Podcasts about house team

In this week's episode, we delve into the common struggles faced by in-house billing teams, exploring the overwhelming challenges they encounter. Join us as we discuss the potential solutions, including the transformative impact of outsourcing, and how it can revolutionize your practice. Join other healthcare professionals in the discussion on Facebook Group NatRevMDDon't miss an episode, subscribe via Apple Podcasts and if you haven't done so already, Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.If you are looking for a reliable, data-driven, medical biller to help grow your revenue reach out to Info@nationalrevenueconsulting.com or visit us here.

Show Notes:0:24: Exploring the optional internal team structure for content marketing 1:18: Why in-house Content Marketing Managers are the most effective 2:59: The role of SEO Managers in driving success (ideally) 4:03: The pitfalls of outsourcing and its impact on quality and bandwidth 5:19: The importance of consistency in brand voice and tone with freelancers 6:50: Ross' perfect in-house team structure 9:02: The pros and cons of Founder/CEO involvement 11:58: How to navigate the challenges of in-house SEO management 13:35: Closing insightsShow LinksFollow Drew on TwitterFollow Ross on TwitterSend Us an Email

2x Ultra-running National Champion and World's Toughest Mudder vet Anthony Kunkel has been news coming out.  In May he is running tryouts to live and train at the "Ultra-House" in Durango Colorado.  Learn about his background in this episode, rise to ultra-running greatness and how he plans on giving back to athletes in the sport.  Great opportunities for athletes in this episode filled with Anthony's unique take on life, training and reaching higher levels of spirituality.    Follow Anthony on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anthonykunkel   Use code Strength20 to save 20% from www.yolked.com Order a copy of any of our OCR books here: https://teamstrengthspeed.com/store Order you training supplements from The Feed: https://thefeed.cc/evanperperis  Train with Tiga Tactics: https://www.tigatactics.training/?ref=6bea29 Tiga Tactics Podcast: https://tigatactics.podbean.com/ or find it on your favorite podcast app Use code ULTRAOCRMAN to save 20% from www.mudgear.com Use code ULTRAOCR to save 20% and get free shipping from www.manscaped.com   Episode brought to you by BleggMit, order your BleggMits from www.TeamStrengthSpeed.com Music by Dino Sinos

In the bustling world of hospitality, where the success of a business hinges on the seamless orchestration of front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house operations, clear communication channels serve as the lifeblood of efficiency and customer satisfaction.By establishing transparent pathways for dialogue between these two crucial realms, businesses can navigate challenges with finesse and cultivate an environment conducive to exceptional service.Moreover, instilling a profound understanding of the direct impact of their roles on the overall customer experience empowers back-of-the-house staff to elevate their performance beyond the confines of their kitchen or workspace.Through regular training, feedback, and recognition, businesses can nurture a culture of excellence, ensuring that every member of the team is motivated and equipped to deliver nothing short of excellence in customer service.Follow usWebsite https://www.wtfwalkthefloors.comLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/wtf-walk-the-floorsYouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJvSeZmvlNH8eRHJ6OyMDgConnect with the hosts on LinkedInMichèle Kline https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelekline/Stephanie Leger https://www.linkedin.com/in/sleger/Hosts Company LinksMichèle Kline https://www.klinehospitality.com/Stephanie Leger https://www.firstratehospitality.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Training back-of-the-house hospitality professionals on customer service is crucial for the success of any establishment. From kitchen staff to housekeeping, each role plays a vital part in creating a positive guest experience. Tailored training programs that recognize their unique responsibilities are essential. It's important to understand the specific needs and challenges that back-of-the-house staff face regarding customer interactions. By providing them with the necessary tools and skills, we can ensure that they are equipped to deliver exceptional service every time. Follow usWebsite https://www.wtfwalkthefloors.comLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/wtf-walk-the-floorsYouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJvSeZmvlNH8eRHJ6OyMDgConnect with the hosts on LinkedInMichèle Kline https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelekline/Stephanie Leger https://www.linkedin.com/in/sleger/Hosts Company LinksMichèle Kline https://www.klinehospitality.com/Stephanie Leger https://www.firstratehospitality.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaking Real Estate podcast, hosted by Krish Jain, your go-to resource for all things real estate. In this episode, Krish has a conversation with Mr. Vishal Ratanghayra who is the founder & CEO of Platinum Corp.

The Fellas play Dem or Journo, everyone pretends like they have no idea who could have brought drugs into the White House and a surprise phone call from a vacationing Josh Holmes!

Today on the podcast I sit with my friend Ify Nwadiwe. We talk about ADHD, being fortunate to make money playing video games, Twitch, the writer's strike, AI and how Ify is Gettin' Better.   Follow Ify on social media https://www.instagram.com/ifynwadiwe/ https://twitter.com/IfyNwadiwe https://www.twitch.tv/ifdeez http://www.ifycomedy.com/       UPCOMING SHOWS 20 May 2023Los Angeles, CA Comedy Store - Belly Room                 Fun Voices w/Funches & Socci – Secret Lineup   30 May 2023 Los Angeles, CA The Aster   09 Jun 2023Denver, CO,    Comedy Works Downtown7:30pm & 9:45pm 10 Jun 2023Denver, COComedy Works Downtown  7:30pm & 9:45pm 11 Jun 2023Denver, COComedy Works Downtown7:00pm   17 Jun 2023 Los Angeles, CA Comedy Store - Belly Room                     Fun Voices w/Funches & Socci – Secret Lineup   07 Jul 2023 Salt Lake City    Wiseguys Comedy Cafe 7pm 07 Jul 2023Salt Lake City    Wiseguys Comedy Cafe 9:30pm 08 Jul 2023Salt Lake City    Wiseguys Comedy Cafe 7pm 08 Jul 2023Salt Lake City    Wiseguys Comedy Cafe 9:30pm   13 Jul 2023 Madison, WI Comedy Club on State 7:30pm 14 Jul 2023 Madison, WI Comedy Club on State 7:30pm & 10:00pm 15 Jul 2023 Madison, WI Comedy Club on State 7:30pm & 10:00pm   03 Aug 2023 Timonium, MD Magooby's Joke House  7:30pm 04 Aug 2023 Timonium, MD Magooby's Joke House  7:00pm & 9:30pm 05 Aug 2023 Timonium, MD Magooby's Joke House  7:00pm & 9:30pm   12 Aug 2023 Olympia, WA Capital Theatre   24 Aug 2023 Portland, OR Helium Comedy Club  7:15pm 25 Aug 2023 Portland OR Helium Comedy Club  7:30pm & 10:00pm 26 Aug 2023Portland ORHelium Comedy Club  7:30pm & 10:00pm       Follow me on my Twitch channel for comedy nights, video games with friends, and more! https://www.twitch.tv/ron_funches   Become a Patron at http://www.patreon.com/gettinbetterwithron and get perks like personal affirmations, shoutouts, hand written letters, tickets to my shows, and much more!   We have an Instagram! Give us a follow for classic clips and positive affirmations at @gettinbetterpodcast   For all tour dates and merch go to http://www.ronfunches.com   Don't forget to hit subscribe for weekly podcasts!      

“It takes time to build that psychological safety, but I think it's a more important area than ever before in the modern workplace,” explains Dennis Garcia, Assistant General Counsel of Microsoft. Today, Dennis and Kim Yapchai, former SVP, Chief Environmental, Social, and Governance Officer at Tenneco Inc., discuss their career advice for developing in-house talent. Trust is something that needs to be earned over time, and creating a psychologically safe work environment is no different. With job turnover particularly high, it is especially important to find innovative ways to retain and nurture top talent within your organization. To develop your in-house talent, as a leader, it is important to be up front and open with your employees. This authenticity will help develop trust between leaders and teammates alike. Mentor the talent you have and give people opportunities to grow their skills. When employees feel understood, appreciated, and supported, they are less likely to look for outside career advancement.  Nowadays, employees, particularly those of the Gen Z and Millennial generations, are more likely to be attracted to jobs where they feel aligned with the company's values. By being authentic and up front from the very start, leaders can foster relationships with those employees who are the right fit for the work culture they are looking to create. Instead of trying to fight over the top talent in the pool, look in-house and put time into helping your current employees flourish.  Quotes “If people don't feel safe enough to speak up and be heard, the company loses out. You lose out on new ideas, on diversity of thought, and people letting you know when things are going wrong.” (9:25-9:43 Kim)  “It takes time to build that psychological safety, but I think it's a more important area than ever before in the modern workplace.” (10:47-10:57 | Dennis) “It is harder when you don't see people face to face in the office, you have to find other ways to connect.” (16:02-16:08 | Kim) “Build the network and your brand before you need it.” (25:39-25:42 | Kim) “When you reach out to people and you try to build those relationships, it's not all about how they can help you. It's how can you help them.” (29:10-29:18 | Kim)    Links Connect with Kim Yapchai: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-yapchai/ Connect with Dennis Garcia: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denniscgarcia/ Buy a copy of Fearless Organization by Amy Edmondson: https://a.co/d/fP9z92s Connect with Chris Batz: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbatz/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theliongroupkc  Instagram: @theliongroupllc Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm  

Hello Boss, today I'm joined by special guest Lisa Alward. Lisa is an interior designer and published author with years of experience working on residential properties throughout Australia. Lisa heads up Bella Vie Interiors, a design studio with headquarters in Brisbane, and is committed to creating beautiful homes for her clients. Lisa has built an incredible A-team of in-house employees and in this episode shares her experience of doing this.In our conversation, Lisa shares how she knew that she needed to grow her team, and the phased approach she took moving from contractors through to part-time and full-time employees.Transitioning to having part and full-time employees is a big commitment and Lisa details the ways she prepared and set her business up to accommodate her new team members. She runs through office space, hardware, file management systems, software and most importantly - standard operating procedures. Lisa shares that every part of her business is documented from administration, business development, onboarding, design and offboarding which ensures consistency and continuity.When it comes to hiring, Lisa shares what she looks for in new team members, highlighting that the most important thing is that they align with her values system - loyal, hardworking, diligent, open and honest, and have a high level of attention to detail. She also shares that flexibility and a great skillset, as well as a willingness to learn, are also incredibly important.Lisa also details the important tools and culture that she cultivates in her team around communication. She shares her vision, is constantly updating her team and is open and transparent regarding client fees. We also discuss how having a listening culture is so important.Lisa shares her top three lessons that she has learned as a people leader which are:It takes time and patience to train people properly.Trust is vital - everyone needs to know that they have each other's backs.Systems are key.Boss, I know you are going to get so much value from what Lisa shares in this episode and her own experience of growing the most fabulous team.Previous episodes mentioned:Ep 07 - 3 ways to build your online teamEp 48 - Growth Strategy: Why Business Transformation is necessary for small businessesEp 44 - What to focus on when preparing for next level business growthConnect with Lisa Alward:Website: Bella Vie InteriorsBook: Beautiful LifeInstagram: @my_bellavieFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BellaVieInteriorsLinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/alwardlisaConnect With Me:Free Download: Ideal Client Avatar WorkbookWork with me: Business Strategy Workshop | 1:1 Business Accelerator ProgramJoin the waitlist:  The Run Your Business Like a Boss AcademyInstagramLinkedIn

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends January 31st 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonaddison/ Simon is the Business Manager, Roman Baths and Pump Room, Bath, and heads the finance and business planning functions at the Roman Baths. He is responsible for business analysis, pricing strategy and leads the benchmarking work. Simon started his career in the financial services industry, where he qualified as a chartered management accountant with the Bank of New York. He moved to the National Trust in 2012, where he held roles in the finance team. Latterly he was responsible for the Trust's finances in Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire. Simon joined the senior leadership team at the Roman Baths in 2017. Simon joined the Board of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in May 2022. Transcriptions: Kelly Molson:  Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. In today's episode, I speak with Simon Addison, Heritage Business Manager at the Roman Baths.We talk all things pricing, and the phenomenal impact that introducing variable pricing has had at the Baths. If you like what you hear, subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip The Queue. Kelly Molson: Simon, welcome to the podcast. It's lovely to see you today.Simon Addison:  Thanks for having me. I'm excited. I'm nervous about the icebreakers though.Kelly Molson:  Everyone always is. You shouldn't be. What is your favourite season? And why?Simon Addison:  I think autumn. Yeah, the colours on the trees, kick through the leaves with the kids. You can go on those walks, you get the crisp mornings. We're starting to get them at the moment. But you still get sort of a bit of warmth at the end of the day in the afternoon. You can still sit outside on a good day. Yep, definitely autumn.Kelly Molson:  Totally agree. You are my people. Simon. Autumn woolly hats. Simon Addison:  Yeah.Kelly Molson:  Cold but bright. Simon Addison:  Yes. Kelly Molson:  Frisbee, dog walks and Halloween. Simon Addison:  Not so much of a Halloween person but it could be an unpopular opinion territory here. But yeah.Kelly Molson:  All right. Well, save that. Okay. Have you ever been told off for touching something in a museum?Simon Addison:  Yeah, I have. I think the last time was at Lanhydrock. Which is a National Trust place down in Cornwall. We were in the kitchen. They had some plastic fake food on the table and I got told off for touching the plastic fake food.Kelly Molson:  Did you just touch it? Oh, you're trying to juggle with it.Simon Addison:  I was just touching it, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  Okay, don't touch plastic fruit kids. Right. What is something you're really good at? And is a little bit obscure. I'll give you an example of one of mine. I'm really good at; if I hear a song. Or like songs. I can tell you what film they've been in.Simon Addison:  That is a good question. I'm pretty good at motorways around the UK. Where you want to go. I could probably tell you roughly what motorways would be involved in that journey. Don't ask me now though.Kelly Molson:  And I'm really dreadful as well. That's exactly why that really made me laugh. It made you sound like an absolute nerd. Sorry, Simon.Simon Addison:  You asked an accountant on your podcast, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  That's very true. It's very true. I should have been more prepared for the nerd answers. Sorry. All right. So good at motorway so you could have been like London cabbie. You'd have been good at the knowledge.Simon Addison:  Yeah, I reckon that's a different level of knowledge, though. Isn't it? Just those trunk roads around the UK? It's quite a niche building is that detailed. I think we're just talking about my major routes.Kelly Molson:  We would need to find like a really niched pub quiz for our talents wouldn't we? One that covers music from films and routes around the UK using motorways only.Simon Addison:  Yeah, pretty tough.Kelly Molson:  Anyone knows a pub quiz team that needs those skills on them? Hit us up. Right. What is your unpopular opinion?Simon Addison:  Well, I was gonna go with something about Crocs as being an abomination of a choice of footwear. But I feel like that might have come up before. So my unpopular opinion is that golf is the greatest amateur sport to play.Kelly Molson:  Okay, you are a clean golfer, I take it. Simon Addison:  I am a keen golfer. But I think more than that, like the handicap system, so you get a handicap if you're a golfer tells you how good you are. And that means that golfers of different abilities can play competitively against each other on a level playing field, I could go out and play against a professional and have a competitive match. I don't think there are many other sports that you could do that in. And I think for me, that meant that, you know, when I started playing golf in my early 20s, I used to play quite a bit with my granddad, who was quite a lot older than me. And once I was working, I still used to play with him a few times a year. Although I was a better golfer than him on paper, I reckon I only beat him once. Every time I turned up to play with him. I wanted to show how good I was and played like a muppet. But I don't think there are many sports that an eight year old could be a 25 year old app. And if you want to spend silly amounts of money, you can go and play courses where professionals play and you can see how much better they are than you and you can really measure your ability against what a professional sort of standard is. My seven year old son's just getting into golf at the moment. And so this summer, walking around the golf course with him has been sort of the highlight of my summer. And now he's got his handicap. He's seven and he'll probably beat me in a couple of years. And again, I don't think you know, I don't think there are many sports where seven or eight year old could turn up and be a fully grown adult. So for me, that's why golf is the best amateur sport. Kelly Molson:  Yeah, I'd never thought about it like that at all. I think that's brilliant. My husband is a keen golfer and I am a golf widow, although not on the weekends, because he's a wedding photographer anyway, so the weekend so he does fit it. He is quite kind and fits it around times when he should be working when he's not working. But yeah, I hadn't ever thought about that. So it kind of puts you on a really good, I guess you get to learn from people that are really experienced as well because you can actually play against them. Whereas you would never get that opportunity at all, do you?Simon Addison:  Exactly. And you can go out and play with someone who's way better than you and see how they play and it can improve your game. Yeah. And my wife is also a golf widow. I reckon she's playing the long game. I think she's seeing everything. If my son plays as well, then, in years to come, she'll get those Saturdays back. You know, maybe if the other son also takes up golf. Maybe it's just a long game. But right now she's definitely a golf widow.Kelly Molson:  She knows she's plotting because I'm doing exactly the same. I pluck up the hours that he plays golf, and I work out how many hours I can spend doing things that I really want to it's just I haven't found a hobby. That takes me four hours. Yeah, that's what I need.Simon Addison:  Yeah, there is that? Yeah, it's yeah, it was the might be, in my opinion, the greatest sport for an amateur to play. It isn't a short sport, and it isn't a cheap sport.Kelly Molson:  It is not. That's a great opinion, though. Let's see what our listeners think. Thank you. Okay, Simon, as you mentioned earlier, you are an accountant. I don't think we've had an accountant on the podcast before but you're not really a traditional accountant, are you? So tell us a little bit about your role.Simon Addison:  So at the moment, I work at the Roman Baths in Bath, for Bath and North East Somerset Council. So we're a council owned and run visitor attraction. As well as the ruin bars, we operate the Fashion Museum and the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, and also the record office in the city. My role is Business Manager, I'm responsible for all aspects of sort of finance and business planning, benchmarking and trend analysis, I sort of try not to take offense at my profession, when people say you're not a traditional accounting, but I think it means that I try and look a little bit further than just what the numbers are telling you. I think the accounts are only ever a symptom of what else is going on in the operation. So if all you do is look at the accounts each month, you're probably not going to understand what's driving those numbers. So I think, you know, maybe it's about trying to sort of relate all of that performance data to operational outcomes and objectives.Kelly Molson:  Yeah, I think because we've spoken in the past, I always very much saw your role. Well, the conversations that we've had about your role, and will have always been that you've been on the side of the operations as well. So you, you know, you do have that kind of contact with the visitors. And you have that you kind of broach that in between bit between the accountant and the ops department. If that makes sense. That's how it came across to me anyway.Simon Addison:  Yeah, I think that's fair. I think before I came to the Baths, I was at the National Trust my job title there was Finance Business Partner. And I think that really was, that was much more. Well, my role now is similar, but it's about working with operational staff and helping them to achieve their objectives. And I think people can see finance can see budgets, as, you know, an intimidating subject. And actually, really, their tool to achieve your objectives. And I think, you know, particularly in an organisation like the National Trust, you join the National Trust as a gardener or arranger or conservator, because you're passionate about those things, if you're good at them, you get given a budget. And I think, then all of a sudden, you're responsible for not just, your garden, but also how much you spend looking after it. And I think sitting down with those people who may be wanting to spend more money or needed new equipment, and sort of demystifying the accounts, how they worked. That's what I find really rewarding, churning out a set of accounts or a budget in and of itself, isn't a particularly rewarding process. It's about, sitting down with someone who didn't think they could achieve X or Y that year and making them realise that actually, it's it is achievable if they manage their money slightly differently. I think that's a really rewarding place to be.Kelly Molson:  Yeah, absolutely. And that's that kind of alludes to some of the stuff that we can talk about today, because you've been through a really interesting pricing journey at the Baths. And I want you to talk us through what you've done. And then we can talk about some of the impacts that's actually had because it's incredibly impressive. And I think people listening will be really, really intrigued by this. So variable pricing. Tell us why you took that direction in the first place. How did this come to happen?Simon Addison:  Sure. I joined the Baths in autumn 2017. So we've just come out of the summer over the summer at the Baths we open 13 hours a day. So open the doors at nine o'clock in the morning through to 10 o'clock at night. We've got the gas flares going Torchlight experience. It's a fantastic time, but it takes its toll on staff opening for that length of time, and we just had our busiest ever summer. So in the Spring, in early summer of 2017, there were some terror attacks in London and in Manchester. And one of the consequences of that is that we saw an almost immediate spike in visitors to Bath I think people perceive Bath as being a relatively safe city, you can drive pretty much into the centre of it. And people who get to their own bus without needing to engage in public transport and, and so almost overnight, you could see that sort of spike in visitors. And frankly, we weren't prepared for it. So the staff had come out of a summer where we'd seen huge numbers of visitors that we perhaps weren't ready for. But actually, over the course of the previous three or four years, visitor numbers have been growing steadily. And we were doing nothing to really manage those numbers or influence when people came. So we could start the year telling you what our busiest day of the year was going to be. And all we did was brace ourselves.So coming out of that sort of 2017 year, I was new in post, we also had a new commercial manager, new in post, we started to think about what we could do differently. And I went to an Alpha Finance Directors meeting, where Baker Richards, the consultants did a presentation on pricing strategy. And Debbie Rich's talked about the fact that if all you do is increase your price by inflation every year, you haven't got a pricing strategy. And we weren't even doing that we were just putting 50 P on it, not linking it to inflation. And all we were doing was making a bit more money each year. But we weren't really shaping anything to do with our visitor behaviour. All of the visitors arrived in concentration in the summer, as you would expect. But also within an individual day, we would have peaks at 11 o'clock and two o'clock, which will be familiar to lots of people who work in attractions. And again, we didn't try and do anything to smooth those visitors through the day, obviously, the experience suffered at our busiest times. And also, because we're not a particularly big site, anyone that's been will know that, you know, there are quite a lot of enclosed spaces, and visitors get very close to the Roman monument. And if you've packing in six or seven thousand people in a day, or with rucksacks on or turning round all the time, there's a sort of a conservation impact of those, that number of people coming through the monument. And if they're knocking off bits of Roman stone, you can't really just stick it back on.Kelly Molson:  Not plastic fruit, is it, Simon?Simon Addison:  It's not plastic fruit. No, it's not. And so we were, yes, we were making money, but our visitor experience scores were suffering. And also our conservation objectives were not being delivered by having that concentration of people through the year. So after that, we sort of engaged Baker Richards or we went through a tender process, and ended up appointing Baker Richards to help us with a pricing strategy.Kelly Molson:  So what did that look like in terms of your team? Because I'd love to know who you got involved in that process. Because I think sometimes things can happen back office, that there's an agreement that this is what we're going to do, but we don't necessarily get all of the right members of the team involved from the start. So what did that look like for you?Simon Addison:  For us, it looked like a multidisciplinary team. So we have people from across the business involved in that we set up a Project Steering Group, and we had members of staff from the on that group, I thought was particularly important to get the staff involved early, because ultimately, they're the people that are going to sell the ticket to the customer. So if a customer walks up and the member of staff, the visitor experience host that greets them doesn't feel the tickets worth the selling price, then that will come across in the welcome. And equally, if they do you feel it's worth the price, they understand the reason that we've implemented this strategy and the journey that we're going on, then they can sell it with confidence, and they can articulate it. And if someone turns around and says is expensive, they're ready to defend that price.So we had V involved from the start, it was also really important to get senior leadership buy in from across the business. So making sure that the curatorial staff understood that we were trying to manage down the numbers, or not done the numbers overall, but manage the numbers of peak times and smooth the visitors throughout the year for a specific conservation objective was really important, because I think, you know, in visitor attractions, usually, there's a tension between the conservation objectives and the provision of access to that, whether it's a museum, whether it's a historic garden or house. The more people you let through a space, the more impact it has from a conservation objective. So holding those two things, intention, conservation and access are usually when, in my experience, we deliver best as a business, meeting the needs both of our visitors, but also the collections and buildings that we're caring for. So making sure that everyone was signed up for the objectives at the start was really important. And then obviously, we had marketing involved, because again, they need to be able to be confident that we can sell these prices that we're not gonna get a load of feedback that was too expensive. And sort of the commercial professionals that you'd expect as well.Kelly Molson:  So what did it look like? When you started to go through this process? How did you work out what that pricing was going to be?Simon Addison:  When we engaged Baker Richards, the first sort of phase of the project was a discovery phase. So we gave them access to lots of historic data. So they took our ticketing data, they could look at how many people we had day by day, week by week, and they went back over five years, they also took the retail sales data so that, you know, because one of the things we didn't want to do was to make more money Front of House as people walked in, and then compromise our retail spend. So they looked at the range of data that we had available. And one of the features of the bars that they were able to identify is that we were quite predictable. As a site, our visitor numbers were fairly predictable; month by month and week by week. And what that meant is they could be quite confident about the level of demand, we were seeing whether that was from domestic or international visitors, and that gave them more confidence in the recommendations they were making. Because we had a regular repeatable pattern of visitation, they were then able to stay with confidence, this model shouldn't impact on that, if we were a less regular site was prone to more I don't know whether or seasonal fluctuations, then it might have been more difficult to have those that level of confidence. So we sort of the initial phase we went through was that discovery phase, they took the data, they analysed it. And we also gave them a really clear brief, we didn't just want to make more money. We felt really strongly that actually as a heritage site, we didn't want to just become a luxury product that was only available to middle classes. So we gave them a brief that we wanted some of our prices to reduce. And we wanted to not price up every school holiday, you know, what you might call the Centre Park pricing model where you can, you can sort of identify when the school holidays are by the fact that price triples. So we gave them a really clear brief. And they went through that data discovery phase initially, and came back to us halfway through the project and sort of presented back the data analysis that they'd done and said, "This is our picture of your business, does it chime with your own understanding?" And for me, that was one of the biggest, you know, as well as getting a pricing strategy out of it, having some consultants look at your business, and effectively validate all the analysis that you do yourself was really helpful. Reassuringly, for us, they didn't tell us anything we didn't know. But it is a validation of the quality of the performance, management and the business analysts that I have working in my team that, you know, they're producing EMI, that that was consistent and telling a consistent story with what Baker Richards did.Kelly Molson:  And so what decisions did you come to about the pricing? And how does it work now, and because I want to talk about how it works then but also, this was pre pandemic, right? So then you had the pandemic to deal with as well. So what did you put in place?Simon Addison:  So to start with, we ended up with a relatively simple pricing structure. We had three price points during the year, we had that sort of summer, peak price period, if you like, we had the shoulder months, so spring and autumn, and then we had the off peak period through the winter. And within that, weekdays were always cheaper than weekends. Every time a visitor looked at our website, there was always a choice to be made about what price they wanted to pay. And when we were first speaking to Baker Richards, they gave this great example; it was one of the kids theatre shows it may have been Peppa Pig World or something. And parents were taking their kids to see Peppa Pig at the theatre. And there was a balloon on sale and was four pounds for this balloon. And they were getting loads of complaints about people not wanting to spend four pounds on a balloon. Next year, they sold two balloons, they sold one balloon for four pounds, they sold one balloon for eight pounds. Not only did they get no complaints about the balloon, for four pounds, they sold a load of eight pound balloons, because all of a sudden, people go into the theatre, we're presented with a choice. They could either buy no balloon, but if they did want to buy a balloon, they could choose to buy a four pound balloon or they could choose to buy an eight pound balloon. And so it's then been their choice as to the price they've paid. And so for us with visitors, they're looking at the website, there's always a choice that they can make. So when they choose to come on a Saturday, they know that they could have chosen to come on a Friday and it would have been cheaper, but the Saturday met their needs. So the price they've paid is a choice they've made based on the needs they've got. And so that was introducing that element of choice was a really important feature of the pricing structure.Kelly Molson:  Yes, you're empowering them to make the decision about it, not forcing them into a decision.Simon Addison:  Absolutely. And I think the other thing we did in that first iteration of the pricing strategy was introduced an online discount because we knew lots of people looked at our website before they came, but very few people committed to purchase on the website. Most people came in and joined the queue. And that meant that we couldn't manage their arrival time because they just joined the queue and they'd get in when they got in. So we were seeing sort of five or 7% pre booking before the pandemic, and before we introduced this strategy, we introduced the strategy we put in a 10% online discount. And overnight, we saw a doubling in the number of people that were pre booking. So for us, that was really helpful in terms of predicting their arrival time, but for our marketing team as well, all of a sudden, we had the postcode of where these people were coming from is valuable data that we weren't getting beforehand. Pre booking has become slightly more important over the last couple of years. And we no longer have that discount for online because it's been a necessity. So but that was one of the features of that first iteration of the strategy.Kelly Molson:  Amazing. And how did your visitors engage with it? What was the feedback when you launched it?Simon Addison:  We didn't get a lot of direct feedback about the fact that we had a new pricing strategy, because the Baths is, you know, one of our features is that we're a tickbox destination. So we're 80% first time visitors. So in implementing a new strategy, we didn't have to concern ourselves too much with the person that said, "Oh, you were cheaper last year, or you've done something different to last year", because those people by and large, don't come year after year. Most people who've been before came on a school trip as I came 20 years ago, it's changed a bit. And so it's definitely a different model, we operate to some other attractions. But what we did see, we saw some complaints, but we saw complaints before the strategy came in. So we saw no more complaints on price than we did beforehand. And we saw many fewer complaints about crowding. And our value for money score increased, and has continued to increase each year with since we increased our prices. Kelly Molson:  That's brilliant.Simon Addison:  And I think it comes back to that choice element. So your visitors are standing there, and they've made a choice to pay that money. And so they didn't feel like they wanted to come to the Baths, and they had to pay the price. They wanted to come to the Baths, and they were able to choose which price met their needs and the day that they wanted to come and I think that's translated through to those scores.Kelly Molson:  Absolutely. I'm definitely never gonna pay a pound for a balloon. No, I'm just putting that out there. It's not happening.Simon Addison:  Me, I wouldn't pay four pounds either. Kelly Molson:  Who needs a balloon? You're just gonna let it go.Simon Addison:  And then you gotta pop it. And it's gonna be a source of disappointment. Kelly Molson:  Wow, in the wrong business. Right. This was pre pandemic. So this was 2017, you started this process 2017? Simon Addison:  Yeah, yeah. 2017, I joined, we did the sort of discovery and design the strategy 2018, implemented in 2019. And we had our best ever year in terms of visitor numbers in 2019. But all of the growth came outside of the June, July and August period. So our growth came in April and May and September and October. So from that sort of objective of smoothing out the visitors through the year, we achieved that by pushing people out into the shoulder months. And also, we didn't have one day over 7000 visitors. In fact, we didn't have one day over six and a half 1000 visitors. Now, that's still a lot of people through quite a small space. But we certainly drove out those peaks that we were seeing before we implemented the strategy. And as importantly, we made 2.3 million pounds extra revenue in the first year of the strategy. And Baker Rich's modelling suggested that we'd make 2.4 million. So they were really incredibly accurate terms of the modelling that they'd done. And the returns that were possible through this strategy. And it delivered so accurately to that really impressive bit of work.Kelly Molson:  I mean, that is a phenomenal impact, isn't it? The difference that has made is just so impressive. But that was 2019. What has happened since COVID?Simon Addison:  So I think, because we had multiple price points through the year before COVID, it was much easier for us to reopen with a model that was reactive. I think if we'd only ever had a fixed price point, changing the price would have been a really big thing for us. Whereas we changed our price twice a week. And so being able to sort of reopen in the summer of 2020. With our plan summer pricing, we came to the end of August. And we were still seeing really strong demand against a much reduced capacity. And so we kept the prices at our peak price through September and October. And because we already had those price points built into our pricing structure, it was really easy for us to just take that decision to continue with the higher prices and maximise the revenue from the visitors that were coming through. And I'd say that arguably the 300,000 pounds of additional revenue we made from the pricing structure in 2020 was more useful than the 2.3 million that we made the year before because you know there was revenue was so scarce at that point. And so, being more reactive was really important. Obviously, we ditched the online discount because online booking became a mandatory feature of going anywhere. So you don't need to discount something that visitors had to do. And I think also it just having gone through a year where we charged more, we had the confidence that visitors were prepared to pay for that. And so coming out of COVID, in late 2020, we did a phase two piece of work with Baker Richards, looking at what happened in 2019. But also what was happening in our sort of COVID reopening. And what that showed is that even though we'd increase the prices quite significantly through the summer, in 2019, it had a negligible impact on the demand. So that gave us the confidence to be even punchier in that sort of that June, July and August period, with our peak pricing, and we don't articulate it this way on our website. But effectively, we introduced a super peak price going into 2021. So having never charged more than 17 pounds in 2018, this summer, we've charged 27.50. Not for a long period of the year, it's only at the weekends. And it's only during June, July and August. So it's only 15 days a year or something. But having that headline price, I think Dom from Mary Rose talked about decoy pricing when he was on, it's almost that sort of if you've got that high headline price, then everything else feels comparatively good value, as you as you trade down from that. So people are saying, "Well, you know, let's not go on Saturday, we'll go on Wednesday, because it's three pounds cheaper or whatever", or if you're buying a family ticket even more. So I think using that sort of that headline price as a decoy having real confidence about the quality of your product. So yes, it's worth it, because people are prepared to pay for it. But also, if you look at what else people are prepared to spend 27 pounds on, people have spent 27 pounds on lots of different things. So why is the Roman Baths or why is the Tower of London or Stonehenge? Yeah, they're all equally valid cause on people's leisure spend. And we should be confident about the quality of product that we we give to people.Kelly Molson:  You mentioned earlier about retail spent, and this not having an effect on it. What was the effect on retail spend, once you transition to the variable pricing?Simon Addison:  There was no impact at all. So we didn't see an increase in retail spend pre pandemic, we just saw no impact at all. For anyone who's been to the Baths, we've got a really small shop, we're confined by being in the centre of Bath, we'd love to be able to expand our shop. But when we do, our benchmarking, we're consistently performing in the top two or three sites for sales per square metre. So we just know that we can't fit enough people in that shop for the number of people that come through the site. And the work that Baker Richards did showed the display visitor numbers increasing year on year, the number of transactions that were taking place to the shop hadn't been keeping pace, basically our busiest times the shop had reached saturation point. So it may be that some people decided not to go into the shop because they'd paid more to come in. But for anyone that decided that there was someone who has bypassed the shop before, because, you know, they just looked in when Bath was too busy. So for anyone who was not going into the shop, there were other customers who were prepared to go in. And since COVID, our retail spend has been through the roof. And you our spend per visitor this year is 50 pence a visitor higher than it was pre COVID. And I can't tell you why, Kelly. Kelly Molson:  I was gonna ask, why?Simon Addison:  Obviously, high quality ranges and my retail colleagues would not forgive me if I said it was anything other than the quality of product in there. But I think certainly when we first reopened from COVID people were just glad to be out. There was a sense, particularly if you've had a lot done experience like mine with small children, you were just glad to be anywhere other than your own house. And our top selling lines before COVID were toiletries because we bought the bars, spa and well being but people didn't want to buy toiletries, because you know, in 2020, no one's picking up anything and sniffing it. That felt like quite a risky thing to do. But we saw gin and that was a genius move. So we sold gin and children's books. And I think, you know, most people's lockdown experiences was similar to mine, not enough gin and not enough children's books. So they came to the Roman Baths and they bought both of those things in spades. But you know, as toiletries have come back through that they're picking up in terms of sales, but people spending a lot of money, buying high priced jewellery product. I wish I could tell you why. You should have asked Callum when he was on.Kelly Molson:  Yeah, yeah, I should. Well, I'll post the question to him and see if he knows. Yeah, it's interesting. I wonder if it's that. I mean, I was very conscious of visiting attractions and spending money in the retail stores because of the fact that they'd been shut. I wanted to spend more money. I wanted to do my bit because I wanted those places to stay open. So I wonder if there's still a residue of that happening when people are visiting?Simon Addison:  I think in 2020, we would definitely put it down to that and you could almost see it as well. And there was a sense that people had saved money. Whether that was on commuting costs or childcare bills or whatever, there was a sense that people would save money during the lockdowns and therefore they had more disposable income. But we're coming up with the cost of living pressures. We're coming into winter with massive uncertainty. And every month, I look at those returning members, and I'm waiting for that spend per visitor to drop, and it hasn't done yet. So I think it's more than just a sort of an altruistic desire to support the attractions. Or maybe it's about people choosing to prioritise this activity of their spend over, I don't know Netflix subscriptions or something. So, yeah, I can't answer that question. But we're glad to see it.Kelly Molson:  I'll ask Callum. I'll ask Callum Lumsden of Lumsden Design and see if he can tell us and shed some light on it. All right. So what I'd really like to know, if you could give me your top tips for people that are thinking about going through this process, what would they be if anyone that's listening? Now that's thinking this is a genius thing to do, I would like to add 2.3 million to my revenue, please.Simon Addison:  I think the first thing is being really clear on your objectives. So for us, it wasn't just about making more money, we'd have ended up with a pricing strategy that looked different if we wanted to just make more money. So the ability to deliver something for visitor experience objectives and conservation objectives was really important, and really featured heavily in the brief that we gave to Baker Richards. So starting out with that clarity of purpose, I think would be my first tip. I'd also say if I know budgets are tight at the moment, but if you can pay for the analysis, then firstly, it's such a helpful validation of your own business analysis that you're doing yourselves. But when you need to sell this inwardly, so we're part of the council, we needed to sell this strategy and inwardly to local politicians and the council leadership. But if you're in a more sort of typical attraction, you're going to need to sell this to your trustees. And having that sort of analysis as a validation of your strategy. And your approach will hopefully give them the confidence that increasing prices by a significant percentage is not a ridiculous thing to do, certainly involving your front of house teams. And that's not linked to pricing strategy that's just linked to anything you do in your attraction, your Front of House Team are the people that are going to hear from the visitors what they think about it, they're the person who has got to explain your own strategic direction to the visitors when they're in front of them. But particularly when it comes to pricing, I think making sure that they're involved, they've got a chance to ask questions. And also that you're giving them that feedback as well. So that sort of regular communication, once you've implemented it, tell them whether what you're seeing is what you expected to see. Because otherwise, if there's a void in that communication, they'll fill it with their own analysis, or we didn't seem very busy last Saturday, and it might not have been busy last Saturday, because it was pouring with rain, as opposed to your pricing strategy is not working. So making sure that you're having that regular dialogue with those teams on an ongoing basis. And I think the final thing is holding your nerve. And that, you know, when we'd never charged more than 17 pounds before that first Saturday, when our prices were 22 pounds, there's a level of nervousness that is associated with that. And so holding the nerve when price setting, we could do a whole separate podcast on communicating with the travel trade. But it's safe to say, that was probably the most challenging aspect of the project in terms of moving the travel trade on to a variable pricing model when they have a, you know, they sell in advance, they sell through third parties. And that was a really difficult set of conversations. But we held our nerve. And despite being told that they wouldn't be able to work with us, they wouldn't be able to bring us the volume. 2019, they bought us more people and they never bought us before. So so there is a bit about holding nerve. And I think post implementation, don't be tempted to tinker too much. Because otherwise you won't know if the strategy didn't work or whether you fiddled with it, and then it didn't work. So I think if you change too many things at once this is the nerd in me, you change too many things at once, you can't tell what's made the difference. So trying to only change one thing, will tell you whether that one thing works or not. Obviously, go through a pandemic, you change everything all at once. And it's very difficult. But generally speaking, if you can sort of make change in a stage where you can measure the impact of an intervention, whereas if you change four or five things at once, you don't know what's caused it, cause the effect that you're seeing. So those would be my top tips. I think Kelly.Kelly Molson:  Absolutely excellent advice. Simon, I know that you are an ALVA member, I know that you're really keen to speak with other attractions. I know that you're very well obviously you've come on the podcast to share your insight and I know you're very keen to do that. So I'm sure if anyone does have questions around the OTA challenge or variable pricing, I'm sure that you'd be super happy to talk to people.Simon Addison:  Yeah, always happy to.Kelly Molson:  We will pop all of Simon's details in terms of, we will put his LinkedIn profile and a link to the Roman Baths in the show notes. So if you do want to reach out to him and ask him any questions, please feel free. Simon, a book that you would recommend to our listeners something that you love or something that shaped your career. What do you have for us today?Simon Addison:  This was a difficult question. I tried really hard to think of a workbook that had changed my career. And I really could I've read workbooks, but there's not one that I go back to time and time again. So, so I've picked fiction books, I've picked 1000 Splendid Suns, which is a novel by Khaled Hosseini, which is set in Afghanistan. And I don't think many people are going to choose this book after I describe it. It's not an uplifting read, it's a really challenging read. The central characters are women living in Afghanistan, forced into marriage during a time when the Taliban influence was growing. But I think I read at a time when Afghanistan was in the news a lot. And we were probably presented with a relatively one dimensional interpretation of Afghanistan, in the way that the news coverage came through. And so it offered me an insight into sort of, I guess, Life beyond the headlines. And despite the fact that it was a really harrowing read at times, there was a sense of hope that came through even the most difficult situations. And I think that really stayed with me. And as somebody who's probably we're very interested in sort of world affairs and politics, I think, it really challenged me to make sure that you sort of read around the topic. If you before coming up with a really definite position or opinion on a world situation, the need to sort of read around something. And I know, this wasn't a it wasn't a fact book. It was a fiction book. But I think it really changed my perspective on Afghanistan. So I don't think many people want to read it. But if you want a really harrowing read, but you know, that sense of hope and really difficult times, it is a great book.Kelly Molson:  Thank you. Well, thank you for sharing. I'm sure people will want that. And if you do, if you go over to our Twitter account, @skip_the_queue, and you retweet this podcast announcement with the words "I want Simon's book", you could be in with a chance of winning it. Simon, thank you. It's been lovely to chat to you. I always enjoy chatting to you. Even though I called you a nerd earlier. I apologise about that. Simon Addison:  I forgive you, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  If you do have a little pop quiz that you'd like me and Simon to join that you think would be useful for, please do let us know. On that note, I think we'll end the podcast there. Thanks, Simon. It's been fun.Simon Addison: Thanks, Kelly.Kelly Molson:  Thanks for listening to Skip The Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

Fresh off a super bowl lost in 2021 #NFL season are the Bengals the strongest team in the NFL in 2022?

Becca, Tice and Jay welcome an old-improv-buddy-turned-New-York-actor Shravan Amin, whose career now includes shadowy gigs with limousines and non-disclosure agreements. Join us as we remember his origins as a dance recital DJ, his beginnings in improv, his first theatre roles, and his move to New York. Along the way, we touch on the improv game Freeze, why Shrave loves doing Shakespeare, and resume hacks. Also in this episode, excitement builds for Becca's upcoming nuptials and Jay tries to insinuate unwholesome things about the handfasting ceremony. Also also in this episode is a chat with another guest, a super-villain known as the Truth-Seeker, who isn't above torture and is generally quite testy. Loyal Butt-fans, please note...just by listening, you are already a member of the Between 2 Butts House Team.

anda (no one says her last name) Lebiszczak, joins Not A Great Whisperer to talk about all things real estate. She is a top selling Residential Real Estate Agent with The Pretty House Team of Charles Rutenberg Realty.

For Thursday, April 14th, 2022 Welcome back to our Middle School Matters podcast! Here were some highlights from the week (see MS Community Classroom): Lightning Strike and Thunder Boom House Team games: Pictionary Easter chapel - Mary's story The start of cross-stitching club House Team Scoring Update Blue Cheese: 98 Green Zombies: 108 Red Dragons: 142 Purple Barneys: 112 Upcoming Dates: Thursday, April 21: Parent Education Series: The Tech-Wise Family from 7:00-8:00 pm Monday, April 25th: Professional Development Day for K-12 (no classes) Thursday, May 5: MS/HS Strings Concert in the Lower Gym begins at 7 pm Friday, May 20th: Elementary Sports Day in the morning and House Team event in the afternoon Thursday, June 9: MS Band and Choir Concert begins at 7:30 pm Other Items We are looking for a middle school teacher for next year! This is a full-time, permanent, humanities position. If you or someone you know is interested in joining a fun, progressive teaching team that loves to learn together, please check the VCS website (see Careers under the Contact tab). We are also looking for parent volunteers at our upcoming May 20th middle school House Team Carnival Competition. Mr. Cavey's Seesaw Update: What learning have students been sharing lately? From 7T: The Most Dangerous Writing App: Fiction Composition Under Pressure (5 minute maximum)

Welcome back to our Middle School Matters podcast! My name is Tim Cavey, and I'm the VCS Middle School vice-principal My name is Mary DeBoer, and I'm the VCS Middle School principal Here were some highlights from the week (see MS Community Classroom): House Teams Winner for Jan-Feb were the Red Dragons who get ice cream treats next week It's Ultimate season and practices and games are on Hosted a Badminton Scrimmage with Maple Ridge Christian today Upcoming Dates: Friday, April 15th: Good Friday, no school Monday, April 18th: Easter Monday, no school Monday, April 25th: Professional Development Day for K-12 (no classes) Friday, May 20th: Elementary Sports Day in the morning and House Team event in the afternoon Other Items We are looking for a middle school teacher for next year! This is a full-time, permanent, humanities position. If you or someone you know is interested in joining a fun, progressive teaching team that loves to learn together, please check the VCS website (see Careers under the Contact tab). The job description can also be found here: https://vancs.org/downloads/sb_vancs/MSHumanitiesTeacher1.pdf 4 Tips for Parents from Common Sense Media: How to Embrace Your Child's Screen Time Show interest in what they're doing online. Help them recognize their screen time habits. Talk about their emotional health. Talk about what to do when they have negative feelings or want to set new screen time habits. Mr. Cavey's Seesaw Update: What learning have students been sharing lately? From 7C: In this unit in science, students have been learning about how climate change impacts people around the world, and how people are responding to climate change (i.e. mitigation, adaptation). Students were given a climate change profile of a real person around the world, and learned how to think like them and speak like them. Students interviewed and were interviewed by 6 other students, to learn about how climate change impacts people differently. Students then compared and contrasted these profiles with this graphic organizer. (Previously featured: 8P, 8C) Mary: Up next on the show, it's time to hear a little bit more from one of our awesome Grade 8 teachers, Mrs. Karen Prinsloo! Thank you for listening! We so appreciate your support. We'd encourage you to subscribe so that you don't miss a future episode, and encourage other parents to do the same! Contact us at any time at mdeboer@vancs.org or tcavey@vancs.org. Remember to send us your comments and feedback about the show. Our final "spin it to win it' draw for a family prize pack will happen in June. We're humbled and grateful for the opportunity to serve your children each day. Have a great week, and we'll talk to you again next weekend!

The global climate crisis and biodiversity breakdown demands an entirely new way of doing business. And environmental, social and governance matters (or ESG) is fast becoming a hot topic for lawyers all over the world. ESG is not only an increasingly necessary requirement for our planet, but it's also an opportunity for in-house lawyers to lead change in creating sustainable growth for their business. After all, sustainable business is smart business. This is why we're delighted to have Christine Uri - Chief Legal and Sustainability Officer at ENGIE Impact - with us on the Legal Means Business podcast. Over her 15+ year career, Christine Uri has advised start-ups, technology companies, nonprofits and global enterprises. She has launched technologies, developed leadership programs, found new revenue streams and challenged organizations to always act in line with their values and purpose. Today, Christine helps us explore how in-house legal teams can think about and tackle ESG initiatives in their business - no matter the size of your legal team.

AMA Omaha President Elect, Sara Winters, sits down with Cindy McAndrew, Seldin Company VP of Marketing, to discuss Seldin's AMA Omaha In-Home Team of the Year award. A Hurrdat Media Production. Hurrdat Media is a digital media and commercial video production company based in Omaha, NE. Find more podcasts on the Hurrdat Media Network and learn more about our other services today on HurrdatMedia.com.

For Friday, January 21st, 2022 Welcome back to our Middle School Matters podcast! My name is Tim Cavey, and I'm the VCS Middle School vice-principal My name is Mary DeBoer, and I'm the VCS Middle School principal Here were some highlights from the week: Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day Wikipedia Races in House Team games Joel Reimer spoke in chapel today Upcoming Dates: Monday, January 24th: Regular classes (professional learning day canceled) Thursday, February 3rd: Student-Teacher-Parent Conferences 1 - 8 pm Tuesday, February 8th: MDI Survey for Grade 8s Friday, February 18th: Professional Learning Day (no classes) Monday, February 21st: Family Day (no classes) Other Items Students are invited to sign up for the Vancouver Sun Run Interview with Mrs. Maureen Tran Contact us at any time at mdeboer@vancs.org or tcavey@vancs.org. Remember to send us your comments and feedback about the show. Our next "spin it to win it' draw for a family prize pack will happen at the end of February and will include a $60 gift card for Boston Pizza, the book, How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of the Tween Years, (*read back cover of book) and some other fun family items.

Are you looking to hire your first in-house team member but not sure where to start?   In today's episode, I'm diving into 5 dos and don'ts when it comes to hiring your first in-house team member! You'll learn why hiring in-house can be more cost-efficient, where to post your new job role, why you should include a salary range and more!!   Say HI to me on Instagram @neat.marketing Let's work together

Welcome back to our Middle School Matters podcast! My name is Tim Cavey, and I'm the VCS Middle School vice-principal Highlights from the week Our first house team games in the gym on Thursday! Friday was a professional learning day for MS teachers. We learned more about: Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports VCS Student Support Services with a close look at anxiety in students Going deeper with Christian education New reporting frameworks and assessment practices Upcoming Dates: Monday, October 18 - Missing or Retake Photos Thursday, October 21 - Parent Teacher Conferences Check your email for information and registration from Mrs. De Boer Friday, October 22 - Professional Development Day for K-12 Thursday, November 4 - Virtual Open House for MS and HS Thursday, November 11 - Remembrance Day (no school) Friday, November 12 - Professional Learning Day (InspirEd Convention) Mary: We'd like to give a couple of quick shoutouts to some parent listeners! (Thank you to Joanne + Winnie) Mr. Cavey reads an article from the VCS newsletter: It's All About the Learning: Moving to Proficiency Language in Our Assessment and Reporting Practices Final Words Thank you for listening! We so appreciate your support. We'd encourage you to SUBSCRIBE so that you don't miss a future episode, and encourage other parents to do the same! Contact us at any time at mdeboer@vancs.org or tcavey@vancs.org. We're humbled and grateful for the opportunity to serve your children each day. Have a great week, and we'll talk to you again next weekend! Good-bye.

In this second installment of our new series, Inside Upper House, Dan, Dan, Aiden, and Ilya discuss podcasting at Upper House, and especially our new UpWords Student Voices podcast, which is wrapping up its first season. Send us a message at podcast@slbrownfoundation.org. Credits: music by Micah Behr, audio engineering by Andy Johnson, graphic design by Madeline Ramsey.

In this episode of Conscious Design, Ian Peterman talks about the ways to hire a designer. Learn about the best option to get a designer for your project. Find out the benefits of contractors for the business. Know what are the benefits of agencies to your business. You also will know about in-house teams and the benefits of having one. You will learn strategies on how to crate an effective workflow when combining these things. ///////// Have a question you want us to answer? Submit your question for a chance to get a shoutout (don't forget to tell us who you are) Get your questions answered - https://www.petermanfirm.com/youtube-question-submission/ ///////// Want to work with us? Connect with us about your project - https://www.petermanfirm.com/connect/ ///////// Learn about Ian Peterman's process for developing successful products by downloading the Peterman Method™: https://www.petermanfirm.com/peterman-method/ /////////

Since opening in 2010, the Roast House team has been dedicated to sourcing and serving organic coffee. Nowadays, the words “organic” and “sustainable” are thrown around in the specialty coffee industry in order to attract customers. In this episode, Aaron and Annisa interview Deborah, founder of Roast House, and ask what the word “organic” means to her.

So it's the end of the crazy year, thats been 2020. Andy, Mel, Bekah and Jamie sit round and discuss the Beacons. Which are there favourite, which ones to head for if its your first time listening. ENJOY

The idea of becoming a realtor happened for Renee when she went through the process of buying her own home. She loved the feeling that she had as she went through the process and ultimately closed on her home. She wanted to be the person that could provide that to others. The only problem was, she had another career as a Dental Hygienist so she had to learn how to navigate doing both until she could go full-time in real estate. Thanks to the events of 2020 and Renee's hard work, she was able to take that leap of faith and jump both feet in.

I bring back the ladies of Hair House in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. Mandi and Diana join me to give us an update on how their business is doing during this pandemic. They also give us the realization that everyone will have to change in many ways to stay in business. Whether it is raise pricing or learn how to adapt to what the public needs. Of course the ladies take me for a complete U-turn and go into a very interesting road path. Grab a drink and enjoy the ladies of Hair House.Hair House - Hair Salon Mandi and Diana- Owners:https://www.facebook.com/pleasanthillhairhouse/Unfiltered MaPop Passage -https://www.unfilteredmapop.com/https://www.instagram.com/mapop_80/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE6lCPIKprSIk2EsH0_j9LA https://www.facebook.com/UNFILTEREDMAPOP/

Alex Keyan is a serial entrepreneur with multiple 7 and 8 figures businesses to his name. He is the CEO and Founder of goPure, an amazing brand developing innovative skin care. Alex is a true marketing and ecommerce expert: his current venture is an 8-figure with a 50% repeat business rate, without doing subscriptions. Bullet points 00:37 - Intro 02:20 - The starting point 05:35 - Launching the first 7-figure business 08:27 - Taking the learnings from one business to the next one 08:55 - Going solo 12:35 - The next businesses 15:16 - From selling other people’s brands to forming your own 17:06 - Launching the current brand: goPure 19:07 - The first hero product and the d2c model 20:19 - The biggest mistake 22:18 - Having an in-house team vs leveraging the expertise of an agency 25:28 - Building business culture 26:55 - The best marketing decisions 31:49 - Knowing and tracking customer lifetime value 5:38 - The top traffic sources 37:55 - Rapid fire question round 38:33 - What superhero would you be and why? 39:22 - What is one thing that people incorrectly assume about you? 40:18 - What is the most pointless subject taught at schools and what would you replace it with? 41:39 - What is one random act of kindness you either witnessed or done yourself? 43:27 - What unusual or underrated food or drink should more people try out? 44:14 - What is one mistake in your life and what did you learn from it? 46:17 - What does the first 30 minutes of your day look like and when does it start? 47:50 - What do you do or where do you go to get inspired? 50:08 - What book do you read, recommend or gift the most? 51:55 - What silly thing should people do more of? 52:20 - If you could change one world problem with one wish, what would it be? 53:10 - What makes you happiest? 54:04 - Any asks or requests for the audience?

Among the headlines for Tuesday, 17th November 2020,  recordings of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho aka Jho Low’s conversations with government officials under the Pakatan Harapan administration have been published in an Al Jazeera documentary. The clips contained in the two-part special investigation titled “Jho Low: Hunt For A Fugitive”, in which Low claims that he borrowed billions from 1MDB to buy luxury items, including high-end real estate, art pieces, a private jet and a mega-yacht. Also, President-elect Joe Biden will focus on shaping his core White House team on Tuesday while outgoing President Donald Trump presses on with his tenuous legal fight to reverse his loss in the US election. Listen to the top stories of the day, reporting from Astro AWANI newsroom — all in 3 minutes. We bring you the headlines, weekdays at 5 pm. Stay informed on astroawani.com for these news and more.

Do not claim any rights to music on this episode free hip hop radio station podcast much love and respect to all

James Ward is a Cartoonist and Comedian, as well as a Teacher and Coach at The Improv Conspiracy. He was an original member of Fuggtown; TIC's longest standing House Team and in this episode he discusses finding his way back to the fun of improv after first worrying too much about doing it well. Only to learn that having fun gives you the best shot at doing it well. We discuss our relationship with the audience, the Harold and each other. Enjoy.  The Improv Conspiracy is one of Australia's premiere improv comedy theatres. Hosted by Broni Lisle, the Improv Conspiracy podcast features weekly guests talking about a little corner of improv philosophy or practice that they are passionate about. The perfect extra curricular companion to the Improv Conspiracy's training program, while also being a useful resource for improvisers the world over.  Please rate and review friends!! Email your questions to broni@improvconspiracy.com For information on classes and live shows head to http://improvconspiracy.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Shiv speaks with Graham Sacks, a phenomenal comedian based in NYC, on Social Media Anxiety. Graham is one of the best improv comedians I've ever watched and been able to perform with, has finished all levels of improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center, is on a House Team called The Official which performs at The Armory Comedy in NYC, and hosts his own podcast called the One Minute Pod. We discuss everything from dealing with criticism on Twitter from Maddawg2004 to whether or not we would delete a post that received 0 likes. We also talk about the pros and cons of social media as a whole and how to form a healthier relationship with it. As always, please subscribe, share, and rate if you enjoy- thanks so much for listening!

I get a chance to meet up with Diana Luong and Mandi Savage at the Hair House in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. While I provided the Margaritas, we truly have an insightful discussion about the the hairstylist business and the current status of the hair industry. We discuss the day to day of owning your own business and what it takes to become a hair dresser/ hair stylist. This conversation is completely uncensored and is really fun and informative at the same time. The girls are very excited to give us their thoughts and ideas from the industry but also they give us a glimpse in their lives. Sit back have a beverage if you must, and enjoy this ride with the Hair House.Unfiltered MaPop Passage -https://www.unfilteredmapop.com/Instagram: @mapop_80YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE6lCPIKprSIk2EsH0_j9LAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNFILTEREDMAPOP/Start your own Podcast today and use this affiliate link:https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=937621You will also get an Amazon $20 Gift card. Amazing deal. Contact me for assistance to start your podcast:https://www.unfilteredmapop.com/contact

When the IT talent shortage in Poland was estimated at roughly 100 thousand people, Sebastian Jaworski, then IT director and CIO at ARIMR (The Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture) decided to fire outsourcing partners and build an internal software development factory and hired 40 people within a year. He also led an Agile transformation in this quite calcified 25-year old government organisation. The online platform that his team built has served 2 million farmers in its first year. In this episode of Leadership Deep Dive, Sebastian talks with Hendrik Deckers about: ▴ always seeking a challenge, ▴ agile transformation in a government agency ▴ impressing the business stakeholders who used to resent exorbitant bills for software development ▴ balancing trust and control in leading a high-performance team TABLE OF CONTENTS 00:45 - Introduction: Sebastian Jaworski, CIO of ARIMR (The Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture) 01:17 - Transformation: Reducing software development cost by €50M through building internal software factory of 40+ developers 05:22 - Hiring and developing the IT team 07:50 - IT market in Poland, technologies and potential of blockchain 13:30 - How is IT organised at ARIMR? 14:48 - ROI of the transformation 16:30 - The role of CIO and how it's changed in the last 5 years 18:04 - Sebastian's management style - balancing trust and structure, cultivating team leaders 20:19 - Sebastian's leadership style 22:24 - Sebastian's MBTI profile - ENFJ European Digital Leader Of The Year Finalist Sebastian Jaworski is a Public sector finalist in the European Digital Leader Of The Year Awards. Find out the B2B and B2C winners and learn more about the other 16 finalists in the Public and Financial sectors - the winners among the latter will be announced at CIONEXT on 26th June 2020. https://ecoty.eu/

Kristen Van Nest is a comedian, writer, actor, and director based in Los Angeles, CA. She's a House Team performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Kristen is also a series regular on "The Chunky Zeta" on Amazon Prime. She started her comedic career in Shanghai doing stand up and improv.

How strong are your front of house?  Your front desk / customer service team play a pivotal role in the success of your fitness business. They will often be the first person a client will see or speak to and the importance of that connection cannot be underestimated. In this episode Jack shares all about what has helped him and his team build a strong, friendly and reliable front of house staff.   RESOURCES BOUTIQUE FITNESS TALKS BANGKOK - FEB 20-21 FIT SUMMIT SINGAPORE - APR 15-16   RESOURCES JACK THOMAS ON LINKEDIN FITNESS BUSINESS ASIA WEBSITE FITNESS BUSINESS ASIA INSTAGRAM

House Democrats: Trump's assertions about impeachment articles "Chilling, dead wrong"; House impeachment managers, Trump lawyers do walkthrough od Senate ahead of trial; Trump lawyers: trump asking Ukraine to investigate 2016 election was in America's "national interest"; Trump distracted by impeachment trial, asks associates "why are they doing this to me"; GOP's Graham: Trump hopes to have trial over by State of the Union address; Trump lawyer in 1998: It "doesn't have to be a crime" to impeach; Nadler: "Ample evidence...any jury would convict in three minutes flat"; Schiff: National Security Agency is withholding Ukraine documents from Congress ahead of trial; Democrats angry resolution detailing trial procedures has not been released yet; White House legal team slams Trump impeachment as "a dangerous perversion of the Constitution"; Trump legal team: He "Should immediately be acquitted"; CNN Poll: 69% say Senate trial should include witnesses; CNN Poll: 51% say Trump should be removed; 45% say no; Proposed Senate rules: Each side will have 24 hours over two days to present its case;To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

When they’re not digging holes and stealing Pokemon, the members of Team Rocket are recording a podcast. Listen to their rambling stream of consciousness about the media, their lives and the world at large.• If you feel like it, consider supporting the podcast on Patreon at:https://www.patreon.com/chaoticsilly• For just $1 you get access to a 30 minute exclusive podcast, Movie Night in Hell where we talk about animated movies.• Jesse also streams video games on Twitchhttps://www.twitch.tv/chaoticsilly• Also visit our social medias!https://www.facebook.com/Chaotic-Silly-1483922311711281/https://www.instagram.com/chaoticsillyhttps://twitter.com/chaoticsilly

Come one, come all, to Jigsaw's team building retreat, where you're guaranteed to either grow closer to your co-workers through collaboration and shared trauma, or die trying! Just make sure you get out quickly, or Donnie Wahlberg might burst in and beat you up. On this Snake Day 2019, we continue our journey through the scariest game show of all time and once again face our nemesis Jigsaw in the next installment of the Saw franchise. Zach is gonna get a hair trap, Jared is gonna get a bread trap, and Adam is gonna get a coffee trap. Talking Points Include: Snake Day Celebrations, Ending Spooky Stigmas, Jigsaw's Credibility, Bop It Origins, Grandma Punching, Shabooya Role Call, Don't Mess Up Blue Bloods, Spooky Apprentice, Life Saving Wood Plank, Donnie Wahlberg vs Old Man

Connect with us! Facebook: www.facebook.com/advanceyourreach Website: advanceyourreach.com Email: info@insidethegreenroompodcast.com  Welcome, Jarrod Glandt, Inside the Greenroom! In this episode, we discuss the number one challenge every meeting planner faces – filling up the seats at their event! PLUS we dive into how a speaker can win large stages and events.  Jarrod Glant is the meeting planner for the largest entrepreneurial event in the WORLD – 10X Growth Conference. This was the biggest stage I’ve ever been on! This episode dives into the nitty-gritty details of what it takes to fill an arena with over 30,000 people. Jarrod also shares how  Jarrod Glandt is Vice President of Business Development and Sales at Grant Cardone Enterprises, the world’s premier sales and management training company. He also co-hosts the weekly webcast series focused on millennial business and success, “Young Hustlers.” His remarkable working relationship with Grant Cardone started in 2010 and guided by that mentorship he is now a multi-millionaire and in the top one-percent income bracket of his peer group.  P.S. - 10x 2020 is coming up!! Grab your seats! February 21-23 10xgrowthcon.com/VIP   We also cover: The main things that worked (and didn’t work) in filling the LARGEST entrepreneurial event in the world The number of emails sent out to promote the 10X Growth Conference Ways to “wordsmith” and repackage content to promote your event The number of months the Cardone team promoted the 10X Growth Conference The “outbound” marketing methods the Cardone team used to promote the 10X Growth Conference The biggest challenges of running big events (aside from filling seats) The traits a speaker must have to land a large event Why “money” is not always valuable to a meeting planner (note: someone offered $500,000 to speak at the 10X Growth Con, and they were rejected)  The power of knowing a meeting planners “DBM” (hint: knowing this will tremendously increase the chance of landing their stage)   Mentioned Resources: 10x GrowthCon 2020: Grab your seats! February 21-23 10xgrowthcon.com/VIP   Quick Episode Summary: 2:41 Welcome Jarrod inside the greenroom! 3:07 Get to know Jarrod 10:51 One of the biggest pain points in event planning 11:41 The playbook to filling an event 18:28 Relying on speakers to sell out your event 21:18 Sneak peek of the 10X growth con 22:51 Focusing on your attendee's experience 25:28 How to land a Grant Cardone stage 29:06 Fining event planners dominate buying motive 30:20 How Jarrod protects the brand 31:34 The speakers who have impacted Jarrod the most 32:22 Jarrod's favorite up-and-coming speaker 32:34 Why live events are still important 33:34 Jarrod's favorite moment inside a greenroom 34:17 Jarrod's final thoughts 35:42 My biggest takeaways Connect with Jarrod: grantcardone.com 10xgrowthcon.com Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

This week on The Corporate Counsel Show, Jerome Doraisamy is joined by a panel of senior practitioners from Coca-Cola Amatil, including, group general counsel Betty Ivanoff, deputy group general counsel Richard Conway and Australian general counsel Michelle Monteleone to discuss how they run their award-winning in house legal team. They discuss the key features of a successful in-house legal team, how they create opportunities in house to keep their team engaged and how integral it is to cater to the idiosyncratic needs of individual employees. The panel also touches on issues or challenges on the horizon for in-house teams and the importance it is for business to take note of what is going on in the broader professional services environment to foresee future challenges.

Every house should have values. Wrapping up the series for The Heart of The House we discuss the core values of Olive Grove Church. Each team Director covers a core value; giving insight into the things that we honor in this house.

Download Chris' Personalized Tool for your Business ⬇️ BUILT TO GROW REVIEW ⬇️ https://www.BuiltToGrowReview.com ======================= Should You Hire A Virtual or In house Team     Building your team is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a successful future for your company. Whether it be a part-time freelancer who never even comes to the office or a 20 year veteran of your team. EVERY team member is important and should be treated as such. Often times the best solution or fit for the job might be to hire a "Virtual Team member. Chris goes over the pro's and con's of each option and discusses the 6 KEY rules to follow when hiring a Virtual Employee. 1. Organizational chart (Process Org Chart) - When done right it will clearly show you who your best hire is and whether or not they need to be in or out of the office. 2. Weekly meetings are a MUST with all of our employee's no matter what their role. A phone call does not cut it! These weekly meetings with individuals are all done by video chat. Seeing a person as you're talking with them helps to build trust and confidence in your relationship. 3. One on One call's with employees in your company. This could be scheduled for a variety of reasons. Often times during the week you might need an answer from someone on your team. If that person is a virtual employee and doesn't work in the office face to face with you, it can be easier to set up a quick One on One phone call or video chat. this way you don't have to wait hour's sometimes day's for the answer that you need. 4. Daily or Weekly Written updates. This is to highlight the things that our employee is doing right, as well as find out how we can improve the area's that are lacking. This is also a time for us to ask questions and get to know our team member's struggles. 5. Quarterly Goals - It's important to have quarterly goals determined for both individuals as well as teams. This way everyone can hold each other accountable and motivate one another to reach our target. 6. Annual meetings - face to face with the WHOLE TEAM. Once a year Everyone on our team no matter where they live in the world will be flown out to a location for somewhat of a "retreat". Getting everybody together in one location has tremendous effects on the way the team functions as a whole. The closer you and your team members feel connected, the more productive everyone will be as a whole. Imagine if the "USA" Olympic basketball team only got together to play as a team THE DAY OF their big game? Even if each individual was already extremely talented, chances are... Unless they have played together before the "Synergy" just isn't there. Now take that same team, except this time they practiced together in person at least several times a year. Which team do you think would win?? EASY! obviously, the team that has played together before!  Any size company can experience significant growth by adding one good person even if they’re running crappy systems. What you cannot do is grow your company with great systems and crappy people. ➤ Follow Chris On INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/chrisguerriero_fan/ ➤ Subscribe to iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/built-to-grow-show-with-chris-guerriero/id1462378880  ➤ Follow On Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisGuerriero_ ⬇️ For More Way's To Scale Your Business Visit ⬇️ https://www.ChrisGuerriero.com

This week James & Jeremy are joined by House Strong founder, Jimmy House. Jimmy is a highly competitive powerlifter, jiu-jitsu player, and wrestler. Jimmy talks about how he balances his powerlifting goals with his jiu-jitsu practice, time management, how to start a movement, building a bigger deadlift, and much more!Check it out and make sure to leave a 5 star review!Follow Jimmy:➢ Instagram: @JHouse182➢ Team Instagram: @TeamHouseStrong➢ YouTube: youtube.com/HouseStrongGRAB NOT FOR THE WEAK MERCH!NotForTheWeak.com

This week James & Jeremy are joined by House Strong founder, Jimmy House. Jimmy is a highly competitive powerlifter, jiu-jitsu player, and wrestler. Jimmy talks about how he balances his powerlifting goals with his jiu-jitsu practice, time management, how to start a movement, building a bigger deadlift, and much more!Check it out and make sure to leave a 5 star review!Follow Jimmy:➢ Instagram: @JHouse182➢ Team Instagram: @TeamHouseStrong➢ YouTube: youtube.com/HouseStrongGRAB NOT FOR THE WEAK MERCH!NotForTheWeak.com

Outsourcing your sales development isn't necessarily a good fit for every organization. While it has the ability to save time and money for some, it simply doesn't make sense for others. Kevin Warner knows this. As the CEO and outbound sales leader at Leadium, he helps organizations engage in strategic sales development activities that bring you qualified leads. From strategy to execution, they provide full service support.

Keith Atkinson is the Managing Director and Associate General Counsel for Nuveen, the asset management unit of TIAA, and he's been called the "ultimate glue guy" by the Charlotte Business Journal because of his ability to bring a team together. On this episode, Atkinson shares with us what it takes keep an in-house legal team effective and smiling.

In episode 60 of Design Edu Today, Steph Loughran, Art Director at Outstand, joins Gary Rozanc to discuss the differences between working remotely on an in-house team versus working at a large digital agency. Along the way Steph talks about the different approaches to responsive web design including her love for element collages. The conversation also covers creating animations and micro interactions and the industries strong preference for Sketch over other layout programs.

lia talks to to addie and brandon about student light house team

lia talks to to addie and brandon about student light house team

If you want to grow your business and your sales to their full potential you will need a rockstar team to help you.  In this episode of the groundbreaking sales podcast THC Podcast, your favorite sales closer Ryan Stewman delivers five tips to help you piece together a powerhouse team.  Get all the resources and full show notes from this episode by clicking the link below: http://www.hardcorecloser.com

Answering listener questions about how to figure out what salary you should ask for, and how to show your company the value of an in-house creative team.SHOW NOTES:http://thecrazy1.com/episode-31-listener-questions-setting-your-salary-and-showing-the-value-of-an-in-house-team/ FOLLOW THE CRAZY ONE:Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook

Assignment #8 should be another of the more enjoyable and less academic assignments. Its premise is that, if a student is not living at home during college, then the kinds of residence halls or other campus housing available at a college makes a difference in the life of that student--at least for the freshman year and often for much longer. We feel as though you all are getting a well-rounded view of the colleges on your teenager’s long summer list of college options so far. Here’s what you have already done: You have expanded your teenager’s long summer list of college options. You have checked out four key admission standards for the colleges on that list--namely, average high school GPA, high school class rank, SAT or ACT scores of admitted and/or enrolled freshmen, and both required and recommended courses to be completed in high school. You have looked at each college’s undergraduate enrollment, broken down by part-time vs. full-time study, gender, race/ethnicity, and place of residence. You have checked out the student-to-faculty ratio and class sizes for each college on the list. You have looked at the type of community each college is located in and what it has to offer off campus. And you have seen what kind of core curriculum requirements--if any--are in place at each college. So, now let’s turn to campus housing (plus a few words for students who plan to commute). 1. Your Assignment #8  Download the Assignment #8 Worksheet For Assignment #8, your teenager and you are going to examine the types of on-campus housing available. You already found out (back in Assignment #1) whether freshmen are required to live on campus--as many are. But there are some colleges--including some really interesting colleges--where students live in campus housing well past the freshman year, such as Hamilton College (in upstate New York), where all students live on campus in 27 residence halls or St. Michael’s College (in Colchester, Vermont) where all full-time undergrads live on campus all four years unless they are living at home with family or Colorado College (in Colorado Springs) where there is a three-year on-campus housing requirement (with a few exceptions) or the University of Rochester (NY) where more than 90 percent of students live in campus housing. What are all those colleges--and their students--thinking? And then there is the issue of safety. That’s a topic that, unfortunately, seems to be in the news more and more often lately. What can you find out about safety on campus before your teenager enrolls or even applies? And what about the safety of students who are commuting to campus day and night by public transportation or by car? 2. Why On-Campus Housing? Let me start by saying that your teenager should live on campus if that is at all possible, given whatever financial constraints your family has, and we have already said that many colleges require it. I am sure colleges have good and bad reasons for requiring it. A really good reason is that living together in campus housing (whether that means traditional dorms or residential “houses” or something else) does promote a kind of camaraderie among students that is hard to develop any other way. Living in close proximity to others in your same situation often provides a system of support and friendship that many kids at college want and need--whether that comes from studying late into the evening/morning together or eating together or walking back and forth to classes together or meeting each other’s friends and just hanging out together. I bet lots of us still have friends from that freshman dorm experience; I know I do, and that was 46 years ago. Perhaps a bad reason, though an understandable one from the colleges’ point of view, is that colleges need to fill those dorm rooms and bring in the revenue that comes from filling those dorm rooms. I feel about the importance of living on campus the same way I feel about the importance of going away to college. Both provide students with a way to spread their wings in a relatively safe and protected environment before they are ready to be on their own completely. Living in campus housing requires a student to figure out how to eat, study, do laundry, clean up, sleep enough, and manage money--without having to deal with the safety and transportation and utilities issues that come with off-campus housing and without the perhaps comparative ease of living at home. So, even if your teenager is going to a college close to home within commuting distance, opt for letting him or her live on campus, especially if you can afford it, but even if you need scholarship funds or loans to cover it. Why? Because it is an integral part of the college experience and one that your teenager needs, especially if he or she is going to a college close to home. 3. On-Campus Housing Options So, now that your teenager is going to live on campus, hopefully, remember that not all residential facilities are created equal when it comes to comfort, convenience, supervision, and security. And, when choosing colleges to apply to, remember to think about what residential life will be like not only when your teenager is a freshman, but also when he or she is an upperclassman with perhaps different housing options, including perhaps fraternity and sorority houses and apartments off campus. Assignment #8 asks you to check out the residential facilities that a college provides. These facilities are usually well described—even bragged about—on the college’s website, can be seen on virtual tours on the website, or can certainly be seen firsthand on a college visit if you are visiting colleges with your teenager. College tours love to take visiting kids and parents to look at dorms, even when they are of the most ordinary kind. While I don’t think you should choose a college because of its housing facilities, I do think you might consider housing as a possible tiebreaker between two colleges that seem otherwise equal or as a way to take a college off your teenager’s list if the housing options seem nonexistent or terrible. Here are some options you are going to find: Many colleges have traditional college dorms, with long halls of double and single rooms and a huge bathroom shared by everyone on the hall. There are usually upperclassmen serving as residential advisors--maybe one on each floor--who provide at least some level of supervision and care for students. Many colleges have apartment-style suites, with several bedrooms and a bathroom--and sometimes with a living area and a kitchen--for four to six students. Students in these suites often develop strong friendships--meaning that they take care of each other and watch out for each other. And there is still usually a residential advisor nearby. Some colleges have really interesting residential “houses,” which sponsor both social and academic activities for residents, have one or two faculty families living with the students, have their own eating facilities where everyone dines together, and have their own sense of community pride. And the idea of some live-in adult supervision can be pretty appealing to parents. Here are two examples of residential housing plans: Undergraduates at Rice University in Houston, Texas, are randomly assigned to one of 11 residential colleges—each with its own dining hall, public rooms, dorm rooms, and competitive website. In fact, about 75 percent of undergraduates continue to live in their residential college throughout their time at Rice. Each residential college has a faculty master, who lives in an adjacent house and encourages a rich intellectual and cultural life and a plan for self-governance at the residential college. At Vassar College, about 98 percent of students live on campus, and about 70 percent of faculty members also live on or near the campus, with one or two faculty families living in each residence hall. Residential life at Vassar is described this way on the website: Vassar has eight coeducational houses, one house for women only, and one cooperative (where students do their own shopping, cooking, and cleaning).  The great majority of students live in one of these houses through their junior year. Most seniors (and some juniors) choose to live in one of the college’s partially furnished apartment complexes.  Within easy walking distance of the main campus, these apartments house four to five students, each with his/her own bedroom. The houses are self-governing and self-directing, led by a House Team that includes faculty residents (House Fellows), residential life professionals (House Advisors), residential life student staffers (Student Fellows and House Interns), and house officers elected by the residents of the house.  The house president also sits on the Vassar Student Association Council, representing the house in the student government.  Together, the House Team strives to create an environment that complements the academic life of the college by providing social, cultural, and educational programming in the houses. (quoted from the website) Many colleges have a mix of housing facilities, too, including off-campus apartment buildings owned and operated by the college. And then there are some colleges that do not offer housing at all--and not just two-year community colleges, many (but not all) of which expect students to commute to the campus. Take the University of Massachusetts campus in Boston, known as UMass Boston. The second campus in the UMass system, established about 100 years after UMass Amherst. UMass Boston couldn’t be in a more different setting from the flagship campus in Amherst—with Amherst’s small-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere vibe and Boston’s big-city-filled-with-colleges-and-businesses-and-culture-and-sports vibe. Interestingly, UMass Boston, the only public four-year college in Boston, does not have dormitories for its students. Its Office of Student Housing does assist students with finding roommates and looking for apartment housing nearby (which seems available) and dealing with landlords. However, a concerned parent or student might have some qualms about a freshman living off campus in a big city without any college-provided supervision or safeguards. 4. The Safety Issue And that brings us to the safety issue—at least the safety issue of being safe in campus housing and on the campus, especially at night. This is, of course, not the whole safety issue on college campuses today, but it is the part we are talking about in this episode. By the way, for real help and insights about all kinds of safety issues, you should listen to The Security Brief with Paul Viollis, coming to a TV station near you this fall and currently a podcast on CBS radio. Paul is truly the expert on this topic. (You can listen to Regina's interview with Paul about college campus safety on his podcast here.) So, if you visit a campus housing facility with your teenager, notice whether there is an adult uniformed security guard with sign-in and sign-out books at the entrance of that residential facility. Ask whether the security guard is there 24 hours a day. I know that many college students find these security guards to be a drag, and I know that this amount of supervision is one reason some students prefer to move into off-campus housing after the freshman year. But, I can tell you as a parent that I loved seeing that security guard at the entrance to my daughter’s super-attractive high-rise of apartment-like suites in the middle of Manhattan at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus—even if I did have to get out my driver’s license and sign in and sign out every time I stopped by. Obviously, uniformed guards provide a higher level of security than a reception desk staffed by students who are working part-time jobs or work-study jobs. And some colleges, as a matter of fact, do not have anyone on duty monitoring the flow of traffic in and out of residential buildings; students just go in and out with their own keys or cards, as I did years ago at Cornell. If you are on a campus tour, notice and ask about what the daytime and nighttime transportation options are: Many colleges use shuttle buses or vans to take students from one part of campus to another, especially when the campus is big. They are not only safer than having a student walk a long way alone, but also warmer or cooler and drier, if the weather is not cooperating. Many colleges have blue-light phones--on those stand-along towers with the blue light on top that are placed along walkways, in parking lots, or in distant parts of the campus. They let a student in trouble call for help instantly. Some are also outfitted with cameras, sirens, and broadcast systems to alert students nearby or to get more information for the police or security guards. Some colleges believe these blue-light phones deter criminal activity; others believe they are mainly a good thing to be able to advertise to prospective students and their parents. Some colleges provide students who serve as walking escorts from building to building or from buildings to the parking lots after dark—because you just can’t always have a buddy with you. And some colleges have all of the above and more. As any parent would likely say, “The more, the better.” Again, if you are on a campus tour, notice and ask about these questions: Are there security guards at the entrances to all of the classroom buildings, libraries, auditoriums, sports facilities, and so on? Are student IDs needed to get in and out of the buildings? How do guests and visitors get in and out of the buildings? Is the campus gated or fenced in or walled in or otherwise closed off? Are there guards at the campus entrances? Of course, many urban campuses do not have any enclosed campus to speak of; they are more like a collection of buildings in a group of city blocks without any sense of a campus. It’s harder to provide a sense of security in those cases. But access to the campus is not just an urban issue. On suburban and rural campuses, is it possible for those outside of the college community to wander on and off the campus at will? That can be just as dangerous as any urban setting. But, before you even visit a campus, ask your teenager to find out what each college’s website says about the ways security is provided in the residential facilities and on the campus generally. And then ask your teenager to go to our best friend, College Navigator, the great online search service provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, and look under “Campus Security” for each college on that long summer list of college options. There you will find crime statistics for three years, including the number of and reasons for criminal offenses and arrests on campus and, specifically, in the residence halls. I do believe that the fair interpretation of these statistics is not necessarily easy for just any layperson to do. Let’s say a word to those of you who plan for your teenager to live at home and commute to campus. Safety is an issue for you, too. Your teenager still needs to pay attention to all of the security measures on campus, just as a residential student does. But you and your teenager also have to worry about the convenience and safety of the commute. Sometimes doing the commute by public transportation seems as though it would be the easy choice. But what about late-night trips home after a meeting on campus or a late class or studying in the library? What about the safety of getting to a remote parking lot to get in your car or of waiting for 20 minutes or more on a subway platform or on an empty street for a public bus? What about commuting in bad weather, especially in snowstorms, when a college campus might close down unexpectedly and public transportation is snarled?   And none of those safety issues take into account simply the time commitment of what might be two or even three hours of commuting each day. So, have your teenager take the Assignment #8 worksheet and complete one for each college on his or her long summer list of college options. First, jot down the types of campus housing available and anything particularly interesting about those options. Second, note any safety measures discussed on the website and any concerns raised by the Campus Security section of College Navigator. Finally, is you are thinking to have your teenager commute, jot down what that really might mean.   Download the Assignment #8 Worksheet The Kindle ebook version of our book, How To Find the Right College, is on sale for $1.99 all summer long! Read it on your Kindle device or download the free Kindle app for any tablet or smartphone. The book is also available as a paperback workbook. Ask your questions or share your feedback by... Leaving a comment on the show notes for this episode at http://usacollegechat.org/episode88 Calling us at (516) 900-6922 to record a question on our USACollegeChat voicemail if you want us to answer your question live on our podcast Connect with us through... Subscribing to our podcast on Google Play Music, iTunes, Stitcher, or TuneIn Liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter Reviewing parent materials we have available at www.policystudies.org Inquiring about our consulting services if you need individualized help Reading Regina's blog, Parent Chat with Regina

The Improv Saved My Life Podcast Episode #56 (Annie Castellano) In this episode Tom is joined by the amazing Annie Castellano (Improv Asylum "NXT" and "House Team" Cast Member). Topics discussed include Annie's improv origins, her impressive list of role models, "American Gladiators", her time with Improv Asylum's "NXT", "The Dinosaur Rap" and other sketches. I was truly inspired by talking to Annie and everyone can learn from her message of making your dreams come true through the power of positivity and hard work. Should you check out this episode? Yes, and…also check out Annie perform at "The Sunday Night Show" at Improv Asylum, Sunday Night's at 8:00pm and also at "What Else Ya Gonna Do Wednesday?" a comedy extravaganza being held at Maggy's Lounge in Quincy on Wednesday, 12/17 from 8-10. Do me a favor and subscribe and rate "The Improv Saved My Life Podcast” on iTunes at this link https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/b.i.t.s-boston-improv-talk/id786818514?mt=2

The Improv Saved My Life Podcast Episode #29 (Teddy Myers & Jeraul Mackey) In this episode, Tom is joined by co host, Jeraul Mackey (BusCow) and guest Teddy Meyers (Okay Cowboy, Mrs. Peanut, Doppelgiggle, Improv Asylum House Teams). Topics discussed include Teddy’s upstate NY roots, House Team auditions & the various improv and sketch groups that he is a part of. This weeks edition of “The Made Up Movie Game” features “As Tears Go By” a set of two very different Rolling Stones song inspired movies. Should you check out this episode? Yes, and… also check out “Okay Cowboy” at this year’s Del Close Marathon

The Improv Saved My Life Podcast Episode #24 (Tim Johnson & Bill Fryer) In this episode, Tom Boyer is joined by co host, Bill Fryer (“BusCow”, “Deep Pod Cuts”) and guest, Tim Johnson (“Improv Asylum NXT and House Teams”). In this podcast Tom & Bill gush over Tim’s NXT sketches, topics discussed include “House Team" auditions, Tim’s first ever audition for Wesleyan University’s gospel choir “Ebony Singers”, Tim’s improv career and knowing that he "made it" when he was granted access the Keurig Machine at Improv Asylum. This week’s edition of “The Made Up Movie Game” features “My Boo", yet another “Usher" song inspired movie about a New Jersey teen forced to live with his Grandmother for the summer when he meets his supernatural “boo” in the least likely of places Should you check out this episode? Yes, and… check out the one and only performance of Tim’s college band, “Mr. Band” on youtube at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l1zazNSYzE

Iliana sits down with the very talented and hilarious PIT Sketch House Team, National Scandal. They talk about about a lot of things from: famous McCarthys, to their new brew, National ScandALE, to getting through weird awkward segues, to more important things like what it’s like to collaborate and write together as a comedy sketch team. More importantly, amidst all this fun chatter, Iliana gets a private performance of some of the team’s favorite sketches and YOU get to listen to them without even paying to see them perform live and in person. Lucky you, lucky listener. But you should definitely check them out at their upcoming show at The People’s Improv Theater Mainstage on Tuesday, September 17th at 8PM.  Find them on Facebook: National Scandal  Find them on tumblr: nationalscandal.tumblr.com  Tweet at them: @NationalScandal  Dream of them: when you sleep at night [...]