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Sponging off the HeroIn 3 parts, By SDes. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. At five o'clock the next day, Sarah didn't come. It was crushing to Jeff, although a part of him expected it. He sat quietly, hoping she'd show up and pretend he hadn't screwed everything up. He knew it probably wouldn't work. He had put her in an impossible position and nothing she did would satisfy both of them. If she tried to apologize, he'd feel like a cripple. If she said she wanted to go out with him, he knew it would be out of sympathy. If she still said no, he'd be too embarrassed to act the same around her. He felt lonelier than he ever had in his life.He drifted off to sleep while thinking about his situation. He was awakened some time later by the feeling of a wet sponge moving on his chest. As he woke, he grumbled about wanting to do this later."Sorry, it's time for your bath," came the hushed reply.Jeff was startled at what he thought he heard, then decided it was just his imagination. He relaxed, hoping this would be over quickly. He wasn't in the mood for the normal small talk the nurses made, trying to make sponge baths less uncomfortable for the recipient.He sat still, wondering why this felt different tonight. The way the wet cloth dragged across his chest, slowing at his nipples, made him a little uncomfortable. Whether it was intentional or not, he was getting turned on. He had been lying there for more than three weeks without any chance for a normal sexual release. As he felt the soft cloth slide down his stomach, his erection became uncomfortably hard. It wasn't the first time he'd had this problem.He tried to joke, "Sorry, I; uh think I've been here alone a little too long."The nurse just shushed him and kept at her work.She seemed to be dwelling on more sensitive spots of his body than normal and the whole thing was definitely moving slower. He was really getting agitated about his condition, but tried to relax and focus on something else. That changed when he felt her slip his covers lower and run the fabric slowly down his erection. He knew this was completely inappropriate."Listen, I'm sorry but;""Just be quiet and let me enjoy myself," he heard Sarah scold.Jeff tried to push himself up, "Sarah?"She pushed firmly against his shoulder so he would lay back down. "Listen buddy, I had to bribe the nurse to let me give you your bath, so I want my money's worth, all right?"He felt a flood of emotions. After believing he had ruined everything, there wasn't any way for him to process what was happening. He wanted her so badly, but this sudden turnaround was stunning. He couldn't imagine what could have happened to trigger this.Sarah was trapped in her own emotional confusion. She never intended it to go this far, she wanted to tease him a little and then apologize for the way she acted yesterday. It was supposed to be a little joke. As she ran the rag across the scar on his chest, she couldn't help thinking about how he got it, and the irony of her being the one to lose control over a guy. That was normally something her little sister would do.There was something about Jeff that she couldn't get out of her system. It was something she never could have anticipated and something she thought she'd never feel again. The more she tried to keep her feelings about him in check, the more completely out of control she felt.The touching started something tingling inside her that quickly became a rush of emotions she just wasn't equipped to deal with. She watched his body with a detached fascination, the damp cloth leaving a glistening trail across his muscles as she moved it down his chest to his stomach. When she reached his waist, she noticed him becoming erect; it was impossible to ignore under the flimsy hospital garment. Then she did something so foreign to her character, that before tonight she would have sworn it was impossible. On an impulse, she found herself moving the cloth lower, using her free hand to pull his gown and blanket out of the way so she could touch him.The fabric grazed his sensitive skin along with the tips of her fingers. Her skin brushing against his warm flesh caused a surge to run through her body, making her to lose what was left of her will. Jeff spoke, almost breaking the spell she seemed to be under, but she told him to be still, unable to bring herself to stop touching him. The wall that normally protected her was nowhere in sight. The only thing she could think about was trying to bring him pleasure.Jeff had given up trying to understand what was going on. Sarah's touches felt so amazing that he pushed everything else out of his mind. There was an unexpected consequence to his condition. Without being able to see what was going on, he found that her every touch seemed far more intense than normal.He could feel her leisurely dragging the rag up and down the underside of his shaft. The fingers of her other hand slowly stroked a spot on his chest. She moved the wet cloth down and let it travel lower, then back again. His hips came off the bed as the pleasure was almost more than he could take."You better not move too much or you'll pull out your stitches. I'd like to see you explain that to the doctor."He heard her softly chuckle at the idea of that meeting. Although the thought was amusing, he couldn't concentrate on anything except her delicate touches. He felt her fingernail softly trail around the head of his penis. It was an unusual sensation. He couldn't remember a woman touching him quite like that. There was an awkward, almost innocent quality to her caresses."Are you sure this is what you want?" Jeff asked, suddenly afraid that if she went too far, it could push her away again. "I don't want you to; oh shit," he groaned, as he felt her warm breath.It caused him to break out in goose bumps and he grabbed the edges of the bed. She continued teasing him, making the experience even more erotic. He kept flexing his fingers, balling his hands into fists anticipating her mouth touching him. For what seemed like an eternity, he felt like he was undergoing sort of wonderful torture, his body desperate to find release.When the touch finally came, it was so soft and quick, he thought he imagined it. He held his breath, afraid he might miss it a second time, trying to almost will it to happen again. When it did, he couldn't remember ever feeling that aroused. It was soft, leaving a wet feeling on his shaft. She started dragging her tongue up the length like he was a Popsicle."Oh Sarah," he moaned, "that feels so good."His hips lifted slightly off the bed, and she took his reaction as encouragement, beginning to make small biting motions up and down the underside. When she reached the tip, she tentatively took it in her mouth, sliding down an inch or two, then grabbing the base with one hand. Jeff put his hands on her shoulders, resisting the urge to pull down, instead stroking softly.He began to move a hand up her neck when she reached out and stopped him. "Uh, uh," she mumbled, returning his hand to the bed.He took the hint and let her continue what she was doing. It seemed like her confidence was growing because she was becoming more aggressive. Her hand began stroking him and she moved her mouth down a little further. She let his cock fall from her lips and returned to the earlier technique of licking and biting his shaft. Her mouth moved up and down the entire length, letting her tongue dart out, touching every inch of the underside of his erection.The sensation was too much for him and Jeff cried out, "Sarah, I'm cumming."She continued the same motions, pushing her mouth harder against him. Jeff closed his mouth tightly to avoid yelling as he came, feeling his cum shoot onto his chest. His body jerked hard, followed by trembling that seemed to go on forever. As his breathing settled into a regular rhythm, he felt the cloth she was using move across his chest. He assumed Sarah was cleaning him up. With a last, deliberate lick that drew another shudder from him, she moved up his body, kissing him lightly on the lips.She laid down against him, with her head on his shoulder. They sat together silently for a short time. Finally Jeff couldn't take the uncomfortable silence."Sarah," he spoke softly, "That was wonderful. I just don't understand what happened. You said; well, you know," he trailed off, unable to find words to express his feelings.He heard her take a deep breath, knowing she wasn't sure what to say. Whether she was looking for the right words, or the right lie, he couldn't tell."Jeff, I don't know how to explain it. I wanted you to know how I really feel about you. I guess I got a little carried away. I hope you don't mind," she finished with a chuckle. She kissed him on the cheek, then pulled away.Jeff couldn't see her smile, but he could tell it was there. "I guess that wasn't the worst surprise I've ever had."He tried to sound jovial and confident, but couldn't shake his confusion. He had no idea where this left them and was afraid to ask. The last thing he wanted was to make things awkward again. They held each other quietly until she excused herself to go to the bathroom.Slowly, he sat up while she was gone. His chest still hurt, but it was better. He leaned back and relaxed, trying to figure out his next move. He didn't want to say the words, even in his own head, but he knew exactly how he felt about her. She seemed to feel the same, but there was something wrong. Was she afraid this was some sort of Florence Nightingale crush? If that's what she thought it was, how did her actions make sense?"I need to stop being a pussy and just be myself," he quietly scolded himself."What's that Jeff?" he heard her voice back in the room."I was just annoyed with myself because of putting you in that position yesterday. I'm sorry. I like you, but it wasn't fair for me to put you on the spot. I'm glad you came back tonight." He paused, then added with a smile, "Part of me is extremely glad." He hoped she'd take his jest as a sign that he wouldn't push the issue of them dating, at least for now."Well, I'm glad I came back too," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "Things are still complicated for me, but I wanted you to know I do care deeply for you. I just got a little carried away. I never imagined myself doing something like that," she continued, her tone betraying her sincere surprise.There was an uncomfortable silence as they each tried to think of what to say next.Jeff decided it would be best to take the pressure off of her. "How about if we just listen to the new album you got me?""That would be nice," she said gratefully.His considerate gesture reminded her of just how special Jeff was. She thought he'd want to talk about things between them which frightened her, because she had no answers. Like always, he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. There simply wasn't a frame of reference for her to deal with his insight and compassion.She sat next to him and resisted the urge to hold his hand. They talked quietly about nothing for the rest of the night. When she left, she still wasn't sure if she did the right thing, but was happy about it anyway. She wondered if he'd ever understand just how nervous she had been.Interrogations"Hi Jeff, I was wondering if you'd like some company," an unfamiliar voice said, rousing him from his thoughts about what to say to Sarah today."Well, I guess," Jeff said cautiously. "Who are you?""My name is Don Williams. I'm a police officer. I was there the night you were in the fight.""Are you the officer Paige told me about; the one who saved me?" he said hopefully."I don't know if ‘saved' is the right word," Don said humbly. "I was just in the right place at the right time.""Paige told me that you held me together with your bare hands until the paramedics got there. I'd say saved is exactly the right word," Jeff said gratefully."okay then, you're welcome," the policeman conceded. "I just wanted to make sure you were all right and see if there was anything you needed.""Um," Jeff stammered, "I was wondering; about the fight in the alley, no one has talked to me about that yet. I was kind of nervous, is everything all right?""Jeez," Don said laughing, "you think anyone is looking to charge you for what happened? I've had friends asking me if the story was really true. You're a; ""Hero, I know," Jeff interrupted, with frustration evident in his voice. "Seriously, if she had gotten hurt or worse, nobody would be calling me a hero, they'd be saying I was a stupid-assed vigilante. I'm lucky as hell things turned out as well as they did.""I guess," came the reply. "I thought you showed a hell of a lot of guts going in there. Everybody knows you called 9 1 1 first, and tried to talk your way out of it. Nobody thinks you were being a hot dog, if that's what you're worried about."Jeff visibly relaxed and the two men slipped into an easy conversation. An hour later when Don announced he had to leave, Jeff felt disappointed. For the first time since the alley, he actually felt on even footing with someone. He was in awe of the stories Don had shared. There was little about being a policeman that Jeff had really understood.When he stood up to go, Jeff asked, "So you're sure I'm not going to be in any trouble?""Those guys were human trash with a long record. If you hadn't stepped in, everyone knows that girl was going to have something horrible happen to her. Trust me, you don't have anything to worry about."When Don left, Jeff realized he felt much more at ease about things. At the same time, he knew there was something that had been bothering him for a while. His talk with Don had brought into focus exactly why it had been upsetting him. The problem now was figuring out if there was anything he could do to change it.A Life of PurposeJeff was deep in thought. Sarah had been there a little more than an hour, but he wasn't in a good mood despite her presence. "Are you okay?" she asked."I don't know," he said honestly. "It's just one of those days. I'm not sure why, but I've been trying to sort things out.""What sort of things?" Sarah asked nervously."Don't worry," he said, trying to reassure her. "It's about me." He thought carefully before continuing. "Sarah, why don't you ever talk about what happened in the alley?"Sarah was caught off guard. She stammered a reply, "I; I just thought you'd talk about it if you wanted to.""Okay, let's say I want to. Do you buy into all this 'hero' nonsense?""What you did for Paige was the most unselfish thing I've ever seen," she said firmly. "You were lucky to come out of it alive. If that's not being a hero, I don't know what is.""I want to say something, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea." He paused, trying to collect his thoughts, "I don't think I'm a hero and in some ways I'm ashamed of myself." When he was greeted with shocked silence, Jeff continued."Firemen run into burning buildings, the police protect people daily, soldiers risk their lives. That doesn't even count the people who take care of the sick, feed the hungry," he paused, looking frustrated. "You know what I mean."Sarah had no idea where he was going with this. "So what are you saying, you have to save people a lot to be special?"Jeff shook his head. "No, I'm saying people are defined by their actions." He paused, trying to collect his thoughts. "Sarah, do you believe in redemption?""Sure, don't you?""I don't know. I'm thirty and barely have anything to show for it. I haven't done any of the things I wanted to when I was growing up. Now I'm so up to my ears in bills that I'm just trying to make it to the next paycheck. I get a chance to help somebody one time and everybody's kissing my ass like I cured cancer. Anybody would have done the same thing. I was just in the right place at the right time."Sarah was indignant, "No they wouldn't have done the same thing!" Jeff was surprised to hear her voice breaking and could tell she was beginning to cry. The intensity of her reaction caught him off guard."If you haven't done enough in your life up to now, then change it when you get out of here. Don't you ever let me hear you put down what you did for Paige. Did you ever think maybe you were in that alley for a reason?"Jeff was sorry she was upset and didn't want to antagonize her, but he also couldn't let it go. "What, you mean some 'master plan'? Come on, do you really buy that? Why would I get to wipe away a whole life of mediocrity with one good deed?"She touched his face gently, trying to soften her tone. "What about that deed? Have you considered that she could have died if you hadn't helped her? You want redemption, try thinking about her life after that if she had survived." She paused and Jeff could hear a quiet sob."Nobody's saying you get a free pass for life because of what happened, but you damn well better believe we are all grateful for what you did. You know, I've been here getting to know you for a month and you are a very good person. I'm not sure why you doubt yourself, but I don't."Jeff sat quietly, trying to absorb what she said. Sarah was the only person who told him what she thought without trying to soften it. He respected her opinion highly. "Maybe you're right, but it's just so overwhelming. I'm really happy she's all right and I don't regret anything I did. I just feel like the media, your family, the hospital staff; it's just so much to deal with. How many times can you listen to someone say thank you or tell you how wonderful you are before you just don't know what to say back?"

Sponging off the HeroIn 3 parts, By SDes. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. At five o'clock the next day, Sarah didn't come. It was crushing to Jeff, although a part of him expected it. He sat quietly, hoping she'd show up and pretend he hadn't screwed everything up. He knew it probably wouldn't work. He had put her in an impossible position and nothing she did would satisfy both of them. If she tried to apologize, he'd feel like a cripple. If she said she wanted to go out with him, he knew it would be out of sympathy. If she still said no, he'd be too embarrassed to act the same around her. He felt lonelier than he ever had in his life.He drifted off to sleep while thinking about his situation. He was awakened some time later by the feeling of a wet sponge moving on his chest. As he woke, he grumbled about wanting to do this later."Sorry, it's time for your bath," came the hushed reply.Jeff was startled at what he thought he heard, then decided it was just his imagination. He relaxed, hoping this would be over quickly. He wasn't in the mood for the normal small talk the nurses made, trying to make sponge baths less uncomfortable for the recipient.He sat still, wondering why this felt different tonight. The way the wet cloth dragged across his chest, slowing at his nipples, made him a little uncomfortable. Whether it was intentional or not, he was getting turned on. He had been lying there for more than three weeks without any chance for a normal sexual release. As he felt the soft cloth slide down his stomach, his erection became uncomfortably hard. It wasn't the first time he'd had this problem.He tried to joke, "Sorry, I; uh think I've been here alone a little too long."The nurse just shushed him and kept at her work.She seemed to be dwelling on more sensitive spots of his body than normal and the whole thing was definitely moving slower. He was really getting agitated about his condition, but tried to relax and focus on something else. That changed when he felt her slip his covers lower and run the fabric slowly down his erection. He knew this was completely inappropriate."Listen, I'm sorry but;""Just be quiet and let me enjoy myself," he heard Sarah scold.Jeff tried to push himself up, "Sarah?"She pushed firmly against his shoulder so he would lay back down. "Listen buddy, I had to bribe the nurse to let me give you your bath, so I want my money's worth, all right?"He felt a flood of emotions. After believing he had ruined everything, there wasn't any way for him to process what was happening. He wanted her so badly, but this sudden turnaround was stunning. He couldn't imagine what could have happened to trigger this.Sarah was trapped in her own emotional confusion. She never intended it to go this far, she wanted to tease him a little and then apologize for the way she acted yesterday. It was supposed to be a little joke. As she ran the rag across the scar on his chest, she couldn't help thinking about how he got it, and the irony of her being the one to lose control over a guy. That was normally something her little sister would do.There was something about Jeff that she couldn't get out of her system. It was something she never could have anticipated and something she thought she'd never feel again. The more she tried to keep her feelings about him in check, the more completely out of control she felt.The touching started something tingling inside her that quickly became a rush of emotions she just wasn't equipped to deal with. She watched his body with a detached fascination, the damp cloth leaving a glistening trail across his muscles as she moved it down his chest to his stomach. When she reached his waist, she noticed him becoming erect; it was impossible to ignore under the flimsy hospital garment. Then she did something so foreign to her character, that before tonight she would have sworn it was impossible. On an impulse, she found herself moving the cloth lower, using her free hand to pull his gown and blanket out of the way so she could touch him.The fabric grazed his sensitive skin along with the tips of her fingers. Her skin brushing against his warm flesh caused a surge to run through her body, making her to lose what was left of her will. Jeff spoke, almost breaking the spell she seemed to be under, but she told him to be still, unable to bring herself to stop touching him. The wall that normally protected her was nowhere in sight. The only thing she could think about was trying to bring him pleasure.Jeff had given up trying to understand what was going on. Sarah's touches felt so amazing that he pushed everything else out of his mind. There was an unexpected consequence to his condition. Without being able to see what was going on, he found that her every touch seemed far more intense than normal.He could feel her leisurely dragging the rag up and down the underside of his shaft. The fingers of her other hand slowly stroked a spot on his chest. She moved the wet cloth down and let it travel lower, then back again. His hips came off the bed as the pleasure was almost more than he could take."You better not move too much or you'll pull out your stitches. I'd like to see you explain that to the doctor."He heard her softly chuckle at the idea of that meeting. Although the thought was amusing, he couldn't concentrate on anything except her delicate touches. He felt her fingernail softly trail around the head of his penis. It was an unusual sensation. He couldn't remember a woman touching him quite like that. There was an awkward, almost innocent quality to her caresses."Are you sure this is what you want?" Jeff asked, suddenly afraid that if she went too far, it could push her away again. "I don't want you to; oh shit," he groaned, as he felt her warm breath.It caused him to break out in goose bumps and he grabbed the edges of the bed. She continued teasing him, making the experience even more erotic. He kept flexing his fingers, balling his hands into fists anticipating her mouth touching him. For what seemed like an eternity, he felt like he was undergoing sort of wonderful torture, his body desperate to find release.When the touch finally came, it was so soft and quick, he thought he imagined it. He held his breath, afraid he might miss it a second time, trying to almost will it to happen again. When it did, he couldn't remember ever feeling that aroused. It was soft, leaving a wet feeling on his shaft. She started dragging her tongue up the length like he was a Popsicle."Oh Sarah," he moaned, "that feels so good."His hips lifted slightly off the bed, and she took his reaction as encouragement, beginning to make small biting motions up and down the underside. When she reached the tip, she tentatively took it in her mouth, sliding down an inch or two, then grabbing the base with one hand. Jeff put his hands on her shoulders, resisting the urge to pull down, instead stroking softly.He began to move a hand up her neck when she reached out and stopped him. "Uh, uh," she mumbled, returning his hand to the bed.He took the hint and let her continue what she was doing. It seemed like her confidence was growing because she was becoming more aggressive. Her hand began stroking him and she moved her mouth down a little further. She let his cock fall from her lips and returned to the earlier technique of licking and biting his shaft. Her mouth moved up and down the entire length, letting her tongue dart out, touching every inch of the underside of his erection.The sensation was too much for him and Jeff cried out, "Sarah, I'm cumming."She continued the same motions, pushing her mouth harder against him. Jeff closed his mouth tightly to avoid yelling as he came, feeling his cum shoot onto his chest. His body jerked hard, followed by trembling that seemed to go on forever. As his breathing settled into a regular rhythm, he felt the cloth she was using move across his chest. He assumed Sarah was cleaning him up. With a last, deliberate lick that drew another shudder from him, she moved up his body, kissing him lightly on the lips.She laid down against him, with her head on his shoulder. They sat together silently for a short time. Finally Jeff couldn't take the uncomfortable silence."Sarah," he spoke softly, "That was wonderful. I just don't understand what happened. You said; well, you know," he trailed off, unable to find words to express his feelings.He heard her take a deep breath, knowing she wasn't sure what to say. Whether she was looking for the right words, or the right lie, he couldn't tell."Jeff, I don't know how to explain it. I wanted you to know how I really feel about you. I guess I got a little carried away. I hope you don't mind," she finished with a chuckle. She kissed him on the cheek, then pulled away.Jeff couldn't see her smile, but he could tell it was there. "I guess that wasn't the worst surprise I've ever had."He tried to sound jovial and confident, but couldn't shake his confusion. He had no idea where this left them and was afraid to ask. The last thing he wanted was to make things awkward again. They held each other quietly until she excused herself to go to the bathroom.Slowly, he sat up while she was gone. His chest still hurt, but it was better. He leaned back and relaxed, trying to figure out his next move. He didn't want to say the words, even in his own head, but he knew exactly how he felt about her. She seemed to feel the same, but there was something wrong. Was she afraid this was some sort of Florence Nightingale crush? If that's what she thought it was, how did her actions make sense?"I need to stop being a pussy and just be myself," he quietly scolded himself."What's that Jeff?" he heard her voice back in the room."I was just annoyed with myself because of putting you in that position yesterday. I'm sorry. I like you, but it wasn't fair for me to put you on the spot. I'm glad you came back tonight." He paused, then added with a smile, "Part of me is extremely glad." He hoped she'd take his jest as a sign that he wouldn't push the issue of them dating, at least for now."Well, I'm glad I came back too," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "Things are still complicated for me, but I wanted you to know I do care deeply for you. I just got a little carried away. I never imagined myself doing something like that," she continued, her tone betraying her sincere surprise.There was an uncomfortable silence as they each tried to think of what to say next.Jeff decided it would be best to take the pressure off of her. "How about if we just listen to the new album you got me?""That would be nice," she said gratefully.His considerate gesture reminded her of just how special Jeff was. She thought he'd want to talk about things between them which frightened her, because she had no answers. Like always, he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. There simply wasn't a frame of reference for her to deal with his insight and compassion.She sat next to him and resisted the urge to hold his hand. They talked quietly about nothing for the rest of the night. When she left, she still wasn't sure if she did the right thing, but was happy about it anyway. She wondered if he'd ever understand just how nervous she had been.Interrogations"Hi Jeff, I was wondering if you'd like some company," an unfamiliar voice said, rousing him from his thoughts about what to say to Sarah today."Well, I guess," Jeff said cautiously. "Who are you?""My name is Don Williams. I'm a police officer. I was there the night you were in the fight.""Are you the officer Paige told me about; the one who saved me?" he said hopefully."I don't know if ‘saved' is the right word," Don said humbly. "I was just in the right place at the right time.""Paige told me that you held me together with your bare hands until the paramedics got there. I'd say saved is exactly the right word," Jeff said gratefully."okay then, you're welcome," the policeman conceded. "I just wanted to make sure you were all right and see if there was anything you needed.""Um," Jeff stammered, "I was wondering; about the fight in the alley, no one has talked to me about that yet. I was kind of nervous, is everything all right?""Jeez," Don said laughing, "you think anyone is looking to charge you for what happened? I've had friends asking me if the story was really true. You're a; ""Hero, I know," Jeff interrupted, with frustration evident in his voice. "Seriously, if she had gotten hurt or worse, nobody would be calling me a hero, they'd be saying I was a stupid-assed vigilante. I'm lucky as hell things turned out as well as they did.""I guess," came the reply. "I thought you showed a hell of a lot of guts going in there. Everybody knows you called 9 1 1 first, and tried to talk your way out of it. Nobody thinks you were being a hot dog, if that's what you're worried about."Jeff visibly relaxed and the two men slipped into an easy conversation. An hour later when Don announced he had to leave, Jeff felt disappointed. For the first time since the alley, he actually felt on even footing with someone. He was in awe of the stories Don had shared. There was little about being a policeman that Jeff had really understood.When he stood up to go, Jeff asked, "So you're sure I'm not going to be in any trouble?""Those guys were human trash with a long record. If you hadn't stepped in, everyone knows that girl was going to have something horrible happen to her. Trust me, you don't have anything to worry about."When Don left, Jeff realized he felt much more at ease about things. At the same time, he knew there was something that had been bothering him for a while. His talk with Don had brought into focus exactly why it had been upsetting him. The problem now was figuring out if there was anything he could do to change it.A Life of PurposeJeff was deep in thought. Sarah had been there a little more than an hour, but he wasn't in a good mood despite her presence. "Are you okay?" she asked."I don't know," he said honestly. "It's just one of those days. I'm not sure why, but I've been trying to sort things out.""What sort of things?" Sarah asked nervously."Don't worry," he said, trying to reassure her. "It's about me." He thought carefully before continuing. "Sarah, why don't you ever talk about what happened in the alley?"Sarah was caught off guard. She stammered a reply, "I; I just thought you'd talk about it if you wanted to.""Okay, let's say I want to. Do you buy into all this 'hero' nonsense?""What you did for Paige was the most unselfish thing I've ever seen," she said firmly. "You were lucky to come out of it alive. If that's not being a hero, I don't know what is.""I want to say something, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea." He paused, trying to collect his thoughts, "I don't think I'm a hero and in some ways I'm ashamed of myself." When he was greeted with shocked silence, Jeff continued."Firemen run into burning buildings, the police protect people daily, soldiers risk their lives. That doesn't even count the people who take care of the sick, feed the hungry," he paused, looking frustrated. "You know what I mean."Sarah had no idea where he was going with this. "So what are you saying, you have to save people a lot to be special?"Jeff shook his head. "No, I'm saying people are defined by their actions." He paused, trying to collect his thoughts. "Sarah, do you believe in redemption?""Sure, don't you?""I don't know. I'm thirty and barely have anything to show for it. I haven't done any of the things I wanted to when I was growing up. Now I'm so up to my ears in bills that I'm just trying to make it to the next paycheck. I get a chance to help somebody one time and everybody's kissing my ass like I cured cancer. Anybody would have done the same thing. I was just in the right place at the right time."Sarah was indignant, "No they wouldn't have done the same thing!" Jeff was surprised to hear her voice breaking and could tell she was beginning to cry. The intensity of her reaction caught him off guard."If you haven't done enough in your life up to now, then change it when you get out of here. Don't you ever let me hear you put down what you did for Paige. Did you ever think maybe you were in that alley for a reason?"Jeff was sorry she was upset and didn't want to antagonize her, but he also couldn't let it go. "What, you mean some 'master plan'? Come on, do you really buy that? Why would I get to wipe away a whole life of mediocrity with one good deed?"She touched his face gently, trying to soften her tone. "What about that deed? Have you considered that she could have died if you hadn't helped her? You want redemption, try thinking about her life after that if she had survived." She paused and Jeff could hear a quiet sob."Nobody's saying you get a free pass for life because of what happened, but you damn well better believe we are all grateful for what you did. You know, I've been here getting to know you for a month and you are a very good person. I'm not sure why you doubt yourself, but I don't."Jeff sat quietly, trying to absorb what she said. Sarah was the only person who told him what she thought without trying to soften it. He respected her opinion highly. "Maybe you're right, but it's just so overwhelming. I'm really happy she's all right and I don't regret anything I did. I just feel like the media, your family, the hospital staff; it's just so much to deal with. How many times can you listen to someone say thank you or tell you how wonderful you are before you just don't know what to say back?"

This week even more CoCo discussion than you can stand, and news with El Curtis Boyle. ----more---- The CoCo Nation Show (TCN) - a weekly live and interactive discussion about the Color Computers, Dragons, MC-10, clones, and cousins! Website: https://thecoconation.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@The_CoCo_Nation Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thecoconationshow FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theco... Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCoCoNation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecoconati... PodBean: https://thecoconation.podbean.com/ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/105011302/ MeWe: https://mewe.com/join/thecoconation Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qx9Nx7... TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_coco_nation Email: mailto:show@TheCoCoNation.com Patreon: patreon.com/user?u=83010467 If you would like to chat on a live show of TCN using FaceBook, please follow this link and you will be good to go. The link is featured on TCN's group. https://tinyurl.com/FB-Chat Need even more chat? Join hundreds of other “CoConuts” (or is that CoConauts?) on the Color Computer Discord: https://discord.com/invite/4J5nHXm CoCo Nation logo by Ron Delvaux and Paul Shoemaker CoCo Nation theme music (c) 2022 D. Bruce Moore The CoCo Nation is a registered trademark of The CoCo Nation, LLC. All rights reserved.

In this special episode of the Oracle University Podcast, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham, along with Principal HCM Instructor Jeff Schuster, delve into the intersection of HCM and AI, exploring the practical applications and implications of this technology in human resources. Jeff shares his insights on bias and fairness, the importance of human involvement, and the need for explainability and transparency in AI systems. The discussion also covers the various AI features embedded in HCM and their impact on talent acquisition, performance management, and succession planning.  Oracle AI in Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/learning-path/oracle-ai-in-fusion-cloud-human-capital-management-hcm/136722 Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM: Dynamic Skills: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-fusion-cloud-hcm-dynamic-skills/116654/ Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode. -------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started!  00:26 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs here at Oracle University, and with me, is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services. Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week's conversation was all about Oracle Database 23ai backup and recovery, where we dove into instance recovery and effective recovery strategies. Today's episode is a really special one, isn't it, Lois? 00:53 Lois: It is, indeed, Niki. Of course, all of our AI episodes are special. But today, we have our friend and colleague Jeff Schuster with us. I think our listeners are really going to enjoy what Jeff has to share with us. Nikita: Yeah definitely! Jeff is a Principal HCM Instructor at Oracle University. He recently put together this really fantastic course on MyLearn, all about the intersection of HCM and AI, and that's what we want to pick his brain about today. Hi Jeff! We're so excited to have you here.  01:22 Jeff: Hey Niki! Hi Lois! I feel special already. Thanks you guys so much for having me. Nikita: You've had a couple of busy months, haven't you?  01:29 Jeff: I have! It's been a busy couple of months with live classes. I try and do one on AI in HCM at least once a month or so so that we can keep up with the latest/greatest stuff in that area. And I also got to spend a few days at Cloud World teaching a few live classes (about artificial intelligence in HCM, as a matter of fact) and meeting our customers and partners. So yeah, absolutely great week. A good time was had by me.  01:55 Lois: I'm sure. Cloud World is such a great experience. And just to clarify, do you think our customers and partners also had a good time, Jeff? It wasn't just you, right? Jeff: Haha! I don't think it was just me, Lois. But, you know, HCM is always a big deal, and now with all the embedded AI functionality, it really wasn't hard to find people who wanted to spend a little extra time talking about AI in the context of our HCM apps. So, there are more than 30 separate AI-powered features in HCM. AI features for candidates to find the right jobs; for hiring managers to find the right candidates; skills, talent, performance management, succession planning— all of it is there and it really covers everything across the Attract/Grow/Keep buckets of the things that HR professionals do for a living. So, anyway, yeah, lots to talk about with a lot of people! There's the functional part that people want to know about—what are these features and how do they work? But obviously, AI carries with it all this cultural significance these days. There's so much uncertainty that comes from this pace of development in that area. So in fact, my Cloud World talk always starts with this really silly intro that we put in place just to knock down that anxiety and get to the more practical, functional stuff. 03:11 Nikita: Ok, we're going to need to discuss the functional stuff, but I feel like we're getting a raw deal if we don't also get that silly intro. Lois: She makes a really good point.  Jeff: Hahaha! Alright, fair enough. Ok, but you guys are gonna have to imagine I've got a microphone and a big room and a lot of echo. AI is everywhere. In your home. In your office. In your homie's home office. 03:39 Lois: I feel like I just watched the intro of a sci-fi movie. Jeff: Yeah. I'm not sure it's one I'd watch, but I think more importantly it's a good way to get into discussing some of the overarching things we need to know about AI and Oracle's approach before we dive into the specific features, so you know, those features will make more sense when we get there?  03:59  Nikita: What are these “overarching” things?  Jeff: Well, the things we work on anytime we're touching AI at Oracle. So, you know, it starts with things like Bias and Fairness. We usually end up in a pretty great conversation about things like how we avoid bias on the front end by making sure we don't ingest things like bias-generating content, which is to say data that doesn't necessarily represent bias by itself, but could be misused. And that pretty naturally leads us into a talk about guardrails. Nikita: Guardrails? Jeff:  Yeah, you can think of those as checkpoints. So, we've got rules about ingestion and bias. And if we check the output coming out of the LLM to ensure it complied with the bias and fairness rules, that's a guardrail. So, we do that. And we do it again on the apps side. And so that's to say, even though it's already been checked on the AI side, before we bring the output into the HCM app, it's checked again. So another guardrail.  04:58 Lois: How effective is that? The guardrails, and not taking in data that's flagged as bias-generating? Jeff: Well, I'll say this: It's both surprisingly good, and also nowhere near good enough.  Lois: Ok, that's as clear as mud. You want to elaborate on that?  Jeff: Haha! I think all it means is that approach does a great job, but our second point in the whole “standards” discussion is about the significance of having a human in the loop. Sometimes more than one, but the point here is that, particularly in HCM, where we're handling some really important and sensitive data, and we're introducing really powerful technology, the H in HCM gets even more important. So, throughout the HCM AI course, we talk about opportunities to have a human in the loop. And it's not just for reviewing things. It's about having the AI make suggestions, and not decisions, for example. And that's something we always have a human in the loop for all the time. In fact, when I started teaching AI for HCM, I always said that I like to think of it is as a great big brain, without any hands.  06:00 Nikita: So, we're not talking about replacing humans in HCM with AI.                                                                         Jeff: No, but we're definitely talking about changing what the humans do and why it's more important than ever what the humans do. So, think of it this way, we can have our embedded AI generate this amazing content, or create really useful predictions, whatever it is that we need. We can use whatever tools we want to get there, but we can still expect people to ask us, “Where did that come from?” or “Does this account for [whatever]?”. So we still have to be able to answer that. So that's another thing we talk about as kind of an overarching important concept: Explainability and Transparency. 06:41 Nikita: I'm assuming that's the part about showing our work, right? Explaining what's being considered, how it's being processed, and what it is that you're getting back. Jeff: That's exactly it. So we like to have that discussion up front, even before we get to things like Gen and Non-Gen AI, because it's great context to have in mind when you start thinking about the technology. Whenever we're looking at the tech or the features, we're always thinking about whether people are appropriately involved, and whether people can understand the AI product as well as they need to.  07:11 Lois: You mentioned Gen and Non-Gen AI. I've also heard people use the term “Classic AI.” And lately, a lot more about RAG and Agents. When you're teaching the course, does everybody manage to keep all the terminology straight? Jeff: Yeah, people usually do a great job with this. I think the trick is, you have to know that you need to know it, if that makes sense.  Lois: I think so, but why don't you spell it out for us. Jeff: Well, the temptation is sometimes to leave that stuff to the implementers or product developers, who we know need to have a deep understanding of all of that. But I think what we've learned is, especially because of all the functional implications, practitioners, product owners, everybody needs to know it too. If for no other reason so they can have more productive conversations with their implementers. You need to know that Classic or Non-Generative AI leverages machine learning, and that that's all you need in order to do some incredibly powerful things like predictions and matching. So in HCM, we're talking about things like predicting time to hire, identifying suggested candidates for job openings, finding candidates similar to ones you already like, suggesting career paths for employees, and finding recommended successors. All really powerful matching stuff. And all of that stuff uses machine learning and it's certainly AI, but none of that uses Generative AI to do that because it doesn't need to. 08:38 Nikita: So how does that fit in with all the hype we've been hearing for a long time now about Gen AI and how it's such a transformative technology that's going to be more impactful than anything else? Jeff: Yeah, and that can be true too. And this is what we really lean into when we do the AI in HCM course live. It's much more of a “right AI for the right job” kind of proposition. Lois: So, just like you wouldn't use a shovel to mix a cake. Use the right tool for the job. I think I've got it. So, the Classic AI is what's driving those kinds of features in HCM? The matching and recommendations?  Jeff: Exactly right. And where we need generative content, that's where we add on the large language model capability. With LLMs, we get the ability to do natural language processing. So it makes sense that that's the technology we'd use for tasks like “write me a job description” or “write me performance development tips for my employee”. 09:33 Nikita: Ok, so how does that fit in with what Lois was asking about RAG and Agents? Is that something people care about, or need to? Jeff: I think it's easiest to think about those as the “what's next” pieces, at least as it relates to the embedded AI. They kind of deal with the inherent limitations of Gen and Non-Gen components. So, RAG, for example - I know you guys know, but your listeners might not...so what's RAG stand for? Lois & Nikita: Retrieval. Augmented. Generation. Jeff: Hahaha! Exactly. Obviously. But I think everything an HCM person needs to know about that is in the name. So for me, it's easiest to read that one backwards. Retrieval Augmented Generation. Well, the Generation just means it's more generative AI. Augmented means it's supplementing the existing AI. And Retrieval just tells you that that's how it's doing it. It's going out and fetching something it didn't already have in order to complete the operation. 10:31 Lois: And this helps with those limitations you mentioned? Nikita: Yeah, and what are they anyway?  Jeff: I think an example most people are familiar with is that large language models are trained on this huge set of information. To a certain point. So that model is trained right up to the point where it stopped getting trained. So if you're talking about interacting with ChatGPT, as an example, it'll blow your doors off right up until you get to about October of 2023 and then, it just hasn't been trained on things after that. So, if you wanted to have a conversation about something that happened after that, it would need to go out and retrieve the information that it needed. For us in HCM, what that means is taking the large language model that you get with Oracle, and using retrieval to augment the AI generation for the things that the large language model wouldn't have had.  11:22 Nikita: So, things that happened after the model was trained? Company-specific data? What kind of augmenting are you talking about? Jeff: It's all of that. All those things happen and it's anything that might be useful, but it's outside the LLM's existing scope. So, let's do an example. Let's say you and Lois are in the market to hire someone. You're looking for a Junior Podcast Assistant. We'd like the AI in HCM to help, and in order to do that, it would be great if it could not just generate a generic job description for the posting, but it could really make it specific to Oracle. Even better, to Oracle University.  So, you'd need the AI to know a few more things in order to make that happen. If it knows the job level, and the department, and the organization—already the job posting description gets a lot better. So what other things do you think it might need to know? 12:13 Lois: Umm I'm thinking…does it need to account for our previous hiring decisions? Can it inform that at all? Jeff: Yes! That's actually a key one. If the AI is aware not only of all the vacancies and all of the transactional stuff that goes along with it (like you know who posted it, what's its metadata, what business group it was in, and all that stuff)...but it also knows who we hired, that's huge. So if we put all that together, we can start doing the really cool stuff—like suggesting candidates based not only on their apparent match on skills and qualifications, but also based on folks that we've hired for similar positions. We know how long it took to make those hires from requisition open to the employee's first start date. So we can also do things like predicting time to hire for each vacancy we have with a lot more accuracy. So now all of a sudden, we're not just doing recruiting, but we have a system that accounts for “how we do it around here,” if that makes any sense.  But the point is, it's the augmented data, it's that kind of training that we do throughout ingestion, going out to other sources for newer or better information, whatever it is we need. The ability to include it alongside everything that's already in the LLM, that's a huge deal.  13:31  Nikita: Ok, so I think the only one we didn't get to was Agents. Jeff: Yeah, so this one is maybe a little less relevant in HCM—for now anyway. But it's something to keep an eye on. Because remember earlier when I described our AI as having a great big brain but no hands?  Lois: Yeah... Jeff: Well, agents are a way of giving it hands. At least for a very well-defined, limited set of purposes. So routine and repetitive tasks. And for obvious reasons, in the HCM space, that causes some concerns. You don't want, for example, your AI moving people forward in the recruiting process or changing their status to “not considered” all by itself. So going forward, this is going to be a balancing act. When we ask the same thing of the AI over and over again, there comes a point where it makes sense to kind of “save” that ask. When, for example, we get the “compare a candidate profile to a job vacancy” results and we got it working just right, we can create an agent. And just that one AI call that specializes in getting that analysis right. It does the analysis, it hands it back to the LLM, and when the human has had what they need to make sure they get what they need to make a decision out of it, you've got automation on one hand and human hands on the other...hand. 14:56 Have you mastered the basics of AI? Are you ready to take your skills to the next level? Unlock the potential of advanced AI with our OCI Generative AI Professional course and certification that covers topics like large language models, the OCI Generative AI Service, and building Q&A chatbots for real-world applications. Head over to mylearn.oracle.com to find out more. 15:26 Nikita: Welcome back! Jeff, you've mentioned the “Time to Hire” feature a few times? Is that a favorite with people who take your classes? Jeff: The recruiting folks definitely seem to enjoy it, but I think it's just a great example for a couple of reasons. First, it's really powerful non-generative AI. So it helps emphasize the point around the right AI for the right job. And if we're talking about things in chronological order, it's something that shows up really early in the hire-to-retire cycle. And, you know, just between us learning nerds, I like to use Time to Hire as an early example because it gets folks in the habit of working through some use cases. You don't really know if a feature is going to get you what you need until you've done some of that. So, for example, if I tell you that Time to Hire produces an estimated number of days to your first hire. And you're still Lois, and you're still Niki, and you're hiring for a Junior Podcast Assistant. So why do you care about time to hire? And I'm asking you for real—What would you do with that prediction if you had it?  16:29 Nikita: I guess I'd know how long it is before I can expect help to arrive, and I could plan my work accordingly. Jeff: Absolutely. What else. What could you do with a prediction for Time to Hire? Lois: Think about coverage? Jeff: Yeah! Exactly the word I was looking for. Say more about that.  Lois: Well, if I know it's gonna be three months before our new assistant starts, I might be able to plan for some temporary coverage for that work. But if I had a prediction that said it's only going to be two weeks before a new hire could start, it probably wouldn't be worth arranging temporary coverage. Niki can hold things down for a couple of weeks. Jeff: See, I'm positive she could! That's absolutely perfect! And I think that's all you really need to have in terms of prerequisites to understand any of the AI features in HCM. When you know what you might want to do with it, like predicting the need for temp cover, and you've got everything we talked about in the foundation part of the course—the Gen and the Classic, all that stuff, you can look at a feature like Time to Hire and then you can probably pick that up in 30 seconds. 17:29 Nikita: Can we try it? Jeff: Sure! I mean, you know, we're not looking at screens for this conversation, but we can absolutely try it. You're a recruiter. If I tell you that Time to Hire is a feature that you run into on the job requisition and it shows you just a few editable fields, and then of course, the prediction of the number of days to hire—tell me how you think that feature is going to work when you get there. Lois: So, what are the fields? And does it matter? Jeff: Probably not really, but of course you can ask. So, let me tell you. Ready? The fields—they are these. Requisition Title, Location, and Education Level.  Nikita: Ok, well, I have to assume that as I change those things… like from a Junior Podcast Assistant to a Senior Podcast Assistant, or change the location from Redwood Shores to Detroit, or change the required education, the time to hire is going to change, right?  Jeff: 100%, exactly. And it does it in real time as you make those changes to those values. So when you pick a new location, you immediately get a new number of days, so it really is a useful tool. But how does it work? Well, we know it's using a few fields from the job requisition, but that's not enough. Besides those fields, what else would you need in order to make this prediction work? 18:43 Lois: The part where it translates to a number of days. So, this is based on our historic hiring data? How long it took us to hire a podcast assistant the last time? Jeff: Yep! And now you have everything you need. We call that “historic data from our company” bit “ingestion,” by the way. And there's always a really interesting discussion around that when it comes up in the course. But it's the process we use to bring in the HCM data to the AI so it can be considered or predictions exactly like this. Lois: So it's the HCM data making the AI smarter and more powerful. Nikita: And tailored. Jeff: Exactly, it's all of that. And obviously, the HCM is better because we've given it the AI. But the AI is also better because it has the HCM in it. But look, I was able to give you a quick description of Time to Hire, and you were able to tell me what it does, which data it uses, and how it works in just a few seconds. So, that's kind of the goal when we teach this stuff. It's getting everybody ready to be productive from moment #1 because what is it and how does it work stuff is already out of the way, you know?  19:52 Lois: I do know! Nikita: Can we try it with another one? Jeff: Sure! How about we do...Suggested Candidates. Lois: And you're going to tell us what we get on the screen, and we have to tell you how it works, right? Jeff: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Ok—Suggested Candidates. You're a recruiter or a hiring manager. You guys are still looking for your Junior Podcast Assistant. On the requisition, you've got a section called Suggested Candidates. And you see the candidate's name and some scores. Those scores are for profile match, skills match, experience match. And there's also an overall match score, and the highest rated people you notice are sorted to the top of the list. So, you with me so far?  Lois: Yes! Jeff: So you already know that it's suggesting candidates. But if you care about explainability and transparency like we talked about at the start, then you also care about where these suggested candidates came from. So let's see if we can make progress against that. Let's think about those match scores. What would you need in order to come up with match scores like that? 20:54 Nikita: Tell me if I'm oversimplifying this, but everything about the job on the requisition, and everything about the candidate? Their skills and experience? Jeff: Yeah, that's actually simplified pretty perfectly. So in HCM, the candidate profile has their skills and experience, and the req profile has the req requirements.  Lois: So we're comparing the elements of the job profile and the person/candidate profile. And they're weighted, I assume? Jeff: That's exactly how it works. See, 30 seconds and you guys are nailing these! In fairness, when we discuss these things in the course, we go into more detail. And I think it's helpful for HCM practitioners to know which data from the person and the job profiles is being considered (and sometimes just as important, which is not being considered). And don't forget we're also considering our ingested data. Our previously selected candidates. 21:45 Lois: Jeff, can I change the weighting? If I care more about skills than experience or education, can I adjust the weighting and have it re-sort the candidates? Jeff: Super important question. So let me give you the answer first, which is “no.” But because it's important, I want to tell you more. This is a discussion we have in the class around Oracle's Embedded vs. Custom AI. And they're both really important offerings. With Embedded, what we're talking about are the features that come in HCM like any other feature. They might have some enablement steps like profile options, and there's an activation panel. But essentially, that's it. There's no inspection panel for you to open up and start sticking your screwdriver in there and making changes. Believe it or not, that's a big advantage with Embedded AI, if you ask me anyway.  Nikita: It's an advantage to not be able to configure it? Jeff: In this context, I think you can say that it is. You know, we talk about the advantages about the baked-in, Embedded AI in this course, but one of the key things is that it's pre-built and pre-tested. And the big one: that it's ready to use on day one. But one little change in a prompt can have a pretty big butterfly effect across all of your results. So, Oracle provides the Embedded AI because we know it works because we've already tested it, and it's, therefore, ready on day one. And I think that story maybe changes a little bit when you open up the inspection panel and bust out that screwdriver. Now you're signing up to be a test pilot. And that's just fundamentally different than “pre-built and ready on day one.” Not that it's bad to want configuration. 23:24 Lois: That's what the Custom AI path and OCI are about though, right? For when customers have hyper-specific needs outside of Oracle's business processes within the apps, or for when that kind of tuning is really required. And your AI for HCM course—that focuses on the Embedded AI instead of Custom, yes? Jeff: That is exactly it, yes. Nikita: You said there are about 30 of these AI features across HCM. So, when you teach the course, do you go through all of them or are there favorites? Ones that people want to spend more time on so you focus on those? Jeff: The professional part of me wants to tell you that we do try to cover all of them, because that explainability and transparency business we talked about at the beginning. That's for real, so I want our customers to have that for the whole scope.  24:12  Nikita: The professional part? What's the other part?  Jeff: I guess that's the part that says sure, we need to hit all of them. But some of them are just inherently more fun to work on. So, it's usually the learners who drive that in the live classes when they get into something, that's where we spend the most time. So, I have my favorites too. The learners have their favorites. And we spend time where it's everybody's favorite. Lois: Like where? Jeff: Ok, so one is far from the most complex one, but I think it's really elegant in its simplicity. And it's the Celebrate feature, where we do employee recognition. There's an AI Assist available there. So when it's time to recognize a colleague, you just need to enter the headline or the title, and the AI takes it from there and just writes up the recognition. 24:56 Lois: What about that makes it a good example, Jeff? You said it's elegant. What do you mean?  Jeff: I think it's a few things. So, start with the prompt. It's just the one line—just the headline. And that's your one input. So, type in the headline, get the recognition below. It's a great demonstration of not just the simplicity, but the power we get out of that simplicity. I always ask it to recognize my employees for implementing AI features in Oracle HCM, just to see what it comes up with. When it tells the employee that they're helping the company by automating routine tasks, bringing efficiency to the HR department, and then launches into specific examples of how AI features help in HCM, it really is pretty incredible. So, it's a simple demo, but it explains a lot about how the Gen AI works. Lois: That's really cool. 25:45 Nikita: So this one is generative AI. It's using the large language model to create the recognition based on the prompt, which is basically just whatever you entered in the headline. But how does that help explain how Gen AI works in HCM? Jeff: Well, let's take our simple prompt for example. There's a lot happening behind the scenes. It's taking our prompt, it's doing its LLM thing, but before it's done, it's creating the results in a very specific way. An employee recognition reads really differently than a job description. So, I usually describe this as the hidden part of our prompt. The visible part is what we typed. But it needs to know things like our desired output format. Make sure to use the person's name, summarize the benefits, and be sure to thank them for their contribution, that kind of stuff. So, those things are essentially hard-coded into the page. And that's to say, this is another area where we don't get an inspection panel that lets us go in and tweak the prompt.  26:42 Nikita: And that's generally how generative AI works? Jeff: Pretty much. Wherever you see an AI Assist button in HCM, that's more or less what's going on. And so when you get to some of the other more complex features, it's helpful to know that that is what's going on.  Lois: Like where? Jeff: Well, it works that way for the About Me part of your employee profile, for goal creation in performance, and I think a really great example is in performance, where managers are providing the competency development tips. So the prompt there is a little more complex there because it involves the employee's proficiency rating instead of free text. But still, pretty straightforward. You're gonna click AI Assist and it's gonna generate all the development tips for any specific competency listed for that employee. Good development tips. Five of them. Nicely formatted with bullet points. And these aren't random words assembled by an AI. So they conform to best practices in the development of competencies. So, something is telling the LLM to give us results that are that good, in that particular way.  So, it's just another good example of the work AI is doing while protected behind the inspection panel that doesn't exist. So, the coding of that page, in combination with what the LLM generates and the agent that it uses, is what produces the result. That's generally the approach. In the class, we always have a good time digging into what must be going on behind that inspection panel. Generally speaking, the better feel we have for what's going on on these pages, the better we're able to get the results we want, even without having that screwdriver out. 28:21  Nikita: So it's time well-spent, looking at all the individual features? Jeff: I think so, especially if you're anticipating really using any of them. So, the good news is, once you learn a few of them and how they work, and what they're best at, you stop being surprised after a while. But there are always tips and tricks. And like we talked about at the top, explainability and transparency are absolutely key. So, as much as I'm not a fan of the phrase, I do think this is kind of a “knowledge is power” kind of situation. 28:51 Nikita: Sadly, we're just about out of time for this episode.  Lois: That's too bad, I was really enjoying this. Jeff, you were just talking about knowledge—where can we get more?  Jeff: Well, like you mentioned at the start, check out the AI in HCM course on MyLearn. It's about an hour and a half, but it really is time well spent. And we get into detail on everything the three of us discussed here today, and then we have demoscussions of every feature where we show them and how they work and which data they're using and a whole bunch more. So, there's that. Plus, I hear the instructor is excellent. Lois: I can vouch for that! Jeff: Well, then you should definitely look into Dynamic Skills. Different instructor. But we have another course, and again I think about an hour and a half, but when you're done with the AI course, I always feel like Dynamic Skills is where you really wanna go next to really flesh out all the Talent Management ideas that got stirred up while you were having a great time in the AI course.  And then finally, the live classes. It's always really fun to take live questions while we talk about AI in HCM.   29:54 Nikita: Thanks, Jeff! This has been really interesting.  Lois: Yeah, thanks for being here, Jeff. We've loved having you on. Jeff: Thank you guys so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.  Lois: If you want to learn more about what we discussed, go to the show notes for today's episode. You'll find links to the AI for Human Capital Management and Dynamic Skills courses that Jeff mentioned so you can check them out. You can also head over to mylearn.oracle.com to find the live sessions for MyLearn subscribers that Jeff conducts. Nikita: Join us next week as we kick off our “Best of 2024” season, where we'll be revisiting some of our most popular episodes of the year. Until then, this is Nikita Abraham…  Lois: And Lois Houston, signing off!   30:35 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

Hi Jeff

Did you know that your calendar is the only productivity tool that can protect you from burning out and overcommitting yourself and, if used correctly, help you bring balance into your life? No? Well, let me explain in this week's podcast.   You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN   Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived Subscribe to my Substack  Take The NEW COD Course The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page   Script | 342 Hello, and welcome to episode 342 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. In his book, The Paradox of Choice, Professor Barry Schwartz explains how too many choices can slow us down, create confusion and reduce sales.  You can see this in recent times with the explosion in new productivity apps. Thirty years ago, the only tools you had to manage your time and your work were diaries.  There was a lot of different styles to choose from, but the price point of these diaries helped to make choosing a diary reasonably simple.  Many companies gave away diaries as gifts to customers, some issued all their staff with one, while some people would go out an buy their own—I was one of those. Yet because a diary can only show you the same thing—your twenty-four hours or seven days—people were much more focused on the doing part, and less on collecting and organising. And let's be honest, if all you have is a diary, there not a lot of organising you can do.  While we now have digital calendars, task managers and notes apps, really only two things have changed. The speed at which we can collect information and the increase in the number of potential tools we can use to help our productivity.  Unfortunately, that increase in productivity tools has caused a lot of confusion. Many people confuse events—something that happens at a specific time on a given date—and tasks—something that can be done at any time.  When that happens, the only outcome is going to be overwhelm and a lot of rescheduling. Not a very productive way to go about your day.  This week's question goes to the heart of this issue. So, without further a do, let me hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this weeks' question. This week's question comes from Jeff. Jeff asks, hi Carl, I'm very interested in your ideas around how to use a calendar versus using a to-do list. Could you explain your thinking around this? Hi Jeff, I certainly can.  In Your Time, Your Way, I mentioned when I visit companies I notice that those people who began their careers in the early to mid 1990s are generally more organised than their younger colleagues.  Of course that's not a scientific observation, but I wonder if that's down to how large corporations in the 1990s often sent their staff on time management training courses. You don't hear of those courses much today.  It's also likely that those who began in the 1990s developed solid time management practices and have not changed their approach much over the years. I'm sure they've switched over the a digital calendar, but a lot still carry round note books.  I remember seeing an interview with Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, in around 2015. He was interviewed in his then office, and while there was an iMac on his desk and a MacBook Pro on a table behind him, there was also a notebook and pen. This was after the Apple Pencil had come out, which, in theory, meant he no longer needed to carry a notebook and pen.  Tim Cook will have begun his career in the mid to late 80s, and while at IBM, he will have been sent on a time management course—I do believe, IBM worked with the Franklin Quest organisation back then—which meant he will have gone through his career with a solid knowledge of time management principles.  So, that's a little background. Now, how do we use our calendars today so we are operating at our most productive each day? Well, first we need to know to difference between a task or to-do and an event.  A task or to-do is something you can do at anytime. For example, if you need to respond to a question from a client via email, you could do that at 9:15 am or 2:35 pm. There's no fixed time. Similarly, if you want to finish off a report for your boss, you could do that at 10:00 am or 3:20 pm.  As long as you finish the report today—your plan, it doesn't really matter when in the day you finish the report. And event on the other hand is time specific. If you have a meeting with your boss at 10:00 am in your boss's office. You'd better be there at 10:00 am.  If it takes you thirty-five minutes to get to your office, that means you will need to leave your home around 9:15 am to be sure you will be at your boss's office by 10:00 am.  A wise person would block 9:15 am 10:00 am for travel time as well as the meeting time on their calendar. That's basics. Now, given that your calendar is about specifics, and your task manager is about options, we can better manage all the stuff coming at us.  Your calendar can be used as a very powerful tool if you trust it. By trusting your calendar, I mean that you don't ignore it. That you check it each morning to see what you are committed to and if you cannot do something, you will reschedule it.  One way to get the most out of your calendar is to use a method called time blocking. Time blocking does not mean you block every hour of your day, what it means is if you need two hours to work on that report, you would block the time out on your calendar.  You can become very tactical here too.  One way is to establish when you are at your most focused. Most people will either be early birds or night owls. According to author Daniel Pink, only around 3% of the population are at the most focused in the afternoons.  If say you are more focused in the morning, you can block two-hours out between 9:30 and 11:30 am for “focused work”.  This means, that each morning between 9:30 and 11:30, nobody can schedule appointments with you. Your calendar is blocked for doing your most important tasks.  Knowing that you have this time protected does a lot for your stress levels. You know you have two uninterrupted hours for getting on with your work.  And often, having two uninterrupted hours for doing critical work is all you need to stay on top of your projects.  Unless you are nomadic, it's likely that being able to block the same time each day for focused work will be difficult. There will always be a need for flexibility. Yet, if you were only able to protect two-hours three times a week, you would still have six hours of uninterrupted time each week.  Imagine what you could do in those six hours.  I protect two hours each morning for writing on a Monday and Tuesday, and the four hours is enough for me to get all my writing done for the week. Occasionally, I will need to move things around, but for the most part, those times are fixed and that gives me the confidence that I have sufficient time each week to get my committed writing projects complete.  What all this means is your calendar is the hub for everything you do. It will tell you if you have enough time for doing your work, and where you need to be on any given day.  If you need to collect your daughter from School on Thursday at 4:00 pm, that will be on your calendar. If it takes you thirty minutes to get to your daughter's school, you would block time from 3:30 pm to collect her.  This also means you would be unwise to schedule a meeting after 3:00 pm (meetings have a habit of overrunning). You would not be focused in the meeting, you'll be clock watching and stressed.  Instead, you could use the thirty-minutes to respond to your communications, or even plan the next day.  You calendar should also be the first thing you look at when you plan your day. Whatever's on your calendar is fixed. You're committed to it.  If you see you have six or seven hours of meetings today, how much time will you have for your tasks? Not much.  If you begin the day, with six hours of meetings and a task list of thirty or more tasks, your day's broken before it's begun. You won't be able to do everything on your task list and attend all those meetings.  Either you cancel meetings or your remove some of the tasks, leaving only the critical ones.  Today, for example, I have five hours of meetings and my to-do list has five tasks. It's still going to be a busy day, but it's doable… Just. I suspect already, that one or two of those tasks will be pushed off to another day.  I don't care. The most important parts of my day are the confirmed appointments.  If I find myself with some critical tasks that must be done, then I will have to find time on my calendar to do them. I'm comfortable rescheduling meetings if necessary to complete an important piece of work. You should be too.  Your calendar is never going to lie to you. It only shows the 24 hours you get each day. How you use those hours is largely up to you. If you open up your calendar to everyone, there's no point in complaining you don't have time. You do have time. By allowing other people to schedule meetings with you without first consulting you, you are allowing g them to steal your time.  If you need time for exercise, to be at your son's school concert or to finish any important piece of work, it's on you to protect that time on your calendar.  Your task manager and notes app will not help you here. You can throw a hundred tasks into your task manager and date them for tomorrow And tomorrow you will have a hundred tasks to complete.  You task manager will never tell you that you don't have time to do all those tasks. Only you calendar will do that. So there you go, Jeff. That's how to use a calendar. It's your connection with the real world. It never lies to you and it's a tool you need to be in control of.  Thank you for your question, Jeff, and thank you to you too for listening. It just remains for me now to wish you a very very productive week.   

This week, how to process your task manager's inbox quickly and effectively so you can get focused on what needs to be done.   You can subscribe to this podcast on: Podbean | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | TUNEIN   Links: Email Me | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Linkedin   The Ultimate Productivity Workshop  Get Your Copy Of Your Time, Your Way: Time Well Managed, Life Well Lived Take The NEW COD Course The Working With… Weekly Newsletter Carl Pullein Learning Centre Carl's YouTube Channel Carl Pullein Coaching Programmes The Working With… Podcast Previous episodes page Script | 336 Hello, and welcome to episode 336 of the Your Time, Your Way Podcast. A podcast to answer all your questions about productivity, time management, self-development and goal planning. My name is Carl Pullein, and I am your host of this show. One issue that pops up regularly in my coaching programme is an overwhelming inbox. There are too many unclear items left to fester and fill up space, with no clear pathway to dealing with whatever needs to be done.  Now, it's true that you need to collect things. If you're not collecting your commitments and ideas, you soon find yourself forgetting to do the important things you have committed to. However, collecting is just the first part of a three-part process. You also need to organise what you collect and then do the work.  There are no shortcuts around this. These are the three principles of task management. Collect whatever needs to be collected, organise what you collect and then do the work.  This is something I have learned the hard way. I've collected thousands of items over the years, and in my early days, before I had learned the basic principles, that meant my inbox filled up and just became an overwhelming mess. It was a place I never wanted to visit because it just reminded me of how unproductive and disorganised I was.  I know those basic principles now: I collect stuff, regularly organise what I collect, and then do the work.  Today's podcast is about organising what you collected. I will tell you how to quickly clear your inbox, sort out the important from the unimportant, and, more importantly, get comfortable deleting stuff that is low in importance.  Oh, and before I forget, Friday this week—that's the 6th of September— sees the opening session of my Ultimate Productivity Workshop.  This is your chance to learn the fundamental principles and put them into practice so you can become a master of time management and productivity.  There are just a few places left, so if you want to become better organised, more productive, and in control of your time, join the workshop today. Details for the event are in the show notes and on my website, Carl Pullein.com. Okay, on with the show, which means it's time to hand you over to the Mystery Podcast Voice for this week's question.  This week's question comes from Jeff. Jeff asks, “Hi Carl, I am really struggling with my inbox. I put a lot of stuff in there, from ideas to things my wife asks me to do and emails that need a response.  Each day, I feel I am collecting thirty or more things, and then it takes forever to clear the inbox. I hate doing it, so I don't. And, of course, that just makes things worse. What can I do to make keeping my inbox manageable.  Hi Jeff, Thank you for your question.  The good news is there are a few changes you can make that will help to reduce the overwhelm caused by an overloaded inbox.  Let's first deal with the three questions to ask when you process your inbox. These three questions will clarify what you have and help you to determine if you really need to do them or not.  The first question is, “Do I need to do it?” This is designed to clear tasks that have already been done or are no longer relevant because events have moved on.  You will often add a task like “Find out if Margo has all the documents she needs.” Later that day, Margo may ask you a question about the documents. You now know she has them. The task can be deleted or modified if the question requires you to do something.  Or you may have been asked by someone to do something only for them to tell you later that the task no longer needs to be done.  These can all be deleted.  Similarly, you may have added tasks to look up something or find out more about something, only to look at the task later and wonder what you were thinking. You are no longer interested in the idea. Again, delete these.  If the task still needs to be done, then move on to the next question, which is:  What do I need to do? This question concerns properly defining the task. It's not good to have a task that simply says, “Tony script.”  That might have meant something to you when you added it to your inbox, but if you do not need to do the task for a week or two, when the task comes back you'll be unsure what needs to be done. Make it clear.  Rewrite the task as something like, “Send Tony the amended voice-over script.” This makes sense. If you are sending Tony many different scripts, you would add the name of the amended script to send so there is no confusion.  Another type of task to watch out for is the “follow-up” or “chase” task. These are often not tasks. They may be vehicles for completing a task. For example, if you asked Roger for a copy of the script to send to Tony, the task is not really to chase Roger.  The task is to get a copy of the script to send to Tony. Until you have that script in your procession the task is not complete. Adding another task to chase Roger duplicates the original task.  Instead, after asking Roger for the task, make a note that you asked Roger for it, add a date you asked, and then reschedule the task.  Every task in your task manager needs an action verb attached to it, such as call, write, read, review, design, sketch, reply, etc. If a task does not have an action verb, it has not been properly defined.  You will find that adding a verb helps you to estimate how long something will take.  For those tasks that are difficult to estimate the time it will take, you can use the “start, continue, finish” method.  I use this method for a lot of project tasks. For example, when I was writing Your Time Your Way, every Monday to Friday, I had a repeating task that said, “Continue writing book”. This meant I could decide how much time I had available to write the book and not worry about the task itself.  I knew I was never going to finish writing the book in one day, it was the kind of task that jut needed to done little by little. So, I allocated ninety-minutes a day, five days a week and repeated that for six months. That got the book done.  The third question is: When am I going to do it? This is where most other time management and productivity systems go wrong. Establishing whether you need to do the task and defining what needs to be done is pretty universal in the productivity world. Yet, it doesn't matter how well you define a task if you don't have time to do it.  Once you commit yourself to a task, you need to know you have time to do it. That means asking, when are you going to do it?  How do you do that? Open up your calendar and your task manager and have them side by side. Some task managers can show you your calendar at the same time. Todoist, Tick Tick, and in a couple of weeks, Apple Reminders will do that for you.  What you are doing is looking to see where you have gaps in your schedule for doing the work.  Now, the task could be grouped with other similar tasks. Doing your expenses, for instance would be an admin task. Responding to an email would come under your communications.  But, some tasks may be too big and require a few hours to do. The question then becomes will you do in one go or split it up?  Your calendar will guide you. You will be able to see where you have time; if not, you can decide whether something else needs to be rescheduled for you to do the task by the date it's due.  Now, when you start going through your inbox and asking these questions, you will be slow. Remember when you learned to ride a bicycle? You didn't jump on the bike and go. There was a slow process of learning and building muscle memory.  The same will happen when processing your inbox. It will be slow at first as you're building your mental muscle memory.  I've been asking these three questions for years. It takes me very little time now, yet it was a slow process when I first began. The only option you have is to stick with it. As time goes on, you will get faster and faster.  You will also pick up the patterns. The different requests you get will fall into similar groups, which helps you quickly decide what something is and how long it will take.  Be patient and follow the process.  And… Do not be afraid to delete stuff. If it's important, it will come back.  If you are using the Time Sector System, you have a bit of an advantage. With the Time Sector System, the only tasks that matter are the ones you need to do this week. Anything else can be moved to your Next Week, This Month, Next Month or Long-term and on Hold folders. You can decide when you will do those tasks when you next do a weekly planning session.  So there you go, Jeff.  This is a process game. The more you follow the process, the faster you become. You also get comfortable deleting and delegating tasks. The goal is not to accumulate tasks; it's the reverse. The goal is always to eliminate. The less you have to do this week, the more focused you will be and the more flexibility you have for dealing with the unknowns that will inevitably come in.  I hope that has helped answer your question. Thank you so much for sending it.  Don't forget Friday is the start of September's ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY WORKSHOP. You can register by going to my website. If you are already registered, I will be sending you the workbook in the next day or two.  Thank you for listening and it just remains for me now to wish you all a very very productive week.   

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In this CPA podcast, we cover how to survive the misery of losing credits for two CPA Exam sections, studying for two CPA Exam sections at once & more. Have a question for the podcast? Ask Jeff. 1. Hey Jeff - I'm an international CPA student from Hong Kong. I'm just getting started with the CPA Exam process. Do I have to travel to the US to take my exams? If so - any recommendation on a state or city? 2. Erika - Is it possible to study for FAR in less than a month and pass, and if so - how much time is needed, and what is the study method? (also while working FT). (NINJA Only) 3. I received a failing score of 70 for BEC. This is my 3rd time taking it (previous scores are 54 & 61). I'm a new NINJA CPA subscriber. I was wondering if you had any advice on the next steps for my BEC retake. I saw on your website that there is a 4-week plan and a 7-week plan. Which do you recommend for this situation? Any advice and tips would be very appreciated!! - Emily 4. I started the becker CPA review last June and have put off taking far 3 times. When I tried doing everything becker said, it took me a month to get through 1 or 2 modules (yes, that's modules, not chapters). They said to write down every question I got wrong. That took forever. I also had sleep problems during the first 6 months of studying which really messed up my ability to study. I am so stressed out and confused as to how to digest the vast amount of information and retain it. I have a new job that starts soon and I really want to have at least one CPA exam under my belt so I can start my new job with confidence. 5. I am really struggling with passing the CPA exams and I am not sure what I should do to pass these exams. I started the exam process in November 2020 and have taken AUD, REG, and BEC thus far. I have failed AUD, REG, and BEC with scores of 43, 64, and 71, respectively. I do not know what to do anymore. I hammer MCQs and listen to your audio notes five times. For BEC, I read the entire book. I also started to do that with FAR, but I felt that I was not absorbing the information as well as I do with listening to your notes. Am I doing something wrong? Do you have any suggestions? I feel that I will not ever get through these exams, but I know I can because other people have done it. - Laura 6. Hello, Jeff. I'm preparing to study for my 3rd attempt at AUD. How often would you recommend doing the SIMS vs. MCQs? What sections of the MCQs are related to which AUD review chapters? - Paul (NINJA Only) 7. Hi Jeff, I did not pass FAR with a 74. I used the NINJA framework to the T, in my mind. But I have some holes evidently. Just trying to find out how to fix my mistake this time around. - Wil (Roger + NINJA) (and many more live CPA Exam study questions)

In this CPA podcast, we cover how to get accounting experience for your CPA license (does it mean leaving your current job?), Mock CPA Exams being a waste of time, MCQ vs SIM Study (50/50?), and much more. Have a question for the podcast? Ask Jeff. 1. I have taken BEC 4 times….. 68, 70, 71, 73. I am starting to get a bit stressed about it. I never did this poorly in college. I think I need to focus more and maybe just start the study process over for this exam. I do not want to have to retake AUD. That exam expires on 6/30/2022. I still have BEC, FAR, REG to complete. I am now going to commit more time to this as it is a priority for me. But I am considering switching to FAR, putting in the work, and taking it next. Then moving on to REG, then restudying for BEC and completing it. Do you think this makes sense? If not, could you give me your insight on a course of action? I appreciate your time and help. - Micah 2. Hi Jeff, I scored a 74 on the first FAR exam. I don't think my concepts are weak (except Governmental accounting, leases, and pensions) How should I solve MCQs on NINJA now, and how many? 3. Do I need to keep studying the books I got from Roger CPA or do I use NINJA CPA? I want to make sure I do not have to do both materials at the same time. 4. Combo: Do you have mini mocks instead of 4 long hours test if I can have 1.5 to 2 hours mini mock window? Is the NINJA practice exam a good gauge to see if you will pass the actual exam? If not, what is a good gauge on NINJA to see if you will pass the actual exam (trending score, overall percentage, etc.)? Nicole (Roger + NINJA) 5. Deborah (Another71 Forum) What is your advice on how to acquire two years of accounting experience for your CPA license if you are in a different line of work? 6. Just curious how you would recommend preparing for the simulation portion of the exam - Michael (NINJA Only) 7. I emailed you a few days ago before buying NINJA. I failed AUD 3 times now (60, 63, 67) and don't know what to do. I've done so many random sets of MCQ and sims in Becker, read the book, and did the MCQ and sims for each module. I don't know where I am going wrong. I am retaking it for the 4th time. So, I have 10 days with NINJA before I take it. What do you recommend doing? - Mansi (Becker + NINJA) (and many more live CPA Exam study questions)

Today's podcast is a real treat. Do you wonder if workplace culture should be one of your organization's core strategic objectives? Well, learn from today's special guest about treating culture as a strategy for your organization.  Whether you work in a church, parachurch organization or company, the struggle to communicate can sometimes leave your culture in a painful, frustrating place. So, What do you do? Today, it's a real pleasure to be talking with Jeff Lockyer, Lead Pastor at Southridge Community Church in St Catherines, Ontario, Canada. Hi Jeff, and welcome to our podcast, today. Find full shownotes here https://www.bcwinstitute.org/podcast/s3e40-jeff-lockyer-2/

Oh. Good morning. Hopefully the audio is working. Well, I, get this gang. Well, morning gang? People just jumping on Good morning. Good morning. Jason here. A few of the team jumping on right now. So while everyone's just jumping on for the morning coffee and a chat, quick intro, Jason is my name. In property investing 20 years, coaching property investors across Australia and New Zealand over 18. And each morning. Morning Karen. Get together with whoever's available. Quick morning, live coffee, and a chat. Morning Alison. Just to talk through property investing and you know, the ideas of going the distance. Morning Julian good to see you. There's my brother, hi bro. So I get this question all the time. And today I wanna talk about the idea that there's a miss understanding or a misconception that being a property investor means that for the rest of your life, you decide you're gonna be a property investor for the rest of your life you're skimping and you're living on red beans and rice and you know, you'd never get to have any fun. And then, morning Philippa. You have to wait to have all the fun and all the good things like for 20 or 30 years. You have to go without now, go without now to have something later. And the reality is that's not true. That is, there could be anything further from the truth. And it just depends on what you're trying to achieve. I call it, I say red beans and rice because my wife and I, many years ago when we were basically living from paycheck to paycheck. Well, before I took money seriously, well, before I read a book called, "Rich Dad Poor Dad." And if anyone's never read that book, you should go read it. It inspired me. So, we were living budgeting a buffer. Absolutely Alison. We were living paycheck to paycheck and when we'd literally we'd run out of money for the week and we'd have a day or two left before we got paid. we'd have a tin of red beans and some rice, and you'd put a bit of a, coriander in with it. And that's what you'd have for literally a day. Breakfast lunch, and dinner. When you run out of money. But you know, we're a long way, a long, long way from those days. But I remember those days. And some people believe and think that... Hi Karen, how are you? You guys are traveling in the car also, make sure you don't crash. Some people believe that a property investing is about going without and I'm not gonna have any money. I'm not gonna have any fun. That's always going to be stressful and stuff like this. And the answer is no that doesn't have to be the case at all. Now, certainly I've seen property investors take on properties that are highly negative cashflow, not structured well, old properties that require maintenance, properties that require high touch. You know, you might take on a high cash cashflow property. You might take out a multi-room property. You think, Oh, it's gonna be better cause it's high cashflow and there's more problems. There's more challenges. And you know, for me as a property investor a long-term buy and hold property investor. There's a little bit of a sweet spot when it comes to owning the properties. And so for me, we wanna make sure and hopefully for you too, I don't wanna be being called all the time. I don't want maintenance. I don't want my agents calling me every five minutes. Okay. So for me, newer properties work in that sort of space. So, but it, how does it work? Here's what I sort of say to everyone. In the beginning in the, maybe let's say first one to five years, it is a bit of a focus on getting your deposits ready, getting your ability to purchase the acquisition strategy going. Okay? The acquisition strategy going. And it's a choice, it's a choice from you. It's a choice for you to take the resources any spare resources that you have which are spare cash over and above your buffer. And let's just quickly talk about buffer. As we think about, how we do this. Alison mentioned it before buffers, in my world I can, I coach my clients to make sure they have a minimum of $5,000 per property in their buffer for liquidity and safety reasons. So if you've got four properties that you need $20,000 for your property buffer sitting over there. And that's always just sitting there you don't go below that. And for me that gives you a bit of comfort factor for your properties to take care of themselves as we go along. Now, you should have a buffer in your personal life as well. I always say, you should have at least four months worth of personal cash buffer or sitting in your offset account for your personal world. So if your expenses for the month cost $3,000 times that by four, that's another $12,000 in liquid cash always. So I teach this concept called the zero line. Your zero line should not be, oh, I've got no money in the bank and don't worry. I'm gonna be safe cause I've got a credit card. That's an insane zero line. That is the wrong zero line. Your zero line should be as a property investor certainly, or anyone who's managing their and money. My minimum liquid cash balance sitting my offset account, or if you are listening in and you don't understand offset accounts you've got your money in a savings account which is actually called the losings account. All right, put it in the offset account. So the money in the offset account is $12,000. And the moment your balance drops below $12,000 that's below zero. You go into overdrive. You start saving, you're shopping, your shit up. You know, you stop spending, you get sorted. That's exactly what you have to happen, right? And your property buffers, five grand you've got four properties. You've got $20,000 in buffer in there. When it's below $20,000 then you make sure you get 20 grand back into your buffer. And buffer can be, gang, buffer can be redrawn equity from your properties. So let's have a look at that. But let's say you've got your two buffers organized and you've got some deposits working with your acquisition strategy. First one to five years sometimes is the most powerful time where we can get out acquisition done and it's powerful long-term okay. Powerful long-term. However does that mean that we have to live on red beans and rice forever and a day? The answer is no. When can we use some of the money? When can we use some of the resources to have some fun, with our property investment portfolio? You don't have to wait 20 years. You don't. Okay. So my advice or my encouragement is this, first thing's first. We've got to get our acquisition strategy going. We've got to get our momentum going. At least two deposits into properties that you're looking to cycle two to three deposits. Now that's gonna be anywhere from a 100 to a $150 of equity or cash in your properties as your deposits. And what we want those deposits to be doing is recycling and coming back out of those properties in let's say, two to five years and then going again. So you're not having to always save and scrimp for the next deposit. So once you've got a couple of deposits, two to three deposits in, then you can let them recycle and roll forward. You've got your personal buffer set aside. You've got your property buffer set aside, and any money above those amounts we can have fun with. So let's have a look at this. Let's say every year you're getting back 10, 15, $20,000 in tax money back. Now you can be putting that straight into your offset account. You can be making another extra payment on your mortgage if you want to. Morning James. Or what I do is I say anywhere between two and 5%, do the mathematics. Two and 5%, of your surplus tax money or your cashflow money out of your property portfolio for the year can be used towards fun. Sometimes you can get up to 10% if you want to of your net equity and your net cashflow back in your pocket. But usually, very usually between five and $10,000 a year. Once you've got three or four properties going, and if you're on a combined income between a couple anywhere from a 100 to $150,000, you're gonna get 15, $20,000 back in tax. You're gonna get some extra positive cashflow. You're gonna get a little bit of equity growth in your properties. And there is no problem. Zero problem at all, taking five or $10,000 a month. Hi Jeff, how are you, Mike? It is beautiful day in the Gold Coast. There is no problems at all taking five or $10,000 a year and having fun with it. Buying some toys, going on a holiday, fixing up the house at home, doing something special for yourself, whatever it is. And, hear me when I say this fun, gang. That money has to come from renewable sources. It's like renewable energy, right? The sun comes up every day. Don't miss the little secret in this. Don't spend your income money that you exchanged your time for. Your life for, okay. You go to work, you exchange your life. You exchange your time and you get some money. Nothing wrong with that. Okay. But don't then go and spend that money on things that de-value. Because once it goes there, it's not replenishable. It doesn't replenish. Instead of spending it directly once you earn it, you then take the money and put it into an asset. A property, shares, I don't mind. Put it into an asset. And that asset now earns, creates money and wealth. It creates capital growth. It creates tax deductions. It creates cashflow and the renewable, the renewable cash return from the asset, you can then go and spend and have fun with. Don't spend the non-renewable earnings which is your energy and your life for the money. It has to go one step further to an asset that asset earns cash, growth and tax deductions, gives it back to you and then you can go have fun with it. Everyone following along? Give me a thumbs up on the chat if you get what I mean, gang. All right. Don't spend your money directly from earning it. Give me a thumbs up or a love heart or something if you're following along, understanding what I mean. You can spend money that is created from your assets. Aah. Sweet ass. You can spend money created from your assets, because it's renewable, it's replenishable. It just keeps going. The, rent keeps going. The tax keeps going. The tax returns keep going. Long-term the capital growth keeps going. Do not consume non-renewable assets. which is your time and your effort. Put it into our investments as you go along. Well, hopefully everybody got the hang of that today, it was question... Hi Henry. There he is. All the way from Emerald in Rio. Hi Emerald. Hopefully that was a cool one today. A bit of a chat, a bit of a coffee and a chat. Hi Marie. Great to hear from you. a thumbs up. Yeah. Facebook's changed a few things on their apps and yeah, thanks. I couldn't see the chats the other day, but hey, listen gang. Hopefully that was a good one today. Join me again tomorrow for another coffee and a chat right about the same time and hi, listen. Anyone listening in. If you're interested in finding out a little bit more about what we do at positive coaching and mentoring and so on, tonight, we've got a bunch of Webinars on from my coaches all around Australia. There's four or five Webinars on tonight. If you wanna track one of those down and have a listen in, to listen to the strategy, the highest strategy that we do with coaching property investors across Australia and New Zealand, track us down in Facebook, under events or on our Website. Love to see you there. Love to help you out if you need some help. And if not, keep being awesome, keeping being amazing and keep joining me for a morning coffee and a chat and track down my podcasts. I actually chatted to a guy last week, Tim Forester. who's worth close to a billion dollars. Close to a billion dollars. Come on gang listen to that podcast. What is a billionaire, almost a billionaire say about wealth. The true meaning of wealth. It's a pretty cool one. So track us down, track us down on iTunes or anywhere else. You know, you can listen to those podcasts. Hope you get a bit out of it 'cause I certainly did chatting to, almost a billionaire and finding out about his attitude towards investing and a true meaning of wealth. You might be quite interested to hear that one. Anyway gang. You're awesome. Keep being awesome. Thanks for joining me and see you tomorrow. Right about the same time for another coffee and a chat.

Jeffery loves Rhyhorn. Here's why. Find Jeffery at @EuripidesRedux on Twitter and listen to Unwell! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Celeste loves Psyduck. Here's why. Find Celeste at @CConowitch on Twitter and find all of the stuff she does at celesteconowitch.com. And listen to Venture Maidens! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Brandon loves Gengar. Here's why. Find Brandon at @BrandonGrugle on Twitter and listen to the new shows on Multitude: NEXT STOP and Meddling Adults Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Sarah loves Electabuzz. Here's why. Find Sarah at @sarahshachat on Twitter and listen to Wolf 359, Zero Hours, No Bad Ideas, and her episode of The Truth! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Jordan loves Jigglypuff. Here's why. Find Jordan at @JordanAdika on Twitter and listen to ARCS! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Heddy loves Ninetales. Here's why. Find Heddy at @HeddyHunt on Instagram! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

David needs a Pokemon to love! I'm here to help. Find David at @icarusfloats on Twitter and hosting Radio Drama Revival! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Josh loves Croagunk. Here's why. Find Josh at @ProfCoppermane on Twitter! Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Julia loves Arcanine. Here's why. Find Julia Schfini at @juliaschfini on Twitter and @juliavernerose on Instagram. Here is that buckwild wrestling thing Julia was talking about. Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Mischa Stanton loves Bulbasaur. Here's why. *** Find Mischa at @mischaetc on Twitter and listen to their awesome sound design work at mischastanton.com. Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Amanda McLoughlin loves Eevee. Here's why. *** Find Amanda McLoughlin at @shessomickey on Twitter or as she's running Multitude, a podcast collective and studio. Eric is doing this for fun, but if you wanted to follow him on Twitter at @el_silvero or listen to his shows Join the Party, NEXT STOP, or HORSE, that would be lovely. The theme song is "Return to French Toast Castle" by Jeff Brice. Hi Jeff! #WYFPatissnay

Play ball! Having a career in baseball for over 30 years just sounds like a great way to earn a living, and my guest today on the #MakeYourMark podcast, Jeff Idelson, has been the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY for 11 years! Not only has he presided over an exciting time in baseball history, but he’s made his impact on America’s pastime, and he has great stories to tell! “I got the Yankees job in December of ‘88, and I go to a kick-off cocktail party before the team is going to spring training in ‘89, I was 24 years old and he is there, and I walked right up to him and said, ‘Hey Mr. Steinbrenner, I want to introduce myself to you. I’m Jeff Idelson, I’m your new assistant PR Director.’ He puts his hands on my shoulders, and says ‘Good to have you! You’re that young man from Detroit, aren’t you?’  I said ‘No sir, I’m the young man from Boston!’ and he said ‘Great to have you on board, I have three words of advice for you. Rent, don’t buy!’. I nodded my head, you know, the sage advice from your new boss. Working for him was incredibly rewarding, very difficult guy to work for, a guy who was focused on winning, focus on putting together a product, and we were terrible when I was there. But I learned a lot from him about just being ahead of the curve, how to anticipate, how to manage relationships, it was tough love but it was perfect for me at that age.” Jeff’s career in baseball has spanned from selling hotdogs in Fenway Park, to working for the Boss, George Steinbrenner, and 25 years in Cooperstown, and we cover a wide range of baseball topics, including the chances of Pete Rose along with those suspected of steroid use to be inducted into the Hall, and the incredible HOF Class of ‘19! “I remember having a conversation with a guy named Seymour Siwoff, who bought the Elias Sports Bureau 60 years ago, in fact he still runs it, he’s like 98 now, great guy, but you want to talk about a different era. He calls me on a Saturday morning 7 o'clock and I was like, why is my phone ringing, I don’t work for the team anymore! He says ‘Hi Jeff, it’s Seymour!’ This was in 1994, the internet was just being born and he says, ‘You know I've donated every day-by-day for every player in the history of baseball to your library’ and these are giant ledger books, it’s the statistics for every guy, and he says, ‘I understand you’re going to put all those things on the internet.’ And I said, ‘Seymour, that’s the furthest thing on my mind! All that I am trying to do is to drag people to Cooperstown!’ and he says ‘Good! The internet is a fad, it’s like the hula hoop, it’s going to be gone in a few years!’” This episode was special for me as it stirred up some great memories I have within baseball, including Little League, trading baseball cards, and attending the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. This is a perfect listen for the season! “Pete Rose is a good example. When I came to the Hall in 1994, the big topic was Pete, who back in ‘91 had been banned by baseball. Arguably one of the top hitters of all time, and here you have a Hall of Fame without the all-time hits leader! But baseball’s rules for election don’t consider players who are on the ineligible list, which Pete was on and is still today, and he did nothing to show he belonged in the Hall. As you walk into every clubhouse, as I have done, and the first thing you see is, ‘Don’t Gamble on Baseball’, and Pete admitted to gambling on baseball. Now you have legalized gambling on baseball, you have casinos involved on a tangential level, yet I don’t see his candidacy changing.” “I am trying to make sure the game remains relevant to the younger generations, and it’s challenging, because you have a sport that is tried and true to its traditions, we don’t like to change things very often, and the game is a game of beauty.  But as we talked about growing up, and we wondered why we love baseball so much, well, the reality is that we did not have a lot of choices, and kids and adults today have a lot of choices, and that’s why you see maybe the interest in baseball waning.” Some Topics we talk about in this episode: Introduction - 2:03 Gravitating into Baseball - 3:13 Landing with the Red Sox - 5:37 Working With the Enemy, the Yankees - 8:46 Taking Advice From The Boss - 11:58 Changing My Lifestyle - 13:37 The Hall of Fame! - 14:58 I Am The Baby Boomer - 17:01 Becoming President - 20:14 Old Timer's Game - 23:18 Should Pete Rose be in The Hall? - 29:23 What would you change in Baseball? - 30:59 It’s All About Power! - 32:31 Wrap-up and Takeaways - 37:50 How to get involved Be sure to connect with me on Social Media @MarkMoyerCoach and go to my website, www.markmoyer.com to get access to the tips and strategies that my coaching clients get directly. If you’re looking for ways to Make Your Mark, send me an email Mark@MarkMoyer.com and I’ll get you going right away.   If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave me a quick review on iTunes. Your reviews and ratings will help me reach more people with ways to make their mark in life, business and career!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1tNop9hKu4 Subscribe/Comment/Review*: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | YouTube * (even if you hate it) :) Smart Enough to Pass - Another71 CPA Exam Podcast #91 Jeff, I'm at a breaking point. I failed 6 exams so far, I'm really busting my butt studying and putting in a lot of time and effort. I need some help because I don't know what to do. I signed up for Ninja monthly and I'll be honest, I've studied my hardest following your ELL program, but still, my studying has not translated. I have friends who passed this entire exam in 6 months and studying not nearly as much as I am. Please help me out. Thanks.-Can you walk me through your NINJA study materials as I am new to it?-I have noticed that a lot of the sample questions want an answer as to what a certain ASU topic covers - are we really supposed to remember ASU topics!!?? If so, is there some sort of a list that can be studied? Also - when are you going to do another podcast?-Hi Jeff, do I need to read the AUD book as a whole? It has a lot of pages or reading just AUD notes would be okay? My exam is in May 2019. Please advise.-Could there be a problem when I check in on the exam date if, on my Notice to Schedule, my name is: "First Name, Last Name", but on my Driver Licence is "Last Name, First Name"?-I am planning on getting married and changing my name soon. Do you happen to know the process of changing your name through NASBA and all of that? My master's transcripts will also say my maiden name. I hope that this is not going to be a problem.-I've been trying to overcome AUD for the past year plus and have failed. I've sat the exam six times. Somehow I keep scoring in the 70's but cannot get more than a 74. Can you please advise what else there is that I can do? I plan on sitting in early April again.-I took my first BEC test 2 weeks ago, I used Becker to prepare for it. I got 67, so I want to re-take it in three weeks, but I don't know how I should re-study for it. I just got access to the Ninja Review. Could you please provide advice.-I sat for BEC this past weekend, and I find out my results on the 19th of this month, and I'm not sure if I should move on to another topic, or keep BEC active. What are your thoughts??-Hi Jeff - I just signed up for Ninja after listening to your 'pity party' podcast and after just having sat for FAR and feeling absolutely miserable. My story is probably like a thousand others you've probably heard.… Any advice you have that may have worked for someone like me with the same background would be really appreciated. I hope that the NINJA materials can help me slay this demon once and for all! I really have the motivation to dedicate what is necessary for the CPA this time, but I can't fight the 'maybe I'm not meant to be a CPA' feeling even after changing my strategy, review course, etc. Have a CPA Exam Study Question? Send it below and I'll personally answer as soon as possible. To Your CPA Exam Success, Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) Another71.com & NINJA CPA Review    

Dr Amit Khera:                  Welcome to Circulation on the Run, your weekly summary and backstage pass to the journal. I'm Dr Amit Khera, associate editor and digital strategies editor from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. And I have the privilege of standing in for Dr Carolyn Lam, your usual weekly podcast host. Today we have a special treat. It is our semiannual fellows and training FIT podcast. And the additional part of this treat is we have three very special FITs today. These are our assistant editors for social media for Circulation. And really I want to introduce you just a moment, but I want to thank these three for their hard work and efforts. It really is them that helped bring our social media to life. And importantly for us, we really have a commitment to enhancing fellow education involving fellows in our editorial process and really making sure that the journal is appealing to fellows in training. So we really rely on these three to help us understand what best resonates and what is most helpful for fellows in training. So without further ado, Jainy Savla from UT Southwestern. Welcome Jainy. Jainy Savla:                         Thanks for having me on the podcast today. Dr Amit Khera:                  And we have Daniel Ambinder from Johns Hopkins University. Hi Dan. Daniel Ambinder:             Hey Amit. Thanks for having me on the podcast today. Dr Amit Khera:                  Absolutely. And finally we have Jeff Hsu from UCLA. Hi Jeff. Jeff Hsu:                               Hi Amit and hi everyone. Very glad to be here. Dr Amit Khera:                  Well, Jainy, I'm going to start with you. You've been with us on the social media side the longest. I think it's maybe almost a year or a bit more that you've been working on these efforts. And again, very much appreciate all of your hard work and insight. Tell us a bit about yourself. Jainy Savla:                         So I'm currently a research fellow at UT Southwestern. So I completed my general cardiology training and I've been doing some extra research training in one of our basic science labs there. Dr Amit Khera:                  So not surprisingly with your background, do you select an article? So we've asked them each to select one article as they've been working through the social media side and see all of our articles come through. Each to select one that they found was interesting and perhaps summarize for us what it included and what appealed to them. So Jainy, tell us a little bit about the article you chose and why you chose it. Jainy Savla:                         So, I chose one of the articles that was published in April of 2018 from the Molkentin team lab. And this is a basic science article that focused on which types of cells contribute to heart regeneration. They hadn't thought that there was cardiac progenitor cell that could contribute to the development of new cardiomyocytes. And more recent data has shown that maybe that's not quite the case. So what this study did was used a lot of fancy lineage tracing models to try to figure out which types of cells we're actually contributing to the development of new cardiomyocytes. So importantly, what came from this was that one of their models, they were able to delete two transcription factors that are necessary for cardiomyocytes to develop from these progenitor cells. But they found that when they did that, they even got a higher number of cardiomyocytes that formed. And then what they were able to show in this paper was that actually comes from fusion of leukocytes to cardiomyocytes. And then interestingly, they found a role for one of these transcription factors and the development of endothelial cells. So that was kind of a new, not known function of one of these genes that was previously thought to be just contributory to cardiac development. Dr Amit Khera:                  It's really a fascinating article when you think about it. Most of the science we publish are people bringing to light new discoveries and certainly there was a component of that here. But in many ways, it was kind of a different article where there had been this a prevailing thought about these c kit positive cells and here they're actually had gone through, refuted what people had thought was happening with these in this de novo cardiomyocyte formation. So you'll see that very often where people's articles or work is headed out to sort of maybe refute or set right what's happening in the literature in the field. Can you comment on that as to that type of article and how that appealed to you in this study? Jainy Savla:                         That is interesting because previously it has meant that these cells can be used as a therapeutic option in human patients. But some of them were recent data showed that perhaps the new cardiomyocytes weren't actually coming from these cells, but it was hard to say. So the nice part about this paper was really they used a lot of important lineage tracing models to really show where these cells are coming from. And it helped clarify some of the, I guess, more confusing science that had been in the field since there were a few papers that showed these cells were contributary and then a few papers that have shown that maybe they weren't. So I think that's really helpful, particularly when you're talking about things that could be potentially used as therapeutic agents in human. And also the interesting thing is that while these cells themselves may not be useful to perhaps harvest and give to someone, you could potentially alter these cells and then they produce cells that fuse with cardiomyocytes. Or could you use this a different way? So I thought that was also interesting about this article. Dr Amit Khera:                  Great points in it. It does remind us again that in our enthusiasm for rushing things to clinical practices in some things in this field, the importance of rigorous basic science to really understand the molecular underpinnings. And as you mentioned, there's some new insights here that could be used for clinical therapeutic purposes in the future. So definitely an interesting article and glad you enjoyed it and brought it to our attention. I'm going to ask you a bit of a different question. You again have been working with this in the social media side for longer. You've seen this now for some time about the different articles that come through. I know you and I've had several conversations about our different platforms, Twitter or Facebook, and how they're different and how we engage with them and how we engage with the audience. Can you tell us a little bit just reflecting now on your time and working with social media from a journal perspective, kind of what you've learned? What are some interesting observations over this year? Jainy Savla:                         Definitely one interesting observation is just that their general usage of these social media platforms has increased significantly since I've started doing this. And you can see this with when we get articles that are accepted, how many authors have Twitter handles that they'd like to be tagged in some of these posts. And that's just gone up significantly since I've started doing this. And that also changes sort of what the comments we get on some of the posts and the back and forth discussions that we're seeing on these platforms. And then the second thing I found really interesting over time is that the way people use Facebook is really different from the way people use Twitter. And you can follow the discussions that people have linked to our posts a little bit better on Facebook. And then on Twitter, there's also a lot of similar discussions about these posts. But they kind of manifest in different ways and it's really interesting to see how that plays out. Dr Amit Khera:                  I think those are fantastic points. And from a fellow's perspective, how do you think fellows are engaging with social media now compared to maybe, I don't know, when you started your training a few years back. What have you seen in a positive light? Jainy Savla:                         I mean in general, there are more fellows on Twitter now than when I was a first-year fellow. Even myself, I've got my Twitter account when I was in fellowship. I didn't have one prior to that. I mean it's interesting because people are able to showcase their work a little bit better I think with these types of handles whereas before maybe you wouldn't know that even one of your own co fellows had published something. So it's kind of nice to see people use that kind of as a networking tool in some ways or to showcase some of their own work, which is something that when I was a first year and I didn't have a Twitter handle and there weren't as many fellows on Twitter, I didn't really notice some of the work that's being done by some of my colleagues at my level. Dr Amit Khera:                  Those are great points and I'll stoplight some of the things you just said talking about it being a way for fellows to really showcase their work, to help with networking and in some ways, it's sort of the great equalizer. So I think it's really a valuable platform specifically for fellows. Well thank you Jainy. I'm going to move on to Daniel and hear a little bit from Daniel. Tell us a bit about yourself. Daniel Ambinder:             I'm currently a second year cardiology fellow at John's Hopkins Hospital and I plan on doing interventional and structural cardiology in the future. Dr Amit Khera:                  Great and certainly a lively and growing field and so many exciting things happening. Well, it's interesting you chose an article today that is more of a clinical article and obviously quite different than the last one we heard, but equally as interesting. Tell us a little about the article you've chose and why you chose it. Daniel Ambinder:             I was very excited about this article that was published in Circulation back in July 2018. So, it's by Dr Borlaug and Reddy on how to diagnose HFpEF and what they did was they took patients with clinical dyspnea and they used invasive human dynamics to kind of assess whether or not they had HFpEF. And by doing so they were able to generate a list of clinical and eco based guidance to help us kind of identify patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. So they came up with this amazing little table which was featured in Circulation and on Circulation twitter, where they have a chart that basically goes through several clinical variables including weight and hypertensiveness, atrial fibrillation, pulmonary hypertension, being elderly. And filling pressure is based on echo cardiographic information. And by that they were able to generate a score and give you a probability of if your patient has HFpEF or not.                                                 And the reason why I really enjoyed reading this article and also posting this article was because going through internal medicine and not being so fundamentally aware of echo and kind of what goes into understanding left ventricular filling pressures, it was challenging to make a diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Do you just basically say, "My patient has lower extremity swelling but normal EF? They have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and [inaudible 00:09:32] on the [inaudible 00:09:33]. And so I thought that this would be really helpful to the medical community at large. And in fact, shortly after we posted it, I saw that our cardiology console fellow is actually utilizing this exact table to help one of the medicine teams manage a patient with lower extremity swelling and come to the diagnosis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. So that is why I chose this article for today. Dr Amit Khera:                  That's a great article and I thought you summarized it very well. And it is a field. HFpEF you'd see a lot of articles in Circulation on this topic. We have many people that are interested from an editor’s level but also from a society level. This is a huge problem, but we know very, very little. And I'm sure you know that as well and this was a wonderful tool. Just shows you're sort of the beauty and simplicity. Although if you read it, the message were pretty rigorous and they had a lot of great work that they did to develop it. But I love that the H2 HFpEF, how they basically came up with it h for heavy and the f from fibrillation. So I thought that was incredibly creative and a very simplistic but useful score. So, you said your, tell us about yourself. Have you used the H2 of the HFpEF score yet? Daniel Ambinder:             Absolutely. I use it in clinic on a daily basis. And I actually pull up the Tweet in my office and show the patients why I think that they have heart failure preserved ejection fraction, especially since many of my patients start to get really nervous when you start talking about heart failure. But then they don't understand that they have a normal functioning heart. They can't really put those two together. And so going through this chart and going through the etiology, or at least what we know about heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, turns out to be quite helpful. Dr Amit Khera:                  And the basis of this study goes back to hemodynamics. This obviously is a cohort where they had done invasive hemodynamics to essentially diagnosed HFpEF based on pressure. So as you, as someone who's going interventional and structural where we are really seeing kind of the rebirth or refocus on hemodynamics again, tell me a little bit like what you're learning in terms of hemodynamics and how you think that importance in today's practice of cardiovascular medicine. Daniel Ambinder:             One of my passions is spending as much time as I possibly can in the cardiac ICU. And we're fortunate to meet many different patients that come in with very different kinds of cardiogenic shock for other hemodynamic compromise from other types of shock. And I have found it extremely helpful to think about either using a virtual Swan or by actually getting the measurements with a PA catheter to kind of identify where the break in the system is to hopefully provide our patients with the ability to turn them around in a fast manner before they develop metabolic compromise from prolonged hypoperfusion. Dr Amit Khera:                  Great summary of how you're using hemodynamics and the training. And I'm going to pivot. The last question for you is when we first met I think several months back and we're communicating about your interest in social media, one thing that was really interesting and fascinating was the great work you're doing on Twitter on your own account where you essentially, if I think you told me this right, you sit on your iPhone and basically in this matter of a very few minutes would construct cases and teaching points on Twitter. So tell me a little bit about that, about using Twitter for medical education and learning cardiology and cases. And I know you're passionate about that. So tell us a little bit more about that. Daniel Ambinder:             Back in May, last year, I had been in my first year of cardiology fellowship. And I was really kind of obsessed with grabbing as much imaging and cases as I could to construct them into teaching stories to share these important stories that I encounter with other people. And so also share the aha moments that I have when I'm learning from my mentors about a new clinical condition or even a clinical condition that I've encountered many times. We never thought about any unique way. And so I was putting these all together and developing somewhat of a library of cases. But I would share them with the residents that I was working with at the time. And then Dr Erin Michos was one of my mentors at Hopkins. She's an echocardiographer and she kind of exposed me to the Twitter community where you're really able to just start reaching out to different people and share the same insights that I had saved on my drive on my computer. And so I started constructing these cases, putting that together and developing them and then associating them with like a few bullet pointed tidbits of pearls that I can put on Twitter. And I quickly realized what an amazing community Twitter have to offer in terms of cardiology and in terms of the medical education community at large.                                                 At first, I realized you can't put out content and not expect to participate in a conversation. It has to be two ways. You have to really engage with others and others will engage with you. And then just a couple months later, it's really grown that you can post a case, post the teaching pearl and in about 24 hours it can be viewed thousands and thousands of times, really internationally. And generates just so much great conversation. So it's been really a tremendous way to communicate with the world, especially within the cardiovascular world. Dr Amit Khera:                  Well thanks. I think there's so much learning that can happen and I think the work you're doing with cases and with others. And I know when I've gone on Twitter, even in just two minutes you can see really fascinating things and learn a lot. So keep up the good work and appreciate your efforts there. I'm going to switch gears and finally finished with Jeff Hsu from UCLA. Jeff, tell us a bit about yourself. Jeff Hsu:                               I'm a fellow at UCLA. So I actually finished my general cardiology fellowship pretty recently and now I'm a research fellow in the STAR program here. I'm also enrolled in the PhD program at UCLA in the Department of Physiology and planning to defend in the next few months. So right now, very stressed out about that. Starting in July, I'll be starting advanced fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplant here at UCLA.                                                 Well excellent and best of luck to you in your PhD defense. Now you also chose a very interesting article that again, all of yours are a bit different. So tell us a little about the article you chose and why you chose it.                                                 When I chose this article, I was really excited by a few weeks ago. It was published in the December 4th issue of Circulation called Determining the Pathogenicity of a Genomic Variant of Uncertain Significance Using CRISPR/Cas9 and Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. So this came out of the lab of Joe Wu at Stanford and the co first authors is Ning Ma, Joe Zhang and Ilanit Itzhaki. But I think the beauty of this article is that it really addressed this frustrating clinical scenario in question that we often encounter nowadays in this era of genome sequencing. And now that we're sequencing a lot more people, since the cost of sequencing has come down a lot, we were finding a lot of these mutations that we don't know what to do with, so I think Dr Wu's lab really try to address this question using the disease model with the cardiomyopathy. So, leveraging Dr Wu's expertise in using human induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs, they found a patient who is actually healthy but apparently had this mutation in this gene called MYL3 or myosin light chain 3. And so this patient had a variance of uncertain significance in this gene.                                                 Now, notably, this patient, again had no clinical phenotype, was very healthy and the patient's family members over three generations were all healthy too. But had this mutation that based on in silico analyses was thought to be likely pathogenic. So using cells from this patient that they reprogrammed into cardiomyocyte, they tested various properties of these cells from the same patient to see whether or not they thought this mutation is actually a pathogenic mutation. So again, using these reprogrammed cardiomyocytes, they tested a variety of things including gene expression, sarcomere structure, and cell contractility, action potentials, and the handling of calcium. And they saw that even with this mutation, there were no abnormal findings in vitro in their system.                                                 Now just to prove that their cell culture system and this in vitro model of testing the pathogenicity of certain mutations actually works, they actually took cells from a patient who did have the clinical phenotype as a result of a known mutation that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. And found that when testing those cells in vitro, they did demonstrate abnormal phenotypes in all the parameters I mentioned before. So I thought this is really exciting. I thought this is a great way to address, potentially answer whether or not we think these variants of uncertain significance that we often encounter are indeed pathogenic because we are often just left in this situation where we don't know what to do with this information. But this potentially at least is a proof of concept for this protocol where we can finally take advantage of the ability to take cells from our patient and actually test them in the lab to see whether or not either various treatments work or whether or not these mutations that actually will results in pathology down the line. So I thought overall this was a great paper that was a great summary of how we can take the bedside to the bench actually. And I'm just really looking forward to the future where we can maybe then bring it back to the bedside. Dr Amit Khera:                  Well thanks. I think that's an excellent choice and a great summary. And this article really hit all of the kind of timely and cutting-edge topics in the era genomic medicine and precision medicine have really kind of individualized treatments. And when we get stuck, these VUSes, these are a nightmare. And also this is sort of proof of concept for extending this to other treatments and other ways to test drugs and therapies. I've heard Joe, we talk about this before and use the word disease in the dishes. He did I think in the article itself and it's exactly that. I mean the potential here is profound. I'll pivot this into the next question for you. For our roles, one thing we do is we interact a lot with media and I interact a lot with them to help translate, I guess, the articles that we have to things that would be able to be digestible for media and for lay individuals. It was interesting because it's hard for us to do that with basic science and most of the time we have some difficulty in translating that. But this one translated pretty well and I think we had done some various press releases and things because it really showed the potential of modern medicine and kind of the excitement of it.                                                 But that gets to the question I have for you, something we have discussed as well, your interest in basic science and some of the challenges of taking basic science articles and digesting them down to a couple hundred-word tweet. Even as beautiful as all the pictures are, and in this article I think there's six figures, but each panel is 10 pictures or 10 figures by themselves. And how do we digest basic science articles down to make them really appeal to people on social media and help people understand that may not be in the fields or in basic science that are clinicians, if you will. I know you've thought about that a little bit. Tell me a little bit about your thoughts on that. Jeff Hsu:                               Jainy, Dan and I have this challenge on a weekly basis, figuring out how to summarize great articles such as this one into a short tweet. And I think that is a big challenge particularly for basic science articles on social media to make it appeal to a broader audience because the audience you're seeing on Twitter and Facebook, again, they're not just basic scientists. If you want to catch people's attention, you need to find a way to really understand the big picture of the question you're answering in your basic science research. So I think that is a challenge. You're challenged to make your science appealing to a broader audience. But I think again, that's one of the advantages of social media is that you can appeal to a larger audience and have a wide range of people engage with your research and understand your research. So it is something that we work on is to try to pick out the figure that best represents the science that was done in these basic science articles.                                                 It can be quite challenging because a lot of times one picture won't do it justice. So it's tough to distill a full article in one picture. It is helpful when some articles do have a summary, a graphic or figure where they typically reserve their last figure for either a cartoon or some type of schematic that really explains either the mechanism or pathway that they explored in their article. So what we've found is that these articles that do have some of these illustrations or summary figures, they seem to engage a larger audience on Twitter and social media. So personally I find it more appealing when I do see these summary figures. So if there is one recommendation, I would have the basic science researchers, especially trainees is in this age of social media, try to come up with an illustration or summary figure for your research. I think it helps you figure out what is truly important with the research that you've done and helps you communicate this research to a broader audience. And I've seen a lot of people take advantage of a graphic designers to really help them illustrate their research. And I found that to be very effective in articles I've read on social media. Dr Amit Khera:                  Thanks Jeff. That's a great point and great suggestion. And certainly these days the most effective communicators are those they can translate their complex science into easily digestible bites and can think of ways to portray them in ways that sort of summarize, like you said, be it summary figures or otherwise. And it's a challenge and also talent. And you all are certainly perfecting that. Well, I think we've had an excellent conversation. I have to tell you, I'm so excited to get the chance to spotlight you all. You do excellent work each day. Every week you're working hard and coming up with great ideas and suggestions and we really value having your input as fellows and training and as a colleague.                                                 Thank you for joining us today on our FIT podcast. Amit Khera standing in for Carolyn Lam. We look forward to seeing you for our next edition of Circulation on the Run. This program is copyright American Heart Association 2018.  

In the last 13 years, Geoff McDonald has read 550 books and written sixty plus Book Rapper ebooks, as well as over 1000 blog posts. And now he’s launching two books on the same day, Done and Project Done. McDonald has always been prolific, great with ideas and creativity, but not so strong at execution. It wasn’t until he bought a new laptop computer that he realised the untapped potential of all that creativity, and the problems he had with not finishing his various projects. Whilst copying over files he found 25 unfinished books. I was like, “Oh, my God, how much of my time?” You know what’s going on, that if I’d finished even half of them life would have been different. I’d had a whole bunch of products I’d know I’d be known for, a whole bunch of my ideas, and in that moment, I realized my life had been about building this body of work. And I haven’t actually finished half my body of work. Heaven forbid, had a lightning bolt come down and zapped me on the head in a moment I would have had nothing to show. I would have had a whole bunch of unfinished stuff to show for my life. In this episode, we discuss the following: why we’re where we are with our creative projects how to improve our motivation the importance of adjusting our goals redesigning our environment for maximum productivity how to triage our priorities developing our inner drive making change stick and much more… You can find out more about McDonald and getting things done https://geoffmcdonald.com/ (here.) Read Full Transcript Mel: We're going to spend the next half hour or so talking books and publishing. I'd like to welcome Geoff McDonald. Hi Jeff. Geoff: Hi, Mel. Great to be on your show. Mel: Geoff has written a book called Done: Why You Fail To Finish Your Projects and What To Do About It. Everyone who knows me knows exactly why I've got Geoff on. He's read 550 books in the last 30 years, written 60 plus books under the guise of book report which we'll talk about shortly. He's got 1000 posts and over100 podcast episodes. And that's just in his spare time because he's also a Public Ppeaker. He's an ideas architect and the list goes on. Mel: Let's start with your current project, Project Done. Help us out, Geoff. We're writers and some of us are perhaps bits of procrastinators. It's what attracted me to your book in the first place because I believe you had that problem yourself, even though your list doesn't show it. Geoff: I can point to that list of all these things well done but I'm probably closer to you than you think, and I think it's an interesting one that there's probably a little tipping point there. Basically, I did my strength profile a while back and I realised I had almost no strength around the execution stuff. And pretty much that summed up what I'd been doing. Not finishing. A few years ago, I bought a new laptop computer. I previously had a desktop that had this really big hard drive on it. When I got the laptop, it had a really small hard drive on it, so I couldn't just press the button to copy all the files. I had to manually sort through them. I found an old book file. I had spent a lot of time on that one, but I never finished it, and this went on and on. It turned out there were 25 unfinished books and they weren't just headline blind folder. There were l50 to 100, 150 pages on each of these books. I was like “oh, my God, how much of my time?” You know what's going on, that if I'd finished even half of them life would have been different. I'd had a whole bunch of products I'd know I'd be known for, a whole bunch of my ideas, and in that moment, I realized my life had been about building this body of work. And I haven't actually finished half my body of work. Heaven forbid, had a lightning bolt come down and zapped me on the head in a moment I would have had nothing to show. I would have had a whole bunch of unfinished stuff

AKA: The Hokage and the Kremlin    this Episode we are joined by the Gallant!  Author of fanfics that will melt your mind.  The Samurai is away from home but wherever he roams he remeins loyal to his lovely fanbase.  We discuss a lady that's totally Ducked, why you should not cement your head inside a microwave, the conciquences of stellar rebound relationships, and some of the worse crossovers known to man.  HI JEFF!

Perhaps our most many fight ever, breaking into car shows, and the world ends not with a bang, but with a fart.  Hi Jeff!

The Samurai and his Sceming henchmen Chris Maverick battle a lack of toilet paper, rapidly diminishing scotch, and and end of the world that promises the Earth will be ground to gravel.  Nothing can stop the schmooze, or the Samurai.  Tune in and your first mind-blowing revelation is free! Hi Jeff

     Coke has advertised just enough to make to reach the end of the solar system.  We talk about a bushel of tiny countries and the battle is real and raw as two of the greatest mimics appeared out of nowhere to throw down just  before a theoretical brain virus ends the world.  That's right, the world ends, just like every week.  Don't miss this one.Hi Jeff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrz8lZsAwm4 Like the Podcast? Please Subscribe and Review![Listen on iTunes][Listen on Stitcher][Listen on Tunein] Want to be on the Podcast? Ask JeffFacebook Live A71 Links: More PodcastsYouTube (Subscribe)iTunes (Subscribe) Free CPA Exam Resources: CPA Exam Survival GuideCPA Exam Study Planner + Free Notes CPA Exam News:AICPA Released QuestionsCPA Exam Score Release May 5 & May 27CPA Exam Tips from Elijah Watt Sells Award Winners Ask Jeff (https://www.another71.com/ask-jeff/): 1. Rob - Hi, I am scheduled to take the REG exam in the beginning of July and I am interested in purchasing NINJA material. However, it looks like the NINJA material for REG is for tax law that is tested until 6/30/15. Does this mean that NINJA materials purchased now would not encompass subject matter that will appear July 2015 and going forward? Evan - Hi Jeff, when will the REG Ninja MCQs and Blitz be updated for the July exam? I'm guessing they aren't updates yet because people are still studying for the current test window. Great site/products and thanks a lot. 2. Rana - Can you please also give me advice on how I can pass this section? I've taken it 3 times so far. The first time I didn't study too well and got a 57. Second time got a 67 with MCQ weaker and Sims comparable. Third time got a 70 with MCQ comparable and Sims weaker. This time around i got comparable or stronger in all of my mcq subjects except Law, which was weaker. Any advice to give myself a push to get to that 75? 3. Y - My doubt is about the Ninja Framework. I don't know if I understand it correctly. What I understand of it is that I must see ALL the videos, but do I take notes while watching it? or Should I watch them all and then take notes with the book? I'm trying to be time efficient so thanks for your time! 4. Chelle - Hi Jeff, What advise would you give to me who has been out of school for over 15 years? I have a bachelors degree in Accounting earned 15 years ago. I'm a mom with a 5 year old and a 13 year old. I currently work full time with a group of CPA's and my managers encourage me to pursue the exam. Where do I begin? Do I take refresher college courses or can I just study the CPA reviews right away? I recently ordered for my transcripts and will send to the board of accountancy so they can let me know - what other courses I need to take to qualify to sit for the exam. Help! 5. Myranda - I came across your site/products while trying to figure out which CPA study materials I would like to purchase. I downloaded and reviewed the sample products that you have available on your site and like what I see. I also read through the CPA Exam Survival Guide, which I found to be quite helpful. However, I am still stumped as to how to approach studying/purchasing materials. I actually like the NINJA model that you have developed. But I am still slightly confused. So my questions are a follows: 1) Should I or do I need to purchase a separate program in addition to the NINJA program? 2) Do I need to purchase just videos from another company and then supplement with NINJA products? 3) In the CPA Exam Survival Guide it mentioned to "1. Nail the videos"...is this referring to the NINJA audio files? Or by purchasing other set of videos? 6. Hi Jeff, do you have a sample of what your NINJA MCQ is like? online or a pdf, etc. Also, approximately how many questions are there? Thanks!! 7. Varinder - Can you please send the 2015 AUD AICPA released questions. I am unable to find them on the website. 8. Mack - I just finished my B.S in accounting here in MA. I'm Brand New to CPA review curses. Never purchase any review package. And, I need to take my CPA test. The point is. Today: I don’t have money to purchase the whole package now, and looking for a job. What would you do, if you were in my shoes? 9. Matt - I took REG once and failed and was in need of supplementary material.