Podcasts about Handle

A shoplifting spree sends Becca to county jail the night before her high school graduation.  It's a frenetic journey from down and out to cap and gown. DIPSEA Get a 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/SECRET. TERRITORY FOODS To save $75 across your first three orders, plus free shipping, go to territoryfoods.com and use the promo code SECRET. TRUEBILL Truebill.com/Secret. It could save you thousands a year. PICTURES See Becca at graduation; with her brother; and her famous courthouse selfie. They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED Becca's back with Ben for an entire story arc about her brother, drug use, and the trials of their relationship that we didn't hear in the main show. The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have a cumbrous secret to share?  Unburden yourself by clicking "Share a Secret" at secretroompod.com! PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark. Shadow producers: Elkid Alvarez, Oval and Jennifer Mantagas. Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

The maker of the world's most ugly car (Renault) is now making the world's most ugly flying car; Jerome Powell swings both ways; there's too much money chasing too few deals; Tesla's Model-Y gets trashed; how automakers change consumers' tastes; most-shorted stocks in S&P. ------ SEG-1: Flying Renaults, Jerome Powell's Dovish Twist SEG-2: How Too Much Liquidity has Distorted Markets SEG-3: Trashing Tesla's Model-Y, and Why Market Fundamentals Matter Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist Lance Roberts, CIO -------- NOTE: You can watch the commercial-free version of this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iasciUGbKTc&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 -------- Articles Mentioned in this show: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/market-correction-before-the-santa-rally-has-started/ https://realinvestmentadvice.com/black-friday-plunges-as-covid-variant-rattles-markets/ https://realinvestmentadvice.com/could-the-fed-trigger-the-next-financial-crisis/ -------- Our Latest "Three Minutes on Markets & Money: "Is There an End in Sight to this Market Correction?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFqRgdmuYrY&list=PLVT8LcWPeAujOhIFDH3jRhuLDpscQaq16&index=1&t=3s -------- Our previous show, "Are Oil Prices Too Volatile to Handle?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LuEttbKhn8&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1&t=2s -------- Register for our next Lunch & Learn: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9616369301708/WN_X_zZBPQCQX2VnVXJlvUE5g -------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to RIA Pro: https://riapro.net/home -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #JeromePowell #Omicron #MarketCorrection #Tesla_Y #MutualFundDistribution #Markets #Money #Investing

The maker of the world's most ugly car (Renault) is now making the world's most ugly flying car; Jerome Powell swings both ways; there's too much money chasing too few deals; Tesla's Model-Y gets trashed; how automakers change consumers' tastes; most-shorted stocks in S&P. ------ SEG-1: Flying Renaults, Jerome Powell's Dovish Twist SEG-2: How Too Much Liquidity has Distorted Markets SEG-3: Trashing Tesla's Model-Y, and Why Market Fundamentals Matter Hosted by RIA Advisors Chief Investment Strategist Lance Roberts, CIO -------- NOTE: You can watch the commercial-free version of this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iasciUGbKTc&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1 -------- Articles Mentioned in this show: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/market-correction-before-the-santa-rally-has-started/ https://realinvestmentadvice.com/black-friday-plunges-as-covid-variant-rattles-markets/ https://realinvestmentadvice.com/could-the-fed-trigger-the-next-financial-crisis/ -------- Our Latest "Three Minutes on Markets & Money: "Is There an End in Sight to this Market Correction?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFqRgdmuYrY&list=PLVT8LcWPeAujOhIFDH3jRhuLDpscQaq16&index=1&t=3s -------- Our previous show, "Are Oil Prices Too Volatile to Handle?" is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LuEttbKhn8&list=PLVT8LcWPeAugpcGzM8hHyEP11lE87RYPe&index=1&t=2s -------- Register for our next Lunch & Learn: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9616369301708/WN_X_zZBPQCQX2VnVXJlvUE5g -------- Get more info & commentary: https://realinvestmentadvice.com/newsletter/ -------- SUBSCRIBE to The Real Investment Show here: http://www.youtube.com/c/TheRealInvestmentShow -------- Visit our Site: www.realinvestmentadvice.com Contact Us: 1-855-RIA-PLAN -------- Subscribe to RIA Pro: https://riapro.net/home -------- Connect with us on social: https://twitter.com/RealInvAdvice https://twitter.com/LanceRoberts https://www.facebook.com/RealInvestmentAdvice/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/realinvestmentadvice/ #JeromePowell #Omicron #MarketCorrection #Tesla_Y #MutualFundDistribution #Markets #Money #Investing

Welcome to Episode #394: with Robert Van Tromp, a British TV Personality and Influencer, most known for being a contestant on the Netflix number one hit reality show, Too Hot to Handle.   During this episode, we talk about the world of social media influencers and finding what you're passionate about in life. Here are some highlights: You've got to find what your passionate about in life. Grow it and cultivate it. That's where success comes from Being an influencer is just about the visuals - what you where, how you look. It's deeper than that. It's all about spreading awareness of and make people more knowledgeable about things that are important. Take the opportunity and make the most of it. Try to do something valuable with it because you have a big platform and people look up to you as a role model. You want to be as relatable as you can and actually offer some genuine value to people. Sponsored by Molten: The investment platform for the visionaries who invent the Future.   Learn more about the contents discussed in this episode: Connect with Robert via Instagram, LinkedIn

Welcome to the trailer for Episode #394: Insert Episode Title, with Robert Van Tromp, a British TV Personality and Influencer, most known for being a contestant on the Netflix number one hit reality show, Too Hot to Handle.   In this Wednesday's episode, Robert and I will be talking about the world of social media influencers and finding what you're passionate about in life.   Here are some highlights: You've got to find what your passionate about in life. Grow it and cultivate it. That's where success comes from Being an influencer is just about the visuals - what you where, how you look. It's deeper than that. It's all about spreading awareness of and make people more knowledgeable about things that are important. Take the opportunity and make the most of it. Try to do something valuable with it because you have a big platform and people look up to you as a role model. You want to be as relatable as you can and actually offer some genuine value to people.   Join us on Wednesday for the full episode.   Sponsored by Molten: The investment platform for the visionaries who invent the Future.

What's Good Dimah Fam! In this episode, Nila and Adise try to figure out the solution to longterm happiness. Is it balance? As human beings we're often consumed by our thoughts and actions on a daily basis. We find ourselves neglecting certain aspects of our lives that meant so much to us at one point. Whether it's a hobby you once loved so much, or a friend you spent a lot of time with in the past, or virtually anything that at one point in your life, made you happy. It sometimes makes you feel sad knowing you had a hard time balancing things and something that made you so happy at one point, was almost forgotten. Balance is key. Learning to balance things in your life, whether it's regressing in certain areas or progressing is the . Handle your business fam. WE LOVE YOU GUYS MORE THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for listening! 

How often have you found yourself with little patience and getting upset over small things? What was the root cause? Were these challenging times for you? Were you under stress? And, when you did come out of it, did you regret your behavior? Anger and frustration are complex human emotions that find their roots in stress, disappointment, failure, and fear. Being aware of such feelings and knowing you need to have an upper hand is the way to manage your emotions. Never let things get out of control...

Today on the Retirement Lifestyle Show, Roshan Loungani, Erik Olson, and Adrian Nicholson welcome back Jill Daniels Myers, an integrative nutrition health and wellness coach. They talk about staying healthy during the holiday, mindful spending, and explain why health is more than just losing weight. [01:05] Why Preparing for the Holidays is Extremely Important [03:40] Tips for Staying Healthy During the Holiday Season [11:00] How and Why you Should Avoid Processed Sugar During the Holidays [19:50] A Mindful Approach to Spending During the Holidays [27:57] How to Handle the Social and Emotional Aspects of the Festive Season [31:10] Why you Need to Start Volunteering During this Time of Year [37:18] Factors that Contribute to a Happy Healthy Person [40:30] Why Health and Wellness is More than Just Losing Weight [43:30] Parting Thoughts Roshan can be reached at roshan.loungani@aretewealth.com or at 202-536-4468. Erik can be reached at erik.olson@aretewealth.com or 815-940-4652. Adrian can be reached at adrian.nicholson@aretewealth.com or at 703-915-8905. Follow Us At: Website: https://retirementlifestyleshow.com/ https://www.retirewithroshan.com https://youtu.be/hKVzI87v0tA https://twitter.com/RoshanLoungani https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshanloungani/ https://www.facebook.com/retirewithroshan/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/financialerik/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-nicholson-74b82b13b/ #retirementlifestylepodcast #fire #podcast #FI #Retire #retirewithroshan #BAM #BusinessAsMission #ImpactInvesting All opinions expressed by podcast hosts and guests are solely their own. While based on information they believe is reliable, neither Arete Wealth nor its affiliates warrant its completeness or accuracy, nor do their opinions reflect the opinion of Arete Wealth. This podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be regarded as specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Before making any decisions, consult a professional.

Nicky comes clean about the world of lies she spun so that her family would think she was attending graduate school, and not moving across the country for an online relationship.  Hear how she got in so deep, and if she could dig herself out.  ACORN TV Get your first 30 days free by going to acorn.tv with promo code secret in all lowercase letters only.  Get hooked. Watch the trailer for Ben's recommended show: "Dalgleish." BETTER HELP Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/secret. Click here for testimonials. BROOKLINEN Get $20 off a $100 purchase at brooklinen.com, promo code SECRET.  PROSE Thanks Prose! Take your free hair quiz and get 15% off your first order prose.com/SECRET.. PICTURES See Nicky's going away party; posing with Josh; and working at the department store in West Virginia where she almost got busted! They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED Hear behind the scenes intrigue where the post office was up to some shenanigans with Nicky's mic kit for the show.  Seriously can't believe they did what they did. And Marie from "It Happened in Tel Aviv" tells us what it was like after she got home, and her brother's reaction when he learned her secret from the podcast. The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have a Gordian secret to share?  We'll help sort it out!  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com when you're ready! PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Shadow producers: Jessie Rose and Oval. Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

“I came to realize that as the influencer, you're your own best marketer, you're your own best advocate, you know your audience best, you know your content best, and people want to hear from you anyway.” – Tessa Arias Welcome to the Conscious Creators Show; where through intimate and insightful interviews with authors, actors, musicians, entrepreneurs and other podcasters, you'll learn tools and tactics to 10x your creativity and strategies to grow and monetize your audience. In today's episode, Tessa Arias, founder of Handle the Heat, shares her experience going from a hobby-blogger to published author and social influencer. What I love about Tessa's background is she's grown a platform online mostly organically, reaching audience numbers that a lot of my friends who spend a ton on paid ads aren't even able to reach.  We also get super tactical into her experience working with sponsors and partnerships and how Tessa now acts as an advisor for companies wanting to work with influencers. We close with her experience going back into the world of publishing and why she's self-publishing her next cookbook.   Actions:  Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcast app and let us know what you think by leaving a rating and a review. Thank our guest and let them know what you thought of today's episode — click here to send a Tweet directly to Tessa and Sachit or find Tessa on Instagram.  Head on over to Creators.Show to get new episodes, exclusive guides like our guide on “How to Connect With Busy Influencers”, partner deals and additional bonuses.   Episode Highlights:  Tessa began as a hobby blogger with no expectations of making money, until she was offered a book deal in 2012. Even though she was making money from her website, she didn't feel like it was a real business, so she started attending Masterminds to learn more. Tessa found she needed the emotional support of having a team of like-minded people around her. Someone can have a six or seven-figure business, but hate their business and not feel fulfilled by their life. Find groups and resources where you're actually getting advice and tools that you can implement. Surround yourself with people who understand and respect that you are the one who knows your business and yourself the best. Bringing someone else into your business forces you to operate at a higher level. You don't need to post on major job sites; look within your own community first. For example, Tessa hired through Instagram at first. When hiring, Tessa suggests you ask them to tell a story about a time they overcame a challenge, and ask them their opinion about something trivial to see that they can make a commitment and not be a yes-person. Tessa realized she was approaching burnout when she stopped feeling excited about her work. Growing your business depends on being flexible and adapting to the changing online landscape. Tessa challenged herself to post something every quarter that is more controversial or more personal and that scares her. If you buy a course online, make sure you have an accountability buddy to do it. Her past experiences with sponsored posts were formulaic and based on how other food bloggers did it, but she learned from Sachit and others how to build larger partnerships and create relationships from sponsorships. Through her success with building partnership relationships, Tessa has become a case study and an advisor for how brands should work with influencers. Tessa learned to ask open-ended questions of her sponsors to understand how their organizations work so she learns what would work best for both of them. No one opens Instagram excited to see sponsored content, so you should prioritize sponsorships that work with content you already post organically and that you care about and whose products you use. Question your assumptions that something has to be done a certain way. Sell your own content to your audience and remind them of the work that goes into it. The most important fundamental skills you need to be a successful published author are marketing and sales. Tessa is writing a second cookbook but is self-publishing it. The hardest part is marketing the book for pre-sale while creating it in order to fund it at the same time. Don't do something you don't like just to see if it'll be successful, because if it is successful, you'll have to continue doing something you hate. If you're bored with your content and the content others in your niche are putting out, do something surprising. Tessa's favorite part of her job is the ability to do whatever she wants when she wants to and to structure her day how she feels comfortable.   3 Key Takeaways: Give yourself the space to be creative and stay recharged and excited about your work. It's important to build relationships with sponsorships, partnerships, and PR representatives. You can have a big impact on every person who takes the time to follow, subscribe, or comment.   Tweetable Quotes: “I think the biggest thing for me was realizing I couldn't do it by myself and I didn't want to do it by myself. Owning an online business can be really isolating, you're not in a room full of people unless you choose to be.” –Tessa Arias “Following someone else's definition of success means that you have no intention or vision for yourself.” –Tessa Arias “The things I complain to my friends about in private, sometimes, those conversations need to be made public, because you're going to find your true fans and followers.” –Tessa Arias “Working with a sponsor gives you resources that you wouldn't have otherwise.” –Tessa Arias “I came to realize that as the influencer, you're your own best marketer, you're your own best advocate, you know your audience best, you know your content best, and people want to hear from you anyway.” –Tessa Arias “When you feel like you're at a plateau, do something surprising to yourself and for your audience.” –Tessa Arias   Resources Mentioned:   Later: Post scheduler for Instagram Tailwind: Pinterest and Instagram scheduler Tessa's Blog: Handletheheat.com  Find Tessa: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook   Actions:  Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or on your favorite podcast app and let us know what you think by leaving a rating and a review. Thank our guest and let them know what you thought of today's episode — click here to send a Tweet directly to Tessa and Sachit or find Tessa on Instagram.  Head on over to Creators.Show to get new episodes, exclusive guides like our guide on “How to Connect With Busy Influencers”, partner deals and additional bonuses.  

Aaron Tartakovsky guides us through the challenges and opportunities around Water Management in Cities - from raving urbanization to outlasting our water networks through circular resource loops and onsite water reuse.

About AmyAmy (she/her) has spent the better part of the last 15 years in the tech start-up world, starting off as a front-end software engineer before transitioning into leadership. She has built and led teams across the software and product development spectrum, including web and mobile development, QA, operations and infrastructure, customer support, and IT.These days, Amy is building the software engineering team at EdTech startup, Unicycle, and challenging the archetype of what a tech leader should be. She strives to be a real-life success story for other leaders who believe that safe, welcoming, and equitable environments can exist in tech. Links: Unicycle: https://www.unicycle.co AmyChanta: https://twitter.com/AmyChanta TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: This episode is sponsored by our friends at Oracle Cloud. Counting the pennies, but still dreaming of deploying apps instead of "Hello, World" demos? Allow me to introduce you to Oracle's Always Free tier. It provides over 20 free services and infrastructure, networking databases, observability, management, and security.And - let me be clear here - it's actually free. There's no surprise billing until you intentionally and proactively upgrade your account. This means you can provision a virtual machine instance or spin up an autonomous database that manages itself all while gaining the networking load, balancing and storage resources that somehow never quite make it into most free tiers needed to support the application that you want to build. With Always Free you can do things like run small scale applications, or do proof of concept testing without spending a dime. You know that I always like to put asterisks next to the word free. This is actually free. No asterisk. Start now. Visit https://snark.cloud/oci-free that's https://snark.cloud/oci-free.Corey: Writing ad copy to fit into a 30 second slot is hard, but if anyone can do it the folks at Quali can. Just like their Torque infrastructure automation platform can deliver complex application environments anytime, anywhere, in just seconds instead of hours, days or weeks. Visit Qtorque.io today and learn how you can spin up application environments in about the same amount of time it took you to listen to this ad.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. A famous quote was once uttered by Irena Dunn who said, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” Now, apparently at some point, people just, you know, looked at the fish without a bicycle thing, thought, “That was overwrought. We can do a startup and MVP it. Why do two wheels? We're going to go with one.”And I assume that's the origin story of Unicycle. My guest today is Amy Chantasirivisal who is the Director of Engineering at Unicycle. Amy, thank you for putting up with that incredibly tortured opening. But that's okay; we torture metaphors to death here.Amy: [laugh]. Thank you for having me. That was a great intro.Corey: So, you are, at the time of this recording at least, a relatively new hire to Unicycle, which to my understanding is a relatively new company. What do you folks do over there?Amy: Yes, so Unicycle is not even a year old, so a company born out of the pandemic. But we are building a product to reimagine what the digital classroom looks like. The product itself was thought up right during a time during the pandemic when it became very clear how much students and teachers are struggling with converting their experience into online platforms. And so we are trying to just bring better workflows, more efficiency into that. And right now we're starting with email, but we'll be expanding to other things in the future.Corey: I am absolutely the wrong person to ask about a lot of this stuff, just because my academic background, tortured doesn't really begin to cover it. I handle academia about as well as I handled working for other people. My academic and professional careers before I started this place were basically a patchwork of nonsense and trying to pretend I was something other than I was. You, on the other hand, have very much been someone who's legitimate as far as what you do and how you do it. Before Unicycle, you were the Director of Engineering at Wildbit, which is a name I keep hearing about and a bunch of odd places. What did you do there?Amy: [laugh]. I will have to follow up and ask what the odd places are but—so I was leading a team there of engineers that were fully distributed across the US and also in Europe. And we were building an email product called Postmark, which some of your listeners might use, and then also a couple of other smaller things like People-First Jobs and Beanstalk—not AWS's Beanstalk, but a developer repository and workflow tool.Corey: Forget my listeners for a minute; I use Postmark. That's where I keep seeing you on the invoices because it's different branding. As someone who has The Duckbill Group, but also the Last Week in AWS things, it's the brand confusion problem is very real. That does it. Sorry. Thank you for collapsing the waveform on that one. And of course, before that you were at PagerDuty, which is a company that most folks in the ops space are aware of, founded to combat the engineer's true enemy: sleep.Amy: Absolutely. It's the product that engineers love to hate, but also can't live without, to some degree. Or maybe they want to live without it, but uh… [laugh] are not able to.Corey: So, I have a standing policy on this show of not talking to folks who are not wildly over-represented—as I am—and effectively disregarding the awesome stuff that they've done professionally in favor of instead talking about, “Wow, what's it like not to be a white guy in the room? I can't even imagine such a thing. It sounds hard.” However, in your case, an awful lot of the work you have done and are most proud of centers around DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Tell me about that.Amy: Absolutely. I would say that it's the work that I've spent my time focusing on in recent years, but also that I'm still learning, right, and as someone who is Asian American, and also from a middle-class socioeconomic background, I have a bunch of privileges that I still have to unpack and that show up in the way that I work every day, as well. And so just acknowledging that, you know, while I spend a lot of time on DEI, still have just barely scratched the surface on it, really, in the grand scheme of things. But what I will say is that, you know, I've been really fortunate in my career in that I started in tech 15 or so years ago, and I started at a time when it wasn't super hard for someone who has no CS degree to actually get into some sort of coding job. And so I fell into my first role; I was building HTML and CSS landing pages for a marketing team, for an ISP that was based in San Francisco.So, I was cobbling together a bunch of technical skills, and I got better and better. And then I reached this point in my career where I didn't really have a lot of mentors, and so I was like, “I don't know what's next for me.” But then I am also frustrated that it is so hard for our team to get things done. And so I took it upon myself to figure out Scrum and project management type of stuff for my team, and then made the jump into people management from there. So, people management and leadership through project management.But when I look back on my career, I think about, “Oh, if I had a mentor, would that still have been my fate? Would I have continued down this track of becoming a very senior technical person and just doing that for my whole career?” Because letting go of the code was definitely a hard, hard thing. And I was lucky enough that I really did enjoy the people and the process side of all of this. And so [laugh] this relates to DEI in the fact that there's research and everything that backs this up, but that women and women of color generally tend to get less mentorship overall and get less actionable feedback about their job performance.And you think about how that potentially compounds over time, over the course of someone's career and that may be one of the reasons why women and people of color get pushed out of tech because they're not getting the support that they need, potentially. They're not getting feedback, they're not being advocated for in meetings, and then there's also all the stuff that you can add on around microaggressions, or just aggressions period, potentially, depending on the culture of the team that you're working on. And so all of those things compounded are the types of things that I think about now when I reflect on my own career and the types of teams that I want to be building in the future.Corey: Back when I was stumbling my way through piecing my career together. I mean, as mentioned, I don't have a degree; I don't have a high school diploma, as it turns out, and—that was a surprise when I discovered midway through my 20s that the school I had graduated from wasn't accredited—but I would tell stories, and I found ways to weasel my way through and I gave a talk right around 2015 or 2016, about, “Weasel Your Way to the Top: How to Handle a Job Interview,” and looking back, I would never give that talk again. I canceled it as soon as someone pointed out something that was only obvious in hindsight, that the talk was built out of things that had worked for me. And it's easy to sit here and say that, well, I had to work for what I have; none of this was handed to me. And there's an element of truth to that, except for the part where there was nothing fighting against me as I went.There was not this headwind of a presumed need for me to have to prove myself; I am presumed competent. I sometimes say that as a white guy in tech, my failure mode is a board seat and a book deal, and it's not that far from wrong. It takes, I guess, a lot of listening and a lot of interaction with folks from wildly different backgrounds before you start to see some of these things. It takes time. So, if you're listening to this, and you aren't necessarily convinced that this might be real or whatnot, talk less, listen more. There are a lot of stories out there in the world that I think that it's not my place to tell but listen. That's how I approach it.What's interesting about your pathway into management is it's almost the exact opposite of mine, where I was craving novelty, and okay, I wanted to try and managing a team of people. Years later, in hindsight—I'm not a good manager and I know that about myself, and I explicitly go out of my way these days to avoid managing people wherever possible, for a variety of reasons, but at the time, I didn't know. I didn't know that. I wanted to see how it went.First, I had to disabuse myself of this notion that, oh, management is a promotion. It's not. It's an orthogonal skill.Amy: Yes.Corey: The thing I really learning—management or not—now, is that the higher in the hierarchy you rise, if you want to view it that way, the less hands-on work you do, which means everything that you are responsible for that—and oh, you are responsible—isn't something you can jump in and do yourself. You can only impact the outcome via influence. And that was a hard lesson to learn.Amy: Right. And there are some schools of thought, though, where you can affect the outcome by control. And that's not what I'm about. I think I'm more aligned with what you're saying in terms of, it's really the influence and the ability to clear the way for people who are smarter than you to do the things that they need to do. Just get out of their way, and remove the roadblocks, and just help give them what they need. That's really, sort of like, my overall approach. But I know that there are some folks out there who lead the opposite way of, “It's my way, and I'm going to dictate how things should be done, and really you're here to take and follow orders.”Corey: It's always fun interviewing people to manage teams. “So, why do you want to be a manager?” It's, “Oh, I want to tell people what to do.” And I have to say that as an interviewer, there is nothing that takes the pressure off nearly as well as a perfectly wrong answer. And, yes, that at least to my world, is a perfectly wrong answer to this. There aren't that many pass-fail questions, but you can fail any question if you try hard enough.Amy: [laugh]. Oh, gosh, yeah, it's true. But also, at the same time, I would say that there are organizations that are built that way. Because—all it takes is the one person who wants to tell people what to do, and then they start a company, and then they hire other people who want to tell people what to do. And so there are ways where organizations like that exist and come into being even today, I would say.Corey: The question that I have for you about engineering leadership is, back when I was an engineer, and thinking, all right, it's time for me to go ahead and try being a manager—let's be clear, I joke about it, but the actual reason I wanted to try my hand at management was that I found people problems more interesting than computer problems at that point. I still do, but these days, especially when it comes to, you know, cloud services marketing and such, yeah, generally, the technical problems are, in fact, people problems at their core. But talking to my manager friends of how do I go and transition from being an engineer into being a manager, the universal response I got at the time was, “Ehh, I don't know.” Every person I knew who'd had made that transition was in the right place at the right time, and quote-unquote, “Got lucky.”Amy: Absolutely.Corey: And then once they had management on their resume, then they could go and transition back to being an IC and then to management again. But it's that initial breakthrough that becomes a challenge.Amy: Absolutely. And I fell into it as well. I mean, I got into it, partially for selfish reasons because I was, an IC, I was doing development work, and I was frustrated, and I had teammates who were coming to me and they were frustrated about how hard it was for us to get our work done, or the friction involved in shipping code. And so I took it upon myself to say, “I think I see a pattern about why this is happening, and so I will try to solve this problem for the team.” And so that's where the Agile and Scrum thing come in, and the project management side.And then, when I was at this company—this was One Kings Lane; this was, like, the heyday of flash sales websites and stuff like that, so it was kind of a rocket ship at that time—and because we were also growing so fast and I was interviewing folks as well, I just fell into this management role of, “Well, if I'm interviewing these people, then I guess I should be [laugh] managing them, too.” And that happens for so many people, similar stories of getting into management. And I think that's where it starts to go wrong for a lot of organizations because, like you said, it's not an up-leveling; it's a changing of your role, and it requires training and learning and figuring out how to be effective as a manager. And a lot of people just stumble their way through it and make a lot of mistakes—myself included—through that process.And that becomes really troubling knowing that you can make these really big mistakes, but these mistakes that you make don't affect just yourself. It's the careers of the people that you manage as well and sort of where they're headed in their lives. And so it's troubling to think that most leaders that are out there today have not received any sort of training on how to be a good manager and how to be effective as a manager.Corey: I would agree with that wholeheartedly. It seems that in many cases, companies take the best engineer that they have on their team and promote them to manager. It's brilliant in some respects in just how short-sighted it is. You are taking a great engineer and trading them for a junior and unproven manager, and hoping for the best. And there is no training on any of these things, at least—Amy: Right.Corey: —not the companies that I ever worked at. Of course, there are ways you can learn to be a better manager; there are people who specialize in exactly this. There are companies that do exactly this. But tech has this weird thing where it just tries to solve itself from first principles rather than believing for a minute that someone might possibly have prior experience that could be useful for these things. And—Amy: Absolutely.Corey: —that was a challenge. I had a lot of terrible managers before I entered management myself, and I figured, ah, I'll do the naive thing and I'm just going to manage based upon doing the exact opposite of what those terrible managers all did. And I got surprisingly far with it, on some level. But you don't see the whole picture when you're an individual contributor who's writing code—crappy in my case—most of the time, and then only seeing the aspects of your manager that they allow you to see. They don't share—if they're any good—the constraints that they have to deal with, that they're managing expectations around the team, conflicting priorities, strategic objectives, et cetera because it's not something that gets shown to folks. So—Amy: Absolutely.Corey: —if you bias for that, in my experience you become an empathetic manager to the people on your team, but completely ineffective at managing laterally or upwards.Amy: Mm-hm, absolutely. And you know, I'm exploring this idea of further. Being at a very small company, I think allows me to do that. And exploring this idea of, does it have to be that way? Can you be transparent about what the constraints are as a leader while still caring for your team and supporting them in the ways that they need and helping them grow their careers and just being open about one of the challenges that you have in building the company?And I don't know, I feel like I have some things to prove there, but I think it's possible to achieve some sort of balance there, something better or more beyond just what exists now of having that entire leadership layer typically be very opaque and just very unclear why certain decisions are made.Corey: The hard part that extends that these to me beyond that is it's difficult to get meaningful feedback, on some level, when you're suddenly thrust into that position. I also, in hindsight, realize that an awful lot of those terrible managers that I had weren't nearly as terrible as I thought they were. I will say that being on the other side of that divide definitely breeds empathy. Now that I'm the co-owner of The Duckbill Group, and we're building out a leadership team and the rest, hiring managers of managers is starting to be the sort of thing that I have to think about.It's effectively, how do I avoid inadvertently doing end-runs around people? And oh, I'm just going to completely undermine a manager by reaching out to one of their team and retasking them on something because obviously whatever I have in mind is much more important. What could they possibly be working on that's better than the Twitter shitpost I'm borrowing them to help out with? Yeah, you learn a lot by getting it wrong, and there becomes a power imbalance that even if you try your best to ignore it—which you should not—I assure you, the person who has less power in that relationship cannot set that aside. Even when I have worked with people I consider close friends, that friendship gained some distance during the duration of their employment because there has to be that professional level of separation. It's a hard thing to learn.Amy: It's a very hard line to walk in terms of recognizing the power that you have over someone's career and the power over, you know, making decisions for them and for the team and for the company, and still being empathetic towards their personal needs. And if they're going through a tough time, but then you also know from a business perspective that X, Y, or Z needs to happen, and how do you push but not push too hard, and try to balance needs of people who are humans and have things that happen and go on sometimes, and the fact that we work in a capitalist society and we still need to make money to make the business run. And that's definitely one of the hardest things to learn, and I am still learning. I definitely don't have that figured out, but I err on the side of, let's listen to what people are saying because ultimately, I'm not going to be the one to write the code. I haven't done that in years, and also I would probably suck at it now. And so it behooves leaders to listen to the people who were doing the work and to try, to the best of their abilities in whatever role whether that's exec-level leadership or mid-level… sort of like, middle management type of stuff to do what is in your power to help set them up to succeed.Corey: I want to get back a little bit to the idea of building diverse teams. It's something that you spend an inordinate amount of time and effort on. I do too. It's one of those areas where it's almost fraught to talk about it because I don't want to sound like I'm breaking my arm by patting myself on the back here. I certainly have a hell of a lot to learn, and mostly—and I'm ashamed to admit this—I very often learn only by really putting my foot in it sometimes. And it's painful, but that is, I think, a necessary prerequisite for growth. From your perspective, what is the most challenging part of building diverse teams?Amy: I think it's that piece that you said of making the mistakes or just putting yourself in a position where you are going to be uncomfortable. And I think that a lot of organizations that I've been in talk about DEI on a very surface level in terms of, “Oh, well, you know, we want to have more candidates from diverse backgrounds in our pipelines for hiring,” and things like that. But then not really just thinking about, but how do we work as a team in a way that potentially makes retention of those folks a lot harder? And for myself, I would say that when I was earlier on in all of this in my learning, I would say that I was able to kickstart my learning by thinking about my own identity, the fact that I was often the only Asian person on my team, the only woman on my team, and then more recently, the only mom on my team. And that has happened to me so many times in my career. More often than not.And so being able to draw on those experiences and those feelings of oh, okay, no one wants to hear about my kid because everyone else is, you know, busy going out to drink or something on the weekends. And like that feeling of, you know, that not belonging, and feeling of feeling excluded from things, and then thinking about how then this might manifest for folks with different identities for myself. And then going there and learning about it, listening, doing more listening than talking, and yeah, and that's, that's really just been the hardest part of just removing myself from that equation and just listening to the experiences of other people. And it's uncomfortable. And I think a lot of people are—you have to be in the right mindset, I guess, to be uncomfortable; you have to be willing to accept that you will be uncomfortable. And I think a lot of folks maybe are not ready to do that on a personal level.Corey: The thing that galls me the most is I do try on these things, and I get it wrong a fair bit. And my mistakes I find personally embarrassing, and I strive not to repeat them. But then I look around the industry—and let's be clear, a lot of this is filtered through the unhealthy amount of time I spend on Twitter—but it seems that I'm trying and I'm failing and attempting to do better as I go, and then I see people who are just, “Nope. Not at all. In fact, we're not just going to lean into bias, we're going to build a startup around it.”And I look at this and it's at some level hard to reconcile the fact that… at first, that I'm doing badly at all, which is the easy cop-out of, “Oh, well, if that is considered acceptable on some level, then I certainly don't even have to try,” which I think is a fallacy. But further it's—I have to step beyond myself on that and just, I cannot fathom how discouraging that must be, particularly to people who are early in their careers because it looks like it's just a normal thing that everyone thinks and does that just someone got a little too loud with it. And it's abhorrent. And if people are listening to this and thinking that is somehow just entrenched, and normalized, and everyone secretly thinks that… no. I assure you it is not something that is acceptable, even in the quote-unquote, “Private white dude who started companies” gathering holes. Yeah, people articulating sentiments like that suddenly find themselves not welcome there anymore, at least in every one of those types of environments I've ever found myself in.Amy: Yeah, the landscape is shifting. It's slow, but it is shifting. And, myself on Twitter, like, I do a lot of rant-y stuff too sometimes, but despite all of that, I feel like I am ultimately an optimist because I have to be. Otherwise, I would have left tech already because every time I am faced with a job search for myself, I'm like, “Should I—is this it? Am I done in tech? Do I want to go do something else? Am I going to finally go open that bakery that I've always wanted to open?” [laugh].And so… I have to be an optimist. And I see that—even in the most recent job search I've done—have seen so many new founders and new CEOs, really, with this mindset of, “We want to build a diverse team, but we're also doing it—and we're using diversity as a foundation for what we want to build; it's part of our decision-making process and this is how we're going to hold ourselves accountable to it.” And so it is shifting, and while there are those bad actors out there still, I'm seeing a lot of good in the industry now. And so that's why I stick around; that's why I'm still here.Corey: I want to actually call something out as concrete here because it's easy for me to fall into the trope of just saying vague things. I'll be specific about something, give us a good example. We've done a decent job, I think, of hiring a diverse team, but—and this is a problem that I see spread across an awful lot of companies—as you look at the leadership team, it gets a lot wider and a lot more male. And that is an inherent challenge. In our particular case, my business partner is someone who I've been close friends with for a decade.I would not be able to start a business with someone I didn't have that kind of relationship with just because your values have to be aligned or there's trouble down the road. And beyond that, it winds up rapidly, on some level, turning into what appears to be a selection bias. When you're trying to hire senior leaders, for example, there's a prerequisite to being a senior leader, which is embodied in the word senior, which implies tenure of having spent a fair bit of time in an industry that is remarkably unfriendly in a lot of different ways to a lot of different people. So, there's a prerequisite of being willing to tolerate the shit for as long as it takes to get to that level of seniority, rather than realizing at any point as any of us can, there are easier jobs that don't have this toxicity inherent to them and I'll go do that instead. So, there's a tenure question; there's a survivorship bias question.And I don't have the answers to any of this, but it's something that I'm seeing, and it's one of those once you see it, you can't unsee it any more moments. At least for me.Amy: Yeah, absolutely.Corey: Please tell me I'm not the only person who see [laugh]—who is encountering these problems. Like, “Wow, you just sound terrible.” Which might very well be a fair rejoinder here. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how to think about this properly.Amy: Yeah. I mean, this is why I was saying that I am very optimistic about [laugh] new companies that are coming—like, up-and-coming these days, new startups, primarily, because you're right that a lot of people just end up quitting tech before they get to that point of experience and seniority, to get into leadership. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of bias and discrimination that happens at those leadership levels, too, but I will say that, you know, it's both of those things. There are also more things on top of that. But this is why I'm like, so excited to see people from diverse backgrounds as founders of new companies and why I think that being able to be in a position to potentially either help fund, or advocate, or sponsor, or amplify those types of orgs, I think is where the future is that because ultimately, I think a lot of the established companies that are out there these days, it's going to be really hard for them to walk back on what their leadership team looks like now, especially if it is a sizable leadership team and they're all white men.Corey: Yeah. I'm going to choose to believe we say sizable leadership team that it's also not—we're talking about the horizontal scaling that happens to some of us, especially during a pandemic as we continue to grow into our seats. You're right, it's a problem as well, where you can cut a bit of slack in some cases to small teams. It's, “Okay, we don't have any Black employees, but we're three people,” is a lot more understandable-slash-relatable than, “We haven't hired any Black people yet and we're 3000 people.” One of those is acceptable—or at least understandable, if not acceptable—the other is just completely egregious.Amy: Yes. And I think then the question that you have to ask if you're looking at, you know, a three-person company, or [laugh] I guess, like in my case, I was looking at the seven-person company, is that, “Okay. There are currently no Black people on your team. And why is that?” And then, “What are you doing to change that? And how are you going to make sure that you're holding ourselves accountable to it?”Because I think it's easy to say, “Oh, you know, the first couple of hires were people we just worked with in the past, and they just happened to, you know, look like us and whatnot.” And then you blink becau—and you do that a handful of times, and you blink, and then suddenly you have a team of 25 and there are no people of color on your team. And maybe you have, like, one woman on the team or something. And you're like, “Huh. That's strange. I guess we should think about this and figure out what we can do.”And then I think what ends up happening at that point is that there are so many already established behaviors, and cultural norms, and things like that, that have organically grown within a team that are potentially not welcoming towards people from different backgrounds who have different backgrounds. So, you go and attempt to hire someone who is different, and they come in, and they're just sort of like, “This is how you work? I don't feel like I belong here.” And then they don't stay, and then they leave. And then people sit there and scratch their heads like, “Oh, what did we do wrong?” And, “I don't get it.”And so there's this conversation, I think, in the industry of like, “Oh, it's a pipeline problem, and if we were just able to hire a lot of people from diverse backgrounds, the problem is solved.” Which really isn't the case because once people are there and at your company, are they getting promoted at the same rate as white men? Are they staying with the company for as long? And who's in leadership? And how are you working to break down the biases that you may have?All those sorts of things, I think, generally are not considered as part of all of this DEI work. Especially when, in my experience in startups, the operational side of all that is so immature a lot of the times, just not well developed that deeper thought process and reflection doesn't really happen.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by something new. Cloud Academy is a training platform built on two primary goals. Having the highest quality content in tech and cloud skills, and building a good community the is rich and full of IT and engineering professionals. You wouldn't think those things go together, but sometimes they do. Its both useful for individuals and large enterprises, but here's what makes it new. I don't use that term lightly. Cloud Academy invites you to showcase just how good your AWS skills are. For the next four weeks you'll have a chance to prove yourself. Compete in four unique lab challenges, where they'll be awarding more than $2000 in cash and prizes. I'm not kidding, first place is a thousand bucks. Pre-register for the first challenge now, one that I picked out myself on Amazon SNS image resizing, by visiting cloudacademy.com/corey. C-O-R-E-Y. That's cloudacademy.com/corey. We're gonna have some fun with this one!Corey: I do my best to have these conversations in public as frequently as is practical for me to do, just because I admit, I get things wrong. I say things that are wrong and I'm doing a fair bit of learning in public around an awful lot of that. Because frankly, I can withstand the heat, if it comes down to someone on Twitter gets incredibly incensed by something I've said on this podcast, for example. Because it isn't coming from a place of ill intent when someone accuses me of being ableist or expressing bias. My response is generally to suppress the initial instinctive flash of defensiveness and listen and ask.And that is, even if I don't necessarily agree with what they're saying after reflection, I have to appreciate on some level the risk-taking inherent in calling someone out who is in my position where, if I were a trash fire, I could use the platform to turn it into, “All right. Now, let's go hound the person that called me out.” No. I don't do that, full stop. If I'm going to harass people, it's going to be—not people, despite what the Supreme Court might tell us—but it's going to be a $2 trillion company—one in particular—because that's who I am and that's how I roll.Whenever I get a DM—which I leave open because I have the privilege to do that—from folks who are early career who are not wildly over-represented, I just have to stop and marvel for a minute at the level of risk-taking inherent to that because there is risk to that. For me, when I DM people, the only risk I feel like I'm running at any given point is, “Are they going to think that I'm bothering them? Oh, the hell with it. I'm adorable. They'll love me.” And the fact that I'm usually right is completely irrelevant to that. There's just that sense of I don't really risk a damn thing in the grand scheme of things compared to the risk that many people are taking just living who they are.Amy: Yeah. And someone DMs you and you suppress that initial sort of defensiveness: I would say that that is an underrated skill. [laugh].Corey: Well, a DM is a privilege, too. A call in—Amy: Yes.Corey: —is deeply appreciated; no one owes it to me. I often will get people calling me out on Twitter and I generally stop and think about that; I have a very close circle of friends who I trust to be objective on these things, and I'll ask them, “Did I get this wrong?” And very often the answer is yes. And, “Well, I thought the joke was funny and I spent time building it.” “Yeah, but if people hear a joke I'm making and feel bad about it, then is it really that good of a joke or should I try harder?” It's a process, and I look back at who I was ten years ago and I feel a sense of shame. And I believe that if anyone these days doesn't, either they were effectively a saint, or they haven't grown.Amy: Yes.Corey: And that's my personal philosophy on this stuff, anyway.Amy: Yeah, absolutely. And that growth is so important. And part of that growth really is being able to suppress your desire to make it about you, [laugh] right? That initial, “Oh, I did something bad,” or, “I'm a horrible person because I said this thing,” right? It's not about you, there's, like, the impact that you had on someone else.And I've been giving this some thought recently, and I—you know, I also similarly have a group of trusted friends who I often talk about these things with, and you know, we always kind of check ourselves in terms of, did we mess something up? Did we, you know, put our foot in our mouths? Stuff like that. And think what it really comes down to is being able to say, “Maybe I did something wrong and I need to suppress that desire to become defensive and put up walls and guard and protect myself from feeling vulnerable, in order to actually learn and grow from this experience.”Corey: It's hard to do, but it's required because I—Amy: Extremely, yes.Corey: —used to worry about, “Ohh, what if I get quote-unquote, ‘canceled?'” well, I've done a little digging into this and every notable instance of this I can find is when someone is called out for something crappy, they get defensive, and they double-down and triple-down and quadruple-down, and they keep digging a hole nice and deep to the point where no one with a soul can really be on their side of this issue, and now they have a problem. I have never gotten to that point because let's be honest with you, there are remarkably few things I care that passionately about that I'm going to pick those fights publicly. The ones that I do, I am very much on the other side [laugh] of those issues. That has not been a realistic concern.I used to warn every person here before I hired them—to get this back to engineering management—that there was a risk that I could have a bad tweet and we don't have a company anymore. I don't give that warning anymore because I no longer believe that it's true.Amy: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. I also wonder about, in general, because of the world that we live in, and our history with white supremacy and oppression and all those things, I also wonder if this skill of being able to self-reflect and be uncomfortable and manage your own reaction and your emotions, I wonder if that's just a thing that white people generally haven't had a lot of practice for because of the inherent privileges that are afforded to white people. I wonder if a lot of this just stems from the fact that white people get to navigate this world and not get called out, and thus don't have this opportunity to exercise this skill of holding on to that and listening more than talking.Corey: Absolutely agree. And it gets piled on by a lot of folks, for example—I'll continue to use myself as an example in this case—I live in San Francisco. I would argue that I'm probably not, “In tech,” quote-unquote, the way that I once was, but I'm close enough that there's no discernible difference. And my social circle is as well. Back before I entered tech, I did a bunch of interesting jobs, telemarketing to pay the bills, I was a recruiter for a while, I worked construction a couple of summers.These days, everyone that I engage with for meaningful periods of time is more or less fairly tech adjacent. It really turns into a one-sided perspective. And I can sit here and talk about what folks who are not living in the tech bubble should be doing or how they should think about this, but it's incredibly condescending, it's incredibly short-sighted, and fails to appreciate a very different lived experience. And I can remind myself of this now, but that lack of diversity and experience is absolutely something where it feels like the tech bubble, especially for those folks in this bubble who look a lot like me, it is easy to fall into a pattern of viewing ourselves as the modern aristocracy where we deserve the nice things that we have, and the rest. And that's a toxic pattern. It takes vigilance to avoid it. I'm not saying I get it right all the time, by a landslide, but ugh, the perils of not doing that are awful.Amy: Agreed. And it shows up, you know, getting back to the engineering manager and leadership and org building piece of things, that shows up even in the way that we talk about career development and career ladders, for those of us in tech, and software engineering specifically for me, where we've kind of like come up with all these matrices of job levels, and competencies, all that, and humans just are so vastly different. Every person is an individual, and yet we talked about career ladders and how to advance your career in this two-dimensional matrix. And, like, how does that actually work, right?And I've seen some good career ladders that account for a larger variety of competencies than just, “Can you code?” And, “What are your system design skills?” And, “Do you understand distributed systems?” And so on and so forth, but I think a lot gets left behind and gets left on the table when it comes to thinking about the fact that when you get a group of people together working on some sort of common cause or a product, that there's so much more to the dynamic than just the writing of the code. It's how do you work with each other? How do you support each other? How do you communicate with each other? And then all my glue work—that is what I call it—like, the glue work that goes into a successful team and building products, a lot of that is just not captured in the way that we talk about career development for folks. And it's just incredibly two-dimensional, I think.Corey: One last question that I have for you before we wrap the episode here is, you spend a lot of time focusing on this, and I have some answers, but I'm very interested to hear yours instead because I assure you, the world hears enough from me and people who look like me, what is the biggest mistake that you see companies making in their attempts to build diverse teams?Amy: I would say that there's two major things. One is that there have been a lot of orgs in my own past that think about diversity, equity, inclusion as a program and not a mindset that everyone should be embracing. And that manifests itself into, sort of like, this secondary problem of stopping at the D part of D, E, and I. That's the whole, “We're going to hire a bunch of people from different backgrounds and then just we're going to stop with that because we've solved the problem.” But by not adopting that mindset of the equity, the inclusion, and also the welcoming and the belonging piece of things internally, then anyone that you hire who comes in from those marginalized or minority backgrounds is not going to want to stay long-term because they don't feel like they fit in, they don't feel like they belong.And so, it becomes this revolving door of you hire in people and then those people leave after some amount of time because they're not getting what they need out of either the role or for themselves personally in terms of just emotional support, even. And so I would say that's the problem that I see is not a numbers game—although the metrics and the numbers help hold you accountable—but the metrics and the numbers are not the end goal. The end goal is really around the mindset that you have in building the org and the way that people behave. And the way that you work together is really core to that.Corey: What I tend to see on the other side is the early intake funnels. People will reach out to me sometimes, “Hey, do you know any diverse speakers we can hire to do a speaking engagement here?” It doesn't… work that way. There's a lot more to it than that. It is not about finding people who check boxes, it is not about quote-unquote, “Diversity hires.”It's about—at least in my experience—structuring job ads, for example, in ways that are not coded—unconsciously in most cases, but ehh—that are going to resonate towards folks who are in certain cultures and not in others. It's about being more equitable. It's about understanding that not everyone is going to come across in a job interview as the most confident person in the room. Part of the talk that I gave on how to handle job interviews, there was a strong section in it on salary negotiation. Well, turns out when I do it, I'm an aggressive hard-charger and they like that, whereas if someone who is not male does that, well, in that case, they look like they're being difficult and argumentative and pushy and rising above their station. It was awful.One of the topics I'm most proud of was the redone version of that talk that I gave with a friend, Sonia Gupta, who has since left tech because of how shitty it is, and that was a much better talk. She was a former attorney who had spent time negotiating in much higher-stakes situations.Amy: Yeah.Corey: And it was terrific to see during the deconstruction and rebuilding of that talk, just how much of my own unconscious bias had crept in. It's, again, I look back at the early version of those talks and I'm honestly ashamed. It wasn't from ill will, but it's always impact over intent as far as how this has potentially made things worse. It's, if nothing else, if I don't say the right things when I should speak up, that's not great, but I always prefer that to saying things that are actively harmful. So—Amy: Absolutely.Corey: —it's hard. I deserve no sympathy for this, to be clear. It is incumbent upon all of us because again, as mentioned, my failure mode is a non-issue in the world compared to the failure mode for folks for against whom the deck has been stacked unfairly for a very long time. At least, that's how I see it.Amy: Right. And that's why I think that it's important for folks who are in positions of power to really reflect on—even operationally, right, you were mentioning your job ads, and how to structure that to include more inclusive language, and just doing that for everything, really, in the way that you work. How do decisions get made? And by whom? And why? How do you structure things like compensation? Even, like, how do you do project planning, right?Even in my own reflections, now when I think back towards Scrum and Agile and all of that, I think that the base foundation of all of that was like was good, but then ultimately the implementation of how that works at most companies is problematic in a lot of ways as well. And then to just be able to reflect and really think about all of your processes or policies—all of that—and bring that lens of equity, really, equity and inclusion to those things, and to really dig deep and think about how those things might manifest and affect people from different backgrounds in different ways.Corey: So, before we wrap, something that I think you… are something of an empathetic party on is when I see companies in the space who are doing significant DE&I initiatives, it seems like it's all flash; it feels like it's all sizzle, no steak to appropriate a phrase from the country of Texas. Is that something that you see, too?Amy: I do think that it is pretty common, and I think it's because that's… that's the easy route. That's the easy way to do it because the vanity metrics, and the photo of the team that is so diverse, and all these things that show up on a marketing website. I mean, there—it's, like, a signal for someone, potentially, who might be considering a job at your company, but ultimately the hard work that I feel like is not happening is really in that whole reflecting on the way you do business, reflecting on the way that you work. That is the hard work and it requires a leadership team to prioritize it, and to make time for it, and to make it really a core principle of the way that you build an org., and it doesn't happen enough, by far, in my opinion.Corey: It feels like it's an old trope of the company that makes a $100,000 donation and then spends $10 million dollars telling the world about it, on some level. It's about, “Oh, look at us, we're doing good things,” as opposed to buckling down and doing the work. Then the actual work falls to folks who are themselves not overrepresented as unpaid emotional labor, and then when the company still struggles with diversity issues, those people catch the blame. It's frustrating.Amy: Yeah. And as an organization, if you have the money to donate somewhere, that's great, but it can't just stop at that. And a lot of companies will just stop at that because it's the optics of, “Oh, well, we spent x millions of dollars and we've helped out this nonprofit or this charity or whatnot.” Which is great that you're able to do that, but that can't be it because then ultimately, what you have internally and within your own company doesn't improve for people from those backgrounds.Corey: I want to thank you for taking so much time to chat with me about these things. Some of these topics are challenging to talk about and finding the right forum can be difficult, and I'm just deeply appreciative that you were able to clear enough time to have that chat with me today.Amy: Yeah, thank you for having me. I mean, I think it's important for us to recognize, even between the two of us that, I mean, obviously, you as a white man have benefited a lot in this space, and then even myself as, you know, that model minority whole thing, but growing up very adjacent to white people and just being ingrained in that culture and raised in that culture, you know, that we have those privileges and there's still parts of the conversation, I think, that are not captured by [laugh] by the two of us are the nuances as well, and so just recognizing that. And it's just a learning process. And I think that everyone could benefit from just realizing that you'll never know everything. And there's always going to be something to learn in all of this. And yes, it is hard, but it's something that is worthwhile to strive for.Corey: Most things worthwhile are. If people want to learn more about who you are, how you think about these things, potentially consider working with you, et cetera. Where can they find you?Amy: So, I am on Twitter. I am the queen of very, very long threads, I should just start a blog or something, but I have not. But in any case, I'm on Twitter. I am AmyChanta, so @A-M-Y-C-H-A-N-T-A.Our website is unicycle.co, if you're thinking about applying for a role, and working with me, that would be awesome. Or just, you know, reach out. I'd also just love to network with anyone, even if there's not an open position now. I just, you know, build that relationship and maybe there will be in the future. Or if not at Unicycle, then somewhere else.Corey: And we will, of course, put links to that in the [show notes 00:48:13]. Thank you so much, once again. I appreciate your time.Amy: Thanks for having me.Corey: Amy Chantasirivisal, Director of Engineering at Unicycle. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice along with a comment pointing out that it's not about making an MVP of a bicycle that turns into a unicycle so much as it is work-life balance.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Patron and dear old friend Darren Deffley joins the show to talk about the 1992 cinematic classic A Few Good Men.  Written by Aaron Sorkin, directed by Rob Reiner, and starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore, it taught the world the we “Can't Handle the Truth!”  Adam and Darren swept all the duet acting speech tournaments with their performance of the climactic courtroom scene in 7th grade, and now they perform together for the first time in 27 years!Want to be a guest on the show?  Your odds go way up if you subscribe on Patreon!< '00 | an Art House Empire Production | a proud member of the Greenlit podcast Network | #LessThan2000Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/lessthan2000)

Marie tells us about her youthful sojourn to Tel Aviv during the Second Intifada and how she almost caused a man to lose his life. BROOKLINEN Get $20 off a $100 purchase at brooklinen.com, promo code SECRET. DIPSEA Get a 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/SECRET. FEALS Become a member at Feals.com/SECRET and you'll get 40% off your first three months with free shipping.   TERRITORY FOODS To save $75 across your first three orders, plus free shipping, go to territoryfoods.com and use the promo code SECRET. PICTURES See Marie on the beach where she slept at night; Marie's apartment above the Suq Ha Carmel market; Ari and his bar staff; and Marie today. L They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED First Marie tells us what she's up to today and share's some candid thoughts about the interview.  Also, Rachel's back from our last episode, "Was Any of it Real?"  Years after the interview a real Drew entered her life. With the memory of fake Drew still very present in her head, the prospect of a real-life Drew was too hard to resist.  Also, catfish tales you submitted after hearing the episode.  And Susie even shares one of her own! The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have a pedantic secret to share?  Consider all your options and then submit.  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com when you're ready! PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Shadow producers: JB. Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

Hour 2 - Sean McDonough (sportscaster) joins The Greg Hill Show: Comments on the loss of Jerry Remy, Wiggy picked the Chargers to beat the Pats- How was he so wrong? Boston Mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George joins The Greg Hill Show. Sean McDonough (sportscaster): comments on how Remy and he got started in sportscasting together, Nothing was as special as broadcasting with Jerry Remy, Jerry was authentic on and off the broadcast, recalls the time Judge Judy took a box of doughnuts from the broadcast booth and Remy joked about it the entire game Boston Mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George joins The Greg Hill Show: Annissa has lost her voice on the campaign trail, Day one as Mayor- work on Boston Schools, Handle the Mass and Cass issue/get people their help, New Boston police Commissioner, thoughts on Boston housing, The Red Sox are her favorite Boston sports team, thoughts on Boston bike lanes, Boston needs to be more affordable plus we need to help people build wealth. Comments on the Globe story about her Boston accent, Greg works out an endorsement deal for the show's official endorsement See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Boston Mayoral candidate Annissa Essaibi George joins The Greg Hill Show: Annissa has lost her voice on the campaign trail, Day one as Mayor- work on Boston Schools, Handle the Mass and Cass issue/get people their help, New Boston police Commissioner, thoughts on Boston housing, The Red Sox are her favorite Boston sports team, thoughts on Boston bike lanes, Boston needs to be more affordable plus we need to help people build wealth. Comments on the Globe story about her Boston accent, Greg works out an endorsement deal for the show's official endorsement See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tanya Rad & Her Boyfriend Are Going to Double Date With Seacrest's Sister The Hottest Toys for 2021 (and How to Handle the Supply Chain Issue) Stay Away From These Halloween Candies If You're Concerned for Teeth Gwyneth Paltrow Reveals the Sex Advice She Tells Her Kids And Ryan's Roses- he went out of town for a wedding...when he got back, she found something interesting in his bag. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Today I'll take some time and go into the mail bag and answer listener questions. We will look at SPACS, Bitcoin ETF details, Cup and Handle formations, Western Union and much more! Have a question? Join us live and send it in on chat! Show starts at 2pm PST. #trading #ATH #bitcoin #Cryptocurrency Contact TraderMerlin: Email – TraderMerlin@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13930555/ Twitter: TraderMerlin - https://twitter.com/TraderMerlin IG: TraderMerlin - https://www.instagram.com/tradermerlin/ FB: TraderMerlin  - https://www.facebook.com/TraderMerlin Live Daily Show:  - https://www.youtube.com/TraderMerlin   Trading Applications used: TastyWorks, CliK, TradeStation, TradingView

Episode Summary: Niki Hardy and I talk about thriving not just surviving when life falls apart. Niki has faced times of loss, grief and cancer and discovered how to live well when life falls apart. She shares what God taught her through her experiences. One thing she learned is you can breathe again and thrive! Quotables from the episode: Too often we want God to give us revelation, when what we really need is realization. Often our beliefs limit us through personalization, permanence, and pervasiveness. The abundant life isn't in the future waiting for us. God gave us to enjoy right now. Don't wait for life to improve to live it fully. Live life to the full today. In times of suffering, lean in, not lean away. Too often we act as if heaven is pie in the sky, but the truth is we can have cake on our plate while we wait. God not only loves you, He likes you. Scripture References: John 10:10 NIV I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Philippians 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Psalm 62:1-2 Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Recommended Resources: Breathe Again: How to Live Well When Life Falls Apart by Niki Hardy Listening Guide for the Freshly Diagnosed Audio How to Handle anything Life Throws at You 10 Day audio devotion Grab a couple of free chapters of her book HERE Register for her FREE Trusting God Through Cancer Summit HERE Trials that Strengthen our Faith Two Essential Tips for Navigating Life's Trials When Things Seem Hopeless What To Do When Trials Come Storms of Life: You're Meant To Go Through, Not Camp Out There Free Download: How To Fight Fearful/Anxious Thoughts and Win Breaking Anxiety's Grip: How to Reclaim the Peace God Promises by Dr. Michelle Bengtson Breaking Anxiety's Grip Free Study Guide Free 7-Day YouVersion Bible Reading Plan for Breaking Anxiety's Grip Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor's Personal Journey Through Depression by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader's Choice Award Hope Prevails Bible Study by Dr. Michelle Bengtson, winner of the Christian Literary Award Reader's Choice Award Social Media Links for Host and Guest: To connect with Niki Hardy: Website / Facebook / Instagram For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at: Order Book Breaking Anxiety's Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube Guest: Niki Hardy is an author, speaker, podcast host, and lover of hot buttered toast. As the author of Breathe Again: How to Live Well When Life Falls Apart and host of the podcast Chemo Chair Prayers, her goal is to help you discover life doesn't have to be pain-free to be full, then go live it.

You've got an offer ready and have emailed your subscribers. Once. Maybe twice. Sure, you'd like to email them a bit more. That would help with your sales, right? But you just don't know what to email about! So here are 7 sales elements that will give you more reasons to email during your launch and help you create spikes in your sales.  Ready to have your mind absolutely blown by these strategies? Let's go!  SOME EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (2:31) Why you should email your audience more than once or twice during a launch. (4:04) Give your audience a guided tour of your sales page through your emails (and learn about the pretend electoral campaign between Paddington Bear and Rupert The Bear). (11:48) Introduce a countdown timer to create urgency (but not right at the start). (14:08) Add a bonus (or more). (16:34) Combine the bonus and the countdown timer.   (17:47) Use your testimonials in your emails. (20:20) Don't introduce payment plans or down sell options at the start of your launch.  (22:38) Help your customers remove overwhelm and make informed decisions. (25:03) Handle objections. (28:05) Subject line of the week. Why you should email your audience more than once or twice during a launchFirst thing first, how many times do your normally email your list when you launch a new product or service? The day you open the cart and then the day you close it? What happens in between? Can we just agree that two emails aren't really gonna cut it? When you're promoting a new offer, you need to email your list more than once or twice. But how exactly can you keep talking about this thing you're launching? Use your emails to give your audience a guided tour of your sales pageYou see, the key is to have a plan. And your plan should be all about NOT putting everything you have to say about your launch on your sales page. Hold some things back from your sales page so you have a list of valid reasons to email your list. Because during your launch, you want to use your emails to drip out pieces of your offer – email by email. This doesn't mean you're going to strip down your offer and turn it into something weak and mediocre that no one wants. Your offer needs to be amazing from day one! You're just holding off on announcing some of the stuff that most people announce at the start and breaking down the information that lives on your sales page  and giving your subscribers a guided tour of it. Your emails are the place where you pick one element of your sales page and talk about it. Why? So that you can walk people through stuff they might have missed and make them pay attention to it. By announcing new things throughout your launch, you create extra surges and spikes in your sales. Because we all know how it goes - launches are made of peaks and troughs. The peaks are the beginning and at the end. You make sales on your first day and then again on the last day before the cart closes. But in between? That's when you have your troughs. So you want to create some momentum - have an excuse to email your subscribers, give them more reasons to buy, and generate more peaks during your launch.  Here are 7 things (in no particular order) that will help you do just that.  Hold off introducing a countdown timerA lot of people add a countdown timer to their sales page right at the start of their promotion. We suggest you don't do that. Why? First of all, because if you don't put the timer on the sales page right away, it gives you a great reason to email your list later on and let them know when your cart closes. But also, a countdown timer is a mechanism to create urgency - and a very effective one at that. So don't waste it! Because you won't create any urgency if you set your timer waaaay in the future. If you tell everyone that your offer expires in 2 weeks, they have no reason to take notice now. It's only when the hours, minutes and seconds are literally ticking...

“Was Any of it Real?” Rachel's first love introduced her to a polyamorous relationship.  The only problem was that it was fake.  Hear the dramatic climax in Paris as Rachel unfolds her secret.  BETTER HELP Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/secret. DIPSEA Get a 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/SECRET. OVER MY DEAD BODY Follow Over My Dead Body on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now to hear Season 3: Fox Lake. Or you can listen early and ad-free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in the Wondery App. PROSE Thanks Prose! Take your free hair quiz and get 15% off your first order prose.com/SECRET. PICTURES See Rachel and Allie in France; Allie in the window sill; and Rachel's star that Allie tore in half. They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED Rachel's back with part two.  Years later a real Drew entered her life. With the memory of fake Drew still very real in her head, the prospect of a real-life Drew was too hard to resist.  How that real world relationship played out, and its ties to fantasy, is the second part of Rachel's story. Susie Lark hosts.  The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have an eldritch secret to share?  That would be very seasonal of you.  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com before Halloween! PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Shadow producers: JB and Lefty Marcucci. Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

Joining me on this episode of I Have a Podcast, is Doron Ofir, casting director extraordinaire behind household names like Jersey Shore, Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, RuPaul's Drag Race, and the breakout Netflix hit Too Hot to Handle!  Starting off his career in the club scene of Miami and then moving out to Los Angeles, the rise of reality tv changed the landscape of the entertainment industry forever.  Doron has made a name for himself, one that has changed the face of reality tv- by literally finding the faces we see on TV.  This conversation includes amazing tidbits of why we love the archetypes that entertain us, a few guesses on future creativity, and some insight on how Doron finds the “Fab 50” of any group he's looking for.  DORON OFIR:  Doron Ofir Casting: https://www.doronofircasting.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doronofircast/ VINNIE POTESTIVO LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vinniepotestivo Instagram: www.instagram.com/vinniepotestivo Clubhouse: www.joinclubhouse.com/@vinniepotestivo     I HAVE A PODCAST: Instagram: www.instagram.com/ihaveapodcast YouTube: www.youtube.com/vpetv Episodes, show notes & transcripts: www.ihaveapodcast.com       Vinnie's Services: www.vpetalent.com Connect with IHAP: ihap@vpetalent.com

Nicky Billou is a champion for fathers and their children. A divorced father of 2, he has helped save over 60 families from divorce. He is also a champion for free enterprise and entrepreneurs. He is the #1 International Best Selling Author of the book: Finish Line Thinking™: How to Think and Win Like a Champion, and The Thought Leader's Journey: A Fable of Life. Nicky is also an in-demand and highly inspirational speaker, an advisor and confidante to some of the most successful and dynamic entrepreneurs in Canada and the US, and host of the #1 podcast in the world on Thought Leadership, The Thought Leader Revolution, where he has interviewed over 270 of the world's top Thought Leaders. In this episode, Nicky gets into why leaders are readers. He talks about why getting into the niches and defining who you work with allows you to grow exponentially, and he also shares about how to help nurture and give children what they need based on where they are, whether it's self education, or standard of education. Check it out!  [00:01 – 06:52] Opening Segment I introduce our guest, Nicky Billou Checkout the Success Finder App  Check the links below  Connect with Nicky through the links below Nicki's superpower: helping people see the best version of themselves What people are doing wrong You have to get your business right  Handle money right away  [06:53 –16:21] Nicky and His Experience with Self-Education How learning has changed for Nicky over the years Importance of reading books Listen to podcasts, watch videos, and learn from experts Maximize the information on social media Nikcy's coaches and masterminds Learning from reading  Different mentors for different aspects of life  How coaches and masterminds helped in re-setting The beauty of teaching something  Parallels between standard and self education  Having the ability to curate your own education experience [16:22 - 23:06] What to Expect from Nicky A success story when working with Nicky What Nicky is working on right now  Actionable Items/Tips from Nicky Do the 75 Hard Program by Andy Frisella Final words Resources Mentioned:  https://andyfrisella.com/ (75 Hard Program by Andy Frisella) Tweetable Quotes: “As a child of God, we are put here on this earth to live life as the best version of ourselves.” - Nicky Billou Connect with Nicky through his website at  https://ecircleacademy.com/ (www.ecircleacademy.com) and listen to his podcast at http://www.thethoughtleaderrevolution.com (www.thethoughtleaderrevolution.com). It's time to Stand Up, Show Up, and Level Up! Download The Success Finder on Apple and Google Play Store. You can connect with me, Brandon Straza, onhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonstraza/ ( LinkedIn),https://www.instagram.com/brandonstraza/ ( Instagram), or send me an email athttps://my.captivate.fm/brandon@thesuccessfinder.com ( brandon@thesuccessfinder.com). I'd love to get in touch and talk more about personal development and how you can live past beyond your limits.

Leg to back connection to make stroke power in rowing - Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe. Support this show with a donation https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast Timestamps 02:15 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing. Rigging inaccuracies around the pins. 07:00 The Caught Short Kit for female athletes who menstruate - Help yourself to pads and tampons. Can you make one for your club? 10:00 Legs to Back Connection The power of the legs has to be connected to the oar handle. Leg drive must directly move the oar handle. If you drive and don't move the handle = shooting the slide. If you move the handle and don't move the legs = no power Feel Pressure on your hands and feet - check for yourself. Often described as the hardest part of the rowing stroke to train. 14:00 How does the kinetic chain link? This is how you are connected together. The biomechanics of how the body moves and flexes. The levers of bones connect through the joints. Ligaments connect bones to bones. Tendons connect muscles to bones. There are 2 types of kinetic chain in exercise sport The open kinetic chain - where the limb is free and not fixed to an object The closed kinetic chain - where the limb is connected to the ground or something firm 18:00 Rowing is a closed kinetic chain you are working off the oar handle, foot plate and the oar in the water. Sponsor www.onedayu.com/rowingchat 21:00 Training glutes - as you drive off the catch it's the quads that activate first and as your heels go down you will add in your glutes. Gluteal amnesia - it can be hard to activate the glutes as we age. Strong glutes support your lower back. 23:40 Train your glutes by practicing isometrically. Squeeze them when standing, driving, sitting. To load your body weight in the boat you have got to use your glutes. Be aware of them being strong and activated as you row. 27:00 Drills - keep pressure on the foot stretcher in the last third of the leg drive. Glute bridges Side squats Fire Hydrants (this is funny.... check out the comments on the video at this point) Hungarian split squats Use exercise bands Lunges 30:00 Timing the switch from legs to back in the power phase. When the blade is loaded - notice if this varies. Feel the blade is or is not stable in the water. Handle pressure stays continuous and horizontal through the stroke. If the body comes in too early you can lift the handle and the blade goes deep as a consequence. Exaggeration exercises - try swinging the back early or later. Make the back swing more dynamic Arms and body only rowing to isolate the swing. Check your force curve on the erg. Back swing adds length to your stroke.

- Joshua Driver And so it's always been confusing to me why startups don't think about their culture from day one. And because we spend so much of our wake time at work, especially on our stage and the positive vibes or feelings you get out of helping others or contributing to the betterment of your community or society or making a difference for somebody else is such an important experience I think everybody should have,   INTRO   Why aren't we focusing on culture from Day 1?  Today, we look at building connection in the world of start-ups.  My guests are Josh Driver and Zach Rodenbarger from Selfless.ly.  They have a lot to say about how to build connection AND their technology platform is also a platform for companies to give back, so this is like a double-impact interview.    Zach and Josh's origin story begins just before the pandemic, launching their platform with high hopes and ideals into a pretty brutal business environment.    They are talking about how they sustained connection, built their company, and expanded the scope of influence in the midst of the dual pressures of start-up life and a bruising global pandemic.  As a bit of a teaser, you will hear about the importance of taking a walk, how “hangry” can get in the way of communication, and why Nerf guns could be a good idea for your office culture.    Zach and Josh are both tech guys who are from the same Indiana town of Valparaiso.  The met in 2018, committed to the concept of building a platform where companies and individuals can give not just money but time and effort to support causes that matter.  The website describes the platform memorably:  “Selfless.ly is a unique company that was designed by selfless people to help the world become a better place.”     - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I'd love to hear from both of you. Why do you think that that is even an important conversation to be having? And how would you define empathy work to me.   - Zach Rodenbarger There's a few tangible examples.   That is Zach Rodenbarger, the COO of Selfless.ly   - Zach Rodenbarger Sometimes in our interactions, Josh will come in or I'll come in and we'll have something and go back and forth. And then one of us will say, do you need to go for a walk?   - Zach Rodenbarger And I was like.   - Zach Rodenbarger Yes, I need to go for a walk. I need a little fresh air, you. And maybe that's just because we've been at our computers for a couple of hours or longer and need to have take a pause and have a step back. And so we've had that over the year, especially when we're working hard and looking at new timelines and goals and things. And I know I've needed a walk or two here and there.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes We had other good practices. Sometimes it's a walk. I also find that sometimes it's a snack. I have you eaten recent links to a snack?   - Joshua Driver Yes. We've encountered the snack situation as well. Yes. Hunger is a thing so much.   And this is Josh Driver, fellow-hangry sufferer and the Founder of Selfless.ly   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes That was like one of my biggest learning curves early on in my marriage. I I used to think it was just Luke. It's totally both of us be like, Is this really a thing, or am I just really hungry right now? And you can't know until you're no longer hungry, like, you can't even find out.   - Zach Rodenbarger I think that's a good follow up on empathy. It's probably easier to see in other people. And then when do we take that step back and look at ourselves and actually admit that? And I think that is really helpful to business partnership or even as we continue to onboard new employees, you know, thinking through, how am I coming across to others?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes But also, do you put yourself in their shoes and how are they feeling and so kind of both well and hearing that it actually takes a foundation of some relationship and trust to be able to take someone suggestion to do something like, go for a walk. I can imagine that a less mature or self aware moments. Somebody being like, maybe even the way it could be delivered. Just go take a walk. Somebody being like, I don't need a walk. You need a walk? No, I'm just making a really good point.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes But to be able to be at a place where I imagine it takes some work get to that point.   - Zach Rodenbarger Absolutely.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes A lot of times I find with guests or people I get to work with those that really, like, are doing the work of promoting more human workplaces and more connection at work. There's an element that comes out of their own personal experience. So I would love to hear from both of you a time where meeting that connection and empathy at work was really important in your own personal story, so that could be giving it to someone or a time where you were like, I'm not. Okay. I need some support right now.   - Joshua Driver Yeah. I think when I left the startup space and went into a corporate job, I came into a workplace environment and culture that might have been a little hostile and toxic. Like, there is a big disconnect between the leadership and the teams and the mentality of you're lucky to have a job versus we're lucky to have you as an employee. I wasn't exactly realized yet. And I had noticed when I join the company in my role that there was a lot of hostile communication. People had segregated themselves on one side or another and coming into that since I had been startups for so long and been on the ground for creating that culture.   - Joshua Driver That was very new to me to be in the middle of this disconnect. And it taught me personally about how I want my next company to run and where I think we needed to head and be ego free and transparent and communicate in more of a we're all on the same level here. Like, don't view me as your boss. We're just jumping in together to fix an issue. And I think as far as feeling left out or where I really could have used some support was when my first full time job was as an EMT here, then wished hospital and going through some of the things for the first time and all the trauma there.   - Joshua Driver There's no debrief or support. I think it's better now than it was, but you kind of had to process and cope individually with some of the things that you would see. And so that was really difficult for me to overcome at times when you have to process seeing the such negative things at times.   - Joshua Driver Quite frankly, like volunteering someplace and getting the I feel like I'm making a positive difference outside of the trauma of emergency medicine was a big driving factor. A lot of my coworkers and stuff would turn to substance abuse and other things sometimes, but I was fortunate enough to have a good support system, whether it was my family or friend group to where if things were really getting rough, that somebody would jump in and say, hey, let's catch up or reconnect. And so I was lucky in that regard.   - Joshua Driver But a lot of first responders, unfortunately, don't have that type of network to help them with that.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Thank you for sharing that. And I imagine even as you talk about the importance of volunteering, that there's a through line to some of what you're currently doing.   - Joshua Driver Yeah.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Zach, how about for you?   - Zach Rodenbarger So for me, with thinking through empathy in my past experiences, we can look to even just in the early days of self asleep and thinking about, hey, we both took this leap to start something new. And then about six months later, COVID hits. And so how do we work through this time where everything just radically changed, where we just launched the company? We launched the company in January and February of 2020. And then a month later, radically different thinking through. How is my co founder feeling right now?   - Zach Rodenbarger How do I stay optimistic and pass that along to him and vice versa? We're both kind of feeling these challenges and seeing this real time, right that we had these ideas and projections and we're going to create group, volunteering outdoors, and we're going to invite people to these events and then that's not going to happen. And so how do we really think through and change that strategy? But also, how did I think through, you know, both of us leaving our corporate jobs to do this. And so losing that security and saying, okay, I understand that this is maybe something he's going through right now and the pressure he's going through.   - Zach Rodenbarger So how do I stay optimistic to then pass that along and vice versa? And that was really helpful during those times?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Did you ever have days where you were both just like, really down in the dumps? It wasn't like one person could encourage the other. It was just both low, especially early on in that pandemic.   - Zach Rodenbarger For me, I think for the most part, one or the other would see that and feel that and maybe because we're both high empaths. So if Josh was down, I was like, I can't be or vice versa. He may have a different perspective, but I remember thinking that. And so even though it was a really tough day, this is what it's all about. And so I'll stay positive or vice versa. And he would look at me be like, this is when he needs to step up.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah,   - Joshua Driver I can't remember specifically when we had those times. But I remember even if we were going to be talking to a specific person turning in, saying, I don't have an inmate today to have this conversation. Do you mind just taking this on your own and doing that? I remember a few times where we had that discussion where if we're both feeling challenged, which is actual, we there. See, I think there were a few times where we might have just said, let's just call it a day early and go for a walk or go get a slice of pizza or something and and get out of the office for a little bit or go to the Lake each like, I think within reason we would step up on behalf of each other where we needed to.   - Joshua Driver It was just not the perfect day. Just saying, alright, let's take a break in re energize and come back to it tomorrow.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes That can be so good. And it sounds like really, of course, of course, that would be a good thing to do. But it's amazing how hard sometimes it can feel in the moment, especially with the entrepreneurial churn and pressures and one's own expectations. So I acknowledge how important that can be and how like sometimes it can feel harder to do than it seems is a good job cutting.   - Joshua Driver I like to just get burn myself out trying to work on the issue at hand. Zach, does a really good job of cutting me off for like of a meter and saying, this is all the time we have for this. We need to move on. Otherwise, I'll sit down whatever whatever issue is at hand. So he does a good job of saving my own sanity.   - Zach Rodenbarger I definitely like to break tasks up into the smallest parts and pieces and just get something done for that day or something like that. And Josh definitely wants to power through and accomplish it all in one day.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah, I am that trait, Josh. It makes me think there was a there was a friend that I had in College and we used to kind of like joke about his mindset. We would joke that Ben would break his whole day down into micro goals, and it always allowed him to feel good about himself because he would be like, I'm on even the little things. Like, I'm gonna walk through the quad more efficiently than ever before and talk to two people. And I used to think like, what a funny quirk about how Ben's mind works.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes But now I look and I'm like, man, Ben was probably just 15 years ahead of all of us in self awareness of like, oh, that's maybe a key to living like a more bounded and contented existence than the rest of us had a handle on at 22.   - Joshua Driver Yes, Zach is close to that, and I envy that very much because I don't have that level of organization and granularity that see and your friends have.   MUSICAL TRANSITION Building connection at work is important…and it can be hard to know where to start.  What can you do to support the mental health of your people, to care for them and keep them engaged in the midst of all of the pressures and disruption?  You don't have to figure it out on your own; let Handle with Care Consulting help.  With keynote options, certificate programs, and coaching sessions available, we have a solution to meet your needs and budget.  Sign up for a free consultation at lieselmertes.com.  Together, we can put empathy to work.    MUSICAL TRANSITION   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I find in building connections with people, there are times where it feels really easy and natural and times where it's a lot more challenging. What are times in either of you or both of you can answer where building connection at work feels really easy for you. And why.   - Joshua Driver Interesting. I would say that I'm   - Joshua Driver I love to people watch, and I'm always interested in everybody's story. How did you get to where you are today? What experiences have you had? And so it's easy for me to get to know people because I'm just naturally just so curious about everyone's story.   - Zach Rodenbarger I find I have to be maybe a little more intentional to provide that space to connect. And maybe that even goes to our overall topic of empathy to take a second and say, okay, if I was coming in on the first day or the second week, how would I want to be treated? Because I think it's easy for me. And as I mentioned earlier, probably Josh, it's easy for us to just kind of put our heads down and work. And so taking that time and being giving that space as well to make the connection, even if it's at lunch time only or something.   - Zach Rodenbarger But at least you're very focused on allowing that space to chat and providing that because I know for me during the workplace, well, we'll chat later or something, but if you don't provide that space, then obviously it's harder to make that connection, especially in the first week, the first six months, and things like that and thinking, when would I want to have someone reach out to me whether they're a colleague, a boss, or even an intern can be anything.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah. That reminds me of even a slide that I was showing yesterday and a talk that I was doing about imagination and empathy. I hear that a little bit of what you're saying, and although that doesn't always get you exactly to the right place, because you can't ever fully know what another person is wanting or experiencing, it oftentimes will move you closer. What would I want on my first day or first week? And then to be able to act out of that can really close what can sometimes seem like a big distance.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes You both kind of offered some things in your answer, but I'll ask it explicitly as well. What are sometimes we're building connection at work feels difficult.   - Joshua Driver I've started to embrace more of when I am feeling extroverted versus introverted and sometimes when I'm hyper focused on something in the distraction of having to communicate or interact can be frustrating because I need the focused time and especially with new employees coming on. You want to be available and transparent and present. And at our stage right now it's really difficult to be present with everything that we need to get done. And so making sure that I'm not coming off as disinterested is something that I always in the back of my mind.   - Joshua Driver I want to make sure that I'm not conveying because it's not true. But there are some times where I just want to get something done and want to be sequestered for a little bit.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Do you have yourself in moments like that, like needing to actively engage in self talk, even about things. So I'll get my hand like I have to think about my body language and moments like that of being like, oh, I need to show attention and care right now. I'm going to do something different. Like do you do mental pivots like that? And what do they look like?   - Joshua Driver Sometimes Zach and I have been together for so long now. I can tell with his expression where I've crossed the line of of being rational more. So there are certain triggers, I think too. And he'll say, yeah, you need to maybe just spend some time by yourself for a minute and go for a lock so I will replay a situation like that in my mind and try to think through. Alright, what did I say? Did I mean to come off this way or if I don't really came off a different way than I meant to trying to understand?   - Joshua Driver Like how did this person infer that this was what I was trying to say. And so that has been helpful to rethink the experience so that I try not to replicate that. Moving forward. I.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I Imagine there's a line walk between replaying the experience and getting stuck in a never ending loop. How do you thread that needle?   - Joshua Driver Not. Well. I like to solve everything and have closure. So if there's still a difference of opinion, I like to try to really put the pressure on myself to get it resolved. And in some cases I think I don't look at difference of opinion is like who's going to win this fight and get their way? I think it's more from their background and their perspective. Is there some truth to it and allow that was Zach especially? There are some things that he's very passionate about and has a perspective that he really feels strongly.   - Joshua Driver And I'd like to think for the most part if he fully believes in something that I may not be so sure on and wants to go that I just trust him implicitly that it's the right thing and that he's very good at doing his research and looking at different aspects of things.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Well, and out of that foundation of relationship, you know what you can extend to them.   - Joshua Driver Yeah. I think we're a lot of co founders that are state right now. We don't have time to be working on every project together, be on every call together and make decisions together. And so I think if you have a co founder that you don't feel that you feel like you have to micromanage or be a part of every decision, then that's going to be a really difficult culture to scale. It's going to make your company really difficult to grow. And so everybody that we've hired and when Zach joined Selflessly is very clear.   - Joshua Driver I want the empowerment. I want to create the space for them to be empowered to make decisions that are best for a company and feel confident that they are able to execute on whatever task.   - Zach Rodenbarger Is this where I say the complete opposite?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes This is a safe space.   - Zach Rodenbarger I've been trying to obviously likewise empowering each other. And we did used to be on most of the calls and get to feel how each is thinking. And so it did help in the first month to six months to be on a lot of the calls together or as he mentioned, in the same room even. And so I can overhear his call, whether he wants me to or not and understand kind of what he's thinking, the action maybe he would take or his thinking on that his rationalization, right.   - Zach Rodenbarger What would he be thinking in the same spot and so helpful to be able to, you know, have his perspective in in the back of my mind and probably vice versa from sharing that office for the first twelve months and everything. So that's been really good.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I hear a lot of respect and self inquiry in what you both have said. And yet I imagine there's still moments where like on an emotional on a practical on an interpersonal level, you guys have missed and or hurt one another in your journey. What has making meaningful repairs looked like.   - Zach Rodenbarger Nerf guns. Yeah. I think for one of my birthday, Josh got a couple of Nerf guns for me, and so if we need, we can shoot each other, but also part of the startup mentality, right? We wanted to bring a little bit of fun into the office, but if you needed, you could shoot someone from across the room. That's been one way.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes At least I'm totally thinking of my two sons right now, and the moment where Magnus turns to Moses, and he's like, okay, you can just hit me five times in the chest. That's fine. Just don't tell mom.   - Joshua Driver The biggest issue with that is that I'm a bad shot, so I'm not even like to get I like you. I can't make my points in the same way he can, because I tend to miss him completely, whereas he's really good at targeting me. So that was, in hindsight, not a great decision for a birthday gift start.   - Joshua Driver She has to make a lot of lessons learned.   - Joshua Driver Yeah, I would recommend that to other companies unless you're really good at aiming   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes either that or you want to devote part of your work day to target practice.   - Joshua Driver Yes.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Well, maybe you guys would like to expand on the I hear like some fun, some levity, like not taking yourself too seriously. Are there other things that you do to make repairs when you guys have gotten a little bit off?   - Joshua Driver I think that we find out if if we're having a conflict, that taking the time, like taking some space and cooling down is helpful, but also eventually, once we've had time to kind of process that situation. General, I think there was a time where I went and got a Blizzard or a box of dilly bars and dropped them off at the house. His house is like a don't let go of me. Ever don't leave me gift. I'm sorry. I was cantankerous and vice versa where I think we have a cool down moment and then we Zoom out and think about it there's.   - Joshua Driver There's always an apology and then some type of affirmation about the other one.   - Zach Rodenbarger I know I take a little more time sometimes to each person has their kind of respective way to do that and to cool down. And some people want to solve it. Same day some people take the night, take the weekend and so, you know, kind of learning the team, learning the other person and thinking through that, you know, how to talk through that and when and maybe even is more important if it's right away or give some space.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Have you guys ever had misses? Because I hear a little bit. You know, Josh, you said I'm gonna solve it now. Person. And Zach, I need a little bit more time. Did you guys have a learning curve initially and full disclosure. I have had to unlearn in my adult relationships that tendency and belief of like, if I can just say it to you four different times in four different ways, we can figure it out right now. Let's keep trying. And sometimes people are like, no, just shut up.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Hard lesson.   - Joshua Driver I have had to learn that in general, my husband is similar. Where his cool down? He needs to think for a little bit and take a break. I think maybe in our early days I went back to like, don't walk away. Let's figure this out so we can move on. But then realizing that he needs a little bit more time and understanding to from his perspective, like, if he doesn't want to talk about it, it's not going to help for me trying to pull it out of them either.   - Joshua Driver So I've learned to kind of let that go that we're not going to necessarily resolve it today. But I do continue to like to think that I prioritize that moving forward so that we can eventually get through whatever that wall is that hurdle.   - Zach Rodenbarger I think my learning is definitely around witnessing people and then witnessing yourself. But it's very rare to convince someone of your perspective in an argument. And if you're both on one side, an argument is not going to convince the other person to jump on your side. And so where is that our email leading or can you take a step back and then provide the reason why you're thinking this way? The reason why that person is thinking that way. It's just interesting to see how arguments heat up and things, and there's no side switching.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes It's so true. Yeah. It makes me think of even a yet unresolved conversations argument that my husband and I are having and to be like, yeah, nobody ever switches sides in the middle like nobody is in the heat of it or very, very, very, very, very like the 1% does it happen and then usually with a fair degree of resentment.   - Joshua Driver So.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yes, that rings true.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I'm struck that you are like building culture internally, but it selflessly is also like the product itself is something that is hopefully building culture and connection in the workplace. Tell me a little bit about how selflessly and volunteering and thinking outside of yourself is good for people in for workplaces.   - Joshua Driver But I think as we see culture being a normal discussion and given that we're still in a pandemic and becomes such a volatile polarizing environment in the world everywhere.   - Joshua Driver I always try to find, like silver linings or ways to maybe take take a moment to step away from the reality. And for me, my coping mechanism is to help others. And the reason why I've been able to spend that time to help others is because I've been very privileged and had the ability to do that where I understand that's not everybody's story coming out at our platform in understanding from not every company is a Lily or a Salesforce that has massive teams that work on these big the initiatives and have the resources.   - Joshua Driver There are a lot of companies I mean humans are humans, whether you work at a Fortune 50 company or a small startup.   - Joshua Driver And so it's always been confusing to me why startups don't think about their culture from day one. And because we spend so much of our wake time at work, especially on our stage and the positive vibes or feelings you get out of helping others or contributing to the betterment of your community or society or making a difference for somebody else is such an important experience.   - Joshua Driver I think everybody should have, but unfortunately, we work all the time or we have kids or other responsibilities that limit that time. So we set out to build selflessly so that companies didn't have to try to scrape the bottom the barrel to be able to provide purpose or the positive opportunities or the community engagement. We wanted to be a partner, so every company can experience the positive effects of being a crime brand or socially responsible organization, and that for a long time has only been afforded to gigantic organizations.   - Joshua Driver And so we wanted to be be the platform everyone can use. And so we have to be obviously an innovative with the pandemic and all these things that have changed the logistics on the nonprofit side. And unfortunately, a lot of this responsibility falls on nonprofits who are trying to keep their doors open and working on their mission. And so we took on the responsibility of of taking that work off of nonprofits and working on educating companies on how they can integrate philanthropy into normal business practices like employee engagement or team building or culture or heck, even the competitiveness of the sales Department.   - Joshua Driver How do we leverage a philanthropic component while a bunch of type as I go tell each other or something? And I think if there's always even a component of that philanthropic, if there's just even a small piece that goes back or gives back, I think that that's a really great thing to hard wire into a company's culture.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Zach, anything you want to add?   - Zach Rodenbarger Yeah, I think obviously what Josh said, one of my kind of tag lines, even as we reach out to teams and think about them is kind of selfless. Teams make the best teams. And when you're have employees that are thinking about each other and how to help each other and not always just focused on their task, that's obviously going to make a better team and environment and better teamwork. And so by thinking through, how do we make selfless employees that's really part of selflessly is to help those employees encourage those employees, not Joe's employees to find a volunteer opportunity or find a way to give back to support a cause they care about to have those matching donations from the company and actually use those.   - Zach Rodenbarger And so all of these nudges that we want to help create selfless employees that are thinking about others and not just themselves. And so when you think about others that leads to that teamwork, really, everyone creating a better environment. And so putting all that together with what Josh said is exciting, that this is something we get to work on each day.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah. Well, my brain can't help but go to some sociological context. You know, I think in generations before, what you are tapping into is this, like human desire to be a part of something bigger, to be giving back, and that there was a while in the US where that was filled by a Church that was asking for a time, and hopefully they were giving towards meaningful things in that way. But that has become less and less central in American communities. There's still this impulse, but not quite the same.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes You know, there were good and bad things about that prior model, but there's not that same sort of, like regular outlet. And we're also more connected in theory, to the needs of the world. But through the lens of social media, which doesn't often lead to direct action. So, like emotional sensing, selves are out there like feeling all these things. But there's not this bridging, it towards action that feels like it builds up like a physical, real community that we're regularly a part of. And that selflessly kind of helps to bridge some of those, like sociological shifts with a meaningful offering.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah.   - Joshua Driver I think without sounding like a sound bite, I feel philanthropy in the connection between a donor and a nonprofit or a company in its community or wherever this for profit and nonprofit connection is. For decades, we've given money to our Church, to the United Way, these intermediaries to trust that that's been utilized in the best way or is going towards the mission. And I think with technology improving and transparency, we've seen over time organizations that may not have made the best choices with the money that have come in and the the biggest concern is that this person had maybe a bad experience with this organization.   - Joshua Driver Are they going to find another one to support, or are they just going to stop supporting? And that's a big concern. And so now there's this big push for having more control over where people can donate and not necessarily have to be relegated to the confines of somebody's of an organization, agencies or whatever. But what that means is more transparency needs to be done on the nonprofit side. And the nonprofits don't have the resources necessarily to be able to give up regular updates about a campaign or whatever.   - Joshua Driver And so we've set up nonprofits to kind of fail from that regard. And then Conversely, I think we nonprofits. They're always fundraising. I've started my own nonprofit. We're always trying to raise more money so we can continue with our mission. And that leaves people out that may not have the liquidity or the resources to be able to participate financially, and we have to jump in. Or at least we take on some of the responsibility of how do we jump in and equate somebody skills and volunteer time to be worth just as much, if not more than them writing a check.   - Joshua Driver And so I think it's a generational shift about what philanthropy is starting to look like when we launch selflessly as we continue to grow selflessly. There's always people from the charitable sector that have their own perspective. You need to trust. This organization has been around for a century that they're just going to be doing the right thing. But we tend to grow because people want to break out of what the mold of philanthropy has been and want to have more control and be able to make more direct impact by us connecting those two sides and really always innovating on how to keep those two sides connected.   - Joshua Driver That means more resources go to the charitable sector. It just looks a little different. It's not an entry on a bank account. It might look like a donated product or a brainstorming session or some skilled services, but it can be helpful to breaking up some of the foundational infrastructure is a good thing, and I think we're along over you to really start shaking the tree and and changing what is no longer working. And that's a hard thing for people that have been in this space for a long time to necessarily want to accept.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah, something that I heard both of you say as a mark of differentiation that you have cultivated and enjoy is a sense of whimsy, and maybe not taking ourselves too seriously. Tell me how that shows up in selflessly.   - Joshua Driver Well, my office looks like a kid play room. I just have random stuff all over the place, and then we have a Bulldog in the office. But I think the way that we talk to people, the way that we put ourselves out there, we didn't win the virtual background thing when you made those for your background as your company logo and all the strategic stuff. We didn't do that. I put on a background of me standing at the podium on Jeopardy or just keeping it. I'm sure people for first impression at times like, who the hell is this guy?   - Joshua Driver But I think that if we were always trying to display, everything is running great. We don't have any problems. We're constantly growing and just a few months away from being the Jeff Bezos to this is really nobody believes that. First of all, instead of constantly say everything is working. There isn't one company that everything's running smoothly, but I think we personality, my personality. We would probably suppress a lot of who we are individually if we always had to worry about being a highlight reel and being being always on and calculated and putting on this this front.   - Joshua Driver And I think having more real conversations, joking around, making mistakes, owning them and moving on or being open about what we've messed up for, mistakes we've made, I think, is so much more valuable in creating a deeper connection with our staff, which our network, our investors and being open and also accepting of the feedback too.   Joshua Driver We don't want to be a vendor or a tech provider. We want to be a partner. And I think that us being vulnerable and embracing that were not perfect, I think, is important to set that expectation for whom we're interacting with.   - Zach Rodenbarger Absolutely. You want to be able to have fun with your team. You want your team to be able to have fun with customers and on those conversations. And you want people to look forward to having time together, whether it's on a Zoom call or in person, especially for your internal team. But then that customers start to feel that as well and enjoy the conversations with you. And maybe in the software, you start to see certain aspects and certain animations come across the screen or something like that.   - Zach Rodenbarger You're starting to see a little bit of other software as well, but we want to be have that enjoyment, especially if we're looking at company culture and encouraging people to get out and have some enjoyment and purpose and things like that. We want to come through in our mission and our software and allow really customers internal external everyone to start to see that, feel that and really enjoy the software and enjoy working with selflessly and working for selflessly.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes If listeners are intrigued about the platform, the mission, you guys in your story, where can they go to find out more about selflessly and how it can be used to build and increase the sense of connection at work?   - Joshua Driver Yeah.   - Joshua Driver Our website is Selflessly. I and our social media Tags or give selflessly on the Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and our email address the general email for Zach, it is Hello at Selflessly IO.   - Joshua Driver And.   - Joshua Driver We get all kinds of requests companies that want to become B Corps or our favorite messages or hey, I want to. We're a small company and we don't think that we can really make an impact. Can you show us how to do it like those are the things we really enjoy spending time with. Also, I think hearing from people that may want to start their own company or want to brainstorm. Sometimes we make time to have a coffee with a potential entrepreneur or give some feedback, help others where we can.   - Joshua Driver We'd love to hear from anybody who wants to reach out.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   Here are three key takeaways to build connection and care in the workplace…   Fun matters.From Nerf guns to dilly bar deliveries, introducing a little bit of levity, especially in tense and freighted situations, can be a game changer.  Where can you build some fun and some laughter into your office life? There is power in taking a break and thinking the best of the other person.You heard these two threads throughout the interview:  in offering a break or a walk to the other person, hoping and trusting that their moment of overwhelm is not their truest or best self.  This attention to the emotional temperature of a given situation is so important.  And I use it often in both my personal and professional interactions.  One way that people can move through their own disruption and overwhelm is by giving back to others.The act of moving beyond the constraints of your own situation, doing something positive for someone else, has all sorts of positive effects on the health of individuals and organizations.  If what you have heard today piques your interest, I encourage you to look up the good work that is going on at Sefless.ly.  More information about Zach, Josh, and the company can be found in the show notes.    OUTRO   To find out more about the work of Selfless.ly, visit https://selflessly.io

Chris Holifield is the host of the I Am Salt Lake podcast & is a real estate agent for Keller Williams. He has published over 513 episodes and has been in the podcasting world for nine years. His decision to start a podcast impacted who he married, convinced/convinces people to move to Salt Lake City and helped him decide to go into real estate. https://iamsaltlake.com/ @iamsaltlake @utahrealtorchris FB: I Am Salt Lake  chris@iamsaltlake.com  Mentions:  Lucky 13, Lone Star Taqueria, Red Iguana, Handle's   Sammy's Pie & Shakes Thanksgiving Heroes  The One Thing, Gary Keller

About LaurenLauren Hasson is the Founder of DevelopHer, an award-winning career development platform that has empowered thousands of women in tech to get ahead, stand out, and earn more in their careers. She also works full-time on the frontlines of tech herself. By day, she is an accomplished software engineer at a leading Silicon Valley payments company where she is the architect of their voice payment system and messaging capabilities and is chiefly responsible for all of application security.Through DevelopHer, she's partnered with top tech companies like Google, Dell, Intuit, Armor, and more and has worked with top universities including Indiana and Tufts to bridge the gender gap in leadership, opportunity, and pay in tech for good. Additionally, she was invited to the United Nations to collaborate on the global EQUALS initiative to bridge the global gender divide in technology. Sought after across the globe for her insight and passionate voice, Lauren has started a movement that inspires women around the world to seek an understanding of their true value and to learn and continually grow.  Her work has been featured by industry-leading publications like IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine and Thrive Global and her ground-breaking platform has been recognized with fourteen prestigious awards for entrepreneurship, product innovation, diversity and leadership including the Women in IT Awards Silicon Valley Diversity Initiative of the Year Award, three Female Executive of the Year Awards, and recognition as a Finalist for the United Nations WSIS Stakeholder Prize.Links: DevelopHer: https://developher.com The DevelopHer Playbook: https://www.amazon.com/DevelopHer-Playbook-Simple-Advocate-Yourself-ebook/dp/B08SQM4P5J TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: You could build you go ahead and build your own coding and mapping notification system, but it takes time, and it sucks! Alternately, consider Courier, who is sponsoring this episode. They make it easy. You can call a single send API for all of your notifications and channels. You can control the complexity around routing, retries, and deliverability and simplify your notification sequences with automation rules. Visit courier.com today and get started for free. If you wind up talking to them, tell them I sent you and watch them wince—because everyone does when you bring up my name. Thats the glorious part of being me. Once again, you could build your own notification system but why on god's flat earth would you do that?Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by Honeycomb. When production is running slow, it's hard to know where problems originate: is it your application code, users, or the underlying systems? I've got five bucks on DNS, personally. Why scroll through endless dashboards, while dealing with alert floods, going from tool to tool to tool that you employ, guessing at which puzzle pieces matter? Context switching and tool sprawl are slowly killing both your team and your business. You should care more about one of those than the other, which one is up to you. Drop the separate pillars and enter a world of getting one unified understanding of the one thing driving your business: production. With Honeycomb, you guess less and know more. Try it for free at Honeycomb.io/screaminginthecloud. Observability, it's more than just hipster monitoring. Corey: You could build you go ahead and build your own coding and mapping notification system, but it takes time, and it sucks! Alternately, consider Courier, who is sponsoring this episode. They make it easy. You can call a single send API for all of your notifications and channels. You can control the complexity around routing, retries, and deliverability and simplify your notification sequences with automation rules. Visit courier.com today and get started for free. If you wind up talking to them, tell them I sent you and watch them wince—because everyone does when you bring up my name. Thats the glorious part of being me. Once again, you could build your own notification system but why on god's flat earth would you do that?Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at Jellyfish. So, you're sitting in front of your office chair, bleary eyed, parked in front of a powerpoint and—oh my sweet feathery Jesus its the night before the board meeting, because of course it is! As you slot that crappy screenshot of traffic light colored excel tables into your deck, or sift through endless spreadsheets looking for just the right data set, have you ever wondered, why is it that sales and marketing get all this shiny, awesome analytics and inside tools? Whereas, engineering basically gets left with the dregs. Well, the founders of Jellyfish certainly did. That's why they created the Jellyfish Engineering Management Platform, but don't you dare call it JEMP! Designed to make it simple to analyze your engineering organization, Jellyfish ingests signals from your tech stack. Including JIRA, Git, and collaborative tools. Yes, depressing to think of those things as your tech stack but this is 2021. They use that to create a model that accurately reflects just how the breakdown of engineering work aligns with your wider business objectives. In other words, it translates from code into spreadsheet. When you have to explain what you're doing from an engineering perspective to people whose primary IDE is Microsoft Powerpoint, consider Jellyfish. Thats Jellyfish.co and tell them Corey sent you! Watch for the wince, thats my favorite part.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. A somewhat recurring theme of this show has been the business of cloud, and that touches on a lot of different things. One thing I've generally cognizant of not doing is talking to folks who don't look like me and asking them questions like, “Oh, that's great, but let's ignore everything that you're doing, and instead talk about what it's like not to be a cis-gendered white dude in tech,” because that's crappy. Today, we're sort of deviating from that because my guest is Lauren Hasson, the founder of DevelopHer, which is a career development platform that empowers women in tech to get ahead. Lauren, thanks for joining me.Lauren: Thanks so much for having me, Corey.Corey: So, you're the founder of DevelopHer, and that is ‘develop-her' as in ‘she'. I'm not going to be as distinct on that pronunciation, so if you think I'm saying ‘developer' and it doesn't make intellectual sense, listener, that's what's going on. But you're also a speaker, you're an author, and you work on the front lines of tech yourself. That's a lot of stuff. What's your story?Lauren: Yeah, I do. So, I'm not only the founder-developer, but I'm just like many of your listeners: I work on the front lines of tech myself. I work remotely from my home in Dallas for a Silicon Valley payments company, where I'm the architect of our voice payment system, and I up until recently was chiefly responsible for all of application security. Yeah, and I do keep busy.Corey: It certainly seems like it. Let's go back to, I guess, the headline item here. You are the founder of DevelopHer, and one thing that always drives me a little nutty is when people take a glance at what I do and then try and tell the story, and then effectively mess the whole thing up. What is DevelopHer?Lauren: So, DevelopHer is what I wish I had ten years ago—or actually nine years ago. It's an empowerment platform that helps individual women—men, too—get ahead in their careers, earn more, and stand out. And part of my story, you know, I have the degrees from undergrad in electrical engineering and computer science, but I went a completely different direction after graduating. And at the end of the Great Recession, I found myself with no job with no technical skills, and I mean, no job prospects, at all. It was really, really bad, ugly crying on my couch bad, Corey.And I took a number of steps to get ahead and really relearn my tech skills, and I only got one offer to give myself a chance. It was a 90-days to prove myself, to get ahead, and teach myself iOS. And I remember it was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. And within two years, I not only managed to survive that 90-day period and keep that job, but I had completely managed to thrive. My work had been featured in Apple's iOS7 keynote, I'd won the company-wide award at a national agency four times, I had won the SXSW international Hackathon, twice in a row.And then probably the pinnacle of it all is I was one of 100 tech innovators worldwide invited to attend the [UKG 00:03:41] Innovation Conference. And they flew me there on a private 747 jet, and it was just unreal. And so I founded DevelopHer because I needed this ten years ago, when I was at rock bottom, to figure out how to get ahead: how do I get into my career; how do I stand out? And of course, you know there's more to the story, but I also found out I was underpaid after achieving all of that, that a male peer was paid exactly what I was paid, with no credentials, despite all of the awards that I won. And I went out and learned to negotiate, and tripled my salary in two years, and turned around and said, “I'm going to teach other women—and men, too—how to get real change in their own life.”Corey: I love hearing stories where people discover that they're underpaid. I mean, it's a bittersweet moment because on the one hand it's, “Wait, you mean they've been taking advantage of me?” And you feel bad for people, but at the same time, you're sort of watching the blindfold fall away from their eyes of, “Yeah, but it's been this way, and now you know about it. And now you're in a position to potentially do something about it.” I gave a talk at a tech conference a few years back called “Weasel your Way to the Top: How to Handle a Job Interview” and it was a fun talk.I really enjoyed it, but what I discovered was after I'd given it I got some very direct feedback of, “That's a great talk and you give a lot of really useful advice. What if I don't look like you?” And I realized, “Oh, my God, I built this out of things that worked for me and I unconsciously built all of my own biases and all of my own privilege into that talk.” At which point I immediately stopped giving it until I could relaunch it as a separate talk with a friend of mine, Sonia Gupta, who does not look like me. And between the two of us, it became a much stronger, much better talk.Lauren: It's good that you understand what you were bringing to the table and how you can appeal to an even larger audience. And what I've done is really said, “Here's my experience as a woman in tech, and here's what's worked for me.” And what's been surprising is men have said, “Yeah, that's what I did.” Except for I put a woman in tech spin on it and… I mean, I knew it worked for me; I have more than quintupled my base salary—just my base salary alone—in nine years. And the results that women are getting from my programming—I had one woman who earned $80,000 more in a single negotiation, which tells me, one, she was really underpaid, but she didn't just get one offer at $80,000 more; she got at least two. I mean, that changed her life.And I think the lowest I've heard is, like, $30,000 difference change. I mean, this is, this is life-changing for a lot of women. And the scary thing is that it's not just, say it's $50,000 a year. Well, over ten years, that's half a million dollars. Over 20 years, that's a million, and that's not even interest and inflation and compounding going into that. So, that's a huge difference.Corey: It absolutely is. It's one of those things that continues to set people further and further back. One thing that I think California got very right is they've outlawed recently asking what someone's previous compensation was because, “Oh, we don't want to give someone too big of a raise,” is a way you perpetuate the systemic inequality. And that's something that I wish more employers would do.Lauren: It's huge. I know the women and proponents who had moved that forward; some of them are personal friends of mine, and it's huge. And that's actually something that I trained specifically for is how to handle difficult questions like, “How much are you currently making?” Which you can't legally get asked in California, although it still happens, so how do you handle it if you still get asked and you don't want to rule yourself out? Or even worse—which they still can ask—which is, “How much do you want to make?”And a lot of times, people get asked that before they know anything about the job. And they basically, if you give an answer upfront, you're negotiating against yourself. And so I tackle tough things like that head-on. And I'm very much an engineer at heart, so for me, it's very methodical; I prepare scripts in advance to handle the pushback that I'm going to get, to handle the difficult questions. Without a doubt, I know all of my numbers, and that's where I'm getting real results for women is by taking the methodical approach to it.Corey: So, I spent my 20s in crippling credit card debt, and I was extremely mercenary, as a result. This wasn't because of some grand lost vision or something. Nope. I had terrible financial habits. So, every decision I made in that period of my life was extraordinarily mercenary. I would leave jobs I enjoyed for a job I couldn't stand because it paid $10,000 more.And the thing that I picked up from all of this, especially now having been on the other side of that running a company myself, is I'm not suggesting at any point that people should make career decisions based upon where they can make the most money, but that should factor in. One thing we do here at The Duckbill Group, in every job posting we put up is we post the salary range for the position. And I want to be clear here, it is less than anyone here could make at one of the big tech unicorns or a very hot startup that's growing meteorically, and we're upfront about that. We know that if money is the thing you're after and that is the driving force behind what you're going for, great; I don't fault you for that.This might not be the best role for you and that's perfectly okay. I get it. But you absolutely should know what your market worth is so you can make that decision from a place of being informed, rather than being naive and later discovering that you were taken advantage of.Lauren: So, I want to unpack just a couple things. There's just so many gold nuggets in that. Number one, for any employer listening out there, that is such a great best practice, to post the range. You're going to attract the right candidates when you post the right range. The last thing you want is to get to the end of the process to find out that, hey, you guys were totally off, and all the time invested could have been avoided if you'd had some sort of expectation set, upfront.That said, that's actually where I start with my negotiation training. A lot of people think I start with the money and that it's all about the money. That's not where I start. The very first thing I train women, and the men who've taken it, too, on the course is, figure out what success looks like to you. And not just the number success, but what does your life look like? What does your lifestyle look like? What does it feel like? What kinds of things do you do? What kinds of things do you value?Money is one of those components, but it's not all. And here's the reason I did that: because at a certain point in my life, I only got out at—broke even out of debt, you know, within the last five years. That's how underpaid I was at the time. But then once I started climbing out of debt, I started realizing it's not all about money. And that's actually how I ended up in my dream position.I mean, I'm living out how I define success today. Could I be making a lot more money at a big tech unicorn? Yeah, I could. But I also have this incredible lifestyle; it's sustainable. I get on apps like Blind and other internet forums, and I hear just horror stories of people burning out and the toxic cultures they work with. I don't have that at all. I have something that I could easily do for the next 50 years of my life if I live that long.But it's not by accident that I'm in the role that I'm in right now. I actually took the time to figure out what success looks like to me, and so when this opportunity came along—and I was looking at it alongside other opportunities that honestly paid more, I recognized this opportunity for what it was because I'd put in the work up front to figure out what success looks like to me. And so that's why what you guys are saying, “Hey, it's a lifestyle that you guys are supporting and mission that you're joining that's so important.” And you need to know that and do that work up front.Corey: That's I think what it really comes down to is understanding that in many cases… in fact, I'm going to take that back—in all cases, there's an inherent adversarial nature to the discussions you have about compensation with your employer or your prospective employer. And I say ‘adversarial' not antagonistic because you are misaligned as far as the ultimate purpose of the conversation. I'm not going to paint myself as some saint here and say that, oh, I'm on the side of every person I'm negotiating against, trying to get them to take a salary that's less than they deserve. Because, first, although I view myself that I'm not in that position, you have to take that on faith from me, and I think that is too far of a bridge to cross. So, take even what I'm saying now from the position as someone who has a vested interest in the outcomes of that negotiation.I mean, we're not one of those unicorn startups; we can't outbid Netflix and we wouldn't even try to. We're one of those old-fashioned businesses that has taken no investment and we fund ourselves through the magic of revenue and profitability, which means we don't have a SoftBank-sized [laugh] war chest sitting in the bank that we can use to just hurl ridiculous money at people and see who pans out. Hiring has to be intentional and thoughtful because we're a very small team. And if you're looking for something that doesn't align with that, great; I certainly don't blame you. That isn't this, and that's okay, I'm not trying to hire everyone.And if it's not going to work out, why wouldn't we say that upfront to avoid trying to get to all the way at the end of a very expensive interview process—both in terms of time and investment and emotionally—only to figure out that we're worlds apart on comp, and it's never going to work.Lauren: A hundred percent agree. I mean, I've been through it on both ends, both as someone who is being hired and also as a hiring manager, and I understand it. And you need to find alignment, and that's what negotiation is all about is finding an alignment, finding something where everyone feels like they're winning in the situation. And I'm a big proponent—and this is going to go so counterculture—I think a lot of people overlook a lot of opportunities that are just golden nuggets. I think there's a lot of idol worship of the big tech companies.And don't get me wrong; I'm sure they pay really well, great opportunity for your career, but I think people are overlooking a lot of really great career opportunities to get experience, and responsibility, and have good pay and lifestyle. And I'm a big proponent and looking for those golden nuggets rather than shooting for one of the big tech unicorns.Corey: And other people are going to have a very different perspective on that, and that is absolutely okay. So, tell me a little bit more about what it is that DevelopHer does and how you go about doing it because it's one thing to say, “Oh, we help women figure out that they are being underpaid,” but there's a whole lot of questions that opens up because great. How do you do that?Lauren: I do a number of things. So, it's not all about pay either. Part of it's building your value, building your confidence, standing out, getting ahead. DevelopHer started, actually, as a podcast. Funny story; I wanted to solve the problem of, we need more technical women as visible leaders out there, and I said, “Where are the architects? Where are the CTOs? Where are the CSOs?”And I didn't think anyone would care about me. I mean, I'm not Sheryl Sandberg; I'm not [laugh] the CEO of Facebook. Who's going to listen to me? And then I was actually surprised when people cared about my own story, about coming back from being underpaid and then getting back into tech and figuring out how to stand out in such a short amount of time. And other women were saying, “Well, how did you do it?”And it wasn't just women; it was men, too, saying, “Hey, I also don't know how to effectively advocate for myself.” And then it was companies saying, “Hey, can you come in and help us build our internal bench, recruit more women to come work for us, and build our own women leaders?” And then I've started working with universities to help bridge the gap before it even starts. I partnered with major universities to license my program and train them, not only how do you negotiate for what you're worth, for your first salary, but also how do you come in and immediately make an impact and accelerate your career growth? And then, of course, I work with individual women.I've talked about I have a salary negotiation course that's won a couple awards for the work, the results that it's getting, but then I just recently wrote a book because I wanted to reach women and men at scale and help them really get ahead. And this was literally my playbook. It's called The DevelopHer Playbook. And it's, how did I break into tech? And then once I was in tech, how did I get ahead so quickly? And it's not rocket science. And that's what I'm working on is training other people do it. And look, I'm still learning; I'm still paving my own path forward in tech, myself.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at Jellyfish. So, you're sitting in front of your office chair, bleary eyed, parked in front of a powerpoint and—oh my sweet feathery Jesus its the night before the board meeting, because of course it is! As you slot that crappy screenshot of traffic light colored excel tables into your deck, or sift through endless spreadsheets looking for just the right data set, have you ever wondered, why is it that sales and marketing get all this shiny, awesome analytics and inside tools? Whereas, engineering basically gets left with the dregs. Well, the founders of Jellyfish certainly did. That's why they created the Jellyfish Engineering Management Platform, but don't you dare call it JEMP! Designed to make it simple to analyze your engineering organization, Jellyfish ingests signals from your tech stack. Including JIRA, Git, and collaborative tools. Yes, depressing to think of those things as your tech stack but this is 2021. They use that to create a model that accurately reflects just how the breakdown of engineering work aligns with your wider business objectives. In other words, it translates from code into spreadsheet. When you have to explain what you're doing from an engineering perspective to people whose primary IDE is Microsoft Powerpoint, consider Jellyfish. Thats Jellyfish.co and tell them Corey sent you! Watch for the wince, thats my favorite part.Corey: I feel like no one really has a great plan for, “Oh, where are you going next in tech? Do you have this whole thing charted out?” “Of course not. I'm doing this fly by night, seat of my pants, if I'm being perfectly honest with you.” And it's hard to know where to go next.What's interesting to me is that you talk about helping people individually—generally women—through your program, but you also work directly with companies. And when you're talking about things like salary negotiation, I think a natural question that flows from that is, are there aspects of what you wind up talking to individuals about versus what you do when talking to companies that are in opposition to each other?Lauren: Yeah, so that's a great question. So, the answer is there are some progressive companies that have brought me in to do salary negotiation training. Complete candor, most companies aren't interested. It's my Zero-To-Hero DevelopHer Playbook program which is, how do you get ahead? How do you build your value, become an asset at the company?So, it's less focused on pay, but more how do you become more valuable, and get ahead and add more value to the company? And that's where I work with the individuals and the companies on that front.Corey: It does seem like it would be a difficult sell, in most enterprise scenarios, to get a company to pay someone to come in to teach their staff how to more effectively [laugh] negotiate their next raise. I love the vision.Lauren: It has happened. I also thought it was crazy, but it has happened. But no, most of my corporate clients say, “We not only want to encourage more women into tech, but we already have a lot of women who are already in our ranks, and we want to encourage them to really feel like they're empowered and to stand out and reach the next levels.” And that's my sweet spot for corporate.Corey: Somewhat recently, I was asked on a Twitter Spaces—which is like Clubhouse but somehow different and strange—did I think that the privilege that I brought to what I do had enabled me to do these things, being white, being a man, being cis-gendered—speaking English as my primary language was an interesting one that I hadn't heard contextualized like that before—and whether that had advantaged me as I went through these things? And I think it's impossible to say anything other than absolutely because it's easy to, on some level, take a step back and think, “Well, I've built this company, and this media platform, and the rest. And that wasn't given to me; I had to build it.” And that's absolutely true. I did have to build it, and it wasn't given to me.But as I was building it, the winds were at my back not against me. I was not surrounded by people who are telling me I couldn't do it. Every misstep I made wasn't questioned as, well, you sure you should be doing this thing that you're not really doing? It was very much a fail-forward. And if you think that applies to everyone, then you are grievously mistaken.Lauren: I think that's a healthy perspective, which is why I consider you one of developers in my strongest allies, the fact that you're willing to look at yourself and go, “What advantages did I have? And how might I need to adapt my messaging or my advice so that it's applicable to even more people?” But it's also something I've experienced myself. I mean, I set out to help women in tech because I'm in women in tech myself. And I was surprised by a couple of things.Number one, I was surprised that men were [laugh] asking me for advice as well. And individuals and medicine, and finance, and law, in business not even related to tech, but what I'm really proud of that I didn't set out to build because I didn't feel qualified, but I'm really glad that I've been able to serve is that there were three populations that I've been really able to serve, especially at the university level. Number one, international students who, you mentioned yourself, English might not be their first language, but they're not familiar with the US hiring and advancement and pay process, and I help normalize that. And that's something that I myself in the benefit of, having been born here in the US. People who, where English isn't their first language; you think it's hard enough to answer, “Why do you think you should be promoted?”Or, “How much do you think you should make for this role? What do you want?” In your first language? Try answering it in your third, right? And then when I'm really proud of is, especially at the university level, I've been really able to help students where they're first-generation college students, where they don't have a professional mentor within their immediate family.And providing them a roadmap—or actually, the playbook to how to get ahead and then how to advocate for yourself. And these were things that I didn't feel qualified to help, but these are the individuals who've ended up coming and utilizing my program, and finding a lot of benefit from that. And it made me realize that I'm doing something bigger than I even set out to do, and that is very meaningful to me.Corey: You mentioned that you give guidance on salary negotiation and career advancement to not just women, but also men, and not just people who are in tech, but people who are in other business areas as well. How does what you're advising people to do shift—if at all—from folks who are women working in tech?Lauren: So, that's the key is it really doesn't shift. What I'm teaching are fundamentals and, spoiler alert, I teach grounding yourself in data, and knowing your data, and taking the emotion out of the process, whether you're trying to get ahead, to stand out, to earn more. And I teach fundamentals, which is five-point process.Number one, you got to figure out what success looks like to you. I talked a little bit about that earlier, but it's foundational. I mean, I start with that because that alone changed my life. I would still be pursuing success today and not have reached it, but I'm living out how I defined success because I started there.Then you got to really know your worth. Absolutely without a doubt, know how much you're worth. And for me, this was transformational. I mean, eye-opening. Like you said earlier, the blindfold coming off. When I saw for a fact how much employers paid other people with my skill sets, it was a game-changer for me. And so I—without a shadow of a doubt, I use four different strategies, multiple resources in each strategy to know comprehensively how much I'm worth.And then I teach knowing your numbers. It's not an emotional thing; it's very much scientific, so I talked about knowing your key numbers, your target, your ask, and your walk away, and those are all very dependent on your employment and financial situation, so it's different from person to person. And then I talk about—and this is a little different than what other people teach—is I talk about finding leverage, what you uniquely bring to the table, or identifying companies where you uniquely add value, where you can either lock in an offer or negotiate a premium.And then I prepare. I prepare. Just like you prepare for an interview, I prepare for a negotiation, and if I'm asking for the right amount of money, I am going to be prepared for pushback and I want to be able to handle that, and I don't want to just know it on the fly; I want to have scripts and questions prepared to handle that pushback. I want to be prepared to answer some of the most difficult questions that you're going—get asked, like we talked about earlier.And then the final step is I practice over and over and over again, just like a sporting event. I am ready to go into action and get a great thing. So, those are the fundamentals. I've marketed to women in tech because I'm a woman in tech and we don't have enough women in tech, and women are 82 cents on the dollar in tech, but what I found is that doctors were using the same methodology. I wasn't marketing it to them. Lawyers, business people, finance people were using it because I was teaching such fundamentals.Corey: Taking it one step further, if someone is listening to this and starting to get a glimmering of the sense that they're not where they could be career-wise, either in terms of compensation, advancement, et cetera, what advice would you have for them as far as things to focus on first? Not to effectively extract the entire content of your course into podcast form, but where do they start?Lauren: Yeah. So, you start by investing in yourself and investing in the change that you want. And that first investment might be figuring out how much you're worth, you know, doing that research to figure out how much you're worth. And then going out and learning the skills. And look, I have a course, I have a book that you can use to get ahead; if I'm not the right fit, there are a ton of resources out there. The trick is to find the best fit for you.And my only regret as I look back over the last 10, 15 years of my career is that I didn't invest in myself sooner and that I didn't go out and figure out how much I was worth, and that I—when they said, “Well, you're just not there yet,” when I asked for more money, that I believed them. And that was on me that I didn't go out and go, “I wonder how much I'm worth?” And do the research. And then, I regret not hiring a career coach earlier. I wish I'd gotten back into tech sooner.And I wish that I had learned to negotiate and advocate for myself sooner. But my knack, Corey—and I believe things happen to me for a reason—is my special skills is I take things that were meant not necessarily intentionally to harm me, but things that hurt me, I learned from them, I turn it around in the best way possible, and then I teach and I create programs to help uplift other people. And that's my special skill set; that's sort of my mission and purpose in life, and now I'm just trying to really exploit it and make this into a big movement that impacts millions of lives.Corey: So, what's next for you? You've built this platform, you've put yourself out there, you've clearly made a dent in the direction that you're heading in. What's next?Lauren: [laugh]. I am looking to scale. I'm just like any company; I've really focused on delivering value proof of concept. What a lot of people don't realize is not only did I build DevelopHer in quote, “my spare time,” but I did this without any outside investors. I funded it at all myself, built it on my own sweat equity—Corey: [laugh]. That one resonates.Lauren: Yeah. [laugh]. I know you know what that feels like. And so for me, I'm focused on scale: bringing in more corporate partners; bringing in more university clients, to scale and bridge the gap before it even starts; and scaling and reaching more women and men and anyone who wants to figure out how to get ahead, stand out, and earn more. And so the next year, two years are really focused on scale.Corey: If people want to learn more about what you do, how you do it, or potentially look at improving their own situations, where can they find you?Lauren: I am online. Go to developher.com. I have resources for individuals; I have a book, which is a great, cost-effective way to learn a lot.I have an award-winning negotiation course that helps you go out and earn what you're truly worth, and I have a membership to connect with me and other like-minded individuals. If you're a company leader, I work with companies all the time to train their women—and men, too—to get ahead and build their value. And then also, I work with universities as well to help bridge the gender wage gap before it starts, and builds future leaders.Corey: And we will, of course, include links to that in the [show notes 00:27:55]. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really appreciate it.Lauren: Corey, thank you so much for having me, and I really mean it. You know, Corey is a strong ally. We connected, and I am glad to count you as not only my own ally but an ally of DevelopHer.Corey: Well, thank you. That's incredibly touching to hear. I appreciate it.Lauren: I mean it.Corey: Thank you. Sometimes all you can say to a sincere compliment is, “Thank you.” Arguing it is an insult, and I'm not that bold. [laugh].Lauren: That's actually really good advice that I give women is, so many times, we cut down our own compliments. And so that's a great example right there, and it is not just women who sometimes I have a challenge with it; men, too. When someone gives you a compliment, just say, “Thank you.”Corey: Good advice for any age, in any era. Lauren Hasson, founder of DevelopHer, speaker, author, frontline engineer some days. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice and an insulting comment telling me that my company is never going to succeed if I don't attempt to outbid Netflix.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

In this listener special episode of #TheHabitCoach Podcast, Host Ashdin answers an interesting question from the listener AG - "I am following you for a couple of months. I have some personal problems. I don't know if this should be asked on this platform, but still, I know you have a solution for every problem. I have a neighbor who always tries to create problems for me. Like he always parks his car in the middle of the road. So I have to park my car elsewhere. And I don't have another road to go to in my parking area . Once I parked behind his car and to my surprise, he punctured all four tires of my car. I end up fighting, screaming with him. But he is kind of Gunda in our area. I have also tried to complain to the police. But they do not help much. They just warned him. He does that again and again. I am really fed of this guy. I really don't know what to do. Ashdin Sir I know this is not that relevant problem to ask but, It is very disgusting to fight with him each and every day. I hope you have a solution to my problem."Ashdin answers by quoting Lao Tzu and shares an exercise called 'Third Person' that helps to see any scenario with a fresh perspective in order to find the solution. Further, he suggests possible ways to deal with any behavioral problem and much more on this awesome episode. Send questions to Ashdin Doctor for The Habit Coach Hot Seat Below: ( https://forms.gle/13vgf4MAk7zYKBd38 )Check out the Awesome180 Habit Coach app: ( https://bit.ly/2XTBvfC )Website: Awesome180 ( http://awesome180.com/ ) You can follow Ashdin Doctor on social media:Twitter: ( https://twitter.com/Ashdindoc )Linkedin: ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashdin-doctor/ )Instagram: ( https://www.instagram.com/ashdindoc/ )Facebook: ( https://www.facebook.com/ashdin.doc.9 )You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

Mary tells us about what she did to her man's prized truck when he pushed her too far. Also, stories about being catfished, counterfeiting, starring in adult films and what happens when you poke one too many holes in your mom's diaphragm.  ACORN TV Get your first 30 days free by going to acorn.tv with promo code secret in all lowercase letters only. BROOKLINEN Get $20 off a $100 purchase at brooklinen.com, promo code SECRET. FEALS (UPDATED OFFER!) Become a member at Feals.com/SECRET and you'll get 40% off your first three months with free shipping. MANLY BANDS Get 21% off your Manly Band for a limited time, and get a free silicone ring at manlybands.com/SECRET. PICTURES See Mary at the bonfire party, the actual bonfire, and a stock photo of her ex's fancy truck. They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED In an original secret, Abby tells Susie about how she watched her co worker die in front of her...and why she can't tell anyone.  The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have an adamantine secret to share?  Oh really!? We can pry it out of you!  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com and let's see what happens! PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

This week on the show, we're taking a deep dive into a stack of books inside Egon's farmhouse, talking about Empire Magazine, bobbleheads, talking about upside down proton packs and a whole lot more! First up some Cleanin' Up the Town news including the domestic release hitting this week and Randy Edelman scoring the sequel “Too Hot to Handle.” Then we're talking about the latest Ghostbusters Afterlife news including new film score heard in a Muncher cookie video, Empire Magazine comments upcoming, Baskin Robbins tie-ins, and a huge deep dive into the a pile of books that the Southern Oklahoma Ghostbusters spent a great deal of time identifying and compiling - and Chris has a few thoughts as to what the reading material on the side table has to say about how Egon's been spending his time. Don't worry, a firm spoiler alert will be given before we get too far into it!

The classic retro franchise Bionic Commando has been given the gritty reboot treatment! The gang GRAPPLES with the new super power of a bionic arm, tries to get a HANDLE on the web-slinging, and tries to GRASP the subtle plot twist. Were the critics wrong? or were they all RIGHT. He's got a bionic left arm, if that's not clear, but he's also got a bad attitude. We discuss how to ruin a super-hero 'what-if's, Burger King, and better 2009 games w/ Frank, Tom, Victor and Chris. 

– Adam Weber One of the I think keys to genuine empathy is through consistent one on one and how you display empathy, like, structurally inside of an organization. So, for example, a one on one is that place where as a manager, you can create safety with your team and with your direct reports and create a vulnerable relationship where you really do know what's going on inside of their world in their life   INTRO Sometimes, when you hear from leaders, you are inundated with their success stories:  their key tips to making your life or company just as successful as theirs has been.  And the whole thing can kind of seem a little unattainable and aspirational.   Which is one of the things that I love about today's interview with Adam Weber, the Senior Vice President for 15Five.  Adam is one of those highfliers whose work is marked by successes, whether that is leading HR professionals in HR Superstars or successfully growing and then selling Emplify as a co-founder.    But my conversation with Adam isn't just a series of success stories.  He is going to tell you about moments where he was NOT his best self, where as a young founder under tons of stress, he created distance instead of connection…and what he learned from it.  Along with a lot of other great content.   Adam is a structure guy, so be ready for some really actionable suggestions.  Adam is also the author of “Lead Like a Human”. Great title!  He has a wife, two sons, and a dog named Poppy and he loves spending time in nature, camping, and bird-watching.  I hope you enjoy today's conversation as much as I did.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Adam, I'm so glad to have you as a guest today. Welcome.   - Adam Weber It's good to be here. Liesel. Thank you so much.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yes. So a question that I oftentimes get in my work is defining what empathy looks like in the workplace. And I know that you're someone who has worked a lot professionally and written and thought about connection in the workplace. How would you define empathy at work? What does it look like?   - Adam Weber I think it work. Empathy at work, I think, is seeing your employees as whole people as their whole sales and just in recognizing that they have things that are moving in their life that are outside of work, they have aspects of things that work that are impacting them that maybe you're unaware of. And so just taking that holistic perspective of each person and the unique experience that they're having and translating that and how you relate to them.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Thank you for that. I have found as I work with different companies as I meet with individuals that oftentimes when people like get it, when they feel really resonant with the importance of empathy and connection in the workplace, it comes out of a place of personal experience. They've had some touch points with either needing empathy and care or being in the position of giving it in a way that was really impactful. I'd love for you to share a story of when you've either really needed care in the workplace or when it's been really important for you to give it.   - Adam Weber Yeah. I think I have two stories that come to mind. The first is maybe how early in my career I was able to practice empathy in a way that helped me see the value in it. I started in my career when I was 22 to 25. I was the pastor of a Church, and it's a story for a different day, but basically became the head pastor when I was 25, never given a sermon in my life. Wow. And was trying to support and was really the only staff person for two to 300 people and was trying to support them when in reality, like, I was just still really young myself.   - Adam Weber And I think through that experience, a lot of people opened up to me about their lives. And you got to be a part of some of those high moments, like weddings, but also you're very much in the midst of really, really difficult situations. And so during that season, I think I learned a lot about just the value of sitting with people through hard things. It was during that time that one of my very best friends had ALS and he passed away and over an 18 month period.   - Adam Weber But, you know, every Tuesday and Thursday, we sat together that entire time and have lunch together. And I think just being with him and watching him go through that experience was something that really built empathy with me. So that's may be on just like, the personal side of, like, really early. I got a little bit thrown into the fire of empathy and being just being with others.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah. And I know that you have a second story, but I love it. Could I just interrupt you for a second? Because I'm struck with the dynamics of that story, something that I find myself facilitating a lot around is compassion, fatigue and talking. Or even Adam Grant use the term languishing recently. That sense of like, I don't know if I can give to anybody else because I feel so drained myself. You're young. You are responsible for the sole care of all of these people. I'm sure you have things going on in your own life.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes You have this personal friend, so you're watching an emotional journey of watching him die. How were you finding equilibrium and places to be filled up for yourself so you could keep giving to others in a way that mattered?   - Adam Weber That is a great question. I think what's interesting about being 25 is at that time. I don't think I did it with a lot of intention. I think when I reflect back on that time, there was a lot of kind of giving on empty without making sure that I was in a place of health myself. And one of the things maybe later in my career, I have realized the value for myself is making sure that I'm giving. One of the things I've noticed for me is that I need solitude.   - Adam Weber I'm a person who naturally is drawn to other people and wants to be a part of their lives. And if I don't give myself space to restore and space to make sure I'm my whole complete self, I end up kind of crossing, twisting the wires of giving in a way that is healthy for myself. I wonder sometimes when I look back on that season, there's a natural part to that where I was just kind of being myself an inflow and giving in a way that's comfortable.   - Adam Weber And I think there's probably another part of it that was just a little needy that really was really empty and didn't have great pathways to and to kind of restore myself, too. Which is probably why at the end of that year transitioned away from it. You know, I don't think I was acting in a way the problem is sustainable in my own life. Actually.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Thank you for that vulnerability. And even as I look back in to what my body and my person seemingly had the capacity to just absorb and keep churning. In my twenties, I'm like, oh, my gosh, that was a lot that probably wasn't healthy, but there's a certain hubris to that stage of life where you think I can just keep going.   - Adam Weber Yeah, there's an infinite amount of energy and there's an altruism that's really beautiful, I think with, like, a willingness to, like, I can change the world, you know? And there is some truth to that. I think there's also some wisdom that maybe came a little later for me, too.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I interrupted your flow, though. You were telling the first personal story. I'd love to hear that second story that you had in your back pocket as well.   - Adam Weber Well, the second one, really, like, set in motion. I had a windy career for the first ten years, kind of going from pastor to academic advisor, entry level job, entry level job, entry level sales job. And then I kind of stumbled into doing a start up about a decade ago and starting it with my business partner, Santiago, who was a week out of College at the time. So I'm ten years into my career. I've got two kids and we start this start up. I have no experience at all.   - Adam Weber And immediately just the company just started to grow. And I went from kind of being a one person employee to having a team. And in the very beginning of that process, I felt so overwhelmed and I felt so stressed that I started to follow some of the negative patterns that I saw and managers that led me prior. And remember, there's a couple of specific moments, but where I just was not being myself and I was creating barriers between my employees, the people I was interviewing, I just wasn't leading in a way that was sustainable for me.   - Adam Weber I was trying to act in a way that I thought managers and leaders were supposed to act. And I think during that time, I just hit a bit of a breaking point, like, because of how hard startups are in general, I was like, I'm not going to be able to sustain this if I try to do it. Like, I think everybody else is supposed to lead.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes And what was that looking like? I just love for you to flesh that out a little bit more. You were like, this is the way it should be done.   - Adam Weber And it looks like what I think it looked a little bit like the authoritarian, the kind of Industrial Revolution leader. The leading is a disconnected self where, like, I was one way at home. But then I'd show up to work. And just like, I wasn't that there would be, like, curtains or anger or there would be kind of, like, spouting off orders as opposed to, like, truly listening and collaborating like things like that. Or it would just be like, when you're interviewing someone instead of, like, coming up with your own way that you interview people that I was following, a guide, that when I would do it.   - Adam Weber I was like, this just doesn't feel like me.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah. You're moving into uncharted territories. And I find that in my life and in those I work with, it's easy to work off of a template instead of doing some of the work that it sounds like you are beginning to engage in. Like, is this representative of me and my best energy?   - Adam Weber That's exactly right. I think the template phrase is a good summary of what that season felt like for me.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes So what was the inflection point for you? I imagine you are not still operating out of that place of discontent.   - Adam Weber You know, the inflection point. I was actually in the middle of an interview with someone who I still work with to this day. She's someone who I feel like I've had a really great relationship with and invested a lot into her life. But in the middle of her interview process, I was following a template, and I looked at her resume, and she took a gap year, which is super cool, by the way. Took a year to Europe right after College, and I followed this guide where you're supposed to do high pressure interviews and super awkward pause about her gap interview.   - Adam Weber And it was really uncomfortable in the moment. I was like, Gosh, I just was like, I can't do this for this is not me. But then simultaneously, I actually damaged our relationship, even though we had never met at the time. And it took us a year, truly a year to get to the spot where she really trusted me and where she felt like she actually knew who I was because this initial impression was not actually the person that I was. And so I think that interview was really that moment was really a turning point for me.   - Adam Weber That kind of set my entire trajectory and career around focusing on leaders, focusing on what good leadership looks like that I really think that moment and, you know, just full to take that story full circle. By the way, when we sold our business in April and she sent me a text, the same person sent me a text and said, There is not a person other than my mother who's impacted my life more than you and which I saved. And that was a hall of Fame. Probably one of the most powerful messages I've ever received, especially in the workplace.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah.   - Adam Weber I think the reason it was so meaningful to is because of how much that moment was transformative in my leadership.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Right. Well, and I'm struck there's a certain level of intuition and engagement that is necessary to know that there has been damage done to a relationship, to be able to look back and be like, it took us a year. How are you seeing that disconnect expressed? And I'd love to delve into it specifically, because especially as leaders, there are, we don't know, necessarily when the impactful moment will be, which is really like an encouragement to be showing up as our healthiest best cells less. We do damage.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes But over the course of that year, were you realizing in real time, like, oh, there's kind of something in between us.   - Adam Weber Yeah. I think it's one thing. It's something sometimes you can sense, but you don't know because we don't really know each other. And this was one facet of who she was attaching a lot of significance to a situation that was not my best version of myself either.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Right.   - Adam Weber I think it was, you know, throughout the year as I started to really improve, like, one of the I think keys to genuine empathy is through consistent one on one and how you display empathy, like, structurally inside of an organization. So, for example, a one on one is that place where as a manager, you can create safety with your team and with your direct reports and create a vulnerable relationship where you really do know what's going on inside of their world in their life, like how they're doing.   - Adam Weber And just in those moments, I think that it was kind of in those one on one. As I started to improve how I built relationships with people in the workplace and how I uncovered how they were doing and how I could help that just could sense kind of consistent, like, just like walls, walls. I think that were put up that we had to work through. And then I think also that her experience was different as other people started to come there like, that doesn't feel like a person doesn't feel like Adam.   - Adam Weber That's not the Adam I know. And so I just think with time now, I mean, what's so cool about that is now we've worked together for eight and a half years. Right. So we're in a really different spot. But obviously we were then, which is really cool and pretty rare, by the way, to hire someone when they're right out of College. I got to work with them for that long. I think that's a pretty neat thing   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes To get to be able to see their growth trajectory. Well, I like something that you alluded to, which is the things that we can do structurally to build connection. And I know that that has actually been, like a big part of just the product and your professional movement in the world. So I'd love for you to tell me more about some of the best practices that you've seen. And you work with Amplify. And now with 15 five in what companies can be doing to think structurally about.   - Adam Weber There's a handful of things that come to mind because I also think sometimes topics like this can feel overwhelming, but if you get really practical, you can start to see where these different containers are inside your organization to create trusted, empathetic relationships at the manager level, I think is really like where this is the most powerful because that's where the relationships are the most personal. And so if I think about a new manager, maybe think about my own story. Often times they were a top performing individual contributor.   - Adam Weber They got promoted, they never got any training. They have super high goals. They're feeling overstressed. And then what they do innately is they start to carry and transition that stress over to their team. And they create kind of environments of chaos and confusion as opposed to clarity and team alignment. So one example of that was good.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I just want to recognize that's so accurate to the pain points that I observe again and again. Please continue. But what was well stated.   - Adam Weber This is my world, though. These observations are pretty much what I spent all my time observing and helping companies with. And so I think for that manager, like, there's two really key containers for them. I think where they can show empathy. The first is what typically happens is on that manager is just kind of follow that path I just shared as they show up on Monday. They bring all the stress that is above them straight into that meeting on Monday morning. And it's like you can feel it in the atmosphere.   - Adam Weber They bring in the stress, they bring in their own issues. They bring in whatever those things. And it really changes how it feels inside of just at that team level. And that type of environment really, like put walls up for people being like themselves. And so just a small switch, which is at the start of every week before we get to the stressors and the goals. And that all of those things before we do those things. What we first do is we just hear about what happened over the weekend just to create the rhythm and the habit to understand the phrase I use is there's always a story behind everyone's story.   - Adam Weber And it's like, how do we make sure that we are just keeping those dialogues open to hear what's going on inside of your world, inside of your life, inside of what's happening outside of work. So that's one and that's in a group setting, and then the way you transition that forward, then it's end of that one on one setting as well. I mean, just a really small change to a one on one for a manager of just never starting the one on one, really checking your own energy and checking your own priorities at the door and showing up and being willing to listen first, be curious first and invest in their lives first.   - Adam Weber And then it just unlocks so much as far as being able to understand their world, being able to support them and actually helping you achieve your own goals for your team, that sort of thing. So those are two at the manager level.   - Adam Weber I think at the company level, how you can display empathy. One that I'm passionate about is we measure amplify measure engagement for companies. And while that is a neat thing, what's powerful about measuring is when the CEO says the thing out loud, that's hard about the company that everyone else knows. They just don't know that the leadership knows when a CEO says, you know what? Everyone thank you so much for your candid feedback. It is clear that our goals are currently not attainable, and it's really impacting how you're feeling and showing up at work today or how you're showing up at work in this season.   - Adam Weber There is power in that at the company level, when you can show empathy at the macro scale, to the experience of the company.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes The acknowledgement of the pain point. I'm thinking, like burr under the saddle, sort of a reality.   - Adam Weber Yeah, because it just it diffuses the tension. It's not even that we have it solved. It's just that we all understand that this is real, that we're all working through now. We're not a perfect organization. We're making progress. But I am aware of the same thing that you are aware of. And I think that that built a lot of trust and empathy as well. And then there's policies from an HR perspective, there's small things. One of the things I thought was so profound that 15 five are really it's huge for people going through it.   - Adam Weber It's small in the realm of the impact to the benefits, bottom line or something. But our 15 five has a child bereavement policy like something that small. That when you come into the organization and it's it just shows a level of care and compassion for the whole person, for their world and for their experience or during COVID. We had family members who passed away. And so how as a company, not just as the manager, but how as a company, do we sit with and support people who are going through really, really challenging times?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah. I have found in the conversations that I'm having policies never seem top of mind until they're suddenly top of mind. I'm like, oh, that's our policy. And whether that's our berievement leave policy says you have to have proof of death or it's only for immediate family members. We give people three days, and that doesn't take into account COVID related travel or all the sorts of things. And to pay attention to those things, it does feel impacted because especially as people are having so many more moments to touch on that.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I was just seeing someone's LinkedIn post about needing to bring, like, a bulletin from extended family members funeral to prove that they weren't just lying for time off and just how cheap that made it feel. But it was the policy, and nobody looked at the policy for a decade.   - Adam Weber Yeah. And there's I don't even know what to say about.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah, so sad about it.   - Adam Weber I'm picturing that's just the Seinfield episode. I know George Castanza's trying to get his flight covered in your right. This is how it's supposed to be.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Well, you just think policy, the eternalist. Like how like your fourth grade teacher being like, did you really go to use the bathroom with your hall pass or you just cutting class? Yeah.   - Adam Weber There is just I think underneath that there is such a lack of trust, right? There is like, we don't trust you, even with really hard aspects of your life like you're not trusted, I think, is at least the underlying message that an employee would receive through.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Well, like a meta level. If you're conveying yourself as a leadership team and a company that can't exercise trust, there's probably some trickle down questions that need to come up. What does that say about how we hire people? Or what does that say about how we manage people in an ongoing basis that we continue to have the perception of people that we can't trust? There's probably questions about other areas of your people operations if that really feels true or change your possible.   - Adam Weber And I also think every employee asks themselves, Is this company worth my best?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah.   - Adam Weber They have a level they're willing to give. And I think a small things like having to get a funeral bulletin. I think our create marks for people to go. This isn't worth my best. I might give time, but it's not going to be my best, right. And I'm not sure that I blame them. I don't I I'm not sure I wouldn't do the same.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   Are you giving your people what they need to stay engaged in the midst of all of the disruptive life events that are coming at them?  I deeply resonated with how Adam described the managerial journey:  the stress that comes from suddenly having to manage and inspire and care for people.  It is just hard, especially right now.  And I hear, again and again from companies, that they want to be able to support the mental wellness of their people but they just don't know how.  Handle with Care Consulting can help.  Empathy is a skill that can be learned and we can train you.  We have targeted keyontes, tailored to your pain points and industry, Empathy at Work Certificate programs, and coaching options.  Empathy doesn't have to be difficult, reach out for a free consultation.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes What is a time or a contributing factor that really it felt difficult to build connection with a given person or a team in your working career.   - Adam Weber I think for me just myself, I think where I run into issues is when I get overstressed in general. And then I think I start to project at times on to other people, or I try to take that stress that I'm feeling and I push it to others, which is not a very empathetic posture. And so I think that has always been the thing I've had to be mindful of it. And startups, you really do have to be a venture backed funded startups are not for the faint of heart.   - Adam Weber They are very stressful environments where you're growing quickly. So the business is changing every twelve to 16 weeks. It's like a whole different place, and there's a lot of pressure. And so I think finding balance in the midst of pressure in the midst of feeling overstressed. Like, I think those are the times for me, as opposed to like an individual, like one individual or things like that. It's when I get a little bit too inward focused to be thoughtful of other people.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah, for some reason, what connects is even on a personal level. As a parent, I know when I am feeling like meta stress, whether that's work related or going back and forth with the roofing guys who are doing the hail damage and those sorts of things really can pull from my ability to be present, fostering joy, contributing to a shared sense of a espirit de corps  with my children that feels very resonant on a personal level, as you were talking about that, especially in a startup culture. What did that look like for you?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes And maybe there's like a day or a season that comes to mind, but whether it's coming out of a tough meeting about metrics or thinking about the steps towards Series A, what would that look like with your team when you were feeling preoccupied like that, how would you begin to interact with them?   - Adam Weber Yeah, these aren't like my finest moments, but I think there were some memories or some thoughts I have that I go back to early where we're trying to take a thing that's nothing and turn it into something. And I was working as hard as I possibly could and overworking. I think during that season and sometimes during like, end of week metrics or views, it would be painful for me just to hear other people's metrics and feel like maybe they weren't working as hard as I was now with some perspective.   - Adam Weber I'm like they also weren't owners in the business. I think I got to understand now, but at the time that was really painful for me and I had a really hard time just sitting and understanding. And I think when you lead with frustration, it makes it really challenging to understand what their actual blockers are. Then you're not really collaborating with them on the solution. You've just decided that you're frustrated at that in the interview story. Actually, those two scenarios were pretty much the foundation of what caused that kind of leadership change in my own life.   - Adam Weber In that first year of the startup, there was a moment where I like walking out where people are sharing metrics, and I just left the meeting and I think that was another one where with some time I was like, alright, I need to really think about what it means to be a leader and how I sit with people and invest in people and even the other side of that. How do I set clear expectations or agreements where we're both mutually aligned? So I'm not just disappointed, but we have a shared clarity on what we're working towards.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Right in just my last interview was with Max Yoder and he was talking about expectations versus agreements. And I thought, oh, yeah. That's so true. If it's just my expectation, then I either need to be able to release it because I didn't make it known to you, or we need to transition to an agreement where we're both on the same page. And I thought that that repeats itself in personal lives and work live hear that?   - Adam Weber Yes. Exactly. Sounds like he nailed it, by the way. So I will just to build on that concept. This is why I think things like role clarity, things like clearly define goals, what those really give to our genuine agreements, not just expectations between employees and managers. And I actually think as tactical as those sound, that those create more empathetic workforces because it creates clarity inside the organization. It creates clarity of what is expected of me. So that's one part of what it does. So then we're all now collaborating on the same things instead of just like a manager who is constantly disappointed, constantly frustrated, who then puts up walls and isn't willing to collaborate, sit with the person, help them grow.   - Adam Weber And the other thing it does is that when something challenging happens in that person's life, if there's role clarity and there's clear goals, there's ways for people to know how to step up.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes So you are in a high pressure environment in startup culture where I imagine that I don't know, maybe even more regularly than quarterly. You were having to pivot and move, and maybe like, finesse where we're going and what we're doing.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes How did you find that you were able to maintain that sense of clarity in the midst of an ecosystem that was kind of changing around you pretty rapidly? Or maybe I'm not describing that ecosystem correctly.   - Adam Weber I think you're describing it correctly. I think it depends on what season of the journey. So in the beginning, I think I did a relatively poor job of that. I think first time entrepreneurs, it's like the new idea always feels like the most important idea. And with time. And so there was rapid pivoting. But I'm not sure that it was always wise. And then with time, I think what we did was we really, really buttoned up, how we align as a company, on what's the most important thing and then but then also understand that things change and adjust and have good ways to what we call it triage, triage adjustments and pivot, as opposed to doing them kind of like the day, radically or inconsistently.   - Adam Weber And I think that creates stability for the employees, too. When you kind of peel back the curtain on here's how we build strategy here's how we pivot strategy, so that for them, it doesn't just feel like constant whiplash within that triage.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes You describe so many points of learning in your journey as a leader. A couple of years ago, you took the time to put this all down in book form and lead like a Human, which is a book that I have and have really enjoyed as a tool of insight and a reference point even in the work that I do, I'm wondering. It's it's your own, like baby bringing forth into the world now that it's had a couple of years to toddle around out there, what is the impact that you've seen?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes And is there any part of the book that you just feel like is especially important right now?   - Adam Weber Yeah. I think one of the things that I really appreciated about writing the book, obviously, I shared a lot about my early part of management, but I think once I turn the corner and really gave the time to figure out, like, it's hard work, I think to figure out how to become a leader that other people want to work for. It unlocked my own life. It unlocked the performance of my team. It unlocked a lot of their personal lives. And so it's a journey that's been really meaningful to me.   - Adam Weber But I will say, when you do start ups, there's an interesting part of it, but the whole time, it feels really temporary. You kind of know it's going to end. And so I think one of the things with the book that I'm really thankful for is that it's a little bit more permanent. It was spot on time when I wrote it, but it lasts. And so it's a nice juxtaposition, I think with a start up and similar to I was a songwriter early kind of when I was right out of College and a lot of the songs I wrote I find really challenging today.   - Adam Weber Like, I think about some of the things I was writing about.   - Adam Weber I go, wow, it's interesting, like a spot in time, but it's got this permanence to it, and the book is like that I think for me and that there are aspects of it. I write. I go, wow, this is really challenging for me like that to actually live some of this stuff out myself, too, in a new season. The one the one that I think is the chapter that's been the most valuable for me is called centeredness.   - Adam Weber And the reason why it actually goes all the way back to the very beginning of our conversation today is that I didn't have the tools early in my career to find my own grounding and to find my own wholeness and recognize that when I am in that place, then I can put all these other practices in place that allow me to lead in a more human way. And so it's without being too prescriptive because I really didn't want it to feel prescriptive. I want it to be each person's individual journey, but I do think there's an aspect of it that is just have I thoughtfully looked at my own life and what things are working in my life and what things are restorative to me and allow me to connect to, like my whole connect itself so that I can show up in a steady, consistent way in the workplace.   - Adam Weber That's probably the one over time. I think that I think the most I reflect back on the most.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah. And what guidance would you offer? Reflection is definitely the first step, but for individuals who are starting to take account and go, oh, that's not congruent or Gee, that's really crappy and painful. That's got to be different for me to be able to stay in this for the long term.   - Adam Weber Yeah. I think there's some version for everyone of self reflection, like how do I take the time to analyze or think about how I'm showing up in the world and with my team? And I think that is both done. Personally, I do this myself. One of the things I do is I just actually Journal and cursive, and I just write what the feeling people still use cursive.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes The elementary school teachers would be so proud.   - Adam Weber I might be the last one, but it's not active for me, I think, because it forces me to go slow. That's what I like about it, which is probably why it doesn't exist anymore, but really just try to write my emotions, right what I'm feeling and how I'm showing up. So one is like doing the self reflection yourself the other, especially if you're a leader, is just like to make sure you have someone outside of your scenario, but who knows you well enough? Who can tell you the truth of how you're showing up?   - Adam Weber I think that part is really important because most leaders just get lied to constantly and they don't know it because of role power. And it's really important to have people that you trust, who will tell you the truth about who you are and how you're showing up so that you can make progress and work on it. And then I think for me, the gratitude practices that have worked for me in my life like I do these gratitude walks. It's because I have a busy mind, and when I walk, it's just a little easier to stay focused and things like that.   - Adam Weber But I don't want to prescribe the actual activity. I think it's for you. What are those activities? What are the things? Is that exercise? Is that hiking? Is it once a week or once a month, you block out a day where you don't work, but you just take time to do something restorative for you.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes That's good. I especially like the part about leaders being lied to and not knowing it. I think that is that's descriptively true for so many people.   - Adam Weber I also think that's why I have a lot of empathy for CEOs and why I just have a heart for the CEO experience in the journey because I think it's really lonely for a CEO because I think one most of the time, everything you say people respond as if it's awesome and people are lying to you a lot, and they're not being because you hold their job in their hands and their family, security and all of these things. And if you show up every single day without having these, like, I think I have empathy for how lonely and isolating that feels for people.   - Adam Weber And a lot of times they're unaware that that's happening to them, right?   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Building empathy and connection always has its challenges. There's this added layer right now of the particular challenges of the pandemic of social issues that feel really divisive of a continued uncertainty about how we're structuring workplace policies, not knowing what's going to happen with our kids in schooling and all of these challenges. What have you found really is helpful in continuing to move the needle on connection and care in the workplace, specifically within COVID-19.   - Adam Weber I think one aspect is that just to take a little the pressure off yourself of trying to solve it. This is a big thing that's happening in the world, and it's happening to all of us. And so there's no perfect answer. There's no perfect policy, there's nothing perfect. You can say there's no burnout vacation thing that's going to immediately make things better. So maybe just like, releasing yourself with the pressure that this is, like, yours to fix in isolation. But the most impactful thing I think leaders can do right now is just have conversations and just be in on the conversations.   - Adam Weber Burnout is a really good example, because it is like we're on, like, Wave five of burnout. I didn't even know what level of burnout it is, and it's impacting all of us in ways that we don't even know how to articulate ourselves to. There's this part of me, like, even with the Great Resignation to, like, not take it so personally to allow people just to be where they are. And some people now, there's a part right before the acquisition where some of our very first employees left, people are very, very close to.   - Adam Weber And there's a part of that where you just have to recognize that, like, when you go through something that's significant in the world, sometimes you just need change. You just need change. It's not personal. It's not about the leader. It's not about the business. It's like, hey, there's a lot going on, and I just need something different.   - Adam Weber I wish I could give you a perfect answer. I just think this is such a hard. I think it's such a hard topic because I just don't think any of us are immune to this. And I just think it's like, when you're in the middle of a story, you don't really know the answer to it. You just need to just kind of be in it and acknowledge that you're in it and maybe give space for your employees to also be like, it's okay that they're in it too.   - Adam Weber I think I feel like the thing that isn't going to work, like, even with the great resignation, for example, is I think if you can be charitable with people as their departing, I just hate to feel really at the whole tenor around people leaving is so negative, and I find it exhausting. I don't understand why someone can't show up to a company, give their best hit a place where they go. My time here is like I'm ready to grow somewhere else and be celebrated. And it just to be like we honor that season for what it was and the impact it had on the business.   - Adam Weber The business is about the business and the purpose of that business, not the individual who is running the business. So I celebrate that impact. And then and I think that that is a healthier way to process this, as opposed to making it taboo or sweeping it under the rug or acting like no one's leaving. People are leaving. People are leaving every company. You're not the only company where people are leaving. It's happening everywhere because people are looking for change. But if we normalize it and we celebrate people, it just feels like that is just like, a more appropriate way to handle honoring the time people gave instead of making every time someone leaves, it feel like a failure.   - Liesel Mindrebo Mertes I like that. I think that's a good word. Adam, are there any other questions that you wish I would have asked you or insights that you have to offer?   - Adam Weber I just I was like looking at my notes that I had earlier, and one of the most powerful things I feel like I did as a leader was when I knew that we had, like, a deep issue of conflict. I guess one of the things with empathy to me is that this component that happens inside of organizations, which is this conflict, and it's a natural thing that comes up when people are working hard towards a goal and maybe don't proactively solve an issue. But at some point, like conflict manifests itself.   - Adam Weber And to me, one of the roles of someone who's, like an empathetic leader, is sitting in the midst of that conflict and being willing to truly listen and making sure that in that listening, that people feel heard and some of the most some of the work I looked back on over the last ten years of running a business I'm the most proud of was were the hardest conflicts where there were teams that were highly disengaged, and I Dove into the middle of it, and I sat with a full team and I said, what is going on?   - Adam Weber Let's just talk. This is a safe space and just listened 90 minutes, just sat there and listened and wrote it all down and then summarized it and share it back with them. And I was just like before anything else happens first, like, do you feel hurt? Do you feel like this is what is happening for your experience?   And then once they're heard one that diffuses things, but then to then to go back and try to bring healing and restoration in those relationships and put the things on the table that have been living in quiet, in festering.   - Adam Weber And there is to me that's a really practical thing. But to me, that is there's empathy in that because when conflict festers, it really at work. When conflict festers at work, it really impacts all aspects of a human being's life. And so to dive into that and to help create resolution in those situations, I think can really unlock workplaces. But it also creates better lives for all the parties that are involved in those scenarios.   – Liesel Mindrebo Mertes Yeah, I agree to be able to wait into those deep waters and help diffuse it by radical attention. And just really hearing people is huge. Anything else? From your notes?   – Adam Weber I think we did it. I feel pretty good.   MUSICAL TRANSITION   If you are interested in reading Adam's book, Lead Like a Human, to get more great content, it is linked in the show notes.    Here are three key takeaways from my conversation with Adam…   Leaders, are you aware of and coping with your stress in a healthy way?  Adam talked about how some of his early missteps happened when he was under tremendous stress that he then pushed out onto his people.  Is this happening to you?  Maybe that is through a gratitude walk or writing your feelings down in cursive or taking some purposeful grounding time. Empathy is especially important in times of conflict…which is where it is most likely to go out the window!Adam found that just giving people the time to talk and express their feelings was really powerful, it made them feel heard and moved the conversation much closer to its eventual resolution So many employees get promoted to management positions without being trained or prepared for what it means to manage and care for people.They are internalizing stress from above and from their own expectations and that often derails their leadership efforts.  How are your training your managers?  Are you giving them the skills they need to really connect on a human level with the people they are leading:  with their hopes, apprehensions, and challenges?      OUTRO   You can find out more about “Lead Like a Human” here:  https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Like-Human-Practical-Building-ebook/dp/B08DG14GG6   You can find out more about HR Superstars here:  www.Community.15five.com

You need to remember that everyone is the main character of their own story and because of this don't assume you are as important as you think you are to them. We all lead our own lives at the end of the day. Let's talk more about that in today's class. Show Notes: [08:23] 1) We all have our biases and fallacies. [12:00] 2) Most people are much more concerned about themselves than about you. [16:16] 3) Handle your business based on what you want and what you need to do. [19:25] Recap Episodes Mentioned: 1826: How To Be A Critical Thinker [1/2] http://dreallday.com/1826- 1827: How To Be A Critical Thinker [2/2] http://dreallday.com/1827- --- Next Steps: 1) Get The Free Books: The Third Day: http://ThirdDayBook.com The Mirror Of Motivation: http://MirrorOfMotivation.com The Overseas Basketball Blueprint: http://BallOverseas.com Basketball: How To Play As Well As You Practice: http://HoopHandbook.com/Free 2) Come to Dre's next LIVE event, Work On Your Game LIVE: http://WorkOnYourGame.LIVE 3) Get the #DailyMotivation text: Text Dre at 1.305.384.6894 (or go to http://DreAllDay.com/Text) 4) Get coached in The Third Day Mastermind: http://WorkOnYourGameUniversity.com/Call 5) Get the FULL Work On Your Game Podcast archive at: http://WorkOnYourGamePodcast.com Be sure to Subscribe to have each new episode sent directly to you daily! If you're enjoying Work On Your Game, please Review the show and let us know! Dre on social media: Instagram [http://instagram.com/DreBaldwin] Twitter [http://Twitter.com/DreAllDay] YouTube [http://youtube.com/dreupt]

Preached by Pastor Jeff Hamling Sunday, September 19, 2021 Walking Trees Introduction: The Miracle Worker (1962): In the movie, which is based on true events, Helen Keller is both blind and deaf because of a fever she had as an infant. She can't communicate. Nor can people communicate with her. Her family hires Anne Sullivan as her teacher to try to teach her how to communicate—to learn letters and words through sign language in the palm of her hand. Helen resists all attempts at being taught.  Sullivan teaches her letters, but for Helen they have not meaning; it's just a hand signal game. But once when they were retrieving water from a fountain outside the house, Anne sticks Hellen's hand under the spout while she simultaneously gives the sign for water on her hand. Helen Keller describes the incident in her autobiography, The Story of My Life: As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten–a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. This strange new sight came to Helen Keller though the living word that awakened her soul in combination with the physical touch of her teacher's hand in her hand. This must be something like how the blind man in this story from Mark felt. After his encounter with Jesus—when Jesus touched his hand—his whole world quivered with life. But it's also a picture of how God's grace comes to each of us. In light of that, it's worth walking through this story verse-by-verse: v.22 22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.  This verse marks a major shift in the book of Mark. Jesus now begins his journey from Bethsaida (a small fishing village on the north shore of Galilee) down south to the city of Jerusalem where he will die on the cross. What's interesting is that this journey—which takes place from chapter 8-10—begins and ends with Jesus healing a blind man. Just as Jesus now departs for the cross, he heals a blind man. A right before he arrives in Jerusalem, he heals a blind man. Why is this the case? One reason is that this entire section is characterized by Jesus telling his disciples what he's come to do. On three different occasions Jesus explicitly tells them, “I'm going to be handed over, mocked, spit on, and killed. Three days later I will rise.” But the disciples are blinded by their expectations. They are the ones who need new eyes because they can't see or understand how God will reveal his grace and glory in their lives. Are we so different from the disciples? We have our own blind spots. It's easy to lie to ourselves about who we really are; excuse our faults, minimize our sins. Paul Tripp writes: “My self-perception is as accurate as a carnival mirror.” It's also easy to be pessimistic and miss the ways God's is revealing his glory and grace in our lives. This is one of the reasons we emphasize Growth Groups at Trinity Church. We need other people in our lives who know us, listen to us, pray for us. People who are willing to point out things that are perhaps hard to hear, but that we need to hear. We need people in our lives who, like the people in this blind man's life, are willing to bring us to Jesus so that our eyes can be opened to what God is doing in us and around us. v.23 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” In my previous sermon, Jesus uses spit to heal a deaf and mute man. I pointed out that while this may seem unusual to our modern sensibilities, in the ancient world, people believed that saliva had medicinal value. It was used as an agent of healing. With that said, the way Jesus goes about healing this man stands out in two ways. 1. Jesus takes him by the hand. Like a father walking down the sidewalk, hand in hand with his son, Jesus walks with this man. It's a gesture of kindness and intimacy. It's also a picture of faith. There's a hymn we sing called “Father I Know.” In one of the verses, the lyrics say,  I would not have the restless will that hurries to and fro, Seeking for some great thing to do or secret thing to know; I would be treated as a child, and guided where I go We want our lives to go a certain way, but faith in Jesus is saying, God, here is my hand, take it and lead me like a child. Lead me and I will follow. You know what's best for me. In Isaiah 41:13 it says: “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” Through this simple act of intimacy, Jesus is saying, I'm your God. I'm here to help you. 2. Throughout this encounter, Jesus uses his body as an instrument of grace But instead, he engages this man with his body. He leads him by the hand. He uses saliva. He puts his hands on him. And then as we'll see, he lays hands on him again. Surely Jesus who can raise the dead and calm the storm through the word of his power could just say “Receive your sight. Be healed.: But instead, Jesus used his body for this man's healing. One commentator writes: God is not embarrassed about the earthiness of the human body, and even delights to use it as a vehicle of his grace. • How many parents have stood face to face with a defiant and angry child—only to finally embrace him and say, “I love you.”? In that moment, suddenly all the emotion pours out and he weeps. • Have you ever felt like someone doesn't like you, you always have your guard up; but then when she's talking to you, she gently puts her hand on your shoulder? Not in a flirtatious way, but a reassuring way that says, “Hey, I care.” Your guard goes down. • Perhaps you've struggles with an illness and the elders of the church have come to pray for you for healing. The Bible in James 5 says that the elders are to place their hands on you. There is something humbling, overwhelming and powerful when all the hands are placed on you. Or perhaps you've had someone grab you around the shoulder and pray for you. It's no wonder Paul in several of his letters encouraged Christians to greet one another with a holy kiss as part of the church liturgy. Grace comes through the body. In the book, Handle with Care, the author goes through all the Gospels and points out how often Jesus touched people. She writes: For fear of sinful sexual touch, we limit all or most touch. Yet our bodies are literally aching to be touched. Our bodies are not just shells that were created to house what's really important—our souls. Our bodies are holy and powerful. They are used by God to deliver grace. Jesus used his body in life, in his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the grave—to bring grace to the world. And that's what he does for this blind man. He uses his body to bless and to give grace. After making physical contact with this man, Jesus then asks, “Do you see anything?” The man's answer is both strange and encouraging. v.24-26 24 [The man] looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26  Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don't even go into the village.” As I was studying for this passage, I thought of Lord of the Rings fans who can't help but think of Tolkien mythical walking tree characters called Ents! It's fairly easy to grasp what's happening here, but it's more challenging to understand why this has happened. What's happened is that Jesus lays his hands on this man to heal him, but the result is that he is not completely cured. He sees people shuffling around in the distance, but they are just blurry stick figures walking about. We get that. But what's confusing is: Wait! Isn't Jesus God? He's not like Eleven in Stranger Things who uses her powers to move things and her nose starts bleeding and then she's exhausted. Jesus can say the Word and it happens. It's nothing to him. Why doesn't he heal this man in one fell swoop? Two reasons: 1. This story is a picture of the disciples. In fact, it's an illustration of the next story in Mark's Gospel. In Mark 8:27-33. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say I am?” They answer: “People say your John the Baptist, or Elijah, or a prophet.” Jesus asks, “But who do you say I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Christ—the Messiah.” They get it! They see what other people don't see! But then, right after that, Jesus teaches them that he must suffer and die and rise three days later. Peter responds by taking Jesus aside and rebuking him. Do you see the parallel? They see who Jesus is—he's the Messiah! But they can't yet see him clearly. No better than this man can see the people who look like trees walking around. They need more contact with Jesus first. Only when they encounter that actual death and resurrection of Jesus will they see him clearly. 2. This story is a picture of us. It's a picture of us because becoming a disciple of Jesus is a gradual process. Your growth in holiness doesn't happen instantly with your first encounter with Jesus. His grace visibly unfolds in your life slowly. Sometimes even painfully. Last weekend, Annmarie and drove up to Hyalite together to go for a trail run on Lake Shore trail around the reservoir. (I have her permission to share this.) I drove my truck and as we were getting out, Annmarie said, “Jeff, don't worry about taking your keys with you. I have an extra set with me. Just keep your keys here, inside the truck.” Usually, I just hide my keys on the outside of the truck so it's not a big deal. But I said, “Ok.” We got out, stretched, and started running. We went about ½ mile when Annmarie said, “I have some bad news. I accidentally locked my keys in the truck. I feel so bad. I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did that!” She really felt horrible. One of the things you should know about me is if you sin against me or treat me harshly—I can forgive you and get past it quickly. No big deal. But if you somehow inconvenience me—now you've crossed a line! And then I tend to walk through what happened—repeatedly—so it never happens again. It's one of my besetting sins. And this situation was inconvenient! Two of our kids had a cross-country meet later that day, my parents were coming to town, we were 20 miles from town with no cell service. When Annmarie told me what happened, I knew what I should do; tell her, “Don't worry about it. This is something I would have done. In fact I've done it a million times.” But instead, there was something building in me that had to come up. I just had to say, Now why is it that you insisted that I lock my keys in the truck. Why was that so important to you? When I lock my door, I always use my key to lock it so that this sort of thing doesn't happen.” We hitched a ride back to town. Found a locksmith to help us. It all worked out. Later, I apologized to Annmarie for not being more gracious. Her response, Jeff, I thought you response was fairly measured. You didn't repeat yourself over and over again. In other words, Annmarie knows that I still see trees walking around. I don't always see God's grace and how he's working and so I try to control thing for myself. And yet, I'm not blind. I do see it. It's just that I'm a work in progress. And so are you. And so are the people in your life. We need the touch of Jesus as it were more than once. It's a good thing to have to keep coming back to him again and again. It keeps us humble and dependent. And that's a good place to be. In 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; [but then, in the future] we will see face to face.” That is the hope of the gospel.

Michael Orr joins the Rogues to discuss how to move applications into Docker for development and production environments in Kubernetes. He walks the panel through the process of orchestrating a Rails setup in Kubernetes that you can run in the cloud. Panel Charles Max WoodDarren BroemmerLuke StuttersValentino Stoll Guest Michael Orr  Sponsors Dev Influencers AcceleratorRaygun | Click here to get started on your free 14-day trialPodcastBootcamp.io Links Containerizing Ruby on Rails ApplicationsOpen Tracing Twitter: Michael Orr ( @imightbeinatree ) Picks Charles- Rocket FuelCharles- $100M OffersCharles- The ChosenCharles- Top End DevsCharles- PodcastBootcamp.ioDarren- 10 Things in Engineering We Don't Spend Enough Time OnLuke- Handle request abortion Luke- Mastering RodaLuke- Moving your PINDA probe on your Prusa printerMichael- Create Recording Rules in PrometheusValentino- Adafruit Gemma M0Valentino- Conductive Thread Valentino- What is a Reed Switch and How Does it Work? Contact Charles: Devchat.tvDevChat.tv | FacebookTwitter: DevChat.tv ( @devchattv ) Contact Darren: Twitter: Darren Broemmer ( @DarrenBroemmer ) Contact Luke: GitHub: Luke Stutters ( lukestuts ) Contact Valentino: Doximity Technology BlogWork @ DoximityGitHub: Valentino Stoll ( codenamev )Twitter: V ( @thecodenamev ) Special Guest: Michael Orr.

Michael Orr joins the Rogues to discuss how to move applications into Docker for development and production environments in Kubernetes. He walks the panel through the process of orchestrating a Rails setup in Kubernetes that you can run in the cloud. Panel Charles Max Wood Darren Broemmer Luke Stutters Valentino Stoll Guest Michael Orr  Sponsors Dev Influencers Accelerator Raygun | Click here to get started on your free 14-day trial PodcastBootcamp.io Links Containerizing Ruby on Rails Applications Open Tracing Twitter: Michael Orr ( @imightbeinatree ) Picks Charles- Rocket Fuel Charles- $100M Offers Charles- The Chosen Charles- Top End Devs Charles- PodcastBootcamp.io Darren- 10 Things in Engineering We Don't Spend Enough Time On Luke- Handle request abortion  Luke- Mastering Roda Luke- Moving your PINDA probe on your Prusa printer Michael- Create Recording Rules in Prometheus Valentino- Adafruit Gemma M0 Valentino- Conductive Thread  Valentino- What is a Reed Switch and How Does it Work? Contact Charles: Devchat.tv DevChat.tv | Facebook Twitter: DevChat.tv ( @devchattv ) Contact Darren: Twitter: Darren Broemmer ( @DarrenBroemmer ) Contact Luke: GitHub: Luke Stutters ( lukestuts ) Contact Valentino: Doximity Technology Blog Work @ Doximity GitHub: Valentino Stoll ( codenamev ) Twitter: V ( @thecodenamev )

Meet Carrie Madrid, a true rock star who chose to go through treatment with the mantra of “laughter and lip gloss!” She took her own cancer diagnosis and turned it into an organization to help others with support and financial resources, has co-authored a book called “Handle with Care” and hosts a podcast “Handle with CARE: Cancer & Beyond.”

When she was a kid, Caroline discovered a shocking secret her dad was keeping.  What happened after she confronted him would change her world forever. BETTER HELP Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/secret. CALM For a limited time, get 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at Calm.com/secret. DIPSEA Get a 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/SECRET. THRIVE CAUSEMETICS Get 15% off your first order at thrivecausemetics.com/secret. PICTURES See candid pictures of Caroline, her mom and her brother on social media now. They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED In an original secret, Susie interviews Ellie about her teenage trip to Europe to meet a member of her favorite band.  But things were not all that they seemed.  The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have a timorous secret to share?  Don't be scared, it's easy!  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com.  PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

This week we start continue our series called "Things God Never Said". This weeks message is named "Things God Never Said - God Won't Give You More Than You Can't Handle" given by pastor EJ Tena. If you would like to support this ministry please text "Give" to (479) 777-4264.

Welcome back to the Lively Show with Jess! It's been a hot minute since her last episode as she needed space for her own personal growth (always needed!). As you'll learn in this episode, a meaningful relationship she was in just ended. After spending lots of time with her inner voice, Jess is ready to […] The post TLS #355: Q&A: How to Handle the Vaccine, My Vision for My Life & My Theory on How Releasing Bean Bags Changes the Neuroplasticity of Our Brains appeared first on Jess Lively.

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Lively Show! After Jess's previous episode on sharing my personal inner voice experience (which was extremely deep!), to say she had a lot of messages with questions is an understatement. That's why, she thought it was time for a much-need Q&A! She actually answers 13 questions in this […] The post TLS #355: Q&A: How to Handle the Vaccine, My Vision for My Life & My Theory on How Releasing Bean Bags Changes the Neuroplasticity of Our Brains appeared first on Jess Lively.

Patrick tells us about the extreme events of his youth that led to a murder.  While nothing could have been worse, it did close a chapter in his life. ACORN TV Get your first 30 days free by going to acorn.tv with promo code secret in all lowercase letters only. BONAFIDE Get 20% off your first purchase when you subscribe to any product by going to hellobonafide.com and using promo code SECRET at checkout. FEALS Become a member at Feals.com/SECRET and you'll get 50% off your first order with free shipping.  MANLY BANDS Get 21% off your Manly Band for a limited time, and get a free silicone ring at manlybands.com/SECRET. PICTURES See Patrick and his roommate, and their guns.  Also, pictures of Patrick's sweet Porsche and as a marine in his dress blues.  They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED Susie's got a good one.  First Patrick joins her with a follow up to talk about the winding path his relationship has gone with his roommate in the years since the shoot up.  And then Patrick's roommate, who was not in the main show, joins Susie to give us his recollection of the night their house got shot up!  The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have an anfractuous secret to share?  That is exactly what we're looking for!  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com.  PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

Lore Ferguson Wilbert vulnerably shares parts of her doubts and questions through her journey, including an ectopic pregnancy, a current struggle she's facing, and her journey through miscarriages. Lore is the author of Handle with Care, a book on the ministry of touch. Touch is not talked about much in our healing journeys, and Lore shares today why this may be the case and how we can learn from how Jesus touched and was touched. This is an episode to listen with a notepad! I believe her wisdom is going to blow your socks off in a new way. Enjoy! Lore IG: @lorewilbert Handle With Care: https://amzn.com/B083TNCMJD Lore's Blog: https://www.sayable.net/ Gender Roles by Alice Matthews: https://amzn.com/0310529395 Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch: https://amzn.com/0830844430 Joni and Friends Beyond Suffering Course: https://www.joniandfriends.org/ministries/christian-institute-on-disability/beyond-suffering/ Tera IG: @terabradham Tera Website: terabradham.com Heal Website: thehealministry.com

Aaron Iler brings on an intelligent guest, Brian Spear, co-founder of Sunrise Capital Investors, to discuss what it was like to build a business from scratch in his 20's, and how to carve out time for your friends and family while working towards your goals.In this episode, Aaron and Brian discuss:How to Get People to Hear Your MessageHow to Handle the Fear of UncertaintyThe Myth of “Overnight Success”Two Things to Keep in Mind When Starting a BusinessHow to Stay Fixated on Your End GoalAaron would like to give a huge thank you to Brian for coming onto the Dream Chasers: Ground Zero platform to share his knowledge about how to keep your eye on the prize despite other things going on around you, and two major things to keep in mind when grinding to start a business.Watch the YouTube replay here:https://youtu.be/ws5XZ7zDey4Contact Brian Spear here:https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian--spear/https://sunrisecapitalinvestors.com/Timestamped Shownotes:0:00 - What Was Ground Zero Like for You?4:04 - How to Find a Mentor and Create a Successful Partnership7:00 - How to Get People to Hear Your Message9:59 - How to Structure Work-Life Balance in Your 20's15:03 - What Was It Like Starting a Business from Scratch?16:52 - How to Handle the Fear of Uncertainty21:43 - So What Does the Fear Mean?24:19 - The Myth of “Overnight Success”26:27 - How to Stay Fixated on Your End Goal28:55 - If You Could Go Back in Time What Would You Tell Yourself?29:13 - Two Things to Keep in Mind When Starting a BusinessFor more of Dream Chasers:SPOTIFYAPPLE PODCASTSSTITCHERGOOGLE PODCASTSSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/dreamchasers_ix)

In this episode Tana, Hunter and Brooke are joined by Harry Jowsey. They discuss their various hookups, Harry's secret sex routine, Too Hot to Handle, boxing plans, and and all of Harry's firsts. This episode is sponsored by Adam & Eve (http://www.adamandeve.com offer code Tana), Parade (http://www.yourparade.com/tana), Noom (http://www.noom.com/tana) & Apostrophe (http://www.apostrophe.com/tana).

Kendall chats with Chase DeMoor from Netflix's Too Hot to Handle.

Rebecca tells us about the job she took - and the things she did - that ended up making her the target of an Italian mob.  ACORN TV Get your first 30 days free by going to acorn.tv with promo code secret in all lowercase letters only. BETTER HELP Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/secret. CALM For a limited time, get 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at Calm.com/secret.  DIPSEA Get a 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/SECRET. PICTURES  See Rebecca and Lena in a classic knee bend pose.  Also, the only known photo of Leonardo, and he's holding Rebecca's baby! :) They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED Just published, the tables are turned on Ben.  Family Ghosts host Sam Dingman asks Ben the hard questions!  And in a week, Susie Lark interviews a man whose students have no idea where he moonlights.  Hear all the uncensored action in "Professor Porn," exclusively on the next Unlocked.  The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have a pyrrhic secret to share?  Well congratulations!  We wanna hear all about it.  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com.  PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Shadow Producer: Jennifer Mantagas. Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!

Handle big changes mindfully Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Paris is with Cam and Emily, the stars of Too Hot to Handle and find out why they had nothing but sex on the brain. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

A woman took a secret 17-day vacation to a place you do not want to go, and it transformed a hidden part of her life. It's a deeply personal story of inner strength and frailty. CALM For a limited time, get 40% off a Calm Premium subscription at Calm.com/secret.  DIPSEA Get a 30 day free trial when you go to DipseaStories.com/SECRET. FEALS Become a member at Feals.com/SECRET and you'll get 50% off your first order with free shipping. THRIVE CAUSEMETICS Get 15% off your first order at thrivecausemetics.com/secret. PICTURES  See Rita holding the New York Times article announcing her bar opening! There's also a picture with her doggie soulmate. And the very spot on the bridge where she met her angel on a bike. They're all waiting for you on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.  Handle: @secretroompod. THE SECRET ROOM | UNLOCKED Susie Lark interviews a man whose students have no idea where he moonlights.  Hear all the uncensored action in "Professor Porn," exclusively on the next Unlocked. The Secret Room | Unlocked is yours when you support your favorite indie podcast that could with a membership at patreon.com/secretroom. ALL OUR SPONSORS See all our sponsors past and present, and their offers, many of which are still valid: secretroompodcast.com/codes FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUPThere's even more fun at The Secret Room Podcast Facebook Discussion Page!  Just ask to join, all are welcome. :) YOUR SECRET Do you have a viscid secret to share?  Gross!  But we read ''em all.  Click "Share a secret" at secretroompod.com.  PODCAST TEAM Producer: Susie Lark.  Story Development: Luna Patel. Hashtag Flipper: Alessandro Nigro.  Shadow Producers: Christina Lambertson and David Lough. Sound Engineer: Marco.  Music and Theme: Breakmaster Cylinder. LISTENER SURVEY Take our Listener Survey at SecretRoomPod.com!