Podcasts about Honestly

Thank you for joining us for our 2nd Cabral HouseCall of the weekend!   I'm looking forward to sharing with you some of our community's questions that have come in over the past few weeks…   Tricia: Hi Dr Cabral - I'm writing in for my brother. He is a 73-year-old male who has been healthy his entire life. No major illnesses. I noticed a few years ago his head would slightly bob along with his hands. So slight that he doesn't notice. I think he could have a vitamin deficiency. Unfortunately, I can't get him to do any of your labs or detox, but I do have him on your DNS, veggie blend, renewal system, fish oil, eye, magnesium, and Vit d. Do you have any ideas what this might be? If I could get him to test, which test would you recommend? My grandmother did shake    Alicja: Hello Dr.Cabral, I hope you're having a great day. My question is about heart rate. I wear smart ring that detects high heart rate during periods of time when I seat a lot and the only activity would be: getting up occasionally from my desk to walk to kitchen or bathroom. I do 10k steps per day, every day and I exercise every other day for 30-50 min alternating between: hot yoga, pilates, jogging and resistance training. Most of my walking and exercising is done in the first half of the day. During walking or exercising my heart rate is pretty steady, not very high, usually below 120 (except for running) but often the highest heart rate of my day I get in the second half of the day when I don't do any physical activity. It doesn't make sense to me. Why would my heart rate jump to 135 when I don't exercise or do any big activity? I'm 42 and I have low blood pressure. (if that matters)   Tricia: Hi Dr. Cabral - Do you mind telling me if I'm taking all of your supplements below correctly? Honestly, I would love to work with an IHP but affording all the supplements is all I can do right now. I've been doing this since June of 2025. Upon waking - 2 proteolytic enzymes, 30 minutes later 3 of the sinus and immune support (only during cold season) and daily probiotic. Roughly 2 Hours later right before my morning DNS smoothie (am Metavolve, 2 eye vitamins, 2 cell boost, collagen & D3K2 drops in smoothie). With Lunch 2 hair vitamins and 3 inflamma soothe. Dinner (2 pm Metavolve, 2 fish oil) An hour before bed 2 Full Spectrum Magnesium. I started this protocol to help with lowering inflammation, joint stiffness and pain and it has been a game changer. I exercise daily and eat your Med diet recommendation and literally you gave me my life back so I thank you so very much. My health journey is still a work in progress, but I will get there! I just started Metavolve two months ago. I really like it. I haven't been able to give up all my berries and sweet potatoes but I'm going to try again Jan 1! P.S. I love your new book!   Scott: Hello Stephen, happy holidays!! I'm writing in about my mother. She's 69 years old with coronary artery disease. 2 years ago she had 2 separate procedures to remove considerable blockage. Then, this past September, she had it done again. All together 4 stints, 2 in her widow maker. She hasn't drank alcohol in 10 yrs and quit smoking for over 2 years, although her previous lifestyle was lacking in many areas which I'm sure built up to her CAD. There's heart issues within the extended family, but, I know its not just genetics. She has done EXCELLENT zeroing in on her diet after this last round of surgery and she has felt the inflammation in her body pretty much disappear. She still, once in awhile, gets winded, which I can understand her being weary to go too long on the upright bike. She has researched online and food seems really restricted like salt intake, sugar and even really healthy things like Xtra virgin olive oil, which says only 2 tablespoons a day....that seems odd. She's on a certain type blood thinner but her heart doctor gave the okay for omega 3's and was really happy when she read the ingredients on the DNS bottle. I have her on EquiLife supplements since the first surgery; Omega 3's, Vitamin C., Vitamin D3, DNS, B-Complex, Cal-Mag, Balanced Zinc, the new Pea Protein, and collagen from another company (but it's clean) As an IHP level 1 and starting level 2, I'm trying to help her the very best I can. I suggested lime w/ a pinch of sea salt for an electrolyte morning drink but she's too cautious of the salt intake. I'd love for her to try a 21 day detox, she doesn't think she can do all the fasting days except maybe the first 2 days. Even the 14 day detox would be good too, but, would these be too hard on her with her condition, especially when CAD patients are restricted from eating even the healthiest of foods like olive oil? The literature says CAD patients do not have a long time once they have that condition, but, I'm trying to my best to extend her years, she is our family's rock. Thanks for all you do Stephen, you are a mentor sir!!!   Sienna: Hi Dr. Cabral - it would be incredible to hear YOUR WHY behind formulating Daily Nutritional Support and the Dr. Cabral Detox, and how this came about? From listening to your podcasts these are strong foundations behind your brand and recommendations. Also, what would you list as the "12-supplements in one"? Thanks for all you do. Thank you for tuning into this weekend's Cabral HouseCalls and be sure to check back tomorrow for our Mindset & Motivation Monday show to get your week started off right! - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/3642 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!  

LinksTLC - "Waterfalls" Alex was four.No Such Thing as a Fish QI researchers' podcast; Merlin's been listening for yearsNo Such Thing As Debreadtion — No Such Thing As A Fish — Overcast The episode Merlin mentionedKen Burns' Jazz Episode 9 "The Adventure."TLC - "Unpretty" Merlin's favorite TLC song.Dead Drop Spycraft term for passing info without meetingKen Burns' Baseball Source of the Lincoln "tiredest" quoteA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms New Game of Thrones spinoffWhy Are Icelandic Horses Not Called Ponies? (Iceland Mag) Pony-sized but Iceland said it's a horseShip of Theseus (Khan Academy video) The philosophical paradox behind "Thesean Horse"Saint John Coltrane Church (KQED) Yes, there's literally a church for this albumJohn Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965) The album that inspired the church"Is he quare?" Comedy repetition referenceHarry Enfield British comedian; "Is he queer?" sketchPaul Whitehouse The other half of the old men in the clubI Spy books (Walter Wick Studio) Merlin's analogy for how Claude Code sees things"40, 45 Years" - Stewart Lee The callback kingClaude Code (Anthropic) The AI tool Merlin won't shut up aboutRik Mayall: Lord of Misrule 2014 BBC tribute documentary; narrated by Simon CallowThe Young Ones (IMDb) What you most likely know Rik Mayall fromThe Young Ones - "Bambi" / University Challenge (YouTube) Fry, Laurie, Thompson vs. the ladsNell (1994) Merlin's first memory of Liam Neeson as a leadNell (1994) Trailer "Can't abide a canna peas," is a line Merlin feels like he remembers Jodie Foster's Nell sayingScotiabank Saddledome: Building Design Say it soft, and it's almost like praying.Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing Bob and Paul's fishing showGame of Thrones - "Fire and Blood" (Fandom) Season 1 finale; Daenerys and the dragon eggsLucy Liu on the "Dragon Lady" Stereotype (NextShark) "I could have been wearing a tuxedo and a blond wig"The Slop Hash Merlin's project to get you excited about making something cool."I never said she stole my money" has 7 different meanings Stress a different word, get a different sentence.The Butterfield Diet Plan (YouTube) "The results have been increbidle"The Night Left Eye Burned Down Andre Rison's Mansion (Investigation Discovery) It started with sneakers in a fiberglass bathtubMemento Mori "Remember you will die"Anterograde Amnesia The condition from Memento — can't form new memoriesOne Hundred Years of Solitude García Márquez's masterpieceKieran's very good post "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father was discovered and taken by ICE."Hammer A tool so durable it works across timeCottaging: History of the Term (Idiom Origins) How they got John Gielgud, Wilfrid Brambell, and poor Brian Epstein.Brian Epstein (Beatles Bible) Beatles manager; arrested 1957, blackmailed for years, died a month before decriminalizationClarke's Three Laws "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"Ducking Stool Chair on a stick for dunking witches and scoldsRoget's Thesaurus (Project Gutenberg) Category 1: Existence12 Facts About Taking of Pelham 123 (Mental Floss) They fictionalized the dead man's switch to foil copycatsThe 36-Hour Day (Johns Hopkins Press) Read it before someone you love has dementiaSome folks I love and admire do come off sounding a little like the same people who loudly hated Little Richard and disco music.Honestly, sometimes it's legit difficult to notice when we've gotten more emotionally invested than we'd realized in seeming right.And that shit is a LOT to decide to carry forever.

Welcome back to the UK's favourite self development podcast hosted by me, Francesca Amber.In this episode of Law of Attraction Changed My Life, I'm talking all about how I've been using AI and ChatGPT to manifest my goals faster, with more clarity and way less overwhelm. I share how I use AI to create next-level vision boards with me actually inside the images, how it helps me break down big goals into manageable steps and why I genuinely believe it can be one of the most powerful manifesting tools available right now. If you're into law of attraction, manifestation, mindset, emotional healing and personal development, this episode will completely shift how you think about manifesting in 2026.I also get very real about using ChatGPT as a therapist, PA and emotional support system, from working through anxiety and intrusive thoughts to parenting overwhelm and big life decisions. This episode is funny, honest and practical, with loads of real-life examples of how I use AI to support my mindset, take aligned action and move closer to my dream life. If you've got a big goal and no idea where to start, this one is for you. if you want to ask me a question you can find me on the gram at:@francescaamber@lawofattractionchangedmylifeYou can buy my Sunday Times Bestselling book Manifest Like a Mother here.Join the Book Club B*tches We are the UK's largest self development book club. Honestly this book club and the bad b*tches within it are my self development secret. They are the BIGGEST secret to my success and I'm in love with life long learning! Come and join us, it's not a cult, it's probably not a coven but it IS the best. We start reading Believe You're Made for More on 1st February. You can find all my work including overnight subliminals for weight loss, wealth, fertility, beauty and confidence, success etc..as well as online masterclasses on my website, francescaamber.comThank you so much for listening and I'll see you again next week,Fran xxx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HI BESTIE BOO

Send us a textThis week the guys sit down for a powerful conversation with Rebecca Carrell about the importance, power, and hope in grief. Rebecca Carrell is, in order of importance, a joyful Jesus follower, wife to Mike, mother to Caitlyn and Nick, Bible teacher, conference speaker, author, and an award-winning broadcaster. A proud DTS'er through and through, she graduated with her Master of Arts in Christian Education in 2023 and is currently working toward her Doctor of Education.After spending over twenty years on the radio in Dallas/Fort Worth, she now mentors and teaches students at Dallas Theological Seminary in two departments: Media Arts and Worship and Educational Ministries and Leadership.In her spare time, Rebecca hosts and produces the podcast Honestly, Though: Real Talk. Real Life. Real Faith. Find out more about her, her ministry, and her podcast at rebeccacarrell.com Listen to her chapel message HERE. 

The book-turned-Netflix rom-com that has the internet in a chokehold… it’s time for our brutally honest review of People We Meet On Vacation. We’re unpacking Emily Henry's beloved novel and putting it head-to-head with its Netflix adaptation — from what translated beautifully on screen to what absolutely did not. We get into the cast, the chemistry (or lack thereof), and Emily’s very strong gripe with main character Poppy (… can someone say Pick Me?).Plus we're breaking down the one scene that never should’ve made it into the film, and another that's we’re genuinely devastated was left on the cutting room floor...things get so heated at one point that Emily nearly walks out of the room. Honestly, we almost lost a host today.If you’ve read the book, watched the movie, or are just here for the mess — this one’s for you.THE END BITSThe Spill has a new podcast thats devoted to TV bingeing! Our latest ep contains all the fan theories, cast reveals and easter eggs about the new series of Bridgerton to get up to date before Season 4 comes out. Listen now on Apple or Spotify or the Mamamia app. Support independent women's media We’re giving away a Your Reformer Pilates bed (worth $3,400) Subscribe to enter Follow us on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. And subscribe to our Youtube channel. Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia... here. Discover more Mamamia Podcasts here. Do you have feedback or a topic you want us to discuss on The Spill? Send us a voice message, or send us an email thespill@mamamia.com.au and we'll come back to you ASAP! CREDITS Hosts: Laura Brodnik and Em Vernem Executive Producer: Monisha Iswaran Audio Producer: Scott StronachBecome a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Honestly is taking a pause. We'll be back soon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking Greenland. It's Oh Hell Yeahistan now. Weird guys who hang out by Trader Joe's and act rude in the name of the first amendment are banned from our new republic.    Subscribe to the pod ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@ohhellyeahpod?sub_confirmation=1 Follow the pod http://instagram.com/ohhellyeahpod https://www.tiktok.com/@ohhellyeahpod Follow Eddie Della Siepe http://instagram.com/Eddiedellasiepe https://www.eddiedellasiepe.com Follow Brent Flyberg http://instagram.com/brentflyberg A concept seldom found in the podcast world. Two male comedians having a free flowing conversation in a garage converted into a studio. Honestly...it's never been done. Comedians Eddie Della Siepe & Brent Flyberg dare you to listen to the Oh Hell Yeah! podcast every week. They bet you can't do it. Prove them wrong.

Allen and Joel are joined by Mathieu Cōté from CanREA to preview the upcoming Operators Summit in Toronto. With many Canadian wind projects reaching 17-20 years old, the industry faces critical decisions about extending, repowering, or decommissioning assets. Register now! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining Light on Wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Matt, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me. Well, the theme of this Year’s Operator Summit is coming of age and. There’s a lot of things happening in the renewable side up in Canada. What does that mean for Canadian renewable energy operators right now?  Mathieu Cōté: Well, we came up with coming of age because, um, the fleet in Canada is in a bit of a different space than it is in the States where, uh, right now we’ve got a lot of projects that are on the cusp of coming to their end of initial lifetime. Right. They’re in that. 17 to 20 year range. There’s some that are a little bit past, and so you, as an operator, you gotta be asking yourself, is this the time to extend this project? What do I have to do [00:01:00] if I need to extend? Um, or am I repowering, am I taking things down, putting them up? And I mean, there’s a lot of different variables there. Sometimes it’s just a re topping, sometimes it’s everything down to ground level and go again. Or it’s, maybe it’s a decommissioning and those decisions are on the cusp of being made in the operation space in Canada. So that’s, that’s a super important part of it. But the other side of it, and the reason we liked, uh, coming of age is from the industry perspective itself. We are no longer the new kid on the block, right? We are now a reliable, uh, professional industry that can deliver power when you need it. Uh, so that’s what we’re trying to, to convey with this coming of age. And, and we’ve got some really good speakers who are gonna talk about that, uh, from. The grid operator’s perspective saying, why is it that renewables are one of the first things they reach for now when they realize they need more power? Joel Saxum: I think it’s an interesting space and I think to, to [00:02:00]comment more deeply on that, right? That you guys are in that, you  Mathieu Cōté: know,  Joel Saxum: 2005, six you started installing a  Mathieu Cōté: lot of the, a lot of wind assets. There was a curve of, as it as every year you get more and more. Trickle and then becomes a flood quite quickly. Joel Saxum: Yeah. And, and, and you know, from, from the operation standpoint, we deal with some of the wind farms in Canada. We love working with, uh, the operators up there because they do exude that professionalism. They’re on top of their game. They know they’ve gotta maintain these things. Whereas in the states, we’ve been a little bit nascent sometimes and, oh, we got PTC coming so we don’t have to do these certain things. Little bit more cowboy. Yeah. Yeah. And up in Canada, they’re, they’re, they’ve been doing the right things for a long time. Um, and I think it’s a good, good model to follow, but you’re a hundred percent correct. We’re coming to that time when it’s like decision time to be made here. And I think we, in our, in our uh, kind of off air chat, you had mentioned that, you know, repower in Canada is. Pretty early stages. I  Mathieu Cōté: only know about  Joel Saxum: one,  Mathieu Cōté: to [00:03:00] be honest, and I try and keep track of these things,  Joel Saxum: but that’s coming down the pipeline,  Mathieu Cōté: right? So there’s gonna be more and more of these happening. And I mean, there are a lot of operators that have one foot on either side of the border, so some people have some operational experience on what steps you need to take, but it’s also from the regulatory side, like what is your grid operator gonna insist on? So on and so on. But, uh, so we’ve got some panels to talk about things like, one of my favorites is, uh, how much life is left in your machine? And that’s sort of a deeper dive from an engineering standpoint. Like what math do the engineers do to assess, is this foundation good to go for another 10 years? Is this tower gonna stand up to whatever? Should we replace the blades and all those components? We, we’ve got a foundation expert, uh, someone who does. Digital twin sort of things as well as, um, a panelist from, uh, Nordex, so the OEM sort of perspective as well, and how they assess how much [00:04:00] life is left in a machine. So like that’s the sort of panels that we’re trying to put together that we’re pretty excited about.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think that’s a good one too, because I know Alan and I we’re talking around the industry globally. A lot of it is around CMS. And when we say CMS, we’re not just talking drive train anymore, we’re talking everything you can in the turbine, right? So the, the concept of remaining useful life, r ul, that always comes up, where are we at with this, right? Because from a global perspective in Europe, they have, you know, in Spanish wind farms are all, a lot of ’em are at that 25 year mark. What are we doing here? So you guys are bringing that conversation to the Canadian market at this operator summit in Toronto here in February. It’s, it’s timely, right? Because it’s February and everybody’s getting ready for spring, so you got a little bit of time to come to the conference.  Mathieu Cōté: Well, and that’s one of the things that we actually used to do is show in April and we’ve moved it back after hearing feedback from our, from our audience that April’s almost too late, right? Like, if you’re doing your assessments for your [00:05:00] blades, it where? Where’s your manpower coming up? Coming from in the summertime? Those contracts are already signed. By the time you hit April, February, you’ve still got time. Your RFP might be out so you can meet all the proponents on site at once. It, it just makes a lot more sense for us to do it in February. Allen Hall: Well, there’s a wide range of technology in Canada in regards to wind to energy. That adds to the complexity where a lot of turbines, unlike the United States, are maybe even sub one megawatt, and with new turbines coming online, they’re gonna be in the five, six, maybe even seven megawatt range. That’s a huge dispersed. Industry to try to maintain massive range. Yeah. Right. And I, and, and I think one of the dilemmas about that is trying to find people who understand that tho all those different kinds of machines and the intricacies of each one of them and how to operate them more efficiently, which is where Canada is. Quite honestly. The, the thing [00:06:00] about that and the challenge for Canada Head, and this is why the conference is so important, is. If there’s someone in Canada that has the answer, as Joel and I have talked to a number of Canadian operators, you may not know them. I know it’s a smaller marketplace in general, but unless you’re talking to one another, you probably, uh, don’t realize there’s, there’s help within Canada. And these conferences really highlight that quite a bit. Wanna talk about some of the, sort of the interactions you guys create at the conference?  Mathieu Cōté: Yeah. Oh, well, it’s one of the things that can RIA tries to do is play that connector role, right? Like, we don’t know everything, but like you say, we know someone who knows something and we can put you in touch with all. I know a guy who knows a guy. Um, but we’re, we’re always able to, to, to connect those dots. And I mean, we, we do a lot of, uh. Things like working groups and uh, regional meetings. And, uh, we’ve even got, uh, different summits for different things. Getting a little bit outside of operations, but like we [00:07:00] have an Atlantic operators group that gathers together and has a chat just sometimes, usually there’s a focus topic, but then we have, oh, how do you guys deal with the storm that came through? Or that sort of thing, or what, what do you do for if you need a new blade or has anyone got a good vendor for this thing or that thing? Those sorts of things always happen in the margins. And I mean, the ops summit is the, the best one of those because it’s the entire Canadian industry that gets together. We’ve got folks from bc, we’ve got folks from Atlantic Canada, there’s gonna be people from Quebec, and there’s vendors from all those places as well. Right? So. It’s covering all your bases and it’s the one place that you can talk to everybody and meet everybody in like a 48 hour period.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think that if, you know, just doing a little bit of deep dive into the agenda and the program here, that’s one of the things that you guys are focusing on. Targeted networking. So morning breakfasts, evening receptions, there, you know, structured and informal, uh, opportunities to actually connect with the o and m [00:08:00] community. Um, one of them that you had mentioned was kind of, um. Hands-on demonstrations and, and for me, when, when I see these things, ’cause I’ve seen them kind of slightly not, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody do it perfectly well. I’m excited to see what you guys do. But you get, you get a group of people standing around, like you get people kind of standing around. Rubbing elbows going, like, what do you think about that? What is, does this, is this gonna work? And, and those to me are great, great conversations for networking and kind of figuring things out together. The collaboration part.  Mathieu Cōté: Absolutely. Uh, well on those two points, the, the networking has always been a huge part of this show, and we’ve always built into the program. Okay. There’s some stuff on stage, but then there’s a break. And I mean, you can wander around the showroom floor and you can, but you can talk to the other people. And, uh, that’s a big part of this. That’s an important part of this. And then on the, the demonstrations and so on, we used to have what we called, uh, elevator pitches, uh, where, and we’ve done it various different ways where people get five minutes, one slide, you’re on [00:09:00] stage, you say your piece, you give us your elevator pitch, and then you get off and someone else gets up and talks. And we found that, that, and the feedback we got was that that was good because that condensed all of the salesy parts and kept it away from the panels. ’cause the panels, we want them to be informative, not. Selling you something. We want you to learn something. But the sales pitch is, there is some sense of like someone’s trying to sell you a thing. But we’re evolving that a little bit this year where we’re going towards demonstrations. So on the showroom floor, there will be someone who will have a tangible thing, whether it’s here’s the new fireproof coat that we’ve come up with, or here’s how this, uh, sling works, or here’s this piece of kit that fits on your machine that catches bolts when they break, or whatever it is. Here’s how it actually works, and they’ve got it in their hands and they can play with the go until it, uh, really, like you say, gets that light bulb moment that gets you to see how it works. And you can see that ROI [00:10:00] right away going, oh, okay. That if it catches the bolts when they break, then it doesn’t rattle around. And then I’ve gotta spend X amount less time fixing, missed out. Or the other thing, like it’s, it, it’s a, it’s a better way of doing it is, uh, what we feel. And like you say, then you get. Being on the showroom floor, it’s in amongst the booths. So people who are on the showroom floor can just sort of look over their shoulder, see that, okay, I really gotta go check out that guy. Joel Saxum: I like the idea of the format and there’s a couple other things like lessons learned track we talked about a little bit too. But one of the things for me for trade shows is when Alan and I went to ETC in Calgary a few years ago, two years ago I think. Yep. You actually had the. The conversations, the panel conversations, the discussions, the knowledge sharing happening on the showroom floor. I don’t like going to a conference where I have to go in, like I’m talking with some people, but, oh, I gotta run across this thing across over here, a mile away into some back room to listen to someone talk about something. I like, I like being where the information is [00:11:00] happening and sharing, and I can stand off to the side and listen a bit and, and still engage. Um, and you guys are doing some more of that too through the lessons learned track. Um, can you explain that a little bit to us?  Mathieu Cōté: Well, we’ve always had, uh, like a, some split in concurrent sessions and so on. But to your point of not running off to the other end, we’re in a pretty intimate space where we’ve got like a room for lunch and the plenaries, we’ve got a room for the exhibit hall, and then right next to it is any of the, uh, off to the side stuff. It’s all within a one minute walk of, of itself, which is much better. So we’ve got the concurrent, uh, sessions and. This year we split them instead of into two. We split ’em into three though that then we’ve got one for specific to wind. We’ve got one specific to solar and storage. ’cause we are renewable energy, not just wind. And then we’ve got one, uh, that’s a bit of a grab bag and it’s a bit of a different format. So instead of your traditional three [00:12:00] panelists plus a moderator, everyone’s got a slide, everyone’s gotta talk, blah, blah, blah. This thing, it, it’s much more focused. You’ve got one person who’s got a real important thing to say, whether it’s, here’s, uh, lessons learned on how our hub fell off and here’s what we learned from it. Here’s our root cause analysis, or here’s, uh, a much better way of doing, uh, our health and safety program has worked much better for us. Here’s what we gain from it, or whatever happens to be. And then one moderator to ask them some questions, pick apart. So this part, how to, uh, and get a bit of a, a flow there. So, and it’s much shorter. Instead of an hour long, it’s only a half hour. So then you don’t have to sit through two people. You don’t care about to listen to the one person that you do is the intent of these, uh, lessons learned? I,  Joel Saxum: I do really like the concept simply because when I go to an event or like, um, putting something together, I want people to be able to go. Learn something, take it back to their respective [00:13:00] organization, be able to implement it tomorrow. And it sounds like you guys are really moving towards that with the lessons learned, the collaboration and the knowledge sharing.  Mathieu Cōté: That’s, that’s the intent. And that, and that’s really what it is, is I, I’m, I think I’m a smart guy, but I don’t have all the answers. So we’re really trying to shine a light on the people who do, and like, here’s a thing that the industry as a whole should learn about. And give them some time to talk about it. And like you say, then you’ll get some of those conversations in the margins and in in between going, yeah, this guy had this thing to say. We get that sort of dialogue going. That’s, that’s the intent. It’s all about, uh, discussions and learning from each other.  Joel Saxum: To me, it sounds like even, um, for lack of a, maybe a trip to get some poutine and maybe an American, American should go out there and listen to some of the stuff you guys have to say as well. Mathieu Cōté: Honestly, it’s, it’s worth it for, uh, Americans to come by and we do have a significant number, proportion of the, the audience comes from the states as well. Because like you say, it’s, it’s worth it and it’s good information and it’s a good [00:14:00] portion of the thing. And it’s really not that far. And I mean, um, not to put it lightly, we do tend to lean a little heavier on some of the more, uh, Canadian elements like weather. Like we do have a panel this year, um, on the solar side, solar operations and adverse conditions. And that one, um. Because that one came from, uh, I know a guy at, uh, natural Resources Canada, who was part of a working group at the International Energy Agency in their photovoltaic power systems group, where they came up with, uh, a report on operations in all kinds of adverse conditions around the world. So he’s gonna present that report and we’ll have a panel discussion. The other panelists there, we’ve got, um. Ben Power, the CEO of ves, who is the number one installer of solar in the Yukon, right next to Alaska. So they know a lot about adverse conditions and then, uh, polar racking, they’ve got a lot of experience, uh, with that sort of thing too. And they’ve got some data that they’re gonna bring to the [00:15:00] panel as well. So it should be a really good discussion about how do we deal with bad things happening in solar specifically.  Allen Hall: Well, sure. Uh, Canada’s been running assets a lot longer than we have been in the States. In fact, to Joel’s earlier point, we’re repairing. Disassembling putting new stuff up all the time. Canada has been more focused on keeping existing equipment running in some crazy, harsh conditions. The US is moving that way. You wanna know about ice? We could tell you about ice. Exactly. Like how many times has the US run into trouble with icing on wind turbines and we should have been talking to, or her neighbors through the north, but in a lot of cases, yeah. The I, I find that the time I went. I learned a whole bunch about Canadian operations, how to think about some of these problems differently. That was the beauty of a attending a Kria event, and I know there’s gonna be a lot of people attending this event. Who is it for in general? Obviously [00:16:00] it’s for operators, but is there some value here for like asset managers? Some of the engineers, some of the service providers,  Mathieu Cōté: yeah. That our, our core market, if you want, is your site managers and your technical people, but engineers, 100%, they will learn something. Your asset managers will definitely have some value in it, whether it’s learning about the technology or learning about, uh, the, the latest things coming out or even just. Best practices from other folks, right? We’ve also got, uh, more and more we’re getting people from the insurance industry getting involved because some of these, uh, lessons learned and so on, is really valuable to them. And we’re even running, um, if, if people are in insurance, we have a special meeting for insurance. The, the day before where we’ll be having a, a dialogue between the insurance industry and the operators and like, here’s how we deal with this. This is why the prices are that. And, uh, talk about that risk transfer type stuff. There are the odd developer who comes out. Um, but it’s more for the, [00:17:00] like, once it’s in the ground, the technical people, uh, the tooling manufacturers, the service providers, the, all, all of those folks. Joel Saxum: What about ISPs? Oh, a hundred percent. We know quite a few ISPs up in Canada. Every one of them that I’ve talked to is coming. So ev I’ve had the conversations and like I, you know, we’re, we’re doing some other things in February as well around here, and I was, Hey, what are you guys? Oh, we’re all going to the Candry Ops summit. We’re going to the Candry Ops summit, so to Toronto and February. Um, bring your warm jacket. I suppose it could be cold. Yeah, the, the ISPs will be there in, in full force. And so I think that. To me, it’s like the, the, the cousin to the A-C-P-O-M-S. We like OMS in the states because that’s where the real discussions happen around operations and maintenance. Mathieu Cōté: The technical stuff happens. Yeah. And it, I like to say it’s the, the, the younger cousin, if you will, and the maple syrup cousin.  Allen Hall: Well, I do think though, that when we’re at, uh, o, M and S Joel, that [00:18:00] those discussions are a little bit different than what I see up at Kria. Like Kria is a. Community OMS is, yeah, we, we all know one another and maybe it’s just there’s this, a bigger event or more people, but it, I don’t feel the sort of connection I do when I’m at Kria. Like I know the people, I understand what’s going on at Kria. That’s what makes it fun that I get to see people that I, I know once in a while, but at the same time there is a huge, massive amount of. Sharing  Mathieu Cōté: that community that you speak to, that that’s really what we’re trying to, to gather in. And there’s a difference of scale too. I mean, uh, the OMS is like 3000 people and we’re three to 400. So there, there’s a difference there. But that sort of intimacy leads to a fair bit more of that sharing that you’re talking about and like that Oh yeah, there’s that guy. Oh, there’s Derek from Capstone, or there’s Dan from EDF or there, you know, and then you. You run into them and then you, you catch [00:19:00] up on all the latest and, um, what’s going on, how are things going? And so on and so on. And there’s time for all of that in the, in the two day show that we have.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think collaboration in a smaller, like the right size group is, is much easier and flows better. Right? Once you get to that thousand two, three, 4,000, it’s like, yeah, you’re there, you’re seeing the people, but like it’s just not the same.  Mathieu Cōté: Et c is somewhere around 3000 people and it, it, it’s got that heft. It’s a different audience as well. Right? The o and m crowd isn’t there as much. It’s not quite as technical, so it it, it’s a speaking to a different group of people. Allen Hall: Well, Canada is on a growth spurt for renewables. There’s a lot of wind energy  Mathieu Cōté: headed up towards Quebec. There are procurement’s open right now in Quebec, Nova Scotia, new Brunswick. Uh, Ontario, BC and Manitoba  Joel Saxum: Plus, what was it? Fi what was it? Five offshore lease areas off of Nova Scotia.  Mathieu Cōté: Yeah, they’re looking at up to five gigawatts offshore in Nova Scotia. We don’t have [00:20:00] any yet in Nova in, uh, offshore. And there’s some, they need to figure out what the offtake is and where the transmission goes. Uh, but there’s a lot of people working in the background on MA putting that together. So it’s growing. Oh, a hundred percent. It’s growing and across the board, right. And the. Wind or solar or storage or all three. And that, that a lot of the, the procurements these days are starting to move in a direction of, uh, sort of a technology agnostic where they say, we need megawatts. We don’t care how you make them. We just want electricity. Well, electricity, uh, but also electricity capacity. So in the one case we figure wind and solar will do quite well, and in the other we’ll figure the battery storage will do quite well. So no matter what and in the timelines that they’re asking for, we’re looking at if you want it in the next five years, it’s probably gonna be wind and solar because anything else is gonna be a seven plus year timeline to get into the ground. So [00:21:00] there, there’s a lot. There’s a lot coming.  Allen Hall: Well, up to 20% of the energy, electricity in Canada nationally is gonna be generated by renewables in less than 10 years.  Mathieu Cōté: Canada’s split up a lot, remember like, and Quebec is already at 90 plus with their hydro and bc same thing.  Joel Saxum: And I, and I think that that’s something to be, to be shared as well here is from an o and m standpoint. The, the varied geographies of Canada and how spread apart it is, there’s specialized knowledge up there to, to, to, you know, till the cow come home. So it’s a great place to go and learn. I would encourage people, hey, if you’re, if you’re in anywhere around Michigan, the Great Lakes Toronto’s a three hour drive. Go there, do the conference and learn something,  Mathieu Cōté: and hey, we’re right next to the airport. It’s quick flight. Almost anywhere from North America, right? So Toronto’s easy to get in and  Allen Hall: out of, and this is gonna be a great event. The Can Operators Summit. It’s February 11th and 12th at the Delta Hotel by [00:22:00] Marriott, Toronto, right at the airport. So you, you can’t miss it. It’s easy to get in, easy to get out. You’re gonna have a great time. Matt, how do they connect and register for this event?  Mathieu Cōté: We have a registration link that I’m sure we’ll put somewhere. Um, or come to our website, kenia.ca?  Allen Hall: Yeah, just Google Can Operator Summit. That’s what I did. And that takes you right to the registration. Get signed up there. It’s inexpensive in Toronto is a really cool city. February 11th and 12th. At the Delta Hotels by Marriott, right at the airport. The Canary Operator Summer is going to be a lot of fun. Matt, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Really enjoyed having you. Well, thanks for having [00:23:00] me.

Jacks joins us this week to continue our Season 13 viewing of the hit Hallmark Channel show, When Calls the Heart.ABOUT: WHEN CALLS THE SEASON (SEASON 13 EPISODE 3)Elizabeth welcomes new students as Nathan and Bill investigate wildfire.AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR: WHEN CALLS THE SEASON (SEASON 13 EPISODE 3)January 18 2026 | Hallmark ChannelCAST & CREW OF: WHEN CALLS THE SEASON (SEASON 13 EPISODE 3)Erin Krakow as Elizabeth ThorntonKevin McGarry as Nathan GrantChris McNally as Lucas BouchardBRAN'S WHEN CALLS THE SEASON (SEASON 13 EPISODE 3) SYNOPSISIt's the first day of school, but the classroom just isn't ready. Nathan shows up with flowers for Elizabeth and encourages her, though she wonders if it might be too soon for these new kids to be back in school at all.Speaking of new kids, Gwen is not thrilled about school—and even less thrilled that Rosemary is trying to dress her in ugly, scratchy outfits.Edie talks with Lucas about needing a place to stay and casually starts doing jumping jacks. Lucas is enjoying every second of it.At school, there's a new kid named Rupert who is a total nerd and absolutely not interested in putting up with Allie's nonsense. Unfortunately for both of them, they're clearly the two smartest kids in the class. Competition incoming.The day starts off slowly, so Elizabeth encourages the Hope Valley kids to get to know the Benson Hills kids. Instead, the Benson Hills kids immediately start talking about how much they hate it in Hope Valley.Molly thinks she saw someone carrying something into the woods before the fire. Lee is convinced it was McGinty. Bill and Nathan want to handle things by the book, but Lee is frustrated that they aren't arresting McGinty without proof. Honestly, he should move to America.Allie tries to talk to Ollie about Julius Caesar, but the guy could not care less.Later, Lee spots McGinty having a drink at the saloon and confronts him with the accusations. McGinty refuses to engage and storms out. Lee follows, bumps into him, and McGinty falls—leading to Lee getting arrested.Elizabeth catches Oliver reading Julius Caesar. He explains that he wants to talk to Allie about it, so Elizabeth hands him The Grapes of Wrath instead. You know, something a little more contemporary.Elizabeth decides to make the next school day a fun one, complete with an obstacle course. She notices Toby and Cooper are moping, and they explain they're dealing with something like survivor's guilt.Lee gets home from jail and ends up bonding with Gwen. She's really starting to warm up to him.Edie gets angry with Lucas when he skips a meeting with wildfire victims after getting talked into attending a fancy dinner with a hotshot dealmaker instead.The episode ends with Toby and Cooper finally opening up to Elizabeth. They confess that they started a fire to make stew and thought they put it out properly—but what if they didn't? They're terrified. Elizabeth promises them they're not alone. Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtubeInterested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bart wants a brother, so he (kinda) kidnaps an orphan for a day. Honestly, this was a fairly weak story that was filled with the usual unjustified rudeness and angst that tended to pop up in the "teen era" of the show.There's also a really odd South Park parody that doesn't seem to know why it's there.Despite all this, Dando was once again a big fan of the Homer/Marge story. Maybe this is confirmation that he is indeed getting old.We also discuss "grape snakes", the best Monopoly token, the stand-out performance from Jordan Nagai and more.If you enjoy this show, please consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $1 per month at patreon.com/fourfingerdiscountListen on Spotify - spoti.fi/4fDcSY0Listen on Apple Podcasts - apple.co/4dgpW3ZCHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Goin' Down To South Park - spreaker.com/show/goin-down-to-south-parkThe Movie Guide with Maltin & Davis - themovieguidepodcast.comThe One About Friends - spreaker.com/show/the-one-about-friends-podcastTalking Seinfeld - spreaker.com/show/talking-seinfeldSpeaKing Of The Hill - spreaker.com/show/speaking-of-the-hill-a-king-of-the-hill-The Office Talk - spreaker.com/show/the-office-talk-podcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/four-finger-discount-simpsons-podcast--5828977/support.

What's the best men's cologne in 2026? Is Orto Parisi worth the hype? What does "grassy" mean? How do you actually describe how something smells without sounding pretentious?In the 2026 Scentacular, Sol and Michael sit down with over 50 fragrance samples (thank you, ScentSplit!) to answer these questions and more to create the ultimate 2026 fragrance guide for men.  The duo dive deep into niche perfume houses like Orto Parisi, Serge Lutens, Frederic Malle, and Amouage—reviewing cult classics like Megamare, Jubilation XXV, Cowboy Grass, and Carnal Flower.They discuss why the fragrance industry is booming right now (hint: lipstick theory), how TikTok perfume influencers are changing the game, and dive deep into the trendy ingredients (like ambroxan) that give modern fragrances their smell and insane longevity. Further, Sol shares his new favorite daily wear from Story MFG's collaboration with master perfumer Joseph, and Michael finally reveals what that mysterious "plastic" note is that he's been chasing for years.We also discuss Chergui and Ombre Sultan by Serge Lutens, Osang and Reliqvia by Mendittorosa (the "Catholic guilt" church scents), Viride and Terroni by Orto Parisi, Targo by Blackbird, Milk by Commodity, Cowboy Grass by D.S. & Durga, Bois de Babylone by Welton London, Camutra by Attar Al Has, Macanudo by Maison Datto, La Fille de Berlin by Serge Lutens, and Anarchist A by Toskovat. The hosts also shout out emerging niche houses like Clue Perfumery, House of Mammoth, St Clair Scents, Pearfat Parfum, and January Scent Project. Whether you're looking for your signature scent, a date night fragrance, or just want to understand why your Sephora is suddenly packed with guys in the perfume aisle—this episode has you covered.For a chance to win $250 of ScentSplit credit, subscribe to the HeroHero!We hope you enjoy!Lots of love!SolEpisode Tagsbest men's cologne 2026, niche fragrances, Megamare, Orto Parisi, fragrance review, men's perfume guide, Serge Lutens, Amouage Jubilation XXV, D.S. & Durga Cowboy Grass, Frederic Malle Carnal Flower, cologne recommendations, niche perfume 2026, ScentSplit, scentbar, date night cologne, Mendittorosa Sang, grassy cologne, Toskovat, Blackbird Targa, lipstick theory economics, Story MFG perfume, Commodity Milk, Byredo, Attar Al Has, Another 13, compliment getter cologne, streetwear fashion, men's grooming 2026, archive fashion fragranceSol Thompson and Michael Smith explore the world and subcultures of fashion, interviewing creators, personalities, and industry insiders to highlight the new vanguard of the fashion world. Subscribe for weekly uploads of the podcast, and don't forgot to follow us on our social channels for additional content, and join our discord to access what we've dubbed “the happiest place in fashion”.Message us with Business Inquiries at pairofkingspod@gmail.comSubscribe to get early access to podcasts and videos, and participate in exclusive giveaways for $4 a month Links: Instagram TikTok Twitter/X Sol's Substack (One Size Fits All) Sol's Instagram Michael's Instagram Michael's TikTok

Lauren Brown and I discuss how social studies and history instruction shifts and deepens as students grow, mature, and develop a greater capacity for understanding over time.Lauren hosts podcasts on teaching US History. Folks can also find the registration link on my Substack, on the Teacher Resources page. or here: Teaching U.S. History with MeaningThere will be 2 left when this podcast airs:Thurs. Jan 22 - Using Themes & Stories to Make History Come AliveThurs. Jan 29 - Short, Powerful Writing Activities to Reinforce LearningBoth are at 6:00 CT/7:00 ETAlso find Lauren at:https://laurenbrownoned.substack.comFor more, folks can check Lauren's writing for MiddleWeb: https://www.middleweb.com/tag/lauren-brown/ (00:00) - Intro (01:44) - Episode This podcast sponsored by:The Bell Ringer, a weekly newsletter providing news, tools, and resources on the science of learning, written by education reporter Holly Korbey. Subscribe here. Murmuration Author Services by Mark Combes. Looking to write your first book? Murmuration Author Services is your friend and coach for this journey. Learn more here. 

It's the BLAST POINTS 10 year anniversary and we're celebrating the only way we can by watching a Star Wars QVC special from October 1995! It's a gigantic super sized bigggie episode as we're basically watching 2 whole QVC specials and discussing all the magic that happens in them! Mark Hamill! 23K gold cards! Film cells! Nien Nunb mask and more! So get so excited, celebrate the love and listen today! WATCH THE FULL QVC EPISODE HERE: https://youtu.be/k2f9jdjrbMs?si=oIvuu26__HMe0Tu6 Thank you Squared Stiff for sending us the video! JOIN THE BLAST POINTS ARMY and SUPPORT BLAST POINTS ON PATREON! MANDALORIAN SEASON 3 BOBA FETT BEACH PARTY COMMENTARY! NEW ANDOR SEASON 2 EPISODE COMMENTARIES! HEAR EPISODES EARLY! Theme Music! downloadable tunes from episodes! Extra goodies! and so much MORE! www.patreon.com/blastpoints Blast Points T-SHIRTS are now available! Represent your favorite podcast everywhere you go! Get logo shirts while supplies last! Perfect for conventions, dates, formal events and more! Get them here: www.etsy.com/shop/Gibnerd?section_id=21195481 If you dug the show, please leave BLAST POINTS a review on iTunes, Spotify and share the show with friends! If you leave an iTunes review, we will read it on a future episode! Honestly! Talk to Blast Points on twitter at @blast_points "Like" Blast Points on Facebook Join the Blast Points Super Star Wars Chill Group here www.facebook.com/groups/BlastPointsGroup/ we are also on Instagram! Wow! www.instagram.com/blastpoints Your hosts are Jason Gibner & Gabe Bott! contact BLAST POINTS at : contact@blastpointspodcast.com May the Force be with you, always! This podcast is not affiliated in any way with Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, The Walt Disney Company, or any of their affiliates or subsidiaries.

The Wealth Formula Podcast is one of the longest-running personal finance podcasts still standing. For more than a decade, I've shown up every single week to talk about investing, markets, and the forces shaping the economy. What's interesting is how much my own thinking has evolved over that time. Early on, I was more rigid. I was—and still am—a real estate guy. But back then, I didn't give much thought to ideas outside that lane. I was dogmatic, and I didn't always challenge my own beliefs. Time has a way of doing that for you. I've now lived through multiple market cycles. I've watched the stock market melt up to valuations that felt absurd—and then keep going. I've seen gold go from flat for a decade to parabolic over a year. I've seen interest rates sit near zero for a decade and then snap higher at the fastest pace in modern history. And I've learned, sometimes the hard way, that diversification is about survival and that every asset class has its day. One lesson I learned that I am thinking a lot about these days is: ignore major technological shifts at your own peril. Back in 2014, I first started hearing people talk seriously about Bitcoin. At the time, I dismissed it. I listened to the critics, was convinced it was a scam, and didn't take the time to truly understand it. That was a mistake—not because everyone should have bought Bitcoin, but because I ignored a structural change happening right in front of me. Bitcoin went from a cypherpunk expression of freedom to the largest ETF owned by BlackRock. Today, the dominant story is artificial intelligence. And whether you love stocks, hate stocks, prefer real estate, or focus exclusively on cash flow, you cannot afford to ignore AI. This isn't a fad. It's a general-purpose technology—on the scale of electricity, the internet, or the industrial revolution itself. That doesn't mean it's easy to invest in. It's hard to look at headline names trading at massive valuations and feel good about buying them today. But investing in AI isn't about chasing a single company. It's about understanding second- and third-order effects: energy demand, data centers, productivity gains, labor displacement, capital flows, and how blockchain and decentralized systems intersect with all of it. What experience has taught me is this: you don't need to be first to invest—but you do need to be early in understanding. If you wait until something feels obvious, most of the opportunity is already gone. This week's episode of the Wealth Formula Podcast is focused squarely on AI and blockchain—what's real, what's noise, and where the long-term implications may lie. Listen to this episode. You'll come away smarter. And years from now, you may look back and realize this was one of those moments where paying attention really mattered. Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email us at phil@wealthformula.com.  Welcome everybody. This is Buck Joffrey with the Wealth Formula Podcast. Coming to you from Montecito, California. Today we wanna start with a reminder. We are in a new year and we are already doing deals, uh, through the Wealth Formula Accredit Investor Club. You can go and sign up for that for free. Uh, wealth formula.com just hit investor club and you just get on there and, and you’ll get onboarded. And from there, all you gotta do is wait for deal flow and webinars coming to your inbox. And, um, you know, if nothing else, you learn something. So go check it out. Uh, go to. Wealth formula.com and sign up for Investor Club now onto today’s show. Uh, the, it is interesting. I don’t know if you are aware it’s a listener, but we are, wealth Formula is, uh, probably I would say one of the, certainly in the one of the top longest running personal finance podcasts still. Standing. Uh, I’ve been around, well, I think the first episode was on like 2014, so it was a long time, but in earnest, you know, at least for over a decade. And, you know, during that time, I’ve shown up every week, every single week. Don’t Ms. Weeks, but none, none. Isn’t that incredible? I’ve shown up, uh, talked about investing and talked about very way markets are working, forces, shaping the economy, all that kind of stuff. But you know, as you can imagine, as a. As a younger individual versus, um, my crusty self. Now, you know, a lot of my own thinking has evolved over that time, you know, back then. And I, you know, I think this appealed to some people, but, um, you know, I was really dogmatic. I’m a real estate guy, right? And I still am a real estate guy, but back then I wouldn’t give anything else the time of day to even think about, you know, and, and, uh, I, I, you know. I was dogmatic and didn’t always challenge my own belief systems. Um, I’m different now, right? I’ve softened And time is a way of, of changing all of that dogmatic stuff for you. You know, I’ve lived through multiple market cycles. I’ve watched, well, I’ve watched the stock market, which I, which I always maligned, you know, melt up to valuations. Uh, that felt absurd. And then keep going higher. I’ve seen gold, which was kind of ridiculous for the longest time. I watched it for like a decade, just pretty much flat, and then it goes parabolic. Over the last year, I’ve seen interest rates sit near zero for a decade and then snap higher. Uh, not even as time, just launch higher at the fastest space in modern history. And I’ve learned sometimes I guess, the hard way that diversification is about survival and that every class, every asset class has its day. Just like every dog has its day. And um, you know, one other lesson that I learned that I’m thinking a lot about these days is ignore major technological shifts at your own peril. So what am I talking about? Well. It’s kind of a, it is a technological shift, whether you think it about not, but Bitcoin. Okay. Back in 2014, I first started hearing people talk seriously about Bitcoin, and at that time I dismissed it. I was, uh, I was listening to critics beater Schiff that constantly called it a scam, said it was going to zero and so on. I didn’t, I didn’t take the time to truly understand it, to try to understand it the way I understand it now, that makes me a believer in Bitcoin. That, of course was a big mistake, not because, you know, everyone should have bought Bitcoin and, uh, back then, well, they, you know, would’ve been nice if they did, but because fundamentally I ignored something that was a structural change happening right in front of me. And since then, Bitcoin went from a cipher punk expression of freedom to the large CTF owned by BlackRock today. The dominant story is actually artificial intelligence. Now, whether you love stocks, hate stocks, prefer real estate focused exclusively on cab, whatever, you cannot afford to ignore ai. It’s not a fad. It’s a general purpose technology and a technology shift, and the scale of electricity. The internet bigger than the internet, bigger than the industrial revolution. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to invest in. I mean, I’m gonna go invest in AI and make a bunch of money because I mean, what does that even mean? It’s hard to look at headline names, trading at massive valuations like Nvidia and all that right now, and saying, oh, I’m gonna go buy that. Who knows? That’s gonna work out. When I talk about investing in AI isn’t really just investing in stocks or any individual company or data centers or whatever. It’s about understanding. The second and third order effects, energy demand. You know, as I mentioned, data centers, productivity gains, labor displacement, capital flows, and how blockchain and decentralized systems intersect with all of that. It is very, very complicated. Um, but it’s really important to start to try to understand, you know, an experience that stop me is this. You don’t need to be the first to invest, but you do need to be early in understanding. If you wait until something feels obvious, usually the opportunity’s gone by then. And you know, the thing about AI is even if you think it’s obvious now. The reality is that most people haven’t really caught on. Maybe they played with chat GPT, but I don’t think they’re understanding what this whole, you know, this thing is gonna do to our world. Um, anyway, so that is what this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, uh, is about. It’s about AI and also, um, a little bit about, you know, bitcoin and blockchain and that kind of thing. Um, we’re gonna talk about what’s noise, uh, you know, where the long, what the long-term, uh, implications are all of this stuff. This is a show that, uh, I really enjoy doing really, really good stuff. Um, so make sure you listen in. We’ll have that interview for you right after these messages. Wealth Formula banking is an ingenious concept powered by whole life insurance, but instead of acting just as a safety net. The strategy supercharges your investments. First, you create a personal financial reservoir that grows at a compounding interest rate much higher than any bank savings account. As your money accumulates, you borrow from your own bank to invest in other cash flowing investments. Here’s the key. Even though you borrowed money at a simple interest rate, your insurance company keeps paying you compound interest. On that money, even though you’ve borrowed it, that result, you make money in two places at the same time. That’s why your investments get supercharged. This isn’t a new technique. It’s a refined strategy used by some of the wealthiest families in history, and it uses century old rock solid insurance companies as its backbone. Turbocharge your investments. Visit Wealth formula banking.com. Again, that’s wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today. My guest on Wealth Formula podcast is Jim Thorne, chief Market strategist at Wellington. L is private wealth with more than 25 years of experience in capital markets. He’s previously served as chief capital market strategist, senior portfolio manager, chief economist, and CIO. Uh, equities at major investment firms and has also taught economics and finance at the university level. Uh, Jim is known for translating complex economic, political, and market dynamics into clear actionable insights to help investors and advisors navigate long-term capital decisions. Uh, Jim, welcome with the program. Thanks for having me Buck. Well, um, Tim, I, I, I, uh, had been following a little bit of, uh, what you discuss on, uh, on X and, um, one of the things that caught my eye is, you know, your, your narrative on, on ai, a lot of people are tend to be still sort of skeptical of AI and what’s going on, uh, with the markets. Um, uh, but at the same time, uh, there’s this. Sense. I think that ignoring AI altogether as an investor is, is, is downright potentially dangerous. So, uh, at the highest level, why is AI something people simply can’t dismiss? Well, we live in an, uh, uh, you know, many other people have coined this term, but we live, we’re living in an exponential age of, of technological innovation. And, you know, AI and I’ll just add into their, uh, blockchain is just the normal evolutionary process that, you know, for me started when I left graduate school and came into the business in the nineties where everybody had this high degree of skepticism of the computer and the, the, the phone, the, the. And the internet. And so, you know, what we do is we go through these cycles and there are periods of time where the stars align. And we have a period of time where we have what I would call an intense period of innovation where I would suggest to you that. People are skeptical. Skeptical, and yet at the same point in time, they very early on in the, in the, in the trade, call it a bubble when it’s not. And so I think it comes from the position of ignorance. One, I think two, fear, and then three. If you think about if you are an active manager, I in a 40 ACT fund, um, you know, and you’re sitting there with, uh, you know, mi. Uh, Nvidia at, you know, eight or 9% of your index. And that’s a big chunk that you’ve gotta put into your fund, uh, just to be market neutral. So there’s a lot of people that hate this rally. There’s a lot of people that are can, going to continue to hate this rally. But the thing I anchor my hat on are a couple of things. Look at if this is no different than the railroad. Canals, any major technological innovation, will it become a bubble? Yes. Just not now. So, so let’s follow up on that, because a lot of people think, or are talking about the, do you know the.com bubble, uh, comparisons, and you’ve argued that that sort of misses the real story. So, so where are we getting it wrong right now? Are those people getting it wrong? In the nineties buck, you’d walk into a bar and there wouldn’t be ESPN on there’d be CNBC on people were getting their jobs to become day traders. Folks didn’t go to the go to university because they were basically getting their white papers financed. You had companies that were trading off of clicks. So I lived that. Anybody who is of a younger generation has no idea what a bubble is, and it’s specious and pedantic for them to use that term when they have no clue about what they’re talking about. But you did mention that it could become a bubble. How do we know when it does become a bubble? Oh, it’ll become a bubble. Well, when, when, when you know, the, what, what I am looking for is, you know, when we, when the good investment opportunities start to dry up, when liquidity starts to dry up. So what I, it’s not about valuation, to me it’s about liquidity. So in 2000, what, and I’m roughly speaking, what went down was you had all these companies that were trading at Strat catastrophic valuation, this stupid valuations, and you walked in one day and they didn’t get financing. And if you read the prospectus or you followed the company, you knew that they were not going to be free cash flow positive for another two or three rounds of financing. All of a sudden you walked in and everybody goes, oh my God, this thing, you know, trading at 250 times sales. And everybody went, yeah, of course. And so what it was is, was when does liquidity dry up? So I’ll give you a date, um, you know, with Trump’s big beautiful bill act. 100% tax deductibility of CapEx and that goes until Jan 1, 20 31. So to me, that’s a very motivating factor for people to, um, invest. The last thing I would say to you in more of a game theoretic context book is, look, if you are a big tech company and you don’t invest in ai. You are ensuring your death. Yahoo, Hela Packard. I can go through the list of companies that cease to invest, so they’re looking. If it was you and I when we were running this company, I would say, dude, we gotta invest because if we don’t have a poll position in this next platform, whatever it is, we’re done. We’re toast. And I think that’s why you’re seeing all these hyperscalers spending as much money as they are. ’cause they get this, they saw it. So, you know, you framed ai not necessarily as a a tech trade, but as a capital expenditure cycle. Can you explain that to people? Well, what we need to do is we need to build out the infrastructure of ai. Then, and that’s the phase that we’re in right now. So it’s more like we’re building out all of the railroads, the railway tracks and the railway stations across the United States back in the 18 hundreds. And then we’re gonna go through that building phase. And then as that building phase goes, some companies, some towns, are going to basically realize and recognize what’s happening and start to basically take ai. Bring it into their business model, into enhanced margins. Right. So right now we’re building it out. I mean, you know, we all focus on the hyperscalers, but the majority of companies, pardon me, governments. Individuals, they haven’t used AI and, and what is interesting about this is back in the nineties, they were talking about how the internet had to evolve to be much more. You know, uh, have critical thinking in, in, in it. And it was more explained when you went to these conferences, as you know, you know, think about this. You’re hearing this in 99, okay? Not today. You go in and you ask Google or dog pile at the same time, or excite, okay? You would say, I wanna go to Florida in the third week of March and I wanna stay here and I wanna spend this amount of money and I wanna rent a car. Plan it for me. And they would come back and they would tell you that it would come back and it would, it would, everything would be there. And you would have your over here and all you would have to do is drop your money and you had your thing planned. So none of this is as, it’s aspirational, but we’ve heard it before. And in technology, what happens is it’s not like it’s new. We’ve been talking to, I did machine learning in in graduate school. Ai, you know, I did neural networks and I’m a terrible Ian. This isn’t, you know, Claude Shannon wrote about this in 1937, right? But it’s about when does it hit, and so it was chat GBT. Can we argue, was that right? As an investor, it’s stop arguing, start investing. Then what you’ve gotta figure out, which is the question you ask, is when does the music stop? I think it goes until the end of the decade. You know, one of the things that, uh, is interesting about this, uh, AI investment, uh, it’s, it’s unfolding in a higher interest rate environment. Why is that detail so important? Understanding its significance? Well, it’s the cost of capital, right? And so this phase that we have right now. It’s funny you say that, right? ’cause our reference point is zero interest rates, right? Yeah, yeah. Right. That’s right. So, you know, you know, so, so think about this, what it happens right now. Now we’re in the phase where you’ve got these hyperscalers that instead of taking all their free cash flow and buying bonds and buying back stock, are increasing CapEx because there’s a great tax deduction on it. So you get a lot of, so we’re in this phase where, for where, where a lot of the money is, you know, was. Was, let me, let me be clear, was a hundred free cashflow. Now we’re getting these guys, these companies like Oracle and what have you, you know, starting to issue debt and look at debt isn’t bad as long as the rate of return on debt is higher than the interest rates. And so, you know, you know, I, I would say historically speaking, for a lot of these high quality names, the interest rates are not, uh, at levels that will stop them from investing. Right. Right. You know, you’ve written that, um, productivity is ultimately the real story behind ai. So why does productivity matter more than the technology headlines themselves? Well, let me just put it this way, right? So we’ve grown, I grew up, I, I joined, I’m up here in Toronto, right? So I’m gonna give it to you in Canadian dollars, right? So I joined, I joined here. You know, I grew up here, went to the states, came back home. Growing this company I joined when we’re about three and a half billion. We’re getting close to 50 billion, and we’re the fastest growing independent platform in the country. I’m a one man band, right? I use three ai. In the old days, I’d have four research assistants. Where’s the margin in that? And so I, that’s how I see it. And let me be clear, it’s, you know, this isn’t we’re, it’s not perfect. But if I wanted to say, instead of you, but hey, write me a 2000 word essay on the counterfactual of what happened with railroads up until 1894 when the, when the bubble popped, give me a f, you know, a a thousand word essay and, and just a general overview. I can get that in less than five minutes. Michael Sailor is writing product on ai, which, which, which you would take, which you would take. He’s in his presentation, say it would take a hundred lawyers. So it’s gonna be more about those. And it’s, it’s no different than Internet of things or, you know, it was, uh, Kasparov that talked about this. Gary Kasparov talking about the melding of, of technology in humans. He would ran, run this chess tournament called freestyle. You could use a computer, you could use, you know, grand Masters. You could use whatever you wanted to compete. And who won? Well, who won it Was that those teams that were generalists that had a little bit of that, the knowledge of the computer and the knowledge of the test. Uh, o of chess, right? That’s what’s gonna happen. So this isn’t we’re, as far as I’m concerned, we’re not, yes, there’s going to be some d some jobs that are going to be replaced, but that is always the case in technology. I’m not a Luddite, okay? I am not Luddite. But the same point in time. I, I would suggest to you that it, it is just a really, for me, it’s a, helps me. Do research no different than when I was an undergrad and they went from cue cards in the, the library at the university to actually having a dummy terminal and I could ask questions in queue. You know, it stalked me from having to go to the basement of the library and going to microfiche. Right. Have helping that way. Now can it, can, will it do other things? I’m sure it is, and I’ll lead that to Elon Musk and the crew. You know, that’s above my pay grade. But for me, I see it as a very helpful way of, you know, allowing me to process and delineate. Much more information a a and not have me waste so much time trying to figure out what got went on in the past or, you know, QMF. Right. You know, summarize me the talk five, you know, academic papers in this area, what are they saying? And then they gimme the papers. Right. It just speeds the process up. Yeah. You know, um, one of the things that I’ve been sort of talking about and thinking about. Is that it’s hard to not see AI as a very, very strong deflationary force. Um, how do you think about that? Yeah. Technology is deflationary, right? Doubt about it. And so I look at it this way, Ray. Um, so I work at the financial services industry, okay. You know, Mr. Diamond of JP Morgan is talking about how they are starting to embrace blockchain and ai. They are going to cut out the back end of that in the, the margins in that, in that company by the end of the cycle are going to be fantastic. People just do not get in. You know, the financial services industry is built on a platform. Of the 1960s, dude. I mean, they’re still running Fortran, cobalt. So you know what I, how I look at this is much more as a margin type story, and there’s going to be a lot of displacement. But at the same point in time, I look at Tesla and automation and ai. And you know, people look at Tesla as a car company. I look at Tesla as an advanced manufacturing company. Elon Musk could basically go into any industry and disrupt it if it wanted to. Right. So that’s how I look at it. And so, you know, the hard part is going to be, you know. Nothing. If we get back to where we were, it’s not going to be perfect, right? Because here’s, here’s where the counter is, here’s where the counter is. Right? If you, if, if you think about, and we’re, I’m gonna take Trump outta the equation and ent outta the equation right now, but if we just went back to the way things were before COVID, we would have strong deflationary forces. Okay. Just with demographics, just with excessive levels of debt. Just with, you know, pushing on a string in terms of, in terms we couldn’t get the growth up, you know, and, you know, and the overregulation of financial institutions. Trump and descent are basically applying what’s called supply side economics, and they’re deregulating. It’s says law, which is John Batiste, that says basically supply creates his own demand and it’s non-inflationary. But really what they’re going to try to do is they’re going to try to run the economy hot and they’re gonna try to pull this way out of the debt. And if you do that and you deregulate the banks. And allow the banks to get back to where they were before the financial crisis. Okay. You know, and, and the Fed takes its interest rates down to neutral, expands the balance sheet. Then I don’t think we’re gonna go back to the zero bound in deflation. I think this thing’s gonna run hot for a long time. And I think it, the real question is, is, is is 2 75 in the United States the neutral rate? I think it is. Uh, but as, as, as Scott be says, and, and, and, and, and let’s be clear, buck, the guy’s a superstar. Okay. Guy is a legend. Just you sit there, just shut up and listen to him. Okay. They keep up, right? Well, so they’re gonna run it hot, but where we are is, in his words, mine, not mine. We’re still in this detox period, you know what I mean? We still got the Biden era. We still got, you know, a over a decade of excessive ca of Central Bank intermediation. That needs to get, you know, go away. So what I say, and what I’ve been writing about is 26 is going to be the year that the baton is passed back to the private sector. Let’s get rates down to 2 75. That’s, I mean, I’m going off the New York Fed model. That says real fed funds, the real, the real neutral rate is 75 to 78 basis points. I think inflation’s at two. That that gets you 2 75. Get the rates there and then get the balance sheet of the Fed to the level so that overnight lending isn’t loose or tight. It’s just normal. And then step back, go away and let Wall Street and the private sector create credit. Create economic growth and let’s get back to the business cycle. And if we do that, we’re gonna have non-inflationary growth. It’s gonna be strong, but we’re not going back to the zero bound and we’re gonna grow our way out of this. And so that’s where I get really excited about. This is a very unique time in history. A very, very, very unique time in history where, and I don’t know how long it’s going to last because of the compression that we have now because of the, you know, we live in such a digital world, but let’s say it’s five years demographic says it’s to 33, 32 to 33. That’s, you know, that’s how long this run is. And, and to me, uh, AI is a massive play. I, I, to me, blockchain is a massive play and to me it’s to those countries and companies that get it is, whereas investors, we wanna think, start thinking about investing. Yeah. You mentioned, um, non non-inflationary growth. Can you drill down on that a little bit just so people understand a little bit where. Usually you think of an economy running super hot, you, you think automatically there’s an, you know, an inflationary growth. So I want you to think in your mind into your list as think in your mind. Go back to economics 1 0 1 with the demand curve. In the supply curve, okay? And there are an equilibrium. And at that equilibrium we have a price at an equilibrium, and we have an output as an equilibrium. Okay? Now what I want you to do is I want you to keep the demand curves stagnant or, or, or anchored. Then I want you to shift the supply curve out. Prices go down, output goes out. We can talk all this esoteric stuff, you know, you know Ronald Reagan and, and Robert Mandel and supply side economics. But it’s really your shift in the supply curve out, and that’s what, and that’s what BeIN’s doing. I mean, this is a w would just sit down and be quiet. He’s talking about, you know, what is deregulation? He’s pushing the supply provider. Oh, hold on. My phone. My, my thing. And what did, since the two thousands, what did, what was the policy? It was kingian, it was all focused on the demand curve. Everything was focused on demand. And so all we’re doing is we’re, we’re getting the keynesians out. I use 2000 ’cause that’s when Ben Bernanke really came in and was very influential. Let me just say he’s a very smart, I learned so much from reading. Smart, smart, smart, smart guy. But his whole thing was Kasan. He came from MIT, his thesis supervisor was Stanley Fisher, right? We’re going back to, you know, Mario Dragons thesis supervisors, Stanley Fisher, all these guys came from MIT, Larry, M-I-T-M-I-T, Yale, and Princeton. Whereas previously it was the University of Chicago. It was Milton Friedman. It was, it was supply side economics. We’re going back, they’re going back to supply side economics and right now we need it. We need balance. But my god, what did we end off with? We ended off with four years of mono modern monetary theory. Deficits matter. That’s insanity. You had mentioned a little bit, uh, you, you’ve talked about blockchain a few times here. Talk about the significance. I mean, it’s sort of, you know, blockchain was a thing that everybody was, everybody was talking about it, you know, three, four years ago, but now it’s all about ai. But you know, now you’ve got, um, but in, but in the background, blockchain has grown, uh, adoption has grown. Uh, tell us what’s going on there, and if you could tie it into the significance of, of where we’re at today. Yeah. Um, uh, Jeff Bezos gave a wonderful speech, I think in two thou, early two thousands, where he basically talked about the fact that, you know, once this innovation is led out of the genie’s, led out of the bottle, whether or not, you know, buck and Jim, like it as an investment, the innovation continues. And so after the internet bubble pop, right? Really smart guys like Jeff Bezos, uh, Zuckerberg, you, you, the whole cast of characters, right? Basically built it out. Okay. And it wasn’t perfect and everybody knew it wasn’t perfect. I mean, that was the whole thing that was so bizarre. But they knew it wasn’t perfect and they knew that they needed to solve some problems. Right. And you know, it was a double spend problem. I mean, the internet that we were dealing with right now was developed in the 1950s and so on and so forth. And so, you know, that always stuck with me. Right. A couple of things stuck with me because I’ve lived through a couple of these cycles. The first one is Buck. When the, when Wall Street coalesces around something just shut up and buy it, right? I mean, I, I spent too much of my life arguing about whether dog pile and Ask Gees was better than Google. Wall Street said Google was the best. Shut up. Invest, right? And so, so look, blockchain solved the double spend problem. Blockchain solved all the problems that the original iteration of the internet could solve, and everybody knew it was coming along okay. So it’s a decentral, it’s decentralized, right? Uh, does, does not need to be reconciled. So no. Not only do you have another iteration of the internet. You have basically introduced into society the biggest innovation in accounting or recordkeeping since double entry. Bookkeeping accounting was introduced in Florence, Italy centuries ago by the Medicis and, and buck. All this is out there like, so this is a profound, right? So think about you’re in an accounting department and you don’t have to reconcile, right? So look. The first use cakes was Bitcoin. And what was the, what was the beautiful thing about it? Well, first off, it grew up by itself. And secondly, it’s got perfect scarcity, right? And so let’s just full stop. And I mean, yes, gold and silver had the run that they should have had decades. So I had been waiting and listening to people, gold bugs, talking about this type of run since the nineties. Okay. Um, but look, you know, and the problem with fi money, right? I mean, this is, this goes back decades. It’s an old argument. The way you solve it is, is Bitcoin. That’s the solution. I mean, forget about it. I mean, if they’re gonna whip it around and do all this stuff, fine. But the other thing that people miss and Sailor hasn’t, and Sailor is brilliant, is look. Bitcoin is pristine collateral in 2008, in September. What caused the, the system to stop was the counter. We could not identify counterparty risk for near cash. It was a settlement problem. Anybody you talk to Buck that says it was, you know, the subprime this and it, yeah, that was crap. I get that. But when the system shut down is you had a $750 million near cash instrument with X, Y, Z, wall Street firm, and you did this for three extra beeps and it was no longer cash. Guess. And guess what? Your institutional money market fund broke the buck. That’s when the system blew sky high. When the money market broke the buck and it was a settlement problem, blockchain and Bitcoin solved that. Sailor knows that, look where Wall Street’s gonna go. They understand now that. Bitcoin is pristine, collateral and capital that is 100% transparent. Let’s lend against it, and that’s what Sadler’s doing. That’s why Wall Street hates the guy so much, right? Think about that. Think of where is he going after he’s going after all the stranded capital on Wall Street. And, and the whole point is he’s sitting there going, I’m too busy for this. And you’ve got all these other people that are gonna live off of other people’s ignorance. Meanwhile, Jing Diamond knows exactly what he’s talking about. We can identify, if I hear one more person on me in, in the meeting say, I don’t know. You know, you know, uh, micro strategies balance sheet is so complicated. Really. Compared to JP Morgans, I mean, you know what his capital is. It says Bitcoin, like, what are you guys talking about? But hey, fucking in this business, people make generational wealth on ignorance of people who think they know what they don’t know. So, you know, just going back to Jamie Diamond, you know, he spent, I don’t know how long. Throwing every insult, uh, he could towards Bitcoin. And now they’ve really kind of, they haven’t backtracked. I think he’s, he’s, you know, his, his, um, I think the way he phrases is the blockchain’s a real thing. He never seems to really say the word Bitcoin, uh, in this regard. Um, banks in general, where do you think they’re headed with this stuff? I mean, I, you know, right now, again, you can kind of see even. Um, I think, you know, some of the big advisory firms suddenly recommending one to, you know, one to 4% of people’s portfolios in Bitcoin. I mean, this is all, I mean, gosh, I, I’ve, you know, been talking about Bitcoin since 2017. This is in unbelievable transformation in less than a decade. Where do you see this going in the next five to 10 years? It’s called the, it’s called, what is it? It’s called, I’m gonna call it the Evolution of Jim. Me, you know, in my business and, and, and, and you know, the thing I have book is I’ve survived and I’ve gone through a lot of cycles. I’ve done a lot, you know, and you ask yourself, you scratch your head a lot and you’re, and you, but you’re continually doing objective research and you’re this, if you, this is why I love this game so much. Right? So let’s just go stop for a second. Let’s get some context. Right. My first summer job, one of my first summer jobs, I worked in the basement of a bank in the in, in downtown Toronto, right up the street from the Toronto Stock Exchange. And my job was to let guys in with beak, briefcases into the cage, into the big vault, to basically bring in certificates. Okay. And, and what? Stock certificates. And so remember, you know, and I remember my grandfather when we, when he died, look at, we couldn’t sell the house because he didn’t believe in the banks. And we were finding certificates all over the house in the walls. Okay? Right. So in the 1960s it was bare based. The whole industry was bare based. And there was the volume in Wall Street started to pick up to the point where they couldn’t handle the volume. There was a paper crisis where almost a third of the companies went down bankrupt because of the cage. The cage. Okay. So basically what happened was, to make a long story short, they came out with, they came, Hey, why don’t we get two computers At one point in time, they said, okay, crisis. Let’s solve it. Well, why don’t we get these two computers and we can solve, or we can sell trades among, amongst each other. Okay. And then we don’t need to have guys riding around Wall Street with bicycles and big briefcases. Okay. And then what we did was, what we did was we sat there and said, well, why don’t we have a centralized clearing, and we’re gonna call it DTC or CDS, depending on what country you’re in. And what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna offer paper, we’re gonna, we’re gonna issue paper rights to the underlying stock that was developed in the early 1970s. That’s the system that we’re on right now. There are a lot of faults with that. Let me give you, when you’ve talked about the GameStop a MC situation, when you have a company that’s basically have more shares outstanding short, sorry, more shares short than outstanding, that shows you that the old system doesn’t work. It’s called ation. The paper writes to the underlying assets, it, it doesn’t match up. There have been guys that make a career outta this and write books about this, right? Dole Pineapple. They had a corporate, a corporate event, right? Hostile takeover. 64,000 for 64 million shares, voted, I think, and there was only 3,200 on. We all know this, so this has to be solved. The way you solve it is you tokenize assets, and this was talked about a decade ago, and they know about it and true tofor, they, and if you’re thinking about it, it’s totally logical, right? But if we allow this innovation to go full stream ahead, we’re wiped out, right? So what did they do? They delayed. They delayed. And as you know, you could talk about, it’s called Operation choke 0.2 0.0. Right. You know, the Fed overreached their bounds, they de banked people. I mean, this is why, why Best it’s going after them. They, yet they stepped over their constitutional mandate. Right. The federal, the Fed Act is not, uh, does not supersede the US Constitution. Elizabeth warned the whole thing. They did it. Okay, so let’s not complain about it. So now Atkins is gonna, we’re gonna have the Clarity Act come out and they’re gonna basically deregulate New York Stock Exchange already there. They’re gonna put everything on the blockchain and when you put everything on the blockchain, trade a settlement. There’s no hypo. Immediate settlement. Immediate, which is a benefit if you can get your act together because it, you know, for Wall Street firms you need less capital, right? So it’s a natural evolutionary process. And then you sit there and go back in history, if you and I were writing it, we’d sit there and go, well, should we be surprised that the incumbents right, the status quo pushed back on innovation? No, there was a guy, there was a prophet, um. At, at Harvard, his name was Clay Christensen, and he wrote this wonderful book called The Innovator’s Dilemma. You know, why does, why don’t companies evolve, or why do they go bankrupt? It’s because they cease to evolve and the status quo doesn’t allow the evolution of the companies to take place. Right? Well, that’s what happened in RA. We’re gonna complain about it. No, it, it is what it is. It’s water under the bridge. And so what I think is happening is, you know, Mr. Diamond is basically saying. He’s pragmatic, he’s a realist. And now he’s saying, we gotta evolve. And hey, by the way, now I’ve gotten to the point where I think I can make a tunnel. Think about that. Yeah. Think about his own stable coins, right? So his own stable coins. And, uh, well think about this. If you trade like internal meetings, right? And I’m hyped this hypothetical, right? I go, fuck, don’t screw this up this time. And you’re gonna go, Jim, what are you talking about? I go. We want a nice bread between bid and ask in these financial price. We don’t wanna go down to pennies. Okay? Can we go back to the old days when we were, you know, trading in quarters and sixteenths and so we can make some skin in the game? I think you’ve got the deregulation of the banking industry where the banks are gonna, they’re fit. It’s gonna be baby steps. But what’s gonna happen is they’re gonna basically say, stop taking all that capital that’s sitting at the Fed, making four or fed funds rate overnights wherever it’s four half, 3 75 right now. And you can now trade it. Go back to prop trading, which is what they did. And they’re gonna start off, they will start off with, its only treasuries. Eventually they’ll be able to expand throughout our lifetime. So the old way you gotta look at it is, you know. We’re bringing the ba, you know, we’re putting the band back together, man. Right. And the banks are gonna deregulate, they’re gonna deregulate the banks, they’re going to innovate, they’re gonna be able to use the capital, their earnings profile going out into the end of the decade. It’s, it’s gonna be monstrous, it’s gonna be, you know, it, it’s, it’s, and, and that’s how I get, you know, when people say, where do you think the s and p goes? You know, I say, you know, 14,000, you know, double from here by the end of the decade. And he goes, well, what about ai? I go, well, they’re gonna, that’s important, but it’s the banks. I think the banks are gonna have a renaissance. Yeah. Yeah. Um, one thing just to get your thoughts on, so when you look at the banks, you talked about sort of the inevitability of tokenization. Um, the stock exchange, uh, we talked about stable coins. I mean, another great way for banks to make money. Uh, essentially where does that, how, how does that help or hurt Bitcoin adoption? Because Bitcoin is a sort of a separate, separate, you’re not, you’re not building on Bitcoin as much as you are, say, Ethereum, Mar Solana or, you know, some of the, some of the blockchain things. So, so is it just that. Is it just a, an adoption issue? Because you live in a, in a different world. You live in a world of blockchain and Bitcoin is, its currency. It’s weird, right? Because I, I’m writing this feed like, so Buck, where are you right now? Where, where, where are you located? I’m in Santa Barbara. You’re in California. So, yeah, so I’m in Toronto, right? Uh, you know, I lived in, worked in the States for, you know, a decade, a couple of decades, and I’m back home and it’s like, man, they don’t get it. Right, and, and, and, and what am I talking about? Well, well, this, this is the, the thing that you’ve gotta understand is this, right. Ethereum was invented by Vladi Butrin in this town, Joe Alozo, who’s the head of one of the largest Ethereum groups. Father is a dentist at Bathurst and Spadina. We’re up here and people are saying, oh, you know, president Trump don’t talk about being a 51st state. We act like a colony, duke. We are a, you know, we forget about calling us one. We are. So, look, it, look, there is no doubt in my mind that Ethereum is going to have a place and, and we’re going to use it. Seems like we’re going to use Ethereum and that’s the smart contract, you know? Um. And that’s fine. Um, you know, but going back in time. But, but remember, there’s not per, there’s not perfect scarcity there. So I like Ethereum, don’t get me wrong, but I look at Bitcoin and I look at the, I look at the scarcity, and I also look at the fact of, you know, what sa, what Sailor, if you sailor did a presentation in the middle of next year and all hell broke loose. What he did, and it’s, you know, and of course I’m hypothesizing. He basically went to New York and said, I am going to create fixed income products and I am going to give yields. On those products, and I’m coming after the stranded capital that sits on Wall Street that you guys have been ripping on for years. In the middle of last year, staler went public and declared war. Okay. Are we surprised that Jim Shane Oaks came out and everybody came out basically guns a blazing. Are we surprised? But what he, what Sailor did and put and slammed on the table is it’s pristine capital, it’s transparent capital. And what are you willing to pay for that? And now you GARP banks trading at. We have no idea what their capital structure really is. Honestly, we have an idea, but it’s very opaque, right? You know, the high quality names are trading at two, two to, you know, two times tangible book. You’ve got fintech’s companies trading at four to five times, right book, and you know, what’s Sailor doing right now? Diluting his stock so he can buy as much Bitcoin as he wants because he sees the next game. He says the hell with what you guys think the next game is going to be. Wall Street’s going to realize that Bitcoin is pristine capital and there’s only 21 million of it. What do you and, and what just happened today? What did Morgan Stanley just file a treasury company. So everything you and I are talking about, they know they’re smart guys, right? They’re real, they’re not. That’s, this is the whole point. They’re really, really, really smart. Okay. They see they’ve gone through the history. They know. Okay, so you’re sitting there, you get around the room, you say, so wait a minute. Wait. Whoa, sailor’s over here. And he’s basically saying he’s gonna give you a a pref that’s basically backed by Bitcoin charging 10%. And he’s going after our corporate clients. I mean, and what’s the pitch Buck? You’ve got a hundred million dollars. Okay, you got a hundred million dollars in the kitty. Okay, buck. What happens is you need $10 million a year for working capital, which is in cash, which means you’ve got $90 million sitting there idle. Hey, buck, I can give you 10% on that. You go to Jamie, he’s giving you two. What are you gonna do? Yeah. I think one of the issues right now is I the, the perceived risk profile of that. Right. Uh, you know. I tend to agree with you about the, uh, pristine nature of Bitcoin s collateral, but just in general, the perception. I don’t know that, that that’s. That’s the case. Well, you gotta go back to the fact that, do you think Bitcoin’s going to zero or not? No, of course not. Yeah. ‘ cause the Bitcoin doesn’t go to zero. There’s no, then, then that are, there’s Bitcoin could go to zero. There’s no, I mean, I don’t think, I mean, non-zero probability, of course, right? I don’t think it is. And if that has been, if it has been selected and now you have Wall Street coalescing it, I haven’t even mentioned the president of the United States or his family. Right. Uh, or the Commerce Secretary and his family, right? Or if you go to New York, wall Street, right, they’re all talking about it, right? So, I, I, you know, to me, I, I, the question about micro strategy, to me it’s not. That it’s a treasury company and it’s got a pile of Bitcoin. What does he do with it? Does he become a bank? Like why does it, this is me. I’m pitching him. Right. Hey, Mike, why don’t you just become a FinTech, say you’re like a FinTech company and you’ll get, and you, you’re gonna instantaneously trade it five to six times book. Why don’t you, why are you, you’re talking like you’re attacking them, but you’re still, you’re still a software company with a, with a big whack of Bitcoin that you are writing pres. Right? So, and, and so that’s, that’s how I look at it. I think the wave is too big. We are going to digitize. And the other thing that we didn’t really touch on with respect to AI and blockchain, and I’m gonna paraphrase the president. Right. Um, Mr. Trump is, look, um, it’s a matter of national security, duke, and when I hear that, I go back to the nineties in the eighties when I was in late eighties when I was an undergrad. Right. And it wasn’t China, it was Japan. And, and you know, what happened was, you know, it, it’s funny, Al Gore did deregulate so that. The internet could become for-profit. We all stood around and said, you know what the hell could, how do we make money on this? That’s, you know, what do we do? And then what did we do? We, we, we threw a ton of money at it and the United States controlled it. And what did we get out of it? We got out, we got, you know, all those companies. Right. The last thing I would say to you, and this is much more of a personal story, is I, when I was younger, I was in New York and it was 2000 and I was at the Grand Hyatt, and it was a tech, it was a tech conference and, uh, Larry Ellison Oracle was there and he gave a, he gave a, he gave a a, a fireside chat. Then, um, we go to a breakout room and, you know, in a break, I don’t know about if you’ve been to one, but you go to a breakout room, it’s a smaller room at the hotel, and you know, sometimes you got 25 people, sometimes you got 50 people, right. And, you know, I went to the, I went to the breakout with Mr. Allison ’cause of Oracle and I went in there and it was absolutely jammed and I was sweating and he just looked at us and he just ripped us. He AP Soly, just, I still have the scars today. I’m talking to you about it. Okay. He called it a bubble. He called it a bubble. He, he was early in calling it a bubble. I never forgot that. And then you sit there and see what he’s doing right now. Where he’s levering up the balance sheet. Now, to me, having survived in this game for such a long period of time, and I call it a game, it’s a game of strategy, whatever, you know, how does that not, you know, I would say to you, we were, your office was next to mine. Fuck. I remember New York, he’s loading the goose loaded in. He go in, he’s borrowing money from his grandmother. He’s, you know, what is going on. And he’s really stinking smart. You know, he’s, he, Larry Allenson just doesn’t do, and people, oh, he’s in, you know, he’s, no, he’s not, he’s, he’s like the mentor of all of these guys. You know what I mean? So there’s a, to me, there’s a discontinuity that these need to believe that we’re still early on because you know, what, if Larry’s, what do we take when Larry or Mr. Ellison is leveraging up to me, it’s profound because I’m anchoring off of my bias to the New York, the New York high at, at the Tech Co. I think it was, I think it was at Bear Stearn. I couldn’t remember Bear Stearns or Lehman. But you know, one of those I carry that experience on with the rest of my life. I do. It’s like, what is Larry thinking? Right? So he’s leveraging up buck. That’s all I know. He’s a priest or guy. Well, that’s probably a good place for us to stop, Jim, uh, chief, uh, market strategist at Wellington Elta Private Wealth. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks so much and be safe. You make a lot of money but are still worried about retirement. Maybe you didn’t start earning until your thirties. Now you’re trying to catch up. Meanwhile, you’ve got a mortgage, a private school to pay for, and you feel like you’re getting further and further behind. Now, good news, if you need to catch up on retirement, check out a program put out by some of the oldest and most prestigious life insurance companies in the world. It’s called Wealth Accelerator, and it can help you amplify your returns quickly, protect your money from creditors, and provide financial protection to your family if something happens. The concepts here are used by some of the wealthiest families in the world, and there’s no reason why they can’t be used by you. Check it out for yourself by going to wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to the show everyone. Hope you enjoyed it. Uh, and, uh, as I said before, do not ignore ai. This is something that you need to start using. Have your kids start using it. Uh, make sure that they, you know. They use it every day because this whole world is turning AI and it’s gonna happen. You know, it’s gonna happen in, in a blink of an, uh, blink of an eye. And the world is gonna change and there are gonna be real winners out there. And the winners are gonna be people who knew where there was, was going and kind of used it in their mind’s eye as they looked on navigating how. You know how to allocate their money. Anyway, that is it for me. This week on Wealth Formula Podcast. This is Buck JJoffrey signing off. If you wanna learn more, you can now get free access to our in-depth personal finance course featuring industry leaders like Tom Wheel Wright and Ken McElroy. Visit wealth formula roadmap.com.

From Sin to Stepping Stone by Autumn Dickson This week we get to read about how Adam and Eve made their way out of the garden and into the world that we know today. There are principles here that can change how you see your own efforts to follow Christ. Some of the principles we read about this week have the power to bring you out of perfectionism and into true salvation because they are not the same thing. Background on the verse we're about to read: Moses is learning about Satan because Satan had recently come to him to tempt him. The Lord starts to teach Moses about the man who was trying to get Moses to worship him, specifically about Satan's role in the beginning of the Plan of Salvation. Moses 4:6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world. Satan wanted to tempt Eve in order to destroy the world. He wanted to destroy the plan of God because he was mad. Despite his original pleadings to come down and save everyone and bring them all home, now Satan threw away his supposed love for us and merely sought to destroy what God was planning. He was a fraud; he never loved us. He just wanted glory and honor. There is beautiful irony here. Satan would have destroyed God's plan if he had left Adam and Eve alone, but he knew not the mind of God. He didn't know that tempting Eve and convincing her to sin was part of the plan. One more time. He didn't know that tempting Eve and convincing her to sin was part of the plan. I want to switch up the verse just a little bit. I'm going to put in my name. You put in your's. Moses 4:6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Autumn, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world. Satan tempts me because even though he already lost his chance to destroy the plan with Adam and Eve and then again with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, he wants to destroy the effects of the plan in my life. There is beautiful irony here. Sin was part of the plan, and not just as some unfortunate byproduct of a fallen world. It was one of the most powerful tools utilized to save Adam and Eve. Let me explain myself. Let's pretend for a moment that Satan predicted the mind of God and left Adam and Eve alone. We would have remained in the exact state where we were. Adam and Eve would have remained innocent in the garden, and we would have stayed in our heavenly home with God. God's plan would have been thwarted. No sin would have occurred, but no true happiness would have occurred either. Sin was part of the plan, and not just as some byproduct of a fallen world. Sinning teaches us powerful lessons. Now we have to be careful with this principle and have the right attitude towards it. I don't teach this principle so that someone feels like they can go try cocaine in order to learn that it's bad. That's ridiculous. I'm not even teaching that it's okay to lie or cheat so that you can learn your lessons. I'm not teaching that it's okay to go sin as long as your purpose is an education. I am trying to break apart the ridiculous arguments of perfectionism. We came here to grow and become. Our purpose in life should not be to stand frozen and still so that we don't do anything wrong. Our methods should not include berating ourselves into perfection. We were meant to come down here and return to live with God, prepared to live His life and participate in His work. How do we get from Point A to Point B? There are a lot of ways we acquire that growth. One of those ways is sinning. I have learned so much from reflecting on the times that I screwed up. This doesn't give us license to go out and sin on purpose for the supposed goal of learning because that doesn't get you to Point B. If you're using “learning” as an excuse to sin, you're not returning to God, prepared to live His life and participate in His work. Rather, this gives you license to look at your sins the way Adam and Eve came to look at their sins. Here is another verse from this week. Adam and Eve sinned. They disobeyed God and were driven out of the garden. They toiled, suffered, had children, and offered sacrifices to God. One day, an angel came to them and taught them about Christ. The angel told them that they could be redeemed after they sinned and return to live with God again. Moses 5:10-11 10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. 11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. They rejoiced. Because of his transgression, Adam's eyes were opened. He got to experience joy because he had transgressed and he still had an opportunity to return to live with God whom he knew personally and loved. Eve rejoiced that she learned the difference between good and evil as well as the joy of Christ paying for them to come home. We don't look at a choice ahead of us and disobey God in the name of learning good from evil. However, we do have permission to look back at our transgressions through the lens of a testimony of Christ. We rejoice that He took our sins and turned them into powerful stepping stones that brought us closer to Christ. Honestly, it makes me think of the Come Back podcast. Some of the stories we hear about on that podcast are so incredibly powerful. People learned from their mistakes and found rejoicing in Christ. We can find that too. We don't have to let our sins weigh us down unto death. We can rejoice in Christ's ability to save us from our sins and utilize our sins to help us become prepared to live God's life and participate in His work. When we beat ourselves up with perfectionism over our mistakes, it's only because we don't yet know the mind of God. Satan wants you to believe that your sins and transgressions are the end of the story, that he's destroyed you. He has since learned that his desire to thwart God's plan ironically fell apart because of his own participation in that plan, but if he can keep you from understanding that, then he can win a couple of battles even if he can't win the war. He doesn't want you to know the mind of God which is offering you joy, peace, and salvation. Thwart Satan. Let go of everything that keeps you from the feelings associated with salvation, namely shame and guilt that has been blown out of proportion and continues to hold you down. Rejoice! Gain a testimony of Christ like Adam and Eve did. I testify that God didn't fear Adam and Eve's transgressions. He knew it would happen. He planned on it. It needed to happen. I testify that God isn't afraid of your sins; why would He be? They're already paid for and taken care of. Sometimes the only thing holding us back from salvation is our own inability to know the mind of God and let go of the sins that were already paid for. I testify of Christ's saving power, and I testify that gaining a true testimony of that power can light up your life like you've never experienced. Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR's 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 3–4; Moses 4–5 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

January can feel heavy. Life is busy, schedules are packed, energy is low, and it's easy to fall into that “blah” headspace.Instead of lowering the bar or going into survival mode though, this episode is a reminder that this is actually the PERFECT time to raise your standards. Yep - even if people think you're a little crazy for it!High standards make people uncomfortable. They don't always match the room, the vibe, or what's considered “normal.” Honestly? “Normal” isn't exactly working for most people in our society anyway!Here's the key distinction: standards are NOT rules. Standards come from self-respect, clarity, and knowing what actually works for you. When you know who you are and what your standards are, there's no constant negotiation with yourself (or others)!Setting high standards is how you stop starting over. When you raise your standards, you take your power back, feel more confident, and realize you're capable of WAY more than you thought. Now go set some high f*cking standards this week, and let me know what they are!!Episode recap:Why setting standards make people super uncomfortableHow high standards often get misunderstoodThe critical difference between standards & rulesWhy people aren't really triggered by your standards, but what they aren't doing themselvesWhy high standards create ease (not pressure)Why knowing your standards helps you stop negotiating with yourself + othersHow setting clear & aligned standards is the key to stopping the cycle of starting overLinks/Resources:Ep. 223 | The Problem With New Year Energy + What to Do InsteadEp. 224 | Why Your Goals Aren't Working + How to Build Real Self-Trust This Year Grab your FREE Body Recomp Meal Prep and get the UFYF NewsletterListen to the Girls with Opinions PodcastJoin FIT CLUB, my monthly membership with workouts you can do at home or the gymPRIVATE COACHING is my 1:1 program (choose 3 or 6 month option)Connect with me on Instagram @kristycastillofit and @unfuckyourfitnesspodcast so we can keep this conversation going-be sure to tag me in your posts and stories!Join my FREE Facebook group, Unf*ck Your FitnessClick HERE for my favorite fitness & life things!Send me a text with episode ideas or just to say hi! Support the show

In this episode: A loving-kindness meditation focused on the bodyLearn to tune into your body's wisdomThis guided practice helps you cultivate kind, curious, and loving awareness toward your physical being.Begin by checking in with how you're feeling in this moment.Move through a gentle body scan, offering loving attention to each area.Close by expressing gratitude and compassion for your body, which enables every experience in your life.

281. Excel in Social Skills and Etiquette and Teach Your Children To Do The Same with Monica Irvine   Proverbs 20:11 NIV “Even small children are known by their actions, so is their conduct really pure and upright?”   Ephesians 4:32a AMP “Be kind and helpful to one another,”   *Transcription Below*   Monica Irvine, President and creator of The Etiquette Factory, LLC, is a master motivator and dedicated instructor who loves to help children and adults see the benefits and rewards of having proper etiquette, mastering professionalism and excelling in social skills. As a Certified Etiquette Instructor and working in the hospitality industry for 24 years, Mrs. Irvine specializes in etiquette and professional instruction to help ensure the success of each individual both personally and professionally.   Mrs. Irvine is the published author of three books on Etiquette and one book on Scheduling including: Etiquette for Beginners, Etiquette Intermediate, Etiquette Masters and A Schedule Makes for a Happy Family, in addition to authoring several monthly columns in national publications such as Everything Knoxville, The Homeschool Handbook and the Homeschool Magazine.   Mrs. Irvine is a national speaker, speaking to thousands of parents, educators and children every year.   Residing in Knoxville, TN with her husband, Mrs. Irvine spends her free time playing tennis, running and enjoying her family of three boys and a granddaughter.   You may contact Mrs. Irvine at monica@TheEtiquetteFactory.com  or via her website at www.TheEtiquetteFactory.com. Rise Up Parenting FUNdamentals 4 Kids Life Skills Essentials   Thank You to Our Sponsor: Sam Leman Eureka   Questions and Topics We Cover: What are some red flags we can identify in our lives if we are too busy and what wisdom do you recommend instead of our overstuffed schedules? As parents, why must we proactively teach these qualities to our children, rather than just instruct them in a moment of correction? Will you share stories of ways the Holy Spirit has nudged you to use etiquette and it resulted in something miraculous?    Other Savvy Sauce Episode Mentioned: Unexpected Grief and What Helped Me Through It Can Help You Too with Singer and Blogger, Brittany Price Brooker   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)   Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:10)   Laura Dugger: (0:11 - 2:19) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   The principles of honesty and integrity that Sam Leman founded his business on continue today, over 55 years later, at Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka. Owned and operated by the Burchie family, Sam Leman in Eureka appreciates the support they've received from their customers all over central Illinois and beyond. Visit them today at LemanGM.com.   My guest for today is the charming Monica Irvine. She is president and creator of The Etiquette Factory. She's a master motivator and dedicated instructor who just loves helping children and adults to see the benefits and rewards of having proper etiquette. She also loves to help people master professionalism and excel in social skills.   So, she's going to give us insight into all of these ideas and share stories today for ways that we can actually seek the Lord and love others well and value people through the proper use of etiquette.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Monica.   Monica Irvine: (2:19 - 2:20) Thank you. Thanks for having me, Laura.   Laura Dugger: (2:20 - 5:41) Well, I'm so excited to get a chat with you today, but let's just begin here. I'm so fascinated because you were born and raised in the South. Is that right?   Monica Irvine: Well, yes, Tennessee. Absolutely consider myself Southern.   Laura Dugger: I love it. And I grew up in the Midwest and got to live in the South for a few years. And I was very struck by the difference in manners. And I'm just curious if manners and etiquette were intentionally taught to you, both in your family and then just kind of in your Southern culture around you.   Monica Irvine: (2:20 - 5:32) Well, yes. So, when I think about being raised in the South, I think and maybe my mom and my grandmas were a little different. But what I would describe my upbringing is very particular, meaning everything was made special.   And my parents and my grandparents took a lot of pride in making things beautiful and lovely. And so, of course, my mom cooked every night. But like at my home growing up and we did not have a lot of money, just know that my parents struggled.   But my mother would never put a ketchup bottle on the table or a mayonnaise jar. Everything had to be put in little bowls with little spoons. And it's funny because my friends that I have today, I get given little spoons for birthdays and occasions because my friends all know how much I love little dainty things.   But, you know, and some people, you know, might think that's a little ridiculous. But I'll tell you something. I don't know that we need to eat that way every night, seven nights a week.   But it made dinner time feel special. And even the way my mother and my grandmothers kept their house, everything had its place. It was not messy.   We had clean homes. And I think it also just helped me be proud of my home. I mean, once again, we did not have a lot of money, but my friends thought my home was so nice.   Well, the reason it was so nice is because my mother kept such care of it. And so, I was raised with a lot of cousins and live close to both of my grandparents. And so even the outside of their homes, both sets of grandparents, everything was beautiful.   And so there was a lot of pride in who we are, how we presented ourselves. But you're going to laugh at this. So, my mom, my dad tells me this story that right after my mom and dad got married, my dad came home from work one day and my mom was ironing.   You know, she'd spend a whole day ironing every week or half a day. And my mom was ironing my dad's underwear. And my mom's name is Janice.   And he was like, “Janice, honey, what are you doing?” And “I know just ironing, Bob.” And he's like, “Babe, you don't need to iron my underwear.”   But, you know, the thing is, that to my mother and my grandmothers being a good wife and being a good mother meant making sure everyone in the family looked nice, that their clothes were clean, that the home was clean, that there was good food on the table. And that was part of their identity, of this is what it means to be a good wife and mother. And I love that about my upbringing.   Laura Dugger: (5:33 - 5:41) And do you have any reasons why you think that's changed a little bit over the years?   Monica Irvine: (5:42 - 8:34) Yeah, I think we've gotten lazy. Well, no, I just I think there you know, there's balance, right? There's when I look back, I can't really remember my mom playing with me.   But now, listen, I don't feel like I missed out, but I do recognize it. But I guess even as a little girl, sure, I would have loved my mom to play with me. But that's just not in my mind what moms did.   Moms cleaned house and made everything and cooked your meal. And so, I do. I'm grateful that as a society, we have adjusted somewhat.   Sometimes I believe too much but have adjusted in going. What's the most important things? And because I'm a big believer in playing with our children and our grandchildren and creating memories.   But now my family, my parents and we worked a lot together. Like if we were if the yard needed raking, it wasn't kids go rake the yard. Mom, dad, kids were in the yard raking.   If a car needed to be washed, it wasn't go wash the car. We were all out there washing the car. So, I think that's why I don't feel like I missed out because my family did so many things together.   Whereas today we're so separated. No parents give their children and babies phones and iPads so they'll just be quiet so they can get their important work done. Like grocery shopping or cooking.   And I just think that instead of teaching our children how to self-soothe and self-entertain and how to creatively play even by yourself, sometimes we just always believe there has to be a babysitter to distract our children from wanting mom and dad. It's just I you know, this could be a whole other talk, Laura, but I just you know, I see it. It breaks my heart sometimes on the lack of how often families work together, play together and do things together.   But now, you know, dad's watching his game in this room. Mom is in another room, maybe on her computer doing social media. The kids are in their rooms on their games.   And I see a lack of family unity. So once again, even though maybe my mom and dad didn't play with us and I'm glad we've shifted with that thought process. Still, we were a united family.   Laura Dugger: (8:35 - 8:56) I love that. And the Lord has clearly given you a passion for that instilling that in others. And He invited you into a journey that eventually led to The Etiquette Factory, which is the work that you get to do today.   So, can you share the impetus for that and what that journey looked like for you?   Monica Irvine: (8:56 - 13:54) I will. I love my company. I feel like it's just yet another beautiful adventure the Lord has allowed me to be on in my life.   And so, I feel like I'm just outside looking in at this beautiful little business that has allowed me to minister to children and adults in need. So, years ago, I was homeschooling our kids. I was homeschooling our youngest son at the time, and we were studying the life of President George Washington.   And I just kind of stumbled upon this list. It was called George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior. It is a beautiful list of 110 chivalry skills.   And apparently, President Washington was encouraged to focus on some chivalry as was part of a formal education in those days. He found a French book that had these list of chivalry kind of considerations, and he copied them. He hand copied them, of course.   And we have that list of 110 chivalry skills in President Washington's handwriting. But as I started reading over this list, the Lord penetrated my heart. I just I was like, these are so beautiful.   I mean, some of them were kind of funny. Some of them were. It's not polite to remove lice from your companion in public, which I think is good to know.   But most of the beautiful chivalry skills were very applicable to today. And I was like I want my son to memorize these skills. So, we started memorizing one Washington skill a week.   And because they were written in that old English, you know, sometimes we were like, what does this mean? And it just I just decided for my son's sake, who was nine at the time, I wanted to just kind of make my own version. But what was so a light bulb moment for me is as we started making manners part of our daily discussion in school, I noticed a change in my child's behavior and my son would be like, “Mom, let's do another one. What's the next one? Let's do one more.”   And I found that so fascinating because, as you know, most of us parents, when we teach manners, we're teaching it in the moment, usually correcting bad behavior. It's not that that's our goal. It's just that that's when we think about it.   Our child says, or does something that's not the most polite, and all of a sudden we're going, “Oh, honey, no, honey, you can't say that. That's not polite.” And then we make the correction and then we teach the skill.   And what I learned and realized is that so often that's when I was teaching my children manners in the moment of correcting. And what I've learned about that is when we're being corrected, whether you're three years old or 30 years old, we harden our heart typically because it's self-preservation. You know, we stiffen up when someone's like, “Monica, you really shouldn't have.” I'm like, whoa.   And it's just because of our own pride. We don't like being called out and neither do our children, even when we're doing it gently and politely. It's still a correction.   And so, what I found is when our heart is hardened, as the scripture says, it's not the best time to absorb information. It's the opposite of being humble. To be humble means to be teachable.   To be hardened means to not be teachable. So, when we have a hardened heart, it's hard for us to absorb things of the spirit, which all truth comes from God. So, anything that is lovely of good rapport is of God.   So, when we're teaching our children to be kind and to have kind considerations for others, those are God's truths and God's truths cannot seep into the soul of our heart unless our heart is soft. And so that is what happened is I was like, today we're going to learn how to use our napkin properly. Or today we're going to learn how to apologize.   But how do you make it sound sincere and how do you be sincere when you don't really feel it? And so, as we started just working on one skill at a time, the conversations were typically beautiful. Parts were changed and behavior ended up changing.   And so really, that's what then later became The Etiquette Factory.   Laura Dugger: (13:55 - 14:20) I love that because I think it gives our children confidence because then they're equipped and prepared and understand what's expected of them in different situations or what can bless others in the way they act. But then I'm curious, you gave a few examples of those. Can you think of any of George Washington's chivalry lines that would still apply today?   Monica Irvine: (14:21 - 19:07) Yes, well, so I'm not quoting, I'm summarizing. So, for instance, one is it is not polite to hum or sing in the presence of others that would cause distraction. And so basically it's not polite to draw attention to ourselves but also draw attention or interrupt other people's day life when we haven't been invited to do so.   So let me give you this definition we use for etiquette. So, at The Etiquette Factory, etiquette is helping those around us to feel valued and to feel comfortable. Well, if I'm sitting there humming along, but the person beside me really doesn't want to hear my humming, then I might be causing that person to feel uncomfortable.   Same thing, you know, whenever I start off teaching a class, because usually when everyone thinks of manners, they think of table manners. Of course, there's so much more. But I use this example.   I say, well, if I were to come to your home and sit down and I started eating like a pig in the presence of your family, I mean, I'm chewing with my mouth open. I'm making a smacking my lips. I'm taking too big of bites and food is falling in my lap or I'm making a mess on the table.   Or I eat so fast that I am finished eating, getting up to leave. And you're just on your third bite of food. Well, any of those behaviors, I would be sending a message.   And that message is, look, I'm here for one person and that person is myself. I came to fill up my belly because I'm hungry. And beyond that, I really don't care.   I don't care if I'm making you uncomfortable. I don't care if I'm grossing you out. I don't care if you actually wanted to talk to me because I just came here to eat and I'm out of here.   You see, we don't realize it, but a lack of chivalry is called selfishness. A lack of chivalry is inward focused. When we focus outwardly on what message am I sending to those around me?   Am I sending a message of love and care and value? That is etiquette. I get emailed all the time and message like, “OK, Monica, I've got this shower I'm putting on.   And my daughter is not going to invite her work friends to the wedding. But is it OK if we invite all of them to a wedding shower?” And they'll go, so what's the etiquette rule?   Well, there is no etiquette rule about that, except etiquette is about helping those around us to feel valued. And so that's how I answer every question. I'm like, well, let me ask you if you were invited to a wedding shower, where you're asking her friends to shower your daughter with gifts and love to celebrate her wedding.   But yet those friends were not valued enough to invite to the wedding. How do you think it would make them feel? And so that's what the answer is with etiquette.   Now, there's exceptions. In fact, that case, that's a real email I got. And she ended up having the shower because her daughter went and told her co-worker who offered to give her a wedding shower.   “You know what? I thought that is so thoughtful. I'm so grateful that you were willing to do that. But we're having a very small, intimate wedding, you know, for financial reasons and intimacy reasons. And so, I just don't feel comfortable inviting people to bring gifts for me and knowing that we're just we're not going to be able to invite everyone to the wedding.”   And that co-worker said, “We don't care. We knew you were having a small wedding. We want to celebrate you.”   And so, you know, you can there be exceptions, but a lady and a gentleman always try to be very aware of those unspoken messages. And that guides our conversation, our answers, our actions. And that's what we teach children and adults to do at The Etiquette Factory.   Laura Dugger: (19:07 - 21:17) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   Sam Leman Chevrolet Eureka has been owned and operated by the Burchie family for over 25 years. 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Your car buying process doesn't have to be something you dread, so come see for yourself at Sam Leman Chevrolet in Eureka. Sam and Stephen would love to see you, and they appreciate your business.   Learn more at their website, LemanEureka.com, or visit them on Facebook  by searching for Sam Leman Eureka. You can also call them at 309-467-2351. Thanks for your sponsorship.   I loved, this was a few months back, but we came to a homeschool convention, and I loved your talk on purposeful parenting. One thing that you said, just I think backing it up and looking at our family in general, you said, “If we're too busy to do the most important things, we're too busy. Stop allowing the adversary to tempt us to remain too busy.”   So, Monica, what wisdom can you share for maybe red flags that can help us identify when we're too busy to focus on the most important things, and what do you recommend instead of overstuffing our schedules and our lives?   Monica Irvine: (21:18 - 26:23) You know, that's a great question. Those are good questions that every family should ask themselves. You know, I think that if we are to strive to focus on the most important things, step number one is, has mom and dad identified the most important things?   Because if you don't know what your goal is, then you're not going to as easily recognize when something is interfering with your goal. So, for instance, maybe mom and dad sits down and says, “Well, our number one goal is to make sure that our children know Jesus Christ. And so, what do we need to do to make sure that we're doing our best to help our children know who He is?”   Well, and so a family might decide, well, we want to have daily scripture study and daily family and individual prayer. We want to make it a priority to be at church so that we can worship on the Sabbath, but also so that we can meet together with other like-minded Christians and minister to one another as we're taught by the Savior. That's important for us to do.   And perhaps we want to learn to do as the Savior does. And that's why we're going to learn of His attributes and try to follow in His footsteps and be a family of service. So, let's just say those are our four of the most important things.   If that's our goal, then hopefully mom and dad could recognize when we're starting to stumble off the path that leads to our goal. For instance, I can't tell you how many parents have come up to me after they hear me speak on this topic and say, “Monica, I wish I had heard you say this 10 years ago. But we got sucked up into the what the world has to offer, and we started allowing our children to play competitive sports on Sunday. And so, we stopped going to church years ago because there was always a championship game on Sunday morning and always another tournament. And we wanted our children to have, you know, college opportunities.”   And there's nothing wrong with college opportunities unless that college opportunity interferes with our most important goal. And so that's why first mom and dad have to decide what is the most important, because then it's easier to recognize when we are being tempted by the adversary to focus on what the world is trying to offer us.   And the world offers us shiny things that tempt our human nature to want to be popular and loved by all and wealthy. And so, we just have to always go back to our goals. You know, I've got families that say, “I wish we had eaten dinner together more often. But we allowed our children to be so scheduled that there was not one night or there was only one night a week that we actually sat down at the table together.”   You know, parents. You will regret that. And you can't take back these precious, very short years that you have your children under your roof in your home.   And you will be someone like me one day where all of my kids are graduating and grandchildren and all you live for is your children to come visit and your children to come have dinner. And so, when you allow the world to creep in and be more important than spending time with your family, time with the Lord, time on good and lovely things, you will regret it. And I just think that probably every year come January, mom and dad should sit down and go, let's look at last year.   What were we missing from our family schedule? What do we need to reevaluate whether that is the most important thing? And so that's something I think all of us have to do on a regular basis.   Laura Dugger: (26:24 - 27:20) I think you're hitting on something profound there, that reflection with the Lord or with our spouse. I think we have no excuse because if there is no spouse in the picture, we always have the Lord. But to be intentional, to take that time, maybe on a Sabbath and go through a few questions and reflect back.   I think that could save us from a lot of regret. So, I really appreciate that response. And going back to etiquette, then you've taught us that it is a learned behavior.   This isn't something that our children will just naturally pick up. It's best to do in times where their hearts are soft, so proactive if possible. But I'd love to know in your own life, when were times that the Holy Spirit nudged you to use etiquette and it resulted in something miraculous?   Monica Irvine: (27:21 - 32:56) Oh, goodness. Okay, well, to me, I think miraculous is seeing the Lord's divine hand in our life. I see the miracle of the Lord every day in my life.   But probably most often is when I kneel down at the end of a day, I repent daily because I need to daily. And it's always a little nervous because I pray and I ask the Lord, as sometimes I know what I need to repent of. I know that I recognized I stumbled that day on something, but sometimes I just I pray and I say, “Lord, you know, just help.”   If something needs to be brought to my mind that I need to repent of and that I need to do better, would you bring it to my mind at this time? And it wasn't that long ago that the Lord brought to my mind something that I had gotten in the habit of doing that I didn't feel like it was wrong, but it was wrong. And so, etiquette, one of the etiquette skills I teach everyone is that it's not polite for us to gossip.   A lady and a gentleman always draw attention to the lovely and wonderful things that other people do. Now, if there's a safety issue, that's different, but I'm just talking about we don't share negative things about other people. And so, it's something I teach every year, all year long.   But I feel like I've done so much better than I did twenty-five years ago when the Lord really chastised me one time for gossiping. But in the last couple of months, I had gotten in the habit of sharing with my husband. So sometimes, you know, when you share with your spouse that you kind of feel like that's a safe place that the same rules don't apply because you and your spouse kind of talk about everything.   And so, I was in the habit of sharing with my spouse something that I was worried about that another person in our family did. But I was constantly going, “Oh, I don't like that. They do this and I don't like that. They do this and I'm worried about it.” And I actually was worried about it. But I just was constantly kind of highlighting these things that I didn't like that someone in our family did.   Well, one night I was praying and asked the Lord to bring to my mind and the Lord brought that to my mind. And it was kind of like he said, “Monica, don't you remember that? If you're worried about someone. Instead of sharing those negative things, even with Charles, my husband, what would be more effective is if you prayed and asked me to bless that person, to help that person, you know, in the ways that they need help and ask me to help, you know, of ways that you could be a better example to that person. But you don't need to constantly draw attention because it's starting to make you be negative towards this person.”   And I just like right when the Lord said that to me, I was embarrassed. I was like, “Monica, that. Yeah. Like, how do you not know that? That you should know better than that.”   Well, so immediately I repented and I apologized to the Lord and I and I started doing what he asked me to do. And within just a couple of days, like I started just noticing all of the wonderful, lovely things that this person is and does. And so, just to me, that is miraculous and it happens all the time.   And if I'm humble enough to repent and to listen to the Lord, because the Lord wants to help us and he wants us to strive to be like him. But we've got to ask where we need to be corrected. And so, I teach etiquette, I teach we don't gossip.   And then lo and behold, I had kind of gotten myself in another trap again. You know, and I just I think it's a miracle what happens when we listen to the Lord. He immediately turns our mind to good, lovely, beautiful things and allows us to be a vessel of light instead of vessel of darkness.   And we can be that vessel of darkness just right inside our own marriage, even though we think that's kind of a safe place to maybe be a little looser with our tongue. So, there's one example.   Laura Dugger: (32:57 - 33:26) I love that. And I remember you also explaining whenever you get a thought in your head that you don't want to do, it's likely 100 percent from God. So, can you share a couple specific stories of times that that was the Holy Spirit telling you something that you didn't maybe want to do, but you obeyed?   I'm remembering something about a grocery store and another time separately about a phone call. Yeah.   Monica Irvine: (33:26 - 40:29) OK, well, I'll tell about the phone call just because it's less sad. So, yeah, one time there was this lady and she was just kind of investigating our church and starting to come to our church and kind of fill it out. So, I had just met her and I found out that her what led her to come looking for God is her husband was an addict and she was just at her wits end and their marriage and family was falling apart.   And so, she came looking for the for help for the Lord. And so, I learned a little bit about her story. I ended up taking her to one of those celebrate recovery places at another church because I knew they had a wonderful program.   And so, I had interacted with her a couple of times. I probably had only known her about a month when one night I was running late to take my kids to youth on Wednesday night and I was cooking some spaghetti and I was just, you know, cooking that spaghetti at the stove. And all of a sudden I had a thought come into my mind, “Call her.”   And, you know, I was like, oh, yeah, I do need to call her. I need to call and check on her. I will, you know, after church tonight.   And so, I, you know, kept cooking that spaghetti. And the second time the Spirit, because that's who it was talking to me, because that's who tells us to do good things. Not us, but God.   The Spirit said, “Monica, call her.” But I was running late and I was trying to get my kids fed and I was like, I will call her as soon as I get the kids fed, you know, drop them off at church and then I'll call her, you know, and so I really meant to call her. But I.   Finally, a third time, and it seems to always take me three times before I realize, OK, he means now. And so, a third time it was like “Monica call.” And so, it was so strong.   And I, I know it's the Lord, but I, I just turned the stove off. I went into my bedroom, got my phone out, dialed her number. And as it was ringing, she picked up the phone and all I heard was just some quiet sobbing.   And she couldn't speak. And I, you know, I said her name. I said, “Hey, so and so it's Monica. I just. I see that you're upset. I just wanted to call and check on you. In fact, the Lord insisted that I call and check on you.”   And then her, you know, her crying just continued. It wasn't until, you know, she had calmed down and she just said, you know, “Monica, I had been praying and just asking the Lord to just show me that, you know, show me that you care that this is happening to me.” Something like that.   And, you know, I, I, in that moment, my stomach kind of did that little knot because I knew how close I had come to just not calling. And sure, I could have called her an hour later. It would have been at least an hour later and maybe, you know, it would have mattered.   But the Lord knew that it mattered right in that moment. She needed an answer. She needed to know that the Lord was listening.   And I've learned that in my life, that whenever we get a thought that comes into our mind and that thought is to do something good, like calling someone, you all is a good thing. Visiting someone, writing a letter to someone. Those are good things.   And all good comes from the Lord. And sometimes I wonder, does the Lord trust me? Does he know I'll respond when the stakes are high?   You know, sometimes I think as we continue to learn how to hear the spirit, we have to practice. Oh, that was the spirit. And probably if you're like me, I've learned a lot about the spirit by not listening.   And then later going, “Oh, yeah, Lord, I did miss that. You tried. You tried to warn me, or you tried to get me to do that. And I dismissed it.”   But so, you all I just think it takes practice and I'm still practicing. But I do believe that especially when it's something that we don't really want to do or we think we don't have time. And I just realize I felt the Lord going, “Monica, do you not think I know you're cooking spaghetti? Do you not think I know you're running late? But right now, there's something more important I need you to do than to get your kids to church on time.”   And so, I think at some point we have to decide, do we trust Him or don't we? And if we trust Him, we have to trust Him completely. And that means when we receive a prompting that we will act quickly because the Lord knows what we're doing.   And He knows that we don't have the best relationship with that person. Yet you're feeling like you should call. He already knows that.   And it doesn't mean that everything's always going to turn out the way we think it will. Sometimes I think the Lord just wants us to know ourselves that we'll do what He asked us to do, regardless of how it will turn out. And sometimes I feel like the Lord has told me to do something and I did it and it didn't go well.   And I'm like, “Lord, like, why? Why?” And I know all of us, you all sit there and go, wait, was that my thought or was it God's thought?   And you know what I have learned is that just stop worrying about it. Just act in faith. And the Lord always backs up His people.   The Lord doesn't, as you and I are praying and striving to understand the Lord's will. And let's say we get an idea and so we act on it because we feel like it was a prompting and then it does not go well. I believe the Lord loves so much that you were trying to listen and be obedient and the blessings will come.   Sometimes we just don't know the timing or how, but we've just got to trust.   Laura Dugger: (40:29 - 43:59) I love that. And we never know what's happening on the other side of our obedience. And I'll link back to Brittany Price Brooker's episode because she was one who had lost her husband and was crying out to the Lord.   I think she was bathing her young children, and they didn't have food in the house and maybe they were sick. And the only thing that sounded good to their child was apples, but it was late at night. She couldn't go get them herself.   And she was just praying like, “Lord, do You see me? Do You know my needs? I need You to meet my needs.”   And right then the doorbell rings and somebody showed up and she said, “The Lord told me to buy you these apples and bring them to you.” And I think that highlights something else. You articulated it well when you say whenever you get that thought in your head that you something that you don't want to do, it's likely 100% from God.   I would say a lot of times too, it's also awkward or inconvenient. We don't know why. And then I think back to the Bible, Abraham was put in a very awkward situation with his son and Noah, that was very awkward to be building the boat when there wasn't rain.   But look at the blessing that comes on the other side of obedience. So, appreciate those stories are really helpful.   By now, I hope you've checked out our updated website, thesavvysauce.com, so that you can have access to all the additional freebies we are offering, including all of our previous articles and all of our previous episodes, which now include transcriptions. You will be equipped to have your own practical chats for intentional living when you read all the recommended questions in the articles or gain insight from expert guests and past episodes as you read through the transcriptions. Because many people have shared with us that they want to take notes on previous episodes, or maybe their spouse prefers to read our conversations rather than listen to them or watch them now that we're offering video rather than just audio. So, we heard all of that and we now have provided transcripts for all our episodes.   Just visit thesavvysauce.com. All of this is conveniently located under the tab show notes on our website. Happy reading.   So, at that same conference, when I heard you speak, you shared something that really stuck with me. This one was about our daughters. So, I want to talk about daughters first and then we'll move to sons.   But you mentioned there was this one study where over 3,000 men were surveyed. And they were asked, what's the number one quality that you desire in your wife? Either current wife or someday in the future when you're married.   And do you remember the response? Yeah, it was kindness. Kindness.   That she is kind. And so, I wondered, was there another side for the boys then too? What do you think women would say for their future or their current spouse?   What attribute do you think they would identify?   Monica Irvine: (44:00 - 47:35) It didn't have that for the other side, but a word that we don't use as much anymore. And I try to use it a lot is, I think most women, even if it wouldn't come to their mind immediately, once they heard it, they'd be like, oh, wait, no, yeah, that. And that is honorable.   They would want their husbands to be honorable. And to be honorable means that we do honorable things. And honorable things always 100 percent of the time require some level of sacrifice.   That's what makes them honorable when we sacrifice and give up our time, ourself in order to better someone else to help our country, our family, others. And so, I think today what we all want is for our spouses, husbands and wives to be kind and to live honorable lives. Those lives, it doesn't mean a perfect life, but to be honorable means we strive to have integrity.   We strive to be godly. We strive to do what we say we're going to do. We strive to live up to our divine nature as God called mothers and fathers and husbands.   And so, I would think to me that is the most important, because if you live an honorable life, then you honor God. You honor your marriage covenant. You honor your children by treating them and speaking to them with honor.   You honor your job. You make sure that you have integrity at work and that you're dependable. And the same goes for us women.   You know, but I think I think we all struggle with selfishness. I mean, that is ultimately what we struggle with every day is what do I want? What do I need?   What's important to me versus trying to live a selfless life for our spouse, for our family? Anyway, it would be interesting to do that survey, but I think what's so kind of funny about the kindness is that whenever I read that survey results that I had read years ago, when I say that to a crowd of women. And men, but when I say that to the crowd, you can always see I just see this rippling of women making this kind of gesture.   Or because they know that they could be more kind, because usually we can be kind to everyone in the world. But in the walls of our home, we struggle more with just kindness.   Laura Dugger: (47:37 - 48:00) And so if we go further upstream than before we're married, if that's what God has for us, what are practical ways that we can teach and instill kindness in our children and honorable character? Or any other practical tips for conduct?   Monica Irvine: (48:00 - 53:03) Yeah, well, I love when I do a workshop at a convention on a family of service, because honestly, when we have our children in our home, it's practice ground. We have once again a few years to help them learn to love the Lord and to love others. You know, the two great commandments, love me and love others.   Well, to me, the best way to teach our children to love God and love others is to get our children out and serving others. Because, as you know, typically, like, for instance, when someone calls us and says, “Oh, hey, Monica, hey, would you mind, you know, the Smith family, they just had their new baby. Do you think you could cook dinner for them one night next week?”   If you're like me, I'm going to say yes. And then I'm going to hang up. And then I'm going to have that anxiety because already my week is so full and I was already stressed out about how I was going to get all the things done I needed to get done.   And now I've just added another thing. And I'm not saying there are not times that we don't need to say no, because we absolutely have to say no sometimes. But my point is, I cook the dinner and I go drop it off.   And as I'm pulling, as we are pulling away from that home, how do we feel? Do we feel better or do we feel worse? Do we feel happy or do we feel sad?   Honestly, almost 100 percent of the time, y'all, we're going to feel happier. We're going to feel grateful. We're going to be grateful that we had the opportunity to cook that dinner for that sweet family.   We're going to be reminded of how sweet the Lord is to give us opportunities to be His hands and His feet and His mouth here on the earth. And so, we want our children to learn to love. To love others, but it takes practice.   It's not until you serve again and again and again that you start to realize that the secret to being happy, the secret to having peace in your life and love abounding in your home is when we lose ourselves in the service of others. It's the secret to fixing siblings arguing with each other. It's the secret to helping husbands and wives draw closer together and have more love for one another.   It's the secret to less contention overall, to more peace, to more joy and happiness is to lose ourselves in the service of others. And so, to me, if you want to raise if we want to raise honorable, kind, generous, compassionate, empathetic human beings, they've got to lose themselves. To find themselves and define God.   And so, yeah, I think that's the secret. And of course, Jesus Christ tried to teach us that over and over and over again. He tried to teach His disciples over and over again that if you love me.   Then love my sheep, feed my sheep, teach my sheep. And what's interesting is that you all. The more we do that, the more we serve and love others.   Do you know what I believe? I believe it's kind of like the Grinch. Remember when the Grinch's heart grew?   That's real. That's really what happens. The God expands our ability to love others.   And in doing that, it actually expands our deep love of God. I think it's so fascinating that that's the fruit of service is a deeper and abiding love of Jesus Christ. It seems like it would be the opposite, right?   Well, I've got to love Jesus more in order to have a greater desire to serve. But it's the opposite. He wants you to go serve when you don't really feel like it.   And he wants you to go serve when it's not convenient. And your kids are crying and no one wants to go rake her yard. And then the fruit of acting in faith and trusting God is the love.   Laura Dugger: (53:05 - 53:34) That's what I would do. That's so good. Such a good medicine or anecdote to selfishness and issues we're having in the home with our children and for ourselves.   Well, Monica, you have shared so much goodness with us throughout this conversation. Can you explain how you can help partner with us as parents to help us teach our children etiquette at neutral times? Like you said, when their hearts are softer?   Monica Irvine: (53:35 - 56:52) Yes. Yeah. So, we've got some awesome resources, parents.   And number one is we do have a parenting course called Rise Up Parenting. And it's just this beautiful 52-week course that you get lifetime access to in case it takes you three years to get through your 52 weeks. But it is a course for mom and dad, or mom, or dad by themselves.   But it's just a beautiful way to help parents focus on one parenting skill a week. I've learned that when we have purposeful parenting, when we focus on one improvement at a time because we can get so overwhelmed, like we want we want to teach our kids to be selfless and that be ambitious and to serve and share. And I mean, it's just, it's endless.   But the Lord is a house of order. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a house of order. And so as long as we're going in the right direction, y'all, we are successful.   And so, this parenting course teaches a biblical principle and then a parenting principle that are related and allows you to just make little increment steps of improvement. Because when mom and dad improve, it blesses your children. So that's the first resource.   And then the other two most popular resources is we just have two programs. We have a program called FUNdamentals4Kids that targets children preschool through about third grade. And it's so fun.   It's just these wonderful, fun board games, flashcards, songs, stories, crafts, where we try to encourage you to twice a week set aside 15 minutes of your school day for an official manners activity and watch what happens. So, we've organized it for you. And for the little kids, we found out that if they can play with it, sing about it, make some food with it, that it helps them to go, “Mom, let's do a manners lesson.”   And then they don't even know that they're being taught these beautiful, wonderful skills. So that is so wonderful. And then for kids about fourth grade through 12th grade, we have a course called Life Skills for You.   And it's just so fun and it's so effective. Basically, it's 142 little three-minute lessons. We once again just try to get you to commit to twice a week sitting down with your family, watching a three-minute lesson where I'm teaching the etiquette skill.   Plus, we show teenagers doing the skill the wrong way and the right way. So, it's kind of funny, but it just creates some really great conversation with the family. And so those are our top three selling product lines.   And you can find all of that on our website, theetiquettefactory.com.   Laura Dugger: (56:53 - 57:15) Thank you for sharing. We will certainly link to all of that in the show notes for today's episode. And Monica, you may be familiar that we are called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge.   And so, this is my final question for you today. What is your savvy sauce? Yeah.   Oh, that's a hard one.   Monica Irvine: (57:15 - 59:06) I thought about this and I'm like, it's so hard. You all. Honestly, my savvy sauce is Jesus Christ.   It just is. I know sometimes we want the answer to be something else, but in all practical terms, it's Jesus. Meaning I start my morning out every day with Jesus.   I end every night with Jesus. I pray throughout the day and ask Him to help me make a decision. And I thank Him for all the beautiful things that happened to me throughout the day.   And I just He is this person, this real person that is at my side every day, all day, I hope. And that's how I do anything. That's why I am the mother that I am.   Not that I'm the best mother, but because of Him, I can mother and because of Him, I can be a good wife. And because of Him, I can be a good friend and I can minister to others through The Etiquette Factory. It's just it is Him.   And, you know, sometimes people will ask me, “Monica, I I want to have the knowledge you have or I want to be able to whatever parent the way it sounds like you parent.” And I'm like, you guys know, it's just it's called Jesus Christ. And Jesus will tell us all things that we should do.   And so my sauce is having a relationship with Jesus Christ. It truly is well said.   Laura Dugger: (59:06 - 59:24) And, Monica, you are such a gifted communicator and your heart of compassion is evident in your outward behavior. It's been such a joy to get to spend an hour with you today. So, I just want to say thank you for being my guest.   Monica Irvine: (59:24 - 59:43) Oh, thank you, Laura. And it's been such a joy. You're so kind.   And I appreciate the beautiful ministry that you're doing here on The Savvy Sauce. What a blessing for families to be able to just hear these resources that you've created. So, thank you.   Laura Dugger: (59:44 - 1:03:26) Thank you for being a part of it.   One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

IWhat is our children's future? What skills should they be developing? How should schools be adapting? What will the fully functioning citizens and workers of the future look like? A look into the landscape of the next 15 years, the future of work with human and AI interactions, the transformation of education, the safety and privacy landscapes, and a parental playbook. Navigation: Intro The Landscape: 2026–2040 The Future of Work: Human + AI The Transformation of Education The Ethics, Safety, and Privacy Landscape The Parental Playbook: Actionable Strategies Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand SchmittIntroduction Welcome to Episode 72 of Tech Deciphered, about our children’s future. What is our children’s future? What skills should they be developing? How should school be adapting to AI? What would be the functioning citizens and workers of the future look like, especially in the context of the AI revolution? Nuno, what’s your take? Maybe we start with the landscape. Nuno Goncalves PedroThe Landscape: 2026–2040 Let’s first frame it. What do people think is going to happen? Firstly, that there’s going to be a dramatic increase in productivity, and because of that dramatic increase in productivity, there are a lot of numbers that show that there’s going to be… AI will enable some labour productivity growth of 0.1 to 0.6% through 2040, which would be a figure that would be potentially rising even more depending on use of other technologies beyond generative AI, as much as 0.5 to 3.4% points annually, which would be ridiculous in terms of productivity enhancement. To be clear, we haven’t seen it yet. But if there are those dramatic increases in productivity expected by the market, then there will be job displacement. There will be people losing their jobs. There will be people that will need to be reskilled, and there will be a big shift that is similar to what happens when there’s a significant industrial revolution, like the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century into the 20th century. Other numbers quoted would say that 30% of US jobs could be automated by 2030, which is a silly number, 30%, and that another 60% would see tremendously being altered. A lot of their tasks would be altered for those jobs. There’s also views that this is obviously fundamentally a global phenomenon, that as much as 9% of jobs could be lost to AI by 2030. I think question mark if this is a net number or a gross number, so it might be 9% our loss, but then maybe there’re other jobs that will emerge. It’s very clear that the landscape we have ahead of us is if there are any significant increases in productivity, there will be job displacement. There will be job shifting. There will be the need for reskilling. Therefore, I think on the downside, you would say there’s going to be job losses. We’ll have to reevaluate whether people should still work in general 5 days a week or not. Will we actually work in 10, 20, 30 years? I think that’s the doomsday scenario and what happens on that side of the fence. I think on the positive side, there’s also a discussion around there’ll be new jobs that emerge. There’ll be new jobs that maybe we don’t understand today, new job descriptions that actually don’t even exist yet that will emerge out this brave new world of AI. Bertrand SchmittYeah. I mean, let’s not forget how we get to a growing economy. I mean, there’s a measurement of a growing economy is GDP growth. Typically, you can simplify in two elements. One is the growth of the labour force, two, the rise of the productivity of that labour force, and that’s about it. Either you grow the economy by increasing the number of people, which in most of the Western world is not really happening, or you increase productivity. I think that we should not forget that growth of productivity is a backbone of growth for our economies, and that has been what has enabled the rise in prosperity across countries. I always take that as a win, personally. That growth in productivity has happened over the past decades through all the technological revolutions, from more efficient factories to oil and gas to computers, to network computers, to internet, to mobile and all the improvement in science, usually on the back of technological improvement. Personally, I welcome any rise in improvement we can get in productivity because there is at this stage simply no other choice for a growing world in terms of growing prosperity. In terms of change, we can already have a look at the past. There are so many jobs today you could not imagine they would exist 30 years ago. Take the rise of the influencer, for instance, who could have imagined that 30 years ago. Take the rise of the small mom-and-pop e-commerce owner, who could have imagined that. Of course, all the rise of IT as a profession. I mean, how few of us were there 30 years ago compared to today. I mean, this is what it was 30 years ago. I think there is a lot of change that already happened. I think as a society, we need to welcome that. If we go back even longer, 100 years ago, 150 years ago, let’s not forget, if I take a city like Paris, we used to have tens of thousands of people transporting water manually. Before we have running water in every home, we used to have boats going to the North Pole or to the northern region to bring back ice and basically pushing ice all the way to the Western world because we didn’t have fridges at the time. I think that when we look back in time about all the jobs that got displaced, I would say, Thank you. Thank you because these were not such easy jobs. Change is coming, but change is part of the human equation, at least. Industrial revolution, the past 250 years, it’s thanks to that that we have some improvement in living conditions everywhere. AI is changing stuff, but change is a constant, and we need to adapt and adjust. At least on my side, I’m glad that AI will be able to displace some jobs that were not so interesting to do in the first place in many situations. Maybe not dangerous like in the past because we are talking about replacing white job collars, but at least repetitive jobs are definitely going to be on the chopping block. Nuno Goncalves PedroWhat happens in terms of shift? We were talking about some numbers earlier. The World Economic Forum also has some numbers that predicts that there is a gross job creation rate of 14% from 2025 to 2030 and a displacement rate of 8%, so I guess they’re being optimistic, so a net growth in employment. I think that optimism relates to this thesis that, for example, efficiency, in particular in production and industrial environments, et cetera, might reduce labour there while increasing the demand for labour elsewhere because there is a natural lower cost base. If there’s more automation in production, therefore there’s more disposable income for people to do other things and to focus more on their side activities. Maybe, as I said before, not work 5 days a week, but maybe work four or three or whatever it is. What are the jobs of the future? What are the jobs that we see increasing in the future? Obviously, there’re a lot of jobs that relate to the technology side, that relate obviously to AI, that’s a little bit self-serving, and everything that relates to information technology, computer science, computer technology, computer engineering, et cetera. More broadly in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, that might actually be more needed. Because there is a broadening of all of these elements of contact with digital, with AI over time also with robots and robotics, that those jobs will increase. There’s a thesis that actually other jobs that are a little bit more related to agriculture, education, et cetera, might not see a dramatic impact, that will still need for, I guess, teachers and the need for people working in farms, et cetera. I think this assumes that probably the AI revolution will come much before the fundamental evolution that will come from robotics afterwards. Then there’s obviously this discussion around declining roles. Anything that’s fundamentally routine, like data entry, clinical roles, paralegals, for example, routine manufacturing, anything that’s very repetitive in nature will be taken away. I have the personal thesis that there are jobs that are actually very blue-collar jobs, like HVAC installation, maintenance, et cetera, plumbing, that will be still done by humans for a very long time because there are actually, they appear to be repetitive, but they’re actually complex, and they require manual labour that cannot be easily, I think, right now done by robots and replacements of humans. Actually, I think there’re blue-collar roles that will be on the increase rather than on decrease that will demand a premium, because obviously, they are apprenticeship roles, certification roles, and that will demand a premium. Maybe we’re at the two ends. There’s an end that is very technologically driven of jobs that will need to necessarily increase, and there’s at the other end, jobs that are very menial but necessarily need to be done by humans, and therefore will also command a premium on the other end. Bertrand SchmittI think what you say make a lot of sense. If you think about AI as a stack, my guess is that for the foreseeable future, on the whole stack, and when I say stack, I mean from basic energy production because we need a lot of energy for AI, maybe to going up to all the computing infrastructure, to AI models, to AI training, to robotics. All this stack, we see an increase in expertise in workers and everything. Even if a lot of this work will benefit from AI improvement, the boom is so large that it will bring a lot of demand for anyone working on any part of the stack. Some of it is definitely blue-collar. When you have to build a data centre or energy power station, this requires a lot of blue-collar work. I would say, personally, I’m absolutely not a believer of the 3 or 4 days a week work week. I don’t believe a single second in that socialist paradise. If you want to call it that way. I think that’s not going to change. I would say today we can already see that breaking. I mean, if you take Europe, most European countries have a big issue with pension. The question is more to increase how long you are going to work because financially speaking, the equation is not there. Personally, I don’t think AI would change any of that. I agree with you in terms of some jobs from electricians to gas piping and stuff. There will still be demand and robots are not going to help soon on this job. There will be a big divergence between and all those that can be automated, done by AI and robots and becoming cheaper and cheaper and stuff that requires a lot of human work, manual work. I don’t know if it will become more expensive, but definitely, proportionally, in comparison, we look so expensive that you will have second thoughts about doing that investment to add this, to add that. I can see that when you have your own home, so many costs, some cost our product. You buy this new product, you add it to your home. It can be a water heater or something, built in a factory, relatively cheap. You see the installation cost, the maintenance cost. It’s many times the cost of the product itself. Nuno Goncalves PedroMaybe it’s a good time to put a caveat into our conversation. I mean, there’s a… Roy Amara was a futurist who came up with the Amara’s Law. We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and overestimate the effect in the long run. I prefer my own law, which is, we tend to overestimate the speed at which we get to a technological revolution and underestimate its impact. I think it’s a little bit like that. I think everyone now is like, “Oh, my God, we’re going to be having the AI overlords taking over us, and AGI is going to happen pretty quickly,” and all of that. I mean, AGI will probably happen at some point. We’re not really sure when. I don’t think anyone can tell you. I mean, there’re obviously a lot of ranges going on. Back to your point, for example, on the shift of the work week and how we work. I mean, just to be very clear, we didn’t use to have 5 days a week and 2 days a weekend. If we go back to religions, there was definitely Sabbath back in the day, and there was one day off, the day of the Lord and the day of God. Then we went to 2 days of weekend. I remember going to Korea back in 2005, and I think Korea shifted officially to 5 days a week, working week and 2 days weekend for some of the larger business, et cetera, in 2004. Actually, it took another whatever years for it to be pervasive in society. This is South Korea, so this is a developed market. We might be at some point moving to 4 days a week. Maybe France was ahead of the game. I know Bertrand doesn’t like this, the 35-hour week. Maybe we will have another shift in what defines the working week versus not. What defines what people need to do in terms of efficiency and how they work and all of that. I think it’s probably just going to take longer than we think. I think there’re some countries already doing it. I was reading maybe Finland was already thinking about moving to 4 days a week. There’re a couple of countries already working on it. Certainly, there’re companies already doing it as well. Bertrand SchmittYeah, I don’t know. I’m just looking at the financial equation of most countries. The disaster is so big in Western Europe, in the US. So much debt is out that needs to get paid that I don’t think any country today, unless there is a complete reversal of the finance, will be able to make a big change. You could argue maybe if we are in such a situation, it might be because we went too far in benefits, in vacation, in work days versus weekends. I’m not saying we should roll back, but I feel that at this stage, the proof is in the pudding. The finance of most developed countries are broken, so I don’t see a change coming up. Potentially, the other way around, people leaving to work more, unfortunately. We will see. My point is that AI will have to be so transformational for the productivity for countries, and countries will have to go back to finding their ways in terms of financial discipline to reach a level where we can truly profit from that. I think from my perspective, we have time to think about it in 10, 20 years. Right now, it’s BS at this stage of this discussion. Nuno Goncalves PedroYeah, there’s a dependency, Bertrand, which is there needs to be dramatic increases in productivity that need to happen that create an expansion of economy. Once that expansion is captured by, let’s say, government or let’s say by the state, it needs to be willingly fed back into society, which is not a given. There’re some governments who are going to be like, “No, you need to work for a living.” Tough luck. There’re no handouts, there’s nothing. There’s going to be other governments that will be pressured as well. I mean, even in a more socialist Europe, so to speak. There’re now a lot of pressures from very far-right, even extreme positions on what people need to do for a living and how much should the state actually intervene in terms of minimum salaries, et cetera, and social security. To your point, the economies are not doing well in and of themselves. Anyway, there would need to be tremendous expansion of economy and willingness by the state to give back to its citizens, which is also not a given. Bertrand SchmittAnd good financial discipline as well. Before we reach all these three. Reaping the benefits in a tremendous way, way above trend line, good financial discipline, and then some willingness to send back. I mean, we can talk about a dream. I think that some of this discussion was, in some ways, to have a discussion so early about this. It’s like, let’s start to talk about the benefits of the aeroplane industries in 1915 or 1910, a few years after the Wright brothers flight, and let’s make a decision based on what the world will be in 30 years from now when we reap this benefit. This is just not reasonable. This is not reasonable thinking. I remember seeing companies from OpenAI and others trying to push this narrative. It was just political agenda. It was nothing else. It was, “Let’s try to make look like AI so nice and great in the future, so you don’t complain on the short term about what’s happening.” I don’t think this is a good discussion to have for now. Let’s be realistic. Nuno Goncalves PedroJust for the sake of sharing it with our listeners, apparently there’re a couple of countries that have moved towards something a bit lower than 5 days a week. Belgium, I think, has legislated the ability for you to compress your work week into 4 days, where you could do 10 hours for 4 days, so 40 hours. UAE has some policy for government workers, 4.5 days. Iceland has some stuff around 35 to 36 hours, which is France has had that 35 hour thing. Lithuania for parents. Then just trials, it’s all over the shop. United Kingdom, my own Portugal, of course, Germany, Brazil, and South Africa, and a bunch of other countries, so interesting. There’s stuff going on. Bertrand SchmittFor sure. I mean, France managed to bankrupt itself playing the 75 hours work week since what, 2000 or something. I mean, yeah, it’s a choice of financial suicide, I would say. Nuno Goncalves PedroWonderful. The Future of Work: Human + AI Maybe moving a little bit towards the future of work and the coexistence of work of human and AI, I think the thesis that exists a little bit in the market is that the more positive thesis that leads to net employment growth and net employment creation, as we were saying, there’s shifting of professions, they’re rescaling, and there’s the new professions that will emerge, is the notion that human will need to continue working alongside with machine. I’m talking about robots, I’m also talking about software. Basically software can’t just always run on its own, and therefore, software serves as a layer of augmentation, that humans become augmented by AI, and therefore, they can be a lot more productive, and we can be a lot more productive. All of that would actually lead to a world where the efficiencies and the economic creation are incredible. We’ll have an unparalleled industrial evolution in our hands through AI. That’s one way of looking at it. We certainly at Chameleon, that’s how we think through AI and the AI layers that we’re creating with Mantis, which is our in-house platform at Chameleon, is that it’s augmenting us. Obviously, the human is still running the show at the end, making the toughest decisions, the more significant impact with entrepreneurs that we back, et cetera. AI augments us, but we run the show. Bertrand SchmittI totally agree with that perspective that first AI will bring a new approach, a human plus AI. Here in that situation, you really have two situations. Are you a knowledgeable user? Do you know your field well? Are you an expert? Are you an IT expert? Are you a medical doctor? Do you find your best way to optimise your work with AI? Are you knowledgeable enough to understand and challenge AI when you see weird output? You have to be knowledgeable in your field, but also knowledgeable in how to handle AI, because even experts might say, “Whatever AI says.” My guess is that will be the users that will benefit most from AI. Novice, I think, are in a bit tougher situation because if you use AI without truly understanding it, it’s like laying foundations on sand. Your stuff might crumble down the way, and you will have no clue what’s happening. Hopefully, you don’t put anyone in physical danger, but that’s more worrisome to me. I think some people will talk about the rise of vibe coding, for instance. I’ve seen AI so useful to improve coding in so many ways, but personally, I don’t think vibe coding is helpful. I mean, beyond doing a quick prototype or some stuff, but to put some serious foundation, I think it’s near useless if you have a pure vibe coding approach, obviously to each their own. I think the other piece of the puzzle, it’s not just to look at human plus AI. I think definitely there will be the other side as well, which is pure AI. Pure AI replacement. I think we start to see that with autonomous cars. We are close to be there. Here we’ll be in situation of maybe there is some remote control by some humans, maybe there is local control. We are talking about a huge scale replacement of some human activities. I think in some situation, let’s talk about work farms, for instance. That’s quite a special term, but basically is to describe work that is very repetitive in nature, requires a lot of humans. Today, if you do a loan approval, if you do an insurance claim analysis, you have hundreds, thousands, millions of people who are doing this job in Europe, in the US, or remotely outsourced to other countries like India. I think some of these jobs are fully at risk to be replaced. Would it be 100% replacement? Probably not. But a 9:1, 10:1 replacement? I think it’s definitely possible because these jobs have been designed, by the way, to be repetitive, to follow some very clear set of rules, to improve the rules, to remove any doubt if you are not sure. I think some of these jobs will be transformed significantly. I think we see two sides. People will become more efficient controlling an AI, being able to do the job of two people at once. On the other side, we see people who have much less control about their life, basically, and whose job will simply disappear. Nuno Goncalves PedroTwo points I would like to make. The first point is we’re talking about a state of AI that we got here, and we mentioned this in previous episodes of Tech Deciphered, through brute force, dramatically increased data availability, a lot of compute, lower network latencies, and all of that that has led us to where we are today. But it’s brute force. The key thing here is brute force. Therefore, when AI acts really well, it acts well through brute force, through seeing a bunch of things that have happened before. For example, in the case of coding, it might still outperform many humans in coding in many different scenarios, but it might miss hedge cases. It might actually not be as perfect and as great as one of these developers that has been doing it for decades who has this intuition and is a 10X developer. In some ways, I think what got us here is not maybe what’s going to get us to the next level of productivity as well, which is the unsupervised learning piece, the actually no learning piece, where you go into the world and figure stuff out. That world is emerging now, but it’s still not there in terms of AI algorithms and what’s happening. Again, a lot of what we’re seeing today is the outcome of the brute force movement that we’ve had over the last decade, decade and a half. The second point I’d like to make is to your point, Bertrand, you were going really well through, okay, if you’re a super experienced subject-matter expert, the way you can use AI is like, wow! Right? I mean, you are much more efficient, right? I was asked to do a presentation recently. When I do things in public, I don’t like to do it. If it’s a keynote, because I like to use my package stuff, there’s like six, seven presentations that I have prepackaged, and I can adapt around that. But if it’s a totally new thing, I don’t like to do it as a keynote because it requires a lot of preparation. Therefore, I’m like, I prefer to do a fire set chat or a panel or whatever. I got asked to do something, a little bit what is taking us to this topic today around what’s happening to our children and all of that is like, “God! I need to develop this from scratch.” The honest truth is if you have domain expertise around many areas, you can do it very quickly with the aid of different tools in AI. Anything from Gemini, even with Nana Banana, to ChatGPT and other tools that are out there for you and framing, how would you do that? But the problem then exists with people that are just at the beginning of their careers, people that have very little expertise and experience, and people that are maybe coming out of college where their knowledge is mostly theoretical. What happens to those people? Even in computer engineering, even in computer science, even in software development, how do those people get to the next level? I think that’s one of the interesting conversations to be had. What happens to the recent graduate or the recent undergrad? How do those people get the expertise they need to go to the next level? Can they just be replaced by AI agents today? What’s their role in terms of the workforce, and how do they fit into that workforce? Bertrand SchmittNo, I mean, that’s definitely the biggest question. I think that a lot of positions, if you are really knowledgeable, good at your job, if you are that 10X developer, I don’t think your job is at risk. Overall, you always have some exceptions, some companies going through tough times, but I don’t think it’s an issue. On the other end, that’s for sure, the recent new graduates will face some more trouble to learn on their own, start their career, and go to that 10X productivity level. But at the same time, let’s also not kid ourselves. If we take software development, this is a profession that increase in number of graduates tremendously over the past 30 years. I don’t think everyone basically has the talent to really make it. Now that you have AI, for sure, the bar to justify why you should be there, why you should join this company is getting higher and higher. Being just okay won’t be enough to get you a career in IT. You will need to show that you are great or potential to be great. That might make things tough for some jobs. At the same time, I certainly believe there will be new opportunities that were not there before. People will have to definitely adjust to that new reality, learn and understand what’s going on, what are the options, and also try to be very early on, very confident at using AI as much as they can because for sure, companies are going to only hire workers that have shown their capacity to work well with AI. Nuno Goncalves PedroMy belief is that it generates new opportunities for recent undergrads, et cetera, of building their own microbusinesses or nano businesses. To your point, maybe getting jobs because they’ll be forced to move faster within their jobs and do less menial and repetitive activities and be more focused on actual dramatic intellectual activities immediately from the get go, which is not a bad thing. Their acceleration into knowledge will be even faster. I don’t know. It feels to me maybe there’s a positivity to it. Obviously, if you’ve stayed in a big school, et cetera, that there will be some positivity coming out of that. The Transformation of Education Maybe this is a good segue to education. How does education change to adapt to a new world where AI is a given? It’s not like I can check if you’re faking it on your homework or if you’re doing a remote examination or whatever, if you’re using or not tools, it’s like you’re going to use these tools. What happens in that case, and how does education need to shift in this brave new world of AI augmentation and AI enhancements to students? Bertrand SchmittYes, I agree with you. There will be new opportunities. I think people need to be adaptable. What used to be an absolute perfect career choice might not be anymore. You need to learn what changes are happening in the industry, and you need to adjust to that, especially if you’re a new graduate. Nuno Goncalves PedroMaybe we’ll talk a little bit about education, Bertrand, and how education would fundamentally shift. I think one of the things that’s been really discussed is what are the core skills that need to be developed? What are the core skills that will be important in the future? I think critical thinking is probably most important than ever. The ability to actually assimilate information and discern which information is correct or incorrect and which information can lead you to a conclusion or not, for example, I think is more important than ever. The ability to assimilate a bunch of pieces of information, make a decision or have an insight or foresight out of that information is very, very critical. The ability to be analytical around how you look at information and to really distinguish what’s fact from what’s opinion, I think is probably quite important. Maybe moving away more and more from memorisation from just cramming information into your brain like we used to do it in college, you have to know every single algorithm for whatever. It’s like, “Who gives a shit? I can just go and search it.” There’s these shifts that are not simple because I think education, in particular in the last century, has maybe been too focused on knowing more and more knowledge, on learning this knowledge. Now it’s more about learning how to process the knowledge rather than learning how to apprehend it. Because the apprehension doesn’t matter as much because you can have this information at any point in time. The information is available to you at the touch of a finger or voice or whatever. But the ability to then use the information to do something with it is not. That’s maybe where you start distinguishing the different level degrees of education and how things are taught. Bertrand SchmittHonestly, what you just say or describe could apply of the changes we went through the past 30 years. Just using internet search has for sure tremendously changed how you can do any knowledge worker job. Suddenly you have the internet at your fingertips. You can search about any topics. You have direct access to a Wikipedia or something equivalent in any field. I think some of this, we already went through it, and I hope we learned the consequence of these changes. I would say what is new is the way AI itself is working, because when you use AI, you realise that it can utter to you complete bullshit in a very self-assured way of explaining something. It’s a bit more scary than it used to be, because in the past, that algorithm trying to present you the most relevant stuff based on some algorithm was not trying to present you the truth. It’s a list of links. Maybe it was more the number one link versus number 100. But ultimately, it’s for you to make your own opinion. Now you have some chatbot that’s going to tell you that for sure this is the way you should do it. Then you check more, and you realise, no, it’s totally wrong. It’s definitely a slight change in how you have to apprehend this brave new world. Also, this AI tool, the big change, especially with generative AI, is the ability for them to give you the impression they can do the job at hand by themselves when usually they cannot. Nuno Goncalves PedroIndeed. There’s definitely a lot of things happening right now that need to fundamentally shift. Honestly, I think in the education system the problem is the education system is barely adapted to the digital world. Even today, if you studied at a top school like Stanford, et cetera, there’s stuff you can do online, there’s more and more tools online. But the teaching process has been very centred on syllabus, the teachers, later on the professors, and everything that’s around it. In class presence, there’s been minor adaptations. People sometimes allow to use their laptops in the classroom, et cetera, or their mobile phones. But it’s been done the other way around. It’s like the tools came later, and they got fed into the process. Now I think there needs to be readjustments. If we did this ground up from a digital first or a mobile first perspective and an AI first perspective, how would we do it? That changes how teachers and professors should interact with the classrooms, with the role of the classroom, the role of the class itself, the role of homework. A lot of people have been debating that. What do you want out of homework? It’s just that people cram information and whatever, or do you want people to show critical thinking in a specific different manner, or some people even go one step further. It’s like, there should be no homework. People should just show up in class and homework should move to the class in some ways. Then what happens outside of the class? What are people doing at home? Are they learning tools? Are they learning something else? Are they learning to be productive in responding to teachers? But obviously, AI augmented in doing so. I mean, still very unclear what this looks like. We’re still halfway through the revolution, as we said earlier. The revolution is still in motion. It’s not realised yet. Bertrand SchmittI would quite separate higher education, university and beyond, versus lower education, teenager, kids. Because I think the core up to the point you are a teenager or so, I think the school system should still be there to guide you, discovering and learning and being with your peers. I think what is new is that, again, at some point, AI could potentially do your job, do your homework. We faced similar situation in the past with the rise of Wikipedia, online encyclopedias and the stuff. But this is quite dramatically different. Then someone could write your essays, could answer your maths work. I can see some changes where you talk about homework, it’s going to be classwork instead. No work at home because no one can trust that you did it yourself anymore going forward, but you will have to do it in the classroom, maybe spend more time at school so that we can verify that you really did your job. I think there is real value to make sure that you can still think by yourself. The same way with the rise of calculators 40 years ago, I think it was the right thing to do to say, “You know what? You still need to learn the basics of doing calculations by hand.” Yes, I remember myself a kid thinking, “What the hell? I have a calculator. It’s working very well.” But it was still very useful because you can think in your head, you can solve complex problems in your head, you can check some output that it’s right or wrong if it’s coming from a calculator. There was a real value to still learn the basics. At the same point, it was also right to say, “You know what? Once you know the basics, yes, for sure, the calculator will take over because we’re at the point.” I think that was the right balance that was put in place with the rise of calculators. We need something similar with AI. You need to be able to write by yourself, to do stuff by yourself. At some point, you have to say, “Yeah, you know what? That long essays that we asked you to do for the sake of doing long essays? What’s the point?” At some point, yeah, that would be a true question. For higher education, I think personally, it’s totally ripe for full disruption. You talk about the traditional system trying to adapt. I think we start to be at the stage where “It should be the other way around.” It should be we should be restarted from the ground up because we simply have different tools, different ways. I think at this stage, many companies if you take, [inaudible 00:33:01] for instance, started to recruit people after high school. They say, “You know what? Don’t waste your time in universities. Don’t spend crazy shitload of money to pay for an education that’s more or less worthless.” Because it used to be a way to filter people. You go to good school, you have a stamp that say, “This guy is good enough, knows how to think.” But is it so true anymore? I mean, now that universities have increased the enrolment so many times over, and your university degree doesn’t prove much in terms of your intelligence or your capacity to work hard, quite frankly. If the universities are losing the value of their stamp and keep costing more and more and more, I think it’s a fair question to say, “Okay, maybe this is not needed anymore.” Maybe now companies can directly find the best talents out there, train them themselves, make sure that ultimately it’s a win-win situation. If kids don’t have to have big loans anymore, companies don’t have to pay them as much, and everyone is winning. I think we have reached a point of no return in terms of value of university degrees, quite frankly. Of course, there are some exceptions. Some universities have incredible programs, incredible degrees. But as a whole, I think we are reaching a point of no return. Too expensive, not enough value in the degree, not a filter anymore. Ultimately, I think there is a case to be made for companies to go back directly to the source and to high school. Nuno Goncalves PedroI’m still not ready to eliminate and just say higher education doesn’t have a role. I agree with the notion that it’s continuous education role that needs to be filled in a very different way. Going back to K-12, I think the learning of things is pretty vital that you learn, for example, how to write, that you learn cursive and all these things is important. I think the role of the teacher, and maybe actually even later on of the professors in higher education, is to teach people the critical information they need to know for the area they’re in. Basic math, advanced math, the big thinkers in philosophy, whatever is that you’re studying, and then actually teach the students how to use the tools that they need, in particular, K-12, so that they more rapidly apprehend knowledge, that they more rapidly can do exercises, that they more rapidly do things. I think we’ve had a static view on what you need to learn for a while. That’s, for example, in the US, where you have AP classes, like advanced placement classes, where you could be doing math and you could be doing AP math. You’re like, dude. In some ways, I think the role of the teacher and the interaction with the students needs to go beyond just the apprehension of knowledge. It also has to have apprehension of knowledge, but it needs to go to the apprehension of tools. Then the application of, as we discussed before, critical thinking, analytical thinking, creative thinking. We haven’t talked about creativity for all, but obviously the creativity that you need to have around certain problems and the induction of that into the process is critical. It’s particular in young kids and how they’re developing their learning skills and then actually accelerate learning. In that way, what I’m saying, I’m not sure I’m willing to say higher education is dead. I do think this mass production of higher education that we have, in particular in the US. That’s incredibly costly. A lot of people in Europe probably don’t see how costly higher education is because we’re educated in Europe, they paid some fee. A lot of the higher education in Europe is still, to a certain extent, subsidised or done by the state. There is high degree of subsidisation in it, so it’s not really as expensive as you’d see in the US. But someone spending 200-300K to go to a top school in the US to study for four years for an undergrad, that doesn’t make sense. For tuition alone, we’re talking about tuition alone. How does that work? Why is it so expensive? Even if I’m a Stanford or a Harvard or a University of Pennsylvania or whatever, whatever, Ivy League school, if I’m any of those, to command that premium, I don’t think makes much sense. To your point, maybe it is about thinking through higher education in a different way. Technical schools also make sense. Your ability to learn and learn and continue to education also makes sense. You can be certified. There are certifications all around that also makes sense. I do think there’s still a case for higher education, but it needs to be done in a different mould, and obviously the cost needs to be reassessed. Because it doesn’t make sense for you to be in debt that dramatically as you are today in the US. Bertrand SchmittI mean, for me, that’s where I’m starting when I’m saying it’s broken. You cannot justify this amount of money except in a very rare and stratified job opportunities. That means for a lot of people, the value of this equation will be negative. It’s like some new, indented class of people who owe a lot of money and have no way to get rid of this loan. Sorry. There are some ways, like join the government Task Force, work for the government, that at some point you will be forgiven your loans. Some people are going to just go after government jobs just for that reason, which is quite sad, frankly. I think we need a different approach. Education can be done, has to be done cheaper, should be done differently. Maybe it’s just regular on the job training, maybe it is on the side, long by night type of approach. I think there are different ways to think about. Also, it can be very practical. I don’t know you, but there are a lot of classes that are not really practical or not very tailored to the path you have chosen. Don’t get me wrong, there is always value to see all the stuff, to get a sense of the world around you. But this has a cost. If it was for free, different story. But nothing is free. I mean, your parents might think it’s free, but at the end of the day, it’s their taxes paying for all of this. The reality is that it’s not free. It’s costing a lot of money at the end of the day. I think we absolutely need to do a better job here. I think internet and now AI makes this a possibility. I don’t know you, but personally, I’ve learned so much through online classes, YouTube videos, and the like, that it never cease to amaze me how much you can learn, thanks to the internet, and keep up to date in so many ways on some topics. Quite frankly, there are some topics that there is not a single university that can teach you what’s going on because we’re talking about stuff that is so precise, so focused that no one is building a degree around that. There is no way. Nuno Goncalves PedroI think that makes sense. Maybe bring it back to core skills. We’ve talked about a couple of core skills, but maybe just to structure it a little bit for you, our listener. I think there’s a big belief that critical thinking will be more important than ever. We already talked a little bit about that. I think there’s a belief that analytical thinking, the ability to, again, distinguish fact from opinion, ability to distinguish elements from different data sources and make sure that you see what those elements actually are in a relatively analytical manner. Actually the ability to extract data in some ways. Active learning, proactive learning and learning strategies. I mean, the ability to proactively learn, proactively search, be curious and search for knowledge. Complex problem-solving, we also talked a little bit about it. That goes hand in hand normally with critical thinking and analysis. Creativity, we also talked about. I think originality, initiative, I think will be very important for a long time. I’m not saying AI at some point won’t be able to emulate genuine creativity. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that, but for the time being, it has tremendous difficulty doing so. Bertrand SchmittBut you can use AI in creative endeavours. Nuno Goncalves PedroOf course, no doubt. Bertrand SchmittYou can do stuff you will be unable to do, create music, create videos, create stuff that will be very difficult. I see that as an evolution of tools. It’s like now cameras are so cheap to create world-class quality videos, for instance. That if you’re a student, you want to learn cinema, you can do it truly on the cheap. But now that’s the next level. You don’t even need actors, you don’t even need the real camera. You can start to make movies. It’s amazing as a learning tool, as a creative tool. It’s for sure a new art form in a way that we have seen expanding on YouTube and other places, and the same for creating new images, new music. I think that AI can be actually a tool for expression and for creativity, even in its current form. Nuno Goncalves PedroAbsolutely. A couple of other skills that people would say maybe are soft skills, but I think are incredibly powerful and very distinctive from machines. Empathy, the ability to figure out how the other person’s feeling and why they’re feeling like that. Adaptability, openness, the flexibility, the ability to drop something and go a different route, to maybe be intellectually honest and recognise this is the wrong way and the wrong angle. Last but not the least, I think on the positive side, tech literacy. I mean, a lot of people are, oh, we don’t need to be tech literate. Actually, I think this is a moment in time where you need to be more tech literate than ever. It’s almost a given. It’s almost like table stakes, that you are at some tech literacy. What matters less? I think memorisation and just the cramming of information and using your brain as a library just for the sake of it, I think probably will matter less and less. If you are a subject or a class that’s just solely focused on cramming your information, I feel that’s probably the wrong way to go. I saw some analysis that the management of people is less and less important. I actually disagree with that. I think in the interim, because of what we were discussing earlier, that subject-matter experts at the top end can do a lot of stuff by themselves and therefore maybe need to less… They have less people working for them because they become a little bit more like superpowered individual contributors. But I feel that’s a blip rather than what’s going to happen over time. I think collaboration is going to be a key element of what needs to be done in the future. Still, I don’t see that changing, and therefore, management needs to be embedded in it. What other skills should disappear or what other skills are less important to be developed, I guess? Bertrand SchmittWorld learning, I’ve never, ever been a fan. I think that one for sure. But at the same time, I want to make sure that we still need to learn about history or geography. What we don’t want to learn is that stupid word learning. I still remember as a teenager having to learn the list of all the 100 French departments. I mean, who cared? I didn’t care about knowing the biggest cities of each French department. It was useless to me. But at the same time, geography in general, history in general, there is a lot to learn from the past from the current world. I think we need to find that right balance. The details, the long list might not be that necessary. At the same time, the long arc of history, our world where it is today, I think there is a lot of value. I think you talk about analysing data. I think this one is critical because the world is generating more and more data. We need to benefit from it. There is no way we can benefit from it if we don’t understand how data is produced, what data means. If we don’t understand the base of statistical analysis. I think some of this is definitely critical. But for stuff, we have to do less. It’s beyond world learning. I don’t know, honestly. I don’t think the core should change so much. But the tools we use to learn the core, yes, probably should definitely improve. Nuno Goncalves PedroOne final debate, maybe just to close, I think this chapter on education and skill building and all of that. There’s been a lot of discussion around specialisation versus generalisation, specialists versus generalists. I think for a very long time, the world has gone into a route that basically frames specialisation as a great thing. I think both of us have lived in Silicon Valley. I still do, but we both lived in Silicon Valley for a significant period of time. The centre of the universe in terms of specialisation, you get more and more specialised. I think we’re going into a world that becomes a little bit different. It becomes a little bit like what Amazon calls athletes, right? The T-Pi-shaped people get the most value, where you’re brought on top, you’re a very strong generalist on top, and you have a lot of great soft skills around management and empathy and all that stuff. Then you might have one or two subject matter expertise areas. Could be like business development and sales or corporate development and business development or product management and something else. I think those are the winners of the future. The young winners of the future are going to be more and more T-pi-shaped, if I had to make a guess. Specialisation matters, but maybe not as much as it matters today. It matters from the perspective that you still have to have spikes in certain areas of focus. But I’m not sure that you get more and more specialised in the area you’re in. I’m not sure that’s necessarily how humans create most value in their arena of deployment and development. Professionally, and therefore, I’m not sure education should be more and more specialised just for the sake of it. What do you think? Bertrand SchmittI think that that’s a great point. I would say I could see an argument for both. I think there is always some value in being truly an expert on a topic so that you can keep digging around, keep developing the field. You cannot develop a field without people focused on developing a field. I think that one is there to stay. At the same time, I can see how in many situations, combining knowledge of multiple fields can bring tremendous value. I think it’s very clear as well. I think it’s a balance. We still need some experts. At the same time, there is value to be quite horizontal in terms of knowledge. I think what is still very valuable is the ability to drill through whenever you need. I think that we say it’s actually much easier than before. That for me is a big difference. I can see how now you can drill through on topics that would have been very complex to go into. You will have to read a lot of books, watch a lot of videos, potentially do a new education before you grasp much about a topic. Well, now, thanks to AI, you can drill very quickly on topic of interest to you. I think that can be very valuable. Again, if you just do that blindly, that’s calling for trouble. But if you have some knowledge in the area, if you know how to deal with AI, at least today’s AI and its constraints, I think there is real value you can deliver thanks to an ability to drill through when you don’t. For me, personally, one thing I’ve seen is some people who are generalists have lost this ability. They have lost this ability to drill through on a topic, become expert on some topic very quickly. I think you need that. If you’re a VC, you need to analyse opportunity, you need to discover a new space very quickly. We say, I think some stuff can move much quicker than before. I’m always careful now when I see some pure generalists, because one thing I notice is that they don’t know how to do much anything any more. That’s a risk. We have example of very, very, very successful people. Take an Elon Musk, take a Steve Jobs. They have this ability to drill through to the very end of any topic, and that’s a real skill. Sometimes I see people, you should trust the people below. They know better on this and that, and you should not question experts and stuff. Hey, guys, how is it that they managed to build such successful companies? Is their ability to drill through and challenge hardcore experts. Yes, they will bring top people in the field, but they have an ability to learn quickly a new space and to drill through on some very technical topics and challenge people the right way. Challenge, don’t smart me. Not the, I don’t care, just do it in 10 days. No, going smartly, showing people those options, learning enough in the field to be dangerous. I think that’s a very, very important skill to have. Nuno Goncalves PedroMaybe switching to the dark side and talking a little bit about the bad stuff. I think a lot of people have these questions. There’s been a lot of debate around ChatGPT. I think there’s still a couple of court cases going on, a suicide case that I recently a bit privy to of a young man that killed himself, and OpenAI and ChatGPT as a tool currently really under the magnifying glass for, are people getting confused about AI and AI looks so similar to us, et cetera. The Ethics, Safety, and Privacy Landscape Maybe let’s talk about the ethics and safety and privacy landscape a little bit and what’s happening. Sadly, AI will also create the advent of a world that has still a lot of biases at scale. I mean, let’s not forget the AI is using data and data has biases. The models that are being trained on this data will have also biases that we’re seeing with AI, the ability to do things that are fake, deep fakes in video and pictures, et cetera. How do we, as a society, start dealing with that? How do we, as a society, start dealing with all the attacks that are going on? On the privacy side, the ability for these models and for these tools that we have today to actually have memory of the conversations we’ve had with them already and have context on what we said before and be able to act on that on us, and how is that information being farmed and that data being farmed? How is it being used? For what purposes is it being used? As I said, the dark side of our conversation today. I think we’ve been pretty positive until now. But in this world, I think things are going to get worse before they get better. Obviously, there’s a lot of money being thrown at rapid evolution of these tools. I don’t see moratoriums coming anytime soon or bans on tools coming anytime soon. The world will need to adapt very, very quickly. As we’ve talked in previous episodes, regulation takes a long time to adapt, except Europe, which obviously regulates maybe way too fast on technology and maybe not really on use cases and user flows. But how do we deal with this world that is clearly becoming more complex? Bertrand SchmittI mean, on the European topic, I believe Europe should focus on building versus trying to sensor and to control and to regulate. But going back to your point, I think there are some, I mean, very tough use case when you see about voice cloning, for instance. Grandparents believing that their kids are calling them, have been kidnapped when there is nothing to it, and they’re being extorted. AI generating deepfakes that enable sextortion, that stuff. I mean, it’s horrible stuff, obviously. I’m not for regulation here, to be frank. I think that we should for sure prosecute to the full extent of the law. The law has already a lot of tools to deal with this type of situation. But I can see some value to try to prevent that in some tools. If you are great at building tools to generate a fake voice, maybe you should make sure that you are not helping scammers. If you can generate easily images, you might want to make sure that you cannot easily generate tools that can be used for creating deep fakes and sex extortion. I think there are things that should be done by some providers to limit such terrible use cases. At the same time, the genie is out. There is also that part around, okay, the world will need to adapt. But yeah, you cannot trust everything that is done. What could have looked like horrible might not be true. You need to think twice about some of this, what you see, what you hear. We need to adjust how we live, how we work, but also how we prevent that. New tools, I believe, will appear. We will learn maybe to be less trustful on some stuff, but that is what it is. Nuno Goncalves PedroMaybe to follow up on that, I fully agree with everything you just said. We need to have these tools that will create boundary conditions around it as well. I think tech will need to fight tech in some ways, or we’ll need to find flaws in tech, but I think a lot of money needs to be put in it as well. I think my shout-out here, if people are listening to us, are entrepreneurs, et cetera, I think that’s an area that needs more and more investment, an area that needs more and more tooling platforms that are helpful to this. It’s interesting because that’s a little bit like how OpenAI was born. OpenAI was born to be a positive AI platform into the future. Then all of a sudden we’re like, “Can we have tools to control ChatGPT and all these things that are out there now?” How things have changed, I guess. But we definitely need to have, I think, a much more significant investment into these toolings and platforms than we do have today. Otherwise, I don’t see things evolving much better. There’s going to be more and more of this. There’s going to be more and more deep fakes, more and more, lack of contextualisation. There’s countries now that allow you to get married with not a human. It’s like you can get married to an algorithm or a robot or whatever. It’s like, what the hell? What’s happening now? It’s crazy. Hopefully, we’ll have more and more boundary conditions. Bertrand SchmittYeah, I think it will be a boom for cybersecurity. No question here. Tools to make sure that is there a better trust system or detecting the fake. It’s not going to be easy, but it has been the game in cybersecurity for a long time. You have some new Internet tools, some new Internet products. You need to find a difference against it and the constant war between the attackers and the defender. Nuno Goncalves PedroThe Parental Playbook: Actionable Strategies Maybe last but not the least in today’s episode, the parent playbook I’m a parent, what should I do I’ll actually let you start first. Bertrand, I’m parent-alike, but I am, sadly, not a parent, so I’ll let you start first, and then I’ll share some of my perspectives as well as a parent-like figure. Bertrand SchmittYeah, as a parent to an 8-year, I would say so far, no real difference than before. She will do some homework on an iPad. But beyond that, I cannot say I’ve seen at this stage so much difference. I think it will come up later when you have different type of homeworks when the kids start to be able to use computers on their own. What I’ve seen, however, is some interesting use cases. When my daughter is not sure about the spelling, she simply asks, Siri. “Hey, Siri, how do you spell this or this or that?” I didn’t teach her that. All of this came on her own. She’s using Siri for a few stuff for work, and I’m quite surprised in a very smart, useful way. It’s like, that’s great. She doesn’t need to ask me. She can ask by herself. She’s more autonomous. Why not? It’s a very efficient way for her to work and learn about the world. I probably feel sad when she asks Siri if she’s her friend. That does not feel right to me. But I would say so far, so good. I’ve seen only AI as a useful tool and with absolutely very limited risk. At the same time, for sure, we don’t let our kid close to any social media or the like. I think some of this stuff is for sure dangerous. I think as a parent, you have to be very careful before authorising any social media. I guess at some point you have no choice, but I think you have to be very careful, very gradual, and putting a lot of controls and safety mechanism I mean, you talk about kids committing suicide. It’s horrible. As a parent, I don’t think you can have a bigger worry than that. Suddenly your kids going crazy because someone bullied them online, because someone tried to extort them online. This person online could be someone in the same school or some scammer on the other side of the world. This is very scary. I think we need to have a lot of control on our kids’ digital life as well as being there for them on a lot of topics and keep drilling into them how a lot of this stuff online is not true, is fake, is not important, and being careful, yes, to raise them, to be critical of stuff, and to share as much as possible with our parents. I think We have to be very careful. But I would say some of the most dangerous stuff so far, I don’t think it’s really coming from AI. It’s a lot more social media in general, I would say, but definitely AI is adding another layer of risk. Nuno Goncalves PedroFrom my perspective, having helped raise three kids, having been a parent-like role today, what I would say is I would highlight against the skills that I was talking about before, and I would work on developing those skills. Skills that relate to curiosity, to analytical behaviours at the same time as being creative, allowing for both, allowing for the left brain, right brain, allowing for the discipline and structure that comes with analytical thinking to go hand in hand with doing things in a very, very different way and experimenting and failing and doing things and repeating them again. All the skills that I mentioned before, focusing on those skills. I was very fortunate to have a parental unit. My father and my mother were together all their lives: my father, sadly, passing away 5 years ago that were very, very different, my mother, more of a hacker in mindset. Someone was very curious, medical doctor, allowing me to experiment and to be curious about things around me and not simplifying interactions with me, saying it as it was with a language that was used for that particular purpose, allowing me to interact with her friends, who were obviously adults. And then on the other side, I have my father, someone who was more disciplined, someone who was more ethical, I think that becomes more important. The ability to be ethical, the ability to have moral standing. I’m Catholic. There is a religious and more overlay to how I do things. Having the ability to portray that and pass that to the next generation and sharing with them what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable, I think is pretty critical and even more critical than it was before. The ability to be structured, to say and to do what you say, not just actually say a bunch of stuff and not do it. So, I think those things don’t go out of use, but I would really spend a lot more focus on the ability to do critical thinking, analytical thinking, having creative ideas, obviously, creating a little bit of a hacker mindset, how to cut corners to get to something is actually really more and more important. The second part is with all of this, the overlay of growth mindset. I feel having a more flexible mindset rather than a fixed mindset. What I mean by that is not praising your kids or your grandchildren for being very intelligent or very beautiful, which are fixed things, they’re static things, but praising them for the effort they put into something, for the learning that they put into something, for the process, raising the

Avoiding hard conversations may keep the peace, but it rarely builds trust. In Speak Honestly, Pastor Fred challenges us to pursue the “more” we were made for by choosing truth spoken in love over silence or half-truths. This message invites us to see how honesty, guided by the Spirit, creates deeper intimacy and lasting trust.Scripture texts: Ephesians 4:25-27; Psalm 15:1-2; Jeremiah 9:4-6; John 8:44, 16:13

John 1:29-42The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.”The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for Better with Time, a weekly newsletter course. Each week, I get a new tip in my inbox. Something small I can do at a different time of day to add a little more joy and adventure to my life. I'm two weeks in, and so far, I've experienced no added joy and absolutely no adventure.And it's not because I didn't try—well, maybe the first one. Week one's suggestion was to eat chicken parmigiana for breakfast. I mean… who would do such a thing? The point wasn't nutrition. It was control. The author argues that breakfast can be whatever you want it to be, and that by eating chicken parm for breakfast, you reclaim a sense of freedom over your life. You start thinking outside the bowl.You can let me know how that goes.Week two didn't do much for me either. The challenge was to spend twenty minutes flipping through a dictionary. The most joy I got from that was asking Pastor Mark for a dictionary—who, of course, had one from 1922.I signed up for this newsletter because, honestly, I could use a little more joy in my day—who couldn't? I don't necessarily need more adventure. But a distraction would be nice. A distraction from the endless updates of insanity that seem to flood our newsfeeds, no matter which one you're looking at. So when I saw something that promised to tell me how to live my life in a way that might add a little joy—and it was free—I thought, why not?After all, we are constantly being told how to live a life. By people, by companies, by experts. We're told what we should want, what we should value, and then—almost always—we're offered a solution. Usually at a cost. But our passage today gives us a pretty good picture of how to live a life.This is Jesus' first public appearance in the Gospel of John. And instead of John the Baptist doing any baptizing, he shows up here as John the Witness—or John the Testifier. He doesn't perform a ritual. He points. Literally.Every time Jesus walks by, John points and says, “Look! There he is!” Honestly, it's a little odd. John is like a toddler in public, loudly pointing at a stranger: Look at that person! I can't help but wonder if it was as embarrassing for Jesus as it can be for parents when that happens. But that's the scene. John sees Jesus, and he wants everyone else to see him too.The second time John points and shouts at Jesus, two of his disciples finally pay attention. They hear what John is saying, and something about it catches them. So they begin to follow Jesus.And then—Jesus turns around.He looks at them and asks, “What are you looking for?”In English, the question sounds simple. But it doesn't really capture the depth of what Jesus is asking. It's closer to: What are you seeking? What do you hope to find? What do you long for? The disciples respond to Jesus by asking, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”It's a richer question than it first sounds. They aren't asking for an address. They're asking where Jesus dwells, where he abides. And that word carries the sense of belonging. It's the difference between a hotel and a home. You stay at a hotel. But you abide, you belong, at the place you call home. That's what the disciples are really asking: Where do you dwell? Because we want to dwell there too.Jesus responds with a simple invitation: “Come and see.” Not an explanation. Not a theological lecture. Not a test to see if they believe the right things or are worthy enough. Just an invitation. Come and see.And they do. They spend the rest of the day with Jesus. The text doesn't tell us what happens while they're there, but something clearly does happen. We know this because before abiding with Jesus, they called him Rabbi, teacher. Respectful. Formal. After spending time with him, they leave calling him Messiah: the anointed one, the one who saves and frees.Don't you wonder what happened in between: what they talked about? what they saw? what they experienced? Whatever it was, it changed them. They had to be impressed. Amazed. Astonished. So much so that Andrew immediately goes and tells his brother Simon what he has seen and experienced.I wonder how Simon took that news. If he's anything like me, I imagine his response was something like, No way. Are you sure? Prove it. But Andrew doesn't argue. He doesn't explain. He simply brings his brother to Jesus. I wonder if he used the same invitation Jesus used with him: Come and see. Because no sooner than he tells his brother the two of them are off to find Jesus. And that's when it clicks for me.I don't need a newsletter to tell me how to live a more joyful or adventurous life. I don't need influencers, companies, or marketing campaigns promising they have the product that will finally solve all my problems. What I need in this life is what those two disciples just experienced—because that is living a life: paying attention, being astonished, and telling about it.And that's not my framework, but the poet, Mary Oliver's. In her poem Sometimes, she writes: “How to live a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”The disciples paid attention to what John was saying about Jesus. They noticed where he was pointing, and they were willing to look in that direction. That's often how faith begins, not with certainty, but with curiosity. With listening to those who point us toward Jesus, and being willing to follow their gaze. And sometimes that pointing takes us somewhere we didn't expect.Then they abide with Jesus—and they are astonished by him. What a gift. When was the last time you were astonished by Jesus? Truly astonished—filled with wonder, caught off guard, surprised by grace.Maybe it happens in the quiet of prayer, when you aren't looking for an answer, and Christ meets you with peace instead.Maybe it happens through the words of Scripture - when you read a passage for the one hundred and first time and finally hear the promise it has for you. Not because the words changed, but because you did.Maybe it happens through a song - when the Spirit overwhelms you at the very moment you least expected it.You know this kind of astonishment when it happens - because it changes you. No longer is Jesus only a teacher, someone with wise words to admire from a distance. He becomes Messiah: the one you follow, the one who meets you, the one who saves and frees. And once we are astonished, just like Simon, we can't help but tell about it.About the Messiah we've found. About the astonishment we've experienced. About the abiding that has changed us.And the way we tell isn't by arguing or proving or persuading. It's by offering the same invitation Jesus offered in the first place: come and see. Hearts and minds aren't changed by data or debates. They're changed through stories and experiences.Siblings in Christ, Jesus gives the same invitation to us: come and see.Come and abide with me.Come and be astonished by me.This is what I hope for us at Cross of Grace. That we are a people who have seen Jesus, and who can't help but point to him. A community astonished by his mercy, forgiveness, and grace. So that when others are searching, when they know something is missing, when they are looking for more hope, more joy, more belonging in their life, we don't try to convince them or fix them.We simply point. We point to Jesus. We point to a place where he abides with us. A place where they will be welcomed and loved. And we offer the same simple invitation: Come and see.Come and see why our joy doesn't come from newsletters, but from being astonished by the grace of Jesus Christ. Come and see a place where you can experience that grace for yourself.That's how we live a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.Amen.

Rush can be the most polarizing experience in a woman’s life. Honestly. Some people LOVE IT and some people HATE IT more than words can say. We present both sides with stories of successful rushes and disasters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rush can be the most polarizing experience in a woman’s life. Honestly. Some people LOVE IT and some people HATE IT more than words can say. We present both sides with stories of successful rushes and disasters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The final hour starts with the Headlines featuring two impressive wins from the Celtics and Bruins while Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette get their big contracts in MLB free agency. Then, especially without Nico Collins, the Texans' offense doesn't seem impressive enough that the Patriots' defense has t do anything different from what they did against the Chargers. And, in making a prediction, Arcand can't shake the bad feelings he's had all week and picks Houston to beat New England on the road.

MechaG, Rodan, and Baby Godzilla get the hey-hey-Heisei treatment; Godzilla gets kicked in the butt brain; and Miki's up to her old psychic ways. It's a sci-fi feast for the eyes with an epic score from Akira Ifukube. Honestly, what more could you want from a Godzilla movie? A coherent human drama? Get off your high Pteranodon - this is a kaiju movie after all! Join us we discuss all the campy goodness; plus, Peter Lorre returns to finally review Crazy Knights. Was it worth the wait?Thanks for listening friends! Follow us on patreon.com/campkaiju, leave a rating and review, follow on Instagram, send an email at campkaiju@gmail.com, or leave a voicemail at ⁠⁠⁠(612) 470-2612⁠⁠⁠.We'll see you next time for The Abominable Snowman (1957) from Hammer Studios, starring the iconic Peter Cushing.TRAILERS AND CLIPS Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (1993); Godzilla vs. The Bionic Monster, aka Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974); King Kong Escapes (1967); Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975); Rodan (1956); Son of Godzilla (1967); The Great Dictator (1940)SHOUT OUTS & SPONSORSSubstack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Film Criticism by Matthew Cole Levine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Plays by Vincent S. Hannam⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Zack Linder & the Zack Pack ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Immigrant Law Center of MinnesotaMinnesota Immigrant Rights Action CommitteeInternational Institute of MinnesotaAdvocates for Human RightsImmigration Advocates NetworkUnidos MNCamp Kaiju: Monster Movie Podcast.Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (1993) Movie Review. Hosted by Vincent Hannam, Matthew Cole Levine © 2026 Vincent S. Hannam, All Rights Reserved.

Welcome back to the UK's favourite self development podcast hosted by me, Francesca Amber. I hope you found today's episode valuable and if you want to ask me a question you can find me on the gram at: @francescaamber@lawofattractionchangedmylifeYou can buy my Sunday Times Bestselling book Manifest Like a Mother here.Join the Book Club B*tches We are the UK's largest self development book club. Honestly this book club and the bad b*tches within it are my self development secret. They are the BIGGEST secret to my success and I'm in love with life long learning! Come and join us, it's not a cult, it's probably not a coven but it IS the best.You can find all my work including overnight subliminals for weight loss, wealth, fertility, beauty and confidence, success etc..as well as online masterclasses on my website, francescaamber.comThank you so much for listening and I'll see you again next week,Fran xxx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

김영철의 파워FM - 진짜 영국식 영어 538회 - 나도 마찬가지야! = (피터) I'm in the same boat. (백진경) Honestly!

Praise Series #23 Garment of Praise Instead of a Spirit of DespairIsaiah 61:3 “And provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”What drew me to this verse is the part that says, “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” I know a lot of you are struggling and have been for a long time. You are struggling medically and can't understand why you haven't been healed yet. You know God can heal you, you truly believe that, and so it can be depressing when you know God can do something and yet He doesn't seem to be doing it. Or, at least not in the way you would like, or even a way you can see. Some of you are struggling financially and don't understand why your prayers about your financial situation seem to go unanswered. You know God could “make it happen,” and yet it doesn't seem like He is. Some of you are struggling with depression, anxiety, family issues, and all sorts of other things.This whole praise series is to help us realize that the best way through the hard times is not to wallow in them, but to praise God through them. God doesn't mind if you are upset with Him. If you need to yell or scream at God for your circumstances, that is ok. He is tough, He knows your heart, and He can take it. However, if you want your atmosphere to shift. If you want to stop being sad all the time. If you are tired of feeling like you have been feeling for such a long time. Then it is time to switch from despair to praise. Praise the Lord for whatever it is you can praise the Lord for.I heard a speaker at a conference once, and I can't remember her name, but I remember that she said she hurt her back at one point. She was newly married, she hurt her back, and she ended up addicted to painkillers. She didn't see it at the time; she just knew she needed them for the pain. She started to just stay in bed all the time because of the pain. I think she eventually lost her husband. He just couldn't take it anymore. She said she didn't blame him; he really tried, but she was so wrapped up in herself and her pain, and she had nothing to give him. She eventually moved back home with her mom. She finally got tired of feeling like she was feeling. She was tired of being so sad all the time.She said she started off slow. She would make herself go sit outside and let the sun shine on her face for 5 minutes a day. That was it, just five minutes a day. She said that when she was sitting in the sun, she would ask herself what one thing she could be grateful for. Some days, the only thing she could think of was getting outside and sitting for 5 minutes. Eventually, she started to look around, and she could appreciate the grass, the flowers, the butterflies, whatever it was around her. Five minutes turned to 10, to 20, and so on. She finally felt herself coming back to life, to reality. She found she wasn't just sad all the time. And it wasn't a fast process, and yours might not be either. However, she did get back to her old self again. She was happy again. She did regain her life again. Part of gratitude is praise. You are thankful for the things God has given you. Even if they aren't perfect. You will be surprised how much your attitude and outlook on life have changed when you switch from complaining to gratitude.Here are some simple shifts in what you are telling yourself. Instead of saying, I can't believe I didn't wake up till 1:00 today, you can say, I am so grateful God gave me another day of life. Some people didn't wake up this morning, and their families will never see them again. Instead of saying that your back and side and head hurt, you can say I am grateful my feet don't hurt. Instead of saying, I can't believe my kid is acting out again, you can say, I am grateful I have kids and I am grateful for all the strength God has given me to deal with all the kids dish out. I am not trying to downplay what you are going through. I know it is hard. I have been through really hard times.I have kids who were verbally and physically abusive, I have had marital trouble and almost got divorced, I have had kids who overdosed on drugs and alcohol, a child in rehab more than one time. My kids have struggled with mental health and trouble with the police. My life has not been a cakewalk either. However, I truly believe what got me through it all, well, not all the way through it yet, was my reliance on God and my gratitude for everything, the good and the bad. The bad things I have gone through have made me the person I am today. I would not understand other parents struggling as I do had I not been through it. I would not be able to reassure other parents that it is not their fault and that they are doing the best they can if I hadn't been through all I went through. God is using me to let other parents not feel so alone. To let them know they haven't failed. I do not judge other parents now, and I definitely did before I had children, and even when I was a young mom and didn't know better.I am so full of grace for others at this point in my life. When I look at a child throwing a fit in the grocery store, I do not think, “They need to get that kid under control.” I say a quick prayer for strength and peace for the parent and child. When I am brave enough, I tell my mom she is doing a great job. I have been there, I know how hard it is. When I hear about how a kid is being very disrespectful to his parents, I don't blame the parents. I have no idea what their home life is like and what they or their children are going through. I have been there. When someone cuts me off in traffic, I say a prayer to bless them because I don't know what their day has been like. Honestly, we have no idea what people are going through. I am not saying this to toot my own horn. I am saying this because I wouldn't be like this if I hadn't experienced what I have. This is why I can be grateful for the hard times. It made me who I am today. The same is true for you.I am constantly surprised when I am in a group setting, and the most put-together people share the stories of all they are going through. We all struggle, we all have our crosses to bear. We all need to give each other grace. We need to stop judging and just love each other. Realize there is probably a reason for the behavior you are seeing, and even though you don't know what it is, you can give grace because you know there is a reason.I feel like that last part was a bit of track, but that is where I felt the Holy Spirit was leading me so I went with it. Back to praise. The verse above says, “And provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Don't you want all of that? Do you want a crown of beauty instead of ashes? Do you want the oil of joy instead of mourning? How about a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair? These are possible. God has all of this for you; you just have to claim it. What would you give to not be so sad all the time? What would you give to not be in this deep, dark pit that you are in? What would you give to find some joy in your life again? I promise you all of that is possible. You have to decide you want the beauty more than the ashes, the joy more than the mourning and the praise instead of the despair.Change is hard, and you know what else is hard? Staying the same, not changing, living your entire life in the pit of despair. They are both hard. I know it may be hard for you to even get out of bed. What is one tiny thing you can do to praise God today? What is one tiny thing you can do to let God know you appreciate Him today? Again, tiny. You don't have to go from where you are now to being Suzy Sunshine. Life is a journey we are all on, and it is not linear. It has many twists and turns. It has many hills and valleys. The way to start down the road to feeling better is to take one tiny step in a different direction, any road other than the one you have been going down. Honestly, take a minute and think about it. Ask yourself the question, “What is one tiny thing I can do to praise the Lord today?” Then do that thing every day for 30 days, and let me know if you feel any better. Many of you may discount this because it seems so easy and insignificant. But I guarantee if you do one tiny thing to praise the Lord daily, you will see a difference. God rewards the faithful. Matthew 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'”Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing, and we want to praise you. Please help us to praise you even when it is hard. Please give us the courage and the strength to begin to praise you even when we feel we can't. Please help us to find one tiny way to praise you each day. Please give us the resilience and the perseverance to keep praising every day. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I pray you all have an amazing weekend! For many of us in the United States, it is a long weekend as it is a federal holiday on Monday. I pray you enjoy the day off! I look forward to meeting you here again next week! Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I!Today's Word from the Lord was received in August 2025 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all else shall be added to you.”  www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Perimenopause & Memory One of the most frustrating parts of perimenopause for me has been memory. I'll literally walk into a room and have no idea why I'm there. That's always happened to me to a certain degree — my brain moves fast, I think quickly, and that's something people either love or hate about me. But this feels different. This is a whole other level. Lately, it feels like I can't access old memories as easily. My long-term memory feels sketchy, and I don't know if or when that changes. I know a lot of women experience this, but it's still incredibly frustrating. Honestly, this might be the part of perimenopause that makes me feel the most insane — the memory issues and the brain fog. Those two things can really mess with you because they make you question yourself. And that's scary. There are times when I feel genuinely fearful about how out of it I feel. I just want to say this out loud: it's normal. But that doesn't mean it doesn't suck. When it comes to memory and brain fog, there are so many things we're told to do — omega-3s, B12, iron, hormones, estrogen, progesterone, supplements on supplements. At this point, I feel like I have supplement fatigue. I don't even know if that's a real term, but it feels real to me. I do know that some basics make a difference. Vitamin D helps. B12 shots help. Sublingual B12 helps. Liquid iron helps. Those foundational things absolutely matter. But beyond that, I honestly don't know. There are millions of supplements out there, and I question whether most of them truly make a meaningful difference for everything we're dealing with in perimenopause — or if it really comes down to hormone replacement therapy. I'd love to hear other women's experiences, because when I talk to women around my age — a little younger, a little older — very few are actually educated about perimenopause and everything that comes with it. And that's incredibly frustrating. So many symptoms get misinterpreted. Anxiety, for example. I have a close friend going through this right now with intense anxiety and what I call health anxiety. Women, in particular, experience this a lot. And so often, it's hormonal. When your hormones are out of balance, anxiety can come rushing in. When we don't talk about it, we assume, “It's just me,” or “I just have anxiety.” I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at 18 — and it turned out to be my thyroid. Looking back on my life, every period where I experienced anxiety or panic attacks has always traced back to hormones being out of balance — thyroid hormones, estrogen, progesterone, iron levels. Low iron alone can send anxiety through the roof. Anxiety isn't a normal state. Neither is depression. Your body is communicating that something needs attention. For me, memory issues are worse at certain points in my cycle. That pattern is very clear now. And when women talk to me about anxiety that feels like it comes out of nowhere — especially when life is generally okay — I always say: get your hormones checked. Even if life isn't okay, still get them checked. As for supplements, I'm still undecided. The basics matter, but beyond that, I'm not convinced. I keep coming back to hormone replacement therapy as the thing that actually makes a tangible difference — maybe not for everyone, but for many of us. Perimenopause is not just hot flashes and mood swings. That's how it was explained to us, and it's wildly inaccurate. It's so much more than that. One example for me was joint pain. I struggled with really painful joints until my estrogen was adjusted. I'm currently at a pump and a half, which feels like my sweet spot. And the joint pain is gone. Completely. Zero. It takes time to dial things in, but I'm incredibly grateful. Because being in pain, forgetting things, feeling grumpy, and feeling sad all at once is just too much. I hope this helps. And if you forget to listen — well, I guess that's on theme.

Eric Jensen is joined by Mason YB and RK to talk wild card weekend. Mike Tomlin out. Allegations, Broncos Bills and all the other division Round action. 

Today's guest is just a badass. I'm so excited about this one that I don't even want to do too long of an intro. I just want her to tell her story. Welcome Wendy Rae Fowler to the show. She's got such an interesting story. She plays bass for Humanist in addition to her own music. But her first love was dance. She talks about all her creative endeavors from dance, to acting, to bass, and more.She collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age, Earthlings?, Mark Lanegan (that collaboration included a wedding), and more. She reveals the one project she'll never get over, who Katie Cruel is, and how she wrote an ambient film soundtrack. She tells the story of how she started playing with Rob Marshall and Humanist and how the music transformed once it was played live.  Honestly, I could listen to her for hours. She's wonderful and I want to take a second and thank Rob Marshall of Humanist for the introduction. Go to wendyraefowlerofficial.com for more information. She's active on Instagram @wendyraefowler. Her music is also available on Bandcamp. Keep an eye open for some new releases. Follow us @PerformanceAnx. Grab merch at performanceanx.threadless.com. Just send money to ko-fi.com/performanceanxiety. And let's get right into the story with Wendy Rae Fowler on Performance Anxiety on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're in our gym bro era and eating lots and lots of beef like the new food pyramid recommends. We also did a cursory amount of research on Nick Shirley and Minnesota and then talked about the story like we're experts because we are men on a podcast.   Subscribe to the pod ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/@ohhellyeahpod?sub_confirmation=1 Follow the pod  http://instagram.com/ohhellyeahpod https://www.tiktok.com/@ohhellyeahpod Follow Eddie Della Siepe http://instagram.com/Eddiedellasiepe https://www.eddiedellasiepe.com Follow Brent Flyberg http://instagram.com/brentflyberg   A concept seldom found in the podcast world. Two male comedians having a free flowing conversation in a garage converted into a studio. Honestly...it's never been done. Comedians Eddie Della Siepe & Brent Flyberg dare you to listen to the Oh Hell Yeah! podcast every week. They bet you can't do it. Prove them wrong. 

Every day this week John has been sporting his Chicago Bears gear to celebrate his team advancing in the playoffs. His girlfriend had to ask if it was a superstition or just so he could hear "Go Bears" all over town. Honestly, we can't blame him for his answer.

Of the year, gotcha again neeerrddss.   Well, we're two weeks into 2026, and we're no longer tired or busy. This week, we bring you a little more serious beginning, with a little swearing at the end, gotta bring both ends of the spectrum. Honestly, we did have a pretty interesting conversation to start things off, then moved over into some games, which led to the swearing. I blame Jaymi. We hope this year has begun with as much fun and joy as ours has, and continues to caress your nostrils like an old shirt that still smells like Grandma's house. Love you byyyeee.    Email: hotcrossbunspod@gmail.com Instagram/TikTok: @hotcrossbunspod

It is clear the plan is to remove as much as land as possible for all grazing animals. Hank has 5 different agencies trying to increase the hurdles he must overcome to survie. Honestly none of us are out of the woods.

Attorney Arlene Haeggquist, survivor advocate and legal powerhouse, shares how women can take legal action against workplace sexual harassment, assault, and abuse. Learn documentation strategies, your legal rights, and how to empower yourself through the court process.   This episode covers: ✨ Workplace sexual harassment and assault—50% of women experience it ✨ How to document abuse for legal cases (emails, screenshots, timestamps) ✨ Your legal rights as a survivor of workplace abuse ✨ Breaking the silence: why reporting matters ✨ Building support systems during litigation ✨ Toxic workplace culture and power dynamics ✨ Healing from financial abuse and exploitation ✨ Arlene's story: From abuse survivor to advocate for thousands   Perfect for survivors, advocates, and anyone wanting to understand workplace rights, boundaries, and legal empowerment.   Your journey from victim to survivor to thriver starts here. If you're ready to reclaim your life and learn from others' healing journeys, hit subscribe and join our community of resilient souls. Have a story to share? Email us at HealingFromEmotionalAbusePod@gmail.com —we'd love to feature your questions, healing strategies, opinions and survivor testimonies on the podcast.   Transcript of Episode:    

#910. You may know her from the Girls Gotta Eat duo, but this time Rayna Greenberg is flying solo!Kaitlyn and Rayna catch up on what actually makes someone sexy, dating women, and their very honest thoughts on marriage. Rayna also spills on stepping out on her own with her brand-new solo tour, Honestly, It's You, and what it's really like breaking away from the duo dynamic.Things quickly spiral into conspiracy theories, bold hot takes, a surprisingly deep debate about choosing one song to listen to forever, and plenty of chaotic, unfiltered tangents you won't want to miss.If you're LOVING this podcast, please follow and leave a rating and review below! PLUS, FOLLOW OUR PODCAST INSTAGRAM HERE!Thank you to our Sponsors! Check out these deals!Covergirl: Go the distance with COVERGIRL's new Eye Enhancer Wrap Tubing Mascara for a lash extension effect. Shop at your nearest retailer now. Only from Easy, Breezy, Beautiful COVERGIRL.comApartments.com: The Place to find a place!Boll & Branch: Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at bollandbranch.com/vine15, code vine15 to unlock 15% off. Exclusions apply.Nutrafol: For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to nutrafol.com promo code VINE. Progressive: Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance!Tempo: For a limited time, Tempo is offering OTV listeners 60% OFF your first box! Go to TempoMeals.com/VINE. Rules and restrictions may apply.EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: (16:15) — Rayna gets real about going solo, launching Honestly, It's You, and what breaking away from the duo has actually been like.(29:30) — Rayna opens up about her dating life, “dabbling” with women, and doing what truly makes her happy.(40:14) — HOT TAKE ALERT: The influencer Rayna says she would not survive a day with.(53:00) — The “one song for the rest of your life” debate.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Just about 10 days before UFC 324, and oddsmakers still see Paddy Pimblett as a bit more than a 2-to-1 favorite to win the interim lightweight title over Justin Gaethje. I mean, damn. Does that seem right to you guys? Honestly, it feels super weird to us, but considering how bad we are at betting and how good oddsmakers are at, ahem, making odds, perhaps they are right? And if they are, are we all truly prepared for a world where Pimblett is the (interim) lightweight champ? Plus, Gaethje has got a crater-sized sore on the side of his neck he swears isn't staph, and Trevor Wittman is saying if they can't win this one, Gaethje might as well retire. So … uh … is this about to be depressing as hell? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all love winners. We love hearing about the big wins and the perfect track records. It feels good. It feels safe. It instills us with a sense of trust. But I've been in business long enough to know that virtually all individuals who are long-term winners have had profound moments of failure from which they learned invaluable lessons. Those are the people I really want to hear from. They have the kind of knowledge we all need as we navigate through life. It's called wisdom. Surgeons have a saying: “If you've never had a complication, you haven't done enough surgery.” In my surgeon days, I had a handful of complications. Let me tell you—they are no fun. You stay up at night replaying things in your mind, trying to figure out how you could have done things differently—how you could have had a better outcome. Even when unavoidable, those complications teach you something you'll never get from textbooks. It's been no different for me when it comes to business and investing. But I take comfort in knowing that even the greatest investors of all time had their moments of failure and rose from the ashes stronger and wiser. Warren Buffett. Ray Dalio. Every big winner has a story of failure. And while it may be cliché to say that we learn best from mistakes, I truly believe it. The good news is that those mistakes don't have to be our own. Learning from other people's mistakes can be just as effective. This week's episode of the Wealth Formula Podcast is with Russell Gray—a guy many of you already know from his podcasting and radio career. Russ lived through 2008 up close. He took a beating, and he talks openly about what went wrong. But that period also changed the way he sees the world—in a good way. It changed how he thinks about risk, leverage, and what actually matters when things stop going up. That mindset is a big reason he's been successful since then. It's a conversation worth your time. Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email us at phil@wealthformula.com.  If you let the debt run, at some point you fall into a debt trap where the interest on the outstanding debt consumes all of the available discretionary income, and then you’re borrowing just to service the debt. Welcome everybody. This is Buck Joffrey with the Wealth Formula Podcast coming to you from Montecito, California. Before we begin today, I wanna remind you there’s website associated with this. Podcast called wealthformula.com. It’s where you will go if you would like to, uh, become more, uh, ingrained with the community, including getting on some of our lists such as the Accredit Investor Club. Of course, it is a new year and there are new deal flows coming through. Lots of opportunities that you won’t see anywhere else if you are a, an accredit investor, which means you. Make at least $200,000 per year for the last couple years with a reasonable expectation of doing so in the future. That’s 300,000 if you’re filing jointly or you have a million dollars of net worth outside of your personal residence. If you, uh, meet those criteria, you are an accredited investor. Congratulations. You don’t have to apply for anything, whatever, but you do need to go to wealthformula.com. Sign up for the Accredited Investor Club, get onboarded. And all you do at that point is look at deal flow, and if nothing else, you’ll learn something. So check it out. And who doesn’t want to be part of a club? Now let’s talk, uh, a little bit about today’s show. You know, um, we all love winners, right? We love hearing about big wins, the perfect track record. It feels good. It feels safe, gives us a sense of trust. But the thing is, I’ve been in business long enough to know that virtually all individuals who are, what you would call long-term winners, have had profound moments of failure from which they learned, um, invaluable lessons. So those are the people that I really like to hear from. You know, they have the kind of knowledge we all need that as we navigate through all of life, and it’s called wisdom. Um, surgeons, as you know, I’m an ex surgeon. Have a saying, if you’ve never had a complication, you haven’t done enough surgery. Uh, in my surgery days, I certainly, you know, had a handful of complications just like anyone else who did a lot of surgery. And, and lemme tell you, there, there are no fun, right? So you stay up at night replying things in your mind, trying to figure out how you could have done things differently, how you could have had a better outcome. And sometimes you realize that those mistakes were unavoidable, but. You still learn something from them. And in these cases, you always learn something that you’re not gonna get from the textbooks, just from reading something. And you know what, it’s been no different for me when it comes to business and, and investing, but I, I take comfort in the fact, uh, that even the greatest investors of all time had their moments of failure and arose from the ashes stronger and wiser. All you have to do is look up stories of Warren Buffet and Ray Dalio. And Ray Dalio basically lost everything at one point, uh, because he, you know, he had a macro prediction that went completely south. But listen, uh, the, the point I’m trying to make here is that every big winner, every big winner I know of as a story of failure. And while it may be cliche to say, you know what we learned best from our mistakes, I, I truly believe that. But the good news is that those mistakes don’t have to be our own, right? So you can learn from other people’s mistakes as well, and that can be just as effective. Uh, so this week’s episode of Well, formula Podcast is featuring a guy that you may know. His name is Russell Gray. Russ, uh, has been around a long time, uh, in the podcasting world. And radio. You know, he talks a lot. He’s talked many times to me at least about living through 2008. And you know what that was like, the beating he took and, you know, what went wrong? Uh, you know, it’s, it’s something that he talks about because, you know, he’s a successful guy and that period in time changed. You know, the way he sees the world, the way in which he behaves in that world. How he thinks about things like risk and leverage and you know, what actually matters when things stop going up. Uh, it’s a mindset thing and it’s important. Um, and we also obviously talk about other things as well, such as, uh, Russ’s current take on the economy. Uh, so anyway, it’s a, a good conversation and it’s one that you’re gonna wanna listen to, and we’ll have that for you right after these messages. Wealth formula banking is an ingenious concept powered by whole life insurance, but instead of acting just as a safety net, the strategy supercharges your investments. First, you create a personal financial reservoir that grows at a compounding interest rate much higher than any bank savings account. As your money accumulates, you borrow from your own. Bank to invest in other cash flowing investments. Here’s the key. Even though you’ve borrowed money at a simple interest rate, your insurance company keeps paying. You compound interest on that money even though you’ve borrowed it at result, you make money in two places at the same time. That’s why your investments get supercharged. This isn’t a new technique, it’s a refined strategy used by some of the wealthiest families in history, and it uses century old rock solid insurance companies as its back. Turbo charge your investments. Visit www.wealthformulabanking.com. Again, that’s wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to Show Everyone. Today my guest on Wealth Formula podcast is Russell Gray. He’s a second generation financial strategist and, uh, you may know him from being a, the former co-host of the Real Estate Guy Radio Show, which is one of the longest running, uh, uh, radio shows of its time, uh, in the United States. He’s, he’s a founder of. Raising Capitalist project, which is an initiative focused on helping aspiring investors and entrepreneurs how to better understand how wealth is actually created and how uh, economic systems really work. Uh, he’s best known for his emphasis on real assets, cash flow, economic cycles, and preserving wealth and what he views as an increasingly fragile financial system. Welcome, Ross. How are you? Good buck, happy to be here. And, uh, proud of your success on your show. I remember way back at the beginning you were like, Hey, I wanna start a podcast. Yeah. Yep. You’ve done a great job. Yeah, it was an idea. I was like, here’s the idea. Start a podcast, build a community, all that kind of stuff. But it’s interesting. Uh, well, and let’s talk about what’s going on now. You’ve spent decades teaching people about, you know, real assets and cash flow. But lately your writings feel more focused on systems and and macro forces. So what’s changed? Has something finally become too big to ignore? Well, I think there’s two things you know personally, uh, most people who have heard of me or followed me know that 2008 wasn’t kind to me. I was in the mortgage business. I was very leveraged into real estate all over the place. Had my businesses for cash flow, had the real estate for equity growth. Believed that real estate was hyper resilient and gonna be the beneficiary of inflation. Didn’t understand the dependency on credit markets in both my business and my portfolio. And so that was a big mess, not doing, uh, a real SWOT analysis and understanding. And the third part of that, that was tough, is that I operated the business primarily on credit lines as well. So I had virtually no cash. And so when the credit markets seized up. Canceled my income, it canceled my credit lines and it evaporated my equity. And now all I had was negative cash flow on debt, on real estate. I couldn’t control. And so I looked at that and I said to myself, you know, I’m a pretty smart guy. I. Pride myself on paying attention. So obviously I’m not paying attention to the right thing. So I became obsessed with the macro, uh, picture and, and the financial system, which, you know, to me it’s, it’s the macro economy is what’s going on with, uh. Geopolitics and the energy and, you know, even policy, uh, that affects, uh, how well money can flow through the system. Both monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and fiscal policy from the government now today in the Trump administration trade policy. And so I began to pay attention to all those things, but from the standpoint of not how it was gonna affect the stock market, but how it was gonna affect the bond market and interest rates and the availability of credit, and how it was gonna affect Main Street. Directly and specifically now in terms of jobs and job creation are real wages. And so when I started really looking at all that, um, I, I, I realized that there were some things happening that were gonna be really good, and there were also some things that we needed to pay attention to. And these things move very slowly. So in 2010. I saw that coming outta the financial crisis, the Chinese were very upset with the United States about how much the Fed Balance sheet was expanding, and they were concerned about their very large investment in US dollar denominated. Bonds, and so they began creating bilateral trade agreements with Russia and many other countries to where they could begin this large process of de Dollarizing. Well, that was the first time I’d seen that movie, because it was the same thing that the Europeans did after they saw the Nixon default. Right? They began working on the Euro, which took ’em from 71, 72 when they started, maybe 74 when they started, but it took ’em till 99 to get it done. But you know, once they got it in place, over time, the Euro, the Euro has taken over 20% of global trade. You know, that’s market share from the US dollar. And so I saw this BrickX thing beginning to form. Uh, and then I saw the other thing on the macro that I thought was gonna be really good was in the jobs act, something you’ve benefited from as a syndicator, we. I wrote that report, new law breaks Wall Street Monopoly. And so, uh, even though I, I can’t tell you I was a big fan of Barack Obama, but he signed that legislation that happened on his watch. And I think it was fantastic because now it allowed Main Street syndicators, main Street Capital raisers to advertise for accredited investors and began to really, uh, level that playing field and open up Main Street, uh, to invest directly in Main Street. And so I met you in the syndication program that we put together with the real estate guys to coach real estate investors on how to become capital raisers to, to capitalize on that trend. So that’s, you know, kind of how I kind of became doing what I’m doing. And then when I decided, uh, just about 20 months ago to depart the real estate guys, I wanted to take some of the things that I originally set out to do when I first met Robert Helms way back in the day. And, you know, as relationships go, you know, he has his interest in the things that he wants to do, and I had my interest in things I came to do. And for a long time we were aligned well enough to continue to work together. But it got to a point where, for me, I, I wanted to go off in a different direction, and part of that was driven. By the, the death of my late wife. Uh, you had me on the show right after that happened to me, and I was going through this like, who am I? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do next? What do I really want to get done before I die? And so all of those things kind of informed my personal decisions to, to make a switch. And then of course, what’s going on in the macro. Um, what I saw with Trump 1.0, what I saw in the Biden administration and those policies, and then what I thought would happen in Trump 2.0. And I did a presentation on this at the best ever conference in March of 2025, right after he’d been inaugurated. And, and so, uh, that, that’s kind of has me where I feel like there’s some real opportunity coming. Uh, there’s also some things we need to be aware of on Main Street. Yeah. So you’re bullish on Main Street in general, but you’ve been pretty cautious about the broader financial system. So, uh, what are the things that you’re worried about? Well, I, I think if you understand the way the financial system works, uh, it has a shelf life and that. It’s because it’s, it’s a system that is, depends upon ever increasing debt. Um, people say, I wanna pay the debt off, but if they, if they really understood the system, at least the way I think I understand it, uh, and I’m not alone in this, so it’s not something I just figured out on my own. But, um, you know. I, I don’t want to sit here and pretend like I’m the world’s foremost expert, but the way I understand the way the system works is that it, it requires ever increasing debt, and if we were to pay the debt off, it would collapse the system. So I think you waste a lot of time and energy and from a policy perspective, trying to argue about doing that. And I think that’s why it’s never, ever, no matter what administration, what politician, what mix of congress, what. Pressure there is everywhere globally. The system, the central banking system, the way it works globally, is designed to create ever increasing debt. So the, the flip side of that then is to let the debt run. And if you let the debt run, at some point you fall into a debt trap where the interest on the outstanding debt consumes all of the available discretionary income. And then you’re borrowing just to service the debt. Yeah, that’s about $1 trillion right now, by the way. Which is. Which is, uh, about the, the, the defense, uh, budget. Well, and I think that the bigger thing is when you look at, at the interest on the debt and mandatory spending, there’s virtually no room left after that. So if you’ve got, you’ve got the mandatory spending and you’ve got, um, debt service, you, you have very little room. So it’s not. Feasible either for two reasons. One is there’s just not enough discretionary room to be able to cut expenses enough to, to ever manage the debt. Number two, as I previously mentioned, if we were ever to effectively try to pay down the debt in any appreciable way, it would crash the the system. So the, the way I look at it is it’s, it’s, it’s got to be replaced. There’s going to be a great reset. I think the World Economic Forum was trying to set that up for the world, and they had an agenda. I’m, I’m not particularly fond of. Um, there’s been talk about creating a central bank digital currency, which I think is what, you know, the Federal Reserve and the, what I all call the wizards, uh, or the powers of B would prefer. Uh, but I think if you care about privacy and, and, you know, individual sovereignty, uh, and, and just personal freedom, um, I have a lot of concerns about a central bank digital currency. Um, I think the popularity of Bitcoin, uh, if it was, you know, and who knows what the. True origins were, but let’s just take it at face value. I think a lot of the people, at least that were the early adopters before it had the big price run up, was just a way to escape, uh, the system before it failed. And so you’ve got that. And then you’ve got, again, as I mentioned, the bricks and this global effort to de dollarize, which was I think really kicked off. After the great financial crisis and the massive expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet. And then I think picked up a little steam when we froze Russian assets and people began to see that the US might use the dollar and the dollar system, uh, for political instead of being neutral. And I think that picked up some steam. And, and so there’s, there’s both a geopolitical drive to. Uh, come up with a new system. There is, I think we’re at the end of a shelf life that some type of a new system is gonna have to be, uh, created. Uh, and, and then you look at what Donald Trump is doing and what he’s espousing. You know, let’s get rid of income taxes. Let’s get back to pulling in, uh, revenue from tariffs the way the country was originally founded. Uh, he’s talked about eliminating the IRS and going with an ERS, an external revenue service. There’s people that think that he might beat. Wanting to try to get back on some form of sound money, you know, coming out of, Hey, let’s audit the Fed, let’s audit the gold. I mean, let’s audit the gold. And, um, so, you know, we, you, you never know what what’s really gonna happen, but, but I think what we have to pay attention to are the signs that the system is beginning to break down. And one of those signs that I pay a lot of attention to is monetary, metals, gold and silver. I make a distinction between precious metals, which would also include platinum and palladium, and of course they’re strategic metals, but I just focus on monetary metals, which would be gold and silver, and gold and silver. We’re telling you that people would prefer to be the, the, the safe ha haven asset is no longer us treasuries, but, um, but, but gold and central banks have been driving a lot of it. This isn’t the retail market driving it yet. It, it’s really central banks have been accumulating. And so those are the ultimate insiders when it comes to currency. And if the insiders in the currency markets are repositioning into gold, uh, I’d, I’d call that a clue. Yeah, absolutely. Um. Yeah. You recently commented on the public criticism, president Donald Trump made toward, uh, uh, Peter Schiff. What stood out to you about that exchange? Maybe give us some background people. Not everybody knows who Peter is and, and, uh. And all that. So, yeah. Well, I mean, as you know, I’ve known Peter for 12 or 13 years and, uh, I had read his father’s work way back in the day. He is a very famous in the tax protestor world as somebody who just believed that income taxes were unconstitutional. And he resisted that and ended up going to jail for, died in jail as a matter of fact. And so that was, uh, I think sad. Um. But, but to me it felt like a little bit of being a political prisoner, but be that as it may, that’s how I got to know Peter. And so Peter is a guy that comes from the Austrian School of Economics and he believes in sound money. He believes in gold. He does not like Bitcoin. I’ve sat on panels the last two years with Peter, uh, in between him and Larry Lepard. And you know, Larry is a, a former gold guy. He’s still not opposed to gold, but he’s a hardcore sound money guy. But he likes Bitcoin. Peter hates Bitcoin and they get into it, and I usually sit in between ’em and try to keep things calm. Well, you know, so Peter ended up going on Fox and Friends, uh, I think on whatever it was, Friday the eighth I think it was, or whatever, whatever day that was. And he, he criticized Donald Trump’s spending. And, um, budget deficits and said that it would lead to inflation, and that’s a hot button for Trump. And so Trump, yeah. Uh, responded to him, uh, I think like four 30 in the morning on Saturday morning and called Peter, uh, a. Jerk and a total loser. Well, actually I saw it before Peter did, and so I took a screenshot and I texted it to him. I said, Hey, have you seen this? You know, maybe I’ll press is good press. And I think to a degree, maybe it has been me from, I understand Peter ended up on Tucker Carlson’s show as a result of that. So, but I made a video right after that because I, you know, there was a time when. I’m friends with Peter Schiff and I’m friends with Robert Kiyosaki. As you know, I, we introduced you to both those guys and, and at one point they didn’t like each other very much. They got into it ’cause, you know, and, and so we introduced ’em to each other and found that they had more in common than they, they didn’t. And I, I think that that would be true. Not that I’m in a position to introduce Peter to, to Donald Trump, but I think the way Peter is looking at it is true. Um, but there’s context and I think the context is super important. Now I’ve been studying Donald Trump as a businessman way before he was a presidential candidate or a politician, you know, before he was a polarizing guy, a pariah for some people. He, he was just this real estate guy. He’s good at marketing, he’s a real estate guy, and as you know. We got to know his longtime attorney, George Ross. And so I’ve had a chance to have conversations about what it was like working with Donald Trump, the real estate guy, and when he became a politician, I asked George, is he a crazy man? Does he shoot from the hip? And you know, I got a lot of reassurances that he is a sober sound. Methodical, self-disciplined guy and, and I think he uses the eroticism to keep people off balance as a negotiating tactic. And he writes about that in the art of the deal. So the context that I think that people need to have, and I’m not here to defend Donald Trump, the man. I’m not here to defend Donald Trump, the politician, but I look at the policies and what I think he’s up to in the context of realizing that we have a system that is fundamentally flawed and has to be remodeled. So to use a real estate, uh, metaphor, it would be like we have a hotel building that is very tired. It’s at the end of its life, it’s got to be remodeled, and so you can’t. Completely shut it down because it’s an operating business, so it’s gotta operate during the remodel. And so you begin to, um, reposition things and. You, you, you’re not gonna run optimally, so you’re gonna run some deficits while you’re doing the remodel. You’re gonna go into debt because you got a lot of CapEx to do, and during that period of time, your debt and deficits are gonna be a problem. But real estate guys look at debt and deficits not as a permanent condition. I think Peter is saying, Hey, you’re just running up debt and deficits. Well, in the short term he is. Honestly, I don’t think Trump is concerned about that. I think he’s focused on getting this remodel done, and part of that remodel was showed up in the last jobs report, right? We lost jobs to a degree, but they were government jobs, and what we got was a lot of gains in private sector jobs. Scott descent, his treasury secretary, has come out and overtly said, we are an administration for Main Street, not for Wall Street. So if you’re going to de financialize this economy and turn it back into a productive economy. You’re going to have to have policies that are gonna stimulate Main Street, and that’s, that’s the, the, the new units that you’ve rehabbed in your hotel that you wanna move people into. At the same time, you gotta move them outta the old units, which is people making money, trading claims on wealth instead of producing real goods and services, which is the financial ice economy. So it’s not about banking, it’s not about stocks, it’s not about Wall Street. You know, you need the stock market to stay up. But really what you need to do is you need to create production. And, and, and I think that’s fundamental. I think he understands we’re never gonna pay the debt off by cutting. We’ve got to keep the system running until we can get to some form of sound money. We’re actually paying the debt off as realistic, and then we have to earn so much money that the debt relative to our earnings shrinks. So it’s not paying down the debt, it’s paying down the percentage of GDP by growing GDP. And the presentation I did at best ever in March of 2025 was me explaining why I thought. His policies, were going to allow him to increase velocity and increase wages by cutting taxes, interest regulation, transportation costs, and, and again, that was six weeks into administration. That was theory. I’m gonna do a follow up in March of this year to say, okay, looking back when I gave the speech a year ago, what’s transpired, but I can already tell you a lot of the stuff that I thought he would do. He’s done. And I think that’s muting some of the inflation that his spending and deficits to Peter’s point are causing. And that’s why when this last CPI report came out, it wasn’t as ugly as everybody thought it would be. And, and this is when you don’t look at, when you look at it in the mono, you just look at one thing and Peter’s very fixated on this quantity of money theory. Then the expectation is that you print a bunch of money, you run a bunch of deficits, you’re gonna get inflation. And it’s just a. Equals B or A leads to B. But there are other nuances and I think Trump is looking at more like a real estate developer, which makes sense. ’cause that’s his background. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It’s, I mean, and then the other just point to, to make there is that there is probably, um, now inflation’s a tricky thing, right? Like on the one hand you don’t want this riding up, but on the other hand, it actually helps with that debt. You’re, you’re basically eroding the debt by letting inflation ride a little bit higher at the same time. And I think the Trump administration knows that it’s a tricky thing to balance, but the goal is to, you know, get GDP pumping at, you know, four or 5%, but it’s gotta be real production buck. And that’s the difference, right? The old way of dealing with the debt was inflation. And, and I think people think that he’s using the old formula, but I don’t think he is. Well, I think it’s, I think, I think it’s definitely geared towards increasing real GDP, but I think in the process there’s probably, they probably care less a little bit. Of inflation riding up a little bit in the meantime. ’cause you’re still gonna have, I think he thinks he can mute it. I think he can mute it with lower taxes, lower interest expense, lower energy costs. And the energy is the economy. And from day one, that was the first policy. He’s, he’s aggressively gone after lowering energy costs because that has a, a, a ripple through, it just affects every area of the economy. And then the regulations in, in the last cabinet meeting. It was reported, the way I understood it, that for every regulation his administration passes, they’ve eliminated 48. So it’s actually, he’s removing the friction. And I think the bigger thing is, and I, and I was on a panel at Limitless, uh, this last summer, and TaRL, Yarborough was moderating the panel, asked the panelists what we were looking at that maybe other people weren’t looking at that. Um. You know, is, is a signal about maybe the direction it was. We, I, I can’t remember. This was a prediction panel and what I said was trade policy because everybody in finance spends all their time looking at the flow of money and trying to get in front of the flow of money. And we’re so used to the money coming from the Fed or coming from the treasury. So they’re gonna come from monetary policy or fiscal policy. And that’s what Peter’s doing. He’s looking at the Fed and he is looking at the treasury. And so what I’m looking at is not just the tariff income, which is relatively minor, but I’m looking at the trade deals, and those are published at the White House and there’s a couple trillion dollars of money that’s FDI, foreign Direct Investments coming right into Main Street. And it’s gonna build infrastructure. It’s gonna build factories. It’s good. And they tell you where it’s gonna be because they, they came back with the opportunity zones, which I thought they would do. Makes sense. It’s the way he thinks. And then taking those opportunity zones, the governors can say where in their state they want that money to go. Well, people on Wall Street don’t think geography ’cause they operate in a commodity world that trades on global exchanges. But real estate people. Geography matters a lot. So if I’m a Main Street person, I live on Main Street and I’m looking for Main Street opportunities, I wanna look where that money is going to be flowing in geographically. And then there may be opportunities in real estate or small businesses in those economies, and you can see it coming, but nobody talks about it. So I created Main Street Capitalist as a show to begin to talk about it. I still do the investor mentoring club, which is, you know. A premium thing where we get together every month and we talk about these things. And the point is, is that if you understand, I think what he’s doing, then you can, you can begin to paddle into position. And I think, again, I am really bullish if he loses inflation. If he loses to inflation, he’s cooked. He knows it. I think that that even the suggestion that Peter made that he was losing to inflation is what flared him up. And so I wasn’t trying to necessarily defend. Peter and I wasn’t trying to defend Trump, I was just trying to reconcile that it is possible that both guys could be right at the same time from their perspective. And so I, you know, I, I had one guy take exception because he felt like I was defending Trump, but for the most part, I got positive feedback on the video. I, I, I, you saw it. So you tell me. Did it make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So when you look at today’s environment, everything going on, where do you think investors are most vulnerable? Um, I, I think that if you are very dependent upon, um, healthy credit markets, we could have a disruption. And that’s what happened to me. If Trump loses the inflation battle even for a little while, little be reflected in interest rates. And the challenge is right now that he is asked the Fed to quote unquote lower rates, but the Fed actually doesn’t like. Set rates, what they do is they set a target and then they manipulate markets to achieve those rates. And if, if people believe the fed, there’s a little bit of front running. So what’ll happen is the Fed will come out and go, oh, we’re gonna lower rates, which means bond prices are gonna go up. So they’re like, that’s great, let’s go buy a bunch of bonds, which drives rates down. So the Fed just by talking. Begins to move the market and then they hope that later on the Fed will buy those bonds from them at a profit to push rates down. Does that make sense? So, so when the last two times the Fed has raised rates in their target, the 10 year has responded in the opposite direction. Which means that the market is like not buying in, and the Fed is gonna have to step in. And when the Fed steps in, they do it by printing money out out of thin air. Now, the concern about that is that when they print the money out of thin air. If they’re replacing bonds on their own balance sheet, that’s kind of a circle and it doesn’t leak out into the economy. If they’re buying new issuance from the the treasury, then that money is gonna work its way through the government to to to main street. Now, the Trump administration can prevent some of that by keeping the money in the Treasury, for example, uh, Trump 1.0 left. The Biden administration with, I think over a trillion dollars in, in the treasury checking account, and Janet Yellen put that into the economy right away during the lockdowns, which immediately created extreme inflation because you muted production at the same time you goose. Uh. Purchasing power, you know? So anybody with like three ounces of economic understanding could have told you that that inflation was gonna come, it was gonna come hard, it was gonna come fast, and it was gonna be stickier than than you thought. ’cause once you let that money out in the economy, it’s out. It’s out and the only way to mute it is either to suck it back, which is very, very difficult, or to outproduce it, and it’s very hard to produce anything when everything’s in lockdown. So I think that, you know, those days are behind us. I think the policies that we’re embracing now are more. Pro productivity. And I think that even if the Fed does have to step in, as long as that money doesn’t leak out into the economy, and part of it is the treasury being able to throttle some of that, and the money that does go into the economy doesn’t go into stimulus, but goes into CapEx and infrastructure, that’ll actually, uh, create. Production. Then I think that, you know, this, this game plan that I think they’re trying to execute has a chance. And so I, I’m, I’m watching for it. And of course, to answer your question, what do we have to worry about that it doesn’t work? Right? If it doesn’t work, then inflation will show up. Interest rates will rise, credit markets will crash, it will take real estate values with it. And the hedge is really gonna be, what I’ve always talked about is gold. I started talking back in 2018 when we were the zero bound with interest rates. Hey, there’s only one way interest rates can go and that’s up. And if they go up fast, then that’s gonna crash bonds. So it would be smart, and that’s gonna take real estate equity with it. So it’d be smart when you have real estate equity and low rates to pull some of that equity out and move it into gold. And I called that my precious equity strategy. If I have a video I did at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in January of 2022, explaining that when you could still really execute on that, and I’m not saying that you couldn’t do it today, but it’s harder, but the people who did it back then, I mean, you know, they’ve, they’ve seen their gold almost triple. And at the same time, they were able to lock in interest rates that are, you know, a half what they are today. So when you see those mega trends and you can begin, and that’s the stuff I didn’t know how to do in 2006, 2007. I didn’t understand any of this stuff. The, the, you know, losing everything in 2008 forced me to become a hardcore student and then try to apply that to Main Street strategy. And so I think gold and real estate and debt, they all work really well together depending on where you are in the cycle. Do you think that Main Street investors may actually have some advantages in periods like this? Yes, a ton because I think what’s gonna happen is if we have a, um, a, a, a restructure of the financial system into something more responsible, which I think is either gonna be forced upon us or it’s gonna be done by design, and I hope we do it by design. But when that happens, then the days of just buying low and selling high and riding the inflation wave that goes away. And so now it’s gonna be very, very important to understand how to invest for. Productivity. So I call it, you know, buy low sell high trading as an acronym, B-L-S-H-T you. You can sound it out for yourself phonetically. And then the other one is poo, which is productivity of others. And I think that if people focus on investing in the productivity of others, which is what Main street investors, especially real estate investors, focus on, I think cash flow, real profits on small businesses, not speculating on. Uh, exit price or a company that’s gonna take a company public, everybody trying to tap into this giant flood of money that gets pre created from thin air in the banking system and in Wall Street. If, if, if people on Main Street will just start investing. Kind of what Kenny McElroy was doing going through 2008, just focusing on sound assets and good markets with good fundamentals. That cash flow and, and are run by good managers, whether it’s a business, an apartment building, a mobile home park, a self storage, residential assisted living doesn’t really matter. Invest in real businesses that produce real profits where you’re not overpaying for that production of income and especially where there’s some upside. Not to flipping out of the stock, but to actually growing the market share and growing the income. That’s what investing really should be. Wall Street has perverted it into just placing bets and riding a wave and trying to figure out where the money is gonna flow from the Treasury or for from Fed stimulus. And I think Main Street is gonna pick up on the new game sooner. And the good news is if you get good at playing that game, even if the system stays the same, you’re probably gonna do better off anyway. When you talk about buying, buying or investing into productive businesses, I mean, what, what’s the difference in your mind between investing in a private business versus investing in a, you know, a publicly traded business that’s run off, you know, dividends? Yeah, so I, I, I think that it could be okay if the dividend yield makes sense, but anytime you have a publicly traded security, it’s a highly liquid market, which means it’s gonna be volatile and the stocks become chips in the casinos where professional traders are just gambling all day long. And some of that gambling can create an impact on the stock, and it doesn’t matter to you if you’ve only bought it for production of income. Um. And so, uh, you know, I, I don’t think it’s bad. I’ve, you know, Peter’s always been an advocate of, uh, dividend paying stocks, and I think if you’re gonna be in the stock market, that’s what you want to do. I think the opportunity in a private placement in a small business is the opportunity not to have to pay the high multiples because it’s not a perfect market. It’s, it’s the same reason there’s so much more opportunity in real estate. If real estate could trade on an electronic exchange where. You know, millions of buyers could find it, and you could have perfect price discovery. It’s very difficult to find a deal, right? It’s very difficult. But we, if you buy a private business, you know there’s gonna be considerations. You, you deal with a, a owner. Who cares about his customers, who cares about his team, maybe would be willing to carry back the way you would if you were buying a, a, a piece of property from somebody that cares about their neighbors or whatever. I mean, there’s, there’s, there’s a lot more humanity in it. There’s a lot more room for negotiation in it. And a lot of times there’s a lot more room to have control. So, you know, one of the adages with real estate that real estate investors like is, I’m gonna buy an asset, one that I understand, two that I can control. And so when you buy a stock, like a dividend paying stock, you, you might understand the business, you may not understand completely the. Uh, market dynamics that drive the stock price. But as long as the dividends are there, that can be okay, but you don’t have any control. When you actually go buy a small business, you have a, a degree of control. Now, if you’re a passive investor buying into a syndication, then you still have a little bit more, um. Relationship, you have a little bit more insight. You maybe have a voice. You may know the people that are making the decision and running the company personally. So it’s the same thing. You know, you Buck is a syndicator. When you go do a deal, your investors know you. They have a personal relationship with you. Go buy stuff in the stock market and mutual fund managers and investor. You don’t have a relationship with that fund manager and I think that’s worth something if you have a voice right. So we’ve, we’re talking a little bit about credit markets, um, volatility, you know, interest rates. Are they gonna go down like, you know, Donald Trump would like to see, and you know, we’ve got a new fed share coming, all that kind of thing. How should investors be thinking about leverage and risk right now? I, I think the adage with real estate, uh, I mean, sorry, with leverage is always the same, is, um, you know, manage cash flow. I, if, if you use leverage to speculate, that could be a real problem. And whether you did it. Do it for real estate like I did by having very thin or negative cash flow and making that up someplace else and believing that somehow, you know, rents or appreciation are gonna do it. Or buying a non-income producing asset with borrowed funds hoping it’s gonna go higher. I think that would be dangerous, but I think if you fundamentally use debt as a tool. Based on cash flows and you use conservative cash flows, you know, so the debt service coverage ratio, you know, if you have $10,000 a month going out in debt service, make sure you have at least, you know, $12,000 a month coming in on income or above. Then that’s how you begin to build resiliency into your portfolio. And the other thing is don’t borrow long to invest short, right? So your duration matters a lot. We were talking about this before we hit the record button, and I think what happens is people. Uh, make a mistake when they try to operate like a bank. ’cause banks lend short and invest long. And the only reason they get away with it is because they have the Federal Reserve Bank system backstopping them. But you don’t have that as an individual, so you better to do the opposite. Um, if you can match the durations, that’s perfect, right? ’cause then you know what your interest expense is for the, for the duration of the investment. And once you lock in the spread, then you just have the counterparty risk of the, whoever is responsible for creating that income stream that’s gonna service the debt you use to control the asset. And then it just comes down to underwriting and then recourse. And if you feel comfortable with the underwriting and you feel comfortable with the recourse, and you’ve got spread and you’ve locked in a, a duration. Um, that, that is compatible, then that can be a, a, a fairly safe way to use debt. And if interest rates work against you, then you’re okay. And if interest rates work for you, you might be able to refinance your debt and actually increase your spread, but you don’t need it to happen to be successful. Let’s talk a little bit more about what you’re doing right now. So in the past year, you’ve launched, um, several new initiatives. You had masterminds via platforms. Tell us a little bit about this and, and a little bit more what, what you’re trying to accomplish. Well, you know, after losing my wife, um, you, you go through this. Period of time of like figuring out, okay, life is short. What do I want to get done before I left die myself. And so, um, after thinking about that, I went back to really what I came to do when I first met Robert Helms and got involved in the real estate guys. And so I just kinda went back to home base and. Then the other thing is now I’ve got 17 grandchildren, and so I’m thinking a lot less like a father, more like a, a grandfather, a founding father. And, um, and so I’m thinking about what the world is gonna be like in 40, 50, 60 years, and what can I do to plant a seed that will make that world better for my grandchildren? And so I, I did a couple things. One is, um, after I left the real estate guys, we were going through a merger with Ken McElroy, George Gammon and Jason Hartman to create, um, a mastermind group, which we did. And I, I was CEO of that for the. The year during the merger. And that took up some time. And the second thing I decided to do, uh, ironically, it was after a conversation I had with Charlie Kirk. I had a conversation with Charlie Kirk. I said, Hey, I’ve got this idea to help, uh, K through 12 get involved in, in capitalism by starting businesses or working with businesses. Their parents start, and I explained to him the model. He goes, I love it. I want to help you. And so that encouraged me. And then I had a follow up meeting in January of 20. 24 with Mark Victor Hansen, and he really encouraged me. And so with the strength of those two endorsements, I go, you know, I’m gonna do this. And so, uh, I left the real estate guys in, um. March, late March of 2024, and in the summer of 2024, I, I launched the Raising Capitalists Foundation, and people can learn more about that by going to raising capitalists plural.org. And I, I literally launched it at Freedom Fest on July 13th, 2024 and five minutes before I took the stage, Donald Trump got shot. Always remember where I was and how distracting it was, but I did record that presentation and it’s on the website, and so it explains the model. But in, in short, it’s pairing, um, or it’s, it’s putting parents who are in what Kiyosaki, uh, rich Dad would call the E-Class employees. And, uh. Put them under a mentorship program with experienced entrepreneurs and investors to help them start a business, a side hustle. They need the money and they need a mentor. And so then they, um, it can create a situation where their children can come to work for them in the business. And today, information Society, you know, there’s a lot of things kids can do where they learn real life skills, um, working with their parents. So that’s what the Raising Capitalist Foundation is all about. Then I launched two shows. Uh, in 2025, uh, one is I literally just launched like a week ago, and that’s. That Donald Trump video was really the first one that I put out, the Donald Trump versus Peter Schiff video on YouTube. I haven’t even started the podcast side of it. Um, and in on September 27th, uh, on pray.com, I started, uh, another show that, that one’s called the Main Street Capitalist. So if you go to YouTube and look at the Main Street capitalist, you’ll, you can find me there. And then the other one I created was the Christian capitalist. And I kind of went back to, you know, my, my core roots of realizing when I started looking at. Where the country was at, John Adams said that, um. Our Constitution was designed for a moral and religious people and is really wholly inadequate for any other, and so I thought, you know what? I’m I, I’m going to do that because my experience as a, as a Christian businessman is that I find that sometimes the stuff I get in church is more consumer oriented, and it doesn’t, it’s more employee oriented. I, I don’t. And, and then the other part of that is I created a, a ministry called Fellowship, a Christian capitalist, which is really about helping people put purpose into their business and then, you know, express their faith. Love your neighbor. Through their business. And so I’ve got all these different initiatives going and then I created the Main Street Media Network because I wanting to reach youth. I hired a YouTube coach and I said, look, I want to create content to encourage youth. He goes, that’s great. You can’t do it. You’re too old, he said, so what you need to do is find young people you can mentor and teach them the things that you’ve learned and let them teach it in their own words and they’ll reach their generation better than you. So with Main Street Media Network, I’m I, I’ve got. Two guys that I’m apprenticing right now, but I’m gonna be adding a lot more. Um, one, one young man is 20 years old, the other one is 26 years old. And, uh, I just came back from the Turning Point USA event where we had a broadcast booth and they were conducting interviews and I did the New Orleans Investment Conference. And so these guys are sitting down with Peter Schiff, Robert Kiyosaki, Mike Maloney, Ken McElroy, you know, you, you know what that did for you, buck with your show. You know, you, you met all these people through us and then you. We’re able to build upon that and create a very credible show. So I’m doing that for these guys that are in their twenties with the idea that they will be able to reach a generation of people. Uh, I call it putting Boomer Wisdom in Gen Z mounts. I mean, they get to process it and it gets to be their own. And I’m helping them build financial podcasts that actually make the money and is the foundation of, in this case, they’re both capital raisers of their capital raising business. I got all these different things going, but I’m doing it through leaders, so I’m not trying to do all things myself. Yeah, yeah. Um, but I’m building out an ecosystem to accomplish all these goals and so far so good. It’s a lot. Sounds working like a young man, man, man. I’ll tell you that. I know, I know. Wow. I I thought you were gonna slow down after you. No, I’ve actually, I put my, I put, I put my foot on the gas. I, I’ve probably never worked, uh, harder. Um, but I, I think I’m working smart, you know, so I’m hiring coaches and I’m bringing in, um, leaders and going through all that EOS and organizing to scale stuff. Sounds good. Well, always a pleasure, Russ. Um, make sure not to be a stranger to have you on again, um, you know, in a few months and figure out where you’re going with all this stuff. All the new things that you’ve accomplished, but it’s, uh, it’s great to see you. Well, happy to be here, proud of you. Uh, keep up the good work and keep educating people. Thank you. You make a lot of money, but are still worried about retirement. Maybe you didn’t start earning until your thirties. Now you’re trying to catch up. Meanwhile, you’ve got a mortgage, a private school to pay for, and you feel like you’re getting further and further behind. Now, good news, if you need to catch up on retirement, check out a program put out by some of the oldest and most prestigious life insurance companies in the world. It’s called Wealth Accelerator, and it can help you amplify your returns quickly, protect your money from creditors, and provide financial protection to your family if something happens to you. The concepts here are used by some of the wealthiest families in the world, and there’s no reason why they can’t be used by you. Check it out for yourself by going to wealthformulabanking.com. Welcome back to the show everyone. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, Russ, uh, is, uh, you know, he’s, he’s got a lot of wisdom. He is the guy you really wanna listen to. And I would encourage you to follow his work anyway. Uh, just pivoting back, you know, to where this economy is and all that. I think for me personally, it’s about allocating capital in a market that is a, uh, is certainly losing value in its dollars. And, um, and I think that we’re gonna continue to see that. Speaking of that, make sure if you haven’t, as I mentioned before, sign up for the Accredited Investor Club. Go to wealthformula.com, go to investor club, as we have plenty of those types of things that are hedging against inflation, um, saving taxes in terms of tax mitigation strategies, that kind of thing. Check it out. That’s it for me This week on Well Formula Podcast. This is Buck Joffrey signing off. If you wanna learn more, you can now get free access to our in-depth personal finance course featuring industry leaders like Tom Wheel Wright and Ken McElroy. Visit wealthformularoadmap.com.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a powerful tool. They provide concrete numbers for your practice, showing what's working well, but also clear-cut areas for improvement. Tiff and Kristy break down how and where to use KPIs, plus interpretation, growth factors, and more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am back here with one of your favorites I know she's one of your favorites because we get some massive kudos and massive reviews and feedback on Miss Kristy and I've got her here today to pick her brain on a couple of different Topics and this one we are diving right in you guys I'm super excited for this topic and for what's to come Kristy you work really really really hard with your clients on   finding the metrics that are actually going to push their needle. And something that I think you key in very easily on is that missing, I said earlier, like a puzzle piece. And you're able to see the picture, the big picture, and then narrow it down into pieces that are going to move ⁓ incrementally, right? We always look for the things that are gonna, a small change that can make a massive difference. And you're really good at keying into those pieces. Now,   Earlier we were recording a podcast and we talking about this massive growth that a platinum client of yours had experienced this year. We're recording this in 2025. It'll release in 2026. So this year they had experienced this incredible growth. And we talked about some of the systems that they had used, handoffs and block scheduling and financial menus, all of the different things that you guys were able to implement lasers, kind of all the things.   DAT Kristy (01:02) Thank   The Dental A Team (01:16) But when it comes to, we can implement things and this I think is what happens when practices come to us. The practices come to us, Kristy, and they say, teach me systems, right? I need systems. We're like, gosh, you have systems. You just don't know if the systems are working or not, right? You wouldn't have gotten this far. You wouldn't be calling down on a team if there were no systems. So we just have to key in on the systems that you have and figure out why, if they are working or not and if they're not, why they're not working. Now, Kristy.   DAT Kristy (01:30) Thank   The Dental A Team (01:45) The word KPI or the acronym KPI, key performance indicators, I think can be daunting and confusing, very confusing. So help us to simplify today. How do you go about choosing the right KPIs? And what are some of your favorite overarching KPIs for practices to use?   DAT Kristy (02:06) Yeah. I love that you say that Tiff, because KPIs, you know me, I do love the numbers because the numbers don't lie, right? And they start to tell a story. They don't tell this whole story, but it lets us see what's working well and be able to celebrate with our teams, you know, what is going good. And it also lets us ⁓ dive into maybe areas where there's opportunity for sure.   And I always like to say there's lead and lag measures. And so I like to look at both, you know, to your point, probably my top ones, obviously everybody knows production, collection. ⁓ And I also like to say, don't get hung up just on percentages. Also look at the numbers too, right? It's both. And then also case acceptance.   dollars diagnosed, dollars accepted, and your percentage accepted. ⁓ And to that point, your re-care and even new patient numbers too.   The Dental A Team (03:14) I totally agree with you. I'd   love that you said don't pay attention just to the percentage. I think both are equally as important. And I think what you mean by that, I can surmise, is we'll take diagnosis for an example, something we talked about in the other podcast we recorded for your Platinum client was that they were able to increase their case acceptance, but you started tracking and looking at what their diagnosis amount was. So if we strictly look at, and I love this one because   I love when practices come in and they make it really easy for us and they're like, gosh, I have a really high case acceptance. have 87 % case acceptance, but my schedule isn't full. I'm not hitting production goals. And we're like, heck yeah, slam dunk, this one's easy. We're not diagnosing enough. So I think that's the differentiating space that you're talking about, the percentage versus the dollar amount, because we can have really high case acceptance of a small dollar amount. So if we're not looking at both of those simultaneously and seeing   are we diagnosing enough dollars to get to the production and collections that we want and then also getting the case acceptance? Is that what you're meaning there by that KPI? And how would you separate those KPIs for someone tracking them that's trying to maybe get to that next level of production?   DAT Kristy (04:29) Yeah, absolutely. That is exactly what I'm talking about because again, that percentage we can celebrate all day long. But if my goal is $100,000 a month and I'm getting 80 % case acceptance of $50,000 a month, obviously that's not enough to reach our goal. definitely looking at dollars diagnosed being at least three times what we want our goal to be. ⁓   we know we're more likely gonna hit our goal. Then we can start working on the percentage and capturing more of the percentage. But it's funny that you say that Tiff, because just the other day I was pointing out to a doctor, I'm like, look at this month, you had 46 % case acceptance, but this month you had 21%. But look at the dollar amount. I'd rather take that dollar amount all day long in the 21 % month than the 46 % month. So again,   The Dental A Team (05:24) Yeah.   DAT Kristy (05:25) then we can start focusing in on how do we capture more of it as long as we're diagnosing enough to get there.   The Dental A Team (05:33) Totally. And what do you use as your marker for the amount of ⁓ diagnosis that they need? So how much production should a practice be diagnosing per doctor in order to hit their goals?   DAT Kristy (05:44) Yeah, depending on what their goal is per month based on their overhead of the practice and you know other factors for growth, we want them to be diagnosing three times at least what that monthly dollar amount is that we want to hit.   The Dental A Team (06:01) Yeah, I totally agree. And that gives you the flexibility of case acceptance, right? So if we're diagnosing three times, because when we look at case acceptance also, there's two different, there's multiple KPIs within KPIs. And you guys, this is why it gets so daunting. And it can be overwhelming to try to find quote unquote, the right KPIs. Like just find KPIs, just start tracking KPIs, just start tracking key performance indicators, and then get more granular as you see, okay, great, this leads to the next one, because you're gonna try to capture too much.   and you're gonna get overwhelmed with the choices. I say that because case acceptance, just case acceptance alone has two variations of KPI. There's a one-to-one, did they schedule or not, right? So if they scheduled a filling but they had a crown diagnosed as well and they only scheduled the filling, that's 100 % because they scheduled something. Or our preferred method, a dollar for dollar.   If they were treatment planned $1,000 and they only scheduled $500, that's a 50 % case acceptance. So thank goodness I picked easy numbers this time. I'm usually really hard on myself there. But that's how the KPIs within that KPI work. So if you're at a 35 % case acceptance, but you're diagnosing three times the amount of your goal or four times and maybe you're a cosmetically driven practice, so your case acceptance is lower than a general.   DAT Kristy (07:02) You   The Dental A Team (07:22) bread and butter, then your case acceptance against your diagnosed is going to work to help fill that schedule. So I think that's a beautiful place to start, that diagnosis plus case acceptance, those go hand in hand. And then Kristy, I always go down, I kind of see it going, so you see the diagnosis, like how much are we diagnosing? Are we diagnosing enough? What percentage of that diagnosis are we getting accepted?   and do we have enough new patients to continue to support that diagnosis? You might see one month you have great stellar diagnosis because you had a massive amount of new patients, but that new patient number isn't consistent. So then next month your new patients drop, well so does your diagnosis, and your case acceptance probably does, because you're not feeling so hot either. You're like, what the heck is going on? You're spiraling, so is your case acceptance. So they all follow each other. So I kind of see that like.   diagnosis, case acceptance, then new patients. And on average, Kristy, what would you say a good KPI number for new patients is per full-time doctor?   DAT Kristy (08:28) Yeah, I say anywhere between 25 and 35 per full-time doctor for sure is a healthy metric.   The Dental A Team (08:35) Yeah, I totally agree, totally agree. And what other KPIs would you say, so think diagnosis, case acceptance, new patients, those are really, really easy to track numbers and those are definitely indicators of everything else. What are some other key performance indicators that you typically have offices start out with?   DAT Kristy (08:38) Thank   Yeah. The other one is your reappointment rate and even taking a look at how many patients are going inactive because surprise, surprise docs, a lot of times we're really happy about that new patient number, but then we see, there's equally that amount going out the back door because we haven't worked re-care. And so again, we can be very strategic and focus on the re-care. We can look at the patients that have outstanding treatment because like you said, Tiff,   it definitely directly affects the doctor's schedule when we're not getting those patients back in that have outstanding treatment. So that is one that I definitely would recommend looking at.   The Dental A Team (09:32) Absolutely.   Yeah, and that one, Kristy, I love your appointment, right? Because it gets the team involved too. It's very easy for the doctor, the owner, the office manager to think that all of these KPIs need to land on you and that you need to be the one tracking them. But those kind of smaller variable KPIs really get the team involved. And to that point as well, do think, I think doctors knowing their diagnosis is massive, but I treatment coordinators should be the ones that are tracking and reporting on that metric. And this is where   DAT Kristy (09:41) Mm-hmm.   The Dental A Team (10:06) know, practices come in and they're like, I need to track these KPIs. And they're like, Kristy, can't fill out the scorecard. We're like, cool, you shouldn't be, that's okay. So taking that, you know, to back up, we use a scorecard with all of our clients that tracks a ton of metrics that are indicators of making your goal or not. And so what we like to do, Kristy, I know you do this really well too. ⁓ Also, I like to split it between what makes sense. So I like the person who is being held accountable to the result.   to be the one that's tracking that measurable and filling it in. And then we're all coming together and talking about the results, but we're really looking at, if I'm a treatment coordinator, I'm tracking the treatment case acceptance, which simultaneously tracks our diagnosed amount. So I'm tracking the diagnosis and the case acceptance. If I'm a scheduling coordinator, I'm tracking open hours and new patients, right? And probably attrition.   which is the patients going out. And Kristy, to your point, I actually had a practice the other day that was like, Tiff, we're doing really great on new patients, but my active patient count isn't changing enough to show those new patients. And I was like, that's your attrition. That's where they're going out the other side. And Kristy, that's where that reappointment rate comes in to play, right? And that reappointment rate then can go to a scheduling coordinator as well, but also can go to hygiene. And I know a lot of people,   DAT Kristy (11:29) Thank you.   The Dental A Team (11:31) struggle getting KPIs that are for the team. I think those are those areas. So I love that. What else do you dive into kind of on like a more granular space that can get that team involved that can help doctors and office managers see that it's not all on them?   DAT Kristy (11:42) Yeah.   ⁓ 100%. ⁓ Another area of metric. Well, let me go back to the reappointment rate. I think sometimes again, just like I was telling you on numbers and percentage, again, even in that, sometimes talking, hey, we saw 100 patients last week and eight didn't get reappointed. That's eight hours of hygiene in six months from now. And I don't know about you, but if I'm working full time, I don't want to cut a day out of my schedule. So sometimes   The Dental A Team (12:07) Yeah.   DAT Kristy (12:16) putting it in that perspective can make a huge difference. And ⁓ Tiff, another area that I love looking at is the AR. AR for patient AR and also insurance metrics and formulating ⁓ goals around that, know, what's healthy. And ideally we don't have more than one, one and a half times our monthly production sitting out there in AR.   The Dental A Team (12:25) Yeah.   Yeah, I love that point. That is a massive, massive space. so, Kristy, to take all of these things together, really, we're looking at are your KPIs actually driving your growth? So how would you kind of decipher within some of these KPIs we've talked about how the practices could see, are they actually driving my growth?   DAT Kristy (13:04) Yeah, looking over the year to year ⁓ metrics and tracking it for where they want to be. And one of the things that I think we're really good at, Tif, is doing the projections for the year and reverse engineering it. So then we have a guideline, if you will, to work toward not just the big year goal, but quarterly and monthly. And so same thing with my teams. I'm always looking at   You know, the month view, the week view and the day view. Chunk it down, make it easier. And again, if there's a gap, usually when you're looking at it in a week view, there's not much of ⁓ a change. It's usually doing one more thing, right? Adding one more thing to our schedule can make a huge difference.   The Dental A Team (13:53) Yeah, I totally agree. And Kristy, if a practice is going from, let's talk about the practice we spoke of already today. They're going from 2.8 ish to over 3 million. What were some good KPIs that you chose for that practice specifically to increase that production goal that year?   DAT Kristy (14:11) Yeah, capturing more case acceptance, for sure. Dollars. How can we capture more at one time? And again, I think the biggest thing TIFF to recognize is behind every one of those metrics is a system. And really, I look at it twofold. If the metric isn't where we want it, let's pull out the systems that we know can directly contribute to it. And I look at it like a recipe.   Probably a lot of people this time of year are baking, but I'll use the analogy and I do it with my clients. If we have a chocolate chip recipe, let's pull out the recipe. Are we still following it to a T? ⁓ And if not, why not? Maybe it's we substituted a cup of sugar for a cup of salt and we just need to get back to the real recipe. Or if we followed it to a T, maybe we need to find a new recipe and we'll develop it together to get the results we want.   The Dental A Team (15:11) Yeah, I love that. love that. in essence, we're tracking the question, are your KPIs actually driving your growth? We don't know until we start tracking them and then looking at this isn't changing or this isn't exactly where I wanted it to be. So let's look at what got us there. And I think we do fail to do that. Sometimes we just say, you know, this is how we've always done it. Well, my AR is out of control.   This is how I've always done it. Eventually it will find its way back down is not the case. So we've got to look at what we're doing. What's that recipe and do we need to add a little brown sugar, you know, sprinkles onto our chocolate chip cookies? Like what does that need to look like in order to make the change to get the result that we want to get the better cookies? Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well,   DAT Kristy (15:44) you   You got it. You nailed it.   The Dental A Team (15:57) Honestly, you guys, we can talk about KPIs for 16 hours because there's so many different KPIs that can be brought up within a dental practice and really truly you've got to look at what's going to work best for you and for your team. What is the result that you're looking for? Like Kristy said, what's that end goal? And then reverse engineer it. So if you're looking for production, looking for collections, like what is it that gets you the production and the collection? What are those systems underneath it? That's how you're gonna figure out the right KPIs.   I'm a firm believer that there's really not a wrong KPI. There's just more KPIs. so if you're halfway through the year, a quarter through the year, and you're like, gosh, actually, I need to add this. Cool, add it, change it. It doesn't matter just because whatever you choose here in January does not mean that that's for the whole year. It just means this is what's getting us there right now, and it's going to turn into more. ⁓ Kristy, you are phenomenal. Thank you so much for today.   Thank you for the work that you put in with your clients on these types of things and everything else that you do. And I love these nuggets. Thank you. Just thank you so much, Kristy. I know that the listeners are really appreciating this today.   DAT Kristy (17:05) Absolutely, my pleasure.   The Dental A Team (17:08) Amazing. And guys, go listen again. Reach out. If you are a client of ours, ask your consultant if you guys aren't talking about KPIs, if we're not using that word specifically, and you're like, hey, what are we tracking here? We're tracking and we're probably just not using that word specifically. So ask your consultant. Ask where you're at. Ask if you need to shift anything. And if you're not a client yet, then reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We are happy to give you some ideas to take a look at what you've got going on and really   let you know what we could do for you or what you can do even without us to increase from where you're at now to where you want to go. So reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com and we will catch you guys next time. Thank you.

For the last three months, I've been working on my nutrition with Chris Lowe, to do what a lot of us want to do… lose fat and build muscle. But I was very clear that this couldn't come at the expense of not having enough energy to work, train and live life in general. Honestly, the biggest surprise hasn't been the results, it's been how easy it's been and the other benefits that have come alongside the fat loss. In this episode, Chris will be sharing the methodology that we've been following, to enable sustainable fat loss whilst maintaining energy and building healthy habits. Find out how to periodise your nutrition to deliver what you need, when you need it. Hear how Chris approaches dialling in calorie deficit and why following Chris' approach means you get the weight loss done once and never need to do it again. Whether you're riding bikes, training seriously, or just trying to feel better day to day, this is one of the most practical conversations I've had about nutrition. No extremes, no fads, just habits that actually work long term. So sit back, hit play, and enjoy this episode with Chris Lowe. You can also watch this episode on YouTube here. You can follow Chris on Instagram @chrislowenutrition, or at his website here. You can find more podcasts from Chris here. Podcast Stuff Sponsoring Partners This episode is sponsored by Wahoo Fitness. Over the last few years, the Wahoo KICKR has become in invaluable part of my training. They’ve recently launched the Wahoo KICKR CORE 2 to provide an incredible trainer with pro level features at entry level pricing. Check it out over at wahoofitness.com. Patreon I would love it if you were able to support the podcast via a regular Patreon donation. Donations start from as little as £3 per month. That's less than £1 per episode and less than the price of a take away coffee. Every little counts and these donations will really help me keep the podcast going and hopefully take it to the next level. To help out, head here. Merch If you want to support the podcast and represent, then my webstore is the place to head. All products are 100% organic, shipped without plastics, and made with a supply chain that's using renewable energy. We now also have local manufacture for most products in the US as well as the UK. So check it out now over at downtimepodcast.com/shop. Newsletter If you want a bit more Downtime in your life, then you can join my newsletter where I'll provide you with a bit of behind the scenes info on the podcast, interesting bits and pieces from around the mountain bike world, some mini-reviews of products that I've been using and like, partner offers and more. You can do that over at downtimepodcast.com/newsletter. Follow Us Give us a follow on Instagram @downtimepodcast or Facebook @downtimepodcast to keep up to date and chat in the comments. For everything video, including riding videos, bike checks and more, subscribe over at youtube.com/downtimemountainbikepodcast. Are you enjoying the podcast? If so, then don't forget to follow it. Episodes will get delivered to your device as soon as it's available and it's totally free. You'll find all the links you need at downtimepodcast.com/follow. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google and most of the podcast apps out there. Our back catalogue of amazing episodes is available at downtimepodcast.com/episodes Photo – Chris Lowe

In this grounded and eye-opening conversation, Reiki Master and tarot creator Frances Naudé joins Lesley Logan to reframe tarot as a tool for self-trust, clarity, and empowered decision-making. Frances explains how tarot doesn't predict your future—it reflects what you already know and may be ignoring. Together, they explore how creating space, asking better questions, and learning to trust subtle inner signals can shift how you navigate decisions, career changes, and personal growth—reminding listeners that self-trust is a skill you can practice.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:Tarot as a mirror for intuition rather than a tool for prediction.Why intuition speaks quietly and how to make space to hear it.How asking better questions leads to clearer, empowered decisions.The difference between tarot and oracle cards—and how to use each.Strengthening the intuition muscle through repeated daily decisions.Episode References/Links:Frances Naude's Website - https://www.francesnaude.comFrances Naude's YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@francesnaudeFree Intro to Tarot Online Course - https://beitpod.com/intrototarotFrances Naude's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/francesnaudeFrances Naude's TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@francesnaudeGuest Bio:Frances Naudé supports her global community through her work as a Tarot Card Reader, Tarot Card Deck Creator, Reiki Master, and Spiritual Mentor. Her keen ability to channel hyper-specific messages from Spirit has helped thousands of people co-create an aligned life of purpose, joy, and holistic wellbeing. The Soul Fam, as Frances so lovingly calls her clients, can choose to receive from one-on-one sessions (both remotely and in person), online courses, mentorship programs, the Four Noble Tarot Deck, or free virtual readings and healings on YouTube. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Frances Naudé 0:00  Like, Oh, I pulled a tarot card today. It's like, the universe slapped me in the face. It is like really, it is kind of like that, because Tarot never really tells you anything new. It just echoes what you already know and maybe what you're ignoring.Lesley Logan 0:14  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 0:53  Be It babe, just having the best day recording for you. I just have to say this, like, it's been one of the most wonderful day recording. But I also just want to say, like, this is a topic that, like, I was like, oh, I wonder how we could talk about this on the Be It pod. And then it got to like, you know, I really am interested in this. And then also it became even more important as we got into this conversation. So Frances Naudé is our guest today, and we're going to talk tarot, and even if you think you don't need to know about tarot, that's not what this episode is about. This episode is about how can we trust ourselves more? Can't be it till you see it if you don't have trust in who you are. And we talked a little bit about confidence and just really understanding, like what, what is going on inside of ourselves? And I just think that this is the most informative episode when it comes to self-trust and confidence that I've had in a long, long time. And I really can't wait for you to hear it. And there's also a history of where tarot came from that blew my fucking mind. Blew it, blew it. So here is Frances Naudé. Lesley Logan 1:56  Okay, Be It, babe. This, this topic I'm super excited about when one of our dear friends, friend of the pod, has been on the pod before, Kelly Hartling told me about this, when I was like, yeah, I am yes, how quickly can we get this person on? So this is the first time Frances Naudé and I are meeting, but this, this is something I'm very excited to talk about. So Frances, can you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at? Frances Naudé 2:19  Yes. Hello. Thank you for having me. As you said, I am Frances. I am a Reiki Master, energy healer, a tarot card reader. I am the creator of the Four Noble tarot deck, and I am a spiritual channel and spiritual mentor. So essentially, my purpose, my sole purpose here, is to help people heal and align and live their most authentic and joyful lives, and I do that through energy healing, which also supports the physical body, as well as tarot card readings. And the way that I work with tarot is very much in the present moment, while you know, fortune telling may have its place for me, I believe in free will, and so I prefer to focus on empowering people, helping them understand their own intuition, what I call their spiritual team. So bringing in all the good beings that surround you all the time, and allowing allowing that messaging to come through and really up level your human form and your human life here that we chose to have. Lesley Logan 3:16  Okay, so excited about this, because okay, so there's this person that I am. I have bought tarot decks. I don't really know what I'm doing with them, but I they're so beautiful, and they're so pretty and, like, I have friends like, oh, I drew a card today. I'm like, yeah, I'll do that. I'm gonna draw a card. And then I'm like, what does this card mean? I don't know what it means. All I know is it's either right side up or it's upside down. And then I'm like, okay, Google, watch us mean, and then it gives you a meaning. And I'm like, I do with that, though. So can you tell us a little about, can we go into that? Because I think, like, first of all, for the people are like, this is a double woo, LL, like, I'm not really sure. I don't call it a double woo anymore. I actually think it's another way, to me, I've seen people use it as like, not therapy, but a way to meditate, or way to explore, a way to understand themselves, or to ask themselves a different question for the day. So that's why I don't think it's a double woo. But what are we supposed to do with tarot?Frances Naudé 4:13  Yeah, so tarot, it does. I mean, you can work with it so many different ways. There are thousands of decks out there, and like, my number one thing is, if you want to work with tarot, use a deck that you like, not the deck that someone told you to use. Because your intuition, whether you are like, really great at listening to it and you totally understand it, or whether you're like, I don't, I kind of know, but, you know, I have a gut feeling, but I don't really work with it every day, it's still working right. So you are going to be drawn to a deck, whether it's the artwork, the colors, the whatever. And so work with that deck. Now your deck hopefully comes with a guidebook, and so with that, as you mentioned, or like Google, like, yeah, if you're Googling, that's great, you know, because tarot does require some study. You know, tarot cards, each one, there's 78 and each one has this specific definition from deck to deck, guidebook to guidebook, they will change a little bit, but they should have that like basic core every card means the same thing. Now, with my deck and the guidebook that I wrote, slash channeled, and when I say channel, if anyone is new here, this does sound very woo, but it is what I now super duper with all of me trust to be 100% true, and all of us can do this if we want to. We were designed as humans to do this. It's just we've been programmed to not but channeling is receiving from energy, God, universe, spirit, whatever it is that you believe in. So I channeled that and wrote the guidebook. And for me, as you said, sometimes you read it and you're like, okay, so what do I do? This guidebook and as well as many out there, I'm not just saying like, oh, buy mine, you know, they should hopefully be actionable as well. So this is how you're feeling, and here's what you can do with it. But there is also a way to rely on your intuition, right? So it's like, you pull a card and you're like, I don't know what this means. Let me look it up. And then maybe the death or the guidebook that you have says, you know, this means that you are overwhelmed, and you're like, well, duh, I'm overwhelmed. Then that could be a moment for you to check in and be like, okay, well, what's overwhelming me? What can I do about that? And so that's why it's really great. If you're newer to tarot, you know, to study the guidebook that you're working with, and also work with other people who can, like read for you, because they can kind of even just getting a reading one time. They can show you how to, sort of like work with the information that you're given. But tarot, it's a tool that's ultimately the way that I use it, at least it's a tool to gain information about myself through my own intuition from, again, what I call spiritual teams. Or it's just, like, as much as I really believe in the sacred nature of it, it's really fun. You know, people hire me for events all the time, and like, well, like, I'm the party trick, you know, and it's like a fun thing to do, but I really do believe that it is so informative if you allow it to be, and it really can be whatever you want it to be, it's like meditation, right? If you want to meditate and have some really big, profound experience, that's what it's going to be for you. Or if you want to do a one minute visualization, that's what it's going to be for you. It doesn't really matter what you're doing, it's how it's serving you and how you're working with it, and what you're receiving from it.Lesley Logan 7:25  Yeah, because the way you're describing it, too, is it's almost like, instead of like, letting the card tell you how you're feeling or what you should be doing, it's a, it's a, it's asking you, ideally, to go within and explore. What does that mean, and where is this coming from, and what, what does it mean for me? So you, you're not going, oh, I have to follow this card, because that's what it says today. And instead, it's like to follow myself. And what is this card kind of asking me to focus on today, because there's so many different things we could focus on in the world at one given time. So, like, it's kind of giving you a thing to think about.Frances Naudé 7:57  Exactly and it's funny too. Like, if you get on, you know, like the tarot side of Instagram, or TikTok or whatever it is, there's these memes, and it'll be like, you know, even in comparison to oracle cards. So if anyone listening is like, well, wait, I have an Oracle Card Deck. What's the difference between Oracle and tarot? Okay, very briefly, tarot again, 78 cards. There's always going to be 78 cards, and every card should have a similar meaning between decks Oracle, fair game and typically, Oracle cards are also channeled by the author, but they're a little bit softer and lighter. Oracle cards are very actionable. That was actually my inspiration when writing my guidebook was like, exactly what you said, What do I do? So I wrote it similar to an Oracle Card guidebook rooted in tarot, so it was very actionable. But going back to the meme having that differentiation, the Oracle card, it'll be like, oh, I pulled an Oracle card today, and it's like, universe gave me a hug, and then it's like, oh, I pulled a tarot card today. It's like, universe slapped me in the face. Really, it is kind of like that, because Tarot never really tells you anything new, it just echoes what you already know and maybe what you're ignoring. A lot of times, when I do readings for people, you know they're like, I knew that. And I'm like, I know you did. You just needed a complete stranger who knows nothing about your life to tell you that you can trust yourself. And my favorite thing ever, as much as I love my clients, is when I don't see them for a while because I'm like, you're doing it. You are doing the thing, right? It's like, when you graduate from therapy and your therapist is like, you can come once every three months now, or whenever you feel like it, instead of weekly, like you've learned the tools. So it does provide information in terms of, like, if I ask, you know, what's the energy of the situation, or should I take this path or this path? Though spirit will never give you a clear answer. It's always going to be your choice, but they can kind of show you, like the energy of this decision A versus decision B, and then it's like, okay, so what do you want with that? Um, so ultimately, yeah, it's information, at least the way that I work with it. And again, there are many ways to work with it, but for me, it really is all about empowerment and helping people be able to, like, navigate their own inner world and inner wisdom and then apply that forward.Lesley Logan 10:14  Okay, so excited. Okay, so I guess two, two questions. And I hate when I do two at the same time, but I'm gonna do it. One, where did tarot come from? And two, how did you get into it? Because if you're so passionate about it. Like, clearly, like it, there's some, there's something there, so, but I do, like, you know, like, I know Joe Pilates created Pilates. Like, who is Mr. Taro, or Mrs. Taro, or they tarot. Like, where did it come from?Frances Naudé 10:38  Yes, okay, so many origin stories of tarot, but what I have learned, and what I teach to my students, is that tarot actually originated, oh, I can't say originated, but very early on, was used in the church. Tarot was also a game. So tarot cards, it was like the game Tarot. I have no idea how that game works. It is a game. And then people started receiving, like, the same information through the imagery, and then started using it. I don't love this word, but like the occult, if you've ever seen that, to me, that feels like, really, like heavy in a way, but that is the history of it. And then it was often adopted by the church. But what I understand from this is that people were playing tarot, using tarot, and when the printing press was invented, it became really widely spread, right? So in the tarot deck, there, this will make sense why I'm saying this in a second, in the tarot deck, there are five suits, so the first four we call the Minor Arcana. And those resemble a playing card deck, right? So diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades, we have swords, pentacles, cups and wands. Then we have the fifth suit, which is the Major Arcana. The Major Arcana are like names, so it's like The Moon, The Hermit, The Empress, like they are themes. And back in the day, many people would have artists, so wealthy people who could afford to hire an artist, would have like images drawn for their major suit, for their major death, right? But if you wanted a tarot deck, you had to commission it. You had to find an artist who could do the drive. So then come the printing press. We didn't have to do that anymore, right? So decks were more readily available, which means that this tool was more readily available. The Church didn't like that, because it was putting power in the hands of the people instead of going to whatever your religious leader was. And so they took it back and they demonized it, right? Like many organized religions, tarot is evil, tarot is paganism. Tarot is.Lesley Logan 12:51  Oh I was raised with that. It was terrible, terrible, yeah. Frances Naudé 12:51  Totally, when I do events, people look at me and like, some people are like, oh, I'm so excited. And some people are like, and they like, walk away.Lesley Logan 12:59  I'm going straight to hell. It's happening. Frances Naudé 13:03  Yeah, I'm like, I swear I'm normal, and this is fun. But so that is, like one of the, or two of the origins, well, I guess, like a one very convoluted world of tarot, um, and then over time, obviously, you know, people were still practicing it. It was just seen. It was, it was the church was successful, because if you had tarot cards, you were going against the church, right? So it became this, like, kind of dark thing. And then we had the original tarot deck, which is the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. This is still widely available. Obviously, it's been like, modernized and the colors have popped, but I think it's like, like, you can get it on Amazon or bookstores or anything like that. And if anyone is looking for it, it's R-I-D-E-R dash W-A-I-T-E and I will say, if you are learning tarot to become you know, like a seasoned professional, I would recommend starting with that deck. The imagery in that deck is super, super, like every single little image represents something. So if you want to really, like deep dive into tarot study Rider-Waite and then you can start using whatever deck you want. But that's like the OG deck, okay? And then how I began working with tarot. Honestly, it's like, so I don't remember exactly, you know, it's kind of like, it's, it's foggy when you look back, because you pick something up and you're like, this is never gonna like, this isn't anything. This is just a fun thing. And then you're like, oh, this is my job now. But I started, so I started with energy work. Well, I started with, well, I started in corporate, then I was deeply unhappy. So I started taking night classes, and I got my health coach certification, and that was like, closer to the thing. Whatever the thing was, it was closer, but it wasn't quite it. Then I did my yoga teacher certification. I'd always been a dancer, and I was like, I love, you know, the body and all of that. I'm going to do yoga thinking it was more exercise. But then my favorite part of yoga teacher training was the philosophical side of it, and you're learning all the yogic principles and all of that, and that really led me down the path of energy. So then I started studying Reiki, and then from Reiki, I started studying tarot. And I was, like, such a dork. I like, printed out every single description, and like, studied and was highlighting and all of it. And now I'm, like, actually so grateful for my past self for doing that. Because now, if someone were like, you need to study the definitions of 78 tarot cards, I'd be like, there's just no, I don't have time for that. But at the time, it was like, I was like, eating it up, like anything that I could get. And then, yeah, I just started taking clients, not ever thinking it would be anything. And I was working multiple jobs at a time, and because I eventually left corporate, and then I was had a bunch of side gigs, and also doing, you know, Reiki and tarot. And then one day, I was like, oh, my God. Why am I so overwhelmed? Like, why am I so tired? I was like, oh, because you're doing, like, seven things and I was so blessed that I was able to finally build up my clientele where I could let those other pieces go. And it was such a dream come true. I couldn't believe that this was like my full time gig after many, many, many years, but it was, yeah.Lesley Logan 16:13  I love I love that it was a nonlinear way for you. Because I do think everyone has to hear that, whether you're into the tarot part of the story or not. Like, just knowing that we all end up somewhere where we think it's supposed to be because of what we were told, which, you know, as you start to the more you start to hear stories of what like we're told is going to make us happy. And then then you hear, like, just the things that, like, some things were available, and then someone decided that they're not available anymore. And like, you know, like you start to realize, like, oh, it's not bad that you started in corporate, because it led you to where you are, and it allows you to recognize people, and also some people will always be in corporate, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. But like, no one's journey to figuring out what they want to be and what they're really called to do is linear. It happens to be like, oh, what's down this door? Oh, I really am interested in that. Hold on, what's this over here? And I just think that that's so fascinating. Okay, so I love that you said, like, if I started to pick up trying to learn 78 decks, 78 cards, right now, I probably wouldn't. I'm like, right here going, how long would it take me to learn 70? Because it's actually quite funny, because I teach Pilates teachers every year I work with Pilates teachers who already be teaching, but I'll teach them over 500 exercises every year, right and, and I don't think I quite understood, like, what I was embarking on when I became a Pilates instructor. And I think today, like, wow, could I learn 500 right now? Like, learn them the way I learned them? But if somebody does want to pick this up as a hobby or just something that they're like, wanting to explore more. Obviously, you gave us that original deck that could be a great one. And also, like what your intuition is like, you know what you like, but what do you do? Do you draw one a day? Do you do it when you meditate? Do you do it when you need it? Like, how do you use it? Frances Naudé 17:54  Yeah, so for someone who wants, like, daily use for themselves, I would say, just do it when you feel called. I love pulling a card a day. It's a great way to get acquainted with the deck. You can read from the guidebook. You can Google like you're learning as you go, right? Because that that's the whole point. And even if you don't memorize it, that's okay, you're still receiving the information. So I think one a day is awesome if you have a meditation practice or you want to create one, you can add that in so like pull a card, see what it says. Meditate for five minutes, what's coming through for you? You know what? What did you receive from that 10 minute practice? That's what I love about tarot is especially for people who have limited time, whether you have kids or you have a demanding job, or you struggle to focus for a while, or whatever it is, it's so tangible that you can actually, like, take it in these bite sized pieces, and then maybe one day, you're like, I want to pull three cards, or I want to pull 10 cards. So that's option one is kind of just pulling to see what comes through. The other is, if you're in an area where or a time in life, we're like, I need guidance, like, I need some info. I need some some clarity. That's a great time to pull tarot, right? And you can literally ask the cards your question. Now I hesitate with yes no's, so reframing your questions is important. So for example, let's say it's like, should I take this job? Yes or no? maybe I would change it to, what is the energy of taking this job, pull a card. What is the energy of rejecting this job? Pull a card, and you can see energetically which one is lighter. If you get two cards that are light, that's universe being like both both options are a great choice for you, and it's just gonna lead down a different path. You know, that's something I've learned in this work, is if you are being presented with options, there's no right or wrong choice, there's just different paths. And so this is about really like listening to what path you want, right? Maybe, like, option one, the card that you get is, like, you know, I don't know, very warm, like the Sun card, right? That's warmth, that's growth. It's, you know, it feel, it feels like summer, so there's a lot of energy in it that. But maybe, and then maybe the other card is a little bit more money focused, right? Like, 10 of pentacles, that's money, that's family, right? So you're like, oh, I can have abundance and a family. I want that. But then if you're someone who's like, I want to be a CEO, maybe you run down, you go down that Sun path, right? So it's, it's highlighting options for you. So I think number one, to answer your question, it's, yeah, a daily practice pulling a card. That's great. You'll learn as you go. Number two, ask them questions. If you have them, one of my favorite questions, which is still very broad, and this is always how I start my personal readings for myself, is, what do I need to know right now? Like, what do you what do you want to tell me right now? What do I need to know right now? If I have specific questions, I'll ask them. But usually the what do I need to know right now is pretty like they will point out your stressors, or, you know, where you're feeling lack of clarity, or whatever it may be. And then I think for people who want to, like, really dive in, there just is no other way but to study like you just you got to study, and you have to practice, practice with yourself. But the best way to learn to read tarot cards is to actually practice on other people, because that pressure of like, oh my god, someone's waiting for me to tell them something. It's forcing you to get out of your own way. It's forcing you to shut that brain off and just dive in. I imagine it's like teaching your first Pilates class where you're standing out there and you're like, oh my god, oh my god. There are all of these people staring at me, waiting for me to tell them what to do like I just got to go that's similar with tarot. And once you do like those first five to 10, you learn to trust yourself, and then it makes reading cards for yourself a lot easier. I always like to tell people reading cards for yourself in the beginning is way harder than reading for other people. So if you really want to start like developing this practice, do it for other people and trust yourself. And then final piece, final tip for if you're learning cards, is find a deck whose imagery speaks to you because the imagery is informative of the message. So I'll show you an example, or I'll give an example here. Let's say, okay, this card, I'll describe it. This is 10 of swords. Okay, so it's this woman sitting on a tombstone. I know it sounds really intense, but there's ivy growing all over it. There's the 10 swords, which is representative, you know, of of the of the card. And then there's a moon there. And this card is all about completion, right? This is about ending of cycles. This is about death, right? And not physical death, but, you know, the death of something. And so if I were brand new to tarot and I looked at this card, I would probably be like, oh, okay, that's a tombstone. So she's alive, though something changed. She's like, you know, I would get something from this. So that's a really beautiful way to learn with tarot, is like, reading from the imagery itself, and then, like, really trusting yourself. That was a lot of insight, sorry.Lesley Logan 23:13  Frances, you're, it's so fun because, like, it's all the questions, like you're answering questions I didn't even know I had, but also the overarching theme I'm getting from all of this, and I think that, like, it's so funny, I kind of feel like I was, like, part of my life was stolen from me by being told that tarot was, like, paganism is that like, it continues to ask you to trust what's coming up for you? Like, even, you know, like, even if you're reading for a friend, you're asking them the question. It's like, you know, like it's, you're looking at the card, but you're asking them the question, like, oh, something's coming to a completion. Like, it's not, it's, it's not someone else telling you something, it's asking to go within. And I think, like in today's world, with everything that's going on, there's so many things asking us to focus on all this other stuff that we're not, very few people are focusing on themselves and how they actually feel and what their energy is. And so having a practice, even if it's once a week or once a day, to like, go, what is this telling me right now? Oh, this is about overwhelm, or this is about abundance. Oh, I do have a lot in my life right now, like just having that moment to check in and with ourselves, like some of us need that physical thing to do that.Frances Naudé 24:25  Yeah, 100% that's that's what I do. Like again, when I don't see clients, I'm like, oh my god, I miss them, but I'm so happy because that means that they've been able to trust themselves intuition or gut feelings or inner wisdom, whatever it is that you want to call it for yourself, it is so silenced by noise. And so social media, TV, like, how many as we wake up, we roll over. Instagram, yeah, we wake up, we roll over, put on the news. We wake up like, you know, we just like, get in this cycle. And so, as you said, yeah, this. 510, minutes. Sometimes you don't even need to pull the card. It's literally just the sitting down. It's like, oh, I've given myself this 5, 10, 20, 30 minutes of space. Like, what's coming up in here? And it is, and it's, it's, but this is the thing, because you said this, and I'm going to highlight it, it's listening. But the key point is trusting and learning how to trust your intuition is, in my opinion, like the secret sauce to life, because if we, it sends us down some wild path sometimes, like the scariest ones, the riskiest ones, but it's always the ones who, where you're like, yeah, this is it. And it lights you up. And even going back to, like, what you said with, you know, like, if I were to go back and teach five or learn 500 things, like, think about yourself at that time, me too. Like, learning the tarot, it's like, oh my god. Like I was so jazzed to learn that, like, I couldn't wait to, and now it's become a part of you. So there's that integration, but that lighting up like, that is your intuition talking, even though it's probably a little scary too, it's like, that is, it's never gonna steer you down the wrong path. Lesley Logan 26:15  Yeah. But also, like, how, like, you just said, like, it's trusting your intuition. Like, by the way, if, you're unstoppable, if you can trust yourself. And that's like, now, like, I have so many different thoughts and like about like, of course, people don't want us doing that. They because then we don't listen to them. We don't listen to what they think that we should be buying or or believing or doing, you know, because otherwise you are, you're following someone else's path versus the one that's your own. Oh, this is deep, okay, I do want to ask you this. It's been on my heart this whole show, because it's like, it's be it till you see it. And part of that is like acting like the person that you want to be and becoming that person, all that stuff. But along the way, there are some certain people's paths of being until you see it, that could get some interesting eyes. I cannot imagine that you would tell people at a family reunion, I'm becoming a tarot reader, and people don't go, what? Like was it, was your family like, yeah, you do you, babe. Or were people like, are you okay? Are you sure? Like.Frances Naudé 27:17  Yeah. So, oh, the things I've had said to me or about me, those are the funniest ones where I'm like, okay, I had friends parents call them, like, is Frances, okay? You know? Because, like, sometimes I would channel live on Instagram, and people would be like, like, has she gone off the deep end? Like, are we good here? I've had a lot of people. The ones that hurt me the most were actually friends, or like people in our friend group, I say, I mean, my husband, it was mostly his friends. So I shouldn't care, because as much as I love anyone of any gender or or no gender, I really don't care what a 25 year old dude thinks about me, but it still hurt. And what it showed me was like, I guess, like my own fears and like my own (, because I had a lot of those specific people be like, honestly, telling me I was ripping people off, like having people pay money for a placebo effect and like that just like, broke my heart because I was like, I, this is life changing. Like, this helps people. And fine, you don't have to be the person that it helps. I'm not going to ever force anyone, but don't, like, bash it till you've tried it, essentially. So those ones really hurt. The Frances, you're crazy. I would just kind of laugh along and be like, yeah, for sure. You know, like, my first disclaimer when I tell people what I do is, I promise I'm normal. Because you tell somebody you're a tarot card reader or you're a Reiki healer and you work within people's energy, they're like, that's not a thing. And I'm like, I understand that it's hard to understand, but it is. But my family, specifically, you know, my mom was always super supportive. She went on a very long, like, religious and spiritual journey throughout her whole life. She and I are pretty aligned on our beliefs. I wasn't raised with this, but it's funny. In retrospect, I look back and I actually think my grandmother, she never really talked about it, but she always had crystals, and was, like, really educated, and love reading books about philosophy and the brain, and so I think now I wish, and I have a great relationship with her, you know, on the other side, and it's, it's lovely, but I do sometimes wish that I could be an adult with her still outside, so I could, like, have these conversations with her. I'm sure some of them would be like, Frances, no, and then some of them would be really interesting. My dad was the funniest one because he he never was not supportive for him. It was more, am I going to be okay financially, like, business-wise, right? Like, am I am I okay? But now he'll kind of ask me questions about little things, or if he has, like, a minor injury or something he'd like, can you give Reiki, and then he'll, like, go tell all of his friends that his knee feels better or something. And, you know, it's and like, even my husband, he's funny too, with it. Like, I know they kind of believe it. They just don't, I know they believe it. They just don't want to admit they believe it. But like, before, when he was still growing in his career, anytime he had an interview or something, he'd be like, can you can you give me Reiki like the night before? And so I know that they feel it and they receive from it, or with tarot, even, like I read my husband's cards every once in a while, or even, you know, it's funny, my tarot cards have told me twice that I was pregnant and they were right both times, you know. So even for our family, and family planning like that has been really cool. So I think the more people receive from it themselves, the more that they understand it. But I definitely get a lot of looks and a lot of words, and I've learned to let it roll off, but it's part of it's part of it. When you do something different. I'm sure you've experienced that, too. Lesley Logan 30:59  Oh, I mean, 100% and I think, like, the interesting thing about what you said is, like, the things that sting are the things that you kind of have a worry of, like, are people going to think this, right? And of course, then that's the criticism that you hear the loudest, even if it was from the people who are the quietest voices in your life. Like, if they were to say, you have nice hair, you probably wouldn't even remember, like, it'd be, you know what I mean, if it was a compliment, because it's like, oh, okay, that's, you know, like, it's not like that you don't listen to them, but they don't act. Their opinion doesn't really mean anything. But when they say the thing that you are like, internally worried that people would think about you, that's where we can get hung up. But it also sounds like, you know, in being it till we see it, and whatever our dream is when we do something that is outside of society's norms of what our career should be, you kind of just have to believe in yourself and like, trust that as people see the results of it, whether it's in what people you're doing with other people or themselves, that they kind of buy in. And you have to, you can't wait for them to you have to do it. You have to keep going and showing them this is what it is, and believing in yourself to make it happen. Yes, no, I have a as a Pilates instructor. I do travel the world, which doesn't make sense, because people literally on a plane, they're like, What are you doing? Like, oh, I'm gonna go to Poland for the weekend. And they're like, to do what? Like, I have to teach. And they're like, teach about like, it's just not gonna make any sense. I'm gonna teach Pilates. And they're like, don't they have Pilates in Poland, I'm like, correct, which is why I'm yes, I I don't know how to explain to you that I have this weird role in the industry, because it doesn't make sense to people, but also, like, it's why we do what we do. It's not because it's weird, but it's because we're so called to do it, and people want to be around that. And so it's just really cool. Thank you for sharing all the different parts of that story, because I do think it can be hard to change the career, to do the thing like, to go from the stable corporate job to like, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna change people's energies for a living. Like that can make people go, oh, okay. Are you okay? Are you okay? But we have to, we have to be okay with it is the ultimate thing, because other you can't otherwise, you're not going to make it. You know, I firmly believe that, like neither one of us would be here if we had actually waited for other people to deem us sane. It's a good idea. Frances Naudé 33:15  100% and it's one of those things too. I mean, even going back to everything, you say, be it till you see it, see it. It's like, it's not that you're in the beginning, especially and even now. Like, there's times I'm like, what am I what am I doing? Like, what do I do? Like, what am I doing? Okay, I guess I'm doing like, it's it has been almost a decade, but it's like, it's not that you have the confidence, it's that you trust so deeply that what you're doing is what you're supposed to be doing, that you do it scared anyways, and that builds the confidence, right? It's like, okay, well, yes, that was a good class, or that was a good day, or that was an amazing session, or this person told me for the first time, or they told me that this was the first time they've ever felt seen or understood by anyone. And I'm like, the first time in your sometimes, what, 72 years like, I work with people of all ages that you felt seen like that? It's not for me. It's like, wait, I think I'm I think I'm helping people. I think maybe I can do this. And it's not that I, you know, you go into that that session being like, yes, I'm fantastic. You know, you hope that you you gain that confidence along the way, but it really is about like doing it scared because everyone is gonna problem. Most people will tell you not to, and even the people that are encouraging. You can feel their doubt. You know, you can feel that they're like, I hope this works for you, not you got this. You can do this. So it's like, you have to be that for yourself, right? And I remember too for me, I was like, well, this is either going to happen or it's not. But it's either going to not today, or it's going to not ever, and it is going to happen at some point, but those are the only two options. So I'm either going to choose that it's not or I'm going to keep walking this path, hoping and encouraging myself and showing up for myself and these people and making it happen. And if universe comes in the way and stops me and I fall on my butt. Okay. It wasn't supposed to happen, but I would rather it's kind of like I better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all and then never to have loved at all. Yeah, right, like I'm rather going to go down this path. Then maybe the reason I not do it because I listen to all of these people and all of these old stories and everything else, like, makes no sense. And this is also what I've learned through channeling. God is literally begging you to just listen to yourself, to just do the thing that's like one of the main sole reasons that are that we choose to, if you believe in this, that you choose to incarnate in human form, is to get to do stuff, spirit, doesn't we I mean, I'm sure it does. I know that it does things, but it doesn't have this vessel. We don't get to be on this amazing, beautiful planet, connecting with other people like we chose to be here, and that was always a driving factor to me, is, like you chose to be here, what are you going to do with this life? Are you really going to waste it doing something that you didn't want to do, you know. Lesley Logan 36:24  And like, you just, what it brought up for me is, like, better to have loved than than and lost and never have loved at all. Better to go down the path. And why do we consider it a failure, right? Unless, instead of like, oh, it actually led you to this. Like, if you hadn't gone to corporate, you wouldn't have been interested in health coaching, because you're like, I hate this. And then with health coaching, you're like, oh, I really like this yoga. And I didn't hear you once say, well, I failed as a yogi, but I really like the philosophy. I didn't hear that at all. I heard you say that led me to this, and this led me to this. And I think it's a way of us reframing, like, what is failure as a instead of like, what is it actually guiding us towards? Everything we do, everything we learn from it, is guiding us to the next thing, and it's giving us the knowledge we need to do whatever we're supposed to be doing, you know, like, so, I mean, I just think that that's just a takeaway from your story is, like, really, truly, how can we, how can we actually just reframe that everything is just part of the path. It's all part of the journey. Frances Naudé 37:16  Stepping stones, and even using that, like, applying that forward, like, if you look back at your life, you like, if people are in a state of feeling stuck or lost or confused, it's like, okay, well, what can I learn like if I look backwards, what are the things like okay this led me to. This led me to. This led me to this. Was I operating from a place of excitement, or was I operating from a place of fear or escapism, trying to get out of something, right? And so it's like, I work with so many people who have regret, and they're like, why didn't I do this? Or I feel so lost, or I don't know. It's like, let's not, you know, bash yourself for any past decisions. Let's learn from them. Exactly as you said, it's like, I literally see it in my mind's eye as stairs like you want to stay on this stair. This isn't the destination. It's up there. So we have to go, and it's going to be hard and we're going to get tired, but, like, really using it as a tool to learn from whatever it is that you've experienced.Lesley Logan 38:14  Yeah, oh my god, this conversation has been so fun. I'm just so grateful that we connected. Like, I've I really have wanted to, like, have this as a topic and as more personal, but also, like, I feel like, even though the the topic is tarot, the true actual thing is, like trusting yourself, just like just trusting yourself. And if we can do that, we can, we can be it till we see it on anything. Frances, I could talk to you forever but I want to take a brief break and then find out how people can find you, follow you, and work with you. Lesley Logan 38:42  Okay, Frances, where do you hang out? Where can we send people? They're ready to nerd out. They want, they want to understand how to trust themselves. Where they where can they go? Frances Naudé 38:52  So I'm on Instagram and Tiktok and YouTube and all the places it's @FrancesNaude, F-R-A-N-C-E-S-N-A-U-D-E and francesnaude.com is my website. I do sessions for people all over the world remotely, and I also have a small studio space in Orange County, California. So if you are nearby, hit me up and we can meet in person. But yeah, in the in the online space, I do free tarot card readings every Monday on YouTube and share all kinds of stuff on Instagram and trying to get on TikTok. But I'm not gonna lie, I am definitely a millennial, so.Lesley Logan 39:30  I see you. I feel you. The girl I just interviewed before this. She's like, I post on there, but don't DM or comment. I won't respond. And I was like, yeah, my team keeps threatening to do it. And I was like, I just can't, like, there's just I can't do it. YouTube and Instagram are enough, and maybe one is a dying breed, and it's I'm okay, but my people are there because they don't want to do it. You know, so I feel you, millennials unite. Okay. You've given us so much already, but bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it to be it till they see it. What do you have for us? Frances Naudé 40:00  As mentioned, learn how to hear and trust your intuition that is going to be that is going to lead you down the best path in any way, if you're in a challenging situation, if you are feeling inspired do that. And so may I give a brief practice for how to do that, because. Lesley Logan 40:02  I would love one, because there are perfectionists listening and they would like the step by step plan, please.Frances Naudé 40:25  Okay, amazing, amazing, amazing. So, yeah, someone telling you, trust your intuition is like someone saying, just be positive, right? It Like It's, it's a great piece of guidance. But how do we do that? So my practice is choose something that you do every single day that's a decision. Okay? So whether it is picking out like, let's say you love a certain flavor of tea, and every morning you like to make your tea, you're going to pick your tea bag, right? They're all the same. What tea bag? What is the tea bag that you're choosing? And then pause once you grabbed it and check in with your body. What does that feel like in your body? You can do this at the grocery store, right? You need, I don't know, five oranges and there's 100 in front of you, right? Which are the five that you're picking? Logic is going to come in a little bit. Maybe that one, the skin is broken, or that one's dirty, or whatever. But between 10 perfect oranges and you're only buying five, when you grab the orange that feels right to you, stop for a second. What does that feel like in your body? What does that feel like in your energy? What does that feel like in your head? Start to practice. I actually practice this with my underwear when I'm choosing my underwear every day, because I know that it's something that I'm going to be doing every single day. What is the underwear? And it's so funny, sometimes I'll touch this black pair and it's not the right one. And so I touch the other black pair. I'm like, yeah, this is the one. There is no I'm like, fathomable reason why the underwear is the right underwear. They're the exact same. But that is my daily practice, because then, when it comes to big decisions, you've already built that muscle. You already know how to use it. You already know how to trust it. Your intuition often will not make logical sense and it will not be loud. People always expect these really big like moments or like the clouds part and the sun shines through. Intuition is really quiet. So step three is, or item number three with that is, it's going to be quiet, but now it's, we have to make space for it. That is the piece to be able to hear it, right? It's, it's so important. So even going back to tarot or meditation or walking outside, or whatever it is, you have to make space to hear your intuition, because, again, building that muscle. When things are loud, you want to already have it built right? It's kind of like. Lesley Logan 42:55  Yeah, I hear you. It's just like it when, when there's so much noise around you, if you aren't attuned to that quiet voice, you're not going to hear it. You have to like, yeah, yeah. That makes so much sense to me. And you are correct. I can think of two times three actually. Now I think three times my life where I heard that intuition, and it is so, so quiet, so quiet. And if you aren't you might could miss it. You can go, what is that? You know?Frances Naudé 43:23  And it also feels, I also like to tell people, your intuition often feels like a thought, but how to be able to differentiate it is, you'll be like, either, yes, it'll be very quiet, or you'll be like, where did that come from? Like, why was I thinking that, right? Oh, and I was saying, like, intuition often leads you down the scary path. Yeah, you know that that the because, it has to. It's expanding that comfort zone. It's getting that wider. It's also going to challenge your beliefs, your old stories that were probably not even written by you, and your fears, right? It's expanding you wider. It's getting you out of that comfort zone. And so as you are learning to work with your intuition, I also encourage you to learn you can choose the word that fits for you. I call it your highest self, but this could be your true self. This could be your soul self, whatever the word is for you, the place that exists without ego. And when I say ego, I mean the human brain, so fears, worries, anxieties, etc. And without we talked about this a lot, without the other, so, other people's stories, other people's fears. A lot of us have other people's fears, specifically our family members, going back, sometimes generations. We don't even know we have them. I work a lot with this in Reiki, where they're not ours. It doesn't even apply to us in our in our situation, but we've been conditioned so making sure that you know who that highest self is, that soul self is. I am Frances, and I, you know we're talking in present tense so I live an intuitively aligned life, which means I let joy lead I do not let fear get in my way, and I live in unity with all that's around me, right? And so if I can identify those three pillars to what my soul self is, every decision I make should be aligned with those three things, and then combine it with that intuitive strength, you're just walking that aligned path like no matter what, it's going to be scary, there's going to be challenges. We're still human. But that is truly like, what I've learned through my personal practice, through working with other people, is that key. So, if nothing else, learn how, like, start developing that intuitive muscle, because it is imperative for daily decisions, and also those, those big ones when they come.Lesley Logan 45:52  Yeah, oh gosh, so good. You're so good. Frances, thank you so much. I can not only imagine, like, how many people down the road are like, thank God I heard that, because I can now say that you trust yourself, and I think that's one of the biggest gifts we can give people today. So thank you for being here and sharing all this with us. Guys, how are you going to use these tips in your life? Make sure you tag Frances. Tag the Be It Pod, share this with a friend who needs to hear it. I want to know. I definitely want to know what your takeaways are I'm just so grateful for this connection and you guys until next time, Be It Till You See It. Lesley Logan 46:22  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod. Brad Crowell 47:04  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 47:10  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 47:14  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 47:21  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 47:24  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this episode: Decompressing from corporate life, forcing vs. allowing in early retirement, discovering true purpose through financial independence, the LinkedIn comparison trap, building real human connection in the AI age with Katrina McGheeEpisode SummaryAfter 14 years at Google, Adam reflects on his first 14+ months of early retirement with career break coach Katrina McGhee. From the six-month decompression timeline to navigating the "not far enough along" narrative, Adam shares the raw truth about corporate burnout, learning to trust himself after betrayal, and figuring out what his entrepreneurial vision actually looks like in practice. He reveals his evolving purpose—empowering a generation to achieve financial independence before the hamster wheel traps them—and his desire to build authentic human connection in an AI-driven world.Guest BioKatrina McGhee is a Career Break Coach, author of *Taking a Career Break for Dummies*, and co-host of the *Taking a Career Break* podcast. She has supported 200+ people through career breaks over 8+ years.Resources & Books Mentioned- Taking a Career Break for Dummies by Katrina McGhee- One Last Talk by Philip McKernan- Return to Real by Ryan Levesque (Spring 2026)- Front Row Dads community- Break Space – Katrina's career break communityGuest Contact InformationLinkedIn: Katrina McGheeWebsite: https://www.kmcgheecoaching.com/Podcast: Taking a Career Break with Katrina McGheeKey Takeaways- Decompression takes time: Expect 3-6+ months minimum; toxic environments require 6-12 months before you feel like yourself again.- Your brain will lie to you: High achievers hear "you're not far enough along" even with no rush—recognize and release this narrative.- Financial independence changes decision-making: When work is optional, choose based on excitement and alignment rather than ROI and efficiency.- Early retirement is walking into fog: Clarity emerges through experimentation and allowing organic unfolding, not forcing outcomes.

Industry is back — meaner, sharper, and hornier than ever. In Season 4, Episode 1 (“PayPal of Bukkake”), the finance drama returns with insider trading, collapsing funds, political threats, pegging, and… a knife-wielding Kiernan Shipka. Honestly? 10/10.Brandon & Chanel break down the chaos, couture, and corruption:The cold open: Jim (Charlie Heaton) cons Hayley (Kiernan Shipka), gets chased out at knifepointHarper's birthday blues — running Mostyn's fund and sleeping with her employee, KwabenaOnlyFans investments, leaked Siren accounts, and the real-world Online Safety Bill parallelsMax Minghella as semen-retention-obsessed Whitney, Kal Penn as Siren-friendly JonahHarper makes “gonzo trades” based on Rishi's email hack of UK ParliamentThat Harper email moment: fund locked down, emergency gate activatedKwabena as a glorified secretary AND sex partner — this workplace is so brokenYasmin is now Lady Muck — literally — and her cold war with Henry beginsHarper & Whitney hook up… and she pegs him. Strap-on power move of the yearShipka's Hayley is revealed to be Whitney's assistant — and living way above her pay gradeThe finale bombshell: Eric is back. And Harper is ready to burn it all down againIndustry continues to prove it's the sharpest, filthiest, smartest show on TV — and Brandon & Chanel are here for every manipulation, meltdown, and “sesquipedalian” showdown.

Inspiring health transformation story by Michael Newton: Busy traveling Utah attorney dad in mid 40's goes from 25% to 11% body fat...Highlights from interview:- Health had been going in wrong direction- Was attracted to our tribe's tailored approach for busy professionals wanting a sustainable lifestyle. - Joined June 2025: Lost 27 lbs, went from 25% to 11% body fat, and added lean muscle. Then his wife joined our program.- What's helped him the most: Having a dedicated coach with a weekly accountability check-in with a sustainable approach- "My habits have changed significantly. I don't think about them anymore... these habits have become very powerful."- Wife recently said: "This is the best investment we've ever made."- Honestly ask yourself: "Can you actually do this on your own?"- You have to be willing to make changes. To learn more about The Six Pack Dad Tribe, go to www.thesixpackdadtribe.com

Well, this is it... We're a bit heartbroken & homicidal over it, but our journey has come to an end. We're closing the green book, and stepping away from this generation nightmare, out into the darkness. We've dispelled every man's myth, deciphered every glyph, and we've slowly become mutants and abominationz as we made our way through this mad season of Twiztid album reviews. It's been a most tasteless journey through this freek show of a discography, but maybe it was exactly what we needed, an unlikely prescription that led to a wicked revelashen about the continuous evilution of lifes ?'s. Honestly, we're just glad to be wrapping this up before Independents Day, and well before they say, "hey fellas, welcome to your funeral." Maybe it's time to begin a new nightmare...If you want to interact with us, send us messages, follow us, support us, or join our community, check out the links on our WEBSITE.Erik's new solo album released in October! If you like FUKKFAACE and/or underground rap in general, give it a listen! xMINUSx - BUILDING 2Check out DO IT FOR THE UNDERGROUND (DIFTUG), Robbie's underground rap and horrorcore focused news show on YouTube, HERESend us a text

To celebrate the holidays, here's a Patreon Exclusive episode of Tales Of Futurama...for FREE!It's the lost episode! Honestly, this wasn't the greatest Xmas episode we've seen. It's just a bit of a downer, which is the opposite of what we were looking for. Xmas eps are the safeground for warm-and-fuzzy cliches, this one went a different direction. A bold strategy, not sure it paid off for 'em.Essentially, Robot Santa is frozen in ice, which leaves Bender to take the reigns as the new Santa. A fun twist on the old "Santa replacement" story, however not even Kwanzaa Bot could prevent this one from leaving us feeling glum. No wonder FOX weren't fans, child abuse doesn't really fit the Xmas spirit.If you enjoy this show, please consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $1 per month at patreon.com/fourfingerdiscountListen on Spotify - spoti.fi/4fDcSY0Listen on Apple Podcasts - apple.co/4dgpW3ZCHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Goin' Down To South Park - spreaker.com/show/goin-down-to-south-parkThe Movie Guide with Maltin & Davis - themovieguidepodcast.comThe One About Friends - spreaker.com/show/the-one-about-friends-podcastTalking Seinfeld - spreaker.com/show/talking-seinfeldSpeaKing Of The Hill - spreaker.com/show/speaking-of-the-hill-a-king-of-the-hill-The Office Talk - spreaker.com/show/the-office-talk-podcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/four-finger-discount-simpsons-podcast--5828977/support.

God Will Pause to Save You by Autumn Dickson I got a little lost as I was reading in Abraham at 6:00 am after staying up too late reading a book. Abraham had received a vision that showed him the workmanship of the Lord's hands. He discerned a whole lot, and then the Lord started explaining some deeper things to him. I was pretty tired, and my mind drifted until I came across this verse. Abraham 3:20 The Lord thy God sent his angel to deliver thee from the hands of the priest of Elkenah. Everything was feeling a tad confusing to my tired mind until I read that verse. Interestingly enough, as I backed up and read previous verses and when I continued reading forward, verse 20 felt like an interruption. The Lord is speaking of intelligences, including His own. He is speaking of how He dwelt in the midst of them and so on and so forth. The chapter is showing His absolute majesty. But He pauses and recalls how He saved Abraham's mortal life from a priest who was trying to sacrifice him. It felt like one of the most relevant interruptions I had ever read. It felt perfectly inserted into a sermon of how Christ rules over all of His creations. Christ is powerful and wise and loving. He is the Creator and King. He has many important works that He is juggling, but He pauses long enough to save you. Saving you from a mere mortal trial is nothing and everything to Him. It is nothing in relation to His power, and it is everything in relation to His love. I want to share a story about how the Lord saved my family. Honestly, I'm not even sure the extent to which it has saved my family yet, but I feel strongly that one day I will understand just what the Lord did for us in moving us across the country. Despite all the other works that the Lord was juggling, I watched Him masterfully manipulate detail after detail after detail to put Conner on track for his life's work. I will share some details, but I don't even think I'm fully aware of all the details and timelines that the Lord set in motion to take care of us. I probably don't remember all of the details, but I will tell you of a few. Conner had told me for years that we would never leave Utah, but there had always been a nagging feeling in my heart that we would leave. I had prayed about it, and the Lord kept telling me not to worry about it. The time would come when it came, so I left it alone. Though it was likely one of the more traumatic eras of my husband's life, I felt the Lord's hand hovering over us the entire time. Moving to Virginia the first time around was wild. My husband's job had been taken away from him through a series of lies told by another person. Looking back, I am 99% certain my husband would have never left. It had to be taken away from him in order to propel him in the correct direction for his life. I praise the Lord for taking it away. That's detail number one. Conner was meant to end up out in Virginia, and so the Lord sent a friend to ask for his help. That was detail number two. The only reason I was able to get Conner out of our house and into the car was because it was a friend who had asked him to come. We lived in a hotel for three months with three kids before moving to an apartment of a friend who had moved out west. We stayed in that apartment for two months before we received a big enough miracle that even my husband couldn't ignore (he still wanted to go back to Utah). We were staying in that apartment and the contract was running out soon. We could renew it, but the price would go up to more than we could really afford (especially since the job we had moved out for wasn't working out as we hoped). I was at church one day when that lady I ministered to asked me if we had found a place to stay yet. I answered no. Now let me tell you this portion of the timeline backwards. Monday, the very next day, was when we really decided that this job was not working out with our friend. I know Conner, and I know that the moment we realized it wasn't working out, we were headed back to Utah. It was much cheaper to go back, and we had just spent inordinate amounts of money to go and stay in Virginia and it just wasn't doable anymore especially since we were leaving the job. I wouldn't have been surprised at all if we had packed up that day and drove back immediately. However, the night before this final decision about the job was made, we received a message from a lady who had been sitting next to my ministering assignment when my ministering assignment had asked me if we had somewhere to live. This lady was a stranger at the time, and I'm going to name her Jill so that we can follow the story more easily. It turns out that Jill and her family had just bought a house even though they were headed overseas for ten months. She had a friend who was supposed to live in her house while they were gone, but that fell through. So Jill looked me up since they needed someone to come and stay in their house. As it turns out, we were related distantly through marriage. After asking some questions to our mutual relatives, she messaged us the night before we would have made the decision to head back to Utah. She sent us messages about the house and immediately, Conner and I realized we wouldn't be able to afford it. We asked how much she would charge us, and it was miraculously lower than what we would spend living in Utah. That was the very first time that Conner was like, “Maybe we are supposed to be in Virginia.” We moved in almost immediately. Conner was led to a couple of other jobs that were so healthy for him and have enabled us to be exactly where we need. When we needed to come back to Utah temporarily, we found a flight pass that enabled Conner to go back and forth across the country for $25. Detail after detail after detail after detail has lined up perfectly for us to be exactly where we need. I have no idea how He set things in motion a long time ago to set these things up for us. But I do know this. In the midst of all His incredible works, He paused long enough to save my family. I know that it was both nothing and everything to Him; it was nothing in relation to His power, and it was everything in relation to His love. I was not saved from a priest who was trying to kill me like Abraham was. I don't know how many of us will face situations like that. However, the Lord can save us. Whatever you're going through, it's nothing in relation to His power, and it was everything in relation to His love. I promise you that whatever you're facing, you are safe. When placed in the context of eternity, you are safe and everything will turn out better than you can imagine. He has handled much larger things than this, and they were likewise easy for Him to handle. I testify of the power of our Lord. I testify of the love of our Lord. I testify that whatever you're going through is just a blip on the spectrum of eternity. Reading Moses and Abraham gives us a glimpse into the eternal and can help us recognize that what we're going through doesn't have to take us down completely. I testify that it's okay for things to be hard, but I also testify that nothing can defeat us if we keep close to the Lord. Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR's 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 1; Abraham 3 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

It's a brand-new year on Hallmark, and we're kicking off 2026 with a tropical twist. Today, we're diving into Lost in Paradise.ABOUT LOST IN PARADISEWhen the founder of a high-end fashion company gets marooned on a “deserted” island with a chef, romance blossoms as they work together to survive.AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR LOST IN PARADISEJanuary 3 2026 | Hallmark ChannelCAST & CREW OF LOST IN PARADISELacey Chabert as SophiaIan Harding as MaxBRAN'S LOST IN PARADISE SYNOPSISSophia runs a high-end fashion company and, surprisingly, doesn't suck as a person. Unfortunately, her ex-husband — who is also an investor — wants out. He's ready to cash in while the company is still hot.Max is a talented chef who can't seem to break out, despite being incredible at his job. He tried opening his own restaurant a few years ago, but it failed, and now he works for another chef who takes credit for everything Max creates.There's one ultra-wealthy person in all of Fiji that both Sophia and Max want to pitch for funding.Max's buddy happens to be a private jet pilot, so he offers to get Max to Fiji. What he doesn't mention is that Max will have to work the flight as a flight attendant. The passenger? Sophia.They actually hit it off on the flight — until they fly into a massive storm and crash-land. Honestly, they both handle it shockingly well. With nothing to do but survive, they start opening up about their lives. Things are going fine… until they wake up the next morning and realize all their belongings — including the snacks — have been washed out to sea.The pilot and co-pilot head out to find civilization. They succeed, but can't figure out how to get back to the original island.Max catches a fish and cooks a delicious meal, because of course he does. Stranded life turns out to be kind of amazing. They grow even closer, and when Sophia injures her foot, Max gets the perfect excuse to carry her and take care of her.While exploring more of the island, they spot smoke in the distance. Fire! Civilization! They investigate and discover a campsite — they're saved! Except Max is convinced they're pirates, so they panic and run.There's swinging. There's heroic escaping. There's a celebratory kiss.Except… they didn't actually escape. The “pirates” catch up to them and reveal they're not pirates at all — they work for a resort. Yes. There is a fully operational resort on the island.They're taken to the resort, where Sophia's team is waiting for her. She immediately dives back into work but promises Max they'll stay in touch. Soon, she realizes she doesn't want to live that way anymore. She takes a step back from work, tells Max how she feels, and they kiss. Big ones.Cut to one year later: Max has opened his own restaurant, Sophia has found balance, and they're happily together. Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtubeInterested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.