Podcasts about how because

If you don’t think our generation uses MacGyver as a verb, the GenX Stories gang will prove you wrong. How? Because we (ironically) recorded this technology themed episode using Eve’s plan D, Mercury retrograde headphone mic. No, we’re not kidding. From the truth about old school TV clickers, to long telephone cord strategies, to why we absolutely refuse to use TikTok now (even though we love Steve Nicks), this funny chat about the innovations that made us will take you wayyyy back. Or at least make you turn your phone off and on again to fix it. Episode LinksIs mercury retrograde?MacGyver as a verbPew generations & tech trendsThe history of the remote controlA Zenith clickerA brief history of the walkman Why vinyl is making a comeback in 2020Phones (and cords) of the 80sPagers were hip in 1985 Evolution of the cell phoneLori’s first cell phoneGordon Gecko's phone/brick in the 1987 movie, Wall StreetEllen asking younger people to use old techThomas GuidesHow does MapQuest work? The Strand bookstore in NYC Dreams Challenge TikTok guy Chris's Pug MRI that went viral by Andy RichterConnect with usSubscribe to GenX Stories in your favorite podcast app Write us a review Visit our site Join our Facebook Group Follow our 80’s inspired Instagram Share your story Send us an email

OK, let’s be honest. For many, this pandemic with lockdowns, quarantines, etc., gave folks a lot of home time. Sitting around, binge-watching on cable or satellite and eating. I don’t mean three squares a day, I’m talking about potato chips, tacos, ribs, candies, etc. You probably just stopped reading and dropped your chin on your chest! “How does HE know what I did?” you ask yourself. How? Because many of us did it and it is basic human nature. Fear not – for our good friend from Fire-Rescue Fitness, Aaron Zamzow is back, and we talk about these very problems. More than that, Aaron provides numerous ways for you to get back into your best health and fitness-for duty. And you just might be surprised how easy many of his suggestions are! Additionally, he has a great promotion going on now, together with the NFFF and you will find a link to that on Aaron’s profile page on our website, under the PODCAST tab on the home page. Additionally, he provides a peek at his annual contest which begins in January where there will be five cash prizes! So, tune in on your favorite podcast platform or at http://Bit.ly/DalmatWeb and coming soon - http://Bit.ly/5-ATFC

Ever made a bad decision that taught you a good lesson.  Godly men become godly not because they make perfect decisions but because they repent well from their bad ones!  They RESOLVE to take their lumps well and not come out of a situation without the lesson.  That's exactly what the Paul in the Bible did and God used the consequence of a bad decision to change his life and the lives of billions forever.  How?  Because he waited well on God! He couldn't have know it at the time but he is glad he did! How about you?  What powerful outcome is on the other side of your waiting room of life right now?  Join men's expert and pastor Kenny Luck  to unpack the core disciplines you can do right now as you wait for God to move your life forward. 

Robb Wolf is a former biochemist,  a health expert, and author of “The Paleo Solution” and (more recently) “Wired to Eat“. Robb is also a consultant at the Naval Special Warfare Resiliency Program. Favorite Success Quote “Fear is the mind eater” Key Points 1. Understand that We are Hard-Wired for a Different Time  One of the biggest problems facing the human race in 2017 (especially those of us living in developed countries) is not terrorism, global warming, or political turmoil… It’s evolutionary mismatch. As a society, we are becoming fatter, more depressed, more anxious, and less social than we have ever been and it is killing us. Obesity is at an all time high, suicide continues to be a leading cause of death (especially among men), more people than ever before are reliant on anti-anxiety and depression medication, and the general populous feels more disconnected than ever before. The simple reason for this is that we are not designed to live in this world. We were designed to walk dozens of miles each day, catch our own meals, live in a close-knit tribe, have regular sex, raise children and die. And nothing could look more different from how we evolved to live than how we are currently living in 2017. While there are dozens of books written on this topic and plenty of solutions to the problem, my goal here is simply to acknowledge what’s going on so that you properly understand the situation and realize that there is hope. Things can change and you can live a healthier, happier, more vibrant life than ever before… But you first have to address the problem. 2. Understand the Importance of Bio-Individuality Even though we understand the problem (evolutionary mismatch), the solution isn’t as cut and dry as one might assume. While there are certainly axiomatic principles that can help you level up your health in record time (follow your circadian rhythm, eat more real foods, and exercise more) the specifics are actually highly bio-individual. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another, because every body is different. Your body responds to substances, sleep patterns, forms of exercise, and supplementation differently from your best friend’s body which responds differently from his girlfriend’s body. This means that you must adopt a very scientific approach to your health. No, you don’t need to go full Tim Ferriss and test hormone levels every night and sleep with crazy wired machines attached to your head. You just need to realize that achieving perfect health is an individual journey and requires experimentation and testing. Try out different methods and techniques and see what works for you. 3. Take Time Each Month to Serve Others Many of you are feeling lost and off purpose. Many of you feel lonely and disconnected. And one of the primary reasons for this is that you are disconnected from other people. Most of us live our lives in a box where we are constantly focused on ourselves, our problems, and our goals. And few of us are ever willing to take a step back and get outside of that box, causing us to feel like we are on the journey alone. If you want to break out of this box, reconnect with others, and gain some perspective on your problems, then I highly recommend that you take some time each month to go volunteer and serve others. This isn’t just a philanthropic thing. Loneliness has been linked to a number of different diseases and problems. So much so that some studies claim lacking a real social circle is worse for you than smoking a pack a day. When you get out of your bubble and go serve those who are in a worse spot than you are, not only will you connect with like-minded individuals and improve your circle of friends, but you will also reframe your problems and stresses, allowing you to handle the challenges of everyday life in a much more effective manner. I know that this particular piece of advice might seem a little “out there” but I challenge you to give it a go. All it takes is a few hours a month, and not only will you be doing good for others, but you might just find your own life changing in the process. 4. Surround Yourself with People Who are Smarter than You  One of the first steps to becoming a more successful in all areas of your life is to surround yourself with people who are better than you in every area of life. If you want to improve your bank account, get around millionaires. If you want to improve your body, befriend competitive athletes. If you want to improve your love life, go hang out with the town “Casanova”. When you are intentional about surrounding yourself with the right people, you will find every area of your life accelerating. They will be able to point out your blind spots, call you on your bullshit, and elevate your thought processes to an entirely new level. Jim Rohn said it best, “You are the average of the five people you spend your time with most.” So be damn selective about who you are spending your time with. 5. Increase Your Income and Decrease Your Expenses While it might seem strange to include financial advice in an article and interview with one of the world’s leading health experts, this one piece of advice could actually have a bigger impact on your health than anything else we’ve discussed so far. How? Because quite simply, money freaking matters. When you are broke, living paycheck to paycheck, your life is harder, plain and simple. That isn’t to say that you can’t be happy, but rather that your overall quality of life is drastically diminished when you lack financial resources. When you are stressed about money, your cortisol levels will shoot through the roof, you will feel like you have less time to spend with the people that you love, you will not be able to afford the food, supplements, and gadgets that can take your health to new levels, and you will not have sufficient time to rest, recover, and recharge. In other words, you are digging yourself an early grave. So if you want to optimize your health, your relationships, and your sense of well-being, optimize your income and expenses. While the number and lifestyle will look different for everyone, a good baseline goal is $75,000/year ($100,000 for those who live in expensive cities). Even though it might be outside the realm of your imagination right now, it’s a very achievable income regardless of your current skills and abilities. And once you can regularly make this income, while reducing your expenses, and working reasonable hours, you will find that your quality of life elevates to new heights.

She's the COO of Mod3rn Fitness™, the Co-Host to The Just F-FIT Podcast, and she's the Founder and CEO of Nourishwithrenata.com... Can you guess who I'm talking about?! For all of our new listeners that aren't as familiar with Renata's story, trust me you're going to want to listen closely to THIS episode and THEN GO BACK and re-listen to all of our previous shows featuring Renata as well! About a year ago, Renata had a HUGE WIN with the launch of her, what I like to call, "Super Duper MANGO SAUCE". And then life happened, and all of a sudden that WIN seemed like a distant memory. Fast forward to today, Renata persevered and now she's set up to WIN. And not just any kind of WINNING...but WINNING BIG!! How? Because of her perseverance. This is easily in my top 10 favorite episodes EVER! There's so MUCH value here, make sure you're taking notes and if you're not already, make sure you're following Renata on instagram @nourish_with_renata. Like and share this episode with one other person to help us grow the #iamteamFFIT movement. Enjoy! Have a great Friday, see you all next week :)

Almost every new client comes to me with the desire to lose fat – for a variety of reasons. The most prevailing reason that I hear is that they want to look more fit and attractive as a result of the fat loss. Maybe losing fat in order to look better is a strong enough motivator for you, but I’ve found that most people need something more compelling. My experience with helping my clients achieve their fat loss goals has really opened my eyes to exactly what they gain when they lose the extra weight. My hope is that by reading the 5 Big Benefits of Fat Loss below, you’ll feel the driving motivation that you need to jump into fitness with both feet, and that you’ll find out just how amazing and capable you’ve been to achieve your goal all along. Big Benefit #1: Confidence You may not consider it a concrete benefit, but that doesn’t stop confidence from being one of the most important perks of dropping fat. When you have increased confidence, you change how you view yourself and go about your daily routine. The world is at your fingertips and you are able to take on whatever it throws your way. Additionally, when your confidence increases after losing a few pounds, you’re poised to keep losing. So the confidence you gain gives you what you need to lose more weight and feel even more confident. Big Benefit #2: Money It may be difficult to understand how losing weight saves you money, but it happens. How? Because one of the best ways to trim pounds is to cut down on the amount of calories you consume every day. When you start eating and drinking fewer calories, that means you don’t have to buy as much food or high-calorie drinks. Additionally, losing weight may make it possible to stop taking certain medications, which will help save you even more money. On top of that, when you lose weight, you get a boost of confidence. (See previous point.) That boost of confidence will change how you handle yourself at work, helping you make the right impression on your boss, so you can get the promotion you need. Big Benefit #3: Better Health Now Go to the doctor with some sort of health condition, and unless it’s the common cold or flu, losing a few pounds can almost always help you manage the condition better. From diabetes to heart disease to joint pain, trimming the fat from your body gives you a heads up right now. Cutting fat makes it easier to get around on your joints, reduces your blood pressure, and helps you sleep better. As additional perks, less fat today means better sleep and better sex tonight. Since both of these improve your quality of life, taking the time necessary to shave off fat will give you the best life you could experience! Big Benefit #4: Better Health Later Today isn’t the only time your health will improve if you lose some fat. Shed some pounds and you’ll reap the rewards for years down the road. Instead of having to manage a variety of health conditions, you will be able to keep those conditions at bay. A few health issues you can cut your risk for by cutting fat are diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, a variety of cancers, high blood pressure, and dementia. In other words, get rid of the fat today and you can avoid all the health issues in the future that requires fat loss for maximum management. Big Benefit #5: Everything Tastes Better As you settle into your new fat-burning lifestyle that includes eating healthily and working out regularly, you’ll notice something. Because you no longer overeat at the buffet or go for a second or third helping, you will begin enjoying every bite that you take. As the bite sits in your mouth, you won’t swallow it before tasting or chewing. You will take your time and really savor the flavor. #buffalopersonaltraining #fatlossbuffalo #appliedfitnes

How many of you remember something called television? Before Netflix and Hulu, do you remember checking the TV Guide then setting aside a certain time in your schedule to sit down and watch your show? Every once in a while an episode would end with the dreaded phrase To Be Continued. But back then there was no such thing as “binge watching.” We had to wait! Here’s the point: the anticipation of what was next kept us coming back for more. Despite our current circumstances, we are anticipating something great on the horizon. How? Because knowing we’re loved by God today brings us security and confidence for tomorrow. His love nourishes us and turns our anxiety into excitement.

Are you hiding in the boundaries set by the impossible? You may be hiding, but everything is possible. Wouldn't it be nice if you could wake up every morning to do what you were great at, lead with intention, and walk in confidence? Desire to be supported and encourage by other like-minded women? Join us at Women of IMPACT. http://facebook.com/groups/thewomenofimpact You can! How? Because nothing is impossible which makes that everything is possible! So why does the hope fade on a daily basis? Why can't you find what you are looking for? Most of us are placing our hope and our contentment in the stuff, not the whom. "We become distracted by what is in our hand and not what is in our hearts." ~ Kristianne Wargo Everything is possible for one who believes. – Mark 9:23 The K.I.S.S. ~ Everything is possible! Where is your hope? What are you doing to intentionally rise up to what God sees, not what you know? You are not alone. You do not have to walk the road of chaos just because. God's got you! "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness!"   #SweetSpirit #CreateYourNow #SoulfulSunday TAKE A.I.M. ~ Action Ignites Motivation  - This is a complimentary (FREE) coaching call with me. You will be able to discuss your specific situation and gain tools and strategies to move you forward. Live. Love. IMPACT!  "One step at a time leads to miles of greatness!"   Subscribe to Create Your Now TV on YouTube. Listen to Create Your Now on Spotify and Pandora. Listen to Create Your Now on iHeart Radio. Click here. The Create Your Now Archives are LIVE!! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here.  http://bit.ly/CYNarchive1 and http://bit.ly/CYNarchive2 and http://bit.ly/CYNarchive3 and http://bit.ly/CYNarchive4 and http://bit.ly/CYNarchive5 and http://bit.ly/CYNarchive6 Contact me at YourBestSelfie@CreateYourNow.com THE NO FUSS MEAL PLAN Instagram @CreateYourNow @Kristianne Wargo Twitter @KristianneWargo @CreateYourNow Facebook www.facebook.com/TheKISSCoach www.facebook.com/CreateYourNow   PERISCOPE USERS!!! Click here for ANDROID Users / GOOGLE  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.periscope.android Click here for APPLE Users  https://itunes.apple.com/app/id972909677   Read more from Kristianne, a contributor to The Huffington Post, MindBodyGreen, Thrive Global, Addicted2Succes, and She Owns It. https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/5-things-to-do-while-waiting-for-success-to-manifest-in-your-life/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristianne-wargo/ http://bit.ly/9amHabits https://journal.thriveglobal.com/how-to-configure-a-sleep-pattern-fit-for-you-d8edd3387eaf#.sniv275c3 https://sheownsit.com/when-failure-is-your-middle-name/   DOMESTIC BEAUTIES (Announcements) 1. Come and let's connect on Facebook - Women Of IMPACT  http://facebook.com/groups/thewomenofimpact 2. Create Your Now ~ Your Best Selfie can be heard on iHeart Radio, Spotify, and Pandora! 3. Create Your Now Archive 1 is LIVE! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here. http://bit.ly/CYNarchive1 4. Create Your Now Archive 2 is LIVE! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here. http://bit.ly/CYNarchive2 5. Create Your Now Archive 3 is LIVE! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here. http://bit.ly/CYNarchive3 6. Create Your Now Archive 4 is LIVE! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here. http://bit.ly/CYNarchive4 7. Create Your Now Archive 5 is LIVE! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here. http://bit.ly/CYNarchive5 8. Create Your Now Archive 6 is LIVE! You can subscribe and listen to all the previous episodes here. http://bit.ly/CYNarchive6 9. NEW Website! Go check it out and tell me what you think. http://www.createyournow.com 10. Sign Up for The A.I.M. Academy! You will be the first to learn all about it. http://createyournow.com/m-academy-2 11. Schedule a Discovery Call. This is a free 30-45 minute call for those serious about coaching with me. 12. Newsletter and Library: If you desire to get weekly emails, be sure to sign up here so you can stay connected. http://createyournow.com/library   Cover Art by Jenny Hamson   Music by Mandisa - Overcomer http://www.mandisaofficial.com Song ID: 68209 Song Title: Overcomer Writer(s): Ben Glover, Chris Stevens, David Garcia Copyright © 2013 Meaux Mercy (BMI) Moody Producer Music (BMI) 9t One Songs (ASCAP) Ariose Music (ASCAP) Universal Music -  Brentwood Benson Publ. (ASCAP) D Soul Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

  “The market is too saturated with products to make a real income as a seller on Etsy” “If i just tweak my SEO ONE MORE TIME I’ll finally start showing up in Etsy search…” “I’ve tried marketing and maybe it works for other people, but not in MY shop with MY unique product.”     Ever found yourself spouting off one of those? Yep, we’ve allllll been guilty. And I think, to some extent, part of that is because it’s EASY to justify why something isn’t working if we have a whole slew of excuses we can pull out of our back pocket to back us up.    It helps us save a bit of face, right?!   But in today’s episode of the Simplify Your Sales podcast, it’s time to clear the air-- and do a little mythbusters-style action because we are going to CRUSH those myths about selling on Etsy and hopefully empower you to take action to dispel those beliefs about your OWN shop. Because it kills me when I see an Etsy shop that uses one or more of these excuses for a crutch, when in reality, it’s NOT true and you just need to approach things differently.    And we’re not just going to talk about the myth and say “oh, and by the way, that’s not true.” because that’s NOT helpful at all and doesn’t teach you a dang thing. It’s like saying “oh, take better photos!” which to me was always a NO DUH sort of moment-- but that advice doesn’t help you in any way-- it just points out what you’re doing wrong and leaves you to figure it out on your own.    So NONE of that today. We’re diving into REAL examples and sharing REAL strategies today. I’m all about taking action on this podcast, right? So let’s do this!   Okay, I wanted to start by tackling one of the BIGGEST myths I see on Etsy that I really wish would just disappear.    Myth #1   “If i just tweak my SEO ONE MORE TIME I’ll finally start showing up in Etsy search and make sales…”   Yep, we’re going full-steam ahead busting a major SEO myth right out of the gates.    Unless you are brand new to the Etsy scene and hearing about SEO for the first time, I can almost 100% guarantee you that your SEO does NOT need any additional tweaking.    Now I know that goes against basically every Etsy-ingrained doctrine you’ve heard on the forums and in the sellers handbook and those 400 random Google articles you’ve read.    But I’ve gotta be honest with you-- that compulsion you have to constantly check your Etsy search stats and see how many views you’ve gotten that day from your keywords is actually hurting your shop’s success-- and the reason why is because you’re so zeroed in on this ONE aspect that you’re actually ignoring all the additional possibilities and traffic avenues that you could be pursuing-- and getting a much higher return on investment on.    SEO is a fantastic foundational strategy, but once you’ve got that foundation set up-- regardless of whether it’s bringing you 5 visits a day or 500-- you’ve got to move on or you’ll never build anything greater.   Little known fact, but working on OUTSIDE marketing strategies, like the ones I teach my students inside Mastermind Your Marketing, will actually BOOST your SEO without requiring you to to constantly have an Erank or Marmalead tab open on Google chrome. The reason for that is that as you market your shop in ways BEYOND Etsy SEO and keywords, Etsy actually recognizes and takes note of the traffic and sales you are driving into your shop on your own-- and they essentially “REWARD” your shop for it and start showing you more frequently in search results.   So key takeaway here: SEO is great as a foundational strategy, but once it’s set up, LEAVE IT ALONE and start focusing on building a marketing presence OFF of Etsy-- not only will you feel more in control of your shop’s success, but you’ll boost your Etsy SEO ranking as well, and that’s what we call a win-win. The fact that you won’t be dreaming nonstop about keyword research anymore is just an added bonus ;) Alright, myth #2 -    “I’ve tried marketing before and maybe it works for other people, but not in MY shop with MY unique product.”   Maybe you’ve dabbled a bit at Instagram or tried your hand at pinning to Pinterest for a couple of weeks.    And you’re discouraged because you’re not seeing results right away.    I think a lot of the disconnect here comes from the fact that, as cliche as it is, we live in this digital age where it seems like EVERYONE but you can become an overnight success and that it just sort of “magically” happens to the people who are meant to succeed.   And so it’s frustrating that you’re giving it your best-- albeit not super long term-- shot at things and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. The business needle is NOT moving.    It’s totally tempting to start to believe that there’s something wrong with YOU or your shop and that marketing just doesn’t work in YOUR situation selling YOUR unique products.     Can I make something super clear right now? ANd if you take nothing else from this podcast episode, I want THIS to be the thing that you zone in on and remember for at least the next 15 minutes.    Yes, you are unique and special and wonderful.    But you’re not THAT special.    And your shop is not THAT unique.    And you and your shop are NOT the exception to successful marketing.    Now, hear me out-- I don’t mean that in a descending sort of way at all. I mean that in my 4+ years coaching Etsy sellers, I’ve yet to see a product that couldn’t benefit from a solid marketing strategy.    And trust me-- I’ve seen it ALL. Painted rocks, chapel veils, antique chandeliers, travel guidebooks, yarn holders-- seriously-- I’VE SEEN IT ALL.    And I’m here to tell you that NONE OF THOSE are magically exempt from the benefits of marketing.    The reason I am SO passionate about this is because guys, this one hits SO close to home ;)    Can I share a little story with you real quick? Well, it’s my podcast and you’re listening so I’m going to take that as a yes. If you’re not into the story, that’s fine and you can switch over to the radio or something. But for those of you who are interested in a Morgan Nield college flashback that I’m somehow going to MIRACULOUSLY turn into an Etsy marketing life lesson, buckle up:   During my last semester in college, my 3 roommates were photographers. This doesn’t mean a whole lot except for the fact that whenever we hung out all together, they just wanted to take photos.   As much as I loved these girls (and truly-- I did. 2 of them were bridesmaids at my wedding), I detested the evenings where we were all together and the DSLR cameras would come out.   I would tell them over and over again “I hate taking photos. I’m never going to be a photographer. How is this possibly your idea of fun?!” Like, I legit didn’t understand how anyone could find this ENJOYABLE.    Imagine the irony of irony when I decided to open an Etsy shop and realized that I was going to have to take photos of my product. Cue the hyperventillated breathing.   Like any normal human, I protested this for a while. As I was prepping to start LittleHighbury, I would tell my husband over and over and over again “I want to sell on Etsy but I just HATE taking photos. Taking photos sucks! I hate this! Where’s the ice cream!?”   And he put up with this for a while (he’s a saint and one day I’m going to have him on this podcast and you’re going to realize that!), but one night I think he had had enough of my moaning and groaning because he turned to me and said, “I think the only reason you “hate” taking photos is because you don’t know what you’re doing.”   Now this made me angry.    But not because he had said it-- but because the more I sat and festered over the accusation, the more I realized it was true.   I’m a perfectionist and I like to do things right or not at all. It’s a type-A thing that can be a blessing or a curse.   Photography-- because it was something I had never invested any time into learning-- was something that I didn’t know how to do. I had no idea how to use a DSLR, I didn’t understand photography composition, and photo editing? How in the heck do you even know what contrast is good? Heck, what is contrast?!   And because I had no idea what I was doing, I had decided that I “hated” photography and that was that.   So can I make a little bit of a guess about why you “hate” marketing? ;)   Now don’t get me wrong-- marketing isn’t a natural fit for everyone-- and sometimes it takes a while to get into a groove.   But if you’re currently haphazardly marketing your Etsy shop willy-nilly and hating every stinkin' minute of it, I’ve got a little secret for you: it’s because you don’t know what you’re doing.   I used to “hate” marketing too-- I felt like it was sleazy, unnatural, and took away from the one thing I enjoyed about selling on Etsy: creating. I didn’t understand how some people loved marketing because in my experience? It sucked!   But as I made a mindset shift-- and invested money into hiring a business coach and enrolling in some INCREDIBLE marketing courses that I share portions of inside Mastermind Your Marketing-- I learned how to market effectively (aka- not just asking for the sale every single time) by providing value to my customers, you better believe that I started to fall in love with the whole process.   Nowadays? It’s all I want to talk about with you guys!    And you know why? It’s because I finally know what I’m doing :)    It took a while, but over the past 9 years I’ve learned how to market in a way that’s authentic, natural, and--get this-- actually brings in sales!   (And trust me-- marketing gets REALLY addicting when you see your efforts directly translate into sales)   So the whole “marketing isn’t for me and my shop!”? Yeah, I don’t buy that ;)    In fact, I have students inside Mastermind Your Marketing who join and I send out this initial question where I ask them you know, “What made you decide to join MYM?”   And A LOT of them have said it’s because they hate marketing but they know it’s important.    And guess what? A few weeks into the program? The lightbulbs start to flicker to the “on” position. There are aha! Moments happening left and right...and then-- inevitably-- I get an email or message from them. In fact, I just got one a few weeks ago where she said:    “I used to HATE marketing-- it just didn’t make sense to me. You’ve outlined things SO clearly inside Mastermind Your Marketing-- especially the “why” of the things we do inside the program-- that I’m starting to actually ENJOY planning out my shop’s marketing system. I finally feel like I’ve got control over my shop!”    And that, my friends, is why I teach what I teach. And that’s why I need you to commit to investing in your marketing strategy. Whether it’s with me or another mentor, no matter WHAT you sell, I guarantee you there’s a way that marketing can and will benefit it. Now, sometimes we have to make some tweaks to your product before so that it becomes something marketable, which we cover in the product validation pre-lesson inside Mastermind Your Marketing-- but once you’ve validated your product idea, investing in learning how to market your Etsy shop is going to be one of THE most rewarding things you do with your time and give you such a feeling of self-confidence and control in your shop’s future success. I mean, understanding marketing changes EVERYTHING.    And I want you to know that *gasp!* I’ve actually followed my OWN advice on this as well. I invested in a photography online course, bought myself a dslr camera, and while i was selling physical products on Etsy, you better believe I was the one behind the camera staging the shots and editing the photos afterwards.    Once you know what you’re doing, it’s not too bad. I’m just saying.    Okay, moving onto Myth #3-- and this is one I am CRAZY passionate about. Yes, I realize I’ve said that about all of these so far. But this time I mean it!   “I don’t have to invest $$$ in my Etsy shop because I can just find all of the information I need out there for FREE.”   Yep, there’s this super-popular myth out there that floats around various Etsy conversation circles that as long as you’re willing to hustle SUPER hard, spend MONTHS researching your butt off, and test and tweak every single detail of your shop, you can become wildly profitable with $0 investment, because #hardwork and #googlesavestheday.    Can I just be the first to say it? That is RIDICULOUS :P   Now, I’m not saying the hustle mentality is ridiculous-- seriously-- I admire the HECK out of all you hustlers out there-- I KNOW it’s not easy.   No, the ridiculous part is this teensy, tiny detail that everyone seems to forget when talking about how they built their businesses “for free.”   Searching for answers and strategy on Google (or the Etsy forums, heaven forbid) is NOT actually “free.”   (wait...what?!?!)   Now, I will fully acknowledge that it may not cost you MONEY to use Google as your business mentor…   It IS costing you something else.    TIME.     Yep, we’re going there today :)   But nothing is ever truly “free” and I can’t stress that enough.    Let me show you what I mean.   Now really quick, let’s establish something to make sure we’re on the same page: I’m guessing your time is valuable-- in fact, I’m willing to bet as you’re listening to this podcast that you’re doing other things at the same time-- maybe driving home from work, playing with your kiddos on the playroom floor, making dinner for your apparently never-been-fed-before ravenging family. I mean, is it only my family that acts like they’ve been starving for days when it approaches dinner time? I promise I feed them! I minored in culinary arts for crying outloud-- trust me-- I don’t skip feedings at my house.    Okay, but back to the point I was trying to make: Your time (and my time!) is a limited resource.  So let’s talk about this “time” investment myth Now, initially, investing in time may seem to save you money.    And it’s definitely the “safety net” option for a lot of us (myself included when I started!) because let’s face it: there’s this (however irrational) fear that if we invest real-deal MONEY into our business, we *might* not actually get it back.    And when you’ve worked your buns off for that profit (and yes, I KNOW how many Instagram posts it took to make that sale!), it’s dang HARD to throw it back into your business for something that only “might” pay off.    Over the years (and I’ve been at this “selling online” thing for over 9-- almost 10 years now!), I’ve come to realize just how backwards that way of thinking is.    It’s time to stop looking at business investments as “risky” and instead look at it as the most straightforward way to GROW your business.    Because guess what?   Investing time in your business? That’s risky, too.   You don’t know if the strategies that you spent HOURS researching for the past week will even pay off.   And you’re definitely NOT going to get that time back.   In my experience (below!), investing $$$ in my business has been the FASTEST and most STRAIGHTFORWARD way of growing my business. My history in investing in my biz.  If you’ve followed along with me at all, you know that one of my first “business” investments was a $500 60-minute business coaching call back in 2013.    This call was the SCARIEST thing I had done in my business up to this point.    Before this initial investment, I had boot-strapped my way through my first online shop-- picking up as many free “tips” and “tricks” as I could along the way and spending a ton of TIME (see-- there it pops up again!) in that “two steps forward, one step back” phase.    Because I had NO clue what I was doing and was relying on a bunch of free articles from around the web to fashion a makeshift “strategy,” I’ll be the first to admit it was far from glamorous and definitely NOT smooth sailing.    I like to think of it as my “smeared mascara” business phase. Hey, we all have those right? ;)   Bottom line? I invested a lot of TIME during this phase.   And yes, it was technically “free” in terms of money. I didn’t actually have to spend a dime figuring this stuff out via Google.   But it was costing me in other ways.   TIME.   PROFIT.   MY FREAKIN’ SANITY.   So in September 2013, I booked that business call and made a non-refundable $250.  (and then proceeded to almost lose my lunch because $250!!!!!).    That business call changed EVERYTHING for me.    And no, I’m not just talking about the crystal clarity I got from actually being handed a STRATEGY and not just a bunch of random tips and tricks….   ...I’m talking about the fact that instead of wasting 100+ hours (ps- that’s MONTHS in stay-at-home-mom standard time) like I did last time trying to hodge-podge together a makeshift “plan” on my own (that revolved around nearly 100% SEO if you’re wondering) ....   ...I had one CUSTOMIZED and COMPLETED in just 60 minutes with an actual e-commerce marketing strategist (and not some random website ghostwriter).    Now, that’s not to say that it didn’t take time to implement said plan.    I still had to do the work. Yes, it was laid out for me, but I still had to IMPLEMENT it.  But because I had already created and outlined my entire marketing system plan on that 60-minute $500 phone call, I was able to jump into that IMPLEMENTATION phase right away.  (you know-- the part of the strategy where you actually make money. Aka, NOT the “research + development” phase that we all get so comfortable in but earns us $0 ;)   Shop #2 results And that led me to earn over $1,000 my first month of running my Etsy shop, Little Highbury, selling baby headbands and accessories.    Shop #1 results For comparison/contrasting sake, my stats for month 1 of my first Etsy shop with an 100% FREE strategy were a big fat 0.    Now, up front, it seems glaringly obvious which one cost me more money…   The $500 marketing call, right?!   Actually, no.    Because when you look at the cold, hard data, both of those options cost me something: Shop #1: I invested $0 and earned $0, which resulted in…(wait for it).... $0.  Shop #2: I invested $500 and earned $1252.40, which resulted in +$752.40 just in month one!   See where I’m going with this?!   Shop #1 breakdown: Shop #1 cost me in TIME. I spent MONTHS researching the heck out of my SEO strategy and having nightmares about keywords. And that was BEFORE I even implemented them. Now, were those keywords “free” to implement in terms of money? But they cost me in lost revenue.  How? Because there were shops in the same niche as me who were busy making sales and filling orders while I was too busy researching and re-researching keywords behind-the-scenes to have the time to ACTIVELY do something with my shop that would actually result in sales.   Shop #2 breakdown: Now shop #2 cost me in MONEY. I spent $500 and 60 minutes with a business coach. Day one of opening my shop, I was in the negative by -$500. By day 30, I had made a gross profit of $752.40 (which actually netted around $675.00-- I had a high markup on my product ;)   So the bottom line?   Investing that $500 actually made me MORE money. As counter-intuitive as it seems, investing MONEY in your business is the fastest way to grow your revenue.    I need you to understand this: NOTHING in business is free.    (dang it!)   You’re either going to have to invest TIME or MONEY in growing your Etsy shop. There are NO exceptions to this.    For me, I’ve always found money to be the better investment overall. Yes, there are definitely things I still Google to quickly figure out, and you can find a lot of incredible content out there for “free.”   But for other things (ie- like adding custom CSS to my site, designing promo graphics, or creating landing pages), spending the $1,000 to my graphic designer is MORE THAN WORTH THE COST of trying to figure it out on my own and losing valuable hours (let’s be honest: DAYS) that *could* be spent on strategies that actually make me money.   And give me more time with my family :)   (fun fact: at this point in 9+ years selling online, I’ve invested over $100,000 in business investments and I can count on one hand the number of times they DIDN’T pay off. ANd yes, I realize that number might seem a little extreme to you right now. Remember that I’ve been doing this for a LONG time. Don’t ever compare your beginning to my middle-- it’s not fair to either of us :)   Whew-- see? Told you I was passionate about this myth of building a business for “free”.    Okay, and finally, let’s wrap it up with myth #4. I know, I know-- you thought we were never going to get there. But we made it! Myth #4   “The market is too saturated with products to make a real income as a seller on Etsy”   So while I’m going to myth-bust this statement, obviously, because that’s what I’ve been doing this entire episode, I’m actually going to agree with PART of it-- the market on Etsy IS totally saturated.    There’s no point in beating around the bush-- there are A LOT of sellers on Etsy and more are popping up everyday. It is CROWDED on there, my friend.    And so when you’ve got your digital printables shop set up and suddenly realize you’re competing against 1.3 million OTHER listings to get found on search, it’s easy to believe that the market is just TOO saturated to sell in.    But that’s only partially true.    Yes, if you ONLY rely on Etsy SEO and you’re competing against those millions of listings for search placement, totally-- it’s going to be tough sledding to even get ONE pair of eyes on your product.    BUT.    When you start focusing your marketing efforts OFF of Etsy and take ownership of driving your OWN traffic to your shop, you’ll quickly find that saturated competition?   It becomes completely irrelevant.    And that is nothing short of a MAGICAL feeling, my friend.    The key to getting found on Etsy even in a RIDICULOUSLY saturated marketplace-- is to do it DIFFERENT.    While everyone else is hustling their buns off and checking their SEO for the 20th time of the day, YOU are actively marketing your shop in OTHER ways.    Ways that don’t require you to fall down a keyword rabbit hole and compete directly with hundreds of thousands of other Etsy shops selling the exact same dang thing you are. Now obviously yours is better-- you know that and I know that-- but in the world of SEO, it’s hard to help the average shopper realize that if that’s the ONLY tool you’re using.    So let’s make the competition COMPLETELY irrelevant and start focusing on driving traffic directly into your shop.    It won’t matter if you show up on page 20 of search results-- because you’ve created additional EASIER and FASTER ways for your customers to find you.    And then-- just like we talked about in Myth #1 -- once you start implementing your own marketing and driving your own traffic, your SEO kicks itself up a notch or two or fifty and you start showing up in more and more search results on Etsy for more and more people.    It’s basically the biggest snowball effect you can create.    And if you’re looking for help in generating that outside traffic, be sure to check out Mastermind Your Marketing because that’s literally EXACTLY what the program teaches you how to do.    *****   Whew-- okay, we covered A LOT and hopefully you were able to see things a little bit differently than how you’ve maybe approached them in the past.    TAKE ACTION   Okay, so what’s the take action for this episode? Well, obviously, to stop believing these myths, right?!   But also I want you to start taking OWNERSHIP for your shop’s success. It’s not up to Etsy to send you traffic and sales, and it’s not fair to blame them for your lack of either as well.    So I want you to sit down when you get a minute-- because again, I’m fairly confident you’re multitasking while you listen to this episode-- but when you get a chance, sit down and pick ONE thing you can do to take OWNERSHIP of your shop’s success. Is there a marketing strategy you can implement that doesn’t start with the letters “SEO”? A program you’ve had your eye on (hint hint: Mastermind Your Marketing. But in all seriousness, I’d love to help you figure all this out so you’re not on your own)? Whatever it is, I want you to write down ONE way you’re going to take OWNERSHIP of your shop’s success. And then put that post-it or scrap paper or napkin or whatever it is that you scribbled it down on-- somewhere you can see it everyday to remind you that YOU are in charge of your shop’s success.    You’ve got this my friend!

It finally happened. The bear market we've all feared for the past 11 years of market prosperity has come. The sudden and shocking nature of the collapse has been startling. However, we've known for many years it was coming. How? Because they always come eventually. We've been saying for years to protect yourself while there is still time. If you did, you feel much better. If you didn't, you'll have to wait until next time. In this episode, we share what protection looks like, how much you should consider protecting in the future, and why.

Wayne Deehring is the co-founder of USP Fulfillment, a company that has provided full-service print production fulfillment for over 30 years. They create and ship everything from books and promotional items, as well as products for infomercial speakers, events, and subscription fulfillment. USP Fulfillment has worked with companies like Costco, Sony, Coca Cola, Disney, Walmart, and have even created items for the Grammys and the Emmy Awards. In this episode… Logistics in business is a tough issue to handle. But when you know you have someone reliable to help you navigate things more smoothly in your business, that’s an awful lot of load off of your shoulders. Wayne Deehring of USP Fulfillment knows just how crucial reliability can be for logistics. How? Because he’s learned the importance of being reliable from the people he has surrounded himself with.  Tune in as Dr. Jeremy Weisz talks to Wayne about his mentors, his inspirations, and how he manages to push through all the hurdles that come his way.

In today’s episode, we’re chatting about self-love, but we’re going a layer deeper (peelin’ that onion back, girl—you’ll thank me later!). A double dose of self-love AND tough love, this episode serves as a solid reminder that everything you’re looking for . . . you already have. Does this year feel like it's been nothing but absolute CHAOS? Welcome to the club! Today's podcast episode #92 is a MUST-LISTEN, not only for the content, but also because it'll bring you a major sense of relief. How? Because we're talking about WHY, despite what you may have been led to believe, CHAOS actually means you're on the right path. OWN YOUR THRIVE CONFERENCE -- MAY 16-17, 2020 -- THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS Use code OWNIT111 at checkout to save 20%! Get yours today at http://www.thatsmarthustle.com/ownyourthrive Join THE SOULFLOW COLLECTIVE, a playground for the soul. A monthly membership community, this is where soul nourishment and personal growth collide. Learn more here: www.thatsmarthustle.com/sfc ☟ CONNECT WITH KRISTEN ☟ PURCHASE KRISTEN'S BOOKS | https://www.kristenmartinbooks.com/buy-books WEBSITE | http://www.thatsmarthustle.com YOUTUBE | http://www.youtube.com/authorkristenmartinbooks INSTAGRAM | http://www.instagram.com/authorkristenmartin FACEBOOK | http://www.facebook.com/authorkristenmartin TWITTER | http://twitter.com/authorkristenm KRISTEN'S BOOKS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE AT . . . SOULFLOW (Personal Development/Nonfiction) Amazon (+ebook): https://amzn.to/2w7DNqa Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2Np5HI9 The Book Depository: https://bit.ly/2P5XtqO BE YOUR OWN #GOALS (Personal Development/Nonfiction) Amazon (+ebook): http://amzn.to/2I3hYMq Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2HMb2aU The Book Depository: http://bit.ly/2KaAymL Books-A-Million: http://bit.ly/2I8B7Nk

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in October 2018. The barista gives you your coffee and change, and you walk away from the busy line. But you suddenly realise she gave you $1 less than she should have. Do you brush your way past the people now waiting, or just accept this as a dollar you’re never getting back? According to philosophy Professor Hilary Greaves - Director of Oxford University's Global Priorities Institute, which is hiring - this simple decision will completely change the long-term future by altering the identities of almost all future generations. How? Because by rushing back to the counter, you slightly change the timing of everything else people in line do during that day - including changing the timing of the interactions they have with everyone else. Eventually these causal links will reach someone who was going to conceive a child. By causing a child to be conceived a few fractions of a second earlier or later, you change the sperm that fertilizes their egg, resulting in a totally different person. So asking for that $1 has now made the difference between all the things that this actual child will do in their life, and all the things that the merely possible child - who didn't exist because of what you did - would have done if you decided not to worry about it. As that child's actions ripple out to everyone else who conceives down the generations, ultimately the entire human population will become different, all for the sake of your dollar. Will your choice cause a future Hitler to be born, or not to be born? Probably both! • Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Some find this concerning. The actual long term effects of your decisions are so unpredictable, it looks like you’re totally clueless about what's going to lead to the best outcomes. It might lead to decision paralysis - you won’t be able to take any action at all. Prof Greaves doesn’t share this concern for most real life decisions. If there’s no reasonable way to assign probabilities to far-future outcomes, then the possibility that you might make things better in completely unpredictable ways is more or less canceled out by equally likely opposite possibility. But, if instead we’re talking about a decision that involves highly-structured, systematic reasons for thinking there might be a general tendency of your action to make things better or worse -- for example if we increase economic growth -- Prof Greaves says that we don’t get to just ignore the unforeseeable effects. When there are complex arguments on both sides, it's unclear what probabilities you should assign to this or that claim. Yet, given its importance, whether you should take the action in question actually does depend on figuring out these numbers. So, what do we do? Today’s episode blends philosophy with an exploration of the mission and research agenda of the Global Priorities Institute: to develop the effective altruism movement within academia. We cover: • How controversial is the multiverse interpretation of quantum physics? • Given moral uncertainty, how should population ethics affect our real life decisions? • What are the consequences of cluelessness for those who based their donation advice on GiveWell style recommendations? • How could reducing extinction risk be a good cause for risk-averse people? Get this episode by subscribing: type '80,000 Hours' into your podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.

Wellll...... Lot of singing now a days at the Righteous Podcast Labs. Maybe too much time on our hands, but its the holiday season and we are feeling righteous!!! As we dive deeper into the world of rightoeusness it is important that we look at the debate of good music plateforms. Spotify changed my life... How?? Because its truly amazing I would say. Anyways, lets look at the righteous meet up December 22nd. Grab a pocket beer and get out there and enjoy good ole Vermont. Im excited to be excited about this one. Stay Stoked. Ride Righteous. Bring Righteous Back YEWWWWWWWWWW

Does this year feel like it's been nothing but absolute CHAOS? Welcome to the club! Today's podcast episode #92 is a MUST-LISTEN, not only for the content, but also because it'll bring you a major sense of relief. How? Because we're talking about WHY, despite what you may have been led to believe, CHAOS actually means you're on the RIGHT path. OWN YOUR THRIVE EVENT -- MAY 16-17, 2020 -- THE WOODLANDS, TX Use code OWNIT111 at checkout to save 20% through December 31, 2019. Tickets are going fast! Get yours today at: http://www.thatsmarthustle.com/ownyourthrive ☟ CONNECT WITH KRISTEN ☟ PURCHASE KRISTEN'S BOOKS | https://www.kristenmartinbooks.com/buy-books WEBSITE | http://www.thatsmarthustle.com YOUTUBE | http://www.youtube.com/authorkristenmartinbooks INSTAGRAM | http://www.instagram.com/authorkristenmartin FACEBOOK | http://www.facebook.com/authorkristenmartin TWITTER | http://twitter.com/authorkristenm KRISTEN'S BOOKS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE AT . . . SOULFLOW (Personal Development/Nonfiction) Amazon (+ebook): https://amzn.to/2w7DNqa Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2Np5HI9 The Book Depository: https://bit.ly/2P5XtqO BE YOUR OWN #GOALS (Personal Development/Nonfiction) Amazon (+ebook): http://amzn.to/2I3hYMq Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/2HMb2aU The Book Depository: http://bit.ly/2KaAymL Books-A-Million: http://bit.ly/2I8B7Nk

We hear it all the time: “I feel like I’m not actually an adult because I have debt. And debt is bad!” Do you resonate with that? Well… we’re here to tell you a few things about debt that just might blow your freakin’ mind. Check out the fourth installment of our #Adulting 101 series about *drum roll please* debt repayment. How much should you be paying to debt? You’ll probably be surprised. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN 02:19 What people sacrifice for the sake of paying down debt 03:20Generational fear and hatred of debt 03:46 Dustin’s chart that “explains everything” 05:00 Why the truth is that not all debt is bad — and why not all debt should be treated equally. 07:42 Why you should treat interest rates like a game 08:26 The definition of interest  09:09 The good, the bad, the ugly debt 10:56 At what percentage you should start focusing your debt repayment 11:26 What Dustin thinks is “horrifying” 12:58 How much should we be paying off our debt? 13:29 How to shift your savings goals around to pay off high interest debt 14:10 Why debt should be viewed as a tool that gives you leverage 16:29 How paying down debt can actually risk your long-term wealth 17:40 Why you may be risking stability in a recession IT’S NOT THE 80’S ANYMORE, MOM Do you have parents, grandparents, or older family members/peers in your life who talk about “debt being dumb”? Maybe you’ve heard a shall-not-be-named “money guru” say that and thought, “Well crap, I must be dumb.” We take issue with this approach to debt. Why? Because it’s the not the same world anymore, and sometimes debt is kinda smart. Yeah, we said it. From the early 70s all the way up until the financial crisis in 2008, there was about 40 years of high interest rates. These interest rates were way higher than historical averages — and even what we’re looking with now. That means, if you’re a Millennial, your parents were maybe paying 14% interest on their mortgage. Insane right?! What’s even crazier is that today, we’re looking at the lowest interest rates in over 200 years. So, when we talk about debt “back then” and debt nowadays, we’re talking about apples and oranges. This means that owning a house with a 4% mortgage is wayyyyyy better than owning one like your parents did (and probably paid off) at 14%. This means that your car loan at 4 or 5% is wayyyyy more affordable than your dad’s old T-Bird. And you know what? The cost of college has increased 260% since 1980. So thanks, Aunt Linda, for the story about how you paid your way through college, but the reality is we need loans to get that same education. So, when we talk about debt, know that we (as in Dustin and Danielle) know that we’re actually talking about interest rates. And as Danielle puts it, interest rates are really just a game you gotta play.  HOW TO PLAY THE INTEREST GAME To put it simply, interest is the cost of acquiring money. How much does it cost to borrow the money you need? How much will it cost you to take out a loan to buy a house? How much does it cost to get money to pay for your education? And is the interest worth that cost to you? Really, that’s a good measurement of your need for debt. Do you want to pay 7% extra for that car… or would you be cool with paying 7% on a cheaper car that still gets you where you wanna go? And interest has another important role in your debt: it helps you decide which debt is “good,” “bad,” and “ugly.” THE GOOD, BAD, UGLY DEBT We’re not telling you to ignore your debt if you have, let’s say, a 0% interest rate on your new car or home furniture. What we are saying is that you shouldn’t push yourself to the brink to pay down debt that has a low interest rate. But yeah, sometimes we make mistakes and go into credit card debt over stupid crap like a new phone and some killer blue suede shoes. Those are the kinds of debt that we want to avoid — and pay off faster. Other times, things like predatory lending can get us in a bind and we may be paying 20-30% on things like cars, payday loans, and credit cards. So that leads us into the good, the bad, and the ugly — which we talk about in depth on Episode 60. But the gist is this: “Good” debt (and yes, we use that term loosely) include:  Mortgage Auto loan Student loan Business credit cards or loans (with good interest rates) These are used to improve your situation. “Bad” debt: Adjustable rate mortgage (you buy a house and the rate can be changed over time, sometimes ridiculously high) High interest student loans (that you’re just paying the minimums on) High interest car loans (this happens if you have bad or no credit) A good frame of reference for bad debt: anything higher than 5%. If that’s where you’re at with a loan, it might be good to buckle down and pay more. “Ugly” debt: Credit card debt Store credit debt Payday loans    “Ugly” debt usually is qualified by interest rates in the 20-30% range, and they require you to really do some work to get them paid down. Why? Because you’re paying up to a third more than you spent — that “cost” associated with the money is totally not worth it.  But, now that you know which debt you should be prioritizing, how much more should you be paying to your good/bad/ugly debt? HOW MUCH SHOULD WE BE PAYING TOWARDS DEBT? This doesn’t apply to every person, but a good rule of thumb is to spend about 5-15% of your income on debt. This includes your credit cards, your student loans, your car payment, etc. It does not include your mortgage, which is part of our housing episode (jump to Episode 81 here).  And, again, it depends on the interest rate! Are you at a smaller interest rate like 4%, or high percent like more than 17%? If you’re at 6% or higher, you should probably lean more towards the 15% of your income range going to debt repayment. But not at the cost of your savings! Remember your savings and investing. You should be saving (and giving) about 25% of your income but, if you have a lot of high interest debt, you might want to cut back on that investing if your interest is high. Then, once those higher interest debts are paid off, you can ramp up the savings and pay down the other lower interest rate debts over time. Why do we say this?   Because investing can net you 3-6% on average… which negates any sort of interest you’ll be spending on low interest debt.   How? Because as you compound interest on your savings and investments — meaning you grow your accounts because you’re getting paid interest into them — you continue to add more money, and get paid interest on those higher amounts. You’re making money on the money you’ve earned. It’s freakin’ magical. You know what’s not magical? Going broke to pay off low-interest debt. DEBT ISN’T YOUR RISK; IT’S THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION’S We’d like to leave you with one last note: People think all debt is bad because it’s a financial “burden” that rests on them. But that’s not the truth. The party carrying the real burden are the banks that loan us the money. Essentially, you could never pay that money back (sure, you’d be screwed, but they’d be out the money), so they are the ones more at risk than you are. We hear this all the time when we see Facebook rants about how “China owns our debt!” What you need to understand is: we don’t have to pay back that debt right now. We have more money in our bank account because they (China or the banks) are holding that debt for us. This frees up more cash in our accounts to pay them back, but also still keep living. And there’s psychological value in knowing that we can pay things back over time — making it possible for us to do other things in life, like buy a house, have a baby, build a business, etc. We’re not saying don’t pay down your debt, or to only ever pay the minimums. But we are saying that you can do it at a pace that allows you to fill your other buckets.  DON’T PAY DOWN DEBT AT THE RISK OF YOUR OTHER NEEDS We’re just gonna say it: having an emergency fund so you don’t have to go into credit card debt in case of an emergency is much more important than just paying off your credit card right now. Being able to afford the roof over your head while also paying down your student loan debt is more important than going all in to pay down your debt — and losing your roof in the process. And building long-term wealth is more important than paying down “good debt” for the sake of saying you are debt-free. #JustSayin The biggest advantage of being young is that you can save so much, and therefore gain so much compound interest, that you can build vast amounts of wealth over time. But if you’re focused on paying back “good” low interest debt, you’re losing out on those prime saving years — and setting yourself up for more risk if something not-so-fun happens. So let’s reframe your debt: low-interest debt can give you power and leverage, rather than be a burden. It’s not 1985 anymore, so don’t let older generations tell you all debt is bad. Instead, lay out your debt, look at the interest rates, and figure out which debt gives you power and which debt is taking AWAY your power.    This material is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.   RESOURCES & PEOPLE MENTIONED Ep. 81: Adulting 101 Series: Housing: Episode 081 The Toujours Planning Quiz — Are we a good fit for your financial planning needs? Our FREE go-to financial and life planning resources   CONNECT WITH DANIELLE AND DUSTIN Ask Your Questions On Facebook On Twitter

To join our community and be part of the conversation: Behind The Mask-ulinity Private Facebook Group To message me directly: E-Mail Me: BehindTheMaskulinity@gmail.com or Instagram Me If you Googled "vulnerability" you may come across definitions as follows:  "capable of being physically or emotionally wounded"... "open to attack or damage"... "open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc." After reading these definitions, who in their right mind would ever willfully WANT to be vulnerable? As a human being, evolved from animals and other living things, our main goal in life is to survive. To survive so we can procreate and keep populating the world with our offspring.  When you read a definition like this, your mind may go to an animal in the wild having to fight for it's life, worrying about every sound and every movement because it could be the difference between life and death. You think about soldiers in war who, with one vulnerable mistake, can be killed if they're not constantly protecting themselves and on the lookout for enemies and danger. Luckily for us, we're not animals in the wild or soldiers at war that constantly need to be vigilant for the sake of our survival. We're not even cavemen anymore who also needed to worry about every possible threat whether it was a lion, disease, poisonous mushrooms or rival tribe members wanting to kill us in our sleep. We're living in 2019, most of us in developed parts of the world where we can afford to let our guard down a bit and not constantly have to be on a stressful lookout. Now, let's look at another definition of vulnerability, this one from Brené Brown: "Vulnerability is not winning or losing: it's having the courage to show up and be seen where we have no control over the outcome; vulnerability is not weakness, it is our greatest measure of strength." This is the definition I adhere to. Being purposely and mindfully vulnerable has not weakened me, on the contrary it has strengthened me and filled me with a sense of courage that I never had before! How? Because every time I open myself up to fear, failure, ridicule, disagreement, disapproval, shame and other negative outcomes, I come out the other side alive and realize that being vulnerable didn't kill me. How can you be more vulnerable?

COMMENTThe kids return to school today and so the mundane routine of packing the lunches, hunting down the PE gear and finding the matching school socks, kicks back into gear.I find the kids get to an age where the holidays drag on a bit, they miss their friends and seem keen to get back into it.Or maybe that’s just at our place where the holidays revolved around tree planting and weeding, as opposed to a getaway in an exotic location.Either way, it’s little wonder our kids crave their mate because research tells us friendships are good for our brain.Not all friendships, of course, some are toxic and need culling like the weeds we pulled these holidays, but good friendships help us train our brains to process and produce complex information.According to research out of Durham University, it’s the diversity of our friendships that gives our brain the best workout.The interactions with people outside our comfort zones; different to us. And isn’t that the rub? So often we're tribal in how we seek out friendships. People that look, think, act and were raised like us. We gravitate towards what we know. Same values, same beliefs, similar opinions. We do it, not just in real life, but on social media too.But it turns out, the best friendships for us, are those which open us up more. The ones with people of different races, backgrounds, educations, ages, opinions and cultures.According to the research, “when people are exposed to a more diverse group of people, their brains are forced to process complex and unexpected information” which in turn helps us become more creative.How? Because the more we are forced to process complex information, the more our brain is trained to think outside the square and look beyond the obvious. Which as the researchers point out, is precisely the hallmark of creative thinking.Seeking out diverse friendships is not the only way to engage with complex or unexpected information, of course, we can also read books, watch foreign films, or immerse ourselves in the arts.Researchers found that seeing things from a new or different perspective can create feelings of connectedness and kindness.If the horrendous events of March 15 and the aftermath in this country taught us anything, by way of example, it’s about how educating ourselves on other cultures and beliefs and showing inclusivity can work towards healing many of our ingrained social ills.So it’s a good reminder for our kids as they head into a new term, to embrace new and different, to be unafraid of change, to relish challenges and to seek out stuff outside their comfort zone.New, inclusive and diverse friendships may be a good place to start.

Welcome to the House of Hope Radio program on Resurrection Sunday! God Bless you all! I met Chuck Colson years ago when he spoke in Albuquerque. I loved hearing him nightly on KKIM on his radio program BREAKPOINT! I love this quote from Chuck Colson: “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” More on the life of Chuck Colson

Our “Life Vision” will come to fruition through what we try to make habits of on a daily basis. How? Because it is science. What you will be known or remembered for is what you end up regularly doing and thinking. And what behaviours and thoughts you regularly have are called your habits. A good majority of the time we don’t even realize that’s what is going on when we speak or react! Charles Duhigg explains “the habit loop” with his own personal “bad cookie habit” example on today’s episode. What habits do you have that you want to change, improve and/or adopt?

The barista gives you your coffee and change, and you walk away from the busy line. But you suddenly realise she gave you $1 less than she should have. Do you brush your way past the people now waiting, or just accept this as a dollar you’re never getting back? According to philosophy Professor Hilary Greaves - Director of Oxford University's Global Priorities Institute, which is hiring - this simple decision will completely change the long-term future by altering the identities of almost all future generations. How? Because by rushing back to the counter, you slightly change the timing of everything else people in line do during that day - including changing the timing of the interactions they have with everyone else. Eventually these causal links will reach someone who was going to conceive a child. By causing a child to be conceived a few fractions of a second earlier or later, you change the sperm that fertilizes their egg, resulting in a totally different person. So asking for that $1 has now made the difference between all the things that this actual child will do in their life, and all the things that the merely possible child - who didn't exist because of what you did - would have done if you decided not to worry about it. As that child's actions ripple out to everyone else who conceives down the generations, ultimately the entire human population will become different, all for the sake of your dollar. Will your choice cause a future Hitler to be born, or not to be born? Probably both! Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Some find this concerning. The actual long term effects of your decisions are so unpredictable, it looks like you’re totally clueless about what's going to lead to the best outcomes. It might lead to decision paralysis - you won’t be able to take any action at all. Prof Greaves doesn’t share this concern for most real life decisions. If there’s no reasonable way to assign probabilities to far-future outcomes, then the possibility that you might make things better in completely unpredictable ways is more or less canceled out by equally likely opposite possibility. But, if instead we’re talking about a decision that involves highly-structured, systematic reasons for thinking there might be a general tendency of your action to make things better or worse -- for example if we increase economic growth -- Prof Greaves says that we don’t get to just ignore the unforeseeable effects. When there are complex arguments on both sides, it's unclear what probabilities you should assign to this or that claim. Yet, given its importance, whether you should take the action in question actually does depend on figuring out these numbers. So, what do we do? Today’s episode blends philosophy with an exploration of the mission and research agenda of the Global Priorities Institute: to develop the effective altruism movement within academia. We cover: * How controversial is the multiverse interpretation of quantum physics? * Given moral uncertainty, how should population ethics affect our real life decisions? * How should we think about archetypal decision theory problems? * What are the consequences of cluelessness for those who based their donation advice on GiveWell style recommendations? * How could reducing extinction risk be a good cause for risk-averse people? Get this episode by subscribing: type '80,000 Hours' into your podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.

Fitness is an obligation, not an option.Prioritizing health and fitness is THE ultimate self-less move. How? Because the more selfish you are about prioritizing health, fitness, strength and vitality, you are creating a vibe that other people are going to pick up on. Not today, not in a month, but over time you will be creating an impact that cannot be undone. You are becoming a role model, an influence, and someone that others will aspire to be like. You will be the person that your kids will look up to EVEN MORE, because you are prioritizing something that is an extreme long-term play. They will recognize that over the length of their life you've always been a consistent, hard working person that prioritizes your health. As a result, they will prioritize their health. Listen to the episode and get ready to get some extreme value!As always, share with a like-minded friend and if you DID get value out of this episode please rate, subscribe and leave me a review on iTunes!Connect with Gordon:Instagram: @gordon.light // @sobamgearcoTwitter: @gordonalightSnapchat: @gordonlightFacebook: @gordon.light.9 // @sobam_gear_co See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Have you ever gotten into an argument over politics or over a sports team? You knew you were right. How?Because you are! They just need to see it. So you keep arguing, adding more and more facts to prove your point. Eventually they get quiet, you know you’ve won! Sadly...you lost...them and your dignity. Unfortunately, the church of Jesus has done this for many years and we have gotten to a point where the world only knows what we are against – and barely anything we are for. 

Today on the podcast we're joined by author entrepreneur, Joanna Penn. Joanna is one of those rare writers that is making a full-time living. How? Because before she made the leap from the traditional corporate life, she made sure she'd hit certain writing milestones and had a few things in place. We talk all about that, how to balance working from home, how to design your ideal lifestyle, supporting your health as an entrepreneur, which book taught her the most and so much more.  Shownotes can be found at http://www.girltrieslife.com/podcast/47 The Girl Tries Life podcast is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. This episode is also sponsored by the Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. 

"Excellence creates comfort. We never, ever compromise on quality. The message deserves nothing less."  -Crash Course, Fresh Life Church I've been a Christian my entire life. Growing up in a conservative, and slightly boring, Lutheran church, and then branching out to contemporary megachurches once I got in college. From college on, I moved around a lot at that point and found it fun to attend many different churches, which also made me notice differences and similarities that made churches thrive. I'm a bit hesitant to say this because the point of church is really to develop a relationship with God and be in community with others. But, like everything these days, some people/brands/businesses/churches stand out, while others don't. And I don't think that's a bad thing. It's just like in business, you can't continue doing the same thing year after year and expect people to be interested or excited. Sure you can offer the same exact thing (in this case, faith itself,) but to reach more people (which is the point), you have to continually work and be better. Which is what brings me back to my original quote I mentioned. Two years about I was up in Bozeman visiting a friend and staying in a cabin in the mountains. Since I was there over the weekend, and since Bozeman is bigger than Jackson, I thought there might be a chance that there would be a contemporary church in town. I prefer contemporary services because the worship is more engaging, the preaching is very relatable to today, and to be honest, they are often more welcoming and less awkward. I came across a cool website, a church called Fresh Life, and decided I'd go, and talk my friend I'd driven up with into going. The funniest part was when we walked in and the band was playing and he turns to me, looking confused, and says "I think we're in the wrong place." That really made me laugh because if you're only familiar with old-school churches this will seem a bit strange. So I loved it, I came back to Jackson and wrote them an email that they should start a site in Jackson, and began watching online occasionally. Fast-forward 2 years, and next month, they are launching their Jackson location. I really couldn't be more excited! Which brings me to the topic of excellence. How? Because a few of us who are helping launch the church are going through Crash Course, their intro course to the church and this piece happened to be what stood out to me the most. I actually am really enjoying the course, as it is enlightening for me to look at it in a business sense and hear how they have been successful while sticking to their morals first and foremost...something quite a few businesses fail at. So what does excellence have to do with anything? When they said we do nothing half-way, it made me think of myself. I've always prided myself on a relaxed approach to business, making things happen but not taking anything too seriously. I try hard, but if it doesn't work out, oh well. I work with a lot of people on projects, but if I'm being honest, I put my time before theirs. So when this excellence point came up, and they talked about how they would never do anything halfway, never compromise on quality, because what they are creating deserves that, it hit home with me. It also made me think of Jo on Fixer Upper. When shes renovating a house and maybe the color she just had them paint it is one tiny shade off, but she has them repaint it. In my head, I'm always thinking, "Gosh that seems like unnecessary work" and I don't think I'd redo it, but after this talk, it's all making more sense. She's not willing to give just enough to get by, and that is probably a key part of why she is where she is today. Excellence allows people to understand quickly and easily, while also creating a comfortable environment. Whether that's talking over a project that looks extremely professional and can be talked about with ease or entering a home that makes you feel amaz...

Are you connecting with and empowering your customer advocates? If not, you should. Here’s why. Customer advocacy marketing programs help you increase revenue by improving customer acquisition and retention (and they’re also your best source of leads). How? Because you’re helping to motivate happy customers to speak about you positively to others. And delighted customers […] The post Why Customer Advocacy Should Be at The Heart of Your Marketing appeared first on B2B Lead Blog.

There comes a point for any website when more creativity actually becomes too much, and becomes a negative. In this episode, we discuss a couple of important points to keep in mind so that creativity with your web design doesn t harm your users experience. Listen to Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites below ... Download MP3Subscribe by RSSSubscribe in iTunes Important links from this episode: Try StudioPress Sites Sites Weekly Newsletter Subscribe to Sites on Apple Podcasts @JerodMorris on Twitter Original blog post: How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design by Rafal Tomal The Transcript Jerod Morris: Welcome to Sites, a podcast by the teams at StudioPress and Copyblogger. In this show, we deliver time-tested insight on the four pillars of a successful WordPress website: content, design, technology, and strategy. We want to help you get a little bit closer to reaching your online goals, one episode at a time. I m your host Jerod Morris. Sites is brought to you by StudioPress Sites — the complete hosted solution that makes WordPress fast, secure, and easy without sacrificing power or flexibility. For example, you can upload your own WordPress theme, or, you can use one of the 20 beautiful StudioPress themes that are included and just one click away. Explore all the amazing things you can do with a StudioPress Site, and you ll understand why this is way more than traditional WordPress hosting. No matter how you ll be using your site, we have a plan to fit your needs — and your budget. To learn more, visit studiopress.com/sites. That s studiopress.com/sites. Welcome to Episode 14 of Sites. Last week, we discussed how to create content that deeply engages our audience. One element of content that is deeply engaging is, of course, creativity. You aren t going to capture attention, and keep it, if you re saying the same thing everyone else is — and saying it in the same way everyone else is. So creativity is unequivocally a good thing. But like any good thing — basketball, beer ballroom dancing — indulging in too much of it can have negative consequences. This is especially true when it comes to creativity and web design. Now you may be thinking, Wait a minute, why wouldn t I want the most creative web design possible? Won t that help me break through the noise, differentiate myself, and get much-needed attention? Sure to a point. The key is knowing where that point is. Because after that point, additional creativity may no longer be helping your web design. It might actually be killing it. That is the thesis of Rafal Tomal s blog post titled How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design. He wrote it in February of 2016. I m reading it here in September of 2017. And while the post is written to an audience of designers — and you may not consider yourself a designer — it s still relevant to you. Because if you re creating a website, then you have to pick a design and tweak it, or you have to hire a designer. And that means you need to have some idea where the line is between the right amount of creativity and too much of it. Here, now, is my reading of Rafal Tomal s blog post: How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design. I ve adapted it slightly for clarity. Make sure you stick around after the reading, as I ll have this week s hyper-specific call to action for you. How Creativity Can Kill a Good Website Design How in the world could being too creative kill your design? I always thought the more creative someone is, the better designer he or she must be. Then, I started studying design more and realized that it s actually not all about creativity. Most of us start as visual designers, and then we grow and learn more about user interface, conversion, user experience, accessibility, or usability. Your creativity brought you here and that made you interested in design, but if you really want to evolve and become a better designer, be aware that being too creative may actually hurt your design work. How? Because we re designing for users — not ourselves. The sooner you realize this, the better. User psychology is a complicated subject, but one thing is for sure: people by default are lazy and will look for the least-resistant way to accomplish their task. Layouts that are too complicated, solutions that are too creative, and reinvented wheels won t make your users life easier. So, how can we find a good balance between a creative, artistic, and original design while still making it intuitive, maintaining usability, and providing good results for the business? Here are a couple of ways … 1. Start with a prototype in mind According to Google s research, users prefer websites that look both simple (low complexity) and familiar (high prototypicality). People make their aesthetic judgment on your design in less than 50 milliseconds. That first impression can tell them if they want to stay or leave your website or how they feel about your brand and product. As Javier Bargas-Avila, Senior User Experience Researcher at YouTube UX Research, said: Designs that contradict what users typically expect of a website may hurt users first impression and damage their expectations. You ve probably seen thousands of different websites by now. If I asked you to draw a layout of a blog website, it would probably look something like this: A header area with logo to the left and nav menu to the right A sidebar to the right with a CTA box at the top Then to the left in the body section is the main content area We could repeat this exercise with almost every kind of website: e-commerce, a doctor s office, university, portfolio, magazine, etc. A prototype of a blog website has the content area on the left side and the sidebar on the right side. The sidebar has widgets that mostly includes the email sign-up form as the first one. Does every blog look like that? No, but most of them do and that s why this is a prototypical image of a blog layout. When people visit your blog and want to sign up for your email newsletter, their expectation will be to find it in the right hand sidebar. How convenient is it when they find it right there and how frustrating would it be if it s not there? I believe it s always good to start designing with a prototype in mind. Then, you can alter it from there and test different ideas and decide how much you can afford to change the original look. Variation 1 might be a special widget just below the header that spans the content area and sidebar with a CTA box Variation 2 might be a footer widget with the CTA box Variation 3 might be the sidebar flipped to the left side. Of course, everything depends on your targeted audience. If you re designing a website for creative people, their expectations may be completely different. Looking at a prototypical website could be too boring for them and they may actually be open to a more creative approach from you. On the other hand, if you re designing for a non-specified group of users, you may want to go a safer route and stick as close to the prototypical design as possible. Being too creative here could actually hurt the basic expectations, which would lead to confusion and result in abandoning your website. So that is point #1: Design with a prototype in mind. Now let s discuss point #2 2. Don t make your users think There are many established web conventions and standards like the placement of your logo, navigation, search bar, or login link. There are even conventions for an icon s meaning, website element names, (e.g. Home, Sitemap, Contact), button styles, layout and visual hierarchy. All of these standards will help your users to navigate and find what they need much faster. Try to always stick to some of the most popular conventions and use your creativity elsewhere. Avoid reinventing the wheel. You don t want to change your users expectations from where the navigation is or make them wonder what that icon means. Remember that users are looking for the least resistant way to accomplish their task. So, simply don t make them think. Every website has its own level of user interface complexity and a certain amount of content. The more complex your interface is and the more content you have, the more energy it requires from visitors to explore the website. There are some exceptions when you may want to break the web conventions on purpose. Maybe you know exactly who your audience is and the goal of your website is to entertain and create an environment where your users are having fun exploring your creative ideas. You ve probably seen many clever portfolio websites with an original navigation or a horizontal scroll instead of vertical. It is fun to explore these and I m sure all other designers enjoy it too. It is OK in this circumstance. Similar creative approaches certainly wouldn t work for a local library or hospital website, where many users are older people or less experienced web users and they don t have time or energy to play with your design. Again, I would strongly recommend to start designing with the conventions in mind, and then try to alter some elements, after testing them first. Don t just trust your own gut see what your users think. If you can afford to come up with completely new design solutions, then you should be able to afford to test the usability of that solution as well. So, point #1 is to design with a prototype in mind. Point #2 is to not make your users think at least, not think in terms of how to use your website. You d rather them spend that time and energy thinking about your content and your ideas, not how to go to the next page. Now here s the final point … Use your creativity mostly in visual design So, where is the fun part of designing websites if you can t be too creative in many of the previously mentioned aspects? You can be and should be creative when it comes to the visual design. Try different color schemes or interesting font combinations. You can play with spacing, visual balance, and hierarchy. Design original illustrations or clever hover and scrolling effects. Look for creative ways to simplify your design. Minimalism is not about hiding features or content, but about doing less, just doing it better. Yes, actually simplifying design very often needs more creativity than making it complex. Help your users to complete the same tasks in a shorter amount time using fewer steps. Come up with creative ways to solve your users problems or to increase the conversion rate by breaking your visual patterns and directing your users right into your call-to-action. There is so much room for creativity in these areas while still sticking to design conventions, standards and common website prototypes. Don t get me wrong be creative and have fun designing websites. Just be careful how and where you use your creativity so it won t work against you. Now stick around. It s time for this week s hyper-specific call to action. Call to action For this week s call to action, I want you to think about Rafal s two big points from this episode: #1 — Design with a prototype in mind #2 — Don t make your users think I want you to think about them in relation to your website and your audience. What do your users expect when they visit your website? Are you giving it to them? Consider whether there are standard website elements you don t currently have. Ask some people who are representative of your audience members to use your website. Do they have to think too much? Try to identify an element of your website that would be a simple tweak but that would make it conform better to audience expectations and/or make the experience of using your website better. Any improvement along these lines will make your site easier for users to interface with, which is going to bring them closer to taking you up on your calls to action. And, as always, please feel encouraged to report back to me on Twitter. What did you learn by following through with this week s hyper-specific Call to Action? I want to know! Okay — coming next week, we move on from design to technology. We re going to talk about plugins. They are one of the greatest elements of WordPress. And they are one of the most worrisome and terrifying elements of WordPress. Let s discuss now to navigate those two extremes comfortably, shall we? That s next week on Sites. Finally, before I go, here are two more quick calls to action for you to consider: Subscribe to Sites Weekly If you haven t yet, please take this opportunity to activate your free subscription to our curated weekly email newsletter, Sites Weekly. Each week, I find four links about content, design, technology, and strategy that you don t want to miss, and then I send them out via email on Wednesday afternoon. Reading this newsletter will help you make your website more powerful and successful. Go to studiopress.com/news and sign up in one step right there at the top of the page. That s studiopress.com/news. Rate and Review Sites on Apple Podcasts And finally, if you enjoy the Sites podcast, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts (formerly known as iTunes), and consider giving us a rating or a review over there as well. One quick tip on that: to make the best use of your review, let me know something in particular you like about the show. That feedback is really important. To find us in Apple Podcasts, search for StudioPress Sites and look for the striking purple logo that was designed by Rafal Tomal. Or you can also go to the URL sites.fm/apple and it will redirect you to our Apple Podcasts page. And with that, we come to the close of another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode of Sites. I appreciate you being here. Join me next time, and let s keep building powerful, successful WordPress websites together. This episode of sites was brought to you by StudioPress Sites, which was awarded Fastest WordPress Hosting of 2017 in an independent speed test . If you want to make WordPress fast, secure, and easy — and, I mean, why wouldn t you — visit studiopress.com/sites today and see which plan fits your needs. That s studiopress.com/sites.

Stress is a major issue when it comes to our health and success not only as Christians but as people in general. Research reveals that little amounts of stress are good for us as they motivate us to accomplish things but when our stress levels exceed our coping threshold then the effects of stress can be devastating. Stress affects our health in many ways. It ruins us physically, emotionally, psychologically and even behaviorally. If you have ever been stressed for prolonged periods of time you can testify to how it can easily damage any and all types of relationships that you have in your life. Worry is the same. We worry because we look for strength in ourselves. We always want to be in control. To see the future. However, we know that being this omnipotent and omniscient is a power only God has. Due to our inabilities we worry about tomorrow. The Bible has an cure. The answer we've all been searching for- God. Believe it or not. If you have another way, well, try it. I can only speak for myself. God is willing to lift any and all burdens that we may have. He is more than capable. He wants us to trust in His sufficiency so that we never have to stress a day in our lives. It may seem impossible but would you stress if you really believed with all your heart that the same God who formed the whole world and everything around it is in charge of your life. In this podcast we learn that only a full trust in God can rid us of stress and worry. That taking a break and helping others go a long way in setting you free from the bondage of depression. How? Because we take our eyes away from ourselves to focus on others. Christian or not you do not want stress in your life. A lot of solutions are thrown around. You have the opportunity to try them all. Be sure to pick the right one. In the end it leads to one thing- SURRENDER! LINKS: WEBMD (STRESS) http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/stress-symptoms-effects_of-stress-on-the-body

When Philippians 4:4 says rejoice always, it REALLY means always, even when your van is stolen out of your driveway. Yep, our van was stolen out of our driveway last week. Gone. Zip. Sayōnara. But here is the best part. I had already recorded my One Verse’s for the week, but I hadn’t edited them. Philippians 4:4 was supposed to go live on Thursday. Our van was stolen on Wednesday. So, after a day of calling the police, calling into work, calling insurance, driving almost 2 hours to borrow my mom’s car, and being totally drained, I went to edit my podcast for Thursday. And what pulls up? What verse do I read and hear my own voice teaching? Rejoice always. Rejoice. ALWAYS. I could only laugh. Of course it would be that verse! But the thing is, we had been rejoicing that day. I prayed with my family (in front of my children so they would hear it) thanking God that we were all safe. It had been our van, nor our home. We lost some things, but nothing that was life changing. Once you get past the frustration, you realize it’s really just an inconvenience. Now, we could have been angry. We could have been bitter. But, oddly enough, we felt the peace of God. Rejoice always. It may not always be easy. I mean, how do we rejoice after the Orlando shooting? We can mourn. But even the newscasters were highlighting some heroic individuals, both Public Servants and civilians. One man came called into the Today Show to share his story. He had been in the club. At the end of his account, I heard Willie Geist say (almost through tears), “Wow, you saved that man’s life.” Rejoice always. This world wants to beat you down. There is evil and heartache and terror in the world. Rejoice always. Circumstances will happen. Rejoice always. How? Because you always have a Savior who loves you! About One Verse One Verse is a short, free daily devotional designed to help you grow closer to God through less than 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Consistency trumps intensity. When it comes to working out, eating healthy, or managing our finances, consistency always trumps intensity. We reach our major life goals through small, purposeful steps taken daily. The same is true in our spiritual lives. I truly believe you will grow closer to God by spending just 5 minutes a day with Him versus cramming in an hour once a month. The One Verse Devotional is here to help take away the barriers of spending time with God. Now, during your workout, drive to work, or even shopping for groceries, you can invest in your spiritual life.   http://phosphorusproject.com/

Stephen is the CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast. He is the author of two bestselling books, speaker, trainer, and his digital marketing insights have been featured in SUCCESS, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and other media. Good Morning Onward Nation…I’m Stephen Woessner. And thank you for joining me for this week’s solocast. I enjoy every solocast — and I especially enjoyed the solocasts the last several weeks. They have been so special because of the opportunity to open up and share a deeply personal story about one of my most influential mentors, my grandfather…and the impact he had on my life…and how one of those lessons was to never ever quit. No matter what the odds — no matter the circumstances — no matter who believes in you, or doesn’t — no matter what — you keep pushing forward to pursue your version of total happiness. My grandfather Peter Maronitis did that…when he came to this country, he couldn’t speak the language, he had no money, no social circle, no rich friends, he couldn’t go on to Kickstarter and raise funds for the restaurant he dreamed that he would open. Nope. But what did he do? He got to work…and saved his money…learned English, perfected his talents and skills in the kitchen, and six years after coming to the United States he had saved enough money to launch his dream. Six years, Onward Nation. Six. A remarkable man — a humble man — who quietly did remarkable things. How? Because he never ever quit. And then last week, to be able to continue the momentum by sharing the story of Sylvester Stallone — how he was broker than broke — so broke that he didn’t have anything to eat — he couldn’t heat his New York City apartment so he had to go to the public library to find a warm seat — and so broke that he was forced to sell his dog, his best friend in the whole world, for $25 so he could buy some food. That’s broke, Onward Nation. And yet, despite it all — despite being rejected over 1,500 times — and despite being told that he looked funny, talked funny, and that he would never amount to anything — despite all of it…he didn’t quit. He kept pushing forward — he met the conflict head on — transformed as a result of the conflict — and then became one of Hollywood’s most successful actors. Because he refused to quit. Love that story. So for today’s solocast lesson — I am going to continue that momentum — in what — on the surface, may seem like a strange way to do so. Because today…I am going to share with you what is, in my opinion, one of the biggest, most expensive money draining mistakes that business owners make. And the mistake is made because they quit too soon. They don’t push for answers…they don’t do the depth of research they should…they assume someone on their team took care of it already…or they use the excuse of, “Ugh, Stephen, I don’t need to know how to do that…I have people on my team who can do that.” In other words…they quit. So what is the money draining mistake we are going to confront this morning? It’s search engine optimization, Onward Nation.  

Grace covers sin, and I've plenty of that, so is that it? Just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger or more profound Paul brings the grace of the gospel to bear on our every day lives. The grace that saves is the grace that makes us new. How? Because by grace we have been saved AND united with Christ. Therefore not only is my sin covered, but it's power has been broken as well.

WATCH: https://londonrealacademy.com/episodes/joe-de-sena-spartan-race/ SUCCESS SECRETS: https://londonrealacademy.com/success-secrets/joe-de-sena-success-secrets/   Barbed wire, sandbags, rope climbing, a spear throw and lots of mud are just some of the challenges you’ll face when you sign up for the Spartan Race – the toughest competitive obstacle race in the word. But it’s founder, Joe De Sena, believes that shaking off the sleep of comfort or complacency, then exchanging it for the warrior spirit and pushing yourself to the limits, will revolutionise how you see yourself. Joe wanted help people realise their potential by pushing themselves beyond what they realised they were capable of. He named the race, quite appropriately, after an ancient civilisation – Sparta. The Spartans, nearly 3 millennia after their city-state disappeared, are still recognised as the hardest and most resilient armies in the history. If you’re familiar with the movie 300, you may be surprised to know that the movie is based on real historical documentation of a battle in which 300 badass Spartan warriors defended Greece from a Persian army of thousands. How? Because of their “sign me up” attitude that feared comfort over challenge. How do you match up though? When was the last time you truly pushed yourself? It’s hard to test yourself running a 9-5 in an office, right? In a scene from the movie Green Street, one character says, “Once you realise you’re not made of glass, you don’t feel alive unless you’re pushing yourself as far as you can go.” Determination, focus and discipline are the traits of every warrior that competes in the Spartan Race. It’s go hard or go home. Joe believes that what you bring or discover at the Spartan Race, that warrior spirit, you’ll bring back into your home and work. People will see the difference, and you’ll feel the difference. You’ll be a warrior in the boardroom as much as on the running track. Joe De Sena will wake you up in today’s London Real. Don’t be caught sleeping!

Holding onto past mistakes makes you fat. Huh? I'm always looking for a new reason why I'm 'fluffy', so if you're like me the opening of this podcast just made your day. Hang on, and grab your big girl panties, because I'm probably not headed where you think. "I believe that anything that makes you feel shame, or lowers your self esteem makes you fat. How? Because it weighs you down. #allegraism" I believe that anything that makes you feel shame, or lowers your self esteem makes you fat. How? Because it weighs you down. When you think heavy thoughts, your body responds by holding onto extra calories and you get fat. Sometimes our fat isn't the physical fat we can see. Sometimes our fat is the more insidious fat that hides inside our minds. In this episode we look at how the mind fat can be worse than physical fat because that is harder to detect and get rid of. Now before you jump on me, I know losing physical fat isn't easy, let's take a deep breath. Show notes are available at allegrasinclair.com/032 (allegrasinclair.com/032)

Cerius Executive Management Consultant CEO Pam Wasely recently led a discussion with CFO's to see what challenges they encounter that give them heartburn. Transcript below. Pam: "Good afternoon, I'm Pamela Wasley CEO of Cerius Executive one of the largest North American providers of contract executives for part-time, temporary, interim and consulting assignments. Cerius has a network of thousands of executives from operations, finance, sales, marketing, IT, engineering and Human Resources. These executives are available to step in the companies on short notice to fill a sudden gap in leadership, to run a key initiative or to provide special hire skills and knowledge for temporary period of time. We often like to speak with C-level executives to hear about their in-the-trenches experiences. Well some of the toughest business problems, some others in the same situation can benefit from their experiences. So today, we have two CFO's joining us on the podcast: Angie Chin, former CFO with Coffee Bean and Tea, and Yumbrands that’s working with both public and private lien companies today. Next is John Lovingood who travels around the country stabilizing companies in distress and then gets them growing again. As CFO's I know you handle some of the organization's toughest problems. I'd like each of you to talk about the key issues that you give you heartburn. You know, the kind of situations that really put a company in jeopardy? I'm sure you all have great stories you'd love to share. So Angie, thanks for being here today. Why don't we start with you and describe some of the businesses you're working with and the types of issues you're constantly running into?"   Angie: "Thanks Pam for the introduction. It's my pleasure to be here. This is Angie Chin and I have supported different companies; both private and public companies in CFO roles. And one of the heartburns that I have been through is actually with the public company and it relates to basically company running out of money, having regulatory compliance issues and even concern about their potential shareholder and lawsuit. So in many ways that all are a multitudes of challenges associated with each of those theories I just mentioned and occasionally I wonder if there is a heartburn or actually a heart attack that was going to happen"   Pam: "[laughs] yeah I would probably say heart attack. So you also work with private lien companies as well. What are you finding there?"   Angie: "Well private companies in several cases the heartburn issues were related to liquidity, working capitals issues, lack of talent in terms of the depths of the talent within the organization to do the job that is needed to be done, as well as, their scalability in terms of their business model. You know wanting to go from one platform to the other and without the depth of the talent and people resources that is needed, as well as, with  liquidity and the working capital constraints, scalability let's just say becomes a much bigger challenge."   Pam: "Yeah I can see that. But are you finding, as far as getting working capital, are you finding it’s easier to get working capital today or harder?"   Angie: "I would say that the playing field has changed quite a bit post-recession. In many cases I would say that I'm going through obtaining working capital either via the route of getting a lender, a credit facility, a factory or revolver or through private equity set up the equation, private investors. Their due diligence and the expectations side of the equation is a few notch higher than where it was before compared to pre-recession." Pam: "Hmm OK. And back to the talent piece real quickly. So where do you find the talent? I mean if it’s getting harder and harder to find the talent or the companies are lacking in the talent. What are they doing about it?"   Angie: "That actually is a tough question to answer and some times in many cases we would think that hey you know with the unemployment rate a little bit higher than where it was before we should have plenty of talents to source from even if we could not find internally, we could find it on the street. I don't think that notion is accurate. As a matter of fact there are many more resumes to weave through and having to do more work in terms of finding the right person with the right fit. So you know in many cases I try to look within the company to see if there's any body that could be mentored and groomed to be where it needs to be, to build those specific roles. And in other places, unfortunately that time length is going to be too far-fetched and have to source from all sides, so I have to go through different agencies and even potentially utilize, you know, temp-to-perm or interim-to-perm type of arrangement to test out the water and see whether the person is the right fit for the organization and source it that way."   Pam: "So kind of like a try before you buy?"   Angie: "Correct."   Pam: "OK. John let's go on over to you. I know you're involved in quite a few things these days. Can you tell me a little bit about that and the types of issues you're seeing?"   John: "Yeah yeah. My name is John Lovingooth. I mainly work with, I mainly do interim-type CFO consultant CRO type assignments, with owner managed, privately-held companies that are experiencing some sort of distress, or restructuring, or things have gone a little sideways and they need some help to get out of it."   Pam: "OK and so the same question I kind of asked Angie before. How easy is it to get money today to help with you know cash flow in companies and to help with their growth?"   John: "Well usually the kind of situations I get involved in they have a line of credit, they have a bank loan, they have a factory receivable, they have something. But for whatever reason they've maxed out their line for getting extreme pressure from the lender to pay down the facility. The advance rates against the collateral is decreasing daily causing them to be even less liquid than they were before. So in those situations it’s difficult to refinance because the lender is trying to force you out and you don't have a lot of options. Now given situations where that isn’t the case, I've found it a little easier than it used to be, because interest rates are so low now. There are a lot of people out there that are marketing money for companies, for growth, for asset-based loans and I have a good network of those people that I talk to. Now, they're all buying for the same work and they're all very competitive but as long as interest rates are pretty low I find them to be real aggressive"   Pam: "Excellent. And so how do you stop this, you know, cash running out the door? How do you stop that from happening? Are they doing 13-week rolling in cash flows? What are you suggesting for the company?"   John: "Well what I always do first day on any assignment or any job that I take on I want to figure out what the cash flow is. That’s the first thing I do. I don't care about a cruel based accounting or a gap. It’s all cash. What’s coming in, what’s going out, what are your contractual arrangements? What’s the payroll? When your tax deposit are is due? When are your leases due? When do venders need to be paid? When do your loan payments need to be made? And schedule out in a 13-week roll, 13-week cash flow that I use that legisly on whether the company is in trouble or it’s not. And I got a lot of people that use it. In fact I've made a pretty good living out of putting those into companies over the last 10 years and some of the people still use them today. It’s a good indicator of what’s going on in your term, you can plan for short falls and operational short falls. Once you've done them for several cycles, several 13-week cycles. It’s a good predictor of what’s going to happen down the road. You can put together a pretty good 12-month cash flow budget. You know... it’s a required document when you file for bankruptcy for chapter 11. That’s why the first thing that you have to do is to get used to the cash collateral. You have to put out a credible 13-week cash flow showing that the collateral is not going to decrease over the 13 weeks otherwise you’re likely not to get use the cash collateral and you'll get converted to chapter 7."   Pam: "OK and we had kind of asked Angie to elaborate on getting talent today. Are you finding it hard to find the right talent for your accounting departments to support the CFO?"   John: "Well I'm finding it’s hard to maintain talent. When we're working with smaller companies in the 20- 100 million dollar range. You don't always get the best talent, you don't always get the CPA trained accountants. You get people that are self-taught. Sometimes you get somebody with a CPA or someone with a book keeping background and I've had trouble keeping them. In troubled situations everybody’s like got one foot out the door because they don’t think the company's going to survive."   Pam: "Wow. One of the things I keep hearing about... Oh John?"   Joh: "Uh Yes"   Pam: "OK One of the things I keep hearing about today is how companies are starting to expect CFO's to get more involved with operations. Are you finding that?"   John: "Yeah. I've noticed that a lot. Especially in the kind of things I've been working on. You know the CFO is not just a debits and credits person. Not just an accountant to make sure the books are closed and everything's in accordance with GAP. The CFO's often the number 2 person in the company and relied on very heavily to, sort of, think outside the balance sheet and the PNL to get involved in operational issues. And the longer you've been on the job, the longer your curve goes. The more experience you get than those other types of things and you... director in dealing with other people in the company. You're involved in all the strategic meetings, strategic planning and it’s just all a lot more than just basic finance accounting job."   Pam: "Helpful. Ok. Umm... let’s go into a couple other areas here. Angie, I'm going to go and turn this over to you. What are the tell-tale financial signs that signal that a company is headed for trouble? What are those early warning signs?"   Angie: "I would say that I caught a lot of the early warning signs even just looking at some of their cash-ual issue factor John just mentioned. You know because in every company see there is goodness in terms of financial publication and waiting for that PNL and balance sheet to be published. But the pulse of the company is literally with the cash-in, with the real cash-in, real cash-out. How that is doing and if you know that you were actually paying a lot more than you can collect, or there will come a time whereby that well is going to run dry very quickly. So many times that is an area the treasury function, the cash management function is something that I focus on very tightly just to get a powerful influence and understanding what is happening in the barest part of the company's business operations which is correlated to the earlier question you mentioned. So CFO's in my point of view is not just being counter. CFO's really have to know that the ins and outs of what is impacting the business and what are the levers that is coming in and out of the business equation. So those are early signs and early warning signs that a CFO will have a pulse check on."   Pam: "Excellent. So you're kind of on the same line with John; Cash is king."   Angie: "Correct, correct. And just to give you an example there. There was a company that was north of 300 million dollars that I was working with and they are not in financial devastation or what not. They were still in the black. They have a good chuck of cash in their bank but at the same time when I first arrived there, they were having almost a 300% variances in their cash forecasting which is very scary if you imagine that. You know you expect it to be X and the number comes in to be, either way swinging 300% and so let’s just say that a part of that reason of that big swing is that because the people that are doing the cash forecasting is not really understanding the business pulse of what is happening. So by virtue of me coaching the team or the treasury team to be more involved and I personally take the bulls by the horns to be more involved in operations. We were able to pin down our accuracy in cash forecasting 3 months out with about a 90% accuracy. So that is pretty darn good and we measure that every single week in terms of where it comes in, our verses, our actually verses our forecast. And we’ve always come in at about the 90% accuracy ranges so it gives us a good heartbeat of what is really happening in the organization and managing our working capital more effectively without you know me or the CEO's losing sleep."   Pam: "So even though a company's going through a high growth period, they could be having problems on their cash side because they're  not paying attention to all the tell-tale signs that are telling them that hey the profitability's not good, their operations could be run more efficiently. So they could be having those problems even though they're growing fast?"   Angie: "Correct. And actually to even leverage on that the high fast-growing company's usually stands the greatest risk of running out of money because they are not really monitoring the amount of working capital that's needed because they might be growing offices, expanding their plans and beefing up their inventory and all that. And people are not really paying attention because they're looking at perhaps their PNL and say everything's OK. But if you're beefing up your inventory and having plans, having branches open here, there. It is not necessarily showing up in your PNL at all but those are sucking up your working capital big time and in no time you wonder, where's the money? Because that is where the money is going."   Pam: "Wow. So John how would you say a company should monitor their growing capital needs?"   John: "Well it’s just staying on top of it. It's really ... they need to stay on top of it. They need to fork. In-purchases is the points of receivable, your day’s outstanding accounts. You need to monitor all those matrix to really get a handle on you know on what the cash flow is. I think I mentioned to you the other day this cash conversion cycle. It’s never days that you, you it takes to land product before you sell it and you collect on it. So if you're a distributor and you're buying a product. That’s one thing that you buy it and you do whatever you do to it and then you sell it and then you wait 30-45 days to collect it. So you're out maybe 60-70 days. If you're shipping across the ocean like when I was working in Hawaii and we had a bit of a thing from the mainland, we had to pay for it in advance then it got put on a boat and then it came over. So by the time we got it, sold and collected it was almost 75 days. It’s really important to really monitor your cash flow, stay on top of it at all times you know in situations like that. Whether it’s your growth company or whether it’s just a regular distributor flat you need to monitor it."   Angie: "And Pam just to leverage on what John just shared is that I have one of the clients that is hyper growth situation and literally double in size in two years in a row. Well needless to say that’s phenomenal growth for a company to be growing at that pace and at that speed and when a CEO talked to me saying Angie I'm just wondering how come I'm not seeing the strong cash flow that should be coming in? What is going on? And after I did some work and shared it with the CEO. Basically somehow the AR was building up so big that nobody spoke on collections. So you can be doing a lot of work and revenue looks great but if nobody is paying attention to the escalating AR at the exponential rate and collecting them, then you don't have that in your piggy bank. So in every area that John as illustrated there has to be buttoned-up even in a hyper growth situation."   Pam: "You know Angie believe it or not, I see that a lot in companies I mean they're like I don't know why we're not making any money. And you know there's not a lot of money coming in to our pockets these days and then you look at their AR and their accounts receivables and it’s like oh my gosh, you've got million in accounts receivables you haven't even collected yet. So we see that a lot with companies out there today."   Angie: "Yes. [Laughs]"   Pam: "So, here's another question. John, let’s move this over to you so how involved -since CFO's are getting involved with the operations side of the house now- should CFO’s also be involved in the sales side because obviously that’s the revenue side of the house. How involved should they be there and if at all?"   John: "Oh you mean, the sales side you mean the top-line?"   Pam: "Yes"   John: "You know I'd like to think that they should be involved and they are with respect to strategic planning and in terms of sales and marketing, in my experience, I've not been involved much in that. I've kind of worked with the bottom side of the income statement. From the cost of sales, on down. And let the marketing guys and the sales guys work on the sales and I'm not saying that’s the way it should be and I think probably in larger companies the CFO gets more involved. In my experience, I haven't been as involved as much. I pretend to be because I think I know something about it but it always doesn't happen where you have an impact on the top-line. I've always told my clients you can't cost-contain your way out of a problem. You need to sell your way out of it. So no matter what you cut, if you don't have any sales it’s not going to work."   Pam: "Right. Angie, any comments on that?"   Angie: "Yes, I agree with the point. You know, you can cut your expense to profitability for the longest time, it’s not sustainable. Needless to say there is fiscal responsibility with managing a company but at the same time it’s only through growth that a lot of. They say that all sales q's are all evil so you need to have the top-line to sustain through a long period of time. To answer your question Pam, I have partnered and I see myself as a partner to the CEO in terms of researching on areas for strategic positioning and in several cases you know .Because CFO's has a different mind-set. I mean not necessarily we're writing the sales pitch or marketing shield per say. But nonetheless I think you know for a CFO we probably have the mind-set of doing due diligence and doing research and reading up and in some cases I have presented business segments that the company have never ever dwelled into and presenting that as an option and you know companies have great success when they tried it and say wow, you know, we didn't know that we could grow a company at 35% in one year just venturing into the segment. And you know sometimes I think CFO's brings that to the table and I'm very happy that by being able to be that kind of cripple sun of reason and yet presenting a different point of views to the table could also drive revenue not just a cost-containment and cost measurement of the financial performance of the company."   Pam: "So then people stop looking at you as strictly the numbers cruncher right?"   Angie: "Correct correct."   John: "Yes I would agree with that. There a lot of times you're asked to evaluate the profitability of a certain product, certain product line and you as the CFO and your staff can then analyse it to say you know what, we may be selling a lot of this stuff and it looks good on the revenue line, but we're not making any money on it. And you can have a big impact on the profitability by just looking at sort of the composition of your sales."   Angie: "And actually you know John, on that point I have one company I work with and I literally told them not all sales are good sales and as a matter of fact when we actually terminated some of the accounts that I consider are not good sales, the profitability in terms of percent and dollar actually went up so like why do we do all this extra work and making less money when we can do less and make more? Right. And sometimes it’s not easy for a CEO who tends to be much more aggressive and more sales and marketing driven to understand it. And I think that is the balance complementary equation that a good CFO brings to the table to be able to meet to a mutually beneficial partnership to drive the company’s profitability forward."   Pam: "Angie, to link on to what you just said. So how do you maintain that dynamics between your role as a CFO and the CEO. How? Because you're right a lot of CEO's are very sales oriented and you’re the number sides of the house so how do you work that so there’s a good relationship between the CFO and the CEO?"   Angie: "Yeah, I think you know the key part is really respecting and trusting the intentions of where each of us are coming from and that’s why I think you know when I mentioned about partnership, the fundamental element that is needed in a partnership is the trust of the intent where it’s is coming from. And so the point of view that I always wanted to share with a CEO is literally we're driving the company forward together with a common vision, with a common goal and ultimately I'm supporting his or her success as the CEO of the company and when I present some of these options I also build several scenarios of what could be the possibilities and then go from there."   Pam: "Excellent. Thanks Angie. John, I'm going to turn to you. I know you've been involved with a lot of, getting companies ready for sale. Can you tell me a little bit about that?"   John: "Sure, it’s a whole process. To sell a company you need to scrub it up and get the accounting books in order, you need to clean out all the sort of the junk that's buried in the PNL. Especially in the private owned companies, you know there's a lot of personal expenses and things that are buried in the accounts that need to be cleaned up. It’s really getting the house in order and getting ready to sell. The valuation of a company is largely based on a multiple of its earnings and those earnings need to be scrubbed so that they're the real earnings. And what’s the multiple, what’s the EBITDA? Which is the earnings before depreciation, taxes and appreciation? I've done this a lot. You've got to be involved in the due diligence side as well in terms of what’s expected of you, when potential buyers come in, what kinds of information is going to be presented, in what format is it going to be? You have to answer a lot of questions. It’s really a long, a long ardour process and the CFO is heavily involved in, and really the point person for the transactions."   Pam: "What happens if there's no CFO in the company and they're trying sell their company and they have an accounting department, maybe a somewhat controller but not a real experienced controller. What happens to a company like that? "   John: "They call Cerius"   Pam: "[Laughs] thank you John."   John: "An example of one that I did as a project for Cerius was exactly the case. They didn't even have an accountant. They had a book keeper that was basically doing the books on QuickBooks, a 1000 miles away in Northern California and the company was in Arizona. They had a CPA down in San Diego that was kind of looking everything on Lolly every month. And you know making adjustments to the books and they never counted their inventory, they just made adjustments just based on what they thought it should be. And they really needed someone to come in and put in the controls and processes into place to make it so that you could get a multi-PNL balance sheet out the door. They had a bank loan as well and they had multi reporting requirements that they were pretty much ignoring so you really need to find someone who can come in and help if you really want to sell your company and you think it’s the time to do it and you just got a book keeper in there that's probably pretty good and does a good job at what they're doing but they don’t have the sort of the where with all to complete a transaction. And that’s where you needs someone’s experience and it doesn't have to be a full time person, you could probably get someone on a part-time basis to do that. But it is a process and you need to have someone with experience who knows what they're doing. That could work well with potential buyers that could work well with your MNA attorney and work well with the CEO or the ownership of the company."   Pam: "Angie, do you run into that as well?"   Angie: "Uh Pam, you asking me?"   Pam: "Yeah, do you run into that as well?"   Angie: "Yes, yes definitely. And one of the things that I believe that the CEO's as well as the owners of the company's also important for them to understand is not to go cheap skate in that aspect. I've probably met a handful of them that they think they can go without and you know try to just struggle or limp themselves through either a private equity fundraising situation or a sell-out situation. And I think they're doing themselves more harm than good. You know because this is really important that they present themselves well to a potential buyer. Or if they’re raising capital for the growth that they have, the presentation format to click with whoever that's going to cut that cheque to them. So in many cases you know when I work on those type of clients or companies as John said, I may not go in for a full-time basis, it could be a couple days a week or what not. But really get their house in order so that it looks professional and it looks attractive. That will really maximize the evaluation to a seller, partners or a potential investor that’s going to cut that mill and dollar and what not cheque to them."   Pam: "I see we're nearing the end of our podcast but before we wrap up what advice would you give other CFO's? And John let’s start with you. What haven't you mentioned already and what great advice would you recommend all CFO's to help them in their jobs today?"   John: "I think that’s a good question and I have to think about it a minute. But I've found that when I've been most successful is when I've formed a real partnership with the CEO of the company where you work well together. Kind of arm in arm. And I've always said that if you can make a CEO do his job better, then you're doing your job."   Pam: "Excellent. Good advice. Angie?"   Angie: "Yeah, there are two folds that I give to existing CFO's. One is needless to say the partnership as I mentioned before is very very critical and especially in the matter of transactions or what not, the workload and the things that I suspected of the CFO literally tripled if not quadrupled. So there is a lot of burden on the CFO shoulder and needless to say that stress level is huge and for some of them I would also even coach that you know maybe just carve out a portion of it, if it’s too much to handle to get additional support because sometimes even when I was in those positions I cannot be doing A-Z and expect it to be done well. So if I need to carve out a portion of the things that needs to be done pertaining to a potential transaction and get expertise whether it’s through Cerius or some other form to support, to fill in those big project gaps. I think CFO's will really do themselves and their company a service as opposed to try to push themselves through 22 hours a day or whatnot. And not necessarily optimizing to what needs to be done at those specific timelines. So again its building the trust with the CEO and really calibrating what needs to be done by when and knowing where to put up the hands and say I need help in certain areas and you know and hang the ego at the door and just get the help so that the work can be done."   Pam: "That’s great advice. Because I see too many CFO's trying to do it all and you're right. Instead of doing it good and well, they do it really really poorly because they just couldn't handle it all."   Angie: "Correct. And as you know when it doesn't get done well. Then CFO may get blamed for it not coming through the way it should be and the CFO will feel totally demotivated because he or she would have been working all day and all night with no sleep and no weekends and feeling unappreciated. So really is a no win situation even though there's that conviction wanting to do a good job is also a self-awareness and the wisdom just that I really need help in this specific areas and not be afraid to say that I need to have some research in the time mean to do this over this period of time and give myself a little breathing room so overall in totality it will be a greater success personally and professionally and good for the company you know."   Pam: "Yep. Well thanks everyone for your insights and what CFO's are running into today. Next month, tune in for Cerius's podcast on the topic on the 5 warning signs that your business is in trouble. A topic every CEO is going to want to hear. See you then."   Angie: "Thank you"

Today’s expression and dialog: Steal my thunder Aren’t you inviting Amanda to the wedding? No way! She always tries to steal my thunder. How? Because she always tries to be the queen? That’s right. That’s MY day and I’m not gonna let ANYONE steal my thunder.       Please subscribe on iTunes and get this podcast EVERY DAY! Support Coach Shane by giving $1 a month! Our sponsors: Our YouTube channel:  

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