Podcasts about Great Recession

The yield on a 30-year Treasury bond has been hovering above 5% for a couple weeks — the longest stretch since the Great Recession. One reason is Treasury bonds are competing with Big Tech debt. We'll explain, with help from one reporter's shady gym membership deal. Also in this episode: AT&T attributes strong earnings to service bundles, a customs broker updates us on shipping logistics amid tariff changes, and Kai explains why Fed economists want to keep inflation expectations "anchored."Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.Read the stories in today's episode:30-year Treasury yields stick above 5%China's consumer economy is losing steamAT&T's service bundles make for an earnings boonInside the "tariff whirlpool" with a brokerage managerWhat “anchored inflation expectations” mean for the Fed

The yield on a 30-year Treasury bond has been hovering above 5% for a couple weeks — the longest stretch since the Great Recession. One reason is Treasury bonds are competing with Big Tech debt. We'll explain, with help from one reporter's shady gym membership deal. Also in this episode: AT&T attributes strong earnings to service bundles, a customs broker updates us on shipping logistics amid tariff changes, and Kai explains why Fed economists want to keep inflation expectations "anchored."Every story has an economic angle. Want some in your inbox? Subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter.Marketplace is more than a radio show. Check out our original reporting and financial literacy content at marketplace.org — and consider making an investment in our future.Read the stories in today's episode:30-year Treasury yields stick above 5%China's consumer economy is losing steamAT&T's service bundles make for an earnings boonInside the "tariff whirlpool" with a brokerage managerWhat “anchored inflation expectations” mean for the Fed

Why America's Skilled Labor Crisis Is Slowing Home ConstructionAmerica's housing shortage isn't simply a shortage of homes. It's also a shortage of the skilled workforce needed to build them.In this episode of Selling Sacramento, I explore one of the least discussed drivers of today's housing affordability crisis: the construction labor shortage that has been building since the Great Recession. While much of the national conversation focuses on housing supply, homes cannot be built without the electricians, framers, plumbers, roofers, concrete finishers, HVAC technicians, and other skilled tradespeople who bring them to life.In this episode, you'll learn:What happened to the construction workforce after the 2008 housing crash.Why many skilled tradespeople never returned.How labor shortages continue to affect the pace and cost of home construction.Why increasing housing supply requires more than land, financing, and government policy.What this means for California, Sacramento, and the future of housing affordability.If we're serious about solving America's housing shortage, we also have to solve the workforce shortage behind it.

What happens when sharing the parts of your career that feel hardest to talk about helps create a community where others finally feel understood?  In this episode of our Golden Hoodie Winners series, we speak with Katie Villanueva, a Salesforce Administrator, community leader, mental health advocate, and 2023 Salesforce Golden Hoodie recipient. Katie shares how speaking openly about living with bipolar disorder and her experiences as a Salesforce professional led her to create a virtual community where people could talk openly about mental health, mental illness, work, and the pressures that often follow us throughout our careers.  Her willingness to start those conversations brought people together across the Salesforce ecosystem and led to her receiving a Golden Hoodie on the Dreamforce Admin Keynote stage.  Creating The Community She Wanted To See  Katie discovered the Trailblazer Community after starting her Salesforce career during the pandemic. She wanted to contribute and speak at community events, but lacked confidence in delivering technical presentations. Instead, she began sharing her personal experiences of bipolar disorder, mental health, and how the Salesforce community had helped her become a better professional.  The response showed that many people were looking for a place to have similar conversations. Katie took that community to Salesforce and asked to create a virtual user group dedicated to mental health and mental illness. The group now brings people together each month to share resources, have meaningful conversations, and build relationships with others who understand the pressures of working in technology while managing the rest of their lives.  From Call Center Employee To Salesforce Administrator  Katie's route into Salesforce was far from straightforward. She originally studied farming before graduating in communications and mass communications during the Great Recession. After struggling to find work, she moved through roles in mortgage refinancing, energy data analysis, and eventually a call center where she first encountered Salesforce.  Her next employer had a very different Salesforce setup. The company had no dedicated administrator, and Katie quickly recognized opportunities to improve how the platform was being managed. She wasn't enjoying sales, so she asked if she could become the Salesforce Administrator instead. That decision changed the direction of her career.  Katie learned on Trailhead and applied those lessons directly in a live Salesforce environment. The experience gave her the confidence and practical skills to continue building her career.  Why You Never Stop Being An Admin  One of Katie's biggest career realizations came from understanding that becoming an architect, developer, or taking another role doesn't mean leaving your Salesforce Admin skills behind.  As she puts it, "Admin's where we begin, but it never ends."  Those core skills continue to influence how professionals solve problems, understand business processes, manage technology, and support users throughout their careers.  Katie also shares what she is learning from working on a Salesforce team after spending much of her career managing environments independently, including the value of mentorship and learning from people in roles she previously held without knowing their official job titles.  Speaking Up For Underrepresented Communities  Our conversation also turns to representation within the Salesforce ecosystem. Katie discusses her work supporting Latino and Hispanic professionals in the United States and her desire to help people build stronger professional connections.  She explains why creating opportunities for people to meet, share experiences, and see others like them progress in technology can have a lasting impact on confidence and career development.  For Katie, community leadership means creating spaces where other voices can be heard and helping people find connections that may open doors throughout their careers.  Admitting You Have AI Imposter Syndrome  Despite receiving a Golden Hoodie and becoming a recognized Salesforce community leader, Katie openly admits she experiences imposter syndrome when it comes to AI and Agentforce.  She shares the pressure that can come with external recognition, especially when people assume that wearing a Golden Hoodie means knowing everything about Salesforce.  Katie's message is reassuring for anyone struggling to keep up with the pace of AI development.  Everyone is at a different stage of their learning journey.  She explains why Salesforce professionals don't need to abandon the skills they already have and how she stays informed about Agentforce. At the same time, her employer hasn't adopted it. Still, professionals can prepare themselves by following community conversations, attending workshops, completing Trailhead learning, and experimenting with the tools available to them.  Learning AI Without Trying To Learn Everything  Katie shares her practical approach to learning AI, beginning with Prompt Builder and understanding how better prompts can improve the results people receive from AI systems.  We discuss how she uses ChatGPT to understand Salesforce Flows, solve problems, support her work, and even help with everyday tasks outside her career. She also explains why professionals should treat AI as a starting point rather than accepting every answer it provides.  The conversation turns to the growing importance of testing AI systems, understanding the role of human oversight, and preparing for AI adoption by strengthening existing Salesforce skills.  Katie's advice is simple and reassuring: stay informed, experiment where you can, and focus your learning on the areas that matter to your career and the problems you're trying to solve.  About Mums On Cloud Nine  Mums on Cloud Nine is your go-to destination for inspiring content that empowers women to build a life and career they love.  Each week, we share expert advice, personal stories, and practical tips across a range of topics, from health and mindset to money and career growth.  Check out our website at www.mumsoncloudnine.co.uk and subscribe for weekly tips to elevate your mindset.  About Supermums  Founded by Heather Black, a Salesforce Golden Hoodie winner, Supermums helps relaunchers and seasoned Salesforce professionals accelerate their careers in tech through expert training, career coaching and recruitment support.  Whether someone is returning to work, pivoting into a new role, or ready to step up in the Salesforce ecosystem, Supermums provides practical training, mentoring and access to job opportunities to help them build confidence, sharpen their skills and progress faster.  Alongside its career development programmes, Supermums partners with employers to connect them with talented Salesforce professionals who are ready to make an impact. Find out more here https://supermums.org/podcast-intro   About our Sponsor, Hubbl Technologies  Hubbl gives Salesforce teams the clarity they need to move faster. By connecting technical metadata with real business processes, Hubbl reveals what is happening inside your Salesforce org — from security and access risks to process gaps, tech debt, and AI readiness. The result: less guesswork, faster audits, better documentation, and smarter decisions for teams who want to build, scale, and innovate with confidence  Find out more about https://qrco.de/bgY7zw 

When the Great Recession hit, Andy Gil lost his business. Suddenly, he was forced to start over. But the fear of losing everything again was the driving force behind what would come next. Andy got serious, raising his young kids in an 800-square-foot house, driving 10-year-old cars, and funneling every spare dollar into savings so he could start buying rental properties. These were the types of sacrifices the average investor probably wouldn't make, but they became the catalyst for scaling to 58 rental units in just four years! What's more, Andy has never had the benefit of 3% mortgage rates. He got into real estate investing at the tail end of 2022, meaning he's been able to grow his large, cash-flowing real estate portfolio in a tough housing market with high interest rates—all while using very little of his own money. Today, he manages his own rentals and other people's properties, deploying a unique investing strategy that has even helped him acquire a 30-unit property. In this episode, he's sharing exactly what that strategy is (and how YOU can implement it), what he's learned in over 20 years of contracting experience, and how to use AI to gain an edge in today's market. In This Episode We Cover Andy's journey from losing his business to buying 58 rental units in four years The massive sacrifices Andy and his family have had to make to invest in real estate How to accelerate your investing journey by living within your means The secrets to managing a large rental portfolio (on your own!) How Andy uses artificial intelligence (AI) throughout his real estate business Why persistence is the key to finding great real estate deals in 2026 And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠⁠t⁠t⁠ps://www⁠.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1303. Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danielle DiMartino Booth praises the FOMC minutes as "clean" under new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh—no manipulation of data like Janet Yellen did in 2013—and notes Warsh has successfully convened consensus around "less is more" Fed communications with an unusually quiet media environment. The real bombshell is the July jobs data: the unemployment rate fell to 4.2% only because 720,000 Americans gave up looking for work in a single month, representing a 50-year low in labor force participation since 1976, while 49% of adults under 30 now live with their parents as affordability collapses and job insecurity rises. Danielle warns the official narrative of economic strength masks a deteriorating real economy: revolving credit declined (a sign lenders are tightening), consumer confidence shows jobs are hard to get, and vacation spending has crashed to Great Recession levels—yet mainstream media remains fixated on an inflation narrative unsupported by broad data. The biggest systemic risk is the "too big to fail" stock market: 51% of global assets now sit outside the regulated banking system, asset managers hold assets larger than major banks, and the government can't allow equity market collapse when 401(k)s are the only retirement plans left, implying inevitable Fed monetization and the "end of capitalism." Her source of hope: summer interns aged 18-28 who are hungry, hardworking, and reject the "too big to fail" mentality—representing a generation determined to work their way out rather than accept billionaire UBI schemes designed to maintain inequality.Thank you to our sponsors: Kalshi - download the Kalshi app and use code JULIA to get $10 when you trade $10. http://kalshi.com/r/JULIA Monetary Metals - learn more at https://www.monetary-metals.com/julia/Links: Danielle's Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/dimartinobooth Substack: https://dimartinobooth.substack.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DanielleDiMartinoBoothQIFed Up: https://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Insiders-Federal-Reserve/dp/0735211655Timestamps: 00:00 Intro and welcome back Danielle DiMartino Booth 00:40 FOMC minutes from June - Clean, Warsh didn't manipulate data1:30 Warsh convened consensus, less is more communications working2:57 Forward guidance removal, Fed less visible, refreshingly quiet3:20 Elizabeth Warren defends bloated 12 district banks, Waller calling it out4:38 Warsh has convened consensus around leadership position5:13 Warsh refuses forward guidance, hints at ending dot plot6:23 Inflation cooling seen but Iran hostilities change calculus6:59 No press conference if nothing to say - Hail Mary move7:25 Mervyn King taking communications, five task forces with outsiders8:49 Kalshi traders: 79% hold rates in July, 76% expect no cuts 20269:36 Labor force participation 50-year low since 197615:35 720,000 Americans gave up looking for work in one month16:05 Unemployment fell to 4.2% but for wrong reasons16:59 Full-time jobs destroyed, replaced by gig workers17:36 Labor market called stable but disconnect with data18:18 Jobs hard to get at highest level, Americans aware19:30 Revolving credit down, unusual sign of lender tightening20:20 49% of adults under 30 living with parents21:12 Five of 20 K-Shiller metro areas below 2000 price levels22:35 Young people disenfranchised, AI destroying college degree value24:32 Stock market too big to fail - implies Fed buying equities25:01 Inequality gap - bottom 10% stock holdings fell 3% to 1%26:14 Top 0.1% holdings doubled, bottom K getting bigger26:33 Worry about social fabric fraying with K-shaped economy29:16 Billionaires pushing UBI while controlling AI benefits30:14 Work ethic is what made America great30:30 Writing piece on too big to fail for weekly flagship32:08 51% of global assets outside regulated banking system33:34 Summer interns give hope - bright, hungry, great work ethic34:45 Young generation rejects too big to fail narrative 

Keith breaks down five major mortgage myths, including the belief that today's mortgage rates are unusually high, that the Fed directly sets them, and that rising rates automatically push home prices down.  Drawing on historical patterns, he explains why mortgage rates and home prices often move together, and why waiting on the sidelines for "better" rates can quietly erode your long-term wealth.  Keith also explains how inflation can benefit borrowers by shrinking the real burden of fixed-rate debt and shows how leveraged real estate can outperform traditional stock investing.  He ties these insights into today's K-shaped economy and the growing role of AI, and explains how strategic action and the right guidance can help position investors on the winning side of these trends. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/613 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  FAMILY to 66866  Unlock truly passive real estate income—visit flockhomes.com/GRE today to see if your properties qualify for a 721 exchange with Flock Homes. To get in the best physical, mental, and professional shape of your life, go to DanielThomasHind.com and apply for Daniel's intensive 1-on-1 coaching for burnt-out entrepreneurs and executives. Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold. There are myriad misunderstandings about mortgages. I dispel the myths and discuss the expected mortgage rate level in 2030 You will know more about mortgages than 99% of people today on Get Rich education, you know, Mid South Home Buyers, that top Memphis turnkey provider. I learned that a secret weapon behind their explosive growth is more than just you buying their properties, it's an executive coach. For nine years now, their CEO, Terry Kerr, and his COO, Pat Nix, have worked privately with a coach who I've now learned from too, and he doesn't market himself online anywhere. After 12 years behind the scenes, that coach is now making himself available exclusively for GRE listeners. His name is Daniel Thomas Hind. If you're a hard-charging business owner or investor who wants to get in the best shape of your life, physically, mentally, and professionally. You can fill out an application for a free consult. This is private one on one coaching for those willing to go to uncommon lengths to achieve uncommon results. Thanks to Daniel, we've all become better leaders, better operators, and better men. It started by showing up for ourselves. Now it's your turn. Go to danielthomashind.com H I N D, that's Daniel Thomas hind.com and sign up before Spotsville. What if you got your mortgage loans the same place I get mine? You sure can at Ridge Lending Group, NMLS 42056 they provided GRE listeners with more loans than anyone, because Ridge specializes in investment property. They'll help you build a long-term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your pre-qual, and even chat directly with President Caeli Ridge, while it's on your mind, start at ridgelendinggroup.com that's ridgelendinggroup.com   Keith Weinhold  2:07   Flock Homes helps multifamily owners exit the operator grind, whether it's your six plex or a 50 unit apartment, through a 721 exchange. This defers your capital gains tax. It's a strategy long used by institutions. Now you can swap tenants and toilets for passive income and zero management. Request your initial valuations. See if your property qualifies at flockhomes.com/gre That's F L O C K homes.com/G R E.   Speaker 1  2:40   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich Education.   Keith Weinhold  2:56   Welcome to GRE, from Keene, New Hampshire, to Kenai, Alaska, and across 188 nations worldwide, I'm Keith Weinholding. You're listening to Get Rich Education. Everybody knows that a mortgage rate is the interest rate that a borrower pays on a property loan. Okay, sure, that part is easy. And then, oh boy, the misunderstandings begin about eight seconds later, where will mortgage rates be in 2030 I want to tell you about this and more, because mortgage rates are one of the most talked about parts of real estate, and people discuss them with this confidence and bravado of a guy at a semi quincentennial barbecue that's explaining crypto and nutrition between bites of potato salad, yet he's probably got a lot of things wrong. In the next few minutes, though, you're gonna know more about mortgages than 99% of Americans. Let me tell you about five Goliath mortgage myths that throw a lot of people off, and this includes what mortgage rates are going to be, both next year and in 2030 The first myth is that mortgage rates are high today. I almost can't believe the number of people that say this in the world that I'm in. I hear it almost every day. The reality is that mortgage rates have normalized. The 30 year rate is currently normal to low. Now, I shared with you before that the long term average is 7.7% per Freddie Mac. They have the best, most respected stat set on historic mortgage rates, and theirs go back to 1971 Well, today's rate is between six and 7% They just don't feel low after the freakishly low era about five years ago. Now, after I tell you about mortgage rates in 2030 I'll tell you also about whether we're ever going to go back to the. 3% mortgage times. Understand, it's not just mortgages, but most other interest rate types are also on the low side today. A lot of rate types are based on the effective federal funds rate. What's based off of that are rates for credit cards, HELOCs, some business loans and personal loans, they are all based on the prime rate, which is based off of the federal funds rate. Well, the federal funds rate's long-term average is 4.6% Do you know where they're at today? 3.6% So, the fed rate is fully 1% below the long run average. The second myth, gosh, and this is such a pervasive one too, is that when mortgage rates rise, home prices fall. This is such a myth, and because I've talked about this premise before, let me bring some fresh angles to it for you today, with some historical accounts too, because the reality is that when mortgage rates rise, home prices usually rise right along with them, but sharply rising rates can slow appreciation, and before we move on, one of the most famous, I suppose, American real estate investors ever. He spoke about mortgage rates recently. Let's see what he says. This is under a minute in length. Oh, and he also happens to be the current White House occupant.   Donald Trump  6:34   I made billions of dollars with housing. I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates. You can have all the housing you want, but you have to understand, I don't want to have - I don't want to hurt people that own houses, too. These people, for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses, they become rich. I don't want to hurt them either. What you want to do is what's good for everyone? Get the interest rates down. We have this num skull that was the head of the Fed before, and he's a stupid person, and we call him too late because he was too late with the interest rates all the time. We need low interest rates. Low interest rates will solve everything, will solve that.   Keith Weinhold  7:18   Well, lower interest rates don't solve the main problem, though. We need to build more housing no other than the fact that low rates could make it a little easier for builders to finance their operations. Lower mortgage rates do nothing to increase the housing supply, and, contrary to what most people think, rates have exceedingly little to do with home prices. When mortgage rates blew past 18% in 1981 they were between 18 and a half and 19% Then, what do you think that home prices did? Well, they kept on rising right through it since 1994 Mortgage rates rose 1% or more six different times, and home prices went up all six times. Even when mortgage rates tripled three years ago, home prices still climbed on a nominal basis. How do they do that? Well, the short version here is that we've got to think about what's happening in the larger economy when rates rise. What does that mean? What does that signal? What is that a symptom of rates rise to keep a hot economy from overheating, and when the economy is hot like this, that usually means people are employed and they're confident and they're financially flush, so then what do they want to do? They want to buy a home, and therefore there are more bidders. That's why higher rates usually lead to higher home prices, and they're talking about raising rates again, because employment has been resilient, and inflation is more than double the Fed target. All right, well, if higher rates usually correlate with higher home prices, then do lower rates mean lower home prices, no, because nominally home prices rarely fall at all. Now, what then did rates do when real estate prices had a rare national fall in those years around the 2008 global financial crisis? Do you know? Do you know what mortgage rates did then? Do you think that mortgage rates were up or down during the global financial crisis? And this is a definitive answer. There's no gray area. They were clearly either boldly up or boldly down. What do you think during the global financial crisis? Mortgage rates plummet. Did more than 2% so the only time since the Great Depression that national home prices fell substantially, mortgage rates also fell substantially.    Keith Weinhold  8:05   The problem in that era, around 2008 is that you often could not get a loan, banks were barely lending, man. People overlook this. You can't just assume that you can get a loan whenever you want it, even if you qualify. But yeah, it's just amazing how many people believe this. I guess second myth. I mean, it is one of real estate's most persistent fairy tales that when mortgage rates rise, home prices fall, that just doesn't happen. And gosh, it feels like I explain this to somebody every week, that when mortgage rates rise, home prices usually do too. If you explain this phenomenon to somebody, I think what you can tell them is that history shows, and as I like to say, take history over hunches. History shows that mortgage rates don't have much to do with home prices. The, I guess, third mortgage myth out of five is that the Fed sets mortgage rates. The reality is that they don't, and you probably already knew about this one, because you're unusually sharp, and you're listening to this. Mortgage rates are more closely tied to the 10 year treasury yield, and inflation expectations, and bond market demand, and lender spreads, and the appetite from investors for mortgage-backed securities, and even your credit score, that's what mortgage rates are tied to. The fourth one here is that you should wait for mortgage rates to fall before buying, and the reality is that maybe you should, but usually not. And again, we can look at history here almost every time you look back at when you purchase property and how much property you owned when you added it into your portfolio, there you know. Do you ever think, oh gosh, I sure would have been better off had I waited two years. Now, if you do wait two years, what happens? Prices will almost certainly be higher, and you don't know where mortgage rates are going to be. Run the numbers, and you'll probably see that waiting is not the free lunch that some people think it is.   Keith Weinhold  9:13   The main problem with waiting is that it delays how the real wealth gets created from the five ways real estate pays, and to my earlier point, if you do wait, you're probably still going to be able to get a loan, but mortgage markets can seize up in times of distress, and you might not be able to get a loan at all. A lot of people just assume that credit is always going to be available. We don't know that for sure. Now, let's take a look at my most ill-timed real estate purchase ever, since we're talking about timing, and this is when I bought a green fourplex building in May of 2007 right on the precipice, just as we were about to tilt in to the global financial crisis. I paid $530,000 for this property. It was pretty nice, like not a beautiful building, but just a good setup where every tenant had their own attached one car garage in that building. Okay, so I did not wait, and by the way, this was a big purchase for me at the time. I mean, 530k perhaps that's about a million dollar purchase in today's inflation-adjusted terms. Back at that time, that was my biggest property yet, until I got into larger apartment buildings and other single-family homes and things like that. But what happened just after I bought this in 2007 Well, that green fourplexes value temporarily went down, and during this time I was paid the other four ways that real estate pays. Rates fell during the global financial crisis, so I had a refinance opportunity, and then that green fourplexes value had fully recovered by about 2012 or 2013 and it paid me positive cash flow every single month that entire time, and that's it. That was actually my worst timed purchase ever. That scenario, the worst mortgage conditions in anyone's lifetime, and it still wasn't so bad. Well, here's what else happens with the strategy of waiting for rates to fall. When rates fall, more buyers tend to rush in, and because you've got more buyers that qualify for a. Mortgage that didn't qualify previously, that means more competition. There are fewer seller concessions, if any, and there are higher prices. It might even create bidding wars, somewhat like we had in 2021.    Keith Weinhold  9:13   The last of the mortgage myths is that mortgage rates can be predicted, so you had better pay close attention to forecasts. Oh no, the reality is that trying to predict mortgage rates is about as predictable as to whether your contractor is actually coming on Tuesday. Let me tell you, all right, what the prominent analysts and agencies have to say about the future of mortgage rates, amalgamating forecasts from Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo, the Mortgage Bankers Association, a Reuters poll of economists, and more. By the end of next year, okay, so about 18 months away, they all cluster in a range of 6.2 to 6.5% This is for the 30 year fixed rate mortgage by the end of next year, and for 2030 it is about 5.8% That's what we're looking at for crystal balls of all these agencies, if you average them together, and you know what I have to say about these numbers, don't count on these at all. These people do not know, nobody does, they'll probably even tell you that they don't know. Okay, they are your forecasts right there. And what about us here? GRE does not make mortgage rate forecasts. We only make a home price appreciation forecast annually, and we are not about to make mortgage rate forecasts here. That is because they're just really hard to predict, and therefore that would not serve you. It's really just a form of entertainment that's a poor use of your time. It doesn't serve you. Making a bold mortgage rate prediction is exactly how economists audition for humiliation.   Keith Weinhold  17:14   Mortgage rates, future direction, that's based on so many factors, like inflation, jobs, treasury yields, deficits, geopolitics, oil prices, and wars, and the future direction of mortgage rates has to do with investor sentiment, which often changes and often doesn't make sense, and whatever new fresh economic surprise is going to wander in tomorrow, and you know, I'll tell you, when I was a pretty new real estate investor, and I had a property under contract, I remember sometimes asking my mortgage loan officer over the phone, now, do you think that mortgage rates are going to be lower next week, because maybe then I should wait and lock in. I mean, that's a question I asked a number of times. I mean, sheesh, it would have been just as useful if they answered by reading me their horoscope. Now, that is not a knock on mortgage loan officers in any way. They're smart people, but they just know the borrowers do want some insight, but it's just so hard to forecast now that you know that most forecasts base around 5% mortgage rates in 2030 which is useless information. Will rates ever be 3% again like they were about five years ago? There is no forecast by any of these agencies that predicts a 3% mortgage rate at all in the next five years, but you know, really, you have to ask, Who saw that there would be such low home loan rates on the horizon back in 2007 and things like the Great Recession and a global pandemic, you know, those sort of black swan events, they're just rarely, if ever, on the radar, and see drastic events like that are what it takes to move mortgage rates down into the seller, but a couple things are for sure, 3% mortgage rates anytime soon are extremely unlikely, and if that does happen, it probably means that there has been a real world calamity. Okay, that's what I can tell you.    Keith Weinhold  19:31   I've got more to tell you here, but to summarize what you've learned so far today, in this era, rates of all types are historically a little low, contrary to popular belief, mortgage rates have little to do with home prices. Waiting for rates to fall rarely works, and mortgage rates are nearly impossible to predict. And my favorite way to make it easy for you to remember how interest rates move in an account. Economy is that they are like walls. A high interest rate is like a high wall. It's an impediment to the movement of money, because people are less likely to borrow and more likely to save, since savings accounts yield more. And then a low interest rate is like a low wall that you can easily just step over it facilitates the movement of money, making you more likely to borrow and less likely to save. And if you want to understand more about how interest rates move economies and affect real estate, and you like analogies like that, I discuss more about how interest rates are like money walls in the latter portion of GRE episode 573 I've got so much more for you today. Straight ahead, I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to Get Rich Education.    Keith Weinhold  20:53   Flock Homes helps you retire from real estate and land learning, whether it's one problem property or your whole portfolio through a 721 exchange, deferring your capital gains tax and depreciation recapture. It's a strategy long used by the ultra wealthy. Now, mom and pop landlords can 721 through residential real estate. Request your initial valuation, see if your properties qualify at flockhomes.com/gre that's F L O C K homes.com/G R E. Let me ask you something. If you've worked hard to build wealth, is your money positioned to actually support your goals? A lot of accredited investors leave capital sitting in cash because it feels safe, but inflation and missed income opportunities can quietly erode its value. Freedom Family Investments offers freedom notes for investors seeking structured income backed by real estate. It's a straightforward approach built on real assets, not speculation. In full disclosure, I'm an investor myself. What I like is that their team walks you through how it all works, so you can decide if it aligns with your portfolio and income goals. Every investment carries risk, and nothing is guaranteed, but with a track record of consistent on-time investor payouts, they built real credibility.   Keith Weinhold  22:14   Go to Freedom Family investments.com to book a clarity call, or text family to 668 66 That's that's family 266866 This is Rich Dad Advisor Tong Wheelwright. Listen to Get Rich Education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your daydream. Keith, welcome back to Get Rich Education. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, and let me help you with a couple questions that some of you have had, and when listeners or followers like you engage with us, whether that's through our general inbox or our investment coaching, or even my face-to-face interactions with people. Sometimes I hear something like, "Hey, well, I am waiting for the crash until I build my real estate portfolio. Now, I don't know how to take this always. Sometimes I think people are joking. Other times I actually think that they are serious, and see what happens is that an awful lot of media creators, they will produce a video or a blog or a podcast, and they like to talk about how a housing crash is imminent because that type of material really gets attention, words like crash and collapse, they're hype words, and these hype words like crash and collapse, they really play on people's very real primordial survival instincts that are produced in your brain's amygdala, that's why people keep consuming them, and it's also why fear-producing media gets lots of attention. I mean, it's the if it bleeds it leads phenomenon, you know. In fact, I have one real estate pro friend, and he's told me that if instead of talking about real estate logically and with an education bent in the way that I do here at GRE, well, instead if I flip that and I talk about doom and all the improbably bad things that could happen that could make my material so interesting that it would create a following so big that would transcend real estate circles, and I'd be a regular on whatever CNBC and The Joe Rogan Show. This friend somewhat jokingly suggested that with the way I use the pre. Frontal cortex to discuss real estate. I should speak from the amygdala instead. I could become a doomer, a crashaholic, an appreciation denier. And by the way, the prefrontal cortex is the sort of executive brain. It helps you think things through, compare options, solve problems, make plans. Ask yourself the question, is this actually a good idea? Logically, it's the logical part of the brain.    Keith Weinhold  25:33   Oppositely, the amygdala, that's what tells you something feels dangerous, I better react now. And your prefrontal cortex tells you, hold on, let's think this through. It's what's logical, and you know, though, this is what we've always done here, the logical, because scaring you is not serving you, it's only entertaining you. In fact, lately, there are even some people that were calling for a home price decline that no longer are doing so, and the NAR just revised their home price appreciation forecast this year up to 4% and then the other piece is that I've received more feedback recently from listeners about something that you're trying to grasp, and that is the concept of inflation profiting on your debt, which I've always presented as the fifth of five ways that you're simultaneously paid through real estate, and really the feedback it goes something like this: I don't see where I'm profiting at all if I borrow 100k on a mortgage, and then 10 years later I still owe 100k because I still owe 100k So, how is this getting me ahead, even if the tenant pays all the interest? Really, that's the question. And before I answer that, you can always reach out to us at our general inbox at Get Rich education.com/contact How do you contact us? Get rich education.com/contact where we have a real human being here at GRE monitoring the inbox for you, and oftentimes we also get comments on our videos at the Get Rich Education YouTube channel, so that's a less formal feedback mechanism, but if you're trying to grasp inflation profiting, think of it through the opposite lens. What if you put 100k in cash under the mattress, you slid it under there, and you left it there for 10 years, and then you unearthed it. Well, you probably wouldn't want to do that. Why not?   Keith Weinhold  27:49   It's still 100k We all know full well that, because at 3% inflation over 10 years, it will get worn down to about 74k of purchasing power since prices and rents and everything else is now higher. Well, in a similar way, 100k in debt after 10 years is still 100k same name, but it will only have 74k in real value. That is the way to think of it. The saver lost purchasing power, the borrower gained repayment power. Hopefully, those two persistent questions about a housing crash and about inflation profiting gave you some satisfying answers. And you know any more, so much of what we've discussed with you here every week since 2014 it is now in view, or actually it's not even in view as much as you are living inside it, that hollowing out of the middle class represented by the K-shaped economy, we are living in it, and when I told you about it, perhaps a decade ago, I was not using that term, K-shaped economy. However, that term was born in 2020 and it was popularized on Twitter back then. When we had our big wave of inflation five years ago, the asset owners recovered, if they ever suffered at all, they're the ones on the upper branch of the K, and the middle class and lower class that do not own assets. They were not able to recover, and inflation makes their standard of living sink lower. Where we're at today is that the top 10% of US earners now account for fully half of all US spending. Well, how much time do you have if you haven't yet? How much time do you have left to build your portfolio to make sure your trajectory has you on the upper branch of the K, not the lower branch? Rich, five years, you only have five years left to get rich, all right. Now that's not my answer, but that's what Andre G says, and I like some of his material, and I don't know if I'm saying Andre's name correctly, but according to him, the reason that you only have five years left to move economic lines trajectories to move from the K's lower branch to the upper branch is because of AI. You've got five years to learn a skill, start a business, or invest in real estate. The reason why is that upward mobility comes from finding efficiencies where you can make things better, but artificial intelligence makes things so much faster and more efficient, so that gap between the way things are right now and the way they will be in the future is going to close.    Keith Weinhold  30:56   AI compresses that gap to almost zero, because when everyone can use AI to build websites, write code, analyze markets, automate workflows, whatever it is, is because it becomes really easy for anyone to do anything, and it becomes a lot harder to move from the bottom of the K to the top, so for those at the bottom, there are fewer inefficiencies to solve and get ahead, and this is why the saying "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" has the propensity to speed up. So, what can you do? I've described elsewhere about how stocks are not a wealth building tool, they're a wealth preservation tool. If you already have wealth, stock price to earnings ratios are bloated. It's good to select an asset or business that's hard to be replaced by AI, and then get good at that thing, like HVAC, plumbing, pest control, electrical, roofing, masonry, or investing in real estate be in a niche that AI is going to have a hard time replacing. Just buy some rental houses, and here at GRE, we talk about optimizing the five ways that you're paid all the time. Buyers who are waiting for 5% mortgage rates, you know, they're a little like people who refuse to buy gas at $4 because they remember $2. Okay, those days are not coming back. The market rewards action, not nostalgia. Actually, you can get 5% mortgage rates today through our GRE investment coaches, because we know the builders that are buying them down to that level for you.   Keith Weinhold  32:54   Now, do you realize that even with zero appreciation and zero cash flow on a property, you're probably still going to win bigger than stocks in their average returns of 10% That's right, even if you get zero appreciation and zero cash flow on a property, because with a historic average from your ROA, from your tax benefits, and inflation profiting alone, that's a 14% total return, just using today's mortgage and inflation rates. A 14% return, even with zero appreciation or cash flow, you're probably going to have more than zero from those. This is why we do what we do here, and you're owning your own deal, your own rental property, and you don't have to be the manager. I'm talking about your own and emphasizing that because a lot of investors got burnt recently because they said, "Oh, I'm going to invest in this influencer's deal, he's pooling all this money together for a deal. Instead of that, you can invest in and control your own deal without having to be the day-to-day manager. Those that bought property through our GRE marketplace with our coaching a few years ago, they are rich today. We had a number of those listeners come right here on the show last year, and joined me for an episode, and you heard some of them say, "Here is what my life is like now. They got on the upper branch of the K, they turned get rich education into got rich education, and it's not just for beginners, you know, we also have listeners that booked a free coaching session with us, and they gave real estate another shot after their first attempt at real estate investing failed, and that's because here they got a coherent strategy from a GRE investment coach, and then they got the outcome. It's actually pretty straightforward. Here's how it works. Our coaching actually understands this business because they work with investors like you every single day, and we are investors ourselves. What they do is they sit down with you, probably virtually, understand your situation, your goals, your timeline, where you're at financially, what your preferences are, what your concerns are, and they ask you the right questions. They listen, and then they show you what's actually possible, given your specific situation. A big difference between what we do and what a lot of others in the business do is that we are focused on your big picture strategy.    Keith Weinhold  35:44   See, we're not attached to any one market. Take local agents and local operators. Now, those people can be helpful, but they're clearly incentivized to have you buy whatever their product in their geographic market is well, RGRE investment coaching doesn't have that conflict of interest, and that's why, for free, our followers have such a good success rate in making sure they occupy the upper branch of that K. To find what's best for you, we'll walk you through different markets, different property types, and different strategies, depending on what makes sense for your situation. And it's truly free. There's no weird pleading to have you do something else. We don't try to sell you some paid coaching program or anything else like that. In fact, if you want to buy something from GRE, you simply cannot do it, because we don't even have anything for sale in almost any other industry. You would have to pay to talk to someone this knowledgeable, but you'll know more when you hang up than when you called. So, if you're ready to add real income-producing property to your portfolio, that's exactly where we can help, but it's more than that. If you want, come away with a plan to retire in five to 10 years, because it's about a total strategy. You are cordially invited. You can book a free coaching call at GRE Investment coach.com Until next week. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold. Don't quit True Daydream.   Speaker 1  37:28   Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial, or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Get Rich Education LLC exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  37:56   The preceding program was brought to you by Your Home for Wealth Building Get Rich education.com.  

Celebrating 18 Years of TW3 The Principles That Outlasted Every Recession, Every Technology Shift, and Every Trend What began during the financial crisis of 2008 has survived the Great Recession, healthcare reform, dramatic shifts in digital marketing, COVID-19, and now the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Not because we guessed what…

Raise Your Glass-Stegal, tonight's the night, this podcast episode will go on forever, but it's also the last podcast of your life. Remember Shuffle regular Colette Shade joins us to talk about the culture of the Great Recession: Recession Pop, Stomp Clap, the Death of Bling Rap, DIY, Prepping, Indiesleaze, and so much more—forget the banking executives, let's do a people's history of the Great Recession.⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  For more on Colette Shade, check out her website and give her a follow on BlueSky.Articles mentioned in the episode:This shitty vice article on how no pop acts responded to the Great Recession:https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/7/30/17561470/music-of-inequalityThis blog post on Recession Pop:https://soundstudiesblog.com/2019/10/21/tik-tok-post-crash-party-pop-compulsory-presentism-and-the-2008-financial-collapse/ This Defector piece on Stomp Clap Hey:https://defector.com/the-tragedy-of-stomp-clap-hey This other blog post on Stomp Clap Hey music:https://dirt.fyi/article/2021/11/stomp-clap-hey?utm_source=chatgpt.com Another piece on the History of Stomp Clap Hey music:https://www.culturesonar.com/stomp-clap-hey-a-short-lived-genre/?utm_source=chatgpt.com This piece on Obamacore:https://www.vulture.com/article/obamacore-obama-pop-culture-kamala-harris.html This article on how the Great Recession changed hiphop:https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/111904168/Gilbers2018_Chapter_HowTheFinancialCrisisChangedHi.pdf Colette's essay on the recessionhttps://www.teenvogue.com/story/great-recession-what-happened-aftermath-trump

Success in title isn't determined by the market; it's determined by what you do every single day. In this episode, David Bravo Jr. shares how losing everything during the Great Recession became the catalyst for rebuilding his career, creating the Power Hour, launching Title Reps Only, and leading Monarch Title with a people-first mindset rooted in relationships, consistency, and service. Whether you're a new sales rep or a seasoned title professional, this conversation is a powerful reminder that showing up will always outperform shortcuts.   What you'll learn from this episode Power Hour strategy that transformed client retention, prospecting, and long-term business growth Why showing up consistently still beats every app, automation, and marketing tool How Title Reps Only evolved into a nationwide movement by breaking down company walls and encouraging collaboration The role AI should play in title sales without replacing genuine human relationships A winning mindset for thriving in any market, regardless of interest rates or industry conditions   Resources mentioned in this episode  Title Bible by David Bravo Jr. | Paperback and Mass Market Paperback Title Bible 2.0 by David Bravo Jr. | Kindle and Hardcover Title Reps Only Conference  The Title Report  Gary Vaynerchuk   About David Bravo Jr. David Bravo Jr. is the CEO of Monarch Title Company and founder of Title Reps Only (TRO), a professional community dedicated to empowering title representatives through education, networking, and industry collaboration. With extensive experience in title insurance, business development, and leadership, David is passionate about helping title professionals strengthen relationships, grow their businesses, and elevate the standards of the industry. Through his leadership, speaking, and mentorship, he equips professionals with practical strategies for building trust, driving growth, and creating lasting success in the title and real estate sectors.   Connect with David  Website: Monarch Title Company | Title Reps Only (TRO)  LinkedIn: David Bravo Jr.  Facebook: David Bravo Jr.  Instagram: @davidbravojr    Connect With Us Love what you're hearing? Don't miss an episode! Follow us on our social media channels and stay connected.    Explore more on our website: www.alltechnational.com/podcast Stay updated with our newsletter: www.mochoumil.com Follow Mo on LinkedIn: Mo Choumil Stop waiting on underwriter emails or callbacks—TitleGPT.ai gives you instant, reliable answers to your title questions. Whether it's underwriting, compliance, or tricky closings, the information you need is just a click away. No more delays—work smarter, close faster. Try it now at www.TitleGPT.ai. Closing more deals starts with more appointments. At Alltech National Title, our inside sales team works behind the scenes to fill your pipeline, so you can focus on building relationships and closing business. No more cold calling—just real opportunities. Get started at AlltechNationalTitle.com. Extra hands without extra overhead—that's Safi Virtual. Our trained virtual assistants specialize in the title industry, handling admin work, client communication, and data entry so you can stay focused on closing deals. Scale smarter and work faster at SafiVirtual.com.  

Danny Cahill is one of the biggest names in the history of the recruiting industry, and in this first part of a two part conversation he sits down with Benjamin Mena to unpack forty years of building a firm, surviving every disruption thrown at him, and developing recruiters who last entire careers. This episode is brought to you by Atlas, the AI first recruitment platform built to eliminate admin and turn every candidate conversation into something you can use. Atlas customers have reported over 40 percent EBITDA growth and over 80 percent increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform. Get started and unlock your exclusive listener offer at recruitwithatlas.com Danny owns Hobson Associates, the firm where he started six days out of college, became rookie of the year, billed as top producer for four straight years, and then bought the company at twenty seven. He has never had a resume and never been out of a job, which he calls the great hypocrisy of a man who got wealthy helping other people change theirs. The conversation opens on something Danny believes most recruiters are getting wrong in 2026. Leaning on AI to handle your messaging, your outreach, and your tough sales conversations is quietly making you passive and worse at the actual work of selling. As Danny puts it, all we have really done is find a way to make more noise faster. From there he and Benjamin walk through how he has navigated four recessions and a pandemic. During the Great Recession he watched his fintech heavy niche collapse, raised his fees while everyone else cut theirs, and moved his firm into biotech. When Covid shut Connecticut down in a single afternoon, he bought thirty laptops, called in two million dollars of receivables, and had his team working remotely by the end of the day. But the heart of this episode is people. Danny explains why he believes the best recruiters are frustrated social workers, why money is a great early motivator that never sustains anyone, and why his people want his approval more than they want to buy a house. He breaks down how he manages a recruiter differently across their career, and why he spends more time with his veterans than his rookies, because senior people need recognition their entire lives. He closes part one with the fundamentals even twenty year veterans still butcher, the sales approaches working right now, and a hard truth about your pipeline. When you think you have four job orders, you really have one. What You'll Learn: Why leaning on AI for your outreach and sales conversations is making recruiters passive and worse at selling How Danny survived four recessions and a pandemic, and the counterintuitive move he made during the Great Recession What he did in a single afternoon when Covid shut everything down Why the best recruiters are frustrated social workers, and what actually motivates top performers over the long term How to manage rookies and veterans differently, and why your senior people need more of your time The sales fundamentals even twenty year veterans still get wrong Why you probably have far fewer real job orders than you think Make sure to listen to Part 2, where Danny goes deep on AI, the writing skills that set elite recruiters apart, and how he builds million dollar billers behind the scenes. Connect with Danny Cahill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-cahill-a6797a/ Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/danny-cahill-on-building-a-40-year-career-pt-1/id1547241660?i=1000774681186 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7AaKC3JrP3Y0eeu9SESsHp?si=5xQfHvygTFimUKEhCU5LOg Join the Elite Recruiter Community: https://elite-recruiters.circle.so/checkout/elite-recruiter-community Register for the AI Recruiting Summit 2026: https://ai-recruiting-summit-2026.heysummit.com/ Subscribe to the newsletter: https://eliterecruiterpodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe Sponsored by Atlas: https://recruitwithatlas.com/

Jared Bell never planned to own a fencing business. He took a summer job at Butte Fence in 1994, liked the work, and decided to skip college and stay. Thirteen years later, he bought out a partner and took over day-to-day operations—just in time for the Great Recession. The company survived that challenge and has gone on to thrive, but not by following a conventional growth playbook. Bell has expanded the business by repeatedly asking a simple question: Why buy from a supplier when we can do it better ourselves? Over the years, Butte Fence has developed new products, configured more efficient processes, and steadily moved upstream, turning vendors into competitors and creating entirely new businesses along the way. In our conversation, Bell explains how that strategy evolved, what it takes to pull it off, and how a small business can identify opportunities hiding in its own supply chain.

What if your next retreat venue was a walkable, luxury beach community on the Texas Coast — fully furnished, photographer-ready, and designed to make your attendees feel like they're living in a neighborhood instead of checking into a hotel? In this episode, Shannon sits down with Lee Ann Peters, the powerhouse behind Cinnamon Shore — a New Urbanist luxury beach community on the Texas Coast that has become one of Southern Living's Top 10 Beach Towns in the United States. Lee Ann left a successful Atlanta real estate career in the middle of the Great Recession to build something most people said couldn't be done. 700+ residences later, she's still building — and retreat leaders are starting to take notice. Shannon shares her own experience hosting a sold-out (and oversold!) retreat at Cinnamon Shore — and breaks down exactly why this community works so well for retreat business planning. From scalable home rentals and built-in community amenities to a luxury aesthetic that elevates your retreat brand without the resort price tag, this episode is packed with practical inspiration for retreat leaders ready to think differently about venue selection. In this episode: Why Cinnamon Shore is an underrated goldmine for retreat leaders How to scale your retreat from intimate to large by renting multiple adjacent homes The New Urbanist design philosophy that creates a built-in retreat environment Why a Texas beach retreat is a surprisingly powerful niche with massive market reach How the right venue elevates your retreat brand and drives word-of-mouth The support system at Cinnamon Shore that makes hosting effortless for retreat leaders Lee Ann's story of building a legacy community from the ground up — and what retreat leaders can learn from her vision If you've been searching for a venue that does the heavy lifting for your retreat experience, this episode is your sign. Learn more at CinnamonShore.com The Retreat Leaders Podcast Resources and Links: Learn to Host Retreats Join our private Facebook Group Get your legal docs for retreats Join our LinkedIn Group Apply to be a guest on our show Grab the AI + SEO Mini Course Thanks for tuning into the Retreat Leaders Podcast. Remember to subscribe for more insightful episodes, and visit our website for additional resources. Let's create a vibrant retreat community together! Subscribe:  Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Spotify ------- TIMESTAMPS The Story of Cinnamon Shore (00:01:13) Leanne Peters' journey of building the Cinnamon Shore community on the Texas coast, starting in 2007 during the recession. A Personal Connection (00:01:53) Shannon shares her personal history with Cinnamon Shore and the success of her first retreat hosted at the location. Building a Community (00:02:22) Leanne discusses the team effort and vision behind Cinnamon Shore, aiming to replicate the popular 30A Florida experience in Texas. Cinnamon Shore vs. 30A (00:04:42) A comparison between Cinnamon Shore and Florida's 30A, highlighting Cinnamon Shore's strong community feel and accessibility for Texans. On-Site Amenities (00:07:17) Discussion of the numerous amenities available, including restaurants, pools, fitness centers, live music, and a new on-site market. A Perfect Retreat Location (00:11:34) Shannon explains why Cinnamon Shore is ideal for retreats, citing its aesthetic, diverse activities, and broad appeal beyond Texas. Hosting Events at Cinnamon Shore (00:13:19) Leanne describes a successful owners-only women's event, showcasing the community's capacity for hosting organized group activities and events. Versatile Accommodations for Retreats (00:14:10) The variety of luxury rental homes available, from small condos to large houses, accommodating different retreat sizes and needs. Exceptional Guest Support (00:16:39) Praise for the helpful and responsive on-site team that assists with logistics, recommendations, and any issues that may arise. Building Relationships (00:19:58) The ability for guests and retreat leaders to build a relationship with specific homes and the staff, ensuring consistent experiences. Prestigious Show Homes (00:22:03) Leanne highlights Cinnamon Shore's history with Southern Living, Coastal Living, and Texas Monthly show homes, elevating the community's profile. Accessibility and Travel (00:27:31) The ease of getting to Cinnamon Shore via nearby airports in Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and Austin, including private options. Future Developments (00:28:27) An overview of upcoming developments in both Cinnamon Shore North and South, including new restaurants and a town square. Invaluable Resources for Hosts (00:30:25) The benefit of using the staff's vetted recommendations for services like private chefs, photographers, and other local vendors. A Desirable Family Destination (00:32:46) Shannon shares how her own family now prefers vacationing at Cinnamon Shore over other popular destinations like Disney cruises.

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan died this week at the age of 100. He was a towering figure in modern finance who oversaw unprecedented growth in the US economy. But Greenspan was also blamed for stripping away safeguards that might have prevented the Great Recession. WSJ's Nick Timiraos explains that while Greenspan retired two decades ago, his ideas are providing a model for the new Fed chairman Kevin Warsh. Ryan Knutson hosts. Further Listening: - Who Is the New Fed Chair? - Barney Frank's Legacy of Financial Reform  Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us Fan MailAI isn't here to replace you. It's here to multiply you.In this Spartan Leadership episode, Josh sits down with entrepreneur and operator Matt Schmitt to break down why his core thesis is simple: AI + humans = superpowers. Matt shares how he went from an IT grad in the Great Recession, to buying cans for Anheuser-Busch, to building and exiting e‑commerce brands, and now to building AI tools that help small operators move like an army without losing the handshake, the character, or the relationship.They talk about how to use AI without handing over your thinking, why the “big guys” will cut people while the real competitive advantage for small businesses is keeping your people and equipping them, and how faith, marriage, and fatherhood have shaped the way Matt builds.Connect with Josh Kosnick: https://joshkosnick.comConnect with Matt Schmitt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realmattschmittSupport the showCONNECT WITH ME HERE:FacebookInstagramLinkedInTwitterTikTokYouTubeSUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST HERE:Apple PodcastsSpotifyYouTube

In part four of their ongoing series on the Great Recession, the Shuffle Bois turn to a topic near and dear to their hearts, the automotive bailouts of 2008/9. When cheap and easy credit dried up due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the dominos of financialization began to fall, the three struggling American automotive companies were hit particularly hard. In this episode, the shuffle bois go through the history of the automotive industry, laying out both its long term chronic and short term acute issues, before tracing the Obama administration's response. It's a sprawling episode covering labour relations, corporate mismanagement, globalization, the place of the car in American identity, financialization and private equity, and environmentalismBibliography:Dan Georgakas and Marvin Surkin, Detroit: I do mind dying. Cambridge: South End Press, 1998Paul Ingrassia, Crash Course: the American auto industry's road to bankruptcy and bailout - and beyond. New York: Random House, 2011Steven Rattner, Overhaul: an insider's account of the Obama administration's emergency rescue of the auto industry. Boston: Mariner Books, 2011Check out our website to search for episodes at: remembershuffle.comGive Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. And don't forget to check out our patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

After 250 episodes of the Balancing Act podcast, the host becomes the guest. Producer Nick Temte steps out from behind the glass to interview his dad — and usual host — Andy Temte, in a milestone conversation about where the show started, what 250 episodes have taught him, and where it's all going. Dr. Andrew (Andy) Temte, CFA, is an author, musician, and the former CEO of Kaplan Professional Education. He's the author of Balancing Act: Teach, Coach, Mentor, Inspire and The Balanced Business, with two more books on the way — The Modern Golden Rule and Stop Standing Still. He founded the Balancing Act in 2019 as a way to have authentic, non-salesy conversations with business leaders, and he closes every episode with the same three words: grace, dignity, and compassion. Andy traces his own career rocket booster to a sunny August day in 1989, when — rejected by every other Big Ten PhD program — he climbed to the sixth floor of Phillips Hall at the University of Iowa to meet finance department chair Carl Schweser. A scheduled 30-minute interview became a two-hour conversation, and a lifelong mentorship that shaped everything that followed. From there, Nick and Andy retrace the origins of the show, the 2008 Great Recession story behind “grace, dignity, and compassion,” and the home studio where their father-son partnership — and their music — began.

In Episode 210 of The Practice Podcast, Jeff Bast and Brett Amron welcome Russ Brown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Brown Fox PLLC, for a conversation about resilience, entrepreneurship, leadership, and the relationships that fuel long-term success.Russ shares his unconventional path to the legal profession, from playing collegiate baseball and coaching high school athletes to building one of the nation's fastest-growing law firms. Along the way, he reflects on the lessons learned from setbacks, the importance of personal accountability, and how early experiences shaped his leadership philosophy.The discussion explores the founding of Brown Fox during the Great Recession, the role relationships played in the firm's early growth, and how a commitment to integrity, talent, and culture continues to drive its success today. Russ offers valuable insights into entrepreneurship, law firm growth, recruiting, and creating an environment where attorneys can thrive.Russ also discusses how his faith inspired him to use his legal career as a vehicle for service, leading to opportunities to train lawyers and support justice initiatives around the world, including work in India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and El Salvador.Throughout the episode, one theme remains constant: success is built on relationships. Whether serving clients, mentoring attorneys, growing a business, or supporting communities, meaningful connections remain at the heart of lasting impact.Key Topics:Lessons learned from athletics and leadershipBuilding Brown Fox during the Great RecessionEntrepreneurship and law firm growthBusiness development through relationshipsRecruiting and developing legal talentFaith, purpose, and service through the practice of lawInternational justice and pro bono workCreating a culture that attracts and retains great peopleTune in for an inspiring conversation about leadership, perseverance, and building something bigger than yourself.Streaming on  YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Apple Podcasts. We are also in the top ten percent of listened-to podcasts globally.

What if the season you're in right now isn't where your story ends?In this episode of The Paige Kornblue Show, I sit down with Boca magazine Editor-in-Chief Christiana Lilly for a conversation about change, resilience, storytelling, and the unexpected turns that shape who we become.As a Boca magazine contributor, I've had the opportunity to work alongside Christiana and witness firsthand how she and her team help tell the stories of our community—making this conversation both professional and personal.As Editor-in-Chief of Boca magazine, now part of Palm Beach Media Group, Christiana works alongside a team that helps bring to life a portfolio of respected publications including Boca magazine, Delray Beach magazine, Worth Avenue magazine, Charity Register, 1926, Boca Chamber magazine and Mizner's Dream.Christiana shares her journey from graduating into the Great Recession, working outside journalism, navigating layoffs, freelancing, and ultimately returning to Boca magazine to lead one of Florida's most respected publications.We talk about:Why becoming is better than arrivingCareer setbacks and unexpected opportunitiesLeadership lessons from great mentors (and difficult bosses)How Boca magazine decides which stories get toldThe future of local journalism and print mediaFinding joy outside of achievementWhat to remember when you're in the messy middle of changeNo matter where you are in your journey, this conversation is a reminder that your next chapter may be closer than you think!www.Bocamag.comChristiana@bocamag.comwww.PaigeKornblue.com@paigekornbluemedia

Chris Markowski, the Watchdog of Wall Street, discusses the current state of the financial markets, emphasizing the importance of understanding market psychology and investor behavior. He reflects on lessons learned from the Great Recession, the challenges posed by inflation, and the realities of investing in IPOs. Markowski advocates for long-term investment strategies and warns against emotional decision-making that can lead to poor financial outcomes. He encourages listeners to embrace difficult market conditions and to seek guidance in navigating their financial futures.

On Wednesday, some 1,000 union workers who were on strike at GM supplier Dauch Corporation, formerly American Axle, in Three Rivers, Michigan, reached a tentative deal with the company. The new contract will secure the workers' topline demand of $30 per hour by 2030, a more than 36% increase to the top wage rate over the next four years. Members of the UAW Local 2093 walked out on strike at midnight on June 1, 2026. The plant  makes axles for GM's GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado pickup trucks and commercial vans. In a statement, UAW President Shawn Fain, said, "After 18 years of sacrifice, these workers are finally winning back a big chunk of what was taken from them."According to the union, American Axle workers made major sacrifices to save the Three Rivers facility from closure during the Great Recession in 2008. "Many long-time workers who were making as much as $29 an hour in 2008 saw their wages slashed to $14.50," the UAW said. UAW members hired before May 31, 2012, including those who went from $29 per hour in 2008 to $14, will see an immediate $8 per hour increase once the new contract is ratified. Union workers will also see more paid days off and won't have to make any concessions on their current health care costs. For example, workers won't experience any healthcare premium cost increases over the next four years. The union also won time off to celebrate Martin Luther King Day and Veteran's Day, as well as more days off for Christmas. Workers with at least one year of seniority will receive an additional nine vacation days per year as well as a $2,000 ratification bonus.#UAW, #UnitedAutoWorkers, #LaborNews, #Strike, #Manufacturing, #ManufacturingNews, #Automotive, #AutoIndustry, #GeneralMotors, #GMSupplier, #FactoryWorkers, #UnionStrong, #LaborUnion, #MichiganManufacturing, #IndustrialNews, #SupplyChain, #AmericanManufacturing, #Workforce, #ShawnFain, #AutoParts

Have you ever looked at your relentless daily grind and wondered if there is a better, more authentic way to live?In this episode of Living The Good Life, host Kimberly Henrie sits down with lifestyle enthusiast, architect, and luxury real estate broker Greg Gunter. Greg shares his fascinating journey of trying to recreate the slow, romantic Italian lifestyle stateside in Colorado, before ultimately taking a massive leap of faith to move to Mexico at age 50.Now a 17-year resident of the breathtaking UNESCO World Heritage city of San Miguel de Allende, Greg is the ultimate example of someone who didn't just dream of the good life—he's actively living it every single day. Tune in to discover how stepping outside your comfort zone can completely erase your stress, activate your passions, and introduce you to a vibrant global community.What You'll Learn in This Episode:The State-Side Experiment: How Greg spent his 40s building an award-winning Umbrian fattoria (farmhouse) in Grand Junction, Colorado, using authentic Italian antiques—and why beautiful architecture wasn't enough to fix a high-stress lifestyle.Leap and the Net Will Appear: Greg's inspiring story of moving to Mexico on the heels of the Great Recession without knowing a soul, speaking the language, or having a fallback plan—and how he went on to build a booming real estate brokerage for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices brand.The Magic of San Miguel de Allende: Why this 500-year-old high-desert oasis has been named the #1 Small City in the World six different times by Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure.The "Four Cs" of Relocation: A breakdown of why expats flock to this cultural hub: Culture, Climate, Community, and Cost of Living.Ditching the Car for a Walkable Life: What it's like to live in a highly social, dense European-style village where your daily commute involves running into neighbors and pausing for impromptu Aztec street dances.Purpose Over Retirement: Why "living the good life" doesn't mean doing nothing. Greg explores the town's 120+ active non-profits, world-class bilingual writers' conferences, international film festivals, and thriving local wine district.Debunking the Safety Myth: The reality of safety and security within this protected cultural bubble.In Greg's Words:"I always tell people, 'You know, I'm not really selling real estate here, I'm selling a lifestyle. I don't sell sticks and bricks, it's the lifestyle that I'm selling here.'""We joke—people move to Miami to die, they move to San Miguel de Allende to live, 'cause it's such an active community."Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:Greg's Personal & Resource Website: dreamprohomesluxury.comEmail Greg Directly: greg@gregorygunter.comCall Greg (Toll-Free from the US/Canada): 877-878-4141Pop Culture Mentions:Movie Recommendation: Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Filmed 99% on-location in San Miguel de Allende!)Disney's Coco (A beautiful representation of the Día de los Muertos traditions celebrated vividly in town)Join the conversation: Come hang out with us in the Living the Good Life Facebook community for:Episode previewsBonus contentGuest Q&A opportunitiesA community of people choosing to live with more intention and joyJoin the Living the Good Life FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LTGLCommunityEvery episode proudly sponsored by http://SwitchtoUSAMade.comContact Kimberly Henrie at https://livingthegoodlife.us/If this episode resonated with you, take a moment to leave a review or share it with someone who might need a little nudge toward their own version of the good life.

Storytelling isn't just a marketing tool; it's a competitive advantage. In this episode of the Title Agents Podcast, Mo Choumil sits down with industry veteran and writer Michael Holden of AmTrust Title to explore how storytelling, history, and human connection shape the future of the title business. From his early days in a family-owned agency to navigating the Great Recession, building thought leadership through Ramblings of a Title Man, and witnessing seismic shifts in technology, automation, and fraud risk, Michael offers a grounded, honest look at where the industry has been and where it's heading next.   What you'll learn from this episode Why the role of the title professional has shifted from title examination to experience-driven closings What the 2008 recession taught about resilience, scalability, and agency survival The reasons smaller, agile underwriters are driving innovation across the industry How automation and AI will reshape title examination while elevating the importance of closings Main essential for modern title professionals you need to know   Resources mentioned in this episode  The Ramblings of a Title man  1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin | Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover   About Michael Holden Michael Holden is a senior leader at AmTrust Title, where he works with real estate professionals, lenders, and industry partners to deliver reliable, compliance-driven title and settlement solutions nationwide. With deep experience in title insurance operations, risk management, and relationship development, Michael is known for his practical approach to navigating complex transactions and evolving regulatory environments. His work focuses on protecting property rights, streamlining closings, and supporting real estate professionals with responsive service and national scale.   Connect with Michael  Website: AmTrust Financial  LinkedIn: Michael Holden, NTP, CLTP   Connect With Us Love what you're hearing? Don't miss an episode! Follow us on our social media channels and stay connected.    Explore more on our website: www.alltechnational.com/podcast Stay updated with our newsletter: www.mochoumil.com Follow Mo on LinkedIn: Mo Choumil Stop waiting on underwriter emails or callbacks—TitleGPT.ai gives you instant, reliable answers to your title questions. Whether it's underwriting, compliance, or tricky closings, the information you need is just a click away. No more delays—work smarter, close faster. Try it now at www.TitleGPT.ai. Closing more deals starts with more appointments. At Alltech National Title, our inside sales team works behind the scenes to fill your pipeline, so you can focus on building relationships and closing business. No more cold calling—just real opportunities. Get started at AlltechNationalTitle.com. Extra hands without extra overhead—that's Safi Virtual. Our trained virtual assistants specialize in the title industry, handling admin work, client communication, and data entry so you can stay focused on closing deals. Scale smarter and work faster at SafiVirtual.com.  

Honey, I shrunk the stimulus! In their third entry on the Great Recession, the Shuffle Bois trace President Obama's response to a cratering economy. After introducing the cast of neolib ghouls with whom Obama surrounded himself, they go through the history of Fall and Winter 2008/9 up to Obama's signing of the stimulus package. They also discuss Keynesianism, the Cassandras of the time, what might have been, and the Clintonite presidency that we actually got. Check out our website to search for episodes at: remembershuffle.comGive Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. And don't forget to check out our patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

STREAMING THE MAKING OF THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, FEATURING THADDEUS MCCOTTER, 6-2-2026BRUSSELS1810 ANTWERP GATE BRUSSELSThis dialogue explores the significant political and economic challenges facing the Republican party during an election cycle. The speakers highlight record-low economic confidence among independent voters, noting that current dissatisfaction levels rival those seen during the Great Recession and the 1980s. This domestic frustration is further complicated by a conflicting and confusing foreign policy, specifically regarding the administration's handling of Middle Eastern conflicts and the Iranian regime. The participants argue that the interconnected nature of global instability and domestic inflation poses a severe threat to incumbent candidates. Ultimately, the discussion suggests that unless the administration can demonstrate concrete economic progress and clear diplomatic leadership, they risk losing the support of critical swing voters.

In this interview, Nathan Jameson shares insights from his 25+ years in the housing industry, including lessons learned during the Great Recession and his focus on affordable housing investments such as manufactured homes, RV parks, and self-storage. He also discusses leadership, relationship building, faith, and sustainable business growth.   Professional Real Estate Investors - How we can help you: Investor Fuel Mastermind:  Learn more about the Investor Fuel Mastermind, including 100% deal financing, massive discounts from vendors and sponsors you're already using, our world class community of over 150 members, and SO much more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/apply   Investor Machine Marketing Partnership:  Are you looking for consistent, high quality lead generation? Investor Machine is America's #1 lead generation service professional investors. Investor Machine provides true 'white glove' support to help you build the perfect marketing plan, then we'll execute it for you…talking and working together on an ongoing basis to help you hit YOUR goals! Learn more here: http://www.investormachine.com   Coaching with Mike Hambright:  Interested in 1 on 1 coaching with Mike Hambright? Mike coaches entrepreneurs looking to level up, build coaching or service based businesses (Mike runs multiple 7 and 8 figure a year businesses), building a coaching program and more. Learn more here: https://investorfuel.com/coachingwithmike   Attend a Vacation/Mastermind Retreat with Mike Hambright: Interested in joining a "mini-mastermind" with Mike and his private clients on an upcoming "Retreat", either at locations like Cabo San Lucas, Napa, Park City ski trip, Yellowstone, or even at Mike's East Texas "Big H Ranch"? Learn more here: http://www.investorfuel.com/retreat   Property Insurance: Join the largest and most investor friendly property insurance provider in 2 minutes. Free to join, and insure all your flips and rentals within minutes! There is NO easier insurance provider on the planet (turn insurance on or off in 1 minute without talking to anyone!), and there's no 15-30% agent mark up through this platform!  Register here: https://myinvestorinsurance.com/   New Real Estate Investors - How we can work together: Investor Fuel Club (Coaching and Deal Partner Community): Looking to kickstart your real estate investing career? Join our one of a kind Coaching Community, Investor Fuel Club, where you'll get trained by some of the best real estate investors in America, and partner with them on deals! You don't need $ for deals…we'll partner with you and hold your hand along the way! Learn More here: http://www.investorfuel.com/club   —--------------------

What happens when a founder nearly loses everything?In this episode of The Authority Company Podcast, Joe Pardavila sits down with neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and Clinilabs founder Dr. Gary Zammit to discuss the emotional reality of entrepreneurship, surviving the Great Recession, building elite teams, and the future of AI in medicine.Gary shares brutally honest stories about nearly losing his company, struggling to make payroll, and even telling his wife she should divorce him to protect their family financially. He also explains why the future of life sciences depends on more than innovation alone.This conversation explores resilience, leadership, culture, clinical trials, pharmaceutical misconceptions, and the people behind breakthrough medicine.Topics Covered:• The emotional cost of entrepreneurship• Surviving financial collapse during the recession• Why pharmaceutical companies get misunderstood• The difference between A players and superstars• How elite teams are built• Why company culture matters during chaos• The future of AI in healthcare and drug development• Clinical trials explained simply• Leadership lessons from failure• Persistence and resilience in business Chapters00:00 Intro00:01 Why Pharma Gets Such Bad Press02:47 Revealing the Hidden Struggles Behind the Business05:03 Nearly Losing the Company During the Recession07:12 The Moment He Asked His Wife for a Divorce09:08 Managing Morale During Financial Collapse11:21 Explaining Neuropsychiatric Drug Development12:39 Why CNS Research Became So Risky15:23 How the Company Turned Around17:07 Building and Retaining A Players19:25 Can You Create an A Player?21:00 A Players vs Superstars22:19 Building World-Class Processes23:14 How Technology Changed Clinical Trials25:27 AI and the Future of Medicine28:29 The Current State of Clinical Research30:00 Persistence Through Adversity31:02 Outro

In this episode of Anything But Typical, Gary Frey and Ben McDonald sit down with Ben Kinney, publisher of Business North Carolina, SouthPark Magazine, and North Carolina Tribune. Ben shares how growing up as the son of a journalist, moving from city to city, and constantly being the new kid shaped his ability to communicate, adapt, and connect with people. What started as a life of transition eventually became a career built around storytelling, leadership, media, and relationships. The conversation explores Ben's unexpected path from studying history and planning to become a teacher, to working in advertising sales, to stepping into leadership at Business North Carolina during a difficult season for the company. Ben also talks about the evolution of media, leading through uncertainty, surviving the Great Recession and COVID, and why authentic storytelling still matters in a world increasingly shaped by digital noise and AI. This episode is a thoughtful conversation about resilience, connection, leadership, and the power of having a real voice in business. In This Episode Gary, Ben McDonald, and Ben Kinney discuss: Ben's childhood moving through Burlington, Winston-Salem, New York City, South Florida, and Charlotte How being the “new kid” helped Ben learn communication, adaptability, and connection Why Ben originally planned to become a high school history teacher How he fell into classified advertising and business media What it was like stepping into leadership at Business North Carolina after tragedy The challenges of working in a family business How media has changed across print, digital, newsletters, podcasts, video, and social platforms Why great content still matters, even as distribution continues to evolve How Business North Carolina adapted through the Great Recession and COVID Ben's leadership philosophy and the importance of hiring the right people Why authenticity, voice, and storytelling still matter in the age of AI The value of strong editing, concise writing, and human connection Key Takeaways Connection is often built through life experience. Ben's ability to connect with people came from years of adapting to new environments, new schools, and new communities. Leadership sometimes begins with simply stepping in to help. Ben did not enter publishing with a perfect master plan. He stepped in when the family business needed him and learned through pressure. Content is still king, but distribution has changed. Strong journalism and storytelling still matter, but today's media companies have to think across print, email, social media, podcasts, video, and digital platforms. Survival requires thoughtful reaction. Ben explains that small businesses have to move quickly, but leaders still need to respond with care, perspective, and intention. Authenticity creates trust. Ben's personal writing in The Daily Digest connected with readers because it felt genuine, human, and different from typical business commentary. AI cannot replace real storytelling. AI may help generate information, but it cannot replace voice, judgment, perspective, editing, and authentic human connection. Memorable Quotes “He knows a lot of folks. He's got a great sense of humor. And he really can connect people.” “I always like to talk about myself growing up as my parents and I grew up together.” “I was always the new kid at every school.” “It was trial by fire. It was trial by volcanic fire.” “You gotta kinda react to things in a thoughtful way.” “But it can't replace storytelling, and that's what we're all doing, is telling stories.” “The key is be entertaining, be engaging, and have a voice.” “Good editing is so hard to find.” Connect with Ben Kinney LinkedIn: Ben Kinney Business North Carolina: businessnc.com SouthPark Magazine: southparkmagazine.com North Carolina Tribune: nctribune.com Email: bkinney@businessnc.com X/Twitter: @BenKinneyBNC

The seeds of success are often planted during challenging times. Beth Hobart began her real estate career shortly before the Great Recession, but weathered that tsunami of foreclosures, focused on relationships and leveraged her background in marketing and advertising to build her business. In this episode, OBJ Editor-in-Chief Richard Bilbao invites Hobart to share her career journey, perspective as a woman business leader, and a market update.

Special Episode! Look back at history and ahead to the future as Ophira Edut of The AstroTwins guides you through an 18.6-year repeating cycle in astrology, known as the McWhirter Cycle, that's accompanied our most famous booms and busts. Learn why we've named 2026, 2027 and 2028 "The Great Compression"How the Leo and Aquarius north node cycles could impact AI, Wall Street, crypto and moreLearn how 2026-28 echoes key moments in American history from Jamestown (1607) to the Declaration of Independence (1776) to the Great Depression, the Gold Standard, the Dotcom Boom, the Great Recession of 2008, to the rise of machine learning and the crypto bubble of 2017-18. Also: a special note about solar energy for the 2036-37 Leo north node cycle and what the means right now.Meet the (mostly women!) "profits of prophets" who influenced JP Morgan, Cornelius VanderbiltThe eerie parallel in timing between the astrological (lunar node) cycles and a cycle rhythm discovered by Herbert Hoover's Chief Economic Analyst after the Great DepressionPlus...Meet the (mostly women!) "profits of prophets" who influenced JP Morgan, Cornelius VanderbiltThe eerie parallel in timing between the astrological (lunar node) cycles and a cycle rhythm discovered by Herbert Hoover's Chief Economic Analyst after the Great Depression

LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured  New economic data is raising red flags as Americans drain savings, rack up credit card debt, and struggle to keep up with rising prices. Personal savings rates are near Great Recession lows, GDP growth is slowing, and much of the economy's recent strength is being driven almost entirely by AI and tech spending. This breakdown explores why consumers may be approaching a financial breaking point — and why both parties continue ignoring the growing debt crisis.

Losing a client is never fun, even when you saw the writing on the wall. The only question is how you choose to handle it. In this episode, Chip and Gini cover the practical and emotional side of client departures, from the moment you get the news to the lessons you take away. Gini points out that there are plenty of reasons a client could terminate the relationship, which may have nothing to do with your work. Strategy changes, budget cuts, and leadership turnover all end client relationships that were otherwise going fine. Chip’s advice is to not react immediately. Ask for a couple of days to review the agreement and put together a transition plan. That space lets you get the emotion out before you say something you’ll regret. Once you have your bearings, focus on making the exit clean. Read your actual contract, confirm the notice terms, and hand over everything the client needs: documents, passwords, contacts, work in progress. Chip is blunt about agencies that fight clients on the way out — it accomplishes nothing and just guarantees a bad final impression. Don't burn any bridges and you just might see those clients come back or send you referrals. Finally, be honest with your team about what the loss means for the business. If there are financial implications, say so before people start drawing their own conclusions. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “You never want to react immediately to the news in such a way that you perhaps compound a difficult situation, or at the very least you don’t make it as easy as it should be.” Gini Dietrich: “I always say that you’re remembered by how you left an organization versus the work that you did. And so you never want to burn a bridge, even if you’re caught by surprise, even if you wanted to fire the client and you’re happy about it.” Chip Griffin: “If the client is coming to you and canceling because they’re having financial issues, you’re probably not going to get the money anyway. So rather than fighting for something that probably isn’t there, why don’t you try to make it as painless as possible and get whatever you can so that you’ve built some goodwill potentially for the future?” Gini Dietrich: “Be honest and open with your team because I think they will come with solutions that you may not have thought of or that you may have assumed they’re not willing to do.” Related Why do agencies lose clients? Agency client cancellation policies Agency owners need to put themselves in other people's shoes How to protect yourself from an unexpected client breakup View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, as a famous American once said, “You’re fired.” Gini Dietrich: Oh, no. Chip Griffin: Okay. Maybe … pack your knives and go. Um- Oh … what would you like to go with instead? Gini Dietrich: Yeah, let’s, maybe we’ll do that one. I like that. Chip Griffin: Pack your knives and go. Top Chef is a great show. Gini Dietrich: I love Top Chef. Chip Griffin: Not as good as it was in the early days, but- Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I agree. Yeah … Chip Griffin: it’s still, it’s still kind of fun occasionally, and I, I still- Yeah … do watch part of each season. Yeah. From Restaurant Wars on. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I did love, I did love a little Top Chef. I agree. Chip Griffin:  Jen and one of my kids watch it up until Restaurant Wars, then they let me know, and I come in and I watch Restaurant Wars through the end. Gini Dietrich: That’s funny. They’re like, “Okay, your turn.” Chip Griffin: Yeah. I mean, that’s where it starts to get interesting, so. Gini Dietrich: That’s funny. Yeah. Chip Griffin: Anyway, no, we are gonna talk about getting fired. Not fired as an owner. We’re, we’re not at that point yet. We don’t have boards that are gonna fire us, most of us at least. Gini Dietrich: Right, right. Chip Griffin: But clients do fire us from time to time, and we’ve had conversations in the past about firing clients ourselves and, and those sorts of things. But, what happens, what do you do when a client calls you up or, worse, sends you an email and says, “We’re done. We’re out”? Yeah, you know, it’s- What are things you should be thinking about at that point? Gini Dietrich: I think so. The, I think there’s a couple of things here. One is that the word, using the word “fired” makes it sound so bad. Sometimes it’s because there’s been a strategy change, there’s been a budget reallocation, maybe leadership has changed, maybe there’s a new VP of marketing or a CCO. Like, there are lots of reasons, right, that have nothing to do with you or the agency or your work. And so saying that you got fired is, I, I just don’t like that term. Now that I have that off my chest, I’ll step down off my soapbox and say, like, there, I think we should always be prepared for the eventual loss of a client. And because we don’t know, right? We don’t- Uh-huh … we can kind of guess, you know, if there are big changes at a leadership level, or if there’s been a reorg, or if the company has sold or things like that, we can guess. Like, we’re probably not gonna be working with that client much longer. We could also sort of read the tea leaves from the perspective of they’ve been ghosting us, and we haven’t been able to get any work done. They’ve been declining meetings or not showing up for meetings. Like, there are lots of reasons that you can kind of read those tea leaves. And so I always think it’s, it’s really good to be prepared. It should never come as a surprise when you lose a client, and you should be prepared. You should have, you should know what you’re going to say, you should know how, what a transition looks like, and you should have a full pipeline that will replace that client fairly quickly, even in a chaotic world that we’re living in right now, so that you’re not caught off guard. Chip Griffin: Yeah. I mean, I think the, you know, the first step when you get this news is, probably 95% of the time you’re gonna be annoyed, upset, unhappy. Gini Dietrich: Sure. Absolutely. Chip Griffin: Some negative emotion. A small percentage of the time you’ll be like, “Oh, thank God, I just- … I, I really wanted to get rid of them anyway.” Yeah. You know? So. Gini Dietrich: Blessing in disguise, yep. Right. Chip Griffin: So, so sometimes that’ll be your reaction, but most of the time it’s not gonna be a happy reaction that you have. And so I think the, the first thing is to just, whether it’s on a call with them or you get it by email or, you know, carrier pigeon or whatever, take a deep breath. Yes. Right? Yes … you, you don’t ever want to react immediately to the news in such a way that you perhaps compound a difficult situation, or at the very least you don’t make it as easy as it could or should be. And I think your advice to, to be prepared for this, certainly if you see the signs on the wall you need to be even more prepared. But sometimes these things are, you know, in retrospect they won’t be a surprise, but you might feel surprised in the moment because you didn’t pick up on all of the little signals along the way and, and that then becomes a learning experience. And I think that’s… to me, that’s one of the most valuable things when you lose a client for whatever reason, is taking advantage of that to learn for the future. Learn the signs to look for. Yep. Learn what you could do differently potentially to maintain the relationship, retain the client. Learn to target better ideal clients, whatever it is. But I, I always like to turn these things into a learning experience as much as possible. But you also have the logistics to actually handle the end of the client relationship, so why don’t we talk about that for a little bit. What, you know, it, it’s not just about the learnings that you can take for the future, it’s how do you handle that immediately? How do you transition the client out? Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I think, you know, I always say that you’re always remembered by how you left an organization versus the work that you did. And so you never wanna burn a bridge, even if you’re caught by surprise, even if you wanted to fire the client and you’re happy about it, you should never burn a bridge because you just never know, right? So understanding what contract they signed and what the terms of agreement are, you know? We had a situation where I was working with a girlfriend and, she lost a big, big, big, big client. It came out of the blue, that she was not expecting it because she’d had a conversation a week prior that everything was fine. And so she works with several contractors, and we had to say like, “We’re really sorry. We know that we thought you were gonna be doing work in May and June,” and, like, we go, “The client’s gone.” So, and she had one person come back to her and say, like, “We have a 30-day agreement,” blah, blah, blah. They didn’t have a 30-day agreement, but in her mind they had a 30-day agreement. Sure. In the paperwork, there was no 30-day agreement. So I use that as an example because in your mind you may have a 30 or 60 or 90-day termination clause that may not have made it to the final piece. Maybe you have it for some clients and not others. Like, you have to really do your research to, and go back and read the executed agreement so you know what those terms are. And then spend that time ensuring that there’s a seamless transition, that they’re getting all the documents that you’ve created, that they understand where things are, that they understand where the passwords are, where you, what you have access to, all of those kinds of things. ‘Cause I will tell you, there have been situations where we’ve lost a client and we’re still in their Google Analytics. We’re still the admin on their Facebook page. Like, stuff like that, I’m like, “You guys, we’re not gonna do anything bad, but you really need to take us off.” Chip Griffin: Right, right. I mean, I’ve had former clients where, where I have had admin level access to a lot of their stuff- Yes … for as much as a decade afterwards. Gini Dietrich: Yes, yes. Chip Griffin: Even when I flag it for them and say, “Hey, guys- Gini Dietrich: Yes … Chip Griffin: you might wanna take me out.” Gini Dietrich: Yes, yes. Chip Griffin: It, it’s kind of amazing at times that- It, it is, yeah … the things that, that people don’t pay attention to. But, I mean, I think that that’s great advice to, you know, to understand what your agreements say, and to really just focus on how do you make it as smooth a transition as possible. No matter how frustrated you are, you need to try to think through how do we make this as pain-free for everybody? Because you can make it difficult for them, but that’s really just gonna make it difficult for you. Yep. And to your point, that’s how you’re gonna be remembered, as the person who made it difficult. And so, you know, if you get it on a, if you get the information on a call, you know, certainly say, “Hey, look, you know, let’s, let’s put together a wind-down plan or transition plan,” or however you wanna frame it. Part of that will depend on how sudden it is. You know, are, are they saying, “We’re not gonna renew in, you know, three months,” or is it, you know, “We’re giving you as short a notice as possible”? That will affect the timelines- Sure … and those sorts of things. Yep, yep. But, but it doesn’t affect the fact that you want to try to make sure that you are making it smooth and clean and painless. And don’t hesitate to say, “Hey, let me, let me think about this and come back to you with a plan-” Right “for how we do it.” Right, right. You don’t have to have every answer in the moment, and, and giving yourself that time to step back and absorb it may allow you to come forward with a more productive plan all the way around. Because your goal has to be to make sure that you’re fulfilling your contract, while at the same time trying to get them to fulfill their end of it. Right. And, and the more that you fight, the less likely you are to even get what you are due under the agreement. And so, you know, you wanna try to make it as, as friendly as possible in, in how you wind it down to make sure that you do get those payments that you are still owed. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, and I think, you know, if it comes as a surprise, I think you’re absolutely right that saying things like, “You know, gosh, I’m really sorry to hear this. I’ve really enjoyed working with you. Let me take a couple of days to craft a transition plan.” That gives you time. They, from their perspective, they’re like, “Okay, they’re being thoughtful about this and, you know, strategic about it, and they’re gonna be helpful.” And that gives you time to settle yourself and, you know, be, get all the emotion out of it and actually create something productive. Chip Griffin: Right. And it can be a, particularly if it’s done over the phone, it gives you that opportunity to sit down and take a look at the contract and see- Yeah … what it says. Yeah. Because then you can, you can go back to them and say, “Okay, you know, in order to make sure we do this the right way, you know, we’ll need the notification in writing so that, you know, we can memorialize this properly to protect both of us.” And I think you always wanna use that kind of language when you’re dealing with contract stuff. This is for both of our benefit, even if really maybe it’s more for you- Yeah … than for them, but you wanna stress the, the for both of us. And that’s also your opportunity to then look at other clauses in there that, that maybe are to your benefit, like the notification period, that maybe you didn’t bring up on the call. You know, you can say, “Hey, you know, we need to make sure we get this in writing, and of course, as, as you know from this agreement, you have 30, 60, 90, whatever the notification period is. So, you know, we’ll work to that, as we wind this down.” Gini Dietrich: Yeah. And I think, you know, there are, we, and we’ve talked about this before too, like our contracts say 90 days, and there are some clients where I’m like, “I don’t need to hold you to that. We’re good.” Like some- Right. Right? And then there are situations- Chip Griffin: How about, how about 90 minutes? How about 90 minutes? Can we, can we just be- 90 seconds? 90 seconds? We can be done now. We’re just, I’m out. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I’m good. Yep. Good. Yep. See ya. Yep. But then there are also situations, you know, we had the Great Recession, we had COVID. There are some situations where you’re just like, you just be, you can be understanding and be like, “Gosh, I’m really, yeah, I’m really sorry to hear business sucks, and we have a 90-day termination clause, but let me, let me waive that for you, and let’s do this instead.” And you’re always seen in good light when you do those things. Yep. And in fact, every time I have done that, either that business has come back or they’ve referred business to us. So you don’t wanna do that in every situation, and you don’t wanna hurt your cash flow, you know, if it’s, if it’s gonna be detrimental. But there are situations where you can be a little more understanding and use, use that kind of language so that they understand that you’re doing them a favor, ’cause you’re, you really are doing them a favor in some cases. Chip Griffin: Well, more to the point, if the client is coming to you and canceling because they’re having financial issues, whether it’s because of a global pandemic or there’s just something specific to their business, you’re probably not gonna get the money anyway. Gini Dietrich: Fair. Chip Griffin: Right? So, so rather than fighting for something that probably isn’t there anyway, why don’t you try to make it as painless as possible and get whatever you can so that you’ve built some goodwill potentially for the future? Because you also have to keep in mind that most of the time we’re not working with the actual owner of the business. Most of the time, even in a mid-sized business, we’re working with someone at least a step or two removed from that level. And so why are we making their life more difficult when it’s not, you know, it may not even be their ability to make a decision, particularly if it’s financially related. So, you know, think about that, and put yourself in their shoes if you were in a position. If you’ve got contractors, think about, you know, you want to react to them the same way you want your contractors to react to you. Gini Dietrich: Right. Yep. Chip Griffin: And, you don’t want your contractors coming at you, right? Yeah, yep. And you wanna try to work something out amicably. You should be doing the same thing upstream from you in the relationship as well. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I just, I think your earlier point about taking some time, and just, you know, it’s, it usually comes as a shock. Even if, even if we’ve read the tea leaves, it still is surprising. It still is stressful. It still has some risk involved. And so just take a beat and use the language of, you know, “Give me a couple of days to put together a transition plan.” And I think that helps you process it all, get the emotion out, and then start to salvage the relationship as best you can so that there is referral business later, or maybe they do come back later, or whatever happens to be. Chip Griffin: Right. I mean, time is your friend on these things in order to, you know, to formulate a better response. And most of the time when we react too quickly, it’s when we end up regretting it somewhere down the road. So- you know, buy yourself the time to avoid that future regret. Gini Dietrich: I will, I will tell you that 100 years ago when I started my agency, the first client I lost, I cried. And the client felt really, really bad, and I was mortified, but I cried. Chip Griffin: Oh, you, you cried when the client told you? Oh, wow. Gini Dietrich: I did. Uh-huh. Okay. So I will say that, you know, you learn and you grow, and you understand that sometimes it’s just not personal. I took it very personally because it was the first time it had ever happened. Like, I’d, I’d never been fired from a job. I’d never like … it was the first time it had ever happened. So I, I did. I’ve matured since then, but there are, you know, there are things that you’re just like, it’s an emotional time. Chip Griffin: Sure. I mean, nobody would ever enjoy that kind of- Gini Dietrich: Yeah Chip Griffin: experience. Mm-mm. Yeah. I, I mean, certainly any time I’ve ever had a contract end, I, I haven’t been like, “Yay!” Gini Dietrich: Right? Chip Griffin: I mean- Gini Dietrich: Woo-hoo! … Chip Griffin: it, it sucks. Yeah. I can’t say that I’ve ever cried when I’ve gotten that news, but may have hung up the phone and had a few choice words for the atmosphere around me or something like that. But, you know, it is what it is. So okay, so, you know, we’re, we’re thinking through the actual communications with the client who has fired us. Sorry, terminated the agreement- Let us go … or shared the decision. Mm, right. Whatever. Yeah. Whatever language you wanna use. I’m, I’m still a fan of firing because that’s kinda what it is. So now we need to think about two things, I think immediately. One is how do we communicate it to our team, whether that’s contractors or employees, and as a corollary to that, how are we going to act as a client for the remainder of the relationship that we have? So not the technical details of working out the trip, but the, you know, how do we continue to service them in that moment? And those two are related because as soon as you tell your team, you know, “Hey, this, this agreement is ending,” they’re probably gonna start mentally checking out of that relationship just as you have. Gini Dietrich: Of course. Yep. Chip Griffin: And I think we need to really fight that urge. Yep. Because, because it, uh, as you say, it is how you exit that people remember you, and a lot of that comes down to if you had, particularly if you have a longer notice period, right? If you’ve got a, you know, say a 60 or 90-day notice period, you can’t just, you know, put pens down unless they, the client is like, “No, we just, we’re, we’re done. We’ll just keep paying you, but we’re not.” Sometimes that does happen- It sure does, yep … where they treat it as sort of severance for the agency. It’s not super common, but it does happen. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: But it needs to be on them to reduce your workload, not on you to say, “Eh, we don’t care anymore.” Gini Dietrich: Right. And I think, you know, if you’re doing things like media relations, it’s ensuring that those, the stories that are in progress or the things that are in progress, the pitches that are in progress, those get transferred over. If you, like we said, if you hold the keys to anything, you have to make sure that those are transferred over. All of the things that you have in progress, understand, you know, to your point, that it may be like they just want you to stop work immediately and hand everything over, or they may want you to continue, finish, they want you to finish things that are in progress. But understand what that is so that you can ensure that. And one of the things I always say to my team, and I repeat that, repeat what I said at the beginning, which is, you know, you’re always remembered how, by how you left. It is our job to transition smoothly and make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. Yep. And I understand that you’re checked out. I’m checked out. I’m surprised by this. It’s not, you know, this, this is gonna be a little bit of a painful process, but we have to be professional, and we have to ensure that we’re transitioning cleanly. Chip Griffin: Yeah, and please do not fight them. It’s, I mean, ’cause that’s even worse than-you know, we, we just kinda give up. But I’ve seen many agencies where they basically fight clients on the way out the door, and the client will say, “Can I have this? Can I have the latest draft of this even though it’s not finished?” And they’ll be like, “Well, no, because, you know, we’re not gonna be working with you anymore, and so, you know, you don’t get the draft. You only get the final version.” No. Gini Dietrich: Absolutely not. No. No. Yeah. Chip Griffin: If you’re doing media relations and they wanna know who you’ve reached out to about a press release- Yes … just tell them. Gini Dietrich: Just tell them, yes. Chip Griffin: Do not fight them on this. I agree. I, I, for the life of me, I do not understand- Gini Dietrich: Yep. I totally agree with that Chip Griffin: the, the way, particularly the PR agencies seem to be particularly guilty of this in my view, where they just will not share with the client anything that they’re doing in terms of detail around outreach or those kinds of things because, well, then they can do it on their own. Okay, fine. Let them, right? They’ll figure out it’s not that easy. It’s not just having the spreadsheet of what contacts you’ve made. Yeah. I’m not saying you need to give them your whole database with all of your personal notations about, you know, stuff that you do across other clients. But if it’s pitch work that you’ve done for this client, give them the information. Come on, man. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, yeah. I mean, especially if it’s in progress and there’s, like- Yes … something’s happening, like, there’s no reason on Earth not to give them that information. Chip Griffin: No, no reason. And, look, if all you’re good for is, is a spreadsheet, it probably wasn’t worth hiring you anyway. Yeah. So, you know, you, you’ve got to be realistic about these kinds of things. But as you’re communicating with your team, you want them to understand that, that they need to have this same mentality of being helpful and making sure they finish strong. I think the other thing is to, to make sure that, that you’re communicating clearly with your contractors and employees about what this means. Hopefully, what it means is you’ve got a strong pipeline, and so, you know, it’s a bump in the road, but it’s not a big deal. But if it is a big deal, don’t try to hide that fact, right? I mean, you don’t have to like terrify them. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: But, but if it does, if you’ve got a contractor and it’s probably gonna mean that you’re gonna have to cut them altogether or partially, if you think it’s, you know, a giant client and it might lead to layoffs, be honest with people sooner rather than later. Because the more you put this off, the harder it is to deal with. Yeah. And again, it’s a balancing act, ’cause you can’t, you can’t just be, you know, like panicking them, which is again another argument for taking a deep breath, absorbing the information, figuring out your plan. You don’t have to hang up the phone and then immediately call up all your team and say, “Oh my God, we just lost Acme Pharmaceuticals,” right? I mean, that doesn’t help anybody. Take the time, think it through, think through the questions you’re likely to get so that you can communicate confidently, but also honestly. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, and I would say If you have access to an HR team or person, if you have access to a legal team or an attorney, reach out to them as well because as you’re crafting this plan because they’re gonna have a different… They’re gonna look at it through a different lens. They’re gonna have a different perspective, especially if you have a team, getting HR involved in that to say, “Okay, here’s scenarios A, B, and C” to help you plan so that when an employee asks, you have a response, and it’s not just shot from the hip a little bit. Right. And I, I know I’ve told this story before, but during the Great Recession, you know, we had 95% of our clients left between Christmas and New Year’s of 2008, 2009, and I had to go back to the office and lay everybody off. And the biggest mistake I made, I made two big mistakes in that. One is that everybody was talking about the economy and the Great Recession and all this stuff for a year, but I didn’t pay any attention. I didn’t… Like, I wouldn’t, I wasn’t mature enough. I wasn’t experienced enough, and so I just kind of put my blinders on and was like, “Everything’s great. We’re growing.” You know? Yeah. And so I didn’t plan. And the second thing I did, mistake I made is I didn’t let the team know ahead of time, and I didn’t think I could. And I’ll never forget this as long as I live. One of my employees came up to me after I let everybody know, and she said, “I wish you had told us because I would’ve been happy to go part-time.” And I was like, ohhh. Chip Griffin: Right. Gini Dietrich: You know? Like, yeah. Chip Griffin: Yeah. Gini Dietrich: So be honest and open because I think they will come with solutions too that you may not have thought of or that you may have assumed they’re not willing to do when they are. Chip Griffin: Right. Absolutely. So then I think that takes us to that, that final piece, as we’re wrapping up here, and, and that is to take lessons away from it. Because there’s something to be learned from the end of every relationship, whether it’s because it was a project and it just, it naturally ran its course, or because you were on a retainer and they decided to end it or what have you. Yep. There are always lessons to be learned, and I think it’s, it’s really helpful to sit down with your team, not just at the end, but at key milestone points as well and say, “Okay, you know, what, what have we learned from this? What could we have done differently? What should we do differently, not just with this client but with others in the future?” And make sure that you treat as much of what you’re doing as a learning experience as possible because that’s how you really grow- both individually and as a business. If you just keep doing the same old, same old, you might do okay, but you’re not gonna do as well as you could if you’re actually studying what you’ve done in the past. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I mean, that’s the example I just gave is a great example of that. Yeah. Now I know. Chip Griffin: Yeah. Gini Dietrich: That’s a great lesson. Chip Griffin: It’s why, again, I watch all of these episodes back so that I can sit there and say, “Okay, you know, what would I do differently next time?” Maybe I’ll lower the microphone a little bit, raise my voice a little bit, talk a little bit less so that we can actually hear from Gini, and I don’t just monopolize all the time. You don’t monopolize the time. And have Jen tell me what percentage of time I’ve spoken versus… I do talk a lot. I understand that. But it’s, it’s something I consciously work on every podcast that I’m on because I know that I have a tendency to talk a lot. Gini Dietrich: Okay. I don’t think you monopolize the time here. No. Chip Griffin: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Gini Dietrich: You’re welcome. Chip Griffin: So, I guess we’re not gonna monopolize any more of your time as a listener, so we will wrap up today’s episode, but hopefully we’ve given you a few things to think about the next time that you get that dreaded call or email from a client who is not firing you, but ending the relationship in whatever fashion we wanna call it, so. Gini Dietrich: It’s not always being fired. Chip Griffin: Okay. Gini Dietrich: Fired, fired means that you did a bad job. Chip Griffin: Okay. On that note, I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And it depends.

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” — Warren BuffettIn this episode, Jay sits down with Ryan Chiodo, one of the top luxury real estate advisors in Naples, for a conversation about entrepreneurship, trust, service, relationships, and what it actually takes to build a reputation at the highest level.Ryan's story is not a straight line.From bartending in his family's Italian restaurant…to learning the builder and developer side of real estate…to navigating REOs, short sales, and distressed assets during the Great Recession…to serving luxury and ultra-luxury clientele in one of the most competitive markets in the country…This episode is a masterclass in mastering your craft over decades.Inside this conversation:* Why communication and hospitality became Ryan's unfair advantage in real estate* The hidden value of working in restaurants and customer service early in life* Why the luxury market is ultimately a relationship and trust business* The realities of serving affluent clients and what they actually expect* How the Great Recession shaped Ryan's perspective on leverage, investing, and risk* Why many people underestimate how difficult real estate truly is* The importance of becoming a true subject matter expert in your field* Why over-communication creates trust and long-term referrals* How systems, teams, and delegation allow entrepreneurs to scale* The difference between working with buyers versus sellers* Negotiation strategies, creative deal structures, and thinking beyond price aloneOne of the biggest themes throughout this episode is simple:The people at the top are rarely doing complicated things.They are doing simple things with extraordinary consistency. Ryan also shares the daily disciplines that built his business over 24 years:* Reviewing the market every single day* Staying proactive with clients* Bringing value instead of “just checking in”* Responding quickly* Knowing the details better than anyone else in the roomThis episode is especially valuable for:* Entrepreneurs building a book of business* Realtors and mortgage professionals* Salespeople trying to create long-term referral networks* Anyone interested in luxury markets and relationship-driven business* Professionals looking to build mastery over time instead of chasing shortcutsA standout takeaway from the conversation:“You have to get in the room. But once you're in the room, you better know what you're doing.” This is a conversation about trust earned through preparation, consistency, and decades of repetition.Because in the end, luxury is not about flash.It's about confidence, competence, and delivering an experience people never forget.

In this episode of The Intelligent Developers Podcast, we sit down with Ed Poteat for a powerful conversation on entrepreneurship, affordable housing development, capital relationships, and navigating multiple real estate cycles in New York City.Ed shares his journey growing up in Harlem during the 1980s, studying economics at Yale University, spending time on Wall Street at JPMorgan Chase, and ultimately leaving corporate America at just 26 years old to pursue real estate entrepreneurship full-time.The conversation explores how New York City once empowered small local developers to revitalize distressed neighborhoods, how Ed and his team scaled into major affordable housing development projects, and the hard lessons learned during the Great Recession around leverage, capital structure, and profitability.This episode is a masterclass in resilience, affordable housing development, and building long-term success in one of the toughest real estate markets in the world.

Newt talks with Senator Lamar Alexander, former Governor of Tennessee and U.S. Education Secretary, about his memoir, “The Education of a Senator: From JFK to Trump.” He traces his public life from a 1963 Justice Department job under Robert Kennedy, where he heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, through the rise of “digital democracy,” social media, globalization, the Great Recession, and the Obama and Trump eras, arguing that social media and economic disruption have transformed American politics since around 2008. Alexander contrasts gubernatorial and senatorial leadership, likening governors to Moses and Senate leaders to drum majors who must recruit, align, and manage diverse “marchers,” and notes that many governors find the Senate frustrating while some senators struggle as pragmatic executives. He credits Howard Baker with teaching him to be an “eloquent listener,” to “learn to count” votes, and to remember “the other fellow might be right.” Relationships, he argues, are the essence of the Senate: he cultivated them by visiting House counterparts, maintaining courtesy, and hosting about 60 Senate couples, both Republicans and Democrats alike, at his Tennessee home. Alexander reflects on his own presidential bids, which he compares to moving from eighth-grade basketball to the NBA finals. He warns that presidential politics are increasingly dominated by “media and money,” recalling a 1999 quip predicting a Trump-like figure emerging from this environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From sketching fashion designs as a kid to leading complex M&A and private equity deals, Sara Mostafa shares what separates true dealmaking attorneys from ordinary transactional lawyers, why minority investment deals are like marriages with prenups, and what founders should understand before bringing in growth capital. In this episode of the DealQuest Podcast, host Corey Kupfer sits down with Sara Mostafa, the newest partner at Kupfer. Sara has spent more than two decades representing private companies and entrepreneurs across M&A, financing, private equity, governance, employment, real estate, and outside general counsel matters. Like Corey, she came out of big law and built a relationship-first practice that supports clients from inception through exit. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: In this episode, Sara explains what separates a true dealmaking attorney from an ordinary transactional lawyer, why minority investment deals require “eyes wide open,” and how experienced attorneys balance legal risk against business upside without over-lawyering. She also discusses why AI-related transactions are dominating parts of the California M&A market, why dental and medical practices are commanding strong multiples, what the 2008 recession taught her about resilience and pivoting, and how long-term client relationships often evolve into serving the next generation of entrepreneurs. GUEST'S JOURNEY: Sara originally wanted to be a fashion designer, inspired by her aunt and her childhood love of sketching clothes. While studying at the University of Pennsylvania, she unexpectedly completed her degree requirements early and took a paralegal role at Drinker Biddle & Reath in Philadelphia, which inspired her to pursue law school. She began her legal career at Cooley in San Diego, working on biotech M&A deals before deciding big law was not the long-term fit she wanted. During the 2008 Great Recession, she pivoted to immigration law and nonprofit work in Hawaii before returning full-time to business transactions. She remains licensed in both California and Hawaii. THE DESIGNER DEALMAKER: Outside of law, Sara continues to pursue creative work. Last year she bought a sewing machine and now spends much of her free time designing and making clothes, including garments she is exhibiting at the San Diego County Fair. Like others at Kupfer, she believes building a successful legal career does not require abandoning personal passions or entrepreneurial pursuits. KEY INSIGHTS: A true dealmaking attorney focuses on helping both sides move forward rather than over-lawyering every issue. Business-mindedness, perspective, and the ability to negotiate practical middle ground matter as much as technical legal skill. Minority investment deals can dramatically change how founders operate. Investors often require approval rights over major decisions and expect a future exit, which means founders need to fully understand both the growth opportunity and the downside risk. Sara believes lawyers must balance risk against opportunity. Businesses cannot grow without taking risks, and experienced attorneys help clients evaluate likelihood and impact rather than simply redlining every possible issue. She also explains that curiosity and adaptability matter more than narrow industry specialization in most transactional work. Over her career, she has represented clients across industries ranging from restaurants and fitness centers to technology, healthcare, entertainment, and construction. Perfect for founders considering outside capital, business owners planning an exit, and entrepreneurs evaluating whether their attorney is truly helping get deals done or simply executing documents. FOR MORE ON THIS EPISODE: https://www.coreykupfer.com/blog/saramostafa FOR MORE ON SARA MOSTAFA:https://www.kupferlaw.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-mostafa-02404211/ FOR MORE ON COREY KUPFER: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreykupfer/ https://www.coreykupfer.com/ Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker. He is deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast. Get deal-ready with the DealQuest Podcast with Corey Kupfer, where like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders converge, share insights and challenges, and success stories. Equip yourself with the tools, resources, and support necessary to navigate the complex yet rewarding world of dealmaking. Dive into the world of deal-driven growth today! Episode Highlights with Timestamps:[00:00:03] Introduction: Sara Mostafa's two decades of transactional experience and her arrival as the newest partner at Kupfer [00:03:28] The sewing machine bought last September and exhibiting garments at the San Diego County Fair [00:08:12] Why transactional work appealed and the value of staying with clients through the full business life cycle [00:17:45] The 2008 Great Recession as the only real slowdown and pivoting to Hawaii [00:23:46] Minority investment deals as marriages with prenups [00:29:41] What separates a real dealmaker from a transactional attorney [00:38:43] What client trust really means to Sara [00:43:11] The children of exited clients calling her for their own ventures [00:45:28] What freedom means: peace of mind Guest Bio:Sara Mostafa is a partner at Kupfer with over two decades of experience representing private companies and individuals across a wide range of transactional matters. Her practice encompasses contract negotiation, entity formation, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, financing transactions, employment matters, real estate transactions, and outside general counsel services. She has represented companies in technology, wealth management, retail, entertainment, wholesale, construction, restaurants, medical practices, marketing, fitness, and nutrition, among others. Host Bio:Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator, and dealmaker with more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author, and professional speaker deeply passionate about deal-driven growth. He is the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.Related Episodes:Episode 293 - Sunny Vanderbeck: Building Relationships and Selling With Purpose Episode 350 - Tom Dillon: Understanding Business Valuation and Exit Planning Realities Episode 366 - Jodi Hume: Founder Exits and the Emotional Journey Behind Major DecisionsKeywords/Tags:M&A counsel, transactional attorney, dealmaking attorney, minority investment deals, private equity transactions, outside general counsel, California M&A market, AI valuations, dental practice multiples, medical practice multiples, Kupfer Law partner, big law transition, exit preparation, business life cycle counsel, relationship-driven dealmaking, risk versus upside, over-lawyering, corporate governance, entity formation, capital raising, next generation clients, peace of mind freedom

On his 40th birthday, Derek Thompson takes a step back and looks at how his thinking on the national debt has changed. Back when he first covered fiscal policy, concern about government borrowing was mostly a conservative position, with many liberals arguing it was overblown. That's starting to shift. The U.S. now spends far more than it brings in, and the gap is still growing. For the first time, interest payments on the debt have surpassed military spending. And deficits that once rose during crises like the Great Recession and the COVID pandemic haven't really come back down. So what changed, and how worried should we be? Derek is joined by economist Justin Wolfers to walk through the basics of the federal budget, the evolving debate around the national debt, and why more economists are starting to take persistent deficits seriously. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Justin Wolfers Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Visit https://www.uber.com/safety to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Portland's commercial real estate isn't just in decline — it's now performing worse than the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis. A downtown tower that sold during the depths of the 2010 Great Recession just changed hands again at a 20% loss from that price. Not down from peak. Down from the floor of the last catastrophe. That is not a correction. That is a city actively destroying capital.Progressive Portland spent the better part of a decade running businesses out of downtown, tolerating open-air drug markets, defunding police, and celebrating every employer departure as a victory for the working class. The employers left. The workers left. The tax base left. What remained were buildings nobody wants to buy at any price that pencils out — and now sellers are proving it in court filings and deed transfers.Seattle, Tacoma, and every other Pacific Northwest city governed by the same ideological coalition are watching this play out in real time. The Portland experiment is not a cautionary tale anymore. It is a documented outcome. The only variable left is whether neighboring cities choose to learn from it or repeat it.CHAPTERS0:00 PORTLAND REAL ESTATE MELTDOWN: 20%…2:22 Portland Tower Sells Below 2010 Price3:46 CEOs Reversed Course on Remote Work5:03 Who Is Buying Downtown Portland Condos5:43 Guardian Real Estate Buys Ladd Tower7:24 Ladd Sale Price Falls 20% Below 20109:06 $2.77 Billion Spent on Portland…9:57 Ladd Tower Changed Hands Three Times10:54 Starbucks Cuts Seattle Jobs, Invests…13:03 Big Pink Sells for $45 Million14:42 Big Pink Dropped 85% From Its Peak16:25 Bottom Feeders Bet on Portland Recovery16:59 Seattle Follows Chicago Into Decline18:44 91% of Washington Businesses Halting…Subscribe to @reasonablenews for daily coverage of Pacific Northwest politics and the stories the local press won't touch.#Portland #RealEstate #EconomicCollapse

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit andrewsullivan.substack.comJerusalem is a journalist and entrepreneur. She's a former staff writer at The Atlantic and a former policy writer and podcaster at Vox. Last year she founded The Argument, a liberal magazine on Substack, where she serves as CEO and editor-in-chief. We went at it on liberalism and how to reform the Democrats.For two clips of the episode — on Biden's biggest mistakes, and how DEI went off the rails — head to our YouTube page.Other topics: born in Ethiopia as an Eritrean Christian; why her father became an atheist then converted back to Christianity; growing up in suburban Maryland and becoming a citizen at age 14; the formative influence of Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian; being a Christian in a secular-left bubble; the stagnation in England before Thatcher; imposing liberalism on Iraq; torture under Bush; the long Great Recession; the American Rescue Plan and inflation; Biden ceding order on immigration; Greg Abbott exporting migrants to liberal cities; rural and retired voters most against immigration but least affected; cancel culture; the race card on immigration; the antisemite card on Israel; US aid to Israel; Hormuz and oil prices; Jerome Powell; DEI and the NYT lawsuit; diversity vs quotas; trans issues; the suicide canard; orgasm loss and FGM; opposition to bathroom bills reversed; Bostock; housing policy and abundance; ICE in Minneapolis; JD Vance; Kamala and Hillary; Jon Ossoff; and Keir's cautionary tale for moderate liberals.Browse the Dishcast archive for an episode you might enjoy. We have some real stars coming up: Ben Rhodes on Iran and speech-writing, Harvey Mansfield on modernity, HW Brands on the life of George Washington, John Gray on Trump's new world, Bob Wright on the evolutionary force of AI, Tiffany Jenkins on privacy in a liberal democracy, Daniel McCarthy on conservatism, Stephen Grosz on the struggles of love, and Robby George on all our disagreements. Please send any guest recs, dissents, and other comments to dish@andrewsullivan.com.

Episode 991 of The Professional Left starts with a question that sounds absurd on its face — are Americans "underbabied"? — and then spends an hour making the case that the people asking that question are the same ones who have spent decades doing everything in their power to make starting a family feel financially impossible. Driftglass and Blue Gal trace the long arc from the post-war baby boom through the Reagan era's war on the social safety net, showing how decades of Republican policy quietly transformed children from a shared public good into a personal lifestyle choice that you'd better be able to afford on your own. A detour through the Enron collapse and the Great Recession ties it all together — because low birth rates aren't the disease, they're the symptom, and this episode lays out exactly what's causing them.Stay in Touch! Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.com Website: proleftpod.com Support via Patreon: patreon.com/proleftpod or Donate in the Venmo App @proleftpodMail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791Artwork courtesy of "america has rabies" on BlueSky @thebatshitsutras.bsky.socialSupport the show

LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured  Student loan defaults are surging, credit card delinquencies are nearing Great Recession levels, and more Americans are asking how to survive layoffs and financial stress. This segment examines the warning signs building beneath the surface of the economy — from debt-fueled education and rising defaults to the growing disconnect between official data and everyday reality.

The Honorable Tani Cantil-Sakauye led the state judiciary through the Great Recession's budget crisis, bail reform advocacy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Now she has three new roles: President and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, a neutral at ADR Services, and a founding voice of the Alliance of Former Chief Justices.CJ Cantil-Sakauye talks with Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis about what actually gets petitions for review granted. If the Supreme Court's job is not to correct errors, then what is it?The justices look for issues that surface conflict, systemic mischief, or other need to weigh in to avoid broader problems.So how do you find those issues? Each justice has a mental list—sometimes those are visible in their concurrences and dissents.Other places to look: amicus briefs from government entities.CJ Cantil-Sakauye also addresses why her Court viewed depublication as heavy-handed and preferred granting review to provide legal explanationAnd why grant-and-transfer requires diplomatic restraint to avoid appearing to rebuke Court of Appeal colleagues.We also discuss:Why rescue missions almost always failWhy Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye's court limited depublication to the rarest circumstances and changed the rules to keep granted cases citableThe mediation stumbling blocks she encounters when trial counsel defends the trial record instead of negotiating settlementHow COVID permanently transformed access to justice through electronic filing and remote appearancesThe structural tension created by California's legislative control over civil procedure, unlike most states where supreme courts govern procedural rulesWhat's the biggest factor you think makes the California Supreme Court take a case?

A year into the Great Recession, one film was brave enough to ask, "But what about the corporate consultants?" We discuss Jason Reitman's onetime critical darling UP IN THE AIR (2009), a film that invites us to have sympathy for the downsizers. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

In episode two of their ongoing series on The Great Recession, the Shuffle Bois turn to the folks who profited from the collapse of the housing market, as described and immortalized in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short" and its 2015 film adaptation. After describing the major characters of this story, they then turn to a plot summary of the film, peppering in some digressions on 2000s culture and the nature of sub prime lending companies. Then, as always, they turn to their themes and big ideas, including the enrichment of the contemptible and the noxious social effects of Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy.Check out our website to search for episodes at: ⁠remembershuffle.com⁠⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. And be sure to check out our ⁠Patreon⁠!Bibliography:Bethany McLean and Joseph Nocera, All the Devils are Here (New York: Penguin), 2011Gregory Zuckerman The Greatest Trade Ever Made (New York: Crown Business), 2010Michael Lewis, The Big Short (San Francisco: Hyperink), 2012

677. This week, we talk to Dustin Granger about  Louisiana politics. As a seasoned financial advisor with over two decades of experience, Dustin Granger has built his career helping Louisiana families navigate the turbulent waters of the Great Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the recurring hurricanes that shape life on the Gulf Coast. A lifelong resident and LSU alumnus, Granger now serves as the Treasurer of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Granger is a leading voice for economic reform and climate resilience. He advocates for a "New Louisiana" that breaks away from traditional corporate-heavy investments to embrace renewable energy, fair taxation, and sustainable infrastructure. In this interview, we discuss his recommendations for the current voting season, his strategies for stabilizing property insurance, his commitment to strengthening the state's middle class, and his ongoing work to revitalize the Democratic infrastructure across the Bayou State. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Charles Asbury Stephens. The Ark of 1803.     It was a voyage of untold perils. Every year an increasing number of white outlaws, hidden in the caves along the river, harried and robbed the boatmen who floated down from the upper settlements. There were lurking bands of hostile Indians. And there was the river itself with its treacheries; its snags; its mud bars and its floods. It was no unusual thing for an ark to set out as this one was about to do, provided against all foreseeable disasters, and never be heard from afterward. Some were wrecked, some were robbed and their crews obscurely murdered. But no tidings of their fate came back to the solitary homes on the upper Ohio.     To set out on such a voyage with a single man or boy who could not be trusted, might mean the loss of the boat or even of every life on board of her. This week in Louisiana history. May 8, 1823. First gas lighting used in the American Theater of New Orleans. This week in New Orleans history. May 8, 1884: The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition opened in what is now Audubon Park, showcasing New Orleans as a global trade hub. This week in Louisiana. Creole Nature Trail All‑American Road Louisiana Highway 27 & Highway 82 Corridor Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes, LA Open year‑round; ideal for spring wildlife viewing and coastal drives Website: creolenaturetrail.org Email: info@visitlakecharles.org Phone: (337) 436‑9588 The Creole Nature Trail is one of America's first National Scenic Byways, offering 180 miles of Gulf Coast marshes, beaches, wildlife refuges, and birding hotspots throughout the year: Scenic Wildlife Drives: Alligators, wading birds, and migratory species visible from roadside pull‑offs. Gulf Beaches: Access to quiet stretches of shoreline along the Cameron coast. Refuge Access: Connects to Sabine, Cameron Prairie, and Lacassine National Wildlife Refuges. Postcards from Louisiana. The Rock Block Band at Felix's Restaurant and Oyster Bar. Listen on Apple Podcasts. Listen on audible. Listen on Spotify. Listen on TuneIn. Listen on iHeartRadio. The Louisiana Anthology Home Page. Like us on Facebook. 

George Wright III interviews Paul Roberts, founder of OC Talk Radio, about his shift from traditional radio and PR into digital podcasting after the Great Recession disrupted legacy media. Roberts explains why entrepreneurs struggle with content—lack of value, compelling storytelling, and consistent publishing—and argues businesses must become their own media companies to build authority and control the narrative. He contrasts earned PR with advertising and describes how podcasting evolved from audio to video, with YouTube becoming a primary platform, enabling one conversation to be repurposed into audio, video, clips, and written content. Roberts emphasizes human-centered stories over product pitches, and he advocates live streaming for urgency, authenticity, guest reliability, and built-in promotion. He sees online, hyper-local “narrowcasting” as the future of local media and shares.01:20 Paul's Radio Origin Story02:02 Recession to Podcast Pivot04:06 Why Content Fails05:15 Consistency Builds Audience06:37 PR vs Owned Media10:37 Podcasting Evolves to Video12:06 Repurposing Content Ecosystem14:03 Storytelling That Connects15:15 Getting Comfortable On Camera17:08 Why Live Streaming Wins19:30 Building Local Authority22:36 Future of NarrowcastingThanks for listening, and Please Share this Episode with someone. It would really help us to grow our show and share these valuable tips and strategies with others. Have a great day.George Wright III“It's Never Too Late to Start Living the Life You Were Meant to Live”FREE Daily Mastermind Resources:CONNECT with George & Access Tons of ResourcesGet access to Proven Strategies and Time-Test Principles for Success. Plus, download and access tons of FREE resources and online events by joining our Exclusive Community of Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, and High Achievers like YOU.Join FREE at DailyMastermind.comFollow me on social media Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | TikTok | YoutubeGrow Your Authority and Personal Brand with a FREE Interview in a Top Global Magazine HERE.About the GuestPaul Roberts is the founder of OC Talk Radio, Orange County's premier online business radio and live stream production platform. As a digital media consultant and pioneer in live podcasting, he leverages over 20 years of experience to help entrepreneurs transition from traditional media to modern digital distribution. His credibility is rooted in a diverse career ranging from rock-and-roll radio DJing to corporate PR, making him an expert in building brand authority through long-form storytelling.Guest Resources:Website: https://www.octalkradio.biz/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/octalkradio/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OCTalkRadioLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paultroberts/

Chances are, you've been to one of Gina Mariko Rosales' events, even if you weren't aware. In this episode, which kicks off our Asian-American/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month programming, meet Gina. Born in Daly City, she's lived most of her life on the Peninsula and in San Francisco. But let's talk about how she got to where she is today. Gina was born at Seton hospital in Daly City and her parents raised her in Pacifica. In her words, Gina "grew up with a bunch of skaters and surfers." Sounds fun. But she was one of only a few Filipinas in her hometown. She was also shaped from an early age by her time in Catholic school, which she went to beginning with her preschool days. She also a performer, dancing specifically, but we'll get to that. Gina is part of the first generation in her family to be born in the US. Her parents, Armando and Lillian, both came to this country from the Philippines for college in Ohio, where they met. Lillian's family moved around the Philippines because her dad was an engineer. Gina's dad is half-Filipino and half-Japanese—his Japanese lineage is from Okinawa. Lillian came to The States to pursue international law. But life had other plans. She ended up getting married and having kids, and instead did consulting work. In starting to talk more about her dad, Gina goes on a tangent about how, in 2025, she was able to visit both her mom's homeland in the Philippines and her dad's in Okinawa. Gina's mom was the first in her family to come to the US. Then one of Gina's aunts came. Then slowly, the family starting working on getting more and more members to relocate. Eventually, her grandparents and all her mom's siblings arrived in The Bay. Suddenly, Gina had hella cousins around. Her mom's family has done quite a job tracing their own lineage. Gina says they've been able to trace the line back six or seven generations. And many living members of that clan get together every couple of years for massive family reunions. Think 250–300 folks. I love that. Though she's not 100-percent certain, Gina believes that it was jobs that brought her parents the The Bay after they met at college in Ohio. Lillian worked at Levi's and Armando at Charles Schwab. They had their first child, Gina's older brother, out here. That was the early Eighties. Around mid-decade, Gina was born. Her early memories are of her time in Catholic preschool. Her school was pre-K through eighth grade, so Gina says that once you're labeled by your peers, it sticks. And those students are with you for a minute. Ninth grade provided a chance for Gina to get out of that situation. She "busted out" and attended Sacred Heart here in The City. She remembers being pretty little and visiting her mom at Levi's in San Francisco. She climbed on and ran around the now-defunct Vaillancourt Fountain. They'd go to Fisherman's Wharf. And they'd visit her grandfather's grave at the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, followed by trips to Japantown for sushi. We sidetrack here after Gina talks about how St. Mary's was their church and I mention that it's the "washing machine" and "city titty" church. Gina wasn't familiar with either term and I'll characterize her reaction as, simply, mind blown. Because her school, Sacred Heart, was nearby, Gina describes the scarce parking available for students and a lottery system they all had to operate under. We go on another sidetrack here to talk about ways to get around DPT's trickery—chalk marks and all that. At her school, Gina was in the choir and she was a member of the step team. She'd often stay around after a day of school to participate in both groups. She and her friends would frequent 1000 Van Ness movie theater and Venture Frogs, where they'd drink boba and eat popcorn chicken. I remember both spots from my early days in The City, around the year 2000. Gina says starting at Sacred Heart after doing K–8th in Pacifica was refreshing. She made friends with people who looked like her, finally. She was part of an Asian girl crew, in fact. Most of those girls were also on the step team and so much bonding was happening. So was "parking lot pimpin'," whether it was in San Francisco or Daly City, after school or on the weekends. She talks about the prevalence of unhoused folks around her school. Sacred Heart would have outreach days where students would make sandwiches to take to those people. Gina looks back fondly on that time. She and her friends would also hang out in Japantown, taking the bus up Geary or just walking the few blocks down. They also went to hella under-18 parties that had names and themes. There were rave rooms and hip-hop rooms. Gina calls them "the early party days." These were the days before "face the DJ" parties. For college, Gina went across The Bay to UC Berkeley. That meant moving out of her house in Pacifica for the first time. She lived in a dorm her first year, then moved into a co-op house and eventually into an apartment with friends. Philosophy and education were Gina's majors. She intended to graduate and become an English teacher. We go on another sidetrack about studying philosophy (something we have in common) before Gina explains how grad school ended up not working out for her. And we end Part 1 with Gina's story of graduating college in 2008 when the Great Recession hit. Her dreams were dashed and she moved back to Pacifica to live with her parents. She applied for countless jobs and ended up getting into AmeriCorps VISTA, a branch of the larger organization that focuses on alleviating poverty. The program wants its members to experience a level of poverty themselves. It paid just enough for Gina to move to San Francisco. Check back Thursday to hear Part 2 and the rest of Gina's story. We recorded this episode in the Brave New Spaces at Make It Mariko in South of Market/SOMA Pilipinas Cultural Heritage District in March 2026. Photography Mason J.

https://youtu.be/N-og1bznPbs Andy Seeley, CEO of Creatively Disruptive and Ashworth Strategy, is on a mission to become the “8:00 AM call” for small business owners—the trusted partner they can turn to after those sleepless 3:00 AM nights filled with uncertainty. Having experienced the stress and isolation of entrepreneurship firsthand, Andy now helps technician-turned-business-owners (plumbers, gym owners, bakers, and more) build scalable, sustainable businesses with the right systems, strategy, and support. We explore Andy's perspective on success—not as a shortcut, but as a combination of fundamentals: embracing failure, never giving up, and most importantly, building the right team. He shares how most small business owners get stuck because they try to do everything themselves, and why true growth comes from surrounding yourself with smart, hardworking people of strong character. Andy also dives into a critical operational insight: sequencing—doing the right things in the right order—to avoid overwhelming clients (and yourself) while still driving meaningful results. — Help Your Clients Sleep Soundly with Andy Seeley  Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and today my guest is Andy Seeley, the CEO of Creatively Disruptive, an agency supporting local, community-based small businesses, and Ashworth Strategy, an e-commerce, multi-channel marketing agency that is creating sustainable growth for beauty, apparel, pets, and kids industry businesses. Andy, welcome to the show.  Thank you. I’m very happy to be here. Nice to see you, Steve.  Yeah, I’m excited to talk to you. It’s a very interesting combination that you have going here, but I’d like to start with my favorite question: what is your personal “why,” and how are you manifesting it in your businesses? I think the personal “why” kind of straddles all the businesses that we deal with. We typically don't work with large corporate brands. We don’t typically deal with, not that we wouldn’t want to, but we typically don’t, and we don’t actually even try to focus on them. Because the main  why”, the founding of our business came from when my partner and I were talking—we weren't very happy with the two different businesses we were operating. We were both working on one project together, but he had his own thing, and I had another thing. We were both there, we’d both gone through some really tough times ourselves and had experiences of feeling very alone, trying to figure things out—sometimes successfully, sometimes very unsuccessfully. And we both talking about our troubles and tribulations, and all of those kind of things. And we were like, wouldn’t it have been nice, wouldn’t it have been good if there was someone there to help us? That “staring at the ceiling at 3:00 AM” in the morning. And the morning is a thing that a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners are very familiar with, right? You wake up at 3:00 AM, staring at the ceiling, thinking, “I've got all these things to do.” Or if it's tough times—how do I make payroll? If there's a legal issue—what am I going to do about that? Whatever it is, there's always something. Even in good times, there's often something. What we thought to ourselves was we are oftentimes, when we were in that situation, we didn’t really have anybody to go to. That 3:00 AM turns into 4:00 AM, then 5:00 AM, and sometimes we were just like, well, I’m just going to get up. And then there are sleepless nights. And we thought if we come from the standpoint, it's a real thing. It's something we're passionate about is that most small business owners are technicians.Share on X Most small business owners are very good at a thing, like they’re a plumber and they start a plumbing company, or a baker who starts a bakery. The E-Myth.  This is the E-Myth concept.  Right. They're a gymnastics coach, so they start a gymnastics gym. Most business owners are technicians, which means they’re very good at a very specific thing, not so good at many other things that you have to be. And we wanted to be that 8:00 AM. We wanted to be their 8:00 AM. And what that means is—staring at the ceiling at 3:00 AM, maybe their mind racing for 30 minutes or so—but then they can say, “You know what, we'll reach out to Andy and Russ at Creatively Disruptive at 8:00 AM. I'll get some sleep. We'll get to the bottom of this idea. We’ll get to the bottom of this problem. We’ll get to the bottom of it. And that was really important to us. And it really was a guiding light. That's why, from a marketing standpoint—you could call us a marketing agency—but I don't think it really is what we are. Because we do consultancy work. We work through exit strategies. We work through financial goals. We work through a whole bunch of stuff that does not include putting an ad up on Facebook, Instagram, or Google, or building websites. We ask—why are you doing all that stuff? I love your first question, because what's the point of it all, right? I had a conversation with a frustrated client yesterday, and at the end of the frustration that the client had, they were not frustrated. And I said to them, “Look, we're talking about a lot of different things, and the reality is what’s going on with you when working with us is there’s some amazing things happening, which you agree with.” But the reality is, you are not talking to us about running a Facebook ad. You didn’t come to us because you desperately want a Facebook ad run, or come to us because you would love your company on Google. That’s not the reason why you came to us. The reason why you came to us is something that those things will change in your life for the better. That's why you're talking to us. There’s a reason why you bought this business. So our “why” is really to help those small business owners—who are often technicians, very specialized people—develop a broader skill set and a team that can help them through their challenges.Share on X The beauty of what we do is—we have 120 clients, all dealing with different issues and different situations. Because we engage with them at a consultative level, we hear it all. We hear, many times many subjects, here’s what not to do—and on those same subjects, here’s what to do. And we actually collate that stuff. As you saw on our Zoom, there was a Zoom link we used—you saw my Read.ai. that read.ai As much as it’s for us to make sure that we have our ducks in order when we’re talking to somebody, it’s also an archive for us to make sure that some things that we spoke about, we learned about that now we can put that in our database to help other clients. And it’s not that we show other clients what we’ve spoken about and give state secrets and so forth.  It’s a repository of company knowledge that you have developed.  Absolutely. Me and you having a conversation like this, Steve, is all well and good. The fact that we are recording it is going to allow loads of other people to understand it. For us internally, it allows my team and us to look at stuff and go, okay, well this is a really good thing, let’s actually turn that into a process. Yeah. Love it. So a very long-winded, long thing. The “why” is, we want to be that 8:00 AM call after you’ve had a 3:00 AM wake up. Love it. I mean, that is the definition of trust. If you are the person that they call at 8:00 AM, then they know that they can sleep well because you’re there.  And the big, burning part of that “why” is that we didn't have it—and it was tough. It was emotionally tough to be so concerned. I had a lot of 3:00 AM wake-up calls during the Great Recession in 2008–2009. It was a very worrying time. There was a market crash. Our house went from being worth $400,000 to being worth $100,000. We owed $300,000 on that house. We had a business that income went from about $500,000 a month. It was a gymnastics gym that my wife ran to making about $200,000 in a two month period, because so many layoffs were happening. My job, which was working for a TV station, we had loads of clients calling in, asking to cancel, trying to figure out how, so there was so much going on. Those 3:00 AMs were very regular thoughts that came up, and I would just sit there not knowing what to do and having no one to talk to. I desperately want to at least be someone that someone can think of, “You know what, we can call Andy. We can call the CD team, and we'll figure this out.” So anyway, there you go.  Okay, so this is a great segue, because you mentioned Read.ai and how you're thinking about about processes—and how to use the 120 clients you have and the challenges you solve. How do you turn that into a process so other clients can easily access to it? So this podcast is really about this kind of stuff. It’s called Management Blueprint, and I’m always looking for shortcuts—business shortcuts, frameworks that entrepreneurs have discovered along the way and that they could share with the listeners and could help other people listening to have a better process. It could be anything—three to five steps—looking at something, seeing something in a different light. So what do you have in mind for us?  So a shortcut to success—I'm always a little bit leery of statements like that. “Shortcuts to success”. It always feels a little bit like a 2:00 AM infomercial—blah, blah, blah—and you get steak knives with it. Because the reality is, oftentimes there's no shortcut. I'm sure you've asked this question a million times, and a lot of people say, “Here are the shortcuts.” But my experience is—the real truth is—there are a couple of fundamentals to success. One is being okay with not having it right? That's a “shortcut,” if you want to call it that. Failure is actually the journey to success. Being okay with failure. There’s a reason why 95% of humanity doesn’t run a business, and it’s because they find failure difficult, and we’ve been trained as humans to not embrace failure.  Failure is the journey to success. It's where you learn. The other part—which is linked to failure—is never giving up.Share on X I don’t know if that’s a shortcut, but you only lose when you give up. Now, some people might say—sunk costs and things like that—at some point, you've got to stop putting into something that's not working. But the reality is, if you believe in what you're doing, there are going to be troubles, there’s going to be failures, there’s going to be difficulties. And as long as you don’t give up, and you learn from each mistake in each thing that happens, you will have success. You only won't have success if you decide to give up. I really, truly believe that. I live that.  I resonate with that, and I wouldn't even say that the 3:00 AM wake-up is a bad thing. It's really a forcing function. It's forcing you, as the entrepreneur, not to give up—to put the energy in and figure the problem out so that you can move forward. Because if you sleep until 7:00 AM, then 8:00 AM the day starts, and you still haven't solved the problem. You're just snowballing it.  But I would say—and those are more operational, ongoing things—so they don't really fit your question of a shortcut to success. To me, that's more the ingredients or material of success, right? But one of the things I would say would be a pattern of success that I’ve seen across hundreds of businesses that I’ve worked with—and that we currently work with—is building a team around you. Almost all of the successful people that I know—and when I say successful, I mean way more successful than I am, with multimillions of income and so forth—and I know a few of these guys… all of them have teams. All of them have people who are experts in certain areas. And almost all of them, to a T, are pretty good at building teams—finding people and putting them together.  And what I would suggest, any business owner, if you are going to think that you are going to become wealthy and do well by doing everything yourself—one, I think you'll fail. I don't know anyone with no team who has achieved strong success. And two, your life’s going to suck. I would say, it’s going to be tough, right? So if I had to choose something—even though I don't like the word “shortcut,” if I’m honest with you, and I know that was a question that was coming up and I did think hard about it, and I kind of feel like I could give you a cheesy one-liner, but that kind of is like nahh. But the reality is, I think our success with our companies is probably my ability to actually find good people. And my philosophy is: hire smart, hardworking people of good character—and then train them.Share on X And if I can find somebody who is smart, hardworking, and of good character, and also has a skill set—that's a bonus. What I'm really looking for are those first three. A smart, hardworking person of character—you can train them, if they have an interest in what they're learning.  So how do you do it? So maybe that's the framework. “Shortcut” is actually—I agree—the wrong word. I meant a business framework.  Okay.  Maybe I shortcutted the expression. So how do you find that smart, hardworking person of character? Do you have specific questions you ask to figure that out?  A lot of what we do is—I'll ask questions around what they've done in past jobs, even past personal lives. I'm not looking for something too narrow—more broad, like: tell me about a situation where you saw something bad happening. What did you do? It’s kind of open-ended, and it’s not telling them the answer. But you know, something bad was happening. Tell me what the bad thing was. And they might say, “Well, it was this kid, and they were drowning in a pool.” Okay—what did you do? Did you run to get someone to help? Did you turn away and walk off? Did you pull out your phone and film it? Or did you jump in and save the kid? What did you do? That gives you an understanding of what kind of person they might be. And then part of it, for me, is I feel I have a decent gauge of whether people are lying to me. Sometimes I don’t get it right, but I feel I have a decent gauge when they’re saying it. In my mind, I'm noting—does this sound like a real story? Does it feel real? Does their face look like they're revisiting that moment that what they’re doing and what they’re telling me? Or does it feel like a story being made up? And then I put that down. And if it’s like, the person said that they jumped into the pool and saved the kid, and I could see the emotion in them and it feels like they revisited, this feels real to me. Check. There would be multiple questions along those lines. It would tell me about a time when maybe you’re ending the day and some things are missing or some things haven’t happened, or blah, blah, blah. What is your thought and what is your plan to address that? And are they going to go back and spend more time working? That might be a good answer—or not. Are they going to note it and handle it first thing in the morning? Or do they say, “Ah, someone else will take care of it”? Getting those kind of answers of how their mind thinks about real world things that they’ve done in the past. Trying to keep it open so it’s not so specific that they say, oh, I’ve never had that experience before gives you an idea of what their character is, right? It also gives you a sense of how hard they work. And I'd say a hard worker should also be balanced with being an organized worker. How organized they are. Are they on top of things? Because I’m okay with you not being such a hard worker, Steve, if you’re very well organized and you get stuff done. You might not be busting your butt, working long hours and saying, Oh my God, I’m working so hard and lots of long hours, but you’re so organized and you’ve got yourself in such good order that you actually outproduce everybody else, because you're more efficient. That, to me, would fall under the hard work category, right? Yeah. Yeah. So a good answer to something wasn’t done that needed to be done, and it’s the end of the day.  A good answer might be, I looked at it and I was like, I can wait until about midday next day. I put it on my list of the first thing that I’m going to do in the morning. Then the next morning I came in, I got it done within 25 minutes, and everything was great. I would look at that and go, okay, that’s not a bad answer. I’m okay with that. As an employer, I care about your work-life-balance. I’m not always looking for somebody who’s prepared to work till midnight every night. That, to me, once in a while is okay. But if I have an employee that’s looking to do that all the time, that’s a problem. Because I know there’s a limitation to that. And then again, when we’re talking about we’re looking at good character, hard work, and smart.  So yes, if they are intelligent, it’s clear. And I'm not going to say, “Hey, here's an algebra test—tell me the answer.” That comes through with the questions, right?  It's common sense. You're looking for common sense—which is not very common. I like it, because essentially you are triggering some signs of authenticity in that person. Are they really showing up? Are they authentic, or are they trying to look like something they're not? And it's a really good filter.  So a lot of times, I think interview questions are like, “Here's a situation—what would you do?” do? Any question like that, especially when you're selecting teammates. And I don’t always have interview with teammates, sometimes the people that I have relationships with and I go and say, I need you to work for my company. I know you well enough. I've experienced you enough—I'm going to bring you in. But during that journey of coming to that conclusion, I'm looking for those qualities. And when you're in an interview and you don't know someone, and you ask a fabricated question—that's a fantasy. They can come back with a fabricated answer—that's also a fantasy.  And most of the time, that's what happens. I’m a pretty good interviewer because my interview, when I’m looking to interview with somebody, not that I’ve done it for a very long time, but let’s say I’m interviewing with something other than work, I dunno what it might be, but maybe something like a school counselor, school for my kid or whatever. And we are interviewing, I’m analyzing what the person who’s asking me the question, I’m trying to figure out what answers they want. And I think anybody with an element of intelligence does the same thing. And you end up giving answers, not necessarily, which are 100% what the interviewer needs to know. The interviewer gets the answer what the interviewee thinks they want to know. And I think when you ask questions that are kind of open-ended, but experiential about what they’ve done in the past, you get a sense of kind of who they truly are. And then the goal is listening to see, to get those cues on.  I always like asking, “Tell me about a time when something bad happened in your life.” Okay—what did you do? That's something you can really work through and get a sense of—are they truthful? Are they emotional? It’s a question I think some people are uncomfortable with, and some interviewers might think, “I don't know about that. What might come up in that interview? I've never had a really terrible answer—like, “I was at the scene of a murder, or blah, blah, blah. I’ve never got that answer. But I've definitely had things like, “I was coaching a team, and one of the players broke their leg.” Okay—what did you do? And they talk me through it, and I'm like, okay, that makes sense. That’s a good answer from a good standpoint. I’ve had stuff like that. So I’m yet to come across a real traumatic story, but what I found is that I can really tell whether or not somebody is telling the truth. And I can get a sense of kind of how they handle really difficult situations.  Okay, Andy, I'd like to switch gears here. What I’m hearing is that you are good at building teams and empowering them. You have a good ability to hire people that have good character—smart and hardworking. What is one thing that you are actively trying to figure out in your business right now?  We've gotten to the point where we have so many moving parts in our business that, sometimes, with our client base, it's overwhelming. There's a lot going on. We've got an AI system with multiple components—it's tremendously useful, a very powerful tool—but it can be overwhelming for a technician, like a baker or a gymnastics coach, who's specialized in something else to suddenly have to take that on. We've got ads, we build websites, we provide consultancy—we've got consultancy, we’ve got all these things that, when tied together, create a really powerful machine. And what we’re trying to do right now is try to figure out how to set expectations and set out how to roll all of the stuff out.  When we first started doing a lot of this in one lump sum, we would almost dump it all on the client within a week of them signing and start working through all these things. And what we found is that it’s quite overwhelming and almost to the point where the client runs away and they don’t actually want to continue. It’s just too much work all at once. So one of the things that we’re working on right now to try to improve our situation is we’ve got a lot of stuff. We’ve built this machine that really helps businesses inside out. But do we have to build every part of that machine in the first three weeks? Clients want things to happen in the first three weeks. We can have things happen in the first three weeks. Do we need everything to happen in the first three weeks? That’s why I said to you, doing everything all the time forever is tough all at once. Right now, we’re actually literally working through a process, talking with the team, working with the team of what’s the order of priority of all these things that we have from the point of view of what’s easy to implement, but maybe not as important, but we can get it implemented within minutes of a client joining. What’s really important, but it takes a long time and trying to prioritize those things. Because all of the smaller things, individually, aren't hugely impactful—but collectively, they are. But we can get them all done in a day. And then some of the things that are singular that have a huge impact, they take a little bit longer. How do we scale this out so we can actually get results very quickly for the client without overwhelming them with all of the stuff? And I think there's a word you've probably heard a lot—sequencing is really important. I think a lot of businesses fall apart because they do things out of sequence. They don’t think about the sequence. They go for the fun, cool thing first, and sometimes that's the worst decision they can make. Right now, we're working through how to properly sequence our onboarding of new clients—to make sure the experience is really positive without overwhelming them. We’re actually getting into a really good place. And some of that is, I mean, most of this is because there is so many things. We have these—like I say—technician business owners, and they come to us and they're amazing at plumbing, but they've got a phone, and that's all they have. So whenever anybody needs to call them to schedule a new job, it rings their phone—and they're under a sink doing work. The phone's ringing. They're like, “Oh, hell,” and they're under the sink. Well, sometimes they don't answer it, or whatever. They've got no system. They’ve got no process to take care of things. And we've got to build all that out, right? And it's so common—and it's totally fine. They’ve been successful in what their technical part of is, but they want more than a job that they own, right? You’ve probably heard that a lot. And they want to start scaling. They want to take vacations without losing income. They want to do all of these things. We can do all that for them—but we can't do it like that. Even though they want it like that, if we do it like that, their brain nukes.  Yeah.  I don’t know if that’s a good answer for you, because that is something that we’re actually working on from a business standpoint of is how to sequence and do things in the right order that allows people to get the best bang for their buck without melting their brains down. Indigestion. Yeah. I don't know who said it—maybe Peter Drucker—but he said most businesses die of indigestion rather than starvation. So that's true. So what drives your business? What is it that helps your business grow? I mean, you mentioned 120 clients. I saw your video—we were talking about 114, 115 clients—so you've been growing since the video.  Yeah.  So what drives your business?  If I’m honest with you, philosophically, what drives us is the failures that we’ve had in the past. My business partner and I—we've had some pretty tough times, going back to that 3:00 AM question. We almost lost our house during the Great Recession. We didn't lose it—we still have it to this day. It's actually a second house now, in Lake Tahoe. We went through times that were quite stressful, difficult, and troublesome for us. I mean, not necessarily nearly as bad as other people have had, probably much tougher times that they’ve had to go through. But I would say what drives us is the fact that we had those tough times. We understand what it’s like to struggle, and we really want to do what we can for a small business owners—mom-and-pop level businesses—avoid those situations. All of our decisions are about how we can make a difference. Again, going to that conversation with that client yesterday that I just mentioned a moment ago, I actually said to them: if you guys decide to leave because of these frustrations that you’ve had, ’cause they had a couple of frustrations, and it was mainly about what I was talking about the everything was getting dumped on them. They were like overwhelmed. There’s lots of stuff happening and they were thinking that it all needed to be happened in one month, but really it was, no, it’s okay if it takes three months for this stuff to get rolled out. And I said to them: if you leave, I'm going to be very disappointed in myself and my team, because of the massive difference we can make in your lives. And that is the driving force for our business—to make a real difference. And the fact that what we've done so far—we're seeing the germination of those really good things. And they agreed. They said, “Yeah, there are some really good things happening. We really like those. We're just frustrated with the amount of stuff going on.” And I'm like, “Well, I think we can spread it out, take the heat off, and make sure things roll out nicely.” That reminded me that the reason our business exists is to help these small businesses be all they can be—to reach for the stars. There are so many very good people who could make a lot of money and do a lot of good things—but their specialty is so focused that they're not rounding out their overall situation.  Especially in gymnastics—we work with a lot of gymnastics coaches. Probably about 60% of our business is kids' activity centers. A lot of kids activity center owners tend to be, they do everything themselves. They put everything on their shoulders, and they don't build out their team—which means they can't scale. So they end up owning a job, not a scalable business. What drives me is: how do we help these small businesses scale, have a better life, reach more people, help more kids, and support their employees? All of that kind of stuff. And people might say, “Oh yeah, sure, Andy—you're like some Mother Teresa figure.” I'm like, no—because my experience is, if we do a really good job of that, the money takes care of itself. A “shortcut,” going back to your earlier question, is: stop thinking about how much money you can make from each customer. Really focus on taking care of that customer. Charge a reasonable rate, and the money will come. If you become well known—if you become a major figure in an industry—that money will come. I'm lucky enough that, in the gymnastics industry and the kids' activity center space, I've become reasonably well known. People I don't know—and I think you become a well-known figure when people you don't know recognize you. You walk into a conference, and people come up and say, “Hi, Andy.” And I'm like, “Oh, okay—I don't know who you are.” I’ve been watching you on this, or I’ve been doing that, I’ve been seeing you talk or speak or blah, blah, blah. I don't think of myself as famous at all, but in some of the niches we work in, I've become well known. And I think that's happened because we care—and we let the money take care of itself.  Andy, our time’s coming to an end, but I'd like to ask—if someone is running an activity-based business, maybe a gym, a swim team, a dance studio, or selling classes—and they want to ramp up their business because everything is on their shoulders and they're a technician—where should they go, and how can they find you? So, like I said, we help plumbers, home service businesses—we've worked with banks, rec centers, kids' activity centers, and all sorts. Where our real specialty is, in a very real way, is pushing the needle for local brick-and-mortar businesses. Obviously, we also have Ashworth Strategy, which we didn't get into—that's our e-commerce brand. But my personal passion is that mom-and-pop business that opens up a storefront. The best way to reach us—regardless of whether you're a plumber or anything else—is to go to creativelydisruptive.com. You might look at it and think, oh, this seems like a whole bunch of kids on here. We do have another brand called highlevelthinkers.com, where we do the same kind of work for home service businesses. So go to creativelydisruptive.com and reach out there. We actually have a little chat square that you can go into and start talking to us and you’ll actually speak to our little AI up here. It knows everything—it's basically like talking to me. It can help you set up a time to speak with one of our team members. We don't have salespeople—we call them business development consultants, because that's really what they do. They'll talk with you and figure out the best way we can help. But basically, in a nutshell, there’s lots of ways to reach out to us. But in my mind, the best and easiest way, just go to creativelydisruptive.com or highlevelthinkers.com, and reach out to us through there using the chat bot, or using the form and just reach out. And we'll help you.  Okay. Well, if you're listening and you're running a local business—whether it's an activity-based business, a mom-and-pop business, or a contracting business—and you'd like to level up, put in systems, and sequence them properly, then reach out to creativelydisruptive.com or highlevelthinkers.com. yep.  And then you can connect with Andy—or the chatbot, if he's sleeping—and it'll get back to you.  The chatbot's probably a much more fun conversation.  It could be. You can listen to the podcast and use the chat at the same time, so you get the best of both worlds. So thank you, Andy, for sharing your experiences and being very vulnerable. And if you, as our audience, enjoyed listening to this, then stay tuned—because every week I have an entrepreneur sharing, not necessarily shortcuts, but good frameworks that can help your business. So thanks for coming, Andy, and thank you for listening.  Thank you. It’s been a pleasure. Important Links: David's LinkedIn David's website https://highlevelthinkers.com/

We are thrilled to announce our newest monthly segment “Breakthrough with Michael” with Michael Opyd. Mike Opyd brings hard-earned experience to the table, having started in 2009 during the Great Recession with just $2,000 and no safety net, eventually building a $200M brokerage and becoming a top producer in Chicago. Now a full-time coach, he specializes in helping agents at every level break through plateaus with real-world strategies rooted in his own journey. In this segment, one agent gets coached live on the podcast, no scripts, no filters, walking in with a challenge and leaving with a clear, actionable plan. It's a raw, honest look at the conversations agents need but rarely get to have, with thousands of listeners learning alongside them. Ready to break through what's holding you back? Apply now for your chance to be coached live on the show. Spots are limited to just one agent per month, so don't wait – apply today. This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and Courted.io.