Podcasts about gen xers

For most GenXers, going to the beach in the 70s and 80s meant jumping waves, building sandcastles, and getting sun poisoning so bad you and your siblings would take turns peeling each other's skin off. For Heidi K. Brown, it was her job to put a stop to all that beach fun. Her summers were spent pounding the hot sand passing out flyers trying to convince parents to hand their kids over to her parents' Vacation Bible School. Bitchin' summer? NOT! In this episode, Eileen talks with Heidi about her memoir THE MAP I DRAW, the path that led her from law and legal writing into travel memoir, and how Rome became a turning point in her life. They dig into family, faith, fear, rebellion, and the idea of “aging powerfully” instead of quietly accepting limits.Heidi shares how travel became a form of healing from some of the dysfunction she carried from her conservative fundamentalist Gen X childhood, how she built a writing practice around journals and Morning Pages, and why she sees memoir as both storytelling and self-advocacy.Heidi is a Law Professor and Associate Dean for Upper Level Writing at New York Law School. She earned her master's degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. She crafted a life of flourishing through teaching, writing, boxing, jumping up and down at U2 concerts, studying Italian, and traveling the world solo. You can find out more about Heidi at:https://www.heidikristinbrown.com/Follow Heidi Here IG: https://www.instagram.com/introvertedlawyerIG: https://www.instagram.com/heidiographia/ Substack: https://heidiography.substack.com/For information about Heidi's books and speaking engagements please email her at: heidi@theintrovertedlawyer.com.  Support the showStrangers With Kittens is a podcast created by Eileen Kelly and Produced by Ashley Aker. Original music composed and performed by Chris Hajian. You can listen to full podcast episodes on Spotify, Amazon, Audible, and Apple Podcasts. Follow Strangers With Kittens On Social Media Facebook InstagramTikTokYouTubeKeep The Conversation Going https://www.strangerswithkittens.com/

Big announcement in the show intro. Huge. Ya gotta listen to find out!   How to be more present and purposeful in your life instead of floating along and just reacting to the shit that happens to you, using a few witchy YouTubers as inspiration! Links for them both below.   Peeves: Big box stores appropriating "Summerween" and "Code Orange." Bushes blocking the view of traffic.    Promos: Chatsunami  https://www.chatsunami.com/ 2 Skeptical Chaps http://www.2skepticalchaps.libsyn.com/ (Want to swap show promos? Email us!)   Kelly-Ann Maddox talks basic, everyday witchery: https://youtu.be/IHViPTGS7tA?si=oNvW8owVXVg-v4rt   Grumpy Old Crone yells about spoons:  https://youtu.be/bAL0IVLQjEc?si=_6wliqKYPHSeDyXx    POLITICAL AND PETTY DESIGNS ON SHIRTS, HATS, MUGS, AND MORE! https://bitchenboutique.dashery.com Profits support this podcast right here!   We love you for listening! Please take a moment to rate and review us, and earn a STICKER! (Everyone loves stickers!) And please subscribe or add us to your favorites list on your favorite platform so you never miss a show! And share us with your cool friends, not the lame ones.   Questions? Comments? Complaints? Write to us at PitneyAndAmelia@gmail.com! Check out our various socials etc at https://linktr.ee/bitchenboutique   Who the heck are Pitney and Amelia? A gay guy and his fat friend talking about everything! We've got over 40 YEARS of stories to share about stuff we love, stuff that annoys us, people we've known, places we've been, and things we've seen. Geeky, silly, and always opinionated. NAMES ARE CHANGED TO PROTECT THE GUILTY!   We may be awful, but we're right! Here, queer, and in your ear. Every other Friday.   The Bitchen Boutique is all about mental health and openness and honesty and if you're in crisis and in the US, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  And if you just need some friends, you've got two right here.   Edited, engineered, produced, and promoted by Amelia. LGBTQIA+ | Comedy | GenX | Fandom | Horror | Spirituality | Mental Health #witchery #petpeeves #fyp #LGBTQIAplus #Comedy #GenX #Fandom #Horror #Spirituality #MentalHealth _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ KEYWORDS: Pitney and Amelia, Pitney & Amelia, Bitchen Boutique, Bitchen Boutique podcast, Pitney, Amelia, Generation X, Gen X, GenX, GenXer, GenXers, comedy, comedy podcast, current events, current events podcast, pop culture, pop culture podcast, talk show, chat show, us politics, progressive, progressive podcast, queer stories, lgbtqia+ stories, queer podcast, lgbtqia+ podcast, gay, gay podcast, trans rights, horror, horror fans, horror community, fandom, spirituality, coven, secular coven, pagan, paganism, tarot, tarot cards, witchy, antifa, anti-trump, anti-maga, cancer, breast cancer, breast cancer treatment, fat acceptance, haes, mental health podcast, mental health, scifi, science fiction, geek, geek culture, nerd, nerd culture, fyp, vlog, dayinthelife, pet peeves, dashery, teepublic, witch, witchiness, living with purpose, mindfulness, acting with intention, vegetarianism, kelly-ann Maddox, grumpy old crone, fyp

Brett Trainor Unplugged is for Gen Xers who want to get one step closer to living the life they want—on their terms. After six years of building life beyond the default corporate playbook, thousands of conversations with Gen Xers, entrepreneurs, and ex...

It's Tuesday, August 18th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson and Timothy Reed Arizona pastor murdered by crucifixion Demonically inspired opposition to the Christian faith is on the rise here in the United States as well as overseas.  A Christian pastor in Arizona was subjected to a crucifixion-type murder last year. The perpetrator, Adam Sheafe, confessed he did it because the pastor would not compromise on his teaching on the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ.   The murderer, in this case, has been sentenced to life in prison. “For this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath..  . but also that He said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” That's John 5:16 and 18.   Ukraine has achieved an 8-1 casualty ratio with Russia since January Ukraine is back on top in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports that Ukraine has achieved as much as an 8-1 casualty ratio since the beginning of the year — up from a 2-1 ratio since the beginning of the war.  The report also notes that the war is taking a toll on the Russian people. They suffer from a “sputtering economy, higher prices on groceries and other expenses, tax increases, significant internet restrictions, and an oppressive crackdown on freedom of speech.” Russia has suffered an estimated 450,000 fatalities in the conflict. That compares to the United States losing 102,000 men in military conflicts since World War II. Dramatic increase in military budgets in the Far East Sabers are rattling in the Pacific. Japan's military budget is up 5% year-over-year. South Korea's budget is up 7.5%. The Philippines' budget is up 9%.  And Taiwan's is up 16%.  China's build-up began 25 years ago and is now averaging 7% per year. China's budget is running at $283 billion compared to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan which are spending $150 billion combined.  America's deficit up 11% Here in America, for the first 10 months of the fiscal year, the U.S. deficit registered an 11% increase year-over-year. That's 31% above the average deficit produced by the Biden budgets between 2021 and 2025. Proverbs 28:22 reads, “A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, and does not consider that poverty will come upon him.” Gen Z investors believe sports betting is good investment An online survey of 1,000 U.S. retail investors conducted in late March and early April, which was released this week, found that 52% of Gen Z investors were planning to shift money originally set aside for stocks or other investments into sports wagers over the past year.  Only about one-third of Gen Z participants reported no involvement in sports betting at all, compared with 63% across all age groups in the survey. Specifically, 26% of Gen Z respondents -- those born between 1997 and 2007 -- said they view sports betting as a deliberate, ongoing part of their wealth strategy. That figure drops sharply with age: 14% of Millennials, 6% of Gen X, and just 1% of Baby Boomers reported the same outlook. Overall, U.S. sports betting has increased from $2 billion of waging to $166 billion in waging since 2018 - just eight years ago, according to Research Ground.   Gen Z also loves cryptocurrency In addition, Motley Fool's recent survey found that Gen Zers are the most likely to invest in cryptocurrency at 49% compared to other demographics including 46% of Millennials, 26% of Gen Xers, and 11% of Baby Boomers.   Plus, 57% of cryptocurrency purchasers think it's an investment, and 26% use it for a monetary exchange. But crypto is losing favor with American investors. Gallup's recent poll found only 2% of Americans favor crypto for a long-term investment which is down from 8% four years ago.  Real estate, stocks, and gold are the favorite choices for investors now. The birth dearth in America The National Center for Education Statistics reports that public schools in America have lost almost two million students since 2019.  This is partially due to the birth dearth – or the decline in America's fertility rate. Since 2015, it amounts to a loss of about one million children. Births to women in America topped out in 2007 at 2.12 or 2,122 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44.  Today, the birth rate is hovering around 1.57 or 1,570 births per 1,000 women. By contrast, the average birth rate for homeschooling families is 3.5 children per family. The Centers for Disease Control reveals that total U.S. births fell off during the first quarter of 2026  — a 2.1% drop off from the previous year. There were 4.3 million births in America in 2007, but only 3.6 million births last year. And we're looking at another drop of about 700,000 students this year.  This data points to an 18% drop in American births in 18 years.  Based on these recent numbers for American births, by 2031, the public schools will lose another 2.44 million students due to birth decline alone in this country. That's not counting the number of students who drop out. Shocker: Canadian male cyclist beating women in the sport And finally, men, pretending to be women, are once again proving that they can beat women in women's sports.  A Canadian cyclist, by the name of “Mr. Ivy,” claimed to have transgendered into a woman; after which he won a women's cycling championship. More recently, “Mr. Ivy” has gone on to win the Inter-Provincial Team title at the Canadian Women's Mid-Amateur Championship golf tournament.  This is actually the third time that he has won the women's Canadian golf tournament. Not surprisingly, he has dominated in other recent golf competitions for woman as well. Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, August 18th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ. Extra print U.S. Senate still has not passed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility The United States Senate continues to drag its feet on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America, Act. The Senate has now adjourned for five weeks, and has no formal plans to try and pass the SAVE Act before fall.  President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on the Republican led Senate to secure American elections and to pass the SAVE Act, but to no avail. Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah said, “We did our best, left no stone unturned. I wish the outcome had been different, both as to adjournment and as to these votes. This fight's not over. We're just getting started.” Contact your two U.S. Senators by phone or email and ask them to vote for the SAVE Act. 1,000 fake marriages to Chinese nationals in New York The Department of Justice charged 11 individuals in New York last week in a massive marriage fraud scheme. Per the Justice Department, more than 1,000 fake marriages were conducted, mostly between Chinese nationals seeking to obtain green card status in the United States. The operation had been running for more than 10 years.

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughed off Woke 1.0, she attempted to distance herself from a movement she not only helped build but also led. Because the DSA is ascendant, they're hoping to pivot to kitchen table issues just long enough to trick otherwise sane people into voting for them.Hasan Piker started wearing suits. Abdul El-Sayed is attempting to draw in Trump supporters by showcasing his white grandparents.And out in Texas, James Talarico is making ads with his Paw Paw. They're just regular folks, like you and me. Well, except that they want to tear America down to the studs and rebuild it as a woked-up socialist paradise. But shsh. Nothing to see here, move along, move along.Woke 1.0 wasn't just some silly thing that happened to them one time. It is a deeply held belief system that has been passed on through the generations and mandates conformity across all institutions and culture. It is not an ideology so much as the biggest cult in American history.As we've watched their power weaken after Trump's second win, we see them now more clearly than ever trying to cling to it. Calling white people racist gets louder. Ordering women to obey the rules of language, like the refusal to use the word “cis” or whether or not dating bisexual men, makes you homophobic. Cults must always control the women, separate them from their children. True for Charles Manson, Jim Jones, or Scientology. It's so bad on the Left now that the only right women fight for now is the right to kill their own babies.From White Fragility to protecting women in sports or locker rooms, not to mention children, the once and former feminists are MIA. Many of them are so desperate to be led and dominated by men that they are becoming Muslim reverts:Back in the 1970s, women were also vulnerable and impressionable because the Counter Culture revolution was all about leaving traditional values, like family and religion, behind to “find yourself.” Women were suddenly free, yet all they seemed to want was to find someone to follow. All of those white college girls of privilege were either sucked into cults, moving into vans, or shooting up banks.Meanwhile, the black community was vulnerable, too, and that is how cult leaders like Jim Jones took advantage of them. He was selling things not that different from today's Left. The Origins of Woke 1.0I'll never forget May 25th of 2016. I decided to splurge for my daughter's 18th birthday by taking her to see Hamilton on Broadway, with nearly the entire original cast. The tickets, flight, and hotel were too expensive, but we'd never get this moment back, so why not? It was the same year my daughter would visit the NYU campus, have her prom, and I would be doing everything I could to elect Hillary Clinton as the first female President of the United States, with the doomed hashtag #imwithher.I was part of a generation of parents who wanted to not just be better but to perfect ourselves, our children, and our world. I can't pinpoint exactly when we transformed from anti-establishment Gen-Xers to helicopter parents. But I know it had to do with the therapy culture of the 1990s, capped off by Columbine in 1999, 9/11, and the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed. Something was wrong, not just with all of us, but with our country too.The person elected to heal us from all of this collective, multi-generational trauma was Barack Obama, who became our spiritual leader and our male role model. 2012 was the moment Obama and the millennial do-gooder establishment that surrounded him sought to make our country better through indoctrination in public schools and universities.Hillary Clinton was chosen as the torchbearer, but she lacked Obama's charisma and had nothing to sell the public that they wanted except one thing: identity politics. It wasn't enough. Our cult over-reacted to Trump's win, as though it was the FBI showing up outside the Koresh compound. It was Doomsday and that dark cloud would cover everything we controlled, from Hollywood to the legacy media to book publishing to fashion to influencer culture. We drew a line, and if you wanted in, you could not cross it. If you wanted out, all you had to do was question authority.But it was what we weren't watching that would be our biggest problem later. We weren't watching the kids. Teenage WastelandWhat happened to the nation's young people, having been indoctrinated in the oppressor/oppressed mindset, where they saw racism, homophobia, transphobia, and Islamophobia everywhere they looked, even before Trump won, kicked into motion an apocalyptic fantasy that would justify everything they did, from protests to violence to assassinations. The internet was their fantasy world, which gave many of them absolute power. This was true whether it was social justice warriors who ultimately led the transgender contagion among young girls, or the boys who gravitated to 4-chan and would eventually lead to the rise of the mass shooter influencer, like Tyler Robinson, Matthew David Crooks, or Luigi Mangione. The first real sign of trouble happened nine years ago at Evergreen College. When I first saw this story, I was already pulling away from the cult, but even then, I was afraid to put it on social media because I knew it would be seen as “racist.” And yet, by burying this story, the Left set itself up for much worse down the road.Violence showed up as early as 2015 during Woke 1.0, when Trump supporters were often beaten, kicked, and spat on. The protests at Trump's inauguration seemed to be a natural extension of the mass hysteria that consumed the Left in 2016. It would only get worse.The violence we're seeing on the Left only escalated, culminating in a full-blown revolution on the streets in 2020, a mob demanding diners raise their fist for Black Lives Matter, and authoritarianism rising from a generation raised to believe they have the right to tear down what they didn't build and make the whole country pay because of it.That put power briefly back in the hands of Joe Biden, who pandered to the mob. They believed the false narratives around January 6th, decided MAGA was the cult, and walked away from this story. They barely even talk about it now.The entire Democratic Party became the administrators at Evergreen, too crippled by white guilt to provide the necessary leadership and discipline these kids needed before they graduated and joined the workforce. But even still, the most dangerous legacy Woke 1.0 leaves behind isn't what it's done to kids or to culture, to our sense of history or to our unity as a country. No, in dividing us into the oppressed and the oppressor, it opened the door to America's enemies to exploit the sitting ducks on the Left and name Islam as the most oppressed and thus hand it the most power.Then the enemy walked through the door we left open.Woke 2.0My daughter was three when the planes hit the towers. I remember waking up to the news. Imagine the days before we all had cell phones, or even social media. I had to call my friend and tell her to turn on the news. This was the first time America had been attacked on this level since Pearl Harbor.But terrorism accomplished very little for Islam. It turned the US and the world against them. They were feared and even hated. Our country would transform into a surveillance state, and there's an argument to be made that everything we're living through now is not because of COVID but because of 9/11.Changing hearts and minds would be the way the Islamic world would rise from the ashes. Before long, there was a new word that controlled our thought and speech: Islamophobia.I didn't realize how deep it all went until 2017, the same year as Evergreen. Wonder Woman had come out. My daughter really loved it, but she was afraid to say so online. Why? Because Gal Gadot was an Israeli who trained with the IDF.I was as shocked by this development as I was when she told me her friend was becoming a “he” and wanted “top surgery.” What on earth were they teaching our kids? Idiot liberals like me had no idea. And by the time many of us figured it out, it was too late.Palestine joined the wheel of oppression and took its place in the hierarchy long before October 7th. Hamas attacked Israel, and Putin invaded Ukraine with Joe Biden in power. They clearly saw him as a weak and addled president who would not be able to manage these wars, so what better time to test the hearts and minds campaigns and the way our enemies had begun to destroy us from within.October 7th wasn't a random attack. It was an act of such extreme violence that Israel would have no choice but to go to war, and in so doing, a worldwide campaign to defend the oppressed in Palestine could turn the entire world against Israel. But it wasn't until the rise of Zohran Mamdani, Hasan Piker, and now Abdul El-Sayed and the entire DSA that we could see how fruitful the decades-long hearts-and-minds campaign really was. The Holocaust, to these young people, barely matters. They have no idea what Stalin did, what Mao did, or even really what Hitler did. And they know better than to criticize Islam because that would make them a racist. There was only one place left to go.Just like the leap from World War I to World War II, so too would the jump from Woke 1.0 to Woke 2.0 land on the eternal scapegoat: the Jews. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Islam and Socialism. Islam and Black Lives Matter. Islam and Medicare for all. These two movements have so much in common, from controlling thought and speech to controlling women and children. But really, it's all about their shared enemies, Israel and the US.Woke 2.0 isn't just the Left, however. It's also a large portion of the Right who have named Israel as the ultimate evil as well, so much so that they are following Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson down the rabbit hole to deflate any offense against the rising radicalism — terrorism - on the Left.Both Nick Fuentes and Hasan Piker have chimed in to declare Candace is helping to defeat the Right and absolve the Left. They can't believe their luck. What unites all of them is their conclusion that Israel and the Jews are the problem.China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea know us better than we know ourselves. Who needs bombs when you have white fragility? Who needs censorship when you have cancel culture? But Islam that wants more. They seek to overtake and convert the United States the way we once feared the Communists might. With the oppressor/oppressed ideology and the rise of Islamo-Marxism, there is no stopping them now. A TikTok user quoting Sharifa Alkhateeb and an Iranian.They just needed the right script, and they found it with helpless resistance libs who have run out of options and Gen-Z, raised on convenience culture who are lured in by the promise of free stuff. Who needs suicide vests and box cutters when you have TikTok?We would start two failed wars after 9/11 called the “War on Terror.” People like me were convinced we were wrong. Now, just as with Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare, considering how it all turned out, I have to wonder. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe

What happens when two Gen X parents sit down with one of their Gen Z daughters to talk about Olivia Rodrigo? You get two generations, three perspectives, and plenty of opinions.In this episode, Giff, Brad, and Brad's daughter Isla dive into Olivia Rodrigo's you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, talking about the songs, the sound, the lyrics, and what makes Olivia such a massive star with a younger generation. Along the way, we look at how she has also connected many Gen Xers as well by following in the footsteps of many 80s and 90s hitmakers like David Byrne, The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna and others. Listen now to hear where our musical tastes overlap and where they definitely don't!Support our show and join our Patreon!If you enjoy the show, please rate and review us on the iTunes/Apple Podcasts app or wherever you listen. Or better yet, tell a friend to listen!Follow us on your preferred social media:TwitterFacebookInstagram

Recorded LIVE at Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

In this episode of Econ 101, we explore the “Gen X Sandwich”—the financial and emotional squeeze many Gen Xers face while simultaneously supporting their children and caring for aging parents.Drawing from personal experience, we discuss why simply having a trust or power of attorney may not be enough. We cover the importance of understanding your parents' financial accounts, establishing the proper authority and access, organizing passwords and digital assets, and having difficult conversations about healthcare, funeral arrangements, and end-of-life wishes before a crisis occurs.The biggest takeaway: don't wait until something happens to start planning.Know where the accounts are. Know who has authority. Know where the passwords and important documents are. Know what your parents actually want.And as you help your parents prepare, don't repeat the same family mistake. Make sure your own spouse and children have that same information about you.(00:01:52) — When the Parent-Child Roles Suddenly Reverse(00:05:21) — Trust vs. Power of Attorney: What Happens at Death?(00:09:24) — The Digital Estate: Passwords, Accounts & Access(00:12:16) — The Conversation Every Family Avoids Until It's Too Late(00:17:00) — Don't Repeat the Same Family MistakeNEWSLETTER (WHAT NOW): https://substack.com/@9icapital?r=2eig6s&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page Follow Us: youtube: / @9icap Linkedin: / kevin-thompson-ricp%c2%ae-cfp%c2%ae-74964428 facebook: / mlb2cfp Buy MLB2CFP Here: https://www.amazon.com/MLB-CFP%C2%AE-90-Feet-Counting-ebook/dp/B0BLJPYNS4 Website: http://www.9icapitalgroup.com Hit the subscribe button to get new content notifications. Corrections: Editing by http://SwoleNerdProductions.com Disclosure: https://sites.google.com/view/9idisclosure/disclosure

What happens when a morning show turns brisket, parenting, trade schools, and a very unlucky black eye into one fast, funny, Austin-flavored conversation? This episode brings the laughs, the local stories, and a few surprisingly relatable takeaways that make it easy to keep listening.From the jump, the hosts lean into the kind of easy chemistry that makes a show feel like a hangout with friends. They kick things off with Austin chatter, weekend food envy, and the eternal struggle of turning random ingredients into a meal. Along the way, they unpack everything from second marriages and parenting déjà vu to why some careers may be more resilient in the age of AI. If you like lively banter with a local edge, this one delivers.Here are a few standout moments from the episode:“Brisket on a baked sweet potato.”“We're Gen Xers. We don't know how to do stuff like our moms did.”“What do you mean there's nothing to eat?”The conversation keeps moving with a mix of humor and real-life commentary, including a cautionary local crime update and a playful round of trivia in Minute to Win It. It's the kind of episode that feels both entertaining and familiar, with just enough Austin-specific flavor to keep it fresh.If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to like, follow, and subscribe so you never miss a new conversation with JB and Sandy.

I guess you had to be there. And by there we mean the 1970s. Smells and textures that you just can't understand if you were born after 1980. And if you're old like us, enjoy this very weird walk down memory lane!   Peeves: People who park on the street and post bullshit comments!    Promo: Octoberpod https://www.octoberpodvhs.com/   (Want to swap show promos? Email us!)   POLITICAL AND PETTY DESIGNS  ON SHIRTS, HATS, MUGS, AND MORE!  https://bitchenboutique.dashery.com  Profits support this podcast right here!      We love you for listening! Please take a moment to rate and review us, and earn a STICKER! (Everyone loves stickers!) And please subscribe or add us to your favorites list on your favorite platform so you never miss a show! And share us with your cool friends, not the lame ones.   Questions? Comments? Complaints?  Write to us at PitneyAndAmelia@gmail.com!  Check out our various socials etc at https://linktr.ee/bitchenboutique     Who the heck are Pitney and Amelia? A gay guy and his fat friend talking about everything! We've got over 40 YEARS of stories to share about stuff we love, stuff that annoys us, people we've known, places we've been, and things we've seen. Geeky, silly, and always opinionated. NAMES ARE CHANGED TO PROTECT THE GUILTY!   We may be awful, but we're right! Here, queer, and in your ear. Every other Friday.   The Bitchen Boutique is all about mental health and openness and honesty and if you're in crisis and in the US, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  And if you just need some friends, you've got two right here.   Edited, engineered, produced, and promoted by Amelia.   LGBTQIA+ | Comedy | GenX | Fandom | Horror | Spirituality | Mental Health #1970s #sensememory #pinksawdust #lunchbox #thermos #aspergum #epilady #petpeeves  #LGBTQIAplus #Comedy #GenX #Fandom #Horror #Spirituality #MentalHealth      .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  KEYWORDS: Pitney and Amelia, Pitney & Amelia, Bitchen Boutique, Bitchen Boutique podcast, Pitney, Amelia, Generation X, Gen X, GenX, GenXer, GenXers, comedy, comedy podcast, current events, current events podcast, pop culture, pop culture podcast, talk show, chat show, us politics, progressive, progressive podcast, queer stories, lgbtqia+ stories, queer podcast, lgbtqia+ podcast, gay, gay podcast, trans rights, horror, horror fans, horror community, fandom, spirituality, coven, secular coven, pagan, paganism, tarot, tarot cards, witchy, antifa, anti-trump, anti-maga, cancer, breast cancer, breast cancer treatment, fat acceptance, haes, mental health podcast, mental health, scifi, science fiction, geek, geek culture, nerd, nerd culture, fyp, vlog, dayinthelife, pet peeves, dashery, teepublic, sense memories, sense memory, pink sawdust school vomit cleanup, vinyl lunchboxes, epilady, buggy race toy, summer house, aspergum, baby aspirin 

Description In this episode of The Odyssey and Beyond, Craig scares Jay just to be mean after watching The Odyssey, and we dive into a few conversations that hit home for our generation. We talk about kids' obsession with analog media, the wild characters you run into at the gym, and why growing up as a Gen Xer might make us the last generation that truly gets it.Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/HF51iUWxaXUIf you enjoy podcast conversations about nostalgia, generational differences, funny real-life stories, and unfiltered opinions, this episode is for you.Tagsthe odyssey and beyond, gen x podcast, analog media, gen x nostalgia, last analog generation, kids obsession with analog media, funny gym stories, wild gym characters, podcast drama, comedy podcast, real talk podcast, nostalgia podcast, generational differences, craig and jay, podcast episode, unfiltered podcast, storytelling podcast, human interest podcast, podcast discussion, the odyssey podcastHashtags#TheOdysseyAndBeyond #GenX #AnalogMedia #PodcastEpisode #Nostalgia #FunnyPodcast #GymStories #PodcastDrama #StoryTime #UnfilteredPodcastd⏰TIMESTAMPS :

Recorded LIVE at Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

Careers were once built for a stable world, but today's tech disruption and economic pressures call for a new level of resilience. Job seekers of all levels now seek careers with purpose and impact, no longer defining success around credentials or prestige. Leading tech investor-turned-Georgetown professor Arun Gupta is an expert in emerging technology, venture finance, entrepreneurship, and the future of work. In THE MISSION GENERATION: Rewrite Success, Reclaim Your Purpose, Rebuild Our Future, a USA Today bestseller, he explores a new generation not bound by age or demographics – striving for careers with impact and meaningful change. Arun is CEO of the NobleReach Foundation, which works to recruit young people (like Teach for America) into the public sector and tackle the nation's challenges. He is a venture capitalist, entrepreneurship professor at Georgetown University, lecturer at Stanford University, and bestselling author.Without further ado, let's launch into this special episode of the Career Warrior Podcast!Here's what I asked Arun:Resilience and adaptation is needed in our careers more than ever. We're here in the summer of 2026. Why now?In the past, we were told to pick a career and stick with it. Now we encounter multiple career changes in our lifetime. What is the bright side of this? Can you give an example of how a career can change in a non-linear way?Your advice on career change: How would you tailor that advice differently for someone who is a Gen Xer vs. someone who is just graduating college?What does the word resilience mean to you? Can you tell a personal story?In the book, you talk about Compass Capital. What are they at a high level?Why do you believe that AI won't threaten long-term success?I love your story on why you wrote the book. Can you share it with listeners?Here are the resources from the show:Check Out Arun's Website: https://www.themissiongeneration.com/Order The Mission Generation from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Generation-Reclaim-Purpose-Rewrite/dp/139440817X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Call your cable com-pan-ee and say I WANT MY M-T-V! Did we Gen-Xers know who good we had it in the 80s and 90s? Music! On television 24 hours a day! What could be better? At the stroke of midnight, August 1st, 1981, the flag was planted and the declaration declared - "Ladies and gentlemen, rock n roll!" The music video revolution was all-encompassing back in MTV's heyday. They had pop culture in the palms of their hands. Our beloved all-stars - namely Shannon Hurley, Dustin Prince, Matt Dinan, Joe Lavelle, David Daskal, Gabe Scalone and the Old Boy Himself Ryan Blake - are here to join us in the wayback machine, back to that first hour of what would be a cultural juggernaut. The First Hour Of MTV Worst To First is our definitive ranking of the set of eclectic songs whose videos helped to launch MTV 45 years ago this week. Here we have the cream of the crop in Part 2 of 2, with the best songs on the list, ranked.If you missed all the fun we had in Part 1, start here:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-731-the-first-hour-of-mtv-worst-to-first-part/id573735994?i=1000778529507If nothing else, MTV brought the variety. See what we mean with the official The First Hour Of MTV Worst To First playlist, featuring every song heard in parts 1 & 2*.* except "Little Suzi's On The Up"****don't worry we included the Tesla versionhttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ARNoAD3jeOD0SLT8jjtlx?si=e3c5a9d4efda46d4Follow our fabulous all-stars on the socials!Shannon: https://www.instagram.com/shannonsongs/Dustin: https://www.instagram.com/chrisdprince/Matt: https://www.instagram.com/the_la_frankenstein_channel/Joe: https://bsky.app/profile/joelavellesongs.bsky.socialDavid: https://www.facebook.com/xyzyxGabe: https://www.facebook.com/gabescaloneRyan: https://www.instagram.com/soulsurfhb/We've lowered our prices, but not our standards over at the ATTT Patreon! Those who are kindly contributing $2 a month are receiving an exclusive monthly Emergency Pod episode featuring our favorite guests and utilizing our patent-pending improv format in which we miraculously pull a playlist out of thin air with no preparation! Emergency Pod 30 is coming soon - featuring my parents Paul & Elizabeth Eisen, dropping August 1st! Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/c/alltimetoptenWe're having a blast chatting about music over on the ATTT Facebook Group. Join us and start a conversation about music! https://www.facebook.com/groups/940749894391295The official ATTT1000 In Reverse playlist is here, featuring our list of the 1,000 Greatest Songs We've Ever Heard, presented in reverse order - from 1 - 1,000. Follow along here:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6dlj1XfYJdciz6GIORYWkM?si=74d675e86ba342f8

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.In the world's most dangerous working environments it can seem like everything is out to kill you. The equipment you use. The materials you work with. The very air you breathe. Stored energy is a coiled viper waiting for the right moment to lash out. Owners, manufacturers, contractors, and beyond have developed safety protocols to combat STCKY, that is, Stuff That Can Kill You. Gravity, Motion, Mechanical, Electrical, Pressure, Sound, Radiation, Biological, Chemical, Temperature. This season is all about the means of murder as authors put our STCKY detective skills to the test. This is Season 9, Stuff That Can Kill You.This is Episode 15, where Chemical is our STCKY means of death. This is GenX by Melinda Di LorenzoDELIBERATIONJason Mercer's weekend away with his high school buddies has turned deadly. He thinks he knows who killed Kevin Boeser and why, but let's help him gut check before his silk pajamas are traded in for prison orange. Here are the suspects in the order we met them:Jason Mercer, party organizerJen Jenkins, Kevin's secret baby mamaDavid Shizka, his wife's hit-and-run driverAngela Leeman, Kevin's high school stalkerMichael Greer, the gambler who owes $200 largeHere is what we know …Kevin Boeser was found dead in the center of camp, suffocated by a blue tarp. His trademark red Doc Martens stuck out of one end. Pulling back the tarp revealed blue lips from suffocation and the coat he'd worn the night before.Jason Mercer slept outside that night in a chair. When he fell asleep, Michael and Angela were in camp, David, Jen, and Kevin were in the woods. When he woke, all the others came out of their tents.Jason saw the suspects interact with Kevin that night. David loaned Kevin his coat and talked about Jen's kid and his wife's car accident. Angela kissed Kevin. Michael snubbed Kevin. Jason saw Jen go into the woods but didn't actually see or hear the conversation.Jen was tense about the weekend with her son's biological father and counted on Jason to revoke the invite. Kevin confirmed to David that he knew he was the father.David didn't accidentally make the invitation but felt he couldn't withdraw it because Kevin knew he was the driver in his wife's accident. Kevin confirmed that knowledge.Angela blamed Kevin for her hospital stay. Seeing him challenged the progress made through therapy and pharmaceuticals.Michael owed Kevin $200k he didn't have and expected the man to call the debt due. He figured Kevin arranged the “accidental” invitation for that reason.Jason himself had a motive as he used Kevin to cheat on tests in high school that led to his college entry. If Kevin talked, his mogul status could be pulled out from under him.Jen suspects Jason since he was asleep outside when she returned. No one else has made an accusation.Jen's van will not start, stranding the now distrusting friends unless they use Kevin's car.Which of the Gen Xers ruined Kevin's weekend?ABOUT Melinda Di LorenzoMelinda Di Lorenzo is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over forty books. She holds a degree in English Literature, which is worth considerably more than popular opinion suggests. When not writing, she is either reading, watching soccer (women's only; the men fall down and cry) or teaching. She is passionate about writing and believes words are for everyone. Something-something mightier than the sword. But she does own a sword because apocalypses are unpredictable. Humor, heart, and hard work are the building blocks of her career. She looks forward to many more years of forcibly sharing her stories with others.Facebook: www.facebook.com/MelindaDiLorenzoInstagram: melindadilorenzoMEMBERSHIPS!Mysteries to Die For now has memberships! Three tiers – The Grave Digger's Union (free), The Cadaver Collective ($4 / month) and The Preservationist Society ($8 / month). We are starting memberships to help pay for our real live human authors, to keep the software working and the power flowing, and avoid the dreaded use of ads. If you want to show you love but aren't ready for a commitment, you can now tip us and leave a witting, punny note for us. Links are in the show notes and on our website M2D4podcast.com.WRAP UPThat wraps this episode of Mysteries to Die For. Support our show by subscribing, joining a membership, or telling a mystery lover about us. Check out our website m2d4podcast.com for links to this season's authors.Mysteries to Die For is hosted by TG Wolff and Jack Wolff. GenX was written by Melinda Di Lorenzo. Music and production are by Jack Wolff. Episode art is by TG Wolff. Join us next week for a Toe Tag, which is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, or thriller genre. Then come back in two weeks for our next original story where sound is our STCKY means of murder. It's The Curse of the Siren's Shriek by Kyra Jacobs

What happens to everything you've built if you fail to plan for the future? On this episode of "Your Retirement Highway," Kyle Jones, Matt Allgeyer, and special guest Danny Michaud take you on a lively road trip through the world of legacy planning—and trust us, this ride comes with a few sharp turns, some unexpected laughs, and a couple of dad jokes you won't soon forget. Will you get the inside scoop on the core documents every family needs, or will you be part of the 62% of Gen Xers flying without a plan?Tune in to hear why legacy planning isn't just for the wealthy (or the stuffy), how your family could end up “building on sand,” and what makes financial planning more apprenticeship than textbook. Plus, find out which team one of the hosts secretly cheers for, why nobody wants to be runner-up to the runner-up, and the rookie mistakes you'll want to avoid. Buckle in—this is one episode you and your retirement can't afford to miss!Join Matthew Allgeyer and Kyle Jones as they dive into the crucial issues shaping your retirement. In this episode of Your Retirement Highway, our hosts discuss a key retirement topic, sharing expert advice, actionable strategies, and experiences that matter. From taxes and Social Security to long-term care and market volatility, they cover what you need to know to chart your retirement course with clarity and confidence.

Story of the Week (DR):Cracker Barrel CEO is out after MAGA backlash to "Uncle Herschel" logo change MMBefore Julie Masino was brought in, Cracker Barrel was facing a slow-moving existential crisis:Their primary core customer base (older generations and rural highway travelers) was naturally shrinking, and younger diners were simply not replacing them.Kitchen tech, supply chains, and digital ordering lag behind competitors like Texas Roadhouse or Olive Garden.Some great fake populism from Fox: Cracker Barrel to pay for outgoing CEO's security, $4.6M severance after failed rebrandCracker Barrel names David Deno CEOBurger KingYum! Brands and Pizza Hut for 15 years, including serving as CFO and COO.Quiznos CEO.Best Buy: Served as President of Asia and CFO for Best Buy's International DivisionBloomin' Brands for 12 years: CEO, CFO and Chief Administrative OfficerOutback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and Bonefish GrillBoard MembershipsCracker Barrel Old Country Store (2016-)Panera Brands (2024-): Audit Committee ChairKrispy Kreme (2016-)Bloomin' Brands (2019–2024)Peet's Coffee (2006-2012)Macalester College: Former Chair of the Board of Trustees (1998-2022).From Cracker Barrel to Boeing, Companies Are Turning to Retired CEOsThese retired CEOs are being hired to be "fixers." They are brought in to cut costs, repair supply chains, restore investor confidence, and act as a stabilizing force rather than reinventing the brand.Exxon and Chevron profits surge on rising oil prices due to Iran warChevron posted its highest profit in six years as the Iran war boosted oil pricesBig Oil Is Getting Sued for Heat Deaths. It's Fighting Back With an Army of Immunity LawsMore than a decade after investigations found that Exxon Mobil had known about the dangers of global warming since the 1970s but publicly downplayed the threat, lawsuits against oil companies have proliferated. There are nearly 40 of these cases pending across the countryIn the meantime, the industry has been mobilizing a counterattack against the lawsuits with the help of the Trump administration and Republican politicians.Republicans are trying to pass laws to grant oil majors immunity to these kinds of lawsuits, with success in several states so far.Utah, Iowa, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have recently signed laws shielding fossil fuel companies from lawsuits related to greenhouse gas emissionsOil executives have also gotten help from the federal government, following an executive order from President Donald Trump last year directing the attorney general to prioritize blocking climate lawsuits by states.This May, the Justice Department responded to Minnesota's climate lawsuit against Big Oil with a lawsuit of its own, just as the state's case was moving into the discovery phase. It said Minnesota was undermining “American energy dominance” and attempting to regulate greenhouse gases, which should fall under the purview of federal law—echoing the oil industry's well-known argument.Elon Musk Is Quietly Turning to This Fossil Fuel to Power His AI AmbitionsSam Altman Announces That the Singularity Has Arrived: a hypothetical future point in time when technological growth becomes autonomous, uncontrollable, and irreversible, fundamentally transforming human civilization“We are now, like, in the singularity ... Now we're actually in the moment that we used to talk about at the lunch table in a very not-serious way ...I've been waiting for this my whole life, and I think it's going to be incredible, hugely positive, awesome for the world.”Sam Altman says one of his biggest fears is that a small number of companies will control AI: 'That'd be very, very bad'Sam Altman says the Hugging Face hack is a reminder that an AI power monopoly could lead to 'long-term disaster'OpenAI says its rogue AI tried to hack other companiesMark Zuckerberg is urging the U.S. to accelerate AI development, not restrict it'No Way to Stop It': Elon Musk Warns Humans Will Lose Control of AI and Face Extinction by 2036Microsoft CEO Warns That Companies Embracing AI Could Drive Themselves Out of BusinessAI hackers are getting faster. The government may not be readyAnthropic says its Claude models 'gained unauthorized access' to other organizations' systemsAnthropic says its models went rogue and hacked 3 companies during testing'It Will Happen Frequently': Musk Warns of Rogue AI Threat After Anthropic Breached Three FirmsElon Musk Commits Up to $120M to Republican Midterms: Sets Feud With Trump Aside for Major Election PushGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Gen Z women are having an entrepreneurship boomOf all women who started businesses in 2025, 47% of Gen Z women did so, compared with 38% the previous year. Gen Xers followed close behind at 46%. Then came millennials at 43% and baby boomers at just 23%.Overall, in 2025, 69% of new Black-owned businesses were started by women. The survey also found that women business owners are less likely than their male counterparts to depend on AIMM: Delaware judge rules public benefit corporations exempt from maximizing value in sale DRFiduciary duty is different - OpenAI, AnthropicAssholiest of the Week (MM):Fake man apologies MM‘I'm sorry ... but': Apologetic Alan Joyce tells his side of the Qantas storyJoyce has expressed some regret“So with the information we had at the time, I still don't think there was any other decision you could make,”“Hindsight is a great thing.”“I'm actually very, very proud of the fact that I'm not sitting here and apologising for Qantas going bankrupt, [something] that many airlines around the world did,”Australian Competition and Consumer Commission fined Qantas $120 million for selling tickets for 8000 already cancelled flights“I apologise for the angst that was generated [for] the customers on it, but the reality was we had 22 million bookings in the system [and] the system wasn't designed to do an automatic refund,”“Stop us!”More than 1,200 AI workers across Anthropic, DeepMind, OpenAI, and Meta are asking for Washington's help building an AI slowdown plan‘No Way to Stop It': Elon Musk Warns Humans Will Lose Control of AI and Face Extinction by 2036Elon Musk's new 5-year warning to Americans: AI will beat human brains by 2032 (then go wild). Get rich or get crushed?Sam Altman says the Hugging Face hack is a reminder that an AI power monopoly could lead to 'long-term disaster'It Will Happen Frequently': Musk Warns of Rogue AI Threat After Anthropic Breached Three FirmsBut also, DON'T stop us, obviously…Palantir CEO warns US against Europe's AI regulation path, urges Trump admin to not ban open modelsElon Musk's xAI sues Minnesota over law to ban 'nudify' appsMark Zuckerberg is urging the U.S. to accelerate AI development, not restrict itElon Musk Commits Up to $120M to Republican Midterms: Sets Feud With Trump Aside for Major Election PushIgnoring boardsHims & Hers mission:“Hims & Hers is the leading health and wellness platform on a mission to help the world feel great through the power of better health. We believe how you feel in your body and mind transforms how you show up in life. That's why we're building a future where nothing stands in the way of harnessing this power. Hims & Hers normalizes health & wellness challenges—and innovates on their solutions—to make feeling happy and healthy easy to achieve. No two people are the same, so the Company provides access to personalized care designed for results.”Hims & Hers board:CEO: Andrew Dudum, tech VC bro investor “serial entrepreneur” with deep health experience from Bungalow (airBnB knockoff in the UK), Homebound (a “homebuilding platform”), TalkIQ (an AI startup, duh), and Terminal (something about scaling engineering?)TWO directors from DoorDash (Kofi Amoo-Gottfried from Marketing, previously of Facebook, and Christopher Payne the COO, previously of eBay, MSFT, and Amazon)TWO pharma execs (one lawyer, Deb Autor, one with an econ degree, Kare Schultz)One guy from Netflix (David Wells) and one lady from Urban Outfitters (marketing/brand, Andrea Perez) and one pure law firm lawyer (Anja Manuel)ONE DOCTOR EXCLUSIVE: US FTC sues Hims & Hers for sending user health info to Meta, SnapUsers' sensitive health information was shared with online advertising companies including Meta ​Platforms and Snap despite the company leading customers to believe their ​data was private, the FTC alleged in the lawsuit filed along with Los ⁠Angeles County and Utah.Hims & Hers also started charging users for prescriptions before ​they have ⁠had a chance to meet with healthcare providers, the FTC alleged. Most customers do not receive a consultation with a provider, and instead are charged for ⁠prescriptions ​soon after filling out an intake form, ​according to the agency.Headliniest of the WeekDR: CEO apologizes for offering interviews to people who got tattoos of his AI company logoSan Francisco tech CEO Jordan Zietz, co-founder of an early stage AI startup called LemonLime. Stanford grad.“LemonLime learns your business and then automates your team's busywork in a single click, no coding or manual setup required.”Former Qantas CEO reflects on tenure, issues apology to passengers over post COVID chaos AND ‘I'm sorry ... but': Apologetic Alan Joyce tells his side of the Qantas storyMM: Amazon received $600 million in tariff refunds and will pass some back to customersMM: Trump Staff Cuts Blamed After Watermarked OpenAI Map Mislabels Africa at AIDS ConferenceIt's the fact that we have less staff that meant we couldn't bother to figure out which country was whichWho Won the Week?DR: Kohls: For getting some much-needed female influence on board: Kohl's Appoints Wendy Arlin as Chair of the BoardCurrently only 2: Robbin Mitchell (7%) and Wendy Arlin (1%)John Schlifske (27%) stepping downMM: The phrase “not due to any disagreement with the Company”Anne Sweeney Resigns From Netflix BoardOn July 26, 2026, Anne Sweeney notified Netflix, Inc. (the “Company”) that she was resigning from the Board of Directors of the Company effective as of that date. Ms. Sweeney's resignation is not due to any disagreement with the Company1,660 8-Ks in the last 5 years have the exact phrase “not due to any disagreement with the Company”So we're saying that 1,660 c-suite and board members resigned in 5 years - more than 300 per year - and NONE were due to a disagreement with the companies? That's only THAT phrase - no other details are given for most of them except occasionally:To pursue another jobPersonal reasonsFor scale, in the last 5 years, the term “was due to a disagreement with the Company” appears… 5 timesPredictionsDR: Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson apologizes that it took former CEO Alan Joyce to apologize for something she already apologized for despite not being CEO when any of it happenedMM: Damion resigns from Free Float due to a disagreement with the zero dollars he gets paid, but Free Float puts out a statement saying it's “not due to any salary reason related to the company”

Recorded LIVE at Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

Well, look who's back! The Summer Bash is upon us! A bunch of GenXers having fun their way! This week's conversation was quick and to the point! And is a ghost always 'straight'. GenXmom returns this week and beats Dad up right away! LOL

Podcast Episode Description "A successful exit isn't about leaving your business. It's about leaving the world a better place after you leave it." Host Laurie Barkman welcomes back Scott Snider, President of the Exit Planning Institute — the organization behind the Certified Exit Planning Advisor designation and the Value Acceleration Methodology — for a return conversation four years in the making.  Since their last episode in 2022, EPI has grown from 3,000 to 11,000 CEPAs, Scott has navigated his own leadership succession from his father Chris, and the exit planning profession has undergone one of its most significant evolutions yet.  Scott and Laurie unpack what has changed — and what hasn't — about how business owners think about exit planning, why personal planning remains the weakest leg of the stool, and why exit strategy and business strategy are not two separate conversations. Key Insights: The leadership transformation nobody talks about is the internal one. Scott went from a militant, gritty leadership style — forged running a landscape construction company — to leading a 56-person team of highly educated, motivated professionals who needed to be led completely differently. His biggest surprise? Discovering he was capable of leading with empathy, grace, and love. The style that built his first business would have destroyed this one. Decades of success does not equal transferable value. Business owners can have profitable products, great people, loyal customers, and a lifestyle they love — and still have nothing a buyer actually wants. Scott draws a sharp line between income and value, between success and significance. The gap between the two is exactly why exit planning exists — and exactly why owners keep kicking the can. Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials are asking completely different exit questions. Baby Boomers — who own 51% of privately held companies at an average age of 67 — are navigating a 50-year identity crisis. Gen Xers want out early so they can actually live, with 38% between 45 and 59 planning to exit earlier than their predecessors. And Millennials have grown up inside value acceleration thinking — they're already building to sell. Personal planning is still the weakest leg of the stool — and that needs to change. Despite all the evolution in exit planning since 2005, personal planning remains the area most business owners defer, dismiss, or avoid entirely. Scott's challenge to the profession: stop treating it as the soft stuff. Who am I with and without my business is the most important question a founder can answer — and most never do. Exit strategy and business strategy are the same conversation. Every decision a business owner makes today is already affecting their future exit value. Scott reframes the entire conversation: instead of positioning exit planning as something you do when you're ready to leave, position it as what makes your business stronger, more financeable, and more valuable right now. The foot in the door is helping owners grow a better company — the exit conversation follows naturally. The profession is growing — but awareness is still the biggest gap. With 11,000 CEPAs and a path to 20,000, EPI's CEPA credential could become the second largest professional credential in the country. But even at 20,000, it would still be a fraction of the 250,000 CFPs. The next five years are about activation — helping advisors start the conversation with owners earlier, and meeting owners where they are before a triggering event forces their hand. Chapters: 00:04 Introduction and Four Years Later — What's Changed 01:56 Welcome Back: Scott Snider Returns to Succession Stories 02:57 What Scott Did When He Got the Baton at EPI 04:10 First Year Priorities: Structure, People, and Culture 05:58 The Challenge of Succeeding a Founder — Even a Non-Traditional One 09:28 The Biggest Personal Surprise of Scott's Leadership Journey 10:55 Head, Heart, and Wallet: The Balance of Leadership 12:16 How the Exit Planning Conversation Has Evolved Since 2022 14:34 Are Business Owners Asking Different Questions Today? 17:00 Gen X, Baby Boomers, and Millennials: Three Different Exit Mindsets 19:18 The Biggest Misconception About Exit Planning That Still Frustrates Scott 22:19 Personal Planning and the Card Sorting Exercise 25:13 Decades of Success But Zero Significance — Why Owners Kick the Can 26:15 What Needs to Happen to Make Exit Planning Mainstream 29:50 How Advisors Should Start the Conversation With Business Owners 30:32 Exit Strategy IS Business Strategy 32:42 Lightning Round: Books, Advice, and Finishing the Sentence 34:13 What Scott Hopes His Dad Would Say About the Last Four Years

https://youtu.be/IQoIp4pY_bM Mailani Veney, CEO of Kana Systems, is driven by a mission to help people and organizations flourish through the aloha spirit by delivering trust and speed while transforming complex government data into actionable intelligence that empowers better decisions. By combining advanced AI-powered data solutions with a people-first culture rooted in trust, curiosity, and service, Mailani has built Kana Systems into a trusted defense technology company that helps government organizations solve mission-critical challenges faster while enabling employees, customers, and partners to thrive.  In this conversation, Mailani introduces The Aloha Way Framework—Know Who You Are & Why You Are The Prize, Aim for the Bullseye, and Co-Build with Speed. She explains why leaders must first understand their unique identity and value before attracting the right people and opportunities, how curiosity and empathy uncover customer needs while building lasting trust, and why collaborating with customers accelerates innovation and delivers measurable business outcomes. Mailani also shares how decades of service built the trusted reputation that led to government recruitment and enabled Kana Systems to transform siloed data into AI-powered solutions that strengthen long-term partnerships and dramatically improve operational efficiency. — Deliver Trust & Speed with Mailani Veney Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Mailani Veney, the CEO of Kana Systems, a company changing the future of defense technology by transforming siloed, messy data into usable information to drive better insights for government customers. Mailani, welcome to the show. Aloha.  Aloha. You sent me a link this morning with the correct terms that I should be using for a Hawaiian native on the podcast, and I read the article. It was very long. But I figured that there are some terms that I may be able to use on this podcast as well. So thanks for doing that.  Yes, absolutely. So you have a very interesting background. You’re from Hawaii, but you studied in Central Europe, in Slovenia. You run a company in Nebraska, but right now you’re calling from Florida, so it’s a little bit confusing. So tell me, how did you fall into government contracting, and why not do it from Hawaii? So I actually was recruited by the largest customer in the world, our U.S. government, to help modernize technology, and it was in the area of nuclear weapons technology. So I actually didn’t choose this particular career path or this domain. I was running another technology company at the time, and our government found me and recruited me to help with this very important initiative. And this was pre-generative AI.  I had a platform that I was using in my other company to help small businesses make better decisions using data, and that was using machine learning and artificial intelligence. So I’ve since expanded the scope of what we’re doing across the department and spreading aloha spirit, which is helping others flourish. We help people be heroes at work. And when they do their work well, our country stays safe.  Wow. That is very cool. One of the terms that I noticed in your article was ʻohana.  Yes.  We’ve been staying in a beach house in Sandbridge Beach for the last few years called Ohana Bay, and we always thought it was something to do with Omaha Bay. I never thought it meant family, community, that kind of stuff. So that was super interesting. This is a super-secret project.  I don’t know if we are allowed to talk about it on the podcast. Your nuclear technology and machine learning, that’s probably highly confidential. So what I’d really like to ask you is, what is your personal ‘Why’, and how are you manifesting it in Kana Systems? Yes, and I want to relate this to the people who are watching. 348: Deliver Trust & Speed with Mailani VeneyShare on X That’s how I was raised. That’s how my ʻohana is. That’s how I run my businesses. That’s how I serve. It’s that mentality. It’s that service above self, which is the Rotary motto. I’m a fervent Rotarian. That is really the ‘Why’.  But let me dive into that a little bit more. I’ve taught fitness for 30 years. I still do. I run a defense intelligence company that the U.S. government recruited me to build. People don’t expect those two things to go together, but to me, they’re the exact same job because what I’ve done my whole life is one thing. I find people, and I help them flourish. So in a fitness class, that’s obvious. I help them feel good about themselves and their health.  In the businesses that I’ve started, when I was a professor, when I was the president of one of the largest Rotary clubs in the world, doing good across the world and in our own local communities, all of those things. And then the most important job I’ve ever had, which is raising three children, two of whom now help me run this company. I never did that to build a reputation.  Although when I was a professor at the University of Nebraska and we got to meet with Warren Buffett—he’s a pretty successful businessman—one of his famous quotes is about reputation. But what he told us in person was, “Your reputation is really the only asset you have.” People who chase building a reputation rather than authentically building it up—I think that’s the big difference.  So for me, we build reputation, and I build my personal reputation by doing good for others over and over and over for years.Share on X So when the government, I get asked this question all the time: “How did they recruit you?” They went looking for someone to trust—an entrepreneur to trust—in a very specific domain. They researched. They found me. They found 30 years of that. I didn’t chase that largest customer.  They came to me because of the service. And I build a business the same way I build a strong body—not with one big move. You can’t do it in one big move. You show up day after day, and you do good reps for a very long time. So that’s my ‘Why’. And that’s what I do for the world, for my ʻohana, and just in life in general.  I love it. Very inspiring. It’s very reassuring. So thank you for having that ‘Why’. That’s very powerful. I didn’t realize that you got recruited because of your reputation. I mean, they say they hire people for who they are and then train them for the skills. That’s basically what they did, I guess, on a big scale when they recruited you. Yeah.  And I specifically… At first, when they recruited me and I was running another company, I was getting ready to be president of Rotary 14, and I told them no because I don’t like to do a job that I can’t do well. So then, for about six months, they impressed on me the importance of bringing in small businesses with innovation, speed, and a different outlook. They’re called non-traditionals.  Originally, when they said they wanted me because I was non-traditional, I was thinking, “Well, it’s because of my gender, my ethnicity, or my age. I don’t know.” And they said, “No, no. It’s that you have not had a cost-based contract with the government.” So “non-traditional” has a very specific meaning. The government is very smart in recognizing that, “Hey, we need to bring in those waves of new ideas and entrepreneurs.” That’s what they were looking for when they found me.  And my reputation, they told me, I said, “What is the reputation you’re hearing?” And they said they heard that I was a good person, that I had a really strong culture, and that I got really good results. That’s the reason they recruited me. The technology that I brought over is a byproduct of those things, but they didn’t recruit me just for the technology. Okay. So now I’m very, very curious about your system. I know that it’s based on your personal identity, your ethics, and all that stuff, but I love to turn things into systems. And you say that your secret sauce is finding people and helping them flourish. So how do you do that? Do you have a framework that you can share with me and with our audience about the steps to finding people and helping them flourish? Sure. So we have our own Kana Operating System, and it's something I highly encourage companies to do—to really spend the time and create their own operating system.Share on X It’s not one-size-fits-all. But within that Kana Operating System, we have a system called The Aloha Way. So ha is breath, and aloha is, of course, the way we say hello, goodbye, and greetings. But it’s also a time to exchange good energy and compassion.  So really spending the time on The Aloha Way to think about what that operating system is—all of it stems around our values. And this will tie back to what you’re asking me as far as recruiting. There are three steps in this. One, you have to know who you are and know that you’re the prize. I think this is an area… I’ve been an angel investor for 20 years. I’ve been in the entrepreneurship world for decades now. Those companies, founders, and entrepreneurs who don’t know who they are, don’t know why they’re the prize, and cannot articulate that are at a severe disadvantage. So that’s step number one.  Number two in The Aloha Way is Aim for the Bullseye. And I can tell you how I do that a little bit later. But it’s finding that bullseye because it’s a two-way street. This is never about pushing on somebody, pushing on a company, or pushing on someone you want to hire. So, Aim for the Bullseye. How do you know what’s in the bullseye? And then number three is Co-Building with Speed. That is really what we’rezon AWS and Microsoft.  We’ve literally had meetings this morning and yesterday where, again, they’re emphasizing how fast we work as a company—with good results and trusted results. So those three things make up The Aloha Way: Know You’re the Prize, Aim for the Bullseye, and Co-Build with Speed. And where do people fall into this? They’re at the very top. People always come first in what we’re doing. When we know who we are, what our mission is, and the fact that we're here to make an impact in a good way, we have a terrific track record of recruiting the right people. People know they're going to flourish. People know we're going to treat…Share on X  And in turn, they become excellent partners with us. We just got off the phone with our 401(k) provider. We are one of the very few companies they know of where, when they ran the data, we give a 5% match to every employee, whether they’re part-time or full-time. We don’t call them interns in our company because everybody has value. Part-time and full-time employees get the 401(k) match from day one. For us, that’s investing in our people because we know we’re the prize. We know our people are going to be doing really good, impactful work, and we need to treat them very well. So that’s just one example. People like to be paid well.  They do. So, Mailani, please explain to me exactly what it means. Why are you the prize? Is this something because your mission is more attractive, or what does it mean?  This goes back to some mentoring that I had from Oren Klaff. Oren Klaff has a whole system on teaching companies and people how to pitch and raise money. Although we’ve never raised money, our cap table is completely clean. But the reason why this is important is it goes back to who you are and what your identity is. So that’s the very first thing that I do whenever I start a company or start an organization.  We have a lot of thoughtful discussion about who we are. When you know who you are, and you know why you're unique, and you know why you can do something better than almost anybody else, that makes you the prize for the right people, for the right organization, and for the right circumstance.Share on X We’re the right company right now because we invested early on, saying, “Hey, people making decisions with this overload of data.” Our core product is called Kana Wave.  So instead of getting crushed by the wave, we help them ride it. It’s a little surfing analogy. But we were ahead of our time with that, and we knew that in the future this was going to be more and more important. Obviously, when GenAI jumped on the scene, it became vastly apparent. So knowing we’re the prize in this area is very important because then you’re able to attract the right people, you attract the right opportunities, and really not pay attention to those that don’t fit.  One of the best things that we do is we get to no fast. That is something we chase. Getting to a no is a gift. It’s a gift because then that opens you up to the right yes. I see this too often. People want to hold on. It’s the wrong thing. It’s a little bit of yes, but it’s not enough. So get to no.  Yeah, I love it. This is very smart. It’s very wise. Okay, so knowing who you are and why you’re unique, why you’re the prize, I love it. I love the sentiment behind this, the pride behind it. It’s fantastic. So what is number two? Aim for the bullseye. What does that mean? What do you mean by that?  I love that question. There’s a very famous “sell me a pen” in The Wolf of Wall Street, and when I do this, I do it differently. So I ask people to sell me a pen. If they try and just tell you about the features of a pen, “Here’s my pen. You should buy this pen because of this,” or, “Do you need something to write with?” there’s so many assumptions in your background that go into those things. The easy button that most people don’t do is they just ask.  You can do all the research. I researched you, Steve. I listened to a whole bunch of the podcasts when you guys reached out wanting to have me on this podcast. But at the end of the day, all I have to do is ask, “What’s most important to you, Steve, for having me as a guest on your podcast?”  I’d like to learn your framework. Okay.  And I’d like to learn about you and see why you’re the prize.  “See why we’re the prize.” So that very thing right there is the bullseye. A lot of times people miss the bullseye, and it doesn’t do anybody any good. That’s the “get to no fast” as well. So if I’m trying to tell you about the Kana Wave platform and you’re doing something completely different, we’re just wasting each other’s time, right? I don’t want to do that. There is a lot more than I can cover in this podcast, but that’s what we do when we train our people.  A lot of it starts with empathy, and it starts with that aloha spirit.Share on X So when you go into something not trying to push or sell or win something, but you’re genuinely curious, and when people ask me, “What’s the one quality that everybody in my company, everybody that we contract with, and our major vendors and partners all have?” We all are curious. A lot of that curiosity is in the form of intelligence, but it’s that curiosity first.  When you’re curious, you ask the right questions. So I have two magic questions for your audience. One, “What are you looking for?” Two, “What’s important to you?” Sounds so simple. I see it happen so rarely in business, and I see it happen so rarely in relationships. People would just get along a lot better if we could just have upfront, honest, transparent conversations around those two things. Right off the bat, what they’re telling you is a guide as far as, “Do you want to continue this conversation? Is there a way that we can help?”  If their bullseye matches up with your value, or the value of your company, your product, or your service, then you’re off to the races to have a conversation. But you can’t do that without that foundation. It really flips it on its head from when I was trained in corporate sales at the beginning of my career. I like this a lot better because then we really genuinely get to know what somebody else wants. At the end of the day, businesses, organizations, and the military are a bunch of people. So treat people like people. That's the Hawaiian part. That's where the aloha spirit really comes in.Share on X  So when you’re explaining this, I’m thinking that “know who you are” and “why you’re the prize” is basically the way to build trust. Then “Aim for the Bullseye.” Then you’ve already built the trust. Maybe I’m getting this wrong, but then you can ask those questions that require some level of vulnerability from the other person to actually tell you what they’re really looking for.  They’re not going to tell it to a stranger they don’t trust because they might feel sensitive about it or they might not want you to know. So is there something to do with trust and trust allowing you to aim for the bullseye?  One hundred percent. That is one of the two things that we deliver. We deliver not just speed, but we deliver trust. For us, trust is solving one problem, and it expands, and it becomes the next and the next. That’s what I’ve seen in my corporate career, my other companies that I started, and especially in this company. Trust begets trust. Again, it’s like, “Well, how do you build trust?” You start with your mindset. “I want to help you flourish, Steve.” “I want to help my customers flourish.” “I want to help our bank flourish.” We’re paying our bank, but I want to help them flourish too.  If you have that mindset first, those are the reps I’m talking about that build your reputation, that build your trust, and then people start referring you. It’s such a beautiful flywheel when it’s done well. The other famous Warren Buffett quote is, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” So just doing good over and over again. For me, trust starts with the mindset first.  Yeah. I always believe that you can only create trust by trusting first because people cannot trust someone who doesn’t trust them. I think it’s a very dangerous place to trust someone who doesn’t trust you, right?  Yeah.  Because they won’t have your best interest at heart. So I love it. Go first. The aloha spirit. Look for ways to help the other person, then be curious and learn what the bullseye is so that you can aim at it. Then what do you mean by Co-Build with Speed?  Thank you for asking. That’s the final step. In the three steps that we do, that’s the final one. What we deliver is a solution that makes people’s lives better. One of the key psychology pieces is that most people want to feel important in whatever job they’re doing, in whatever aspect of life they are. So let’s empower people to feel important and to be heroes at work, regardless of what the job is.  With that mentality, we came in and said, “Okay, we’re really, really, really good and experts at developing advanced technology solutions.” But here’s what we’re not really good at. We’re not really good at everything outside of that. That’s where we have to have a partner. So we do not sell commercial off-the-shelf software. We do not sell custom software. We're in this really awesome, scalable center where we have Kana Wave, which is a very powerful data and intelligence platform that can be used like Lego.Share on X  What we don’t have is the front-end piece that matches everybody’s workflow. But this is where the speed comes in. We can quickly build that, and the way we do that is we partner with our customers. They know their domain. They know their workflow. They know the problems and challenges. So we do a little bit of tweaking on that, and that’s how we’re able to generate products so quickly that really are unique and maximize the value to the customer in the work they’re getting done.  As an example, our very first project was the “Can I Fight Tonight?” Dashboard. Our country has nuclear weapons. Underpinning those nuclear weapons is the technology to make sure everything is running. The philosophy behind nuclear weapons is strategic deterrence. But in order to deter, you have to have the credibility that everything works. So every two weeks, five people in an underground location were pulling together all of this information manually, putting it into spreadsheets upon spreadsheets, massive horse blankets of spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and manually handling all of this data.  It was taking five people two weeks. We came in, we worked with them, we built the solution. We worked with them to co-build what they actually needed, and we brought that down to where one person could do it in 30 minutes. We’ve done that over and over and over again. We’re working with another government customer right now where it’s taking them 150 hours to get a project done, and we can do it in one hour.  So when I’m talking about co-building with speed, we’re building the last little bit that they actually need on top of this really powerful engine. That has proven to be such a successful model because they’re the ones who care about getting the problem solved, and we’re turning them into the heroes at their own job. It’s so gratifying. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in my career because we see the impact every single day of what we’re doing.  That’s fascinating. So the Kana Wave platform—you said it’s like Lego. It’s a data engineering platform, and then you take the workflow of that customer and adapt it to this, or somehow interface it with this platform, or use the knowledge of that workflow to essentially streamline the process and go from 150 hours to one hour? Love it. That’s very interesting. So what’s one thing that you’re trying to figure out in Kana Systems right now?  The thing that keeps me awake is not optimizing the opportunities we have. So we’re trying to figure out who the right partners are. We’re a small business, and we know we’re a small business. That’s our superpower, but it also holds us back in some regards. So the thing we’re trying to figure out right now is which companies to partner with. Like I told you, we’ve partnered with Microsoft and Amazon.  They’ve been phenomenal partners in the technology-enabling area. There are other partners out there that we’re considering right now. Again, the only metric I care about—I run the company off one metric. For me, it’s about aloha spirit. How much aloha do we deliver? The way that we look at this is how many people find what we’re helping them with to be useful. Everything else derives from that, right? The growth. The revenue. We make millions, but that’s not the metric I’m chasing.  So what I’m looking for with these new partners is who can help us improve that one metric so we can deliver more aloha. Naturally, we’re looking at larger companies. There are a few small companies that we’re looking at that have interesting edge AI use cases where we can help out. Those are the things that are really challenging me right now as CEO and founder.  So is it about how you measure the deliverable aloha quotient of those target partners that’s the challenge, or is it reaching the target partners to have the opportunity to provide the aloha for them, or is it about something else?  I think it’s a matter of choosing the right partners in a fast, trusted way. It’s a process. With us working so quickly, being able to choose the right partners, but we also don’t choose the wrong partners. So it’s less about the aloha metric. If we’ve qualified them enough that we’re interested in partnering with them, we can figure that part out pretty quickly. But it’s getting over those last few. Do you have any answers?  Yeah. I wonder if it’s something to do with the judgment, whether the judgment to choose those partners is scalable in the company or not. And to what degree your growth is constrained by your ability to transfer the ability to judge the partners to the rest of the organization. So it’s no longer a constraint at your level. What would it look like for the growth of Kana Systems if you didn’t have to be part of the partner selection process anymore because the judgment would be equivalently good at lower levels in the organization?  Well, in that case, then I would think it would be faster.  Okay.  We’re in incredible times right now. As an example, our platform can ingest all kinds of data, tag it, chunk it, organize it. There are entire companies worth billions of dollars just doing one segment of that. The fact that we can do all of that at a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost—that’s why we’re situated very well right now for growth, and that’s why we’re having so much fun right now. It’s a really fun time in our company.  We have a lot of people who are interested in not just partnering with us and investing in us and acquiring us. We’re getting inundated with a lot of requests for that. Trying to stay focused on who are the right people and companies to be speaking with right now, in addition to our customers, of course. So I think that’s a challenge that companies dealing with factors of scale have to deal with.  Okay. So what makes a potential partner, listening to this podcast, know that they’re the one, that they should give you a call because they would be a big recipient of aloha?  Yeah. Actually, that’s a great question. The things that we look for, number one, they don’t have to call it aloha spirit. It goes by different names. But at its heart, they are people or organizations that are here to do good. What we’re doing right now in the world of defense are things that absolutely can carry over into any line of commercial work. The fact that we can work with sensitive data in some of the most trusted environments in the world means that we can do that in other areas.  We’ve talked to people in finance, capital structures, and energy. There’s a lot of interest in those kinds of other areas to carry over some of our best practices and learnings. We absolutely want someone who is helping us be the best version of ourselves. There is an opportunity for us to sell all or part of the company in the next few years to a strategic partner. That’s something that we would entertain as well.  But really it’s that idea that, hey, together we can build something that’s more impactful than what we currently have. So we can sniff out pretty quickly if people are aligned with the same kind of reasons that we are.  But what I understand is that your two ideal companies, the clients you mentioned, were AWS and Microsoft. These are both huge companies, which means there are huge opportunities to create value, Aloha, perhaps. And you mentioned energy. You mentioned defense. So are these big infrastructure-type platforms where aloha can best be manifested or delivered? What are the commonalities?  Because we don’t know on the face of it whether those companies have the kind of people that you’re looking for. Sometimes you can know that a company has a lot of good people, but for larger companies, it’s harder to know. So what are the commonalities?  At its stake, of course, these are large companies. We’ve been really fortunate that we work with small groups within these very large companies. Those small groups, we can tell right away whether or not they’re a fit. Both of those companies have been very good. We’ve partnered with other much, much smaller companies than that. Well, let me tell you one of my personal ways that I determine ethics.  It’s the Four-Way Test from Rotary. Of the things we think, say, or do: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? I run through that all the time, and I hold my team and myself to that very standard. We’re always looking to do things that are beneficial to all concerned. They don’t have to be equally beneficial, but they cannot benefit only one party. So as we’re looking at partners, those are some of the things that we’re considering too.  The other piece… We’re in a capitalistic society. We totally embrace that. But you can do good and still be a capitalist. That’s what we’re proving over and over again. I lost my train of thought with what the last part of your question was, Steve.  No, I think you answered it. Basically, it’s not a size issue.  No.  It’s an attitude issue. You’re looking for win-win partnerships. If you find the right kind of people, then the chance of successful collaboration is going to be great. Obviously, as you grow the company, you want to leverage yourself more with your people, which means that you’ll tend to do business with larger companies as well, I believe.  Yeah. You know what’s been so fun about this? I’m one of the 3% of women who own a defense technology company, according to the Small Business Administration. There aren’t very many women in this space. It’s been really interesting because I lead with the soft skills first. A lot of people ask me if I have a background in computer science or artificial intelligence. I have a background. My number one Gallup strength is Strategic. But what I really care about is helping people flourish, optimizing people, and bringing people together for a common mission—not only to accomplish it, but to have fun doing it.  I think that’s something that gets lost. I’m a Gen Xer, and I was taught that you’ve got to put in your chops, you’ve got to sacrifice, and it’s got to be hard. I don’t believe in that. I like to have fun. I like things that are easy. Everybody likes easy things. If I’m good at something, it’s really easy. So trying to give people the opportunity to do those things. This is where it’s been so much fun. Business can be super fun, and I think that’s something we lose out on. In Hawaii, there’s an ancient way of fishing called the Hukilau.  It’s one of our product names. In the Hukilau, instead of fishing by yourself, there’s a hula with this. Instead of fishing by yourself, where you only catch fish for yourself, as a community you come together and fish. You throw out a big net, then you pull the net in together. Here’s the really cool part. Everybody can be different. A little kid next to a big person next to an older person.  But together you’re bringing it all in. Then the part that’s really great—and Hawaiians are known for this—we have the luaus. We party. We eat. We drink. We have music. We dance. We enjoy it. That makes you want to do it again. So why can’t we do that in business too? Why can’t we do this in a super-serious, top-secret environment? Most of our team have Top Secret clearances. We have our facility clearance. It’s pretty unheard of, as small of a business as we are, to have all of these things. But we still have fun.  We still have fun doing all of this. I think that’s something with the Aloha Way that I didn’t call out. How do we actually get to that? If you have the mentality, then people want to show up and continue doing good work. Even our customers will say, “Oh, this is my one fun meeting of the day with Kana Systems.” We just had a meeting with one of our partners, and they said, “This is the one meeting that we look forward to all week because we have a good time.” So I think that needs to be highlighted as well.  No, I agree. People can learn, absorb, and buy in when they have fun much more than if they’re forced to do something. That’s obvious, and I totally relate to it. All right. So if someone is listening to this and they say, “I might be a company that could create these impacts with Kana Systems,” then how do I find out? How do I get in touch? How do I learn more? How do I connect with you guys?  They can email us at aloha@kana.systems. K-A-N-A dot systems. That’s one way. They can reach out to us on LinkedIn. I can be found pretty easily. There’s nobody else with my name on there. They can go to one of the events. We’re going to be speaking at the Amazon DC Summit at the end of the month. We’ll be in San Diego next month for the War Hackers Hackathon. We’re out and about at quite a few defense- and technology-related events. Yeah, that’s about it. Don’t send smoke signals. We can’t see those.  Fantastic. So if you’re looking for a partner who brings a technology platform that could leverage you, and you want lots of good vibes, good results, and a fun work environment, then check out Mailani Veney, who’s the CEO of Kana Systems. She’s on LinkedIn. She’s easy to find. The website has an interesting domain, kana.systems. Check her out speaking around the country. Mailani, thank you for coming and sharing your wisdom and your frameworks. Super fun. If you’re listening and enjoyed this, then make sure you tune in because twice a week we come out and share with you an exciting story from a unique entrepreneur. So thanks for coming, Mailani, and thanks for listening.  Aloha, everybody.  Aloha indeed.  Important Links: Mailani's LinkedIn Mailani's  website Mailani’s Email: aloha@kana.systems

Heat, bugs, and peeling skin... it must be summer! Pitney remembers Spike-sitting. Amelia ponders making money off her feet. A discussion about eggs veers into memories from Guatemala and a slur in Spanish. Such fun! Peeves: Misuse of words like "genre" and "aesthetic" and phrases like "real food."   Promos: 3 Spooked Girls  https://linktr.ee/3spookedgirls  2 Skeptical Chaps http://www.2skepticalchaps.libsyn.com/     (Want to swap show promos? Email us!)   POLITICAL AND PETTY DESIGNS ON SHIRTS, HATS, MUGS, AND MORE! https://bitchenboutique.dashery.com Profits support this podcast right here! We love you for listening! Please take a moment to rate and review us, and earn a STICKER! (Everyone loves stickers!) And please subscribe or add us to your favorites list on your favorite platform so you never miss a show! And share us with your cool friends, not the lame ones. Questions? Comments? Complaints?  Write to us at PitneyAndAmelia@gmail.com!   Check out our various socials etc at https://linktr.ee/bitchenboutique   Who the heck are Pitney and Amelia? A gay guy and his fat friend talking about everything! We've got over 40 YEARS of stories to share about stuff we love, stuff that annoys us, people we've known, places we've been, and things we've seen. Geeky, silly, and always opinionated. NAMES ARE CHANGED TO PROTECT THE GUILTY! We may be awful, but we're right! Here, queer, and in your ear. Every other Friday. The Bitchen Boutique is all about mental health and openness and honesty and if you're in crisis and in the US, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  And if you just need some friends, you've got two right here. Edited, engineered, produced, and promoted by Amelia.   LGBTQIA+ | Comedy | GenX | Fandom | Horror | Spirituality | Mental Health #ADHD #sidequests #Ozempic #velveeta #romcomtropes #petpeeves  #LGBTQIAplus #Comedy #GenX #Fandom #Horror #Spirituality #MentalHealth      -     - - - - - - - - KEYWORDS: Pitney and Amelia, Pitney & Amelia, Bitchen Boutique, Bitchen Boutique podcast, Pitney, Amelia, Generation X, Gen X, GenX, GenXer, GenXers, comedy, comedy podcast, current events, current events podcast, pop culture, pop culture podcast, talk show, chat show, us politics, progressive, progressive podcast, queer stories, lgbtqia+ stories, queer podcast, lgbtqia+ podcast, gay, gay podcast, trans rights, horror, horror fans, horror community, fandom, spirituality, coven, secular coven, pagan, paganism, tarot, tarot cards, witchy, antifa, anti-trump, anti-maga, cancer, breast cancer, breast cancer treatment, fat acceptance, haes, mental health podcast, mental health, scifi, science fiction, geek, geek culture, nerd, nerd culture, fyp, vlog, dayinthelife, pet peeves, dashery, teepublic, heatwave, foot mask, foot fetish, feet, genre, aesthetic, real food, Velveeta, dairy, eggs

Beauty retail whisperer Alison Hahn is one of the industry's most sought-after experts, with a track record of identifying major players like Patrick Ta, Kayali, and Makeup by Mario. On this episode of Fat Mascara: Business Desk, Hahn talks about selling to Gen Alpha, reengaging Gen Xers, beauty dupes, the big mistake celebrity founders often make, tough vendor conversations, and more. More from Fat Mascara Instagram: @fatmascara @jessicamatlin Shop the products mentioned on Fat Mascara: https://shopmy.us/shop/fatmascara Private Facebook Group: Fat Mascara Raising a Wand Submit a Raise a Wand product recommendation, guest suggestion, or just say hello: info@fatmascara.com Production for this Podcast Provided by Redd Rock Music IG: @reddrockmusic www.reddrockmusic.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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On this episode, Sarah Lacy joins Adrion Porter for a powerful conversation about her mother's influence, writing, publishing, Gen X, and building The Best Bookstore. Sarah is a proud Gen Xer from Memphis, Tennessee, whose career has spanned journalism, technology, entrepreneurship, publishing, authorship, and now the world of independent bookstores. She is the author of three books: Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky, and A Uterus Is a Feature, Not a Bug. She has also built and led media companies, covered some of Silicon Valley's most important stories, and now helps other authors develop powerful nonfiction books and proposals. Sarah is also the co-owner of The Best Bookstore, with locations in Palm Springs and San Francisco's Union Square, where she and her team are building what she calls "the SoulCycle of bookstores." But at the heart of this conversation is something even deeper: Sarah's reflections on her mother, Carol Lacy, a brilliant teacher at St. Mary's Episcopal School in Memphis, and the profound influence she had on Sarah's writing, resilience, ambition, and sense of power. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro/Welcome to Gen X Amplified 00:02:25 The Memphis Connection with Kim Scott 00:03:02 Memphis, Truth Telling, and Authenticity 00:10:10 Sarah's St. Mary's Episcopal and Rhodes College Roots 00:13:20 Why Gen X Is the Overlooked Middle Child 00:16:55 Sarah's Path Into Journalism 00:18:55 The Memphis Business Journal Turning Point 00:31:00 St. Mary's, Resilience, and Sarah's Mother Carol 00:37:03 How Motherhood Inspired Sarah to Start Pand0 00:40:45 Sarah's Dream of Writing Books 00:47:05 The BusinessWeek Cover Story That Changed Everything 00:54:20 Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky and the Book No One Wanted 00:58:30 Sarah's Agent Jim Levine and the Publishing World 00:59:30 Why Publishing Should Serve the Author 01:03:00 Building the "SoulCycle of Bookstores" 01:12:05 Sarah's Personal Theme Song 01:13:20 Where to Find and Follow Sarah Sarah's Personal Theme Song "Phenomenon" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs Resources Sarah Lacy's Website Sarah Lacy's Newsletter The Best Bookstore The Best Bookstore on Instagram Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky A Uterus Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Send us Fan MailDonate to the GoFundMe for my feature-length film, The Cabin!A brief show that left a lasting impact. A band whose rise was cut short. Some of the most popular television programming blocks ever.Episode 253 shows the pop culture randomizer on full display.It begins with a look back at a show that only lasted a short time but left a big imprint on a lot of GenXers. BrainGames was a revelation in children's education. The HBO show lasted a whopping 6 episodes, yet somehow is still fondly remembered to this day by many who saw it. We look at why this little show had a big impact.30 years ago this week, an indie band with a cult following released their breakout hit song. Unfortunately, it came shortly after their lead singer had lost his life. The band was Sublime, and the singer was Bradley Nowell. On this anniversary, we do a deep dive into the rise, fall, and full-circle rebirth of one of the most popular bands of the mid-1990s.TGIF? Must-See TV? This week's Top 5 looks at those and some of the other beloved television programming blocks of all-time. How many of these were part of your weekly scheduling plans?Finally there is a brand-new This Week In History and Time Capsule, looking at the very first Billboard Magazine music chart(it's not what you might think).To support me and the show, become a member on Patreon. Or you can support my work and Buy Me A Coffee!Helpful Links from this EpisodeBuy My New Book, In Their Footsteps!Searching For the Lady of the Dunes True Crime BookHooked By Kiwi - Etsy.comDJ Williams MusicKeeKee's Cape Cod KitchenMSFTS CommunityKingfisher Hotels Cape CodChristopher Setterlund.comCape Cod Living - Zazzle StoreSubscribe on YouTube!Initial Impressions 2.0 BlogCJSetterlundPhotos on EtsyListen to Episode 252 hereSupport the show

Recorded LIVE at Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

Welcome to the Financial Freedom & Wealth Trailblazers Podcast! In today's episode, we're talking about how to build a retirement plan that helps you achieve financial security and retire with confidence. Dalene Higgins is a money coach and retirement strategist who helps women and couples over 40 stop worrying about retirement and start taking action so they can create the retirement they want sooner while still enjoying life today.She walked her own retirement journey for 15 years. Like many people, she wasn't handed a clear roadmap. She had to learn how to balance everyday life, competing financial priorities, and long-term goals while building a retirement plan that actually fit the life she wanted. Along the way, she discovered that retirement isn't just about saving more money, it's about creating a plan you believe in and can confidently follow.Today, Dalene helps her clients do exactly that. Through practical strategies, personalized guidance, and simple systems, she helps them gain clarity, make confident financial decisions, and build momentum toward a retirement they can truly look forward to.Dalene is the host of Wealthy After 40, a podcast where she helps Gen Xers answer questions like, “Will I have enough to retire?”, “Am I on track?”, and “What should I do next?” through practical retirement strategies, money management, and mindset shifts that make retirement possible.Connect with Dalene Here: https://www.instagram.com/elevate_finances/https://www.facebook.com/dalene.higgins/https://www.threads.com/@elevate_finances?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==https://www.elevatefinances.usGrab the freebie here: https://www.elevatefinances.us/calculator===================================If you enjoyed this episode, remember to hit the like button and subscribe. Then share this episode with your friends.Thanks for watching the Financial Freedom & Wealth  Trailblazers Podcast. This podcast is part of the Digital Trailblazer family of podcasts. To learn more about Digital Trailblazer and what we do to help entrepreneurs, go to DigitalTrailblazer.com.Are you a coach, consultant, expert, or online course creator? Then we'd love to invite you to our FREE Facebook Group where you can learn the best strategies to land more high-ticket clients and customers. QUICK LINKS: APPLY TO BE FEATURED: https://app.digitaltrailblazer.com/podcast-guest-applicationDIGITAL TRAILBLAZER: https://digitaltrailblazer.com/

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by Alvin Sanders, President and CEO of World Impact, an organization committed to equipping leaders to build healthy churches in every community experiencing poverty. After decades in pastoral ministry and leadership development, Alvin has become passionate about helping ministry leaders avoid one of the greatest threats to long-term effectiveness: burnout. Are you serving faithfully but feeling increasingly exhausted? Wondering how to sustain ministry for the long haul without sacrificing your health, family, or relationship with God? In this conversation, Alvin shares the personal lessons that transformed his own leadership after experiencing burnout. Tune in as he offers a practical framework for building a ministry that lasts. When work becomes worship. // Ministry itself can quietly become an idol. He didn’t intentionally choose work over God, but somewhere along the way, serving Christ replaced walking with Christ. Spiritual disciplines gave way to ministry responsibilities. Prayer, Sabbath, retreat, fasting, and personal communion with God slowly disappeared beneath endless demands. The result was a ministry that looked productive on the outside while becoming spiritually unsustainable on the inside. Return to the basics of spiritual formation. // Rather than searching for complicated solutions, Alvin returned to the foundational practices Christians have embraced for centuries. Prayer, engaging Scripture, fasting, Sabbath, retreat, generosity, commitment to the Church body, and intentional spiritual rhythms are not optional extras for ministry leaders. They are essential practices that sustain healthy leadership. Just as championship football teams return to blocking and tackling when they lose, pastors must continually return to the spiritual basics that anchor their lives. Pay attention to the warning signs. // In hindsight, Alvin sees numerous warning lights he ignored. His daughter once looked at him during dinner and innocently asked, “Daddy, why are you here?” because she had grown so accustomed to his absence. He gained significant weight, neglected his physical health, ignored emotional exhaustion, and consistently placed ministry ahead of family. None of these issues appeared overnight, but together they revealed a leader drifting toward collapse. Burnout is often less about one dramatic event and more about a thousand small compromises over time. Healthy leaders steward their whole person. // Pastors often underestimate the importance of caring for their physical and emotional health. Exercise is no longer something he squeezes into his schedule. Now, it is part of his workday because caring for his body directly affects his ministry. Likewise, emotional health is not separate from spiritual maturity. Leaders who fail to process stress, trauma, criticism, and disappointment eventually carry those burdens into every aspect of ministry. Healthy ministry begins with healthy people. A three-legged stool for sustainable ministry. // At World Impact, staff health is built around three interconnected priorities: spiritual formation, engaging stressors, and leadership development. Spiritual formation keeps leaders rooted in Christ. Engaging stressors helps them process trauma, maintain healthy boundaries, and avoid adopting a “savior mentality.” Skill development—including emotional intelligence, leadership growth, and contextual ministry effectiveness—equips leaders to serve wisely. Remove any one of these three “legs,” and long-term ministry becomes unstable. If you’re approaching burnout, don’t ignore it. // Alvin closes with practical encouragement for leaders who recognize themselves in his story. First, honestly acknowledge where you are instead of pretending everything is fine. Second, intentionally rest by embracing Sabbath, vacations, and healthy rhythms. Finally, if the burden runs deeper, don’t hesitate to seek help from a trusted counselor. Burnout isn’t a badge of honor—it is a warning that something needs attention. To learn more about Alvin or World Impact, visit worldimpact.org or connect with Alvin on LinkedIn. You can find his expanded book Redemptive Poverty Work on Amazon and his recent webinar on redemptive poverty work here. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: TouchPoint As your church reaches more people, one of the biggest challenges is making sure no one slips through the cracks along the way.TouchPoint Church Management Software is an all-in-one ecosystem built for churches that want to elevate discipleship by providing clear data, strong engagement tools, and dependable workflows that scale as you grow. TouchPoint is trusted by some of the fastest-growing and largest churches in the country because it helps teams stay aligned, understand who they're reaching, and make confident ministry decisions week after week. If you've been wondering whether your current system can carry your next season of growth, it may be time to explore what TouchPoint can do for you. You can evaluate TouchPoint during a free, no-pressure one-hour demo at TouchPointSoftware.com/demo. Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey, friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in. Listen, I know you’ve got a million things going on this week. In fact, if you’ve got a lot of things going on, you really need to set aside the next half an hour or so to lean in on this conversation because I really think this is going to be helpful for you. I know it’s the kind of thing that you and your team is wrestling with plus we have a return guest on the podcast which what that indicates to you is this a person I want you to hear from. Honored to have Reverend Dr. Alvin Sanders with us he is the president and CEO of World Impact which empowers leaders to build healthy churches in communities of diversity and poverty. When urban leaders so when urban leaders are empowered that to own and lead their own ministry, individuals, families, and neighborhoods ultimately flourish. Super excited to have him with us. Enjoyed his episode from maybe a couple years ago and honored to have you back today. Alvin, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.Alvin Sanders — Glad to be here, Rich, and thanks for having me back.Rich Birch — Oh, it’s great to connect a little bit. Why don’t you bring us up to speed? Tell us a little bit about yourself, about World Impact. Give us some context if people don’t remember.Alvin Sanders — Yeah, so President, CEO World Impact – our vision is a healthy church in every community experiencing poverty. We’re working to solve the problem that 95% of the world’s pastors have no formal ministry training whatsoever.Alvin Sanders — So we we try to bring that training to them and make it affordable and accessible. I don’t know if you’re paying attention to what’s going on in the Christian educational world right now in terms of universities, but it’s ugly out there. Rich Birch — Yes.Alvin Sanders — So we are really trying to make sure that people are equipped and they can be able to do ministry in the in the context that they’re called to do it.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool. Yeah. And I really, friends, I would commend you to to, if you don’t know World Impact, you should get to know them. You know, all them and the team do such good good work here. Well, we I want us I want you to take us back to 2007, so almost 20 years ago, which is insane to say that that’s 20 years ago, because it doesn’t feel like 20 years ago. It feels like just yesterday.Rich Birch — What was going on in your ministry and life? Yeah, kind of bring us into that part of the story. Let’s start there.Alvin Sanders — Yeah. So in 2007, I was wrapping up a 10-year project of planting and starting a church in inner city Cincinnati. And the denomination that I was a part of, the Evangelical Free Church of America, had offered me a position to leave the pastorate and to come work for them and run what’s called our “all people initiative”.Alvin Sanders — So me and my wife prayed, thought about it and said, yep, you know what? It’s time to make a good transition. And we made that transition. Yet for the first six months after that transition, we were, it was really a weird dynamic in the fact that when we would run into other people, people would say, hey, you guys look so much better than…, I mean, they didn’t say it this directly… Rich Birch — Right. Alvin Sanders — …but essentially what they were saying is you look so much better now that you’re out of the pastorate.Rich Birch — Right. What happened? You look great.Alvin Sanders — Yeah. What happened? You look good. Did you, did you lose weight? Did you, you know, glasses, whatever, you know?Rich Birch — Oh, no. You’re like, thank you, I think.Alvin Sanders — Yeah, and Rich, this wasn’t like a small amount of people. It was like every time we ran into people. So after about six months of this, we were like, okay, so what’s going on? And then we when we looked back in hindsight, felt like the last year or so of being in the pastorate, we had burned out.Alvin Sanders — And up until that point, I really didn’t know what burnout was. You kind of sort of hear about it, but you don’t really think about it. Why? Because you’re too busy, right? So you don’t sit back and think about ordering the chaos of ministry or anything of that nature.Alvin Sanders — And so we vowed that going forward, never again would this happen to us. So essentially I divide my ministry life in the two halves. Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — The first half is pre-2007. It’s kind of like how people look at the pandemic, right? Rich Birch — Yes.Alvin Sanders — So it’s like pre-2007 and then post 2007. And so we began to implement a series of things that helped us to be able to do ministry in a sustainable way and not experience burnout because you do not have to burn out doing ministry. That’s what I’ve learned since 2007.Rich Birch — Yeah, when you so when you think about that time, yeah, I love that. Like, hey, friends, thanks for telling me I look great. Or you look terrible a year ago. Okay, thanks.Rich Birch — When you look back on at that moment, you’re like, hey, I think we were burnt out. What were some of those those patterns, habits, evidence, signs that you look at and were like, oh, that is what was going on there? You know, what what was it that, you know, got you, yeah, that you kind of saw it yourself in that moment as you looked back?Alvin Sanders — In hindsight, what I looked at is we were basically on autopilot. When I first started that ministry project, I felt a call. I felt like I was walking with the Lord. I felt the Holy Spirit’s presence. You know it was like hindsight, it’s like the book of Acts stuff. You know it was kind of like God was right there. I was energized. I was excited. I truly wanted to make a difference in the lives and the hearts of the people who were there. I wanted to make a difference in the community. Alvin Sanders — But that last year or so, I look back at it. It was just 60, 70 hours a week, flip the switch, doing what I need to do. Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — Very jaded, cynical all the time, low energy, you know, vacation didn’t matter because I had to go back to work. You know, these are, you know, it was sort of like a call of duty, so to speak. It was this is my duty to do it.Rich Birch — Right, right, right. Interesting.Alvin Sanders — Right.Rich Birch — So now you made a few decisions to, you know, in the words you use was, we do a series of things. We changed the way that we work. What were those things that you changed? What were some of those things when you look back, now that you’re on the other side of that, what were some of those decisions you made to say, hey, we’re going to live in a different way? And what was what was that? You know, what is that? What were some of those?Alvin Sanders — Well, one of the big things that I realized, and it’s going to sound elementary when I say it, but I think as pastors and people in ministry, we forget about the basic things.Alvin Sanders — You know, I’m a big football fan, Ohio State Buckeyes to be exact, right? And so I remember, I can’t remember which one of those coaches, but I remember one of those coaches, I was listening to an interview one day and they said, hey, you know, when we lose, our first practice back is we go back to the basics.Alvin Sanders — Just basic stuff. That’s all we do. Blocking, tackling, you know, simple things. And one of the things we did was we went back to the basics of what it means to be a Christian. You know, over the years, they call that spiritual formation.Rich Birch — Yep.Alvin Sanders — So the basic things of are you praying? Are you fasting? Rich Birch — That’s good. Alvin Sanders — You know, you know, just if you type in spiritual formation in Google, you’re going to get a gazillion things that pop up. Right?Rich Birch — Right. Yes.Alvin Sanders — Well, we should be doing many of those things. Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — You know, retreating. You should not be accessible all the time. Sabbath. You know, it’s Hebrews 11 tells us that, you know, we’re among a great cloud of witnesses and that great cloud of witnesses are our people who, any and everybody who has ever been Christian ever in in in the entire history of the world. And Rich, hate to break it to you, but it’s not rocket science of how to be a good Christian.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — We just ignore it. Rich Birch — Yes. Right. True. Alvin Sanders — Because there have been people before us who have worked out, hey, these are the rhythms. These are the things that you do…Rich Birch — Yes.Alvin Sanders — …you know, to be Christian. Rich Birch — Yes. Alvin Sanders — And what had suddenly happened is I made work my worship.Rich Birch — Oh, that’s painful.Alvin Sanders — The job became what I worship. Now, I didn’t intentionally set out to do that, but I had so much passion and I had so much zeal to want to make a difference in the world that suddenly the rhythms of what made you a Christian took a backseat to the work that I was doing.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. I want to come back to that. I want to put a bookmark in you made work your worship. I think that’s a powerful idea. I want to come back to that. But just before we leave this idea, you know, I love that the football analogy. I had and a nephew that was a receiver, college ball receiver. And I remember talking to him, you know, once as well. Rich Birch — And I was like, like, tell me, what you know, kind of what is your practice look like? And how are you, how do you keep on top of that? And he said, he said, well, you know, I’ve got these three formations, these three patterns that we run. And he’s like, I just run those formations all day long. Alvin Sanders — Yes. Rich Birch — It’s like, you just, you know, it’s like the same, you know, four steps this way, three steps that way, you know, turn, you know, it’s like, I’m just do that for four years. We’re just going to run that, which stuck with me similarly that, you know, I think oftentimes, you we can complicate this and we can say, hey, that you know we can complicate staying connected to praying, fasting, Sabbath, reading scripture, these kinds of things. We can drop them. Rich Birch — Were there any other warning signs looking back now that you missed? Again, in hindsight, you look back and say, oh, there were some some things on the dashboard that were blinking and I didn’t notice that you were leading up to this breaking point.Rich Birch — Were there other things in your life besides these dropping off that you know, that you, again, in in hindsight noticed and maybe are looking for now?Alvin Sanders — There was zero what they call work/life balance. Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — Zero. Rich Birch — Right. Alvin Sanders — At that time, I was working on my PhD. I was pastoring a church full time. Rich Birch — Right. Alvin Sanders — And I was running the church’s Christian Community Development Corporation that was attached to it.Rich Birch — Yep.Alvin Sanders — And oh, by the way, I was also teaching classes at the local Bible college.Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Alvin Sanders — And had a wife and I had two kids.Rich Birch —Yep.Alvin Sanders — And so I remember during that period, a huge red flag that in hindsight, I’m ashamed to say, I did not pay attention to. One Friday night I was sitting down and I was eating dinner with my family and my youngest, Gabby, she looked up in her little toddler face and she said, Daddy, why are you here?Alvin Sanders — And I said, what do you mean? I’m I’m sitting here. I’m I’m eating dinner. You know I’m here. You know she’s and she and she was so confused that I was home.Rich Birch — Oh my goodness.Alvin Sanders — So that’s so that was a neglect of family. Right. Rich Birch — Yes. Alvin Sanders — That was a huge red flag. Rich Birch — Yep.Alvin Sanders — Gained a ton of weight because I was not taking care of myself physically. I think that’s something we underestimate in ministry. Rich Birch — I agree. Alvin Sanders — You know, to the point now that I even I count when I go work out, that’s part of my work day.Rich Birch — Right. Interesting.Alvin Sanders — Because I said I can’t be a successful minister if if I am not in shape. So I see that as a you know, I don’t have this sort of dichotomy of the physical and the spiritual, all that. No, I it’s all one. You know, it’s going to hurt me spiritually if I’m out of shape, if I’m not eating right, I’m not properly fit and all those types of things.Alvin Sanders — So I wasn’t taking care of myself physically. I clearly was not taking care of myself emotionally.Rich Birch — Yeah.Alvin Sanders — We are emotional beings. We are emotional. I have come to believe, and this is maybe a controversial point, but I don’t know. It’s my belief. I have come to believe, Rich, that we are emotional beings that rationalize our lives with facts.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s true.Alvin Sanders — But there’s a lot of research out there that says we can think we’re rational all we want, but what we really do, we have never made a rational decision that does not agree with our emotions.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — So we must take care of ourselves.Rich Birch — Yeah.Alvin Sanders — I was not taking care of myself emotionally.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — Therefore, out of shape physically, neglecting family, which by the way, God says that’s the first ministry, you’re supposed to lead well. So if you’re not leading your family well, it really doesn’t matter what else you’re doing, you know. And just an emotional, just not emotionally regulated is the easiest way that I can say it. Didn’t know I wasn’t emotionally regulated, but I wasn’t.Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. You know, the Carey Nieuwhof, friend of mine, ah you know, he says around this whole that topic, he says, you know, if you’re an alcoholic and you stumble into work one day drunk, you know, you get fired, or you or there’s a consequence, right? If you are a gambler and you’re addicted to gambling and you know you lose your house, that’s gonna show up and you know you’re gonna lose your house, there’s consequence to that. And you know one of those might be you lose your job. Rich Birch — But this area of like overworking, if we overwork even in good things, you’re rewarded for it. Like, you’re like, way to go. You’re a good soldier.Alvin Sanders — Yeah. Yeah.Rich Birch — You know, there’s, it’s almost like a badge of honor in ministry to be exhausted for Jesus. When you said, man, I made work my worship, that stung because I was like, ooh, I think I’ve done that before.Alvin Sanders — Yeah. I mean…Rich Birch — So take us inside, you know, ah other leaders’, you know, heads. How does that mindset quietly quietly set us up for this crash? How do we, you know, kind of unpack that even more for us?Alvin Sanders — Yeah, I mean, I say all the time I’m a recovering work workaholic.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — You know, that’s the way I put it.Alvin Sanders — And then a big thing that really set me up for this that I didn’t realize is that I come from a family of workaholics. You know, my father, who is my hero, other people have heroes outside of the household. My father is my hero. He’s 87 now, that’s my guy.Rich Birch — It’s so good. Yeah.Alvin Sanders — He, I grew up in a household, my father grew up in Jim Crow, Alabama. And he overcame so much. Rich Birch — Right. Incredible.Alvin Sanders — He went to when he joined the military, military was was sort of like a saving grace. He was in the military for 30 years. Rich Birch — Wow. Alvin Sanders — And he went to night school and he got two degrees in night school while working during the day.Rich Birch — Wow.Alvin Sanders — You know, my mom was an old farm was a was a farm girl, you know. Protestant work ethic. You know, you want she would say, son, you want to kill time, work it to death. You know, idle hands is the devil’s workshop. You know I grew up on all these idioms.Rich Birch — Yes, yes, yes.Alvin Sanders — And, and so that was in my DNA. And just by the fact that we live in United States of America, where busyness is a badge of honor, I believe you said, and we all are under the Protestant work ethic, you know, you know, who, what, what, what bum works only 40 hours.Alvin Sanders — I mean, you want to get ahead.Rich Birch — It’s true.Alvin Sanders — The minimum is 50.Rich Birch — Yeah. Right. Right.Alvin Sanders — You know, when I was pastoring, how many people in my congregation, you know, in terms of the white collar crew, you know, I had ah I had all spectrums in the church that I was in, I pastored. It was no big deal for them to just be gone all the time.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — If you get offered a promotion, who would tell you don’t accept it for the sake of your family?Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — Of course I’m going to accept it. It’s more money… Rich Birch — Right. Alvin Sanders — …because more money puts us in a better position…or doesn’t it? Rich Birch — Right. Alvin Sanders — It might, or might not. So counterintuitive thinking is something that we have to do. I mean, I’m in a place now where um God has blessed me that I have a lot of opportunities and I limit my opportunities. Because I say if if I’m gone all the time again, guess what I’m on the road to? Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — You know, and we may have a little bit more money, but then, you know, I’m in the I’m in the empty nesthood stage of season of life and I’d be missing valuable time with my wife. So it’s a reordering of the priorities, you know? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.Alvin Sanders — Yeah.Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s so good. And this is one of those areas where I see hope in you know next generation. You know i see hope in Gen Z leaders. There there is, like I think, a healthy pushback on on some of this area, which is I think is positive. I know sometimes, you know, I’m Gen X, classic Gen X, born 1974, the lowest birth rate year of the 20th century.Alvin Sanders — Yes. Yeah.Rich Birch — And, you know, and I think sometimes, you know, my peers and particularly the folks older than me, that generation, they they really did, they handed down this idea. And you know, there’s good change happening, I think, on this front. Rich Birch — But so how do you think about this now? So, you know, as you’re thinking about the future, or maybe you’re coaching your team, people you’re interacting with, you know, how do you kind of articulate this, maybe with a framework or thinking around this, so that we don’t just pass on more burnt out organizations?Rich Birch — How how are you helping, you know, lead an organization? Because I think there’s the reason why asked that question is I think it can be easy for us folks that are in charge. I run my own organization. I like often joke, like my boss is a bit of a taskmaster because it’s me, you know. But you know, when, but when we’re the people in charge, we get to set the pace. We get to lead in a way. How are you leading different now? How are you helping your people understand this different now? What are, how are you, what’s that look like for you?Alvin Sanders — Yes. So we, we have baked in in the cake at World Impact. Um, three things, three areas. We talked, we touched on it before spiritual formation, you know, that’s a big deal here at World Impact.Alvin Sanders — You know, we, we really want to make sure that people understand your work is not your worship. You know, part of our sustainable strategy is, you know, we care more about who you are than what you do. And we mean that. Alvin Sanders — And it’s funny because when you first say that to some people, they go, oh well, you don’t want me to work. It’s like, no we didn’t say that. What we said is we understand you are a human being. And we care about you and we’re going to invest deeply in you as you invest deeply into our our our vision. And so um making sure that work’s not to worship, make sure that people understand our identity is in Christ. Alvin Sanders — Understanding also the the spiritual disciplines. We incorporate eight particular spiritual disciplines. I probably should know them the my head, but I don’t. But let me see, I mean, I can roll off the top of my head.Alvin Sanders — Let’s see, you got church membership. You know, we, we, and It’s not cool, you know, to be a church member and people love to kill the church and criticize the church and this that the other. But I leave that to the accuser of the brethren to use the KJV version and use that to the devil.Rich Birch — Nice.Alvin Sanders — Jesus came to establish the church. Period. End of discussion. So you ought to be part of one. So, you know, we encourage our folks to be part of churches, to fast, to pray.Alvin Sanders — We have three times a year we’ve shut everything down and we have prayer days. You know, we we encourage people to be generous with their money. We encourage people to empower others. You know, so there’s we we we encourage we have a personal retreat days that we offer people for for, it’s a work day, but it’s a different kind of structured work day. We say we’ll give you one day a month where you go off and you examine yourself. You do a spiritual examen off basically, you know, off the old St. Ignatius type of spiritual examen. And then you also look at your professional development. You go off and we do that and we’ll pay you for that.Rich Birch — Right. That’s great.Alvin Sanders — You know, so there are a number of things that we do in terms of developing a rhythm. We call, you know, having a rhythm. Rich Birch — That’s good.Alvin Sanders — You know, so a lot of spiritual formation. And then the other s is we look at the, you could think of these S’s as three S’s or a three-legged stool that serves the foundation and they’re all intertwined.Alvin Sanders — So besides spiritual formation, we also encourage people to engage stressors, right? We there’s there’s a way that you work in the world. There’s I got this from my friends at Praxis that there’s three ways that you can engage the world. You can engage the world um exploitatively, ethically or redemptively. Rich Birch — That’s good.Alvin Sanders — So we want people to we want our staff to engage the world, and engage their jobs in a redemptive manner, which is, you know, sacrificing our lives in the pattern of Jesus Christ. Right. That’s we follow the pattern of Jesus Christ, that that we are doing this in order to make the world a better place.Alvin Sanders — We also have a posture of that we’re not the saviors. Many people who are in ministry, we get in it for the right reasons, but then we think that we’re the king and not a subject of the kingdom. Right. And so we think that whatever ministry we’re in, whether it’s urban, suburban, whatever it may be, that we’re the saviors. It’s like, no no, no, no, that’s not the right posture. The right posture is that to be utilized by God, you know.Alvin Sanders — And then also anybody who’s been in ministry any any time in their life, any, you know, they are going to experience a lot of what’s called secondary trauma.Alvin Sanders — You know, like mine was very intense being in a very violent neighborhood and ministering there. But even in suburban context, there’s a lot of things. Now, Rich, don’t know if you ever experienced this, but, you know, people, the sheep bite. Rich Birch — True.Alvin Sanders — They talk about the pastor. Rich Birch — Yeah.Alvin Sanders — They do a lot of things. You know, you’re misinterpreted all the time. There’s a lot of hurtful things that happen to you… Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s true. Alvin Sanders — …from an emotional perspective. And if you if you try to blow them off or roll them under, you know, let them it’s water under the bridge. No, no, no. Those things need to be engaged. Alvin Sanders — So that’s keeping the right posture, making sure we keep the right pace in ministry. So we have one school of spiritual formation, one one one leg stool of engaging stressors. And then the third leg stool is is skill set development. Alvin Sanders — And we have to understand that developing the right skills will not save us from burnout. That’s a false dichotomy. People think, oh, well, if I just develop X, Y, and z well, then, you know, I won’t burn out. No. um There are three primary skill sets that I think people need to understand when it comes to any type of ministry or wherever they’re doing it. A big one is emotional intelligence.Alvin Sanders — It’s there’s a guy by name of Daniel Goldman who really popularized the concept. He wrote this book years and years ago called “Primal Leadership”. And that book makes the case that therere there are things that you can develop to emotionally regulate yourself.Alvin Sanders — There’s a book they they don’t call it emotional intelligence, but it’s another classic called “Leadership and Self-Deception”. It’s a classic book which teaches you how you can engage the workplace and and by emotionally regulating yourself, which I think is directly correlated to spiritual maturity.Rich Birch — True.Alvin Sanders — There’s also the skill set of leadership development. I believe that everybody is a leader, right? We don’t all have the same responsibilities as leaders, but there are things that we can do to develop ourselves to become better leaders in the situations that we find ourselves in. Alvin Sanders — And then there’s also a a skill set that we can develop where we engage our ministry context in a dignified manner. So that’s sort of like our three-legged stool at World Impact, you know, spiritual formation, engaging stressors and skill set. And you can’t, just like a stool, if you remove one of the legs…Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — …the stool will not work. So all three have to be intertwined and working together to give you that strong foundation. And if you do those things, I have found that, you know, you won’t touch burnout. Because… Rich Birch — Right. It’s so good. Alvin Sanders — Yeah. So I’m very, very focused on that. And we have interwoven all of those things within the DNA of World Impact.Rich Birch — Yeah, I love that.Alvin Sanders — Yeah, I love…Rich Birch — There’s there’s so much to unpack there, friends. And there’s, you know, in six minutes there, you gave us what a great picture of how we should be thinking and leading in our environments. I love, particularly, you know, you talked you touched on the emotional quotient, the eq issue.Rich Birch — And, um you know, I’ve had a a friend of mine say, you know, it’s it’s impossible to be spiritually mature if you’re emotionally immature. And I think…Alvin Sanders — One hundred percent.Rich Birch — I think that’s true. And there are, we all know these people who they they walk around like they’re spiritually mature, but they’re they’re, you know, emotionally immature and it comes off. It’s like they’re bleeding. It’s like the internet’s made for these people.Rich Birch — Like they are, those people get good followings, which is terrible. And you know, they get people around them who are just like, yes, sir. Yes, sir. It’s usually sirs. Unfortunately, it’s a lot of guys… Alvin Sanders — Yes. Rich Birch — …you know, we’ve got to fight that. And I love that you’re, you’re attempting to do that, you know, at, you know, in the organization you lead at World Impact, I think is, is incredible. And one of the things, you know, calling this out, I’m not directly engaged in urban ministry, but the thing I, I think is, like, I think every ministry has its stressors to it. Alvin Sanders — Yes.Rich Birch — I think every ministry has trauma related to it. And I think what you’ve outlined here, we can apply really in any context. Alvin Sanders — Yes.Rich Birch — But I do want to underline for our listeners, the fact that this has come out of a context where, again, I don’t want to stigmatize or create stereotypes around urban ministry, but there is a lot of trauma. There is a lot of stress in the ministry.Alvin Sanders — Yes. Rich Birch — You know When you’re dealing in communities that are experiencing homelessness and poverty and you know, you know at the conflict, at the you know the epicenter of racial conflict, and you know all ah all of that creates the context that makes it next to impossible to serve in. And the fact that you’re leading there, I just want to commend you you know on that. Alvin Sanders — Yes. Rich Birch — And so this is actually a part of, well, talk to me about the expanded second edition of “Redemptive Poverty Work” and how does that tie into what we’re talking about today? Because I want to move people even towards that call to action out of today’s conversation.Alvin Sanders — Yeah. So the the things that I’ve talked about that I just talked about that we instilled at World Impact, it definitely works in in any context, no doubt about it. What I tell my suburban colleagues is that whatever you experience in the suburbs, 10x it. And that’s in the urban context.Rich Birch — That makes sense. Okay, that’s good.Alvin Sanders — Just 10x it. It’s not that you don’t experience these things.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — It’s that it’s much more intense…Rich Birch — Yeah.Alvin Sanders — …within the urban context.Rich Birch — Yeah.Alvin Sanders — So the expanded edition of “Redemptive Poverty Work” is is my attempt to really have our vision at World Impact come to fruition. Because at World Impact, if our vision is a healthy church in every community experiencing poverty, we cannot not talk about burnout.Alvin Sanders — Because the burnout rate within the urban context, because of the 10X that happens down there in in this in the urban community—but increasingly in suburban communities, to be quite honest with you. The same dynamics are happening in certain suburban communities—is that you have to be able to deal with it. And the big way that you deal with it is that you are intentionally engaging those things that can cause you to burn out.Rich Birch — That’s good. Alvin Sanders — Cause you cannot have a healthy church unless you have spiritually formed pastors who are engaging stressors and who are developing the skillset to make the community a better place.Alvin Sanders — So, It was basically by doing things in the field and spending a lot of time with our partners that I said, you know what, these folk need an expansion. Because when I wrote “Redemptive Poverty Work” a couple of years ago that we talked about, it was a little booklet and it was more academic.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — But what I realized is, hey, these folk need to know how to implement this in a practical sense. So that’s what the expanded version is about. It’s not only teaching you the principle, it’s like, here here’s how you can apply this to your life. It’s sort of like a field handbook, so to speak.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s fantastic. I think it’d be great for people to pick up, you know, a copy of this. And, you know, I think it could be really helpful for them as they’re thinking about, you know, ministry in any context. Even to help if there are folks that are listening in, you know, that serve in a suburban context and they’re trying to gain, you know, a bit more understanding of there are urban, but you know, brothers and sisters as they’re, you know, leading there. I think this could be a helpful resource.Rich Birch — For folks that picked up the first edition, you know, should they pick pick up a second? I know you’re not just trying to sell books, but like, help me understand, you know, obviously you’ve added a lot to it. For folks that are familiar with your work, what would your, you know, kind of what’s your recommendation that, you know, for them?Alvin Sanders — Yes, because the the first Redemptive Poverty Work booklet is really only one chapter in the expanded edition. It’s, as I said earlier, it’s really about how to apply and how not to burn out.Rich Birch — That’s great.Alvin Sanders — The whole thing is it assumes that there’s a point in your walk in doing your work of the ministry that you’re going you’re going to hit a wallRich Birch — Yep.Alvin Sanders — I don’t know anyone in ministry, let alone urban ministry, who hasn’t at some point hit a wall.Rich Birch — Right.Alvin Sanders — Right. To go back to sports analogy. Right. Talk about how if you’re a rookie and you’re coming into the and NBA, you only play like 40 or some college games. NBA has 82 games. No matter how skilled you are, no matter how much you play, about game 50, you’re going to hit a wall because you’ve never really played at that intense level for that long.Rich Birch — Yep.Alvin Sanders — Same thing with ministry.Alvin Sanders — At some point, you’re going to hit a wall. So within this urban context, you know when you hit that wall or hopefully before you hit the wall, read this book and begin to implement it in your life. It’s a failure for you just to buy the book and read it. Rich Birch — Yes.Alvin Sanders — A lot of books you just write, you buy it and you read it and you go, oh, I got the knowledge. I’m good. No, this book is like, read it and apply it. And I can tell you, it’ll work if you do so.Rich Birch — That’s so good. Where do we want to send people to pick up copies of the book? Where online? you know how how can they How can they get their hands on it?Alvin Sanders — Yeah, just go to Amazon. you can get it off of Amazon. Redemptive Poverty Work Expanded Edition. Rich Birch — That’s great.Alvin Sanders — You type that in or you can type in Alvin Sanders and I’m sure it’ll pop up. Rich Birch — That’s great. Alvin Sanders — Yeah, we’d we’d love for you to get it. You know, got paperback and hardback versions that are there. Rich Birch — Nice.Alvin Sanders — And then you can also go on YouTube. We just had it. We launched it last week. We had a webinar… Rich Birch — Great. Alvin Sanders — …around the topic of redemptive poverty work. It was about an hour long. So if you’re really interested in this topic, you can check that webinar out as well.Rich Birch — Nice. Yeah, we’ll link to that in the show notes to make it even easier for folks to to find that. We’d love for for people to track with you, Alvin. You’re doing such a great, great work. So let’s take us back to 2007.Rich Birch — Let’s say there’s a leader who’s listening into, well, I know that there’s a leader who’s listening in today. There’s at least one… Alvin Sanders — Yeah. Rich Birch — …in the couple thousand people that are listening in who are heading towards where you were in 2007. Not the new part, not the new job part, but the like, oh, I’m burnt out.Alvin Sanders — Yes.Rich Birch — This is not good. Maybe today they’ve been listening in and they realize, oh, wait a second. Maybe they had a similar thing with their kid. Hey, dad. Hey, mom. Why are you here? What’s one thing you’d want them to do this week? What’s one action step that they could take coming out of today’s conversation? Alvin Sanders — Well, I would say, I’m going to cheat. I’m going to give you more than one. But first is to admit where you’re at.Rich Birch — That’s good.Alvin Sanders — Because there are so I hate to say it. There are some faith traditions where it’s downright almost sinful to admit that you might be burned out. What? You don’t you don’t pray enough. You don’t do this. You don’t do that. Say, you know what? I’m tired. I’m still committed, but I’m tired. I’m jaded. I’m whatever. So the first thing is to embrace that. Alvin Sanders — The second thing is, you know, get some rest. You might it might just be an Elijah situation. You know, Elijah wanted to die and God said, no, man, just just go lay down.Rich Birch — Yeah, have a nap.Alvin Sanders — You know, you just had a really, really intense situation. Go lay down. Take some time. Go take a nap. Get some refreshment. Get some food. Look at your schedule and say, am I actually taking at least one day a week off? You know, are what’s your rhythm of rest, right? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Alvin Sanders — Are you resting as hard as you’re working?Rich Birch — That’s good.Alvin Sanders — Are you taking vacation? You know, or is vacation for the weak, right? Are you taking your paid holidays off? Do, actually really start to take the commandment of Sabbath seriously… Rich Birch — That’s good. Alvin Sanders — …and actually start to rest?Alvin Sanders — And then there are some of us, and, you know, and there’s nothing wrong with this either. We may be too far gone, and we may need to take some time to go see a counselor, and to unpack things. Rich Birch — That’s good. Alvin Sanders — And to unpack some emotional wounds and things of that nature. So I would say, you know, first, acknowledge where you’re at. Second, actually start to rest. And then third, if these things aren’t really working, don’t be prideful. Go see a mental health counselor.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Alvin, you’ve been a gift again to our audience. Thank you so much for for being here today, for helping us think through these issues and take some steps. If people want to track with you or with World Impact, where do we want to send them online?Alvin Sanders — Well, if you want to track with me, you know, as a good Gen Xer like you, I’m on LinkedIn. So you just place to find me.Rich Birch — Love it. Love it.Alvin Sanders — It’s LinkedIn. Find me on LinkedIn. I have an Instagram account. I ain’t been on that Instagram account in forever. So, you know, that’s just not me. But you can find me on LinkedIn.Rich Birch — Love it.Alvin Sanders — If you want to personally interact, talk, whatever. Great thing to do on LinkedIn. And then the other thing is go to worldimpact.org and you can learn a lot more about World Impact and what we do.Alvin Sanders — We’d love to serve you.Rich Birch — That’s great. Thanks so much for being here today. I really appreciate you taking some time to be with us.Alvin Sanders — All right. Thanks for having me. 

Broadcasting LIVE from Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

After 20+ years running a thriving agency, AI changed everything. Angie shares why your job is just one risky client, how GenXers undervalue their experience, and practical ways to turn your knowledge into multiple income streams — with real implementation, not just theory.

Broadcasting LIVE from Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

After twenty-six years in the Coast Guard and a hard-earned retirement in a Margaritaville-branded community in Daytona Beach, Florida, Emily thought her next chapter was set. Then she noticed her husband's niece had vanished from his brother's Facebook page. What followed was a discovery that the seven-month-old had been placed in Florida's foster care system, and the beginning of an eighteen month legal battle that included a three day custody trial, allegations of fraudulent adoption paperwork, and a fight against a state system that seemed determined to keep her with a foster caregiver rather than family. Emily and her husband ultimately adopted both the niece and, months later, her newborn brother, becoming parents to two young children in their fifties after raising a son who is now thirty. Emily talks about the toll of the legal process, what she learned about family adoption cases in Florida, the isolation of feeling like her family was fighting the system alone, and what it has been like to parent toddlers as a retired Gen Xer, decades after raising her first child. Reality Life with Kate Casey Summer Reading List: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/books-i-cant-stop-talking-about-this Vanity Fair Article: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/story/martha-moxleys-diary What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/katecaseyca Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itskatecasey?lang=en Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245 Amazon List: https://www.amazon.com/shop/katecasey Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecaseySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ilene Berns-Zare, PsyD, PCC, is a life and leadership coach, psychologist, educator, and author who helps people navigate their lives with resilience, meaning, mindfulness, and well-being. Ilene is the author of the new book: You're Not Too Old, & It's Not Too Late: Weekly Practices of Meaning, Mindfulness & New Possibilities at Midlife and Beyond (MSI Press, released January 2026). Designed as an accessible 52-week companion, this inspiring book invites Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to reimagine aging with confidence, vitality, and purpose. Drawing on research-informed tools and practical reflections, it encourages readers to tap into inner strengths, embrace meaningful shifts, and discover everyday “ah-ha” moments that spark renewal.Ilene writes the blog Flourish and Thrive for PyschologyToday.com and is adjunct faculty in Georgetown University's Transformational Leadership Program. Her passion is inspiring people to flourish in life and work by bringing mind, body, and spirit into flow with their strengths, purpose, and potential. She has a PsyD in psychology, master's degree in human resources development, and PCC certification from the International Coaching Federation. Her research interests span positive psychology concepts, resilience, mindfulness, spirituality, and personal/professional development, including the joys and adventures of adulthood and growing older. Ilene also is a facilitator for the Wise Aging program, a national initiative based in the Jewish tradition.On this episode, we discuss:▪ Strengthening Resilience and Wellbeing in These Challenging Times▪ Invigorating Your Second Half of Life with Greater Resilience, Flourishing & Possibilities▪ Choosing to Live Your Daily Life with Greater Joy, Meaning, & Wellbeing▪ Hitting Your Stride at Midlife & Beyond: Strategies to Jump-Start Flourishing & Wellbeing▪ Navigating Midlife & Beyond with Meaning, Mindfulness and New Beginnings▪ Re-energizing & Flourishing During Life's Transitions and Changes▪ Yes, I Can: Recharging Your Life-Work Balance▪ Invigorating Happiness: Tips for Flourishing with Insights from Positive Psychology▪ Day-to-Day Mindful Living to Inspire Flourishing After RetirementLearn more:https://ileneberns-zare.com/https://go.authorsguild.org/members/5549https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/experts/ilene-berns-zare-psydhttps://ibzcoaching.com/blog/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilene-berns-zare-psyd-pcc-cec-9062a39b/

Send us Fan MailHey you Baby Boomers, Generation Jonesers and Gen Xers! Are you all getting nostalgic about anything? Are you searching for something from the 60's, 70s or 80s that you have not been able to find or remember? Have you started purchasing things from your childhood? Listen up as I tell some fun stories about running across many things from my childhood.Support the show

If you've ever looked at the spelling of Queensrÿche, INXS, Kajagoogoo, Björk, Hüsker Dü, Portishead, Chumbawamba, Oingo Boingo, or Yngwie Malmsteen and wondered who lost a bet naming these bands... this episode is for you.Rizz recruits his kids and their friends for what seems like a simple challenge: read a list of famous artists from the '80s and '90s out loud. Easy... until they actually see the spellings.What follows is an absolutely glorious game of confidence, confusion, lucky guesses, and pronunciations that make every Gen Xer simultaneously laugh and feel incredibly old. The crew debates every answer before callers place their bets on whether today's teenagers can figure out names that older music fans have spent decades taking for granted.Some artists turn out to be easier than expected. Others become instant comedy gold. Hearing "Inks" instead of INXS, watching everyone overthink Depeche Mode, the surprising victories with Chumbawamba and Oingo Boingo, and the complete surrender when Yngwie Malmsteen enters the chat all make for one hilarious ride.Along the way, Moon, King Scott, Rafe, and Rizz roast each other almost as much as they roast the contestants, making every guess funnier than the last. It's nostalgia, music trivia, generational chaos, and live game-show energy all rolled into one episode.Whether you're screaming the correct answers from your car, discovering some of these bands for the first time, or realizing your favorite artists have names that make absolutely no phonetic sense, this comedy podcast delivers nonstop laughs from start to finish.If you grew up watching MTV, collecting CDs, or arguing over whose dad had the better record collection, you'll love seeing how today's generation handles these iconic names. And if you're Gen Z... don't worry. We promise we're laughing with you. Mostly.This comedy podcast proves that some band names were never meant to be read by human eyes. The pronunciations may be questionable, but the laughs definitely aren't.Thanks for listening to another comedy podcast from The Rizzuto Show—where every day somehow turns into organized chaos, and somehow that's exactly how we like it.Follow The Rizzuto Show → https://linktr.ee/rizzshowConnect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → https://1057thepoint.com/RizzShowHear The Rizz Show daily on 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fireworks are already flying, Missouri is apparently competing for the national championship of "Things You Shouldn't Light With Your Hand," and somehow that's only the beginning.The crew kicks things off trying to figure out whether it's Wednesday, Thursday, or simply the longest week in human history before diving headfirst into Fourth of July survival tips that probably won't save anybody's fingers. Backyard fireworks, neighborhood explosions, and some horrifying statistics make everyone question whether buying fireworks by the shopping cart was ever a good national tradition.Meanwhile, Moon relives the story of becoming "that weird guy in the neighborhood" after climbing a massive tree to rescue his son's drone and accidentally introducing himself to strangers as "Moon." Unsurprisingly, the neighbors were left convinced a celestial being...Road rage, unbearable heat, geese holding up traffic, Gary Busey somehow becoming Gary Goosey, and an absolutely ridiculous debate over whether honking at geese is ever acceptable all collide into one giant conversation that somehow still makes perfect sense on this daily comedy show.Just when everyone thinks the episode has peaked, along comes the legend of the mysterious Mexican Batman—a real-life vigilante allegedly duct-taping motorcycle thieves to light poles before leaving police to clean up the mess. The crew immediately begins casting Alfred, Robin, and debating exactly how Batman's alter ego translates into Spanish.As if that wasn't enough, Dry July officially begins, prompting discussions about drinking culture, whether wine has ever actually been healthy, bizarre proposals limiting alcohol sales, and the eternal struggle of surviving social events while staying sober. It's heartfelt, ridiculous, and exactly what you'd expect from people who can somehow turn alcohol policy into comedy.Ancient pinball laws finally disappear, bizarre yearbook pranks make national news, forgotten movie trivia takes over the studio, and somehow the gang finds itself laughing through one completely unbelievable story after another. The result is exactly what longtime listeners expect: organized chaos disguised as a radio show.If you love weird news, sarcastic humor, pop culture commentary, ridiculous debates, and a daily comedy show that somehow finds comedy hiding inside every headline, you're in the right place. Whether you're listening during your commute, pretending to work, or recovering from your own backyard fireworks adventure, we've got you covered.This daily comedy show dives headfirst into the weird power of 80s advertising as the gang discovers they somehow remember every lyric from Mentos, Big Red, Toys "R" Us, Crossfire, Mousetrap, Mountain Dew, and just about every commercial that interrupted Saturday morning cartoons. Apparently your brain forgets passwords but permanently stores gum jingles from 40 years ago.Then things take a surprisingly emotional turn as news breaks that St. Louis broadcasting legend Joe Buck is officially moving his family to Colorado. The crew debates whether the city should feel betrayed, whether Denver's mysterious airport conspiracy finally claimed another celebrity, and why St. Louis residents can be hilariously possessive of anyone they consider "one of us."Of course, it wouldn't be The Rizzuto Show without diving into celebrity chaos. The crew discusses Nikki Sixx reigniting an old feud with Godsmack, Tommy Lee proving he's somehow still the same guy after all these years, Rush postponing tour dates, Lizzo opening up about disappointing album sales, Bam Margera continuing his recovery journey, and the internet somehow finding a reason to get angry about Fiona's appearance in the new Shrek movie.Then comes one of the funniest conversations of the day as everyone debates the greatest comedy movies ever made. Does Monty Python and the Holy Grail deserve the top spot? Should Bridesmaids replace The Hangover? Is Dumb and Dumber secretly a perfect comedy? Naturally, absolutely nobody agrees.Finally, the show debuts a brand-new game that perfectly captures the generational divide. Teenagers are handed a list of legendary 80s and 90s band names and asked to pronounce them out loud. The results are exactly as gloriously awkward as you'd hope, leaving everyone wondering whether classic rock history has officially become another foreign language.If you've ever looked at the spelling of Queensrÿche, INXS, Kajagoogoo, Björk, Hüsker Dü, Portishead, Chumbawamba, Oingo Boingo, or Yngwie Malmsteen and wondered who lost a bet naming these bands... this episode is for you.Rizz recruits his kids and their friends for what seems like a simple challenge: read a list of famous artists from the '80s and '90s out loud. Easy... until they actually see the spellings.What follows is an absolutely glorious game of confidence, confusion, lucky guesses, and pronunciations that make every Gen Xer simultaneously laugh and feel incredibly old. The crew debates every answer before callers place their bets on whether today's teenagers can figure out names that older music fans have spent decades taking for granted.Some artists turn out to be easier than expected. Others become instant comedy gold. Hearing "Inks" instead of INXS, watching everyone overthink Depeche Mode, the surprising victories with Chumbawamba and Oingo Boingo, and the complete surrender when Yngwie Malmsteen enters the chat all make for one hilarious ride.Along the way, Moon, King Scott, Rafe, and Rizz roast each other almost as much as they roast the contestants, making every guess funnier than the last. It's nostalgia, music trivia, generational chaos, and live game-show energy all rolled into one episode.Whether you're screaming the correct answers from your car, discovering some of these bands for the first time, or realizing your favorite artists have names that make absolutely no phonetic sense, this comedy podcast delivers nonstop laughs from start to finish.If you grew up watching MTV, collecting CDs, or arguing over whose dad had the better record collection, you'll love seeing how today's generation handles these iconic names. And if you're Gen Z... don't worry. We promise we're laughing with you.Follow The Rizzuto Show → https://linktr.ee/rizzshowConnect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → https://1057thepoint.com/RizzShowHear The Rizz Show daily on 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.1 killed in shooting after altercation on I-64 exit ramp in O'Fallon, MissouriSuspects face charges after car break-in spree in Maryland HeightsMexican ‘Batman' vigilante wanted for chasing down suspected motorbike thieves, taping them to lamppostsCambridge bar owner fights proposed 30-minute drink rule and other restrictions: "It's kind of wild"SC law legalizes pinball for youth, ending decades-old prohibitionAdolf Hitler baby photo in New Jersey middle school yearbook sparks investigationMissouri St. Louis spot earns title of ‘Best Sandwich in America'Joe Buck, family moving to Denver, with 'partial home base' in St. LouisSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Broadcasting LIVE from Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

Episode 788: If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are your childhood memories can be measured in action figures, toy catalogs, and Saturday mornings spent convincing your parents that you absolutely needed "just one more." The toys weren't simply things we owned—they became the stars of our own adventures. They transformed living room floors into battlefields, bedrooms into space stations, and backyards into fantasy worlds that lasted until the streetlights came on. This week on Stuck in the '80s, we're celebrating those memories with a guest who has managed to turn that same childhood passion into an incredible career. Steve Spears sits down with Jonathan Cathey, founder and president of The Loyal Subjects, the collectible toy company known for breathing new life into some of pop culture's most beloved characters and franchises. Jonathan discusses how his fascination with toys and storytelling evolved into building a company that creates products for both lifelong collectors and a new generation of fans. The conversation explores why the toys of the 1980s still resonate decades later. Was it the imagination they inspired? The unforgettable television commercials? The cartoons that made us beg our parents for the latest action figure? Or was there simply something magical about growing up during one of the greatest eras in toy history? Jonathan also shares what it takes to revive classic toy brands for modern audiences. It's a balancing act between honoring nostalgia and introducing familiar characters to people who weren't even born when these toys first appeared on store shelves. Along the way, he offers a fascinating look behind the curtain at the toy industry, from product development to licensing and everything in between. Later in the episode, Steve is joined by co-host Chuck Coverly for an extended trip down memory lane. Together, they compare the toys that defined their childhoods, revisit favorite Christmas gifts, remember the thrill of wandering the toy aisles at department stores, and debate which toys have stood the test of time. It's the kind of conversation every Gen Xer has had at one point: "Did you have one of those?" followed immediately by, "I wish I'd never gotten rid of mine." Of course, that's one of the great ironies of growing up. The toys we couldn't imagine living without often disappeared into yard sales, closets, or donation boxes—only to become prized collectibles years later. But maybe that's not the point. The real value wasn't in what those toys might be worth today. It was in the afternoons they filled with adventure, the friendships they inspired, and the memories they continue to unlock decades later. Whether your shelves were filled with action figures, toy vehicles, dolls, robots, playsets, or anything in between, this episode is a celebration of the creativity, imagination, and pure joy that made being a kid in the 1980s so special. So dust off those memories—and maybe that old toy box in the attic—and join us for another nostalgic journey back to the decade we still call home. Cruise with Us! Love reliving the '80s as much as we do? Come experience the decade in the most unforgettable way possible aboard The 80s Cruise! Join your favorite artists, fellow fans, and members of the Stuck in the '80s family for concerts, live podcasts, trivia, interviews, and nonstop nostalgia on the high seas. When you book your cabin, use promo code STUCK to receive $250 in onboard credit per cabin. We can't wait to see you onboard! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Broadcasting LIVE from Black Matt Studios, THE BOOMXERS are four friends too young to be Baby Boomers but too old to be GenXers. We get together every week to Jibber Jabber about music, entertainment, rural news, crazy inventions, portmanteaus, and so much more. Featuring the phenomenal music quiz known as JIMMY READS. The BoomXers: Unfiltered, Unpolished, Unapologetic, and Unsponsored.

[School of Movies 2026] This is a fun one. Statistically speaking if you're under the age of 45 you didn't go and see this summer blockbuster funded by Amazon. When you think about it, this probably should have been made in the late 2000s, just after Michael Bay's immensely successful Transformers, and notably around the time they started planning the movie anyway. Instead it has taken another twenty years to hit the big screen and now faces relevance to only late Gen Xers like Sharon and I. The film, directed by Bumblebee and Kubo second-stringer Travis Knight is an enjoyable MESS! It does have heart, and an adorable softboy lead who seems to have understood the assignment. It's a higgledy-piggledy remix of all four Thor movies, with traces of sixteen unfinished scripts floating around, and yet somehow Jared Leto manages to be entertaining for once in his life. Sharon is our audience surrogate as I take you all by the hand and lead you through Eternia. This is one to listen to, even (especially) if you haven't seen it. This week's After School Club: Masters of the Universe: Revolution (2024) Next Week: Toy Story 4 & 5

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by Tim Foot, CEO of Slingshot Group. With nearly three decades of ministry and leadership experience having worked with thousands of churches, Tim brings deep insight into one of the most critical drivers of church health: your team. In this conversation, we explore what separates stagnant teams from those that create real momentum and how leaders can shift from survival to remarkable impact. Why teams stall out. // After working with thousands of churches, Tim consistently sees the same patterns: unclear expectations, misaligned priorities, lack of structure, and unspoken tension. Many teams are overly task-driven but underdeveloped relationally. Others don't fully understand how their strengths and weaknesses fit together. The danger of “hero-driven leadership.” // When a church relies too heavily on one standout leader to carry the mission it results in what Tim calls “hero-driven leadership.” While it can produce short-term results, it ultimately leads to burnout, unrealistic expectations, and fragile systems. Leaders often fall into this trap because it feels productive, and even rewarding, to be the one with all the answers. But over time, it limits team development and creates dependency instead of shared ownership. From hero to team. // The future of healthy ministry is team-based leadership. Instead of building ministries around individuals, churches must build systems and cultures where teams thrive together. This requires leaders humbly admitting they don't have all the answers and a willingness to slow down in order to build alignment. When leaders shift from being the “hero” to developing others, they unlock far greater long-term impact. The seven “key signatures” of remarkable teams. // Tim introduces a framework of seven core areas that every healthy team must develop: conviction, message, culture, roles, systems, friction, and risk. These “key signatures” work together like elements in music, providing structure that leads to a strong, unified outcome. Conviction anchors the mission (“why we exist”), while message communicates that mission clearly. Culture shapes how people experience the team, and roles define how individuals contribute. Systems enable growth, friction drives improvement, and risk fuels breakthrough. Why friction is actually healthy. // One of the most counterintuitive ideas Tim shares is that healthy teams need friction. Many leaders try to eliminate tension, assuming harmony equals health. But in reality, the absence of friction often means important issues are being avoided. Healthy friction leads to better ideas, stronger alignment, and greater innovation. The key is ensuring it doesn't become personal. When friction turns relationally destructive, it's unhealthy. But when it stays focused on ideas and outcomes, it becomes a powerful driver of growth. A practical tool for leaders. // To help teams take action, Tim points leaders to a free “team awareness assessment.” This tool helps churches evaluate how they're doing across the seven key signatures, identifying areas of strength and opportunities for growth. It's designed to spark meaningful conversations that lead to real change. A final challenge for leaders. // Tim leaves leaders with a simple but powerful reminder: if your mission matters, your team matters more. Churches often focus heavily on the people they're trying to reach, but neglect the health of the people they're leading alongside. Sustainable, mission-moving ministry requires both. To learn more about Tim's book Reaching for Remarkable: The 7 Key Signatures Behind Every Remarkable Team and take the free team assessment, visit reachingforremarkable.com or explore additional resources at slingshotgroup.org. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: TouchPoint As your church reaches more people, one of the biggest challenges is making sure no one slips through the cracks along the way.TouchPoint Church Management Software is an all-in-one ecosystem built for churches that want to elevate discipleship by providing clear data, strong engagement tools, and dependable workflows that scale as you grow. TouchPoint is trusted by some of the fastest-growing and largest churches in the country because it helps teams stay aligned, understand who they're reaching, and make confident ministry decisions week after week. If you've been wondering whether your current system can carry your next season of growth, it may be time to explore what TouchPoint can do for you. You can evaluate TouchPoint during a free, no-pressure one-hour demo at TouchPointSoftware.com/demo. Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in. Listen, listen, listen, pull in close because today’s conversation, I don’t even know your church, but I know that a large portion of your budget is being spent on the thing we talk about. In fact, lots of churches, it’s like half of their budget. And it’s an even larger portion of the outcome of your ministry. It’s incredibly important what we’re talking about today. And so you do not want to miss this. Rich Birch — And we’ve got an expert that has worked with not tens of, not hundreds of, but literally thousands of of churches like yours and wants to help you take steps forward. Excited to have Tim Foot with us. He has nearly 30 years of experience, which I’m not sure how that’s possible, such a young man, as a leader, pastor, coach, speaker, musician in both Australia and North America, bringing a diverse background to his role as the CEO and president of Slingshot Group. If you’re not aware of who Slingshot Group is, they take the guesswork out of nonprofit and church staffing. He’s recently written a book that I’m excited for you to learn more about. But Tim, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.Tim Foot — Rich, it is so glad, it’s so great to be on with you today. I’m excited about this conversation.Rich Birch — So good. I'm I’m excited for it too. Why don’t you kind of give us a bit of the Tim Foot background? Tell us a little bit about about you and kind of give us the how do we end up here in this conversation today?Tim Foot — Yeah, it’s interesting. I often say to people, I had no idea that I’d be on the other side of the world to where I started doing what I’m doing. But this is what happens, Rich, when you say, keep saying yes to God.Tim Foot — Born and raised Tasmanian, worked as a musician and in ministry in Sydney for 10 years after moving from Tasmania, then relocated to Boulder County, Colorado in 2002, been here for 25 years now in ministry at a great church called Lifebridge Christian Church. Built ministry there for 10 years and went bivocationally started working with the Slingshot Group when there was a handful of us doing a handful of staffing and coaching work and then things exploded.Tim Foot — And I really, really hit my sweet spot and saw how God had been preparing me for so many years to work with teams, love teams, love the strategy of teams, love working with people, love the fact that placing the right leader on the right team exponentially moves the mission forward and affects culture in all kinds of ways.Rich Birch — So true.Tim Foot — And so I’ve had all kinds of roles in Slingshot over the years, now get to lead our team of amazing consultants around the US serving so many, and beyond, serving so many ministries and teams move mission forward.Rich Birch — Love it. I’m so glad that, yeah, this is going to a good conversation. You know, one of the things I want to take advantage of is the fact you’re really an expert. You know, you’ve worked with, you and Slingshot have worked with thousands of churches and organizations, and you you really get a chance to see churches at an interesting inflection point.Rich Birch — You know, often when we’re hiring a team member, bringing someone in or trying to develop our teams, you know, we’re thinking about the future and we’re, we’re taking a step back. And like you say, I do think it’s a transformative inflection point that you’re involved in. Rich Birch — So you’re sitting across the table from a lot leaders, and maybe even some leaders who their mission is stalling. Like things aren’t maybe going as well as we would hope. Are yeah there any patterns in that you’re seeing, are there things that you see time and time again in churches that might be holding us back?Tim Foot — Yeah, I immediately thought of a common question we’ll ask teams when we’re brought in when it comes to needing a new person on the team or helping coach leaders. We’re often brought in in crisis moments, moments of transition, but they’re also moments of incredible opportunity.Tim Foot — And we’ll often ask the question, hey, do you want a painkiller or do you want a vitamin? And so often the the team is thinking they want the painkiller, they want the pain to go away. They want to solve the problem, they want to fill the seat, or they want to break through whatever it is they’re struggling with. But honestly, deep down, they need to start a regimen of vitamins to help them get to a healthy place to move the mission forward.Tim Foot — We often will see an unawareness that the wrong people are around the table. Or an unawareness that they need other leaders around the table to help them move forward, whether it be vocational paid leaders or volunteers.Tim Foot — We’ll often see misalignment and a lack of focus on the right things. Communication misfires around why the mission actually matters. We’ll often teams see teams that are task-driven at the expense of relationships.Tim Foot — And then an unawareness of strengths and weaknesses and how they complement each other, how they help move you forward or how they hold you back. Other patterns are a lack of structure to support the work. Elephants in the room, taboo topics, fear around failure that leads to lack of innovation. So many different patterns we’ll see and be able to diagnose and say, hey, we need to have conversation around that because I think uncorking that will help you accelerate the mission.Rich Birch — That’s cool. One of the things I love by reputation that I love about Slingshot is I love that you’re asking those bigger questions that it’s not just like, okay, how do we get to let’s just, let’s get the next hire done and move on.Rich Birch — It’s like, you know, you’re, you’re trying to ask those bigger questions and which I, that which I think, you know compliment to you and your organization that you’re trying to. Because we know when we need the painkillers, but really we need to take some good vitamins over an extended period of time to make our things more healthy for sure. Hmm.Tim Foot — You know, Rich, when we jumped into staffing work almost 20 years ago now, we had to educate the church on the need to have outside advice around staffing. But it was a lot of art and not as much science.Tim Foot — And now we’ve developed so much science around the art with with things like our candidate match tool. When you’re looking for a leader, you have to align around what you actually want in that new leader. So many teams will say, hey, we need this, this, this, this, this, this. And in the end, they’re looking for a purple unicorn. And that’s not going to help.Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — And we’ll talk about that as we get deeper in the conversation.Rich Birch — Right. Yes.Tim Foot — But Rich, last time I looked, unicorns are still mythical creatures. Rich Birch — True. Tim Foot — And so working working out what you actually need… Rich Birch — Right. Tim Foot — …and getting an awareness around alignment with who’s around the table may actually change your idea of what you’re looking for. Alignment is so important in getting an awareness of what our strengths and weaknesses are. Are we focused on the right thing? And are we actually moving the mission forward right now or is it stalled out?Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, that’s good. One of your consultants, that remember once I was in a conversation about that very issue and and you know we had really lofty goals for what we were trying to hire. And and they they walked us through that conversation where it was like, okay, well, let’s let’s think about how many of these people are actually out there.Rich Birch — So and you list off hat half a dozen things that we were looking for and you cut back and you think, well, how many people actually work in the church? How many people have worked as long as we want to work and have had experience that we did and have done the stuff that we want to do?Rich Birch — And you literally get down to like, Well, there might be three people, you know, like, you know, and so anyways, that’s, that’s, that’s so true.Tim Foot — And actually… Rich Birch — You… Yeah, go ahead.Tim Foot — …that’s what we’ll often say. There are maybe three to five people when you have all of these filters in place, they can actually fill this role.Rich Birch — That’s true.Tim Foot — And that’s why you need to focus on ministry and you need to let us focus on finding those people.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, that’s good. That’s great. And yeah, and if there’s three to five and one of them is Jesus, the other is the Holy Spirit. So it’s like, you know, you’re down to just a very few. You… Tim Foot — And Rich, let’s not talk about why many, many teams wouldn’t hire Jesus these days.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. That’s a whole other topic. that’s That’s great. Now, you’ve said something once that caught my attention, and it’s in my head has been branded to you. And it’s that most of us were trained on a model, a leadership model that nobody named out loud, that everyone, that we’ve all absorbed.Rich Birch — What is that model? You know, what it look like? And I know when you named this, I started seeing this everywhere I looked. I was like, oh, wow, I can see this in multiple different places in myself and in our organization. What what is this model?Tim Foot — Yeah, I mean, the the model we see is hero-driven leadership. It’s when we rely too much on individuals to actually carry the mission. And I think the cracks have happened.Tim Foot — I mean, we’ve seen it, Rich, you and I are similar ages. I think the cracks are happening generationally. The builders and boomers were wired differently for a different time and culture. And us Gen Xers, we can code switch. I mean, we we see we see that happening all the time. And as we stepped into leadership, the cracks started to appear.Tim Foot — I mean, we see it every week. Another leader burning out, doing stupid things because of too much pressure. Then millennials and Gen Z are now leading in a new way that we need to embrace.Tim Foot — And so I think we’re seeing those cracks around that hero dependence, and we’re starting to see the need more than ever to have a team awareness, a holistic approach, or we’re just going to have leaders continue to burn out.Tim Foot — And we sit we see it around unrealistic hiring expectations, a lack of support for great leaders when they’re hired, a lack of development.Tim Foot — Hero dependence is a terrible staffing and growth strategy and becomes a massive trap when it comes to a number of the key focus areas or patterns we’ve seen that healthy teams focus on and move mission forward.Rich Birch — Yeah. See, this is the thing when you, I heard you say that once and it, it literally, I sat up and I was like, oh man, I’ve seen that in my own, you know, my own hiring. I’ve seen that in the way I’ve talked with, you know, I see the leaders around me. You see these people who they’ve kind of built the entire ministry around themselves and they’ve built, it’s like, it doesn’t work if they don’t, it’s like, they’re such a unique individual. They have to lift it all. Rich Birch — But what makes that model so sticky? Like, why do we keep coming back to that? Why? Even if we know like intellectually in our heads, yeah, that’s not a good idea. It feels like we just keep coming back to this same thing time. In fact, we actually reward it. We’ll be like, wow, isn’t that great? This person’s amazing. And we just kind of keep moving on. Why is that?Tim Foot — It’s the shiny object trap. I mean, that that the the shiny object, aka the the talented leader that we think is going to catapult the ministry. Often we see it in in hiring conversations when a particular organization wants to go after somebody that’s been in at a much bigger organization than them. And often that person, if if they can attract them, will come in with a playbook that isn’t uniquely suited to the organization they’re stepping into. Or there aren’t systems to support that new leader and the growth that’s going to happen. And burnout happens at every level. But but we both know, Rich, busy work makes us feel productive. But is it the right work?Rich Birch — That’s so true.Tim Foot — And and we know that we can be ourselves the shiny object. We we want to it feels good to be the hero. It feels good to be the one that’s solving problems. Rich Birch — Sure.Tim Foot — It feels good to be the one that has all the answers. Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — And I think that’s one of the biggest threats in healthy leadership today is feeling like you have to have all the answers. Because I think one of the most powerful statements from healthy leaders and healthy teams is, hey, we don’t know what to do next. Because it actually opens up the room for new thought. It opens up the room for collaboration. And it opens up the room for teamwork. Tim Foot — But it’s easier to move quick. It’s easier to move quick and be surrounded by people who agree and play it safe.Rich Birch — So true.Tim Foot — And then down the road, we realized that we weren’t growing in every sense of that word. And the mission was stalled out. We know we often have to slow down, re-strategize, look at who’s around the table, work out how we work together to move faster in the long term. We have to be vulnerable to make a team work. And sometimes it requires us to actually help others win than focus on heroes. Tim Foot — I mean, you think about a winning sports team. It’s not about just one person out there doing all the work. We’ve got to work together as a team. You know, it’s it’s it’s how do we work together and have had have less dependence on that shiny object, those standout leaders or those heroes?Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. I love that. I remember years ago, we had a coach come in and as a lead team, and this basically spent a week with us and then, you know, try to help us get better in our leading of our people. And I remember at the end of the week, the leader who we brought in said you answer way too many questions. And I was like what do you mean by that? They’re like, you need to ask more questions and you answer. You’re you’re putting yourself way too much in the middle of all of this and you’re not letting…And I was like, oh that’s a good insight. You know, we’re not raising up other people we’re trying to uh you know make it all about us rather than about our teams. Well, I’d love to talk about your book.Rich Birch — So the title is Reaching for Remarkable: The Seven key signatures behind every Remarkable Team. Let’s start with the word Remarkable. You literally have it twice in your title and subtitle. Why Remarkable? And how does that relate to hero? Because I was like, isn’t that the same thing? Like, isn’t it couldn’t this be reaching for the heroic? So unpack that.Tim Foot — I love that word remarkable. And it’s always been our mission at Slingshot. We build remarkable teams through staffing and coaching because your mission needs a remarkable team to move it forward. Tim Foot — Jesus left us with the most remarkable mission. And but it wasn’t enough. He needed a team to move it forward. And if Jesus needed a team to move it forward, we need to move it forward as a team.Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — And so we’ve all got these unique expressions of that remarkable mission. But if that mission matters, your team matters more. Rich Birch — That’s good.Tim Foot — And so when it comes to Remarkable, it’s about the mission. It all comes back to the mission. And we never fully arrive, Rich. We’re always reaching.Rich Birch — That’s good.Tim Foot — We’ve always got to be focusing on the right things, doing the deep work of of of reimagining, reinventing, and re-moving forward to reach for remarkable momentum when it comes to our mission. But we’ve got to focus on the team and the right the right areas to move that mission forward.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. So you actually talk about these, there’s these seven key signatures. Can you take a little bit of time and just unpack those? We won’t be able to get into all of them, but kind of talk us through how does it hang together as kind of a big idea?Tim Foot — Well, give you a little bit of context behind why they’re key signatures. You mentioned it in the intro, in a former life, I was a working musician and I would do solo gigs. It was my tentmaking job to do ministry back in Australia. Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — I would work three to five nights a week as a musician. And I always had way more fun working with other musicians in a team setting, because ah a band is essentially a team. And my best experiences, Rich, was when I was on stage with other musicians who were often better than me, but I was leading the band. We all lifted each other. And to achieve remarkable results, there was structure to it.Tim Foot — I mean, you know, there’s structure to music. There’s harmony and there’s rhythm and there’s key signatures. There’s tracks to run on that allow us to have a remarkable output. Rich Birch — That’s good.Tim Foot — And so as I move from that world into team strategy world, team specialist world, building teams world, I realized, hey, there are also tracks to run on as a team to reach for health and reach for remarkable, a remarkable output and remarkable momentum. And so that’s where we came up with these seven key focus areas that we call the seven key signatures behind every remarkable team.Tim Foot — And they’re a pathway, they work together. And I’ll run through them quickly. And then we can unpack what you what you want to unpack with the time that we have left, Rich.Tim Foot — But though, and they’re simple. I mean, these are patterns that I’ve observed over the last 16 years staffing teams, but the last 30 years growing in teams, learning from teams, leading teams. I mean, you and I both grew up in in church, Rich, and I learned a lot of of leadership lessons from being a volunteer on teams in in in my late teens and and early 20s, so much.Rich Birch — Yes, 100%.Tim Foot — But these patterns, this pattern or these key signatures start with number one, conviction. Conviction, which is a shared sense of why you exist and what you’re called to do. It’s the why behind the what. It’s the Simon Sinek. People buy why you do, not what you do. So that’s number one is conviction. Tim Foot — Number two is a message, a compelling and consistent way of communicating what matters most because, Rich, everything communicates. What’s the story our leadership is communicating? What we say, what we don’t say, our actions, our systems and processes. What story is it communicating? That’s number two. Tim Foot — Number three is culture, the values and behaviors that shape the soul of our team. How are people experiencing your ministry organization or your team?Tim Foot — Number four is roles, unique contributions for remarkable impact. Roles that clarify how we work together. Tim Foot — Number five is systems, which is scalable design for remarkable growth. Systems scale our mission. Tim Foot — Number six is friction because healthy friction moves the mission forward. How do we embrace healthy friction for growth? Tim Foot — And then the last one, number seven, and these all build on each other, is risk, which is bold moves that drive remarkable outcomes, initiatives that lead to breakthrough, strategic risk, not blind gamble. So those are the seven.Rich Birch — Love it. And you know friends, i I do think I would highly recommend that you pick up copies of this book. To me, when I when I saw this, to me, this feels like the kind of book that we should read together as a leadership team. Like, hey, let’s pull this together. You know maybe you’re looking for a fall thing to do with your leadership team. This would be a great book for you to pick up and go together. Rich Birch — There’s a couple I would love to tease out a little bit. I’d love you to pull out for us. Help us understand. You differentiate between conviction and message, two different things. I think lots of times we might collapse those into one. Why are they two separate? Help us understand the difference between those two.Tim Foot — Absolutely. Conviction, again, is why we do what we do. Without shared conviction, you won’t move the mission forward. There won’t be a reason behind initiatives. They’ll fall flat. Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — There won’t be a reason behind the message you’re communicating. That’s why they’re different. So conviction is what keeps us in on the days we want to quit.Tim Foot — I mean, think about the early church in Acts 4. It’s a great, best example of conviction. Peter declaring in Acts 4:20, we cannot help but speak about what we’ve seen and heard. They didn’t just believe. They acted. It drove every decision.Tim Foot — If the disciples were just compliant, when Jesus ascended, they would have scattered. But because they were convicted, they ah nearly all of them gave their very lives for the mission. Conviction is our North Star. It’s It’s like calling. it’s It’s what keeps you the days, keeps you in it, the days you want to quit. And Rich, we know there’s going to be plenty of days you to quit. Tim Foot — Message, however, is is the story we’re communicating. It’s how we hire, fire, onboard, develop. It’s how we communicate our conviction and our overall mission. And in the book, we list a bunch of traps for each of these seven key signatures. And we can chat about some of the most common traps. But a common trap for for message is assumption. Rich Birch — It’s good.Tim Foot — We assume people understand and care like we understand and care. Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — And we don’t ask enough questions. I mean, it’s why Jesus’ ministry was full of questions, Rich. Rich Birch — Right. Right.Tim Foot — Because he was he was cementing conviction. I mean, Jesus asked the best questions and rarely gave the answers. He lived the answers and he teased the answers out because that’s what led to conviction. That’s why they build upon each other. Tim Foot — You can’t have a story without conviction. You can’t have a message without conviction. And you can’t have a healthy message unless you are asking the right questions to make sure people are hearing and understanding it. Tim Foot — Did you like like did you understand what I just communicated? What did you just hear that I that I said?Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — Why why are why are you so convicted to by our mission?Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim Foot — Why are you committed to it? So many great questions.Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s good.Tim Foot — The book is full of questions too. I’m a I’m a serial question asker. They used to call me “Quiz” when I was a teenager because I asked so many questions.Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim Foot — And it wasn’t until later that a mentor and co-founder of Slingshot, Stan Endicott—I think you know him, Rich—that he he convinced me that my proclivity for asking so many questions was actually a spiritual gift and not a special need.Rich Birch — Yeah. Tim Foot — Because questions, questions move conversations forward.Rich Birch — Yeah. Yep. Yeah, it’s true. It’s so good. And yeah, as I’ve shifted into full-time coaching, I have found, yeah, like that the the skill of asking a good question, it’s like, you know, I think the best moments I have with the people I’m working with are when we’re, I’m asking questions and they’re discovering, they’re tripping on to their own answers that maybe are a little different even than I would have. But just asking good questions, super important.Rich Birch — Okay. Another one that stood out to me of the, and again, friends, you’re going read all this. Obviously we can’t cover this in just, you know, half an hour conversation. But talk to me about friction, healthy friction. Tim Foot — Yeah. Rich Birch — So I literally have said as an executive pastor, my job was to remove friction from the organization. And so when you say, oh, you lots of us are trying to remove it. I was like, ouch, that’s me.Rich Birch — Because I think that’s, ah you know, I would I want to find places where we’re stuck and say, how do we get those unstuck and push this thing forward? So talk to me about why I’m wrong about friction.Tim Foot — I was there too, Rich. I was absolutely there. But when I get to number six, when we’re speaking on this or teaching on this, I will often say, hey number six is a wait, what? Tim Foot — I thought this was the sign of an unhealthy team. I used to think that. I used to think that the harmonious teams were the healthy ones, that when I walked into a context where there was all harmony with the team, that it was there was healthy, the absence of friction was healthy. But it’s not. It’s a sign of unhealth. Tim Foot — And I’m talking, there’s two kinds of friction, healthy and unhealthy. I’m talking about healthy friction. I mean, you think about a car and how the rubber meets the road, causes friction, moves the car forward. If you don’t have friction in your team, your mission isn’t going on anywhere.Tim Foot — It’s interesting, Zippia workplace survey found out that 76% of employees in the workplace avoid conflict, which is a real problem because healthy friction sharpens and aims teams, while avoiding conflict leads to complacency and stagnation.Tim Foot — Teams where members are passionately embracing friction will not only push through and forward to great results, they’ll attract and retain, which is really important, they’re going attract and retain top leaders. It’s where the mission truly comes alive and evolves to all it can be. Good leaders, rich, know to allow it. They know not to control it, but closely monitor it.Tim Foot — We get to decide if the tension or friction we allow is healthy or unhealthy. We call this the loaded gun of the seven key signatures, because when this gun goes off, it either breaks through a door or a wall that you needed to break through, or somebody gets hurt. And good leaders know how to monitor that and help it break through and not damage other leaders.Rich Birch — Yeah, let’s double click on that. Help me understand. So yeah, I’m going with you. I can see what you’re saying. You know, healthy friction, you know, unhealthy friction, good friction, bad friction. So give me an example. Rich Birch — You walk into it, you’re working with a ah church and there’s some telltale signs of, friction that’s that’s negative, that’s actually pulling the organization back, that’s that could be potentially hurting, or maybe has gone too far, or what’s, I’m not sure the best way to say that. Versus, hey, no, here’s some here’s some good friction that’s actually some good heat here that’s pushing the tires forward. Help us, what does that look like?Tim Foot — When when it becomes personal, Rich, that’s always the way you know it’s trending towards unhealthy. We’ll get to it in a minute, but we’ve got a team assessment on our website now around these seven key signatures, and we talk about unhealthy, inconsistent, functional, remarkable.Tim Foot — Most most teams live in that functional space. If you’re below unhealthy, it’s trending toxic, and that’s when you need ah that’s when you need the 4Sight group and Jenni Catron to come I mean, do some some deep, deep culture work. Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — I’m all about our ecosystem. I know you are too, Rich. It’s like when you need the deeper work, then you need the specialist. Rich Birch — Sure, sure.Tim Foot — But right now you’ve got the general practitioner. Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, yeah.Tim Foot — But but when it gets when it gets personal, you know that that’s unhealthy friction. Rich Birch — That’s good. Right.Tim Foot — And let’s go back to um the the harmony piece. Because that’s one of the traps when it comes to friction. it’s It’s the harmony trap. And it’s like it’s you wanting there to be you know violins and and and and birds singing and for everybody to be loving each other. That’s also a sign that there is unhealthy friction. Rich Birch — Right. Tim Foot — Because there’s things lurking that have been pushed down below the surface that are going to come out sideways that if you had just dealt with it straight away, it actually could have become momentum for your mission. It’s the unspoken influences trap. it’s the It’s the elephants in the room.Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — It’s what everybody’s thinking about, but nobody’s talking about. That’s going to that that’s gonna be insidious and it’s going to chip away at the health of your team. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.Tim Foot — And it’s gonna become unhealthy friction. And so that’s a great question to ask. And that’s in the book too. What’s every thinking about, nobody’s talking about? Because that’s what we need to engage.Tim Foot — Now, if we think that’s going to lead to unhealthy friction, let’s have the the conversations outside of the meeting. So that when we get to the conversations inside of the meeting, we can engage this as healthy friction that will actually address the topic and will move us forward rather than becoming personal and eroding relationships.Rich Birch — That’s good. Yeah, that question, what’s everybody thinking about that nobody’s talking about? That’s powerful. And I can see, yeah, that even even the organizations I’ve led, you can see where there’s seasons where we try to push away that friction. nd that can be just super negative. And it’s like this, we’re all just in la-la land. We’re all just, you know, can see that for sure. Tim Foot —Yeah.Rich Birch — So you wrote this book, you put this resource together. help me understand how you’re hoping it will help our, our churches. You know, I’m picture, I’m a church of a thousand people. Maybe I’m the executive pastor. I’ve got a team of 12 to 15 people on my team. And how how could, how could this be a helpful resource for us?Tim Foot — Well, this I believe this is the most important work we need to be doing, Rich, because if your mission matters, your team matters more. So often we get so focused on the people we’re serving that we forget the people we’re serving with.Tim Foot — And if we’re stalling out mission, mission-wise, then we’re not moving forward. And that’s not and we’re not being obedient to God’s call. And so what I’m hoping is, I mean, personally, our kingdom first principle at Slingshot is to leave teams better than than the way we found them. And the last thing we want to do is place great leaders on unhealthy teams.Tim Foot — So what we’re hoping is that teams are going to focus around these seven alignment areas and start to move mission forward, attract great leaders, retain great leaders. When we place, I mean, I you and I have both had healthy long-term ministries at churches, and it is a massive blessing when you, if God wills it, and you stay somewhere long term. I want other people to experience that. And that happens when the right leaders are placed on the right team.Tim Foot — So what I’m hoping churches do is they take our team awareness assessment on on our website, reachingforremarkable.com, which is attached to slingshotgroup.org. And they get a sense of, okay, where what where might we need attention in these seven key areas? Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s good.Tim Foot — Because it heat maps, it gives you percentages, you can take it as a team. And then to start the real important conversations.Tim Foot — I mean, I’ve been in rooms with this work, Rich, where you start to see teams have conversation around alignment and and teams that were that were stale or leaders that were burnt out start to get a glimmer of hope. Rich Birch — Yeah. That’s good.Tim Foot — That, oh, if we start to have these conversations around these areas, if we walk this pathway, if we focus in these areas where we’re struggling right now, we’re going to start to see results.Tim Foot — I mean, I even think about the key signature of systems. You know, it’s systems that scale remarkable growth. If we’re not building systems to to accommodate the growth that we keep praying for, God’s not going to bring the increase. Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s true. Tim Foot — Because God isn’t going to bring growth if it’s going to hurt us. We have to be building the right kind of systems to support our teams and leaders so that the growth can come. It’s a stewardship issue. Rich Birch — Yes, yep.Tim Foot — So what I’m hoping happens in churches all over the place is that they start to focus on these key signatures and see mission momentum results that moves them forward as an organization.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. Why don’t you tell us, you’ve mentioned it, but tell us a little bit more about the team awareness assessment. Give us like a bit of a, you know, you’ve kind of given us an overview there. Give us a little bit more why we should take that test and give us that URL again that we can send people to.Tim Foot — It’s reachingforremarkable.com and it’s it’s literally 10 minutes or less. Rich Birch — Right.Tim Foot — And it’s free as a leader. You can jump in and take it or you can sign up and and take it as a team. And it gives you obviously the team percentage on each of these key signatures. but also your own results. And when we’ve worked with real high-performing teams, it’s fascinating to watch these great leaders compare their individual percentage on each of these key signatures with their entire team and just to see alignment start to happen and the right conversations to happen.Tim Foot — Because we want to be able to focus in on where alignment is needed most. It may be real simple, Rich. Most teams live in that functional space. Rich Birch — Sure. Tim Foot — Functional’s fine.Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim Foot — But it’s not going to get remarkable results. Rich Birch — Yeah.Tim Foot — And our mission is too important. We have to focus on team alignment to move it forward.Rich Birch — Yeah. It’s so good. Yeah. I was talking to a a leader recently of a very large church and they were saying, you know, I just feel like, I feel like we got a go Pro. And what he was saying is exactly what you’re saying is like, Hey, we we’re we’re fine. We’re functioning.Tim Foot — Right. Right.Rich Birch — But man, we want to go remarkable. We want to go from just just because we can do this thing week in, week out in their case, have thousands of people show up, tens of thousands of people show up. But it’s like, that’s not enough. We got it. But the mission’s too important. We’re trying to reach people. How do we go remarkable? Which to me, I think picking up a copies of these books as a team would be a great first step. Rich Birch — Where do people, where can people pick this up? Where can they get your book if they’re looking for that? I’m assuming Amazon, but is there anywhere else we want to send them?Tim Foot — No, Amazon’s a place to go. Rich Birch — Yeah, that is the bookseller apparently.Tim Foot — I mean, it’s we know these days where wherever where everybody’s going, Amazon’s the way. And I would just add to Rich that as a leader, you want to know. This is information you want to have.Rich Birch — Yes.Tim Foot — We’ve talked so much about self-awareness. And if we’re in leadership, we need to show up to our team self-awareness. So many profiles. Rich Birch — Yep.Tim Foot — We don’t talk enough about team awareness. You need to know as a leader if you’re moving your mission forward or where you might be stalling out because it’s too important. And these seven things, as I said earlier, Rich, they’re not they’re not rocket science. Tim Foot — I mean, I like to I like to couch it this way: Conviction shapes the heart. Message shapes the voice. Culture shapes the atmosphere. Role shape contribution. Systems shape sustainability. Friction shapes growth. Risk shapes the future. And that’s why I hope you’ll dig into this with us. Rich Birch — Love it. Tim Foot — Because we want to see the kingdom move forward and we want to see churches full of healthy teams that not only great leaders want to come and be part of, great volunteers want to be a part of and help move this forward.Rich Birch — That’s so good. Well, I think that’s a great place to end it. I was like, man, that’s, I’m like, I want to preach. Amen, brother. That’s fantastic. If people were, so we’ll send them to Amazon. We’ll put a link in the show notes for that. If people want to track with you or with Slingshot, where do we want to send them online to connect as well?Tim Foot — Slingshotgroup.org is our company website. And there’s a bunch of great stories there. There’s places that you can engage. We would love you to be in our ecosystem. And yeah, you can jump over there to reachingforremarkable.com. And we would love to come alongside you and help you continue to move forward in the unique ways that God has called you to.Rich Birch — Well, Tim, it’s great to see you. Tim Foot — You too.Rich Birch — We were just remarking before, we had dinner together there a couple months ago. That was fun, but it was fun to put the recording on today and connect a little bit. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks so much for being here today.Tim Foot — Thanks for having me, Rich.

Send us Fan MailYou know that thing where a fitness instructor grabs your knee without asking? Yeah, we're done with that. Sofia Engelman — owner of Brooklyn's Queer Body Pilates and genuinely one of the most thoughtful humans working in movement today — joins me to talk about what consent actually looks like in a Pilates class, why the word "burn" is doing a lot of dirty work in so-called body-positive spaces, and how cueing into the posterior chain can quietly sidestep a whole lot of dysphoria. We get into trans-affirming movement, supporting clients through gender-affirming surgery, Sofia's upcoming book Pilates for the Revolution, and why your language IS your politics whether you meant it to be or not. Also: haunted speaker systems, leather jacket divination, and why I — a Gen Xer who got hit as a kid — am still unlearning a lot. Sofia is 28, deeply wise, and I'm taking notes. You should too.Sofia's website here.    Leave your message for the Speaker Box here.Watch this episode on YouTube here.  For more AGECRAFT content, join the Substack here. To work with Julia and/or learn more about her, go here.  CBDMD website here.Use code julia_g_wellness to get 15% off Episode SponsorBe one of the helpers! SUBSCRIBE to this podcast on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY and leave us a review on APPLE PODCASTS. 

33% of Gen Xers are still dependent on their parents, things you can to do for future you that will make you happy and we find out the Soup of the Day!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE has dropped. What do two gay Gen Xers think of it? MARVEL COMICS has dropped its Pride Issue and we are disappointed. Find out why. We also catch up on some X-MEN books! And in other TV reactions, we talk about DRAG RACE ALL STARS 11 Bracket 2 results and that iconic WIDOW'S BAY Bogeyman / Patricia episode.

In today's episode of Scaling UP! H2O, host Trace Blackmore sits down with workplace resilience expert and U.S. Marine veteran Tiffany Wentz‑Root to decode how different generations show up in the industrial water treatment industry. From the Silent Generation's post‑war loyalties through Baby Boomers' commitment to long hours, Gen X's distrust of corporate loyalty, Millennials' desire for purpose and feedback, and Gen Z's demand for emotional literacy, the conversation illustrates how each cohort was shaped by historical and technological upheaval. The discussion reframes "hustle culture" and argues that a focus on mental health and values alignment can increase retention and performance. Generations and the events that shaped them Tiffany explains that generations are roughly 20–30 year cohorts defined by shared formative experiences. The Silent Generation (1928‑45) endured the Great Depression and World War II; Baby Boomers (1946‑64) were taught loyalty and stability; Gen X (1965‑80) witnessed mass layoffs and became fiercely independent; Millennials (1981‑96) were helicopter parented and accustomed to participation trophies; and Gen Z (1997‑2012) grew up online, socializing via games and apps and weathering school shootings and a pandemic. These histories explain why Baby Boomers and Gen X equate "hard work" with hours logged, whereas Millennials and Gen Z measure effort by pride, alignment and emotional impact. Gen Z's exposure to constant online crises makes them the "anxious and afraid generation" with record rates of anxiety and depression, highlighting the need for supportive leadership.   Hustle culture versus emotional literacy The conversation challenges the idea that toughness equals success. Wentz‑Root stresses that leaders must "stop prizing strength" and recognize that feeling and processing emotions is hard work. She advocates for environments where people can bring their whole selves to work rather than suppressing feelings in order to conform to traditional hustle culture. She notes that Gen Z sees phone calls as "prehistoric" and prefers to communicate via apps like Snapchat or Discord, so older professionals should adapt their communication style—using fewer capital letters, punctuation and more emojis or GIFs—to avoid appearing angry or dismissive. For water treatment companies seeking to recruit young professionals, she urges them to articulate company values and support mental health, because Gen Z will leave if work doesn't align with their skills or passions. Practical strategies for leaders and organizations To bridge the generational divide, Wentz‑Root proposes creating a "social contract": a collaboratively defined set of values, behaviors and communication norms that are revisited regularly. Such agreements encourage teams to discuss how they prefer to give and receive feedback, when to use Slack versus meetings, and what good work looks like across ages. She also recommends structured cross‑mentorship, matching senior employees who are nearing retirement with junior colleagues based on skills rather than age, so institutional knowledge isn't lost. She cautions against judging younger staff as entitled or weak; rather, leaders should ask why behaviors exist and treat differences as strengths. Lastly, she reminds Baby Boomers and Gen Xers that sharing decades of hard‑earned experience with Gen Z isn't charity—it's how you build a legacy and ensure the industry thrives. For water‑treatment professionals, recognizing that "different doesn't mean wrong" can unlock better collaboration, innovation and resilience. By replacing judgment with curiosity, establishing social contracts and mentorship programs, and adapting communication to younger workers, leaders can turn generational tension into an asset. Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge! Timestamps 02:32 — Trace Blackmore introduces the episode and sets the context: exploring generational dynamics in the industrial water treatment community 09:20 — Tiffany Wentz‑Root introduces herself as a Marine Corps veteran and therapist who helps corporations improve communication, empathy and resilience. 15:07 — Definition of a "generation" and how cohort boundaries from Silent Generation to Gen Alpha are defined 18:06 — Examination of how Baby Boomers were taught loyalty and work stability, Gen X learned independence after witnessing mass layoffs, and Millennials received participation trophies and craved feedback 00:24:33 — Wentz‑Root calls for leaders to stop equating strength with suppressing emotion; feeling and processing emotions is difficult work 25:02 — Gen Z is described as the anxious and afraid generation with record levels of anxiety, depression and suicide, shaped by school shootings and constant online news 27:03 — Contrasting COVID experiences: Trace led a team through uncertainty, while Tiffany's son saw the lockdown as "awesome" because he stayed home playing games. 28:41 — Discussion of how Gen Z socializes through apps like Snapchat, Discord and Steam; texting is archaic and phone calls are "prehistoric" 32:09 — Panel reflections: Baby Boomers and Gen X define hard work by hours worked, Millennials by pride in results, and Gen Z by alignment with skills and passions 33:37 — Tiffany emphasizes that "different doesn't mean wrong," urging listeners to see younger workers' needs as strengths 40:26 — Introduction of social contracts: teams co‑create values, behaviors and communication norms to bridge generational expectations 42:42 — The role of cross‑generational mentorship; match people by skill and career stage, not age, and leverage Gen Z's expertise with tech and communication platforms 01:13:26 — Trace's closing reflections: in male‑dominated, hustle‑driven industries, ignoring emotions isn't sustainable; sharing knowledge now ensures a legacy and a thriving future   Quotes "We need to stop prizing strength first and foremost. We need to understand that emotions are very difficult to face. To feel your feelings, to name them, to process them—that's hard" "When I asked, 'What's your definition of hard work?' the baby boomer said, 'I put in a lot of hours.' Gen X said, 'I put in a lot of hours.' Millennials said, 'I get the job done and I'm proud of it.' Gen Z said, 'It's when the work that I've done aligns with my skills and my passions, and I feel good about what I did'" "Judgment kills curiosity … When I see someone of a different generation with a different way of communicating, I automatically go, 'That's bad, that's weird.' Instead, I want you to step into curiosity and say, 'Why would they do that? What happened in their life that shaped them to be this person?'"   Connect with Tiffany Wentz-Root Phone: (425) 359-5088 Email: tiffany@resilientroots.com Website: resilientroots.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanywentz-root/    Guest Resources Mentioned  Generational Diversity Outline  Bridging the Gap: Navigating Generational Diversity at Work 17776: What football will look like in the future by Jon Bois Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style (Paperback) by Kurt Vonnegut (Author), Suzanne McConnell (Author) Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations by John Avlon   Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned  AWT (Association of Water Technologies)  Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses  Submit a Show Idea  The Rising Tide Mastermind    Words of Water with James McDonald Today's definition is an ion with a net negative charge, formed when an atom or molecule gains one or more electrons. Examples include bicarbonate, chloride, and sulfate. Can you guess the word or phrase?   2026 Events for Water Professionals  Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.   

Send us Fan MailToday on Carpooling with Paul, Paul reflects on an article about the health habits many people develop during midlife—and why so many of them hit close to home.As members of the “sandwich generation,” many Gen Xers find themselves balancing careers, aging parents, grown children, financial responsibilities, and everything in between. Somewhere along the way, taking care of ourselves often falls to the bottom of the list.Topics include:✅ Sleep and why quality rest matters more than ever ✅ The challenges of balancing work, family, and self-care ✅ Exercise, nutrition, and staying active as we age ✅ Ignoring aches, pains, and warning signs from our bodies ✅ The importance of social connections and friendships ✅ Stress, burnout, and maintaining a positive mindset ✅ Why many of us struggle to prioritize our own healthPaul also shares some personal reflections on habits he's trying to improve and why midlife can be both rewarding and challenging at the same time.It's a candid morning commute conversation about getting older, staying healthy, and finding balance in a busy life.

This week on Ask Farnoosh, we're tackling one of the biggest money questions of all: When can I retire?Inspired by a viral Instagram reel about repeatedly refreshing a retirement calculator in hopes of finding financial freedom, Farnoosh breaks down how to determine your retirement readiness—and why retirement may not be the right goal at all. Instead, what if the goal is optionality?In this episode:Why so many Gen Xers are obsessed with retirement calculatorsHow to calculate your "freedom number"The 4% rule explained simplyWhy Social Security may be worth more than you thinkHow home equity changes the retirement equationFour retirement personality typesPractical ways to move your retirement date closerWhy burnout—not retirement—may be the real issuePlus:Farnoosh weighs in on the controversy surrounding Belle Burden's bestselling memoir Strangers following a recent New Yorker investigation.An update on the new Trump Accounts program, including why Farnoosh believes it could become one of the most powerful wealth-building tools for children.Related Listening:Retiring on Social Security AloneLearn more about Farnoosh's upcoming literary workshop Book to Brand. Early bird registration is now open! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We kick off this episode of the show by considering various ways a person today might "take the black" (little Game of Thrones reference there). We compare our lists of all-time Spotify streams, and then play a TikTok about Trump's recent DOJ deal, discussing whether such corruption is relatively new or whether it was just more hidden in times past. We compare TV and movies as forms of art, and then we do another segment of "Pastor  Jack's Off" where Jack Hibbs whines about Muslims or something. We close with the suggestion that the cultural touchstone that just may unite Gen-Xers, Millennials, and Gen-Z is Survivor.

On this episode, Heather is at the LA studio and welcoming her first live callers! These hussies really bring some wild spring break Absolutely Not's to Heather and we are forever changed! We have callers that were down at the Villages, on a hetero bachelor party in Baltimore, wheelin' and dealin' in Daytona as a newly crowned amateur stripper, a near miss on girls gone wild Gen Xer and someone who voluntarily went on a Greyhound for over 24 hours.Episode Sponsors:Join the loyalty program for renters at joinbilt.com/absolutely. Make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/ABSOLUTELY! #honeylovepodLearn more about Camp Unwritten under Limited-Time Offers at experiences.hyatt.com.Visit yasso.com/absolutely to enter and upgrade your freezer! Find full giveaway details, rules, and regulations. Yasso awarded as product coupons. No purchase necessary. Open to 50 US/DC, 18+. Ends 11:59pm ET 4/30. Rules: Yasso.com/ABSOLUTELYReady for your own reset? For a limited time, Prolon is offering Absolutely Not listeners 15% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit ProlonLife.com/absolutely to claim your 15% discount and your bonus gift.Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.