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You don't need luck to double your consulting business. It's possible for you, and even to double your revenue without working more.In this episode, I share the behind-the-scenes of how one consultant went from plateauing at $258K to generating $514K, without working more hours.This isn't a theory or case study. It's a real-life client example.You'll hear the five business shifts that made this growth possible and how each one can apply to your business right now, regardless of whether you're at $150K or already at a million.The key theme?Growth didn't come from overworking. It came from commitment, capacity, discipline, and a willingness to challenge how he saw himself as a business owner.If you've been hovering at the same revenue for months or years, this episode gives you a path to break through your plateau.What you will learn in this episode:[06:40] The mindset shift that unlocks consistent revenue growth (and why many consultants unknowingly stall out right before the breakthrough)[08:55] How to value your capacity and stop undervaluing your time, even if you don't bill hourly[12:15] The internal identity shift from executor to advisor and how it changes everything about your business model[17:50] Why quarterly targets helped normalize higher revenue (and how to stop operating from a corporate salary mindset)[21:30] How to refine your demand engine without piling on more tactics so you're not relying on hope or luck to fill your pipelineTune into Episode 255 to see what doubling the revenue of your independent consulting business can actually look like and how these same principles can apply at any revenue level.Mentioned ResourcesCompanion Resource: Download the Double Your Consulting Business Workbook, https://www.melisaliberman.com/double Full Show Notes: https://shownotes.melisaliberman.com/episode-255Melisa's Books, Planners & Journals: https://linktr.ee/melisalibermanMentioned in this Episode:Join the Lead Gen Sprint Waitlist - www.ConsultantSprint.comEpisode 060 – The 3 Sales Mindset Shifts for Independent Consultants, https://shownotes.melisaliberman.com/?s=60 ️Episode 061 – What's Standing In the Way of You Making More Money With Less Worry In Your Consulting Business, https://shownotes.melisaliberman.com/episode-61/#more-1297 Episode 200 - What's Possible for your Consulting Business, https://shownotes.melisaliberman.com/episode-200/#more-2584 Want help achieving your consulting business goals? Melisa can help. Click here for more on coaching tailored to you as an independent consulting business owner.
Episode 274Menace is back, and we're going full wrestling nostalgia while keeping one eye on modern WWE.In this episode we talk about growing up watching WWE pay-per-views on grainy TVs, adjusting antennas, and hoping the cable didn't cut out during the main event. From those memories to WWE Unreal Season 2 on Netflix, we connect the past to the present and talk about what keeps us hooked.We break down this weekend's Royal Rumble, share our predictions, and discuss who we think could win — plus possible surprise appearances that could shake everything up.This episode is for anyone who:Grew up watching wrestling with friends or familyStill remembers scrambled PPV channels and VHS tapesLoves Royal Rumble season and fantasy bookingEnjoys mixing nostalgia with today's WWE conversationOld-school memories, modern wrestling, and the moments that turned us into lifelong fans.
Clear aligner orthodontics is evolving rapidly, and Angel Aligner is making waves in the North American market. On this episode of the Golden Age of Orthodontics podcast, hosts Dr. Leon Klempner and Amy Epstein welcome Jason Tabb, VP and GM of Angel Aligner North America, to discuss digital orthodontics, aligner treatment capabilities, and competitive market differentiation. Jason shares insights on Angel Aligner's innovative approach to complex cases, including mandibular advancement, unique aligner buttons, and digital workflow improvements. The conversation also addresses intellectual property concerns and how orthodontic practices can leverage aligner technology to enhance efficiency and patient outcomes.What you will Learn in this Episode:How Angel Aligner has rapidly scaled in the North American market through orthodontic innovation and responsive case setup designThe latest aligner technology advancements, including integrated aligner buttons, Angel Hook, and dual-material aligner systems for complex casesStrategies for orthodontic practices to improve efficiency with digital workflow solutions and treatment planning toolsHow to evaluate aligner treatment options based on clinical performance, turnaround times, and market differentiationSubscribe to the Golden Age of Orthodontics and our sister podcast, Practice Talk, hosted by Lacey Ellis, wherever you listen to stay updated on orthodontic innovation and real-world practice strategies. Visit People in Practice for more insights and to connect with our team for practice growth solutions.TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Amy shares the upcoming guest schedule and invites listeners to the Practice Talk podcast04:11 Jason Tabb discusses Angel Aligner's entry strategy and why orthodontists responded to their market differentiation08:53 Latest aligner technology innovations, including aligner buttons, Angel Button, Angel Hook, and mandibular advancement systems13:56 Addressing intellectual property concerns and Angel Aligner's commitment to fair competition15:44 Future of digital orthodontics and how aligner treatment improves practice efficiencyKEY TAKEAWAYS: Angel Aligner differentiates through ease of doing business, consistent case setup quality, and specialized solutions for complex cases, including mandibular advancement, premolar extraction, and molar distalizationThe aligner button and Angel Hook innovations are integrated directly into aligners, reducing emergency visits and enabling treatment planning for challenging Class II and Class III cases with aligner therapyDigital orthodontics investments typically show ROI within 12-18 months as orthodontic practices gain workflow efficiency, treat larger patient loads, and meet growing patient demand for clear aligner orthodonticsABOUT THE GUEST:Angel Aligner - Website
This week on A Novel Console, Chris unearths a long forgotten recording from the unedited episodes folder and presents to you the amazing boys from Lorey Time! Zak and Danny come on to talk about the formative games they played growing up! Lorey Time: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zsTa5uiDZNRdm5pU3cxKU?si=PZlZ4o2MTkeKY7J71xOFpQSell us your games: consolesnstuff.comYou can contact us at:anovelconsole@gmail.comFacebook.com/anovelconsoleTwitter.com/anovelconsoleInstagram: @anovelconsolePatreon.com/anovelconsoleOther Streaming Platforms:anovelconsole.carrd.coGet more shows like this at Superpodnetwork.comSupport the show
What if hearing God speak to you in the last row of a church saved you from losing everything? In this episode, James Brown shares how he helps professional service business owners scale their businesses without sacrificing their lives through Business Accelerator Institute and Perseverance Squared. After launching his first business in 1994 and rapidly expanding to $8M in annual revenue, James transitioned to coaching in 2014 and has now guided over 450 business owners to significant growth. He launched Small Law Firm University, growing it to $3 million in revenue within a year, and developed a CMO program generating an additional $2 million annually. James holds a Business degree from Lindenwood University (1989) and JD from St. Louis University (1993). In 2009, he was selected as one of America's Top 20 Premier Experts and featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. James believes all businesses have the same seven working parts, and the only difference is what they sell. James reveals three relationships that transformed him: his wife Sherry, whom he's known since age three when they met in her mom's beauty salon, who believed in him when everyone else said he couldn't achieve his dreams and stood by him through 41 years including his darkest moments; his mentor Darrell Castle, a Memphis-based lawyer who taught him to reject the "cookie cutter" approach and build a business on his own terms, showing him that all businesses share seven working parts regardless of what they sell; and God, whom he encountered in March 2015 after hitting rock bottom (drinking excessively, making terrible choices, nearly losing everything) when a random stranger invited him to church where he heard God speak to him in the last row as the only white person in an all-Black congregation, completely transforming his perspective and leading him to sell his law firm to help other business owners build lives of purpose. [00:04:20] What James Does at Business Accelerator Institute Helps owners of professional service businesses scale predictably and profitably Focuses on building businesses that serve owners, not the other way around Has helped over 450 business owners achieve this transformation [00:05:20] The Defining Moment with His Wife Second year in business, struggling financially, client asked for refund Wife said: "At the end of the day, you do what's right and everything else will follow" That statement still resonates 30 years later and drives his mission to help more people [00:07:20] How Clients Find Him Primarily word of mouth and brand touches through Interview Valet (on 40 podcasts this year) Results speak for themselves without traditional marketing Recent client: 69-year-old Alabama lawyer practicing 50 years, never broke $500K, just hit $1M this year [00:11:00] The Unorthodox Path to Success Known wife Sherry since age three, met in her mom's beauty salon Parents married at 16, kicked James out at 19 when he announced marriage Told his whole childhood he was "too heavy" to do things, couldn't play sports Made varsity football first year as junior, played four years (nobody in family graduated college) [00:12:40] Working His Way Through Law School Got job at General Motors assembly line, 6 AM to 2:30 PM, went to school 4 PM to 11 PM for 10 years Right before graduating law school, GM announced plant closure Sent out 300 resumes, got zero responses with three kids (ages 5, 2, and 1) Forced to start business by necessity, not by choice [00:14:00] Meeting Mentor Darrell Castle Lawyers conditioned that marketing is "beneath them" Darrell taught him to look at business differently, be different Showed him all businesses have same seven working parts (only difference is what they sell) Set up business around not working past 4:30 PM from day one [00:15:40] Building the $8M Law Practice First rule: Business open till 7 PM and Saturdays, but James wasn't there Hired people and built systems so business ran without him Grew to $8 million annually with offices in four different states [00:16:40] The Dark Years: Getting Too Big for His Britches Started making bad choices despite success (never drank until his 40s) First drink was Irish car bomb followed by 10 kamikaze shots Started spending money on wrong things, went to strip clubs, cheated on wife Wife and him separated, she went on cruise with daughter [00:18:20] The Divine Encounter That Changed Everything March 2015: Drunk at wine bar, random stranger invited him to church next morning Went to that church by himself Sunday morning, sat in last row Only white person in all-Black church, heard God speak to him Never saw that stranger again (believes he was an angel) [00:19:40] The Wake-Up Call Wife told him: "God gives you hints, and if you don't listen, at some point He's going to slap you across the face" Nearly lost everything (wife, business, all going downhill) That March 2015 moment was most influential person: God Decided to sell law firm and start helping other business owners [00:20:20] The Leap of Faith Worked for another company making $330,000 a year coaching business owners 2018: At conference in Jacksonville, told them he was leaving, called wife from airport Goal: Get nine private clients in 60 days to replace income (took nine days) First year did just under $1 million in business [00:22:40] The Catalyst Moments After coaching calls, often sits there thinking "who was that guy?" Works with business owners from $250K to $100M annually Stopped questioning who he is to coach $100M business owners Been blessed with certain gifts and has faith they will continue [00:24:00] The Lesson of Not Labeling Setbacks Example: Payroll in two days is $15K, only $1K in operating account Freaking out keeps you from being creative and finding solutions Takes everything as exactly as it's meant to be and learns from it [00:27:40] The Live Event Revelation $10M, $50M, $100M business owners at tables with under-$500K owners Big business owners worried they wouldn't learn from "smaller" ones $50M and $100M owners took just as many notes (smaller businesses still nimble and innovative) Realized everyone can gain something from each other regardless of revenue size [00:30:00] When Is Enough, Enough? Just turned 60, my wife asked "when is enough, enough?" The Mastermind member asked: "What's your goal?" Answer: "To help people" "How many people on the planet? Are you ever gonna run out of people to help?" Never gonna run out (also volunteers through Red Cross deploying to disasters) [00:32:00] Building Business Accelerator Institute Can only work with so many people one-on-one before hitting bandwidth Goal: Give business owners Harvard-level business degree without Harvard-level dollars Over 55 four-week courses addressing all seven parts of business $249/month, includes two-hour open office hours every Wednesday [00:35:00] Final Wisdom: You're the Average of the Five Don't pay attention to what other people say, surround yourself with people who inspire you "You're the average of the five people you hang out with the most—and it's true" Example: Son played goalie since age 5, adapted performance to level of teammates around him Hang around like-minded individuals who inspire you to go where you want to go KEY QUOTES "At the end of the day, you do what's right and everything else will follow." - Sherry Brown "All businesses have the same seven working parts. Literally the only thing that's different is what we sell. The concept of running a very successful business and scaling it is simple. I'm very intentional with that word. I'm never gonna say it's easy, but the concept is simple." - James Brown CONNECT WITH JAMES BROWN
In this episode of the Influence Global Podcast, Gordon Glenister is joined by Charlie Hills, one of LinkedIn's fastest-growing content creators. Charlie shares his journey from the intensity of a traditional nine-to-five role to taking the leap into full-time content creation, explaining the discipline, consistency and personal risk involved in making that transition. The conversation explores how Charlie built an audience of over 180,000 followers by focusing on authenticity, clear points of view and content that genuinely resonates, rather than chasing trends. He also discusses the growing role of AI in content creation and why human personality, quirks and lived experience will become even more valuable as synthetic content increases. Listeners will gain practical insights into personal branding, creator sustainability and why showing up as a real human is now a competitive advantage in the attention economy. Follow Charlie on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-hills Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Send us a textWhat if growing your story views had nothing to do with posting more and everything to do with how you show up?In this episode, I'm breaking down how I grew my story views by over 1,000 new people while taking time off. Not by being online constantly. Not by forcing engagement. And not by doing anything complicated. I'm sharing what actually creates momentum in Stories, why people stick around, and how this shift changes the way your audience interacts with you long-term.Join the Growth Lounge - https://www.brittneyceo.com/growthGet My 7 Figure Guide: https://brittney-ceo.mykajabi.com/offers/fbKnBwSM/checkoutGet my FREE weekly biz babe moves straight to your inboxhttps://view.flodesk.com/pages/624b64b2a15594c239cada7bJoin my Facebook Grouphttps://www.facebook.com/groups/131279237732613Follow me on Ig @brittneyceo for my daily life, hot biz tips, and morehttps://www.instagram.com/brittneyceo/
Why Your Podcast Isn't Growing: A Get More Listeners Podcast For Podcasters
Ever wonder why your podcast isn't growing—even though you're posting great content consistently?If you've been stuck with slow podcast growth, declining momentum, or flat monthly downloads, this episode reveals the hidden reason most podcasters never see. The truth is, content alone doesn't drive discovery—and believing it does may be quietly burying your show. In this episode, Anthony and Taig break down the exact Podcast SEO shift that helped podcasters go from invisible to discoverable on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.In this episode, you'll discover:How Podcast SEO helps you rank on Apple & Spotify so new listeners find you every monthWhy podcast growth stalls even with great content—and how to fix it fastThe simple system that increases monthly downloads without social media or big-name guestsIf you want predictable podcast growth, higher monthly downloads, and a system that works while you sleep, this episode will completely change how you think about growing a podcast.More From Get More Listeners:Click here and grab your free copy of our best selling book Podcast Marketing + A mini podcast audit.Or visit: https://getmorelisteners.com/bookView client results & case studiesLooking for a new hosting platform with amazing analytics? Try Captivate for free hereEmail admin@getmorelisteners.com to get in contact with Taig & Anthony.This podcast is for entrepreneurs to learn proven podcasting audience growth, marketing & monetization tips & strategies including data-driven SEO, guesting, and social media strategy.You'll learn how to grow and monetize faster, get more listeners and engagement, increase downloads, attract more subscribers, clients or sponsors, and turn your show into a revenue-generating platform.If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll ours too! Podcasting Made Simple by Alex Sanfilippo, Grow The Show: How to Grow a Podcast Audience & Monetize by Kevin Chemidlin, School of Podcasting by Dave Jackson, Grow My Podcast Show by Deirdre Tshien, Podcast Marketing Trends Explained by Jeremy Enns & Justin Jackson, Organic Marketing Simplified by Juliana Barbati.
In this episode, W G Williams takes us inside the moment he stopped chasing agents, embraced a hybrid publisher, and brought 20 Years of Internet Humor and Other Interesting Things to life without losing the warmth that kept readers coming back for decades.We explore the nuts and bolts: sourcing stories from readers, editing for clarity and broad appeal, and verifying originality rather than recycling copyrighted material from the web. Bill walks through why he organizes nearly 200 entries alphabetically to keep tone and topics varied, how he credits contributors for transparency, and why short, self-contained stories make the book perfect for five-minute reading sprints. He shares candid lessons on marketing as an author-operator—leveraging word of mouth, live events, simple social posts, and the power of online retail to attract new readers and even new publishing offers after the fact.You'll also hear how Bill balances a full-time career with a daily creative routine, stays a week ahead on content, and plans themed volumes dedicated to kids, aging, marriage, and more. If you've wondered whether hybrid publishing can be both rigorous and empowering, or how micro-stories can cut through a loud news cycle with a little levity and a lot of heart, this conversation offers a practical blueprint and a gentle nudge to keep going.Have a comment? Text me! Support the show
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Bob is a serial entrepreneur who founded MobileIron, grew it to $150M in revenue, and took it public. Now, he's back with his fourth startup, BlueRock, tackling the next massive wave: agentic AI security.In this episode, Bob breaks down the distinct difference between finding Product-Market Fit and finding Go-To-Market Fit—and why confusing the two can kill your company. He shares the exact questions he asked early customers to pivot from a generic mobile idea to a billion-dollar enterprise solution, the painful transition from founder-led sales to a repeatable playbook, and why he believes agentic AI is the "mobile wave" all over again.Why You Should ListenWhy asking "what else is bothering you?" can uncover real pain points.Why finding Product-Market Fit might actually increase your burn rate.Why founder-led sales often fail to scale and what to do about it.How to use a "Deal Grind" session to turn anecdotal sales wins into a scientific Go-To-Market machine.Why identifying the right tech wave matters more than your initial idea.Keywordsstartup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, go to market fit, enterprise sales, founder led sales, mobileiron, agentic AI, cybersecurity startup, bob tinker00:00:00 Intro00:03:17 Talk to Customers Before Writing Code00:15:28 Why Finding PMF Can Increase Burn Without Growth00:17:51 The Founder "Magic Pixie Dust" Trap00:25:34 The Deal Grind Exercise00:31:43 From 1M to 80M ARR in 4 Years00:32:54 Why Agentic AI is the Next Mobile Wave00:38:30 The Famous Sequoia Tombstone Meeting00:40:17 The Magic Question: What Else is Bothering You?Send me a message to let me know what you think!
Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott explains how Rob and Michele Reiner became trapped in a cycle of crisis and normalization with their son Nick that lasted 30 years and ended in tragedy.Sources say the family had "grown used to" Nick's alarming behavior. At Conan O'Brien's party the night before the murders, other guests considered calling 911—but the Reiners just apologized and left. They paid for 18-plus rehab stays. Michele reportedly said "we've tried everything." And Nick lived in their guest house until the night he allegedly killed them.Shavaun breaks down the psychology of families who normalize behavior that would alarm strangers, how mentally ill individuals learn to manipulate the people who love them, and why unlimited resources couldn't save the Reiners. We also examine what happens to surviving family members after a parricide and why Nick's siblings reportedly oppose the death penalty.#NickReiner #RobReiner #TrueCrimeToday #FamilyDynamics #MentalHealth #Psychology #ShavaunScott #Enabling #ReinerCaseJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspodInstagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/tonybpodListen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.
A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight's Host Miko Lee speaks with authors who have used their personal lives to tell their stories. They both talk and write about trauma, joy and resilience but in two very different ways. First up she chats with Chanel Miller. Many folx might know of Chanel's best selling first book Know My Name which expands on the powerful victim impact letter she wrote to Brock Turner who brutally sexually assaulted her on the Stanford Campus. We talk about her latest work – two delightful books for young people. Then Miko talks with Kazu Haga who weaves his spiritual practice and trauma healing with a deep lineage of nonviolent social change. In his books, Fierce Vulnerability and Healing Resistance he shares with us his personal journey and offers some insightful visions for our current tumultuous world. Links to the Author's work: Kazu Haga Fierce Vulnerability Kinship Lab, Chanel Miller Chanel Miller The Moon Without Stars Purchase Chanel's books at East Wind Books and Kazu's books at Parallax Press SHOW TRANSCRIPT APEX Opening: Apex Express. Asian Pacific Expression. Community and cultural coverage. Music and calendar. New visions and voices. Coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express. Miko Lee: Good evening. Welcome to apex express. This is your host, Miko Lee. Join us as you hop along the apex express. Tonight I speak with authors who have used their personal lives to tell their stories. They both talk and write about trauma, joy, and resilience, but in two very different and distinct ways. First up, I chat with Chanel Miller. Many folks might know of Chanel's bestselling first book Know My Name, which expands on the powerful victim impact letter she wrote to Brock Turner, who brutally sexually assaulted her on the Stanford campus. But tonight we talk about her latest work, two delightful books for young people. And then I talk with Kazu Haga, who weaves his spiritual practice and trauma healing with a deep lineage of nonviolent social change. In his books Fierce vulnerability and Healing Resistance, he shares with us his personal journey and offers some insightful visions for our current tumultuous world. First off, listen to my conversation with Chanel Miller. Welcome, author Chanel Miller to Apex Express. Chanel Miller: Thank you so much for having me. It's a delight to be here with you. Miko Lee: I'm really excited to talk to you, and I wanna start with my first question, which I ask all of my guests, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Chanel Miller: Oh, I have so many people. Today, you're my people who continue to help guide me forward. I grew up in the Bay Area and I feel like honestly all of my books are attempts at saying thank you to the people who raised me, the English teachers in my public schools. For helping me stay aligned with myself and never letting me drift too far. And so even though I tell very different stories for different demographics, I think if you look at the root of everything that I write, it's gratitude because they are the people who protected my voice in the first place. Miko Lee: Thank you so much. So we're talking about your third book. Your first book was amazing. Know my name, which is really powerful memoir about surviving sexual assault at Stanford, and this incredible public reclamation of your voice. And then you move from that very personal, internal, very adult work to your second book, which was so lovely and sweet. Magnolia Woo unfolds it all, which was an illustrated book set New York about a little girl and her friend who reunite people with their lost socks. From this all the way to this young person's book and your latest book, the Moon Without Stars, your second, YA novel is based in middle school. So talk to me a little bit about this journey from personal memoir to elementary school to middle school books. Chanel Miller: Yeah, so like you said, the first book was so internal and gutting to write. I knew I needed. Something that would help me breathe a little easier and get in touch with playfulness again. I wrote Magnolia Woo Unfolds it all. It's perfect for kids ages seven to 12. My goal was just to enjoy the process of writing and story making. And it was confusing because I thought if I'm not, you know, during the memoir, I would be like crying while I was writing and it was just taking everything out of me. And I was like, if I'm not actively upset. Is the writing even good? Like, like, you know, does it count? And it turns out, yes, you can still create successful stories and have a good time. So I did that book for myself really. And the kid in me who always wanted to, who was always, writing stories unprompted. Like you said, it was a book about a sock detective and pursuing socks makes no sense. It's almost impossible to return a missing sock in New York City. But I loved the idea of these. This little girl in pursuit of something, even if she doesn't know what the outcome will be. Right. It's just trying even if you're not promised a reward, I love this. And for me it's like I keep attempting to love my reality, right? Attempting to go out into the world with an exploratory lens rather than a fearful one. And so that was very healing for me. After I finished that book, I spent the next year writing this new book, the Moon Without Stars. It's for slightly older kids, like you said in middle school. So my protagonist Luna, is 12 years old and she's biracial like me, goes to middle school in Northern California like I did in Palo Alto. I was just reflecting on my. Upbringing, I would say, and really sitting back and letting memories come to the surface. Trying to see how much, was just unexplored. And then sitting down to, to figure out what it all meant that I remembered all of these things. Miko Lee: So how much of Luna is inspired by Chanel? Chanel Miller: A fair amount, I'd say. And it's not always an intentional, I think fiction deals a lot with the subconscious and you end up writing about yourself on accent luna in the book. She is the campus book doctor, is what I call it. Because when kids are going through something, they'll come to her and she'll prescribe them a book that'll help them for whatever phase of life they're going through. And I know for me from a very young age, I loved reading, writing, and drawing. It's all that I ever wanted to do and I was so mad in school that we had six different subjects and you know, the Bay Area was very tech. Centered, STEM centered. And so I felt all this pressure even through high school to take AP Science classes. In retrospect, I thought, why was I trying so hard to be good at it? Everything. This is impossible. And so for Luna, I own her gifts early. And understand that they were gifts at all. The fact that she loves to read and then she shares her gifts and she takes pride in the things that she's passionate about. She's not ashamed that she's not so hot about math. Miko Lee: So the hating math part is a little Chanel inspired also. Chanel Miller: The hating math part is fully me. I'm sorry to say. Miko Lee: No worries. I think that stereotype about Asians and math is so highly overrated. I'm wondering if there was a Scott for you, a bestie that was also an outcast, if there was someone like that for you when you were growing up. Chanel Miller: Yeah, so in the book, Luna is best friends with Scott. They've been friends since childhood, and as Luna starts to get more attention, their relationship is threatened and it begins to dissolve. I was really interested in how, Luna obviously loves Scott as a friend and she would never. Mean to hurt him, right? It's not inflicting intentional emotional pain, but Scott gets very hurt. I think about how sometimes when we're growing up, we get drawn to certain crowds or paid a kind of attention and we have this longing to be desired to fit in. we sometimes make choices that we're not very proud of, but this is a part of it, right? And so I wanted Luna to reckon with maybe some of the emotional harm she's causing and not run away from it. But also think about like, why am I making these choices and what is important to me? We're all kind of constantly reevaluating our value systems, trying to keep our relationships alive, like this is, starts at a very young age and I wanted her to learn some of the self gifts that maybe I didn't give myself when I was that age. Miko Lee: So in a way, she's a little bit of a remedy for your young self or a gift to your young self. Do you think? Chanel Miller: Oh, that's a nice way of putting it. Yeah, I would definitely say so. I think all writing is, is remedy in some form, at least for me, but I like the, it being a gift to little Chanel. Miko Lee: It's been compared to the classic. Are you there god, it's me, Margaret? What is it like for you to hear that? Chanel Miller: It's an honor, obviously. I think what's most stunning is a lot of the themes that were contested in that book. You know, talking about bodily changes, menstruation like. A lot of that is still kind of hush hush, and I'm surprised by the things that haven't changed , or how our society hasn't completely evolved. I really wanted middle school so hard physically, emotionally, and. It can feel so humiliating that you're trying to solve a lot of your issues in private, and I wanted to take the shame out of it as quickly as possible and just say, this is a universal experience. Everyone goes through these things. It's totally okay to talk about it, even if books get banned. Find a way, find your people. Find a way to have these conversations. Miko Lee: For me, it's so much better than, are you there? God, it's me, Margaret, because it's set in a contemporary. There's a young biracial Asian American girl who's a outcast and really it's about belonging and getting your first period and all the things you have to go through in middle school. That seems really. Relatable for a young woman in our society. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. I read it really quick one night, easily read 'cause it's so lovely. I'm wondering about your process because you illustrated, your last book and then also the cover of this book. And on the cover it's sweet because it has all these cute little zines that she writes about are encapsulated on the cover of the book, which you only realize after you read it. I'm wondering for you as an artist, what comes first in the story, the image or the words? Chanel Miller: That's a great question. Yeah. I like to illustrate my books. Sometimes I'll think of a, something I do wanna draw and then think, how can I build a story around that, or like a visually rich scene. Then I come up with writing to allow myself to draw the thing. Other times I will just write, but I, I will say that when I'm writing, I never have a plot. I'm not an outliner. I am very much an explorer. I'm okay with not knowing for long periods of time where the book is gonna go, what it's about , and how it's gonna end. I don't know any of these things. And luckily I have a very gracious, agent and editor and my editor. I had two editors, Jill and Juan, and they let me just submit chunks of writing for six months. Scenes that didn't go together, that were completely out of order , to show them I'm attempting to build this world and this school full of kids, but I don't know how it's all gonna play out yet. And then after six months, we had enough material to, to begin to identify like who the primary characters were gonna be, what the essential conflict was gonna be. I'm saying this because I want people to know that you don't have to know much before you sit down to write. And the knowing comes with the practice of doing every day, and then slowly things start to reveal themselves. Miko Lee: Oh, I appreciate that. So you don't have a linear timeframe. You kind of just let things come to you. Sometimes they're in images, sometimes they're in words. Chanel Miller: Yes. And then your job is to capture them and be curious about them and then make more until you have enough. Then you can edit, but you edit too early, you're gonna , kill the spirit of the thing. Miko Lee: When do you know you have enough? Chanel Miller: When you fulfill the word count in your contract? No, no, I think it's, it's like you can. Sort of start to feel things click into place or a voice is emerging that's very strong. Even Scott know, Luna's best friend, I didn't have him at the very beginning, I don't think originally. Originally, I think Luna had a sister. It was gonna be a sister book, and then it became a friend. You're just open to it evolving, and then suddenly you're like, oh, I can, I can see this relationship. Can see them existing within the structure. It feels more real to you and at that point you can just go in and start revising Miko Lee: Did you create images for know my name? Chanel Miller: I actually tried to, at the very end, I made a bunch of drawings and I said, can we put these at the start of each chapter? And my editor, who's incredible, she said, you know, when I look at your drawings, they have a different voice than your writing voice. And I was like, that is true. Like, that's a great critique. So instead I went to New York, they were like about to send the book to print and I was like, okay, but I need like one drawing. They said, okay, if you can do it at lunch, like have it done by the end of lunch, we'll put it in the acknowledgement. So I dedicated the book to my family and. I sat at the desk and just did this little, these four little creatures that represented my immediate family and cut it outta my notebook. They scanned it in and sent it off to print with a book. So I did get, I did get it. Miko Lee: And how is the illustrator's voice different from the author's voice? Chanel Miller: The illustrator's voice can be very loose, whimsical, playful, whereas the writing, you know, was so measured and heavy and intentional, and so. I liked that edit, and I also, my editor was confident that I would have more opportunities in the future to write and draw, whereas I felt so vulnerable. It's my first book, it's my only chance to say or do anything, but that's not true. Now I understand like I have time to make all kinds of things. You don't have to shove it all into one project. Miko Lee: And are these, more youth-focused books? Do you feel like that's more a combination of your illustrator and your author voice? Chanel Miller: Totally. The medium like allows you to do both. It kind of asks for images also. Who knows, maybe, I still wanna write, contemporary fiction for adults and maybe I'll adults like visuals too. Absolutely. Miko Lee: Absolutely. Yeah. I'm wondering what you want young readers to walk away with after reading the, your latest book. Chanel Miller: Things smooth out in really unexpected ways. And that you can never truly mess up. Like I messed up so many times growing up or would get a really bad grade. I really would think like, this is the end. Like my future just disappeared. I just can't recover from this, and I always would, and I'm here now, like there, there are so many times I guess, that I thought my life was totally and completely over and, it was never the case. Sure, life could be sour for a bit, or you could be really stressed out, but it's not the end. Different things will change. People will be introduced to help you. Like you just keep showing up in whatever way you can. You won't be stuck in that place. It's been a nice thing to learn, as you get older. I just remember when I felt young, it felt so impossible sometimes, and I promise it's not, Miko Lee: I imagine that with Know my name. Many people came up with you, survivors came up and shared their stories with you, and I'm wondering if that was the same with your second book, if people came up and just told stories about, being a kid detective or what their, if it brought things up for them in a totally different realm. Chanel Miller: Oh yeah, absolutely. In the book, Magnolia's parents are Chinese and, , they're working at a laundromat and a customer comes in and there's, microaggressions happen and, I think with microaggressions you can always. Justify them in your head and say, it's not as bad as explicit violence or something, where it's not a truly a crime. And so you kind of push them to the side, push them to the side, but over time, like they do really stick with you and they're so hurtful and they accumulate and they're not okay to begin with. And I wanted my little character, Magnolia to. Just feel that anger that I often suppress and be like, it's not okay for people to talk to you like that. Like we are allowed to say something about it. It's dehumanizing and it's unacceptable. I wanted to give her the opportunity to confront that emotion and really express what, how it made her feel. Miko Lee: You're just starting your book tour right now. Is that right? For the Moon Without Stars. Chanel Miller: My book comes out January 13th. I'll go on a two week book tour. I'll have two stops in the Bay area. One at, book passage in Cord Madera. One in Los Altos at a church. It's sponsored by Linden Tree Books. We're just doing the event offsite, so if you're in the bay and wanna come say hello, please do that. Miko Lee: Yay. Excited to hear about that. I'm curious, I'm really curious what kind of stories people will tell you about their kind of middle school bully experience or their standing up to bullies and wanting to be in the popular crowd and what's that like? It's such a common middle school experience. Chanel Miller: I'm just really happy that people like have the opportunity to remember, 'cause it's not what we talk about every day. I just love that things are coming up for people and you're like, wow, I never would've thought about that or. I, I, that's why writing is so fun. You get to remember. Miko Lee: It's definitely not what we talk about every day, but definitely that middle school time really, helps shape who we are as adults. That's a really tough time because there's so many hormones going crazy in your body. So many changes that I think a lot of people have big feelings about middle school. Tell us what's next for you. Chanel Miller: I still love writing middle grade like this age is so sweet. It's so rich, emotionally rich. I would like to do something that's, you know, this one was more contemporary realism and I would love to do something that, not pure fantasy, but like breaks the rules of reality a little bit. Just really see where my imagination can go. A little magical realism perhaps. Yeah, absolutely. Miko Lee: I would just encourage you, I really love the Scott and Luna characters and seeing them patch their relationship up in high school as friends and how they can grow. Oh, I think would be a really sweet story also, and how they could explore maybe through magical realism. Some of the, book Doctors Zine World would be fun. Yeah. Yeah. I like those characters, is what I'm saying. I think there's more to come outta those characters and their friendship. Chanel Miller: Oh, that's really sweet. You don't wanna say goodbye to them yet. Miko Lee: Yeah, that's right. Well, it has been a delight chatting with you. Thank you so much for sharing your stories and your work and it's very powerful. Appreciate chatting with you. Chanel Miller: I really appreciate the platform you provide and how you're making room for these genuine conversations. So thank you so much. Jalena Keane-Lee: Next up, listen to blues scholars ode to Yuri Kochiyama. That was Blue Scholars, Ode to Yuri Kochiyama. Miko Lee: Yuri Koyama said, we are all part of one another, and that relates so well to my conversation with author, organizer and teacher Kazu Haga. Welcome, Kazu Haga to Apex Express. I'm so glad to have you with us. Kazu Haga: Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Miko Lee: I'm gonna start with a question that I ask all of my guests because I'm a curious person, and my question is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Kazu Haga: Oh, wow. Well, when you ask the second question, the immediate response is that I am Japanese. There's a lot of important legacies that come with that. Of course there's so much of my Japanese ancestry that I'm proud of and want to continue to deepen in and understand better. But I'm also aware that, you know, being Japanese, I come from colonizer people, right? And I'm so aware of the. Harm that my ancestors caused to so many people, whether dating back all the way to indigenous. I knew people in Japan, or a lot of the violence that my ancestors committed during the war to Zan Korean communities and Chinese communities and Filipino communities. I feel like in addition to all the beauty and the amazing things that I love about Japanese culture, that's a legacy that I carry with me and a lot of my work has to do with trying to understand what it means to carry that legacy and what it means to try to heal from that legacy and how I take that approach into my own personal life as well as into my activist work. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for recognizing that history and sharing a little bit about your path. I can see so much of how that turns up in your work. So I've had the pleasure of reading your two latest two books. I'm sure there'll be many more to come, I hope. Can you speak a little bit about what inspired you to create healing resistance? Kazu Haga: Yeah, so healing resistance is my interpretation of a set of teachings called kingian non-violence, and it's a philosophy that was based on the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King. And I have the great privilege to have been mentored by a lot of elders who work very closely with Dr. King and were some of the most instrumental leaders in the civil Rights movement. I started my kind of activist career back in 1999 or something like that when I was 18, 19 years old. And for the longest time, the word non-violence didn't have a lot of meaning to me. But when I was 28 years old, I think I took this two-day workshop on this philosophy called King Non-Violence, and that two-day workshop just completely changed my life forever. I thought after 10 years of doing nothing but social justice movement building work, that I had some idea of what the word non-violence meant and some idea of who Dr. King was. But that two day workshop taught me that I knew nothing about what the word non-violence meant. Since I took that workshop, I feel like I've been on this never ending journey to better understand what it means to practice non-violence and incorporate that as a value into my life. And so healing resistance is, yeah, just my spin on the teachings of Dr. King told through the stories of my life experiences. Miko Lee: I really appreciated how you wove together your personal journey with your, understanding of movement building and how you incorporated that in. I'm wondering, I think it was in this book, but I read both of your books close to back to back, so I might be mixing them up, but I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the salt protestors that happened in India and the two years of training that it took them to be able to stand up and for our listeners, just like really back up and explain what that protest was about, and then the kind of training that it took to get there. Kazu Haga: It was actually more than two years. So, you know, everyone, or a lot of people know about the Salt March. It's the thing that I think a lot of people look to as the thing that really sparked the Indian Independence Movement, similar to the Montgomery Bus boycott in the US Civil Rights Movement. It's when a group of people marched across India all the way to the ocean. Engaged in an act of civil disobedience was, which was to go into the water and make their own salt. Salt is something that had been heavily controlled and taxed by the British Empire, and so the people who lived even on the coast of the ocean were not allowed to make their own salt. And so it was an act of civil disobedience to break a British colonial law saying that we are reclaiming this ancestral cottage industry for ourselves. And one of the reasons why it was so powerful and drew so many millions of people out into the street was because when Gandhi envisioned it. He didn't just put out an open call and said, anyone who wants to join the March can join. Ultimately, that's where they landed. But when the March started, he selected, I think it was about 76 of his followers, and he chose these 76 people and said, you all are gonna start the Salt March. And he chose those 76 people because they had lived in Astrom. And did spiritual practice and engaged in creative nonviolent direct action together for 16 years before they embarked on the salt march. So it was 16 years of kinda like dedicated residential spiritual training , and nonviolent direct action training that allowed these people to become the type of leaders that could draw out millions and millions of people into the street. And so it's one of the things that I really learned about the legacy of nonviolence is the importance of training and understanding that preparing ourselves spiritually to lead a movement that can transform nations is a lifetime of work. And to not underestimate the importance of that training and that rigor. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for correcting me. Not two but 16 years and a really a lifetime to, that's right. To develop the skills. I wonder if you've been following the Buddhist monks that are walking across the US right now. Kazu Haga: Yeah. And the dog, right? Miko Lee: Yeah. Whose dog and that dog. And I wonder what your thoughts are on that. Kazu Haga: I've really come to this place where I understand injustice and state violence, not as a political issue, but as a manifestation of our collective trauma. Like all the forms of state violence and injustice that we see, they happen because collectively as nation states and as communities and as a species, we have unresolved trauma that we haven't been able to heal from. And I think if we can see injustice less as a political issue and more as a manifestation of collective trauma, then perhaps we can build movements that have the sensitivity to understand that we can't just shut down injustice that when you're responding to a trauma response, what you need to do is to try to open things up. Things like spiritual practice and spiritual worldviews, like what, however that word spiritual lands on people. I think that there's a broad understanding of spirituality that doesn't have to include any sort of religious stigma. But when we ground ourselves in spiritual practice, when we ground ourselves in this larger reality that we belong to something so much larger than ourselves as individuals, then a lot more is possible and we're able to open things up and we're able to slow things down in response to the urgency of this moment, which I think is so necessary. When I look at these Buddhist monks spending however months it's gonna take for them to reach Washington dc the patience. The rigor and the slowness. How every step is a prayer for them. And so all of those steps, all of that effort is I think adding to something that has the possibility to open something up in a way that a one day protest cannot. So I'm really inspired by that work. Miko Lee: And it's amazing to see how many people are turning out to walk with them or to watch them. And then on the same hand, or the other hand, is seeing some folks that are protesting against them saying, that this is not the right religion, which is just. Kind of shocking to me. Grew up in a seminary environment. My dad was a professor of social ethics and we were really taught that Jesus is a son of God and Kuan is a daughter of God. And Muhammad, all these different people are sons and daughters of God and we're all under the same sky. So it seems strange that to me, that so many folks are using religion as a tool for. Pain and suffering and injustice and using it as a justification. Kazu Haga: Yeah. It's sad to hear people say that this is the wrong religion to try to create change in the world because I think it's that worldview that is at the heart of what is destroying this planet. Right. It's, it's not this way. It has to be that way and this binary right. Wrong way of thinking. Miko Lee: Yeah. Kazu Haga: But yeah. The first spiritual book I ever read when I was 16 years old was a book by Thích Nhất Hanh called Living Buddha, living Christ. Yes. And in that book he was saying that the teachings of the Buddha and the teachings of Jesus Christ, if you really look at the essence of it, is the same thing. Miko Lee: That's right. Yeah. This brings us to your book, fierce Vulnerability, healing from Trauma Emerging Through Collapse. And we are living in that time right now. We're living in a time of utter collapse where every day it seems like there's a new calamity. We are seeing our government try to take over Venezuela right now and put police forces into Minnesota. It's just crazy what's going on. I wonder if you can just talk a little bit about this book. Clearly it's the Times that has influenced your title and [00:34:00] in influenced you to write this book can be, share a little bit more about what you're aiming to do. Kazu Haga: Yeah, and you know, it's also Greenland and Cuba and Colombia and Panama, and it's also the climate crisis and it's also all of these other authoritarian regimes that are rising to power around the co, around the world. And it's also pandemics and the next pandemics. And we are living in a time of the poly crisis. A time that our recent ancestor, Joanna Macy calls the great turning or the great unraveling so we can get to the great turning where all of these systems are in a state of collapse and the things that we have come to, to be able to rely on are all unraveling. And I think if we are not grounded in. Again, I use this word spirituality very broadly speaking, but if we are not grounded in a sense that we are connected to something so much larger than ourselves as individuals, I think it's so easy to just collapse and get into this trauma response state in response to all of the crises that we are facing, and so fierce vulnerability. It's at the intersection of spiritual practice, trauma healing, and nonviolent action, and understanding that in response to all of these crises that we are facing, we need powerful forms of action. To harness the power necessary to create the transformations that we need to see. And at the same time, can we see even forms of nonviolent resistance as a form of, as a modality of collective trauma healing? And what are the practices that we need to be doing internally within our own movements to stay grounded enough to remember that we are interdependent with all people and with all life. What does it take for us to be so deeply grounded that even as we face a possible mass extinction event that we can remember to breathe and that we can remember that we are trying to create beauty, not just to destroy what we don't like, but we are trying to affirm life. What does that look like? And so if fierce vulnerability is an experiment, like we don't have all the answers, but if I could just put in a plug, we're about to launch this three month. Experiment called the Fierce Vulnerability Kinship Lab, where we'll be gathering across the world. Participants will be placed in small teams, that are regionally based, so you can meet with people in person, hopefully, and to really try to run a bunch of experiments of what is it gonna take to respond to state violence, to respond to these crises in a way that continues to affirm life and reminds us that we belong to each other. Miko Lee: That sounds amazingly powerful. Can you share how people can get involved in these labs? Kazu Haga: People can check it out on my website, kazu haga.com, and it'll link to the actual website, which is convene.community. It's K-I-N-V-E-N-E. It's a combination of the idea of kinship and community. It's gonna be a really cool program. We just announced it publicly and France Weller and Ma Muse and Kairo Jewel Lingo, and it's gonna be a lot of great teach. And we're trying to just give people, I know so many people are yearning for a way to respond to state violence in a way that feels deeply aligned with their most sacred beliefs and their value systems around interdependence, and peacemaking and reconciliation, but also recognizes that we need to harness power that we need to. Step out of the comfort of our meditation cushions and yoga centers and actually hit the streets. But to do so in a way that brings about healing. It's our way of creating some communities where we can experiment with that in supportive ways. Miko Lee: What is giving you hope these days? Kazu Haga: My daughter and the community that I live in. Like when I look up at the world, things are in a state of collapse. Like when I watch the news, there's a lot of things that are happening that can take away my hope. But I think if we stop looking up all the time and just start looking around, if I start looking around in, not at the vertical plane, but at the horizontal plane, what I see are so many. Amazing communities that are being birthed, land-based communities, mutual aid networks, communities, where people are living together in relationship and trying to recreate village like structures. There are so many incredible, like healing collaboratives. And even the ways that we have brought song culture and spirit back into social movement spaces more and more in the last 10, 15 years, there are so many things that are happening that are giving birth to new life sustaining systems. We're so used to thinking that because the crisis is so big, the response that we need is equally big. When we're looking for like big things, we're not seeing movements with millions of millions of people into the in, in the streets. We're not seeing a new nonprofit organizations with billions of dollars that have the capacity to transform the world because I think we keep looking for big in response to big. But I think if we look at a lot of wisdom traditions, particularly Eastern Traditions, Daoism and things like that, they'll tell us that. Perhaps the best way to respond to the bigness of the crises of our times is to stay small. And so if we look for small signs of new life, new systems, new ways of being in relationship to each other and to the earth, I think we see signs of that all over the place. You know, small spiritual communities that are starting up. And so I see so much of that in my life, and I'm really blessed to be surrounded by a lot of that. Miko Lee: I really appreciate how you walk the walk and talk, the talk in terms of teaching and living in a collective space and even how you live your life in terms of speaking engagements and things. Can you share a little bit about the gift economy that you practice and what's that about? Share with our audience what that even means. Kazu Haga: Yeah. I love this question. Thank you. So the gift economy to me is our attempts at building economic structures that learn from how natural ecosystems share and distribute its resources, right? It's an alternative model to the market system of economics where everything is transac. If you look out into nature, nothing is transactional. Right? All of the gifts that a mycelial network gives to the forest, that it's a part of the ecology that it's a part of. It's given freely, but it's also given freely because it knows that it is part of a deeply interdependent ecosystem where it will also receive everything it needs to be nourished. And so there's a lot that I can say about that. I actually working on, my next book will be on the Gift Economy. But one of the main manifestations of that is all of the work that I do, I try to offer as a gift. So I don't charge anything for the work that I do. The workshops that I organize, you know, the Convene three month program that I told you about, it's a three month long program with world renowned leaders and we are asking people to pay a $25 registration fee that'll support the platform that, that we're building, the program on. And. There's no kind of set fee for the teachers, myself, Francis Weller, mam, all these people. And people have an opportunity to give back to the ecosystem if they feel called and if they're able to try to sustain, to help sustain our work. But we really want to be able to offer this as a gift. And I think in the market economy, a three month virtual training with well-known teachers for $25 is unheard of. Of course $25 doesn't sustain me. It doesn't sustain all of the teachers that are gonna be part of this, but I have so much faith that if we give our work freely and have faith that we are doing the work that we're meant to be doing, that the universe will come together to sustain us. And so I am sustained with the generosity of a lot of [00:42:00] people, a lot of donors, a lot of people who come to my workshop and feel called to give, not out of a sense of obligation, but because they want to support me in my work. Miko Lee: Thank you for sharing and I was so impressed on your website where you break down your family's whole annual budget and everything that you spent funds on. Everybody talks about transparency, but nobody really does it. But you're actually doing it. And for reals, just showing something that's an antidote to the capitalist system to be able to say, okay, this is us. This is our family, this is how we travel, this is what we do, and. I found it really charming and impressive in our, it's hard to rebel against a system where everything has been built up so that we're supposed to act a certain way. So appreciate you. Absolutely. Yeah. Showing some alternatives and I didn't know that's gonna be your next book. So exciting. Kazu Haga: Yeah, I just started it. I'm really grateful that I have a partner that is okay with sharing all of our family's finances transparently. That helps because it is a big thing, you know? Yeah. But one of the things that I really learned. But the gift economy is that if there isn't information, if there isn't transparency about what the system's needs are, then it becomes dependent on every individual to figure out. How much they want to give to that system. And I think the gift economy is trying to break outta that the model of individualism and understand that we are interdependent and we live in this rich ecosystem of interdependence. And so if people's needs aren't transparent, then it's hard for people to figure out how they want to engage in that relationship. Miko Lee: Can you share a little bit more the example of Buddhist monks and how they have the basket and. Share that story a bit for our audience. Kazu Haga: Yeah. So historically, in a lot of, particularly south and southeastern, Asian countries, Buddhist monks, they go around, they walk their community every morning, begging, quote unquote for alms. They ask for donations, and the people in that village in that town will offer them bread or rice or whatever it is. That's kind of the food that, that monks and monastics eat. And so if a Buddhist monk is walking around with a bowl and you see that their bowl is already full, you have a sense, oh, this monastic might not need any more food, but the next monastic that comes along might. And so it's this transparent way of saying, oh, this person's needs are met, so let me hold on to the one piece of bread that I have that I can donate today and see if the next person will need it. And so in that way. If I share my finance transparently, you know, if my financial needs for the month or for the quarter are met, then maybe people who attend my workshops will feel like, oh, I don't have a lot of money to give. Maybe I don't need to give to support Kazu Haga, but maybe I can support, the facilitator for the next workshop that I attend. And so, in that way, I'm hoping that me being transparent about where my finances are will help people gauge how they want to be in relationship with me. Miko Lee: Thank you. I appreciate it. You talk a lot about in your work about ancestral technology or the wisdom, our ancestral wisdoms and how powerful that is. It made me think about the day after the election when Trump was elected. I happened to be in this gathering of progressive artists in the Bay Area and everybody was. Incredibly depressed. There was even, should we cancel that day or not? But we pulled together, it was at the Parkway Theater in Oakland and there was an aone leader and she talked about the eighth fire and how we are in the time of the eighth fire and you write about the fires in your book, and I'm wondering if you can talk about the seven fires and the prophecy belt. Kazu Haga: Yeah. So through a strange course of events, I had the incredible privilege early on in my life when I was in my early teens, 11, 12, 13, 14 years old, to spend every summer going to the Algonquin Reservation, Anishnabe Nation, way up in Northern Quebec, and spend my evenings sleeping in the basement of Chief William Commander, who was the holder of the seven Fire Prophecies Wampum Belt. This is a prophecy that told the story of the seventh fire that we are in the time of the seventh fire. And this is a moment in the history of our species where we can remember what it means to be human and to go backwards and to reclaim our spiritual path. If we are able to do that, then we can rebuild a new world, the eighth fire and build a world of lasting peace. But if we are unable to do that and continue down this material journey, that will lead to a world of destruction. And this is, prophecies like this one and similar indigenous prophecies that speak the same exact things are the things that were. Just surrounded, that I was surrounded by when I was younger, and I'm so grateful that even though I didn't really believe this kind of stuff when I was younger, it was like the, you know, crazy hippie newey stuff that my mom was into. I'm so grateful to have been surrounded by these teachings and hearing these teachings directly from the elders whose lives purpose. It was to share these teachings with us because when I look out at the world now, it really feels like we are in a choice point as a species. Like we can continue to walk down one journey, one path, and I could very easily see how it would lead to a world of destruction. But we have an opportunity to remember who we are and how we're meant to live in relationship with each other and to the earth. And I have a lot of faith that if we're able to do that, we can build such a beautiful future for our children. And so I think this is the moment that we're in. Miko Lee: Yeah. Thank you so much. Can you share a little bit about your mom? It seems like she was a rule breaker and she introduced you to so many things and you're appreciating it later as an adult, but at the time you're like, what is this? Kazu Haga: Yeah. You know, she was. She grew up in Japan. We were all born in Japan, but she spent a year overseas in the United States as ex as an exchange student in high school. And she always tells me when she went back to Japan, she was listening to the Beatles, and she shaved her legs and she was this like rebellious person in Japan. But yeah, my mom is never been a political activist in the same way that, that I've become. But she's always been deeply, deeply grounded in spiritual practice. Miko Lee: Mm-hmm. Kazu Haga: And for various reasons have always had deep relationships with indigenous elders in North America and Turtle Island. And so I'm always grateful. I feel like she sowed a lot of seeds that when I was young, I made fun of meditation and I was not into spiritual practice at all. 45 years into my life, I find myself doing all the same things that, that she was doing when I was young, and really seeing that as the foundation of the work that I do in the world today. Miko Lee: And have you, have you talked with her about this? Kazu Haga: Oh yeah. I live with her, so we regularly Oh, I Miko Lee: didn't realize Kazu Haga: that.Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's read the book and Yeah. We have a lot of opportunities to, to yeah, just talk and, and reminisce and, and wonder at. How life has a tendency to always come back full circle. Miko Lee: Mm. The paths we lead and how they intertwine in some ways. Definitely. Mm, I love that. I let you know before we went on air is that I'm also interviewing the author Chanel Miller in this episode. You shared with me that you are familiar with her work. Can you talk about that? Kazu Haga: Yeah, so, you know, I talk quite a bit in both of my books about how one of the great privileges that I have is to do restorative justice and trauma healing work with incarcerated people, mostly through the prisons in California. And one of the programs that I've had the privilege to be a part of is with the Ahimsa Collective, where we work with a lot of men who have an experience with sexual violence specifically, both as survivors of sexual harm and as perpetrators oftentimes. And in that program we actually used the letter that she wrote and published as an example of the power of what it could mean to be a survivor speaking their truth. And we used to read this letter in the groups with incarcerated people. And I remember the first time I ever read it, I was the one that was reading it out loud. I broke down into tears reading that, that letter, and it was so powerful. And it's one of those written statements that I think has helped a lot of people, incarcerated people, and survivors, oftentimes, they're both the same people, really heal from the scars that they've experienced in life. So yeah, I have a really deep connection to specifically that statement and her work. Miko Lee: Yeah, it's really powerful. I'm wondering, given that how you use art as a tool to heal for yourself. Kazu Haga: You know, I always wished I was a better poet or a better painter or something like that, but I do really feel like there are certain deep truths that cannot be expressed in just regular linear language. It can only be spoken in song or in dance or in poetry. There's something mystical. There's something that, that is beyond the intellect capacity to understand that I think can be powerfully and beautifully expressed through art. I think art and spiritual practice and prayer and things like that are very like closely aligned. And so in that way I, I try to touch the sacred, I try to touch spirit. I try to touch mystery in the things that I can't quite articulate. Just through conversation and giving in a lecture or a PowerPoint presentation, to, yeah, to touch into something more, more important. Miko Lee: And is your spiritual practice built into your every day? Kazu Haga: To the extent possible. One of the traditions that I have really learned a lot from and love is the Plum Village tradition founded by Thich Nhat Hanh. And they're so good at really reminding us that when we wash our dishes, that can be a spiritual practice, right? I'm the father of a young child. And so it's hard to actually sit down and meditate and to find time for that. And so, how can I use. My moments with my daughter when I'm reading her a book as a spiritual practice, how can I, use the time that I'm picking up the toys that's thrown all around the house as spiritual practice. So in that way, I really try to incorporate that sort of awareness and that reminder that I belong to something larger and everything that we do. Miko Lee: After hearing Ty speak one time, I tried to practice the chewing your food 45 times. I could not do it. Like, how does he do Kazu Haga: that? Some food is easier than others. If you eat oatmeal, it's a little harder, but Miko Lee: like that is some kind of practice I cannot do. Kazu Haga: But, you know, I have, a meditation teacher that years ago taught me every time you get inside your car. The moment that you turn the keys and turn on the ignition in your car, just take that moment and see if you can notice the texture of the keys and see if you can really feel your muscles turning to turn the key. And it's in these little moments that if we bring that intention to it, we can really turn what is like a, you know, a mindless moment into something with deep, deep awareness. Hmm. Miko Lee: Thank you for that. That's an interesting one. I have not heard that one before. Kazu Haga: Nowadays I just like push a button so it's even more mind less. Miko Lee: That's right. There's just a button Now. Keys, there's not even the time anymore to do that. That's right. What is it that you'd love folks to walk away with from being familiar with your work? You, there's so many aspects. You have different books that are out, you lead workshops, you're speaking, you are everyday walking through the world, sharing different things. What is one thing you'd love people to understand? Kazu Haga: Between both of my books and all the work that I do, so much of the essence is to try to help us remember. We belong to each other. I think the fear of isolation, the fear that we do not belong, is one of the most common fears that every human being has. Right? At some point in our lives, we felt like we don't belong. And while that is such a real fear, it's also a delusion. Like in an interdependent world, there is nothing outside of belonging, right? And so we already belong. We are already whole, we are already part of the vastness of the cosmos. There is so much power in remembering that we are part of the infinite universe, and I think the delusion that we do not belong to each other is like is the seed that creates the us versus them worldview, and it's that us versus them worldview that is at the heart of what is destroying our planet. In our efforts to create social change, how can we do so in a way that reminds us that even the people that are causing harm is a deeply critical interwoven web of relationships. That we are all in this web of relationship, that there's nobody outside of that, and how can we go about trying to create change in a way that reminds us of that? Miko Lee: Thank you. And my last question is, I'm wondering if there's something that you're learning from your child these days. Kazu Haga: Yeah, the, just the, the pure presence, right? That each moment is so deeply, deeply real, and each moment is to be honored. Like I am amazed at, we were eating asparagus the other day, and she was eating a whole bowl of asparagus, and she desperately needed me to get her the one piece of asparagus that she wanted. She was so frustrated that I couldn't find the one asparagus that she wanted, and so she was crying and screaming and throwing asparagus across the room, and then the moment I was able to find the one asparagus that she wanted, everything is fine. Everything is beautiful. She's smiling, she's laughing, and so just to. Not that we should be like throwing things around if we're not getting exactly what we want, but how can we honor our emotions every moment in a way that in that moment there is nothing outside of that moment. That sort of presence, is something that I really try to embody and try to learn from her. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for sharing with me. I really appreciate reading your books and being in community with you and, we'll put links to your website so that people Awesome. Thank you. Can find out more. And also, I really appreciate that you're having your books published by a small Buddhist press as and encouraging people to buy from that. Kazu Haga: Yeah. Shout out to ax. Miko Lee: Yes, we will absolutely put those links in our show notes. And thank you so much for joining us on Apex Today. Kazu Haga: Thank you so much for having me. Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining me on this evening conversation with two different authors, Chanel Miller and Kazu Haga, and my little pitch is just to keep reading. Reading is such a critical and important way we learn about the world. I was just reading this thing that said the average Americans read 12 to 13 books a year. And when I checked in with friends and family, they said that could not be true. That they think they know many people who don't read any books. And I am just encouraging you all to pick up a book, especially by an Asian American Pacific Islander author, hear our perspectives, hear our stories. This is how we expand and understand our knowledge around the world. Grow closer to the people in both our lives and people around the world. So yea to reading, yea to Chanel Miller and Kazu Haga. And check out a local bookstore near you. If you wanna find out more information, please check out our website, kpfa.org, black slash programs, apex Express, where I will link both of these authors and how you can purchase their books at your local independent bookstore. Thank you very much. Goodnight. Please check out our website, kpfa.org. To find out more about our show tonight. We think all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Nina Phillips, Preeti Mangala Shekar and Swati Rayasam Tonight's show was produced by me, your host, Miko Lee. Thank you so much for joining us. The post APEX Express – 1.15.26 – Chat with Authors appeared first on KPFA.
Sports Reference (01:24)Grew up to be addict (05:15)Mary J vs Ms Jackson (10:50)Proud to be an Mercia (20:07)Daddy Day Care (24:45)Black culture ( 33:03)The average working man vs drug dealing (42:00)Snow patrol (49:20)Are you on the stage funny (58:00)Socials Twitter@THDLongviewWoo@Deshawn_903TikTok @Deshawn__903@LakeportWooWordpress@woonation.wordpress.com
In this episode, Lady Landlords founder, Becky Nova…Mari transitioned into real estate investing after the instability of her day job and long-term security. While navigating a divorce and becoming an empty nester, she focused on financial preparation and joined Lady Landlords community for support.She shares in this episode how she strategically used funds she already had in another investment vehicle to purchase her first property in Pittsburgh .Have questions? Email Becky at Becky@lady-landlords.com or book a call here: https://rei.lady-landlords.com/networking-call===
Why you should listenDennis Knodt grew Valuent from freelancing in 2019 to a 25-person Salesforce consultancy by narrowing focus to one product line (quote-to-cash) and one geography (Germany), offering a blueprint for partners drowning in "we do everything" positioning.Learn how to structure your Salesforce AE relationships so successful projects create internal bragging that generates referrals without you having to ask, including why mid-market and enterprise AEs are more valuable than SMB relationships.Get Dennis's approach to running proof of concepts at full market rate on larger projects, giving clients tangible results before committing to six or nine-month implementations.Trying to grow a Salesforce practice while competing against every other partner who claims they "do it all"? In this episode, I talk with Dennis Knodt, co-founder of Valuent, a Berlin-based consultancy that went from freelancing in 2019 to a 25-person team by making deliberate choices about what to say no to. We dig into why Dennis doubled down on Germany instead of chasing international expansion, and how a setback with Salesforce (when they brought in a competitor) actually led to recruiting the architect who now leads their revenue cloud practice. If you've ever wondered whether focus is really worth the short-term sacrifice, this conversation will challenge how you think about building a defensible position.About Dennis KnodtDennis Knodt is the Co-Founder of Valuent, a bootstrapped Salesforce consultancy specializing in Quote-to-Cash optimization. After working at Bain and VC-backed startups like Rocket Internet and Enpal, Dennis chose to build a profitable boutique firm focused on deep expertise over growth-at-all-costs.Resources and LinksValuent.ioDennis's LinkedIn profileLovablePrevious episode: 658 - The Delivery TrapCheck out more episodes of The Paul Higgins PodcastJoin our newsletterSuggested resourcesFind out more about Paul and how he can help you
GROWTH IS GOD’S WILL SAMUEL GREW 1 Samuel 2:21 And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel GREW up in the presence of the Lord. (NIV) 1 Samuel 2:26 And the boy Samuel CONTINUED TO GROW in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people. (NIV) KING DAVID GREW 2 Samuel 3:1 The war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time. David GREW STRONGER AND STRONGER, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. (NIV) SAMSON GREW Judges 13:24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He GREW and the Lord blessed him, (NIV) JOHN THE BAPTIST GREW Luke 1:80 And the child GREW and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel. (NIV) JESUS GREW Luke 2:52 And Jesus GREW in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (NIV) 2 Peter 1:8 The more you GROW like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NLT) Colossians 1:9–10 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, GROWING in the knowledge of God, (NIV) Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion UNTIL the day of Christ Jesus. (NIV) 1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may GROW UP in your salvation, (NIV) 1. THE HANGUP OF DESIRE 2. THE HANGUP OF GRACE Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (NIV) 2 Peter 3:18 But GROW in the GRACE and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. (NIV) 3. THE HANGUP OF AN OVER DEPENDENCE ON PEOPLE Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION with fear and trembling, (ESV) Colossians 2:6–7 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, YOU must CONTINUE to follow him. 7 Let your roots GROW down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will GROW strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness. (NLT) SPIRITUAL GROWTH PLAN 3A. Yearly pray and fast 3B. Monthly tithe 3C. Weekly attend and serve at church 3D. Weekly attend a small group 3E. Daily spend time with God (First 15) 4. THE HANGUP OF AN UNDER DEPENDENCE ON PEOPLE 1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. (NIV) 5. THE HANGUP OF SELF-CENTERED LIVING Matthew 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant. (NIV) 6. THE HANGUP OF DISTRACTED LIVING Luke 8:11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The SEED is the word of God. (NIV) 6A. DISTRACTED BY THE DEVIL Luke 8:12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. (NIV) 6B. DISTRACTED BY TRIALS Luke 8:13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. (NIV) 6C. DISTRACTED BY WORRIES Luke 8:14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not MATURE. (NIV) 6D. DETERMINED TO GROW Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by PERSEVERING produce a crop. (NIV)
In this episode I'm pulling back the curtain on the biggest moves I've made in order to maximize my royalties. I'll walk you through how my international royalties started flowing faster and more predictably, how I simultaneously quadrupled my BMI royalties, and why consistency became the real secret to my success. If you're trying to build sustainable sync licensing income and wondering what actually works, I'm sharing exactly what I did, the mistakes I made along the way, and the strategies that finally got me on track toward full-time royalty income. want a free coaching call with me? https://www.roymatz.com/coaching Michael Maas Courses: Sync Music Business Course https://roymatz.krtra.com/t/7R1Cl8hft4oQ Trailer Music Production https://roymatz.krtra.com/t/uYdZ26NTCfa4
The Afro is one of the most iconic hairstyles of the last century. And one of its main ingredients was a hair product – Afro Sheen. But Afro Sheen did so much more than make Black afros shine. It was the money behind the television show Soul Train, it helped fuel the civil rights movement – all because of an entrepreneur named George Johnson. For decades, Joan and George Johnson owned and ran Johnson Products Company, a Black hair care company out of Chicago. Their intimate understanding of what Black people wanted and needed – for their hair and for their lives – helped grow the Black middle class and became an engine for Black culture and power. They helped turn the Black haircare industry into what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. But although they helped create this industry, they no longer have a part in it. Today on the show – the story of the rise and fall of Johnson Products. We're gonna tell you this story in three hairstyles. The conk, the afro… and the jheri curl. Related episodes:This Ad's For You'Soul Train' and the business of Black joyFashion Fair's makeoverPre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift. / Subscribe to Planet Money+Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Sonari Glinton and Erika Beras. It was produced by James Sneed, edited by Marianne McCune, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Saints legend Drew Brees joined Sports Talk for WWL's weekly "QB-to-QB" segment with Bobby and Mike. Brees expressed his confidence in the Saints after a strong finish to the 2025 season. Brees also shared his thoughts on Tyler Shough's progression, the Saints' roster holes entering the 2026 NFL Draft, Kellen Moore's first year as a head coach, and New Orleans' productive veterans.
Saints legend Drew Brees joined Sports Talk for WWL's weekly "QB-to-QB" segment with Bobby and Mike. Brees expressed his confidence in the Saints after a strong finish to the 2025 season. Brees also shared his thoughts on Tyler Shough's progression, the Saints' roster holes entering the 2026 NFL Draft, Kellen Moore's first year as a head coach, and New Orleans' productive veterans.
In this episode, we explore Michelle Pontvert's approach to hosting online events using private podcasts. Discover how this "easy events enthusiast" created a 33-contributor audio event in just 34 hours, achieved an 872-person listen-through rate, and saw a 40% uptick in overall business sales. Learn why Michelle chose audio over traditional summit formats and how she designed an experience that benefits hosts, collaborators, and listeners equally. Topics CoveredWhy audio-only events create better experiences for all partiesThe 34-hour event creation process from pitch to launchOutreach strategies that resulted in 33 out of 42 people saying yesUsing 30-60 day access periods instead of traditional 24-hour urgencyRe-engagement strategies for existing email subscribersNative integrations between Thrive Cart, Kit, and Hello AudioFollow-up email sequences to maintain engagement over extended periodsLinks MentionedWebsite: http://www.michellepontvert.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellepontvertFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.pontvertwww.michellepontvert.com/event-debriefMore from Hello AudioGrab a free trialYoutubeInstagramFacebook Group Subscribe and ReviewIf you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review! Thank you so much for tuning in to Launch Your Private Podcast.
TakeawaysCosta Rica's commercial coffee history dates back to the 1830s.Producers initially struggled to find markets for their coffee.Direct trade routes were established by shipping entrepreneur William Le Lacheur.Costa Rican coffee was often exported through Chile to Europe.The lack of infrastructure hindered coffee distribution in early years.William Le Lacheur played a crucial role in connecting Costa Rican coffee to England.Costa Rican coffee producers were determined to improve their market situation.The legacy of Costa Rican coffee includes advancements in processing technology.Costa Rican coffee was recognized for its quality even before the specialty coffee movement.The determination of coffee producers has shaped the industry's evolution in Costa Rica.READ THE BLOG Part of The Covoya Coffee Podcasting Network TAKE OUR LISTENER SURVEY Visit and Explore Covoya!
In this episode, we sit down with Craig Myers to break down the unbelievable story behind his 235” double drop-tine FREAK from Ohio. Craig dives deep into how he designs and manages his properties to unlock their maximum potential for growing GIANT whitetails. From overlooked details to next-level strategy, the insights he shares are things most hunters never even consider - but absolutely should. Photos from Rich Hixon - @phoenixmediaoh Find a BTR Scorer near you! https://buckmasters.com/Resources/BTR/Find-a-BTR-Scorer Use Buckmasters25 and receive 25% off your next purchase of Rocky boots! Rocky Boot: https://www.rockyboots.com Alabama Black Belt: https://alabamablackbeltadventures.org Easton: https://eastonarchery.com MTM Case Gard: https://mtmcase-gard.com Legendary Whitetails: https://www.legendarywhitetails.com Yamaha: https://yamaha-motor.com Antler Rings: https://antlerrings.com
Girl, I'm cheering you on this year and we're starting with an awesome pep talk. — Support and sponsor this show! Venmo Tip Jar: @wellthatsinteresting Instagram: @wellthatsinterestingpod Bluesky: @wtipod Threads: @wellthatsinterestingpod Twitter: @wti_pod Listen on YouTube!! Oh, BTW. You're interesting. Email YOUR facts, stories, experiences... Nothing is too big or too small. I'll read it on the show: wellthatsinterestingpod@gmail.com WTI is a part of the Airwave Media podcast network! Visit AirwaveMedia.com to listen and subscribe to other incredible shows. Want to advertise your glorious product on WTI? Email me: wellthatsinterestingpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Seven and Verse Seventeen
And The Child Grew (25.12.25) by Paul Osei Yaw Afoakwa
Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ https://youtu.be/vEdq8rpBM3I In this data-rich keynote, Jay McBain deconstructs the tectonic shifts reshaping the $5.3 trillion global technology industry, arguing that we are entering a new 20-year cycle where traditional direct sales models are obsolete. McBain explains why 96% of the industry is now surrounded by partners and how successful companies must pivot from “flywheels and theory” to a granular strategy focused on the seven specific partners present in every deal. From the explosion of agentic AI and the $163 billion marketplace revolution to the specific mechanics of multiplier economics, this discussion provides a roadmap for navigating the “decade of the ecosystem” where influence, trust, and integration—not just product—determine winners and losers. Key Takeaways Half of today's Fortune 500 companies will likely vanish in the next 20 years due to the shift toward AI and ecosystem-led models. Every B2B deal now involves an average of seven trusted partners who influence the decision before a vendor even knows a deal exists. Microsoft has outpaced AWS growth for 26 consecutive quarters largely because of a superior partner-led geographic strategy. Marketplaces are projected to grow to $163 billion by 2030, with nearly 60% of deals involving partner funding or private offers. The “Multiplier Effect” is the new ROI, where partners can make up to $8.45 for every dollar of vendor product sold. Future dominance relies on five key pillars: Platform, Service Partnerships, Channel Partnerships, Alliances, and Go-to-Market orchestration. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Jay McBain, Canalys, partner ecosystem, channel chief, agentic AI, marketplace growth, multiplier economics, B2B sales trends, tech industry forecast, service partnerships, strategic alliances, Microsoft vs AWS, distribution transformation, managed services growth, SaaS platforms, customer journey mapping, 28 moments of truth, future of reselling, technology spending 2025, ecosystem orchestration, partner multipliers. T Transcript: Jay McBain WORKFILE FOR TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: Just up from, did you Puerto Rico last night? Puerto Rico, yes. Puerto Rico. He dodged the hurricane. Um, you all know him. Uh, let him introduce himself for those of you who don’t, but just thrilled to have on the stage, again, somebody who knows more about what’s going on in, in the, and has the pulse on this industry probably than just about anybody I know personally. [00:00:21] Vince Menzione: J Jay McBain. Jay, great to see you my friend. Alright, thank you. We have to come all the way. We live, we live uh, about 20 minutes from each other. We have to come all the way to Reston, Virginia to see each other, right? That’s right. Very good. Well, uh, that’s all over to you, sir. Thank you. [00:00:35] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you so much. [00:00:36] Jay McBain: I went from 85 degrees yesterday to 45 today, but I was able to dodge that, uh, that hurricane, uh, that we kind of had to fly through the northern edge of, uh, wanna talk today about our industry, about the ultimate partner. I’m gonna try to frame up the ultimate partner as I walk through the data and the latest research that, uh, that we’ve been doing in the market. [00:00:56] Jay McBain: But I wanted to start here ’cause our industry moves in 20 year cycles, and if you look at the Fortune 500 and dial back 20 years from today, 52% of them no longer exist. As we step into the next 20 year AI era, half of the companies that we know and love today are not gonna exist. So we look at this, and by the way, if you’re not in the Fortune 500 and you don’t have deep pockets to buy your way outta problems, 71% of tech companies fail over the course of 10 years. [00:01:30] Jay McBain: Those are statistics from the US government. So I start to look at our industry and you know, you may look at the, you know, mainframe era from the sixties and seventies, mini computers, August the 12th, 1981, that first IBM, PC with Microsoft dos, version one, you know, triggered. A new 20 year era of client server. [00:01:51] Jay McBain: It was the time and I worked at IBM for 17 years, but there was a time where Bill Gates flew into Boca Raton, Florida and met with the IBM team and did that, you know, fancy licensing agreement. But after, you know, 20 years of being the most valuable company in the world and 13 years of antitrust and getting broken up, almost like at and TIBM almost didn’t make payroll. [00:02:14] Jay McBain: 13 years after meeting Bill Gates. Yeah, that’s how quickly things change in these eras. In 1999, a small company outta San Francisco called salesforce.com got its start. About 10 years later, Jeff Bezos asked a question in a boardroom, could we rent out our excess capacity and would other companies buy it? [00:02:35] Jay McBain: Which, you know, most people in the room laughed at ’em at the time. But it created a 20 year cloud era when our friends, our neighbors, our family. Saw Chachi PT for the first time in March of 2023. They saw the deep fakes, they saw the poetry, they saw the music. They came to us as tech people and said, did we just light up Skynet? [00:02:58] Jay McBain: And that consumer trend has triggered this next 20 years. I could walk through the richest people in the world through those trends. I could walk through the most valuable companies. It all aligns. ’cause by the way, Apple’s no longer at the top. Nvidia is at the top, Microsoft. Second, things change really quickly. [00:03:17] Jay McBain: So in that course of time, you start to look at our industry and as people are talking about a six and a half or $7 trillion build out of ai, that’s open AI and Microsoft numbers, that is bigger than our industry that’s taken over 50 years to build. This year, we’re gonna finish the year at $5.3 trillion. [00:03:36] Jay McBain: That’s from the smallest flower shop to the biggest bank. Biggest governments that Caresoft would, uh, serve biggest customer in the world is actually the federal government of the us. But you look at this pie chart and you look at the changes that we’re gonna go through over the next 20 years, there’s about a trillion dollars in hardware. [00:03:54] Jay McBain: There’s about a trillion dollars in software. If you look forward through all of the merging trends, quantum computing, humanoid robots, all the things that are coming that dollar to dollar software to hardware will continue to exist all the way through. We see services making up almost two thirds of this pie. [00:04:13] Jay McBain: Yesterday I was in a telco conference with at and t and Verizon and T-Mobile and some of the biggest wireless players and IT services, which happen to be growing faster than products. At the moment, there is more work to be done wrapping around the deal than the actual products that the customer is buying. [00:04:32] Jay McBain: So in an industry that’s growing at 7%. On top of the world economy that’s grown at 2.2. This is the fastest growing industry, and it will be at least for the next 10 years, if not 2070 0.1% of this entire $5 trillion gets transacted through partners. While what we’re talking to today about the ultimate partner, 96% of this industry is surrounded by partners in one way or another. [00:05:01] Jay McBain: They’re there before the deal. They’re there at the deal. They’re there after the deal. Two thirds of our industry is now subscription consumption based. So every 30 days forever, and a customer for life becomes everything. So if every deal in medium, mid-market, and higher has seven partners, according to McKinsey, who are those seven people trying to get into the deal? [00:05:25] Jay McBain: While there’s millions of companies that have come into tech over the last 10 to 20 years. Digital agencies, accountants, legal firms, everybody’s come in. The 250,000 SaaS companies, a million emerging tech companies, there’s a big fight to be one of those seven trusted people at the table. So millions of companies and tens of millions of people our competing for these slots. [00:05:49] Jay McBain: So one of the pieces of research I’m most proud of, uh, in my analyst career is this. And this took over two years to build. It’s a lot of logos. Not this PowerPoint slide, but the actual data. Thousands of people hours. Because guess what? When you look at partners from the top down, the top 1000 partners, by capability and capacity, not by resale. [00:06:15] Jay McBain: It’s not a ranking of CDW and insight and resale numbers. It is the surrounding. Consulting, design, architecture, implementations, integrations, managed services, all the pieces that’s gonna make the next 20 years run. So when you start to look at this, 98% of these companies are private, so very difficult to get to those numbers and, uh, a ton of research and help from AI and other things to get this. [00:06:41] Jay McBain: But this is it. And if you look at this list, there’s a thousand logos out of the million companies. There’s a thousand logos that drive two thirds of all tech services in the world. $1.07 trillion gets delivered by a thousand companies, but here’s where it gets fun. Those companies in the middle, in blue, the 30 of them deliver more tech services than the next 970. [00:07:08] Jay McBain: Combined the 970 combined in white deliver more tech services. Then the next million combined. So if you think we live in an 80 20 rule or maybe a 99, a 95 5 rule, or a 99 1 rule, we actually live in a 99.9 0.1 parallel principle. These companies spread around the world evenly split across the uh, different regions. [00:07:35] Jay McBain: South Africa, Latin America, they’re all over. They split. They split among types. All of the Venn diagram I just showed from GSIs to VARs to MSPs, to agencies and other types of companies. But this is a really rich list and it’s public. So every company in the world now, if you’re looking at Transactable data, if you’re looking at quantifiable data that you can go put your revenue numbers against, it represents 70 to 80% of every company in this room’s Tam. [00:08:08] Jay McBain: In one piece of research. So what do you do below that? How do you cover a million companies that you can’t afford to put a channel account manager? You can’t afford to write programs directly for well after the top down analysis and all the wallet share and you know exactly where the lowest hanging fruit is for most of your tam. [00:08:28] Jay McBain: The available markets. The obtainable markets. You gotta start from the community level grassroots up. So you need to ask the question for the million companies and the maybe a hundred thousand companies out there, partner companies that are surrounding your customer. These are the seven partners that surround your customer. [00:08:48] Jay McBain: What do they read, where do they go, and who do they follow? Interestingly enough, our industry globally equates to only a thousand watering holes, a thousand companies at the top, a thousand places at the bottom. 35% of this audience we’re talking. Millions of people here love events and there’s 352 of them like this one that they love to go to. [00:09:13] Jay McBain: They love the hallway chats, they love the hotel lobby bar, you know, in a time reminded by the pandemic. They love to be in person. It’s the number one way they’re influenced. So if you don’t have a solid event strategy and you don’t have a community team out giving out socks every week, your competitors might beat you. [00:09:31] Jay McBain: 12% of this audience loves podcasts. It’s the Joe Rogan effect of our industry. And while you know, you may not think the 121 podcasts out there are important, well, you’re missing 12% of your audience. It’s over a million people. If you’re not on a weekly podcast in one of these podcasts in the world, there’s still people that read one of the 106 magazines in the world. [00:09:55] Jay McBain: There are people that love peer groups, associations, they wanna be part of this. There’s 15 different ways people are influenced. And a solid grassroots strategy is how you make this happen. In the last 10 years, we’ve created a number of billionaires. Bottom up. They never had to go talk to la large enterprise. [00:10:15] Jay McBain: They never had to go build out a mid-market strategy. They just went and give away socks and new community marketing. And this has created, I could rip through a bunch of names that became unicorns just in the last couple of years, bottoms up. You go back to your board walking into next year, top down, bottom up. [00:10:34] Jay McBain: You’ve covered a hundred percent of your tam, and now you’ve covered it with names, faces, and places. You haven’t covered it with a flywheel or a theory. And for 44 years, we have gone to our board every fourth quarter with flywheels and theory. Trust me, partners are important. The channel is key to us. [00:10:57] Jay McBain: Well, let’s talk at the point of this granularity, and now we’re getting supported by technology 261 entrepreneurs. Many of them in the room actually here that are driving this ability to succeed with seven partners in every deal to exchange data to be able to exchange telemetry of these prospects to be able to see twice or three times in terms of pipeline of your target addressable market. [00:11:26] Jay McBain: All these ai, um, technologies, agentic technologies are coming into this. It’s all about data. It’s all about quantifiable names, faces, and places. Now none of us should be walking around with flywheels, so let’s flip the flywheels. No. Uh, so we also look at, and I sold PCs for 17 years and that was in the high times of 40% margins for partners. [00:11:55] Jay McBain: But one interesting thing when you study the p and l for broad base of partners around the world, it’s changed pretty significantly in this last 20 year era. What the cloud era did is dropped hardware from what used to be 84% plus the break fix and things that wrap around it of the p and l to now 16% of every partner in the world. [00:12:16] Jay McBain: 84% of their p and l is now software and services. And if you look at profitability, it’s worse. It’s actually 87% is profitability wise. They’ve completely shifted in terms of where they go. Now we look at other parts of our market. I could go through every part of the pie of the slide, but we’re watching each of the companies, and if you can see here, this is what we want to talk about in terms of ultimate partner. [00:12:43] Jay McBain: Microsoft has outgrown AWS for 26 straight quarters. They don’t have a better product. They don’t have a better price, they don’t have better promotion. It’s all place. And I’ll explain why you guess here in the light green line. Exactly. The day that Google went a hundred percent all in partner, every deal, even if a deal didn’t have a partner, one of the 4% of deals that didn’t have a partner, they injected a partner. [00:13:09] Jay McBain: You can see on the left side exactly where they did it. They got to the point of a hundred percent partner driven. Rebuilt their programs, rebuilt their marketplace. Their marketplace is actually larger than Microsoft’s, and they grew faster than Microsoft. A couple of those quarters. It is a partner driven future, and now I have Oracle, which I just walked by as I walked from the hotel. [00:13:31] Jay McBain: Oracle with their RPOs will start to join. Maybe the list of three hyperscalers becomes the list of four in future slides, but that’s a growth slide. Market share is different. AWS early and commanding lead. And it plays out, uh, plays out this way. But we’re at an interesting moment and I stood up six years ago talking about the decade of the ecosystem after we went through a decade of sales starting in 1999 when we all thought we were born to be salespeople. [00:14:02] Jay McBain: We managed territories with our gut. The sales tech stack would have it different, that sales was a science, and we ended the decade 2009, looking at sales very differently in 2009. I remember being at cocktail parties where CMOs would be joking around that 50% of their marketing dollars were wasted. They just didn’t know which 50%. [00:14:23] Jay McBain: And I’ll tell you, that was really funny. In 2009 till every 58-year-old CMO got replaced by a 38-year-old growth hacker who walked in with 15,348 SaaS companies in their MarTech and ad tech stack to solve the problem, every nickel of marketing by 2019 was tracked. Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, HubSpot, driving this industry. [00:14:50] Jay McBain: Now, we stood up and said the 28 moments that come before a sale are pretty much all partner driven. In the best case scenario, a vendor might see four of the moments. They might come to your website, maybe they read an ebook, maybe they have a salesperson or a demo that comes in. That’s four outta 28 moments. [00:15:10] Jay McBain: The other 24 are done by partners. Yeah, in the worst case scenario and the majority scenario, you don’t see any of the moments. All 28 happen and you lose a deal without knowing there ever was a deal. So this is it. We need to partner in these moments and we need to inject partners into sales and marketing, like no time before, and this was the time to do it. [00:15:33] Jay McBain: And we got some feedback in the Salesforce state of sales report, which doesn’t involve any partnerships or, or. Channel Chiefs or anything else. This is 5,500 of the biggest CROs in the world that obviously use Salesforce. 89% of salespeople today use partners every day. For the 11% who don’t, 58% plan two within a year. [00:15:57] Jay McBain: If you add those two numbers together, that’s magically the 96% number. They recognize that every deal has partners in it. In 2024, last year, half of the salespeople in the world, every industry, every country. Miss their numbers. For the minority who made their numbers, 84 point percent pointed to partners as the reason why they made their numbers. [00:16:21] Jay McBain: It was the cheat code for sales, so that modern salesperson that knows how to orchestrate a deal, orchestrate the 28 moments with the seven partners and get to that final spot is the winning formula. HubSpot’s number in separate research was 84% in marketing. So we’re starting to see partners in here. We don’t have to shout from the mountaintops. [00:16:44] Jay McBain: These communities like ultimate Partner are working and we’re getting this to the highest levels in the board. And I’ll say that, you know, when 20 years from now half of the companies we know and love fail after we’re done writing the book and blaming the CEO for inventing the thing that ended up killing them, blaming the board for fiduciary responsibility and letting it happen. [00:17:06] Jay McBain: What are the other chapters of the book? And I think it’s all in one slide. We are in this platform economy and the. [00:17:31] Jay McBain: So your battery’s fine. Check, check, check, check. Alright, I’ll, I’ll just hold this in case, but the companies that execute on all five of these areas, well. Not only today become the trillion dollar valued companies, but they become the companies of tomorrow. These will be the fastest growing companies at every level. [00:17:50] Jay McBain: Not only running a platform business, but participating in other platforms. So this is how it breaks out, and there are people at very senior levels, at very big companies that have this now posted in the office of the CEO winning on integrations is everything. We just went through a demographic shift this year where 51% of our buyers are born after 1982. [00:18:15] Jay McBain: Millennials are the number one buyer of the $5 trillion. Their number one buying criteria is not service. Support your price, your brand reputation, it’s integrations. The buy a product, 80% is good as the next one if it works better in their environment. 79% of us won’t buy a car unless it has CarPlay or Android Auto. [00:18:34] Jay McBain: This is an integration world. The company with the most integrations win. Second, there are seven partners that surround the customer. Highly trusted partners. We’re talking, coaching the customer’s, kids soccer team, having a cottage together up at the lake. You know, best men, bate of honors at weddings type of relationships. [00:18:57] Jay McBain: You can’t maybe have all seven, but how does Microsoft beat AWS? They might have had two, three, or four of them saying nice things about them instead of the competition. Winning in service partnerships and channel partnerships changes by category. If you’re selling MarTech, only 10% of it today is resold, so you build more on service partnerships. [00:19:18] Jay McBain: If you’re in cybersecurity today, 91.6% of it is resold. Transacted through partners. So you build a lot of channel partnerships, plus the service partnerships, whatever the mix is in your category, you have to have two or three of those seven people. Saying nice things about you at every stage of the customer journey. [00:19:38] Jay McBain: Now move over to alliances. We have already built the platforms at the hyperscale level. We’ve built the platforms within SaaS, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, Marketo, NetSuite, HubSpot. Every buyer has a set of platforms that they buy. We’ve now built them in cybersecurity this year out of 6,500 as high as cyber companies, the top five are starting to separate. [00:20:02] Jay McBain: We built it in distribution, which I’ll show in a minute. We’re building it in Telco. This is a platform economy and alliances win and you have alliances with your competitors ’cause you compete in the morning, but you’re best friends by the afternoon. Winning in other platforms is just as important as driving your own. [00:20:20] Jay McBain: And probably the most important part of this is go to market. That sales, that marketing, the 28 moments, the every 30 days forever become all a partner strategy. So there’s still CEOs out there that believe platform is a UI or UX on a bunch of disparate products and things you’ve acquired. There’s still CFOs out there that Think platform is a pricing model, a bundle model of just getting everything under one, you know, subscription price or consumption price. [00:20:51] Jay McBain: And it’s not, platforms are synonymous with partnerships. This is the way forward and there’s no conversation around ai. That doesn’t involve Nvidia over there, an open AI over here and a hyperscaler over there and a SaaS company over here. The seven layer stack wins every single time, and the companies that get this will be the ones that survive this cycle. [00:21:16] Jay McBain: Now, flipping over to marketplaces. So we had written research that, um, about five years ago that marketplaces were going to grow at 82% compounded. Yeah, probably one of the most accurate predictions we ever made, because it happened, we, we predicted that, uh, we were gonna get up to about $85 billion. Well, now we’ve extended that to 2030, so we’re gonna get up to $163 billion, and the thing that we’re watching is in green. [00:21:46] Jay McBain: If 96% of these deals are partner assisted in some way, how is the economics of partnering going to work? We predicted that 50% of deals by 2027. Would be partner funded in some way. Private offers multi-partner offers distributor sellers of record, and now that extends to 59% by 2030, the most senior leader of the biggest marketplace AWS, just said to us they’re gonna probably make these numbers on their own. [00:22:14] Jay McBain: And he asked what their two competitors are doing. So he’s telling us that we under called this. Now when you look at each of the press releases, and this is the AWS Billion Dollar Club. Every one of the companies on the left have issued a press release that they’re in the billion dollar club. Some of them are in the multi-billions, but I want you to double click on this press release. [00:22:35] Jay McBain: I’m quoted in here somewhere, but as CrowdStrike is building the marketplace at 91% compounded, they’re almost doubling their revenue every single year. They’re growing the partner funding, in this case, distributor funding by 3548%. Almost triple digit growth in marketplace is translating into almost quadruple digit growth in funding. [00:23:01] Jay McBain: And you see that over and over again as, as Splunk hit three, uh, billion dollars. The same. Salesforce hit $2 billion on AWS in Ulti, 18 months. They joined in October 20, 23, and 18 months later, they’re already at $2 billion. But now you’re seeing at Salesforce, which by the way. Grew up to $40 billion in revenue direct, almost not a nickel in resell. [00:23:28] Jay McBain: Made it really difficult for VARs and managed service providers to work with Salesforce because they couldn’t understand how to add services to something they didn’t book the revenue for. While $40 billion companies now seeing 70% of their deals come through partners. So this is just the world that we’re in. [00:23:44] Jay McBain: It doesn’t matter who you are and what industry you’re in, this takes place. But now we’re starting to see for the first time. Partners join the billion dollar club. So you wonder about partnering and all this funding and everything that’s working through Now you’re seeing press releases and companies that are redoing their LinkedIn branding about joining this illustrious club without a product to sell and all the services that wrap around it. [00:24:10] Jay McBain: So the opening session on Microsoft was interesting because there’s been a number of changes that Microsoft has done just in the last 30 days. One is they cut distribution by two thirds going from 180 distributors to 62. They cut out any small partner lower than a thousand dollars, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s over a hundred thousand partners that get deed tightening the long tail. [00:24:38] Jay McBain: They we’re the first to really put a global point system in place three years ago. They went to the new commerce experience. If you remember, all kinds of changes being led by. The biggest company for the channel. And so when we’re studying marketplaces, we’re not just studying the three hyperscalers, we’re studying what TD Cynic is doing with Stream One Ingram’s doing with Advant Advantage Aerosphere. [00:25:01] Jay McBain: Also, we’re watching what PAX eight, who by the way, is the 365 bestseller for Microsoft in the world. They are the cybersecurity leader for Microsoft in the world and the copilot. Leader in the world for Microsoft and Partner of the Year for Microsoft. So we’re watching what the cloud platforms are doing, watching what the Telco are doing, which is 25 cents out of every dollar, if you remember that pie chart, watching what the biggest resellers are converting themselves into. [00:25:30] Jay McBain: Vince just mentioned, you know, SHI in the changes there watching the managed services market and the leaders there, what they’re doing in terms of how this industry’s moving forward. By the way, managed services at $608 billion this year. Is one and a half times larger than the SaaS industry overall. [00:25:48] Jay McBain: It’s also one and a half times larger than all the hyperscalers combined. Oracle, Alibaba, IBM, all the way down. This is a massive market and it makes up 15 to 20 cents of every dollar the customer spend. We’re watching that industry hit a trillion dollars by the end of the decade, and we’re watching 150 different marketplace development platforms, the distribution of our industry, which today is 70.1% indirect. [00:26:13] Jay McBain: We’re starting to see that number, uh, solidify in terms of marketplaces as well. Watching distributors go from that linear warehouse in a bank to this orchestration model, watching some of the biggest players as the world comes around, platforms, it tightens around the place. So Caresoft, uh, from from here is the sixth biggest distributor in the world. [00:26:40] Jay McBain: Just shows you how big the. You know, biggest client in the world is that they serve. But understand that we’re publishing the distributor 500 list, but it’ll be the same thing. That little group in blue in the middle today, you know, drives almost two thirds of the market. So what happens in all this next stage in terms of where the dollars change hands. [00:27:07] Jay McBain: And the economics of partnering themselves are going through the most radical shift that we’ve seen ever. So back to the nineties, and, and for those of you that have been channel chiefs and running programs, we went to work every day. You know, everything’s on fire. We’re trying to check hundred boxes, trying to make our program 10% better than our competitors. [00:27:30] Jay McBain: Hey, we gotta fix our deal registration program today, and our incentives are outta whack or training programs or. You know, not where they need to be. Our certification, you know, this was the life of, uh, of a channel chief. Everybody thought we were just out drinking in the Caribbean with our best partners, but we were under the weight of this. [00:27:49] Jay McBain: But something interesting has happened is that we turned around and put the customer at the middle of our programs to say that those 28 moments in green before the sale are really, really important. And the seven partners who participate are really important. Understanding. The customer’s gonna buy a seven layer stack. [00:28:09] Jay McBain: They’re gonna buy it With these seven partners, the procurement stage is much different. The growth of marketplaces, the growth of direct in some of these areas, and then long term every 30 days forever in a managed service, implementations, integrations, how you upsell, cross-sell, enrich a deal changes. So how would you build a program that’s wrapped around the customer instead of the vendor? [00:28:35] Jay McBain: And we’re starting to hear our partners shout back to us. These are global surveys, big numbers, but over half of our partners, regardless of type, are selling consulting to their customer. Over half are designing architecting deals. A third of them are trying to be system integrators showing up at those implementation integration moments. [00:28:55] Jay McBain: Two thirds of them are doing managed services, but the shocking one here is 44% of our partners, regardless of type, are coding. They’re building agents and they’re out helping their customer at that level. So this is the modern partner that says, don’t typecast me. You may have thought of me in your program. [00:29:14] Jay McBain: You might have me slotted as a var. Well, I do 3.2 things, and if I don’t get access to those resources, if you don’t walk me to that room, I’m not gonna do them with you. You may have me as a managed service provider that’s only in the morning. By the afternoon I’m coding, and by the next morning I’m implementing and consulting. [00:29:33] Jay McBain: So again, a partner’s not a partner. That Venn diagram is a very loose one now, as every partner on there is doing 3.2 different business models. And again, they’re telling us for 43 years, they said, I want more leads this year it changed. For the first time, I want to be recognized and incentivized as more than just a cash register for you. [00:29:57] Jay McBain: I want you to recognize when I’m consulting, when I’m designing, when you’re winning deals, because of my wonderful services, by the way, we asked the follow up question, well, where should we spend our money with you? And they overwhelmingly say, in the consulting stage, you win and lose deals. Not at moment 28. [00:30:18] Jay McBain: We’re not buying a pack of gum at the gas station. This is a considered purchase. You win deals from moment 12 through 16 and I’m gonna show you a picture of that later, and they say, you better be spending your money there, or you’re not gonna win your fair share or more than your fair share of deals. [00:30:36] Jay McBain: The shocking thing about this is that Microsoft, when they went to the point system, lifted two thirds of all the money, tens of billions of dollars, and put it post-sale, and we were all scratching our heads going. Well, if the partners are asking for it there, and it seems like to beat your biggest competitors, you want to win there. [00:30:54] Jay McBain: Why would you spend the money on renewal? Well, they went to Wall Street and Goldman Sachs and the people who lift trillions of dollars of pension funds and said, if we renew deals at 108%, we become a cash machine for you. And we think that’s more valuable than a company coming out with a new cell phone in September and selling a lot of them by Christmas every year. [00:31:18] Jay McBain: The industry. And by the way, wall Street responded, Microsoft has been more valuable than Apple since. So we talk in this now multiplier language, and these are reports that we write, uh, at AMIA at canals. But talking about the partner opportunity in that customer cycle, the $6 and 40 cents you can make for every dollar of consumption, or the $7 and 5 cents you can make the $8 and 45 cents you can make. [00:31:46] Jay McBain: There’s over 24 companies speaking at this level now, and guess what? It’s not just cloud or software companies. Hardware companies are starting to speak in this language, and on January 25th, Cisco, you know, probably second to Microsoft in terms of trust built with the channel globally is moving to a full point system. [00:32:09] Jay McBain: So these are the changes that happen fast. But your QBR with your partners now less about drinking beers at the hotel lobby bar and talking dollar by dollar where these opportunities are. So if you’re doing 3.2 of these things, let’s build out a, uh, a play where you can make $3 for every dollar that we make. [00:32:28] Jay McBain: And you make that profitably. You make it in sticky, highly retained business, and that’s the model. ’cause if you make $3 for every dollar. We make, you’re gonna win Partner of the year, and if you win partner of the year, that piece of glass that you win on stage, by the time you get back to your table, you’re gonna have three offers to buy your business. [00:32:51] Jay McBain: CDW just bought a w. S’s Partner of the Year. Insight bought Google’s eight time partner of the year. Presidio bought ServiceNow’s, partner of the year over and over and over again. So I’m at Octane, I’m at CrowdStrike, I’m at all these events in Vegas every week. I’m watching these partners of the year. [00:33:05] Jay McBain: And I’m watching as the big resellers. I’m watching as the GSIs and the m and a folks are surrounding their table after, and they’re selling their businesses for SaaS level valuations. Not the one-to-one service valuation. They’re getting multiples because this is the new future of our industry. This is platform economics. [00:33:25] Jay McBain: This is winning and platforms for partners. Now, like Vince, I spent 20 minutes without talking about ai, but we have to talk about ai. So the next 20 years as it plays out is gonna play out in phases. And the first thing you know to get it out of the way. The first two years since that March of 23, has been underwhelming, to say the least. [00:33:47] Jay McBain: It’s been disappointing. All the companies that should have won the biggest in AI have been the most disappointing. It’s underperformed the s and p by a considerable amount in terms of where we are. And it goes back to this. We always overestimate the first two years, but we underestimate the first 10. [00:34:07] Jay McBain: If you wanna be the point in time person and go look at that 1983 PC or the 1995 internet or that 2007 iPhone or that whatever point in time you wanna look at, or if you want to talk about hallucinations or where chat chip ET version five is version, as opposed to where it’s going to be as it improves every six months here on in. [00:34:30] Jay McBain: But the fact of the matter is, it’s been a consumer trend. Nvidia got to be the most valuable company in the world. OpenAI was the first company to 2 billion users, uh, in that amount of speed. It’s the fastest growing product ever in history, and it’s been a consumer win this trillions of dollars to get it thrown around in the press releases. [00:34:49] Jay McBain: They’re going out every day, you know, open ai, signing up somebody new or Nvidia, investing in somebody new almost every single day in hundreds of billions of dollars. It is all happening really on the consumer side. So we got a little bit worried and said, is that 96% of surround gonna work in ag agentic ai? [00:35:10] Jay McBain: So we went and asked, and the good news is 88% of end customers are using partners to work through their ag agentic strategy. Even though they’re moving slow, they’re actually using partners. But what’s interesting from a partner perspective, and this is new research that out till 2030. This is the number one services opportunity in the entire tech or telco industry. [00:35:34] Jay McBain: 35.3% compounded growth ending at $267 billion in services. Companies are rebuilding themselves, building out practices, and getting on this train and figuring out which vendors they should hook their caboose to as those trains leave the station. But it kind of plays out like this. So in the next three to five years, we’re in this generative, moving into agentic phase. [00:36:01] Jay McBain: Every partner thinks internally first, the sales and marketing. They’re thinking about their invoicing and billing. They’re thinking about their service tickets. They’re thinking about creating a business that’s 10% better than their competitors, taking that knowledge into their customers and drive in business. [00:36:17] Jay McBain: But we understand that ag agentic AI, as it’s going to play out is not a product. A couple of years ago, we thought maybe a copilot or an agent force or something was going to be the product that everybody needed to buy, and it’s not a product, it’s gonna show up as a feature. So you go back in the history of feature ads and it’s gonna show up in software. [00:36:38] Jay McBain: So if you’re calling in SMB, maybe you’re calling on a restaurant. The restaurant isn’t gonna call OpenAI or call Microsoft or call Nvidia directly. They’re running their restaurant. And they may have chosen a platform like Toast Square, Clover, whatever iPads people are running around with, runs on a platform that does everything in their business, does staffing, does food ordering, works with Uber Eats, does everything end to end? [00:37:08] Jay McBain: They’re gonna wait to one of those platforms, dries out agent AI for them, and can run the restaurant more effectively, less human capital and more consistently, but they wait for the SaaS platform as you get larger. A hundred, 150 people. You have vice presidents. Each of those vice presidents already have a SaaS stack. [00:37:28] Jay McBain: I talked about Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, et cetera. They’ve already built that seven layer model and in some cases it’s 70 layers. But the fact is, is they’re gonna wait for those SaaS layers to deliver ag agentic to them. So this is how it’s gonna play out for the next three and a half, three to five years. [00:37:45] Jay McBain: And partners are realizing that many of them were slow to pick up SaaS ’cause they didn’t resell it. Well now to win in this next three to half, three to five years, you’re gonna have to play in this environment. When you start looking out from here, the next generation, you know, kind of five through 15 years gets interesting in more of a physical sense. [00:38:06] Jay McBain: Where I was yesterday talking about every IOT device that now is internet access, starts to get access to large language models. Every little sensor, every camera, everything that’s out there starts to get smart. But there’s a point. The first trillionaire, I believe, will be created here. Elon’s already halfway there. [00:38:24] Jay McBain: Um, but when Bill Gates thought there was gonna be a PC in every home, and IBM thought they were gonna sell 10,000 to hobbyists, that created the richest person in the world for 20 years, there will be a humanoid in every home. There’s gonna be a point in time that you’re out having drinks with your friends, and somebody’s gonna say, the early adopter of your friends is gonna say. [00:38:46] Jay McBain: I haven’t done the dishes in six weeks. I haven’t done the laundry. I haven’t made my bed. I haven’t mowed the lawn. When they say that, you’re gonna say, well, how? And they’re gonna say, well, this year I didn’t buy a new car, but I went to the car dealership and I bought this. So we’re very close to the dexterity needed. [00:39:05] Jay McBain: We’ve got the large language models. Now. The chat, GPT version 10 by then is going to make an insane, and every house is gonna have one of the. [00:39:17] Jay McBain: This is the promise of ai. It’s not humanoid robots, it’s not agents. It’s this. 99% of the world’s business data has not been trained or tuned into models yet. Again, this is the slow moving business. If you want to think about the 99% of business data, every flight we’ve all taken in this room sits on a saber system that was put in place in 1964. [00:39:43] Jay McBain: Every banking transaction, we’ve all made, every withdrawal, every deposit sits on an IBM mainframe put in place in the sixties or seventies. 83% of this data sits in cold storage at the edge. It’s not ready to be moved. It’s not cleansed, it’s not, um, indexed. It’s not in any format or sitting on any infrastructure that a large language model will be able to gobble up the data. [00:40:10] Jay McBain: None of the workflows, none of the programming on top of that data is yet ready. So this is your 10 to 20 year arc of this era that chat bot today when they cancel your flight is cute. It’s empathetic, it feels bad for you, or at least it seems to, but it can’t do anything. It can’t book you the Marriott and get you an Uber and then a 5:00 AM flight the next morning. [00:40:34] Jay McBain: It can’t do any of that. But more importantly, it doesn’t know who you are. I’ve got 53 years of flights under my belt and they, I’m the person that get me within six hours of my kids and get me a one-way Hertz rental. You know, if there’s bad weather in Miami, get me to Tampa, get me a Hertz, I’m driving home, I’m gonna make it home. [00:40:56] Jay McBain: I’m not the 5:00 AM get me a hotel person. They would know that if they picked up the flights that I’ve taken in the past. Each of us are different. When you get access to the business data and you become ag agentic, everything changes. Every industry changes because of this around the customers. When you ask about this 35% growth, working on that data, working in traditional consulting and design and implementation, working in the $7 trillion of infrastructure, storage, compute, networking, that’s gonna be around, this is a massive opportunity. [00:41:30] Jay McBain: Services are gonna continue to outgrow products. Probably for the next five to 10 years because of this, and I’m gonna finish here. So we talked a lot about quantifying names, faces, places, and I think where we failed the most as ultimate partners is underneath the tam, which every one of our CEOs knows to the decimal point underneath the TAM that our board thinks they’re chasing. [00:41:59] Jay McBain: We’ve done a very poor job. Of talking about the available markets and obtainable markets underneath it, we, we’ve shown them theory. We’ve shown them a bunch of, you know, really smart stuff, and PowerPoint slides up the wazoo, but we’ve never quantified it for them. If they wanna win, if they want to get access, if they want to double their pipeline, triple their pipeline, if they wanna start winning more deals, if they wanna win deals that are three times larger, they close two times faster. [00:42:31] Jay McBain: And they renew 15% larger. They have to get into the available and obtainable markets. So just in the last couple weeks I spoke at Cribble, I spoke at Octane, I spoke at CrowdStrike Falcon. All three of those companies at the CEO level, main stage use those exact three numbers, three x, two x, 15%. That’s the language of platforms, and they’re investing millions and millions and millions of dollars on teams. [00:42:59] Jay McBain: To go build out the Sam Andal in name spaces and places. So you’ve heard me talk about these 28 moments a lot. They’re the ones that you spend when you buy a car. Some people spend one moment and they drive to the Cadillac dealership. ’cause Larry’s been, you know, taking care of the family for 50 years. [00:43:18] Jay McBain: Some people spend 50 moments like I do, watching every YouTube video and every, you know, thing on the internet. I clear the internet cover to cover. But the fact is, is every deal averages around these 28 moments. Your customer, there’s 13 members of the buying committee today. There’s seven partners and they’re buying seven things. [00:43:37] Jay McBain: There’s 27 things orchestrating inside these 28 moments. And where and how they all take place is a story of partnering. So a couple of years ago, canals. Latin for channel was acquired by amia, which is a part of Informa Tech Target, which is majority owned by Informa. All that being said, there’s hundreds of magazines that we have. [00:44:00] Jay McBain: There’s hundreds of events that we run. If somebody’s buying cybersecurity, they probably went to Black Hat or they probably went to GI Tech. One of these events we run, or one of the magazines. So we pick up these signals, these buyer intent signals as a company. Why did they wanna, um, buy a, uh, a Canals, which was a, you know, a small analyst firm around channels? [00:44:22] Jay McBain: They understood this as well. The 28 moments look a lot like this when marketers and salespeople are busy filling in the spots of every deal. And by the way, this is a real deal. AstraZeneca came in to spend millions of dollars on ASAP transformation, and you can start to see as the customer got smart. [00:44:45] Jay McBain: The eBooks, they read the podcasts, they listened to the events they went to. You start to see how this played out over the long term. But the thing we’ve never had in our industry is the light blue boxes. This deal was won and lost in December. In this particular case, NTT software won and Yash came in and sold the customer five projects. [00:45:07] Jay McBain: The millions of dollars that were going to be spent were solved here. The design and architecture work was all done here. A couple of ISVs You see in light blue came in right at the end, deal was closed in April. You see the six month cycle. But what if you could fill in every one of the 28 boxes in every single customer prospect that your sales and marketing team have? [00:45:30] Jay McBain: But here’s the brilliance of this. Those light blue boxes didn’t win the deals there. They won the deals months before that. So when NTT and Software one walked into this deal. They probably won the deal back in October and they had to go through the redlining. They had to go through the contracting, they had to go through all the stuff and the Gantt chart to get started. [00:45:54] Jay McBain: But while your CMO is getting all excited about somebody reading an ebook and triggering an MQL that the sales team doesn’t want, ’cause it’s not qualified, it’s not sales qualified, you walk in and say, no, no. This is a multimillion deal, dollar deal. It’s AstraZeneca. I know the five partners that are coming in in December to solidify the seven layers, and you’re walking in at the same time as the CMOs bragging about an ebook. [00:46:21] Jay McBain: This changes everything. If we could get to this level of data about every dollar of our tam, we not only outgrow our competitors, we become the platforms of the next generation. Partnering and ultimate partnering is all here. And this is what we’re doing in this room. This is what we’re doing over these couple of days, and this is what, uh, the mission that Vince is leading. [00:46:43] Jay McBain: Thank you so much. [00:46:47] Vince Menzione: Woo. Day in the house. Good to see you my friend. Good to see you. Oh, we’re gonna spend a couple minutes. Um, I’m put you in the second seat. We’re gonna put, we’re gonna make it sit fireside for a minute. Uh, that was intense. It was pretty incredible actually, Jay. And so I’m, I think I wanna open it up ’cause we only have a few minutes just to, any questions? [00:47:06] Vince Menzione: I’m sure people are just digesting. We already have one up here. See, [00:47:09] Question: Jay knows I’m [00:47:10] Vince Menzione: a question. I love it. We, I don’t think we have any I can grab a mic, a roving mic. I could be a roving mic person. Hold on. We can do this. This is not on. [00:47:25] Vince Menzione: Test, test. Yes it is. Yeah. [00:47:26] Question: Theresa Carriol dared me to ask a question and I say, you don’t have to dare me. You know, I’m going to Anyway. Um, so Jay, of the point of view that with all of the new AI players that strategic alliances is again having a moment, and I was curious your point of view on what you’re seeing around this emergence and trend of strategic alliances and strategic alliance management. [00:47:52] Question: As compared to channel management. And what are you seeing in terms of large vendors like AWS investing in that strategic alliance role versus that channel role training, enablement, measurement, all that good stuff? [00:48:06] Jay McBain: Yeah, it’s, it’s a great question. So when I told the story about toast at the restaurant or Square or Clover, they’re not call, they’re not gonna call open AI or Nvidia themselves either. [00:48:17] Jay McBain: When you look out at the 250,000 ISVs. That make up this AI stack, there is the layers that happen there. So the Alliance with AWS, the alliance they have with Microsoft or Google is going to be how they generate agent AI in their platforms. So when I talk about a seven layer stack, the average deal being seven layers, AI is gonna drive this to nine, and then 11, then probably 13. [00:48:44] Jay McBain: So in terms of how alliances work, I had it up there as one of the five core strategies, and I think it’s pretty even. You can have the best alliances in the world, but if the seven partners trusted by the customer don’t know what that alliance is and the benefits to the customer and never mention it, it’s all for Naugh. [00:49:00] Jay McBain: If you’re go-to market, you’re co-selling, your co-marketing strategies are not built around that alliance. It’s all for naught. If the integration and the co-innovation, the co-development, the all the co-creation work that’s done inside these alliances isn’t translated to customer outcomes, it’s all for naugh. [00:49:17] Jay McBain: These are all five parallel swim lanes. All five are absolutely critically needed. And I think they’re all five pretty equally weighted in terms of needing each other. Yes. To be successful in the era of platforms. Yeah. [00:49:32] Vince Menzione: And the problem is they’re all stove pipe today. If, if at all. Yeah. Maintained, right. [00:49:36] Vince Menzione: Alliances is an example. Channels and other example. They don’t talk to one another. Judge any, we’ve got a mic up here if anybody else has. Yep. We have some questions here, Jacqueline. [00:49:51] Question: So when we’re developing our channel programs, any advice on, you know, what’s the shift that we should make six months from now, a year from now? The historical has been bronze, silver, gold, right? And you’ve got your deal registration, but what’s the future look like? [00:50:05] Jay McBain: Yeah, so I mean, the programs are, are changing to, to the point where the customer should be in the middle and realizing the seven partners you need to win the deal. [00:50:15] Jay McBain: And depending on what category of product you’re in, security, how much you rely on resell, 91.6%. You know, the channel partners are gonna be critical where the customer spends the money. And if you’re adding friction to that process, you’re adding friction in terms of your growth. So you know, if you’re in cybersecurity, you have to have a pretty wide open reseller model. [00:50:39] Jay McBain: You have to have a wide open distribution model, and you have to make sure you’re there at that point of sale. While at the same time, considering the other six partners at moment 12 who are in either saying nice things about you or not, the customer might even be starting with you. ’cause there is actually one thing that I didn’t mention when I showed the 28 moments filled in. [00:51:00] Jay McBain: You’ll notice that the customer went to AWS twice direct. AWS lost the deal. Microsoft won the deal software. One is Microsoft’s biggest reseller in the world. They just acquired crayon. NTT who, who loves both had their Microsoft team go in. [00:51:18] Question: Mm. [00:51:19] Jay McBain: So I think that they went to AWS thinking it was A-W-S-S-A-P, you know, kind of starting this seven layer stack. [00:51:25] Jay McBain: I think they finished those, you know, critical moments in the middle looking at it. And then they went back to AWS kind of going probably WWTF. Yeah. What we thought was happening isn’t actually the outcome that was painted by our most trusted people. So, you know, to answer your question, listen to your partners. [00:51:43] Jay McBain: They want to be recognized for the other things they’re doing. You can’t be spending a hundred percent of the dollars at the point of sale. You gotta have a point of system that recognizes the point of sale, maybe even gold, silver, bronze, but recognizing that you’re paying for these other moments as well. [00:51:57] Jay McBain: Paying for alliances, paying for integrations and everything else, uh, in the cyber stack. And, um, you know, recognizing also the top 1000. So if I took your tam. And I overlaid those thousand logos. I would be walking into 2026 the best I could of showing my company logo by logo, where 80% of our TAM sits as wallet share, not by revenue. [00:52:25] Jay McBain: Remember, a million dollar partner is not a million dollar partner. One of them sells 1.2 million in our category. We should buy them a baseball cap and have ’em sit in the front row of our event. One of them sells $10 million and only sells our stuff if the customer asks. So my company should be looking at that $9 million opportunity and making sure my programs are writing the checks and my coverage. [00:52:48] Jay McBain: My capacity and capability planning is getting obsessed over that $9 million. My farmers can go over there, my hunters can go over here, and I should be submitting a list of a thousand sorted in descending order of opportunity. Of where my company can write program dollars into. [00:53:07] Vince Menzione: Great answer. All right. I, I do wanna be cognizant of time and the, all the other sessions we have. [00:53:14] Vince Menzione: So we’ll just take one other question if there are any here and if not, we’ll let I know. Jay, you’re gonna be mingling around for a little while before your flight. I’m [00:53:21] Jay McBain: here the whole day. [00:53:22] Vince Menzione: You, you’re the whole day. I see that Jay’s here the whole day. So if you have any other questions and, and, uh, sharing the deck is that. [00:53:29] Vince Menzione: Yep. Alright. We have permission to share the deck with the each of you as well. [00:53:34] Jay McBain: Alright, well thank you very much everyone. Jay. Great to have you.
An interview podcast giving the inside scoop of what happens in comedy scenes across the globe and dedicated to speaking to the mavericks in the comedy world. We speak to former crip gang member, prisoner of 23 years and now professional comedian, Stacey Taylor. Here is an overview of what we discussed: [01:00] Grew up being funny; there were no outlets for comedy in the ghetto, so I went into drugs and joined the Crips[03:41][05:28] It's one-sided; that's why people get into gangs, and why cults are always present.[08:56][13:33] How The Secret by Rhonda Byrne saved my life.[16:37][19:16] You don't have the option to avoid people you don't like; how The Secret has helped me, having the right people around, and getting out of jail.[22:36][22:36] My journey to my first gig and becoming a professional comedian, receiving a stipend, and seeing ex-fellow convicts at a comedy gig.[29:12][35:13] Difference between me and my brothers; how comedy has always been a part of my life, changing the narrative.[39:56][41:18] America is all about the money; people make more of a situation than they need to, people want to be victims, and I am shocked at where I am today.[47:29][51:38] Comedy is watered down. [57:45][59:52] My advice on comedy and life.[01:05:43] If you would like to know more on Stacey Taylor, you can reach him on his Instagram at stacey_taylor_comedian or follow this link:https://tinyurl.com/4rjdv5mm. You can follow this podcast on Youtube at https://bit.ly/41LWDAq, Spotify at https://spoti.fi/3oLrmyU,Apple podcasts at https://apple.co/3LEkr3E and you can support the pod on:https://www.patreon.com/thecomediansparadise.
What if 2026 wasn't just "busy"… but actually healthy, profitable, and calm? In this episode, Dominic Rubino sits down with coach and business owner Ryan Hindmarsh to talk about how real contractors are building better lives and better businesses at the same time. You'll hear real stories from cabinet shops, millwork shops, and trades businesses who: • Delegated low-value work and finally had time to look after their health • Planned vacations first so the year doesn't disappear on them • Grew revenue by ~30% with a simple builder-outreach plan • Booked the biggest jobs in company history because systems and SOPs were ready • Used weekly rhythms (money, sales, planning) to keep every part of the business moving • Chose a "word of the year" like THRIVING to guide decisions • Joined in a water project that turns likes/comments into clean drinking water in Nicaragua
Plus, a jury orders Johnson & Johnson to pay over $1.5 billion in a lawsuit alleging its talc products caused cancer. And as car prices rise, consumers are increasingly seeking out longer-term auto loans. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hey Winner, Feeling stuck trying to grow your podcast—especially without relying on Instagram or TikTok? You're not alone. In this episode, I'm joined by Kevin Chemidlin, podcast coach and host of Grow the Show, who shares how he scaled his podcast to six figures without using social media. Kevin breaks down the power of long-form content, how to become a sought-after podcast guest, and the biggest mistakes most podcasters make when trying to grow. If you're ready to ditch the scroll and start growing with strategy and peace, this episode is for you. Rooting for you ~ Gabe New to the podcast? Start here: https://redhotmindset.com/podcast-start/ LISTEN TO HEAR: Why long-form content (like YouTube and podcasting) builds deeper trust and better leads The real reason social media might be stalling your growth How to get featured on top podcasts in your niche What most people get wrong about podcast guesting—and how to stand out A sustainable growth strategy for busy, faith-driven podcasters LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE: Kevin's website: https://growtheshow.com/ CONNECT WITH ME: ➡️ Website: https://redhotmindset.com/ ➡️ Join the Red Hot Accountability Club: https://redhotmindset.com/rha/ ➡️ Free mini course: Craft Your Marketing Strategy Without Social Media: https://redhotmindset.com/marketing/ ➡️ Free workshop: 3 Secrets to Making Progress on Your Goals without Burnout—Even When Life Feels Chaotic: https://redhotmindset.com/goals/
I sat down with Noriko Abenojar — social worker, friendship and parenting coach who helps neurodivergent children (autistic, ADHD, PDA, etc.) and their families build real social skills, confidence, and connection. Noriko started in deeply relational, in-person work — supporting families one-on-one — and recently expanded those supports into a scalable online model so she can serve more families without burning out. She discovered my work through Amy Porterfield's Momentum community and joined Hey to 100k® less than a year ago, which helped her structure her offers and sell more confidently. In this episode we talk about: Why social skills coaching for neurodivergent kids needs to be trauma-aware, brain-informed, and family-centered How Noriko translated hands-on, in-person therapy-style support into accessible online programs and parent coaching offers The mindset shifts that moved her from overgiving in 1:1 work to designing scalable group and evergreen options Concrete, compassionate strategies parents can use today to support friendship-building and emotional regulation How she validated her first scalable offers and built step-by-step without burning out Resources mentioned Learn the 4 Essential Keys to Growing Friendships in Neurodivergent Kids (free video training & companion workbook) Subscribe to Noriko's Parenting REdefined FREE newsletter Connect with Noriko on Instagram: @norikoabenojar
In this episode, I sit down with my client Rosemary Philips, a social media marketing expert who grew her business from 2 to 8 clients while building a freedom-based lifestyle on her homestead and farm. Rosemary shares the mindset shifts that helped her stop overworking, how she built simple systems to work less while making more money, and exactly how she finds clients for both social media consulting and done-for-you services. In this episode, you'll learn: How Rosemary grew from 2 to 8 clients without working longer hours. The mindset shifts she needed to make. The systems that helped her create a freedom-based business. How she consistently finds clients for consulting and done-for-you services. Learn more about my coaching programs for service providers here: https://www.almabradford.com/
Listen to Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes WNTN 1550 AM - US GDP grew at a 4.3 % annual rate, faster than the previous 3 months - Trump unveiled a new “Trump class” of Navy battleships- Justice Department has released a new set of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein
Events create demand. In this episode of Sales Talk for CEOs, Alice Heiman sits down with Jonathan Kazarian, Founder & CEO of Accelevents, the all‑in‑one event management platform that's redefining how organizations run events from 20‑person dinners to 30,000‑attendee conferences.Jonathan didn't start in events tech, he came from finance. But when he couldn't find software powerful enough to run a 900‑person fundraiser for his cousin, he built his own. That event was a smash success and the demand for the tool he created sparked the beginning of Accelevents.Want to get better results from your events? Check out these expert tips from Alice (Our Internal Links)
Tuesday December 23, 2025 Pelosi Resisted Stock Trading Ban as Wealth Grew
Meet Leslie, a dear friend who quietly shows up with faithfulness and wisdom in everything she does, including fostering and adopting two precious little boys. In this conversation, she shares the nine-year journey from that first whisper in her heart to the moment her husband finally said yes, and how God's perfect timing brought their foster son into their home right when he needed them most. Connect with us! Website: https://www.pzazzonline.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/pzazzartstudio Instagram- www.instagram.com/pzazzartstudio Text us: 1-334-249-1818
There was a time I was hitting consistent revenue milestones…but still lying awake at night, stressed about money.In this episode of Your Big Next, I'm sharing the money mindset shifts that changed everything—in my business, my leadership, and my personal peace. You'll hear the real story of how I went from undercharging, over-functioning, and carrying an invisible fear of lack to raising my prices, building a high-performing team, and creating more space, alignment, and overflow than ever before.This wasn't just about numbers. It was about identity, stewardship, and trust. And it took a wake-up call, one I didn't see coming to finally shift the way I viewed money for good.Inside this episode:The toxic money cycle I didn't realize I was inThe breakthrough moment that reframed everything3 money mindset shifts that rewired my beliefsHow I moved from “I can't afford it” → “How can I?”The importance of value creation over scarcity thinkingWhy stewarding wealth is a responsibility, not a rewardWhat alignment with your financial beliefs really feels likeWhether you're undercharging, overspending, or simply sensing it's time for a deeper financial reset this episode is an invitation to look at your money story through a new lens.Resources from this episode:Your Big Next Book is Coming SOON! Get on the waitlist https://yourbignextbook.com/Leadership Advantage Assessment https://luminaryleadershipco.com/styleShow notes: https://luminaryleadershipco.com/episode306Connect with me:Website: https://luminaryleadershipco.com/If there's a topic, a question or a guest you want to hear on the show or an idea you have for us, just reach out and share that at marketing@luminaryleadershipco.com. We'd love to chat!Connect with me on Instagram!Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here!
Send us a textIn this episode of The Riley Black Project, John & Crystal sit down with Jeff and Anna of Lancaster Supplies for a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes world of laser blanks, sourcing, scaling, and what it really takes to build a supplier brand from scratch.From waking up at 4 AM with no alarm, bowling in the 200s, and balancing multiple businesses… to accidentally engraving on your spouse's belongings (we've all been there
Alistair Roome is the founder and CEO of HD London Art (https://hdlondonart.com).FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: https://x.com/andrewjfaris Email: podcast@ajfgrowth.comWork With AJF Growth: https://ajfgrowth.comINTELLIGEMSIntelligems brings A/B testing to business decisions beyond copy and design. Test your pricing, shipping charges, free shipping thresholds, offers, SaaS tools, and more by clicking here: https://bit.ly/42DcmFl. Get 20% off the first 3 months with code FARIS20. MOVE SUPPLY CHAINReduce your OpEx and create more leverage in your company with financial forecasting, AI, and offshore talent by visiting https://morestaffing.co/af.
Some families pass down heirlooms, land, or stories. Others inherit something older. Quieter. Invisible. Something that exists just beyond the edge of the living world. For her, the inheritance wasn't jewelry or a surname — it was sensitivity. The ability to feel the air change before something stepped through it. To know when the unseen was standing too close. To sense what other people walk through without ever noticing. In a family of psychics, the paranormal wasn't taboo — it was tradition. And from the moment she was born, something responded to that openness. Followed her from house to house. Grew stronger as she did. Watched her the way the living watch a doorway they know won't stay shut. Shadow figures. Phantom animals. Poltergeists with personalities. A spirit shaped like a man, but darker than darkness. A radio that played to her, not for her. And a presence that seemed increasingly interested not in haunting her… but in choosing her. This is not a story about escaping a haunted home. It's a story about becoming the kind of person hauntings look for. #GhostStory #PsychicFamily #InheritedHaunting #ShadowFigures #PoltergeistActivity #TrueParanormal #SupernaturalEncounters #UnseenPresence #HauntedLife Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:
Some families pass down heirlooms, land, or stories. Others inherit something older. Quieter. Invisible. Something that exists just beyond the edge of the living world. For her, the inheritance wasn't jewelry or a surname — it was sensitivity. The ability to feel the air change before something stepped through it. To know when the unseen was standing too close. To sense what other people walk through without ever noticing. In a family of psychics, the paranormal wasn't taboo — it was tradition. And from the moment she was born, something responded to that openness. Followed her from house to house. Grew stronger as she did. Watched her the way the living watch a doorway they know won't stay shut. Shadow figures. Phantom animals. Poltergeists with personalities. A spirit shaped like a man, but darker than darkness. A radio that played to her, not for her. And a presence that seemed increasingly interested not in haunting her… but in choosing her. This is not a story about escaping a haunted home. It's a story about becoming the kind of person hauntings look for. #GhostStory #PsychicFamily #InheritedHaunting #ShadowFigures #PoltergeistActivity #TrueParanormal #SupernaturalEncounters #UnseenPresence #HauntedLife Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:
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Beck's Broth, is a nourishing collection of bone broth-based lattes, matcha, hot chocolate, and more, with every cup coming complete with 14+g of protein. This week on the Community podcast, Kristina sits down with Founder and CEO, Beckie Prime for an exclusive interview on her journey to 450+ retailers stocking Beck's Broth in Canada and the USA with scrappy Marketing and founder-led content.Tune in to hear:How Beckie used her background in gut health nutrition to create a product that not only nourishes but truly fits into people's lives.How Beckie has turned her scrappy marketing into a superpower.Why Beckie gave herself permission to show up as her authentic self on LinkedIn, and how it's driving real business.The importance of collaboration, not competition, in the CPG industry.How Beckie is using community feedback and founder storytelling to build brand loyalty.Becky doesn't hold back in this episode, whether you're a product-based founder or not, this episode is packed with marketing wisdom and a reminder that authenticity and scrappy strategy can be your secret weapon, not a disadvantage! If you loved this episode, share it with a friend or tag us on Instagram! Let us know what resonated most or what you're going to try in your own business. And don't forget to follow along Beck's Broth journey on Instagram @becksbrothConnect with Beckie:Beckie PrimeBeck's BrothBeck's Broth InstagramUse Code SOCIALSNIPPET20Buy Beck's Broth:Healthy PlanetGoodness MeAmazonMentioned in Episode:Take Our Social Media QuizWork with The Social Snippet!Join the Weekly SnippetSend me a text!PodMatchPodMatch Automatically Matches Ideal Podcast Guests and Hosts For InterviewsSupport the showFor Your Information: • Host your podcast on Buzzsprout! •Join The High Vibe Women Online Community! • Join our favourite scheduling platform Later • FLODESK Affiliate Code | 25% off your first year! Don't forget to come say hi to us on Instagram @thesocialsnippet, join the Weekly Snippet or follow us on any social media platform! Website . Instagram . Facebook . Linkedin
The Historical Context of Humphrey's Executor: Colleague Richard Epstein analyzes the historical context of Humphrey's Executor, explaining how the administrative state grew from the 1930s, detailing FDR's attempt to politicize independent commissions and the Supreme Court's justification, arguing that while constitutionally questionable, long-standing prescription has solidified these agencies' legal status over time. 1955
Some hauntings don't cling to houses — they cling to people. They slip into a life quietly, rearranging objects, bending routines, and whispering their presence into the smallest moments… until years later, you realize they never left. What began in a simple Iowa City apartment surrounded by headstones evolved into something far more personal: a force that followed him through duty stations, breakups, new homes, and even fatherhood. It learned him. Adjusted to him. Grew bolder with every move. And no matter how many miles he put between himself and the past, the past kept finding him — opening doors, rearranging belongings, speaking in empty houses, and watching his loved ones in the dark. This is not the story of a place. It is the story of an attachment. One that has waited decades. One that has grown patient. One that still isn't finished. #paranormalattachment #hauntedlife #entityfollows #unexplainedactivity #darkpresence #lifelonghaunting #shadowwatcher #paranormalstories #thegravetalks #hauntingsurvivor Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:
Some hauntings don't cling to houses — they cling to people. They slip into a life quietly, rearranging objects, bending routines, and whispering their presence into the smallest moments… until years later, you realize they never left. What began in a simple Iowa City apartment surrounded by headstones evolved into something far more personal: a force that followed him through duty stations, breakups, new homes, and even fatherhood. It learned him. Adjusted to him. Grew bolder with every move. And no matter how many miles he put between himself and the past, the past kept finding him — opening doors, rearranging belongings, speaking in empty houses, and watching his loved ones in the dark. This is not the story of a place. It is the story of an attachment. One that has waited decades. One that has grown patient. One that still isn't finished. #paranormalattachment #hauntedlife #entityfollows #unexplainedactivity #darkpresence #lifelonghaunting #shadowwatcher #paranormalstories #thegravetalks #hauntingsurvivor Love real ghost stories? Don't just listen—join us on YouTube and be part of the largest community of real paranormal encounters anywhere. Subscribe now and never miss a chilling new story:
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