we have no choice. By default, we become different hour by hour, day by day, year by year, and certainly, decade by decade.  The book:Daddy, Why Were You A Drug Addict?: Winning the War Amid My Angel and Devil Withinby Roger Ray BirdISBN 979-8218286651Available on Amazon for $11Roger's social directory: HERE

Twenty minutes a day of mediation seems pretty out of reach for most moms. Frankly five minutes of meditation seems pretty out of reach. Today we are talking to clinical psychologist Kathryn Barbash about ways to bring mindfulness into your daily life that will actually work for you as a busy parent.Follow Kathryn's substack Mindful in the Mud here. 

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a Dean." That's right. Greendale presents: Gone With the Windows, where we'll celebrate our new energy-conscious windows with a cotillion. Subscribe to our patreon! https://www.patreon.com/SeriousFilmPeoplePodcast Follow us on twitter! @seriousfilmppl Follow us on tiktok! @SeriousFilmPeoplePodcast Email us! seriousfilmpeople@gmail.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/seriousfilmpeople/support

Recorded April 4 2024   Description   Based on this week's podcast episode with Geoffrey West, which covered how biological scaling applies to human economies, this week's Frankly is a reflection on what this might mean for the future of our societies. Throughout history and up to today, there are scaling patterns driving our social and infrastructural metabolism - potentially shedding light on some long debated questions about the limits of our ability to design our societies. Do we as humans have the agency to create different paths towards less resource consumption, or are we trapped within a previously hidden law of nature? Will the resource and waste limitations of our biosphere force us to live differently, regardless of our choices? More hopefully, can understanding we have a metabolism change our metabolism, and steer futures away from the current default?   Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qb-9CMM6Ac   For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/59-7-meta-questions-about-our-global-metabolism

In this episode, Tracey and Kelsey discuss these three anonymous questions:1) My husband and I are each other's first loves. We're now twenty years on, 10 years married with a child and I feel at a loss. Our sex life is robotic and boring, once or twice a month. Same foreplay, same position. I have repeatedly suggested trying new things, but it's always met with resistance, no willingness to talk or try anything. Frankly, he has no clue how to make me orgasm. I can count on one hand how many times that's happened. I have shown and guided him, he's just not interested. He expects oral sex, but has never and is not willing to give it. He's a great dad. I love him, but that is reducing all the time. Sometimes I dread it when he kisses me. Our child is growing up and less dependent. I'm entering mid-life in a loveless, sexless marriage. The appeal of meeting someone who would want to have more meaningful sex and experiment is huge. How on earth do we get a sex life and nearer to where I want it to be?2) I am a 28-year-old straight man and I orgasm so fast, it's humiliating. It's barely a minute between when I penetrate and orgasm. I'm so embarrassed I haven't had sex for six months. What can I do to overcome this? I've tried a delay spray and it did nothing.3) I love your podcast and you've encouraged me to try new things with my partner of four years. But it backfired on me. I thought he'd be impressed by my new trick (it was an oral sex technique) but it had the opposite effect to what I intended: he lost his erection! He seemed annoyed that I'd done something different than the norm rather than impressed. Why? I'm completely demoralized and annoyed with him, and now don't feel like making an effort at all.To have Tracey and Kelsey discuss YOUR secret sex question, enter it anonymously at https://bit.ly/3C4AelUWant a copy of Tracey's book, Great Sex Starts at 50? Enter code GREATSEX on ChronicleBooks.com for 30% off! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Divine Marital Intervention - A couple gets a gift from God. (Erotic Coupling) By Masterful_Husband. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Like a lot of people, I met my wife in college. We were in the same dorm and fell into that common dating circle trap where everyone is dating everyone. It wasn't until we left for separate grad schools that we realized how much we meant to each other. It's ironic that our relationship got more serious as we dated long distance but it worked well for us. I asked her to marry me when we graduated and we were wedded and honeymooning within six months. I'd say our marriage was idyllic but that would be a lie. There was one issue that kept coming up over and over as a source of friction. My wife would tell you that we were “unevenly yoked”. I would say, “She's religious and I wasn't.”We had discussed it (at great length) when we dated. I wasn't some militant atheist. Those people have elevated that belief to an absurd level. I was an agnostic. I believed that disproving God was as futile as believing in one. I remember one memorable conversation my wife (then fiancée) and I had. “I kind of admire people of faith,” I'd said. She propped herself up on one elbow, looking at me with some excitement. “Really?” I nodded, “Truly. I just can't make myself believe in something so, ephemeral. Unverifiable. You know?” “You believe in my love, don't you?” “Of course.” “Isn't it just as ephemeral?” I kissed her, “No. You show me how much you love me every day.” “So does God. You just have to know where to look.” The certainty in her voice was compelling but not persuasive. I sighed, trying to avoid a fight, “I, I understand why you say that but I don't see it that way. I do see wonderful, amazing things in this world but I also see plenty of reasonable, non-divine, explanations. On top of that, I don't see why Christianity has to be the only answer. I mean, Have you made an extensive study of all major religions? Maybe there's another out there that's more internally consistent than Christianity?” She frowned, “Danny, do you think I only believe because of some myopic view of the Bible?” “Um, This feels like a trap,” I said, grinning and trying to defuse the situation. “It's not. Look,” she said sitting up. Her pert little breasts were bare in front of me but I tried not to focus on them. She didn't help when she grabbed the gold cross that nestled between them and spun it. “This is just a symbol. The Bible is the instruction manual. But God is all around me. He talks to me. He saved me.” “I will consider it,” I said and kissed her again. I was hopeful for another round of lovemaking. My wife is incredibly devout and spiritual but, thankfully, not particularly dogmatic. Sex before marriage wasn't off the table which I was truly grateful for in those days because, frankly, it was incredible. “One more thing. I know you don't believe, yet,” she added with a smile, “But I need to know that you're not going to close yourself off to this.” “What do you mean,” I asked. “I just want to know you'll keep an open mind. Maybe try out some churches with me from time to time. Okay?” I nodded. I didn't really love going to church but I didn't hate it. Over the years, plenty of my friends had tried to convince me so I'd gotten used to it. “How about once a month?” Karen smiled, “Plus Christmas and Easter?” I smiled back, “Sure,” I said and kissed her. We did make love again that night and in the morning. And the pledge wasn't forgotten. After we got married we tried out a bunch of different churches. Karen's lack of doctrinaire adherence meant that she was perfectly fine trying out lots of different flavors of church. She was always hoping to find one that I felt comfortable with. She prayed every night for me, often peeking out of one eye in a manner that made me think she expected a bolt of lightning to change me right in front of her eyes. We continued like that for years. We were happy but there was always this small little wedge between us. We both felt it and we both hated it but there was no changing either of us. We moved to Seattle when we both found jobs in the area. I had just turned 29 and my wife's 30th birthday was right around the corner. We were both very happy and Karen now had a whole new batch of churches to try out on me. Some days I thought that was the only reason she agreed to the move. After about six months, she found this Presbyterian church just outside of the city. I think of it as the Goldilocks church. It wasn't a big mega church, nor was it a little dinky church. The congregation was neither geriatric nor were they a bunch of new age hippies. The pastor was impassioned but not fire and brimstone, us vs. them, burn the gays. It was one of the few churches that she'd brought me to that didn't make my skin crawl when I walked in. It felt like a family without feeling like a cult. “I like this place,” I whispered to Karen as we found our seats. A couple a little older than us greeted us. There were kids running around and just a general sense of community that pervaded the church. I listened to a sermon that day that changed my life in ways I couldn't even fathom. If I'm being truthful, I don't even really remember the sermon, however. My mind wandered and I thought about all the different things that I'd seen and learned. Something changed in me during that hour and I knew I believed suddenly. It sounds cliché to say that the will of God worked its way into my heart but given what happened later that night, I think that's probably what happened. What I do remember from the service was the pastor's closing prayer. “Lord, I don't know a lot of things but I want to know what you're willing to show me. Just help me learn how to know you, Lord.” For the first time ever, I said the words silently but earnestly. They seemed like perfect words for me. We drove home in silence as I contemplated what was happening. I was too terrified to tell Karen. I didn't want to get her hopes up in case it wasn't what I thought. Maybe I'd just eaten something odd the night before or something, right? But for the rest of the day, I felt it tugging on my mind. There was still uncertainty but now there was a quest for learning more mixed in. That night, Karen knelt at the foot of the bed, just as she'd done every night since we'd gotten married and said her own prayers. “Lord, you know my heart. You know what I want. I pray for Danny and that you will work your will on him. And Lord, that other silent prayer that I've been saying for years. I'm ready for that too. I've been putting conditions on it and that's not right. Please Lord, I trust you completely.” That last part confused me. I'd never heard her say anything like that and never heard her pray for anything consistently other than for my salvation. She crawled up into bed, wearing just a t-shirt and snuggled up next to me. I resisted the urge to ask her about the odd addition knowing that prying wasn't going to score me any points. Within five minutes, we were having wild sex. She seemed much more relaxed than normal. Not that she was particularly restrained in bed. But our lovemaking generally followed a bit of a formula on most occasions and that night we completely deviated from it. We were rolling all over the bed, shifting positions multiple times like a porno or something. Eventually, we came together while I was slamming into her with her legs over my shoulders. We were staring into each other's eyes while she whispered, “Thank you. I love you,” over and over. We drifted off to sleep feeling tired and sated but also weirdly excited. The Divine Revelation The next thing I remember, I was in an incredibly lucid dream. I was walking along the bank of a river. The moss covered pebbles crunched under my feet as I looked down and realized I was completely naked. Somehow I wasn't particularly bothered by that. The temperature was perfect. The sun kissed against my skin while a cool breeze wicked away the hint of sweat. I could hear the river flow and the birds and insects in the forest buzzed peacefully. Something about the setting felt more perfect and relaxing than anything I'd ever felt. That's when God appeared. Don't ask me how I knew it was him. I just knew. He wasn't an old bearded man with a robe. Nor a guy wearing a well pressed suit. Frankly, it wasn't at all what I expected. Out from the forest floated an ephemeral mixture of dust and fire and water. A swirling maelstrom confined into a vaguely humanoid body. The eyebrows were formed from small rocks, the mouth was a roaring fire. And the eyes. I swear the eyes were stars,  or maybe whole galaxies. It was magnificent and awe inspiring. Or it would have been if not for the Hawaiin shirt and Birkenstock sandals that the elemental construct wore. “How do I look?” came a booming, commanding voice. It shook the whole forest, trees swayed and the river behind me sloshed violently. “What?” I asked, confused and scared. “Oh. Sorry,” God said. “Is that better? I don't talk to a lot of humans these days. Mostly whales and elephants. They're the next big thing on Earth, you see.” He laughed at his own joke though I was too stunned to reciprocate. “What?” I asked again. Less scared and more confused. “Sorry, sorry. Danny, Or do you prefer Daniel?” “What?” God sighed. He actually sighed. Frosty breath flew out of his mouth and dissipated into the wind before he said, “Calm down. Take a breath. I'm God. You're Danny. Everything's fine.” I did as he told me and felt a little less agitated but no less befuzzled. “Sorry, I'm just; you're God?” “In the flesh. Well, my version of it anyways. Nice to meet you?” he said and extended a watery hand. I reached for it and felt my hand slosh through the wetness. God laughed at the look on my face, “Sorry, Danny. I love that joke.” “I don't understand any of this,” I said and just sat down on a rock at the side of the river. “I know. This is all new to you. I get that. But I've been following your wife for years. She's amazing.” “Yes she is, but what do you mean; following? Don't you pay attention to everyone?” “Well, technically I'm omniscient and omnipresent and all-powerful and all that. But it doesn't work the way you humans think of it. I can see and know anything I want but only the stuff I really think about. Most humans have gotten pretty bad at worshipping me. They don't do it right. They don't do it out of a sense of love. They want something from me. Your wife is one of those rare exceptions. She loves me just for me. You can see why that's so appealing, right?” I thought about it, “So basically humanity has become a bunch of gold diggers telling you they love you but really wanting your money?” God nodded, flexing the sand in his neck and giving me a fiery thumbs up. “You got it. Not Karen. She's only been praying for two things that were for her and tonight she realized why she was wrong to condition them. She made that final, selfless step of praying just for me to do what I thought was right.” “So that really was you today?” “Yeah. I knew she'd have her epiphany tonight so I made sure you had your own earlier today.” “How could you,” I started to ask. God tapped his fiery hand against the hard surface of his skull causing sparks to shoot out, “I see the future, remember?” “Oh,” I said. That made sense. “So why show up to me like this? Do all new believers get this treatment?” God laughed. It was a joyful, musical sound that I could have listened to forever. “Oh no. Definitely not. This is kind of my little gift to Karen. To let you know you're not imagining things and you're on the right path. Plus, I can't really give her her other wish without talking to you first.” “What do you mean?” “She loves you, Danny.” “I know,” I said, confused again. Of course she loved me. I know a lot of people say that they know their spouse loves them but secretly doubt it. I never did. If anything, I always wondered if I loved her as much as she loved me. “No. She really, really loves you. Nearly as much as she loves me, actually. And she's very traditional. Almost to a fetish.” “What do you mean? She's not particularly traditional about stuff that I've noticed.” “That's because she knows you're not looking for that. So she's kept that little part of her hidden lest it bother you.” “What do you mean,” I asked, still not understanding. “She wants to serve you. Completely. She wants to be perfect for you in whatever way you want.” “Isn't that true of everyone that truly loves their spouse?” “No. Not really. Think of it this way. Would you kill someone if she asked?” “Of course not. Would she?” “No. But she wants to.” I was startled and really bothered, “She wants to kill someone for me? What the f” I stopped myself from vulgar talking in front of God. He laughed. “Don't worry. You can be vulgar around me. I invented all the words, remember?” he said and patted me on the shoulder. Somehow his fiery hand didn't burn me, though I still flinched. “No, she doesn't want to kill someone. She wants to be so devoted to you that she would if you asked. But she knows you never would. Understand?” “Not even a little,” I said truthfully. “She wants to be able to be literally anything for you. If you want it from her, she wants to be that for you.” “Oh, I get it. Like she wants to like computer games and watching basketball even though I know she doesn't like those things?” God nodded, “Exactly. It's how she thinks of being a good help-meet. She wants to literally be anything you want. And that's what I'm giving her, well, I'm giving it to both of you.” “What do you mean?” “When you wake up, you'll be able to change anything about Karen you want. Forever.” “Permanently?” “If you want. She'll be able to be molded in whatever way you want for the rest of your life. Want her to like Basketball? Done. Want her to hate Basketball the next day? Sure.” “Why not just change her into my perfect girl? Why give me all this power?” “Three reasons, Danny. First, that's not what she wants. She wants to be malleable and flexible for you. She knows that people change and she doesn't want to be perfect for you in this moment and terrible for you years from now.” God ticked off one stony finger as he talked, then sprouted a little twig as a second finger, “Second, I needed to talk to you about this so you'd understand. So you'd believe and would appreciate that this is well and truly what she wants at a deep, fundamental level. She finally let go of conditioning it upon your salvation and that was the key but she's always wanted it from the day she met you.” He smiled at me and I saw one of his eyes twinkle, “And third, I like to have a little fun and watching you two will be just that. I'm curious what you do with the complete control of another human being. Daunting isn't it?” I nodded as a million thoughts and questions rolled through my mind. God smiled at me again, “Don't worry. I know it'll be fine. I can see the future remember? Oh, one thing. There is one limit. No matter what you change, she'll never stop loving me. That's key to her and one part that you can't change. Not that you'd want to, I know. But just to give you some peace of mind.” I nodded again. The dream started to fade a little and I could feel myself waking up. “Wait!” I called. The elemental deity turned to gaze at me with those piercing eyes. “What can we do for you?” I asked. He smiled, a blazing smile of warmth and serenity. “It's a good question Danny. Find your own way. Love Karen. Love others. Put love into the world. That's my greatest commandment. All the other dogma that religions attach to worship are just fluff. Love is all you really need.” He started walking away, his strange footwear crunching on the pebbles as he walked. But then he paused and as I called out, “Really? That's all? We don't need to convert people or something? Preach your message?” “For crying out loud. Why does everyone think that? Sure, tell people about me if you want. That's your call. Remember, I'm the one in charge. If I wanted more followers I'd snap my fingers and it would happen. I want you to make the world better in whatever big or small way you can, Danny,” he continued walking and the dream began to fully fade. I could feel the haze lift as the morning light broke through my eyelids, ripping me from the verdant dreamscape that I truly didn't want to leave. As I started to stir, I heard the voice one last time, “Oh, I gave you both a little gift that I think you'll really enjoy.” I tried to call out to ask him what it was but my mouth wasn't working. Suddenly, I bolted upright, the dream gone and already fading from my short term memory. Morning's New reality “What is it, honey?” Karen asked, my sudden movement having woken her. Karen was a very light sleeper which was pretty nice when I woke up feeling frisky. Of course this morning, I was only feeling perplexed. Had it been real? Was it just a crazy dream? Surely it was just my imagination, right? “Karen? Do you feel, different today?” She looked at me, “No, why?” “I don't know. it's just, I had the weirdest dream,” I said. She looked at me, puzzled for a moment. “Bad dream or good dream?” “Good, I mean I think it was good. Um, Okay, let me ask you something. Last night when you said your prayer, you said something different. Something about a silent prayer?” Karen's eyes grew wide and she blushed, “You noticed?” I nodded, “What was it, if you don't mind me asking?” My throat was dry and I could feel my heart pounding. Would she tell me? Was this the moment of truth? She looked at me and fairly whispered, “I prayed… well… I've always prayed that… that I could be the best wife for you.” I smiled. It was true! It was absolutely true! But I had to be sure. Maybe my subconscious had heard her murmuring or something. I had to know. “That seems pretty benign. Why pray that silently. And by the way, you are a perfect wife for me,” I told her as I leaned over and kissed her forehead. Karen smiled, “I know you think that. But I"m not. And and, I want to be, Danny. I want to be perfect even with all the little things that you dislike.” My grin probably took on a manic look, “What… like how you don't like watching basketball with me?” Karen krinkled her nose but then exclaimed, “Yes… exactly. I hate it but I wish I didn't.” I studied her for a minute, trying to remember the words I'd heard. What did I need to do? Snap my fingers? Make a wish? Or just will the changes into being? I looked at Karen and just thought about her happily watching basketball with me. I pictured us cuddled up on the couch, her wearing one of my UCLA jerseys as we happily watched a game. Karen seemed to get a little twinkle in her eye, “But you know what… in keeping with my prayer last night, what the heck? Let's watch a game today?” “Really?” I asked, surprised in spite of myself. “Why the heck not?” she said, giving me a kiss. “I'll go make us breakfast, you find a game you've been wanting to watch and we'll see if maybe I can learn to like it. It's been awhile and I owe you the effort.” I smiled and stretched out in bed as I watched Karen's gorgeous ass climb out from the sheets.. She stripped out of her night shirt and then stood there pondering what to wear. She looked at me, smirking at how I was staring at her naked tits like a kid who found his dad's Playboys. She got an idea and went into our closet, coming out only a few moments later wearing my old, beaten up Ed O'Bannon jersey. My mouth must have dropped three feet as I stared at her. She looked super cute in the oversized jersey. It was long enough to be worn like a very short mini-dress and it made her legs look great. Not to mention, the side-boob view was amazing. “What? I figured I should look the part of a super fan. Besides, if I'm wearing your jersey, better odds of you being shirtless.” Karen liked it when I walked around the house wearing just my pajama bottoms and no shirt. You know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life.” She went into the kitchen and started cooking and I did my usual morning ritual. As I was standing there peeing, I looked down and was shocked to see something that I was completely unprepared for. My cock was bigger soft than it had ever been hard. It was like a giant slab of salami was dangling down from me. I remembered the last words that God had spoken to me. Was God's parting gift to me a giant cock? And how was I going to explain this to Karen? As I stood there, my panic subsided. This was going to be fine, I told myself as I walked back into the bedroom and put on the silk pajama pants she'd bought me for Christmas. The long green cloth felt cool as it slid across my cock. I felt my arousal start but really didn't want to alarm Karen any sooner than I needed to so I willed myself to keep it down. It was quite difficult as Karen was moving around in the kitchen and every time she reached up for an ingredient, her ass would peek out from beneath the jersey. I distracted myself by finding the game I'd recorded Saturday night on the DVR. We'd played USC and I hadn't been able to watch it live but I'd still managed to avoid the results. It was ML King Day and I'd planned on vegging out on the couch and watching the game while Karen went shopping with her friend but now that plan seemed out the window in a good way. As if she'd read my mind, Karen called out, “I texted Jill and told her I was staying home today. So it's just you and me, honey.” “Excellent,” I said as I fast forwarded through all the garbage at the beginning of the game, pausing it at tip off as big Moses Brown was just starting his jump. Karen came in and sat next to the couch, yanking a blanket over her legs for warmth as she snuggled against me. She ran her fingers along my chest and cooed softly before saying, “Ah, looking good big guy. I could get used to this, I think.” I draped my arm around her as I took the plate from her. She'd made an omelet and cinnamon rolls and it smelled absolutely delicious. “Me too,” I said as I started eating. I hit play on the game and immediately knew that something had changed. Karen was interested and alert. She asked questions about the game and repeatedly made interesting insights. By half time, she was really into it. We'd finished our food and, despite UCLA losing by three points, we were ready to go. Even more importantly, Karen was ready to go. She was cheering her heart out but Boatwright and Rakocevic just took us to the woodshed. With two minutes left, USC was stomping us by 26 and I flipped off the TV and threw the remote away in disgust. Karen crawled up to me and whispered, “Oh, baby. I'm sorry. What can I do to make it all better?” She looked so sexy in my jersey as she straddled my hips on the leather couch that I forgot all about the dream last night. Let alone my newly enhanced cock. “Suck me until I explode?” I said. Karen wasn't a huge fan of blowjobs. She saw them as foreplay but they rarely lasted more than a minute. Today she just nodded happily and hopped down on the floor, eagerly stripping the silk pajamas off me. When my semi-hard cock flopped out, her eyes got wide. “Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “Holy crap, Danny. What happened?” she said as she took the hardening shaft in her hand, holding it reverently. Like many couples, one of the first things she'd done with my cock when we'd gotten together was to measure it. So we both knew full well that six and a half inches was the normal length. Instead she was now holding a nearly nine inch cock that wasn't fully hard. And where a roll of quarters might have been the right measurement of girth before, now it looked like a coke can. I'd never appreciated the euphemism “third leg” before but now it seemed pretty apropo. “Uhh… I took some of those pills you order online and they actually worked?” I said. My words carried absolutely no conviction. No way was Karen going to believe them unless she was trusting to a fault. “Oh wow. Well I wouldn't have thought they would work but I guess the evidence is right here,” she said as she licked the head of my cock, “In my mouth.” She smiled up at me and started trying to wrap her lips around my cock. Karen took a couple inches in her mouth, bobbing up and down. I honestly still hadn't realized what the effect I was having on her was. I know it sounds stupid, but you try having a crazy dream where you talk to God and then waking up with a giant cock and tell me how analytical you are. What kicked things into gear was what happened next. I was lying there enjoying an enthusiastic, but not particularly great, blowjob from my gorgeous wife and thinking about how great it would be if she could easily deep throat me. As soon as I imagined it, she sank about an inch further. Then another inch. And another. After five or six thrusts, she was suddenly taking my cock all the way down her throat. Her nose touching my pelvis as her tongue snaked out to tickle my balls slightly. She looked up at me and seemed to smile at me with her eyes before resuming her work, taking my cock down her throat over and over. “I didn't know you were such a good cocksucker,” I said breathlessly. She pulled off my cock and frowned, “Please don't call me that.” “But I want to,” I said and she nodded meekly. I saw the unhappy look on her face though and added, “But only if you like it.” Her attitude shifted a full 180 instantly. She smiled a wicked smile and licked her lips, staring hungrily at my cock. “I do, baby. I'll be your good little cocksucker. I'll be the best cocksucking wife ever,” she said before diving back down on my cock. She started slamming her mouth down over and over as I urged her on. It wasn't long until I felt my orgasm coming. “Yeah baby. I'm so close. Be a good little cocksucker and suck it all down your greedy throat, slut,” I roared. Karen normally doesn't like the taste of cum but that was no longer the case. She latched onto my cock and sucked hard as I felt spurt after spurt fill her newly eager mouth. It was too much for her and she pulled off it, mouth filled with my cum as one last blast shot out and landed on her chin. She sat there panting as she wiped her face and licked the cum off her wrist. She just knelt on the ground staring up at me with wide eyes. “That was amazing. I didn't know I could do that,” she said as she nuzzled my cock and licked the last little drops from the head of the shaft. The sensation was like a pleasure overload and I twitched with each little teasing touch. When my vision cleared, I pulled her up next to me on the couch, “So you liked that, baby?” “Oh yeah… I'm so horny now, lover. Can you go again? Or does your new equipment take longer to recharge?” “I don't know. I guess we'll find out. So you really liked that?” “Yeah. Why do you ask?” “Well, you didn't seem to like me calling you, um, a cocksucker at first.” As I said it she shuddered in my arms, sending a pleasurable ripple through her body. She thought for a moment, “At first I didn't. But then you told me you wanted to and it was like something clicked. Suddenly being called, a cocksucker, was a huge turn-on for me.” I thought about that and the idea that my perfect little churchgoing wife liked being called a ‘cocksucker' really stirred something in me. “What about when I called you a slut?” I asked, hopefully. “In the moment, I barely noticed but hearing you say it now…?” she said somewhat breathlessly. Her skin was flushed and she inched towards me with a hungry look in her eyes. “Whore?” she nodded. “Tramp?” another nod. “Cunt, bitch, fucktoy?” She was practically panting. “You don't mind being called those degrading names?” I said. Now I was getting the hang of this. I was imagining her getting insanely aroused by the name calling and it was happening right here in front of me. “Fuck, I'm so turned on, Danny. Please take me in the bedroom and fuck me. Fuck me. Use me. Call me names. Call me whatever degrading, horrible, humiliating names you want. Please?” She had one hand on my cock and another between her legs. She'd never asked me to fuck her. We always “made love” but that wasn't what either of us wanted anymore. I practically dragged her to the bedroom and threw her onto our bed. She yelped and I dove on her, grabbing her hips and raising them up so I could slam into her from behind. Her cunt was soaking and my cock slammed into her. She screamed out, “It's too big!” with a pained shout. “No it's not. It's perfect for your slut cunt,” I whispered in her ear and it instantly became true. Her pained whimper became a lusty groan. We were suddenly just two animals fucking. I grabbed her wrists and held her suspended so I could see her face in the mirror on our dresser. I loved the look of mindless pleasure she displayed as I hammered into her. “Cum for me you dumb cunt,” I told her and her body responded with a more powerful orgasm than I'd ever seen. I felt her cunt clench my cock tight and it was all I could do not to shoot into her right then. I held on though and just as she came down from her first orgasm I shoved my hips in hard and whispered, “Cum again. Don't stop cumming for me, slut!” It was like I'd shocked her with lightning. Her whole body started shaking and spasming as she came over and over again. I looked down and saw her cunt squeezing at my cock as I pulled the huge shaft out before slamming back in faster and faster. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head and her screams had turned into nearly silent pleadings of “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.” I flung her forward and grabbed her hips, shoving my cock in with three more hard thrusts before unloading inside of her. She and I both collapsed in a fit of giggles and laughter. Cum was already leaking out of her and down her legs as we kissed. Her sweaty hair was matted on her face from the exertion of it all as she whispered, “I love you. I love you.” “I love you too, babe,” I said. “Wow you came a lot,” she said looking down. “Oh no… You didn't use a condom!” she exclaimed in a panic. “Don't worry,” I said. I thought about how she couldn't get pregnant unless I wanted and I knew it was instantly true. She laughed at me as she wobbled into the bathroom. “What? Do those big dick pills also make you infertile?” “Something like that,” I said with a laugh. Karen cleaned herself up and came back to bed, snuggling next to me on the sweaty sheets. “I guess you've got some sheets to change,” I joked. Changing the sheets was one of my jobs around the house. Again, my new found control worked both consciously and subconsciously, apparently. “Sure thing, babe. After that fucking I'm happy to do the sheets.” Seeing her hop to my direction, I arrived at a quick conclusion. “Karen, there's something I need to tell you.” “What's wrong?” she said, looking suddenly concerned. “Nothing. I mean,” I paused for a second, thinking about it. If everything God had told me last night was true, and it sure seemed to be, then truly nothing was wrong. “A couple things. Uhmm… yesterday I… I realized that I believe in God.” “What? Really?” she lunged at me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss. “Seriously? That's wonderful!” She was nearly shouting and there were tears in her eyes. “Hard as it is to believe, that's not the most important thing that happened yesterday,” I said. She looked at me, “What could be bigger than you finding God?” “Funny you should say it that way because something else happened. Uhmm… God came to me in my dreams.” She waved her hand, “I dream about God visiting me all the time, Danny. Totally normal.” “No… you don't understand. God came to me. He talked to me. He… gave me stuff.” “What do you mean?” “Well… this cock for one. I haven't been taking any pills.” “Seriously, Danny? That's amazing. What else?” I was surprised at how willingly she believed me before I remembered what I'd changed before. “Well… Uhmm… He… he gave me control of you,” I said, letting the words hang in the air. She looked at me with wide eyes, “What do you mean, Danny? What do you mean he gave you control of me?” Her breathing was suddenly more rapid and her nipples hardened in front of my eyes. “God told me about your prayer last night. That you'd always wished for it and it's really what you wanted deep down. He gave you your wish because he loves you and you finally let go and simply trusted him.” Her eyes got even wider as I spoke. She knew it was true, I could tell. She was also a little scared. And very aroused. “What does that mean?” “Well… didn't you wonder how you could take my new cock so well? Or why you suddenly liked being called those names?” She thought about it, replaying the last 30 minutes in her mind. “You made me do that?” she asked in awe. “That's… That's so hot. Wait, did you just make me think that's hot?” she asked accusingly. “No. That's all you,” I said with a smile. I gave her a kiss and watched as she processed all of this. “So… so what can you do to me?” “I don't really know. I mean… I think basically anything.” “Oh my gosh… is that why I liked watching basketball?” she asked as she thought about the events of the morning. I just nodded as she continued, “Wow… if you can do that you really can do anything,” she said with a smirk. I smacked her with a pillow and we laughed. “Can you change my hair color?” “Uhh… sure,” I said. I pictured her with green hair and suddenly her chestnut hair slowly changed to the bright green, exactly like I'd imagined it. “Ugh… really?” she said as she looked at it. I then willed her to like it and suddenly she smiled, “I love it. Wait… oh my gosh. Did you make me like it?” I nodded with a grin. She was practically panting now, “Do it some more. Make me your dream girl, Danny. Please?” “You are my dream girl,” I said and gave her a kiss. She kissed me back but then pushed me away, “That's nice of you to say but seriously. I want you to make me whatever you think is perfect. That's why I wanted this. That's… that's why God gave you this power, right?” I thought about it. I still didn't have any actual idea why God gave me this gift. But I could tell the idea of having no more control turned on Karen and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity of this magnitude. I looked at her and tried to imagine what a perfect version of Karen would look like. I pictured her in college when we'd met as Sophomores. Then I took that image and tried to completely idealize it. I pictured her with a more hourglass figure. Slightly wider hips and narrower waist. I pictured her with perfectly smooth, sun-kissed skin and bright red hair that cascaded down her ample breasts. I pictured her cute little pink nipples now sticking out like small thumbs. I imagined how sensitive to the touch she was. How easily aroused she was. I'd always loved her blue eyes and I dialed that up to eleven making her eyes so gorgeous and piercing that Alexandra D'Addario would be jealous. My mind wandered as I imagined the things we would have done. The wild crazy sex. The depraved things we'd have done together as we experimented. I imagined fucking her in front of our friends at a frat party. I imagined her getting off to being treated like a slave when she dressed as Princess Leia at Halloween. I imagined her showing me how much she loved to be spanked and how she could get off from just having her nipples teased and tormented. I opened my eyes and the vision from my mind was lying there in front of me. She was smiling at me with a lusty gaze. “Is it done?” “Yeah, go look,” I said gesturing at our mirror. She hopped out of bed and stood in front of the mirror for a moment before she turned back around to me. “Hahaha… Seriously… C'mon Danny,” she said. “What? Do you not like it?” “It's just me from college,” she said with her hand on her hip. I looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?” I asked. Karen's red-brown hair had never been this red, her tits never that big. I'd even made her subconsciously just a little bit taller and I could tell because now the jersey she was still wearing wasn't covering anything. “I appreciate that you think college me was a vision of perfection but you have to have had something to improve.” That's when it hit me. I'd imagined doing things to this version of Karen in college. It must have completely changed her memories of the events. “Karen, do you remember that frat party we went to?” She thought for a second then shuddered, “The one that you fucked me like a whore in front of everyone while they all cheered… fuck that was amazing.” I closed my eyes and imagined her back to normal right up until I changed her appearance a moment before. Now her expression changed to one of amazement. “Holy crap. That was… that was so trippy. It's like I had a whole other life for a moment. Oh wow… Oh Wow!” she said now looking at the mirror and appreciating the changes. “So this is what you like, huh? I nodded. She stripped off her shirt and played with her breasts, enjoying the sensation of her now very sensitive nipples. “Wait… all those nasty sex things I imagined us doing… Those were things you want?” I grinned in embarrassment, “Uh… yeah… kind of.” “Kind of?” she said, getting a grin on her face. “You kind of want to fuck me in front of our friends?” I nodded again and she crawled naked on the bed, “You kind of want to lead me around on a leash like a… like a fuck toy?” Again, I nodded and licked my lips as she got closer, “You ‘kind of' want to spank my ass while I beg you to use me like a… what did that version of me say?” Her captivating eyes looked off in the distance as she tried to remember the fleeting, fake memory, “Like a 'cheap, dumb cock socket'?” I reached up and stroked her nipple with one hand and her whole body shuddered in overwhelming arousal. “That's so hot,” I whispered. “That version of me was always dressing in really slutty clothes too. And lacy, sexy lingerie. Do you like that too?” she asked. I hadn't even realized it but she was right. All the sexy images I'd had in my mind had her wearing short tight little dresses and shorts and low cut tops. High heels and sexy underwear were always featured to. I licked my lips and choked out a “Yes.” Karen dove on me and kissed me, “Thank God.” I couldn't agree more. By Masterful_Husband for Literotica

A Divine Marital Intervention - A couple gets a gift from God. (Erotic Coupling) By Masterful_Husband. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Like a lot of people, I met my wife in college. We were in the same dorm and fell into that common dating circle trap where everyone is dating everyone. It wasn't until we left for separate grad schools that we realized how much we meant to each other. It's ironic that our relationship got more serious as we dated long distance but it worked well for us. I asked her to marry me when we graduated and we were wedded and honeymooning within six months. I'd say our marriage was idyllic but that would be a lie. There was one issue that kept coming up over and over as a source of friction. My wife would tell you that we were “unevenly yoked”. I would say, “She's religious and I wasn't.”We had discussed it (at great length) when we dated. I wasn't some militant atheist. Those people have elevated that belief to an absurd level. I was an agnostic. I believed that disproving God was as futile as believing in one. I remember one memorable conversation my wife (then fiancée) and I had. “I kind of admire people of faith,” I'd said. She propped herself up on one elbow, looking at me with some excitement. “Really?” I nodded, “Truly. I just can't make myself believe in something so, ephemeral. Unverifiable. You know?” “You believe in my love, don't you?” “Of course.” “Isn't it just as ephemeral?” I kissed her, “No. You show me how much you love me every day.” “So does God. You just have to know where to look.” The certainty in her voice was compelling but not persuasive. I sighed, trying to avoid a fight, “I, I understand why you say that but I don't see it that way. I do see wonderful, amazing things in this world but I also see plenty of reasonable, non-divine, explanations. On top of that, I don't see why Christianity has to be the only answer. I mean, Have you made an extensive study of all major religions? Maybe there's another out there that's more internally consistent than Christianity?” She frowned, “Danny, do you think I only believe because of some myopic view of the Bible?” “Um, This feels like a trap,” I said, grinning and trying to defuse the situation. “It's not. Look,” she said sitting up. Her pert little breasts were bare in front of me but I tried not to focus on them. She didn't help when she grabbed the gold cross that nestled between them and spun it. “This is just a symbol. The Bible is the instruction manual. But God is all around me. He talks to me. He saved me.” “I will consider it,” I said and kissed her again. I was hopeful for another round of lovemaking. My wife is incredibly devout and spiritual but, thankfully, not particularly dogmatic. Sex before marriage wasn't off the table which I was truly grateful for in those days because, frankly, it was incredible. “One more thing. I know you don't believe, yet,” she added with a smile, “But I need to know that you're not going to close yourself off to this.” “What do you mean,” I asked. “I just want to know you'll keep an open mind. Maybe try out some churches with me from time to time. Okay?” I nodded. I didn't really love going to church but I didn't hate it. Over the years, plenty of my friends had tried to convince me so I'd gotten used to it. “How about once a month?” Karen smiled, “Plus Christmas and Easter?” I smiled back, “Sure,” I said and kissed her. We did make love again that night and in the morning. And the pledge wasn't forgotten. After we got married we tried out a bunch of different churches. Karen's lack of doctrinaire adherence meant that she was perfectly fine trying out lots of different flavors of church. She was always hoping to find one that I felt comfortable with. She prayed every night for me, often peeking out of one eye in a manner that made me think she expected a bolt of lightning to change me right in front of her eyes. We continued like that for years. We were happy but there was always this small little wedge between us. We both felt it and we both hated it but there was no changing either of us. We moved to Seattle when we both found jobs in the area. I had just turned 29 and my wife's 30th birthday was right around the corner. We were both very happy and Karen now had a whole new batch of churches to try out on me. Some days I thought that was the only reason she agreed to the move. After about six months, she found this Presbyterian church just outside of the city. I think of it as the Goldilocks church. It wasn't a big mega church, nor was it a little dinky church. The congregation was neither geriatric nor were they a bunch of new age hippies. The pastor was impassioned but not fire and brimstone, us vs. them, burn the gays. It was one of the few churches that she'd brought me to that didn't make my skin crawl when I walked in. It felt like a family without feeling like a cult. “I like this place,” I whispered to Karen as we found our seats. A couple a little older than us greeted us. There were kids running around and just a general sense of community that pervaded the church. I listened to a sermon that day that changed my life in ways I couldn't even fathom. If I'm being truthful, I don't even really remember the sermon, however. My mind wandered and I thought about all the different things that I'd seen and learned. Something changed in me during that hour and I knew I believed suddenly. It sounds cliché to say that the will of God worked its way into my heart but given what happened later that night, I think that's probably what happened. What I do remember from the service was the pastor's closing prayer. “Lord, I don't know a lot of things but I want to know what you're willing to show me. Just help me learn how to know you, Lord.” For the first time ever, I said the words silently but earnestly. They seemed like perfect words for me. We drove home in silence as I contemplated what was happening. I was too terrified to tell Karen. I didn't want to get her hopes up in case it wasn't what I thought. Maybe I'd just eaten something odd the night before or something, right? But for the rest of the day, I felt it tugging on my mind. There was still uncertainty but now there was a quest for learning more mixed in. That night, Karen knelt at the foot of the bed, just as she'd done every night since we'd gotten married and said her own prayers. “Lord, you know my heart. You know what I want. I pray for Danny and that you will work your will on him. And Lord, that other silent prayer that I've been saying for years. I'm ready for that too. I've been putting conditions on it and that's not right. Please Lord, I trust you completely.” That last part confused me. I'd never heard her say anything like that and never heard her pray for anything consistently other than for my salvation. She crawled up into bed, wearing just a t-shirt and snuggled up next to me. I resisted the urge to ask her about the odd addition knowing that prying wasn't going to score me any points. Within five minutes, we were having wild sex. She seemed much more relaxed than normal. Not that she was particularly restrained in bed. But our lovemaking generally followed a bit of a formula on most occasions and that night we completely deviated from it. We were rolling all over the bed, shifting positions multiple times like a porno or something. Eventually, we came together while I was slamming into her with her legs over my shoulders. We were staring into each other's eyes while she whispered, “Thank you. I love you,” over and over. We drifted off to sleep feeling tired and sated but also weirdly excited. The Divine Revelation The next thing I remember, I was in an incredibly lucid dream. I was walking along the bank of a river. The moss covered pebbles crunched under my feet as I looked down and realized I was completely naked. Somehow I wasn't particularly bothered by that. The temperature was perfect. The sun kissed against my skin while a cool breeze wicked away the hint of sweat. I could hear the river flow and the birds and insects in the forest buzzed peacefully. Something about the setting felt more perfect and relaxing than anything I'd ever felt. That's when God appeared. Don't ask me how I knew it was him. I just knew. He wasn't an old bearded man with a robe. Nor a guy wearing a well pressed suit. Frankly, it wasn't at all what I expected. Out from the forest floated an ephemeral mixture of dust and fire and water. A swirling maelstrom confined into a vaguely humanoid body. The eyebrows were formed from small rocks, the mouth was a roaring fire. And the eyes. I swear the eyes were stars,  or maybe whole galaxies. It was magnificent and awe inspiring. Or it would have been if not for the Hawaiin shirt and Birkenstock sandals that the elemental construct wore. “How do I look?” came a booming, commanding voice. It shook the whole forest, trees swayed and the river behind me sloshed violently. “What?” I asked, confused and scared. “Oh. Sorry,” God said. “Is that better? I don't talk to a lot of humans these days. Mostly whales and elephants. They're the next big thing on Earth, you see.” He laughed at his own joke though I was too stunned to reciprocate. “What?” I asked again. Less scared and more confused. “Sorry, sorry. Danny, Or do you prefer Daniel?” “What?” God sighed. He actually sighed. Frosty breath flew out of his mouth and dissipated into the wind before he said, “Calm down. Take a breath. I'm God. You're Danny. Everything's fine.” I did as he told me and felt a little less agitated but no less befuzzled. “Sorry, I'm just; you're God?” “In the flesh. Well, my version of it anyways. Nice to meet you?” he said and extended a watery hand. I reached for it and felt my hand slosh through the wetness. God laughed at the look on my face, “Sorry, Danny. I love that joke.” “I don't understand any of this,” I said and just sat down on a rock at the side of the river. “I know. This is all new to you. I get that. But I've been following your wife for years. She's amazing.” “Yes she is, but what do you mean; following? Don't you pay attention to everyone?” “Well, technically I'm omniscient and omnipresent and all-powerful and all that. But it doesn't work the way you humans think of it. I can see and know anything I want but only the stuff I really think about. Most humans have gotten pretty bad at worshipping me. They don't do it right. They don't do it out of a sense of love. They want something from me. Your wife is one of those rare exceptions. She loves me just for me. You can see why that's so appealing, right?” I thought about it, “So basically humanity has become a bunch of gold diggers telling you they love you but really wanting your money?” God nodded, flexing the sand in his neck and giving me a fiery thumbs up. “You got it. Not Karen. She's only been praying for two things that were for her and tonight she realized why she was wrong to condition them. She made that final, selfless step of praying just for me to do what I thought was right.” “So that really was you today?” “Yeah. I knew she'd have her epiphany tonight so I made sure you had your own earlier today.” “How could you,” I started to ask. God tapped his fiery hand against the hard surface of his skull causing sparks to shoot out, “I see the future, remember?” “Oh,” I said. That made sense. “So why show up to me like this? Do all new believers get this treatment?” God laughed. It was a joyful, musical sound that I could have listened to forever. “Oh no. Definitely not. This is kind of my little gift to Karen. To let you know you're not imagining things and you're on the right path. Plus, I can't really give her her other wish without talking to you first.” “What do you mean?” “She loves you, Danny.” “I know,” I said, confused again. Of course she loved me. I know a lot of people say that they know their spouse loves them but secretly doubt it. I never did. If anything, I always wondered if I loved her as much as she loved me. “No. She really, really loves you. Nearly as much as she loves me, actually. And she's very traditional. Almost to a fetish.” “What do you mean? She's not particularly traditional about stuff that I've noticed.” “That's because she knows you're not looking for that. So she's kept that little part of her hidden lest it bother you.” “What do you mean,” I asked, still not understanding. “She wants to serve you. Completely. She wants to be perfect for you in whatever way you want.” “Isn't that true of everyone that truly loves their spouse?” “No. Not really. Think of it this way. Would you kill someone if she asked?” “Of course not. Would she?” “No. But she wants to.” I was startled and really bothered, “She wants to kill someone for me? What the f” I stopped myself from vulgar talking in front of God. He laughed. “Don't worry. You can be vulgar around me. I invented all the words, remember?” he said and patted me on the shoulder. Somehow his fiery hand didn't burn me, though I still flinched. “No, she doesn't want to kill someone. She wants to be so devoted to you that she would if you asked. But she knows you never would. Understand?” “Not even a little,” I said truthfully. “She wants to be able to be literally anything for you. If you want it from her, she wants to be that for you.” “Oh, I get it. Like she wants to like computer games and watching basketball even though I know she doesn't like those things?” God nodded, “Exactly. It's how she thinks of being a good help-meet. She wants to literally be anything you want. And that's what I'm giving her, well, I'm giving it to both of you.” “What do you mean?” “When you wake up, you'll be able to change anything about Karen you want. Forever.” “Permanently?” “If you want. She'll be able to be molded in whatever way you want for the rest of your life. Want her to like Basketball? Done. Want her to hate Basketball the next day? Sure.” “Why not just change her into my perfect girl? Why give me all this power?” “Three reasons, Danny. First, that's not what she wants. She wants to be malleable and flexible for you. She knows that people change and she doesn't want to be perfect for you in this moment and terrible for you years from now.” God ticked off one stony finger as he talked, then sprouted a little twig as a second finger, “Second, I needed to talk to you about this so you'd understand. So you'd believe and would appreciate that this is well and truly what she wants at a deep, fundamental level. She finally let go of conditioning it upon your salvation and that was the key but she's always wanted it from the day she met you.” He smiled at me and I saw one of his eyes twinkle, “And third, I like to have a little fun and watching you two will be just that. I'm curious what you do with the complete control of another human being. Daunting isn't it?” I nodded as a million thoughts and questions rolled through my mind. God smiled at me again, “Don't worry. I know it'll be fine. I can see the future remember? Oh, one thing. There is one limit. No matter what you change, she'll never stop loving me. That's key to her and one part that you can't change. Not that you'd want to, I know. But just to give you some peace of mind.” I nodded again. The dream started to fade a little and I could feel myself waking up. “Wait!” I called. The elemental deity turned to gaze at me with those piercing eyes. “What can we do for you?” I asked. He smiled, a blazing smile of warmth and serenity. “It's a good question Danny. Find your own way. Love Karen. Love others. Put love into the world. That's my greatest commandment. All the other dogma that religions attach to worship are just fluff. Love is all you really need.” He started walking away, his strange footwear crunching on the pebbles as he walked. But then he paused and as I called out, “Really? That's all? We don't need to convert people or something? Preach your message?” “For crying out loud. Why does everyone think that? Sure, tell people about me if you want. That's your call. Remember, I'm the one in charge. If I wanted more followers I'd snap my fingers and it would happen. I want you to make the world better in whatever big or small way you can, Danny,” he continued walking and the dream began to fully fade. I could feel the haze lift as the morning light broke through my eyelids, ripping me from the verdant dreamscape that I truly didn't want to leave. As I started to stir, I heard the voice one last time, “Oh, I gave you both a little gift that I think you'll really enjoy.” I tried to call out to ask him what it was but my mouth wasn't working. Suddenly, I bolted upright, the dream gone and already fading from my short term memory. Morning's New reality “What is it, honey?” Karen asked, my sudden movement having woken her. Karen was a very light sleeper which was pretty nice when I woke up feeling frisky. Of course this morning, I was only feeling perplexed. Had it been real? Was it just a crazy dream? Surely it was just my imagination, right? “Karen? Do you feel, different today?” She looked at me, “No, why?” “I don't know. it's just, I had the weirdest dream,” I said. She looked at me, puzzled for a moment. “Bad dream or good dream?” “Good, I mean I think it was good. Um, Okay, let me ask you something. Last night when you said your prayer, you said something different. Something about a silent prayer?” Karen's eyes grew wide and she blushed, “You noticed?” I nodded, “What was it, if you don't mind me asking?” My throat was dry and I could feel my heart pounding. Would she tell me? Was this the moment of truth? She looked at me and fairly whispered, “I prayed… well… I've always prayed that… that I could be the best wife for you.” I smiled. It was true! It was absolutely true! But I had to be sure. Maybe my subconscious had heard her murmuring or something. I had to know. “That seems pretty benign. Why pray that silently. And by the way, you are a perfect wife for me,” I told her as I leaned over and kissed her forehead. Karen smiled, “I know you think that. But I"m not. And and, I want to be, Danny. I want to be perfect even with all the little things that you dislike.” My grin probably took on a manic look, “What… like how you don't like watching basketball with me?” Karen krinkled her nose but then exclaimed, “Yes… exactly. I hate it but I wish I didn't.” I studied her for a minute, trying to remember the words I'd heard. What did I need to do? Snap my fingers? Make a wish? Or just will the changes into being? I looked at Karen and just thought about her happily watching basketball with me. I pictured us cuddled up on the couch, her wearing one of my UCLA jerseys as we happily watched a game. Karen seemed to get a little twinkle in her eye, “But you know what… in keeping with my prayer last night, what the heck? Let's watch a game today?” “Really?” I asked, surprised in spite of myself. “Why the heck not?” she said, giving me a kiss. “I'll go make us breakfast, you find a game you've been wanting to watch and we'll see if maybe I can learn to like it. It's been awhile and I owe you the effort.” I smiled and stretched out in bed as I watched Karen's gorgeous ass climb out from the sheets.. She stripped out of her night shirt and then stood there pondering what to wear. She looked at me, smirking at how I was staring at her naked tits like a kid who found his dad's Playboys. She got an idea and went into our closet, coming out only a few moments later wearing my old, beaten up Ed O'Bannon jersey. My mouth must have dropped three feet as I stared at her. She looked super cute in the oversized jersey. It was long enough to be worn like a very short mini-dress and it made her legs look great. Not to mention, the side-boob view was amazing. “What? I figured I should look the part of a super fan. Besides, if I'm wearing your jersey, better odds of you being shirtless.” Karen liked it when I walked around the house wearing just my pajama bottoms and no shirt. You know what they say, “Happy wife, happy life.” She went into the kitchen and started cooking and I did my usual morning ritual. As I was standing there peeing, I looked down and was shocked to see something that I was completely unprepared for. My cock was bigger soft than it had ever been hard. It was like a giant slab of salami was dangling down from me. I remembered the last words that God had spoken to me. Was God's parting gift to me a giant cock? And how was I going to explain this to Karen? As I stood there, my panic subsided. This was going to be fine, I told myself as I walked back into the bedroom and put on the silk pajama pants she'd bought me for Christmas. The long green cloth felt cool as it slid across my cock. I felt my arousal start but really didn't want to alarm Karen any sooner than I needed to so I willed myself to keep it down. It was quite difficult as Karen was moving around in the kitchen and every time she reached up for an ingredient, her ass would peek out from beneath the jersey. I distracted myself by finding the game I'd recorded Saturday night on the DVR. We'd played USC and I hadn't been able to watch it live but I'd still managed to avoid the results. It was ML King Day and I'd planned on vegging out on the couch and watching the game while Karen went shopping with her friend but now that plan seemed out the window in a good way. As if she'd read my mind, Karen called out, “I texted Jill and told her I was staying home today. So it's just you and me, honey.” “Excellent,” I said as I fast forwarded through all the garbage at the beginning of the game, pausing it at tip off as big Moses Brown was just starting his jump. Karen came in and sat next to the couch, yanking a blanket over her legs for warmth as she snuggled against me. She ran her fingers along my chest and cooed softly before saying, “Ah, looking good big guy. I could get used to this, I think.” I draped my arm around her as I took the plate from her. She'd made an omelet and cinnamon rolls and it smelled absolutely delicious. “Me too,” I said as I started eating. I hit play on the game and immediately knew that something had changed. Karen was interested and alert. She asked questions about the game and repeatedly made interesting insights. By half time, she was really into it. We'd finished our food and, despite UCLA losing by three points, we were ready to go. Even more importantly, Karen was ready to go. She was cheering her heart out but Boatwright and Rakocevic just took us to the woodshed. With two minutes left, USC was stomping us by 26 and I flipped off the TV and threw the remote away in disgust. Karen crawled up to me and whispered, “Oh, baby. I'm sorry. What can I do to make it all better?” She looked so sexy in my jersey as she straddled my hips on the leather couch that I forgot all about the dream last night. Let alone my newly enhanced cock. “Suck me until I explode?” I said. Karen wasn't a huge fan of blowjobs. She saw them as foreplay but they rarely lasted more than a minute. Today she just nodded happily and hopped down on the floor, eagerly stripping the silk pajamas off me. When my semi-hard cock flopped out, her eyes got wide. “Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “Holy crap, Danny. What happened?” she said as she took the hardening shaft in her hand, holding it reverently. Like many couples, one of the first things she'd done with my cock when we'd gotten together was to measure it. So we both knew full well that six and a half inches was the normal length. Instead she was now holding a nearly nine inch cock that wasn't fully hard. And where a roll of quarters might have been the right measurement of girth before, now it looked like a coke can. I'd never appreciated the euphemism “third leg” before but now it seemed pretty apropo. “Uhh… I took some of those pills you order online and they actually worked?” I said. My words carried absolutely no conviction. No way was Karen going to believe them unless she was trusting to a fault. “Oh wow. Well I wouldn't have thought they would work but I guess the evidence is right here,” she said as she licked the head of my cock, “In my mouth.” She smiled up at me and started trying to wrap her lips around my cock. Karen took a couple inches in her mouth, bobbing up and down. I honestly still hadn't realized what the effect I was having on her was. I know it sounds stupid, but you try having a crazy dream where you talk to God and then waking up with a giant cock and tell me how analytical you are. What kicked things into gear was what happened next. I was lying there enjoying an enthusiastic, but not particularly great, blowjob from my gorgeous wife and thinking about how great it would be if she could easily deep throat me. As soon as I imagined it, she sank about an inch further. Then another inch. And another. After five or six thrusts, she was suddenly taking my cock all the way down her throat. Her nose touching my pelvis as her tongue snaked out to tickle my balls slightly. She looked up at me and seemed to smile at me with her eyes before resuming her work, taking my cock down her throat over and over. “I didn't know you were such a good cocksucker,” I said breathlessly. She pulled off my cock and frowned, “Please don't call me that.” “But I want to,” I said and she nodded meekly. I saw the unhappy look on her face though and added, “But only if you like it.” Her attitude shifted a full 180 instantly. She smiled a wicked smile and licked her lips, staring hungrily at my cock. “I do, baby. I'll be your good little cocksucker. I'll be the best cocksucking wife ever,” she said before diving back down on my cock. She started slamming her mouth down over and over as I urged her on. It wasn't long until I felt my orgasm coming. “Yeah baby. I'm so close. Be a good little cocksucker and suck it all down your greedy throat, slut,” I roared. Karen normally doesn't like the taste of cum but that was no longer the case. She latched onto my cock and sucked hard as I felt spurt after spurt fill her newly eager mouth. It was too much for her and she pulled off it, mouth filled with my cum as one last blast shot out and landed on her chin. She sat there panting as she wiped her face and licked the cum off her wrist. She just knelt on the ground staring up at me with wide eyes. “That was amazing. I didn't know I could do that,” she said as she nuzzled my cock and licked the last little drops from the head of the shaft. The sensation was like a pleasure overload and I twitched with each little teasing touch. When my vision cleared, I pulled her up next to me on the couch, “So you liked that, baby?” “Oh yeah… I'm so horny now, lover. Can you go again? Or does your new equipment take longer to recharge?” “I don't know. I guess we'll find out. So you really liked that?” “Yeah. Why do you ask?” “Well, you didn't seem to like me calling you, um, a cocksucker at first.” As I said it she shuddered in my arms, sending a pleasurable ripple through her body. She thought for a moment, “At first I didn't. But then you told me you wanted to and it was like something clicked. Suddenly being called, a cocksucker, was a huge turn-on for me.” I thought about that and the idea that my perfect little churchgoing wife liked being called a ‘cocksucker' really stirred something in me. “What about when I called you a slut?” I asked, hopefully. “In the moment, I barely noticed but hearing you say it now…?” she said somewhat breathlessly. Her skin was flushed and she inched towards me with a hungry look in her eyes. “Whore?” she nodded. “Tramp?” another nod. “Cunt, bitch, fucktoy?” She was practically panting. “You don't mind being called those degrading names?” I said. Now I was getting the hang of this. I was imagining her getting insanely aroused by the name calling and it was happening right here in front of me. “Fuck, I'm so turned on, Danny. Please take me in the bedroom and fuck me. Fuck me. Use me. Call me names. Call me whatever degrading, horrible, humiliating names you want. Please?” She had one hand on my cock and another between her legs. She'd never asked me to fuck her. We always “made love” but that wasn't what either of us wanted anymore. I practically dragged her to the bedroom and threw her onto our bed. She yelped and I dove on her, grabbing her hips and raising them up so I could slam into her from behind. Her cunt was soaking and my cock slammed into her. She screamed out, “It's too big!” with a pained shout. “No it's not. It's perfect for your slut cunt,” I whispered in her ear and it instantly became true. Her pained whimper became a lusty groan. We were suddenly just two animals fucking. I grabbed her wrists and held her suspended so I could see her face in the mirror on our dresser. I loved the look of mindless pleasure she displayed as I hammered into her. “Cum for me you dumb cunt,” I told her and her body responded with a more powerful orgasm than I'd ever seen. I felt her cunt clench my cock tight and it was all I could do not to shoot into her right then. I held on though and just as she came down from her first orgasm I shoved my hips in hard and whispered, “Cum again. Don't stop cumming for me, slut!” It was like I'd shocked her with lightning. Her whole body started shaking and spasming as she came over and over again. I looked down and saw her cunt squeezing at my cock as I pulled the huge shaft out before slamming back in faster and faster. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head and her screams had turned into nearly silent pleadings of “Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.” I flung her forward and grabbed her hips, shoving my cock in with three more hard thrusts before unloading inside of her. She and I both collapsed in a fit of giggles and laughter. Cum was already leaking out of her and down her legs as we kissed. Her sweaty hair was matted on her face from the exertion of it all as she whispered, “I love you. I love you.” “I love you too, babe,” I said. “Wow you came a lot,” she said looking down. “Oh no… You didn't use a condom!” she exclaimed in a panic. “Don't worry,” I said. I thought about how she couldn't get pregnant unless I wanted and I knew it was instantly true. She laughed at me as she wobbled into the bathroom. “What? Do those big dick pills also make you infertile?” “Something like that,” I said with a laugh. Karen cleaned herself up and came back to bed, snuggling next to me on the sweaty sheets. “I guess you've got some sheets to change,” I joked. Changing the sheets was one of my jobs around the house. Again, my new found control worked both consciously and subconsciously, apparently. “Sure thing, babe. After that fucking I'm happy to do the sheets.” Seeing her hop to my direction, I arrived at a quick conclusion. “Karen, there's something I need to tell you.” “What's wrong?” she said, looking suddenly concerned. “Nothing. I mean,” I paused for a second, thinking about it. If everything God had told me last night was true, and it sure seemed to be, then truly nothing was wrong. “A couple things. Uhmm… yesterday I… I realized that I believe in God.” “What? Really?” she lunged at me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss. “Seriously? That's wonderful!” She was nearly shouting and there were tears in her eyes. “Hard as it is to believe, that's not the most important thing that happened yesterday,” I said. She looked at me, “What could be bigger than you finding God?” “Funny you should say it that way because something else happened. Uhmm… God came to me in my dreams.” She waved her hand, “I dream about God visiting me all the time, Danny. Totally normal.” “No… you don't understand. God came to me. He talked to me. He… gave me stuff.” “What do you mean?” “Well… this cock for one. I haven't been taking any pills.” “Seriously, Danny? That's amazing. What else?” I was surprised at how willingly she believed me before I remembered what I'd changed before. “Well… Uhmm… He… he gave me control of you,” I said, letting the words hang in the air. She looked at me with wide eyes, “What do you mean, Danny? What do you mean he gave you control of me?” Her breathing was suddenly more rapid and her nipples hardened in front of my eyes. “God told me about your prayer last night. That you'd always wished for it and it's really what you wanted deep down. He gave you your wish because he loves you and you finally let go and simply trusted him.” Her eyes got even wider as I spoke. She knew it was true, I could tell. She was also a little scared. And very aroused. “What does that mean?” “Well… didn't you wonder how you could take my new cock so well? Or why you suddenly liked being called those names?” She thought about it, replaying the last 30 minutes in her mind. “You made me do that?” she asked in awe. “That's… That's so hot. Wait, did you just make me think that's hot?” she asked accusingly. “No. That's all you,” I said with a smile. I gave her a kiss and watched as she processed all of this. “So… so what can you do to me?” “I don't really know. I mean… I think basically anything.” “Oh my gosh… is that why I liked watching basketball?” she asked as she thought about the events of the morning. I just nodded as she continued, “Wow… if you can do that you really can do anything,” she said with a smirk. I smacked her with a pillow and we laughed. “Can you change my hair color?” “Uhh… sure,” I said. I pictured her with green hair and suddenly her chestnut hair slowly changed to the bright green, exactly like I'd imagined it. “Ugh… really?” she said as she looked at it. I then willed her to like it and suddenly she smiled, “I love it. Wait… oh my gosh. Did you make me like it?” I nodded with a grin. She was practically panting now, “Do it some more. Make me your dream girl, Danny. Please?” “You are my dream girl,” I said and gave her a kiss. She kissed me back but then pushed me away, “That's nice of you to say but seriously. I want you to make me whatever you think is perfect. That's why I wanted this. That's… that's why God gave you this power, right?” I thought about it. I still didn't have any actual idea why God gave me this gift. But I could tell the idea of having no more control turned on Karen and I wasn't about to miss an opportunity of this magnitude. I looked at her and tried to imagine what a perfect version of Karen would look like. I pictured her in college when we'd met as Sophomores. Then I took that image and tried to completely idealize it. I pictured her with a more hourglass figure. Slightly wider hips and narrower waist. I pictured her with perfectly smooth, sun-kissed skin and bright red hair that cascaded down her ample breasts. I pictured her cute little pink nipples now sticking out like small thumbs. I imagined how sensitive to the touch she was. How easily aroused she was. I'd always loved her blue eyes and I dialed that up to eleven making her eyes so gorgeous and piercing that Alexandra D'Addario would be jealous. My mind wandered as I imagined the things we would have done. The wild crazy sex. The depraved things we'd have done together as we experimented. I imagined fucking her in front of our friends at a frat party. I imagined her getting off to being treated like a slave when she dressed as Princess Leia at Halloween. I imagined her showing me how much she loved to be spanked and how she could get off from just having her nipples teased and tormented. I opened my eyes and the vision from my mind was lying there in front of me. She was smiling at me with a lusty gaze. “Is it done?” “Yeah, go look,” I said gesturing at our mirror. She hopped out of bed and stood in front of the mirror for a moment before she turned back around to me. “Hahaha… Seriously… C'mon Danny,” she said. “What? Do you not like it?” “It's just me from college,” she said with her hand on her hip. I looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?” I asked. Karen's red-brown hair had never been this red, her tits never that big. I'd even made her subconsciously just a little bit taller and I could tell because now the jersey she was still wearing wasn't covering anything. “I appreciate that you think college me was a vision of perfection but you have to have had something to improve.” That's when it hit me. I'd imagined doing things to this version of Karen in college. It must have completely changed her memories of the events. “Karen, do you remember that frat party we went to?” She thought for a second then shuddered, “The one that you fucked me like a whore in front of everyone while they all cheered… fuck that was amazing.” I closed my eyes and imagined her back to normal right up until I changed her appearance a moment before. Now her expression changed to one of amazement. “Holy crap. That was… that was so trippy. It's like I had a whole other life for a moment. Oh wow… Oh Wow!” she said now looking at the mirror and appreciating the changes. “So this is what you like, huh? I nodded. She stripped off her shirt and played with her breasts, enjoying the sensation of her now very sensitive nipples. “Wait… all those nasty sex things I imagined us doing… Those were things you want?” I grinned in embarrassment, “Uh… yeah… kind of.” “Kind of?” she said, getting a grin on her face. “You kind of want to fuck me in front of our friends?” I nodded again and she crawled naked on the bed, “You kind of want to lead me around on a leash like a… like a fuck toy?” Again, I nodded and licked my lips as she got closer, “You ‘kind of' want to spank my ass while I beg you to use me like a… what did that version of me say?” Her captivating eyes looked off in the distance as she tried to remember the fleeting, fake memory, “Like a 'cheap, dumb cock socket'?” I reached up and stroked her nipple with one hand and her whole body shuddered in overwhelming arousal. “That's so hot,” I whispered. “That version of me was always dressing in really slutty clothes too. And lacy, sexy lingerie. Do you like that too?” she asked. I hadn't even realized it but she was right. All the sexy images I'd had in my mind had her wearing short tight little dresses and shorts and low cut tops. High heels and sexy underwear were always featured to. I licked my lips and choked out a “Yes.” Karen dove on me and kissed me, “Thank God.” I couldn't agree more. By Masterful_Husband for Literotica

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/learn-italian-with-linguaboost--3598756/support.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

"Be still and know that I am God." What does it mean? How do we do it? At first, it seems like a very simple, straight-forward message:  Be still and know that I am God. But I have discovered that it is not that easy to implement in my life, and I have a feeling many of you share that experience. First, it's not easy to simply be still, is it? We live in a world that seems to be in perpetual motion. All of us have more to do than we ever get done. It is not in vogue to "be still.” Successful people aren't viewed as people who are "still.” Rather, they are people who are active. We have this idea that if we're not doing something, we're not being productive. Those of us who are parents remember how often we would have given anything if our children would just be still! All that energy—constant movement! And when they're moving all the time, you can't communicate to them, they don't listen and you find it difficult to concentrate. How many times have you taken your child's shoulders, looked them in the eyes, and said, "Julie, please, be still!” You feel as though you cannot get anywhere with them until they simply stop. God, our Father, says the same thing to us. "Be still. Stop!” Stop walking, stop running, stop moving—just stop!” The first hurdle we face is to get our bodies to be still, to literally stop moving, and for most of us that does not come easy. I have learned that I must plan this "still" time in my day. It has to be designated, and I must give it the highest priority. For me, it has to be early in my day, before my mind is cluttered and my concentration is divided. And it's very helpful to me to have a certain place which I think of as my "still" place. That one spot in my home that is more or less reserved for my time with God. But I can get up early and get my body into that "still" place and discover that I'm still not "still.” Now the battle really begins for me. My mind starts going a mile a minute. If I allow myself to think about the schedule for the day, there is no stillness in that time. It's easy to lose my concentration on the purpose of this "still" time, and even though the body is in the right place, I'm not still before God. In order to be still before God, I have to have that inner focus which screens out all external thoughts and concerns, which centers on God and God alone, which brings me into that place where he is for that time my whole universe and no extraneous or conflicting information is allowed to interfere. I have sat for an hour or more in bodily stillness, but without inner stillness before God. How can I get to the place where I can be truly still before God, so that I am completely swallowed up with his presence and his reality, and nothing interferes with it? Frankly, I don't think it's easy for any of us, and I don't think it ever will be. Our three enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil, are all out to break up this quiet inner stillness, and a spiritual war wages when we sit down to be still before God. Here are some things that I have found helpful. First, I begin by praying for inner concentration, by claiming the blood of Christ as protection, by putting on the helmet of salvation to keep my mind from wandering. Singing can help me "be still" before the Lord, so at times I sing a hymn or chorus which focuses on God. Our pastor once suggested that you keep a pad and pencil nearby, and when your mind starts to wander, thinking of what you have to do, etc., just quickly make a note to remind yourself later on, and then you can go back to your meditation time. And then, simply be prepared to stay with it no matter how much your mind wanders. Each time it starts, quickly re-focus and start again if necessary. I find it takes time. I just can't dash in and out, like I do at the supermarket, get what I need and run. I cannot be still at the drop of a hat. Sometimes it takes what seems forever for me to be still on the inside.

In this Frankly, Nate recasts his favorite book series, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, with some speculative “archetypes” of our human world grouped by various timelines. The eventual reduction in energy and material accessibility will likely alter the archetypes that we're familiar with today - perhaps to become something not helpful to larger society. What categories of human archetypes in the future will have the potential to best influence their communities and the Earth? What will the most powerful among us choose when it comes to protecting their (monetary, temporary) wealth vs using it towards prosocial collective responses? Finally, and most importantly what archetypes will form a new Fellowship of humans to ‘bring the ring to Mordor' during humanity's ‘Bend not Break' moment? Which archetype do you resonate with? Are there others?   Watch on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oh-zdo-l8I   For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/58-the-fellowship-of-the-ring-bend-not-break-version  

Royals win predictions are out...and quite frankly they are disappointing

Episode 254 (Season 8, Episode 7) Build Your Brand If there was ever an episode that we did our best to avoid offering details on real estate-related materials, this might be the one! Frankly, there is more talk about Adam Driver than brand marketing. So much so that we're worried that Mr. Driver himself may come after us! (Especially considering that he has family in Indiana, so we're basically in his backyard!) If you're short on time, the main takeaway is to work on building your brand, since it's essential to the success of your business. However, If you're long on time, enjoy our talks about peeing your pants, Indiana's criminal class, and a flashback to our locally famous LinkedIn episodes! Great stuff…we think!   SHOW NOTES Last time you peed your pants? [2:02] Todd learns about aging mens' prostate issues! [4:17] Christian's brand is a lavender-colored polo [7:03] Ask yourself, “who am I?” [10:14] Have someone vet you online and see if they can determine who you are [13:50] Partner up with locals in the area to show you're the local expert [17:17] Terry can't help but plug Taco Bell and the Detroit Lions [19:48] Todd teaches a Masterclass in successfully talking to a softball umpire [22:02] Cornfed Criminals! [23:50] Todd spends more time on Adam Driver than real estate content [25:30] Where do you put your content? [29:58] The Boom Team falls back into their “LinkedIn Energy” [30:50] Make sure to cross-promote your content [34:06] Assignment:  Create a 30-day Marketing Plan [36:29]   SHOW LINKS Admiral Stockdale: https://youtu.be/hk53qOhq40M?si=020E1oG1f2KscZd8 The Knox Fox Real Estate Group: https://www.theknoxfox.com/ Detroit Lions: https://www.detroitlions.com/ Taco Bell: https://www.tacobell.com/ Adam Driver: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3485845/ Boom Podcast, Episode 215: https://boomrealestatepodcast.libsyn.com/20210305-boom-podcast-s5-episode-215-linkedin   BOOM LINKS Email: info@boomrealestatepodcast.com Web: www.boomrealestatepodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boomrealestatepodcast Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt1P-rEDZ1h2UYT20EN4mYQ 30-Day Jumpstart: www.Boom30.com Book the Boom Team for a speaking event: boomrealestatepodcast.com/speaking Sign up to be coached by the Boom Team: boomrealestatepodcast.com/coaching

Recorded March 19 2024   Description   In this Frankly, Nate reflects on ten dichotomies that he sees prevalent in our current culture of information consumption and media.  We are increasingly bombarded with news from traditional media outlets as well as emerging smaller platforms. Yet interpreting these inputs depends on the individual and societal lenses we use, alongside the presentation of and quality of the information itself. Further, how are academic and scientific sources of information becoming increasingly gatekept - accessible to only those who can pay? What should individuals keep in mind as we navigate biases and underlying intentions surrounding journalism and educational content? Are we able to set aside our internalized perspectives of the world and listen to what is being said - rather than leaning into what our identities want us to hear?   To Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/ZRQ3g36ZtWo   For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/57-information-bifurcation

This is part 2 of the previous episode. Start there if you haven't already.Frankly, I lived in a very childish way for a long time. Now that I've begun to really grow up, I'm reflecting on how I grew out of my addictions and limiting beliefs.It is childish, and small, and immature to sit there and hate the present moment. It is stupid to wish things were different. It doesn't do me any good to let the scars from my past push me into distraction and fear. Push me away from living!We all do it, but the healing begins in the moment.When we responsibly reflect on our past and stop throwing away the present for an imaginary future.In today's episode I will quickly give you the 3 steps I use everyday to stop being a baby and take control of my life. While we do not have control of the future or the past, the more we do these 3 things, the more we can understand our self and the more certain we can be of where we're going.Listen now and let me know what you think! Make sure to subscribe and be notified of new episodes.0:00 - Intro and what to expect1:27 - Why is journalling so important and how can you start journalling5:28 - What does it mean to self-reflect and can we control the future?10:50 - How can you stop being ashamed?-----Want to improve your mental health?https://www.youtube.com/@BuildaBetterLifeGet in touch with Patrick today!https://www.facebook.com/patrick.strevenshttps://www.instagram.com/selfcontrolpodcast/Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple Podcasts

It was so great to have Chad and Eileen back on the podcast to give us a very detailed overview of their six week trip to Alaska. Even better, they are planning on returning for an entire season so they let us know what they are doing differently to prepare for their next journey. Price It's no secret that Alaska is expensive. They share how even though they anticipated to spend a little more here, they still underestimated it. Internet If you want to have some sort of internet connection while you make the drive to Alaksa, Starlink is your best bet. They mentioned how they had very poor service, and even if they didn't need to use it, knowing they could fire up Starlink if they needed to gave them peace of mind. Things to Do From boat rides, plane rides, and hiking, they stayed very busy. They admit they didn't do a ton of excursions, but since Alaksa is such beautiful place to be, they really didn't need to. We discussed a few things they are looking forward to doing next time as well. 3, 2, 1 Countdown 3 Things to Bring to Alaska ·        Bug spray, fly swatter, bug net ·        Blackout curtains, eye mask ·        Binoculars 2 Things to Be Prepared For ·        Bugs and mosquitoes ·        Bears 1 Thing You Can't Leave Alaska Without Doing ·        The plane ride or jumping in a lake Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:00 How much time did you spend in Alaska and what did you cover? 02:00 How much time should someone spend in Alaska and when should they go? 04:00 How was it bringing your dog with you to Alaska? 07:15 Sightseeing plane ride in Alaska 09:30 How did you get to Alaska with your van? 13:00 Favorite camping spots? 14:45 How expensive is it in Alaska? 15:15 What activities did you do in Alaska? 18:30 What is there to do at night in Alaska? 20:15 How long did it take to adjust to it not getting dark? 23:30 How was the food scene in Alaska? 24:30 How are you preparing differently for your next trip to Alaska? 26:00 What are three things people should bring to Alaska? 27:45 What are two things people should prepare for before they visit Alaska? 30:15 How are the roads in Alaska? 32:00 What can't you leave Alaska with out doing? Chad and Eileen on Social: ·        Miles Van Life: https://www.instagram.com/themilesvanlife/ ·        Eileen's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eileenrosemiles/ ·        Eileen's Website: https://www.eileenrose.me/ ·        Eileen's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-inward-journey/id1666397129 ·        Chad's IG: https://www.instagram.com/chadmmiles/ ·        Chad's Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2228949/share Locations ·        Fairbanks: https://www.explorefairbanks.com/ ·        Denali National Park: https://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm ·        Hatche Pass: https://www.alaska.org/detail/hatcher-pass ·        Anchorage: https://www.anchorage.net/ ·        Kenai Peninsula: https://www.travelalaska.com/Destinations/Regions/Southcentral/Kenai-Peninsula ·        Whittier: https://www.alaska.org/destination/whittier ·        Hope: https://www.alaska.org/destination/hope   To Do: ·        Boat Trip to Juneau: https://alaskafjordlines.com/ ·        Plane Ride: https://www.katair.com/ ·        Katmai Bear Viewing Tours: https://katmaiair.com/   Restaurants ·        Karstens Public House: https://www.westmarkhotels.com/denali-food/ ·        Anchorage Breweries: https://www.anchorage.net/restaurants/breweries/   Camping ·        Dyea Flats: https://www.alaska.org/detail/dyea-campground   Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/gently-comes-tomorrow License code: JNNG98EA42W634JP   *All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.   Transcript Host: All right, Chad and Eileen, welcome back to the Travel Path Podcast.   Guest: Hi, we're happy to be back. So, in case you missed the first episode, we talked about all their van life adventures, and we took a pretty deep dive into some of the finances and a lot of the things that people don't think about with van life, including routines or lack of routines, getting kind of out of the routines you're used to living at home, and transitioning to van life. So, if you haven't listened, give it a listen. For part two, travel tips, we're talking about one destination. So, Chad and Eileen, what destination are we talking about today?   Guest: We're going to talk about Alaska.   Host: All right.   Guest: Our favorite place in the world for sure.   Host: So, I guess that's what made you decide to share about Alaska today, is just how much you love it?   Guest: Yeah, and I think last summer, we made our first trip up to Alaska, and we spent about six weeks there. And it was such an overwhelming experience trying to figure out and plan for all the things that we might need to go there, and so maybe we can make it a little bit simpler for people by sharing today.   Host: Awesome. How much time did you guys spend in Alaska, and what did you actually cover when you were there?   Guest: So, we spent a total of about six weeks in Alaska. That doesn't include the drive up or the drive back, but our six weeks in Alaska, we covered quite a bit. So, we went up the more northern route. We started in Fairbanks, and then we made our way south from there. So, we hit Denali National Park, we went to Hatcher Pass, we went to Anchorage, down to the Kenai Peninsula, and then on our way out of Alaska, we went down to Skagway and took a boat trip to Juneau as well. So, we covered quite a bit of it.   Host: Yeah, you certainly did. So, would you say for someone who is living this van life journey or taking a cross-country trip, how much do you think six weeks is a really good time for them to experience Alaska? Or would you say plan more or you could plan less?   Guest: We are going back for the entire summer, but I know that's not realistic for everyone, but you probably will fall in love with it as well and want to go back for longer. But we do feel anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks is enough time to get the most out of it and see, you know, the Denali National Park, which is our favorite place, and then the Kenai Peninsula for sure. So, four to six weeks would be good.   Host: Yeah, good. So obviously, you know, if you're going to really enjoy the national parks and probably have a great time, you want to go in the summertime when it's not the dead of winter. What are some of those seasonal highlights for you guys, at least when you were there?   Guest: Well, yes, you 100% need to see Alaska in the summer because in the winter, it is, I think, it's four or six hours of daylight, and the rest is all dark. And so in the summer, you get 20 hours of daylight. So, you have longer days in the summer. It's actually wild how long they are. We tried to see the Northern Lights, and it never got dark enough. So, that's what's great, though, about the summertime is the days are long, and you can start a hike at 4 p.m., for example. It's beautiful. There's a lot of fish out in the rivers that you can catch and enjoy fresh. There's beautiful flowers, and everything is just beautiful in the summer. So, there's lots of wildlife that are out in the summer. So, you're looking, if you're planning on going up to Alaska, your window to be there is about mid-June through September 1st. Outside of that, you're going to run into some colder temperatures. But when we were there, we were there mid-July through about September 1st, and I mean, it was beautiful, 60, 70-degree days. We had a lot of sunshine while we were there, so the weather is definitely a highlight if you're there in the summertime.   Host: Yeah, sure. And then you're traveling with Sadie, your dog. So, do you feel like she was able to go on all these hikes with you? Were there any restrictions that you kind of got snagged on?   Guest: She couldn't enjoy the Denali National Park hikes with us. But Hatcher Pass, for example, is a hidden gem south of Denali, is that right? Okay. And it's beautiful, and it honestly reminded me of Switzerland, even though I've never been to Switzerland. I've only seen photos, but it's just beautiful, stunning mountain ranges, super green, and she could hike with us there. So, we figured out a lot of places where she could adventure. And I mean, Alaska in itself is beautiful no matter where you go outside of the park. So, she could be everywhere with us. And they do say traveling with a dog or traveling in a pack does spook the bears away and animals away too. I don't know, we never had that encounter, thank goodness, with a bear. But it's good. They actually, it's good to travel with your pets and hike with them.   Host: So perfect, now diving just a little bit deeper into some of the things and places that you guys actually went to in Alaska. Do you have any highlights or spots that you think maybe you should spend a little more time or a little less time in that you went to?   Guest: I think the area that we'd like to spend more time in would be the Kenai Peninsula. It's an incredible place because you've got some beautiful mountains and you're right on the ocean, so you've got the mix of both. The climate's really interesting, and some of the little towns are fascinating. The little town of Whittier and the little town of Hope were these unbelievable places that it's hard to imagine exist. So, that area has got so much natural beauty, there's national parks down there, so the Kenai Peninsula is definitely an area that we spent a fair amount of time. We were there for maybe a week or so, but we definitely would like to go back and spend some more time. And Denali National Park is just an incredible place. You get to go see Mount Denali, which is an unbelievable sight, as long as you can see it, which you need to have a clear day in order to be able to see it. But that was an area—I actually have family in that area—so we hung around there for probably about two weeks and just really enjoyed it. And if you want a really unique experience while you're there, we would definitely recommend flying. So, we went for a flight in a small six-person plane, and it just gave you this incredible view of all the natural beauty that's out there and a really unique perspective.   Host: I remember seeing that Reel, it looked awesome.   Guest: It was, I still dream of it to this day. And when we go back, we're running to that small plane and going for another flight. I do want to say, though, I think, nothing against Fairbanks, but it's just another typical town. That's something that we wouldn't really recommend you don't need to go. We think that, yeah, spend more time down in Denali area, Hatcher Pass, Kenai Peninsula, and you'll be golden.   Host: Awesome. Now, speaking of that plane ride, because if anybody goes and looks at your Instagram and sees what that looks like, it's going to absolutely be on their bucket list. What do you remember, cost-wise, to do something like that? Like, what should someone prepare for?   Guest: So this is where it's not going to be very helpful because my cousin is a pilot, and so, shout out to Greg, he lives out there, and so he operates an air taxi service and operates a lodge within Denali National Park, so we got to fly for free. However, if you are looking to fly, you're looking to pay probably about $250 per person for like an hour sightseeing flight. So, it's not necessarily cheap, and it is absolutely worth it because the things that you will see are unbelievable. So, would still recommend, but I know that's not a super helpful answer. I will say, too, the Denali National Park, there's a road closure right now, and it will be closed for a couple more years. And so it's just the best way to see more of the park because, sadly, you can only drive in. It's still gorgeous, of course, but you can only drive in to a certain point, and then they make you turn around because it's not safe. The, I don't know how to explain it, but the road kind of just collapsed on itself, I guess. So, yeah, you definitely want to take that plane ride. And I'm someone who was really fearful of flying, and it was so peaceful once you just get distracted by how beautiful it is. And it's really, really beautiful, and you just can't think about how scared you are. So, it's worth it.   Host: Perfect. And you said Greg operates a company that'll actually take people out to do this, right?   Guest: Yeah, so his company is Kantishna Air Taxi, and so they offer private sightseeing flights, and he's a great pilot.   Host: Awesome. We'll put his information in the show notes, and then tell him Chad sent them.   Guest: That'd be great.   Host: So, as far as transportation to actually get there, obviously, you can fly in. There's tons of ways. But you guys are taking yourself converted van. So, what was that process like for you to actually drive into Alaska, and what did you need to prepare before?   Guest: So, there's two primary routes that you can take if you're going to drive to Alaska. One of them is the Alaskan Highway that starts in Dawson Creek, Alberta, and takes you through Northern Alberta into the Yukon Territory and then over into Alaska. That route is a little bit more commercialized. It's the most popular route to take. And so, there's just some more options for food or more options for lodging and more stops for gas along that route. We came that way back from Alaska down through Canada. The other route that you can take is the Cassiar Highway, which runs along the western part of Canada and takes you up through British Columbia. That route, in our opinion, is more naturally beautiful. It is also very remote. There was a period of three or four days as we were driving. This was during the work week, so we were driving maybe three to four hours per day, but there was a three to four day period where we did not have cell phone service one time. So, it is very remote. There's not a ton of options for lodging or for gas. So, you definitely would need to be in a van or an RV if you want to go that route so that you can find random spots to stay. And you need to have some pretty off-grid capable. But if that is the case, that was the route that we enjoyed the most. Going through the mountains of British Columbia was unbelievable. It was really, really nice, and that's probably the route that we will end up going back when we head back there this summer.     Host: Very good. I guess that's why in episode one that you guys did, you talked about getting the Starlink, and you're glad you had it going into Alaska, right?   Guest: 100%. Yeah, we talked to a couple of people that had gone to Alaska before, so that's a great tip too, you know? If you're thinking about going to Alaska, reach out to us for sure, and we can tell you all our tips and tricks. But someone said, "No, you for sure need a Starlink because there's just complete dead zones." And, yeah, anytime you pass a gas station, fill up no matter where you're at. And yeah, it's quite the adventure. As far as what else we'd recommend planning, I mean, if you have something like Starlink, then of course you can get access to the internet everywhere, and that gave us a little bit of peace of mind so that if something were to go wrong as we were traveling and we were in more remote places, you know that you could hop on the internet and you could get in contact with whoever you needed to. Otherwise, I would say just plan for the fact that gas is really expensive, especially in that part of Canada and in Canada in general. So, the cost of gas is going to be very high. That's something to plan for. And then as far as like your food and what you're bringing with you and some of your rations with water, you'll just want to be a little bit more intentional about some of those things because it is more sparse and it's more remote. And so, have a plan for food, pack a lot more dry food that you can have access to as you're traveling just in case you go longer spells without having access to a grocery store. But those are some of the things that I think would be a good idea to think about.   Host: Yeah, very good. Good tips. I like that. And then as far as once you got into Alaska, I assume you probably stayed the majority of the time in your van. Maybe you stayed with your family a little bit. But did you guys have any spots that were like these amazing spots you need to go find them to park your van at for the night? Or were there any campgrounds that you stayed at?   Guest: Oh, my goodness. There's so many spots that we loved. On our way up there, there's a spot in the Yukon that was really sketchy to drive down to, but we loved it. And the other thing, if you're going to caravan with people, definitely have walkie-talkies because that just makes it so much more fun when you see a black bear or see a moose. That's also something, definitely have walkie-talkies. And we used that when we were driving down this sketchy road to this beautiful spot in the Yukon. And then in Alaska itself, I mean, there's just... we... you can stay at Hatcher Pass, you can stay in... there's a place in Seward where we loved, and it's super flat, so there's a ton of different vans and Airstreams and all sorts of campers there too. We didn't stay in any campgrounds, though. I don't think we did. There's a spot called the Dyea Flats, which is if you go to Skagway, a really, really beautiful place, one of our maybe favorite camp spots that we had. So, we did a lot of... I mean, the nice thing about driving to Alaska is that there's tons of options of places to stay because you can stay pretty much anywhere. So, when you think of BLM or Forestry Service land out west as you're going through British Columbia and the Yukon and when you're in Alaska, that's a majority of what's out there. There's not many people, so you can just go to little pull-offs or if you find a place where you can fit your rig, for the most part, you can probably stay there. So, you can kind of get off the beaten path and find some really unique places to sleep and stay for a night or stay for a few days.   Host: Yeah, very cool. So it sounds like as far as finding a spot to sleep, you don't have to worry about shelling out a ton of money for that. Gas is a little bit expensive, but as far as other costs in Alaska, what do you guys feel like? Were you spending way more on food or do you feel like it was pretty comparable to other places you've been?   Guest: We were spending a lot more on food for sure. We went to this one small grocery store, I remember, and I felt like they had things shipped in from Costco but then jacked up the prices. So definitely, food is expensive because the grocery stores are really far away from each other. And those will definitely be the two biggest things to plan for: food and gas. Your typical food and gas budget for a month, I would multiply them by probably one and a half and expect that that's probably about what you'll pay for as you're traveling to Alaska and back. And then, of course, it's just kind of discretionary from there. But if you want to eat out, if you want to do activities, things are definitely a bit more expensive as you're going through those different areas. So those would be good things to plan for from a budgeting standpoint.   Host: Yeah, sure. Besides the plane, were there any other activities that you guys did indulge in while you were there?   Guest: No, yes, there wasn't. Frankly, we were on a budget on our trip last summer, and you know, some of that was because we didn't know or realize how expensive gas would be, how expensive food would be. So we didn't really necessarily plan for that, which meant we had less money to spend doing things. But there's tons of activities that you could do if you wanted to. Go whitewater rafting, or if you wanted to go on a boat ride, or if you wanted to go fishing, there are a lot of things that you could do up there. I was going to say, our boat ride, that's why I said no, yes. We did do a boat ride from Skagway to Juno through the Inside Passage. Oh my gosh, it was beautiful. And thanks to my mother-in-law, Chad's mom, that was our birthday gift, I believe, or Christmas... yeah, birthday gift. So yeah, we had some... we were definitely budgeting, and there was... we had a couple of friends that did the plane ride to Katmai, I think it's called, and we would love to do that this summer because that's a place where you can go fly another small plane, beautiful experience. And then there's tons of grizzly bears that are enjoying salmon right in the river, and it's all... there's electric fences, I believe, to just kind of keep you safe. I mean, the grizzlies are super focused on the fish, so everyone's pretty much safe, but it's a beautiful, really cool experience. And honestly, the only way I think I'd want to see a grizzly, but so yeah, there's that trip that people can look forward to. And then I would love to do the whitewater rafting, but so maybe this summer we'll be able to do that. But yeah, all we did last time was the plane ride and the boat trip. I highly recommend that.   Host: For sure, that's awesome. And I mean, you're in Alaska, so especially in the summer, like, put your hiking boots on and start walking.   Guest: Like, that's an adventure in itself. And I think that's the thing, is that you don't necessarily... all of those things are options. I'm sure we didn't get to do many of them, but they would be incredible experiences. And every day, you can just walk out of your van door or whatever your rig is, and there's just natural beauty all around you. And there's tons of free activities and places to explore, so we never found ourselves running out of things to do.   Host: Very cool. Now, obviously, you were there in the summer, so you have a little bit more sunlight than we might be used to, but what was there to do at night?   Guest: Stay outside, because it's light out. One of my favorite memories is we were in Alaska with DJ and Garen, and we were all sitting around a campfire, and Chad was basically falling asleep in his chair. He's like, "I'm ready to go to bed." And I said, "Why?" And it was because it was almost midnight, but it was super light out. So, I mean, at night, you just... you stay outside and hang out, or try to catch the Northern Lights. I mean, those are a huge thing up there, but it honestly didn't get dark enough where we were, so to the point where you could start a four-hour hike at 6 p.m. and you would still finish it with daylight, and you would be fine. So, the answer to what you can do at night is pretty much everything that you could do during the day, which is a very unique experience.   Host: I love that. Normally, we ask, where is a good sunrise or sunset spot? But I mean, those happen so quickly and all together. Probably that... did you even see a real sunrise or sunset when you were there?   Guest: That's a good point. I'm trying to think... I mean, we may... well, we may have seen a couple, but the thing about the daylight, so it is like 20 hours of daylight. So, technically, that means that for four hours, the sun has gone below the horizon. However, it doesn't ever get fully dark. So, I think, like Eileen might have mentioned at one point or maybe in the past episode, there was one night where we tried to see the Northern Lights. We stayed up till about 2:30 a.m. and went to bed realizing that it was never going to get dark enough that wasn't going to be possible. So, um, yeah, starting to get brighter.   Host: That's got to be a weird thing to get used to. How long did it take you to just get used to it being bright all the time? And at what point did it start getting dark?   Guest: It's a very weird thing to get used to. Your internal clock just gets very thrown off. So, I would say for the first probably two or three weeks, it took us a long time to acclimate to it. And your body doesn't feel tired. It'll be 10:00 and it's still very bright out. And so, your body's like, "Well, I don't think it's time to go to bed." So, back to trying to force yourself into some semblance of a routine, we found that that helped, trying to go to bed at 10:30 or 11 o'clock every night. We would definitely recommend having blackout curtains or magnetic shades that you can put on your van or your rig or using something like an eye mask or an eye pillow so that you need to create darkness because it won't be there like you're used to. It's weird.   Host: That's good tips, though, because I mean, everyone knows that in the summer, Alaska's bright, but actually hearing from someone who stayed there for an extended time, like, yeah, no, it really is bright, and you need to bring that eye mask or something. I think that's a really good tip and just something to be prepared for.   Guest: Yeah. And I remember even driving at 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m., right, and the sun was still in your eye. So, 100% bring sunglasses, um, because it's just wild. It's always out, which is beautiful, but it's really... it's weird, for sure. And so then what's kind of odd is, since there's such a huge swing going from 20 hours of daylight in the summer and then 20 hours of darkness in the winter, around late August and September, you start experiencing the difference, and it starts changing. And if you're from the lower 48, you're used to maybe the sunset changes two, three minutes per day, and up in Alaska, it was changing as much as like 8 to 9 minutes per day. So, all of a sudden, a week goes by and it's getting dark an hour earlier. So, when we left in September, I think it was getting dark by like 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. So, it is amazing how it starts to swing. But if you're going there in June, July, early August, it's still going to be pretty bright up.   Host: Wow, that's fascinating. Yeah, and I can't even imagine going there in the wintertime when it's the exact opposite. It would drive you crazy.   Guest: We did meet a couple of those people that can handle it. Actually, his cousin Greg who lives there, he leaves in the winter because yeah, it's just... it's too dark. And we talked to a couple of folks that do stay the whole year, and they say that they never go anywhere without their headlamp. And some of them try to convince us that it's beautiful, which I'm sure it is in its own way, but that would be so hard, I think.   Host: Yeah, yeah. I don't know how it could be beautiful if it's pitch black the whole time.   Guest: The moonlight's... well, the Northern Lights.   Host: Yeah, you can probably see the Northern Lights all day, right?   Guest: Basically. That's funny.   Host: So transitioning now into food, did you guys stop at grocery stores, cook in your van a lot? Just cost-wise, were there any spots that you stopped or found along the way that were great?   Guest: We definitely cooked in our van a lot. For periods of that trip, our meals in the van became very simple things like ramen or things like cereal or whatever it may be that didn't involve a lot of cooking or things that could stay fresh for a long period of time. So, we relied on a lot more boxed things or canned goods just because sometimes we didn't know when we were going to have availability to a grocery store. So, we did a lot of camping or a lot of cooking in our van. There was one restaurant in particular that was outside of Denali National Park called Carston's Public House that we really liked, and we recommend that people go check that out. And there's another brewery that we went to in Anchorage, but I'm drawing a blank on the name of it.   Host: So, Anchorage is actually home to quite a few breweries and distilleries, so if craft brews are your thing, you might want to check it out. I'll put a link in the show notes for more.   Host: I know we talked about quite a bit of things. Are there any things you're doing differently to prepare yourself for this next trip now that you've already been there for six weeks?   Guest: That's a good question. Relaxing, yes, relaxing. I was freaked out about the bear situation, truly. And it's not as bad as you would think. People say you have to be more afraid of moose. But I pictured in my mind that there would be bears everywhere you look, and there wasn't. So, relaxing, that's a good answer. Yeah, I mean, just relaxing from the standpoint of knowing that it's not going to be as intense or as extreme as we thought it was going to be. Relaxing and knowing that when you get there, a city like Anchorage is a very big city. It's going to have all of the big box stores that you're used to. It has all the things that you're used to in the lower 48. So, you're not traveling to like a third world country or something like that. You can find the things that you are used to. If you need to get packages or we navigated all of those things while we were in Alaska. And so, relaxing, I think we'll just approach the whole thing with a little more ease, and that'll feel really good. Awesome, that's a good point. Yeah, just kind of relaxing, taking it easy, and then also budgeting. You've been there once. You're preparing more to spend one and a half times what somebody might expect to have to pay if they hadn't gone before.   Host: So great, we can transition to the 3-2-1 Countdown, the final three questions of the podcast. We might have brought up a few things here, but what are three things people are bringing when they're going to Alaska?   Guest: Bug spray or bug protectant as a whole is what we want to recommend. So, bug spray, fly swatter, and bug nets. We're actually getting some of those soon because there are a lot of mosquitoes, and they're huge. Yeah, we'll say it again, the blackout curtains and eye mask. You've got to have some kind of plan for making your rig dark. So, whatever that's going to look like for you, you'll want to think about that, or else you're going to have a really difficult time sleeping, and that will be a challenge. And then, our last thing is binoculars, which the cool people in Alaska call them "binos." And that's so you can see hopefully some wildlife from afar and at a safe distance, right? So, binoculars for sure.   Host: Cool. Did you get to see it all your last time out? I mean, the big... the grizzly bears, the moose, the wolves?   Guest: Yeah, we did not see a grizzly bear in Alaska, which was disappointing. We did see one on our trip back, actually once we got back into the US, in Montana. But otherwise, we saw tons of black bears, we saw quite a bit of moose, we did see wolves. So, we saw a good mix of things but not a grizzly when we were in Alaska. So, hopefully this summer will be different. Really? I don't know, we don't have to hope, a grizzly, maybe from afar through the electric fence, right? Through the binos.   Host: What are two complaints or things people wish they had prepared more for when venturing to Alaska?   Guest: We probably talked about a few of them. Yeah, so we're going to go back to the bugs. That is something that you want to be aware of. They are everywhere. There's nowhere that you can go that you're going to be able to get away from them. The mosquitoes are huge, they are nasty, they are persistent. And so, having tons and tons of bug spray on you, having solutions to try to keep them out of the van is very helpful. But that's just, I think, one of the most common complaints. And if you go on any social media and just look up videos of the mosquitoes in Alaska, you'll see some pretty crazy stuff. But that is something that you are going to want to be aware of. It's worth it, though. I mean, and I think there were days or locations where they were worse or if it was windy, I feel like they weren't out as much. But I remember, I was cutting his hair in the middle of nowhere, and I was getting eaten alive, and thankfully, the haircut wasn't too bad, but the mosquitoes are really distracting and annoying. But bug spray does work, so definitely just bring a lot of that bug spray. And then the second thing is bears, again, for sure. Definitely just think about safety and peace of mind. So, having something like bear spray was something that we had with us at all times. Anytime, you know, if you're parked off the road somewhere and if you've got animals around or dogs, since you do have food in your van that you can't always keep airtight, you just want to always be bear-conscious and animal-conscious in general. So, that's something that I guess could be a sort of complaint or something that at least you'll want to think a lot about and be very conscious of. Hiking in groups is really great, and just talking a lot is good too. Those were some of the tips. So, we would always just say "hi bear" or talk or sing, and that was in the beginning when we were really anxious, I'm talking about myself, I just always talking. But just doing those things helps. And then having the bear spray just helps you feel a little more safe.   Host: How are the roads? I had heard people, they've said if you go to Alaska, have a spare tire, and if you have room, bring a second spare tire. But there's... you said there were two main roads to kind of get through. Were they rough or how did you maneuver that?   Guest: They're not great. So, a spare tire would definitely be a good idea. Also, plan for your windshield taking some pretty serious dents from rocks. We probably picked up ten different dents in our windshield of all different sizes, and one of them led to a pretty big crack in our windshield. So, yes, having a spare tire is a great idea. And not that there's a whole lot that you can do about your windshield, but that's something to just think about and probably going to be a reality as well. So, the roads are not great, especially... there are sections of them that are very, I'm going to call them bouncy. I mean, there's like really big hills. It's a roller coaster, to the point where there's moments where our van was like two wheels would go off the ground, and then you'd slam back down. So, yeah, the roads are not great, so that's something to just be aware of. You will need to at points drive slow, even though you're in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing around. But spare tires are definitely a good idea.   Host: Do you have 4x4?   Guest: No, we don't, and we were fine. I mean, you have to know some of your limitations with that, but there weren't any roads... the main roads getting to and from Alaska, you don't need four-wheel drive. After everything we just mentioned, it's like... you have to know that it's stunning, right? There are bears, there are mosquitoes, there's all this stuff, the roads are terrible. But it goes to show you how epic it is. So, it's worth it.   Host: Yeah, no, there's bears, mosquitoes, the roads, but yet not only did you guys do that, you're going back for another three, four months. Clearly, it's worth it. All right, guys, one last question: what is one thing you cannot leave Alaska without doing?   Guest: The plane ride, for sure. You have to get up in the air and see Denali National Park from a plane. It's stunning. You will not believe your eyes, and highly, highly recommend it. The other thing I'm going to say is go jump in a lake or a river. I think you've got to go out and just experience the nature, and I mean, those are some of the lakes and rivers are about as fresh as it gets up there. So, go jump in one. It's a great experience.   Host: Nice, awesome. And we'll have to have you guys back on after you guys do your six-month or your summer adventure up there, and we'll talk about what you guys did that time. So, yeah, well, great. Guys, thanks again for coming on. One last question, where can our audience find out more about you?   Guest: We are @TheMilesVanLife on Instagram, and I'm @EileenRoseMiles. That's my personal Instagram. And then I am ChadMMiles on Instagram, and I have a podcast that is called "A Level Deeper."   Host: All right, sweet. Everybody go check them out. Chad and Eileen, thanks again.   Guest: Thanks, guys.   Host: Thank you.   Guest: Appreciate you both.

Cynthia Kay founded Cynthia Kay and Company media production which produces high-quality communications for organizations from Fortune Global 100 to small business. A graduate of Michigan State University, Kay holds a master's in communications from Western Michigan University.  Cynthia Kay is a passionate spokesperson for small business. For more than 35 years, she has spent significant time speaking to, teaching and coaching small-business owners while running her own award-winning company. She is the Past Board Chair of the National Small Business Association (NSBA).  Cynthia and the company have been honoured with many awards including many Tellys and Woman Owned Small Business Supplier of the Year from Siemens in 2018. She has been named one of West Michigan's 50 Most Influential Women five times, and is the recipient of over 30 broadcast awards from UPI, AP, and other news organizations.  CK & CO Cynthia has authored several books. Her newest book, Small Business, Big Success: How to Beat the Odds and Grow a Great Business (Career Press 2024) is available for pre-order and will be on May 6, 2024. She writes for Entrepreneur.com, has been featured in Time Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine's Ask the Expert and on NPR.   Questions ·    We always like to give the guests an opportunity to share in their own words, a little bit about your journey, how you got from where you were to where you are today. Could you share that with us? · Your book, Small Business. Big Success: How to Beat the Odds and Grow a Great Business. Can you share with our listeners a little bit about that book that you have coming up? And maybe three overarching themes or tenets that the book represents. ·    You've been in business for 35 years, so you've been through all phases of a business over 35 years, not to mention the different experiences that your businesses would have had as it relates to the different travesties that the world had gone through. If you were to pick, let's say, one characteristic that you believe was critical for you to ride the waves over all those years to the point where you are today, what do you believe that would be? ·     Based on your experience, what would you say are maybe five common mistakes that you find small businesses tend to get themselves into? And if you could give maybe a recommendation for each as to how they could prevent themselves from getting trapped into that common mistake? ·  Now, Cynthia, can you also share with our listeners, what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business? ·  Now, can you also share with our listeners, maybe one or two books that you have read, it could be a book that you read a very long time ago or even one that you read recently, but it has had a great impact on you. ·   Where can listeners find you online? ·  Now, before we wrap our episodes up, we always like to ask our guests, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you'll tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get derailed or there's an obstacle that comes in your way, the quote kind of helps to get you back on track.   Highlights Cynthia's Journey Me: Now, even though we ask our guests to provide us with a bio, which you did, amazingly, thank you so much. And we do read the bio at the beginning of the show so the audience has a good idea of who we're interviewing and what they're about. We always like to give the guests an opportunity to share in their own words, a little bit about your journey, how you got from where you were to where you are today. Could you share that with us?   Cynthia shared that for her, it's an interesting story, she hoped it will be for the viewers as well. She actually started her career in broadcasting and was working in the TV business for about 13 and a half years. But she always had in the back of her mind that she wanted to own her own business. And she grew up in a family owned business so she saw her dad and how he worked and how much he loved what he did and his customers.  And so, one day when she got fired and her dad always said, “Honey, you're no one till someone fires you.” She decided that rather than go and work for another television station and she had some opportunities to do that, she decided she wanted to bet on herself. And so, that's how she started her business.   About Cynthia's Book – Small Business. Big Success: How to Beat the Odds and Grow a Great Business Me: Now, you have a new book that's being published in a few months, it's called Small Business. Big Success: How to Beat the Odds and Grow a Great Business. Can you share with our listeners a little bit about that book that you have coming up? And maybe three overarching themes or tenets that the book represents.    Cynthia shared that she really believes that the best way for people to learn about business is by storytelling. And so, the book has not only her story, but stories of entrepreneurs and experts from all over the country. And frankly, that's what makes it so interesting because we all have stories to tell. But she's segmented the book into stages and it is starting up, because the challenges at starting up are very different than the challenges for those who are in second stage or mature businesses.  And then she looks at success at operations because she thinks many small businesses, that's a place that's very difficult for them is to really figure out how to become operationally excellent.  And then success at growth because if we don't grow, we're actually going backwards.  And then finally success at stepping out. And someone asked her, “Well, why cover such a broad expanse in one business? Why not just talk out starting up or stepping out?”  And she said, when you take a look at the whole lifecycle of a business, if you understand that, especially at starting up, and you think about where do you want to end up? Are you growing a lifestyle business? Or are you growing a business to sell it?  If you are in a growth phase, what do you need to really think about? Sometimes it's digging back into what made you successful at start-up and visioning the future? And then also thinking about what kind of legacy do you want?  So, for her covering that expanse and she's been in business now over 35 years, so she's been through many phases of the business. She thinks has been reflective for her to kind of look at each one of those.  And there's lots of things that she talks about, she's talked about customers, it's so important that we understand customers and customer services, it doesn't matter if you run a retail operation or a manufacturing plant or a technology company. But she thinks understanding customers, that's a big overarching theme.  Communications is huge, because it impacts so much of our business, and then also leadership, what does it take to lead a successful enterprise?   One Characteristic That Entrepreneurs Need to Survive Downturns in an Economy Me: So, lots of very critical components that you mentioned in the book to running a business. Now, I know you told us about the overarching themes that the book represents and in your summary just now, you mentioned that you've been in business for 35 years, so you've been through, if not all, well, definitely all phases of a business over 35 years I'm sure. Not to mention the different experiences that your businesses would have had as it relates to the different travesties that the world had gone through, so the pandemic and before that the recession in 2008. So, you'd have had different experiences that different economies would have experienced, that the world experienced. If you were to pick, let's say, one characteristic that you believe was critical for you to ride the waves over all those years to the point where you are today, what do you believe that would be?   Cynthia stated that that one is easy for her. And she thinks this is something that people don't think about a lot, but it's passion. You have to have passion for what you do. If you don't have passion, you cannot survive all of the challenges that you have. She has experienced at least two downturns in the economy and COVID, obviously was huge. But if you don't love what you do, if you don't get up every day, and say, “Wow, what can I do today to make this business better? What can I do today to serve my customers?”  If you don't have that passion, it's easy to get discouraged and she thinks it's easy to give up. And frankly, the businesses that she sees that kind of wither away, it's because they've lost that passion for what they do, it becomes routine and ordinary and in this world, especially in the world of business, you can't survive if it's just same old, same old, you must consistently innovate and to do that, you have to have passion.   Me: So, passion is a number one thing that was able to carry you through. Fantastic, thank you for sharing Cynthia.   Common Mistakes that Small Businesses Make and How to Avoid Them   Me: Now, Cynthia, I'm sure in running a business, there are some common mistakes that sometimes business owners will make, right, regardless of the type of business you're in, whether it's product based or service based. Based on your experience, what would you say are maybe five common mistakes that you find small businesses tend to get themselves into? And if you could give maybe a recommendation for each as to how they could prevent themselves from getting trapped into that common mistake?   Cynthia shared that she thinks the first one is not doing their homework. She thinks so often people believe they have a great idea or a great product, but they're somewhat clouded by their own bubble, by their own world. And so, one of the things that she will tell you is not doing your homework, not going out and saying to someone, not just do you like my idea, or do you like my product? But will you pay for it? So, that's the first one. And the way that you really avoid that common mistake, quite frankly, is to do your research, and to go out and not be afraid to ask the questions. And sometimes she will tell you, she has put in place some efforts that she had to abandon because while she thought it was a great idea, she didn't maybe do enough of the homework to really understand if it was going to be successful. So, that'd be the first one.   And then the second one is financially, can you really withstand the pressures that it takes. So, when she started her business, the first six months, she didn't even take a salary. And she thinks that's very common for a lot of business owners is that they invest in their business. So, are you able to financially withstand what it takes to be able to get through those first really tough years? So, do you have the financing? Do you have the capital? Can you withstand that interim start-up period where you really need to make sure that you have a lot of cushion maybe is the right way to say it.   The third mistake that a lot of business owners make is that they take whatever customer comes to the door and she made that mistake when she first got started, she was so concerned about is she going to be able to pay the rent, that she maybe took customers that she shouldn't have taken because they didn't align with the goal and the core products and values that they had and that's a hard one is to say no to a customer. But if you're getting customers in the door that are taking up your time and taking up your energy and not going to help you move forward, then she thinks that that's a big mistake. And as a result of having made that mistake after she was in business for a while, she kind of had to send customers away and that's very difficult. So, having a good idea of who that ideal customer is and really knowing that.  She thinks communication is a big one. Frankly, she thinks communication is something that business owners don't really spend enough time on, they believe if they have a great product or a great service, that's enough and it's not. You have to be able to articulate your value, you have to be able to communicate that value to your employees because that's so critical because it's not just you, unless you're going to be a solopreneur, which is fine. But if you're going to build an organization, you have to be able to communicate with your employees, you have to be able to educate them, have them understand what the value is of the business, and then being able to communicate to customers. The number one complaint that customers have today is sometimes they lack the communication from businesses, even if it's simply, “I got your phone call and I got your order, and we'll get back to you.” But being able to communicate and being able to articulate is a big one.  And then she thinks the other mistake that she thinks a lot of small businesses make is they don't build an external team that can help them, because as a business owner, you're an expert in what you do, but that doesn't mean that you're an expert in all things. And so, building that really critical team of outside resources, she likes to say who can keep you out of trouble because sometimes you get into trouble because you don't know enough. So, having that critical team of people that you can trust and can go to, she thinks that's it. So, those will be she thinks the five things that she would say are really important.    App, Website or Tool that Cynthia Absolutely Can't Live Without in Her Business When asked about online resource that she can't live without in her business, Cynthia shared that when she saw that question, she was like, there's lots of things she can't live without. Cynthia estimated that because of the business that she's in, they have a tool, it's called Function Point that coordinates all of the efforts. In media production and in communications, consulting, there are so many pieces of every single job that all have to align and being able to track where something is and being able to understand who on the team is doing what, it's a communications tool.  Now, that may be one that it's for creative agencies, but there are other tools. SharePoint, she thinks is a fabulous tool for keeping people really focused. So much of what we do today, there are so many pieces of information and keeping it organized she thinks is the biggest nightmare or it can be the biggest advantage. So, some sort of a communication tool that allows you to track and be able to measure where you are is really critical.    Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Cynthia When asked about books that has a great impact, Cynthia shared that there are two that she really loves. And the one is Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins and she's read that book maybe twice and should go back and read it again. But the reason that she loves that book is that she thinks there is such a difference in just being good and really having a company and growing a company that is excellent. And she thinks today good is just the baseline, everyone expects if you're in business that you're good, but can you be great? So, that's one.  The other one that she really likes is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey. We as people sometimes think we're effective, but we might be missing something. So, those are two that she really loves. And she'll be honest, she hasn't been doing a lot of reading lately, mostly because she's been doing a lot of writing, so, she's been reading her own book. But she does have a list of other books coming up that she would like to read.  And then there's one other one that over the years she's kind of steered people to and it's called Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Other Don't by Simon Sinek. And she thinks so much of the success of organizations and businesses really rests with how effective is the leader, because the business takes on sort of the personality of the leader. So, that's a book that she always recommend because she thinks this idea of servant leadership is one that really can catapult an organization ahead.    Where Can We Find Cynthia Online  LinkedIn – Cynthia Kay Website – www.cynthiakaybiz.com Website – www.thinkck.com    Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Cynthia Uses When asked about a quote or saying that she tends to revert to, Cynthia stated that it's interesting, there are so many quotes that she loves, but her father was a huge influence in her life and there's a quote that her dad always used to say when she faced adversity, and she was struggling and didn't know what to do and he would always say, “Do what's in your heart.” And she really believes that if you look inside, you often know the answer. And so, that's one that she always remember, her dad always said, do what's in your heart.  And his second favourite one was, “They can't pay you enough money to do a job you don't love.” And so, that's her second one.    Me: I love it. Is the second one attributed from your dad as well? Cynthia said absolutely. He was a wonderful businessman. He ran a small business with his two brothers and so much of what she thinks, they learned, they learned by osmosis. She learned a lot about business by watching her dad.  Me: That's fantastic. So, thank you so much for sharing those two quotes, we'll definitely have them in the show notes of this episode.    As we wrap up our episode, we would just like to extend our deepest level of gratitude to you for taking time out of your very busy schedule and coming on our podcast today and sharing about your journey, a little bit about your new book that will be released in May of this year. For those of our listeners that would love to tap into that resource, we'll have Cynthia's contact information in the links for the show notes of the episode so you can definitely follow along and just be abreast of when the book is going to be released and the different platforms that it will be available on so thank you again, Cynthia for coming on and we wish you all the very best.    Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links •    Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins •     The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen Covey •     Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't by Simon Sinek   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

We continue our House of Flame and Shadow deep dive with chapters 31-37.Lidia carries Ruhn (and the entire book) during a dramatic escape from the Eternal City, while Bryce and the Autumn King continue wasting time. Ithan finally finds a storyline (and job) in the House of Flame and Shadow with Jesiba, who promises to help find a necromancer for Sigrid, and Tharion moves his problems to a new location ... again. Next week: chapters 38-42Summon us @DTFaePodcast We like our coffee icy and our books spicy! Oh, and we're totally Down To Fae. A podcast for fantasy romance readers and fans of authors like Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Rebecca Yarros and Carissa Broadbent. Follow along as your delulu hosts discuss your favorite romantasy books in a chapter-by-chapter read, re-read or refresher.

FREEDOM - LIBERTY - HAPPINESS SUPPORT DOC MALIK To make sure you don't miss any episodes please subscribe to either: The paid Spotify subscription here: ⁠https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/docmalik/subscribe The paid Substack subscription here: ⁠https://docmalik.substack.com/subscribe About this conversation: This month's special live stream for my paid subscribers was with Sasha Latypova, a retired pharma R&D executive. However, due to the importance of the content I have decided to make it available for everyone. Frankly, everyone should listen to this podcast and understand the true nature of the Covid plandemic and what its true agenda is. Sasha's substacks are highly informative, witty and entertaining, I highly recommend you subscribe. I hope you enjoy this episode. Much love Ahmad Links Substack ⁠Sasha's Substack Twitter/X ⁠Sasha's Twitter/X IMPORTANT INFORMATION The War On Health II conference is on 30 and 31st March. You can find details of the event, location and prices here ⁠The Big Fat Challenge Remember to use the DOCMALIK code and get £50 off. AFFILIATE CODES Hunter & Gather Foods ⁠Hunter & Gather Foods Use DOC15 to get 15% OFF your first purchase with Hunter & Gather Foods, and DOC10 for 10% off all further purchases. Roots Products Use the following referral link ⁠https://therootbrands.com/DocMalik IMPORTANT NOTICE Following my cancellation for standing up for medical ethics and freedom, my surgical career has been ruined. I am now totally dependent on the support of my listeners, YOU. If you value my podcasts, please support the show so that I can continue to speak up. ⁠Buy me a coffee⁠ If you want to make a one-off donation.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

In this lesson, you'll learn the following phrases: What are you scared of? / I'm scared of the dark. / Frankly speaking / Frankly speaking, I'm scared of flying. / As you already know / As you already know, she is scared of spiders. / I'm not scared of flying. / They are scared of clowns. / I was scared of telling him the truth.

Detroit Lions 2024 Free Agency Fire! In this episode of the Detroit Lions Podcast, Chris and Jeff are back to discuss the the Detroit Lions first week of the 2024 free agency period. Frankly, Brad Holmes and the Detroit Lions have kept things absolutely lit in Allen Park. The team is getting national attention for their strategic grabs without breaking the bank. In some cases the Detroit Lions have done addition by subtraction, but they've made significant strides forward on the defensive side of the ball with key signings along the defensive line and in the secondary. There have also been some signings on the front office staff, we'll talk about that too... Detroit Lions Podcast On Roster Watch The Detroit Lions Podcast will have updates updates and content on the changing roster at DetroitLionsPodcast.com and of course on your YouTube channel with our Detroit Lions Podcast Daily DLP from Ash, Bish & Brown with their reaction to the Lions free-agency moves, and maybe a little treat from Chris and Jeff individually as news unfolds. Buckle up, this is going to be another busy week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6D8wZUVLxM Let us know what you think about the show by commenting in the podcast thread in the subreddit, or by leaving us a voice mail message via Skype at: Detroit Lions Podcast Your input will help make the show better, and if you leave us a message on Skype, you just might be featured in an upcoming podcast! You can also give us a call at (929) 33-Lions. Get yourself a Classic Detroit t-shirt here! Don't miss our great merch selection in the Detroit Lions Podcast store. Looking for the relief that CBD products can bring? Click here: https://bit.ly/2XzawlG Get your Lions Gear at: https://bit.ly/2Ooo5Px As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made here: https://amzn.to/36e2ZfD Donate Direct at: https://bit.ly/2qnEtFj Join the Patreon Crew at: https://bit.ly/2bgQgyj #lions #detroitlions #detroitlionspodcast #allgrit #onepride #nfl #nfldraft #lionsdraft #detroitlionsdraft #2024nflfreeagency #freeagency #freeagent Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A bill is quickly moving through Congress that supposedly would “ban TikTok.” While it is clearly aimed at TikTok, this bill is really about creating a new Presidential power to remove Americans' access to apps, websites, games and other entire tech platforms. In this episode, using the text of the bill itself, we examine how exactly this new censorship power would work if the bill passes the Senate and becomes law. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes The Not a TikTok Ban Bill Drew Harwell et al. March 13, 2024. The Washington Post. David E. Sanger. March 13, 2024. The New York Times. Aamer Madhani. March 8, 2024. AP News. Opposition to the bill Jenna Leventoff. March 13, 2024. ACLU. Access Now et al. March 12, 2024. ACLU. How we got here Dan Primack. March 12, 2024. Axios. Samantha Delouya and Brian Fung. November 30, 2023. CNN. Emily Baker-White. August 21, 2023. Forbes. November 20, 2023. Reuters. Brian Fung. December 30, 2022. CNN. James K. Jackson. February 14, 2020. Congressional Research Service. Grindr Echo Wang. May 13, 2019. Reuters. Jeff Farrah. April 15, 2019. TechCrunch. ByteDance Lily Kuo and Annabelle Timsit. March 13, 2024. The Washington Post. April 16, 2023. TikTok. Censorship and Spying Jonathan Vanian. January 22, 2024. CNBC. May 16, 2023. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Public Affairs. Marielle Descalsota. December 27, 2022. Business Insider. Lily Hay Newman. May 7, 2019. Wired. Israel and AIPAC Camille Bressange. March 16, 2024. The Wall Street Journal. Kate Linthicum. March 13, 2024. The Los Angeles Times. Celine Alkhaldi et al. March 8, 2024. CNN. December 3, 2023. Velshi on MSNBC. Rep. Mike Gallagher. November 1, 2023. The Free Press. Mater Dei High School. TikTok September 20, 2021. BBC. The Bill Audio Sources House Floor March 13, 2024 Clips 19:00 Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY): There was there were some people who were legitimately concerned that this was an overly broad bill and they got an exclusion written into the bill that I want to read. It says the term "covered company" does not include an entity that operates a website or application, whose primary purpose is to allow users to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews. Why is this exception in the bill? Why did somebody feel like they needed this exception if the bill itself only covers social media applications that foreign adversaries are running now? 21:15 Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ): While this bill establishes a national security framework that could apply to other applications, much of the public attention is focused on TikTok. 23:15 Rep. Michael Gallagher (R-WI): Mr. Speaker, TikTok is a threat to our national security because it is owned by ByteDance, which does the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party. We know this because ByteDance's leadership says so and because Chinese law requires it. This bill, therefore, would force TikTok to break up with the Chinese Communist Party. It does not apply to American companies. It only applies to companies subject to the controlof foreign adversaries defined by Congress. It says nothing about election interference and cannot be turned against any American social media platform. It does not impact websites in general. The only impacted sites are those associated with foreign adversary apps, such as TikTok.com. It can never be used to penalize individuals. The text explicitly prohibits that. It cannot be used to censor speech. It takes no position at all on the content of speech, only foreign adversary control of what is becoming the dominant news platform for Americans under 30. 25:55 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): This divestment requirement is not new. It's not without precedent. When the app Grindr, a popular LGBTQ app, was acquired by a Chinese company, and the United States government determined that sensitive data of LGBTQ members of the military and US government officials got into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, they required divestment. This happened quickly. Why? Because Grindr was a very valuable social media company. The same is true with regard to TikTok, and there will be no disruption to users, just as there was with Grindr. 27:25 Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Last week, under the leadership of the Chairwoman and the Ranking Member, they brought up for consideration our bill before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On the morning of that vote, TikTok, delivered a push notification and a pop up to thousands of users across the country. They used geolocation data targeting minor children to then force them to call congressional offices in order to continue using the app. And in doing so, these children called and they asked the question: what is Congress? And what is a Congressman? This influence campaign illustrates the need for this bill. 29:20 Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH): The people sponsoring this bill today claim that the real issue is ownership. But who owns this company? It's not 100% owned by Bytedance. 60% of it's owned by investors, including American investors. 20% are owned by the founders and 20% are owned by over 7000 employees. The company's headquarters is not in China, it's in Singapore. And the American user data isn't housed in China. It's housed in Texas, controlled by a database owned by Oracle. 30:20 Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH): So if we think we can address the privacy concerns, what's left to address? Frankly, content moderation. Remember, before Elon Musk bought the crime scene at Twitter, it was all a conspiracy theory that these algorithms were silencing and canceling people. You guys are crazy. Now when Elon Musk bought Twitter, he did keep it operating with 80% fewer employees. But what we found is a lot of the employees were trying to do content moderation, shape who sees what and how they see it, which algorithms are used, how does it promote certain people and, and filter others? So really, what you're saying here is if you're not fully engaged with America's three letter agencies in content moderation, we plan to 'TikTok' you. And this bill isn't just limited to TikTok. It's a coercive power that can be applied to other apps like Telegram, Tor. Things that provide privacy would be targeted by this bill. 34:20 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): First of all, this is not a ban on TikTok. I'm a grandmother of teenagers, I understand the entertainment value, the educational value, communication value, the business value for some businesses on this. This is not an attempt to ban TikTok. Its an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic Tac Toe. A winner, a winner. 41:00 Brett Guthrie (R-KY): I was asked, does this just affect TikTok? And no, it's any foreign adversary, or any app that is owned, controlled or unduly influenced by any foreign adversary. We must protect our national security and help keep America's private data out of the hands of our foreign adversaries. I urge support of this bill, and I yield back. 51:55 Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN): After hearing from national security experts last week, it is clear the prolific use of media platforms controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign adversaries poses a danger to our country. 53:15 Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA): This bill would greatly expand the Executive's authority to ban tech companies with zero congressional oversight. I cannot sign a blank check to some future president who would easily and dangerously weaponize this legislation to profit in silence. 55:20 Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL): We aren't banning a company, as the high paid lobbyists for Bytedance - which is owned by China - would lead you to believe. We aren't infringing on constitutionally protected speech or growing the size of government. All we're saying is, Break up with the Chinese Communist Party. 1:02:30 Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY): Who's going to be prosecuted by this bill? Is it Bytedance or TikTok? Will they be taken to court? No. I mean, they're the target of this, but how do you elicit or effect a ban on them? By prosecuting Americans? The only way you can ban TikTok and the other companies from being here is to say what this bill says, which is the government will bring a civil action suit against you, if you so much as host them here. If you have an app store that allows them to be here, you're an American or an American company and you will be the target of this bill. Those are the only people who can be pursued under this bill and I know it's in order to go after TikTok, or so they say. Music by Editing Production Assistance

Marty is one of the most colorful people I know in Alcoholics Anonymous. Because Marty and I attend many of the same meetings each week, we've gotten to know each other quite well over the past nine years.  Unfortunately, those years included relapses after 10 months, then another relapse after 14 months of sobriety. It was after his last slip, however, which landed him in a New York City hospital after a failed suicide attempt, that Marty finally embraced the Program and honestly got to work on sobriety. That was over six years ago and he's been sober since. Frankly, Marty's first couple of forays in AA were noticed by many of us as well-intentioned but half-hearted attempts to subserve the Program with his own intellect and self-will for staying sober. It obviously didn't work. We were all familiar with the well-worn approach of just showing up at meetings, but not doing the actual work. So, with no real investment in his own recovery or spiritual condition, but still trying to run the show, it's not surprising he slipped early on. But the damage he'd done to his family, friendships, and career along the way finally caught up with him. So did the notion of checking out. By God's grace, Marty was given a second, or should I say, last chance to build a sober life. Today, Marty is firmly anchored in the center of AA by virtue of his continual meeting attendance, close relationship with his sponsor, daily meditation and prayer, and lots of service work with sponsees. His commitment to long-term sobriety is reflected in his Program, as is the ready acknowledgement that one drink could end it all. And while his story on today's AA Recovery Interviews podcast is as entertaining as ever, it's underlying message of hope for those who may be struggling is both immediate and vital for all to hear. I'm doing more face-to-face interviews these days, so audio quality on this podcast is quite good. This is the 53rd episode with many, many more to come. But for now, tune into the next hour and enjoy my interview with my good friend and AA brother, Marty S. [This is an encore of Episode 53, originally released November 24, 2021]. If you've enjoyed my AA Recovery Interviews series and my Big Book podcast, have a listen to Lost Stories of the Big Book, 30 Original Stories Missing from the 3rd and 4th Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's an engaging audiobook I narrated to bring these stories to life for AA members who've never seen them. These timeless testimonials were originally cut to make room for newer stories in the 3rd and 4th Editions. But their vitally important messages of hope are as meaningful today as when they were first published. Many listeners will hear these stories for the first time. Lost Stories of the Big Book is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. It's also available as a Kindle book and in Paperback from Amazon if you'd like to read along with the audio. I also invite you to check out my latest audio book, “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism.” This is the word-for-word, cover-to-cover reading of the First Edition of the Big Book, published in 1939. It's a comfortable, meaningful, and engaging way to listen to the Big Book anytime, anyplace. Have a free listen at Audible, i-Tunes, or Amazon. [Disclaimer: AA Recovery Interviews podcast strictly adheres to AA's 12 Traditions and all General Service Office guidelines for safe-guarding anonymity on-line. I pay all podcast production costs. AA Recovery Interviews and my guests do not speak for or represent AA at-large. This podcast is simply my way of giving back to AA that which has been so freely given to me. -Howard L.]

Today's guest is very intentional about designing and building winning teams. She spent the better part of almost 20 years building phenomenal sales teams at Salesforce. Christina Smears is the Vice President, Global Sales Development & Inside Sales at MongoDB. Christina joins Host Matt Benelli to share why leaders shouldn't try to build a team of people who are exactly like them, the parallels between teaching and selling technology solutions, and how to empower people in your organization to innovate. Takeaways:Building diverse teams is not just about gender or race; it's about including people with varied experiences, skill sets, and backgrounds. Diverse teams are more creative, innovative, and outperform homogeneous ones. Leaders are encouraged to proactively reach out and recruit diverse talent to enhance team performance.Every professional, regardless of their experience level, can benefit from having a coach. Coaching helps in uncovering blind spots, accelerating personal growth, and improving leadership skills. It's important to find a coach that aligns with your values and challenges you to grow.Prioritize tasks and goals by differentiating between 'glass balls' (critical and fragile) and 'rubber balls' (resilient and can bounce back). This helps in focusing on what truly matters and supports better decision-making during the onboarding process and in high-pressure situations. Acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of team members regularly. Recognition serves as a powerful motivator and plays a vital role in fostering a positive work environment. It's about creating a culture where appreciation is freely given, reinforcing positive behaviors and contributions. Leaders should foster a culture that values trying new ideas and approaches, even if they might fail. Encourage innovation by allowing team members to take initiative and experiment, thereby accelerating learning and adaptation. Remember, as a leader, you play a significant role in your team members' lives. Your actions, words, and decisions impact them deeply. Strive to be a positive force, supporting your team's growth, job satisfaction, and success.Quote of the Show:“I think the best teams are where I hire people that are different than me in skill set, background, and strengths. Frankly that's how you create an amazing team.” - Christina SmearsLinks:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinasmears/ Website: https://www.mongodb.com/ Shoutouts:Multipliers by Liz WisemanDavid Priemer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpriemer/ A Curious Mind by Brian Grazer and Charles FishmanLean In by Sheryl SandbergOprah WinfreyTony Rodoni: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyrodoni/ Ways to Tune In:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Yb1wPzUxyrfR0Dx35ym1A Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coach2scale-how-modern-leaders-build-a-coaching-culture/id1699901434 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL2NvYWNoMnNjYWxlLWhvdy1tb2Rlcm4tbGVhZGVycy1idWlsZC1hLWNvYWNoaW5nLWN1bHR1cmU Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fd188af6-7c17-4b2e-a0b2-196ecd6fdf77 Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/coach2scale-how-modern-leaders-5419703 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Coach2Scale CoachEm™ is the first Coaching Execution Platform that integrates deep learning technology to proactively analyze patterns, highlight the "why" behind the data with root causes, and identify the actions that will ultimately improve business results going forward.  These practical coaching recommendations for managers will help their teams drive more deals, bigger deals, faster deals and loyal customers. Built with decades of go-to-market experience, world-renowned data scientists and advanced causal AI/ML technology, CoachEm™ leverages your existing tech stack to increase rep productivity, increase retention, and replicate best practices across your team.Learn more at coachem.io

Are you an adult but obsessed with things that you should've left in childhood? For example, Disney, Harry Potter, Twilight? Harry Potter actress Miriam Margolyes says fans of the franchise should ‘be over that by now' as ‘it was 25 years ago and is for children.' Frankly we think the magic should stay alive even though we're old... Is that sad?  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recorded March 5 2024   Description  In this Frankly, Nate shares his perspective on the new all-time high in oil production in the context of AI's growing influence in the financial markets and technology space. While ‘all liquids' just hit an all time high, the varying categories of what is considered oil obfuscates a long plateau that is starting to decline. However, given AI's expanding reach, it may not only invent ways of getting a higher percentage of Original Oil In Place to our economies, but also increase demand for energy worldwide. In similar fashion to shale fracking, MMT, and debt, AI will increasingly widen the resource extraction/ecosystem damage “straw”. Artificial intelligence is potentially a wonderful tool, but it is lower down the hierarchy than money/power maximization and thus will accelerate, not diminish climate change and other environmental damages. Can we resist the cleverness of AI and its ability to drain sources to the very last drop to instead navigate the road to the Great Simplification with wisdom?      YouTube Link here   For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/56-peak-oil-ai-and-the-straw

Padres CEO Erik Greupner on where Padres have improved the most, new GA season tix plan, chances of cable and or YouTube TV deal, reality of the CBT tier and why Padres need to develop homegrown players.

Please follow Quite Frankly: https://www.quitefrankly.tv https://rumble.com/c/QuiteFrankly https://twitter.com/QuiteFranklyTV   We The People must stand strong, stay united, resolute, calm and focus on the mission - God Wins!   We at www.themelkshow.com want to thank all our amazing patriots pals for joining us on this journey, for your support of our work and for your faith in this biblical transition to greatness. We love what we do and are working hard to keep on top of everything to help this transition  along peacefully and with love. Please help us amplify our message: Like, Comment & Share!   The Show's Partners Page: https://themelkshow.com/partners/ Consider Making A Donation: https://themelkshow.com/donate/   Another way to get involved and find ways to become active in the community is to come meet Mel and many amazing truth warriors at our upcoming live in person speaking events. Together we are unstoppable. We look forward to seeing you. God Wins! https://themelkshow.com/events/   MEET for America Colorado Springs, Colorado March 2   Liberty Defenders Speaker Series Stuart, Florida March 12   ReAwaken America Tour Detroit, MI June 7th & 8th  Remember to mention Mel K for great discounts on all these fun and informative events. See you there! Our Website www.TheMelKShow.com   Rumble (Video) - The Mel K Show: https://rumble.com/c/TheMelKShow Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelKShow Twitter (Original): https://twitter.com/originalmelk TRUTH Social: https://truthsocial.com/@themelkshow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelkshow/ CloutHub: https://app.clouthub.com/#/users/u/TheMelKShow Mel K Show Video Platform (Subscription): https://www.themelkshow.tv Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/Iw2kiviwZpwx/ Podbean: https://themelkshow.podbean.com/ Gab: https://gab.com/MelKShow GETTR: https://www.gettr.com/user/themelkshow Locals.com: https://melk.locals.com/ Banned Video: https://banned.video/channel/the-mel-k-show Brighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/themelkshow Odysee: https://odysee.com/@themelkshow:5   If you are interested to explore investing in precious metals please contact below and mention MelK for special offers:   Beverly Hills Precious Metals Exchange Buy Gold & Silver https://themelkshow.com/gold/ Speak with Gold Expert Andrew Sorchini…Tell Him Mel K Sent You!   Support Patriots With MyPillow Go to https://www.mypillow.com/melk Use offer code “MelK” to support both MyPillow and The Mel K Show   Mel K Superfoods Supercharge your wellness with Mel K Superfoods Use Code: MELKWELLNESS and Save Over $100 off retail today! www.MelKSuperfoods.com   Patriot Mobile Support your values, your freedom and the Mel K Show. Switch to Patriot Mobile for Free. Use free activation code MELK https://www.patriotmobile.com/melk/   HempWorx The #1 selling CBD brand. Offering cutting edge products that run the gamut from CBD oils and other hemp products to essential oils in our Mantra Brand, MDC Daily Sprays which are Vitamin and Herb combination sprays/ https://themelkshow.com/my-daily-choice/   Dr. Zelenko Immunity Protocols https://zstacklife.com/MelK   The Wellness Company - Emergency Medical Kits: www.twc.health/pages/melk-prepkit   Dr. Jason Dean and BraveTV bring you the most innovative and cutting edge science in Nutrition with Nano-Particle Detoxification, The Full Moon Parasite Protocol and Clot Shot Defense. https://bravetv.store/?sca_ref=3278505.GWvLbyryzv   Dr. Stella Immanuel, MD. Consult with a renowned healthcare provider! Offering Telehealth Services & Supplements. Use offer code ‘MelK' for 5% Off https://bit.ly/MelKDrStellaMD

Recorded February 26 2024   Description   In this Frankly, Nate shares insights on his personal/organizational priorities as a lead up to outlining 7 global interventions that he sees as being most impactful in preparing for a resource constrained future. As global stability deteriorates and the various macro-crises converge, how we invest our time and resources now can have a big impact for the various scenarios coming our way.  Can we as individuals and communities place health and wellness at the forefront of our responses - which would in turn leverage many other higher impact initiatives? What would healthy humans surrounded by community and a shared purpose, informed by the ecological systems synthesis be able to accomplish?   To Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Mk84BZANyWk   For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/55-7-key-interventions-for-the-future  

On this episode of The Hollywood Outsider podcast, our main topic revolves around the struggle that occurs when it seems as though everyone loves a specific movie... but you. What do you do? Do you revisit the films later? Do you adjust your mood and watch it again? Do you question your own taste? We discuss this questions as well as dive into some of the films we have this experience with over the years, as well as a few popular listener choices on the subject. Also on this episode, is our spoiler-free review of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender. Does this live-action take finally get the essence of the original series right? Finally, Awards shows move to streaming, Fast and Furious comes to an end (finally?), and Denis Villeneuve rattles fans with a savage take on cinema as he states, Frankly, I hate dialogue. Dialogue is for theatre and television. Discussed on this episode (0:00 – 21:24) Awards Shows Go Streaming, Fast and Furious Ends, and Denis Villeneuve Hates Dialogue (21:25 – 40:42) Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Review (40:43 – 1:31:34) From The Outside In: When Everyone Loves A Movie... But You Listen to our new podcast, Inspired By A True Story, now available in your favorite podcast feed! Please support The Hollywood Outsider and gain immediate access to bonus content, including Patreon exclusive podcast content like our Bad Movie Night by visiting Patreon.com/ TheHollywoodOutsider Be sure to join our Facebook Group Follow us on X @BuyPopcorn Subscribe on Apple Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe via RSS

Jennifer and Amber Frankhuizen continue their discussion on the language of luxury and how to effectively communicate with high net worth individuals. In this episode, they cover the importance of boundaries, the value of collaborations, and the impact of surprise and delight to further enhance the overall client experience. Learn how to craft a luxury brand that encompasses consistency, high quality, and exclusivity, as well as the do's and don'ts for successful marketing communication. Hit play to gain strategies and tactics that will help you elevate your marketing efforts and attract a loyal luxury clientele! About Amber Frankhuizen: Her LinkedIn bio says she's “the Founder, CEO & Chief Strategist at AFMKTG,” which is true, but it's not the whole truth. (Frankly, it way undersells what she actually does). The reality is, Amber founded her award-winning creative agency, AFMKTG, on an ironing board, figuring out how to build a profitable business out of nothing after jumping from the corporate ladder without a plan or a parachute. Her experience in building her own business, managing nearly a half-billion dollars in real estate assets, and being a mentor and coach for 10+ years has culminated in the birth of the Old Money Podcast. Amber is bold, straight up and direct - she has provocative views on business and a tongue-in-cheek approach that keeps her team and clients on their toes. oldmoneypodcast.com Today we will cover: (03:05) Being curious and willing to learn new things (06:20) The role of language and consistency in building credibility (08:05) Focusing on benefits rather than features (11:55) Leveraging copywriters for authentic and effective language (13:40) Testimonials and word-of-mouth recommendations (18:05) Learning from successful luxury brands' marketing materials (22:45) Collaborations and limited editions to enhance exclusivity (28:30) Successful luxury brands: Rolex, Hermes, BMW, Porsche (31:35) Setting boundaries and limiting number of clients (34:30) Surprise and delight - client gifting (38:15) The do's and don'ts of luxury marketing communication CREATING A SERVICE SUITE FOR SUCCESS Register Now! tiquehq.com/creating-a-service-suite-for-success _____ JOIN OUR NICHE COMMUNITY: tiquehq.com/join-niche FOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/tiquehq CHECK OUT OUR SERVICES & PROGRAMS: tiquehq.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comSpike Eskin of Rights to Ricky Sanchez is here because a few of his favorite characters are in the news. Frankly, there's no better person to cover Doc Rivers vs. JJ Redick as it plays out in the media. Who's right? Who's wrong? Does Spike hate JJ more than JJ hates basketball fans? Topics...* Spike on where Doc is lying* ESPN's hilariously unbelievable reporting on Doc taking the Bucks job* Why did Redick get blasted for his correct take on Doc?* Redick's bizarre meta media critique and “54K pageviews” humblebrag* Redick's appeal as Twitter mirror* JJ's postseason vulnerability * Why does Spike hate JJ? * How Tony Romo went from great to less great announcer* I failed my customers by doing too much football this season* What's with writers fearing AI replacement?

In episode 1624, Jack and guest co-host Andrew Ti are joined by TV writer, comedian, performer, and producer, Joey Clift, to discuss… Jon Stewart's Daily Show Return Angers Liberals, Biden's TikTok Flip Flop, Biden Unleashes Dark Brandon Meme At Worst Possible Time, Madame Web Is The “Cats Of Superhero Movies” According To Reviews and more! Jon Stewart's Daily Show Return Angers Liberals Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' Return Sparks Backlash From Viewers Biden's TikTok Flip Flop Biden nets 67,000 TikTok followers in first day The Biden Campaign Is Officially Trolling on TikTok Now Nintendo: ‘Refrain from bringing politics' into Animal Crossing game Inside the Biden campaign's surprising influencer strategy Biden campaign decision to join TikTok raises national security concerns Sen. Tom Cotton faces backlash for repeatedly asking TikTok's CEO about his citizenship The Biden Campaign Is Officially Trolling on TikTok Now Majority of Americans say TikTok is a threat to national security Why the proposed TikTok ban is more about politics than privacy, according to experts TikTok and you: Should you delete the app now? President Trump now has a profile on TikTok rival Triller Biden Unleashes Dark Brandon Meme At Worst Possible Time Rafah was Gaza's last safe zone. The Israeli assault will lead to a humanitarian disaster there Israel kills dozens in Rafah strikes, frees two captives Madame Web Is The “Cats Of Superhero Movies” According To Reviews Dakota Johnson Just Can't Be Bothered to Pretend Madame Web Is Good Where does the copypasta text about ‘researching spiders in the Amazon with my mom' come from? Is Spider-Man spinoff Madame Web bad? Listen bud, it's just radioactive crud You Know ‘Madame Web' Is Bad When ‘Morbius' Starts Trending Again There's a Reason Sony's Spider-Man Universe Is, Frankly, Bizarre LISTEN: Velvet Blue by Ray LozanoSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.